3 and Out - Colin Cowherd on Cowboys’ Bucs Beating, Brady NEXT, Sean Payton Decision, Mailbag

get started. Now signed up with promo code Colin so they know we sent you and Fan Duels now live in Ohio. What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff Three and Out Podcast, Dallas Cowboys to the Second Round Audios, Thomas Brady Big Show Tonight, joined by none other than Colin Coward. You may have heard of him. He UM owns the volume, and UM has a couple of shows. So me and Colin talk a lot of football, obviously react to the game. Dak Prescott killing it, some Tom

Brady stuff, some other football stuff. A lot going on. Uh if you listen on Collin's feed, make sure you subscribe to my feed on three and Out if you want to get in the mail bag. I threw a little mail bag on the end of the show at John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those d m s And yeah, we will have a show. What's today? This is gonna be Tuesday show. We'll have another show later in the week. Then we'll get you ready for the game. So exciting times of football and let's roll. Okay,

what is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff here Three and Out podcast, joined by Colin Coward, Rocket and Rolling. Hopefully everyone's having a good night Monday night football the Divisional round this set. But before we dive in me and Colin, make sure you subscribe like the Volumes YouTube page, make sure you subscribe to the three podcast. I want to

tell you about my friends at game time. Game Time is the fastest growing ticket app and because of game Time, when you download the app, just go to your app store type in the promo code John, that's j O h N. Get twenty dollars off your first pair of tickets. I'm going to my first NHL game on Thursday night and never been to a hockey game, but because of them, I'm gonna attend. I can't recommend it enough. Hockey, college

basketball the NBA. If you live in one of these NFL cities, concerts, anything that's going on in your surrounding areas. You want to take your son, you want to take your daughter, You want to take your buddy, you want to take your wife. Download the game Time app right now, Fastest growing ticket app in America. Type in the promo code John J O h n Off. Very easy to do. Can't recommend enough game Time Do it right now? Okay, Colin, Um, we now have what is it? Eight team set? We

have the divisional round set? We had Monday Night football. Uh, two big brands. A lot of pressure on the Cowboys, and you gotta give the coaching staff and they'll start. I guess with Dak, who was you know, probably played one of his better games of his career. Yeah. I thought that was as good a performance as Dak's ever had. Um My rule has always been a good quarterback. Has a lousy week, they'll bounce back. Um. These are pro athletes.

You don't become a pro. I mean Deck has never been a pro athlete because he has a beautiful arm, because he's the twitchiest this or the most gifted that. He's a very driven aspirational guy. He works really really hard that his craft and doesn't need you know, a self motivated guy. And when you play really bad for the Cowboys or any big profile team, you almost always bounced back. So I like Dallas tonight. I thought Doc would play really well. I thought he had a drive.

May have been at the end. I'm looking at my notes here can eleven straight complations at one point. Um. I thought he kind of gave his body up a couple of times tonight, Like it felt like like Dak really understood it was big. Yeah, like the opposite of Kirk Cousins, who I felt even yesterday. You know, underneath throws, Dak was running out there, um throll going head first, jumping in the defenders. It was like Dak really understood what it meant for him, the team, the Cowboys, and

I thought he was terrific. I really thought Doc was as good as I've seen him as a pro. Yeah. I think sometimes him and Cousins get lumped in. You know, they're kind of that second tier guy. Statistics sometimes parallel each other. But when you saw tonight, they get Dac on the move. Cousins doesn't have that in the bag. I mean, one of the reasons dak You know, he wasn't a great passer in college, it was athletic ability. And I think ever since the ankle injury, you get

him on the move. I watched tonight thinking, you know, this is that player is a problem for the forty Niners. If he's gonna play at that level on the move, he's not. He's never gonna be Peyton Manning and Tom Brady from the pocket. But if you can mix up the play action stuff, obviously the play action touchdown, he has other elements to his game that when you ask him to throw at forty plus times from the pocket, that's when he gets in trouble. Yeah, I think Dallas

Dallas is an interesting matchup. They can put pressure on pretty The weakness of the Niners tends to be their old line, especially the center right. So I think you can move Mica around DeMarcus Lawrence. I think they can create um, a little discomfort for the forty Niners. Uh, you know Dallas. Now, Dallas tonight played virtually flawless, So let's expect Dallas to not play as well next week. I mean, that's kind of They're a highly emotional team.

Many of their best players, Trayvon dig Ceedee Lamb Micah Parsons are very young players. They tend to be emotional, so they're a little hot and cold. They'll probably pull back next week. I expect the Niners to win, but I will say this. I talked about this on my show today. Mike McCarthy took one hundred percent of the pr beating in the divorce with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron three straight years losing at Lambeau, outplayed by an old Tom Goff and Garoppolo in the fourth quarter. Mike McCarthy with

a nearly flawless game plan tonight. I'm not saying Mike McCarthy didn't shouldn't shoulder some of the blame with Aaron Rodgers, but Matt Lafleur hasn't solved kind of the fourth quarter, Aaron Rodgers, hasn't solved the playoff disappointment Aaron Rodgers. And here's McCarthy four and one with Cooper Rush sixty winner with Dak Prescott. We got to give Mike McCarthy a little respect like that was a hell of a performance tonight. Well I wrote it down. The coaching The Cowboys coaching

staff was phenomenal offensively. Obviously he's an offensive guy. Him and Kevin Moore. Dan Quinn has been interviewing for head coaching jobs. The one thing that's interesting, right, there's the second year of the Monday Night games. Well, last year the Rams won the Super Bowl playing in the Monday Night Game, but they played at home. So tonight the forty played on Saturday Day the first game, so they get the extra day on Sunday, and then they really

get all day today. And even Kyle mentioned, I'm gonna be at home watching this game. We're gonna prep for both, and I bet by about early on in that game, he told us coaches, let's just focus on Dallas. But now Dallas has to fly home the night. You know, I'm not a math major here, but let's say three or four in the morning they get back to Dallas. Obviously, the players get tomorrow off, but the coaches are spent that they put they threw, you know, through the kitchen

sink tonight. It's a lot, you know, it's snowballs on your fast. Like you said, the players there might not be flawless, but now you gotta get the coaches locked and loaded back. That's to me, is a pretty big disadvantage When you're the road team on Monday night and you end up playing, you know, a team that played on Saturday. That's a pretty big swing for rest. Yeah. I think both the Giants and the Cowboys will come back down to earth against the Eagles and the Niners. Um,

you know, I was. I was laughing today about Daniel Jones. He had three games this year over three yards tour against the Vikings. And I was talking to an NFL coach uh texting today and he said he thought the Vikings defensive coaching was abysmal. He said, those schemes, they they really really He echoed what Sean Payton said on my show today, which is they missed Mike Zimmer defensively, and they do so. Daniel Jones with a pass rush, the inability to run with Say Kwan is going to

come back down to earth. And I think the Cowboys, with a two day rest disadvantage, probably come back down to earth. I you know, Dallas's defense has some really spectacular players. I still contend it's not consistently a great defense. So you know, listen, this is what's fun about the playoffs. I think the a F c is fascinating because now Cincinnati's missing three offensive line starters. Buffalo is not mistake prone. Uh so it's you know, I I think the NFC

we see it as wide open. I think after this next weekend it won't look nearly as wide open. Philadelphia and the Niners will look like far and away the best teams. Yeah. To me, if the Niners stay healthy and Jalen is just nine plus percent, they feel like they're on a collision course before we dive into a couple of other things. Obviously, Tom I've been saying for a while he's a shell of himself, not from his inability to throw. Right, Breeze couldn't throw, Ben couldn't throw,

Peyton couldn't throw. At the end, Tom could still throw. I mean hell, right until the end of that game, he was you can see the arm strength. He wants no part of being hit. I don't blame him. He's forty years old. I bet you go down ski slopes you know, yesterday differently than you would have thirty years ago. Right, You just there's a factor. His age makes no sense.

But he can't play quarterback at a high level if he's not willing to stay in there because he's never been able to move, and that was always kind of a point of differentiation for him. He would stay in there and throw the dart at the last second, right, and now he just won't. And let's face it, no matter any of the teams that have options that no team has the mid nineties Cowboys offensive line. So he's gonna get hit. That's part of the sport right now,

because well, offensive lines aren't that great. So I mean, what's he gonna do. Miami feels like the fit to me because that's a distribution offense with a lot of good weapons. But I was texting a friend tonight and I said, you know, Tom needs to now cherry picked teams without holes. Offensively, he no longer elevates others, right Whereas like when he went to Tampa, get me Tristan worse, get me Lenny, playoff, Lenny, bring wrong, get me a bat.

The reality with taunt like brock Purty costs nothing for four years, he's more, he's in his prime. Tom's not. He's more mobile, he's um now he's gaining playoff experience. Like this idea that San Francisco is gonna make a move on him, they got Tray Lance Brock pretty and they're not paying either one of them anything. If you want to keep this defense, if you want to keep both those linebackers, if you want to keep all those

d lineman, you gotta save somewhere. And you know, I think I think to your point, Brady now no longer elevates. He needs protection. You can't have a bad right tackle with Tom. You can't look at their offense in the last three months. You have to have a run game the Mahomes Burrow, Alan Herbert Um. I mean, if you go look at statistically, the Chargers don't do anything well and they took a twenty seven nothing lead in a

playoff game on the road. Like so, I think I think Miami looks like a good fit for Tom in terms of they kind of have offensively, they kind of have all the pieces, a lot of bull screen guys, one over the top guy, tight end that one. And it's the San Francisco system. In San Francisco needs a quarterback that's upright and healthy seventeen eighteen weeks a year. When you look at the quarterbacks right now that are having success, beside Brady Cousins is the only guy probably

in the top twelve who can't move. Every single guy can move. I mean, look at Party now, obviously, Lawrence Herbert, all the top guys, Burrow, Allen, you know, Rogers, Mahomes, I mean all these guys, Kyler went healthy, Lamar went healthy. That this is a movement. You know that that position is dramatically changed in five years overnight. I mean all these guys that there was not None of these guys are coming in the league like that either, right, All

the college quarterbacks are all really athletic. You talked to Sean Payton today, uh when viral was it was I mean, that's about his candid of a coach ideal situation. Pretty cool. What was your big takeaway? Um, Sean's gonna be very picky. I'm having dinner with him tomorrow. Sean's going to be very picky on jobs. I asked him a question on the air that I kind of knew the answer to, but I wanted him to say it. Um. I said, owner and quarterback really is what matters to Sean stable owner,

top quarterback. So you can start eliminating a lot of people over the next three or four days. Arizona Audios, Houston Um, yeah, so so, I mean I think it's I think, you know, in my opinion, Um, well, the Chargers. If McVeigh would have left, that would have been interesting the Chargers. Sean lives in Los Angeles and likes it a lot. But when I hear a lot of the reporting on where Sean would like to go, just to ask yourself, owner quarterback, he's not desperate. Shaan's making a

lot of money at Fox. Fox loves him. We're not moving off him. I mean, you know, selfishly, I hope he stays with us one more year because I've had so much fun talking to him. You know. Looking at the Chargers pick, it's twenty one obviously recording this, Brandon Staley still employed. I mean, he was pretty candid today about it's gonna take a first round pick. I mean he's obviously boys with Nicky Loomis one. Could you see them?

Could you see that coming together? If they fired Brandon Staley not only paying Sean baby, which is something the Chargers never did, and give it, I'd give a pick twenty one for him all day long. I mean that's the easy part. Will they pay him twenty plus million dollars a year? Yeah, Jimmy Johnson, the Spanos family. They offered Jimmy Johnson the job. And it's kind of well documented. Jimmy didn't want to live out West Jimmy, you know the Spike Miami like and and Jimmy's a Miami guy.

They came and offered Jimmy the whole thing. The Spanos is from what I've been told through the years, Jim trotter Man and this, and he's he's very accurate. Jim does a great job. He's very accurate. You know. The Spanos says they're not going to give power to I mean to one guy. They're you know, sons are in the front office. I know they're sons. They're nice guys, they're bright. U t LESCo. They want everybody. I remember when Marty Schottenheimer wanted a son on his staff and

a j Smith. The GM said no, and they you know, so um, this is an organization where they don't want one person having all the power. And I do think Sean really works with Talsco. Sean is passionate and intense, and Talsco is um very capable, very emotionally capable of dealing with a live, passionate coach. Um, so I think Sean would be perfect. You know, my guests as they stay with Brandon Staley. Um, you know they went from

like nine wins to ten wins. Um. You know heard somebody two weeks ago I that I trust, I asked about Staley and I voiced my concerns on I think he's smart. I don't think they do anything particularly great run the ball, get turnovers. They're not a great second half offense or defense. What's their identity? And you know, Staley, like a lot of young smart coaches, UM, can I think, get a little stubborn. I've heard a tad stubborn on

what he believes. Now, they did talk him out of some of these analytic decisions this year, but he clearly rolled that back a little bit this season. I just worry that two years in, what are they dable? Mike McDaniel, Doug Peterson, Kevin O'Connell created an identity in six games, Ryan Flores who got fired in Miami, but six games in you were like, wow, that defense and those special teams were two years in. Now, what do the Chargers

do exceptionally? Well? I just think in action, when you have a talent at a quarterback is every year you waste with that guy and Herbert could have played a little bit better in that game. But you have the chance to be something special. I mean you play, you play with the Chiefs. Right now, as is looking to get more out of this NFL season, well, now is the perfect time to download FanDuel America's number one sports book because right now new customers get a no sweat

first bet up to one thousand dollars. That's free bets back if your first bet doesn't win. Just sign up using the promo code Colin. FanDuel has all your favorite bets from money line to point spreads, two player props. You can combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with the same game parlay. The app is safe, secure, I'm super easy to use. Get paid your winnings fast. So sign up today with promo code Colin for your

no sweat first bet. Make every moment more this season with FanDuel officials Worth book partner of the NFL twenty one and over. In President Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. Must wager in designated offer market max bet five dollars. Restrictions apply. See full terms at sports book dot FanDuel

dot com. Gambling problem called one hundred next step or text next step to five three three for two Arizona one eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org, slash chat Connecticut one hundred gambler visit FanDuel dot com slash r G Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop Louisiana or one hundred to seven oh seven one one seven for confidential help Michigan one eight seven

seven eight hope and why or text hope and why for six seven three six nine, New York, Tennessee red line one eight eight nine seven eight nine Tennessee one hundred five to forty seven hundred Wyoming. Visit www dot one gambler dot net, West Virginia. I gotta quote for you because I know you love the wiring of the quarterbacks. I saw Kittle talk to Peter King and on party, and he said failure is a big part of learning

to play quarterback in this in the NFL. And Brock had success and failure in college, so nothing is really unknown to him. Since he's got here, he understands. And you see some of these quarterbacks that get to the NFL and have a lot of success. Patrick Mahomes failed a lot in college, Josh Allen up and down roller

coaster in college, Joe Burrow had to leave a college. Right, these guys aren't just going to Alabama Ohio State and winning it all and just getting the job from the jump, go through ups and downs, because I what what he's doing obviously is unprecedented. But when you really dive in and look beside his size, all big twelve guy, first team twice, second team or is sophomore year so a lot of success and it didn't all go perfect, had a great year, and then a senior year didn't go

as well. So mentally you watch him talk, you go, god, this guy kind of feels like he's talks like a quarterback, like he's not it's not too big for him. Well, the thing I really noticed, John, there not two things that jump out, and this is first of all, tells you how good Kyle Shanahan is hit all fifth round, Jennings sixth round, Elijah Mitchell sixth round, pretty seventh round. Name another offense in the league that has this many

late round like highly productive players. Kyle's brilliant. That's first thing this system can take guy. Now, Kittle would have starred anywhere. I don't think the young guys would. The second thing is Matt Campbell's a very good football coach at Iowa State. If Harbaugh left, he would be a finalist for Michigan. They were very good with Purdy he left. They were awful this year the time out, so they were recruiting on the success with Purdy. The recruiting has

got up. Campbell's coach the Big twelve was not very good, and I always stay it was awful. Maybe Brock Purty is Romo or Kurt Warner. He was just um either under scouted or overlooked. That like when I watched him. The one thing that jumps out to me he is his quick decision making is exceptional. Like he dirted that ball yesterday when the play blew up and he just

dirted it. He really, you know, he um. He's very good at like moving out of the pocket and re establishing his feet and his shoulders like he's just mechanically. When I read the scouting on him, and you're a former NFL scout, it was he was sloppy and erratic. I think some of it is Kyle's coach, some of it out of him. He looks really, his feet are good, his decision making, you know, he straightens himself out. He goes from sideways quick to the feet. Some of this

is Kyle. We gotta give Kyle a lot of credit. Yeah, I mean, and I think he has some natural instincts and he's a better athlete. You know, his ten time the ten yard split in the forties, the same as Christian McCaffrey's. And Pete said after the game, he said, you know, I didn't realize he was this mobile. I looked over there, I thought it was fran Tarkington running around.

I mean they couldn't. I mean, they were chasing them all. Now, the Cowboys Micah probably does catch him, so he's got to be but he has a very good understanding of his speed relative to the guy chasing him, and that's something that you can only learn. You know, Trey Lance, for an athlete, didn't play very fast and in fairness to him, how would he played one season at a small school Purties used to see an NFL guys chase him. That's a really good point. I you know, I'm gonna

write that down. That's a very good point. I heard the same thing about Trey Lance, that he's a power runner, more cam than Lamar, and that pretty is a little bit more twitchy than praise, big, strong, power arm. He's actually kind of the opposite of Pretty, where Brock is accurate twitchy, uh quick, Pray is a power arm. His football, his football smarts that I mean to have this offense down like he does is in st Matt Ryan said, it took him a year to figure it out. This

guy's in his rookie season. It's it's it's pretty crazy to watch. Last, but not least, the day ball Daniel Jones. What he's done with this quarterback, to me, has a lot of similarities what Jim Harbaugh did in two thousand eleven with Alex Smith. You know, a high pick who's probably not as talented as the elite guys, but clearly has a lot going for him. You know, Duke guy, Utah guy, smart, big, can move what he's got going

on with Daniel Jones. Obviously, Minnesota's defense sucks, but just throughout this season it's been He's worth his weight in gold to the Giants immediately. Just doing that, I think the Alex Smith comps really smart. Um. I think Daniel Jones is a little bit better arm too. If you watch what they did doing so over the first let's say, until Thanksgiving, they pulled down the mistakes. They slightly elevated his completion percentage. This is what he did with Josh Allen.

They eliminate the mistakes, they give him some easy lay up throws, take some risk out of it with Daniel. Now Daniels not Josh Allen athletically, but what they did was, I mean, Daniel led the NFL like in quarterback fumbles. The first couple of years, he was a mess. No, he was. He turning the ball over, not stopduced that, and then a little more accurate. And then after Thanksgiving a few weeks after it, then they kind of let him loose. Okay, we're gonna go from They let him loose,

and they did it against the Vikings the first game. Obviously, Dabel looks at the film and says, this defense I can let him loose, and they did it again. So this is what worries me about Daniel. He's really his two best games of the year arguably were against the Vikings. He had a good game against the Lions. But Carolina ate him up, Dallas ate him up twice, Philadelphia him up once, him up once. I think Daniels limited. I

think we're going crazy right now. I think what you do if you're the Giants, um, they got to get a tight end, a receiver, probably a corner. I wouldn't be I don't think it's crazy. This sounds nuts. Fifth sixth round draft another quarterback, just I think, or your franchise tag him John that's more than you want to pay them. But they don't have a ton of huge contracts, right so say Kwan Dexter Lawrence. But they don't have a lot of big contracts. They're gonna rebuild this offensive lot.

Both their tackles now, Evan Neil and Thomas are you know, cheap. They're gonna They're gonna draft receivers and tight ends. So this offense outside of Barkley is not very expensive. And he but he's a free agent, and it's hard. What do you do with running backs. You don't like giving him long term contracts, but damn, I think you have to keep him because of Daniel's little I think you have to. Okay, I got hit on one more thing.

You might have talked about it in a showed that I didn't see the Lamar Jackson situation, which has clearly gotten weird. And my thoughts pretty simple. Money is all relative. So whether you make fifty grand you think you're worth eighty, whether you make a million dollars and you think you're were two, or whether you make twenty five million you think you're worth two. Things get weird when their animosity with money comes up, and in sports when injuries factor in.

Things got weird in Baltimore. And it does feel like enough reporting from people that are in the know that they might have crossed, Like I wouldn't be stunned if Lamar Jackson is on another team. And usually you know, you just write out quarterbacks who are successful. But I had some people like, is it crazy? Maybe the Bears are open they get you know, justin fields they move on from them. The Bears kind of restart. What about Seattle they have a power run game. I think you

have to. I think you have to. And and we know John will take some big swings with Pete. I mean yeah, I kind of expect him to be on another team. To be honest with you, at this point, there's a little Kauai and Leonard here, non verbal, too much mystery family involved, no agent, you know, Yeah, there's just um you know, both Kauai and Lamar thought they were sort of overlooked into college, overlooked out of college, a little chip on their shoulder. Um yeah, I I

I don't know if it was his call. I didn't like him not being in Cincinnati, but you know that what's really interesting, John, when you look at Baltimore playing Huntley in Cincinnati almost pulled that thing off, that culture and that that kind of power football. You could go, that's the kind where you could bring in a rookie quarterback if he had two or three years starting. I mean, Kenny pick it. At the end of the year, Pittsburgh

felt like a playoff team. I think culture in Baltimore. Um, I mean, I really like what Lamar brings to the table, but I could see them starting over and just saying listen, we it's not working. By by the way, would they What if they went and got Anthony Richardson from Florida, you know, and and they just said, listen, we're gonna do what we did with Lamar. We're just gonna get tight ends, running backs, linemen and defense around him. I

could see him doing it Baltimore. So their culture is so formidable, you're not gonna score much on that defense over the next two years. I mean, they took to average pack twelve quarterbacks and Huntley and Brown and competed in games. That's insane. You know, those those guys couldn't play in the Pac twelve. It's crazy, You're right, I mean, yeah, so you see what they do with talent like Lamar. Sure, well, Colin, what you get on with your night? Fun talking to you?

And uh should be a fun week. Alright, Buddy good seen. Okay, let's dive into the middle cough mail bag. But before we do, I just want to hit on a couple of quick things. I probably mentioned it yesterday on Sunday Night's pod, but there was a lot going on. Maybe I missed it. I definitely talked about it on Twitter with some people. The final play for the Minnesota Vikings.

I've seen it now several times. My issue always with a situation on fourth down, not in the middle of a game, but at the end of a game, especially in the playoffs, when you run arount or a play even if the quote unquote hot route or the underneath is there for a reason, right to clear out a defender or whatever, that if the quarterback eventually goes there,

it's a disaster. And obviously Cousins did so I put some blame on the coach for calling a play that calls for a guy well be uh you know before the sticks that he would especially if he's covered, would have to make him miraculous broken tackle, stiff arm. I don't even know to get the first down. Now when I've rewatched the play. Here's another issue I have, and this is the ultimate knock on Kirk Cousins, who has turned in to a really good player. Is Kirk Cousins

ever gonna be any of the top five six guys? No, but as he's solid somewhere between ten to twelve, and you can win double digit games and make the playoffs with him every year. Yes, And there's something to be said about that Minnesota Vikings are gonna print cash. They're never gonna win the Super Bowl with the guy. But they're always gonna be competitive and they should be in the playoffs for the foreseeable future with him playing quarterback. But when you watch the play now, he's about to

get hit. But I don't know if he truly feels the pressure. The knock on him in league circles has always been he's very robotic, right, Like, why is brock Purty having some success because he can make plays? Right? Obviously, the top guys Burrow, Alan Mahomes, you know, Lamar went Healthy, those guys, Herbert, those guys can make plays with their legs, Rogers forever. They're very athletic and they can add lib

on the fly. Because every play call, whether it's fourth down with the season on the line or just some random play call in the middle of a game in the middle of the season, it is not always gonna work right. Sometimes you're gonna get wrong looks, sometimes the defense is going to disguise stuff. It's just football players don't always work and I need the quarterback to uh to make some place. And when you watch that, Cousins goes in to what he's always been, a robot And

when you watch his eyes on that play. It's one to boom, and that works the majority of his career, because the majority of his football career is not fourth and eight in the playoffs, one to not there, getting getting at rid of the football. He's just very robotic, and that play, to me, symbolizes a lot of when I say the bad with Cousins, I would say the limitations. It's hard for him to add lib on the fly. This is not his deal. And as long as you know that, it's why I put a lot like you're

dealing with somewhat of a robot. So when you call a play with that being the option, like he might go there, you know somewhat is on the coach to just not call the play. Now, if Cousins audible into the play or whatever, then obviously I don't know the details of it, but I cannot call a play without guys at least close to the sticks on fourth to date, if I'm running a guy two yards off the line of scrimmage, I mean, that's it's a long way to go. It just is. I saw that Pete Carroll said that

he talked to Gino Smith about a contract. Obviously they finished on Saturday, so they've had the last couple of days to talk and they want him there, and Gino would be smart to stay if they do want them, if they can figure out the financials and really want to say, figure out the financials, Like, who's really throwing a lot of bread at Gino? Probably not, uh to me?

If you could sign them to like a two year fifty million dollar deal paying them twenty five a year and guarantee like so basically guarantee one year of it, Like who are you competing against for that contract? So you're you're compensating a guy who just can throw thirty touchdowns, high character guy, but you're also not like breaking the bank for him. I don't know, giving the guy hundred million dollars because go get a hundred million dollar contract

on the open market. I bet you can't. Because ultimately Gino is the ideal Bridge quarterback. For a lot of years, Bridge quarterbacks were like Mike Glennan, you know, Andy Dalton. Like to me, if for whatever reason, Trey Lance is not on the Niners next year, I would sign Andy Dalton to be Brock Purty's backup. Got there's certain guys that become backup quarterbacks when they're done starting and then they're kind of quote unquote bridge quarterbacks. Alex Smith was one.

I think Gino Smith. Now we'll see Alex had done it longer. But if he plays just at a solid level, that can you know, put you in the eight to ten win range. That's an excellent bridge quarterback. And you can still pull the trigger on drafting a guy, uh if you feel, you know, you like one of them high in the draft, because what are they picking fifth?

I I sometimes I gotta relook at drafts because it's not the actual teams like, oh yeah, they traded with them, they traded with Denver, they traded with the Rams, they traded with the Browns. Because that's a lot of that. That's the Eagles pick. That that happens a lot in this draft. There are a lot of teams drafting like the top twelve that actually are like in the playoffs, we're pretty competitive. You're like, you know, the Lions went nine and eight. They're also they gotta also pick in

the teams. You kind of gotta do some mental gymnastics, but by about another month we'll just know. I mean I already do. But sometimes when you look at it, you gotta kind of mix and match the teams. But I think Gino Smith, assuming the Pete Carroll wants them, which it sure sounds like he does, that they will him do a number that will be far less than

what some of these people are talking about. Uh. Last, before we dive into a couple of mailback questions, Harbaugh officially announced that he's staying at Michigan, and I think part one of his quotes in his press release was like, you know, there's not a happy happy or happy happier or something like that, basically like when you're happy, like you got it pretty good. And I think he's realized,

like I got a pretty good deal at Michigan. The Big Ten isn't quite the SEC, but in terms of interest, it's not far behind. Both those conferences are basically like the NFL Light They do huge television ratings, You get paid a lot of money. You know you gonna go to the Denver Broncos. Because I think Mike Cliffs, who's boys with Elway and boys all the Denver guys, said that Harbach called, I want to say the owner, I

mean technically is the owner. He's the owner's son in law. Uh. The dude that's that runs the Broncos to say he was out. I think they had talked a couple of times. Why would you want to Why would you want to mess with Russell? You know, why would you want to do that? It's just too risky that he's never gonna be any good again. And like that, there's a decent chance that he is, even if he gets some mojo back, he's of what he once was. I got into an

argument with a guy on Instagram. I'm not afraid to mix it up on the social media streets and the d M s he was. He was very mad. He's like, you talk a lot about investing, how about seeing the

big picture long term? Row I, how can you call the Denver Broncos move a disaster because what we saw this year, like typically a guy at thirty three years old doesn't just fall off a fucking cliff and then when he factor in, he doesn't move like he once was and part of his deep ball accuracy, like d K mccalf played a pretty big role in that for three years. So that guy does not exist. You kind of gotta be a little bit more of a surgeon,

and that's never really been his deal. It's been ad living and he's one of the great ad libbers of all time. And the other thing with Russell is he pushed back when it's like, let's run the ball. Let's run the ball thirty five times a year. So while the you know, a lot of the analytical nerds were like let Russ cook. Also a big part of it was like people like Russ's, people like let me cook. He was the guy pushing that narrative. So I think Hardbob made the right decision to not take the Broncos

job and just maybe see what's out there next year. Like, I don't think he's never coming back to the NFL, but he definitely has a pretty happy situation when it comes to the Michigan Wolverines. Okay, let's dive into a couple of Middlecoff mail back questions firing those Middlecoff mailbacks at John Middlecoff, is the Instagram there wide open, more than welcome to firing. I need some questions. I went through and I probably spent like an hour and a

half just answering some questions. Uh, no, big deal. I had some time in my hands today Martin MLK day, so I I manually answered some of you guys, and if some of people have asked me questions like a month ago, it like cut me off after two weeks. I couldn't keep going back. I don't know what uh woman man Zuckerberg is doing at the Meta headquarters, but the apps was acting funny. I used to be able to basically go back forever, I go back two months

and keep answering questions. It wouldn't let me do that. Uh, now you can also blame me. I let it go for a while. I gotta try to like carve a couple of hours a week just to answer questions for the ones I don't get, try to interact with the people. You know what I'm saying, Okay, question. As a Herbert fan, I'm wondering if maybe he's not quite as good as we help. It's easy to blame coaching and injuries, but if he needs a perfect situation to find success, then

we're looking someone akin to car or cousins. Do you think Saturday's loss is mostly a result of coaching. I think there's two ways to look at it. There are people that just want to shoot on him, to shoot on him, and those people are idiots. And you can also say objectively like he could be a little bit better, but he has a coach which I'm not even talking the head coach, the offensive coordinator who is fire able. And he has a head coach that you know by

the time you listen to is maybe he's fired. If he's not fired, that's insane. Kind of a chaotic situation. Now, Justin Herbert is not Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Joe Burrow. So when we say he's really good, like there is a trio of young guys that are in their own little world, but he's proven that he's not far behind him and the stats for him kind of speak for themselves. He's been excellent. So could they have used could he have hit the Keenan Allen on the one play? Yes,

of course. But this notion that like he thinks or he's underachieving, like there is not a team in the league. They would laugh at you if you compared him to Carr Cousins. They really would. So I would say he can improve, he could go to another level. Um, but part of going to another level, like look at Josh Allen had Brian Dable, look at Patrick Mahomes had Andy Reid. Joe Burrow might be a freak, and doesn't you know

he had a Who's Your on? And now he's got Zach Taylor, so maybe it doesn't even matter for him. But I would say most guys from Joe Montana to Tom Brady needed some assistance from good coaching. But by no means is is Herbert number one or even top three or really four? But like, let's look at the group. Would you take him over Cousins or Dak Prescott or Derek Carr? Of course you would, right, Would you take

him over Kyler and Lamar? You wouldn't even hesitate. So Tom Brady sixty years old, Aaron Rodgers when he's on, is better than him, clearly, but he is also thirty nine. He talks about retirement like every other day. So really the top three guys I listed and Trevor when he's on, but Trevor can also be off. But you know in two years Trevor could easily be better than Justin Herbert, and that that wouldn't be that crazy. Longtime listener and

enjoy your takes. Question for the pot this is brocks floor. What are his ceiling possibilities? I mean with more reps and another offseason working on arm strength and accuracy. Sky's the limit, right, I get a lot of questions like what's your camp and just texting with buddies on brock Purty. There really aren't that many brock Purties, right, because he's kind of got the Drew Brees build. But he's pretty damn athletic, right. His ten time in the forty was

the same as Christian McCaffrey's. And you saw him against Seattle like the you could scramble around. And here's the other thing about his scrambling. I say this all the time when it comes to quarterbacks, and it's not like I came up with this. I learned this when I was around football in college in the pros. Instincts, instincts, instincts. You can't teach what you can through experience, and he

has a lot of experience. Four year starter in the Big twelve, multiple time All Big Twelve first team and one time second team. So for three years he was one of the best two quarterbacks in the Big twelve, an offensive conference. So he got a ton of reps. Right. His athletic ability, even Pete Carroll was like I was shocked how athletic he was in person. I thought he was Fran Tarkington. He can really move around behind the pocket. But he's not a runner, right, He's not Lamar Kyler.

That's not really his game. But he can scramble like a younger Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson behind the line of scrimmage, keep his head up and keep making throws. That to me is I didn't realize, not that I'll be honest. I don't watch a lot of Iowa State football, So any of you fans that watch a lot of Big twelve, and I've seen him playing in college, I don't know if he was this mobile in terms of they asked him to do this, but that has been a major, major reason for his success so far in

the pros. And he's got sixteen touchdowns before picks. Obviously he could have thrown a couple more interceptions, and he easily could have thrown a couple more picks, so I think it's kind of evened out. I mean, he's a four to one ratio right now, but his mobility has been beyond eye opening. So when you talk about his ceilings, like I don't see why he couldn't you know. I mean took Kirk Cousins a long time to get going. Dak Prescott, you know, those guys are bigger, but like

Brock's every bit the playmaker. Now, the one thing Brock benefits from is a really good supporting cast, right, I mean I used to study Debos, a star kills a star, McCaffrey, Mitchell studs, used Jackson stud his offensive coordinators study. He's got, you know, pretty good landing spot. It's also why we bet on Trey Lance. You're like ship, how do you screw this up? And then we watched them, you know, play four games like god, he really struggles to make

plays happen. Brock Party gets in there immediately play started happening. Either make plays or you don't. As Charles Woodson one said when I was around the Raiders when he was there, work hard and make place, right. There's just a couple of things that is demanded in football. You come every day ready to grind, and then when the game starts, makes it happen like no one really. You can give excuses all you want, like you either make plays or

you don't. After a while, and Brock Party just makes place. You know. I'd be honest, I didn't see it coming. It's like I would have bet the house on this, but it's happening. We're all seeing it. Just listen to Sunday's episode. I'm glad someone finally said it. Tony Dungee is a wet towel of commentary. Even when he was on set, he would make bland statements, providing minimal insight. Some people have pushed back to me that that al Michaels was also terrible, and maybe I didn't notice because

I've really listened to some of the costs. They weren't great. I'll be honest, they were not great. He was I wouldn't say comatos, but he definitely didn't have all the juice. I do think your partner in crime in a booth when it comes to play by play guys, impacts your energy now hours old and Jack's chargers. I was in a lot of bigger games than that, but the game turned out to be really good and he wasn't great.

But I cannot get away from blaming the dudes at NBC for putting on one of the most boring human beings. If I wanted someone to talk to my team or give me a leadership advice or coach a team, or you know, talk about the Bible. Tone Dungee might be your man, but not everyone is meant to have a mic in front of their mouth, because having a mic in front of your mouth, you gotta entertained, you gotta have a little something to you and say what you want about Tony Romo. There's a lot of energy there.

Greg Olsen feels very well prepared. Troy Aikman, damn good at his job. Herb Street with College, damn good at his job. John Smoltz, we can go around the horn here and pick a lot of guys that are good with a mic in front of them if you're a golf guy. For every Johnny Miller was just he had it because he wasn't afraid to say whatever that's which is.

This is an entertainment property in NBC. Whoever the you know, coastal elite that put Tony Dungee on the broadcast, I'm sure they'll be like, well, I did a historic rating on on Saturday Night. I could bend over and talk like Ace fin Tura with my butt cheeks and the rating would be wouldn't be impacted. It does not matter now. Obviously having a better crew. You know, Burkhardt and and Olsen are good, Buck and Aikman are good. But we're

watching football regardless. Look at the ratings. There are a lot of bad cruise all over the NFL, and we consume it anyway. So to throw Tony Dungee, you have an ability to hire anybody, any young up and comer, any solid former player who's done it before. There are a million options to put him there. I thought was insane. I I thought it was malpractice. I thought it was an embarrassment for us, the consumer who give our time. And I say it all the time like I did.

I'm not being sarcastic here. Our time is the most valuable thing we have and we give a lot of it to the NFL, and in big games. Historically, they've given us Madden, they've given us Al Michaels, They've given us Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. I like collins Worth Tariko that these are big time guys. Say what you want about Gruden, he was entertaining there for a while. You can't give me Tony Dungee with all the marbles on the line on my Saturday night. Now, I do

this for a living. I got no choice. And some of you, you're addicts, you ain't gonna miss it. But for some people are like, that's kind of boring watching this guy. Luckily the game, you know, made up for it, but holy Connoli, that's just how does that happen? Okay, audios firing those d M s at John Middlecoff and um we will see you later in the week. Peace. The volume