The Season with Peter Schrager: Micah’s Unicorn Season, the 49ers Resilience, and the Surprising 3-2 Jets (with Head Coach Robert Saleh)

to do my own podcast. And now that we're a couple of weeks into this season, I'm like, let's just chronicle the season, get through each week with insights, empty the bag, have great guests and have some fun and make you smarter as a listener, but also have open dialogue about the season in real time, so that when you're listening, you're like, you could follow this thing like it's a storybook, and each chapter would be signified or separated by the week at it is. If you don't know,

I'm Peter Schrager. I host Good Morning Football on NFL Network on Sundays. You can see me on Fox Sports. I used to be a sideline reporter. Now I'm a studio guy doing the reporter insider role. Been around the game for about twenty years as a sports writer, worked on inside the NFL. I've written a couple of books, and I truly love this game. I truly love this league, and I am a complete sponge for content and information. My strength is my context. I talked to everyone around

the league. I've got great relationships. I like to keep those relationships. But that's with players, it's with coaches, it's with gms, it's with the owners, it's with agents, it's

with other media folks. And most of all, I come at it like a fan who has got the lottery ticket that I can do this for a living, and I never lose sight of that on a daily basis, that this is my job and how lucky I am to do it, and unfortunate that we're partnering with the NFL, but also with iHeart Radio, who just the first couple of weeks working with these guys have been amazing partners and I've met some new friends. One of them is

Aaron Wong Kaufman. Aaron is going to be our producer, our co host, is going to take us through this season with us. Aaron, Welcome to the podcast. Thanks Peter, man, I'm stoked to be here with you. Aaron your story. You work at iHeart. You're a sound and audio guy, but you're also an NFL diehard fan. Yeah. Grew up in a family of Bills fans, my dad's side of

the family. They are all from Buffalo. My uncle still has season tickets, okay, And you know, didn't grow up with necessarily the greatest era of Bills seasons during my childhood. But they got such an exciting team right now. It was so great watching them develop over the last few years and stoked to see where they go now. But yeah,

I've been with iHeart for like three years now. Got to work with the NFL last year on the show Split Ends with Colleen Wolf and Erica Tampozy, and I am so excited were working with you this season, and I can't wait. And you're cool, Like I could tell you live in Brooklyn. You're a bed style guy, and you've got a style, You've got a flavor to you, and I love your energy and I think we're like,

how should we start this podcast? I kind of like going week to week and keeping it up today and I feel like we're recording this on a Tuesday let's do something we call four downs. You're gonna serve me up with a down, and I'm just gonna empty the bag on my thoughts and we'll set the stage for not only what we just consumed in week five, but what we expect in week six. What do we got there? All? Right? Big game last night for Monday Night Football, the Kansas

City Chiefs in Las Vegas Raiders. The Chiefs are losing at halftime, We've got the call. Kelsey comes back, scores four touchdowns. What are your major reactions and takeaways from last night's game? My major reactions is that arrowhead crowd is no joke. And I know that sounds like I'm playing to the Chiefs fan base. I'm not. Like they're

down in that game. And you get that crazy roughing the passer penalty on Chris Jones and in a typical situation like oh that sucks for the Chiefs, Like that sucks now they're back against it the wall and all the instead, the crowd reacts with such a vitriol booing, not just at the call but for the next ten minutes that like there was a fervor in that building where you felt almost the momentum change based on a

bad call. So what happens, Well, they find a way to get the ball back, they get their touchdown, and then right before the first half ends, they're down twenty to seven, and matthew Wright, a rookie kicker who missed a forty one yard or earlier, nails a fifty nine yarder and like the ESPN cameras shoot to the sidelines and Andy Reid's fist pumping, and Patrick Mahomes has this look of like, don't sweat it, I got you. Don't sweat it, I got you, Like don't worry is where

we live. And the stat I got earlier this week, like they're eleven and five under Mahomes in games that they've trailed by ten points or more. That's insane. Eleven and five, And that crowd led to this like incredible atmosphere where you knew that the ball was going to start rolling come the second half, and they eventually got the lead. And then you see what happens. The officiating tides turn a little bit and you get some calls like a defensive holding on a missfield boat from right

that I haven't seen that call since twenty fifteen. And I'm not saying the refs were influenced by it, but that whole atmosphere changed. And my takeaway from this game. We could talk my homes, we could talk MVS, we could talk about what they did to adjust at halftime, but my takeaway is here come the Bills Week six. What I think it's the marquee game of the season, and that crowd is already in a lather from Monday night. This was not a trap game, this was not a

gotcha game. It was the Raiders. So don't think that the Chiefs were lulled into this thing. But I can't wait for the atmosphere Sunday. Week six Bills versus Chiefs, both teams four and one, both quarterbacks at the peak of their powers, both teams having over come a seventeen point deficit to win a game in the past few weeks. To Bills did it against the Ravens. And I think we're lucky, we're fortunate that we're getting this so soon in the season and everyone's pretty much healthy for it.

Week six Bills Chiefs arrowhead, sign me up. That's my first down at my reaction that holy the Chiefs and that fan base they are tough to beat, even when they're down by double digits. Okay, second down, What is happening with the Rams offense. I've gotten a lot of texts about it. Everyone knows my relationship with Sean McVeigh.

I've known Sean for a decade. Where good friends. And I'm not gonna tell you he's saying everything's fine, But I could also tell you it needs to be fixed now, and like this is the moment in time because Stafford does not look like Staffords. It's actually incredible how inept this offense has been. They've scored just one touchdown in the last nine quarters. Stafford has been sacked twenty one times this season through five games. Last season, he sacked

thirty times the entire seventeen game regular season. But I'm gonna take a positive spin on it. You know, one of those games was against the forty nine ers and Nick Bosa's breathing down their back. One of those games against Michael Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, and you go week one that Bill's team was shot out of a cannon. Those are their three losses. They get the Carolina Panthers, who come limping in this week and I think my whole take is like, where the hell is Allen Robinson?

And I know that's a fantasy football conversation and I usually say, like, here's what you're not getting anywhere else, but it's a real conversation because with Van Jefferson injured, with Odell Beckham not on this roster, and by the way, if I'm Odell, I don't know if I'm signing with the Rams anytime soon. If you're looking at this offense either with von Miller not coming back anymore, which was such an emotional lift last year, like they need Allen Robinson,

Like you need Allen Robinson. This guy has to step up. You can't be relying on Ben Skolnik to be the fullback and also the wide receiver too. You can't rely on two two at Well, who I think is five foot eight and you know, is a fast player, but is not an every down guy. Alan Robinson was signed for big money. He's getting zero separation. He's a great dude. So like you're talking about a guy who wants it. He's not a guy who loafs it. He's not a

guy who doesn't. Is this one of the great misfirings of free agent history right now, because five weeks in, Alan Robinson has done nothing. And you know you blame the run game, the offensive line if you don't have that number two guy to Cooper Cup. The fear is that you ride Cooper Cups so much that the wheels come off. And come week seven, week eight, not only is Cup injured, knock on Wood, Cup is spend like you can't do this at this pace and you're seeing

defense is already key in on Cooper Cup. So to meet Alan Robinson is everything. There's an NFL player who gets the benefit of the doubt because he was playing with Blake Boardles and with Mitch Drubisky. And it's always been like, yo, a rob if he's got a quarterback, just watch out. He is that guy. The Rams are paying him as that guy. And in August, all I heard from the Rams folks was Robinson is not only stepping up, but like he's the perfect number two for

Cup for what he can do. And I'm watching these games and he's not getting separation. So Aaron to you, my producer and my friend, like I will tell you this, you could pick pick apart cam Akers, you could pick apart the offensive line you could say Stafford doesn't look right. You could say McVeigh has lost his touch. I look at the number two wide receiver and the big free agent signing that I know they had so much expectations

for going into this thing. I think Alan Robinson and if that requires Liam Cohen the offensive coordinator and Sean mcvade to scrap their principles to try to just get him going, whether that means wide receiver screens or getting involved in the handoffs, like you have to make this work. Alan Robinson needs to be that guy and it needs to happen soon for this offense to click. Okay, third down, we're going with a positive spin. Now, did anyone see

this Giant's thing coming? I mean, like, is this as much of a surprise to you as it is to me. It's a shock. It's a shock. I thought the Joe Shane Higher was great as GM and then you know Joe with the Mara fam that starts interviewing the candidates, and it's like, all right, Brian Flores might be the guy.

Who else are we meeting with? Okay, let's let's think about you know, is Brian Dabele the guys he's got a relationship with Shane and then he gets here and it's like, all right, Daniel Jones has to be a lame duck. Quarterbacks Quon Barkley hasn't been healthy since twenty eighteen. He's probably a lame duck contract. And then you go around this wide receiver room, it's like, all right, Sterling Shepherd and Kenny Galladay are all making money like that.

And then you see the team play and it's like, oh my gosh, they're so well coached. And I think that's the X factor here. Daniel Jones is not going to light it up through the sky. So instead of Brian Dable treating him like he's Josh Allen, he's like, let's draw up an offense to maximize his strength. That defense does not have many star players on it. Wink Martindale comes in as a defensive coordinator and he's like,

all right, let's maximize what we've got. Let's use my philosophies of sending the dogs, but let's be true to what we are and be disciplined. And then Mike Kafka, the offensive coordinator, has been fantastic as well. I think the most important higher of this entire offseason. I'm talking about free agencies. I'm talking about trades. Was Brian Dable as the head coach of the New York Giants. The culture has changed and he has immediately put players in

position to succeed, and more importantly, Aaron. They believe like they could succeed. You're watching them. This team's believing. They're rallying around it like they were down fourteen points to the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers and they come out of a halftime and they don't quit. That is such such a breath of fresh air for the New York Giants. And you know, the Giants have this history of coaching and it's like Parcels, like you knew what

you were getting. Parcels. Teams were tough, they were strong, they were defensive minded, and they were not going to beat themselves. Coughlin disciplined on time, type of team that was going to be led by that defensive front. And then Eli was gonna do what Eli does best, and that's winning the clutch. This team, I didn't know what Daniel Jones did well and that's why I was so surprised.

You know, before the season, good Morning Football, we make our playoff picks, and I was dismissive, and one Giant and Span tweets at me all the time and it's like, bro, you know, retract this comment. And it was me saying, well, the Giants aren't a playoff team, like it's gonna be Eagles or Cowboys. I don't see the Giants as a playoff team. And it was very dismissive, and it was almost, you know, to the point where like if you were a player, you'd be insulted by that. But gosh, are

they well coached? And do those players step up top to bottom? That fifty three You're talking about guys like David Sills is doing toe tap stuff on the sidelines at wide receiver looking awesome. You're talking about defensive players that have been on this team that are stepping up to the next level. Seeing Dexter Lawrence look like a first round pick last week was really cool. And then just just all the young guns coming up and playing tough and playing big put its start to the top.

Dabo gets a lot of credit and Dabole gets a lot of love for the dancing in the locker room and all that stuff, But gosh, are they a disciplined team that likes playing for their head coach, and you feel the cultures. So I did not see it coming. I will give a maya kulpa there, but I don't think they're going away. And I think they might be one of those sneaky wildcard teams or maybe even a division winner. And that's because the coach has them believe

in her. Okay, fourth down, give me your shout out of the week. Who impressed you the most? Yeah, shout out is to the forty nine ers. This is a team that continues to just get stung by the injury bug but continues to kick butt. A lot of excuses could be made, but the Niners lost. You know, their star pass rusher and Nick Bosa in this game, Emmanuel Moseley in this game. They're already out without Eric Armstead

and Trent Williams. Jimmy Ward breaks his hand in this game, and they just go on and roll and win thirty seven to fifteen. You know, I got a crazy fact from a source at the Niners. They went from Carolina to stay in this week at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, which is a lovely resort where they they've spent the last three years on these East Coast trips before they go and play Atlanta. This is the third street year they've lost a player to a massive ACL injury going

to the Greenbrier. Last year it was Jason Verrette. They had another one before that with Bosa. Like this isn't how it's supposed to go. Like you're not supposed to have massive ACL injuries year after year, and you're not supposed to lose your starting quarterback Trey Lance, you know, so early in the season, and yet you lose Elijah Mitchell, you lose Trent Williams. These are these are starters. They

are down nine starters, and what do they do. They just like flip the page and they say, let's keep rolling. I think the Niners still deserve a lot of love here because a lot of teams get key injuries and they go into a corner and into a hole and they don't continue to bring it. But whatever reason, this Niners team has been stung with the injury bug year

after year after year, and they don't fade. Other guys step up, like it was there any doubt that Jeff Wilson when Elijah Mitchell came up came out, was going to step up. Noways stepped up, Like is there any doubt that these offensive tackles who we don't know their names. When Trent Williams goes down, step up. They step up. Even Jimmy G steps up. Like the Niners. To me, they just ever shout out. As we head to week six.

They'rer at the Greenbrier right now, coming off yet another ACL injury, and this one Emmanuel Mosley, and it doesn't phase them. They just keep rolling. To me, that's that's coaching, and that's culture, and that's what the Niners have. Now. I ask you, Aaron, who do you want to shout out? All right, let's go from Jimmy G to his old team. I want to shout out the Pats defense. I thought

they looked incredible. They shut out the Lions. Rookie Jack Jones had the interception in the end zone, Matt Judon had two sacks in the second half. The Lions went for it on fourth down on their first four drives, never connected. The Pats just they looked so good again on defense? You remember, yeah, I remember us, like right, like that's what it used to be under Belichick, doesn't it seem like Belichick's having more fun this year, as much as this team might not have the talent, and

very like he seems like he likes these guys. Do you get that feeling? Yeah, and especially after like all the hubbub this preseason and offseason about all the who's calling plays, who's not calling plays? Even the offense now is doing well. Damien Harris got hurt, Romonder Stevens and step up right in just ran through the Lions defense. I mean they looked incredible. Yeah, okay, those are two shoutouts. There's are four downs. Is what we do, and then

we do a guest every week. The plan is we're gonna bring in coaches, GM, celebrity fans that you might know from other work, that just our diehard sports fans. And for the first guest, I wanted to bring in a friend of mine and a guy who's having a little moment right now. It's the head coach of the New York Jets. It's Robert Sala. Sala I've known since his Jacksonville days. We went from Jaguars to Seahawks, to Niners defensive coordinator to finally the Jets. You know, starts

off his career at four and fourteen. But now they've they've got a little thing going here. There're three and two for the first time since twenty seventeen. And Sala's a good dude. I want to everyone to get to know him beyond the history on its on the sideline, beyond the coaching stuff. There's a good person. Robert Salo's our first guest, now joined by the three and two New York Jets head coach and a local hero right now in New York. And he's the man, Robert Salo.

Welcome to the season with Peter Schreger. What's that man? How you doing? Man? I appreciate you're having me out, of course, take us through the last two days. You guys, get this amazing win over the Dolphins. The Jets are over it to five hundred for the first time since twenty seventeen, and this city is alive. I'm in New York City, you're in Jersey. Are you feeling that? Are you feeling the juice from the fans and also from just the media market in general? Now you know what,

we got a young team. I think positive affirmations are always critical, especially when you're a young roster and you're trying to build confidence and you're trying to get that the ball rolling if you will, you know. But so I would imagine for those young men to get positive affirmations, to see on tape that they're capable and what they're capable of and what we as a team are capable of.

I think all of it's good. But at the same time, you've got to be able to compartmentalize all that noise and keep the main thing, the main thing, which is preparation. And that's why we've had the success we've had is because of preparation, and if we lacked preparation, that success will continue. Bruce Hall puts up one hundred and ninety seven yards from scrimmage, and you and I were talking this summer, like I compared him to Matt Forte. I was like, he catches the ball, he runs the ball.

It's it's on display right now. When when you draft a running back in the second round, there's such high expectations. When you see him out there, what's your impression just five weeks into his NFL career, Um, so you've been getting better every week. Him and Michael Carter make a really really cool duo. It's a really good one too, punch and there's gonna be a week where Michael goes off,

you know. So there's it's it's a really good compliment for Breeze, you know, just a week to week improvement with regards to running style and understanding the difference between the NFL and college where there's things that he could get away with in college because he's just so much better than everybody. But now in the NFL, where you've got to you've just got to change your running style a little bit. And I I feel like he's done that as much in the last two weeks. And uh, and

it's paying off of them. Yeah. I go back after Week one, you guys lose to the Ravens, and you had the line that that got picked up everywhere and you said, hey, you know, I'm taking receipts. All of you who mocked us taking receipts. Now it's too early to cash in those receipts. It's it's week five. But when you said that, I almost watched him afar and I'm like, did he mean to say that? Did he

did he know where he was going with that? Because the media ate it up, but it seems like the players have responded, like, now that we're a month removed from the I'm taking receipts, what is your reaction when you look at how things have changed and now here we are three and two. But also players are believing in each other, you know. I UM, for me, it's the the constant improvement from the team, right, It's that's always the main focus. And UM didn't think the receipts

comment would do what it did. I was really hoping that it would go away by now. But because it's it's just it's so far away. You know, we've got to accomplish so much. Just three wins, We've got to there's so many things that we want to accomplish as an organization. UM. So it's probably, in hindsight, very silly

to me. But at the same time, I don't think our players are externally motivated by m by words and and and board the billboards or whatever you cut the little I think when Joe and I got together two years ago that the charge was to bring in guys who love this game, and we'll do everything they can to protect it. And I feel like we've done a really good job bringing in men who love this game, and I think what people are seeing is just unwavering

desire to get better every day. And this group, I think we got a locker room that loves the game so much that they're going to find ways to make sure they protect it so they can continue to get better, you know. Um. And so it is going to be a challenge because we're still young and we're going to be humbled. But at the same time, I just got

a lot of faith in the locker room. That's kind of where the genesis of everything is that I've got faith in what I know it's going to be possible, and it's just a matter of continuing to stack up great days and show people stack up great days. And Sunday was one. And there's a moment in that game game where Quinn Williams takes that ball stiff arms Tyreek Hill after a week of us hearing about state income taxes and how he never really was that interested in

being in the jet and all this stuff. It felt like there was this great Catharsis from the sideline of seeing quinnin tossed Tyreek Hill aside and be like, no, dude, like we're here. Um. That moment felt like a moment. Am I making too much of it that that that play right there with Quinn and Williams, of all people who has been a top five pick, who has been just chopping wood, having that on the home field in front of the home fans might making too much of it?

Or was that like a cool turning point for this Jets team. I don't know about turning point and shrikes, but I do think it was an awesome play. Um deserves all the attention it gets. Not not because of rules against and all that. I'm just anytime you get a fact guy with the ball running people, so not that Quinn's pat, but a big man, big man, big man, the little coffee being. It was like, you know, but anytime. But I mean, I'm defensive guy. The greatest, the greatest

playing football is SA sack, fumble, scoop and score. If you can't, I that's that's like the triple crown. But uh and um, you know, to get a big man running and running people over in the stadium, erupting and you're basically a few yards five yards away from putting a team away. In that situation, it was just a really cool pivotal moment in the game. Um, that just erupted the entire stadium, not let alone the sideline. You know, my boy Kyle Brand gave him the Angry Runs scepter

for the angriest run of the week. That's very rare. Defensive player gets it that people. Of course, he deserves it, you know, but uh, he's uh, he's quinnin is Um. He's having a heck of a year and he's only going to get better. But I love where he's at mentally and his mindset and the way he approaches season. You know, last year he didn't really get a chance to have ots and training camp, dealing with that foot

injury that he suffered during the off season. And he's fully healthy, the best shape of his life, like we talked about, you know, really expecting him to continue sending. It's a fun team. It's a fun moment in time. And now we turn the page because now we go to Lambeau and I don't know if I'm breaking news here. I've heard from good, good info that like Fox might send the number one crew there, This might be Burkhardt Olsen,

Aaron Andrews. Like this is being treated like a premier game, America's Game of the week Jets at Packers, and it also has this extra wrinkle that the listeners might not know. But not only is Matt Lafloor your offensive coordinator, Michael Floor's older brother, He's one of your best friends in the world. Can you take us through the relationship between you and Matt Lafloor and where it started and where it's at. Yeah, So we actually played against it. I

was a tight end, he was a quarterback. But our schools played against each other in college. Didn't know each other then. But I get to Central Michigan and if you can see it, like this little little square right here, I saw it was like a broom closet. He and I shared the same offense, and it was about the size of a broom closet. I mean, that's coaches. That's coaches at Central Michigan. And who's the head coach of

that team? Is that Brian Kenny Rank Kelly, Yeah, Bran Uh and he and I just I mean it was like just instantaneous, um, just just the the vibe, and we became we got roommates, were roommates, got uh got an apartment in the projects of Mount Pleasant Uh and we've been we've been tight ever since, you know, sharing ideas, philosophy, always talking and uh, you know, he's he's such a good man and he's he's won a lot of games and he's had a lot of success in this league

and even when he was a coordinated and an assistant, uh, an assistant coach, like, he's done nothing but win. And so you just know that he's going to have his team ready to roll. They're gonna be pissed off and uh and they're gonna be home and so you just know you're gonna get everything that they are and it's gonna be a tremendous challenge. I gotta take me back to Central Michigan, Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Who who's the cleaner of the two roommates, Who's the one who's cooking at night? Like?

What what's the situation? I can't imagine you and Matt Lafloor, two NFL head coaches, now sitting there as twenty two year old kids in a box for an apartment in Mountain. We had no we had no furniture except for a couple of mattresses and bedroom sets. Um. There was it was, it was, there was. We had a table So the story is we found this awesome table and chairs at the Salvation Army good Will. We buy the table and we're like, shoot, we can't fit it all in the car.

So we take the table and like, okay, let's go back and get the chairs. And we go back to get the chairs. They're gone, gone, They're gone. And they were like, why don't we buy these before we And so we had a we had a we had a table, no chairs in the kitchen, and so we just sit there and eat the stand were standing just um eat on the fly, uh, late nights together, Wingman and all that stuff, all that good stuff. And so it was there's a lot of a lot of dark, deep secrets

that we know about each other. So we have and his little brother is you're one of your first hires when you come to the Jets. Your relationship with Mike, I imagine Sims through Matt. Yeah. So, well, you know, Matt's from up Pleasant. So we were always at his parents' house raiding the fridge and there was a little Mike and his you know, high school sweetheart who's now his wife. But you know, Mike, Mike, Mike's not here because of that relationship Mike's here because of how much I respect

him as a football coach and fan. It's very important. Does the relationship help, Yeah, because there's a level of trust and a level of communication that I can have to be able to establish the identity and what we're

trying to get done offensively. But Mike is extremely talented and uh and he's got the hardest job of anyone of anyone I would argue in the league just thinking about what he has as a coordinator with all these babies on offense that he's trying to develop and mold, and so yeah, the relationship kind of is obviously through Matt, but but just watching him grow as a football coach and who's who his influences are, it's been it's been

impressive to watch him and evolve. This podcast, we're geting to know coaches, GMS, celebrity fans a little bit better. But we're also spending it forward to next week. So when you were at San Francisco, you guys had a lot of success against Aaron Rodgers. I'm not putting that expectation on you, but when you watch the tape and you see Rogers, does this motivate you as a defensive coach to be like, all right, national TV, everyone's watching, We're the hot team. They're coming off a loss, Like,

let's go do something here. Um, you know what it's Uh, the last time I was I went against Aarons Thursday night football at the COVID game and they beat the They beat the Yeah, it didn't go well. Yeah, but now Aaron he's a Hall of Fame quarterback. Um. Lambo Field is iconic. The Packer organization and the amount of success they've had, especially since Matt's been there, has been unprecedented to a degree, and so it's there's a lot of excitement. But at the same time, it's every game

is a championship game, period. Doesn't matter who you're playing, William and Mary, Great Bay Packers, you approach it all the same and uh, you know, so just keeping again, just keeping the main thing, the main thing, and doing your best, uh every when the moment comes, and you know, all those little cliche things that we talked about day in and day out. But I mean, it's it's gonna be fun, you know, because of how how cool the atmosphere is over there and just being Lambo. But uh,

but at the same time, you can't. You can't separate the two you. You You attack it the way you would any other game, and you trust that your best is good enough. So you and I have spoken about your entry into the NFL quite a bit, and I think the listeners would appreciate this. So you get out of college, you're working at a finance job. About what three months in you start in that wall of what

am I doing with my life? Can you take us through your decision to give up what might have been a very lucrative career in finance to chasing the dream of being an NFL coach. Yeah, I'm until I got this job, I was I was gonna make a heck of a lot more money and banking than I do in football. But just one of those deals, you know, like try to explain the best I can. When you

do what you love, I love you back. That's that's kind of the old saying, right or us saying so, just questioning at a very young age and having the support I had from my family and the resources that I had to be able to attack coaching because not a lot of people can get into coaching because of I mean, shoot, I was making six hundred bucks a month for the first three years of my coaching career.

And so you're making pennies, You're it's tremendous sacrifice. But there's so many people who helped me along the way. But um, you know, you're sitting there in the banking world and it's like, Okay, I can chase money or I can chase what I love. And it's such a such a I'm just fortunate because it doesn't always work out this way, but when you do what you love, it'll love you back. Everything kind of took care of yourself. The money followed, the family, the kids, all of it.

Like it's I'm very blessed and and and so you just it's just fortunate. Obviously, I'm fortunate, got lucky along the way. I had a lot of great players to coach. But I was just making that I was at the crossroads of life and hey, do I want money or I want to do what I love? Every day where I don't feel like i'm you know, it's the commute downtown, jumping on the train and walking inside, going to Peter Pitt for lunch and piece deserable, miserable. So but anyway,

that was it. And then Gary Kubiak. How does that happen? How do you connect with him and get that gig in the NFL? So I was I was an intern for the for No Capers in Vic Fantio. So, so what happened was at Central Michigan there was another assistant who was now on our staff here. His name is Tonio. He's our corners coach here. Um he when we were when he was at Central, he and I got very close, very quickly. But and he was there for only Spring Bowl and then he takes it off. He becomes the

assistant dB coach for the Houston Texas. He and I stay connected, and I go to Georgia and I'm there for about two weeks and he calls and says, hey, there's an internship available. Would you be interested. I can't promise you anything, but you know it's it's five bucks an hour. I say, I'm there. Five bucks an hour, I'm there, I don't care. And it was like it was a really long weekend and coach Capers calls me and says, Rob, sounds like you're the guy we need.

And this was before quality controls was like a full time position. It wasn't even a job. Yeah, and so I was like, so don Papers was the head coach, he was the head coach, so big Fanji was assistant. God blessed him. I don't think he talked to me until like week six and seas I got hy week before a week before the season, and by week by week three that season, if everyone remembers, our offensive coordinator was let go, and like it was like, Okay, Houston's

Houston's done. Everyone stores are closed. I'm just sitting here. I'm like, what the heck am I supposed to do? Just an intern, which was in hindsight, was lucky because they couldn't fire me. I was an intern. I was technically on the coaching style. Long story short, Kubiak comes in and you know, Mike talked to Michael McDaniel talked about it last last week. I was just I was a squatter, just kind of hanging out, waiting for a cub and hovering around his desk, grabbing his trash whatever,

talking to him about the building. And when the whole weekend of just me and him visiting and uh, finlence a coach, I have options, which I didn't, which That's what I told my wife. I'd love I'd love to be here, um and I'd love to work for you and prove myself to however I can. And uh and he gave me a job and the rest is history. So the rest is history. And the young crew that you had there, I mean, he said, Mike, what's a twenty two twenty three year old? Mike McDaniel had a

yale like, what does that hang? Buddy? Rolling my man? No, he's like he's a lot like he is now just a little bit more paying or you know, he's very but the same but the same style, just the just um so smart, so authentic, um so so so good with his word, so good with his body language, his ability to communicate with people, and and the way people gravitate to him and just love being around him because he's got this personality that's I mean, you've been around him.

You know, he's got this uh he's got this way about him, you know. And uh, um, so he's he's been great. But that room, it was, it was there. It was me and Mike mcdanel the start, and then Matt Lafleur shows up and he gets thrown on one another corner and then in the final corner, was Richard hyper years and uh so it was a pretty cool room.

And then Kyle Shanahan in the hall right behind us, just coming in there just magically forgetting how to use a copy machine and yelling at the coach only twenty five years old, man press the button. But I know it was a pretty cool staff. It's funny because we always talk about that Washington staff and it was like they had lafleur, they had Shanahan, they had McDaniel, they had McVeigh. What year was that for that Texans staff? We never get that X. That's the five six or

six staff or six? Ye what did you guys do? You had Shaub and Andre like was a team good? H So Kyle I think we went um, I want to say were nine, seven or eight? We had eight and a with them um and Kyle took off to Washington to do with his pops and uh but that group that eight and eighteen Kyle's last year. He's the offensive coordinator, and it was me McDaniel. H McDaniel had left, but me lafleur were in there. So it was just it was a cycle. I don't know if we were

all in there. We're all in there together for one year, and then McDaniel took off to take a take advantage of an opportunity, and then uh, they all reunited back in Washington. We're gonna wrap with two quick questions. One. I like to ask this to all the coaches. And I know we say we don't play favorites, but it could be a sentimental favorite. It could be an all around best player, the defensive player that you enjoyed coaching the most. Was who in my career? Yeah, man, I

got a lot of them. Frederico Warner, Who we got? Richard Sherman? Who are we talking you got? I can go through the list. I mean, who comes out person in your head? I've been blessed, Shrays, I've been blessed. You talked from Houston, Demika Ryans was our linebacker. Him and coach like those two unbelievable to right. Then you go to Seattle, you got the legion of Boom Bobby Wagner. Chris Clements was awesome to talk crap with on a

daily basis. Um. Then you go to uh Jacksonville with with Paul Puzzlesni like you talked about I thought he was in the military and I was like, are you your family? And he's like, what are you talking about coaching? Just just football guy. You look at football guy and it's his nee, just hands. Just buy the book Love puzz I mean the guys guys working as a defense contractor, and uh, I'm like, buddy, you know you don't need to work. He's like, I get bored him, like like

he's in rocket science. Basically, I'm like, he's the best. And then you go to San Francisco and just the from the forest Buckner to Warner Um, Jimmy Ward part Richard Sherman again. I mean, it's been I've been so fortunate, and then you get into this group and there's so

many young personalities here. I have been very, very fortunate in my career and like I said, we were You know, when you get to one of these seats, it's, uh, you've been blessed to be around great players, and every head coach, every coach can say that that you're you're blessed and we've been fortunate. So and my last question is always going to be a little life advice and life advice for those at home, and in this case, I go back to your year, last year, your house,

isn't ready yet. You've got seven children, you've got a wife, you're in a new market, and correct me if I'm wrong. You guys are living in a two bedroom apartment, three bedroom apartment while you're waiting through your house. How did you get through that? And how did your marriage still stable? And take us through just all all the dads and husbands out there, seven kids in a two bedroom apartment with a new job in a new market. Good luck

and pull up. We did have Okay, so there's Murphy bed Yeah, but now I'll be honest, that credit goes to my wife. I got to go to work and hide from it. And you know, like I look back at it, my kids they grew up like it was almost like the way we grew up. You know. I was like, hey, i'll meet you, and I meet you across the street, or I'll meet you in the in

the lobby or whatever. Like they were going. I don't know where the heck they were Half the time, they were in you know, Ricky Manning's kids apartment, messing with their kids. They're they're messing with all the players. I'm like,

what the heck is going on? World? No, it wasn't it's like it's temporary living or it's like just an apartment complex for all the Yeah, it's uh, it's extended basically extended living apartment complexes, and so like the players will stay there, and if you're going to be somewhere, we need a place to stay for a few months, a beautiful place, a nice place. But so my kids they're running around, they don't know anybody. They're sleeping on

top of each other, they don't know anything. And uh, the hard part was for my wife and I because you know, you want some private time, you want to hang out with the web. I want to watch you. I don't think I watched TV at all last year because there's there's always there's one TV. You know, it's The Making Mouse Club, you know, it's like but but no, it's we're fortunately it's funny now that we're in the house and knock out what we got this beautiful home

and all these bedrooms. Job, they're all in the same bedroom, sleeping on top of each Yeah. So I'm like, you know, you have your own bedroom, Like god, I want to see what Adam he steal all the swan and so you got all of them just feet in mouth and you're like, what's wrong with you guys? You got all the space. But um, I feel like it brought the kids to very very close together. And you know, my wife and I we got a room in the opposite side of the room, don't hear in our house, and

so everything's great. But um, you know, you appreciate you always want to look at the silver lining of stuff, and so you can you can either dwell, you know, an adversity, or you can uh shine, I guess. And I looked at the silver lining and that the kids were doing awesome. Yeah, it was a little hard for my wife and I, but um, but the kids, which is the main thing. My wife is the main thing. But the kids, who are also big part of it, they were they were thriving, and so it was I

thought it was cool. You like Jersey huh Yeah, my wife loves it. I don't get to see much of it, but I do. I. Um, I love the fact. That's the thing. Man, I grew up in Jersey. It is like a thing like once you get here, you really did. Everyone Everyone who comes here, they're like, man, New York. I was expecting. I was like, no, we're thirty minutes

away from everything. I mean, everybody knows everybody. You walk into the barbershop and it's like every all the locals are there, all the kids know, every parent knows every parent, every kid knows every kid. And you go to as it's it's like where I grew up. You know, you go to a graduation party and there's ten parents at this graduation party. They're just hanging out, like chaperoning and hanging out one another while all their kids are doing whatever.

And it's like everyone is so tight knit, and it's just you feel safe in that regard because you know your kids can just ride a bike and go somewhere, and you know that if something's wrong, somebody knows somebody to make sure that your kid gets home safely. Uh So I love it here. It's beautiful. It's not New York. It's New Jersey, but you're thirty minutes from New York where you can go get all of New York that you want, but you can still kind of escape to

the quiet birds, which is my style. And uh but but it's you know, we're fortunate. We're in a very very nice area and my wife loves it and we love it. We can be happier. I'm happy for you man three and two going into Lambeau. It's a cool moment for Robert Salo and the New York Jets. And I appreciate you being our first guest on the season with Peter Schreker. This is awesome, dude, Thank you. I appreciate you, brother, You're the man. Guys, Robert Sala awesome

as always. Good luck this weekend. Thanks man. Robert Salo was awesome. That guy. He's a great coach and a great man. And I gotta tell you, the team we have an NFL network is pretty awesome too. And one of the sneaky easter eggs that we have on Good Morning Football is that we've got one of the best research groups you will see in sports television. And at the Combine and at the Draft. I'm on the panel there and it's like my favorite time of the year.

I'm doing all the draft stuff and I've got this little secret weapon in my back pocket. And his name is Tony Holzman Escorreno, and Tony is our researcher on that set, and it's myself, it's Chris Rose, it's Charles Davis, and Tony and I we bust balls, but we also love to go through the actual numbers and like dig a little deeper and get those nuggets. Tony, welcome to

the podcast. Man, appreciate you having me, Shregs. It's an honor to be here, which you obviously we have a great time at the Combine in the draft every year, but it's good to be in a different media in which you're here. Let me tell you something. I thought it'd be cool every week to have a segment for the listener. It's called make Me Smarter. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lean on you and your brethren over there in the research group, and you're going

to make me smarter. And in this case, I watch this Dallas Cowboys defense and I see Michael Parsons empty bag, get sacks, play defensive end, play linebacker, play quarter on some plays, and he's everywhere and historical. I'm like, he's kind of like LT, but he's also kind of like you know, Aaron Donald in a way. The segment is called make Me Smarter, And the question is this, Tony, how the heck does Michael Parsons do it? What makes

him what he is? Make me smarter. I mean, when we watch Michael Parsons play, it's easy to see that he's a unicorn on the field. I mean, every time you see him, he's the best athlete on the field by far. The thing that we do know that anybody can look up. Michael Parsons is tied for first in the sacks this year, and he's tied for fourth in the NFL and sacks going back to his rookie season at twenty twenty one. But honestly, Parsons has put up full time production in a part time role. He has.

He had a quote that said, me at sixty percent is better than most people's hundred percent, so we're gonna show it. So Parsons only rushed the pastor on sixty percent of his snap since twenty twenty one, despite that he's top five in sacks. He's the only player and the top fifty and sacks to rush the pastor on

fewer than seventy five opponent dropbacks, which is insane. And as you were saying that he does so many different things, he's the only player with two hundred and fifty snaps against the run in coverage and rushing the pastor since twenty twenty one. According to our NFL in House Next Year stats. Now, his role has changed a little bit this year. So going back to his rookie season, Parsons had three games with two or more sacks will rushing the passer on only half of his half of opponent

drop backs. That was only fewer than three other players, including TJ. Watt, who won Defensive Player of the Year, had had six such games. If we fast forward to twenty twenty two, his roles changed because he's rushing the pastor on eighty percent of his drop backs, and he already has three games with two sacks in the first

five games of the season, which is insane. It puts him on pace for ten, which would break the NFL record held by Reggie White in his nineteen eighty seven defensive play the year ten games, ten games of two or more sex games and two or more Sexeggie did it that year. Reggie White had eight, So he's on pace to break it by two games. It's insane. Now.

If we want to look get into this week and the matchup with the Eagles, Yeah, the Eagles have PFF's highest graded pass blocking offensive line this season, and the Cowboys have PFF's highest graded pass rush, so that's a great matchup to watch. Now, Parsons, as we've talked about, splits his time all over the place, and he rushes from the left side and the right side when he's

lined up against right tackle Lane Johnson. That's a strength against strength matchup PFF's highest graded offensive line, offensive tackle and pass blocking versus p f second highest graded edge rusher. And then the thing when it goes weakness on strength is Jordan Malata miss last week with the shoulder injury and Jack Driscoll started for him. He's gonna have to do with Parsons for the other half of the snap.

So the matchup will be very interesting to watch in the sense of you have an all Pro against an all Pro, and the you have an all Pro against the backup. Possibly Yeah, and that could be the formula for the Cowboys pulling upset against the Eagles. Yeah. I ask you because you're making us smart with all the numbers and stuff. I mean, just the naked eye coming out of the draft. You and I do all this draft stuff. We do the calm. By what I was saying,

we knew he'd be good. Did you have any idea that he would be like this, not at all, not not. I mean, I knew he could rush the pass or some but nobody expected him to be that at two hundred and four generational talent. He moves offensive line in one hundred pounds more than him, which is insane, and he can run with wide receivers like he's he hasn't allowed a receiving a touchdown and coverage in his career.

And he rushed like he's such a unicorn. And like the crazy thing is I'm in New York Giants had that pick and Penn State Giants like it's a he fits everything lt the history, all of the stuff. Giants trade that pick, they get next year's first, and then they get Cadarius Tony, um, and you know, we'll look at that for the next The next year's first ended up being Evan Neil, but like, we'll look at that

for a long time. Evan Neil and Kadarius Tony and they end up passing on just having Michael Parsons who was in there that they better hope Evan Neil is what they think he is because he's no dealing with Michael Parsons for a long, long time. Absolutely all right, Tony, you're the man. Much appreciated. Thanks for making me smarter. I appreciate you, Shirks, thank you for having me on.

It means a lot beautiful, all right. One of the things that's cool about having my own podcast is I can bully around the bosses and the producers and say I want I want my friends on it too. I don't just want, you know, fancy NFL superstars, and I want guys that I grew up with who I think are hilarious and if they were in our line of work, would all be superstars too, because they're smart, they're funny, and they're my guys and my gals. And one of

them is my college roommate, Aaron. Aaron, I'm gonna let you up right now. We went to Emmery University from the years two thousand and two thousand and four. Many nights at Club one twelve listening to the Ying Yang Twin, and many a great great late night trips to the Harris Teeter or the Kroger Market to get some chicken wings at two am. Aaron, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Peter. Some of my finest memories of my life of course, and thank you so much. It said an honor. It's

a dream. You know. We had a radio show going back in the day at the Emery University and it's been twenty years in the making, Peter, I've been waiting for you to finally get me on something and maybe we can recreate some of the magic that we used to have from from back in the day. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here on this podcast. So let me let me start it off with some more about you. You're an La guy through and through, and I was a Jersey guy. We were roommates throughout college,

fraternity brothers, the whole thing. But one of the things that you're interested in that I don't give a crap about is like this weird sci fi superhero and like to the point where it could be the third offshoot of a Star Wars show, and you've already binged the entire thing or Marvel Universe. You can reference the eleventh character from the Iron Man film and you'll give me

the full Wikipedia on him. And we were at dinner last week with a bunch of our college friends and you made a statement that I thought would rock the world. The statement was that this new Game of Thrones, this House of the Dragons, is superior to the original. R R. Martin far superior. Take it away, Peter, far superior. And thanks for the shout out to La Go Dodgers. Sorry to the family for staying up till two in the morning for the next month of October. Yes, Peter, absolutely,

it's better. You're kidding me. From the opening lines, from the opening segment, you know, everybody wants to think that the old Game of Thrones. Right at the music hits in and you get all the old world coming. We got blood lines flowing from date. From the first second, this show starts all about the blood lines. And this show it's far superior. I think this show is just on a different level. And you know the reason why, Peter. I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna take it back

to your show here, but your football. I mean, listen, you and I know football quite well. We know we know what we see a great backup quarterback in action. Okay. Now the reason this show so good. You got someone called Miguel Sapatchnick. I don't know you know who who that is? Okay, character and actor Miguel Miguel is a is a writer, he's a director. He's a man who was standing behind uh, mister Benioff, mister Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones for many seasons, sit in the

winds waiting. Okay. This is a guy who directed one of the greatest episodes of Game of Thrones, the Battle of the Bastard John Snow versus Ramsey Bolton. Okay, one of the best episodes. This guy has been waiting. He's like a he's like a geno smith. He's been waiting for his moment. Okay, and here he is. This is his show. This is a Miguel Sapatchnick show. Comes in House of Dragons. It is beautiful, I mean beautiful. This

show got a great story. All about the story, you know, in fact, you know you want to compare it to another show that's out there right now, The Rings Show over on the Amazon. I mean, it's all about the story. The story's lacking over with the Rings Show. It's it's so good over on House of Dragon. It just and and personally, I just think, you know, I don't need all the fantasy. You know, of course I love that, thank you. You know, I am a big fan of

all these these these genres. But you know with Game of Throws, you had it had the Walkers, and he had the war dragons had all these things and whatever House of dragged. All I need is a good story and dragons. That's it, cut and dry. Not a lot going on except for great story and dragons. Okay, I didn't watch a single episode of Game of Thrones, And a lot of the listeners will be like, well do that immediately? Um, where when do you watch this during

football season? Like? What are you a guy who watches its Sunday night and then reads all the recaps and gets on the podcast listens to like the watch with Andy Greenwald and all those guys? Or do you watch at your own leisure? No? We as you know, Peter, you know, I'm busy. I got I got a job, I do things like a family and everything. So I stay until two in the morning, three in the morning, you know, pretty much every night. You know, I need some me time. And the me time is usually when

I consume my content, call my stories my content. And yes, I watch I watch it right on the Sunday night. Absolutely, I need I need to see the show right away because then I go to the old YouTube and I watched some of my favorite YouTubers recap some of the videos. Right, explainer videos, right, of course, of course we've got to get a little Easter eggs here and there, a little timmy back to the stories. You'll give me some reminders.

Oh yeah, that's right. Okay, you know I'm I love it, Peter, Yeah, I'm consuming content in the in the wee hours of the night most nights. This might be a weekly segment. You give us a little recommendation or something, but that is the take. Listeners, if you're listening, I want a Game of Thrones inferior to House of Dragons. You heard it from my college roommate, one of my best friends, mister Aaron on the call. Listen, real quick story to sum up this guy's love for that kind of genre.

We always joke about it. We were on a trip to Nashville last year, first time all of our college guys were together since COVID. We go out on Broadway. We have a big night. I'll name drop Blake Shelton sets us up at his little honky tonk, the Old Red. We have this great night night. We get back to the hotel, around three in the morning, we're together for the first time and there's just a light beaming. Yeah, we still all crash in the same hotel room, don't

question us. But we see this light beaming from one of the corners of the room and it's Aaron watching his phone. We're like, what the hell are you doing? And tell the audience what you had to do at three in the morning after a big parting night in Nashville. Loki. It was all about Loki, amazing show, and I was catching up on whatever episode four of Loki. I mean I needed to you know, get and you know, unwind a little bit before I got to bed, listen to

my stories watching the content. Great show, by the way, phenomena three three in the morning, Four forty year old men in a room, lying around, just trying to figure out how we're gonna wake up the next morning. And there's a beam of light and it's some show called Loki and one of our friends is devouring at all friend, is you Aaron? Thank you for joining the podcast. Peter, all right, and that's a rap, that's what we believe it.

We start with Arrowhead Stadium and talking about the intensity between the Chiefs and the Bills, and we end it with the intensity of Game of Thrones versus House of Dragons, and in between we talked Micah, we talked with Robert Salah and we had a blast. I want to thank our producer, Aaron Wong Kaufman. Aaron, thank you, Bro. I want to thank Tony, our research expert, Tony Holtzman Escarano. And we want to thank our music man, Jack rud who made this music and it was awesome and we're

going to continue to keep on rolling. Week six is on the way. It's Bills, Chiefs week. Let's go baby. Thanks for listening to everyone,