Latest / 3 and Out with John Middlekauff / Seahawks-Broncos TNF Preview, Joe Buck & Troy Aikman have TENSION on MNF, Texas has a QB Problem

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Seahawks-Broncos TNF Preview, Joe Buck & Troy Aikman have TENSION on MNF, Texas has a QB Problem · 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

0:01
Speaker 1: The Volume. What is going on, my people? How are
0:17
Speaker 1: we doing? John Middlecoff, Three and Out podcast. Big Thursday
0:22
Speaker 1: night game. The Seahawks head to Denver. Very excited. Some
0:25
Speaker 1: big picture thoughts with that one. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck,
0:28
Speaker 1: a little feud. Sark says that if his name was
0:32
Speaker 1: Joe Smith, we would not be as critical of Arch.
0:35
Speaker 1: Some thoughts on that one. We'll do some mailbag questions
0:37
Speaker 1: as well. At John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram.
0:41
Speaker 1: Fire in the DMs and get your questions answered here
0:45
Speaker 1: on the show. And that'll be the show today. We'll
0:48
Speaker 1: keep it a little shorter today. We, if you listen
0:52
Speaker 1: on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and out.
0:54
Speaker 1: If you want to watch us, we're up on a Netflix,
0:56
Speaker 1: the alert, never miss an episode. We also, I threw
0:59
Speaker 1: my top five NFL teams up on YouTube earlier today.
1:02
Speaker 1: You little YouTube only content. So you can go check
1:05
Speaker 1: that out. And let's just dive into the pod. This week, Seattle-Denver,
1:10
Speaker 1: I mean, I would say on paper, coming into the
1:12
Speaker 1: season would be one of the best games of the
1:15
Speaker 1: first couple months of the year. Without knowing how things
1:18
Speaker 1: were going to play out in the records, you would
1:19
Speaker 1: say through this week, through week six, it would have
1:24
Speaker 1: been a top 6-7 game of the year, right? Seattle
1:28
Speaker 1: defending champs against Denver, who was a broken ankle away
1:31
Speaker 1: from being there, who we both thought were going to
1:33
Speaker 1: be really good. Now, their records right now, They haven't
1:36
Speaker 1: been as good as we thought, but still, on paper,
1:38
Speaker 1: that is an excellent game. All the networks would love
1:41
Speaker 1: that bad boy this week. And I completely understand the
1:46
Speaker 1: NFL focusing on Amazon. The depth of their pockets are unlimited.
1:54
Speaker 1: For those of you that have invested in the company
1:56
Speaker 1: over the years, it's been extremely lucrative. I'm a little
1:59
Speaker 1: late to the party. I've gotten much more involved or
2:02
Speaker 1: just originally involved in 2026. I mean, just keep adding
2:05
Speaker 1: to my allocation for the next 10 years. I know this.
2:08
Speaker 1: I get four Amazon boxes in front of my house
2:11
Speaker 1: every single day. Now, I understand their business model. That's
2:14
Speaker 1: not even the most important thing. Neither is the NFL.
2:17
Speaker 1: They use the NFL as like an advertising model. But
2:21
Speaker 1: we have seen these videos of Rod sitting next to
2:24
Speaker 1: their CEO. They want this partnership and relationship to be
2:28
Speaker 1: as good as humanly possible. And once upon a time,
2:30
Speaker 1: this game was a joke. And then we went through
2:33
Speaker 1: the period of all the media guys, this is unethical.
2:36
Speaker 1: This isn't safe. And now it's like, oh, just bring
2:38
Speaker 1: us on Thursday Night Football because typically it's an awesome game.
2:42
Speaker 1: Next week is New England at Chicago. I mean, these
2:46
Speaker 1: two games are two of the better games of the
2:48
Speaker 1: next two weeks. And one thing I will defend the
2:51
Speaker 1: fan who has gotten kind of angry of like, some
2:54
Speaker 1: of these slates on Sunday suck. You could argue looking
2:58
Speaker 1: at the slate this week, not counting the primetime games,
3:02
Speaker 1: that the 10 a.m. slot and the 1 o'clock slot,
3:05
Speaker 1: Pacific Standard Time, this would be the best game of
3:07
Speaker 1: the week. And you could definitely make the argument next
3:12
Speaker 1: week that Pat's at Chicago, assuming it looks like Caleb's
3:14
Speaker 1: going to play. Drake May versus Caleb, both these two teams,
3:18
Speaker 1: let's say they get their feet under them this week.
3:21
Speaker 1: Best game of the week next week. There's some other
3:23
Speaker 1: games in the mix. Cincinnati's at Baltimore next week, and
3:26
Speaker 1: I think Green Bay, Detroit play as well. But it
3:32
Speaker 1: does diminish the product on Sunday. And I think, I
3:36
Speaker 1: don't know, not everyone has Sunday ticket, right? The majority
3:41
Speaker 1: of human beings just watch their local game. And depending
3:44
Speaker 1: on the market you live in, the product can be
3:46
Speaker 1: pretty terrible. And I would watch these games no matter what.
3:50
Speaker 1: Whether I did this for a living or not, I'd
3:52
Speaker 1: be getting the Sunday ticket. Obviously, I do this, so
3:54
Speaker 1: I'm watching them all no matter what. But there are
3:56
Speaker 1: times on Sunday morning when I'm setting up the box,
3:59
Speaker 1: I'm like, God, this is... This is pretty bad. And
4:02
Speaker 1: the other thing is we're in the period of time
4:04
Speaker 1: now where we get four teams that just disappear. They
4:07
Speaker 1: get a bye week. You know, last week was just
4:09
Speaker 1: two in Kansas City and Carolina. This week's four. So
4:14
Speaker 1: when you get in some of those situations and three
4:16
Speaker 1: or four of them are playoff teams or fringe playoff teams,
4:19
Speaker 1: you get yourself in positions where it's like a lot
4:21
Speaker 1: of Titans and Cardinals playing better teams. You're like, this
4:25
Speaker 1: is bad. This is rough. So listen, this relationship's not
4:31
Speaker 1: going anywhere. Thursday night football's not going anywhere. And I'm
4:34
Speaker 1: not anti-Thursday night football. It is great for me personally.
4:37
Speaker 1: I am pro. And if you're going to give me,
4:39
Speaker 1: I'd rather have better games than crappy games. But man,
4:44
Speaker 1: it does diminish a little bit on Sunday. Some big
4:47
Speaker 1: picture thoughts. Obviously, Seattle coming off a big loss to
4:51
Speaker 1: the 49ers at home. Pretty unlucky, I would say, to
4:57
Speaker 1: draw on the schedule. You play the 49ers, who is
5:00
Speaker 1: your bitter rival, who treated that thing like a heavyweight fight.
5:04
Speaker 1: I would imagine everyone that played in that game struggled
5:07
Speaker 1: to get out of bed Monday morning. And typically on
5:10
Speaker 1: Thursday night games, you know, as the season goes on,
5:13
Speaker 1: you just pray to God if, you know, when that
5:15
Speaker 1: schedule comes out, do we have a home Thursday night
5:17
Speaker 1: game if it's in late October, November, December, right? If
5:21
Speaker 1: you got to go on the road, it's tough. Your
5:22
Speaker 1: bodies are bruised and battered. Your bodies are bruised and
5:25
Speaker 1: battered no matter what because of the NFL. But coming
5:28
Speaker 1: off a game like that, really hard transition. You don't
5:30
Speaker 1: really get to practice. You just do a bunch of walkthroughs.
5:32
Speaker 1: Your coaches are, you know, jamming information to you. But
5:37
Speaker 1: I will say that they are a play or two
5:40
Speaker 1: away from winning that game. And I think if Seattle
5:43
Speaker 1: plays Washington 10 times, They beat them eight, nine. I mean,
5:50
Speaker 1: so they're three and two, but it's not like, you know, three,
5:53
Speaker 1: they're just not, something's a little, yeah, they're not as
5:56
Speaker 1: good right now, partly because, and here's where I will
5:59
Speaker 1: defend John Schneider. It's like, well, we let some guys
6:01
Speaker 1: go in free agency. You also gave an astronomical amount
6:05
Speaker 1: of money to JSN and to Devin Witherspoon. Like, those
6:12
Speaker 1: guys are getting nine-figure contracts. with massive guarantees. So I'm
6:18
Speaker 1: not even saying they wanted to keep Kenneth Walker, but
6:20
Speaker 1: it's not really an option when a team's willing to
6:22
Speaker 1: give him $ 45 million. They would have loved to keep
6:25
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant. They probably thought maybe at one point in
6:28
Speaker 1: time they'd get him for like $ 5, $ 6, $ 7 million.
6:30
Speaker 1: And then he hits the free agent market after an
6:32
Speaker 1: incredible season and being a huge key part of the
6:35
Speaker 1: defense against $ 14 million a year. Shitty deal for Chicago
6:38
Speaker 1: that he got injured and hasn't been able to play.
6:39
Speaker 1: He would help them out a lot because he's a
6:41
Speaker 1: really good player. But this is part of paying players.
6:45
Speaker 1: You have to let guys, especially young ascending guys, walk
6:48
Speaker 1: when their rookie contract's up. And other teams are willing
6:51
Speaker 1: to give them high amounts of guaranteed money and high
6:54
Speaker 1: amounts of average per year dollars. So Seattle's run game
6:59
Speaker 1: last week let them down. But they draft a guy
7:01
Speaker 1: in the first round and he's currently on injury reserve.
7:04
Speaker 1: When he comes back, in theory, that should be a
7:06
Speaker 1: big jolt. I think Seattle will be okay. Are they
7:09
Speaker 1: going to be as good as last year? Probably not.
7:12
Speaker 1: Are they going to win the Super Bowl again? I'd
7:13
Speaker 1: bet against it. But I'm still pretty confident when the
7:16
Speaker 1: dust settles, they win 11-ish games. They're going to be fine.
7:21
Speaker 1: And I'm not playing this game. Just too weird, on
7:25
Speaker 1: the road, Seattle's favored, which I would imagine a month
7:28
Speaker 1: ago that would not have been the case. Even if
7:30
Speaker 1: you thought both these teams were going to be what
7:33
Speaker 1: we assumed they were going to be, this would have
7:34
Speaker 1: felt like Denver plus one. Or excuse me, Denver minus one,
7:37
Speaker 1: I mean at home. I would just lean like Mike
7:42
Speaker 1: McDonald versus Bo Nix. Who do you like in that matchup?
7:45
Speaker 1: I'll take Mike McDonald. Going up against Purdy and Mike Evans,
7:51
Speaker 1: a little different animal playing Bo Nix. I think we've
7:53
Speaker 1: got to ask ourselves the question. He's much more accomplished
7:57
Speaker 1: than J.J. McCarthy, but when you don't work back with
8:01
Speaker 1: Trey Lance, with Kyle Shanahan, when you don't work in
8:04
Speaker 1: situations with certain coaches, sometimes it's just all on the player.
8:08
Speaker 1: Maybe he's just not good enough. And my comp was,
8:11
Speaker 1: for him, when he was coming out, was like a
8:14
Speaker 1: mixture of Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo. Kind of in
8:16
Speaker 1: that world. As a prospect, those two guys coming out
8:19
Speaker 1: of college. Both those guys were second round picks. But
8:23
Speaker 1: there's quarterback inflation now. Inflation in everything. Things we used
8:27
Speaker 1: to spend $ 15 are now $ 24. Things that used to
8:29
Speaker 1: be $ 30 are now $ 42. Shirts that used to cost
8:30
Speaker 1: $ 70 are now $ 100. I mean, it's just part of life.
8:37
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, you can bitch and moan about it.
8:38
Speaker 1: It's like everyone in Arizona about golf. It's like, this
8:40
Speaker 1: is how much it costs to play golf? Well, go
8:42
Speaker 1: out to the course. The course is packed. So if
8:44
Speaker 1: you don't want to play, then don't play there. But
8:45
Speaker 1: that's how much it costs to play that round of
8:48
Speaker 1: golf at that course. So if you want a quarterback
8:51
Speaker 1: now who's decent, you kind of got to overdraft him.
8:53
Speaker 1: But when you do overdraft him and it turns out, actually,
8:55
Speaker 1: he might not be that good because based on what
8:57
Speaker 1: we're seeing right now, he hasn't been that good. I mean,
9:00
Speaker 1: he has two games where he hasn't sniffed 150 yards.
9:02
Speaker 1: He has another game where he threw 186 yards. Four
9:05
Speaker 1: of his five games only throw one touchdown. And honestly,
9:08
Speaker 1: I was a little shocked to see that because when
9:09
Speaker 1: you watch him, you don't really see. If you would
9:11
Speaker 1: have said how many touchdowns Bo Nix had this year,
9:13
Speaker 1: I'd have been like two. I mean, it's not like
9:16
Speaker 1: he's an explosive player. It's like, well, you got all
9:18
Speaker 1: these comebacks. Well, the numbers nerds always say this. Two
9:22
Speaker 1: things that don't translate year to year are turnovers. Like
9:25
Speaker 1: a team, I created all these turnovers. Could be a
9:28
Speaker 1: little random. One year you could be second in the
9:30
Speaker 1: league in turnover creation or turnover margin, and the next
9:34
Speaker 1: year you could be 20th. No different than fourth quarter comebacks.
9:39
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes did it forever, until last year, where they
9:41
Speaker 1: lost all the one-score games. They lost all the one-score games.
9:43
Speaker 1: It can be a little random. So it's like, where's
9:46
Speaker 1: his magic? Well, magic ain't there because it's not a
9:49
Speaker 1: sustainable trait to do that year in, year out. And,
9:52
Speaker 1: you know, Jimmy was much more, I'd say, like Derek
9:55
Speaker 1: Carr was a better player than Jimmy Garoppolo. Jimmy obviously
9:57
Speaker 1: played on better teams. But both. of them, like when
10:00
Speaker 1: they're bad, it was bad. And they're good. You know,
10:03
Speaker 1: I'd say Derek's good was probably a little better than Jimmy's.
10:07
Speaker 1: Though Jimmy, I would say, consistently played in bigger games
10:10
Speaker 1: because his team was better. But like... you get involved
10:14
Speaker 1: with some of these roller coasters, that's what you get.
10:16
Speaker 1: And that's what I think Bo Nix is. The difference
10:19
Speaker 1: is those guys got a big second contract. As of
10:23
Speaker 1: right now, you're going to give Bo Nix money? And
10:27
Speaker 1: I would say it better improve, and it better improve fast.
10:31
Speaker 1: It's like, are you going to pick up his fifth-year option?
10:33
Speaker 1: I mean, what if they go 8-9 and miss the playoffs?
10:36
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, you can take the play calling
10:38
Speaker 1: away from Davis Webb, but we've seen different people do
10:41
Speaker 1: breakdowns of, like, guys are open. He's just missing them.
10:44
Speaker 1: I was listening to Ross Tucker today. He's like, yeah,
10:46
Speaker 1: their guy's open. He's just not pulling the trigger. He
10:48
Speaker 1: looks completely rattled. And it's like, we saw it with
10:51
Speaker 1: Drake May, who is clearly a better player, but like
10:54
Speaker 1: maybe he's lost his confidence. Just find a way to
10:57
Speaker 1: get him into a rhythm. I know this, a way
10:59
Speaker 1: to get into a rhythm doesn't usually happen against Seattle
11:02
Speaker 1: Seahawks and Mike McDonald. So my, the way I'm looking
11:06
Speaker 1: at this game, I'm taking Mike McDonald over Bo Nix.
11:09
Speaker 1: And let's face it, they were down 17 to 10
11:11
Speaker 1: to the Chargers, who we all think are dog shit,
11:14
Speaker 1: because they are. They're missing like half their team. They're
11:17
Speaker 1: not any good. And if it wasn't for some fourth
11:20
Speaker 1: quarter turnovers, they wouldn't win by six or in cover.
11:23
Speaker 1: But I'll lean Seattle in this game. One big story
11:29
Speaker 1: today I found pretty interesting was that Troy Aikman and
11:32
Speaker 1: Joe Buck got into a little bit of a heated argument,
11:36
Speaker 1: supposedly in the Monday night football booth, over their contract situations.
11:43
Speaker 1: Joe Buck, I think within the last month or so,
11:46
Speaker 1: since the start of the football season, has signed a
11:47
Speaker 1: contract extension to be the voice of Monday Night Football,
11:50
Speaker 1: call Super Bowls for ESPN. But his partner, Troy Aikman,
11:55
Speaker 1: has not. And he had gone on record, I think
11:59
Speaker 1: within the last couple weeks, saying they haven't even had discussions.
12:03
Speaker 1: And I want to defend Joe Buck for a second.
12:06
Speaker 1: There are two types of partnerships, right? Some of you,
12:11
Speaker 1: many of you, probably work for somebody. You're a W-2 employee.
12:15
Speaker 1: And maybe you have a team, maybe you have, depending
12:18
Speaker 1: on what you do, a couple guys, maybe one person
12:21
Speaker 1: that is like partner, you work hand in hand with
12:24
Speaker 1: them to do whatever you're doing. At the end of
12:27
Speaker 1: the day, you don't control their employment. You don't control
12:33
Speaker 1: the capital allocation that your company chooses or doesn't choose
12:38
Speaker 1: to do. You are at will to what they want
12:43
Speaker 1: to do. And I don't blame Joe Buck at all
12:47
Speaker 1: for signing this guy. He doesn't run Disney. He doesn't
12:50
Speaker 1: pick and choose who stays and who goes. They put
12:54
Speaker 1: $ 100 million in front of him. $ 100 million. And he
12:59
Speaker 1: signed the contract. One, if you're Troy Aikman, who we
13:04
Speaker 1: can nitpick and argue until we're blue in the face.
13:07
Speaker 1: Some of you think that this duo sucks. Some of
13:10
Speaker 1: you think whatever. And some people like me think it's
13:13
Speaker 1: really good. But if you're on the side of it's
13:18
Speaker 1: pretty good to really good, well, we just saw Tom Brady,
13:23
Speaker 1: who obviously is on a different level than Troy Aikman
13:26
Speaker 1: in terms of fame, get $ 37 million. So if you're Troy,
13:30
Speaker 1: and obviously Tom, part of it is for Fox and
13:33
Speaker 1: the advertising. Colin said this before. What Colin or what
13:38
Speaker 1: Tom brings to the table is, in terms of selling
13:42
Speaker 1: the brand and using it, these big advertising conventions he's
13:46
Speaker 1: up on the stage, is worth a lot to Fox.
13:50
Speaker 1: Troy is not of that ilk at this point in
13:53
Speaker 1: time in 2026. But his value as a commentator, you
13:55
Speaker 1: saw Tony Romo, inflation, he's probably going to want $ 25- ish
13:59
Speaker 1: million a year. What if ESPN has no thoughts of
14:03
Speaker 1: doing that? What if ESPN goes, we already have people
14:06
Speaker 1: under contract that we could just put with Joe Buck
14:09
Speaker 1: and rock from there? Now, we could disagree however it
14:11
Speaker 1: comes out, and maybe we'd say this would suck. But
14:15
Speaker 1: I don't blame Joe Buck at all. Because again, he's
14:19
Speaker 1: not in control. right? You have to make decisions. When
14:22
Speaker 1: I was fired in radio, you know how radio usually works,
14:26
Speaker 1: your show ends on whatever day and they immediately call
14:30
Speaker 1: you into an office. And you walk into that office
14:33
Speaker 1: and there's a couple HR people sitting there. And in radio,
14:36
Speaker 1: there's this thing called the program director. He's sitting there,
14:39
Speaker 1: biggest dingbat I've ever been around in my life. And
14:42
Speaker 1: they tell you, you're done. And here's what you need
14:45
Speaker 1: to sign. You're owed this much money. Ideally, you have
14:49
Speaker 1: a couple years left of your contract. Your boy had
14:51
Speaker 1: like a month. But regardless, and then you're kind of,
14:54
Speaker 1: you leave the building. Well, my partner, Guy Haberman, who's
14:58
Speaker 1: currently calling the 49er games, they offered him to stay
15:02
Speaker 1: and give him a raise, if I remember correctly. I
15:04
Speaker 1: think we were making like, I don't know, 85K, 15,
15:08
Speaker 1: what year was that? 16, 90K, which looking back is,
15:13
Speaker 1: you know, I was cool. I was 30 years old,
15:16
Speaker 1: all in. That job, take it away from me. And
15:19
Speaker 1: they offered Haberman a raise, an extension. And he didn't
15:24
Speaker 1: give him an answer right away. We both hated the
15:27
Speaker 1: place by that time and thought it was going the
15:29
Speaker 1: wrong direction. And he ultimately turned it down. Now, I
15:33
Speaker 1: probably would have been, I don't even want to say disappointed,
15:39
Speaker 1: but you would have had some weird feelings inside if
15:43
Speaker 1: he had stayed. But at the end of the day,
15:44
Speaker 1: he had just gotten married. Like, I mean, you have
15:47
Speaker 1: to take care of your own family. Now, he denied it.
15:50
Speaker 1: We went off. We turned that radio show into a
15:53
Speaker 1: podcast and financially saved me. Ten years later, I'm sitting here.
15:58
Speaker 1: But like you got to make decisions for yourself when
16:01
Speaker 1: you're in these. There was no guarantee how anything else
16:03
Speaker 1: was going to play out in that business like. You're
16:07
Speaker 1: going to move markets? Where are you going to get
16:09
Speaker 1: a radio job? Turns out we were at a perfect
16:11
Speaker 1: inflection point where podcasts was coming. But again, I didn't control,
16:16
Speaker 1: he didn't control how they pick and choose who they
16:19
Speaker 1: want to keep or not to keep. For whatever reason,
16:22
Speaker 1: and I've always said this to the guy, we were
16:24
Speaker 1: both negative on the Raiders. I got pigeonholed as the
16:27
Speaker 1: really negative guy. Well, there's probably some truth to that. Actually,
16:30
Speaker 1: there's a lot of truth to that. But my point
16:32
Speaker 1: is that if we had owned the business... and one
16:37
Speaker 1: of us had gone behind the other person's back, that's
16:41
Speaker 1: scumbag move. That's being a bad person. That's lack of loyalty.
16:48
Speaker 1: If we had been partners in the business, shared in
16:51
Speaker 1: the revenue, not W-2 employees, I look at that completely different.
16:56
Speaker 1: So I view this Troy Aikman, Joe Buck thing like,
16:59
Speaker 1: these guys don't own the company. Joe Buck ain't the
17:01
Speaker 1: bad guy here. I get why Troy Aikman's mad. Total human,
17:07
Speaker 1: you know, emotions and feelings. Like, we've been working together forever.
17:12
Speaker 1: Things change. Mike and Mike were partners for 20 years.
17:16
Speaker 1: And then Mike clearly kind of realized, like, we've peaked.
17:20
Speaker 1: I'm going to move on. Maybe Joe's thinking that too.
17:23
Speaker 1: Maybe he knows they have other people in mind for
17:26
Speaker 1: that position who are way cheaper than what Troy would make.
17:29
Speaker 1: Is Troy going to take a discount? Would Troy take
17:32
Speaker 1: the same amount that Joe just got? I mean, the
17:34
Speaker 1: last contract, Troy got way more than Joe. So it's like,
17:38
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think these stories become such a
17:41
Speaker 1: big deal because they are like, damn, what a headline. Because,
17:44
Speaker 1: I mean, if fight broke out, obviously Troy would have
17:47
Speaker 1: big advantage. And they've both been very public. Like, they're BFFs.
17:51
Speaker 1: They're boys. They hang out. They have a very close relationship.
17:55
Speaker 1: Sometimes doing business with your friends in situations like this,
17:59
Speaker 1: not everyone is going to be like, yeah, I'm out.
18:01
Speaker 1: Or I'm only going to do it if you do
18:05
Speaker 1: this with this person. That's pretty rare. And sometimes that
18:08
Speaker 1: person doesn't have a choice. Where else is he going
18:10
Speaker 1: to go? Where else is he ever going to sniff
18:11
Speaker 1: that money? So sometimes, as a wise man once told me,
18:15
Speaker 1: the only person who's truly going to care about you
18:18
Speaker 1: is you. So you've got to take care of yourself
18:20
Speaker 1: sometimes first. And I got this question, and I think
18:23
Speaker 1: this is in regards to this. Question for the pod.
18:27
Speaker 1: Do you know how sports broadcasters make so much money?
18:32
Speaker 1: I just saw Joe Buck got a $ 100 million contract
18:34
Speaker 1: and I can't understand how or why. I get it
18:38
Speaker 1: brings in a lot of money and a lot of viewers,
18:41
Speaker 1: but why does a broadcaster deserve that kind of dough?
18:46
Speaker 1: I watched some games on silent. It's got to be
18:48
Speaker 1: the most overpaid job in the country and on the
18:51
Speaker 1: short list of undeserved salaries. Just a pet peeve of mine,
18:58
Speaker 1: I hate the word deserve. I heard this great quote
19:01
Speaker 1: a long time ago, like, you don't earn what you deserve,
19:03
Speaker 1: you kind of earn what you negotiate. Like, none of
19:06
Speaker 1: us deserve anything. You know, he gets that because they
19:10
Speaker 1: negotiated the contract. What does anyone deserve, right? I would
19:17
Speaker 1: say this. One thing ESPN is clearly, I mean, they
19:23
Speaker 1: went through a period where half the people on their
19:25
Speaker 1: network were like, cancel football, make it end, no more football.
19:30
Speaker 1: It's like, guys, it's the number one show in America. Guys,
19:32
Speaker 1: do you know the average American? They fucking love football.
19:36
Speaker 1: Have you left the walls of this studio in which
19:39
Speaker 1: you're saying, concussion, CTE, end it all? No. How about
19:44
Speaker 1: we play more football? That's what the consumer wants. and
19:50
Speaker 1: that's what ESPN pivoted to and got rid of all
19:52
Speaker 1: those people that it kind of felt like hated football
19:55
Speaker 1: or just thought they could get a bunch of likes
19:57
Speaker 1: and shit on Twitter. But ESPN has gone overboard to
20:03
Speaker 1: repair a relationship that was clearly pretty bad. And they
20:06
Speaker 1: also went through a stretch of the broadcast was pretty bad.
20:10
Speaker 1: I mean, was borderline unwatchable. It was embarrassing. I mean,
20:16
Speaker 1: it was Monday night football. I mean, at one point
20:18
Speaker 1: in time, they were like Al Michaels and John Madden
20:20
Speaker 1: on Monday night football. It's like, this is your product?
20:25
Speaker 1: And one thing when it comes to these relationships is
20:31
Speaker 1: part of the reason Tony Romo got a lot of
20:32
Speaker 1: money is because everyone liked him at the time, but
20:36
Speaker 1: also it looks good when you're negotiating these deals. I
20:40
Speaker 1: don't think the league is going to tell you who
20:41
Speaker 1: to hire, but if they just hire John Middlecoff to
20:45
Speaker 1: call a game, and let's say every single week I'm
20:47
Speaker 1: just talking a bunch of shit about the league, about
20:50
Speaker 1: the owners, do you know who's not going to like that?
20:52
Speaker 1: The NFL. Like, I see some of these blog sites. Like,
20:57
Speaker 1: ESPN and Jimmy Pataro have been working with the government
21:01
Speaker 1: on the Protect Sports Act because they were nervous about
21:04
Speaker 1: their contracts with the SEC. Yeah, guys, it's called business.
21:10
Speaker 1: If they get worried all the money they're spending, something
21:12
Speaker 1: could derail their business, then yeah, you do whatever it
21:17
Speaker 1: takes to fucking make it right. Whether you agree, disagree,
21:21
Speaker 1: think it's fair or not, that's business 101. Why do
21:24
Speaker 1: you think the, my mom used to work at the
21:27
Speaker 1: state capitol for a long time. Do you know who
21:29
Speaker 1: she would see every single day? Lobbyists. Why do you
21:32
Speaker 1: think lobbyists exist? Because these businesses don't want to stop
21:37
Speaker 1: making money. Welcome to America, baby. And I don't blame
21:42
Speaker 1: the NFL at all for wanting their product. What's the
21:45
Speaker 1: NFL worth? Like in the aggregate, like total, right? If
21:49
Speaker 1: you just factor in all the franchises, there's 32 of them.
21:54
Speaker 1: What's the average franchise worth? Seven, eight billion dollars? I mean,
21:57
Speaker 1: you're talking hundreds of billions of dollars. Their media deals
22:00
Speaker 1: are worth, I mean, this is an enormous business. I mean,
22:04
Speaker 1: enormous business. So how your game is presented, right? You
22:10
Speaker 1: couldn't just have the game go on with no one
22:12
Speaker 1: saying anything. Well, it's like, why does it even matter?
22:13
Speaker 1: And there's some truth to that because there are some
22:15
Speaker 1: broadcasters that are just bad. But I do think on
22:18
Speaker 1: Monday night football, there's a reason, listen, he's lost his fastball,
22:22
Speaker 1: but having Al Michaels on Thursday night football, in theory,
22:27
Speaker 1: like brought some I would say gravitas to the event.
22:32
Speaker 1: It kind of elevated it. Now, it technically doesn't anymore
22:36
Speaker 1: because he's kind of shot, but 10 years ago, that
22:40
Speaker 1: would have been a really big deal. And NBC, when
22:43
Speaker 1: they got the NBA this year, well, they lied to us,
22:47
Speaker 1: but there's a reason. Let's get Michael Jordan because you
22:49
Speaker 1: want to prove to the league, the partners, the relationship.
22:52
Speaker 1: How many of you guys... are in some form of
22:55
Speaker 1: sales where your relationship with someone else matters a lot.
23:02
Speaker 1: Anyone that follows Costco's business model knows that every, you know,
23:07
Speaker 1: I would say person, retail, what's the word I'm looking for?
23:14
Speaker 1: Whatever you see, whether it's Gillette razors to certain shoe,
23:19
Speaker 1: you name it. Dyson, they have to give a specialized
23:24
Speaker 1: SKU to Costco. It is demanded. You cannot have that
23:28
Speaker 1: SKU when you walk into Safeway, when you walk into Walmart,
23:31
Speaker 1: anywhere else. It is specific to Costco. But all these
23:35
Speaker 1: people's businesses, the revenue in which they generate, the percentage
23:39
Speaker 1: of the pie that comes from Costco is, can be
23:42
Speaker 1: like 50 to 80%. So they're the majority of your business.
23:46
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, no problem. What else do you need?
23:49
Speaker 1: You need to wipe your ass while we're at it.
23:52
Speaker 1: And I think that's the way that these broadcast networks
23:55
Speaker 1: view the NFL is you got to take care of
23:58
Speaker 1: them because you know where your bread's butter. You can't function,
24:00
Speaker 1: especially these traditional networks. They would go out of business.
24:07
Speaker 1: I mean, Fox, I think, does an incredible job, the
24:11
Speaker 1: presentation of the NFL games. But when I go to
24:15
Speaker 1: the Fox lot for Colin, there's a lot of New
24:20
Speaker 1: York City, Chicago, the streets where they used to shoot shows.
24:24
Speaker 1: I've been doing it now for several years. I don't
24:26
Speaker 1: think in all the time I've been there, I've ever
24:27
Speaker 1: seen a show shot there anymore. And part of that
24:31
Speaker 1: is like Hollywood, California, the rules of like saving money,
24:35
Speaker 1: shooting shows other ways. It's not just black and white,
24:39
Speaker 1: but it's also like, yeah, we just, we're not in
24:43
Speaker 1: that business as much as we once were because it's
24:45
Speaker 1: not as lucrative. People don't watch and they do watch
24:49
Speaker 1: the NFL. And if the NFL, we want to make
24:52
Speaker 1: sure they're happy because their importance to us is, it's
24:57
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25:07
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26:50
Speaker 1: It's funny. Archman is just a hot topic. He just,
26:54
Speaker 1: he moves the needle and it is because of his name.
26:58
Speaker 1: There is no disputing if his name was Ray Middlecoff,
27:03
Speaker 1: he would not be as big of a lightning rod
27:06
Speaker 1: as he is. But Steve Sarkeesian had some quotes within
27:09
Speaker 1: the last couple days that I also think is kind
27:11
Speaker 1: of a joke. He said, if you took the name
27:14
Speaker 1: off the back of his jersey and you said, here's
27:17
Speaker 1: Joe Smith playing quarterback at the University of Texas, we'd
27:22
Speaker 1: be praising the guy. I got to call BS on
27:26
Speaker 1: that one. Now, it would be different, but I remember
27:32
Speaker 1: a couple years ago when they had a guy named
27:34
Speaker 1: Quinn Ewers, who their first year in the SEC was
27:37
Speaker 1: their starting quarterback. He threw 31 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
27:41
Speaker 1: And depending on the week you watched him, you went,
27:44
Speaker 1: thought there could have been a little more there. But
27:46
Speaker 1: obviously he was a good player, got drafted in the
27:48
Speaker 1: seventh round. He was talked about constantly because there are
27:52
Speaker 1: few programs in basketball and football where that if you
27:56
Speaker 1: are a star-level player, starting quarterback, number one recruit, which
28:01
Speaker 1: he was, you are held under a certain level of scrutiny, criticism,
28:07
Speaker 1: and also praise when it goes well. Dylan Rayola, who
28:10
Speaker 1: just had one of the worst games in the history
28:12
Speaker 1: of college football, he was at Nebraska, which by no
28:16
Speaker 1: means at this point in time in the 2024, 25,
28:18
Speaker 1: 26 day and age, Is it held to the same
28:22
Speaker 1: esteem that it was when I was a kid? But
28:24
Speaker 1: it's still a major program in the Big Ten. He
28:27
Speaker 1: was crushed constantly. Why? Big NIL, big recruit. If you're
28:34
Speaker 1: just a big recruit, we view Bryce Underwood. He's at Michigan.
28:40
Speaker 1: It's not going well. He makes a lot of money.
28:43
Speaker 1: He's talked about constantly. Before he was a five-star recruit,
28:47
Speaker 1: unless you knew him personally or lived in his town,
28:51
Speaker 1: we never heard of Bryce Underwood. But when you're a
28:54
Speaker 1: major recruit and you go to a major program, you're
28:57
Speaker 1: going to be under the magnifying glass. But to think
29:00
Speaker 1: that people are just reaching at straws trying to criticize him, no.
29:05
Speaker 1: Like the Texas-Ohio State game, which is by far Sark's
29:09
Speaker 1: biggest win of his career. Not even close. There's not
29:11
Speaker 1: even a close second. For the majority of that game,
29:14
Speaker 1: he looked like shit. And Sark and the team look
29:17
Speaker 1: like shit. And part of it is, most people thought...
29:21
Speaker 1: I was telling Jackson this probably last week. Your quarterback...
29:29
Speaker 1: If you are... And listen, I've never been one to
29:32
Speaker 1: anoint him as the number one pick. I've just reacted
29:34
Speaker 1: to that conversation. There are countless people that cover the
29:38
Speaker 1: NFL draft... Guys like Todd McShay, who's talked about it
29:41
Speaker 1: for decades, that had him as the number one pick
29:44
Speaker 1: coming into the draft. So if that's kind of the
29:47
Speaker 1: world you're in, if you're on an average team, we
29:52
Speaker 1: should watch you on given weeks and you just elevate.
29:55
Speaker 1: If you're on a team with High-end players, I mean,
29:59
Speaker 1: they have an elite defense. You should be cruising to wins.
30:04
Speaker 1: You just played a team in Oklahoma whose quarterback, if
30:07
Speaker 1: he wasn't making a big NIL number, it's always funny, like,
30:11
Speaker 1: I follow Oklahoma on all the social channels, and, like,
30:14
Speaker 1: on Thursday of a game week, after they just got embarrassed,
30:17
Speaker 1: it'll be, like, John Mateer with, like, Beats by Dre, and, like,
30:22
Speaker 1: with a thumbs-up and a smile. It's like, eh, I
30:23
Speaker 1: don't know. All the comments will be like, eh. I
30:26
Speaker 1: don't know if this is the time for it, but again,
30:27
Speaker 1: these NIL deals, we've got to keep the cash flowing.
30:30
Speaker 1: They can't bench any of these guys. Oklahoma can't play offense.
30:35
Speaker 1: Their offense against Texas was outscored by their special teams
30:40
Speaker 1: in defense. So part of that game, the only way
30:44
Speaker 1: you lose to Oklahoma is throw a pick six and
30:49
Speaker 1: throw a pick that leads to the game-winning field goal.
30:51
Speaker 1: It's the only way that happens, and he did it.
30:54
Speaker 1: But if Arch Manning was named Ray Middlecoff in that
30:58
Speaker 1: same spot with a $ 50 million roster, a loaded defense,
31:03
Speaker 1: and a team who's number one in the country. Now
31:05
Speaker 1: we could debate whether they should have been one, but
31:07
Speaker 1: still they would have been three, four, five, somewhere right there.
31:10
Speaker 1: And you lose to an unranked team that we all
31:12
Speaker 1: think their offense sucks. It's your rivalry. That's the other thing.
31:17
Speaker 1: If you think about in college football, what are the
31:21
Speaker 1: biggest rivalries in the sport? You would say probably number one,
31:26
Speaker 1: because they've just both been good at certain times, would
31:30
Speaker 1: be Ohio State and Michigan. What would be two? Auburn, Alabama?
31:39
Speaker 1: That was a lot of Nick Saban kicking ass. Texas,
31:42
Speaker 1: Oklahoma would be in the mix. To be the number
31:44
Speaker 1: two rivalry, and it's definitely the most unique because they
31:47
Speaker 1: played a neutral site where it split 50-50. So you
31:50
Speaker 1: lose in that scenario. Like, what are people supposed to say?
31:53
Speaker 1: If he was Joe Smith, well, he did throw a
31:55
Speaker 1: couple touchdowns. Yeah, but what about the two picks that
31:57
Speaker 1: led to 10 points that cost us the game? So
32:02
Speaker 1: the other thing is, I will give a little grace
32:06
Speaker 1: to Keelan Russell. This is his first year starting. Like
32:10
Speaker 1: last year, Bryce Underwood. It's like, well, his coach is
32:12
Speaker 1: banging the assistant, spending more time on Instagram than he
32:15
Speaker 1: is in the film room. Like, okay, I gave him
32:18
Speaker 1: a pass that year. And then this year, like, oh,
32:21
Speaker 1: it looks the same. You know, it's like, Arch Manning now,
32:24
Speaker 1: this is not a redshirt freshman. This is not a
32:27
Speaker 1: true freshman. This is a second-year starter that's been in
32:29
Speaker 1: the program for four years. Four years. And was a
32:33
Speaker 1: huge recruit. So if we just remove the name and
32:36
Speaker 1: just judged him on, like, fair or not, J.J. McCarthy
32:40
Speaker 1: was judged as a top ten pick. Because that's where
32:42
Speaker 1: he was picked. Whether historically a guy like him used
32:45
Speaker 1: to go in the third round, way less pressure, yeah. Yeah.
32:48
Speaker 1: If he had gone in the third round, we wouldn't
32:49
Speaker 1: talk about him like we talk about him. If Arch
32:51
Speaker 1: Manning was a three-star recruit named Ray Middlecoff, I think
32:55
Speaker 1: a lot of people would have been very loud about
32:57
Speaker 1: making a change at quarterback. Now, is he some scrub? No.
33:03
Speaker 1: But when you're disgust is like, yeah, having the name
33:06
Speaker 1: factors in. But at this point in time, it's not
33:09
Speaker 1: as much about the name and more just like, he
33:12
Speaker 1: just hasn't been that good. He's had moments where... But
33:16
Speaker 1: this gets to the Bo Nix thing. It's like I
33:19
Speaker 1: can't just have a couple moments a game and then
33:21
Speaker 1: a lot of bad. It's hard to sustain winning against
33:26
Speaker 1: other credible teams. So Sark's just, the other thing is
33:31
Speaker 1: like Sark's job, you go nine and three and you're
33:36
Speaker 1: the 12 seed and you get bounced in the first round.
33:40
Speaker 1: After you won that Ohio State game, the best part
33:42
Speaker 1: about football is like every single week, what you did
33:52
Speaker 1: three or four weeks ago, like, well, I beat Ohio
33:55
Speaker 1: State at home. Okay, great. You just lost to Oklahoma.
33:57
Speaker 1: It's like, well, are you going to lose to Georgia?
33:59
Speaker 1: Are you going to lose to Alabama? Like, are you
34:01
Speaker 1: going to lose to the other good teams? You know?
34:04
Speaker 1: It's like, that raises the expectation. Let's do a couple
34:13
Speaker 1: mailbag questions and get out of here. We'll keep it
34:14
Speaker 1: a little shorter pod today. With only two catches through
34:21
Speaker 1: five games, it seems like the Vikings could explore trading
34:24
Speaker 1: Juwan Jennings. And with the Chiefs losing Thornton and being
34:28
Speaker 1: interested in the offseason, could you see them making a move?
34:35
Speaker 1: They are dramatically different players. Thornton is a deep speed threat.
34:41
Speaker 1: Juwan Jennings is a big physical slot wide receiver. I mean,
34:46
Speaker 1: that's ultimately what he is. I see this like, the
34:49
Speaker 1: 49ers could trade for Juwan. I don't... That ain't happening.
34:57
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of a team that could use him.
35:00
Speaker 1: To me, he doesn't really fit. Andy likes speed. Like,
35:03
Speaker 1: does Juwan Jennings... He's closer to Travis Kelsey than he
35:07
Speaker 1: is Tyquan Thornton. So I... I would... Like, if I'm them...
35:15
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting who has fire sales because, like, who's bad?
35:20
Speaker 1: The Chargers don't really have anyone to trade. Titans don't
35:22
Speaker 1: have anyone to trade. Dolphins don't have anyone to trade.
35:25
Speaker 1: The Colts, they don't really have anyone to trade. Cardinals
35:29
Speaker 1: ain't going to trade Mike Wilson. Saints probably wouldn't trade anybody.
35:34
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, Chris Godwin, if Tampa keeps losing.
35:37
Speaker 1: Terry McLaurin, like, to me, that's more in their world
35:41
Speaker 1: than Juwan Jennings. I'd be stunned. I haven't asked him
35:45
Speaker 1: or Veach, but I would doubt they like Jawan Jennings.
35:50
Speaker 1: Because you look at it, why did Vikings like him? One,
35:54
Speaker 1: they got him for cheap. And two, he brings a
35:57
Speaker 1: different skill set than Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson. Should
36:00
Speaker 1: the Rams bring in a new D.C. after the season?
36:03
Speaker 1: Besides special teams, it seems like the Rams are being
36:05
Speaker 1: let down by their lack of scheme. They have a
36:07
Speaker 1: lot of good guys, and there's no reason they couldn't
36:10
Speaker 1: just copy what the Patriots did to contain Josh Allen.
36:13
Speaker 1: Allen is great, but teams have learned to contain him.
36:17
Speaker 1: I almost said Don Shula. Chris Shula, I think, is
36:20
Speaker 1: the guy's dad. Whatever Shula's first name is. I don't
36:25
Speaker 1: know why I'm blanking on that. It's McVay's best friend.
36:28
Speaker 1: McVay's best friend. That's why he was very hesitant. Maybe
36:33
Speaker 1: Mike's his dad. He's Chris. He was very hesitant to
36:38
Speaker 1: elevate him to D.C. over the years is because of
36:41
Speaker 1: the connection. He had to kind of bide his time,
36:45
Speaker 1: work his way up. But they played college football together.
36:49
Speaker 1: And in fairness, he did a good job last year.
36:52
Speaker 1: Did he interview last year for head coaching jobs? I'm
36:55
Speaker 1: with you. I thought they were just like, I said
37:00
Speaker 1: after the game when Troy Aikman was like, why don't
37:02
Speaker 1: you spy him? Landman? I saw Landman trying to cover
37:06
Speaker 1: Josh Allen in the open field. Didn't go well for Landman.
37:09
Speaker 1: They don't really have that player. I think the way
37:14
Speaker 1: he was playing indoors, he could have done that to anybody.
37:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to give Shula a little... A little grace here.
37:24
Speaker 1: I mean, they traded verse. You know, they're getting gashed
37:28
Speaker 1: in the run game when Cook didn't fumble the ball. Well,
37:32
Speaker 1: verse is an elite run player. So you just remove him,
37:34
Speaker 1: and obviously Miles Garrett's on the sideline, so that's just
37:37
Speaker 1: a guy that doesn't exist. I thought Aaron Donald was
37:40
Speaker 1: going to play like 15 snaps a game. Every time
37:42
Speaker 1: I looked up, he was in the game. Pretty dependent
37:45
Speaker 1: on him. McDuffie, Watson, I mean, these guys, Chiefs let
37:50
Speaker 1: these guys go for a reason. I think the Rams
37:54
Speaker 1: will be okay. I said this after the game, when
37:56
Speaker 1: you look at their schedule, I think when the dust settles,
37:59
Speaker 1: they'll be 7-3, 8-4. And everything will be fine. Curious
38:03
Speaker 1: on what your favorite football movies are. I like Friday
38:06
Speaker 1: Night Lights, Rudy, Remember the Titans, and All the Right Moves.
38:10
Speaker 1: If you haven't seen All the Right Moves with Tom Cruise,
38:12
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. There is a shout-out of your
38:16
Speaker 1: alma mater, Cal Poly, in it. I have never seen
38:20
Speaker 1: All the Right Moves. I would say my number one
38:23
Speaker 1: favorite football movie. Like if you told me I could
38:26
Speaker 1: only watch one football movie the rest of my life.
38:35
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because I first watched it when I was
38:37
Speaker 1: a little kid. I'm a sucker for two. It'd be
38:40
Speaker 1: Rudy and the program. Remember the Titans is good. Friday
38:45
Speaker 1: Night Lights is good. Little Giants, Sleeper, another movie when
38:51
Speaker 1: I was a kid. But I would probably go Rudy
38:54
Speaker 1: or The Program. And honestly, just because I know Joe
38:58
Speaker 1: Montana thinks the story is way overblown, he played with Rudy.
39:02
Speaker 1: Doesn't bother me. I still love that movie. The part
39:05
Speaker 1: where the guy's clapping. I would probably, there's something just
39:09
Speaker 1: about The Program. It's just, it's everything I like. Sex, drugs,
39:13
Speaker 1: rock and roll, college football. It's steroids. It's just, it's
39:18
Speaker 1: the best. Do you think the Packers kicking the Bears'
39:23
Speaker 1: teeth in will make Ben Johnson tone it down a
39:25
Speaker 1: little with all the talk about having the best offense
39:28
Speaker 1: and constantly? uh, talking about the Packers? I would, I
39:36
Speaker 1: would doubt it. I just got a text major meltdown
39:39
Speaker 1: on our walk. Jack's pretty big wild card. It's like
39:43
Speaker 1: a fantasy player. You get 40 points out of them
39:46
Speaker 1: or you get zero. Uh, sucks if you're walking them
39:49
Speaker 1: too and you're just way far away you're like this
39:51
Speaker 1: is not good um i would say ben johnson there
39:59
Speaker 1: there are two types of people right they're just pretty
40:03
Speaker 1: steady eddie like i i think if most human beings
40:07
Speaker 1: met like andy reed or trying to think of other
40:11
Speaker 1: guys like i would probably say mcveigh their energy you'd
40:16
Speaker 1: come away liking them you know The Vrabels, I think
40:21
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson, Dan Campbell would fit that. I bet any
40:26
Speaker 1: human being who had a beer with Dan Campbell would
40:29
Speaker 1: be like, fuck, I like that guy. That guy's a badass.
40:31
Speaker 1: He's a cool dude. Then there's the Vrabels, the Ben Johnsons,
40:35
Speaker 1: the Sean Paytons. You know, they... High, high opinion of themselves.
40:40
Speaker 1: I got no problem with people with high opinions of
40:42
Speaker 1: themselves who just look at their own personal resume and go,
40:46
Speaker 1: Google me. You know, I mean, it's just like... I
40:50
Speaker 1: don't think it phases him at all. I don't think
40:52
Speaker 1: he's going to tone it down at all. I think
40:54
Speaker 1: he would need like a five-win season. I think he
40:57
Speaker 1: truly believes he's the best coach in the NFL. Whether
41:01
Speaker 1: that's true or not, obviously up for debate, but I
41:07
Speaker 1: think this will motivate him that next Packer game. I mean,
41:11
Speaker 1: teeth kicked in. They got their teeth kicked in, they
41:13
Speaker 1: got their arms broken, and the guy broke every one
41:15
Speaker 1: of his toes. They got housed in that game. housed
41:21
Speaker 1: what was it four passes of over 40 yards it
41:25
Speaker 1: felt like he just threw it as high as he
41:26
Speaker 1: could and then Christian Watson or Golden would just Christian
41:30
Speaker 1: Watson on the one I called it the best play
41:32
Speaker 1: of the week battered the chase one-handed catch but I
41:36
Speaker 1: would say you know chase playing the Dolphins so my
41:40
Speaker 1: question my answer to that is no I don't think
41:41
Speaker 1: he tones it down at all what do you think
41:43
Speaker 1: about Lincoln Riley to the Eagles no chance the Chip
41:47
Speaker 1: Kelly thing I no chance Zero. That's a non-starter. I
41:55
Speaker 1: don't even think you could pull that off. I heard
41:58
Speaker 1: Coward said the other day, and part of it was
42:02
Speaker 1: because his connection with Jalen, if they are in the
42:07
Speaker 1: coaching market in whatever, three months, let's say Sirianni's fired,
42:12
Speaker 1: I don't think anything is in the mindset of what's
42:16
Speaker 1: best for Jalen. At that point in time, I would
42:18
Speaker 1: say Jalen's job, big picture with the Philadelphia Eagles, would
42:22
Speaker 1: be in major jeopardy. He'd probably be their quarterback, I
42:26
Speaker 1: would imagine, in 27. But remember, they got all the
42:29
Speaker 1: picks in 28. It would feel a little like Russell Wilson,
42:35
Speaker 1: Sean Payton, like this ain't long. If they're in that situation,
42:39
Speaker 1: if I was a betting man right now, I would
42:43
Speaker 1: probably say that Sirianni and Jalen Hurts are the coach
42:45
Speaker 1: and the quarterback in 27. That's probably the safe bet.
42:51
Speaker 1: Speaking of Jalen, I heard Coward say the other day
42:55
Speaker 1: that Howie is scared to have a coach that wants power.
42:58
Speaker 1: Do you think, through his experience, he's been taught that
43:02
Speaker 1: he can't have a coach that can't call plays? I
43:06
Speaker 1: also think Howie, six years later, right? Under Sirianni, they've
43:10
Speaker 1: been at two Super Bowls. He had a stretch where
43:13
Speaker 1: they were clearly the best roster in the league. I
43:16
Speaker 1: think a lot of people, like the Eagles are a lot.
43:19
Speaker 1: I mean, they have by far the most employees in
43:22
Speaker 1: the scouting department, analytics, owners got takes, Howie's got a
43:27
Speaker 1: lot of takes, but he's earned himself having takes. I
43:31
Speaker 1: think this time around, if you're Howie, like you've gone
43:33
Speaker 1: to Doug and Nick Sirianni. Doug got another shot and
43:36
Speaker 1: it was a disaster. Sirianni, I'll never say never, but
43:40
Speaker 1: he's definitely not getting a shot right away. that if
43:43
Speaker 1: you're Howie, you would attempt to hire by far the
43:46
Speaker 1: best offensive coach on the market. I think 100% they
43:48
Speaker 1: go offense, a guy that can call plays, a guy
43:50
Speaker 1: that has experience doing it, and someone that had done
43:53
Speaker 1: it before. I don't think they would go first-time coach.
43:57
Speaker 1: I think they would be in the market for completely different.
43:59
Speaker 1: And if I'm a coach, why do I want to
44:02
Speaker 1: be as involved in personnel? It's like Howie did it.
44:05
Speaker 1: Howie did it. Now, it's like, are you going to
44:08
Speaker 1: force me to play certain people on game day? That's
44:10
Speaker 1: a different conversation. But the draft and free agency, hasn't
44:14
Speaker 1: he proven himself? I think they would 100% be in
44:20
Speaker 1: operation this time around, which they weren't in the past.
44:23
Speaker 1: Someone would want to sign up for. I was thinking
44:26
Speaker 1: about the comment on Jerry Jones being cheap with head coaches.
44:29
Speaker 1: I don't think he's being cheap because he doesn't want
44:31
Speaker 1: to spend. I think he doesn't want a coach that
44:33
Speaker 1: would be a bigger star. I don't think his ego
44:36
Speaker 1: can play second fiddle to a great coach. Isn't it
44:39
Speaker 1: the same thing? Like, if I'm going to spend $ 15
44:42
Speaker 1: million on John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, like, that guy's
44:46
Speaker 1: an equal star to me. Right? Or bigger. Like, if
44:50
Speaker 1: the Cowboys fired everyone at the end of the season,
44:52
Speaker 1: let's say they win six, seven games, Jerry fires everybody.
44:55
Speaker 1: And Tomlin goes, Tomlin had a great line today. He's like, Kelsey,
45:00
Speaker 1: I guess he was on the Kelsey podcast, like, what
45:01
Speaker 1: do you think of the media? He's like, have to
45:03
Speaker 1: work for For all the half-time work for full pay.
45:07
Speaker 1: I'm already screwing that up. What was the exact quote?
45:10
Speaker 1: Because it was a fantastic quote. It was, it's part-time work,
45:16
Speaker 1: full-time pay. Some people in the media take their jobs
45:20
Speaker 1: way too seriously. I appreciate Tomlin saying that. I've worked
45:24
Speaker 1: in football. My dad was a farmer. This job is...
45:28
Speaker 1: Everyone needs to calm down a little bit sometimes and
45:30
Speaker 1: start feeling themselves. But... I think they're intertwined. I think they're...
45:37
Speaker 1: They go hand-in-hand with each other. That paying a lot
45:42
Speaker 1: for a coach is typically... You know, Ben Johnson got
45:46
Speaker 1: a lot, but is because a guy has earned star power.
45:51
Speaker 1: So if Tomlin says in a couple months, I want
45:53
Speaker 1: to coach in 2027, he's going to be offered a
45:58
Speaker 1: lot of money. So it's going to be... you know, twofold.
46:02
Speaker 1: It's going to be he's going to get a lot
46:04
Speaker 1: of money and two, he will immediately be, if he's
46:06
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Bucks coach or the Commanders coach or
46:09
Speaker 1: the Eagles coach or the Cowboys coach, he would be
46:11
Speaker 1: a star because he already is. I keep hearing people say, quote,
46:29
Speaker 1: Arch has such a good team around him. Meanwhile, every
46:31
Speaker 1: time I watch Texas, they can't run the ball, their
46:33
Speaker 1: O-line gets tossed around, these high-paid receivers drop footballs, and
46:36
Speaker 1: I saw Arch has been pressured to almost triple the
46:39
Speaker 1: amount of other draftable quarterbacks while throwing far less. When
46:42
Speaker 1: do we decide that Sark is just not who we
46:44
Speaker 1: thought he was and someone else can come dominate at Texas?
46:49
Speaker 1: I saw Stuart Mandela, the athletic, who's covered college football forever.
46:53
Speaker 1: He wrote today, can... Sarks survive a 9-3 season. This
47:01
Speaker 1: gets back to the Joe Smith comments. The expectation for
47:05
Speaker 1: this program, when you spent all this money, they have
47:08
Speaker 1: a coaching staff that has several millionaires. Sarks making a ton.
47:14
Speaker 1: The expectations are rightfully high. It's like, you should just
47:18
Speaker 1: walk into the playoffs. Say this for Ohio State. It's like,
47:21
Speaker 1: there's going to be a playoff team. I feel pretty
47:25
Speaker 1: confident Ohio State's going to win this week. But that's
47:30
Speaker 1: the next question. Do you think Indiana this week against
47:32
Speaker 1: Ohio State? Look, I just have confidence when I watch
47:34
Speaker 1: Ohio State. Well, I'll even take this angle. Let's say
47:38
Speaker 1: Ohio State loses. If they lost to Indiana, I bet
47:42
Speaker 1: you'd come away like, yeah, kicker missed a kick. Bad
47:45
Speaker 1: fourth down call by Ryan Day. But it's like, God,
47:47
Speaker 1: Ohio State looked pretty good. Indiana's just incredible down the stretch.
47:52
Speaker 1: Yet Texas, their losses, you're like, what the fuck was that?
47:56
Speaker 1: It's the thing I do respect about Ryan Day. You
47:58
Speaker 1: watch Lane and Sark, who I just get talked about
48:01
Speaker 1: way more than Ryan Day. I don't know if it's
48:04
Speaker 1: because they're on GOP1s, they kick the drinking, they're tans.
48:08
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. I don't know if
48:11
Speaker 1: Ryan Day's a Jimmy Sexton guy. And listen, I'm not
48:13
Speaker 1: anti-Jimmy Sexton. If I was those guys, Jimmy Sexton would
48:15
Speaker 1: be my agent too. But holy shit, neither of them
48:19
Speaker 1: win a lot of big games. I know the offense
48:21
Speaker 1: hasn't been the problem for the Texans. But how do
48:24
Speaker 1: you think the addition of Marvin Harrison Jr. and the
48:27
Speaker 1: reunion between him and Stroud will help the team, and
48:30
Speaker 1: to what degree? You know what's funny is on the
48:34
Speaker 1: three-and-out group text, I got a tweet sent to all
48:38
Speaker 1: of us, but sometimes I use them here on the pod.
48:42
Speaker 1: It said, career numbers. Roma Dunze, 115 catches, 1,600 yards,
48:46
Speaker 1: nine touchdowns in 34 games. 49 yards a game. Marvin Harrison,
48:56
Speaker 1: 108 catches, 1,600 yards, and 13 touchdowns in 33 games.
49:03
Speaker 1: My takeaway from that? Both guys very overdrafted. That's my take.
49:08
Speaker 1: You know, you compare him to Rome, who definitely gets
49:13
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a pass, and he was
49:15
Speaker 1: the ninth pick. I would say if you could have
49:18
Speaker 1: a do-over, clearly do-over, the Cardinals would have taken someone else.
49:22
Speaker 1: I think the bears would take someone else too. I
49:25
Speaker 1: think that's fair to say, you know, there's a reason
49:27
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson two years in is like, never stopped talking
49:30
Speaker 1: about Luther Burton. I don't know how it's going to go.
49:36
Speaker 1: You know, when you get, there's two ways to look
49:38
Speaker 1: at it. He's like, Fuck these guys. I want to
49:43
Speaker 1: prove to everyone that it was the Cardinals. I'm not
49:45
Speaker 1: a scrub. I'm not bad. I'm a high-end player. I
49:50
Speaker 1: have a chip on my shoulder. We talked about this yesterday.
49:54
Speaker 1: All the good wide receivers, hell, the good number twos,
49:57
Speaker 1: have an edge to them. He's got no edge. Zero.
50:01
Speaker 1: And then the drops, the hands, I think there's some
50:04
Speaker 1: question marks, like what does he hang his hat on?
50:08
Speaker 1: Or he's like, yeah, it's just, I just forced my
50:11
Speaker 1: way out of there. Didn't want to be there. New spot,
50:14
Speaker 1: nothing really changes. I don't know. I'm a big D'Amico guy.
50:22
Speaker 1: You know, I think he'll work some psychological angles to
50:25
Speaker 1: try to motivate the guy. But, you know, you can
50:29
Speaker 1: lead a horse to water, but you can't force him
50:31
Speaker 1: to drink. And you just wonder, like, does he got
50:34
Speaker 1: that dog in him? Because every good wide receiver does.
50:37
Speaker 1: Every single one. Like, look at Malik Neighbors, who was
50:40
Speaker 1: also in that draft. Clearly he's battled some injuries. When
50:44
Speaker 1: you watch him play, and listen, even last week he
50:46
Speaker 1: had a bad drop. No one has ever questioned, like,
50:50
Speaker 1: does this guy want it? Honestly, he's kind of nuts,
50:53
Speaker 1: which I like. I want some nut jobs on my
50:56
Speaker 1: football team. Marvin Harris is like, yeah, cool. It's like, bro,
50:59
Speaker 1: what the fuck's going on here? Can we get a
51:02
Speaker 1: little more juice? I just don't know if you can
51:06
Speaker 1: create that. We're going to see. Maybe the Texans can't.
51:08
Speaker 1: Because their culture on defense, no one's ever had that
51:12
Speaker 1: question about Will Anderson. No one's ever had that question
51:15
Speaker 1: since he's been there with Stingley. No one has that
51:19
Speaker 1: question with Daniil Hunter. So, Nico Collins, no one ever goes, God,
51:23
Speaker 1: he's just playing kind of half-assed. No, the guy's a monster. So,
51:28
Speaker 1: maybe their culture will just, you've got to shape it.
51:30
Speaker 1: If he can't work there with his buddy from college,
51:33
Speaker 1: he'll work nowhere. And it'll just be an all-time bust.
51:37
Speaker 1: But fair comparison to Rome, who kind of gets a pass. Adios.
51:40
Speaker 1: Talk to everyone soon. Enjoy the Thursday night game.