Are any of the QBs on Netflix Quarterbacks winning you over?

Summary

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Payne & Pendergast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Are any of the QBs on Netflix Quarterbacks winning you over?
Date: July 20, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne, Sean Pendergast
Theme: Breaking down the new season of Netflix’s “Quarterback” series—conversations around quarterback personas, likeability, and growth; reactions to each QB featured.

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Episode Overview

This episode finds Sean Pendergast and Seth Payne diving into Season 2 of Netflix’s “Quarterback” docuseries. The main thread: Which NFL and college quarterbacks have improved (or tanked) their likeability in the public’s eye thanks to their portrayal? With playful banter and direct opinions, the hosts give “stock up” or “stock down” verdicts for each featured QB, sharing moments from the show that shaped their opinions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. General Impressions of the Series

• Perfect Off-Season Content:
  Sean sets the stage:

  “I like it. Yeah, it's…well, it's perfect for this time of year. You’re waiting for training camp to begin and you also get to know these quarterbacks, some of whom you used to despise…” (01:47)

• The show offers more “overcoming adversity” stories, making the QBs relatable—unlike the previous Mahomes-centric season.

2. Patrick Mahomes: Too Perfect, Too Egotistical?

• Hosts felt last year’s Mahomes focus was “annoying” because of constant greatness.

  “It was just this is how awesome it is to be Patrick Mahomes… I was disgusted with him. He came off sou[?] way more egotistical than I thought he would be.” (02:26)

• Mahomes’ self-aware commentary after a bad game didn’t land:

  “[Mahomes:] ‘I mean, I just… Like, it was weird. I don’t make plays like that. That's not me.’ Just celebrate, bro. People will respect you.” (02:43)

3. Marcus Mariota: Stock Down

• Sean is clear:

  “Marcus Mariota. I'm just out on from the season he was on…because he quit on his team.” (02:51)

• General sentiment: the “sad” energy and quitting make him less likeable.

4. Quarterbacks Who Moved Up in Likeability

• Joe Burrow & Kirk Cousins: Both hosts agreed—stock up after watching.
• Jared Goff:

  “I was not a big Jared Goff fan. I like him. I like his wife, too. She's a lot of fun.” (03:08)

• Baker Mayfield: Big Winner
  Sean admits:

  “I am a strong trend up on Baker Mayfield after this. I really like Baker Mayfield a lot.” (03:39)

On Baker’s Growth:

• Seth’s perspective:

  “I could see where I might not like Baker when he was 21 years old… I feel like that's a guy that's got a little bit of natural jerk in him that has probably kind of learned when to turn it on and off.” (03:53)

• Baker’s humility:

  “He's been served some humble pie in his career, no doubt.” (04:00)

• Anecdote about Baker’s wife discovering his infamous moments via Google—Sean says:

  “Be careful when you tell somebody to Google you… the first thing that comes up is him getting arrested in Arkansas and what a jerk he is on the field.” (04:36)

Seth doubles down:

“See, I've always loved Baker… I loved him from his time in college, even when he went through the shenanigans of the arrest... I love him even more now.” (04:03/04:14)

5. Jaden Daniels: Neutral, Maybe Boring

• No strong reaction:
  Sean: “I've never had strong feelings one way or the other on Jaden Daniels... there's been nothing so far in this with Jaden Daniels in quarterback.” (05:43)
• Playful “boomer” critique of Daniels’ draft-day fashion:

  “I don’t want my quarterbacks to be a wear-shades-indoors guy like Jaden Daniels.” (05:47)

• Seth: “Extremely boomer take.” (06:04)
• Over all:

  “He's kind of boring.” (06:26)

6. Cam Ward: Big Positive Impressions

• Sean:

  “Strong trend up on Cam Ward. If I were a Titans fan, I would be really in on Cam Ward.” (08:42)

• Cites Ward’s honesty, family stories (the scrapbook with his first speeding ticket), and seriousness.
• Cam’s “old school” notebook and passionate approach admired:

  “He uses a notebook. He uses an old school notebook, Seth, just like I do to write.” (09:13)

Favorite Moment:

• Seth:

  “My favorite part of the entire series so far with Cam Ward is when he was at that little league event where…he held the nerve back of going full Billy Madison on the kids.” (09:43)

• Hyper-competitiveness and authenticity praised.

7. Joe Flacco: Subtle Appreciation

• Sean:

  “Slight trend up… already liked Flacco to begin with. I like Flacco so much more in this second phase of his career…” (10:45)

• Loved the Corvette MVP trophy anecdote:

  “He never drives it… it's just covered in dust right now.” (11:09)

• Flacco’s old-school advice (“quarterbacks shouldn’t wear a visor”) got a playful media cycle:

  “He’s telling Shador Sanders that quarterbacks shouldn’t wear a visor…And then Shador wasn’t having it. I’m guessing that was like a full three hours of content on Cleveland sports radio.” (11:29)

8. Circle Back to the Astros/Texans (Teaser)

• The crew pivots, promising affirmations for the Astros and a look at team management (12:10), but the core QB discussion ends here.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mahomes’ Confidence:
  “Just celebrate, bro. People will respect you.” – Sports Analyst (02:47)
• On Baker Mayfield’s Growth:
  “He's been served some humble pie in his career, no doubt.” – Cole (04:00)
• A Baker Mayfield Life Lesson:
  “Be careful when you tell somebody to Google you… the first thing that comes up is him getting arrested…” – Cole (04:36)
• On Cam Ward’s Personality:
  “My favorite part of the entire series so far with Cam Ward is when he was at that little league event where he…held the nerve back of going full Billy Madison on the kids.” – Seth (09:43)
• On Quarterback Fashion:
  “I don’t want my quarterbacks to be a wear-shades-indoors guy like Jaden Daniels.” – Cole (05:47)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Series Impressions & Mahomes Discussion: 01:32–02:51
• Mariota & Initial “Stock Up”/“Down” Takes: 02:51–03:23
• Baker Mayfield Deep Dive: 03:39–05:14
• Jaden Daniels Segment: 05:31–06:26
• Cam Ward Analysis: 08:42–10:09
• Joe Flacco Insights: 10:45–11:52

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Tone & Style

• Direct, conversational, playful
• Heavy on personal anecdotes and relatable opinions
• No-nonsense, “guy talk” tone with light teasing between hosts

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Summary: Who Won Us Over?

• Biggest “Stock Up” QBs: Baker Mayfield, Cam Ward, Joe Flacco, Jared Goff
• Still Neutral: Jaden Daniels
• Stock Down: Marcus Mariota, and lingering gripes about Patrick Mahomes’ portrayal

The episode provides a window into how sports docuseries—especially ones like “Quarterback”—can reframe player reputations, humanize stars, and sometimes make you root for the people you never expected.

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Transcript

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[Seth]

I remember telling my boss it'll be

[Cole]

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[Sports Analyst]

West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln

[Cole]

of Sugar Land Studios. Here's Payne and Pendergast. I don't listen around the dial enough to know how big a fan other shows are of the show. The Netflix quarterback documentary. You and I both like it.

[Sports Analyst]

I like it. Yeah, it's. Well, it's perfect for this time of year.

[Cole]

It is.

[Sports Analyst]

It's. There's. You're waiting for training camp to begin and you also get to know some of these quarterbacks, some of whom you used to despise, some of the you that you learned to despise.

[Cole]

Yeah, and I like this. This show. It's seven episodes, I'm three episodes in. And all we're going to do here is just that we stock up or stock down on liking these guys. Yeah, we'll do that in a second. But I like that these are all stories of guys having to overcome something. The Mahomes season was annoying because all it was was just this is how awesome it is to be Patrick Mahomes Yeah. Who waltzes to a Super bowl championship at the end.

[Sports Analyst]

We were. I was disgusted with him. He got. I thought he came off sou. Way more egotistical than I thought he would be. I think he was like, I'm here. That's what I do. And remember after that one game, he was talking to his friends, and he'd had a rough start to the game, and he was saying something along the lines of, like. I mean, I just. Like, it was weird. I don't make plays like that. That's not me.

[Cole]

Yep.

[Sports Analyst]

Just celebrate, bro. Bro. People. People will respect you.

[Cole]

Yeah. Yeah, he annoyed me. Marcus Mariota. I'm just out on from the season. He was on. Yeah. Because he quit on his team.

[Sports Analyst]

Right, right, right. He was sad.

[Cole]

He was sad.

[Sports Analyst]

The quarterbacks getting sad annoy the.

[Cole]

The other ones I've all come away liking more than I did before I started watching the show. Joe Burrow. I like him more. After quarterback Kirk Cousins, twice. Jared Goff. I came away. I was not a big Jared Goff fan. I like him. I like his wife, too. She's a lot of fun. As far as these. And again, I'm only three episodes in. Cole, you started in on it this weekend. How far in did you get?

[Seth]

I am now on episode four.

[Cole]

Okay. Same here. So I'm heading into four. I know you've watched a few of the episodes, at least. Seth. This is where I am. I'm curious if you guys are the same. Am I? Stock up. Stock down. Just in terms of liking guys, I am a strong trend up on Baker Mayfield after this.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Cole]

I really like Baker Mayfield a lot.

[Sports Analyst]

I wonder if it was Baker Mayfield

[Cole]

and I've not liked him before.

[Sports Analyst]

The sense I get with Baker is that I think he's grown and matured. Probably like anybody does.

[Seth]

Sure.

[Sports Analyst]

I could see where I might not like Baker when he was 21 years old.

[Cole]

I can see.

[Sports Analyst]

I feel like that's a guy that's got a little bit of natural jerk in him that has probably kind of learned when to turn it on and when to turn it off.

[Cole]

He's been served some humble pie.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Cole]

In his career, no doubt.

[Seth]

See, I've always loved Baker.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Seth]

I loved him from his time in college, even when he went through the shenanigans of the arrest. You know, him on the sidelines of the Kansas game, playing the flag at all.

[Cole]

Do you love him even more now?

[Seth]

I love him even more.

[Sports Analyst]

I've always respected that. He gave us an entertaining arrest video.

[Seth]

Oh, it's Dude.

[Cole]

Yeah, they replayed that again. I didn't realize he hit that wall so hard when they tacked.

[Sports Analyst]

That's why he screamed like a girl.

[Cole]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, here's the lesson by that.

[Sports Analyst]

I'm not saying that is like, you know, a slight towards women. I'm saying it was a very high pitched squeal.

[Cole]

He squealed his pig sounding.

[Seth]

Let's go with that. There.

[Cole]

There's a. There's a lot about Baker that. That I would love to dig into. I won't hear because I want to get to the other quarterbacks. Let me just say one thing. He apparently, the woman he ended up marrying, his current wife, he had a friend that was trying to almost force feed her to him for years. For years. And then finally she's like, all right, Baker's friend said, just Google him, okay? He's a quarterback in Oklahoma. The lesson here is be careful when you tell somebody to google you or somebody else, because she's like, the first thing that comes up is him getting arrested in Arkansas and what a jerk he is on the field.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. Like playing flags and whatnot. Yeah, yeah.

[Cole]

Making obscene gestures and things.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. But then that's good because it presents the bad boy image. So she's going to be intrigued. But also like, he's not. When she meets him in person. Oh, he's actually.

[Cole]

He's interested in me.

[Sports Analyst]

Oh, he's Danny Zuko there. It's the Danny Zuko fantasy Kids.

[Cole]

Greece was this movie. Jaden Daniels trending about the same for me with quarterback.

[Sports Analyst]

I already like Jaden Daniels. Oh, oh, you're saying trending the same higher or lower?

[Cole]

I've never had strong feelings one way or the other on Jaden Daniels. I haven't hated him, I haven't liked him. There's not been anything in this, which, as you know, I'm easily sold to. Yeah, there's been nothing so far in this with Jaden Daniels in quarterback. I. I'll give you my boomer take. I don't want my quarterbacks to be aware. Shades indoors guy like Jaden Daniels was at the draft.

[Seth]

Extremely boomer take.

[Cole]

Yeah, extremely. Yeah, Yeah. I don't like that.

[Seth]

So, like, have you guys ever heard of the thing aura farming before?

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Okay, so like the Odyssey's out right now and there's like this one scene with like Agamemnon the character, and. And like the entire thing about him. He's only in it for like two minutes. Yeah, but he's aura farming, just like his Persona.

[Cole]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth]

I don't get that with Jaden Daniel.

[Cole]

Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. He's kind of boring.

[Seth]

Very boring.

[Cole]

He's kind of boring.

[Sports Analyst]

So the Odyssey, the movie is out.

[Seth]

Yeah.

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I remember telling my boss, it'll be

[Cole]

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[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Seth]

I. I think I'm actually going.

[Cole]

USC got clowned this weekend, Seth. The football program. Oh, it's great because USC put up a, you know, AI generated Odyssey movie poster.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Cole]

And Odyssey is about the. The Trojans, Trojans getting destroyed. They put up an Odyssey movie poster and USC says our odyssey begins on August 29th.

[Seth]

Do you want to.

[Sports Analyst]

Agamemnon. Agamemnon. I'm looking at him. He's basically Batman.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Huh?

[Sports Analyst]

That's how they've got him. Kind of look like Batman.

[Seth]

Like him now in a Bruce Wayne outfit, like the Batman character.

[Sports Analyst]

Okay.

[Seth]

What's so funny about that, though, is Troy, the University of Troy, who's also the Trojans, Quote, tweet, it and said, guys.

[Cole]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Why is this still up?

[Cole]

Yeah, they left it up.

[Seth]

They left it up.

[Cole]

Idiots. All right, two last two quarterbacks. Cam Ward. Strong trend up on Cam Ward. I would really, if I were a Titans fan, I would be really in on Cam Ward.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Cole]

I like Cam Ward's mom telling the story of him getting his first speeding ticket. I like that they kept the speeding tickets and put it in his scrapbook. I. I like that Cam Ward curses a lot. He's very serious. I like the Cam Ward uses a notebook. He uses an old school notebook, Seth. Just like I do to write.

[Sports Analyst]

Those guys all do, though, don't they? That was the only one I've seen doing it.

[Cole]

Is Cam.

[Sports Analyst]

I already like Cam Ward because it just. Every story you hear about him in the draft process and then since he's been in the NFL is that classic. Everything you want to hear doesn't mean he's going to be awesome. But first guy in, last guy out, very conscientious. After they had a victory last year, he basically got up and. And acted like, no, we got to be better than this. Yeah, he feels like he's got the appropriate amount of grumpiness.

[Cole]

Yeah, I like Cam Ward a lot. Yeah, I like him a lot.

[Seth]

No speak speaks. Speaks from the truth. Does not hide any emotions in there. My favorite part of the entire series so far with Cam Ward is when he was at that little League event where he's doing dodgeball and he held the. He held the nerve back of going full Billy Madison on the kids.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, that's the hyper competitiveness.

[Cole]

Even when they interviewed him afterwards, I really disgusted with the kids.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, hyper. Like an irrational hyper competitiveness about it.

[Cole]

I really, like.

[Sports Analyst]

I missed the part with the speeding ticket. What was that?

[Cole]

So, so they, you know, they sat with his parents for a few vignettes and they have a scrapbook of all, like his articles from the big games he had and things like that. One of the things in his scrapbook was the first speeding ticket he ever had.

[Sports Analyst]

But what's the story behind it that they.

[Cole]

He. He kept it under wraps for a while, and then eventually he had to go to court for it and they

[Sports Analyst]

found out about it. His parents didn't know, but what was

[Seth]

so funny about that story is the next door neighbor was the judge clerk, and she could have easily gotten him out of it if he just would have knocked on the door.

[Sports Analyst]

Oh. Or even just. Was he like not. Was he not answering it or like paying it or anything? No, no, no.

[Cole]

He didn't tell his parents. I just thought it was funny that

[Sports Analyst]

his mom are gonna find out when their ins.

[Cole]

The only reason I have it in here. I thought it was hilarious. His mom kept it in a scrapbook. I thought that was really funny. Last one. Joe Flacco. Slight trend up. I already liked Flacco to begin with. This. I like Flacco so much more in this second phase of his career than I did when I thought he was just really overpaid in Baltimore for three weeks of good football in 2012.

[Sports Analyst]

I liked it. Go ahead.

[Cole]

I was just going to say him keeping the Corvette that he won for MVP of the super bowl in his garage. Like it's some trophy or lamp that he's putting in a storage unit. It's just covered in dust right now.

[Seth]

Well, he compared it to a trophy.

[Cole]

Yeah. He never drives it. It's just. He's like, yeah, I won this for being. It's in his garage.

[Sports Analyst]

Feel weird to get rid of it.

[Seth]

I drove.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, someday.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Cole]

Like, this is all I got.

[Sports Analyst]

I liked him. I'm guessing. Did you hear Cleveland radio talk about this at all? He's telling Shador Sanders that quarterbacks shouldn't wear a visor. Yeah, that, that, that. I totally agree with the Virgin. Looks cool and everything, but, like, it screws up your vision and all that. And. And then Shador wasn't having it. I'm guessing that that was like a full three hours of content on Cleveland sports radio.

[Cole]

Yeah, well, Cleveland actually showed up in court. Ken Carmen and Anthony Liman, good morning show. Popped up in quarterback. That's why we need CJ to be part of this next year, so you, you and I can pop up in this thing.

[Sports Analyst]

I don't want CJ to be a part of this.

[Seth]

I want to say I tried to differ.

[Cole]

All right, coming up next, we'll circle back to the Astros. The lost weekend that was. Where are we at on management right now with the Astros? Seth has some affirmations.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, we need to get this team right.

[Cole]

Okay.

[Sports Analyst]

We're going to have some cheesy new age affirmations for some of these Astros. We're going to get them right. We're going to get their confidence back.

[Cole]

We're going to do that. We'll do it. Coming up next.

[Sports Analyst]

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[Cole]

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[Cole]

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[Cole]

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[Cole]

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