3 & Out - Lamer and Derrick dominate, TB gets hurt, Penthouse or Outhouse

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he looks as fresh as he's ever looked. Tampa had one of the worst nights you'll ever see for a good team. A couple injuries that are going to be very, very very hard to overcome, and now their schedule the next three weeks gets really difficult. So pressure on Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield to kind of man the ship here because it could spiral fast. And then we had

a Jim Harbaugh meltdown over some penalties. One you know, I think the refs got it right, and the other one at the end of the game was really really bad, and the Chargers lose to the Cardinals, who get a big win. Now we're in second place in the NFC West. Kyler makes a couple awesome plays James Connor. We'll dive into those games little my Penthouse and out house. So far through week seven we will hit on as well as the middle Cooff mail Bag at John Middlecoff at

John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in those dms and get your questions answered here on the show. If you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to you the Three and Out podcast. We have a YouTube channel as well, make sure you subscribe to that. And uh, other than that, we'll just we'll just keep rocking and rolling because we're in the middle of football season. Doesn't get any better than this. Honestly, sometimes I'm like, it's

already almost November. Football seasons, can we slow down getting a little too close to the end of it. I want to enjoy this We do got a Dodger Yankee World Series coming up though, so we got some big football games. Let's let's let's try to enjoy it because it's kind of flying by fast before we dive in. If you want to go to any game, World Series is right around the corner. Just texting with my buddy, turns out uh new buddy Jeff, who's listener of the

podcast Good Friends with Aaron Boone. Heay's going to New York to watch the Yankees. If you want to go to the World Series, if you can. If you're a big Yankee fan or Dodger fan, they got pretty big fan basis. You want to go to a college game, I was on the phone today with one of our sales reps and he lives in Franklin, Tennessee. Said he went to Knoxville, said it was the coolest atmosphere he's ever seen. Cotton Bowl was cool, but I don't think

it was quite Knoxville or LSU. So if you want to get to an SEC game, if you want to get to a Big ten game, the ratings on these games, I mean, college football is so popular right now. The NBA is starting, the NHL is starting, so a lot of different events, a lot of concerts. Take the guest work out of buying tickets with my friends, my partners. The official ticketing app of this podcast, game Time. Download the game Time app, create an account and use the

code John for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Create an account, redeem the code j o HN for twenty dollars off. Download the game Time app today last minute ticket's lowest prices guaranteed. Not gonna be negative. Don't love these Monday night games, but we're gonna start positive because football is better than no football, even though

one game would have been fined. Let's start with the Ravens Tampa Bay game, and I want to start with Baltimore, who obviously was the number one seed, and people like me not only thought they were gonna beat the Chiefs, but expected them to win the Super Bowl because of what they did to the forty nine ers on that Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, whatever night. They destroyed him right at Levi Stadium. This defense is not as good, but

this offense is looking incredible. The offensive line, which was a question mark early in the season, looks a lot more formidable, but offensively they have the MVP of the league. Lamar is one of the best quarterbacks, definitely one of the most dynamic players in NFL history. And they showed a stats to night in the history of Monday night football. I mean, he's got to be one of the greatest Monday night football players in the history of the league.

And he is playing at a really, really high level. And part of that is because his friend Mark Andrews is back from a major injury from last year. Looks fantastic, looks like he's coming into his own. He keeps getting healthy. He is a high end player. We know likely's really good. Jay Flowers is a stud bateman was making plays tonight. But to me, the difference in this team like watching Harball. He's basically running the Ravens backfield. Over the last three

or four years. Derrick Henry is one of the best running backs in the history of the NFL, in the history of the sport. Honestly, he's one of the most unique body types in the history of the league. I went to a Titans practice years ago. My buddy Ryan was getting married and we had his bachelor party in Nashville, and it was like, you know, Friday Saturday Sunday, and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna make a week

of it. I went on like Monday afternoon. I was like, I'll take my golf clubs and I'll go to a Titan's practice. Knew John Robinson actually interviewed him for this podcast in his office. This was before the volume was created. And I went to a practice. Matt Lafleur was actually the offensive coordinator that year, had just been hired. It was OTA's and I remember being at practice standing and

I took a picture. This must have been twenty eighteen, and it was Dion Lewis standing next to Derrick Henry and I just remember looking at this human being, going how could you possibly think about tackling this guy? And as the game's going tonight and you go, obviously there are other offensive pieces, and like I said, lamar Or, they've been great for a long time, specifically the quarterback,

but they've never had anything quite like this. So, yeah, their defense isn't as good, it's not as dominant as last year. Clearly from a pass defense standpoint, a lot of question marks, but they can slow down the game. In theory, the problem is Dereck Henry keeps busting off touchdown runs. He looks as fresh as he's ever looked in his career. And he was already a Hall of Famer before this season. I added it up today. Between high school, college and the NFL, he had over forty

one hundred career carries coming into this game. As someone pointed out on social media, he was in the same draft class as Ezekiel Elliott. And he looks like twenty four years old, just about to get his first contract. How can he look this good? And the thing with running backs is the last attribute you actually need, like it's not a prerequisite to be a great player, is high end breakaway speed. A lot of great running backs have not been home run hitters. It's actually a pretty

rare trait. I would say the best guy of my life, you know, my adult life the last twenty plus years in terms of open field high end speed was Adrian Peterson. If he got in the open field, no one could catch him. That's Derrick Henry, Like he gets a crease, he's gone. And you would have thought, because like most running backs with that many carries that much mileage, they just wouldn't be as good. And to me, someone has

just been watching football for a long time. He looks as good as ever and you add that piece, and we've talked about it before, it's easily one of the best signings, especially when you factor in how much he costs of this NFL season. Honestly, there might not really be a close second. And he's now playing on what feels like the best offense right there with Detroit in the NFL. Detroit just lost their home run hinter Jameson Williams, suspend him for a couple of weeks. But if they

get this Derrick Henry in the playoffs. And this is someone who said I don't feel comfortable betting on this team against the Chiefs ever again, and then you watch them the last couple weeks, you're like, eh, I kind of change my tune. You're like, now it's gonna be harder for them to get home field advantage because the Chiefs already have a couple game lead because they have not lost obviously, And the craziest game so far of the NFL season looking back is the Raiders upsetting the

Ravens down ten points in Baltimore. That's just one of those we're gonna look back is like, how did that happen? Raiders actually did it last year? Remember on Christmas to the Chiefs. But I think he adds an element that they haven't quite had. They've had a good run game, but they have a guy that unlike last year, it's like, let's get away from the run games. Like, guys, you're down a touchdown, Let's take a deep breath. The Chiefs don't have forty points on the field or on the scoreboard,

just relax, play your game. I actually think it's going to be easier for them in theory. Again, they have to do it to just hand that guy the ball because you're watching him in these games, they feel much more inclined. All else fails handed to twenty two, handed to twenty two, and then Lamar throughout the game can just do his magical stuff, which is just it's insane how good the guy is. People think I'm like a Lamar Jackson hater. I mean, he's remarkable, he really is.

But I think Derick Henry has a chance to take this team to the next level because, let's face it, you know their defense is more than good enough. You don't have to have the number one defense in the league. To win the Super Bowl. But as we know, you have to have a good defense. They have a good defense, and they have a defensive culture. They'll be fine. They'll have to shore up a little bit of the pass game.

But again, if they're playing the Chiefs, the Chiefs aren't exactly thrown up thirty five points, so they have to win a game in the teams. It's easier to do that with Derek Henry and I've really just been blown away the Ravens, who at zero to two have come storming back and look fantastic. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I mean that game started, You're just like God, Baker's playing out of his mind, like, are are they gonna roll the Ravens. They're up ten to nothing, It honestly easily

could have been fourteen nothing. Then it looked like Baker hit Mike Evans for a touchdown that I think would have put him up what twenty one to seven, and Mike Evans got hurt, and then the game spiraled and Baker threw a red zone pick. He threw another bad pick, and then the floodgates opened and the Ravens ran away with the game. But obviously they lost Mike Evans, which I think it's fair to say is going to miss

some time. And then at the end of the game, which I'm not gonna be critical of having Godwin and Baker in that spot, even though the Ravens had already pulled Lamar and Henry you know, in their starting skill guys by that point. But his ankle went the opposite way and he got carted off in an air cast,

and they didn't show the replay. Clearly it was awful, and you knew right away when Baker was on kind of like you know, two legs, kneeling down and looking the other way and slamming his helmet that it was really really awful. And this is I've known. I worked with Todd Bowles in Philadelphia. He's a super super high level guy. He's actually a very intense, calm guy. He's one of those rare defensive guys. He's not like a huge yeller and a screamer. There's a lot of pressure

on him right now, because that's you lose games. You play the Ravens, you play the Chiefs, you played a lot, You've played great teams, even at home Monday football. Sometimes some weird happens. You lose, no big deal, even getting your ass kick just like, Okay, we took it on the chin, Take a deep breath. That's not just a loss.

That's losing Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, which was one of the reasons that Baker Mayfield, I mean, one of the main reasons led the league in touchdown passes and had one of the most dynamic offen in the league. So I think it's fair to assume that Chris Godwin is gone for the season and Mike Evans, who they mentioned and I has not missed many games in his career, like, is going to miss some time. I don't really know how you overcome that. Their defense isn't as good as

it has been in years past. They've been very dependent on the offense, and now I remove your best two offensive weapons on the outside by a mile, I mean an elite Hall of Fame outside wide receiver in just this dynamic verstual piece in god I mean, those guys are championship winning players and their next three games are on a short week playing Atlanta, who I don't think

is that good. But you remove Evans and Godwin, like that's tough, then you have to go to Kansas City, and then you know, who knows who's going to be playing for the forty nine ers by then, But it's still not going to be an easy matchup the forty nine ers. So this was when I before the game started, even if you lost, you went listen, if you can just somehow go two and two in this spot, help beat the Falcons and go one and three, you're in

good shape. Now it feels like they're not a lock to win any of these games without those two players. That is one of those losses that is just emotionally gutting. You know. We saw it with the Lions last week. Losing Hutchinson was really really tough, and I think you saw early in that game in Minnesota they not that they were shell shocked, but it was like it was it felt like it was still hovering over them. Then they got it together, they got their bearings. You can't

lose two of those guys, you know. I don't know if you could shake that. I was a big believer in the Bucks. After the first you know, four or five games of this season, I thought like, this team's going to the playoffs. Now I go, there's just Todd Bowle is gonna have to be a magician here, somehow rallied the troops, somehow get his defense to play better. You know, they're gonna have to rely on Baker to

be perfect. Cannot be turning the ball over. He's thrown a lot of touchdowns, but the last couple of games throws some picks. Though two weeks ago some of those were, you know, just kind of freaky picks. Balls tipped. Tonight, the two were pretty bad. That's hard. That's really really difficult because when fully healthy you went. Their offense is a lot like Baltimore. Right. Obviously Lamar's better than Baker, but two elite wide receivers, a really good tight end.

Bucky Irving looks fantastic. The offensive coordinator Liam Cohen, who had been in with the Rams and McVeigh and coach at Kentucky, was doing a really, really good job. It's like, this team's gonna win ten games, and now it's one of those when you show up to the office tomorrow, you're just it's gonna be hard to hold your head up high, not just because you lost, but because you look around. It's like, is Mike Evan's gonna have to

go on injury reserve. We know Godwin is I mean, if you had the list, obviously the quarterbacks number one, if you were doing the top five guys that you would cannot afford to lose, you know, Mike probably be one, and Godwin would definitely be in the top three or four. So huge game for Baltimore dominated Henry MVP form, same with Lamar and the bucks Man. What a what a shitty night to be a Tampa fan. You know, you

try to sometimes you already get a take ready. You're like, I can't wait to fire this one out, and it was gonna be you know, last year, it's kind of crazy. The Chargers went five and twelve. They went five and twelve. Now they drafted five, so clearly they had a really bad record. But when you say it out loud, you're like, I knew they were bad, but five wins and you realized they didn't really win any games at the end

once they shit can Brandon stay? But they were really really bad, and I think they're gonna I mean, like Hardbaugh's gonna win this game. He's already gonna have four wins, and then a penalty happens and let's face it, they're down two points at the one yard line with like ten minutes to go, and they have an eight minute drive that ultimately led to a third I think it was third and six, third and five. Maybe that justin Herbert took a shot hard boss freaking out thinking should

be past interference. I don't love shot plays or even options on that. Like, run some quick outs, run some quick crossing routes, get the ball to Maconkey on a rollout. Just let's just get a first down, keep the drive moving the margin. Fererra on that play, even if the wide receiver you know, doesn't get hit off his route or held or whatever, I had no problem with him

not calling the penalty on that. I don't like that decision by Herbert, that play call, even as an option, run something that's gonna give me a chance at a first down and kind of end the game. But they didn't. And then they gave it back to Kyler Murray, who the first two plays of the drive, you're like, didn't even sniff a completion, and then a flag came out

about five minutes late. And we went on this rant last week on Monday Night Football, when the referees were It's one of the worst officiated games you'll ever watch in the NFL. Like we're all used to bad calls, right, it's I always say it all the time. I understand the human element. I just reserve the right to get worked up if it's a team I like or I got money on the game. It's part of the fun of this. But there comes a point where you jump the shark of this is beyond egregious. What are we

doing here? And I say it all the time with college when they get aggressive with throwing kids out. Nobody's trying to hurt anybody. Nobody is, but it still is football and people are going to get tackled and hit hard. It's part of the sport. This is a very violent game. It's honestly what built up to become such a popular sport. And then because of the concussion is because of the lawsuits.

I get we've had to pivot and change, and I'm all for trying to make sure the best quarterbacks stay healthy. But on some of these plays down the field, defensive backs and linebackers are allowed to hit people, they really are and some of these times, just because it looks bad, doesn't mean it actually was. And he not only didn't

connect with his helmet, he barely touched the guy. But Jim Harbad freaked out so much on the previous drive that he was almost he just kind of gave up, put his hands in the air, and it ultimately cost him the game. And the one thing is, if you are gonna screw up and listen, I don't feel necessarily bad for the Chargers, right they how many points they score? Fifteen? So anytime that you're in a game and what was

the final score, yeah, fifteen to seventeen to fifteen. So if you're scoring in the mid teens, you allow for the option for weird shit to happen if a big play breaks, Like you didn't do enough to play winning football. And the Chargers are like the poor poor man's version of the Chiefs. They want to play with defense, they want to slow down the game, and they want to try to win like eighteen to ten, like that's where they're twenty one to seventeen, Like that's what they're gonna

be comfortable doing. But when you do that and your team is not as good as the Chiefs, your margin frere is really small. And the one thing with the Cardinals, which are one of the more all over the team plays teams in the NFL. They have electric players. I mean Kyler's run the night I mean look like the short version of Lamar. He is one of the great athletes in the sport. So if you screw up, take a bad angle, he can take it fifty as he did James Connor. Part of it is the team that

he plays for is not like some huge brand. Even the night they played on ESPN Plus. So I can't imagine there are some people listening to this that did not watch the game. I didn't understand when everyone was bitching and moaning about it online. The game's on ESPN Plus. I'm like, it's just on regular TV for me, And then I realized on the local markets they put it on, you know, one of the main broadcast channels. It was on Fox for me. But I understand anyone pushing back

ESPN Plus seems a little egregious to me. I mean, now I get it, business partner. They're trying to grow that. I'm an ESPN Plus guy because I watch a lot of golf on that. Any of the UFC guys probably have it as well. It serves a purpose in my life. But I get not everyone's buying that thing. And if you're not a Charger or a Cardinal fan and there's another game on, you could easily go, yeah, I'm not, I don't care that much. Totally understand, But that was

a game that came down to a call. Now, the Cardinals still might have pulled some plays out of their ass because they have Trey McBride stud Harrison. He's going to be really damn good and like we said, at any moment a lot like you know, kind of the poor man's version of Lamar. Kyler can do things that are out of this world. And there's not many better

freelance players in the NFL than Kyler. So as the game gets tight, tight game, or you're down too you know, fourth downs, like that's where he's one of the scarier players. He is a very difficult player if he gets into a little bit a rhythm and his team, if his defense is playing okay, the just series in series out, if the game's close, he's tough to defend. But you just can't make that call. It just can't happen. And I I was anyone that watched the Texas Georgia game.

I like Georgia in that game, but I had so many parlays tied with the Nebraska covering the spread, which obviously didn't do so it didn't cost me any money. But I just found myself rooting for Georgia in that game. I understand the call that they screwed up on the past interference that led to a pick that they said was past interference. They had spotted the ball as in

it was pass interference. They were gonna keep give George the ball, and then the entire Texas crowd through beer bottles, water bottles and other things on the field, and then they just reversed the call, like and everyone was saying, well, at least they got the call right. Well, that literally never happens. I have never seen that happen. After Like

it's one thing that bang bang play. It's like, hey, we got it wrong, changer right there, okay, but like it had been a long time they all agreed call spot the ball even if it's the wrong call, Like this is one that like, come on, guys, can't everyone kind of look around? Can we get this right? That play? Can you guys see the review that just can't happen. So I understand I'm probably recording this right as the post game is going on that if I'm Hardball, I'm incensed.

And if I'm the Cardinals, I'm three and four and I'm pretty sure that I'm in second place because i beat the Niners up, so they'd be in third place, and I'm right there, so crazy night. Derrick Henry just shows why he's a Hall of Famer. Tampa has one of the worst injury games you'll ever see, with high end players at the same position going down in the

same game. The Chargers play their style of football, have a lead with under two minutes and kind of gets screwed by the referees, and then the Cardinals take advantage of that because they do have really, really good offensive players. They really do. And it's weird, like, would you feel great if Kyler is your quarterback? No? Like, are you confident that he's a true franchise guy? Like every year he's gonna give me an opportunity to be a consistent player,

to be in the playoffs? You don't. But then at the same time you watch individual games and you go, he can do more things than some of those guys. In that bucket. On an individual game basis, he's just really a roller coaster. You don't really know what you're gonna get weak to week, like part of the reason, like Jared Goff's better now, but like same with Dak, But like Dak Cousins, Goff kind of that crew of

guys for a long period of time. He was like, you know, there's somewhere between nine to thirteen range you can win with, but you kind of know what you're getting. And they've all kind of improved over the course of their career, especially I mean Jared Goff's playing at an MVP level, Kirk Cousins actually playing pretty well too, beside from last week, which wasn't all his fault as defense was terrible. But they've just and Dak's had three really

really good seasons in a row. But like Kyler could have games where.

in Nashville, and you know, I'm a Marriott guy. I'm simple, stay at just a lot of normal marriyouts every once in a while if I'm feeling frisky, stayed at JW and I'm not opposed to staying at a spring Hill Swee. So your boy's been there. But we're getting married at a little place called the Four Seasons. So I'm like, you know what they'll give They're giving us a big discount and stay there for a couple of days. First time I'd ever stayed there. I'm like, I'm a normal

Four Seasons guy. And even with the discount, shit ain't cheap. And at the Four Seasons in Nashville, they also have like living quarters. So they have a hotel which is really big, and then on top of one side of the hotel, they have like condos in suits, and on the top they originally built them like four years ago, and they were gonna sell them all. You know, some you could get for like a one bedroom or two bedrooms, you know, a million bucks or a couple of million bucks.

And on the top was the Penhouse suite and it originally listed for thirty six million dollars. I guess it was enormous and obviously didn't sell. So what they did is they split it in two and they ended up selling them both off. They're still I think, I mean

thousands of square feet like enormous Penhouse suites. And one of the guys that bought one of them, like the person wouldn't really give me all the details, but one of the persons they said, because they put it out there publicly, is the dude that owns Raising Canes, Todd Graves. I think his name is LSU guy, you know, hangs out with a bunch of the LSU guys. And they just put one in downtown Nashville that is crushing, and that's why I think he wanted to purchase them. Obviously

Raised Canes do him pretty well. But I was thinking about, like, and I've been saying this for while there is no doubt about it in any building, the nicest penhouse suite. I don't care how ugly their games are. They just figure it out. They just figured it out. And I was texting with a buddy on the Chiefs because I was like, did you guys go back to Kansas City. He's like, no, we went to Vegas because they're playing the Raiders this week. We're staying there. And we were

texting about Karlovskis and Trent McDuffie. And they drafted those guys right the year that they traded Tyreek Hill. So in the year they traded Tyreek Kill, they had two first round picks and they took Trent McDuffie and Karlossis. Obviously ninety five is their most talented and best defensive player, but no one plays as hard. And I mean those are their next two players, Karlovski's and McDuffie, in whatever

order you want. Those guys through three seasons, they have two Super Bowl rings, your one and your two, and in your three, they're yet to lose a game. Like think about their experience in the NFL compared to other people in their like, guys that were just drafted to the Panthers, you know, guys that were just drafted to like the Giants. These guys are like, yeah, just win rings. You just never lose. What's the NFL experience like for you? Like,

what an incredible place to play football right now? As the Kansasy Chiefs. Honestly, if the penhouse still existed up there, thirty six million, that'd be theirs. I think the Ravens are right there as well. I mean they're penouse. Sweet. I feel more confident these last couple, like last three weeks, watching Derrick Henry really get going. I'm like, wait, they have a guy who just a couple of years ago carried a franchise not only to the playoffs, but like

winning playoff games. And he looks exactly the same. Obviously he's three or four years older, but he's playing the exact same. And you put him on that team with those offensive weapons, with that quarterback and their defensive culture. I don't know, I'm starting to like him as much as I did last year because of that guy. That's just an element like the JK. Dobbins, the Gus Edwards, all the type guys they've had good players and in their scheme it's worked, but in the playoffs it's slowed

down a little bit. I've seen that guy in the playoffs run for two bills, carry his team do playoff victories on the road and to the AFC Championship game. So I think the Ravens are right there with Kansas City. Detroit's interesting, right, they got to have a penthouse sweet too, But you lose Hutchinson and then today you get Jamison Williams suspended. Now it's hard to watch them and go. They're gritty, they're tough, their coach has proven to be really,

really good. Their quarterback is playing at an insanely high level. Offensively, when Williams is on the field, they literally have it all, even removing him for a couple games. Not the end of the world, but like you're starting to see a little like they're getting thrown a little adversity here. I don't know. I just saw schefferd we I don't exactly know what's two games, Like, is that some drugs or is that what he's doing PDEs He weighs like one

hundred and seventy five pounds. But I think those are clearly the three best teams in the league, and then I think you'd have to go down a couple floors and there's just a large group of everyone else. Of all the other good teams, I would put the Packers, I would put Minnesota. I think Minnesota actually showed pretty well even in the loss. Like I told Colin the other day, I think the Packers are good, and I think if they can just corall Jordan a little bit

because his freelance throwing balls all over the map. Now he's thrown enough touchdowns to make up for it. But that can cost you, as it did last year in the playoffs. But I'm still a believer, and there are a couple more weeks of playing good football. Way for me putting them in that group. I think the Bills, just when the dust settles, are gonna have twelve or thirteen wins, and they're at the point now where they're

going to cruise to their division. Right Miami stinks. I mean they have one win and now two is coming Back's just keep our fingers crossed he doesn't get KO'ed. The Patriots are worse or equally as bad, and they're actually worse if Tua plays, assuming the Tua can stay on the field, and the Jets are two and five, so I mean we're a couple of weeks away from the Bills having like a five game lead in that division.

And Pittsburgh's interesting, Like I saw a lot of people commenting on stuff like Middleguff Russell Wilson, like, yeah, he threw some lollipop passes. He's maybe better than justin fields as a passer, bars not very high. But did we take away from that game that he's like a good player because I didn't necessarily. I also didn't take away like I'm judging these teams on like how can you play in the playoffs? Like could Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores if Sam Darnold plays like he did the other

day win playoff games against the other good teams? I believe they can't. Can the Packers and the Lions I'll beat each other one? Could the Ravens beat these other teams? I do think they could do that. We know the Chiefs scant. I do believe the Bills, if healthy, which has been a problem for them, can win these playoff games. We've seen it happen, Like is Russell Wilson beating these teams.

Tomlin's awesome. He deserves a lot of credit for that move, and when asked about it all after the Sunday night football game, he said, that's why I'm so highly compensated. Thanks peace, and he walked out great line. But like, they just include Pickens more in the game because he's just throwing it up. And if their running backs are healthy and their offensive line is healthy, they're gonna run the ball and play defense. But I don't view Russell

Wilson's like the equals all these other Cats Mahomes. I don't care how shitty Mahome stats are Lamar and Josh Allen, Like there's a pretty wide gap there. And obviously the Texans have a bunch of injuries, but they get Nico back. Like I would take my chances with CJ. Stroud in a game, Like who are you picking c J. Stroud of Russell Wilson and all these teams are? You know, the Texas would be a home field because they're gonna

win the division, Like Steelers aren't winning that division. Steelers, like we have the same record. Yeah, I know, we'll see how it plays out. And I'm not a Steeler hater like I have nothing but admiration for their culture and everything. But it does get back to upgrade over the last couple of years, right, the Kenny Picketts, the

Mason Rudolphs. I'm not miss Trubisky, but it's not like you feel great about Russell Wilson playing these other like this crew of all time great quarterbacks, like these guys are good. Mahomes obviously is already a Hall of Famer. Lamar is a Hall of Famer. Josh Allen is going to be a Hall of Famer. Now Russell I think I have no problem if he gets in, but that's because of work he did five years and previous, not the guy that we've seen recently. And uh, the outhouse

is pretty ugly. I would compare the outhouse when whenever I go back to California and I land in Sacramento. I used to land in Oakland when I lived there, and you'd go through a bunch of homeless encampments and these aren't just like a tent. This is like a tent for blocks, just blocks. It's like, God, some of these actually don't look that bad. I mean they've done a lot of work. I mean they spend a lot of time building these things up. That to me is

some of the bottom level of the NFL. We always have bad teams in the NFL, and someone hit me up on the mail bag, like, are some of these teams some of the play and coaching worse than normal? I'm like, yeah, possibly possibly. Dave Canalis and the Carolina Panthers, girod Mao and the New England Patriots. The Las Vegas Raiders aren't leaking oil like they've broken down on the side of the road. Miami is a little weird because I don't think they're very good if Tua had stayed healthy,

but they would not be a two win team. I thought they were more likely to be like that six or seven, like under it, you know, disappoint just because I didn't think their defense was good, their offensive line was bad, probably lose some close games, be a big swing from like ten to you know, seven, but still throughout the course of the season they would be more

than serviceable on a weekly basis. So it's hard. If Tua is coming back and he can play in games, they are going to be on a different level than these other teams. Like if Tua was healthy and he just played against Indy. Indy loses that game, they don't win. Every Colts fan would agree with me. The way Anthony Richardson was playing the other team, that is really really difficult to watch, and it's just like, you know, I appreciate this guy changing his health. He looks fantastic relative

to what he looked like last couple years. Brian day Ball, I actually think for the most part removing the game on against the Eagles where his offense didn't have a chance because they couldn't block a soul because their offensive linemen were hurt, He's done a pretty good job calling plays. I've actually been impressed with Brian Daball. Their defense for a couple of weeks was playing their ass off. But

that team's about the spiral, it really is. You lose your left tackle, you know, you can bench Daniel Jones, who's been atrocious. What was the stat yesterday that Saquon Barkley has more touchdowns that met like this season than Daniel Jones. I think I saw a quote today from Brian day Ball that Malik Neighbors was open all game long. Maybe Neighbors might have said made a comment or something after the game and he's like let's I don't mind him being mad. He was opened and their quarterback play

is really atrocious. And when your team is that bad on offense, I mean that putrid, even if your defense is playing their balls off. And I think Brian Burns has played really, really hard. We know Dexter Lawrence is really like their defense has tried you. Eventually, just you get worn out. You kind of give up, not necessarily like with effort, but just because like, what's this all? What's the point of this? We've all done a job, whether it be a company, whether it be when we're young,

for like our dad forces us to do something. You're like, this is pointless. Why am I doing this? You get screamed, keep doing it. It's like okay, but you're making no progress. And that's what happens to bad teams when they have a unit that is just not capable of functioning. And to me, that's the Giants offense. And they have a quarterback problem. Now they have a left tackle problem. They're not gonna be able to run the ball. They're gonna

be really really bad. Now the difference, I would say the Giants, you would obviously take day Ball over Canalis over Mayo over. You know, the Titans are pretty bad too, but same type deal. Quarterback is just a joke. I mean a little like the Giants. Their defense for a large portion of games this year has played really well in their when your quarterback position cannot function, like we're not asking for Lamar Jackson is prime or in college

like Shador Sanders. Right now, we just need functional quarterback play just to give us a chance, right and some of these teams at the bottom rung just don't have guys that just can't play, just can't play now. Mason Rudolph, you know, you know, is an upgrade over Will Levis, who's injured right now. But the bottom of this league where we are going to have a battle, and I

mean a battle for the services of Shadoor Sanders. Okay, it's time for a little mail bag at John middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms, get your questions answered on the show. Right before I was gonna record rap sheet, I saw on Instagram that Brandon i U has torn his ACL his MCL and there is potentially more damage. I really don't think there's any way to sugarcoat this. It's a disaster. They just gave Brandon Ayuk

I think seventy five million dollars. Obviously they invested him to be their number one wide receiver of the future and to have a very very bad knee injury. It's one thing when you just tear your ACL, but ACL MCL and more damage. Devastating for him, devastating for the forty nine ers, just devastating. This season has been, let's face it, kind of a disaster. There have been games they should have won but they lost. And at the end of the day, there's a bottom line business. You

win or you lose. It feels like right now the forty nine ers. I remember when in like twenty sixteen, I finally bought a piece of property, bought a condo, and two months later I lost my job and I thought to myself, I'm in a lot of trouble here. I could barely qualify for the loan at the time, and I remember putting on a bold face whenever I was like around my parents or anyone I knew, But

those first six months, I was pretty nervous. I'm not gonna am I gonna be one of those statistics that's like got his He had to give the condo back to the bank. Didn't even make it a year. But you know, I'm a grinder, not worried, not not afraid to, uh, you know, dig myself out of the mud. I bet a lot of people have been there in life. It doesn't have to be a house or a condo. It could be a business. It could be a car. You buy something, you invest in something, and then it immediately

goes wrong. And for a lot of us, if you put you know, a large portion of the cash available that you have into that thing and things get bad in your professional life, it is scary and it cannot be good. I mean it can be really really bad, right, You can go under, you can lose those things. So it can ruin people's lives. And these injuries and these contracts are ruining the forty nine ers because these guys are injured. Brandon Ayuk is now gone, Christian McCaffrey is

who the hell knows when this guy's coming back. Drake greenlot towards Achilles in the Super Bowl, Whu Funga is a really good player, is just injured now towards acl and now he's got multiple other injuries. I mean, hell, their rookie wide receiver was literally shot, and I think Kyle Shanahan or John Lynch said. The doctor looked at him and said ninety eight out of one hundred people, which is like common sense. If you just go, yeah, this guy got shot in the chest, he'd be like dead.

It's the first thing you would think of. He said, ninety eight out one hundred. Should I go ninety nine out of one hundred? That's what the doctor says. When we get chess wounds, it's usually death. And you know, it's just it's crazy. Feels like the season from Hell right now that there's really no I don't want to say the IUK injury was icing on the cake, but it is the avalanche growing steam, and a lot of

people have been there financially. When you make some when you make some moves and then all of a sudden, I don't have that job anymore, or the company that I started is about to go under. We're in trouble. That's how the forty nine ers have to feel right now. Not that their business is gonna go under or the forty nine ers are gonna go belly up, but this season might not be their time. It was hard to watch that game yesterday against Kansas City, who just owns

the Niners. I mean, you talk about ownage. My guy, Mike Kruco, the Giants San Francisco Giants play by play announcer has a term when a pitcher he's a former pitcher cal Polygrad, dominates a hitter. He calls it ownage. And that is what Andy Reid, Patrick Mahone and Steve Spagnolas specifically have over the forty nine ers own Nige and yesterday was carnage. It really was. And I get a lot. I'm sure we'll read something like why is everyone slurping Mahomes? Look at Mahomes is so overrated. I

don't know. I've been watching football for thirty plus years, and yeah, his stats aren't great. He's not gonna win the MVP this year. But every time against the forty nine Ers when he had to make a play, he made a spectacular play. So you can box score scout all you want. I know, when the chips are on the table and he's got to make something happen in a random game against the forty nine Ers or the AFC Championship game on the road against the Baltimore Ravens,

the greatest defense since like the lob Seattle Seahawks. That fucker's gonna do it, so like we can nitpick him. And yeah, stats aren't great. He's throwing some picks, I know on third and seven when it's fifteen to twelve and I need to, you know, separate and score a touchdown not a field goal, to give my team, you know, some separation in the game. He's gonna do it because he always does it. And he did it again, you know, on Sunday against the forty nine ers as they were

completely imploding. And I do think, and I said this to Colin, Kyle needs to take some notes from Andy Reid, who has just adapted throughout his career. You know, you got to be a chameleon. You can't just be a one trick pony. And his offense when it's humming is awesome because he's running the ball. In his entire pass game is off the run. But when Jay Gruden came on, for those of you that listened to it, what did he say. And it's not like Jay Gruden has a

bone to pick. He thinks Kyle's run schemes elite. Hell, he ran it, but the dropback passing game is so connected that if it's not working, it doesn't really work. And obviously perty played poorly. I mean, that was a pretty embarrassing performance. Given the opponent, and given you know how big the game was, you could have those stinkers. It'd be nicer to have it against a crappy team where you could still pull it out. You have a

stinker against Kansas City. I don't care. If Patrick mahomes for has eight picks, you're probably not winning the game. And I also put the there was a moment in the game where there was his through three interceptions. The second interception was to a guy named Ronnie Bell, who was in the game because Juwan Jennings injured. IUK obviously had ripped his knee apart and debo, you know. But the second pick came on a bad route, clearly by

the wide receiver. And like I put that interception squarely on Kyle Shanahan because earlier this game, the forty nine ers lost the game when they played Ronnie Bell, and he had two of the worst drops you will ever see in the NFL. This isn't high school football, this isn't college football. This is the pros and when you're

like the fifth wide receiver. And I would say this for any team, good or bad, and you get the opportunity to play on offense or defense, and you've been on the team for a while, like rookies, I give you a little more. I give you more grace when you've been in league for a couple of years, two or three, you know the offense, and then you are giving your shot and it goes really, really poorly. I have to think about cutting you and putting you on

the practice squad. You now are a liability to me on game day, and most good teams will tell you got to be constantly churning the bottom of your roster right the core of your team. Fortyish guys aren't really moving and shaking unless there's an injury. They're on the roster. They're kind of the equivalent on scholarship. But to me, those last couple guys on each position group, you know, maybe your last dB, your last wide receiver, your last

running back. If they do get the opportunities in games and they have been on the practice squad, they have been on the big roster for a couple of years, and they finally get thrown into the fire and they have no shot to contribute. You got to remove them. This is a business and you've got to churn that spot and the forty nine ers. And Kyle Shanahan ultimately has in his contract he's the boss. Like ultimately, John

Lynch does not have decision making power. If he wants to cut or trade a player, he has to get the oka from Kyle. And wide receiver is Kyle's baby. He's a former college wide receiver. And they put Ronnie Bell back out there, and clearly by all accounts from the football guys. I'm a football guy, but I'm talking like quarterbacks and you know people that truly know the where you got to break off the out route on that specific play, it's on the wide receiver. Okay, fine,

that wide receiver never should have been out there. Because you can steal a million guys on practice squad, you can elevate someone from your own practice squad that is on management. Obviously, perty played like shit, that's on party, But that specific play I have to put on Kyle Shanahan because that player should not be on the field. You're playing a dynasty. You were playing, by far, the greatest coach in the NFL. You could argue, by far

the best defensive coordinator in the NFL. The team that constantly beats your ass, a team that's you've played twice in the Super Bowl. Hell, just based on statistics, the type games. They were tight games and fourth quarter leads. You flip a coin, you should have a minimum, have one, and they got him both. And you're rolling that guy out And I understand he got injuries. He can't be dressed.

He cannot be dressed in that situation. I'm looking at the Chiefs, the guys they dress, who obviously aren't as good as their starters. They still can rely on them, definitely on defense, but specifically on offense. It's hard for me to call it a full embarrassment. He's had some embarrassing moments. I think that the team's let in. Kyle's the boss, you know, Kyle's like Andy Belichick. Everything's running through him. Arizona and the Rams loss were embarrassing. Yesterday

was more just like organizational failure. And I don't know, Super Bowl hangover karma or whatever they call it. With the injuries, with the mysterious sickness, Uh, it was crazy. I mean, but you still can win Eagles. You know, it's funny, and they kicked the Giants ass that that was that was just a dominant win. But I did see some comments from some of their players and Sirianni more of the players than Sirianni, I thought. Sirianni answered, fine,

you know, taking kind of whearing last week. But some of the players taking a victory lap over some like former Eagles players that are on post game shows. It's like, guys, let's I think we need to pump the brakes a little bit, you guys, because one thing I saw Brandon Graham or I forget the exact player, said that did we not beat him by enough this time? Guys? I I don't think people being disappointed from you guys coming off of by struggling against the Browns. Is that egregious? Now?

They clearly looked a lot better against the Giants. I mean, they destroyed them. The Giants got serious issues. Belichick, I mean just Belichick said something to down McAfee that I saw a cliff that Pat post on social media. You know, Dable's one of his guys, coach for the Pats, kind of dropped one of those. Yeah, you know what. Obviously, the owner wanted to keep Saquan. I think Dave Ball did too, but the GM wanted to go in different direction.

One hundred and seventy five yards at home, that's when the owner wanted to keep. But he's like, hey, people say, I'm metal, I'm not gonna meddle. I'm gonna let you do your thing. And then he looks like that. It's tough. Giants are bad. He see. Here's a question question for the mailback. Do you believe the sports media is told to Mahomes and the Chiefs because it's good for the

league in ratings to have a dynasty. I've watched football for twenty plus years, and my eyes tell me he's not the best quarterback in the league, and consistently the media insists to us that he is. This year, he has six touchdowns and eight interceptions and somehow the front runner for MVP. Many examples are commetters and media praising him.

But the game against the Niners, they were going on about how he just takes the sun in his eyes on the bench, eye test, Alan and Burrow are better quarterbacks. I mean I watched some of Joe Burrow yesterday. Didn't look great. Listen he's not having an MVP seison. His statistics are not good. But the point of this whole thing is to win. It's the whole point. It's the point of the draft, that's the point of free agency, that's the point of training camp. So when you get

seventeen of these things, it's to play winning football. And because the Chiefs playing so many of these close games, because their personnel because of injuries, is not great on offense and there are a defensive lad team, they just need him to come through. Now he's turned the ball over. I think he'd be the first tell you too many times this year, but as someone with money on the Niners and was rooting for the forty nine ers, there wasn't a moment in that game in the second half

where I thought he wasn't gonna come through. I've been watching sports now for thirty plus years. That includes a malt, not just football. I have been watching football professionally now for fifteen And here's the other thing. And you see this a lot in the NBA, like he's kind of at the point. We've seen him do it enough in the biggest moments, and those games are worth ten regular season games. So he has a shitty month, I don't care. I've seen him as a dog on the road in Baltimore,

play the league MVP and outplay him thoroughly. That's like you get equity built up when Tiger Woods has five weeks in his prime of not playing. Great people don't go overrated overrated because you earn right over time that you get the benefit of out Steph Curry's had a lot of shitty games in his career, sneaky for one of the great players of all time, turns the ball

over a lot. You can watch him on a random night, and I mean especially the Warriors over the last five years post Durant, even the title team in twenty two, and you know, for a long time I've watched I had the last couple of years since I've been in Arizona, not as much, but I went for probably seven you know, a couple of years before Durant, a couple of years after. I didn't miss many Warrior games. And he can have these games where it's this ball is flying all over

the map. He can have weeks, he can have bad shooting slumps. Once you earn the equity of like I'm a fucking champion, turn the lights on, give me a big game, and dare you to bet against me? I dare you to do it? Like, I'm sorry, I don't put that much stock. It's the thing with Josh Allen and Lamar it's like there's a lot of pressure on them to win games in January. They're just this. I mean, they're just this. Like Jared Goff has been a dramatically

better playoff performer than Lamar Jackson. Now you could argue Jared Goff might win an MVP this year. And if the Lions were to win a Super Bowls thinking about that today, it'd be like one of the great kind of great would be strong one of the crazier careers ever, be like Maddy Ice but with a Super Bowl but also had to change teams because his coach dot he sucked.

I don't know. I part of the like, for example, what you're saying with the sun in his eyes, I think they're just there's nothing much to talk about, you know, between plays sometimes and they look over there at that side of Levi Stadium, the sun is directly into you. And they gave the example of you know, the Chiefs don't bring shades. They just have the backup stand in front of them for the offensive Lineman and Mahomes just sitting there. I thought they were kind of being silly

and kidding less than being serious. It's not like he's Hooperman and taken in the sun. And again, when you say media like, if you're in business with the NFL, then yeah, I don't know what they tell you, but I know there are a lot of independent people people that have no association with the NFL. Like I'm in business of talking about football, but I have no direct business relationship to the NFL. I could say whatever I want.

I mean, I want the NFL to do well, right, because the better that the more people that watch them, the bigger my audience is. You know, in theory it's not directly correlated. But I think some times that type stuff gets overshadowed. I think actually a lot of media people don't quite understand the dynamics of the business, right. You know. Part of it is a lot of them push back at the bigger networks because they're told what to talk about, what rates, they don't really want to

talk about it. That's the unique part about our platform is I can kind of talk about whatever I want now. I got a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. But yeah, I don't know why what I met by going on that little rant. Hey, John, it's my friends Jake's twenty second birthday. He's a huge fan. He actually listens to it religiously and echoes most of your takes. I was wondering if you would be willing

to give him a quick birthday shout happy birthday, Jake. Ideally, if you could say from one ball knower to Jake, from one bald knower to another, twenty two bro, got the prime of your life. It's as good as it gets. Enjoy it. All of a sudden you look up and go, I'm forty fucking years old. I've been out of high school over twenty years. And then you realize life only gets better as you get older. Keep telling yourself that at least I'm a lifelong Jacksman. Every time you speak

about us, it's always the coaches or Trevor. Would really love to hear your assessment of Brian Thomas Jr. He doesn't get much coverage playing down in Jacksonville, but I think he's as good as a guy guy we've drafted before. Obviously he looks excellent. It is pretty nuts. I guess it's not because their offense was historically awesome. Brian Thomas Junior has a chance to be, I would say, over

the course of time, a top ten wide receiver. He did have a bad drop two weeks ago in the end zone, but he's been It's hard to watch them and not see a guy, you know, the speed, the athleticism, the playmaking. He's not quite Melik Neighbors, but he's I don't think I quite valued him enough when he was at LSU. But think about LSU's offense. They had Molik Neighbors, him and Jaden Daniels with two NFL tackles. Last year, they basically had the Joe Burrow offense, like Jamar Chase

Justin Jefferson. I mean that one's we'll see if those guys become that. But you know what I mean. I mean those one guy was drafted six, the other guys drafted whatever twenty third, and they both immediately like, damn, these guys are good. I even saw Brian Dave all the day was like, yeah, Milik Neighbors was open all the game along probably a big reason why DJ got benched. Yeah, I'd be pretty excited about Brian Thomas Jr. After watching Perty on Sunday, it's become clear to me that he

isn't a franchise quarterback. Don't get me wrong. I love the guy and appreciate his story, but his physical limitations become so clear against these top defenses that play tight man coverage and force the quarterback to make tight window throws. And watching Kyle's play calling and listening to his pressers, I know he thinks the same thing. Teams like the Dolphins and Lions had no choice to pay their guy because their management didn't want to put their jobs in

the hand of a rookie. But Kyle and John have that stability. Do you think Kyle ends up trading Brock and how much would the forty nine ers get for him? Drew Aller would be perfect for Kyle. Uh, you know, his value actually wouldn't be great because he's up for a new contract, right, So it's who's trading. Would someone trade a one for Brock Purty and then give him two hundred million dollars? I guess you never say never call the Raiders, but I would doubt it. His value

to the Niners is infinitely more than to someone else. Right, It's like, think about if you live in a home that you like, that value of that home, especially if you've got a good interest rate, is worth a lot to you. Even if someone knocked and offered thirty percent above what you could get, You're like, I don't know, Like this is just easy. So when you look at the Niner situation, it's kind of an easy situation because this guy knows the offense. They've won a lot of

games with him. But like you said, when they play top defenses. Last year, the Browns kind of embarrassing. The Baltimore Ravens not good yesterday really bad. I have been a huge, pretty supporter, like you said, the guy, his personal story, what he stands for, how tough he is,

how clutch he's been. But there are some eye opening moments that you go which we know and I've always said this, like hearing him do Mahomes, Alan Lamar Herbert, those physical guys, Like he's not those guys, but can he be the best version of like the golf Dak and kind of that crew. And then you watch days like yesterday, You're like, God, he's not as like it wasn't there, and that consistently happened. So my counter is always, why do you have to pay him after this year?

Why what's the rush? You do not have to He's got one more year. It's like, well he makes no money. Welly see, he's got Ariatt commercials, he's got John Deere commercials. Pretty's quite a little farmer. But he's making a lot of money now, a ton of money off the field. That's the great part about being starting quarterback for these big brands in the NFL. You can parlay it immediately, and he has. So it's like, to me, I don't feel comfortable just giving out those numbers, like you know

what yesterday became. I text someone this, that's a fifty five million dollar roster on offense. Got Ricky Piersoll, you got Chris Conley, you got Kittle, Yt Trent, you got Jordan Mason. I mean, that's welcome to the league. I mean that's look at what Josh Allen was playing with before Amari came. You don't just get you know, it's like got Randy Moss, I got Debos, I got Kelsey and Kittle. That's not the way it works. One injury all of a sudden, you're looking. I'm telling I'm looking

at Maria. I'm like, who are these guys in the cheap How are they kicking the Niners ass with these guys? She's like, where's Kelsey? I'm like, hey, just kind of a role player right now? Who's that running back? Oh? This this guy that was really good then he was out of the league and he's kind of old and Andy thought he was immature and had some issues, so they got rid of him. But he's mature. They brought him back and all of a sudden, he's given him

twenty two carries me. He's running the ball right down the forty nine ers rope. It's like, what is going on? I just think I'm not you know some of these I think, you know, the most cliche thing to say for people to talk about sports, like this guy needs to get his back, deserves his back. I don't care not my money. I don't give a shit either way. You get paid awesome, someone doesn't want to pay it whatever it's on the teams, but I have never won.

That's like, if you have any question marks. That was my thing with Dak, Like when he first signed the contract five years ago or whatever, one sixty. I did think it was pretty egregious. And he's still like he's never gonna be a top five guy, but he hovers between like six and twelve. So once you get that guy, it is and has proven it over and over and over again playshading the playoffs. But like the Cowboys were

never gonna let him go. It's clear once they gave him that contract, Like why didn't you just sign the contract last year? Like it never even once you got once you traded for trailer ants and saw how terrible that guy was, because I think that was Jerry's hope, Like I'm gonna make Deck sweat this in the Dak season for a couple of days at training camp. Are you serious, Jerry that this is this is gonna make me looselye? Come on, Jerry and Dak had him by

the balls and Dak was gonna win that negotiation. Like to me, the Brock thing is, yeah, he's done remarkable things for the Niners, been a huge upgrade from Jimmy Garoppolo. But I'm watching Jordan love like and this is I come from the school of traits and Purty is not the type guy when I was scouting that when I watch football now on Saturdays for a decade plus, that

I'm drawn to. I appreciate them and I admire, you know, guys that are good at football, but like I'm inclined to go with guys with the physical attributes who can also play. Right now, he was a seventh round pick, so he wasn't super high. But I'm watching Jordan love and going. And this is what I always say about Josh Allen, even Mahomes this year, Like, yeah, I don't

give a shit about interceptions. I don't care. Like obviously, if you're just throwing interception out of interception, we're winning five games on the season, Yeah, it's a problem. But throwing picks and won't winning, That's what I would think, Like I'm a fan, Yeah, I can live with it as long as we win. The guy makes plays down the stretch. Again, Like one of my favorite players is a kid, was Brett Farr. Threw a lot of picks, sure, won a lot of games and slice up a lot

of people when it mattered the most. So yeah, I mean you would love sometimes the Aaron Rodgers forty touchdowns and five picks. One thing I do love even if you're throwing picks big time plays, and there was a throw yesterday in that game, we're pretty underthrown. I'm watching Jordan Love, he says, slinging that pill. My god, I was thinking about this today. I don't think Packer fans. Maybe some do, but it'd be impossible to It's like, if you're just like born into a lot of money,

how do you even value money? It's like everything's You've just been richer entire life from the moment you could think, talk, see, walk to as you age, and you've just been rich your entire life. You don't really know anything else. So like I do understand why a lot of those people struggle with just perspective, like if you never like, yeah, I can't afford that hotel, or I can't afford to buy that car, let alone that home, or go on

that vacation or whatever. Like I always tell this to people, like the word vacation is such like a that is such a first class thing to throw around. The overwhelming majority of human beings just don't go on a lot of vacations. When I was a kid, like I can count on like one hand, and I'm not counting like driving up in high school with buddies to Tahoe for the weekend, spend the night somewhere. I'm talking like people go away for a week like that. That is not normal.

Most people don't do that. It's most people don't go from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to draw love and even that, like, I don't know exactly what he's gonna ultimately be. It's like lafour gets mad when people are talking shit about the Farv that he throws too many picks like him, or everyone compares the way he moves

to Aaron Rodgers. Do you know how crazy it is that you can be like, you know what, he's got bits and pieces of Farvin Rogers think how It's why I bet the house against it not working, because I went, what are the odds that they're gonna go from first ballot Hall of Famer to first ballot Hall of Famer to just a really good player, like a guy that's gonna make some Pro Bowls And you watch him. He's obviously a little radic at times, so is Brett, but man,

that guy is an explosive player. Like you are so lucky you, I mean, what if you just want to ended up with and I'm not listen. I know this guy get drafted a lot higher in Jordan Love, but I'm just using these players as examples. Like what if the guy that you would draft of the end of the first was just Tua, right, I mean something like that, right, Dak. Some of that level, like this guy's physical attributes and ability to push the ball down the field is insane,

it really is. As the level of play in the NFL gone downhill significantly lately. As a lifelong I'm twenty seven, a lot of your life is pretty good, bro. Right, as you were coming into being a sports fan, they say most sports fans really it really like materializes inside like eight years old. So from for twenty years you saw the majority of this. I find myself constantly thinking ninety percent of Tom Brady led Patriot teams would absolutely

running through the current NFL with ease. Not many truly a middle linebackers or corners. So many poor offensive linemans, so many bad quarterbacks, so many poorly coached teams. I think that's the key. I honestly think that's the key. Now, we've always had bad coaches there, you know, there have been Jim tom Sulla's there have been Joe judges like that. There are bad coaches ten years ago, twenty thirty years ago.

That's always been part of the deal. But I think one thing, if you look around this year, we have guys that probably never in a million years would have been a head coach twenty years ago because you would have given it. You just would have been more inclined to give it to a longtime coach, right like a coordinator. You know, twenty years ago, Spags for example, would have got another job. So the Patriots are the Raiders for example, or let's use the Panthers. Girod Mail has coached five years,

five years. Dave Candallas, he was a coordinator for one year and spent over a decade with Pete Carroll. And if look at his resume, like he wasn't it's kind of crazy. And they were running through offensive coaches and it's like it took him till the latter part of his time there to even get with the quarterbacks. Mayo was a little unique because he had played there, So I'd argue that we've seen Gerrod Mayo before. The Al

Davis used to do things like that. But I think you see a lot of coaches that just wouldn't have been coaches, And we've seen it the last couple of years that like the Joe Judges of the world, the Antonio Pearce was coaching high school team like six or seven years ago. It was not that long ago that he was the head coach at Long Beach. Polly, I don't know. I think that the coaching I think like any industry, and it's not even just head coaching. I

think it's position coaching. There is so much money in the business. I heard a story today about a linebacker coach who makes well over a million dollars. You understand, I would say the majority of offensive line coaches in the league are all making over one million dollars. Running back, wide receiver coach, these guys are making, depending on how long you've been in the league, anywhere from six hundred grand to nine hundred grand. These jobs pay so much money.

If you can get a coordinator job and sign like a three year, six million dollar deal like that changes the course of your family. And also if you have success doing that, all of a sudden you're signing a four year, thirty million dollar deal to be a head coach could be more than that depending on how much your value could be four or five or fifty. So whenever there's a business that is giving away that much money, you're gonna have. Frads, you're gonna have and one. It's

a tough job, right, It's very time consuming. You're working during the season eighty ninety hour weeks. It's you have to be able to deal with people. Well, think about the majority of humans. You know what percentage of them are great? Deal with people not most. So it's like just because you like no football does not mean you're

a great people person. Then you got to be able to do a couple things like motivate coach in terms of teach and deal with your players who are much younger than you that are having ups and downs in their life. It's a very very challenging job. I'm obviously very critical of the job, but I'll be the first to having spent a ton of time around these it is hard. I'm not acting like one I could do

it too, I wouldn't want to do it. I'd have no I don't care that much about helping people in terms of like I I couldn't do have a group if I was like an offensive line coach or wide receiver coach and pretend to care about the guys I didn't think were good enough. And part of coaching is doing that and having like a belief in someone that doesn't believe in themselves and honestly might not be good enough. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And some

people are like addicted to that feeling. I'm the opposite of you couldn't that feeling does nothing to me. But like I said, I have a lot of admiration for how hard all these guys work, but they're highly compensated. Like this is not either expecting me to work ninety hours and they're paying me eighty k. You know, I understand this is not a nine to five, but shit, they're asking a lot of me. No, we're paying you premiums. And I just think the coaching. I also think the

evolution of all these offenses and defenses. How could all these guys know this stuff as well? You're constantly moving teams, you're learning new stuff. I think a lot of people don't have an identity, you know, like the Shanahan guys all feel pretty confident running you know the base of the offense, right, I'm trying to think that the Pete Carroll guys, it's kind of outdated now, but for a long time really really understood that defense. Like that's the

core philosophical belief. How to run that defense, how to develop that unit, to run that defense starting in OTAs, through training camp, through the through the season. So like you you completely have in your in your gut what you want to do. I think a lot of guys are just kind of philosophically they float like, yeah, I did this, then I did that, Like well, what what is yours? Like what what have you mastered? What have you mastered? And in fairness, because of the profession, you're

constantly getting fired. You got to take a job, You're moving all over the place. It's hard. There's a lot of luck involved. Like when you're twenty seven, did you get hired on Andy Reid's staff or Bill Belichick's staff or Mike Shanahan or you know Pete Carroll's, Cause if you get on the wrong staff, it's like, yeah, you know, Jim Tom Sulla gave me a call that derailed my career.

Mail bag in the case of for example, sa Kwon Barkley going to the Eagles, who are in the same division as the Giants and they play each other a lot. Would he relay the Eagles game plan and strategies that the Giants had when the Eagles are preparing for the Giants. Is there some kind of agreement that players won't share insider information about their former teams when they are traded two new teams. No, there isn't you know, having worked in radio, that there are clauses you had to sign

your contract. I don't really have any proprietary information here obviously, besides like the podcast feed. But I'm sure a lot of you that work in different industries have competition clauses in football. Now, maybe he had to give, you know, these playbooks around the iPad, So maybe his team issued iPad. At the end of the season, he gives back. But think about what you just said. For example, so he could go tell the defense, this is how we've looked

to attack you the last couple of years. Well, their whole defense is new. It's a new scheme with Vic Fangio. So that's the thing. And I saw Belichick. Belichick's been on a heater lately. Today on McAfee. He was just letting it fly. You talk about a guy that does not care. Right now, this is all I ever want out of my Belichick's, my Manning's, my Brady's. It's like, if you're gonna do this and get a mic infront

of you, let it fly. Why do you care? Especially Bill? Bill, You've made so much money, you're headed straight to Canton. You got this twenty five year old girl on your arm, your living who gives you? I know you talked about all these people. I don't even need all of it. Just give me like twenty five percent of it. Let it rip. And he's letting it go on the Jets.

He was letting it fly on the Giants. It's like, yes, I can't stand the Matt Patricias is like, Matt, if you're not gonna say anything, and I mean anything, what is the point of all this? Why don't you just stay in the film room and feed Bill notes if you're gonna, hey, say this. This scheme sucks because I know you believe that. I know you're thinking that, and I think more and more Bill's talking. He's like, Ea, shit,

I'm Bill freaking Belichick. Say whatever I want. It's why you know I thought Nick Saban on the Texas Georgia game, he flipped a coin to pick the team, and he claimed that he fell on Texas. I'm pretty sure he's picking Texas no matter what in that environment. And a lot of people I say this on social media, they're like, what are you talking about? You think Nick cares? Well?

I had a birdie tell me who's very in the loop in what goes on, not in just in the SEC but those specific programs that Kirby and Nick aren't super close anymore, even though that was literally his mentee. Well, why do you think that is? Because Kirby, who helped Nick build Alabama from the ground, was his defensive coordinator and assistant head coach and right hand man, got there at seven o eight with him and built that fucker from the ground. Well, when he went to Georgia, what happened.

Georgia quickly became Bama's equal, was quickly recruiting the exact same player and was landing a lot of guys that Nick would have landed. Like ultimately, Nicks in competition with them. So they're not quite as close is I think they portray and in a weird way maybe because they're like two p's in a pod, very similar people in this defensive guys. Maybe because Sarks an offensive guy and he's just a little more optimistic, happier. It feels like like

Nick like Sark more. Now maybe it's because he doesn't view Texas As like a Bama equal. I know they beat him last year, but I just mean just in terms of programs, and now that Texas is in the SEC, it's probably it would be different. But at the time, like Georgia became his equal in the SEC, so it took a little shine off him. Like at the end of the day, like these fucking guys got big egos, big egos. So I'm Kirby smart, I go Nick. We have played a ton of times in the SEC championship game,

we played the National Championship game. We have gone to war together. I'm pretty sure Kirby went to Miami with him. I'm talking to Dolphins and you have to flip a coin on this one, Like I'm your guy. If I was Kirby, I'd be kind of pissed, Like Nick, you played me enough. You think Sark's a better coach than me? Do you do you believe that? Honestly? Do you believe that Nick, you're gonna flip a coin like these are my two guys. Now, Sark work for you for a

couple of years. We spent like a decade together, my man winning Natties from scratch. When we showed up the team, bleww, it wasn't Alabama football. It was a program that could barely get to six and six. That guy showed up when you know everyone was making money and now you act like we're all equals. I'd be pissed to if I was Kirby. I really would. I'd be like, screw you, man, that's just like and guess what. You watched that postgame presser for Kirby. He was saying a lot of different things,

but when he said the ESPN everyone picked him. He doesn't care who McAfee or Desmond Howard picked. He's going Nick Saban picked fucking Texas over us. That that was people like he flipped a coin. Bullshit. I have a hard time thinking. I just think Nick. I just think he was picking Texas no matter what, because in this weird way, who did he want to replace him? Last year when he retired? You know his number one pick was Steve Sarkisian that's who he wanted. Now, obviously Kirby's

not gonna leave George to go to Alabama. It's the same job, and Kirby went to George. But still like Nick has kind of this weird affinity for Sark, which again Sarks good Sarks. Sarks kind of grown on me. But as I said with Colin, and I just don't think this can be overstated enough, it's hard to be a tough guy when you're not a tough guy. Honestly, I didn't really knew or know. Like, my dad was a farmer, so I was around some guys who were

I would quote unquote considered tough. But it's not like when I was a kid you would see them fighting and stuff. You just knew, like that guy's a tough guy. It's like that guy's been through some shit. But when I got to cal Paly, and I had never been around wrestlers and I got there in two thousand and three, in my incoming class was a guy named Chad Mendez who went on to his senior year was one of the best wrestlers in the country. I think lost in

the National Championship. Went on to Dana White in the UFC. He's fought Conner, he's fot Aldo and the guy one of my fraternity budd He's one of my good buddies. Aaron Woshowski was basically I think he got into school, like he had to come to summer school or whatever and lived with these guys, all the wrestlers, because they had to do the same thing. And then once we

became friends, he started telling us stories. And I didn't even know who Chad Bendez was, but about these guys in the summer going to like Pismo Beach where like twenty minutes where the school was away from the beach and getting into a fight with like a biker gang and Chad Mendez, this eighteen year old kid. And obviously by the end, by the time we're graduating, we had all seen Chad and the crew getting brawls yearly, never

even come close to losing. Honestly, I don't think even they took many shots, right, I mean, I think the delivery of giving to taking swings at the face and the body is got to be like a fifty to one ratio. And it's like that in life, right, Guys who can fight. We all know guys that can fight, and guys like I ain't getting to a brawl, I ain't gonna win, so I just avoid them. Now, if I had to, you got no choice. But like like you kind of know, like, yeah, that's not my thing.

But it's no different in coaching, right, some guys like Nick Saban, you can't fake that edge and that toughness he had, Urban Meyer has as well. You cannot fake that. You either have it deep inside your soul, in your gut, or you don't. And Kirby Smart has that, and it tends to be defensive guys, guys that play defense. Nick Saban was a defensive player at Kent State. Kirby Smart

obviously defensive player. A lot of offensive guys don't have that, and like Sark does not have that, there is no way that he can keep his team on edge, even if they got the same team, the same exact players. If it was just if this was a video game and I gave each team the same exact lineup, Kirby's would just be tougher. Now, it doesn't mean Sarks wouldn't be better offensively, you know, schematically more difficult to neutralize.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm just talking about pure toughness, grit, and like we're here for a fucking browl and defensive guys, the good ones they like you watch Mike Tomlins team, Do you watch John Harbaugh's team? Like you don't fake that stuff. Jim Harbaugh's a quarterback, but he's wired like those guys. Same thing with Dan Campbell. He's a tight end, but he feels more like a outside linebacker. Like you just can't fake what they have now if you don't

have it. Like I don't think Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay are tough guys, but where they're good is they understand the importance of defense and they give a lot of resources to that side of the ball. Andy's kind of in the middle, Like I would not mess with Andy, but he's more easy going, but like if he has to,

like I would not bug with Andy. Now, he doesn't carry himself as crazy, but like he's got it in his back pocket at any moment because he's from a group of guys Mike Holmgren, John Gruden that also had that in their back pocket. And those guys were offensive guys, right, So I I just it's one of the most fascinating things about coaching. Scheme is really important in the NFL is a little different, right, Like motivation to me is a little overrated in the NFL. It's much more of

the chess game and the coaching game. It's more of an intellectual game because everyone's all the players like you get to that level, like you better be playing around but in college because you know, not everyone has a pro at this position or you know a really good player at this position. The edge and the coaching and the intensity and this the that raw ra stuff, to me is obviously you got to recruit. I'm not saying like, but like, is Walker that much better than the left

tackle who's supposedly a first rounder for Texas? Or was Kirby in that guy's ass all week long and telling them we're out for blood. I can't even imagine the intensity and how guys were walking on eggshells in that building, because it was like that in Alabama for fifteen years, and I've been lucky enough to know a lot of guys that worked in Alabama. It was like that in New England also lucky enough to know a lot of guys that work there. It's not really like that in

Kansas City. Now, the one thing in Kansas City is like you were practicing. So unless you're got a torn ecl or on injury, reserve, buckle that shit up Wednesday and we're wearing pads and it's an intense football environment, but it's a little bit more on you. You either match it, show up to practice, work hard, learn the plays, and take the shit seriously, or we'll just get rid of you. It's very and this is what I like

about Andy. It's much more like a business, right either this is what we're doing, was what we always do. You either shape in or shape out, But like, this is what goes on here, and it's an intense place to play. But if you shape in, it's a great place to play because it's definitely more fun than the New England Dynasty. Like we smiled. We have a good time here. But the football stuff is very intense, very intense.

And that's where I think there's a lot of similarities with Andy and Belichick is the football stuff's very intense. Though Andy's much more likely to like break bread with you, right, hang out, know your wife's name. I don't think Belichick. Belichick wouldn't talk to people walking down the hallway, which I totally believe, be yourself, and that's his authentic self or his belief on how to do it. So I don't even know how we got in that tangent, but

have a great day to talk to you tomorrow. The volume