The volume. All right, it's time for our weekly hour with John Middlekoff, who will eventually take some time off. He got married last weekend. Let's do a few minutes on March madness. So the last three weekends, this is what I do. I sit around and watch streaming shows at night, and I watch college basketball most of the day. It was pretty obvious if you watch college basketball. The SEC got fourteen teams in I'd said this multiple times on FS one. It just looked different. I mean, the
Big Ten didn't even look like the SEC. SEC is deeper, more athletic, better offensive teams, better scoring options. Michigan State's as good as any Big Ten team I saw this season, and they don't really have any shooters. They rebound, they defend, they have a great coach in tom I isno, but they'll struggle to score against good teams. I think the SEC is going to fly through this. I have Auburn winning the national championship. I think all these CC teams
are going to do pretty well in the tournament. Florida Auburn are exceptional because they've played each other. I mean, Florida wasn't great at the beginning of the year. They've been on fire now a lot of times. The hottest team, it doesn't really translate. But I watched Auburn played two or three times deep, multiple guys that could give you twelve fifteen points. Good coach, good size, aggressive, Houston is a very good basketball team. But I'll take a couple
of SEC teams in dupe. I'll take Florida, Auburn, and probably Duke Cooper. Flag will be healthy by the time the tournament rolls around.
You know.
It's the difference is when you watch college football last year, Ohio State, year before, Michigan, year before that, Georgia, you get a real the Joe Burrow LSU team. You can see the NFL. You can see all these players, you know, these twelve guys that are going to go to the NFL. Last year's Yukon team, which went thirty seven to three, I picked them to win. That's the easiest pick I've ever made. That team looked a little bit like an
NBA team. Big size, great versatility, huge physicality, didn't make a ton of mistakes. A guy that could coach in the NBA coach early. That was a really good college basketball team. The best one that I've seen in years. I mean, even against Purdue in the National Championship not really that competitive. It's different tea. You're going to see a lot of close games. I mean, I watch Houston
play Arizona. Houston's a lot of people are picking them to win the National Championship imminently beatable, great defensive team. But I think if you watch college basketball, because it's such a young sport and the really talented guys are one and done, so even the guys that are really special, many of them aren't developed offensively. But when you watch college basketball, it doesn't look like the NBA. The offenses
often just dump it down to the big guys. Purdue and Zach Edy just here's our big dump it down and it's going to dominate. So I'm going to go with the most athletic teams I saw. I'm going to go with the teams that played in the hardest conference easily. I mean, no conference has ever had fourteen teams in it. I'm not gonna you know, these people that are upset that North Carolina has got a playing game because they had a terrible record one in twelve against Quad one teams.
They had some good out of conference wins before the season started. Not worth the argument that used to be fun ten fifteen years ago arguing for that team to get in. But you know, if they win one game, that's probably the ceiling and the team. You know, it just I think we all kind of know the teams that have a chance to win. And I also think when teams are close, I like experienced coaches. You know,
I like Rick Patino. I don't think Michigan State can win four games, but I like Iszo or you know, coaches that have been in this spot before. That's an advantage.
A lot of this.
Stuff is going to end up being like seventy two seventy and take the better coaches because I don't think there's a lot of teams. I mean, again, Cooper Flag, if healthy, will be the best team in the tournament, and maybe he's just good enough, you know, to just take them to six wins. But I don't have any strong conviction on it. Last year I took Yukon and I thought that was I mean I watched Yukon and
Gonzaga and Duke a lot. Those are my teams. It was pretty obvious they were just bigger and more physical and push teams around and that was an easy one. I'll go Auburn, but I have really no conviction somebody. I think SEC teams will play very well in the tournament. Okay, we bring on John Middlecoff three and Out podcast, former NFL scout, newly married. I just gave my pick Auburn the first time in school history. They are a number one seed. I was saying. When you watch college football
at the highest levels, you can see the NFL. You could see Ohio States players. You're like, oh, those guys are going to be great NFL players. College basketball it's really difficult. The best players do want and done. Do you watch a ton of college hoops? No?
Not really. I mean I used to do a lot growing up, but I would say over the eight to ten years, I mean, let's face of the product's been diminished. I mean, I dive in come Thursday Friday. But Rutgers has two guys that are we could go in the top five and didn't sniff the tournament. How's that? This basketball? This isn't football. I mean the two guys on the court at all times, and I checked their stats the
other day they both were good this year. It's stuff like that that like, you know, I grew up Allen Iverson Shack, all those the top guys played college basketball, and it was awesome. You're a Tark guy, you know, I'm a Fresno State guy when Tark went to Fresno State with Chris Herron. I love college basketball as a kid, but it's just it's not really the same though the nil era little bounced back with Cooper Flag and some of the guys recently.
Yeah, I think it's hard to tell a twenty year old what college basketball was like twenty years ago. It's the only sport, the only sport that's less talented than it was twenty years ago. Boxing's probably the second because some guys who would have boxed went into UFC, and it used to be you'd get Patrick Ewing coming back for a third year and Tim Duncan and Chris Paul. So it's just I mean, I always tell young people, go watch five Slamma Jama, go watch the high lights
on YouTube. That's what college basketball. And they never won a Natty. There was a team that had Chris Mullen, Bill Wennington, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson at Saint John's and did not win a national championship. Filama Jama had the Clyde Drexler, Larry Mshu, Rob Young. I'm missing two or three guys did not win a national championship, So it's
just different. It's it's like again, Cooper Flag's great. If Cooper Flagg came back two more years and they had three other NBA guys that would have been Duke twenty years.
Ago, there is talk about him coming back. Now, wake me when that actually happens. I am fascinated though, and you and I talk so much college football during the fall and we both love it. And obviously the growth of the SEC over the last ten to fifteen years really the saving effect. Yeah. I could be wrong here, but I thought I saw on Twitter like fifteen twenty minutes ago the SEC just set a record, Yeah, fourteen teams.
And I've been fascinating. When I got married last week in Tennessee, my brother and I and my brother in law we played golf at Vanderbilt's golf course. We actually hate Manning was out there. Their clubhouse at the Vanderbilt golf Course was as big as any clubhouse, non like Olympic club I've ever seen. That wasn't even the old clubhouse at the golf course. The SEC money because of the football programs over the last fifteen twenty years. You
know better than me. But when I think SEC basketball, forever Kentucky and there was always you know, Florida Billy Donovan. Now, I know they got fourteen teams, but they got five or six that could, like should win the national championship. I just thought Nat Oates had a quote that anything less than a Final four this Alabama basketball is a disappointment. So at the gym, I was watching Tennessee Florida day.
It was fantastic. Okay, how good is so the talent in the SEC because of the football money baseball, they dominate golf, they dominate basketball. They've been good. They have clearly taken another stick up right these last four or five years with the money behind it.
I watched Michigan Michigan State, and Michigan won the Big Ten tournament. I watched some of that. I've seen Purdue play, I've seen Michigan State play, you know, and I've seen you know, Oregon play, yeah, and UCLA multiple times. In my takeaway is the Big Ten's just I mean, Michigan won the Big Ten tourney. I think they're a fifth seed. So it's the only sport where the conference championships have no impact off and on the seating. So no, it's just one of I think for people that haven't been
to the South, they may struggle. Like I was talking to an SEC fan the other day and he goes, we really can't compete with Ohio State and Michigan money USC now they're collective in football's eighteen million, Oregon's is sky's the limit. They can still kind of compete, But there are the big dogs in a Big Ten are really at the top of the food chain, Texas being you know, the obvious dominant the minute they walked into the SEC. That's the Rockefellers of that conference. They just
have as much money as they need. But in the other sports, the Big Ten money gets funneled to football. But in the other sports, I watch actually a lot of Big Ten basketball over the last three or four weeks. It just doesn't look like SEC basketball. I watched Auburn play probably in January once, February twice, and I watched them here in March, you know, for thirty minutes each time. As you said, it's just athletes everywhere and deep. They have like eight guys that can give you double figures
if it was their night. So it's just different. And whereas in the Big Ten football makes you a lot of money and some basketball teams do, in the SEC, baseball makes bless you a lot of money. Yeah, it's a different ball game. So and I also think what you're seeing is in football, John, I think those Pac twelve teams that moved into the Big Ten are fine. The weather argument's weak because your last game USC UCLA
play each other at the end of the season. So the truth is your last game is like you know, November seventeenth, team may have a cold game at Penn State. It's really tough on the basketball teams. I looked at UCLA's travel schedule this year. You just I mean, it's like it's like got an NBA feel. You're back across the country all the time. And that's where I think the Pac twelve teams are really those four teams that
went into the Big Ten. I think in basketball it's really hard for UCLA and USC and Washington and Oregon the trade when you're playing multiple games a week. I don't think they'll have great impact in that conference for a while.
Yeah, I saw Mix. Mix had some great lines this year. One of his was like that they had went to like around the Statue of Liberty multiple times throughout the season, and all the Big Ten teams are complaining about come out west. He's like, you guys are in zero degrees. You're coming out here to sunny southern California seventy eight degrees. Give me a break. You guys are having the time of your life coming out here. For us, it's it's more difficult, but that's what they all signed up for,
the more money that comes along with it. That's where you know, Texas and Oklahoma, the travel is clearly not nearly as prohibitive and difficult. I mean, all these people get to come home, even the Big Ten. I mean one one problem I think for the West Coast teams in basketball is they get stuck out there. You know, guy Haveberman calls games for the Big Ten. All the you know, the core teams of the Big Ten go home after games and then go back to their opponent
when they play two games in a week. That clearly isn't the case for USC, you know, UCLA, Washington, Oregon. They're just kind of stuck. And that's just listen, this move was made for football in basketball is kind of a lung for the ride here.
That's right, That's absolutely right, and I think UCLA and USC are both feeling it. Okay, let's do some NFL. You know, I had said this last year. I thought the Niners were going to start regressing. I thought they should have started the rebuild last year. They did it.
This year.
They let Debo and Hufunga and green Law, Savarious Ward go. They have twelve draft picks, but it's a week draft, so let's say you hit on six year draft picks. I thought last year was the first year in the last several I just didn't think their defense was intimidating. I thought when Bosa was off the field, it was weak. I thought you could kind of manipulate it. I said this, I think Darnold and the Seahawks have a chance to be really interesting. Where are you on the Niners right now?
A lot of draft picks. I mean, they didn't want to let Haufunga and Greenlaw go. Those are excellent instinctive players. I mean, now you're getting to a point now where you're really crossing your fingers with Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams big time.
I think every move in a vacuum is easy to justify. It's not. I mean green Law was coming off of torn achilles, came back for a half, he looked like Fred Warner junior, and then couldn't play the rest of the season. Who fungat acl multiple injuries to it, like all the moves in a vacuum. Oh, let him go.
You're not going to pay that much for banks, trade this backup running back who was going to make five million dollars on the totality, though, You go, that's losing a lot of guys like who are going to be your backups? I think they would have somewhat started it last year. It's much more difficult, though, when you have a team coming off being up late in the Super Bowl against the current dynasty. So you go, we are
right there. All these guys are championship level players. I think they're big mistake in where they got really rattled for a long period of time. The Niners, like fifteen twenty years ago, they could extend the Patrick Willis's, the Frank Ors, the Vernon Davis's, relatively cheap, and they were great at it because Parrague Marat, their mundy guy is elite. He's like Howie Roseman, but he's not a GM. He just like runs the Yorks money and he runs their
international soccer team well as the Caps exploded players. I don't want to say it's the NBA, but they do have a lot more juice. When Jamar Chase says I'm not playing for anything less than third forty million dollars, like he's not really bullshit, Like he's not taking a discount.
The top guys have some juice, but now the middle tier guys, like they would have laughed at Brandon Au ten years ago and they would have won, but they were kind of in no man's land, and their coach, you know, who has a lot of juice, didn't want to get rid of their best receiver, and he took advantage of him, and that really rattled them because they immediately regretted it. If they could do that all over again, they would have traded him before the draft instead. Now
they're trying to trade him. He's got an ACL and like he's untradeable for anything of value, and they're kind of in a weird spot. But the elephant in the room is the quarterback. And listen, Mike Silver has known the Shanahan family for thirty plus years and he's been reporting like they are telling everyone, take a deep breath, we're cutting some costs and we got to kind of recalibrate because I think they saw what the Rams did these last couple of years. Yes, now the difference is
and look look what the Bills did last year. I mean the Bills got rid of like half their big names. Well, Josh Allen's one of the greatest talents I've ever seen. And Matt Stafford, while older, was right there with would be con Josh Allen ten years ago. He just played first shitty franchise Like that's not Brock Purty and we
all know that. Look at the NFC colin the two best quarterbacks you'd say, you know, I would say win wise and statistically would be Jalen and Jared Goff are on loaded rosters offensively, Like we would say, you put either one of those guys on like the Jags or a bad team, it's gonna be props. Pretty's the same thing.
When he's on a good team, he's proven he canna be a really good player, but like if you're cutting costs and depending on some randos, it's just it's a pretty scary I do think they are gonna low ball brock perty and they're gonna make this more difficult because they before it was just like hey, Trent, what do you want? Which I know would have a problem with doing that to Trent. Yeah, but the two receivers, it's like, you're not Jamar Chase and your team doesn't play like that.
It doesn't make any sense. Like I get the Cowboys. They throw out to Ceedee Lamb every other play. Brendon and I you had a career year seventy five. But at the end of the day, they do have a big time coach at a bad year, but he's proven to be really good and still a culture. They get
Robert solid Back. I wouldn't count him out yet, but it's gonna be a lot of new names Colin, and they're gonna be very dependent on these high They have the eleventh pick, like you need a Micae Parsons, you need to you know, look at the Eagles and the Cowboy, When the Cowboys got Mike or the Eagles got Davonte Smith, you're gonna have to nail this well.
And also, there are certain positions in football running back, I think wide receiver, some say cornerback, where you can come in and make an impact pretty quickly. It's very instinctive. But where the Niners are drafting offensive line, maybe another tight end, you know, a play calling linebacker, a crucial safety in their defense. Those are hard positions to go college and pro. I mean, if you look at very few tight ends come into this league, brock Bauers is
a total outlier. Very good tight ends have struggled because the blocking assignments now are so so difficult compared to college. So the Niners are asking players from college in the twelve draft picks to come into positions replace excellent instinctive, smart veteran players. Forget just making tackles. I mean green law is, I mean he is. He and Warner are anchors and communicators, and I think those kind of positions to replace, I have no problem. You know, it'd be
one thing. If they're replacing you know, one corner one running back, you get to the offensive line. In Kyle Shanahan's system, you're lost until Thanksgiving. That's a tough rebuild.
Oh for sure. Same with wide receivers. I mean, same with listen. Even if they draft a defensive lineman with the eleventh pick, Khalil Mack, who's one of the better players of his generation. I think at four and a half sacks his rookie year. Yeah, Jared Verse last year, who came on toward the end, wasn't a dominant, dominant force all season long.
I covered Warren Sap in Tampa. It wasn't until the end of his first year that he made an impact. Here two he was fantastic. But this league, there are guys that can make impacts. But I don't see the Niners.
Their schedule sucks, their schedules bad. They have a last play schedule and they get to draft really high in every round. I think one of the divisions they play is the AFC South. I mean, I would say even before this mass exodus, I still think ten wins is very very you know, look at what the Rams have done these last couple of years. I think sometimes when you are as they say in most you know, world industries on boarding players, I think McVeigh uses that too.
It takes a little time and then you kind of catch fire. I mean I think they were they one and four last year, and two and three and six the year before. Now, you don't want to make a living. It's you do that ten times. A lot of times you're gonna end up with seven or eight wins. But you start a little slow and then you peak. One thing is very, very key for the forty nine ers. I'd say two guys. Trent Williams gotta be on the field. And if Christian McCaffrey is just healthy, which who knows,
I mean multiple a keilles. He tore his knee, but he is a major, major wild card in the NFL, going back to the Panther days. When he's on the field, he's one of the best players in the league. When he's off, especially with Kyle, he kind of derails their operation.
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So I thought the team, you can tell who has the power in most organizations. McVeigh runs the Rams. I think Shanahan until recently had power on the draft. Andy Reid doesn't want it necessarily, Belichick did, Sean Payton does in Denver. You can tell the moves when coaches are making Chicago clear signaled that Ben Johnson's running the show
for him to replace the entire interior. O line was telling Ryan Poles, you got your picks, stink, And I thought, frankly, for the Chicago Bears, who I've been saying this for so many years, they're like, they're just a defensive culture. For a guy to come in and spend money on guards and centers, I thought it was a real moment in the history of the Chicago Bears. I was like, wow, this field. I mean, how many years have the Steelers been hamming egging it on their offensive line? Tomlin runs
the show. I for the first time that I can remember. I really like the direction where the Bears are going well.
I think sometimes when you get like the whiz kid, the great offensive coordinator, they just want to score points and they're thinking quarterback and wide receiver. Ben Johnson's pretty lucky. That is welcome to stardom in the NFL. Started with the trenches. I mean, I mean, let's face it, the Lions really separated them with a dominant offensive line. So they go and trade for a guy. It's crazy. You
and I talk about these young quarterbacks. By that second year Thanksgiving, it's like you're on the clock, like your career is in troubles. It's like that now with free agency the Rams side, Joja Jackson last year, three years, fifty one million dollars. Less than a year later, it's
like traded. I mean these teams now, the money and the cash bonuses sealing that not in a million years, I would say, up till what seven eight years ago, would have ever happened because no owner, it's like he's a good player, and it's like, yeah, not a great fit. Seal later. So they get a guy that they know the Falcon Center is good and you see Andy Reid's quotes on Toony, He's like he's one of the toughest guys I've ever We don't want to trade this guy.
We just there's money involved and we can't afford to keep them. One of them play play.
We had the best year of his career arguably because he went to left tackle.
And was excellent. To me, he's like his generation's Logan Mankins. I mean, just a plug and play guy who could play multiple positions as a stud. The other thing is when you have a smaller quarterback, you know, non paid Manning, Tom Brady, the FLA Gol. That generation, all those guys were huge, you know, Carson Palmer, Caleb. This generation is a little smaller. Well, Sean Payton dealt with one in that generation, and they always invested in centers and guards.
They had high because the pressure up the middle it rattles and he can't see where Peyton, Manning and Tom Brady. Historically they had some pretty random guys on some seasons when they had good teams playing center and guard, they get away with it. Smaller quarterbacks cannot. It hurts pretty sometimes when they get in past situations and the garden center gets smoked. He's swimming. He can handle the outside pressure because he can move around. Same with Caleb, he
can move, but up the middle you are screwed. So they they could have I know they've invested draft picks and some tackles. But we'll see how good those guys turn out to be. But they went all in on the garden center position because I think with a smaller quarterback, it's really really important to just neutralize. Think how many teams also have a good interior pass rush now, So yeah, it was hard to I mean, that was a no brainer moved by the Bears. And Ryan Pole is pretty
lucky that this the way this all. He kept his job and he's still here and he gets to be a part of this. Yeah.
I mean a couple of years ago, he whiffed on Villas Jones and I was like, oh, dude, you could have called me. And then the.
Chase played with Rome. I mean, Rome was a pretty looking back. You should have taken an offensive lineman.
Yeah, but Villas Jones, miss Chase Claypool, miss Roma Danze not as good as we thought.
You know.
So again, I think you and I agree. I think the Bears are heading in the right direction. You just pointed out something and I've been on this for a few years that I think there's a duality to all the owners being billionaires and some being ten fifteen, twenty billionaires. Is that number one. The downside is they're more willing to just fire people quickly. They're more impulsive than they've ever been when they were all worth six hundred million.
You're you're not just riding a seventeen to twenty five million dollar check to blow out a staff. You're just not doing now. These guys will just blow out a seventy million dollars staff. So who does that hurt? It hurts a young quarterback who has to have another staff. So I mean Caleb Williams, even though he upgrades staffs,
it's a brand new system. So that's the downside. The upside, though, is when you make a mistake with personnel like Rams and Jonah Jackson where it just didn't feel great, you can just move off it. And so you know this, you know you can never move off NBA contracts or baseball contracts. They're so guaranteed. In the NFL. Now, if you make a mistake, guys just write shacks and go all right, big jo, I mean for the Bears to
get Drew Dolman and Joe Tooney. Jesus, you have your You're you may not be Philadelphia or Detroit, but that's a top three interior O line in the league.
Well, let's you even use I mean, the craziest example currently is his cousin's example. Now, I know Arthur Blank is probably I don't know where he ranks, but he's not near the bottom when it comes to wealth. They're like, well, you're not gonna shove us around. We're gonna pay you ten million for next year. He obviously he's not gonna be the team next year, and we'll eat it until
we figure this out. But you are gonna capitulate and you're gonna give us a trade eventually before the season starts. That never would have happen. I thought it was like, no, no human lives is gonna give him ten million dollars guaranteed for next year. Cousin's gonna win this. They will cut him. I thought he'd be cut, you know, Wednesday Thursday. He's like, no, they just picked it up. But he's
still there and we'll just have a staring contest. It's that that never would have happened without the influx of cash. I thought this when some of these deals are I mean Aaron Banks, the Niners left guard got, I mean so much money. Milton Williams, who is obviously a really talented players. He never played more than fifty percent of the snap for the Eagles, got twenty six million dollars a year.
No, Milton Williams got paid like Aaron Donald. That contract was but again they had two hundred plus million dollars. Yeah, and I think Milton Williams for New England, I got that that contract is stupid. But again, it's not a great defensive tackle class. And maybe it's just not. And so it's a great running back class, pretty good tight end class.
It is.
There's some offensive tackles, none of them elite. But I saw somebody saying it didn't think it was a great defensive tackle class. You know, I'm not watching defensive tackle tape. We don't have a Jalen Carter obviously, but I think, like in New England's case, I'll give them a pass. I thought, to be honest with you, one of the strangest contracts to me was Cooper Cup. John Snyder the GM Seattle has almost never missed on receivers. Jesus, He's
been fantastic with wide receivers. Cooper Cup doesn't separate. I mean, Sean McVeigh moves off a receiver. I mean they resigned two to Atwell because he gets open. They went and paid for older Devonte Adams because if you go look at the analytics, he gets open. Cooper Cup doesn't get open at all. And so the Milton Williams contract I get because of Rabel's trying to create. You know, it's a bad defensive tackle class. He's trying to get big. I mean a lot of linebackers, a lot of people.
Milton Williams twenty six years old.
Yeah, but the Cooper Cup deal when you look at the Sam Darnald contract, which could end up being just a one year, thirty seven million dollar deal, if you look at the way it's laid out, what do you think Darnald is a two to three year play in Seattle? Because the Cooper Cup move is like, damn, you are you going all in on samdy? What is this? Why?
I thought the moment Gino was traded, it was pretty clear, and John Schneider doubled down. We tried to give him an extension. He wasn't going to play ball because he thought we were low balling him and we're just not paying a guy thirty five million dollars giving you an extension one hundred plus million dollars, and I you know what I'd say to John Schneider, that's the way to do it. That's good business. Well, you need a quarterback. And ultimately, like you said, Sam Darnald's not that much,
not very expensive. No one is on his contract in the NFL. It doesn't really exis beside Baker last year, and Baker clearly is very underpaid. Now. I don't think Sam Donald's as good as Baker Mayfield. You know, I would take Baker Mayfield over Sam Donald. And obviously Sam benefited from playing with Justin Jefferson, who's probably a Hall of Famer, Jordan Addison's who's a star. It was a great situation. This situation, once they get rid of DK, is not as impressive. And I don't blame them for
trading DK. Like Steelers gonn give him a hundred We can dive into that one hundred and fifty million dollars, But listen, coordinators matter with some of these. You know, if you're gonna if you're gonna buy a quarterback, especially fifty five million dollars, guaranteed Rock Party's gonna get one hundred and fifty plus, so it's a tiny, tiny little number. And Clint Kubiak was with him in San Francisco with Kyle Shanahan and Brock thirty, so they know him really
well and they feel comfortable with it. I think the one thing all the Shanahan guys will tell you is, I, then you can't play like this every single game. But in theory, they go into the game, they want to run the ball, and they only want to throw the ball twenty five to thirty times. And of those twenty five to thirty times, only ideally eight to ten are going to ask you to really be crazy good. A lot of these are going to be scripted in and
out of your hand. It's a pretty easy scheme. It's why so many guys are, you know, the Cousins, the Matt Jobs, the less talented. We saw him last year in obviously he had more weapons, but listen, the last two games were really bad. He played really well last season. It's my big issue with going all in on JJ McCarthy, and we'll see the Aaron Rodgers thing is still out there. JJ McCarthy never threw more than twenty two touchdowns in college. He did not play like the way Kevin O'Connell and
that offense wants to play. And I saw it with Trey Lance when the Niners got you're a young player, usually you go to shitty teams. It's like, I'll just you get to win five or six games your first year, No big deal. Like if Shador Standers gets drafted to the New York Giants or cam Ward to the Titans, the win loss record isn't as important as how it looks. That is not going to be the case with JJ McCarthy, right, if you don't win eleven twelve games, it's going to
be a disaster. So replacing Sam Donald is not really easy where I think that. Listen, Geno's a solid player, but I do think he's being talked about a little differently than he actually is, especially once you start talking forty five to fifty million dollars like I'd be out of the business too.
Yeah, No, I mean listen, Geno's thirty four, Sam's twenty seven. So there is there is something to be said that Seattle's own line is not is not a top ten O line, and Sam moves well, and as they draft the O line, as it improves, by Thanksgiving. Sam can move the chains with his feet, and I think that's some of it. They kind of look at it as sad. If we're going to get a quarterback with this O line Geno and Aaron Rogers, they just don't move as well.
Cousins doesn't move as well. Sam can buy us time as we develop our O line from this draft.
But look at the other thing too. The last two years, who liked Sam Donald, Kyle Shanahan and Kevin O'Connell, The right guys are on them. They think really really highly of them and the Vikings and stand after those last two games, they had a financial decision to make. They signed a lot of guys that they wouldn't have been able to sign them all right without They re signed the corner. They sign a couple offensive lineman Hargrave Jonathan Allen.
If Sam Donold's making forty plus million dollars for him, they're not gonna have attacked the same offseason. It's also why, though, like they're not dumb, they realize we go all in on this young quarterback. It's why they have to think about Aaron Rodgers, even if it is kind of crazy to everybody. Well, it's like JJ McCarthy could be a disaster. Kyle Shanahan's pretty good quarterbacks. Trey Lance would have dere
if he listen. No one rooted for him to get injured, but once he got injured, it saved their season because it was he was not gonna be able to function. Now everyone will go, well, look at JJ in that preseason game. It's like, well, the preseason is a pretty big jump to the regular season, let alone big Sunday night games against the Packers and the Lions. Like it's
a different animal. That's the one thing Seattle knows now, Like they get a guy who's been kind of under the ringer as a starter for a long time, so it's a ton of experience, but then played in real games all season long. Like every game the Vikings played in last year was like that was real. There was a lot on the line, especially as the season went on. So I thought the move was an easy one for John Schneider. I think it's pretty fascinating what the Vikings are doing.
Yeah, you know, I want to throw this with Aaron Rodgers and the Vikings, the Steelers, you know, the Giants interested. So I've said before the Vikings is the obvious choice if you could do it, if you wanted one more year with their personnel and their coach Giants two to me, Steelers three. I'll get to that in a second. But I went and watched a movie this morning at eleven forty called Black Bag. It was Steven Soderberg, Who's done.
He started with sexalizing videotape years ago. Very heavy stuff, very quirky, plot twist, fascinating guy. The movie's great. I love that hour thirty three. I mean, you're in and out of the theater. It's fascinating, not a wasted scene. But as I was watching it, I was I was thinking as I walked out of the theater, is that you can tell how smart an actor is by the directors and the choices they make for movies. Bad dumb actors end up in bad films and make bad choices.
Tom Hanks did not make a bad choice for like ten years.
Now.
I know Tom Hanks gets better scripts than the average guy. But you know, even a movie like Big, you know you're like smart actors choose smarter roles. And I think this is the ultimate test for Aaron Rodgers. Hear me out so the teams that want in Minnesota, Pittsburgh and New York. Pittsburgh's got the best overall roster. The best overall coach is probably in Minnesota. But here's something fascinating
about the Steelers. So in five of the last seven years, and I think we both agree they draft and develop well, they got dudes. This this is a real roster. Five of the last seven years they've had it east a three game losing streak at minimum at the end of the year. And my belief is as the league has gotten offensively smarter and the culture has changed and defenses are limited, that Mike Tomlin is a raw raw coach, kind of a motivator. That's why such a good as
an underdog coach. Is that the raw raw stuff, it doesn't, it doesn't land or stick by Christmas on. It just doesn't. Players have heard it, and that they're they're just not a sophisticated team. Offensively. They can't get the O line right, which Andy Reid, McVay, Shanahan, Gary Sean Payton, those guys within a year can figure. I mean, the Denver O line sucked. Peyton got there, it was top eight, you know, his first year and that. I think if Aaron chooses
the Steelers, I think it's a big brand. It's a good roster. You now have two high maintenance receivers who want the ball. By the way, DK Metcalf's the most penalized receiver since he entered the league. Temperamental. You have an own line that can't figure out. They have no sensibility for it. He's sort of an outsider in a kind of a tough, blue collar city. He's an outsider. And if he chooses Pittsburgh, I really think it tells you a lot about Aaron. I mean, I'll tell you
I would choose the Giants over Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh just lost their left tackle. They just lost Nagie Harris. It's like the Giants have an excellent left tackle an offensive coach, Aaron will have power. They have an elite weapon. And by the way, what they need is a running back. It's a great running back draft. It's hard to screw the running back. I mean, the Giants will take a
running back somewhere early. So my take on Aaron is if he chooses the Steelers, he's passing on offensive coaches who clearly every rule advantage goes to that side, And I'm fascinated by the choice he makes because I'm know you start hearing things a lot of people think he's going to Pittsburgh. If you just wanted to play one more year, where would you pick? And why?
Well, I'd be begging are we factoring Minnesota in with these three? Or I would be begging Kevin O'Connell to let me be the starting quarter back? All right? Yeah? And when I when I see some of these reports that you know he needs thirty forty million dollars, like guy's made four and fifty million dollars. This is probably going to be his last season? Is he going to go out on the embarrassment that was the Jets situation in these last couple of years. I to me, the
Giants thing is, I can't get with you there. Now I'm with you. I think the Steeler situation is a little overrated. I mean, they just they happen to have Lamar Jackson, who's I don't know, the most unique quarterback we've ever seen, and Joe Burrow, who went he's on might be the best quarterback in the league. I mean, you're not out doing those two teams. And then Cleveland just resigned one of the greatest pass rushers ever and for a weird organization that they are not easy to play.
That that division's really really difficul And I'm with you on the Steelers. I thought that that DK Metcalf trade was insanity, Colin. When you when you don't have your quarterback to trade for DK Metcalf when down the stretch of the season. Obviously your offense had some issues, but Russell did not play well, your defense was falling apart. You are not in the business of giving a guy one hundred million dollars guaranteed trading a second round pick.
That's look what the Chiefs or Bills should do. Not a team that's barely getting in the playoffs and getting smoked the moment they get in. That was crazy. I thought that was the craziest move when you factor in money and a high draft pick. But I don't think the Steelers and the Giants are that good options. Like I see one the Giants I don't think would make
the playoffs with them. I mean, the Jets were a muttered ar team, and I think the Steelers situation would probably have some parallels, might look a little better, but like the way this season nine to ten wins get blasted by the Ravens or Bills.
And with.
Point.
Last year, to my point, the Steelers were an awful team down the stretch.
I do think, and I would imagine. You know, Kevin O'Connell, I don't think he's ever worked with Aaron. They're just having long conversations because they go, are we confident that we could win the division and win playoff games with JJ McCarthy because they I'm telling you we've seen it. I know you know this, but like you could win just because this isn't the NBA when you just put a great roster like guaranteed to make the playoffs. In football,
the cohesion and the quarterback play. Sam Donald threw thirty five touchdowns last year. JJ McCarthy in fifteen games that last year at Michigan throw twenty two. He's never played like that. They did not, that's not and and Kevin O'Connell clearly is much more like McVeigh than Shanahan. He likes to throw the ball. I mean he is, that's his you know, he wants to call thirty five forty passes a game, even when Sam Donald's getting smoked in
the playoff games, like Kevin run the ball. He just kept calling pass plays, So i'd be begging Kevin O'Connell. I think that roster. I would disagree with you on the Steelers. I think the Vikings have a better roster. Now that your draft, we'll see what happens. I mean, I thought they had an excellent free agency drafting or I mean signed a couple offensive linemen plug and play, a guard in a center, a couple of defensive linemen. I mean their defense overachieved because Flores is such an
elite coordinator. Yeah, now, so they bring in a couple more defensive linemen. I would imagine they draft defense their offense stacked skill wise, so you know it'd be I mean, it'd be a little weird, right if Aaron's career literally paralleled the guy that always drove him nuts far off of going to the Jets, then the Vikings. But that division, I think the one thing right now on paper, wouldn't you say the NFC North is the best division in
all of football? With the Bears looking vastly improved.
Well, I think it's the best division in terms of personnel. I think the AFC West is the best division in terms of coaching with Peyton, Pete, Andy and Harball. So those are the two best divisions. And I don't think it's a I don't think it's a coincidence.
Well, I just.
The South is such a huge college football region that both the NFC and the AFC South aren't very good. I've always surmised that college football is so big in that part of the country that you don't face the same level of pressure that you do on northern teams like New England, Boston Media, Philly Media, Baltimore Media. You know, I mean like cold Weather Pittsburgh. They live, they don't
care about college football. They live for the NFL. These NFCAFC South teams, you're like, eh, we'll keep Todd Bowles again. If he coaches the Eagles, he'd be gone tomorrow.
You know what's funny is probably like a year ago, Maria has a close friend who's really successful, girl UCLA grad just crushed it. She's like thirty years old, she's got multiple properties, and she was telling me this. She had this acronym. I forget exactly what it was, but it basically described high maintenance friends and the moment you become a high maintenance friend in her life. She's got too much going on, she got a young baby, she's
out on you. Yeah. If I would have told you four or five years ago that we'd be a week into free agency, and people like Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers like, yeah, well we'll get back to you here a little bit. It's crazy how And I think both guys, if they reviewed, let's use Geno and Sam, are viewed as low maintenance,
good guys. Everyone likes them, no problems. If both these guys were viewed as just normal humans, like a Drew Brees or I know he's like super high Carett, but I just mean like normal guys, I think they both would have been signed. Had been they would have had a bidding war for these guys, because statistically they're still solid. They're clearly not as good as they once were. But
it's like the first question. And I've been in these meetings, not necessarily with these individual players, but players like this, like do we want to deal with this? Like do we want? And their stardom is now bigger than their talent that it's like, is this high maintenance worth worth the headache? Enough?
Look at Dez Bryant disappeared, ob John disappeared. Aaron Rodgers, Russell not really interested, I think, and I'll throw this at you. I love the NBA, but there's some high maintenance, you know, these guaranteed contracts. I think the NFL people, and I've had discussions with NFL people for my entire career. They often reference, Dude, that's an NBA, that's an NBA idea. They make fun of the NBA and how much players
and employees control the entire organization. Embiid. Everybody's hostage to EMBIID. And I mean you've heard gms reference this before. Like there Aaron and Russell are getting into sort of like a little bit of NBA where you're like, this is a team sport, like this is about the group and the community not I mean when Aaron said, you know, there's that picture in Malibu where he's you know, he's got the pod pods on, and I'm thinking, every guy, every NFL GM is thinking, listen, just make an f
and decision. Okay, Like you're not married, you don't have kids, you're not doing much, you're golfing, and you're reading Greek mythology. Like that to me, I listen. I've talked to two gms and they're like, you couldn't I'm not interested in Aaron, And I'm like, yeah, but he's he's still pretty good. And they're like that just eat. I mean Aaron Glenn basically just said we're just no, thank you, and Aaron was actually pretty good down the stretch. This isn't a
shot at Aaron. It's what I'm hearing from executives in the league. It's like, no thanks.
Well, I mean, look look at the Titans. Their new GM is from the Chiefs, so he's spent his whole time around Andy Veach Mahomes, Alex the guy kind of in this weird position who's like the president but he's also kind of got a scouting background, is a packer guy. They have no interest, even if they're going to take cam Ward, Like, you guys, get Aaron Rodgers, bring him to Nashville for a year, get a little buzz. As you're building this new stadium. You haven't heard a peep,
you know. I was like, it's crazy, how think of the top quarterbacks in this in the league, Patrick Mahomes. The only maintenance they ever have to deal with is his family. It's not him like he is. They don't even think about him. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Herbert Burrow. I mean, Burrow has kind of had to hold their feet to the fire just historically this organization. If you put Burrow in the Ravens or the Chiefs, he wouldn't be saying a peep. He's just scared that this this
owner is going to be chief. Don't blame him. But I think the league, the star quarterbacks are just full of guys who are just you never the season ends and it's like, I don't know what Josh Allen's doing, is just doing? You had a bachelor party at the
Tiger Woods thing in Orlando just with his buddies. And I think Aaron Rodgers and Russell they're different personalities, but I think they both check the same box of like I don't know if we have the energy and you're and you're not good enough anymore for us to overlook that, Because if you put Aaron Rodgers on Minnesota, you know, I pretty good dealing well. But I can also see it getting weird, like are you sure that you're comfortable
around with him? With JJ in that situation. But I do think they're thinking long and hard, but these guys don't really have options, so they can just kind of wait it out and keep talking through it.
Yeah. No, I think it's a reality that there's there's there's The players now are richer sooner. I mean some of these guys now going forward, John, they'll come in multimillionaires out of college. So you're gonna see You're gonna see two things. Guys retire sooner, and guys have a
little more leverage sooner. And and I think the fear on the end FL is we don't want to become pro basketball where basically the employees are are running the team, you know, like Kawhi showing up at four point thirty and saying, yeah, I'm not going to play tonight, Like no, we're not, We're not going there, and yeah, so where.
The NFL benefits. I do think it could get much weirder in the offseason with the holdouts and the hold ends like that. That's probably is at the beginning of that. But in the sport of football, unlike like in basketball, these guys could play three hundred sixty five days a year if they want to, right pick up games. You can play whenever in football, the only time you can actually play a game is in the confines of the seventeen weeks. And that's the fun part. What Ray Lewis say,
you pay me Monday through Saturday. Sundays are for free. The games are really the fun part for the players. That's the problem with the NBA. Turn on the TV. You never know who's gonna play. Even in the NFL, guy making forty fifty million dollars, he's still gonna want to play in the games, Laramie Tunzel. A lot of articles are coming out like, you know, he's kind of
late to practice, doesn't always work hard. It's like, well, you don't know that if you just watch the TV, because you're like, he's a good players, so I want him on my team. So it's the NFL. They're weird. Stuff happens during the week when no one's paying attention that the games. It's like all the guys want to play.
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You know, I was watching a clip of Jim Harbaugh and I had just had this discussion with Steve Kime about a week ago, two weeks ago, and I said, if I was ever a GM, because he owes jokes. He said, you're not a talk show host. You want to be a GM. And I'm like, you know, I like my job, but I would love to be a GM. You know, if I would have put thirty years into that instead of what I'm doing. Who knows, you know, you don't know. But I told him, I said I
would overdraft the offensive line. And Harbaugh said this, and this is what Steve and I said. Jim put it more smartly. He said, there's only one unit in a football field that doesn't rely on any other unit, yet every other unit relies on it. And he said, it's offensive line. It makes your quarterback better, your running back's better, your tight end doesn't have to block as vigorously, your wide receivers have more time to get downfield. It keeps your defense off the field if you have a great
offensive line. And it was one of those things where when you go back to drafting Joe Ault over a wide receiver, the Bears went wide receiver, and then this year had to spend a fortune on their offensive line instead of The Bears probably should have gone O line instead of going with Roma Dunze. But it is interesting that the more the NFL, you know, changes and becomes an offensive league. We pay so much attention to quarterbacks. But I and I made this pick the other day.
I think the Chiefs are going to struggle, and I don't think they're going to win their division. I don't think in this draft class there's a starting left tackle good enough in their division to block Max Crosby or Khalil Mack or the kid number fifteen Oklahoma Bonito. But I do, and it's really interesting. I think. I mean, right now, the three or four teams I like in the league all have great old lions, all of them. Philadelphia, Detroit.
I thought the Rams finally got their act together offensive line. I think Buffalo's last year was better than people thought. I thought Denver's was better than people thought. I think Kansas City, I think we've just baked it in, John. They're not going ten to one in close games next year.
Yeah, I would agree there, but their offensive line was future this year on the on the edges, and they were able to well. I mean they were basically a sixteen and one team. They threw the last game of the season. So when it comes to coaching, when it comes to the quarterback play, most importantly, their defense is going to be good. So like part of the reason they were winning all these games because they could win
nineteen to seventeen, they weren't allowing many points. That is not going to change now the Chargers in the Broncos, You and I have been saying this, anyone with common sense has been saying this. The worst their teams were going to be was last seas. They're both going to be better. So if either Hufunga or Greenlaw play, that defense is going to be improved. In Denver's defense was awesome.
When I saw DK Metcalf ask for a trade, a lot of people that covered the NFL were like the Chargers, It's like, guys, do you think that Jim Harbaugh is going to trade a top whatever fifty pick and pay a third contract to this kind of out there wide receiver, though very talented, kind of the poor man's modern day Torell Owens type. It's different, but I mean I think physically they have some to dk Metcalf. Are you guys nuts?
And what does he do? He goes signs Makai Becton and he's he's got a huge I see yesterday, he's got a huge smile on his face. Like, have you guys not followed Jim Harbaugh's career since Stanford? This they might draft a wide receiver this year in the third round. I would expect tight end d lineman running back like it's Naji Harris. When I was living in the Bay Area, Naji was his senior year, was one of the biggest recruits in the country. I think he won number one recruit.
He was number one, and it was I need to go to Alabama, but Jim was recruiting him very hard. And I saw a clip that Jim at an Antioch. I think he went to the homecoming game. He announced their king and queen and so like that's who he's Listen, I'm not the biggest nause star running back. First round guy but he is a solid, runs downhill, physical guy. Like that's how Jim wants to play. Jim wants to play a lot like this version of the Chiefs and clearly Denver, I think Sean would like to be a
little more explosive down the field. But like that, that division is going to be really physical. And same thing with the I mean, we know how Pete Carroll, why did he butt heads with Russell Wilson. Russell wanted to throw it fifty times a game. Pete wanted to throw at about twenty in play d and run the ball. So I think this defense is gonna or this divisions is gonna look a lot like each other. Now you know, if for she Rice is healthy, Xavier Worthy came on.
I do think the Chiefs offense could get more explosive, and I would also guess that they draft are running back. I think all these teams in this division could draft running backs, and if two of the four of them become stars, whichever ones those guys go to, like the next Yamire Gibbs or whoever, Nick Chubb, you know, you name it, those second round running backs hit for one
of these teams could be the difference. If all of a sudden, you tell me Denver it has a version of Nick Chubb or you know Alvin Kamara on their squad. I'd be like, well, why couldn't they win twelve or thirteen games? Same thing with the Chargers, and maybe this is the year the Chiefs win. Two years ago when they won the Super Bowl, I think they won eleven games. So the difference between eleven and fifteen is like a couple of missfield goals and a couple fumbles go your way.
Yeah, the yeah, it's it's I thought, I thought DeVante Adams was obviously a great move for the Rams, but I thought, Najee Harris, there were a couple of moves I loved. Offensively, I think Deebo Samuel to Cliff Kingsbury and Jaden is a sensational move for them at this point, he'll get tons of looks, and by the way, it will give Cliff another twelve offensive plays because Deebo's such a unique player. And then I also thought, I thought,
I thought Najie Harris. I'm like, remember a couple of years ago when Kevin Dohnson wasn't going to start for the Steelers. McVeagh grabs him, and he literally is the highest rated guard in the league. Najie Harris with a Pittsburgh go line, everybody's like almost a semi bust. Watch him with hardball, watch him be really effective with hardball. I think of this all the time. Is I remember
GM telling this years ago? He said, I used to love drafting Georgia guys when Mark Rick was there, great recruiter, didn't squeeze all the juice out of a player like you got. You know, these guys had a lot of upside. Nick Saban squeezes every ounce of talent out of guys. And one of the things I look at John when these offensive coaches like McVeigh will go and find wide receivers. He looked at DeVante and he thought jet Staff lab year was like third tier. He's like, DeVante's gonna make
eighty catches for us. So I thought, yeah, I mean so, I do think when you see these offensive coaches they find some of these defensive cultures and they find players and go get me that.
Well, I think you look at the Eagles last year, Mackai Becton. This year they trade for that former first round pick from the Densons because now listen, you're not going to hit on them all, but the power of having good coordinators and now so many of the offensive ones are also the head coach. But you see it a lot when the star offensive line coach or the star defensive line coach. It's like buying a cheap stock and the guy a year later turns into a twelve
million dollar player. You can't afford, but you bought low like you profited from it. And I think the best teams always have that ability. I also think the Washington commanders with Debo and with Tunzel Tounsel not as much because he would get paid no matter what you got. Debo. He's in a contract years like Debo. If you ever want to make a even of that's right, two year, forty million dollar contract. Again, you got to slim down
and give us all you got. And I think sometimes getting those guys motivated is a really big deal for these you know, it used to be a guy going to their third contract probably be like thirty four years old. These guys are a little younger now, you know, they're twenty nine, thirty years old sometimes on their third you know DK Metcalf, Yeah, they're not as old as you know,
in previous generations. So sometimes these teams now with their cap space, these free aging classes after like the first ten names, most of them like the average fans like who's that guy? You can take advantage of it with traits overpriced guys on other teams at Adam Peters really did that with Tounzel and Deebo Samuel a ton of cap space, But I'm not going to buy all these players and pay premiums on guys that aren't quite worth
it like the Packers. Listen. I understand Aaron Banks has been a starter for the forty nine ers, but to give him that much money to be your little guard fell a little desperate to me. As guard works. We have seen some questionable guard contracts in recent memory, and I understand offensive linemen more of a plug and play. It's a lot of money to pay a guy. You might be able to find stuff plug and play starter in like the third round, and the Packers historically have always been able to do it.
Yep, all right, John Middlcoff form her NFL scout. He is newly married. Now have you guys done the honeymoon yet?
We just came home, you know, we had work to do Colin, and we were in Nashville. We got there on Tuesday, and most of our people got there Wednesday, so it was basically a honeymoon in a marriage or wedding, you know, for five days. I don't quite have the drinking ability that in my younger days. But then we get home and you know, obviously free agency is kicking off.
She's had changed to this luxury brokerage, so she's really busy, and I realized, like, you go go on the honeymoon necessarily to go hang out and party, just to kind of come down and nice. But so no, I think we're going to go to Costa Rica right before I think, you know that last week you and I have been talking about the last couple of years, that last week the preseason where the games are kind of over and there's nothing going on as college football. Her mom had
won this trip. So we're going to Costa Rica, I think, for like six days that last week of August, right before the NFL season, So we got a little time.
That's That's a great place because I've had multiple friends go there, all of them absolutely, all of them absolutely loved it. John as always, Buddy, congrats on everything in your life and uh what it cross today.
Thanks Colin, see you buddy.
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