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off first purchase. Download game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. All Right here we go our customary though not obligatory Nick Wright one hour sit down, which we do try to do, you know, three out of four weeks. Okay, so I want to throw this set. I thought about this. So there is a weird thing, and I've seen it in a lot of fields. But since we're sportscasters, we'll talk about this. And I saw it with Sean Payton that Sean came to Fox and
was really good. And I kept saying and Shawn and I would talk about, you know, his deal with Fox and the money, and he we went to dinner once or twice and it was really open. He's like, you know, what do you think I'm worth? And I'm like, listen to Sean, You're really good at this, and I think you should stay at Fox. And I said, you know, if a perfect job comes open, go, but I said, here's what you're worth. You know, Fox has never low
balled people. Fox tends to pay very reasonable money. You're not It's not I mean I worked at Disney, where you argued over a number two pencil. Fox has always been I think, more reasonable negotiations. Mine would have been quick and fast, and you don't get everything you want, but it's you know, they're not They're not going to hold you over a barrel on stuff. Right, it's a company, it's a corporation, and you know they want to win.
But and so when he took and then I knew he was going to take a job when I started texting him and he wouldn't return them, and I thought, Okay, he's now in a space he can't talk to me. He's got to protect the new owner. And and so then a couple days later he took the Denver Broncos job, and uh, and I remember thinking, because we had talked about it, I didn't love that for him, Not that I think I thought he would get the best out
of Russell. But Russell's money mahomes twice a year. Herbert, I'm like.
Jumping into an adverse situation.
Yeah, that's a lot of lifts here, And it's funny I think this about Mike Rabel. So Rabel's name hasn't come up a lot, but I was writing this down today. My argument is, Vrabel, there's one great job, because there's one really excellent quarterback who needs a coach. Chargers, Herbert, I'm going to throw these out to you, and I feel bad mentioning the names because these are employed people.
So I'll just mention the quarterback. It is possible, perhaps not probable, but in some cases very possible, either an impulsive owner or a very hot seat situation that next year, Derek Carr, Caleb Williams, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, Aaron Rodgers, much lower level Josh Allen will need a new coach. I do not remember a year this year there's one. There's seven coaches that need to win either
division multiple playoff games. And I thought to myself, Mike, next year, you know how usually you don't have many great candidates. This year we have like Harball. Yeah, it's a good year for candidates. Next year is potentially a remarkable year for openings. And your take on that, like, I think that's smart. I think I think McDermott would be on the very low I think they like Sean, but I do think you can only lose so many playoff games to the same team.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think mcdermot's on the low end. I mean they they this isn't Nick trolling the Bills. They put a giant banner of the Lombardi Trophy in their practice facility and they started six and six and then for the second straight year they So for the the reason mcdermot's not, you know, the reason he starts the year on the hot seat is four years in a row they have gone into a playoff game either against Patrick mahomes On or Joe Burrow on a five
to six or seven game winning streak. The last two have been in their building and they've lost. So next year they lose in the playoffs to mahomes Burrow or now add Lamar to it. You can't just keep you know what I mean? So yeah, I mean I think that absolutely, I think he is. I think he starts the year on the hot seat. It's also why I think Sirianni is going to be in a rough spot. What happened with Sirianni from last year to this year,
among other things. The coordinators left right, I don't know, I know they're you know, there was reports today they're interviewing around Rivera. I would think the best coordinators might be apprehensive to go to Philly this offseason because it's like we might we start the year on the hot seat. So the I think it's a really unique point that if you are a guy who there are certain guys who if they don't strike while the iron's hot. They're not going to be a head coach right or they're
gonna have to take a step back. Rabel's not one of them. I think Belichick could find a far better job next year than Atlanta. I think Belichick's problem is shouldn't say problem. He is like, I'm so much older, I don't want to city. You're out. It's you know what I mean, especially if my goal is to catch Shula before I'm seventy seven, like I'm trying to coach now.
So I think that is a really unique point. It's also why I thought, and it doesn't look like it now, I thought Hardoald was going to go back to Michigan, go back, go back to Michigan, defend your national title, and then be it not just be at the mercy of the Chargers with the quarterback like you're saying, next year, three or four or five quarterbacks, you know what I mean, could need a head coach. So I think I think
that is a really smart point. It's also why if I were Ben Johnson, Ben Johnson kind of has to take a head coaching job right now because you're not guaranteed that next year you're gonna be the hot coordinator. Sometimes guys go from oh, he's gonna get a head coaching job to fire During the year, things go sideways. But for hardball Vrabel and in a different way Belichick, I don't I don't think that they should rush into it because you're right when you look at the quarterbacks
and the teams incredibly available. It's incredible.
Let me throw another one at you. So I have made this argument before. So much of life is timing. So had the CTE scandal hapened a decade earlier, today Andy Reid would be considered the greatest coach of all time and not Belichick. So once the NFL wrote a billion dollar check, it was at that moment that the league made some really clear distinctions on the kind of football they were going to allow. And it was much safer,
much less hitting in practice. I mean, it's the knock now is that now starters don't play in the preseason. It is the safest the sport has ever been. There are helmet developments happening despite what happened in the freezing, whether mahomes the helmets will be elevated over time. Practice schedules, the offensive linemen just don't hit enough. Arguably that's why there's been an erosion a regressional line had that happened ten years earlier. That Andy Reid essentially had to work
against the system. The system worked against Andy, and it worked in favor of Belichick and defensive coaches. Is that you could grab Andy's receivers, receivers. You remember this barely. I lived through it, alligator arms receivers.
Wouldn't be able to remember that about.
My entire life until twelve years ago. And that if football that is allowed to be played now defensively, which completely nobody can stop anybody. At the end of the year, the Niners defense, Chiefs flew through it. Last year, Eagles flew through it. Nobody can stop anybody. I mean, the Ravens went through the Niners defense like a hot knife
through butter. You can't stop anybody anymore. You can only hope that you can create pass rushes consistently and be good situationally because people are going to score on you. So to my point is Andy was hurt by the timing of the industry. So I do hope Andy stays for another eight years, but he's not going to. He had a health scare. So here's another one. Andy and the Chiefs won a Super Bowl in a year in which they were doubted throughout by everybody but you or
Chiefs fans. That Andy says, I've had health issues. This has been rough sometimes on my family. Mahomes is not going to get cheaper. So I'll do it for Spags. I'll do it for Naggie, and that Andy retires if they win the Super Bowl. And this was floated by Jmac today on Vrabel because Rabel has a relationship with Andy and the Chiefs and that I guess did he play for them?
Yeah, he was in the Matt Castle trade when Verrabel. He was sent over when they traded for Castle.
So just a thought. Because the Chiefs historically have spent money on coaches, they don't they don't go low budget.
So here's the thing. I So Florio keeps floating the idea that Andy might retire, but Andy, when asked about it, keep saying absolutely not. The fact that Andy dealt with a true tragedy when he was in Philadelphia with one of his sons at the facility, didn't take a year off, went right from Philly to Kansas City. A couple of years ago for the Super Bowl, different type of tragedy. But another one of his sons kept going, I don't
I think that Andy Reid. I would have to imagine, while this year has been, like you said, challenging, working with Mahomes has to be the most fun part of his entire career up to this point. And if they win the Super Bowl, I would think the whole team would say, guys, wait a minute, for everyone, forget the counting, the rings, forget everything. If we win it next year, all of us are now being talked about in a
different way. I understand Belichick's got six. If Andy wins three in a row when no one in the history of football's done it. If Patrick wins three in a row, and that would so I think that And I'm not trying to right now be like because they haven't won two in a row yet, but under the premise of if they win these next two games, the stakes for all these guys on, hold on a second, we can be the greatest team ever and have real legacy stakes attached to who we are and what we are. So
I don't listen. Maybe they would walk away, or maybe he would walk away, but he seems to love it. He seems to really love it, so I'm not sure I do find it. I thought Vrabel was maybe waiting to see if I'm shocked. Philly, Dallas, Buffalo, none of them open like it is. I'll have to check if I'm right on this. I think it's rare that not a single playoff team fires their coach. I think recently. I think most years there's been at least one playoff
team that's like, that's not good enough. So I think some of these guys were waiting for a great job to open. I am shocked that Dallas. Neither Dallas nor Philly fired their coach. And I'm at least a little surprised that Buffalo didn't, given who's available at coach. But that is that is interesting, and that does become if any if I guess, I would say this if the coach, because I think maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure Jim Harbaugh has a connection to Kansas. I'd have to look
it up. I just remember maybe his wife. I'm not sure. I just remember when I was doing radio in Kansas City and the Kansas football job came open, people thought Jim Harbaugh might take it. And it was because there
was some connection there. But the reason I'm saying any of this is, I think if any of the candidates thought there was even a ten percent chance that coaching Patrick Mahomes could be available in a couple of weeks, I think everyone would be pausing what they're doing and saying, hold on, let's see if that one is available to me.
You know, I was thinking about this just as you were talking about Andy Reid, because I really do think Andy has an argument as in that Bill walshvein is. I think he really is one of the three or four seminal great coaches in my lifetime. He's aged so gracefully in terms of his intellect, and he takes it's almost a joyful experience. He'll text me in the off season plays He'll go, He'll send me he's a video. He goes, I'm running this. I'm not telling you when, but I'm running it.
I mean, he's like a kid.
So nobody's ever of all the thirty for thirties that haven't been made, the one I think I've told you this before that's never been made that I would love to see it. Michael Jordan the Wizard Years, what a disaster. It was, the players hated him. Nobody's ever made it. People forget what a mess it was. But I imagine Jordan has the ability to stop it or talk about it, and others won't bad mouth them. But those years disappear
into the ether. Orem was a band that I loved, and then they went off the rails in my opinion, and started sounding different, and I never listened to him again. But I still love RM. I don't hold it against him. The greatest actors have been in terrible movies. Marlon Brando was in you know, six or seven classics and six or seven awful movies. It's never held against him. Yet with Belichick, I cannot unsee the last four years in
New England. He is completely tone deaf. He can't draft he it's as if he has no understanding of offense. He can't draft it, he can't develop it, he can't hire it, and it really it's making. I can't get rid of it. I can get rid of Jordan bad movies. I don't punish actors, directors, stars. I can't unsee what I've seen from Belichick in four years, so that I can't keep him in the Walsh Vein and I'm and if Andy reels off a couple more.
So, that is that something you said? You said this for the first time before the Chiefs won last year. I remembered it was before it was It was when it looked like they really could but they hadn't yet won. I think it was maybe the week leading up to the Super Bowl, but you started to I think kind of soft launch the idea of could Andy Reid become
the greatest coach of all time? And when you first said it, I think everyone's immediate reaction is that's ridiculous, like no, But what I don't think people recognize it, And I'm just gonna pull it up real quick. NFL Head Coaches Wins Wiki. I don't think people understand where he is right now on the wins list because it is way higher than you think. So on he has regular season and postseason combined, so he's twenty four plus two point fifty eight, so he is at two eighty
two total wins. He is fourth all time on that list. All right. He is probably not gonna catch Bill, but he is close. He has got a real chance of finishing third all time and passing George Hollis right on just playoff wins. He could absolutely catch Bill. Bill's it thirty one, Andy is at twenty four.
Isn't that incredible?
That's it? It doesn't it's it's incredible. And so it's like, wait a minute. Then the other thing, because I had this graphic for first things. First, we never used it, but it was Pete Carroll, who's obviously in a different class. But Pete Carroll's record with Russell Wilson without Russell Wilson, and it's like, really really really, pardon me, really really good, not good at all, Belichick with Brady without Brady, unbelievable, and then below five hundred Andy with Mahomes without Mahomes
and it's unbelievable. And then it's really damn good. Yes, so it is, And yep, Donovan McNabb was good, not great, He was good. Mike Vick post prison, what I love. Michael was good, not He had one great year. But how much of that was because of Andy? Was that? You know what I mean? Andy put his arms around him. Andy helped well.
Michael Vick acknowledges it was because of him.
Absolutely. Alex Smith the only section of his career that was highly successful was with Andy. So it's not that he had nobody's at quarterback. I'm not saying that. But he was able to win divisions, win playoff games, go to conference championships, and go to a super Bowl without a Hall of Fame quarterback. Did all of that, and then the moment he got the Hall of Fame quarterback instantly, it was the most prolific offense in the history of
the league that first year. Yes, and so there is something to be set and his dexterity.
It's like the reason we look at Prince as one of the great musicians. His ability to i mean like classically play multiple instruments. That's why he separates from other, even great performers. His dexterity, Andy's ability conference division quarterback to win everywhere. There is no way to separate Belichick's career other than Brady years non Brady years, and those are increasingly not just mediocre, they're getting to be embarrassing.
Well out of touch, right and so and the other part of it that is just the truth of it, and every some people don't like when if someone makes this point or I make this point, but the opposite of it, like sometimes the best way to understand if an argument is a legitimate one is imagine if the exact opposite happened, what your feelings would be, Oh, that's good.
If Tom Brady went to Tampa and they were three and thirteen and the next year four and twelve, and then he retired, would that be a plus or a minus? For Bill's resume that it would obviously be a plus. Now it would be a little different because he was older. He'd be like, ah, he got old, but it would be a plus. He'd be like, hey, Tom left there.
They had two years prior won the super Bowl. The previous year they had won eleven twelve games and been in the playoffs, and then immediately fell you know what I mean, fell apart. Instead, he left and immediately won the super Bowl and the next year almost won League MVP and was in round two of the Super Bowl in a close in a tie game with a minute left, so or in round two of the playoffs. I should say. So that obviously hurts Bill a bit. Maybe it's not fair,
but it is what it is. That Tom was able to leave and have the highest success one can have individually and team wise, won a super Bowl, came in second in MVP voting. When Tom left Bill's team, it went for mediocre to downright offal in a very short period of time, and so that had That's a part which is why I thought it was that it was going to be so important for Bill to go coach the Cowboys or the Eagles or the Bills where he can then even the score to would agree because it
would then help Bill immensely. If the Cowboys haven't been able to get over the hump for thirty years, he gets there and they do, then it's like, oh, okay, you know what I mean. That was him. He just had problems drafting players the last few years. And so it is it is a at least an interesting idea. And here's the other thing that I would say, And this is why I think the count the rings stuff across sports. This is not a Lebron argument, but it touches. It
can be so foolish. Yes, yes, the count the rings thing demands that we simply say, both Brady and Belichick are the greatest of all time, but those rings are so you understand what I mean, Like they both have Brady now a seven. But let's just say Brady retired, right, when the Patriots era ended, that he retired, and the count the rings thing demands that Phil and Michael and that these things, but that then it almost creates an
extra ring. If I know, I'm not describing this properly, but the Brady and Belichick's rings are intertwined, yet they both get one credit when compared to other quarterbacks or other coaches. There's no shared credit, and so if we're just doing count the rings, then it has to be the you know what I mean, they're both the greatest of all time when I don't really feel that way, and I don't know which. You can make an argument for who gets more credit if it's Bill Early, Brady Late,
whatever it is. But is it more accurate to say that like Brady and Belichick between them have no nine rings, that each coaching ring counts for a half, each player rink counts for one, and the real split is like well five four or six three, Like it's weird, you know what I mean? They're both the greatest of all time when right, I don't really feel that way, and
I don't know which. You can make an argument for who gets more credit if it's Bill Early, Brady Late, whatever it is, But is it more accurate to say that like Brady and Belichick between them have nine rings, that each coaching ring counts for a half, each player RNK counts for one, and the real split is like, well five four or six three, Like it's weird.
It's just about this. What if in thirty years, forty years, we view Brady as Bill Russell, So we don't even argue that Russell is Michael Jordan Kareem. We don't think he's nearly as good as modern players shack, but he's the most productive and in his era he was a big, big man playing against often just smaller men, and the competition was very, very small. But he was part of the greatest red Arbak, the biggest brand, the best roster.
So in thirty to forty years, as quarterbacks now run like Lamar and throw like Mahomes and are built like Josh Allen jumping over people, in thirty to forty years, when we see the next two other Mahomes, that we will look at Brady and just say, well, Craft Belichick, the culture, the bad division, he's the most productive player and that so I'm I don't need thirty years. I'm listen you don't. But I'm saying if my home stacks three but doesn't get to get to them.
So that's my point exactly right, Like I already believe that Patrick Mahomes plays the position better than anyone's played. He doesn't have the accolades to be able to call him the greatest everges, but he doesn't need seven in my opinion. Like that, I think that there is there is a level of let's be let's be serious about what we're seeing and with respect that what Brady did for twenty five years, damn near is truly unbelievable, but
also recognize. So this is something I did today that I think is instructive, and it's why the Chiefs this year are so interesting because theoretically they could win a playoff game this year that Mahomes plays poorly. It hasn't happened, but they have a good enough defense that they theoretically could sustain. I don't think they can next week. But against Miami, for instance, if Mahome had played a terrible game, they could have won that game ten to seven because
Miami wasn't doing anything. So I to me, I don't know if you agree the quarterback mount Rushmore of the you know Super Bowl era, not counting unitas and stuff, is Manning, Montana, Brady, and Mahomes. I think those are the four best quarterbacks.
Manning, Montana, Brady, and Mahomes. A lot of people want Lway close. He's he's looking up at the mountain. He's he's scaling it.
Yeah. I think Elway and Marino are the next two. But to me, those are the four. Those are the four best quarterbacks that I've seen. And their residence.
Brady, Montana, Manning, Mahomes.
Yes, those So here's what is so interesting about the three non Mahomes. They all for their first and for Brady and Montana their second, no for both of them, for all three of them for their first and second rings in the playoffs. The year they won the Ring had at least one and for two of them multiple down right awful playoff games, and they won. They were able to win despite it, you know what I mean. Brady didn't have an awesome playoff game until his second
Super Bowl victory. Peyton, who is as great of a football players I've ever seen. The year they won the Ring in the playoffs, he had three touchdowns, seven picks, never had a ninety passer rated Montana in the NFC Championship game for Ring number two had I think two picks, zero touchdowns, a sixty rating, but his team shut out the Bears like they allowed zero points. Mahomes has never won a single pay like, he's never been able to
be bad in the playoffs and they win. Now he's only ever been numbers are insane and insane without us. The only bad game is the Super Bowl against Tampa, which if you watched it, you know he wasn't the problem, but say he was, he was, Say he was bad that game, they get blown out. And so the fact that all the other guys, yeah, while they were stacking those first rings, were able to have oh I don't have it tonight, bail me out is a very unique thing,
or not a unique thing. That's the most stint thing. Like this interesting thing about Peyton Manning is both of his playoff runs that ended in a Super Bowl, he was bad the entirety of both postseasons. Now, his best playoff runs they just didn't win it, you know what I mean, they had He had way better years. But the years he actually won the ring, the six goalt he had three touchdown, seven picks for the playoffs that was at his peak, and they won the championships, so nobody cares.
Yeah, he was a little bit. I think people sometimes forget he was a little bit. As Bill Ponian called him, a teeth clencher. He could get a little worked up. Yes, he could get some anxiety, which Mahomes has none of it, which I asked Mitchell Schwartz about on FS one today. I said, did you see it early that Mahomes almost
plays backyard football in the biggest games. It's almost like a race car driver whose heart beat doesn't go up in a corner usually, you know, if you go up against the wall, it's more dangerous, and it's like, yeah, these race car drivers, like it'd be like your heart your rate not changing at all during a crash.
That's literal. So I don't know if we've talked to this before or not, but during the famous thirteen seconds game against the Bills two years ago, Yeah, he had one of those whoop things or something that monitors his heart rate. Maybe we've talked about this. His heart rate only went up when Buffalo had the ball, So when he got the ball, he was calm, but when it was out of his control. He got anxious. When he's like on the sideline and I get it back, that's
when his heart rate spiked. As soon as it was okay, it's on me again, he calmed, Yeah, yeah, Peyton was Peyton. That's the The only reason Peyton Manning is not the greatest quarterback ever is like when I look at athletes basketball and football. Baseball's a little different, but I'm sure the greatest of the great are awesome in the regular season and somehow get a touch better in the postseason.
That's Michael lebron Shack. Yeah, and that's damn near the list. Like, if you actually look at the numbers, a team is not many. Isaiah was the great. Are able to maintain Yokis, by the way, gets pending. Are able to maintain the same level.
That's what coloric Jeter's classic. I mean, he hit this, it's it's the same player.
It's the same player, Kobe. If you look at the numbers, he's the you know what I mean, he doesn't get worse, he's not afraid. But there's a lot the and then well, Peyton was the third category get a little worse, just a little worse by the way, and people get mad at me, but just look up the numbers. It's also true for Steph step just a touch work, you know what I mean, just a touch. Yeah, And so that when you're talking about the all time legends, that is
an important factor. If Peyton could have just he didn't have to get better. Brady got better, you know what I mean, as he got older. At least Mahomes gets better, which is mind boggling. If Peyton could have just maintained right, he'd be unimpeachable. And listen, I still think he's I still I think it's Brady Mahomes, Peyton, Montana in that order. I think it's one through four. I know a lot of Montana people get bad the volume