Little Monday night football on the radio station tonight. Don't forget we are your home of the NFL in this market. We've got the Niners and the Lions. Right after we say good night, Let's do some football though on a Monday with one of our favorites to start the four o'clock Gower, Austin Gale back on the Drive on a Monday, Austin, how you doing, man? To a great I'm well, well, I appreciate the time. So I think I've told you this before. I certainly have talked to my producer about it.
As a long suffering New York Jet fan, I thought that we had found the solution with Sam Darnold. You thought I was gonna Saron Rodgers. I know you did, But I thought we had sound found the solution with Sam Darnald back in the day. So look, I'm not going to take a victory lap because nobody saw this coming. This is obviously a good problem for the Vikings. But what sort of questions has Sam Darnald answered with his performance this year?
And what do you think is next for him and the Vikings.
I love how you framed, man. I think that's exactly how we should be Sam Donald this offseason. What questions has he answered? Not? What could he answer? Could he also do similar things in Las Vegas? Oh, they also play in at Dome. Oh they have rock towers. Like he could answer those questions. But what we know is he works in Minnesota. He works with Justin Jefferson, He works with TJ. Hockinson and Jordan Addison and Kevin O'Connell
and that offensive line. I think Minnesota knows they can have a deep, playoff competitive team with Sam Donald at the helm. It is a good problem to have to have J. J. McCarthy, who is going to be coming off with significant knee injury, in a position to sit again behind Sam Donald. Yes, that would require them to
pay Sam Donald's some money. But a fourteen and two season, potentially a fifteen and two season winning the North, there's something you know it's not at and like, if he doesn't have success in the playoffs, those questions become harder to answer because but if he wins one game even too, like, I think the answer becomes obvious. I think they have to bring him back. At worst, they have to tag
him and then consider trading him. But I just don't see an outcome unless they get blown out in the playoffs where where that happens.
Are you surprised at how effective he's been because I don't have a frame of reference for whether or not because we're out here in the former Pac twelve foot print, so we saw Sam up close playing the utes, and like I said, I always thought that I thought my Jets had finally found a quarterback. But are you taking back at what he's done or did you kind of see the potential on him all your or all along in his career.
I think with Sam Donald is said everyone has seen the potential, every team that has signed him, every fan that wanted him coming out of USC, every team. So everyone that's watched Sam Donald play has seen the potential, has seen the flashes. It's been whether or not he could get over the hump and be consistent. And I think a lot of the blame was put on him, and a lot of the blame was put on the franchises.
He kind of like muddied his way through. But they're everyone in the back of their mind going into the season, and they would be lying if they didn't say, Okay,
maybe Sam Donald should have success here. And I think that's what we're learning about, not just Sam Donald, Baker Mayfield, Gino Smith, Like like there's this reclamation project thing happening in the league now, where if you have a good offensive play caller and you have some weapons you can go get you know, a Baker Mayfield and Gino Smith, the Sam Donald, some of these other guys that can
come in and be competitive, Russell Wilson and Pittsburgh. Like, if you have a good offense and you have good play call and you have good good playmakers, it's quarterbacks with experience that can come in and make play.
Do you think Sam will be in consideration at all? Friend VP? Or is that Lamar and Josh Allen those two or maybe it's only Josh. What are your thoughts?
No, I think it's two horse race. I think that's where betting markets have it right now. It's probably gonna be Josh. That's where betting markets are leaning. But it's a two horse race between Josh and Lamar. I think statistically you'd lean Lamar, but Josh better, you know, better record on a hard team. They lost Stefan Biggs and the ravensdad a, Derrick Henry. I feel like kind of like, you know, what else do you need? I think Josh is more important to the Bills than Lamar is the Ravens.
That's not by a wide margin. And Lamar Jackson has had a ton of success. Hello, he has two MVPs, but he almost can't kind of kind of give the Career Achievement Award to Josh Allen and you know, as a tiebreaker, and that he hasn't won one day. He's been one of the league best players of the last few years. I think it's okay to overlook that maybe Lamara had more statistical success than Josh Allen in this case,
especially with the mark coming off with MVP. That's how I think voters are going to feel as well.
I will ask you selfishly what you think comes next with the New York Jets. Look, I gave up hope on this team long ago, but I'm not one to jump ship.
I will be a Jet fan for life. And I was never on board with the Aaron thing.
I understand why you do it, but all of the hype, all the hope, it never landed with me.
I've been out on him for a long time.
I just feel like he's on authentic and outside of all the weird you know what, off the field, he just is not near the quarterback he once was, which is more important to me.
I don't give a rip. Go do ayahuasca, Go talk to a caterpillar.
I don't care. Just show up on Sunday and play ball. But I feel like they need to move on.
I don't know how they do it.
So what's next as far as the coach, the quarterback and everything else with the Jets.
Yeah, it's it's tough, right. I think it's a mess, and it's a hard one to even think about how you clean it up. I know that some have said that maybe they run it back and you see if you could get this work again, because there aren't maybe a lot of other options. I know they're currently slotted to maybe draft around like sixth or seventh to eight depends obviously how Week eighteen ends up, but like probably not gonna have an opportunity at Shitur Sanders or Cam Warre.
You cannot bring Sam Darnold back, even in a tag and trade in the fairy tale situation where Minnesota lets them go. There isn't really a lot of other reason talent you're gonna go get kirk Cousins. I've seen that name floating round. You think Jets fans are gonna get up for Kirk Cousins after the year they have with Aaron Rodgers. I think Jeffs fans might be burning jerseys. You have to do something that inspires the confidence in
the fan base. Do something, do their testing, Talk to the fans like, obviously they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. It's not a bad idea to talk to maybe one hundred Jet fans or two hundred Jet fans like where are we at here? Like they're in a bad plate. I think they more than they need wins, they need buying from from the
fan base. I mean, there's a lot of I think, a disappointment in the direction that they've been and a lot of question marks obviously very fairly on where they're going to go.
All right. I've been asking all my NFL guests this over the past few weeks because I come from a split family where me and one of my brothers we pull for the Jets, and I have two other brothers that love the Giants, and we've been debating, and I'm asking this for real Austin. If you combine the Jets and the Giants roster, they does that roster make the playoffs?
I'm dead serious, Oh man, I don't know who's playing quarterback right, Aaron Rodgers, It's tough. It's tough. I think that I'd like to say yes. I'd like to say yes in any situation, even the two worst teams in the league, which I think maybe we do have here with the Jets and the Giants that combining their rosters it would be a playoff competitive team. But I don't know it would be tough. I think it would be tough. I think depends on who's healthy. I do think that
the Jets and the Giants have talent. It's the coaching staff and obviously the quarterback that they haven't been able to solve.
Who do you think is the best coaching option on the FRA And maybe there's something that opens up between now and the offseason. But if you're Woody Johnson, if you're the Jets, who do you think is the number one potential possibility to coach them next year?
I think the number one possibility on everyone's list is going to be Ben Johnson, the Lions offensive coordinator who not just has you know solved Jared Goff another one of those reclamation projects, but also turned the Detroit Lions offense into one of the best offenses in the league.
Obviously they've hit on a lot of picks as well, but I think that offense unlock Sing's for golf and those other players that other play callers aren't Caleb b Love and with where the league is going points points points, I think he's going to be top of everyone's listen more about does he wants to go to this place? You have to like you know him going back to Detroit two seasons when he's had hey coaching interviews. I think it's something to think about if you go back
to Detroit, does he wants to stay in offense? Courtier He'll be, He'll be an interesting name. And I think the number two list is Mike Rabel. He has to return you to the NFL sideline. I think this this season, I think a lot of teams are gonna look for Able to come in, build up his own staff again, build up everything, and like for an owner that wants to just hand the keys off again to someone who
wants the autonomy that I think Mike Brabil wants. I think they're going to jump at that opportunity too, because people forget how well coached those Titans teams were. They just traded away Ajy Brown couldn't figure out quarterback and there he went. All right.
I want to ask you about one of the teams that we have on the station tonight, because in our market, it's interesting. Some of it's based off proximity, some of it's based off of college players that went to play elsewhere.
We have a lot of forty nine er fans in this market. I think a lot of that Steve Young back in the day.
And of course we have a college football team here with the University of Utah that has been so crestfallen and just hit with injuries on an intense level over the past two years.
It's hard to explain.
Is there anything other than health that has caused this Niner season to go south? I mean, we talked to you preseason Austin when it was Kansas City and San Francisco and everybody else as far as the Vegas ods. Is this simply a health thing for the Niners or should nither fans be concerned for the future.
I think it's I think the start of this fire is obviously health right. They went into the season with the number one overall pick and every fantasy football draft, but completely not even remotely ready for the season. He had Achilles ten and nine ers in one calf, and then four weeks later it's in another, and then two weeks later he's in Germany, Like what was going on? They're hiding secrets. Jordan Mason in that Week one game was like, oh yeah, they told me on Friday. Oops.
I wasn't supposed to say that. Things started unravel, Like as soon as Christian McCaffrey was ruled out in that money in that football game, and you can just feel the brand that you contract, the vibes with the Niners team. I think their heads is just elsewhere coming off that Super Bowl, lost the emotional hangover. It was a team that, like Kret Borders had said, he was playing on a broken ink all season, Like this is like they're guys
playing for injuries. Their guys are obviously hurt, their guys that are upset. Deebo Samuel doesn't look like the same player. It's hard to find where players improved on this roster. I think Rock party has in some places, Mustafa has had to the safety there has replaced his song that like, it's had some improvements. But Devondre Campbell, veteran linebacker, literally quit on this team and the Niners couldn't be louder about it. Every player is like, you know, hating on
Devondra Campbell. It's just a weird roster. It's a weird right team. They need to get healthy, obviously, so does every team in the NFL. What they need, in my opinion, is a culture shift. You don't have players quitting on football teams if the culture is gravy. I think they need They need to make some changes.
I referenced earlier that we are in the former Pac twelve footprint and once upon a time the quarterback for Arizona State was Jayden Daniels. And I'll just say when he was there, he looked fine, right, He didn't look like one of the best quarterback conference and certainly didn't look like this.
And it's not just that he's affected. He's just so fun to watch.
What stands out to you Austin year one for the Commanders in Jade and Daniels, I.
Think it's I think it's how well he's I think taken to coaching in Washington. And that's just assumption. So I haven't had the opportunity to talk with Jade Daniels had a talk with Washington's coaching staff, but I know hearing from reporters who have been in those locker rooms just how much the team loves Jane Daniels, how much the team is like leaned on him, and he's been
able to withstand it. And his key key notes coming out of college is like you can't take facts, and you can't take it's like this, and I feel like that there's anything he removed from his game out of the gate. I don't know if you remember those week one, week two games, it's like, oh, my first read's not there. I gonna run. First reason, not there, I wanna run.
And then weeks one through seven it was like a top five offensive all time in terms of EPA for drive, Like they did the simple things well, they really flowed things down from him out of the gate. And then as he's obviously got more comfortable and as obviously he's got more confident, save up things in the offense, and they added wrinkles and then next thing, you know he's on fourtune seven making like two duo Smiths like he's It's allowed him to play comfortable. I think it's a
very impressive, not just with Jaye and Daniels. How a lot of these rookie quarterbacks have been handled with some of these coaching staffs. Obviously the Bears excluded what they're doing with Caleb Williams. Your guest is started than mine.
Yeah, and I do want to get there in a moment, but I want to stick with the rookie quarterback theme because obviously, due to proximity, we are littered with Bronco fans in this market. And I will admit because I was on the sidelines and Oregon rolled up to Utah last year and smoked them, But I don't know that I saw anything like this with Bonix coming. I you know, I credit Sean Payton, I credit Denver, and there's plenty left for them and they still have some work to
do to make make the postseason. But from a macro standpoint, does it feel like Denver has their quarterback in a good future?
I think again, one of my big like memento tattoos, it's not sure if you saw that seen that movie, the famous member he tattoos on his body so he remembers what I remember. What I want to remember for next year is that coaching matters, and Sean Payton's a good coach. He's won a Super Bowl, like there are decisions that that guy's made in his career that even though not every season has been a winning season, he's
been a very accomplished coach in the league. And bo Nicks with not a lot of support supporting cast talent and Rossavan objectively needs help both offensively and defensively. I think he has been put in a position to succeed by a coach that has given ll a ton of confidence. He compared Sean Payton compared bo Nicks to Patrick Mahomes because there's a certain way of like handling quarterbacks, especially coming out of the gates like not but look what
compare what the Colts have done with Anthony Richardson. I think that guy that do you think that guy's confidence is great? He has no idea if they like him or don't. Who in up building supports them and who doesn't Bo Nicks, I would imagine given just how Sean Payton talked about him and just the opposite he's constructed for Knicks, everything's different. The game plans are always constantly changing.
That's why no one knows in fantasy football if they should start Courtland Sutton or Vley or the tight end or whoever. Like they're always distributing the ball to the new players, constantly making things different for the defense. The defense are the defense on the other side of all, in Denver two is very well coached. I didn think
he just went to a good situation. I think we're going to go into this draft and we're going to compare Cam war to Shader Sanders for like five months, Carson back Quin you weres and at the end of the day, it's like where are they going, who are are they going to be supported? And that ultimately determined where we deal with them.
You referenced Caleb Williams and I actually do want to talk about the upcoming draft class a little bit too. But let's go back there because once again, Pac twelve kid, we saw him here. Utah actually had some good success against Caleb Williams and that USC team. He just I think set a rookie record for past attempts without a pick before the prior game which you know he threw an interception, and there's certainly our moments of what I would say brilliance that were in college that were in
the NFL as well. What do well, well, First of all, do you agree that he has what it takes to be good for a long time? And second of all, what do the Bears have to do to give him a chance to win consistently at this level?
Here's the answer, here's the honest truth that Bears fans. I think some Bears fans are maybe not willing to make bits. It's both the coaching staff stinks and Caleb Williams isn't good enough yet. There are errors in his game that he had at USC that he's carried to the NFL. He's holding the ball too long, He's turning every play into a superman put my cape on thing like it. He needs to be more consistent. He needs to deliver ball with more accuracy, more consistent, but work.
He can get away with alternate angles and scrambling all those things because he's uber talented. But if he's going to be long term successful, week to week successful, he's going to need one an offensive play caller worth their salt and going to have to be disciplined and listen and have more confidence than trust inside the offense. I don't blame him for not having confident and an offensive line that's one of the bottom five of the league
and not having confidence in a offered the cordinator. They couldn't get out of the building soon or enough. He's going to need an improved situation. But Bear fans would be lying to themselves as they think it's just the coach that's going to fix this. Caleb needs to fix this game too. He could be a coach killer if every single time they're blaming the coach because they see these little highlights, because they think he can Darnold, they think he can Baker Mayfield, they think he can Gino.
It might get to a point where there's so much frustration in the buildings. He's not my guy. I didn't draft him that he could be. In the situation that the Bears have been improved very long time for one, GM drafts a guy and it doesn't really work out with the coaching stamps, so they fire the coaching staffs and they bring it a new GM like they need stability. He needs Caleb Williams and Every player in this league needs stability, especially at the quarterback position.
I certainly did not plan on making this the former Pac twelve quarterback interview. And maybe it's still sad that we're no longer a PAC twelve market because of the leadership of that conference, essentially blowing up a really special thing. But year one, Jim Harbaugh chargers Herbert go, what are the takeaways.
The culture each strategy for breakfast? You know, everyone was questioning like, well, who they get fun the ball to? Who they gonna throw the ball to? Are they gonna everage justin her ru enough. You gotta have an high average hip to target. But has anyone falls Jim Harbo's career that Hede wins football games. He looks at the roster, he understands the strength, he knows the kind of brand of football he wants his team to play. They set a standard and they hit it. They set a standard
and they hit it. Now now when people don't agree to that standard. Who everyone knows about the arguments with Trent baal Key. You know they maybe go different ways, but he has proven everywhere he's gone he wins by setting a standard, not just strategically philosophically but also culturally, and they've drafted good players. They've set their standard. And you knew if I knew anything about the Charges going into the season, some people thought they were gonna be good.
Some people thought they were gonna growing paints. They're going to improve every week, and they have through injuries, through question marks, and through mcconkey's growing paints through his injuries, like they but they improved every single week. And when you win football games, and that culture is what it is, and that standard is very high, very hard, it doesn't matter. It's the bell Check of everything, it's the Brable of everything,
it's the Tomlin of everything. If your culture is very disciplined and tough and the kind of brands of football he wants to play, and you win football games, everybody buys it. And obviously he's proven that in your one.
It's a good answer for me to segree to the Eagles because I feel like I like them and there's a lot to like. Obviously, there's talent all over the place, and of course, you know Jalen misses the game last week, he'll come back healthy. I'm sure are you buying them as a Super Bowl contender. What's best case for Philly because I think what you just outlined about the culture is something that people don't love as far as the way the season is kind of manifested.
They're a hard team to nail. For me, they win football games. They have a ton of talent, cut talent along the offensive line. Jal It Hurts his talented take one Barkley Holy, I mean he's talented, a J. Brown like defensively, Cooper de Jean, you know Queenia and Mitchell. They find the Georgia Boys like they know how to find talent. They've had a talent in this roster. It's hard to lose games when you have some of some of the key key players they have with Townsey Smith
hasn't even mentioned Dallas Carter. I mean, they have a lot of talent, and I think the coaching staff has in a lot of ways maximized that. I think people how many games that they've won, a lot of the postseason and success that they've had. Obviously they haven't been able to win the big one, but like that that's the point, right. I think Sirianni starts to becoming a
very tough media landscape. More of a distraction than something wholesale additive when every other media outlet's covering the next best play caller, Andy Reid, Shanahan, the flur Ben Johnson, like, it gets harder and harder when you feel like it's hard to pull holes in the team. It's hard to pull holes in the Eagles. They're talented. You have to look at the guy that maybe you feel like isn't
doing anything and isn't isn't adding anything. He isn't the defensive coordator, he isn't the opposive play caller, he isn't even maybe the tough security guy Big Dom maybe does more. Who knows, but I don't know. There's obviously a lot of folky storylines around it. At the end of the day, they're finding ways to win football games. It's just hard right now, especially on the upside looking game, to know how much Sirianni is helping this team versus hurting it.
One of the most talked about teams and hotly debated topics right now is what's happening in Cincinnati. Because if you're a Bengals fan, you have a generational talent under center, and I just love watching Burrow play.
I always have.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a college offense like they had at LSU a senior year, And there's still a small sliver of hope for them. They need a bunch to go their way, including they have to beat the Steelers next week, and then Colts and the Dolphins lose one of their final two games, need the Broncos to lose to the Chiefs.
So there's there's still a sliver of hope.
But if they don't make it in or quite frankly, even if they do, what's fair to say about the way I perceive Cincinnati has failed a generational talent under center.
Yeah, I think, you know, parts of me wants to blame Zach Taylor just given I don't. I don't know. I think he's created an offense that works for Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and t Higgins, and when all the guys are healthy, this thing works, but it also doesn't feel very fit to handle adversity. I think when when te Higgins is healthy, it feels like it's humming. When he's not, things look a lot harder for them. It's why they lose games early in the season. I
don't think they solve problems. Well, they don't solve problems fast enough. I mean, how do you lose this many games, even as bad as your defense has been, How do you lose this many games of this kind of talent offensively? And people are gonna say, oh, Louisnarumo, you have to fire the defensive coordinator. You've got to fire Louyennarumo. Why
wouldn't you fire lul Arumo? Two years ago every pundit in this league was talking about how he's maybe the only reason they went to the Super Bowl Like that. To me, I feel like how we flip flop on our opinions of coaches is just too quick. For how long they're in this league, how much people said, opinion change, how much this, how much the NFL changes every single
year with all the different rule changes. Like I do think that at a certain point, the common denominator and why this team has starts, Why this team constantly slits under expectations, they play down to their competition. It always starts at the top. And Cincinnati is the franchise is it very much avoids firing their coaches. They've had a lot of long tended coaches. But I think it's where
the league is now. Like, if you don't maximize this burrow, this burrow, Chase Higgins's tandem and win some Super Bowls, a lot of Angles fans are going to be disappointed in Zach Taylor very soon.
All right, Austin, before I said, you lose, no team in NFL history has won three straight Super Bowls?
Does that end this year? And if not? Who gets in their way?
Say that again? I missed the team, so I was just.
Asking no team has won three straight. Obviously the Chiefs have a chance. So do the Chiefs get it done?
And if not? Who gets in their way?
It's so tough. I think Baltimore is going to be
very hard to play this this this January. I think I think Derrick Henry looks like a problem, a very very hard problem to stop and solve for as we saw the league, every linebacker is getting lighter, every defensive lineman's getting faster, every corner is getting faster, and I think a lot of what there is some overcrash I think you're seeing here Derrick Henry, This big bully boy Ravens offensive line very difficult to stop in cold weather, in these games where you play a lot of teams
trying to throw the ball on you. The Ravens feel very fearsome. I think Buffalo's too maybe roller Coastery to buy them, even with eleven second stuff, you know, in Kansas City or wherever. I think Baltimore is that team that I think could knock them off. But I don't know. My money's on Chiefs Man. There's a lot of ways to make a dollar. I don't need to make one vetting against the home Now.
I'm with you there, man.
Appreciate the time today, have a great new year, enjoy the games. We'll chat soon, all right. Sounds good to soon, all right, Austin Gale, our buddy from the Ringer, appreciate his top