Shadeur Sanders is STARTING, Michael Penix is OUT, Lane Kiffin LEAVING?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecock Three and Out podcast brought to you by
my friends at Zone Pouches. Big show today, a lot

(00:23):
of quarterback talk, Shador Sanders making his starting debut, Michael Pennix,
Torn acl, JJ McCarthy, Patrick Mahomes. We'll dive into some
different quarterbacks as well as Lane Kiffen because that thing
has turned into a circus. But I do think if
you look at it from an NFL perspective, it really

(00:45):
kind of sheds a light what pro football does really well.
And I think it's one thing that college could attempt
as we move forward to somewhat copy and just avoid
the you know what show that is this anytime host
just leaves a job for another job, which obviously doesn't
happen in the NFL now when they're currently employed, they can't.

(01:06):
You can't just leave the forty nine ers to take
the giant's job. So we'll dive into that as well
as a mail bag at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff
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(01:28):
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(01:49):
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(02:12):
Sanders is making his NFL starting debut against Daradas in
Las Vegas and a couple different things on this one, Like,
let's just put this out there. The majority of NFL
players or let's just say rookies are not high draft picks. Obviously,

(02:34):
high draft picks, if you're a first or second round player,
you get preferential treatment. You get treated different than all
the other players in your class. Why because of money. Obviously,
if you're a first round pick, you get four years guaranteed,
and depending on how high you were drafted, you get
a lot of money relative to the rest of the class.
So there aren't necessarily scholarships with young players in the NFL.

(02:58):
But as we we see, like JJ McCarthy, if he
was a fourth round pick, would not be starting this
week for the Minnesota Vikings, but they drafted them high,
you get more leeway. Welcome to life. That's how most
of us that go into situation. The overwhelming majority of us,
let's say, coming out of college going into the workforce,
are not summa cum laude, coming from an Ivy League

(03:20):
school or the University of Michigan or UCLA. Most of
us are just trying to get our foot in the
door somewhere, hopefully to get around the right people and
do whatever we have to do to work our way
on up. And let's face it, for most of us,
a lot of stuff is out of our control. We
need some good fortune. We need maybe some people that
we're trying to get above not to show up or

(03:41):
to leave for another job, and most importantly, someone powerful
in that company whatever we're doing when we're young in
our early twenties, to believe in us. No different in
the NFL when you are a third day pick or
an undrafted free agent, which again is the overwhelming majority
of rookies this year in the NFL, guys drafted in
the fourth through seventh round and undrafted free agents. I

(04:04):
remember when I was my second year in Philly, we
drafted a center I think his name was Jason Kelcey
and he ended up starting Week one, and I think
he would be the first to tell you his biggest
supporter in the building was a guy that had a
lot of juice and his name was Howard Mudd. Andy
had just hired him. He had been with the Colts forever.

(04:27):
He rip passed away in the last couple of years
in a bad motorcycle accident, but just an old school badass,
I mean, throwback human being and was a huge part
of those Tony Dungee teams in Indianapolis with Peyton Manning
Peyton and those guys loved him, and he loved Jason
Kelcey because he didn't mind smaller, quicker offensive lineman, and

(04:51):
Jason Kelcey ended up starting Week one. I think an
older veteran player was cut and obviously the rest is
history and now he's all Hall of Famer. But early
on in your career, it's impossible or at least very
very difficult, to prove yourself without two things. One certain,
a lot of times things are out of your control.
You need someone to get injured to propel you either

(05:15):
in a backup role to where you're at least dressing
on game day to play special teams, or into a
starting role right And usually to get in that spot
you need someone, ideally the head coach or a coordinator,
but it can be a position coach with a lot
of juice to be pounding the table. And it doesn't
feel like Shador Sanders has had any of that. But

(05:35):
at the end of the day, who cares because it's
November nineteenth and he's a starting quarterback in the NFL
as a fifth round pick. I typed in to Google AI,
I say, can I get a list over the last
five years? Fifth round quarterbacks or guys that were drafted
at quarterback in the fifth round, and its spit me
out a list. You know, the guy over the last

(05:57):
five years who's played actually the most is Spencer Ratler,
who is now benched and Tyler Shuck is now the
starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. He's one in thirteen. Now.
I do believe I kind of like him, might go
on to have a decent career, you know, fringe backup,
may get some starting opportunities. But I'd be a little
stunned if we don't look up in Spencer Ratler. I

(06:19):
would guess over under his career seven eight years. Jordan
Travis retired. He never worked. Jaren Hall at a kid.
I't think out of BYU to Minnesota a couple starts.
Don't think he's in the NFL right now. Dorian Thompson
Robinson one in four as a rookie, is now currently
the backup for the Philadelphia Eagles. Sam Howell, he's five

(06:42):
and thirteen in his career, and uh, pretty sure he's
not in the NFL either. Ian Book started one game
in twenty twenty one, googled it doesn't look like he's
in the league, Jake fromm who a lot of you
know because you sent me the visual is literally selling
insurance right now in the state of Georgia, where I

(07:03):
can't imagine he's having a lot of success. But did
you just hear the names I listed Jake from Ian book,
Jaren Hall, Jordan, Travis, Sam Howell. Like that's the group
of fifth round picks. The odds are against this working, right,
because typically if you have to start as a rookie
and you were drafted on the third day, you're on

(07:23):
a god awful team. You're in a bad situation. Now,
I'd also say this, who cares how your opportunity comes,
and like most of us in life, when you get it,
you gotta take advantage of it. And I would say
for Shador Sanders, who clearly is a polarizing player, I
had to almost check out of the internet earlier this week,

(07:43):
I'm like, these takes are just ridiculous. Can we just
see him play an actual game? And he's going to
get to against the Raiders, who are god awful and
have two good players total. Now the Browns aren't any
good either. It's going to be difficult, but like part
of once you get your opportunity to play, and I

(08:03):
having worked in the business, if he goes on to
have four or five starts like that is very very
important as a resume to the rest of the league.
Cause you know what doesn't matter when once you start
playing games in the NFL, like what people thought of
you two years ago at the University of Colorado, Because
clearly the NFL was extremely lukewarm on him, on him

(08:26):
the player, uh, clearly the way that the draft process
was handled. But if you go over the next couple
of weeks and show signs of progress, throw some touchdowns,
make some plays hell, just run efficient drives. Guess what's
hard to find in the NFL quarterbacks. So yeah, he
may not be a fifteen year starter, but you could

(08:47):
go play a long time in the NFL. And you're
giving your opportunity right now as a rookie coming from
the fifth round, which clearly you just heard the names
I listed doesn't produce many good players. So I'm fascinated
to watch. This is a classic example of a game
I probably wouldn't have watched the snap of to be
completely honest. It might not even have gotten a television
or in a little box. It would have been a

(09:09):
waste of space. Now it's something that like for a job,
I mean I literally have to watch because it's going
to be a major story. And then just as a
human being, like I'm kind of interested to see what
he looks like. So I my only overall take is
like the opportunity came, now is time to run with it.
Because Dylan Gabriel got his opportunity when they got rid

(09:30):
of Flacco, and let's face it, everyone in the NFL
that went, wait, you guys took him in the third
round thinks even more strongly on that, like, you guys
are idiots. We never would have drafted this guy. And
like at the end of the day, Shador Sanders I
would say, didn't have that many fans in the NFL.
You can change that immediately. It happens all the time,

(09:52):
Like these guys are not in the business of not
changing their opinion. A lot of people thought Sam Donold
and Baker Mayfield three or four years ago couldn't play.
Guess what if you got them on the phone right now,
they would all say they were wrong. They can play.
That's how fast it happens once you start making plays.
This is a production based business. All the other stuff
is fluff, and I'm excited to pay attention to a

(10:14):
game that most of us. You'd have to paid us
literally to sit down and spend some time to watch it.
A couple other quarterback things. A couple of years ago,
when all those guys were drafted in the twenty twenty
four draft, everyone was bullish on all the picks. It's like,
all these guys are gonna be good, and I was like,
that's just not the way it works. Historically, half the

(10:37):
draft picks in the first round work out, and historically
when it comes to quarterbacks less than that. So just statistically,
the numbers are not on your side, right even though
the moment you draft Michael Pennix or bow Nix or
JJ McCarthy, you truly believe on that day we got something.
We love this guy, especially if you're taking them seventh

(10:58):
or eighth or twelfth or whatever, you're taking guy high,
you really believe in him. Hell, Sean Payton took bow Nicks.
He's like, this is my favorite quarterback in the draft,
my favorite quarterback coming out since Patrick Mahomes. Like he's
saying all this, who knows, maybe there's a little hyperbolic
nature to his comments, but he drafted the guy, and honestly,
he hasn't you know, pulled off any of those comments

(11:18):
since he's been his starting quarterback in the NFL. So
the news came out today that it's official that Michael
Pennix towards ACL, which you know, from a big picture standpoint,
sucks like you feel bad for the guy. Uh and
obviously it derails. I would say his hopes, the Atlanta
Falcons hopes of being any good right, because if they

(11:41):
were going to be good, we saw last year Kirk
Cousins is not the answer. They were gonna need this
guy to be a good player. Clearly, he was up
and down this season, battled some injuries, and now not
only is the season's over, he's had a bunch of
knee injuries. Who knows about his career. I think it's
fair to go. I don't care. Raheem Moore says, we
still believe in this guy and he's gonna come back.
Never know, this guy's a lot of wear and tear

(12:02):
on the body. Anyone who's got new tires in the
last six months, No, sometimes you go in there and
the tire guy goes man these were these were on
their last legs, and I believe that sometimes is no
different with joints and acls. And you see some of
these guys like their bodies just aren't built for the
NFL for whatever reason, and some guys are completely You

(12:27):
look at him, you're like what, And they never have injuries,
so you just never know. It's kind of random, but
clearly Michael Pennix in his body when it comes to football,
struggles to not have major injuries happen. And I think
when you look at the class, things change so fast,
and I'm guilty as anybody. I mean, after Jade and
Daniels season last year, you're like, God, this is pretty incredible.

(12:49):
Is this guy gonna save this downtrodden franchise. It's like
they get rid of Daniel Snyder, then they get Jayden
Daniels in there, and all of a sudden they're just
some powerhouse. And then what happens this year. I don't
know if it was some training camp injury, but he
never looked the same. The whole team was off, and
obviously now he's got a major injury. Who knows if

(13:10):
he's able to come back this season, And even when
he was playing. It did not look right. So we
saw that with CJ. Stroud has this historic rookie year
in the next couple of years, like offensive coordinator gets fired,
personnel starts sucking. It's like something's off and you just
never know. And I think we just we got to
be very careful because Caleb's a good example. And I've

(13:33):
been right, I've been wrong. I mean, he's a roller
coaster player. So it's like you can come on here
and be like, God, what an incredible clutch fourth quarter.
And I saw Chris Carter getting it into it with
JJ McCarthy's personal coach, right or like a offseason coach.
He called Chris Carter because he said something like he's

(13:54):
got the clutch sheet and Carter like quoted some tweets said,
did you see the other fifty nine minutes? Then he
called him a fucking clown, and the guy apologized for
calling him a clown. It's like, bro, it's not that
big a deal. We don't need to apologize. You can
call someone a fucking clown, be like, yeah, I regret
saying that, but deleting tweets like what are we doing? Like,
clearly JJ McCarthy really struggles, and history would say it's

(14:17):
gonna be really, really hard for him to dig himself
out of this because he's not gonna get the leash
in this modern day NFL. You're not getting like seven years.
That's not really the way it works, you know. Caleb Williams, listen.
I think Ben Johnson is right there with Mike Vrabel
as coach of the Year. I think he's doing a
fantastic job. What does he really benefit from this year?
They have one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL.

(14:38):
News flash kind of helps young quarterbacks, right Drake may
has looked fantastic. Also helps when you're just playing not
very good teams the majority of the time, like strength
of schedule. There are a ton of variables that go
into this. Bo Knicks a lot of these games is
look horrendous. He's looked like JJ McCarthy, but then he
slipped a switch and then finally he pays Patrick Mahomes
and he out plays them. So I love when I

(15:01):
hear this. It's like, this is such an inexact science.
We are fifty years in and we still can't evaluate
the quarterbacks. Well, no shit, that this isn't some excel spreadsheet.
These are human beings. This is a very difficult thing
to do. The mental toughness, physical toughness, physical skills, variables
that are out of your control, who's calling the plays,

(15:22):
who's running the routes, who's blocking for you. I mean,
how good your defense espo Nicks kind of helps. I mean,
there are things you can't factor it all in, so
we're never gonna figure it out, you know why, Because
we can't control all the variables around it. There are
always gonna be outliers like Andrew Lucke would have succeeded
with anyone he played with, just like Peyton Manning. Tom
Brady might not have the older version of Tom Brady

(15:44):
would have, but the guy coming out of Michigan really
benefited from going to that Patriot team and then created
By the time he got, you know, twenty eight, twenty
nine years old, he was an elite player. But it
took some time, which is fine, but times have changed,
like we've seen over and over. If JJ continues to struggle,
I saw a headline today like Mac Jones, they should

(16:06):
trade for Mac Jones if they are this offseason trading
for Mac Jones. J J. McCarthy's career in Minnesota is over.
I promise you that, just like the moment they named
Daniel Jones the starter, which obviously they knew he was
going to start well before they named him, Anthea Richardson's
career with them was over. He's still technically on the team,
but we all acknowledge big picture like this thing's over,

(16:27):
and I just think it's fascinating. It's one of the
things that makes the NFL so interesting is these quarterbacks.
We can never figure it out because we have no clue.
What if Jane Daniel's a good example, like, what if
he just starts getting hurt a lot. Now It's not
like his game is conducive to just to avoid injuries.
He runs around a lot, So anytime you run around
a lot, you're putting yourself at risk, especially more risk

(16:51):
of running around downfield. You can slide all you want,
but these defenders we've seen over and over are coming
for you because it's the only time one day a
week if they were allowed to touch it. The other
days you're wearing a red jersey practice, and obviously you're
their teammates, so it wouldn't hit you anyway. Today's show

(17:12):
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(18:46):
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. I saw the stat Someone
send it to me. From twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two,
Patrick mahomes on deep balls through fifty one touchdowns and
averaged over fifteen yards a target. Yet over the last

(19:09):
three years he's thrown five touchdowns and average under ten
yards of target. And I've seen a lot of people
discussing that that game against the Denver Broncos. I do
think it kind of brings into light how hard it is.
And I was guilty of this, and a lot of

(19:29):
us were of like starting Comparing him to Tom. To
maintain a level of play for multiple decades is extremely
difficult to do, right, and it's one thing that why
Tom is probably going to be unassailable for all these guys,
like you're just gonna have some weird years and like,

(19:50):
let's face it, part of the reason they're five and
five is like Patrick, and I'm a Patrick Mahomes. I'm
a big fan, you know. I root for the Chiefs.
I love watching the Chiefs. I've enjoyed them, honestly over
these last couple of years. When they're not scoring fifty
points a game. I like that solid football. I like
games in the teams that are defensive battles, like the

(20:12):
other thirty million people that watched Denver play Kansas City,
Like I like that type game. I would rather watch
that game than the famous game against Goff and Mahomes
back in the day in Mexico City or I guess
they moved to La at the Rose or the Coliseum
when it was like sixty to fifty five. I don't
like that type football if you root for the Big twelve,

(20:34):
like that's never really been like what I gravitate toward.
I enjoy defensive battles. I enjoy every yard on the
field hotly contested, and it'd be very difficult to get
first downs. So that type football was awesome to watch,
but like they're gonna need him to be better in
these moments. And here's the other thing. This is not

(20:56):
to diminish what Tom and Bill accomplished. It speaks for itself.
They did really benefit from a joke division. I mean
a serious, serious, laughing stock of a division. Josh Allen
didn't exist. The Bills team that they played sucked, The
Jets team beside a couple Rex Ryan years, was god awful,
and obviously the Dolphins, beside the one Wildcats season with

(21:21):
Tony Soprano, has been one of the laughing stock organizations
in the league for a long time post Dan Marino,
and they got to beat the crap out of them
all the time. Well that's not the case for Patrick anymore.
Denver currently has the best defense in the league. They
also have a head coach that makes eighteen million dollars
a year kind of knows what he's doing. Denver's going nowhere.

(21:42):
Jim Harboffy wins a Super Bowl, which I do think,
if somehow the Charges can just stay somewhat healthy, will
go down as one of the most accomplished coaches in
NFL history. He'd be on obviously the short list of
guys that have won a Super Bowl and succeeded in college.
But like he didn't just succeed in college. He dominated
in college. He resurrected Stanford. He turned Michigan into a

(22:04):
powerhouse after them being really really bad for a long time.
And what he did with the Niners, and obviously if
he wins Super Bowl with the Chargers would speak for itself.
That's who he has to deal with, and eventually you
would just the love averages. The Raiders are going to
get something right, right John Spike Tech is as good
as I think he is. I think over the course

(22:25):
of the next five years they will have some good teams.
But this is not the Jets and the Dolphins. This
is Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos and Jim Harbaugh
and the Los Angeles Chargers. It's going to be hard.
I mean, look at this year lost to them both
Tom Brady, I mean when he would lose a divisional game,
him and Bill it would be like, what, how did that?

(22:47):
Didn't happen very often? I think they went a stretch,
was it like seven or eight years where obviously you
play them twice a year, they did not lose a
game to the Jets. I mean, Belichick had this weird
fascinating with hating the Jets. It's like, bro, you did
sign to be their coach. You know you did that?
You know I And eventually they did let you out.

(23:09):
But hell, no one's told grudges quite like a like Bill,
which that that that picture going viral of him at
Jordan's cheerleading thing. It's it's it's kind of sad. I
mean's just it's no way around it. And honestly it's
more of indictment on her than it is him. There's
a long list of guys in their seventies dating some

(23:31):
young girl that do stupid things. Welcome to life. What's
her deal? Like? What are you doing? There? Is not
there's no one listening to this. Your wife or your
girlfriend that saw that picture. That isn't like she's a loser,
Like what is up with this clown? And I don't

(23:51):
fault Bill as much though I can imagine some people
in North Carolina of like, Bill, can you just kick
this girl with the curb? I mean, she's I need
some more details on what's going on behind the in
the sheets with that one, because that is Belichick must
be in some crazy stuff. Okay, let's end on this.
The I was thinking about this because of the Lane

(24:13):
Kiff and saga, and obviously Lane, it does feel like
at this point he is not going to be coaching
coaching Ole Miss next year. And by you know, people
that in the loop that talk about this, most people
feel it would be a little surprising now if and
when he leaves that he's not at the University of Florida.

(24:34):
And I was thinking about this. One thing the NFL
does really really well is they kind of arm in
arm as a business, like the Steelers and the Ravens.
On the field, it's one of the best rivalries, at
least of my lifetime, hate each other. It's a really
really big deal with when they play right the Bears

(24:54):
and the Packers, which obviously hasn't been much of a
rivalry with Rogers, but it means a to the two
fan bases, which are massive, the Niners in the Rams,
the Niners in Seattle, like these rivalries the Cowboys and
the Eagles. Yet when they go to these owners meetings
that literally is a meeting of the owners to figure

(25:16):
out how to keep paying and making everyone a boatload
of money. Everyone's friends, and everyone has a vision to
step within the right direction. Even if in these meetings
some people don't agree, some people disagree, we're not on
the same page. We eventually figure it out and we
all move together forward. Because why, unlike some of these
other professional sports baseball, basketball, there are no local television deals.

(25:42):
The only local deal you have is with a radio station.
And the majority of these markets they ain't worth to
these NFL teams. Fucking pennies in the couch, irrelevant, tiny
little money. It's all about the television money, which they
all fall under the same umbrella. The Jags make the
same amount as the Cowboys, make the same amount as
the Cardinals, make the same amount as the Packers, and

(26:03):
that's how you pay for all the players and profit
for your for your team. Now, obviously you can make
more with revenue inside your stadium, so it can differentiate
a little team to team, But in terms of the
four hundred and fifty million dollar check that gets distributed
per team, everyone gets the same amount, even though clearly
some teams the Chiefs, the Bills, now the Broncos, the Packers,

(26:23):
the Eagles, the Cowboys, whoever generate more television ratings than
some of the other markets, But it doesn't matter because
we're all business partners. Yeah, when you look at college,
think how crazy it would be if like the New
York Giants right now, we're like, who are you going
to hire to be your next head coach? And all

(26:44):
the rumors and even they were kind of leaking like
we want Kyle Shanahan, Like, well, Kyle shann has the
coach of the forty nine ers. Well, you know he
makes fourteen million dollars worth, prepared to pay him twenty
five million dollars and give him power that he does
not have than the organization. Like imagine if that story broke,
everyone be like, well, you can't do that. That's not

(27:05):
how it works, because it's not how it works yet.
Lane Kiffen just had sent his family to go tour
LSU and tour Florida. They're literally SEC teams. You could
argue LSU and Old Miss. Since Lane's been there, it's
kind of had a little rivalry, especially once they got
Brian Kelly was a really one of the bigger, better,
more entertaining games in the conference. But it's like it

(27:28):
doesn't even feel that abnormal because it never has. A
couple of years ago, Anthony Lynn son Danton Lynn, who
is now the coordinator at USC, was Chip Kelly's coordinator
at UCLA. He did such a good job. USC was
desperate to improve their defense. They just hired him because
they could pay him more. I have friends in the
NFL who work for teams, and then a guy with

(27:50):
that team who is like a number two goes on
to be a GM wants to hire that guy with them,
whether it be a coach or a scout, and that
team denies him access like nope, not out, And those
guys would have been able to get a raise. No.
I'd argue, that's pretty fucked up. But it happens all
the time because all the owners look at each other
and be like, hey, we're all in this together, right

(28:11):
yet in college even though in the SEC they all
signed these television deals, they left CBS, they go to
ABC and ESPN and sign this new lucrative deal. They're
all in it together kinda, but they would fuck their
partner in a New York minute. We're in the NFL
doesn't even allow that. Like when Tampa Bay wanted John Gruden,
guess what they had to send two first round picks

(28:32):
and at the time, I think it was like seven
million dollars, which might have been a lot back then,
and Al Davis needed it. Seohn Payton, who just went
to Denver literally quit, said listen, I'm done coaching. A
year later, he's like, I want to coach the Denver
Broncos and the Saints were like, not so fast, Homeie,
We're gonna need some trade compensation. He's like, well he'd
been out of Leak. He's like, yeah, but he's still
under contract with us. And I think the unity of

(28:54):
the NFL is something that college eventually needs to mirror
because that way they can get on the same page
of everyone has the same resources, everyone has the same access.
Like if you get the right quarterback, it doesn't matter
whether you're coaching the Colts, whether you're coaching the Chiefs,
or whether you're coaching the Giants. Right, It's proven over

(29:16):
and over it, yet in college it does matter. Historically, Bama, Georgia,
Ohio State, Texas, USC some of these jobs now Oregon
in this since Nike, you know, came to prominence, just
a more powerful job. Texas Tech has this guy giving
you millions upon millions of dollars. Tex texas a way
better job than Iowa. Right, It just is because of

(29:40):
the backing, and part of that is coaching searches in general.
And this is where, like Listen, I talked about this
stuff for a living. I am grateful that so many
people care about this stuff. And it happens in the NFL.
You know when who's going to hire who, and then
once they're hired, who their coordinators are going to be.
Are pretty dialed in, and this is all reality television show.

(30:03):
And luckily the coaches and even the coordinators are main
players and famous, you know, additions to the television show
when it comes down to you know, in the NBA,
like coaches used to be way more important than they
are now. In baseball, when I was a kid, managers

(30:23):
were really really famous for the most part. They're kind
of irrelevant now and we all acknowledge. Yeah, the front
office hits the lineup. The managers don't even have the
juice to do much. Hell forever Dave Roberts, who's now
won back to back World Series with the Dodgers, I
remember years ago he was getting crushed and everyone was like, guys,
he does not set the lineup it's not his call.

(30:44):
When the Yankee guy out of a perfect game in
like the seventh inning, which I'm pretty sure a couple
of years ago happened with the Dodgers, it might have
been a no hitter, Like, that's not his call. They
know what ninety three pitches, that's his max and he's
coming out where in the NFL, these coaches have a
lot of jews. They make a lot of money where
humans are fascinated by that. But in the NFL, everyone's

(31:05):
kind of rowing in the same direction. Even if you're
my bitter rivalry, even if I hate you, when we
end up playing off the field, we're all on the
same page. And that's one thing College I think Big
Picture is gonna have to figure out now on this
Lane Kiff and Saga and the circus which I've been
I've been consuming a lot of Lane kifvin content every
couple hours. I just typed into you two. I've been

(31:25):
watching like local Ole Miss podcasts. I eat this stuff up.
This is something that still makes me feel, you know,
like I'm eighteen years old, well before I ever worked
in this business. I can't get enough. Just just feed
me the content. Big Picture, one piece of advice. I've
only met Jimmy Sexton once. Ed Banowitz, who is now

(31:46):
Jimmy Sexton's right hand man, introduced me to him at
the combine, and I know ed pretty well. I haven't
talked to him a little while. Yeah, if they asked
me for advice, they wouldn't. I would just say this
because clearly Lane had some comments today, He's had some
comments recently, and obviously Lane's his own guy. Like the
agent can't tell you what to do, the agent works

(32:08):
for you. I would just say this, it's twenty twenty five.
We live in a world where authenticity really sells. My
parents grew up in an era where people thought, like Russia,
Mike Nukas or some of these other countries, we might
have a world war at any moment. Because we had
just had two that they said if a nuclear bomb comes,
get under the tables, and everyone listened. They did those

(32:29):
drills all the time, and people just like, yeah, good idea.
I think how stupid that is. But they grew up
in an era where everyone just did kind of what
you told them. Everything that was on the news, the
local news. You just kind of believed. That's not the
way we operated. Anymore because we know a lot of
it is bullshit, and I think we can sense BS
from really far away. Why we've been around at most

(32:51):
of our lives and we've come to a point on
the BS Highway where if that's what you sell, it's
going to be very hard to operate because human being's
live in reality. And I think Lane Kiffen is doing
what you would have done ten twenty thirty years ago.
You just avoid I don't know, man, I'm not talking

(33:11):
about this lane. Your family just flew on a PGA
to Gainesville and Baton Rouge. Everyone knows what's happened. You
don't need to say I'm leaving. No one needs you
to say that. But I do think it's not crazy
to be like, listen, there's a lot going on. Obviously,
we are having some conversations. I've loved my time at all.

(33:32):
Miss In a perfect world, I plan on staying here.
But like we're talking to him, I'm doing my due diligence.
Nothing has been decided. I will do everything in my
power to make sure that we try to win a
national championship because it's all in front of us. Even
though I keep hearing people be like they could win
a national championship. News flash, they cannot win a national championship.

(33:56):
You know why, because no one in the NFL or
college football wins a national championship with a terrible defense.
Now they can go to the playoffs. They could win
a playoff game, who knows, depending on the matchups, maybe
they could win two. I promise you this. I bet
someone fifty thousand dollars right now. They have no chance
to win a national championship with that defense. But that's
not the point. Going to the playoffs for ole Miss

(34:18):
is a really big deal. And I see a lot
of people saying this, Like over the last five years,
since Lane Kiffin took this thing over and got him
roll in post twenty twenty, only two other teams in
the sec of one more games. That's Alabama and that's
the University of George. I also think that, like Lane

(34:38):
Kiffin is a nomadic individual, Google is history. You can't
get mad at her if she's cheating on you, if
you started dating when she was cheating on someone else
with you, It's like dating a stripper and then getting
mad that she's doing something shady when you're not around.
This is kind of what you sign up with with Lane,

(34:59):
even if he's changed his life and he's sober and
he's reading motivational books and he's tweeting memes, which clearly
is driving some people crazy. When you get into business
with a guy like this, like you can't be surprised
when he starts kind of sniffing around, especially in jobs
that historically way better. Now, we can argue if that

(35:20):
is the case moving forward, and no one knows, there
is a chance that Florida, given the current climate, is
no longer as good of a job at or way
better than Ole Miss has it been historically, right, I
think you could also make the argument it's college football,
just like college basketball hasn't always been about the jobs,
It's been about the coach. If you put Urban Meyer

(35:43):
at Florida, Ohio State, Utah, if you put him at
Oregon State, at UCLA, at Texas Tech, he would have won.
Same thing with Nick Saban lsu Bama. Obviously you're gonna
win there. You could have put Nick Saban at the
University of Washington, he would have kicked everyone's ass. Why
he's an ass kicker, no different than basketball coaches like

(36:04):
Bill self coach k obviously once you get to the
premium power that has the most resources, and you have
the best coach, it's gonna be pretty hard not to dominate.
But the cream always rises. And I think you see
this a lot of times in the NFL. You know why,
because there isn't that big of a deal or difference
between the forty nine Ers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, or

(36:27):
the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. But you
put Jrod Bao in the job, you're in major trouble.
You put Mike Vrabel in the job, you got a chance.
You put Jim Tomsula in the job, You're screwed. You
give me Jim Harbar or Kyle Shanahan, I'm gonna win.
And only Lane Kiffen knows what he's looking for money.

(36:51):
When he does say is not gonna be the driving force,
I believe him. You know why. He's already rich. Like
his decision. He's just gonna be richer. Kevin wants to
take a private jet anywhere he can. And hell, in
college jobs, the school gives you a certain amount of
hours anyway. So this is all about like sometimes people
just need a new challenge. Some people are wired like

(37:12):
that clearly Lane is if you google his history. So
I the only thing that I would do differently if
I was laying, I would be honest. I haven't made
my decision, obviously, you guys have seen the stories. I'm
not gonna sit here and deny it. I love these
guys I plan on coaching. What makes it complicated is
if he's not gonna be their coach. And I think

(37:32):
he's knowing he knows this, and this is where it's
gonna get ugly. I doubt Ole Miss is gonna let
him coach the playoffs. And I said this a couple
of days ago. I probably would how often, like, who knows,
maybe you won't make the playoffs for the next five years.
This is a great opportunity. You got a good team,
and while I don't think you're gonna win the national championship,
I'm sure people around all Miss think they got a chance.
And they definitely have a chance to win a game

(37:53):
or two, which is a huge, huge deal. So it's
gonna be fascinating to watch this. It's an awesome story.
I can't get enough of it. But I would just
say this about these coaches. I think they lie like
it's two thousand and eight. It's the guys twenty twenty five.
You're just gonna get just obliterated publicly when you just
say blatant lies that everyone knows is false. You can't

(38:15):
do that anymore. It's not the way it works if
you want to keep your credibility. And maybe Lane doesn't care.
Historically he hasn't. It does feel like he changed, but
who knows. It's hard for a leopard to change the spots.
I do need to tell you about my friends, my partners.

(38:36):
The official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time and
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(38:57):
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John Middlecoff is my Instagram. Easiest way to interact really
the only way. Fire in those dms and get your

(39:39):
questions answered. Here on this little old podcast, we will
start with Blake Love the show question for you, can
the Bears conversation slow down a little until they beat someone?
They have played one team with the winning record and
one team with a five hundred record lost them both.

(40:00):
The combined records of the teams they've beaten is twenty
fifty one and one. I do think when you are
talking about teams, let's say, let's say good team like
or a team that has been good the Lions, the Eagles,
the Ravens, the Chiefs, whoever. You can really dive into

(40:23):
the nitty gritty on who they are beating it's like, well,
they're kind of not playing great. They've only beaten the
bad teams. They haven't beat the good teams because we
view those like Super Bowl the Bills, super Bowl contenders,
the Packers. It's like, how are you losing to the Browns? Right?
But the Bears don't enter into that conversation because I
don't think anyone with the brain, including the ninety nine

(40:46):
percent of Bears fans, go, we're winning the super Bowl.
But making the playoffs if you are the Bears, is
a really big deal, and the only way to make
the playoffs is you gotta win some games. So in
the middle of November, what's there? Record? Seven and three?
Is that the record right now? I feel like it's
better than that? Is it eight and three? The Chicago

(41:08):
Bears are seven and three. Last year at this time,
I think they were in the midst of like a
ten game losing streak. Their coach was fired on thanks Well,
technically the day after Black Friday, but all of America
witness Matt Eberflus blow one of the worst games you'll
ever see in Detroit. I mean, it was pretty embarrassing.

(41:29):
It was something that's gonna be hard for him ever
to shake. That was Chicago Bears. So when you've been bad,
and I would put the Patriots in the same category,
it's a little different because I think people actually think
they could win the division. One thing with the Patriots,
they really just got to beat one team. The Bears
are gonna have to beat the Lions and the Packers,

(41:50):
or at least fend them off, which is gonna be
extremely difficult. Bears fans will be the first to tell
you that, right. I mean, they played the Lions once
this year they lost like one hundred to nothing, But
seven and three. You apologize nobody, especially winning games the
way they've won it. They're not a perfect team, but listen,
the quarterbacks a polarizing guy. He's made some huge plays
down the stretch with his legs. Who cares seven and

(42:13):
three is a lot better than like, hey, they look
great and they're four and five, so I guess that
wouldn't even add up four and six. I don't think
the Bears have any reason to apologize for who they've beaten.
It's gonna get more difficult. But even this week, as
of recording this on Wednesday, let's say Rogers doesn't play
I mean he's got a broken bone in his wrist,

(42:33):
and they beat Mason Rudolf. People beat Mason Rudolph. I
don't give a shit. I could have beat Billy Rudolph.
I mean, we're just playing who we're playing, not our
fault he broke his wrist. I'm a Bears fan who
thinks Jordan Love is one of the most overrated players
in the league. Not saying he's bad, but don't understand
people who say he's a top quarterback. With that big said,

(42:54):
I think the conversation around him and the floor isn't
the right one. Their receivers have more drops than anyone
in the yet every time they lose a game, it's
always Lafleur doesn't trust Jordan Love. But in my opinion,
I think it's much more likely that he doesn't trust
the wide receivers to catch the ball, especially now with
Kraft gone. Why does nobody ever look at this point, Well,

(43:15):
if you're out there on an NFL field and it's
third and eight, like, I gotta call pass play, and
if Josh Jacobs is injured, I don't have a choice.
I have to call passes. So yeah, like they're dropping
more balls than currently anyone else in the league. Right,
No different than I mean the Bears drop a bunch
of balls, But eventually you gotta call some pass plays.
Want just the yardage, the down and distance put you

(43:37):
in a position where you don't have a choice. You're
not gonna call a run play and a tie game
on third nine, right, So this is the NFL. You
gotta catch the ball. I think the frustration with Lafleur
is more compounded from the last couple of years than
it is just this moment. Plus, at the end of
the day, you gotta win against teams when you're a

(43:58):
big favorite at home or the Brown even if you're
playing in Cleveland, you gotta win that game. So like
Matt Lafour has to win those games. It just has
to happen. If it doesn't, like we got a problem,
especially when our defense is elite. You're the court, you're
the offensive guy. So not just the quarterback, but the receivers,
Like this should all be your baby. It's on you

(44:18):
to make that happen. Plus, you don't fire quarterbacks or
you know you're not gonna fire dobs, right, I mean,
Jayden Reid, You're not gonna cut the rookie guy you
just drafted in the first round from Texas. It's just
the way the business works. Fair or not, which there's
probably some truth to what you're saying. It's not totally fair,

(44:39):
but it's just the reality of the business they're in.
Ben a Falcons fan my whole life, so I'm used
to the disappointment. I didn't think that we were that
far away. But you can have an incompetent and experienced
coaching staff with an immobile, basically rookie quarterback and expect
to win. I believe in Pendix, but another injury scare.

(45:01):
Let's say we are about two years away from playoff contention.
If you were running the Falcons as a GM, what
would your plan be to fix it? Well, let's just
say everyone gets fired and a new GM comes in.
I do think it's fair for that guy to go.
I don't think we have a quarterback. Obviously, Cousins is
going to be on this team next year. But I
think Pennix would more than scare that next guy, because

(45:24):
there would be a decent chance even if that guy
lies to Arthur Blank that he didn't believe in Penix
coming out of the draft and then you would have
a massive reservation after he's tours ACL and won't be
able to do anything all off season. Who knows if
he'll be ready for Week one. So they have a
lot of good players in a lot of different positions,

(45:46):
but you got to figure out that position, and they
have not figured it out since Matt Ryan fell off
a cliff. And if you do not have that position,
you don't really have a chance. So I just think
that that would be my number one goal is how
do we fix this thing? Can we bring in someone?
Can we bring in a bridge quarterback? Could I trade
for a quarterback? Like would I entertain giving a second

(46:09):
or third round pick for mac Jones? Could I win
ten games next year with mac Jones? Once upon a time,
Belichick did it and mac Jones is better now? So
I mean, but which is not a great option. But
those type options you would have to talk about Gardner
Minshew now. But this is what we're talking about, because

(46:31):
if I get a drafted guy really high, well I
don't even have a first round pick. So I just
think that it's tough. I mean, I don't know, I
don't have an answer. It would just be quarterback, quarterback, quarterback,
quarterback because we have a lot of other pieces on
the team. We just drafted multiple guys on the front.
We have Drake London, we have be John Robinson, we

(46:52):
have offensive linemen under contract. Even if I let Kyle
Pitts walk, skill guys are not our problem. Ag Terrell, like,
we have some defensive weapons. I believe Brian Flores would
be a phenomenal fit with the Bengals. The tough culture
would fit as Joe is much tougher than Tua and

(47:13):
Flores could fix that defense. What do you think would
be hard if for Flores? I clearly did not like Tua.
Now you could argue it didn't look great a couple
of years ago. Is I got Flores? You were way
too harsh. It's kind of aged pretty well. The one
thing I will say about Flores because from a defensive

(47:33):
coach perspective, he is an elite candidate. He's been a
head coach where the defense was good. He's a defensive
coordinator where he's one of the best in the league
with Belichick, with Kevin O'Connell like, he's an elite x's
nos guy, and he clearly is a tough guy. You
can't you're either a tough guy or you're not a
tough guy. He's a tough guy. The stories I heard

(47:54):
out of Miami, even separate from Tua, the way he
dealt with offensive coaches was pretty ugly. So maybe, and ideally,
like any human being, you take it a look back,
you do some introspection, you look in the mirror, you
have to. You can coach guys hard, but like your

(48:14):
offensive staff, because you're the defensive guy, you're not calling
the offense. You're very dependent on those guys and the
offensive group they're a little more delicate than defensive players.
So my main question would be because to me, Flores
is a big time candidate, but he does have a
major red flag, and that's like can he deal with

(48:36):
offensive people like he's a coordinator? Of course, like he's
not the boss, but when he's been a boss, we
have seen one time he resorted to all, what all
the belichicks guys do? They just are giant, you know what?
But like with defense, he knew what he was talking
about at worked, but the offensive guys I'm talking about
the coaches. The stories I've heard was like whatever you've heard,

(48:57):
it's even worse, and clearly you know, the to a
situation which listen to let's just say two is a scrub.
You gotta be careful with the quarterback position. So you know,
are you gonna treat Joe Burrow like it's Tom Brady
nineteen or two thousand and nine like Belichick did. I
don't know if that really works anymore. And even Tom
eventually was like this, I'm tired of this. So that's

(49:20):
my question mark, which I don't even think Brian Flores
could answer it. You would only know once you hired
him how it went. But there's no disputing he's an
elite defensive coordinator, elite scheme guy, a tough guy. Can
he deal with the offense? And I'm not saying like
implements plays. I'm just saying, like, can he deal with

(49:42):
those guys? Offensive guys like aren't always screamers and yellers.
It's much more of a cerebral operation. Defense is like,
let's chop their head off and then shatter their legs.
That's the thing. Like you put Aaron Rodgers out there
with the with the messed up left wrist, what do
you think defensive players are going for? It's like John,
you can't say that's not allowed. No, that's how they talk.

(50:06):
They're going first rist you know this is this is
not tittley winks here. So it's part of football which
works for Flores on defense offense, Like, that's not really
the way they think. If you were the GM of
the Saints starting this season, what would be some moves
you would make? I personally thought we should have traded
away our older players like Kamara and Cam Jordan and

(50:28):
Taysom Hill. It's a great question. I'd have to look
at their roster better. I mean those guys. I mean,
Kamar is definitely he's still under contract next year. You
could trade him this offseason. I think right now sitting
here after seeing Tyler shuck a couple of weeks ago,
I think these next two weeks just evaluating him. Do
we got something here? Do we have enough where we

(50:48):
just rock with this next year? Because we got a lave,
We got some offensive linemen that aren't bad defensively. I mean,
you got Brandon Staley as your defensive coordinator. That'd be
the first thing I'd say, is like Kellen, I like you.
Nuss Meyer's my guy, Doug, not his son the quarterback
coach slash offensive coordinator. One thing I'd recommend, can we

(51:10):
get rid of Brandon Day. I know he threw you
a bone when you were out of work, but can
we just get rid of this guy. It's hard for
me to come into work and look at this guy.
But other than that, what do we need? We need
some pass rushers, we need some dbs. I feel pretty
good on our offense. I've shown some signs. But yeah,
you'd trade some older players for sure. I also think

(51:31):
like trading Alvin Kamara. It's not like you're getting a
second round pick. It sounds better like LESE. Trade some
guys for what? As my guy Ricky Water said, for
who for what? Been listening to three and out love
the pod. If you were asked to build an all
Middle Cough team for the last twenty five years, much

(51:52):
like the all Madden team, who would be on it?
To save some time, you can use one offensive line
until if you don't pick the whole thing, that would
take some time to think about. I think some players
jump to mine really quickly, you know, Randy Moss, Aaron Donald,
Trent Williams, Miles Garrett, like a Ledanian, Tomlinson, Travis Kelcey.

(52:19):
But do I need a blocker. Can I get to
Kelsey an Gronk? So if I want to block, but
also like spread you out? Do I want a deep
prett Tyreek? You know, I think you gotta go with Brady,
But what if I want a little more mobile quarterback.
It depends how are we basing it on? Just like
who are the most accomplished players? What would be the
players i'd want? Best linebacker the last twenty five years?

(52:44):
Probably Ray Lewis, you could go erlacker, Keith Lee, ed
Reid would be on the team, Revas Sherman, probably my corners.
I think most of the names kind of jump out
pretty consistently of the of the top guys. Who you're
Marshall falk and Ladanian, Thomlinson, Who are yours? I appreciate

(53:06):
your football insight. I was born to live in the
East Bay, and four of my five kids played rugby.
The fifth and youngest will play when he's six. You
talked about rugby's lack of popularity in America, and I
wanted to offer some context. The governing body of rugby
was formed in eighteen seventy one. The body didn't allow

(53:27):
players to be professionally until nineteen ninety five. The strict
adherence to amateurism greatly stunted the sport over the last
one hundred years. That and a chisholm within the sport
about playing paying players greatly stunted the game's growth. America
as an outlier as a former British colony to have

(53:49):
not embraced the sport. But it's understandable as we've won
our independence much earlier than the rest. I love the
sport and I wish it was more popular here. I
think my main theme piggybacking off what you said is
football is not popular anywhere close right in England, in Ireland,

(54:17):
in obviously Australia or New Zealand in the Islands where
football is king here. So rugby it's direct competition, like
you can like basketball and rugby if you live in
Europe right or Ireland or whatever right where football like

(54:37):
basically filled that void. So our physical sport and most
people that I knew that played rugby, right, if you
went to cal and played rugby and they were winning
national championships or BYU or whatever, these schools probably couldn't
make the football team. So I think your first aspiration

(55:00):
as a physical being in America would be like, well,
I want to play football at and I'm speaking of
the Northern California schools because that's who who cow or
my friends at cal Poly played, but Utah Arizona. Well,
if you were on the rugby team at Arizona, if
you were the starting whatever for the Arizona rugby team,

(55:23):
if you could be the starting middle linebacker for the
football team, I think it's fair assumption that that individual
would quit rugby and go on full scholarship and nil
especially now, and play middle linebacker for the University of
Arizona or the University of Utah or BYU or Stanford, Right,
I think we'd all agree with that. So the competition,

(55:43):
like in Ireland, what else you're gonna play cricket? I mean,
if you're a physical specimen, you're going to gravitate toward
rugby or here. I just think you're going to gravitate
toward football first. And I know a lot of people
like in high at least I could speak for Northern California.
They play football in the fall and they play rugby

(56:04):
in the spring. The Porta Potti Panthers haven't earned national attention,
which is completely fair, small market, unwatchable football, and they

(56:25):
have given NFL fans no reason to care. But Bryce
just set a franchise record in a game and suddenly
they're over five hundred heading in to Monday Night football.
From your perspective, do they have a shot to win
the NFC South only being half a game back of Tampa?
And do any league connections with anyone close to Canals.
I actually have a buddy that works for the Panthers.

(56:48):
I don't think the expectations early in the season were
that high, but clearly you're six and five. This is
a massive Monday night game. If they were to beat
the forty nine Ers and be seven and five, the
Buccaneers play the Rams, I mean, there's a very very
good chance the Buccaneers do not win this week. Kind
of like them with the points. Think this is kind
of a kitchen sink game. The forty nine Ers defense

(57:10):
is rolling out a lot of guys from the UFL
and practice squads, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, those guys are
long gone their first round pick Torn acl So it's
a very winnable game. And if you're seven and five,
like you're not just you have a chance to win
the division because you still play the Bucks twice, you
get to ten eleven wins and just minimum be a

(57:32):
wild card. So I think the Panthers have a big,
big opportunity, especially because you're playing the forty nine ers too.
It'd be one thing if like, oh, they're playing those
Saints since Monday night, see a lot of people watching
this thing. It's a massive moment for a team that,
let's face it, most people don't watch, and like you said, rightfully,
so that they've earned that category of you don't matter.

(57:54):
You can get at The Saints were in must watch
for fifteen years with Sean Payton and Drew Brees. He
leaves you don't need to watch him right now unless
you want to watch Tyler shuck throw bombs. In a
recent podcast, you said that most players need to have
three years in college to be ready for the NFL,
and most of them aren't at twenty two years old.
I'm a soccer player and we've seen the past. We've

(58:20):
seen in the past how eighteen year olds can just
become world class and start playing for world class teams.
Do you think there will ever be a time that
we see more young players will start coming out of
college after maybe one or two years. It's a good question.
I would say twofold one. There's a rule you have
to be three years removed out of high school. So

(58:41):
the NFL has a hard and fast rule that you
can't just come when you know, Jeremiah Smith would have
gone pro last year, so clowney would you know, There's
been a handful of guys that would have gone pro
earlier than they did. I think the difference in soccer
is there is a physical content at element to football

(59:02):
that not the soccer. I mean, it's it's not apples
to apples, it's more like apples to hamburgers. Where there
are guys eighteen nineteen years old in college who are
as fast as anyone in the NFL, and if there
was no contact, they could immediately fit right in. But
I've been going to NFL practices for fifteen years. The

(59:24):
size of these human beings. You know, you're getting a
thirty year old who has been in a strength and
conditioning program since they were in college. They are just
physically superior than a nineteen year old guy. That's why
so many young players come into the NFL are and
just overwhelmed, because there is a physical strength component, which
just takes time to figure out. There is outliers who

(59:47):
just come in, hit the ground running like panay seouls physicality,
ready to go right, b Jon Robinson, you just Taquon
Barkley are outliers. But there are a lot of guys
you saw. Look look at Marvin Harrison Junior last year.
It's like, God, this is not going well. What do

(01:00:08):
you do this offseason? Put him like twelve pounds of muscle.
It's like, I need I need to be more physical.
Now we can argue whether he should have done that
or shouldn't have done that, but like in his mind,
it's like I'm not gonna last. So I just don't
think it's really comparable with all the discourse surrounding Shade

(01:00:28):
or Sanders after his first team reps in an NFL game,
I feel like I'm going crazy people saying, well, he
hasn't got any of the first team reps in practice?
Is that not a normal type thing for a backup quarterback?
What do you think about his first NFL performance? I
think I told coward this, like I have no take,

(01:00:49):
Like what do you? Of course he looked terrible. He's
playing the Ravens he comes in, he hasn't got any reps. Now,
I don't expect him to look great this year, this
upcoming week, but my expectations coming in the middle of
the game, what did people think? But I also don't understand,
like Josina is shem Dion's payroll, Like, look at this

(01:01:10):
world class. It's just a throw It's the NFL. It's
not that serious. What are we talking about. But you
get no reps as a backup quarterback, none, I mean zero,
especially if the starting quarterback is also a rookie. So
to come in that game against the Ravens, he had

(01:01:30):
zero chance. None I mean. So my expectations were zero,
and that's what he just He didn't exceed them, He
just equaled them. He looked terrible, of course he did.
Most rookies, they were drafted in the fifth or sixth round.
They get thrown in in a divisional game in the
middle of the season with a team like the Ravens,
whose back was against the walls, playing like shit. They

(01:01:52):
started licking their lips because, unlike Dylan Gabriel, they knew
that he would move around a little bit. So you
blitz him, you get him running. He's not that great
an athlete. He's not going to run away from anyone
one thing of Chador's gonna have success. He's got to
get rid of the ball fast, the way that he
played in college holding it on and he made a
bunch of plays because he was playing in the Big twelve.

(01:02:14):
Now the Raiders, he might be ab, but Max is
going to come after you, and the Browns offensive line
is terrible. If he holds onto the ball, max y
five sacks. Got to get rid of the football. It's
the only way you can excel in the NFL unless
you are an elite athlete. Caleb can hold onto the ball.
He's fast, Chador is not. I'm a complete delusional Baker

(01:02:38):
Mayfield fan, so much so that I think he could
at his best win an MVP. Me too. I put
money on him to win the MVP, and it doesn't
look like he's going to. However, I think he's had
a significant crossroads. He's up for a new contract and
could now get significantly more money. I love the guy,
but I think he has limitations and needs a strong

(01:02:58):
cast around him. I believe a massive contract for Baker
could cause his career to start regressing. I don't hate
any human who cashes in on their value, but I
do think for his legacy a team friendly deal would
help him remain a top end quarterback. Do you agree
or disagree? Let's bring up Baker Mayfield's contract, and I

(01:03:24):
would say this most guys, the overwhelming majority of players.
This includes Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers need
good teammates. Aaron Rodgers was thrown to Jordy Nelson, DeVante
Adams in the peak of his career. Peyton Manning was
thrown to Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and handing the ball

(01:03:44):
to Edgrin James. So Tom Brady played with Gronk, Randy Moss,
Julian Edelman, Wes Welker. You do not excel without good teammates.
This is not golf. You need help, whether you're Aaron
Rodgers or whether you are JJ McCarthy. Right, But obviously

(01:04:05):
it helps to have better players, and when they're fully healthy,
Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and obviously Abuka are really good players. Well,
these guys are all banged up now, so it becomes difficult.
Baker Mayfield is not a free agent still twenty twenty six.
To me, if I'm Jason Light, I'd probably play it out,

(01:04:27):
not because I want to move on, but I'm in
no rush. And if i'm because I'm not offering them
sixty million dollars. So Baker Mayfield might just want to
play it out. Baker Mayfield's under contract next year for
he will make forty million dollars. Like, I don't think
they're in a huge rush to renegotiate right now. Plus,

(01:04:48):
you gotta we'll see how the second half of this
year plays out. Is taking just a fan theory. A
lot of Saints fans and analysts on YouTube argue that
we shouldn't win too many games so we can secure
you're a higher draft pick. But I wouldn't. I don't
think any player or coach in their right mind would
deliberately lose a game for draft position, at least not

(01:05:09):
New Orleans. In fact, we've seen Tennessee that even having
the number one overall pick doesn't turn around a program overnight.
It might be a stretch, but let's say the Saints
finished nine to eight. Should fans really be mad about
the outcome? Well, you're not going to finish nine and eight,
so you don't have to worry about that, but no
one in football tanks maybe the last week, but everyone

(01:05:29):
tries to win. Steven Ross offered Brian floor As one
hundred thousand dollars a game, and he told him to
take his money and shove it up his ass. This
is not basketball or baseball. It's honestly the reason the
NFL's king. In basketball, a third of the league doesn't
try to win all season, not like the last month,
like all season. They're not trying to win. We just

(01:05:50):
had the Chauncey Billups scandal, like he's telling people like, yeah,
we're tanking right now. It's not how the NFL works,
partly because there's not as much guaranteed money. The majority
of players have no guaranteed money and can be cut
at any moment, so you have to try in two.
This part of baseball is you get to play every day. Right,

(01:06:12):
Even in basketball you get play whatever three times a week,
so that had another game. In football, you get one
game a week, and depending on what position you play,
like if you're a rotational defensive lineman, you only only
get twenty snaps. You spend all week rehabbing, training, lifting meetings, practice,

(01:06:34):
cold tubs, saunas, just doing shit, that isn't that fun
day after day after day just for the game. Ray
Lewis hit the nail on the head man, you pay
me Monday through Saturday. Games are free football. I don't
care what level of football you've ever played. You can
play a pickup game, let alone high school football, college football.

(01:06:57):
The games are the only fun part of the other
football unless you're just a nut job like Peyton Manning
is kind of tedious and hard. It's a grind where
the games you kind of just get to let loose
and play. So it's like these players are trying to win.
You can't really tank a game. I think football is

(01:07:19):
very lucky that way. They have two things really going
for them. One, it's incredible television products. Once a week,
every game matters. Even when they don't matter, they still
kind of matter. In the NFL, it's a very highly
contested league. You could have anyone beat anybody, so like
you get weekly great games. And two, you don't really

(01:07:41):
have to worry about like no one's throwing games, Like
all the stuff that goes on in these other sports
is just not happening in the NFL. Question could Denver
or Indy if Lamar Josh or Mahomes play them in
the playoffs on the road. Do you think either team
has a chance against those clearly superior quarterbacks. I would say, jaw.

(01:08:02):
I mean, the Chiefs are kind of in shambles right now.
Denver and Indy would host those three teams, So I
would say this about Denver and Indy. Both of them
fall under the categories. They are no shoeings to just
win other playoff games. If you told me, like Josh
Allen was the quarterback of Denver, it'd be like, they're unstoppable,

(01:08:24):
no chance they could lose. Can you lose a playoff
game of bow Knicks one percent? I mean we've seen
them have these awful games, and when you're playing Denver,
it's like, right, I mean, when you're playing the Giants,
you're not out of it. You're playing Lamar Jackson. If
you're down ten points, you're probably not coming back. If

(01:08:44):
bow Knicks having a bad game, I hope all as well.
This question is for the mailbag. I would like to
understand why the media and sometimes you as well, refuse
to talk about certain teams like the Carolina Panthers if
their record in the past few years. Many teams have
been worse and get talked about a lot more Jets, Giants, Browns,

(01:09:09):
and few times the Panthers are mentioned. The information can
be flat out wrong, like, for example, calling calling Bryce
Young an injury prone player when he's missed two games
since college. I guess he got benched. Every time I
look at the Panthers, he's on the ground. I mean,
it doesn't look like he's gonna get up. Maybe he
does more. This isn't that complicated, No different than many

(01:09:31):
of you, whatever your industry is. We're just in the
business of talking about the big stories, and the Panthers
are just not a big story. If they were, they
would be discussed more. And when I say not a
big story, a story that people care about, Like, I'm
not in the television business, so I don't talk about
the Cowboys every single day. But there's a reason that

(01:09:53):
they talk about the Cowboys, the Lakers, and the Yankees,
cause it works. If it didn't, they wouldn't. This entire
thing is a numbers game. I never understand people in
the media that I remember when I used to work
in the Bay Area, if you talked about the A's consistently,
you would go out of business. But some people couldn't
stop talking about the A's because I don't really know why,

(01:10:18):
Like we're not in the Like I'm not emotional about
any of this stuff, which is sad. I used to
love sports and I still do, Like I still enjoy
watching the games, but I look about about like all
my angles of what I'm going to talk about ninety
nine percent is just how am I going to talk
about something that's interesting with something that people care about.

(01:10:40):
Where the Panthers, who have been historically terrible over the
last however many years, firing coaches left and right, you're
finally six and five, you expect to get treated like
the Eagles or Sean McVay or the Packers. That's not
how this thing works. Now, when you had Cam Newton
and you had some interesting stuff going on, We'll talked
about you more. But the look at the Saints, they

(01:11:04):
had Drew Brees and Sean Payton and they were a
national story. Well those two guys disappear. They no longer are.
There are certain just like there are certain industries that
are recession proof, not many, but there are some. There
are some teams that are are proof. The justin the
Giants it's New York City. They have more people that

(01:11:26):
live in that area than any other city in America.
So do the math. They have more fans just based
on a in a region than any other area in America.
Why do people talk a lot about the Packers and
the Steelers They have massive fan bases. There's a reason
people don't talk about the Arizona Cardinals often. They don't

(01:11:47):
have as many fans as the forty nine Ers, as
the Packers, as the Philadelphia Eagles. This is all the
numbers game now. Like, as a podcaster, I can talk
about whatever I want, so when things are interesting to me,
I talk about them. I've talked about the Panthers before
with temper some of their trades. But like, just because
you're six and five for the first time in a

(01:12:08):
decade doesn't mean we're gonna get on our knees and
give you a reach round. So just pump the brakes.
You gotta win some games. When you're a smaller market
and you've been really bad, you don't just jump to
the front of the line. It's not how it works.
I don't know what else to tell you. I help
when I I had two NFL teams, when I worked

(01:12:29):
in the Berry and I did radio. You would been
crazy to not talk forty nine ers seventy five percent
of the time. Why because even in that region they
outnumbered Raider fans. I don't know what the exact number is,
but it was a lot too a little. And then
we're talking the NFL. We're talking the Raiders who had

(01:12:51):
a historic brand. So it why do we talk about
the Giants more in the ACE? Because it's all a
numbers game? What is wrong with the race? Why do
coaches who have proven they can't succeed at certain areas
get so many chances Josh as a head coach, Chip
Kelly is a coordinator. Also, why does being the poorest

(01:13:12):
owner matter? Is it less for the assistant or other
owners pay more? We have been rebuilding for so many years. Uh,
I just think being the poorest owner they're not anymore
because Vegas has generated them a lot of money. It
matters because you can give large signing bonuses. So like

(01:13:37):
when Khalil Mack wanted to trade, the Raiders could not
offer the same contract that the Bears offered them. Why
because the Bears had more money. Now in twenty twenty five,
in theory, the Raiders should have a lot more money
they can. Mike Mayock and John Gruden have talked about this.
We could not structure our contracts the same as the
Ramps or the Cowboys or the Eagles or whoever. Now

(01:14:02):
if that changed. So you're going after a free agent
and you both are offering them three year contracts, well,
I'm going to structure one to give you twenty million
dollars up front, and the Raiders do more of a
year by year situation with maybe five million dollars. I'm
just using some hypothetical, but that's where it matters. So

(01:14:23):
it really used to impact them. I mean, I remember
Greg Papa telling me a story the reason JaMarcus Russell
and some of the guys in the two thousands used
to hold out when they were drafted high because Al
didn't have the money to give them their signing bonus.
And back then rookies used to make a ton of money.
He had to wait for the media deals to distribute
the revenue share that that's obviously changed that they have

(01:14:47):
more money now than they did back then, but it's
a hindrance and it has been on the Raiders historically.
Now the reason they're losing right now. It's why they
got Brady and the money guys involved. They needed more cash.
They got it. Now, well, do they hire the wrong coach?
The Chip Kelly thing is I mean, he's been horrendous.

(01:15:09):
Now should they be the number one offense in the league,
of course not. Should they be as bad as they've been,
No chance they have to be. The Cowboys defense is awful,
and you watch the Raiders, you're like, what is going on?
So I think the Raiders are at the point now
where it's like, you got to hire the right coaches,

(01:15:30):
you got to find a quarterback, You just got to
get better players. So it's on spy Tech and the
scouting staff now to improve that roster because it's pretty terrible.
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