January 18, 2023 • 34 mins
Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer filling in for Jason Smith discuss the crazy NFL coaching carousel, the insane upcoming fantasy insight for the playoffs ahead, and so much more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we are locked
and loaded outward two of the program, having a blast.
No Jason Smith tonight, and no, I'm not having a
blast because theer's no Jason Smith tonight. But we'd love
to be here live and in living color from the
tire Act dot Com studios and it having fun with
my guy, Dan Bayer, my my partner on the I
(00:46):
Watch Your Flex podcast. You here on weekdays with Doug
Gottlieb and Covino and Rich and of course on weekends
he's alongside George Rice round Red Zone Radio. Only eight
more teams remain. Dan, it's the elite eight in the
National Football League. And this is this is where it
gets good. I the Sunday double header is just so salivating.
(01:11):
I don't know if we're going to get great games.
I don't know what the Cowboys will have against San Francisco.
We're gonna find out. But that double header of Bengals,
Bills and Cowboys forty Niners is so good. Not to
diminish what what Saturday brings us, but I'm sorry, Saturday
just bails in the comparison to what we what we're
going to get in the games on Sunday. You leave
(01:34):
Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars alone. How dare you? Look?
What is it with all these rematches? By the way, No,
that's just it. It's really worked out very strangely this year,
hasn't it. Yes? Yes, And the fact that we still
have three NFC East teams alive. All these years we've
mocked them for their mediocrity, and well here they are.
(01:56):
Cowboys and Niners didn't play this year, and obviously know
what happened with Bills and Bengals. But you've got the
Jaguars and Chiefs, and obviously you mentioned the NFC East
of the Eagles and Giants and the third time they've met.
Although week seven, Week eighteen, excuse me, caught myself, probably
not the real test considering what was what was that? Still?
(02:19):
I still think we're going to get a good game
in that one, all right. Current Lions Kansas City favored
by eight at home over under, sitting at a robust
fifty three for that one, Dan Buyer, Uh, Giants Philadelphia
Philly seven and a half point home favorite forty eight
and a half, since Buffalo forty eight the total Buffalo
(02:39):
a five point favorite, and then Dallas San Francisco. This
is one you already saw a little bit of movement on.
This one opened at four down to three and a
half San Francisco. The home favorite forty six and a
half is your total and the curiosity, obviously in that
game all comes down to what can Michael Parsons and
the defensive front due to slop down? Uh, slow down,
(03:01):
slop it up and make brock Purty look human. He
looked really good against Seattle, but again Seattle doesn't have
anything defensively to to stop here to even show it
instance whatsoever. What's funny, though, Dan, is he he had
been so efficient in his first starts, the first half
he was quote shaky yeah, by a lot of people's estimation, like, okay,
(03:26):
so they're not dominating and they haven't run away and
hidden at this point, but it's not like he's throwing
the ball directly in the arms of the opposition. Here
the word moxie came into mind. We know it's a
good old school term, right, yes, And I felt that sign,
you know, callback to even Seinfeld, I felt that brock
(03:47):
Purdy showed a lot of moxie. There was there was
more it factor that we hear so much about, I
think in this game because he had an opportunity that
the times he actually put himself in harm's way, which
against better teams you're not going to be allowed to do.
(04:08):
But I do think that the game on Saturday showed
that there is maybe another gear for him. I don't
know if it's another level, Mike, I'm not sure if
we're to that point yet, but at least that there
was another gear for brock Purty to perform. And for
as much as I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon,
I'm not jumping on the bandwag. And you just have
to give credit where credit was due. And he was
(04:30):
just really, really good, you know, especially in that second
half against Seattle on Saturday. And now the question is
do you can you carry it on and carry that
momentum and can Dallas do anything about it? And I
just hearing the numbers that you said, I just really
like San Francisco. They're just they're so freaking good. And
I feel like I was the one holding off on
(04:53):
wanting to to give them their flowers and and wanted
to wait and see more. And I just think now
it comes to the point where it's a if pretty
plays like that, I mean, it's darting here, undeniable on
how good they are. Well, what's been funny, right is
the brock purty love as some would describe it, you know,
And while talking about the system and personnel of San
(05:16):
Francisco folks that have fallen all over him with the
same as they were winning that hated Jimmy Garoppolo like
still one. Maybe it wasn't as pretty, I guess at
the end of it. He also wasn't playing with Christian
McCaffrey for a good chunk of of his time this year. Right,
(05:37):
you give me that guy and he's healthy, and we'll
talk Fantasy Top ten because I'm convinced I'm buying back in.
I'm rebuying my shares even though they're at a higher
price at this point on the McCaffrey bandwagon. But it's
just it's always been dismissed the quarterback there because of
everything in the system, and now brock Purty is like, no, no, no,
(05:58):
this guy is a whole different thing. Like, well, they've
they've won. I'm right there with you with McCaffrey. I agree.
I don't think I gave him enough credit the physical
the way that he is physical. I think that maybe
we just weren't exposed to it a lot in Carolina
because we just thought he's catching passes out of the backfield,
(06:19):
they're running up the seams and they're hitting him and
he's scoring touchdowns that way. But when he's needed to
get tough yards, he's been very physical. He's also been
very patient at times in trying to find holes, and
instead of a two or three yard game, it ends
up six seventy eight or nine yards. That's what happened
against Seattle. I am right there in lockstep with you.
(06:41):
Let me ask you this about brock Purty, and I
trust me. I know I'm going to regret it as
soon as I say it, but I think that it
is it's a legitimate question and it goes to the
point that you started uh in the first part of
the show podcast Fox Sports Radio dot com. The question is,
if you were the San Francisco and someone offered you
(07:03):
a first round pick for brock Purty, would you accept
that deal as of now, he's my starting quarterback next
year and going forward at no money? Right? No? Right?
Like and and this this is something I argue with
Smith a lot about and anybody that in my sphere,
right the friends of of kids on Madeline soccer squad
(07:26):
or people are are that I run into that that
I want to talk football. They keeped out, what about
Trey Lance? Look at what they gave up to get
get Trey Lance? Like, yeah, that's the past. Trey Lance
has played one year of football, and I'm sorry for him,
and I hope it works out somewhere. And maybe he's
he's in San Francisco because they have the luxury of
two quarterbacks that they don't have to pay anything to
(07:47):
really on a grand scale for a couple more years.
But the reality is, you've found a guy that looks
like the guy and he costs you nothing, So I'm
not giving him up for a pick for one another
ticket And if Trey Lance can't play, what's your backup,
Jimmy Garoppolo again? For as long as he's healthy, because
(08:09):
there's gonna be other teams looking to kick the tires
on him. Right with the number of teams in need
of a quarterback. I would I would say this, Mike,
I think I and this isn't this isn't shocking. I
think that the way that Brock Purtty has played to
your point, he would have to keep the job over
Tray Lance if this continues. But if you're one of
(08:32):
the other thirty one teams that are looking for a quarterback,
I think Trey Lance is more of the apple of
your eye because I don't think that Purty translates as
well to the other teams as he does for the
This is you know, this is match made in Heaven
sort of stuff. And maybe that's not giving brock Purty
(08:55):
enough credit, But I just right now, he seems to
do whatever the forty nine want him to do. And
I don't know if you can do that. I I
don't know if you put Brock Purty in the Jets
uniform and all of a sudden, the Jets are you
know this this jugger not to bring up Jason's team
like there's I don't I don't. I don't see that.
I don't see that happening. I don't see like this
(09:15):
change happening. So it's interesting because I don't think teams
would give up a first round pick for brock Purty.
But to your point, if they did offer him, it's
probably not enough for what San Francisco values him as
to them that that's to their squad. That's that's your point. Yeah,
it goes back to the you know, fit the suit
I make, you know, those allusions to the fun and
(09:38):
exciting world of the Brady Bunch from all those years ago.
Johnny Bravo fits the offense and gives you more athleticism
than Garoppolo does. And we don't know what Trey Lance
could be. And the only real long opportunity we got
to see him was in that miserable weather conditions in Chicago,
which it isn't fair to anything. No, this in the
(10:00):
this is like the train Lance pick is. It's on
a bunch of different levels. Mike and I don't think
that we talked about those levels because John Lynch and
Kyle Shanahan have done such a good job in constructing
this team. But the levels of Trey Lance taking over
for Jimmy Garoppolo now are like, Okay, to your point,
(10:21):
you're paying him, uh, not a lot of money. Um,
you're paying him on a rookie deal even though it
was the third overall pick. You want him to get
accustomed and there are things that he can do that
other quarterbacks can't do. But there's also the value of
drafting Trey Lance where you did and when you did that.
Eight years from now or six years from now. If
(10:41):
he's your starting quarterback, which should be the plan, if
you're taking him the third overall, then you're not going
to have all these pieces there. Trent Williams is going
to be out of the NFL retired, George Kittle is
not going to be playing anymore. Uh, you know, maybe
Deebo Samuel has lost a step, Christian McCaffrey has gone
the way of the running back. Like you have all
these piece is there right now to make it work,
(11:02):
And you're like, Okay, do we go through these do
we go through these growing pains with Trey Lance? And
luckily now with Brock Purty you're really not having any
growing pains. But train Lance is also there because of
his skill set that you think that he can develop,
that he can he can close the gap on some
of your deficiencies, whether it be on the offensive line,
whether it be in the running game because he can run,
(11:24):
whether it be you know, maybe not having a target
out there like Deebo, Samuel and Brandon. I like, that's
like the long term play of Trey Lances. He's you know,
a multifest and quarterback that could do a lot of
different things. The problem right now is you have the
Super Bowl contender, you know, and a team that very
no one would be shocked if the forty Niners are
lifting the Lombardi in three or four weeks, you know,
(11:46):
and that's you know, so there's there's just so many
levels to this is train Lance wasn't just the guy
to bring him over the top of this year. Train
Lance was drafted also to be the guy is this
set six or seven years or now, when all these
pieces aren't there to still keep the forty as competitive
and as a playoff team and in that hunt for
a SUP well and into some degree a developmental guy
(12:06):
right based on the fact that he hadn't played a
lot of football, but you know, not even before the injury.
All I should say, before they even got hurt this year,
like still, the plan was they're a good roster, and
then they got aggressive. They bring in McCaffrey. You know, we,
you and I are big fans of the the Wilson part.
I like Mostard as well. I think you did too,
so like I like the way those two guys operated.
(12:28):
But McCaffrey went healthy. We we know what an elite
level guy he is and and clearly George Kittle has
become Pretty's best friend. Add Eli Mitchell back to the mix, Deebo,
Samuel and Brandon Ayuki. Yeah, I've got a party and
an offensive line that's gonna make that that thing work
right there, up there, tall enough to us spend the
disco ball brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes
(12:49):
bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by
combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV and more all
your protection in one place. Bundle and save Progressive dot Com.
I think i'd close it, you know, going back to
the guy that's still there right supposedly practicing and maybe
available at some point in the playoffs, is Jimmy Garoppolo
(13:10):
and as well as he and Kyle Shanahan haven't had
their relationship. We know the win loss percentage, all of
that stuff. You're you're not taking the foot off the gas, right,
How many teammates have stepped forward to talk about pretty
and what he means to making this thing run? Yeah,
you're you're right, So you're not changing that mid stream
(13:32):
going all right, we're playing well, Like there's no there's
no short hook here, like he would have to get
absolutely overrun and look like Zach Wilson. Remember gosh, was
it um when the Colts had Jacoby Brissette and they
were offered, you know, a second round pick for him whatever,
(13:53):
Chris pal It's like, there's there's no am trading Jacoby
Brissette not gonna happen. Let me look back at it
and see that would I actually you know developed there,
You're like, all right, that probably should have been a deal.
You did, you know? Like what do I keep saying? Though,
Dan Ballard, you can build the rest of my team.
Someone else is doing the quarterback in Baltimore. I like
(14:14):
the talented guys that they brought in. It hasn't worked out,
So you know, front office, you get to pick everything else.
We're gonna pick the wide receivers with somebody else that
you hire for the staff. You know, there's there's the
lightning in the bottle aspect as well. And as just
as I said, whether Niners love Trey Lance and for
the future, you know, there's no guarantee that brought Purty
(14:35):
is closing those gaps. If he's your guy, you know
the line. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm
Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. Welcome Back in Fox Sport Tradio
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Dan Buyer in for
Jason Smith to night. Find him on Twitter at Dan
(14:57):
Buyer on Fox find him at Buyer Talk. Yes, trying
to audience so well, we got to. I mean, look,
I'll do an episode of calf Time before the night's up.
We'll figure out how to make that work. I gotta
get the lighting right, I mean, because the striations have
to be just oh so perfect. I'll creepy to that sound.
Brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
(15:18):
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
a TV and more all your protection to one place.
Bundle would save it. Progressive dot Com. I wonder if
they did ensure my calves. Kind of a Lloyd's of
London kind of thing. Now, yeah, special, Well, thanks, I
appreciate you. I work hard at him carrying my large
(15:39):
frame on my small body and running around like an
idiot on soccer fields, chasing my kid around. But I digress.
You know, it's it's part of the coaching process, the
parenting thing. You know that you're part coach, you know,
mentor teacher, all of those fun things. Uh. And right
now we've got the coaching carousel alive and well. Uh.
In the National Football League, we'll get into a decision
(16:01):
made by Lions coordinator, the know sexy name that came
onto the marketplace in many's eyes of Ben Johnson, and
an announcement he made earlier, Dan, because I know it
caught your eye as it did mine. I think I
think for similar reasons in this process. But we look
at the coach and caroself and this time around it
feels different. It almost feels like a political campaign season
(16:25):
with owners and teams going to Twitter and Instagram and
TikTok and whatever they can telling every reporter, Hey, you
know what, we just talked to this guy, like Jim
Er say, like time after we talked to him, Like
what do you do have you had a cup of coffee?
Did you have a phone call? Did you have an
in person? I mean, in the end, whatever, make the
(16:46):
list as long as you need to, But it just
feels like there's more more disclosing of Hey, look at
all the guys we talked to. It. It's like, is
it a c y a kind of thing. Hey, look guys,
we're taking this seriously and we're covering our you know what,
and we're talking everybody. So fans start voting like it's
American idol, the maybe a little bit of the Rose
(17:07):
ceremonies that we can get in from from pop culture
as well. I think it's a great observation by you,
and I think that there's a couple of reasons why,
at least that I think we're seeing what you claim
for us to be seeing. Number One, the NFL. We
know that their goal is to basically dominate eleven months
(17:31):
out of the calendar. June you can have off. You know,
NBA Finals go ahead. We're not gonna do anything in June.
But pretty much even when the season ends in February,
you know, now when we have the Super Bowl, we're
getting into March with free agency and combine and then
the draft in April, and sometimes it goes into May,
depending on the calendar, and when you know, training camp
start up in July and then we like they are
(17:53):
dominating every month, and I think that this is a
little part of that, Like each of the teams want
to still continue their news cycle, uh, serve their fans. Hey,
we have interviewed Dan Quinn for our position. We have
interviewed Eric b Enemy and it's Mike. It's the same
eight names, you know, that like seven, eight, ten names
(18:14):
that that we've seen go around and every every you know,
it feels that way. Sean Payton's talking with this team,
Sean Payton's gonna talk with that team. But that's it.
Sean Payton also going not only on Colin Coward's couch,
but really making sure everybody knows his itinerary. I was
talking with the guys here. It's like freaking Norad in
Santa Claus. Why don't we just tried tried out a
(18:35):
private plane with his face on it. And that was
the second part that I was gonna say, for the
simple fact of why not, you know, like for him,
he's in the he's in the business of selling Sean Payton.
And I honestly don't think that the Saints, you know,
I don't think it bothers them. I don't think if
hother's Mickey Loomis, if you can get that first round pick,
(18:57):
if Sean Payton's gonna come back in, I think the
Saints of already decided to move on and understand and
appreciate everything that Peyton did for you know, that entire
organization in city. I think that they're good with it.
I think that they love I mean, heck, when when
he goes and sits on you know, Colin Coward's couch
and says mid the late first round pick, that sounds
like he's almost doing the bargaining for Mickey Loomis, you know,
(19:18):
and saying like this is what we this is what
we want out there, and we haven't seen that scenario
that has popped up with that, And that's what's been really,
really intriguing, So I I completely agree that it's different,
but I think it's also these teams trying to extend
the excitement, you know, into their season and can keep
that news headline going. But you also have one of
(19:39):
the candidates who has not been shy in talking about
what he's looking for and what he would want and
who he has spoken to. And I think that's what's
made it so unique. Yeah, it is particularly and I
think it begets the other conversation. I've seen the headline
a couple of plays. I think Florio had it up
on Pro Football Talk that had showed up in my timeline,
(20:00):
as well as to the timing of interviews and the
process and trying to stipulate that it has to happen
after the super Bowl, which the business has to continue, right,
the operations. Just because you're eliminated from the playoffs doesn't
mean you have to shut down. And if anything, if
you're not in the playoffs, you need that extra month
of work and administrative work at a minimum. Uh And
(20:23):
if you don't have a coaching staff in place, you're
not at least progressing that way. So I think you
know saying all right, you've got to wait until the end.
I understand the restrictions on coaches and coordinators and position
coaches that are still in the playoffs and the rules
they're in, But to try to restrict that whole process
(20:44):
from happening till after the Super Bowl, I think would
be foolhardy. For the reason you outline right, you want this.
There's another side, because you only have eight games left,
so we we need to add more guys declaring for
the draft. We already assumed they were going to, so
that those weren't stories, right, And look at that he
wrote the letter to the university. Let's read it. He
wrote it to the fans. Let's play a violin behind it,
(21:07):
because it's a big Now we have all those guys.
We assumed we're leaving for the league anyway, So like that,
that was a non story. So when it comes to
the coaching carousel, Yeah, there's a lot of angst in
these cities and a lot of column inches to write
in the local newspapers and sports segments on local TV
and for the national media, including us here at Fox
(21:28):
Sports Radio. It's another way to talk about the NFL
and not start trying to hype up mid January NBA
regular season games that you know, hey, you know y'all
has missed his third straight game. Well, let's talk about it.
Is this Canton now? No, it's it's mid January. Is
(21:49):
he truly one of the top ten players right now?
You stole my teas for minutes from now bad. I
I just it has a different feel, and Mike, I
almost think that it's probably good that it has a
different feel. And thank goodness that Sean Payton's in because
I've said it with you on on our podcast. I've
(22:11):
said it on the show with George Rice Stir, have
said it with Doug Gottlieb. These coaching jobs are unappealing
in the National Football League and how much do you
want to be one of thirty two? Dan? No, I
get it right. But it's also to the point of
why do you have in? And I think that lends
us to the Ben Johnson conversation. No, that's right, go
(22:33):
right into it. Ben Johnson, who because of the prowess
of the Detroit Lions offense, everybody fell in love with it,
even a little bit more of love for Jared Goff,
a guy who has had well, not many supporters. I've
been standing here quietly cheering with a pomp pomp for
the guy here for a while. But you look at
Alman ras St Brown Williams coming back, even though he
(22:56):
didn't get that Brady Jersey, he'd keep trying, Jamal william
uh In, DeAndre Swift. I mean, you've got weapons. You
look on the defensive side, there's excitement. But for Ben
Johnson made the announcement today, I'm standing right where I'm at. Yeah,
And the reason is, do you want to go to
Denver and try to fix Russell Wilson? And and I'm
(23:17):
not saying that he was Candida. It seems like Denver
wants Sean Payton or Dan Quinn from the reports were
you're hearing out of the Mile High City. Um, but
do you want do you want that issue? Do you
want to try to fix Kyler Murray or fix the
Cardinals around Kyler Murray? That's not too appealing. I want
to go to Houston where they fired the last two
head coaches after one season. Yeah, you got two top
(23:39):
twelve picks, but does that seem real appealing? You go
to Carolina, you know, like even you know the Colts?
I mean is that you know the Colts may be
the best job out there, and you know, are you
leaving for that? You know that that goes to really
good jobs available next year depending on how things go.
You know, Brandon Staley is gonna stick around. That charger's
job could be if Sean mcvass, you know, I just
(24:01):
want to be around with the rams um. You know,
maybe l A is your thing. You know, maybe Pete
Carroll rides off into the sunset in Seattle. You know,
like who knows. Like there's there's gonna be plenty of gigs.
And I just think that these five jobs here, you're
right about it, you know, being you know, one of
thirty two. But when you have options, like a Ben
Johnson does, then you have the ability to say no
(24:25):
to some of these. And so that's where that's the other.
I just don't think that these jobs are great. I
don't think that there. I mean, Denver is a high
profile team in the NFL, but still it's you know,
it's can you fix Russell Wilson. That's gonna be the
big question. No, And I think that's that's it. When
you've got an ownership group that just came in and
basically said, hey, the GM is gonna not really deal
(24:46):
with with with this part of the process. I'm going
to hire you, like wait, wait, wait, so I'm coming
in and I don't even work with that guy necessarily
at the start of things to try to figure this out.
And you've got a be on board with Russell and
how much input does he have? You mentioned the Kyler
Murray thing. I don't know what's real what's imagined, but
(25:07):
you really haven't had a lot of teammates current reformer
stump for him, So that's not helping matters. Even though
I didn't really buy the Denver receivers and their timing
of their social media love for Russell Wilson, that was
more a hey, he's gonna be our guy. Why don't
we give him some love on the way out of
this thing because we we we still have to be
(25:29):
here with him about the first six weeks of the season,
where well, well there's that too, But go on down
the line, right, Robert Sali, you got a pretty good
roster there. Did they fix the quarterback thing? And if
it doesn't, does he does the hammer fall on him?
This year he had the fall guy and the fleur,
so that goes Houston. I want no part of I
(25:49):
think there's a couple of component parts. I'm not gonna
belabor our Brandon Cook's discussion. We've we've admitted that on
the I Watch Reflex podcast enough, but it kind of
speaks to where you're at. Think of like, think of
the think of the jobs that could be available next year.
I just I, you know, mentioned just a couple of
their Washington could have new ownership. You know, it could
be a new ownership in two months. And you know,
(26:12):
maybe Ron Rivere's the guy, maybe he's not. I actually
think that there are a lot of nice pieces in Washington,
that's right, Washington, Las Vegas, right, Maybe McDaniels gets one
more here, who knows, but they're the One thing that
I do know is that it's a better situation than
a lot of these are right now. Like, if you're
going to Arizona, you better have a plan for Kyler
(26:34):
Murray because he is going to be your guy, and
if you don't, then you're not going to be there
very long. Well, and that's the other part of it,
Dan is as we've seen from a number of these teams,
they're not hesitating to pull the trigger anymore. And and
you know, do the trap door Montgomery Burns style on people,
Hey can you move over about two ft? Okay? And
(26:56):
then you you dropped and away they go because we're
seeing guys let go after one or two years. Were
any guys with contracting standion? Mean Kebury's a Thailand. Mike
McDaniel was getting Coach of the Year votes halfway through
the season. Heading in the week eighteen, some people like said,
Mike McDaniel stick around with the Dolphins, you know, like
that's like you want to talk about a fickle business.
(27:18):
He should, by the way, in my mind, um, but
he's also really interesting, so I need him in a job. Yeah.
His press conferences are Yeah, he's great. Sorry, look what
he did with one season with TWA. You may not
love to you may not, but he was a heck
of a lot better than what he was. And I
know there's other questions around him, but you can't tell
me that that didn't work out that way. Now, if
(27:39):
you have questions about the defense and maybe not being
as good as it was in prior years, that's legitimate.
But you brought him in to try to fix your offense,
and they did that for the most part. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
(27:59):
maybe Mike Harman, No Jason Smith Tonight, Dan Buyer and
instead my partner on the I Watch Flex podcast you
hear on weekdays Doug gott Leap Show, Kavino and Rich
and of course anchoring Red Zone Radio two to five
pm Pacific times Sundays alongside George Rice Stir breaking down
the good, the bad, the ugly of your NFL weekend,
(28:22):
the highlights, the big plays, the fantasy heroes, and of
course those that you are mocking on social media, they
will take that and run with that as well. I
think that's a fair fair consideration there, right, the big
stories that as they play out. Yes, absolutely, And we
were smacked ab in the middle of that Giants Vikings
(28:42):
game this past weekend on on Sunday and this weekend,
remember the NFL, And this took me a while to
get used to. Mike pushing the start times of the
divisional playoff games on Sunday a little back, so the
late game is more into prime time. So a three
Eastern noon kickoff for Bill's Bengals, So we'll have the
(29:03):
second half of that and then the start of Cowboys
Niners into the final game of the weekend. Nicely done
while we talk about halftime adjustments, and you'll get the
second half of that early game. See see what we
did there? Uh, last night is part of Monday Night Football. Look,
we all had our our different storylines that were following.
We'll get into Dak Prescott and Tom Brady a little
(29:23):
bit later on in the programs, some fantasy look aheads
and look backs. Always the feud when Dan Buyer stops by.
You never know what it's gonna be. But one of
the things that really kind of got the raised the dander,
I guess raised the ire of players and started a
little bit of a fight where some comments, uh starting
the third quarter when it was eighteen nothing Cowboys three,
(29:47):
Brett Maherr miss p a t s but Peyton Manning
saying quote, I don't know if I ever made a
halftime adjustment in my eight entire eighteen year career. I
think that's the biggest myth in football, the half time adjustments.
You go in, you use the restroom, you eat a
couple of oranges, and then the head coach says, all right,
let's go. You're in there, and Eli said, You're in
(30:09):
there for like three minutes. And then you saw a
bunch of defensive players come in talking about changes to
scheme and discussions, you know, personnel mix up and and changes,
et cetera. And then more and more offensive players are like, yeah,
we never did any of this. You were kind of
doing it, you know, down to down series, the series
(30:32):
on the sideline, a little bit of coach them up,
but not some big All right, there's a white board
and we're gonna fix it all in this very short period.
That's it. We're changing everything while this dog catches frisbees.
We're gonna fix our entire week of planning right now.
Here's here's the white board. I'll say this, I find
(30:52):
it very interesting, and I admit, Mike, I watched the
mainstream broadcast last night because it was a playoff game.
I I wanted to that sort of feel regular season.
I'm fine with manning cast. I watched the regular broadcast
last night. I know you're on the air, so you
were doing your show pre show. I got to watch
a little of Dion and then I missed the Dan Campbell. Yeah,
(31:14):
I hadn't to go back, and yeah I didn't take it,
and I didn't want it's the playoffs, Like, I love
the insight that Eli and Peyton have, but there's also
I want a rhythm to watching that sort of show team,
And so I watched it. I just watched the regular
broadcast with it, and I just I find it amazing
that this has never been brought up before. Then to
(31:35):
your point, people seconding that notion, and that no one,
no one in a booth is ever said, like you know,
they say it all the time, a great halftime adjustments
to your point, but no one has said, you know,
they really don't do that much in there during halftime.
I thought it was very very revealing. Maybe it was
because it's Peyton Manning's team and you don't have to
(31:56):
with it. Maybe they're not down twenty four nothing to half.
Oh that's but but I did think that that was
actually very good insight that I didn't hear until I
heard it on social media because I was watching the
main broadcast. Just pretty funny, I mean, looking obviously when
they had don on plenty of those questions, uh and
and going into they had the big Was that a
personal fall or was it not? On the hit on
(32:19):
Dak Prescott and the old well, when the body lands
on a quarterback, that's where you lose me. That's one
I'll go to to my end saying, how is that
a fall? What am I supposed to do? A flying
shoulder tackle like I'm the Road Warriors in the mid
eighties and and fly by and spin off the guy. Right,
(32:40):
It's like, I'm I'm supposed to go down to where
they train for for a E W or w w
E and that's gonna be my off season. In addition
to conditioning, I'm learning how to fall away from a
quarterback and still give him enough of a hit that
he goes to the turf, give me a break. And
so Dion kept yelling where's the fall? Where's the fall?
And um uh Eli goes, well, he kind of hit
(33:02):
him here, you can see the helmet. And Peyton's just
laughing because he's actually agree with Dion s one of
the few times, and Dion goes, hey, do you don't
you guys wish you were quarterbacking now with this stuff,
which I thought was pretty funny, but the main thrust
of it all came back to the halftime adjustments of
how do you fix this? Well, you're not doing it
(33:22):
in fifteen minutes, just logically, I mean you may find
one or two players. I was curious why they didn't
take more shots down field, even with the pass rush.
In theory you hit one early, maybe it backs things off.
But it was just a curiosity there and and started
to fight amongst players. I think that's a discussion that
will We'll have some life going forward as players talk
(33:46):
about their experiences different coaches, and maybe some concept that
gets drawn up, or maybe they give a great motivational
speech like all the football movies that I've seen, Mike,
I honestly, I wish I could add more to it,
but I'm not in the locker room, you know I
I I don't know. I would love to ask a
former player on how much you know this is real?
How much it is just maybe you know he's using
(34:08):
the restroom, you know, like seriously getting hydrated. You know,
that's what I always thought it was. Maybe you take
a shower, maybe maybe you grab a cup of coffee,
you drink your you know, a bunch of water, Maybe
you get an I V. Maybe you have a few oranges,
maybe a guzzle, a bottle of water or something some
gateorade or whatever your drink of choices, and you get
(34:29):
back out on the field. But brought to you by
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, r V, boat,
a TV, and more, all your protection in one place.
Bund Let's say, if it Progressive dot com quarterback carousel
is spinning, but there's one would be legend ain't going
anywhere
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we are locked
and loaded outward two of the program, having a blast.
No Jason Smith tonight, and no, I'm not having a
blast because theer's no Jason Smith tonight. But we'd love
to be here live and in living color from the
tire Act dot Com studios and it having fun with
my guy, Dan Bayer, my my partner on the I
(00:46):
Watch Your Flex podcast. You here on weekdays with Doug
Gottlieb and Covino and Rich and of course on weekends
he's alongside George Rice round Red Zone Radio. Only eight
more teams remain. Dan, it's the elite eight in the
National Football League. And this is this is where it
gets good. I the Sunday double header is just so salivating.
(01:11):
I don't know if we're going to get great games.
I don't know what the Cowboys will have against San Francisco.
We're gonna find out. But that double header of Bengals,
Bills and Cowboys forty Niners is so good. Not to
diminish what what Saturday brings us, but I'm sorry, Saturday
just bails in the comparison to what we what we're
going to get in the games on Sunday. You leave
(01:34):
Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars alone. How dare you? Look?
What is it with all these rematches? By the way, No,
that's just it. It's really worked out very strangely this year,
hasn't it. Yes? Yes, And the fact that we still
have three NFC East teams alive. All these years we've
mocked them for their mediocrity, and well here they are.
(01:56):
Cowboys and Niners didn't play this year, and obviously know
what happened with Bills and Bengals. But you've got the
Jaguars and Chiefs, and obviously you mentioned the NFC East
of the Eagles and Giants and the third time they've met.
Although week seven, Week eighteen, excuse me, caught myself, probably
not the real test considering what was what was that? Still?
(02:19):
I still think we're going to get a good game
in that one, all right. Current Lions Kansas City favored
by eight at home over under, sitting at a robust
fifty three for that one, Dan Buyer, Uh, Giants Philadelphia
Philly seven and a half point home favorite forty eight
and a half, since Buffalo forty eight the total Buffalo
(02:39):
a five point favorite, and then Dallas San Francisco. This
is one you already saw a little bit of movement on.
This one opened at four down to three and a
half San Francisco. The home favorite forty six and a
half is your total and the curiosity, obviously in that
game all comes down to what can Michael Parsons and
the defensive front due to slop down? Uh, slow down,
(03:01):
slop it up and make brock Purty look human. He
looked really good against Seattle, but again Seattle doesn't have
anything defensively to to stop here to even show it
instance whatsoever. What's funny, though, Dan, is he he had
been so efficient in his first starts, the first half
he was quote shaky yeah, by a lot of people's estimation, like, okay,
(03:26):
so they're not dominating and they haven't run away and
hidden at this point, but it's not like he's throwing
the ball directly in the arms of the opposition. Here
the word moxie came into mind. We know it's a
good old school term, right, yes, And I felt that sign,
you know, callback to even Seinfeld, I felt that brock
(03:47):
Purdy showed a lot of moxie. There was there was
more it factor that we hear so much about, I
think in this game because he had an opportunity that
the times he actually put himself in harm's way, which
against better teams you're not going to be allowed to do.
(04:08):
But I do think that the game on Saturday showed
that there is maybe another gear for him. I don't
know if it's another level, Mike, I'm not sure if
we're to that point yet, but at least that there
was another gear for brock Purty to perform. And for
as much as I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon,
I'm not jumping on the bandwag. And you just have
to give credit where credit was due. And he was
(04:30):
just really, really good, you know, especially in that second
half against Seattle on Saturday. And now the question is
do you can you carry it on and carry that
momentum and can Dallas do anything about it? And I
just hearing the numbers that you said, I just really
like San Francisco. They're just they're so freaking good. And
I feel like I was the one holding off on
(04:53):
wanting to to give them their flowers and and wanted
to wait and see more. And I just think now
it comes to the point where it's a if pretty
plays like that, I mean, it's darting here, undeniable on
how good they are. Well, what's been funny, right is
the brock purty love as some would describe it, you know,
And while talking about the system and personnel of San
(05:16):
Francisco folks that have fallen all over him with the
same as they were winning that hated Jimmy Garoppolo like
still one. Maybe it wasn't as pretty, I guess at
the end of it. He also wasn't playing with Christian
McCaffrey for a good chunk of of his time this year. Right,
(05:37):
you give me that guy and he's healthy, and we'll
talk Fantasy Top ten because I'm convinced I'm buying back in.
I'm rebuying my shares even though they're at a higher
price at this point on the McCaffrey bandwagon. But it's
just it's always been dismissed the quarterback there because of
everything in the system, and now brock Purty is like, no, no, no,
(05:58):
this guy is a whole different thing. Like, well, they've
they've won. I'm right there with you with McCaffrey. I agree.
I don't think I gave him enough credit the physical
the way that he is physical. I think that maybe
we just weren't exposed to it a lot in Carolina
because we just thought he's catching passes out of the backfield,
(06:19):
they're running up the seams and they're hitting him and
he's scoring touchdowns that way. But when he's needed to
get tough yards, he's been very physical. He's also been
very patient at times in trying to find holes, and
instead of a two or three yard game, it ends
up six seventy eight or nine yards. That's what happened
against Seattle. I am right there in lockstep with you.
(06:41):
Let me ask you this about brock Purty, and I
trust me. I know I'm going to regret it as
soon as I say it, but I think that it
is it's a legitimate question and it goes to the
point that you started uh in the first part of
the show podcast Fox Sports Radio dot com. The question is,
if you were the San Francisco and someone offered you
(07:03):
a first round pick for brock Purty, would you accept
that deal as of now, he's my starting quarterback next
year and going forward at no money? Right? No? Right?
Like and and this this is something I argue with
Smith a lot about and anybody that in my sphere,
right the friends of of kids on Madeline soccer squad
(07:26):
or people are are that I run into that that
I want to talk football. They keeped out, what about
Trey Lance? Look at what they gave up to get
get Trey Lance? Like, yeah, that's the past. Trey Lance
has played one year of football, and I'm sorry for him,
and I hope it works out somewhere. And maybe he's
he's in San Francisco because they have the luxury of
two quarterbacks that they don't have to pay anything to
(07:47):
really on a grand scale for a couple more years.
But the reality is, you've found a guy that looks
like the guy and he costs you nothing, So I'm
not giving him up for a pick for one another
ticket And if Trey Lance can't play, what's your backup,
Jimmy Garoppolo again? For as long as he's healthy, because
(08:09):
there's gonna be other teams looking to kick the tires
on him. Right with the number of teams in need
of a quarterback. I would I would say this, Mike,
I think I and this isn't this isn't shocking. I
think that the way that Brock Purtty has played to
your point, he would have to keep the job over
Tray Lance if this continues. But if you're one of
(08:32):
the other thirty one teams that are looking for a quarterback,
I think Trey Lance is more of the apple of
your eye because I don't think that Purty translates as
well to the other teams as he does for the
This is you know, this is match made in Heaven
sort of stuff. And maybe that's not giving brock Purty
(08:55):
enough credit, But I just right now, he seems to
do whatever the forty nine want him to do. And
I don't know if you can do that. I I
don't know if you put Brock Purty in the Jets
uniform and all of a sudden, the Jets are you
know this this jugger not to bring up Jason's team
like there's I don't I don't. I don't see that.
I don't see that happening. I don't see like this
(09:15):
change happening. So it's interesting because I don't think teams
would give up a first round pick for brock Purty.
But to your point, if they did offer him, it's
probably not enough for what San Francisco values him as
to them that that's to their squad. That's that's your point. Yeah,
it goes back to the you know, fit the suit
I make, you know, those allusions to the fun and
(09:38):
exciting world of the Brady Bunch from all those years ago.
Johnny Bravo fits the offense and gives you more athleticism
than Garoppolo does. And we don't know what Trey Lance
could be. And the only real long opportunity we got
to see him was in that miserable weather conditions in Chicago,
which it isn't fair to anything. No, this in the
(10:00):
this is like the train Lance pick is. It's on
a bunch of different levels. Mike and I don't think
that we talked about those levels because John Lynch and
Kyle Shanahan have done such a good job in constructing
this team. But the levels of Trey Lance taking over
for Jimmy Garoppolo now are like, Okay, to your point,
(10:21):
you're paying him, uh, not a lot of money. Um,
you're paying him on a rookie deal even though it
was the third overall pick. You want him to get
accustomed and there are things that he can do that
other quarterbacks can't do. But there's also the value of
drafting Trey Lance where you did and when you did that.
Eight years from now or six years from now. If
(10:41):
he's your starting quarterback, which should be the plan, if
you're taking him the third overall, then you're not going
to have all these pieces there. Trent Williams is going
to be out of the NFL retired, George Kittle is
not going to be playing anymore. Uh, you know, maybe
Deebo Samuel has lost a step, Christian McCaffrey has gone
the way of the running back. Like you have all
these piece is there right now to make it work,
(11:02):
And you're like, Okay, do we go through these do
we go through these growing pains with Trey Lance? And
luckily now with Brock Purty you're really not having any
growing pains. But train Lance is also there because of
his skill set that you think that he can develop,
that he can he can close the gap on some
of your deficiencies, whether it be on the offensive line,
whether it be in the running game because he can run,
(11:24):
whether it be you know, maybe not having a target
out there like Deebo, Samuel and Brandon. I like, that's
like the long term play of Trey Lances. He's you know,
a multifest and quarterback that could do a lot of
different things. The problem right now is you have the
Super Bowl contender, you know, and a team that very
no one would be shocked if the forty Niners are
lifting the Lombardi in three or four weeks, you know,
(11:46):
and that's you know, so there's there's just so many
levels to this is train Lance wasn't just the guy
to bring him over the top of this year. Train
Lance was drafted also to be the guy is this
set six or seven years or now, when all these
pieces aren't there to still keep the forty as competitive
and as a playoff team and in that hunt for
a SUP well and into some degree a developmental guy
(12:06):
right based on the fact that he hadn't played a
lot of football, but you know, not even before the injury.
All I should say, before they even got hurt this year,
like still, the plan was they're a good roster, and
then they got aggressive. They bring in McCaffrey. You know, we,
you and I are big fans of the the Wilson part.
I like Mostard as well. I think you did too,
so like I like the way those two guys operated.
(12:28):
But McCaffrey went healthy. We we know what an elite
level guy he is and and clearly George Kittle has
become Pretty's best friend. Add Eli Mitchell back to the mix, Deebo,
Samuel and Brandon Ayuki. Yeah, I've got a party and
an offensive line that's gonna make that that thing work
right there, up there, tall enough to us spend the
disco ball brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes
(12:49):
bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by
combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV and more all
your protection in one place. Bundle and save Progressive dot Com.
I think i'd close it, you know, going back to
the guy that's still there right supposedly practicing and maybe
available at some point in the playoffs, is Jimmy Garoppolo
(13:10):
and as well as he and Kyle Shanahan haven't had
their relationship. We know the win loss percentage, all of
that stuff. You're you're not taking the foot off the gas, right,
How many teammates have stepped forward to talk about pretty
and what he means to making this thing run? Yeah,
you're you're right, So you're not changing that mid stream
(13:32):
going all right, we're playing well, Like there's no there's
no short hook here, like he would have to get
absolutely overrun and look like Zach Wilson. Remember gosh, was
it um when the Colts had Jacoby Brissette and they
were offered, you know, a second round pick for him whatever,
(13:53):
Chris pal It's like, there's there's no am trading Jacoby
Brissette not gonna happen. Let me look back at it
and see that would I actually you know developed there,
You're like, all right, that probably should have been a deal.
You did, you know? Like what do I keep saying? Though,
Dan Ballard, you can build the rest of my team.
Someone else is doing the quarterback in Baltimore. I like
(14:14):
the talented guys that they brought in. It hasn't worked out,
So you know, front office, you get to pick everything else.
We're gonna pick the wide receivers with somebody else that
you hire for the staff. You know, there's there's the
lightning in the bottle aspect as well. And as just
as I said, whether Niners love Trey Lance and for
the future, you know, there's no guarantee that brought Purty
(14:35):
is closing those gaps. If he's your guy, you know
the line. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm
Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. Welcome Back in Fox Sport Tradio
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Dan Buyer in for
Jason Smith to night. Find him on Twitter at Dan
(14:57):
Buyer on Fox find him at Buyer Talk. Yes, trying
to audience so well, we got to. I mean, look,
I'll do an episode of calf Time before the night's up.
We'll figure out how to make that work. I gotta
get the lighting right, I mean, because the striations have
to be just oh so perfect. I'll creepy to that sound.
Brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
(15:18):
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
a TV and more all your protection to one place.
Bundle would save it. Progressive dot Com. I wonder if
they did ensure my calves. Kind of a Lloyd's of
London kind of thing. Now, yeah, special, Well, thanks, I
appreciate you. I work hard at him carrying my large
(15:39):
frame on my small body and running around like an
idiot on soccer fields, chasing my kid around. But I digress.
You know, it's it's part of the coaching process, the
parenting thing. You know that you're part coach, you know,
mentor teacher, all of those fun things. Uh. And right
now we've got the coaching carousel alive and well. Uh.
In the National Football League, we'll get into a decision
(16:01):
made by Lions coordinator, the know sexy name that came
onto the marketplace in many's eyes of Ben Johnson, and
an announcement he made earlier, Dan, because I know it
caught your eye as it did mine. I think I
think for similar reasons in this process. But we look
at the coach and caroself and this time around it
feels different. It almost feels like a political campaign season
(16:25):
with owners and teams going to Twitter and Instagram and
TikTok and whatever they can telling every reporter, Hey, you
know what, we just talked to this guy, like Jim
Er say, like time after we talked to him, Like
what do you do have you had a cup of coffee?
Did you have a phone call? Did you have an
in person? I mean, in the end, whatever, make the
(16:46):
list as long as you need to, But it just
feels like there's more more disclosing of Hey, look at
all the guys we talked to. It. It's like, is
it a c y a kind of thing. Hey, look guys,
we're taking this seriously and we're covering our you know what,
and we're talking everybody. So fans start voting like it's
American idol, the maybe a little bit of the Rose
(17:07):
ceremonies that we can get in from from pop culture
as well. I think it's a great observation by you,
and I think that there's a couple of reasons why,
at least that I think we're seeing what you claim
for us to be seeing. Number One, the NFL. We
know that their goal is to basically dominate eleven months
(17:31):
out of the calendar. June you can have off. You know,
NBA Finals go ahead. We're not gonna do anything in June.
But pretty much even when the season ends in February,
you know, now when we have the Super Bowl, we're
getting into March with free agency and combine and then
the draft in April, and sometimes it goes into May,
depending on the calendar, and when you know, training camp
start up in July and then we like they are
(17:53):
dominating every month, and I think that this is a
little part of that, Like each of the teams want
to still continue their news cycle, uh, serve their fans. Hey,
we have interviewed Dan Quinn for our position. We have
interviewed Eric b Enemy and it's Mike. It's the same
eight names, you know, that like seven, eight, ten names
(18:14):
that that we've seen go around and every every you know,
it feels that way. Sean Payton's talking with this team,
Sean Payton's gonna talk with that team. But that's it.
Sean Payton also going not only on Colin Coward's couch,
but really making sure everybody knows his itinerary. I was
talking with the guys here. It's like freaking Norad in
Santa Claus. Why don't we just tried tried out a
(18:35):
private plane with his face on it. And that was
the second part that I was gonna say, for the
simple fact of why not, you know, like for him,
he's in the he's in the business of selling Sean Payton.
And I honestly don't think that the Saints, you know,
I don't think it bothers them. I don't think if
hother's Mickey Loomis, if you can get that first round pick,
(18:57):
if Sean Payton's gonna come back in, I think the
Saints of already decided to move on and understand and
appreciate everything that Peyton did for you know, that entire
organization in city. I think that they're good with it.
I think that they love I mean, heck, when when
he goes and sits on you know, Colin Coward's couch
and says mid the late first round pick, that sounds
like he's almost doing the bargaining for Mickey Loomis, you know,
(19:18):
and saying like this is what we this is what
we want out there, and we haven't seen that scenario
that has popped up with that, And that's what's been really,
really intriguing, So I I completely agree that it's different,
but I think it's also these teams trying to extend
the excitement, you know, into their season and can keep
that news headline going. But you also have one of
(19:39):
the candidates who has not been shy in talking about
what he's looking for and what he would want and
who he has spoken to. And I think that's what's
made it so unique. Yeah, it is particularly and I
think it begets the other conversation. I've seen the headline
a couple of plays. I think Florio had it up
on Pro Football Talk that had showed up in my timeline,
(20:00):
as well as to the timing of interviews and the
process and trying to stipulate that it has to happen
after the super Bowl, which the business has to continue, right,
the operations. Just because you're eliminated from the playoffs doesn't
mean you have to shut down. And if anything, if
you're not in the playoffs, you need that extra month
of work and administrative work at a minimum. Uh And
(20:23):
if you don't have a coaching staff in place, you're
not at least progressing that way. So I think you
know saying all right, you've got to wait until the end.
I understand the restrictions on coaches and coordinators and position
coaches that are still in the playoffs and the rules
they're in, But to try to restrict that whole process
(20:44):
from happening till after the Super Bowl, I think would
be foolhardy. For the reason you outline right, you want this.
There's another side, because you only have eight games left,
so we we need to add more guys declaring for
the draft. We already assumed they were going to, so
that those weren't stories, right, And look at that he
wrote the letter to the university. Let's read it. He
wrote it to the fans. Let's play a violin behind it,
(21:07):
because it's a big Now we have all those guys.
We assumed we're leaving for the league anyway, So like that,
that was a non story. So when it comes to
the coaching carousel, Yeah, there's a lot of angst in
these cities and a lot of column inches to write
in the local newspapers and sports segments on local TV
and for the national media, including us here at Fox
(21:28):
Sports Radio. It's another way to talk about the NFL
and not start trying to hype up mid January NBA
regular season games that you know, hey, you know y'all
has missed his third straight game. Well, let's talk about it.
Is this Canton now? No, it's it's mid January. Is
(21:49):
he truly one of the top ten players right now?
You stole my teas for minutes from now bad. I
I just it has a different feel, and Mike, I
almost think that it's probably good that it has a
different feel. And thank goodness that Sean Payton's in because
I've said it with you on on our podcast. I've
(22:11):
said it on the show with George Rice Stir, have
said it with Doug Gottlieb. These coaching jobs are unappealing
in the National Football League and how much do you
want to be one of thirty two? Dan? No, I
get it right. But it's also to the point of
why do you have in? And I think that lends
us to the Ben Johnson conversation. No, that's right, go
(22:33):
right into it. Ben Johnson, who because of the prowess
of the Detroit Lions offense, everybody fell in love with it,
even a little bit more of love for Jared Goff,
a guy who has had well, not many supporters. I've
been standing here quietly cheering with a pomp pomp for
the guy here for a while. But you look at
Alman ras St Brown Williams coming back, even though he
(22:56):
didn't get that Brady Jersey, he'd keep trying, Jamal william
uh In, DeAndre Swift. I mean, you've got weapons. You
look on the defensive side, there's excitement. But for Ben
Johnson made the announcement today, I'm standing right where I'm at. Yeah,
And the reason is, do you want to go to
Denver and try to fix Russell Wilson? And and I'm
(23:17):
not saying that he was Candida. It seems like Denver
wants Sean Payton or Dan Quinn from the reports were
you're hearing out of the Mile High City. Um, but
do you want do you want that issue? Do you
want to try to fix Kyler Murray or fix the
Cardinals around Kyler Murray? That's not too appealing. I want
to go to Houston where they fired the last two
head coaches after one season. Yeah, you got two top
(23:39):
twelve picks, but does that seem real appealing? You go
to Carolina, you know, like even you know the Colts?
I mean is that you know the Colts may be
the best job out there, and you know, are you
leaving for that? You know that that goes to really
good jobs available next year depending on how things go.
You know, Brandon Staley is gonna stick around. That charger's
job could be if Sean mcvass, you know, I just
(24:01):
want to be around with the rams um. You know,
maybe l A is your thing. You know, maybe Pete
Carroll rides off into the sunset in Seattle. You know,
like who knows. Like there's there's gonna be plenty of gigs.
And I just think that these five jobs here, you're
right about it, you know, being you know, one of
thirty two. But when you have options, like a Ben
Johnson does, then you have the ability to say no
(24:25):
to some of these. And so that's where that's the other.
I just don't think that these jobs are great. I
don't think that there. I mean, Denver is a high
profile team in the NFL, but still it's you know,
it's can you fix Russell Wilson. That's gonna be the
big question. No, And I think that's that's it. When
you've got an ownership group that just came in and
basically said, hey, the GM is gonna not really deal
(24:46):
with with with this part of the process. I'm going
to hire you, like wait, wait, wait, so I'm coming
in and I don't even work with that guy necessarily
at the start of things to try to figure this out.
And you've got a be on board with Russell and
how much input does he have? You mentioned the Kyler
Murray thing. I don't know what's real what's imagined, but
(25:07):
you really haven't had a lot of teammates current reformer
stump for him, So that's not helping matters. Even though
I didn't really buy the Denver receivers and their timing
of their social media love for Russell Wilson, that was
more a hey, he's gonna be our guy. Why don't
we give him some love on the way out of
this thing because we we we still have to be
(25:29):
here with him about the first six weeks of the season,
where well, well there's that too, But go on down
the line, right, Robert Sali, you got a pretty good
roster there. Did they fix the quarterback thing? And if
it doesn't, does he does the hammer fall on him?
This year he had the fall guy and the fleur,
so that goes Houston. I want no part of I
(25:49):
think there's a couple of component parts. I'm not gonna
belabor our Brandon Cook's discussion. We've we've admitted that on
the I Watch Reflex podcast enough, but it kind of
speaks to where you're at. Think of like, think of
the think of the jobs that could be available next year.
I just I, you know, mentioned just a couple of
their Washington could have new ownership. You know, it could
be a new ownership in two months. And you know,
(26:12):
maybe Ron Rivere's the guy, maybe he's not. I actually
think that there are a lot of nice pieces in Washington,
that's right, Washington, Las Vegas, right, Maybe McDaniels gets one
more here, who knows, but they're the One thing that
I do know is that it's a better situation than
a lot of these are right now. Like, if you're
going to Arizona, you better have a plan for Kyler
(26:34):
Murray because he is going to be your guy, and
if you don't, then you're not going to be there
very long. Well, and that's the other part of it,
Dan is as we've seen from a number of these teams,
they're not hesitating to pull the trigger anymore. And and
you know, do the trap door Montgomery Burns style on people,
Hey can you move over about two ft? Okay? And
(26:56):
then you you dropped and away they go because we're
seeing guys let go after one or two years. Were
any guys with contracting standion? Mean Kebury's a Thailand. Mike
McDaniel was getting Coach of the Year votes halfway through
the season. Heading in the week eighteen, some people like said,
Mike McDaniel stick around with the Dolphins, you know, like
that's like you want to talk about a fickle business.
(27:18):
He should, by the way, in my mind, um, but
he's also really interesting, so I need him in a job. Yeah.
His press conferences are Yeah, he's great. Sorry, look what
he did with one season with TWA. You may not
love to you may not, but he was a heck
of a lot better than what he was. And I
know there's other questions around him, but you can't tell
me that that didn't work out that way. Now, if
(27:39):
you have questions about the defense and maybe not being
as good as it was in prior years, that's legitimate.
But you brought him in to try to fix your offense,
and they did that for the most part. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
(27:59):
maybe Mike Harman, No Jason Smith Tonight, Dan Buyer and
instead my partner on the I Watch Flex podcast you
hear on weekdays Doug gott Leap Show, Kavino and Rich
and of course anchoring Red Zone Radio two to five
pm Pacific times Sundays alongside George Rice Stir breaking down
the good, the bad, the ugly of your NFL weekend,
(28:22):
the highlights, the big plays, the fantasy heroes, and of
course those that you are mocking on social media, they
will take that and run with that as well. I
think that's a fair fair consideration there, right, the big
stories that as they play out. Yes, absolutely, And we
were smacked ab in the middle of that Giants Vikings
(28:42):
game this past weekend on on Sunday and this weekend,
remember the NFL, And this took me a while to
get used to. Mike pushing the start times of the
divisional playoff games on Sunday a little back, so the
late game is more into prime time. So a three
Eastern noon kickoff for Bill's Bengals, So we'll have the
(29:03):
second half of that and then the start of Cowboys
Niners into the final game of the weekend. Nicely done
while we talk about halftime adjustments, and you'll get the
second half of that early game. See see what we
did there? Uh, last night is part of Monday Night Football. Look,
we all had our our different storylines that were following.
We'll get into Dak Prescott and Tom Brady a little
(29:23):
bit later on in the programs, some fantasy look aheads
and look backs. Always the feud when Dan Buyer stops by.
You never know what it's gonna be. But one of
the things that really kind of got the raised the dander,
I guess raised the ire of players and started a
little bit of a fight where some comments, uh starting
the third quarter when it was eighteen nothing Cowboys three,
(29:47):
Brett Maherr miss p a t s but Peyton Manning
saying quote, I don't know if I ever made a
halftime adjustment in my eight entire eighteen year career. I
think that's the biggest myth in football, the half time adjustments.
You go in, you use the restroom, you eat a
couple of oranges, and then the head coach says, all right,
let's go. You're in there, and Eli said, You're in
(30:09):
there for like three minutes. And then you saw a
bunch of defensive players come in talking about changes to
scheme and discussions, you know, personnel mix up and and changes,
et cetera. And then more and more offensive players are like, yeah,
we never did any of this. You were kind of
doing it, you know, down to down series, the series
(30:32):
on the sideline, a little bit of coach them up,
but not some big All right, there's a white board
and we're gonna fix it all in this very short period.
That's it. We're changing everything while this dog catches frisbees.
We're gonna fix our entire week of planning right now.
Here's here's the white board. I'll say this, I find
(30:52):
it very interesting, and I admit, Mike, I watched the
mainstream broadcast last night because it was a playoff game.
I I wanted to that sort of feel regular season.
I'm fine with manning cast. I watched the regular broadcast
last night. I know you're on the air, so you
were doing your show pre show. I got to watch
a little of Dion and then I missed the Dan Campbell. Yeah,
(31:14):
I hadn't to go back, and yeah I didn't take it,
and I didn't want it's the playoffs, Like, I love
the insight that Eli and Peyton have, but there's also
I want a rhythm to watching that sort of show team,
And so I watched it. I just watched the regular
broadcast with it, and I just I find it amazing
that this has never been brought up before. Then to
(31:35):
your point, people seconding that notion, and that no one,
no one in a booth is ever said, like you know,
they say it all the time, a great halftime adjustments
to your point, but no one has said, you know,
they really don't do that much in there during halftime.
I thought it was very very revealing. Maybe it was
because it's Peyton Manning's team and you don't have to
(31:56):
with it. Maybe they're not down twenty four nothing to half.
Oh that's but but I did think that that was
actually very good insight that I didn't hear until I
heard it on social media because I was watching the
main broadcast. Just pretty funny, I mean, looking obviously when
they had don on plenty of those questions, uh and
and going into they had the big Was that a
personal fall or was it not? On the hit on
(32:19):
Dak Prescott and the old well, when the body lands
on a quarterback, that's where you lose me. That's one
I'll go to to my end saying, how is that
a fall? What am I supposed to do? A flying
shoulder tackle like I'm the Road Warriors in the mid
eighties and and fly by and spin off the guy. Right,
(32:40):
It's like, I'm I'm supposed to go down to where
they train for for a E W or w w
E and that's gonna be my off season. In addition
to conditioning, I'm learning how to fall away from a
quarterback and still give him enough of a hit that
he goes to the turf, give me a break. And
so Dion kept yelling where's the fall? Where's the fall?
And um uh Eli goes, well, he kind of hit
(33:02):
him here, you can see the helmet. And Peyton's just
laughing because he's actually agree with Dion s one of
the few times, and Dion goes, hey, do you don't
you guys wish you were quarterbacking now with this stuff,
which I thought was pretty funny, but the main thrust
of it all came back to the halftime adjustments of
how do you fix this? Well, you're not doing it
(33:22):
in fifteen minutes, just logically, I mean you may find
one or two players. I was curious why they didn't
take more shots down field, even with the pass rush.
In theory you hit one early, maybe it backs things off.
But it was just a curiosity there and and started
to fight amongst players. I think that's a discussion that
will We'll have some life going forward as players talk
(33:46):
about their experiences different coaches, and maybe some concept that
gets drawn up, or maybe they give a great motivational
speech like all the football movies that I've seen, Mike,
I honestly, I wish I could add more to it,
but I'm not in the locker room, you know I
I I don't know. I would love to ask a
former player on how much you know this is real?
How much it is just maybe you know he's using
(34:08):
the restroom, you know, like seriously getting hydrated. You know,
that's what I always thought it was. Maybe you take
a shower, maybe maybe you grab a cup of coffee,
you drink your you know, a bunch of water, Maybe
you get an I V. Maybe you have a few oranges,
maybe a guzzle, a bottle of water or something some
gateorade or whatever your drink of choices, and you get
(34:29):
back out on the field. But brought to you by
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, r V, boat,
a TV, and more, all your protection in one place.
Bund Let's say, if it Progressive dot com quarterback carousel
is spinning, but there's one would be legend ain't going
anywhere
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.