New Horizons Monday: 2023 Edition

I'm gonna stage to the top of the show here, because I feel like that was maybe the wrong way to start things with Mark for sure on the wrong foot. So here everyone's pointed. Though it didn't seem vague, it was directed directly at Mark. It was a warning, do you know anything about this? Justin the story behind the zummy drop. M Drops are usually inside jokes referencing something that happened on the show five months ago. It happened on the show, and it was words from you too. Yes. Oh,

so it wasn't a premeditated here used this. It was just something that was coming to do. He is, Yeah, it has nothing to do with Jason's wife, and you no good to clarify that. Do it again? Like most jokes, it's good to discuss what it really meant afterwards, you need the autopsy. Yeah alright, humor coach Greg Ross until showing in. That's right. A showman, a growing showman, a growman. Remember in the off season there will be did we just said, what was the name of it? The Showman's showman,

The showman, Showman's show Man. Yeah, where it will just be a dissertation Greg and the audience Mark and I teaching him where the glories. I can't wait for the performance speak being a showman, Greg is going to have a stage to work on his craft. Because that live show that we're doing, the a t N Homecoming show from the Bourbon Room in Hollywood, it's sold out, So I like a Taylor Swift concert. Go flood the secondary market. See if you can find a ticket for a few

thousand bucks to try to get in the door. But you can no longer buy tickets because we sold the bastard out. And I just want to thank everyone who has uh supported us along the way. This is gonna be a lot of fun in Los Angeles. I walked by it the other day and someone was, you know, that's it's up on Hollywood Boulevard. Those like iron gates to close it so it doesn't get broken into at night. But he was opening it and I just said, can I take a picture of It's got a neon sign. Um.

He said, well, wait, who are you? And I explained, like, I'm part of this football, nerdy football show that's broadcast. He's like, oh, the shows sold out. He's like, come on and take a look. I took a look at the venue. Beautiful, beautiful venue. I can't wait to tailgate. There's a big tailgate right yeah. Um, so much going on, so that's happening next week. Of course it's also New Horizons week in the NFL. A little bit weird, Greggy, Um, We're so used to doing this. There's always, you know,

six to eight coaching changes, it seems every year. And of course not all these guys are out of the woods. But we knew Frank Reich and Matt Rule we're gone, Jeff Saturday and Wilkes in term coach, We'll see what their futures are. Cliff Kingsbury was let go officially on Monday Lovey Smith as well. So we're just at four right now? Is this the calm before the storm? Or is this a fier year? Interesting in terms of maybe is it only four for some reason? I thought was

missing somebody? I don't know. Uh, did you mention the Broncos? I miss le Broncos. So I think there'll be one more. So, I don't know, I don't know what what that one will be prosper We'll get to Sean McVeigh. That one's hanging out there. I think some of these playoff teams, Uh, Mike McCarthy doesn't win. I think he's out. Based on Jerry Jones is preseason comments that we need to advance

in the playoffs. Jarah is known to you know, with the wind to change certain opinions that but yes, especially with another Shawn out there potentially anyway, so much to get to. So well, even as this episode goes on, you never know, we could get some breaking news on another change at the top of a head coach or a coaching staff org chart. But while we wait for that, let's go through all the kind of news out there's

a big news heavy show here. As we get you caught up Thank you if you made it through the seventeen hour Week eighteen recap of Around the NFL. Yeah, before I went, I did my Good Morning Football hit with Kyle Brandt this morning, just making chit chat. Kyle said something like, yeah, man, a pretty long podcast on Sunday. It was, well, maybe listen, maybe you just saw a tweet of somebody saying the show is too long. Now. I don't know we're gonna try to shorten this one,

but we're off to a great start. Five minutes in. U, let's do a whole bunch of news. Don't let these tears for you. It's all dog around his mod. Yeah. I don't want to let go of the Lions, and he certainly don't want to let go. Jamal Williams. Uh, Connie, our friend, I love him. We talked about on the Powers podcast today, Connie that Jamal Williams, who was a

really a Hard Knocks favorite on our podcast. Um he ended up scoring eighteen touchdowns and breaking Barry Sanders record, and then giving the postgame interview over the year beautiful. It was the biggest plot twist interview that I've ever listened to, because it was definitely leading me down one road and then all of a sudden it was just a straight you turn to somewhere else in the other directions. So I really enjoyed it. I think branch of emotions.

Now that's a showman. I mean, I thought he knew exactly what to do in the moment. He's born with it. Um, all right, let's get into what's going on a thing or two from him. Ouch, get the stage out again, showman. Yes, Cliff Kingsbury one of the dismissed coaches Arizona Cardinals. Also Steve Kime is out. We know Coime's got some things going on. And and in concert with the announcement that um they had all right, they did the hard knocks as well. UM, Cliff out, they also said, come is

stepping aside, so comes out. They're blowing up the whole thing. Um. And we we learned the Kyler Murray, the quarterback who's rehabbing his own UM kneed injury. Uh. And that's a storyline around this team. Uh. The owner of the team, Michael Bidwell, UM have this to say about how Kyler Murray factors in. We're in communication and uh and and

we should be talking later today. We're texted and and either today or tomorrow, and so absolutely want to get the input of our leaders, including Kyler and spoken with a number of leaders already makes sense. I mean that should always, especially after you get into business at that level of the quarterback, Greg, I don't know how much you you power you give him in the in the room, but you want his voice to be right. Yeah, it's not gonna be that much. But the point of getting

a new coach is to maximize Kyler Murray. That's the that's the biggest point. I mean, you have to be able to run the entire organization something I'm not sure like Cliff Kingsbury was incredibly strong at and I don't know if he was incredibly strong at schematically creating an advantage for Kyler Murray. And so that's why you see Cliff Kingsbury get let go. I did like him personally more after watching this Hard Knocks, and I did watch a decent amount. I think he was like a good caler,

both of them. Could I meant Cliff, I think Cliffs are like a good person trying his best and it wasn't just wasn't gonna happen for him, Like this was not the job for him, Like it was maybe in a little over his head, but he was doing his best, trying his best, like believed in his players. I think it was what like like that wasn't all the problem? Did everyone getting really carried away with them spend all

the money on that extension. At the time we killed that extension, we said, this is a ridiculous extension to be extending Steve Kim and Cliff Kingsbury through. But it's not my money. That didn't matter in the end, Like the only like the extension had no difference if he had added one year or five years. It's the exact same to Cardinals fans. So I'm glad they did that. And when you really think about the money involved, your people are like, oh, they're cheap and they don't want

to spend all that money. I get that, But you spend more on like one season of Kelvin Beecham than you do on five seasons around the same of Cliff, Cliff Kingsbury and Steve Kind. So in the scheme of things, I think it's I think it's the money is part of it. And you're right, like if you're a fan of the team, like it doesn't affect your salary capital, and if your owner is willing to make this change, it shows you that he doesn't care about the money side.

If he wants to get it right. That's to their credit. But their discredit was, as we critique to your point, Correight, just the fact that they they saw enough in Cliff Kingsbury and Steve Kin a year ago to say this, these guys definitely need an extension. Coming off into playoff pipe out against the Rams, I could say this for Kingsbury. He wasn't a tough spot this year. They used a franchise record one players. They were the fourth most injured

team in the league. You didn't have DeAndre Hopkins for a big chunk of the year, You lost Kyler Murray for the back end of the year. Used four quarterbacks in four games in a row at one point. That's enough to get a coach in the hot water and fire. But that also hast nothing to do with White Cliffs. Yet, does anyone Does anyone feel that the Cardinals are making

a mistake here? No? This was this whole season was a disaster before it even started, with Kyler Murray scrubbing any evidence of the Cardinals from his Instagram and then obviously the contract stuff that happened, and then all of the off field drama moved onto the field when you had Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury screaming at each other on the TNF game and Kyler was telling him to calm down and DeAndre Hopkins had to kind of like take him away and move him out of that, like

the whole situation. But didn't I mean, Cliff was brought in initially four or Kyler Tyler, and obviously that didn't work out, and you want to have Kyler Murray's input, but I don't know, like it just seems like the same mistake will happen again, and they need to bring in a coach that's going to not only get along with Kyler Murray, but also get along with Michael Bidwell because he's really proactive and just have a better sense of who is a good offensive coach because there were

a lot of people who did not believe Cliff Kingsbury was a good schematic offensive coach and that that's the thing that struck me, was like people talking about, oh, the maybe the Patriots are gonna hire him, Maybe he'll go with the Rams if mcfah stick around. It's like I think the Cardinals offense was defined by its lack of ability to adapt over the last four years. They were one of the easiest offenses to attack. Before it happened. It was because Kingsbury and Kyler Murray had known each

other forever. But I do think it was a personal thing. I was think it was more like this guy will maximize Kyler as a player, and Kime didn't even do didn't do him any favors with the way that the roster was set up because there were key positions. I mean, the roster has no debt in general, but then the offensive line. You look at what they have coming up in terms of free agents. I think four of their

five starters or free agents. They got to figure out what they're gonna do with Zach Allen and Byron Murphy. There's just a lot that needs to be done. And they are hiring a GM before the coach, so we'll see. The idea of Cliff always seemed like it was something that the Cardinals liked. He fit the profile of a guy that was leading the team. He's a young, confident dude. Remember the shot on draft day of him iconic like in his beautiful den or whatever, with his feet up

on the table, desert behind him like that. There was an image of like what this guy brought to the team, but then a reality of maybe he wasn't really what they hoped he was going to be, so they start over and the kind of thing. I'm expecting more to the story to come out at some point, if anyone cares to. I don't really need I don't need to, but I just think there will be lawsuits, is what

I'm expecting. It just seems like whatever was going down with him that he had to leave the team in the middle of the seems like a guy that's dealing with some personal like and he's been through stuff before and we had the had the public d u I and yeah, close with the bid Wells, I would be a little concerned. Like Bidwell said, yeah, he'd rather hire the GM, but that wouldn't get in the way if like the timing didn't work out, And so it's now

it's just Bidwell hiring these coaches. It had been kind essentially in the past, and I do think it's a logical place for Sean Payton. If I'm Sean Payton. The organization maybe as a big bit of a concern, but the Kyler Murray factor would beg um in other new horizons. We had to Nashville new horizons, new horize. The Titans fired four assistant coaches on Monday, including off coordinator Todd Downing, who had been in that position for the past two seasons.

They also fired their offensive line coach Keith Carter, secondary coach Anthony Midget, and offensive skills assistant Eric Frazer. Hey, um, first of all, did I get the last name right there? Tony midgett okay? Um? Okay? With this? Is is Downing an unfair fall guy? Or was it time to mix things up? And is this just the beginning because they could save eighteen mill I believe on their cap by

moving on from your boy Ryan's Tannehill. Yeah, it's interesting that you know, the Titans offense was the only times were the only team in the NFL this season to fail to score thirty points in a single game, and they never topped twenty eight points in a single game. So yeah, the offensive line was banged, they played with multiple quarterbacks. Receivers aren't good, but the offense got noticeably worse after Art Smith left to become the Falcons head coach.

Todd Downing had two years to show that he could be, you know, a good NFL play caller, and I don't think he was ever above average. If anything, he was below average or bad. So I think it was the right move for the Titans direction here a bad offensive line every single season. Is coaching. Yeah, that's it's not about personnel, uh, and that's the coordinator. But there's a lot on rable he he he is risking becoming a little Bill O'Brien like here because he got the GM fired.

I'm just gonna assume that that he was involved in that decision and they didn't win a game after that. It's worth saying they did that in the middle of the season, not like the GM is doing a lot in the middle of the season to create wins and losses. But just interesting. And then now he's gonna be hiring the new coach. It's just a lot. Well, if you got him fired. Part of it was the GM decided to trade a J. Brown, which completely sabotaged their entire offense.

Did the worst wide receiver crew league wide and showed for the note not scoring thirty points. I think there we talked about Vrable on draft night when they traded A. J. Brown and his visceral and body and body language and everything was just like, no, don't do this, domino. And of course the injuries are a big part of the story with the Titans on offense, but the domino is

starting with that decision. How that impacted the quarterback play, how it impacted obviously their wide receiver and playmaking ability, how that hurt the offensive coordinator's ability to enact the scheme. All this stuff is kind of connected. Sometimes one decision dominant, and you have so many new pieces now coming in this season, and I guess it's a good thing considering

how the season went. But like I mean, when Gravers talking about the way that they didn't score any points, I mean thirty yards per game second half of games also just like really stood out to me because they just their second half adjustments were like, We're just not going to show up for score any points. Like I don't know what that was. They had the worst second half point differential of any team in the league, and

to your point, calling, it never got better. Like they were bad in Week one and they were just as bad in Week eighteen. So well, after years of over or under indexing on this show and and calling in terms of how much we talked about the Titans and Dan calling them the Titoons for you, I think we've over index now with Graver here and we are now taking a break. It's gonna be a month. Do we want to fire the Titans in the sun for a

little say we're gonna take a break. Don't we want to cover who they hire as their new general manager at when it had a possibility, but it's not made. At least mention it and and and we'll keep moving. I will say, since I became their fan at one point during they didn't win a game, they went oh and seven and turned into an absolute, raging, fiery nightmare.

And just for any listeners that might be curious, this new arrangema with the Titans for the time being, it will not carry over to other teams like the New York Jets, but the Titans specifically much less. Yes, just for the time I just need a break, uh and other new horizons. We head to the Cleveland Browns, where Joe Woods and other new horizons. New HoriZone I think

that's sage snowed under our musical director. That's in the industry parlance, that's the queue when you hear Horizons, got It, got It, got It going forward and like the last five years of the show, Um the Brown's Fire defensive coordinator Joe Woods on Sunday Night. After back to back losing seasons, Mark, I'll see you up on this one. They didn't prove as the season one along with this team, Uh, you could say underachieved defensively, especially terrible against the run,

which was a major problem for them. So they are rebooting leadership on that side of the ball. In Cleveland. They went into the year really short on the interior defensive line and so the run thing, there's that's part of it. Uh. They were in the mid twenties and d v o A for most of the season. They did tighten up since weeked thirteen played some good games

and we're kind of closer to like twelve thirteen. But like Joe Woods always felt like the obvious fall guy here because it's like Stefanski surviving because you didn't have your quarterback for much of the season. X Y and Z, I'm not convinced Stefanski's the guy for Deshaun Watson on aiming level that they fit together. But Woods is your scapegoat here. Uh taken out of the school book depository

and on the breadline now. But I will say this, I watching the team waste Myles Garrett's career, you got to find the right guy. They are looking at Brian Flores, Jared Mayo, Seawan deciding there's guys out there that could that be great. But but I mean there's skilled there's good players here. They were not used correctly this past season. Something I know he's probably not coming back, but he's definitely he even turned, like Myles Garrett against him with

what he did. I mean just like, well, there were so meant that thing that really like struck me was how many players came out and very openly talked about how they needed a fresh start, like Greg Knewsome talked about they may be needed to keep things more vanilla on defense, and that Joe did a great job in the second half of the year, just realizing, you know what, maybe we don't need to call everything. Let's just shorten the menu down. And then John Johnson said, I don't

even like talking about scheme too much. He said that I think you're getting your players to play. That's the main thing. That's what I want. So that's like a more of a motivation thing. And we talk about Mark to your point about the defense getting better in the second half. They also their their past defense definitely did. But they faced quarterbacks like Kyle Allen, Tyler Huntley, Andy Dalton, Carson Wentz, like, I mean, Kenny Pickett, who's been doing better.

But it wasn't like powerhouse quarter didn't get to face the worst um quarterback in the division on their own roster. Though, Andrew Barry, I think the biggest takeaway from this was how they're keeping Stevanski and that they were pretty fourth rate in that saying like we we know we've got a good one and Kevin Stevanski, we're gonna keep him. But great head coaches get involved with the defense, and I think some of the reporting is that Stefanski kind

of just like a defensive year is Joe Woods. He made that higher of Joe Wood. Did you think there's a chance that Stefanski was gonna go? But with all these teams, you never think, like when there's a surprise firing, you don't always see it coming. So he was sort of on the long list of like would that be that crazy because of what you're saying with Watson, But they have bought into the Watson and him being a pair.

And Stefanski, if you, if you do want to be a great head coach, you need to be better at hiring your defensive coordinator and you need to like figure out how to help that side of the don't you look at like the Stefanskis and like the Dennis Ellens of the world and be like, here's the problem. To keep these guys like they're fresh, um, they're fresh, new fall guys, like come week fourteen next season to be

let go because nothing is going right. And then you're taking your team with no quarterback the Saints or just Deshaun Watson situation and put it into a third developmental or second developmental year. I like I like Stefanski, though, I think they should see it through and see if he can get Watson to work. And if it doesn't, like you like this. I got this text screen grab on my fantasy football thread from my Buddy Elliott headline

from the Akron Beacon Journal. Deshaun Watson wants quote man to man conversation with Brown's coach Kevin Stefanski on plan Deshaun Watson hasn't had a man to man conversation with anyone for two years now. He wants to dictate the direction of this franchise. Who was a hot mess on the field, which, by the way, he can because ownership gave him three hundred damn million dollars or whatever it was guaranteed. Who whoo. Elliott added the addendum, this is

insane on so many levels. He's sharp on it. He's sharp it. Shout out of eli. Uh, here we go. What else we got? What else we have? Let's take a break. Let's take a good break. Let's take a break. That's we'll be right back now. All right, we're back. Here we go, we roll on new horizons week here better. I'm gonna say it's solved. Um, who's safe? Who's safe? Right now? There's once Van Sky seems like Josh McDaniels in uh Las Vegas seems safe. Dennis Allen seems safe.

But I wrote about this in the Power rankings. This is a bit of a trope of this time of year, almost specific to this day and Monday. UM, after the season, when the coach has the press conference, I want to make sure I give you the exact quote, although it

is a very similar quote. UM. When he was Dennis Allen has asked about his job status after his first year or the Saints, whether he has a job, but whether he's gonna be the head coach, and his reply was, I don't think there's any need to discuss that any further, and I'm certainly going forward with that anticipation. That's the indication that I've been given, and I'm excited about it. Um. It always seems like a weird, unnecessary situation. UM, And

I understand it's the timing. Also, maybe the team is not sure what they want to do yet. But when you send your head coach out for that end of season press press conference a day after the final game of the year and he doesn't actually have it on like authority that he's coming back, so he says that thing like, no one's told me I'm not coming back, so I'm just assuming I am. Always feels like a bit of a tough sitch put it that way. For

the old HC. In this case, Dennis Allen agree like McVeigh put himself in a different situation and get to that later, but he also didn't seem to have his own clarity. I watched the Dennis Allen press conference for some reason because I just thought it might be awkward, and he didn't say anything. He just didn't answer any questions. He it's sort of limb. It seemed like it wasn't about his job. I'm saying, like about the team and what they're gonna do in different things, and he just

sort of like refused to say anything meaningful. But do you think that might be connected to him maybe not knowing if he is. Yeah, he tried to nip that in the button. You read the quote right away, like stop asking me about this essentially right away, stop asking me if I'm fired. It really seems it really seems like he's safe, because the whole Sean Payton idea seems to have come and gone. In terms of Sean Payton potentially coming back, that doesn't seem like it's at all

in the cards, all right. In other news, Sean McVeigh, of course, the Super Bowl winning coach of the Rams. Big story going into week eighteen that he might step away from the sidelines, at least temporarily. Uh. He spoke to the media on Monday, and this is what he had to say about his uncertain future. I don't get the sense in the least, but I'm done coaching, right. It's just a matter of what does that look like

as it relates to the immediate future. I think what I'd like to do is be able to take the appropriate time never going through anything like this. But you want to make sure that you're considered of the people that are affected. That that's the most important thing, and that's probably you know, you want to be able to the consistent conversations and dialogues that have existed with the people that I love and really care about. Hey, do

what you think is best for you and Veronica. Um, But that doesn't mean it takes away the empathy the level of responsibility that I do feel for the people that would be affected. Um, you know, as it relates to my decision moving forward. And so those are the things that you don't take lightly. And we learned that he has let his coaches as assistants know that it's cool to look for outside work, which seems like another

indication like they that was from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Yeah, that like if you wanted to take another job, And our our friend Jordan read Reg added some context that there would have been a lot of changes to the staff. Anyways, we already knew the offensive coordinator was leaving, that was a month ago. I think that was more of he wasn't going to be brought back and found a job situation, and I think there could be more. Morris is a notable guy on that staff. There d C for it

to get to this point. Whatever Sean McVeigh is going through mentally has to be really really taxing for him to just come out and be like this is like nothing I've ever experienced. Hey, staff, go ahead, like look for other jobs. Don't stay here because of me, because

I don't even know what I'm gonna do. I mean that, especially in this NFL right now and this time, like when you see guys getting hired and fired and all of the success that he's experienced from the jump with the RAMS, I just think that there's much more that we don't know um about what he's going through. And I bet that everything has been really hard on him

this year, Like the expectations were really high. And I know you guys were talking about this the other day on the pod just about like he just got married, and I honestly can't imagine like having an in laws family going through a war torn situation like that is.

I understand, like you have your your work life and your personal life, but a lot of times those things have to be in the same scope, like you're still just a human being dealing with other human beings, and like, I think he has to take whatever time he needs to step away. But it is kind of weird because we don't hear it all the time for a coach to say I need this. Yeah, I think it's countercultural,

and it's it's he's a younger coach. Obviously a lot of the guys like the Cliff Kingsbury's were hired because of the Sean McVeigh effect. You go find this young guy that is so driven in so resourceful, and he's a brainiac and a wizard and he's going to change your offense. But Sean McVeigh always took so much on like I'll just never think we talk on something that feature that came out before the season, just the weight.

I remember being at the UH the combine after they lost that Super Bowl of the Patriots, and and Sean McVeigh was up on stage the Diaz in that big room talking to Good Morning Football early before a bunch of press showed up, and there was just this sort of weight to his entire demeanor, like that Super Bowl weighed so heavily on him. And I think it's such

a release after the one one. But then now you're right back in the thick of it in an organization that maybe if you're thinking personally like I'm at this place where this crossroads and need to make a countercultural move and go treat my family situation, my mental health, all that stuff before football, which is different than the old school coaches that just like burned through this, never

around their families. They sleep at the facility that they're eighty weeks, even if they only need to be there fifty four. McVeigh is not from necessarily that world, and he's telling us that. I think he's saying like coaching

isn't over immediate. Coaching might be as also being courted left and right by television, And I just think, like I guess from a Ramos angle too, they he's done so much for him that you'd be like, we want you to do what you want to do, but do you really if you're a player, And this is not against Sean McVeigh, because there's no doubt that he's all in, Like do you want to coach every January taking press confidence whether or not you still want to do this,

it's like you need like you need that coach needs to be the anchor. So if he's not able to be the anchor for whatever reason, float away for a bit and maybe we see you again. I think. Yeah. The one thing that was difficulty What he said was he'd never been through anything like this before, and that's true in terms of this season, but he was going through something exactly like this a year ago. At this time he considered going leaving the job. But it's two

years in a row. That's what I'm saying. It's because you so that I agree that you you can't be in that spot and put your team in that spot you're after And he's very conscious of that, and you could hear him speaking to that and it makes you think that he will go away, but it's hard to guess. And I think Jordan's our friend. I'll mention again like

hit on I think a key point here. You said, like there had been this sprint from him basically his whole football life since he was like John Gruden's mentee almost fifteen years ago, of like getting to the mountaintop, getting you know, becoming the best coach in the league, getting anything, winning the Super Bowl. And you hear this from a lot of people who have experienced a lot of success in their lives and they realized when they get to the top and they achieved everything they ever

wanted to that actually, isn't that satisfying. That it's not that fulfilling. It is in the moment, but it's not gonna change who you are are in in the long term, and that whatever he wants to do like that alone isn't going to make everything. Okay. I I don't know. I think I think we've probably seen the last of him for the Rams right now. It seemed like this

does a super Bowl? Winning the Super Bowl calvinize you two wins, five more's or was it more of a relief And it just felt like it was just more of a relief to Sean McVeigh at times then like I want to do this for thirty more years. Don't ask it again. I think about when we reached the end of the season put on the bus, but burnout that sometimes we feel. I can't imagine being a head coach and knowing that they are the amount of work that they are pouring in the hours, everything that that

burnout must be next level. Stafford says he's coming back regardless, by the way, whether mcveigh's here or not. He doesn't, He's playing football. And I'm sure that Sean McVeigh is sincere about the passion he has for the job and

the idea of burnout. But I'm not ruling out the possibility that it takes a ton of money to work for Fox for a year and then signs a huge new deal with a different team and a much better We're watching potentially exactly about it, but like you could it could be like this is all too much for him his personality type, or it could be he thinks it's signed for a reset as well. It's sort of players retiring and then like all of a sudden, coming

back and playing for a different thing. His again, his the guy who he learned from John Gruden right did the exact same thing essentially and I always remember this article by Bill Belichick. For some reason, Bill Belichick wrote a column in the New York Times after John Gruden won the Super Bowl, and it was kind of like, alright, what's next, Like that your life just changed so much, and you're gonna have all this thing happened, and then at some point you're gonna realize like, oh, I'm just

back to being the same coach I was before. Uh. And I was reminded of it with Jordan's article this week speaking of Bill Belichick. He will be coming back for his twenty four season on the sideline, uh with the Patriots. And you know, he's a perfect example like everyone's wired differently. I don't. I'm sure McVeigh lives and dies in every single way with his team, but don't tell me Bill Belichick doesn't either. I mean he's and here he is Nappie Carroll and he's like, you know,

fiftieth season on the sideline and various capacities. Uh. He can't get enough as he's I think seventy three years old now. Belichick, Um, he's coming back. But he also acknowledged that the future for the Patriots, you know, things have to change, is what Bill had to say, as we do every year, evaluate everything, UM and try to make the best decisions that we can UM to move forward, to be more competitive, to have a stronger team. Uh in the future, Son, Robert and I'll talk about the

talk about that was the staff. Certainly individual conversations with you know, many of the players, as we always do, well all the players, but there's some that are, oh my god, this is Terri or will be more commonly than than others. He's the best. He's seventy. Just want to run through a wall. He choosing his words carefully. He's choose his words carefully. Did you watch the game? I wish I had asked for it. This would have

been a better showmanship here. That you mean when you were yelling at our producer behind the glass before the shows too much true? That is not too much sound? Never would never never raise your voice, I guess not true now. Uh to Curran was like to Curran, who has been there forever, was just came out with it and said, well, a lot of us thought it was

dubious when you hired Matt Patricia. It just said the word dubious, and then you didn't really Belichick answer let Belichick answer, and he gave his Belichick answer of like I was just doing what I thought was best for the team. And then Tom responded by being like, yeah, but like when we think you do things that are dubious, you don't ever give us like an answer. Uh, so we just have to just sort of say it and

then it sits there. And at that moment Belichick actually started smiling and laughing, and then Karen was like, this is not really a question, it's more of a statement. And then Bell was just like, thank you Tom about this flashpoint. Belichick with Tom current, I would the series is just we got we got flashpoint. May feel in the past, Wow, write these down rams was on our on our radar. That's really good. One more time, come on, but I want to hear again the flashpoint sounded yeah.

Legendary former producer Sydney Carlson crushing the musical theater amazing all right. In other news, Bob McNair cal McNair, excuse me, um, discussing the Texans situation at coach uh Nikossario could step away if a new head coach chooses, uh that as the more righteous path for the Organization's interesting The team is also requests out to Jonathan Gannon, um a yearro Evero, Damiko Ryan's, d C, A Niners, Shane Stiken, and Ben

Johnson O C of the Lions. So casting a wide net as they look to replace Levey Smith, who has fired on Sunday. The Broncos, by the way, also a team looking to replace a head coach. They have scheduled interviews with Dan Quinn, the Cowboys d C or request not a schedule. They've gotta be granted. Request to interview dan Quinn, DMKO, Ryan's and Morris who we got Morris

will get that request granted. They also did interview a zero ever O their own defensive coordinating all right, so they want a defensive guy the Panthers for while we're here, Panthers are talking to Jim Caldwell, uh Ken Dorsey, Shane stike In, Ben Johnson, Frank Reich, Steve Wilkes, Mike Kafka. Yeah wow. Interesting And speaking of the Panthers, there has been a lot of speculation about Steve Wilkes and whether

he did enough to earn the job. Um. I didn't get the vibe listening to Fitterer that that's really going to be an option. I know Wilkes is formally interviewed or a scheduled to this week for the job. But here's Fitter talking about how he sees the Panther's job is very very uh, you know, savory, tasty. It's a tasty gig compared to the other ones. It's a young teams. This division is up for grabs here in the next

few years. There's no dominant quarterback. They look at our offensive lines and the pieces that we have and the way we're growing right now, and with a few tweaks here and there, you know this is this is a division that we can we can take over. You know that opportunity is there. But no dominant quarterback, including on your roster. That's been the problem. And Scott Fitter is not solved that. You know, it's not just a small

tweak to find a dominant class. By the way, unless he knows something we don't know, I guess Tom Brady is either no longer a dominant quarterback or he'll be in Vegas in a couple of months. I think he's probably right about that. Yeah, I think he probably they

will be on the bucks. He's definitely not dominant uh this year that I really was surprised that Wilkes, I agree with you, doesn't seem like he's getting a great chance here just because he did so well, and I think I did a lot of the hard things about being a head coach, and the reporting is he has a pretty concrete plan of what he would do in terms of hiring an offensive cording. So if if you, if Steve Wilkes shows up with a great offensive plan in terms of who his coach would be, that would

be attractive to me. But everyone else they're interviewing is essentially a defensive he had this audition this year was pretty great for him, though, considering the way that the offense looked before he took over in the team in general, and then afterwards, they had a single game record for total yards five and seventy, They had a single game record for rushing yards, like they were the NFL's most efficient passing attack for six weeks, like they no one

thought that they were going to be able to do anything on offense, especially after trading Christian McCaffrey, and then all of a sudden they were able to run the ball really well. I know that he's a defensive coach, but the team in general looked a lot better under him. It looked like if they would have beat the Bucks in week seventeen, is a good chance he keeps the job. That's possible, But the results oriented business. I think Woks did a great job, but also sometimes you gotta win

that game. I don't know, I point to I. I think it's a hazard sign for coaches don't take these interim jobs because Rich Possacci a year ago did go to the playoffs in a in a in a whirlwind of turmoil, and when a team that was you know, vaguely suspect to begin with, did a great job, goes and doesn't really get a shot to get that job because you know, the time of his life though there is something to that, but yeah, but I'm that time

of his life is great. But it's like, if you think that it's a pathway to get the head coaching job, what more could Steve Wilkes have done here? That team was a hot disaster and he totally turned them around. They beat up on teams, showed a lot, the players responded, and you don't really get in a fair shake here. Yeah, I wanted to circle back to the Texans quickly, because the Casario part of it was very strange to me. He was sitting up there knowing that he needed to

take responsibility that he hadn't done a good job. You know, he'll be the first GM in NFL history to ever get a chance to hire a third head coach after hiring two straight one and done. Of course that's never happened before, like where the Texans are now, or as as dysfunctional as in that way of like turning over head coaches as any team in NFL history right now.

And those were his choices, and he even said, well, admittedly, I will let other people be more involved in this head coaching search, like the mcnari's, but I don't think it's a choice. And then he also kept saying like if the new coach chooses I guess, like you know, and doesn't want me here, i'd have to work with him. I could step away. It's like, what is he doing up there on the podium. Then it's sounded like he didn't necessarily know, kind of like these coaches, what his

status is gonna be. So I took from that that, look, if they hired a big name, but it doesn't seem like they're going for one. Then they could get rid of Nick Kisario, but they're going for assistance around the league, and there was a report to that Damiko Ryans might not even want to interview with them after you know how they've treated the two last black Head coaches that they hired and pretty much got rid of it. I know, it's always like, just take the open job, someone's gonna

take it. It's like I'd be really careful about some of these openings. Such a shame too, because the opportunity there with two first round draft picks this year and next year for whoever is coming in like it looks great, but then you realize it's the Texans and their track record recently abysmal record by the way, for how many

coaches one team is paid at the same time. At one point was paying Rob Chittzynski, I believe, for three different outings as a Browns coach at the same time the Browns around the mid the early coaches three ears is very unusual and I'm wondering when the last time that even happened. They're probably O'Brien so they might be onto their their fourth. That's one azing I'm looking concurrently, I'm like, what is the red? This is the type of stuff that the you got drew behind the glass,

all nine ft four of them. Like the research Would they know that with the research group here at NFL Media, I think they would. I think they have the ability to check that out. John Madden might know that in a local laboratory. Uh, super Bowl City. I don't know who knows. You just gotta get the information wherever you can get it. Let's take one more break and then we'll finish things out. All right, welcome back. Let's see other transactions. Dean Peas. Dean pas I said Bill Bellichick

was seventy three. No, it's Dean who's seventy three. Uh, and he's retiring the defensive coordinator of the Falcons. He's he's actually retired two other times previously, but he said this time he thinks it's gonna stick. He had some health issues. Uh this year, got run over on the sideline a couple of weeks ago, But he said that had nothing to do with the decision. He just said it's time to walk away. So danps has been coaching

for I think fifty years. Happy trails to you, good sir, h defensive coordinator on the U eighteen and one Patriots. Dean Ps also the defensive He's got that conference championship right Bowl like six hundred times when Dean PS was squaring off against Tom Brady and week eighteen. These guys know each other from you know, their time together, their shared time together in New England. We got it. Won his Super Bowl with the Ravens with one of the

worst Ravens defenses of all time. The Niners year. Yeah, the way the year they won the Super Bowl was one of their worst, but he stuck around and they had a lot of great defense, a great defense with some medversity. He was also the Titans defensive coordinator when they ended the Brady Patriots dynasty. About the title again, can tanker as fool? Is that what we called? I believe he just believed. He loved how he gets agitated during press conference. I mean, it happened with the Falcons

before in the best way. That's what I liked about Mike west Off, the old special Team's coach. Just just a cranky. Oh he's on our show and he's cranky with us UH one defense recording and not going anywhere. Is Joe Barry. Matt Lafleur, the Packers head coach, said that Barry will return, So there's a little bit. We also say that Nathaniel Hackett might come back, leaving the door open. I think, as I understand, he was asked about it and he's like, yeah, we're open to that,

but and perhaps it will happen. But that's interesting, of course, into something that he It's sometimes you just get elevated a little bit too high. It's like, let's just bring it back to where you need to be. You'll be fine. Come back home, come back home, all right. In other news, so that's kind of like the roundup of all the coaches is and what's going on in that realm a little league news. There was a significant signing extension today.

Ro Kuan Smith, who has done very good work with the Ravens since coming over in that trade at mid season from the Bears, agrees to terms on a five year, one hundred million dollar contract extension. Uh. That is a lot of money. Forty five million fully guaranteed, sixty million in total guarantees. And for a team that I've told you on this podcast, I'm kind of over. They kind of bore me. Giving a one hundred million dollar extension to an off ball linebacker is on brand. It doesn't

get my juices flowing, but it doesn't matter. And they're very happy with this man and he's made their defense better. So good job. That was just kind of boring. The Ravens a huge signing on a Baltimore Smith millions. The defense will get to it Thursday. I think they're a tough matchup for the Bengals, just the Bengals offense. They have the franchise tag now if they want to use it on Lamar, right, that's huge. And he also served as his own agent and got the biggest money ever,

so you know the agents are sweating this. We do have some more coaching news, though. We have some breaking that I didn't you want to give it to Mark? Yeah, you don't have to please, I don't know, just like we well, I just let you know we have some breaking news here. Let's go. Let we already covered that they were in a minute. All right, give it back then for the Greg you announced what it is. I just want to announce the music, all right, there you go,

So we came down in a good spot. Alright, Wait, wait, let you take the music wants the bump wants the last line about Rokuan Smith Smith, what a guy we do have. By the way, a little bit of breaking news Park on top of things, as always Greg, the Commanders have fired offensive coordinator Scott Turner. Young Turner, Young Turner. Shoot, this is how you become young Turner anymore. This will aid you. This is escaped a Manders in Washington, d C.

And the Pentagon. I know, well, maybe they're losing Commanders rapid pace. Ron Rivera was talking on Tuesday, so I guess he sort of strategically did this after conference of like how he wanted to be a run first team. That's how you win in the NFL. You control the time of possession, this and that, and I'm just like, uh, And I'm also thinking, why did they wait till week eight teen to see same? How that was fun? Wait?

By the way down the stretch they were one of they were like the most run heavy team in the entire NFC. And if anything, Young Turner was using all sorts of different players and creative ways on the in the ground game. Where did that come from? Young Turner? Like, you know, son of Norv Turner deserves better and I'm sure he'll get another opportunity out there. We will. By the way, about the NEPO babies right now, you're hearing

all this Neppo baby stuff going on out there. Yeah, and I'm not thinking his career is indebted fully to that. But I think Scotty's gonna Scotty too. Hottie will land on his feet. There are some NEPO babies out there, but it's um. He also has done some things on his own. You know, the NFL is rife with nepotis. It's certainly to your point, Neppo babies all over this joint. Let's see, let's see, let's see we have anything else to add on ro Kuano by the way, or did we?

I think Mark came in. I'm not. I don't think it's boring, and I understand we hit the Slien. Just the Ravens excite me. I didn't cut Greg announced breaking news to break away from real quansation. Yeah, okay, I was just trying to get a feel button things up. I can't, I can't. You guys are too dynamic. Uh. Mike McDaniel said, the Dolphins head coach, that Teddy Bridgewater could have played on Sunday. Okay uh dislocated pinky uh. He suffered in weeks seventeen against the Pats, but they

went with um the kid. Why don't Skyler Thompson, who's now I don't think he's saying like he was at his full strength, but it was a pretty good indication to me that Teddy has a strong a strong chance to play this week as this though like it was a win or die playoffs scenario. If there ever was a time to put or die. Typically you could do something poorly and then you do die. But where is any chance? And I know we talked up Teddy pretty

highly on the show. She hasn't done a lot of in recent years, but he would have given them a much better chance, I would think than Skylott Thompson, who is not ready for this. But Fingertice it did not look good for him throwing the ball. I don't know why you need to say that. If you're McDaniel, that's a weird comment. But I like every a lot what he says, so I'm going down that road. At the point, he was close in his mind, and that I think every time I saw him with the walkie talkie and

the aviators like I couldn't help but laugh. Really I did enjoy that. He's He's what we thought. We thought we would get two of those. We thought the other would be Nathaniel Hackett and that turned not fun. And about six and a half minutes into Week one, I wonder if Hackett will, you know, sit, sit it out a little bit, get back into the hip hop dance classes like a ton of money? Why why are you? Why go into anywhere? Yeah, all right, grow a beard Spanish.

Hey the Eagles, your Eagles, Connie, are not playing this upcoming week, so I'm not going to dive deep on the Eagles. But I did think it was notable because I wish I would have seen this on Sunday night. We didn't see it and didn't get to it. But here's some sound of Sirianni Nick Sirianna talking about Jalen Hurts on uh Sunday post game, about him, you know, making his way through that Giant's game coming out of it okay, even if he wasn't really okay, this is

just something notable. I want to get on the record. We didn't feel like there was more risk, but you know, I know he was hurting, and he was hurting bad. And uh, but that's the kind of a competitor that he is, that's kind of the person that he is, and the kind of teammate and leader that he is. Um that he was able to go out there and stick and tough through it. I know he was hurting

and then he doubles in it. He's hurting bad. And I'm just thinking to myself, after two weeks he comes back and he was clearly less than got the dub got that by there's just no guarantee, Connie, that he's gonna be pent even after this by It's gonna help, obviously, But I thought it was notable that he came out and said how badly Hurts was playing in pain during the Giants. If he was hurting so bad, why in

the world did he drop back forty two times? Like they have the ability to run the ball and do other things, and they just weren't employing any of those concepts like and they needed to, and obviously they needed to for couple of different reasons, like one to put away the Giants who were playing their backups, but also to preserve Jalen Hurts. Here, I didn't like it. It was strange and he he did not play a great game. No, it's worries. I agree. He talks about it on the

Power Rankings podcast. That interception in the third quarter was one of the worst decisions I've seen him make all season. And they played a very conservative game plan to avoid making Jalen hurts. Get him in positions where he could take hits. That. I get all that, So I don't make too much of the fact that they only had one touchdown or it's more got called back for a really bad call an a legal man downfield. Come on the next place. I wouldn't tell whoever your opponent is.

I wouldn't let anyone know that you're starting quarterback is hurting anywhere. He's fine, he's great, because let's really emotionally, everything's great. It's a lower body or upper body injury. Right a right, Okay, howie mother, it's a good be a good Catholic. Just bury it all inside that organization, right, all right. Brandon Cooks wants to be traded. F y. I we knew that over in Houston. Everybody wants out of Houston. Uh, he doesn't want to be part of

a rebuild. Well, you better not be in Houston. Uh and finally, um, well not finally, Penultimately, I love it. I love it. I know this this interest people because he's gonna always be asked about him. But Zach Wilson UH spoke to the media and was asked how he'll handle competition, knowing that it's coming to the Jets quarterback

room in you said, you're a competitor. So if they come to you in March and say, look, we're gonna keep you, we like you, we're going to develop you, but we're signing veteran X to be our starter, which to me, I'm gonna that is life hell and practice every day, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out there and do my best to just show the coaches that I deserve to be there. And you know, and it's not it's on in a negative way. It's a

positive way. It's making everybody else you know, better hopefully, and you go out there and you just attack every single day. He's just a baby's younger. What he needs a beard? What a change by the way that that sound by compared to what things were entering a training kid in print versus hearing him say it. It's kind of as like like in print, it's like, why did you say that? Just don't say that it sounds inflammatory. But then here I'm saying, it's just like a nice

little kid. Yeah. What it reminds me of. It reminds me of like Tim Tebow joining the Jets, saying like competition is gonna make us all better. I'm gonna work and make Mark iron sharp and iron. The real story that people should pay attention to coming out of Jersey yesterday was that Quinnin Williams, the best player on the Jets, arguably a pro bowler and potentially an All Pro. Um he Um said, I'm not going to be heading to

voluntary workouts unless I get my new contract. He wants to be the highest paid defensive tackle in the sport, and the Jets do not have a great track record of taking care of their own stars. Get this one right, Joe, or you're gonna have a problem with me. Finally in the news and Rich Eysen, I mean, and the two people that you don't want to mess within the world

me in the face. Finally, and this is good news, great news to marrow Hamlin Bill's safety back in Buffalo, so he gets out of the hospital in Cincinnati, out of the I see you. He's got all of his mental functions, he's speaking, he's he's still recovering though, so he's still getting hospital care, but he's back in Western New York. So great news on tomorrow, Hammon. This could not as bad as things were a week ago Monday. They could not be in a better place than they

are right now. The doctors from the UC Medical Center, I feel like I have now gotten to know them from watching the press conferences, and really I just want to say that I feel like they're America's doctors now. Where the uh the hamblin Jersey is just like saying thanks than I mean, I was like, that's too much. Yeah, I mean, just like it could have gone in so many directions, and I'm glad that it quickly got here. For the bills, for Buffalo, for football, for everything, especially

for tomor Hamlin. I mean, just like I couldn't. I think we're in the best possible Rerailm at this point beautifully said that's it. I think you're totally the listener caught up. And if you're just finishing now the Sunday Night recap, you can now roll into this episode and say, oh, it's only it's a tight sixty. We did it well,

we're disciplined. We'll be back on Thursday. And Thursday is an important episode that you cannot miss because it is our super wild Card weekend preview breaking down all those games. And again, if you want to go see us at the Bourbon Room in Hollywood Secondary Market. And I would say, um, keep saying that as if like there is how can you find it? How do you how do you know your kids college funds? Nothing should be off limits in terms of finding a way into that any family finances

that might be hanging in the balance. So I think my my little girl's gonna need braces. She'll be fine. Of generations what lived without braces, they were fine. Who needs teeth? You don't even need? Well, her teeth are going to be there. They just may not be a straight. But you will be at the Bourbon Room for the A T N Homecoming show. If you guys want to get under an hour, you should wrap it up right now. Okay,

why do you you don't think this is an essential conversation? No, I just like, do you have a goal of actually coming in or does it not matter around like one more new horizons keeping eye up. We'll also we're going to continue yes to track this week new horizons Thursday coming up. Mark, I'll give you the final word, goodbye. It was beautiful as that THELA just like that, breaking news you all right till Thursday. He the call