November 26, 2025 • 49 mins
John opens the show previewing all of the games on Thanksgiving and tells you who he thinks is going to win. Next, he does a big mailbag and answers all of your questions from the week to get you ready for the weekend.
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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?
John Middlecoff Three and Out Podcasts presented by my friends
(00:21):
at Zone Pouches. Hopefully you're doing great. Getting ready for
Thanksgiving with the family. Can have a few beers, a
few cocktails, some turkey, watch some football in joy your
life today. Our plan is we're gonna hit the three
Thanksgiving games and then we'll do a little mail bag
at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire
(00:45):
in those dms. We will not have a show on
Turkey Day, so this will be the last show till
Thursday night and I'll go live on the YouTube channel
after the Bengals game, I guess the Raven game ravenspangles
and this will be a podcast and then we'll probably
have another reaction after the Eagles and the Bear. So
(01:06):
a lot of stuff going on, lot of content coming
down the pike, and we'll just keep swinging. So you
guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you
may listen YouTube so you never miss a live reaction.
We had one after the forty nine Ers end Bryce
Young's career. That was rough, but that was a podcast yesterday,
So make sure you never miss a thing. Subscribe to
(01:27):
all of our channels and we got you covered. But first,
you know, I gotta tell you all my friends, my partners.
The official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Do
you want to go to a pro football game? Do
you want to go to an NFL game? I didn't
go to my first NFL game till twenty ten and
realize this is pretty fun. It's a good time. It's
an event I would highly recommend. I know a lot
of you guys watching or listening have Attendon and if
(01:50):
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(02:11):
dollars off. Down the game Time app the day, last
minute tickets low as price guaranteed. Okay, let's before we
do the mailback. Let's do a little rapid fire the
Thursday Games, which is an incredible slate. I didn't do
a research project, but my guess would be this is
one of, if not the better three games stretches and
Thanksgiving history. Now. I don't know when they started doing
(02:33):
the night game. That's probably within the last decade. I mean,
I think we had a period where we just had
the two games, a lot of Cowboys, a lot of Lions.
But now with the three games, it doesn't get much
better than this. So all these lines are presented by
hard Rock bet. I'm gonna take the Packers. Obviously, Week
ones a long time ago, the Packers kick their ass.
(02:55):
Someth'm just a little off with the Lions, like it's
I talked to Tom, the guy who runs the gym.
I didn't even know. He's like, I'm from Detroit, big
Lions fan. Like shit yard, He's like that was crazy.
I'm like, yeah, Jamior Gibbs saved the day. It's just
something's off. Defensively, they looked like last year at the
end of the season when they have a bunch of injuries.
(03:15):
I mean, for Jamis to throw for three hundred and
fifty plus yards. He had eighteen completions. Mario Manningham, Odell
Beckham and Malik Neighbors weren't running around out there. It's
like one Dale Robinson, who actually is pretty good. But
Jamis's touchdown catch which was sick. Something's just off now
green Bay, it's not like I feel great about and
(03:36):
obviously Detroit at home. That offense looks awesome in theory,
not all the time this year, but green Bay's defense
is fantastic. I don't think you can get the Packers
right now plus two and a half kind of like
them money line. Like, to me, if you're gonna bet
the Packers, I would just take him to win outright,
And to me, green Bay wins this game. They still
got a couple of games against the Bears, it would
(03:58):
feel like they could kind of hit I wouldn't say
the after Burners, but they would be in the driver's
seat to win the division. So I'm taking the Packers
in this game, which pains me. I'm a Dan Campbell,
Jared Goff, Jamiir Gibbs, guy. I love Laporta two, but
I mean that's a pretty big blow. Obviously, the Packers
are missing their tight end as well, but I'm taking
green Bay in the spot. The offensive line for Detroit
(04:21):
hasn't been as dominant, that's another problem, and obviously green
Bay's pass rush and just team speed on defense. I mean,
Jeff Haffley has probably been one of the standout stars
so far this season as a coordinator. This game's fantastic.
I mean it really is. You know, the Chiefs down
eleven points, win that game, get some life for six
and five going on the road to the Cowboys who
are just getting shell ACKed. Win that game. I mean,
(04:43):
you go to the gym Monday morning and Steven A
saying like was that a legacy the fighting game by Dak?
I don't know how First Take writes their headlines like
it would be fucking exhausting, Like is that the biggest
win of Dak's career? It's like, how do you guys
do this every week? I couldn't be in that business.
I just couldn't do those topics day after day, which
(05:04):
in a weird way I respect, because you'd have to
fake it at a certain point. But that was a
massive win by Dak Prescott. To me, you can't have
the biggest win of your career if your team's more
than likely not going to the playoffs. Though you win
this game against Kansas City, all of a sudden, you're
six five and one. You know you have to take
them seriously because their offense is so good. George Pickens,
(05:26):
you know I'm gonna take the Cowboys at home plus three. Listen,
the Chiefs playing a ton of tight games would not
shock me. If like game winning butker field goal. They
win by one points, but three points at home. My
buddy Jeff Fong was just there taking buddies and clients
to the game, and I text them, like, you didn't
leave at halftime. He's a diar cowboy fan, said no,
I did not. I said, lucky for you. That's an
(05:48):
incredible moment, something you never forget part of. Again, why
we go to games. I haven't been to a game
in a while, but every once in a while you
just are part of a game that you can talk
about ten twenty years later. I was at that game
when they were down twenty one nothing. They came storming
back and beat beat Philly. So I like Dallas plus three.
It's listen to their offense fun to watch, George Pickens.
(06:09):
I think field yates put this out there has more
yards than the entire Steelers wide receiver court. Uh. Kansas
City's finding their groove a little bit though, where sheet
Rice is getting going. I just like I'm taking Cowboys
plus three. You know, this game's fascinating. Obviously Joe Burrow's
coming back. I don't think like this is not a
must win situation for the Ravens because they still play
(06:30):
the Steelers twice, and the Steelers on Sunday play the
Bills Like. I don't know about you, but coming off
a long week, especially if Mason Rudolph's quarterback, I'm taking
the Bills in that spot. So the Steelers are in
a complete free fall. I would bet the house. Did
the Ravens win this division unless a couple of catastrophic
injuries happened, including Lamar who clearly's banged up, but even
(06:51):
at fifty percent, I'm taking them over forty one year
old Rogers who's banged up now, and Mason Rudolph. The
Steelers are done. Put a fucking fork in them. But
let's this game was crazy last year the Ravens won both.
I think Burrow threw nine touchdowns. They were a theater.
I mean they were incredible as of recording this, I
(07:11):
would guess T Higgins with the concussions is not gonna play.
You know, obviously sometimes in sports like well, he's got
fresh legs. There's also a rust element of timing. I
know he's been practicing the last couple of weeks, but
I seven points a lot. I guess I will take
the plus seven. Don't feel great about this. You know,
Stucky's big on those first halfs for the Ravens. I
(07:33):
just you know, listen, you're playing the Jets kind of
a sleepy spot. You know you got big divisional games
coming in. I don't necessarily hold that against him. The
Seattle and the Titans were tied three to three after
a quarter. Like sometimes you play an awful team or
human beings, you don't take them seriously. So if I
was gonna lean away, I would take the Bengals plus
(07:56):
seven a lot of points. But I don't know. This
kind of feels to stay away. I don't see how
the Ravens lose. Let's dive into the mail bag at
John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the Instagram, Fire into
those dms and get your questions answered here on the show.
Someone sent me this the final trade results, because I
(08:17):
think obviously Bryce played last night. Bryce Young, you know,
in the trade that the Bears and the Panthers made
a couple of years ago. Honestly, it's one of the
great moments of Ryan Poles' career. They got DJ Moore,
they got Darnell Right, they got Tyreek Stevenson. So I
mean they're getting starters and DJ Moore and Caleb Williams.
(08:38):
Who listen, he still can be a little bit of
a roller coaster. He is dramatically better than Bryce Young,
like in a different universe, just from a skill set standpoint,
let alone as a player. They got the punter, the
Australian dude from Iowa and Luther Burdon. I think it's
fair to give Ryan Poles the win on that one.
(08:59):
That that is one of those if you are the Panthers,
you regret badly and listen, it's weird, Like, you know,
Bryce is just seems like a fantastic guys. He's not
very good player. Speaking of guys that aren't very good player,
JJ McCarthy is essentially a rookie. He's in one of
the toughest divisions in football and is playing the hardest position.
(09:21):
Since when does a quote rookie get less than one
season to prove themselves. I don't understand the overreaction of
wanting to move off JJ already. His job right now
is to show flashes and try to turn those flashes
into consistent play your thoughts. He doesn't show flashes. He
probably in the game on Sunday through the best pass
(09:43):
of his career. It was like a deep out route
layered it over a defender to Jefferson, might have been
to Addison, but it was like on the left side.
It was by far the best pass he's made of
his career. But to me, you watch him like I
don't see flashes. If I was seeing flashes and it
was one of those situations like Caleb where you go listen,
he's airmailing some throws and then he makes badass plays,
(10:06):
it's like I'm living with that. I see the physical attributes.
I see a guy who is i mean statistically up
there with JaMarcus Russell, and it's like, well, he's a rookie.
It's twenty twenty five. You got to pick up his
fiftye options. At the end of next year, you have
a team, you are paying a premium for elite guys.
You have an elite coaching staff, Like it's one thing
(10:28):
to develop a player who is showing flashes and who
is growing. You watch this guy, he is completely over
his head, I mean, and they're trying to redo his mechanics.
So yeah, if you want to make him the backup
and go with someone else, But how do you look
Justin Jefferson in the face. How do you look some
of these players and go, Okay, we're just we're gonna
(10:48):
probably end up going five or six wins, but maybe
this guy turns into a top fifteen quarterback, because the
argument would be that's typically not how it goes, you know,
and guys who have got to sit and read you
their mechanics didn't have to play. Well, you're playing them
because you don't have any other options. I mean, you
were thrown out. Carson wentz there and he's stunk too,
(11:11):
So you could argue the quarterback position for the Minnesota
Vikings is potentially a franchise altering mistake. Like you can
nitpick Sam Donald all you want in the big games,
the chances that JJ McCarthy is ever fifty percent of
a decent Sam Donald game. What he's shown these last
(11:32):
couple of years is slim the nun. So listen Hindsight's
twenty twenty. Yeah, but you had him and he threw
thirty five touchdowns and he went with JJ McCarthy. And
I think the scary part about JJ, beside the poor
play major injuries, I view an injury prone player. You
have Last year he missed the entire season, multiple knee surgeries,
(11:53):
longest ankle sprain in the history of angle sprains this year,
and now he's got a concussion, So he's not a
durable player. I just think that it's pretty concerning, and
especially when you go well. And this is a thing
like guys Trey Lance couldn't play for Kyle Shanahan. I
was out. Every quarterback I see play for Kyle Shanahan
(12:14):
looks good. If you don't look good for Kyle Shanahan,
you aren't good. I've seen Kirk Cousins, I've seen Sam Darnold,
Like even Carson Wentz this year kind of functioned a little.
If you can't function for this guy, I'm out. Especially
with those wide receivers, you can't play now. Maybe in
three or four years you figure it out. But I
don't have time right now to do that. That's not
the way the world works. It's not the way this
(12:35):
industry works. I have to make financial decisions. I'm also
paying guys a lot of money. It's a complicated situation, right,
any of you people that are younger than me, that
are in situations, especially, you know, when you get into
like your late twenties, early thirties, you started dating and
you date your age, you know, you get some pressure
like put a ring on it. Like, you get to
(12:56):
a point it's like you either got to put a
ring on or were ending it right. So that sometimes
the situation with these quarterback contracts the Panthers are in one,
you think they're picking up the fifth year option on
Bryce Young. Well, if you're not going to pick up
the fifth year option, you might as well just move
on this offseason. But then the answer is like, what
are your options? Well, clearly this guy's not an option
after his contract ends, so you might as well try
(13:17):
to figure it out. Now, these situations are complicated, but
they are what they are. Heard you talking about how
the Vikings are trying to change McCarthy's mechanics. To me,
it makes no sense why they would offer Daniel Jones
more money than Indy but tell him that he wouldn't
even have a chance to win the starting job. If
(13:38):
your tenth overall pick who couldn't even practice his whole
rookie year, can't beat out Daniel Jones, then what's so
wrong with having him sit on the bench another year
or two? Especially when you've watched the biggest rival, the
Green Bay Packers, do the exact same formula to perfection
multiple times. My question to you, as someone who has
worked in the NFL, what do you think when into
(14:00):
the decision to not give Daniel Jones a chance? And
how do you think those conversations went. I think Daniel
Jones won like he's a dude guy. Daniel Jones is
very intelligent. He's not dumb. He sees when you draft
a guy high, he was drafted high, what happens? They
want to play that guy and it's easy to go.
(14:21):
This is where the Packers not having an owner really benefits.
Then there is not a billionaire breathing down their throat,
because you know what the billionaire does. He listens to
people like me. He listens to the radio, he reads
the athletic that's what he spends his time. He's a
super rich fan who has the GM and the coach
(14:42):
have the answer to him, but he's no different. Well,
these guys don't know anything about football. I mean, you're
gonna learn more if you're around it enough. But it's
not like they just want to see the guy play.
And I wouldn't even blame the owner. It's like, well,
I'm seeing Caleb grow, I'm seeing Jayden Daniels last year
have a great rookie season. I'm seeing bo Nicks figure
(15:03):
it out. Like I want to see my guy. So
if I'm an owner and I go, well, we used
this high pick on this guy and let Sam Donald go,
I want to see this guy play. So there's pressure.
And then if you're if you're Daniel Jones, you go.
Chris Ballard gets on the horn. Because this happened to
Sam Donald and San Francisco, it's like there's a competition, No,
(15:23):
there's not. Sam Donald knew when he signed with the
forty nine ers he was gonna be Perty's backup, just
like Daniel Jones knew when he signed with Indianapolis. If
he didn't get hurt, he was gonna be the starting quarterback.
He had been in Minnesota, and he knew and listen,
I'm not Daniel Jones is not solving all their problems.
Obviously he's better than JJ McCarthy, but he's no dumby.
He just knew that they were gonna start that guy,
(15:45):
like they weren't gonna have a true competition. And sometimes
you don't have true competition. There wasn't a competition with
Anthony Richson, Daniel Jones. Anthony Richardson was done last year
when he ran off the field. There wasn't a competition
with Trey Lance and Sam Donald. That thing was over before.
This is what I said the other day about Shador.
Like these coaches and they're not always right, Like I
(16:06):
just used a couple of situations where they were right,
but get things in their mind. We're no different. Right
in whatever business you're in, you determine the outcome sometimes,
and this isn't the healthy way to do things. Before
you start something. You know what you want the end
result to be, and when you're dealing with players, that
can get you in trouble. So Daniel Jones knew that,
(16:26):
like they were gonna go with j. J. McCarthy because
he's drafted. Lie shit, it happened. It literally happened to
him when he was drafted. I. Today's show is brought
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(16:46):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Funny press conference on Saturday.
(18:27):
Kyle can be a dick, but I felt bad John
Perragu and Jed should be taking the tough questions about Ayuk.
They waited until November to void his contract, while Kyle
has to blow out this fire. Kyle banged the table
for a Yuke getting that contract, But Kyle has too
much value on Sundays a contract but Kyle is too
much fake. It's time for them to get a real
(18:48):
GM with a vision because the drafts have been awful
and something needs to change after this Ayuke debacle. Kyle
deserves a lot of the blame for the Ayuk situation.
The GM in the front office was prepared to trade
that guy around the draft because we're not paying seventy
five million dollars for a guy that's never gonna catch
more than seventy five balls. And this is when I
(19:08):
was healthy and good, very talented player. But I'm not
paying a premium like Sam Brown gets paid a premium.
But they utilize him. He's gonna catch one hundred, one
hundred and twenty balls every single year. I uke in
this offense is gonna play third fiddle to Georgian and
Christian McCaffrey and just running the ball. And that's Kyle's offense.
(19:29):
So like Kyle deserves blame for this is where coaches
take the emotion out. All these guys in the front
office would have traded him, but but but Kyle's like,
I gotta have him on Sunday. It's like Kyle, I
can find Kendrick Bourne up the scrap heap in mac
Jones and I watch you have ten catches one hundred
and fifty yards with a guy against the Rams who
might win the Super Bowl. So like this is where
(19:51):
coaches Kyle is beside Jed York. No one has more
juice in that building than Kyle Shannion. Nothing happens like
the avoiding the contract. If you think that was all
the business people and not Kyle, like Kyle's listen, Kyle
can be a dick. I also think he's not dumb.
Like you know, business, you gotta be very very careful
with the way you crush a guy with money. You
(20:13):
want people to play for you, You want your own
guys on the team that they're friends with Ayuk. So
it's a delicate situation. But to me, a lot of
the blame, like obviously a Yuk not showing up or
you know, doing things to ruin a contract is he
bears that responsibility. But like Kyle signed up for this,
you know, God, they did what they were doing. So
(20:35):
I don't feel much sympathy in the sense of like
the other guy's not the coach talks, like how he
doesn't talk during the season, Lesneed's not talking like it's
part of the business like Kyle talks. And again, Kyle's
the of all the guys you just listed, beside the owner,
Kyle's the highest paid guy. So that there's in his
contract no move is made without him signing off on it,
(20:56):
and we'll see this draft doesn't look terrible, but like
it was clear, Like I don't know if this was
a scout draft, this was a coach draft. And I'm
pro Kyle because, like you said, his value on Sundays. Listen,
when you are a valuable individual, people can live with
your flaws. This is what was my issue with JJ McCarthy,
(21:19):
like not productive, not available, Well, in my world, you're useless. Right,
It's like Doc Rivers said, as long as your talent
outweighs your problems, you're gonna be on the court. Right.
The moment that that ratio goes problems over talent, you're done.
And it's no different. Listen, coaches big egos. How would
(21:40):
they not They're making fifteen to twenty million dollars. I
think a lot of myself too. If every day I
looked in the in my direct deposit, I'm getting a
million dollars a month. Right, you're gonna have a big ego,
especially when you're great at what you do. But like
there's he's not perfect. I don't think he's the easiest
guy to deal with every day. Obviously has a lot
of opinions on the roster in the offseason. But he's
(22:02):
pretty awesome. I mean, you watched him. Kyle Shanahan verus
Dave Canalis was varsity vers JV. Now listen, Kyle Shannon
like comparing me to Dave Canalos. No shit, John, that's
varsity versus Peewee's. But that was if that was flipped
and you gave Robert Sala and Kyle Shanahan that team,
the Niners will lose that game because Dowdell would have
(22:25):
had thirty carries and two hundred yards. That was that
was really really embarrassing for Canalis. It really was was
talking to some buddies about how terrible the Travis Hunter
trade looks for the Jags. What if we stayed and
grabbed Membo, Warren t Mack, et cetera, and then still
had a two and a one. But then we arrived
(22:46):
at how impressive it is that the coach has the
team seven and four with wins over the Niners, the Chiefs,
the Chargers of the Texans. I know we can't trust
the Jags in any serious manner, but Liam, our sweet
Italian DC and Trevor are doing great. I would say
Trevor didn't need to throw four picks against the the
almost of the Falcons, the Cardinals. I wouldn't say Trevor's
(23:08):
doing great, but I would say this and Bears fans
can relate. It looked like you nailed the coaching higher
and when you get the coach right, young offensive guy
like listen, Liam Cohen's like legit. I honestly think he
was undervalued last offseason. Like if if you could have
a do over, I do, Like, if you're the Jets,
(23:31):
would you rather have Liam Cohen or Aaron Glenn? But
in fairness, like Aaron Glenn had played there, he'd been
a bigger name for longer. I take Liam Cohen like
you said that Italian DC like they're pretty good, like
they are. Their coaching staff with the Jags is good.
The Travis Hunter one, Listen, you make some mistakes, it happens.
It's I'm not gonna crush him, because you don't get
(23:54):
paid to draft, you get paid to win. So like
the forty nine ers have had a lot of shitty
picks over the year, I mean a lot, And they
started with Solomon Thomas, who actually is gonna have a
twelve year NFL career. They draft him third overall. Now
granted the Bears drafted Trubiskia two, but still the difference
between them and the Bears, Like, Niners win a lot,
so it's like they take less shit. You could miss
(24:16):
on every draft pick. If you're winning eleven games a year,
no one's gonna say anything. I mean, we really get
into the weeds and nitpicky, but like, okay, I'm in
the playoffs every year. So I think it all comes
down to the Travis Hunter thing. Anyone with any sort
of understanding about the NFL. You don't even need to
be a player. You don't need to be a coach,
(24:36):
you don't need to be an executive or a GM
would go in what world is a guy gonna be
able to play both ways? Especially, I would have given
it some credence of like he did this at Georgia
or Alabama, so every single week he's covering and playing
against the best guys in the country. If every single
week you played Ohio State, it's like he won both
(24:58):
ways and he handled it, I'd be like, Okay, he
might be able to do it. There's no way it's
humanly possible, because every single week in the NFL. Okay
Jamar Chase this week, Well, who'd you got next week?
Terry McLaurin, who you got the following week? A J. Brown?
A little lighter week this week, dk Metcalf. Every team
has good wide receivers, so it's impossible, and then playing
(25:21):
wide receiver is hard enough, the physical toll you take
of getting tackled. It was impossible. It was dumb. I
think they overthought. If you just would have stayed at
if Travis Hunter, you just would have drafted Travis Hunter
and not made the trade and said, hey, we're just
gonna playhim a wide receiver. I would be like, no problem.
But I'm with you. I mean, every time I look
at the Browns and Miles Garrett running around, the dude
(25:43):
from Michigan, Mason Graham, it's fucking all over the place.
That guy's a baller. Do you think of Love and
McCarthy swap coaches, they both be more successful. Love would
be able to showcase his elite arm talent in a
pass first offense in KOC. With KOC, and maybe McCarthy
could be a functional game manager. He would definitely be
a better player in a run heavy offense. Right playing Lafloor,
(26:09):
Kyle Shanahan, uh Ben Johnson right, a guy that's gonna
just lean. I want to run the ball thirty times
a game. But even in that offense, look at Perty
last night throwing some of those picks there are. The
passing game is off the run game, and you gotta
be three steps, five steps, let it go. Hit the
guy in stride. A big part of like the Niners
(26:29):
offense or the Packers offense, which is, you know, essentially
the same thing. Get guys in stride, run after the catch,
explosive plays. Well, he's really really inaccurate. So I think
love one would look better with those two wide receivers
and the tight end. Yes, he would look good, he would.
(26:50):
They would be throwing bombs. Question for the mailbag. I
heard Richard Sherman talking about Brandon Ayuk basically advise him
to play and not set out. I was under the
impression that he was still injured and that it would
play when healthy. I guess that's clearly not the case.
And I was wondering what the hell is gonna happen
(27:11):
with Brannon and his contract. I'm as confused as you are.
And I watched Mike Silver that reported on the story.
Do an interview on Instagram with CANBR, which is the
big local radio station in northern California, and even he
said he didn't have all the details. It is a
very confusing story. So unless I have all the pieces,
(27:34):
like is he healthy enough to play right now? Because
if he's not, then there's nothing he can do. But
is he healthy enough to play? And he's refusing to
come back because he doesn't want to risk any injury.
He doesn't want any part of the forty nine ers.
I'm with Richard and anyone else with a brain like bro.
The real world, even if you are extremely successful and
(27:55):
I mean a baller, the chances that you are ever
making twenty five million dollars a year if you don't
own and sell a business are slim than none. The
most one of the most successful guys I know who
just said he I was with him within the last
six months. He's probably early forties, and he's you know,
(28:16):
he's a very six I mean, this guy is a hustler.
I knew him in college and he's just a businessman.
He's wheeling and dealing a lot of different industries. Real
estate stocks said he by far had the best year
he's ever had in his career, and a lot of
it was he had a huge risk. He put a
lot on the table, made like ten million dollars, and
even I was pretty actually intoxic at the time, so
(28:36):
maybe I wasn't like blown away, but that I kind
of thought about it. Like when I was the next
day driving home and I sobered up, I'm like, that
is insane. What a year. That's badass. But that's you're
never getting twenty five million dollars back. You don't. There's
not a human alive unless you're bezos or you know,
one of these guys Steve Balmer, who's just twenty five million,
(29:00):
you wouldn't even notice. No one is giving that type
of money up. That is malpractice by the agent, by
the individual. It's just a sad, embarrassing situation. There's probably
a lot of different adjectives to describe it. But I'm
with Sherman. I think what he's trying to say is, bro,
this thing will end for you. And here's the other
(29:21):
elephant in the room. What if he's never the same.
We see it with athletes all the time. They have
a major injury and they are never the same. So
what if when you come back and you get cut
and you're available, people will work you out and they
sign you like a one year, two million dollar deal
just to see what you look like, and you don't
look right, and then you can't make any money. Like
(29:44):
there aren't industries like the NFL that pay people twenty
five million dollars where you're a W two employee. That's
an incredible opportunity which you earned, you negotiated. Giving that
up is and honestly, just I makes me have a
loss for words. I can't even begin to relate. And
(30:08):
the forty nine ers are extremely lucky if he's truly
not gonna fight it because they're getting bailed out in
this situation, like they fucking signed the contract. So it's
not like I feel sympathy for them that they should
get out of it, like they were the ones willing to,
you know, do a deal. Congrats on all the success
with the Chiefs offensive aggression. Since the enemy left, Why
(30:29):
is it not considered to be brought back? What is
the league's view of Eric Bienemy and why is he
not more sought out OC or head coach? That's a
great I mean, my buddies with the Chiefs always liked him.
You know, he became the offensive coordinator in Washington, didn't
go well. Ucla was really really bad. He's a running
back coach right now for Ben Johnson, so he's in
a good spot. I think people would say it's like
(30:51):
Andy Reid was calling the plays, not the enemy, But
I don't know. I can't speak to that. You know.
Sometimes yeah, I I don't understand, But I also don't
view their regression as like tied to him. I think
it much more has to do with, like you lose
Tyreek Hill, Travis gets old you a little different. You've
seen this year when they've been healthy, they've been much
more explosive on offense. Patrick needs to play better. You know.
(31:14):
It's like part of it too, is like Patrick hasn't
been as good the last couple of years. It's just
that simple. Patrick was in during the regular season, was
one of the greatest players we'd ever seen. Last couple
of years kind of hit a miss. Still good, still
awesome in big moments, and great in the playoffs. But
like in the regular season, week to week, he's just
not as dominant as he once was. We appreciate that
(31:39):
you never conceal your disdain for terrible NFL coaching and
with the overdue firing of Chip, can you give us
your list of your personal worst NFL coaches of all time?
We got to know where Brandon Staley and Jim tom
Sula stack up in the manure pile. That's a good question.
I would say I'd have to think about that, because
(32:02):
the thing with Chip is like Chip once upon a
time was good and then he went to Philadelphia and
he was never the same after that. In post those
last year in Philly, the forty nine ers, the UCLA.
I know he had a good little stretch there in
the playoffs, but I mean Ohio State, I didn't even
think he was that good the majority of the year either.
Obviously with the Raiders ran a big time scam. But
(32:26):
like Chip was changed the sport, Brandon Stateley had one
good year and to me it was just his press
conferences made me want to puke in my mouth. Tom Sula.
In fairness to Jim tom Sula, there are a lot
of guys like him that are just defensive line coaches
or linebacker coaches or old line coaches that are good.
(32:46):
Jim tom Sula was a good defensive line coach. There
is not a human alive that has ever thought this
guy should be our head coach, except if your name
is Jed York and Trimbalke. So I don't even blame
Jim Tom Suell. It'd be like, Hey, the Minnesota Vikings
just called me. They said, hey, we're gonna put JJ
McCarthy on. I are, and we're gonna have you John,
(33:09):
you want to be our quarterback? And I said, yeah,
how much you're gonna pay me? They're like, uh, we'll
give you a five hundred thousand dollars a game. And
I said, yes, Well, if I get out there and
I suck, because I would suck, it's not my fault.
It's the Vikings fault. So a lot of these guys
that get hired, it's like John Marrow when he hired
Joe Judge, Like, how did you think that was gonna go?
(33:32):
Obviously the Brian day ball thing did not go well,
but like, that's an understandable hire, I would say statistically
based on the outcome of wins and losses and how
long the guy survived. I do think Josh McDaniels is
the only guy who's been a head coach twice and
didn't make it to the end of year two either year.
(33:54):
I remember when he got fired, it was like an
NFL record. He said two stops. Didn't got fired midway
through this second year both times. That's pretty hard to do, Okay.
(34:16):
Why are Broncos fans on Twitter so delusional and sometimes
obnoxious about bo saying he's the MVP or that he's
a better quarterback than guys like Herbert and May Why?
I think before I even read the rest of this,
if you're ever getting mad about people on the Internet
and their opinions, like, it's a waste of your energy. Now,
(34:37):
if you can handle going to comments sections and laughing
and putting a smile on your face, but if you're
gonna get worked up and listen, I'm guilty. I do
it every once in a while, and then I realize,
why am I doing this? Why do I give a
shit what all these people are arguing about. I still
find it crazy in twenty twenty five. How whether it's Twitter,
whether it's Reddit, whether it's like the comment section and
(34:59):
the athletic articles, how do people just go back and
forth and argue? And I used to do it a
lot when I was younger, but I like no one
ever goes yeah, a good point. I changed my opinion,
so I you can't get worked out for people on
the internet. It's extremes. So I don't know what to
tell you. Who would win a fight, Sala or Demiico.
(35:24):
Once you've answered that the underdog gets a tit of
zone and the favorite has to run a mile before
the fight, who wins now? Dimiko was the Rookie Defensive
Player of the Year as a rookie. You know, rookie
defensive Player of the Year played at Alabama, and it's
just a certified badass, like middle linebacker in the NFL.
(35:46):
I you know Robert Sala. I was gonna say Western Michigan,
but he looks fantastic now and he listened. Ah is
a help of a drug. He went to Northern Michigan
ninety seven to two thousand. Obviously was not a pro.
He was a tight end. I would say, if you
take Robert Sala from Northern Michigan and Tomiko from Alabama
(36:10):
and put Dimico over Robert Sala and say stone him
at the line of scrimmage, I'm taking Dimico now in
a fistfight. You never know. I don't know if either
guy's trained, but I would like Demico's chances, though I
do believe that Sala has gotten dramatically bigger over the
(36:30):
last six or seven years. For a guy whose job
is pretty labor intensive in terms of his time, he's
got like fifteen kids, like Philip Rivers, how does he
have time to get such elite pumps in My buddy
Guy Haberman, who just had a baby, congrats he uh.
(36:52):
He calls Niner games this year and he's taking a
little break because they just had the baby. But he
was on the road and he's just saying, you know,
he had lunch with Sala and Gus Bradley, and he said,
Sula's a pretty healthy eater. So clearly you don't get
that shape at you know, in your late forties. Great
in the gym. It ain't John bajuices and it ain't protein.
So you have the good stuff. I'm not saying steroids,
(37:14):
but you just you get older, you know, you get
a little testosterone or whatever. And to me, the diet
nothing has been truer in my life as you get
older is the impact of diet. I work out, I
would say on average like six days a week, but
I feel like I've gotten fatter than I ever have
over the course of the last couple of years. It's
like your metabolism changes and you know your diet has
(37:36):
to change and eating healthy. And Robert Sola, I think
is an elite healthy eater. Well, you see, like Kyle Shanahan,
who's like forty five, looks skinny. I bet there are
days where Kyle Shanahan does not eat. It's like Kyle's lifting.
I bet Kyle just eats like red bulls adderall and Gatorays.
As a Vikings fan, we really don't have much hope
(37:56):
JJ or nine. You can't have a nickname and you
can't wear the war paint when you are statistically the
worst quarterback since JaMarcus Russell. We have to change the
self made nicknames. Listen, Kobe gave himself nicknames, Buddy backed
it up. You can't give yourself nicknames, Lebron. Same thing like,
(38:17):
if you're gonna be a self proclaimed whatever the name is,
you have to be good. And QUESTI is one of
the worst drafting gms the Vikings have ever had. I
agree that you know, say what you want about the
previous regime. What's his name? And just cases me Zimmer
(38:38):
and God, I had him on the podcast a couple
of years ago. What the hell is the former GM's name?
Great guy retired. His brother is the former Lions linebacker
who works with the Lions now. I don't know why.
I can't think of the name, but he was good
like he. I mean, just look at the guys he drafted,
from daneil Hunter to Eric Kendricks to Harrison Smith to
(39:00):
Justin Jefferson came on this podcast. I apologize brain's not
firing on all cylinders. Is there any hope? I like O'Connell,
but Flores is gone this offseason. Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, it's just the sport is so quarterback to
dependent that Like, if your quarterback is one of the
(39:24):
worst in the NFL, there's not much you can do
and your options are pretty limited. So you look around, like,
what are they gonna do? Could they trade for mac Jones?
Could they sign a guy like Gardner Minshew? I mean,
their options are pretty limited. You're not gonna draft another
guy more than likely. It's yeah, I'd say you're kind
(39:47):
of screwed. Should the Cardinals go back to Murray when healthy?
I think they should move off them and stick with
Prissett and draft the new quarterback. Part of the reason
they're never gonna go back to him is because if
he gets injured, then his contract guarantees following year. So
I Kyler Murray's never gonna take another snap for the
Cardinals would be my guess. But it's it's it's not
(40:08):
because he might not give him some juice. And you know,
if Jacobe has a couple of bad games, like he
couldn't be better than him. I think it just has
more to do with money. First, that loser Patriot fan
from a few years ago, we have forgotten you one
jump ship and after two down years you ought to
(40:29):
be ashamed of yourself hashtag fake fan. My actual thoughts
In the NBA, we've seen a rise in significant injuries
because the players are moving running substantially more. I'm wondering
if there are a similar correlation between that in football.
As the passing game has gotten more frequent, I imagine
there's been a significant increase in running. Curious your thoughts,
(40:52):
you mentioned having allergies start consuming locally farmed raw honey daily.
I would say on the NBA and the injuries, my
theory again, not a doctor couple workless state school degrees
simply has to be. I think training has changed dramatically.
And I was watching this thing with Shack the other
(41:12):
day that was like I would show a fat and
I would use training camp and early in the season
to get in shape. And he wasn't alone. Most guys
in the seventies, the eighties and nineties did not train
three sixty five. I can imagine Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle,
those type guys of three hundred and sixty five days
(41:33):
a year. There's got to be under two weeks where
they aren't doing something physical that relates to training for football.
And part of that's you know, sauna's cold tubs stretching,
but they are constantly and I'm just using them as
examples the training year round. There has to be a
(41:53):
strenuous kind of toll on your body because, like you said,
the games now it's never been fat. It's more spread
out NBA running gunning, NFL spread out running around. But
I just think there's an element of I don't even
want to say overtraining, but the ratio of training to
(42:17):
actually playing in football, because in training camp he used
to play a lot of football right, double days work
at it and now they don't. So that's always been
my theory. Could be way off. Would love to know
being an NFL scout works. Is it salary nine to
five work week? Do you compensate those that watch thirty
plus hours of film? What are the incentives of being
(42:39):
a go getter scout versus the average scout. I had
a buddy tell me this. His problem with the scouting
industry is there is no incentives. You know. I just
I'm redoing some turf in my backyard and the guy
was kind of a go getter salesman came out and
we started talking about the business, and he clearly gets incentivized.
The more jobs he bids and sells, and more turf
(42:59):
he sales, the more money. So he's incentive. I's to
kind of hustle, right, He there's a big difference between
he could make hundreds of thousands of dollars more by
working way harder. There is no incentive as a scout.
You could be the worst scout alive, and if the
GM and the head coach likes you, you're on scholarship,
you could be an awesome scout. And if the head
coach or GM doesn't like you, or you piss off
(43:20):
the owner or something, you get fired. So, you know,
the salaries vary depending on how long you've been in
the league. You could start anywhere from sixty seventy eighty
K to guys making hundreds of thousands of dollars as
an area scout, but on the road, constantly working long days.
There's no clocking in or clocking out. You're kind of
(43:42):
always on call. It's I always thought, Now, once you
become like the GM, obviously it's it's pretty glamorous, but
it's not a glamorous job. Now, once you become the
three or the two and you're making five hundred grand,
eight hundred grand, obviously you make a lot of money.
But I know a lot of people that work in
(44:03):
a tack or whatever that make a lot of money,
that have weekends off year round, that can go on
vacations whenever they want. You know, that's not the way
football works. It's obviously really busy during the fall, and
then your season starts. Once the season ends, the All
Star Games, the Combine, the Pro Days, the draft, So
I mean your only downtime is really like June in
(44:25):
a little bit of July. But even then you're watching
players to get ready for the fall. So it's it's
a grind for sure. The Steelers are stuck in no
man's land after nearly twenty years. I think they need
to move on from Mike. Beyond that, this team has
a lot of problems in an inconsistent offensive line, no
long term quarterback solution, no credible wide receiver outside of Metcalf,
(44:46):
and expensive defensive lead guys. Yeah, I think the GM
I would think about getting rid of him too. I mean,
if the Ravens win on Thursday night and they're seven
to five and the Steelers lose the Bills, it would
feel like they started one in five. Can you imagine
being a Steeler fan and if this year ends and
you lose the division by multiple games and missed the playoffs.
(45:10):
We were four and one, they were one and five.
How did this happen? It's like, well, you started playing
better teams. You're not very good. Your roster isn't that good.
Unless TJ plays like Miles Garrett every game, you're just
not gonna have a chance. You traded a second round
pick for DK Metcalf. Dk Metcalf's is two I mean
that's what he is. You paid him one hundred and
fifty million dollars. It's one of the worst personnel moves
I remember in recent memory, because even if with George Pickens,
(45:33):
cow wasn't pay them. It was a risky move and
it's obviously paid dividends. But they gave what second or
third round pick for a guy on a rookie contract.
Now they can't choose to pay him now. But like
if the Steelers had traded a third round pick for
DK Metcalf and not extended him and he was just
playing on his previous contract, would they extend him right now?
(45:54):
And the answer would be no. Being a Bears fan,
with all the hype in the media has been portraying
on them since the Bengals game, I truly believe we
can go four and two in our final four games.
Ben and the coaching staff have proven week in week
out that they can pull off close wins. Haters well
hate and think this is some same old Bears, even
after beating the Steelers yesterday who have a winning record,
(46:15):
But the Bears can't control that. Johnson has shown improvement
in game management, along with Caleb showing massive improvements in
his overall performance. Our defense isn't one hundred percent healthy,
and our linebackers JJ and Kyler we still so basically
just wanted to get your insight. Yeah, I mean, I
don't think the Bears are going away now. Do I
think it's gonna be easy against the Packers and Alliance?
I don't. But in the Eagles, I think if you
(46:38):
beat the Eagles and I get the Eagles are a
little weird this year, no one can say shit. I mean,
the Eagles are coming off of devastating loss the games
in Philadelphia. If you win that game, you're head to
the playoffs, whether you beat the forty nine Ers or not,
because you'll probably split with the Packers. So I'd feel
pretty good if I were you. Hey, John, question for
the bag. Jalen has taking a lot of heat right
(46:59):
now for the way the Eagles offensive performing, but schematically,
he truly is receiving no help. The film Breakdown shows
the receivers are running the same two or three routes
every play, thus gaining no separation as the defense knows
exactly what's coming. I've heard it described by those who
understand schematics as absolutely elementary. It's not unfair to place
(47:19):
that at the feet of Jalen when we've seen how
garbage Patullo's schemes are. I think it's a combination of both. Like,
clearly this offensive coordinator is a downgrade over what they had,
and all signs point to Jalen not pulling the trigger
when sometimes you can push the envelope. He will just
always take the safer out. And I think there's clearly
(47:40):
a human element of Aj and him. I don't care
who you are and how professional you are and how
much money you make. If you get into a business
situation where a guy that relies on you and a
guy you rely on don't like each other, don't respect
each other because listen, we don't like a lot of
(48:01):
people that we do business with, Welcome to life. But
if I don't respect you and he doesn't respect me,
which I think it's fair to say that at this point,
I don't care what they say. It's got to throw
you off. That would throw you off in a normal
business setting, definitely on the field. So I think the
situation with Aj Brown has just has just kind of
(48:22):
bled in. The problem was he's so talented, you still
kind of need him if you want to try to
win the Super Bowl and they kind of just got
stuck in a situation where they couldn't pivot off of them.
So yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people
bear blame. At the end of the day. This is
you know, I get your Philly and you guys are
get angry, but you're you did win the super Bowl.
You know you're the defending super Bowl champs. I do
(48:46):
think you probably thought early in the season, like, we'll
go back to back, still possible. You beat the Bears
and still right ahead of you. The Cowboys game doesn't
just end your season. You know you can go thirteen
and four. You're gonna lose a couple of games. Losing
at Dallas is not the crazy his game to lose.
So let's just watch a couple more weeks of the
Eagles before we completely write them off as screwed. Audios,
(49:08):
have a great day. The volume M
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff Three and Out Podcasts presented by my friends
(00:21):
at Zone Pouches. Hopefully you're doing great. Getting ready for
Thanksgiving with the family. Can have a few beers, a
few cocktails, some turkey, watch some football in joy your
life today. Our plan is we're gonna hit the three
Thanksgiving games and then we'll do a little mail bag
at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire
(00:45):
in those dms. We will not have a show on
Turkey Day, so this will be the last show till
Thursday night and I'll go live on the YouTube channel
after the Bengals game, I guess the Raven game ravenspangles
and this will be a podcast and then we'll probably
have another reaction after the Eagles and the Bear. So
(01:06):
a lot of stuff going on, lot of content coming
down the pike, and we'll just keep swinging. So you
guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you
may listen YouTube so you never miss a live reaction.
We had one after the forty nine Ers end Bryce
Young's career. That was rough, but that was a podcast yesterday,
So make sure you never miss a thing. Subscribe to
(01:27):
all of our channels and we got you covered. But first,
you know, I gotta tell you all my friends, my partners.
The official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Do
you want to go to a pro football game? Do
you want to go to an NFL game? I didn't
go to my first NFL game till twenty ten and
realize this is pretty fun. It's a good time. It's
an event I would highly recommend. I know a lot
of you guys watching or listening have Attendon and if
(01:50):
you want to go to one of these games, game
Time has you covered tickets as low as one hundred dollars.
The ticket price you see on the app is the
price you pay it check out. They have flash deals.
It's incredible. Cannot recommend them enough. Take the guests. We're
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Create an account and Dean the code John for twenty
(02:11):
dollars off. Down the game Time app the day, last
minute tickets low as price guaranteed. Okay, let's before we
do the mailback. Let's do a little rapid fire the
Thursday Games, which is an incredible slate. I didn't do
a research project, but my guess would be this is
one of, if not the better three games stretches and
Thanksgiving history. Now. I don't know when they started doing
(02:33):
the night game. That's probably within the last decade. I mean,
I think we had a period where we just had
the two games, a lot of Cowboys, a lot of Lions.
But now with the three games, it doesn't get much
better than this. So all these lines are presented by
hard Rock bet. I'm gonna take the Packers. Obviously, Week
ones a long time ago, the Packers kick their ass.
(02:55):
Someth'm just a little off with the Lions, like it's
I talked to Tom, the guy who runs the gym.
I didn't even know. He's like, I'm from Detroit, big
Lions fan. Like shit yard, He's like that was crazy.
I'm like, yeah, Jamior Gibbs saved the day. It's just
something's off. Defensively, they looked like last year at the
end of the season when they have a bunch of injuries.
(03:15):
I mean, for Jamis to throw for three hundred and
fifty plus yards. He had eighteen completions. Mario Manningham, Odell
Beckham and Malik Neighbors weren't running around out there. It's
like one Dale Robinson, who actually is pretty good. But
Jamis's touchdown catch which was sick. Something's just off now
green Bay, it's not like I feel great about and
(03:36):
obviously Detroit at home. That offense looks awesome in theory,
not all the time this year, but green Bay's defense
is fantastic. I don't think you can get the Packers
right now plus two and a half kind of like
them money line. Like, to me, if you're gonna bet
the Packers, I would just take him to win outright,
And to me, green Bay wins this game. They still
got a couple of games against the Bears, it would
(03:58):
feel like they could kind of hit I wouldn't say
the after Burners, but they would be in the driver's
seat to win the division. So I'm taking the Packers
in this game, which pains me. I'm a Dan Campbell,
Jared Goff, Jamiir Gibbs, guy. I love Laporta two, but
I mean that's a pretty big blow. Obviously, the Packers
are missing their tight end as well, but I'm taking
green Bay in the spot. The offensive line for Detroit
(04:21):
hasn't been as dominant, that's another problem, and obviously green
Bay's pass rush and just team speed on defense. I mean,
Jeff Haffley has probably been one of the standout stars
so far this season as a coordinator. This game's fantastic.
I mean it really is. You know, the Chiefs down
eleven points, win that game, get some life for six
and five going on the road to the Cowboys who
are just getting shell ACKed. Win that game. I mean,
(04:43):
you go to the gym Monday morning and Steven A
saying like was that a legacy the fighting game by Dak?
I don't know how First Take writes their headlines like
it would be fucking exhausting, Like is that the biggest
win of Dak's career? It's like, how do you guys
do this every week? I couldn't be in that business.
I just couldn't do those topics day after day, which
(05:04):
in a weird way I respect, because you'd have to
fake it at a certain point. But that was a
massive win by Dak Prescott. To me, you can't have
the biggest win of your career if your team's more
than likely not going to the playoffs. Though you win
this game against Kansas City, all of a sudden, you're
six five and one. You know you have to take
them seriously because their offense is so good. George Pickens,
(05:26):
you know I'm gonna take the Cowboys at home plus three. Listen,
the Chiefs playing a ton of tight games would not
shock me. If like game winning butker field goal. They
win by one points, but three points at home. My
buddy Jeff Fong was just there taking buddies and clients
to the game, and I text them, like, you didn't
leave at halftime. He's a diar cowboy fan, said no,
I did not. I said, lucky for you. That's an
(05:48):
incredible moment, something you never forget part of. Again, why
we go to games. I haven't been to a game
in a while, but every once in a while you
just are part of a game that you can talk
about ten twenty years later. I was at that game
when they were down twenty one nothing. They came storming
back and beat beat Philly. So I like Dallas plus three.
It's listen to their offense fun to watch, George Pickens.
(06:09):
I think field yates put this out there has more
yards than the entire Steelers wide receiver court. Uh. Kansas
City's finding their groove a little bit though, where sheet
Rice is getting going. I just like I'm taking Cowboys
plus three. You know, this game's fascinating. Obviously Joe Burrow's
coming back. I don't think like this is not a
must win situation for the Ravens because they still play
(06:30):
the Steelers twice, and the Steelers on Sunday play the
Bills Like. I don't know about you, but coming off
a long week, especially if Mason Rudolph's quarterback, I'm taking
the Bills in that spot. So the Steelers are in
a complete free fall. I would bet the house. Did
the Ravens win this division unless a couple of catastrophic
injuries happened, including Lamar who clearly's banged up, but even
(06:51):
at fifty percent, I'm taking them over forty one year
old Rogers who's banged up now, and Mason Rudolph. The
Steelers are done. Put a fucking fork in them. But
let's this game was crazy last year the Ravens won both.
I think Burrow threw nine touchdowns. They were a theater.
I mean they were incredible as of recording this, I
(07:11):
would guess T Higgins with the concussions is not gonna play.
You know, obviously sometimes in sports like well, he's got
fresh legs. There's also a rust element of timing. I
know he's been practicing the last couple of weeks, but
I seven points a lot. I guess I will take
the plus seven. Don't feel great about this. You know,
Stucky's big on those first halfs for the Ravens. I
(07:33):
just you know, listen, you're playing the Jets kind of
a sleepy spot. You know you got big divisional games
coming in. I don't necessarily hold that against him. The
Seattle and the Titans were tied three to three after
a quarter. Like sometimes you play an awful team or
human beings, you don't take them seriously. So if I
was gonna lean away, I would take the Bengals plus
(07:56):
seven a lot of points. But I don't know. This
kind of feels to stay away. I don't see how
the Ravens lose. Let's dive into the mail bag at
John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the Instagram, Fire into
those dms and get your questions answered here on the show.
Someone sent me this the final trade results, because I
(08:17):
think obviously Bryce played last night. Bryce Young, you know,
in the trade that the Bears and the Panthers made
a couple of years ago. Honestly, it's one of the
great moments of Ryan Poles' career. They got DJ Moore,
they got Darnell Right, they got Tyreek Stevenson. So I
mean they're getting starters and DJ Moore and Caleb Williams.
(08:38):
Who listen, he still can be a little bit of
a roller coaster. He is dramatically better than Bryce Young,
like in a different universe, just from a skill set standpoint,
let alone as a player. They got the punter, the
Australian dude from Iowa and Luther Burdon. I think it's
fair to give Ryan Poles the win on that one.
(08:59):
That that is one of those if you are the Panthers,
you regret badly and listen, it's weird, Like, you know,
Bryce is just seems like a fantastic guys. He's not
very good player. Speaking of guys that aren't very good player,
JJ McCarthy is essentially a rookie. He's in one of
the toughest divisions in football and is playing the hardest position.
(09:21):
Since when does a quote rookie get less than one
season to prove themselves. I don't understand the overreaction of
wanting to move off JJ already. His job right now
is to show flashes and try to turn those flashes
into consistent play your thoughts. He doesn't show flashes. He
probably in the game on Sunday through the best pass
(09:43):
of his career. It was like a deep out route
layered it over a defender to Jefferson, might have been
to Addison, but it was like on the left side.
It was by far the best pass he's made of
his career. But to me, you watch him like I
don't see flashes. If I was seeing flashes and it
was one of those situations like Caleb where you go listen,
he's airmailing some throws and then he makes badass plays,
(10:06):
it's like I'm living with that. I see the physical attributes.
I see a guy who is i mean statistically up
there with JaMarcus Russell, and it's like, well, he's a rookie.
It's twenty twenty five. You got to pick up his
fiftye options. At the end of next year, you have
a team, you are paying a premium for elite guys.
You have an elite coaching staff, Like it's one thing
(10:28):
to develop a player who is showing flashes and who
is growing. You watch this guy, he is completely over
his head, I mean, and they're trying to redo his mechanics.
So yeah, if you want to make him the backup
and go with someone else, But how do you look
Justin Jefferson in the face. How do you look some
of these players and go, Okay, we're just we're gonna
(10:48):
probably end up going five or six wins, but maybe
this guy turns into a top fifteen quarterback, because the
argument would be that's typically not how it goes, you know,
and guys who have got to sit and read you
their mechanics didn't have to play. Well, you're playing them
because you don't have any other options. I mean, you
were thrown out. Carson wentz there and he's stunk too,
(11:11):
So you could argue the quarterback position for the Minnesota
Vikings is potentially a franchise altering mistake. Like you can
nitpick Sam Donald all you want in the big games,
the chances that JJ McCarthy is ever fifty percent of
a decent Sam Donald game. What he's shown these last
(11:32):
couple of years is slim the nun. So listen Hindsight's
twenty twenty. Yeah, but you had him and he threw
thirty five touchdowns and he went with JJ McCarthy. And
I think the scary part about JJ, beside the poor
play major injuries, I view an injury prone player. You
have Last year he missed the entire season, multiple knee surgeries,
(11:53):
longest ankle sprain in the history of angle sprains this year,
and now he's got a concussion, So he's not a
durable player. I just think that it's pretty concerning, and
especially when you go well. And this is a thing
like guys Trey Lance couldn't play for Kyle Shanahan. I
was out. Every quarterback I see play for Kyle Shanahan
(12:14):
looks good. If you don't look good for Kyle Shanahan,
you aren't good. I've seen Kirk Cousins, I've seen Sam Darnold,
Like even Carson Wentz this year kind of functioned a little.
If you can't function for this guy, I'm out. Especially
with those wide receivers, you can't play now. Maybe in
three or four years you figure it out. But I
don't have time right now to do that. That's not
the way the world works. It's not the way this
(12:35):
industry works. I have to make financial decisions. I'm also
paying guys a lot of money. It's a complicated situation, right,
any of you people that are younger than me, that
are in situations, especially, you know, when you get into
like your late twenties, early thirties, you started dating and
you date your age, you know, you get some pressure
like put a ring on it. Like, you get to
(12:56):
a point it's like you either got to put a
ring on or were ending it right. So that sometimes
the situation with these quarterback contracts the Panthers are in one,
you think they're picking up the fifth year option on
Bryce Young. Well, if you're not going to pick up
the fifth year option, you might as well just move
on this offseason. But then the answer is like, what
are your options? Well, clearly this guy's not an option
after his contract ends, so you might as well try
(13:17):
to figure it out. Now, these situations are complicated, but
they are what they are. Heard you talking about how
the Vikings are trying to change McCarthy's mechanics. To me,
it makes no sense why they would offer Daniel Jones
more money than Indy but tell him that he wouldn't
even have a chance to win the starting job. If
(13:38):
your tenth overall pick who couldn't even practice his whole
rookie year, can't beat out Daniel Jones, then what's so
wrong with having him sit on the bench another year
or two? Especially when you've watched the biggest rival, the
Green Bay Packers, do the exact same formula to perfection
multiple times. My question to you, as someone who has
worked in the NFL, what do you think when into
(14:00):
the decision to not give Daniel Jones a chance? And
how do you think those conversations went. I think Daniel
Jones won like he's a dude guy. Daniel Jones is
very intelligent. He's not dumb. He sees when you draft
a guy high, he was drafted high, what happens? They
want to play that guy and it's easy to go.
(14:21):
This is where the Packers not having an owner really benefits.
Then there is not a billionaire breathing down their throat,
because you know what the billionaire does. He listens to
people like me. He listens to the radio, he reads
the athletic that's what he spends his time. He's a
super rich fan who has the GM and the coach
(14:42):
have the answer to him, but he's no different. Well,
these guys don't know anything about football. I mean, you're
gonna learn more if you're around it enough. But it's
not like they just want to see the guy play.
And I wouldn't even blame the owner. It's like, well,
I'm seeing Caleb grow, I'm seeing Jayden Daniels last year
have a great rookie season. I'm seeing bo Nicks figure
(15:03):
it out. Like I want to see my guy. So
if I'm an owner and I go, well, we used
this high pick on this guy and let Sam Donald go,
I want to see this guy play. So there's pressure.
And then if you're if you're Daniel Jones, you go.
Chris Ballard gets on the horn. Because this happened to
Sam Donald and San Francisco, it's like there's a competition, No,
(15:23):
there's not. Sam Donald knew when he signed with the
forty nine ers he was gonna be Perty's backup, just
like Daniel Jones knew when he signed with Indianapolis. If
he didn't get hurt, he was gonna be the starting quarterback.
He had been in Minnesota, and he knew and listen,
I'm not Daniel Jones is not solving all their problems.
Obviously he's better than JJ McCarthy, but he's no dumby.
He just knew that they were gonna start that guy,
(15:45):
like they weren't gonna have a true competition. And sometimes
you don't have true competition. There wasn't a competition with
Anthony Richson, Daniel Jones. Anthony Richardson was done last year
when he ran off the field. There wasn't a competition
with Trey Lance and Sam Donald. That thing was over before.
This is what I said the other day about Shador.
Like these coaches and they're not always right, Like I
(16:06):
just used a couple of situations where they were right,
but get things in their mind. We're no different. Right
in whatever business you're in, you determine the outcome sometimes,
and this isn't the healthy way to do things. Before
you start something. You know what you want the end
result to be, and when you're dealing with players, that
can get you in trouble. So Daniel Jones knew that,
(16:26):
like they were gonna go with j. J. McCarthy because
he's drafted. Lie shit, it happened. It literally happened to
him when he was drafted. I. Today's show is brought
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(18:27):
Kyle can be a dick, but I felt bad John
Perragu and Jed should be taking the tough questions about Ayuk.
They waited until November to void his contract, while Kyle
has to blow out this fire. Kyle banged the table
for a Yuke getting that contract, But Kyle has too
much value on Sundays a contract but Kyle is too
much fake. It's time for them to get a real
(18:48):
GM with a vision because the drafts have been awful
and something needs to change after this Ayuke debacle. Kyle
deserves a lot of the blame for the Ayuk situation.
The GM in the front office was prepared to trade
that guy around the draft because we're not paying seventy
five million dollars for a guy that's never gonna catch
more than seventy five balls. And this is when I
(19:08):
was healthy and good, very talented player. But I'm not
paying a premium like Sam Brown gets paid a premium.
But they utilize him. He's gonna catch one hundred, one
hundred and twenty balls every single year. I uke in
this offense is gonna play third fiddle to Georgian and
Christian McCaffrey and just running the ball. And that's Kyle's offense.
(19:29):
So like Kyle deserves blame for this is where coaches
take the emotion out. All these guys in the front
office would have traded him, but but but Kyle's like,
I gotta have him on Sunday. It's like Kyle, I
can find Kendrick Bourne up the scrap heap in mac
Jones and I watch you have ten catches one hundred
and fifty yards with a guy against the Rams who
might win the Super Bowl. So like this is where
(19:51):
coaches Kyle is beside Jed York. No one has more
juice in that building than Kyle Shannion. Nothing happens like
the avoiding the contract. If you think that was all
the business people and not Kyle, like Kyle's listen, Kyle
can be a dick. I also think he's not dumb.
Like you know, business, you gotta be very very careful
with the way you crush a guy with money. You
(20:13):
want people to play for you, You want your own
guys on the team that they're friends with Ayuk. So
it's a delicate situation. But to me, a lot of
the blame, like obviously a Yuk not showing up or
you know, doing things to ruin a contract is he
bears that responsibility. But like Kyle signed up for this,
you know, God, they did what they were doing. So
(20:35):
I don't feel much sympathy in the sense of like
the other guy's not the coach talks, like how he
doesn't talk during the season, Lesneed's not talking like it's
part of the business like Kyle talks. And again, Kyle's
the of all the guys you just listed, beside the owner,
Kyle's the highest paid guy. So that there's in his
contract no move is made without him signing off on it,
(20:56):
and we'll see this draft doesn't look terrible, but like
it was clear, Like I don't know if this was
a scout draft, this was a coach draft. And I'm
pro Kyle because, like you said, his value on Sundays. Listen,
when you are a valuable individual, people can live with
your flaws. This is what was my issue with JJ McCarthy,
(21:19):
like not productive, not available, Well, in my world, you're useless. Right,
It's like Doc Rivers said, as long as your talent
outweighs your problems, you're gonna be on the court. Right.
The moment that that ratio goes problems over talent, you're done.
And it's no different. Listen, coaches big egos. How would
(21:40):
they not They're making fifteen to twenty million dollars. I
think a lot of myself too. If every day I
looked in the in my direct deposit, I'm getting a
million dollars a month. Right, you're gonna have a big ego,
especially when you're great at what you do. But like
there's he's not perfect. I don't think he's the easiest
guy to deal with every day. Obviously has a lot
of opinions on the roster in the offseason. But he's
(22:02):
pretty awesome. I mean, you watched him. Kyle Shanahan verus
Dave Canalis was varsity vers JV. Now listen, Kyle Shannon
like comparing me to Dave Canalos. No shit, John, that's
varsity versus Peewee's. But that was if that was flipped
and you gave Robert Sala and Kyle Shanahan that team,
the Niners will lose that game because Dowdell would have
(22:25):
had thirty carries and two hundred yards. That was that
was really really embarrassing for Canalis. It really was was
talking to some buddies about how terrible the Travis Hunter
trade looks for the Jags. What if we stayed and
grabbed Membo, Warren t Mack, et cetera, and then still
had a two and a one. But then we arrived
(22:46):
at how impressive it is that the coach has the
team seven and four with wins over the Niners, the Chiefs,
the Chargers of the Texans. I know we can't trust
the Jags in any serious manner, but Liam, our sweet
Italian DC and Trevor are doing great. I would say
Trevor didn't need to throw four picks against the the
almost of the Falcons, the Cardinals. I wouldn't say Trevor's
(23:08):
doing great, but I would say this and Bears fans
can relate. It looked like you nailed the coaching higher
and when you get the coach right, young offensive guy
like listen, Liam Cohen's like legit. I honestly think he
was undervalued last offseason. Like if if you could have
a do over, I do, Like, if you're the Jets,
(23:31):
would you rather have Liam Cohen or Aaron Glenn? But
in fairness, like Aaron Glenn had played there, he'd been
a bigger name for longer. I take Liam Cohen like
you said that Italian DC like they're pretty good, like
they are. Their coaching staff with the Jags is good.
The Travis Hunter one, Listen, you make some mistakes, it happens.
It's I'm not gonna crush him, because you don't get
(23:54):
paid to draft, you get paid to win. So like
the forty nine ers have had a lot of shitty
picks over the year, I mean a lot, And they
started with Solomon Thomas, who actually is gonna have a
twelve year NFL career. They draft him third overall. Now
granted the Bears drafted Trubiskia two, but still the difference
between them and the Bears, Like, Niners win a lot,
so it's like they take less shit. You could miss
(24:16):
on every draft pick. If you're winning eleven games a year,
no one's gonna say anything. I mean, we really get
into the weeds and nitpicky, but like, okay, I'm in
the playoffs every year. So I think it all comes
down to the Travis Hunter thing. Anyone with any sort
of understanding about the NFL. You don't even need to
be a player. You don't need to be a coach,
(24:36):
you don't need to be an executive or a GM
would go in what world is a guy gonna be
able to play both ways? Especially, I would have given
it some credence of like he did this at Georgia
or Alabama, so every single week he's covering and playing
against the best guys in the country. If every single
week you played Ohio State, it's like he won both
(24:58):
ways and he handled it, I'd be like, Okay, he
might be able to do it. There's no way it's
humanly possible, because every single week in the NFL. Okay
Jamar Chase this week, Well, who'd you got next week?
Terry McLaurin, who you got the following week? A J. Brown?
A little lighter week this week, dk Metcalf. Every team
has good wide receivers, so it's impossible, and then playing
(25:21):
wide receiver is hard enough, the physical toll you take
of getting tackled. It was impossible. It was dumb. I
think they overthought. If you just would have stayed at
if Travis Hunter, you just would have drafted Travis Hunter
and not made the trade and said, hey, we're just
gonna playhim a wide receiver. I would be like, no problem.
But I'm with you. I mean, every time I look
at the Browns and Miles Garrett running around, the dude
(25:43):
from Michigan, Mason Graham, it's fucking all over the place.
That guy's a baller. Do you think of Love and
McCarthy swap coaches, they both be more successful. Love would
be able to showcase his elite arm talent in a
pass first offense in KOC. With KOC, and maybe McCarthy
could be a functional game manager. He would definitely be
a better player in a run heavy offense. Right playing Lafloor,
(26:09):
Kyle Shanahan, uh Ben Johnson right, a guy that's gonna
just lean. I want to run the ball thirty times
a game. But even in that offense, look at Perty
last night throwing some of those picks there are. The
passing game is off the run game, and you gotta
be three steps, five steps, let it go. Hit the
guy in stride. A big part of like the Niners
(26:29):
offense or the Packers offense, which is, you know, essentially
the same thing. Get guys in stride, run after the catch,
explosive plays. Well, he's really really inaccurate. So I think
love one would look better with those two wide receivers
and the tight end. Yes, he would look good, he would.
(26:50):
They would be throwing bombs. Question for the mailbag. I
heard Richard Sherman talking about Brandon Ayuk basically advise him
to play and not set out. I was under the
impression that he was still injured and that it would
play when healthy. I guess that's clearly not the case.
And I was wondering what the hell is gonna happen
(27:11):
with Brannon and his contract. I'm as confused as you are.
And I watched Mike Silver that reported on the story.
Do an interview on Instagram with CANBR, which is the
big local radio station in northern California, and even he
said he didn't have all the details. It is a
very confusing story. So unless I have all the pieces,
(27:34):
like is he healthy enough to play right now? Because
if he's not, then there's nothing he can do. But
is he healthy enough to play? And he's refusing to
come back because he doesn't want to risk any injury.
He doesn't want any part of the forty nine ers.
I'm with Richard and anyone else with a brain like bro.
The real world, even if you are extremely successful and
(27:55):
I mean a baller, the chances that you are ever
making twenty five million dollars a year if you don't
own and sell a business are slim than none. The
most one of the most successful guys I know who
just said he I was with him within the last
six months. He's probably early forties, and he's you know,
(28:16):
he's a very six I mean, this guy is a hustler.
I knew him in college and he's just a businessman.
He's wheeling and dealing a lot of different industries. Real
estate stocks said he by far had the best year
he's ever had in his career, and a lot of
it was he had a huge risk. He put a
lot on the table, made like ten million dollars, and
even I was pretty actually intoxic at the time, so
(28:36):
maybe I wasn't like blown away, but that I kind
of thought about it. Like when I was the next
day driving home and I sobered up, I'm like, that
is insane. What a year. That's badass. But that's you're
never getting twenty five million dollars back. You don't. There's
not a human alive unless you're bezos or you know,
one of these guys Steve Balmer, who's just twenty five million,
(29:00):
you wouldn't even notice. No one is giving that type
of money up. That is malpractice by the agent, by
the individual. It's just a sad, embarrassing situation. There's probably
a lot of different adjectives to describe it. But I'm
with Sherman. I think what he's trying to say is, bro,
this thing will end for you. And here's the other
(29:21):
elephant in the room. What if he's never the same.
We see it with athletes all the time. They have
a major injury and they are never the same. So
what if when you come back and you get cut
and you're available, people will work you out and they
sign you like a one year, two million dollar deal
just to see what you look like, and you don't
look right, and then you can't make any money. Like
(29:44):
there aren't industries like the NFL that pay people twenty
five million dollars where you're a W two employee. That's
an incredible opportunity which you earned, you negotiated. Giving that
up is and honestly, just I makes me have a
loss for words. I can't even begin to relate. And
(30:08):
the forty nine ers are extremely lucky if he's truly
not gonna fight it because they're getting bailed out in
this situation, like they fucking signed the contract. So it's
not like I feel sympathy for them that they should
get out of it, like they were the ones willing to,
you know, do a deal. Congrats on all the success
with the Chiefs offensive aggression. Since the enemy left, Why
(30:29):
is it not considered to be brought back? What is
the league's view of Eric Bienemy and why is he
not more sought out OC or head coach? That's a
great I mean, my buddies with the Chiefs always liked him.
You know, he became the offensive coordinator in Washington, didn't
go well. Ucla was really really bad. He's a running
back coach right now for Ben Johnson, so he's in
a good spot. I think people would say it's like
(30:51):
Andy Reid was calling the plays, not the enemy, But
I don't know. I can't speak to that. You know.
Sometimes yeah, I I don't understand, But I also don't
view their regression as like tied to him. I think
it much more has to do with, like you lose
Tyreek Hill, Travis gets old you a little different. You've
seen this year when they've been healthy, they've been much
more explosive on offense. Patrick needs to play better. You know.
(31:14):
It's like part of it too, is like Patrick hasn't
been as good the last couple of years. It's just
that simple. Patrick was in during the regular season, was
one of the greatest players we'd ever seen. Last couple
of years kind of hit a miss. Still good, still
awesome in big moments, and great in the playoffs. But
like in the regular season, week to week, he's just
not as dominant as he once was. We appreciate that
(31:39):
you never conceal your disdain for terrible NFL coaching and
with the overdue firing of Chip, can you give us
your list of your personal worst NFL coaches of all time?
We got to know where Brandon Staley and Jim tom
Sula stack up in the manure pile. That's a good question.
I would say I'd have to think about that, because
(32:02):
the thing with Chip is like Chip once upon a
time was good and then he went to Philadelphia and
he was never the same after that. In post those
last year in Philly, the forty nine ers, the UCLA.
I know he had a good little stretch there in
the playoffs, but I mean Ohio State, I didn't even
think he was that good the majority of the year either.
Obviously with the Raiders ran a big time scam. But
(32:26):
like Chip was changed the sport, Brandon Stateley had one
good year and to me it was just his press
conferences made me want to puke in my mouth. Tom Sula.
In fairness to Jim tom Sula, there are a lot
of guys like him that are just defensive line coaches
or linebacker coaches or old line coaches that are good.
(32:46):
Jim tom Sula was a good defensive line coach. There
is not a human alive that has ever thought this
guy should be our head coach, except if your name
is Jed York and Trimbalke. So I don't even blame
Jim Tom Suell. It'd be like, Hey, the Minnesota Vikings
just called me. They said, hey, we're gonna put JJ
McCarthy on. I are, and we're gonna have you John,
(33:09):
you want to be our quarterback? And I said, yeah,
how much you're gonna pay me? They're like, uh, we'll
give you a five hundred thousand dollars a game. And
I said, yes, Well, if I get out there and
I suck, because I would suck, it's not my fault.
It's the Vikings fault. So a lot of these guys
that get hired, it's like John Marrow when he hired
Joe Judge, Like, how did you think that was gonna go?
(33:32):
Obviously the Brian day ball thing did not go well,
but like, that's an understandable hire, I would say statistically
based on the outcome of wins and losses and how
long the guy survived. I do think Josh McDaniels is
the only guy who's been a head coach twice and
didn't make it to the end of year two either year.
(33:54):
I remember when he got fired, it was like an
NFL record. He said two stops. Didn't got fired midway
through this second year both times. That's pretty hard to do, Okay.
(34:16):
Why are Broncos fans on Twitter so delusional and sometimes
obnoxious about bo saying he's the MVP or that he's
a better quarterback than guys like Herbert and May Why?
I think before I even read the rest of this,
if you're ever getting mad about people on the Internet
and their opinions, like, it's a waste of your energy. Now,
(34:37):
if you can handle going to comments sections and laughing
and putting a smile on your face, but if you're
gonna get worked up and listen, I'm guilty. I do
it every once in a while, and then I realize,
why am I doing this? Why do I give a
shit what all these people are arguing about. I still
find it crazy in twenty twenty five. How whether it's Twitter,
whether it's Reddit, whether it's like the comment section and
(34:59):
the athletic articles, how do people just go back and
forth and argue? And I used to do it a
lot when I was younger, but I like no one
ever goes yeah, a good point. I changed my opinion,
so I you can't get worked out for people on
the internet. It's extremes. So I don't know what to
tell you. Who would win a fight, Sala or Demiico.
(35:24):
Once you've answered that the underdog gets a tit of
zone and the favorite has to run a mile before
the fight, who wins now? Dimiko was the Rookie Defensive
Player of the Year as a rookie. You know, rookie
defensive Player of the Year played at Alabama, and it's
just a certified badass, like middle linebacker in the NFL.
(35:46):
I you know Robert Sala. I was gonna say Western Michigan,
but he looks fantastic now and he listened. Ah is
a help of a drug. He went to Northern Michigan
ninety seven to two thousand. Obviously was not a pro.
He was a tight end. I would say, if you
take Robert Sala from Northern Michigan and Tomiko from Alabama
(36:10):
and put Dimico over Robert Sala and say stone him
at the line of scrimmage, I'm taking Dimico now in
a fistfight. You never know. I don't know if either
guy's trained, but I would like Demico's chances, though I
do believe that Sala has gotten dramatically bigger over the
(36:30):
last six or seven years. For a guy whose job
is pretty labor intensive in terms of his time, he's
got like fifteen kids, like Philip Rivers, how does he
have time to get such elite pumps in My buddy
Guy Haberman, who just had a baby, congrats he uh.
(36:52):
He calls Niner games this year and he's taking a
little break because they just had the baby. But he
was on the road and he's just saying, you know,
he had lunch with Sala and Gus Bradley, and he said,
Sula's a pretty healthy eater. So clearly you don't get
that shape at you know, in your late forties. Great
in the gym. It ain't John bajuices and it ain't protein.
So you have the good stuff. I'm not saying steroids,
(37:14):
but you just you get older, you know, you get
a little testosterone or whatever. And to me, the diet
nothing has been truer in my life as you get
older is the impact of diet. I work out, I
would say on average like six days a week, but
I feel like I've gotten fatter than I ever have
over the course of the last couple of years. It's
like your metabolism changes and you know your diet has
(37:36):
to change and eating healthy. And Robert Sola, I think
is an elite healthy eater. Well, you see, like Kyle Shanahan,
who's like forty five, looks skinny. I bet there are
days where Kyle Shanahan does not eat. It's like Kyle's lifting.
I bet Kyle just eats like red bulls adderall and Gatorays.
As a Vikings fan, we really don't have much hope
(37:56):
JJ or nine. You can't have a nickname and you
can't wear the war paint when you are statistically the
worst quarterback since JaMarcus Russell. We have to change the
self made nicknames. Listen, Kobe gave himself nicknames, Buddy backed
it up. You can't give yourself nicknames, Lebron. Same thing like,
(38:17):
if you're gonna be a self proclaimed whatever the name is,
you have to be good. And QUESTI is one of
the worst drafting gms the Vikings have ever had. I
agree that you know, say what you want about the
previous regime. What's his name? And just cases me Zimmer
(38:38):
and God, I had him on the podcast a couple
of years ago. What the hell is the former GM's name?
Great guy retired. His brother is the former Lions linebacker
who works with the Lions now. I don't know why.
I can't think of the name, but he was good
like he. I mean, just look at the guys he drafted,
from daneil Hunter to Eric Kendricks to Harrison Smith to
(39:00):
Justin Jefferson came on this podcast. I apologize brain's not
firing on all cylinders. Is there any hope? I like O'Connell,
but Flores is gone this offseason. Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, it's just the sport is so quarterback to
dependent that Like, if your quarterback is one of the
(39:24):
worst in the NFL, there's not much you can do
and your options are pretty limited. So you look around, like,
what are they gonna do? Could they trade for mac Jones?
Could they sign a guy like Gardner Minshew? I mean,
their options are pretty limited. You're not gonna draft another
guy more than likely. It's yeah, I'd say you're kind
(39:47):
of screwed. Should the Cardinals go back to Murray when healthy?
I think they should move off them and stick with
Prissett and draft the new quarterback. Part of the reason
they're never gonna go back to him is because if
he gets injured, then his contract guarantees following year. So
I Kyler Murray's never gonna take another snap for the
Cardinals would be my guess. But it's it's it's not
(40:08):
because he might not give him some juice. And you know,
if Jacobe has a couple of bad games, like he
couldn't be better than him. I think it just has
more to do with money. First, that loser Patriot fan
from a few years ago, we have forgotten you one
jump ship and after two down years you ought to
(40:29):
be ashamed of yourself hashtag fake fan. My actual thoughts
In the NBA, we've seen a rise in significant injuries
because the players are moving running substantially more. I'm wondering
if there are a similar correlation between that in football.
As the passing game has gotten more frequent, I imagine
there's been a significant increase in running. Curious your thoughts,
(40:52):
you mentioned having allergies start consuming locally farmed raw honey daily.
I would say on the NBA and the injuries, my
theory again, not a doctor couple workless state school degrees
simply has to be. I think training has changed dramatically.
And I was watching this thing with Shack the other
(41:12):
day that was like I would show a fat and
I would use training camp and early in the season
to get in shape. And he wasn't alone. Most guys
in the seventies, the eighties and nineties did not train
three sixty five. I can imagine Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle,
those type guys of three hundred and sixty five days
(41:33):
a year. There's got to be under two weeks where
they aren't doing something physical that relates to training for football.
And part of that's you know, sauna's cold tubs stretching,
but they are constantly and I'm just using them as
examples the training year round. There has to be a
(41:53):
strenuous kind of toll on your body because, like you said,
the games now it's never been fat. It's more spread
out NBA running gunning, NFL spread out running around. But
I just think there's an element of I don't even
want to say overtraining, but the ratio of training to
(42:17):
actually playing in football, because in training camp he used
to play a lot of football right, double days work
at it and now they don't. So that's always been
my theory. Could be way off. Would love to know
being an NFL scout works. Is it salary nine to
five work week? Do you compensate those that watch thirty
plus hours of film? What are the incentives of being
(42:39):
a go getter scout versus the average scout. I had
a buddy tell me this. His problem with the scouting
industry is there is no incentives. You know. I just
I'm redoing some turf in my backyard and the guy
was kind of a go getter salesman came out and
we started talking about the business, and he clearly gets incentivized.
The more jobs he bids and sells, and more turf
(42:59):
he sales, the more money. So he's incentive. I's to
kind of hustle, right, He there's a big difference between
he could make hundreds of thousands of dollars more by
working way harder. There is no incentive as a scout.
You could be the worst scout alive, and if the
GM and the head coach likes you, you're on scholarship,
you could be an awesome scout. And if the head
coach or GM doesn't like you, or you piss off
(43:20):
the owner or something, you get fired. So, you know,
the salaries vary depending on how long you've been in
the league. You could start anywhere from sixty seventy eighty
K to guys making hundreds of thousands of dollars as
an area scout, but on the road, constantly working long days.
There's no clocking in or clocking out. You're kind of
(43:42):
always on call. It's I always thought, Now, once you
become like the GM, obviously it's it's pretty glamorous, but
it's not a glamorous job. Now, once you become the
three or the two and you're making five hundred grand,
eight hundred grand, obviously you make a lot of money.
But I know a lot of people that work in
(44:03):
a tack or whatever that make a lot of money,
that have weekends off year round, that can go on
vacations whenever they want. You know, that's not the way
football works. It's obviously really busy during the fall, and
then your season starts. Once the season ends, the All
Star Games, the Combine, the Pro Days, the draft, So
I mean your only downtime is really like June in
(44:25):
a little bit of July. But even then you're watching
players to get ready for the fall. So it's it's
a grind for sure. The Steelers are stuck in no
man's land after nearly twenty years. I think they need
to move on from Mike. Beyond that, this team has
a lot of problems in an inconsistent offensive line, no
long term quarterback solution, no credible wide receiver outside of Metcalf,
(44:46):
and expensive defensive lead guys. Yeah, I think the GM
I would think about getting rid of him too. I mean,
if the Ravens win on Thursday night and they're seven
to five and the Steelers lose the Bills, it would
feel like they started one in five. Can you imagine
being a Steeler fan and if this year ends and
you lose the division by multiple games and missed the playoffs.
(45:10):
We were four and one, they were one and five.
How did this happen? It's like, well, you started playing
better teams. You're not very good. Your roster isn't that good.
Unless TJ plays like Miles Garrett every game, you're just
not gonna have a chance. You traded a second round
pick for DK Metcalf. Dk Metcalf's is two I mean
that's what he is. You paid him one hundred and
fifty million dollars. It's one of the worst personnel moves
I remember in recent memory, because even if with George Pickens,
(45:33):
cow wasn't pay them. It was a risky move and
it's obviously paid dividends. But they gave what second or
third round pick for a guy on a rookie contract.
Now they can't choose to pay him now. But like
if the Steelers had traded a third round pick for
DK Metcalf and not extended him and he was just
playing on his previous contract, would they extend him right now?
(45:54):
And the answer would be no. Being a Bears fan,
with all the hype in the media has been portraying
on them since the Bengals game, I truly believe we
can go four and two in our final four games.
Ben and the coaching staff have proven week in week
out that they can pull off close wins. Haters well
hate and think this is some same old Bears, even
after beating the Steelers yesterday who have a winning record,
(46:15):
But the Bears can't control that. Johnson has shown improvement
in game management, along with Caleb showing massive improvements in
his overall performance. Our defense isn't one hundred percent healthy,
and our linebackers JJ and Kyler we still so basically
just wanted to get your insight. Yeah, I mean, I
don't think the Bears are going away now. Do I
think it's gonna be easy against the Packers and Alliance?
I don't. But in the Eagles, I think if you
(46:38):
beat the Eagles and I get the Eagles are a
little weird this year, no one can say shit. I mean,
the Eagles are coming off of devastating loss the games
in Philadelphia. If you win that game, you're head to
the playoffs, whether you beat the forty nine Ers or not,
because you'll probably split with the Packers. So I'd feel
pretty good if I were you. Hey, John, question for
the bag. Jalen has taking a lot of heat right
(46:59):
now for the way the Eagles offensive performing, but schematically,
he truly is receiving no help. The film Breakdown shows
the receivers are running the same two or three routes
every play, thus gaining no separation as the defense knows
exactly what's coming. I've heard it described by those who
understand schematics as absolutely elementary. It's not unfair to place
(47:19):
that at the feet of Jalen when we've seen how
garbage Patullo's schemes are. I think it's a combination of both. Like,
clearly this offensive coordinator is a downgrade over what they had,
and all signs point to Jalen not pulling the trigger
when sometimes you can push the envelope. He will just
always take the safer out. And I think there's clearly
(47:40):
a human element of Aj and him. I don't care
who you are and how professional you are and how
much money you make. If you get into a business
situation where a guy that relies on you and a
guy you rely on don't like each other, don't respect
each other because listen, we don't like a lot of
(48:01):
people that we do business with, Welcome to life. But
if I don't respect you and he doesn't respect me,
which I think it's fair to say that at this point,
I don't care what they say. It's got to throw
you off. That would throw you off in a normal
business setting, definitely on the field. So I think the
situation with Aj Brown has just has just kind of
(48:22):
bled in. The problem was he's so talented, you still
kind of need him if you want to try to
win the Super Bowl and they kind of just got
stuck in a situation where they couldn't pivot off of them.
So yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people
bear blame. At the end of the day. This is
you know, I get your Philly and you guys are
get angry, but you're you did win the super Bowl.
You know you're the defending super Bowl champs. I do
(48:46):
think you probably thought early in the season, like, we'll
go back to back, still possible. You beat the Bears
and still right ahead of you. The Cowboys game doesn't
just end your season. You know you can go thirteen
and four. You're gonna lose a couple of games. Losing
at Dallas is not the crazy his game to lose.
So let's just watch a couple more weeks of the
Eagles before we completely write them off as screwed. Audios,
(49:08):
have a great day. The volume M
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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