Playoff Coaches Draft; New Coaching Hires

And he's been cast out. He he was cast out and he was took myself out and we found him in the bushes a couple of times on the compound and we had to say no, no, no, no, no, no, you gone. You had that feels just I mean, you know, it's a two way relationship. And I've embraced the Seahawks from you know, I mean right, it's great. It's like, it was pretty eye opening for me to see the intensity with which Mark and Dan were rudy on the Seahawks last Sunday. Oh no wait, they were like half

asleep during that game. Nor fell in love with Josh Brown right around the second quarter, and they they tested my loyalties because the Josh McCown narrative was pretty juicy and special. But you know, in the end, I got it right. It was well, it was a bit of a sleeping game, right, I'm not I'm not arguing I had a pillow. I did go get a red bull at one point during the Dame, right, that's right, you'd

across the street to seven. But in general, even though the Seahawks experience will end this upcoming weekend, I've really enjoyed my first year. Well it's clearly not acuse corner doesn't mean you have to pick them to win the Super Bowl. They're playing a very beaut of out Packers team, but they have my support. I enjoy the quarterback, um, what's his name, Russell Wilson, And they also have that great fan base in the stadium. I just like the seahawky you got off the boat. I was on the boat,

and it's led to submiss so committed. You you think they're gonna lose to uh, A fine Packers team. Man, the Packers disrespect out of Greg already. They're fine, They're fine. A couple of notes, A couple of notes before we get in today's show, which is a good one. Um our second EPISD so the Around the NFL broadcast on NFL Network airs six pm Eastern three pm Pacific. Set

your DVRs. I assume you already set the season pass so you're covered, but just in case, UM, we're already in the planning stages behind the scenes for this week's episode. We're very excited about it, um, and we have so much to do today. We have a guest. He's gonna come up just a couple of minutes. He's gonna join us on the phone, Peter Schrager, to talk about the big head coach hirings. It just went down in the newsroom, UM early this morning, Bang bang rule to Carolina Judge,

all rise to the Giants. So we're gonna get to um Peter, who's gonna talk about those two hires. Also, the Cowboys made it official, UM, getting Mike McCarthy aboard, so we'll talk about that. Also, we got were down to eight teams in the bracket, okay, Uh, the elite eight. Uh. We're gonna do a little draft. The draft writing for for us is over. Uh. We're not doing any more

drafts on Thursdays until week one next year. However, we're gonna do a draft of the remaining head coaches and just so you guys know, we're drafting by age order, so youngest with the first pick, oldest with the final pick, and the Snake. I don't know who's older between West and Mark, but I do know who's young I am. I am older than West by a little bit, not a lot, about four or five months, So you'll have the Snake. Just the heads up for your preparation. Well

that is hideous. I'm winding up with that best the fourth rated coach franchise and turmoil already and sort of hard, except I knew who the number eight was, and you're the closest to your fifties, So that's are you. Do you have any more nuggets age is um based nuggets you'd like to get out of this same facts? All right? Yeah, with a lot of fun stuff to get to. But first, West, a little nugget just for you. Let's do some news.

Reggy today beat up Angles of Cincinnati, which was name Let's Get the Year by Sports Illustrated because of a sweet by the red and an outspoken football coach to continue that championship rally for the Queen City. Uh West, I I saw a note somewhere on the Twitter verse that today January six, way back in nine on the

same date was the last Bengals playoff win. And then I went and checked YouTube, as YouTube's a great resource for these things, and found the entire telecast and right at the top there's it sounds like dick Enberg, maybe I uh selling Cincinnati is the city of America. Well it was right after the Reds have won the World Series two, right, yeah, the Queens City, Wes And you call your friends and family chumps for supporting the proteins.

Just the Bengals, all right now, we are very happy to have one of our favorites, you know, m NFL network reporter. You catch him at the sidelines of the biggest games, and of course he is one of the hosts co host of the great Good Morning Football program on NFL Network. It is Peter Schreeger. What's up? Two years later, the Cincinnati Bearcats. We're giving everyone to run for their money. And Nick the Quick, one of the most exciting college basketball players of the last thirty years,

just got the first. Corey Blunt, Oh yeah, Herd Jones, Rod Monroe, Terry Nelson, I could name that whole starting five. We're bringing West right back. He just got a big fist pump by the West. This excited about a sports team in a long time. Come back to Cincinnati, West, Well, don't leave us, but and including the Bengals, come back be a fan again. But this TV show takes off, maybe I get a summer home Joe Burrow. All right, So here's the deal. Peter Schreeger. We love him for

his insight and he's a good dude. And I was watching Good Morning Football just this morning, and Peter had some great takes on on the head coaching situations, uh in Carolina and and elsewhere. So I wanted to go through the latest head coach news and t pet up on something for some of this stuff. But let's start with like kind of the stunning news this morning, really that the Carolina Panthers had finalized the deal to bring Baylor coach Matt Rule on as the fifth permanent head

coach in team history. Um and yeah, who first had it? Rap Sheet followed up with it and Peter This one really I think surprised people because the New York Giants has always that job, even if that franchise has been on falling on hard times in recent years. That's a prestige job, I believe you called it a blue blood franchise on g MFB and yet he doesn't even get up there. I mean, this thing, this caught everybody by surprise.

Let me take it through a little bit of a timeline, because I've had a real good chance to speak to a lot of people around the league since that news dropped. Monday was a day in Waco, Texas for David Tepper and his group, which includes Marty Hernie, the current GM Stephen Drummond, who runs the PR department but has stayed a very big role also in sort of helping everyone

vet these characters in these different coaching Canada. So they get down to Waco, Texas, and I explained this on Good Morning Football, or explained to your listeners, and I'll kind of maybe go a little deeper than what people know about Tepper Temper and I grew up in this area. Temper is viewed as one of the biggest mavericks slash most successful hedge fund managers in the history of American finance. He went from Goldman Sachs and created his own hedge

fund called Apple Loosa. That Apperloosa hedge fund is worth billions and billions and billions of dollars and he's a western Pennsylvania guy who did it pretty much on his own,

went and built this thing on his own. And when Enron went under, or a couple of years back, when banks like Lehman went under, what he did was he invested in the real world of American economy and doubled down on the banking system and doubled down on a lot of different assets that people were fleeing from and has made so much money being a guy who goes into rooms and closes. So when I heard that he had the first crack at Matt Rule, whether or not this was his guy or not, I didn't know what

the situation was. I just knew that David Tepper was going to be sitting in the living room of Matt Rule in Waco, Texas, meeting with his family and providing what he can provide and offering what he can offer. I thought, this is not looking so good for the Giants, because if Tepper wants this guy, he's got a blank check waiting for him, and he also is a trained career in getting deals done. So from what I'm told, the pitch was this, it was essentially I don't know

what new York has going on. I don't know wherever else everything else is going on. You've got a conslide here. There's a blank check to give you whatever you want to build things here. And I come from the Pittsburgh Steelers outlook of franchise building. I don't want to flip over coaches every two years. When I got there in Pittsburgh, it was three names, Chuck Noll, Bill Coward, Mike Tomlin. And that's been the case since nineteen seventy in Pittsburgh.

That was the pitch to Matt Rule, and the pitch was, we want you to build this thing. It's a long term build and you can pick and choose what you need to have around you. And I think at the end of the day, whether or not people are gonna comeut and say, well, the Giants actually didn't have him as the number one, you're gonna hear a lot of stuff. It never was a situation where it got to that because they didn't even let him get on the plane.

Where the Giants, in your belief or anything that's floating around out there, were they overconfident in this situation and didn't expect to be uh this to happen were they unprepared, not understanding the background of Tepper, Like what is the vibe that you're hearing or that you feel here? Tepper was to meet the Monday rules, supposed to meet with the Giants Brass on Tuesday, and temper is temper with

the Giants Brass. It's John Mara, It's Steve Tish, It's Dave Gentleman, it's contract negotiation negotiator Kevin Abrams right there alone. It's four different people with four different roles within the organization. Two different owners, a GM, a contract guy who has a much bigger role in that building than people will

necessarily um give him credit for. And Kevin Abrams. And I think at the end of the day, the type it was like, look, it's me and you, Bud, like, let's go and build this thing, let's break it down and let's get it done. The Giants, from what I understand, fell in love with Joe Judge, and that could be fine, and that could be their guy. But the fact that he didn't even get out of his living room before agreeing to a deal with the bailor or I'm sorry,

with the Carolina Panthers tells me a lot. It all there's been reports and there's a lot going on. I need to realize there are agents for all these coaches. There are there are team sources. Everyone wants to come out of this saying we got our first break. His hours were happy, were ecstatic. Joe George blew the Giants away, no doubt about it. And the Giants are gonna say, look, we've spoken the rules people. This was a good fit

for everyone, and that's fine. I would just say this when in first New York papers, who are very connected with their beat reporters at the New York Giants, have Matt Rule on the cover of their New York papers on Monday morning, and the story by Monday at nine am in New York is that Matt Rules the new

coature of the Carolina Panthers. There might be a lot of scrambling going on saying, Okay, well, we actually really like this guy, and let's push that narrative, and let's push this guy so we'll never hear if Matt Rules the number one from New York. From New York, and Adam Schifter tweeted out a very telling tweet saying, hey, that was a lot of media conjecture that wasn't necessarily the truth of what was going on in the building. They wanted to meet Rule before they fell in love

with him. But for several days now a lot of people have been saying Rule of the Giants McDaniels to the Panthers, and that was not the case. It's Rule of the Panthers and Joe Judge to the New York Giants. I think it's quite illuminating to hear you talk about David Tepper, who we've tried to get to know and figure out from a distance here in the studio, and you know, it's it's very clear to see his powers

and abilities to sell the Panthers. And I think Panthers fans listening to you speak would be suddenly extremely encouraged, which with what's happening there, because I could look at a guy like Jimmy hasm also learned inside the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and has done the absolute opposite of what Temper is talking about building. What about Rule though? Sell? What did Rule do to sell this owner? Because he was inside the Jets building a year ago and that

fell apart for different reasons. But it just seems like this is someone who's who comes into programs and some completely transforms them. Yeah, and if you think he's going to be one of these, how often that right? So Cliff Kingsbury came in and wild the Cardinals Brass and is a totally different type of coach than Matt Rule. Kingsbury, I don't think he'd be insulted if I said he was a player's coach and empowers the player and says I'm gonna, you know, talk to them as peters and

we're gonna get the best out of him. Matt Rule is no joke. He comes from a parcels background where that's his mentor in this industry. Obviously, he worked for Coughlin and he doesn't just build programs. He built programs in his likeness. And I think what Temper and the Carolina Brass really enjoyed, were really liked out of him, was that he's no nonsense. This is not Ron Rivera,

this is not anyone that they've seen before. This is a guy who's going to build it from the ground up, is going to be a disciplinarian for a lot of different reasons. So whether or not he's forty four or and you think okay, well, he's kind of appeared to some of these players. I don't think that's the I think he's sold temper on saying I'm gonna build this thing. We're gonna have a culture first and foremost, and no

one's gonna get away with anything. We're gonna build it in a disciplinarian way, which I don't think players necessarily do flips for. But guess what, get on board. Because every player that has been interviewed, and I'm talking Robbie Anderson, I'm talking Hassan Reddick, these guys say that temper change, not temper rule, changed their lives at Temple. I haven't had the opportunity to speak with any of the Bailer guys he's coached. I'm just talking about the different players

over the past couple of years. Because guys, it wasn't just the Jets last year. Two years ago when McDaniels left him at the Altar UH in Indianapolis, they were scrambling quite a bit and they interviewed Matt Rule and let me try to Matt Rule really impressed the cults brass too, so he'd been through this a couple of times before Baylor paying college football coach money, and when I say that, I mean north of five million dollars a year, you know, like he didn't need to leave

Bailor for the Carolina Panthers. So I think he's sold Tepper, and I think Tepper sold him, and they're gonna They're gonna ride this thing together. Very curious to see who Matt Rule brings with him. We've seen a bunch of names tied to him. I'm not familiar with those names. One of them is Sean Ryan. I believe the other one was Snow, who was a defensive coach with him a builder. I don't know those guys. Not familiar with

their work. Ryan had some NFL experience, But they're gonna build this thing not like a college program, but like an NFL program built in the likeness of a college coach. No, the informer guy Phil Phil Snow who is his college different at some had some time with the Lions. And then Sean Ryan, who's the Lions quarterback coach currently are reportedly going to be his coordinators. Don't know either one

of those guys. Love the Canadian Rappers. Snow I loved I loved Percy Snow, the old player, But I do not Eric Snow, But I do not know Snow, and I guess that shows my show are coming. Sometimes as an insider, I don't know every single coach on every single staff. I'm sure he's wonderful, but that's not a name I'm familiar with, and we'll go from there. Strikes you and your brethren in the football insider industry, You guys mobilize immediately and fill our knowledge gap on Matt Rule.

But one thing I've not heard from anybody today, Cam Newton appeared to be on the outs with Temper. Do you have any insight into what Cam Newton's future is specific to Matt Rule. I don't, And I think that's a very interesting subplot, not only for the Carolina Panthers obviously, but for a lot of teams that are looking for

quarterbacks this offseason or could be looking for quarterbacks. And I think that's going to be the primary decision here because I'll tell you, guys, when the Giants come in and talk to you, they say, Okay, Daniel Jones looks pretty established, say Combarky looks pretty established, and you're able to build with this team. When the Browns come and talk to you, they say, okay, well, Baker Mayfield had a pretty good rookie year. Let's throw out the second year.

But let's see you least have something to build on here the Panthers. I'm not sure if Kim Newton was the lead the leads the excelling point on this one. And I'm also not sure that Mett Rule isn't like, hey, let me get a look at him first. Let me see if I can work with him. Because Cam Newton is one of the greatest athletic talents and one of the better quarterbacks we've seen in the past fifteen years.

So fascinated to see how that plays out. I do not have a pipeline on what Matt Rules thinks of kimt I also, I would argue that Temper did not

rule out Cam Newton mighty means either. They could have made those moves already and they could have come out of the gate saying that I almost got the feeling Temper was trying to slow the role on the idea that Cam Newton was heading elsewhere, that that noise might have been coming either from the front office from Newton's came who really knows, I mean John Rule, I mean Rules Matt Rules getting hired. I'm sure he's a great

program builder. He's stern, he's all that. Like, he's not getting hired unless he was known for an innovative spread offense and we're in the year and that's what he's bringing. He's not getting the seven year contract, which is as long as we've seen and I think in NFL history Bruden for a first time coach to get a seven year contract that you know could go it's sixty two

million dollar base Like, that's fine. He's doing it because he has an idea of how to run offenses into the next decade, and Cam Newton seems to fit that pretty well. If if you don't have other good options, like I would imagine that that would be an intriguing, you know, plan A or B for On the flip side, also though, you could see it as you have a grutenesque runway to do whatever you want, and that includes tearing this thing down to the studs before we let

you go. Peter back to the Giants and Joe Judge, who had been obviously another Belicheck disciple, the special teams coordinator. He's worked with the wide receiver group. Uh, this one, it was like a double shock because you had whoa rules not going to the Giants and then before you could process it, bang they hire this guy Judge. What have you heard about him? What is the buzz around this guy? Was this somebody that was in demand behind the scenes? But what's the deal here? I'll give you

the other shock to it. There's a third ripple to this. So Josh McDaniels was supposed to interview with the Panthers today by nine am, you know rules called the head coach, and then he supposed to interview with the Giants tomorrow and by the Giants have a high coach and it's but it's his colleague who was the special teams coordinator and the wide receivers coach. Here's what I've got on

Joe Judge. And I got to be completely honest again a vulnerable spot here from me when I say that I knew he was interviewing and I have I have been told about Joe Judge throughout this season as a potential cave but I do not know Joe Judge personally. I like to think I know just about every coordinator in this league or head coach, and I go out of my way to I don't know Joe Judge, but his story is very interesting in that he went and worked for Sabin and then came with Belichick and I

know the Giants. That is very appealing. Now, special teams coach, he got your X is an old guy. He's not your spread offense guy. He's certainly not going to be your defensive Let's coach him up. Special teams coach means he is a football guy who is going to run through a wall and is going to have your team well coached and prepared. That's the special teams coach to me. So, Joe Judge, honestly, that's not gonna be the Cliff Kingsbury while you with the spread offense, and it's certainly not

the Wink Martindale. I've been around for fifteen years coaching defenses and these guys are gonna respect me. This is more of your CEO type. He's got the respect I know in New England, I've spoken a lot of those guys. They're like, no, Joe is the absolute man. But to not even meet with McDaniels, who was you know, in a lot of people's minds at least going to get a look from the Panthers and Giants. Is what shocked me the most on this one. The rush to hire

Joe Judge an hour after Rule was hired. Uh. Not to say that that the two things that anything connected with him, but shows me that either a Joe Judge lew them away in the meetings or be they're like crap rules are number one. He's our number two. Before another team the Browns, for example, can get their hands

on Joe Judge, Let's make sure he's ours well. Ian indicated that the Mississippi State football job was Joe Judges and that uh affected the timeline that you know, he had to either say yes or no to that college job. And I'm not surprised that McDaniels. I'm surprised he didn't get the interview. I'm not surprised that the Giants didn't even want to do it because I think McDaniels was a nonstarter because Getleman is there, which is the same reason why Matt Rule might have been a non starter too.

There's no indication that Josh McDaniels would have ever come into a place where he didn't have some level of control or at least a strong relationship with his front office and working under Dave Gettleman, who might be starting off on the hot seat. Uh, doesn't sound like something he would have been interested in. So I think if you're getting McDaniel, you're getting a whole package. And the Giants basically chose Gettleman over having flexibility because it's a

great thing. I mean Matt Rule too. I think, Uh, that had to be something that was concerning for for Matt Rule. Of that you're basically inheriting Gettleman and Gettleman's in charge. I'm not gonna say that Marty Hernie isn't as um, you know, authoritative, or doesn't have the same trigger as as Dave Getleman does their power of the

trigger as Dave Gentleman does. But I would say that Marty Hernie, who's who's still there in Carolina with Rule and Carolina he met with the enemy, he met with lives and it's like Marty's gonna work with you and we're going to figure this out. I don't know necessarily if that's the case in New York when you meet with the Giants, if it's Hey, Gettleman's gonna work with you, or you're gonna work with Gettleman, and I'm a Dave Getleman fan. I think Dave Gettleman done some some bold,

big swing moves. But I also think at the end of the day, if you look at the Giants and what they have in salary cap and some of the talent that they do have on the roster right now, it's it's not a terrible situation for a head coach to walk into, but you better be able to work with that general manager, and you better be able to

want to work with that general manager. So to your point, Greg, when the Panthers come to you and say it's a blank slate, do what you want, and then the Giants come and meet with you, and there's four people in the room and it'say, sell yourself on the Giants, things get a little different. Peter Schraeger, you came and you did the damn. I mean, I'm watching your TV and I'm like, man, he's wearing a great bomber and he looks comfortable up there, and he's just delivering the information.

You're a vital piece of the puzzle. They're in a very successful show that we all love. So thank you for um coming on and giving us the info. That we needed. I'll tell you, guys, it's really quickly. I'm on a flight to l A last Friday, three pm Pacific, six pm Easter, and I'm watching some rerun of a of an NFL regular season game on the NFL network. I'm about to change it, and then you guys came on in a smile from ear to ear on my

face and I loved it. But it was great. And if the network executives are listening, why not let's give these boys on the TV show or their own. Let's let's look at this thing with our little foursome. Your foursome. You guys have Erica, we got Will Silva. Which world Which one of the four of us were you most impressed with? I gotta say, Mark, you had this this incredible, like one minute monologue where you what was going on

with that? With that video feature and there was like spookiness going on, and there was a boat and I couldn't follow it to the life of me, but there were teams being washed up onto shore. That's not my kind, that's not my wheelhouse. I enjoyed it. I had no idea what the hell is going on? All the answer Marks, Look now, I was I was seeking something else there, but that's thank you for our support. I also wanted

to correct we've really enjoyed your performance too. On those little promos where it's like the Playoffs NFL Network and you're doing the little point you know, it's it's like k in the front and you're in the back and you're just like, hey, I'm a guy. I'm pointing. And then it's like Irvin with the football and that that stuff is good handed me a football. I love the football. Just play the football. Sit it and I'm like, I can't do. I know you're gonna end up using that

and it's not me. I mean, you've done that show long enough now where you've got to be at the Malcolm Gladwell ten thousand hours. Think you got to have the whole thing masters at this point. Yeah, And my rule is no phone. I'm not steering at I'm not like doing the and I'm not knocking rout because he actually does have the phone in his hands at all time. I'm not defined by that. And I'm also not going to be spinning a football next to aprils and they're

not gonna put Schreeger in a box. You won't all right, Peter, thank you, buddy, thank you. There he is Peter Schreeger. That guy does the damn thing. He just he's knowledgeable, and he's really good at his job and a nice fit here on the pod. He's got his ear to the ground like an old board chief waiting for the drums to start to kick off. You know, he knows when the battles come, and he knows everything ahead of time.

Well put, we do like to occasionally dip into reporting of our own, and I think that we could even convince ourselves at moments that we have inside information. But it feels like a child compared to what he's offering. I think you could bring up anyone and he knows everything, and yet in a very Patriots manner, he still doesn't know Joe Joe. I mean, Joe Judge is about as under the radar as a head coaches. And he's pretty young guy, like thirty. Like even Patriots fans don't know

anything about Joe Judge. The receiver. Bill Belichick actually this floated around. He he had a long statement from past this past summer about Joe Judge and basically said he can coach any position on the field. He had a lot of faith in him. I would imagine because Bill Belichick is such a special teams obsessive special teams historian, that you're not gonna just hand that role to anyone. He must know the world about the sounds of it.

When you do look back at the quotes, Beltics said, he clearly believes that Joe Judge can be a great NFL head coach, and that he was kind of taking him under his wing in a in a in a

unique way, meeting with him weekly. You know, maybe compared to any other coach I can think of, maybe other than to Peter's point, which I thought was a good one, when you uh take a special teams coach who's a guy that's usually you know, a guy that's about the playing hard x x nos go get it um energy, and you put him at the head coach at the time where the league is about finding the next architect, the next brilliant guy that can take your offense to

another level. It does feel like a Dave Gentleman higher that it's like football is about hot and it's about passion. It's about being on time and making the plays when you need to make it. Maybe it works, but it's a little bit outside the box of what we've seen with some recent high profile you gotta you gotta have a great staff and uh like, that's gonna be his

big challenge. And I think with McDaniels now being up in the air and Judge gone, it is remarkable all the people that have left New England, of which McDaniels could still be one. Just in the last couple of years Floors, O'Shea, Joe, Judge, Matt Patricia, and then I can name three or four other lower level assistance maybe Nick Cassario, like it is, has been a total house the pastor Easter b whatever his name is. Uh wait, we got some breaking news. Just hold that thought, Ricky,

what do we got this? Just in I have a text from Peter Schrager himself saying Mark isn't upset with what I just said, Not in the least, not in the least. I couldn't have. I just I am just surprised and happy that he watched the show. By the way, the show did very well in the ratings. I gave you that information on Sunday night, and I have that confirmed. I texted him back and I said, yeah, he just

said from the show. You should not be conducting the head conversation about me and I'm going to Mark without speaking to Mark first. You're raging mad Ay. That's also right well handled. I mean he said breaking news. He said, um, do you think he's gonna like ever forget me? And I was like, no, I think it'll be fine. And

then he goes, but does he hate me? I mean, is just it would be a situation where Mark, I love you, but like four hours from today, I'll be at home and I'll get a text from Mark like, hey, do you do you think Sregar really didn't like my segment? No, I won't. Why do you always put Segar on the spot like that? I remember our laves the same thing.

At the last interview with him, you asked him who does he respect that any without any without thinking about it, he said, Greg, so I wanted to dig into that topic. It wasn't agree with that. So he gave an honest answer. All right, I enjoy him. At some point you should keep asking him that until he just says, Mark, well, that's what I'm going for. He could he could end

this charade by just answering the rest. See your point, what I was gonna say, is our buddy Shawn O'Hara, who once found us, you know, acting like we were passed out in Dion Sanders special room and we blew his mind. He was on and pointed out that the Giants have had the last two head coaches offensive coordinator

and it hasn't worked out with McAdoo and Shermer. The goal this time around was not just leadership, but to be to instill a more physical philosophy on both sides of the ball, which seems to fit well with geentleman and his hog. Molly's all right, Let's now move to the Cowboys, who um on Monday after we are Sunday pot where he talked a little bit about the Cowboy situation where he learned that Jason Garrett officially was out at Dallas. They announced that UM, Mike McCarthy is their

new head coach. He signed a deal um to become Dallas's new head coach. UH. The deal became official on Tuesday when it was announced it's a five year contract and the hiring came less than a day after the Garrett era officially ended. McCarthy spent last season out of football,

of course, after thirteen seasons the head coach of the Packers. Now, there's been some criticism out there Mark that after you went through this whole era of Garrett and all theticism that seemed to last half a decade at least, uh, that you kind of hired someone that's similar to Jason Garrett as a coach. Did you do you buy into that criticism of this higher the resume isn't similar. I mean, I understand with the the overall kind of cue rating of Mike McCarthy nos dive during that final year in

Green Bay. But he has made the playoffs nine out of thirteen years with the Packers tenan eight postseason record of Super Bowl title. That's everything that Jason Garrett could not accomplish with very talents. Gart. I don't see. I know he has his own offense, good or bad. He does, and there's also whispers of him wanting Kellen Moore to stick around, so that that the one I want to know about Mike McCarthy is what is the offense? What

are we going to see? Because he went through this sojourn year and he went through this remaking and rethinking about how to you know, run a team and run his own attack that felt stale by the end. So what new wrinkles along with this, you know, personal pr triumph because I mean the attention around Mike McCarthy over the US month. I mean, anyone that gets into any sort of trouble should hire the people that Mike McCarthy hired.

What are we really going to get the guy that's that he's replacing should take notes because McCarthy, well, they literally share an agent, which is an I mean, all the very many a lot of these coaches have the same agent, but McCarthy and Garrett share the same agent. So while McCarthy was literally in Jerry Jones's house and Jason Garrett, according to Jay Glazer, was pushing as hard as he can to keep the Cowboys job, he was not.

You know that the part of the reason that took a week was he was not going down without a fight. That's what Glazier said. The same guy is representing both. This is kind of a joke to me, How is that not a joke? Wild seems like a conflict of interest My one reservation. I know there's been criticisms of his offense, but just thinking back to the last I don't know half a decade, but the Packers, this guy is a known lead sitter. He will sit on leads

for an entire quarter, an entire half. You read, Vince Lombardi says, one of the first lessons he learned, and it was a hard lesson to learn, don't sit on the ball for an entire quarter. I don't know Mike McCarthy selling this six person video unit, eight person analytics team.

He's got a fourteen person technical football technology department. Maybe they can help him with that area that killed some of his Packers, right, he struggled in game management, like Garrett did, I do wonder if keeping Kellen Moore or strongly considering it, you know, if Jerry Jones was pushing up was part of the deal that that I think Jerry Jones wanted to keep Kellen Moore and whether that was you know, part of the conversation that they had

with I mean, and Kellen Moore has an open invitation to go to the University of Washington and become thearoh C too, So that made intensify or move that decision up. And we should say McCarthy, it's been reported is gonna bring in expected to bring in Mike Nolan as his defensive coordinator. Nolan um was his boss back with the forty now Miners way back in two thousand five. We're only going to wear the suit. I like that. I want to know if the suit is back, because are

you allowed to do that today? I don't know that be crazy not to allow it, but I mean I could see them in all these like team logo, apparel business, and some know how to look good in it and some simply have not grasp that concept, like Mike Mike Nolan was the head coach back in San Francisco and Mike McCarthy was his coordinator on one of the worst teams I've ever seen with tim Ertay, Ken Dorsey, Alex Smith rookie year. They were dead last in in yards

and offense and defense. But that actually was a good reminder for me of like, coaching hires are impossible to predict. I mean everything in football's boss would pick, but especially coaching hires. Because the Packers hired Mike McCarthy off that season off coordinating the worst offense in football, and everyone at the time was like, what, really, you're hiring Mike McCarthy And it worked like Gangbusters the first five years

he was there. Who the hell knows. We are also up west to your point about McCarthy and that bad, bad trait of sitting on leeds the five year anniversary of to me, outside of the Super Bowl with the Falcons, the worst collapse we've ever seen Seattle Green Bay, a game that I'm not even a Packers fan, and that last still sticks to me. And that was a perfect example of a guy that took the air out of his own ball. I think it's a bigger choke job

than the Falcons game. When you see the coaching moves that we're made and the way the team played, I think it was a bigger I credit the Patriots more than the than more than I blame the Falcons. Um all right, and one more head coaching job left, Mark. I believe you are aware of this, that the Cleveland Browns remains, so they've they've taken the opposite path. This is what bad teams typically do. But maybe this is the right path to do, which is whatever you did

the last time, do the opposite. So you didn't even look outside the building last time, said Freddy Kitchens, our guy. Now they're looking everywhere Jim Schwartz. They're requesting an interview with the Eagles d C in former Lions head coach. I believe he will be mark the eighth interview. And now there's no rush because nobody else is looking to hire a head coach. Uh, So it just becomes a matter of them deciding who's the right guy. They have

the pick of everybody that's left. How you feeling right now? This is like I'm always a split mind here. But the weird outlier to this little journey that they've been on is that I thought that Jimmy Haslum's press conference last week, and I've been swayed by his press conferences before because that's not that he has skills in that area.

I thought it was the best one that he's ever had with the Browns, and as disastrous as everything was last year, I do wonder if at some point in this job, in this thing where you've gone through this

process so many times, that you are learning. And I I viewed the removal of John Dorsey ultimately as trying to, you know, against what the Giants have done is not shove potential candidates inside a front office that that that already would have had a powerful voice in John Dorsey that I think it opened up the doorway for Josh mcday niels and whoever he wants to bring along with him.

A lot of these interviews, the Brian Dables and maybe even Jim Schwartz, I view more as uh potential exploratory talks. And you know Schwartz is on our contract, but dable to me as a potential coordinator type. I have just felt all along the Josh McDaniels. You thought, since two weeks ago this was gonna be mc daniel. I have, and like I, I guess you know the the news happened so quickly this morning that I thought they were gonna lose Josh McDaniels, potentially because he was sitting after

all these other scheduled interviews. I I don't know what I wanted as a Browns fan, I don't know what I want. To Greg's point, I find these these coaching hires so unpredictable that you know, who knows how it's

gonna go. But I like the idea. What I didn't want was shoving a candidate with people already in place, that whoever it is brings their own people and it sounds like that there's an open flexibility from the Housel's on down to allow whoever it is to come in and craft their own organization, which they desperately need to do to keep pace with the Ravens and Steelers catch up, much less keep pace. They interviewed Dable on Monday. McDaniels

scheduled to interview on Friday. Kevin Stefanski also expected to interview UM this week. Jim Schwartz today. So almost you know three of those four from the Belichick tree, including Schwartz Uh one of the rare candidates who checks the boxes of Belichick Tree, approved by the analytics crowd, approved by unnamed sources, and the executive ranks. He seems to be liked by a lot of people. It would be interesting,

McDaniels if now was the time to go. There's a thought, you know in New England that as as uncertain as the Browns are, and I think ownership would probably be the biggest concern for him. Um that the Patriots is more uncertain, that he doesn't know what what's up. He doesn't know like the staff, there is very strange. He doesn't know if Brady is gonna be back. They certainly didn't have. You know, everything is kind of up in the air in New England to Steve Belichicks starting to

rise up the ranks. Is McDaniels still the next in line? Well, well, while we're on this topic, let's hit that. Uh. Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, spoke to Peter King in his Football Morning in America column and um had this to say about Tom Brady and what his future holds. Uh. You know, my hope and my prayer is number one, he played for the Patriots, or number two he retires. He has the freedom to decide what he wants to do and what's in his own best personal interest, and

um craft what he doesn't want to see here. He does not want to see Johnny United is on the charges, he doesn't want to see Joe Namath on the Rams, and he certainly doesn't want to see Tom Brady on someone's billboards. Uh in twenty as the all time great quarterback now associated with a different team, which I totally get. What I found interesting is that he would come out and say that, like I'd rather him be gone totally. Uh. Than returned to the page three. It's the fan, but

I totally get where he's coming from. Right. It seemed like after reading that article that if Kraft is running this instead of Belichick, and I don't know if after twenty years and what Brady's accomplished, maybe the owner is running this decision. He want He definitely wants Brady back.

I think Brady, if you kind of you know, pick the words that he chose, he you know, he probably wants to be back to Tom Current wrote a great piece which I linked to on Twitter about the situation and look Tom Tom in about six words, he kind of described he explained the entire Brady vantage point and that the lack of money that he's gotten in the last handful of years, the kind of push and pull between Belichick always maybe kind of looking at when are we going to get out of this? And to where

he is now? And uh, I think Brady probably wants to be back too, And the question is whether Belichick really wants him back and and whether Brady would just take a lesser deal to come back because that might be the only choice he has. I mean, how often fascinating. What is the track record of Bill Belichick clinging to players in decline? I mean not to bring up the Browns again. But when he when he cut Bernie Coozar, that was the biggest story in the league that year,

and it was a shocker to Browns fans. But he Tom Brady, he correctly assessed that players diminishing, as he said, and when that, where are we with Tom Brady? I mean, even before this season, I thought that was a great detail he had. You know, he was really hoping for the contract that Breeze got Tom Brady was which was

a two year, fifty million dollar type uh extension. He's coming off a super Bowl win, a season he played pretty well on balance, certainly had an epic a f C Championship Game performance, and couldn't get that, you know, a couple of years ago, coming off the best comeback in Super Bowl history. He was looking for a new contract and he got a bunch of incentives added to his deal that he didn't reach even while they're making

the Super Bowl again. So it's like they've they've been playing hardball with Brady awhile and there's not a lot of reason to think they'll change it now other than they don't have any option behind. I mean, I think

the the idea of them. Just not being ready to say goodbye really could work to Brady's advantage to that Brady Craft doesn't want him to leave, and if it if it takes a few extra million dollars ten, ten million dollars to keep the greatest player in the history of the franchise and arguably the history of the league in business with him for another year. I just want to Brady, I think has a thought in his head because he's wired this way. Who's gonna want me? I'm

forty three. My team just struggled down the stretch. I'm not you know, he doesn't want to go join some rebuilding team, Like he's gonna want a good situation. How confident is he that he's going to get a better situation than having to move his entire family or go

live by himself and learn a new offense. It's like he struggled enough dealing with Jacoby Myers and nikkil Harry, Like, what's he gonna do going to you know, there's only so many situations that I think he's gonna see and think that actually it's a very like complicated game of chicken. To your point, Mark, I guess it would take for this thing to maybe the Browns and Josh McDaniel. I don't know, maybe to um the point that you were making.

Maybe the only way this doesn't happen a deal is that Bellichick kind of behind the scene says no, we need to move on. But I don't know if that happens though on some level, I mean, he was ready to go, Jimmy g They mean they've been trying to plan this out for a decade and Tom Brady and at the end of the day, though, Kraft is Bellichick's boss, So I feel like if Brady wants to come back and Craft want some back, maybe that leads to more issues.

Maybe Mark you well, he's not going to the Giants now, Bill Belichick, we know that. Oh I've lost sandwiches on that, but you know it's need didn't come a uh too quick. Uh. Coordinator stories before we get to our coaches draft Scott Turner, son of Norm Norm Norm Turner. That sounds fun. Uh he will be the new offensive coordinator of the Redskins. Uh, so he he gets that job. Your thoughts on that

last you gotta thought you gotta take Scott Turner. Scott Turner, Baby, I'd like to know how he and Mark got into a confrontation. Well, oh yeah, that it wasn't a confrontation. I I overstepped what I saw an early morning at an airport on the way to the Combine. We happened to be on the same connecting flight to Indiana. Yeah, and I was none of you guys were around. I

was alone. I had this weird flight and like, so I won't you know in this like kind of waiting area, went up to him and tried to approach and have a conversation. Hey, I'm Mark Sessler from NFL dot com, I think, I said, And he's just like staring right through me and just could not have been less uh interested in speaking with me. And I don't blame him. It was like six five and the more or something. But how much younger is he than you? I think he is younger than me by a number of years.

I think he did a good job with Carolina. He's getting most of the credit for actually coordinating that offense, even before he was officially named the play caller. All things considered, I think they did a pretty good job. Questions here, but how did you recognize Scott Turner at the airport? Well, because he had been on the He had been on the brown staff, so you know, I

that got that was the staff. I think he was might have been the quarterbacks coach or but he's still You've been known to football people in airports, but there I forgot, nor was there. Norv kept bringing him around everywhere. Norv was with the Browns for one year. North North's been everywhere. But we're at the front. Jimmy G. Well, we had a very nice conversation with Jimmy G. I mean, you just gotta go for it. Roman was is not confronted.

We had a wonderful time for about twenty minutes. Um, It's what Jane Haskins, Well, I think we aren't getting old when the head coaches of our childhood, their sons and you know, are now getting these jobs happening. Finally, the Rams have moved on from Wade Phillips, the veteran defensive coordinator, is out. His contract expired at the end of the twenty nineteen season and the Rams declined to renew it. Once upon a time, he was the perfect

guy to be in that building. You had the young, hot shot offensive coach in Sean McVeigh, uh West and then Uh son of bum. He was the grizzled veteran with the resume, with the knowledge, with the know how. But I guess it got to a point where they feel like they need to freshen things up in l A. And I don't exactly blame them. Well, Mike Silver had this a few weeks ago, and I've been reading quite

a bit on it. It seems like Bill Belichick taught Sean McVeigh something about versatility and adaptability in the Super Bowl. And as much as Sean McVeigh appreciated Wade phillips scheme the first couple of years, he doesn't want to be scheme heavy now. He wants to be sitting situation, game plan opponents specific to adapt. And I think they want to bring in some run, younger guys with with fresher ideas. Yeah, I think both. I think two things canna be true.

That Phillips did an incredible job, and on some level this is unfair, you know, because the defense was better than Sean mcveigh's offense this year. It's not even it's not even a question. And the defense was certainly better in the Super Bowl, where what Bill Belichick said before that Super Bowl was absolutely true. Like we he's like, they asked him about the game, but he's like, we know what way it's gonna do. Doesn't mean it's gonna

be easy to go against it. We we've been going against this defense in different cities for every year and it basically looks the exact same. And you know what, it was good enough for the Broncos to beat the Patriots a few times and win a Super Bowl, is good enough to hold the Patriots the thirteen points last year. But it just doesn't change, just doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't

fit with what Sean McVeigh wants, and that's understanding. I would imagine if there's any hard feelings there that they will ultimately be fine because none of us can know how much it helped Sean mc a to have the knowledge, the experience, the respect, and just the overall aura of Wade Phillips in that building. I think the reason that they were able to turn it around so quickly and flip the switch. He has a huge part to take

their defense, especially in seventeen. Mcveigh's first year was fantastic and Wade Phillips turned seventy three in June. Uh he's a coach. He's the son of a coach son. I imagine he will be scooped up and be someone else's DC. I mean, if you can be president, I guess why not. Hey, Joe Judge needs an offensive and defensive coordinator, right, I mean that feels I would fit in with the old maybe a little top monk in Wade Phillips act. All right,

that's what's happening in the news. All right, let's do it. Let's have some fun here this. I have to give the credit to uh Maddie Tanton and Jason Kleman who helped um. They produce the Power Rankings digital show that I do with money and Cynthia. We had a quarterback draft for the playoffs this morning and I said, oh, that's fun. And I felt two on the nose to straight steal that idea. But if I just change what we're talking about and then steal the idea, didn't feel

quite is Larcene? I mean, I have all these ideas have been done. It's good, alright, So we will do a playoff coaches draft. There eight playoff teams remaining eight head coaches and um, yes it's uh the age order which worked out for maybe, which, So wow, that really worked out for the guy who made up the rules. It's it's funny how it does work out like that. So I have let's see what our choice, yes get. You also don't get to make your last way. You

don't even know who the coach gets. You get stuck with the eighth pick. Maybe can I pick one of the coaches that are out for the eighth pick? Just get to know, absolutely not seen the rules on the fly. I'll I'll get a coordinator from one of these teams. You're gonna get the guy you wanted. Eight anyway, all right, here we go, Gaze is available. Your favorite little your favorite little a f C South coach, You'll still be there at eight. Little love it ranked, I ranked the

top seven. I was like, it's a given that Bill O'Brien's going last. Wow, I don't know, I have the seventh. I have the seventh pick, And well, did you watch the first forty minutes of the Wild cri Hey? My front office is gonna have to examine. Can I just say, though they happened to beat the team that West thought was gonna like run through the playoffs, and the next year you saw that the coaching victory. Go home Bills

and go home West because Bill O'Brien. Uber have you seen Bill O'Brien on all of his wild card weekends? Stop it thirty and nothing chiefs come out. I mean, I mean Bill O'Brien's got more winning seasons by far than Ron Rivera does over the last decade. Ron Rivera is not in this exercise. All right, here we go. Here are the choices. Of course, I know everyone knows, but maybe you're new to the game and this is your first real like connection with the NFL buying time

so you can figure out how the coaches. We have Zimmer of the Vikings. We have Kyle Shanahan of the Niners. We have b O b with the Texans. You have Andy Reid with the Used, Mike Rabel with the Titans, John Harbor at the Ravens, Pete Carrol with the Seahawks, and Matt Leflaire. I'm loving having the two pick because I'm just loving it. One pick is not great. Actually Belichick was there, Bank I got it, but he's not here. He's home to Greg just without it's the same. It's

a relief. How about how about Bill Belichick coaching one more game and been out of Gaze this year. How about when you just cut it down, That's one way to look at it. But yeah, I just those facts, all right. The first pick is gonna be I don't argue Gaze didn't coach. How about creating a memory that will live in Patriots Jets lore forever on Monday Night football? You know what more did they really need after that game? That's all you get? All right, here we go. The

first pick will be who I'm seeing goose still. The first pick will be this is tough. You've had this. You've been on clock all day since he came up with this segment. Uh, you know what. I love him And you can come after and say he's got a scarred postseason history, he can't run the clock. But Andy Reid is my pick. Andy Reid, Uh is just a guy that I love a guy. Yes, is does he

have some baggage? Yes? But do I feel like when a team hits the field of these eight remaining coaches that they're going to be well prepared, that they're going to have a scheme on offense at works and what he's been able to prove, He's built a whole program in Kansas City. That defense has gotten better and better as the season's gone along, and at the top of the food chain. Uh, he's responsible for that as well. So Andy Reid is my first pick and the first

overall pick of the Coaches Draft. Your thoughts, I don't give him a pass for losing those playoff games with Alex Smith at quarterback. What I do think, though, is that he had a level of talent le Patrick Mahomes that Andy Reid probably would be a two time Super Bowl winner at this point. He's you know, I can't argue with the pick at all, totally solid. He's one of the best offensive minds, one of the best quarterback handlers. To me, I had him ranked third and the only

reason was he's failed in game management. Yeah, he would have been in my top two. It's if you're just starting an organization, especially if you know he's a little a little younger, he may be he's choice number one. Now if you get into a playoff FID and it's in this and among these eight, uh oh, I'm not no, I'm talking about Andy Reid. That. Yeah, to me, it was I knew what my top twur dan and you took one of them so um so I I don't

have any problem with that. I think he integrated somehow underrated. I love this. I feel like we have the same conversation last year and then it ended with broken hearts against the Patriots in the NFC title game. I want Andy Reid at opening night, the media night. I want him on the platform next to Nance or whom, whom, whomever it will be after with the confetti coming down, it's time for Andy Reid to have his epic moment.

And uh, I'm going with read number two three and he put up thirty one points on the Patriots when Sean mcveigh's rams put up three. I mean, he's an offensive guy. That's what I want in two thousand in twenty, and that's why I'm going. Kyle Shanahan, who's kind of to me that does that sound? Was my I mean, I'm not going to get him at number four. But now you isolate that that was something that that almost compared to Greg's throat noise that it was just a sigh.

But I didn't want to, I mean, and it was a little erotic. It was like, I don't know about that. Guys like, well, that's he was my number one pick overall. Do you love Kyle? You love yourself some Kyle. I

know that. I think he's He's everything you want because he's the He's the best combination I think of modern philosophies and aggressiveness and offense and week to week game planning with a groundwork foundation that's really built from Carrie Kubiak and from Mike Shanahan and is tried and true. And he can do anything that you want, Like he can install a great running game, a great passing game, and I do think he has a big global vision two as a head coach, he would have been my

number one overall pick. I'm excited to get him. Let's shot by you might be the best offensive mind in football. The hats a little on my radar, the hat with the flap. And that's the biggest problem you have with not what I mean anyone would have with a coach. It's kind of like, I'll take it. I mean this was like the players like him. He's young, like he just checks all the box and he and he and

he fulfilled his promise. You know, it seemed a little star crossed the first two years and then once he got the roster that was healthy and the quarterback was on the field. He proved that he's a guy that can coach a team. So yeah, I think it's a solid number two pick. And that takes us now to Chris Westling, the third, uh youngest member of the group.

You're well, just like I had Bill O'Brien and his own tier at the bottom, I had John Harbow in his own tier at the top, easily the number one pick. I know Greg's always hated him as a coach to get him fired on this pros like a side west singer, Greg put him on the hot seat year after years one of the five best coaches. All I did was kept pointing out that their own owner said I considered

firing him. To use your own football analysis and realize this, he can't get fired one of the best coaches and it's good. Doesn't mean he almost didn't lose his job. And then neither runaway pick for coaching go ahead day. I was just gonna say, when I did the hot butt rankings in August, I had it on good authority from someone that's super plugged in the league that Harbor was not as safe as people thought. And then they went fourteen and two and that was so there was

some type of rumblings that he needs. But like I said, I expect you to use your football analysis and realize he's too good of a coach to allow that to happen. Good coaches get fired. But also belle It's chick didn't get fired because he's that good in Harball's not Belichick level, but right there. Under Coach of the Year this year. I wouldn't have Sanahan for that. I think Shanahan would

have had a strong number two. Considering all the injuries that they had that they overcome to go thirteen and three. In the schedule that they play, they could have easily beaten the Ravens if they got But I would put Harbor number one for sure. He has picked the right coordinators.

He has chosen to revolutionize offense. Go all in on Lamar Jackson, all in on their philosophy, their vision and still confidence with this team and use analytics in a game management way that has given them and edge on opponents all year long. Love the way they go for fourth downs. I'm all in on John Harbor. I think he's one of the best coaches of his generation. I love any of these guys that show the ability to

recreate who they are. Uh, to hang through the complete recreation of a team and a roster like John Harball has done. And he's got a collection of interesting people in that locker room, and he they seem to respect him. There the best best run teams in the league have an ability to see things through and not make the move. It's so easy to just fire the head coach when it's time for a quote unquote regime change, and they

because the Ravens are so well run. And West and the last special teams coordinator to be hired since before Joe Judge. If I'm not mistaken, there's been any since. I mean, and he's the one that you always have. This is why you're feeling good right now. West, in addition to your positive feelings about the man, the only coach so far that has a Super Bowl ring uh in our draft. So he's proven he could take you the distance, which takes us to Mark Anthony Ceciler not

my middle name, Edward. Uh. Well, I'm gonna go Pete Carroll and I and I find it interesting that there are so many people that are always down on Pete Carroll and at a number at the fourth pick. Here, I look at the rest of this list, and Pete Carroll has won a Super Bowl. Pete Carroll had like hardball over overseeing the transition of Seahawks one point oh into Seahawks two point oh. You've got the same quarterback there, But that's not that wasn't the major issue. But on

defense especially, and you know we don't. We don't get to pull the GM along with him, which I'd like to do. I get it, Pete Carroll. You know, I feel like being around Greg there's just these endless complaints about his you know, time management and game management and little things that are important. Well no, but no, but but but see I I come from a little bit of a different place touch I've always been super positive

on Pete Carroll. Well, I don't know, I feel like this year I keep hearing him getting killed and what I what I do feel about Pete Carroll the man who the person that the way that he relates to people, his youthful zeal. I can never tell how old he is. I know it's way up there, but it just seems like someone that is curious about the world. I I would honestly consider Pete Carroll over some of the people that we've talked about a top him in this exercise,

depending on what kind of team it was. So Pete Carroll, tell me why I made a terrible choice. Should have gone Mike Rabel here? Huh. I don't know. I think we are Probably it's funny the whole the whole time, the whole time, You're like, back off, probably would have taken Carroll there too. There's a lot of negativity towards Pete Carroll this season, and I don't get it. I just don't. I don't appreciate. I don't like his conspiracy theories.

I think they're a little far flung. And he's but he's sometimes dangerous according sometimes dangerous according to people that follow the team. He's toned down some of the ted talk speaker stuff and some of the motivational things that just seemed a little bit flighty um which voice is on my radar a little bit. But I mean the success, you cannot argue with the success that he's had. Speaking of coaches that have outlived entire runs, the legion of

boom is that ancient memory. Usually a coach gets tied to one great era and then gets washed out when that ends. He's been able to stay vital and he's a big part of that team. Wins and entire Wrestll Wilson, rath Ted wins are more except for guess what, Mark Snaky Well. I I am not totally sold on any of the rest of the list here, but I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Mike Rabel. I really really impressed what West is upset Well. That makes me feel good.

That makes me feel I think he's a great coach. You know, he's got all He's kind of does everything that I would ever, everything you'd want in a football coach. He seems capable at and you know, the Titans are a team. It's not easy when you get attached to these sort of milk toast, middle of the road teams that have a kind of like a reputation for underwhelming and and just sort of not having an identity or standing out. I think that he's built a team with

an identity. Uh you know, I don't care that he's defensive minded, because every one a year ago was talking about go get the best passing game coordinator, offensive coordinator, and the team that dominated everyone is Greg Roman running the ball four hundred and sixty times a day, so there's a lot of ways to win, and that he uses his players. He has pretty well. Mike Rebel, no questions asked. He's out there before the game doing hundreds

of push ups. He's planking for hours on end. Then you get you get to the game and he's out belichicking Belichick at the end of the game, not giving them the ball for three minutes on some fake punt nonsense, some fake penalties. Yeah, he came in cracking a lot of jokes like that. You're right. He did the thing that Belichick did, theo gaze on that Monday night game where he just burned off like multiple minutes of game

clock on the technicality. And he knows the Patriots, which is great, as he said, feast on bad football and we didn't hand them anything. This guy knows how to coach. This team is super confident. I think they might be the most confident team in the playoffs except for the Ravens, and they get that from Vrabel and Derek. Hen Erica had a question for you, though, she asked me, I'm not sure why, but a question for who you I guess I just like, what's milk toast? Milk toast, what

means land middle of the road. Um, you have to go back and dec it. Erica was like toast coated and milk, add a little egg sort of, you know, add a little leg, make it French tou it's milk with the it's milk with the Q. I mean, yeah, it's m I l Q. You eat bland. Bland would be the milk toast sounds gross to me because I don't need them matched or put together. Milk and toast food soggy bread with a milk smelt. I mean that sounds good to me, like kind of somehow you make

the toast, well, that's how you make it. Add a little egg and that's does a great But it doesn't sound what it sounds cold, not warm. You don't like food I don't want, but I don't eat it up. I don't need a cold piece of bread dipped in the milk. And I that crazy to know you prefer that you have to have egg too, and then you put it a little hard, pass a little syrup. Let's why never. Uh. And I'm not going to be nearly as passionate about this one because I wanted vary able.

I'll take Matt Lafloor just because I don't want Mike Zimmer or Bill O'Brien. And I know Zimmer had one of his best games of his Vikings career last week, great game plan, um. I just not wild about the way he coaches situationally. I don't like that his defense often doesn't show up in big games. I'm taking Matt la Floor, who has exceeded expectations, even though Greg won't give him any credit for going thirteen and three in

Green Book. I would be if, frankly, if I'm Matt Lafleur and uh the the hypothetical fans that are rooting for whatever organization West is putting together, I'd be a little concerned that you almost none of that was about Matt Laflour. It was all about Mike. It was all about Mike Zimmer. That upfront I wanted. If that's the best thing you got, that's you know, I just don't want Zimmer and O'Brien. That's what I feel strongly about.

You guys. Take those two. I think Batt la Fleur has done a good job, and I think they they've been pretty good in game management compared to uh, certainly, I will say the thirteen threes great. No one is sold on the Packers. If they get bounced out of the Division round, it's not gonna looking so hot from Alan fur it will be like, oh, the nice regular season, but it wasn't really their offense. By the way, this is a crazy said the Seahawks. We're gonna lose earlier. Well,

it's gonna be a close game. You're saying if this happened to six, I disagree with that. You're teen in three is successful. Let me just say this, it is wild. And maybe I'd say save this point for Thursdays. No, say it now. It is pretty wild that you have a new offensive minded guru as your head coach. You have Aaron Rodgers healthy for sixteen games, and they were never higher than seventeenth in total offense this year. They finished the eighteen. They never got hot and moved into

the top ten. They were always a middle of the pack or a little bit of worse offense. That's pretty wild. With Rogers healthy for sixteen games, they couldn't get things going, get get the version of Aaron Rodgers that he was expecting. Don't know, I think I think I think they've done a pretty good job with what they with what they've had.

But it is pretty remarkable. Their points scored were the exact same uh in two thousand and eighteen and nineteen, and almost all their offensive stature almost assassinated almost the exact same in Green Bay on the way out the do if they had ways to win, they had to put a roof over his car driving out of that facility. About Aaron Jones. Once Aaron Rodgers was up in the book depository scoring points with Jimmy Graham as you're tited,

all right, Greg, I think Mike Zimmers underrated. I'm glad to get him here down this Steve selling himself on this one in the draft. What are you talking about? Fifty seven and thirty eight in six years, one losing season and that was seven and nine. I mean, they are tough to game plan four. I think they do adapt pretty well. If you if you want to give people credit for hiring coaches, well, how about Gary Stefans

getting Gary Kobe. I think ken in the Stefanski and Gary Kubia that's a nice little uh, that's a nice little offensive combination that you've that you've put together Stefanski and Kubiak, and you have a defense that's very good. It's not great, but it's very good. And I think, especially all the veterans that are on the team, I think they're able to switch what they do on a week to week basis, which should be a good recipe in the playoffs. Now, they haven't been in the playoffs

that often. What easy? Now two and two in the playoffs, I'm trying to think they're in almost every year, aren't they. Yeah? Three, they lost that one of the Seahawks, and then they made they won one game and lost the NFC champion. Now they've won this one. So he's two and two in the playoffs. But in theory, I think that's the type of team that you want in the playoffs and a type of coach that can change what you do each week because you got a veteran defense. I like

Mike Parcels raves about him. I mean, he's I think that what stands out to me. Why wouldn't jumped on him earlier? It's just I don't know, I mean, is something about Mike zimmer scream like versatility? I hear you, But he fired hired the right people to do it. But also I thought last year's team was hurt a little bit by Zimmer. Not well, you annoy the Vikings are playing. I mean, how do you feel about quarter

last week? Kirk Kirk Cousins had one bad throw last uh Sunday and Mark immediately was like, get this team out of our all right, but you know what, say it all chance. I I also think I simply underestimated them and was wrong, and by the end of that game they they still do a different type of confidence in me. Who cares what I think about the VIC They don't six hundred winning percentage for over a six year period. He's very solid. That's pretty solid. That's pretty soft.

I'm so thrilled to have Bill O'Brien joining my fold at the eighth pick. It's a perfect way. Him and Andy Reid two minds, great minds. And I just have to say everyone hates Bill O'Brien in this room. I definitely not. I would get him over a few guys and it's not sure it's to me how year after year nobody in this room ever, ever, ever misses the opportunity to come after Bill O'Brien as being incompetent or bad or overmatched or out coached or out g M,

and yet he's always there at the end. Five years, four playoff appearances, he's out up to two wins, and he's in the divisional round this year. He's proven himself against a lot of doubts to be a pretty solid talent evaluator, wearing the two hats as a GM and as a head coach. Uh And I just mean back to back division titles. These things are not This is not a bell Check resume, but he is the most

successful Bellichick disciple. Uh And as unlikable as he maybe as he might not like his butt chen, he might be anti heiny chin with a dimple he's got going on there. I even like that. I just think Bill O'Brien is the guy. It's a punching bag. And while you punch him continues to succeed. It's not every single year, I'm defending this guy in August and then you get to January and his team is in the playoffs. Yeah, that has something there. You have built in an exquisite

straw man. He he won Nothing's going up straight nine win seasons with nothing at quarterback, and you know you're pairing with the Shawn Watson and there right here they are alive, they're dangerous. I think that Bill O'Brien was helped by taking over the front office and doing it his way. I think that the one knock on him went to see there seemed to be constant organizational uh, intrigue and madness going on behind the scenes. That wasn't

the case this year. So I don't everyone fired. And let me just say, but that's the village that's Belichick wants to run his own front is the flip side to this, And speaking of the Power Ranking show, Matt money Smith made a very good point that I will not deny that this team has laid some eggs in the playoffs, and they were laying a big, stinky one on Saturday before. It seemed to Shaun Watson was like, that's it, I'm done with this. I've taken this game over.

He started running the ball a lot more. Uh and you kind of echoes of Mike McCarthy late period Aaron Rodgers relationship. I am not saying that Bill O'Brien is the greatest coach ever, but for him to be a no brainer Number eight on this I would have taken him over. Let me ask you this, where would you rank Bill O'Brien on this all the back? I would put him like if if he went six or something that that would make sense to me. But you know, I don't think he's the next Belichick. I just think

he's not terrible. And that's how he's so often perceived. He's been. He's been adaptable, That's all I'm saying. What was his big playoff win? That one or the one against Connor Cook? What about Mike Rabel you're betting on potential? I guess he was. What's mean he had he had his first win the playoffs and do what Bill O'Brien has done how many times against the Chiefs the first forty minutes of that game last year's playoff game, which

was I think a third. He was very close to becoming a the a f C version of Marvin Lewis. But to that point, that's like a better than average head coach save more rotten eggs than like a colera riddled easter bunny. Give me, so, we were right, I don't know we were wrong about what happened when he became GM. I just didn't like the way he went about it, to go do that and then to set the whole franchise up to basically save Bill O'Brien. I'm not even really ready to say we were wrong about that.

If if they're losing, if they're well, I think he's been a good coach. But I don't think the fact that like those I don't think those trades are proof that that was like a great move. If you're losing in the first round of the playoffs, are barely escaping the Bills in the first round, then you lose in the second round, and you're giving up all these draft assets. By the way, lay Mutinsil was one of the worst

players on the field on Saturday. You know, he had a great he had a good season, but he killed them on on Saturday. It's like penitent But the idea has to win the super Bowl and to really contend for a super Bowl. Good draft guys, good stuff. Everybody's happy withal If we were talking about you have to take two teams into the season, I couldn't be. I just don't know Pete Carroll though, at four, I don't know Mark five. What are the stakes for these guys?

Though virtually like everything else, and we we say on this show virtually nothing. What are stakes? There are zeros. We get to say whatever you want. It doesn't matter if we're right or wrong. No one's gonna remember. Well, this is also really hard. I guess I feel like that the coaches you guys picked, or who you have to stick with for the playoff run. Now my two are on Seahawks corner. I mean I did the right the loyal r facing off against each other, so I

went and lose that strategy Saturday. All right, that's it. The next time you hear from us, Yes, once again, help out our friends in Australia. I had the numbers wrong. It wasn't five hundred thousand animals dead, five hundred million animals and that total is old. This is a disastrophee. This is a catastrophe. It's a disaster. Rural Fire Service, Wires, Animal Rescue, Australian Red Cross, if you would like to donate, those are all places you can donate and they will

send that to a good cause. I don't know if it's a internet thing uh and not real, but I believe it could be real. The if you show the photo from space above Australia. It's just red and brown and orange and that is not a good thing. So yes, um, if you can help out, please do it. And to our listeners from that area of the world, I hope you're okay, stay safe, all right. We will be back

Thursday with our preview of the divisional playoffs. Yes, what what better weekend is there on the NFL calendar than eight of the best teams in the league fighting it out hoping to get to the final four of the bracket for the Super Bowl. I don't think there's a preseason. Week three is kind of tight for a lot of a lot to observe a lot of jobs. In week four, the preseason two on the line, it's all right, so it's the third best week here. Like that week right

after the super Bowl, that's a week for you. Ali bon Puri are digital features editors and make sure you get a thirty two team power rankings out two days after the super Bowl. Said, yeah, that's gonna do well. No, I think that's a good that's a sent That day after the super Bowl goes crazy. I remember what I said, that's like the most popular day of the year is

the day after the Super bowl. Once you hire that out to someone some one of those women who mark made up like Sally Lee Yates or something, I will look for. These are actual, uh workhorses. Do you have that sound effect? By the way, Erica there it is? That was a little erotic, you're Pete Carrol or no. It was the kind of cal Shanahan under your breath I recall now like it's yes, thank you, let's go. Passion. That's what it was. That was the passion from within.

It's like right after the passion and signing off from wide Storm, but mail me on the old boss and Rick Hollywood behind the glass un till Thursday. Ha