The volume. Hi, everybody, really really good stuff with John Middlcoff at the volume coming up. I'm going to have John and I are going to talk every Sunday night during the season. So John just has a wealth of information. The former scout. He's a buddy, he's a friend, He's really good at stuff. You know. I was thinking about if you go look at the quarterback position in the NFL, it almost feels corporate. Even Tom Brady's personality was suppressed
when he was in New England. It was suppressed. He got a little lively and added some personality in Tampa. But that's the league. It's very corporate. And what's interesting to me. If I said to you big personality at quarterback, most of the guys I would mention Baker Mayfield, Cam Newton, Jay Cutler, Johnny Manziel don't work. The guys that are kind of cliched and coach speak. It's been through the years sort of Brady, Trevor Lawrence, justin Herbert, Joe burrow Is.
That personality is wonderful, but what you're basically doing. The more power you have in life, the more you will suppress information because you'll have more information and it'll be more vital information. I told somebody once when I was in my twenties and thirties, I wanted to pretend I knew everything, And then I got to my fifties, I
have more access to stuff, and I suppress more information. Well, when you're a quarterback in the NFL, there are discussions you're having with the coach, the coordinator, and the GM that are not shared with other players. And so what makes Aaron Rodgers very unique. He's a star quarterback and he's sort of like a rogue, independent and personality like most guys that have that. Jeff George was outspoken, Cutler was outspoken. It mostly goes sideways. This is you are
the face of the franchise. You do that Wednesday press conference, you stand in front of the media. You're not here to be glib and funny. You're here when they ask tough questions, to be a cooler, to be a blanket, a wet blanket on a possible inflammatory story. I mean, they did a sketch in the eighties on Saturday Night Live about Joe Montana and Phil Hartman was involved, and the whole joke of the sketch was Joe Montana was great, but the most boring man in the world. Because quarterbacks
are paid to suppress information. You want to bring the temperature down in the room and concentrate on football. That's the opposite of Aaron. Aaron is our e lax. And now with the New York media, who was you know, they're created to inflame. I think it's a fascinating relationship. And the schedule's tough enough and the O line is concerning enough that the Jets could get pushed around in the opener against Buffalo, And in fact, one of my favorite bets in Week one is Buffalo minus like one
and a half against the Jets. I think their defensive front will give the Jets trouble. And I think you're going to be able to identify very quickly what New York's problem is. That's why it's really important Makai Beckten and Aaron Rodgers the right tackle the quarterback playing against the Giants. It's interesting if it's a turnstile, it's a problem because the Giants have a good pass rush. You know. This is why for years and years I've said I
don't mind personality. I don't want it at quarterback, Like Mahomes is funny. He's able to compartmentalize a lot of moving targets. But if you really listen to Mahomes, he always says the right thing. Aaron often says the most interesting thing can be with Pat McAfee, it can be
at a press conference. He can be direct, he can be passive aggressive, So that's who he is at his core, never married, no kids, independent thinking, one hundred and fifty two hundred and fifty million dollar networth or more probably three hundred million, So I think that's it's not necessarily going to be volcanic. But if you look at the big personalities at quarterback, most implode. Aaron at the end
of Green Bay certainly didn't implode, but regressed. It just didn't work even in a small media market like it didn't play into his favor. So this is who Aaron is, right, He's not had to sacrifice a lot in his life due to his talent and his lifestyle. So I can't wait. I absolutely cannot wait to watch it, and I think very early they will struggle to protect Aaron against Buffalo, so we're not going to have to wait very long.
That Monday Night opener, Bill's Jets. From that point forward, we're going to have of ourselves a very prickly bumpy story. The team I want to watch the most. And because the NBA is very much about the shield and corporate it's not a drama league, right, Like in the NBA, A lot of times you don't care about the team, but the story's good, you know, Like KD leaves Westbrook, Westbrook wins the MVP. It's a good story, you know. Can the Philadelphia seventy six ers finally win and get
to a second playoff series? The story's better than the team. Right in the NFL, I just kind of like winners. I do think the Broncos with Peyton and Russell Wilson, I think it's the best story because if it doesn't work, they're kind of ft. I mean because Russell, I mean, Josh Allen's cap hit next year and you can manipulate it. By the time it arrives is going to be like eighteen percent of the cap for the Bills, Like they have to win now. They can't screw around with Stefon Diggs.
Like the reason the Dolphins are interested in Jonathan Taylor is like two is only four and a half percent of the cap DA's twelve, right, Josh Allen's going to be eighteen and a half. They have to win this year. So I think that's really interesting the drama around Buffalo. But I also think there's a weird thing in sports. If you ask how many players believe in God, it would be ninety percent. But Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, and
Russell Wilson wear it on their sleeve. And a lot of people view like Russell as inauthentic, and I'm like, you know, he's very religious, great conviction. I always thought that's just who he is. You know. People say Kirk Cousins is soft and corny, and I'm like, he's a family man, he's religious, It's who he is. I've had two different raiders say, you know, Derek Carr wore some guys out, and I'm like, who he is. You know, he's a man of faith. And I asked Kevin Clark
this yesterday. Do you view Russ as inauthentic or just religious?
I view him as inauthentic, But I've talked to an enough people that is he's kind of robotic. So this version that everyone makes fun of is actually who he was because you know, I would say the thing that I value the most in any human being is just
be yourself, right. It's why I think, you know, people in the medium were in having the most success or the most honest and just act like or you don't pretend to be something they're not, can just be very authentic to themselves whether you agree with them or not. And I think Russell comes off too often, or at least has. I haven't been locked into all his press conferences. Sean Payton got there, but it is just kind of
a phony. And you know, I heard a story once that he had a golf tournament and invited everyone to the golf tournament. Right, everyone at the golf tournament was an invitation from him. So he knows a lot of former players, coaches, whoever, and he had security when he showed up. So there's an element like one of the things that Patrick Mahomes you know, far have had this forever.
I think Peyton and Tom were the biggest stars that that kind of were able to play both sides of the fence perfectly on this as they always felt one of the guys, right, Tom always felt like even though ironically he was a health Nut could drink beers, slam cheeseburgers with his offensive line, and same with Peyton. You know, you go back throughout the history of the quarterback position. Joe Montana was friends with all his teammates. Now, I also think that players, if you are true to yourself,
like Derek Carr's married, he's got four kids. Kirk Cousins is very very religious, so is Derek. If they think that you're being authentic about it. I don't think it bothers guys deep down, especially if you're playing well. I think once you get the poor play and you have the weirdness. Because I remember when I was scouting, I ran into a dude from Denver and they had just signed Peyton Manning or maybe it was during the season, so Peyton had been there for a while and he
was like, Peyton's a lot man. We had to dedicate a couple of scouts for him. He got his own office. So all the stuff last year with Russell Wilson they had done before. But what happened Peyton got there, superstar MVP. They start kicking. No one cares. Peyton was not easy to work with, right, but when you're winning, when you're playing at a high level, and everyone knew they needed Peyton more than probably he needed them. He could have
gone a bunch of plays. I think last year Russell, everyone opened their arms immediately, and then he started playing poorly, and then the story started leaking about you know, him making the Seattle. It just imploded, and obviously Nathaniel Hackett over his head. But and I heard you talking about this, and I agree, he's definitely slimmer. He moved better the
other night against the forty nine ers. But the pressure, I think the pressure on him and the pressure on Rogers, every game is going to be just treated probably five x most of these other games. Just part of it has to do with who they are, how famous they are, how much money they make the trades, how much power they have over coaches and owners. It is just you don't see it very often, these Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I mean, Rogers is older, but Russell in his prime.
I mean, that's what makes the Pete Carroll angle. So are they just going to be really good? Is Pete just gonna win this trade seamlessly? I know that in Jigba got hurt today, But obviously if they're healthy Seatle's going to be good again. We don't know. I mean, Denver easily could be seven and ten. Pete goes ten and seventies in the playoffs, Like, I'm sorry he wins the trade.
Well, I think here's my take is that if you look at Aaron Rodgers and the Jets and Russell Wilson with Denver's there's a lot of similarities. They're both in the AFC, they're both in good divisions, they're both veterans, they both have you know, declining athleticism, but both still good athletes, and they're both going to get a lot of Hall of Fame votes. Both have a new coach, both have I would say intense coaches. Peyton and Sala are intense coaches, and there's pressure on both. This is
where Russell's optimism could be very beneficial. I think at his core, Aaron's more agnostic. Aaron's more cynical, a bit more snarky. I think that's who he is at his core, a little bit more of a hipster. That's who he is, and that's okay. I can be a little bit too, and so I think when Fit hits the shan, Aaron's who he is is a little cynical and a little snarky. I think when Fit hits the shan for Russell, he
tends to be optimistic and we'll get through this. And I do think that placebo effect, the power of the mind, is valuable. And I do think they're going to have both of these quarterbacks this year. John are going to have turbulence and what I know, you know Russell will be highly optimistic. If they're five and five, We're going to get through this. There's a brighter day, that's the messaging. If the Jets are five and five, there's a chance Aaron bails on his right tackle who can't protect him.
Colin. That could happen like Week one. The difference, too, is in Denver, the head coach is going nowhere right. I mean, he's on scholarship for a while. He's the boss. Aaron. Let's just say it's always easy in football, probably more than any other sport. Things are so optimistic in general in the offseason, and then in training camp, and then all of a sudden it's middle of September and you're
zero to two and things are getting tight. And listen, I was a big believer in the Jets and then I'm not trying to do all my scouting on hard knocks. But their offensive line is a disaster. Now can they make up for with an elite defense? Like if they're the number one defense and Rogers just understands how to kind of manipulate it all. But that's probably still best case nine or ten, not thirteen or fourteen. You cannot if your offensive line is bottom ten in the league,
I don't care. If you've got Montana Rogers manning in their problem. That's a problem, right, and they got to figure that out. And I'm sure they are going to be claiming guys off the waiver. They're willing to make trades. But that that is, to me, the current biggest problem
for all a team that has the upside. If they had a good offensive line, I think everyone would pick them to be like an AFC contentment, a real oneah Right, But if Rogers, who I was reading Peter King earlier, he's the oldest quarterback in the NFL by a pretty wide margin, right, he's about to turn forty. All the other guys, even the older guy's cousins and Daniel, they're
thirty five. What's Russell thirty three? Thirty four. That's a pretty big gap when we had a long stretch, you know, with the Eli, the Carson Palmers, the Peyton Manning is the Obviously Tom's a little bit of an outlier. But guy Roethlisberger got Drew Brees thirty nine. There were a ton of them. Now he clearly is the oldest, and let's face it, and I don't blame him. And he saw this definitely last year with Tom, and I think he kind of saw it for two years with You
don't want to get a hit anymore. You know, you check your bank account, you got you know, nine figures, you're already a Hall of Famer. You want to win. But there is a level of I'm not gonna get I'm not gonna play like Archie Manning here and just get driven into the ground every play right, and you already kind of you know, if you watch Hard Knocks episode two, Rogers's and I don't blame him. I mean the upfensive line. This is the pros. The expectations are high.
We've invested a lot, we've we've drafted guys, but if they're not good enough. The thing in the NFL, this is not the NBA where you're kind of stuck. You will just bench a guy, you will remove a guy, you'll move other guys through. But that is that's probably the hardest position group to just running backs. I can rotate wide receivers. I can rotate DB's offensive line. If you've got a constant rotation, you probably got a you know, tire fire in your well. And the other thing.
And I'm not a psychologist, but there is a reality is that if you're married, you have kids, your life's a series of sacrifices. I know, I live in that tunnel, you know, Aaron's and Kevin Durant never married, no kids. He kind of gets his way a lot, right, So you know when when when again, when stuff unravels for me, I got kids, I got a wife. I make sacrifices daily. It's just part of my existence. But you know, Eran's
in that Durant tunnel where it's rich. He's the son in his galaxy, kind of gets his way, wants to take a nap, wants to go on a hunting trip, fishing trip. I had this thing years ago. I told the scout, I like my quarterbacks married, and he joked about it. He said there's value in this is because when you're married, you get very responsible, very quickly. You have to learn to compartmentalize your life, school with the kids, recital practice, film, he goes single. Guys don't have to
compartmentalize stuff. It all MUSHes together. What do I feel like doing whatever I want to do? And I said, I think quarterback being married. You know most of the great ones, even ones that drove me nuts, big bend sometimes he was married, he had kids, He had sort of a hierarchy of things, you know, a pattern of life. And I guess my point is, if shit those sideways for Aaron, it didn't a lot in Green Bay. Most
of it was Aaron inflicted and Aaron created. I mean, no chaos front office, good offensive lines, never whipped on drafts. Media was kind of in a sidecar. You know, they were your buddy, what I mean. The the turbulence for Aaron in Green Bay was kind of Aaron created. He's never had it land in his lap, not of his own creation.
Yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely something to the way the scouting community, but just human beings, right, A lot of guys, even if you are a career driven I know, for me, up until about my mid thirties, I was always like, you know, no serious relationships. These last i'd say three or four years, I've been in two serious relationships, and I've gotten better at every aspect of my life. I've had to give up things that I used to be able to do. But you become
more balanced, you become more reliant on other people. They become more reliant on you. You drop bad habits. And like you said, Tom Brady when he played the best football of his life when he got married Gazelle for the next whatever decade, right, Peyton was married the whole time. So I think part of this just gets back to the Jets are just a not the most consistent organization, and they have and this gets back to the difference
between Sean Payton and Russell. Like this, if it doesn't go well, Robert saw is gonna get fired, right, Joe Douglas is in major trouble. That's just the way the sport works, right. If Aaron were to want them gone, they would go. This is where the other problem is, Like, he's got way more juice than anyone in the organization now, and he's shown before he can be a little selfish, and he's doing all the right things. I am throw
what we've seen out of Rogers. Clearly he's going above and beyond, eating lunch with all these different guys every single day, coaching the defensive backs up like I think he understands it. But like you said earlier, it's easy to do when everything's going well. Off season start one to three and everyone talking shit about you everywhere you look, because all of a sudden you start slowing the AFC. There is no making up for it right none.
The new movie Grand Tuismo is based on an unbelievable true story about a team of unlikely underdogs, a struggling working class gamer, a failed race car driver, and an idealistic motorsport executive. Together they risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world. It's a great compelling story. It's some of the most famous racing competitions in the world, and they are recreated through the use of actual Nissan gts and practical effects. It's really cool.
It's really a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen. A lot of action, really intense. It's an inspiring, uplifting action pack story that proves that nothing in life is impossible. Grand Theismo, based on a true story exclusively in movie at theaters This Thursday, gets your tickets today. Read in PG. Thirteen. This baseball season continues
to heat up. You could watch it on TV, but what's better than going to the park on a beautiful summer day with friends For last minute amazing deals on tickets. Check out game Time the fast this growing ticket app in the United States, and it doesn't stop at just sports, summer concerts, comedy tours. All across the country. Game Time has your tickets. Download the game Time app and the redeem code is common. That's me coolin twenty dollars off
your first purchase twenty bucks. No matter where you live, go out in the summer in style, comedy, baseball concerts. It's the game Time app. Last minute deals, lowest prices, guaranteed twenty dollars off your first purchase twenty bucks. Terms apply. If you had a team that you're sort of selfishly rooting for, I think it would be Chicago for me. I work at Fox. We have the NFC, we have a lack of star quarterbacks. I think we need justin fields to be fascinating. You know, for years and years,
Fox and the NFC had this huge advantage. We had these great teams and Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, and even though Kaepernick wasn't great, he was newsworthy. We just had Yeah, we just had really good quarterbacks. Now, like Jared goff On any Sunday is the best NFC quarterback and I like golf, but he's probably tenth twelfth best in the league. And I do think that there's a team for me. I would like I think. I think I want to see Chicago be big because I think
it's such a great American sports city. It's an NFC team. I work for Fox. Is there a team for you? You look at and you just think, you know what, they make my life better. I'm into them. The more football is more fun. Is there a team for you?
Yeah? I mean I'm an NFC guy growing up, you know, on the forty nine ers. I think the Giants. You know, Brian Listen, I root for bal Chevy guys, So Brian Dave Ball is an easy root for me. But I actually think there are a lot of parallels with Daniel Jones and Alex Smith. It is very powerful when a coach not just gives you confidence, totally believes in you,
but then knows what he's doing. And you saw with Alex who was the number one overall pick, and once he left Urban Meyer, he went through Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary and it was he looked like a royal bust disaster. But he's mentally tough and he somehow held on to get Once Harball got there, changed his life. And then he gets to Andy Reid, a much better schematic coach than Harball, makes him into a really, really
good player. I'm not trying to overreact to the preseason game, but I thought Daniel Jones just looked noticeably more confident. And I think he's more physically gifted than Alex. He's more, he's bigger. Yeah, and that organization, I'll give them credit because I probably wouldn't have touched this guy. He had been injured, he got paid, he didn't seem like the same guy. Darren Waller looks like he's back to two
thousand and nine team. You can't how do you cover a guy six foot five, six foot six that can run like a deer and who has elite ball skills when he's healthy, He is a dominant player. The other thing is you have Saquon Barkley, who you know, it looked like it was going to go down the Jonathan Taylor Josh Jacobs role, and he said, I'll just sign
for the franchise tender. He's all in. They draft the kid from Tennessee who can run like ninety miles an hour, hight if Dave Ball is the next you know McVeigh shanahan, which last year what he did with that roster and a not confident Daniel Jones, what can he do now that he has this quarterback? The division's are and they got molly wopped by the by Philly a couple of times, and Dallas is clearly better. Can they just shrink that gap?
Even if they go one and three against those two teams, but instead of this nine and eight, it's maybe ten and seven. But it just looks better. And I know they won a playoff game last year, it was against that Viking team. I just wonder if they're a little more formidable, and like you said, the NFC, if you get the Bears a little relevancy, the Giants are back
the NFC East rolling with the forty nine ers. You know the NFC is we all talk shit about it, but it might be a little stronger than you think.
You know, and I'm with you on the Giants. So first of all, every great team in this league feels like they have a pass rush, so they have a good defensive front. Cavon Thibadeau will be second year in the pros. He should pop elite left tackle weaponon Waller and Barkley an experienced playoff quarterback, progressive, smart offensive coach. They're in a winnable division. I mean, it's certainly not
the AFC West, it's not the AFC East. I look at the Giants and I think the one thing I'll say about Daniel Jones and Alex Smith had this, he doesn't lose you games. He had five picks last year. You know, Daniel is one of those guys that, in fact, a golden Tate told me a couple of weeks ago. He said his issue he doesn't let it rip enough. Well, the upside to that is Alex and Daniel Jones didn't throw a lot of picks like they know what they are.
They know, but they're not. They're both big Jalones bigger, both straight line speed, both really coachable both super Bright. Golden said he just overthinks the room. He said, he'll never get in trouble in New York. He's like Eli, he goes home film Guy do, Guy Bright, I'm with you. I think the Giants are better than people think. In fact, wouldn't it be. I mean, if we were guessing a headline, would you be shocked if this was the headline? Giants
end up with better record than the Jets. That feels like a headline.
Well and tell me this. If I tell you the final four in the NFC is the forty nine Ers, the Giants, the Eagles and the Cowboys. Who's not signing up for that? Right at the markets? The history. The other thing I give Brian Daball a lot of credit on is like to be a good like, you can only do so much as the head coach. You need
good assistance and you need good coordinators. He hired Mike Kafka, who when I was with the Eagles, we drafted apprentice under Andy Reid and Naggie and Doug Peterson forever in Kansas City. So you bring him over to him as well and making your offensive coordinator. And then he hires Wink Martindale, who right there with Vic Fangio, an older guy, elite scheme guy, different than Vick. He's much more of an aggressive defensive coordinator, but he's the real deal. He's
a top five defensive coordinator. Their coaching staff is really, really good. And I remember when I was a kid in like the late nineties and some of those good John Fossil Giants team, they were just well coached, and they got away from that for a long time. And they say what you want about the Cowboys, they just had better coaching staffs. Obviously the Eagles did, and that's why they were getting worked and for the first time.
And sometimes you gotta get a little lucky anytime you hire a first time head coach McVeigh, Kyle, whatever, right, you need luck on your side. But then if you hire the right guy, your franchise will be okay. It's why so many of these teams just suck in perpetuity. They just constantly hire these guys that should not be head coaches. It's not that complicated of a sport if you can just get the right head coach.
Former scout John Middlecoff at the Volume three and Out podcast As Usual you always deliver interesting stuff. Man, you always deliver consin you you too, calm, take it easy. The volume