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This is prime Cuts, best of the Colin Coward podcasts, Loaded Week. Former Alabama quarterback and host of Always College Football, Greg McElroy and I chop it up Nick Saban, Georgia Big Ten realignment. We talk everything. Former bearon Dolphin coach Dave Wanstadt been to Bear's training camp, some thoughts on two as well, and John middlecoffin. I go deep at a bunch of good NFL topics, but first my top takes. I was thinking about last year's preseason exhibition season and
all the years I've been doing talk radio. It was the slowest preseason of all time Becausehaan McVay several years ago, as I've noted multiple times, stopped playing starters, and all these young coaches followed suits. The only story we had last year in the preseason was Kenny Pickett, who was a good college quarterback, not stupendous. He wasn't a hot Caleb Williams, Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence prospect, not even a Kyler Murray, DeShawn Watson, Baker Masonfield prospect. He's a solid
guy who had a lot of college starts. And I remember thinking, after about two weeks of Kenny Pickett discussion. Thank god he plays for the Steelers. What if he had played for the Jaguars, there was just no story. This year's preseason feels entirely different. First of all, there's three first round quarterbacks. All could succeed, but I do think one of them's fascinating. Anthony Richardson for the Colts,
not only because it's six five, two fifty five. He has big Ben, Cam Newton, like Josh Allen like where he will just be such a force, a productive force running the football with that new offensive coach Shane Stike and a brilliant guy who had Herbert and Jalen Hurts. So I think the culture going to be a fascinating watch. I don't think they're gonna be a great team, but between Jonathan Taylor, the run back in Anthony Richardson, I
think they're going to catch people off guard. I think they're gonna look like Cam's rookie year, although he's not as polished as Cam, Big Ben, a little Josh Allen, and a little Lamar Jackson. It's going to be all of that mixed into one. So I think that's fascinating. I think Bryce Young is interesting because Frank Reich is one of those coaches that didn't get a ton of credit because he had reclamation projects. He had to clean up Andrew Luck clean up Philip Rivers clean up Carson
Wentz all three, three for three. Frank Wright did an amazing job. Now he gets a rookie Bryce Young, who I think was head and shoulders above the other quarterbacks coming into this draft. I'm fascinated by that. Also in this preseason, Sean Paytons said I'm gonna play Russell Wilson really interesting. My guess is Russell reverts to about seventy five to eighty percent of what he was at his prime.
But I don't think he's as good. I think quarterbacks that move get hit more, quarterbacks that get hit more, age much quicker. I mean, Big Ben got old fast, Cam got old fast. I was talking to Michael Vick on FS one yesterday and it was about, you know, year five or six that Michael Vick, the fastest player in the league, couldn't outrun Carolina Is outside linebacker Thomas Davis.
And that's when Michael realized, Okay, everything's changed. So I think this preseason's got a lot of stories not to mention. I think Week one Buffalo and the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. Listen, man, you look at that Jet schedule and that's a tough matchup with Buffalo, very good front seven, very good pass rush. Jets start zero to one. Fair not there's going to be heat on Aaron Rodgers because their early schedule for six games is a gauntlet. So I feel differently about
this August. I'm excited for it. Last year I felt like I was just trying to fill space. But Anthony Richardson, Bryce young A, Russell Wilson all really interesting to me. And the other one I'd throw out there that I find myself kind of rooting for is mac Jones of the Patriots. I contend that mac Jones is as good as Kenny Pickett, not as athletic, doesn't run as well. I think he throws a better football, and I thought I thought the organization completely got in mac jones way
last year. I think mac Jones is going to revert to a good B quarterback, sort of a Kirk Cousins with maybe a little better arm. I think mac Jones maybe not quite as accurate, but a little better arm. And if mac Jones becomes Kirk Cousins. Then Bill Belichick's back on track and can make the playoffs and win playoff games, maybe the division. So this preseason pro football fired up. I want to give you a story though. So, as many of you know, last football season, I had
Sean Payton joining me four out of five Mondays. He was spectacular, and Sean and I got along great on the air, off the air discussions. I think he trusted me. I certainly learned a lot from him. And as the football season approached the Super Bowl near the end, he had asked me, I think I can share this now, Hey, what's my market value? What should I be looking at here? He was really interested in Fox. He liked Fox, he liked broadcasting, and he really enjoyed it. He liked living
on the beach in Los Angeles. He just loved it. He was all over town. He was really genuinely happy, and he was really committed to it. He really cared about it. He made calls. He was terrific and may still be someday, but he was really committed and very focused. And then one day he wasn't because the Denver Broncos offered him four and a half to five times more
than Fox did. A man is as loyal as his options as committe and Chris Rock want sent for those belly aching about USC UCLA, Washington, Oregon leaving the Pac twelve, this is a conference that has continued to drop the ball, hired the wrong people to run the conference, been slow to see stuff about the future of college sports that appears obvious. Sometimes stubborn, nose in the air, a little
too precious for their own good. And so the Big Ten is a bigger, broader conference, It's a better conference, smack dab in the middle of the country with that mid Western work ethos. Even though they produce significantly larger revenue than the Pac twelve, they don't have their arrogance. And maybe it's because the Stanford cal UCLA excellence academically, historically,
whatever it is. But the Big Ten is big boy stadiums, sold out stadiums, better TV contracts, more committed financially, more committed fan bases, more committed boosters. That's where you have to go. What in the world has col ever done for the PAC twelve's football conference? Why would you be loyal to that? Why would you be loyal to an Oregon State Arizona game in corvallis what does it mean?
This is a better conference, a better opportunity, and sometimes it's survival of the fittest and survival of the brightest and survival of the future. We're seeing the globalization of economies college football. This is like globalization. And when I hear the belly aching, my takeaway is what are we losing here? Some regional rivalries. Washington's already said they want to play Washington State, all right, Okay, Oregon will probably continue to play Oregon State.
All right.
We're not losing a lot here. And I can tell you firsthand that USC has been looking and discussing moving away from the conference for the last four years and then they finally did it. So you know, when I hear anybody in any industry clamoring for loyalty, my takeaway as always, have you ever been offered something that's spectacular a role, a job, a salary, a relocation, an opportunity. It's easy to bang that loyalty drum when nobody's clamoring
for your talent, or your team or your business. Life is about opportunities. The four best football programs in the Pac twelve arguably three for sure, Washington, Oregon, USC and then Utah is better than UCLA. But sometimes market size matters. They're all going to greener pastures, greener in terms of revenue, in terms of stadium capacity, a commitment. And I hear this too, Well, what about the other sports? What about them? They lose money? College football drives a bus. So you're
going to take care of football first. If you were in a family and you paid all the bills, shouldn't you have the greatest say? You know, when you look at the NCAA March Madness Tournament, CBS foots the bill. They pay for the wedding. If I paid for the wedding, don't I get a say in the seating chart? So if CBS says we're not going to pick what teams get in, but we'd like to say in the second and third round matchups, potentially, why shouldn't they they're paying
for the wedding. They just want to say in the seating chart. So I grew up with Pac twelve football, but it has been eroding for years. It's out of touch, it's too precious, too snooty, and the Big ten's a better product now and going forward it's not even arguable. Well, Greg McElroy was at the very early stages of the Alabama dynasty, and the early stages of the dynasty, quarterbacks got no Efen credit. It was all defense. Now it's
not about linebackers and safeties and corners. Now, Saban, the brilliant man that he is, has really pivoted in transitioned to more of an offensively dynamic dynasty. And Greg, I want to bring you in on this. The world changed, and a lot of people Greg don't change with the world. And I got to give Saban a lot of credit. About the time Lane Kiffin got there, he started really
really upping his game with offensive play. When he started your years, it was McLain the linebacker, it was corners, it was right, and guys like you were like, well, Greg just hands the ball off. And I always feel like Greg actually played in the league. Greg was really good. But when you look at it now, there are some remnants of it. But when did you notice that it really pivoted to more of a usc feeling dynasty or you know, a mac Brown dynasty where the offense is a sixty forty advantage.
I mean, I think it's well observed it had to have been fourteen when Lane Kiffin came in, and it's easy to look at it through the lens of the USC because that's where Lane came from.
Site.
They really started to acknowledge there was a time and a shift in college football at that time where Ole Miss was starting to roll a little bit and they needed to kind of start scoring some points. Auburn had just been to the National Championship in twenty thirteen on the heels of a high obtained, high tempo offense that
really created a lot of conflict for the defense. I think coach Saban started to realize and it's going to be really hard to win games twenty one to thirteen moving forward, So we're going to have to get real comfortable winning games forty two forty one, which he's had to do a couple of times now. I actually think Colin where it's starting to go back, though, because teams can now simulate with their scout teams the tempo. They can simulate the quarterback play, they can simulate the run
pass options. But what they can't simulate is incredible offensive line play. A fullback that's coming at you one hundred miles an hour and blowing up your middle linebackers. So I actually think the pendulum starting to shift back the other way. And we've kind of seen that with Nick Saban's hire of Tommy Reese. Because of Notre Dame, we knew what he was all about. It was three yards in the cloud of dust, right downhill until you liked it.
So I wonder if you're sensing something similar in college football as well well.
I say, you can't really look at Georgia and say we could duplicate that. Okay, so the state of Georgia.
You better recruit, you better be able to get some dudes in on defense.
Georgia was always the sleeping giant in college football. I mean for years and years you would talk to NFL scouts and they're like, why doesn't Georgia win more? You know, we always know that the state of Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California have a lot of players. Ohio, Georgia now has as many D one players as California, and you have a third of the population or a quarter of the population. So I don't think Georgia is something you can duplicate.
They do remind me a little of Alabama early where it's a defensive culture with very capable quarterbacks who are going to get drafted. You Aj mccerroon. Maybe not superstars, maybe not like like a Caleb Williams or a Vince Young, but it's a defensive leaning culture. I just think they recruit at a different level. And George has always been a sleeping giant. But you know, I've said this for years, even though I work at Fox and we have the Big Ten, and I said this for years when I
worked at ESPN. People SEC dominance, recruiting, Draft Day and Saturday. Get over it. It's the best conference. Here's though, what's really fascinating by including Texas and Oklahoma, and I think specifically Texas, that's another game on the schedule that's going to be It's becoming an arms race Texas money Texas coaching. I know the SEC fans thumps their chest, but do you really want to face LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas in
one season? Is there anybody in the South that's going this isn't potentially and you're going to add Clemson in Florida state here in the next eighteen months as well. Could you become just too rich, you're the AFC, you're too powerful, there's too many stars. I think that there are programs. Mississippi State a good example.
When the schedules came out for the twenty four season, Mississippi State didn't have Alabama on the schedule, they didn't have many of their SEC West foes, and they were doing parades through the middle of Starkfield. But hang on, that's your closest team as far as proximities can start, even more even closer, as far as just straight mileage from Starkfield and Tuscaloosa than it is to Oxford, Mississippi, where all miss resides. And they said, no, no, no, we
don't want to play. So I think for some they are a little bit not all to say intimidated, but it's they kind of acknowledge where they are at in the pecking order. But I also think too if players are going to flock to it and the money's going to be there, but we look at the I mean, the Big Ten is comparable. I mean, I think I think Wisconsin's an unbelievable program with tremendous history and success.
We know what Michigan is, we know what Ohio State is, I'm seeing Michigan State at their best, even though they didn't have their best that date, but they were eleven to win Team ten twelve years ago, playoff team back fifteen SC is. I think you reference Georgia is a sleeping giant. SC to me has been a sleeping giant for two decades, because there was a time when I was fifteen years old when I never thought I'd see
him lose a game. I think UCLA is dangerous because Chick Kelly, now in the nil era with his NFL pedigree, understands how to work that system. Washington is just getting started at or killing the morse. I don't think there's one right now that is significantly more difficult than the other. I think the SEC bottom is better than the big tenth bottom. But at the top you have very capable programs with tremendous resources that they're disposed.
As a PAC twelve, die hard and loyalist. I had told friends five years ago that it wasn't going to survive, and my takeaway was once the NFL came back to Los Angeles with two teams, is that you know Pete Carroll was in a time no NFL in La all the resources, all the resources all the time, sellout and also people were spending their money on USC. People were totally supportive of USC. Games were sellouts. Also, you didn't have a Pac ten tournament you could lose. You didn't
have to play a semmifinal game. If you were great and you beat your Oregon States, Arizona States, in Washington, you ended up playing for the national championship if somebody thought you were good enough. So it's a different time, and so I'm not that I'm not bothered. I'm bummed out about the Pac twelve, but I s was it's a sec Big ten money is just greater. How is that viewed in the South? How do you look at it?
You guys always think we're soft out here anyway, But how is it viewed that the four best teams are basically going to join the enemy in the Big ten?
Well, I don't know if I want any of my Southern friends to know that I'm actually originally from Los Angeles, So you know, I don't want to be perceived as soft. I don't think you are, necessarily. I do think that there is a bit of a perception that when it's good against good and best against best, the likelihood of the SEC winning that game is higher than that of
what we see sometime from the Big Ten. I mean, Ohio State did beat Alabama at fourteen, has beaten the SEC, team came within a field goal a way of probably being the national champion last year, but those have been more few and far between, even dating back to the two thousand and six two thousand and seven when the Big Ten just had a difficult time matching up on annual basis against the best that the SEC had to offer, when the SEC won every championship from O eight all
the way up until twenty thirteen when Florida State finally brought it home. So I think that will be kind of an interesting evaluation. It's going to be a tug of war. I mean, we don't like them, they don't like us type of mentality for Big Ten fans and for SEC fans. Some will pound their chest about the money, or some will pound their chest about the ratings. Everyone's seemingly trying to find an edge, But at the same time, I still feel like the edge is that both leagues
are beyond delete. It's just whether or not.
Now the Big.
Ten, which doesn't have as much talent density as the SEC, if they'll be able to go south and attract kids up to the north to play at some of those places with a few less Division IE level high caliber prospects that they would normally have at their disposal of the SEC. Like South Carolina goes down the street, they can get fifteen guys that can play high level D one ball io one might have to go two hundred and fifty miles in every direction and they might not
find that many. So I think it's just a little bit more difficult when it comes to the recruiting pipeline. But if the identities are clearly established in the Big ten, I think they can play with anybody.
I love Saban. I think sometimes he can be If Nick wants to talk about something, he's going to go to the podium and he's going to find something that can get him into what he already wants to talk about. He does this all the time, about three times a year. It's like, I'm going to talk about transfer portal. I don't care what your question is, I'm going to bring it up. And there have been two different occasions where he's complained about the NIL and he said, you know,
it's not even it's not fair. And my takeaway has always been that's a message. And my gut feeling was he's a little concerned about Texas, that the fact that Texas money is like USC can't comp with it, Phil Knight and Oregon can't comp with it. The Longhorns have two to three billionaire donors, and that when Nick talks about the NIL, my takeaway is he's doing some battles with Sark and some of these they're wrestling people away. I mean, they're getting great recruits. That's my take What
is yours? When he complains about the NIL, because Alabama is collective, I'm sure is just fine. Why is he doing that?
I think it's as much calling to rally the troops of his own fan base. Everyone made a big deal about the argument between Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban back in the summer of twenty two. It was never about
Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban. It was never about Alabama against Texas, A and m what he was doing and what he thought was a controlled environment amongst friends and family on knowing that there was televisions there and all this other stuff and say hey, look these guys, look at the recruiting class they were just able to bring home. You guys better step it up. That was a call to action for his own fan base, I think more so than it was being frustrated with the current system.
I mean, are there as many billionaire donors in the state of Alabama's that are on the state Texas. No, But I would be willing to probably go probably on the record and saying I'd be willing to bet that people to worth five or six hundred million are putting up a higher percentage of their net worth to make sure that Alabama succeeds than maybe in Texas or in California or other places. It just means a lot in
this particular state. So I will be interested to see how that all unfolds and how the arms race really ends up working out. I'm really actually more interested, though not as much in nil. But what would you do if you were one of those teams right now that is perceived to not have that war chest of nil at your disposal, if you're behind as far as you're as far as your approach right now and your television contract.
I don't want to say Florida's taking Clemson because I think they have enough resources to be able to support them on the recruiting trail. Just look at how they've fared in recent years. But what message would you said if you were one of those teams that was lacking behind and not a part of the Big two or hopefully en route to the Big Two.
Well, Greg, my belief is is that college football is going to become a little bit like college basketball, that the playoff is going to be a big chunk of the sport. It will go to twelve, then I think it will go to sixteen or twenty four. Now people are concerned that will ruin the college football regular season, and here's why it won't, Because Greg, March madness did not kill college basketball's regular season. We watched Latner, we watched the run in Rebels, we watched Georgetown. We had
March madness. What is killed college basketball is one and done culture. The quality is not good. The playoffs not going to hurt college football. Because you watch LSU play Georgia, there's thirty four NFL players.
On the field.
Because of the cultural reality of college football, you have to play three years. Most guys play four. You have grown men playing. People think by adding to the playoff. It'll hurt college football's regular season. And I said this two days ago on my show. Texas is playing Bama, You're not watching. Really, Georgie's playing LSU or Oklahoma, you're not watching. Really. USC's at Michigan. You're watching, and you're watching even though they made meet to get in the playoff.
You're watching because Caleb Williams is going to be against their first round quarterback pick. It's Harbaugh and Lincoln Riley play end of the year. Playoffs don't kill the sport. Lack of quality has killed college basketball. Hell Victor Weban Yama, he didn't even play college basketball, Scoot Henderson, Jalen Green. So as long as you're forced to go to college, I'm going to watch Georgia, Bama, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan,
Ohio State. But I do think, Greg to your initial question, the bottom part of that ten eleven, twelve, that's gonna be the area where in Oregon State can win that Mountain West. If that happens and they can get in, you're gonna get four from the SEC, four from the Big ten, one or two from the Big twelve. But instead of getting like Cincinnati, and we argue about it. You get two of those, you get two of those, And so I think what will happen is we're gonna
do twelve for about four years. It's gonna make everybody a fortune, and everybody's gonna go, all right, let's go to sixteen and it won't hurt the sport. You're gonna watch Auburn Alabama even if you played a second time, Greg, you and I have watched march Mandess since we were kids.
If Duke and.
Carolina play in the Elite eight for the fourth time, we're watching.
You're right, there's no denying that. But I am curious your thoughts. Are we getting to a point in the nil era in the college football world where they're looking at the top twenty five. The Coaches Pole came out the other day and people are saying, all right, how many teams can win it? And people aren't getting past five right now as far as teams that can actually win the championship. Now, Caleb Williams elevate his team to a level that is just unrecognizable and maybe pull off
two upsets and route to a championship. Sure, but the Vince Young taking over the game against USC back in five. Does it feel like it's as capable nowadays? Do you still think that Cinderella or a run like a Cinderella is possible in college football?
Yeah?
I do because I think the SEC has always had more elite athletes, but the game used to be tighter and smaller, and that Nick Saban could suffocate you. I watched the Ohio State play Georgia, and just because of those receivers for Ohio, Ohio State and CJ. Stroud, they moved that ball. I thought they were the better team that day. Caleb Williams, quinn yours, c J Stroud. The game is you know, if you go back Greg and go back to Nebraska when they were winning titles, they had one
receiver wide right. I mean everybody was jammed up.
On the size of my screen.
The game is so fast and so wide, and so many young players now want to be quarterbacks or wide receivers that nobody, including Nick Saban or Georgia is going to cover Marvin Harrison. You can't do it. And so I think the USC's and the Texas and the Notre Dames may need to have a Caleb Williams or a Vince young. Okay, they have to make up something right. Stetan Bennett's good. Caleb Williams is different. Trevor Lawrence beat Spama. Those schools to beat the SEC king have to be
better at quarterback and probably transcendent. You know, a Trevor Lawrence. That's a different Caleb's a different kind of number one pick. I mean, Baker was a number one pick. Caleb that's not close. And I do think the field is so spread now and the offense of coaching is so good that if you have that superstar quarterback and you're eighty five percent of George's roster Obama's roster, you can win. I watched Tennessee last year. Drop A was like a
fifty burger on Alabama. They couldn't stop them with Hndon Hooker.
That's it. They've scored fifty two. Look at you, I mean, yeah, if you please, sure rub it in and bringing it up. I appreciate, appreciate the reference. I am curious your thoughts on this because I don't think anyone in the world does a better job with analogies and being able to recreate the idea and the visual. As I'm listening to you, you can sumped up something up and I'm like, how
did we come up with that? And I tried to do my best calling Calbert impression and said, if you put too much on the quarterback's shoulders, it's like the quarterback is the bicep and all you do are curls. Meanwhile, your triceps are atrophy, your tecks are atrophy, your legs are atrophy. If you put too much on that position, it's going to actually result in the rest of your
team not be is good. Now, it's totally opposite from what you just described, but I think there's a real analogy to be made at say Alabama, maybe even USC to a certain extent last year at Ohio State at times, especially on defense back in the end of the Urban Meyer era, early early era of what Ryan Day is doing.
He's the former Dolphins head coach, Chicago Bears head coach, Cowboy defensive coordinator, part of the Super Bowl twenty seven win, longtime pit coach. One of Natty is a Miami DC Rose Bowl d line coach for USC, analyzing football for NBC Sports in Chicago, the Big Ten Network six seventy to score in Chicago and on the thirty third team, which has been really a quickly growing website full of former NFL front office guys and coaches that I really like.
It's Dave Wanstat. So last time we talked, you said Chicago's a seven eight win team. You were at practice Wednesday. They've now added a rush end from the Ravens, who was on the market. You were at practice Wednesday. Do you still feel like it's a seven eight win team?
I do. I'm going to say, call them. When you were reading that introduction sounds to me like a guy couldn't hold a job very long anywhere. No. The Bears, Yeah, I was up there. I'll tell you what. They have been fantastic to me. I spent a lot of time with George McCaskey when I just happened to bump into him when I got there and I was up with Matt Eberflus's office. We were talking defense and coverages on the board, and then stood with Ryan Poles most of
the practice. So I got a real good feel for not just what they did that day, but kind of the big picture and the vision, and a couple of things jumped at me, you know, because everybody's talking about this would go for any NFL team, any college team. I think everyone's talking about, well, they got started and the defense, the offense is where they're supposed to be,
the defense is ahead of them. Well, I've never been on a team at any level where when you start training camp where your defense better be ahead of your offense. If the offense is out there and they're tearing apart and they're making plays from the get go and the defense is trying to catch up, it doesn't work that way in my opinion. So I kind of like where the Bears are at right now because defensively they've had some great additions and another year in Mattie Reflus's system
everything that goes along with it. So I like where they're at right now from an offense, defense, special teams. The second thing that I looked at was, you know a lot of players they run four or five in shorts OTAs and then you put the pads on and guess what they become four eight players. They can't carry the pads. That's not the case with the Bears. This is a fast, young football team, and I was impressed on their and not just their energy level, but how
quick they were across the field. And the last thing was that I walked down and there saying, Wow, you know what, Ryan pooles, he has a plan and this guy's gone a good job. If you look at their free agents that they've signed, and you look at the draft picks that they've drafted, you know, this guy has got a plan and he has stayed with it. And you mentioned he just you know, they just added Yanic probably the not just maybe the best edge rusher available now.
But he's twenty nine years old, right, and that's that's kind of been a foundation platform for the Bears. Every free agent they didn't talk to anybody that was older than twenty eight years old. So they're a young football team moving forward with a lot of team speed right now. And they get some great competition going they really do.
You know, it is interesting the Chase Claypool acquisition got heat, but because Mooney's a smaller athlete at Claypool is a beables like a tight end. I understood it from body, from the body perspective. He just didn't have anybody on your roster like him. So Cole Comment, Robert Tanyaan, Chase Claypole, those are big bodies downfield. Mooney, who I think is a terrific players. Tiny, I do worry about Claypool. Last
year he kind of disappeared. Are they worried about him because they gave up a second round pick for him?
Yeah? They they are, but they aren't. I'll tell you why I call him. He said his fourth year. He's in a contract year. And you know that's that motivates players. Pressure, peer pressure or money, that's what motivates these professional players. Let's get you know that that's real. And so they got clay Pool right where they're going to get the best effort that he can possibly give, and we're gonna find out what that is. You mentioned Mooney. That was
another bright spot. They were talking about Mooney a month ago here in Chicago maybe being ready for the opener. Hey, I saw him. I was up there in full pass. He got knocked down and got right up off the ground and got back in the huddle. So he's backing in DJ Moore and in Comet. They we know Cole Kmett, but you know who might be the sleeper of their free agent signings. Robert Tunyan from Green Bay. This guy is a player. They flex him up, they flex him out,
and from an athletic standpoint. He's not going to be an every don all round player like Comet the physicalness, but you flex him out in the slot like they used to do with Gronk and Tony Gonzalez and get him one on one with the linebacker, he's gonna win that battle. That was a good sign for the Bears. Yeah, it was.
He's also good in the red zone. Smart player, He's a guy that gets open in tight spots. So now I think they're offensive. I think Justin Fields has to post eight or nine wins, has to show improvement. My guess is he does. You know you coach the Dolphins for years and you know them very well, and it's a they're sort of in the league for me because of to his concussions. I just don't know what to
make of them. But I did think of this. So they went and got Mike White a backup, and I thought to myself, generally speaking, even in blowouts, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady Mahomes, stay in the game. I could see Mike McDaniel saying, listen, we're up plus ten points, eight minutes left, we're getting two out of there. What would you do? Because it's not in any other injury, Dave, if he has a concussion, there's going to be so much public and medical pressure and media pressure. You can't
plan for a month. He gets hurt September fourteenth, you can't plan until October twentieest. How would you manage the Tua concussion situation?
Well, I think you know you're you're right, and it's almost to the point where you know they he went and did the what he do the karate or jiu jitsu or everything, and then he put on weight. I like the idea he put on a little bit of weight, okay, because he's a good enough athlete he can carry. That should give him strength. But I'll tell you the number one thing that I would tell him, we are not
going to try to extend plays. I think that's when he you know, it's going to have to be a situation where I drop back, I see my first read. If I don't like it, maybe get rid of the football. That's what I would be spending time with on Tua. You cannot hold the football because everybody talks about, oh, well, they're teaching them how to fall when you get hit. You know what they say, the guy that gets quarterbacks and causes turnovers. It's the guy a quarterback doesn't see,
you know. So I don't buy this stuff at all. Here they come now, I'm going to cradle run, I'm gonna put my That doesn't happen that way. That's unrealistic. So he's because the guy's hitting him. You never see him coming. So I would just say, let's prevent holding the ball that I think that's the best answer, and don't over talk about it. It'll become a mental thing with the kid.
Well, the good news is Shanahan and Mike McDaniel run the same offense, and both those coaches like the ball out of your hands quickly. I mean, Garoppolo had some limitations. Dave, he got that thing. He got rid of that thing fast and accurately. And so you know, Miami's got the vic Fangio. I was told by somebody in the league that they thought Fangio was the best defensive mind in football today after Belichick in kind of Layman's terms, what
makes Fangio tick? Like, what are guys like you? What do you hear about Fangio? He didn't have, you know, he didn't get a head coaching break until he was like late sixties, So he's probably not a big personality guy. But people that I talked to in the league just go on and on about his schemes.
Yeah, I've known Vic for thirty years. In fact, when he was up at the Bears as a defensive coordinator with Ron, I was up and we spent time together and just reminiscent and so forth, and so I studied him close. I've coached against him, and one thing that he is he is not. You know, he's not a big blitz guy. Okay, so he's he's a guy that's going to put the defense. He's a little bit of the Belichick mentality, what are you doing best? We're going to take that away, and they do not make mistakes.
When you play against the Vic Fangio defense, you're not going to see guys running wide open down the field, and you're not going to see open gaps at the line of scrimmage. I mean, these guys are going to play hard, and they're gonna play sound, and they're going to make you out execute them. And I think in today's NFL world where everybody's at all, these offensive guys are geniuses. They get bored. Colin You've heard me say
this for years. Don't get bored. Most offensive coordinators get bored. Okay, they got bored. And we talked about the head coach down on McDaniels. He got hired because he was the run coordinator at San Francisco. And they're playing the Buffalo Bills and they got a third team quarterback in there last year, the kid from Kansas State. I'm trying to think of his name, Skyler Thompson. And they throw the
ball twice as much as they run it. If they run the ball in the fourth quarter, they win that game. I mean, it made no sense to me. So how do you help Tua and how can you help that defense? You know, and I know it's tempting. When you got Tarik Hill and you got you got Dwaddle, you got a lot of skill talent there. The tempt is to throw it, throw it through it. But I'll tell you what, they have to be balanced if they're going to be
a serious contender. Miami Dolphins have to be balanced, in my opinion, and that's going to help the defense, and that's going.
To really help to What did you make is somebody with thirty plus years in football of Sean Payton publicly ripping Nathaniel Hackett. Did it catch you off guarden?
Yes, it totally caught me off guard. And I'll tell you what. When I was at USC, we had Bill Walsh come in once too. We had a pack it was I got it. I guess it was pack eight or pack ten. I think it was pack eight back.
Then before Arizona schools.
It was I'm dating myself, but he came. We used to have an assistant coach's golf tournament. We always had it at Stanford because they had a nice golf course up there on campus, and we would all go up there and we would bring it. And Bill Walsh came in and talk to us and he said, let me tell you, young coach or something. And we were just in our thirties. Just he says, all you guys are
probably going to get fired. He says, well, it happens to Dolphus, he says, And when you get fired a couple of rules in coaching, get out of the city as quick as you can. Don't sit there because everything that the fans and media are going to talk about is every day is going to be better. All of a sudden, this team is going to be tougher and this team is going to be smarter. Think about it. He says, it's going to happen. Don't You don't want to be
reading in here that stuff. Well, with that being said, that was what disappointed me the most. Is here showing another coach and just respect, and everybody talks about code. I don't know what the code, and all that I would just say is one man to another in the same profession. Sean, you know what goes into winning a game and winning having a successful season. Your GM is involved, right your quarterback Russell. I can go right across the board.
There's a lot of people involved that the head coach does not necessarily have control over the circumstances. And it really was disappointing to me because Sean knows better and he came up like all of us did in this profession and you just don't see that happening and just because of respect for another guy, and it just disappointed me.
I thought, HBO, Aaron's using it as a rebrand. I'm a good guy, I get along with others. I'm not selfish, I'm not arrogant, and I think Tom Brady had a bit of a rebrand when he went to Tampa like, hey, I have a personality, I'm fun. It's helped his business and endorsements. I thought Aaron came across says, hey, man, I got to do this thing. I'm going to rebrand it. And I think you can watch HBO and Aaron are trying to convince you, Hey, I'm a different guy and
I'm not the bad guy. The media portrays me as. I don't think it's wrong. I think it's smart. But that's how it felt to me. It's a rebrand. Aaron's all in and HBO is helping him, and I'm not criticizing HBO. I think they think that's an interesting, captivating part of the jet story.
Well, it totally is. I've been out on Hard Knocks. Every other show eventually gets canceled or stops, and that keeps going. But if you're just going to give me Aaron Rodgers, Hacket and Solid for four episodes, I'm in because I don't care about the random undrafted free agent that's eventually going to get cut. But I can watch Aaron, Rodgers and Hacket figure out this offense like that, that
to me is intriguing. He's done a rebrand really since he showed up right, I mean the whole thing of being there in the offseason, taking all the young guys out to Madison Square Garden, going to the concerts with again the young guys, which was the issue last year. Hey Aaron, we got a lot of young guys. I'm not coming in the off season. Then he pulls the Brady, which he deserves credit for because I don't care who
you are. Thirty five million dollars a lot of money, gives it back to help the team, and he even said it's not even just for this year, it's about the big picture.
I'm in.
I believe what they say, and they've clearly done a good job of this process of him. Believe in trusting them. You and I talked about it a couple weeks ago. I think it's easier too, when the super rich owner tells you, like, hey man, i'll cut this check for this guy. We'll do this guy. I'll tell Joe we have no problem trading a first round pick next year if we need to go get our Trent Williams or
we'll do whatever it takes for. You write a little NBA style, And that's how I think he's being treated a lot like Tom was treated. So it's easy to be happy when everyone's kind of kissing your ass. So, like, let's face it, they're kissing his ass as they should be. They're desperate.
Yeah, So you know a lot of times the Dallas Cowboys are brought up, and I'm guilty of this, And I don't think I'm guilty. I just think this is my business plan.
Is when I was a.
Local radio host, you would talk about local teams. When I got the syndicated job, it became very obvious to me that you couldn't just talk any team you wanted to, that you had to talk the biggest brands and that would accumulate the largest audience. So very early I was in the Brady and Lebron Notre Dame football, Duke basketball, Yankees baseball. I've moved off baseball lot since the twenty years ago that I started doing it a syndicated radio.
But the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers, the Steelers have a lot of reach. But I actually think this version of Dallas this season is kind of fascinating Dak and there's a clear correlation. The more you ask of him, the more mistakes he makes. I mean, there's a line of Dak marcation thirty five or more throws. He's way under five hundred thirty three or fewer. He's a really good quarterback. And so his most efficient year as a pro was year one, Zeke number two in rushing yards, best on
line in football. Dak was on the cheap the next year year two, John, if you remember, Zeke suspended six games. In those six games, Dak had five touchdowns and seven picks. The minute you asked him to do more, he provided more mistakes. So here we go into this year. He's been a Pro Bowl or twice. In both those years, Zeke led the NFL in rushing attempts, in yards. Zeke's gone oline rebuild, working in a new receiver, lost an elite offensive coordinator, and Dak now is having a camp
full of interceptions. I love this defense. What are we going to get from Dak this year? Because there is a correlation, the more you need, the more mistakes should get. It's not arguable at this point.
I think I'm not just saying this because you're here. I make a point to listen to. You have Albert Breer on every week. I think he's he can articulate. He's to me one of the best hybrid of just knowing guys in the league, articulating what's going on, and just and being able to report just his interactions with people. And he said something to you about what McCarthy said to him about their asking Dak to ad lib and
be a little bit more of a playmaker. And when I heard that, my jaw dropped, Like Mike, this is not Aaron Rodgers here, buddy. The reason he was a fourth round pick because his physical actue. He's a good athlete. He does not have a great arm. The clip of there was a pick. Yeah, I don't know he's throwing a bunch, but yesterday or the day before, Yeah, I like a post route where digs undercut it. Rogers, you can miss that ball deep, you can't miss it short.
That's where the ball always gets picked off. And to me, Dak is much closer from an arm standpoint to Alex Smith to Kirk Cousins. Play within the context of the offense. I could have Rogers, Alan or Mahomes at living because they're throwing one hundred miles an hour so well. Hud
McCarthy had the most successful his career Aaron Rodgers. So maybe in his mind he thinking that if that, if that is honestly their mindset, I think they are batshit crazy and that is going to be a disaster of just trying to have him be a quote unquote playmaker. The reason Cousins is having so much success over the last four or five years statistically teams that their defense is good, consistently go to play. He just plays within the offense. And when Dak does that, he's pretty good too.
But when he starts ad libbing, I do I mean that pass? His arm is actually for a guy that's big, right, just because if you've ever met Alex Smith, he's six four, Right, Just because you're six to four does not mean you throw one hundred miles an hour, right. Pedro Martinez was shorty through ninety seven, so Tim Linskin was small. Some small guys throw harder. Baker actually has a pretty good arm for a small gual, right. Aaron Rodgers is six one and a half to eighteen. Kyler Friz Yeah, so
it just it doesn't translate. So I maybe it's because they're not as confident. Hollard's a little more of a hybrid back, not a true like pounded between the tackles, and it's Smith's style. But last time I checked, when they were winning a bunch Treyman, it wasn't a big ad liber right. He just kind of just played the position like it's supposed to be played.
Is there a team Carolina for me? They played the Packers yesterday and gave Aaron some trouble I have. You know, there's always a team in this league that doubles their win total. So last year my big one was Minnesota. Now they didn't double their win total, but I said most improved team in the league. So yeah, so I got that one right. There's something about Carolina. I love Reich.
He makes your quarterback more efficient. I think Bryce Young is one of those lower ceiling but ready to play today. I think they're front seven's good. I think their own line, due to the draft last couple of years, is now more than competent, you know, and the division's a little vulnerable. Carolina is my as Aaron Rodgers found out in the inner squad scrimmage. They got dudes, They got real big talent.
Do you have a team like that for you that you just people look at it and say five or six, and you're like, I watched Carolina a couple of games last year without Reich. They're spicy, they can play. They definitely have a lot of talent. The team I told you, I think we talked about this over the summer was Washington. I'm going to throw that take into the garbage going there, and I was kind of low on the Giants. I
thought they would come back. But the one thing, if Darren Waller is healthy and high at the receiver from Tennessee that is running like Hussein Bolt, no one can cover him. They might actually and now Saquan is in a good place, maybe they get back to ten eleven. To me, the team talking with some people in Jacksonville, I don't know how great the defense is going to be, but the division stinks. Could they be a top two or three offense in the league. I mean, Doug Peterson
is just Taylor made for modern day NFL. His personality, his understanding, Like obviously he's the play caller. He succeeded there him dealing with Trevor. Trevor last year, what twenty five touchdowns? Could this year be one of those, like thirty eight touchdowns? You get Calvin Ridley, who I'm told is just they're blown away by him. We saw Christian Kirk was a really good signing for him. Etn's like the modern day hybrid back. Now you never want to
discount Tennessee and I have, but I do. You know, you got to take for very seriously. I think in a coaching draft he'd be a top five pick. I mean, he's the real deal, but Brighton talent's just not quite there.
Could be a little bit of a comeback year, So I think the Jags, I don't like him as a Super Bowl contender just because their defense is going to be good enough. But last year, I don't want to call it hollow because that was a big year, especially based on the Urban year. But I think this year could be feel more real than last year was. And you can kind of see like they're a piece or two away on defense. Maybe get their Nick Bosta or their Brian Burns or something then watch out.
Well.
Yeah, I thought they played the Chiefs twice last year and I'm literally watching both games. I had the same feeling. It's like the NBA playoffs Denver two years ago, Sacramento this year. In the NBA, they're just not ready to win big, close games yet. I think the Kings will be next year with de Aaron Fox and I watched Jacksonville, I thought, oh, they're a year away. They need to lose to Kansas City twice. They don't know how to win.
They don't know how to put those twelve play drives together the way Mahomes and Reid and Kelsey they they're good, they don't know how to manipulate games. So Jacksonville, I think, has to get to that point. And that's a real thing. Like the really good teams New England manipulated games where they were outplayed. I think Kansas City does job. Yeah, And I'm like, Jacksonville just has talent, they just don't know how to They don't know how to win games. They don't play perfect football.
Well, they might win or lose the game, but the three guys in the AFC Mahomes, Allen and Burrow never walk on the field against the other guy, and definitely the rest of the league thinking that they're not the best player on the field and they're gonna win the fucking game. And I wonder if Trevor, you know, for the first time in the league, had a taste of
that last year. Had the big you know, had it couldn't gone any worse, right, He basically if he was a golfer, hit like seven shots out of bounds on the first hole in the first half against the Chargers. And then to me, the mental fortitude, I mean that he eagerly could have gone in the tank and no one would have blamed him. Like you know, first playoff taste, bad game, threw a bunch of picks, he did not flinch, came back, made a bunch of plays. So I would
expect just a massive year from him. And to me, Doug has a person now a lot like Andy very even Keel. Not a big screamer, offensive guy, former quarterback, you know, just kind of He's just an NFL guy. He just gets pros and I think he's going to be really good for them. He has been.
One thing you touched on this week, and I want to bring it back for people that didn't hear it is your take on Ron Rivera and Eric b Enemy, where Ron not only stepped in it, he created it with the comments about the enemy. Take our audience here back to that, because I thought it was a poignant point about in the NFL, there's enough landmines. Don't throw your own grenades.
Well, to me, there's a reason. And I don't blame coaches for lying right, it's not. It doesn't behoove them to give out information that just creates chaos. Most people on the team are well under thirty live on their phone. You got to be very careful. It's why so many coaches don't say anything, and when they do, it all leans positive. For him to come out and acknowledge, it'd be one thing, right, if there was something simmering, there was a powerful story from a Wickersham from the athletic
would be like, what's going on? He gets asked about it, any kind of steps on it, you would understand it. Maybe you got cornered a little bit in a press conference. That was not the case at all. I don't know about you. I hadn't heard anything. Unless you knew a player or someone on the staff, no one would have been talking about it. So for him just to acknowledge that was borderline unprecedented. I mean, you never see that in the NFL, unless you know is he already trying
to point the finger at him? He sees it not going well ron the thing. It's not like Ron is some modern day, progressive, easygoing NFL coach. This guy's an old school screamer, yeller, defensive guy. So he wouldn't have a problem with you coaching hard. Does he think it's not going well? He does? He see our quarterback situation is a disaster. I've seen some headlines multiple times. Part of the reason I started getting off them before this story even kind of came out because of Ron was
because he kept mentioning Jacoby Brissett. He kept don't sleep on Jacoby Brissette, No, and I went, what we've seen Jacoby, just keep him as your backup. What are we talking about? So maybe there's some butting of heads when it comes to personnel. You got new ownership. Let's face it, if Ron were to go seven and ten or like his he would not get fired. He's never going to get a head coaching job again, like this is. His career is over. So it did feel a little bit like
he's pointing the finger. Not just a bizarre story, just that when you never see you never see coaching hard, What does that even mean? You go to a practice in high school, people are getting screamed at. It's not even that weird.
The volume