The Season with Peter Schrager: Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles, Justin Jefferson Appreciation, and Peter’s Germany Adventure

Should I get right into it? Yeah? Yeah, I want to hear about it. So if you're wondering why I wasn't in Germany and I was recording last week's podcast with Jeff Perlman, uh from a Brooklyn apartment. I wasn't sure I could talk about it last week because I wasn't I was actually gonna get to Germany. I'll just empty the bag right now and let everybody know. Uh. I'm supposed to leave last Friday, got to the airport, had my bags packed, had my passport. My passport expires January.

I'm good. I went to London a month ago. I had a great week. No one said much like just yeah, good luck. Here it's your ticket, go whatever. Get to the Luftanza Airline ticket gate thing at Newark and the woman, with very very little room for negotiation or desire to have a conversation, um, is like, you cannot fly. I'm like, what do you mean I can't fly? Here's my ticket? Um, really important. I talked about football for a living. I must go to Germany. It's a must, it's my right.

She says, Uh, No, your passport expires in less than three months. Doing the math, it was like November four, my passport expired January eleven, and yeah, in less than three months, my past I didn't know this rule. Um, I don't know if anyone else knew this rule, but in certain countries Germany included, you need uh to have

three months or more left on your passport. So I'm sitting with Jamie Ertole, who's my lovely co host uncle Morning Football, and like it was almost like a scene out of a movie like Home Alone or something like she had to go to the gate and get on that plane. And I literally called an uber X from Newark Airport and it was like the saddest drive back to Brooklyn just of like, you know, you had a bad day, and it's just like I'm crying in the back seat as everyone else gets to go to Germany

and I'm going home to Brooklyn. I compared it to when I was in I guess my freshman year of high school. I didn't play football, but all the guys on the football team got invited to a to a party. And at this party, it was from uh the girls from the the neighboring school, but it was just the football guys and I was friends alw these guys in eighth grade. I didn't play football, and they all went and it was like the first week at school and it was all these new girls that I didn't know,

and they played like spin the bottle and um. All these guys had stories for for months about this amazing party that they were invited to. This is what that felt like. Like. I was getting texts from from Kyle Brand and Jason mccordy and Jamie Ard all there, like we're at this amazing beer hall. We're at Oh, it's the funniest thing. Like we're being treated like royalty because we're football and we're at this amazing Uh, soccer game. We're at the Byron Munich match. Man, we miss you.

And yet those techs started coming in less and less as like the longer it became, and I was like total fomo. Right. So Monday morning, UM, I was told that you couldn't get an expedited passport if you go to this passport office in Lower Manhattan on like Barick Street and you get an appointment. We get an appointment, go in there. I tell him the whole story. They don't give up about like you know, UM, NFL or don't you know that Geno Smith is going to Munich?

Someone needs to talk about it for five days on a lightly viewed cable channel, you know, someone needs to be there, especially election week, like we need to watch it lightly view That was kind of not necessary. Well, we'll just say very highly viewed cable network, NFL network. We love what we do, UM, but it's a very niche audience. The the audience that's tuning in on a Tuesday to see me breakdown Kenneth Walker's running style. UM on election Tuesday in the middle of the first week

in November. So I wait there five hours. It's like you're literally at like the Delhi. Uh, and you take the ticket, you know, and it's like thirty one and it's you know, you've got like sixty seven. Um, but get my passport. The amazing Wendy Moyer, I'm gonna shout her out. She works for the NFL network. She is like on the phone with me throughout out this. We book a flight, I get on the plane. Until I get on the plane, I'm like, there's no way I'm

actually getting there. This thing isn't happening. Um, get on the plane, get there and literally land and run from the airport to the set. And I was on Wednesday morning, um, and somewhere in between there. I don't even remember doing it. We did a podcast last week, Aaron, I'm not I'm not assaulting you. I have no recollection of the Jeff Promon podcast. I'm sure it was great. I know he was doing it from a car. It was raining. I was checking my phone the entire time, like, am I

Am I really getting this passport? Am I really going on the flight? Got there? It was fantastic and an amazing experience. And uh, I'm here today and you made it back successfully too, Which is I mean with all the trouble you went through getting there. It's good that you got back. I did um four downs. You want to do it, let's go, let's go experience bro Um first down. Besides the travel, was Germany a success, US huge, huge success. Good Morning Football first of all was a

really big success. We set the stage for the weekend that was to come. And I was there Wednesday and it was awesome, and then Thursday was cool, and then Friday it was like the comparison I made was I guess it was like Bourbon Street, not Marti Grab. But when there's like a big college bowl game or when the Super Bowl was there, and it was like just a celebration of sports. I could not walk through the streets of Munich without sing a Seahawks fans sing a

Buccaneers fan. And at first glance it's like, oh, they all flew in. Okay, I get it. Then you talk to the people. They're German, they are German fans and they love football. I was very, very ignorant to all of this going in. I didn't know the history of Germany and football, but the NFL Europe really did have a strong, strong footprint in Germany, so fans really fell in love with the game, and then they stopped NFL Europe. Some of those teams play in semipro leagues. The NFL

still has some sort of connection to that. But this was the first ever game in Germany and the amount of German fans who know the game loved the game. They were live at our show on like Thursday and Friday in the town square, which was incredible. But then you saw the footage on Sunday. I have friends, um who were there, obviously from the NFL network. I've got another buddy, my buddy, Mike Carella lives in Amsterdam full time with his family and he does that for a

corporate job. And he came and met me in Munich and then he went to the game on Sunday and he's taking photos of this and it's like this felt like the Super Bowl. And it wasn't gimmicky, it wasn't kitch, it wasn't this like you know, Wacky's anything. It was a legitimate game between two division leaders, and the fans knew what was going down, and it was a celebration of football. And I mean this and that Brady did a lot of postgame sound and was calling it epic

and everything. Brady went on his podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald on Monday night and it was like he was like it was awesome and it was really important for me. And I think and this is like bringing it back to the football stuff, Like I think Brady needed this, Like it's been a rough couple of months, obviously with the divorce, but also the team being terrible

and not like reaching expectations. I think the last thing you would have told Tom Brady that he needed was to go on a on a forty eight hour trip to Germany. But like he seems like he's at ease, he's at peace, he was energized, and the fans love him so much over there that it was such a

cool experience to see. I don't know if you watched the game, errand, but with about two minutes left, you know, the game is on the broadcast on and Eisen and the boys are doing the and it's in the background you here country Roads Take me, and You're like what, And there's a huge chant of John Denver's Country Roads. And I don't think they know what West for Gin. It is, like, I don't know if they know it. And the West Virginia Mountain Mama, and I'm like what,

and then it's Sweet Caroline. And then the game ends, and uh my buddy who works for the Bucks text me a video and he's like, check this out. Thirty minutes after the game, the Bucks team comes back onto the field and seventies six thousand fans are still there doing a karaoke sing along to like American Like American Pie by Don McLean. Um. I don't know. I'm pretty pessimistic a lot of times. I live in a negative

like mindscape a lot. And then especially with the way things are going in America, it's easy to get down. And you know, now there's a recession, there's inflation, the crypto markets have blown up, all this stuff and all anyone tells you that the world is terrible and all that, you see a bunch of seventy six thousand people in arm and arms singing country roads in Germany, You're like, all right, that was kind of cool, Like that was

a fun moment. And I think for Brady it was like a brief reef rest bite of like a moment where it was like, all right, I love football, this is awesome. I got to experience this, and I think for Goodell in the league, speaking to people there, they were overwhelmed. I don't think anyone that's exceeded expectations beyond anyone's wildest dreams. And we had Commissioner Goodell on Good Morning Football on Friday and he threw it out there. He's like, I think we're gonna have multiple games here,

um over the next few years. I don't think it's just gonna be Munich. I think we're talking Frankfurt. I think eventually Berlin. I think eventually, you know, Cologne. I don't. I'm not. I'm not well versed in the history of German football. But what was a cool deal American football

in Germany. A cool deal was talking to a native German UM, this guy Alex, who worked at our hotel that we were staying at, and he said, what's what's interesting is, you know, obviously there's the NFL Europe and there was the World League and all this stuff, and there was this great, like little seed of this German uh love for football. Then in like two thousand and ten, there's a TV station called Free TV, which I equate to like ESPN, I guess, and one game a week

they have an NFL game. One on Sunday, they play one game. And he said, for the majority of like the two thousand and two thousand twenties, for whatever reason, a lot of that was Seahawks. So the Seahawks have a huge fan base there, but a lot of them are also Chiefs and of course Patriots. And he said, the biggest fan bases are Seahawks, Chiefs and Patriots, and they are real fans. They go to sports pubs, they go to like Irish bars in Germany, and they go

and watch the games. Um. I can't speak enough about the experience. From a personal standpoint, I thought it was really eye opening and really cool. But I think from a league standpoint, and maybe later on in the season, we'll bring on Peter O'Reilly who runs all the events for the league, or um, you know, Henry Hodgson does some of the international stuff, and I would like to get their perspective. But gosh, just from these these two eyes, it was it was spectacular alright. Second down from the

German fan base is celebrating their teams. To me, lamenting my team, Are you as concerned as I am with the bills? After these two losses. Well, I know you too. For the listeners, Aaron comes from a family of Bills fans. Let me first, you know, swing it around to you. Two losses to the Jets and Vikings, both in weird fashion. Are you concerned with your Bills? I mean, yeah, a little. I think I just said to you before we started recording.

It's it's tough being involved in the quote unquote game of the year two years in a row and losing both of them. Uh, it was a great fight, and you know, Josh Allen did really well except for these red zone interceptions. It's not my favorite stats to lead, but um, yeah it was. It was rough and suddenly the Bills are in the wild card race now I

mean wild correct to the six seed. This went from me saying like no one and I went on Bill Simmons's podcast, I'm like to literally before the Jets game, I don't think the Bills are gonna lose in the game this season. I don't. They got through Kansas City like they'll roll over the Jets, they'll beat the Vikings. Then after they lost to the Jets, I was like, all right, but they won't lose a home game all season and they already have the tiebreaker over the Chief,

so they'll be fine. And they lose to the Vikings and what was just epic fashion. Now what worries me is that Allen continues to make these strange decisions in these plays, like which I'm I'm baffled by because I thought we got over that. And then their defensive backfield it's just riddled with injuries. So no Trey White still, I don't know where he is. I don't know if he's coming back. Jordan Poyer is like the captain of that defense. He wasn't out there. Michael Hides not coming back.

Elm the rookie who's been playing well, he wasn't there. See have Dane Jackson, and you've got this Christian Benford, who's a lovely young man. He's a sixth round pick out of Villanova, but like that's a big spot and Justin Jefferson just eight and Kirk Cousins picked him apart. And if this thing is going through Buffalo, I still like the Bills out of the a f C. But right now it's not. And my reason for concern is it's a really hard thing to go on the road

in the playoffs. And it's a really hard thing to win an Arrowhead and they've done it now twice in the regular season. But like, I have no confidence that this Bill's team is going to go on one of these stretches where it's like, say that to play in Miami and then they got to go, you know, to Baltimore whatever it is, and then you know, I call it the Arrowhead Invitational, you know that an f C championship game in Kansas City. Like, I'm not sure that's

a that's a no brander anymore, a catastrophic loss. And that fumble, it's like Bills fans have been through so many heartbreaking losses that fumble. I don't think it's up there with Scott Norwood. And I don't think it's up there with last year's to the Chiefs. I don't. I don't think it's up there with that stuff. But like that's it's just enough of a wacky doesn't happen type thing that you're like, we are just doomed, like we are just cursed and we are not allowed to have

nice things like that. That play is you run that a thousand times, that happens one time, and it happened and it didn't just happened. They scored a touchdown, so that you have to come all the way back and get the field goal. Um, I'm not concerned about Alan, He'll figure it out. I think they're a playoff team for sure. Obviously. I am concerned that this puts them in a position where they have to dig out of a hole. And I don't want to see the Bills in Kansas City. If I'm a Bills fan, I'd rather

be home for that playoff game. Ye. Same, alright, third down, we're a week remove now. He talks about Jeff Saturday last week. Now, what's your take after they win against the Raiders? Something? Right? So I had a take that I thought was like hot fire on this podcast thing. I didn't like the higher because of multiple reasons. I didn't realize that I was just like dipping my toe in the shallow and compared to some of the takes

that were coming out. We had Joe Thomas on uh Good Morning Football in Germany on Friday and literally on Thursday night, Joe is wearing ederhosen, drinking beers, all smiles, like having the greatest time at the Huffbra House, which is one of the great beer halls there and we're han't. He's like the almost happiest, go lucky, like loving fun guy I've ever like hung with. And he's talking about how he owns a farm and he's never been so

content and his family was in Paris. And then this topic comes up on Good Morning Football and Joe's entire tone changes and his take was this, when you hire your drinking buddy to be the head coach of an NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful things I've ever seen in my entire life to the commitment, the lifestyle, and the experience that it takes to be an NFL coach, any coach, much less the head coach

of the Indianapolis Football Colts. You have got to be kidding me that this is something that Jim Orsay and Jeff Saturday, who's not blameless for accepting the job, could have talked and decided that this was the best thing for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season. I was happily eating some fine French food and drinking French wine because I was in France with my kids earlier in the week. But when I saw this, I thought it was a joke. I thought maybe I had

a little Google translating. I all of a sudden, I'm in the wrong calendar and it's April first or something going on. It was the most egregious thing I can ever remember happening in the NFL. And I went one in thirty one. Sure enough, Sunday morning, I'm on my couch, excited for some football, and the you know, the Brady thing just ends in Munich. I flipped forward to CBS and there's Bill Kauer and he's on the CBS show and he comes out and he called it a disgrace,

a disgrace. What about the assistance on this staff right now, the guys that were there in training camp, the guys that were there early in the morning and late at night, the guys have gone through the first six weeks in that building, Guys like Gus Bradley, Scotty Montgomery, John Fox. Don't they deserve the opportunity for an owner to hire a coach who's never been an assistant at the college level or the pro level and overseeing a very much

a lot of candidates. They are qualified for that job, as we see in Steve Wilkes, an opportunity to build a resume. It's a disgrace to the coaching profession in regardless of how this thing plays on. What happened Indianapolis is a travesty. That clip was courtesy of CBS Sports.

In the NFL today, I mean, people were really really upset about the Saturday thing, and then there comes this moment where all right now he has to go coach a game, and sure enough, because this is how this thing works, like they go and they win, and then there's everyone looking for receipts afterwards that it's saying, you know, eat it, Joe Thomas and eat it Bill Kawer. And

my whole thing is this that team. It was awesome watching that Colts team rally around Jeff Saturday and his postgame comments were eight and Ursa was so fired up. But that team is a good football team. If that's what it takes, then shame on me, egg on my face that I was wrong and saying that I would have rather seen another guy get the opportunity then than

Jeff Saturday. If that's what it takes too to have someone have you know, the stones to say what we're doing, starting Sam Ellinger when we've got Matt Ryan under contract, and he's a former MVP and he still wants to play like Matt Ryan's our quarterback. That's what it takes to see Quentin Nelson, uh, you know, block his ass off and look like the twenty million dollar offensive guard that he is. Then great, you know, bring in Jeff Saturday.

If that's what it takes to see Stefan Gilmour play like the number one corner that we know he is and has been awesome, I stand corrected if I said that, You know, I would have liked to have seen one of the younger guys, and I wasn't one who is like, give John Fox the job. I don't think that would have done anything. I was talking about guys like Bubba Cotrone or Kato June or Scott Montgomery or you know.

But then again, there's this guy, Parks Fraser, who's a thirty year old, you know, offensive coach no one knows much about him. Goes in there, Colin plays and he's dialing it up and it's like, here's Parks Fraser's moment as the play caller. And I don't know if he gets that opportunity of Frank Reich and Uh, Marcus Brady are there, and I don't know if he gets an opportunity if you just hired Gus Bradley or John Fox

is the interm. My big takeaway is long term. I'm not sure how this whole thing plays out, but hey, I picked the Coast to win the an FC South before the season. That team that I saw and Jonathan Taylor actually running the football, Yeah, that's the team I thought we were gonna get this season. So if it takes Jeff Saturday to get that team on my TV screen, Jeff Saturday, welcome. Alright, fourth down? Who do you want to shout out this week? Can I give a shout

out to Colton McCoy. Um, This is part personal, part objective. Quote. McCoy is one of my favorite people in the NFL. I've gotten to know cult McCoy very well over the years. Culte McCoy has been a starting quarterback in this league, but he's also been a backup quarterback to Kirk Cousins, to Robert Griffin, the Third Uh, to Daniel Joe, to Kyler Murray, to you name it. He has been around a lot of young quarterbacks and they all love him.

Kyler Murray grew up in Texas when the University of Texas football was everything, and Kyler Murray grew up loving Culte McCoy. So sure enough they bring him in and he is now his backup and it's like Murray's not alone. Murray is is one of many young players in this league who look at cult McCoy as that dude, because he have his college career, of course, but also because he's one of the best people to have in a

locker room. Cliff Kingsbury rolls out Colt McCoy and like, I would have bet, like my life that they were winning that game, just knowing how the teammates respond to Colt, and to see a J. Green make plays, to see Rondel Moore with the one handed catch, and to see Colt under centertor's doing his thing, like Culte McCoy wins games. And here's the crazy thing. Quote McCoy is now three and one as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals. The rest of the team loves him, They rally around him.

There's suddenly a we're in sixth team. They've got a Monday night game in Mexico City coming up, and like if I'm Cliff. I don't know, like, do I rush Kyler back from my amstring injury or do I say, let's see how this thing goes. Let's roll the dice. Now. When I say it's a I've got a bias towards Cole, it's because I've really really enjoyed his company. I've got to know him really well over the years as a reporter. He's always wonderful to us in the media. He's always

very gracious with his time. This past summer, I attended Sean mcveigh's wedding out in l A name drop. They would only PLoP that one right in here at our table, my wife Eric and I, we're sitting next to Colt McCoy and his wife, and we're sitting next to Kingsbury, and it's Brandon Staley and his wife, and Kevin O'Connell and his wife, and this gentleman, Chaz Gasner. Everyone google Chaz Gasner, that dudes, the man. Chazz Gasner played for Belichick in the Patriots and then was coached by Sean

McVeigh when Sean McVeigh was the h head. It was one of the offensive coaches for the Florida Tuskers in the UFL. Yep, we're going back that way. Anyway, We've got this great table of great time. Coult McCoy and my wife hit it off in a way that at the end of it, I'm like, all right, chill out with talking to Colt. I'm here, I'm your date, all right. Uh. Just an awesome, awesome guy, his wife awesome. Another thing that Aaron, you'll like about Colt, which I always appreciate.

Coulte McCoy, Uh, play for the Giants for one year, won a huge game for them in Seattle, and people love it. Coulte McCoy chose to live with his I want to say, four kids and his wife in Manhattan when he played for the New York Giants during COVID, and I was like, why would you live in Manhattan. You've got to drive an hour out and two hours back from the facility. Why would you live in Manhattan? And Coulte McCoy's whole thing was like, well, I knew I wasn't living here the rest of my life. I

knew so once in a lifetime experience. I wanted my daughters to experience living in New York City. So every day they would go to the Central Park and they can go in the rest of their life and say, like I had to, I had that experience. Life's all about the experiences. And uh, that's four minutes on Coulte McCoy. But gosh, if you can't tell what a fan I am of that guy and how happy I am for him.

And again, this is on Tuesday, and recording this, everyone is assuming Kyler is back on Monday and performance are not. Don't be shocked if I see McCoy under center in Mexico City next Monday night. Now you're shoutout fourth down, Aaron, take us home. Wow, I I love that called McCoy story.

You were right like them wanting to live in Manhattan. Um. So, my fourth down is Christian Watson, who his parents are in the news to his mom coming out, she talks so much about him, she defends him on social media all the time. And Christian Watson the rookie receiver for Green Bay. First game, he has this big drop Rogers throws in the ball. He doesn't get it. It's he's wide open that that could be such a setback, and instead this week he took over the game for them.

UM four receptions on eight targets, but he had a hundred seven yards and he had three touchdowns, including a thirty nine yard and a fifty eight yarder. And in the fourth the Packers were down in the midst of a five game losing streak. Watson was like the X factor that helped force overtime and then they eventually win

the game. Um, we had to talk about Tom Brady like feeling rejuvenated, kind of felt like Aaron Rodgers, Like you see Rogers flexing, Rogers flexing, he like found his new ride receiver maybe here, and and you know, earlier in the year Romeo Dobbs. Dubbs was like the big rookie for them. But Watson is a pretty incredible athlete.

Let me tell you something about that game, because he dropped two balls early that he has the big touchdown and then Rogers goes back to him again and he drops it, and Greg Olsen's on the call and he's like, yeah, he wasn't looking in the right direction, and it's like, alright, dude, he had one. Yeah, Rogers has lost faith. And then Rodgers goes to him twice in the clutch and he makes the plays and he was so fired up. You're right. We had him on Good Morning Football last year before

the draft. He's a tall drink of water. This dude is like six five, skinny, play with Trey Lanson College. So a lot of questions were, like, you know, we thought Watson would go third, fourth round, he goes early, second, and it wasn't going well the first few weeks. To your point, and to see the emotion, to see it like if Rogers finally trusts one of these young guys, that might be all it takes for that offense to change and gosh, what a win for them. Um, great

fourth down? Are we ready for our guest? I think we are. Yeah, who do we have today? I am so excited for this. He is the thirty seven year old first year general manager of one of the most historic franchises in all of football, the Chicago Bears. I'm

so fired up to bring on their GM, Mr Ryan Poles. Now, he's a thirty seven year old first year general manager in the NFL and he's having an outstanding first campaign over there in Chicago as the general manager of one of the most historic and legendary franchises in our fine league. It's the Chicago Bears general manager and a man that I've been wanting to get on the podcast since we started this thing, Mr Ryan Poles. Ryan, what's up man?

What's going on? How you doing? I'm doing great. As we're doing this, you are currently in your office at like Hollis Hall. Uh, we're now eleven weeks into the season. Does it Does it ever sink in that? Oh? My, I am the general manager of the Bears. Yeah, it's it's it's awesome. It's a dream come true with just working for a franchise like this with you know, a

lot of history. It means a lot. It's all over the walls, it's in the entrance like we talked about back in the combine, So you're reminded often and uh, you know you feel the way to that too, which is which is good. I love it. I love the challenge. Yeah, and I love the fact that you're in there and it's it's a Tuesday and you're like, Okay, here's what

we got now, but we're building. We're building. When you walked into those interviews, what was your selling point to saying, Hey, i might be in my thirties, but I've been around some really good builders. And I've got some really forward thinking ideas I want to bring to this franchise. What did you tell the McCaskey family, and really what was your selling point saying, hey, take a shot on me. Yeah, listen,

I've been fortunate, right, I've been. I've worked from some really good general managers and coaches, and I think the key part was I've been through this journey from the ground floor all the way to the top, um and those challenges along the way, and each organization is gonna be a little bit different. You can get different wrinkles, um, but you've learned to adapt and adjust. You've learned what really good football players look like and how they can

help your team. You've learned, you know, different schemes and making sure that their scheme fits. You've had some really good cultures. You know, some really good locker rooms, so you know what kind of guys you need to add to that room to be a championship level team. So you know, I was up for the challenge, and I think they knew that because I've been through it in my past and I've been able to learn a lot so I can apply this, you know, to this job

and get this organization backward belongs. Well, let's go through the resume. I think everyone loves like, Okay, so how do I become an NFL general manager? It doesn't happen overnight. Um, let's go back to Boston College where who was your quarterback when you played offensive line for the for the Boston College. Yeah, Mattie Eyce, Matt Ryan. You were Matt

Ryan's offensive lineman in college you play. Did did you have dreams of being a player or was it always hey, I'm either go into coaching or being in the front office back then? Yeah, No, it was it was definitely being a player. That was the first and foremost. Um had a pretty good career, you know. Unfortunately, I think it was like late October my senior year, fifth year, senior year, we go to Notre Dame and I ruptured

my achilles. So at that moment when I found out, it's like, yeah, you know, this is gonna be a tough journey. So, you know, I think it's it's just how I've been ray is that I rehab that worked my butt off to get back, which brought me to Hollis Hall, you know, to have an opportunity to be an undrafted free agent trying to make the team. Unfortunately, you know that didn't work out. Wasn't talented enough, really wasn't in the right shape. You're just coming off that injury.

But there's cut of years this since j Cutler years, like who was like, what was the team? Then? Yeah it was Jay and they were like rotating with Rex too, Okay, yeah, Devin Hester just seeing him run around with old and crowds, just how he held down the old line room and Lance Briggs and and Ur Lockers. So there's some special special guys on this team. So you don't make the team and then what Yeah, So I was trying to get my mind right. I had a buddy from BC

who was like, I know where you're at mentally. You want to go to Alaska with me? So we jump on a plane and go to Alaska. Really oh yeah, Anchorage, but listen to this. We go to Anchorage, then we go to Kodiak Island. Then we take a boat to another island and we helped one of his dad's friends shut down this camp fishing camp before the winter comes. So really cool time. Something like if you get a chance to do something like that, I've never heard just

piece and quiet like that in my entire life. So we fished. It was good just to get some how. I was about ten days, ten days of just serenity, no football, no life like, no career. Just I mean, first of all, I live in New York City. There's no chance we're going to Anchor to Alaska unless my career goes sideways and there's there's some job at local news.

But I would say that you get there and like you had that piece of mind moment, you had, that moment is in yeah, yeah, great moment collecting myself for you know that next phase, um, and this was I get back. I'm living with my wife Oupen at the time of my girlfriend in Vermont. I get a call from Boston College is, hey, do you want to come and be a graduate assistant? And really that was the first step that that set me up because you go from playing ball and going to school. You've never had

that in office field before. So I don't I'm stabling papers all messed up and like just so tighten that up. Just the administrative thing, like how do you work in the office with others? How do you you know, work in the computers and things that you just don't get a chance to when you're playing. So UM, I was able to meet some really cool scouts that came through

Scott Prioli, John Dorsey. Uh, and that kicked off the idea I want to get into scouting, so semi resume out, had a bunch of interviews, and that brings me to Kansas City, which was what thirteen fourteen years ago, and that kind of started my journey in the scouting Yeah.

And well fast forward through those Kansas City years. So many great NFL executives you mentioned p Reli of course, but Dorsey and then you get to work you know, alongside and and under Brett Veach and that front office is often looked at as like the gold standard of teaching you from the ground up and giving you other opportunities. What were those opportunities within that chief's organization over the

course of fourteen years, different hats that you wore. Yeah, and if my career was just you know, open puzzle that still needed pieces dropped in, those three guys really um gave me some really big parts to to build who I am. And Scott with just the detail how to run the office, how to lead UM with Dorsey just an unbelievable. Like talent evaluator, how do you evaluate talent?

How do you run meetings? We run meetings just like we did there, which goes all the way back to Round Wolf, which I put probably should say too loud around here with the Green Bay connection, but um, it's it's a really good way to scout when you build a draft board as well as free agency and then reach like you know, each it's just his brains always going.

It's it's who doesn't stop. No, it's four steps down the road because you have to be on your toes and anticipate because whatever you think is gonna happen, it's gonna change and you've got to be able to adapt and adjust and kind of have those next plans put to put in place. So really just to have those three kind of build me up and build that foundation. Who was a big, big part of me being here today.

You know, we had Joe Shane on a couple of weeks ago and I said, when you were scouting Josh Allen, what did you see? And he told a great story. They played Nebraska and Allen threw four interceptions and Joe gave him an a plus grade because he's like I just said that, I've never seen in somewhere with a cannon like that. So you're in Kansas City, it's sixteen, it's seventeen, you get this thing that, Hey there's this kid from Texas Tech. Um, what was your initial impressions

of Patrick Mahomes. What were the conversations had there in Kansas City? And how did you guys keep that quiet? Because I don't think anyone in the league knew that you guys were hot on him. Yeah, no, you know, And I give I give each a lot of credit because he was excited about that guy for a long time. UM. But I'll never forget sitting in the room and with Coach Reid and breaking down that tape and all of

the guys that year. And although the stat sheet said one thing with interceptions like Josh Allen, what you saw was a guy out there just slinging it and making it work with what he had. UM. And there was a lot of There was accuracy, there was arms strength, there was ability to add live and just make it

happen when it really wasn't there. UM. So to see that from that moment and see a play out to to who he is today, it's incredible, but that journey was awesome to uh, to go through with those guys. When Mahomes first got there, obviously, Alex Smith was the quarterback and we've talked about it a lot on our show Good Morning Football. So we had Paul Rudd on

earlier season. He was like, Alex Smith deserves so much credit for just being secure enough and who Alex Smith is and to be willing to show Patrick the rope. But that first year, when he only played in that final game against Denver, did you have an idea like, Oh, this dude's gonna take the league by storm next season? Yeah, you had an idea. I mean there was I have clips still on my phone today from like a little kid like at practice, like did he just do that?

And you're like you take a clip of it and like send it to one of the scouts on the road, like, Bro, this dude's a real deal. Um. So yeah, you you had a sense of it. But are exactly right what Alex brought to him? You know? I was thought they were kind of opposites, Like what Pat didn't have in his game, Alex was really good at and he had to show him how to manage the game, when they

take chances. When not to take chances, Um, when it's okay to check it down, you know, and play the safer route so you can just continue to move the chains and protect the ball. So um. And then obviously being a pro, that's one thing. You know, we have a really young team here and you're learning to be a pros hard. You gotta take care of your body, you gotta take care of your mind. You have to

eliminate distractions. Um, you gotta be a master of your craft, you know, at this level if you want to be good. So Um, Alex was definitely able to show Pat that, which was really cool. It's cool. And then you get an interview with Carolina last offseason. You prepared for that, you don't get that job. Walking out of that situation, did you feel like, Okay, the next interview, the next opportunity, I'm gonna crush this night. Yeah. Yeah, clearly a confidence builder.

You walk into a situation that you don't You're unaware of what it's gonna look like. Um, there's a little you know, question like am I ready for this? Like am I really ready for this? And you go through the steps, you go online and do your your your Skype or your zoom interview and like, damn right, I can do this. And then in person, Yeah, you go in person and share your philosophy and how you want

to do things and what you believe in. And again you walk out the room like, if I don't get this, the next opportunity, you know, I'm gonna be ready and I'm gonna do a really good job too. So definitely was a great experience. Get my foot in the door for that first interview. Um, gave me a ton of confidence, gave me some directions. I think the big thing is like where are my holes at? Like what do I what was that not comfortable answering? All right? Now? How

do I go fill that? Right? How do I develop myself in some spaces that I'm not good enough right now? And you do that and you fill up on it, and you educate yourself and you meet people that are really good at it, and you just try to build as a person. Then you know, that's something I tell my staff here. I want them to continually develop their weaknesses so as a group will get stronger and stronger.

You know, It's funny because a lot of times there's a young coach and there's almost like a rolling of the eyes. Like I remember when McVeigh was thirty, it was almost like I would get text from thirty one of their coaches being like, who is this hot shot? Looking for him to fail? I'll think it's not the same with you, Like I feel like maybe it's the fifteen years or the ten thousand hours you've put in, but you are universally respected and really well liked by

these other general managers. And one of the things I think that was really respected was you came in with Chicago and you guys had to hire a new head coach. And tell me if I'm wrong here. You didn't have much history with Mattieberflus. You didn't just hire a buddy. You didn't just go the safe route. You guys had a real search and you hired the head coach and you thought was best for the Chicago Bears franchise, not

who's gonna make it most comfortable for you. Correct. I think the other thing too, was I've learned quickly it's you have to do this. You know, you gotta have a criteria. It's for the head coach, if it's for a player or even decision making, and you gotta believe in that and you gotta act on it. You know, a lot of times there the noise from the outside is telling you to do one thing or the other

or what's popular. You gotta do what's right for the football team and what's right and what matches the philosophy that you think is gonna win, because at the end of the day, you know, sometimes decisions look great the day that you make them, but it's really how how does the playout. That's how you're gonna be judged at the end of the day. So um, I love my

interview with Matt. You know, the leadership. I talked about it all the time because I have to the emotional intelligence to be demanding but also love guys up to let them know that you're demanding for a reason. What does that mean? I think that's such an important thing, especially in two in the way that we're mental health plays a bigger role, I think in the conversation. And we know when we grew up, coaches were not as warm and fuzzy as these coaches. But Matt's not a

warm and fuzzy guy. But you also see that the players love playing for him. Maybe the compassion is what is what it's there and just say what does that mean to you? And I think as we move along here, the athletes coming in from college, they think a little bit differently than what we thought. I just when I was coaching you, you did what you were told to do. You didn't ask why, But now you have to give the why. You know, why are we doing what we're doing.

Why are we practicing so hard? Why are we practicing lighter um? Why are we fanatical about, you know, punching the ball out and things like that. Well, we're gonna give statistics about turnovers and how they leave the win wins. So he does a really nice job laying everything out, but what we want to be, what our standards are, and then the why behind it and how it's gonna make us successful not only now but but down the road. So his ability to tie that together is it's outstanding.

It's genuine. I love our team meetings, every team meeting is I wish I could take all of them because he's a special guy in front of the room and it's authentic, it's real, it's not fluffy. You walk out with direction. Everyone has a direction when they leave and they feel good about it. It's funny because your team

is not necessarily the top of the standings. But I think there's a universal, like good vibe around the Bears right now, and that includes a very critical fan base that has been through a lot of different tenures and

a lot of different down years. But like even the loss to Detroit and we could go through all that that that we're coming out of, it's like, yeah, we lost, but gosh, that was there were some moments and I think I would be doing the fans are great disservice if I didn't just ask the leaps and bounds that Justin Fields has taken over the last few weeks. I'd say coming out of the bye week and that New England game was really the kickstart. UM. I know you're

the general manager. You might not want to speak necessarily too much in the weeds, but you gotta admit this has been a sensation the last month of football. Yeah, I think you got a compartmentalize and things like obviously, like if you talk to me if this was yesterday, I wouldn't have been very like fun to talk to. UM. We expect to win games. That's our standard. UM So just kind of being Okay, we're losing. It is really

not gonna fly around here. But you do have to take the time to look at the little victories that you do have. UM, and Justin's one of them. Justin's playing really, really well. I give credit to him buying in. I mean that this dude works his butt off. He puts time into it. So to get results, um, you know, on individual performance and as an offense, UM means a lot to me, to him, to our coaching staff. I think a lot of credit needs to go to get

to as well. I mean, he adjusted, he adapted to strengths and weaknesses, and he is able to put together some really good performance by our you know, by our offense, and we're continue to get better and we're learning about what we have and the guys that we have. And we have a young team, so it's exciting to see the direction that we're going. Your first big decision during the season, of course, was the ro Quan trade. It's

very well documented, You've spoken on it. It was one of those deals where, from what I'm putting words in your mouth, you love the player, but there was an impast with with what was going to happen, so let's get some picks in exchange. When you make that decision, is that one of those where you say, I gotta block out the noise with the fans like you were saying, and just do what's best for this team, and I

wish the player the best moving forward. Yeah, And that's that's the tough part about this this position is you constantly have to balance today versus down the rope um and a lot of times those decisions are gray. You know, they're there, it's not black and white. It's not easy. So, um, we really took a lot of time with that. We just felt like it was in the best interest too to do something now that could benefit our team moving forward. Um. It is really really difficult, you know, to move a

guy that's a leader in your locker room. Um. But again, that's why I have this job, as I gonna make hard decisions that I hope we'll benefit our team for a long time. So we did that and and you know that helped us acquire Chase, you know, Claypool, who's coming along as learning offense right now, and um, again that should enhance our offense, enhance you know, our quarterback and get our team better as we move along. You're

the youngest GM in the league. Um, A lot of people look at you and say, hey, that's the path forward. There there there is a place for me in the NFL on that level, on that executive level. That's a that's a that's a heavy burden for you to say, Hey, I'm gonna, you know, start setting the path for a lot of people who are younger than me and saying this is this is possible. You can do this. You

can be an NFL general manager. If you've got an elevator, say it at the combine with a twenty five year old man or woman who looks at you and says, Ryan, what would be your piece of advice if I want to get into this profession and I want to someday be where you're at, what would be your learning lesson and what would be your you know, your elevator speech for them? Yeah, I think it would be you gotta

send your foundation up um to me. If I didn't have the experience I had as a graduate assistant at at Boston College, I wouldn't be here today. If I didn't have to grind and do hard things as a scouting assistant. I mean running, get coffee, airport runs. I'm learning how to multitask because you had It's crazy. I think back to it, which is nuts because I I had to hire my first scouting assistance and I had this like flashback of when I was hired in Kansas City.

But you know, I want them to be able to multitask. You know, you have a lot of things you have to do, but you also have these responsibilities like airport runs and waiting at a doctor's office for physical to end. And you learned quickly, well, if I'm sitting at the doctor's office, I probably bring my computer and I can knock out, yeah, three tasks while I'm there. And you learn a multitask and juggle different things and then you

fast forward to where I am today. It is I mean it is you juggle, man, You juggle a lot and um, but you gotta do it with detail. You gotta do you know, I gotta be dependable to everyone else so they can trust you and I can trust everyone else. So UM, set that foundation up and don't be afraid to do hard things that really gives you those galluses so that you can withstand you can take on more as you grew up and go through the ranks. So, um, that's kind of the pitch I would give to set

that foundation for sure. I got a couple more of them and let you go. Sunday, I'm watching the game and there's an undrafted free agent at a Wisconsin Jack Sandborn, a linebacker just all over the field, wearing fifty seven. I'm looking up on my media guide, I'm like, where

did he go? Oh, Wisconsin? I remember that name. You see a guy like that, an undrafted guy is do you get more of a reward at a scene that happened on the field or when it's the first round pick having success or is it all equal to you? At this point as a general manager, I feel like there's gotta be some great pride in being like, yeah, we got that guy to sign here, we liked him out of college, and he's making making an impact as

a rookie. That's pretty cool to see. Yeah, I think, you know, as undrafted free agent, to see those guys kind of rise up and get opportunities and take advantage of him is one of the more exciting things that we could do as a general manager, because as you go through the draft and you're evaluating, you're really honing in on just a couple of traits. You know, I knew Sandborne's variant. Thank you for player. UM. So you you bring in your building and you watch him develop

and then he gets an opportunity. That's why, like over the last few years, I've learned not to freak out from you know, injuries or trades because sometimes behind the door there's some really cool things that happened and guys developed. UM and Jack's on his way, man, I mean that last game he was everywhere. UM, two sacks, double digit tackles, should have had an interception, should have had to pick. We will talk about it. The league is very sensitive,

UM kidding area. UM. So I love seeing you know, those things and those guys stand out. So I'm pumped for him and the direction he's going. Alright, Historically you mentioned my homes when you were on the road doing the college things, like we talked about this we're talking

about with Shane and I always talked about with these gm. Um. Sometimes there's that player that like your eyes linked up with, and then the draft comes around and you're sitting in John Dorrise's office or you're sitting in Brett Beach's office and it's fourth fifth round talk and it's like, this

is my guy. I'm gonna bang the table. Was there a bang the table guy for you in Kansas City that you go back on You're like, hey, that was my dude, And you know, whether he panned out or not, there was a guy that you really were like, I'm gonna be as biggest advocate in the room. UM. I would say, it's hard to like put your finger out

like one player over the years. But I think one of the things that I take a lot of problem being a part of UM was going from losing the Super Bowl against Tampa UM and PA getting pressured all the time, and then sitting down as a group with Beach and Borganzi and tell Us and Bradway and being like,

we can never let that happen again. And and then going to work and coming away with Tray Smith, Creed Humphrey, Joe Tuney, Orlando Brown, you know, and flipping that thing quick in all those overnight like literally one offseason, you guys went from the you know, this is the Achilles hild the team to be in one of the strengths of a team, right and I think we really leaned down, like what do we stand for? Like what do you want that group to look and feel? Like? Those dudes

are smart, tough, and dependable. Um So, really just taking your values using free agency, trade and draft in the beginning and the end and kind of putting that thing together was a huge accomplishment that I thought was like the bowl on the on the top for me leaving. Not only that, I my last game was that Buffalo game, but like, yeah, that that was really cool walking away from at least being a part of that. You're beloved

in Kansas City. I mean I talked to all those guys and it's still like, you know, and now Chicago is starting to get to know why you are the badass that you are and you make decisions and you go for it and you go with your gut, but you do it backed on research. As we wrap this, if you have one message to Bears fans as we head towards the final months of the season and then of course your first official big off season where it's Hey, I'm running point on everything and it's my guys in

those decisions of power, decision and all that. What would be your message to the fan base who is just thirsting for Bears football to be on top once again. Yeah, well, first I gotta just correct you a little bit. I'll say this. You know, the biggest part of me is it's not just about me. It's it's my crew. I got an unbelievable group of scout who's the crew, Let's shout him out? Who we got you? I don't even know you're I don't even know who you brought with me?

And Cunningham who was it? The Giants? Right, Eagles with Philly in Baltimore. Um, Jeff King who's been here, he was a player, Love Jeff Trey Cozy, Carolina Panther, Jeff King, Yeah, yeah, okay, Tray cozil Um. Those are kind of my my top cabinet there. Matt Finstein who worked in the league. He house with Cap and at cliff Stein. So that's kind of my main cabinet, and a bunch of really good scouts under them as well. So it's not just about me, but in terms of this program getting to where it

needs to go. Listen, there's a lot of really cool stuff going on. I'm we're all about winning here, So it stinks not having more wins and we've been close, but there's progress being made. We're bringing the right people or quarterbacks developing. Um. So I'm excited and just know that this group, like I said, our coaching staff, our front office were relentless in acquiring talent and development players.

So it's gonna come together. I'm excited about it. You know, the future is right and we're gonna get this this place cranked up. So you know what I liked. I like seeing r Lacker involved. I like seeing Lance Briggs get it like a little bit of a I know Peanuts gonna be like that's my heir, and I know it's I know there was the eighty five Bears, and

I almost always say this on Good Morning Football. I like Bears fans deserve like you know, because eighty five is a long time ago now, right, And I have a certain sentiment for that oh six super Bowl team. And I love Erlacker and Tillman they both worked with me at Fox and love those guys. And I actually got to know Cutty pretty well and he's a cool

dude also. But like there's like a youthful exuber into this Bears team, and I think it starts with you and Matt obviously, but from the quarterback on down, Dude, I think the Bears are in good hands. And I can't thank you enough for joining us during the season and and doing our podcast to kind of give the the blueprint on how the Monsters of the Midway return to dominance in the NFC North. It feels like you was just yesterday. We're at Mikado Sushi. Huh do you

want to do? We want to talk about it because this is where it all begins to get to the color episode. Okay, So at the combine I mentioned this. I got breakfast with Joe Shane a few years ago at Patache, which is like the breakfast spot. But we had a table and I don't know if we want to go the names, but each was there a bunch of the Chiefs guys, and you and I hit it off. And it was at a sushi restaurant in Indianapolis, Mikado, a landlocked city that I don't think has probably the

best access to good sushi. Yet I was stuffing my face with that yellowtail. Bro. You were probably a little disgusted with how I went. I went to town Um, but you and I hit it off and I'm so proud of you. You're doing all this stuff now and Chicago isn't in any better hands and than having you at the grips, no problem. Awesome, Ryan Paul's the season with Peter Schreeger. Thank you for joining us. Bro. How good is Ryan Poles? Aaron? I mean that was that.

Dude is the real deal. When you listen to him talk, do you not feel like the Chicago Bears are in great hands? It makes me more excited for them. Yeah, it's been great watching them and then just hearing him talk about the vibe with the whole team and the coaching staff. I love it. He's learned from some of the greats, um and he's been made smarter by some of the greats. And that's a great segue to our next segment. We do a segment on this podcast called

make Me Smarter. I have amazing access to some of the smartest minds in football, and a lot of them work for the NFL Network research team. One of them is the great Taylor Kyle's I get Taylor's emails a lot, and I use a lot of that content on air, and it helps make me sounds smarter on television. But It also helps describe the game in a different way than just listing stats their historic perspective. There's insight and there's a lot of opinion as well. With no further ado.

This week's guest on Make Me Smarter, Mr Taylor Kyle's Taylor, what's up man, I'm excited to be here. Peter, thank you so much for having me. Man, you are great at what you do and we've got to give you some love on the season with Peter Schrager. And I asked this to to you and to to Aaron when I started this week's prep, I'm like, all right, now there's there's unit. It seems more like unanimous that Justin

Jefferson is that dude. He's the number one receiver. And then we go through all these historical things and it's like, all right, no one has done more in his first three years and this guy, no one has had, you know, a greater first two years. Make me smarter? Just how historically amazing is Justin Jefferson two and a half seasons into his NFL career. Alright, So if we're going by the numbers, all right, there's a lot of really big

names that he's on list with. So you want to look at most receiving yards per game all time, you got Justin Jeffery Sen above Julio Calvin, Jamaar Chase another young stud obviously l s U teammate, and Antonio Brown. Then you get most receiving yards in his first forty two games. Only person who's had more the great Odell Beckham Jr. And then Justin Jefferson is right behind him.

And then most games with the hundred plus yards and a player's first three seasons since he got Justin Jefferson above Randy Moss oh b J again, and then there's four guys tied right behind them. So I mean he's, uh, he's doing pretty well, I'd say in his first few seasons. Yeah. And then Sunday's performance is like National TV. If you hadn't watched him do all this work on these vikings teams that weren't playoff squads the last two years, you're now seeing him do it on an eight in one

squad putting up these numbers. What do you see personally as a student of the game, what do you see that makes him so special? And what are his skills? Because he's not he's not Calvin Johnson. He's not six ft six and he's not Randy Moss running a four to forty out there, right. So really, what it is is it's impossible to get this guy at the line

of scrimmage. The only time you're really going to be competitive with Justin Jefferson is if you get your hands on him, because if you're an off coverage when he gets to the top of the route, he can shake you. He's really good at getting in defender's blind spots, which basically means they can't see him, uh, and he gets right behind him and he's able to break off routes.

He's great at manipulating defenders. But one thing you saw a lot in the Bills game, and this is a tendency I've noticed, is in critical situation, so third down, you know, two minute drills, when you really need to play, what they'll do a lot of the times is they'll put him outside the numbers. Now usually he's inside, so you don't know if he's gonna break insider out, which is what makes him so dangerous because he's such a great route runner. But at the same time, he's also physical,

and like you said, he's he's that guy. He's him, so what you really need as we saw making that crazy catch that, in my humble opinion, was even greater than the Odell a few years back. I agree fourth and eighteen the context matters. O'Dell's was on a worthless Sunday night game for a bad Giants team that got on out by the Cowboys. And then and then you got, uh, you got Justin Jefferson doing it on fourth and eighteen,

and it got to have a situation. And what they did in a lot of those third downs they put him outside so they had true one on one matchups because the Bills since the Chiefs game, they went from being a zone heavy team where they just wanted everybody to throw underneath and they come up and rally and tackles, playing a lot more man. So the Vikings knew that, so they put Jefferson all the way outside, so we

had that one on one matchup. Obviously, the Bills are struggling in their secondary with injuries, and they were just like, hey, win on go balls, win on you know, uh deep in cuts, and he was doing it. He was roasting those guys. And then sometimes they put him in the slot, have him run a corner route. And that's a scary thing about Jefferson is he can run all these routes down field and he can win. It doesn't matter if you're right on his hip, doesn't matter if you're trailing

behind him. You make up. He's extremely competitive and he can catch anything on top of being able to separate from anybody. It was. It was an amazing performance, it really was. And you know, you go through that draft class of all those Vindory receivers that were taken and in the order that they were taken, and I thought, for you know, for the next decade we debate like Ceedee Lamb or Brandon aiyuk or, and it's like, hey, I'll due respect to Jerry Judy and the rest, Like

it's justin Jefferson. Then it's a huge gap to even Ceedee Lamb as the next guy. Absolutely, And it's it's the big moments, you know, it's all right, he got all these great receivers. Of course, and obviously team matters being in position to actually be able to capitalize and make those plays. But I mean it's it's the Buffalo Bills.

You've got the game of the year. Obviously, hindsight is but uh, it was a competitive game and in all the clutch moments, justin Jefferson making all these plays, and he's already putting together a resume obviously beyond the numbers. If you just look at the guy, it's hard to say that anybody, especially in that talented draft class, is really doing more than he is. Taylor, you made me smarter, You made us all smarter. Where can we find you on Twitter if we want to follow your stuff and

get all your information? Yep? So I am at t K y l E S thirty nine on Twitter? Thirty nine because of Stephen Jackson. Thirty nine. Why what's thirty nine? Danny Woodhead? Actually Danny Woodhead fan? Let's go? Dron stated, Did I say it right? I don't even know I what made you a Woodhead fan? Because that guy was a jet, a charger and was a raven. It was just like the ultimate, Like we need six yards on

a screen fast, he's getting a seven. Well, I mean he exploded once he left the jet, So I mean that kind of made it one of my favorites immediately. But actually did he would start really watching football until about and that was when wood Ed was having his breakout year. I remember just anytime I watched the Pats game, you got this guy who's the shortest one on the field making these crazy plays, just juiced up, so hard guy not to fall in love with. And yeah, I've

been a Danny Woodhead fan ever since. I was sad to see him go, but I cheered for him even when he was on the Ravens and the Chargers. We gotta we gotta tag Danny Woodhead to this clip. That's incredible. Other, thank you, Bro, so good as always, and we'll bring you on next week or the week after that and we'll get a little smarter from you. Awesome brother, Thank you so much. Taylor was awesome and Justin Jefferson is too.

And now to the final part of our podcast. One of the most popular things that we're doing to end each one of these podcast is I'm bringing on a friend of mine, either someone i've worked with professionally or someone I grew up with who's got a take and it's a take on anything. And so far we've talked about everything from Game of Thrones to to whether or not it's morally right to give up baseball. Back to Aaron Judge, who happens to be a five million dollar

man and doesn't necessarily need the money anyway. Takes are what we're here for, and I'm bringing out one of my best friends from childhood, my buddy Deetro, who was made for this podcast because Detro texted me with a little preview of something and he had to take around it that it might be the best of something that we've ever seen. Deetro. Welcome to the season with Peter Srigger. How are we doing this morning? Peter? How are you, sir? It's great to see you, great great to hear from you.

It's amazing to hear. And we've known each other more than thirty years. You're one of my dearest friends. We've grown up together. And when you come in with a take, you come in piping hot, and you come in well researched, and you very often come with a ton of knowledge. So I'm gonna see the floor to you, Detro, what's your piping hot take for this week? Here's what I want your listeners to understand that there are fifty two

weeks in a year. Everybody knows that, and most of the time, when a great week happens, you tend to look back on that week and say, God, I wish I would have known that that was gonna be a great week. I would have engraced everything a little bit more and really sort of sunk my teeth into it a little bit more, because that turns out to be

a great week. What I want everyone to know is that starting this Saturday, November nineteen, running through the following Sunday November, that is your absolute prime, pinnacle week of two thousand and twenty two. And I want everybody to be prepared for it now because you need to embrace it now. Don't look back on it and say I wish you What do you mean? What do you mean? Just a great week explained? Let me walk in through this week. So, first of all, you go into this

weekend Saturday, you get a full slate of college football games. Now, I'm not gonna sit there and try to convince you that is the best slate of college football games. I get you don't want to watch Alabama, Dustin pay don't watch it. But you get a full Saturday of college football and there aren't many of those left. So enjoy, embrace it, have a fantastic Saturday. But then we go into this Sunday and you get your full NFL games right there. And if you're starting off, there's a couple

of intriguing games on Sunday. You gonna want to You're gonna want to tune into. You got Bills hosting Browns. There was a twenty year spending between our lives, you know where Bills hosting Browns. I wouldn't watch a single snap of that game. But now, coming off that ridiculous Bills lost this past Sunday, you're gearing up for Bills Browns because you want to know are the Bills for real?

Are they're gonna bounce back? Because are they this juggernaut sixteen and one team that they looked like, or are they gonna try to sort of, you know, back in its week into the playoffs, whatever it might be. You've got Jets going up to New England for a certain section of the country. That's a fantastic game to watch this Sunday. A lot of playoff amplications on that one. Me and myself, I'm a giant fan. I know you

don't want to watch Giants, Lions don't watch it. I get it, But then you get you four thirty matchups and I'm gonna take you out to Minnesota Ultimate promo. Look, this is this is part of the week. You better get ready to embrace it because you've got Vikings Cowboys this Sunday. Somehow this game ends up on CBS. It used to be somewhere all in Madden or prostam. All right, I'll take Nance and Romo. It is what it is.

But that game has enormous playoff complications stretching all the way to who's gonna be the number one seed coming out of the NFC. So that's a fantastic game right there. That gets you through Saturday and Sunday and now you Thanksgiving Week is starting. You get Monday. For those of you that work in office, everyone's starting to mentally check out right around. That's just how it goes. You're out

of office, message starting to come back to you. Nobody's planning big conference calls and big meetings in the conference room Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday next week. So you're you're rolling, You're all free. But from a from a sports standpoint, Monday afternoon, writing is starting to mentally check out. You get the Men's World Cup, Men's World Cup, you get Usa playing Whales. I know Wales that may sound may

not matchup. And you only get the World Cup every one four years, so it's not the most populous sport here in the Cup. But Men's World Cup you're in. And if you don't think Wales is a big deal, well the former Prince of Wales is now the King of England, so wills it pretty big? Then you're home through Tuesday and Wednesday next week, which if you again, if you're working for a company in an office setting, you you have zero meetings, zero conference balls. Everybody is

on cruise control, heading out, heading out the office. Companies are closing early on Wednesday. If you're a teacher, you're not starting any new planned lessons on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. You're you're making macaroni necklaces in the classroom. You're putting the week on a knee, and that that that that's just how it goes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week from a professional standpoint. But then you get

to Thursday, then you actually get to Thanksgiving. I'm not gonna sit here and do some sort of buzz feed list of top ten side dishes anything like that. You don't need to hear that from me. I think we all generally agree the meal and the keating on Thursday are phenomenal to the top two day of the year to eat. We don't have to go down that road. But from a sports landscape, what are we have on Thanksgiving? First, you get your bills at Lions. That's an intriguing game.

Obviously Bill spot it is to watch that one. But you know the Lions always show up and fight on Thanksgiving. What do we say? They're frisky and and they're extra frisky on Thanksgiving. It's one of those games where it's thirty five thirty one in the fourth quarter and I'm texting you, would you look at these Lions? Where where different Lions teams been all season long? They should be seven and three right now. That's kind of how that plays out. Then ready to getting ready to sit down

to eat on Thanksgiving? Where we're going. We're going down to Dallas. You've got Cowboys, You've got Giants. That's an old fashioned NFC each NFC East slug fest. That's a fantastic game. That's a lot of fun. There's a few segments of of the NFL fan base out there either you're a diehard Cowboys fan. You're a pump for that game. You're a diehard Giant fan. You're a pump for that game, or your every other NFL fan out there that basically, let's just say you hate the Cowboys, you're pumped to

watch that game. You know, that's the type of game that does a monster rating right there, Like it's a playoff game. Love that you get into Thursday night. Now the week is you know, you're still rolling tron in this week. You get it the Thursday night, you've crushed twenty calories. The fatigue it starts, You've watched seven hours of football. You get ready to sit down. What do you got? You got Tariko, you got NBC. You got the Vikings hosting the Patriots, which is another intriguing that's

a lot of fun. You gotta if you're able to stay away to watch that whole game because you've been up all day eating and drinking and you're exhausted. That's a fun one big playoff implications. Then you go to sleep that night, you wake up Friday, all right, you may think Friday is a little slow. I'm gonna take it easy today, ease into the day, after Thanksgiving. I haven't checked my work email in three days. It's fine. And what do you have on Friday afternoon? At two o'clock?

You get team USA playing England in the Men's World Cup. Gets set get ready. It's been two forty six years since we've declared independence. Here we go. That's a fan. You can't plan a better day after Thanksgiving than to settle in for USA England in the Men's World Cup. I couldn't name a single player on either team, and I'm incredibly excited for that game. Can't wait for that one. Give me a little you ninety seconds? Your take, guys for listeners detros the guy that will text me be like,

have you seen blank on the History Channel? And so give me a little US England, Give me a little revolutionary war take ninety seconds? All right? Well, I mean, look, this game is not exactly being played in Yorktown. I

get it. My my take on it is that no matter how much time passes from the eighteenth century when that all happened, there's always gonna be in USA England sort of first cousin the kind of battle and half hatred, half love and can't wait to play you and can't wait to beat you kind of thing that that that's just how it goes. So when they match up on an international stage, I'm in that game ends. That that game ends. You've had you leftover turkey sandwich. It's Friday,

you're exhausted, your spouse has been crushing Amazon Prime. Everything is going crazy. Right now, you take it easy for the rest of that night. I'm sure there's a couple of other a little you know, there's there's some college football games that maybe you can tune into, a basketball tournament in Maui. There's always something like that. Always. But then the next day, now you got Saturday morning and you wake up and what do you have. First of all,

you have at noon on FOPS Ohio State Michigan. Well, I don't know if I can handle all this sports. There's just so much sports. That's why I'm giving you a few days right now to prepare to mentally with the palette, because come sa Saturday at noon for Ohio State Michigan. You may think you've had enough sports, but you're getting two undefeated teams. This game is everything. This game is college football playoffs. I mean, you don't get a better matchup than that if you're looking to watch

college football next Saturday, it just doesn't happen. That's what you get. You get The rest of the slate of college football is also great. I'm not gonna walk you through this game back game, but later on that night you do get noted Dame at usc which is always a fun one. That's always an intriguing one. Seven thirty that that that's always a fun game, regardless of if you're a fan or not. It's a fun college football game to be watching. And then we get it a Sunday,

another football Sunday. You got another full slate of football Sunday. I feel like a glutton right now. You gotta keep going. You gotta keep going. The appetizers come out of Would you excuse me if I didn't watch football on Sunday next week? Thanks, I'm just like you know what, I'm football out. I did the soccer thing on Friday. I mean, you know how these husbands are gonna be explaining to their wives that like, oh no, no, no, I actually needed another nine hours today and I need another nine

hours today. Get back on Amazon, Pride taed in there? Do you a holiday shopping? That's what has to do. If this is the time when they got to go out and buy all the Christmas presidents to do that, that's fine, But let's face facts. It's a football Sunday, and that's just how it works. If you gotta run some marans early in the morning, you run your errands, But come one o'clock the games are kicking off. You're not just gonna say, okay, well you know what, I'll

give up football today. I'm not gonna watch it. You're gonna settle in from one o'clock through the night game and do an entire football Sunday. And by the time Sunday night comes rolling along and you have Steelers Colts that kick off, or excuse me, Sunday night at night is Packers Eagles, which is a incredibly intriguing game to finish off the week. Yeah, you're gonna be on your couch. You may take your phone out, look to see if a single work email has come in over the past

six days, which it probably hasn't. And here we are, it's Monday night. You're settling in Packers Eagles, you're exhausted, you've gained ten pounds. But if you realize, oh my god, what an unbelievable week that just passed. I wish I would have embraced it a little bit more. That's why I'm telling you now, get ready to embrace it now. Because a week like this, with the NFL and college football and the men's World Cups wriggled in when you

get to USA Games life from Qatar, that's it. Get ready and embrace it now because weeks like this don't come along very often. You're gonna look up in three months. It's gonna be that third week of February. It's gonna be a long, cold, dark, bleak week in February. There's no NFL, there's no college football. Baseball with the pitchers

and catchers are barely showed up the training camp. You're gonna be miserable, and you're gonna say, jeez, I wish you would have embraced that week in November a little bit more. What an unbelievable week. I wish you would have known that it was gone now, you know God, thank you. I'm gonna finish up with this because are This podcast is three hours long and you're the best part of it. Um really quickly the listeners at home, you hear how this man is a master of words.

He can talk, he's an incredible salesman. Um, just real quick, let's go. You're you're a married man now, but let's go back a few years, maybe a decade, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving? What's that mean to a single man? Totally different ball game. Where you're at, where I'm at right now in life, and where maybe ten fifteen years ago,

the night before Thanksgiving it's night and day. But for your single guys out there, let's say between the ages of I don't know, three to thirty five Thanksgiving, this is it. Get ready, get your plans set, get to the A T M Machine early. Make sure you have your credit card refreshed and ready to god, your credit

cards are fresh. You gotta get ready to go. You bet in the show, but the bar you get, the climb, you try to buy a you gonna You're gonna buy an old fashioned round of I don't even know what the park is drinking apple APW because they they give me, give me, give me twelve yeager bombs, and they gave you a bill for a hundred and twenty dollars and your credit card can't afford that. You're gonna you're gonna

be laughed out of the room. So get ready to go get your hair cut on Wednesday morning, get your fresh out, reading rock, have your plans set, know what you're doing, because this is the night. This is what I just talked about, Peak week coming in right there. Well, for a certain age group, this is peak night. This is it. People say it's for amateurs, It's not for amateurs. News Eves for amateurs, Thanksgiving Eves for professionals. Show Off. Oh my god, that was amazing. I love you, buddy,

I love you. Thanks for having me on. I will and and gosh. That's how we're gonna end the podcast. That was fantastic. Um, we went from being denied passports at the airport to Ryan Pole's giving us a very studied take on why the Chicago Bears are in good hands, to lesson on Justin Jefferson, and then a lesson on why we should appreciate the following days if you're a sports fan, and then why you really got to get after it the Wednesday before Thanksgiving if you're a single man.

All this is what we do on the season with Peter Schreeger. Guys, until next week. Aaron Jan Kaufman, the Best, Jason English, the Best, I Heart NFL, Jack Run on the on the one, twos were on Fire. Let's Go The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the NFL and partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.