MNF REACTION: Chicago Bears lose it down the stretch against the Minnesota Vikings

John is back breaking down the Monday Night Football matchup between NFC North divisional rivals the Chicago Bears & Minnesota Vikings. John reacts to Caleb Williams' performance in head coach Ben Johnson's new offense, JJ McCarthy's official NFL debut with the Vikings, his massive 4th quarter, and much more!

Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we
doing three in our podcast? Probably not as well as

(00:21):
JJ McCarthy, who had one of the great fourth quarter
turnarounds to start a career you'll ever see. It looked
like he was gonna get benched by week four, to
becoming I don't know, pretty legendary debut. A couple of touchdowns,
throwing another one running to take down the Bears. Caleb Williams,

(00:42):
Ben Johnson, what a night. We will dive into JJ
to Kleb, to that game, to Howie Roseman making deals,
trying to trade for Micah Parsons, the Giants, sticking with
Russell Wilson. I don't think it's a great idea. And
a couple couple quick thoughts on Tom Brady watched a
lot of his broadcast, And we'll also do a mailbag

(01:04):
at John Middlecoff at John Midlecoff is the Instagram, Fire
in those dms and get your questions answered here on
the show. So did a mail bag today? Fire in
those mailbags because we're gonna keep banging those out. Definitely
in the middle of the week. We've had a live
I feel like I've just been doing games now for
like four straight days. But we'll take a couple couple
of days, take a deep breath, and then answer all

(01:26):
your mailback questions. So just fire in those dms at
John Middlecoff. Be a big couple of days of doing
mail bags as well as whatever else is going on
in the football world. But you guys know the drill.
If you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe
to three now. We also have a YouTube page where
we go live after all these primetime games. So we
went live after the Bears game. We will go live

(01:48):
Thursday night after Who's playing the Packers? Commanders. That's a
really good game. That's a that's an excellent Thursday night game. Actually,
so very very fired up for that one. And we'll
turn it into a podcast. So because this is a podcast,
we're podcasters. But before we dive into any football you know,
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last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Let's dive into what

(02:57):
we just witnessed. And I've been thinking a lot about
this because forever, I would say, conventional wisdom with people
that talk about football, with people that talk about draft prospects,
and you know, the draft order and drafting quarterbacks, is
how lucky it is for quarterbacks to go to good teams.

(03:17):
I e. Patrick Mahomes when the Chiefs traded up to
get him, and he eventually replaced Alex Smith, and I said, yeah,
I mean in theory, it makes a lot of sense.
But you better be good right away because we have
a couple recent examples of guys getting acquired drafted high
by teams, the forty nine ers with Super Bowl expectations

(03:38):
and the Colts with Playoff expectations, and your leash is
way smaller than the guys that get drafted on god
awful teams. Take Bryce Young for example. He showed some
signs of life at the end of last season, but
he just had a horrendous game year three. You know what,

(03:58):
no one saw it. It actually doesn't matter now. Is
he going to be their quarterback in three years? I
wouldn't feel confident about saying that, but he's gonna get
this year. They play in a market, they play for
a team that's not winning many games. People aren't paying attention.
But when Trey Lance was thrust into the starting lineup,
it was like, you better be good and right away.
Some of the star players like, I don't see it

(04:20):
last year, Anthony Richardson, all the guys like, we are out.
And that's what it felt like watching JJ McCarthy today.
It's like this is a roster and a franchise that
won fourteen games last year, was sixteen minutes away from
being the number one seed. Who I don't know if
they have Super Bowl aspirations with a first time starter
at quarterback, but at minimum competing for the division and

(04:41):
be playing in January. Anything less than a playoff game,
even if it is on the road as a wild
card team, would be an awful pill to swallow for
everyone in Minnesota, given that they clearly have one of
the best rosters in the NFL and obviously an excellent
head coat coach who's the offensive play caller and a

(05:02):
dominant defensive coordinator, and just a winning culture this franchise
since Kevin O'Connell has been there, we've lost the playoff games,
two of them as favorites, but they have been an
excellent regular season team. And you're watching that first half
and you're going, this might not work. Not because you're
just going, this guy physically can't play, even though he

(05:23):
looked definitely overwhelmed and he was swimming on the road. Honestly,
it had it had some march manning at Ohio State
feels it's like this is way too big for this guy.
This is he's melting down, and then he throws the
pick six and you start thinking, is this guy gonna
make it to Halloween? Do they need to get on
the phone and call Atlanta to get Kirk Cousins back?

(05:43):
What are they gonna do? How can they look Justin
Jefferson in the face? How can they look all the
guys on defense in the face? How can they ask
their star left tackle to battle back from rehabilitating his
torn knee for this? And then he flipped a switch
and you went, what did I just witness? And one

(06:03):
thing I would say, two things we don't talk enough
about when it comes to quarterbacks mental toughness and obviously
physical toughness. And the mental toughness won. This guy started
for Harbaugh for a couple of years, and it's why
I had reservations about the player because I went one.
He played at Michigan, which the majority of teams they played,

(06:23):
they had a huge talent advantage. He was on a
roster with basically every guy started on offense, started on defense,
and most of the backups were NFL players. He lost
one game in college and it was a freak game
to TCU and Sunny Dikes, which they should have been
in the National Championship game back to back games. Now,
they probably would have lost that Georgia team in the

(06:44):
National Championship, but this guy's not used to losing. And
my reservation was the way they played in college, a
run first coach. I don't know how this is gonna
mesh with Minnesota and a coach that wants to throw
the ball. Now, he only had twenty attempts to night,
and through early in the game it was not pretty

(07:04):
at all. But by the end of the game, you
saw him drive passes, you saw him touch passes, you
saw him manipulate the pocket, you saw him stand in
the pocket. Obviously he ran for a touchdown. And I
was thinking about this, like, if you get hired out
of college at Chase Bank or Goldman Sachs, and the
first thing they do is say, hey, you're gonna go

(07:25):
meet with Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos tonight or tomorrow,
our biggest clients. That'd be asking them a lot. And
that's kind of what it feels like when you get
drafted to a team that has thirteen, fourteen to fifteen
win expectations. There is no margin foreer everyone is watching
your games most of us out of college aren't asked

(07:46):
to do much, get the shitty assignments. That is playing
for the Carolina Panthers. And you watch tonight on the
road in Chicago. The place is buzzn't The defense is
flying around. You're like, listen, this is it's only one game.
It's on the row, but this is gonna be hard
to overcome. They threw the kitchen stick at him and
he kind of failed, and then the fourth quarter happened.

(08:07):
They were around seventeen to six, They won twenty seven
to twenty four, and he accounted for three touchdowns. So
that was I don't know as exhilarating of a turnarounds
I can ever remember for a young player. And if
you're a Minnesota Viking fan right now, you get Atlanta
at home this upcoming week on Sunday Night football, you're

(08:29):
feeling pretty good about yourself because that young guy. And
Troy Aikman said, this showed a lot of moxie, a
lot of toughness. And the thing I'll never forget about
the Trey Lance San Francisco experience was how their star
core didn't believe in the guy. And when you don't
have your Pro Bowl all pro level guys believing in

(08:49):
your quarterback. It's over before it even starts. We saw
that the Colts don't have as many high end guys,
but it was clear they turned on him as well.
And tonight you're thinking, like God, is is Jefferson gonna believe? Here?
Are all the guys on defense gonna believe? Is Jordan
Addison when he comes back? This is not gonna work?
Is darrisaw going? What am I rehabbing for? And now

(09:11):
in the locker room, I can imagine when these videos
go viral, they're having him break it down. They're going nuts,
They're giving him the game ball. There is belief. There
is nothing more powerful in this world than hope. It
is just a powerful driver for us all at any
point in time in our life. And I think that

(09:31):
hope and that belief that that team showed looking at
their quarterback, how fired up their head coaches. There is
no disputing this. Their coaching staff in Minnesota is excellent. Now,
I think Kevin can get a little pass happy though.
Tonight I thought he did a good job and one
thing that he settled JJ down a little bit. He

(09:51):
handed the ball to Jordan Mason, who somehow is on
their team because the forty nine ers wanted to save
a couple million dollars. That guy's a good running back,
Aaron Jones, excellent pass catching running back. Out of the backfield.
You can throw him wheel routes till the cows come home.
And a couple times I thought in the playoffs, specifically
last year in the Lions game, in the Rams game,

(10:13):
I thought Kevin got a little pass happy, and listen,
we all have our philosophical beliefs when it comes to football,
if we're an offensive guy or a defensive guy. Kevin
likes to pass. But I thought tonight he did a
really good job of just balancing it a little bit.
And once JJ got his confidence, throw a to eighteen,
Throw it to eighteen, throw it to eighteen. And obviously
that's where the floodgates open when he hit him on

(10:34):
the touchdown. And you know, Brian Flores is elite at
what he does that defense. This was the question mark
with the team. I looked as JJ was melting down,
and I was like, this is why I think his
leash is going to be small. Through the first four
games last year, Sam Darnold had thrown twelve touchdowns. Minnesota

(10:55):
came out of the gates so hot. Obviously from a
win lost standpoint, but from an offensive standpoint. He threw
two touchdowns in the first two games, and then it
was four and three. He was slinging that pill. It
was just fireworks. So the expectations, which I understand letting
him go, was to use those resources and buy other players.

(11:17):
Totally get it. But then the pressure, even you know,
amplifies on JJ and he answered the bell, you know,
for a guy that did not even throw for one
hundred and fifty yards. I can't tell you how impressed
I am, because the one thing when you're scouting players,
you know, we can all see JJ can run around.
Look at Caleb that there's no disputing. Honestly, he's even

(11:39):
a better athlete than I thought. You watch him sling
that thing. He's throwing one hundred mile an hour fastballs.
My mom can see the physical gifts. How about the
mental gifts? How about the intangibles? What's it like when
shit's hitting the fan. I've referenced this a couple of times.
The Athletic article on quarterbacks, and the premise of it
was something Kevin O'Connell said did organizations fail quarterbacks? Not

(12:02):
the other way around that quarterbacks fail organizations. And Bill
Parcells was quoted in there saying, don't evaluate quarterbacks when
they throw three touchdowns and win. Everyone acts the same.
Evaluate them when things are crumbling around them, when they
throw a pick six, when they look like shit, How
do they act? How do they carry themselves? And we

(12:25):
got a front row seat watching JJ McCarthy because he
throws that pick six to the practice squad guy who
honestly looked pretty six to four corner from Oregon State,
fascinating player. Awful that he ends up hurting his knee
late in the game, but has the pick six. He
had gone against Justin Jefferson last year in practice, every
single day when he was on the Minnesota Vikings. To

(12:47):
have that moment in Chicago, what a cool, just thing
to happen to that guy's career. And it felt like
he was ruining JJ's moment, and JJ was melting down
in front of us all and then that fourth quarter
happened and he turned into Sam Darnold or Kirk Cousins,
the guys that Kevin O'Connell has won a ton of
games with. So congrat to JJ McCarthy that that was

(13:10):
extremely impressive. Now on the flo and listen Minnesota. One
thing I wrote down is I was like, green Bay's
watching this game. When the Bears looked okay, they weren't
doing anything on offense or defense looked good and Minnesota
looked terrible. I'm like, what a win for the green
Bay Packers. You get the Lions with a ton of issues,
You got the Bears offense can't do anything. You got

(13:32):
Minnesota that might have a quarterback problem. I'm texting our
group text thinking green Bay's gonna win this division by
three or four games. And now I feel I still
like green Bay. But hey, listen, Minnesota is loaded and
we're gonna find Chicago. They go to Detroit this week,
who clearly is going to be really, really motivated. Let's

(13:57):
touch on Kleeb. I want to say this as nice
as I can. Like I mentioned, physically gifted, he made
some plays tonight with his legs faster than I even thought.
No one has ever questioned his arm. He spins it
exactly like you want it. But we don't pay you
to just run around or just to spin it into

(14:19):
the ground. Pay you to pay quarterback that's why he
was drafted number one overall. And as this game went,
I went, I don't know if I see it. And
early on in the game, I think people were giving
him a ton of credit. He's nine for his first nine,
well eight of those were dumpoffs. He was dunking, and
Duncan and even Troy kind of mentioned early in the

(14:40):
game it's like, I think there were a couple passes there.
He just he didn't let it rip. Now, new offense,
trying to play under control. I'll give you the benefit
of the doubt. You don't want to make a mistake
early new coach, who's you know? Clearly, as Joe Buck said,
wound tight over there. The offense is baby. You're just
trying to move the ball down the field and get

(15:01):
your offense going in a positive direction. As the game
went on, though, I don't feel he's a rhythm player.
I don't feel he's a natural in the pocket play
quarterback player. To me, the way he would have any
success in the NFL, because for a long time in
this game it was seventeen to six. The seven points

(15:22):
after he ran for the first touchdown on the first
drive of the game came from the pick six. The
offense was doing nothing. It was punt punt, three and out,
three and out. It was ugly that they couldn't move
the ball. And I watched Caleb Williams and I go,
I don't see the mesh with Ben Johnson. I really don't.
I don't see a guy in the pocket that has

(15:44):
a great feel for the subtle movements. He's natural, like
I gotta take off and because of his physical gifts,
he's really fast, he can move and he can throw
on the run a lot like Russell Wilson back in
the day with Seattle. He has those attributes, but sitting
in the pocket, countless throws over the middle of the
field throughout the game. He missed even the last pass

(16:06):
on that final drive where he hits Comet, which kind
of looked like it hit the ground. Comet made an
incredible effort. Is it cole like six four to sixty
five to one hand and above him. He's not a
naturally accurate player over the middle when he has to
play in rhythm. Also on that drive, what did he do?
He missed DJ Moore wide open in the corner. So
as the game went on, and we're not scripted, anymore.

(16:30):
And I can't just dink and dunk my way down
the field. I have to make some throws. I didn't
see it now, I'm not acting like the guy some
scrub that. There's definitely stuff there. But this is what
we've talked about since the beginning with Ben Johnson. Their
styles are opposite of each other. Like as the game
went on, Kevin O'Connell, he's like, this is what I've

(16:50):
been looking for. This is Kirk Cousin. Couldn't move Sam,
you know, just could freak out a little bit in
the pocket. And as the game went on, like, that's it.
That's the guy we wanted. Now, short sample size only
the fourth quarter Bears were gassed. I mean, he's got
a long way to go. It's a long season. But
if you're Kevin O'Connell, when you crack that cocktail or

(17:12):
beer on that flight home as you're watching the All
twenty two, you're gonna have a smile. Here to hear
you saw Ben Johnson look like he was seeing ghosts
or something like, what is happening here? What is going
on with my offense? We got Loveland, who's the top
ten pick. We got Cole Comet, who was a top
whatever one hundred pick, who's got a second contract. We

(17:33):
got rom A Doonsa. It was the ninth pick of
the draft. We got DJ Moore, who was essentially we
traded instead of getting an extra first round pick from Carolina,
we got Dj Moore. We accumulated all these offensive linemen,
and our offense fucking blows. Now. I get it first
real game, but man, as the game went on, it
felt like they had no shot and Caleb kind of

(17:54):
gets out of rhythm and the whole thing kind of
falls apart. So the Bears defense is gonna be solid.
Dennis Allen's a good defensive coordinator. There's no disputing the
offensive weapons on the Bears, but sometimes just off now
you can say, hey, it's the same thing. This happens
to the Bears all the time. The main difference between
these two teams is JJ McCarthy is Kevin O'Connell's guy.

(18:18):
And in pro sports that really matters, especially when it
comes to the NFL and it draft picks, specifically quarterbacks.
That is my guy. I will run through a wall
and do anything for him. You see it all over
the league, right. Obviously, when people have success, Andy and
Patrick Mahomes. But even through the struggles of twenty four

(18:40):
hours ago in Denver, bo Nicks is Sean Payton's guy,
brock Perty is Kyle Shanahan's guy. Kevin O'Connell and JJ
McCarthy are tied and connected at the hip, no different
than Adam Peters and Dan Quinn with Jaden Daniels. Ben
Johnson did in draft this guy and listen because I
didn't described to the substack. I couldn't read the last

(19:02):
article of the three part series. But you lose games
the offense sputters. This is when you get problems, and
the other thing is internally in the locker room. The
defensive guy's gotta be going. We played our ass off
our all pro corner didn't even play to night, and
we were dominating this game. We were making this guy

(19:23):
look like he should have been a practice squad quarterback.
We were kicking his ass, and instead of being up
seventeen to six, if we had a little more juice
on the offensive side of the ball, maybe we're up
twenty eight to six. And we're up so much that
even if JJ is mentally tough and Kevin O'Connell is
an exceptional coach. They don't have enough firepower to come back.

(19:45):
It's not even possible. But because the offense did nothing,
they were still in the game. And I saw to
Night one team with a brand new quarterback. Caleb has
all those starts last year, right, So early in the
game you saw JJ deering the headline. He first NFL
start on the road Chicago, Like not an easy spot.
Caleb as seventeen starts last season, right, so it's yeah,

(20:07):
he was much more calm, much more in control. But
then the game goes and the script's thrown out the window.
You're calling plays, you're audibling flores is, you know, dialing
up different blitz is, different pressures. They got guys moving
all over and it's like, I don't know what's going on.
And that's Chicago of just like this is something in
a monitor. I'm not jumping off this hill because I

(20:28):
think it's I think it's got an opportunity to get weird,
and it's got an opportunity to get weird. This weekend,
going back into Detroit, who just got curb stopped by
the Green Bay Packers, thoroughly embarrassed. I haven't had a
chance to watch any of Dan Campbell's press conferences, but
I can't imagine after the game on Sunday he was
pretty hot. He's gonna be really motivated. We've seen a
lot of clips over the years of like the hard

(20:50):
knock stuff behind the scenes of him at just in
front of the team. This is gonna be a big
moment for him, especially with Ben Johnson coming back. So
the Bears better be really careful. Before you blink, it
could be oh and two. So massive, massive win for Minnesota,
massive gut check for JJ McCarthy. And if you're a

(21:10):
Vikings fan, I would be sleeping pretty well. And if
I'm a Bears fan, I go, what the hell? Man?
Can we ever win? Why does this happen to it?
No matter how good our players are, no matter how
sexy the start of our games are, no matter how fun.
That national anthem in the beginning of the game was
we're dominating our divisional opponent. When the clock hits double zero,

(21:35):
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(23:11):
speaking about a guy that just wins. I think most
people in life it is it's much easier to go
no and just say no and take the conservative route, Like, yeah,
I'm not gonna ask her out. She'll probably say no.
You know, I'm not gonna call this guy. He probably won't,

(23:32):
you know, be interested in what I'm selling. You know.
It's like I could take this job, but I gotta move,
and it's like I like my life, I like my gig.
Now it's a great opportunity. Most human beings just naturally
take the easy route slash convince themselves to go the
conservative way. It's human nature. I'm guilty of this too.

(23:53):
We all are. There is a small percentage of people
that one percent never think that way, and their first
reaction is always like why not, why can't we do it?
Let's do it? How can we do it? What do
we have to do to get there? And I had
a front row seat for two years. When I got
hired from Fresno State to the Philadelphia Eagles. I had

(24:15):
never been around a guy like Howlie Roseman never in
my whatever twenty five years of life to that point
in time, the aggressive nature just how it was one
hundred miles an hour every moment we were in the office,
and it was an incredible learning experience for me. I
felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose
because even when I was around other football people previous places,

(24:38):
it was like, ah, yeah, we're not going to get
that guy. We don't need to waste time doing that.
That was never tolerated in Philadelphia. It was a mentality
of looking at minimum every rock and even once you
pull up that rock and look under, look on the
other side as well. And Jay Glazer came out on
Fox's Morning show and gave a report Maybe it was

(25:00):
out there, but I hadn't seen it that said that
Howie Roseman aggressively tried to trade for Micah Parsons and
actually had a better offer than the Green Bay Packers. Now,
obviously Jerry Jones, you know, would probably fold the franchise
before he was gonna trade Micah Parsons to the Eagles. Now,
I do think if Howie would have added like three
first round picks or comes to a point where yeah,

(25:21):
your fans are gonna hate you. Everyone's gonna want you
to sell the team and hate you until the day
you die. But the deal, if you were gonna be
willing to trade him, you would have to trade him.
But you know, the deal was close enough that you
trade him to the Green Bay Packers. And then today
I look up and how he's traded for a running
back just out of the blue, because Tank Bigsby the
running back in Jacksonville. Obviously ETN had a big first

(25:44):
game for Liam Cohen and they got a backup from
Virginia Tech. It feels like he's just not in the mix.
So how he's like, yeah, we'll give a fifth and
a six round pick for a guy that was drafting
the third round a couple of years ago. So does
this guy ever stop doing deals the NFL. This is
not baseball where it's like, yeah, you know, the Dodgers
have eight hundred million dollars, The Mets can give Juan

(26:07):
Soto three billion dollars, right the Yankees like, oh, they
just signed another guy for five hundred million dollars. There
is a group of six or seven teams that can
do that, and no one else has a shot. Even
in basketball, the Clippers, the Lakers, the Warriors, they can
sign guys to go over thresholds to then pay luxury

(26:27):
tax the Knicks that other teams cannot. So it's not
really equal team to team. Yet in football, if Mike
Brown wanted to trade two first round picks and give
Micah Parsons the eight hundred or the one hundred and
eighty eight million dollars, he could have done that. He
chose not to. And it does feel like there are

(26:48):
a lot of teams out here. And listen, I'm not
saying that how he's right on every deal he makes,
No one can be. But why is he involved in
every single deal in all these other teams, especially in
the AFC, where it's pretty equal, If you have one
of the top six or seven quarterbacks and they're never involved,
they're never ever involved. I understand if you don't have

(27:09):
a quarterback situated yet right to blow the first round
picks totally. But if you have, if you're the Bengals, well,
Hendrickson's gonna walk next year, you just draft Shamar Stewart.
We have no clue. If the guy can play, why
weren't you heavily involved of course that's not how they operate,
because they operate like the guy, Oh, we don't need
to do that, We just need the picks. We'll just now,

(27:30):
we'll just we'll figure it out later. Maybe we can
find a guy on the scrap heap in October. How
he's like, oh, Mike is not available. Do you think
Miles Garrett is and you have obviously he can't do
this solo. He needs the owner to sign off on this.
But the Eagles are operating at such an advantage right now
because their general manager, and again I've seen it firsthand,
is as aggressive of a human being is I'll ever

(27:53):
be around my entire life. And an owner that green
lights these moves from a financial standpoint, and the reason
doesn't get out because clearly, even if the Cowboys were
willing to negotiate, they probably wanted you know, they wanted
to run stuffing guys. So I'm sure they asked for
like Jordan Davis, and if you're how you don't want
that out there. But if they would have played ball,
Jordan Davis two one and a three would have been

(28:16):
there and Micah Parsons would have been an Eagle. And
I think we just need to stop being shocked like
he is making moves and doing stuff that half these
teams that should be way more involved just simply aren't.
It's why I give the Packers credit, because if the
Eagles are aggressively calling, you better be aggressively calling because
you just played them in a playoff game in round

(28:36):
one and kind of got worked. So if you want
to take this next step, and this is why they
did it, so props to Goudikins. But and the other
thing Jay Glazer said is no one in the AFC
was even interested, Like, hey, hey, Buffalo, I just watched
your defense. What the fuck was that? You know? Thank
god you have Josh Allen, who's basically like Lebron James

(28:57):
meets Steph Curry in football right now, because offensively you
could use some help. And I listen, I've supported Jerry
for making the trade, but I also support Green Bay
for pulling the trigger because especially in twenty twenty five,
like they just traded Kenny Clark straight up from Michael Parsons,
Like that's the deal. Those first round picks aren't relevant

(29:18):
till next year. So man, I mean, the Eagles just NonStop.
What a game this weekend Kansas city hosting the Eagles,
the Chiefs are an underdog at home. That's pretty crazy
to me. A couple more things. I think the Giants
are in a weird spot. You know, the consumer, the fan.

(29:41):
I know, these gms and executives and owners just hate
when they dictate the terms. It's like we're just starting
them because the fans are calling into Wfan, They're bitching
and moaning online. It's it's just NonStop and sometimes it's wrong. Right,
Usually the favorite player on an any bad team as
the backup quarterback. But in this situation, like people have

(30:05):
a lot of evidence with Russell Wilson, they've been watching
the guy for almost a decade and a half. This
is just some random player. Like they have seen the decline.
As Colin and I talked about, it's got to be
one of the more precipitous drop offs in the history
of the league. He went from being like an all pro,
pro Bowl level, playmaking, high end guy to be in

(30:27):
kind of a scrub really really quick. And it's not
all his fault why the Giants just lost to the Commanders,
But there's just when you watch him play, there's no
urgency to the way he moves anymore because he's athletically,
he's fallen off a cliff. His playmaking is basically zero.
And if we're gonna lose and just get worked week

(30:48):
in week out, and let's say the Cowboys beat him
by ten points, why are we watching this guy? And
this isn't basketball or baseball where it's like, well, we
got seventy more games. Even if we give it ten
more games, he's gonna get sixty games. You know. In
baseball he's gonna end up playing one hundred and twenty games.
There are only seventeen of these things. And day ball's
in this spot, where are they gonna keep you? Because

(31:11):
if you just watch that first game, even if you
like the guy and you think, listen, I think he's
gonna be right on Jackson Dart. As time goes, you
just lose enough games twenty one to six, your team
looks lifeless. Even if you throw them in November, it
might be too late. Now I've said I think the
over under is like this month. But every game that
goes by is an opportunity wasted. Because even if you're

(31:32):
losing games twenty four to ten, if Dart has a
couple JJ type moments, or even kleb type moments where
he scrambles around makes a sweet throw. People get off
your back, people start supporting you, especially when it gets
out because all the reports are Dable and Dart are
like this. I heard Jordan Renan say this my guy

(31:52):
that covers the New York Giants. When I was in Philly,
he was covering the Eagles. Then he's been on covering
this team for a long time. On Instagram. Within the
last week he was doing like a radio hit or
maybe his podcast, and he said, when you go to practice,
there's Jamis and Russell and they're usually throwing doing stuff,
and then there's Brian day Ball walking side by side,

(32:13):
stride by stride with Jackson Dart like he's his little
puppy duck. And so you're tied to this guy. But
the way these marriages become a divorce is you lose
enough games. It just gets ugly and it gets convoluted
and all of a sudden it's like, well I'm fired.
It's like, well that was my guy. Well, yeah, you
only saw him play ten games and your team was

(32:36):
already so bad by then, so I would get him
in way sooner than later. So when I see that
he comes out and says that Russell Wilson are starting quarterback.
I think that's a bad move. And so the opponent's
this the schedule, It's like, yeah, it's the NFL. It's hard,
whether you're on the road, whether you're away, whether you're
playing the Jags, or whether you're playing the Chiefs. All
these games are hard. And any guy on the other team,

(32:58):
they get paid a lot of money, They drive big
as cars, and they live in big homes as well,
So you're gonna have to He's gonna have to play
a tough opponent no matter what he comes from. The SEC.
He wasn't playing at UC Davis. You know, this guy's
used to playing some tough defensive players. So I think
it'll be okay. And last but not least, I actually

(33:19):
had the audio. It's, you know, the one cool part
about having four box games. Even if you have two
TVs and you got like six or eight games going
at one time, you keep track, even though it is difficult.
You can follow a lot, but you can only listen
to one audio, right. You can't have all eight going.
You can't even have two going, so you basically have

(33:41):
to pick one audio and for most of at least
I would say sixty seventy percent of the morning I
had on Kevin Burkhart and Tom Brady. And I was
pretty critical of Tom Brady last year, even though probably
unfair given the first time he's ever called games. But
part of that is the expectation and get paid four
hundred million dollars. Our expectations were high, especially because your

(34:05):
teammates are so famous. All I've ever heard for twenty
years like this is the coolest dude ever. Everyone loves
this guy. He can relate to the star player, to
the owner, to the practice squad guy. I've never heard
of bad things said about him. I've never heard and
I've known countless guys that have played with Tom Brady
and everyone speaks about him. I'd say the same thing

(34:27):
about Philip Rivers. There are certain quarterbacks Matt Stafford, Peyton Manning.
You're just gonna struggle to find anyone, whether they were
a highly paid guy or like a fringe practice squad
guy for a couple of years ago that serviced them
in practice bad amount. These guys because they're just they're
very relatable and good with people. That's what you have
to be as a quarterback natural leader. Well, being a

(34:48):
leader is like being able to resonate and deal with
different guys. And in the NFL you got guys from
all over the country, all different backgrounds, and obviously all
different economic statuses. When they're in the NFL, some guys
are making not much relative to other guys making millions
upon millions of dollars. And Tom was just it was,
it was rough. I watched him, he felt a lot

(35:09):
more comfortable. And obviously the where I went to school
at cal polyly the motto is learned by doing, And
while it is kind of cheesy, it does suit me.
Some people can learn by just studying a textbook and
go and take a test. I was a terrible standardized
test taker. I'm not great. Academia didn't serve me great

(35:31):
because sitting me at a desk and showing me power
points and then just having me regurgitate that I check
out two minutes in. But when I do something hands on,
whatever that may be, it gives me a way better
opportunity to learn. So I've been doing podcasts and I've
been doing radio now for a decade. And the more
you do anything, the more comfortable you get. I've never

(35:51):
done national TV, but I went and did colin this
summer and it wasn't intimidating. Why because I've been talking
about this stuff with a mic or a you know,
an ear whatever in the local level, national level. It
just becomes easier the more you do it. And listen
to Tom Brady, like, is he Trey Aikman? No, Treykman's
been doing it for twenty five years. But did he
sound more comfortable in the booth? He did? And like, hell,

(36:14):
I was listening to JJ Watt, who sounded a little
green now in fairness first game he's doing. Now. I
struggle like personally what I like in my broadcaster. You know,
whatever a broadcaster says, you know, it's gonna be very
hard for me to be critical. It's like, well, no
one's expecting you to be like Steven A or Skip Bayless.
You don't just need a shit on everyone every play.

(36:35):
But like, there's millions of people watching, and when something
really stupid happens, you kind of got to embrace it
and listen. You know, JJ's calling his brother's game. Kind
of a weird spot, but it was a very positive broadcast.
You know, I lean like I like my broadcast to
let some singers go. Aikman's a little more my style.
Collinsworth is. You know, he's just good at his job,

(36:57):
pretty positive, upbeat guy. But there's a different strug for
different folks. I do think whatever version of Brady that
he was on Sunday and just can be moving forward.
He's never gonna be John Madden or John Rude. I
wouldn't call him like an entertainer, but he could just
be a functional Obviously, he's really famous. Guy knows his shit,

(37:20):
knows all these guys can just be solid. Because someone
tweeted at me like it's like Jason Garrett two point zero, No,
Tom is way way. Jason Garrett's the worst broadcaster, worst
guy on television. When it comes to the NFL games,
And when NBC comes up and you see his smile
ear to ear and that redhead, you just want to

(37:42):
throw something into television. You're like, in what world did
this NBC executive tell themselves that America wants to see
this individual? I can't get over it. But they view
Jason Garrett as a star and he's terrible. And even
Drew Brees I saw he was saying that he got
the opportunity to call games, he'd be a top three guy.

(38:03):
It's like Drew, we heard you last year, a couple
of years ago. It wasn't great, you know. I mean,
we've heard enough guys not saying you can't improve, you
can't be better, but top three guy, like, no, I
bought the brakes. Everybody, it's this, this is entertainment and
that's the one thing Brady can he Ever, it's probably
hard because he doesn't want to throw in an F
word or something. Just kind of balance the football knower,

(38:26):
the guy that knows coaches and the players are all
texting them and he just knows his shit to then
also be like the guys guy and that's what you know,
the Maddens, the Grudens, they were just great entertainers. And
it's hard. It's it's why most, let's face it, most broadcasts,
if you're just clicking around the audio on and I'm

(38:47):
not acting like it's easy, like I have no I
respect the profession. People go, would you ever want to No,
I have no desire to do it. One. It's not
even fun to me, and I'm it is difficult. But
it's why when guys are good, they really really stand
out because you can balance kind of like having fun

(39:08):
but knowing your stuff, or are you just very comfortable
in your own skin? Like Aikman's pretty serious, but he'll
let a rip, you know, And he's one of the
few and honestly might be the only guy that will
be really really critical of coaches and players. But for
the most cart player like, you drop the ball, you
drop a ball, You know, what are you gonna say? Ceede, lamb,
he dropped another ball? Okay, Like, what do you want

(39:28):
to do? Cut him? I mean, he's one of the
best receivers in the league. Drop balls. It happens. Terrell
Owens didn't have great hands. Not everyone's Marvin Harrison, right,
Jerry Rice? Like, I mean, guys drop the ball. Fumbles,
they happen. Now you're gonna cut it tomorrow? Well, if
you started running BA, you're probably not going to. So
I think a lot of these guys, when they get
into it, they feel like we don't want to be critical.
Like I think you guys watch probably too much Internet

(39:51):
and too much like first take clips. That's not what
people expect. But when a coach says something stupid, you
can blast the coach and you should feel more room
to blast the coach than the players, because, let's face it,
a lot of the coaches you're either a coaching are
allowed to happen, right, So it's like Caleb to Night,
Was that on Caleb or is that on Ben Johnson?

(40:13):
Those questions are only going to a rise. I'll promise
you this. Ben Johnson is not gonna like it. Okay,
it's Monday. I thought, you know what, Let's do a
little mail bag at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff Instagram,

(40:36):
fire and those dms. Get your questions answered here on
the show. We will start with Michael. If Daniel Jones
continues to play like he did against Miami, do you
think that could influence the Giants to fire day ball
or maybe influence him to start dart earlier than expected
to help save his job. Well, he played Denver this week,

(40:59):
which I think is on the opposite end of Miami.
In terms of defense, Miami is a joke defensively, I
mean their corners. It's like, I mean, I don't even
think some of these guys would start on the best
defenses in college. I mean, it's pretty embarrassing. So going
against Denver is a completely different animal. And I'm not
gonna live on a weekly basis if I'm Giants' ownership.

(41:22):
If i'm I would say the coach or the GM
of the Giants like they made their decision, it was
the right decision when they cut them like it was
because he didn't. You know, the divorce made sense now
if you want to rewind it to the contract. Who
was behind the contract, who wanted the contract? Was that
led by ownership, which by all accounts it was. I

(41:43):
think there are a lot of variables here. But unless
the guy like like what Saquon did last year Super
Bowl two K number one player in the league, non quarterback,
that would look bad. But he's not gonna do that.
He was always gonna beat out Anthony Rigson dramatically better
than Anthony Richardson. So I honestly, I think it's a
bigger indictment on Anthony Richardson than it is on the Giants.

(42:06):
So I guess that's a long winded way of saying
I don't think it has much impact. With the Dolphins
looking like an absolute disaster. Do you think there is
any chance of a Baseball like fire sale where the
Fins trade offs a significant number of vets. Ed Rusher, Phillips,
Judon Chubb, a Chan Hill, Waddle are all positions of

(42:29):
needs for various contenders. Why don't more NFL teams make
significant roster reductions at the deadline like we see in
Major League Baseball or the NBA. I think the best
way I guess to approach it is in baseball A
lot of times, right, if I'm selling a guy, typically,

(42:51):
I'm like, the Pirates aren't gonna sell Paul Skins until
they have to pay him five hundred million dollars. Right
in football, I can pay whoever I want the lowest
quote unquote money teams relative to the quote unquote rich teams.
Everyone has money to pay their players. So if I
like Jalen Waddle, I've already paid Jalen Waddle, I want

(43:11):
Jalen Wattle on my roster if I'm gonna fire everybody
because the new coach is gonna want to work.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
With that guy.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Same thing you know in theory with Chubb or some
of these guys. Now, like Tyreek Hill, what's his value?
I think it's it would vary team to team. I mean,
there are teams that are just not gonna mess with them. Now, like,
would Andy ever go down that road? I would guess no,
would the Bills. They need defense, so who's really messing

(43:38):
with him? The pass rushers and defensive lineman for sure.
But I just don't think that's how teams really think.
Occasionally like a fire sale with a veteran player. Remember
when they traded Von Miller, But that was because they
weren't going to resign him. So I think teams go,
we want to have assets on our team, And why

(43:59):
am I gonna Jalen Waddle, Who's one of the best
players on my team. If the best offers I'm getting
are like third round picks, even if I'm getting second
round picks. I drafted the guy high, he's been really productive,
why am I just giving him away to someone else?
So I don't need the cap flexibility. I want to
have good players on my team. So I think in

(44:19):
baseball it typically has to do with money. In basketball,
it doesn't happen as much as he used to, really,
unless the guy demands a trade. Question. After last night,
can the media and the talking heads finally have a
conversation about John Harbaugh. I've been saying for three years

(44:40):
we outplay the best teams, but get out coached every
single time. After last night and the other countless games
we've lost like this, I don't understand how he couldn't
be on the hot seat. I get it, it's week
one and it sounds like an overreaction, but a lot
of our fan base has been tired of Harball. Just

(45:01):
go on a Ravens page after a game, or go
to a Ravens game, and people are tired of him.
And just one quick example from last night, the offensive
drive where we could have ended the game, How is
a head coach? Are you okay with the play calling sequence?
A jet sweep on second and ten? When you run
that play four fucking times already, you got guys crowded

(45:21):
in the box? Unreal? Well, he's not the offensive play caller,
So that is where the CEO head coach sometimes, you know.
And he's a defensive guy. Listen. His resume speaks for itself.
He's won a lot of games. But I think we
need to now ask ourselves, like, they have an all

(45:43):
time great quarterback, they have an all time great organization.
Their team is always loaded. Like you're watching him last night,
You're like, God, they got good players everywhere even the
first round are a couple of years ago from Clemson Wiggins.
It's like they drafted that guy at the end of
the first round and he's just making plays out there
at dB. I mean, every single time they draft guys,

(46:03):
they're just good. So he has an organization that drafts
players at an extremely high level. They hit a home
run with the quarterback even making moves like Derrick Henry,
and it just goes like, how are they not winning.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
A Super Bowl?

Speaker 1 (46:17):
And I'm not betting on them to win a super
Bowl just because something about their organization. It's like losing
that game last night is kind of symbolic of the
John Harbaugh Lamar Jackson experience. Now you ain't firing Lamar Jackson.
My question is this, and this is where I think
these teams getting tough a tough spot. Let's say you

(46:37):
win thirteen games and you get knocked out in the
second round, the Bills, the Chiefs, whoever beat you. Who
are you hiring? Because I think that's always the pushback
is like who are you hiring? Because if I fire
John Harbaugh, what is the landscape of coaches last year?
Like are you firing John Harbaugh for Mike a probably

(47:00):
not very similar guys. I would say they kind of
carbon copy of the type coach, right, Ben Johnson, though
wagonet Ben Johnson with Lamar Jackson, I would have done that. Now,
you're not gonna fire him last year, But I think
that's the question you have to ask before we just
fire him, because you're not just gonna blindly fire John Harbaugh.

(47:22):
But that loss, and they had some of them last year.
You know, he's a defensive, tough guy, and sometimes their
teams just kind of fall apart. Now, I don't put
Dereck Henry fumbling on him. And you know, sometimes great
offense beats great defense nowadays in the NFL because of
the rules, right, I think the Ravens are pretty good
on defense, but there are certain rules and limitations that

(47:45):
you can't just decapitate people like you could back in
the day, So it makes comebacks more possible a lot
like in the NBA with a three point shot. You know,
I think in like two thousand and seven, you would
just be so physical that the Josh Allen they couldn't
have come back. But nowadays the rules on the side
of offense and just naturally sometimes teams let their guard down.

(48:07):
But he's going to become a really polarizing coach like
Sean mcdermals is pretty polarizing. And they're basically doing the
same thing. And if we just basically, well, you won
a Super Bowl, Well, yeah, back in twenty twelve. It's
twenty twenty five, twenty twelve. I works for the Philadelphia Eagles.
That was a long time ago, right, Think about what

(48:28):
you were doing in twenty twelve, some people, if you're
like twenty five, I mean, that would have been what
thirteen years you were like twelve years old. Didn't you
even have a hair on your arms or on your nuts.
I'm currently watching the Dolphins get boat raced by the Colts.
I think it's inevitable that they trade Tyreek this season,

(48:48):
though I don't think they will be able to get
quite the Hall that some might think given his age
and contract. Let me emphasize that they will not get
a hole for Tyreek. They would just be giving him away.
With Worthy going down Week one, and the Chiefs obviously
still amongst the best in the AFC, but may need
a little boost with the wide receiver injury suspensions. What

(49:11):
percent odds do you see are an in season trade
of Tyreek. Going back to the Chiefs, what kind of
trade package would the Chiefs have to give up for
a year or two of Tyreek? You never know. Things change,
and anytime that you come up short in the Super Bowl,
I think I saw the headline today. Worthy as day

(49:32):
to day. So it's not like he's gonna miss a
month like George Kittle today the hamstring injury. He's gonna
be out a month, that's gonna be, that's gonna be
a minute. You know, by all accounts, Worthy is not
gonna miss that much time. I was told pretty reliably.
I had safe to say, I know a lot of
people there that that's never happening again. Now this was

(49:53):
I don't know, eight months ago, just because like going
into the offseason, I was starting to think, like, could
they Tyreek get traded? Could the Chiefs get him for
like a third or fourth round pick? And I think
that ship sailed by all accounts. Now, you can never
say never. Andy could change his mind. Veach has a
lot of influence. Maybe he could talk him into it.
Maybe Veach is not that interested. And so I would

(50:18):
as sitting here on September eighth, I would say that's
not happening question for the back from Gilbert Arizona. My neighbor,
my buddy and I were debating what's better to have
Andy Reid, Sean mcvicveay, Kyle Shanahaner or Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes,
Burrow or Lamar. If you're starting a team from scratch

(50:40):
and you have the number one pick in a complete
do over, in a complete doover for the league, so
players and coaches can be taken, do you take the
quarterback or a coach? With the number one pick, you
would take the quarterback. You would one million percent take
the quarterback. Now at what quarterback? Do you yet? Where

(51:00):
you go? I'd rather have Andy Reid, and I think
you're talking like six or seven because the list you
gave it would be Mahomes, Alan, Lamar, Burrow in some order.
I think a lot of people would take Josh Allen
number one, but Mahomes. I think in everyone's order it
would go somewhat Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes or Patrick Mahomes

(51:23):
Josh Allen. Then I think Lamar and Burrow depending on
what type. I guess who's making this pick, a GM
or an owner because Lamar easily could go three, but
I think there would be some people taking Burrow, but regardless,
they would go four. I think Herbert and Jayden Daniels
in some order would go five and six. I think
once you got past them, it's like, would I rather

(51:46):
have Andy Reid or C. J. Strout. I'd rather have
Andy Reid? Would I rather have Kyle Shanahan or C. J.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Stratt.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
I'd rather have Andy Reid, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts,
Like would I rather have Jalen Hurts or Andy Reid?
Come on, Andy Reid, so as it shows you like
these guys. Jalen Hurts has won Super Bowl, played really well,
so I think that line gets drawn pretty quick. It's
only the quarterback quarterbacks that I know. One carry a coach.

(52:14):
If you need coaching with your quarterback like Jared Goff,
Jordan Love, all those type guys, I'm going coach because
would I rather have like Andy Reid with Dak Prescott,
Kyle Shanahan with Brock Purty, or would I rather have
Jalen Hurts and Zach Taylor. The question was pre Chargers
game might not be the year for Kansas City. As

(52:37):
a Kansas City resident and fan. I'm devastated. Listen, they
played in that game a million times last year. Everyone
I've seen talk about that game going God, they just
didn't look that good. They kind of looked like they
did last year, like that's how they played. They're comfortable
in that environment. Now their defense was getting shredded. Not ideal.

(53:00):
I also think they don't you know, the way they
operate in the preseason. He gets after it. They're big
on peaking in November and December. Are you're probably gonna
win the Super Bowl? Odds would be stacked against you.
You're gonna make your six Super Bowl in seven years
or whatever? Probably not, but you're gonna be You're gonna
be good. You're gonna be okay. Coachings do good. Big
game this week. I think it's pretty insane that they're

(53:22):
an underdog at home against the Eagles.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
That's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
I would expect the Chiefs to come out and play
pretty well. I like the Chiefs in that game. With
the NFL expanding and going more global than ever, do
you think there will ever be a time where there
is an eighteen game schedule with one international game every week.
If so, where could it end? Could there be could

(53:46):
there ever be an International super Bowl? Just curious in
your thoughts. I've been asked this question before. I do
think it's inevitable. When we get to eighteen games, there's
gonna be an international package. So basically like Thursday Night
Football starts this week and goes to like Christmas, so
basically every team. It used to be every team had
to play on Thursday Night Football. Now you can get

(54:07):
doubled up because of TV ratings. I do think it's
inevitable in the new television deal that starting week two
or week three up until probably a week before Christmas,
every team will play an international series. Now, the difference
between the international series and Thursday Night games. You know,
a team like Jacksonville or just Miami, whoever, East Coast

(54:28):
teams in London, in Germany and whatever could double up
and play back to back home games. But I do
think that the next television set up, however, that when
I say deal, I mean it's YouTube had seventeen million
people watching the game. What game would that have been?
That was a Chiefs game. Thursday Night Football had like

(54:51):
thirty million people, and that was down because there was
a big rain delay for an hour. Don't blame anyone
for turn it off. I would say this that, however, PLA,
he's out with Netflix, Amazon, Fox, ABCCBS a lot of
moving parts. Obviously, I think we get for fifteen straight
weeks a six thirty Pacific Standard time kickoff, which, as

(55:13):
someone on the West Coast I listen, I like getting
up Sunday morning. Now that you know, I've actually really
morphed as I've gotten older, Like I don't do anything
on Saturday night anymore. Those days are over because Sunday
is just too long of a day. I got to
be clear headed. I can't be hungover at all. So
I basically treat it like most human beings would treat
a Monday. And I'm out of bed at like six fifteen,

(55:35):
six thirty and try to be at the gym by
seven seven thirty, and because I want to do some
physical activity before I'm just sitting all day, which again
I'm not complaining about making money off watching football, but
like when you just sit on your couch for essentially
nine hours and do multiple podcasts, I gotta do some
activity in the morning, and I don't really have time

(55:56):
during the day because football's on, So I don't want
that morning game. Now, maybe I wouldn't even care anyway,
because sometimes they're on I'm not even paying attention. But
I do think it's inevitable, and I don't know if
that's what people want. But I don't want to speak
for everyone else because I'll tell you where I stand
on the Monday night doubleheader. I guess I understand it
from they can accumulate more total viewers. But I've thought

(56:20):
a huge part of about playing a primetime game Thursday night,
Sunday night, Monday night is getting it to yourself. That's
a really, really big deal. It used to be a
really big deal when I was at Fresne State that
the Mountain West Conference or the Whack Conference at the
time had contracts with ESPN for Friday night games. So
you would get a Friday night game against Boise, against
Nevada or whatever, and you were the only game on television.

(56:43):
So it was a really big selling point. It's like, hey,
we're just the only football game Friday night on television
around the country.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Well, that's clearly over.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Coming off the calf scare. Did you see Kyle run
CMC twenty two times and target him nine times in
the passing game? It's the most touches he's gotten since
Week fifteen in twenty twenty two. Does the guy even
make it to October? I know that was Robinson's first
game and his usage will go up, but holy shit, man,

(57:26):
do you think Kyle makes the same mistakes again driving
him into the ground. I sometimes the Niners can be
weird with injuries. Obviously they get injured a lot. But
for him to leave practice on Thursday and then Friday,
not really do anything, but then be interviewed after practice
on Friday and say I'm completely fine, and then like
you say, I mean, he counted for almost one hundred

(57:48):
and fifty yards in the passing game and in the
running game, and he has just taken shot after shot.
Kyle's not a big spread the wealth around. And I
appreciate Brian Robinson. I definitely liked him a couple of
years ago, and I'm not gonna make any overarching judgments
based on one performance. He looked a little slow to me.
I don't know if they traded for him to motivate

(58:08):
their other guy, Grendo, because Grendo last year, toward the
end of the season was coming on. He's a Blazer.
The big running back from Louisville, but they clearly just
traded for Brian Robinson immediately made him the two. I
thought there was one play on like a it was
like a pitch play where Trent Williams pulls. He's like
a left tackle and he pulls like basically kind of
like runs a loop toward the dB slash safety and

(58:31):
if Brian Robinson could cut it inside, he would have
been like a forty yard game. McCaffrey would have busted
out a big run. But he's ran into Trent who's
literally blocking the dB or safety into the like into
the water cooler. I mean he runs into him. So
wasn't that impressed. Again, Game one wins a win, but
their backup running back situation is atrocious. I understand the

(58:55):
criticism against the Patriots. They looked terrible in the second half. However,
I think putting too much blame on Drake May. He
threw forty six passes and in the first half they
were letting him throw ten to twenty yards down the field.
I think the bigger problem was their inability to run
the ball. For most of the second half. Henderson had
five carries that won't cut it. I think it's impossible

(59:17):
for young quarterbacks to succeed when the team abandons the run. Also,
the secondary was horrendous. Listen, here's what I'll say about
Drake May. He just didn't pass the eye test yesterday.
It doesn't mean he sucks. It doesn't mean that it
wasn't just an outlier bad game. My expectations were higher.

(59:38):
But I also said yesterday that I have just assumed
Josh McDaniels is a good play caller like Sean McVay,
Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Laflor. We have seen those guys work
with countless different quarterbacks, kind of tweaked their offense, change stuff,
make things happen. What if Josh McDaniels is only good

(01:00:00):
with Tom Brady, but if that's the only way he
can operate, that's very possible, right. And Drake May's downfall
might be that he got Josh mcganial's forced on him,
because let's be real, that wasn't Rabel's guy. That was
the Crafts And part of getting a job like Mike

(01:00:22):
got is like you're not gonna battle the owner in
the quote unquote boss on everything. Some things you give
in on, and it's like who were his options. He
couldn't get Arthur Smith, he couldn't get some of his guys.
So he's like, yeah, we'll just it's in theory, it
makes some sense. But what if Drake too much is
on his plate. He just there's something like, I don't

(01:00:44):
want to say unnatural, but something was just missing. Again,
doesn't define his career. My expectations for him might have
been unfairly high. But I just saw a guy that
just wasn't like a little robotic, wasn't that fluid making play,
just looked a little out of sorts. Now he doesn't
have the most talented group around him. As someone DM me.

(01:01:07):
Will Campbell looked like a tiny little dude getting smoked.
Now he was banged up too, But yeah, I mean
the Raiders worked him. I mean, think about it, and
Colin and I talked about this. The Raiders have the
best player in the game. They had the second best
player in the game. They had the quarterback advantage, Like
Gino is a much better player right now than Drake
may Honestly, it's not even close. Raiders offensive line is

(01:01:31):
playing well. Raiders are just better coached. But I got
Chip Kelly out here scheming guys open left and right.
He hasn't worked in the NFL in forever. And Skinny
Josh the Patriot guys, I'll get on ozembic once you
know Patricia's on it. McDaniel's clearly on it. These guys

(01:01:52):
lose a ton of weight. Still can't call play. Patricia can,
but he's got a little easier at all House morning.
Maybe the Lions should try to snag Mike McDaniel for
the OC when he's fired. I feel like I'm beating
a dead horse here. I don't know the guy. This
is nothing against him personally, feels like football guys really

(01:02:17):
like him. But why would they never make Johnny Moore
in their offensive coordinator? Sean Payton loved him, John Gruden
loved him. Well, why didn't they make this guy their
offensive coordinator? Now he's fifty five and he takes over
this offense that everyone's like, oh, she's a loaded offense.
And he realized, well, they lost their center to a retirement,
they lost a guard to the Titans, so there's only

(01:02:39):
five guys on the offensive line. So I just removed
forty percent of it. And there was a big part
of like the ingenuity, creativity, and just instincts of Ben
Johnson that made the operation pretty special. Remember when they
did the fake fumble because Jordan Love against the Bears
tripped and fell and everyone froze and then he got
up and he threw the touchdown. And Ben Johnson tried to,

(01:03:02):
you know, replicate that same thing with Jared Goff and
he told him to fumble on purpose and then Gof's like, oh,
I can't fumble on purpose. He's like, well, can you
kind of fall halfway? And then kind of figured it out,
like is Johnny Morton bringing that to the table. And
here's the other thing whenever I hear because I saw
Dan Campbell say this in an interview sometime during training camp.
He was bragging and I don't mean this like he

(01:03:24):
wasn't trying to hype the guy up. He was just saying,
it's it's crazy how often Johnny Morton is in the facility,
essentially saying he's got like the Grudini him. He's there
at the crack of dawn, like, I do not care.
I have never once been told how many hours Ben
Johnson works. Probably works a lot, but it does not matter. Honestly,

(01:03:46):
Sometimes that scares me, Like you're not smart enough, Like
you're there at three am to twelve pm, are you
not good enough? Because if you're working that long at
this point in time in your career and not moving
up the ladder like I just got your red flat, Like,
I do think defensively they will be okay. We have
seen this transition. We saw in Baltimore high level defensive coordinator.

(01:04:10):
They go with the former player and it just takes
a little time, but it works out. So I do
think same type deal Aaron Glenn, who's also a former player,
that they go with the linebacker coach, former player. I
do think it's gonna be okay offensively though that is
not like because part of defense motivation, toughness, obviously you
got to have the schematics. But I think they'll be

(01:04:34):
okay offensively. I would be terrified. Do you think there's
a chance that Nick Saban would go to Florida in
light of Billy's struggles and inability to cement himself in
the program. I think Saban's done, you know. I think
the big difference for like Pete Carroll and obviously Bill,
if Atlanta would have hired him, I think, deep down,

(01:04:56):
like the business didn't change, so they just thought like, hey,
I ran Its course, I got fired. Whatever, I still
want to coach in the NFL. The salary cap trades
the draft like fair, not like they believe they can
do it. You know, Belichick believes it's funny. I had
so many people texting me like, do you think you

(01:05:17):
pissed them off? Like piss them off, guys. They're embracing this.
They hate Bill and Lombardi hate the NFL right now,
especially the Patriots. This was not some story. If I
had leaked let's say, like a month ago, and I'm not.
Let's say let's say I texted Howie. I'm like, hey,
you want Micah Parsons. He's like, yeah, I'm trying to
get him right now. Jerry will never trade him to us.

(01:05:40):
But I'm throwing some I'm throwing some stuff on the table.
I put aj Brown and two ones on the table.
I'm just let's just hypothetically. Obviously it didn't happen. But
let's say I just put that out there. Well, how
he would be furious. He's like, you can't I told
you that in confidence. This is not These people didn't
tell me this. This just Bill who hates the Patriots,

(01:06:03):
and every human knows. This isn't something people are trying
to hide. This isn't some under the wrap story. So
like Saban has said, like I don't like get l
This thing ain't fair, and I think the SEC programs
and he mentioned this on College Game Day are at
a disadvantage. It's why in theory, like North Carolina they
got some big pockets. But you know, is Belichick gonna

(01:06:25):
be a tightwad and not pay the guy's money. But
he's not coming back. I think Saban's retired for good.
Other than that, Yeah, we'll wrap up on that one.
So Billy Napier, start packing that office right now, Buddy.
The volume