3 & Out - Texans handle business against Dallas, Daniel Jones is out, What's going on in Baltimore

John reacts to the Monday Night game that saw the Houston Texans take care of business against a reeling Dallas Cowboy team. John talks about all the issues surrounding the Cowboys and what Jerry Jones should do during the season and how he should handle the off-season. Next, John does his latest installment of "Outhouse or Penthouse"

Later, John dives into the Giants benching Daniel Jones and how this is a move that should have happened much earlier. He talks about Lamar Jackson and how he needs to start beating top teams and win in the playoffs if he wants to continue to be considered a top QB in the league.

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

5:25 - Monday Night Football reaction

38:38 - Daniel Jones is out

45:49 - What's going on Baltimore

57:31 - Jets are a mess

1:06:00 - Mailbag

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #Herd

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff, that'd be me three and out podcasts, that'd
be this little show. I just watched a little Monday

(00:24):
night football and the Cowboys got destroyed, and I think
it's we got a lot going on. Willie Nelson once said, Mama,
don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys. And
if you're a young Cowboy fan, things look ugly because
your team is really bad and it looks like it's

(00:44):
gonna get a lot worse. Now for the Cowboys, the
Texans are seven and four. They had really high hopes
on the season. They hit a little rough patch obviously
last week losing to the Lions with that big comeback
was pretty devastating, especially when you call five turnovers. But
tonight you play a bad team with a backup quarterback
and you dominate. You're seven and four. Future looks bright.

(01:08):
But we'll dive into that game, you know. I think
at this point it's hard to really break much down
a Cowboys games in terms of what we saw, because
what does it really matter beside injuries? Knowing that the
coach is not going to be there next year, that
really is what the attention is going to turn to
who is going to be the next head coach of
the Cowboys. Where you look at the Texans, it's much

(01:30):
more like can they show up their offensive line by
the playoffs? Can they get healthy by the playoffs? Defensively,
are they good enough to win playoff games? Can that
defense carry them to win playoff games? Can Demico out
scheme guys? So I think we're kind of looking at
two teams on the opposite end of the spectrum. Obviously
we do this every Monday in that little penhouse and outthouse,

(01:52):
as well as some other stuff going on around the NFL.
Daniel Jones, Benched, who saw that come? I'd say everybody.
But other than that, make sure you subscribe to three
and Out podcasts if you listen on Collins Feet, greatly
appreciate it. Also the YouTube channel. We got a bunch
of content up on the YouTube channel. Go subscribe to

(02:13):
that as well. And before we talk some football, do
you want to go to a football game? Do you
want to go to a basketball game? Do you want
to go to an NHL hockey game? You want to
go to a concert? Do you want to go to
a comedy show? Well, guess what I got you covered
because my friends, my pals, and the official ticketing app

(02:35):
of this podcast, game Time. Download that app right now
on your phone. And when you do it, if you
want to go to an event, any event, type in
the venue, type in the team you want to see,
type in the artist you want to go watch, and
you can search by price points by It gives you,
you know, for concerts, it gives you site lines, gives

(02:57):
you an idea of like how good the view is
where you're sitting relative to the stage. They have incredible
flash deals. Cannot recommend them enough, So take the guests
work out of buying tickets with game Time. Download the
game Time app, create an account and use the code
John for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms of
play Again, create an account and redeem the code John

(03:19):
for twenty dollars off. Download the game Time app. The day,
last minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. You know, I
don't quite know where to start here. I guess we
could give the Texans who are seven and four and
in a weird way feel like they've underachieved this year,
or at least I think we were more bullish on
them than they have shown. I thought Troy did a

(03:39):
pretty good job of discussing Bobby Slowick that whenever you
have offensive struggles, no one takes more heat on a
team than the offensive coordinator, because even the defensive coordinator,
and there is some truth to this, while he does
take a lot of heat, it's usually directly tied in
with the head coach a lot at the time, and

(03:59):
the players get a lot of the blame on defense.
When you get bad play calling, bad schemes, bad protection,
the offensive coordinator gets absolutely destroyed. But you play the Cowboys,
who are in complete chambles, you throw up thirty five points.
I guess the offense didn't throw up all thirty five

(04:20):
of those points because the one I guess it was
multiple fumbles. Derek Barnett caused the fumble. Gut in the
offensive lineman picked up the fumble. Petrie, who just destroys people,
takes his ass out, and Barnett picks the ball back
up and scores. That was if you just watch the
game that I that was easily the highlight. That was

(04:41):
a cool moment. It feels like we always get one
of those type plays on Monday Night football. But like
we'll dive into the Texans here in a second. When
it comes to the Cowboys, here's the shitty part is
their games don't matter, like it just nothing that happens
in their game matters. At this point obviously ended before

(05:01):
Dak even went on injury reserve and out for the season,
it was clear they were screwed. And then the moment
they're screwed, it inevitably goes to whether coach has done
like they are going to need a new coach who
obviously is going to fire this entire staff, old curmudgeon

(05:22):
Mike Zimmer. Their defense, which is not played well this season,
is not going to be back as well. So like
judging them on a play to play basis or a
game to game basis now and trying to break down
stuff like you could argue, what's the point at least
with Tommy DeVito and Brian Daball. If we take John

(05:45):
Mora at his word, it's like, well, you keep judging
Brian Daball as a play caller, what does Tommy DeVito
look like when he inserts them? Does their offense look better?
Because more than likely, unless he's lying to people, he's
going to be your coach next year, where Mike mccarr like,
I think it's pretty clear Jerry's not gonna fire him
in season. I think he's also earned the right the

(06:07):
last three years to at least play this season out.
I also think, and I mentioned this earlier, I woke
up this morning like a lot of people, and I
was like, I bet Doug Peterson comes across the wire
as being relieved of his duties. And then it didn't happen,
and then I saw I gave a press conference, and
you know what, there's a decent chance they just have
Doug coach out the string. Because I wonder if Shad

(06:30):
Khan's looking at his staff and going, well, if I
fired Doug, my team is awful, my quarterbacks probably out
for the year. Who knows when we see that guy again.
I don't think any of these guys are worth giving
an interim bump. The reason the Saints fired Dennis Allen
and made Darren Rizzy their interim head coach. I think

(06:53):
inside in that building there are people that are like,
let's give a guy trial run. Maybe this guy could
be our next head coach. I mentioned it is a
stucky last week. He looks like Ken Shamrock from the
UFC and clearly means I would say invigorated the squad
a little bit. They clearly look like they got a
little more juice. Maybe it's just health permitting. The reason

(07:15):
they fired Robert Sawah won. Woody Johnson clearly didn't like him,
Aaron Rodgers clearly didn't like him. But most importantly, there
were people in that building that thought Jeff Ulbrick might
be the next head coach. And so like Mike McCarthy
and listen, it's not like Jerry has pushed back against this.
He said over and over, like no mid season changes.

(07:36):
One part of making a mid season change is like
give a guy a trial run. It's like a guy
that you want to see get some free reps. It's basically,
with like four games left in an NFL season, benching
a guy and giving a six round pick the starting
job when your team's out of it, Why let's see
if we got something here. And the Cowboys definitely don't

(07:57):
have something there when it comes to their coaching staff
and when Cooper rushes run around and now by the
end of the game you have multiple offensive lineman limping off,
you're just completely fucked. I mean, there really is no
way around it. You honestly thought, like with the Texans,
it's like, let's just try to get out of here.
No one get injured towards the last like five six minutes,

(08:18):
and the Texans are trying to like get their mojo
because they've been so bad on offense. So that's why
their last touchdown was important for them to get. But
when you play a team that is playing their backup quarterback,
which has a bunch of injuries and it's just headed
toward three or four wins, it has preseason vibes. And
do you know that we get Cowboys Giants on Thanksgiving?

(08:40):
I mean, so buckle up. It's not like the Cowboys
are going away talk about a fall from grace. I
mean the last three years winning twelve games, and now
that is the product. I think if you're a Cowboy fan,
the only thing you can hope for, because these are
going to be two of the most important players on
the squad going into twenty twenty five and beyond, is

(09:03):
that Micah Parsons and Ceedee Lamb do not get injured
over the next month and a half. That is the
only thing that matters. And you know, for the first
time this season. I spent the first half watching Eli
and Peyton. You know why, because I was like, this
game's not doing it for me. And for the most part,
I'm pretty into these Monday night games, and I like
just watching the regular broadcast Troy and Joe, it feels

(09:25):
really big. And tonight I was like, this game sucks,
And so I watched Peyton and Eli with Belichick and
it was pretty entertaining, and even Bill was like, Yeah,
their defense and run game sucks. If you have a
bad defense and you have no run game, you're basically
saying your team is really really soft. Because you watch
the Texans and what do they do well? Well, they

(09:47):
have a really good pass defense, they have a good
scoring defense, and when Mixon is healthy, they have a
really really good run offense. Why because he's one of
the better running backs in the league's top ten running back.
He's a really really good player. So when you watch
the Texans, like one thing that you know, I think
has been driving people nuts is like, stop throwing the

(10:07):
ball so much. When Mixing is healthy, run the football,
run the ball, and play defense. You have an excellent
defensive head coach. You have I would say great personnel.
When fully healthy, you have really good defensive personnel. They
were missing, you know their second round corner from Georgia Latimer,
who's uh or last, last, last sister. I'm already. I

(10:29):
don't want to script the name right now, but you
know what name I'm looking for here the kid from
Georgia to go along with Stingley, who's a really really
good player. You got Petrie, you know when Will Anderson's healthy.
Like their defensive line. You saw Derek Barnette tonight make
a big play like they got some dudes. And statistically
they've been pretty good on defense. They have a good

(10:49):
pass defense, which is important in this modern day NFL.
You're playing a lot of teams that want to throw
the ball. There's a pretty good chance that the Texans
are the four seat. You could be playing Lamar Justin
Herbert round one, and with that past defense, it would
give you a shot. Now, I think part of the
reason and Aikman I did watch the second half with

(11:10):
Troy and Joe because I came into my office and
I just YouTube TV and just watched it on my monitor.
I didn't even watch the game on TV. I just
watched the second half of the game, sitting at my desk,
which I never do. Just on my external monitor, it's
probably twenty five inches. I was like, yeah, I just
not even that into this. But the offensive coordinator like

(11:35):
part of his job is to make it easier on
the quarterback. And I think one reason people have been
critical on Slowick is when your offensive line is really
struggling to block and you keep calling these pass plays
and you have guys that have no shot to pass block,
You're gonna get this guy killed and then it starts unraveling.
And I've thought early, like, let's face it, he hasn't

(11:57):
looked as good this year as he did last year
as a quarterback. Now he's missed Nico Collins for a
large percentage of the season. He comes back. I was
like two minutes late to even turning on the game,
and I missed the play where he took it sixty
five yards. I had to watch it on Twitter, like

(12:17):
pretty important to have that guy. Now it got called
back because there was a legal man downfield, and the
Texans ended up scoring on that drive. Anyway, they basically
scored two touchdowns on their first drive. I mean there
was a moment about ten minutes into this game where
you're like, the Cowboy's gonna lose like forty to nothing,
And they didn't quite lose like that, but it was.

(12:37):
It was pretty ugly, and I just think, like the Texans,
I think there was a lot of hype. I believed it.
I thought this team was going to compete for the
number one overall seed. That clearly is not gonna happen.
But if you can get healthy and you can play defense,
and you can run the ball, you have a chance
to win a playoff game. And I think if you

(12:58):
go back to back years winning a playof that would
be a really successful season. And the problem is, like
if you were to win that first round playoff game,
you would get way more credit this year than you
did last year because you beat Joe Flacco. If you
were to beat Herbert or Lamar, that would be a
fantastic win. And then you would have to go on

(13:18):
the road, probably to obviously Buffalo or Kansas City. Take
your chances. But I just think that I'm not writing
this team off. You just watch them, and it feels
like I was. Maybe the hype was too strong. You
were just expecting a little more. But they do have
you know, just some elements of a team that is

(13:39):
tough to play when you have multiple good corners and
a good defensive coach. I don't write you off. And
I think a lot of people have kind of written
this team off, and part of it is the division
they play in, which essentially feels over now. I would
say the Jets, excuse me, not the Jets. The Colts
got a little life Anthony Richardson, I think most people

(14:01):
were saying, and I would tend to agree. I mean,
the bar's pretty low, and he hasn't played that many
He's like he played the best game of his career.
It's like, yeah, he's played like seven of them. But
it was a big moment, especially in the second half.
But like the Texas have already played that team twice.
We beat him, so it's I don't want to say
the division's a rap, because you never know if you
have a major injury, especially a quarterback, but it feels

(14:24):
I'm pretty confident that the Texans are gonna win this
bad Boy, And obviously the Cowboys are headed for their
worst season in a long long time, and it's tough.
You know, Jerry's up there squirreling around his press box.
Who knows what the hell he's saying, you know, after
this game, as I'm speaking, he's probably saying something crazy.

(14:45):
But what can you even say at this point, Like,
did anyone think the Cowboys were gonna win this game? Honestly?
Did anyone think the Cowboys were gonna be competitive in
this game? And this is the thing. If they play
a decent team, if they play a playoff team, which
now we have seen them play two weeks in a row,
they get throttled. And they were much better tonight than

(15:08):
they were against the Eagles, and you look up and
they're still down three or four scores. So I just
the Cowboys stink. And Cooper Rush, I know, statistically threw
for over three hundred yards, but man, you're not running
around for his life. There was a play they went

(15:30):
for it. It was twenty to ten and it was
fourth and two and they could have kicked the field
goal to make it twenty to thirteen, and Mike decides
to go for it and he runs what looked like
a clear out play with Ceedee Lamb and I think
one of their other wide receivers. And even Aikman was like,
what are these two wide receivers doing I think it

(15:54):
was basically just again I'm totally assuming here, but just
watching the way the play worked out. He ran those
guys just to the back pylon do clear out the
area so he could try to get Mingo the dude
they just traded for a touchdown, and you just wonder, like,

(16:14):
is he doing that to make Jerry happy? Did Jerry
tell him to do that. It was kind of a
weird moment because Aikman was perplexed by the route CD
and the wide receiver was running. They basically ran into
each other, you know, in the corner of the end zone.
But I do wonder if it was just a one
route option and it had something to do with Jerry.

(16:35):
And that's back to this overall thing. Like listen to
Texans right now, Win or Lose feel like a buttoned
up operation right Their general manager Nick Cassario working hand
in hand with Demiko down to CJ, A lot of
their young core like, you just feel good about the direction.
It's the complete opposite of the shit show going on

(16:56):
in Dallas. I mean, those are two teams. I mean
one is the dominant team the region, the Cowboys against
kind of the little step brother in the Houston Texans,
who just feel like they got their shit together and
are gonna be in the playoffs most years moving forward.
Now are they true super Bowl contenders? Obviously they got
a little ways to go. Maybe they're draft away. But

(17:16):
that's a real operation that just feels kind of quiet too,
And maybe that starts from Casario's New England roots. You
know Demiko for being a former player and a pretty
highly touted famous guy, he's pretty low key, like he's
not mister you know, talk a bunch of shit and
make it about himself, but he's actually very old school

(17:39):
like to me, when I think Demiko Ryans, I just
think like kind of quiet all about his actions and
high class guy. And when you think the Cowboys is
a lot of sizzle, it's a lot of Jerry talking
and now the product is just horrendous. So I mean,
all eyes point to in January, who is Jerry Jones,
Stephen Jones and the Cowboys brass interview? And like I said,

(18:02):
I think these coaching firings mid season. You know a
lot of people thought Eberflu should have been fired last
week after they lost the Patriots. Well, you know, it's
it's pretty well established that the Bears are really cheap,
and when you make a guy an interim coach, you
do have to give him a pay raise. But if
you don't view your team as a playoff team, what's

(18:25):
the point of firing the guy that you're gonna fire
in a couple months. Anyway, To make a guy that
you don't believe is a head coach candidate give him
the opportunity to be a head coach, you might as
well just ride it out. So I think at this
point now it's fair to assume maybe I'm wrong, maybe
he's fired tomorrow, maybe he's fired Wednesday, But the Jags

(18:46):
might just ride this thing out. The Bears clearly are
just riding out. Eberflus, who just constantly says, like, got
a look at the tape, Tough times don't last, tough
people do. It's like, no, you guys, just you just suck.
You're just not a good head. And honestly, there's nothing
wrong with that. Like, there have been a lot of
people like Matt Eberflus who are coaches who should be

(19:07):
in the NFL coaching a position or a unit, not
the actual head coach, and they get in these positions
and they're just completely over their head and it just
gets uglier and uglier and uglier. I don't know if
obviously Doug had a moment that ebra Flus could never
dream about having led a team to a Super Bowl,

(19:28):
took out Bill Belichick with his backup quarterback, but you know,
the pixie dust or whatever he had to do, just
all the mojo's gone because you watch that Jags team.
Who will get to in a minute in the outhouse
she I mean you talk about quit, I use that
term lightly. You know, in other sports it's easier to

(19:49):
quit and kind of slide through. In football, it's very,
very difficult to just quit because you just it's the
game's so physical. Every play there's tackling and blocking, like
you kind of gotta try just to function if you're
on the field. But they definitely feel pretty lifeless. And
I get there playing the Lions. But if you're not

(20:11):
gonna get fired after that performance, I mean, you're probably
just riding it out. I think it's pretty clear. Like
same thing with the Mike. Let's go to the penthouse
in the outhouse for this week. You know, I've said
forever the Chiefs are not going anywhere I don't care
how random their season has been. Obviously, pulling out some
of these one score games out of there, you know what,

(20:34):
that's impressive though, Like part of having a good season
is winning some crazy games. Now, statistically, is it possible
to do that week after week after week after week
obviously essentially or eventually it's gonna bite you in the ass.
Now that turns out. It wasn't a one score game,
but it was twenty three to twenty one in the
fourth quarter, and it had the feel of like s

(20:55):
kansasity written all over it. Kelsey's got a couple catches,
You're like, they don't even look that great, and all
of a sudden they end up winning like twenty four
to twenty three, and then Josh Allen happens and he
currently is the betting favorite for the MVP. We still
got a ways to go, but I think, you know,
narratives and momentum matter, and I you know, if Lamar

(21:20):
only had one MVP like last year, had just gone
to someone else, I do think he'd have a better
opportunity to win it this year because statistically he's having
a way better season, even despite having the shitty game
against the Steelers, But like it's really hard to just
keep rattling off MVPs. We see in basketball all the
time people want to vote for someone else, and let's

(21:43):
face it, like Josh has been an MVP level player
for a long time. And now the Bills, the team
is rolling, and hell, they're not even totally healthy yet.
So I think you could argue right now that you know,
we just saw the Bill. Now I understand it in
Buffalo and we'll see how the home field plays out,
because the Chiefs went on the road last year into

(22:05):
Buffalo and won a playoff game, which obviously propelled them
the next two weeks to be Super Bowl champs. But
I think if you had to say right now, who
are the best two teams in football, you would say
the Bills and the Lions. That doesn't take anything away
like the Chiefs are in the penthouse. They should be
in every one's top two or three on power rankings

(22:27):
and not leave all season unless they lose like five
straight games, which they play the Panthers this week. News flash,
they're gonna win. But those are the only two teams
I'm putting in the AFC. Obviously, the Ravens, who I
thought were better than the Steelers clearly are not because
they just lost to a team that did not score
a touchdown and now have four losses. Like the Ravens

(22:52):
have had moments throughout this season where you're like, is
this the greatest offense I've ever seen? And we're not
even a Thanksgiving? They have four losses and you're like,
what's the deal? They just lost to a team that
did not score a touchdown. It's why I have a
hard time and listen, I respect the shit out of Pittsburgh,

(23:12):
I really do. It's impossible to not just tip your
hat to Mike Tomlin one of his greatest coaching seasons
of his career. That move to justin fields to Russell
Wilson is an all timer. I would say most people
would not have done that. I'm sorry, they just would
not have. And it's worked, even though in the game

(23:33):
against the Ravens he didn't play that well because this
was a team that literally everyone was throwing touchdowns on.
Now I get it, bit of rivalry. I don't expect
you to just throw three or four touchdowns. But you know,
Joe Burrow threw two games as nine touchdowns against him,
but no one thinks Russell Wilson's Joe Burrow. But still
you can't throw one and the one really good opportunity

(23:54):
you have, you just throw it to the other team
when you're like ten feet away from the goal line.
Really weird play. Could this team win a couple of
playoff games? I don't know. I have a hard time.
You know, let's just say they're the three seed. Let's
say it's Chiefs, Bills or Bill's Chiefs and then they're
the three seed. Are they beating the Ravens and then

(24:18):
beating the Bills or the Chiefs to be in the
AFC Championship game? I don't know, But if they win
a playoff game, it'd be the first time Tomlin and
the organization has done that since twenty sixteen. So a
lot of respect. It's been fun to watch that game
was awesome, Like I really enjoyed it. I was telling
Colin on Sunday, not afternoon, I guess Sunday night, Sunday

(24:40):
or early evening that it's refreshing to watch these two teams.
How much true hatred there was. Like every other play,
it felt like there was about to be a brawl,
Like at any moment you thought like someone could get
tossed out of this game. And in a day and
age when everyone's friends, everyone goes on each other's podcast,
and everyone's buddy buddy on social media, I it's like

(25:01):
you just you play for one of these two teams,
you have to hate that other fucking team, and it's
reflected the way they play, and it's a fun game
to watch. It's it's very, very enjoyable, even when it's
kind of ugly like it was the other day. Like
I like that type football. I've always defended that type football.
I don't need a lot of touchdowns all the time
to be entertained. I have no problem watching a game

(25:24):
in the teams if I feel like on any given
play people are going to get decleted, people are trying to,
you know, injure the other team, not like seriously, but
like inflict pain. And for my I would say last
fifteen plus years of watching this game since getting into football,

(25:45):
it's always feels like that, regardless of what the rules.
So I can't put either of these teams on the
Chiefs or the Bills level, which is weird because the
Ravens beat the Bills honestly pretty easily. But like, right now,
I can't take the Ravens a series when they got
defensive issues and they just lose to a team that
doesn't score a touchdown. So listen, the AFC. Those are

(26:09):
four best teams with with Herbert as well and the Chargers,
it's gonna be tough someone. There's gonna be something weird
that happens in the playoffs this year. I'll promise you that.
I think the outhouse pretty interesting because you know, the
Giants and the Panthers get a little reprieve, just a
little out of side, out of mind. Didn't even play
this week, so it's just like, I don't even there's

(26:31):
nothing even say, right even the Giants are like, yeah,
we're just we're gonna throw a little curveball here. Daniel Jones,
you're now the third string quarterback. Drew Locke, we gave
you five million, but you're gonna continue to be the backup.
And Tommy Cutlet's you're in, buddy. So it's like we'll see,
let's just let's evaluate. You know, this could be a

(26:52):
long week for the Panthers because I thought this was
a prime if the Chiefs were to beat the Bills,
I could see the Chiefs losing this game, because in
what world would they be able to focus? But you
lose that game. Tough spot to be a Carolina Panther. Now,
I don't think the Chiefs have like fifty points in them,
but I could see it being like twenty eight to six,

(27:16):
like just where the Panthers struggle to get the ball
past the fifty yard line. I do think when we
look at the AFC, though it's pretty ugly, it really is.
I mean, the Jets they've won one of their last
seven games. They just lose a lot. Sometimes they get
their ass kicked. Sometimes they lose in heartbreaking fashion. Sometimes

(27:41):
they lose to a guy they just got benched because
he tapped out of a game. And sometimes, like Rogers
looks decent and the defense is awful. Sometimes the defense
is okay and the offense is awful. Sometimes they're both terrible.
But one thing we know for a fact, this Jets
team stinks. I mean it's really really bad, and it's

(28:04):
so bad you just wonder, like, who's going to be
interested in this job? And it's the NFL. The franchise
has a lot of money. But you know, if Rogers
doesn't retire, they're kind of stuck with them. They're probably
not gonna have the number one overall pick, so are
they taking a quarterback really high? It's one of those

(28:25):
things I hear a lot of fan base like, we
just got to take a quarterback. Like, guys, I spent
a lot of hours throughout the fall watching college football,
and I have a decent amount of friends that do
this for a living. This is known as a terrible
quarterback class. Like, even with quarterback inflation, I don't think
you're gonna see many quarterbacks go in the first round.

(28:47):
So some of these teams that quote unquote are desperate
for a quarterback, like you waiting for the draft, might not,
you know, get your juices flowing on Night one. You
might be talking about like second and third and fourth
round quarterbacks. So really you're just talking about like the
Sam Darnold's of the world coming to your team. Obviously
not to the Jets, but I'm just saying if you're

(29:08):
one of those teams, you know that the same thing
with the Raiders and Titans, Like whoever gets the number
one overall pick. I think most people assume it's going
to be Shadoor Sanders and Chador has already made comments
that I want to go to the Raiders. I do
think the Titans. If you're Chador in Nashville, I think
would be pretty Sweet's place as well. Full disclosure, I

(29:30):
did not like you have to make decisions sometimes on Sunday,
especially as the season goes, and the four box options
this week were a little weird. I was trying to
mix a match but essentially the Titans and the Vikings game,
and I got multiple TVs and in a monitor, it
just didn't even get one. I had Pittsburgh going on

(29:51):
two separate. I had it on a four box and
in a monitor, and I had a jet. I just couldn't
make it happen. So I just didn't watch because I
just assumed the Titans would lose. And they lost by
ten points in Minnesota's weird, Like they were really fun
to watch early in the season. They're not quite doing
it formulately, but shit, they're eighting two, so I just
assume they would win that game. They did. Titans are terrible.

(30:15):
I would say the same thing about the Raiders. I
had that game on, but it's safe to say the
Raiders really really suck. I mean, they are really bad
and there is a lot of buzz right now. Is
Antonio Pierce gonna make it year two? He'd never been
a coordinator, he had been a couple of years as

(30:35):
a position coach in the NFL. I know he had
played for a long time. But this thing is really
really ugly. Now. You could argue was set up to fail.
It was a bizarre situation to begin with, But that
situation is worth monitoring. I've said all along, I just
assume Mark's gonna roll it back, But it feels like

(30:56):
it gets worse by the week. Like it's really ugly.
It's really ugly. And what if Dion floats out to
Mark and Tom Brady if they get the number one pick, Like,
the only way we're coming is if I'm the coach. Baby,
then is bye bye? Antonio? Come on in prime. In last,
but not least, speaking of Doug Peterson, the Jacks lost

(31:17):
fifty two to six. You lose fifty two to six,
like this is the National Football League? Happened to the
Titans a couple of weeks ago, Like you give up
fifty two points. I don't even know what to say.
You just you're speechless. I remember last year when the
Broncos gave up seventy You're like, listen, I want to
like Sean Payton. I mean, I would have given him

(31:38):
ninety million two if I was the Broncos ownership. But
I might just have to fire everybody. We just gave
up seventy points in the NFL game? Has that even
humanly possible? And the reality is not really never happens.
I'd argue it is feels very rare to ever see.
Now you got what's the Lions? They already did. It
makes it a little bit easier. And that was one

(32:00):
of those games that, like after halftime, I would have
gladly flipped to another game. Hell, I would have put
Minnesota Tennessee on because that game was somewhat close. But
I just didn't have the options on my four box
to keep the games that I wanted on my main TV,
So I was just stuck watching it. And every time
you looked, Jared got throw over over four hundred yards.
The Lions almost ran for two hundred yards. I think

(32:22):
it was one ninety six. I watched Dan Campbell because
schefter puts it out every week, his postgame speech where
he gives out game balls. He gave game balls to
everybody on the offense. They like shattered every single record, yards,
yards per play, touchdowns. It's like, I mean, they are,
it's crazy. But hey man, Doug will always have he

(32:44):
gets fired. He has a statue out in front of
Philadelphia and he brought them a super Bowl with Nick Foles.
So no matter how ugly it is in the outhouse,
no matter how shitty your team smells, your super Bowl champ. Okay,
the NFL season is rolling along and contenders are separating

(33:06):
from the pack. But one thing hasn't changed, baby. Draftking Sportsbook,
an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, is the number
one place the bet touchdowns. Listen, whether it's fades in
the corner of the end zone, running backs breaking big
sixty yard runs, we don't care. We just want to
bet touchdowns, and DraftKings is the place to do it.

(33:28):
Ready to place your first bet? Try betting on something
is simple, like a player scoring a touchdown. Go to
Draftking Sportsbook app and make your first pick. Here's a
reason for new customers to do a touchdown dance of
their own. Bet five bucks to get one to fifty
in bonus bets. If your bet wins score big with
Draftking Sportsbook the number one place to bet touchdowns. Download

(33:52):
the Draftking Sportsbook app and use the code Jachen. That's
code John for new customers to get one hundred and
fifty and bonus bets if your bet wins when you
bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York
called eight seven seven eight ope and wire text hope
and y four six seven three six nine in Connecticut.
Help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight
eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill
Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one and over. Agent eligibility
varies by jurisdiction VOYD and Ontario. Bonus bets ekspire one

(34:27):
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance four additional terms
and responsible gaming resources see DKNNG dot co. Slash ft ball.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Okay, let's hit on a couple other stories from around
the National Football League today. The Giants, I don't know
if they announced, but the story was broken that Daniel
Jones will no longer be the starter and I think
it's safe to say, if all goes according to plan,
he has taken his last snap for the Giants, because,

(34:58):
like Russell Wilson last year and Derek Carr two years ago,
because of injury guarantees, if they were to get hurt,
they would be guaranteed money into two thousand the following year, right,
And for Daniel Jones, that number I think is twenty
three million dollars. So if they just cut him at
the end of the season, they don't. I don't know

(35:21):
exactly that they'll have some dead cap, but in terms
of guaranteed money next year that they've already paid him
eighty two million dollars. He's made eighty two million dollars
the last two seasons to be the starting quarterback for
a team that when he started went three and thirteen,
and in those sixteen games he threw ten touchdowns and

(35:42):
thirteen interceptions. He has been one of the I would
say craziest failures we've ever seen when it comes to
a contract and just an immediate like this guy can't play,
like he's just not a very good player at all,
Like you have no chance when he's your starting quarterback

(36:02):
to beat the opposing team on a Sunday, whether that
team is the Eagles or whether that team is just
some random, shitty team, you are probably going to lose.
When Daniel Jones was starting quarterback. Now they're going to
Tommy Cutlet's and not Drew Locke, who they gave five
million dollars to, And a lot of people are reporting
that that's because of incentives and they don't want to
pay him either. And I think John Mora is in

(36:25):
this weird spot, and listen, I'm not absolving him from
this situation. He took part in what I would consider
like legal fraud. That's what Daniel Jones and his agents
just committed legal fraud. Eighty two million dollars for that.
They give me a break. I saw a headline the

(36:45):
other day and I clicked on the article that CNN
and Chris Wallace are going their separate ways, and Chris
kind of announced that he was he was leaving to
start his own ventures. And it turns out they were
paying him seven million dollars, which I don't know much about,
like his shows, and I was reading that his viewership

(37:07):
is obviously greatly diminished over the last four or five years,
and in this business right, And when I worked in
radio and in television, they sell ads based on the
demo twenty four to fifty four or maybe it's twenty
five to fifty four whatever that range. In sports talk radio,
for example, forever it was that range men only, and

(37:29):
that's what you sold your advertisers on. Well, they were
paying him seven million dollars and there were less than
eighty five thousand people that fit that demo. Like on
the open market, Chris Wallace, I wouldn't sniff five hundred
grand deverely. Ain't like he's slinging a lot of product
his deal for the last couple of years, making that

(37:50):
type money when that was his audience. I'd consider that
like legal fraud. It's a great gig if you can
get it. It's legalized stealing. You're getting paid or something
that you could not produce. And that's what happened with
Daniel Jones. They made two million dollars over a two
year period, and he was easily one of the worst
players in the NFL to continue to start at any position.

(38:12):
And obviously, when you're an awful player at quarterback, your
team's gonna blow. And it's not all his fault. I mean,
it's not like they are loaded at wide receiver. Their
offensive line the last couple of years hasn't been great.
But you watch him and you know, this guy's not
very good player. He'd be a good backup and he'd
probably make three, four to five million dollars. Well, there's
a big difference of paying a guy four million dollars

(38:33):
to be your backup and paying him forty two million
dollars to be your starter. And the Giants listen. It's
hard to figure out exactly who's to blame for this,
because clearly the owner had his hands in this. He
viewed him as the more athletic Eli Manning, which clearly
wasn't true. Joe Shane unless he's just you know, being

(38:53):
the ultimate company man, saying his praises every single turn
that he came, and a microphone was sitt in front
of him every interview, every time he talked on Hard
Knocks like he was very complimentary of Daniel Jones. There's
no way to dispute that, and he's been now for
several years. Brian Dayball. It is harder to gauge, but
I think after you know, when they went nine and

(39:15):
was at nine to eight, and they made the playoffs
and won a playoff game. It felt like he was
okay with them now at that price point. I don't know,
but whenever coaches go that's not my area of expertise.
I don't deal with the cap true, Like, I'm not
expecting you to break down the contract word for word,
But if you're gonna be a head coach in the NFL,

(39:36):
you gotta have a pretty fucking good idea what players
are worth. If this is a good idea or this
is a bad idea big picture wise, especially when it
comes down to quarterback. So if he was on board
as well, like it's an institutional disaster and the Giants
got robbed, which whatever. Sometimes if if our houses get

(39:57):
robbed and we have insurance, like you can figure it out,
it sucks. But that's not the way this works, right.
This guy has taken your money, given you very little,
and halted any progress for the organization. And now you've
been lapped in the in the division and in the conference.

(40:17):
Right Obviously, Jalen and Jaden and the Eagles in Washington
are good. The Cowboys are having an awful season, but
the Giants would give I don't know they're left leg
to have Dak Prescott as the quarterback of their team.
So how does this team get out of this? How
does this team acquire a new quarterback? I don't know.

(40:39):
I mean, you can hope in the draft, but what
if they don't have the number one overall pick? Like that?
This is an awful quarterback draft. Let me repeat, an
awful quarterback draft. So I always hear whenever I read
about these bad teams or listen to people that cover
these bad teams, like they got to take a court
they do. There are just quarterbacks everywhere in this draft.

(40:59):
This is not twenty twenty four where there were six
guys taking the top twelve picks that most people thought
could play. And if you know, we'll find out in time.
But so far is going pretty good. Caleb kind of
shut everyone up against the backers, like, okay, he can play.
Jayden's had a fantastic rookie year, Drake May looks excellent.

(41:21):
Bo Nix is starting to trend again toward the Rookie
of the Year. Hell I even looked at one of
the little four boxes on my TV when Atlanta was
getting their teeth kicked in by Denver and they brought
in Panix and he's slung it a couple times across
the middle. I'm like, hell yeah, Michael, I'll see you
so man, I feel for Giants fans. You paid eighty

(41:41):
two million dollars you had to watch this, and your
organization is just in complete shambles. You know what's funny
about the Ravens. It's weird about Lamar, right. I guess
the Chiefs get this sometimes too, Like everyone wants to
argue about their greatness or if they're getting if they're
getting over on everybody by the referees giving them calls,

(42:03):
if they're actually the most overrated good team in the
history of the world. It's like, guys, they've won three
Super Bowls in five years, they went to another one
over that period of time, and they were currently nine
to zero before kickoff at Buffalo, Like we can argue
till we're blue in the face. Like I would say,
just the black and white numbers are on their side.

(42:25):
They win a lot and that's really the only goal,
and they have three rings to show for it. But like,
the Ravens are a pretty polarizing team, in part because,
like Lamar, defenders I think can be really exhausting, Like
we're not arguing if Lamar is a good player or
not anymore. Like that ended several years ago, and let's
face it, the organization was part of the problem. Remember,

(42:47):
It's like, are you guys gonna pay him? And it
was like they had this long steering contest that wasn't
anyone's opinion. That was Bushadi Da Costa and John Harbaugh
against like Lamar. I think his moms as age like
that was weird. Like they did that. It's like where
they trade them to Atlanta. It's like, no, they're not
gonna trade them, but they kind of made them work
for that contract physically and emotionally. And then in the

(43:11):
last couple of years, he's a remarkable player. He is
a Hall of Fame player. He is one of the
more fun players to watch in the history of the NFL.
But like we got some data points now, in the
biggest games against the best teams, it's been a struggle.
And he's played two massive games these last two years,
the Kansay Chiefs in the AFC Championship game and then

(43:35):
the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. That was huge for Baltimore because
if they lost, because they already shipped the bed against
somehow they lost to the Raiders. Week two. You lose
the Chiefs Week one. Okay, it's the NFL. They're on
the road, they're better than you. Whatever. The Browns divisional game,
that's gonna happen. If you go thirteen and four like
you're gonna lose a random divisional game. I got no

(43:57):
issue with that. But the Pittsburgh Steelers, they didn't score
a touchdown. You have your two biggest games when you
have one of the greatest quarterbacks. It's all I ever hear. Listen,
I've even come around. I'm like, yeah, he's fucking awesome.
The Chiefs scored seventeen points in that playoff game. The
Pittsburgh Steelers scored eighteen points yesterday and did not score

(44:20):
a touchdown. So in your two biggest games of the
last calendar year, you have lost them both with this
all time great quarterback when the opponent has averaged seventeen
and a half points. Let's face it, going into that
game on Sunday, if I would have told you the
Steelers are not going to score a touchdown, and they'll

(44:41):
kick a lot of field goals, but they will not
eclipse twenty points. I know what I would have done.
I would have moved my bet from taking the Steelers
as a dog at home and putting it all in
the Ravens. I'd be like, I bet they win this
thing twenty five to fifteen, twenty four to thirteen, I
guess that would twenty four to twelve. I would have

(45:03):
thought of something like that. Wait, they're not gonna score
a touchdown. Yeah, the Ravens are gonna win the game.
And it's like, no, actually the game happened, and that's
not what happened. Everyone was like the drops, the drops.
It's a guys. He completed sixteen passes. It wasn't all
fucking drops. And I think what happens against the Steelers

(45:25):
and the Chiefs is these teams limit his ability to
just run around and freelance and take off NonStop. They
don't allow it. And when he scrambles, he is not
gonna take off, and in his mind, I'm going to throw.
And sometimes yesterday he did hit some guys in stride

(45:47):
and they dropped the ball. And sometimes he airmails it
or skipped a ball like it was a bad performance.
And it's something to keep an eye on now moving
forward in these playoffs because we had the data point
in previous years in the playoffs alone, and now we
have this like major Steeler data point of like he
plays like shit against them. It's not arguable anymore. Right,

(46:11):
It's like we have the eye test, we have the
fucking data. It's just factual. Now he beats the crap
out of most other teams. And that's awesome, and that's
how you make all this money and that's how you
lead your team to the playoffs every year. But he's
at the point now where it's like just basically judged
on playoff victories and how many times you win the division, right,

(46:32):
I mean that's like ultimately what Brady started rattling off
as they won the division, like fifteen out of sixteen years,
won a bunch of playoff games, went to Super Bowls,
and won super Bowls. Like it's no longer about touchdown pass.
Like all that stuff's cool and it's awesome on Sunday,
but like all these guys and the crew of guys
he's chasing now is like playoff victories, super Bowls and

(46:53):
if you can't beat Mahomes, so be it. Like I'll
never hold that against you. If you can't beat the
Chiefs because they've beat everybody, just like the Patriots, you
couldn't be the Patriots. Okay, so be it. But like
if you get to the playoffs and you play the
Pittsburgh Steelers in Round one and it's the three six,
you can't lose that game and be taken seriously like that.

(47:14):
That's kind of where we're at. And I think the
pressure after yesterday amps up because this offense turns into
a pumpkin. It feels like when everyone's paying attention and
it really really matters, and it really really matters. It's like, wait,
they scored eighteen points and he lost, and honestly, you
were always kind of trailing and it never felt like

(47:35):
you were gonna win the game. Bizarre. Listen, I'm not
acting like the Steelers are God's greatest gift of football.
I mean, Russell took some awful sacks yesterday. He holds
onto the ball too long, partly because like when they're
passing game, it's like going deep, throwing that lollipop down
the sideline. Don't really attack the middle of the field.
That's never been his thing. You know. I thought one

(47:58):
thing cool they did yesterday is they brought in fields
a couple times for kind of that zone read. He
kept it and he took off, should have dove forward
at the end of the game to icity slid, but
they ended up getting it. Regardless. That's a cool little
element to their offense. But I you know, are the

(48:19):
Steelers winning multiple playoff games playing like that. It's not
like Russell looked great yesterday and the Ravens offense. Think
about this. Russell did not score or did not throw
a touchdown against the Ravens. Joe Burrow in two games
has nine touchdowns. Like this is a pass defense that

(48:40):
is terrible and the Steelers couldn't exploit that, especially in
the red zone. So make me a little nervous. I
found the Steelers big picture wise, very proud of my squad,
proud of my guy Tolman. But it's just, you know,
to beat the Chiefs, to beat the Bills, definitely the Bills, honestly,
to beat the raven again, like you probably gonna scorse touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
You know one thing that jumped out to me about
Kansas City is can they win the AFC again with this?
Kelsey and I think sometimes a narrative can start like
he's just old. He's just old. And early on, whenever
you talk about a legendary player, there's always pushback. Like
early on, it's like, oh, Rogers, like let's give him time,

(49:23):
Like yeah, we're mid November, and everyone acknowledges, like, yeah,
he's old, good shot fighter. And I looked at the
Chiefs Travis's numbers from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty two,
I mean, the prime of his career, his Hall of
Fame resume. He never averaged less than twelve point two

(49:45):
yards per catch. He became the greatest pass catching tight
end over that span. Last year, remember, it was like, God,
he doesn't quite look the same. He averaged a little
over ten ten yards per catch and had five touchdowns
in twenty twenty three. But in the playoffs he flipped

(50:07):
a switch, averaged over eleven yards per catch and had
three touchdowns in four games and was obviously excellent, and
it looked much closer to his old self. Well, this season,
he's averaging under nine yards per catch and he only
has a couple of touchdowns, and he's just no longer

(50:28):
a major factor in their passing game. I think he
has sixty catches on the season, So there's a quantity
to his catches, but in terms of explosion down the field,
which I mean in the prime of his career, which
wasn't that long ago, it felt like he was the
greatest athlete we'd ever seen at the position. Remember the game.

(50:52):
I think it was a Sunday night game. Maybe it
was a Thursday night game against the Chargers when Tyreek
was still on the team, and those guys just had
two incredible games in a comeback victory. I think that
might have been Brandon Staley's first year. It's like, how
do you stop this guy? I remember doing a podcast
after claiming I think it was the greatest trio in

(51:12):
the history of the league. Definitely the most dominant offensive trio, Patrick,
Tyreek and Travis Now, I do think it's fair to say,
like Travi's got old now and the numbers are kind
of reflecting that. So if I'm a Chiefs fan, I
have so much faith in my defense, I have so
much faith in my head coach. I have so much

(51:32):
faith in my quarterback in a big game. I do
think it's fair to say, like I think Travis, you
have faith in him, But is his body still the
same did he cross that line where it's like, I'm
not going to be able to reach back in and
have a three game stretch in the playoffs where I
average eleven yards per catch and give you a touchdown

(51:53):
a game. Those days. Those days might be over. The
one thing they got going for him is going undefeated
as long as they did and winning all those crazy games.
That two game buffer they had going into that Bills game. Okay,
the Bills beat them, and we're nine to one, they're
eight and two. Well, I looked at the U or

(52:14):
they're nine and two. I guess now I looked at
the bills remaining schedule. They gotta buy this week. In
two weeks, they play the forty nine ers on Sunday
Night Football. Then they played the Rams and the Lions
on the road. Like obviously the Niners are not as
good as they've been, that's still gonna be a tough game.
I think they would have to go two and one

(52:34):
in those games, and then they'd feel pretty good about
the ending to their season, which is Pats Jets Pats.
So if they can go five and one the rest
of the season, they would be a fourteen to three team.
The problem is, like Kansas City. I mean this week
they played the Panthers. I mean, you know, I are

(52:57):
they gonna lose two more games? And maybe they do,
but I do think it shows, you like, for the Bills,
they really have no margin for error in terms of
the number one seed, which I think is massive for Buffalo.
I really do, because if you tell me they get
two home games again, I mean last year they technically

(53:19):
got two home games and obviously lost to Kansas City,
you would have to like their chances, you know, I
like their chances last year. It's hard, it's the playoffs,
but that is a really, really tough place to play.
I did want to hit on a couple sounds I
saw from just different people out there in the on
the internet streets. An absolute radio legend, Mike Francessa who

(53:43):
retired a couple years ago from WFN. I guess he
does a podcast now and he essentially just like reacts
to you know, big Yankee games and big Giants and
Jets games. And I have seen this come up on
my YouTube feed a couple times, and someone posted it
on my Twitter account or you know, when I was
scrolling around and he just made me I started peeing

(54:03):
my pants laughing because I guess Jeff Olbrich had some
comments after the game. They're going on a bye week
and uh just listen to uh, I guess one of
the godfathers of sports talk radio discussing Olbrick in the
New York Jets.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Let me say this, and maybe Obrik is a very
nice man. He's been honest when he's gotten up there
for him to say, just a minute ago, good time
for a bye, good time for a bye? How about
good time for bye bye? What do you mean a
good time for a bye? Good?

Speaker 1 (54:38):
We'll take a hard look. Take a hard look at what.
Take a hard look at the water. Edds okay, because
you're not gonna.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Be here next year. Take a hard look at what.
This is a joke. This is an embarrassment with talent,
this team, with the talent.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
That it has.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
I mean, I can see to Barthy Adams looking around
saying what did I get myself into? They come out
and they go zero for five.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
They don't get a first down in their first five
touch When did you ever think you'd see Aaron Rodgers
in the second quarter in a full building where the
fans are mocking them for getting a first down. That's
Aaron Rodgers. They're mocking them for getting a first down.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
It's just so classic to me. You can't make up
the dysfunction going on in New York with the football teams,
from Daniel Jones to Oldbrick to Woody Johnson to the
Saquon Barkley story. It really is. I've said this forever,
like the consumer on the West Coast just isn't as angry.

(55:38):
Like angry radio doesn't do as well out west. When
you suck in Philly, New York, or Boston or Detroit
or just some of these Northeast Washington places. You could
argue that makes for better radio and more engaged fans,
and something I was always jealous of, like when our

(55:59):
team sucked when I was doing local radio. When I
got into the podcast space talking about the forty nine ers,
people just don't care. They become apathetic quick and I think,
you know Francesa's and the boys back, you know, in
the New York area, when it comes to talking football,
this is as good as running the table. They would
rather consume this type of content. So it made me laugh.

(56:22):
The other thing was, obviously most of these teams have
analytical departments now, and I think if you watch football
on Sundays even Saturdays, teams are much more inclined to
go for it. And I've always said, like most people
on their couch in big games, in tight spots want

(56:45):
you to go for it, especially like at the you know,
at midfield. Now, there are times, you know, like Lafleur yesterday,
it's like, bro, just just kick the field goal, Just
kick the field goal. I can't quite wrap my head
around never kicking field goals anymore. But there was a
moment yesterday where Buffalo went for the kill shot. It worked,

(57:05):
Josh had one of his iconic plays of his career.
Like most human beings sitting on their couch watching the
game that know nothing about football besides maybe played in
high school, it's like a fucking plumber sells insurance or
like owns a deli. It doesn't matter what you do.
Kind of are all on the same page about what
to do in most situations. So I do feel these

(57:27):
analytical departments get a little too much credit. But they
are very very aggressive down in the red zone and
clearly don't care as much about field goals. But Gruden,
I think he has been hired by barstool, and I
think he was watching the game on Thursday night when

(57:48):
the Eagles played the Commanders with all the barstool guys,
and he gave like this reenactment of what used to happen.
And I think he's specifically talking about the Raiders. I
do think that John. I've watched this like ten times.
It just makes me laugh so hard every time I
hear them getting so animated toward it. Is a good

(58:11):
example of the way most coaches talk to their friends,
to their fellow coaches and the non front office people,
because I don't think they love it at all. Here's
John giving his reenactment of what it was like on
game day when the analytical guy would tell him to
go for it. Okay.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
That's where the analytical guy goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, coach,
go for it right here, go for it.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
I'm like, okay, we go for it. We get stuffed.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
I go, hey, fuck you up there, aggressive, it's twelve
to ten man, we get the field goal. Can you
imagine when these coaches are together at the combine or
owners meetings and they're having a beer together or texting
each other about what their owner's analytics forced them to do.

(59:03):
I would die to be a fly on the wall
for that one. My other take on Gruden is I
think it's fair to say you'll probably not coach in
the NFL again as a head coach. But I do
think him going signing on with Portnoy he is a
smart move in terms of resonating with younger people because

(59:24):
I think his next move is college football, and I
think his next move, whether it's not this offseason, it's
hard to tell, like what jobs are going to come
open and what jobs are not going to come open,
is that I would say programs like Florida Florida State
have John Gruden written all over them. In twenty twenty five. Okay,

(59:52):
let's do a little thing we call the mailbag at
John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire and those dms get
your question answer here. Little thing we call the podcast.
Let's pull up Instagram and let's start with Scott former
sports radio hosts up in Canada. I smile every time

(01:00:13):
I hear you talk about the state of that medium.
Unlike you, I've moved out of the industry, but I
really enjoy here in the very best honor of the craft,
and you certainly do I appreciate the kind of word
Scott question as a Niner fan thirty five years. It
seems like there are elite defensive coaches Flores, Schwartz and

(01:00:33):
Cleveland Spags in Kansas City, McDonald, Seattle, Baltimore that have
figured out Kyle's offense. Flores smothered Slowick a Kyle guy
and the Texans early in the season two. Is this
a pivotal time in Kyle's ten year aside from some
of the players who will soon age out. Is he

(01:00:56):
facing the biggest adjustment of his scheme in his career
to date all the best. That's a good question. You know.
One thing I've always thought that those coordinators, I would
say throw Kyle off his game is when he can't
dominate on the ground. Like his pass game to me,

(01:01:17):
is more tied to the run game than any coach
in the league. Like you watch Buffalo. They're a better
team now because they're running games good, but they can
function no problem just slinging the pill around right Rogers Mahomes.
When the offensive weapons were better, they can just spread
it out and play that way, and their coach is

(01:01:38):
comfortable doing that. Kyle's really not like Kyle wants to
rush it. I would say at minimum, you know, in
a perfect world, if there are sixty five plays, he'd
be like close to forty carries and give or take
twenty five attempts from his quarterback. A perfect day would

(01:02:00):
be thirty eight carries between his running backs, which is
mainly probably twenty eight for McCaffrey, six to seven for
the next guy. A couple quarterback runs, and then Perty
would be like, I don't know, twenty one or twenty six,
and you know, five to eight of those or those
boot action rollouts. How many times I can think of

(01:02:25):
two off the top of my head did he run that?
He called the play action boot that. Perty turns around
and there's either a defensive end, a linebacker, the nickel corner,
whoever that's coming up the field in his face. It's like, guys,
they know that's coming. Now doesn't work like it wants

(01:02:48):
to did. When it works, it's awesome, and it feels like,
you know, Mike Tyson is prime giving you a jab
to the stomach, giving you a right to the chin.
You duck, you're getting an uppercut. You have no clue
where it's coming from. But yesterday it's not like the
run game was a knemic between McCaffrey and Mason. I

(01:03:08):
think they ran for over ninety yards the two of them.
But I think Kyle's for his offense to really hum
he needs to be like in the one thirty one
forties with his running backs and that extra little potent
thirty forty yards makes a big difference in his pass calling.
And yesterday, like Deebo right now looks terrible. He looks slow.

(01:03:29):
Kittle being injured, and again he was He looked awesome
on last Sunday, So then he gets injured. I don't
know if he was injured at practice. I didn't even
watch just so well, I went on with Colin right
after the Niner game ended, so I haven't even seen
Kyle's press conference. But got hurt of practice, got hurt

(01:03:49):
at the end of that game. That's a big loss.
I mean, Kittle's been awesome this year, so it takes
away the middle of the field debo is not a
positive and you basically just riding Juwan Jennings in the
passing game and Ricky Pearsall, who's a rookie who got
shot three months ago. Offense looks terrible. It really does.

(01:04:10):
And the crazy thing, if you told me the offense
looks terrible, I'd be like, ah, party regressing. I'm like, no, actually,
pretty looks pretty good. I mean it feels like the
least of their worries. And I don't know, this is hard.
No one acts like they know more football than Kyle,
and he gets very defensive sometimes with stuff like that. Like, Kyle,

(01:04:30):
we think you're smart. You've been around football your whole life.
It's your life's work. Like, we get it. This offense
is your family's baby. I'm all for it. I've seen
it work wonders in big games. But like, we got
to throw other pitches eventually, once they kind of dial
in on your great fastball. I mean, you gotta develop

(01:04:52):
a curveball or something off speed. Hey John, I'm currently
watching Bengals and Chargers sent me this this afternoon with
six minutes left in the first half. I cannot help,
but notice how dialed in Justin Herbert is through the
air and with his legs. Collinsworth was like orgasming in
the booth watching him play football. I know there are

(01:05:15):
a lot of variables to consider playoff success, weapons, coaching
scheme division, but is Herbert better than Herts. Both are
big and physical, but Herbert's arm definitely has more juice,
in my opinion, is a better all around passer. I
will admit Hurts throws a pretty deep ball, but Herbert
just seems to be a more complete talent at the position,

(01:05:38):
even when Staley was coaching the Chargers. To even take
it a step further, How does Herbert stack up against Burrow?
I talked about in the podcast yesterday. There are five
elite guys in their prime. Jalen Hurt's a really good player,
and clearly you can win a ton of games and
get to a Super Bowl him as your quarterback, and

(01:05:59):
if he's on like he go toe to toe with
anyone in the league. But there is no GM in
the NFL, including Howie Roseman, who would take Jalen Hurts
over Justin Herbert. And that's not a criticism of Jalen Hurts.
The five guys are pretty simple, self explanatory. Patrick Mahomes,
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert. Those

(01:06:22):
five guys are in a class of their own. The
one older guy, and I mentioned this on Sunday, who
can go toe to toe with those guys. Who's just
from a different generation is Matt Stafford. Just in terms
of like how do you stop this guy? I would
say Lamar is the most unique out of the two
because he's by far the best runner. But Josh Allen

(01:06:44):
and Herbert are elite runners. I mean, justin Herbert is
six foot six, two hundred and forty pounds four point
zero student like, he's fucking smart. Herbert is a badass.
I'm glad he's got Harbaugh because he was awesome, so
was Joe. To me, what makes Joe such a great
player is like he does not have Herbert's physical skills.

(01:07:05):
He can't run like Jalen Hurts. Fucking guy can play football.
What a great game by Joe Burrow. This is Jordan Schultz.
Someone just forwarded me, I guess a tweet he had
from an NFCGM. The amount of regret some teams have
for not hiring Jim Harbaugh when they had the chance

(01:07:28):
dot dot dot is very real. What I don't understand is,
in what world last year, when he clearly was sniffing around,
did people think he wouldn't be good? Like? How could
anyone come to the conclusion of like, Hey, Jim Harbaugh

(01:07:50):
ready to come back to the National Football League. He's
ready to leave Michigan. We need to coach. If I
had a coach and he wasn't that good, I would
have fired him. I mean the Bears he played, you
drafted him the Raiders. He got his coaching start with you.
There's a famous picture of him in a Raiders polo.

(01:08:10):
He once knocked on Al Davis's door and said, mister Davis,
I'm going to USD. And I looked at him and
said you're going to be the head coach at USC
and he said no, USD San Diego. Al thought he
was on drugs. To me, Jim Harbaugh, I don't see

(01:08:36):
how Mark Davis sleeps well at night. And I get
it he was going through a lot. He'd fired a
bunch of coaches. But Jim Harbaugh felt like a Raider
and the Chargers got him. But if I'm Jim Harbaugh,
he by far went to the best spot because they
had Justin Herbert. You would take Justin Herbert, like even

(01:08:57):
if the Bears had been interested, I would take the
Urder job over the Bears job and a heartbeat love
your dedication to the pod as a Chiefs fan, I
think we are cooked without Watson at CB two. All
our blitzes rely on tighte man coverage, and if the
blitz doesn't get home, our backup cannot do a thing.

(01:09:19):
Can it be fixed with, say, Patrick Peterson or Xavian
Howard or are we cooked? I would not call Patrick
Peterson a man demand corner in twenty twenty four. Zamian Howard,
you know, I don't even have a take on that one.

(01:09:40):
I have to text around. I mean, I would imagine,
is he like on the street. Where is he currently?
I would imagine he must be if you're asking because
there's trade deadlines. Xavian Howard, where is he currently? NFL
insiders offer details? Oh, he worked out with the Bengals. Yeah. No,

(01:10:01):
those are not fixes. There's nothing much you can do. Man.
You guys had a pretty special thing these last couple
of years, and you had to make financial decisions about hiring,
I mean or extending. You already hired him because you
drafted him snead, and once you draft McDuffie like, you
can only allocate so much money to your players, so

(01:10:25):
trading him was not easy. There were some question marks
with the knee. But you guys had an Elite one
two combo and McDuffie's unique because he's such a good
slot receiver. But yeah, it's just tough spot. You need
the offense to be better. You just need to score
more points. I would say that's the main key. There's
no fixing adding some sweet man to man corner at

(01:10:47):
this point. Trade Deebo this offseason for peanuts and sign
Jennings to a deal. I like Debo, but seems like
twenty twenty one was the best he was ever going
to be. Well, I got good and bad news for
you is that this offseason the forty nine Ers signed

(01:11:11):
Juwan Jennings to a contract. So let me pull this up.
On March eleventh, twenty twenty four, the Niners place a
tender on Juwan. On May twenty ninth, Jennings signed a
two year, fifteen point four million dollar contract. I got

(01:11:33):
some bad news for you. I think they took some
of Deebo's money and converted into guaranteed signing bonuses, and
I think it's going to be not that they can't
trade them, but I think they regret doing that. Niner
fan here, I really think the Niners should fire Kyle

(01:11:54):
and go for Ben Jonson or Mike Vrabel. Here's my
issue with this talk, and I get people are emotional.
You start losing your five and five, sky's falling. The
chances that Ben Johnson is seventy five percent of Kyle

(01:12:15):
Shanahan based on the history of the NFL, is slimmed
to none. The chances that Ben Johnson can go to
a place that just sucks and seven eight years later
have been to multiple Super Bowls have I'm pretty sure

(01:12:35):
Kyle has. I think he's six playoff wins. Kyle is
eight and four in the postseason. That's two Super Bowl
losses and two losses in the conference championship game. I mean,

(01:12:57):
we can beat him up and he's had a rough
day and he's had a rough year. But like Mike Vrabel,
doesn't boast that resume and you'd be like, oh, well,
Kyle's coaching Tom Britt. Now he's coached Jimmy Garoppolo and
Brock Purty. That's the games he's like, those playoff games,

(01:13:18):
and he's won. He's won it with those two guys,
Brock Party and Jimmy Garoppolo. I think we underestimate when
everyone's emotionally pissed off rightfully, so Kyle's pretty freaking good
first time messaging. Is The remaining schedule for the top
AFC team's low key, very favorable to the Bills. It

(01:13:39):
looks like the only tough team remaining on the Bill
schedule is the Lions, which they could easily lose but
should be big favorites in every other game. Meanwhile, the
Chiefs and the Steelers play each other. The Chiefs still
play a pretty good Broncos team, Texans, and the Chargers,
while the Steelers also play the Eagles, the Ravens, and

(01:14:00):
the Bengals twice. Things come down to the last week
or two. But how likely is the AFC runs through
Buffalo off an extra week of rest. It's a good question.
I think it's really hard in the NFL, and you're
doing it, you know, you feel more confident once we
have ten games into the season to just look at

(01:14:22):
the last seven games of a good or bad team
and go win win win lost win, or when you
look at really bad teams you just go lost loss loss, loss,
loss loss. That's not the way it works. You know,
it's gonna be a big point of conversation this week
and tomorrow when the college football rankings come out, about
all these SEC teams that have two losses, someone's gonna

(01:14:44):
have an awful loss. Someone's not even gonna be ten
and two because they're gonna be nine to three because
they get upset. It's football, man, So I think it's very,
very difficult to play that game. If I was a
betting man, I'd still bet on the Chiefs because that
one extra game. Like the Bills can't screw up in

(01:15:05):
one of their other games. What if Josh just plays
worst game of the season against the Patriots and all
of a sudden, it's sixteen sixteen headed in the fourth quarter.
That's what it's hard about football. It's like you have
a bad half, all of a sudden, you're tied late
in the game, and then you're running back fumbles. It's like,

(01:15:25):
holy shit, we might lose. That's what makes the sports
a fun to talk about because of the uncertainty. Even
when you think that it's a lock, someone's gonna win.
So I have a hard time playing that game. I
would say, if you're looking at the top teams, if
I had to rank them, I would still give the

(01:15:48):
edge to Kansas City, but I'd go like sixty. I
guess if we're doing a pie of the Bills and
the Chiefs, I'd probably go fifty five to forty five.
Watching the Chiefs Bills game, did you have the feel
that they just have the right offensive personnel to attack
the Spagnola defense. When I was watching, it just felt

(01:16:10):
like critical downs. The Bills had answers to the blitz
Spags likes to call. They got burned, as well as
receivers who could win quick in man demand coverage. The
Bills just look more complete offensively this year to the
average viewer eyes curious to hear your thoughts, Let's pull
up the box score of that game. James Cook has

(01:16:34):
been a game changer for the offense this last year
and a half. He is what did he do yesterday?
I mean he only had twenty yards, but how many
catches he have? He had five catches for seven yards. God,
he was not a very productive day. I do think
that Khalil Shakir I think I read that he has

(01:16:56):
more yards after the catcher yards after contact than a
receiver in the NFL. He's a really good player. Curtis
Samuel had a really good game five catches for fifty
eight yards in the touchdown. He also had the one
the one play where he almost had the one handed catch,
which was sweet. Amari had the sweet over his shoulder
catch on the right sideline. Dalton Knock's a good player.

(01:17:19):
He had four catches for forty yards. I think the
answers I hear what you're saying about guys that can
win quick. You know the question earlier. The Chiefs DB's
aren't quite as good as last year because Sneed's gone
and now Watson's hurt. But I just think Josh is
I think Josh is more of their kryptonite in the
sense of, like he just plays really well against him,

(01:17:42):
like we have a lot of data, like he's comfortable
playing against them. You can't say that about Lamar Jackson.
You can't say that about brock Purty. You can't say
that about other guys that they've played in these big games.
And Josh Allen yesterday twenty seven of forty for two
hundred and sixty yards. He was not sad. And he
also ran for fifty five yards. I forget the exact

(01:18:04):
number in the playoff game. I think he ran for
seventy yards in the games last year the Chiefs won.
I guess it was technically this year in the second second,
second round, so let me pull the box score on that. Yeah.
So he was twelve for fifty five running yesterday and
in the divisional round he was twelve for seventy two.

(01:18:27):
So he's throwing. And in the divisional game where they only
won by three points, he didn't have as good of
a game throwing. He only threw for one hundred and
eighty yards. But if he's going to get you an
extra seventy yards on the ground, like that's a pretty
big swing. I think Josh Allen with his legs is
a major problem. Like that's the thing with Lamar in theory,

(01:18:49):
his legs should hurt the Chiefs or the Steelers, but
he's not as potent running the ball against them. Yet
for some reason, Josh, who some games you watch, is
like he doesn't even need to run in these games.
When he has to run, he makes huge plays with
his legs. You guys know me, I'm a Josh Allen

(01:19:09):
stan So I think he's just an exceptional player. And
I think Andy Reid and Steve Spagnola would tell you
that he's the total fucking package. And he's really really
hard to play. And when he's on, just like the
other group that's he's surrounded by Herbert Burrow, Lamar and Mahomes.

(01:19:31):
When you catch those guys in their dialed godspeed. Buckle
up because it's going to be a long day. Appreciate
everyone listening, have a great day. Talk to you soon.
The volume