October 13, 2025 • 51 mins
Former NFL scout John Middlekauff is reacting LIVE immediately following the Week 5 Monday Night Football matchup between Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at home against Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions. John will react a WILD NFL Week 6 slate, the biggest plays of the day, breaking news from around the NFL, & much more!
04:08 - Lions-Chiefs
20:26 - Colts injured before game
22:56 - Bucs' Baker Mayfield MVP
27:20 - 49ers' Fred Warner out for season
32:13 - Bengals-Packers / Broncos-Jets
36:11 - Cleveland Browns are a rough watch
37:01 - Miami Dolphins' QB Tua comments
38:44 - Indiana HC Curt Cignetti
44:49 - Penn State fires James Franklin
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff three and our podcast. I'm going to react
(00:22):
to the Kansie Chiefs got a nice little win against
the Detroit Lions, beat him by a couple scores, playing well,
the offense is rolling. So we'll dive into the Chiefs,
dive into the Lions. Some other stuff that happened to
day around the National Football League. Woke up to some
rough football being played over there in London. We'll talk
(00:46):
about Sean Payton, Lafleur, Baker Mayfield, is he really gonna
win the MVP? James Franklin was fired to Penn State,
Kurt Signetti has taken the world by storm. We will
talk a lot of football. You guys know the drill.
If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe
to three Now podcast. Obviously, me and Colin earlier day
did our show as we do every week, reacting after
(01:09):
the afternoon games. Talks some college football as well. He's
fired up the Trojans look good and subscribe Apple, Spotify.
You can listen and find us wherever you consume your podcast.
But I wanted to start with the Chiefs and one
theme really the last several years has been the offense.
What's up with the offense? I think last year was
(01:30):
really clear their offensive line was not good. Their left
tackle position was a major issue. They had to move
their star interior offensive lineman to patchwork it out to
left tackle, and he by far was their best option.
And he's a guard. And I think you see this
year the importance. Like a lot of people thought Kansas
(01:51):
City was crazy when they gave Jalen Moore like two
years thirty billion dollars from the San Fransco forty nine
ers and he wasn't even the San Fransco forty nine
ers starter. He was their backup swing tackle. It's like, wait,
you're gonna give a backup that much money. It's like, well, yeah,
the guy can play. He just happened to back up
Trent Williams. So it's like for a lot of teams
(02:11):
he would have been a starter. And here's the thing.
Free agency comes before the draft. So would they have
done it if they knew they were gonna draft Simmons
from Ohio State? Probably not. But you don't know that
in the NFL. This is not the NBA, where it's
the opposite, right, You go in the order in which
(02:32):
the transaction transaction cycle comes and they didn't have a
left tackle, so they paid, given the amount of money,
they had their best option, and then they drafted one
and it put them been a position in a game
like tonight where Josh Simmons I was recorded with Colin
So I don't know if they said anything before the
game started or early on in that game. By the
time I came, the game had already kind of I
(02:55):
think it was like six to three or whatever. I
got with like a couple of minutes left to go
in the first quarter. But I saw the headline before that.
He's dealing with the personal issue. He wasn't even there,
so like wasn't even available because he's not even at
the stadium. So it's like, what are you gonna do
a star left tack? I mean, Josh Simmons has been
a home run steal. I bet if you would ask
Brett Veach in free agency, do you think Josh Simmons
(03:17):
is gonna be there at the end of the first round.
He might have laughed at no chance, right, but he
is and he's been a stud, but then he disappears,
So what do you do? You insert Jalen Moore, who
obviously was really good tonight and gave them a chance
against you know, they can move a pass rusher all around,
like Aiden Hudson is one of the better younger players
in the NFL. And sometimes like your team's not always
(03:42):
gonna be perfect. And obviously last year the Chiefs made
it to the Super Bowl with an offensive line that
was a major question mark at least on the tackle positions.
Is pretty crazy. Then this year they have depth at
the left tackle position. Think how dramatically that changed in
one offseason and it was on full display tonight. And
the other thing is this, and I said this earlier
in the season and I meant it because it's what
(04:04):
we were all seeing, is that Travis Kelsey looked really old.
And then Andy Reid four checked him against the New
York Giants and it was like not playful, like he
was dead serious. And then when he was interviewed at halftime,
like we needed some juice. And this is where coaching
and relationships and we talk about this all the time, like,
(04:25):
you know, you can kind of know people or know
people through friends, and then there's people you've known for
twenty years. There's people you went to high school with.
There's people you grew up with, there's people you went
to college with. And as you get older, you realize
how strong those bonds are because you knew that other
person when you had nothing, when the relationship was very pure.
And as your lives change, as you get kids, as professional,
(04:49):
you know, desires changed, you move around the country, that
bond you have with those humans can never be broken.
And there is a bond that Andy Reid has with
Travis Kelcey that is pretty unique. It's not very often
that a coach, you know, is a round a player
for well over a decade in the National Football League.
And Travis kelce if he retires this year or next year,
(05:12):
it's going to retire a chief. He's not gonna play
for another team. As Mike Tarico said, the life of
a tight end. And here's the thing with Travis Kelcey.
Last couple weeks, he's looked good. He's looked younger again.
And I don't know if it was a motivation talk.
I don't know if coach Reid had been on him,
but tonight he was huge, and really the last couple
games after the Giants game, listen, I know the Ravens
(05:33):
are a match unit, but five for forty eight. Last
week against the Jags, he had seven for sixty one
in a touchdown, and then tonight he had six for
seventy eight, and you just really felt his presence. Big
third down catches, just big first downs, big working in
the zone, just you know, working the open areas. He
(05:54):
just looked quicker, He looked a little more explosive. He
looked kind of like the younger version. Now can he
do this every week? I don't know at thirty four
to thirty five years old, but as long as he
has this in him to go with, like Juji's pretty
solid player. Hollywood Brown has been big for them. Obviously
getting Xavier Worthy back like he can make some explosive plays.
(06:15):
They got Rashid Rice coming. I mean that offense is
pretty well rounded. Even when they asked coach Reid at halftime,
like what are you looking to do with the second half,
He's like, you know, we want to continue to be
solid on the ground and sling that ball like Andy
Reid wants to sling that ball. And the way you
can do that is having Travis Kelcey play well, freeze
everything up for the other wide receivers. And let's face it,
(06:36):
this Chiefs team is not going to have Tyreek Hill
in his prime or like when Coach Reid was in Philly,
Deshaun Jackson and young Jeremy Macklin. It's not quite that.
But this group's pretty good as he you did, and
they have one of the best players in league history.
And you've seen the last couple of nights or the
last couple of weeks, and you definitely saw to night
that like, he's pretty special. And what was he night?
(06:57):
Twenty two to thirty for two hundred and fifty yards
and three touchdowns. He made some huge plays with his legs.
He was really accurate. He was just really good. The
thing for Patrick mahomes to be good. I do feel
like we go back to a couple of years ago
when the stats were a lot better. It was like
Travis was a major factor. And I do think that
like when Travis plays well. We talked about this on
(07:18):
Thursday night, Like Scataboo's kind of the heart and soul
of the offense. You can just feel it when you
watch the Giants. The guy's a rookie like Travis. Over
the course of Patrick's career. When he's making big plays,
it feels like their offense unstoppable. And obviously the Lions
have a lot of injuries. I'm not trying to act
like they were the eighty five Bears, and they're gonna
have to play better teams as the season goes on.
(07:40):
I'm sure, especially as the as the weather turns, it's
not gonna be as easy as it is. In terms
of their secondary, they had a mash unit, missing a
ton of corners, even lost to dB during the game
Kirby Joseph. But like that was a confident team and
we saw last week they scored what twenty eight points?
This week they score thirty. Hell, they had a Super
Bowl team that it felt like had stretches during the
(08:02):
season where they were struggling to score twenty points. So
if you're gonna tell me the Chiefs are gonna start
scoring above twenty five to thirty points every week, they're
gonna win a lot of games and a lot of people.
I remember Colin said, like after the Monday night game,
Everyone's like, what's he talking about? They're coming Just when
your quarterback plays like that and your offense looks like that,
(08:24):
they have one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in
the league, and their defensive personnel is probably not as
good as it was a couple of years ago, but
still pretty good. And there's a standard, and there's a culture,
and there's a physicality to the way they play. And
I think he saw tonight, you know, the way that
game ended, Chris getting called out. It was pretty embarrassing,
you know, going viral for just kind of standing there.
(08:45):
I saw coach Reied got asked about it. Maybe that
was like Wednesday or Friday. And even he it's not like,
what are you gonna do pretend it didn't happen. He's like, yeah,
this kind of can't happen. And you saw Chris Jones
and Night a couple of times, like, eh, motherfucker came
to play. Is not messing around. So I'm not acting
like the Chiefs are headed back to the super Bowl.
But one thing they got going for him, I mean
(09:07):
really got going for him is look around the AFC.
I mean, we'll see Buffalo tomorrow. I'm sure they'll probably win,
but they are and once Saul said none, they're probably
gonna be the number one seed. I don't view them
honestly a couple of years ago, the Ravens when they
were the number one seed. I'm like, this is a
complete team, right, when the Chiefs have had times when
they were the number one seeds, like I don't want
to play them, right, the Eagles last year one seed.
(09:29):
It's not what the AFC feels like. It's like the
Indianapolis Colts, who I'm pretty sure are like five and one, right,
the Bills who are probably gonna be five and one.
The Ravens are gonzo. I know. John Harbaugh's like I
still got hope, Like there is no hope. John Lamar
can come back, Roquad can come back. You're one and five,
So do the math. You got eleven more games to
(09:51):
get to nine wins. You'd have to do what go
eight and two, eight and three? Like, you're not doing that?
Your defense stakes, you had pride today, but it's over.
The Bengals, their quarterbacks disappeared, the Chargers half their rosters
on injured reserve. The Denver Broncos, their quarterback completed three
passes in the second half against by far the worst
(10:12):
team in the league right now. So this is a
unique time in the AFC because the last couple of
years like AFC sacked Lamar Burrow. Doesn't feel like that
right now. It's like Aaron Rodgers, forty one years old
in chiefs lose a sleep playing Aaron Rodgers. You think
Coach Reid's gonna sit a his alarm extra early to
get ready for a forty one year old Aaron Rodgers.
(10:34):
And that's not a shot of Aaron Rodgers playing well.
But like, he ain't Lamar Jackson, you know, he ain't
Joe Burrow. That's not what we're talking about here. But
that's the AFC. It's like forty one year old Aaron
Rodgers and Daniel Jones. So again, who's playing really well?
And I have a lot of respect for the Colts,
But that's my point that this is not your typical
super top heavy. It kind of feels like the SEC.
(10:57):
I watched his See he's a good conference, a ton
of NFL players, a lot of good teams. But this
doesn't feel like a couple of years ago. And it's
like Bama Georgia, like watch out, good luck, godspeed, it's
not the case here now. Defensively, they're gonna continue to
get tested now they do, got the Raiders coming up
next week. That's a win. Then they got the Commanders.
(11:17):
Then they got a tough stretch at the Bills, at
the Broncos, the Colts. Still got some cowboys mixed in there,
the Texans, the Chargers, the Titans, the Broncos, the Raiders.
I've said it all along. They're three and three. This
feels more like a ten or eleven win team than
it does previous years. But I saw him go to
the Super Bowl a couple of years when they win
eleven and five. Now, part of winning ten games, you're
(11:39):
not getting to buy, but you then chiefs are worried
about going on the road and in the playoffs. And
tell me this what AFC team. Let's say it's the Steelers.
Let's say the other three seed Steelers win twelve games,
they cruise to the AFC North. I got news for
you about the Steelers. They're going to win the AFC
North probably early December. It'll be over. I mean, the
(12:01):
Browns stink. I mean they can't get a first down
to save their life. The Bengals bringing Joe Flacco and
they even got some life, and they're not gonna win
any games. And the Ravens are just screwed because of
all the injuries. So the Steelers just because I don't
know partly the division, and listen, they've played well, they
go twelve wins. There might not be another team in
(12:22):
that division to win seven. So okay, you're the three seed.
It's like the Bills, the Colts, the Steelers. What if
the Chiefs are the sixth seed? It's like, what's the
line on that game? You think a lot of people
are just gonna hammer the Steelers in that spot, especially
if the Chiefs continue to show life. So I'm just
or it's the Colts. I'm not even again. I'm enjoying
(12:43):
Steelers renaissance like I want them to be good. It's fun.
Let's say it's the Colts, right, you think the Colts
the three seed against or the Jags and they got
to play the Chiefs in the first round. You feel
good about that matchup for those teams. My point, So
you got Spags, you got Coach Reed, you got Patrick Mahone,
you got Kelsey's just trying to generate all this enthusiasm
(13:04):
for this new album release, and all of a sudden,
you go, god, this team looks a little pressure. They
look okay, I feel pretty bullish and on the flip side,
it's pretty crazy. It's not quite the forty nine ers,
but they just have a lot of injuries every single year.
And I did have the thought of, I mean, at
one point in time when it looked like maybe the
(13:25):
Lions could win this game. It's like, as Jared Goff,
a sneaky MVP candidate, he was like, at one point
in time, he only had a couple incompletions, he'd thrown
a couple of touchdowns. He's probably got no chance to
win the NBA, but he's a good player. Their skill
group is pretty special, I mean, Laporta, the one touchdown
in the back of the end zone that they're running
back duo of Montgomery and Gibbs is just pretty elite.
(13:46):
Jamison Williams and Amanas Saint Brown an in factor in Laporta,
like find me five better skill guys on a team.
And then kind of like the Chiefs, all of a sudden,
their starting left tackle goes down, they put their backup
in boom, they don't skip a beat. So pretty solid.
I mean, most teams, if they lose their starting left tackle,
it's like, what are we gonna do? Because the drop
(14:07):
off is side the size of the Grand Canyon. But
you look tonight, you go, you know, defense is gonna
be their problem because offensively, I know they only scored
seventeen points, but that's not a spot that I'm gonna
worry about them. And this was this was a great
spot for Kansas City Sunday night at home at Arrowhead. Like,
even if Detroit is a twelve or thirteen win team,
this is gonna be one of their losses. Right, So,
(14:29):
I mean, they were an underdog for a reason. Chiefs
are better. I got news for you. But I'm still
pretty bullish on Detroit. I think I missed the trick
play that I guess ended up getting called back. But
like Johnny Morton's been pretty good. Like I watched their
offense and I feel pretty good about it now sometimes.
And listen, there was this back and forth early in
the game where they both went for fourth downs and
(14:49):
neither of them got it. And you know, if your
coach read at this point in time, you got nothing.
You got super Bowls, you got AFC Championships, you got
quarterback MVPs, Like you're not trying to prove anything. And
Detroit is still trying to get over the hump. Just
get to the super Bowl would be an amazing accomplishment,
but like sometimes going for it in these tighter games
(15:10):
when you don't get it can be pretty devastating. And
like one thing that they do not have, and this
is his deficiency that Patrick just does. When you run
a fourth and third or fourth and five or fourth
and six, whatever your route combination is, sometimes, even if
it's in theory a great play call, a guy could trip.
(15:34):
You get a coverage, the guy screws up the defensive
coverage and he actually is in front of the guy
that you think you're throwing to because against that coverage
is always going to be open. But the guy goes
to the wrong spot and actually defends your offensive play.
You'd ever know, right, there are a lot of variables
in football, and in those moments or you just you
call a play and they run the right defense, Jared
(15:56):
Goff can't keep the play alive with his feet, and
that's no fault of his own. He's just, relative to
the NFL, an awful athlete in the modern day quarterback.
We talked about this with Dart. All these young guys
coming in the league, we'll see them tomorrow. Jaden Daniels,
Caleb Williams, Drake May. They all can move. They all
are very athletic guys, so they can keep a play
(16:17):
alive just moving around and with the Lions, and even
Collinsworth hit on a little bit on. Some of these
must have like fourth and fives or third and fives
from a passing standpoint, if it works, boom, they got laported.
They got same brown. If they run a great out
route and they hit it, they get rid of the
ball quick. But if it is not there, it can
(16:38):
be difficult for him. And it's just part of the
nature of having a quarterback that doesn't move that well.
And defensively, they're just at this point in time, Angeloni's good.
Obviously the pass rusher is good, but they're just Branches good.
Even though you know, I was walking in here and
the brawl broke out, I'm like, Branch, just just shake
my home's hand. What are you doing? And I appreciate
(17:01):
having some crazy mfors on my team, and listen, it's football.
This isn't you know Beer League softball? Like sometimes you
gotta edgy ness, people hate each other. I got no
problem with that. I was like, what are we doing? Man?
Just shake his hands and go to the locker room.
But at the end of the day, the Lions four
and two. If I was a Lions fan, I'd feel
(17:23):
pretty good about my team overall. And listen, we're just
coming from behind against better teams. Especially as a t
off on Jared Goff can be a little more difficult
because of the athletic ability. Today's show is brought to
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(17:45):
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(18:05):
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(19:38):
stuff around the NFL. I do think the craziest story
of the day, I mean, just by far, had nothing
to do with anything that happened during a game. The
Indianapolis Colts lost two players in pre pregame warm ups.
That is insane, right in the NFL and college football too.
(19:59):
Usually the busses get there around like three three hours
twenty minutes before game, and most players go out and
do some sort of individual personal warm up. Right. It's
where you see a lot of the clips, especially if
you're watching like ESPN or Fox or something in the morning,
of guys in like shorts and T shirts, playing catch,
stretching out, doing band work, doing whatever. And at the
(20:22):
first injury I saw, I saw it on like the
Everything app X that Tarvarius Ward got absolutely decleted by
I think one of his own teammates just doing a
backpedal drill to warm up his legs and he got
a concussion in the collision. Tarvarius got like ejected into
the air, You're looking on the ground, You're like, is
(20:43):
he dead? So the guy got a concussion before he
even put his pads on. And then it turns out
because I saw that Riley Leonard, the former Notre Dame
quarterback who's a third stringer for the Colts, got elevated
the backup, I'm like, I want to Anthony Richard get
in trouble or something. It turns out he was doing bandwork.
Every quarterback in the NFL, first string, second string, third string.
(21:06):
It's like baseball pitcher, you know, does the band work.
If you're listening to this on audio, I'm kind of
doing some visuals and they are listen. You can find
it at your regular gym. I mean those bands. If
you stretch him, it's like a slingshot if you if
you let go of it and uncork it at your hand,
at your body, it would really hurt. He got hit
in the face by it. It turns out it like
(21:26):
broke his orbital bone. He had to go to the hospital.
So my guess is that within a ten fifteen to
twenty minute period on the field for the Indianapolis Colts,
they lost two players before they ever put on their pats.
One had to go to the hospital and the other
guy had to go to got a concussion, clearly had
(21:49):
to get checked out by their medical team. That is insane,
and then they went on to win this crazy game
against the Arizona Cardinals that actually look better offensively would
Kobe Brissett playing quarterback, But I just maybe it is
the colchier. But that's one of the craziest things I've
ever seen. Baker Mayfield, who is now the third on
(22:15):
the list of betting favorites behind Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes
and himself Baker Mayfield to be the MVP, had another
really good game. Missing guys. When I say missing guys
is two top wide receivers injured. A Mecca Buka, who
actually technically is his top wide receiver, got injured during
the game, So really down the stretch of the game,
(22:36):
he is playing without his three best wide receivers. One
guy is a Hall of Famer, the other guy, Godwin
went healthy, is a high end player, and a Mecca
Buka is probably if he's healthy, going to be the
offensive rookie of the year. So it's a pretty special
group and they're all gone. Baker's unfaced he's throwing it
(22:57):
to rookies, to Sterling Shepherd. He's he had probably the
best run of his career on a third I think
it was like third and twenty. He blined it for
like twenty five yards. He's like making guys miss running
through arm tackles. He is having a fantastic season and
he's a really, really enjoyable player to watch now. I
wasn't rooting for him today. I wanted the forty nine
(23:19):
ers to win. But as you start watching Baker Mayfield,
he does have and John Dorsey, who was with the
Green Bay Packers when they draft or when they traded
for Brett Farvv, and Brett Farrv kind of resurrected his
career and I mean created his career and became a
three time actually three straight years, won the MVP in
the NFL, and became one of the more entertaining players
(23:41):
in all of professional sports in America. John Dorsey had
a front row seat. And when he drafted Baker Mayfield,
he brought up that name, and I think a lot
of people thought that, like, I don't know, man, what
I love Baker Mayfield. Coming out of college. I thought
he was a more athletic Drew Brees. But one thing
that's on full display around the league, and I talked
to Colin about this now more than ever, you see
(24:04):
it with Mac Jones. Mac Jones, I know he threw
some interceptions, but for the most part has looked excellent
for the forty nine ers. He was a laughing stock
for Bill Belichick. You know what, it turns out the last
couple of years, Bill Belichick might have lost his fastball.
He might be throwing like eighty miles an hour now
that happens. I'm a San Franco Giants fan. I remember
Tim Linscomb. When Tim linskamb was winning Cy Youngs, he
(24:25):
was throwing ninety eight his last year with the Giants.
I think he was throwing like eighty seven miles an hour.
Guess what happened when he throwed eighty seven miles an hour.
A lot of people hit home runs. When he was
throwing ninety seven. No one was touching him, and Bill
Belichick lost his fastball like everyone in his wake fell apart.
Like well, Actually, Mac Jones, is he a first rounder?
Probably not ideally, but he's a pretty good player. Baker
(24:47):
Mayfield pretty good. Sam Dartle played for the Jets. Everyone
made fun of him, some of it self inflicted when
he got Mono, but other than that, it was like,
this guy stinks. I would not want this guy to
be my quarterback. Even people like me that like Sam
Darnold at USC, it's like, I just don't think this
guy's very good. Turns out, actually he is. He's really good.
Sam Donald currently is one of the best players in
(25:08):
the NFL. You know what he needed stability, people that
know what they're doing. And Baker Mayfield is no different.
I mean, now he's at the point where you could
just get rid of his top players. Not he doesn't
want that. But if they go down hamstring injuries, rolled
in ankle, hamstring, whatever, I'll make plays. Who am I
throwing it to? I don't care, it doesn't matter. That's
(25:29):
what really good players. That's what Josh Allen does, That's
what Lamar Jackson does. That's what you know Patrick Mahomes does,
That's what Justin Herbert does. And that's what Baker Mayfield
is doing. And we talked about momentum and narrative, like
he has a ton of momentum on his side. I
would say, assuming he stays healthy, I would be stunned
if Baker Mayfield doesn't end up the MVP because part
(25:51):
of it too is he's going up against two guys
who are above him in the ranks that Patrick Mahomes
already has a couple. Do you know what Patrick Mahomes
has to do to win another MVP? Stats have to
be gotty and they got to be the number one seed.
That's not gonna happen because there's a little bit of fatigue.
Josh Allen literally just won the award last year. People
(26:12):
want to vote for someone else, especially when they are
deserving candidate. So if Baker Mayfield is gonna run around,
throw a bunch of touchdowns, be the leader of a
team that ends up with thirteen or fourteen wins and
it's like the number one or number two seed in
the NFC, I think he's a borderline. I don't know
who if they had a vote, wouldn't vote for. I
(26:35):
put this out during the game and I'm on a
million text threads. It's I don't think I've ever seen
anything like the forty nine ers that every single game
they have multiple players who their careers are altered because
of injuries, and today Fred Warner you can say it's
(26:55):
a freak thing, and it is true someone gets rolled
up and thrown in the back of your ankle that
there's nothing a trainer, a doctor, or strength and conditioning
staff could have done to protect you about the body
that falls on your ankle, dislocates it and shatters it.
That's just it's freak deal. Happens in football all the time,
from the high school level to the college. It probably
(27:15):
happened in Pewee's. I was watching last night, Maria fell asleep.
I'm watching the John Candy documentary, like I just need
something positive before I wake up in the morning. And
I was like, oh, I'll just flip on John Cannon.
Turns out John Candy, for those of you that are young,
older actor who actually has been dead for a long
time now but was pretty famous. When I was a kid,
loved loved football. In high school, I thought he was
(27:37):
gonna be a college football player. Had his kneecap shattered
in high school, had to remove his kneecap. He didn't
have a kneecap because his injury was so bad. In
high school football, I had I remember I had a
good buddy that I played high school football with then'
JV Football had a devastating knee injury, so it's just
like freak shit happens. But Fred Warner, I just don't
(27:57):
ever remember a team that's like. They gave Nick a
couple of years ago historic deal tour an acl out.
They gave Fred Warner the beside, like Roquan Smith, the
most money for a middle linebacker in the NFL. He
had his ankle shattered. There is not a team in
the league who could take the equivalent of Nick Bosa
and Fred Warner and remove them for the season. Obviously,
(28:21):
Nick a couple weeks ago and Fred so well before
Halloween and have a fighting chance to be good on defense.
And the forty nine ers they tried hard, but you
eventually run out of bodies. George Kittle, who we think
is coming back this week, has already missed, you know,
five games. Brock Purty is probably going to play less
than five or six games this season. There's just no
(28:43):
overcoming this. And I'm not trying to blame anyone that
there's nothing you could do in this individual instance. And
I don't know the solution because I look around the league.
You go to some of these box scores, you get
random players all over the league because every single game,
especially anyone with YouTube TV and has the NFL package
(29:05):
is that what they still call it, you know, has
the four boxes. You see guys carted off every game.
It's crazy. It feels like an epidemic the amount of
injuries around the NFL. Broken legs, broken feet, acls, hamstrings,
Guys just dropped like flies. But the forty nine ers
are losing, not just like the best players on there,
(29:26):
like some of the best players in the league. And
it does feel today for the first time like this
felt like a tipping point. Kyle and Robert Sala have
done an excellent job that they were just hanging in
there with Tampa, who also has a bunch of injuries,
but they're playing Baker Mayfield, I don't know, the MVP
of the league with their backup quarterback Mac Jones, who's
resurrecting his career, but he ain't Baker Mayfield. And then
(29:49):
Fred Warner goes out, who's like the heart and soul
of the franchise. He's not like the team captain of
the team's like the team captain of the franchise, Like
he's like the most important to human on the team.
He like speaks for the entire organization on a weekly basis.
You don't overcome that. He's like, they're ray Lewis. You know,
it's like when Ray Lewis in his prime for the
(30:10):
Baltimore Ravens. You remove that. I don't care who you
got backing them up, and they got random guys backing
them up. You just don't have much of a chance. Again,
I don't know what to do about it. I don't
know how to fix it because the Niners just constantly injured.
But it does feel for the first time like you
just lost all these players. I don't know how you
(30:31):
keep winning games. I don't care who you play, and
your schedule's easy, but you just can't remove this much.
They gave two hundred and seventy seven million dollars in
guaranteed dollars this offseason to Brock Purdy, to George Kittle,
and to Fred Warner. Brock Purty has turf toe, and
you know, again, I don't have much confidence he's gonna
play many games this year. Fred Warner is now out
(30:53):
for the season, and George Kittle might come back from
a hamstring. But here's the thing with hamstring sometimes to
get reinjured. So who knows how many games George is
gonna play this season? Just devastating. So props to Baker
Mayfield and Todd Bowles and Jason Light for kicking ass
and taking names. And I respect the forty nine ers
for how hard they're playing, but you just you get
to the point where you're just kind of running unempty,
(31:15):
right I've I've run out of gas a couple of times.
It sucks, And that's what it feels like with the
forty nine ers. A couple of things. I get a
lot of dms from you guys at John Middlecoff's the Instagram.
We do Middlecoff mail bag all week long, and I
usually defend this guy because you're like, uh, Matt Lafoor, John,
do you think he's too conservative? I'm like, you know,
(31:35):
I don't think that. And then the day just because
in the afternoon, I only had three games on and
typically I wouldn't have been super locked into Bengals Packers,
but beside the Niners and them, like, I can't take
the Titans in Raider games seriously, so watch every snap.
And as the game went on, and I watched the
(31:55):
morning game with Sean Payton and bow Nicks. Bo Nicks
had almost like two hundred yards passing in the first half,
which I didn't really watch because I was sleeping because
it was like six in the morning. But then you
get up you watch second half, and Bonix was horrendous.
He had like three completions. I think literally he had
three completions in the second half. But the ebb and
flow of their game, it was like, Sean, why are
(32:15):
you trying to run the ball? Let bon Nix is
slinging around and win this game by twenty points. And
I think you see with Sean Payton, and I think
you see with Matt Lafleur, Like Sean Payton didn't have
a choice last week when they were playing the Eagles,
They're down seventeen to three, kind of just had to
let it rip. It's like, hey, Bogo makes him plays.
And I think you've seen with Matt Lafleur this year
when they play a team that mat goes, well, we're
(32:37):
better in the Bengals, and he's not wrong. They are
one hundred percent better than the Bengals, and if their
quarterback just plays an average game, they will beat this
version of the Bengals without Joe Burrow, whether it's Joe Flacco,
whether it's Shake Browning, whether it's Andy Dalton comes back,
it doesn't matter. They will win that game ninety five
percent of the time. Lafleur knows it, the fans know it,
his team knows it. And I'm watching him and I'm
(32:59):
watching Sean Payton this morning, and I go, they are
being a little conservative. They're kind of like coaching not
to lose. Now, Lafleur had a little more wiggle room.
They were up in that game, and honestly, they were
kind of in cruise control even though the game was
you know, it's not like they were up thirty and
I think I think it was what like seventeen to
three at one point in time, and I just thought, like,
(33:22):
let Jordan kind of slant, because a couple of times
he did push the ball down the field and they
had explosive plays. But Lafleur is wired much more like
Kyle Shanahan. He really wants to slow the ball down,
control the clock, run the football. And Josh Jacob looks good.
But I, for the first time I understood where a
lot of Packer fans goes like can Matt open up
(33:42):
the offense a little bit, like we do have some
talented skill guys. And I thought the same thing about
Sean Payton, whose offense throughout the season is looked a
little stale because it doesn't feel like either guy trust
the quarterback. And here's what the Bucks have going for
him right now, And you could argue Baker's earned it.
They have undenying trust and just like give him free
(34:06):
rein and Dan Campbell's the best example of this, has
complete trust in his offense starting with Jared Goff. Doesn't
mean it's always gonna work, but Dan Campbell treats Jared
Goff no different than Andy re treats Patrick Mahomes, and
having that ability freeze everyone up and you're able to
be much more explosive and as an offense and have
(34:27):
much more explosive plays. But the Broncos, like the Packers,
definitely feel like they have guard rails around their quarterback.
Some of you with young children that have the training
wheels on the bike, and there gets to a point
of like, okay, just pick the training wheels off and
let him or her kind of let a rip and hey,
(34:47):
he might fall down, he might skin his knee. But
a couple months later he's gonna be ripping around the
driveway and the street. Ideally, if you know, depending on
the street you live in, you know, you put it's funny.
I get it old, and my kid's not even here.
I'm already thinking, like, where can I place the kids
at play? Twenty five miles an hour. I remember being
like sixteen years old driving home in my neighborhood and
(35:09):
like cruising by that thing, like flipping it off. It's
funny you put you know, uh, put yourself on the
other side of it. You're like, damn, slow down. But
I do think you need to let these quarterbacks play free,
and they definitely are not a couple other things. I
feel bad for Browns fans that they are a really
(35:29):
rough watch, that their offense is horrendous. Their offensive line
today got beaten. How many sacks did they give up?
They got beaten like a drum. Dylan Gabriel was sacked
six times. Honestly, if I had to guess, I would
have guessed fifteen. He was hit over and over. You
could put shit d'Or back there. You could put Deshaun
(35:50):
Watson back there. You could put Joe Flacco back. You
can put any you're gonna get destroyed. Offensive line stinks,
the skill players constantly drop balls. They're there is a
lack of I don't know, creativity. Kevin Stefanski. I've always
liked them, but they are not a fun team to watch,
and their defense is clearly pretty good. But the Steelers
(36:12):
that game, that game felt JB varsity and I would
say the same thing about Miami, not that they aren't competitive,
because offensively they can score more points, but tua after
the game. The way I would describe Miami is like
just nobody cares. Head coach the players to a acts
(36:33):
like it cares. But it's like, two, you're throwing picks
left and right. So it's like, why aren't you early
the team meeting or to the players only meetings? Like
to a what, I don't think you're any good? So
it's like part of being a leader. You know. It's
much easier for Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Patrick
Mahomes to be a leader. It's easy for Fred Warner
to rally the troops. They're great players. Typically the best teams,
(36:54):
their best players lead the squad. Right and two, it's
not that good of a Just because you make a
lot of money doesn't make you a leader or a
great player, right, And that's where I think the trouble
the Miami Dolphins find themselves in. It's not I'm not
trying to blame to A for guys being slap dicks.
That's on the GM, who has built one of the
(37:15):
worst teams you're ever gonna see. Like I'm watching the Saints.
People think they suck. I'm like, I enjoy watching them play.
They are not that bad. Their defenses and Brandon Staley's
one of the biggest. I mean, you talk about a
scam artist, I mean this guy. I wouldn't let this
guy near my defensive unit. He's out there calling plays.
He's getting shredded on a weekly basis. But offensively, I'm
(37:36):
going Kellen nuts Smyer. They're dialing up some plays, rattlers
slinging around. They're a fun team. Props to you know,
the Patriots for getting another big win. Drake May's playing well,
But man, the Browns tough watch for a team with
some really good defensive players, and the Dolphins, the best
way to sum them up is just no one cares. Okay,
(38:08):
let's end on this some couple quick things with college
I've come around on Kurt Signetti and I owe him
an apology. I would say a month ago, even probably
as recent as like three weeks ago, I would have
said I hated the guy, couldn't stand him rooting against him.
He's kind of grown on me. The last couple of
weeks I watched a couple of interviews of him saying
(38:29):
part of the reason he said google me, which I
think was like, that's so stupid, even though he had
a successful season, was like, my program wasn't irrelevant. No
one knew who Indiana football. We were the butt. We
were like the Detroit Lions. I'm saying this, He's not
of college. We were the all time losing his program
in the history of college football. So me saying that, like,
(38:50):
you don't need to do that stuff in the NFL.
The NFL is just about picking the right players in
the draft, cutting the right guy, signing the right guys
in free agency, hiring the right coaches, and just grinding
and I know, learn how to win. The fluff doesn't
matter because there's no recruiting. We're in college football. That
does matter. Creating buzz. I hate the word optics. I
think optics is one of the most overrated words in
(39:11):
the private sector produce. Optics don't matter when you're dominating
in whatever industry you're in, But optics and that shit
do matter a little bit in college. Why because you're
making impressions to sixteen seventeen eight year old guys and
now with the transfer portal nineteen twenty twenty one year
old guys. So it's like, Okay, I get what he said,
and then he lost it during the defensive pass interference
(39:34):
that wasn't called. During the Oregon game, He's interviewed at
halftime and I forget who the reporter was, and she says,
you know, you said all week it was about being
calm and controlling your emotions on the road, and you
just lost it. Were you trying to like send a message?
And he smiled. He said, yeah, that's that's what I
was trying to do. We needed my energy right there.
(39:57):
It's like Coach Reid when he bumped Travis Kelson, like
part of being a coach is playing psychological warfare, especially
in college, with the recruits, with your own team, with
your opponents. He also said something that I think kind
of flew under the radar that I don't think he
randomly did it is he called Dan Lanning the phenom
in all of college football. It was like he was
(40:19):
trying to put him on a pedestal to maybe think
he starts feeling himself a little bit by the way
that I view him. I was like, God, I kind
of like Kurtzignetti. And then this today during halftime, I'm
eating dinner during the Chiefs Lions game, and I watched
his interview that he did with Rick Neuheisel. I think
(40:40):
it must have been a big ten media days and
he asked, like, why did you leave Alabama in twenty
ten to go to IUPU. It's like, I've never even
heard of that school. And He's like, because I wanted
to be a head coach. And I was fifty years old.
I was making three hundred and twenty thousand at Alabama.
(41:02):
I was the wide receiver and recruiting coordinator, which three
hundred twenty k back in twenty ten was probably a
lot of coin, especially in the Tuscaloose Alabama That'd probably
be the equivalent right now of like that position will
probably pay eight nine hundred grant, probably pay a million
dollars and he's like, the job that I took paid
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I was going to
take a two hundred thousand dollars pay cut. My wife
(41:24):
said no, we're not doing this, and I had to
talk her into it, and I kind of thought, you
know who Signette is. He's like an entrepreneur, cause he's like,
I could have just been an assistant the rest of
my career at that point in time, worked for Saban,
worked for the best guys, made a ton of money,
and been a lifetime assistant. I said, now, fuck this,
I want to be a head coach. I believed that
(41:45):
was a head coach, and I want to try it out.
And then for a decade and a half he got
to figure out how to be a head coach. And
then he finally gets a shot in one of the
biggest currently it's probably the best conference in the league
or the country right there, it's probably them in the
The SEC has been better forever. Now at worst they're equals,
if not, the Big ten's better. And he gets a
(42:07):
shot at a joke program and he turns it around immediately,
And I do believe that guys that are wired like this,
Like he didn't have to do this. Most human beings
wouldn't do this. Most guys don't take opportunities. Think about
the money that assistants make now in the big ten,
in the SEC. They would never leave for a really
(42:28):
crappy job that doesn't pay as much. Right, it doesn't
make any It's like it's no different than most people.
They're in corporate positions that make a lot of coin go.
You know, I really wanted to do this one thing
that I've always been passionate about, but they kind of
got me on the golden handcuffs. I can't leave because
Google's paying me five hundred thousand dollars, my kids going
(42:50):
to private school, my wife's driving that g wagon. Like
I just I can't change. I can't risk it. And
most guys in football are no different. They don't risk
it and risked it. And now he's sitting with one
of the best teams in the country and I've really
come around, like I kind of get his brashness. Why
wouldn't he be brash? He went to the gutter essentially
(43:14):
to coach iupu elon. Then he goes to James Madison
starts winning big and now in Indiana in two years,
he's seventeen and two and his ability to I mean Rourke,
his quarterback last year is on the forty nine ers
and Fernando Mendoza, who he got from cal who a
lot of other teams surely could have got in the
transfer portal. I had buddies at the game in Oregon
(43:35):
that said, he's probably gonna be a first round pick.
I don't know how high, because I said, do you
think he could be like a first overall pick or
top ten pick? They're like, God, it depends on the class.
But he's definitely moving up the board. Big Arm this
week at Oregon threw an awful pick six and bounced
right back and let him to a win th bait,
a great back shoulder passer. But Signetti's boss, and he
(43:58):
proved it a long time ago when he left Sabin
for a terrible job that even Saban said at the time,
like I couldn't believe he was taking this job. It's
not like Signetti want or Saban wanted Signetty to leave.
But he's here in this position now with the understanding
of knowing what he has to do because of all
those experiences and James Franklin was fired today and I
think most people think like And there was a rumor
(44:20):
that Adeed is help help pay the money. I don't
know if that's true or not. Clearly, I don't think
you just get fifty million dollars easily, because it's not
just fifty million dollars to pay James Franklin to go away.
If you got to pay him fifty million dollars, what
do coaches cost? Who do you think Penn State's going
to go after? Brian Kelly got ninety million dollars, Lincoln
Riley got one hundred and twenty million. The cost of
(44:42):
these high level coaches, the Lane Kiffin types. I mean,
you're talking an enormous amount of money. So it's not
just fifty million dollars to pay James Franklin to go away,
and pay a staff to go away, which is gonna
be another millions upon millions dollars. It's then paying other recruits,
other coaches. It's gonna be very expensive. So how they
got that, I had no clue. But there were probably
(45:02):
some shady things that went on behind the scenes and
would Signetti leave and take the job. Historically, there would
never be a coach at Indiana that would turn down
Penn State. One thing I think we're gonna find out
this offseason more than ever because one thing you see
in the NFL, if you give me power, the Jags
(45:23):
job is no different than the forty nine Ers job.
That's no different than the Packers' job. Every job in
the NFL is good if you say you get to
run it. Liam Cohen was like, I don't want the
Jags job. Then they're like, we'll give you juice. You
hire the GM and we'll fire Trent Ball. He's like,
I'm in. I mean just like that. Ben Johnson are like, hey,
you know I don't really the Bears. I think I
(45:45):
want to be a head go thirteen million dollars a years,
Like I'm in it. See the NFL, you get to
do whatever you want, You get to pick the players,
You only have to answer to one person. College is
very complicated. But this offseason we're gonna learn Penn State
is open, Florida's hasn't won a conference game in like
two years. That's gonna open. Auburn gonna open, the University
(46:06):
of Florida gonna open. There are guys like Lane Kiffin
and Kurt Signetti at Indiana at Ole Miss Matt Campbell
at Iowa State. Are these guys ever? Does it even
matter anymore? I don't know because if you feel if
you're Indiana and you go, well, we can buy guys.
We got the resources. Because I hear this a lot,
(46:28):
you don't have the ability to recruit around your program.
Who cares? Has the world ever been flattered? You ever
heard of social media? YouTube? Instagram? I mean, what does
it matter? Iowa to California? Like, you can find anyone
anywhere in a moment's notice. It used to be much different,
more difficult. Twenty years ago, it was a really big deal.
(46:50):
It's like, you know, Pete Carroll or Miami. They used
to kind of recruit Michigan recruit nationally. Anyone can recruit nationally.
Indiana is one of the best teams in the country
with Cow's quarterback, and you can flip things around immediately.
It's why Belichick is under siege. It's like, you shouldn't
suck this much. You're Bill freaking Belichick and you can
add any player you want in theory. So I don't
(47:13):
know what's gonna happen. If you told me Signetti takes
the job. If he's offered, I'd believe you. If you
tell me he stays, I'd believe you. I don't quite
understand the we're gonna learn because I don't know. I
don't even think ads and coaches quite know. I think
they're still trying to figure it out. Like, if I
can buy players where I'm at and I'm happy and
(47:34):
I'm winning, I don't need to leave, because part of
the reason to go to Penn State is like, that's
where you could get players. Well, if I can get
players that I want to come to Indiana and I
can beat Oregon with them, I don't need to leave.
I can beat the crap out of Illinois if I can.
Even if I can't beat Ohio State, no one can,
so who cares. But if I can beat everyone else here,
I don't need to go. Lane Kivin's like, well, do
(47:55):
you need to go to Florida? Well, I can beat
lsu at Ole, miss So they're paying me ten million
dollars a year. But maybe it's like I don't know,
maybe they can offer more in I own money. Maybe
he just wants to go to mix it up. But
I think we're really gonna find out this offseason what
the nil impact of these coaching situations are, because I
(48:18):
don't know. I can see either scenario play out, guys
staying and be like I'm happy here, we got cash
and we're good, or it's like, no, I think they
got more money, cause that's I think. If guys do
make the move, it'll all be promises about money for
the roster, money for the coaches, less about like, well,
we got a lot of recruits around us. That clearly
(48:40):
doesn't matter, especially with the transfer portal. So James Franklin
loses back to back games as basically, I think he
was a twenty five point favorite against UCLA. I don't
know the exact number against Northwestern, but he was twenty plus.
Drew Howlers out for the year. Just one thing in
life got to strike when the irons hot. And obviously
(49:02):
he's had a long run and he's been there for
over a decade. But like this year, fifteen days ago,
he had the lead, he had the lead against Oregon.
If he wins that game at home, we're all talking
about Penn State as one of the best teams in
the country. I would imagine coming off that win, they
don't lose to UCLA. But not only does he not
(49:23):
beat Ucla, he loses that game, then he loses the
next two games in a fifteen day period, and on
Sunday morning, he's fired. So this the world we live
in in college sports. The NFL is a lot like
this with players and coaches. There's so much money in
the line now that it's one of the great businesses
to be in because if you get fired, they get
(49:45):
paid millions of dollars to go away, but you will
not keep your job. And I think James Franklin wasn't
that controversial in terms of the team quit on him,
like they said, we're done. Ucla could be like listen
that coming off a crazy emotional high than low at Oregon,
we had an awful week, we lose, win the next
week you win by twenty points. He's not fired today,
(50:08):
but you lose back to back weeks, especially at home
the Northwestern I don't think they had a choice. If
you would have told me at the beginning of the
season when Penn State was if you didn't have them
number one, they were universally a top two or three
team in the country. That James Franklin was fired in
the middle of the season. I would say a crazy
scandal happened. Yeah, I would say something egregious, like one
(50:32):
of the stories of the year, if not the story
of the year in college football, cheating with the chancellor's wife,
some crazy cheating scandal with a recruit, which I don't
even know how you do in this modern day world,
tax fraud, or I don't know, something insane, something insane,
(50:53):
But no, he just lost to Northwestern in Ucla and
they said, this can't happen. You've got see you later, buddy.
The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff three and our podcast. I'm going to react
(00:22):
to the Kansie Chiefs got a nice little win against
the Detroit Lions, beat him by a couple scores, playing well,
the offense is rolling. So we'll dive into the Chiefs,
dive into the Lions. Some other stuff that happened to
day around the National Football League. Woke up to some
rough football being played over there in London. We'll talk
(00:46):
about Sean Payton, Lafleur, Baker Mayfield, is he really gonna
win the MVP? James Franklin was fired to Penn State,
Kurt Signetti has taken the world by storm. We will
talk a lot of football. You guys know the drill.
If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe
to three Now podcast. Obviously, me and Colin earlier day
did our show as we do every week, reacting after
(01:09):
the afternoon games. Talks some college football as well. He's
fired up the Trojans look good and subscribe Apple, Spotify.
You can listen and find us wherever you consume your podcast.
But I wanted to start with the Chiefs and one
theme really the last several years has been the offense.
What's up with the offense? I think last year was
(01:30):
really clear their offensive line was not good. Their left
tackle position was a major issue. They had to move
their star interior offensive lineman to patchwork it out to
left tackle, and he by far was their best option.
And he's a guard. And I think you see this
year the importance. Like a lot of people thought Kansas
(01:51):
City was crazy when they gave Jalen Moore like two
years thirty billion dollars from the San Fransco forty nine
ers and he wasn't even the San Fransco forty nine
ers starter. He was their backup swing tackle. It's like, wait,
you're gonna give a backup that much money. It's like, well, yeah,
the guy can play. He just happened to back up
Trent Williams. So it's like for a lot of teams
(02:11):
he would have been a starter. And here's the thing.
Free agency comes before the draft. So would they have
done it if they knew they were gonna draft Simmons
from Ohio State? Probably not. But you don't know that
in the NFL. This is not the NBA, where it's
the opposite, right, You go in the order in which
(02:32):
the transaction transaction cycle comes and they didn't have a
left tackle, so they paid, given the amount of money,
they had their best option, and then they drafted one
and it put them been a position in a game
like tonight where Josh Simmons I was recorded with Colin
So I don't know if they said anything before the
game started or early on in that game. By the
time I came, the game had already kind of I
(02:55):
think it was like six to three or whatever. I
got with like a couple of minutes left to go
in the first quarter. But I saw the headline before that.
He's dealing with the personal issue. He wasn't even there,
so like wasn't even available because he's not even at
the stadium. So it's like, what are you gonna do
a star left tack? I mean, Josh Simmons has been
a home run steal. I bet if you would ask
Brett Veach in free agency, do you think Josh Simmons
(03:17):
is gonna be there at the end of the first round.
He might have laughed at no chance, right, but he
is and he's been a stud, but then he disappears,
So what do you do? You insert Jalen Moore, who
obviously was really good tonight and gave them a chance
against you know, they can move a pass rusher all around,
like Aiden Hudson is one of the better younger players
in the NFL. And sometimes like your team's not always
(03:42):
gonna be perfect. And obviously last year the Chiefs made
it to the Super Bowl with an offensive line that
was a major question mark at least on the tackle positions.
Is pretty crazy. Then this year they have depth at
the left tackle position. Think how dramatically that changed in
one offseason and it was on full display tonight. And
the other thing is this, and I said this earlier
in the season and I meant it because it's what
(04:04):
we were all seeing, is that Travis Kelsey looked really old.
And then Andy Reid four checked him against the New
York Giants and it was like not playful, like he
was dead serious. And then when he was interviewed at halftime,
like we needed some juice. And this is where coaching
and relationships and we talk about this all the time, like,
(04:25):
you know, you can kind of know people or know
people through friends, and then there's people you've known for
twenty years. There's people you went to high school with.
There's people you grew up with, there's people you went
to college with. And as you get older, you realize
how strong those bonds are because you knew that other
person when you had nothing, when the relationship was very pure.
And as your lives change, as you get kids, as professional,
(04:49):
you know, desires changed, you move around the country, that
bond you have with those humans can never be broken.
And there is a bond that Andy Reid has with
Travis Kelcey that is pretty unique. It's not very often
that a coach, you know, is a round a player
for well over a decade in the National Football League.
And Travis kelce if he retires this year or next year,
(05:12):
it's going to retire a chief. He's not gonna play
for another team. As Mike Tarico said, the life of
a tight end. And here's the thing with Travis Kelcey.
Last couple weeks, he's looked good. He's looked younger again.
And I don't know if it was a motivation talk.
I don't know if coach Reid had been on him,
but tonight he was huge, and really the last couple
games after the Giants game, listen, I know the Ravens
(05:33):
are a match unit, but five for forty eight. Last
week against the Jags, he had seven for sixty one
in a touchdown, and then tonight he had six for
seventy eight, and you just really felt his presence. Big
third down catches, just big first downs, big working in
the zone, just you know, working the open areas. He
(05:54):
just looked quicker, He looked a little more explosive. He
looked kind of like the younger version. Now can he
do this every week? I don't know at thirty four
to thirty five years old, but as long as he
has this in him to go with, like Juji's pretty
solid player. Hollywood Brown has been big for them. Obviously
getting Xavier Worthy back like he can make some explosive plays.
(06:15):
They got Rashid Rice coming. I mean that offense is
pretty well rounded. Even when they asked coach Reid at halftime,
like what are you looking to do with the second half,
He's like, you know, we want to continue to be
solid on the ground and sling that ball like Andy
Reid wants to sling that ball. And the way you
can do that is having Travis Kelcey play well, freeze
everything up for the other wide receivers. And let's face it,
(06:36):
this Chiefs team is not going to have Tyreek Hill
in his prime or like when Coach Reid was in Philly,
Deshaun Jackson and young Jeremy Macklin. It's not quite that.
But this group's pretty good as he you did, and
they have one of the best players in league history.
And you've seen the last couple of nights or the
last couple of weeks, and you definitely saw to night
that like, he's pretty special. And what was he night?
(06:57):
Twenty two to thirty for two hundred and fifty yards
and three touchdowns. He made some huge plays with his legs.
He was really accurate. He was just really good. The
thing for Patrick mahomes to be good. I do feel
like we go back to a couple of years ago
when the stats were a lot better. It was like
Travis was a major factor. And I do think that
like when Travis plays well. We talked about this on
(07:18):
Thursday night, Like Scataboo's kind of the heart and soul
of the offense. You can just feel it when you
watch the Giants. The guy's a rookie like Travis. Over
the course of Patrick's career. When he's making big plays,
it feels like their offense unstoppable. And obviously the Lions
have a lot of injuries. I'm not trying to act
like they were the eighty five Bears, and they're gonna
have to play better teams as the season goes on.
(07:40):
I'm sure, especially as the as the weather turns, it's
not gonna be as easy as it is. In terms
of their secondary, they had a mash unit, missing a
ton of corners, even lost to dB during the game
Kirby Joseph. But like that was a confident team and
we saw last week they scored what twenty eight points?
This week they score thirty. Hell, they had a Super
Bowl team that it felt like had stretches during the
(08:02):
season where they were struggling to score twenty points. So
if you're gonna tell me the Chiefs are gonna start
scoring above twenty five to thirty points every week, they're
gonna win a lot of games and a lot of people.
I remember Colin said, like after the Monday night game,
Everyone's like, what's he talking about? They're coming Just when
your quarterback plays like that and your offense looks like that,
(08:24):
they have one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in
the league, and their defensive personnel is probably not as
good as it was a couple of years ago, but
still pretty good. And there's a standard, and there's a culture,
and there's a physicality to the way they play. And
I think he saw tonight, you know, the way that
game ended, Chris getting called out. It was pretty embarrassing,
you know, going viral for just kind of standing there.
(08:45):
I saw coach Reied got asked about it. Maybe that
was like Wednesday or Friday. And even he it's not like,
what are you gonna do pretend it didn't happen. He's like, yeah,
this kind of can't happen. And you saw Chris Jones
and Night a couple of times, like, eh, motherfucker came
to play. Is not messing around. So I'm not acting
like the Chiefs are headed back to the super Bowl.
But one thing they got going for him, I mean
(09:07):
really got going for him is look around the AFC.
I mean, we'll see Buffalo tomorrow. I'm sure they'll probably win,
but they are and once Saul said none, they're probably
gonna be the number one seed. I don't view them
honestly a couple of years ago, the Ravens when they
were the number one seed. I'm like, this is a
complete team, right, when the Chiefs have had times when
they were the number one seeds, like I don't want
to play them, right, the Eagles last year one seed.
(09:29):
It's not what the AFC feels like. It's like the
Indianapolis Colts, who I'm pretty sure are like five and one, right,
the Bills who are probably gonna be five and one.
The Ravens are gonzo. I know. John Harbaugh's like I
still got hope, Like there is no hope. John Lamar
can come back, Roquad can come back. You're one and five,
So do the math. You got eleven more games to
(09:51):
get to nine wins. You'd have to do what go
eight and two, eight and three? Like, you're not doing that?
Your defense stakes, you had pride today, but it's over.
The Bengals, their quarterbacks disappeared, the Chargers half their rosters
on injured reserve. The Denver Broncos, their quarterback completed three
passes in the second half against by far the worst
(10:12):
team in the league right now. So this is a
unique time in the AFC because the last couple of
years like AFC sacked Lamar Burrow. Doesn't feel like that
right now. It's like Aaron Rodgers, forty one years old
in chiefs lose a sleep playing Aaron Rodgers. You think
Coach Reid's gonna sit a his alarm extra early to
get ready for a forty one year old Aaron Rodgers.
(10:34):
And that's not a shot of Aaron Rodgers playing well.
But like, he ain't Lamar Jackson, you know, he ain't
Joe Burrow. That's not what we're talking about here. But
that's the AFC. It's like forty one year old Aaron
Rodgers and Daniel Jones. So again, who's playing really well?
And I have a lot of respect for the Colts,
But that's my point that this is not your typical
super top heavy. It kind of feels like the SEC.
(10:57):
I watched his See he's a good conference, a ton
of NFL players, a lot of good teams. But this
doesn't feel like a couple of years ago. And it's
like Bama Georgia, like watch out, good luck, godspeed, it's
not the case here now. Defensively, they're gonna continue to
get tested now they do, got the Raiders coming up
next week. That's a win. Then they got the Commanders.
(11:17):
Then they got a tough stretch at the Bills, at
the Broncos, the Colts. Still got some cowboys mixed in there,
the Texans, the Chargers, the Titans, the Broncos, the Raiders.
I've said it all along. They're three and three. This
feels more like a ten or eleven win team than
it does previous years. But I saw him go to
the Super Bowl a couple of years when they win
eleven and five. Now, part of winning ten games, you're
(11:39):
not getting to buy, but you then chiefs are worried
about going on the road and in the playoffs. And
tell me this what AFC team. Let's say it's the Steelers.
Let's say the other three seed Steelers win twelve games,
they cruise to the AFC North. I got news for
you about the Steelers. They're going to win the AFC
North probably early December. It'll be over. I mean, the
(12:01):
Browns stink. I mean they can't get a first down
to save their life. The Bengals bringing Joe Flacco and
they even got some life, and they're not gonna win
any games. And the Ravens are just screwed because of
all the injuries. So the Steelers just because I don't
know partly the division, and listen, they've played well, they
go twelve wins. There might not be another team in
(12:22):
that division to win seven. So okay, you're the three seed.
It's like the Bills, the Colts, the Steelers. What if
the Chiefs are the sixth seed? It's like, what's the
line on that game? You think a lot of people
are just gonna hammer the Steelers in that spot, especially
if the Chiefs continue to show life. So I'm just
or it's the Colts. I'm not even again. I'm enjoying
(12:43):
Steelers renaissance like I want them to be good. It's fun.
Let's say it's the Colts, right, you think the Colts
the three seed against or the Jags and they got
to play the Chiefs in the first round. You feel
good about that matchup for those teams. My point, So
you got Spags, you got Coach Reed, you got Patrick Mahone,
you got Kelsey's just trying to generate all this enthusiasm
(13:04):
for this new album release, and all of a sudden,
you go, god, this team looks a little pressure. They
look okay, I feel pretty bullish and on the flip side,
it's pretty crazy. It's not quite the forty nine ers,
but they just have a lot of injuries every single year.
And I did have the thought of, I mean, at
one point in time when it looked like maybe the
(13:25):
Lions could win this game. It's like, as Jared Goff,
a sneaky MVP candidate, he was like, at one point
in time, he only had a couple incompletions, he'd thrown
a couple of touchdowns. He's probably got no chance to
win the NBA, but he's a good player. Their skill
group is pretty special, I mean, Laporta, the one touchdown
in the back of the end zone that they're running
back duo of Montgomery and Gibbs is just pretty elite.
(13:46):
Jamison Williams and Amanas Saint Brown an in factor in Laporta,
like find me five better skill guys on a team.
And then kind of like the Chiefs, all of a sudden,
their starting left tackle goes down, they put their backup
in boom, they don't skip a beat. So pretty solid.
I mean, most teams, if they lose their starting left tackle,
it's like, what are we gonna do? Because the drop
(14:07):
off is side the size of the Grand Canyon. But
you look tonight, you go, you know, defense is gonna
be their problem because offensively, I know they only scored
seventeen points, but that's not a spot that I'm gonna
worry about them. And this was this was a great
spot for Kansas City Sunday night at home at Arrowhead. Like,
even if Detroit is a twelve or thirteen win team,
this is gonna be one of their losses. Right, So,
(14:29):
I mean, they were an underdog for a reason. Chiefs
are better. I got news for you. But I'm still
pretty bullish on Detroit. I think I missed the trick
play that I guess ended up getting called back. But
like Johnny Morton's been pretty good. Like I watched their
offense and I feel pretty good about it now sometimes.
And listen, there was this back and forth early in
the game where they both went for fourth downs and
(14:49):
neither of them got it. And you know, if your
coach read at this point in time, you got nothing.
You got super Bowls, you got AFC Championships, you got
quarterback MVPs, Like you're not trying to prove anything. And
Detroit is still trying to get over the hump. Just
get to the super Bowl would be an amazing accomplishment,
but like sometimes going for it in these tighter games
(15:10):
when you don't get it can be pretty devastating. And
like one thing that they do not have, and this
is his deficiency that Patrick just does. When you run
a fourth and third or fourth and five or fourth
and six, whatever your route combination is, sometimes, even if
it's in theory a great play call, a guy could trip.
(15:34):
You get a coverage, the guy screws up the defensive
coverage and he actually is in front of the guy
that you think you're throwing to because against that coverage
is always going to be open. But the guy goes
to the wrong spot and actually defends your offensive play.
You'd ever know, right, there are a lot of variables
in football, and in those moments or you just you
call a play and they run the right defense, Jared
(15:56):
Goff can't keep the play alive with his feet, and
that's no fault of his own. He's just, relative to
the NFL, an awful athlete in the modern day quarterback.
We talked about this with Dart. All these young guys
coming in the league, we'll see them tomorrow. Jaden Daniels,
Caleb Williams, Drake May. They all can move. They all
are very athletic guys, so they can keep a play
(16:17):
alive just moving around and with the Lions, and even
Collinsworth hit on a little bit on. Some of these
must have like fourth and fives or third and fives
from a passing standpoint, if it works, boom, they got laported.
They got same brown. If they run a great out
route and they hit it, they get rid of the
ball quick. But if it is not there, it can
(16:38):
be difficult for him. And it's just part of the
nature of having a quarterback that doesn't move that well.
And defensively, they're just at this point in time, Angeloni's good.
Obviously the pass rusher is good, but they're just Branches good.
Even though you know, I was walking in here and
the brawl broke out, I'm like, Branch, just just shake
my home's hand. What are you doing? And I appreciate
(17:01):
having some crazy mfors on my team, and listen, it's football.
This isn't you know Beer League softball? Like sometimes you
gotta edgy ness, people hate each other. I got no
problem with that. I was like, what are we doing? Man?
Just shake his hands and go to the locker room.
But at the end of the day, the Lions four
and two. If I was a Lions fan, I'd feel
(17:23):
pretty good about my team overall. And listen, we're just
coming from behind against better teams. Especially as a t
off on Jared Goff can be a little more difficult
because of the athletic ability. Today's show is brought to
you by our new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet. Week
(17:45):
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(18:05):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Let's hit on some other
(19:38):
stuff around the NFL. I do think the craziest story
of the day, I mean, just by far, had nothing
to do with anything that happened during a game. The
Indianapolis Colts lost two players in pre pregame warm ups.
That is insane, right in the NFL and college football too.
(19:59):
Usually the busses get there around like three three hours
twenty minutes before game, and most players go out and
do some sort of individual personal warm up. Right. It's
where you see a lot of the clips, especially if
you're watching like ESPN or Fox or something in the morning,
of guys in like shorts and T shirts, playing catch,
stretching out, doing band work, doing whatever. And at the
(20:22):
first injury I saw, I saw it on like the
Everything app X that Tarvarius Ward got absolutely decleted by
I think one of his own teammates just doing a
backpedal drill to warm up his legs and he got
a concussion in the collision. Tarvarius got like ejected into
the air, You're looking on the ground, You're like, is
(20:43):
he dead? So the guy got a concussion before he
even put his pads on. And then it turns out
because I saw that Riley Leonard, the former Notre Dame
quarterback who's a third stringer for the Colts, got elevated
the backup, I'm like, I want to Anthony Richard get
in trouble or something. It turns out he was doing bandwork.
Every quarterback in the NFL, first string, second string, third string.
(21:06):
It's like baseball pitcher, you know, does the band work.
If you're listening to this on audio, I'm kind of
doing some visuals and they are listen. You can find
it at your regular gym. I mean those bands. If
you stretch him, it's like a slingshot if you if
you let go of it and uncork it at your hand,
at your body, it would really hurt. He got hit
in the face by it. It turns out it like
(21:26):
broke his orbital bone. He had to go to the hospital.
So my guess is that within a ten fifteen to
twenty minute period on the field for the Indianapolis Colts,
they lost two players before they ever put on their pats.
One had to go to the hospital and the other
guy had to go to got a concussion, clearly had
(21:49):
to get checked out by their medical team. That is insane,
and then they went on to win this crazy game
against the Arizona Cardinals that actually look better offensively would
Kobe Brissett playing quarterback, But I just maybe it is
the colchier. But that's one of the craziest things I've
ever seen. Baker Mayfield, who is now the third on
(22:15):
the list of betting favorites behind Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes
and himself Baker Mayfield to be the MVP, had another
really good game. Missing guys. When I say missing guys
is two top wide receivers injured. A Mecca Buka, who
actually technically is his top wide receiver, got injured during
the game, So really down the stretch of the game,
(22:36):
he is playing without his three best wide receivers. One
guy is a Hall of Famer, the other guy, Godwin
went healthy, is a high end player, and a Mecca
Buka is probably if he's healthy, going to be the
offensive rookie of the year. So it's a pretty special
group and they're all gone. Baker's unfaced he's throwing it
(22:57):
to rookies, to Sterling Shepherd. He's he had probably the
best run of his career on a third I think
it was like third and twenty. He blined it for
like twenty five yards. He's like making guys miss running
through arm tackles. He is having a fantastic season and
he's a really, really enjoyable player to watch now. I
wasn't rooting for him today. I wanted the forty nine
(23:19):
ers to win. But as you start watching Baker Mayfield,
he does have and John Dorsey, who was with the
Green Bay Packers when they draft or when they traded
for Brett Farvv, and Brett Farrv kind of resurrected his
career and I mean created his career and became a
three time actually three straight years, won the MVP in
the NFL, and became one of the more entertaining players
(23:41):
in all of professional sports in America. John Dorsey had
a front row seat. And when he drafted Baker Mayfield,
he brought up that name, and I think a lot
of people thought that, like, I don't know, man, what
I love Baker Mayfield. Coming out of college. I thought
he was a more athletic Drew Brees. But one thing
that's on full display around the league, and I talked
to Colin about this now more than ever, you see
(24:04):
it with Mac Jones. Mac Jones, I know he threw
some interceptions, but for the most part has looked excellent
for the forty nine ers. He was a laughing stock
for Bill Belichick. You know what, it turns out the last
couple of years, Bill Belichick might have lost his fastball.
He might be throwing like eighty miles an hour now
that happens. I'm a San Franco Giants fan. I remember
Tim Linscomb. When Tim linskamb was winning Cy Youngs, he
(24:25):
was throwing ninety eight his last year with the Giants.
I think he was throwing like eighty seven miles an hour.
Guess what happened when he throwed eighty seven miles an hour.
A lot of people hit home runs. When he was
throwing ninety seven. No one was touching him, and Bill
Belichick lost his fastball like everyone in his wake fell apart.
Like well, Actually, Mac Jones, is he a first rounder?
Probably not ideally, but he's a pretty good player. Baker
(24:47):
Mayfield pretty good. Sam Dartle played for the Jets. Everyone
made fun of him, some of it self inflicted when
he got Mono, but other than that, it was like,
this guy stinks. I would not want this guy to
be my quarterback. Even people like me that like Sam
Darnold at USC, it's like, I just don't think this
guy's very good. Turns out, actually he is. He's really good.
Sam Donald currently is one of the best players in
(25:08):
the NFL. You know what he needed stability, people that
know what they're doing. And Baker Mayfield is no different.
I mean, now he's at the point where you could
just get rid of his top players. Not he doesn't
want that. But if they go down hamstring injuries, rolled
in ankle, hamstring, whatever, I'll make plays. Who am I
throwing it to? I don't care, it doesn't matter. That's
(25:29):
what really good players. That's what Josh Allen does, That's
what Lamar Jackson does. That's what you know Patrick Mahomes does,
That's what Justin Herbert does. And that's what Baker Mayfield
is doing. And we talked about momentum and narrative, like
he has a ton of momentum on his side. I
would say, assuming he stays healthy, I would be stunned
if Baker Mayfield doesn't end up the MVP because part
(25:51):
of it too is he's going up against two guys
who are above him in the ranks that Patrick Mahomes
already has a couple. Do you know what Patrick Mahomes
has to do to win another MVP? Stats have to
be gotty and they got to be the number one seed.
That's not gonna happen because there's a little bit of fatigue.
Josh Allen literally just won the award last year. People
(26:12):
want to vote for someone else, especially when they are
deserving candidate. So if Baker Mayfield is gonna run around,
throw a bunch of touchdowns, be the leader of a
team that ends up with thirteen or fourteen wins and
it's like the number one or number two seed in
the NFC, I think he's a borderline. I don't know
who if they had a vote, wouldn't vote for. I
(26:35):
put this out during the game and I'm on a
million text threads. It's I don't think I've ever seen
anything like the forty nine ers that every single game
they have multiple players who their careers are altered because
of injuries, and today Fred Warner you can say it's
(26:55):
a freak thing, and it is true someone gets rolled
up and thrown in the back of your ankle that
there's nothing a trainer, a doctor, or strength and conditioning
staff could have done to protect you about the body
that falls on your ankle, dislocates it and shatters it.
That's just it's freak deal. Happens in football all the time,
from the high school level to the college. It probably
(27:15):
happened in Pewee's. I was watching last night, Maria fell asleep.
I'm watching the John Candy documentary, like I just need
something positive before I wake up in the morning. And
I was like, oh, I'll just flip on John Cannon.
Turns out John Candy, for those of you that are young,
older actor who actually has been dead for a long
time now but was pretty famous. When I was a kid,
loved loved football. In high school, I thought he was
(27:37):
gonna be a college football player. Had his kneecap shattered
in high school, had to remove his kneecap. He didn't
have a kneecap because his injury was so bad. In
high school football, I had I remember I had a
good buddy that I played high school football with then'
JV Football had a devastating knee injury, so it's just
like freak shit happens. But Fred Warner, I just don't
(27:57):
ever remember a team that's like. They gave Nick a
couple of years ago historic deal tour an acl out.
They gave Fred Warner the beside, like Roquan Smith, the
most money for a middle linebacker in the NFL. He
had his ankle shattered. There is not a team in
the league who could take the equivalent of Nick Bosa
and Fred Warner and remove them for the season. Obviously,
(28:21):
Nick a couple weeks ago and Fred so well before
Halloween and have a fighting chance to be good on defense.
And the forty nine ers they tried hard, but you
eventually run out of bodies. George Kittle, who we think
is coming back this week, has already missed, you know,
five games. Brock Purty is probably going to play less
than five or six games this season. There's just no
(28:43):
overcoming this. And I'm not trying to blame anyone that
there's nothing you could do in this individual instance. And
I don't know the solution because I look around the league.
You go to some of these box scores, you get
random players all over the league because every single game,
especially anyone with YouTube TV and has the NFL package
(29:05):
is that what they still call it, you know, has
the four boxes. You see guys carted off every game.
It's crazy. It feels like an epidemic the amount of
injuries around the NFL. Broken legs, broken feet, acls, hamstrings,
Guys just dropped like flies. But the forty nine ers
are losing, not just like the best players on there,
(29:26):
like some of the best players in the league. And
it does feel today for the first time like this
felt like a tipping point. Kyle and Robert Sala have
done an excellent job that they were just hanging in
there with Tampa, who also has a bunch of injuries,
but they're playing Baker Mayfield, I don't know, the MVP
of the league with their backup quarterback Mac Jones, who's
resurrecting his career, but he ain't Baker Mayfield. And then
(29:49):
Fred Warner goes out, who's like the heart and soul
of the franchise. He's not like the team captain of
the team's like the team captain of the franchise, Like
he's like the most important to human on the team.
He like speaks for the entire organization on a weekly basis.
You don't overcome that. He's like, they're ray Lewis. You know,
it's like when Ray Lewis in his prime for the
(30:10):
Baltimore Ravens. You remove that. I don't care who you
got backing them up, and they got random guys backing
them up. You just don't have much of a chance. Again,
I don't know what to do about it. I don't
know how to fix it because the Niners just constantly injured.
But it does feel for the first time like you
just lost all these players. I don't know how you
(30:31):
keep winning games. I don't care who you play, and
your schedule's easy, but you just can't remove this much.
They gave two hundred and seventy seven million dollars in
guaranteed dollars this offseason to Brock Purdy, to George Kittle,
and to Fred Warner. Brock Purty has turf toe, and
you know, again, I don't have much confidence he's gonna
play many games this year. Fred Warner is now out
(30:53):
for the season, and George Kittle might come back from
a hamstring. But here's the thing with hamstring sometimes to
get reinjured. So who knows how many games George is
gonna play this season? Just devastating. So props to Baker
Mayfield and Todd Bowles and Jason Light for kicking ass
and taking names. And I respect the forty nine ers
for how hard they're playing, but you just you get
to the point where you're just kind of running unempty,
(31:15):
right I've I've run out of gas a couple of times.
It sucks, And that's what it feels like with the
forty nine ers. A couple of things. I get a
lot of dms from you guys at John Middlecoff's the Instagram.
We do Middlecoff mail bag all week long, and I
usually defend this guy because you're like, uh, Matt Lafoor, John,
do you think he's too conservative? I'm like, you know,
(31:35):
I don't think that. And then the day just because
in the afternoon, I only had three games on and
typically I wouldn't have been super locked into Bengals Packers,
but beside the Niners and them, like, I can't take
the Titans in Raider games seriously, so watch every snap.
And as the game went on, and I watched the
(31:55):
morning game with Sean Payton and bow Nicks. Bo Nicks
had almost like two hundred yards passing in the first half,
which I didn't really watch because I was sleeping because
it was like six in the morning. But then you
get up you watch second half, and Bonix was horrendous.
He had like three completions. I think literally he had
three completions in the second half. But the ebb and
flow of their game, it was like, Sean, why are
(32:15):
you trying to run the ball? Let bon Nix is
slinging around and win this game by twenty points. And
I think you see with Sean Payton, and I think
you see with Matt Lafleur, Like Sean Payton didn't have
a choice last week when they were playing the Eagles,
They're down seventeen to three, kind of just had to
let it rip. It's like, hey, Bogo makes him plays.
And I think you've seen with Matt Lafleur this year
when they play a team that mat goes, well, we're
(32:37):
better in the Bengals, and he's not wrong. They are
one hundred percent better than the Bengals, and if their
quarterback just plays an average game, they will beat this
version of the Bengals without Joe Burrow, whether it's Joe Flacco,
whether it's Shake Browning, whether it's Andy Dalton comes back,
it doesn't matter. They will win that game ninety five
percent of the time. Lafleur knows it, the fans know it,
his team knows it. And I'm watching him and I'm
(32:59):
watching Sean Payton this morning, and I go, they are
being a little conservative. They're kind of like coaching not
to lose. Now, Lafleur had a little more wiggle room.
They were up in that game, and honestly, they were
kind of in cruise control even though the game was
you know, it's not like they were up thirty and
I think I think it was what like seventeen to
three at one point in time, and I just thought, like,
(33:22):
let Jordan kind of slant, because a couple of times
he did push the ball down the field and they
had explosive plays. But Lafleur is wired much more like
Kyle Shanahan. He really wants to slow the ball down,
control the clock, run the football. And Josh Jacob looks good.
But I, for the first time I understood where a
lot of Packer fans goes like can Matt open up
(33:42):
the offense a little bit, like we do have some
talented skill guys. And I thought the same thing about
Sean Payton, whose offense throughout the season is looked a
little stale because it doesn't feel like either guy trust
the quarterback. And here's what the Bucks have going for
him right now, And you could argue Baker's earned it.
They have undenying trust and just like give him free
(34:06):
rein and Dan Campbell's the best example of this, has
complete trust in his offense starting with Jared Goff. Doesn't
mean it's always gonna work, but Dan Campbell treats Jared
Goff no different than Andy re treats Patrick Mahomes, and
having that ability freeze everyone up and you're able to
be much more explosive and as an offense and have
(34:27):
much more explosive plays. But the Broncos, like the Packers,
definitely feel like they have guard rails around their quarterback.
Some of you with young children that have the training
wheels on the bike, and there gets to a point
of like, okay, just pick the training wheels off and
let him or her kind of let a rip and hey,
(34:47):
he might fall down, he might skin his knee. But
a couple months later he's gonna be ripping around the
driveway and the street. Ideally, if you know, depending on
the street you live in, you know, you put it's funny.
I get it old, and my kid's not even here.
I'm already thinking, like, where can I place the kids
at play? Twenty five miles an hour. I remember being
like sixteen years old driving home in my neighborhood and
(35:09):
like cruising by that thing, like flipping it off. It's
funny you put you know, uh, put yourself on the
other side of it. You're like, damn, slow down. But
I do think you need to let these quarterbacks play free,
and they definitely are not a couple other things. I
feel bad for Browns fans that they are a really
(35:29):
rough watch, that their offense is horrendous. Their offensive line
today got beaten. How many sacks did they give up?
They got beaten like a drum. Dylan Gabriel was sacked
six times. Honestly, if I had to guess, I would
have guessed fifteen. He was hit over and over. You
could put shit d'Or back there. You could put Deshaun
(35:50):
Watson back there. You could put Joe Flacco back. You
can put any you're gonna get destroyed. Offensive line stinks,
the skill players constantly drop balls. They're there is a
lack of I don't know, creativity. Kevin Stefanski. I've always
liked them, but they are not a fun team to watch,
and their defense is clearly pretty good. But the Steelers
(36:12):
that game, that game felt JB varsity and I would
say the same thing about Miami, not that they aren't competitive,
because offensively they can score more points, but tua after
the game. The way I would describe Miami is like
just nobody cares. Head coach the players to a acts
(36:33):
like it cares. But it's like, two, you're throwing picks
left and right. So it's like, why aren't you early
the team meeting or to the players only meetings? Like
to a what, I don't think you're any good? So
it's like part of being a leader. You know. It's
much easier for Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Patrick
Mahomes to be a leader. It's easy for Fred Warner
to rally the troops. They're great players. Typically the best teams,
(36:54):
their best players lead the squad. Right and two, it's
not that good of a Just because you make a
lot of money doesn't make you a leader or a
great player, right, And that's where I think the trouble
the Miami Dolphins find themselves in. It's not I'm not
trying to blame to A for guys being slap dicks.
That's on the GM, who has built one of the
(37:15):
worst teams you're ever gonna see. Like I'm watching the Saints.
People think they suck. I'm like, I enjoy watching them play.
They are not that bad. Their defenses and Brandon Staley's
one of the biggest. I mean, you talk about a
scam artist, I mean this guy. I wouldn't let this
guy near my defensive unit. He's out there calling plays.
He's getting shredded on a weekly basis. But offensively, I'm
(37:36):
going Kellen nuts Smyer. They're dialing up some plays, rattlers
slinging around. They're a fun team. Props to you know,
the Patriots for getting another big win. Drake May's playing well,
But man, the Browns tough watch for a team with
some really good defensive players, and the Dolphins, the best
way to sum them up is just no one cares. Okay,
(38:08):
let's end on this some couple quick things with college
I've come around on Kurt Signetti and I owe him
an apology. I would say a month ago, even probably
as recent as like three weeks ago, I would have
said I hated the guy, couldn't stand him rooting against him.
He's kind of grown on me. The last couple of
weeks I watched a couple of interviews of him saying
(38:29):
part of the reason he said google me, which I
think was like, that's so stupid, even though he had
a successful season, was like, my program wasn't irrelevant. No
one knew who Indiana football. We were the butt. We
were like the Detroit Lions. I'm saying this, He's not
of college. We were the all time losing his program
in the history of college football. So me saying that, like,
(38:50):
you don't need to do that stuff in the NFL.
The NFL is just about picking the right players in
the draft, cutting the right guy, signing the right guys
in free agency, hiring the right coaches, and just grinding
and I know, learn how to win. The fluff doesn't
matter because there's no recruiting. We're in college football. That
does matter. Creating buzz. I hate the word optics. I
think optics is one of the most overrated words in
(39:11):
the private sector produce. Optics don't matter when you're dominating
in whatever industry you're in, But optics and that shit
do matter a little bit in college. Why because you're
making impressions to sixteen seventeen eight year old guys and
now with the transfer portal nineteen twenty twenty one year
old guys. So it's like, Okay, I get what he said,
and then he lost it during the defensive pass interference
(39:34):
that wasn't called. During the Oregon game, He's interviewed at
halftime and I forget who the reporter was, and she says,
you know, you said all week it was about being
calm and controlling your emotions on the road, and you
just lost it. Were you trying to like send a message?
And he smiled. He said, yeah, that's that's what I
was trying to do. We needed my energy right there.
(39:57):
It's like Coach Reid when he bumped Travis Kelson, like
part of being a coach is playing psychological warfare, especially
in college, with the recruits, with your own team, with
your opponents. He also said something that I think kind
of flew under the radar that I don't think he
randomly did it is he called Dan Lanning the phenom
in all of college football. It was like he was
(40:19):
trying to put him on a pedestal to maybe think
he starts feeling himself a little bit by the way
that I view him. I was like, God, I kind
of like Kurtzignetti. And then this today during halftime, I'm
eating dinner during the Chiefs Lions game, and I watched
his interview that he did with Rick Neuheisel. I think
(40:40):
it must have been a big ten media days and
he asked, like, why did you leave Alabama in twenty
ten to go to IUPU. It's like, I've never even
heard of that school. And He's like, because I wanted
to be a head coach. And I was fifty years old.
I was making three hundred and twenty thousand at Alabama.
(41:02):
I was the wide receiver and recruiting coordinator, which three
hundred twenty k back in twenty ten was probably a
lot of coin, especially in the Tuscaloose Alabama That'd probably
be the equivalent right now of like that position will
probably pay eight nine hundred grant, probably pay a million
dollars and he's like, the job that I took paid
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I was going to
take a two hundred thousand dollars pay cut. My wife
(41:24):
said no, we're not doing this, and I had to
talk her into it, and I kind of thought, you
know who Signette is. He's like an entrepreneur, cause he's like,
I could have just been an assistant the rest of
my career at that point in time, worked for Saban,
worked for the best guys, made a ton of money,
and been a lifetime assistant. I said, now, fuck this,
I want to be a head coach. I believed that
(41:45):
was a head coach, and I want to try it out.
And then for a decade and a half he got
to figure out how to be a head coach. And
then he finally gets a shot in one of the
biggest currently it's probably the best conference in the league
or the country right there, it's probably them in the
The SEC has been better forever. Now at worst they're equals,
if not, the Big ten's better. And he gets a
(42:07):
shot at a joke program and he turns it around immediately,
And I do believe that guys that are wired like this,
Like he didn't have to do this. Most human beings
wouldn't do this. Most guys don't take opportunities. Think about
the money that assistants make now in the big ten,
in the SEC. They would never leave for a really
(42:28):
crappy job that doesn't pay as much. Right, it doesn't
make any It's like it's no different than most people.
They're in corporate positions that make a lot of coin go.
You know, I really wanted to do this one thing
that I've always been passionate about, but they kind of
got me on the golden handcuffs. I can't leave because
Google's paying me five hundred thousand dollars, my kids going
(42:50):
to private school, my wife's driving that g wagon. Like
I just I can't change. I can't risk it. And
most guys in football are no different. They don't risk
it and risked it. And now he's sitting with one
of the best teams in the country and I've really
come around, like I kind of get his brashness. Why
wouldn't he be brash? He went to the gutter essentially
(43:14):
to coach iupu elon. Then he goes to James Madison
starts winning big and now in Indiana in two years,
he's seventeen and two and his ability to I mean Rourke,
his quarterback last year is on the forty nine ers
and Fernando Mendoza, who he got from cal who a
lot of other teams surely could have got in the
transfer portal. I had buddies at the game in Oregon
(43:35):
that said, he's probably gonna be a first round pick.
I don't know how high, because I said, do you
think he could be like a first overall pick or
top ten pick? They're like, God, it depends on the class.
But he's definitely moving up the board. Big Arm this
week at Oregon threw an awful pick six and bounced
right back and let him to a win th bait,
a great back shoulder passer. But Signetti's boss, and he
(43:58):
proved it a long time ago when he left Sabin
for a terrible job that even Saban said at the time,
like I couldn't believe he was taking this job. It's
not like Signetti want or Saban wanted Signetty to leave.
But he's here in this position now with the understanding
of knowing what he has to do because of all
those experiences and James Franklin was fired today and I
think most people think like And there was a rumor
(44:20):
that Adeed is help help pay the money. I don't
know if that's true or not. Clearly, I don't think
you just get fifty million dollars easily, because it's not
just fifty million dollars to pay James Franklin to go away.
If you got to pay him fifty million dollars, what
do coaches cost? Who do you think Penn State's going
to go after? Brian Kelly got ninety million dollars, Lincoln
Riley got one hundred and twenty million. The cost of
(44:42):
these high level coaches, the Lane Kiffin types. I mean,
you're talking an enormous amount of money. So it's not
just fifty million dollars to pay James Franklin to go away,
and pay a staff to go away, which is gonna
be another millions upon millions dollars. It's then paying other recruits,
other coaches. It's gonna be very expensive. So how they
got that, I had no clue. But there were probably
(45:02):
some shady things that went on behind the scenes and
would Signetti leave and take the job. Historically, there would
never be a coach at Indiana that would turn down
Penn State. One thing I think we're gonna find out
this offseason more than ever because one thing you see
in the NFL, if you give me power, the Jags
(45:23):
job is no different than the forty nine Ers job.
That's no different than the Packers' job. Every job in
the NFL is good if you say you get to
run it. Liam Cohen was like, I don't want the
Jags job. Then they're like, we'll give you juice. You
hire the GM and we'll fire Trent Ball. He's like,
I'm in. I mean just like that. Ben Johnson are like, hey,
you know I don't really the Bears. I think I
(45:45):
want to be a head go thirteen million dollars a years,
Like I'm in it. See the NFL, you get to
do whatever you want, You get to pick the players,
You only have to answer to one person. College is
very complicated. But this offseason we're gonna learn Penn State
is open, Florida's hasn't won a conference game in like
two years. That's gonna open. Auburn gonna open, the University
(46:06):
of Florida gonna open. There are guys like Lane Kiffin
and Kurt Signetti at Indiana at Ole Miss Matt Campbell
at Iowa State. Are these guys ever? Does it even
matter anymore? I don't know because if you feel if
you're Indiana and you go, well, we can buy guys.
We got the resources. Because I hear this a lot,
(46:28):
you don't have the ability to recruit around your program.
Who cares? Has the world ever been flattered? You ever
heard of social media? YouTube? Instagram? I mean, what does
it matter? Iowa to California? Like, you can find anyone
anywhere in a moment's notice. It used to be much different,
more difficult. Twenty years ago, it was a really big deal.
(46:50):
It's like, you know, Pete Carroll or Miami. They used
to kind of recruit Michigan recruit nationally. Anyone can recruit nationally.
Indiana is one of the best teams in the country
with Cow's quarterback, and you can flip things around immediately.
It's why Belichick is under siege. It's like, you shouldn't
suck this much. You're Bill freaking Belichick and you can
add any player you want in theory. So I don't
(47:13):
know what's gonna happen. If you told me Signetti takes
the job. If he's offered, I'd believe you. If you
tell me he stays, I'd believe you. I don't quite
understand the we're gonna learn because I don't know. I
don't even think ads and coaches quite know. I think
they're still trying to figure it out. Like, if I
can buy players where I'm at and I'm happy and
(47:34):
I'm winning, I don't need to leave, because part of
the reason to go to Penn State is like, that's
where you could get players. Well, if I can get
players that I want to come to Indiana and I
can beat Oregon with them, I don't need to leave.
I can beat the crap out of Illinois if I can.
Even if I can't beat Ohio State, no one can,
so who cares. But if I can beat everyone else here,
I don't need to go. Lane Kivin's like, well, do
(47:55):
you need to go to Florida? Well, I can beat
lsu at Ole, miss So they're paying me ten million
dollars a year. But maybe it's like I don't know,
maybe they can offer more in I own money. Maybe
he just wants to go to mix it up. But
I think we're really gonna find out this offseason what
the nil impact of these coaching situations are, because I
(48:18):
don't know. I can see either scenario play out, guys
staying and be like I'm happy here, we got cash
and we're good, or it's like, no, I think they
got more money, cause that's I think. If guys do
make the move, it'll all be promises about money for
the roster, money for the coaches, less about like, well,
we got a lot of recruits around us. That clearly
(48:40):
doesn't matter, especially with the transfer portal. So James Franklin
loses back to back games as basically, I think he
was a twenty five point favorite against UCLA. I don't
know the exact number against Northwestern, but he was twenty plus.
Drew Howlers out for the year. Just one thing in
life got to strike when the irons hot. And obviously
(49:02):
he's had a long run and he's been there for
over a decade. But like this year, fifteen days ago,
he had the lead, he had the lead against Oregon.
If he wins that game at home, we're all talking
about Penn State as one of the best teams in
the country. I would imagine coming off that win, they
don't lose to UCLA. But not only does he not
(49:23):
beat Ucla, he loses that game, then he loses the
next two games in a fifteen day period, and on
Sunday morning, he's fired. So this the world we live
in in college sports. The NFL is a lot like
this with players and coaches. There's so much money in
the line now that it's one of the great businesses
to be in because if you get fired, they get
(49:45):
paid millions of dollars to go away, but you will
not keep your job. And I think James Franklin wasn't
that controversial in terms of the team quit on him,
like they said, we're done. Ucla could be like listen
that coming off a crazy emotional high than low at Oregon,
we had an awful week, we lose, win the next
week you win by twenty points. He's not fired today,
(50:08):
but you lose back to back weeks, especially at home
the Northwestern I don't think they had a choice. If
you would have told me at the beginning of the
season when Penn State was if you didn't have them
number one, they were universally a top two or three
team in the country. That James Franklin was fired in
the middle of the season. I would say a crazy
scandal happened. Yeah, I would say something egregious, like one
(50:32):
of the stories of the year, if not the story
of the year in college football, cheating with the chancellor's wife,
some crazy cheating scandal with a recruit, which I don't
even know how you do in this modern day world,
tax fraud, or I don't know, something insane, something insane,
(50:53):
But no, he just lost to Northwestern in Ucla and
they said, this can't happen. You've got see you later, buddy.
The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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