The volume.
This week on Prime Cuts, John Middlecoff on the disaster in Dallas and all things NFL. Nick Right, a fast paced hour and my top takes of the week. What an s show was that by Philadelphia. So I went three and two on my playoff picks. But I thought Philadelphia, you know, it was one of the games. I thought, you know, they'll win. There's not much there with Tampa this thing. If Tampa Bay could catch in the first half, the game would have been over started the second quarter.
Philadelphia was not even competitive. And you know I was thinking about this is that we all know that even competent NFL coaches. Dan Quinn for Atlanta was a competent coach, not great, but competent. He was elevated significantly by Kyle Shanahan. That we know, and there have been a lot of coaches through the years who have been helped by an assistant. They reached their highest form of head coaching with a really good assistant, but they don't necessarily fall off the table.
I mean Sean McVay, Shanahan, they just run through assistants and coordinators. They're elite coaches. It doesn't affect him. And then the B coaches Dan Quinn are clearly elevated by
an elite coordinator. But Nick Siriani's not an A or a B. He's probably a C or a D. And if you take Shane Steichen's play calling, not Shane Steiken just being in the building, just his play calling away from Nick Siriani, you have a coach that had the most embarrassing opening press conference ever, who struggled in year one when he called the plays, and here in his final year the team got progressively worse. Like Brandon Stally bad every week. Brandon Staley good job of climbing the
coaching ladder. He wasn't ready to be a head coach in the National Football League, Nick sah I remember when he first got the job. You know, I said, I call people and I was talking to a GM tonight about Jedfish going from Arizona to Washington, and I was just asking some questions about recruiting and personnel and blah blah blah. But I usually do that. I'll call GMS, text GMS and say, hey, what do you know? What
do you think? And on Sirianni, two of my executive friends said, I don't think he's ready for the job. I don't think he's ready for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's a high pressure, high leverage job. That's a tough job. And so then he butchers the press conference, and I'm like, oh Jesus, google it. It's I've never seen anything like it. Go look at Sean mcvay's opening press conference, Kyle Shanahan's, go look at the young code, Demiko Ryans, I mean
Mike Tomlin's first press conference. Go look at Nick Sirianni's. And so I had sources say he's not ready. The opening press conference, his first year is ugly. Then he relinquished his play calling, and you think, well, this guy is something, this guy is something here, folks. The truth eventually comes out, and I don't think my problem with Brandon Staley is my same problem with Nick Sirianni. What does Philadelphia do well? What are the Chargers do well?
You went from narrow losses to touchdown losses to embarrassing losses. It just got worse over time. It's like having a bad boss in any industry. The company gets worse really fast. So I think you know, you could certainly argue Mike McCarthy as Kellen Moore left upgraded the cowboy offense. You could argue he's won twelve games, twelve games, twelve games, best deack we've ever seen. You got to keep him. You could certainly argue Mike Tomlin they lost today. He's
Mike Tomley. He's never had a losing season. Right, Those are different conversations. But with Brandon Staley and Nick Sirianni, this isn't going to get better. I mean, this doesn't. I don't see the hope.
I don't even know.
What I watched. And the Chargers. You have these young coaches who probably had somebody on that resume. For the record, the Eagles were going to hire Staley until the Chargers did think about that. You know, he had probably somebody on the resume made a call for him and maybe interviews. Well, but I don't know where you go if you're Philadelphia. Like again, look at the losses in the playoffs. Kevin Stefanski lost, he was on his fourth quarterback. Mike McDaniel
lost warm Weather to on the road against Mahomes. Sean McVay lost hell of a game, rebuilding year to begin with. I can look at Mike McCarthy, I mean, the offense was better when Kellen Moore left. I could make arguments for all the losing coaches. I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to do with this. It didn't look like he's read. He can't coach. I mean, what do they do well? And they got personnel. So I mean Troy Aikman said on the broadcast very early
he didn't like the body language of Philadelphia. I mean for Troy to say that, go out and say that, it's like, wow, he's seeing something or hearing something.
And he was right.
The coaching disparities in these playoffs, Man, I know it sounds impulsive and overreactionary to say Sirianni was in the Super Bowl. You know you got to move on. You tell me his theatrics on the sidelines, the regression of Jalen Hurts. I mean Jalen Hurts, justin Herbert. We know they're talented, we've seen it wrong coach. We know the quarterbacks the most valuable player in the league and the
most valuable element to a franchise. But if you don't think coaching can puncture quarterback momentum, I give you the Chargers and the Eagles. So let me get this straight on Tua. He's small, doesn't have a great arm up the sideline, not athletic, has some injuries, and now can only play in ideal conditions. So he has to have home games throughout the playoffs to be formidable. So I mean, doesn't mean you're going to get rid of him, but I think you have to look to the future and
understand what he is. I mean, his record in December and January is not good. His record in September and October is good, and that's okay. You know, he is a quarterback that's more than capable. I mean, he made a Pro Bowl over Josh Allen. Now, I think the Pro Bowl's nonsense. I think awards, Oscars, Emmys. I think a lot of it's nonsense. Plaques don't make the player. Everybody knows that. But you know, I mean I think you look it too, and it's like, what one skill
does he have over Josh Allen? Really, So you just have to know going forward there's limitations to what he can do, especially late in the season. You know, I think Miami was when I said they were all season. They're fun. I like watching them, I like their coach, I like Tyreek Hill. Two is fine. They're a convertible sports car. They're just not built for December and January. You know, they're just not built for this type of weather. So quarterbacks, none of them love playing in this weather.
Brady liked cold weather because he said when it was slippery, defensive lineman couldn't get a pass rush. Most quarterbacks don't love it. But I mean the difference between the great ones and guys you don't give an extension to are can you overcome? Can you play in bad elements? Can you play hurt? Can you play against the great pass rush? Can you play when your left tackle is a swinging door? So I think Two is just a quarterback that when
everything's lined up perfectly, he can play. But you saw c J. Stroud earlier today, bigger, stronger, better arm. Now again weather's different, but you look at c J.
Stroud.
There's nothing you're really missing there. Big arm, sideline, seize the field, get rid of it, can throw on the move, can move a little. There's just nothing you don't like. And with two there's not a lot I love. He is a warm weather quarterback. When things are ideal, he can put up some good numbers. With a world class receiving cores and Mike McDaniel, who's a really smart offensive coach. But things have to be right.
You know.
It's interesting when I was watching to teams will tell you what they think of their players by the play calling, and so Mike McDaniel's play calling was super conservative in the second half. Well, that's telling you he doesn't trust him. So you know, you can tell when you watch Mahomes and CJ. Stroud, their coaches trust them. They trust them cognitively, they trust them physically, they trust them, you know, in
crisis situations, high leverage situations. I'm watching Mike McDaniel's play calling. He didn't want to in a throw. He didn't want him to sit in the pocket his bubble screens. So that's a tell in poker, that's a tell. I thought the Rams Lions game, I felt it was going to be a very very close game. I had the Rams winning by I think one really elevated quarterback play. First of all, Matt Stafford's and Puka Nakua for a rookie
is insane. I mean, you are watching Matt Stafford is making throws out there that maybe only Mahomes can do. This is a rebuilding year for Sean mcvah and the Rams and Stafford playing with guts, his hands all ripped up. What an athlete that guy is. It's just, you know, the difference in the game was pretty simple. The Lions had three long drives and got touchdowns out of them, and in the second half it was the Rams having long drives and just getting field goals out of them.
And that's the difference in the game. I thought Detroit, you know, Rams pretty poor tackling first half, and you know, the Lions, physical upfront O line, punishing running backs hard to tackle, kind of pushed the Rams around. They made adjustments at half, which Sean McVay is prone to do, and they slowed Golf down. Goff was just too comfortable in the first half. And when Jared Goff is comfortable,
you know, he's just a really, really good quarterback. I've seen Jared Goff comfortable, Jared Goff outdual Patrick mahone on a Monday night football game. He throws a beautiful football, but if you pressure him, he's not the same quarterback. So he didn't face any pressure in the first half. Long seventy five yard drive after seventy five yard drive and you're getting you're getting touchdowns. In the second half, he got some pressure on him. He was less effective
and Stafford put on a clinic. I mean it was to too. It was uh pooka Cooper cup. It didn't matter. Everything worked, It was beautiful to watch. I just thought, you watched a really good football game. And if you go look at this weekend, here's what we saw this weekend.
CJ.
Stroud elevated quarterback play, Stafford golf elevated quarterback play. Mahomes elevated quarterback play in terrible weather. That's the sport. Tua disappointing Flacco, too many picks. I mean, Stafford played like a winning quarterback. But you know, the Lions got the w at home, and you know, listen, I'm you know. The thing about all these games is the league is different in the postseason, right, It's more intense. And players will tell you that every time I talk to a player,
it's much more intense than the playoffs. But it really does come down regular season in postseason, do you trust your coach and do you trust your quarterback? And I thought the Lions rams that is about as good a playoff game, as you're going to get two culture setters as head head coaches, and Stafford and Golf are, especially when they have time, are really really elite throwers of the football. I thought that was so much fun to watch, and I'm very happy. My wife's from Michigan, so I'm
very happy for Detroit. I think the architect of this Lion's renaissance is not Dan Campbell always been effective, and it's not Jared Goff, although I like him. I think it's Brad Holmes, the executive upstairs they got from the Rams. I think they've had back to back to back great drafts. Remember Dan Campbell's first year half go back and look at the record. It wasn't very good. They have done just a remarkable job of fixing that offensive line via
the draft, upgrading tight end, wide receiver, pass rushers. Detroit's got this convergence of excellent GM, really strong quarterback play, a culture setting head coach, and you jam it all together. Listen defensively, then they can give up some big plays. They're not great on the back end, but we have a salary cap era and you're paying Golf some real money, so you're not gonna have a perfect roster. You know, you're not gonna have the Niners. When you're paying Brock
pretty nothing. You can retain all your stars. You know, Detroit's gonna pay Jared goffin, so when you're paying him, and his contract's up after next year, so it's gonna get bigger if you retain him. So there's just gonna be some limitations to a team when you pay your quarterback a lot. The Rams they pay Stafford, that defense on the back end is okay, right, And so Kansas City they pay them homes. Now they're receiving core for the g Rice, Travis Kelcey and a bunch of guys.
So San Francisco is a really stacked roster in the NFC. But I think the Lions matchup pretty well with it.
I do.
I think the offensive line for Detroit matches up pretty well with everybody. And you know, we've talked about this before. Even Mahomes got humiliated in the Super Bowl when he didn't have his tackles. When the Lions are blocking for Jared goff and they have really twitchy, hard running, elusive, tackle breaking running backs, if Laporte is healthy, you know Detroit's offense could be a Super Bowl winning offense. All right, here we go, John Middlecoff, What a circus that was
for Dallas. And you know, John, We've talked about this for years and years. I've never bought into Dallas. I always had this rule, the pretty good rule, Romo Dack They'd be pretty good. And then there was about a five week stretch this year that I bought into it. And then they went to Miami and I'm like, okay, it's the same old shit. And then I just I sat on the air. I was reeled in. I got fooled.
But if you look in retrospect, now blown out by the Niners, blown out by Buffalo, pounded by Green Bay in the playoffs, lost to Miami, and beat Detroit on you know, a really dubious officiating moment. And in that game Dak had two picks and ten completions. And so you look at it, and my takeaway is this was just an average team, right, like a slightly better than average team.
Well to me, I'm with you. I bought into them. Their downfall now three straight years is the quarterback who makes a ton of money this year and all Pro interceptions interceptions three years ago against the Niners at home through an awful pick and was not good in that game. Last year against the Niners in the playoffs. Two interceptions today, how many could he have thrown?
Five?
Yeah, I mean there are some drops. Obviously, the pick six which the guy walked into the end zone was not some freaky play. And then the other thing the Cowboys kind of hung their hat on was physicality being a tough defense. What the hell was that? So if I tell you the Cowboys defense got a no show and Dak Prescott, I don't care what the final numbers look like. The game was over in the first half when he's throwing the ball to the other team and
getting thoroughly outplayed by a first year starter. Just a horrendous effort by the defense at Dak Prescott.
Yeah, I mean, when you size up a player and Jordan Love and Dak on the same field, Jordan loves more talented, he moves better, He's got more of a whip. He made a side arm throw late in the game into the end zone to Romeo Dobbs. Dak can't do that. That's just beyond Dak. That was a Mahomes level throw. A Lamar Jackson's throw and reminded me of Lamar and I'm like, oh, Dak can't do that. Dak doesn't put a ton of velocity on the ball. He really has
to step into it a natural thrower. I mean, I joked out of college I thought he was a better version of T Bow. He had all the intangibles, but he wasn't a beautiful thrower. And when I've used Kirk Cousins as a camp he's Kirk Cousins with the Jordan brand. Is that Kirk's a more accurate thrower. Dak's a better athlete. But we always feel with Kirk he's holding you back from a super Bowl, But we somehow feel that Dak
is carrying you to one. And I watched today and I'm like, oh, he's easily the second best quarterback on the field. That's particularly close.
Well, the reason guys like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Kirk Cousins have to be so elite with their footwork because they can't.
Afford to throw off their backfoot.
The one reason why Aaron Rodgers always pushed back on some of that, like let me freelance, He'd get away with it. Brett Fahr the big arm guys, right, you see it with Mahomes and Josh Allen. They're not beholden to the quarterback feet, you know, quote unquote rules that the coaches harp on because of their talent. And you saw today Jordan Love had countless throws off his back foot that hit guys in stride way down the field, Dak Press. If the timing's a little off, he's way off.
And today, I mean he was terrible calling. I mean he was. This is three straight years of just absolute no shows in these playoff games. And I know in the one playoff game he.
Had that was good was against Tampa Bay, who.
Was clearly got awful and was you know, headed home should not have made the playoffs last year. So against the Packers, whose defense has been really bad, I mean the number one conversations like Matt Laflor's gotta fire his buddy Joe Barry. And then for them, I know they got the touchdown late in the game, but to only have ten.
I mean they had seven. How does this happen?
I understand obviously Mike's the offensive play callers, a combination of them both.
Yeah, no, it's it's one of those things where you know, and I want to talk about this because I think McCarthy's in real trouble. I had said I'd defended McCarthy most of the season, but I said he has to beat green Bay. If he can't beat green Bay, it's a different conversation. Well, to get absolutely dominated by green Bay and Jordan Love, Now that's a different conversation from losing an overtime game on a bad officiation. Now now
we have a different conversation. And I think he gets replaced. I think and dan Quinn, by the way, there went his job market outside of Seattle. That was a dubious effort. So I mean, let's just talk about it. Does Jerry have to I mean, Jerry's got to pay Dak. He loves Dak, He views Dak as some sort of elite quarterback, and is willing to pay him. So let me ask you, how good of a job is it. If the starting point is owner loves the quarterback, thinks he should be
paid among the top five, aren't you working uphill? From that point forward?
I think it's a pretty good job because I think the guys, I mean immediately obviously Belichick and their relationship has been you know, talked about a lot. I think Jim Harbaugh is going to have to get a call. Those guys have the juice and the power to say, look, we're not doing this. We're not giving this guy fifty million dollars a year. You know, Mike had to lie to get the job, and the other thing that was unfold display today. Matt Laflor has the most important quality
you can have in the NFL. He has the ability to develop and make a quarterback into a star. Right, I mean Dak was already pretty good when.
He got there.
Right, Dak had had success before Mike McCarthy, and one thing he has done is shit the bed.
Now.
In three consecutive playoff games, two of them have been at home. I think it's worse. Like you said, last year, they lose the forty nine ers in a very tight game on the road, You hold your head high. It wasn't a bad loss. They have had two awful losses though in twenty twenty one, in this one at home,
and that to me is unacceptable. I personally thought coming into the game, Mike McCarthy to keep his job was going to have to win both home games, right, because if you won this game, he'd have another home game. You can't be losing at home if you lose on the road in the NFC Championship game, where they hadn't been in twenty five years. Okay, but now I think all scigns point to Belichick, and one thing's pretty clear is Belichick has his offensive coordinator available. We talk a
lot about offensive and defensive coaches. Well, the reason to me Mike Vrabel and Bill Belichick. Obviously Bill's resume speaks for itself, but what makes him truly powerful. Rabel has Arthur Smith available, who he had a lot of success with. Belichick has Josh McDaniels available, who he has all the success with, and they can allow those guys to coach the offense. So I think to me, you could argue Mike Rabel if the Belichick and Arthur Smith makes sense, as there was a toughness lacking.
But again, I say, if Jerry believes Dak is it, I mean I think we have to have How.
Could he believe that, now, Colin, after what he just witnessed, How could he?
Again, I have been on this for years. Dak is a good B plus quarterback. Jerry views him as an as it's really interesting. This job is fascinating. It's not that Jerry runs a turnstile. But I'd almost rather Jerry be impatient than delusional on quarterback evaluation. Sure like I'd rather a guy want me to get ratings in my job. I'm fine with a little pressure. What I'm not fine with is unrealistic expectations or forcing me to work with
people aren't as good as you think. Dak's just not a top ten level guy, and Jerry thinks he's a top seven guy. The internet loves, I mean, this is what they love. They forget that new information, new opinion. Matt Lafleur was calling out Jordan Love in October press conferences, soos the GM, The GM and the coach were disappointed with him. Have you ever seen an in season improvement for a quarterback? Not only is Jordan think about this,
He's cheaper than Aaron Rodgers. He's now more athletic than Aaron Rodgers. He throws the ball a lot like Aaron Rodgers, you get no drama like Aaron Rodgers. And generationally, he is completely copasetic with all these receivers and tight ends. I mean, right now, Green Bay's young receiver tight end talent is the envy of virtually every team in the league. Like it's hard to wrap your brain around this. Based on what we saw in October, Jordan Love is a significant,
multi faceted upgrade from Aaron Rodgers. Right, that's not debailable.
Now, well, I think that you become a legend in the business of football by making moves like Ted Thompson once made. Right, Brett fav you're gone. We're going with Aaron, Bill Walsh. We got to pivot to Steve Young. When you pivot off Aaron Rodgers, who had just previously won a couple MVPs, the coach and the GM are behind it. And then by the end of the season into the playoffs, he looks like this. And as a GM you have
put around the youngest offense in the league. And these guys, I mean, Watson didn't even really do anything read up until the end of the game, hadn't done. It was Dobbs making all the plays and he's really good. Think of the talent they have. We know how well they build offensive lines. I think these guys have immediately entered like Ron Wolf, Ted Thompson. We have stars running our operation because I think it was okay to question it early in the season, not because they made the wrong
move getting rid of Aaron. It's like, well, it's really hard to replace that. It was rock and by the end of the season, the guy's a flat out superstar and soo's the unit around him. So to me, it's Gudikins and Lafour Like, this is why your argument on hiring offensive coaches when you get the right one. Kyle Shanahan has owned the Cowboys the last two years.
In the playoffs.
Why because he has He's comfortable playing against dan Quinn. Matt Lafour was also on that staff in Atlanta with Kyle. He was the quarterback coach you saw today. He wasn't uncomfortable going up against that defense and that coordinator and honestly embarrassed and worse than Kyle ever did the last two years.
All right, Nick, Right, we try to bring him on as often as we can. So I'm gonna start with something that I think you'll like.
Okay, and that's a great place to start.
Yeah, I mean, why opposed to starting with something that really pisses you off.
I mean, yeah, let's start off on a good foot By the way, I've decided this podcast. I'm drinking wine. I've decided to go classy. I figure you're going something this hard liquor. No, by the end, you're gonna be slurre and I'm going wine.
And diet coke.
So oh, I'm drinking alone. Oh that was now part of the deal. Now you're really gonna have the upper hand by the end of this thing. But go ahead.
So I've kind of stayed out of all Aaron Rodgers political opinions and vaccine. I can disagree with stuff, but I also believe Aaron has a right to an opinion. I can disagree a dissenting opinion. I don't really care. But I think there is a personality trait a couple of them with Aaron that are fairly obvious. Number One, he doesn't like authority. He struggled with his parents, his brother, Green Bay's front office. He pushes back on the media,
the government. That's okay. I mean when I was a kid growing up, that was known as the liberal, a hippie in the sixties, right, So I'm okay with that. The other one is Aaron is absolutely sure he's the smartest guy in the room. And it comes across in every interview. Think about this. Forget all the government vaccine stuff, Robert Kennedy conspiracy theories. Look his football decisions. He chose an offense a defensive coach, not a successful offensive coach,
because he wanted the Jets. He liked the Jets. They have one player, Garrett Wilson, that could start for the Packers one. Green Bay has the friendliest offensive salary cap for the next five years. They're not paying either tight end, five receivers, the offensive line. All five start over the Jets. Even Aaron Jones. To me, he's a bigger, stronger version of Bresee Hall. So his football decisions stink that he really really believed Jets is going to be a great fit.
They have one player. If Garrett Wilson twists his ankle, they don't have a player that can start for the Packers. When you watch green Bay beat Dallas, if you don't believe it's a fluke and you believe it's players, that game wasn't competitive. Green Bay is stacked with talent.
Well, so there's a lot of green Bay angles here to go to. There's a fun remind me once we to get on with the Rogers stuff to ask you a Jordan Love question. Sure that I was asked today, So all right, you sat on the front end. Don't care about Aaron Rodgers. You know, political opinion stances, vaccine status. I don't either, and he, in my opinion, uses that as a shield, meaning any criticism of him. He's like, oh, you don't like me. He is using the fact that
some people criticized him about being unvaccinated. I think more people criticized him about lying about it, and then any negative attention he gets, he can be like, oh, that's not because you're actually engaging with what I've done. You hate me for this reason, which is just nonsense. Because Lamar Jackson's never been more popular. I don't think he was vacated. Kirk Cousins is one of the most well liked post quarterback series. Oh yeah quarterbacks in the league.
I know he's not vaccinated, so it's not about that, but it is. This is someone who's you know in your life or someone that you know a family member who's like, yeah, nobody invites me around anymore because they don't want to hear the truth. And it's like, no, it's because you're an asshole. Like it. It's not our failing,
it's yours. So that stuff does irritate me. I'm not going to act like it doesn't, but as you cannot in modern America not have people in your life that you love, care about, and spend time with that have different opinions on be it COVID, the upcoming election, a lot of things like nobody is that in a bubble, So we all know how to deal with people. We disagree with some of the people we love and care about the most. So that's not it. Now. You mentioned
the football thing, so I think that was eager. I don't think it was purely I think the Jets are better than the Packers. I think it was he probably underrated what the Packers could be because they were mediocre last year with him, and he doesn't have the self awareness to be like, well, I was mediocre last year, like you weren't getting a plus Aaron Rodgers last year.
And in fact, there was a great moment when he was on McAfee last season when I think it was after the first Lions game or something, when the Packers were before they had started winning those games, where he just kind of says, out of nowhere, he's like, yeah, and you know, my coach said that was my highest graded game of the year and a loss. And it's like, oh, this guy just can't acknowledge that he might be part of their team struggling. So I think that's the first
part of it. And the second part of it is I think he thought, Okay, well, it doesn't matter what the Jets have, Once they have me, they'll be awesome. And I think that's one thing for Aaron to be that. And by the way, that might have been true a decade ago, it's not true at thirty nine in the AFC, in that comp you know what I mean, that division. But uh, it's another thing for the Jets a year
into the experience. Now they are not getting the Aaron Rodgers they thought they were getting, whatever they thought they were, They're getting a player a year older, often Achilles, a year more removed from football from good football. I mean that game Jordan Love played was the best quarterbacks best quarterback play the Packers have gotten a playoff game in seven years.
Yeah, look it up.
That was the and now he played phenomenally, So that would that's a high bar. So I think it is ego and being delusional. Like, I know this probably makes you a little uncomfortable because I often use you when I'm talking to you in analogies. But I think you know, you made a decision in your career almost a decade ago to go from a more stable place to not
quite a startup whatever it is. I would I would argue that would be maybe a poor decision for seventy year old Colin cowhard to make right to be like, you know what I'm you know, I can carry and build this new thing Aaron seventy in football years. Yeah, to think I can, you know, go Lebron the Cavs the second time around. This for the Jets, No, you can't. And so I just, yeah, I think that I think the Jets are. I looked around the league. Mike Vrabel been to an AFC title game, gott in the one
seed with Tennessee. Couple down years, not good enough. We got to move on. Bill Belichick obviously won six super Bowls, went to nine, also went to the playoffs with Mac Jones two down years, not good enough. Got to move on. The other coach that was just fired after two bad years.
I'll remember it was. It doesn't matter, but we're talking about, you know, all these coaches moving on, and then you look at the Jets, it's like, well, our coach wins thirty percent of his games, has two career wins against the division, has been there three years. Good enough, let's stay there. You look at these coaches where it wasn't good enough, and then you look at Bob Salah who they're like, yeah, let's run that back. And it's because
that's what Aaron wants. And so then you do have to ask yourself the question, it is what Aaron wants right now? The best chance at win winning or the most power possible. Do I want the best coach I can get? Or do I want a coach who knows the reason he has the job is thanks to me and therefore I run the whole operation. Yeah.
I always feel in sports and in our business it's wins. Like in our business, I don't care about anything other than In radio, my revenue is great right now, highest ad rates have ever had, and in TV my ratings are my highest. The volume were crushing, Like to me, it's not about me, it's about the unit. If the unit's good, that exerts pressure on everybody around you because
Nobody wants to break up winning, right. If you're winning and in your show, by the way, he's doing great, nobody wants to screw that up, right, They want to extend it. So to Aaron, it's it's it's really crazy. Did he have the forethought with all these super young players for Green Bay? He saw them, he saw Dobbs in Christian Watson. He knew they were talented. Did he not think, Jesus, if I hang around here for three years, you don't have to pay him. These are tremendous players.
I mean, Aaron has to have some like.
In the easier conference and and and a lot of a lot of factors there, and so I I don't think that. I don't think he thought those guys were that good because they didn't succeed last year and he can't. I don't think he has the self awareness to be like, how much of that was on me? If you operate from a place of I am always excellent, I am always producing excellence, and the results aren't excellent, then I think you're like, well, this place substance.
If Brady was in New England and they would have had Dobbs, Christian Wattons Watson Jade.
But yeah, but go ahead.
Tom wouldn't have left. Tom was too smart. Tom left. I remember specifically on the sidelines during a New England game when he yelled at the receivers just get open. His problem was New England's last seven drafts with Belichick. Two Pro bowlers, one's a punter. Yeah, Tom would have stayed.
He was frustrated.
I was told he was frustrated for three years before he left. The idea And by the way, where did Shoes, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Bruce Arians, where did Stafford, Juice McVeigh, Cooper Cup Andrew Whitworth. Aaron literally left this bevy of super talented kids. Saw them knew by the way in the in the following draft they were gonna go heavy tight end, and it was all you had to do was go to one mock draft. It was the best
tight end class when he was leaving. Like in Green Bay, they drafted two I think, but in the second round or third. So the takeaway is, did Aaron ever get out of himself and go this is all about having the right pieces. When Peyton mann in chose Denver, go look at their pieces. They're a line their receiver, they're tight end. It is remarkable that he didn't look at all that Green Bay talent that was on display Sunday, now some of it hadn't been drafted yet and go, God,
look how good they are. Now what are they going to be in a year.
If you were advising Belichick of any of the jobs open or jobs that could be open, where would you tell him to go?
I would say, listen, Bill, you've shown an ability to win rings with an elite quarterback and no ability to win with an average quarterback. One job has a really talented quarterback. The Chargers Jalen Hurts is good. Maybe a bit overstated due to the Shiken, Shansdyke and Lincoln Riley connection. That would be second, but there is no disputing Bill has shown no proclivity, no ability to draft and develop
well or win without a quarterback. So there's no reason to believe he can address that if you don't have it.
So the Church's why I wouldn't go to Atlanta. No, that's why I think the Atlanta thing's crazy. Or people have talked about Washington. Now I understand Washington is the number two pick, but that player's got to get developed, like, that's why. Now. The other thing is this that I find interesting and people think it's unfair, but I don't think it's unfair. And maybe Bill wouldn't do this. This is really just a exercise, which is you look around
the league and I like it. Like I'm wondering what team, what teams would fire their coach if Bill called him and said, that's the job. I want to go to your team. I know you have like so that you know right now, technically Philly as a coach. I don't know if they will much longer. I certainly if I were Jeffrey Lori and I knew Belichick will take this job. Yeah, I will fire Nick Sirianni, but that's almost too easy because he's on the hot seat either way.
You know, not as many as you think, because I believe I have believed this for a long time. Less than half of the owners want to win first, less than half, it may be less than a third. What they want is profits and control. The Spanos families had opportunities, including this year, to seceede some control to Jim Harboys the best candidate. Easily. It's not, I'm told in the
building unanimous. So you know, in the league, top ten quarterback, elite coach, you get to conference championships, You've got one. The other wants the job. So the only reason not to choose that would be profits and control. Belichick will force you and Harbaugh to have less control. And these owners that is number one. Billionaires control people, their families, their businesses, their employees. They don't like loss of controls. Wall Street. Wall Street is not just about earnings. Wall
Street is about the unknown. It plummets on unknowns. Often a company will come out and say, we are chopping ten thousand jobs to stop those. Okay, they're gonna have a tighter right, that's bad news. No, it's great news. It's known. Owners do not relinquish power. There's only a handful that would go all call Reinhower. Jerry won't. Jerry had Jimmy and Bill.
He let him both run. So so I'm gonna this is on your the on your TV show today, I made up a fake trade. Essentially, I'm now doing the coaching version of it, which is there's two AFC jobs that came to mind that I think are intriguing. If Bill Belichick's agent called up the owner of the Bengals and said Bill, you know, would take that job if it were offered to him. Would you, if you were the owner of the Bengals, fire Zach Taylor to hire Bill Belichick?
No?
No, all right. Second one, Bill Belichick's agent calls up, Shad Khan says, Bill Belichick would like to coach Trevor Lawrence. Would you fire Doug Peterson to hire Bill Belichick. I'd think about that one because I thought this year was weird. Can't figure out why you get bad and it's not personnel. I think I'd probably make the move there. It was a weird year for that talented team. And listen, the
easy answer is Trevor got hurt. But you still shouldn't go from eight and three to out of the playoffs entirely that So I'm not like advocating Belichick go like, you know, that would be a good revenge for that Eagle super Bowl. Like, hey, Dougie, guess what I'm sniping your job? But yeah, if I were Bill, my job's
list would be I would go down. I would make my own list of who are the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and I'd be like, Okay, Mahomes won, Well, that job's no, you know, they're not firing any that's not available, and go down and then see obviously the open one is justin Herbert, but it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen. So then I would try to find a spot where either. And I don't think it's a weird thing because nobody thinks this is like unfair with players.
So like if you have a good NBA player who's been a you know, you have no reason to trade or whatever, and then a star is like, I want to go to that team. Then that guy gets traded, and nobody's like, oh, that's that's unfair. Maybe it's because it's firing, but I wouldn't think it was outrageous for a coach who had no reason to fire their their own coach fire their coach because Bill Belichick became available and they thought they were better. Like I think that
happens in life. It's like your job was safe, but this super nova talent came into the world or into our orbit, and so your job is no longer safe.
Listen, we know Jimmy Sexton controls college football fans have the overwhelming number of fans have no idea. So I'll give you an example. So Kaylin de Boor got hired by from Washington.
Somehow knew Jedfish was going to get the job.
Well, I knew Jedfish was getting Washington. In fact, I got me. Yeah, yeah, I knew Saturday night. But to protect Jed because it wasn't finalized and protect my source, I couldn't report it. So I'd rather have Bruce Feldman and those guys. I don't make my money on breaking college football. Kaylin de Boor, I've known Jed for a while.
I'm not going to screw up his contract. And you know, had he told Arizona okay got so Kaylen de Boor I was told basically said, okay, Jimmy Sexton, I'll let you be my agent, but I want the Bama job. And Jimmy Sexton's like, I'll get in the top two. And so he knew Kaylen de bor was going to beat So Kaylen de Boor I knew on Wednesday was going to be a top two candidate. He didn't guarantee him the job, but in order to wrap him, he
was going to get hit. And Sark Alabama knew greg byrn knew that Sark wasn't going to take the job. Sark loves, his wife loves. Often they weren't leaving. They called Sark is almost a perfunctory professional thank you.
For what you've given us, Yeah, and get him a raised in Texas. That Alabama job commentation was great for a lot of people's economies. Everybody who's out here are getting raises right right, right.
So it was one of these sort of we're gonna call Sark, but it wasn't. He was never ever. They never thought they were going to get Sark. So it was a prime example of So to your point is that this Jimmy Sexton is operating on multiple levels. He is promising interviews and opportunities. He didn't say, Kaylen, you're going to get the Bama job. He goes, I'm going
to get you in the running for it. And so this idea that he was the fourth guide, no, no, no, no. Caleb de Boor signed with Jimmy, I want to be in the running for that. And so the idea that agents don't do that. I've had an agent forever you have. We're talking eighteen months out. So this kind of Belichick's agent is calling and doing that.
Calling and seeing what jobs would come open if you knew he wanted the job.
Yeah, I mean Brady would hit the same Brady picked his team. Bill probably has three teams he's interested in.
So yeah, and by the way, I don't maybe listen, maybe he'll go to Atlanta and it'll it'll be weird. Maybe that'll happen. I thought it was really odd Atlanta tweeting out We've just finished our interview with Bill Belichick. Yeah, it just I don't know Bill Belichick, but that seems like the type of thing that would make him not want to coach your team.
Yeah. I almost wondered if Bill's agent asked for that. I'm not saying it. Oh for Hey, could you make sure Bill wants it out there that people are interested?
Right? Sure? That makes more sense, Yeah, because if he did. If he did, I would almost because what I thought was that it was a stress test for the organization, like I'll go meet with you guys because maybe I am interested and I want to see if it leaks, and you know what I mean. And then saw that it was everywhere. What you're saying actually makes probably more sense.
Bill needs to be viewed as viable when you get to be seventy Pete Carroll when he stepped on the podium losing the Seattle job, he was like, my energy's great. He was talking to every other GM in the league, every other owner. Hey, it's not my energy. I'm going on thousand. While he started talking really fast, he was selling himself. Bill wants it to be known I'm interested and teams are interested in me, and his agent wants that out there.
Yeah, no, that that makes sense. So if you had to bet right now, where would you say, and maybe you don't want to say, where do you think he goes?
I think Philadelphia and Washington. He's got a big he's got multiple homes in Nantucket. He's got a big spread. So he wants to be a private jet flight there. You know he doesn't. Bill's not going to go He's gonna do Washington or Philadelphia. He not going west. It just doesn't He doesn't have any connections there. And you know, by the way, if he brings Josh McDaniel, Josh McDaniels Northeast, he Josh has had no success out West, Vegas, Denver. He's gonna come back east.
I think Philadelphia is the answer. Yeah, I think Philadelphia is the answer. You stay in the Northeast, you stay in a prime media market. You have a talented roster. It's listen. I think the talent on the roster is a little overrated, but what's not overrated is the d line talent. So you know, Belichick can coach up the secondary, he can create a secondary if there's anything out of thin air. And even if Jalen is, you know, a flawed quarterback, He's the best quarterback that Belichick's had in
a half decade. You know what I mean. I mean, like you go from Mac Jones and Bailey Zappy to jail and hurts. You feel like you're playing a different fucking sport. So that there is real there's real value there. The volume