November 1, 2025 • 37 mins
John answers all of your questions starting with Kansas City and if they have the potential to win out, to Drake Maye and if he's going to be the next Josh Allen, to if the Bears should bench Caleb Williams and much more in this episode's massive mailbag segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
I said, you know what, I got a migraine that
(00:22):
I don't get very often, but I was basically bedridden
all afternoon on Wednesday and I was unable to do
the podcast. So I was like, you know what, we
had a little less content this week. Let's put out
a weekend mail bag at John middlecoff is the Instagram
at John middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms.
We're gonna do a little weekend mailbag. So I rattled
(00:42):
off about probably about thirty minutes worth of worth of stuff,
and that will be the game plan today. Very simple.
You guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast. Everything's
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game Time app. Today. Doesn't get any easier than that,
kind of like, listen to this podcast. Okay, let's just
dive right in. I'm gonna try to go rapid fire.
So this is not gonna be too long. If the
(01:45):
Chiefs beat the Bill Sunday, is it on the board?
They win out the rest of the season. I know
the Colts are good and the Broncos are ahead of
us in the standings, but I feel like bo Nick
is gonna let them down once December and January come around.
Also of the podcast, watch it every day. I appreciate you.
I would say winning out like it's the NFL. Are
(02:08):
they gonna win out and go fourteen and three? That
seems a little little unrealistic because in the NFL, like
I would say, they lose one of those Broncos games,
which would probably be the one in Arrowhead, which is
very understandable. You can have an excellent you can go
twelve and five and lose a couple of division games.
(02:30):
You know, division games are really hard. I guess the
Chiefs have already lost the Chargers. They're not going to
lose the Raiders, but I could see them split in
the division, so I could see them losing one of
the Broncos games. Yeah. To me, the Chiefs feel like
twelve and five now. They got it rolling and they
have a higher ceiling than I think they've had in
(02:50):
years because the offense is much better, even though they've
been going to the playoffs. Big Ravens fan here love
the show. Keep it up. I just need to understand something.
How is the media saying Drake May is the new
Josh Allen and the Patriots? Uh? And the Patriots are
back when they clearly see their schedule has been a joke.
(03:11):
I know they beat the Bills, but that was one game.
Do you actually think they could be better that he
could be better than Alan? Uh? No? I mean, Josh
is one of the more dominant players we've seen in
the NFL in a long time. Uh. But you know,
sometimes I think we're very hesitant. You use Rock Purdy
(03:32):
as an example. He became a really good player, but
he was a seventh round pick, so you had to
like fight to get your respect. Jordan Love, same thing, right,
Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott Forever. Russell Wilson took him
years for people to be like, oh, yeah, he's really good.
When you're it's the opposite. When you're drafted really high.
It's like one good pass from Kayleb Williams, Oh he's
(03:52):
the next great thing. It's like, let's see if he
can play the position. When you're drafted high and you
start making plays, we annoint you pretty quickly. Now he's
having an excellent year. Now, i'd get they're playing bad teams.
He doesn't exactly have you know, Gronkowski and Edelman running around.
I would say his weapons aren't great. But there was
a lot of hype on this kid. I mean, once
(04:13):
upon a time, Nick Saban offered him five million dollars
to be their quarterback. Think about that, and it wouldn't
have been wrong. I remember it was a big deal.
When he's like, yeah, I chose to say it. North Carolina,
and he's got a chance to be really really good.
Unless you're Ryan Poles, you thought he sucks again. I'm
not making that up. He said that in the draft meeting.
Do teams have in house financial advisors to help rookies
(04:36):
make responsible financial decisions. It seems common for young athletes
to blow through millions of dollars without considering that what
they won't earn that the salary for the rest of
their lives. I think teams, it probably varies a little
team to team. I mean most teams have some sort
of developmental guy, typically former player, like high level guy.
(05:00):
I would say, like, this is gonna sound a little
cold hearted, but that's not necessarily the NFL's problem, right,
I mean, they can hold your hand, but eventually, like
you got to make the decisions. I would put the
onus more on the agent, right, I'm paying you so
you figure it out now. Ultimately I will help you out,
(05:21):
you know, provide things like real estate agents, help you
get a lay of the land, obviously, help you around
land other business deals when you're a good player with
our partners. But am I worried about what you do
with that money? As long as it's legal no, not really.
So if you want to buy five Lamborghinis or invest
(05:42):
it all into one of middle cuff stocks, that's ripping.
That's kind of your decision. That to me should be
the number one push for an agent is, hey, I
got multiple financial advisors who are here to support you.
I'm CIA, i am David Mulgedta, I'm whoever. I have
this infrastructure here to take care of you. The team's
(06:03):
just the one paying you, and they're the ones that
we're gonna get the money from. So I not saying
the teams don't care, but like that's not really theirs,
the least of their worries. If you are financially stable
when you're forty years old, the agent who you were
literally paying should be all over that to help you out.
That's that would be my thought. I also think the
(06:27):
reality I've never been super rich when I was, you know,
multi millionaire of twenty three years old. But you're just
wore men. We're gonna make them decisions. We're gonna buy
dumb shit. I probably buy dumb things. You buy dumb
things that if we were the other person would be like, wait,
you're spending money on that. It's part of life. A
big Listener mail back question, what do you think the
(06:47):
Vikings will do with Kevin O'Connell. Obviously, he recently signed
an extension, but numerous reports saying he's losing a locker
room over how he handled the WinCE injury and how
they've been babying AJ McCarthy. Vikings haven't won a playoff
game since twenty nineteen, which was before O'Connell was hired.
(07:07):
I believe, not saying it's all on him, but this
is a results based business. I haven't been deep on
the Vikings reddit boards or their local podcasts or radio
shows to hear that I have not seen anything. I'll
take your word at it. There have been in listen.
This is part of football when things get ugly. Losing
the locker room, I mean, I think a lot of
(07:32):
people are wondering, and rightfully so. Like the JJ McCarthy
thing seems a little sketchy. It's like he rolls ankle.
Do he heard his hamstring? What the fuck's is injury?
He's healthy enough where you can put him in pads
on game day if there's an emergency, but you can't
start him. The whole situation has been red flagged. And
when you start babing a player on a good team,
(07:55):
I know they're technically not good right now, but a
team that is guys have won and knows what, but
winning a lot of games look like it can start resentment,
and I think he's got to be very careful about it.
The best coaches will pivot off. Okay, you like this
guy two years ago in the draft, well three years
later and he can't play, And if that's the case,
then he can't play, then you gotta pivot. And if
(08:16):
you do pivot, players will respect you. I saw Kyle
Shanahan pivots so fast your head would spend. He wanted
to like him. Turns out he wasn't good and they pivoted.
Now part of pivoting is you got to have another option.
But so it's like he had purity to turn to.
But you could not let a misdraft pick on a
quarterback sink the ship because if you do, everyone will
(08:36):
be fired. Now, Kevin O'Connell now is really rich signing
the extension. He's probably making my guess would be twelve
thirteen to fourteen million dollars a year. But so it's
at the end of the day, whether he's fired or not. Like,
it's not like it's gonna change the course of his
just life with his family, Like they're set for life.
I think that's what you call generational wealth. It's funny,
(08:58):
you know on the internet sometimes generational wealth. Well, it's
like you got to earn seven hundred million dollars Like No,
I mean, I think you guys are a little inflated
on some of your numbers. So I think Kevin O'Connell
is going to be under a lot of pressure if
this year keeps going south. What are we doing next year?
And a were we gonna have a loyalty to this guy
if he does not play well, because if you do,
(09:18):
then this thing's gonna get really ugly, really fast. If
he will be like the guy that drafted him once
upon a time. Listen, you can talk a lot of
shit about Belichick, not the greatest drafter, especially down the
stretch these last four or five years, but he would
make cold blooded decisions, and this is a cold blooded league.
You get too emotional about players. I mean, Andy retraded
Tyreek Hill in the peak of his powers. See audios
(09:40):
will go a different direction. You've got to be willing
to do that shit, and if you're not, you will
lose your locker room in games. So I just something
to keep an eye on. This year, he'll get a
little bit of a pass rightfully, so they the quarterback situation,
which might have been his doing. But regardless it happens,
how are they gonna pivot next year? I want to
(10:03):
hear your preference on your favorite commentators. Would love to
hear your thoughts for football and other sports. Personally, I'm
a big collins Worth guy. I look for a couple
of things. One, I like Chris because he enjoys football
and you could feel his excitement. Some people might say
he's a little cheesy, a little over the top, Like
(10:24):
I admire that. My go to type commentator would be
like Aikman when he's kind of on edge talking some shit,
Like that's kind of what I like. You know, maybe
I lean a little more negative, like I have nothing
against Tony Romo and every once in a while when
I have you know, now, with these four boxes, sometimes
you're not always listening to the top game, but when
(10:45):
you listen to Romo and Nance, like NaN's a big
part of my life. I watch a lot of PGA
Tour golf. So I've spent a lot of hours over
the last twenty years watching Jim nance So I like
hanging out with Jim Lance Jim Nantz. I do think
the Romo thing is just can be a little over
the top of times, but I also watch it like
(11:05):
it's an easy hang, whether it's cheesy or not. And
I would say, you know, collins Worth is better than Romo,
but I think those are easy. I think a lot
of like the second and third tier broadcast can be
really horrendous. I mean, I'm not gonna name names, but
if you just start getting anyone that has a team
that's not very good, when you're watching the lower rung
(11:27):
like fifth games from CBS or Fox, You're like, oh
my god, this is pretty bad. Uh. So I would
say I would say Aikman's my favorite. I was watching
the World Series. It might have been the Gummy I
was on, but I was thinking John Smoltz is good.
I saw Daniel Jeremiah tweet this out maybe like a
(11:50):
couple of weeks ago, just saying how impressed he was
like John Smoltz's knowledge of baseball. I was like, God,
this guy, if he was a football announ He'd be
heralded as the top guy for sure. I mean, the
guy knows baseball, like the intricacies of the different moments
and what you should do, what you shouldn't do. It's
(12:11):
like for a guy that plays golf seven days a week.
This guy's dialed. I think he's I think he's excellent.
Trying to think basketball. I always liked Van Gundy, not
stand Jeff who's fired who got fired from TV and
is now I think the Clippers assistant coach. But I
was a big Jeff fan. Gundy guy, Uh yeah, I
(12:34):
would say that's my list is relatively short of people
I would quote unquote good. I'm also like most most
of you probably, I've watched so many games that I
get numbed to a lot of the commenters. I don't
even really pay attention. If anything, I'm just listening for
nuggets that I can use in the podcast, like stats
they might spit out. I actually like the college game. Yeah,
(12:59):
I think I think Herbstreet's really good. Jay Billis has
been good for a long time. I think Clatt's good.
I like Yeah, I like actually a lot of the
college quarterbacks. McElroy definitely like Jesse Palmer, I'll always enjoy
I feel like I've watched a lot of Jesse Palmer games.
(13:20):
I feel like college has better ones than the NFL. Yeah,
I feel actually pretty confident. I feel like college has
better broadcast than the NFL. Not in terms of like
maybe the graphics or whatever. I'm just mean actual people
in the chair. They just feel a little and maybe
there's a little less pressure so they can just be normal.
(13:42):
I just I don't know. I have to do a
research project on that. How can you take sports gambling seriously?
After the new NBA scandal came out, The NFL has
so many miscalls and so many questionable penalties on a
weekly basis. Plus what happens one week means nothing the
next week. It's called gambling. The difference between basketball and football,
(14:04):
and we've talked a lot about this is there's always
been a human element with the referees. The broadcasts are
so good with the cameras. Now that we see a
lot of these things like historically, when a ball hit
two people diving for it, it was clear who the
ball went out of went out on right in basketball,
for example, forever in the NBA, in college, in high
(14:25):
school pick up basketball. Now at the slow mold replays
like I went off the tip of the singer, we
just know more information. It's impossible to rig NFL games now.
Like you said, an official can miss a call, It's
hard to be an official now. I've always said, like,
if you missed serious calls, you should be fired. They
never are. And maybe you can say, well, John, they're
in on it. I would say, yeah. Part of not
(14:47):
knowing what's gonna happen week to week is what makes
the game so interesting to gamble on. Where in basketball,
like you know the bad teams, like they're gonna get
rounded week in, week out, And Chauncey Billips was literally
throwing games. I heard someone say this the other day, like,
isn't it crazy that we thought it was a bigger
deal for Chauncey Billups to screw over people in a
(15:11):
poker game than it was for him to tell someone
I'm going to manipulate the outcome of this NBA game.
That was the bigger headline tells you everything you need
to know. I think the NBA is easier to rig.
I think it's harder to rig in the NFL. I
also think it would have come out. I think it's
just too big, too much money. People would have talked,
(15:33):
maybe I'm naive lifelong Browns fan. And we have two
first round picks, we are expected to pair them and
take a quarterback. But with our O line literally having
nobody coming back and no wide receivers, Judy is a
two at best. You almost can't evaluate a quarterback. Dylan
is short and looks blah. If Sanders plays for us,
he has no chance. Stefanski has a bad track record.
(15:56):
Watson looked terrible, but how much do you blame him
or the organization? He didn't want to play for us,
but he took the bag like Miles. My thoughts is
that Watson when he comes back, might be our best
quarterback and we need to draft an OT, a wide
receiver and an OT. If we bring a rookie quarterback
into this mess, he will just look awful. Do you
(16:18):
think this puts? Uh? Do you think put best hope?
The team's best hope is to build a team around
Watson and start him next year. You can never start
Deshaun Watson again. Uh, that that ship hasn't just sailed.
You could never roll him out his his career with
the Cleveland Browns is done. You just you can never
(16:40):
do that to the fans. Uh. I do think I'm
with you, you know, And I've been saying this for
a while. In Stefanski. It's like, everyone tells me how
great of a coach he is, but I watched him
do with these off these backup random quarterbacks, and the
offense looks worse and worse by the week. Now you
can say, well, is offensive line is terrible. I've seen
(17:01):
a lot of teams with bad teams figure out ways
to manipulate points. I do think the organization is fed up.
I mean, the owner's nuts. They were given the out
with Miles Garrett. He said, trade me. He's thirty years old.
You could trade him for like two ones and two
twos and reset your franchise. And they refuse to do it.
And I just have a hard time believing the GM
(17:22):
wouldn't have traded them. But I don't know. I do
confidently believe that Watson will never play for you again,
and you can't, can't. You can't play them anymore. I'm
a lifelong Buckeye fan, born and raised in Columbus, and
have been intending games with my dad since I was four.
As you stated, you are a lifelong Ohio State hater. Well,
(17:44):
I certainly can understand and have run into many with
similar feelings. I am curious what do people truly hate
about Ohio State. I'm in the cult through and through,
so I can't quite see the forest or the trees. Well,
I think typically people like don't hate Minnesota football, Jaguar football,
the Atlanta Hawks, right the Chicago White Sox. Who do
(18:10):
people typically hate? The Yankees, the Dodgers, the Chiefs right now,
the Patriots forever Duke basketball. Part of what makes sports
fun is like, I don't have any tangible reason to
hate Ohio State. I kind of do, I guess with
the Lakers as a kid, But you know, it's like
the Sacramento Kings, who I was a fan of at
(18:32):
the time, have been the worst run franchise probably in
all of American sports for twenty years. The Lakers impact
them zero, But I have this irrational hate towards the franchise.
When I see it, I just cringe. I don't really
have a reason. I really don't, especially now that they're
bought by this new owner and Luca's on the team.
I would say the same thing for Ohio State football. Like, listen,
(18:53):
I want to act like Ryan Day's some scrub, but
his resume speaks for itself. He's doing a good job.
Matt Patricia higher looks good. I mean that's undisputable. Like
it's kind of worked out. Brian Hartline elevated offensive coordinator
working out pretty well. There. They are the cream of
the crop in college sports. And Listen, I didn't grow
up going to USC football games in their prime. I
(19:17):
went to Cal football program sucked in the nineties, wasn't
any good, didn't get good Untiljeff Tedford showed up there.
So my point is like I've always I like some favorites,
Like I've always been a fan of Duke basketball, But
I also liked the Red Sox with Ortiz and Manny
before they could beat the Yankees because I was kind
of rooted for them because they were the underdog. So
I kind of pick and choose. I don't know, I
(19:38):
just don't like Ohio State football. I feel like I
like a lot of the guys that played there, right,
Like reading all about man Gold last year, it's like
this is the type. Gotten is my type. Guy Dustin Fox,
he used to go on his radio show All the
Time former player in the mid two thousands. With those
guys aj Hawk, they seem like I got a cool crew,
Like I never watched Cam Hayward. I ever watched Ohio
(20:00):
State guy, especially ones that go on to do other
things and not go eh, guy's really impressive. I just
don't root for the team. I'm just rooting for you
guys to lose. I need someone to root against. And
the power of sports. And this goes back to Howard
Stern when they asked him like, well, how long do
they do his fans listen? And then he said like
an hour? He said, well, how long do the people
(20:22):
that hate him listen? He said, that's where he gained
such a big market share. They listen for double the
amount of time. And that's the strong part about the Yankees,
about Ohio State football, about dupe basketball, is the haters
pay attention. And that's that's the most powerful part of
the Ohio State brand, besides being the elite brand. Is
(20:43):
the haters just have a strong of an emotional connection.
I have no reason to hate him, I just kind
of do. I don't know why. I don't really like
Notre Dame football either, though, Marcus Freeman's kind of grown
on me. I don't know, some people you just don't like.
I mean, I think we need to get back to
that part of society. You don't need to like everybody,
or you don't need to pretend to like everybody, because
clearly humans don't like everybody. We need to get back
(21:04):
to that world where it's like, I just don't like
this guy. Why, I don't know, I just fucking can't
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(22:42):
A question about Kayleb Williams. I'm not really Bears fan,
but I've become a huge NFL fan. Do you think
Ben Johnson would really consider benching him this year for
badget if he keeps playing like this? Do you think
the front office would doing so? I think the only
way you ever bench him in twenty twenty five if
you know he's done with the Bears cause there's no
(23:03):
benching Caleb Williams in twenty twenty five, in November December
and ever coming back from it. The only way I
guess you get away with it is like the last
game of the season and you have six wins, it's like,
let's get Tyson badge at the game, maybe a showcase game.
Totally get that. But if you're benching him with several
(23:23):
games left, I mean that, there's just no returning from that.
I love it when people say, too, it's like, these
are the times no one has any patients. Well, yeah,
there's a lot more money on the line. Now, this
isn't nineteen ninety six where it's like, oh yeah, salary
caps forty million salary caps is gonna be four hundred
million dollars in a couple of years. These media deals
are huge. The amount of money between winning and losing
(23:45):
for an individual franchise is immense. I can't believe it
didn't have any patients for Brian Kelly because they can't
afford to keep losing. So if they didn't pay him
fifty million dollars to clean out his office, they were
gonna lose another one hundred million dollars. So they had
a choice either draw a line in the sand or
keep dealing with the people who are always on the
fence of like just let it play out. It's like, well,
(24:07):
we can't let this play out because we're gonna go
seven and five and fucking no one's gonna show up
and we're gonna have problems. And if you want the
softball girls to have fucking cleats on their shoes, we
gotta win a football, you know. So I just think
that that's one that's becoming a pet peeve of mine.
It's like everyone's just impatient. Yeah, society's a little less patient.
Welcome to twenty twenty five in America. Time ain't on
(24:30):
our side, even though it's going the same pace as
always gone. It's just we live in different times. So yeah,
there's way less patience for most things. It's kind of
the way the world works, which I don't mind. I'm
pretty impatient. Individual are the Bills the most overrated team
in the NFL. They're five wins were against teams with
a combined record of ten and twenty nine. Now, the
(24:51):
four and four Panthers are the best team. They've beat
truth against the teams the defense looked like a JV
squad out there, and outside of James Cook, Josh is
rounded by plumbers. I don't doubt he can single handily
carry a team to wins, but for people to say
that they are contenders, it's crazy to me. I think
this week against the Chiefs, in week eleven against the
Bucks is the barometer. Yeah, I agree, I'm a little nervous.
(25:14):
I was rooting for them to finally get to a
super Bowl and win a super Bowl. But this is
a massive game and at the end of the day,
they're going to get judged off the playoffs. You know.
I say it's a massive game, but it's like it's
a massive game actually, assuming that the Patriots keep winning,
you got ahold serve at the end of the day,
they beat the Chiefs in the regular season, hasn't amount
(25:36):
of shit when it mattered in January. I want to
ask you a question for your podcast. Well you've picked
the right spot, Eric, Will we start seeing the era
of the number one wide receivers go away in the NFL.
We see how well Green Bay does with no true
number one, spreading the ball to four to six guys.
(25:57):
We saw how aj Brown wasn't on the field. For Philly,
the need to always force feed the ball allowed the
team to be more open. The same could be said
about the Cowboys with desim ceed Lamb. I think it's
difficult because the whole point of a draft, and typically
most of these guys get drafted by the team Jamar Chase,
Justin Jefferson, Ceedee Lamb is to nail picks, and when
(26:20):
you draft a guy like that, you've nailed the pick.
I do think that they're their representation, Like why do
they make so much more than tight ends and running backs?
We've seen Saquan and Christian McCaffrey two of the last
three years, be the best player in the league on offense.
Who's the best player in the league this year on offense?
(26:42):
Jonathan Taylor. It doesn't mean that Justin Jefferson and Jamar
Chase aren't awesome players, but we see Justin Jefferson with
no quarterback, Like, what can he do? Why does that
guy make thirty five million dollars but Jonathan Taylor only
makes eighteen or whatever. The top tight end is in
his prime gets nineteen million or twenty million. How does
(27:03):
that work? So it's like, I just think the money's
out of whack if they were making the same amount
as the other guys. That's the one thing I will
give the NBA. It's like you're not judged on position
in the NBA, point guard, shooting guard, wing, power, forward guy, bank, center,
like you're either MAX player or not. And I think
(27:24):
we need to kind of get back to that. Now.
You could argue they give out too many max salaries,
and there's some truth to that, But a lot of
NFL teams seem to have a glaring weakness, but we
rarely see player movement in trades to address those weaknesses.
The Chiefs clearly need a running back only real weakness
and have draft capital. See I'd push back there. I
(27:47):
kind of like their running back unit. I think the
rookie's been good, and I think Pajaco and Hunt have
been pretty good this season. Like I would say their
need would be more I that they would trade for,
like a defensive guy. I'm looking at they're running you
(28:08):
got homes. Give him four touchdowns on the ground. Kareem
Hunt is giving four touchdowns on the ground. Put Jaco's
averaging over four yards of carry give him a touchdown. Yeah, man,
I don't think that's really been a huge issue. The
Steelers have draft capital and could use either wide receiver
or some defensive help. I go on and on, but
(28:29):
it seems like they're reluctant. I could this wasn't even
about the Chiefs really. I figure the salary cap may
play a part, But in your experience as a scout,
are there other factors that play into this? I would
say that teams, you know, GMS value like second and
third round picks. So let's say I got a good player.
Let's say let's let's use a crazy example. Let's say
(28:50):
the Falcons just lose this weekend and they're like three
and five and they're in shambles, and let's say the
Chiefs called and said, hey, what would it take for
us to get Bejon Robbins And they went, uh A
one in two two's. It's like, if you imagine if
you just put b Jon Robinson on the Chiefs for
(29:11):
the next obviously for the next couple of years, you'd
be like, da'd be Jesus to go with that group. Now,
I'm not saying they're gonna do it, and maybe the
chief the Rams, I mean you picked the team, like, hey,
we'll give you your first round pick back, So I
think part of it is that teams just get reluctant
to pull the trigger with the picks. I think it's
(29:32):
less about the cap because you can manipulate that and
teams can pick up money. But I think a lot
of it comes down to, like, like, listen, I remember
when the forty nine ers trade for Christian McCaffrey. I
thought it was crazy. I'm like, you're gonna give up
your second, your third, and your fourth round pick for
Christian McCaffrey. And obviously he's been one of the best
(29:52):
players in the league when he's on the field for them.
Since he's they made that trade, it has been he's
an incredible player, right, But I bet most gms that
might have been interested in Christian McCaffrey would be like,
under no circumstances, am I paying that much money? You know,
and that much money meaning the draft picks, Because that
is money those picks equal between my second and third
(30:14):
round pick. I should get at minimum one of those
guys should be an immediate starter for me who's making
no money, So it's a huge advantage. I just think
a lot of teams talk themselves out of picks and
someone DM me the other day about AJ Brown if
he got traded the dead cap acceleration. Obviously it's more
complicated to trade, you know, any player like AJ Brown,
(30:36):
Max Crosby, Miles Garrett. These guys just got huge new
contracts and it fucks with your cap. But I think
a lot of guys don't get traded just because teams
aren't willing to pay for it in the season. I
think it's easier in the offseason to make huge moves.
A huge fan of the Pod, what's your read on
quote old Howie versus quote new Howie? Fore the year's
(31:00):
Eagle fans couldn't stand him, the bad drafts, the power struggles,
be overthinking, but now he's basically the most trusted GM
in football. What do you think actually changed? Did he
evolve his Italian evaluator, get better people around him, or
just learn from past mistakes? And do you think this
version of how he is here to stay or could
we eventually see flashes of the old version creep back in? Also,
(31:21):
what do you think of the Eagles dream team era failed?
I think that time, you know, Coach Reid had been
there a long time. We're really trying to get over
the hump, and you just kind of start mixing desperation
with a lot of cooks in the kitchen. You know,
Joe Banner was heavily involved. You know when I was there,
Joe Banner, I guess he got kicked out the last year,
but like he played a big role, So I wouldn't
(31:44):
say how he had the juice by any means that
he had now and then I wasn't there for Chip,
but obviously, you know, Chip would be like, yeah, we're
not drafting Devonte Adams, Like what do you mean. They're like, ah,
he's not good enough. We'll take the Matthews kid out
of Vanderbilt. So it's like the coach had more juice
even when he wasn't the quote unquote GM because you're
not gonna draft players that your coach wants no part of.
(32:07):
So yeah, DeVante Adams slow, It's like, no, actually, he's
one of the best players in this draft. And this
is the thing that doesn't come out till usually after
situations are blown up. It's like, yeah, the scouting staff
didn't agree with anything he was doing. It's like some
of these stories that come out about the Patriots draft, like, yeah,
none of the scouts wanted to do it. Bill just
did it. Bill just wanted to draft this guy in
(32:27):
the first round. It's like the dude the Patriots just
traded to the forty nine Ers, the pass rusher who
was a second round pick. A couple years ago. I
saw Albert Breer this clip on local Boston radio, was like, yeah,
Bill wanted to take him in the first round. It's
like sometimes these coaches don't listen to anybody. So once
how he came back in charge in whatever twenty seventeen,
(32:47):
like from Doug to from Doug to Sirianni, Like he's
just gotten more juice than any GM in the league has.
So it's like if scouting staffs had more juice, I
think you would see different personnel moves where it's like
Kyle Shanahan doesn't want to do something, the personnel staff
(33:07):
has no say he's going to do it. I mean
coaches just, I mean typically have a lot of juice,
and when you're on a winning team, typically the coach
has all the juice. That's why I give credit to Siriani.
He just kind of knows where he's breas buttered. So
I would say that's he just has more control over
the last you know, seven eight years than he ever
had early on in his career. He also got the job.
(33:28):
I mean when I got hired, I think he was
like thirty five years old because I was twenty four
to twenty five. I remember thinking, like, he's actually closer
to my age than he is a lot of these
guys working in the league. It was actually kind of inspirational.
It was like, God, they just hired this thirty five
year old GM longtime Lions fan. MVP question, How is
Jonathan Taylor not in the top five of the MVP discussion?
(33:51):
He is currently on pace for eighteen hundred yards and
twenty seven touchdowns, very similar to LT for the Chargers
and his MVP season. Yeah, man, I mean you can
go on and all, and I just think the running backs.
I've heard a couple of people break this down, they
just have no shot. I mean, they probably hasn't run
for twenty five hundred yards. I mean seriously, like Saquon
couldn't have been there. I just think what Saquan McCaffrey,
(34:12):
what Jonathan Taylor is doing, we might as well just
rename it the quarterback MVP because it feels very, very
unlikely that you're ever going to see a Barry Sanders,
Marshall fallk Lt Adrian Peterson. The one year quarterbacks are
just gonna win it. I don't have a great answer
besides that that just feels like the the standard practice
(34:35):
moving forward. Fair. Not huge fan of the show. Got
a broader NFL question for you, w end on this,
Why does California get to host back to back Super Bowls?
Traveling to California and paying for the super Bowl experience
is way more expensive than for fans than the other venues.
Doesn't seem fair considering that most of the country is
(34:55):
on the East Coast and thus easier travel and down
here in the South, we really love our football, and
I would say more than California. Heck, the Rams won
the Super Bowl and they feel like an afterthought in LA.
We have great stadiums in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans,
but seems like we get passed up. I mean those
all those places get it right. I mean New Orleans
(35:17):
gets it. I was just there last year. Miami's got
it multiple times in the last five years, six years,
Arizona gets it. On loop. You could argue the Bay
Area like the Bay Area. If you told me they
never get another super Bowl, like, I wouldn't complain, right,
I mean, it's not an ideal setup like New Orleans
(35:40):
or even in Scottsdale is a much better venue I
think for a super Bowl than San Francisco. But like
their franchise has a lot of juice, you know. I
mean they have a lot of poll and they I
mean the last time San Francisco had it was ten
years ago, so it's not like they get that off.
So in LA is always gonna get it. Warm weather.
(36:00):
Place in la is not just one of the biggest
cities in America, it's a place that's hosted this event
many times. And it's also their franchise has a lot
of juice. So if you told me that the super
Bowl was just stayed three places Arizona, New Orleans, and Miami,
(36:21):
I don't think anyone would complain. If you just said
it's only Miami or only New Orleans, I don't think
anyone can plain either. But they're always rotating, and these
places that are going to build these domes like Tennessee
Nashville will get it even though it's cold there. But
if they build a dome stadium or one that has
a retractable roof. They will get one, you know, the Cowboys.
(36:45):
I mean, I listen, I mean, are random people flying
to the Super Bowl experience. I love the NFL, but
like I wouldn't exactly call that like Disneyland or anything.
But I hear you. I mean, I don't know. I
think it has a lot to do with the poll
and you can only have super Bowls in nicer climate areas. So,
(37:05):
I mean when I went to the I was at
that game Panthers Denver in Levi Stadium whatever, ten years ago.
I was sweating. I wore pants and like a button up,
short sleeved shirt and I remember being hot. It's so,
I mean, weather plays a part the volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
I said, you know what, I got a migraine that
(00:22):
I don't get very often, but I was basically bedridden
all afternoon on Wednesday and I was unable to do
the podcast. So I was like, you know what, we
had a little less content this week. Let's put out
a weekend mail bag at John middlecoff is the Instagram
at John middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms.
We're gonna do a little weekend mailbag. So I rattled
(00:42):
off about probably about thirty minutes worth of worth of stuff,
and that will be the game plan today. Very simple.
You guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast. Everything's
up on YouTube as well. But first, the official ticketing
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(01:03):
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Download the game Time app, create an account and use it.
(01:24):
O Jona's John twenty dollars off your first purchase terms
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game Time app. Today. Doesn't get any easier than that,
kind of like, listen to this podcast. Okay, let's just
dive right in. I'm gonna try to go rapid fire.
So this is not gonna be too long. If the
(01:45):
Chiefs beat the Bill Sunday, is it on the board?
They win out the rest of the season. I know
the Colts are good and the Broncos are ahead of
us in the standings, but I feel like bo Nick
is gonna let them down once December and January come around.
Also of the podcast, watch it every day. I appreciate you.
I would say winning out like it's the NFL. Are
(02:08):
they gonna win out and go fourteen and three? That
seems a little little unrealistic because in the NFL, like
I would say, they lose one of those Broncos games,
which would probably be the one in Arrowhead, which is
very understandable. You can have an excellent you can go
twelve and five and lose a couple of division games.
(02:30):
You know, division games are really hard. I guess the
Chiefs have already lost the Chargers. They're not going to
lose the Raiders, but I could see them split in
the division, so I could see them losing one of
the Broncos games. Yeah. To me, the Chiefs feel like
twelve and five now. They got it rolling and they
have a higher ceiling than I think they've had in
(02:50):
years because the offense is much better, even though they've
been going to the playoffs. Big Ravens fan here love
the show. Keep it up. I just need to understand something.
How is the media saying Drake May is the new
Josh Allen and the Patriots? Uh? And the Patriots are
back when they clearly see their schedule has been a joke.
(03:11):
I know they beat the Bills, but that was one game.
Do you actually think they could be better that he
could be better than Alan? Uh? No? I mean, Josh
is one of the more dominant players we've seen in
the NFL in a long time. Uh. But you know,
sometimes I think we're very hesitant. You use Rock Purdy
(03:32):
as an example. He became a really good player, but
he was a seventh round pick, so you had to
like fight to get your respect. Jordan Love, same thing, right,
Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott Forever. Russell Wilson took him
years for people to be like, oh, yeah, he's really good.
When you're it's the opposite. When you're drafted really high.
It's like one good pass from Kayleb Williams, Oh he's
(03:52):
the next great thing. It's like, let's see if he
can play the position. When you're drafted high and you
start making plays, we annoint you pretty quickly. Now he's
having an excellent year. Now, i'd get they're playing bad teams.
He doesn't exactly have you know, Gronkowski and Edelman running around.
I would say his weapons aren't great. But there was
a lot of hype on this kid. I mean, once
(04:13):
upon a time, Nick Saban offered him five million dollars
to be their quarterback. Think about that, and it wouldn't
have been wrong. I remember it was a big deal.
When he's like, yeah, I chose to say it. North Carolina,
and he's got a chance to be really really good.
Unless you're Ryan Poles, you thought he sucks again. I'm
not making that up. He said that in the draft meeting.
Do teams have in house financial advisors to help rookies
(04:36):
make responsible financial decisions. It seems common for young athletes
to blow through millions of dollars without considering that what
they won't earn that the salary for the rest of
their lives. I think teams, it probably varies a little
team to team. I mean most teams have some sort
of developmental guy, typically former player, like high level guy.
(05:00):
I would say, like, this is gonna sound a little
cold hearted, but that's not necessarily the NFL's problem, right,
I mean, they can hold your hand, but eventually, like
you got to make the decisions. I would put the
onus more on the agent, right, I'm paying you so
you figure it out now. Ultimately I will help you out,
(05:21):
you know, provide things like real estate agents, help you
get a lay of the land, obviously, help you around
land other business deals when you're a good player with
our partners. But am I worried about what you do
with that money? As long as it's legal no, not really.
So if you want to buy five Lamborghinis or invest
(05:42):
it all into one of middle cuff stocks, that's ripping.
That's kind of your decision. That to me should be
the number one push for an agent is, hey, I
got multiple financial advisors who are here to support you.
I'm CIA, i am David Mulgedta, I'm whoever. I have
this infrastructure here to take care of you. The team's
(06:03):
just the one paying you, and they're the ones that
we're gonna get the money from. So I not saying
the teams don't care, but like that's not really theirs,
the least of their worries. If you are financially stable
when you're forty years old, the agent who you were
literally paying should be all over that to help you out.
That's that would be my thought. I also think the
(06:27):
reality I've never been super rich when I was, you know,
multi millionaire of twenty three years old. But you're just
wore men. We're gonna make them decisions. We're gonna buy
dumb shit. I probably buy dumb things. You buy dumb
things that if we were the other person would be like, wait,
you're spending money on that. It's part of life. A
big Listener mail back question, what do you think the
(06:47):
Vikings will do with Kevin O'Connell. Obviously, he recently signed
an extension, but numerous reports saying he's losing a locker
room over how he handled the WinCE injury and how
they've been babying AJ McCarthy. Vikings haven't won a playoff
game since twenty nineteen, which was before O'Connell was hired.
(07:07):
I believe, not saying it's all on him, but this
is a results based business. I haven't been deep on
the Vikings reddit boards or their local podcasts or radio
shows to hear that I have not seen anything. I'll
take your word at it. There have been in listen.
This is part of football when things get ugly. Losing
the locker room, I mean, I think a lot of
(07:32):
people are wondering, and rightfully so. Like the JJ McCarthy
thing seems a little sketchy. It's like he rolls ankle.
Do he heard his hamstring? What the fuck's is injury?
He's healthy enough where you can put him in pads
on game day if there's an emergency, but you can't
start him. The whole situation has been red flagged. And
when you start babing a player on a good team,
(07:55):
I know they're technically not good right now, but a
team that is guys have won and knows what, but
winning a lot of games look like it can start resentment,
and I think he's got to be very careful about it.
The best coaches will pivot off. Okay, you like this
guy two years ago in the draft, well three years
later and he can't play, And if that's the case,
then he can't play, then you gotta pivot. And if
(08:16):
you do pivot, players will respect you. I saw Kyle
Shanahan pivots so fast your head would spend. He wanted
to like him. Turns out he wasn't good and they pivoted.
Now part of pivoting is you got to have another option.
But so it's like he had purity to turn to.
But you could not let a misdraft pick on a
quarterback sink the ship because if you do, everyone will
(08:36):
be fired. Now, Kevin O'Connell now is really rich signing
the extension. He's probably making my guess would be twelve
thirteen to fourteen million dollars a year. But so it's
at the end of the day, whether he's fired or not. Like,
it's not like it's gonna change the course of his
just life with his family, Like they're set for life.
I think that's what you call generational wealth. It's funny,
(08:58):
you know on the internet sometimes generational wealth. Well, it's
like you got to earn seven hundred million dollars Like No,
I mean, I think you guys are a little inflated
on some of your numbers. So I think Kevin O'Connell
is going to be under a lot of pressure if
this year keeps going south. What are we doing next year?
And a were we gonna have a loyalty to this guy
if he does not play well, because if you do,
(09:18):
then this thing's gonna get really ugly, really fast. If
he will be like the guy that drafted him once
upon a time. Listen, you can talk a lot of
shit about Belichick, not the greatest drafter, especially down the
stretch these last four or five years, but he would
make cold blooded decisions, and this is a cold blooded league.
You get too emotional about players. I mean, Andy retraded
Tyreek Hill in the peak of his powers. See audios
(09:40):
will go a different direction. You've got to be willing
to do that shit, and if you're not, you will
lose your locker room in games. So I just something
to keep an eye on. This year, he'll get a
little bit of a pass rightfully, so they the quarterback situation,
which might have been his doing. But regardless it happens,
how are they gonna pivot next year? I want to
(10:03):
hear your preference on your favorite commentators. Would love to
hear your thoughts for football and other sports. Personally, I'm
a big collins Worth guy. I look for a couple
of things. One, I like Chris because he enjoys football
and you could feel his excitement. Some people might say
he's a little cheesy, a little over the top, Like
(10:24):
I admire that. My go to type commentator would be
like Aikman when he's kind of on edge talking some shit,
Like that's kind of what I like. You know, maybe
I lean a little more negative, like I have nothing
against Tony Romo and every once in a while when
I have you know, now, with these four boxes, sometimes
you're not always listening to the top game, but when
(10:45):
you listen to Romo and Nance, like NaN's a big
part of my life. I watch a lot of PGA
Tour golf. So I've spent a lot of hours over
the last twenty years watching Jim nance So I like
hanging out with Jim Lance Jim Nantz. I do think
the Romo thing is just can be a little over
the top of times, but I also watch it like
(11:05):
it's an easy hang, whether it's cheesy or not. And
I would say, you know, collins Worth is better than Romo,
but I think those are easy. I think a lot
of like the second and third tier broadcast can be
really horrendous. I mean, I'm not gonna name names, but
if you just start getting anyone that has a team
that's not very good, when you're watching the lower rung
(11:27):
like fifth games from CBS or Fox, You're like, oh
my god, this is pretty bad. Uh. So I would
say I would say Aikman's my favorite. I was watching
the World Series. It might have been the Gummy I
was on, but I was thinking John Smoltz is good.
I saw Daniel Jeremiah tweet this out maybe like a
(11:50):
couple of weeks ago, just saying how impressed he was
like John Smoltz's knowledge of baseball. I was like, God,
this guy, if he was a football announ He'd be
heralded as the top guy for sure. I mean, the
guy knows baseball, like the intricacies of the different moments
and what you should do, what you shouldn't do. It's
(12:11):
like for a guy that plays golf seven days a week.
This guy's dialed. I think he's I think he's excellent.
Trying to think basketball. I always liked Van Gundy, not
stand Jeff who's fired who got fired from TV and
is now I think the Clippers assistant coach. But I
was a big Jeff fan. Gundy guy, Uh yeah, I
(12:34):
would say that's my list is relatively short of people
I would quote unquote good. I'm also like most most
of you probably, I've watched so many games that I
get numbed to a lot of the commenters. I don't
even really pay attention. If anything, I'm just listening for
nuggets that I can use in the podcast, like stats
they might spit out. I actually like the college game. Yeah,
(12:59):
I think I think Herbstreet's really good. Jay Billis has
been good for a long time. I think Clatt's good.
I like Yeah, I like actually a lot of the
college quarterbacks. McElroy definitely like Jesse Palmer, I'll always enjoy
I feel like I've watched a lot of Jesse Palmer games.
(13:20):
I feel like college has better ones than the NFL. Yeah,
I feel actually pretty confident. I feel like college has
better broadcast than the NFL. Not in terms of like
maybe the graphics or whatever. I'm just mean actual people
in the chair. They just feel a little and maybe
there's a little less pressure so they can just be normal.
(13:42):
I just I don't know. I have to do a
research project on that. How can you take sports gambling seriously?
After the new NBA scandal came out, The NFL has
so many miscalls and so many questionable penalties on a
weekly basis. Plus what happens one week means nothing the
next week. It's called gambling. The difference between basketball and football,
(14:04):
and we've talked a lot about this is there's always
been a human element with the referees. The broadcasts are
so good with the cameras. Now that we see a
lot of these things like historically, when a ball hit
two people diving for it, it was clear who the
ball went out of went out on right in basketball,
for example, forever in the NBA, in college, in high
(14:25):
school pick up basketball. Now at the slow mold replays
like I went off the tip of the singer, we
just know more information. It's impossible to rig NFL games now.
Like you said, an official can miss a call, It's
hard to be an official now. I've always said, like,
if you missed serious calls, you should be fired. They
never are. And maybe you can say, well, John, they're
in on it. I would say, yeah. Part of not
(14:47):
knowing what's gonna happen week to week is what makes
the game so interesting to gamble on. Where in basketball,
like you know the bad teams, like they're gonna get
rounded week in, week out, And Chauncey Billips was literally
throwing games. I heard someone say this the other day, like,
isn't it crazy that we thought it was a bigger
deal for Chauncey Billups to screw over people in a
(15:11):
poker game than it was for him to tell someone
I'm going to manipulate the outcome of this NBA game.
That was the bigger headline tells you everything you need
to know. I think the NBA is easier to rig.
I think it's harder to rig in the NFL. I
also think it would have come out. I think it's
just too big, too much money. People would have talked,
(15:33):
maybe I'm naive lifelong Browns fan. And we have two
first round picks, we are expected to pair them and
take a quarterback. But with our O line literally having
nobody coming back and no wide receivers, Judy is a
two at best. You almost can't evaluate a quarterback. Dylan
is short and looks blah. If Sanders plays for us,
he has no chance. Stefanski has a bad track record.
(15:56):
Watson looked terrible, but how much do you blame him
or the organization? He didn't want to play for us,
but he took the bag like Miles. My thoughts is
that Watson when he comes back, might be our best
quarterback and we need to draft an OT, a wide
receiver and an OT. If we bring a rookie quarterback
into this mess, he will just look awful. Do you
(16:18):
think this puts? Uh? Do you think put best hope?
The team's best hope is to build a team around
Watson and start him next year. You can never start
Deshaun Watson again. Uh, that that ship hasn't just sailed.
You could never roll him out his his career with
the Cleveland Browns is done. You just you can never
(16:40):
do that to the fans. Uh. I do think I'm
with you, you know, And I've been saying this for
a while. In Stefanski. It's like, everyone tells me how
great of a coach he is, but I watched him
do with these off these backup random quarterbacks, and the
offense looks worse and worse by the week. Now you
can say, well, is offensive line is terrible. I've seen
(17:01):
a lot of teams with bad teams figure out ways
to manipulate points. I do think the organization is fed up.
I mean, the owner's nuts. They were given the out
with Miles Garrett. He said, trade me. He's thirty years old.
You could trade him for like two ones and two
twos and reset your franchise. And they refuse to do it.
And I just have a hard time believing the GM
(17:22):
wouldn't have traded them. But I don't know. I do
confidently believe that Watson will never play for you again,
and you can't, can't. You can't play them anymore. I'm
a lifelong Buckeye fan, born and raised in Columbus, and
have been intending games with my dad since I was four.
As you stated, you are a lifelong Ohio State hater. Well,
(17:44):
I certainly can understand and have run into many with
similar feelings. I am curious what do people truly hate
about Ohio State. I'm in the cult through and through,
so I can't quite see the forest or the trees. Well,
I think typically people like don't hate Minnesota football, Jaguar football,
the Atlanta Hawks, right the Chicago White Sox. Who do
(18:10):
people typically hate? The Yankees, the Dodgers, the Chiefs right now,
the Patriots forever Duke basketball. Part of what makes sports
fun is like, I don't have any tangible reason to
hate Ohio State. I kind of do, I guess with
the Lakers as a kid, But you know, it's like
the Sacramento Kings, who I was a fan of at
(18:32):
the time, have been the worst run franchise probably in
all of American sports for twenty years. The Lakers impact
them zero, But I have this irrational hate towards the franchise.
When I see it, I just cringe. I don't really
have a reason. I really don't, especially now that they're
bought by this new owner and Luca's on the team.
I would say the same thing for Ohio State football. Like, listen,
(18:53):
I want to act like Ryan Day's some scrub, but
his resume speaks for itself. He's doing a good job.
Matt Patricia higher looks good. I mean that's undisputable. Like
it's kind of worked out. Brian Hartline elevated offensive coordinator
working out pretty well. There. They are the cream of
the crop in college sports. And Listen, I didn't grow
up going to USC football games in their prime. I
(19:17):
went to Cal football program sucked in the nineties, wasn't
any good, didn't get good Untiljeff Tedford showed up there.
So my point is like I've always I like some favorites,
Like I've always been a fan of Duke basketball, But
I also liked the Red Sox with Ortiz and Manny
before they could beat the Yankees because I was kind
of rooted for them because they were the underdog. So
I kind of pick and choose. I don't know, I
(19:38):
just don't like Ohio State football. I feel like I
like a lot of the guys that played there, right,
Like reading all about man Gold last year, it's like
this is the type. Gotten is my type. Guy Dustin Fox,
he used to go on his radio show All the
Time former player in the mid two thousands. With those
guys aj Hawk, they seem like I got a cool crew,
Like I never watched Cam Hayward. I ever watched Ohio
(20:00):
State guy, especially ones that go on to do other
things and not go eh, guy's really impressive. I just
don't root for the team. I'm just rooting for you
guys to lose. I need someone to root against. And
the power of sports. And this goes back to Howard
Stern when they asked him like, well, how long do
they do his fans listen? And then he said like
an hour? He said, well, how long do the people
(20:22):
that hate him listen? He said, that's where he gained
such a big market share. They listen for double the
amount of time. And that's the strong part about the Yankees,
about Ohio State football, about dupe basketball, is the haters
pay attention. And that's that's the most powerful part of
the Ohio State brand, besides being the elite brand. Is
(20:43):
the haters just have a strong of an emotional connection.
I have no reason to hate him, I just kind
of do. I don't know why. I don't really like
Notre Dame football either, though, Marcus Freeman's kind of grown
on me. I don't know, some people you just don't like.
I mean, I think we need to get back to
that part of society. You don't need to like everybody,
or you don't need to pretend to like everybody, because
clearly humans don't like everybody. We need to get back
(21:04):
to that world where it's like, I just don't like
this guy. Why, I don't know, I just fucking can't
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(22:42):
A question about Kayleb Williams. I'm not really Bears fan,
but I've become a huge NFL fan. Do you think
Ben Johnson would really consider benching him this year for
badget if he keeps playing like this? Do you think
the front office would doing so? I think the only
way you ever bench him in twenty twenty five if
you know he's done with the Bears cause there's no
(23:03):
benching Caleb Williams in twenty twenty five, in November December
and ever coming back from it. The only way I
guess you get away with it is like the last
game of the season and you have six wins, it's like,
let's get Tyson badge at the game, maybe a showcase game.
Totally get that. But if you're benching him with several
(23:23):
games left, I mean that, there's just no returning from that.
I love it when people say, too, it's like, these
are the times no one has any patients. Well, yeah,
there's a lot more money on the line. Now, this
isn't nineteen ninety six where it's like, oh yeah, salary
caps forty million salary caps is gonna be four hundred
million dollars in a couple of years. These media deals
are huge. The amount of money between winning and losing
(23:45):
for an individual franchise is immense. I can't believe it
didn't have any patients for Brian Kelly because they can't
afford to keep losing. So if they didn't pay him
fifty million dollars to clean out his office, they were
gonna lose another one hundred million dollars. So they had
a choice either draw a line in the sand or
keep dealing with the people who are always on the
fence of like just let it play out. It's like, well,
(24:07):
we can't let this play out because we're gonna go
seven and five and fucking no one's gonna show up
and we're gonna have problems. And if you want the
softball girls to have fucking cleats on their shoes, we
gotta win a football, you know. So I just think
that that's one that's becoming a pet peeve of mine.
It's like everyone's just impatient. Yeah, society's a little less patient.
Welcome to twenty twenty five in America. Time ain't on
(24:30):
our side, even though it's going the same pace as
always gone. It's just we live in different times. So yeah,
there's way less patience for most things. It's kind of
the way the world works, which I don't mind. I'm
pretty impatient. Individual are the Bills the most overrated team
in the NFL. They're five wins were against teams with
a combined record of ten and twenty nine. Now, the
(24:51):
four and four Panthers are the best team. They've beat
truth against the teams the defense looked like a JV
squad out there, and outside of James Cook, Josh is
rounded by plumbers. I don't doubt he can single handily
carry a team to wins, but for people to say
that they are contenders, it's crazy to me. I think
this week against the Chiefs, in week eleven against the
Bucks is the barometer. Yeah, I agree, I'm a little nervous.
(25:14):
I was rooting for them to finally get to a
super Bowl and win a super Bowl. But this is
a massive game and at the end of the day,
they're going to get judged off the playoffs. You know.
I say it's a massive game, but it's like it's
a massive game actually, assuming that the Patriots keep winning,
you got ahold serve at the end of the day,
they beat the Chiefs in the regular season, hasn't amount
(25:36):
of shit when it mattered in January. I want to
ask you a question for your podcast. Well you've picked
the right spot, Eric, Will we start seeing the era
of the number one wide receivers go away in the NFL.
We see how well Green Bay does with no true
number one, spreading the ball to four to six guys.
(25:57):
We saw how aj Brown wasn't on the field. For Philly,
the need to always force feed the ball allowed the
team to be more open. The same could be said
about the Cowboys with desim ceed Lamb. I think it's
difficult because the whole point of a draft, and typically
most of these guys get drafted by the team Jamar Chase,
Justin Jefferson, Ceedee Lamb is to nail picks, and when
(26:20):
you draft a guy like that, you've nailed the pick.
I do think that they're their representation, Like why do
they make so much more than tight ends and running backs?
We've seen Saquan and Christian McCaffrey two of the last
three years, be the best player in the league on offense.
Who's the best player in the league this year on offense?
(26:42):
Jonathan Taylor. It doesn't mean that Justin Jefferson and Jamar
Chase aren't awesome players, but we see Justin Jefferson with
no quarterback, Like, what can he do? Why does that
guy make thirty five million dollars but Jonathan Taylor only
makes eighteen or whatever. The top tight end is in
his prime gets nineteen million or twenty million. How does
(27:03):
that work? So it's like, I just think the money's
out of whack if they were making the same amount
as the other guys. That's the one thing I will
give the NBA. It's like you're not judged on position
in the NBA, point guard, shooting guard, wing, power, forward guy, bank, center,
like you're either MAX player or not. And I think
(27:24):
we need to kind of get back to that. Now.
You could argue they give out too many max salaries,
and there's some truth to that, But a lot of
NFL teams seem to have a glaring weakness, but we
rarely see player movement in trades to address those weaknesses.
The Chiefs clearly need a running back only real weakness
and have draft capital. See I'd push back there. I
(27:47):
kind of like their running back unit. I think the
rookie's been good, and I think Pajaco and Hunt have
been pretty good this season. Like I would say their
need would be more I that they would trade for,
like a defensive guy. I'm looking at they're running you
(28:08):
got homes. Give him four touchdowns on the ground. Kareem
Hunt is giving four touchdowns on the ground. Put Jaco's
averaging over four yards of carry give him a touchdown. Yeah, man,
I don't think that's really been a huge issue. The
Steelers have draft capital and could use either wide receiver
or some defensive help. I go on and on, but
(28:29):
it seems like they're reluctant. I could this wasn't even
about the Chiefs really. I figure the salary cap may
play a part, But in your experience as a scout,
are there other factors that play into this? I would
say that teams, you know, GMS value like second and
third round picks. So let's say I got a good player.
Let's say let's let's use a crazy example. Let's say
(28:50):
the Falcons just lose this weekend and they're like three
and five and they're in shambles, and let's say the
Chiefs called and said, hey, what would it take for
us to get Bejon Robbins And they went, uh A
one in two two's. It's like, if you imagine if
you just put b Jon Robinson on the Chiefs for
(29:11):
the next obviously for the next couple of years, you'd
be like, da'd be Jesus to go with that group. Now,
I'm not saying they're gonna do it, and maybe the
chief the Rams, I mean you picked the team, like, hey,
we'll give you your first round pick back, So I
think part of it is that teams just get reluctant
to pull the trigger with the picks. I think it's
(29:32):
less about the cap because you can manipulate that and
teams can pick up money. But I think a lot
of it comes down to, like, like, listen, I remember
when the forty nine ers trade for Christian McCaffrey. I
thought it was crazy. I'm like, you're gonna give up
your second, your third, and your fourth round pick for
Christian McCaffrey. And obviously he's been one of the best
(29:52):
players in the league when he's on the field for them.
Since he's they made that trade, it has been he's
an incredible player, right, But I bet most gms that
might have been interested in Christian McCaffrey would be like,
under no circumstances, am I paying that much money? You know,
and that much money meaning the draft picks, Because that
is money those picks equal between my second and third
(30:14):
round pick. I should get at minimum one of those
guys should be an immediate starter for me who's making
no money, So it's a huge advantage. I just think
a lot of teams talk themselves out of picks and
someone DM me the other day about AJ Brown if
he got traded the dead cap acceleration. Obviously it's more
complicated to trade, you know, any player like AJ Brown,
(30:36):
Max Crosby, Miles Garrett. These guys just got huge new
contracts and it fucks with your cap. But I think
a lot of guys don't get traded just because teams
aren't willing to pay for it in the season. I
think it's easier in the offseason to make huge moves.
A huge fan of the Pod, what's your read on
quote old Howie versus quote new Howie? Fore the year's
(31:00):
Eagle fans couldn't stand him, the bad drafts, the power struggles,
be overthinking, but now he's basically the most trusted GM
in football. What do you think actually changed? Did he
evolve his Italian evaluator, get better people around him, or
just learn from past mistakes? And do you think this
version of how he is here to stay or could
we eventually see flashes of the old version creep back in? Also,
(31:21):
what do you think of the Eagles dream team era failed?
I think that time, you know, Coach Reid had been
there a long time. We're really trying to get over
the hump, and you just kind of start mixing desperation
with a lot of cooks in the kitchen. You know,
Joe Banner was heavily involved. You know when I was there,
Joe Banner, I guess he got kicked out the last year,
but like he played a big role, So I wouldn't
(31:44):
say how he had the juice by any means that
he had now and then I wasn't there for Chip,
but obviously, you know, Chip would be like, yeah, we're
not drafting Devonte Adams, Like what do you mean. They're like, ah,
he's not good enough. We'll take the Matthews kid out
of Vanderbilt. So it's like the coach had more juice
even when he wasn't the quote unquote GM because you're
not gonna draft players that your coach wants no part of.
(32:07):
So yeah, DeVante Adams slow, It's like, no, actually, he's
one of the best players in this draft. And this
is the thing that doesn't come out till usually after
situations are blown up. It's like, yeah, the scouting staff
didn't agree with anything he was doing. It's like some
of these stories that come out about the Patriots draft, like, yeah,
none of the scouts wanted to do it. Bill just
did it. Bill just wanted to draft this guy in
(32:27):
the first round. It's like the dude the Patriots just
traded to the forty nine Ers, the pass rusher who
was a second round pick. A couple years ago. I
saw Albert Breer this clip on local Boston radio, was like, yeah,
Bill wanted to take him in the first round. It's
like sometimes these coaches don't listen to anybody. So once
how he came back in charge in whatever twenty seventeen,
(32:47):
like from Doug to from Doug to Sirianni, Like he's
just gotten more juice than any GM in the league has.
So it's like if scouting staffs had more juice, I
think you would see different personnel moves where it's like
Kyle Shanahan doesn't want to do something, the personnel staff
(33:07):
has no say he's going to do it. I mean
coaches just, I mean typically have a lot of juice,
and when you're on a winning team, typically the coach
has all the juice. That's why I give credit to Siriani.
He just kind of knows where he's breas buttered. So
I would say that's he just has more control over
the last you know, seven eight years than he ever
had early on in his career. He also got the job.
(33:28):
I mean when I got hired, I think he was
like thirty five years old because I was twenty four
to twenty five. I remember thinking, like, he's actually closer
to my age than he is a lot of these
guys working in the league. It was actually kind of inspirational.
It was like, God, they just hired this thirty five
year old GM longtime Lions fan. MVP question, How is
Jonathan Taylor not in the top five of the MVP discussion?
(33:51):
He is currently on pace for eighteen hundred yards and
twenty seven touchdowns, very similar to LT for the Chargers
and his MVP season. Yeah, man, I mean you can
go on and all, and I just think the running backs.
I've heard a couple of people break this down, they
just have no shot. I mean, they probably hasn't run
for twenty five hundred yards. I mean seriously, like Saquon
couldn't have been there. I just think what Saquan McCaffrey,
(34:12):
what Jonathan Taylor is doing, we might as well just
rename it the quarterback MVP because it feels very, very
unlikely that you're ever going to see a Barry Sanders,
Marshall fallk Lt Adrian Peterson. The one year quarterbacks are
just gonna win it. I don't have a great answer
besides that that just feels like the the standard practice
(34:35):
moving forward. Fair. Not huge fan of the show. Got
a broader NFL question for you, w end on this,
Why does California get to host back to back Super Bowls?
Traveling to California and paying for the super Bowl experience
is way more expensive than for fans than the other venues.
Doesn't seem fair considering that most of the country is
(34:55):
on the East Coast and thus easier travel and down
here in the South, we really love our football, and
I would say more than California. Heck, the Rams won
the Super Bowl and they feel like an afterthought in LA.
We have great stadiums in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans,
but seems like we get passed up. I mean those
all those places get it right. I mean New Orleans
(35:17):
gets it. I was just there last year. Miami's got
it multiple times in the last five years, six years,
Arizona gets it. On loop. You could argue the Bay
Area like the Bay Area. If you told me they
never get another super Bowl, like, I wouldn't complain, right,
I mean, it's not an ideal setup like New Orleans
(35:40):
or even in Scottsdale is a much better venue I
think for a super Bowl than San Francisco. But like
their franchise has a lot of juice, you know. I
mean they have a lot of poll and they I
mean the last time San Francisco had it was ten
years ago, so it's not like they get that off.
So in LA is always gonna get it. Warm weather.
(36:00):
Place in la is not just one of the biggest
cities in America, it's a place that's hosted this event
many times. And it's also their franchise has a lot
of juice. So if you told me that the super
Bowl was just stayed three places Arizona, New Orleans, and Miami,
(36:21):
I don't think anyone would complain. If you just said
it's only Miami or only New Orleans, I don't think
anyone can plain either. But they're always rotating, and these
places that are going to build these domes like Tennessee
Nashville will get it even though it's cold there. But
if they build a dome stadium or one that has
a retractable roof. They will get one, you know, the Cowboys.
(36:45):
I mean, I listen, I mean, are random people flying
to the Super Bowl experience. I love the NFL, but
like I wouldn't exactly call that like Disneyland or anything.
But I hear you. I mean, I don't know. I
think it has a lot to do with the poll
and you can only have super Bowls in nicer climate areas. So,
(37:05):
I mean when I went to the I was at
that game Panthers Denver in Levi Stadium whatever, ten years ago.
I was sweating. I wore pants and like a button up,
short sleeved shirt and I remember being hot. It's so,
I mean, weather plays a part the volume
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