August 19, 2025 • 26 mins
John dives into the Matt Stafford situation with the Rams and how the way that Sean McVay has been handling and talking about his "injury" is very similar to how Bill Belichick handled injuries when he was coaching the Patriots. Next, John talks about the worst kept secret in the NFL, the Browns naming Joe Flacco as the starter in Cleveland, but the question remains what does this mean for the other QB's on the roster and how will the Browns handle that heading into the season. Later, John dives into the importance of teams having a quality backup QB on the roster.
4:09 - Sean McVay reminds us of Belichick
10:45 - Browns name Flacco the starter
15:19 - Importance of backups
23:03 - Rise of GM's in College football
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? Hopefully you are
doing well. Everyone is having a good day, because today
(00:23):
we're gonna talk a little football. Sean McVeigh was edgy
on Monday. The Browns have done what we knew was
gonna happen all along. But let's face it, that's never
gonna be the biggest story when it comes to that
franchise backup quarterbacks. You know, every once in a while
we see a backup become a big time starter over
the course of history. Matt Schobbs and I mean Steve
(00:45):
Young is the best example, but Jimmy Garoppolo and I
think we got a couple guys to keep our eyes on.
And a story I read today on the Athletic I'm
a reader on Andrew Luck That really got got me
thinking about where we're headed with college football, and I
think he's just the start of many which we see
all over the sport. So we're gonna talk a little football.
(01:07):
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minute ticket's lowest prices guaranteed. You know, the way coward
(02:11):
show works is you get in I mean bright and early.
It really gets your day story. I mean they are
meeting packed at six am. He walks in. I ran
into him this morning getting coffee, walk right into that
meeting with a bunch of people on the staff, and
you just start slinging ideas. And obviously the first time
when I did this whatever a couple months ago, I
(02:33):
didn't say that much. And it wasn't football season. I
felt a little I don't want to say in Bolden,
but if I had to take I'd throw it out.
And we were talking about McVeigh and how he relates
to just football and you know, the status of Stafford
because at the time when we did it on Monday morning,
we didn't know Matt Stafford was going to practice. And
(02:55):
on Sunday the Rams who had told everybody that Matt
Stafford was gonna throw like he did last week during
the game, not you know, before the game, do a
warm up, whether it was in front of the media
or not. But and then see how he felt the
next day. And they just refused to talk about it.
And today McVeigh kind of lost it. Like now, Stafford
(03:15):
practiced and the Rams throughout a clip of a short practice,
I've been making a throw and McVeigh was getting really
edgy and he's tired of talking about it. And one
thing I threw out in the meeting, you know, I'm
just like a with one of the writers of the producers,
just throwing out my takes is like, you know what
he is, He's an in shape, smiley, good haired Belichick.
Because we talk a lot about the Shanahan crew, right Kyle, Now,
(03:39):
Kevin O'Connell is involved in that because of McVeigh, Lafleur,
Mike McDaniel, Solo was that guy, like all those guys
that you know work together. And one thing with Kyle Shanahan,
who is a grumpy guy like Shanahan, isn't mister like
sending the media information, isn't smiling a lot during the season.
(03:59):
Has the the before and after of when he started coaching,
to the way he looks now, especially when they put
it next to McVeigh. McVeigh at thirty and McVeagh at
forty looks exactly the same. Kyle when he took over
the job, I think was like thirty seven, thirty eight,
and now he's in his mid forties. I mean he
looks he looks weathered. I mean, you see it but
he's very loyal to players, like he is not exactly
(04:22):
cutthroat when it comes to getting rid of guys. I
mean most of his guys beside DeForest Buckner, which he
didn't draft. He's extended and last year I thought he
should have been cutthroat with Ayuk and he wasn't until
the last minute when he was open to it, and
it kind of bit him in the ass and they
regretted that contract immediately. But countless guys they have been very,
very loyal to and McVeigh is very Belichickian. If they've
(04:44):
gotten rid of everybody, you know, beside Aaron Donald who
retired on his own, who might have just saw the
writing on the wall. If I ever slipped, they will
kick me to the curb. But from Jalen Ramsey to
Jared Goff, to Marcus Peters to you name it, he will.
If he thinks you're slipping, Cooper Cup, he will get
rid of you. And you saw today like responding to
the Stafford thing, like I'm sorry, Sean, this is kind
(05:05):
of a story that you guys created, Like you are
the one that came out and talked about and this
is what I think he could take from Belichick, and
it's hard like what Belichick did take skill. Most human
beings are just eventually can't put up the guard rails
and say something at a press conference for twenty five
years unless you ask Belichick about special teams or what like.
(05:27):
The winless Dolphins in early November did well on in
the kicking game. He didn't give you anything, ever, because
it always would come back to bite you in the ass.
And McVeigh has learned like he got very open and
leaked a bunch of stuff about Jared Goff and he
has openly talked about regretting it. And listen, I appreciate
(05:49):
the candor to these young coaches. They will be most
of them, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Lafour, Like they're pretty good
at the podium. Doesn't mean they're gonna give you everything,
but they're not Belichecki in. But sometimes, especially when it
comes to injuries with a superstar player, like we're just
gonna talk about Matt Stafford more than we're gonna talk
about Puka Nakua, right or Jared Verse like that, that
(06:13):
guy is just gonna get headlines no matter what I mean.
He's a national story. So when his back is injured,
and you say he's gonna practice a couple of weeks ago,
then he can't, and then he's supposed to practice again,
and then your mom on it, and then another guy
has taken over the job, you know, in terms of McVeigh,
like a lot of coaches let someone else coach during
the preseason, and then even let do the press conference.
He goes, well, we gotta ask Sean about it. It's
(06:35):
become a story and sometimes, like when you fight it,
it gets worse. And now, let's face it. The only
question was Stafford, like anyone with this type injury, is
how does he feel over the next couple of days?
Can he practice back to back days? Can he practice
for a week? Can he play in like, obviously he's
(06:55):
tough enough if they had a game tomorrow he could play,
But like week one, is he played, is it worth
risking it if he's not quite ready because a back
injury is something that clearly could derail his season, could
derail his career, which didn't have that much longer anyway.
So I think McVeigh it'll be interesting because listen, I
(07:16):
get where he's coming from, and I get where all
these coaches I've seen it firsthand. They don't sleep much
even during training camp before the regular season. You're working
long days, You're grinding hard. You're spending a ton of
time trying to figure out your roster. Who's gonna make
the team, who's not gonna make the team, who can
get on practice squad. Your front office is funneling you
a ton of players, like, hey, if we cut this guy,
(07:37):
is this guy for the Packers that they're probably gonna
cut better? Is this guy for the Houston Texans that
probably not gonna make their team? Is he better than
what we have? So you're just grinding. This is a
long long you know, in terms of hours in the day,
in energy and sometimes listen, I have bad days. You
have bad days. We all do. Sometimes I don't feel
(07:57):
like I talk for a living, and most days I
don't want to talk to other people. Right, I got
very lucky. You know. You would think like I'm super
extroverted because I talk all the time. I'm actually a
pretty introverted individual. I can be a homebody and not
talk to anybody besides doing this, which is kind of
ironic because while I talk for a living, I actually
(08:18):
don't talk directly to that many people, though, I talk
every single day for multiple hours, like that's how I'd
pay my bills. So I totally get having bad days
being edgy. But you have to wonder if McVeigh will
be pretty careful the way he approaches these injury situations,
because if you're gonna be BELICHICKI and one thing he
(08:39):
was great at he never gave you shit. So then
when you tried to come well, you said this, he
never played that game. The Browns today they named Joe
Flacco their starting quarterback, which the Man on the Moon
could have told you they were gonna do six months ago.
Joe Flacco was always going to start Week one for
the Cleveland Browns. That's not the story. The only story
(09:00):
is now is what's going to be their quarterback depth
chart when the season starts, And honestly, you can kind
of fudge it. But I've been saying this all along,
and I watched a lot of Dylan Gabriel's game when
he started the second preseason game when Shador was hurt
against the Eagles. He looked good, he looked fine, He
looked like a normal guy you drafted in the mid
rounds in a preseason game and never forget the Browns
(09:24):
Brass their head coach and their GM chose him multiple
rounds ahead of Shador. They had the opportunity. It's not
one of those where it's like the Ravens drafted a guy.
I think actually they have three draft picks that year.
They took Lamar, They definitely took Hayden Hurst, but they
could have taken Lamar in the teens, and they took
another player. Now granted they didn't take another quarterback, so
(09:46):
it's like you could never be like, well, you liked
another quarterback more. It's like, no, this is the only
quarterback we drafted. The Browns had the opportunity to take
either quarterback in the third round, and they chose Dylan Gabriel,
which I didn't even agree with. I though that was
kind of a crazy draft pick. I thought Dylan Gabriel
is like a fifth, six, seventh round pick, like essentially
where Shador went. But you know, Colin was talking about
this today and I agree, he's the Shador has taken
(10:10):
on a life of its own right because of the name,
because of like the cultural following that he has, and
I think Shador was a good prospect. Now, there were
things leading up to the draft that ultimately, if you're
a good player, none of that will matter moving forward.
But when Dylan Gabriel gave that interview during the press
conference and then it became this huge story, like it
(10:32):
was obvious he was talking about the media. He was
not talking about his team or his teammates. But everyone
was so quick to defend them, and sometimes in those situations,
they make the situation worse. And this thing like this
is why when they took Dylan Gabriel, I will die
on this hill. They did not want to draft Shador Sanders.
(10:56):
If they did, they would have taken them. The owner
forced this on them. They're not dummies. They realize what
came or would come with this. Now. I would imagine
it's even crazier than they thought. But this is not
gonna slow down. And let's face it, Shador Sanders and
Dylan Gabriel are going to play games this year in
the regular season for the Cleveland Browns. Joe Flacco's not
gonna start every game. The chances that Joe Flacco, like
(11:20):
if I had to take the over under of when
he gets hurt. He's an older player on not a
very good team who is going to be down a lot,
meaning he's gonna have to throw a lot. So it's like,
does he make it to Halloween. And I'm not talking
about getting benched, which obviously could easily happen. I'm talking
about getting injured. He can't move in a league where
offensive linemen don't just come growing trees anymore. Yet, defensive
(11:43):
linemen have been getting drafted in this league at a
rapid rate in terms of the ability to pass rush.
So Dylan Gabriel is gonna start a game in the
regular season, assuming they're both healthy before Shadoor Sanders, and
everyone's gonna freak out. Yet this organization chose this guy
ahead of him for that reason. Now how that goes, Like,
(12:04):
if he's bad and they stick with him, it could
just you can see the circus coming right this thing
and both more than likely. You could put Dylan Gabriel,
he could put your door. They all could be overwhelmed, right.
It could be a situation where Hasselback was on the
show today and even he said, like, I used to
dominate in the preseason, and then I finally became a
(12:25):
starter in Seattle and I was terrible. It's a completely
different game. There are no game plans in preseason for backups,
especially maybe sometimes you script, like I'm sure Ben Johnson
and Caleb Winns scripted those plays, and that's not like
a shot like a Mahomes and Andy if he starts
this third preseason game, will script a series or two
(12:46):
like that's normal. But once your backups come into the game,
you're just calling plays. Same thing with the defense, like
these aren't scripted game plan place. You're just running your defense.
Can you run it and can you execute it? And
so it's a completely different game. But I think this
circus is going to grow dramatically because of the situation
(13:06):
of like the coach in the GM wanted a different
guy than the one their owner wanted, yet the one
the owner wanted is way more famous and honestly might
be better. It's just this thing's gonna we're gonna be
talking way too much about a bad Browns team thinking
about backup quarterbacks like this used to happen a lot
more doesn't happen as much anymore, as like Matt Job
(13:28):
would be the backup for Michael Vick, and people be like,
I think Matt Job is like a legitimate starter, and
then he would get traded to the Houston Texans and
go on to have a long career. It's like, I
think this guy, Jimmy Garoppolo could start for a lot
of teams in the league. Then all of a sudden
he gets traded for a second round pick and becomes
a longtime starter. It's it's happened, you know many years.
(13:49):
Sometimes that guy just becomes the starter, like a Jalen
Hurts because of poor play, right, brock Purty because of
poor play. But Steve Young is the best example of
a guy who was a backup. It's like I can start,
I can start, and then finally gets his opportunity. I
do think there are a couple guys in the NFL
that are just worth monitoring that maybe not this year,
(14:09):
because it does benefit the team to keep a good
starting quarterback or I mean a backup quarterback that you
think can win games for you. There is value at
any moment. Anyone can go down. We have learned that
way too many times. Tom Brady towards ACL in Week one, right,
I mean we have seen quarterbacks get KOed out of games.
We have seen guys get injured. It happens. I would
(14:32):
not be in the business. If I like my backup
and thought he was a starting quarterback, but I had
like a legit starter getting rid of that backup to
the last possible moment a lot like Belichick did with Jimmy.
He waited till the last possible second and then traded
him going into his contract. Here, Kleb really kind of
quieted everything, right. They had had a very very bizarre
(14:54):
training camp in terms of is this thing gonna work? Now?
It's training camp, you're you know, button heead in terms
of forcing a scheme, coaching a guy hard, especially when
you're a new coach, doing it my way or the highway.
I'm not quite adapting to you yet, right, I want
you to do what I do. That's the reason I
got hired. But there was a lot of uzz coming
(15:14):
out about Tyson badget right, and Dave Wanstead was on
the Herd today and said that, like I was at
practice and Ryan Poles and these guys they love him.
If you remember Hard Knocks last year, Matt Ryan, who
played with Ryan Poles, was at practice. I was like,
I really like this guy. Ben Johnson talks this guy up,
really likes this guy. Now he's not gonna you know
it would take an injury for him to start, but
(15:36):
like you look at him. I watched some of his highlights.
I went to eat dinner after Caleb came out of
the game, after I recorded some of the podcasts. But
then I looked at his numbers. I was like, got,
this guy played pretty well. And then I just watched
the highlights, Like, he looks pretty good. And so far
in the preseason he's twenty six to forty one for
two touchdowns. And the other guy is Tanner McKee with
the Eagles, who didn't play this last game because I
(15:59):
think they're trying to figure out like who's gonna win
the third string job. But when he started the first
preseason game, like he did look really good. And I
think both these guys, you know, are probably more your
prototypical pocket quarterbacks, but are just individuals to keep an
eye on. And sometimes, like when I was with the
Eagles after Kevin Cobb, who was supposed to be the
replacement for Donovan McNabb and then got a concussion Week one,
(16:21):
and Michael Vick came in and never looked back. That
following year, Kevin Cobb was traded for a second round pick.
Kevin Cobb wasn't very good, Like you can blame the injuries, No,
he just wasn't that good, kind of a weak arm, like,
but other teams value like this guy could be good
and there's no guarantee, like we see guys get moved
at that position. I just think that Tyson Badget and
Tanner McKee are just two individuals. Like I don't think
(16:43):
the Eagles are gonna get rid of Tanner McKee because
if Jalen Hurts were to like have an injury and
was gonna miss a month, the Eagles would be like,
we go three and one with Tanner McKee. I think
Ben Johnson the Bears would be like, hey, if Caleb
got injured, we could win games with Tyson Badget. But
there gets to a point like you're not gonna give
the guy a big salary as a backup. And as
(17:05):
these guys get closer to free agency, I just think
teams this is one after the season, starts sniffing around
on these two guys. The rivalries, the marching bands, the upsets,
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Speaker 1 (19:03):
You know, one thing that happened in college football was
the rise of the GM. It didn't exist when I
worked in college football in two thousand and eight, two
thousand and nine, two thousand and seven. The GM position
honestly didn't start to like ten or eleven with ed Mannowitz,
who I worked with in Philly, who did it for
Nick Saban, and even then it was called the director
(19:24):
of player personnel. The title GM in college football is
relatively new, i would say, within the last five or
six years, and really really prominent in this ANIL era
because you need those guys to like negotiate your contracts,
to run point on what you're doing in terms of
your roster financial allocation. And one thing that is going
(19:48):
to become more and more prominent. And Josh Payton I
talked about this a week ago, is these gms aren't
gonna just answer to the head coach. Because when you
were the director of player person for Nick Saban, you
answered to Nick Saban. When you were doing that job
for Dabo Sweeney or Ryan Day like they were the boss,
they were the GM. You were doing it. Be like
(20:10):
being the director of player personnel and the Patriots for
Bill Belichick, like Caserio became the GM when he went
to Houston. When he worked in New England, he ran
the personnel department, but ultimately Bill had the final decision
making on everything. Well, those days are done, right A
lot of these gms now, Jim Naggy, who is the
(20:31):
GM of Oklahoma, Andrew Lucke, Ron Rivera, Collen Stanford, they
don't answer to the head coach. The head coach technically
answers to them, but they answer to the president that
they are essentially the boss of the program. And I
was reading The Athletic were a really really good article
on Andrew Lucke. I mean it was funny, it was
like he was just meeting with the president one day.
(20:55):
Clearly it had been four or five years since he
had retired, and he was just he really missed it,
and he's meeting with the president and the President just
kind of asked him, and I give the president credit
on this one, like do you want to run the
football team? Not be the coach, but like do you
want to run point on football? It's like, what's the job?
I don't really have one. We'll just create one around you,
(21:15):
which is essentially what all these jobs have become in
college football. There's not like a you know, in terms
of the job requirement. It's kind of learning on the fly.
And Andrew Luck like, based on Stanford's compliance, had to turn
in a resume. He's like, I've never created a resume
(21:35):
in my life. So he wrote like professional football player reason,
you know, whatever year he got drafted twenty twelve till retired.
His references were like Chris Ballard and Jacoby Brissett. It
was just classic. But that position and that guy whoever,
(21:56):
if Frank keeps the job, whether you know Frank is
just truly an inner, and they go out on a
coaching search. The GM in college football, like in the NFL.
They are going to run the football searches. I thought,
for a long period of time one area in which
Jimmy Sexton and rightfully so, could take really big advantage
(22:17):
of in college football. As he was dealing with these presidents.
And I'm sure obviously they have these huge endowments, but
most of these professors on campus aren't making ninety ten
million dollars a year, aren't having fifty million dollar buyouts.
If anything, they're trying to get funding for their research projects. Obviously,
some there are individuals on campus in academia that makes
(22:39):
some decent money, but nothing like the football coach. Honestly,
it's not even close. Now. You could argue if ninety
thousand people paid to watch the biology teacher, he'd be
making big money too, And they don't, and he doesn't.
But Jimmy Sexton would. He would. He couldn't just do
a deal with Howie Roseman or John Lynch or Jerry
(22:59):
Jones and guys like that and not have way more
pushback and have a little give and take where he
could bend over these colleges. And he was doing it
for a long period of time. I mean, no better
example was Jimbo Fisher a couple of years ago. I
do think the more and more you can get people
like Andrew Luck and listen, I'm not even just saying
former football players. Obviously, Ron Rivera a formal football coach.
(23:22):
I think we are not that far away. I was
texting Josh Pate about this. I would imagine in the
next couple of years, you see a guy who is
like a number two or a number three in an
NFL team. So I'm like the number three for Howie
Roseman or I'm the number three for Jason light So
I'm not like the number two where I'm gonna become
a GM next. I'm like running college. I'm like the
(23:44):
director of college scouting. I'm going to leave the NFL
where let's say I make five six hundred thousand dollars,
so I have a really good living. I work in
the NFL. I'm doing really well, and I'm on a
trajectory that's pretty good to go run Florida's personnel department
for double the amount of money, and I am now
(24:04):
the boss and the head coach answers to me. I
think there's a decent chance within this hiring cycle this fall,
but definitely the next one. We see multiple guys leave
the NFL to go run the college personnel department because
they will then be the decision maker a little bit
like Brian Rolapp, the new PGA Tour commissioner. Why did
(24:27):
he take the PGA jub He was the number two
for Roger Goodell. I'll tell you why. Obviously, I'm sure
he got a raise, but two to like really hone
in his management skills. So when Roger retires at seventy
years old, who do they call? Well, this guy knows
how to run it. And I've already worked in the NFL,
so you could go instead of waiting my turn, I
(24:47):
could go run the Florida Personnel department. If I'm a
forty year old director of college scouting, and then maybe
it's gonna take me six seven more years to become
a GM. I might be interviewing for NFL teams in
two or three years because they know I know how
to run a coaching search. They know I know how
to It's obviously a smaller you know, pie in terms
(25:08):
of the financial requirements and a lot mins that you
make to players, but it's still somewhat the same logic.
If anything is a little bit more crazy because there
aren't quote unquote a cap right now. And I showed
that I know how to do that because I know
this if I was an owner. Obviously, we get good
candidates every once in a while, right like Spy Tech
(25:29):
really good candidate, Adam Peter's really good candidate. Sometimes we
have times where it's like, who are these GM candidates?
And then I get this guy that's like, Hey, I'm
forty five years old. I've went on a coaching search before,
and I've also run a twenty five to thirty million
dollars salary cap for my team at the University of
Florida or the University of Texas or the University of
Southern California. Like, I'm actually more equipped than this lifetime
(25:54):
scout guy. And I think we're very very close to
seeing a lot of these guys eyes in the NFL
become very very interested in this and listen, making five
hundred thousand dollars in America like your top couple percenter.
But if you are the number two and you live
in la or you live in Philadelphia or you live
in Boston to work for the Patriots, like it's you're
(26:16):
paying a lot in taxes like you're not a ten
ninety nine guy like your W two employee. Well, it's like, wait,
I get to go to one of these college towns
which is way cheaper, double the amount of money, so
make way more for my family and put myself in
a better situation. There are a lot of boxes getting
checked here that are gonna make these jobs really, really
(26:37):
desirable in the very very near future for NFL people.
The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? Hopefully you are
doing well. Everyone is having a good day, because today
(00:23):
we're gonna talk a little football. Sean McVeigh was edgy
on Monday. The Browns have done what we knew was
gonna happen all along. But let's face it, that's never
gonna be the biggest story when it comes to that
franchise backup quarterbacks. You know, every once in a while
we see a backup become a big time starter over
the course of history. Matt Schobbs and I mean Steve
(00:45):
Young is the best example, but Jimmy Garoppolo and I
think we got a couple guys to keep our eyes on.
And a story I read today on the Athletic I'm
a reader on Andrew Luck That really got got me
thinking about where we're headed with college football, and I
think he's just the start of many which we see
all over the sport. So we're gonna talk a little football.
(01:07):
But before we do, you know, I got to tell
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(02:11):
show works is you get in I mean bright and early.
It really gets your day story. I mean they are
meeting packed at six am. He walks in. I ran
into him this morning getting coffee, walk right into that
meeting with a bunch of people on the staff, and
you just start slinging ideas. And obviously the first time
when I did this whatever a couple months ago, I
(02:33):
didn't say that much. And it wasn't football season. I
felt a little I don't want to say in Bolden,
but if I had to take I'd throw it out.
And we were talking about McVeigh and how he relates
to just football and you know, the status of Stafford
because at the time when we did it on Monday morning,
we didn't know Matt Stafford was going to practice. And
(02:55):
on Sunday the Rams who had told everybody that Matt
Stafford was gonna throw like he did last week during
the game, not you know, before the game, do a
warm up, whether it was in front of the media
or not. But and then see how he felt the
next day. And they just refused to talk about it.
And today McVeigh kind of lost it. Like now, Stafford
(03:15):
practiced and the Rams throughout a clip of a short practice,
I've been making a throw and McVeigh was getting really
edgy and he's tired of talking about it. And one
thing I threw out in the meeting, you know, I'm
just like a with one of the writers of the producers,
just throwing out my takes is like, you know what
he is, He's an in shape, smiley, good haired Belichick.
Because we talk a lot about the Shanahan crew, right Kyle, Now,
(03:39):
Kevin O'Connell is involved in that because of McVeigh, Lafleur,
Mike McDaniel, Solo was that guy, like all those guys
that you know work together. And one thing with Kyle Shanahan,
who is a grumpy guy like Shanahan, isn't mister like
sending the media information, isn't smiling a lot during the season.
(03:59):
Has the the before and after of when he started coaching,
to the way he looks now, especially when they put
it next to McVeigh. McVeigh at thirty and McVeagh at
forty looks exactly the same. Kyle when he took over
the job, I think was like thirty seven, thirty eight,
and now he's in his mid forties. I mean he
looks he looks weathered. I mean, you see it but
he's very loyal to players, like he is not exactly
(04:22):
cutthroat when it comes to getting rid of guys. I
mean most of his guys beside DeForest Buckner, which he
didn't draft. He's extended and last year I thought he
should have been cutthroat with Ayuk and he wasn't until
the last minute when he was open to it, and
it kind of bit him in the ass and they
regretted that contract immediately. But countless guys they have been very,
very loyal to and McVeigh is very Belichickian. If they've
(04:44):
gotten rid of everybody, you know, beside Aaron Donald who
retired on his own, who might have just saw the
writing on the wall. If I ever slipped, they will
kick me to the curb. But from Jalen Ramsey to
Jared Goff, to Marcus Peters to you name it, he will.
If he thinks you're slipping, Cooper Cup, he will get
rid of you. And you saw today like responding to
the Stafford thing, like I'm sorry, Sean, this is kind
(05:05):
of a story that you guys created, Like you are
the one that came out and talked about and this
is what I think he could take from Belichick, and
it's hard like what Belichick did take skill. Most human
beings are just eventually can't put up the guard rails
and say something at a press conference for twenty five
years unless you ask Belichick about special teams or what like.
(05:27):
The winless Dolphins in early November did well on in
the kicking game. He didn't give you anything, ever, because
it always would come back to bite you in the ass.
And McVeigh has learned like he got very open and
leaked a bunch of stuff about Jared Goff and he
has openly talked about regretting it. And listen, I appreciate
(05:49):
the candor to these young coaches. They will be most
of them, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Lafour, Like they're pretty good
at the podium. Doesn't mean they're gonna give you everything,
but they're not Belichecki in. But sometimes, especially when it
comes to injuries with a superstar player, like we're just
gonna talk about Matt Stafford more than we're gonna talk
about Puka Nakua, right or Jared Verse like that, that
(06:13):
guy is just gonna get headlines no matter what I mean.
He's a national story. So when his back is injured,
and you say he's gonna practice a couple of weeks ago,
then he can't, and then he's supposed to practice again,
and then your mom on it, and then another guy
has taken over the job, you know, in terms of McVeigh,
like a lot of coaches let someone else coach during
the preseason, and then even let do the press conference.
He goes, well, we gotta ask Sean about it. It's
(06:35):
become a story and sometimes, like when you fight it,
it gets worse. And now, let's face it. The only
question was Stafford, like anyone with this type injury, is
how does he feel over the next couple of days?
Can he practice back to back days? Can he practice
for a week? Can he play in like, obviously he's
(06:55):
tough enough if they had a game tomorrow he could play,
But like week one, is he played, is it worth
risking it if he's not quite ready because a back
injury is something that clearly could derail his season, could
derail his career, which didn't have that much longer anyway.
So I think McVeigh it'll be interesting because listen, I
(07:16):
get where he's coming from, and I get where all
these coaches I've seen it firsthand. They don't sleep much
even during training camp before the regular season. You're working
long days, You're grinding hard. You're spending a ton of
time trying to figure out your roster. Who's gonna make
the team, who's not gonna make the team, who can
get on practice squad. Your front office is funneling you
a ton of players, like, hey, if we cut this guy,
(07:37):
is this guy for the Packers that they're probably gonna
cut better? Is this guy for the Houston Texans that
probably not gonna make their team? Is he better than
what we have? So you're just grinding. This is a
long long you know, in terms of hours in the day,
in energy and sometimes listen, I have bad days. You
have bad days. We all do. Sometimes I don't feel
(07:57):
like I talk for a living, and most days I
don't want to talk to other people. Right, I got
very lucky. You know. You would think like I'm super
extroverted because I talk all the time. I'm actually a
pretty introverted individual. I can be a homebody and not
talk to anybody besides doing this, which is kind of
ironic because while I talk for a living, I actually
(08:18):
don't talk directly to that many people, though, I talk
every single day for multiple hours, like that's how I'd
pay my bills. So I totally get having bad days
being edgy. But you have to wonder if McVeigh will
be pretty careful the way he approaches these injury situations,
because if you're gonna be BELICHICKI and one thing he
(08:39):
was great at he never gave you shit. So then
when you tried to come well, you said this, he
never played that game. The Browns today they named Joe
Flacco their starting quarterback, which the Man on the Moon
could have told you they were gonna do six months ago.
Joe Flacco was always going to start Week one for
the Cleveland Browns. That's not the story. The only story
(09:00):
is now is what's going to be their quarterback depth
chart when the season starts, And honestly, you can kind
of fudge it. But I've been saying this all along,
and I watched a lot of Dylan Gabriel's game when
he started the second preseason game when Shador was hurt
against the Eagles. He looked good, he looked fine, He
looked like a normal guy you drafted in the mid
rounds in a preseason game and never forget the Browns
(09:24):
Brass their head coach and their GM chose him multiple
rounds ahead of Shador. They had the opportunity. It's not
one of those where it's like the Ravens drafted a guy.
I think actually they have three draft picks that year.
They took Lamar, They definitely took Hayden Hurst, but they
could have taken Lamar in the teens, and they took
another player. Now granted they didn't take another quarterback, so
(09:46):
it's like you could never be like, well, you liked
another quarterback more. It's like, no, this is the only
quarterback we drafted. The Browns had the opportunity to take
either quarterback in the third round, and they chose Dylan Gabriel,
which I didn't even agree with. I though that was
kind of a crazy draft pick. I thought Dylan Gabriel
is like a fifth, six, seventh round pick, like essentially
where Shador went. But you know, Colin was talking about
this today and I agree, he's the Shador has taken
(10:10):
on a life of its own right because of the name,
because of like the cultural following that he has, and
I think Shador was a good prospect. Now, there were
things leading up to the draft that ultimately, if you're
a good player, none of that will matter moving forward.
But when Dylan Gabriel gave that interview during the press
conference and then it became this huge story, like it
(10:32):
was obvious he was talking about the media. He was
not talking about his team or his teammates. But everyone
was so quick to defend them, and sometimes in those situations,
they make the situation worse. And this thing like this
is why when they took Dylan Gabriel, I will die
on this hill. They did not want to draft Shador Sanders.
(10:56):
If they did, they would have taken them. The owner
forced this on them. They're not dummies. They realize what
came or would come with this. Now. I would imagine
it's even crazier than they thought. But this is not
gonna slow down. And let's face it, Shador Sanders and
Dylan Gabriel are going to play games this year in
the regular season for the Cleveland Browns. Joe Flacco's not
gonna start every game. The chances that Joe Flacco, like
(11:20):
if I had to take the over under of when
he gets hurt. He's an older player on not a
very good team who is going to be down a lot,
meaning he's gonna have to throw a lot. So it's like,
does he make it to Halloween. And I'm not talking
about getting benched, which obviously could easily happen. I'm talking
about getting injured. He can't move in a league where
offensive linemen don't just come growing trees anymore. Yet, defensive
(11:43):
linemen have been getting drafted in this league at a
rapid rate in terms of the ability to pass rush.
So Dylan Gabriel is gonna start a game in the
regular season, assuming they're both healthy before Shadoor Sanders, and
everyone's gonna freak out. Yet this organization chose this guy
ahead of him for that reason. Now how that goes, Like,
(12:04):
if he's bad and they stick with him, it could
just you can see the circus coming right this thing
and both more than likely. You could put Dylan Gabriel,
he could put your door. They all could be overwhelmed, right.
It could be a situation where Hasselback was on the
show today and even he said, like, I used to
dominate in the preseason, and then I finally became a
(12:25):
starter in Seattle and I was terrible. It's a completely
different game. There are no game plans in preseason for backups,
especially maybe sometimes you script, like I'm sure Ben Johnson
and Caleb Winns scripted those plays, and that's not like
a shot like a Mahomes and Andy if he starts
this third preseason game, will script a series or two
(12:46):
like that's normal. But once your backups come into the game,
you're just calling plays. Same thing with the defense, like
these aren't scripted game plan place. You're just running your defense.
Can you run it and can you execute it? And
so it's a completely different game. But I think this
circus is going to grow dramatically because of the situation
(13:06):
of like the coach in the GM wanted a different
guy than the one their owner wanted, yet the one
the owner wanted is way more famous and honestly might
be better. It's just this thing's gonna we're gonna be
talking way too much about a bad Browns team thinking
about backup quarterbacks like this used to happen a lot
more doesn't happen as much anymore, as like Matt Job
(13:28):
would be the backup for Michael Vick, and people be like,
I think Matt Job is like a legitimate starter, and
then he would get traded to the Houston Texans and
go on to have a long career. It's like, I
think this guy, Jimmy Garoppolo could start for a lot
of teams in the league. Then all of a sudden
he gets traded for a second round pick and becomes
a longtime starter. It's it's happened, you know many years.
(13:49):
Sometimes that guy just becomes the starter, like a Jalen
Hurts because of poor play, right, brock Purty because of
poor play. But Steve Young is the best example of
a guy who was a backup. It's like I can start,
I can start, and then finally gets his opportunity. I
do think there are a couple guys in the NFL
that are just worth monitoring that maybe not this year,
(14:09):
because it does benefit the team to keep a good
starting quarterback or I mean a backup quarterback that you
think can win games for you. There is value at
any moment. Anyone can go down. We have learned that
way too many times. Tom Brady towards ACL in Week one, right,
I mean we have seen quarterbacks get KOed out of games.
We have seen guys get injured. It happens. I would
(14:32):
not be in the business. If I like my backup
and thought he was a starting quarterback, but I had
like a legit starter getting rid of that backup to
the last possible moment a lot like Belichick did with Jimmy.
He waited till the last possible second and then traded
him going into his contract. Here, Kleb really kind of
quieted everything, right. They had had a very very bizarre
(14:54):
training camp in terms of is this thing gonna work? Now?
It's training camp, you're you know, button heead in terms
of forcing a scheme, coaching a guy hard, especially when
you're a new coach, doing it my way or the highway.
I'm not quite adapting to you yet, right, I want
you to do what I do. That's the reason I
got hired. But there was a lot of uzz coming
(15:14):
out about Tyson badget right, and Dave Wanstead was on
the Herd today and said that, like I was at
practice and Ryan Poles and these guys they love him.
If you remember Hard Knocks last year, Matt Ryan, who
played with Ryan Poles, was at practice. I was like,
I really like this guy. Ben Johnson talks this guy up,
really likes this guy. Now he's not gonna you know
it would take an injury for him to start, but
(15:36):
like you look at him. I watched some of his highlights.
I went to eat dinner after Caleb came out of
the game, after I recorded some of the podcasts. But
then I looked at his numbers. I was like, got,
this guy played pretty well. And then I just watched
the highlights, Like, he looks pretty good. And so far
in the preseason he's twenty six to forty one for
two touchdowns. And the other guy is Tanner McKee with
the Eagles, who didn't play this last game because I
(15:59):
think they're trying to figure out like who's gonna win
the third string job. But when he started the first
preseason game, like he did look really good. And I
think both these guys, you know, are probably more your
prototypical pocket quarterbacks, but are just individuals to keep an
eye on. And sometimes, like when I was with the
Eagles after Kevin Cobb, who was supposed to be the
replacement for Donovan McNabb and then got a concussion Week one,
(16:21):
and Michael Vick came in and never looked back. That
following year, Kevin Cobb was traded for a second round pick.
Kevin Cobb wasn't very good, Like you can blame the injuries, No,
he just wasn't that good, kind of a weak arm, like,
but other teams value like this guy could be good
and there's no guarantee, like we see guys get moved
at that position. I just think that Tyson Badget and
Tanner McKee are just two individuals. Like I don't think
(16:43):
the Eagles are gonna get rid of Tanner McKee because
if Jalen Hurts were to like have an injury and
was gonna miss a month, the Eagles would be like,
we go three and one with Tanner McKee. I think
Ben Johnson the Bears would be like, hey, if Caleb
got injured, we could win games with Tyson Badget. But
there gets to a point like you're not gonna give
the guy a big salary as a backup. And as
(17:05):
these guys get closer to free agency, I just think
teams this is one after the season, starts sniffing around
on these two guys. The rivalries, the marching bands, the upsets,
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Speaker 1 (19:03):
You know, one thing that happened in college football was
the rise of the GM. It didn't exist when I
worked in college football in two thousand and eight, two
thousand and nine, two thousand and seven. The GM position
honestly didn't start to like ten or eleven with ed Mannowitz,
who I worked with in Philly, who did it for
Nick Saban, and even then it was called the director
(19:24):
of player personnel. The title GM in college football is
relatively new, i would say, within the last five or
six years, and really really prominent in this ANIL era
because you need those guys to like negotiate your contracts,
to run point on what you're doing in terms of
your roster financial allocation. And one thing that is going
(19:48):
to become more and more prominent. And Josh Payton I
talked about this a week ago, is these gms aren't
gonna just answer to the head coach. Because when you
were the director of player person for Nick Saban, you
answered to Nick Saban. When you were doing that job
for Dabo Sweeney or Ryan Day like they were the boss,
they were the GM. You were doing it. Be like
(20:10):
being the director of player personnel and the Patriots for
Bill Belichick, like Caserio became the GM when he went
to Houston. When he worked in New England, he ran
the personnel department, but ultimately Bill had the final decision
making on everything. Well, those days are done, right A
lot of these gms now, Jim Naggy, who is the
(20:31):
GM of Oklahoma, Andrew Lucke, Ron Rivera, Collen Stanford, they
don't answer to the head coach. The head coach technically
answers to them, but they answer to the president that
they are essentially the boss of the program. And I
was reading The Athletic were a really really good article
on Andrew Lucke. I mean it was funny, it was
like he was just meeting with the president one day.
(20:55):
Clearly it had been four or five years since he
had retired, and he was just he really missed it,
and he's meeting with the president and the President just
kind of asked him, and I give the president credit
on this one, like do you want to run the
football team? Not be the coach, but like do you
want to run point on football? It's like, what's the job?
I don't really have one. We'll just create one around you,
(21:15):
which is essentially what all these jobs have become in
college football. There's not like a you know, in terms
of the job requirement. It's kind of learning on the fly.
And Andrew Luck like, based on Stanford's compliance, had to turn
in a resume. He's like, I've never created a resume
(21:35):
in my life. So he wrote like professional football player reason,
you know, whatever year he got drafted twenty twelve till retired.
His references were like Chris Ballard and Jacoby Brissett. It
was just classic. But that position and that guy whoever,
(21:56):
if Frank keeps the job, whether you know Frank is
just truly an inner, and they go out on a
coaching search. The GM in college football, like in the NFL.
They are going to run the football searches. I thought,
for a long period of time one area in which
Jimmy Sexton and rightfully so, could take really big advantage
(22:17):
of in college football. As he was dealing with these presidents.
And I'm sure obviously they have these huge endowments, but
most of these professors on campus aren't making ninety ten
million dollars a year, aren't having fifty million dollar buyouts.
If anything, they're trying to get funding for their research projects. Obviously,
some there are individuals on campus in academia that makes
(22:39):
some decent money, but nothing like the football coach. Honestly,
it's not even close. Now. You could argue if ninety
thousand people paid to watch the biology teacher, he'd be
making big money too, And they don't, and he doesn't.
But Jimmy Sexton would. He would. He couldn't just do
a deal with Howie Roseman or John Lynch or Jerry
(22:59):
Jones and guys like that and not have way more
pushback and have a little give and take where he
could bend over these colleges. And he was doing it
for a long period of time. I mean, no better
example was Jimbo Fisher a couple of years ago. I
do think the more and more you can get people
like Andrew Luck and listen, I'm not even just saying
former football players. Obviously, Ron Rivera a formal football coach.
(23:22):
I think we are not that far away. I was
texting Josh Pate about this. I would imagine in the
next couple of years, you see a guy who is
like a number two or a number three in an
NFL team. So I'm like the number three for Howie
Roseman or I'm the number three for Jason light So
I'm not like the number two where I'm gonna become
a GM next. I'm like running college. I'm like the
(23:44):
director of college scouting. I'm going to leave the NFL
where let's say I make five six hundred thousand dollars,
so I have a really good living. I work in
the NFL. I'm doing really well, and I'm on a
trajectory that's pretty good to go run Florida's personnel department
for double the amount of money, and I am now
(24:04):
the boss and the head coach answers to me. I
think there's a decent chance within this hiring cycle this fall,
but definitely the next one. We see multiple guys leave
the NFL to go run the college personnel department because
they will then be the decision maker a little bit
like Brian Rolapp, the new PGA Tour commissioner. Why did
(24:27):
he take the PGA jub He was the number two
for Roger Goodell. I'll tell you why. Obviously, I'm sure
he got a raise, but two to like really hone
in his management skills. So when Roger retires at seventy
years old, who do they call? Well, this guy knows
how to run it. And I've already worked in the NFL,
so you could go instead of waiting my turn, I
(24:47):
could go run the Florida Personnel department. If I'm a
forty year old director of college scouting, and then maybe
it's gonna take me six seven more years to become
a GM. I might be interviewing for NFL teams in
two or three years because they know I know how
to run a coaching search. They know I know how
to It's obviously a smaller you know, pie in terms
(25:08):
of the financial requirements and a lot mins that you
make to players, but it's still somewhat the same logic.
If anything is a little bit more crazy because there
aren't quote unquote a cap right now. And I showed
that I know how to do that because I know
this if I was an owner. Obviously, we get good
candidates every once in a while, right like Spy Tech
(25:29):
really good candidate, Adam Peter's really good candidate. Sometimes we
have times where it's like, who are these GM candidates?
And then I get this guy that's like, Hey, I'm
forty five years old. I've went on a coaching search before,
and I've also run a twenty five to thirty million
dollars salary cap for my team at the University of
Florida or the University of Texas or the University of
Southern California. Like, I'm actually more equipped than this lifetime
(25:54):
scout guy. And I think we're very very close to
seeing a lot of these guys eyes in the NFL
become very very interested in this and listen, making five
hundred thousand dollars in America like your top couple percenter.
But if you are the number two and you live
in la or you live in Philadelphia or you live
in Boston to work for the Patriots, like it's you're
(26:16):
paying a lot in taxes like you're not a ten
ninety nine guy like your W two employee. Well, it's like, wait,
I get to go to one of these college towns
which is way cheaper, double the amount of money, so
make way more for my family and put myself in
a better situation. There are a lot of boxes getting
checked here that are gonna make these jobs really, really
(26:37):
desirable in the very very near future for NFL people.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.