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Download the game Time app, Create an account. The code is Colin. That's me Coli in twenty bucks off your first purchase. If you do that, terms apply again. Create an account, redeem code Colin Coli and for twenty bucks off. Download game Time today. What time is it? Game Time? Well? Former scout for the Philadelphia Eagles watching his Eagles again start slowly explode in the second quarter dominate the fourth quarter.
You know it would be easy to say, well, Justin Tucker missed a couple of field goals and a pat It certainly didn't help. It forced Baltimore into some weird play calling going forward later. But you know it is after a while, something goes from different, coincidental to a trend. And Philadelphia they feel like a heavyweight fighter that feels you out, kind of tries a few things and then eventually they just wear you out. And Baltimore is a physical team and I just kind of felt I mean,
Jalen Hurts only completed eleven passes. But Philadelphia and I think we've talked about this. We've given Detroit a lot of credit as the best team. I don't know if they met today. With the Lion injuries, I think I may take Philadelphia as the NFC's top team. What say you, yeah?
When I when I see a headline of Jamal Adams signing with the Detroit Lions, you know they you know, they got issues with injuries. I think the star of the day, and he's gone a little under the radar because Sakuan looks, I don't know, like Walter Payton, right now is Vic Fangio. I mean they wanted him two years ago, and that Jonathan Gannon. He got the job last minute and it threw Howie and they're hiring off and he ends up in Miami early in the season.
It didn't quite look right. I would say this last month. I mean the young dbs Mitchell, their first round pick is a star star Cooper dejan looks immediate plug and play slot receiver or a slot corner, which is now a starter in the NFL, right because every team. And then how about this Zach Bond guy. He looks like Brian Erlaker out there running around. He you cannot watch an Eagles game all season long without him making I
say over under four impact impact place. And this was a one year player who didn't sign for much that it was an outside pass rusher, special teams guy, and it's been well reported. And Fangio looked said, I think we can make this guy a middle linebacker and I think he's going to be an All Pro this season. And obviously the pass rush, I mean, Jalen Carter is really kind of, you know, done what they hoped he would be. So it's to me, it's Fangio and the talent on Defense Show.
I feel like the AFC is all about the quarterbacks and the NFC is all about the front offices. Green Bay, I mean, they haven't missed on a tight end or a wide receiver pick or Jordan Love Detroit, Philadelphia. I feel like those three teams, and I like Matt Lafleur, and I like Jalen Hurts and Jared Goff and Matt Lafleur. I think the NFC is ruled by front offices because you don't have as much star power at quarterback. I think Green Bay is a year away, but they hammered
my Miami. That thing was embarrassing. I look at Philadelphia, and you know what's funny about Baltimore. I mean the league. They're league leaders in penalty yards and flags, you know, missed field goals. I like John Harball, I love Jim Harbaugh. It's not that they're they just don't quite feel you know what I mean. I kind of when I watched Baltimore the other week in a game they played, Bill Belichick was ripping them on like the ESPN, like the
Manning cast. He's like, Okay, that's Philadelphia, that's Philadelphia, and you could tell he was kind of like as if he kind of was taking a shot at John Harbaugh. Like, this team's got a ton of talent, They're never buttoned up. Is that fair? And again it's not that I don't like John Harbaugh, but man penalties they just sometimes leave all they leave points and plays on the sideline.
I like the Ravens a lot coming into this game because I thought they matched up well against the Eagles, and like, well, their run defense is awesome, and offensively, how can you corral Lamar in this offense? And it actually flipped. They broke the run defense with Saquan as the game went on. Like you said, with the fighter, I think when you look at Harbaugh, like I would say, in the Lamar era, him and Lamar have been disappointing in big spots. Yes, yes, there's no disputing it. At
this time, they also had a weapon in their back pocket. Yeah, Like when I was a kid, if you had a guy that could hit forty fifty home runs in the early nineties, it was a big curve ball like not many teams had in golf. If you could hit it three hundred plus yards. Twenty five years ago, Justin Tucker is now shot. Yeah, I did some math during the game. He was eight of fourteen from forty plus coming into
the game, then he missed two more. So you're talking about a guy that felt like he was automatic from anywhere from forty five or fifty five yards, who now is a fifty percent, you know, chance of missing the field goal. And let's face it, in this game, when they lined him up to kick the field goal, did you have any faith that he was going to make it? Because I had none, which is crazy. Just two years ago you would have sait like that's a lock. So I you look at a team now that you know
the AFC is pretty open. We'll see how Buffalo looks tonight and how they finished down the Stetch. Obviously, the Chiefs have a remarkable record, but they're pretty flawed. Pittsburgh they actually look pretty good today, but Cincinnati's defense is atrocian. T Harball has guys you've never heard of getting picked sixes, and that's how he's been doing in his whole career. The AFC is not quite what it's been about the top, so that that benefits them. If you just get in, you gotta shot.
So if you look at the AFC again, we're doing this before the Bills play. Kansas City's the one seed, Buffalo to Pittsburgh, three, Ravens four excuse me, Texans, I believe four. Then it's Ravens, Chargers, Broncos would be as of now, the wild card teams. So I really like the top two teams obviously in the AFC. Detroit Detroit is the number one in the NFC, followed by Philly. Seattle is the third seed. Atlanta right now is the fourth seed, and then it goes Minnesota, Green Bay, Washington.
So I like the wild card teams Minnesota and green Bay today more than I like Seattle and Atlanta. Division leaders Atlanta's really We'll get into that in a bit, but I kind of feel I do feel overall, and I talked about this last week. I think the top of the NFL is really strong. If we just said Philly, Detroit, Kansas City, Buffalo, would we agree those are the four
best teams in the league? Yes, yeah, And then I think, and then I think we get into this space where I would Minnesota, Green Bay and Pittsburgh and Baltimore are all capable of winning a playoff game.
I actually right now, like Green Bay and Pittsburgh more than I do Baltimore because every time I'm like, I think Baltimore can win the Super Bowl, you watch today, You're like, no, they can't. What am I talking about? And Pittsburgh, you know, Russell has given them so much life on offense and defensively. On any given moment, TJ. Wat can just create a touchdown, like at the snap of the finger. It feels like Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White.
And that's how many teams have that in their back pocket. Like even Kansas City, like Chris Jones has had moments, but I view TJ. Watt right now as the more dominant player. Now, maybe Chris Flip's a switch come the playoffs, and you know the Eagles kind of have that. It feels like with just all their playmakers on defense and without Aiden Hutchinson, you're watching Detroit, which sucks for them.
Usually when you play on Thursday, you get that mini by well, the NFL right over the last four or five years has taken the two best teams that play on Thursday and put them on the following Thursday, so you just get a normal work week. So Detroit today was basically their Tuesday, which sucks given that was crazy on Thanksgiving. How many guys were going down, it was you kind of start feeling bad for them. Yeah I did.
Yeah, I want to pivot to the Steelers. Pittsburgh forty four Cincinnati thirty eight. This defense for Cincinnati. Listen, the Steelers offense had five hundred and twenty yards eight yards of play, twenty eight first downs. It was one of the great games in Russell Wilson's career. There was a real moment after the game when Mike Tomlin came up and embraced Russell Wilson, and I think it's pretty redeemable. You know, we're talking about Aaron Rodgers, like he still
has it. Aaron's lost nine straight starts. I mean, like to Denver and bow Nicks when they weren't even a thing yet. Russell Wilson deserves a lot of credit. He has worked harder and been more focused than Aaron Rodgers. You can say all you want about Russell Wilson, but he's a workaholic. He's totally committed to it. Sometimes he's
almost hopelessly optimistic. But you know what, but I when he first got there, he thought God you know, it's such a kind of a working class, tough guy culture, and you know he's Ciarra and Russell Wilson and the brand. We have to give him credit. He has acclimated well, he has fit really well.
I don't know.
I look at him and there's two things that he does. He can extend plays, not like he used to, but he can extend plays, and he throws a beautiful deep ball. John I'd argue that that's enough for them to win multiple playoff games.
Especially if they're at home, right and being at home is something that has not been kind to them because they've been playing on the road so often, because they've been winning nine or ten games in the regular season beside the twenty twenty season. So the stat when we rattle off they haven't won a playoff games in twenty sixteen, well, they haven't been a great regular season team for a lot of those years. And when you're playing on the road,
especially in the AFC. You're talking especially the last five or six years, you're talking Kansas City every year, New England for a long time now, Buffalo, these are very very tough places to go play. We saw last year they went into Buffalo like no one. The game would have to get so weird for them to have a chance,
and it kind of did. But I think the best part about football, and you see this in college in the pros, like, yeah, he does not feel like a Pittsburgh Steeler right, the way he talks right and his brand. But if you make plays and you win, no one gives a shit. In college, if you're not from the South in Alabama or LSU hire you and you immediately start rattling off eleven twelve wins seasons and being in the semi finals in the national championship game, no one cares.
But if you didn't play well, they would have turned on. Russell came right in and elevated them. And today's a good example. I mean the game opened up with him throwing a pick six. Now it was you know, pickens fell, but still I went ooh, this could get weird. Bros. Hot you know he spot them seven Even Tomlin I saw. I watched a clip of his press conference. He's like, you know, impressively spotted them seven point. You could even blink and they never and listen, Cincinnati's defense is a trip.
It's atrocious.
It is really great, you know what I mean. Joe Burrow is having a great season, and it's they don't have a shot.
I talked to a GM yesterday about I said, if you if you're Joe Burrow, you're trapped. You know. We look at Caleb Williams, which we'll get to later, and you think he's trapped. But like Joe Burrow, t Higgins may not be a great one. He's probably a one A somewhere. He'll be the winner in this. He'll go to a really good team. Jamar Chase and Burrow. We're going to be in Cincinnati, Tobin the GM. This has never been an organization that's been a deal making organization.
They're the opposite of the Philadelphia Eagles. They're passive, they're not aggressive. It's a dysfunctional front office. They're not well healed. They don't have a lot of they don't have a lot of money. Cincinnati is the Eagles opposite. They just they'll they'll they'll keep paying Marvin Lewis or Zach Taylor forever. They'll never allow dead cap coach money. They're just different.
And I was looking at t Higgins day and I'm thinking, you know what he'd be better off ending up with a really good football team, Like I don't know, you can name it wherever you want to go, but there's gonna be a football team out there that goes, you know what, we're a receiver away. We want to go get a grown up wider because these days John people will pay for one big receiver. It used to be years ago, you know, you'd pay a receiver, you know, the old term deva receiver. You'd be like, oh boy,
what are we into now? T Higgins is no problem, He'll go out and play. But I just watched Pittsburgh and for years we've always acknowledged they draft and develop. Well, they're great underdogs, they're tough, but they they lack the creativity offensively. And Russell between the deep ball and the movement, he gives them a little creativity. By the way, when Ben was younger and moved well, he gave them the
deep ball and the ability to create. I'm not saying Russell's big band in his prime, but it does look a little bit like those teams.
Well, I think Tomlin had a big problem on his hand the last couple of years with the offensive coordinator. Yeah, I can't even think of the guy's name, but he was it was getting pretty ugly. Remember last year, got fired in season and he hired Arthur Smith, and it's completely changed them. And you've watched as the season has gone on, and they went to Russell, like how did they seal the game?
Today?
They went with the Justin Fields run. So they've been able to incorporate like Justin Field for a backup. He's probably one of the more famous backups in the league, if not the most famous, and obviously Russell at one point, I know he was kind of injured, was also the
most by far the most famous backup he has. It takes a pretty special personality to handle that, and then it takes a good offensive coordinator because it's not like Tomlin's sitting in on the quarterback meetings and the offensive install So a lot of that is on Arthur Smith. Where you see North Carolinas interested in him, of course they are, like he's clearly a pretty impressive offensive mine.
And anytime you have the CEO head coaches John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, whoever they hire, especially for the offense side of the ball, with John, Mike and Pete can make or break their season. And that Arthur Smith. You could argue him and Fangio two of the better coordinator hires in all of major college in the NFL this offseason, because how would he not be in the mix for coordinator of the year right now what they're doing in Pittsburgh. Nijie Harris, how about him?
I thought he was kind of a bus He looks fantastic this season.
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And we have a bunch of games we can hit on. I don't know if this is the next most interesting game. I want to talk about the Bears, Seahawks, Jets, Chargers, Atlanta, a lot of college football. But Minnesota today beat Arizona twenty three, twenty two. And I think most people view Kyler Murray as this superstar player and you know, a
little enigmatic, but a superstar player. But it was Sam Darnold, who in the last three games is three and zero, one hundred and twelve passer rating, six touchdowns, no picks. Kyler had an egregiously bad interception and on a couple of big drives, yet two one was atrocious, and Donald now once again had a winning drive. He wasn't great on third down. They didn't have the ball a lot, but they were hyper efficient. They only had three penalties. I keep waiting because you know, I love Dnald. I
preferred him over Baker. I thought it was a bigger, more athletic with a better deep ball arm. Baker better as a pure pastor in the pocket with time. But I keep waiting for the shoe to drop. And I gotta be honest. Today Kyler was reckless and I watched Sam Darnald and I'm like, you know what you brought this up last week. You think JJ McCarthy is better, but oft an injury and they go get Daniel Jones.
I don't know what they do, what happens if Sam Darnald wins two playoff games, John, because today I'm watching him and Kyler and I'm like, I trusted Darnald late in that game more than Kyler Murray and I'm a huge Kyler Murray fan.
This is where I feel bad for the Lions. They're having the greatest season of all time for their franchise, and if they lose to the Packers on Thursday, which is a fantastic Thursday night game, and the Vikings win, they will have the same record. If I would have told the Minnesota ownership, the Minnesota front office, the Minnesota coaches, and every Minnesota Vikings fan, it's pretty underrated fan base.
Pretty great fan base.
That December one, you would be ten and two and coming in today, I think he had twenty one so if he threw he has Sam darld would have twenty three touchdowns. You would be ten and two and one game behind. With the Lions leaking major oil, with injuries and in prime position to win the division, which we all agree, top three teams, best division in football right now. Yeah, easily, they would not believe. They would not have believed you. And this is I don't know if you saw the
story that I think Jeremy Fowler put out that. You know, the Falcons, if Cousins doesn't get it together, they will look to trade him this offseason. Hell, he could be benched over the next couple games. One he's got a note, Trey Clause Atlanta. You're not exactly in control of this. That's a conversation for another day. But Sam Darnald, to me, if I was a team and you said, Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnald, oh god, not even factoring in money, it
doesn't even one. And then when you factor in one guy's making forty million dollars and you're like, Sam, is he getting that? But even if he did, I would rather for if all money's equal, I will take Sam Darnald every day of the week. And again, look who likes him. Kyle loved him, and they didn't want to lose them. They just they couldn't compete with a ten million dollar you know what Minnesota gave him, And look what he's done. And I stand by it because today
I was watching. Halfway through that game, you went, got Minnesota finally coming back to earth, They're gonna.
Look well, I thought too, I listen. Arizona, by the way, if you go look at the yards, they dominated time ofosession, like thirty six and a half minutes to twenty three. Marvin Harrison's seventh touchdown. They if you watched the game up until the end, you felt like, oh, yeah, this is Arizona, who, by the way, schizophrenic, I mean Seattle, DeLand Egg. And then they go on the road to and I'm like, oh crap, they're back.
Yeah, And when he threw that touchdown to Marvin Harrison, you went, you know, maybe this is just they lose twenty five to ten or something. And then I fell down the stretch. It wasn't even just that final drive. Sam Donold was really good in the second half, and Minnesota's got really good coaching. I just don't see with a guy who's now had multiple knee surgeries, who was a major project. Clearly your team, with your coaching staff
is just built to win. This is the NFL. It's not the NBA where you're worried like the Spurs have been worried about five years from now. For five years. It's like the the NFL. A you're just worried about week by week next season. No one's tanking, Carolina's playing their balls off every week. Everyone's trying. And now you're ten and two. Minnesota internally could be like, why couldn't we if we were to win the division? What if we were to get the ones? Why couldn't we win
the Super Why couldn't we get make it the Super Bowl? Right? I mean they are and if again, lot will ride on these January games, especially because probably some of them are going to be against the Packer as the Lions, who you're very comfortable playing and they're comfortable playing you. But this Sam Darnold thing, I'm not if things keep going like they're going, I'm not just letting him walk out the door because I just drafted a guy. We see it all the time. You've been hammering this home.
People pivot faster than they ever have in the NFL. You make a decision even they don't even necessarily know it's wrong. I just can't afford to let this guy walk. He's not thirty eight. This isn't rich Gannon at the end of his career with the Raiders. It's he he's twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight years old. I mean a lot of guys play for ten more seasons in the prime of their career. Quarterback.
Yeah, and Sam has I know him a little bit. First of all, very coachable. I think the year with Kyle Shannan was huge. So his last two stops, he's gotten elite coaching. He's a very coachable guy. And you know, I think the air thing. There was a couple of plays late in the game. It may have been the last drive or the next to last drive, and Sam was rushed and the pocket got muddy really fast, and he squirreled around and he you know, Sam was head up looking to make a throw and I'm like, Sam,
eat it, eat it, don't And he didn't. And he went through a stretch this year in the middle he had a couple of really bad picks. But again he didn't. Early remember, we were surprised early ooh knew Sam. Then he got a little, he got a little the game got a little fast, and he got I think he's trying to make plays. He's living up to the hype. And now he's come back down to earth. He had a really bad Jacksonville road game. They were zero for five in the red zone. I don't know, I watched Minnesota.
And also we have to acknowledge this. You pointed this out. Let's say this again. I talked to I wanted to know what Steve Kaim last night, who now runs the football for Clutch Sports, and he said, listen, you can say what you want about Brian Flores, but they're personnel. They're overachieving, Like he's doing a riga. He's going to get a job. So this may be one of these lightning in a bottle where Darnold has the best season of his career, Brian Flores is there before he gets hired.
Sometimes it happens like you get lightning in a bottle. This is not the Chiefs. It's not to endure for twelve years or whatever. But again, last three games for Darnold, six touchdowns, no picks, lots of movement, one hundred and twelve passer rating. And this is how much I've pivoted. When he gets the ball late between the coaching Sam and Justin Jefferson, I'm like, yeah, he's gonna get him into He's going to get him into field coal position.
He's going to get I just I think if we just put him in a category and people are gonna think I'm nuts. But his physical skills and this is why people never in the league always believed in it and wanted to work with him. It's much closer to like the Mahomes and Joshes in terms of the way the ball comes off his hand. Now, he wasn't playing well. You know Matt Rule in Carolina, like I watched Matt Ruhle in Nebraska, can't win games. Maybe Matt Rule is
just a little bit overrated of a coach. Yeah right, Adam Gase. I haven't heard that name in five years. I didn't think he works in football anymore. So like I see this guy with Kyle Shanahan and obvi leave with Kevin O'Connell. Like his skills and his maturation as a player. Not everyone just hits the ground running. Most players cannot overcome dysfunction. Peyton mannings an all time outlier. He could have carried any franchise and made them relevant.
Tom Brady could not have. At twenty two, twenty three, twenty four years old, Sam Darnold clearly could not. And now he's good. Is he like a Hall of Famer? I'm not acting like we still a long way to go in his career, but he has been excellent this year. Like I'd have to really study the NFC quarterbacks. But you know, Jared Goff, I'm sure is a lock pro bowler, but he would have to be in the Pro Bowl mix for the three NFC.
Guys absolutely no question. Are Week thirteen reaction presented by Uber eats. Get game day deals all season long at uber eats. It's time to look at this weekend's tastiest matchup. Okay, the LA Chargers go on the road. This would have been a loss for the Chargers most of their history. Beat the Atlanta Falcons seventeen to thirteen. The Chargers are eight and four. I mean, it is remarkable what Harbonn
jesse mentor have done to the defense. It's the same damn guys, and now it's the best defense in the league. And what I loved about this game, this reminds me of Minnesota. That's why I want to go to this next. Minnesota was dominated a time of possession, few penalties, big drives, efficiency, the Chargers justin Herbert sixteen completions one hundred and forty seven yards. They only had one hundred and eighty seven
yards total. They're on the road and yet they first of all four picks the pick six up the sideline. I don't even understand what it was. It was like AI, somebody slowed it down. It was like it was That's the one where I'm like, oh my god, Kirk Cousins is washed. That is a seventy four mile an hour major league fastball he threw. It was bad. It was just like, holy shit, he has no fastball. So but I thought my big take was it may be Michael
Pennock's time. You may give Kurt one more start, but this is a game the Chargers have lost my entire life. You're on the road, you don't really your offense just doesn't. It's getting you know. You just don't have a lot of playmakers. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago when they I think they lost to the Ravens, were like, they just start enough. They need a zay Flowers, they need a number one. They don't have playmakers, so let's let's attack it. I'll attack it from that your
thoughts on what to do with Cousins. Are we in the Michael PENNOCKX mode?
Now, yeah, I mean I would start them next week, like this is what are we doing here? Four interceptions? Now they you know, Tampa won the day somehow in overtime since we started recording this, so they're six and six now they have lost to Atlanta twice. Yes, they're also six and six and the Saints losing the Chargers today, obviously they're out of it. So it's it's basically a
two horse race. But Raheem Morris had comments at the beginning of the season when asked why coaching staff was so large, and he said, because we're going to win, and when guys get hired off of our staff, we will have replacements already on them. It's like, Rahiem, I like you and obviously you've resurrected your career making comments
like let's just this leak's really hard. Yeah, you know, ask Andy Reid asked, you know, Jim harrboss John Hart, like, come on, let's just take a deep breath before you start kind of pumping his chest out. And your quarterback's Kirk Cousins, who's we've all come around on and then he tore his achilles, and, like you said, when that happened in real time, the pick six, it just looked like a normal out route the guy jumped. When I saw the replay a little later, You're right, it felt
like the ball floated in the air extra long. I mean, even the dB kind of had to stop, and then you had to Here's the thing though, I got. I got a text from Daniel Jeremiah, who calls the games with Matt mney Smith, and he said, Harbaugh's out here winning games with defensive players and cast offs that most people couldn't point out of the lineup. Hashtag coaching matters.
Yeah this, I had to immediately google that player who had the pick six, who was a fifth round pick, Like, that's not Derwin James, who also had the game winning pick. But you know, some of these plays are being made by randoms. Lad mccaukey is a good young player. He is their go to wife sees and this team is about to win eleven games. I think Jim Harbaugh like Andy Reid and Bill you know, Bill Belichick, probably it's hard to ever surpass the six Super Bulls too. As
an assistant. Andy probably ends up with another one. You know, four super Bowls he won was an assistant. Like these guys are all time, like Lombardi levels. How many coaches can just go back and Jimmy Johnson college college pros never left. Jim goes dominates College, comes to the pros, dominates, goes back to college, wins the national championship, comes back to the pros and wins it. Who could do that? Like, I don't see who has that pitch? Yeah, like most
guys really thrive in one. He's coming and now he's in his style, like he has a specific way of playing his sport and it not only translates, it immediately dominates.
Yeah, there were.
Four interceptions against a guy that just got one hundred million dollars and made him look like a third string quarterball.
Well, and also Jim does it with culture, so his fastball is culture. You know, he is what Ohio States Ryan Day isn't, which is Ryan Day. The schemes are fine, but he what is Ohio State? You immediately I can remember when he was at Stanford hardball goes in as a forty point dog at the coliseum, beats Pete Carroll and I mean they had like a confrontation at midfield and it was like he made Pete was reeling. It was like, what in the hell? This is before they
got good. And I can remember like his second year. I was talking to a friend. He was at Stanford. Stanford he replaced I believe, Buddy Stevens. They were a mess. And I remember this because it was about the second year and Pete Carroll was still in the conference and I said, you're going to think I'm crazy. They're the most physical team in the conference Stanford by year two and nobody was paying attention to him. Then what he's
doing with the Chargers. They are so physical and he also I was talking to Jordan Schultz the other day. You know, his dad's Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder.
Yeah.
Yeah, I said, what's your dad's greatest strength? And he said, my dad's a really great delegator. His ego wasn't in control. He hired really good people and he delegated. And I've heard that before from really good CEOs. Harbaugh does that, like with his general manager with Jesse Mentor. He knows what he doesn't know, and what he does know, He's relentless and attacks you watch this Charger team, it is I mean the other thing like Brandon Staley may never
get another job. I mean he will never get another head coaching job. It's the same players. In fact, I'd argue it's worse because they don't have Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, have no playmakers.
It's it's much worse. You know, by the way, on Jordan's dad Howard the Acquired podcast with Howard Schultz on how he built Starbucks, it's basically just him talking to these two guys from start to finish how they built Starbucks. Amazing. Listen, they are much worse. Keenan Allen just had a couple of touchdowns on Thanksgiving? Still a good player. What would Keenan Allen? What would they do? And listen, I know they chose they had to and who did Harbach shoes?
The two guys in the trenches? What did he do with the first pick? You know? Part of what I think. You see a lot of this and the Giants got crushed for this, and we've talked about this over and over. They have a clear identity of what they want and what they need. There's no guessing game. They're not just feeling it out as they go. You know, go back to the Michigan game, which Michigan's best players are still Harball's guys, those defensive linemen, especially those defensive tackles, and
the offensive lineman like he knows. Go back to Stanford, where did they start dominating before Andrew Luck showed up offensive linemen and running backs and he wore people out? And that what is how he doing right now with the E Jalen Hurts is not thrown for form. He doesn't look like Joe Burrow. He's not throwing for three hundred fifty yards a game. They are hammering you, They're wearing you down. Even the Ravens who have all their
defensive line men. Every team in the league would line up to sign all of them, and they just get worn down over time. Why because I got a first round or a right tackle, I got a second round or a right guard, I got a center that I drafted in the second round. I got a left tackle that was a former first round pick. You know, you just go down the and it's just the hardballs, the same thing. And everyone thought he was crazy when he took all number five's, Like you need wide receivers. He's like,
what the fuck are you guys talking about? At the tip of my spear is my offensive lineman. And that's coming from a former quarterback. And I think a lot of guys pivot from their strategy, you know, and he never did. He never did. And I don't know if it's just full on belief in himself, if it's just the only way he knows, but a lot of guys would have got scared off at different points in time. I mean, look at Ohio State, They've completely revamped. They're
much more of a spread slinging around. That's not the ohiuse faith has dominated my entire life. Yeah, and you know, Harbaugh, this team like they have a ceiling obviously because it's the NFL, and you know they only have so many guys. But what he's they won five games last year, five games to pick Kirk. I mean that might have ended Kirk cousins Atlantic career. I would like pet my life
savings on it. But well, I mean there's a decent chance that by Monday or Tuesday, it's like Kirk Cousins has They're gonna try Michael Panix this week, right.
And by the way, if that works. It's very Flacco to Lamar Jackson. Where Flacco started has had like a rough three week stretch or four week stretch, and they said we're going to go with Lamar. If I recall what happened, they went with Lamar in week eleven is a rookie year. Well, Pennix would go in like week thirteen or fourteen. That I had never had a problem with Kirk Cousins. Michael wasn't ready. Kirk Cousins gets you to six and six, you lead the division, he pivots out.
You segue to Michael Pennix, who's been able to now sit and learn from pretty good OC. I wouldn't be surprised if Pix went in. You don't know how to defend him. Nobody's got tape on him. You have no idea what to do with him.
My issue, and I know you and a lot of people you know the quarterback position, quadrupling down on it. My issue with it was Michael Pennix. At the time free agency hit people. A lot of people didn't think he was the first round pick, so they had the eighth overall pick. So if they really did love him as much as they ended up loving him, they would have known they could acquire him. Why not allocate your resources help give Sam Darnold eighteen million dollars for one year?
Ye Like, I think it shows a little haphazard. They kind of fell the coaches fell in love with him more in April and they had already signed Cousins. Because now you're in this weird spot because has had a lot of leverage when he signed there. He has a no trade clause. Now if he's not going to start in twenty twenty five, it's not like he wouldn't waive that, but his value clearly is not as high as it
just was this last offseason. Games like that, you know who's you're just basically offloading him, and you know your owner, which is not the GM or coaches money, but gave him a lot of cash and impacts your salary cap. So it's just you're now six and six, and who's picking them in the first round against Green Bay or Minnesota, I mean Hell or even Detroit not a soul. There'll be an underdog, yeah at home, won't they? In that game?
I would have resolutely Sunday Night food Ball, brought to you by Uber Eats, is the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Uber eats has the best game day deals all season long order now I often do for game day. Seahawks twenty six, Jets twenty one Aaron Rodgers ninth straight loss. Seattle's now taking control of the NFC West. And by the way Seattle gave this game is weird. You had to watch it. So Seattle gino Smith.
They had this weird red zone where they had seven tries from the five yard line and got zero points out of it. But it was really interesting. The Jets, by the way, John are in the running for the number one pick. So the Jags, Raiders, and Giants have two wins. New England, the Jets, the Titans, and I think it's Carolina have three wins because Carolina lost in overtime. We hadn't started this. The Jets are in the mix
for the number one pick. But what was really interesting after the game, First, Aaron failed on another comeback drive in the fourth quarter. Okay, Darnold had another successful one. Baker, by the way, wins an overtime. Aaron has another. I think he's had six this year, A half dozen chances to win a game late it's been one or two plays. But what was interesting is Aaron missed a wide open Garrett Wilson in the end zone and it was a pretty pedestrian play. It would have given the Jets a
twenty eight to seven lead. And on the road Seattle, I don't know if they have the firepower Becasauce Gardener was given DK metcalf troubles. I mean, he'd kind of taken him out. I don't know if the Seahawks win that game. And after the game, Aaron said, you know, it's always one play and I wanted to just go time out. It wasn't it was one play, it was your miss. And then by the way, he had a pick six. Remember right after that it was a pick
six and it was like, okay, total game changer. But I when that happened, that pick six, I started writing notes down and I just said, where would I put Aaron right now in the league? And J McK and I have talked about this on the Hurt. He is not a top fifteen quarterback. I don't care what anybody says, Like I'm watching him, I don't trust him late. He's got a little mobility, not as much as most guys. I don't know. I don't know what you do with
Aaron Rodgers this thing. I don't remember a great quarterback John ending a career like this, I mean farv Remember it was eight and three with the Jets, right, got hurt, he went to Minnesota and just tore the league up the next This is a really really I almost think it it. I mean, he's gonna be a Hall of Famer, but it's almost a legacy affecting like year, Like he is aged much faster than I thought.
Well, a couple of things you need to cop Go to the NFL page, get the Leonard Williams highlight of that pick six and copy it and send it to Lincoln Riley and say, you need more guys that look like this that you guys used to have. That's what you need, you know, I thought early in that game, when the Jets look good, yeah, I got it. The Jet's gonna blow these guys out. Well, they had a bye week, and what happens when like Steph Curry, Lebron James missed a couple of weeks, they usually look good
when they come back. Why they're fresh, older guys. And as the game went on, he's an inaccurate player. You said top fifteen quarterback. I don't think he's a top twenty five quarterback. I mean he was twenty one to thirty nine. He's objectively inaccurate when you're watching, Yes, these balls. The Garrett Wilson play is one for I don't know up up until he tours Achilles, he would make with his eyes closed with his left hand, And there are other plays over the middle where again I don't know,
he's not seeing ghosts. But he's so rattled and sporadic in the pocket because he knows he can't really run around. Early in the game he had a couple runs. You're like, oh, that looks like a little old Aaron. But as the game goes on, I don't know if it just kind of slows down a older guy. Then he doesn't move as well and inaccuracy, like one thing he dominated, he had an arm like Farv, yet he was accurate like
Drew Brees. Now. I feel like when the ball's coming out of his hands, he doesn't know where it's going. And I think he was so pinpoint accurate. I mean that's separated. When he was with Green Bay, he would hit these guys in the hands on every different route, whether it was short, intermediate, or long. And now you're watching these balls on pretty basic like over the middle, crossing routes, guys reaching behind them getting destroyed over the middle.
I just think I don't know all the body mechanics, but from the achilles if he doesn't trust his lower body. There have been stories about him being banged up, which I'm sure like no one's ever questioned, like Aaron's tough, Like Aaron's been getting hit hard for a long time, Like no one's question he got destroyed. Honestly, I was like, is he gonna get up?
Yeah?
And like it's not The toughness is not his problem. I think his skills now are like tangibly deteriorating. And that's where you know, you go back and forth about him playing next year. I just think that the new coach and the new GM, whoever comes in, you are going to want a fresh start. And if you're Aaron Rodgers, are you gonna want to keep going through this? You know?
I think Schlareth has been saying this for years. Every player with their salt notices themselves first on film and goes this is hard to watch right before your career ends. You're like, that is that me? That's not me? That can't be me, And Aaron has to watch. I mean this is one of what do you think, top five talents of all time at that position. Yeah, and now he's making plays that people that he's been laughing at for decade and a half. He can't even come close.
He missed the Garrett Wilson one, which is bad for him. I think it's more of the basic routes that his receivers are missing behind. He doesn't know where they're going and it's tough to watch. And this team, they are no lock to win any game, any game.
You know, he's aging like Dan Marino. So and I have compared Marino and Aaron Rodgers because esthetically they're just beautiful throwers of the football. But at the end, Marino couldn't move, his legs were shot. He wasn't putting in the time. I mean he did when Jimmy Johnson got there. He wouldn't show up for off season workouts and he wouldn't show up. Well, Aaron is going to Egypt. I mean,
Aaron's doing his own thing. And when you're told how beautiful you throw a football, and how great you are? Yet Brady, even as he was winning Super Bowls in New England, people said, well, he's a system quarterback. System quarterback. Patrick Mahomes constantly hears, well it's Mahomes or it's Andy Reid. I mean, Mahomes is great, we know that, but I mean, let's be honest. Mahomes starts a lot of bad picks.
He's got the smartest coach, Travis Kelcey and that stuff, you know, or Lamar Jackson, you're not a good passer, Josh Allen, you can't beat Mahomes. It motivates these guys. Aaron was basically told for fifteen years you are the You're better than Brady. Marino was told for years, you're actually better than Elway. And I think you're human. I think, if you know, I've always been driven by the critics, not by you know, positive press or whatever. So I
think Aaron hasn't put the time in. And I think you can tell how hard people work. Like Drew Brees at the end had lost his deep ball. He was crazy accurate, he was tremendous Maligne of scrimmage. Drew Brees slowly gradually eroded Aaron has gone off a cliff big Ben, by the way, not known as the hardest off season workout guy got old really fat. Cam Newton aged very quickly, I Aaron reminds me of Marino, like he is just
not he is, I said, top fifteen. I mean, if I said to you, I'll name a quarterback and you tell me if you take this quarterback or Aeron Baker Mayfield.
Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnald Donald, You're you're gonna struggle the name. Guys, I'm telling you.
I last three weeks, Bryce Young.
Bryce Young, I've watched some Caroline has played well for a month.
That's right, because him, No, he's played great. No, So you're you're you're with me on this. I I just don't think. I think he's been adored for so long he hasn't put the time in. And now you can see it. By the way, since Robert Sala been has been fired, the Mets have two wins and the Jets have one. That tells you that tells you about Robert sala being fired. What a catastrophically dumb move it was.
I think his whole game, I mean, I would say his pass when you close your eyes. You think Aaron Rodgers, it's backpedaling off the back foot and throwing a dart. Where when you think Brady and Manning his you know, when you think the three guys of his era, it was Brady, Manning, and Rogers. Two guys had nothing in common with the other. I mean, Tom Brady once said
football is the most unique sport. I couldn't play any other position in high school, let all, in the NFL, they didn't move outside of a couple of yard radius. It's why they practice fundamentals. If you went to a Tampa Bay practice when Tom Brady was forty five years old and showed up for the first twenty minutes, he's in a full on sweat practicing his footwork. Well, Aaron never had you because he could always get away with that. It's like a basketball player who's the best athlete in
the league, who's not a great shooter. Now, Aaron technically was, but once the athletic ability deteriorates, you're in major trouble if your fundamentals aren't great. Right, Chris Paul's never been that fast, so he's always been able to play a certain style. Brady and Manning, Manning fell off a cliff because his arm, like Drew Brees, did not work. Yeah,
not because he didn't know everything to do. Aaron Rodgers doesn't play like those guys, and you watch him play now the way he's kind of willy nilly was his foot Jordan Love is a carbon copy of him. But Jordan Love in the prime of his career right now, that arm it fires out. You're like, geez, Jordan Love's got a host. Yeah, Aaron's arm, you know, to let's face here, just a little older. It's not as great.
And whether it's again the biomechanics of his lower body with the achilles not being the same, doesn't it's just off. But he doesn't sit in there and work his footwork like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees or Tom Brady because he's never had to, and that was always the knock. And the one year he had a bad season, you know, the McCarthy year, the McCarthy got fired, and then his last year with Lafleur, he kind of gets off doing his own thing, and when he gets a little off,
the fundamentals go out the window with him. They never ever Peyton Manning sucked because he could not throw in his shoulder let him down, not because his footwork and his body was off in the pocket. Same thing with you, Same thing with Tom. At the end, Thomas didn't want to get hit. Don't blame him. Forty five years old. Aaron's mechanics and and I would say, fundamentals are just not good. They never have. Yeah, and he got away with it. And now it's you're watching them. I have
a hard time seeing him play next year. And listen, I understand not many jobs, no jobs unless you're like the CEO of Apple are gonna pay forty plus million dollars a year. But he's made a lot of money and now he's getting peppered. He's forty years old. Who's going to trade for him? If the Jets don't want him? Like, what are really his options? Like it's it's probably a situation that you don't even have a chance to win
in the summer. Like it's pretty clear. So I if I had to guess, right now, we're the last We're down the home stretch of Aaron Rodgers playing NFL football.
I want to go back to Thursday and talk about one team. So the Chicago Bears, ibra Flus has been fired off that insane, egregiously bad coaching snafoo. So I saw Caleb Williams Saturday. I went to the Notre Dame USC Gamet in jen Co in the athletic director's box. He was there, so was his dad. I said hi to Caleb and talked to his dad for a second.
Remember before the draft, I went on the air and I said, you know, I've heard Caleb's got some reservations about the Bears, but he didn't want to be the bad guy. And the next day Caleb came out and said, no, no, no, no, no, no, not true. I'm going to go to the Chicago Bears. So I'm going to go to the Chicago Bears. Well, the truth is Caleb didn't want to hurt his advertising market, his influencer market, and he was going to be a
good soldier. But I trusted my source is that you know, you can't look at the Bears an educated, reasonable person, and that's Caleb can't look at the Bears and go this is a great place to go. And you're seeing basically what we predicted. I was told in the last month by an NFLG he thought the mccaskeys were the worst owners Bidwell's second, mccaskey's the worst. They're some of the poorest, just an odd group. The guy the president is a former Big ten president. You know, a lot
of opinions. Not great on the details. I've been told Eber flews over his skis. Ryan Poles has done okay, there's been I love the Montese sweat move. I love that move. Chase Claypool people take swings and mess I'm not going to judge him some of his drafting. Jalen Johnson. I like the Keenan Allen pickup. I talked to Cole Comett this weekend. He was in the box with Caleb Williams. There's I don't know if.
Pole's extended Poles extended commit I mean he's there for a while.
Yeah yeah, I don't know if he drafted him, but he extended him. But this organization, what is happening now is what Caleb and any reasonable person feared is then. I thought Caleb was good enough. He was the only quarterback in this draft. Like Andrew, luck didn't get the right GM, an impulsive owner, his coach got fired battle line. He was good enough and Andrew. Now, I don't think Caleb's as good as Andrew Luck as a prospect, but I thought he was one of these top ten prospects.
But the difference is this division is so damn good. Is as good as Caleb is. I'm sorry again. Minnesota is well run. They don't have Super Bowls. I've always felt they're pretty well run. Green Bay's exceptionally run. Detroit now is well run. I worry that Caleb Williams is going to just be stuck having to compensate for an organization that's arguably the weakest in the league because that Andrew Berry is a very good GM in Cleveland. We don't love the ownership, but we like the coach and
the GM. I have a feeling here that Bears right now, along with Carolina and people like Dan Morgan as they don't love Temper, are the Bears the most dysfunctional franchise in the league.
It has to be right up there. I mean, I personally have always thought, once you have a lot of money and you run a business and you still are really cheap on things that really matter, like you kind of have a disease Cincinnati business back. Yeah, yeah, you see this in all walks of life, even outside of football. Like eventually you got a pivot like Walmart. Sam Walton was notoriously very cheap. There came a point in time where you had to pivot with some of the big
expenses with the company. And there are stories this weekend and I gobbled up everything ABRAF loose, the firing of them. When they interview coaches, they fly them out and they put them in coach And I had a buddy in the NFL that said when they were interviewing gms, they put them all in like a shuttle. I mean, just things that in the NFL, in college football at the highest level that are just viewed like any industry, there are certain standards for the highest level of your CEO,
for your head coach. That is pretty embarrassing. And this, this is a franchise. This guy a chiropractor at the gym who just whenever I see him, he loves this Sunday show with me and you. He've found me through you, and he's a diehard Bears guy. And he was hammering, you know, the Kevin Warren situation, and he's like, people don't realize this franchise has been owned by this family since the twenties. I would imagine for sixty seventy years,
the economics of the league. For the McCaskey, you know, Papa Hall was a little different than it's become the last twenty twenty five years. But philosophically, their thoughts on everything have kind of been engraved, you know, from their grandparents, Like the way they think about this. Hell the is it the grandma or whatever. Virginia McCaskey is like one hundred years old. Did you think she've used things like Jeffrey Luriy and Howie Roseman, or like Less Sneed and
Dan Cronkey. How can she compete against that? Jed York's forty five years old, run around with Silicon Valley people.
How about this? We knew that Al Davis was a pioneer in a visionary and in the last ten years got really murky and bad. Jerry Jones Visionary Maverick last six to eight years as a bad roster. So those guys weren't I mean, that was an eight to ten year stretchery or uncomfortable. I feel like Chicago's been like this for twenty five years.
And I think whenever you have ownership that doesn't know what they're doing, Kevin Warren is kind of reported this morning that he's running point on the coaching search and Ryan Poles will assist him. Callin that is insanity. This is a guy that was hired to run the business and get them a stadium. You know the geography of Chicago better than me. But it again through my buddy said that they basically laid it all out for him in the suburbs and they want to stay in the city.
Get everything's there for them. They already owned the land. It's like, that's you got to get the stadium built, not hire the coach that that should be Ryan Pole's job and the owner. But the owners want no part of it because they don't know what they're doing. And it's it's pretty sad. And this is where in the NFL, Like Caleb was in a tough spot. This has gone worse than I didn't think it was gonna go well, Like I didn't even view him as a playoff team.
It's obviously been way worse. You know his report today, Jalen Johnson lost it on ebra Flus as he just gave his postgame. You know, hey, guys is ad versus me. It's like, no, this We're not given the the cliche speech anymore in here, Matt and he should have been fired in January. Absolute, he should have been fired in January because now you're repeating the same thing over and over. But who's it's interesting, you go, who's gonna want this job? Actually,
on paper, it's a pretty good job. They got a lot of players and a GM that comes from Kansas City who's a former offensive lineman. I do think the Kevin Warren thing is as big of a red flag if I have to answer ebra Flus and Ryan Poles this year answered to him, not the owner. Like Mike Vrabel's hanging up. He's not answering to Kevin Warren. Obviously, Bill I don't. They probably wouldn't even interview them. Ben Johnson's gonna have enough leverage, Like I'm not answering to
the team president that does not own the team. You know in Denver Penner who is married into the Walton family, it's like it's all the same umbrella. So it's like, yeah, I answer to him. He is the family rights, this is this guy's an independent. This guy could be fired tomorrow Kevin Warren. And if I'm Vrabel, I have to answer to him, who I don't think knows anything about football. Remember, he was the guy leading the charge to cancel football up through the middle of August, and it wasn't for
Jim Harbaugh and CJ. Stroud in the Big Ten, he would have canceled football. And I know there's tumultuous times, especially depending on where you live, but that's something that to me, that's why Jim Harball, Like Jim Harbaugh was never working with him last year, a lot of people thought that they could hire him, and I just think the Bears, man they are. That's gotta be one of the more embarrassing three or four game stretches that I
ever remember. Like I saw some bad Jim Thomps Suley you know, that year, but he didn't have specific aims over and oh it was just a bad like a joke. But these specific moments on Thanksgiving. I mean, how many people were watching that game? Twenty five million? The clock just kept tickting.
What's going on here? It's the worst situational coaching I've ever seen in my life. Not first of all, rookie quarterback against Detroit short week, but throw them a life preserver, like if it's year three. I'm on Caleb's ass. He is a rookie on a short week on the road. Call a time out. You can see him. Everybody's flailing.
I had a lot of scouting buddies crushing Caleb, like you know. He's the quarterback twenty one, twenty two years old, short week, late in December, never played this long, probably exhausted, had led them back. Yes, right, that's the coach. He's the defensive coordinator. He does nothing on offense. His only job is to watch the clock. Clearly they're discombobulated.
They should they should have.
He should have called the clock the moment he hit his knee, hit the ground, sacked. It was a no brainer. Yeah, and honestly I was prize they fired him, weren't you? Or was it just so bad they had no choice? I expect the Bears have played out the rest of the year.
Now for a segment called making It Look Easy, brought to you by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Today Russell Wilson three touchdowns four hundred and fourteen yards in the Steelers wild win over the Bengals. Just like Russell made it look easy, Morgan and Morgan does the same thing to submit a claim. Over one hundred offices nationwide, more than eight hundred lawyers fifteen billion dollars recovered for their clients. They have a proven track record of fighting
to get you full and fair compensation. Morgan and Morgan has been fighting for the people for over thirty five years. And if you're ever injured, just go to fourthpeople dot com, slash Colin or dial pound five to two nine to check out America's largest injury law firm. Winning in the NFL is hard, Hiring Morgan and Morgan is easy. Let's go to Michigan thirteen, Ohio State ten. We have to talk about a couple of college football situations. So I did not think. I think this is the biggest in
the history of this rivalry. It's got to be the biggest upset. Michigan passed for sixty two yards, had two picks on the road, and still won. I mean, Michigan hasn't thrown the ball at Michigan's a very easy team to defend. They can't pass. You could be hyper aggressive. So I thought one of the things I compared today in my car, I did a little thing on Twitter. I compared Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach. I wouldn't fire him, but there's a clear whole. He's Mark Ricked.
So Mark rick had been a quarterback coach like Day, was an offensive coordinator like Day, and then got a blue blood job. And I always felt when watching Georgia under Mark Richt, he had several top ten finishes in the big games. You never felt they got the most out of the roster. And that's exactly how I feel about Ryan Day is that he can recruit like Ricked. He's a nice guy like Ricked. But those Georgia teams never had an identity. They just had really good players.
Even when they had like I think Matt Stafford he had like he would have. They would they would have moments and you'd be like, Oh, this team's the best in the country. And they won a lot of big games. He won three out of four games he coaches, and Ryan Day wins by out of six games he coaches. But they have no identity. And I thought that game. Here's my take. So Ryan Day is one of those guys that you know Urban Meyer. He went to Bowling Green,
he went at Utah, he went at Florida. By the time he gets to Ohio State, he has got a lot of confidence. His shit works, Jim Harbaugh, My ship works, right, Ryan Day, What does he fall back on? So remember when he got really defense, when old Lou Holtz took a shot at him and they won a game. In a post game, he takes a shot at rickety old blue holes and I'm like, wait a minute, Well, why do you care about that? Because he doesn't have a
history of success Mark Rick did. Neither is that when you you know, save Michigan State, LSU, Alabama, NFL, people can take shots at you. You have a formula that works. Ryandy doesn't have a formula that works. He's two and foreign bulls. He can't beat Michigan now four years in a row. And I thought the game plan was fascinating. John. He was trying to prove how tough Ohio State was in the first half. Say, bro, you have major matchup
advantages at wide receiver. He wanted to prove. Hey, people say we're not this this game's always decided by rushing yards. I'm going to approve. I'm gonna low this hole. I can't coach tough football teams. Because he got very defensive with Lou Holtz questioning that and this is Ryan Day and we'll get into Lincoln Riley in a second. He's a little lost when you start worrying about voices outside the building and narratives, and it starts changing your game plan.
Their first half game plan was embarrassing, Like what was it? He was trying to prove we can win tough, just win the damn game.
You know, I've had this theory with politics for a while that sometimes the media is detrimental to candidates and a certain party. And I think, you know, CNN and MSNBC writer in the headlines a lot, a lot that no one's watching them anymore. They're losing a lot of viewership, but their clips go viral and I'm on a million text chains that see them constantly, and they're constantly lecturing people that whether it was Biden's cognitive ability or the
Kamala was a great candidate. And eventually the people are like, yeah, just come on right, pump the bricks. And I think for a long time there has been a media apparatus that has told everybody, you, Ohio State fans are lunatics. Get lectured them that they're lunatics. And this guy is ex look at his record, and it's like, guys, most human beings now over thirty years old have been alive long enough to see Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban Kirk Kirby smart dabble like they know what a really
good coach looks like. They also know that the Big Ten, beside a team or two every once in a while, is not very good anymore. Most of these teams, like beating Nebraska and beating Minnesota when you're at Ohio State and you have unlimited resources, is not that impressive. So you are basically paid to beat Penn State, Michigan and the other top teams that you play, whether it's Notre Dame or which you play in the playoffs and stuff. That's it, Like, no one, you get no credit for
beating the shit out of Minnesota and Nebraska. Whoever you better win those games, but no one cares. It's like James Harden scoring fifty against Sacramento Kings in January, Like, I'm sorry, no one puts any stock into that after a while, And I think everyone getting lectured constantly about
Ryan Day. Ryan Days, like, guys, we've seen him in these big games and it's something's off, right, something's off, and in this game specifically right, the last couple of years, Harbaugh has had a team that was elite, so you get beat as happens, Kirby smarts losses.
Last year, Michigan had better players than Ohio State.
They had seventy guys drafted or whatever. This year. You we've all seen crazy games in college. We've seen twenty plus years insane. That to me, obviously, we've seen bigger outcomes like Vince Young that was a national championship game, right, or even Ohio State lost or won national in a regular season game. I think that's one of the craziest outcomes I've ever seen that entire life. It was start to finish because not a person in the world, especially
a Michigan fan, would have bet on Michigan. And as the game was going, you kept thinking yourself, this can't be happening. But he tried to get into a heavyweight fight with the one thing Michigan can do, and Chips are to running up the middle. It's like they're two good players with the defensive tackles. You have three NFL guys. But I keep thinking that after the game and everyone's
shitting on Ryan Day. It's like, well, they've been lectured for five years that he's a great coach, and it's like, I'm just waiting for him to beat another Like we don't care that he's beating James Franklin now four straight times. Yeah, Like you can't beat Michigan, which in this program clearly is borderline the equivalent of like the National title game at this point, and he loses against the other good
teams when he plays him in big spots. So you're watching him and you go the cockiness the third base comment. Most guys that get those jobs. Jim Harbaugh to get the Michigan job, had to coach at San Diego Stanford and then win at the forty nine ers. You know, this guy had never been a head coach. Yeah, and he got the job and handed to him by one of the greatest coaches of his era. So the Ohio State fans literally know what it looks like with Urban
Meyer and you go, well, we're not that physical. We have this pass And here's I was thinking about this too, because I've been critical of this guy for a long time. And Starkesey is got Texas in the SEC championship year one, and I'm watching him last night and I went to watch him live. Sark takes this offensive guy like Ryan Day, Well he's also the play caller, so half the game
is his baby, right and the program's his baby. But the play calling, well, Ryan Day is like turned into this CEO even though he's this offensive minded guy, has to hire Chip Kelly and you're watching him on offense just look terrible against a Michigan team. Their best corner Will Johnson, who might be like a top five pick. It's like Travis Hunter two point oh corner is out your slicing. I was like, what are you guys doing?
Like you're supposed to be an offensive mind, get chips call in the plays, and then your team's not that tough. And I do think to look after the game where they plant the flag and he stands there and it just listen. They're in the playoffs, so you're not gonna fire him today. I don't see how this moves forward, I because I I think it's very possible that this type loss they could just lose immediately in the playoffs, depending on who they play. Do you think Ohio State
fans And I'm an Ohio State hater. But if I was in their shoet, I'd be tired of being lectured constantly by and listen, I get it. Joe Klatt and all these guys at Ohio State is a huge part of the business, and they're awesome. I like washing them too, But like we have to riot day, like Kirby Smarts, the Nick Saban's like he's at Urban Myers. He's not even remotely on their level.
No, he's not.
He's not even debatable.
No, no, he is much closer to Mark Rick who you know, George is better now without Mark Richt, who was a really nice guy. But they I mean, I had an NFL GM tell me years ago, he'd love drafting Georgia guys under Mark Richt, he goes, because they were He goes, if you drafted a Nick Saban guy at Bama, he'd already squeezed all the juice out of
the player. He goes these Georgia guys like they still had two gears of shifting, you know, like there you were always like, oh, they're way better than you think. The Other thing is that the transfer portal and the NIL have actually created parody. When I was talking with a guy today who's a he runs a message board for Ohio State, and I said, you know, you used to be able to years ago when you had one hundred and twenty five scholarships and the John McKay era
for US. See, you'd take like four running backs in the West Coast just to hog them, even if he didn't play him. And then we got down to eighty five scholarships. And you can still do a little bit of that. Nick Saban can do it. Kirby Smart Well, Now a backup left tackle at let's say Ohio State Louisville comes in and says, we'll pay it three hundred thousand dollars. You're a starter for US, or a right
tackle at Ohio State. Well, you want to be a left tackle and show that scouts that you know, whoever's got money. Whatever team A Texas A and M could say, come here, start at left tackle, so there's less depth and then an Ohio State could lose an elite offensive tackle where it's always been my whole life. The top programs have tour they have backups that would start except for there's a first round guy in front of them. Well, that guy now just goes and plays at a lesser
program gone. And so if you have an injury, So let's say you're Georgia and you lose you know, brock Bowers, and then a tight end gets hurt and the other tight end who you had, he got purchased by Wake Forest or somebody or Oregon. Well, now your tight ends no better than the guy at Purdue. So these teams like Alabama and Georgia and Ohio State, if they have a key O line injury or a linebacker injury, they don't have great backups. Those guys have been purchased in
the NIL to go to lesser programs. And I mean I know a program that was I mean Washington, I mean they were in the Harbaugh Michigan teams. They were like, Okay, who's not starting that we recruited. Who's a five star guy, who's behind a you know, a sophomore who's got two more years there? That's the game. Now.
I think Ohio State though, if you look at this offseason, theos Well reported they spend twenty million. Yeah, I think these numbers. Yeah, it could be twenty five, could be eighteen, could be twelve. You know, who knows the actual number. But They spent a lot relative and I think widely considered the most of any college football team, and they bought Ferraris. I mean, Caleb Downs would start for every NFL team immediately.
He's great.
You know. They bought multiple sweet players. And then they signed Kansas State's quarterback, who some believe was not going to be their starter anymore because the other kid that was coming up they played this year. They were going to go to him a little more dynamic. And you look and you go, well, shouldn't if you're gonna buy a Ferrari and a range Rover and not have a garage, like, it's a pretty risky move. You know, cam Ward was clearly the guy. But you go, Chip, Kelly, Ryan, day
of it. They wouldn't really love cam Ward a little bit. You know. That's not really their type player, especially Chip.
Yeah, do his own thing, Will.
Howard or Will Howard that's yeah, it was much more their type guy. And you watch Kyle McCord at Syracuse, who just take down Miami. He's had a pretty good year. Yeah, they blamed everything on him last year and listen, he was up and down for him. But I think sometimes in this nil era, when you're paying people, especially quarterbacks, lot of money. You can start doing finger pointing, where in the history of the sport you would just give that guy a couple of years to be your starter
and maybe that one year. You look back, you win the national championship. The next year and you go, we live through that. Look what Harbaugh did with JJ McCarthy and that crew of guys. They lost that devastating game to Tissue TCU. Right, it was hard to stomach. A couple of years ago. Everyone came back and they won it. Well, now in the NIL era, if you like you're just pointing the finger, you make a couple guys transfer they're
not good enough, you upgrade. You watch how could you lose a game where the opposing team If I told you at the start, how much money would you put on Ohio State? If they're starting quarterback through for sixty yards and through two picks, you'd be like, I bet they win the game forty to ten.
I thought I predict to kill them. I thought it was going to be I honestly thought thirty eight to thirteen would be close. I thought it was gonna be a blowout.
You just can't. You just can't fake toughness. And I've been around these coaches long enough and know these guys and these NFL teams and these programs. Some guys have it and some guys don't, and a small percentage truly have it, like Urban Meyer, Nick Saban. It's not about like your size or your coach, but you're like everyone when you walk into the room, they kind of they're their shoulders. Kirby clearly has it right. It's a small percentage of guys. And Ryan he's not bad, but he
was also handed. I think the best program in the country with unlimited resources and will do whatever he wants. And they are regressing four straight times in Michigan. I think he's a loss. We'll see who they end up playing in the first round. Let's just say they play Tennessee. That if they play a team like and they lose, I mean, you, now, who are they going to hire? Like it's Mike Vrabel's not coming to college football in this era, right, So it's like, who you know? Do
you hire the Iowa State coach? There's no it's you might just get the same thing, Like you're probably not getting Nick Saban or Urban Meyer. You know the version the next version of that. So you're just this is where they're kind of you know, it's not that bad, but it's clearly not good enough because if you can't get Michigan now, like you just beat a team that was so desperate they paid a kid twelve to fifteen million dollars to be their quarterback who's seventeen years old.
That's the team you just lost to.
All Right, I want to finish up USC Notre Dame. By the way, Marcus Freeman, the coach for Notre Dame, Peter Schrager is reporting this, and this is the second person I've heard it from. Marcus Freeman. The Chicago Bears are interested culture builder. So just throw that out there. That's being talked about in NFL circles. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman.
Would you leave Notre Dame making ten million dollars a year to the Bears? No, if you had to.
Answer to Kevin Mostly and I would not even know. But it's interesting. They can't get rid of Lincoln Riley. He had his contract turned over, so it's nine years, ninety million left. They just put three hundred million into the facilities. They're collectives up to eighteen million, so that it's not a money issue. They're collective is now to eighteen million dollars. I was told by an agent yesterday that's not it. But it's so they're not going to
get rid of Lincoln. They're not going to do it us. He's not going to buy him out. It's not the SEC and his best talent is young, and their defensive line talent they've recruited the last two years is much better. Blah blah blah. But this goes back to the Ryan Day thing. So he was handed an Oklahoma program and the culture was set, and he was very clever. He
was a better offensive guy than Stoops. So he goes to USC and he doesn't really have to build a culture because Caleb Williams is so much better than everybody else in the conference. And they win eleven game, should have beaten two lanes at a one to twelve. The following year, about halfway through, you're like, wow, they have to replace the defensive staff. He deserves credit for that.
But if you I believe, and somebody said this to me, they said, he's getting Why isn't he replacing offensive coaches? They have one good, not great offensive tackle in the program three years in The backup left tackle is six two three ten. He's a center. They have one really nice draftable running back in three years he's leaving. They don't have a draftable defensive player on this team. I think Camari Ramsey, the safety's draftable next year. Notre Dame
is a better football team, should have won. It's not that, but now we're going into year four. Forget the defense, which is better but not elite. They don't have enough good offensive town. This quarterback they have as a ham and egger. I mean he either he can't read the middle of the field or they don't trust him. Everything's up the sidelines, everything's bubble screen up the sideline. They don't throw the ball in the middle of the field. What I am hearing is he is alienated LA high
school coaches. I mean they're LA recruiting stinks, so USC is trapped here. They can't buy him out. He's gotten stubborn on the offensive coaching where they're just not getting outside a receiver. They still have good enough players, forgettable running backs, forgettable tight ends, don't have any tackles outside of Elijah Paide left tackle. When they signed up to a ten year deal. You thought you were getting a steal.
I'm not.
This is the first time i've really I look at it and I'm like, wait a minute. They're getting worse every six games from the beginning of Caleb's first year to the next six, to the beginning of year two to the last six. This team beat LSU at the end of the year the last three years. They're not a breaking football team. That is bad coaching.
If I would have told you in August that they would have one more win on December first than UCLA, he would have said, John, put down the drugs. I thought UCLA was gonna win like two games this season. And honestly, it's not like they beat the brakes off them. That game probably could have gone either way.
Yeah, the fourth quarter, it was close.
Yeah, Ucla being five and seven and you being six and six. What a disaster for the USC.
UCLA has no money in their collective USC has eighteen million, So it's it's it's not a fair fight.
Well, let's you know, we've talked about Ryan day he inherits Ohio state. The recruiting mechanism was already set in place like what Lincoln had in Oklahoma under Bob Stoops. It was already the guys flowing there. He just had to keep it rolling. And he's done that. It's why his disasters are ten and two. Everyone wants to fire him. Lincoln would die for that. Lincoln had to start it
from scratch. To me, if you don't nail the best players in California, obviously the transfer portal has changed classes a little bit. That's pretty embarrassing. And I get this is not the Pete Heyday, but like, why do Kirby and Nick and the guys that win in the South wind because they nail the players in their region? Yes,
and there it's harder because you have to recruit. If you're at LSU, at Georgia, at Alabama, you know, Florida ever got good Now Tennessee, you're all recruiting against each other. Like obviously Oregon has to come down to southern California, but you still have a huge advantage and everything. The nostalgia of the Reggie Bush of what it used to be,
it's just gotta be gone. If you meet someone now and young people that work for you, and you know, I'm around young people, like a twenty five year old was born in two thousand, right, so that guy in the heyday of Liner and Reggie and Lindel White was five or six years old. So those guys that are now eighteen years old, think about it. They were like the Clay Helton era. So this this nossalgia of what used to be exists to me and you or older people,
not to the people that matter the most. And if you piss off these high school coaches, like the high school coaches are the lifeblood of someone's program because they funnel you guys. I mean they are very very important.
Obviously now money's changed hands. But to me, sc like Caleb Downs whoever, that the equivalent of those type players every year they should it should be between Ohio State, USC and Texas like if they're not in on every and why Er Sark and Ohio State's roster are so good because they're buying all the sweet players who are available. And obviously they recruit really well. What is Lincoln gonna have a top ten recruiting class this year in the nation.
Top twenty twelve with twelve to fourteen.
And here's the problem. Ohio State, even with Ryan Day, is not going anywhere if they keep them for the next five years. They're gonna win ten or eleven games every year. Oregon clearly is going nowhere. And listen, we can Washington see what.
James Jedfish can recruit. So jed Fish will get that puppy to nine wins fast.
And I've heard that they did not use much nil money this year because they wanted to take a deep breath. They're gonna be blown it this year, so they will be aggressive and Penn State. We've already seen the stats over the last six years or seven years. If they would have the playoffs, they'd be in it every year. And the one thing James hangs his hat on is recruiting. Yeah right, it's one thing you say. James Franklin is
great at recruiting, right in game coaching recruiting. So I you could argue this could just nothing could change, you know, six and six, maybe they're eight and four. But I don't know. They'd have to catch lightning in a bottle. I don't know if you're ever going to see the Lincoln that they bought. I think this might be the new normal, you know, which is when you're paying that type of premium. What was that building? Was that a home game for Notre Dame.
No, it was, it was seventy five, it was eighty twenty USC it was a.
Notre Dame was I'm an apathetic group yet, but it's they've got to be pretty down right.
The big apathy. The Big Ten saves them because the Nebraska's, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State travels so well. That's what really saves them. They'll have good revenue because of their collective and let's be honest, twenty thousand Big Ten fans in the winter, they're going to LA to watch that game.
To me, where you have no excuse, like, listen, you lose the Oregon, you lose Ohio State, like maybe you're not as good. You cannot be losing to the middle of the pack Maryland. And when you look at the middle of the pack and the Big Ten, what is the difference between UCLA and Rutgers and USC like that? That's that's what would really shake me if I was a USC fan, is we're not just middle of the pack. From a talent standpoint, When I watch him play, it
looks the same. It's always been my defense of the SEC. It's like you just watched the SEC it's different, like ye, there's just more. Obviously Ohio State and Oregon have the equivalent, but the middle of the Big Ten and the middle of the SEC. Even if the records are the same, the talent discreptancy is obvious. And USC's did they kind of had an easy schedule this year. Did they play Ohiose State?
They did not play Ohio State, nor do they play Ohio State next year. So if you look at I mean Lincoln got a big break. He didn't get Oregon or Ohio State this year. He didn't get Ohio State next year. So even it's funny you ask, I looked at USC schedule yesterday, and they have the home in a ways, it's a really they get Michigan at home, they get a couple of their you know, they get a couple of their tough games at home, so they're getting They don't have an LSU on the schedule. They
play like Georgia, Southern Southwest, Missouri State. They do an SEC out of conference schedule, so that if you look at the schedule next year, John, it is by Big Ten standards, it is a cake walk.
The other thing is and obviously football at USC is way bigger than basketball. Yeah, but muscleman kind of has a history of winning and just kind of playing the part, right, so he's just god. He just can shake some hands, he can put on a smile, he can play the part. Like you don't get to be just grumpy Belichick in college, right, you can do that in the NFL. As long as you win in college, you do have to shake hands. Donors nil, And now they're going to be comparing in
Derek Musselman, who's been winning at all these places. And then you got Lincoln kind of henery, scowls, not smiling. I think you asked yourself, and this is what I said from the beginning. Does he even want to be there? Did he just get an offer so gigantic that no human could turn down? Where it's like he was already so rich, he's looking at his bank account, my life. Do I regret this? I think you gotta say, if he could do if he could do it over again?
Is he the coach at USC right now? I think you'd have to say no.
Right. I still think he believes based on the recruiting, the interior defensive line recruiting the last couple of years. I think he believes next year's the season, but they don't have a quarterback. They don't have an elite quarterback, so shit, who knows. John Middelkoff, former NFL scout as Olas crushed it, buddy.
Thanks gong, talk to you soon.
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