December 3, 2024 • 16 mins
Jori Epstein, covers all things NFL for Yahoo Sports and she talks about Justin Tucker's struggles as the Baltimore Ravens lose to the Philadelphia Eagles, is Jameis Winston the answer at QB for the Cleveland Browns, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining s on the Beacon Plumbing Highline. Excuse me seeks
pizzas presenting on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline seeks pizza homegrown
in the Northwest. Joey Epstein joined us every Tuesday at
eleven o'clock, and she joins us now from New York. Hello, ma'am,
I hope your week is a little less chaotic as
last week was.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Absolutely, we are settling in. We have no more plugs
than the apartment, so I am doing great. How are
you guys doing? And how did my city, New York
treat you?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It was fine. It was beautiful cold but for a
West Coaster, a little chili twenty five degree wind chill.
But yeah, I was. I was looking for you. I
thought maybe i'd see a jump into the press box.
You didn't want to go see a three and nine
team on a twenty five year degree wind chill Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's very tempting that I instead skipped Jet Seahawks and
right wrote off the Raisins Eagles games. So it was
a tough call between which of those games is going
to be market?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, very tough call. You made the right one. Tell
us about the Eagles. What's going on with them to
go down the ball more and just thump John Harbaughs
boys on their home field shut down an offense that
has been scoring forty plus points against most teams. I think,
if I'm not mistaken, that was like a twenty one
to six type game into the fourth quarter. Right.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely. The thing about the Eagles is we expected going
in that they should be able to do something on offense.
This is a team that has Jalen Hurt, They have
a j Brown and DeVonta Smith. That offensive line has
been one of the best in the league perennially with
their offensive line coach, even without Jason Kelsey, and then
you add Saquon Barkley to the mix and it's really
just which problem do you want to deal with because
(01:34):
you're not going to be able to stop them all.
But what we didn't realize about the Eagles coming into
the season, if their defense is way ahead of where
I thought it would be. They're in their first year
of say Pango as their coordinator. A couple of games
they need to get going earlier in the year, but
now their two rookie corners are really stepping up. They've
got a linebacker and Zach Bond, who spent four years
(01:55):
as a New Orleans special teamer and now is on
his way to All Pro I mean leading the league
and solo tackles, interceptions, fumbles, I mean just amazing. So
I think when you have those kind of pieces on
defense playing the way that they are and stepping up,
that really helps contain an offense that has Lamar Jackson
and Derrick Henry.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
While we're on the subject of Eagles Ravens, what's going
on with Justin Tucker? I mean, he's one of the
best ever and he booms it from everywhere up to
sixty yards and he seems to never miss. And what
is he now? He's missed four in the last two games.
I think it is in. Is there a concern? I
actually look at it now. He was two for four
against the Eagles, one for three two weeks ago at Pittsburgh.
(02:37):
They end up losing that game by two points. Is
there Justin Tucker concerned? I know Harbor will say no,
But what do you think is going on there?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, it's a great question. And those are the field
goals he missed, but he also missed extra points and
so in total he missed three kicks this pack game.
That's two field goals and an extra point, so seven
points in a five point fos and he it's ten
kicks already this season in games to his career. I
think it's important to note a couple of things. The
first is that Justin Tucker is still a very good
(03:08):
NFL kicker. We've seen kickers that have an injury, let's
say that they're growing at their leg or something that
keeps them from being able to make the kicks. That's
not what Justin Tucker appears to be dealing with. He
still made a fifty yard field goal this pass game.
We also have kickers where they have the gifts and
they just cannot make field goals and they're missing a
bunch of chip shots. He would miss a field goal
or an extra point, and then he made them afterwards,
(03:29):
So this wasn't something that he didn't make any kicks.
That said, they have always been able to rely on
him from pretty much any business they wanted, and now
all of his misses have come from forty plus range.
And so I think if you're the reasons, what you
need to do is if you don't want to lose
a playoff game because miskicks which I think that a
tune has already been so close, and then added Derek
(03:49):
Hennery certainly has playoff hopes and deep playoff hopes. You
probably need to readjust your decision making calculus and understand, well,
under forty Justin still reliable over forty. It's not that
we should never trust him in. The reality is I
would be shocked that they could sign a kicker who
they can trust more than Justin Tucker. At this point
in the season. There's not thirty two good kickers in
the league, and Justin's still one of the better ones.
(04:11):
He's just more normal than fantastic now. But you do
need to consider at the longer distances if you should
maybe go for it on fourth down a couple more
times to.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
That point, Jory. In twenty twenty two, when Justin Tucker
led the NFL thirty seven of forty three field goals made,
he was nine of fourteen from fifty plus. The last
two seasons combined, he's five for fourteen he's this year,
he's seventy percent on his kicks. In twenty twenty one,
he led the NFL with ninety five percent field goal percentage.
(04:40):
He's on the seventy right now. So to your point, yeah,
the Raven's gonna have to drive deeper to feel like
they can score. This is Joey Epstein. He's her weekly
visit with us on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline. Thanks to
Zeke's Pizza home grown in the Northwest, order online at
Zeke's Pizza, Zeekspizza dot Com.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Jory Jamis Winston, he is setting the world on fire
from eaton W's to his I don't know how to
describe his pregame speeches with reporters, but he is definitely
an entertainment factor and then he plays, for the most part,
some good football. He did have two big pick sixes
against the Denver bronxx and that Monday night game last night.
But I'm curious, are is this team really looking forward?
(05:21):
Moving forward with Jamis?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Four hundred yard night man, he was lighting it, I know,
but there's always This was.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Four hundred and ninety seven passing plus eleven. He was
over five hundred yards of total offense, which is just insane.
But yeah, four hundred and ninety seven passing alone, four touchdowns,
three interceptions. Everything that good that could happen did happen
to Jamis Winston against the Denver Broncos at the nine
point loss, and I think when I look at it,
there's two elements. There's the offense and the defense. I
thought that Troy made a great point on the Color
(05:48):
Analysis last night when he said that even the defense
is looking better when James is playing, and there is
just more energy across the team. And the way he
put it, he said, quote to Shaun Watson is the Albatros.
And so I think you have to ask yourself, is
you have to see what Jamis is able to do.
Can he play a little more cleanly? Which he has
played more cleanly the second half of his career show
(06:09):
to say than he did toward the end of his
Tampa when he had thirty interceptions in the season. But
I think that you also have to realize that whether
it's Jamis or somebody else, the team should not go
back to Shaun Watson. It doesn't matter how much dead money.
I mean. I think last night's the perfect games and
talk about that because they were playing a team that
was willing to take on eighty five million dollars in
(06:29):
big cap space for Russell Wilson, who was playing at
a much better level than Deshaun Watson and look what
they've done. So I think that's what the Cleveland Browns
can take from last night isn't don't keep letting a
bad decision get worse because you're not willing to move on.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The moral of that story is, don't pay a quarterback
who's got all kinds of issues two hundred and fifty
eight million dollars all guaranteed. You don't back yourself into
that situation. That's how desperate the Browns were a quarterback, Jory.
What Thanksgivings? I mean, that was a weird Thanksgiving for
the Bears, to say the least. The eber Flus press conference,
(07:05):
what was all that about? And now they're on a
coaching search and I don't remember a coach getting fired
on a Friday before. The whole thing is weird, just weird.
Haven't covered the league as long as I have. Yeah,
the team's losing, so they fire their coach, but how
they're doing it just seems weird.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
What's funny to me, Gregor you understand us having Colored
League even longer than I have, is if the Bears
have said, look, it's Thanksgiving weekend, we're not going to
have a press conference tomorrow. We've got ten days before
the game. We'll give you the press conference Monday. I've
been I mean, I covered the Cowboys for seven years,
and they would always have Mike McCarthy talk on Friday,
after Jason Garrett, whoever it was, they would have someone
(07:42):
talk on Friday. But if every work in a while,
when you say, look, this is not a normal schedule.
So the Bears argument for having either Fast get up
there a couple hours before he was let go is
that it would look weird to stay delayed. But they
could have preempted this from the beginning by just saying
it's a holiday weekend. We changed the schedule. That happens
in the NFL all the time. And then you have yesterday.
(08:03):
So Monday, Bear's president Kevin warren gets up there. General
manager Ryan Poles also at the podium, and they're like, well,
we didn't want to say anything until he had told
his family. We want to talk to him directly. We're
still making the decision. We could have done better. And
then Kevin Warrens goes on to say, first of all,
you have confidence in GM Ryan Toles, and Poles is
going to be the general manager Ryan Board, which is
(08:24):
a little bit of a bold moves because whether or
not you think Ryan Poles has done a great job,
there wasn't a lot to gain by expressing your confidences yesterday.
Clearly he's still there if he's sitting next to you
at the podium. And the downside is what if you
have a head coach like sen Johnson, He says, I
want to bring my GM with me if you want me,
I'm bringing my GM. Well, now, what you dug yourself
into a hole where you committed to a GM who
(08:45):
by no means have put together a winning team. On
top of that, you have Kevin Warren saying this is
going to be the most coveted job in the National
Football League. And an executive texted me after that from
a team that does not need to coach right now,
and said, if you have the most coveted job in
the National Football League, you do not have to say
that you have the most coveted job in the National
Football League. And I thought that was a great way
(09:06):
to put it. So, I don't know, it was a
little wild to me that Thomas Brown seems like the
most like poised and articulate and in control member of
the three of them who spoke when he's the one
least likely to be with the Bears in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
The Bears have had so many coaching changes over the years,
yet this is the first time they've ever fired a
coach in his first during his first season. And if
you can point to a reason, why is it the
play calling? Is that the game management decisions. Yeah, they're
four and eight, but their offensive line might be worse
than the Seahawks would. What would you say went wrong
(09:41):
for Eberflus And you mentioned Ben Johnson. There's no way
in hell the Lions are going to let Ben Johnson
be the bears next head coach? Are there any other
candidates you could think of? Ben Johnson's gonna be on
everybody's radar. Of course again this offseason.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Great. Yeah, So just one quick note on never because
it wasn't his first year, but it was his third
year the Bears coach. But this is the first time
that the Bears have ever fired a coach in season
as opposed to yes, thank you so. People definitely expected
that to come at the end of the season rather
than now. Like I don't think many people thought that
he befoot was keeping his job. He was already on
(10:15):
the hot seat going into this year. But now I
think what they worried about is that, Okay, you've got
a rookie quarterback, he's the number one overall pick. You
need to show something. I mean, also, you kind of
has saved your job if you're Kevin Warren and rampools.
But the problem with their strategy is the best thing
that Bears did in the last few weeks was after
they fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldrins. And you guys know
very well Thomas Brown had the offense improving significantly, the
(10:38):
quarterbacks improving significantly. Now they elevate him to interim head coach, Well,
he is still calling placed, but he's got all this
other stuff on the plate, like give the head coach
job to someone else, unless the guy who's finally doing
something right to help your quarterback develop, which would be
your number one goal and what's going to be a
lost season from a records standpoint, keep doing what he's doing.
And they chose not to do that. So that's definitely
(11:00):
tricky in terms of who would come there. I think
they're going to have a debate, which is do you
want the best offensive mind, who can create the best
themes and the best coaching for your quarterback? Or do
you want what Kevin Warren said yesterday is the quote
leader of men? And that was a term that team
owner George mccafs you tweeted out as well. And from
all accounts when people around the league, I hear that
they want more of the latter. I mean, people keep
(11:20):
telling me that that there want their equivalent of Mike Tomeron,
And so I think, who is that going to be?
Who can really set a culture independence of who the
play color is. I think that's dangerous because yes, maybe
you'll have the culture, but if you do well, your
coordinator's leaving after a year. And Caleb's already going to
have three offensive coordinators in his first year, likely four
by the beginning of next year. And so what are
(11:40):
you going to do? Give them five and three years?
It's not really a recipe for success. But I will say,
in addition to Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, the Detroit Lions
defensive coordinator, definitely has a lot of respect around the
league and definitely has that the expectation that he will
come in instead a culture in a really impressive way.
The way that Mike Tomlin has in Pittsburgh, he would
be in the rmind. Mike Brabel definitely is an interesting name.
(12:03):
That's because of the way he established a culture before
as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Seahawks at Bears in twenty three days in Soldier Field
in Chicago the day after Christmas Jory. I saw Aaron
Rodgers up close. I've been covering him for all twenty
years of his career, and I rarely see him throw
as errantly as often as he did on Sunday. He
missed a wide open Garrett Wilson for what should have
been the touchdown to make a twenty eight to seven
the play before the Leonard Waians pick six, on which
(12:28):
Rodgers got fooled by Mike McDonald and his scheme dropping
a nose tackle in the coverage. Do you see a
future for Ann Rodgers? It certainly doesn't look like it's
in the Jets. We talked to Antoine Daily the New
York Daily News on Friday, and he said he doesn't
see any way possible that Aaron Rodgers stayed with the
new regime coming in. Do you think he plays next year?
Do you think we're watching the last month of Aaron
Rodgers' long, storied career.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Look, I think that we don't expect to see Aaron
Rodgers playing with the guests for several reasons, including the
fact that Aaron rodgers public comments have become pretty self
preservation life. Where he was asked after the game against
the Seahawks, won't went wrong and if he's healthy, why
isn't he making the throws? And he said some of
them around me for sure, some of them are my fault.
Other times there were issues with the details elsewhere, and
(13:13):
I'm not saying that that's not true. I agree with
Aaron Rodgers if there were other people who made mistakes
in the game besides him, But as the quarterbacks of
a franchise, you don't say that like everyone knows that
implicitly if you're the headset. I mean, this is one
of the reasons that the Bears didn't keep head coach
Maddie for plot. The team felt he wasn't taking accountability,
and so I think as Aaron Rodgers starts going increasingly
towards defending himself at the expense of his teammates, it
(13:35):
was one thing to do it to one player. Mike Williams,
the receiver who he was able to get moved on
the trading block. But when you structured so much of
the team around Aaron Rodgers friends and teammates, then you
need to take more accountability than that. I do think
that Aaron Rodgers is going to get another job off
or if he wants it next year. I think that
he's got way too much talent for coaches to not
convince themselves that they have plenty left in the tank.
(13:58):
And I also think that, I mean, we have so
many Aaron Rodgers and Brett Farv comparisons, but Farv when
he went to the gest for the year, had twenty
two touchdowns to twenty two interceptions. I think he was
thirty nine years old at the time, thirty eight, so
just a couple of years younger than Aaron Rodgers. The
next year he goes to the Vikings, goes twelve and four,
leads the league in lowest interception percentage, So I think
(14:20):
that he would not be the first one to bounce back.
And also given that he's only in his first year
coming off the Achilles, there is a perspective around the
league that whether it's acl or Achilles, all of those
things are not going to be quite right in your
first year back, it's really your second year. So I
think whether or not Aaron Rodgers will play well again
is a legitimate question. Whether teams will convince themselves that
(14:40):
they should hire him again. I don't think that's in question.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Aaron Rodgers turned forty one yesterday. Say what you will
about Gino Smith, but when he was leading the league
in interceptions, he says, it's me. I got the ball
and I have to be better. He doesn't say about
factors and all these other things that talked about. Jory,
Where are you at this weekend?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
This weekend I will be home again, so plenty of
games on the road. And then Monday I will go
to Dallas, Who've got the owners meetings in the Dallas
area this coming week, so it will not be at
a game. Will they got the owner's meetings and I'll
be in labor someone are there at the front office,
so plenty of relevant people in the same place. And
that was to be accelerator program for the front officer
(15:21):
as well. So I'm excited to get a sense of
what the buzz is there and report back to you
guys from Dallas next week.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Thursday night Packers, Lions. They got Falcons Vikings. The Falcons
are sinking. What game intrigues you the most this weekend?
Bill's Rams. There's a couple of good ones in the Seahawks,
Cardinals have a decent one down in the desert. What
didn't encourage you? What intrigues you most?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I mean that Thirsdon one really is hard to talk
to Packers and the Lions. I think it wouldn't surprise me.
It's a division game that, even though the Lions might
be a stronger team and a more consistent team, when
you go in division like that and just what's going
on there, there has to be a time when someone
gets the best of the Lions right, and that might
actual we end up being one of the best things
that could happen to the Lions. So I would definitely
(16:04):
imagine that we will get a good game there.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Ninety three Packers at eleven to one Lions, Thursday night,
right here on ninety three point three KJFM at five
point fifteen. Joy, thank you, enjoy your weekend. We'll enjoy
trip back onto Dallas. We'll talk to you next week
from Dallas, apparently.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Thank you absolutely, Greg Chrispher I'll fifteen next week,
Joining s on the Beacon Plumbing Highline. Excuse me seeks
pizzas presenting on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline seeks pizza homegrown
in the Northwest. Joey Epstein joined us every Tuesday at
eleven o'clock, and she joins us now from New York. Hello, ma'am,
I hope your week is a little less chaotic as
last week was.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Absolutely, we are settling in. We have no more plugs
than the apartment, so I am doing great. How are
you guys doing? And how did my city, New York
treat you?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It was fine. It was beautiful cold but for a
West Coaster, a little chili twenty five degree wind chill.
But yeah, I was. I was looking for you. I
thought maybe i'd see a jump into the press box.
You didn't want to go see a three and nine
team on a twenty five year degree wind chill Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's very tempting that I instead skipped Jet Seahawks and
right wrote off the Raisins Eagles games. So it was
a tough call between which of those games is going
to be market?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, very tough call. You made the right one. Tell
us about the Eagles. What's going on with them to
go down the ball more and just thump John Harbaughs
boys on their home field shut down an offense that
has been scoring forty plus points against most teams. I think,
if I'm not mistaken, that was like a twenty one
to six type game into the fourth quarter. Right.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely. The thing about the Eagles is we expected going
in that they should be able to do something on offense.
This is a team that has Jalen Hurt, They have
a j Brown and DeVonta Smith. That offensive line has
been one of the best in the league perennially with
their offensive line coach, even without Jason Kelsey, and then
you add Saquon Barkley to the mix and it's really
just which problem do you want to deal with because
(01:34):
you're not going to be able to stop them all.
But what we didn't realize about the Eagles coming into
the season, if their defense is way ahead of where
I thought it would be. They're in their first year
of say Pango as their coordinator. A couple of games
they need to get going earlier in the year, but
now their two rookie corners are really stepping up. They've
got a linebacker and Zach Bond, who spent four years
(01:55):
as a New Orleans special teamer and now is on
his way to All Pro I mean leading the league
and solo tackles, interceptions, fumbles, I mean just amazing. So
I think when you have those kind of pieces on
defense playing the way that they are and stepping up,
that really helps contain an offense that has Lamar Jackson
and Derrick Henry.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
While we're on the subject of Eagles Ravens, what's going
on with Justin Tucker? I mean, he's one of the
best ever and he booms it from everywhere up to
sixty yards and he seems to never miss. And what
is he now? He's missed four in the last two games.
I think it is in. Is there a concern? I
actually look at it now. He was two for four
against the Eagles, one for three two weeks ago at Pittsburgh.
(02:37):
They end up losing that game by two points. Is
there Justin Tucker concerned? I know Harbor will say no,
But what do you think is going on there?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, it's a great question. And those are the field
goals he missed, but he also missed extra points and
so in total he missed three kicks this pack game.
That's two field goals and an extra point, so seven
points in a five point fos and he it's ten
kicks already this season in games to his career. I
think it's important to note a couple of things. The
first is that Justin Tucker is still a very good
(03:08):
NFL kicker. We've seen kickers that have an injury, let's
say that they're growing at their leg or something that
keeps them from being able to make the kicks. That's
not what Justin Tucker appears to be dealing with. He
still made a fifty yard field goal this pass game.
We also have kickers where they have the gifts and
they just cannot make field goals and they're missing a
bunch of chip shots. He would miss a field goal
or an extra point, and then he made them afterwards,
(03:29):
So this wasn't something that he didn't make any kicks.
That said, they have always been able to rely on
him from pretty much any business they wanted, and now
all of his misses have come from forty plus range.
And so I think if you're the reasons, what you
need to do is if you don't want to lose
a playoff game because miskicks which I think that a
tune has already been so close, and then added Derek
(03:49):
Hennery certainly has playoff hopes and deep playoff hopes. You
probably need to readjust your decision making calculus and understand, well,
under forty Justin still reliable over forty. It's not that
we should never trust him in. The reality is I
would be shocked that they could sign a kicker who
they can trust more than Justin Tucker. At this point
in the season. There's not thirty two good kickers in
the league, and Justin's still one of the better ones.
(04:11):
He's just more normal than fantastic now. But you do
need to consider at the longer distances if you should
maybe go for it on fourth down a couple more
times to.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
That point, Jory. In twenty twenty two, when Justin Tucker
led the NFL thirty seven of forty three field goals made,
he was nine of fourteen from fifty plus. The last
two seasons combined, he's five for fourteen he's this year,
he's seventy percent on his kicks. In twenty twenty one,
he led the NFL with ninety five percent field goal percentage.
(04:40):
He's on the seventy right now. So to your point, yeah,
the Raven's gonna have to drive deeper to feel like
they can score. This is Joey Epstein. He's her weekly
visit with us on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline. Thanks to
Zeke's Pizza home grown in the Northwest, order online at
Zeke's Pizza, Zeekspizza dot Com.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Jory Jamis Winston, he is setting the world on fire
from eaton W's to his I don't know how to
describe his pregame speeches with reporters, but he is definitely
an entertainment factor and then he plays, for the most part,
some good football. He did have two big pick sixes
against the Denver bronxx and that Monday night game last night.
But I'm curious, are is this team really looking forward?
(05:21):
Moving forward with Jamis?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Four hundred yard night man, he was lighting it, I know,
but there's always This was.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Four hundred and ninety seven passing plus eleven. He was
over five hundred yards of total offense, which is just insane.
But yeah, four hundred and ninety seven passing alone, four touchdowns,
three interceptions. Everything that good that could happen did happen
to Jamis Winston against the Denver Broncos at the nine
point loss, and I think when I look at it,
there's two elements. There's the offense and the defense. I
thought that Troy made a great point on the Color
(05:48):
Analysis last night when he said that even the defense
is looking better when James is playing, and there is
just more energy across the team. And the way he
put it, he said, quote to Shaun Watson is the Albatros.
And so I think you have to ask yourself, is
you have to see what Jamis is able to do.
Can he play a little more cleanly? Which he has
played more cleanly the second half of his career show
(06:09):
to say than he did toward the end of his
Tampa when he had thirty interceptions in the season. But
I think that you also have to realize that whether
it's Jamis or somebody else, the team should not go
back to Shaun Watson. It doesn't matter how much dead money.
I mean. I think last night's the perfect games and
talk about that because they were playing a team that
was willing to take on eighty five million dollars in
(06:29):
big cap space for Russell Wilson, who was playing at
a much better level than Deshaun Watson and look what
they've done. So I think that's what the Cleveland Browns
can take from last night isn't don't keep letting a
bad decision get worse because you're not willing to move on.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The moral of that story is, don't pay a quarterback
who's got all kinds of issues two hundred and fifty
eight million dollars all guaranteed. You don't back yourself into
that situation. That's how desperate the Browns were a quarterback, Jory.
What Thanksgivings? I mean, that was a weird Thanksgiving for
the Bears, to say the least. The eber Flus press conference,
(07:05):
what was all that about? And now they're on a
coaching search and I don't remember a coach getting fired
on a Friday before. The whole thing is weird, just weird.
Haven't covered the league as long as I have. Yeah,
the team's losing, so they fire their coach, but how
they're doing it just seems weird.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
What's funny to me, Gregor you understand us having Colored
League even longer than I have, is if the Bears
have said, look, it's Thanksgiving weekend, we're not going to
have a press conference tomorrow. We've got ten days before
the game. We'll give you the press conference Monday. I've
been I mean, I covered the Cowboys for seven years,
and they would always have Mike McCarthy talk on Friday,
after Jason Garrett, whoever it was, they would have someone
(07:42):
talk on Friday. But if every work in a while,
when you say, look, this is not a normal schedule.
So the Bears argument for having either Fast get up
there a couple hours before he was let go is
that it would look weird to stay delayed. But they
could have preempted this from the beginning by just saying
it's a holiday weekend. We changed the schedule. That happens
in the NFL all the time. And then you have yesterday.
(08:03):
So Monday, Bear's president Kevin warren gets up there. General
manager Ryan Poles also at the podium, and they're like, well,
we didn't want to say anything until he had told
his family. We want to talk to him directly. We're
still making the decision. We could have done better. And
then Kevin Warrens goes on to say, first of all,
you have confidence in GM Ryan Toles, and Poles is
going to be the general manager Ryan Board, which is
(08:24):
a little bit of a bold moves because whether or
not you think Ryan Poles has done a great job,
there wasn't a lot to gain by expressing your confidences yesterday.
Clearly he's still there if he's sitting next to you
at the podium. And the downside is what if you
have a head coach like sen Johnson, He says, I
want to bring my GM with me if you want me,
I'm bringing my GM. Well, now, what you dug yourself
into a hole where you committed to a GM who
(08:45):
by no means have put together a winning team. On
top of that, you have Kevin Warren saying this is
going to be the most coveted job in the National
Football League. And an executive texted me after that from
a team that does not need to coach right now,
and said, if you have the most coveted job in
the National Football League, you do not have to say
that you have the most coveted job in the National
Football League. And I thought that was a great way
(09:06):
to put it. So, I don't know, it was a
little wild to me that Thomas Brown seems like the
most like poised and articulate and in control member of
the three of them who spoke when he's the one
least likely to be with the Bears in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
The Bears have had so many coaching changes over the years,
yet this is the first time they've ever fired a
coach in his first during his first season. And if
you can point to a reason, why is it the
play calling? Is that the game management decisions. Yeah, they're
four and eight, but their offensive line might be worse
than the Seahawks would. What would you say went wrong
(09:41):
for Eberflus And you mentioned Ben Johnson. There's no way
in hell the Lions are going to let Ben Johnson
be the bears next head coach? Are there any other
candidates you could think of? Ben Johnson's gonna be on
everybody's radar. Of course again this offseason.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Great. Yeah, So just one quick note on never because
it wasn't his first year, but it was his third
year the Bears coach. But this is the first time
that the Bears have ever fired a coach in season
as opposed to yes, thank you so. People definitely expected
that to come at the end of the season rather
than now. Like I don't think many people thought that
he befoot was keeping his job. He was already on
(10:15):
the hot seat going into this year. But now I
think what they worried about is that, Okay, you've got
a rookie quarterback, he's the number one overall pick. You
need to show something. I mean, also, you kind of
has saved your job if you're Kevin Warren and rampools.
But the problem with their strategy is the best thing
that Bears did in the last few weeks was after
they fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldrins. And you guys know
very well Thomas Brown had the offense improving significantly, the
(10:38):
quarterbacks improving significantly. Now they elevate him to interim head coach, Well,
he is still calling placed, but he's got all this
other stuff on the plate, like give the head coach
job to someone else, unless the guy who's finally doing
something right to help your quarterback develop, which would be
your number one goal and what's going to be a
lost season from a records standpoint, keep doing what he's doing.
And they chose not to do that. So that's definitely
(11:00):
tricky in terms of who would come there. I think
they're going to have a debate, which is do you
want the best offensive mind, who can create the best
themes and the best coaching for your quarterback? Or do
you want what Kevin Warren said yesterday is the quote
leader of men? And that was a term that team
owner George mccafs you tweeted out as well. And from
all accounts when people around the league, I hear that
they want more of the latter. I mean, people keep
(11:20):
telling me that that there want their equivalent of Mike Tomeron,
And so I think, who is that going to be?
Who can really set a culture independence of who the
play color is. I think that's dangerous because yes, maybe
you'll have the culture, but if you do well, your
coordinator's leaving after a year. And Caleb's already going to
have three offensive coordinators in his first year, likely four
by the beginning of next year. And so what are
(11:40):
you going to do? Give them five and three years?
It's not really a recipe for success. But I will say,
in addition to Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, the Detroit Lions
defensive coordinator, definitely has a lot of respect around the
league and definitely has that the expectation that he will
come in instead a culture in a really impressive way.
The way that Mike Tomlin has in Pittsburgh, he would
be in the rmind. Mike Brabel definitely is an interesting name.
(12:03):
That's because of the way he established a culture before
as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Seahawks at Bears in twenty three days in Soldier Field
in Chicago the day after Christmas Jory. I saw Aaron
Rodgers up close. I've been covering him for all twenty
years of his career, and I rarely see him throw
as errantly as often as he did on Sunday. He
missed a wide open Garrett Wilson for what should have
been the touchdown to make a twenty eight to seven
the play before the Leonard Waians pick six, on which
(12:28):
Rodgers got fooled by Mike McDonald and his scheme dropping
a nose tackle in the coverage. Do you see a
future for Ann Rodgers? It certainly doesn't look like it's
in the Jets. We talked to Antoine Daily the New
York Daily News on Friday, and he said he doesn't
see any way possible that Aaron Rodgers stayed with the
new regime coming in. Do you think he plays next year?
Do you think we're watching the last month of Aaron
Rodgers' long, storied career.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Look, I think that we don't expect to see Aaron
Rodgers playing with the guests for several reasons, including the
fact that Aaron rodgers public comments have become pretty self
preservation life. Where he was asked after the game against
the Seahawks, won't went wrong and if he's healthy, why
isn't he making the throws? And he said some of
them around me for sure, some of them are my fault.
Other times there were issues with the details elsewhere, and
(13:13):
I'm not saying that that's not true. I agree with
Aaron Rodgers if there were other people who made mistakes
in the game besides him, But as the quarterbacks of
a franchise, you don't say that like everyone knows that
implicitly if you're the headset. I mean, this is one
of the reasons that the Bears didn't keep head coach
Maddie for plot. The team felt he wasn't taking accountability,
and so I think as Aaron Rodgers starts going increasingly
towards defending himself at the expense of his teammates, it
(13:35):
was one thing to do it to one player. Mike Williams,
the receiver who he was able to get moved on
the trading block. But when you structured so much of
the team around Aaron Rodgers friends and teammates, then you
need to take more accountability than that. I do think
that Aaron Rodgers is going to get another job off
or if he wants it next year. I think that
he's got way too much talent for coaches to not
convince themselves that they have plenty left in the tank.
(13:58):
And I also think that, I mean, we have so
many Aaron Rodgers and Brett Farv comparisons, but Farv when
he went to the gest for the year, had twenty
two touchdowns to twenty two interceptions. I think he was
thirty nine years old at the time, thirty eight, so
just a couple of years younger than Aaron Rodgers. The
next year he goes to the Vikings, goes twelve and four,
leads the league in lowest interception percentage, So I think
(14:20):
that he would not be the first one to bounce back.
And also given that he's only in his first year
coming off the Achilles, there is a perspective around the
league that whether it's acl or Achilles, all of those
things are not going to be quite right in your
first year back, it's really your second year. So I
think whether or not Aaron Rodgers will play well again
is a legitimate question. Whether teams will convince themselves that
(14:40):
they should hire him again. I don't think that's in question.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Aaron Rodgers turned forty one yesterday. Say what you will
about Gino Smith, but when he was leading the league
in interceptions, he says, it's me. I got the ball
and I have to be better. He doesn't say about
factors and all these other things that talked about. Jory,
Where are you at this weekend?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
This weekend I will be home again, so plenty of
games on the road. And then Monday I will go
to Dallas, Who've got the owners meetings in the Dallas
area this coming week, so it will not be at
a game. Will they got the owner's meetings and I'll
be in labor someone are there at the front office,
so plenty of relevant people in the same place. And
that was to be accelerator program for the front officer
(15:21):
as well. So I'm excited to get a sense of
what the buzz is there and report back to you
guys from Dallas next week.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Thursday night Packers, Lions. They got Falcons Vikings. The Falcons
are sinking. What game intrigues you the most this weekend?
Bill's Rams. There's a couple of good ones in the Seahawks,
Cardinals have a decent one down in the desert. What
didn't encourage you? What intrigues you most?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I mean that Thirsdon one really is hard to talk
to Packers and the Lions. I think it wouldn't surprise me.
It's a division game that, even though the Lions might
be a stronger team and a more consistent team, when
you go in division like that and just what's going
on there, there has to be a time when someone
gets the best of the Lions right, and that might
actual we end up being one of the best things
that could happen to the Lions. So I would definitely
(16:04):
imagine that we will get a good game there.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Ninety three Packers at eleven to one Lions, Thursday night,
right here on ninety three point three KJFM at five
point fifteen. Joy, thank you, enjoy your weekend. We'll enjoy
trip back onto Dallas. We'll talk to you next week
from Dallas, apparently.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Thank you absolutely, Greg Chrispher I'll fifteen next week,
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