In this episode, Middlekauff looks at why he missed on his pre-draft evaluation of Christian McCaffrey, Broncos new head coach Vic Fangio having some early issues adjusting to the role, his thoughts on Tyreek Hill getting off without a suspension after being accused of child abuse, why the Giants and OBJ were a bad fit, what training camp is like from inside an organization, answers listener questions in Middlekauff's Mailbag. 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? Boy? John middle Coop playing our
podcast July as I record this, had NFL Network on
in the background. A little earlier, Denver Broncos full goal
of training camp. Basically every team will I think have
reported by Friday, and by the weekend we'll be in
(00:30):
full practice mode. So I'm fired up. I'm ready to go.
I know you guys are ready to go. The time
is now. We got a lot going on, right, we
got holdouts, we got guys going on pop. We're gonna
dive into it all for the next month, you know,
leading up to training camp, or excuse me, leading up
to the regular season, a little over a month of
(00:52):
the regular season. But today I something hit me. I
started watching on Amazon Prime the Carolina Panther All or Nothing,
and uh, it made me re evaluate something I missed on.
Vic Fangio said some stuff about his rookie quarterback that
you know at first and I've been hard on Vix
(01:13):
the wrong word. I just when you hire an old
school defensive coach and everything's trending in one specific way.
It made me again take a step back and reevaluate
some things, which you know, strengths and weaknesses of just
coaches in general, and will dive into that Tyreek Hill
turns out he's not gonna get spend it at all,
(01:34):
and you know, just give my thoughts on that, and
then some things to watch for in training camp, what
I think matters and what I think ultimately doesn't matter,
and then we'll dive into a couple of your questions.
Middlecoff mail bag at John Middlecoff is my insta. I'm
gonna start doing three or four videos a day on Instagram.
I've been doing it for the last six months, but
(01:54):
over the summer I haven't done him as much. But
we'll just be you know, some short rants, top things
that are prevalent and uh are relevant to what's going
on in the NFL. But I want to start with
Christian McCaffrey. And I kind of pride myself I am,
by no means the smartest guy of all my friends.
I'm typically one of the dumbest guys, you know, just
(02:17):
book smart. I'm not a BookSmart guy, but I kind
of hang my hat a lot of common sense and
very open minded. I will be quick to change my
opinion and when something starts trending one way, I have
no problem changing with it. Maybe part of that's living
in Silicon Valley or whatever, but it's more. It's more
than just technology, just being open minded with everything. And
(02:41):
society to me has never changed at a more rapid speed,
and you just you can't be rigid and you can't
be stuck in your ways, probably now more than ever,
which with the rapid way that things are changing, I'm
not saying that's the healthiest way, but the reality is
our phones are a big part of our life. Computers
are a big part of our life. Like the world's changed,
(03:02):
and society never slows down, it only speeds up. Well,
a couple of years ago, I was working in the media,
but what one opinion that I felt very very strong
on was Christian McCaffrey. No way I would draft him
in the top ten. And I had friends of teams
that were drafting high in the teams that year, and
I'm like, I thought he was a late first round pick.
(03:23):
And one thing I failed to do, and it now
hit me watching the show, but really watching a season
last year, I was wrong. He not only was worth
the eighth pick, he's a great eighth pick. Uh, It's
probably one of the better eighth picks that the franchise
will ever make. And I don't know if they did
this on purpose, but if they did, I give them
(03:45):
a lot of credit that they saw where the league
was going. And I think a lot of teams have
seen where the league was going. And I saw a
tweet from Warren Sharp and it was based on simple premise.
Here running backs with over fifteen Russia attempts in ten
plus games. And he just did it year by year,
and he started in two thousands. You know, when there
(04:07):
were sixteen running backs throughout the NFL that had ten
plus games of fifteen plus Russian attempts in those games. Right,
So it's a lot of running backs getting a lot
of carries, and pretty consistently all throughout the two thousands.
The numbers stayed in the mid teen, sixteen, eleven, fifteen, fourteen, twelve, twelve, seventeen,
thirteen twelve. Then it really started to change the last
(04:30):
couple of years two thousand ten, about two thousand, fourteen ten,
eight eleven, nine, six, and the last couple of years
in two thousand and seventeen it was four. In two
thousand and eighteen it was one. Now, sports, like the
world is cyclical. Things come back. You know, things have
(04:53):
been flow and you know, it's not to say that
we'll never go back to once we what we were
in the early two thousands, what we were in the nineties,
and what we were in the eighties when the running
back was more important than the quarterbacks. But I'm pretty
confident saying we're never going back. The rules have dramatically
changed the emphasis on quarterback play, But to me, the
(05:13):
main change has been the rules in the passing game.
So it's not as much like the analytics you should
pass more. It's just easier to pass more. You can't
touch the quarterback and you can't be physical with wide receivers. Now,
the running back is usually not covered by a cornerback.
(05:36):
He's covered either by a linebacker out of the backfield
or by a safety out of the backfield. So when
he's covered by a linebacker now, granted, the linebackers in
the NFL have dramatically changed over the last five years.
When I first got in the league in two thousand dead,
which is not that long ago, a two down mike
was part of the vernacular. You need to run stuffing
(05:58):
mike on first and second down, and then more versatile
linebackers that were more athletic and could just cover more
ground for third down. What does that even mean anymore?
It's like Howard mud looked at me one time when
I'm like, you know, this guy is not a left tackle,
he's a right tackle. What does that mean. I'll tell
you it doesn't mean anything. Here's what I know that
(06:19):
you need to be able to do as a running back.
And here's where I missed on Christian McCaffrey because I went,
you know what he could be Julian Edelman. Well, he's
already Julian Edelman, if not better, because in the last
two years he had over a hunter catches. Last year.
He had a hundred and eighty seven catches the last
two years and eleven touchdowns. So just his production alone
as a wide receiver, like, go and look how many
(06:41):
wide receivers the last two years. I've had a hundred
and eighty seven plus catches. It's not gonna be that many. Well,
then I started looking around the league, like all the
running backs, the young ones that are flourishing, all catch
the rock. We love Alvin kamarow Right. He has a
hundred and sixty two catches the last two seasons and
nine US downs. Zeke Elliott. The first couple of years,
(07:03):
he struggled at it a little bit. I struggled the
wrong word. They just didn't feature him as much in
the passing game. Well, last year, when Jason Wentton disappeared,
he carried a much bigger load because the one reason
we felt good about drafting him in the top five
and why I loved the pick back when the Cowboys
did it, is he could also catch the ball. He
had seventy seven catches last year. Leonard four Nette, to me,
(07:24):
my biggest red flag on the guy. I thought drafting
him that high was so crazy one because just a
you know, three yards in the cloud of dusk type
running back are kind of dead in general. But he
doesn't catch the ball that well. He has fifty eight catches,
and during his two years in the league, that's just
not good enough. You know one guy that was way
ahead of their time. You go to two thousand five
(07:45):
when Reggie Bush was drafted second looking back, that was
kind of crazy. He actually would be worth the top
five pick now. His rookie year in the NFL, he
caught eighty eight balls. His second year in the NFL,
he got seventy three balls his first two years. He
had a hundred twenty one targets the next year at
targets like to be a high level functioning running back
(08:07):
in today's NFL, you have to be able to catch
the football. Like you could argue that catching the football
as a running back now is equally as important as
running the ball. Now, what I kind of underestimated about McCaffrey.
He's a tough, physical runner, which I kind of knew
at Stanford. I just never thought he'd be a fifteen
hundred yard a game guy. You know what, he never
will be. And you know what doesn't matter that as
(08:30):
long as he runs for a thousand yards between I'd
say nine hundred and a thousand to keep you honest,
and then catches his eighty to a hundred balls, I'd say,
if he just averages catches a year for the next
five years, that's a freaking home run pick. And for
whatever reason, well I know the reason, I didn't look
at it the correct way. I didn't understand and quite
(08:52):
probably value what he was bringing to the table the
way the NFL was trending. But the writing was on
the wall a couple of years ago just not everyone
saw it and the smart teams, because I know multiple
teams that wanted to draft him, they saw it, and
I thought they were kind of nuts. And that's why
the Carolina Panthers had to take him an eight, because
he would have gone in the next five picks. I
(09:13):
know that for a fact. So the reality is when
you draft some of these players, seeing where the league
is going is so big, Like you wouldn't start a
business right now that was based on that just didn't
have the option to buy something off the internet. Like
if your business, if you start one in two thousand
nineteen and you are not spending the majority of your
(09:36):
time online online sales, you're probably wasting your time and
you're gonna fail. And there might be something in the
very near future that's gonna dramatically change, but you better
get at least on the right path. Because when you
draft a guy like Leonard four Nette, not a great
pass catching back and someone that can really only draft
run between the tackles, that's a hit or miss pick
(09:57):
in the eighties, that's a swing in a miss in
two thousand nine team, that pick is crazy. What makes
Zeke such a different player than Leonard four Nette is
how well rounded he was. It was he could catch,
he could block, he could run, he could do it all.
And the knock on Christian McCaffrey, well, I don't know
if he's ever gonna be zeke between the tackles. He's not,
(10:18):
but you know what he is. He's closer like Antonio
Brown out runner us. You cannot cover him the same
thing with Alvin Kamara. These guys are uncoverable assets. So
it's basically we have no problem drafting wide receivers in
the top five or the top ten if they're a
Mari or Julio Jones or a j or whoever we
think is gonna be sweet Mike Evans. Well, if CHRISI.
(10:38):
Mcaffery's gonna average nine hundred catches a year or Alvin Kamara,
you know, eighty to ninety catches a year or whatever,
how is that guy not view closer to wide receiver?
And that's I think the way we need to look
at these guys moving forward, because I know I will,
because it's pretty clear. Until every team has the Dion
Jones type linebackers what I think we thought Ruben Foster
could be or Roquan Smith, these guys are gonna kick
(11:00):
ass and take names, and they're gonna produce at a
super high level. Like it was clear. And I'm a
little biased because I watched him every night, but like
five or six years ago, I'm like, I've never seen
anything like step ever. Now he's the best version of that,
him and him and Clay. But the league completely flipped.
Now everyone's shooting an extremely high rate of threes. But
(11:23):
I still believe, like I wouldn't throw the ball. I
wouldn't target Leonard four Net a hundred times, not what
he's good at. I would target Christian McCaffrey twenty times.
He's gonna or Kamara or young Reggie Bush or Zeke
because they're gonna catch the ball. I think one thing
the NBA jumped the shark on a little bit. I
don't want shitty player shooting threes. He's gotta stretch the floor.
(11:46):
He's making fifteen percent of his threes. This is not working.
But just like I'm not just gonna throw the ball
at a running back just because that's what you should do.
That's why in two thousand nineteen, you're starting running back,
not your change of pace running back. You're starting running
back needs to catch the football because then at any
play first through third down, he is a threat because
(12:08):
you're throwing out much more on first down, second down,
and third down. Basically, you could argue all those downs
are kind of equal. Now you're just as liable to
throw as you are to run it. In in this
modern day NFL, if anything, you're more prone, especially certain teams,
to pass the ball. Well, back in the day when
I first got to the NFL, we would mark guys
this change of pace running backs. That meant you had
(12:29):
your running back that ran the football in first and
second down, and then your third down running back caught
the ball. Well, what does that do? That tips off
the team? They know what you're doing with that player.
What does Christian McCaffrey do, or Zeke or Kamara? You
don't know if they're gonna run it or they're gonna
catch it. That's what makes those guys so valuable. And
I really think he's still the best college player I've
(12:50):
ever witnessed. I'm only thirty four years old, so I
haven't I'm not claiming to have seen everyone, but Reggie
Bush would have been perfect in two thousand nineteen. Now,
early guys I got NFL Network in the background, La Danian, Thomlinson,
Marshall Falk, those type player, Barry Sanders. They could have
done it in any era, at any time. But Christian
McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara are so much more valuable this
(13:14):
day than they would have been twenty years ago. Just
like Reggie Bush, who still had a long, productive career,
never lived up to being the number two overall pick
because really he was just drafted at the wrong time.
Kind of like when we talk about three point shooters,
think how many three point shooters and like the eighties
or the nineties could have been I don't want to
say stars now, but would have had a much bigger role.
(13:37):
You watch baseball, you can bat to thirty. No one cares.
When I was growing up in like the early nineties,
if you bat two thirty, you were not going to
be a starter on a major League baseball team. But
if you're in thirty bombs now tip too twenty, no
one cares. They do not care about strikeouts. They doesn't
bother any of these analytic g ms at all. But
(14:00):
it really bothered coaches. You know, back when I was
growing up watching football, if you couldn't run the football
between the tackles or not a high end you would
not be a starter. You would have been quote unquote
a change of pace back. Well, now the change of
pace back, he's your starter. And that's arguably the most
valuable player beside your quarterback on offense because no one
can cover them. Ninety five percent of teams do not
(14:23):
have a linebacker that you feel confident in a man
demand situation that they're gonna be able to check them
in space. And I underestimated that about Christian McCaffrey. And
kudos to the Panthers, and kudos I know different gms
that liked him a lot because they understood the value.
And if we could redo it over again, like Alvin
Kamara again not a great like I wouldn't call him
(14:45):
some bell cow between the tackles, but he doesn't have
to be, and he's still a star. And if we
could redraft Alvin Kamara would not sniff making it out
of the top fifteen because these two guys, when you're
catching eight plus balls a year, think how many wide receivers.
I mean, I'm r Cooper. Has he ever had eighty
catches in the season. I'm pretty sure he hasn't and
people are like, yeah, he's pretty damn good. These guys
(15:06):
are running backs. McCaffrey's already had a hundred catch season.
Think about that and you too, so I won't miss
on that position again. Okay, let's get into Vic Fangio.
There's been some interesting things coming out of Denver Bronco
camp about things Vic Fangio has said and done. And
(15:26):
I didn't love the higher just because I think in
two thousand nineteen the quarterback is by far your most
important position. You have to get that right in the emphasis,
even though you can always make the argument you should
zig when everyone's zagging, and I tend to agree, you know, definitely,
for gambling, if the masses are gambling on it, you
want to bet against them, even if it's a no brainer.
(15:49):
Just anything in society when everyone's saying one thing, they're
probably wrong. There's a lot of group thinking life. But
you gotta get the quarterback right. And Vic Fangio a
lifetime defensive cording aider. You know, it's just his old school.
He's parcels I in. He says what he thinks. He
has zero filter, and that stuff works for defensive guys.
(16:11):
They like to be coached hard. They don't mind being
yelled at. They don't mind being cussed at. They're used
to it. Offensive guys, especially skill guys, are a little sensitive.
I compare them. They got a little NBA player to them,
especially young ones. Wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks. You
gotta treat them with kid gloves a little bit. You
(16:32):
can yell at Von Miller, you can yell at J. J. Watt,
You can yell at Earl Thomas. They can handle it.
Can you call out Drew Lock in your first press
conference of training camp? Here's Fangio Unlock. His college offense
had no carry over to pro offense. He was under
dress a lot. I don't think he's as far along
being an NFL ready quarterback as he could have been.
(16:55):
He's not a quarterback yet. He's a hard throwing pitcher
who doesn't know how to pitch yet. I don't think
he told a lie there. But I got news for you.
Is that the way to talk about your quarterback? Like Vick,
You're no longer a defensive coordinator. You're now the head coach.
You are dependent on this guy's success. Yes, his offense
(17:16):
does not translate to the NFL. Yes, he's a major project. Yes,
he can only throw fastballs and he doesn't have any touch.
We know that. It's why he took him in the
second round. But is that the way to go about it?
Vic Fangio also cut music from practice, now, you know,
is music that big a deal? I would lean no.
(17:38):
Most NFL teams in two thousand nineteen play music. Now
on the extreme end, like Kyle Shanahan has a DJ.
Is that necessary? Probably not. But I've been to countless
Niner practices with that DJ, and they don't play it
too loud. I don't think it impacts that much. But
Fangio Bill Parcells ain't playing music. Mike Zimmer, I don't know,
(17:58):
but Mike Zimmer's very Fangio like, really Fangio Zimmer like,
who again is copying parselves? They're not into that. I
don't know if Zimmer plays music or not. But it
got me thinking and I try to think about I
think about this all the time. We all have strengths
and we all have weaknesses and whatever we do. And
you read enough motivational books or successful people, what they
(18:19):
tell you to do is you really focus on your strengths.
You know, you do two of two to three things
really really well at whatever you do, Like if you're
a coach. Some coaches are great motivators. Some coaches are
great grain planners. Like in my life, one thing I
can do is I can kind of sell myself. You know,
could I sell someone else's product? I maybe could fake
(18:41):
it for a while, but I'm really good at selling myself.
I sell my own podcast ads. I hustle. I can hustle,
I can talk. You know what I can't do. I
can't fix anything. I you know, I couldn't be an engineer.
I'm not a great cook. I don't waste any time
doing that. I'm not great at a lot of things,
and I don't waste any time doing that. For the
(19:02):
most part, I just talk all day. And what I
realized is, you know what, just record it all and
you can start selling it. That's how I make my money,
right Like what in Sean Payton realized he knows nothing
about defense. He needs to get a defensive coach. Just
focus on offense. Colin plays and coaching up Drew Brees
and you'll kick ass and take names. That's what he
does well. And Vic Fangio strength their defense, which was
(19:27):
not good last season, and they've talked about it in
training camp, like von Miller was somewhat underwhelming. You know
what von Miller is gonna be in two thousand nineteen.
He's gonna be a lot better because he's got Fangio
coaching them. Their defense is gonna be a lot better
because he's got Fangio coaching though. Now there's a balance
of your strength and your weaknesses, right, Like you could
go around all the offensive coaches, Andy Reid, Sean Payton,
(19:50):
they've been proven their two best offensive coordinators in the league, right,
But if their defensive coordinator is off and he's not
doing a good job, are in some trouble. We've seen
Sean Payton had those years where they're going like seven
and nine, eight and eight where their offense was awesome.
Last year Andy reads defense kind of let him down
and one of the best offensive we've ever seen, the
defense was terrible. Now, part of that is personnel whatever,
(20:13):
But those guys where they can have a huge impact
on offense, they can only do so much on defense.
And I look at Sean McVeigh. Sean mcveigh's like this
young Bill Walsh. He doesn't even watch the defense. He
literally sits on the cooler while the defense is on
the field and gets his play calls ready. So if
Wade Phillips had a heart attack midgame, I don't know.
What do you do, Kyle Shanahan. You can say, well,
(20:34):
he's a gray offensive coordinator. He's good with quarterbacks. His
teams are a little soft because again he's not a
defensive guy. But I know this, and this is why
I'm kind of like I'm I like Fangio, I like
what he stands for, and I like the old school.
But to me in two thousand nineteen, I can't have
my head coach kind of bad mouthing my quarterback. And
I know Arians does it. But at the end of
(20:55):
the day, Arians spends a lot of time with his
quarterback and coaches his quarterback like he's an offensive guy.
When the defensive guy does that. If I'm Drew Lock,
and again I'm not even a Drew Lock fan, but
I would imagine Drew Locks thinking, and there's nothing wrong
with being coached hard and pushed, but defensive guys, they're
just edgier, They're just a little angrier. I wonder if
(21:16):
Drew Locks thinking, does this guy even like me. I mean, seriously,
does this guy even like me? Because again, Bradley Chub
he can handle getting them aft all practice. He's a
defensive end. You don't treat your quarterback like that. And
I understand that Vick strength defensive guy. He's very candid, coaches,
guy's hard, he's a cerebral guy. He's really smart. I
(21:39):
I do think though, sometimes in a certain job, when
you have a weakness, and vix vic Fangio's weakness gonna
be offense. He has nothing to do with the offense.
But one thing he can control with the offense is
he's going to be asked questions about the offense. And
because he doesn't know anything about the offense and he's
not coaching the offense, he should be very careful of
(22:00):
about what he says. And I get your older you
know the famous saying old you know, old dog. You
can't teach an old dog new tricks. That's true. My
mom has an old dog right now, Callie. She's eight
years old. She is what she is. But if you're
gonna be a head coach, you have to be open
minded to adapt on certain things. And I'm already starting
to feel like it is the undoing a Fangio because
it's not gonna be the music at practice, it's not
(22:22):
gonna be coaching guys hard. But it is the treatment
of offensive players. And I saw it years ago with
the forty Niners. They had just drafted Eric Reid and
it was the first preseason game, and after the game,
Fangio basically said, like, Eric Reid is not a starter,
he's not good enough. Yet they were starting Craig Dahl.
(22:42):
Eric Reed had just been drafted in the first round.
And that's just Fangio tough love. He didn't start all
preseason Week one. What happened? Eric Read started. But during
the preseason Eric Read has to be thinking to himself,
I'm way better than this guy. Why can't I play?
But he's a defensive guy, that's the way he rolls,
and he's old school. I don't think you treat quarterbacks
like this, even if it's true, even if you can't
(23:04):
hit water sitting in the boat when you rip them
in the media, quarterbacks are just more polarizing. This ship
catches on on social media. I end up talking about it,
and that's just not you notice Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh,
Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Jason Garrett. They're just a little
more sensitive with the offensive guys because you have to
(23:24):
be also, your team's success is dependent on the quarterback.
So like even Fangio, what's he gonna do in Week
one against the Raiders. I think it's the second Monday
night game. What if Flacco throws three picks? Is he
just gonna blast him after the game, because that's his nature.
And even if we all saw him shift the bed
and play terribly, I wouldn't blame him for thinking that,
(23:46):
But it's not conducive to success to say it. And
I think that's gonna be Fangio and just up and
coming defensive coaches biggest obstacle to overcome when it comes
to owners in GMS, Like listen, find a GM. My
success is dependent on the quarterback I draft. We have
to treat him somewhat with kid gloves. Just it's just
(24:07):
a fact we're gonna go as far is that guy's
gonna take us. If Vic Fangio is gonna have a
successful head coaching career with the Denver Broncos, Drew lock
is gonna be a big part of that. Just bottom line.
End of story. You know, I just don't think you
can blast him. I don't think that's the way. I
don't know what's to be gained by approaching it that way,
even if it's the truth. Okay, some of the biggest news.
(24:30):
I guess this would have come out at the end
of last week. Yeah, it was Friday had already recorded
the podcast, and a lot of people are tweeting him, like,
what are your takes on Tyreek Hill? What do you
think about Tyreek Hill? My takes on domestic violence are
or just any violence are always the same in anything
that could get a player suspended. That's he said, she
(24:51):
said in the NFL, just just in general life. If
he did it, he should go to jail. If she's
making it up, she should go to jail. That's how
I based my old thought press process on, and I
think most people with common sense agree. You hit a woman,
you're not only a scumbag, you're a criminal. Now I'm
(25:12):
not a lawyer. I don't pretend it on the laws,
but my world, criminal serve go to jail. If you
make something up about a man hitting you and you're lying,
you're a criminal, and you're a threat to both people.
Whoever does that or a threat to society. Now where
I struggled with Tyreek Hill in terms of I thought
(25:32):
Zeke Elliott when it was he said she said a
couple of years ago did not deserve to be suspended.
There just wasn't enough evidence. Now again, like I said
with Tyreek, if Zeke actually hit her, he should have
been in jail. It's not the NFL's problem. If this
check was Zeke made it up, she should go to jail. Well.
Last year, after the most recent domestic violence, you know,
(25:54):
I would say main headline in the NFL was Ruben Foster.
He got arrested, is not? I mean, it's kind of
funny now because it's actually nothing happened at a team
hotel on the road, which I'm pretty sure is an
NFL record. No NFL player, at least in my lifetime,
has ever been arrested on the road at a team hotel.
(26:15):
He was arrested in Tampa Bay. They were playing the
Bucks the next day because the same girl that had
made something up the first time was there. Again, Now,
was he an idiot? Trinty have not gone to a room.
I don't know if he flew out or not. I never.
I never disagreed with he wasn't in the wrong, but
it came out she made it all up. The NFL
investigated it after the Redskins, you know, claimed him off waivers.
(26:38):
They even kind of acknowledge, Yeah, she's making it up again.
She's actually over three and again, in my book, a
criminal because she consistently makes things up to try to
ruin men's lives. And I don't know, is that like
not a PC thing to say? You don't You never
hear that in the media anywhere. No one ever picks
on the woman when she's proven to be wrong. It's
(26:58):
easy to pick on the man when he hits her.
Of course it is. He's a scumbag and a criminal.
But if you make things up like Ruben Foster's girlfriend did,
she should go to jail. Now Ruben, and I think
a lot of rich professionals, especially the athletes, are famous people.
It's not even worth it to go after him. So
it just kind of goes away. But the NFL acknowledge
(27:20):
she made it up again, Nothing happened, he didn't hit her,
and they still don't. They didn't suspend him now he's
he tore his knee and he's out for the year,
but he's missing two game checks, and it's I don't
know exactly know how it works. He's on i R
prorage salary. He was not going to be paid week
one or week two, even though the NFL said, yeah,
he didn't do it. They basically just find him for
(27:41):
being an idiot. That's the thing that with Tyreek Hill.
The NFL, the evidence they have, and I know people
with the chiefs obviously know people well there. They believe
Tyreek Hill. They think he's telling the truth. Clearly, the
NFL thinks he's telling the truth. Yet like I'm a
little shocked they didn't not not suspend him. Because if
(28:01):
you think he's telling the truth and you think he's innocent,
don't spend him. I can. I understand that, But how
did he not get doc some game checks because we
saw the same thing happened with Ruben Foster and he
got doc game checks. I thought dragging the kind of
the shield's name through the headlines is a bad thing,
So I thought he got off pretty easy there. But
(28:24):
I I don't know what to say, like him in jail,
IM not there at any of these incidents. So I
always feel uncomfortable. Everyone on Twitter is so quick to
say throw him in jail, throw him in jail. That's
all anyone wants to do, just throw people in jail
when we I don't know what's true or what's not.
And I think we all fall in the same side
(28:45):
of the ledger on if the guy does it, what
his punishments be. Hell, I have no problem if you
told me if you hit a woman, you're kicked out
of the NFL for for life. I don't think anyone
would argue that I'd have if you told me that
was their new policy. It's fine with me. But with
Tyreek killed people, with my whole Twitter timeline is freaking out.
(29:07):
We don't have any no one knows anything. I just
do not know, and I'm always uncomfortable, Like so you're
telling me the law couldn't figure it out, and now
the NFL is trying to figure it out. That was
always my problem with the NFL suspending people when the
law couldn't prove anything. It's like, Roger, how are you
acting as the judge and jury on this when the
when the law can figure it out, And it became
(29:31):
a very slippery slope and a complicated situation. Now, from
a football standpoint, I mean, it's one of the biggest
wins the Chiefs have ever had. He's their second best
player behind the Homes. Just from non quarterback, he's their
best player. He's one of the most unstoppable forces in
the NFL. He no one can cover him. He's faster
than everyone in the league. He's got great ball skills,
(29:51):
He's a versatile player. It's a game changer because I
think when the story recently broke, however many months ago,
obviously I don't even remember, we all thought, oh my god,
he's gonna get suspended for the year or whatever. Then
it kind of felt like maybe we'll only get eight games.
Now we got none. So I think from a football standpoint,
it's a complete game changer because he happens to be
(30:11):
the second best player on one of the best teams
in the league, who has Super Bowl aspirations. So it's
a really big deal. And I think my old takeaway
is it's I've given up trying to figure out the
NFL and their punishment and their consistency because it never
makes any sense. But I also believe if you don't
think he did it, then you should not suspend them. Now,
(30:32):
I'm not a lawyer, I'm not on the coaching staff.
I don't work in the league office. I have no
clue what evidence they have. I just know people with
the chiefs, they they were pretty confident that he's telling
the truth. They believe him. Now some one thing that
was a red flag to me about Tyreek and I
don't know why he went down this road. Was he
tried to act like it didn't happen in college, Like
(30:53):
he's like, this is a lie, and same thing in
two thousand and fourteen was a lie. And I think
a lot of people feel pretty confident, especially the way
we talk about it is that things happened in two
thousand fourteen that he hit his pregnant fifteen or whatever
year that was, when you can kick that Oklahoma state
that he hit his pregnant girlfriend at the time, which
I'm pretty sure is this lady. It's as That's my
problem with these stories with Tyreeks and the Zeke's and
(31:16):
the Rubens. It's hard to keep up with the timeline
of all this ship. I mean, it's it's exhausting. I'm
done with these stories. That's why I can't imagine working
in the league or being a lawyer, Like, that's what
a shitty job having to deal with this crap is.
And I also think on a big picture topic, on
just Goodell's power, you realize why, Like we talk a
(31:38):
lot about this in the media and a lot on Twitter.
Most players in the league don't care. Like most players
in the league don't when I say don't care, don't
mind Roger Goodell having a lot of power, because if
you're a good guy in the league, why do you
care if Roger Goodell is suspending, you know, people for
for screwing up, for getting in trouble. If I'd say,
(31:58):
of the NFL, never has an issue, never has one
problem with the law, never has to meet Goodell in
his office. So it's like, whatever, it's not my problem.
And that's kind of the way human work, right, not
my problem. I'm not gonna worry about it. So I
think that's people are like the next cb A, you
gotta take the power away from Roger? Why, Like, who's
(32:18):
that impacting five players a year? Do the math? How
many players in the league. Fifty three players on a
roster plus ten in the practice squad, you're talking sixty
three players times thirty two. You do the math. I mean,
that's a lot of players that are unimpacted by this stuff.
But like like I said, if Tyrek did it, he's
a scumbag. He's ever going to jail. If he didn't,
(32:38):
he shouldn't be suspended, And clearly the league thinks he
didn't do it. Now, I can understand if I'm Zeke Elliott,
I'd be piste off. Like I told you, I didn't
do it either. I was innocent and I got spend
it for six games. I can see if I'm Ruben Foster.
You you told me you believe what I was saying,
and then you still find me two game checks like
what the hell? Uh? And I think that's the biggest
(32:59):
problem just with this whole operation is there's never quite
a rhyme or reason to any of this thing. You know,
you just kind of when a suspension comes out, you're
just kind of a guessing game, like how many games
will you get? How many games will you not get?
No one ever knows, but that at the end of
the day, Um, you know, I I don't know if
this has that big of an impact on the NFL
(33:19):
in general. I know a lot of people in the
media think it does, but I don't know that. I'm
just talking about Roger Goodell's suspensions, the way he suspends
players in general. You know, I think at the end
of the day, it doesn't really matter that much for
perception standpoint. I think people think there's a lot of
negativity because it's not like on social media. Again, the
majority of NFL fans are not on Twitter. They just
(33:39):
consume NFL on their television. But from a football standpoint,
it's one of the biggest non suspensions I can remember
in recent history. Okay, really quick, before I dive into
the training camp stuff, I'm just gonna hit again really fast.
Refused to spend much time on this. Odell Beckham Jr.
(34:00):
I guess he did a long sit down with some
dude from g Q. I haven't even read it, but
I did see a quote, and I mean, that's not
a ton of quotes today, but the quote that really
stood out to me because I don't care about the
Pat Shermer and the Dave gettleman whatever, but was on
the franchise and this is out of the Lebron James
(34:21):
Clutch playbook. The man is always screwing the player and
Odell Beckham. I don't even have the quote in front
of me, but it was basically like, the reason the
Giants the last couple of years played in primetime games
was strictly because of Odell Beckham. Now, having Odell Beckham Jr.
(34:41):
Does not help putting you in prime time. But the
reason that the New York Football Giants play in primetime games,
whether that's Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football, or
man games on Sunday the afternoon game against the Eagles
or the Cowboys, it's because they're the New York fucking Giants.
They are the biggest market in America. So, whether Odell
(35:03):
Beckham had never existed or whether he had played there
his entire career, the New York Giants, just like the
New York Yankees, just like the New York Jets, just
like the New York Mets, and even the New York Knicks,
who couldn't be any shittier, These leagues want to play
them in primetime games all the time. Now I understand
that Lebron James and Rich Paul and those guys tell them,
(35:27):
you're getting screwed. They're using you. Now, actually they're paying
you twenty million dollars a year and you haven't even
played that well the last couple of years. So I'm
not trying to rip o'dellia as a player. I like
him as a player. I think he's an elite talent.
But when it comes to the reason that the NFC
East in general, ESPN, ABC, CBS, Fox, whatever damn network
(35:51):
is playing NFL games, if they could, they would play
the NFC East on rotation, and really they didn't care
as much about Washington. They'd play Philly, they play Dallas
in New York. If that those three teams could just
play each other every week for sixteen weeks, whether Odell
Beckham was playing wide receiver, whether John Middlecoff was playing
wide receiver, or whether you listening was playing wide receiver,
(36:12):
they would play them. Why. I don't have the numbers
in front of me, but a lot of freaking people
live in New York City, given it's the biggest media
market in America. So when you put the New York Giants,
whether they're good, whether they're decent, or whether they're suck
and on a game, a lot of people watch. When
you put the Bengals on a game, not that many
people watch put the Raiders on a game, not that
(36:33):
many people watch. Put the Airs on the Cardinals on
a game, not that many people watch. Put the New
York Giants on television. Again, whether they're an undefeated team
or whether they're a winless team, that market consumes that team.
So again, I get Odell Beckham Jr. Is just listening
to Rich Paul and Lebron James filling his head with
(36:54):
these beliefs that the only reason that the Giants are
relevant is because of Odell Beckham. I got news for you.
They're relevant because they're the New York Football Giants, and
millions upon millions upon millions of people are fans of
that team. So when that team plays, the countless millions
upon millions of millions of people will watch those games.
(37:14):
So when the Giants kick off, I don't know the
schedule in front of me, whoever the hell they're playing
in Week one, I promise you one thing, A lot
of freaking people will consume the New York Giants. And
by week three, Week four, week five, weeks six, they
might be the worst team in the league. But guess
what they will rate on television. Why Because their fan
base is gi freaking Gannick so Odell Beckham, I get it.
(37:37):
He's coming from a position, an uneducated position that's agenda
driven because the player is always in the wrong. With
clutch sports and Rich Paul and Lebron James, they're always
caring everything. And you know what, in fairness for Lebron
James with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Yeah, they need you, Lebron.
I got news for you, Lebron. People have been watching
the Lakers well before you, and they'll watch the Lakers
well after you, just like Odell Beckham, I got news
(37:58):
for you, buddy. People who watch the Giants well before
you got there, and now that you're gone, people will
keeps to keep watching the Giants. So again, they played
in primetime games not because of Odell Beckham, but because
they have a lot of fans. Okay, really quick, as
we had to training camp, I just want to hit
I wrote down a couple of things, what matters and
(38:19):
what doesn't matter. Training camp is just a kind of
a crazy time. When I was a pro scout, you
basically split up the NFL if you follow a road
to World or Twitter or whatever. Once all these camps
get started, injuries, cuts, just a lot of stuff is
going on. Not one human can't follow the entire league.
(38:40):
A GM need just staff to keep tracking everything. You're
evaluating basically fifty three to ninety, so that's you know,
thirty seven, but really then you're evaluating another ten. You're
evaluating like fifty guys a team, give or take. You know, uh,
they might get cut, you know, or you can trade four.
So you're evaluating a ton of guy. Once preseason games start,
(39:01):
you're keeping track on every injury, You're keeping track on trends,
who's playing well, who's not playing well. You know, I
got I mean, I got friends to follow me on
in the league because they know me. But like when
I was in the NFL, I followed a ton of people.
Matt Mayoko, Uh, you know, rich Samine, whoever the main
beat reporters are on given teams, Matt Barrows, Vic Tafer.
(39:24):
I'm biased here my guys in the Bay Area, but
you know what I mean, the guys in different cities
that cover teams, and you kind of keep track, not
necessarily of their opinions on players, but you do make
note when you see a guy. If you've been covering
football for twenty years and you go, God, this guy's
really making plays, you know, when we dropped that down
in the NFL, and now someone that talks about it
(39:44):
for a living, this this time of year, this next
month is hard for me, especially now that I talked
about the entire league. Luckily, I mean it's not bad hard.
I only talked about the main stuff, but it's hard
to follow the nitty gritty of who's getting cut, who's
not getting cut. Uh, you know, depth charts. There's just
a lot going on this time of years what makes
the league really fun. But there are also things that
(40:06):
happen in training camp that that I I think I
want to hit on really quick of what matters and
what doesn't matter to me? What matters anytime a guy
goes on pup. So when you see a guy Trey Flowers, J. J.
Watt Hopkins, obviously the next you know, three or four days,
you got all these teams coming, we're gonna see a
lot of names on the physically unable to perform list. Well,
(40:29):
you can start practice and practice a guy, especially a
veteran player, at any Julian Edelman is another guy at
any rate you want. So I could have a guy
just do individual drills. But if I put him on
pupp he can't do anything. So if a player goes
on pup, I'm not saying he's not gonna play a
week one because he can come off at any moment,
but it is a big deal because he's injured when
(40:50):
he shows up, especially if a player. I was watching
Ryan Pace and Matt Naggie's press conference the other day
and I actually took a picture. I sent it to Naggie.
It was a picture of naggy bald guy like myself
and Ryan Pace, who just Ryan Pace has an incredible
head of hair. I mean, just for us bald guys.
I am jealous of the of just the great hair
(41:13):
he has. But they said, uh, I think ha ha.
Clinton Dix got injured at the end of training camp
or I mean O t a s and is on
pump Like, that's not a big if you got injured
in the spring, even if it was semi minor and
you go on pop. To me, that's understandable. But if
you left the spring healthy and when I say spring,
like the early June healthy, and I don't know, I
(41:36):
have to look into J. J. Watton Hopkins, but I'm
pretty sure both guys were healthy and training camp, So
what is their injury now? Like Trey Flowers. Was Tray
Flowers injured in spring drills? Because if he wasn't, what
did he get hurt on? Like, what is the injury now?
To me? Julian Edelman as a thumb did he heard
it working out? I mean I've seen Julian Edelman the
Showtime documentary. He looked fine. When did he get hurt?
(41:59):
So I always red flag a pup now again, not
the end all be it's not injured reserve. You don't.
I'm not saying it's the end all be all, but
it's something to keep an eye on. I get nervous
with it. Things that don't matter. I'm just gonna go
back and forth. Big plays by nobody's I'm a big believer,
like in training, like the first couple of weeks of
(42:21):
training camp, especially now that you don't really hit, certain
guys are gonna stand out if they're fast, if they
just make some plays. Pick guys off and practice. Undrafted
free agents. I don't pay much attention to them until
preseason games because you can make plays in practice, especially
after a couple of days, because your opponent then is
(42:42):
just your teammate and you have a scattering report because
you literally go against them every rep. It's why the
games separate people. One there's legitimate pressure, and two you
don't really know what's coming because you're not game planning
for any of this stuff. So I don't put that
much stock in unnamed guys, especially undrafted free agents, making
(43:04):
plays in practice. Obviously it's better than not making plays,
but it does not the first couple of weeks of
training camp. You're gonna see so and so is crushed
it in practice. I don't put much stock in there. Now.
If he makes a couple of plays in the first
or second preseason game, then I'm in, you know, Then
I say, Okay, this guy's got a chance to make
the team, or okay, this guy's got a chance to
(43:24):
you know, be a practice squad player that someone's gonna claim.
But if you're just Joe Schmo, nobody, make a couple
of plays against the second string quarterback doesn't mean that
much to me. What matters to me offensive issues. If
you have a new quarterback and your offense not in sync,
especially once you get two preseason games, or you have
a new corb, or you have a new coordinator like
(43:45):
all these new coaches around the league and your offensive struggles.
It's always harder for the offense to click than defense,
especially in two thousand nineteen, you don't have as many practices.
It's just much harder. It's much more difficult. So if
you're offen stinct in practice and then we watch the
preseason games, I'm just gonna use this hypothetical. If the
(44:05):
first couple of preseason games, assuming he plays, let's just
use this player, Aaron Rodgers just looks uncomfortable in the offense.
It's I would read flag that a little bit. You know,
I'm trying to bruce arians James us go around the league.
I'd say Aaron would be the unique one just because
he's a star player, so how the comfort of him.
They're they're probably the best example because they have this
(44:27):
established player, this new coach coming in with an offense
that I don't know if he's super comfortable in. So
if the offense struggles to me in in practice, it's
kind of hard to tell. I mean, it's easier for
the coaches, but me at the media just standing at
forty nine practice just because it's so similar. But the
preseason games I do put some stock on just the
rhythm of your offense, not the points, not the yards,
(44:50):
but just the eye test. Uh, what doesn't buzz coming
out of camp? Again, back to the preseason games. One
thing that does matter, though, is once the preseason games
do start, if you have an undrafted free agent or
six or seventh round pick who looks equally as good
(45:11):
as a veteran player that makes three or four million dollars,
that veteran player then immediately becomes tradeable or he might
be get cut. He might get cut, might be get cut.
Of geaven speak, he might get cut because you can
keep that seventh rounder to be a backup, you know,
a starting defensive tackle, or you can keep your starting
defensive tackle at four million. Here's the other thing, once
(45:32):
a guy becomes a vested veteran. I'm no capologist, but
I know a couple of things. If you if that
guy makes your fifty three man roster and he's on
the team week one and he's let's just use the
four million dollars, you keep him week one, and he's
a vested veteran, meaning he's I think he's been in
the league four or five years. I'm not sure. The
exact day again, not a capologist. That guy then his
(45:53):
salary is guaranteed for the year. That's why you see
a lot of older player, especially like seventh eighth year
guys sometimes as they get cut right before week one
and then they bring them back for a week two
because their contract is not guaranteed. But you don't mind
keeping it a seventh round pick because that guy's contract
and what's he making six grand? So I the one
(46:14):
great part about training camp is you have all these
veteran players that I'm not talking the star guys making
ten plus million dollars. I'm talking like a solid veteran
guy making two, three four in that range. Well, it's
a big difference if I can just keep an undrafted
free agent at six fifty grand or keep a guy
making five million dollars. I didn't go to Harvard, but
(46:34):
you do the math. I mean, you're saving what four
and a half million dollars maybe you know, four point
three million dot whatever, You're you're saving a lot of money,
enables you to make mid season trades. It just gives
you more flexibility. Plus, in the perfect world, you'd always
rather have the younger, cheaper option. This is not the
NBA or Major League Baseball, no player really beside maybe
(46:56):
a handful of guys on a team or on scholarship.
So if you don't produce, you will get wally piped
by a younger player. What matters to me rookie quarterback
struggles like Kyler Murray's gonna play, right, If Daniel Jones
looks terrible, that's kind of a big issue because he's
going to play, maybe not start the season, but the
(47:16):
Giants are gonna be good. He's gonna play pretty early.
So how a rookie quarterback looks in training camp more
now than ever of these last three or four years,
because rickie quarterbacks play immediately Back in the day, who cares, right,
Remember a couple of years ago, even like Mahomes. A
couple of years ago, with Mahomes, we knew he wasn't
gonna start, So whether he was good in training camp
or bad in training camp, it didn't matter. But last year,
(47:37):
how Baker looked in training camp, how Donald looked in
training camp, how Alan looked in training camp, how Rosen
looks and looked in training camp. Lamar Jackson, we know
those guys are gonna play. Mariotta wentz Goff. You go
through the list, All these guys are playing like Jimmy
Garoppolo years ago, who cares he was playing behind Tom Brady.
But most rookie player, especially the guy's drafted high Kyler Murray,
(47:58):
Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins to me how they look and
how they function in the offense in practice. So what
you're reading about them and then definitely in the games
does matter because we're gonna throw these guys into the
fire quicker than ever nowadays. A couple of Middlecoff mail
bag questions that I'll get you out of here on
(48:18):
your week. I'm running a little low, so I need
I've answered a lot just manually. Actually got a good question.
I actually Texas guy back, but I'll answer it here
again at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle. I'm gonna
be doing a bunch of videos on there too, especially
during the season. Uh just any hot topic going on,
you can always hit me up. I interact with a
(48:39):
lot of people on Instagram. I interact with people on
Twitter too, but Twitter is such an angry place. Instagram
is a little more fun. I enjoyed a little more.
So I answer your questions on Instagram called the Middlecoff
mail Bag and every show with it. Here's a good
one from Jake when Brady retires? One, will Belichick go
with him? To would you take the over under on
(49:01):
eight and a half wins post Brady? One? I think
Belichick wants Brady to retire and then at minimum coach
one year to just prove like he can make the playoffs. Two?
Would you take the over under post Brady? If Bill
was the coach, I would take the over. If McDaniels
is a coach, I take the under. Brady's gone, Belichick
(49:24):
is gone. I don't know who the hell would be
their quarterback, and I don't know when Tom's gonna retire.
So if Belichick's there, I'll take the over. If Belichick
is gone, I will take the under. Hey, John, awesome podcast.
I would agree. I was wondering why you were not
hirer on Josh Allen of the Bills once heard you
(49:44):
say you love big arm talents. Allen looks like a
perfect blend of Steve Young and Ben Roethlisburg. Well, we're
gonna get back to that comment here in a second.
If you could fix the accuracy issues, do you think
he can be better than Donald or Mayfield. Also, how
do you go about helping him be coome a more
accurate passer? Would he benefit from an offensive minded coach
as opposed to McDermott. I see what you're saying about
(50:07):
Steve Young because he was a mobile guy. But I
think when I think Steve Young, and he's probably my
favorite player growing up, I just thought he was a
sweet player when I was young. Now that I'm thinking
about football differently than I did when I was ten,
when I think Steve Young, I think, beside Drew Brees,
the most accurate quarterback ever. So I would compare Josh
Allen more to like, I don't even know, like Kaepernick
(50:31):
or something, because he's just not an accurate quarterback. Now,
I'm not a coach, I don't know exactly how to
fix accuracy issue. You know, if we got Sean Payton
or Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan on here, I think
a lot of them tell you that you're kind of
it's just an innate skill a little bit once you
get to the league. Now, there are subtle things with footwork,
(50:52):
arm angle. You can probably work with timing reps. But
I just don't think historically you can ago from being
like a low fifties or whatever he was in college.
Now he was playing with terrible players, but he was awful.
I mean I I made a point his senior year
or might have been his junior year, whatever's last year
in college to watch the Iowan Oregon game, and it
(51:13):
was like, what the hell is this? Because I wanted
to like him. Now I do like him. I follow
him on all social media. He's everything I want a guy,
high level guy. It just looks like a good human.
I root for good smart humans. You know, Sam Donald,
him or BFFs I'm rooting for. But I I it's
just hard to me to to think that inconsistent or
(51:37):
inaccurate quarterbacks can win in the NFL. Now he might
have a good year, but I don't think you can
sustain it over a period of time. Now, can I
get better? Yeah, I mean work ethic, I think you
can incrementally improve. Again, I said this on a couple
of podcasts ago. Warren Moon told me back when I
had a radio show, he improved a lot over his years,
(52:00):
but it took a lot of time, took a lot
of rep reps, a lot of effort, I'm not counting
them out that I don't think he can ever become
an more accurate quarterback. But I don't ever see him
being like Drew Brees or something, or Tom Brady. But yeah,
if he can just get to sixty two percent, and
in this league, sixty two is like the old fifty
eight because how easy it is to pass, but be
(52:20):
an explosive, big arm guy to be like if you
look back at Kaepernick stats, and I'm not I'm not
bringing up Kaepernick. This has nothing to do with the
political stuff. This is just as a football player. Those
first couple of years, the Niners were winning a lot
of games with him going like ten for eighteen and
he'd throw it for like two hundred yards and three touchdowns.
(52:41):
He did not have many thirty two or forty games
that that was not his style of play. He run
for fifty to eighty yards and a touchdown, and he'd
hit a couple of big plays to An Koon, Bolden,
Fernon Davis, Michael Crabtree. He'd had huge plays. But he's
so he was really more of a flash player than
he ever was a dominant, consistent player. So you can
(53:05):
win that way now. But it's hard to sustain it
and that was a problem for him. Uh but yeah,
I just I'm rooting for Josh Allen. So I'm not
when you say I'm low on Josh Allen. No, I'm
just what most people aren't Josh Allen. I think he's
an inaccurate guy, and I think it's hard to win
in the NFL when you're inaccurate. But I think like
(53:25):
he does have some tools, Like he has tools that
I want. He'd have tools I'd love. I mean, I'd
get like a football erection here drafting a guy like
that in the second round. If my coaches Sean Payton,
Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, Andy Reid, and you just get
to work with him. But that's not really the y.
He just kind of got thrown into the fire. He
was super raw product. I do think Sean McDermott is
(53:48):
the type guy, super serious. I just know as a
team builder, they drafted or not they draft, but they
signed a couple of small receivers this offseason. I don't
love that. Uh, but yeah, I'm not. I would not
say I'm a'm Josh Allen hater. You could say I'm
a I'm a Lamar Jackson Hayter trying to think of
(54:09):
a player that I'm a hater on. Uh, I hate
Chris Paul Right, Yeah, I'm a Chris Paul Hayter. I
like more NBA players that I hate. I don't really
hate any NFL players, just I expect how hard it
is and even core, even like Lamar Jackson. I have
a lot of respect for Lamar, how how he conducts himself. Uh,
(54:32):
you know, just everything I've ever heard about the type
guy is if you're a bad player but a good guy,
I I I root for you, and I don't mind
people think like once you say, especially as an evaluator
or even in the media, like I I wouldn't draft
this guy. Just because I wouldn't draft him doesn't mean
I hope he doesn't make me look wrong in and
plays well, especially when they're a high character guy. I
(54:53):
root for high character players because more high character players
in the NFL, the more healthy the league is. In
a perfect world, you wouldn't want anyone ever getting in trouble.
You'd want a bunch of good guys planning at a
super high level and you have a good product. Now
that's we all know that's not possible, but I'm room
for Josh Allen to succeed. Appreciate everyone listening, Enjoy the
(55:13):
week at John middlecoff my Instagram wide open fire in
there and ask me questions and enjoy football is a
back baby, and I will talk to you later this week.
(55:44):
M
What is going on? Boy? John middle Coop playing our
podcast July as I record this, had NFL Network on
in the background. A little earlier, Denver Broncos full goal
of training camp. Basically every team will I think have
reported by Friday, and by the weekend we'll be in
(00:30):
full practice mode. So I'm fired up. I'm ready to go.
I know you guys are ready to go. The time
is now. We got a lot going on, right, we
got holdouts, we got guys going on pop. We're gonna
dive into it all for the next month, you know,
leading up to training camp, or excuse me, leading up
to the regular season, a little over a month of
(00:52):
the regular season. But today I something hit me. I
started watching on Amazon Prime the Carolina Panther All or Nothing,
and uh, it made me re evaluate something I missed on.
Vic Fangio said some stuff about his rookie quarterback that
you know at first and I've been hard on Vix
(01:13):
the wrong word. I just when you hire an old
school defensive coach and everything's trending in one specific way.
It made me again take a step back and reevaluate
some things, which you know, strengths and weaknesses of just
coaches in general, and will dive into that Tyreek Hill
turns out he's not gonna get spend it at all,
(01:34):
and you know, just give my thoughts on that, and
then some things to watch for in training camp, what
I think matters and what I think ultimately doesn't matter,
and then we'll dive into a couple of your questions.
Middlecoff mail bag at John Middlecoff is my insta. I'm
gonna start doing three or four videos a day on Instagram.
I've been doing it for the last six months, but
(01:54):
over the summer I haven't done him as much. But
we'll just be you know, some short rants, top things
that are prevalent and uh are relevant to what's going
on in the NFL. But I want to start with
Christian McCaffrey. And I kind of pride myself I am,
by no means the smartest guy of all my friends.
I'm typically one of the dumbest guys, you know, just
(02:17):
book smart. I'm not a BookSmart guy, but I kind
of hang my hat a lot of common sense and
very open minded. I will be quick to change my
opinion and when something starts trending one way, I have
no problem changing with it. Maybe part of that's living
in Silicon Valley or whatever, but it's more. It's more
than just technology, just being open minded with everything. And
(02:41):
society to me has never changed at a more rapid speed,
and you just you can't be rigid and you can't
be stuck in your ways, probably now more than ever,
which with the rapid way that things are changing, I'm
not saying that's the healthiest way, but the reality is
our phones are a big part of our life. Computers
are a big part of our life. Like the world's changed,
(03:02):
and society never slows down, it only speeds up. Well,
a couple of years ago, I was working in the media,
but what one opinion that I felt very very strong
on was Christian McCaffrey. No way I would draft him
in the top ten. And I had friends of teams
that were drafting high in the teams that year, and
I'm like, I thought he was a late first round pick.
(03:23):
And one thing I failed to do, and it now
hit me watching the show, but really watching a season
last year, I was wrong. He not only was worth
the eighth pick, he's a great eighth pick. Uh, It's
probably one of the better eighth picks that the franchise
will ever make. And I don't know if they did
this on purpose, but if they did, I give them
(03:45):
a lot of credit that they saw where the league
was going. And I think a lot of teams have
seen where the league was going. And I saw a
tweet from Warren Sharp and it was based on simple premise.
Here running backs with over fifteen Russia attempts in ten
plus games. And he just did it year by year,
and he started in two thousands. You know, when there
(04:07):
were sixteen running backs throughout the NFL that had ten
plus games of fifteen plus Russian attempts in those games. Right,
So it's a lot of running backs getting a lot
of carries, and pretty consistently all throughout the two thousands.
The numbers stayed in the mid teen, sixteen, eleven, fifteen, fourteen, twelve, twelve, seventeen,
thirteen twelve. Then it really started to change the last
(04:30):
couple of years two thousand ten, about two thousand, fourteen ten,
eight eleven, nine, six, and the last couple of years
in two thousand and seventeen it was four. In two
thousand and eighteen it was one. Now, sports, like the
world is cyclical. Things come back. You know, things have
(04:53):
been flow and you know, it's not to say that
we'll never go back to once we what we were
in the early two thousands, what we were in the nineties,
and what we were in the eighties when the running
back was more important than the quarterbacks. But I'm pretty
confident saying we're never going back. The rules have dramatically
changed the emphasis on quarterback play, But to me, the
(05:13):
main change has been the rules in the passing game.
So it's not as much like the analytics you should
pass more. It's just easier to pass more. You can't
touch the quarterback and you can't be physical with wide receivers. Now,
the running back is usually not covered by a cornerback.
(05:36):
He's covered either by a linebacker out of the backfield
or by a safety out of the backfield. So when
he's covered by a linebacker now, granted, the linebackers in
the NFL have dramatically changed over the last five years.
When I first got in the league in two thousand dead,
which is not that long ago, a two down mike
was part of the vernacular. You need to run stuffing
(05:58):
mike on first and second down, and then more versatile
linebackers that were more athletic and could just cover more
ground for third down. What does that even mean anymore?
It's like Howard mud looked at me one time when
I'm like, you know, this guy is not a left tackle,
he's a right tackle. What does that mean. I'll tell
you it doesn't mean anything. Here's what I know that
(06:19):
you need to be able to do as a running back.
And here's where I missed on Christian McCaffrey because I went,
you know what he could be Julian Edelman. Well, he's
already Julian Edelman, if not better, because in the last
two years he had over a hunter catches. Last year.
He had a hundred and eighty seven catches the last
two years and eleven touchdowns. So just his production alone
as a wide receiver, like, go and look how many
(06:41):
wide receivers the last two years. I've had a hundred
and eighty seven plus catches. It's not gonna be that many. Well,
then I started looking around the league, like all the
running backs, the young ones that are flourishing, all catch
the rock. We love Alvin kamarow Right. He has a
hundred and sixty two catches the last two seasons and
nine US downs. Zeke Elliott. The first couple of years,
(07:03):
he struggled at it a little bit. I struggled the
wrong word. They just didn't feature him as much in
the passing game. Well, last year, when Jason Wentton disappeared,
he carried a much bigger load because the one reason
we felt good about drafting him in the top five
and why I loved the pick back when the Cowboys
did it, is he could also catch the ball. He
had seventy seven catches last year. Leonard four Nette, to me,
(07:24):
my biggest red flag on the guy. I thought drafting
him that high was so crazy one because just a
you know, three yards in the cloud of dusk type
running back are kind of dead in general. But he
doesn't catch the ball that well. He has fifty eight catches,
and during his two years in the league, that's just
not good enough. You know one guy that was way
ahead of their time. You go to two thousand five
(07:45):
when Reggie Bush was drafted second looking back, that was
kind of crazy. He actually would be worth the top
five pick now. His rookie year in the NFL, he
caught eighty eight balls. His second year in the NFL,
he got seventy three balls his first two years. He
had a hundred twenty one targets the next year at
targets like to be a high level functioning running back
(08:07):
in today's NFL, you have to be able to catch
the football. Like you could argue that catching the football
as a running back now is equally as important as
running the ball. Now, what I kind of underestimated about McCaffrey.
He's a tough, physical runner, which I kind of knew
at Stanford. I just never thought he'd be a fifteen
hundred yard a game guy. You know what, he never
will be. And you know what doesn't matter that as
(08:30):
long as he runs for a thousand yards between I'd
say nine hundred and a thousand to keep you honest,
and then catches his eighty to a hundred balls, I'd say,
if he just averages catches a year for the next
five years, that's a freaking home run pick. And for
whatever reason, well I know the reason, I didn't look
at it the correct way. I didn't understand and quite
(08:52):
probably value what he was bringing to the table the
way the NFL was trending. But the writing was on
the wall a couple of years ago just not everyone
saw it and the smart teams, because I know multiple
teams that wanted to draft him, they saw it, and
I thought they were kind of nuts. And that's why
the Carolina Panthers had to take him an eight, because
he would have gone in the next five picks. I
(09:13):
know that for a fact. So the reality is when
you draft some of these players, seeing where the league
is going is so big, Like you wouldn't start a
business right now that was based on that just didn't
have the option to buy something off the internet. Like
if your business, if you start one in two thousand
nineteen and you are not spending the majority of your
(09:36):
time online online sales, you're probably wasting your time and
you're gonna fail. And there might be something in the
very near future that's gonna dramatically change, but you better
get at least on the right path. Because when you
draft a guy like Leonard four Nette, not a great
pass catching back and someone that can really only draft
run between the tackles, that's a hit or miss pick
(09:57):
in the eighties, that's a swing in a miss in
two thousand nine team, that pick is crazy. What makes
Zeke such a different player than Leonard four Nette is
how well rounded he was. It was he could catch,
he could block, he could run, he could do it all.
And the knock on Christian McCaffrey, well, I don't know
if he's ever gonna be zeke between the tackles. He's not,
(10:18):
but you know what he is. He's closer like Antonio
Brown out runner us. You cannot cover him the same
thing with Alvin Kamara. These guys are uncoverable assets. So
it's basically we have no problem drafting wide receivers in
the top five or the top ten if they're a
Mari or Julio Jones or a j or whoever we
think is gonna be sweet Mike Evans. Well, if CHRISI.
(10:38):
Mcaffery's gonna average nine hundred catches a year or Alvin Kamara,
you know, eighty to ninety catches a year or whatever,
how is that guy not view closer to wide receiver?
And that's I think the way we need to look
at these guys moving forward, because I know I will,
because it's pretty clear. Until every team has the Dion
Jones type linebackers what I think we thought Ruben Foster
could be or Roquan Smith, these guys are gonna kick
(11:00):
ass and take names, and they're gonna produce at a
super high level. Like it was clear. And I'm a
little biased because I watched him every night, but like
five or six years ago, I'm like, I've never seen
anything like step ever. Now he's the best version of that,
him and him and Clay. But the league completely flipped.
Now everyone's shooting an extremely high rate of threes. But
(11:23):
I still believe, like I wouldn't throw the ball. I
wouldn't target Leonard four Net a hundred times, not what
he's good at. I would target Christian McCaffrey twenty times.
He's gonna or Kamara or young Reggie Bush or Zeke
because they're gonna catch the ball. I think one thing
the NBA jumped the shark on a little bit. I
don't want shitty player shooting threes. He's gotta stretch the floor.
(11:46):
He's making fifteen percent of his threes. This is not working.
But just like I'm not just gonna throw the ball
at a running back just because that's what you should do.
That's why in two thousand nineteen, you're starting running back,
not your change of pace running back. You're starting running
back needs to catch the football because then at any
play first through third down, he is a threat because
(12:08):
you're throwing out much more on first down, second down,
and third down. Basically, you could argue all those downs
are kind of equal. Now you're just as liable to
throw as you are to run it. In in this
modern day NFL, if anything, you're more prone, especially certain teams,
to pass the ball. Well, back in the day when
I first got to the NFL, we would mark guys
this change of pace running backs. That meant you had
(12:29):
your running back that ran the football in first and
second down, and then your third down running back caught
the ball. Well, what does that do? That tips off
the team? They know what you're doing with that player.
What does Christian McCaffrey do, or Zeke or Kamara? You
don't know if they're gonna run it or they're gonna
catch it. That's what makes those guys so valuable. And
I really think he's still the best college player I've
(12:50):
ever witnessed. I'm only thirty four years old, so I
haven't I'm not claiming to have seen everyone, but Reggie
Bush would have been perfect in two thousand nineteen. Now,
early guys I got NFL Network in the background, La Danian, Thomlinson,
Marshall Falk, those type player, Barry Sanders. They could have
done it in any era, at any time. But Christian
McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara are so much more valuable this
(13:14):
day than they would have been twenty years ago. Just
like Reggie Bush, who still had a long, productive career,
never lived up to being the number two overall pick
because really he was just drafted at the wrong time.
Kind of like when we talk about three point shooters,
think how many three point shooters and like the eighties
or the nineties could have been I don't want to
say stars now, but would have had a much bigger role.
(13:37):
You watch baseball, you can bat to thirty. No one cares.
When I was growing up in like the early nineties,
if you bat two thirty, you were not going to
be a starter on a major League baseball team. But
if you're in thirty bombs now tip too twenty, no
one cares. They do not care about strikeouts. They doesn't
bother any of these analytic g ms at all. But
(14:00):
it really bothered coaches. You know, back when I was
growing up watching football, if you couldn't run the football
between the tackles or not a high end you would
not be a starter. You would have been quote unquote
a change of pace back. Well, now the change of
pace back, he's your starter. And that's arguably the most
valuable player beside your quarterback on offense because no one
can cover them. Ninety five percent of teams do not
(14:23):
have a linebacker that you feel confident in a man
demand situation that they're gonna be able to check them
in space. And I underestimated that about Christian McCaffrey. And
kudos to the Panthers, and kudos I know different gms
that liked him a lot because they understood the value.
And if we could redo it over again, like Alvin
Kamara again not a great like I wouldn't call him
(14:45):
some bell cow between the tackles, but he doesn't have
to be, and he's still a star. And if we
could redraft Alvin Kamara would not sniff making it out
of the top fifteen because these two guys, when you're
catching eight plus balls a year, think how many wide receivers.
I mean, I'm r Cooper. Has he ever had eighty
catches in the season. I'm pretty sure he hasn't and
people are like, yeah, he's pretty damn good. These guys
(15:06):
are running backs. McCaffrey's already had a hundred catch season.
Think about that and you too, so I won't miss
on that position again. Okay, let's get into Vic Fangio.
There's been some interesting things coming out of Denver Bronco
camp about things Vic Fangio has said and done. And
(15:26):
I didn't love the higher just because I think in
two thousand nineteen the quarterback is by far your most
important position. You have to get that right in the emphasis,
even though you can always make the argument you should
zig when everyone's zagging, and I tend to agree, you know, definitely,
for gambling, if the masses are gambling on it, you
want to bet against them, even if it's a no brainer.
(15:49):
Just anything in society when everyone's saying one thing, they're
probably wrong. There's a lot of group thinking life. But
you gotta get the quarterback right. And Vic Fangio a
lifetime defensive cording aider. You know, it's just his old school.
He's parcels I in. He says what he thinks. He
has zero filter, and that stuff works for defensive guys.
(16:11):
They like to be coached hard. They don't mind being
yelled at. They don't mind being cussed at. They're used
to it. Offensive guys, especially skill guys, are a little sensitive.
I compare them. They got a little NBA player to them,
especially young ones. Wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks. You
gotta treat them with kid gloves a little bit. You
(16:32):
can yell at Von Miller, you can yell at J. J. Watt,
You can yell at Earl Thomas. They can handle it.
Can you call out Drew Lock in your first press
conference of training camp? Here's Fangio Unlock. His college offense
had no carry over to pro offense. He was under
dress a lot. I don't think he's as far along
being an NFL ready quarterback as he could have been.
(16:55):
He's not a quarterback yet. He's a hard throwing pitcher
who doesn't know how to pitch yet. I don't think
he told a lie there. But I got news for you.
Is that the way to talk about your quarterback? Like Vick,
You're no longer a defensive coordinator. You're now the head coach.
You are dependent on this guy's success. Yes, his offense
(17:16):
does not translate to the NFL. Yes, he's a major project. Yes,
he can only throw fastballs and he doesn't have any touch.
We know that. It's why he took him in the
second round. But is that the way to go about it?
Vic Fangio also cut music from practice, now, you know,
is music that big a deal? I would lean no.
(17:38):
Most NFL teams in two thousand nineteen play music. Now
on the extreme end, like Kyle Shanahan has a DJ.
Is that necessary? Probably not. But I've been to countless
Niner practices with that DJ, and they don't play it
too loud. I don't think it impacts that much. But
Fangio Bill Parcells ain't playing music. Mike Zimmer, I don't know,
(17:58):
but Mike Zimmer's very Fangio like, really Fangio Zimmer like,
who again is copying parselves? They're not into that. I
don't know if Zimmer plays music or not. But it
got me thinking and I try to think about I
think about this all the time. We all have strengths
and we all have weaknesses and whatever we do. And
you read enough motivational books or successful people, what they
(18:19):
tell you to do is you really focus on your strengths.
You know, you do two of two to three things
really really well at whatever you do, Like if you're
a coach. Some coaches are great motivators. Some coaches are
great grain planners. Like in my life, one thing I
can do is I can kind of sell myself. You know,
could I sell someone else's product? I maybe could fake
(18:41):
it for a while, but I'm really good at selling myself.
I sell my own podcast ads. I hustle. I can hustle,
I can talk. You know what I can't do. I
can't fix anything. I you know, I couldn't be an engineer.
I'm not a great cook. I don't waste any time
doing that. I'm not great at a lot of things,
and I don't waste any time doing that. For the
(19:02):
most part, I just talk all day. And what I
realized is, you know what, just record it all and
you can start selling it. That's how I make my money,
right Like what in Sean Payton realized he knows nothing
about defense. He needs to get a defensive coach. Just
focus on offense. Colin plays and coaching up Drew Brees
and you'll kick ass and take names. That's what he
does well. And Vic Fangio strength their defense, which was
(19:27):
not good last season, and they've talked about it in
training camp, like von Miller was somewhat underwhelming. You know
what von Miller is gonna be in two thousand nineteen.
He's gonna be a lot better because he's got Fangio
coaching them. Their defense is gonna be a lot better
because he's got Fangio coaching though. Now there's a balance
of your strength and your weaknesses, right, Like you could
go around all the offensive coaches, Andy Reid, Sean Payton,
(19:50):
they've been proven their two best offensive coordinators in the league, right,
But if their defensive coordinator is off and he's not
doing a good job, are in some trouble. We've seen
Sean Payton had those years where they're going like seven
and nine, eight and eight where their offense was awesome.
Last year Andy reads defense kind of let him down
and one of the best offensive we've ever seen, the
defense was terrible. Now, part of that is personnel whatever,
(20:13):
But those guys where they can have a huge impact
on offense, they can only do so much on defense.
And I look at Sean McVeigh. Sean mcveigh's like this
young Bill Walsh. He doesn't even watch the defense. He
literally sits on the cooler while the defense is on
the field and gets his play calls ready. So if
Wade Phillips had a heart attack midgame, I don't know.
What do you do, Kyle Shanahan. You can say, well,
(20:34):
he's a gray offensive coordinator. He's good with quarterbacks. His
teams are a little soft because again he's not a
defensive guy. But I know this, and this is why
I'm kind of like I'm I like Fangio, I like
what he stands for, and I like the old school.
But to me in two thousand nineteen, I can't have
my head coach kind of bad mouthing my quarterback. And
I know Arians does it. But at the end of
(20:55):
the day, Arians spends a lot of time with his
quarterback and coaches his quarterback like he's an offensive guy.
When the defensive guy does that. If I'm Drew Lock,
and again I'm not even a Drew Lock fan, but
I would imagine Drew Locks thinking, and there's nothing wrong
with being coached hard and pushed, but defensive guys, they're
just edgier, They're just a little angrier. I wonder if
(21:16):
Drew Locks thinking, does this guy even like me. I mean, seriously,
does this guy even like me? Because again, Bradley Chub
he can handle getting them aft all practice. He's a
defensive end. You don't treat your quarterback like that. And
I understand that Vick strength defensive guy. He's very candid, coaches,
guy's hard, he's a cerebral guy. He's really smart. I
(21:39):
I do think though, sometimes in a certain job, when
you have a weakness, and vix vic Fangio's weakness gonna
be offense. He has nothing to do with the offense.
But one thing he can control with the offense is
he's going to be asked questions about the offense. And
because he doesn't know anything about the offense and he's
not coaching the offense, he should be very careful of
(22:00):
about what he says. And I get your older you
know the famous saying old you know, old dog. You
can't teach an old dog new tricks. That's true. My
mom has an old dog right now, Callie. She's eight
years old. She is what she is. But if you're
gonna be a head coach, you have to be open
minded to adapt on certain things. And I'm already starting
to feel like it is the undoing a Fangio because
it's not gonna be the music at practice, it's not
(22:22):
gonna be coaching guys hard. But it is the treatment
of offensive players. And I saw it years ago with
the forty Niners. They had just drafted Eric Reid and
it was the first preseason game, and after the game,
Fangio basically said, like, Eric Reid is not a starter,
he's not good enough. Yet they were starting Craig Dahl.
(22:42):
Eric Reed had just been drafted in the first round.
And that's just Fangio tough love. He didn't start all
preseason Week one. What happened? Eric Read started. But during
the preseason Eric Read has to be thinking to himself,
I'm way better than this guy. Why can't I play?
But he's a defensive guy, that's the way he rolls,
and he's old school. I don't think you treat quarterbacks
like this, even if it's true, even if you can't
(23:04):
hit water sitting in the boat when you rip them
in the media, quarterbacks are just more polarizing. This ship
catches on on social media. I end up talking about it,
and that's just not you notice Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh,
Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Jason Garrett. They're just a little
more sensitive with the offensive guys because you have to
(23:24):
be also, your team's success is dependent on the quarterback.
So like even Fangio, what's he gonna do in Week
one against the Raiders. I think it's the second Monday
night game. What if Flacco throws three picks? Is he
just gonna blast him after the game, because that's his nature.
And even if we all saw him shift the bed
and play terribly, I wouldn't blame him for thinking that,
(23:46):
But it's not conducive to success to say it. And
I think that's gonna be Fangio and just up and
coming defensive coaches biggest obstacle to overcome when it comes
to owners in GMS, Like listen, find a GM. My
success is dependent on the quarterback I draft. We have
to treat him somewhat with kid gloves. Just it's just
(24:07):
a fact we're gonna go as far is that guy's
gonna take us. If Vic Fangio is gonna have a
successful head coaching career with the Denver Broncos, Drew lock
is gonna be a big part of that. Just bottom line.
End of story. You know, I just don't think you
can blast him. I don't think that's the way. I
don't know what's to be gained by approaching it that way,
even if it's the truth. Okay, some of the biggest news.
(24:30):
I guess this would have come out at the end
of last week. Yeah, it was Friday had already recorded
the podcast, and a lot of people are tweeting him, like,
what are your takes on Tyreek Hill? What do you
think about Tyreek Hill? My takes on domestic violence are
or just any violence are always the same in anything
that could get a player suspended. That's he said, she
(24:51):
said in the NFL, just just in general life. If
he did it, he should go to jail. If she's
making it up, she should go to jail. That's how
I based my old thought press process on, and I
think most people with common sense agree. You hit a woman,
you're not only a scumbag, you're a criminal. Now I'm
(25:12):
not a lawyer. I don't pretend it on the laws,
but my world, criminal serve go to jail. If you
make something up about a man hitting you and you're lying,
you're a criminal, and you're a threat to both people.
Whoever does that or a threat to society. Now where
I struggled with Tyreek Hill in terms of I thought
(25:32):
Zeke Elliott when it was he said she said a
couple of years ago did not deserve to be suspended.
There just wasn't enough evidence. Now again, like I said
with Tyreek, if Zeke actually hit her, he should have
been in jail. It's not the NFL's problem. If this
check was Zeke made it up, she should go to jail. Well.
Last year, after the most recent domestic violence, you know,
(25:54):
I would say main headline in the NFL was Ruben Foster.
He got arrested, is not? I mean, it's kind of
funny now because it's actually nothing happened at a team
hotel on the road, which I'm pretty sure is an
NFL record. No NFL player, at least in my lifetime,
has ever been arrested on the road at a team hotel.
(26:15):
He was arrested in Tampa Bay. They were playing the
Bucks the next day because the same girl that had
made something up the first time was there. Again, Now,
was he an idiot? Trinty have not gone to a room.
I don't know if he flew out or not. I never.
I never disagreed with he wasn't in the wrong, but
it came out she made it all up. The NFL
investigated it after the Redskins, you know, claimed him off waivers.
(26:38):
They even kind of acknowledge, Yeah, she's making it up again.
She's actually over three and again, in my book, a
criminal because she consistently makes things up to try to
ruin men's lives. And I don't know, is that like
not a PC thing to say? You don't You never
hear that in the media anywhere. No one ever picks
on the woman when she's proven to be wrong. It's
(26:58):
easy to pick on the man when he hits her.
Of course it is. He's a scumbag and a criminal.
But if you make things up like Ruben Foster's girlfriend did,
she should go to jail. Now Ruben, and I think
a lot of rich professionals, especially the athletes, are famous people.
It's not even worth it to go after him. So
it just kind of goes away. But the NFL acknowledge
(27:20):
she made it up again, Nothing happened, he didn't hit her,
and they still don't. They didn't suspend him now he's
he tore his knee and he's out for the year,
but he's missing two game checks, and it's I don't
know exactly know how it works. He's on i R
prorage salary. He was not going to be paid week
one or week two, even though the NFL said, yeah,
he didn't do it. They basically just find him for
(27:41):
being an idiot. That's the thing that with Tyreek Hill.
The NFL, the evidence they have, and I know people
with the chiefs obviously know people well there. They believe
Tyreek Hill. They think he's telling the truth. Clearly, the
NFL thinks he's telling the truth. Yet like I'm a
little shocked they didn't not not suspend him. Because if
(28:01):
you think he's telling the truth and you think he's innocent,
don't spend him. I can. I understand that, But how
did he not get doc some game checks because we
saw the same thing happened with Ruben Foster and he
got doc game checks. I thought dragging the kind of
the shield's name through the headlines is a bad thing,
So I thought he got off pretty easy there. But
(28:24):
I I don't know what to say, like him in jail,
IM not there at any of these incidents. So I
always feel uncomfortable. Everyone on Twitter is so quick to
say throw him in jail, throw him in jail. That's
all anyone wants to do, just throw people in jail
when we I don't know what's true or what's not.
And I think we all fall in the same side
(28:45):
of the ledger on if the guy does it, what
his punishments be. Hell, I have no problem if you
told me if you hit a woman, you're kicked out
of the NFL for for life. I don't think anyone
would argue that I'd have if you told me that
was their new policy. It's fine with me. But with
Tyreek killed people, with my whole Twitter timeline is freaking out.
(29:07):
We don't have any no one knows anything. I just
do not know, and I'm always uncomfortable, Like so you're
telling me the law couldn't figure it out, and now
the NFL is trying to figure it out. That was
always my problem with the NFL suspending people when the
law couldn't prove anything. It's like, Roger, how are you
acting as the judge and jury on this when the
when the law can figure it out, And it became
(29:31):
a very slippery slope and a complicated situation. Now, from
a football standpoint, I mean, it's one of the biggest
wins the Chiefs have ever had. He's their second best
player behind the Homes. Just from non quarterback, he's their
best player. He's one of the most unstoppable forces in
the NFL. He no one can cover him. He's faster
than everyone in the league. He's got great ball skills,
(29:51):
He's a versatile player. It's a game changer because I
think when the story recently broke, however many months ago,
obviously I don't even remember, we all thought, oh my god,
he's gonna get suspended for the year or whatever. Then
it kind of felt like maybe we'll only get eight games.
Now we got none. So I think from a football standpoint,
it's a complete game changer because he happens to be
(30:11):
the second best player on one of the best teams
in the league, who has Super Bowl aspirations. So it's
a really big deal. And I think my old takeaway
is it's I've given up trying to figure out the
NFL and their punishment and their consistency because it never
makes any sense. But I also believe if you don't
think he did it, then you should not suspend them. Now,
(30:32):
I'm not a lawyer, I'm not on the coaching staff.
I don't work in the league office. I have no
clue what evidence they have. I just know people with
the chiefs, they they were pretty confident that he's telling
the truth. They believe him. Now some one thing that
was a red flag to me about Tyreek and I
don't know why he went down this road. Was he
tried to act like it didn't happen in college, Like
(30:53):
he's like, this is a lie, and same thing in
two thousand and fourteen was a lie. And I think
a lot of people feel pretty confident, especially the way
we talk about it is that things happened in two
thousand fourteen that he hit his pregnant fifteen or whatever
year that was, when you can kick that Oklahoma state
that he hit his pregnant girlfriend at the time, which
I'm pretty sure is this lady. It's as That's my
problem with these stories with Tyreeks and the Zeke's and
(31:16):
the Rubens. It's hard to keep up with the timeline
of all this ship. I mean, it's it's exhausting. I'm
done with these stories. That's why I can't imagine working
in the league or being a lawyer, Like, that's what
a shitty job having to deal with this crap is.
And I also think on a big picture topic, on
just Goodell's power, you realize why, Like we talk a
(31:38):
lot about this in the media and a lot on Twitter.
Most players in the league don't care. Like most players
in the league don't when I say don't care, don't
mind Roger Goodell having a lot of power, because if
you're a good guy in the league, why do you
care if Roger Goodell is suspending, you know, people for
for screwing up, for getting in trouble. If I'd say,
(31:58):
of the NFL, never has an issue, never has one
problem with the law, never has to meet Goodell in
his office. So it's like, whatever, it's not my problem.
And that's kind of the way human work, right, not
my problem. I'm not gonna worry about it. So I
think that's people are like the next cb A, you
gotta take the power away from Roger? Why, Like, who's
(32:18):
that impacting five players a year? Do the math? How
many players in the league. Fifty three players on a
roster plus ten in the practice squad, you're talking sixty
three players times thirty two. You do the math. I mean,
that's a lot of players that are unimpacted by this stuff.
But like like I said, if Tyrek did it, he's
a scumbag. He's ever going to jail. If he didn't,
(32:38):
he shouldn't be suspended, And clearly the league thinks he
didn't do it. Now, I can understand if I'm Zeke Elliott,
I'd be piste off. Like I told you, I didn't
do it either. I was innocent and I got spend
it for six games. I can see if I'm Ruben Foster.
You you told me you believe what I was saying,
and then you still find me two game checks like
what the hell? Uh? And I think that's the biggest
(32:59):
problem just with this whole operation is there's never quite
a rhyme or reason to any of this thing. You know,
you just kind of when a suspension comes out, you're
just kind of a guessing game, like how many games
will you get? How many games will you not get?
No one ever knows, but that at the end of
the day, Um, you know, I I don't know if
this has that big of an impact on the NFL
(33:19):
in general. I know a lot of people in the
media think it does, but I don't know that. I'm
just talking about Roger Goodell's suspensions, the way he suspends
players in general. You know, I think at the end
of the day, it doesn't really matter that much for
perception standpoint. I think people think there's a lot of
negativity because it's not like on social media. Again, the
majority of NFL fans are not on Twitter. They just
(33:39):
consume NFL on their television. But from a football standpoint,
it's one of the biggest non suspensions I can remember
in recent history. Okay, really quick, before I dive into
the training camp stuff, I'm just gonna hit again really fast.
Refused to spend much time on this. Odell Beckham Jr.
(34:00):
I guess he did a long sit down with some
dude from g Q. I haven't even read it, but
I did see a quote, and I mean, that's not
a ton of quotes today, but the quote that really
stood out to me because I don't care about the
Pat Shermer and the Dave gettleman whatever, but was on
the franchise and this is out of the Lebron James
(34:21):
Clutch playbook. The man is always screwing the player and
Odell Beckham. I don't even have the quote in front
of me, but it was basically like, the reason the
Giants the last couple of years played in primetime games
was strictly because of Odell Beckham. Now, having Odell Beckham Jr.
(34:41):
Does not help putting you in prime time. But the
reason that the New York Football Giants play in primetime games,
whether that's Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football, or
man games on Sunday the afternoon game against the Eagles
or the Cowboys, it's because they're the New York fucking Giants.
They are the biggest market in America. So, whether Odell
(35:03):
Beckham had never existed or whether he had played there
his entire career, the New York Giants, just like the
New York Yankees, just like the New York Jets, just
like the New York Mets, and even the New York Knicks,
who couldn't be any shittier, These leagues want to play
them in primetime games all the time. Now I understand
that Lebron James and Rich Paul and those guys tell them,
(35:27):
you're getting screwed. They're using you. Now, actually they're paying
you twenty million dollars a year and you haven't even
played that well the last couple of years. So I'm
not trying to rip o'dellia as a player. I like
him as a player. I think he's an elite talent.
But when it comes to the reason that the NFC
East in general, ESPN, ABC, CBS, Fox, whatever damn network
(35:51):
is playing NFL games, if they could, they would play
the NFC East on rotation, and really they didn't care
as much about Washington. They'd play Philly, they play Dallas
in New York. If that those three teams could just
play each other every week for sixteen weeks, whether Odell
Beckham was playing wide receiver, whether John Middlecoff was playing
wide receiver, or whether you listening was playing wide receiver,
(36:12):
they would play them. Why. I don't have the numbers
in front of me, but a lot of freaking people
live in New York City, given it's the biggest media
market in America. So when you put the New York Giants,
whether they're good, whether they're decent, or whether they're suck
and on a game, a lot of people watch. When
you put the Bengals on a game, not that many
people watch put the Raiders on a game, not that
(36:33):
many people watch. Put the Airs on the Cardinals on
a game, not that many people watch. Put the New
York Giants on television. Again, whether they're an undefeated team
or whether they're a winless team, that market consumes that team.
So again, I get Odell Beckham Jr. Is just listening
to Rich Paul and Lebron James filling his head with
(36:54):
these beliefs that the only reason that the Giants are
relevant is because of Odell Beckham. I got news for you.
They're relevant because they're the New York Football Giants, and
millions upon millions upon millions of people are fans of
that team. So when that team plays, the countless millions
upon millions of millions of people will watch those games.
(37:14):
So when the Giants kick off, I don't know the
schedule in front of me, whoever the hell they're playing
in Week one, I promise you one thing, A lot
of freaking people will consume the New York Giants. And
by week three, Week four, week five, weeks six, they
might be the worst team in the league. But guess
what they will rate on television. Why Because their fan
base is gi freaking Gannick so Odell Beckham, I get it.
(37:37):
He's coming from a position, an uneducated position that's agenda
driven because the player is always in the wrong. With
clutch sports and Rich Paul and Lebron James, they're always
caring everything. And you know what, in fairness for Lebron
James with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Yeah, they need you, Lebron.
I got news for you, Lebron. People have been watching
the Lakers well before you, and they'll watch the Lakers
well after you, just like Odell Beckham, I got news
(37:58):
for you, buddy. People who watch the Giants well before
you got there, and now that you're gone, people will
keeps to keep watching the Giants. So again, they played
in primetime games not because of Odell Beckham, but because
they have a lot of fans. Okay, really quick, as
we had to training camp, I just want to hit
I wrote down a couple of things, what matters and
(38:19):
what doesn't matter. Training camp is just a kind of
a crazy time. When I was a pro scout, you
basically split up the NFL if you follow a road
to World or Twitter or whatever. Once all these camps
get started, injuries, cuts, just a lot of stuff is
going on. Not one human can't follow the entire league.
(38:40):
A GM need just staff to keep tracking everything. You're
evaluating basically fifty three to ninety, so that's you know,
thirty seven, but really then you're evaluating another ten. You're
evaluating like fifty guys a team, give or take. You know, uh,
they might get cut, you know, or you can trade four.
So you're evaluating a ton of guy. Once preseason games start,
(39:01):
you're keeping track on every injury, You're keeping track on trends,
who's playing well, who's not playing well. You know, I
got I mean, I got friends to follow me on
in the league because they know me. But like when
I was in the NFL, I followed a ton of people.
Matt Mayoko, Uh, you know, rich Samine, whoever the main
beat reporters are on given teams, Matt Barrows, Vic Tafer.
(39:24):
I'm biased here my guys in the Bay Area, but
you know what I mean, the guys in different cities
that cover teams, and you kind of keep track, not
necessarily of their opinions on players, but you do make
note when you see a guy. If you've been covering
football for twenty years and you go, God, this guy's
really making plays, you know, when we dropped that down
in the NFL, and now someone that talks about it
(39:44):
for a living, this this time of year, this next
month is hard for me, especially now that I talked
about the entire league. Luckily, I mean it's not bad hard.
I only talked about the main stuff, but it's hard
to follow the nitty gritty of who's getting cut, who's
not getting cut. Uh, you know, depth charts. There's just
a lot going on this time of years what makes
the league really fun. But there are also things that
(40:06):
happen in training camp that that I I think I
want to hit on really quick of what matters and
what doesn't matter to me? What matters anytime a guy
goes on pup. So when you see a guy Trey Flowers, J. J.
Watt Hopkins, obviously the next you know, three or four days,
you got all these teams coming, we're gonna see a
lot of names on the physically unable to perform list. Well,
(40:29):
you can start practice and practice a guy, especially a
veteran player, at any Julian Edelman is another guy at
any rate you want. So I could have a guy
just do individual drills. But if I put him on
pupp he can't do anything. So if a player goes
on pup, I'm not saying he's not gonna play a
week one because he can come off at any moment,
but it is a big deal because he's injured when
(40:50):
he shows up, especially if a player. I was watching
Ryan Pace and Matt Naggie's press conference the other day
and I actually took a picture. I sent it to Naggie.
It was a picture of naggy bald guy like myself
and Ryan Pace, who just Ryan Pace has an incredible
head of hair. I mean, just for us bald guys.
I am jealous of the of just the great hair
(41:13):
he has. But they said, uh, I think ha ha.
Clinton Dix got injured at the end of training camp
or I mean O t a s and is on
pump Like, that's not a big if you got injured
in the spring, even if it was semi minor and
you go on pop. To me, that's understandable. But if
you left the spring healthy and when I say spring,
like the early June healthy, and I don't know, I
(41:36):
have to look into J. J. Watton Hopkins, but I'm
pretty sure both guys were healthy and training camp, So
what is their injury now? Like Trey Flowers. Was Tray
Flowers injured in spring drills? Because if he wasn't, what
did he get hurt on? Like, what is the injury now?
To me? Julian Edelman as a thumb did he heard
it working out? I mean I've seen Julian Edelman the
Showtime documentary. He looked fine. When did he get hurt?
(41:59):
So I always red flag a pup now again, not
the end all be it's not injured reserve. You don't.
I'm not saying it's the end all be all, but
it's something to keep an eye on. I get nervous
with it. Things that don't matter. I'm just gonna go
back and forth. Big plays by nobody's I'm a big believer,
like in training, like the first couple of weeks of
(42:21):
training camp, especially now that you don't really hit, certain
guys are gonna stand out if they're fast, if they
just make some plays. Pick guys off and practice. Undrafted
free agents. I don't pay much attention to them until
preseason games because you can make plays in practice, especially
after a couple of days, because your opponent then is
(42:42):
just your teammate and you have a scattering report because
you literally go against them every rep. It's why the
games separate people. One there's legitimate pressure, and two you
don't really know what's coming because you're not game planning
for any of this stuff. So I don't put that
much stock in unnamed guys, especially undrafted free agents, making
(43:04):
plays in practice. Obviously it's better than not making plays,
but it does not the first couple of weeks of
training camp. You're gonna see so and so is crushed
it in practice. I don't put much stock in there. Now.
If he makes a couple of plays in the first
or second preseason game, then I'm in, you know, Then
I say, Okay, this guy's got a chance to make
the team, or okay, this guy's got a chance to
(43:24):
you know, be a practice squad player that someone's gonna claim.
But if you're just Joe Schmo, nobody, make a couple
of plays against the second string quarterback doesn't mean that
much to me. What matters to me offensive issues. If
you have a new quarterback and your offense not in sync,
especially once you get two preseason games, or you have
a new corb, or you have a new coordinator like
(43:45):
all these new coaches around the league and your offensive struggles.
It's always harder for the offense to click than defense,
especially in two thousand nineteen, you don't have as many practices.
It's just much harder. It's much more difficult. So if
you're offen stinct in practice and then we watch the
preseason games, I'm just gonna use this hypothetical. If the
(44:05):
first couple of preseason games, assuming he plays, let's just
use this player, Aaron Rodgers just looks uncomfortable in the offense.
It's I would read flag that a little bit. You know,
I'm trying to bruce arians James us go around the league.
I'd say Aaron would be the unique one just because
he's a star player, so how the comfort of him.
They're they're probably the best example because they have this
(44:27):
established player, this new coach coming in with an offense
that I don't know if he's super comfortable in. So
if the offense struggles to me in in practice, it's
kind of hard to tell. I mean, it's easier for
the coaches, but me at the media just standing at
forty nine practice just because it's so similar. But the
preseason games I do put some stock on just the
rhythm of your offense, not the points, not the yards,
(44:50):
but just the eye test. Uh, what doesn't buzz coming
out of camp? Again, back to the preseason games. One
thing that does matter, though, is once the preseason games
do start, if you have an undrafted free agent or
six or seventh round pick who looks equally as good
(45:11):
as a veteran player that makes three or four million dollars,
that veteran player then immediately becomes tradeable or he might
be get cut. He might get cut, might be get cut.
Of geaven speak, he might get cut because you can
keep that seventh rounder to be a backup, you know,
a starting defensive tackle, or you can keep your starting
defensive tackle at four million. Here's the other thing, once
(45:32):
a guy becomes a vested veteran. I'm no capologist, but
I know a couple of things. If you if that
guy makes your fifty three man roster and he's on
the team week one and he's let's just use the
four million dollars, you keep him week one, and he's
a vested veteran, meaning he's I think he's been in
the league four or five years. I'm not sure. The
exact day again, not a capologist. That guy then his
(45:53):
salary is guaranteed for the year. That's why you see
a lot of older player, especially like seventh eighth year
guys sometimes as they get cut right before week one
and then they bring them back for a week two
because their contract is not guaranteed. But you don't mind
keeping it a seventh round pick because that guy's contract
and what's he making six grand? So I the one
(46:14):
great part about training camp is you have all these
veteran players that I'm not talking the star guys making
ten plus million dollars. I'm talking like a solid veteran
guy making two, three four in that range. Well, it's
a big difference if I can just keep an undrafted
free agent at six fifty grand or keep a guy
making five million dollars. I didn't go to Harvard, but
(46:34):
you do the math. I mean, you're saving what four
and a half million dollars maybe you know, four point
three million dot whatever, You're you're saving a lot of money,
enables you to make mid season trades. It just gives
you more flexibility. Plus, in the perfect world, you'd always
rather have the younger, cheaper option. This is not the
NBA or Major League Baseball, no player really beside maybe
(46:56):
a handful of guys on a team or on scholarship.
So if you don't produce, you will get wally piped
by a younger player. What matters to me rookie quarterback
struggles like Kyler Murray's gonna play, right, If Daniel Jones
looks terrible, that's kind of a big issue because he's
going to play, maybe not start the season, but the
(47:16):
Giants are gonna be good. He's gonna play pretty early.
So how a rookie quarterback looks in training camp more
now than ever of these last three or four years,
because rickie quarterbacks play immediately Back in the day, who cares, right,
Remember a couple of years ago, even like Mahomes. A
couple of years ago, with Mahomes, we knew he wasn't
gonna start, So whether he was good in training camp
or bad in training camp, it didn't matter. But last year,
(47:37):
how Baker looked in training camp, how Donald looked in
training camp, how Alan looked in training camp, how Rosen
looks and looked in training camp. Lamar Jackson, we know
those guys are gonna play. Mariotta wentz Goff. You go
through the list, All these guys are playing like Jimmy
Garoppolo years ago, who cares he was playing behind Tom Brady.
But most rookie player, especially the guy's drafted high Kyler Murray,
(47:58):
Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins to me how they look and
how they function in the offense in practice. So what
you're reading about them and then definitely in the games
does matter because we're gonna throw these guys into the
fire quicker than ever nowadays. A couple of Middlecoff mail
bag questions that I'll get you out of here on
(48:18):
your week. I'm running a little low, so I need
I've answered a lot just manually. Actually got a good question.
I actually Texas guy back, but I'll answer it here
again at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle. I'm gonna
be doing a bunch of videos on there too, especially
during the season. Uh just any hot topic going on,
you can always hit me up. I interact with a
(48:39):
lot of people on Instagram. I interact with people on
Twitter too, but Twitter is such an angry place. Instagram
is a little more fun. I enjoyed a little more.
So I answer your questions on Instagram called the Middlecoff
mail Bag and every show with it. Here's a good
one from Jake when Brady retires? One, will Belichick go
with him? To would you take the over under on
(49:01):
eight and a half wins post Brady? One? I think
Belichick wants Brady to retire and then at minimum coach
one year to just prove like he can make the playoffs. Two?
Would you take the over under post Brady? If Bill
was the coach, I would take the over. If McDaniels
is a coach, I take the under. Brady's gone, Belichick
(49:24):
is gone. I don't know who the hell would be
their quarterback, and I don't know when Tom's gonna retire.
So if Belichick's there, I'll take the over. If Belichick
is gone, I will take the under. Hey, John, awesome podcast.
I would agree. I was wondering why you were not
hirer on Josh Allen of the Bills once heard you
(49:44):
say you love big arm talents. Allen looks like a
perfect blend of Steve Young and Ben Roethlisburg. Well, we're
gonna get back to that comment here in a second.
If you could fix the accuracy issues, do you think
he can be better than Donald or Mayfield. Also, how
do you go about helping him be coome a more
accurate passer? Would he benefit from an offensive minded coach
as opposed to McDermott. I see what you're saying about
(50:07):
Steve Young because he was a mobile guy. But I
think when I think Steve Young, and he's probably my
favorite player growing up, I just thought he was a
sweet player when I was young. Now that I'm thinking
about football differently than I did when I was ten,
when I think Steve Young, I think, beside Drew Brees,
the most accurate quarterback ever. So I would compare Josh
Allen more to like, I don't even know, like Kaepernick
(50:31):
or something, because he's just not an accurate quarterback. Now,
I'm not a coach, I don't know exactly how to
fix accuracy issue. You know, if we got Sean Payton
or Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan on here, I think
a lot of them tell you that you're kind of
it's just an innate skill a little bit once you
get to the league. Now, there are subtle things with footwork,
(50:52):
arm angle. You can probably work with timing reps. But
I just don't think historically you can ago from being
like a low fifties or whatever he was in college.
Now he was playing with terrible players, but he was awful.
I mean I I made a point his senior year
or might have been his junior year, whatever's last year
in college to watch the Iowan Oregon game, and it
(51:13):
was like, what the hell is this? Because I wanted
to like him. Now I do like him. I follow
him on all social media. He's everything I want a guy,
high level guy. It just looks like a good human.
I root for good smart humans. You know, Sam Donald,
him or BFFs I'm rooting for. But I I it's
just hard to me to to think that inconsistent or
(51:37):
inaccurate quarterbacks can win in the NFL. Now he might
have a good year, but I don't think you can
sustain it over a period of time. Now, can I
get better? Yeah, I mean work ethic, I think you
can incrementally improve. Again, I said this on a couple
of podcasts ago. Warren Moon told me back when I
had a radio show, he improved a lot over his years,
(52:00):
but it took a lot of time, took a lot
of rep reps, a lot of effort, I'm not counting
them out that I don't think he can ever become
an more accurate quarterback. But I don't ever see him
being like Drew Brees or something, or Tom Brady. But yeah,
if he can just get to sixty two percent, and
in this league, sixty two is like the old fifty
eight because how easy it is to pass, but be
(52:20):
an explosive, big arm guy to be like if you
look back at Kaepernick stats, and I'm not I'm not
bringing up Kaepernick. This has nothing to do with the
political stuff. This is just as a football player. Those
first couple of years, the Niners were winning a lot
of games with him going like ten for eighteen and
he'd throw it for like two hundred yards and three touchdowns.
(52:41):
He did not have many thirty two or forty games
that that was not his style of play. He run
for fifty to eighty yards and a touchdown, and he'd
hit a couple of big plays to An Koon, Bolden,
Fernon Davis, Michael Crabtree. He'd had huge plays. But he's
so he was really more of a flash player than
he ever was a dominant, consistent player. So you can
(53:05):
win that way now. But it's hard to sustain it
and that was a problem for him. Uh but yeah,
I just I'm rooting for Josh Allen. So I'm not
when you say I'm low on Josh Allen. No, I'm
just what most people aren't Josh Allen. I think he's
an inaccurate guy, and I think it's hard to win
in the NFL when you're inaccurate. But I think like
(53:25):
he does have some tools, Like he has tools that
I want. He'd have tools I'd love. I mean, I'd
get like a football erection here drafting a guy like
that in the second round. If my coaches Sean Payton,
Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, Andy Reid, and you just get
to work with him. But that's not really the y.
He just kind of got thrown into the fire. He
was super raw product. I do think Sean McDermott is
(53:48):
the type guy, super serious. I just know as a
team builder, they drafted or not they draft, but they
signed a couple of small receivers this offseason. I don't
love that. Uh, but yeah, I'm not. I would not
say I'm a'm Josh Allen hater. You could say I'm
a I'm a Lamar Jackson Hayter trying to think of
(54:09):
a player that I'm a hater on. Uh, I hate
Chris Paul Right, Yeah, I'm a Chris Paul Hayter. I
like more NBA players that I hate. I don't really
hate any NFL players, just I expect how hard it
is and even core, even like Lamar Jackson. I have
a lot of respect for Lamar, how how he conducts himself. Uh,
(54:32):
you know, just everything I've ever heard about the type
guy is if you're a bad player but a good guy,
I I I root for you, and I don't mind
people think like once you say, especially as an evaluator
or even in the media, like I I wouldn't draft
this guy. Just because I wouldn't draft him doesn't mean
I hope he doesn't make me look wrong in and
plays well, especially when they're a high character guy. I
(54:53):
root for high character players because more high character players
in the NFL, the more healthy the league is. In
a perfect world, you wouldn't want anyone ever getting in trouble.
You'd want a bunch of good guys planning at a
super high level and you have a good product. Now
that's we all know that's not possible, but I'm room
for Josh Allen to succeed. Appreciate everyone listening, Enjoy the
(55:13):
week at John middlecoff my Instagram wide open fire in
there and ask me questions and enjoy football is a
back baby, and I will talk to you later this week.
(55:44):
M
Host
John Middlekauff
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