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Dillon Gabriel Takes Over For Browns & Bengals QB Dilemma · The MMQB NFL Podcast

0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, I am under the weather, it's Conoror, and it's the end of PewDiePie guest, there's Albert Breard.
0:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I like to get that out of the way first because some people have an aversion to, it's like when you sit next to a guy on an airplane that has the sniffles and you want to open the emergency hatch and jump out of the plane.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're triggered by that sort of thing, I don't think I'm going to be sniffling over the course of this show.
0:30
[SPEAKER_00]: but I am going to sound like I sat outside in sub-zero temperatures for a week.
0:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I got the first school cold of the year.
0:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It's here and my 37-year-old immune system is not prepared to handle it.
0:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so like this is your Jordan Flu game, I guess, and I hope you didn't have any bad pizza last night.
0:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I actually think you're right in the thick of that because I'm sort of,
1:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when you're a kid, you build up the most amazing immune system because you're doing so many disgusting things.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
1:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get older and I think it's knocked down a little bit and then you have kids.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when they're really young, you're like, throw them back into that peachy dish.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think now with my oldest being 10, I'll be 11 in less than a month and having three kids been through it.
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like my immune system is back at the level of like where it was in like 1990 or something, you know what I mean?
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Like so when you were like 40.
1:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, so I believe that I'm not going to respond to that, but yeah, I feel like I'm back at the point where I can withstand some more things, although, you know, Emily had a debilitating science infection over the last couple weeks.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe my immune system is just stronger than hers.
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that when she doesn't listen to our podcast.
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
1:58
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be great if this is the one time that she just decides to check in and She thinks so like I've been taking shots in her for like years.
2:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm That happened to me once where I think I had like a friend or like an in law relative Who did listen to the show bring up something that I said about my wife on the show and then she was like Is this your whole thing you just go down in the basement and talk about me for an hour Yeah, that was like no, only
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of sometimes.
2:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But we got a lot actually this is going to be a newsier program.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that in totality this is not your must-see TV slate of weekend games and this is not the fall to the NFL.
2:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean sometimes you just reach that point where
2:49
[SPEAKER_00]: with injury, attrition, with the fact that the teams that you thought might be good aren't that good.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll get to it.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just don't think that this is your blockbuster slate.
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually thought this past weekend was really good, even though the closeness of the games didn't necessarily.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: coming to fold as much, but a lot of news and first off the bat is that Dylan Gabriel is starting for the Browns this weekend in the UK against the Vikings, interesting time, interesting coordinator to make your first NFL, it's starting against good luck, especially with Harrison Smith back and all that, but
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Shoulder Sanders remains the number three quarterback on the depth charge.
3:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So Joe Flacco is your backup and I'm wondering why now because you know, I kind of figured it would happen And I love Mary K. Cabot who has covered the Browns for the plain dealer who heavily hinted that it was going to happen.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 90 years.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and
3:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And she had written something like it's time to go to Dillon Gabriel and just kind of a peak behind the curtain when a beat writer of that stature writes something like that it means that the team is probably going to make a move to Dillon Gabriel right.
4:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I went back and I watched the Lions game again.
4:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like those picks were not necessarily his fault.
4:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what was a clear miscommunication?
4:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody only showed the fact that he was growing it.
4:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that was like, in the other one, Jerry Judy fell down, right?
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, DJ Reed made like an incredible incredible book.
4:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I mean, like, I don't know that this is so much about
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know this is so much about Joe Flacko as it is about maybe the front office wanting to get a better look at like what they have a quarter back going forward and I think the challenge for the coaching staff now becomes
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: If Dylan Gabriel hasn't shown himself to be the best option in practice, do you risk losing the team by doing this?
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, and I've been over this before, and I think we've talked about this before, like this is not playing mad.
5:10
[SPEAKER_01]: There are other guys in that locker room whose careers are legitimately online this year.
5:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's mostly a roster every year.
5:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you've given them a demonstrably worse answer at the most important position on the field,
5:25
[SPEAKER_01]: you could be affecting their ability to continue to the career past this year.
5:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And so like that's what I mean when I say, you have to be able to sell it to the locker.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there comes a point in the year, right?
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean when you're 13, 14 games in and the teams out of the play-out phrase, when I, everybody said an adult, you know what I mean?
5:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you realize at that point, like I think any player would realize at that point, okay, like I understand when the organization wants to get a look at these guys.
5:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I just know this, like Joe Flacco was very clearly.
5:58
[SPEAKER_01]: the best quarterback in camp for them very clearly the best quarterback in camp for them.
6:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So, if Dylan Gabriel goes out and it does not look good on Sunday, I just think you're inviting so many different things into the conversation and that's the problem.
6:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
6:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you're inviting the Shidorah Sanders circus into the equation,
6:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, into the internal conversation, like, why do we go away from Joe in the first place?
6:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What is this season all about?
6:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
6:30
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's just, I mean, to me, at least, it's a risky move, but I think it's different than the giant moved to Jackson Jarrett, because I think the player saw in the summer, Jackson Jarrett's probably going to be the best answer soon or rather than later for us on the field.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
6:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jackson Jarrett won the backup job.
6:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Dylan Gabriel did too, but Dylan Gabriel didn't have James Winston to beat out, you know what I mean?
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jackson Dart did beat James Winston out.
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I just, I look at this and I do think there's some risk involved.
7:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's by the way, is with all due respect to the job, the Browns have done, which this is clearly a reset year for them.
7:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think if you look at like what they've done from a roster standpoint, a lot of this plan is working out that rookie class quarterbacks aside, rookie classes great looks awesome.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, Mason Graham Carson Swanson, Jared Dylan, Samson, Quinn John Juddkins coming back now and how good he's looks since he's gotten back in the lineup, I, I think they're doing a lot of things right.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I would hope you wouldn't undermine the rest of your year if the players don't believe that you're doing the right thing for them and the here and the now and again like doing the right thing for the franchise long term.
7:50
[SPEAKER_01]: you have to get a read on what you have a quarterback going forward and that's going to affect your 2026 plan, but there are a lot of guys in that locker room who could care less about your 2626 plan because there's no guarantee they're going to be there when when you're executing it.
8:04
[SPEAKER_00]: See one and three and nearly beat the bangles with Joe Burrow in week one.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a one in three team that should possibly, I mean, should probably two in three team.
8:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have Carson Wentz on Sunday in the UK, which is a total, you have no idea what's going to happen in that game.
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Game that you can win.
8:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the Steelers the week after.
8:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, Pittsburgh is,
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: theoretically right now the best team in the division, but by virtue of the fact that the Ravens have an entire starting offense and defense on the IR at this point or in the training room.
8:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have the dolphins, the patriots, and the jets.
8:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like through November 9th, all of those games are winnable.
8:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just don't understand why now.
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe the plan is like
8:59
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some version of this that involves taking your lumps this year.
9:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But the kids already showed that they could play.
9:06
[SPEAKER_00]: give them the best quarterback option available and let them play right I mean I don't know let them go beat the Vikings let them go beat the Steelers I don't think that that's out of the realm of possibility they went down and they stopped the lines on the first drive on Sunday on the scripted drive then had an 88 yard counter with a quinchon quinchon junk in his touchdown and yes then a lot of stuff got out of control in that game but this is after
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Green Bay Packers.
9:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this team first key enough that you keep Flacco in and you let them bang around a little bit.
9:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
9:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I guess the good news is Joe is such a pro and has such a, I don't give a damn.
9:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't give a damn, maybe that's not the right way to put it.
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just kind of like a,
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like a mature, I'm a mature attitude about all this stuff that, like, it's not one of those, like, where we, like, we can't go back to him.
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
10:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think they can't go back to him if they need to.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think Joe is like the perfect guy for this scenario where if you do have to go back to him, you can.
10:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but it's just like, I don't think this team is dead.
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the team is like, I mean, just by record and by the junction of the year we're at, we're at right now.
10:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, they're still in contention.
10:30
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't like they've fallen out of the race completely.
10:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, like I again, like it's just, it's one of those things where it's like,
10:38
[SPEAKER_01]: how's the locker I'm gonna take this and if it if Dylan looks like he's in over his head against Brian Flora's defense how hard is it to go back to him again it's
10:48
[SPEAKER_01]: there's a lot like there's a lot to consider there.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think a lot of it like can affect the development of that rookie class too.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you you want to have his healthy and environment as you can over the last three months of the season.
11:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And you want to give those kids those guys a chance to play it they're very best over the rest of the year.
11:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So now okay like all of a sudden like you you look like you've got like a really nice young group of players going into 2026 and they've got some momentum.
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know like I think looking at like the looking at this dispassionately and looking at this like it's like your moving pieces around on a chess board I I don't know I think there's risk involved in that.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's play the mic in the mad dog and for those of you don't know, they were legendary radio hosts in the northeast and they would get the giant schedule on the chat schedule on the day that it was released and they would sit there and go that's a win that's a loss when lost when lost okay, but let just pacify me for one more second on this okay, let's say you lose to the browns or you lose to the Vikings in the UK because the Vikings are better team okay, that makes you one and four and you lose to the Steelers and that makes you one and five.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: the you beat the dolphins on October 19th, you beat the Patriots on October 26th.
12:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think either of those, none of those games are out of the realm of possibility.
12:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a lot of things around the next four.
12:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have the Jets.
12:19
[SPEAKER_00]: who may be one of the worst teams in the NFL right now.
12:21
[SPEAKER_00]: At least now you'd be four and five.
12:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're four and five going into a game against Baltimore.
12:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And who that I'll know is what the Ravens look like in November.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: They could be a lot better or yeah.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: All these players could just be hurt.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this could be your this sucks everybody's on IR season.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And it just then that happens to teams, right?
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know, that's my, I mean, that's my thought process there.
12:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the other piece of my thought process is that the the quarterback of the 2026 Browns is probably not in the roster right now.
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's sellers.
12:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything.
12:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what is, but I don't think that players in the roster right now.
13:01
[SPEAKER_01]: That'd be my guess.
13:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I got an interesting text on this the other day, by the way, that and I'll just.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: whatever.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I can we can put a bow on the Browns quarterback conversation with this that I think that a lot of people like Fernando Mendoza from Indiana.
13:18
[SPEAKER_00]: He's starting to climb up the, uh, climb up the boards and the proverb board, the proverbial board.
13:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And then this kid Josh Hoover, who lit up Bella check in week one from TCU.
13:30
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people are starting to talk about him.
13:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Dante more in Oregon.
13:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
13:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, huge game against Penn State.
13:40
[SPEAKER_01]: That was what we had in Penn State.
13:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
13:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you watched that game, and I'm not a scout, but what I do know is this guy was like a high end recruit who went to UCLA and played for Chip Kelly and started as a true freshman, then transferred out.
13:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there was some sort of NIL issue, whatever it was, chip, there was before chip left, I think.
14:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, he went back and he sat for a year, which I think they'd show some maturity.
14:09
[SPEAKER_01]: He was actually dealing Gabriel's backup of an Oregon last year.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, just watching him, knowing like, okay, like, this guy has got like high end tools.
14:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he was that sort of recruit.
14:21
[SPEAKER_01]: That's showing up on the field now.
14:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And to perform in that environment, you know, I, like, I still remember Dwayne Haskins, like his sort of coming out party was in a white out at Penn State.
14:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think that those sorts of moments,
14:39
[SPEAKER_01]: can get people paying attention.
14:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if Oregon winds up wanting the national championship or making a run at it, you know, daunting, more straft eligible.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And if he's got these high and tools, maybe he's somebody you look at as like, that's a real guy.
14:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So, um,
14:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think there's lots of names that the weird thing about this year is there's lots of those names in the bucket, but I don't think any of them you could say like, I don't know there's a single quarterback out there where I would put a hundred bucks on he's 100% going to be a top 10 pick, you know,
15:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams or Drake may or two years ago at this time when we knew like those guys were going to be top 10 picks, you know?
15:32
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't think it's going to offer the high end of that years quarterback class, the 2024 quarterback class, but I think it is going to offer like the like it's going to be that pick your flavor, pennix, McCarthy, like I boneix, like I think it could be that version of it right where it's like if you need one, there might be a guy there
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Going back up and getting Dart looks really smart right now at least it does after what's Yeah, I actually just the answer it was actually funny because I answered a male bed question on that and somebody asked Would would if you read drafted right now would Dark go higher and Somebody brought up Cleveland and I said Cleveland probably still would go through the with plan that they went through last year Which was to reset the roster because they went three years without a first round pick and their core was getting a little older Which I think was smart by the Browns, right?
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I thought about it and like, but maybe they were taking them at five, you know, and I say that because if you had the knowledge of what 2026 looks like now.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you do take them, you know what I mean?
16:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Or the Saints take them at nine, you know?
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think that's a huge part of it for these teams.
16:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something like most people don't look at like a lot of teams when they need a quarterback will go in and they won't just look at that.
16:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Years quarterbacks, they'll look at the next year's quarterbacks, you know?
16:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you're having that kind of like two year picture now, the Jackson Dart pick could wind up looking really smart.
16:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
17:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're, uh, we're just in the early stages of that, but we'll see, um, we'll see where that goes.
17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bengals, we just watch them get demolished on multiple football offensively.
17:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And, uh, my upset is not specifically because I only needed six points from Jamar Chase to win my big money fantasy league and didn't get it, but I'm sure that other people have taken notice as well.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Jake Browning looks nothing like the player that we saw in 2023, and I don't know if that's offensive, I mean, I think I got to do this.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, do you, they part of that is like that they have a book on him, part of it's that they have a book.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I think part of it that not a lot of people are talking about is that when Jill Burrow is playing, Jill Burrow is the offensive coordinator.
17:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Jill Burrow is Peyton Manning in that regard.
17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not comparing him to Peyton Manning, but Jill Burrow is controlling
17:59
[SPEAKER_00]: a lot of what he sees.
18:00
[SPEAKER_00]: He's controlling the input into what's going in.
18:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Joe Burrow is an incredibly advanced quarterback.
18:05
[SPEAKER_01]: He's playing the way the people played quarterback 25 years ago, which is increasingly rare.
18:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I see we can remove that from the plug.
18:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you say, OK, Zack Taylor and Bengals offensive staff.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Now make it work.
18:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Looks a little different.
18:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that Browning was probably able to catch lightning
18:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It was it was a decent stretch.
18:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was seven games.
18:31
[SPEAKER_00]: We were seven games.
18:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they were four and three four and three and above 70% completion rate.
18:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now it's it looks.
18:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks nothing like that.
18:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So can I make the case for trading for current cousins?
18:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, yeah.
18:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think that that's what, I mean, that makes the most sense.
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't it?
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think for one thing, like what you're talking about, knowledge of the offense, the ability to control things if you want to replace that, you know, where current cousins formative years as a starter, who is coordinator was, right?
19:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It was Sean McVay.
19:05
[SPEAKER_01]: who is one of Zack Taylor's mentors, right.
19:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I think having you know like having somebody who has at least some background in your offense would help, having somebody who is used to having a lot of control and runs the offense by the book, because that's always been Kirk's
19:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Kirk's rep has been like he will like that's why Kyle Shanahan loves him.
19:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the coach has the joy stick.
19:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
19:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Like and he will run your offense the way you want your offense run.
19:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's got that piece of it.
19:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the other thing.
19:40
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
19:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I came up covering, like, you know, as a Patriots beat writer in 0506 when I first started covering the league, it was in the height of the Brady Manning rivalry.
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember it felt like those two would go at it forever, and these franchises would be gold standards forever.
20:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we saw the Colts get lucky, and Manning gets hurt in the right year, and they wind up with the lock, and it extends a little bit.
20:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we saw what it looked like post-andrelock, right?
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've seen now what it looks like for the Patriots.
20:15
[SPEAKER_01]: host Tom Brady and how hard it's been for them to drag themselves up off the mat and what a mess they've been for in 13, two years in a row.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's really convinced me that when you have a quarterback like that, and I think there are four of them in the NFL right now, right?
20:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's Alan Mahomes, Burrow, and Jackson.
20:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Every chance that you have to enter the tournament with one of those guys at quarterback is gold and needs to be respected and needs to be invested in.
20:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if I have an opportunity to enter the tournament with Joe Burrow as my starting quarterback, I am treating that like gold and how do you treat that like gold you give yourself the best chance to get in while he's not in the lineup.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: That makes the investment in a guy like Kirk Cousins would make it 100% worth it.
21:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if I'm in a bangle as I'm making that phone call to the Falcons and I'm saying, what can we do to make this happen?
21:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, like I know it might seem like a lot.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the money you would pay and I don't know.
21:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what's his base salary this year?
21:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, is it?
21:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like 20, let me pull it up because I used to, I had this number, I had this, I committed to memory in the office.
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Every other week, it's like, hey, is this team gonna trade for Kirk Evans?
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this getting, yeah, maybe I'm blocking it out because I was like a kick pup, all right.
21:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So his base salary is 27 and a half.
21:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So at this point, well, let's say they trade for him in two weeks, okay, so that will be six weeks in.
21:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're talking about like now, and hang on one second here.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So we would be talking at that point,
21:56
[SPEAKER_01]: About I'm dividing 27 and half by 18 right here live, which is great podcasting as as you know I think that's a great podcasting because I can't divide so so you'd be talking about an 18 million dollar investment Okay, an 18 million dollar investment and maybe in this case you get whatever six or seven stars out of him
22:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth it.
22:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth it because you have a quarterback like that.
22:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are very hard to come by.
22:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're making an 18 million dollar investment.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What could be a run at the Super Bowl when the rest of the AFC quite frankly looks relatively vulnerable, right?
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: The Broncos haven't quite lived up to expectations and I think they look better on Monday.
22:37
[SPEAKER_01]: The Chargers now are down both their starting tackles.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the Chiefs are going to be just fine, but they've looked vulnerable early on.
22:44
[SPEAKER_01]: The bills, I think, are the best team in the conference, but they scuffled a little bit.
22:49
[SPEAKER_01]: The Ravens, obviously, have looked vulnerable.
22:51
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm the Bengals, I look at this and I say,
22:55
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we get to December 14th?
22:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and that game against the Ravens at 7 and 6.
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, can we get there?
23:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm doing everything I can to get there.
23:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if I can get there at 7 and 6, that will mean that I've developed different parts of my team have become more well-rounded.
23:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm inserting Joe Burrow back into the lineup.
23:16
[SPEAKER_01]: and then one.
23:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you have a chance to get hot at the end of December.
23:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
23:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I just I think like if you think, if you're at the point now where you think Jake Browning is not going to be good enough and it's going to land you at three and six when he comes back or you know, that's bad math.
23:35
[SPEAKER_01]: That uh,
23:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever, three and a B3 and 10 or 4 and 9 and you're out of it all together, like if you think Jake Browning's going to do that to you, then you owe it to yourself to try and find a better answer at the position because again, the opportunity to have a quarterback like that going in a January should be treated like gold.
24:00
[SPEAKER_00]: you you're already all in right I mean did the deal and and I hate to you know and I'm sure that Mike Brown is rolling his eyes when he listens to this because I know Mike Brown is a huge MMQB pod listener.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no question big time and everybody is all the insiders.
24:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
24:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But I get it, right?
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I paid, I paid T-hagans, I paid Jamar Chase, I paid Trey Hendricks and I, you know, we got the deal done with Shamar Stewart leave me alone.
24:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And while I never side with an owner, I do get the idea that he probably feels like he has done everything he can at this point.
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: My hope is that
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: what you don't do is Russell Wilson, right?
24:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Russell Wilson is theoretically the other guy in this conversation, right?
24:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Russell Wilson, you only owe him a million and a half for the end of the year.
24:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a more financially feasible option.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But we've seen already Jake Brown, Browning, just
25:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Chuck it to Jamar Chase and T-Higgins and I think that's at best kind of what you're going to get.
25:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that Russell Wilson is a market improvement over Jake Browning in that offense specifically right now.
25:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's, if that makes sense.
25:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
25:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But, but I do think that Kurt Cousins, I think we're fading him, man.
25:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do like I just, you're gonna get motivated, Kurt Cousins, right?
25:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not gonna look, it drives me so crazy because it's not gonna look like it did last year in Atlanta because,
25:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Kirk wasn't healthy and that offense was not adjusted to suit where he was at in his recovery.
25:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't.
25:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, hey, you're going to have to do all this stuff in the backfield and Kirk cousins is on one and a half a kill.
25:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that it looked a lot more.
25:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He could drive them all last year than what it was.
25:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't drive them all last year, like a five to five touch their five touchdown game or whatever it was.
26:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I just think like, you know, again, like I think you get a motivated version of Kirk causes, I think you get, um, you know, a guy who's going to be good for the room, sort of speak and good for, like, for Joe Burrow, then to have that resource at the end of the year would be I was thinking that too.
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice, that's super valuable.
26:21
[SPEAKER_01]: you know what I mean like so like to have him is that resource when he gets back would be valuable it also like if you're if you feel like you're close with him like it could give you like the ability to sit joe for an extra week if Kirk is playing well you know yeah valuable it's just I again like
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, you're all in, you did the deal with Tray Hendricks and, you know, you've invested in the receivers, you've invested in the offensive one, even though it hasn't played out the way you would have liked it to, there's just so many things to me that I look at with the Bengals where I'm like,
26:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Kirk could probably stabilize and fix this a little bit and put them in a position where they're competing for the next two months and, you know, then when Joe gets close, you have a little bit more flexibility to be careful with them and when Joe gets back, you have a resource in the room form that's really good.
27:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and you'd hope at least that you have, you know, like a group that's developed again because if you're going to win without him, you're going to have to develop different strengths.
27:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's chase brown in the run game.
27:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's alcohol and what he's doing defensively to make it work in a little bit of a different environment.
27:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I.
27:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think that there is a path here to competing and to competing at the highest level.
27:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, like, you know, all those questions about like is Joe pissed off about like the fact that this or that isn't working around and like Joe's deeply invested in that franchise and deeply invested in being part of it, being the change agent for that franchise.
27:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I've talked to him about this before.
28:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And there'd be good value for you on a personal level, which I'm doing something like this to preserve a year of his career and give value to a year of his career that otherwise would be lost.
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And for people clamoring that I'll back up back up quarterbacks.
28:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It is what it is.
28:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a sunk cost.
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I ran into this tidbit and there's no other place to put it, but here.
28:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was reporting out the legal sign stealing thing last week, someone said that backup quarterbacks are a big part of this, that they help in the prep for and they notice a lot of this stuff.
28:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's part of their job, right?
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Is to see what other teams are doing and Kirk is one of those
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I didn't confirm this with Kirk specifically, but someone said, like, hey, do you know why, uh, Gardner mince you always, uh, gets signed really quickly and always goes to teams and it was like, why, and it's because he, he was an old air raid guy.
28:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's used to getting to the line, looking over the defensive backs and taking a screenshot of their signals mentally and processing them, and he knows what the defense is doing.
29:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's coming.
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that Kirk like there's tremendously valuable things that we just don't even we can't even fathom is my point with a back of quarterback.
29:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why I think you put Kirk cousins in Joe Burrow together and you give Joe like essentially like a third offensive coordinator.
29:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy shit.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You really got some.
29:32
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, you, uh, sorry for being distracted there.
29:36
[SPEAKER_01]: the Kiron on first take right now is Will Shidorah Sanders see the field this season with in little like little letters underneath the browns benching off.
29:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to start the on Gabriel.
29:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I just sent it to you.
29:52
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just a parody of ourselves at this point, you know.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that was great.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to tweet that out too.
29:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I said it took 30 seconds.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was like
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: will should to her standard seats.
30:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think we'll probably wind up seeing him be based on the juncture of this happening though.
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
30:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I do think because it happened so early, if things go wrong, then eventually it's gonna be like, well it's just the wrong and see what happens.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say one thing about this now.
30:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a long time pre-season game goes.
30:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I would think that it might go really, really poorly.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Well I mean I don't know how it's gonna go but I'll just say this and then we'll get to Lamar Jackson because I think that's
30:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lose-loose proposition for the Browns, just to play him specifically, because you remember the fervor after that Panthers game of, oh my god, this guy should be our week one starter, after he carved up one of the worst defenses in the NFL, historically one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And a defense that wasn't even running its scheme, at that point in the exhibits of preseason.
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So if Shidorah comes out and catches lightning in a pan
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: A, I'm saying lightning in a panel at this episode, by the way, is that a loading in a model?
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: It's lightning in a bottle, flash in a pan, lightning in a bottle, bad job by me.
31:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's all the, uh, in a hell.
31:17
[SPEAKER_01]: The NFL has had issues with conflating analogies in the past, so I think we need to be careful.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It's true.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like the bartender from Boondock Saints.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So if he somehow has like a man's L game, but good man's L game.
31:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, and everyone.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: is like, holy shit, then your pigeon, then your back is against the wall for next year, right?
31:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's like, oh, this guy's so good.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so good.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You can build around him.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You can build around him.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You can build around him.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We want you to do everything we want you to do.
31:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And at that point, it becomes a runaway boulder.
31:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's impossible to stop.
31:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is like the T-Boat thing.
31:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Why, like, what the Broncos would tell you is it took, like someone like Peyton Manning to detach from exactly.
32:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Great football and they were winning and everybody was like, oh, it's a miracle.
32:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Tim Tibo was, you know, the presence of Tim Tibo was so great that Mary and Barbara ran out of bounds.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
32:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was like I got all that weird stuff was happening.
32:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it a fumble or do you run out of bounds?
32:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember now.
32:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember that was too long ago.
32:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was like, but it was like a weird thing where the bears had the game won.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: There was after Mary and Barbara left the cowboys for the bears.
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: God rest his soul.
32:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And Barbara, I believe like inexplicably ran out of bounds.
32:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And then that allowed the Broncos to get the ball back and win the game.
32:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, it's good, but it will be one of those situations where, like, she do our sand, like, she do our sanders could go 10 of 30.
32:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And they win the game.
32:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And he makes one throw and it's like,
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I will say this.
32:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I interviewed Tim Tibon.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you have, too.
33:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
33:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Oddly coming away from that conversation someone said like because back then he was on the jets and When you did a one-on-one with Tibo They didn't take him into another room.
33:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You had to do it as locker and so everyone's watching you interview Tim Tibo And I was like 22.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think at that point and just kind of in over my head, but I talked to Tibo And then I you go back into the scrum with the other reporters and someone looks at me and they're like
33:31
[SPEAKER_00]: you're you're blushing like you are beat red like like you just met your crush for the first time and we're making fun of me right but he did have that magnetism or you can see or 100% and should or I think is not not different like member at the beginning of the year with the training camp stuff like at the podium he has a lot of emotional intelligence
33:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he can be electric and draw people in when need be and I think that's just like with Kevin Savansky you have to know what you're going to get on Game day because if he plays well, it's over.
34:12
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to play him and that's a situation that you don't want to be in because I just don't think the Consistencies there.
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't
34:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm going to get followed around by his brother's anxiety.
34:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just everything you're inviting that comes with it.
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very bouncy.
34:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I again, I thank you for me.
34:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I'm going, if I'm the Browns, and I hear you're going to doing this.
34:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got, I've got boots on the ground.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It all the big college quarterback games for the rest of all, which I'm sure they're doing.
34:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't looked into it, but I'm sure they're doing that.
34:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, like I, I'm doing everything I can in turning over every rock to make sure that I know everything I, everything possible about all of them, because again, like I think the chances are that the Browns quarterback for 2026 is not on the roster right now.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to talk about little more Jackson.
35:05
[SPEAKER_00]: This is possible two to three week hamstring injury, speaking of Shoulder Sanders.
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He probably should have gone to the Ravens instead of avoiding them because he might be playing right now.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: really good offense with Derek Henry.
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is, this is to me the game changing, depending on how long this lasts and how long it lingers.
35:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is in, you could say it's only two weeks, it's only two weeks.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The Ravens are one and three.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: while on one side of my mouth, I'm saying that the Browns could get back to five and five.
35:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a different situation than saying that the Ravens can survive as a team.
35:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're talking about that with that Lamar Jackson.
35:49
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about teams like, there's a difference between talking about can a team like find its way into the like, the in the hunt graphic in December versus like, with the Ravens we're talking about,
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Kenna's like, is that game going to be played in Baltimore, Buffalo?
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that game going to be played in Baltimore, Kansas City?
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, that's the sort of thing that we're talking about with the Ravens.
36:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And those things is they, you know, once again last year approved, those things kind of can determine who winds up in the Subaru last year.
36:25
[SPEAKER_01]: the bills won what a two point game over the ravens at home.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And then went to Kansas City and lost at the very end of that game to the chiefs.
36:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm not saying if the AFC championship game was played in Buffalo or that divisional round game was played in Baltimore, the result would have been different, but it might have been, right?
36:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So like we're talking about like teams that are that have been at the very top of the conference that where that are playing in high
36:54
[SPEAKER_01]: those games are generally one on the margins and have been traditionally very very close.
37:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they play the Texans this week.
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Have the Texans found their mojo.
37:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
37:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but maybe the Texans have found their mojo and the Texans are in the same sort of spot, same sort of desperate spotball to mors in, right?
37:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get the Rams after that.
37:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
37:15
[SPEAKER_01]: The Rams are going to be coming off of, I think, 10 days rest, right?
37:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they play on Thursday.
37:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So like the next two weeks for the Ravens, like I, you're right, like this is a critical point for the Ravens.
37:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think that's talented and a team, by the way, is any in football.
37:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think that their roster, and their roster is dynamite, you know, despite what it's looked like early on.
37:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And they've got injury issues now that they're working through, but I mean, you know, they're sort of a dead no excuses point where they got a buck up because
37:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll lose enough of these games now all the sudden maybe even if you get in you're the six or seven seed and you've got you got to win three games in the road to make it super bowl.
37:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Cooper Rush against let's just take a look at this.
38:00
[SPEAKER_00]: The Rams are the fourth highest QB pressure rate team in the NFL and the Texans are 14th, but you have to take into account that this team has not been playing with the lead for an awful long portion of this season.
38:19
[SPEAKER_00]: When they did get a lead, they tortured the
38:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
38:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the ravens of one in five, what does that look like?
38:31
[SPEAKER_01]: That's, I mean, well, I mean, then you're starting to ask big picks or questions, which, you know, I don't, I don't think we need to discuss that yet, but not there, but you know, we're not there, but like, I think it's, I think that this is a,
38:47
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a critical two games for the Ravens.
38:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they're going into those two games of a Cooper rush, again, against, I think a team that's really talented in the Texans that has a heist that still has a really eye-sealing, right?
38:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I don't, I'm not saying they're there, but I, and I'm not over reacting to the Titans game.
39:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have told you this when they were all in three.
39:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I still think they have a high ceiling.
39:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And then after that, you're playing a Rams team that I think could be an Super Bowl.
39:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just,
39:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a little bit of an inkline in front of the Ravens now, whether or not they can scale it, you know, you get the other side of it, then, and I'm just looking at it now, then you've got your buy, and then you've got the bears and dolphins coming out of your buy if you're three and three, or even two and four, like that opportunity in front of you is much different than if you're one and five.
39:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at the games this weekend, Albert, just very quickly.
39:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We have 49er's Rams on TNF, which is one of my favorite perpetual matchups.
39:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it looks a little bit different now, given the state of the Niners.
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious if they can find a way to muddy this up enough against McVay to get it to a point where the 49er's defense can kind of take over and cause it a critical turnover or something like that.
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Rams look as good to me as any team in football right now.
40:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I thought that was an impressive one over the gold.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So I really impressive.
40:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I went back and and and and and watched it again.
40:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, the cults like open the door with, you know, a couple of the 80 Mitchell plays and and obviously, um, the 10 men on the field on the long to two outwell touchdown.
40:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the range, really, I like, I think there are ability to kind of perform in some of the critical spots there and just.
40:38
[SPEAKER_01]: you know what I really like about the way the Rams played is a lot of their best players were making the plays when it really mattered most you know like that fourth down pookin' to who is the one who's getting a ball and getting into the end zone you know to tie the game there and you know staff are quickly recognized as the guy falling down on the ten men play and quickly gets the ball to out well and it's not the craziest quarterback play in the world but it's quick recognition
41:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, and then, and then, and then Jared verse, you know, with a strip sack on a critical play.
41:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, as a coach trying to come back, like, I, I just think over and over again, you're seeing the best players make these plays, you know, and that's a good sign for where a team is at.
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And, um, you know, I picked them to go to the Super Bowl, so maybe I'm a little biased here in calling them a Super Bowl team.
41:26
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, it's even like the way Jared, I talked with Jared verse after that game and it's even the way he was talking after the game, he was like, I'll do respect to the Eagles.
41:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We gave them that game.
41:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
41:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
41:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I kind of like the confidence to say something like that, knowing they're probably going to see them again, you know?
41:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think the Rams are in a really good place.
41:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to close the book on the Salalium Cohen fight, but Kyle Shanahan was asked if I owe a more detail on that.
41:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay, go.
41:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me hear.
41:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think apparently, I'm currently, I'm currently going to an on-looker.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, I think when Liam Cohen first passed Robert Sala, I think Sala actually made the attempt to go up and apologize and Liam then said, no, I got nothing to say to you, bro.
42:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And then walked the 10, 15 yards and then turned around and the elbows keep my name out of your mouth.
42:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you see, you didn't have any faith at home when they were face to face, and then he had something... It's just what a weird situation.
42:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That's disappointing.
42:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I was the thing that sucks.
42:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Liam's done a really, really good job, and there's three in one, and that's what we should be talking about.
42:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he made, I was as critical as anybody of the, the, the greenness of the staff.
42:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And Campanoli has done nothing but put himself in the conversation for assistant coach of the year.
43:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and once people get a load of his like personality, oh, yeah, that we're gonna be talking about head coach with him.
43:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so too.
43:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I absolutely think so.
43:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But Kyle was asked if any coach could beat up Robert Sala and that was great.
43:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And his response was to tell how much shot Kyle was so happy to get that question, like the, the, the, the shit eating ground on his face when he got asked that question was fantastic.
43:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like interpreting it now in real time.
43:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And Kyle's tough to make smile to like, I had a question for him that I had to ask.
43:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He was so happy to get that question.
43:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You could tell.
43:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I know.
43:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a question that I had to ask him at the Super Bowl.
43:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And I tried to phrase it in a way that wasn't like,
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: People make fun of you for this and I didn't do a good job and immediately you just see like the the RBF and you're just like, I'm fucked.
44:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not.
44:00
[SPEAKER_00]: He's more self-aware people give him credit for too.
44:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so too.
44:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's like he's a really sharp guy that way and like I and I thought his answer was great and I.
44:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You know like I think he said like the Dan Campbell thing like so I did I don't know if you saw it But I did tweet out my if there was a 32 man fight bracket among the head coaches Who my final four would be I think our our our buddy Tyler done actually picked up on a two I'm not sure what he tweeted.
44:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He reacted to it.
44:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So my final four My final four if I if I was if I was filling out my bracket here and maybe we will do this at some point because it's always a good exercise My final four
44:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Dan Campbell, Detroit, Aaron Glenn, Jets, Demiko Ryan's, Houston, Mike Vrable, New England.
44:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I feel like that's uncreative and a little too easy because it's for former players.
44:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just have a hard time taking any one of those four off the list.
44:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, he's talking.
44:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking.
44:57
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a contender.
44:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He's another X player.
44:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you have a few guys like your
45:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think Mike McDonald is an interesting one.
45:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we fight storm, right?
45:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, a little bit of a quiet storm.
45:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like Sean McDermit and Dan.
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, all right, hold on, McDermit, yeah.
45:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right, I'm going to do mine.
45:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to start stealing my answers, okay?
45:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I have the rest of that.
45:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a very different, I have a very different one.
45:22
[SPEAKER_00]: For you do.
45:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, okay, a really different.
45:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, okay, let's go, here's mine, okay.
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Sean McDermit because I think that
45:34
[SPEAKER_01]: wrestlers are So annoying in the best possible it like right if you've ever gotten into all the wrestler To the sudden you were just like in a pretzel I don't know what happened on my I like the most tenacious guy like my my my high school team Was this kid Tim Murphy who when he was like in like fifth or sixth grade
45:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he would, he showed up to like, pop and want to practice a year younger than me.
45:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was playing on my brother.
46:01
[SPEAKER_01]: My brother was like, and I'm like, what was, was playing, you're playing you're up.
46:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, he, um, he shows up like for practice with like, taped glasses and like, and like, like, didn't look like anything skinny is hell.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
46:14
[SPEAKER_01]: But they start hitting.
46:16
[SPEAKER_01]: He's murdering murdering people.
46:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he winds up being a high school wrestler like a champion.
46:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he wound up like deep in the state bracket and wrestling and all that.
46:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And but he was a safety for us and the craziest dude like he would be dropping weight at the end of our football season for wrestling.
46:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's still playing safety for us at a really high level.
46:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, his fucking lips are turning blue.
46:42
[SPEAKER_01]: because he's been losing weight because he's cutting weight for wrestling and we actually used him in spots against certain teams as a nose guard because he was able because he could get loaded to the ground and he could get in the backfield so fast so he was like our monster back which is our strong safety right and then we would use him on the nose
47:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm with you, wrestlers, like Tim Murphy's my example.
47:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure everyone has one, and then he wasn't the only one, but he's the one that I think of when I think of that.
47:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Like wrestlers have a special little something in a fight situation that you cannot discount.
47:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think Dan Quinn, by the way, has wrestling background, too, which a lot of people have not, I don't know if that's really uncovered as much for more, more, more town high school, right?
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right around the corner for me.
47:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You just, yeah, so there you go.
47:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so let's hear your final four then.
47:32
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so yours just for, just for record was Dan Campbell, it was Aaron Glenn.
47:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron Glenn.
47:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me go Ryan's.
47:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Demiko Ryan's.
47:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike Rable.
47:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike Rable.
47:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm going with, like I said, Sean McDermott,
47:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Dan Campbell because I have to I just think leaving Dan off right this down by the way okay leaving leaving Dan off this list is is ignorant of the kind of like a heart of move like I know better than everybody else right
48:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, I'm I'm Owen one in career fights.
48:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You can still see the bro.
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're watching us on YouTube, you can see the little Owen Wilson section of my nose up here that will forever remain that way.
48:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not claiming to be an expert in in the art of hand to hand combat, but Dan Campbell to me.
48:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I've sat next to him.
48:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I've stood up and shook his hand and even with a taste of human being.
48:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, even with a titanium knee, he scares the living but Jesus out of me.
48:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've McDermott.
48:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I have Dan Campbell.
48:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And then my last two are interesting, okay?
48:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The third one is Jim Harbaugh.
48:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so like this is the fight 30 dynamic, right?
48:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so this is how I rounded out.
48:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim Harbaugh, like that's the guy that you punch in the face and nothing happens.
48:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He just continues to look at my hand out.
48:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm taking notes here because it's very important to me.
48:59
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, we're going to clip this by the way, so Jim, right, you punch that guy in the face and it, and it's like the, you know, he smiles at you.
49:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, exactly.
49:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe he's hurting on the inside, but there is a level of mental warfare, psychological warfare, 100% that you're not prepared for.
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a, he's a five star general in the army of psychological warfare.
49:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and even at the ripe, young age of 61, I think that he's still got it.
49:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've Campbell.
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I've McDermott.
49:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I've Jim Harba.
49:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim Harba.
49:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And then my last one is, can you kind of, can you kind of tell where I'm going with this or no?
49:55
[SPEAKER_00]: ever quit on a fight.
49:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Ever.
49:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Jeremy.
49:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Nick Seriani.
50:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
50:02
[SPEAKER_00]: nailed it not only not only would he come with a lead pipe in his sock and would just be dumb in his bag.
50:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, yeah, maybe big dumb calls in a some reinforcements, but serianny to me and you know these you talk about the wrestler growing up you know kids like Nick growing up that would rather have all of their teeth removed than to lose a fight.
50:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's the fighter is the, and I've been in a lot of school year.
50:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Fights, I, I probably have a losing record.
50:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a troubled young man at one point.
50:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I would, I would say, Seriani is the, if I'm going down, you're coming with me, fighter.
50:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you know what I mean?
50:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, like, if I'm going down, you are coming with me.
50:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and if I'm hurting, you are going to be hurting.
50:55
[SPEAKER_01]: He's that guy.
50:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So, right, because there's a lot of form of players in the NFL.
51:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, I think a lot of people are inclined like you did to go to Mikko, to go Rable, but I think that there are also, and I save this in the nicest possible way, and in the most complimentary way, but there's a psychopathie to it too.
51:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how you win fights.
51:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so part of a crazy person.
51:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of it for me too, though, with those with the four eye picked.
51:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're a little scratch, not gonna lie.
51:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Huh.
51:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
51:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You were a little scratch.
51:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say I would say like part of it for me though isn't just that their former players, it's like kind of the edge that they have and where they're from notoriously tough dudes.
51:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, right.
51:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And like Aaron Glenn when he was a player was the toughest like the scrappyest toughest corner in football, right?
51:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's kind of got at the short guy thing.
51:53
[SPEAKER_01]: going right like so I have that with him to me go is the smile in your face and then destroy you guy right like the friendly sky He's gonna like he's gonna put his helmet in your chest and then he's gonna like reach down and pick you up like it was nothing to do that
52:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And then with Brable and Campbell, I think it's the background of the two.
52:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So Dan Campbell is like, Texas tough, you know, different thing.
52:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, because Brable went to the same school that I did, my guess is that Mike Freable, gotten a few bar fights that got covered up.
52:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think there's probably an experience factor with Brable.
52:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I look into it.
52:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like they're too scared to look at it because I may or may not have been I may or may not have seen football players at my school getting to bar fights that never saw the light of day.
52:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So that didn't happen at Syracuse.
52:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We properly identified and punished people.
52:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I was I was in school during the John Cooper era.
52:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what which was like the
52:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it was, I loved, like, like, coupe, like, coupe to a good job there in a lot of different ways, but we had some, we had some colorful characters on the team.
53:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I, I did do some reporting on this guy Marco Cooper who, um, the day after the spring game was found passed out in his pickup truck with like,
53:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a handful of guns, like hollow point bullets, a bag of ecstasy, hollow point bullets.
53:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so you can look up if you Google Albert Brear Marco Cooper, you will find a story from the school paper on that.
53:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there was a southern guy when I was a freshman sophomore named Tim Cheatwood, and so they have a big banquet at Ohio State, and this is like again, this is like variable era of at Ohio State, and so Tim Cheatwood was from East Cleveland, which is like where bone thugs are from, and so.
53:49
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a big banquet, they have a big banquet, whatever.
53:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, they're annual thing, kick-off dinner, and everybody's wearing, you know, suits and ties, and the women there were, and dinner dresses all of that.
54:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And Tim Cheat would show up wearing a t-shirt that says Cleveland, home of the baddest motherfuckers on earth.
54:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they go around and introduce themselves to say a little something about themselves,
54:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Tim Cheatwood stands up.
54:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It says I'm Tim Cheatwood from Cleveland home of the baddest motherfuckers on earth So that's the environment my variable came up in anyway.
54:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I take mine, but so McDermott from Omaha Farm tough Flatlands of America tough and then you got a harbob from Toledo, please a Ohio
54:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tough like you just mentioned James town New York tough.
54:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but like for next series.
54:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I think Dan Campbell to Dan Campbell comes from a part of the country where, or a guy's know how to take care of themselves, you know.
54:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Right and I think that I mean, I don't know man.
55:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I just I imagine this I if we put them all in there in a royal rum There are guns from Texas too.
55:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe he's from Texas.
55:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
55:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
55:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I just imagine you throw all these guys into your royal rumble style I just have a really hard time Imagine Nick Seriani not winning
55:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say, I will say, too.
55:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Just so it's not in the bracket, but he would be a consideration as well.
55:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
55:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was speaking of where guys are from.
55:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He's from Dearborn and my family being from the Detroit area.
55:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I do know what being from Dearborn means.
55:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So I probably pray to have that.
55:36
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... let's go on to something that's not going to get us a bunch of angry texts from uh... coaches at when this gets clipped i think you know what i think i'm going to get from a bunch of coaches like knowing the way they talk about this stuff i probably get filled out brackets from them i hope so that would be all right if we get
55:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, send us your brackets.
55:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see your coach fight brackets.
55:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to breeze through this Albert, and I'm just going to do a quick one-liner, and then I want kind of your thoughts on just a couple of these here.
56:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're looking down at the Sunday slate.
56:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a one-oclock game between the Giants and Saints.
56:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see if Jackson Dart can get two and a row here.
56:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The Giants are two and three, and while we're not thinking playoffs,
56:17
[SPEAKER_00]: we are thinking a lot differently about this franchise.
56:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Broncos and Eagles.
56:23
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a potential get-right game for Denver after the blowout of the Bengals and this is the Eagles to me facing a situation where it's like how long before we have to really unfold the arsenal here and really get into an offense that's going to sustain us throughout the rest of the season.
56:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Texans Ravens like we talked about really important game commanders chargers, how does Jaden Daniels look after he comes back and Patriots, Bill's Albert, can this is Mike Rable's first Bill's game and the bills have just been on fumes pummeling bad teams.
57:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Can Mike Rable get this within a touch now?
57:04
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my, right, my thought in this right.
57:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, can that was, this is a competitive game in the fourth quarter, right?
57:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it's a bar.
57:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you're expecting to go in there win, but I think if this is a good competitive game, then that becomes a launching point for the Patriots, you breeze, but I think the Broncos have a great opportunity here.
57:23
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been, I think, an uneven, I think they would say an uneven start to the season for them.
57:30
[SPEAKER_01]: it looks like the defense started to come together against the bangles on Monday night and bone X played really well.
57:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I thought like the job bone X did, at the end of the first half of that game, a couple of like really just high level throws that he made there, including the touchdown of Portland Sutton.
57:48
[SPEAKER_01]: This, like I think it's an opportunity for the Broncos to really stamp themselves, to be able to go into Philadelphia and when you know, I think it gives him an opportunity, like this would be a real launching point for them.
58:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
58:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think, uh, I mean, listen, this is a, I don't think, again, this is not one of those weeks that you circle on the calendar and you're like, God, I need to be in my chair for chiefs Jaguars.
58:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, even though that's going to be a good game, too.
58:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I'm not discounting that.
58:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Jacksonville could play up and and really surprise some people.
58:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not discounting them out of this one.
58:24
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think this is a game.
58:26
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a week that has a massive impact.
58:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we said, you know, are the Ravens going to go one in four?
58:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that's going to change things.
58:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Can the Broncos get to three and two?
58:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Chargers lose to the commanders and they're three and two.
58:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
58:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
58:45
[SPEAKER_00]: the remainder of the season, which is why it's worth watching.
58:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:50
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
58:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's sit back, Albert, and let's see what the people think of our coach fighting brackets here, you know?
58:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
58:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Feel free to send them in.
58:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We will, uh, yeah.
59:01
[SPEAKER_01]: We will take all of them under consideration.
59:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's hoping you feel better, Connor.
59:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
59:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're always happy for you today.
59:08
[SPEAKER_00]: flawless performance by me and by Adville Coles and Sinus and I'm gonna go load up on some of that and and take a long nap.
59:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my plan for it.
59:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Just kidding, I'm gonna write 10 more things about the NFL.
59:39
[UNKNOWN]: You