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All right, instant reaction.
I think you'll like the pod tonight because I think middle cooff and I dig really deep on the Cowboys. But I thought the Rams Lions game, I felt it was going to be a very, very close game. I had the Rams winning by I think one really elevated quarterback play. First of all, Matt Stafford's insane. Puka nakoua for a rookie is insane. I mean you are watching Matt Stafford is making throws out there that maybe only
mahomes can do. This is a rebuilding year for Sean mcvah and the Rams and Stafford playing with guts, his hands all ripped up. What an athlete that guy is. It's just, you know, the difference in the game was pretty simple. The Lions had three long drives and got touchdowns out of him, and in the second half. It was the Rams having long drives and just getting field goals out of them, and that's the difference in the game.
I thought Detroit, you know, Rams pretty poor tackling first half, and you know the lines physical upfront, O line punishing running backs hard to tackle, kind of pushed the Rams around. They made adjustments at half, which Sean McVay is prone to do, and they slowed Golf down. Golf was just too comfortable in the first half. And when Jared Goff is comfortable, you know, he's just a really, really good quarterback. I've seen Jared Goff comfortable, Jared Goff outdual Patrick Mahomes
on a Monday night football game. He throws a beautiful football, but if you pressure him, he's not the same quarterback. So he didn't face any pressure in the first half. Long seventy five yard drive after seventy five yard drive, and you're getting you're getting touchdowns. In the second half, they got some pressure on him, he was less effective and Stafford put on a clinic. I mean it was to too. It was uh pooka Cooper cup. It didn't matter.
Everything worked. It was beautiful to watch. I just thought you watched a really good football game. And if you go look at this weekend, here's what we saw this weekend.
C J.
Stroud elevated quarterback play, Stafford Golf elevated quarterback play. Mahomes elevated quarterback play in terrible weather. That's the sport. Tua disappointing Flacco too many picks. I mean, Stafford played like a winning quarterback. But you know, the Lions got the w at home, and you know, listen, I'm you know. The thing about all these games is the league is different in the postseason, right It's more intense, and players will tell you that every time I talk to a player,
it's it's much more intense than the playoffs. But it really does come down regular season in postseason, do you trust your coach and do you trust your quarterback? And I thought the Lions rams that is about as good a playoff game as you're going to get to culture as head head coaches, and Stafford and Golf are, especially when they have time, are really really elite throwers of the football. I thought that was so much fun to watch.
And I'm very happy. My wife's from Michigan, so I'm very happy for Detroit I think that the architect of this Lion's renaissance is not Dan Campbell always been effective, and it's not Jared goff although I like him. I think it's Brad Holmes, the executive upstairs they got from the Rams. I think they've had back to back to back great drafts. Remember Dan Campbell's first year and a half, Go back and look at the record. It wasn't very good.
They have done just a remarkable job of fixing that offensive line via the draft, upgrading tight end, wide receiver, pass rushers. Detroit's got this convergence of excellent GM, really strong quarterback play, a culture setting head coach, and you jam it all together. Listen, Defensively, they can give up some big plays. They're not great on the back end. But we have a salary cap era and you're paying golf some real money. So you're not gonna have a
perfect roster. You know, you're not gonna have the Niners. When you're paying Brock pretty nothing, you can retain all your stars. You know, Detroit's gonna pay Jared goffin, So when you're paying him, and his contract's up after next year, so it's gonna get bigger. If you retain him. So there's just gonna be some limitations to a team when you pay your quarterback a lot. The Rams they pay Stafford. That defense on the back end is okay, right, And
so Kansas City they pay Mahomes. Now they're receiving core for the Chiefs, Rice Travis Kelcey and a bunch of guys. So San Francisco is a really stacked roster in the NFC. But I think the Lions match up pretty well with it.
I do.
I think the offensive line for Detroit matches up pretty well with everybody. And you know, we've talked about this before. Even Mahomes got hu million in the Super Bowl when he didn't have his tackles. When the Lions are blocking for Jared Goff and they have really twitchy, hard running, elusive, tackle breaking running backs, if Laporte is healthy, you know,
Detroit's offense could be a Super Bowl winning offense. The defense I worry about a little bit, but I still don't think they have the greatest ownership in the league. But so much of success in professional sports, so much of it is upstairs, and you know, we just don't pay attention to general managers. We don't pay attention to scouting departments. But god, Detroit's done a good job via the draft. They really done a good job. They you know,
they're not paying a lot of their best players. They're not paying them anything yet, and they're like Pro Bowl level guys and they're not paying them. So that's upstairs and I'm excited.
I think.
I think if you're the Rams, you have to pat yourself in the back. I mean, you're limp and pookas banged up. Kyron Williams is banged up. I don't think Cooper Cup's been healthy most of the year. Aaron Donald's getting triple team. They have to go get an edge rusher and free agency, got a few holes to fill, but a really good job of the Rams to go on the road a very formidable opponent and took him to the very edge. And I think this is this feels like a special year for Detroit and I couldn't
be happier for him. Jared Goff was blamed for everything in Los Angeles, and you know, people, and I think everybody in LA because Stafford comes out they won a Super Bowl. It's easy to dump on Jared. Jared's are really effective. He's Matt Ryan with a better arm. He throws a beautiful football. He's a good kid. He was a number one pick for a reason, and he's a little bit of an underdog now, which is hard to
be as a number one pick. I guess Baker Mayfield is a little bit of an underdog, is a number former number one pick. Goff has sort of an underdog feel to him. So it's perfect, right, Like it's perfect for Detroit. Dan Campbell had a job and you know, we kind of roll our eyes at Dan Campbell and
Jared Goff. Rams got rid of him, and you know, the Lions history, that's a really powerful force when everybody's got a little chip on their shoulder and doesn't quite feel there as respected as they deserve to be.
Hard to root against Detroit, hard to root against him.
There was a call late in the game, no pass interference Pookah grabbed his jersey. That could have been the difference in the game. You get a first down there, you kick a field goal. I mean that that. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. That was a miscall, But you know what, the Rams have multiple opportunities and they settled for field goals. They couldn't score in the red zone, so officials don't decide games. There are infractions called and not called that can affect
momentum and opportunities. But the Rams had theirs in the second half and they just could not get into the end zone. Lions did a good job. It was sort of a bend didn't break defense in the second half. They got just a good enough pass rush on Matt Stafford to hurry him, and again Matt put on a clinic. Jesus, I'm telling you, in a losing effort, I hope it's not lost. How good Matt Stafford is. I mean, some of those throws, some of that submarine stuff.
It's crazy.
That guy is fricking remarkably gifted. So Lions move on, Packers move on, Chiefs move on, Texans move on. And I like Philadelphia tomorrow, let's bring on John middlecoff.
Hi, folks.
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game Time app. The code is Colin twenty bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. All right, here we go, John Middlecoff, what a circus that was for Dallas. And you know, John, We've talked about this for years and years. I've never bought into Dallas. I always had this rule, the pretty good rule Romo
DAC They'd be pretty good. And then there was about five week stretch this year that I bought into it, and then they went to Miami and I'm like, okay, it's the same old shit. And then I just I sat on the air. I was reeled in. I got fooled. But if you look in retrospect, now blown out by the Niners, blown out by Buffalo, pounded by Green Bay in the playoffs, lost to Miami, and beat Detroit on
you know, a really dubious officiating moment. And in that game, Dak had two picks and ten completions, And so you look at it, and my takeaway is this was just an average team, right, like a slightly better than average team.
Well to me, I'm with you. I bought into them. Their downfall now three straight years is the quarterback who makes a ton of money this year and all pro interceptions interceptions three years ago against the Niners at home through an awful pick and was not good in that game last year against the Niners in the playoffs. Two interceptions today? How many could he have thrown? Five? Yeah, I mean there are some drops. Obviously, the pick six which the guy walked into the end zone was not
some freaky play. And then the other thing, the Cowboys kind of hung their hat on was physicality, being a tough defense. What the hell was that? So if I tell you the Cowboys defense gonna no show and Dak Prescott, I don't care what the final numbers look like. The game was over in the first half when he's throwing the ball to the other team and getting thoroughly outplayed by a first year starter. Just a horrendous effort by the defense at Dak Prescott. Yeah.
I mean, when you size up a player and Jordan Love and Dak on the same field, Jordan loves more talented, he moves better, He's got more of a whip. He made a side arm throw late in the game into the end zone to Romeo Dobbs. Dak can't do that. That's just beyond Dak. That was a Mahomes level throw, a Lamar Jackson's throw and reminded me of Lamar. And I'm like, oh, Dak can't do that. Dak doesn't put a ton of velocity on the ball. He really has to step into it. He was never a natural threw.
I mean, I joked out of college I thought he was a better version at T bow. He had all the intangibles, but he wasn't a beautiful thrower. And when I've used Kirk Cousins as a cump, he's Kirk Cousins with the Jordan brand, is that Kirk's a more accurate thrower.
Dak's a better athlete.
But we always feel with Kirk he's holding you back from a super Bowl. But we somehow feel that Dak is carrying you to one. And I watched today and I'm like, oh, he's easily the second best quarterback on the field. That's particularly close.
Well, the reason guys like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Kirk Cousins have to be so elite with their footwork because they can't afford to throw off their backfoot. The one reason why Aaron Rodgers always pushed back on some of that, like let me freelance, He'd get away with it. Brett Fahr, the big arm guys, right. You see it with Mahomes and Josh Allen. They're not beholden to the quarterback feet. You know, quote unquote rules that the coaches harp on
because of their talent. And you saw today Jordan Love had countless throws off his back foot that hit guys in stride way down the field. Dak Prescott. If the timing's a little off, he's way off. And today, I mean he was terrible calling. I mean he was. This is three straight years of just absolute no shows in these playoff games. And I know in the one playoff game he had that was good was against Tampa Bay, who was clearly got awful and was you know, headed home.
Should not have made the playoffs last year. So against the Packers, whose defense has been really bad, I mean the number one conversations like Matt Laflor's gotta fire his buddy Joe Barry. And then for them, I know they got the touchdown late in the game, but to only have ten, I mean they had seven. How does this happen? I understand obviously Mike's the offensive play callers, a combination of them both.
Yeah, No, it's it's one of those things where you know, and I want to talk about this because I think McCarthy's in real trouble. I had said I'd defended McCarthy most of the season, but I said he has to beat Green Bay. If he can't beat Green Bay, that's a different conversation. Well, to get absolutely dominated by Green Bay and Jordan Love now That's a different conversation from losing an old time game on a bad officiation. Now now we have a different conversation, and I think he
gets replaced. I think and dan Quinn, by the way, there went his job market outside of Seattle. That was a dubious effort. So I mean, let's just talk about it. Does Jerry have to I mean, Jerry's gonna pay Dak. He loves Dak. He views Dak as some sort of elite quarterback and is willing to pay him. So let me ask you, how good of a job is it. If the starting point is owner loves the quarterback, thinks he should be paid among the top five, aren't you working uphill from that point forward?
I think it's a pretty good job because I think the guys, I mean, immediately, obviously Belichick and their relationship has been you know, talked about a lot. I think Jim Harbaugh is gonna have to get a call. Those guys have the juice and the power to say, look, we're not doing this, We're not giving this guy fifty million dollars a year. You know, Mike had to lie to get the job. And the other thing that was unful display today Matt Laflor has the most important quality
you can have in the NFL. He has the ability to develop and make a quarterback into a star. Right. I mean Dak was already pretty good when he got there. Right, Dak had had success before Mike McCarthy. And one thing he has done is shit the bed. Now in three consecutive playoff games, two of them have been at home. I think it's worse. Like you said last year, they lose the forty nine ers in a very tight game on the road. You hold your head high. It wasn't
a bad loss. They have had two awful losses though in twenty twenty one, in this one at home, and that to me is unacceptable. I personally thought coming into the game, Mike McCarthy to keep his job was going to have to win both home games, right, because if you won this game, he'd have another home game. You can't be losing at home if you lose on the road in the NFC Championship game, where they hadn't been in twenty five years. Okay, but now I think all
signs point to Belichick. And one thing's pretty clear is Belichick has his offensive coordinator available. We talk a lot about offensive and defensive coaches. Well, the reason to me Mike Vrabel and Bill Belichick. Obviously Bill's resume speaks for itself, but what makes him truly powerful. Rabel has Arthur Smith available, who he had a lot of success with. Belichick has Josh McDaniels available, who he has all the success with, and they can allow those guys to coach the offense.
So I think, to me, you could argue Mike Vrabel if the Belichick and Arthur Smith makes sense, as there was a toughness lacking.
But again, I say, if Jerry believes Dak is it? I mean, I think we have to have How.
Could he believe that now, Colin, after what he just witnessed? How could he?
Again, I have been on this for years. Dak is a good B plus quarterback. Jerry views him as an as it's really interesting, this job is fascinating. It's not that Jerry runs a turnstile. But I'd almost rather Jerry be impatient than delusional on quarterback evaluation. Sure like I'd rather a guy want me to get ratings in my job. I'm fine with a little pressure. What I'm not fine with is unrealistic expectations. Or forcing me to work with
people aren't as good as you think. Dak's just not a top ten level guy, and Jerry thinks he's a top seven guy.
I understood some of the support before, even though I never agreed even the contract they gave him. I didn't eve view him as a forty million dollar guy. But after today, to me, if he stands on that belief he's entered now Davis territory, Yes, yes, right to me, if he's able to pivot, which he's proven as a successful businessman over the years, and like you said, they do a pretty good job on personnel, there's a weird loyalty here. To me, he has to pivot off today's
experience because he had a firsthand look. Jordan Love signed a two year, eleven million dollar contract, right, and he looks like a combination. I think that's one of the greatest development jobs we've ever seen.
Well you know what I mean.
He looks like a flat out superstar, right, Yeah, he looked like Brett Favre meets Aaron Rodgerson.
Like, listen, the internet loves, I mean, this is what they love. They forget that New Information New Opinion. Matt Lafleur was calling out Jordan Love in October press conferences, so was the GM.
The GM and.
The coach were disappointed with him. Have you ever seen an in season improvement for a quarterback? Not only is Jordan think about this, He's cheaper than Aaron Rodgers. He's now more athletic than Aaron Rodgers. He throws the ball a lot like Aaron Rodgers. You get no drama like Aaron Rodgers. And generationally he is completely copasetic with all these receivers and tight ends. I mean, right now, Green Bay's young receiver tight end talent is the envy of
virtually every team in the league. Like it's hard to wrap your brain around this. Based on what we saw in October, Jordan Love is a significant, multifaceted upgrade from Aaron Rodgers. Right, that's not debatable.
Now, well, I think that you become a legend in the business of football by making moves like Ted Thompson once made. Right, Brett far if you're gone, we're going with Aaron, Bill Walsh, we gotta pivot to Steve Young when you pivot off Aaron Rodgers, who had just previously won a couple MVPs, the coach and the GM are behind it. And then by the end of the season
into the playoffs, he looks like this. And as a GM, you have put around the youngest offense in the league and these guys, I mean Watson didn't even really do anything read up until the end of the game, hadn't done it. It was Dobbs making all the plays and he's really good. Think of the talent they have. We know how well they build offensive lines. I think these
guys have immediately entered like Ron Wolf, Ted Thompson. We have stars running our operation because I think it was okay to question it early in the season, not because they made the wrong move getting rid of Aaron. It's like, well, it's really hard to replace that. It was Rocky, and by the end of the season the guys that flat out superstar and so's the unit around him. So to me, it's Gudikins and Lafour Like, this is why your argument on hiring offensive coaches when you get the right one.
Kyle Shanahan has owned the Cowboys the last two years in the playoffs. Why because he's comfortable playing against dan Quinn. Matt Lafour was also on that staff. In Atlanta with Kyle he was the quarterback coach. He saw it. He wasn't uncomfortable going up against that defense and that coordinator and honestly embarrassed and worse than Kyle ever did the last two years. So to me, the stinks on Mike McCarthy. The stinks clearly on Dan Quinn and all the positivity
on the other side. It's hard if they were a stock. They feel like Tesla or something five years ago. I mean, this is a team that you'd have to buy into because they've been so well run. This was always the pushback on Aaron Rodgers. Do you realize how well you have it in green Bay, how well run this operatity? I get there's no owner, and then you go to the Jets and this is the complete shit show.
Yeah, I mean I said that before with Aaron. He never had a bad offensive line in fifteen years in Green Bay. The farv didn't have many. The one thing New England under Dante Scarnekia and Green Bay for fifteen years do a great job of drafting third, fourth, fifth, sixth round offensive lineman and developing them slowly into really good players. So, I mean Green Bay is just it, and it's something we've hit on. Eleven of the fourteen
coaches in the playoffs are offensive coaches. Is now, you can as a defensive coach work if you have a star quarterback Sean McDermott, Demiko Ryans. You know it can work that way. But there is no question when to develop a young quarterback edge offensive coach, and if you have a disruption at quarterback, you're on a third or fourth Stefanski major advantage offensive coach. So you know, Mike Tomlin got into the playoffs mostly because Joe Burrow got
hurt and Cleveland lost three quarterbacks. I think they'll be extinguished very quickly.
But I don't think.
I don't think any real I mean, I talked to a text to two gms today I'm on the phone with during the game texting, and they're saying the same thing is Jordan Love. Matt Lafleur deserves a lot of credit for Jordan Love. And you know the edit thing today that you noticed on that first drive when Aaron Jones is running like that downhill, and that's you know, Matt Lafleur when he came to Green Bay, it was I want to develop a run game that McCarthy had
not developed a run game. I watched this Green Bay team. I'm not saying they're gonna be the San Francisco or a Rams. They're a lot to defend because Matt can run it, Jordan can go off script. Nobody's got two to three good corners. They this Green Bay offense, John creates a lot of matchup issues.
One thing I wrote down immediately is the advantage at the running back position in this game was evident early. Yeah, you know, I mean the gap between Aaron Jones and all the other guys they're running out. I mean, Paullard is a gadget player, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you have a young Ezekiel Elliott in his prime right. And to me, when you had the running game like that and then all the explosive weapons, that's why guys were wide open all day long. The
Dallas Cowboys had no clue what to do. But don't you think, you know, you talk a lot about and everyone does about Belichick being a historian. Can you imagine breaking the record as the Cowboys coach? I know the Eastern seaboard, he's comfortable. Atlanta's close to his new house and jup. But Jerry can offer a lot of money. Obviously Arthur Blank can't too. But there's the Cowboy coach Belichick little revenge after just getting forced out by Robert
which he was clearly fired, right. I think all signs are gonna point to Built because you're the coach newsbreaker. Now. A lot of people I know expect Harbad to be with the Chargers. That's where a lot of people in the league think he's gonna go. So Belichick people have already been you know, they said that before the game
Philly too. But now the Cowboys have a chance to have a head start because they can fire McCarthy first thing Monday morning, have Belichick on the horn and get the ball wrong here.
There is certain things create clarity in life. Getting your ass kicked like that at home, for sure, it allows Jerry to go, wow, I can clean house, and it really does it. Also, Jerry has to look himself in the mirror and sit down with Steven tonight at the house at the ranch, and they have to sit down and go, we got to do a clean.
Break here of everybody.
Dan Mike, I don't know what they'll do with Dak he may defend Dak, but I can see this being actually beneficial to Dallas that Jerry Jones has to sit down, his scouts have to come to him and say, Jerry, we can have Dak, but you can't ban forty five to fifty million. He's already made twenty million a year in endorsements being the cowboy quarterback. We've got to start drafting quarterbacks here. And it also would it make Jerry.
I mean again, when you're a billionaire, can't relate. Obviously, would Jerry acknowledge our ways not working like my way's not working and give up some control.
I think it's easier after today, Like you said, I maybe they lose an overtime, Maybe you can justify it in your head, run it back, give him one more shot, but get embarrassed like that. Have a game be over at halftime. You know, this was obviously the number one pick in the in the wildcard round, right in terms of brands and television networks. I don't see how he's survived. I don't see how he's not out by the morning.
To me, it's clearly over. And you have the opportunity, right sometimes like getting the number one draft pick, isn't ideal, because there's not if you need a quarterback. If it's not a great quarterback draft, there's an incredible head coaching opportunity with all these guys that have proven to be winners.
And I do think the Belichick thing a little bit, like you know, almost a couple decades now with Bill Parcells, would just reinvigorate the fan base because they're gonna be down and there's gonna be a lot of negativity, and it's rightly deserved because the last three years they've been knocked out by Kyle Twiss and now Lafloor. So how are you beating those guys? And we know your guy's
not as good as Sean McVay either. So it's like you got to deal with those in the AFC, you got to deal with the quarterbacks in the NFC, You got to deal with the star offensive coaches. All that came from Washington in twenty twelve.
Listen to this, John coaches that had to move off town and quarterbacks, John Harbaugh, Flacco, he moved often for Lamar, been pretty beneficial, Andy Reid, Alex Smith was a Pro bowler, McVeigh, Goff, Shanahan Garoppolo watched multiple coaches, and these guys were getting to Super Bowls. I mean, Flacco six years removed from that can still sling it. And those coaches took big swings.
They moved off popular playoff winning or super Bowl appearing quarterbacks for a Lamar for a Mahomes, for a Stafford, for a brock Purty, whoever it is, there is a recent history. Go back to Lamar Is when you take that big swing and go listen, we're just kind of stuck. I may have a slightly deteriorating product or a product with a ceiling. The teams that go for it, I mean, hey, Philadelphia, Carson Wentz, they moved off him. Jalen Hurts, I mean
once that year he got hurt. He was leading in the MVP voting many So I mean there's and I think, by the way, Miami's gonna have this discussion. Yeah, I think Miami and Dallas have to go. You gotta get over Pro Bowls really quickly. Those are bullshit awards that nobody buys into.
I think a big thing too for Jerry Is. And this happen into Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll got fired in my opinion because they started looking around and going, he has no chance to beat McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan. Kyle beat him five straight times. McVeigh swept him this year. It wasn't even the macro to me, it was the micro. We're getting lapped in our own division. So to me, if you're Jerry, you go, well, I've known Adam Peters for fifteen years. I mean, look at his resume for
a non GM it's pretty incredible. One super Bowls, multiple places now, helped John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan build that thing. I think Washington's gonna be well run, even the owner has proven to be a good NBA owner. Yeah, obviously the Philadelphia Eagles will not hesitate to pull the trigger if they have to pivot, right, So you have an owner that you know has doesn't I don't exactly know the wealth between Luriy and but he has enough money to do whatever he wants as well, and he will
be aggressive. So to me, that has to inspire Jerry. Knowing they play tomorrow night, even if they win and then get knocked out next week, like, the Eagles have no problem pivoting. So I think when you just look at the short term view of your division. You go, we got to figure this out. And you also know that Arthur Blank some of these other big money guys are sniffing around the top coaches. Why not rip the band aid off. We already had a lot of question
marks with McCarthy sometimes throughout the year. This is an ald timer. You just don't survive. They were seven and a half point favorite, and it was true. It was the right move. I mean, they should have been a heavy favorite coming into this game and to get beaten down, Like I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but that feels like one of the more glaring games I remember watching in a long time. In the playoffs.
Hey, listen, I wrote it down.
Opening drive run pass effectively, look too easy. Couple dumb Dallas penalties, then pick gyre Alexander uh oh, Dallas in trouble. That's first quarter, second quarter stuff like that's it felt like, Oh we got we got big Brion. Dallas had two or three silly penalties early. You're like one in a punt.
There's always been a problem for them.
Yeah, it's you know, it's it's everything changes, you know, It's just one of those things. I thought McCarthy was in the clear if he beat Green Bay, even if he lost twenty eight twenty seven on bad officiating. It was a Detroit Dallas ending fiasco. When you're not prepared to play on either side. I mean, it's I'm trying to think of a but you know.
What, it had Brandon Staley vibes today. I mean, their defense no clue what was going on. They were talking to CD Lamb early in the game. Hey, what what's going on? By the way, it was red flags everywhere.
Okay, that's a great point. I wrote that down in my notes too. Dak cd off, Kevin Burkhart mentioned that. Greg Olsen mentioned that, So there was something really weird about that. And my takeaway was it was CD was frustrated appropriately with Dak's ball placement, which by the way, was terrible early in this game, threw behind him on a corner route. So I think it was CD wasted with just basically Dack's ball placement.
Well, that's another thing with Dak Prescott. When you look at the two quarterbacks right there. Jordan Love, who actually has been really accurate lately, can't afford to be a little inaccurate because he has such an explosive arm, and now with their wide receivers can make big plays. When you're Dak Prescott in that group of you know, I would say Cousins has been there for a long time, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Manning, and you don't have a huge arm. Accuracy is what you have to hang your
hat on. You have to be the most accurate guy on the field. So when you become like, how did Alex Smith resurrect his career? It wasn't throwing bombs. It was having seventy percent completion percentage. Well, Dak's slinging around like he's Jamis Winston, balls flying all over the place. You're like, you can't function. Even if their defense had played well today, they would have lost with that type
performance out of the quarterback. And the other thing is, you cannot turn the ball over in the biggest games, right, You cannot pick six is kill you. And Dak just now remember last year at the end of the season, We're gonna spend some time in March, in May and
April and go over all the picks. And what ended up being some of his downfall again throwing the ball to the other team It happened early in the season in the big hyped up game against the forty nine ers turnovers, and it was ultimately their undoing again in this game. And I just I can't get over Lafloor gudakins. The Packers what a muscle flex as an organization, they feel like the Miami Heat or something right now. It's incredible how they pivoted.
All right, I want to talk ten minutes. I want to give Miami.
Kansas City some discussion on this. Tua has proven in warm weather, with time to throw, he's a highly accurate thrower. But he has also proven that he's not very athletic. He's smaller than you'd like, he has an injury history, and unless the weather conditions are fairly ideal, he's limited. So unlike Dak, he is accurate, his ballplacement's excellent. That's not the case with Dak. He is a pretty thrower. He's a little bit of Drew Brees. So I don't think you move off him now, but I think it
does limit your extension ideas. So we know Kansas City's better. Most of us thought they'd win. I thought I thought it was a shockingly bad effort. By Miami in the second half. Obviously, the Cowboy loss was surprising, but Miami's offensive effort in the second half was really dubious. I mean, they were doing bubble screens late. They didn't want two or a throw, So that tells you the staff is worried about protecting him. The staff is worried about his
physical viability and games like that. What do you do with Tua? You're a former NFL scout, you have sources throughout the league. What do you do with them going forward?
I think they're in the worst spot you can be in football because they're all most stuck. But I almost think you have to pivot because this was his fourth year. So all the guys in his draft class, Herbert Burrow were paid after their third year. Right, because after your fourth year you get the fifth year option, which for quarterbacks is essentially a franchise tag one point zero and then the real one comes. It's all guaranteed on the cap. So ideally you want to extend the guy, but there aren't.
You know, this isn't the NBA. You don't give out a mid level exception to a quarterback, right, you either pay him the premium, which is well over forty million dollars a year and hundreds of millions of dollars, which in what world in the AFC could you pay to a let's even just say one hundred and fifty million dollars guaranteed when the only way to compete in the playoffs is go on the road against Mahomes who clearly was in a different universe, Lamar Jackson who plays in
fridgid conditions, Joe Burrow, who, while he doesn't have the big arm, has proven he excels in the cold Ohio kid, and Josh Allen, who's been kicking your ass thrives in the cold. Like that's who you have to go through in that conference in cold conditions. And if Denver ever figures out also a cold place, So unless you're the number one seed, which they're not even remotely close to be.
Like to me, sixteen to seven at halftime, that was not a normal sixteen to seven, like in a dolt, because it was so cold it was gonna be hard to sa That score might as well have been twenty eight to three. To me, the game was over at halftime. They threw one lollipop touchdown that Tyreek Hill had to come back toward and then ran around three guys. They didn't do anything else. So like listen, he's a solid player.
And if he plays in a dome or in Miami, but that's not the AFC, because the AFC Playoffs is at Buffalo, is at Kansas City. I mean, this is Buffalo is like an avalanche right now, Kansas City. There's the coldest game one of them in NFL history. And Patrick Mahomes do you know what made him so remarkable? I don't even know what his box score was. He just played completely normal, like they were throwing that on my field. He just like played a normal Patrick Mahomes
game with Tua. He can't even function in that, which I understand. You've lived in the Northeast. I've lived in the Northeast. It's really cold and when you're not used to it, it really throws you off. And they say it takes like three months to get acclimated. There's no way you get acclimated in twenty four hours. And he physically, when you have a weak arm, like it from a scouting perspective, it's very hard to pierce through the wind and the cold slows down the ball, so Mahomes and Allen.
The reason these guys can thrive. It look at Peyton Manning back in his heyday. He struggled on the road in cold weather conditions, and he's remarkably better a couple of years into his career than to us. So I couldn't pay him. I couldn't do it, but I think we know how this. They'll just played on the fifth year option. If you extend him, you're basically just acknowledging we'll try to compete to win ten plus games and then losing the playoffs. You're not going to win the playoffs.
Yeah.
Ethan Strauss was talking about this on a podcast where he said, if you're somebody that struggles in cold weather, you want to be in the NFC, But in the AFC it's I mean even in your own division. Just think about December January games Buffalo, New England, New York, Baltimore, Cincinnatiitsburgh, Cleveland. I mean it's like and you know, and then again Denver in Kansas City. So it's just one of those things where again, if you played in the SEC, you're hidden for or the PAC twelve, you're.
You know thrived. You know he's from Hawaii, went to Alabama and he's now in Miami. He's lived an incredible warm climate life. And Ethan was right. San Francisco number one seed, what's the game gonna be there next year? Next week? Sixty two degrees, Dallas number two seed, Dome, Detroit Dome, Tampa, warm weather place. Philly is one place where it get kind of cold, but it's not that cold. I mean Kansas City. That's stretching the Midwest to me. Kansas City, Chicago is Green Bay is as cold as
it gets. And that's why I feel pretty good. If I was green Back, I got another strong armed quarterback. He's gonna be able to play in that fridge condition. If we ever get a home games moved.
By the way, let's touch on Kansas City. So Brett Veach is one of the sharper gms in the league.
Andy Reid.
I think there's a functionality and an intelligence from the Hunt family. Beach, Andy Mahomes. They have a really good scouting department. Obviously you can see what their late round picks is. I think they're a great example like Green Bay. Hey we got a flaw. We're not good at receiver. Let's just develop it. So Rashi Rice feels like to me, now, he's not a top five one, but he's a number one receiver, Thick Good after the cash, not a high end one, not even a CD Lamb yet, but he's
a low end one. Travis Kelcey, and then they have a bunch of threes. They don't really have a two's it's Watson, it's it's you know, it's guys that you wouldn't trust as a two, but their threes, so they have a whole. They're just not great at wide receiver. But as I watched them yesterday and their run game, as they pivot to the second stage of their dynasty, they're going to be more run centric and they're going to be more defensive centric, at least for another draft.
I think there's three teams right now in the AFC, Buffalo, Baltimore, and Kansas City. They feel like they're they're a bit above the freight. Agree and my takeaway is I think Buffalo right now and Baltimore are better. But boy, there is something to be said about have the bag have the ring? Do you give Kansas City an outside shot to win the AFC or do you feel like it's just that receiving weakness. They can't play quite from behind.
I don't give them an outside shot. I give them a real shot because the playoffs is not It doesn't usually look like Green Bay in Dallas, right, It's usually a pretty ugly game, especially in that conference, like we talked about, because the weather is such a factor. It's like a different sport. That game in Kansas City has nothing in common in what we just witnessed in a controlled environment in Dallas. Nothing. I mean it's negative five degrees.
They know how to win. I mean they have, you know, championship metal, championship culture. Obviously, they have championship quarterback and coach, the two most important guys in the building. All their defensive guys, the young ones were part of the team last year. Offensively, Pachaco Kelsey played huge roles last year. So now you just got to integrate the young player who shined last night, and they're used to playing in the weather. So next week in Buffalo, assuming Buffalo wins,
which I think we all do, probably freezing cold. Well, who is not going to be faced by that? He saw two a walking into the game last night. It looked like he was going to on an Aspen vacation. Mahome showed up in a windbreaker, right, they're just Mahomes wasn't wearing sleeves. I know he's lived there for how long now six plus years. He's used to it. Andy's you know, the mustache is frozen. And he's been coaching in these games for twenty five years. And before that
he was in Green Bay with Farv and Holmgren. Yeah, they're comfortable in that environment. It all gets back to their competitive culture starting in training camp. They're still one of the last teams that practices hard and that's where it shows. And listen, we can nitpick and I know a lot of people do with Sean McDermott, but he's a defensive tough guy. John harbaught defensive tough guy. The one problem for Miami is their head coach is an
offensive guy. Now they added to Fangio. To me, it was they had a lot of injuries, but like last night, to me was a toughness clinic, because everyone in the NFL is tough, right, just like any marine going to the Navy Seals is going to be a tough guy. But there's a reason most guys don't make it and there's a big difference between when the toughest teams and that next tier. And you saw it last night. It wasn't I didn't even think the game was close, even
sixteen to seven. I'm like, Miami has no shot to win this game.
Yeah, Miami's tackling was really poor.
They look cold, They look cold. And I'll never forget when I got hired in Philly and it got to like November and December on the sideline pregame. You have so much respect for playing in these games. And that's I'm talking like twenty degrees where you can't feel your hands. It's really cold once you get to those level temperatures. Remember the Seattle Minnesota game years ago outside when Cam Chanceller claimed he had frostbited on his foot, like two
weeks later. The level of mental toughness and focus on top of the talent, it's really hard to focus. And to me, you just saw a Kansas City like they dropped a couple of big plays because they're wide receivers. Maybe the win threw them off. They were open, you know, and Mahomes the ball wasn't even that far off. That game could have been honestly, like forty to seven couldn't have.
Been Yeah, I thought, I mean, I really was. I felt like Dallas has lost today. A lot of it was Jordan Love and they're just I'd said it on Friday. I thought I took green Bay to cover. I said, listen, Dallas, nobody has three good corners in the NFL. I just think green Bay has too many good people. And so some of that loss was Jordan Love looked like Aaron Rodgers.
Not that Miami quit. But I thought it was one of the more discouraging efforts, like the team was literally protecting to I mean, Mike McCarthy wasn't protecting DAK today DAK is limited, but I thought that was one of those where a flyback. I'm the owner and I'm like, what do I have here?
You can you agree under no circumstances You've given that two hundred twenty contract.
Yeah, I've always been I'm just listen. I have a theory. You know, it doesn't matter what business it is. You can pay big money, but you have to do it infrequently and you really have to be sure it's right. It's got to be really glue people or stars. And I think I don't blame the defensive effort because they were missing six starters, but that offensive effort in the second half. If I'm an owner, I'm like, Oh, my coach doesn't trust my quarterback. The hell I ain't gonna
pay him. I'm writ in the checks. There's no way I'm paying him. So I think what you do if you're in Miami, you don't cut to what you do is you let him play out next year and you just you draft another quarterback, maybe first, second, third. I think they have a lot of pieces.
I really do.
I think they can score a lot of points. I don't think they're a super Bowl team, but I don't think there's a lot of needs. The offensive line needs some attention. They've got receivers, corners, they have edge rushers. They just all got hurt. So I don't feel like, you know, I kind of feel like it's Denver. If they could get the quarterback right, Miami gets a star quarterback, you win a lot of games with those two offensive coaches.
Yeah, they have definitely had the infrastructure with the coaches too, because defensively they're def with Vic fangiol It's gonna get better as they get better players. It was on full display these first three games. Right, C. J. Stroud was in a different world than Joe Flack, whose Disney movie came to a crashing halt. Then and obviously Mahomes vers
Tua and then today Love Versetak. It really really matters, you know, And it's why the forty nine ers can manipulate it a little bit because their roster is so good. It would have been hard for Brock Perdy in that situation on the road in Kansas City, right when you don't have a great arm. But what their team is so good. So when your team's a little flawed and your quarterback is not elite, you can get exposed really
quick if your team's a little off. And Cowboys the Browns, I mean, the Browns have had an incredible season, but that was the Joe Flacco that we have seen the last five or six years. And the moment you get that type effort, you go home. All right.
Well, you could join me later for the Lions Detroit, but I don't want to get in away your Tito's night. I'm gonna poor one right now and watch the Lion DRAMs.
I can't even how about how about your guy Jed Fish taking the Washington job. Well, you nailed the Dubar story. We got Adam Schefter here.
Well, yeah, that one. I was told Wednesday that he wa was. People think he was the second, third, or fourth choice. He wasn't because Sabin almost hired the OC from Washington the previous year. So Saban had his eye and Greg Byrne had their eye on Kaalen de Bor. He was They called Sark on that. You know, it was out of respect for Sark, but they knew Sark wasn't coming Sark. Sark loves Texas. Austin's a better place to live than Tuscaloosa. Sarks got it rolling. The boosters
love him, so perfunctory call. But Kaylin de Bor was like their first legitimate guy, so this idea he was second. I was told Wednesday, like they're going after Kaylen de boor Jedfish was interesting. Lance Leopold at Kansas was they were really interested. Apparently had I think a phoner or a zoom and blew everybody socks off, but Jedfish and Lance Leopold, and then it came down to Jed.
Jed.
Now, Jed will be able to assemble an offensive unit very quickly. And that's a big part of it. Washington has lost most of their offense transfer portal. They only you know, they've got a decent nil collective, but not huge, so Jed Fish can keep them afloat very quickly. I mean, I would say the offense for Arizona is better today than Washington, so he's gonna have to rebuild it. But Washington, I think we both agree, is a better job. There's more money in the athletic department.
Yeah, you're going to the Big ten. I mean they's gonna get three or four teams every year in the twelve team playoff. The Big twelve is gonna get one. Yes, they're gonna be a one bit league. The other thing is Jed the guys he has, you know, he was gonna have a top fifteen team coming back. Those guys can transfer if they want to go join him, so some of his talent can fall in there. To me, how about Alabama. They tried to get Ryan Grubb last
year to be sabans OC. Now they get Ryan Grubb and Do Born with saban retiring, So what a what a coup for Alabama?
Now?
The cultural fit my theory has often been where you're from really matters. Yeah, you know, Kirby, Jimbo Dabbo. Think the guys that you know knicks from West Virginia, the northeast guys, obviously the West coast guys, but there are outliers. As someone in the league told me, winners win, and Urban was a good example, he'll win no matter what. And Duboor might be that and his resume would say he's gonna win no matter where he's coaching. Yeah, I
don't think I think he'll win. And he's not a great recruiter, and so I think he feels like the South and the brand Washington's hard to recruit to. There's not a lot of players Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Alaska, there's not There's maybe eight high end Division one players and all those states combined. So I think the feeling
is Debora is like this brand sells. The state's got thirty Division one players, the region has two hundred and so and because Debraster loaded, so I think Debor looks at this and thinks it's just an easier place to recruit. And by the way, with the nil transfer portal, recruiting is now at paying the butt. It's more difficult than ever, So Alabama is one of those four or five jobs. Even bad USC and Texas teams usually have players. Oklahoma
always has, Ohio State always has players. All right, good stuff, John As always money. Okay, see the volume