In this episode, Middlekauff looks at the value of cornerbacks in today's pass first NFL, what it's like being inside the NFL front office training camp grind, and the Cardinals cutting former 5-star recruit Robert Nkemdiche, and how their bad drafts have set them back. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to www.theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
What is going on my People three and Out podcast,
John Middlecoff live from the Bay Area. Actually just got back,
went to forty nine and practice on this beautiful Monday morning.
It's actually Monday afternoon as I'm recording it, and uh,
football is in the air, and baby pads for every
(00:31):
single team in the NFL are now on. The first
padded practice for the forty Niners happened this morning. Obviously,
a ton of teams all over the country, whoever your
favorite team is in pads. We're going is July if
you're listening to this, it's July one. Football is officially back.
We gotta think we've got a game this weekend, the
Hall of Fame game. Maybe that's next weekend. I don't
(00:53):
even know. But we we got football, football, and more
freaking football. Thank you Jesus, you're back. Uh fantasy football,
gambling on football for all my degenerates out there, I
can't freaking wait. Uh, but let's a lot going on,
(01:13):
an absolute lot going on. One. I I noticed something
at nine er practice the day and I think a
couple of teams the last couple of years gave a
blueprint of this, and I think it's kind of indicative
do away. A lot of teams are gonna kind of
build their squad moving forward. You know, some people hit
me up on the Middlecoff mail bag asking me to
kind of go through what happens at training camp, and
(01:34):
I can kind of dive into some of the nitty
gritty the things that happened just from a pro scout
to the GM to the way every day. You know,
I think we all see it on Hard Knocks, right
the staffs get together talking about players, talking about personnel,
watching the rest of the teams in the league. Um,
just give you some insight on that, because you know,
you don't really hear that many people talking about it.
(01:55):
And something I spent a couple of years. You just
spent all day every day for the month of August
just grinding and it's just kind of a unique time
a year, unlike really the rest of the season. Robert
kim DJ was cut from the Arizona Cardinals. Uh, you know,
I got a theory on on underachieving five star guys
(02:17):
in the first round. It is a recipe for disaster.
And God Steve kim Is he missed on a lot
of first round picks. I'll go around the NFL. Just
some stories just kind of go rapid fire. Uh. Middlecoff
mail bag at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle. I'm
doing a lot of Instagram videos a couple of day,
just on different things, different things. You guys hit me
(02:38):
up on talking a little bit about everything. You can
always hit me up in my d M s. I
think I've answered all of your questions, uh through d
M or either in the last Middlecoff mail back. So
you've got anything definitely anything uh pertinent like this's happening
now with your team, with a with a position group,
with a coaching staff, whatever, just slide up in those
(02:59):
d M s. John Middlecoff is my Instagram, same as
my Twitter, and I'll answer your questions on this thing.
Sometimes if I don't answer your question, the reason is
is because I've already answered your questions and when you
REDM me, it doesn't go to like the file where
I have to click on it just can get lost
in the shuffle. So I I'm not trying to not
answer your question if you resent that to me, but
(03:21):
just keep hitting me up. But I want to start
with this, and I think I take a lot of
ship on this because people like middlecoff. If you're just
a molliial, you're always talking about technology. Well, the reality
is with technology, I just said the middlecoff mail back
you guys, Basically you don't have my phone number, but
essentially you do when you hit me up at a
(03:41):
d M on my Instagram account and I either DM
you back or answer your question here, that's really no
different than someone sending me a text because the only
time I ever use Instagram is on my phone. So
I'm directly messaging with you on Instagram. That wasn't even possible. Hell,
when I was in high school text message I think
my first year text messages started like my senior year
(04:03):
in high school. That was two thousand two or two
thousand three. Now, I mean I can interact with people
all over the place. You just press the button we
follow you follow me, boom, you d M me. And
obviously technology with Facebook, Twitter, whatever, just the technology. I'm
not I'm out of practice today and forever and ever.
In the history of football, there were ladders and the
(04:24):
film practice. Someone would have to climb up that ladder
and take practice and obviously that that terrible, you know,
awful day with Notre Dame when the wind blew the
guy over and he died. Well, now no humans, you know,
go up the plank anymore. They just have a electronic
thing that grows and goes up to however many feet
(04:47):
and has like a circular camera. Technology has kind of
changed the world. And obviously analytics and sports have really
changed the way we watch and think and talk about
sports held the way the sports are plate. I do
believe in people in middle just a millennial. It's always
been that way. I think change happens now faster than
(05:08):
it ever has, whether it's with people like forcing change
through social media, or whether it's with a sport. Because
you can communicate with lower levels, upper level so much easier,
like a college coach. Just the communication, the the the
access to film, the access all of you guys, if
you want to get and I highly recommend it. This
(05:29):
is a nonpaid plug, the NFL rewind. You have access
to every single game that includes all twenty two. You're
watching the all twenty two on a game no different
than Kyle Shanahan would. Now he might have a cowboy clicker,
but you have it in your hand with an iPad.
And I think football is very symbolic of the world
(05:49):
we live in. It's constantly changing. I mean since I
got into the league and since we sit I sit
here recording this right now, about eight different things have changed.
And that's what makes football so fun. I'm a big believer.
Of the three major sports, football, basketball, and baseball, football
is by far the most cerebral, but it also is
it's not even close the most physical. It's the ultimate combination.
(06:10):
It's a physical and mental sport. It combines them both
like it's a thinking man sport, but it's also like
you gotta be a tough s ob to play the sport.
That's why we all love it. It's it's the best.
I mean, there's nothing like football, and it's the ultimate
team game. But the one thing in football is when
rules change, the game kind of dictates how you want
(06:32):
to build your team and the way these rules have changed,
and for the best, you have to protect the quarterbacks
because at the end of the day, this is a business,
and the business of football is to put it on
television and get the most people to watch. And as
we've seen late in the season, when you get games
of backup quarterbacks verse backup quarterbacks, even if you love
(06:53):
the sport. It's hard product to watch. But when I
get Jimmy Garoppolo verse Patrick Mahomes or Shaun Watson against
Baker Mayfield, I'm just talking about the young guys. Sam
Donald plays Josh Allen week one, that's really cool. I mean,
that's why we watched the sport. Obviously we love the
whole thing, you know, catching, tackling, the coaching aspect, but
the game is predicated on the quarterback play. That's why
(07:14):
they get the most money. No one would argue that.
But the rules of When I first got in the
media and I left the NFL, I used to remember
going to Jim Harbaugh practice and I just remember thinking, like, one,
this team is massive. In to god, this team is physical. Well,
you can't really quite play like they once play, even Seattle,
(07:35):
their big rival. I'm watching Richard Sherman today. His job.
Why he's a really good player One because he's unique
in just in terms of his size and me he's
like a six three corner. But he's also and he's
really smart. But his main attribute, I think he's one
of the best tackling corners ever. And he's clearly one
of the best bump and run corners of all time.
(07:55):
One thing he could do five six years ago that
he can't do as much anymore is hold down the
field because they throw that flag. They throw the p
I flag now much easier. Your safeties, like the cam
Chancellors of the world, can't really hit like they once did.
The flag will get thrown. Hell, even at linebacker. Remember
Roquan Smith held out last year because if he got
(08:16):
fined or had to miss a game because he was
suspended on leading with the crown of his helmet with
the tackle, he wanted to be compensated for it. Basically
by telling the Bears, you're asking me to play fast, physical,
one hundred miles an hour. Yet if I get suspended
because of the rules, I don't want to lose a
game check. And I actually think he had a valid point.
It's like, that's pretty smart take by his agent. But
(08:37):
just watching the sport of football, receivers don't have to
be scared to go over the middle. Why because they're
not gonna get hit. Because if that guy gets hit,
it's a fifteen yard penalty. That's just a fact. Receivers
can release off the line of scrimmage because not as
many teams play bump and run because it's harder to
execute the one area on the football and for offense,
it's just a lot easier to score points. Let's call
(08:57):
it what it is, like yards and touchdowns. Like what
Patrick Mahomes did last year was unreal, but fifty touchdowns
was not fifty touchdowns like when Brady did it several
years ago. You know, I think it was an oh seven.
Now it's still really impressive. And what Mahomes did, I'm
not taking diminishing anything away from Patrick Mahomes. He's a superstar.
But we can all say, like stats with football on
(09:20):
the offense are a little inflated in this game, and
we'll be to have a better feel after like ten
years with this next rule. You know, maybe fifty is
the old forty five if several quarterbacks do it now,
that's probably strong. But like maybe forty two, you know,
is the old I don't know, thirty four. So it's
(09:41):
just we'll grow, will adapt, and we'll understand the numbers.
But I'm at practice today and I just watching the
NFL last year. The one area on the field, and
if I was building a team, this is the way
I would do it. And I think the nine as
just kind of lucked into this because when Kyle Shanahan
and John Lynch came, they already had a couple of
sweet defensive lineman and they had a couple of sweet
offen too lineman. But they've now drafted several defensive linemen
(10:03):
and also drafted an offensive lineman in mcglinchen. You have
to dominate the defensive an offensive line, and you can say, well,
Middle Coffe you always have. But I honestly think that
it's rendering corners something not obsolete. But I don't know
if I'd invest much money in him because if I'm
paying Jalen Ramsey what he wants seventeen eighteen million dollars,
(10:25):
do you know how hard it is for him to
do his job. Now, he might be an outlier because
he's so good, But I'd say even the second tier corners,
you know a guy that might make eight nine million dollars,
I would rather invest that money in a defensive lineman
and then just draft corners because at the end of
the day, people aren't really gonna be able to cover
in this league because the rules don't really dictate you
(10:46):
being able to be physical with the wide receiver. But
the one area on the field that is still the same.
Like talking about these new school values, technology has really
changed things. You could argue certain things still translate, right,
like being nice to people, shaking people's hands, looking them
in the eye, meeting them in person, if you're gonna
do a deal with them. Well, dominating on the offensive
defensive lines will always translate to success in the NFL.
(11:08):
But it literally is the one area in the NFL
where physical play is one million percent still allowed the
defensive an offensive line, but especially the defensive line. And
it's the one place on the football field on defense
where you can do kind of whatever you want. And
you look at the Kansas City Chiefs their model last year.
Because we know it's a quarterback league and there are
a ton of quarterbacks in the league now, all the
(11:30):
old guys that are still good and this crop of
young players the last five or six years that have
infiltrated the NFL. So a lot of teams in theory
think they have their quarterback and think they have a
guy that they invest can invest in or either already
have invested in. But your defensive line, like what the
what the Chiefs had last year? Think about the Chiefs.
When you think the Chiefs in two thousand, nineteen or eighteen,
(11:50):
you went how their defense was terrible, but actually they
lead the league in sacks. They just couldn't cover anyone.
And you know what, it didn't really matter because I
think the philosophy, and I think of what the forty
Niners are attempting to do is the poor man's version
of that is dominate up front on defense and just
kind of let see what happens with your corners and
score a lot of points. Because if you score a
(12:12):
lot of points and sack the quarterback, I think it's
gonna be hard to suck. And when I say so,
it's gonna be hard to not be legitimately in the
playoff mix. Because let's call it what it is, the
day and age of Legion of Boom. And I love
the Legion of Boom. But what Earl Thomas does, he's
somewhat of a diminished player. But what him and Cam
really hung their hat on was they would destroy people.
(12:35):
You're not allowed to do that anymore. And even Richard
and all the other corners they had on the other
side for all those years, they could just mean mug
you down. The field forever. Well, you can't do that
anymore either, but you always or at least still are
allowed to be physical upfront. So the DeForest Buckner's, the
d Ford's, the Nick Bosa's again in theory, just like
(12:57):
the Chiefs last year, DeFord Chris Jones was justin Houston.
They led the league in sacks, but you go got
their defense was awful, and it kind of was, but
it kind of wasn't. Because if you're scoring points on offense,
and if you have a quarterback, and again, the majority
of teams in this league right now feel they have
a quarterback, and if you if you have an offensive coach,
(13:17):
which it seems like a large majority of the teams do,
and even the teams with defensive coaches, let's say like
Belichick or Tomlin, they got explosive offenses. And I think
the Steelers are a good example too. They should have
been a playoff team. Last year. They blew a game
to Oakland where Ben set out the second half and
then came back with an injury. Was just a terrible loss.
Like they right there were tied with the Kansas Chiefs.
(13:40):
They could rush the pastor they couldn't really cover anyone,
but they could score points. To me, that's kind of
the new philosophy. I think most people my age group,
like in their mid thirties and definitely older, think like
having a complete defense, having a complete defense, having good
defensive backs, having good safeties. And if I could get
a Ronnie Lot or an Et Read, of course I
would take that. I but I would spend less time
(14:02):
worrying about that position and patch work it. Again. If
I'm building a team based financially, because this is a
cap league, so you have to invest in certain positions
moving forward, I would invest less and less on the
back end and more and more in the front end.
I think the Eagles are a good example of that.
They've invested so much in their defensive lines because they know,
at the end of the day, if you can rush
(14:22):
the pastor you've invested a lot in a quarterback. They
drafted Carson Wentz really high. They think they can score
a lot of points because they have an offensive coach.
You can get by with with people at the sports
talk radio and you guys hit me up in d
M s. Are corners are terrible? Our corners are terrible.
My response will be simple, can you rush the pastor
and is your quarterback good? Because if you can do
those two things, your team's got a legitimate chance. I mean,
(14:43):
the Chiefs were an offsides away from being in the
Super Bowl, and they had you could say, one of
the worst collection of defensive backs in the league, at
least in terms of execution. So I I really think
and seeing it with the forty day people keep hit
me up like, who are gonna be their safeties? Who
are gonna be their other corn are outside of Richard Sherman.
My response kind of is, who cares If Jimmy Garoppolo
(15:04):
is healthy. He's sure as hell looks healthy. And their
defensive line is sweet, It sure looks sweet. They're gonna
be pretty good. Look at the Browns. The brown should
have a pretty damn good defensive line. Clearly their offense
is gonna score a lot of points. The more and
more I think about the Browns, how are they not
gonna win ten games? Freddy Kitchens would have to be
a disaster. They're probably averaged twenty seven points and Myles
(15:26):
Garrett and that grew should should get forty plus acts.
That to me is the new formula. That to me
is how you need to change. And I'm not saying
you don't need defensive backs. I'm just not sure they're
quite as you know, as worthy of top dollars. Maybe
they once were. The rules just just dictate kind of
(15:48):
who you invest in the NFL in a training camp,
because I think it's it's one of the more fun
times of the year, but also for the people that
work in the league, scal and coaches and even players,
not as much players, but definitely scouts and coaches now
players trying to make the team, it's one of the
more intense times a year because there is a lot
(16:10):
going on. I think I said this on the last podcast.
I was playing golf last week and a guy was
playing with big football fan. We're talking about fantasy and
just kind of fall in the league, and he basically said, geez,
you know what, it's really hard. There's just a lot
of information. It's it's hard to keep up with everything.
And I said, bro, I do this for a living,
(16:31):
and I don't feel I'm as super locked in as
definitely as I once was. I was always when I
worked in the league. Insecure was probably the wrong word,
but just always feeling like I was playing catchup. Because one,
when you first started working in the NFL, especially if
you come from college, there's just so many players and
so many coaches you don't know. Now, granted, your first
(16:54):
year in the league, you spend so much time doing
busy work, you just kind of get a feel for everything.
But us like an Andy Reid or Bill Belichick, guys
have been the league for thirty forty years, Like it
takes you three or four or five six years to
get a feel for every player in the league. Now,
a lot of these guys, the Conflins, the Andy's, the
Peak Carrol's, the guys that have been in the league
(17:15):
for a long period of time, they know every player
in the league because they've evaluated the majority of them
either coming out of college or once they're in the NFL.
But this time of year, if you like, turn on
CNBC in the morning, and I'm a CNBC guy in
the morning, I don't do Sports Morning, Sports stock until
Colin comes on, and for me that's at nine o'clock.
(17:35):
Like usually coward. Now, I read sports sometimes, and I
read it in the morning. I don't watch any of
the sports shows. I don't watch NFL Network. I don't
I don't consume it. I've tried to be a little
balanced in my life, you know, so I throw on
CNBC and anyone that falls the market. The market is
a little like football. There's a lot of ship going on,
a ton of different industries. Just trying to keep up
(17:57):
with everything is really hard. They probably took Jim Cramer
a long time to get a feel on the majority
of industries or whoever's working in the business. Football is
no different. But the training camp for GMS scouts and
pro directors and Kyle is a very, very busy time,
and I think you guys and I thought it would
be cool to kind of talk a little bit about
what everyone's doing, because we never really talked about I'm
(18:20):
gonna write about it this week on The Athletic, but
you know, I got a podcast, so I might as
well talk about it right here. When you're a pro scout,
usually got a couple of in house pro scouts, you've
got a pro director, you've got a general manager, and
you've got some hybrid guys in the office. You usually
in training camp divvy up the league, you know, so
(18:40):
you you're evaluating every team in the league. Now, not
every player on the team, but you divvy up the
league and basically every guy from either the fourth probably
the fourth round on every undrafted free agent, and then
a large majority of bubble roster players you know, meaning
their fifth and six and seventh wide received evers meeting
(19:01):
veterans that make too much money and might get cut.
All those guys are watched over the next month, and
you need everybody you have inside your pro you know, department.
Some teams use college When I was in Philly, they
use college guys. I don't think they use college guys
anymore with the Eagles, but I sometimes you just have
to help there. There's so many players in the league,
and now that that number one, from eighty to ninety
(19:23):
man rosters, they're just ten extra players. So ten I'm
not a math major, but ten times thirty two, that's
three extra players you just have to account for. And
so basically right now, and these last like three or
four days up until the first preseason games. You if
you have eight teams, let's say, let's say I have
(19:44):
the NFC West in the a f C West. Now
it's usually not broken up like that, but let's just
say it for this podcast purposes. Every day you get
clips and you know your your PR department gets clips.
And when I say clips, that means articles on every
single team that in the league one and then you
(20:05):
divvy it out the teams that you're following. So if
I'm following the a f C West in the NFC West,
everything that's written on those teams gets kind of cut
up into a folder and you read it. Now you
don't have to read verbatim. You kind of go lawyer style. Now.
I've never been to law school, but I've watched enough
movies and read enough stuff to know that they kind
of speed read, right. So you go through it and
(20:26):
you're looking for everything. And now, if you're playing the team,
you're a little more in depth on it. But if
you're not playing that team and you're just evaluating their
bubble roster guys, you're looking at who's standing out, who's
not saying it out. Now, granted, some of this is
depending on you know, for my example, if you're doing
the forty Niners, Matt Maylco, well before I ever met
(20:46):
Matt Mayoco, i followed him on Twitter. Just because you
follow beat writers, Matt Barrows followed them on Twitter. You're
keeping up with the beat writers of the team. Now,
you're not necessarily using their eyes to dictate what you think.
But what if a guy standing out and these guys
have covered the teams for five years, you can kind
of dictate who's got a decent chance to make the
team who doesn't. Also, the best beat writers, they're not
(21:10):
just throwing ship at the wall and hopefully, I hope
it sticks. They know the coaches and they know the executives,
so they got a decent idea. So what late round
picks have a chance to make it? What late round
picks don't have a chance to make it? And then
those late round picks that don't that aren't gonna make
the team are those guys that team wants to keep
on practice squad. You're highlighting all this stuff and somehow
keeping it in a folder. So you have this database
(21:32):
of information on every team in the league and every
unit in the league. And it's time consuming. You need
a lot of bodies, Like you're spending a lot of
your day doing this stuff. You get up early, you
eat breakfast, you go to practice, you come back, you
read the clips, go to lunch. Yeah, you usually meet
as a staff. Usually most staffs. Also besides doing all
(21:53):
that before the preseason games, you each, as a pro
scout typically get a position. So and of times the
college guys do this too, when they're in the when
they're in house for the or they're in the building,
you know, for a week or whatever before they go
out on the road, they get a position. So you know,
I got linebackers, the West Coast scout gets quarterbacks. One
(22:15):
pro scout gets defensive line and you evaluate that position.
And it actually is a good way for college scouts
to one know your team and just kind of get
a feel for what's playing in the league, what your
star player looks like, what your backup player looks like,
what your fringe guy looks like, and what the guy
that has no chance looks like. So it kind of
iron sharpens iron. So you spend a lot of time
evaluating your own team, evaluating the teams that are assigned
(22:36):
to you, and then just doing what other projects you
have to do. Now, here's the other thing. When you're
a pro scout this time of year, a lot of
players are getting cut every day. And I saw Bruce
Arian said yesterday or a couple of days ago, when
the pads came on, they had a lot of players
that quote unquote crapped their pants and the pads separate
(22:57):
guys in the NFL. If you're listening to this, you're
a football fan, you know that there's a big difference
between shwarts and a T shirt. I heard Kyle Shanahan
today say the first two days of training camp were
O T A s. Until you get pads on. That's
training camp. And he's right, you can't take much away,
but you start having players that get cut. Now here's
the thing in these next couple of weeks. When you
have an undrafted free agent get cut over the next week,
(23:20):
you don't have any game tape on them, so you
evaluate them and maybe you'll claim them. Maybe that was
a guy that you tried to sign as a free
agent after the draft that you couldn't get, or is
a guy that you had good draft grades on, so
you might claim that guy. And the claiming order as
of you know, the start of training camp up until
week four of the NFL season is based on the
(23:41):
draft order. So the Cardinals have anyone the Cardinals claim
if you're after you know, if you're the Patriots or
the Chiefs or the Seattle if they claim him, and
you claim them, they get them, and then so on. Now,
once preseason games start, you might see some veteran players
or guys that have been in the league get cut.
That's a little different. You might have a pro scout win.
(24:03):
Let's say, I'm just gonna try to use an example
from the day, like Jordan Matthews, who is probably gonna
make thet but he's a guy that's played on multiple teams,
whose former second round pick. He has NFL film. If
he is cut by the Niners after let's say the
second preseason game, now, I don't think he's gonna get cut.
I'm just using him as let's use this as a one.
Markis Goodwin, who run that who won that forty yard
(24:26):
dash race thing for all the NFL players. But I
think he's a guy that's on the roster bubble now
will probably make it, but he might not. Let's say
about week preseason game three, Pyle Shanahan's down on him.
They cut him, Well, every team in the league would
probably be interested on claiming him, right, so they would
go in and they would look at his previous film. Now,
(24:47):
some teams would have updated grades on him, some teams
might not, so When guys like that get cut, then
it creates. Then it's a different animal that has film.
So as you see, you're watching film on veterans as
they get cut, you're evaluating these undrafted free agents. These
get cut based on your draft grades because you don't
have any film to go off of. And then you
have a small group of players that are just like
(25:10):
out on the open right now, that are street free agents.
I saw a guy today someone worked out. I forget
the guy's name, but I saw he was working out
for a team. So right now you have some players.
I'll try to go back and find it. Uh. Alfred Morris,
for example, been in the league for a long period
(25:32):
of time. Certain teams have injuries, like the Saints. The
Saints brought in Alfred Morris for a visit Sunday and
probably worked him out to gauge how good a shape
he's in, to just maybe they've been interested in signing him,
maybe they haven't, but they just get he's on the street.
He's a free agent any team can sign. So sometimes
you bring two of three guys like Alfred Morrison and
(25:54):
you work him out. You just put them through a workout,
like when you turn on pro Days and you see
guys working out. That's what you do with these street
free agents that are veteran players, and if you have
an injury, sometimes you just do it even if you
don't need them, and you don't even sign them. Well
a week later, if you lose a running back boom,
you sign Alfred Morris. You're just constantly do doing your
due diligence. So between keeping eye on every team in
(26:16):
the NFL, keeping notes on them all, and then once
the preseason games start, that bubble list whoever was on
your bubble list, there was also on the teams that
if I had the a f C and NFC West,
I have to watch every single play that all those
guys on my list from fourth to undrafted free agents
and then the veterans all their game tape in the
(26:37):
preseason games, and after about two games I can put
somewhat of a grade on them. Ideally use three. So
by going into week four you kind of have an idea.
And then the top graded guys of you know, the four, fifth,
six seventh rounders that you think are gonna get caught,
you kind of siphon up to your general manager. All
(26:57):
while you know working out these guys, if any street
free agents are a better fit than that guy, all
while evaluating your own team, what guys make it, what
guys aren't gonna make it, what guys on your team
do you want as a practice squad guy? And if
another team is going to cut a player and wants
them on their practice squad, well, if you also like
that guy and want him on your practice squad, you
(27:19):
can kind of get a feel and target him and
then offer him more money than that team, Like you
can just guarantee his salary as a practice squad player,
all while the coaches are just getting the team ready
for the season. So the coaches are basically just one
million percent focused on that day, while the GM and
the front office is really more focused on the big cutdown,
(27:41):
you know, and and potential trade. So here's another thing.
If you're a team and let's say you need a linebacker, well,
the first thing I would do is I would go
to all seven or eight of the new staffs in
the league and look at holdover players that maybe they
don't want, that maybe doesn't fit their scheme. And then
that would be a player that maybe you could potentially
(28:02):
trade for. Look at the good examples the Chiefs. Now
this was before training camp, but did it with I
think it's Darren or Duran Duran Lee from the New
York Jets. Adam gates that that's a good example. So
you can isolate players that that team is gonna get
rid of because they have a new staff, and then
you can take advantage of it for kind of like
a late round flyer. Maybe you can trade them a
(28:23):
player that you don't want that maybe they want. So
you're constantly is a front office kind of worried about
week one, where the coaching staff, while they're worried about
week one, they're really worried right now, especially in early
or late July, early August, implementing the offense, implementing the defense,
coaching certain coaching points of the scheme, and just getting
guys better and trying to get guys to separate themselves
(28:46):
within their units and then within their groups on the team.
And then kind of at the end of the month
it all comes together. You start using the coaching staff
maybe to evaluate some of the players that you may
want to claim to see if they think that guy's better,
you know, And some some teams don't even use their
coaching staff, they'll just claim a guy and that coaching
staff's gotta deal with them. But the good ones, it's
(29:07):
pretty that there's a lot of synergy between the two
that that's the ideal, you know, way to run an operation.
That's what makes Belichick so unique. He's dealing with all
this ship. Can you imagine how much he works over
this next month, because, don't get it twisted, he's watching
every team and every player in the league. I I
don't buy that he's not for a second. I don't
know how he has the time. Maybe he just doesn't sleep,
(29:30):
but you know, maybe not every player. But I think
he's pretty locked in. And I think most of the
good coaches are, especially as you get older and you
can kind of, you know, not micromanager as much you can.
You can allow your coaches to, you know, do what
they've been hired to do. And I think it's hard
(29:50):
when you're a younger coach. You try to have your
hand and a little bit of everything you do micro
manage probably too much, but in a perfect world, you
delegate and you can lock in. Like as especially the
good teams, you start knowing exactly what you're looking for,
like for example, the Chiefs, by about the third preseason game,
they're gonna know exactly what their major hole is. So
(30:12):
Andy and Beach and and their roster is relatively set,
they can start locking in on the groups of players
that their pro scouts have isolated or targeted that fit
that individual target. Now, like the draft, you evaluate everyone.
People always like, well, you don't need a quarterback. Well,
during the draft process, you might not spend quite as
(30:33):
much time on the quarterbacks, but you evaluate all the
quarterbacks douse. You never know when that guy is gonna
become available for you. So as you can see, just
a ton of time is spent. Now you gotta keep
your house, so you gotta mix in the workout and uh,
you know, try to get some sleep. But these days
as a as a scout are usually six thirty two
seven in the morning until pretty late at night. And
(30:54):
then you try to mix and have some scout bonding,
you know, go to group as a as a unit.
Maybe you know, get some beers once or twice, you know,
over the next couple of weeks, because once the games
start there there's really none of that. It's just full
speed ahead. And then that and then the night of
the big cutdowns. Is is kind of an all nighter,
but it's not as much of an all nighter if
(31:17):
you have done all the work over these next three
or four weeks, you were so far ahead of the game.
And this is you know, it's the last time of
the season. You know, the free agency, then the draft,
those are two places where you can add to your team.
And then this time of year because once the season starts,
for the most part, the occasional you know, trade deadline,
(31:37):
and we've seen more of those with we Uger GMS.
This is all she wrote, phillis, you know, the best
thing that's ever happened to me, and it actually has
happened to me twice in my life, was failing when
I got fired in the NFL and my contract not renewed,
and then when my radio show was canceled in the
Bay Area. Now did I take some pride it did?
(32:01):
Philly under Chip Kelly ended up kind of being a disaster. Sure,
did I take some pride that the person that they
replaced me with, you know, and the main reason I
was fired was you know, me and the Raiders. I
was with the Raider station. They wanted me gone. They
replaced me with the team employee. That show utterly failed,
lasted like nine months. But you know again, I'm not better.
(32:23):
You live and you learn the best. But it's the
best thing that ever happened to me. Twice one forced
the media career and this one forced a progressive media career.
I've gotten into podcasts. I've just gotten much more involved
in the internet, where the future is gone. Because if
I hadn't, I probably would still be on the radio.
I was pretty unhappy at the time, and again it's
(32:44):
it was forced upon me, but it really made me
grow professionally and personally. And I said this about Chip
Kelly when he got fired in San Francisco. The worst
thing that ever happened to him was the forty Niners
immediately hired him like three weeks later. Because when you're
when you fail and you don't have to look in
the mirror and be introspective at all, how do you grow?
(33:06):
And I think you see this a lot in the
draft when players, highly touted players go to big time
programs and either they underachieve or they get in trouble
and they fall in the draft the second, third, fourth
round whatever it usually serves at a motivating purpose, right
you you kind of failed. Now you quantify that failure internally.
(33:28):
But I think Honey Badger is a great example. He
was an All American guy, his life kind of spiral
out of control at l s U. He got kicked
off the team, he got drafted in the third round,
completely changed his career, and it's kind of the benchmark
for questionable character guys in college that completely turned their
life around and go down as like every team he's
been on, he's a team leader, team captain, just badass.
(33:50):
I mean, he's one of my favorite players in the league.
But most guys that like Honey Badger, they get drafted
in the first round, And to me, I've changed my
a philosophy. If I was drafting in the first round,
especially like after the top ten, I would not try
to hit home runs. I would not mess with the
Robert Kim DJs because more than likely the five star
(34:12):
recruits who underachieved in college, who then you draft in
the first round are gonna let you down. I would
take those guys in the mid rounds, in the in
the late second, third, fourth round, whatever, because maybe it
motivates them. But I'm not messing around with the with
drafting him in the first round, giving a four year
guaranteed contract, and giving him a bunch of money. And
(34:33):
I think that it's a good example. Robert hum Dj
was just cut for being fat and out of shape, Like,
how's that even? How's that possible? Of course he's fatten
out of shape. He's Robert hum Dj. He's always an underachiever.
He has shown you like he's established himself, big five
star recruit, goes to All Miss, not really that good,
just kind of goes through the motions. And then he
(34:54):
gets to the NFL. What does he do? Go through
the motions, Go through the motions, go through the motions.
Then I don't know if you guys saw that video
on TMZ he got pulled over because he had a
warrant and he had some cocaine on the center console.
Like the guy's just the ultimate slappy And I think
Chris Ballard. I've read a lot about Chris Ballard. It
feels like over the last couple of months he wrote
that article for Peter King. The one reason I'm betting
(35:17):
the house on him because he doesn't go for flyers
like that. He's not necessarily looking to hit home runs.
Now you may end up hitting a home run. You
taking Darius Leonard whatever in the second round, But I
think Chris Ballard would tell you, I don't know if
I knew Darius Leonard was gonna be this good, but
I knew he wasn't gonna be bad like I didn't
know Quentin Else. I knew Quentin Nelson gonna be really good.
(35:37):
I drafted from the top ten, but I also knew
he had zero bus potential. I'm taking high character guys
who love football and they're tough and badasses. When you
mess with underachievers that you question their love of football,
you usually have problems. I would say the number one
way for a guy to bust in the NFL, Robin
kN Dj has the NFL talent. He's six five, three
(36:00):
hunder pounds can move like that. There are there's a
long list of those guys right. Didn't meet every physical requirement,
but the stuff you can't quantify, Like, bro, how much
do you like playing football? If you gave that player
truth serum, they would say, not that much. God just
gifted me with these physical attributes and I have to
do it. And I think you've seen a lot in
basketball too, especially with big guys like why have there
(36:22):
meant so many big guy bus in the NBA because
those guys don't like playing basketball that much. Where when
you draft guys maybe they're a little smaller, they really
like playing football. It's gonna work. Now, he might not
be a star, and their ceiling maybe cap because to
be a great NFL player you need special physical attributes.
But if you have the baseline of physical talent and
(36:45):
you have the love of the sport, I think you're
gonna be in pretty good shape. And when I saw
that Robert hm DJ was cut, I thought, you know what,
of course he was, because he was how was he
ever going to succeed in the NFL. Guys like that
just don't turn it around. And you know, I think
(37:07):
it's kind of an indictment of Steve Khin, a general
manager that's now on his third coach who last year
had one of the most egregious errors of general manager
can have a d U I on the fourth of
July in Scottsdale, Arizona, like, I'm sorry, that cannot happen.
That cannot happen. He was suspended for you know, basically
(37:28):
a month, but then at the end of the year
they had to fire his one and done coach because
he was beyond awful. It was clear he was not
an NFL coach. And then you look at his drafting
record Jonathan Cooper swinging a miss, d J Humphries swinging
a miss, Robert Him, d J swinging a miss, Josh
Rosen he got rid of a year later. Now he
did draft Kyler Murray. That's because he had the number
(37:49):
one pick in the draft, and he had to hire
Cliff Kingsbury, who failed at Texas Tech. It's not like,
you know what, he went to college and he got
his Urban Meyer, he got his Peak Carroll, he got
his Jim harbaught. No, he had Cliff Kingsbury, who was
just fired at Texas Tech. I mean, I think when
you take a step back and there's a ton of
hype right now on Kyler Murray and what's going on,
I think the Arizona Cardinals are gonna be awful. I
(38:11):
think Steve Kain has done an abysmal job. I think
it's borderline insane that he got that, he kept his
job and he was allowed to hire this guy. I
think it's got a chance to be an all time
train wreck. When is the last time a college head
coach who had coach in college for whatever five plus years,
had an under five record, whose teams played zero defense
(38:34):
and then just came to the NFL and had success
for a GM that has not drafted very well recently.
One to the personnel on the team is very questionable,
and look at the teams in the division. He has
to be. I don't know, Pete Carroll, you know a
top three or four head coach in the NFL, Sean
mcvagh and Kyle Shanahan kind of the apple of every
NFL GMS I as offensive coaches. How is he gonna
(38:57):
beat these guys? Like, is there a chance they go
ohen six in the division? Is there a chance that
he's worse than Steve Wilkes? As crazy as that sounds, now,
you'd be like meddle Coff. Their offense is surely to
be better. Well you think, I don't know that for
a fact. We we will see. I I just think
the Cardinals, you know, Kim d J is just such
(39:18):
a great example of why you should not mess with underachiever,
underachieving five star guys. That's question and passion for the sport,
or question in the first round. I got no problem
taking him. DJ in the third round, you take flyers
like that. Hell, even the second round I can live with.
But the first round. I can't imagine how many busts
(39:39):
in the first round have been because the guy simply
does not like football for the most part. If you
probably looked over the last ten years of draft history,
most guys that get drafted in the first round have
the physical characteristics to be first round picks. I would
say the overwhelming majority are, Yeah, that guy's a first
round body. Yeah that guy has first round speed. Yeah
(40:01):
that guy's first round power. But the guys that fail
not because of injuries, I would I would venture to say,
and maybe I need someone to do a deep dive
study on this the percentage of people, And it'd be
hard because you can't quantify it. Just don't like football.
Is like the guys that fail and we knew that,
Like that was the beat on this guy coming out,
(40:22):
and he still took him. Now, maybe it was because
they were feeling themselves up. The honey Badger and Bruce
arians thinks he can fix everyone, but you can't. Thinking
you can fix everyone gets coaches fired, you know, gets
creates first round bus Have you have a player that
gets pulled over in a chevron and has a line
(40:42):
of blow on a center console that that's what you get. Now,
you could argue some players that like football have a
line of blow. You know, in the history a lot
of players have been popped for drugs. That's true. But
you know, at the end of the day, if I'm
gonna swing and miss with a guy, Michael Irvin had
some issues. No one ever questioned his action and love
for the sport, right hell. Alden Smith had a ton
(41:04):
of issues. No one ever questioned how much he liked
playing football. And Alden has, I mean still has issues.
I mean he's gotten feels like five us in the
last five years. But like if I'm gonna miss on
Alden Smith, guy's a train wreck off the field. At
least when he's on the field, he tries like Cam
DJ didn't even try when he was on the field.
Steve Kim, it really is pretty wild and I kind
(41:25):
of had a conspiracy theory. One of the reasons so
many gms keep their jobs so much longer in coaches
because they're the one person that spends so much time
with the owners and kind of has the key to
their treasure chest of all the cash. Like they're the
one person that can kind of talk normally to an
owner about things that the owner can relate to money
paying players, paying coaches. Because let's call it what it is.
(41:48):
The general manager in the GM aren't diving too deep
on the depths of routes and the three four scheme
for the cornerbacks and how to play or three like,
that's not really what they're talking about. They're talking about
how much money to pay certain players, how much money
to allocate towards this what guys they like in the draft. Basically,
(42:08):
all the fun ship, the the in depths, nuts and
bolts stuff with football really comes from the coaching side.
The owner can't can only talk to the coach about
so much like have in depth conversations. Now, the higher level,
older coaches clearly can have those conversations like Pete Carroll
with Paul Allen, Andy Reid with with Clarke Hunt, you know,
(42:31):
the Tomlin with the Rooneys, like they're having those conversations.
But for the most part, when you see these one
and done situations, that coach never gets to develop probably
a good relationship with the owner one. They just don't
speak probably as much as you think, and too they're
not talking about things that they really can relate to.
So I think at the end of the day, the
(42:53):
overall takeaway from Candi getting fire or cut, it's pretty
crazy that Steve Kim still is a job. Let's go
around the league there, there's just a ton going on.
Gonna do this every podcast during training camp for sure,
just jot down things that I saw and things are interesting.
Hit on each one maybe a minute or less, and
(43:14):
again then they'll probably no Middlecoff mail bag this week.
Just I need more of your questions slide up in
those d M s at John Middlecoff and I'll answer
him on Friday's podcast. But for this one, it's just
we're just going around the league, and let's start with
the Miami Dolphins. This story today broke I think rap
sheet on Twitter the Miami Dolphins have fired their offensive
(43:34):
line coach. How do you fire your offensive line coach?
On July twenty nine. Now, I get they had another
guy on staff, someone that uh that Brian Flores had
worked within New England. Who Belichick fired in New England,
And I think his name is gu yelmo. I can't
ever say his last name, but how can that happen?
(43:54):
I I I just my only response was just smh,
like what the hell? That makes no sense? Just feels
very Dolphins. Of course, the Miami Dolphins fired their offensive
line coach before August one, about three days into training camp.
What what a joke? I mean, what why did you
(44:15):
hire the guy in the first place. I didn't even look.
Was he a hold or whatever. I just that can't happen.
That that that cannot happen. Dallas Zeke holding out in Mexico.
My feelings are are pretty well documented on this. I
do not think Zeke's getting very good advice. You don't
get to get in trouble and then dictate the terms.
I saw Jerry Jones said on a local news channel
(44:39):
or something that, Uh, listen, you know you don't need
a leading rusher to win a Super Bowl and that's
just a fact. So Zeke, he doesn't need you one two.
He just how do you do that to someone who
supported you? Just show up. He's gonna take care of you.
I think it's a massive slap in his face. I
get it's a business, but it was a business when
(45:01):
the Cowboys signed him for all that guaranteed money when
he was a rookie, had never played a game. It
was a business. When Jerry went to war with Royer
Goodell when he was getting suspended, like see, come on, man, Uh,
Carolina there trying to not limit McCaffrey's touches, but just
be careful about not giving him too much, which I
would agree in theory. But here's the problem. He's probably
(45:23):
their best offensive player at this point, with Cam Newton
coming off an injury. You need to give him between
catches and rushing attempts. I would target him in the
passing game probably a hundred forty times. I'd like to
get him over a hundred catches in the passing game.
I'd probably like to get him, you know, in a
sweet spot around nine hundred of you know, eleven hundred
(45:44):
yards somewhere in there. I think you could argue he's
first thousand yard rusher, a thousand yard receiver in a
long time. The Sake want to do that last year?
Maybe No, I don't think he did. But that's McCaffrey's
stud Phil eat Jordan Howard basically taking all the number
one reps. Uh. The kid they drafted from Penn State.
(46:04):
I would imagine gonna be the backup they signed Darren Sprawls.
Jordan Howards, a good player. You know, for whatever reason,
him and Naggie just didn't work. But I think the
Eagles for basically gave up nothing to get him. Now
he's going to be a free agent, and you know,
Roseman is not in the business of signing and you know,
running backs to long term contracts. Though, if he has
(46:25):
a good year, I can see them doing a team
friendly deal with him. You know, why why not? Running
backs come cheap? Where else is he getting information from? Okay, Cincinnati.
The worst news of the weekend A J Green torn
ligaments in his ankle. The backstory, the NFL wanted to
go to Dayton, Ohio, the original place a hundred years ago. Obviously,
(46:45):
you know, if you watch NFL Network, they're all wearing
those hundred collar shirts. A hundred years ago the first
ever NFL game or football game was played, their professional game.
But where they were gonna build there was an Indian
burial ground that I guess the local Indian tribe fought. Listen,
I'm always pro building if wherever I'm buried. Once upon
(47:05):
you know, hopefully not for a while. You know, I'll
be thirty five here relatively soon, so hopefully I got,
you know, forty years left to keep now. I mean,
let's say forty five. Make it till, make it till eighty.
If I make it till, you've had a good run.
But if one day you can build over my grave,
you know, to benefit the community, go ahead and do it.
You know, I'm always pro growth and pro building. But
(47:27):
for some reason, the NFL didn't fight it. They instead
just went to this other field. The field turned out
to be terrible, and A J. Green was the end result.
Costs them their best player for you know, I would
say he's gonna miss definitely a couple of weeks of
the NFL season. That's that's a big loss for a
guy that's gonna be a free agent and a guy
(47:49):
that's coming off a ton of injuries. I mean, you
just look at his injury history. I know, Warren Sharp
tweeted it out. He's had two or three major injuries,
and a lot of them have been lower legged foot injuries.
Not ideal. I like a J. Green, I would say
it's negative. He's a little built like a track athlete,
got to be close to a pent and when he's not,
he's kind of useless. And now he's definitely useless on
(48:10):
the sideline. Shitty deal all around for the Bengals. The
Oakland Raiders. They got Antonio Brown, who's now only practiced
like once of three or four practices, but we'll assume
he's gonna be healthy. Tyrrell Williams, the deep threat they
signed from the Chargers, also having a good camp. Hunter Renfro,
I think is gonna be the starting slot receiver. Everything
(48:31):
you hear read and talk to people with the Raiders,
he's crushing in camp. Feels like John Gruden is dying
for a little white receiver to be like his Wes Welker,
and I think Hunter Renfro is gonna be that guy.
Hunter Renfro, if you've ever heard Dabbo talk about him,
says he looks like nothing and then all of a
sudden you put him on the field and he's just balls.
The kid can just play. So I think at the
(48:51):
end of the day, look for Hunter Renfro to not
just be a Raiders, you know, make the team, but
I think he's gonna have a role and a and
a relatively big role in this offense. What another receiver
that's kind of fascinating, same draft class. DK Metcalf. Word
was coming out of Seattle that they're in the two
wide receiver sets. Now, granted you look at the depth chart,
(49:11):
they don't have much. Obviously, Tyler Lockett is there one.
DK Metcalf is there too. Right now now, I think
the question on DK Metcalf was he was kind of
a one trick pony. He could go straight, but he
couldn't do anything else, couldn't cut all of his you know,
short shuttle stuff at Combine and at the Pro Days
was terrible. It was like historically bad. I mean, it's
(49:31):
like Tom Brady level movement. But that's why you pay
your wide receiver coach three four or five thousand dollars,
why you pay your offensive coordinator a million dollars. It's
why you pay your coaches so much. Coach this guy up.
It's why you pay your strength and conditioning coaches so much,
so much. Get this guy more flexible? Now? Can you
get more flexible? Time will tell, But one thing's clear.
(49:52):
DK Metcalf isn't just gonna play for Seattle. He's gonna
be kind of like a key component for them. Now
is he good enough? I don't know, we'll see. But
you could also say, who are the corners in in
the NFC West. The Niners have one Richard Sherman, and
then they don't really have another one. Jason Barrett Verrette
(50:13):
is just I mean, he's played in one game in
three years, so I can't count on him. Yet you
look at the like, who are the Rams corners? Talib
you know, he's a shell of himself. Marcus Peters, He's
just he's an off you know, he can't really run.
He can make plays on the ball, but he's a
pretty flawed player. The Cardinals they got They got Patrick Peterson.
(50:33):
That's about it. Patrick Peterson is a good player. But
all those like Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, they got an
account for, uh Tyler Lockett the Washington Redskins. This just
shows you how high of a level this guy is.
His career is over. Alex Smith, after his leg basically
snapped last year, he's still attending quarterback meetings helping those
guys out. I mean, just what a high level guy?
(50:56):
Could you argue that Alex Smith is the most appreciated
NFL player of the last decade. Yeah, he's not Tom
Brady or Ben Roethlisberger Rodgers. But if you had a
good team and he was your quarterback, you were gonna win,
and you were gonna win relatively big, like you were
gonna win your division. You know. When his first year
starting with Harbaugh, they were the number one seed. Obviously
with Andy Reid they had several years of making the playoffs. Now, again,
(51:20):
he is flawed because of his arm strength, but he
was a winning player. Now, your team had to be good,
but you could win, and you could win relatively big.
Like to me, winning eleven, twelve, thirteen games is winning
big in the NFL playoffs. Yeah, I mean, he he
was what he was. But I think Alexmi is gonna
go down. It's one of the more underappreciated players of
(51:41):
just I don't know the last decade the Jets. Sam
Donald one, he's just got impeccable hair. That the flow
on Sam Donald's head is unreal too. I'm just such
a Sam Donald fan. Every time he talks, you just
think yourself, you know what, that's a high level guy.
I've been rooting for Sam Donald since he was a
freshman at usc I guess he was a retyird freshman
(52:02):
when he came in. He replaced Max Brown the rest
of history. Now he's got to work on the turnovers.
But add Levian Bell adding an offensive coach. I'm expecting, Say,
do you know what game I'm actually looking forward to
here in late July Week one? Jets Bills? Who's not
looking forward to? Sam Donald, Verst, Josh Allen. I'm actually
just I'm getting fired up in a little bit just
(52:24):
thinking about it. Here's a crazy stat in Peter King's
Monday Morning Quarterback. I think they might call it something different,
but Dan Quinn is the first head coach to fire
all three coordinators O C, d C and special teams
coordinator and keep his job since nineteen eight nine. Think
how one heard of that is. I'm not a math major,
(52:46):
but nine two thousand, nineteen that's thirty years. That's unheard of.
We see a lot of coordinators get fired one at
a time here and there, but all three coordinators in
the same season and the guy keeps his job. I
just thought that was an incredible stat. I don't really
have a take beside, I read that and then I
had to read it again. I'm like that is insane.
(53:07):
That's pretty wild. Now, if you've been listening to me,
you know I'm pretty high on the Falcons. Matt Ryan
and their offense was awesome last year, was their defense
was debaccle. Whether their defense are getting all the players back,
how are they not going to be better? But they
are bringing in three new coordinators now one I mean
Dirk Cutter, he's been there before and he's working Matt Ryan.
So that's a little unique. But think about that, the
(53:29):
first time for something to happen with NFL coaches in
terms of firing since nine. That tells you something. So
I I not that I'm not as high as the
on the Falcons, but when I see that, I'm like God,
there is a lot of pressure on these three new
coaches in the three units here in a brand new
voice because a lot of carry over with the same players, right,
(53:50):
but they're getting three new voices. And we know sometimes
whether it's offense, whether it's defense, there's just some just
takes a minute. It just takes a minute. Now, offense
for them should take a little less, but defense, for sure.
I appreciate everyone listening middlecoff mail back questions line up
in those d m s and uh I'll read them
next podcast. Enjoy the week. Follow me on Instagram. I'll
(54:11):
be posting videos see Follow me on Twitter. I'll be
talking to people talking ball. You can find me easily
on any social media platform. That's where That's where I
hang during the week. But but have a good one
and I'll see you a little later this week.
What is going on my People three and Out podcast,
John Middlecoff live from the Bay Area. Actually just got back,
went to forty nine and practice on this beautiful Monday morning.
It's actually Monday afternoon as I'm recording it, and uh,
football is in the air, and baby pads for every
(00:31):
single team in the NFL are now on. The first
padded practice for the forty Niners happened this morning. Obviously,
a ton of teams all over the country, whoever your
favorite team is in pads. We're going is July if
you're listening to this, it's July one. Football is officially back.
We gotta think we've got a game this weekend, the
Hall of Fame game. Maybe that's next weekend. I don't
(00:53):
even know. But we we got football, football, and more
freaking football. Thank you Jesus, you're back. Uh fantasy football,
gambling on football for all my degenerates out there, I
can't freaking wait. Uh, but let's a lot going on,
(01:13):
an absolute lot going on. One. I I noticed something
at nine er practice the day and I think a
couple of teams the last couple of years gave a
blueprint of this, and I think it's kind of indicative
do away. A lot of teams are gonna kind of
build their squad moving forward. You know, some people hit
me up on the Middlecoff mail bag asking me to
kind of go through what happens at training camp, and
(01:34):
I can kind of dive into some of the nitty
gritty the things that happened just from a pro scout
to the GM to the way every day. You know,
I think we all see it on Hard Knocks, right
the staffs get together talking about players, talking about personnel,
watching the rest of the teams in the league. Um,
just give you some insight on that, because you know,
you don't really hear that many people talking about it.
(01:55):
And something I spent a couple of years. You just
spent all day every day for the month of August
just grinding and it's just kind of a unique time
a year, unlike really the rest of the season. Robert
kim DJ was cut from the Arizona Cardinals. Uh, you know,
I got a theory on on underachieving five star guys
(02:17):
in the first round. It is a recipe for disaster.
And God Steve kim Is he missed on a lot
of first round picks. I'll go around the NFL. Just
some stories just kind of go rapid fire. Uh. Middlecoff
mail bag at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle. I'm
doing a lot of Instagram videos a couple of day,
just on different things, different things. You guys hit me
(02:38):
up on talking a little bit about everything. You can
always hit me up in my d M s. I
think I've answered all of your questions, uh through d
M or either in the last Middlecoff mail back. So
you've got anything definitely anything uh pertinent like this's happening
now with your team, with a with a position group,
with a coaching staff, whatever, just slide up in those
(02:59):
d M s. John Middlecoff is my Instagram, same as
my Twitter, and I'll answer your questions on this thing.
Sometimes if I don't answer your question, the reason is
is because I've already answered your questions and when you
REDM me, it doesn't go to like the file where
I have to click on it just can get lost
in the shuffle. So I I'm not trying to not
answer your question if you resent that to me, but
(03:21):
just keep hitting me up. But I want to start
with this, and I think I take a lot of
ship on this because people like middlecoff. If you're just
a molliial, you're always talking about technology. Well, the reality
is with technology, I just said the middlecoff mail back
you guys, Basically you don't have my phone number, but
essentially you do when you hit me up at a
(03:41):
d M on my Instagram account and I either DM
you back or answer your question here, that's really no
different than someone sending me a text because the only
time I ever use Instagram is on my phone. So
I'm directly messaging with you on Instagram. That wasn't even possible. Hell,
when I was in high school text message I think
my first year text messages started like my senior year
(04:03):
in high school. That was two thousand two or two
thousand three. Now, I mean I can interact with people
all over the place. You just press the button we
follow you follow me, boom, you d M me. And
obviously technology with Facebook, Twitter, whatever, just the technology. I'm
not I'm out of practice today and forever and ever.
In the history of football, there were ladders and the
(04:24):
film practice. Someone would have to climb up that ladder
and take practice and obviously that that terrible, you know,
awful day with Notre Dame when the wind blew the
guy over and he died. Well, now no humans, you know,
go up the plank anymore. They just have a electronic
thing that grows and goes up to however many feet
(04:47):
and has like a circular camera. Technology has kind of
changed the world. And obviously analytics and sports have really
changed the way we watch and think and talk about
sports held the way the sports are plate. I do
believe in people in middle just a millennial. It's always
been that way. I think change happens now faster than
(05:08):
it ever has, whether it's with people like forcing change
through social media, or whether it's with a sport. Because
you can communicate with lower levels, upper level so much easier,
like a college coach. Just the communication, the the the
access to film, the access all of you guys, if
you want to get and I highly recommend it. This
(05:29):
is a nonpaid plug, the NFL rewind. You have access
to every single game that includes all twenty two. You're
watching the all twenty two on a game no different
than Kyle Shanahan would. Now he might have a cowboy clicker,
but you have it in your hand with an iPad.
And I think football is very symbolic of the world
(05:49):
we live in. It's constantly changing. I mean since I
got into the league and since we sit I sit
here recording this right now, about eight different things have changed.
And that's what makes football so fun. I'm a big believer.
Of the three major sports, football, basketball, and baseball, football
is by far the most cerebral, but it also is
it's not even close the most physical. It's the ultimate combination.
(06:10):
It's a physical and mental sport. It combines them both
like it's a thinking man sport, but it's also like
you gotta be a tough s ob to play the sport.
That's why we all love it. It's it's the best.
I mean, there's nothing like football, and it's the ultimate
team game. But the one thing in football is when
rules change, the game kind of dictates how you want
(06:32):
to build your team and the way these rules have changed,
and for the best, you have to protect the quarterbacks
because at the end of the day, this is a business,
and the business of football is to put it on
television and get the most people to watch. And as
we've seen late in the season, when you get games
of backup quarterbacks verse backup quarterbacks, even if you love
(06:53):
the sport. It's hard product to watch. But when I
get Jimmy Garoppolo verse Patrick Mahomes or Shaun Watson against
Baker Mayfield, I'm just talking about the young guys. Sam
Donald plays Josh Allen week one, that's really cool. I mean,
that's why we watched the sport. Obviously we love the
whole thing, you know, catching, tackling, the coaching aspect, but
the game is predicated on the quarterback play. That's why
(07:14):
they get the most money. No one would argue that.
But the rules of When I first got in the
media and I left the NFL, I used to remember
going to Jim Harbaugh practice and I just remember thinking, like, one,
this team is massive. In to god, this team is physical. Well,
you can't really quite play like they once play, even Seattle,
(07:35):
their big rival. I'm watching Richard Sherman today. His job.
Why he's a really good player One because he's unique
in just in terms of his size and me he's
like a six three corner. But he's also and he's
really smart. But his main attribute, I think he's one
of the best tackling corners ever. And he's clearly one
of the best bump and run corners of all time.
(07:55):
One thing he could do five six years ago that
he can't do as much anymore is hold down the
field because they throw that flag. They throw the p
I flag now much easier. Your safeties, like the cam
Chancellors of the world, can't really hit like they once did.
The flag will get thrown. Hell, even at linebacker. Remember
Roquan Smith held out last year because if he got
(08:16):
fined or had to miss a game because he was
suspended on leading with the crown of his helmet with
the tackle, he wanted to be compensated for it. Basically
by telling the Bears, you're asking me to play fast, physical,
one hundred miles an hour. Yet if I get suspended
because of the rules, I don't want to lose a
game check. And I actually think he had a valid point.
It's like, that's pretty smart take by his agent. But
(08:37):
just watching the sport of football, receivers don't have to
be scared to go over the middle. Why because they're
not gonna get hit. Because if that guy gets hit,
it's a fifteen yard penalty. That's just a fact. Receivers
can release off the line of scrimmage because not as
many teams play bump and run because it's harder to
execute the one area on the football and for offense,
it's just a lot easier to score points. Let's call
(08:57):
it what it is, like yards and touchdowns. Like what
Patrick Mahomes did last year was unreal, but fifty touchdowns
was not fifty touchdowns like when Brady did it several
years ago. You know, I think it was an oh seven.
Now it's still really impressive. And what Mahomes did, I'm
not taking diminishing anything away from Patrick Mahomes. He's a superstar.
But we can all say, like stats with football on
(09:20):
the offense are a little inflated in this game, and
we'll be to have a better feel after like ten
years with this next rule. You know, maybe fifty is
the old forty five if several quarterbacks do it now,
that's probably strong. But like maybe forty two, you know,
is the old I don't know, thirty four. So it's
(09:41):
just we'll grow, will adapt, and we'll understand the numbers.
But I'm at practice today and I just watching the
NFL last year. The one area on the field, and
if I was building a team, this is the way
I would do it. And I think the nine as
just kind of lucked into this because when Kyle Shanahan
and John Lynch came, they already had a couple of
sweet defensive lineman and they had a couple of sweet
offen too lineman. But they've now drafted several defensive linemen
(10:03):
and also drafted an offensive lineman in mcglinchen. You have
to dominate the defensive an offensive line, and you can say, well,
Middle Coffe you always have. But I honestly think that
it's rendering corners something not obsolete. But I don't know
if I'd invest much money in him because if I'm
paying Jalen Ramsey what he wants seventeen eighteen million dollars,
(10:25):
do you know how hard it is for him to
do his job. Now, he might be an outlier because
he's so good, But I'd say even the second tier corners,
you know a guy that might make eight nine million dollars,
I would rather invest that money in a defensive lineman
and then just draft corners because at the end of
the day, people aren't really gonna be able to cover
in this league because the rules don't really dictate you
(10:46):
being able to be physical with the wide receiver. But
the one area on the field that is still the same.
Like talking about these new school values, technology has really
changed things. You could argue certain things still translate, right,
like being nice to people, shaking people's hands, looking them
in the eye, meeting them in person, if you're gonna
do a deal with them. Well, dominating on the offensive
defensive lines will always translate to success in the NFL.
(11:08):
But it literally is the one area in the NFL
where physical play is one million percent still allowed the
defensive an offensive line, but especially the defensive line. And
it's the one place on the football field on defense
where you can do kind of whatever you want. And
you look at the Kansas City Chiefs their model last year.
Because we know it's a quarterback league and there are
a ton of quarterbacks in the league now, all the
(11:30):
old guys that are still good and this crop of
young players the last five or six years that have
infiltrated the NFL. So a lot of teams in theory
think they have their quarterback and think they have a
guy that they invest can invest in or either already
have invested in. But your defensive line, like what the
what the Chiefs had last year? Think about the Chiefs.
When you think the Chiefs in two thousand, nineteen or eighteen,
(11:50):
you went how their defense was terrible, but actually they
lead the league in sacks. They just couldn't cover anyone.
And you know what, it didn't really matter because I
think the philosophy, and I think of what the forty
Niners are attempting to do is the poor man's version
of that is dominate up front on defense and just
kind of let see what happens with your corners and
score a lot of points. Because if you score a
(12:12):
lot of points and sack the quarterback, I think it's
gonna be hard to suck. And when I say so,
it's gonna be hard to not be legitimately in the
playoff mix. Because let's call it what it is, the
day and age of Legion of Boom. And I love
the Legion of Boom. But what Earl Thomas does, he's
somewhat of a diminished player. But what him and Cam
really hung their hat on was they would destroy people.
(12:35):
You're not allowed to do that anymore. And even Richard
and all the other corners they had on the other
side for all those years, they could just mean mug
you down. The field forever. Well, you can't do that
anymore either, but you always or at least still are
allowed to be physical upfront. So the DeForest Buckner's, the
d Ford's, the Nick Bosa's again in theory, just like
(12:57):
the Chiefs last year, DeFord Chris Jones was justin Houston.
They led the league in sacks, but you go got
their defense was awful, and it kind of was, but
it kind of wasn't. Because if you're scoring points on offense,
and if you have a quarterback, and again, the majority
of teams in this league right now feel they have
a quarterback, and if you if you have an offensive coach,
(13:17):
which it seems like a large majority of the teams do,
and even the teams with defensive coaches, let's say like
Belichick or Tomlin, they got explosive offenses. And I think
the Steelers are a good example too. They should have
been a playoff team. Last year. They blew a game
to Oakland where Ben set out the second half and
then came back with an injury. Was just a terrible loss.
Like they right there were tied with the Kansas Chiefs.
(13:40):
They could rush the pastor they couldn't really cover anyone,
but they could score points. To me, that's kind of
the new philosophy. I think most people my age group,
like in their mid thirties and definitely older, think like
having a complete defense, having a complete defense, having good
defensive backs, having good safeties. And if I could get
a Ronnie Lot or an Et Read, of course I
would take that. I but I would spend less time
(14:02):
worrying about that position and patch work it. Again. If
I'm building a team based financially, because this is a
cap league, so you have to invest in certain positions
moving forward, I would invest less and less on the
back end and more and more in the front end.
I think the Eagles are a good example of that.
They've invested so much in their defensive lines because they know,
at the end of the day, if you can rush
(14:22):
the pastor you've invested a lot in a quarterback. They
drafted Carson Wentz really high. They think they can score
a lot of points because they have an offensive coach.
You can get by with with people at the sports
talk radio and you guys hit me up in d
M s. Are corners are terrible? Our corners are terrible.
My response will be simple, can you rush the pastor
and is your quarterback good? Because if you can do
those two things, your team's got a legitimate chance. I mean,
(14:43):
the Chiefs were an offsides away from being in the
Super Bowl, and they had you could say, one of
the worst collection of defensive backs in the league, at
least in terms of execution. So I I really think
and seeing it with the forty day people keep hit
me up like, who are gonna be their safeties? Who
are gonna be their other corn are outside of Richard Sherman.
My response kind of is, who cares If Jimmy Garoppolo
(15:04):
is healthy. He's sure as hell looks healthy. And their
defensive line is sweet, It sure looks sweet. They're gonna
be pretty good. Look at the Browns. The brown should
have a pretty damn good defensive line. Clearly their offense
is gonna score a lot of points. The more and
more I think about the Browns, how are they not
gonna win ten games? Freddy Kitchens would have to be
a disaster. They're probably averaged twenty seven points and Myles
(15:26):
Garrett and that grew should should get forty plus acts.
That to me is the new formula. That to me
is how you need to change. And I'm not saying
you don't need defensive backs. I'm just not sure they're
quite as you know, as worthy of top dollars. Maybe
they once were. The rules just just dictate kind of
(15:48):
who you invest in the NFL in a training camp,
because I think it's it's one of the more fun
times of the year, but also for the people that
work in the league, scal and coaches and even players,
not as much players, but definitely scouts and coaches now
players trying to make the team, it's one of the
more intense times a year because there is a lot
(16:10):
going on. I think I said this on the last podcast.
I was playing golf last week and a guy was
playing with big football fan. We're talking about fantasy and
just kind of fall in the league, and he basically said, geez,
you know what, it's really hard. There's just a lot
of information. It's it's hard to keep up with everything.
And I said, bro, I do this for a living,
(16:31):
and I don't feel I'm as super locked in as
definitely as I once was. I was always when I
worked in the league. Insecure was probably the wrong word,
but just always feeling like I was playing catchup. Because one,
when you first started working in the NFL, especially if
you come from college, there's just so many players and
so many coaches you don't know. Now, granted, your first
(16:54):
year in the league, you spend so much time doing
busy work, you just kind of get a feel for everything.
But us like an Andy Reid or Bill Belichick, guys
have been the league for thirty forty years, Like it
takes you three or four or five six years to
get a feel for every player in the league. Now,
a lot of these guys, the Conflins, the Andy's, the
Peak Carrol's, the guys that have been in the league
(17:15):
for a long period of time, they know every player
in the league because they've evaluated the majority of them
either coming out of college or once they're in the NFL.
But this time of year, if you like, turn on
CNBC in the morning, and I'm a CNBC guy in
the morning, I don't do Sports Morning, Sports stock until
Colin comes on, and for me that's at nine o'clock.
(17:35):
Like usually coward. Now, I read sports sometimes, and I
read it in the morning. I don't watch any of
the sports shows. I don't watch NFL Network. I don't
I don't consume it. I've tried to be a little
balanced in my life, you know, so I throw on
CNBC and anyone that falls the market. The market is
a little like football. There's a lot of ship going on,
a ton of different industries. Just trying to keep up
(17:57):
with everything is really hard. They probably took Jim Cramer
a long time to get a feel on the majority
of industries or whoever's working in the business. Football is
no different. But the training camp for GMS scouts and
pro directors and Kyle is a very, very busy time,
and I think you guys and I thought it would
be cool to kind of talk a little bit about
what everyone's doing, because we never really talked about I'm
(18:20):
gonna write about it this week on The Athletic, but
you know, I got a podcast, so I might as
well talk about it right here. When you're a pro scout,
usually got a couple of in house pro scouts, you've
got a pro director, you've got a general manager, and
you've got some hybrid guys in the office. You usually
in training camp divvy up the league, you know, so
(18:40):
you you're evaluating every team in the league. Now, not
every player on the team, but you divvy up the
league and basically every guy from either the fourth probably
the fourth round on every undrafted free agent, and then
a large majority of bubble roster players you know, meaning
their fifth and six and seventh wide received evers meeting
(19:01):
veterans that make too much money and might get cut.
All those guys are watched over the next month, and
you need everybody you have inside your pro you know, department.
Some teams use college When I was in Philly, they
use college guys. I don't think they use college guys
anymore with the Eagles, but I sometimes you just have
to help there. There's so many players in the league,
and now that that number one, from eighty to ninety
(19:23):
man rosters, they're just ten extra players. So ten I'm
not a math major, but ten times thirty two, that's
three extra players you just have to account for. And
so basically right now, and these last like three or
four days up until the first preseason games. You if
you have eight teams, let's say, let's say I have
(19:44):
the NFC West in the a f C West. Now
it's usually not broken up like that, but let's just
say it for this podcast purposes. Every day you get
clips and you know your your PR department gets clips.
And when I say clips, that means articles on every
single team that in the league one and then you
(20:05):
divvy it out the teams that you're following. So if
I'm following the a f C West in the NFC West,
everything that's written on those teams gets kind of cut
up into a folder and you read it. Now you
don't have to read verbatim. You kind of go lawyer style. Now.
I've never been to law school, but I've watched enough
movies and read enough stuff to know that they kind
of speed read, right. So you go through it and
(20:26):
you're looking for everything. And now, if you're playing the team,
you're a little more in depth on it. But if
you're not playing that team and you're just evaluating their
bubble roster guys, you're looking at who's standing out, who's
not saying it out. Now, granted, some of this is
depending on you know, for my example, if you're doing
the forty Niners, Matt Maylco, well before I ever met
(20:46):
Matt Mayoco, i followed him on Twitter. Just because you
follow beat writers, Matt Barrows followed them on Twitter. You're
keeping up with the beat writers of the team. Now,
you're not necessarily using their eyes to dictate what you think.
But what if a guy standing out and these guys
have covered the teams for five years, you can kind
of dictate who's got a decent chance to make the
team who doesn't. Also, the best beat writers, they're not
(21:10):
just throwing ship at the wall and hopefully, I hope
it sticks. They know the coaches and they know the executives,
so they got a decent idea. So what late round
picks have a chance to make it? What late round
picks don't have a chance to make it? And then
those late round picks that don't that aren't gonna make
the team are those guys that team wants to keep
on practice squad. You're highlighting all this stuff and somehow
keeping it in a folder. So you have this database
(21:32):
of information on every team in the league and every
unit in the league. And it's time consuming. You need
a lot of bodies, Like you're spending a lot of
your day doing this stuff. You get up early, you
eat breakfast, you go to practice, you come back, you
read the clips, go to lunch. Yeah, you usually meet
as a staff. Usually most staffs. Also besides doing all
(21:53):
that before the preseason games, you each, as a pro
scout typically get a position. So and of times the
college guys do this too, when they're in the when
they're in house for the or they're in the building,
you know, for a week or whatever before they go
out on the road, they get a position. So you know,
I got linebackers, the West Coast scout gets quarterbacks. One
(22:15):
pro scout gets defensive line and you evaluate that position.
And it actually is a good way for college scouts
to one know your team and just kind of get
a feel for what's playing in the league, what your
star player looks like, what your backup player looks like,
what your fringe guy looks like, and what the guy
that has no chance looks like. So it kind of
iron sharpens iron. So you spend a lot of time
evaluating your own team, evaluating the teams that are assigned
(22:36):
to you, and then just doing what other projects you
have to do. Now, here's the other thing. When you're
a pro scout this time of year, a lot of
players are getting cut every day. And I saw Bruce
Arian said yesterday or a couple of days ago, when
the pads came on, they had a lot of players
that quote unquote crapped their pants and the pads separate
(22:57):
guys in the NFL. If you're listening to this, you're
a football fan, you know that there's a big difference
between shwarts and a T shirt. I heard Kyle Shanahan
today say the first two days of training camp were
O T A s. Until you get pads on. That's
training camp. And he's right, you can't take much away,
but you start having players that get cut. Now here's
the thing in these next couple of weeks. When you
have an undrafted free agent get cut over the next week,
(23:20):
you don't have any game tape on them, so you
evaluate them and maybe you'll claim them. Maybe that was
a guy that you tried to sign as a free
agent after the draft that you couldn't get, or is
a guy that you had good draft grades on, so
you might claim that guy. And the claiming order as
of you know, the start of training camp up until
week four of the NFL season is based on the
(23:41):
draft order. So the Cardinals have anyone the Cardinals claim
if you're after you know, if you're the Patriots or
the Chiefs or the Seattle if they claim him, and
you claim them, they get them, and then so on. Now,
once preseason games start, you might see some veteran players
or guys that have been in the league get cut.
That's a little different. You might have a pro scout win.
(24:03):
Let's say, I'm just gonna try to use an example
from the day, like Jordan Matthews, who is probably gonna
make thet but he's a guy that's played on multiple teams,
whose former second round pick. He has NFL film. If
he is cut by the Niners after let's say the
second preseason game, now, I don't think he's gonna get cut.
I'm just using him as let's use this as a one.
Markis Goodwin, who run that who won that forty yard
(24:26):
dash race thing for all the NFL players. But I
think he's a guy that's on the roster bubble now
will probably make it, but he might not. Let's say
about week preseason game three, Pyle Shanahan's down on him.
They cut him, Well, every team in the league would
probably be interested on claiming him, right, so they would
go in and they would look at his previous film. Now,
(24:47):
some teams would have updated grades on him, some teams
might not, so When guys like that get cut, then
it creates. Then it's a different animal that has film.
So as you see, you're watching film on veterans as
they get cut, you're evaluating these undrafted free agents. These
get cut based on your draft grades because you don't
have any film to go off of. And then you
have a small group of players that are just like
(25:10):
out on the open right now, that are street free agents.
I saw a guy today someone worked out. I forget
the guy's name, but I saw he was working out
for a team. So right now you have some players.
I'll try to go back and find it. Uh. Alfred Morris,
for example, been in the league for a long period
(25:32):
of time. Certain teams have injuries, like the Saints. The
Saints brought in Alfred Morris for a visit Sunday and
probably worked him out to gauge how good a shape
he's in, to just maybe they've been interested in signing him,
maybe they haven't, but they just get he's on the street.
He's a free agent any team can sign. So sometimes
you bring two of three guys like Alfred Morrison and
(25:54):
you work him out. You just put them through a workout,
like when you turn on pro Days and you see
guys working out. That's what you do with these street
free agents that are veteran players, and if you have
an injury, sometimes you just do it even if you
don't need them, and you don't even sign them. Well
a week later, if you lose a running back boom,
you sign Alfred Morris. You're just constantly do doing your
due diligence. So between keeping eye on every team in
(26:16):
the NFL, keeping notes on them all, and then once
the preseason games start, that bubble list whoever was on
your bubble list, there was also on the teams that
if I had the a f C and NFC West,
I have to watch every single play that all those
guys on my list from fourth to undrafted free agents
and then the veterans all their game tape in the
(26:37):
preseason games, and after about two games I can put
somewhat of a grade on them. Ideally use three. So
by going into week four you kind of have an idea.
And then the top graded guys of you know, the four, fifth,
six seventh rounders that you think are gonna get caught,
you kind of siphon up to your general manager. All
(26:57):
while you know working out these guys, if any street
free agents are a better fit than that guy, all
while evaluating your own team, what guys make it, what
guys aren't gonna make it, what guys on your team
do you want as a practice squad guy? And if
another team is going to cut a player and wants
them on their practice squad, well, if you also like
that guy and want him on your practice squad, you
(27:19):
can kind of get a feel and target him and
then offer him more money than that team, Like you
can just guarantee his salary as a practice squad player,
all while the coaches are just getting the team ready
for the season. So the coaches are basically just one
million percent focused on that day, while the GM and
the front office is really more focused on the big cutdown,
(27:41):
you know, and and potential trade. So here's another thing.
If you're a team and let's say you need a linebacker, well,
the first thing I would do is I would go
to all seven or eight of the new staffs in
the league and look at holdover players that maybe they
don't want, that maybe doesn't fit their scheme. And then
that would be a player that maybe you could potentially
(28:02):
trade for. Look at the good examples the Chiefs. Now
this was before training camp, but did it with I
think it's Darren or Duran Duran Lee from the New
York Jets. Adam gates that that's a good example. So
you can isolate players that that team is gonna get
rid of because they have a new staff, and then
you can take advantage of it for kind of like
a late round flyer. Maybe you can trade them a
(28:23):
player that you don't want that maybe they want. So
you're constantly is a front office kind of worried about
week one, where the coaching staff, while they're worried about
week one, they're really worried right now, especially in early
or late July, early August, implementing the offense, implementing the defense,
coaching certain coaching points of the scheme, and just getting
guys better and trying to get guys to separate themselves
(28:46):
within their units and then within their groups on the team.
And then kind of at the end of the month
it all comes together. You start using the coaching staff
maybe to evaluate some of the players that you may
want to claim to see if they think that guy's better,
you know, And some some teams don't even use their
coaching staff, they'll just claim a guy and that coaching
staff's gotta deal with them. But the good ones, it's
(29:07):
pretty that there's a lot of synergy between the two
that that's the ideal, you know, way to run an operation.
That's what makes Belichick so unique. He's dealing with all
this ship. Can you imagine how much he works over
this next month, because, don't get it twisted, he's watching
every team and every player in the league. I I
don't buy that he's not for a second. I don't
know how he has the time. Maybe he just doesn't sleep,
(29:30):
but you know, maybe not every player. But I think
he's pretty locked in. And I think most of the
good coaches are, especially as you get older and you
can kind of, you know, not micromanager as much you can.
You can allow your coaches to, you know, do what
they've been hired to do. And I think it's hard
(29:50):
when you're a younger coach. You try to have your
hand and a little bit of everything you do micro
manage probably too much, but in a perfect world, you
delegate and you can lock in. Like as especially the
good teams, you start knowing exactly what you're looking for,
like for example, the Chiefs, by about the third preseason game,
they're gonna know exactly what their major hole is. So
(30:12):
Andy and Beach and and their roster is relatively set,
they can start locking in on the groups of players
that their pro scouts have isolated or targeted that fit
that individual target. Now, like the draft, you evaluate everyone.
People always like, well, you don't need a quarterback. Well,
during the draft process, you might not spend quite as
(30:33):
much time on the quarterbacks, but you evaluate all the
quarterbacks douse. You never know when that guy is gonna
become available for you. So as you can see, just
a ton of time is spent. Now you gotta keep
your house, so you gotta mix in the workout and uh,
you know, try to get some sleep. But these days
as a as a scout are usually six thirty two
seven in the morning until pretty late at night. And
(30:54):
then you try to mix and have some scout bonding,
you know, go to group as a as a unit.
Maybe you know, get some beers once or twice, you know,
over the next couple of weeks, because once the games
start there there's really none of that. It's just full
speed ahead. And then that and then the night of
the big cutdowns. Is is kind of an all nighter,
but it's not as much of an all nighter if
(31:17):
you have done all the work over these next three
or four weeks, you were so far ahead of the game.
And this is you know, it's the last time of
the season. You know, the free agency, then the draft,
those are two places where you can add to your team.
And then this time of year because once the season starts,
for the most part, the occasional you know, trade deadline,
(31:37):
and we've seen more of those with we Uger GMS.
This is all she wrote, phillis, you know, the best
thing that's ever happened to me, and it actually has
happened to me twice in my life, was failing when
I got fired in the NFL and my contract not renewed,
and then when my radio show was canceled in the
Bay Area. Now did I take some pride it did?
(32:01):
Philly under Chip Kelly ended up kind of being a disaster. Sure,
did I take some pride that the person that they
replaced me with, you know, and the main reason I
was fired was you know, me and the Raiders. I
was with the Raider station. They wanted me gone. They
replaced me with the team employee. That show utterly failed,
lasted like nine months. But you know again, I'm not better.
(32:23):
You live and you learn the best. But it's the
best thing that ever happened to me. Twice one forced
the media career and this one forced a progressive media career.
I've gotten into podcasts. I've just gotten much more involved
in the internet, where the future is gone. Because if
I hadn't, I probably would still be on the radio.
I was pretty unhappy at the time, and again it's
(32:44):
it was forced upon me, but it really made me
grow professionally and personally. And I said this about Chip
Kelly when he got fired in San Francisco. The worst
thing that ever happened to him was the forty Niners
immediately hired him like three weeks later. Because when you're
when you fail and you don't have to look in
the mirror and be introspective at all, how do you grow?
(33:06):
And I think you see this a lot in the
draft when players, highly touted players go to big time
programs and either they underachieve or they get in trouble
and they fall in the draft the second, third, fourth
round whatever it usually serves at a motivating purpose, right
you you kind of failed. Now you quantify that failure internally.
(33:28):
But I think Honey Badger is a great example. He
was an All American guy, his life kind of spiral
out of control at l s U. He got kicked
off the team, he got drafted in the third round,
completely changed his career, and it's kind of the benchmark
for questionable character guys in college that completely turned their
life around and go down as like every team he's
been on, he's a team leader, team captain, just badass.
(33:50):
I mean, he's one of my favorite players in the league.
But most guys that like Honey Badger, they get drafted
in the first round, And to me, I've changed my
a philosophy. If I was drafting in the first round,
especially like after the top ten, I would not try
to hit home runs. I would not mess with the
Robert Kim DJs because more than likely the five star
(34:12):
recruits who underachieved in college, who then you draft in
the first round are gonna let you down. I would
take those guys in the mid rounds, in the in
the late second, third, fourth round, whatever, because maybe it
motivates them. But I'm not messing around with the with
drafting him in the first round, giving a four year
guaranteed contract, and giving him a bunch of money. And
(34:33):
I think that it's a good example. Robert hum Dj
was just cut for being fat and out of shape, Like,
how's that even? How's that possible? Of course he's fatten
out of shape. He's Robert hum Dj. He's always an underachiever.
He has shown you like he's established himself, big five
star recruit, goes to All Miss, not really that good,
just kind of goes through the motions. And then he
(34:54):
gets to the NFL. What does he do? Go through
the motions, Go through the motions, go through the motions.
Then I don't know if you guys saw that video
on TMZ he got pulled over because he had a
warrant and he had some cocaine on the center console.
Like the guy's just the ultimate slappy And I think
Chris Ballard. I've read a lot about Chris Ballard. It
feels like over the last couple of months he wrote
that article for Peter King. The one reason I'm betting
(35:17):
the house on him because he doesn't go for flyers
like that. He's not necessarily looking to hit home runs.
Now you may end up hitting a home run. You
taking Darius Leonard whatever in the second round, But I
think Chris Ballard would tell you, I don't know if
I knew Darius Leonard was gonna be this good, but
I knew he wasn't gonna be bad like I didn't
know Quentin Else. I knew Quentin Nelson gonna be really good.
(35:37):
I drafted from the top ten, but I also knew
he had zero bus potential. I'm taking high character guys
who love football and they're tough and badasses. When you
mess with underachievers that you question their love of football,
you usually have problems. I would say the number one
way for a guy to bust in the NFL, Robin
kN Dj has the NFL talent. He's six five, three
(36:00):
hunder pounds can move like that. There are there's a
long list of those guys right. Didn't meet every physical requirement,
but the stuff you can't quantify, Like, bro, how much
do you like playing football? If you gave that player
truth serum, they would say, not that much. God just
gifted me with these physical attributes and I have to
do it. And I think you've seen a lot in
basketball too, especially with big guys like why have there
(36:22):
meant so many big guy bus in the NBA because
those guys don't like playing basketball that much. Where when
you draft guys maybe they're a little smaller, they really
like playing football. It's gonna work. Now, he might not
be a star, and their ceiling maybe cap because to
be a great NFL player you need special physical attributes.
But if you have the baseline of physical talent and
(36:45):
you have the love of the sport, I think you're
gonna be in pretty good shape. And when I saw
that Robert hm DJ was cut, I thought, you know what,
of course he was, because he was how was he
ever going to succeed in the NFL. Guys like that
just don't turn it around. And you know, I think
(37:07):
it's kind of an indictment of Steve Khin, a general
manager that's now on his third coach who last year
had one of the most egregious errors of general manager
can have a d U I on the fourth of
July in Scottsdale, Arizona, like, I'm sorry, that cannot happen.
That cannot happen. He was suspended for you know, basically
(37:28):
a month, but then at the end of the year
they had to fire his one and done coach because
he was beyond awful. It was clear he was not
an NFL coach. And then you look at his drafting
record Jonathan Cooper swinging a miss, d J Humphries swinging
a miss, Robert Him, d J swinging a miss, Josh
Rosen he got rid of a year later. Now he
did draft Kyler Murray. That's because he had the number
(37:49):
one pick in the draft, and he had to hire
Cliff Kingsbury, who failed at Texas Tech. It's not like,
you know what, he went to college and he got
his Urban Meyer, he got his Peak Carroll, he got
his Jim harbaught. No, he had Cliff Kingsbury, who was
just fired at Texas Tech. I mean, I think when
you take a step back and there's a ton of
hype right now on Kyler Murray and what's going on,
I think the Arizona Cardinals are gonna be awful. I
(38:11):
think Steve Kain has done an abysmal job. I think
it's borderline insane that he got that, he kept his
job and he was allowed to hire this guy. I
think it's got a chance to be an all time
train wreck. When is the last time a college head
coach who had coach in college for whatever five plus years,
had an under five record, whose teams played zero defense
(38:34):
and then just came to the NFL and had success
for a GM that has not drafted very well recently.
One to the personnel on the team is very questionable,
and look at the teams in the division. He has
to be. I don't know, Pete Carroll, you know a
top three or four head coach in the NFL, Sean
mcvagh and Kyle Shanahan kind of the apple of every
NFL GMS I as offensive coaches. How is he gonna
(38:57):
beat these guys? Like, is there a chance they go
ohen six in the division? Is there a chance that
he's worse than Steve Wilkes? As crazy as that sounds, now,
you'd be like meddle Coff. Their offense is surely to
be better. Well you think, I don't know that for
a fact. We we will see. I I just think
the Cardinals, you know, Kim d J is just such
(39:18):
a great example of why you should not mess with underachiever,
underachieving five star guys. That's question and passion for the sport,
or question in the first round. I got no problem
taking him. DJ in the third round, you take flyers
like that. Hell, even the second round I can live with.
But the first round. I can't imagine how many busts
(39:39):
in the first round have been because the guy simply
does not like football for the most part. If you
probably looked over the last ten years of draft history,
most guys that get drafted in the first round have
the physical characteristics to be first round picks. I would
say the overwhelming majority are, Yeah, that guy's a first
round body. Yeah that guy has first round speed. Yeah
(40:01):
that guy's first round power. But the guys that fail
not because of injuries, I would I would venture to say,
and maybe I need someone to do a deep dive
study on this the percentage of people, And it'd be
hard because you can't quantify it. Just don't like football.
Is like the guys that fail and we knew that,
Like that was the beat on this guy coming out,
(40:22):
and he still took him. Now, maybe it was because
they were feeling themselves up. The honey Badger and Bruce
arians thinks he can fix everyone, but you can't. Thinking
you can fix everyone gets coaches fired, you know, gets
creates first round bus Have you have a player that
gets pulled over in a chevron and has a line
(40:42):
of blow on a center console that that's what you get. Now,
you could argue some players that like football have a
line of blow. You know, in the history a lot
of players have been popped for drugs. That's true. But
you know, at the end of the day, if I'm
gonna swing and miss with a guy, Michael Irvin had
some issues. No one ever questioned his action and love
for the sport, right hell. Alden Smith had a ton
(41:04):
of issues. No one ever questioned how much he liked
playing football. And Alden has, I mean still has issues.
I mean he's gotten feels like five us in the
last five years. But like if I'm gonna miss on
Alden Smith, guy's a train wreck off the field. At
least when he's on the field, he tries like Cam
DJ didn't even try when he was on the field.
Steve Kim, it really is pretty wild and I kind
(41:25):
of had a conspiracy theory. One of the reasons so
many gms keep their jobs so much longer in coaches
because they're the one person that spends so much time
with the owners and kind of has the key to
their treasure chest of all the cash. Like they're the
one person that can kind of talk normally to an
owner about things that the owner can relate to money
paying players, paying coaches. Because let's call it what it is.
(41:48):
The general manager in the GM aren't diving too deep
on the depths of routes and the three four scheme
for the cornerbacks and how to play or three like,
that's not really what they're talking about. They're talking about
how much money to pay certain players, how much money
to allocate towards this what guys they like in the draft. Basically,
(42:08):
all the fun ship, the the in depths, nuts and
bolts stuff with football really comes from the coaching side.
The owner can't can only talk to the coach about
so much like have in depth conversations. Now, the higher level,
older coaches clearly can have those conversations like Pete Carroll
with Paul Allen, Andy Reid with with Clarke Hunt, you know,
(42:31):
the Tomlin with the Rooneys, like they're having those conversations.
But for the most part, when you see these one
and done situations, that coach never gets to develop probably
a good relationship with the owner one. They just don't
speak probably as much as you think, and too they're
not talking about things that they really can relate to.
So I think at the end of the day, the
(42:53):
overall takeaway from Candi getting fire or cut, it's pretty
crazy that Steve Kim still is a job. Let's go
around the league there, there's just a ton going on.
Gonna do this every podcast during training camp for sure,
just jot down things that I saw and things are interesting.
Hit on each one maybe a minute or less, and
(43:14):
again then they'll probably no Middlecoff mail bag this week.
Just I need more of your questions slide up in
those d M s at John Middlecoff and I'll answer
him on Friday's podcast. But for this one, it's just
we're just going around the league, and let's start with
the Miami Dolphins. This story today broke I think rap
sheet on Twitter the Miami Dolphins have fired their offensive
(43:34):
line coach. How do you fire your offensive line coach?
On July twenty nine. Now, I get they had another
guy on staff, someone that uh that Brian Flores had
worked within New England. Who Belichick fired in New England,
And I think his name is gu yelmo. I can't
ever say his last name, but how can that happen?
(43:54):
I I I just my only response was just smh,
like what the hell? That makes no sense? Just feels
very Dolphins. Of course, the Miami Dolphins fired their offensive
line coach before August one, about three days into training camp.
What what a joke? I mean, what why did you
(44:15):
hire the guy in the first place. I didn't even look.
Was he a hold or whatever. I just that can't happen.
That that that cannot happen. Dallas Zeke holding out in Mexico.
My feelings are are pretty well documented on this. I
do not think Zeke's getting very good advice. You don't
get to get in trouble and then dictate the terms.
I saw Jerry Jones said on a local news channel
(44:39):
or something that, Uh, listen, you know you don't need
a leading rusher to win a Super Bowl and that's
just a fact. So Zeke, he doesn't need you one two.
He just how do you do that to someone who
supported you? Just show up. He's gonna take care of you.
I think it's a massive slap in his face. I
get it's a business, but it was a business when
(45:01):
the Cowboys signed him for all that guaranteed money when
he was a rookie, had never played a game. It
was a business. When Jerry went to war with Royer
Goodell when he was getting suspended, like see, come on, man, Uh,
Carolina there trying to not limit McCaffrey's touches, but just
be careful about not giving him too much, which I
would agree in theory. But here's the problem. He's probably
(45:23):
their best offensive player at this point, with Cam Newton
coming off an injury. You need to give him between
catches and rushing attempts. I would target him in the
passing game probably a hundred forty times. I'd like to
get him over a hundred catches in the passing game.
I'd probably like to get him, you know, in a
sweet spot around nine hundred of you know, eleven hundred
(45:44):
yards somewhere in there. I think you could argue he's
first thousand yard rusher, a thousand yard receiver in a
long time. The Sake want to do that last year?
Maybe No, I don't think he did. But that's McCaffrey's
stud Phil eat Jordan Howard basically taking all the number
one reps. Uh. The kid they drafted from Penn State.
(46:04):
I would imagine gonna be the backup they signed Darren Sprawls.
Jordan Howards, a good player. You know, for whatever reason,
him and Naggie just didn't work. But I think the
Eagles for basically gave up nothing to get him. Now
he's going to be a free agent, and you know,
Roseman is not in the business of signing and you know,
running backs to long term contracts. Though, if he has
(46:25):
a good year, I can see them doing a team
friendly deal with him. You know, why why not? Running
backs come cheap? Where else is he getting information from? Okay, Cincinnati.
The worst news of the weekend A J Green torn
ligaments in his ankle. The backstory, the NFL wanted to
go to Dayton, Ohio, the original place a hundred years ago. Obviously,
(46:45):
you know, if you watch NFL Network, they're all wearing
those hundred collar shirts. A hundred years ago the first
ever NFL game or football game was played, their professional game.
But where they were gonna build there was an Indian
burial ground that I guess the local Indian tribe fought. Listen,
I'm always pro building if wherever I'm buried. Once upon
(47:05):
you know, hopefully not for a while. You know, I'll
be thirty five here relatively soon, so hopefully I got,
you know, forty years left to keep now. I mean,
let's say forty five. Make it till, make it till eighty.
If I make it till, you've had a good run.
But if one day you can build over my grave,
you know, to benefit the community, go ahead and do it.
You know, I'm always pro growth and pro building. But
(47:27):
for some reason, the NFL didn't fight it. They instead
just went to this other field. The field turned out
to be terrible, and A J. Green was the end result.
Costs them their best player for you know, I would
say he's gonna miss definitely a couple of weeks of
the NFL season. That's that's a big loss for a
guy that's gonna be a free agent and a guy
(47:49):
that's coming off a ton of injuries. I mean, you
just look at his injury history. I know, Warren Sharp
tweeted it out. He's had two or three major injuries,
and a lot of them have been lower legged foot injuries.
Not ideal. I like a J. Green, I would say
it's negative. He's a little built like a track athlete,
got to be close to a pent and when he's not,
he's kind of useless. And now he's definitely useless on
(48:10):
the sideline. Shitty deal all around for the Bengals. The
Oakland Raiders. They got Antonio Brown, who's now only practiced
like once of three or four practices, but we'll assume
he's gonna be healthy. Tyrrell Williams, the deep threat they
signed from the Chargers, also having a good camp. Hunter Renfro,
I think is gonna be the starting slot receiver. Everything
(48:31):
you hear read and talk to people with the Raiders,
he's crushing in camp. Feels like John Gruden is dying
for a little white receiver to be like his Wes Welker,
and I think Hunter Renfro is gonna be that guy.
Hunter Renfro, if you've ever heard Dabbo talk about him,
says he looks like nothing and then all of a
sudden you put him on the field and he's just balls.
The kid can just play. So I think at the
(48:51):
end of the day, look for Hunter Renfro to not
just be a Raiders, you know, make the team, but
I think he's gonna have a role and a and
a relatively big role in this offense. What another receiver
that's kind of fascinating, same draft class. DK Metcalf. Word
was coming out of Seattle that they're in the two
wide receiver sets. Now, granted you look at the depth chart,
(49:11):
they don't have much. Obviously, Tyler Lockett is there one.
DK Metcalf is there too. Right now now, I think
the question on DK Metcalf was he was kind of
a one trick pony. He could go straight, but he
couldn't do anything else, couldn't cut all of his you know,
short shuttle stuff at Combine and at the Pro Days
was terrible. It was like historically bad. I mean, it's
(49:31):
like Tom Brady level movement. But that's why you pay
your wide receiver coach three four or five thousand dollars,
why you pay your offensive coordinator a million dollars. It's
why you pay your coaches so much. Coach this guy up.
It's why you pay your strength and conditioning coaches so much,
so much. Get this guy more flexible? Now? Can you
get more flexible? Time will tell, But one thing's clear.
(49:52):
DK Metcalf isn't just gonna play for Seattle. He's gonna
be kind of like a key component for them. Now
is he good enough? I don't know, we'll see. But
you could also say, who are the corners in in
the NFC West. The Niners have one Richard Sherman, and
then they don't really have another one. Jason Barrett Verrette
(50:13):
is just I mean, he's played in one game in
three years, so I can't count on him. Yet you
look at the like, who are the Rams corners? Talib
you know, he's a shell of himself. Marcus Peters, He's
just he's an off you know, he can't really run.
He can make plays on the ball, but he's a
pretty flawed player. The Cardinals they got They got Patrick Peterson.
(50:33):
That's about it. Patrick Peterson is a good player. But
all those like Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, they got an
account for, uh Tyler Lockett the Washington Redskins. This just
shows you how high of a level this guy is.
His career is over. Alex Smith, after his leg basically
snapped last year, he's still attending quarterback meetings helping those
guys out. I mean, just what a high level guy?
(50:56):
Could you argue that Alex Smith is the most appreciated
NFL player of the last decade. Yeah, he's not Tom
Brady or Ben Roethlisberger Rodgers. But if you had a
good team and he was your quarterback, you were gonna win,
and you were gonna win relatively big, like you were
gonna win your division. You know. When his first year
starting with Harbaugh, they were the number one seed. Obviously
with Andy Reid they had several years of making the playoffs. Now, again,
(51:20):
he is flawed because of his arm strength, but he
was a winning player. Now, your team had to be good,
but you could win, and you could win relatively big.
Like to me, winning eleven, twelve, thirteen games is winning
big in the NFL playoffs. Yeah, I mean, he he
was what he was. But I think Alexmi is gonna
go down. It's one of the more underappreciated players of
(51:41):
just I don't know the last decade the Jets. Sam
Donald one, he's just got impeccable hair. That the flow
on Sam Donald's head is unreal too. I'm just such
a Sam Donald fan. Every time he talks, you just
think yourself, you know what, that's a high level guy.
I've been rooting for Sam Donald since he was a
freshman at usc I guess he was a retyird freshman
(52:02):
when he came in. He replaced Max Brown the rest
of history. Now he's got to work on the turnovers.
But add Levian Bell adding an offensive coach. I'm expecting, Say,
do you know what game I'm actually looking forward to
here in late July Week one? Jets Bills? Who's not
looking forward to? Sam Donald, Verst, Josh Allen. I'm actually
just I'm getting fired up in a little bit just
(52:24):
thinking about it. Here's a crazy stat in Peter King's
Monday Morning Quarterback. I think they might call it something different,
but Dan Quinn is the first head coach to fire
all three coordinators O C, d C and special teams
coordinator and keep his job since nineteen eight nine. Think
how one heard of that is. I'm not a math major,
(52:46):
but nine two thousand, nineteen that's thirty years. That's unheard of.
We see a lot of coordinators get fired one at
a time here and there, but all three coordinators in
the same season and the guy keeps his job. I
just thought that was an incredible stat. I don't really
have a take beside, I read that and then I
had to read it again. I'm like that is insane.
(53:07):
That's pretty wild. Now, if you've been listening to me,
you know I'm pretty high on the Falcons. Matt Ryan
and their offense was awesome last year, was their defense
was debaccle. Whether their defense are getting all the players back,
how are they not going to be better? But they
are bringing in three new coordinators now one I mean
Dirk Cutter, he's been there before and he's working Matt Ryan.
So that's a little unique. But think about that, the
(53:29):
first time for something to happen with NFL coaches in
terms of firing since nine. That tells you something. So
I I not that I'm not as high as the
on the Falcons, but when I see that, I'm like God,
there is a lot of pressure on these three new
coaches in the three units here in a brand new
voice because a lot of carry over with the same players, right,
(53:50):
but they're getting three new voices. And we know sometimes
whether it's offense, whether it's defense, there's just some just
takes a minute. It just takes a minute. Now, offense
for them should take a little less, but defense, for sure.
I appreciate everyone listening middlecoff mail back questions line up
in those d m s and uh I'll read them
next podcast. Enjoy the week. Follow me on Instagram. I'll
(54:11):
be posting videos see Follow me on Twitter. I'll be
talking to people talking ball. You can find me easily
on any social media platform. That's where That's where I
hang during the week. But but have a good one
and I'll see you a little later this week.
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