Baker Mayfield: The Gift that Keeps on Giving | Salty Dogs

What do you call two guys that were there win? This happened back to return at Spurlock.

Michael Spurlock of the cham He's to the twenty, He's to the twenty.

Five Parlo thirty to the forty yard line.

We could see history.

Fifty forty to the thirty yard light.

Michael run, Michael Luck.

Michael run, touchdown, Tampa Bay.

There you go in.

That shot gun sends wee receivers left. Here's the staff of the glitzer has picked up Brady Unity.

Caught ball ups. He has the record at the eleven yard line.

Mike Evans becomes the first NFL player in lead history to record a thousand yards of more of this first seventh season, and.

Want to throw by Brady.

Congratulations Mike Evans. Who can forget Gann looking gat holds up the hats the other side. Derek Bucks thirty touchdown.

Tampa Bay. Derek Brooks the.

Most pariable player in the National Football League.

There it is Dot Daggers in We're gonna win the super Bowl.

Here's the snap.

Mahomes running to his right.

Lookout he may run Mahome director.

Now battle inner seven.

Picked over the ins on Fox. I gotta beat the Chief.

Where the chapters of the world that we still have. I'm in a thirty three ago.

Damn it, White, what a great second season.

That's it for Casey Fox. All the Super Bowl champs, they can't stop the plot. We call them the Salty Dogs.

Welcome everybody to the Salty Dogs Podcast. Yes, I'm Scott Smith, I'm Jeff Ryan, and we're the Salty Dogs. We are and we are happy for the fourth week in a row.

Totally totally nuts.

Four game winning streaks are fun.

You know, LF just got smoother, and you know what, the coffee tastes better.

All of a sudden, I don't like coffee. Who knew. No, we had a we had a hot chocolate station in the press box too. That was new.

Oh yeah, well that was That was Danielle Burns, I know. And she did a terrific job.

And she made it very festive with these little jars filled with like, yeah, chocolate covered and yogurt covered prets, little candies and.

Yeah, yeah, it's very good. It was a nice tree.

It made it very festive. And so did the win.

Yeah I did it. I didn't notice about Christmas Eve.

I thought the locker I made a point of saying this to a couple of people on Wednesday when we were here in the locker room for the open locker room session.

Uh huh.

The locker room was very lively this week, like a lot of guys in different pockets were having a lot of fun and being loud and joking around.

Before the game or after.

On Wednesday for the game, Oh here, yes, yeah, I thought vibe. I thought the vibe was fantastic in the locker room. And that doesn't necessarily mean anything, you know, but afterwards, if you try to make connections and go, well, you could tell they were loose. You know, they're feeling it. There could be something to that. It's not quantifiable.

Well, no, but I think there's a lot to it. I think the cohesiveness of the team is really coming together. And I keep thinking about what Dave Canalis had said in the very very beginning that it was going to take a little bit of time, and it just seems like it's it's coming together. And when you have success, of course, it breeds success.

Success breeds belief. There you go, and then that makes the you know, the players are buying in, they know it works.

Right, It has been for the last four weeks.

Yeah, we're talking about now a thirty to twelve win over Jacksonville, which really wasn't even that close. They got a couple of garbage time touchdowns when the Bucks were playing the kind of defense that you play in order to make them run the clock off. And before that they the Jaguars couldn't do much of it all. I mean, they put up some yards, especially in the passing game, not in the running game, but the Buccaneers defense was swarming and creating turnovers, four of them in fact, after

Well, there was really nothing to talk about.

I thought it had been kind of talked about more than it shut out. Yeah, but Devon had not played for three weeks and coach Bulls had told him before the Green Bay trip once he told Coach Bowls before the premay trip that he didn't think he was ready to go right, he had been dealing with a foot injury. Well, he came back in this game and did not start the game. kJ Britt did, which gives you the impression that he was, that Devin White was was there to

Was we played a lot of nickel.

They played about eighty seven percent of their snaps with three receivers, so we were in nickel pretty much the whole game. So Devin White actually went back to playing almost a whole game. Yeah, and kJ Briddle he played three snaps.

Right, crazy, right, But the good news is they both can play.

We like both of them, right, Yeah, that's good. And uh so Devin White makes the story just I mean, you can't you can't write this stuff. First drive, third down, he intercepts the pass right, uh and it was.

A really nice play, which which just ignited the whole stadium. And when that happened, you kind of thought, okay, fine, And not only that, but they scored. So when you start scoring off of turnovers, that's everything.

Yes, I agree, And we scored on the first three. The last one we weren't really even trying that hard to score anymore.

After the no, no, no, it looked like, yeah, it looked like the foot got off the gas pedal there in the second half.

I thought that to me the moment that made me feel you know, there's sometimes these games are winning, even in this point double digit lead, you should be feeling good, but I tend to think I'm waiting for the shoot to drop. I shouldn't feel that way.

I just remember, I just remember twenty eight to three. That's all I ever remember. You're never And I also remember some of our games were.

Ahead well and like the Houston game, you thought you had that one. Well yeah, So the moment where I stopped feeling that way was so they get the ball to start the second half, right, they winning Jacksonville. They're winning. We're winning twenty to nothing. We're total control in the first half. Yep. But I'm thinking if they go to here and score on this one, it's going to be a game. And then if they could stop us and get another one, you know, then I'm going to start

Could blood it was Christmas Eve.

The Buccaneers have never blown a twenty seven point lead to lose a game.

No, so I think they blew a twenty six point lead. Well no, no, no, it was twenty six to three at the half back when the La Rams.

Oh yeah, that was a Sunday night game on Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, but that was you're right, twenty six points.

Yes, that was the game. That was the game where ty J Armstrong like an eighty one yard touchdown.

Yeah, that was a that was a I don't even want to talk about that game.

And so let's it wasn't It wasn't. It wasn't like the indie game. And oh too though, because the what year was that?

What, twenty sixty three three? Yeah, something in that neighborhood.

Well, you know, but it wasn't. That wasn't like, oh, at ruin the season, you know it was a good season.

And oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I know what you're.

Yeah, so, uh, actually, the biggest lead we've oh we have blown. Yeah no, no, we've blown the highest. The biggest lead we've ever blown was twenty five points in nineteen eighty seven to lose thirty one twenty eight to the Saint Louis Cardinals. Yeah. I was not in Saint Louis then, that was I was in my first year of college November eighth, nineteen eighty seven. No, no, yeah, that's right. Then the game you're talking about is tied for second because we blew a twenty four point lead

What you're what you're talking about is when they finally when he had that last lead. Well, haven't you finally felt comfortable in the game. I never really feel comfortable. I begin too, but I always think, okay, don't don't get overly excited, just yet, just keep keep going, stay in the game, stay focused. What are we doing here?

I wasn't too worried. No, after that, and then we got another field goal because Chase McLaughlin knocking wood never yesses. No, he's up to twenty six of twenty eighth this year, he made a fifty one yard He's six for seven and fifty plus yarders, and he's tied right now with Connor Barth, who had a twenty six or twenty eighth season UH for the best field goal percent Engine team history. Right in a season, the guy's made fifteen in a row. I'm knocking on with everyone. I'm knocking on what. I

Got Well, you know, you know people don't you know, we always say, don't say what's going to happen? Well, we were in somewhere deep into the third.

Quarter or wherever we were.

And I went, I wonder when the last time we had her shut out? And I pulled the book out, flipped it open. Where's my yellow marker? I found my yellow marker highlighted.

Is it's been a while?

Yeah, well, no, it's only like twenty.

I think it was we shut out in twenty I think.

I'd have to remember off that. I don't remember who it was. I'll tell you, but it wasn't very It wasn't very long ago. I was kind of surprised by it.

It was that soon.

It was you're wrong, by the way, when oh, no, ten, it was twenty ten. I knew it had a twenty in it somewhere.

Scott, well most of them do. Oh it was twenty one zero over San Francisco in on Halloween in twenty ten.

Okay, so there you go. So it was a long time. It was thirteen years ago. But I highlighted it, and of course they scored, and I was like.

But we did pitch a first half shutout. Yeah, for the first time since I don't remember you saw my note. It's been a while, twenty twenty one maybe, right, So that was fun. Baker Mayfield, can you say more than that? Dude, we need to say more than that this. The Bucks are streaking right now. The offense is scoring twenty or twenty nine points per game over the last four weeks, and the biggest reason is Baker Mayfield. I mean, it's

Right now, very much so.

If you can't call this last one his best game since he had a perfect passer rating the week.

Before in Bay but he was just yeah, what a bomer had a rough game last week?

Jeez?

What's he doing?

Not turning the ball over? Yep and taking advantage opportunities.

I just get so concerned, like when he fights, when he fights for the yardage, and I just like.

Bake, come on, you're not going to take that out of him.

No, you can't take it. You can't.

Part of who he is. That's it, that's that's part of why the team loves him well well.

As Tristan Worth said number six, he's a little guy, but he's fiery a little guy.

Only NFL would Baker Mayfield be considered a little Yeah.

I love I loved it, But when you stand next to Tristan Worfs, he could be not a little guy.

Yeah, Tristan Worfs is not a little guy, so.

Yeah, I think Baker just is. Uh. I like what he said. He said he's having more fun now than he has in the last five years. So look at his five years. That includes being.

A very good playoff season with Cleveland and.

Yeah, and then also just being picked numbers all. Yeah, and he's having more fun and I think that's why playing so well.

They need to go back to making those uh. I don't remember what company was. It was commercials over where the stadium was his house. Progressive progressive. Yeah, that's not great when you remember the ad, but not who that's not great for the company there was they.

Did well years ago. There was a there's an ad for Alka Seltzer and it was popizzzz it is. People could sing the song, but they couldn't remember really Yeah. And also there was there was also that commercial where he some guy eats a pizza I don't know, Yeah, and it's the same thing. It was really funny, but you couldn't remember the which was.

The which was the UH which was the detergent brand for ancient Chinese secret. Huh No that one.

No, I have no idea. Geez, what I don't know?

Okay, So Baker Mayfield, what was he in this game? Let's see. I think it was like twenty.

Six was down?

He was down sixteen points. Going to disappointed.

Geez, he's at a slug. It can't stay consistent.

Over the last four weeks, his pass rating is just a little north of one ten, which is third in the NFL in that span. Actually, Derek Carr is fourth. By the way. He's playing better lately than people realize, but not as explosive. This time he didn't have quite the same like last week he had. He averages something like thirteen point two yards per ten, which is a huge number. This one wasn't quite as explosive. But he's getting the job done and moving the chains, moving the change.

He doesn't have as many catches, but he has key catches. Yeah, he's got a lot.

Though. He does lead the league in reception, I mean the team in receptions.

By right, but a lot of them are that, oh boy, we really need this, and there's Chris making the scoop and so that is that. I think. I don't know it just the offense actually, just it just looks like it's working now I know it is. But you know how sometimes when you see a play and it's it just doesn't there's no flow to it. Yeah, I'm just in the last few weeks I'll say Green Bay and last week against Jacksonville. There it just seems so fluid. It just seems so here we go marching down. You

I'll say something about the offense over the last month that I think Dave Canalis would really like because it kind of echoes some of the things he's been talking about. Okay, it looks like in each of these last four games, the offense has answers for whatever they come up against, whatever situations. Third and eight, third and seven, third and three. We've been fantastic in third short, by the way, uh huh, And it has answers for whatever the opposing defense decides to do.

I'm glad you mentioned that because he's on the Todd Bowles Show that's going to go tonight and then you can catch it on bucket. He talked about how as time has gone on, he's learned how to make adjustments to what's being shown exactly, and that is exactly what you're saying.

A couple of times in recent weeks he said he's gotten better at knowing when to pull certain things out of the bag. He's like, I went to something too early. We needed to get it set up more and it would have worked better at a different time in the game.

He talked about that, don't get so anxious to make the big splash play it. Let it unfold.

I'm sure if I was an offensive coordinator and I had my suite of plays ready to go for a game, I'd have three or four that I was really excited about, right, something that you.

Just well, you have to be excited about it, but your quarterback has to be excited, right.

And what I'm saying is it would be hard not to just dial that one up right away, right well, but sometimes they need to be set up. And that's one thing that this offense is doing a great job of the last month is designing and running plays that are set up by stuff we've done before.

I think the running game really wasn't that it was, But I did not think the running game was not good during the game. Does that make any sense? Well, part of it was.

I mean, we ended up with one point nine yards for cars, so that's obviously not good. But for the most of the second half, or at least a good portion of it, we were running the ball into the teeth of a defense that we.

Were running, Yeah, because we were going to throw it at that point.

We just wanted to burn the clock.

But it didn't you know, kind of just like to me, it just didn't feel like, oh boy, we're in trouble. I guess maybe get you yeah, you know. And and but then after I looked at the the shoms, Yeah, and I was like, how did I miss that? But I guess we didn't need it.

Well, you needed to still run the ball.

Beginning, yeah, to kill the clock.

Yes, well, and also just to have people to play action off.

Of it and stuff like that, keep everybody honest. What was your favorite part about that?

Oh yeah, that's what that's supposed to be.

My question, you can ask.

Favorite part was probably, as I said before, the yah Yad Dyabi force fumble play, because that's just it's like in It was like in both Super Bowls when you got to that moment where you thought, Okay, that's it, We've got this. Now those are obviously much more important games, but I've had that feeling at that moment.

My favorite was zero over zero zero tackling zero.

Oh yeah, that was cool.

And we noted that too, never been said, yeah, oh you looked it up. Well, how could zero and zero earlier this year? Okay, I'll make you feel better. Zero and zero has never been uttered by Gene Decker until Sunday. How is that thirty five years?

In case anybody else there doesn't know what Jef is talking about, this is the first year that players have been allowed to use the jersey numbers zero. There's only a handful of moron the lee because not a lot of guys changed numbers, so they need to be guys

I was kind of hoping that it was zero. It wasn't zero, Well, I guess it would be zero game, but it was negative twelve, So yeah, I like it just would have been zero zero zero. Yeah, just for statisticians, you would appreciate those numbers.

For game purposes. I like the negative twelve very much. So it was zero hour.

Yes, Oh, very good. I also liked between the third and fourth corner quarter quarter Santa Claus on the pirate ship playing the guitar.

I did like that. That was pretty neat.

It was very cool, very very cool. He was shredding, Hey, getting it done. It's Santa Man.

Was the song sand You've got Santa Man?

Yeah, because I think the song Sandman.

We've got so much left to cover here notes you got, well.

It isn't an amazing when you win like that. It's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Oh, there was a point. It's one of those games where there was a point where so much was happening that involved me having to look up and tweet out notes that it was like hectic. Yeah, it's because it kept this.

We like when it's hectic for you because we use a lot of your stuff. When you're tweeting and you and I communicate during the game, I can tell it's very very and I'll say this, I can look stuff up. Also, the problem is if Scott does it, then I know it's absolutely correct and I don't have to worry about it. I got actually, and this is kind of my broadcast crew.

This is how they are.

Right postgame show, I say today more during commercial break. Oh, just so you know, we only need one win. We'll win the division no matter what anybody else does. We just need one. Out of tude, he pauses, He looks at me and he goes, is that true?

What do you mean?

Is that true?

Yeah?

Is that true? Really? If I say it, is it going to be right? And I said, yeah, I'm telling you, and then everybody's like looking at me, like I I have no idea Savannah passing this book, the book Tradition, which is a wind streak because she's been very consistent times. Yes, so uh yeah, that's why I like taking your stuff because I know it'll be factual unless you retweet and say oops my bad. Yeah, I was gonna say, then I can blame you, and I don't care.

I did get one slightly wrong because when Levante David got a sack, it gave him thirty three point five in his career, and I said that he passed I looked at my chart and saw that put him past JPP, and I said, he passed JPP for ninth. And then after I tweeted, I realized, oh, Brad Culpeper and JPP were tied, so he passed both of them into eighth. Oh.

So it wasn't just one.

It wasn't so much that it was wrong. It just wasn't complete. H See, that's good. Or it was just a little bit is a teeny bit wrong, all right? But still so we were talking about the Bucks on third down. Now, the Bucks third done defense, which was such an enormous problem for the first half of the season, has been a lot better in the second half. Yeah,

Wow.

But yeah, and only thirty nine rushing yards allowed. Travis etn had a total from scrimmage of twenty nine plus so forty eight yards from scrimmage, he'd been averaging around one hundred, didn't score. His numbers were very much like Rashad White's coming in game, and we really held him.

In check, which is what we're supposed to do.

Evan Ingram didn't have catching ten passes but only average nine point five. Calvin really did catch two touchdowns, so that probably made some fantacy football say. My final difference is.

I don't know. I don't I was thinking about that that game, and you know, it was a four o'clock game, so it was kind of a long day to begin with. But I just think it was all around are really really good. Maybe Wait, what is I gonna say? How was our kicking? Our kicking? How how was our punning?

Fifty average?

Okay, he needs to work on them. How about in the San Francisco game the punter get getting a personal foul?

Didny?

Yeah, he had a guy going out of balance. Yeah, but I was like, really, Baltimore the punter, the punter, Really Baltimore kicked the crap out of San Francisco. Yeah, Well, you know it's funny. I just this past weekend games, I don't know a lot of people didn't feel really

Were talking about how you were talking about how the Bucks offense right now is really in a groove, and I was saying, they have answers for everything. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, they're not finding answers right now.

Not at all.

That game. Yeah, you kept waiting because at some point they're going to pull out of it, and they just never did.

Yeah, especially when it when it got to less than two scores in the fourth court. I always look at a game and say it with a team like Kansas City, if you go to the fourth quarter and you're down by two scores, you got a chance of winning that game.

With the Chiefs, he's proven it time and time again, but not as much this season.

No, No, a major struggle. And then the Dallas Cowboys can't win on the road, which you know for US, yes, a few weeks, yep, they they're struggling. Buffalo didn't dominate, but they did win. That's all you need to do, and that's all you need to do. But I just I just think it's like every It's like everybody says, when a team gets hot in December, you're on a roll.

I think it's Baltimore in than US. Oh okay, and Baltimore looks fantastic, so yeah, they did.

They look pretty good.

So I think a companion note to what you're saying is that the NFC field playoff field seems to have contracted on itself for a little bit, and we've been focused on the Bucks winning a division title. But you know, just like nobody believed in the Bucks to start the season, you know that the probably majority of analysts out there think, Okay, yeah, maybe they'll win the division, but then they won't do

But it feels.

A little different right now, right like I might have felt that way four weeks ago. Maybe we can win the division.

But come on, yeah, people are finally people go, well, it's against Jacksonville, so you have a quality win, which bro what about the Green Bay one? Well, that's what I'm saying, But that's what I mean. Atta, I think any win you have is a quality win because Carolina beats the Texans and the Texans are in a wild card hunt right now. So I'll tell you the teams that are hot right now my opinion, Rams, the Rams, the Seahawks, and the Buccaneers. The Seahawks, well they just won t.

They're right there, Baltimore. Oh, you're just talking.

About NFC teams that teams that were falling off by the wayside.

Now all of a sudden, surging, Detroit is right of the ship a little bit. Philly looks like they're in a little bit of trouble. That's what I'm talking about. Detroit did beat us pretty handily, so we can't talk any crap.

So Philly with Detroit, you're gonna find out what they're made of when they go and play Dallas right this week?

Yeah, because Dallas has been great at home. Correct, I don't know what we should root for there. We can't move. It probably doesn't matter a whole lot. We can't move higher than four now because we're now three games back of Philly, Detroit and.

And there's only two games left. So I can do the math.

That's out of the picture, right, So it really doesn't matter if Detroy wins more, it doesn't matter to us.

No, But but the beauty is you win your division, you're gonna get a a playoff game at home, which helps you out.

And almost certainly the five seed at the top wild card is going to be whoever doesn't win.

The East Dallas or I think it's gonna be Dallas.

Y Phillies, Phillies. Last two games are Arizona and the Giants.

Yeah, just now, the Giants did play pretty decently near the end last night. Well yeah, but still it's too much to overcome. Well that it's true, but you just don't anyway.

The point being, the Bucks are locked into the floor, just like last year. If they clinched. The division is not done yet.

No, nope, nope, nope.

They'll be playing at home, probably maybe against the same team they did last year. But it doesn't feel like it's just ceremonial and they'll get in and then they're losing their out. The way we're playing now, the way Philly is kind of kind of looking non dominant. Their offense isn't really clicking right now. Their defense has had problems all year. Detroit looks good in a lot of ways, but their defense has some issues and they've been a

Well, I think San Francisco struggled when they lost Williams Trent Williams, and they were moving people around. They lost a couple, they lost their center, so you start losing your own lines, and yeah, it's not gonna help, and you're playing from behind.

So that's the other side. Well, the three game losing streak a while back, they were missing their guys. It was a debo one.

Of the y and I think I think that's the other thing is you have to play good in December as obviously we are, but you also have to be healthy. You got to get a little you got to have a little luck on your health.

And and it's just like we did in twenty twenty, right.

Yes, and so's what's nice is for the Buccaneers they need to win one out of two, preferably they beat the Saints, because we just love beating the Saints, and you will lock it up and have it. Interesting question during the postgame show with Todd was are you going to rest your starters? Well two answers he gave that I really loved. The first one was because the question was are you going to rest your starters so you

You could rest. You could play Kyle Trass, right.

But then he said, I felt like last year when we played Atlanta, we sat people down and we lost our moje, which I thought was.

Make believe that if we're in a similar situation, he's not going to do that.

Yeah, And I think I would treat it, you know, and people go, you know, you can't got a guy hurt, no kid, True, that's obvious. But I think if you treat it more or less like a I don't know, you play in the first half and if you get up twenty twenty five points, you pull them right, you know, you know what I'm saying. If you get a nice lead, it's it's.

A tough one though, like last to you.

But but does it feel better to be ten and seven than nine and eight?

Yeah? For sure, Okay, but I just want us to be over five hundred, so nobody so we don't have two consecutive right of course, if we're under five over them, we probably didn't win the division, correct, Yeah, ten and seven looks good.

And that's and that's kind of the and that's that's like.

Plus that would mean it was a six game winning streak.

Yeah, and that's the other side. Well, and see that's the other We're gonna play fan here. So do you take a loss before you get to the playoffs so you can start a new win streak or is it better to just keep the win streak going? And you go, oh, maybe we got too many in a row.

Just point to twenty twenty.

Okay, I'm just I'm just going into you know, and you know how I hate power rankings. Yes, okay, but we're twel Where we went.

Up to twelve, we were tenth on the NFL, like, oh were you?

We got the twelve and I'm trying to figure out why we're only twelve because I looked at the other teams and I went, this is stupid. But I just but I just read that because I do the salty Dogs with you. That's the only reason why I read that. So yeah, and I'm not reading any mock drafts right now, just so you know. It's so don't ask.

It's to your point. Uh, you know, the team that did peaks at the right time. You know, the Eagles looked at one point the season like they were the class of the NFC. Yeah. San Francisco looks like it right now. But and it's just one loss. But if they have any more stumbles, they won't really be peaking. Detroit Dallas definitely not peaking right now. You said Seattle's playing well, but I don't think they're the class of the conference. Bucks could be the team is peaking just

As good as I feel right now, I am cautious, okay, because you don't want to get hurt, because in the beginning of the season we are three on one and now it's feeling really good, and then things kind of went south. However, I still am in the hunt for when I said I thought we were going to have ten wins this year, oh yeah, so I'm still in the hunt.

We're going to be We are favored, not by much this week, and I'm sure we'll be favored in Carolina. So well.

Caroline is dangerous because.

That looking decent. I don't like that.

They've always had a pretty decent defense. The problem is they're floating every other place. But you got guys playing on tape. And that's the other thing is when a new head coach comes in, probably there's going to be one since they fired their head coach, he's gonna look at the tape and say who was playing when it didn't matter Who's who? You know, So if you're a professional you're all in so, I mean, and a lot

Did you see the coin flip thing in Green Bay?

I thought that was very generous of the official.

Yeah. Yeah, didn't have to do that. I used to try to get people on that technicality when we were doing the coin flip in the flag football games.

Because you have to say deferred.

Yeah, they I think, and none of the rest would ever let me do it. They like, no, that's what they meant. Yeah, but in the NFL could have What we're talking about here is that for some reason, Jay R Alexander, who just returned to play after being out for a while, wasn't one of the team captains, wasn't even supposed to be out there.

Well, he went out there because it was his home down.

I know, but I think that was unbeknownst to everybody else that he was going to do that. And then he's the one who after they win the toss he says something like we'll be on defense, which is not the same thing as saying we'll defer. Right, So if they'd have been strict on that, then they would have turned to the other team Panthers, right, and said, okay, do you want the ball?

No?

Yeah, the then the Panthers would have had the choice in the second half and they would have chosen the ball, So they would have had the ball to start bull halves. You have to say, we defer our choice, and then the other team chooses the ball for the first half. Yeah, and then in the second half you choose the ball, which is what almost every team does now. But you have to say the words defer, and he didn't, So you're right that that ref was generous. He said something like, did you mean defer?

Yeah, I And.

Then he said afterwards he didn't know he had to say that.

You know, it's funny how how things happen on the field that someone has changed how I do our broadcast. And I'll give you an example in ninety nine with the bird of Manual rule. We didn't have a sideline reporter then and we couldn't get information of what was going on real and I may I went, okay from here on out sideline reporter, and we had one. So the other thing, I did you remember when they got when the official got the coin toss wrong?

Yes, all right.

So from that point on we carry the coin toss live because I want to know exactly what's going on and if something crazy happens, you got it covered, right. But yeah, it's funny that the most basic things like a coin toss is becoming very very difficult. I mean, either say heads or jails, defer or what do you say if you don't not defer?

If you're say I take the ball?

Okay, so the words are take ball deferred.

Those are the two choices you should not be saying anything else.

Okay.

Famously, the Bucks in a I can't remember who the coach was, but in a overtime game in New England on an incredibly bad weather day, won the coin toss to start overtime, but chose direction rather than taking the ball because the weather was so bad and they felt like that was an advantage. But the Patriots down for the game winning field goal or touchdown. You don't want to do that. I think it might have been Ray Perkins.

Oh it was before my time.

Oh yeah, it was before both of them.

That's good, because I was going to go.

You would have expected to remember that.

Yeah, I don't know. That's pretty crazy, but that's out. That's putting analytics to a whole new level, which is the numbers don't lie, but they can't get you in trouble. Perkins, all right, so I wasn't responsible.

Then, okay, next thing on my notes here Zion McCollum. So after the Green Bay game, when we figured that Carlton Davis was coming back, so you'd have Davis and Dean healthy, Coach Bowles was asked, since Zion's played so well, is there any chance you might rotate corners to keep him involved? And coach said, well, we don't really rotate corners. That's not a position we rotate that, but we do want to get keep putting Zion on the field, so we're going to come up with ways to do so.

Coach calls d Delaney the army Swiss Swiss knife, Swiss army knife, Swiss army knife.

So it's kind of like we have different ways of filling that spy and it's not just one star at this point. But it was interesting to see Zion McCollum in the mix. And I was talking to Casey Phillips after the game, texting with her and and she had interviewed Zion before the game.

He did well. He did Bucks Total Access last week, which you can get on Bucks.

By the way, she loved him.

Oh, he was really really good, very enlightening.

I didn't hear it. It's really very good.

However, he is hitting himself a little bit going old because he could have had an interception.

Well that's been happening a lot time, I know. So then he didn't end up playing a lot of safety because Carlton Davis suffered a concussion and then he moved down. Now he's been so helpful. But anyways, the Casey Phillips story that she told me that he said on the broadcast, and maybe you heard it that you know he has a twin brother.

Yeah, I know the story about how he became he in the position.

The coach they were twins and they were on the same team, and the coach wanted Zion to play safety and his brother to play corner, right, but he got.

Them confused because they're twins.

He got them confused and put them at the wrong spots, and the time just stayed there.

And the kids were taught not to question authority, so they just basically went along with it and said, Okay, fine, you know if you say so.

Because question I'm actually Zion.

But what happened is you had to. You had to, you had to try out for the position. And that's what was so funny about it. So yeah, but.

Now are they wearing the same jersey number?

I don't know, but now he said it kind of worked out for it, said a little bit. He made the NFL and his brother did too.

Yeah. Is he currently on the team.

He is with the Philadelphia.

Well he was. I'm not sure.

So he's not with the on their practice squad anymore.

I'll check. But I thought at a moment, I thought there was a point where he was let go. What's the first of all, which is pretty exciting. What's his name for him? Tristan Tristan, Okay, I'll look it up anyway. That was a cool story, yeah.

Which which you know, it's it's funny, how just if this didn't happen, that wouldn't happen, you know, all that type of.

So no, yeah, he's still on there. In fact, is that not only is he still on there, but he's been activated for a couple of games.

And that's what the Eagles.

Yeah, okay, I thought, I thought, yeah, of course obviously. Wow, they both have the go team. Huh.

When they wear the same clothes and cut the hair the same way, it is kind of confusing, but yeah, they He also said that they would switch classes and so.

I would totally do that. Yeah.

He had a lot, a lot of good twin stories.

So that's good. All right, we might as well talk about number thirty one. Number thirty one.

Wow, I don't know what can you say?

Uh, I don't know what more we can say since we talk about him at length every week because it gives us reason to do.

So, you can't have a show. It's like, here's two things. You can't have a show without talking about thirty one and fifty four. You just can't have a shirteen and thirteen. We haven't talked about it yet, No, not at all.

So Antonine Winfield Junior, I mean he's rapidly It's hard to say this on a team that has Levante Kevins, but he's really coming close to being my favorite player. And this defense when needs a big splay, who's gonna make it? He does more often than not.

It's Antoine, where a little guy, he makes it happen.

Oh man. I mean, he just makes it all over a field. I mean he had a sack and an interception and a fumble recovery, amongst other things.

And he was just warming up.

It's the second time this year that he's had a sack and a pick in the same game, and only him and Alex Heighsmith of the Steelers have done that twice this year. And this is the way I put it in a story I was writing earlier. I called him a chameleon on the defense because okay, let's say I gave you this player's stat line and it included one and ten tackles, uh, five sacks, three interceptions, five force fumbles, four fumble recoveries and twelve passes. Defense and said,

Get three packs. They're not getting bid.

But you're probably not gussing corner because they don't have five they don't have five sacks or four fumble recovers.

Linebacker, you might guess linebacker.

Yeah, if because because of all the tackles, because your outside linebackers probably aren't getting a hundred ten tackles. I don't know if we need to put a position moniker on this guy. He just plays all over the place, that makes plays at every level.

Just does nobody.

Okay, this only goes back to ninety nine because that's when they started regularly tracking fumble data. But okay, he's got five sacks, five force fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and three interceptions. He's the first guy to ever do that in a season since ninety nine, the first one, the older guy, the only guy, which is why again I'm gonna say again, I'm going to lose my freaking mind if he is not a first team All Pro safety, right and I'm worried about Jesse Bates, and I'm worried

No, but I think because the Bucks are on a surge right now, he is going to get noticed, I think. And that's what happens when you start winning. I mean, you can play great and not be on a winning team and it kind of gets thrown by the wayside. But because the team is winning now and they have a shot, they're getting the Buccaneers are getting more love on national TV than they have probably since the beginning of this.

But they didn't play a game on national.

TV the last now they have not, like right.

Kyle Hamilton did. Yeah, I will say I'm glad the Pro the All Pro voting is done by media members, not fans. Not that fans are any less smart than media members, just that they are less likely to know all the players in.

The correct They're going to know their guys, They're going to their guys.

So we're not getting votes. You saw I didn't get a lot of good. He didn't really get great votes in the Pro Bowl voting, which may not matter because players and coaches also vote.

That whole thing don't get But you.

Know, does an Indianapolis Colts fan know how.

Well? Maybe did he? How do you do against them? That would be the only way to look, That would be the only way that they would know. But the guy that's not saying the Indianapolis Colts fans not knowledgeable, it's just just randomly Yeah, I'm just saying it's just not it's not in their wheelhouse.

So Antoine, he's going to be another guy that the Bucks have to do something about.

Contract will Yeah, I mean, as much fun as this end of the season is, well, at the beginning of next season is you're gonna be tough.

Okay, let's let's break it down real quick, really quick. You want here's the guys that you're worried about. Losing my mind. One, yeah, Mike.

Evans not necessarily in these orders, yes, not.

In any order. Baker Mayfield and uh and then also this is around the time that when you have a very good first rund pick going into fifth year, like we did with the Devea. So Tristan Wurf's may be in line for a new deal.

So that's five guys that you have to think about, and and you got one more you got to think about, which who's that's forty five Devin White. You have to think about him because his contract is up.

It would be painful to lose any of those guys, but you have to face the reality that you can't keep Usually, other than after the Super Bowl year, you usually can't keep them all. So that's a thing to worry about.

And you got to look at your guys that have got big contracts. What are you gonna do with them? What kind of year did they have?

Do you think Mike Evans is back? You better me if I had to put money on it, which I can't because I can't beat on the NFL.

I don't say yes, Yeah, I don't.

Don't.

I don't have a reason not to. Well, I mean, I mean emotionally, there's no reason to Financially. You got to make that call because it's going to be twenty plus a year and.

He's coming off a fantastic season, no question where he looked like he was twenty five and not whatever it is.

But I kind of treat him. You know, he's in that same Mike calls dot Ron de Barber thing where you kind of want him to finish his career Brooks Derek Brooks, Yeah, to finish here. And it's been true for John Lynch, right, John Lynch, Warren Sapp went other places.

So I'm just saying, so, Antwine, you also have and I'm not I'm not saying this would happen to any of these specific players, but you also have a franchise tag at your disposal right if you are having trouble getting all of them signed, I'm just wondering what we're gonna do. I don't If I knew, I wouldn't say it on this broadcast because then I would be in trouble with Jason Light and Company. So I don't know.

I don't think anybody knows yet because you have to wait until everything settles down and see where you are.

But I feel like Michael be Back and I don't.

Know this, No, it's just your gut feel.

I feel like Antoine, how do you let a player that good out of the building? You try not to, And I feel like Levante plays anywhere, it'll be here.

But you're in a situation where you're going to have to let a good player out of the building.

And Baker.

Is Baker your guy, He's one of the guys and for future.

Yeah, I want Tom at least one more higher, all right, but it's gonna cost a heck a lot more than the four.

Million you you just franchise him, that's what thirty two million.

I think you can probably get a lower cap hit, yeah, with a contract, okay, rather than I don't you know. Gino Smith got three years and twenty five million even per year, which is a somewhat analogous situation. He also has incentives in his contract, and I don't know if he's hitting him or not, that could take it as high as one hundred and five million over three years or like thirty five. So that's it's hard to imagine that you're not starting around that point with Baker because

No, I want to enjoy the run.

Another guy, Yeah, yeah, we talked about him a little bit.

How many sacks is yeah? Yeah? Have did he ideo get one and a half?

Or was he He had one and a half of that game. He has six point five on the season, which now has him tied for first.

With Gaines Adams.

No no rookie, no no, he's third in team history if among rookies Santana Dots in ten and ninety two and Adrian Clayborne okay seven point five in twenty eleven.

And Gaines Adams was six six, So he passed him.

He passed him. But what I was going to say, he's tied among NFL rookies for the lead. He's tied for the lead in sacks among rookies with a.

Guy in and he had been playing all the time with a guy.

In the rams. It's either Byron Young or the other one. They got two guys near the top. And also Klijah Cansy leads all rookies with ten tackles for loss and yeah yeah, is second with nine. Yeah yeah, with the better sack total. Is the guy that might start to get a little bit of uh talk discussion about if

Now, does he have to finish strong the rest of the season or if they get to the playoffs and you're finishing you do.

I'm pretty sure all those awards are voted for before the four the season ends, they vote, They might not be announced to later, but then what have the playoffs doesn't factor into the Okay, okay, if he were to win that, Michael Panick and I from the Communication department at lunch today. He was the one doing it looking through the list of previous defensive Rookie of the Year winners, and we had to go back thirty five years to find one that was not either a first or second

And he didn't play the first few games. He played the first game for eleven snaps and then he was out.

What no, you're talking about kaleigah Canty. Yeah no, I'm talking about yah yah.

Oh yeah, yeah, Well he didn't play that.

He did. He's played in every game. I mean, his playing time is going up because the season is going on. Uh, let me see if I can find I think it was nineteen eighty eight. Eric McMillan is safety for the Jets. I'm pretty sure it was the last one.

I would say, yeah, yeah, playing time has increased in the last month.

It has definitely. Well, he became a starter about mid season, so it obviously increased at that point. Okay, I mean,

I think I said it in the office afterwards when we were talking about because Jay, because when we got done, JPP was let go of the Dolphins and I said, well, maybe they'll get in Dominican and then I said, oh what, they already had him, but he went down there.

I don't think they didn't signs. It's possibility for sure.

And they're you know, they're they're on a roll right now, so they may need them down the stretch. That's that's the crazy part. Guys are out there, veteran guys are out there, staying in shape, hoping to get picked up with a you know, a playoff run.

Lenny Fournette got to play a little bit.

Uh yeah, he uh did he do anything? I think he was returning kicks, turning kicks. Yeah, for Buffalo. I think so. I think that's I think that's how he got in, was returning kicks. You look it up, because again you're you're wondering how I know that.

Numbers wearing for them.

I have no number five. Okay.

Uh. He ran five times for twenty yards. It's not terrible. No, And he did return a kickoff for seventeen yards. There you go. I didn't know that was part of.

His I didn't think it was either, but I think they needed it.

So Peter Schrager of the NFL network mm hmm, throughout Yaya's name as defensive the Year today.

Well he I think he went a yeah yah Jersey. Yeah you know.

But I mean that's a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think I wrote it. I wrote to answer the question of my mail bag about bucks like a win Major Awards.

That's a major award. I did not Christmas story major award.

You talked about that movie last week, and I told you I don't like it.

Yeah, well we all disagree, just so.

We all everybody listening. Yeah, how do you know you'll see us in yep, if you want to.

Watched it. Watched it again yesterday. I don't know why that because it's so good. It's so good.

I gave up after like fifteen minutes because it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. If you have an opinion on Christmas story, Christmas a Christmas Story, just it's the one where the dude licks the lamp post right, yeah, okay, no, yes, and there's a is there like a BB gun or something? Yes? Writer. Uh, it's a terrible, terrible movie. But if you have an opinion on it, email us.

It's awesome. If you care, Salty Dogs, you care about Christmas, it's an awesome movie. It'll it'll it'll just watch.

It's a wonderful life. It's way better.

It'll warm your heart and it'll make you laugh. No, it'll bring back times when you were a child.

I didn't never ask for a bb gun.

Well see, uh, you.

Can email us with that or anything else. Can Please tell them the email address you keep it up.

But I want to I want to say something. I want to say something.

You can email us at Salty Dogs at Buccaneers dot NFL dot com.

I want to say it was a time when little boys wanted to be cowboys and Indians neat yeah, cool, all right.

I don't particularly like old movies.

I don't know how to help you.

They're making so much new entertainment these days, you don't need to go back and watch all movies.

No, they're taking old movies and remaking them. That's all they're doing. Sods worse, I know.

Uh did you see the Speaking of the Eagles a little while ago? Did you see the Boston Scott a lot this Zakias play No Boss. This guy was fielding a punt I think, or kickoff, but probably a punt, and his teammates as.

He blew him up.

Yes, yes, game, Yes, it's just so funny.

Yeah he he and not only does he hit him, he just blows well.

As they show in the replay, he got shoved into him by a defender. Still, he got shoved and turned around, and all of a sudden he realized he was running right at his teammate. That's crazy. I can't I can't imagine they were happy teammates on the sideline after that one.

No, I think he really you know, dazed him there for a second. Uh So, I didn't know the names of those people, but I did see it was the Giants.

Well, one of them is hard to say, a lot of and eagles when we talk about this playoff, this division title race, which is down to the Bucks at eight and seven, uh, this Falcon, the Saints at seven eight, and the Falcons at seven and eight in that order based on time breakers. The funny thing to note about, so those are almost the same record, right, the Bucks have been a little bit better. Yep. You got to go back and look at the effect. The Bucks were

And a top one in the AFC.

Well, they're not total total, but they're they're they're they're they're they're on the roll to they look like maybe the second best AFC team after Baltimore. Meanwhile, the Saints get to play the Giants, the Patriots, and the Rams who.

Have been good yep, but still Giants.

And the Patriots have been terrible for most of the year.

But in fairness, you don't know who's going to be good and who's going to be usually.

Yeah, but I think if you looked at this list you would have before the season you would have said, the Bucks have it a lot harder, yeah, because all those teams remained good. The Giants got a lot.

Of them were on the road and one was at homes.

And the Giants got a lot worse for against the Saints, the Patriots got a lot worse, Rams got better Falcons. Three games were Washington who've basically collapsed, although they did fight, sure, the Jets okay, who've been pretty bad because of their quarterback situation, and Arizona, which is just bad. Right, And yet the Buccaneers have the best record of those three teams. Yes, so we've got a better record against the harder schedule. Well, no, we didn't win any of those games. No.

The other thing that irritates me is everybody's been talking about how bad the NFC South is blah blah blah blah blah. But you start looking at divisions. Now there's only one team or two teams that are really really good in all the other divisions. Everybody else is, you know, hovering around the seven to seven eight seven. You know, there's not there's no, there's none of those big you know, other than if you take the East with Eagles and

Seven teams in the NFC. They're either eight and seven or seven and eight.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But everybody always dogs. Well, the Bucks are in first place in the NFC South.

Which is a very poor division.

Well look at all of them, and then decide, look at the NFC West, for crying out.

Loud, NFC West, that's a weird choice. Just look at it. You got the San francisc goes to what maybe the best team in the conference. The Rams are good, and you just said Seattle's hot.

What's the Rams in Seattle?

Well, they're eating seven.

There you go, that's what I'm okay.

But the Rams are playing great, and you said this, the seas are playing.

I think the Seahawks are gonna surprise everybody.

Well, the the NFC North Detroit is the only team over five hundred. That would have been a much better example on your part.

Yeah, all right, the Chicago's playing pretty well all of a sudden.

Yeah, comparatively to where they were.

Yeah, well they close out pretty strong though, they can they can.

Wow. I think your point here is, yeah, other than the East, there's no every other division only one, well two other divisions, only one winning team. Right, and then the West has two eight and seven teams.

Yeah, look at that AFC T and that Jacksonville's in the AFC South. They're just killing it, right.

Three eight and seven teams. There you go.

That's what I'm saying. So parody is alive and well in the NFL, so it keeps everybody exciting.

All right, we got questions, we did fans, So I got one more thing to throw it. I throw it at totally random. It was down there on the practice field earlier today shooting our video with Ronnie Barber that they played free game yep, and they were painting lines on the field. Yeah. Rob Julian and his crew. That's our head groundskeepers who has been with us for like thirty years and knows anything you would need to know correct about grounds keeping. Yes, so I noticed, Okay, the

So that they know that they're in bounds. Yes, is that the reason?

Yeah?

Okay, so why are you shocked when I give you the answer?

I didn't know the answer. Ronde Barber didn't know the answer. No, he didn't. He'll tell you he didn't know.

Really.

Yeah. At first he thought, I think I know this, but he couldn't think of it. And then when we asked Rob Julian, we both realized we didn't know this. So George Toma, who they call the Sodfather, he's ninety four years old and still involved in the.

NFL, still does the Super Bowl with the Chiefs.

I don't think he's the head guy anymore.

No, no, but he kind of comes in and blesses it.

He was with the Chiefs, I believe, for a very long time as their head groundskeeper. Basically the most famous NFL groundskeeper of all time and an innovator. He's the one who started doing this because he felt it would help the refs be able to tell if the player's foot was in bounds right, because there's clearness, you know, if you're stepping on the white of the not the sideline, but the yard line, it might be a little hard

Line, which is it's pretty good. Yeah, it's a good little thing. It's also you know, it also lets the player know he's got some ground, see what I'm saying. Guess, so he could tap his toes.

I don't think you're usually looking at your feet when you do that.

Though, Well I don't know, well, probably not, I guess I don't. Personally, I don't know how you get your ball and then put your feet down like that. I mean, it's just amazing. But that separates the really good to the from the great. So all right, was that was your That was your.

Last my last point you want to discuss?

No, I don't, I know. I the weather was nice for our game. I mean, you know, what more could you add? Maybe it just it just made the holidays very triple. I was thinking about that. It's hard enough, and I get it, and I'm not looking for sympathy or from anybody or anything. When you work the holidays, you're used to it and you just do it. However, if you're working the holidays, you're sure like to have a win because it just makes things easier, you know,

So there's okay, So the questions here. The first one here is an email from Elliott Lovejoy. You remember who I do? From Australia. Huh, it's not actually a question.

Did he come? Yes, he was here.

I came and met him. We spent some time when where Saturday?

He came here? Really?

Yeah, So if you haven't listened to us before and read a question from this show.

He came here and you go somewhere else.

Came here. I showed him around. He's a what are you? What? You always he's so, he's a radio guy. He also has a I found out he also does play by play for a rugby team, which is his main job, the radio thing. He's a drive time he does a drive show and uh, I don't remember what part of Australia he told me, And now I'm blanking on it. But still, yeah, I showed him around, We talked, he interviewed me for a to put it on.

There you are, you're You're just a regular hog. There at the with the publicity of the Salty Dogs.

Well, you didn't want to come in on Saturday, I told you.

Yeah, I know, okay, I had things to do on Saturday.

I see he said something. I'm like, oh, I want to remember that that. He uses the phrase bricking it. Bricking it Yeah, and in Australia that means basically, you know, like in a key situation, kind of shit in your pants.

Ah, so breaking up, breaking it. Oh, maybe you know what. We're going to use that during our broadcast.

Breaking it. Yeah, it's probably better than saying it in your pants. Yeah.

I'll talk to Gene about that and see if we can get If the opposing team bricks it, we're gonna call it.

Man, that quarterback just through five straight in complete.

Es bricking it.

Yeah. I think I got that right.

Check on that because I do want to use that.

I love that.

In fact, it's funny you said that. Gena and I were talking about we used to do code where we used to do when I was with the sports station. We used to have you listen. If you listen to the broadcast, sometimes we would give you a word to hear, like stink eye, something like that. You know, some kind of weird word that Gene had to work into the broadcast, and when he did that, you had to remember what quarter it was. And then the next day we would say, hey,

I have a friend who used to years ago occasionally give me words to see if I could work him into my stories on the website.

Oh, I liked that.

I don't remember anything.

Yeah, so have we heard from from him since the game? Because he was at the game, so he must have really enjoyed it. I mean, he certainly saw a great buccaneer game. Yeah.

What was the date of the game?

Twenty fourth?

No, he hasn't emailed since or maybe.

And so that would have been that had have been pretty cool.

No, he mailed me later the same day. Okay, anyway, that was fun. I enjoyed meeting him. He seemed like a great guy. He is going to be here?

Is he a younger guy?

Well, he's younger than me. Well, Okay, he's going to be here. Oh had he had a Bucks flag tattoo on? No way, a lot of tattoos, yeah, full for both, Yeah, sleeves, but he had well it was it wasn't like one sleeve just it was a bunch of stuff. But he had a Buck's flag on his wrist. He said it was one of the first ones he got. That is very cool.

That's that's you know, I get a check from the Buccaneers. I ain't got no butt black on me.

Well, my version of needles means I'm surely.

Never Yeah, you're not going down that road.

Although I do, like I'm kind of a fan, to be honest with you, of tattoos.

Tattoos. I love the show in Master, I love that. Well, those are artists, Yes they are.

They are. Have you ever seen the show? Yes, they so, you know, they do the they do those flash challenges, and it's it's like some other type of medium they're working in and they're like just incredible artists.

Yeah, it's not like they put a stencil there and yeah.

No, yeah, I'm so impressed with I mean, sure the drama on the show is manufacturing kind of Yeah, the art history he's going to be in US for like three weeks and he's going to fourteen sporting events.

What a great holiday he's having.

He's going to all three remaining Bucks games, including the one in Charlotte.

Wow.

I know he's going to a Bowl game. I believe in New York City he's going to at least one NHL game.

Wow. They pay really good over there. Maybe you go to fourteen events if you figure if well, all the travels, if you just go to fourteen events and let's just say it's one hundred dollars ticket, that's fourteen hundred dollars.

Yeah. Well, I mean you know you have you got to go? Do it up right?

It's like going to Disney World, right, gotta.

Go Disney World. What.

I'm not a fan, I understand that, but people are and they like to go and it's not cheap.

Let's get to the actual question. This one from Alexander no ozil okay a hois holiday salty ones? I hope this finds you both well. Now he's going to quiz you specifically. Oh. I thought it would be fun if you could ask mister Ryan who caught the longest pass yesterday and give him three tries. I don't think you will guess it right. I think you will, and you could have some extra fun this week since you did.

Thanks for reading the longest pass.

Who caught our longest pass of the Jacks? Wogan?

Gosh, I don't think it was Mike.

I aren't giving you anything.

I know you are your stone. The longest pass. Wow, you got me stumped there.

I got too much belief in your Jeff.

No, I'm serious. I'm kind of blanking.

We'll take three guesses.

Well, okay, we'll say Mike, Nope, all right, our tight end? No, that was a short No? Yeah, our tight end? Oh eighty.

Yeah.

I feel it's so embarrassed right now.

Was that?

No, I'm not I'm not. I'm gonna be honest with this. I know you're trying to think of you know who I'm saying. Was it him?

So? Do you mean number eighty? Yes?

Yes, Pain, Durham Pain. I apologize, I apologize.

It's fine.

Yeah, that's where.

Salty Dogs were old. We have memory.

I had to think I had to when he said the longest I was like processing.

You remember the corner.

It was a corner route, it was over the shoulder.

It was great.

It was a great catch pain Durham.

He's had I think five catches this season, but he's had some big catches.

Okay, so I got doubt.

Yeah you got it with him three, I mean with a little bit of a.

Yes, with a little assist.

Okay, he's got five catches for fifty eight yards.

My problem is I watched so much football after that game. Oh did you I actually watched the the Nickelodeon version of the Kansas City.

Yeah it is, okay, And you're making fun of me watching the Barbie movie.

Well I know, Well, I'm going to catch up on the Barbie movie. In fact, it was on it was on the TV today, but I'm at work, so I couldn't watch it. Oh, yes, sure I saw it.

Sure, I never watched a movie. Ye.

It's too busy, too busy at work.

All right, ready, Yeah, we got a real international. Okay.

Oh you know, I wonder if he's going to go to the game when when they go to Brazil next year.

There's any possible question.

I know that's a hard get. That's going to be a hard ticket because that's a small stadium.

I think he might have said he hopes the Bucks are in it. We will not be in it. No, because we do not play the Dolphins. Are almost certainly going to be in it, and we all believe that. Yes, because the Dolphins are the only team that has Brazil as an international home marketing.

Area, right, and we do not play the Dolphins.

And so it's almost certain that there'll be one of the teams in the game, and since we don't play the Dolphins, it won't be us, right. Okay, this is a fan we've heard from before in Berlin. Uh huh Stefan H. Hello Salty Dogs. Merry Christmas for you and your families. Thank you, Stefan, you too. I hope you had a wonderful time. After the four and seven moment, the excitement is back, even stronger than the beginning of the season. The playoffs are calling, hopefully with a ten

No, it is like a statements.

But here's the point though, Stefan, I think the reason why that play worked is because it was unexpected. So you don't start throwing to Coke keef to every time you get in. He's going to be in the game to be or look like a blocker or maybe even block and then release. That's typically It's like the fullback play that teams always used to run, but the o fullbacks anymore. The fullback runs through like he's the lead blocker, they fake the handoff behind him, and the feel like

We talked about how we need to resign him. Yeah, what do you say? Time out?

Time out from the mail bag real.

Quick, because Mike Evans.

Mike Evans caught two touchdown passes to move to ninety four. He broke a tie with Devonte Adams and Rob Gronkowski to move into twelfth place all alone. He's now five behind Don Hudson for eleventh place, and then six behind I can't remember who for tenth place. Again, what more can we say?

You can't, but you can't say. Whatever you say, it is not enough.

I think I've said it on this podcast already, So I'm sorry for being a broken record. We started the season wondering what Mike needed to do to get to his resume to make him a Hall of Famer. At this point, nobody questions he's a Hall of Famer. It's just is he a first ballot? And he sure seems to be closer and closer to that.

He has thirteen touchdowns and five in at least five seasons. The only people who have done that are in twelve seasons.

He said twelve or more in five.

Seasons, Okay, and so the only people who have done that are in the Hall of Fame.

Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, and somebody else very famous.

Somebody else very famous in the Hall of Famers. It's not only me that has this brain.

Well, I remember three of them, Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison, and Randy Moss. How did you? How did we forget? Right? They're the only and now Mike joins them? Is the only five guys have five or more seasons with twelve touchdown.

Yeah, that's pretty good criteria to say you should be in the Hall of Fame.

He leads the He leads the NFL in touchdown catches now over Tyreek Hill. Yeah, I guess we don't.

Yeah, I mean, you know what the problem is with Mike is I don't think there's a problem. Well, no, it is. And it's unfair to him is that he just does so many fabulous phenomenal catches that you just go, oh, that's Mike, you know, it's just like, oh, yeah, that's Mike. But I was very, very excited for him, and I like Jean's call because he touchdown and then he says, Merry Christmas, Mike. That's pretty funny.

So the three yard touchdown pass I loved because I have said before that when you're down there, like first and goal from the two or three, it doesn't have to be that complicated, and you don't have to run a fade. You can run a very split, your best guy out to one side all alone and run some very simple pattern. You know what his pattern was. They called it an out on next ten stats, but it was really a pivot. Do you know what a pivot is?

You do he goes out, he starts in, You start in.

Well, you could do it either way, but in this case, he just basically takes a couple steps into the end zone. The defenders right there, he's on the inside of him. He cuts towards like he's going to run in, and then you stop and you pivot with your face turning towards the quarterback. No, you pivot and then you go in the other direction. And and then in this case, the defender was so badly thrown off by the pivot that Mike was opened by like three yards.

I love that.

It's like in a Super Bowl keen of mccardi's two short touch on catches were just the simplest little routes. You don't have to run a fade to the back.

Coaches don't have to outthink themselves.

Well, I think Dave Canallis is doing a great job. And then the second one was a much more difficult play. That one. He had to split two defenders. It was basically a skinny post and he made a you know, a leaping that might get it between two defenders. That one, according to next Gen Set's, had a twenty nine point six percent chance of being completed. So great pass, great catch. That's great. All right, back to the emails. All right, got two more right, This one's from Daniel in pom Harbor.

I thought the Minnesota game was pretty good. It was a good way to start, but yeah, New Orleans was a good betch mark. And then you had the Packer game beat the Saints game, and I think this game was even better than the Packer game.

We're sixty minutes away from a four straight playoff appearance in third Street Division title. So close. We made a statement win by winning our first game with a team, say with a winning record. There you go. Statement.

But you know when you look at green Bay, green Bay beat Kansas City, you know, so it.

Is Minnesota No. Seven and eight. I believe they are in green Bay seven and eight.

Yep, and we're eight and seven.

Uh. The only the only one negative is we can't score a touchdown on our first drive.

Oh yeah, I know. Every week we're moving the ball down run. I know, here it comes. I got the card ready to go.

We've been doing a good job of scoring on our a touchdown second drive every game, and hopefully that will happen this week. My question is how many free agents do we have after this season and what's the salary cap situation since we took a big hit last year when Brady retired. Thanks again for reading email and answer my questions on a weekly basis.

Yep, you answer that, Scott.

Okay, I'm gonna have to look it up. I wish I had prepared the thing about Brady though we took the cap hit, all of it this year. Yeah, he's not an issue next year, which was a good move. As it turns out.

In hindsight, it looks like a brilliant maneuver.

All Right, cap Tracker here on spot Track twenty twenty four. We're not bad, but that's because we got to a lot of guys that need to sign right now. We're estimated to have forty seven million dollars of cap space, which isn't bad. That's eleventh, but that's without these guys

Wow, but you know what, let's not every team has a list like, yeah, let's not worry about that until after the season's over, with time in February.

Let's I'm going to click on this market value though, Okay there estimated market value for Mike Evans is twenty three point five.

Okay.

For Devin they have him met twenty point one. They don't have anything listened for Levonte for some reason. For Baker they have him at seventeen.

Wow, that's if you can get Baker for seventeen, that's lower than I expected. Yeah, if you can get that and Antoine for eighteen point two week they may they may have that in there now because the playoffs aren't there yet, so who knows.

Anyway, what I say about it or what spat Trek says about it has nothing to do with what the team and his agent r so I going to say about it.

It's completely irrelevant. Yeah, it's all fine and dandy.

One more from Mark Rice. I think that's the Mesa guy. Yep, Mesa, Macea, Arizona, Merry Christmas Dogs and FILLI Bucks fans Ho Ho Ho four in a row. At risk of sounding completely unoriginal, after these past few weeks, I'm all in on Baker as our quarterback of the foreseeable future. Okay, I would like I would like to see him throw the ball away more willingly when his first reads aren't open, as the recent sacks tend to have come from holding onto

He says, Like what he says.

It's a it's a well laid out argument for resigning Baker Mayfield.

I think the part that that I don't I don't know if we fully we you and I would kind of do. But the impact he has on the team and how the players respond to him, and how he interacts with everybody in the organization, it's it's funny because not all players are that way. You know, they'll act differently with the ball staff compared to what we consider ourselves as the business staff. But he he'll trade barbes with anybody. He's he's very personable and it's not fake.

So very genuine guy.

M M.

I think that's part of what has made him a good leader. He said himself the other days, like, I don't really try to lead, No, I just try to be one of the guys.

Well, he is one of the guys. So he's done. He did some pretty he's done some really nice things quietly.

In the community.

Yeah, well in the community for the team guys. Yeah, for like equipment guys, equipment guys, especially around the holidays.

Yes, he was very genus. He has won over the entire building. There's no doubt whatsoever. I don't know what's going to happen. I want to emphasize that again, I have no insight information on what the Bucketers want to do with Baker. He says he would like to stay, so sure he likes it here, I guess is the way to put it. Yeah, Well, I feel like I just feel like it's gonna happen. Well, I get information.

No, I mean, because of the way everything's trending, of course you're going to feel that way. But I kind of lean towards you know, for it to happen, the club has to want him, and he wants has to want to be here because he could be a guy and he says he does yeah, and he could be a guy. He could be this guy that he gets an opportunity he it unfolds. But now the market's wide open and someone else is going to look and go, wow, you know, we can get Baker Mayfield Heisman Trophy winners experience.

There's got to be some advantage though to staying in the same system with that organization that you fit in with so well.

Well, if you look at his career with Cleveland, how many head coaches, he's had, he had how many offensive court Almost every.

Year there were change.

His stability is everything. And the key I got was at the podium Sunday night, he said he's having more fun than he has in five years. And to me, that just speaks five And here's a guy that's been knocked around, He's made some money, he's been knocked around. You know, sometimes you just you just want tranquility in your life.

Yeah. Yeah, I want to make sure I'm not putting words in his mouth. I think what he has said is he really likes it here, he likes yours. I don't know if he's said the words I want to stay here. I don't think he's answered it in that he hasn't said the opposite either. But when asked about this, obviously this is a thing that is a matter for the off season. Same thing when Todd Bowles. But he does say how much he likes the organization, how much he likes the team, how much fun he's having. Yeah,

I don't remember.

But I don't want to put words into him.

But I remember him saying that he's having the most fun. And I put a lot of a lot of credence in that because when you're having fun, yeah, it means you're in a good environment and that well, it.

Motivates you also to try to get something done. Well.

It's like it's like your job. You know, you love, you love what you do for a living, but the organization you're with is not exactly where you want to be even though you love what you do. No, no, I'm just talking about in general. I don't care what you do for a living. If you love what you do, but if if the people around you is not, you know, it's not great. You're not having a good time, and that's when you got to make changes.

When it comes to being a football player and especially quarterback. I think another factor of the equation though, is do you think you can win right you're at and.

Well, I think I think him and Dave Canalis have grown together and that could be hey what can we do? Because if you don't win the Super Bowl this year, next year you might be thinking, hey, I got a better shot, you know.

I think unless things go really badly in the next few weeks, you'd have to believe that you can win here.

Yeah. No, I, like I said, I'm not going to get too high right now. I mean, I just need one more win to get us to.

The playoffs where Yeah, I hope next week we are talking.

If I'm salting next week, watch out.

That's all I can say. I just you can never you can't. I feel like we're playing better than the Saints right now, but you can never know for sure. This New Orleans.

Wow, I was just gonna say, these two teams just don't like each other.

I don't. I don't think I would have thought we would win twenty six to nine there in week four.

No, no, I thought we'd I thought we'd win, but I didn't think like that.

And so you can't. I can't just sit here and coinfelly go, We're gonna win this game because we're better than them, and we're at home now.

Todd Bowles does have success against them so well.

The last couple of years have been going.

Yeah, before that, all right, but that is the uh. But but that is that's the thing. One out of two. Take care of business early. And besides, it doesn't just feel better to win that I want to win if I want to win it because you beat the Saints, and because everybody said the Saints were going to win the division.

That's why they've been They were saying it through most of the season. It would be weird to win a division in a season in which you lost six games in a seven week span. Hey, this would be weird.

Don't matter how you do it. Yeah, it's very very strange.

Ten and seven, but one in six in the span is just strange. Anyway, enough of that, I know I'm done.

I am too.

It is good. It's about time to go home.

It is totally total, and everybody left.

I've been watching listen, you and me.

When I see Brian Ford leave before me, I know it's trouble. And he left fifteen minutes ago.

It's a competition between you and me, and.

I'm out as soon as I'm back in this. I'm not even This is not going to get.

Loaded till tomorrow.

I got you all right, Since you did, Thanks for listening.