Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now to have a civilized conversation. Is a
gentleman who follows the Chicago Bears very closely, so we'll
see how that goes. But more importantly his work with
Bootleg Football as well as many other ventures. He does
a great job working of course with Brett Coleman, among others,
and he stands on his own, by the way in
terms of the quality of his great work. It's e J. Snyder,
(00:21):
Bootleg Football. What's going on, long lost stranger, how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm good. I don't know if I can live up
to the intro, but I'll give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, we usually go heavy on the intro. Sorry about that, Okay,
I'll take it. No, man, you're worth every bit of
that praise. We'll give you a chance to just promote
everything that's going on. It's been a minute, and that's
on me because we had never traded phone numbers. We
had your number here in the studio in our database,
but I never had it in my shelf. So you
were dming me like thirty times, and it was getting
(00:52):
lost between Russian bots and like people trying to get
me signed up for Chumba or something else, and so
I finally found you, and I was like, okay, it's
time for us to catch up. It's good to hear
your voice. Let's start by talking about the Chicago Bears. Look,
this is a team that you have followed for a
long time. They have made a change at offensive coordinator
Shane Waldron, the head coach, remains that the general manager,
(01:15):
of course, remains. It's really early on in this process.
And guess who takes over the same guy that took
over last year for the guy that was fired in Carolina.
It's Thomas Brown. It's a strange sort of full circle moment.
What do you make of all of it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Boy, how long we have as long.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
As you like? I cleared the floor for you, buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah. No, it's not pretty inside the organization outside if
you listen to all the commentary, all the coverage, folks
who are close to the team, and Courtney Cronin has
been making the rounds of course this morning, because she's
very close to the team and does a great work
for ESPN. But she's even saying things like this is abnormal,
this is these are things you don't here. We don't
(02:01):
normally see players step this bar out when a coach
is still in the building. There's a lot going on there.
It's not one thing, and everybody wants, you know the answer,
what's the one thing that's wrong, and there are multiple
things wrong. Caleb has played well in stretches, but not
well in stretches as well. The offensive line is a
(02:23):
it's complete tuna fish. They started four people last Sunday
that were not starters in August. Injuries come for all teams,
but not only were their top two tackles out, their
top three tackles were out, and pretty much, you take
out their top three tackles, it's going to look about
like it did. Shane Waldron wasn't helping. The design was pedestrian.
(02:46):
I have no idea what happened during the bye. That's
the most common question because the two games before the
buye against your Panthers and the Jaguars looked really good
and everybody said, great, we've turned the corner. They flipped
the switch. He's getting it, let's go. Took a week off,
came back absolute garbage for three straight weeks. Shane Waldron
gets fired. As you said, Thomas Brown has a deja
(03:08):
bou moment. He gets to do it all over again,
and we'll see what happens. But in terms of is
the arrow pointing all kinds of us, No, the arrow's
pointing all over the map. It looks a little bit
like a compass in the Demeter triangle right now, you know,
wait an hour and it'll turn around.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It looks a little bit like Carolina last year, is
what it looks like. It feels a little bit not
quite as bad because you have a semblance of a
defense that does show up. And I want to go
back to what happened. I'm sorry I'm doing this, but
in Washington do you think there was a hangover effect?
Because I told my son that night, we're very introspective people,
(03:45):
my son and I. He's a huge football fan, and
he's like, what do you think's gonna happen? Is this
is gonna like Rick their season? I said, well, this
can go one of two ways. Even rallies them and says,
you know, look, we were right there. We could have
beaten one of the best teams in the league. This happens.
We got to clean up our act, Steve you in particular,
And it could have been a galvanizing effect, or it
could have been a net negative and it certainly seems
(04:07):
like it has been. Or maybe none of the above.
Maybe they were just always going to be a team
that kind of fell apart after a fast start. Do
you have any thoughts on any of that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really don't think they were faded to be that.
I think they were on the right path after the
Panthers and the Jaguars, those games looked very good, and yes,
against bad defenses, but there were things in those games
that didn't have anything to do with the defense. They
looked cohesive, they looked like they were playing together. Caleb
was on time, on target. Those things aren't necessarily defined
(04:36):
by the defense. Yes, easier against bad defenses, but again
not smoking mirrors and good questions. In terms of Washington,
I said the same thing. I said, Either they're going
to come out sort of with their hat in their
hand and say, we really screwed up and we need
to do things differently, we you know, realize our mistakes,
(04:56):
or they're going to do the thing that the Bears
have done more often recent history, which is, hey, we
had a great plan, we just didn't execute. You know,
us coaches, we were smart, and the players, and that's
what they did. And really, if you look back at
the last three weeks and like a case study, every
time they've had a chance to, you know, quote unquote
do the right thing if you follow like crisis management
(05:17):
and how to run up pr campaign and everything else,
they've gone exactly the wrong way every time and just
made it worse. And now we see they've gone from
a kind of small bonfire to a straight inferno.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well again, Waldron's offense in Seattle. We went against that
last year with Carolina and there were some interesting, you know,
heavy personnel sets, two tight ends, three tight ends. You know,
I don't want to bor our listeners with what you
and I generally talked about online, which is film studying,
really deep dive stuff. But look, I understand maybe that
wasn't going to work. It's pretty early on in the process.
(05:51):
I hear there's a lot of players that had concerns
about Waldron. But the bigger picture is flus Man eber
Flus and I come back to if you're going to
go all in and make this move for a quarterback,
I don't mind it. Being a defensive coach, EJ. I'm
one of these guys that looks at people like John Harball,
you know, obviously, Demiko Ryans, dozens of others who have
(06:13):
done quike well, Sean McDermott. Grooming a team that has
a great quarterback on it. It's not just about let's
get a whisper, a quarterback whisper. We've tried fifty of
them here. Finally we may have one. But Canallis, I
think is a very good coach, not just a whisper.
Did you feel like anywhere at some point in time,
if you're gonna do that reset, did Flues show you
(06:36):
enough to come back this year? Not me?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And I was definitely in the minority. Over the summer,
A lot of people didn't want to talk about that
storyline because I didn't really believe it had changed. Of course,
he had the glow up, and the roster glow up
happened as well, and a lot of people thought that
was gonna sort of plaster over all the ill.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
The roster glow up was just like his It was
a lot of window dressing without a lot of meat
and potatoes.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, we've been talking about the offensive line of
mistakes were made, for sure, but I don't think it
was window dressing. They brought in a lot of talent
for a rookie starting quarterback, and we've seen that work together,
but it doesn't take away from being a bad coach
in game management or somebody that really just doesn't manage
people very well outside of the defense. And on top
(07:26):
of that, we've seen some very notable deep into breakdowns
like the Hailbarry and there just wasn't enough for me.
More Over, it's about tying a coach to Hey, we're
gonna pick a quarterback number one. Overall, we should have
these people in lockstep. We should have the coach, the
offensive coordinator, and the new you know, potential franchise savior
(07:47):
tied together. And instead the Bears are going to rinse,
lather and repeat and do the same thing they did
with Trubisky, the same thing they did with Fields, And
now they look like they're going to do it with
Caleb one and done, second year quarterback, a new offensive coordinator,
and new head coach. They start over, and you would
hope they learned from the past mistakes, but it sure
doesn't seem like they have.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Well, Caleb didn't forget how to throw football overnight. I
what I see on film as a guy who's just
really struggling and I think Jeremiah said it best to
play it with assertion, to play with confidence. He's playing
too cautious and you know you've got weapons out there.
The line has been banged up. I think he'll be fine,
and I wonder how Thomas Brown will do. He's a
great guy, comes from mcveigh's system. I don't think you
(08:30):
can totally judge Thomas Brown on last year, but this
typically doesn't go all that great when you do a
mid season I hope it does for Bears fans because
there's some talent on that team, even on defense. It's
a very good team that should be better than what
they art. I'm just not a fan of ebra flues.
Nothing personal. I just he's kind of in that Dennis
Allen territory of when have you really been a playoff coach?
(08:50):
How many more years are you going to get? And
what is the net positive here? I'll tell you what
as you move on down the list here, the net
positive for the Lions is Dan Campbell's just that's all
I can say. They're down twenty three to seven to
the Texans. He's doing his pre recorded you know, stand
up interview there with Melissa Stark YEP and NBC couldn't
(09:13):
have timed it out better, and nor could they have
even timed it out to where Dan kills We're going, fine,
we're gonna get out there, get an interception, go on,
and right as he says it, the ball gets picked
off and then starts the rally. And I know, look,
it's the division rival for Chicago, but Detroit has just
been so impressive. And that win right there shows you. Look,
(09:34):
go into Houston, a team that banged up, but it's
still Houston. You overcome that deficit, you can pretty much
go some places, especially with the quarterback throwing five picks.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Very solid football team right now, and I really enjoy
watching them play. Yes, their division rival, but you know me,
I'm a fan of good football. They are playing a
lot of good football on both sides of the ball.
But extremely happy to see the continued growth of Brian Branch,
a guy that I called out as one of our
bootleg gems, great football player. They've got some corners now,
so he doesn't even have to do as much. He
(10:05):
can just do Brian Branch things and is doing them regularly,
and that's fantastic. Scoff has been nails all season, even
with the five picks. I'll give you that it happens,
it doesn't happen very often to him, and he is
guiding that offense. They can run by you, they can
run through you, they can throw it over your head.
James Williams is finally starting to contribute. Sam Laporta, who
(10:28):
is you know, breakout star as a rookie last year,
is kind of looking around like, hey, guys, you're gonna
throw it to me. And he's a very talented tight end.
So when you go down the line like that, you
look at how they improved on their weaknesses from last
year when they made a great run. You know, really
by rebuilding that secondary, they just seem to get stronger
and stronger. They've done a great job with the roster.
(10:49):
Campbell is everything I think you want as a leader
of men, and it shows up on the.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Field, no doubt. And just to that point, E. J.
Snyder joins us from Good Like Football. You gotta talk
Panthers and for once we're not going to be totally
in the dumps because it relates to the Lions a minute,
and just bear with me. Dan Morgan's the general manager
up here, and Dan played in this league and so
Dan knows a little thing or two about how to
build a team with some dogs, and that's exactly what
(11:15):
he wanted to do. And they sort of had an
imbalanced schedule here in terms of their free agents spending.
Next year, you assume it'll be defense, it'll be in
better shape. But they went all in and built the
most expensive interior offensive line that I believe exists in
the league right now, and lo and behold, it worked.
Robert Hunt has been great, Damian Lewis equally good. They
have had three different centers start this year and they've
(11:36):
all looked great, and Corbett was the starter. Ikey Equano's hurt,
you'll be fine. And then Moten has been a rocket
right tackle that has been such a problem here for
so many years, and they have finally fixed it. And
it looks a little bit, a little bit bj like
the template Detroit put in place, maybe without the Jared
Goff trade, but that was a real priority for Detroit
(11:58):
and some other teams just reminded me with all the
talk about quarterbacks, we've got to find a quarterback. Find
got to find one. Where are they? Are they in
the treasure chest? Are they under the sake no, you
gotta find everything else as well, and usually you gotta
find that first. I'm so thrilled, no matter what the
record is, moving forward to a team that's went two
straight now that Bryce is back in, he's looking good,
(12:20):
he's cutting it loose, he's not putting up big numbers.
It's fine, but he's playing good situation in football. That
offensive line can travel anywhere. It makes me very happy, Ejay.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It should. And you know, hopefully we'll be having this
conversation next year about Chicago like they finally fixed it,
because the line has been a source of many ills
for them for a couple of years now. But Bryce
coming back in, I think is a lot of people
sort of looked away from that situation in the beginning
of the season and went, oh my god, I don't
want to watch that anymore. And they sat him down
(12:51):
and he's back. And I put out his tweet last
week that says, man, if you want, you know, if
Anthony Richardson wants some tips about how to use his
time on the bench, call Bryce, because Bryce looks like
a completely different player yep, from six weeks ago. It
is night and day difference, and it's all the things
he wanted to see from him coming out of college
(13:12):
that you certainly weren't seeing from him. So the Panthers
are right to sit him down. But he used that
time well, he didn't go on pout, and now that
he's back on the field, he looks very capable. I'm
not talking about world beater. I'm not talking about con
ten quarterback. I'm talking about functional NFL quarterback. All they
need forward.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That's all they need right now, just to get out
of the hole. They you gotta crawl before he can
walk and then you can run. And uh, you know
that's not a joke on Bryce, young folks, Relax, I'm
just saying this team has chewbe Hubbard. The line is
helping two young good receivers out there. Thelin coming back,
they get rid of Deontay Johnson, who is now in
a merry go round in this league. Speaking of which,
(13:50):
Trey Facco has a Steamer's question for you, my friend,
I do yes, EJ souh a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There seems to be this kind of quarterback pipeline from
Chicago to Pittsburgh. You know, we had Trubisky that we
had justin fields, justin fields. Did pretty well for us.
At the beginning of this season, you know, I thought
he was gonna give Russ a pretty big run for
his money. But watching Russ step into this offense and
kind of watch this offense come into its own under
his command. The Pittsburgh Steelers they've always been kind of
(14:17):
this defensive powerhouse, but here in recent years they've really
lacked on offense, and I mean really lacked on offense.
But now it kind of seems that they're cooking there.
They're more of a balanced team. How do you feel
about them now that we've gotten three games under Russ
and watching this offense cook, watching the defense kind of
do their thing. How do you feel about the Pittsburgh
Steelers moving forward in this season and especially going up
(14:38):
against the Ravens here this Sunday.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, it's a great question and big game for them,
certainly with the division rival, but they too have built
that into your offensive line. Mason McCormick was one of
my favorites. I have to talk to him to the Shrine.
Bole great player, and they've invested and even though Fontwao's
not playing for them this year, he's still there and
they sort of built that line. They couldn't get the
(15:01):
quarterback play that they wanted. Dustin Bills was doing just
enough and that was enough, but it kept them extremely close,
too close. In most of their games. Defense has always
been a solid rock. And then there's Russ and I
didn't really believe Russ had anything left. But he is
playing this razor edge of Russ ball. If you look
(15:21):
at his back they're not great, but he is hitting
the shots he needs to hit. He is putting the
ball up in the air for George Pickens, who has
been kind of out on an island to open for
a couple of years, go and get it to me,
and how they're paying that off multiple times a week.
But he was like, what seventeen for twenty eight or
something last week? But the seventeen matter? But three touchdowns, right,
(15:45):
So it's it's this, I'm not gonna throw it up
very much, which Mike Tomlin loves. Let's not give the
other team a chance to take it away from us.
And Russ is making it work. And there was a
little spark of that when he was with the Broncos
at the beginning of last year, after that terrible first year.
It was like, I he's playing okay football, But they didn't.
(16:08):
They hadn't come up like they have this year to
really support him as a full team. The Steelers are
really in that place and they were waiting for just
a little bit of spark, and I swear to god
Russ is giving him just enough that all of a
sudden it lights up right.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And you know, with Pittsburgh it's been a struggle bus
from the pass game concepts. With Matt Canada's time there,
Roethlisberger's arm gave out eventually, can he pick It was
a problem. You just couldn't rely on that, and they
knew drafting that late in the first round he might
not work out. But yeah, I think you're right. That
moonball as they call it, I mean it sometimes can
(16:46):
turn into a helium ball and hang. And that first
one he threw in that first game to Pickens. Pickens
had to work back to get that one right. But
that's what he does. Yeah, Mike Williams is the happiest
man on the planet right now. It's like, thank God
not running this Aaron Rodgers almost just let me go
do my two routes and give me my eighty one
yards and I'll be how to call it. That's Clemson.
(17:07):
Mike Williams right there, that's how that works. He J
Snyder's our guests or bootleg football. Hey, look, it's not
a talk show without talking cowboys. And look, we could
talk about their stadium and the way the light comes
in Jerry Building. It north to south, so the east
to west light is an issue. But I really have
no interest in that story. We've known that to be
the case for what about twenty years. Now, let's talk
(17:30):
about where they go from here from a roster perspective. Obviously,
the trade deadlines coming gone. Parsons is still on this team,
but he's banged up. We know they're bad. We know
they're going to be bad with Prescott and I are
you feel like McCarthy in a contract year it's pretty
much over And do you think they have an eye
on certain types of coaches? If so, moving forward.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I don't believe that McCarthy will probably survive. Then again,
I said that last year. That being said, I want
to I want to bring up a point that McCarthy
made this week, and it's kind of the opposite of
what we talked about with Chicago at the opening of
the show. Because Michael came out said some things which
a lot of players feel like, Hey, coaches can go
where they want to, but players are the ones going
(18:12):
to be left here. And that's that was sort of
the too long, didn't read version of what he said.
It pissed some people off. It made other people, you know, say, hey,
especially former players, he's he's just telling them the truth.
I thought McCarthy had a chance to go two ways
with that as well, and the Bears have gone the
wrong way, and said, well, that's his fault. It's on him.
Macarthy came out and said, yep, I heard it. I
(18:34):
didn't love it. And whenever thing's like that happened, I
do what I always do. I had a conversation. So
Mike and I sat down this morning. We had a conversation,
because conversations bring resolution. I thought, damn, Mike, that's the
grown up way to go. I appreciated that for McCarthy,
as much as I might not appreciate his coaching. I
(18:55):
thought that was the way to squash that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, that's how yins a handle's business. I mean, yeah, McCarthy,
let's pick up the phone and talk. Yeah, let's talk
to say that's fascinating because you know, there has been
so much shutt about chatter. I don't want to talk
about Jerry Jones anymore because he's a carnival barker and
he's just gonna do what he does. I respect the
fact did he build a brand there, but if he's
honestly still making football decisions instead of Will McLay or
(19:21):
his son Steven, and it's a mess. Jerry's just desperate
to get a ring. Before it's all said and done,
this is not going to be the year with Cooper Rush.
Let me ask you about the Jets. On that note,
we're going down a world depressing road here. Obviously the Jets.
It's so over with this team. I mean, it really is.
They talked about making a rally, but you know the
business of the NFL. You know they're peddling hope and
(19:43):
Rogers will do that and he needs to as the quarterback.
Maybe not on McAfee show, maybe his guys didn't do
it privately, but he can't go on like a seven
and one run with the deficiencies they've had with an
interim head coach. Did you feel the Sala firing we
haven't talked since, did that feel like it was a
good move at all. It felt he just felt bad.
(20:05):
It felt weird, It felt like it shouldn't have happened.
And then a week later he's got his Green Bay
outfit on it. They're helping Mett Lafleur. Maybe you have
a different opinion, but I just felt like it put
that team out of business for sure for the rest
of the year.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No offense to Olbrick, Yeah, no, Olbrick is a great
football coach. I don't know about a great head coach,
you know, and interim coaching. Gig don't really let you
know that, but you know, they got worse after Saul
left NASA on firing was tough. I think he's a
great football coach. I think he may be happier as
a defensive coordinator because he was very good in that
(20:38):
role and he didn't elevate that roster. They didn't win
a lot of the games that you thought they should,
so it was sort of a damn vdoo, damn don't
thing where they fired him, and they got worse. If
he'd stayed around. I don't necessarily know they would have
gone on that run either, So it wasn't great. He's
a you think Mike Williams is happy. Roberts Pallas pretty
(21:00):
and have be going from the Jets to Green Bay.
In terms of what the team does from here on out,
it's rough. You basically have to take this blueprint because
you did, indeed, speaking about Jerry Jones, go all in
with the Aaron Rodgers, they give them the key.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Everything. They gave him the Blizard, they gave him tob
they gave them a pet, they gave him everything.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And now it hasn't worked. It's not going to work,
it doesn't look like it's turning around. You're really going
to have to do something else at the core of
that team. The problem is you have a lot of
good young football players on that team who, by the
time you retool, are not necessarily going to be relevant pieces.
You're going to have to decide whether or not to
(21:45):
resign them at a much higher rate, and it leaves
you in this sort of flux position where you know
you've got to move on and get a new quarterbacks,
new coach, new offensive coordinator. At least they'll be doing
that all at once. But what about the guys who
you know, we know how rookie quarterbacks go. That's going
to be the thing. They can try the free agency
route again, but they're not probably going to get somebody
(22:08):
as accomplished as they have in the past, that's for sure.
So it really feels like you've got to make the
youth movement. But you do that, you're sort of selling
the agenda that you've laid out down the road. And
that means I hate to say the rebuild word, but
you got to retool pretty significantly, and that's gonna be rough.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And I think it doesn't surprise any of us to
hear that word. It's been in my vocabulary with this
team for quite a few weeks now. And look, I
don't get a lot of things right, but I just
something about this dynamic. Nothing really about Rogers going on
shows and talking about vaccines, that's his life whatever. I
don't really love it, but just the the idea he's
(22:48):
forty coming off an Achilles and just you's got so
much disconnect there. And you got an owner, by the way,
that has not taken his team under any coach or
any GM any capacity to the playoffs since twenty ten.
I mean, the drought is unbelievable. I had no idea
was that long. And so if that continues, Yeah, you're right.
(23:10):
I mean it's just Rogers. Who knows. He's so unpredictable.
Maybe he voids it, maybe he walks out. Hopefully they
get it right, Hopefully he plays some better football. He's
fun to watch on the field. But yeah, I feel
bad for those fans.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Then again, I cover the Panthers. You're a big Bears fan,
and you do you do a great job with bootleg football.
Let's let's do this tease whatever's going on, man, because
it has been so much fun. Let us know what's
going on and where we can find all the goodies,
smeth ring.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
All the goodies. Well, Bootleg Football is three times a week.
We have an early week pod, we have a late
week pod, and then of course we live stream Thursday
Night football every week, which is pretty fun. And like
an idiot, I thought the Bears were going to be
good this year, so I started a new Bears pod
called bear Era and week we've had some great guests
and you know, nobody wants to listen anymore, and that's okay,
(24:01):
you're roll.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Oh yeah, this is when this is the iron strike bile,
the iron is cold. That's a billy, And I did
that with the roar we'd started in twenty twenty when
we invited a man who spit on himself literally from Baylor,
Matt Ruhle, to come coach our team. And he done
broke it, and we it'll go well either way for
you because your content is great. What's the name of
the pot again, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
It's called Bear Era. You can find it on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Well, the Bear Era right now is uh. Look, you're
four and five. It ain't over. Get a couple of
wins under your belt. You still got some great weapons
out there. Uh, you just got to see DJ Moore.
Maybe get a little cleaner with those routes again. We'll
talk Minutia next time. EJ. We love your work, We
love your candor.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Thanks again, man, absolutely thanks for having me back. John.
I appreciate it you too, Man.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Be good e J Snyder Bootleg Football
Joining us now to have a civilized conversation. Is a
gentleman who follows the Chicago Bears very closely, so we'll
see how that goes. But more importantly his work with
Bootleg Football as well as many other ventures. He does
a great job working of course with Brett Coleman, among others,
and he stands on his own, by the way in
terms of the quality of his great work. It's e J. Snyder,
(00:21):
Bootleg Football. What's going on, long lost stranger, how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm good. I don't know if I can live up
to the intro, but I'll give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, we usually go heavy on the intro. Sorry about that, Okay,
I'll take it. No, man, you're worth every bit of
that praise. We'll give you a chance to just promote
everything that's going on. It's been a minute, and that's
on me because we had never traded phone numbers. We
had your number here in the studio in our database,
but I never had it in my shelf. So you
were dming me like thirty times, and it was getting
(00:52):
lost between Russian bots and like people trying to get
me signed up for Chumba or something else, and so
I finally found you, and I was like, okay, it's
time for us to catch up. It's good to hear
your voice. Let's start by talking about the Chicago Bears. Look,
this is a team that you have followed for a
long time. They have made a change at offensive coordinator
Shane Waldron, the head coach, remains that the general manager,
(01:15):
of course, remains. It's really early on in this process.
And guess who takes over the same guy that took
over last year for the guy that was fired in Carolina.
It's Thomas Brown. It's a strange sort of full circle moment.
What do you make of all of it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Boy, how long we have as long.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
As you like? I cleared the floor for you, buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah. No, it's not pretty inside the organization outside if
you listen to all the commentary, all the coverage, folks
who are close to the team, and Courtney Cronin has
been making the rounds of course this morning, because she's
very close to the team and does a great work
for ESPN. But she's even saying things like this is abnormal,
this is these are things you don't here. We don't
(02:01):
normally see players step this bar out when a coach
is still in the building. There's a lot going on there.
It's not one thing, and everybody wants, you know the answer,
what's the one thing that's wrong, and there are multiple
things wrong. Caleb has played well in stretches, but not
well in stretches as well. The offensive line is a
(02:23):
it's complete tuna fish. They started four people last Sunday
that were not starters in August. Injuries come for all teams,
but not only were their top two tackles out, their
top three tackles were out, and pretty much, you take
out their top three tackles, it's going to look about
like it did. Shane Waldron wasn't helping. The design was pedestrian.
(02:46):
I have no idea what happened during the bye. That's
the most common question because the two games before the
buye against your Panthers and the Jaguars looked really good
and everybody said, great, we've turned the corner. They flipped
the switch. He's getting it, let's go. Took a week off,
came back absolute garbage for three straight weeks. Shane Waldron
gets fired. As you said, Thomas Brown has a deja
(03:08):
bou moment. He gets to do it all over again,
and we'll see what happens. But in terms of is
the arrow pointing all kinds of us, No, the arrow's
pointing all over the map. It looks a little bit
like a compass in the Demeter triangle right now, you know,
wait an hour and it'll turn around.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It looks a little bit like Carolina last year, is
what it looks like. It feels a little bit not
quite as bad because you have a semblance of a
defense that does show up. And I want to go
back to what happened. I'm sorry I'm doing this, but
in Washington do you think there was a hangover effect?
Because I told my son that night, we're very introspective people,
(03:45):
my son and I. He's a huge football fan, and
he's like, what do you think's gonna happen? Is this
is gonna like Rick their season? I said, well, this
can go one of two ways. Even rallies them and says,
you know, look, we were right there. We could have
beaten one of the best teams in the league. This happens.
We got to clean up our act, Steve you in particular,
And it could have been a galvanizing effect, or it
could have been a net negative and it certainly seems
(04:07):
like it has been. Or maybe none of the above.
Maybe they were just always going to be a team
that kind of fell apart after a fast start. Do
you have any thoughts on any of that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really don't think they were faded to be that.
I think they were on the right path after the
Panthers and the Jaguars, those games looked very good, and yes,
against bad defenses, but there were things in those games
that didn't have anything to do with the defense. They
looked cohesive, they looked like they were playing together. Caleb
was on time, on target. Those things aren't necessarily defined
(04:36):
by the defense. Yes, easier against bad defenses, but again
not smoking mirrors and good questions. In terms of Washington,
I said the same thing. I said, Either they're going
to come out sort of with their hat in their
hand and say, we really screwed up and we need
to do things differently, we you know, realize our mistakes,
(04:56):
or they're going to do the thing that the Bears
have done more often recent history, which is, hey, we
had a great plan, we just didn't execute. You know,
us coaches, we were smart, and the players, and that's
what they did. And really, if you look back at
the last three weeks and like a case study, every
time they've had a chance to, you know, quote unquote
do the right thing if you follow like crisis management
(05:17):
and how to run up pr campaign and everything else,
they've gone exactly the wrong way every time and just
made it worse. And now we see they've gone from
a kind of small bonfire to a straight inferno.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well again, Waldron's offense in Seattle. We went against that
last year with Carolina and there were some interesting, you know,
heavy personnel sets, two tight ends, three tight ends. You know,
I don't want to bor our listeners with what you
and I generally talked about online, which is film studying,
really deep dive stuff. But look, I understand maybe that
wasn't going to work. It's pretty early on in the process.
(05:51):
I hear there's a lot of players that had concerns
about Waldron. But the bigger picture is flus Man eber
Flus and I come back to if you're going to
go all in and make this move for a quarterback,
I don't mind it. Being a defensive coach, EJ. I'm
one of these guys that looks at people like John Harball,
you know, obviously, Demiko Ryans, dozens of others who have
(06:13):
done quike well, Sean McDermott. Grooming a team that has
a great quarterback on it. It's not just about let's
get a whisper, a quarterback whisper. We've tried fifty of
them here. Finally we may have one. But Canallis, I
think is a very good coach, not just a whisper.
Did you feel like anywhere at some point in time,
if you're gonna do that reset, did Flues show you
(06:36):
enough to come back this year? Not me?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And I was definitely in the minority. Over the summer,
A lot of people didn't want to talk about that
storyline because I didn't really believe it had changed. Of course,
he had the glow up, and the roster glow up
happened as well, and a lot of people thought that
was gonna sort of plaster over all the ill.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
The roster glow up was just like his It was
a lot of window dressing without a lot of meat
and potatoes.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, we've been talking about the offensive line of
mistakes were made, for sure, but I don't think it
was window dressing. They brought in a lot of talent
for a rookie starting quarterback, and we've seen that work together,
but it doesn't take away from being a bad coach
in game management or somebody that really just doesn't manage
people very well outside of the defense. And on top
(07:26):
of that, we've seen some very notable deep into breakdowns
like the Hailbarry and there just wasn't enough for me.
More Over, it's about tying a coach to Hey, we're
gonna pick a quarterback number one. Overall, we should have
these people in lockstep. We should have the coach, the
offensive coordinator, and the new you know, potential franchise savior
(07:47):
tied together. And instead the Bears are going to rinse,
lather and repeat and do the same thing they did
with Trubisky, the same thing they did with Fields, And
now they look like they're going to do it with
Caleb one and done, second year quarterback, a new offensive coordinator,
and new head coach. They start over, and you would
hope they learned from the past mistakes, but it sure
doesn't seem like they have.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Well, Caleb didn't forget how to throw football overnight. I
what I see on film as a guy who's just
really struggling and I think Jeremiah said it best to
play it with assertion, to play with confidence. He's playing
too cautious and you know you've got weapons out there.
The line has been banged up. I think he'll be fine,
and I wonder how Thomas Brown will do. He's a
great guy, comes from mcveigh's system. I don't think you
(08:30):
can totally judge Thomas Brown on last year, but this
typically doesn't go all that great when you do a
mid season I hope it does for Bears fans because
there's some talent on that team, even on defense. It's
a very good team that should be better than what
they art. I'm just not a fan of ebra flues.
Nothing personal. I just he's kind of in that Dennis
Allen territory of when have you really been a playoff coach?
(08:50):
How many more years are you going to get? And
what is the net positive here? I'll tell you what
as you move on down the list here, the net
positive for the Lions is Dan Campbell's just that's all
I can say. They're down twenty three to seven to
the Texans. He's doing his pre recorded you know, stand
up interview there with Melissa Stark YEP and NBC couldn't
(09:13):
have timed it out better, and nor could they have
even timed it out to where Dan kills We're going, fine,
we're gonna get out there, get an interception, go on,
and right as he says it, the ball gets picked
off and then starts the rally. And I know, look,
it's the division rival for Chicago, but Detroit has just
been so impressive. And that win right there shows you. Look,
(09:34):
go into Houston, a team that banged up, but it's
still Houston. You overcome that deficit, you can pretty much
go some places, especially with the quarterback throwing five picks.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Very solid football team right now, and I really enjoy
watching them play. Yes, their division rival, but you know me,
I'm a fan of good football. They are playing a
lot of good football on both sides of the ball.
But extremely happy to see the continued growth of Brian Branch,
a guy that I called out as one of our
bootleg gems, great football player. They've got some corners now,
so he doesn't even have to do as much. He
(10:05):
can just do Brian Branch things and is doing them regularly,
and that's fantastic. Scoff has been nails all season, even
with the five picks. I'll give you that it happens,
it doesn't happen very often to him, and he is
guiding that offense. They can run by you, they can
run through you, they can throw it over your head.
James Williams is finally starting to contribute. Sam Laporta, who
(10:28):
is you know, breakout star as a rookie last year,
is kind of looking around like, hey, guys, you're gonna
throw it to me. And he's a very talented tight end.
So when you go down the line like that, you
look at how they improved on their weaknesses from last
year when they made a great run. You know, really
by rebuilding that secondary, they just seem to get stronger
and stronger. They've done a great job with the roster.
(10:49):
Campbell is everything I think you want as a leader
of men, and it shows up on the.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Field, no doubt. And just to that point, E. J.
Snyder joins us from Good Like Football. You gotta talk
Panthers and for once we're not going to be totally
in the dumps because it relates to the Lions a minute,
and just bear with me. Dan Morgan's the general manager
up here, and Dan played in this league and so
Dan knows a little thing or two about how to
build a team with some dogs, and that's exactly what
(11:15):
he wanted to do. And they sort of had an
imbalanced schedule here in terms of their free agents spending.
Next year, you assume it'll be defense, it'll be in
better shape. But they went all in and built the
most expensive interior offensive line that I believe exists in
the league right now, and lo and behold, it worked.
Robert Hunt has been great, Damian Lewis equally good. They
have had three different centers start this year and they've
(11:36):
all looked great, and Corbett was the starter. Ikey Equano's hurt,
you'll be fine. And then Moten has been a rocket
right tackle that has been such a problem here for
so many years, and they have finally fixed it. And
it looks a little bit, a little bit bj like
the template Detroit put in place, maybe without the Jared
Goff trade, but that was a real priority for Detroit
(11:58):
and some other teams just reminded me with all the
talk about quarterbacks, we've got to find a quarterback. Find
got to find one. Where are they? Are they in
the treasure chest? Are they under the sake no, you
gotta find everything else as well, and usually you gotta
find that first. I'm so thrilled, no matter what the
record is, moving forward to a team that's went two
straight now that Bryce is back in, he's looking good,
(12:20):
he's cutting it loose, he's not putting up big numbers.
It's fine, but he's playing good situation in football. That
offensive line can travel anywhere. It makes me very happy, Ejay.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It should. And you know, hopefully we'll be having this
conversation next year about Chicago like they finally fixed it,
because the line has been a source of many ills
for them for a couple of years now. But Bryce
coming back in, I think is a lot of people
sort of looked away from that situation in the beginning
of the season and went, oh my god, I don't
want to watch that anymore. And they sat him down
(12:51):
and he's back. And I put out his tweet last
week that says, man, if you want, you know, if
Anthony Richardson wants some tips about how to use his
time on the bench, call Bryce, because Bryce looks like
a completely different player yep, from six weeks ago. It
is night and day difference, and it's all the things
he wanted to see from him coming out of college
(13:12):
that you certainly weren't seeing from him. So the Panthers
are right to sit him down. But he used that
time well, he didn't go on pout, and now that
he's back on the field, he looks very capable. I'm
not talking about world beater. I'm not talking about con
ten quarterback. I'm talking about functional NFL quarterback. All they
need forward.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That's all they need right now, just to get out
of the hole. They you gotta crawl before he can
walk and then you can run. And uh, you know
that's not a joke on Bryce, young folks, Relax, I'm
just saying this team has chewbe Hubbard. The line is
helping two young good receivers out there. Thelin coming back,
they get rid of Deontay Johnson, who is now in
a merry go round in this league. Speaking of which,
(13:50):
Trey Facco has a Steamer's question for you, my friend,
I do yes, EJ souh a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There seems to be this kind of quarterback pipeline from
Chicago to Pittsburgh. You know, we had Trubisky that we
had justin fields, justin fields. Did pretty well for us.
At the beginning of this season, you know, I thought
he was gonna give Russ a pretty big run for
his money. But watching Russ step into this offense and
kind of watch this offense come into its own under
his command. The Pittsburgh Steelers they've always been kind of
(14:17):
this defensive powerhouse, but here in recent years they've really
lacked on offense, and I mean really lacked on offense.
But now it kind of seems that they're cooking there.
They're more of a balanced team. How do you feel
about them now that we've gotten three games under Russ
and watching this offense cook, watching the defense kind of
do their thing. How do you feel about the Pittsburgh
Steelers moving forward in this season and especially going up
(14:38):
against the Ravens here this Sunday.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, it's a great question and big game for them,
certainly with the division rival, but they too have built
that into your offensive line. Mason McCormick was one of
my favorites. I have to talk to him to the Shrine.
Bole great player, and they've invested and even though Fontwao's
not playing for them this year, he's still there and
they sort of built that line. They couldn't get the
(15:01):
quarterback play that they wanted. Dustin Bills was doing just
enough and that was enough, but it kept them extremely close,
too close. In most of their games. Defense has always
been a solid rock. And then there's Russ and I
didn't really believe Russ had anything left. But he is
playing this razor edge of Russ ball. If you look
(15:21):
at his back they're not great, but he is hitting
the shots he needs to hit. He is putting the
ball up in the air for George Pickens, who has
been kind of out on an island to open for
a couple of years, go and get it to me,
and how they're paying that off multiple times a week.
But he was like, what seventeen for twenty eight or
something last week? But the seventeen matter? But three touchdowns, right,
(15:45):
So it's it's this, I'm not gonna throw it up
very much, which Mike Tomlin loves. Let's not give the
other team a chance to take it away from us.
And Russ is making it work. And there was a
little spark of that when he was with the Broncos
at the beginning of last year, after that terrible first year.
It was like, I he's playing okay football, But they didn't.
(16:08):
They hadn't come up like they have this year to
really support him as a full team. The Steelers are
really in that place and they were waiting for just
a little bit of spark, and I swear to god
Russ is giving him just enough that all of a
sudden it lights up right.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And you know, with Pittsburgh it's been a struggle bus
from the pass game concepts. With Matt Canada's time there,
Roethlisberger's arm gave out eventually, can he pick It was
a problem. You just couldn't rely on that, and they
knew drafting that late in the first round he might
not work out. But yeah, I think you're right. That
moonball as they call it, I mean it sometimes can
(16:46):
turn into a helium ball and hang. And that first
one he threw in that first game to Pickens. Pickens
had to work back to get that one right. But
that's what he does. Yeah, Mike Williams is the happiest
man on the planet right now. It's like, thank God
not running this Aaron Rodgers almost just let me go
do my two routes and give me my eighty one
yards and I'll be how to call it. That's Clemson.
(17:07):
Mike Williams right there, that's how that works. He J
Snyder's our guests or bootleg football. Hey, look, it's not
a talk show without talking cowboys. And look, we could
talk about their stadium and the way the light comes
in Jerry Building. It north to south, so the east
to west light is an issue. But I really have
no interest in that story. We've known that to be
the case for what about twenty years. Now, let's talk
(17:30):
about where they go from here from a roster perspective. Obviously,
the trade deadlines coming gone. Parsons is still on this team,
but he's banged up. We know they're bad. We know
they're going to be bad with Prescott and I are
you feel like McCarthy in a contract year it's pretty
much over And do you think they have an eye
on certain types of coaches? If so, moving forward.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I don't believe that McCarthy will probably survive. Then again,
I said that last year. That being said, I want
to I want to bring up a point that McCarthy
made this week, and it's kind of the opposite of
what we talked about with Chicago at the opening of
the show. Because Michael came out said some things which
a lot of players feel like, Hey, coaches can go
where they want to, but players are the ones going
(18:12):
to be left here. And that's that was sort of
the too long, didn't read version of what he said.
It pissed some people off. It made other people, you know, say, hey,
especially former players, he's he's just telling them the truth.
I thought McCarthy had a chance to go two ways
with that as well, and the Bears have gone the
wrong way, and said, well, that's his fault. It's on him.
Macarthy came out and said, yep, I heard it. I
(18:34):
didn't love it. And whenever thing's like that happened, I
do what I always do. I had a conversation. So
Mike and I sat down this morning. We had a conversation,
because conversations bring resolution. I thought, damn, Mike, that's the
grown up way to go. I appreciated that for McCarthy,
as much as I might not appreciate his coaching. I
(18:55):
thought that was the way to squash that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, that's how yins a handle's business. I mean, yeah, McCarthy,
let's pick up the phone and talk. Yeah, let's talk
to say that's fascinating because you know, there has been
so much shutt about chatter. I don't want to talk
about Jerry Jones anymore because he's a carnival barker and
he's just gonna do what he does. I respect the
fact did he build a brand there, but if he's
honestly still making football decisions instead of Will McLay or
(19:21):
his son Steven, and it's a mess. Jerry's just desperate
to get a ring. Before it's all said and done,
this is not going to be the year with Cooper Rush.
Let me ask you about the Jets. On that note,
we're going down a world depressing road here. Obviously the Jets.
It's so over with this team. I mean, it really is.
They talked about making a rally, but you know the
business of the NFL. You know they're peddling hope and
(19:43):
Rogers will do that and he needs to as the quarterback.
Maybe not on McAfee show, maybe his guys didn't do
it privately, but he can't go on like a seven
and one run with the deficiencies they've had with an
interim head coach. Did you feel the Sala firing we
haven't talked since, did that feel like it was a
good move at all. It felt he just felt bad.
(20:05):
It felt weird, It felt like it shouldn't have happened.
And then a week later he's got his Green Bay
outfit on it. They're helping Mett Lafleur. Maybe you have
a different opinion, but I just felt like it put
that team out of business for sure for the rest
of the year.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No offense to Olbrick, Yeah, no, Olbrick is a great
football coach. I don't know about a great head coach,
you know, and interim coaching. Gig don't really let you
know that, but you know, they got worse after Saul
left NASA on firing was tough. I think he's a
great football coach. I think he may be happier as
a defensive coordinator because he was very good in that
(20:38):
role and he didn't elevate that roster. They didn't win
a lot of the games that you thought they should,
so it was sort of a damn vdoo, damn don't
thing where they fired him, and they got worse. If
he'd stayed around. I don't necessarily know they would have
gone on that run either, So it wasn't great. He's
a you think Mike Williams is happy. Roberts Pallas pretty
(21:00):
and have be going from the Jets to Green Bay.
In terms of what the team does from here on out,
it's rough. You basically have to take this blueprint because
you did, indeed, speaking about Jerry Jones, go all in
with the Aaron Rodgers, they give them the key.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Everything. They gave him the Blizard, they gave him tob
they gave them a pet, they gave him everything.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And now it hasn't worked. It's not going to work,
it doesn't look like it's turning around. You're really going
to have to do something else at the core of
that team. The problem is you have a lot of
good young football players on that team who, by the
time you retool, are not necessarily going to be relevant pieces.
You're going to have to decide whether or not to
(21:45):
resign them at a much higher rate, and it leaves
you in this sort of flux position where you know
you've got to move on and get a new quarterbacks,
new coach, new offensive coordinator. At least they'll be doing
that all at once. But what about the guys who
you know, we know how rookie quarterbacks go. That's going
to be the thing. They can try the free agency
route again, but they're not probably going to get somebody
(22:08):
as accomplished as they have in the past, that's for sure.
So it really feels like you've got to make the
youth movement. But you do that, you're sort of selling
the agenda that you've laid out down the road. And
that means I hate to say the rebuild word, but
you got to retool pretty significantly, and that's gonna be rough.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And I think it doesn't surprise any of us to
hear that word. It's been in my vocabulary with this
team for quite a few weeks now. And look, I
don't get a lot of things right, but I just
something about this dynamic. Nothing really about Rogers going on
shows and talking about vaccines, that's his life whatever. I
don't really love it, but just the the idea he's
(22:48):
forty coming off an Achilles and just you's got so
much disconnect there. And you got an owner, by the way,
that has not taken his team under any coach or
any GM any capacity to the playoffs since twenty ten.
I mean, the drought is unbelievable. I had no idea
was that long. And so if that continues, Yeah, you're right.
(23:10):
I mean it's just Rogers. Who knows. He's so unpredictable.
Maybe he voids it, maybe he walks out. Hopefully they
get it right, Hopefully he plays some better football. He's
fun to watch on the field. But yeah, I feel
bad for those fans.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Then again, I cover the Panthers. You're a big Bears fan,
and you do you do a great job with bootleg football.
Let's let's do this tease whatever's going on, man, because
it has been so much fun. Let us know what's
going on and where we can find all the goodies,
smeth ring.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
All the goodies. Well, Bootleg Football is three times a week.
We have an early week pod, we have a late
week pod, and then of course we live stream Thursday
Night football every week, which is pretty fun. And like
an idiot, I thought the Bears were going to be
good this year, so I started a new Bears pod
called bear Era and week we've had some great guests
and you know, nobody wants to listen anymore, and that's okay,
(24:01):
you're roll.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Oh yeah, this is when this is the iron strike bile,
the iron is cold. That's a billy, And I did
that with the roar we'd started in twenty twenty when
we invited a man who spit on himself literally from Baylor,
Matt Ruhle, to come coach our team. And he done
broke it, and we it'll go well either way for
you because your content is great. What's the name of
the pot again, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
It's called Bear Era. You can find it on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Well, the Bear Era right now is uh. Look, you're
four and five. It ain't over. Get a couple of
wins under your belt. You still got some great weapons
out there. Uh, you just got to see DJ Moore.
Maybe get a little cleaner with those routes again. We'll
talk Minutia next time. EJ. We love your work, We
love your candor.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Thanks again, man, absolutely thanks for having me back. John.
I appreciate it you too, Man.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Be good e J Snyder Bootleg Football
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