Welcome in what driving the great Episode four fourteen fresh off inarguably the greatest wild card weekend in NFL history, And we were listen Sunday night football Chargers Patriots was fine but not great, and last night's game was a tough watch, but at least close until it was just a catastrophe. But prior to that, we were on the following run of football games. Game two, seventy two of the NFL season Raven Steelers comes down to the final moments.
Game one of the College Football Playoff All Miss Miami, one of the best college football games in a decade. Game two of College FOOTBA Playoffs Indiana Trunc's Oregon. Game one of the NFL Playoffs, Panthers ten and a half point home down against the Rams, up at the two minute warning, Rams comeback. Game two an instant, all time legacy writing classic between the Packers and the Bears. Packers up at the two minute warning and up eighteen in
that game, Bears come back and win. Game three, Jags Bills, the There are four different lead changes in the fourth quarter, including a final two minute comeback by the Bills. And Game four of the NFL Playoffs, Eagles Niners another comeback in the final two minutes, including our long national nightmare of the Eagles title reign finally ending. Listen, not everybody can defend a championship. Not everybody can win the Super Bowl and then either win another one or go back
to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs did every single time they won one. The Patriots did it a lot. That's that's not how the Eagles roll, So be it. Uh And if that sounds petty, and if I sound like a hater, and if I sound a little unprofessional, the answer to all those things are yes, yes, and yes. I've had Eagles fans harassing me in the streets for
eleven months of how is that Super bowlf? Worst year the Chiefs had in a decade, Eagles coming off defending Super Bowl championship one same amount of playoff games, Fellows, It just is what it is.
How are you doing, Demanse, I'm doing great, Pops doing pretty good.
I'm doing you know what? I do. Think this, and then we'll get in. I want to start with Monday Night football and into this. I do think that of the nine best teams in the NFL this year, eight of them are left and the only one who maybe could argue was in the top eight that didn't make it was Jacksonville. But Jacksonville over the course of the entire season wasn't as like you could say, Jacksonville, you know,
was better than Houston this year. But it felt like Houston had the really tough opening month and then was outstanding. Jacksonville was kind of mediocre for two months and then finished really hot. And so the right eight teams are left and it sets up my favorite weekend of the sports year, Divisional Round weekend, which should be four epic games before we get to Rogers, before we get to
any of that. I already reminded you guys. This episode of What's Right as all of Them is presented by boost Mobile Straight to Voicemail, also brought to you by boost Mobile. Big Dom helped out Oh oh, sideline snag. I thought we were talking about the AJ Brown Nick Sirianni Kurf fluffle, but no, Big Dom did catch a pass. Big Dom also was wearing a headset. I don't really know why. I'm not sure what big Dom you know, what he's chiming in on, but he's wearing a headset.
NFL all Pro teams have been announced. Gives you a pretty strong indicator that Matt Stafford's gonna win League MVP. Now, I understand last year was the rare year year that first team All Pro Quarterback was one guy and the MVP was the other, with it being Lamar first Team All Pro quarterback. But Josh League MVP. I don't think that's gonna happen in back to back years. And Timmy shallome wins Golden Globe for Best Actor in Marty Supreme. I have not seen that yet. I want to see it.
I like Timmy Shallomey. I kind of like the way he conducts himself. He also seems like a hell of an actor. I really liked him in Dune. He has an underrated small role in an all time movie, but very hard, not hard to watch, but very emotional. And Interstellar Tomorrow before real quick Toman say if you' seen Interstellar.
I've not seen it, but I've heard the pictures are great. I've seen that one scene where like the thing is coming to say.
Wave yes, oh yeah, yeah, okay, cool, So here's the thing. Interstellar's Christopher Nolan movie. Almost all Christopher Nolan movies except for the Dark Knight movie. He likes to mess with time, so it's a little confusing to wrap your mind around exactly all of it. But here's the other thing. It will have you found. Give me thirty seconds here and
then we'll get to the sports. I promise, have you found just like commercials or since you've become a dad in the last two months, that all of a sudden, like there are certain things that are otherwise would be banal. That makes you.
Emotional sit on a little bit longer.
Yeah, yeah, So Interstellar at it it's a you know, interstellar space travel movie, but it's also a five daughter relationship movie. I think Interstellar would make you cry, like like tears down your face cry, but it is an awesome movie. Timmy Shallamy is in that all right. Reminder, everybody like Grate subscribe review to the pod. It helps us out a ton. We're still sitting. We seem to have petered out on YouTube. We're just we didn't send it two hundred and twenty eight thousand for a while.
Maybe you guys can give me the updated numbers. We'd love to increase that. It also helps us a ton if you subscribe on Spotify or iTunes. This was probably the worst game of the weekend, but it was the game last night. Oh, two hundred and twenty nine thousand. Now, maybe get to two hundred and thirty thousand by next week. It was the worst game of the weekend, but it's the one that happened last night. It also might have been the final game for a legend. So we'll start with Texan Steelers.
Oh yeah, wildcard. Wildcard weekend ended with the Texans defeating Steelers. Steelers offense couldn't do anything, Texans offense couldn't do anything, but the Texans won the game. When asked about his future after the game, Aaron Rodgers said, I'm not going to make any emotional decisions, but at forty two years old, do you think that this is the end of the road for him?
Well, I didn't think that at all going into the game, because Rogers has been talking about how he thought he would have one or two teams that would showed interest, the fact that he had seemed to be playing some of his best ball at the end of the year.
Steelers made the playoffs. All of that, but Buck and Aikman talked like they knew the way Buck and Aikman talked at the end of that game, and the way ESPN produced the end of that game following Rogers and all of that, it felt to me like they got a heads up that he's planning on retiring now. If this wasn't already the case thanks to Philip Rivers couple game cameo, the long tail of Philip Rivers coming back after five years on the couch is going to be that.
Certainly next year and maybe for the next couple after. If any good team suffers a November or December quarterback injury, Rogers name will be floated and maybe he would come back in a setting like that. You know something the that if next year the Rams are nine to four and Stafford goes down, could you know, could he come back in that spot? I also think Aaron likes the spotlight enough that I don't think we are going to get a quick resolution on this. I think he's going
to take his time. But I do think that last night was the de facto ind for Aaron Rodgers, and I do want to take some time here to talk about how I will remember and think about Rogers, because last night's game will have no real impact on how
I think about him down the road. I did think that you saw some things last night that were part and parcel to why a player as talented and generational as Aaron Rodgers was not considered a great leader and was not did not win at the level that his talent would have made you think he was going to win at Because there was no less than half a dozen times last night where a play was not made by the Steelers, or a pass was missed, or the Texans got pressure quick pressure, and Aaron made it very
clear to everyone on the field, in the stadium and at home that that was someone else's fault. A lot of pointing, a lot of gesticulation, a lot of making it very clear to the whole world he's screwed up, not me. Also, and I listen. I haven't watched the All twenty two. I don't know if the Texans changed something in their coverage, but I do know that I've seen Aaron do this in big spots before. One of his guys let him down with a drop and he
simply stopped going to him. DK Metcalf, which was one of the reasons I thought the Steelers could win this game, was getting DK Metcalf back. DK Metcalf was a featured part of the game play early. He then had a huge drop and Rogers didn't throw him another pass for two hours, and that is those things have always been part of the Rogers experience, and his career is so interesting because it would have seemed impossible. Demons, you weren't You were only twelve years old and you were not
a big football fan as a little kid. But it would not have seemed believable at all in twenty ten that Rogers would never get back to another Super Bowl. It is not different at all from how people thought about Mahomes after his first Super Bowl one an MVP, you know, instantly came on the scene and was awesome. Obviously, Rogers had to sit, you know, for three years behind far, but by his second year in the league was considered
maybe the best quarterback in football. And if in that moment people had said Patrick's never making another Super Bowl, it would have seemed impossible. That's what it felt like for Aaron and I know the biggest Rogers defenders, and once upon a time I was I don't know if I was one of the biggest Rogers defenders, but I was certainly more sympathetic to his cause than I've been over the last decade. There are extenuating circumstances and some
really unfortunate playoff losses that had nothing to do with him. Okay, so his first ever playoff game, demonse. They scored forty five points and lost in overtime. Wow. The first ever playoff game was a fifty one forty five lost to the Arizona Cardinals. Now the loss was on a strip sack returned for a touchdown. But that you score forty five points, that should be enough. Second year in the playoffs they win the Super Bowl. I'm now going to jump to the playoff losses that you feel like he
has no culpability. On twenty twelve, they score thirty one in the divisional round against San Francisco. The Niners and Colin Kaepernick score forty five and just the Packers defense has no answer whatsoever. Twenty sixteen, the Falcons put up forty four on the Packers defense in the NFC Championship game. Feel like there's not much you can do there. The very next year, twenty nineteen, the Niners and a rushing attack that I think in that game they threw the ball.
Was that the game they threw the ball eight times. Yep, the Niners threw the ball eight times and scored thirty seven points to go to the Super Bowl. Those three playoff losses, and those are all huge ones. It's fair to say, what did you want from Aaron? What more could he have done? I'll add one more. The year they're defending their championship, they're fifteen to one. They're at home against the New York Giants. The Giants score thirty seven points in freezing cold and send them home to
go on to win the Super Bowl. Those ones, right, Those Packers' defenses were brutal, right, right. There are some other ones though that that was not the story. And people remember the Seattle NFC championship game, and what they remember is the Packers were up sixteen to nothing and nineteen to seven Demons with three minutes left in that game of nineteen to seven, with three minutes left in the game, they end up allowing a fake field goal touchdown,
they allow an on side kick. They then don't get tough, they don't get the coin toss. In overtime, Russell Wilson hits a thirty five yard pass. They go to the Super Bowl, end up losing to Tom Brady and the Patriots. What people don't remember so much about that game was Rogers was awful. He had one touchdown, two picks, a fifty six rating, and they couldn't score in the red zone. The next year, they're playing a Cardinals team. This is the game where Rogers hits back to back hail mary's
to force overtime. And what they and when I say back to back hail mary's again, if people can't visualize the situation. They are in a fourth and twenty Demons on their own four yard line with fifty five seconds left, and Rogers hits a sixty yard pass. They then rush to the line of scrimmage, couple deep shots, and then five seconds left, on the forty one Rogers hits another hail Mary. He threw one hundred and one yards of passes on that possession to Jeff Janis to tie a
playoff game. And then on the very first possession of overtime, the Cardinals go right down the field and score. The first play of overtime, Larry Fitzgerald takes it seventy five yards. They score the next play, But in that game, prior to those two hail Marys, the Packers had fourteen points. Rogers had a passer rating in the fifties again, had one hundred and fifty yards, one touchdown, one pick, and then, obviously people remember the very end NFC Championship game against
Tom Brady and Tampa is really bad. In the first half, they dig a huge hole. They then are down eight with two and a half minutes left, they can't punch it in. Laflora kicks the weird field goal, and then his final playoff game with the Steelers, the Niners did not score an offensive touchdown, but Rogers once again had a really weird game where all he would do was target Devonte Adams and they end up losing the game on a blocked punt touchdown thirteen to ten, with Rogers
kind of throwing away the final possession. So what we with all that said? He's a four time MVP who has the all time record for passer rating and as far as the all time record for lowest interception percentage, and at times looked like the most physically gifted player of the position's ever seen. But the combination of his what I would call prickly leadership style, plus it's not me it's you when things went wrong. Plus not playing
to an Aaron Rodgers level consistently in the playoffs. Is why a guy that good is going to finish his career eleven and ten in the playoffs or is it eleven and eleven now? Oh, eleven and eleven in the playoffs because they lost yesterday and with only the one trip to the super Bowl. If I were doing the all time quarterback rankings, he has the talent of a no doubt top five guy, but he can't. And I understand it's become very in vogue to throw you know
a lot of people in top fives. You're not going to find a bigger Matt Stafford fan than me. But the idea that Stafford is a super Bowl went away from being top five all time quarterback is obviously, on its face ludicrous. But if we're talking about the greatest quarterbacks ever, you have Brady Mahomes manning Montana, you can
argue about the order for them. For me, John Elway, and I don't know what you want to do with the old folks, Johnny Unitas, Bart star, Otto Graham, those guys, but they've got to be accounted for in some degree. I can't speak to them, but I can't pretend you can't do an NBA Top ten and not include Russell and Will. I don't know that you can do an NF Top ten quarterbacks and not include Unitis, Star and Graham. So I don't know what you want to do with them.
But now we're at eight names, and then we can start having the Steve Young, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees discussion. And I know my colleagues are about to put Josh Allen in there as well. It's the most talented players. You see Josh Allen wildcard, we can the oh yeah. And so I think it's fair if this is the end for Rogers, one of the greatest players
ever who underachieved. There is an element of Wilt Chamberlain to Rogers in that a uniquely talented player that up to that point in his career we had never seen anyone quite like him, but didn't quite win at the level that that talent would have demanded, and it was because of some own leadership and stylistic failings. So there's my Rogers piece of it. I know you want to ask me about the Tomlin piece.
So there's rumors about them wanting to move on from Tomlin the Steelers at that.
Do you think that they should?
I don't think I don't think that they should, but I would understand if they did that these playoffer It's not just that he's now tied Marvin Lewis for most consecutive losses in the playoffs at seven. It's not just that it'll now be ten years since they won a playoff game, at a minimum, it's that they have been wholly non competitive in these playoff games. The first one, so well, if we're gonna do the full streak, I
guess I gotta be fair. The first one was the conference championship game to the Patriots, and again you're playing an all time Patriots seems conference championship game, but you instantly fell down ten to nothing. You're down three, thirty six to nine with minutes left, you lose thirty six to seventeen. So you get annihilated in that football game that's lost one, lost two on this Timelin losing streak.
You're at home with the bye, playing Blake Bortles Jacksonville Jaguars, and twenty minutes into the game, Demanse, you're down twenty one to nothing, and you end up scoring a bunch of points. You know, you cut it to seven a couple times, but you trail the entirety of the game. You lose forty five forty two, and they get grizzlier from there. Lost three on this playoff losing streak. You're
playing the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield. You are down twenty eight to nothing in the first quarter and you lose forty eight to thirty seven. Game two, Al, I'm sorry, Game two, where are we having this? Game? Game five? Game five of the playoff losing streak, you're playing the Chiefs. You go up seven nothing on a TJ. Watt stripsack in the second quarter. You then find yourself down after being up seven to nothing, thirty five to seven, thirty
five to seven. Game six of the playoff losing streak last year against Buffalo. Midway through the second quarter, you're down twenty one to nothing, and so you lose thirty one seventeen.
If they keep calling he has to focus on offense.
The well, hold on, hold on, just because I got that wrong. That wasn't the I got the year wrong on that last one. The Bills loss that was not last year. When you're down, that was two years ago. Last year's loss was to the Ravens, where once again, at halftime, you're down twenty one to nothing and so and then this year was a weird one because you were in it, but your offense could do nothing, and
then you get annihilated, but in the final score. So I would understand if Steelers fans are like, I'm I've had my full here Phil here, But I still think he is a really good coach, and I would be scared of getting on that coaching carousel again. Now what were you saying, Demanday.
Oh, I just think that maybe focus on something else, bringing somebody else to help Tomlin on the offensive side of things. It's clear that he doesn't. That's not his side of the ball, I think. So that's a huge problem.
So here's the thing, though, So I think that makes sense in general, except for in these playoff games last night, notwithstanding the defense has been getting just absolutely crushed.
Yeah.
Now, I want to give the Texans their credit and we'll talk more about the Texans on Thursday show. Weird game because CJ was awful. CJ was awful, and it didn't matter because that defense was that good and that defense was that ferocious, But you saw how tough it is to do business that way, because as great as that defense was and as inept as that Steelers offense was, that was a one point game or a four point
game deep into the game. Yeah, it felt like they were one busted coverage away at any point from holy shit, the Steelers are gonna steal this. I mean that game seven to six entering the fourth quarter. It's ten to six in the fourth quarter with the Steelers having the ball before the Rankins fumble return touchdown that essentially ended the game. That Texans defense and Demico Ryans deserved massive credit.
But if that's how that offense looked against a good but not great Steelers defense in a game they had Nicocollins for a lot of next week that defense is gonna have to be just as good because I don't know what that Texans dophin is gonna be able to do. And by the way, I want to say some of the Nico Collins thing, Nico Collins pretty clearly got concussed
on like the third playoff of the game. Yes, and they they put him back out there, and I understand it's the playoffs, and I get they put him back out there again. This is this is naked, reckless speculation by me. It looked to me like he got concussed on the first drive of the game. They checked him for it, they put him back out there, and then when he got hit again later in the game, they it was such a bad concussion. At that point, they
said he didn't know where he was. He tried to walk back to the huddle and they had to cart him off. That's brutal, man And again, maybe it was just coincidence that it looked like he got concussed. He didn't, and then a pretty typical hit gave him one of the worst concussions of the NFL season. But that's hard to sell me and the Patriots Christian Gonzalez got a concussion, tried to go back out there, and they prevented him from going back out there, and he went in the protocol.
Maybe so, maybe both those guys are missing next week. It would be impossible for me to think Nico Collins gonna be able to play next week. Credit to the Texans defense. Maybe you know what demands, Maybe Caleb should call CJ and give him some pointers on how to get back to the lovely needs to be a Yeah he should. Today's show is brought to you by representing
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with it. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. All right, de Montey, let's talk Niners Eagles.
After a season of iffness, the Eagles were defeated by the Niners, even with George Kittle getting an achilles injury. Jan's got to get close of the year, but he's just doing everything with nothing. You've been on this train for the entire season. How are you feeling out that Philly is out of the postseason?
Listen, I don't have anything against the players on the Eagles, to be clear. I find their coach wildly annoying, and the fans that I have interacted with in person, some of them have been some of the most irrationally annoying adults I've met in ten years. So that's colored maybe my feelings on the Eagles a bit, to be fair.
Yep.
With that said, I'm able to remove myself from those feelings to analyze what I think is going to happen with a team, not what I want. Everything I said right there informs what I want to happen, but the games and the information inform what I think is going
to happen. And what I thought was gonna happen with the Eagles in the playoffs was what happened with them all year long, which is there impossibly inconsistent, wildly underachieving offense would be that in the playoffs, and even against a Niners defense that was starting three linebackers who were not on the roster, two of them a month ago, and all backups, that is exactly what that e team ended up, being, a defense that could only do so much, as great as it was, and an offense that killed
their season. You can't have a higher three and out percentage than just about any team in the NFL in a decade and flip a switch come to the playoffs. You can't have fourteen of your thirty six halves this year score seven points or less and just flip a switch come the playoffs. And what has been consistent under Sirianni's tenure in Philly is every year, even before Saquon, they had a dominant running game with a quarterback that
was a huge part of it. They did not have that this year, Saquon wasn't as dominant, the offensive line wasn't as good, Jalen wouldn't run the way he would in the past, and they became a more traditional Other teams were able to defend them in a more traditional fashion where we don't have to devote every single one of our resources to stopping the run. We're gonna be able to devote a little bit more to stopping the pass. And they didn't have a consistent drop back passing offense
all year. And for me, this season is a far bigger indictment on Siriani than it is on Jailen. Jalen has earned, to me, far more benefit of the doubt than Siriani. We also know, listen, this was not a good game by Jalen Hurts. This was the There have only been three He's lost four career playoff games, a super Bowl and three in the wildcard round. The three wildcard round losses were all three losses where he played poorly.
So this was only the third time he's ever they've lost a playoff game, and one of the fair fingers you can point is at him. With that said, that happens and Jalen I thought was a steady hand for this team, even though I thought his ability to read the field and his ability to make passes to every quadrant of the field or lack of ability tore hurt them this year. But that that's a You'll deal with that because he's such a good leader, he's so tough,
he's been so clutch historically, Like he's not listen. Is he one of the five best quarterbacks in football? To me? Pretty clearly not? Is he a guy you can win a Super Bowl with? Literally? Obviously? Yes? Has he upped his level of play in the two biggest games he's ever played in, Absolutely so you can deal with some of that from jailing a bad game, missing a couple guys.
Sirianni's a different situation where there were three major jobs for Nick Sirianni this year that presented themselves during the year. The first one was as an offensive minded head coach, how do we get our offense on track? He never answered that bell. The second one was do I need to make a mid season coordinator change as we've done in the past, because Kevin Bittullo ain't ready for this
and isn't equipped for it. He chose not to, and the third one was am I going to be able to get my arms around whatever's going on with aj Brown? And if not, do we need to cut bait with him at the trade deadline? He was not able to get his arms around it at any point all year, and they didn't trade him. He did find time to excuse me, he did find time to flip his shit at Bill's fans for no reason whatsoever, and to generally act in a way no other NFL head coach act.
But he didn't do a good job this year. And we have seen this from Philadelphia before, so I will say it again. Nick Sirianni enters next season with one of the hottest seats in the NFL, like because so many coaches got fired. It's hard to really like find coaching hot seats because most of the guys on the
hot seat got fired already. But I would say next year, just sitting here today, Aaron Glenn after that train wreck of a season, Zach Taylor after three consecutive missed postseasons with Joe Burrow, Shane Steichen after another Colt season where ugh they were okay. Tomlin, well, I don't know the Tomlin thing. That's the thing is I Tomlin, I'm not. I'm not sure where that's going to go. Tomlin Lafloor. Are they going to be there or not? Like those
are the two guys. Todd Bowles enters next season with a warm seat, but I don't know if any of those seats are hotter than Sirianni's next year.
Well yeah, now, all those other coaches, this guy doesn't even really get along with his players, So I think those other guys don't have that that to them.
The most of those other the Packers would be the exception to this. Most of those other teams also don't have a front office that feels like, yeah, you have a super Bowl caliber, great team. And here is the other thing for Philly that void money time bomb is waiting. And by that, here's what I mean. I'm gonna see if I can find the tweet that the Eagles run their cap in a way. Let me see if I can find it no one else does. And if I do find it, I'll send it to you guys. Maybe
we can get it on the show. Maybe not, but if not, it's okay. The I should have pulled this up before, and okay, here it is. I'm I'm gonna text it to our group chat right now. This is from Dan Rodgers. Uh, so credit to him for doing the work here. Uh and sorry for doing this on the fly, guys the Eagles that one of the reasons the Eagles are able to have such a great roster is because they borrow from future ye and oh you
know what, I gave Dan Rodgers credit. I really should have given SF Data forty nine ers credit because they're the ones who built the graphic initially. So the Eagles have structured contracts to where and I don't think this is necessarily dumb at all. But as I've talked about ninety seconds of nerd cap stuff here, every single dollar you pay any player on your roster at some point shows up on your salary cap books as a salary
cap charge. The Eagles because their owner is willing to pay a lot of cash up front, the Eagles borrow from way down the line years by adding voidable us on the end of contracts to stack the roster now, because it's like, we've got a super Bowl caliber roster team, quarterback,
all of it. And then they take their medicine in a couple of years, have a reset season, and then you know, started started anew but they have done it in a way that no team has ever and don't put the tweet up yet no team has ever structured it contracts quite like this. Like there's a half dozen teams in the league that just don't do void years, that have zero zero players on their salary cap with
voidable future years. And again, if I'm describing this, put demonster on the screen the way to explain it, I think is the best way. So, like, let me use a league averag team. As far as void money in the future, the Rams are dead in the middle, seventeenth out of thirty two teams and most money on void years. They have forty seven million in future salary cap charges that are gonna hit their books in future years for
money they have played. They have paid players that are on their current roster who won't be on the roster those years, do you understand, So they have borrowed forty seven million dollars from future RAMS teams for the right exactly. So now the cap will go up, and so they'll you know, and they probably think and in a few years we won't have a super expensive quarterback. It'll be fine. So the Rams are league average at forty seven million.
Now throw up the tweet. The Eagles are at four hundred and twenty two million dollars borrowed from future cap years, including two hundred and forty nine million dollars as it's currently written, borrowed from the twenty twenty eight Philadelphia Eagles. So Noah. The only other team in the league that's above two hundred million is the Browns, and more than half of that is the disasters to Sean Watson contract.
The The Broncos are in fifth. They did it to deal with in part, the Russell Wilson of dead money, you know, so the dead money that the Lions, you know, have borrowed from well down the road a bit because they feel like, basically the Lions philosophy, I think, is be as awesome as we can be right now, and then by the time this void money hits golf will be off the books.
Yeah.
The Eagles have a contractual bomb ticking in the form of the twenty twenty eight season is when the chickens come home to roost and you retool, which makes the twenty twenty sixth season all the more valuable to them. And it also is why when people talk about them trading AJ Brown. It's really not that simple so AJ Brown, because they've structured his contract, and with aj they have all those void years as well. If they wanted to
cut him, demonse right now for next season. AJ Brown's cap hit is a super manageable, super cheap twenty three million dollars. But if they were to cut him, his cap hit to not play for them is seventy two million dollars because all that other money gets accelerated. If they trade him, his cap hit becomes forty three million dollars. Now you can split that up into the twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven year. We don't have to spend as much time on this as I'm doing right now.
My point is this the Eagles have because they have an aggressive owner who's willing to spend money. They have an aggressive GM, they have put and they won a damn Super Bowl like they went to Souper Bowl two years ago or three years ago. They won it last year. This philosophy objectively has worked and has been smart, but it makes this type of season failing all the more painful, and it makes.
They're gonna be trash in a few years.
Well, I don't think money listen. I think that they will have much like they had after their last super Bowl win. A couple of years later, they had a super down year and then immediately got back. So I don't think they're gonna be It's not like the Saints. You're like just off in the wilderness four years, but you're going to reset the roster in a couple of years. So having it's a really weird trend they've been on
of the last five years. Bounced in round one, make a super Bowl, bounced in round one, win the super Bowl, bounced in round one. Now you win another super Bowl, make another super Bowl. Feels great. If next year goes poorly, I think a ton of changes come to Philly. So that's my Eagles, you know, stance on it. And I just think Sirianni's got to grow up a bit.
Yeah.
And I also think that the thing for Jalen is because the film is never gonna be super impressive. The thing about your your rep being I'm just a winner, you gotta win, and them getting bouncing around one in a home playoff game and him playing poorly, it's not, you know, cataclysmic, but it dings him a bit. All right, let's talk Niners for a second.
So we know the forty nine ers guys have been dropping throughout the year and they just lost.
Yeah, it's that power plant. Have you following that story?
Well, what's going on with the power plant?
The I don't know is probably I probably sound like an idiot, but there is some like energy way station or something that's next to the Niners practice facility in stadium. And this guy who wrote a book called Sunlight His Life went out there with a gossometer and check checked like the energy waves. And basically he's telling us the Niners players, ligaments, tendons, all that shit are yes, exactly getting Chernobyl. And that's why for a decade they've been
the most injured team. I'm saying I can't say the theory, but I'm not saying I don't believe it. They have been so injured every year for a decade and there's been no explanation. This guy thinks he figured it out. I can't rule it out, but go ahead.
So, yeah, Kittle just tore his achilles.
Do you believe in this team still or is this just too many injuries for them to still keep winning.
I mean it. We just saw him play the Seahawks and that game was close. They were in it. Like that game turned, didn't that game turn on a Brock interception late? And I'm gonna give Brock some credit here in a minute, but like I let me let me check this. I feel like that's how I remember it. Yeah, I mean threw that game was third. I guess turned is maybe unfair, but that game was thirteen to three Niners, and yeah, that's the man threw I'm sorry, thirteen to
three Seahawks. I misspoke. Thirteen to three Seahawks and the Niners in the early fourth quarter have a second in goal from the six to make it thirteen to ten, and that was the past he threw to McCaffrey. McCaffrey bobbled it and the Seahawks guy took it and that
basically ended it. Point is they were in that game kind of their The Niners defense did a good job against Darnold in the game for the one seed last Sunday night or the last Saturday night two Saturdays ago, so it feels like ruling them out would be disrespectful. But Seattle's on two weeks is on a week arrest. The Niners are on a short week. The Niners are keeping it together with Scotch tape.
I will listen to the Seahawks too. They have their most of their team. This is understandable. They're playing with guys that weren't even playing this year, and.
It would take a Darnald catastrophe, I think for the Seahawks to win that game. But none of that should take anything away from what I think is an all time great coaching job by Kyle Shanahan. Just an all time coaching job by Shanahan this year. And I know he turned the ball over, I know he made some mistakes. I thought perty had a hell of a gutsy performance against an excellent Eagles defense. Like I'll give Party credit now. Was the nicest pass thrown all day by a Niner
thrown by their wide receiver. Yes, but I still will give Party credit for what I thought was a really impressive and another nice come from behind playoff victory like that was, And the play to McCaffrey was great and so but I think this is the end of the road. I also think that is a hell of an impressive season for the Niners in that division, and with those injuries, all right, we maybe could have led with this. Let's talk about the game of the weekend.
Your boy Caleb pulled off the upset. Where are we calling this an upset? Were they favored in that game?
Flipped?
It went back and forth?
Yes, so he pulled he pulled off the comeback. I think they won a game where that he didn't lead in an offensive snap. Is this you put you put you waved him earlier in the year. Is this where you imagined him last year when you said that they were going to win the Super Bowl?
Well, I didn't say they're gonna win the super Bowl. Make the super Bowl? Sorry and listen. Yeah, I thought Caleb at the beginning of this year was shaky because he was and he has been shaky in the first half of all three of these Packer games. They played the Packers three times de Monsey, they beat him twice. They had the ball with the lead, zero snaps. Yeah,
in the whole, in the whole, in all three games. Right, the Packers had one hundred and six snaps with the lead, the Bears had zero, and the Bears won two of them.
Resiliency.
But the reason that so there's I mean, there's two angles here. There's the Packers absolutely blowing it even though Jordan Love your guy was awesome, and just find like I've never seen a team the Packers had the ball seven times after going up twenty one to three and scored a touchdown and never turned it over and the Bears got uh did turn it over and the Bears
came back. Anyway, like when the when the Jags came back against the Chargers four years ago, the Jags every single time they had the ball to score a touchdown, the Bears are kicking field goals, they're getting stopped on fourth down, and they still came back. That's a catastrophe of a loss.
Ben Johnson thing, Yes, it's in Johnson.
What direction well in a good way.
Like I just feel like if he's able to do that type of stuff even after.
The ball goals, I mean, that's what's interesting. He also had what I thought was a bizarre fourth down decision early in the game when they went for it on like fourth and four on their own thirty two, Like I didn't know what they were doing. He seemed like he was on tilt. But they came back, and yes, he gets a lot of credit for the play design
on coming back. But the story of that game and why that game will be remembered is it was Caleb Williams on full display that there are things he can do that only two other guys in the league, Mahomes and Josh can do. That throw he made on fourth and eight down eleven season, on the line, gliding to his left without his feet set, with three defenders around the guy he's throwing to. I say this without hyperbole.
It's one of the five best catches, one of the five best throws when you consider the degree of difficulty, the context and the stakes in the last decade in the NFL, and the the things he can do cannot be taught. So you just hope he gets better at the things that are easily taught. But the Bears that teams this year not named the Chicago Bears demanse when trailing by double digits in the final five minutes are three and one fifty nine. The Bears are three and three.
It is these comebacks that they've had. It's not down four goes, get a drive, it's down two scores late, and they just do it again and again. Now that's a not year over year, Well, the Chiefs weren't down big. They just winning the close games.
Yeah.
And but to your point about the Chiefs, that's that's not year over year sustainable, but it might be sustainable next week. It does mean that they are the only team in these playoffs that if they're down ten entering the fourth quarter feels fine.
Right.
And I if Matt Stafford retires, and I don't think he will, but just let's say they win the Super Bowl and he's like, all right, I'm done for me. Kalabile inter next year. The best quarterback in the NFC as good as Jordan Love was yesterday. I like Caleb Moore. I think he is. I'd take him over Golf. I'd take him over anyone in the NFC East, take him
over anyone in the NFC South. I is Stafford's the best, but he he is that guy and for all you know, whatever people want to say about his personality or his emotion, how emotional he is, and you can see the emotion for good or for bad during the game. His teammates have rallied around him, and his coach loves him, and I I think Caleb Stafford next week is the game of the divisional round weekend on the Green Bay side
of things. Quickly before we get to Bill's Jaggs demonse, this team was nine to three and one, and then Micah Parsons got hurt and they never one again. Two teams this year anticipated they were gonna have Micah Parsons, and when they didn't have him, their season just fell apart. And it's now The Packers should have won that game anyway, but their championship hopes ended when Micah went down. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rents going up,
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customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay twenty dollars per month as long as they remain on the boost Unlimited plan. All right, let's talk Bill's Jacks.
All right, probably game of the week. Trevor ended up losing this game, and I'm a sure guy the Bills won. Yeah, you called that one. You said earlier in the show that the winner of this game was going to the super Bowl. After seeing that game and how it played out, is that's still how you feel.
I mean, listen, the Bills are a flawed team. They're not as bad as some people make them out to be. They have a great offensive line, they have a great running back, they have a good pass defense, they don't have good receivers, and they don't have a good run defense. But they also have the second best quarterback of his generation and the best quarterback in these playoffs with respect to Stafford and Josh is on an all time playoff heater.
Since Josh Allen Demons lost to the Bengals in the Divisional round three years ago, he's played six playoff games. Now he's lost two of them to mahone. But in those six playoff games, he has sixteen touchdowns, no turnovers, and a one oh five rating. And this is why some folks thought they were defending Josh Allen by giving pre writing excuses for how the Bills were gonna lose and explaining how it was unfair to ask Josh Allen to win a road wild card game against the Jags,
and that's disrespect. What doing that does is it lowers the stakes. And if you lower the stakes, then when you come through, it's less impactful, it's less resonant. It was important that Josh Allen find a way to win that game. It was important after in twenty twenty three he had the ball in his hands down less than a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Divisional round
against the Chiefs and didn't come through. And then in twenty twenty four had the ball in his hands down less than a touchdown in the conference championship game against the Chiefs and didn't come through that. This year, he had the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter down less than a touchdown against the Jags, and he made one of the best plays of his life, that forty yard throw down the field to Brandon Cooks to then set up the game winning touchdown. That's how you
write your legend. And if the Bills now have an opportunity to go into Denver and keep in mind Josh Allen played college football in Wyoming, which is at a higher elevation than Denver, so he's used to it. He goes in there against that defense and does it again. It then gets to be a game away from finally reaching a super Bowl and knowing he's not gonna have to deal with Mahomes to get there. He was great.
He was great. Now do people go a little over to you know, Collins calling him the greatest I think the greatest quarterback he's ever seen. Is that too much for me? Sure? But he's great. He is a future Hall of Famer. He is at his peak of his powers. He's banged up, it doesn't matter. He's finding a way. That's how you become a legend. I hate that it
came at the expense of my guy, Trevor. Trevor in that game, Demanse third quarterback ever to in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, have two go ahead touchdowns and lose the game Drew Brees in twenty eleven. It happened to Josh in the third seconds game and Trevor in that game. Now, Trevor made a huge mistake. At the end of that game, you're down three of a minute left, you have the strongest leaid kicker in the league. You don't need to force it, and he forced it.
And the reason they were in that position was because, in my opinion, the Bills made a huge mistake by scoring when they did. There's a minute five left, the Jags have no timeouts. You're on the one. You can do a fake quarterback sneak. Essentially you don't have to go, but you don't have to kneel and lose a bunch of yards. But the optimals thing for the Bills to do in that spot would have been snap the ball to Josh, have Josh fall down right where he gets
it a little bit forward. The Jags aren't gonna hitch you because they want you to score. And then you have three timeouts. There's a minute five left, the Jags have zero. You can it's a very simple math equation there. What scares you more if your goal is to win the game only having three chances to get one yard and the Jags being left with less than twenty seconds, or having four chances to get one yard and the Jags being left potentially with a minute. The Bills and
Sean McDermott chose the latter. They obviously should have chosen the former. The optimal decision there is what Vrabel did at the end of a first half earlier this year. Have your guy go down, let the clock run all the way to twenty seconds, call your first time out, and then you have three shots if you need it to score and leave the Jags with no time. The Jags were thrilled the Bills scored when they did, but
then Trevor made the big mistake. And if Trevor had come through, if Trevor had driven the length of the field in that final minute and the Jags scored a touchdown, I promise you I wouldn't be on TV or on here killing Josh Allen. You gotta win that game. He was great. That would have been a junior varsity version of the thirteen seconds game when no one has ever criticized him for that game. So it's not that it's binary win or lose, but it is how did you
play and did you put your team in position? And Josh was brilliant. Josh was absolutely brilliant. Did you want to say something to Monsey.
Yeah, no, he was solid And it kind of reminded me when when they got the ball after the picker just in the late games. I just kind of felt late in the game, I just felt like the Bills was their destiny.
And I knew that Josh Allen was kind of gonna do whatever.
You're felt like, yes, if you had that confidence that he's going to make this happen. Yeah, and that's the last step of greatness.
Yeah. This is like a very very sidebar the Jags. The Jags reporter that you know telling hype and Liam calling up, you know, saying you'll get him next year. That was crazy, Like that was because I feel like there's a lot of outrage for it, and.
I just what do you think of the outrage.
I think I think that it's for something else, Like I think that I don't know, I think.
That it's crazy.
Like I think that there's like those press conferences are there for you know, reporters. I don't want to say poke fun at coaches, but just kind of make their life a little bit more difficult and explain themselves. And I feel like most of the time it's in I wouldn't call it condescending or derogatory, but it's more negative than it is positive. And this one time somebody trying to make it positive. It people are pissed about it.
The number of people that publicly whined about this old black lady trying to make Liam Cohen feel better. There as so much in this Let me tell you something, You know what feels great no matter how down you are, having an old, nice black woman tell you pick yourself up.
I'm just not get it.
Yes, And and that woman's been part of the press for decades and now would it be a problem if that's what the entirety of the press conference was.
Or if it was like a regular season, like if it were like games but they're out of the playoffs, like it's done.
Everybody's Some of the media is so self serious. It was thirty seconds, doesn't matter. It also gave me an idea for this week's sports media on Budsman on the TV show. I'll share it with you guys right now, a little sneak preview because I loved it. I think every NFL team's postgame press conference for the coaches needs
to have two designated chairs and they each get one question. Okay, and one chair is and you call it the homer and the hater, and the coach has to answer a question the homer gets to say whatever they want it, pick them up, and the hater gets to just absolutely even if wins or losses, rip them the And so the homer and the hater, the coach can decide he has to start with one and end with the other, and he can decide how he wants to do it. And in the middle of everybody else's questions. Uh, but
I and here's the other thing. Just to my media colleagues, you're allowed to have an opinion on that, lady, and keep it to yourself or keep it to your group chat. You don't have to tweet about it. You really really don't. All right, we've gone so long, we haven't even gotten to two of the games, So let me just try to quickly get to these other two Patch Chargers. Listen, Drake May was shaky early and then was very good late.
It was a pretty typical first playoff game. You saw some jitters, but he's so talented that he came through and the Patriots defense was awesome. I'm not I spent enough on this yesterday on TV arguing with Danny, and at this point it just the facts are what the facts are. Justin Herbert's played ten consecutive f minus quarters of playoff football, Justin Herbert has the second lowest career
playoff passer rate, ahead of only Andy Dalton. Justin Herbert, now that the all twenty two guys have gotten a hold of that film, had guys open the first three quarters of that game a lot and wouldn't pull the trigger. Justin Herbert's comments after the game make it sound like a guy who's in his own head. No one has denied that Justin Herbert is talented, But the fact that in consecutive years he has played his single worst game of the year in a horrible postseason loss is not nothing.
The fact that no quarterback in NFL history has lost three playoff games in a row where their defense forces ten turnovers like Herbert has is not nothing. No quarterback in the last quarter century has lost three playoff games in a row where their defense forces more than five turnovers.
Only one other quarterback, Chad Pennington, has lost three playoff games in a row where their defense forced more than four turnovers more than four turnovers in the last twenty five years, Herbert's defense has forced ten turnovers in all three of these games. His defense has put his team in the catbird seed early in these games, by a lot or by a little. Three of these games he has been somewhere from below average in the first one to god awful in the last two. That is what
it is. And if six years into his career you're still holding on to what a pretty ball he throws against the Broncos in September, I don't know what to tell you for the Patriots moving forward. They should be able to handle Houston. As great as that Houston offense is. The Patriots in a really good position to either be going to Denver, who they're better than, or at home against Buffalo who they've beaten, and last, but not least Rams Panthers. Listen, this would have been a catastrophe for
the Rams, a true how the hell did that happen? Lost? Instead, it was just an ugly, ugly win where Stafford was not that good and Puca saved the game with a super high IQ play breaking up the interception. I also had demons if I can pat myself on the back an all time impromptu line. Yesterday on the TV show did you see It?
What was it?
We showed Pooka saving the game breaking up would have been the game ceiling.
Have something to do with the tackle that turned the tide or something.
No, no, no no, I said, because it was such a heady play by Puca. And I said that Puoka uses up all his IQ points while on the field, and it's just once he leaves the once he leaves the game, he's just he's such a smart player, Like it's just it's the reserve is totally tapped. And the next six days he can't use any IQ points because he has to save him for the game. And then in the game, he's just unbelievable and he's making smart plays and he's one of the best receivers we've ever seen.
And then the game ends and he's just like in rest mode and so but he saved the game. But here's thing, it's the playoffs. So it doesn't matter how it looks in a win. We know the Rams can be great offensively. We know they can be and now they get an opportunity to be great offensively against a bad Bears defense. And you know the Panthers, that was a valiant performance. They were. They hung way to uper than I thought they would. They had a real chances.
Once man, we don't care how it might be something we might not know.
I don't. I don't buy that. But it's a nice season for them. Yeah, this is like a cowardly way to do things. But right now, this moment, as we sit at the divisional round, because I had said I thought going into the playoffs, I said, I thought the Rams were going to the super Bowl, and there were my pick to win it. Once the you know, when the playoffs were set, and I said, I thought the winner of Bills Jags goes to the super Bowl. That is what I right now, that would be my pick
Rams over Bills in the super Bowl. That's what I think we are going to get. And the Rams survive in advance.
Uh so heartbreak for Josh coming up.
Well, beginning to the super Bowl is a big deal. I mean that, yes, for the and for the Bills fans, that would be five super bowls and five super Bowl losses, and so that obviously wouldn't be great. All right, do me a favor. I appreciate everyone who's sent in questions today. We will add those to the questions we're gonna do on Thursday. We'll do more questions from the audience, and these on Thursday but I got a run, great show, great weekend to playoff football. We will see you guys
back here on Thursday. A huge thanks to hard Rock bet to Boost to Blue Duck in the volume. Thank you to you. De Monsday, Say hi to your mom for me, who's out in LA. And I will see you guys on Thursday. I'll see you on with Colin in about an hour. What's right,