3 & Out - Flacco is the Colts starter, Rex Ryan to the Jets, Kauff on Campus - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (01:38):
Good afternoon, everybody, our morning or lunchtime, or whenever you're
listening to this. I'm John the Three Out Podcasts. Hopefully
everyone is doing well. We had some breaking news today.
Anthony Richardson got benched. We talked about it yesterday on
the podcast. You gotta subscribe to Three Out podcast if
you listen on Collins feed because we've got podcasts every

(01:58):
week or every day of the week, but some of
them are not gonna show up, so you got to
make sure you subscribe to three and Now podcast went
over this yesterday. It was clear he was gonna get benched,
and then it happened on Tuesday, so we will dive
into that. Dan Campbell and the Jets, we got rumors
floating about a potential famous head coach taking over the Jets.

(02:20):
He was even asked about it and said he'd be
interested in the job. And I don't think it's the
craziest idea. Pressure in the NFC East now that the
Cowboys are gone. Does it lie squarely on the team
in Philadelphia. They have the same record as Washington. So
we'll fall fire into that little NFC East talk as
well as we got to dive on campus Signetti's undefeated,

(02:43):
the Indiana Indiana Hoosiers, talk of the town, talka of
the country, Penn State Ohio State, which is a massive game.
Can Penn State finally win a big game as Ohio
State and shambles? What's going on there in Oregon? Feels
I got their swag back, So we'll dive into all
that as well as the Middlecoff mailbag at John Middlecoff

(03:06):
at John Middlecoff is the Instagram, fire into those dms.
We will bang out a bunch today and uh yeah,
subscribe to the YouTube channel. Like I said, make sure
you subscribe to three and out podcasts separate from the
herd feed. Appreciate everyone listening. But before we dive in
to football, you know, I gotta tell you about my friends,

(03:26):
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(04:51):
is guaranteed. I want to start with Flacco and the Colts,
And you know there was there were some visuals going
around in forty nine er land after the Cowboy forty
nine er game on Sunday Night of all the forty
nine ers giving Trey Lance a huge hug. And I

(05:11):
think one thing we learned in that experience is when
you are trying to win and you have a team. Now,
the Niners are better than the Colts, but when you
have playoff expectations, it is very, very difficult to develop
a project because they need a lot of work and

(05:32):
they can single handedly lose you games even when you
have a ton of other guys. Veteran players, impact players
on long term contracts who are playoff ready, who are
big game ready. And I was watching that Colts game, thinking, God,
Gus Bradley, their defense, they were getting pressure on CJ. Strout.

(05:53):
Now you can say a lot of people are because
the Colts or the Houston offensive line is not playing
that well. But Jonathan Taylor looked like the guy from
a couple of years ago that their weapons, I mean,
they're flying around and Anthony Richardson's been terrible. Then the
moment happens when he taps out, It goes viral. Every
former player chimes in, basically not just making fun of him,

(06:17):
but honestly kind of offended because it feels like an
unprecedented moment in football history. A non injured quarterback, a
guy that's not rotating in and out, taps out because
he's exhausted, and they didn't have a choice. So Schefter
reported that they met yesterday. Like to me, the decision

(06:38):
was made after his press conference when he kind of
laughed it off. But when you look at Anthony Richardson,
part of drafting a project is the only way you
really get better is by playing well. Part of playing
is working through the problems. Working through the issues, you
have to improve and he needs so much work that

(07:02):
he became a liability for the Colts. And then because
they had Joe Flacco on their team and he got injured,
they saw firsthand like, actually, we're not bad when Joe
Flacco's playing, and this is two straight years. Has to
be one of the more bizarre careers of all time. Obviously,
Super Bowl Champion made a ton of money in Baltimore,

(07:22):
and then it felt like his career was over. Then
he goes to a team with the highest paid quarterback
in the history of the league. That guy gets injured,
He comes in, he leads the team to the playoffs.
Then obviously they don't resign him because they don't want
the fans channing Flacco week one, which everyone thinks is
crazy but is kind of understandable when the owners like,

(07:43):
we gotta make this work. Then he goes to the
Colts and everyone from like, you know, twenty thousand foot
view goes, I can see this's becoming a problem. And
then Anthony Richison gets hurt. He comes in, he's her
throwing bombs, and it was clear before Anthony Richison came
back from his injury, the best player at that position
for this team. Is Joe Flackenham. It's not even debatable

(08:06):
sitting on your couch if you're in the front office,
but most importantly if you're in that locker room. So
Joe Flacco then takes out a two hundred and thirty
million dollar quarterback, the guy that was drafted in the
top five in like eight months, and he's just better then,
And they had to do this. They did not have

(08:27):
a choice, Like this choice was made for them on Sunday,
not just with his performance, but with the moment and
then the press conference. So the Indianapolis Colts prove again,
if you take a huge project and your team sucks,
it doesn't matter. You can live through the lumps. You

(08:47):
can live through the losses. You can live through games
where they throw well under fifty percent completion percentage help
Anthony Rigson threw I think ten for thirty two. I'm
no math major, but under thirty percent or thirty three percent,
it's not very good. So when they make this move,
I think the question mark is and they've already started

(09:08):
pushing out through local media that we're not giving up
on them. We just we need a reset, but we're
not giving up on this player. And that is true.
But if Joe Flacco plays and plays like he's been
playing this year in last year, Anthony Richson is not
going to see the field again, which is a big

(09:28):
picture problem because they drafted this guy fourth overall to
develop them and turn them into a high end, top
ten quarterback, and you have no chance to do that
on the bench. And some similarities to Trey Lance, this
guy has not played a lot of football. Talking to
a scout yesterday, he was injured in college. He then

(09:51):
didn't play that much in Florida, only had one full
year starter or as the starter, and the team went
six and six. Then he comes to the Colts and
he immediately gets it injured. And then year two was
supposed to be his year, gets injured again. And now
he gets benched. And I also was thinking about we
put so much hype, and I'm guilty as anybody into

(10:12):
drafting these quarterbacks really high and taking big swings on
these guys. Most of them do not work. Think how
often these top ten picks now over the last five
years have been a disaster. I mean, obviously the class
of field is now a backup again. Mac Jones is
a backup. Zach Wilson's a backup, Trey Lance is a

(10:33):
third stringer. You have Anthony Richardson who has barely played
in the NFL and has been benched in year two,
got benched in year two. Bryce Young also got benched
in year two. Like these are disastrous situations. I think fans,
like coaches and like gms, can live with struggles if

(10:59):
there's just a ton of upside and you tangibly see it.
But when you watch this guy play, you go, I
don't know, man, this is for this to even be functional,
he's gonna have to take massive strides. And then the
moment that happened in the game is just something that's
really hard to shake. Obviously, it was an embarrassing moment
for him, even though at the time I don't even

(11:21):
think he realized. And I've had a couple people in
the NFL that think the reaction about that is maybe
a little over the top. This is a guy that's
barely played. He almost doesn't even know what he doesn't know,
and I do think there's probably some validity to that,
But like I said on Monday that I think the

(11:42):
difficult part is is you're in the AFC with arguably
three of the best and brightest talents and quarterbacks I've
ever seen, right, Mahomes, Josh and Lamar, And I was
thinking about it today on the StairMaster, trying to not
be so fat Is that, like I would say, obviously

(12:04):
they all, you know. Josh is this six ' five
two and forty pound He can run huge arm. Lamar
has become this outstanding passer, and he's obviously one of
the best athletes we've ever seen. Mahomes is one of
the most dominant big game players we've ever seen, champion
three times over. But when I think about those guys,

(12:26):
the competitive nature of them, the competitive character, the will
to win, the will to compete, the will to battle
when things aren't going well, are things that stand out
to me. You know. For as tangible as all their
attributes are, I think they're intangibles have led them to

(12:47):
become great players. So that moment, while I don't think
it determines his success or failure, the rest of his
life had to be pretty jarring for Ballor to change Stikeen.
It really did. And they can say whatever they want,
they can try to spin this however they want. It'll

(13:07):
be interesting as the players talk throughout this week their
reaction to everything, and I think if they like the guy,
and by all accounts, he's a high character, good guy,
they will attempt to support him. But that is something
that's hard to shake, you know. For as bad as
the Tyreek Stevenson moment is, he's been a two year starter,
he's a high end player. It was an awful moment,

(13:29):
an embarrassing moment, a losing moment, and something that I
would imagine really sucks for him. But all this teammates know,
like we've been going to war with this guy for
two years and our defense has become one of the
best units in the league, and he's played a large
role in that. Like we need this guy, we want
this guy, and we feel comfortable in battle with this guy.

(13:51):
Now I can't have you poke and Terry mclaurin's eye
or taunting you know, the crowd, but you're not. That
moment's embarrassing for all of us. And like I said yesterday,
I think you could make him inactive this week to
try to set the tone. This is not okay in
our locker room, but we don't question the player, and

(14:13):
that's it's like, okay, now we got competitive question marks,
but we've been questioning the player. So at the end
of the day, this was a no brainer move, the
right move, and I think the question mark is if
Joe Flacco plays well, we're not gonna see Anthony Richardson
the rest of the year, which is a problem for
the Colts because they invested a really, really high pick,

(14:37):
which is a very very valuable asset because of what
it can give you. Right you can trade back and
accumulate picks. Like Cawie Roseman says, every team in the
league has the same amount of money in draft compensation.
But the reason on a yearly basis some teams caps
are different, some teams have more picks than others. Is
because each individual team GM and head coach and obviously

(15:00):
teams the owner dictates how you want to use that capital.
And they went all in and I understood it, but
there's no way around it. As of October twenty ninth,
this Anthony Richardson draft pick. When you factor in the injuries,
when you factor in the poor play, and now when
you factor in this moment forcing you to bench the

(15:20):
guy for a player that's going to be forty years
old in a couple months, is a pretty epic disaster.
And like I said, this is not out of character
for these high picks. This has kind of been a
consistent theme now. And I was talking to someone in
the league that scouts college players. He's like, this quarterback

(15:41):
class is bad, Like, we got a problem right now.
There aren't a bunch of guys in college that you
feel good about going to your draft meetings, going yeah,
this guy can be a starter in the NFL, talking
about a lot of these players being like, yeah, I
hope he's a good backup, and you look around the
or the college football like, I think there are some

(16:03):
question marks right now with that position. So it's not
easy for the Colts just to pivot off this and
you can already see it coming, like is this one
of those where at the end of the year you
don't bring Flaco back if things go well because you
want to make this easy. On Anthony Richardson, there's obviously
a different level of investment when it comes to his

(16:24):
contract relative to last year's situation with Deshaun Watson, because he's,
you know, on a rookie contract scale, but being the
fourth overall pick, you don't make nothing. He's not making
a million dollars a year. My guess is he signed
for over thirty million dollars guaranteed being the fourth overall pick.
So there is a problem for the Colts, and this
is a major problem for Shane Styke and Chris Ballard.

(16:46):
And it might just be one of those situations that
you know, even if it's like, hey, I got to
get in better shape, that will never happen again. I
do think there is potential truth that that might be
the case. But the bottom line is he might just
not be good enough despite all the great physical attributes,

(17:08):
despite his speed, his size, his arm power. Maybe he's
just not very good. And he's not alone if he
falls under that category. I saw a rumor today floating

(17:29):
around or a couple days ago on the interweb, and
Rex Ryan was doing local television hits or local radio
hits in New York, and obviously he's asked like, would
you consider the job? And I hadn't heard his name
floating around, and his response on a local radio station
in New York was like, hell yeah, I do it
in a heartbeat. And then I talked to someone that

(17:52):
might know a little something. He's like, don't be surprised
if there's some legs to this rumor as the season
goes on, because Woody Johnson didn't want to fire Rex
back when they did, he had hired John Izick. It'sick
did not like him and he just let him pull
the trigger. But if you look at the Jets, who

(18:14):
you know, it's it's hard to even know what's going
to happen this Thursday, it'd be you'd be insane to
bet on them. But is it possible home game short
week that they win a game on The Texans just
lost another receiver digs out for the year, which is
not ideal because I mean, he was he was productive

(18:34):
for them and when they're fully healthy, he just kind
of got to act as their third receiver. So that's
that's a pretty big blow. But if the Jets were
to lose on Thursday night, I think it's very conceivable
that Joe Douglas, the GM whose contract is over at
the end of the season, is fired. So then they
would have fired Robert Salah and Joe Douglas in like

(18:56):
less than a month, and they would have no head
coach in a GM regardless of how this thing's finishes.
Jeff Ulbrick is not going to be their coach. And
obviously there's this elephant in the room. If Trump's the
president Woody Johnson, everyone universally thinks he's just packing up
and going back overseas. He loved that, he loved the

(19:18):
way he was treated. I don't quite know if you
were a super rich guy and owned a football team
why you would want that role. But clearly he loves
that role, and everyone agrees that is in the loop.
When it comes to the Jets, he is going to go,
so then his brother would take back over. Now they're

(19:38):
in a coaching search essentially kind of right now, when
you fire Robert Salad, you can be making all the
calls you want. So I do think it's fair to say,
even if what he takes back off over to whatever
country he's going to go to, that he's still going
to be very involved in this decision. And can the
Jets Robert Sala, first time head coach, look at the

(19:59):
you Joe Judge, first time head coach, McAdoo, first time
head coach, now Brian Daball, first time head coach, like,
are they really going to be in the business of
first time head coach? And everyone and rightfully so loves
the Detroit offensive coordinator. He's been turning down jobs for
two years in a row. Whether you call it cold feet,

(20:22):
whether you call it apprehension of his own skills of
being the leader. I don't know all the details. I've
heard a lot of different rumors, but the reality is
he just won't accept the head coaching job, at least
he hasn't so far, and everyone thinks that obviously he's
gonna be back in the mix. Everyone's going to want
to talk to him. That's a pretty big leap from
just calling an offense with an elite offensive line. A quarterback,

(20:45):
even before he came to the Lions, had been a
guy that helped lead a team to the Super Bowl
and been a good player. They have elite offensive weapons
at wide receiver, tight end, at running back. It's like, well,
we don't have that here. We got a lot of
question marks and our quarterback, whether he comes back again
or retires, like we got a quarterback problem on top

(21:06):
of offensive line issues, on top of the receiver issues,
or defense is now in shambles. Like this is a
very very difficult job. You could argue that the Jets
cannot afford to risk hiring a guy that doesn't have
any experience. I watched a little bit of uh, I
don't know why my nose ites of Rex Ryan on

(21:30):
the Pivot podcast, and he talked about how desperately he
wants to be a head coach anymore. And it wasn't
because he got out of the league because he didn't
want to do it, just because people stopped calling him.
And even last year, if you remember, when the Cowboys
defensive coordinator job became open, he called Jerry. So this

(21:51):
is a guy that desperately wants back in the league,
will do anything possible to become a head coach. Again,
to me, if you're the Jets, I don't even think
it's that crazy one. You could do way worse. N Two,
you get a guy who comes in extra motivated, who
would inspire the fan base a little bit of like, hey,

(22:15):
can't be worse. We know he knows schematics right, He
is a defensive genius. He has been long allotted throughout
the course of his career as one of the best
defensive scheme guys in the league. We know he's a
pretty good leader and good with players. His offensive coordinator
hire is very, very important, obviously, but I actually think

(22:36):
it makes a lot of sense. And if I were
the Jets, you'd be hard pressed to the Bobby Slowick's
Kubiak and that team's falling off a cliff. But like
you can't hire one of those jobs. You see the
intensity of New York. It is hard. Everyone's watching you,
the intensity of it. We talk about it all the time.

(22:57):
The hype on these players. The way I Garder's playing
right now, which is not very good. That would never
happen under Rex Ryan. You know for a fact, a
good defensive player takes a step up, not a regression.
Their pass rush would not look like this. It would
not be tolerated. So listen. Is it a no brainer?

(23:21):
Of course not. But when you kind of look at
the options and you look at their situation, I think
Rex Ryan makes a lot of sense. Kurt Signetti, who
will get into it a little bit, is obviously the
toast of the town, not just in Bloomington, but in
the college football world. And when you look at his resume,

(23:43):
he really got put on the map when he started
coaching for Nick Sabe. He got there year one and
he was there for three or four years. When they
started build it up and won a national championship, And
I was thinking the other day, would you rather be
a part of Nick Saban, of Bill Walsh, of Jeff

(24:07):
Bezos in the early stages or once it's really rolling,
Like if you met someone from Amazon who was like
I was there with Jeff from ninety seven through four,
or you met a guy from Amazon like, yeah, I
started working from twenty ten to twenty eighteen, Right like

(24:29):
Lane Sork. You have so many guys that showed up
when the train was humming down the tracks. Right if
you showed up for Bill Walsh in nineteen eighty seven,
like they already got three super Bowls or two, I guess.
But if you were there in bolt like I showed
up with Bill Walsh nineteen seventy nine and I left
in nineteen eighty six, you're like what was that? Like

(24:52):
how'd you guys do that? And I was thinking about
Dan Campbell, who because my my opinion is I would
choose to be there at the beginning. I think those lessons,
the experiences, the ability to start something from scratch, is
something you can't teach, and when you're around in those situations,

(25:15):
they will carry with you whenever you go on your
journey and you leave that place the rest of your life.
It doesn't mean that being around those people once they've
made it and once they have the structure, the infrastructure,
the understanding of exactly what it takes in the peak
of their powers isn't valuable as well. But I don't

(25:37):
think what the Lions have done these last four years
everyone associated with that organization. They've really had the same
coaching staff for the most part for four straight years.
Dan Campbell's been very very lucky. Now he fired Anthony
Lynn and elevated Ben Johnson these last couple of years,
but Ben was there originally as well. I don't think

(26:00):
it can be overstated how incredible it is what they're
doing and how difficult it is what they have accomplished.
Are they ever going to win a Super Bowl? I
don't know. You know, they might not. It's very, very difficult.
There's only a select few quarterbacks who have won a
Super Bowl like the last six seven years. But to

(26:25):
turn this franchise into what was easily I would say
the most consistent joke just perpetually laughed at in Pro
football over my entire life. I'm forty years old now,
and turn them into an absolute power. The other thing
I was shocked is looking at Dan Campbell's record his

(26:47):
first year, he was three thirteen and one, and there's
that famous meme of him kind of crying when he
was interviewed about the effort and what those players on
the team meant to him, and he gets teary eyed
of just their effort even though they were ten games
under five hundred, to what he's turned them into of

(27:12):
being what I think most people think, if they can
just keep relative health, is going to be a one
hundred percent of team that can win the Super Bowl,
that could be the number one overall seed. And this
is not the forty nine ers, This is not the
Philadelphia Eagles, this is not the McVeigh rams. This is
the Detroit freaking Lions. They hadn't been to the NFC
Championship game since nineteen ninety one. His record doubt the

(27:36):
Lions is over five hundred. And I think they had
a clear vision, and I think you got a guy
who like that job is not something that could have
been turned around by someone who wasn't a crazy ass.
Like part of what we love about Dan Campbell, this
old school football guy, kind of the just kind of

(27:59):
an insane dude like you sometimes need that when you're
taking over a complete dumpster fire. That's what you have
to be. And him Brad Holmes, the general manager. What
they have done is honestly one of the most incredible
things we've ever seen in the NFL. It really is.

(28:21):
And if you're a Lions fan, I can't even imagine
what the feeling is like because for the most part,
the only game that ever mattered for your season was
the Thanksgiving morning game, and it felt like you typically
lost that and you drafted high all the time, and
now it feels like, should they just put all their

(28:41):
chips in the middle of the table to try to
win the Super Bowl? When did we ever talk like that?
When did that ever happen? And they didn't draft a
quarterback in the top ten. Some of their high end
players were honestly much maligned on draft Day. People thought
they were crazy for trading back from six to twelve

(29:03):
to get Jamiir Gibbs, who I don't know. I looked
up last week. He's running like ninety miles an hour
down the sideline for a touchdown. And they also got
an extra pick which led them to Sam Laporta. Where
Brian Branch in the second round, who looks like I
don't know Ed Reid Junior right now who I was
texting with the scout like how did this guy fall

(29:25):
this far in the draft? And they're like, well, he
was a little undersized, and two he basically just played
nickel corner at Alabama, so were there's some question marks
of like you're gonna draft just a nickel corner that high.
And it turns out he's transitioned to safety perfectly, and
obviously he can cover the slot and he has incredible
ball skills. I mean, he's a fantastic player. Kind of

(29:48):
feels like what Tyron Matthew was to when Bruce Arians
got the job in Arizona. The heartbeat of the defense
definitely the back seven now with Aiden Hutchinson. Now it's
not even really debatable. But they did it the right way.
They build up a team. They didn't do what everyone
thought they should do, take Jamar Chase. They took Pina

(30:09):
Sool and it worked. I guess Jamar Chase went ahead
of Pine School, but uh and listen, Jamar Chase has
been awesome for the Cincinnati Bengals as well. But I
think it's fair to say it is like they would
have taken Pina School no matter what, because when you
watch their team, like that's kind of what they feel
like now. They're more explosive on offense than a lot

(30:32):
of these Jim Harbaugh level teams. But I feel like
Dan Campbell's a third Harball brother, and I think sometimes
really the only times you can rebuild a franchise like
this is to get a guy like that, because ninety
five percent of people, even guys that would be successful,

(30:52):
would get overwhelmed, would fail. And Dan Campbell hasn't only
you know, not fail. He's been one of the biggest
success stories, I would say, so far through a short
career in my lifetime. When you factor in what he's
done with the Lions before we get into cough on campus,
it really is crazy. The Cowboys look headed for I

(31:14):
don't know, six seven wins season. I mean, they're in shambles.
I don't have a huge problem with Digs, you know,
screaming at a some local reporter. It's like, why are reporters,
Why are people that talk about this stuff, myself included,
allowed to be critical and someone wants to get back
at you they just not allowed to say anything. So
I have no issue with that, even though when you

(31:36):
factor in it feels like the Cowboys were in shambles,
kind of a rough visual. I get it, but I don't.
I never have a problem with players being mad about
what's being said, you know, about them when these people
like they get criticized NonStop, like eventually, some people just
draw a line in the sand, especially they think you're wrong,

(31:58):
and that was his whole thing, which I don't really care.
But you know, the Eagles, if you would have told
the Eagles at the beginning of the season that the
Cowboys are not going to be affected for the playoffs,
I think they would have felt pretty good, like we
might cruise this division. And I'm going to keep hammering
this point home. The power of getting the coach and

(32:20):
quarterback right changes your franchise. It really does. Everyone talks
NonStop about how the Washington Commanders have gotten rid of
the stink of Daniel Snyder, and I can't imagine internally
in the building, for coaches, for the front office, for
every the non football people marketing the president. It's probably incredible.

(32:44):
But what really happened is they just hired the right guy,
and they drafted the right player. Like so many teams
fail because they get one of those two positions wrong
or both. If you have the wrong coach, you have
the wrong quarterback one or the other or both, you
have no shot, none, like the ultimately the Jets downfall. Yeah,

(33:08):
Rogers a shell of themself. But their coaching staff stinks.
If they had a good coaching staff, they would not
be two and six. That doesn't mean they would be
six and two, but they would not be two and six.
You have to have a good coaching staff and then
obviously you have to have good players. They go hand
in hand. Bill Walsh doesn't exist with Joe Montana, and

(33:29):
Joe Montana doesn't exist exists without Bill Walsh. Say the
same thing about Belichick and Brady. You need each other
and now you have a team if you're the Eagles,
Like I think the Eagles roster is better. I think
most people would agree. Hell, I think the Bears roster
is better than the Commanders. That's why the Bears are

(33:50):
taking so much shit. It's like, I think we got
better players. It's like, yeah, we don't have a better
coaching staff. I mean, what was the difference in that game. Seriously,
what was the difference in that game? One hundred percent
coaching the full back dive to the offensive lineman, which
was a fumble, the second to last play of the
game where they just gave up a free fifteen sixteen

(34:13):
yards which put them in Hail Mary territory. And then
a starting quarterback who's just screwing around And I didn't
realize I watched it again yesterday how late he turned around.
I mean, they weren't just running off the line, they
were halfway there going full speed. So he was really discombobulated.

(34:35):
And you have to put that on Eberflus, also on
the player. But like, that moment, to me, just doesn't
happen with the high end coach. So I understand where
Bears fans go. I'm out on this coaching staff, totally agree.
But if you're the Washington Commanders, you're like, I'm in
on my coaching staff. And listen the Eagles. They have

(34:56):
so much talent. That's Saquon Barkley move has been pretty incredible.
I mean, he looks fantastic and defensively he still got
some question marks. They've eaten up some bad offensive lines
in the last couple of games. Can they get pressure?
You know, the Commander's offensive line actually is not playing terribly.

(35:17):
But when they play better teams, can they get the
pressure that will have to keep an eye on that
Darius slay on an Island, how does that look? But offensively,
when aj and DeVante are healthy and they will get
Goddard back, and if Jordan Mylott is okay and they
get him back as well. Like their offense is just
so loaded that Kellen Moore, you can nitpick them all

(35:37):
you want, but it's pretty hard to screw that up.
And Jalen definitely has played with more confidence these last
couple of weeks. I think part of it he's more
willing to run. I mean, that was a big problem
with Jalen last year. It's like he wouldn't run, and
part of it he was banged up or whatever. Jalen's
star attribute is the dual threat is he can run

(35:58):
at any moment, and he throws a gorgeous deep ball,
which he's very confident throwing, especially when eleven's going down
the field even six as well, Like he's very confident
pushing the ball down the field to those two guys.
They should win the division. But you have a moment
like that against the Bears, you just go, I don't know,

(36:18):
this thing could get weird. And I think there's a
lot of pressure now on the Eagles, like it's Division
championship or bust, because they're gonna be a playoff team.
But if you were to somehow not win this division
and let a rookie quarterback and dan Quinn come right
in the division and win it, Like if I was

(36:39):
a betting man today, I would bet on the Eagles.
But when they play, if they both have the same record,
there's gonna be all the pressures on Philly, all the
pressures on Philly, and it's gonna be fun to watch. Okay,
let's go to college football, as we like to call it,

(37:03):
cough on campus. Who when the last time I've been
on a campus? I guess last year. I went to
the Arizona State President State game. Prest State killed them,
which probably wouldn't happen this year because Arizona State's a
lot better. But I, like many people, usually get up
pretty early on Saturday nights. The older you get, you
just you don't drink as much and you could wake

(37:24):
up at like six or seven am on Saturday and
Sunday pretty easily. And I get up and I walk
right out to the living room and I turn on
College Game Day and it was cool from Bloomington, Indiana Signetti,
And obviously Signetti has been all over social media. His
team's been awesome. I've watched them play. I didn't believe
in them going into that Nebraska game. That game, having

(37:44):
money on Nebraska made me a believer. Washing them again
against Washington with their backup quarterback kick ass and take names.
They are fantastic. It is regardless of the story, Like
they're a really good team. Like that's a real call
football team in terms of like if they make the playoffs,
it's not some fluke. That team has good play. They're

(38:06):
really good on defense. But I was texted with someone
the other day, like, and I saw a clip where
Signetti says, listen right now, I got everything I want here.
My wife likes it. They have supported the program, We've
had money for nil and obviously we've had success in this,
you know, the second best conference in the country, in

(38:27):
the Big Ten. But what if people call them this offseason,
what if other bigger jobs, let's say Florida, they open
up and they call Kurt Signetti and most people go, well,
it's like you just you gotta take the job, because historically,

(38:48):
now with nil in the transfer portal, it is clearly
I would say level the playing field. Still have a
huge advantage at four or five of the big boys.
You're coaching A, you're coaching at Georgia, you're coaching LSU,
you're coaching at Texas or Texas, A and M. You're
gonna get better players, You're gonna have more money behind you.
Your recruiting bases are better. Not even debatable, but I

(39:11):
look today both of his coordinators, Mike Shanahan is his
offensive coordinator, no relation, who graduated college in twenty twelve,
played football pit so he's a younger guy. Their defensive coordinator,
Bryant Haynes is probably my age. We graduated college same

(39:31):
year two thousand and eight, so he's thirty nine, forty
years old. Are they gonna be able to keep their
two coordinators because historically no chance. And what do most
college coaches do when they need an OC or a DC.
They look around to the best teams in the country
that aren't Texas or Ohio State or Alabama that can

(39:54):
afford to keep their guys and they poach. So if
you're Kurt Signetti, like right now, you already realize my
two coordinators which came with me from James Madison, who
are too young trajectory pointing straight up at the sky
type guys. Can we pay them one point five two
million dollars? Because that's what happens sometimes. Two years ago,

(40:20):
Nick Sabin tried to hire Ryan Grubb away from Kaitlin
to Bor, which was ironic because then Debor end up
becoming Alabama Brock Grub. But then he lost them to
Seattle Seahawks. But the point was Alabama offered him more
money than they could pay it, but he chose to
stay partly because he was loyal, he thought they had

(40:40):
a good team, and ultimately made the right decision. But
typically in these situations you saw it last year with UCLA.
One of the reasons Chip Kelly just mailed it in
on that program is like Lincoln Riley and USC wanted
his defensive coordinator and they could just pay him more money,
and they did and he left. So if you're Signetti,

(41:03):
even if you really like it, you go to two factors. Here,
is it sustainable? What we're doing like every year, Like,
they're not gonna expect me to win ten eleven games
every year, but can I consistently win eight? Nine? Am
I going to be able to get the recruits here?

(41:24):
And only he truly knows that being in it every day.
But two, like, am I going to be able to
keep my coaches? Because watching Signetti talk, he's pretty confident.
He believes in his ability and his resume, as he
said google me is impressive. He wins, but it is
difficult if you just factor in over a five year

(41:46):
period to sustain what he's doing. Penn State's really good now,
Michigan is not going to be this shitty for long.
You add Oregon to the conference. Listen, the USC thing
has been a debacle, not going to be this bad.
Ohio State's always elite, and then just playing the random Wisconsin's, Iowa's,

(42:07):
Minnesota Like it's hard. And I just use Florida because
that's probably the easiest one to pinpoint of a team
that could open that. It's just a hard job to
turn down that. If they do call, how do you
not seriously consider it or just plug in any job
opening with that type cachet And I think he's gonna

(42:29):
have a very, very tough decision on his hands, because
if I wasn't an ad at one of these bigger
schools and we fire our coach, he has to be
one of my first calls. He really does. And if
you're him as these as it gets louder and louder
of people coming after his coordinators, because just pick the

(42:51):
top ten teams in the country LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas,
tex A, and m Like, if they need a coordinator
on one of the sides of the ball, when you
look immediately at Indiana and go, hey, what do you
make it? Oh I make a million bucks? Hey, we'll
give you two. That's usually what happens. You know. Penn State.

(43:16):
Ohio State is in a massive game this weekend, and
I watched a decent amount of Penn State play Wisconsin
on Saturday night on NBC, which is kind of weird
some of these I get the TV contracts changed, Like,
it's weird to me that the SEC is no longer
on CBS and it's on ABC. I think if you're CBS,

(43:37):
I don't know how you screwed that up. Obviously your
number one priority twenty four to seven three sixty five
is the NFL, but that I mean, the level of
television ratings that the SEC is doing this year has
to hurt them. But Penn State, Ohio State is I
mean gonna do ten million people are gonna watch this
game in Ohio State right now is in shambles that

(44:00):
they've lost several left tackles. They can't run the ball,
which I would say is not necessarily normal for a
Chip Kelly team, and defensively, they just don't look as
powerful as they have obviously in the Urban Meyer era.
That has kind of been one of the downfalls of
Ryan Day is his defense just haven't been as good.

(44:23):
And I've always thought when you have offensive coaches, especially
offensive coaches who are inclined to throw the ball a lot,
it's hard to develop toughness, and especially most offensive guys
former quarterbacks or guys that coach the quarterback aren't typically
innately tough, right. Jim Harbaugh, former quarterback, is an outlier.

(44:47):
If you asked a twenty five year old football fan
that had never watched Jim Harbaugh play, and you said,
this guy played in the NFL, what position do you
think Jim Harball played in the NFL. If you didn't
know anything about him, you just liked the NFL football.
You're too young to remember him playing, you don't remember
him as a player. I think most people would guess
like linebacker, like middle, linebacker, safety, tight end. You would

(45:12):
not guess quarterback. John Harbaugh, Dan Campbell, Mike Tomblin. These
guys are crazy and that's good. It's why their teams
are physical, because you can't fake that shit. Andy Reid
played offensive line. He's a tough guy, even though he
likes to throw the ball, but at his core, like
offensive line is his baby. We'll put him on the

(45:34):
map as a coach way back in the day. So
when you tell me that, like you know, Sark got
shoved around by Kirby, of course he did. Kirby's a
crazy solb safety Georgia, tough guy, Saban Mentor on defense,
like that's his baby. Toughness, craziness, physicality. You can't fake it,

(45:59):
some co coach is you know, it's harder for offensive
quarterback wide receiver type coaches to have that. It just is.
And like you watch Ohio State, no one disputes and
people you know, I bet there's people listening that know
their roster a lot better than me twenty million dollars roster.
They have NFL guys at every position, but like, are

(46:22):
you tough enough now? The knock with James Franklin has
always been like Ohio State. He can recruit as good
as anyone in the country, NFL players all over the place.
Their tight end this year is a monster. He has
seventeen catches against USC. Their front seven is awesome for
the first time in a long time. They hire the
Kansas o see, their offense is good. Then their quarterback

(46:44):
gets hurt last week, who's kind of a bizarre player.
Last year was very, very underwhelming. Then you watch them
against that USC game, which was kind of the crowning
achievement of his short career. And then he gets injured
in this game against Wisconsin, which was kind of getting
weird for Penn State, and they bring in the backup
who's kind of got a tough name to say, it's

(47:05):
Bo Pribula. I might be screwing that up comes in
it actually looks kind of good. Was like eleven to
thirteen through a touchdown, was running around better athlete than
Aler And I don't know, I mean, I think this
game is two similar coaches now Ohio State, and Ryan
Day has accomplished more than James Franklin. He's won bigger games. Hell,

(47:29):
he's owned James Franklin, so you have to give him
the coaching mismatch. But like watching these two teams this year,
like I don't know if I see that big of
a difference. If Riola in the Nebraska offense wasn't just
an embarrassment down the stretch, like that was a very,
very winnable game, it really was. And Riola is just

(47:52):
kind of underachieved. Might even be unfair because I don't
even know if he's achieved yet. But for all the
hype hasn't exactly been You know, I don't know Tua
Trevor Lawrence in college, and I think there's a lot
of pressure whoever went. If Ohio State loses this game
and you already got two losses, you talk about the

(48:12):
pressure mounting up on Ryan Day, it would get extreme
because then you would look around the landscape and be like,
well that Oregon is a conference loss. This is a
team that's not even gonna be playing in the Big
Ten championship. And Penn State's the answer, like, are you
ever gonna win one of these big games? Are you
ever gonna do it? When you're the underdog playing Michigan,

(48:33):
playing Oregon, playing Ohio State, Like James, can you do it?
And I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't bet on it.
I think this game's tough game to bet. Probably a
stay away from me, but must watch morning Saturday and
last but not least, you know, it's funny you look

(48:54):
back at that Oregon Boise game, which I felt like
went till midnight early in the season and I watched.
I remember, like, why am I staying up so late?
Because I thought Oregon might lose to Boise And it
took two special teams, a kickoff return and a power
return for them ultimately to win the game. But I
think that game is aids pretty well because Boise more

(49:15):
than likely is going to be in the playoffs. They
have what most people consider the best player in college football,
or right up there with Travis Henry in uh or
Travis Hunter. Travis Henry was Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver. So
they beat Boise, they beat Ohio State, which is the
best win of the season, I think, and then they

(49:38):
house Illinois last week. Who's good. Oregon's kind of got
their swag back, and unlike I would say Ohio State,
I do believe in their defense, like because their coach
is a tough guy and he's a defensive coach. So
if their offense plays well, which was the knock on
them early in the season, the offensive line was not
playing well and Dylan Gabriel is really settled into this offense,

(50:03):
they could win the Natty Man. And we thought that
when the season began. Then like three or four weeks three,
we're like, what is going on with the Oregon They
looked terrible and now you kind of get that monkey
off your back against Ohio State, just in the sense
of like, hey, guys, we're good, we just won a
huge game. We're legit, and that boys a game looked

(50:24):
better and better each week, and then you play Illinois
and you just kick their ass. Props to Dan Lanning
because it was getting weird early. He kept, you know,
the tires on the truck, kept them, you know, in
the lane, because they could have easily fallen into a ditch,

(50:44):
lost a game that they should not have lost. And
now they've won some games. They definitely that Ohio State game,
you could argue they shouldn't even have won, and the
way they looked against Illinois, I mean that that was
they should lacked them. That was a beatdown. So if
I had to pick right now, I would probably pick

(51:05):
Oregon to win the National Championship. Okay, let's do a
little Middlecoff mailbag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire
in those dms, get your questions answered here on the
podcast at John Middlecoff Instagram firen start with Matthew, big

(51:30):
Packer fan. The Jets have now lost five straight games,
two with both Aaron and Davante, and a six is
looking likely against the Texans in a short week. After
seeing how both situations have gone since Rogers and Adams
requested to be traded from Green Bay, it makes me

(51:51):
wonder if Aaron and Davante were drafted to a below
average franchise like the Jets, if they both were playing
together in their prime, could they change franchises losing culture
into a winning one. You have said in the past,
Green Bay is one of the best teams to be
drafted by for a playing career, and so my question is,

(52:12):
do you think that both players were drafted by the
Jets and unlike now played together at the peak of
their powers for many years. Do you think it could
turns the Jets franchise around. A lot of people's success
is where they go when they're young, right, because it

(52:33):
sets you on a path professionally. So when you get
into business when you're young, with the right people, it
can be like a trampoline for your career. Now, if
you get with the wrong people, it doesn't mean your
career screwed. And for most of us not In football,
we have decades of time, but a player's career is

(52:55):
very short lived. And we have seen a ton of
wide receivers for eats go to places and suck because
if you go to a place, if you're Devanta Adams
that doesn't have a quarterback, you were not viewed the
same as when you're playing with a top player of
all time, an MVP and putting up huge numbers in

(53:15):
big games. I mean, if you look at Davante's two
years with the Raiders, he had one hundred catches in
bost seasons, but he was not viewed the same. Right now, Davante,
if you remember, struggled early. He's even said it. He
did not play well. He was overwhelmed, He had the drops,

(53:37):
he had some injuries. Aaron didn't even start for the
first what three years of his career, so you could
argue both of them were not ready to go. The
difference is the Packers were good and they could handle
slow playing DeVante Adams. They had other weapons on the team,
and they had Aaron. If Aaron was thrust into action

(53:59):
right out of cow, who knows how it goes, because
I think the one thing you'd say about the two
quarterbacks that went in this draft, Alex obviously is not
as talented as Aaron, but I don't know if Aaron
could have overcame what Alex dealt with in San Francisco. Like,
the one thing we know about Alex Smith, his metal

(54:19):
toughness is as good as anyone over the last twenty
five years at that position. Now, he's not as talented
as all these other guys, but from a toughness standpoint,
it's elite physically and mentally. Like who knows now, Aaron
was a way different person back then, but I think
a lot of players we see it going on all

(54:42):
over the league now with quarterbacks, they'd have to go
somewhere else, like Baker Mayfield's a really good player. He's
on his what fourth team? Sam Darnold's gonna have a
career year with his fourth team, Right Jets, Carolina, San Francisco, Minnesota.
We see it with wide receivers all the time. I mean, shit,

(55:04):
Amari's been good. How many teams he been on. I
think it's very very difficult, regardless who you are, if
you are not a plug and play ass kicker, to
go to a place that's a disaster and have success.
I think it's very difficult. Avid listener from Tampa, so

(55:27):
that means like a couple pods a week. I hear
a lot of Florida State stuff, but my heart lies
in the Pac twelve and now in the Big twelve
from my Arizona State sun Devils. Florida State is a
dumpster fire. They were essentially one quarterback away last season
and now sit at one and seven with recruits de committing.

(55:48):
Damn didn't see that DJ transferred and destroyed his draft
stock and set the program back several seasons. I'm sure
both sides have remorse. How did FSU get this so
wrong with DJ? I think it points back to conferenceory
alignment and NIL exposing these frauds a lot earlier in

(56:11):
the process and should save NFL teams in the long run.
I don't know. I mean you guys that have been
listening to me for a while. Though I had their
general manager on he was high on the team. He was,
I mean, they were high on dj which I don't
agree with. But it's pretty crazy that just because your
quarterback play is bad that your team is this bad.

(56:35):
They lost to Duke for the first time ever. Think
about that. They've been in the conference with Duke now
a while. And on was that Friday night or Saturday?
I think it was Saturday. I mean, that was just
I don't know. I don't follow it closely enough. In
terms of player acquisition, they obviously lost a lot. Jared

(56:59):
Verse is an elite player right in college and definitely
in the pros. He's defensive Rookie of the Year level guy.
Keon Coleman starts for one of the best team in
the league. Well those are their two best players last year.
Gone Fisk, the de tackle drafted by the Rams second round.
Rinardo Green Corner starts plays a lot for the Niners.

(57:23):
Doesn't technically start, but depending on injuries, plays a lot
that's just a lot of talent. Now there's no excuse
to lose that and be one and seven. I don't know,
I don't really have I don't have a good answer
beside they suck like your takes on football. As a
lifetime Jacksman been a tough life. I can't accurately express

(57:47):
the frustrations of going through each season as the laughingstock
of the league. Aside from the Browns in Cowboys. If
you were running the organization, what would you do this
offseason based on what you've seen this far? From Lawrence
and Peterson Love from Florida, Well, Doug's gonna get fired

(58:10):
and Trent Balky should get fired. So if I'm gonna
fire Doug, Trent gotta go. Trent doesn't get to hire
his tenth head coach in his career. And then I
start from scratch, and then we determine this are we
gonna try to hire a GM first and then have
that guy hire the coach, or just hire the best
coach we can and then figure it out from there,

(58:31):
or just going open minded and do whatever we're we
feel drawn two. Right, if we interview this guy, we're
blown away, like, Okay, give him the keys. To me,
what makes the most sense if he's interested would to
be trying to hire Bill Belichick. That's what I would do.

(58:53):
I would just hire Bill Belichick because one, no one
could fault you for hiring Bill Belichick. To me, this year,
more than any year, approved how much this guy loves football.
He's got his offensive coordinator available, bad head coach, but
Josh McDaniels is a good offensive coordinator. I would imagine

(59:16):
because he's doing all this stuff, Patricia would come with
him as well. But like Bill had a lot of
success when he had Josh McDaniels. When Josh McDaniels left,
everything fell apart, like they made the playoffs with Mac Jones,
So I know we'll be good on defense because that's
Bill's baby. And then see if Josh can kind of
resurrect Trevor. So that to me would make the most sense.

(59:40):
And if Bill wasn't interested, Vrabel, who could come compete
in the division. He knows really well, similar to Bill,
very tough minded, would cut out just kind of the
crap that has flown on here for so long. The
question with Vrabel is you know who's his offensive coordinator?

(01:00:02):
Like when I hire Verbel. I feel very good about leadership, discipline, toughness, defense.
I do like they were good when they had Arthur
Smith as their offensive coordinator, and then Arthur Smith became
the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and it wasn't
quite the same. But you would say like Rabel has
been on the right. Guys like Arthur Smith is a

(01:00:23):
very good offensive coordinator. He was the one that promoted
him in that position, and before that, he was the
guy that hired Laflour question, will you please inform some
of my fellow Packer fans how Jordan Love is miles
better than Malik Willis. I know Willis has been amazing

(01:00:45):
as a backup this season, but he hasn't exactly played
top tier teams. He played the Colts, the Titans, and
then a little bit of the Jacks. Packer fans calling
for Willis over Love is ridiculous. I think I've been
battling with sickness. It was like coming on and I
fought it off. It was really kind of coming Sunday,

(01:01:08):
I was I felt like, am I getting sick right now?
It's like am I getting the flu or something coming on?
And then Monday, yesterday I felt it a little bit. Today,
I'm feeling better, but I still feel a little like
head congestion. So I'm battling here. If you hear me
drinking water swallowing, Is this really a conversation that's happening.
Is this an honest conversation that's happening with a human being? Okay,

(01:01:32):
I haven't seen it, and I've tried to spend a
little less time like on Twitter, so Instagram, it's not
as much of the arguing back and forth as just posts,
so you don't see as many of like people going
back and forth. But I have not seen this. If
I knew this person, I might stop talking to him.

(01:01:53):
And Malik has been an incredible story. I mean, it's
it's been a it's been a moment for the floor
of the packers to be to win games with this guy.
But what are we What are we talking about over
Jordan Love? Are we being serious here? If your friends
are being serious, tell him just I can't talk to

(01:02:14):
you until you never bring that up again. We'll see
if you know as of recording this will the follow
Jordan Love's status. But the only way I guess you
could argue about it with your friends all you want.
If Jordan Love is ever healthy, he will be the
starter because he is their best quarterback by a wide margin.

(01:02:34):
Jordan Love's good. If I was a Packer fan, I
would be so excited if Jordan Love as my quarterback.
After assessing Caleb through seven games, it looks like he's
almost relearning the position. He looks very hesitant to make
decisions in fear of making a mistake. Whenever he bombs it.
It looks predetermined. I feel like he is trying to

(01:02:57):
learn how to sit in the pocket, go through progressions.
It doesn't help to play for my Bears. Shane Waldron
is an idiot, but Caleb is flat out missing guys
that are wide open. What do you think? I was
talking to my guy, the chiropractor at the gym, who's

(01:03:19):
a diehard Bears man. Saw his office store was open,
so I kind of went over there and he was hot.
This was Monday, after they had just lost. He was
not happy, and he brought up a good point. He said,
why are they running go routes to Keenan Allen. Keenan
Allen probably runs a five flat forty. In what world

(01:03:43):
would you run a go route in a big game
in the second half to Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen runs slants,
he runs outs, He runs over the middle of the
field in his own coverage. He is a possession wide receiver.
If you are going to run a go route, you
would probably do it with Rome or DJ Moore. So

(01:04:07):
to me, sometimes when I watch the Bears, like part
of having DJ Moore. For example, one thing when Perti's off,
what Kyle will do is throw a couple of tunnel screens,
bubble screens, or I mean, depending on how you want
to describe it or what the exact play is. To
Deebo Samuel, to just settle everyone down because it's twofold.

(01:04:29):
It's an easy completion first quarterback and Deebo, I mean,
if you make a couple of blocks, can take it
fifty yards. But worst case scenario, you're gonna game seven
eight yards, and he dropped one in the Sunday night game,
they probably should have gone fifty to the house. But
just settles everything down. You watch the Bears, it feels
like they run so many deep breaking routes. Why not

(01:04:51):
just run some short intermediate stuff because clearly, like you said,
his deep ball isn't bad. I mean it's he missed
by a lot a lot. I mean sometimes they just
when he leaves his hands, you're like, this is gonna
be cool, and then it's not even remotely close to
the dB or the wide receiver. I don't understand why

(01:05:11):
they don't run more quick game, like I would eat
the shit out of defenses with quick game with Keenan
Allen and I don't have their statistics in front of me,
but how many quick screens or just getting the ball
behind the line of scrimmage DJ more of they run?

(01:05:32):
He is very similar to Debo. Get the ball in
his hands and let him cook and it makes it
easy on the quarterback, Like why are we dropping back
like you said and making Caleb act like Peyton Manning,
which is not really how he played in college and
he's clearly not that comfortable doing it right now. He's

(01:05:52):
a rookie. You have these pieces, I don't know would
Comet have against Washington one target? Why aren't you eating
that guy alive right over the middle of the field.
What has been Travis Kelsey's go to route? Would you
say over the course of his career, because for me,
it would be something from the slot some sort of

(01:06:13):
curl or crossing route where he stops in the middle
of the field and he's a great zone at deciphering
the opening in his own coverage. But it creates a
guy sixty three sixty four. I think Comet's like six '
five standing in the middle of the field, which is
even if you're five or six steps back from where

(01:06:35):
the ball is snapped. It's what at most a twelve
yard throw. It's a high percentage throw to a massive
target who's open. I feel like the Bears are like
bombs away all the time. I clearly, Shane Waldron, they're
the rhythm. As a play caller, I do think you

(01:06:56):
are taught offense right when you show up to the NFL.
If you're a young coach, depending on who you work for,
that's where you build your offensive knowledge. So if I
work for a Shanahan guy, or if I work for
Josh McDaniels and Belichick, or I work for you know,
Andy Reid, like, that's where I learn or I become

(01:07:17):
a master of offense. But once I become the play caller,
I do believe some of that is innate. You either
have a feel for it or you don't because some
guys are. It doesn't mean you're not gonna you're gonna
call bad plays, you're gonna screw up. But I'm saying
when you watch certain play callers, you're like, this guy's
pretty good, and then you watch other guys you're like,

(01:07:40):
what is he doing? And it feels like when you
watch Shane Waldron and the Bears, cause it's like you
can't force Caleb to do something he's not good at
right now. So if you want to have success, do
stuff that you know he can do, even if it's
just two or three plays, and those fucking plays, but

(01:08:01):
it's like they're throwing bombs. The score is not twenty
eight to nothing. At one point in time, it was
twelve to seven. I say this all the time. Some
coaches go into this pass heavy mode when they're down
like less than two touchdowns. Just run the ball, and
how they get back in the game they bust a
big run. All of a sudden, it's like twelve to seven,

(01:08:22):
rolling down five points. Well, yeah, the score is not
that far away. The score was not twenty six to nothing.
So I do think it's fair to say that Shane
his feel as a play caller is not great. It's
not because you watch the dude down with Baker Mayfield
when his players were healthy, You're like, he's got a

(01:08:44):
pretty good feel for play calling, Liam Cohen. And then
you watch Shane Waldron You're like, I don't think he's
got a great feel for play calling, So you might
just have an offensive coordinator who I would imagine if
you got Waldron in a room and gave him a
pen and a white, he blow your mind. He's probably
he might be good on the field as well the

(01:09:06):
practice field, but when it comes to the games, like
there's no rhythm or method to his madness. Hey, John,
wanted to ask you when will Jalen Hurts get his
respect as a pocket passer. His stats every year have improved.
He's completing sixty eight percent of his passes currently in
a ninety eight quarterback rating, and hasn't had a consistent

(01:09:30):
offensive coordinator every year. He's played a lot better the
last couple of games. He looked that they can be potent.
Man when you get Saquon Rowland when AJ's healthy. Davante,
he's a good player when he runs. When he is
a threat to run the ball, you have to you know,

(01:09:51):
it's kind of cliche, like we gotta defend every blade
of grass. You literally do with the Eagles because their
running back is dumb. Their quarterback is a great deep
ball thrower and can't scramble and throw and he can run.
So to me, Jalen like, part of the problem last
year is like when all he wants to do is

(01:10:13):
be a pocket passer, it's not as good when the
scramble running element is part of his game. He's pretty dynamic. Now.
The Bengals defense has not been good and the Giants
are a train wreck. So but you build some momentum.
They're kicking ass and taking names. They played their best
half of football in two years. I'd be excited. I

(01:10:40):
know the Bears have not historically fired a coach midseason,
but loss is like this underscore how incompetent this coaching
staff has been. Everflu's runs a good defense, Jayden was
neutralized from most of the game, but the Eberflus Bears
invent ways to loose the last two years. Critical turnovers

(01:11:02):
in big games plagued our team, whether it was fields,
pick or fumble, or a special team's mishap. The Bears
always crumble in big moments. Now, in the biggest game
of the year, the defense couldn't execute on the last
play of the game. No pressure on Jaden because he
was only rushed by three and our starting cornerback was

(01:11:24):
messing around with the crowd. I've never watched this team
and questioned the coaching staff decisions more consistently than I do. Now.
Will Ibra Flush finish the season as the Bears head coach?
When will the Bears coaching staff be held accountable for
their terrible decision making? Well, you know the Bears ownership

(01:11:48):
better than me. Like you said, they've never fired a
coach in season. They clearly like the guy. His jobs
in major jeopardy right now. Not to be fired in
the middle of the season, but if they miss the playoffs,
he's done. They have a massive game on Sunday. They're
flying across the country. I guess they're kind of in
the middle of the country, but flying to Arizona, which
is probably a three hour flight. There are a lot

(01:12:10):
of Bears fans that live in this area. My guess
is Sunday at I think it's State Farm, it is
going to be fifty percent Bears fans. It is going
to be a massive Chicago turnout. So this Arizona team
is a tough team to play that their team is

(01:12:30):
just they have had countless upsets this year. Kyler is
a mother. Defensively, they're not very good though, so it's like,
are you gonna be able to pass on them? Because
most teams can pass pretty easily on them. And this
gets back to Shane Waldron. I think big picture if
you're a Bears fan, which sucks because it's like we

(01:12:54):
all could die tomorrow, Like there's no guarantee. It's always like, well,
what about just let's just lose out as we can
get rid of the cod which get some draft picks
and who knows. It's like, why can't we be the
seventh seed this year? That's where I understand Bears fans
being so mad right now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Like, guys, we could have been in the playoffs right now,
even if we're one and done, how fucking awesome would
a playoff game be? And now it feels like, are
we just gonna lose the Packers and the Lions in Minnesota?
We're gonna loose in the Niners? Are we gonna end
up going seven and ten? Even though we got more talent.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Than last year because of these coaches, And to me,
that's where I think you just gotta keep your fingers crossed,
Like is Belichick interested? Is Mike Vrabel interested? Because you
gotta They historically don't spend a lot of money on coaches.
Though that was bad. That was bad. And Waldron is

(01:13:44):
play calling whenever you watch the Bears, it's like the
deep bombs worked against the Jags and the Panthers, but
it's like, can we get some other plays in the mix?
Make some stuff easy? Another question about sat Shane Waldron?
Am I allowed to blame Waldron for Caleb being terrible?
Shane obviously is an awful play caller, but Caleb is

(01:14:07):
so inaccurate and inconsistent. Yeah, it's I think the great
part about these conversations is no one really knows, right.
It's like, how do you quantify who's doing shittier? Like
is Caleb just really frenetic right now and leaving the
pocket too early and scrambling around and missing deep balls

(01:14:30):
because he's inaccurate or because the play calling is bad?
Are they not teaching him stuff during the week? Does
he not understand the defensive looks? It's why football is
so fascinating because it's like Aaron Judge can't hit a
fastball right now, It's just it's black and white. It's
like ball down the middle, swinging a miss curveball, no chance.

(01:14:50):
With Caleb, it's like, well, is he an accurate passer?
And then you watch some of those passes at the
end of the game where he makes some big plays.
I think the reality is the coaching staff has been underwhelming,
and also you have to say Caleb, I would say,
has been a little underwhelming as well as the hype
and the number one overall pick. He's not exactly picking

(01:15:11):
apart from the pocket. And while they call too many
deep balls, his is not. They're not even close now.
I think on the bright side, arm strength. He's overthrowing them,
so it's not like he's got a peace shooter. He's
got a big time arm. His athleticism is evident. He
does just like when you watch him on television, I

(01:15:34):
would say, look shorter than you would like, and we
knew height is not you know, he's not six thirty
six four. But I do wonder if sometimes he struggles
to see over the pocket, like is he ever going
to be a great pocket passer. I that would concern me,
but I would go, let's just get a better coaching

(01:15:55):
staff before I'm gonna come to judgments. But I do
think two things can be true. Coaching staff not been great,
Caleb's been a little underwhelming in some of these big moments. Now,
part of it is their O line sucks, so he's
getting pressured. And as my guy told me, well, they
lost their starting left tackle early in that game. I
just think the everything's off. Their offense is just off

(01:16:19):
in games that matter, which should really concern you because
these Packer and Lions games are gonna be really freaking hard.
He's gonna go. Listen, everyone's like, well they figured out
Brian Flores' defense, Well, Shane Waldron and Caleb gonna figure
that out. Because it's one thing if if if Ben

(01:16:39):
Johnson and Jared Goff figured out like Shane Walter and Caleb,
they're gonna find the weak spots, They're gonna be able
to handle him switching up all the coverages. I don't know.
I'm watching Philly and Cincinnati and I can't help but
get the feeling that he actually the tush push needs

(01:17:01):
to go, not for specific injury, reasons or penalty reasons,
mainly because it's just an awful viewing experience. I'm torn
on this one. It's like it's football, it's in the
rule book, and a huge reason they're able to do

(01:17:24):
it is because their quarterback's really powerful. Like I don't
think it would work if you have a quarterback who
can't squat six hundred pounds or whatever. You can, you know,
Kelsey who's gone now, but Dickerson or you know, the
center and the guards, like obviously their job's really hard,

(01:17:44):
but Jalen's power is a separating factor. But I gotta
agree with you. I do think it sucks. It'd be
like it's a little like this with Victor wembin Yama,
but it's still harder. Like if you just didn't have
to jump to dunk, you know, back like George Mirasan

(01:18:05):
just hand them and he just dunks it. You're like,
this is this even basketball? And they get to inside
the two yard line it's like an automatic touchdown. It's
like this sucks. And again just saying it, like you
said from a viewer, definitely if you gamble on them
or have Saquon rushing props, it's like, yeah, this is
gonna be Jalen. There's gonna be Jalen. But it's hard

(01:18:27):
for me to blame them for doing it because it
freaking works. But I hear you, like, no one's jumping
out of their seat if they're not an Eagle fan,
going honey, push push, come watch it. It sucks. It's
it's the most boring playing football because it's automatic USC

(01:18:48):
big home game in Boulder, Texas, first Georgia. I just
can't help but think the side show distraction going on
the sideline has hurt these teams. You're eighteen to twenty
two year olds. How can it not How much of
a distraction do you think all these celebs on the
sideline are causing. I don't think they were that. I

(01:19:11):
guess you're talking the Penn State game. I think these
guys kind of get dumb to it. I really do.
I don't think the sidelines in college football just keep
an eye on it for a big game. When you
factor in how many sideline passes, famous people alumni boosters

(01:19:35):
get in college football, you dress, I don't know, eighty
ninety guys for a home game. And coaching staffs in
college also include recruiting staffs, so the sidelines are packed.
Watch an NFL game sideline, there is open space everywhere

(01:19:56):
because the scouts aren't staying on the sideline. There are
no such thing as sideline passes. They don't exist in
the NFL, and it's just way more open. You watch
these colleges, you're like you can barely move. Remember being
in Texas, Oklahoma, It's like there's not even space for
the players. That to me is a bigger deal than
McConaughey or former NFL players or whatever on the sideline.

(01:20:22):
So it might if you're a true freshman, it could
definitely feel like a lot like feel a little overwhelming.
I think once you've been playing for a while, it's
like it's like a golfer. If me or you hit
a golf shot in front of fifty people, it's really intimidating.
But if you've got a pro golfer in front of

(01:20:43):
thousands of people, they're just kind of numb to it.
Once you do something long enough, you kind of become
numb to it. I think you're more feeding off the
crowd than you're worried about who's standing outside the twenties
on your sideline. So I guess my over all reaction
is not a big deal. I don't think it's that

(01:21:04):
big a deal at all. Question for the mailback when
it comes to Seattle's quarterback situation, why not fire up
Sam Howell whenever they move on for Gina, he was
pretty good with the Washington not great, but certainly capable.
I also wonder why some of these teams who need
a quarterback, like New Orleans or the Raiders don't trade

(01:21:27):
for him. He's still young, and I see no reason
why he couldn't get better on like a Gino, Darnold
or Baker situation. Am I just missing something or is
he that bad? Uh? Well, the reason that the Saints
they drafted Spencer Ratler and they drafted Jay Hayner, so

(01:21:51):
they're just hoping one of those guys becomes Sam Howel.
The Raiders paid Minshew fifteen million or ten million, and
they drafted Aidan O'Connell. So it's like, we got to
figure out if these guys can play. I'd be lying
if I watched much Washington football last year, which they
were clearly really bad, and offensively, he was getting sacked

(01:22:12):
on stop. So I know a lot of people that
liked him coming out of college. But I don't know.
I mean, he's not He's not better in Geno Smith.
And I'm a Geno skeptic in these big games. But
Geno Smith is one better in sam Au, better athlete,
better arm, uh, just a better player. So if if

(01:22:35):
you want to have a chance, a better chance to
win on a daily basis or weekly basis, Geno gives
you that. With the Panthers trading away Deontay Johnson, I
feel like they've hit rock bottom. The organization seems to
go backward every year, and it's hard to stay loyal.
I just want to enjoy football, but I'm close to

(01:22:56):
jumping ship. What would you do if you were in
my shoes? I think we're gonna rename these guys the
Porta Potty Panthers. People liked when I talked about the
outhouse and the penthouse and I described the Porta Potty
experience on a hot day to the Carolina Panthers. I
don't know, man, it sucks. I don't really know what

(01:23:17):
to tell you. You have to tell me what team
you want to join. But I never blame anyone in
a situation where it's like I've watched this team for
years and this is just this is not fun because
ultimately you as a fan, like this is all fun,
and it's one thing like, hey, you have bad years,
you have a downstretch, like if you're an Eagle fan, like, yeah,

(01:23:37):
last year sucked. But it's like these are first world problems.
Like if you're a Giants fan right now and you're
twenty years old, you're like, for the last ten years
of my life, this has been embarrassing. Okay, am I
gonna always experience this? It's like, well we won two
Super Bowls? Well, yeah, when I was eight years old

(01:23:59):
and the other one when I was four, Like the
majority of my team years have been four or five wins.
I'm all for going through a rough season or two,
but if every single year looks the same, what am
I doing? Sundays are supposed to be enjoyable? A magic

(01:24:19):
being a Chiefs fan. These last ten years, they got
greater life sped even with Alex Smith winning ten eleven games.
Now Mahomes doesn't get any better. Patriot fans for twenty
years and that's the best case. But even if you're
just like a Ravens fan or a Bills fan like
gay I don't know if we're gonna win the super Bowl,
but see you in the playoffs and every Sunday. For
the most part, it's gonna be awesome. Because if we

(01:24:41):
go twelve and five, it's like, yeah, we lose five games,
Well we fuckingt your win a lot. This sucks. It sucks,
and for it's one thing to be even the Giants,
they have these games that are respectable, Like the level
in which you guys are playing is unwatchable, unwatched. I

(01:25:04):
love football and I can watch most any game. The
YouTube set up on Sunday afternoon, they didn't have four boxes,
so I put a game on each TV. But there
was five games going on, so obviously the Bears Commanders
got the big TV. The second TV I think was, uh,

(01:25:28):
what was the other? There was another decent game going on, Oh,
Seattle Buffalo. Then I put on the Chargers against the
Saints and the Raiders and the Chiefs on the other two,
thinking those, you know, obviously the Chargers and the Chiefs
were gonna win those games. I was like, I don't
need to Denver Carolina, Like I didn't. I have not
seen one play from I saw play because certain had

(01:25:50):
a pick I saw a highlight. It's like, I don't
need to watch this game. I do this for a living.
It's like even Sean Payton after the game kind of
didn't really matter. It's hard to even judge. It's like
they don't even matter. The game does not matter. And
it turned out like the Saints game to the Chargers
didn't matter either. They're so terrible. But it was like,

(01:26:12):
I gotta I gotta pay attention here like I did
not because you know the outcome. It's like my favorite
bet of the week. You wait, you're gonna put Bryce
Young on the road in Denver against that defense. I
feel for you, man, I don't necessarily have a good
answer for you. Beside, I think the easiest thing to
say is like, hang in there, but bullshit, Like why

(01:26:33):
do they deserve your time? The most valuable thing you
have in your life is your time, and Sunday afternoon
or Sunday morning, you can be doing whatever you want.
You can be watching other games and you're watching that. Okay,
last question, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, any chance Zach Wilson
is next? He has more wins last year than Rogers

(01:26:56):
has this year. I just don't know. How he gets
a chance to start? You know, part of Sam went
to Minnesota and became the starter. They traded Russell Wilson,
and Gino became the starter. How does Zach Wilson get
the opportunity to start? I just I have a hard

(01:27:19):
time seeing that. So I think he's still a couple
of years away. He would need an injury then to
play some games and look good, and then in the
off season someone gives him the opportunity to be a
bridge quarterback and then he takes in runs with it.
But I don't see a scenario in the offseason where
someone signs him and even gives him the opportunity to

(01:27:41):
compete for the job. So he has a much higher
uphill battle. Remember Geno Smith for years became a backup
quarterback years after you know the Jets situation. So after
Gina leaves the Jets, he goes to the Giants backup quarterback.
Famously got to start the game for Eli Manning which

(01:28:02):
I actually attended against the Raiders the Chargers twenty eighteen
backup quarterback. Then he goes to Seattle and Russell's there
and is the backup for basically three seasons, so he
became the backup with the Giants the Chargers Seattle for

(01:28:23):
three seasons before he won the job, So they had
spent three years around the guy before they said, yeah,
let's give the guy an opportunity. And at the time
he had to compete with Drew lock Yeah, because when
they traded Russell Wilson, they brought Drew Locke. One thing
they said it was like they're gonna compete. So I
think Zach Wilson is one of those stints, like for

(01:28:43):
a couple of years, backup quarterback, maybe like a veteran player.
Either the guy gets hurt and he's thrust into action
or just like over time he woos them and wins
their trust. But Gino, like Sam was a third pick
in the draft, right, and then Kyle Shanahan became a
backup and then became a bridge. So is Zach even

(01:29:08):
technically the second string quarterback right now? I don't think
he is. It's a good question. I have to look
at the who's usually the emergency quarterback for the Broncos.
My guess is Zach Wilson, But could be wrong on that. Okay, Audios,
have a great day. I'm gonna try to feel better

(01:29:30):
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