Latest / 3 and Out with John Middlekauff / Tua to the Falcons, Malik Willis to Miami, Eagles vs Packers & NFL Storylines
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: The volume. What is going on? My people? How are
- 0:19Speaker 1: we doing? John middlecop three and out podcast, NFL Free
- 0:23Speaker 1: Agency Off and running deals galore, guys signing, guys leaving
- 0:30Speaker 1: Today was Today was more fun than I expected. I
- 0:34Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching McAfee with Schefter in the morning.
- 0:38Speaker 1: I went out with Colin in the middle of the day.
- 0:40Speaker 1: You can check out that podcast, and I said, you
- 0:43Speaker 1: know what, let's just throw a bunch of my thoughts
- 0:47Speaker 1: in a notebook and let's just bang out some takes.
- 0:49Speaker 1: So that's what we will do today. From Malik Willis
- 0:53Speaker 1: to the Packers and the Eagles, losing a lot of
- 0:55Speaker 1: players to the Raiders, adding a lot of players to
- 0:59Speaker 1: the Bears, to just some big picture thoughts on individual teams,
- 1:03Speaker 1: Kelsey coming back, Mike Evans going to the forty nine ers.
- 1:07Speaker 1: We got a lot going on. I'm sure a lot,
- 1:09Speaker 1: well more will go on tomorrow, so we'll have another
- 1:13Speaker 1: podcast reacting to anything else that happens, and just let's
- 1:16Speaker 1: buckle up, probably do a mail bag a little bit
- 1:18Speaker 1: later in the week at John Middlecoff at John middlecoff
- 1:21Speaker 1: Is my Instagram, just firing those dms. But that will
- 1:25Speaker 1: be the game Plan today, just a free agent jam
- 1:31Speaker 1: pack show. So you guys know the drill. Subscribe to
- 1:35Speaker 1: the Three and Out podcast wherever you listen to, Spotify, Apple,
- 1:38Speaker 1: you name it, any of your podcast platforms. We got
- 1:40Speaker 1: you covered. If you want to watch us, we're on
- 1:43Speaker 1: this little application called Netflix. Go check that out every
- 1:47Speaker 1: single day up on Netflix. So appreciate everyone that's checked
- 1:50Speaker 1: that out and watching. And let's just dive into some football.
- 1:54Speaker 1: I do want to start because I actually think this
- 1:57Speaker 1: is the coolest story of the year is Malik Willis,
- 2:02Speaker 1: And I also think it's kind of an inspiration to
- 2:05Speaker 1: I don't care what you do in life, right, I'll
- 2:07Speaker 1: promise you this when you're young. There is a small
- 2:10Speaker 1: percentage of people that like walk into a room when
- 2:14Speaker 1: they're young. I don't care if it's in the NFL,
- 2:16Speaker 1: I don't care if it's in Wall Street. I don't
- 2:17Speaker 1: care if you're selling insurance where everyone in the room
- 2:20Speaker 1: goes this guy's gonna be a star. Let's be real.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Most people do not believe in you when you're young.
- 2:27Speaker 1: No one, and I repeat no one should believe in
- 2:30Speaker 1: you more than yourself. But when you are in jobs
- 2:34Speaker 1: like Milik Willis public job, play quarterback, and you do
- 2:37Speaker 1: not play well, Everyone's gonna shit on you. It's gonna
- 2:40Speaker 1: be a universal take. I was guilty. I thought, based
- 2:44Speaker 1: on Tennessee, you know he's a raw product coming out
- 2:46Speaker 1: of college. I'm like, listen, I've heard great things about
- 2:49Speaker 1: the person. Seems like a very impressive dude. But he
- 2:51Speaker 1: couldn't play dead in the Western. And then I remember
- 2:54Speaker 1: when the Green Bay Packer traded for him last year.
- 2:57Speaker 1: I thought it was a dumb move. I was like,
- 2:59Speaker 1: this is You're gonna make Malik Willis your backup quarterback,
- 3:03Speaker 1: and Matt laflorid Goodakin's immediately shut us all up because
- 3:06Speaker 1: Jordan Love got hurt Week one, and then immediately they
- 3:09Speaker 1: won a couple games with Malik Willison quarterback. Now granted
- 3:13Speaker 1: it was a run heavy operation, but still I thought
- 3:17Speaker 1: that was like one of Matt Lafleur's crowning achievements so
- 3:21Speaker 1: far as the head coach of his tenure at the
- 3:24Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, Like you could win games with Malik Willis,
- 3:28Speaker 1: And then this year there was really no disputing it,
- 3:31Speaker 1: Like the guy could play. And I think the NFL,
- 3:35Speaker 1: like a lot of our businesses, right, this, This is
- 3:39Speaker 1: not the NBA, right, These guys that are genn get
- 3:41Speaker 1: drafted in this crop of Debonza, the dude of Kansas,
- 3:46Speaker 1: Boozer's kid like. These guys are gonna be viewed as
- 3:49Speaker 1: stars the moment they come into the league, not whether
- 3:51Speaker 1: they live up to the hype or not. Who knows,
- 3:53Speaker 1: But that's kind of way basketball works. Most of the
- 3:56Speaker 1: best players in my life in basketball were drafted extremely high.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Even a guy well, Steph Curry wasn't drafted one. Yeah,
- 4:04Speaker 1: he was drafted seventh, you know, Michael Jordan was drafted third.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Magic Johnson was drafted one, you know, I mean, Shaquille
- 4:10Speaker 1: O'Neal drafted one. I think in this day and age,
- 4:13Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant wouldn't have lasted till wherever he went twelve,
- 4:17Speaker 1: Right with with the internet and video like, most people
- 4:19Speaker 1: hadn't seen him play at Lower Marion, it's a little
- 4:21Speaker 1: harder to get taped back then. We're in football. We
- 4:24Speaker 1: see it all the time, and I'm not just talking
- 4:28Speaker 1: you know, position players, quarterbacks as well. No one would
- 4:32Speaker 1: have thought that Kirk Cousins would make three hundred million
- 4:34Speaker 1: dollars and be a decade long starter, not in a
- 4:38Speaker 1: million years. And I think a Malik Willis comp if
- 4:41Speaker 1: he just becomes a good player. Is Dak Prescott bit
- 4:45Speaker 1: Now he's got a bigger arm than Dak, but really mobile,
- 4:48Speaker 1: super smart, high level guy, just needed to improve. If
- 4:51Speaker 1: you watched Dak Prescott Atssissippi State, you would never have
- 4:54Speaker 1: thought he would go on to have a fifteen year
- 4:57Speaker 1: NFL career, and where we currently sit in two thousand
- 5:00Speaker 1: twenty six, he's one of the more consistent passers in
- 5:03Speaker 1: the league. Improvement over time, work ethic, practice, it's it's
- 5:09Speaker 1: really the only sport where practice. You practice way more
- 5:13Speaker 1: than you play. Even in the pros. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
- 5:17Speaker 1: all off season, all training camp, even Saturday is the
- 5:21Speaker 1: day before you're doing walkthroughs. Right. The whole point of
- 5:25Speaker 1: football is you are given the opportunity to improve. Great
- 5:30Speaker 1: players improve constantly because it's right in front of them
- 5:34Speaker 1: all you do the majority of it. You only play
- 5:36Speaker 1: seventeen games, yet all off season, all training camp, and
- 5:40Speaker 1: all season you're on the field every single day. You're
- 5:44Speaker 1: practicing live reps, even if you're not being tackled to
- 5:47Speaker 1: the ground. So if you're willing, which Malik Willis clearly
- 5:51Speaker 1: was to put in the work, to put in the
- 5:54Speaker 1: sweat equity mcafeel I was watching today is free agent frenzy,
- 5:58Speaker 1: which was extremely entertaining. Gets him on the phone. Where
- 6:01Speaker 1: was Milleik Willis on the grass? Just finish the throwing session.
- 6:06Speaker 1: If you are wired the right way in football, if
- 6:09Speaker 1: you have the mental and physical toughness, if you have
- 6:12Speaker 1: the desire to be a better player, it's easy to
- 6:15Speaker 1: throw auty. I want to be a great player, you
- 6:18Speaker 1: have the desire to just improve, try really hard. What
- 6:22Speaker 1: do we talk about yesterday with Max Crosby. His greatest
- 6:25Speaker 1: attribute is simply his effort. He literally plays harder than
- 6:29Speaker 1: everyone else in the league. That is a skill, right,
- 6:33Speaker 1: and that skill, the ability to play hard, is what
- 6:36Speaker 1: you have to work hard because your cardio has to
- 6:40Speaker 1: be at a super high level. Why could Steph Curry
- 6:42Speaker 1: for fifteen plus years run circles around everybody all game
- 6:46Speaker 1: long and not get tired because when we weren't watching
- 6:50Speaker 1: during the day during the offseason, his training regiment you
- 6:54Speaker 1: couldn't even argue had to be elite. Football is no different.
- 6:58Speaker 1: The difference though, is is unlike some of these other
- 7:01Speaker 1: sports you were spending a lot of times with your
- 7:03Speaker 1: coaching staff, and that's out of your control. We saw
- 7:06Speaker 1: Malik Willison Tennessee, which was at the end of the
- 7:09Speaker 1: verbul Ten year. It was just weird. Everything was off kilter.
- 7:13Speaker 1: And you need good coaches, you need a good scheme,
- 7:16Speaker 1: you need people that believe in you. And in football,
- 7:20Speaker 1: when people believe in you and then you're willing to
- 7:22Speaker 1: reciprocate it, good things can happen. Now, this is the
- 7:26Speaker 1: best case is Malik Willis just got almost fifty million
- 7:31Speaker 1: dollars guaranteed. Think about that. If I would have told
- 7:34Speaker 1: you a couple of years ago that a team would
- 7:36Speaker 1: give Malik Willis three years and seventy million dollars and
- 7:40Speaker 1: fifty million dollars guaranteed, I round it up a little bit,
- 7:43Speaker 1: you would have been like, you are out of your mind.
- 7:45Speaker 1: That's the most insane team in the history of sports.
- 7:50Speaker 1: And honestly, when that deal came up today, I'm like,
- 7:52Speaker 1: that makes perfect sense. And here's the other thing is,
- 7:56Speaker 1: specifically in football, you never know. You would never know
- 8:03Speaker 1: who's going to be around you. Your position coach within
- 8:06Speaker 1: a year could be the offensive coordinator somewhere else. Your
- 8:09Speaker 1: offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator could immediately become head coaches.
- 8:14Speaker 1: The assistant GM that you see in the cafeteria, that
- 8:16Speaker 1: you see a practice could be running a franchise within
- 8:21Speaker 1: six months of the summer. That's how fast it flips.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Think about when Malik Willis got traded to the Green
- 8:28Speaker 1: Bay Packers. Jeff Haffley had just left college and became
- 8:31Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator. Two football seasons later,
- 8:35Speaker 1: he's the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Oh yeah,
- 8:39Speaker 1: with the assistant GM of the Green Bay Packers. So
- 8:41Speaker 1: two guys that had a front row seat and Jeff
- 8:44Speaker 1: Haffley every single day at practice when Jordan Love was healthy,
- 8:48Speaker 1: Who do you think was servicing the defense? Who do
- 8:50Speaker 1: you think was playing scout team quarterback? This isn't college
- 8:53Speaker 1: or high school where you got a bunch of quarterbacks
- 8:55Speaker 1: out there. It's the backup quarterback. It's Malik Willis. Who
- 8:59Speaker 1: do you think was part of that trade and talking
- 9:01Speaker 1: about his development and just having a front row seat
- 9:05Speaker 1: every single day the general manager. And that's the thing
- 9:09Speaker 1: in football, Even if your team's average, your guy can
- 9:12Speaker 1: become a head coach. Let alone, if you're a good
- 9:14Speaker 1: team like the Green Bay Packers. You know, Joe DiMaggio
- 9:17Speaker 1: said this thing that the reason that he always played
- 9:21Speaker 1: hard because he never wanted a kid or someone in
- 9:24Speaker 1: the stands who might be the first time he's ever
- 9:26Speaker 1: seen him play to be disappointed in watching him. And
- 9:30Speaker 1: I think when you bring the mentality of like, every
- 9:33Speaker 1: single day, I'm trying to impress the people I'm around,
- 9:36Speaker 1: because as we see in the NFL, these guys constantly
- 9:39Speaker 1: get spread all over the league. All of a sudden,
- 9:42Speaker 1: the guy that was my quarterback coach three years later,
- 9:45Speaker 1: he's the head coach of the New York Jets. That's
- 9:48Speaker 1: how fast it flips. And Malik Willis took complete advantage
- 9:53Speaker 1: of that clearly on the field, from improving, doing everything
- 9:58Speaker 1: he could do get better. And then at the end
- 10:00Speaker 1: of the day, like regardless of what you do, your
- 10:04Speaker 1: opportunity comes, you gotta come through, and sometimes you're ready
- 10:11Speaker 1: and sometimes you're not. And this year Malik Willis's opportunity
- 10:14Speaker 1: came through multiple times. One opportunity he got the chance
- 10:19Speaker 1: to start, so he got to prepare all week, did excellent,
- 10:23Speaker 1: But to me, the most impressive game that Malik Willis
- 10:25Speaker 1: has played in his career. Was this year against the
- 10:28Speaker 1: Bears when Jordan Love got kaoed and he had to
- 10:30Speaker 1: come in, and he was excellent. He was playing in
- 10:33Speaker 1: a cold environment, he was playing in a game that
- 10:36Speaker 1: was not game plan for him specifically, and I thought
- 10:41Speaker 1: he was I remember watching that game on my couch thinking,
- 10:44Speaker 1: this guy's good. Like, this guy's good. Now is it
- 10:48Speaker 1: gonna go well in Miami? Do I believe this guy's
- 10:50Speaker 1: gonna become some top ten quarterback? I do not, But
- 10:53Speaker 1: I have seen a guy who's constantly improved. I have
- 10:56Speaker 1: seen a guy who has gotten better at every step
- 10:59Speaker 1: of the way. When he finally got around credible people
- 11:02Speaker 1: in the Green Bay Packers, and then these guys get
- 11:04Speaker 1: their opportunity, they kick to it of the curb. Who
- 11:07Speaker 1: goes to the Falcons? I mean, does anyone like short,
- 11:12Speaker 1: left handed quarterbacks with below average arms like Kevin Stefanski?
- 11:16Speaker 1: I mean, what, what what are we doing? Like I'm
- 11:20Speaker 1: trying not to shoot on the falcons? Kevin Stefanski seems
- 11:23Speaker 1: like a nice guy. We'll see how it goes with
- 11:26Speaker 1: Ian Cunningham. But you signed to a tongue of iiloa
- 11:30Speaker 1: like that feels like the better version of Dylan Gabriel
- 11:33Speaker 1: and Tua. And I mean that as I guess a compliment,
- 11:37Speaker 1: But Dylan Gabriel to me is like a borderline UFL
- 11:39Speaker 1: player And to me too, uh, he starts for you consistently.
- 11:44Speaker 1: This year you're winning five or six games, and that
- 11:48Speaker 1: might be the case anyway. With Pennix, I'm out on
- 11:50Speaker 1: the Falcons, I really am. I know everyone thinks Stefanski
- 11:55Speaker 1: is like some Shanahan McVeigh, Lafleur, Kevin O'Connell level guy.
- 12:00Speaker 1: I don't necessarily and clearly his evaluations when it comes
- 12:04Speaker 1: to quarterbacks are atrocious. I mean they just simply are.
- 12:09Speaker 1: So the Dolphins take a his historic, his historic just
- 12:15Speaker 1: dead cap hit in booting Tua. And I also think
- 12:18Speaker 1: the one thing we've seen with Tua and Kyler is
- 12:20Speaker 1: that you better be very careful with who you give
- 12:24Speaker 1: a big contract to. And I think the day and
- 12:27Speaker 1: age of seeing average guys get two hundred million dollars
- 12:32Speaker 1: is over because we just have two examples with you know,
- 12:36Speaker 1: two oh ninety nine million dollars in dead cap the
- 12:39Speaker 1: wherever Kyler ends up landing. The Arizona Cardinals are gonna
- 12:42Speaker 1: have to pay him thirty six thirty seven million dollars
- 12:45Speaker 1: this year. You just can't make those mistakes. It's one
- 12:48Speaker 1: thing if you sign a guy and then he's kind
- 12:50Speaker 1: of up and down, and you know, Jalen Hurts, right,
- 12:53Speaker 1: he's got to play better, Jordan Love, he's got to
- 12:55Speaker 1: play a little bit better. You know that. There's no
- 12:57Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with saying you gotta play better. But
- 13:01Speaker 1: it's like when I want immediately out of your business
- 13:05Speaker 1: and I'm willing to take a fifty five million dollar
- 13:07Speaker 1: dead cap hit or a ninety nine million dollar dead
- 13:09Speaker 1: cap hit to just get away from you, that is
- 13:13Speaker 1: a sign that you signed one of the worst contracts
- 13:15Speaker 1: in the history of the league. And it's one thing
- 13:18Speaker 1: like when the Denver Broncos made the deal with Russell Wilson.
- 13:22Speaker 1: I supported it. I'm not going to act like I
- 13:24Speaker 1: was against it. I understood it. He was on a
- 13:26Speaker 1: Hall of Fame trajectory. Some might say he's still a
- 13:29Speaker 1: Hall of famer. I think it's kind of up for
- 13:30Speaker 1: debate how it ended. But he was one of the
- 13:33Speaker 1: best players of his era. This was a team that
- 13:35Speaker 1: was desperate, but he wasn't your guy. And a couple
- 13:38Speaker 1: years later you have a new coach and it just
- 13:40Speaker 1: goes kind of haywire, right. But the Cardinals and the
- 13:45Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins had these guys in house, like they knew
- 13:49Speaker 1: how talented those guys were, that they knew their warts,
- 13:54Speaker 1: and they still signed the deals and it completely blew
- 13:57Speaker 1: up in their face. Two teams that have been Obviously,
- 14:00Speaker 1: the Eagles have been to a couple of Super Bowls
- 14:02Speaker 1: in the last four years. The Packers have been one
- 14:05Speaker 1: of the better franchises in all of American sports for
- 14:07Speaker 1: thirty plus years, have a lot of turnover, and looking
- 14:11Speaker 1: at the Eagles today, that lost Nakobe Dean, the lost
- 14:15Speaker 1: re Blankenship, I understand why they lost Jordan Phillips when
- 14:20Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips signed with the Carolina Panthers, and to me,
- 14:22Speaker 1: nothing sums up free agency quite like that. And I
- 14:27Speaker 1: get the Panthers are a little desperate, they need more
- 14:29Speaker 1: help up front. Under no circumstances, even of how we
- 14:34Speaker 1: have the available cap space, I couldn't see him signing
- 14:38Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips to four year whatever thirty million dollars a
- 14:42Speaker 1: year and given him eighty million dollars guaranteed that to
- 14:45Speaker 1: me of all the contracts today was like, damn. Now.
- 14:49Speaker 1: I went on with Colin the last couple of days.
- 14:51Speaker 1: We had a couple podcasts outs to go check that out.
- 14:54Speaker 1: I do have a philosophy when it comes to signing
- 14:57Speaker 1: guys that aren't gonna go to the Pro Bowl, right
- 15:00Speaker 1: or not gonna be probably all pros, You're gonna have
- 15:03Speaker 1: to overpay in free agency. That's part of the exercise. Right,
- 15:08Speaker 1: these guys are available, you got multiple people bidding on him.
- 15:11Speaker 1: It drives up the price. It's basic supply and demand,
- 15:15Speaker 1: Like this is a basic economic exercise. The reason these
- 15:19Speaker 1: contracts are bigger than they would be if someone had
- 15:22Speaker 1: just given this guy an extension a year ago on
- 15:25Speaker 1: the team is because you have people bidding for their services.
- 15:29Speaker 1: But once you pay that guy, like last year when
- 15:32Speaker 1: the Patriots gave Milton Williams a ton of money, it
- 15:35Speaker 1: seemed crazy. It's like you're gonna give a guy who
- 15:39Speaker 1: has never been a full time starter, even even the
- 15:41Speaker 1: year that the Eagles won the Super Bowl and he
- 15:44Speaker 1: had his breakout season, he was good, he didn't he
- 15:46Speaker 1: played like fifty percent of the snaps. But if you're
- 15:49Speaker 1: gonna quote unquote pay a premium overpay. He's got to
- 15:53Speaker 1: be a really good player for you. And what was
- 15:55Speaker 1: Milton Williams immediately for the UH Patriots. He was an
- 15:59Speaker 1: excellent player, plug and play, high end starter on a
- 16:03Speaker 1: team that won the AFC. You feel good about that.
- 16:06Speaker 1: Even if Jalen Phillips isn't Miles Garrett, isn't Max Crosby,
- 16:10Speaker 1: isn't Aiden Hutchinson, that's fine. Can he be a really
- 16:15Speaker 1: high end starter on a team that clearly has aspirations
- 16:17Speaker 1: on going back to the playoffs and winning nine or
- 16:20Speaker 1: ten games, then you feel good about it. In a
- 16:22Speaker 1: perfect world, would you like to give him eighteen million dollars? Sure,
- 16:26Speaker 1: But in the situation they're in, you gotta overpay. It
- 16:29Speaker 1: is what it is. But you get to a position
- 16:31Speaker 1: when you're Howie, you have no choice even if you
- 16:35Speaker 1: want to retain his services, which clearly they do. Their
- 16:38Speaker 1: edge rush was not great. They got the two defensive linemen. Obviously,
- 16:43Speaker 1: Jordan Davis is now under contract, and you know Jalen
- 16:46Speaker 1: Phillips or excuse me, Jalen Carter. It's just a tough situation,
- 16:52Speaker 1: like are you gonna be cool with giving him one
- 16:54Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars guaranteed. I think the Eagles
- 16:57Speaker 1: are a little uncomfortable doing that. I think it's safe
- 16:59Speaker 1: to say. But when you have those two defensive tackles,
- 17:02Speaker 1: if you have a couple good edges, your defensive line
- 17:04Speaker 1: is going to be good. And Jalx Hunt is a
- 17:07Speaker 1: guy who's really come on. They need to keep Nolan
- 17:09Speaker 1: Smith on the field. But this is the first year
- 17:12Speaker 1: that Jalen Hurts. His cap hit isn't nothing. It's not
- 17:17Speaker 1: two or three percent of the cap. It's ten percent
- 17:20Speaker 1: of the cap and next year that only rises. And
- 17:22Speaker 1: same thing with the Packers who lost a ton of guys. Today,
- 17:26Speaker 1: I think a lot of people go, well, they're paying
- 17:28Speaker 1: Micah Parsons forty five forty seven million dollars a year.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Micah Parson's cap hit is half as much in twenty
- 17:35Speaker 1: twenty six as Jordan Loves, which is twelve percent of
- 17:39Speaker 1: the cap, which isn't everything. It's not as high as
- 17:43Speaker 1: Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield and Matt Stafford,
- 17:48Speaker 1: but it's still pretty substantial. And once you get in
- 17:51Speaker 1: a position where you're paying your quarterback a lot of money,
- 17:54Speaker 1: you have to make some other decisions around the margins.
- 17:56Speaker 1: And if you make a bad decision, as the Packers
- 17:59Speaker 1: did last year with Aaron Banks, they gave him way
- 18:02Speaker 1: too much money, and all of a sudden you kind
- 18:05Speaker 1: of got up, Yeah, we can't pay Kaway Walker to
- 18:07Speaker 1: keep him around. We have to cut Jenkins, the offensive lineman.
- 18:12Speaker 1: We're probably we're not gonna re sign Romeo Dobs kind
- 18:15Speaker 1: of is what it is. As of recording this, they're not.
- 18:17Speaker 1: Who knows, maybe they end up doing that, but these
- 18:20Speaker 1: are the type decisions you have to make. You know,
- 18:23Speaker 1: Reid gets a bunch of money from the Houston Texans NA,
- 18:25Speaker 1: Kobe Dean gets a bunch of money from the Raiders.
- 18:27Speaker 1: Obviously Jalen Phillips, which if you would have told me
- 18:32Speaker 1: when the Eagles traded for Jalen Phillips that another team
- 18:36Speaker 1: would offer that contract in November, I would have been like,
- 18:40Speaker 1: Jalen Phillips is just playing out this season with the Eagles.
- 18:42Speaker 1: He's not gonna be around anymore because they weren't going
- 18:44Speaker 1: to no chance, It's not even an option. So this
- 18:49Speaker 1: is part of doing business in the NFL. Is once
- 18:53Speaker 1: you start paying a lot of guys money, even though
- 18:55Speaker 1: you can manipulate the cap, which how he's probably the
- 18:58Speaker 1: best in the league in positions where you have to
- 19:01Speaker 1: make financial decisions and you have to let guys who
- 19:04Speaker 1: have been consistent winning players for your franchise, they get
- 19:07Speaker 1: to a number that you just literally can't match, even
- 19:10Speaker 1: if you like the player, even if you like the person.
- 19:12Speaker 1: And that's part of football, right, You gotta draft, develop,
- 19:14Speaker 1: you gotta replace. I mean, the Ravens did it for
- 19:16Speaker 1: twenty plus years. The Chiefs are about to attempt to
- 19:19Speaker 1: do that. Right. Let trade McDuffie, Let Jalen Watson go cook.
- 19:23Speaker 1: The safety as part of the league is you got
- 19:27Speaker 1: to get some turnover and then you've got to have
- 19:29Speaker 1: the next crop of young guys take their spots. But
- 19:33Speaker 1: this is the reason that these teams sign veteran players, because, yeah,
- 19:37Speaker 1: I can hope the guy draft in the second round
- 19:40Speaker 1: becomes Emon Worry or becomes AJ Brown or becomes Nick
- 19:46Speaker 1: Chubb on the Browns. But a lot of times that guy,
- 19:49Speaker 1: it's a fifty to fifty coin flip at best, becomes
- 19:52Speaker 1: a guy that can't be on the field for a
- 19:53Speaker 1: playoff team and becomes a guy that gets beat out
- 19:56Speaker 1: by a fifth or sixth rounder. The draft is a crapshoot.
- 19:59Speaker 1: I love it it, we all enjoy it. But there's
- 20:02Speaker 1: a great unknown, right. We're all in college graduating classes.
- 20:08Speaker 1: I was in one in two thousand and eight. A
- 20:10Speaker 1: lot of people went on different paths. Some people made
- 20:13Speaker 1: millions and some people, now that I graduated with a
- 20:16Speaker 1: cal poly, are probably doing nothing in Life's not great
- 20:19Speaker 1: so that there is no guarantee just because everyone starts
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- 22:11Speaker 1: That leads me into the Raiders, who I got to
- 22:13Speaker 1: bring up this tweet from Schefter that brought their additions today.
- 22:19Speaker 1: And I've said this forever back when I worked in
- 22:23Speaker 1: the Bay Area. I was adamant that moving to Vegas
- 22:26Speaker 1: was crazy. It's clearly the best thing they ever did financially.
- 22:29Speaker 1: Not only do they move to Vegas the financial windfall
- 22:32Speaker 1: of the new stadium, but Mark Davis deserves credit for
- 22:36Speaker 1: reaching out to these billionaire guys, getting them involved as
- 22:39Speaker 1: minority owners, and bringing in Tom Brady, who is clearly
- 22:42Speaker 1: part of that package because they've given him an influx
- 22:46Speaker 1: of cash. It doesn't mean just because you have money,
- 22:48Speaker 1: it's gonna work. I mean last year, hiring Chip Kelly
- 22:52Speaker 1: for three years eighteen million dollars is one of the
- 22:55Speaker 1: most embarrassing hires in the history of the league. I mean,
- 22:57Speaker 1: there have been countless articles you talk about a mail
- 22:59Speaker 1: in job, but it does give you the resources to
- 23:02Speaker 1: attempt to do stuff like that. And if that six
- 23:05Speaker 1: million dollars could have been used on the right guy,
- 23:07Speaker 1: they just got the wrong guy. And you can also
- 23:10Speaker 1: take advantage of free agency because you can use signing bonuses.
- 23:14Speaker 1: And one thing the Raiders have going for him, and
- 23:16Speaker 1: this the Cowboys have going for him if they ever
- 23:18Speaker 1: wanted to get aggressive and free agency is you know,
- 23:22Speaker 1: the the the Florida teams like the no state income
- 23:24Speaker 1: tax is a really big deal. It really is, and
- 23:27Speaker 1: I don't think enough people in the media really dive
- 23:30Speaker 1: deep enough into it. When you're talking at the units
- 23:33Speaker 1: and the numbers that these guys are making. The difference
- 23:36Speaker 1: of signing with a no state income tax and a
- 23:39Speaker 1: place like Illinois, New York, California can be millions upon
- 23:44Speaker 1: millions of net dollars in your bank account. So I
- 23:48Speaker 1: know it makes some people uncomfortable, but this is real,
- 23:51Speaker 1: big business. This is real money. So it's like, do
- 23:54Speaker 1: you want to keep it or do you not want
- 23:56Speaker 1: to keep it? And when you're a bad team, you
- 23:59Speaker 1: got to quote unquote overpay sometimes. But when you have
- 24:03Speaker 1: the capitol to buy guys, they're gonna be very interested
- 24:06Speaker 1: because of the money they're gonna get to keep in
- 24:08Speaker 1: their bank account. And we'll get the Linderbaum thing here
- 24:10Speaker 1: in a second, because I think that's directly tied to Max.
- 24:14Speaker 1: But they signed kway Walker. They signed to Kobe Dean,
- 24:17Speaker 1: who was just like an A plus character guy and
- 24:20Speaker 1: if he's healthy, is a good starter. Jalen Naylor. Every
- 24:24Speaker 1: time I looked up for Minnesota, especially when Jordan Addison
- 24:27Speaker 1: was injured or in trouble. Like you talk about a
- 24:30Speaker 1: guy he ran a four or five at the combine,
- 24:32Speaker 1: but I feel like the guy plays like four to three.
- 24:34Speaker 1: He's averaged like fifteen plus yards of catch, He's had
- 24:37Speaker 1: a bunch of touchdowns even though he hasn't been that
- 24:40Speaker 1: productive in terms of reception. Standpoint, I like Jalen Jalen Naylor,
- 24:45Speaker 1: Quitty Pay, Eric Stokes, Malcolm Kuz. They bought a bunch
- 24:49Speaker 1: of guys on defense, right, and you lose Max. Their
- 24:52Speaker 1: defense wasn't very good to begin with. You just buy
- 24:54Speaker 1: a bunch of guys on defense and listen just to
- 24:57Speaker 1: get your franchise going in the right right direction. Like
- 25:00Speaker 1: do I think the Raiders is gonna win nine or
- 25:02Speaker 1: ten games this year? I don't. But do I think
- 25:05Speaker 1: that they can just be a credible football team when
- 25:07Speaker 1: you turn on the television in October and November. I do?
- 25:11Speaker 1: And I also think this allows them to use that
- 25:13Speaker 1: fourteenth pick on offense. You can either take a sweet
- 25:16Speaker 1: wide receiver, you can take a sweet offensive lineman. You
- 25:19Speaker 1: don't have to like really think about a need. And
- 25:23Speaker 1: to me, I would use that pick somewhere on offense,
- 25:26Speaker 1: not on a defense, because I just think you get
- 25:30Speaker 1: the opportunity the Oregon tight end. I don't not sure
- 25:34Speaker 1: if there's a receiver worth the fourteenth overall pick definitely
- 25:37Speaker 1: has an opportunity to be an offensive lineman worth the
- 25:39Speaker 1: fourteenth overall pick. Then you get Mendoza, you get your center, which,
- 25:43Speaker 1: let's face it, they gave Tyler Lindebaum a lot of money.
- 25:47Speaker 1: He makes dramatically more than the next highest paid center.
- 25:52Speaker 1: Don't mind overpaying a center which is going to touch
- 25:55Speaker 1: my rookie quarterback every single play of his career Like
- 25:58Speaker 1: that kind of mattered, maybe the total length of his career,
- 26:03Speaker 1: but for the next several years, Lindenbaum is gonna be
- 26:07Speaker 1: right there with Fernando Mendoza in the meetings, on the
- 26:10Speaker 1: practice field every single day. They should be attached at
- 26:13Speaker 1: the hip. And obviously he's played a huge had a
- 26:17Speaker 1: huge impact on the Ravens with Lamar and the offense.
- 26:20Speaker 1: And I also think that if you're a Raider fan,
- 26:22Speaker 1: you look at it simply like us trading Max to
- 26:25Speaker 1: the Ravens and the cap space which he takes. Lamar
- 26:29Speaker 1: has the biggest cap hit as of right now. They
- 26:32Speaker 1: could restructure his contract in the NFL in the NFL,
- 26:36Speaker 1: for example, Jordan Love and Jalen Hurts are thirty one
- 26:40Speaker 1: and thirty six million dollars, which is the biggest on
- 26:44Speaker 1: both their teams. Hurts is ten percent of his cap.
- 26:47Speaker 1: Love is twelve percent of his cap. Lamar Jackson is
- 26:51Speaker 1: more than double Jordan Love. So you're talking about a
- 26:55Speaker 1: guy in the high twenties his percentage of their salary cap.
- 26:59Speaker 1: So part of Max Crosby to take up that space
- 27:03Speaker 1: is Linderbaum is not even an option for them, because
- 27:08Speaker 1: I'll get into it later this week when I'm sure
- 27:10Speaker 1: we'll do a mail bag maybe in a couple days
- 27:12Speaker 1: when things die down, is someone asked me, why didn't
- 27:16Speaker 1: they transition tag the Center and just use that money
- 27:21Speaker 1: to try to work out a deal, Because they don't
- 27:23Speaker 1: have the cap space, they don't have the financial flexibility.
- 27:26Speaker 1: And once you get Max, who ain't making five dollars
- 27:29Speaker 1: a year, you got to make some tough decisions. And
- 27:33Speaker 1: the Raiders were able to pounce on that because I
- 27:35Speaker 1: think there were countless other teams interested, specifically the Washington
- 27:39Speaker 1: Commanders when it came to Linderbaum's services, but the Raiders,
- 27:45Speaker 1: and this is where like twenty years ago, they don't
- 27:47Speaker 1: get them because they wouldn't have had the money to
- 27:49Speaker 1: give just a historic deal. But now with these billionaires
- 27:52Speaker 1: like cut the check, it means little to nothing to them,
- 27:56Speaker 1: and I think it's a massive, massive move for them.
- 28:00Speaker 1: I really do. It gives them credibility for their young
- 28:04Speaker 1: quarterback because when you remove a guy like Max, which
- 28:07Speaker 1: the Ravens are really gonna benefit from, being the heart
- 28:10Speaker 1: and soul of your franchise, the work ethic, the team captain,
- 28:13Speaker 1: it's hard to replace that. And this is not you know,
- 28:16Speaker 1: no one in the NFL tanks and doesn't add veteran guys.
- 28:20Speaker 1: That's not the way it works. You need people that
- 28:23Speaker 1: know what they're doing to look up to, right or
- 28:27Speaker 1: for your young guys to look up to. You don't
- 28:29Speaker 1: remember Sam Hanky. When they did trust the process, they
- 28:32Speaker 1: would have no veteran guys. So as they started drafting
- 28:35Speaker 1: good players, they're good players, and they kept tanking like
- 28:38Speaker 1: Ben Simmons and Embiid are just looking up to scrubs.
- 28:41Speaker 1: It's like, that's not a good way to set the
- 28:43Speaker 1: culture in your organization. You need guys who have won
- 28:48Speaker 1: to be around. It's why I think listen the Chiefs
- 28:52Speaker 1: were not comfortable with the contract that Trent McDuffie got,
- 28:56Speaker 1: and they knew when they traded them what the numbers
- 28:59Speaker 1: were not gonna give that money. And they have to
- 29:02Speaker 1: make financial decisions they have. You know, Chris Jones makes
- 29:06Speaker 1: a lot of money. Patrick Mahomes still makes a lot
- 29:07Speaker 1: of money. Obviously, there's a couple offensive linemen make a
- 29:10Speaker 1: lot of money. They just gave Kenneth Locker a lot
- 29:12Speaker 1: of money, but they just couldn't do it. I think
- 29:18Speaker 1: if you're a good team and you pay a guy
- 29:20Speaker 1: like that, you better be very sure of the person.
- 29:24Speaker 1: The Chiefs love the guy, which clearly the Rams do too,
- 29:27Speaker 1: it's much easier to bring him into that locker room
- 29:30Speaker 1: like we've been winning. He's like, oh yeah, I've been
- 29:32Speaker 1: winning too. I got multiple Super Bowls and I've been
- 29:34Speaker 1: to another. So like, oh yeah, and one of the
- 29:37Speaker 1: Super Bowls we won Deebo Samuel and all those wide
- 29:40Speaker 1: receivers for the forty nine ers. I shut him down.
- 29:43Speaker 1: I locked him all down. I was fucking incredible. So
- 29:47Speaker 1: you bringing a guy to your locker room who's gonna
- 29:49Speaker 1: be making more than the majority basically everyone on your team,
- 29:52Speaker 1: you better have some pelts on the wall. If you're
- 29:54Speaker 1: a good team, if you're these teams like the Raiders,
- 29:59Speaker 1: who's gonna be jealous of Tyler Lindenbaum's contract, Like no
- 30:02Speaker 1: one has a leg to stand on right and no
- 30:05Speaker 1: different Like, Okay, I bring Max and he's making a
- 30:07Speaker 1: lot of money. Everyone in the Ravens organization will immediately
- 30:10Speaker 1: respect Max. I got a text from a scout in
- 30:13Speaker 1: there on their team that was like, just super fired up.
- 30:16Speaker 1: Don't blame him. I would be too. But when you
- 30:18Speaker 1: are a good team and you bring one of these
- 30:20Speaker 1: guys on, like the Chiefs, you bring in a guy
- 30:23Speaker 1: like Kenneth Walker, easy for him to get in the
- 30:25Speaker 1: huddle with Kelsey and Mahomes going, I'm a champion too,
- 30:28Speaker 1: We're ald champions. You're a champion. I'm a champion. I'm
- 30:31Speaker 1: a winner. I know how to win. That really really matters.
- 30:36Speaker 1: So and that's what makes it difficult. I think, why
- 30:40Speaker 1: so many teams. You look at all these Packers guys
- 30:43Speaker 1: getting signed, all these Eagles guys getting signed, because you
- 30:46Speaker 1: feel like they know how to play in big games.
- 30:48Speaker 1: They know what January football is like, they know what
- 30:52Speaker 1: preparing to win a division is like they know what
- 30:54Speaker 1: preparing for a playoff game is, Like they just that
- 30:58Speaker 1: type credibility as a player when you're paying for it
- 31:01Speaker 1: really really matters. So I think all these variables in
- 31:05Speaker 1: free agency get factored in and like back to the
- 31:09Speaker 1: Rams thing, I think it's easier to be like, listen,
- 31:11Speaker 1: this guy's gonna be way richer than the majority of
- 31:13Speaker 1: there are players on defense. But it's like, what's Jared
- 31:15Speaker 1: Vere's gonna say? Like, Hey, Jared, a couple time All
- 31:18Speaker 1: Pro and I've won rinks. You want to win a ring.
- 31:21Speaker 1: I can help you win a ring because I know
- 31:23Speaker 1: what it takes. I've been in a defensive meeting room
- 31:25Speaker 1: that for three straight years we were playing in the
- 31:27Speaker 1: super Bowl. So I think you got to be careful
- 31:31Speaker 1: about making those decisions, which has happened the history of
- 31:34Speaker 1: the league. You know, bad teams they signed like Albert
- 31:36Speaker 1: Haynesworth to a historic deal. It's like that ain't gonna work,
- 31:40Speaker 1: you know, and it never does. So I think speaking
- 31:43Speaker 1: of legendary players, I haven't talked to anyone on the
- 31:47Speaker 1: Chiefs about this, and I have. Kelsey's one of the
- 31:50Speaker 1: best players I've ever seen. He's everything you want in
- 31:54Speaker 1: the prime of his career as a guy to go
- 31:56Speaker 1: to battle with. He came up with huge places. He
- 32:00Speaker 1: was so talented, His rapport with the quarterback was elite.
- 32:04Speaker 1: His ability to work with the coaching staff and Andy
- 32:06Speaker 1: like it was one of the most special things we've
- 32:09Speaker 1: ever seen. But last year, like a lot of players
- 32:12Speaker 1: in the history of the league, kind of looked like
- 32:15Speaker 1: he was trending in the wrong direction, looked like his
- 32:17Speaker 1: arrow was pointing down. And I think sometimes, you know,
- 32:20Speaker 1: Bill Walsh made this famous and then Belichick copied him.
- 32:23Speaker 1: A lot of other guys do the same. Andy's made
- 32:25Speaker 1: a career of doing this. Is sometimes you just let
- 32:29Speaker 1: a guy go a year early before you get burned
- 32:31Speaker 1: a year late. And you could argue it was a
- 32:33Speaker 1: couple of years ago the Chiefs could have kind of pivoted.
- 32:36Speaker 1: Now it's hard when you're winning Super Bowls. But last
- 32:38Speaker 1: year he saw science, and I thought that the Chiefs
- 32:42Speaker 1: would go in another direction. The thing I underestimated is
- 32:45Speaker 1: clearly they have a connection. They have a belief in
- 32:47Speaker 1: this guy. They want this guy around, and there's a
- 32:50Speaker 1: value in which he brings in the locker room that
- 32:53Speaker 1: I can't quantify. Because I'll be honest, if you would
- 32:56Speaker 1: ask me what would you do, I would have said
- 32:58Speaker 1: it just would have been one of those sits where
- 33:00Speaker 1: I'm not offering another contract. Now, it's easy for me
- 33:03Speaker 1: to say sitting in my office talking on a podcast,
- 33:06Speaker 1: Coach Reid might say, well, it's like, it's not like
- 33:09Speaker 1: our receivers are, you know, beating down the door. He
- 33:12Speaker 1: still is a valuable player. Yeah, he had some bad
- 33:15Speaker 1: drops last year, but we don't think that's necessarily because
- 33:18Speaker 1: he can't catch anymore. And we're giving him a twelve
- 33:20Speaker 1: million dollar contract. We're not giving him two years thirty
- 33:23Speaker 1: million dollars. But yeah, I mean, we're hoping we can
- 33:26Speaker 1: get a little bit more out of him and his
- 33:30Speaker 1: practice habits and what he brings the table Monday through
- 33:34Speaker 1: Saturday when none of you guys are watching still matters,
- 33:37Speaker 1: because that's the only way I think you could justify
- 33:39Speaker 1: bringing him back. And listen, there is an intangible connection
- 33:46Speaker 1: just of he's one of the best players in the
- 33:48Speaker 1: history of the franchise. His number is going to be retired,
- 33:52Speaker 1: He's going to get a statue outside of our organization.
- 33:55Speaker 1: He really really matters for the city, for this team,
- 33:59Speaker 1: I just think to be careful doing business like that.
- 34:02Speaker 1: But maybe he, like Mahomes, is just a pretty unique
- 34:05Speaker 1: player that it's hard to just quantify by a number
- 34:10Speaker 1: on the salary cap sheet, right because Mike Evans, I
- 34:15Speaker 1: look today, Baker Mayfield has one of the biggest cap
- 34:19Speaker 1: hits in the league. Okay, if we go to because
- 34:21Speaker 1: Mike Evans joined the forty nine ers, and if you
- 34:24Speaker 1: go to the internet and you look at the cap
- 34:27Speaker 1: hits for quarterbacks. I didn't quite realize this. I looked
- 34:31Speaker 1: at it before today. Of obviously, Lamar, which we talked about,
- 34:35Speaker 1: is one of the biggest. Jared Goffs is massive, Josh
- 34:37Speaker 1: Allen are the top three. TUA, which is an epic disaster,
- 34:41Speaker 1: is fourth. Do you know who's fifth in terms of
- 34:44Speaker 1: biggest cap hit in the league is Baker Mayfield at
- 34:48Speaker 1: fifty two point basically fifty three million dollars, which is
- 34:53Speaker 1: a huge number and almost seventeen and a half percent
- 34:56Speaker 1: of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers salary cap. Now, they made
- 34:59Speaker 1: a couple of little moves to day. They signed Angeloni.
- 35:01Speaker 1: I think Kenneth Gainwell, he was a really good player.
- 35:05Speaker 1: I mean, I like both those two signings, but they
- 35:07Speaker 1: were I don't want to say on the margins, but
- 35:09Speaker 1: they weren't that expensive. But like Kelsey, I would say
- 35:12Speaker 1: that Mike Evans holds a unique place in the history
- 35:17Speaker 1: of Tampa Bay. Right when you think of the most
- 35:20Speaker 1: famous Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you clearly think of the late nineties,
- 35:24Speaker 1: early two thousands, Lynch, Rendez, Barber, Warren Sapp, Derek Brooks,
- 35:29Speaker 1: that group. Then I think, you know Tom was a
- 35:32Speaker 1: higher gun. But to me, the most famous player post
- 35:36Speaker 1: that group is easily Mike Evans, who was gonna go
- 35:39Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame, who was Jason Light's first
- 35:41Speaker 1: draft pick, who I think I saw Tod A. Schreger
- 35:44Speaker 1: say that their families are friends, they have a special connection.
- 35:49Speaker 1: But you get to a point. The forty nine ers
- 35:51Speaker 1: offered the guy like three years, sixty plus million dollars
- 35:53Speaker 1: and I'm sure a lot of guaranteed money. It's like,
- 35:56Speaker 1: we can't go to that number, and he's gonna be
- 35:59Speaker 1: thirty three thish. You're in the fall. And this is
- 36:01Speaker 1: where I kind of thought that the Chiefs would do
- 36:05Speaker 1: with Kelsey. Now it's different because Kelsey won more Super Bowls.
- 36:09Speaker 1: They've bend to more Super Bowls. I just think Travis
- 36:11Speaker 1: is a more historic figure for the league. Slash the
- 36:16Speaker 1: popularity element of you know, the Taylor connection. It's just
- 36:20Speaker 1: it's a unique thing going. But Mike, when it came
- 36:23Speaker 1: to Tampa, I thought was kind of similar. But you
- 36:26Speaker 1: get to the point where you kind of got to
- 36:28Speaker 1: make a tough decision and we would love to keep you,
- 36:31Speaker 1: but we got a number and we just can't match
- 36:33Speaker 1: the number that you're being given. And one thing that
- 36:36Speaker 1: the forty nine ers really really value is smart tough players.
- 36:42Speaker 1: I mean, when you think about the best players on
- 36:44Speaker 1: the forty nine ers are smart and tough. Fred Warner,
- 36:47Speaker 1: George Kittle, Nick Bosa, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey. Like they
- 36:51Speaker 1: Mike Evans fits the mold of their crew. The only
- 36:55Speaker 1: thing that makes me nervous because I can't quibble with
- 36:58Speaker 1: he got banged up this year when he ocus collar bone,
- 37:01Speaker 1: but the previous two years with Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans
- 37:04Speaker 1: accounted for twenty four touchdowns. Mike Evans is a fucking
- 37:08Speaker 1: monster when he's on the field. Now we'll have to
- 37:10Speaker 1: see who the other wide receivers are for the forty
- 37:12Speaker 1: nine ers. But if Pierce All can stay healthy, big
- 37:15Speaker 1: question mark with Kittle coming back from this injury, you know,
- 37:18Speaker 1: we think they're gonna figure something out with Trent. You
- 37:20Speaker 1: got Purdy, you know, you got Christian McCaffrey. Probably gotta
- 37:23Speaker 1: add another running back, maybe dra Greenlaw who just got
- 37:26Speaker 1: cut comes back. This is gonna be a team that
- 37:30Speaker 1: is going to have a bunch of high end guys
- 37:32Speaker 1: like they did last year, but gonna be older, right, Kittle, McCaffrey,
- 37:38Speaker 1: Fred Like, these guys got a lot of tread on
- 37:39Speaker 1: the tires. Mike Evans got a lot of tread on
- 37:41Speaker 1: the tires. But I get it, like I got no
- 37:44Speaker 1: problem overpaying Mike Evans a little bit, you know, relative
- 37:48Speaker 1: to what they like, what they need. Gives them a
- 37:51Speaker 1: red zone target. I mean, that's been one problem for them.
- 37:53Speaker 1: It's why Juwan Jennings has excelled. You know, a couple
- 37:56Speaker 1: of years ago there are two wide receivers were Debo
- 37:59Speaker 1: and not big guys. Right, So Juwan Jennings and George
- 38:03Speaker 1: give them their listen brock Purty six foot one. Sometimes
- 38:07Speaker 1: you just kind of I can't really see I need
- 38:08Speaker 1: to throw up a fifty to fifty ball in the
- 38:10Speaker 1: red zone. And that's what Mike Evans excels at. Throw
- 38:13Speaker 1: him a jump ball corner of the end zone and
- 38:15Speaker 1: let the dude play hoops. What a career, What a career.
- 38:19Speaker 1: I'm looking at the history of Mike Evans right now.
- 38:23Speaker 1: Career earnings, what would you guess? My guess would have
- 38:28Speaker 1: been probably one hundred and ten million dollars, one hundred
- 38:32Speaker 1: and thirty million dollars, and that doesn't count the forty
- 38:34Speaker 1: nine ers contract. So when it's all said and done,
- 38:37Speaker 1: Mike Evans is probably gonna make one hundred and seventy
- 38:39Speaker 1: five million dollars. I said it the other day with
- 38:42Speaker 1: Khalil Mack. There has never been a better time and
- 38:46Speaker 1: it's only gonna get better. To be a good football
- 38:48Speaker 1: player and now college Like you, you're a good football playing
- 38:51Speaker 1: in college, you get seven figures and then you come
- 38:53Speaker 1: to the NFL. If you can have a long career,
- 38:56Speaker 1: you were gonna at minimum make a one hundred plus
- 38:58Speaker 1: million dollars. And if you play wide receiver, if you
- 39:01Speaker 1: play defensive end, if you play tackle, if you obviously quarterback,
- 39:04Speaker 1: if you play corner, you're gonna make several hundred million
- 39:08Speaker 1: dollars For a long time, it was like, you know,
- 39:10Speaker 1: kids play baseball, Like that's easy to say when you're
- 39:14Speaker 1: on a you know, I saw a headline, Will Kyler
- 39:17Speaker 1: Murray go back to baseball? You guys understand that baseball,
- 39:21Speaker 1: Like he doesn't just go to the big leagues. You
- 39:23Speaker 1: think Kyler Murray being paid thirty six million dollars by
- 39:26Speaker 1: the Cardinals is gonna ride a fucking bus in New
- 39:29Speaker 1: Mexico and random cities in Arizona and Texas in the South.
- 39:35Speaker 1: Are you out of your gord? Are you out of
- 39:37Speaker 1: your mind? Like? No chance? And I just think that
- 39:45Speaker 1: great time business is booming the Steelers. One main question
- 39:56Speaker 1: I have for the Steelers is who's gonna play quarterback?
- 40:00Speaker 1: Is who's gonna play quarterback? Right there? I think Mike McCarthy.
- 40:04Speaker 1: The branding on Mike McCarthy is there has never been
- 40:09Speaker 1: a more accomplished and consistently good at his job individual
- 40:14Speaker 1: whose brand acts like he's a scrub, who acts like
- 40:17Speaker 1: he's not any good because his resume is Mike Tomlin
- 40:21Speaker 1: and John Harbaugh. Yet John harbaughd just got a hundred
- 40:24Speaker 1: million dollars. Mike Tomlin will take a sabbatical doing who
- 40:28Speaker 1: knows what this year traveling, probably do some TV and
- 40:31Speaker 1: will get one hundred million dollars next year. Yet Mike
- 40:34Speaker 1: Tomlin gets hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers and people fall
- 40:37Speaker 1: out of their chair laughing at the Steelers. It's like, listen,
- 40:40Speaker 1: guys might not be the sexiest higher And I do
- 40:43Speaker 1: think it has to do like his weight, right Harbaugh.
- 40:46Speaker 1: You look at John harbaughd down. I saw him at
- 40:48Speaker 1: the combine. He looks fantastic. I mean he looks like
- 40:50Speaker 1: he's got like seven eight percent body fat. There's a
- 40:53Speaker 1: coolness factor with with Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin ain't exactly
- 40:57Speaker 1: you know on gop ones Like he's not the skin
- 41:00Speaker 1: his cat at this point. Maybe he will be when
- 41:02Speaker 1: he goes away. I think the thing with McCarthy is
- 41:05Speaker 1: he goes away like he takes a year off and
- 41:07Speaker 1: he gets bigger, and then everyone just makes fun of
- 41:09Speaker 1: him like that's just that jolly fat, shitty coach. It's like, no, guys, actually,
- 41:14Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, the Cowboys three or eight
- 41:15Speaker 1: years twelve wins won the division twice. If you want
- 41:19Speaker 1: to quibble with his playoffs success, okay has he underachieved
- 41:22Speaker 1: with the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.
- 41:25Speaker 1: No disputing that he's lost as a favorite multiple times.
- 41:29Speaker 1: With the Cowboys. The year two when they were playing
- 41:31Speaker 1: the Niners on the road, he should have won. Listen,
- 41:35Speaker 1: dan Quinn's defensive performance that game was atrocious. Dak shit
- 41:38Speaker 1: to bed the other two games. Some of the Green
- 41:40Speaker 1: Bay games we could be critical of for sure, especially
- 41:43Speaker 1: the Seattle championship game. But like Mike McCarthy is, let's
- 41:48Speaker 1: not act like he's Pat Shermer Joe Judge here, and
- 41:52Speaker 1: they made an emphasis today to get offense. Rico Daudell
- 41:55Speaker 1: is a good player. Like I didn't understand why they
- 41:58Speaker 1: didn't give it the ball to Eco Dawdle. More so
- 42:02Speaker 1: that the running back position. I liked the Iowa running
- 42:06Speaker 1: back last year. They draft him the third round. It
- 42:07Speaker 1: was a disaster. He had the one play whereas the
- 42:11Speaker 1: kickoff returner bounced off him and then he like basically
- 42:14Speaker 1: never played the rest of the year. That that pick
- 42:16Speaker 1: looks like it might just you never want to just
- 42:19Speaker 1: overreact to a rookie season. But I don't think a
- 42:22Speaker 1: rookie season could have gone worse. But here's the other
- 42:25Speaker 1: thing ID say about Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy was there
- 42:27Speaker 1: Devonte Adams rookie year. You might want to google that
- 42:29Speaker 1: one and or google Davonte talking about it. Did not
- 42:33Speaker 1: go well, and within a couple of years Davante was
- 42:35Speaker 1: one of the best wide receivers in the league. So
- 42:37Speaker 1: part of his ability is to coach guys up, is
- 42:40Speaker 1: to help change guys career guys who were playing crappy,
- 42:43Speaker 1: make them good players. He is a really, really good
- 42:46Speaker 1: offensive coach. See, you had Michael Pittman, who it's kind
- 42:51Speaker 1: of I don't want to say falling off a cliff,
- 42:53Speaker 1: but a couple of years ago, Michael Pittman was one
- 42:55Speaker 1: of my favorite players in the league. I mean, it
- 42:57Speaker 1: wasn't that long ago. He got one hundred and nine
- 42:59Speaker 1: balls in the seat and then last year banged up,
- 43:04Speaker 1: you had Tyler Warren. Their offense changes. Pierce really excels
- 43:08Speaker 1: and he kind of gets lost in the shuffle. Has
- 43:10Speaker 1: some Dj Moore vibes. So you could argue with Michael
- 43:13Speaker 1: Pittman and Dj Moore, we're kind of buying low. Everyone's
- 43:16Speaker 1: out on them, but it's kind of because their market
- 43:19Speaker 1: value is we could revitalize it pretty quickly. They're actually
- 43:24Speaker 1: a stock that's undervalued. And if Michael Pittman's healthy, like
- 43:28Speaker 1: he's a player that's going to translate to Cold Weather
- 43:31Speaker 1: to that division. He's a tough, high character, just physical
- 43:35Speaker 1: guy to go over the middle. That kind of compliments DK,
- 43:38Speaker 1: who is like a Ferrari right. And you get Dabdell
- 43:42Speaker 1: in there, and you get McCarthy. But the question mark
- 43:45Speaker 1: is simply even if Rogers comes back, I mean last year,
- 43:49Speaker 1: you know, forty two years old, he's got a torn achilles,
- 43:51Speaker 1: he's got a broken hand. It's like, can his body
- 43:54Speaker 1: last in this NFL? Now, I don't know what their
- 43:58Speaker 1: other options are. They don't really have.
- 44:00Speaker 2: Uh.
- 44:01Speaker 1: They drafted I always get Will Howard and Riley Leonard
- 44:05Speaker 1: mixed up. They got one of those two guys. I
- 44:07Speaker 1: think they have. Riley Leonard's on the Colts, Will Howard's
- 44:11Speaker 1: on the on the Steelers. So listen, I don't think
- 44:15Speaker 1: you bank on one of those guys. Could they draft
- 44:18Speaker 1: like a nuss Meyer type in the second or third round.
- 44:21Speaker 1: I definitely think they could, but maybe they are still
- 44:24Speaker 1: And again I'm recording this around dinner time on Monday,
- 44:28Speaker 1: because I held out for as long as I could
- 44:30Speaker 1: for the podcast tomorrow. Could they be in the Kyler sweepstakes?
- 44:34Speaker 1: Have a hard time seeing mcarthy. I mean when we
- 44:36Speaker 1: think about the guys, McCarthy's coach recently, and like, honestly,
- 44:40Speaker 1: post Rogers was obviously Dak Prescott. He won some games
- 44:43Speaker 1: with Cooper Rush right, So to me, guys like would cousins.
- 44:49Speaker 1: To me, cousins can't move in the cold weather. Don't
- 44:52Speaker 1: love that. They don't really have any options. It's no
- 44:54Speaker 1: one's fault. But I do wonder if they just draft
- 44:59Speaker 1: a guy. But we saw Rooney talk like this is
- 45:02Speaker 1: a team that never plans on just like we'll be
- 45:05Speaker 1: cool with winning six games one year and having like
- 45:07Speaker 1: the seventh overall pick. That's not how this franchise thinks.
- 45:10Speaker 1: It's not how they're wired. It starts at the top
- 45:13Speaker 1: that they That's why they hired Mike McCarthy and not
- 45:15Speaker 1: some random younger coordinator, up and coming guy, because they
- 45:19Speaker 1: want to win nine or ten games this year. And
- 45:21Speaker 1: if you told me they just had a capable quarterback,
- 45:24Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, they could win nine or ten
- 45:27Speaker 1: games this year. One rumor again, internet rumor. Uh K,
- 45:31Speaker 1: I'm not schefter here, but love a good internet rumor
- 45:34Speaker 1: is they were sniffing around on Tyson bageit the Bears
- 45:39Speaker 1: backup quarterback from like Division seven, which I do think
- 45:43Speaker 1: the Bear assigned case Keenam today is a backup quarterback.
- 45:46Speaker 1: And it's not like they got him for eight hundred grand.
- 45:48Speaker 1: I mean, they gave him a couple of year contract,
- 45:50Speaker 1: like five or six million dollars. So maybe they are, hey, listen,
- 45:55Speaker 1: they really want a second round pick for Tyson. Maybe
- 45:57Speaker 1: they end up giving to like, hey, give us like
- 45:59Speaker 1: a third five. I definitely think that the Steelers are
- 46:04Speaker 1: gonna have to do something because what they have. Even
- 46:07Speaker 1: the Rogers thing, there's no guarantee that Rogers can stay
- 46:09Speaker 1: healthy at this age. There's no guarantee that he's gonna
- 46:12Speaker 1: give them a yes or no anytime soon. He's kind
- 46:15Speaker 1: of beaten to his own drum. Him and his wife,
- 46:18Speaker 1: who is the most mysterious wife in the history of wife.
- 46:21Speaker 1: I mean, I could, if you're listening to this right now,
- 46:25Speaker 1: I can find you on Instagram and know more about
- 46:27Speaker 1: your family in two seconds than I can about Rogers' wife.
- 46:31Speaker 1: But he is wearing that ring, So I'm glad he's
- 46:34Speaker 1: happy and happy wife, happy life. So yeah, Tyson badget
- 46:40Speaker 1: to the Steelers. That'd be kind of fun. The Bears
- 46:44Speaker 1: signed Kobe Bryant, who I saw a bunch of the
- 46:48Speaker 1: former Seattle guys tweeting like you got a stud. I
- 46:52Speaker 1: didn't quite realize just how productive this guy's been the
- 46:54Speaker 1: last couple of years. Multiple time starter now for Mike
- 46:58Speaker 1: McDonald since he got there. Seven picks, I think, seven
- 47:01Speaker 1: force fumbles, a bunch of PBUs just a smart, really
- 47:05Speaker 1: really good player. And you know, the Bears signed Devin Bush,
- 47:09Speaker 1: they signed a defensive lineman that they signed some defensive
- 47:12Speaker 1: guys because I think you can plug hole holes with
- 47:16Speaker 1: veteran defensive players and at least just get bodies of
- 47:19Speaker 1: people that know what they're doing. But one thing that
- 47:23Speaker 1: I googled him, like where did Bryant go to college?
- 47:25Speaker 1: He went to Cincinnati and he played on a team
- 47:29Speaker 1: with Alec Pierce, with Sauce Gardner. So between the three
- 47:34Speaker 1: of them, Pierce got well over one hundred million dollars today.
- 47:38Speaker 1: Sauce got a massive contract a couple of years ago.
- 47:40Speaker 1: Bryan got like forty forty five million dollars today. I
- 47:43Speaker 1: mean that's two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of
- 47:45Speaker 1: player on a non Power five program. That there's a
- 47:48Speaker 1: reason that team was now they they played Bam in
- 47:52Speaker 1: a bowl game and got their ass kick, but was
- 47:54Speaker 1: like competing to run the table. The reason Luke Fickle
- 47:58Speaker 1: got the Wisconsin it was getting off for jobs left
- 48:01Speaker 1: and right because they had elite NFL talent on their roster.
- 48:05Speaker 1: I mean that I didn't quite realize. I'll be honest,
- 48:10Speaker 1: I didn't know that much about Alec Pierce till the
- 48:12Speaker 1: last couple of years till he and definitely this year,
- 48:14Speaker 1: I did not know that Kobe Bryant played for Cincinnati.
- 48:17Speaker 1: Maybe it was just wasn't as dialed into their roster
- 48:21Speaker 1: to me. Sauce was clearly their most famous player in
- 48:23Speaker 1: Desmond Ritter. But that is that's a good job whoever,
- 48:28Speaker 1: you know, building a non Power four team. But that
- 48:31Speaker 1: type of stuff that we talk about all the time
- 48:33Speaker 1: is the ability to build the team that's gonna have
- 48:36Speaker 1: a bunch of NFL talent on is basically impossible now
- 48:40Speaker 1: at programs like that. Now Cincinnati technically is a Big
- 48:43Speaker 1: twelve program now, but Cincinnati is not keeping guy. If Alabama,
- 48:48Speaker 1: Ohio State, Texas, Oregon want Alec Pierce, want Sauce Gardner, listen,
- 48:53Speaker 1: I ash Gent is the last of a dying breed.
- 48:56Speaker 1: Right he was offered seven figures. Most people thought it
- 48:59Speaker 1: was like ten to be the running back a couple
- 49:02Speaker 1: of years ago, and he denied him and he was
- 49:04Speaker 1: like loyalty. These guys stood by me, and I think
- 49:07Speaker 1: the most boys he could pay him was like three
- 49:09Speaker 1: hundred grand nil. Those days are just sadly and as
- 49:13Speaker 1: someone that loves college football and someone that loves like
- 49:16Speaker 1: I got my start at Fresno State, but these program
- 49:19Speaker 1: when I was at Fresno State, we would have had
- 49:22Speaker 1: multiple guys making seven figures. I mean, Derek Carr would
- 49:24Speaker 1: have got a substantial amount of money. Ryan Matthews would
- 49:28Speaker 1: have got a huge contract from one of the big programs.
- 49:31Speaker 1: We had a ton of wide receivers and corners and
- 49:35Speaker 1: offensive linemen, all these guys. I mean, we would have
- 49:37Speaker 1: lost ten guys a year. So I props Cincinnati, no wonder,
- 49:41Speaker 1: they were really good. And props of the Bears, who
- 49:44Speaker 1: I think when you look at it, that division, which
- 49:50Speaker 1: I thought last year coming in was stacked, it's got
- 49:53Speaker 1: question marks. I mean, the Green Bay Packers have lost
- 49:56Speaker 1: a lot of core guys. Now you can say they
- 49:59Speaker 1: were trending in the right in the wrong way, you
- 50:02Speaker 1: could say that they're no longer good players relative to
- 50:05Speaker 1: what they were. Totally understandable, but you still got to
- 50:07Speaker 1: replace those guys. Like someone has to replace Kwaywalk, someone
- 50:11Speaker 1: has to replace for Sean Geary, right, someone has to
- 50:14Speaker 1: replace that guy. And I think anytime you're in a
- 50:18Speaker 1: position with a lot of new guys, even at a
- 50:20Speaker 1: franchise that is great at drafting and developing and figuring
- 50:25Speaker 1: things out, it is a challenge. Minnesota, like, I just
- 50:31Speaker 1: their quarterback situation I can't take seriously. And the Lions,
- 50:36Speaker 1: like they're just just some question marks, right. I mean
- 50:40Speaker 1: they're very top heavy. They got some new offensive coordinator.
- 50:43Speaker 1: Can that revitalize them a little bit. But I think
- 50:45Speaker 1: the Bears are in a really, really good position. I
- 50:49Speaker 1: mentioned this to Coward. If Caleb Williams can just improve
- 50:53Speaker 1: five to seven percent, just some of those basic routes
- 50:57Speaker 1: that he was overthrowing, he hits, you know, that out
- 51:02Speaker 1: route on second and seven, just would put them in
- 51:04Speaker 1: first and ten instead of being in third and seven
- 51:06Speaker 1: he hits that you know, that wheel route in which
- 51:09Speaker 1: he airmails or skips, he hits MNNDAI in stride. If
- 51:15Speaker 1: he can do some of that, he doesn't need to
- 51:17Speaker 1: be Drew Brees or Steve Young from an accuracy standpoint,
- 51:21Speaker 1: but if he can just be more consistently accurate on
- 51:23Speaker 1: the basic shit, I to me that I like them
- 51:27Speaker 1: to win the division because the Packers have a lot
- 51:30Speaker 1: of question marks. I mean, the best player on their
- 51:31Speaker 1: team is coming off an ACL injury. Right to me,
- 51:35Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings, I'm sorry your quarterback positions JJ McCarthy
- 51:39Speaker 1: and Kyler Murray or whoever like, I'm out. And the Lions,
- 51:42Speaker 1: who I'm not selling all my stock. I'm still a stockholder.
- 51:46Speaker 1: There are just some question marks to be answered if
- 51:48Speaker 1: they're gonna get back to win twelve plus games a year.
- 51:51Speaker 1: I'm still a believer in Dan Campbell and I really
- 51:53Speaker 1: like their high end talent, but their offensive line definitely
- 51:57Speaker 1: needs to improve. And yeah, and defensively, can they keep
- 52:01Speaker 1: core guys healthy because every single years they drop like flies.
- 52:05Speaker 1: I would say the same thing for the NFC East.
- 52:07Speaker 1: You know, this Eagles team is just going to be
- 52:09Speaker 1: a lot different than it has been in years past.
- 52:13Speaker 1: They lost some core guys today, they got some major
- 52:15Speaker 1: question marks internally with some key guys. What happens with
- 52:18Speaker 1: aj Brown? And you look at the Cowboys, like defensively,
- 52:23Speaker 1: you add Gary to go with Quinn Williams, you got
- 52:25Speaker 1: multiple first round picks. If you can keep proving the defense,
- 52:28Speaker 1: you know, the offense is good, like they could just
- 52:31Speaker 1: be a credible team next year. And the New York
- 52:34Speaker 1: Giants clearly are going to be dramatically better than what
- 52:39Speaker 1: they've been. Now are they going to be as good
- 52:40Speaker 1: as everyone thinks? I don't know about that because their
- 52:44Speaker 1: quarterback's gonna have to prove that he can play the
- 52:46Speaker 1: whole season. And Matt Naggie's call him plays, you know,
- 52:52Speaker 1: solely He's called some plays with Andy, but the offense
- 52:55Speaker 1: is now his baby for the first time since Chicago Bears.
- 52:58Speaker 1: So can Naggie throw as an offensive coordinator? I'm believing him.
- 53:02Speaker 1: Love the guy and could Jackson darts day on the field,
- 53:05Speaker 1: But they are going to be Their defense gonna be
- 53:07Speaker 1: dramatically better. They paid a punter to day, Well, why
- 53:10Speaker 1: do you think they did that? They're gonna try to
- 53:12Speaker 1: play some Baltimore Ravens smash mouthfucking football. But if your
- 53:16Speaker 1: quarterback can't stay on the field and they're gonna have
- 53:19Speaker 1: to balance, Like you know, they were running like quarterback
- 53:22Speaker 1: power constantly last year with him, which he's actually pretty
- 53:24Speaker 1: good at because he's an underrated athlete. But you know,
- 53:27Speaker 1: you get Scataboo back, maybe you draft another run I
- 53:30Speaker 1: guess they got multiple running backs. You get Malik Neighbors back,
- 53:33Speaker 1: you ad Isaiah likely Their offense is pretty interesting. The
- 53:36Speaker 1: Commander A is still a lot of question marks. I mean,
- 53:38Speaker 1: they paid tons all the day their quarterback, who was
- 53:42Speaker 1: one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen. Health
- 53:45Speaker 1: That to me is the number one thing. Their team
- 53:48Speaker 1: was really old last year. I just got some question
- 53:51Speaker 1: marks there. They obviously got new coordinators on both sides
- 53:55Speaker 1: of the ball, but that division, to me, is just
- 53:57Speaker 1: more interesting than coming in the year. Was like Eagles
- 54:00Speaker 1: are gonna win it. Like there wasn't a bigger lock.
- 54:04Speaker 1: To me, I'd say them and the Bills. I thought
- 54:07Speaker 1: the Bills were locked, which obviously they weren't, but I
- 54:10Speaker 1: thought the Eagles were probably the biggest lock in the
- 54:13Speaker 1: entire league. Because you just looked around, You're like the
- 54:16Speaker 1: Commander's roster. I know they had a great season, just
- 54:18Speaker 1: isn't good enough. The Cowboys, once they traded Micah Parsons,
- 54:21Speaker 1: their defense was gonna be a shell of itself, and
- 54:24Speaker 1: because they were gonna have no pass rush and their
- 54:26Speaker 1: dbs were already kind of bad. And the Giants just
- 54:29Speaker 1: you just weren't buying the stock coming into the season.
- 54:31Speaker 1: Then obviously it just got derailed. But that is not
- 54:34Speaker 1: the case now that that is not the case at all.
- 54:36Speaker 1: And the same thing with the Bears, like that division
- 54:38Speaker 1: was like, hey, it's gonna be the Packers, it's gonna
- 54:41Speaker 1: be the Lions Minnesota if JJ's pretty good, is now
- 54:45Speaker 1: wide open, And honestly, I lean just the Bears. Like
- 54:49Speaker 1: right now, I picked the Bears to win that division.
- 54:52Speaker 1: When it comes to the NFC East, I think I
- 54:54Speaker 1: think the Cowboys and Giants gotta be looking at themselves
- 54:58Speaker 1: going we got a shot, we got a shot to
- 55:01Speaker 1: have a hat and tea shirt at the end of
- 55:02Speaker 1: the year, and the Commanders just go, hey, I just
- 55:05Speaker 1: if our quarterback can play seventeen games, he can be
- 55:08Speaker 1: one of the better players in the league. Even if
- 55:10Speaker 1: we have some flaws on the roster, if our quarterbacks
- 55:13Speaker 1: that good, we're gonna be a very very competitive team.
- 55:17Speaker 1: Maybe not carried by football gods and angels as it
- 55:21Speaker 1: was a couple of years ago hitting Hail Mary's when
- 55:25Speaker 1: Stevenson's looking in the crowd. Maybe those days are over.
- 55:28Speaker 1: But like we can get back to nine or ten
- 55:29Speaker 1: wins and I think the Eagles and that's part of Listen,
- 55:33Speaker 1: the wind blows the hardest at the top of the mountain,
- 55:36Speaker 1: and the hardest part about sports, the hardest part about business,
- 55:39Speaker 1: the hardest part about anything. Once you're successful, is other
- 55:43Speaker 1: people in your industry are all coming for you. Like,
- 55:45Speaker 1: do you know how hard the Chiefs the like five
- 55:49Speaker 1: year run they had of every regular season game was
- 55:53Speaker 1: the biggest game their opponent played all season. Think about that.
- 55:56Speaker 1: I'm not even talking to the playoffs in the Super Bowl.
- 55:58Speaker 1: I'm just talking by like twenty twenty to twenty twenty three,
- 56:01Speaker 1: every fucking regular season game against the Cardinals, against the Jags,
- 56:05Speaker 1: against the Ravens, against you name it, every single team
- 56:08Speaker 1: in the league, whoever their opponent was, that was the
- 56:10Speaker 1: biggest game on their schedule. Listen, it was easier to
- 56:14Speaker 1: load your roster. But say what you want about Saban
- 56:18Speaker 1: for a decade plus he was by far the biggest
- 56:21Speaker 1: game every team played on his schedule, right by far.
- 56:26Speaker 1: And that's attacks that I don't think we discuss enough.
- 56:31Speaker 1: That's really hard. It's what looking back at like the
- 56:34Speaker 1: Brady Belichick era from like twenty ten to twenty eighteen,
- 56:39Speaker 1: once it was well established, like these guys were like
- 56:42Speaker 1: goat level individuals. They were getting everyone's i mean best
- 56:47Speaker 1: right shot they could every single week. And that's what's
- 56:52Speaker 1: hard about football, right, That's what's gonna be challenging for
- 56:56Speaker 1: Ben Johnson the Bears, Like we don't get to kind
- 56:59Speaker 1: of sleep, like no one's like not paying attention to
- 57:01Speaker 1: us anymore. No one's like are these guys good? No,
- 57:04Speaker 1: it's like everyone's taking us seriously every single week. Every
- 57:08Speaker 1: single week. They're gonna approach us no different than they
- 57:11Speaker 1: would the Bills are the Ravens, Like there's a real
- 57:14Speaker 1: game with a playoff team, like, better buckle up because
- 57:16Speaker 1: if you don't, we will lose. And that's what separates teams,
- 57:22Speaker 1: that's what separate coaches over the course of years. Right,
- 57:26Speaker 1: It's honestly probably an underrated part of the Tomlin Staft
- 57:33Speaker 1: that he never lost because it's like the guy just
- 57:36Speaker 1: refused to ever have a season where they just went
- 57:38Speaker 1: like six and eleven, just just refused. And I think
- 57:42Speaker 1: that is not just respectable, that's fucking badass. And in
- 57:47Speaker 1: a sports world where these other sports teams tank, even
- 57:51Speaker 1: in the NFL where you have these inept franchises like
- 57:54Speaker 1: the Jets and the Cardinals, you know, winning every single year,
- 57:58Speaker 1: even if it's not the super Bowl, even if it's
- 58:00Speaker 1: out fourteen games. You just being above five hundred and
- 58:03Speaker 1: being a competitive team year in year out, even if
- 58:05Speaker 1: that means being the last team in the playoffs, Like
- 58:08Speaker 1: that's that's a very respectable thing in the competitive industry.
- 58:12Speaker 1: So I love football, fun day, jam pack day, and
- 58:17Speaker 1: a lot of action. Hopefully we get more action in
- 58:19Speaker 1: the next couple of days. I'm sure we will officially
- 58:21Speaker 1: get some trades, which AJ Brown is probably the name
- 58:25Speaker 1: to keep an eye on, like what is going to
- 58:27Speaker 1: happen there, and then we'll see what else shakes out.
- 58:30Speaker 1: So buckle up and uh I'll have you covered. Audios,
- 58:38Speaker 1: the volume