Latest / 3 and Out with John Middlekauff / TNF Reaction, NFL Week 3 Predictions, Fugazi Friday, MIddlekauff Mailbag

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TNF Reaction, NFL Week 3 Predictions, Fugazi Friday, MIddlekauff Mailbag · 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Volume. What is going on, my people? John Middlecoff,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: 3NOW Podcast. How are we doing? Probably a lot better
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: than Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekens, and the Green Bay Packers organization,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: who gets absolutely demolished in Lambeau. Bijan looks like Barry Sanders.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We will dive into that. It is not looking good
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: for LaFleur. This thing's falling apart and falling apart quickly.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We'll fly around the rest of the NFL. Look for Friday.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: It's Fugazi Friday. I got a couple of those for you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We have a couple quick college thoughts, some big games.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Arch got a big one. Knoxville, Tennessee, where his uncle
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: once famously had some big moments. And we'll answer a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: couple of mailbag questions at the end. At John Middlecoff
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: is the Instagram. Man, I can't get over what I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: just witnessed. It's one thing to lose. What was the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: final score? 58-20? That was 35-14. Jeez Louise. It did
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: not feel that close. You guys know the drill. If
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you listen on Colin's feed, make sure you subscribe to 3NOW.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: If you would like to watch us, we're up on Netflix. Also,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we have a bunch of content on the YouTube channel
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: as well. Let's just dive on into the Green Bay Packers.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: There were whispers this summer. Week 1... People said, whoa,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: keep an eye. Going to overtime with the Jets. I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: don't want to say quieted it, but to get absolutely destroyed, 35-14,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: another one of the scores in the NFL that does
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: not reflect what we just witnessed. I think Matt LaFleur's
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: seat is officially hot now. And I think this situation
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: feels like it could get way worse before it ever
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: gets better. They were absolutely dominated by a team that
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: lost by 30 four days ago. Now, I get it.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Michael Penix is better than the other quarterbacks that have
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: been playing for the Falcons combined and multiplied by 10.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And Bijon went ham and Drake London went nuts. But
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: here's the problem with the Packers and specifically Matt LaFleur. is,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you know, for the Shanahan crew, there are a lot
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of them that like to pass. So it's like, yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: we learned under Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan, but I'm
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Sean McVay. I want to throw this pill around. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: want to sling this thing. Matt is a lot like Kyle.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: You go back to when he got to Green Bay
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: with Aaron Jones, all the way through when they pivoted,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: which I thought was a pretty bold move and brought
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: in Josh Jacobs. They want to run the ball. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: then from there, play action, open it up, throw to Watson, Golden,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and Tucker Kraft. Here's the problem. For as great as
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Bijan is, and honestly, he looks like Barry Sanders, the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons remind me a little bit of the 90s
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Detroit Lions. Bijan's their Barry Sanders, Penix is their Scott Mischel,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and Drake London is their Herman Moore. Fun team to watch, actually,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: tonight if they're going to play like that. But when
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you watch the other side... They can't even run for
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: 20 yards. But it's not like, well, just no lanes.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: They're running backs. Like, once you remove Josh Jacobs, who's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a high-end starting running back, and I'm not blaming LeFleur
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for that. He didn't create the incident that happened. No
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: one knows truly except Jacobs, his girl, maybe the lawyers,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: whatever's on that film, and who knows, whenever the tape
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: comes out, then we can judge for ourselves. But that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: is not on Matt LaFleur. But the way the Packers
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: handled that of going, you know, this will eventually go
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: away maybe and he'll just play through it, maybe get
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: suspended a game or two, or go on this list
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and maybe never be seen again. And the drop-off from
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs to the next guy feels like the difference
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: between me and B. John Robinson. You can't function with
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Marshawn Lloyd, who your boy drafted on his fantasy team,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and Caleb Johnson, who is unplayable. The Pittsburgh Steelers, after
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: one year, completely punted on the guy. They're unplayable running backs.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: And listen, when Jordan Love has a running game, he
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: can function and he can look like a top 12 quarterback.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But when he has to throw the ball 53 times
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: a game and carry you like he's Josh Allen or
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes or Trinidad Chambliss, it ain't going to happen.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: He's not good enough to do that. And especially because
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: their offensive line blows. So LeFleur, some of this stuff, like,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it's going to be very fascinating. Aaron Rodgers' mortal enemy,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Brian Gutekens, has not done a good job. But the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: way these situations work, typically, is when everyone's pitchfork out.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, some of the scenes at Lambeau tonight were incredible.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Of just people crestfallen, people just in dark, dark places.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's tough. I mean, that's a holy ground
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: for football. Whatever LSU is or Tennessee or Michigan, some
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of the hollowed grounds in college football, that's what Lambeau is.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, those people are not used to.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, this team has been extremely competitive for 30 years.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I don't remember, and listen, I'm not trying to be
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: prisoner of the moment here. They've clearly lost games by
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: multiple touchdowns over the years. I don't remember such an
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: ass-kicking on a primetime game for the Green Bay Packers.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: People are going to want Matt LaFleur fired. As this
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: season goes, if it does not get better, and I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: don't see how it gets better when you cannot run
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the ball because the offense won't work. Tucker Kraft's dropping balls.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: The other two wide receivers, Watson and Golden, look good.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: But when there's no threat of the run game, they're
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: not going to be able to pass protect, and he's
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: going to be under-seized. Jordan Love is... you know, kind
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: of scrambling within the pocket for his life a lot
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: of times. He's only sacked one time, but he was
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: obviously under duress many, many times tonight. I just wonder
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: if the GM is going to start backstabbing LaFleur and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: we start having issues internally. Because this is not a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: quick fix. The defense, and I get B. John Robinson
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: is one of the better players in the NFL. And
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: when he gets going, unless you have an elite defense,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: he's going to smoke and make a lot of guys miss. Now,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: you could go back to the start of the game.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: They're up 7-0, dominating the game. It's 3rd and 11.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: They hit Pennix, I don't know, late, unsportsmanlike. I didn't
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: think it was a flag, but in 2026, they call
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: a 15-yard penalty. Next play, he rushes for 55 yards.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: A couple plays later, they score, and the game never
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: looked back. So eventually, when everyone in the stadium, everyone
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: on television, even Al Michaels, who doesn't really know what's
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: going on, knows Bijan's going to run the ball, and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do, that's where you got problems.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And then your corner situation is terrible. I mean, Drake
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: London is a good player. He looked like Randy Moss
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: or Calvin Johnson tonight as an unstoppable player. And I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: don't see how that's fixed. And this goes back to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the first game when they're up 22-10. What happened again tonight?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Short yardage, fourth and one, down by the goal line.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: They can't run QB sneak because they did that a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: couple weeks ago and it blew up in their face.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So they run this play-action play, throws it to... the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: people sitting in the front row of Lambeau, and that's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: what you get. So I think LeFleur's situation is going
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to get really dire. This is really ugly. That was
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: tough to watch. This has been a theme on the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: podcast now for a while, is where you coach and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: where you play matters. Like for as much heat as
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the Chargers getting, no one locally is talking about them.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And they're not leading every segment on every show and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: every podcast. You coach for the Green Bay Packers, the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. There are certain brands, the Pittsburgh Steelers. When
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: things get really ugly, it gets really loud. And it's
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: like that with the Lakers. It's like that with the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Yankees and the Red Sox. And LeFleur's been a successful coach.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But this season looks really off. Ever since 22-10... that unraveled,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: they have been in shambles. They've hit a couple big
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: plays in the past game, but their run game's an embarrassment.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Their defense is now melting down, and they can't cover
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the pass. Now, anytime, like Michael Penix, after the slow
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: start tonight, was obviously really, really productive and really solid,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: looked like a guy that was drafted in the first round,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: it is a lot easier to play quarterback when you
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: have a starting running back running for almost seven yards
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to carry. and his backup running back, Brian Robinson, had
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: 10 carries for 50 yards. I'm no math major, but
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that's five yards a carry. They averaged six yards a carry.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: They had 41 carries for 240 yards. And Penix had
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: no yards rushing. Technically, he had two yards negative. So,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, he actually took away from the total. So,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: if they can run the ball like you can see
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a functioning offense, which is the complete opposite of the Packers,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And once your offense starts sputtering, I don't care who
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you are, your defense starts losing a little life. Obviously,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Cooper got injured tonight, but this is bad. And I
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: don't really see a fix here. And here's the thing
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: with Green Bay. Their next game is at Tampa. We'll
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: see what Tampa does this week. Then they play the Bears.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Then they play the Cowboys. <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Cowboys game, middle of October. NBC, Sunday Night Football. Panthers,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: end of October. Prime Video, Thursday Night Football. Netflix game, Thanksgiving. Rams.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football, Bills, December. They have a lot of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: primetime games. This is not a franchise that's hidden. And
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: some of their Fox games, the Bears game, potentially the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Lions game... These could be because of the brand, especially
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the Bears game. You're going to have Tom Brady and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Kevin Burkhardt there. People wonder how the NFL scheduling works.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Those Sunday afternoon games, the big ones, are some of
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the highest rated games of the year. When it's Chiefs-Bills
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: on CBS in the afternoon. Those Packers-Bears games last year,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the one in Lambeau. on Sunday afternoon on Fox with
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt in the booth. You don't
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: hide from that. There is no hiding. And the problem
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: is when your running back situation is the way it is,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do? You can't just run
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a spread passing offense because your offensive line can't protect.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Their offensive line looks terrible. And that's the thing that
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: this franchise, like when I think about the Packers core
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: philosophy and core building philosophy like what they have stood
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: for over the years, like with Favre and Rodgers. A
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: lot like the Giants when Coughlin was there with Eli.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: They just had tough offensive linemen. It was a tough
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: physical group. And you watch this group, it's like I'd
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: be licking my lips. I mean, think about the Panthers.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: James Pierce and Javon Walker, two of their better young
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: pass rushers. I mean, Pierce had 10 sacks last year,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and Walker was a top 15 pick. They're not even
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: playing right now. Like, they're not even, like, they weren't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: rushing the passer tonight. And they couldn't stop these guys.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: They made the Falcons' defense look really good. I'm getting
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: DMs from people saying, John, I've been a Packer fan
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for 25 years. I'm in my early 30s. This feels
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: like the worst team I've ever seen. It is poorly built.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Beside the wideouts, like, where's the talent? Couple guys on defense.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: But the O-line stinks. I mean, Jordan's been there forever.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: He's fine. But the running back room is atrocious. Like,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: you don't have a backup running back? That's a position that,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: look at the Falcons. Their backup running back is just
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Brian Robinson Jr., who was Christian McCaffrey's backup running back
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: last year, who fits that scheme. Now, I'm not saying
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that they had to sign that guy, but those guys
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: are out there all over the place that are plug-and-play players.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: And you have guys that feel like they wouldn't even
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: make a practice squad. I'm not trying to overreact here,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: but they look extremely slow. They don't hit the hole.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: They're slipping on the ground. And you can't even call
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: run plays. So I am... Their special teams has been
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: horrendous for years. Field goal blocked tonight by a guy
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: like 6'7. I saw another screenshot on their second touchdown
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that was like, it barely missed the guy's fingertip. So,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, special teams are still a nightmare. If it's
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: not for a couple Sky Moore returns, like, they're an embarrassment.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: And defensively, like, LeFleur has nothing to do with that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And in fairness, a lot of offensive coaches don't have
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: much to do with the defense. They are very predicated
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: on the guy calling the plays. And Jeff Halfley was excellent.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: He was really, really good. Jonathan Gannon, people really like him,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: but I don't think he's the most dynamic defensive coordinator.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Guys play hard. He's a tough guy. It's what he
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was with Philly, but they had great players. When you've
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: got to have guys rise above because you don't have
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the talent, I don't know if he'd be my first pick. Now,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know what their other options were. Tough spot
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: when a defensive coordinator leaves. Van Ness early in the game.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, definitely so far this season has really kind
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of come into his own as the guy that they
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: had drafted once really high, hoping to be a good player. But, man,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: if you're a Packer fan tonight, you're not just licking
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: your wounds. You're going, are we close? Like the Giants,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: most Giants fans, our season's over. The Dolphins fans, like, yeah,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: we're not even trying. You know, the Browns and the Cardinals, like, yeah,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: we're going to suck. You know, the Jets fans will
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: probably be saying that in three or four weeks. You're
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: not used to saying that. Like, at one point in
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: time last year, what were you, 9-2? And, like, arguably
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl favorite to come out of the NFC?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And then those injuries happen, and it's all derailed. And
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you know who's living the best out of this? Is
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the Jets. They have the Packers pick. Because when the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Cowboys traded for Quinn and Williams, they gave them the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: best of the two picks, which looks like the Packers...
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know, could be a top... 12? I'd say
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: it'll end up somewhere between 7 to 12. They'll definitely
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: win some games, but holy moly. Colin was right about this.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Where Colin was right, he said when I was with
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: him in the summer on the TV show, it's the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: most lukewarm hot seat in the league. That thing ain't
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: lukewarm anymore. You can turn that thing up to high.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: It went from simmering to medium to tonight it's on high.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: You're getting booed at halftime at Lambeau Field week three,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Thursday night football at home, getting, you know, just curb
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: stomped as the game goes on in the second half.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: It's hard to shake those memories. When people were already
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: starting to get out on you. And like I said,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: now there's the question of, you know, Does the GM survive?
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Does the GM try to backstab him? Does the GM
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: try to jump ship and try to separate himself from
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the floor? They've been together the whole time. That's going
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to be interesting. I get DMs like Mike Tomlin to
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Green Bay. If I'm Mike Tomlin, like I've lived for
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: 20 years in the cold, you know, get me to Tampa.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Get me some warmth. Get me some low taxes. Let
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: me enjoy life. I would not want to live in
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: frigid conditions. So, but I mean, if I'm the Packers
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and Ed Policy, like we're starting to make a little
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: short list. And we're starting to ask ourselves, are we
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: just going to clean house? You know, it's pretty rare
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: for a coach to get fired in the middle of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the season, Green Bay. Obviously, it happened to McCarthy, who,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: let's face it, had accomplished more. He'd won a Super Bowl.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So I just, I would never say never at this point.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: So congrats to Bijan Robinson, Michael Penix, and Drake London.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: What a night. Stefanski shut me up. And Packer fans, uh,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Browns fans are like, welcome, come sit with us. You know,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Dolphins fans are like, welcome, we never see you in here.
• 17:20
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• 18:49
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  Speaker 1: independent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: The CFTC Regulated Exchange and Clearing Organization. Before we dive
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: into some of the games, I want to start with
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Fugazi Friday. And two big football Fugazis. One of them,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Mike McDonald, Sean Payton. This Graham Bessinger interview that went
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: out that had a clip that supposedly wasn't supposed to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: be on the record, off the record. I don't care.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: My only take is, why is Mike McDonald apologizing for
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: something he didn't do? It kind of has some like
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Arch Manning AI video vibe to it. And I'm not
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: blaming Mike. He's trying to be a good guy. He
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to create a distraction. Maybe I'm just out
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: of touch why this is a story. For those of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you that don't know, a couple years ago, they played
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the Broncos. His first game as a head coach. They
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: had stolen would be strong. It's public information. They had
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: taken videos from Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, wherever, that fans were
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: posting during Denver's preseason practices and used them to game plan.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And Sean Payton got word of that like later in
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the season and assumed that they had sent people to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: their practices and accused them of like Spygate. Mike was like,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: that is bullshit. We did not do that. And then
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he threatened to like take him to arbitration or take
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: him to the league. And then they threatened to sue.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Bottom line is Sean Payton got in his feelings. Sean
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Payton got angry, shocker, and was wrong. And Seattle did
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong. It's why Christian Parker this year is like,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not that, and I don't care about these videos,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: but I do understand why coaches, when they're utilizing, especially
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: week one, them to their benefit. And Christian Parker's like,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not that comfortable with how open we are at
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: these practices because when I was with the Eagles, we
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: used these videos if we played the Cowboys early in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the season, which a couple years ago they did, remember?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: The game where Jalen Carter spit at Dak? Maybe Dak
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: spit at him. Who knows? But I'm not as worked
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: up over the logistics or semantics between what was okayed,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: what was not okayed to go out on the interview.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Bottom line is Benjamin Albright, who's on Bronco Radio, was like,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: this has been public knowledge for a while. We've talked
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: about this on a radio show like a year ago.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Mike apologizing to Sean Payton. Like, Sean... You got your
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: panties in a bunch over something that your team allowed.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: And if it's public knowledge on Twitter to go into
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: week one and you're running plays with Bo Nix, who's
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a rookie at the time, like, yeah, teams are going
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to use it. That's on you, buddy. Mike has nothing
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: to apologize for. Just like if it wasn't Mike and
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: it was any other team, they would have nothing to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: apologize for. You threaten them and you're wrong and they
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: call your BS and they say, we will sue you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: in court. If you try to do something about this,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: because that's, I don't know, defamation. I don't know what
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: it is, but it's it's clearly just Sean was wrong.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you got to take the L on and off
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the field. And the other big Fugazi is Kyle Juszczyk,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: whose nickname is Juice. When he gets the catch, which
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he doesn't get that many, they're typically first downs or touchdowns.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It tends to be a big deal over the course
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of the season, especially when he's at home. or in
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: LA or in Arizona, it's like a home game for them.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: The entire crowd yells juice because that's his nickname. And
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: when he does it, he does a drinking motion, right?
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Like you would drink a glass of juice. The NFL
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: fined him for taking the swig of his fingers, which
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: is pretending to be juice because it was, they thought,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: chugging a beer, right? There was also the Indy offensive linemen.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: They had a moment, I think, on Sunday Night Football
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: where they did a fake crack the top and drink, which,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: obviously drinking a beer. The NFL and football in general
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: is synonymous with alcohol and specifically beer. The majority of
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: my life, I would say, their number one or one
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: of their top sponsors, advertisers, partners, is the beer business.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light, you name it, they
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: go hand in hand with the sport of football, Saturdays
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and Sundays. The league, from what I read, makes over
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: half of, what do they make, $ 500 million plus on
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: licensing out the logo of to beer partners. The individual
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: teams selling beer at their games for $ 30 for 12
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: ounces clearly are making millions of dollars. If you are
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: a player and want to partner up with an alcohol company,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that is not illegal and you totally can't. I do get,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: even though I'm not offended at all, fighting someone for
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a hump motion. Procreation makes the world go around, but
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I get it. There are young kids watching You don't
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: need to explain to your seven-year-old what Diggs was doing
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: on the pylon. Be like, son, that's what he does
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to his chef. And I also get the gun thing. Again,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not offended at all, but it's like we don't want
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: to shoot fake shot off shotguns at the fans. Okay.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Or throat slashing. I can get behind that. But when
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you're talking beer, one, everyone in the league is 21.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: So there's nothing illegal about it. The majority of your stadium...
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I would say tends to be intoxicated. And you're literally
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: promoting it. And this isn't integrity of the game. Like
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: where gambling can be a slippery slope. And the league
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: has struggled to figure out that. This is honestly one
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen. And you
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: know me. Some of the minutiae I don't get that
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: caught up in. I cannot believe... They find multiple players...
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: for fake chugging a beer. I've believed this for a
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: while now. One of the points of difference of football
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: that all the other sports lack is the relatability. Their players,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: remember a couple years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder, they
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: won the NBA Finals, and guys were spitting out beer.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: They had never tasted it. And depending, you read studies, gen,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: whatever they are, alpha, beta, doesn't drink anymore, which whenever
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I'm around younger people, especially in social situations, they always are.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: So maybe the polls are wrong. Maybe there's some truth
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to that. I don't know. But I think beer drinking, hardworking,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: merit-based league, like you either produce, you move up, you don't,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you get cut. Like the league has so many things
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: that parallel us in the real world. And most of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: their guys, I remember a couple years ago when the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Chiefs won the AFC Championship game, and there was Creed
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Humphrey and Trey Smith going into the bar at Arrowhead
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to get like, you know, two 24-packs. It's like, that's America, baby.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: That's what most people I know would have done in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: their situation celebrating. Go get a lot of beer. Because
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: that's what we do when we celebrate. You know, normal
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: human beings. So... Obviously, he's drinking juice. He's done the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: same celebration forever. But even the other players that did
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: fake chug a beer, what are we doing? Did they
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: elevate someone? Jamar Chase does that thing where he touches
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: his elbow. He claims it's the people's elbow. I always
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: thought he was doing like an ice cold like basketball
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: players do when they hit a shot. They concluded that
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: it was like the motion of pretending to have a
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: big penis. This does feel like someone got elevated to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a position because they hit the right credentials on LinkedIn
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: who have no understanding of the real world in life.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Have one of those $ 500, 000 degrees that is just completely
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: worthless in the real world because they don't understand anything.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: That's my only explanation. It really is. I can't even
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: begin to comprehend how you would find someone in the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: NFL who for fake drinking. And one, like, how do
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you know? What if it's, uh, you know, one of
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: those Coca-Cola bottles, you know, you can buy those at
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the store. How do you even know what they're like?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: It's pretty clear if you're shooting a fake gun or
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: bow and arrow, right? It's, it's pretty clear if you're,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: if you're humping the, uh, you know, the pylon or
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the ground key and PSL, but this one seems crazy
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: to me. 15 K. I don't care how much money
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: you're making. I would, I'd refuse to pay, but I
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: don't think you can because they just take it right
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: out of your check. I don't know. There was that
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: story in ESPN.com that in 2020, it's like Gruden, Andy Reid,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan, Sean Payton, maybe Sean McVay got fined for
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the mask situation. None of them paid. They just refused,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: which fuck yeah, love that. That fires me up even
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: saying out loud right now. The four box for this
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: weekend is, We got some bad games. I mean, there
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: is a lot of blowout potential. Seattle, Washington, Chiefs, Miami.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: If either one of those two teams try, which, you know,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the Chiefs now, Monday night football, Sunday night football, getting
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: up for road game against, I'm pretty sure, the least
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: talented team in the league. If they try, that's a massacre.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: If Seattle maintains the same edge that they had on
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: defense against the Patriots... And then after the first couple
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: series against the Cardinals, Mariota doesn't have a snowball's chance
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: in hell. Done. I mean, absolutely screwed. The Arizona Cardinals,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: you know, the Marvin Harrison thing, feels like they'd get
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: a little weird too. Just put the Michigan corner on
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: injured reserve. But Seattle, Washington, Kansas City, Miami, those– Those
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: got blowout written all over them. Now I get us
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the NFL, and players are human beings, but if those
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: two teams try, it will not be close. The four
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: box for me in the morning was pretty easy. even
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: though maybe I'm just a boomer I can't always figure
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: this out that sometimes I try to manually put the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: box together and won't let me add the exact four
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: games It happened to me last week. I could do
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: three of the four, but I couldn't put the fourth
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: game in that spot. And everyone keeps it so great
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: that you can... I'm like, am I an idiot? Am
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I dumb? Because I'm doing the manual and the game
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: that I want to add to these three games will
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: not work. So I typically have to put the game
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: that I want on the other TV with some other
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: crappier games and then have a crappier game in my
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: four box. But ideally, it just shows up. And my
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: options would be Chargers at Buffalo, Houston at Indy, Cincinnati
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: at Pittsburgh, New England, Jacksonville. I think the first game
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: is pretty self-explanatory. We've already seen Buffalo's high end. If
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: they can figure out their defensive secondary as the season
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: goes and Josh is healthy, they're good enough to win
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl because they have that guy playing quarterback.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone disputes that. Their head coach isn't
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: just swaggy. He seems like he's doubled down on the aggressiveness.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: They're throwing bombs. They have looked incredible through two weeks
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: on offense. And their D-line's good. So if you have
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: a good defensive line and an unreal offense, you're going
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to have a shot. He's got to make enough plays
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: in the secondary. The story of this game to me
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: is the Chargers. Are they just going to wave the
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: white flag? Because if you look at their schedule, if
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: they get rolled in this game, which, you know, it
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: was like a religious experience for Buffalo, opening of the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: new stadium, Josh Allen is kind of just crowned as
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the best player in the league. Your opening night, primetime
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, like that place was, you got Bruce Smith
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: firing at them. That was incredible. It'd be hard to
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: maintain that same level for just a day game, but
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the place is going to be rocking. It's going to
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: be really loud. And, like, the Chargers are used to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: playing road games because even when they're at home, they're
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: on the road. Like, that was a Raider home game
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: last week. Of course it was. They're always Raider home games.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And I don't know, man. I mean, their offensive line.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: We'll get into Herbert a little bit later. I'll do
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: a couple mailbag questions. I went back and watched all
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of his throws. Their whole line stinks. I mean, the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: guard center guard's a major issue. Joel, I mean, playing
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Crosby's never easy, but they have not played well through
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the first two weeks. And defensively at any moment, like
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: when Kirk Cousins is hitting explosives on you, you got problems.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: So to me, the number one question in this game,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and you could argue it's one of the biggest stories
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: of the week, like are the Chargers just a white
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: flag team? Is it just over before it even started?
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: You start 0-3 with their schedule, like, sigh-a-nora. Houston and Indy,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: one of these two teams going 0-3. And, you know,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Houston went 0-3 last year and finished 12-5. So they
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: have been in the gutter before and figured out a
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: way to get out. So you could see a scenario
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: that's like, we've been here, done that. But they are
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: favored on the road this week against a divisional opponent who,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: we've got to give them some credit, they actually look
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: pretty good against the Kansas City Chiefs. Like, they did
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: look pretty good. But they haven't won a game since
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: early November 2025. And if you keep losing, I don't
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: know what else she's going to write down on her
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: little notepad beside Chris Ballard fired, Shane Steichen fired. Because
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like, it's like, hey,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I think you're pretty good at your gigs, but we
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: just went 6-11 or 7-10. And all of a sudden
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: you're 0-3. Like, I don't give them the same benefit
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: out of Houston to figure it out. because of what
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: we've witnessed over the last several years. Like, this team
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: just doesn't make the playoffs. Hell, for a couple years,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: they've been a game or two out. It wasn't since
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: that Gardner-Minchu last game of the season where he missed
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: them on the little out route. So, I don't know.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I think this Indy thing has got a very, very
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: good chance to come to a head. And I know
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: clearly she likes those two guys. But how do you
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: keep people in– I mean, Chris Ballard already said it. Like,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I don't have a contract at the end of this season.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: So if she would just fire him, maybe she brings
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: in a new GM and lets him evaluate Shane Steichen.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: We know how those situations typically work out. This thing
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: could get– and at the end of the day, they're
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: relying on Daniel Jones. Alec Pierce is now on injury reserve.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: They paid him a ton of money. He got hurt.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: You know, he's missed all of training camp. Now he
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: hurts his heel. Just disastrous. And typically when things unravel
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: to me in pro sports, there is just like a drip, drip,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: drip quality. And all of a sudden it starts feeling
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: inside the building like nothing can go right. Like we
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: missed on Anthony Richardson. We finally get this guy who's
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: becoming a really good player. We sign him to a
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: big contract. His body falls apart. You know, we've had
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: this great running back, but we're not good enough to
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: take advantage of his skills because– Our defense always has issues,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: so we get in passing situations. I don't know. It's
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: just never-ending with Indy right now. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh. You've
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: got to love a good AFC North early season matchup,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: even if the Pittsburgh Steelers, to me, of all the
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: teams that people thought could be just a credible football team,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: has been the most unwatchable team in the league. Their
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: offense is atrocious. Anyone that took DK Metcalf on their
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: fantasy team Any Pittsburgh Steelers fan that is forced to
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: watch this guy, he's been an abomination this season. Pittsburgh
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: cannot run the ball. And Mike McCarthy is inclined to pass.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy likes throwing the ball. I know he made
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the comments back in Dallas like, we're going to run
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the ball. Mike, I've watched you coach. You're like Andy
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: and Sean McVay. Even Andy finally was like, I've got
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: to change. Kenneth Walker, here's another handoff. Emma Johnson, here's
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: another handoff. Mike McCarthy wants to call passes. I mean,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he's got a 42-year-old quarterback with like 25 attempts in
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the first half of a game that's not even that
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: out of reach. So even if they tried to run
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: the ball, that's why Cincinnati landed Dexter Lawrence. Through two weeks,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the Buccaneers, or excuse me, the Texans ran for 60 yards,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: and the Bucs in week one ran for 89. But
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: 30 of those came from Baker Mayfield. So Rodgers ain't running.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: So if you just look at the running backs, you're
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: talking basically 60 yards. So 60 yards back-to-back weeks from
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: the running backs. You're not running on this team. So
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: this is why I like Cincinnati. Because I was like,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: their defense is going to be better. Now Burrow has
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: by no means been perfect through two weeks. Who knows
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: with his back tightness if that's played a part. He
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: threw a pick six week one. Last week they were just–
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: they couldn't get into a rhythm until they finally did
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and hit that big play, and then they kind of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: settled down a little bit. But I just– Pittsburgh's a
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: big home dog, and historically this is where you hammered Tomlin.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers, like all
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: of a sudden D.K. Metcalf's going to start making plays.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden they're going to be able to
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: run for 100 yards on a team that doesn't allow
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: teams to rush on them. I know it's a small
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: sample size, but I think you've got to feel pretty
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: good about Cincinnati's front and their run defense. And I
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: think you've got to feel pretty bad because this goes
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: back to last year. Like, Steelers' running situation is abysmal.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: And then you've got to factor in, like, Rodgers does
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: look old. And I'm not a Rodgers hater at all.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I think he's one of the best players I've ever seen.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: He does not resemble that human being at all right now.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: And even he's acknowledged it. So... Pittsburgh loses this thing
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: like all of a sudden you go, yeah, I don't know.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. Because
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: as the season goes and the weather changes, it's like, well,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Aaron's going to get less mobile. He's going to want
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: less contact. And that's when you have to be able
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to run the ball. So to me, the only way
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I see Cincinnati not winning this game is like it's
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: going to have to be one of those banana Steelers
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: defense do crazy shit. fumble six maybe a pick six
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: they they the defense might need to get them 10
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: plus points because it's hard to have any faith right
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: now I you know I they just kind of a
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: personnel issue they just I I don't know you know
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: you would have thought with the way they talked it
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: up how much Aaron loved DK and listen DK's made
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: enough plays for him last year something just feels off
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know. And then last but not least, New
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: England at Jacksonville. I didn't realize because I didn't have
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the audio on. I look up and, you know, Liam
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Cohen gets skinnier by the week. You talk about a guy,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: just whatever GLP-1 he's on, he looks fantastic. He's pulling
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it off. He looks swaggy in his outfits. He was
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: just screaming at the ref and there was a penalty.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't quite understand what was going on. He got
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: flagged for an unsportsmanlike. Jacksonville was in complete control of
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: that game. For basically the four-quarter game in 2025 and
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: the first two quarters of this game, they had dominated
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: the Broncos for like basically 90 straight minutes. And then
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: it just unraveled when Taylor Lawrence or Trevor Lawrence threw
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that interception. And then the momentum completely shifted and the
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: rest was history. But like, you know, and the other
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: thing with Jacksonville is the Travis Hunter, Brian Thomas is
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: just not a reliable player. Thank God Parker Washington's on
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the team. And Travis Hunter just doesn't really play. I
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: think he played like less than half the snaps. I
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: wrote it down a couple days ago, it was like,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: was like 60% of the defensive snaps and 15% of
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: the like it's just it's just an experiment that's not
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: working who could have seen this coming I don't know
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: anyone that's ever watched the NFL the greatest players in
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the history of the sport Dion full-time corner couple deep
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: shots on offense like there's no such thing as a
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: dual player. That does not exist in the pros. It
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: exists in high school. Travis was even an outlier in college.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: No one had ever quite done what he did. But
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: you've got to pick a lane. And then try to
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: master that lane. Because you're going up against this week.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: If you're a wide receiver, Christian Gonzalez is going up
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: against you. It's like, well, Christian Gonzalez just focuses on offense.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: The offensive player he's going up against. All he cares
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: about is his technique, playing DB. Just like, you know,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs or Kyle Williams or whoever the wide receivers are.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: All they care about is running routes. That's all they
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: focus on. What coverage is I'm going against? How to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: get open? How to use leverage? You know, what to
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: do against this look? What to do against that look?
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And I just think the way they've attacked this Travis
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Hunter thing, one, they clearly regret the pick. And two,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: he was never going to be able to go both ways.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: It's just impossible in the NFL. So... To me, obviously,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Drake Mays under a little scrutiny. Hasn't played as well. A.J.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Brown's out for a while. Their defense is pretty good, though.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: But Jacksonville's defense is pretty good. I mean, this is
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: going to be a physical-ass game. Now, we'll see Miami, Jacksonville,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the heat of Florida still cranking, how that impacts both
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: these two teams. But that's a big game. I think
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville's pretty good. I think Jacksonville's pretty good. And if
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: they were to win... Like you got a multiple game
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: lead on whoever Houston or Indy loses that game. A
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: couple quick things on college. I heard someone say this
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: yesterday and I was like, that's a good point. The
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: SEC through the first, you know, three weeks, three and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: a half weeks if you count week zero, feels like
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: they have taken up all the oxygen early in the
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: season because of the way they've scheduled and they start
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: their conference early. This is a two-conference sport, right? We both,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: or we all agree that the two conferences, the SEC
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and the Big Ten, have the best players, the most money,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: the highest-end coaches, and just the best conferences, right? But
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: if you look at the Big Ten, like, Indiana hasn't
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: played a soul. USC is playing San Jose State, Fresno State,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and Rutgers. Oregon has a crazy upset, but they were
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: a four-touchdown favorite against Oklahoma State. Meanwhile, the SEC starts
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: with some crazy conference games. And you got Oklahoma and Texas,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: like two of the biggest, obviously the Ohio State-Texas game is,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: I would say, the biggest non-conference game of the year
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: by far. But Texas won that game. And props to
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Ohio State. Like they play, and Michigan. Like they will
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: play real non-conference games. But like both those two games
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: did come against SEC opponents. When you look, Penn State
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: plays nobody. USC, nobody. And it's like one of the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: things the SEC does is they schedule up one time.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be countless times. And then they
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: start their conference games a little early. So week two,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: you had Bama, Kentucky. Like that's just a real game
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: people are going to pay attention to. It'd be like
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: if Ohio State, Illinois was two weeks ago or Michigan,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Washington was two weeks ago. So you just kind of
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: wet everyone's beak. And then obviously Ole Miss, LSU is
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: an easy one. But there were other SEC games going on.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: You had South Carolina playing Mississippi State. Mississippi State might
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: have the best quarterback in the country, not named Trinidad,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: but Chambliss. And I do think there's this area of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: momentum to start this season. This gets back to scheduling.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: And I know Tony Petitti, the Big Ten, like Cignetti,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: you're now a big dog. You need to start operating
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: like Michigan and Ohio State for the health of this conference.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: You can schedule a random team. It doesn't have to
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: be Alabama or Florida or, you know, Texas Tech. You
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: could just play, I don't know, North Carolina State. Play Arizona.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Just play a real fucking game. You have to. I
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: don't blame you. You were hired a couple years ago.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: These schedules are made to advance, but you need to pivot,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and you need to pivot fast. And USC, you get
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: out of this Notre Dame game, and you just start
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: playing all these California state schools that don't have a
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: snowball's chance in hell to be any good anymore because
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: they can't pay any players. Then you play Louisiana on
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: top of that. Oh, you got Oregon and Ohio State
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: coming up. Yeah, it's part of the deal, man. Michigan
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and Oklahoma could say that too. But they played each other.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Same thing with Texas and Ohio State. So I think
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the start of the schedule, like, I don't want to
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: blow the conference games too early. The Rams and the
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: 49ers played on Thursday of week one. So give me
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: a break. You know, you can do it. And it'll
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: be healthier for all of us. Looking at this week,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: it was so clear coming into the season. It's like, everybody,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: pump the brakes on the quarterback stuff. There's not going
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: to be nine quarterbacks go in the first round. That's
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: not the way it works. It's never worked like that.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Looking back at the six quarterbacks that went a couple
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: years ago, guess what? A lot of teams regret that.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: You think J.J. McCarthy would go in the first round
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: if he could do that over? I'm recording this before
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the Atlanta, this part before the Atlanta Packer game, but
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: like most people I knew did not have Pennix in
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: the first round. Right. And if, if Jaden Daniels body
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: just falls apart, like there's no disputing. He's not like
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: a top five talent, but it just shows you like
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: things unravel fast and everyone have an arch is the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: number one pick. It's like, guys, we got to play
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: these games. And like, I know he made some big
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: time plays in the Ohio state game, but like, that's,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: It's not a number one overall pick performance. Now he's
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: going on the road to Tennessee this week, which millions
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: of people are going to watch. It's at 9 a.m.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Pacific Standard Time. Stadium holds like 110,000 people. Place is
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: going to be going bananas. And by all accounts, Tennessee's
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: not bad. So I just think if you want to
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: be considered the number one overall pick, you need some
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: consistent games. And maybe that'll come over the course of
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the year, but you can't just be airmailing or leading
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: a guy by seven yards and not even coming close
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: on a drag route over the middle of the field.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm just fascinated to watch this guy in these environments.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: He played bad against Ohio State. Now granted, Ohio State's
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: a power, but it was at home. It doesn't get
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: any more of a comfortable environment than playing in your
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: home stadium. This is a little different animal. So I
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: would imagine there are going to be a ton of
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: scouts there. I would imagine there are going to be
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: a ton of scouts at both these two big SEC games.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: The Ole Miss at Florida game. I mean, Trinidad is,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I heard Daniel Jeremiah talking that he's like,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: you know, the program and scouts that have gone in
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: there think he's, you know, between 5'11 and 6 foot.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: So let's just give him 5'11 and a half, which
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: is obviously not ideal height, right? To me, anything below
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: like 6'1 and a half, 6'2, I would consider short. Now,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I do think he's got some Russell Wilson,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield, some of the, like, combination of those type
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: guys in college. Maybe even a little of Kyler. I mean,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: the dude he beat for the game-winning touchdown on the
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: run to the corner of the end zone, he was
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: hauling ass. If I had to guess what he'll run
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: in the 40, like 4.50, 4.48, like he's fast. And
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: going to Florida, listen, he was excellent against LSU, which
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: are going to have a ton of guys drafted on defense.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: And he was excellent last year against Miami, in Georgia,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: in the big games, who obviously have NFL players all
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: over the place. You keep stacking that, you go to Florida,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: which surely has NFL draft picks, on the road, in
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: front of however many people that place holds, 80,000, 85,000 people.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: You can't hear yourself think. The place is going to
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: be rocking. And you keep throwing touchdowns and making plays,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and you keep winning. One, it's pretty clear. They just
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: go into Florida and win by 10 points. Ole Miss
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: is clearly one of, if not the best teams in
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: the country. And two, like, this guy's just going to
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: solidify himself as the Heisman Trophy winner. Part of it,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: you know, the thing with Heisman, it's a momentum narrative play,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: kind of like the MVP in football. And he has
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: a ton of that from a narrative standpoint, from a
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: momentum standpoint, from a production standpoint, from an eye test standpoint,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: from who he's playing standpoint. I mean, look who he's
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: already beat. Like, LSU's clearly a pretty good team. Now,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: are they a 10-2 team? Are they– 9-3, 8-4, I
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: don't know, but they're good. And Louisville, I mean, I
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: think there's a decent chance Louisville goes 11-1 and plays
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Miami in the conference championship game. Probably worst case, 10-2. Like,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: they're good. They're really good. So you could argue I'm
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: more excited to watch Ole Miss at Florida. To me,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: I kind of treat Trinidad like Steph Curry. If he's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: on TV, I'm watching. I mean, if he's playing, I'm
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: paying attention. It's like Mahomes those first couple years. You
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: just couldn't get enough of him. You're like, have we
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: ever seen anything quite like this? This guy like Favre?
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: We talked about the Oregon-USC game the other day. I mean,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: that's just Lincoln, you got to win one of these.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I know. Now or never. You going to do it?
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Because I don't know what you're waiting for. Okay, let's
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: do some predictions brought to you by my friends at Polymarket.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: I said last week, if Jameis Winston starts, I have
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: to go against him. It's just a hard and fast strategy.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: When Jameis plays, I will take the opponent. Whether that
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: team is the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buffalo Bills, The
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: LA Rams or the Tennessee Titans? And this game's in
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: New York. If Jameis is taking snaps, I've just, I
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: gotta take the Titans. And if you go to Pauley
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Market and you take the New York Giants to not
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: win by two and a half points, I put, I
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: just wrote down $ 250. Pays 546. I like the Titans.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: I think the Titans, and I'd also argue if Robert
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Saleh Like, if you can't beat Jameis Winston, Brian Burns
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: got banged up in that game, who's obviously one of
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: their better players. Andrew Thomas got hurt. Like, they had
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: some injuries when most of us kind of stopped paying attention.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, I came in here to record a podcast
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: like seven minutes left and turned off the game because
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: we started recording. By that, they lost, like, multiple players,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: good players. So Malik Nabors, he just gets injured often.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: All you got to do, you know, stack the box. Like, Scataboo,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: love you, but you're not beating us. Salah said yesterday
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: that they were going to take Skadaboo, and then the
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Giants a couple picks ahead took them. That would have
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: been cool to watch Skadaboo with Kyle, even though Skadaboo
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: by this point in time probably would have had both
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: legs amputated. I'm going to have a pretty simple strategy
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: this week. Seattle, I'm taking them to win by 7.5 points.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: I think this has like 30-9, 30-6 written all over it.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Mary Oda's a great guy, not very good at football.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Not very good at football. And this team's not that
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: good at football. Once you lose your star quarterback, there's
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: just a lifelessness, and this goes with the Giants too,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to me that just permeates throughout the whole building. It's
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: just like we don't have a chance. And I think
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: you're going to see it. It's going to be evident
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: with the Giants. I think it's going to be evident
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: with Washington. There's nothing you can do. And the difference is, like,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: obviously Harbaugh's trying. You know, Dan Quinn's, like, the unemployment
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: line is right around the corner. And last but not least,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: same strategy that I'm going with Seattle. Chiefs to win
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: by 10.5 points. $ 100 pays 193. I think you go
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: heavy on that. I do think you are going to
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: get a spirited effort out of Seattle and Kansas City
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: this weekend. This is not one of those teams that, like,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: I think the best part about this NFL season is
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: even the Chiefs have won Super Bowls. Seattle's the defending
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl champion. It's clear why Buffalo's trying so hard.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: They have a lot to prove. They've never been able
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: to get over the hump. They want to get home
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: field advantage. They want to reestablish themselves as division champ.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: It's understandable. I think all these teams, though, Even the
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Chiefs in Seattle are playing with an edge. When you
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: watch Seattle against Arizona, that was a violent performance. To me,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the number one thing that has stood out in these
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: two games with the Chiefs, obviously the implementation of the
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: running game and Kenneth Walker, but it's just a violent
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: brand of football. If you play the Chiefs right now,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: you better buckle up your chin strap because guys are
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: getting crushed. Now, the mentality, if this was Week 9...
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and the Chiefs were 6-2 or 7-1, and you're playing
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: a 1-7 Miami Dolphins team, I'd be like, these are
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: human beings. I could see I have a bad week
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: of practice. It's only week three. I think you've got
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: to be careful as the season goes on of getting
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: too aggressive with some of these massive, massive numbers. Miami,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: there are going to be games later in the season
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: where it's probably like 16 points. There will probably be
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: a couple other teams involved there too as this plays out.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: And I think you've got to be careful in some
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: of those situations once you get to November because you're like, well,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: the good team they're playing just had the worst week
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: of practice. Those guys went out boozing on Tuesday and
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night. They're like playing some scrubs. But I think
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: early in the season, there's just a natural level of
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: respect you have for your opponent. So Chiefs, minus 10.5.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: I don't like it. I love it. Okay, a couple
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: quick mailbag questions. Here's a question for the mailbag. Why
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: are the Broncos not getting discussed more this week after
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: a bounce-back win against the Jags? A lot of people,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: myself included, think the Jags are good. And the Broncos
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: easily could have been in the Super Bowl last year
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: if Bo Nick was healthy. I understand they had a
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: bad Week 1 performance. And they rely too much on, quote,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: bow time. But it feels like they already have been
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: written off by a lot of people rather than being
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: talked about like an AFC contender again. You know the
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: easiest way to get everyone talking about you? Beat the
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Rams on Sunday Night Football. Beat the Rams on Sunday
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Night Football. If they do that, like, they were getting
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: their ass kicked in that game. I mean, halfway through
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: that game when it was 13-3, I was thinking, like,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: this is crazy. Are the Broncos kind of like the Chargers,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: just not that good? And then it flipped. And then
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: they played really well. But, you know, Bo, that throw
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: he make in the back of the end zone, like
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: how much do you trust him, the new play caller,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: it does just feel a little off would be strong.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: But I think people are just a little reluctant to
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: get to a group. They were my pick to go
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. Through two weeks, I'm not feeling
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: as confident. Season's long. This is a big game for
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: both teams. This is a fantastic Sunday night game. Rams-Broncos
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: at mile high. Does it get much better than that?
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, seriously. The Herbert discourse is getting out of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: control with some of the haters in the media. Has
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: a good quarterback never played for a team that is
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: usually bad? The Chargers weren't exactly known for contending for
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: Super Bowls. Everyone has acknowledged that he's been bad in
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: the playoffs, but I feel like he needs to pump
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: the brakes. Most people don't watch Chargers football, and it shows.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I went back and I watched the offensive series from
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: that game from the Chargers. It wasn't as bad, I think,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: as maybe my reaction on Sunday and definitely the reaction
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: by everyone acting like he sucks. Now, he threw an
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: awful interception at the end of the game. They're down
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: 10 points. Hampton fumbled. There was another fumble on a handoff.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: It was hard to tell. I was kind of flying through, like,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: whose fault it was. Might have been his. Might have
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: been the running backs. Their offensive line has been getting
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: absolutely worked. But, like, I go back and watch that.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: just Herbert play, he doesn't feel like he's, I don't know,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: Cam Ward or something. He actually kind of looks like
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Justin Herbert. Now, where I think people push back is like, yeah,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: he's not Mahomes or Josh Allen. He's never accomplished what
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Lamar's accomplished. Fair. He's never had playoff runs like Joe Burrell. Yeah.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: But this notion that he's some scrub and half the
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: league wouldn't trade for him yesterday, you're high on crack.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: You're high on a lot of drugs because the league would–
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: if you just throw on that game against the Raiders, one,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: their defense is getting shredded and their offensive line is
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: getting worked. I did not think he was– he made some–
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: actually some nice plays. Couple questions. With the current quarterback
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: injuries and backups like Winston struggling, do you see any
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: value for Locke? Schneider seems to have seen something in
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: him a while back and to have clicked, and they
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: have clicked with him. He admitted he has been more
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: focused since the death of his father. What would the
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Seahawks realistically accept from him? There's no chance. They're too
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: good of a team and already having the Darnold injury.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, is Darnold going to play this week or not?
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I would imagine he does because he
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: talked to the press. And typically when you do that,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: if you're not playing, you wouldn't talk. But even if
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Locke had to go, they're too good. You could win
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a playoff game with Drew Locke. So unless someone's offering
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: you a first-round pick, I think his value to you
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: is more than his value on the open. What's a
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: second-round pick in the middle of the season do for Seattle?
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: I don't even think it's relevant. So I think it'd
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: have to be like a top 20 pick for them
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: to entertain it. Been trying not to give in to
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the hype of the Bengals defense this early in the season.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: I'm happy we're 2-0 and not winning by a track meet,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: but both their wins are against 0-2 teams. There are still... Hughes,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you're right. There are still major concerns, in my opinion,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: with the linebackers, and I'm worried that they will get
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: exposed soon. What are your thoughts on their performance and
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: outlook so far? I'll be honest, I can't break down
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: the Bengals linebacker play right now, but I would say
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: in the run game, like I mentioned against the Steelers,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: their run defense has been excellent this year. And obviously
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: Dexter Lawrence is a huge part of that. And like, honestly,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: their offense was kind of hit or miss. I, you
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: would say throughout the two games, beside the big play
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: to Jamar chase really kind of settled that game down. You,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: you would think they're going to have some better offensive performances.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, they have probably the best duo in the
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: league or, you know, CD lamb pickings, um, That'd probably
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: be the only argument. I mean, it's that good, right?
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Higgins and Jamar. And I think he's going to have
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: a game where he throws four or five touchdowns. Hell,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: he might have a couple of those. And when you
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: have a good defense, you might win those games by
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: 20 points. This week, if Burrow's rolling, you could win
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: this game by two touchdowns. Now, it's not that easy. Obviously,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh's defense typically plays has some good performances against divisional opponents.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've played Lamar well forever. But I would
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: be really, really excited. You had a game where you
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: forced four fumbles. You had another game where you allowed
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: six points on the road. Against, you know, you're 0-1.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: You have Super Bowl aspirations. Like, that's a big game
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: against another team that's probably a playoff team. Like, you
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: got Houston. It's not like they were throwing that bad boy.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: As a JMU alum, I've been blessed with some great coaches.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: First two years was Sig, and next two years was Chesney. God,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: hell of a run. I actually think the guys Chesney
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: took with him are more refined than Cignetti's. Wayne Knight, Barksdale,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and Sahir White, who had a portal offer from Ohio State.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: My question, how sustainable is it for these schools to
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: rebuild and then to get their personnel rated every two
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: to five years? Well, it's very coach-dependent, right? The reason...
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Cignetti had all those guys that he could take with him,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: or Chesney had all those guys that he could take
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: with him, is he's finding gems. Like to get Kalon
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Black or Wayne Knight, you find those guys that the
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: other power four schools don't want. And then you watch
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Black run for 1,000 yards on a team that went
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: 16-0 and won the national championship. You watch Wayne Knight,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: he's scoring like two touchdowns a game for UCLA. So
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: like that ability... I'm missing a ton of other guys too.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Was Surratt? I think Surratt came with him, right? Because
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: Cooper was already there. It's just going to be really hard.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, typically at a school like JMU, Fresno State,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Boise State, if the guy gets any momentum in recruiting,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: it's going to be very, very difficult. if the Big Ten,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: the SEC, some of the teams in the Big 12
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: or the ACC get interested in that player? Like for JMU, if,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: not even Miami, but like what if Virginia gets interested?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: What if NC State gets interested? You know, what if
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: North Carolina post-Bill gets interested? Pitt, like what are you
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: going to do? Like it's very, very hard. And eventually
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: once that guy becomes a player, those guys get interested.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: And I'm not even talking about the cream of the crop, right?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: So it's not really sustainable. It really isn't. It's why,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: you know, I think you've seen so many quote-unquote non-powerful
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: teams when these coaches leave. Like, think about how good
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: you have to be for a coach to get hired
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: at Florida, for a coach to get hired at Indiana
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: and UCLA, I would say, like, those programs at the
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: time when Cignetti and Chesney took over them, bringing the
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: guys from JMU, like you're going to want some of
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: your guys, your expectation is to not try to win
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: 11 games year one, even though Cignetti did. And Chesney
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: looks like, I would say UCLA probably wins eight this year.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: When you go to some of these sec schools and
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: he's bringing dudes from Tulane with them, or he's bringing
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: dudes from South Florida with them to Auburn, like, You
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: think that guy can play in the SEC and help
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: you try to win nine, ten games? Now, I'm not
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: saying you will. Auburn might end up winning six, but
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: that was your mindset. And it shows you. I mean,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: all these Power Forward programs are rating these little schools,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: which to me kind of sucks, but it is what
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: it is. I viewed Herbert closer to eight to ten.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: range for quarterbacks rather than top five. So he's always be, quote,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: slightly overrated to me, but he's still a good quarterback.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: My question, for people like you who believe in him,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: what would you need to see to make you say
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: he's not the guy I thought he was? Is it
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: a high interception season, a season from hell like it
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: looks like they're heading toward, another awful playoff loss? What
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: would personally change your mind? Or does he have so
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: much talent, you'll always be a believer? I think when
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of talent and things don't go well.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: Let's use Stafford as an example. Why did people believe
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: in Stafford even though the majority of his whatever 12,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: 13 years in Detroit did not go that well? He
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: had years where he threw a bunch of picks, where
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: they lost a ton of games. Yet when he became
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: available in his early 30s, not like 25, like what
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: was Stafford at the time when they got him? 33, 34?
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: Because what is he now, 39? So they got him
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: in 21? Where both Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan were like,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: we'll give you two picks and a quarterback and throw
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: in more. Because of talent. And Stafford never won a
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: playoff game. Now, I think if I remember correctly, Stafford
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: played better. Like Herbert's been really, really bad. I would
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: say when you watch Justin Herbert play in the playoffs,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: he definitely has looked like a different guy. Last year,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: he breaks his arm. Their team is in shambles and
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: he's like willing them in games. So what did Stafford
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: bring to the table? Like he had never won, but
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: like no one questioned his toughness. And I would say
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Stafford is definitely a little more fiery. Like there is
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: more intangible vocal leadership. You know, Justin got asked about
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: that and he didn't love it. But, like, no one
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: ever asked Matt Stafford, like, are you a vocal leader? So,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of different factors. You know,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: it's like, if Lamar has a bad season or he's, like,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: really talented players, like, the league, like, the market value
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: is determined by other teams. So whether the fans don't
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: like him or like him, like, well, how many teams
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: would want him right now? The answer would be a lot.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: The answer would be a ton. So we got a
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: ways to go before I'm like, I'll tell you guys
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: I'm out on J.J. McCarthy, Anthony Richardson. Even Kyler Murray,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: not a huge fan. I can see him rattling off
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: some wins. Hell, I was at Carson Wentz like five
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: years ago. He's still around, functioning. Mariota would be a
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: guy I'm out on. I don't get out on very
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: many starting quarterbacks. Dak's had some rough season. I never
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: got out on Dak. I'm not out on Baker because
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: he's playing like shit. For you to be out-out, it's
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: got to be a lot. There's no top 15-ish quarterback
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: I'm out on. It's just not possible, right? So I
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: guess that would be my take. Adios. The Volume.