← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - Belichick’s UNC Experiment Could Get WORSE, Russell Wilson Considering TV, Jaguars DEFEND Travis Hunter + NFL Offseason Mailbag
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John Middlekauff
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John Middlekauff
What is going on everybody? John Middelkopf 3&out podcast how are we doing my people? Hopefully everyone's doing well out there in the real world. Today we got to talk about Belichick because I I saw a quote from his former quarterback at North Carolina and I don't know, I this thing could get worse. Russell Wilson's gonna do tv, it feels like, and potentially not go to the Jets. James Gladstone said that Travis Hunter is still going to be a two way player. We'll do some mailbag questions at John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in my dms. I also saw something with the NBA playoff games the way NBC has been kind of overlapping their games. Something the NFL has got to be careful with when they're going to try to get the most money possible in these upcoming television contracts. So we got a lot going on and you guys know the drill. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and out if you ever want to watch the show just on Netflix. If you go to The Middle Cough 3 and out podcast, you hit alert. You'll never miss an episode. Appreciate everyone that watches and listens. You guys are my favorite people in the world, beside my family, and then you're right behind them. But let's talk some football. Let's just start with Bill Belichick, who, to put it bluntly, was a disaster last year at North Carolina and his former quarterback, who, in fairness, when I watched North Carolina play did not look like a good player, did just transfer to Wake Forest. Who Jake Dicker, the former Washington State head coach, went to Wake Forest last year, was on this podcast before the season started, went nine and four, which at Wake Forest is pretty incredible. If you go 9 and 4 every year, you're going to get extensions. But Gio transferred to the Demon Deacons, and he had this to say about Bill Belichick and the North Carolina football program. Back at the other school, it felt like there was no air here. It's fun again. They're moving us in the right direction, energized, and guys are enjoying football. It's like fresh air. I'd never had to respond to tough situations like that on that loud of a scale, discussing the differences between the two programs. It was more like work. After that first game, it felt like getting through the day. You don't want to live like that, where you're up at night thinking about the next day, giving an example of what it was like playing for Bill. You were ridiculed if you didn't do exactly what what he told you to do. You could be at the line, see the play that was about to get blown up, but if you try to call it off or make an audible, you were ridiculed. Now, let me say this. I don't think good players in college, good. I. I don't think most humans worth their salt. And I'm speaking for men. If you are an aspirational, ambitious person at whatever you're doing, specifically football, mind getting coached hard? There are viral videos every single year from the University of Georgia with Kirby Smart on the loudspeaker. They're. They're practice fields. I've never been there, but are clearly on campus. And there's black Tarp on the fence so you can't see in. But they're practicing right behind the student. You know, students walk by and you can hear Kirby just going nuts. MF and players, MF and coaches. Signetti Sabin was legendary for these moments in practice. If you YouTube, there's a great one. Is it Eddie Jackson? He is just writing Eddie Jackson played in the league and made a bunch of money. That's just that, that's the culture of football. So no one is afraid or no one is unaccustomed to getting yelled at or even uncomfortable with that. The problem is, let's use Kirby Smart for an example because Bill's big thing was and maybe convinced me a little bit. College football is a lot like the NFL now. It's just full of transactions and paying players. It's exactly what we did in the NFL. Well, there's one major difference. You're coaching 18, 19 and 20 year olds. And the wiring of a 28, 30, 35 year old is a lot different than an 18 and 19 year old kid who just moved out of his parents home who have, who's never cooked dinner for himself. You know what? So the people that you are around and are coaching from intellectual standpoint, from a brain development standpoint, from a maturity standpoint, and definitely from a football IQ standpoint, is much different. Most guys aren't Caleb Downs. They just show up at 18 years old and know everything is going on. There's a big reason they like Ty Simpson coaches. Kit, most guys on your football team in Division 1 aren't coaches, kids, you know, So I, I think Bill came into this thinking I could just operate exactly like I've operated. Well, why do you think that is? I don't know about you, but most guys in their 70s I've met in my life aren't big on change. And then if you factor in, oh, they're a multi millionaire and they're extremely accomplished at their field, do you think they're going to be open to making drastic changes to their style? Warren Buffett didn't change Berkshire Berkshire's investment strategy in his 70s to all of a sudden invest in startups. He stayed with exactly what he'd been doing for the previous decades. That was their strategy to be successful and it had always worked well. Bill Belichick goes, I've been a part of six super bowl champions as a head coach. I was part of two as an assistant coach. Uh, I, I've been to countless other Super Bowls and lost. I think my way works. And the Reality of the Patriot Way is it was defined by one person. I've never thought that Tom or Bill the the credit chart. But the reality is they were both interconnected because Tom allowed Bill to write him like he was an undrafted free agent trying to make the practice squad, which is not normal. It doesn't mean that Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Donald don't get coached, but they don't get screamed at relentlessly, clearly, like the way Tom was treated. Because Tom was treated to set the tone for the rest of the team. And he bought in. He took it on the chin until he couldn't take it anymore. And it worked. Well, that's not college. I remember at Fresno State during training camp, we would rent out a water park. Yeah, a water park that had water slides. We would cancel practice like a week before the season and grab a bunch of tri tip sandwiches and Gatorade and spend hours there. And most of the dudes on the team had the time of their life. You know why? Because they're 19 years old and if you did that in the NFL, they'd be like, can I just go home to see my wife? Can I just go home to see my 4 year old? College football is a different beast. Also, when you factor in none of these guys are under long term contracts. So when you sign a free agent or you draft a player, he can't just pick up and leave at the end of the season. Because I think it's safe to say there are players for the Patriots who, if they weren't under contract, would have left before their contract ended or use that as leverage to get more money. I was thinking about Kirby Smart, though. Back to him screaming at people is, I've always been a believer that in college football where you're from matters because the culture and the wiring of the people that you need to fund your program. And if you're in a big school, the area in which you recruit from needs to resonate. It's why Pete Carroll from the west coast, who went to college on the West Coast, I think he had a lot of success at USC because I think culturally he fit right in. Jeff Tedford, who coached at Oregon, played at Fresno State, crushed at the University of Berkeley. Why west coast guy understands the people. Urban Meyer's somewhat of an outlier, right? He's not from Florida, he's not from the south, went to Florida and had success. But I would say typically the Dabos, the, the Kirbys, the Jimbos, and obviously the Nick Saban. When you look at guys who have won national championships are from the general area, give or take a state, and understand the wiring of the people that surround that program. Kirby Smart isn't part of the culture in the South. He is the culture. Born in Alabama, went to Georgia, coached at Bama, now won at Georgia. He's won six national championships as an assistant and a head coach since 2010. I didn't look it up, but I would guess eight SEC championships. He's probably been to 10 just as an assistant or a head coach. So when he looks at the guy and he's screaming at him on the practice field, they know this. Not only does he know how to win in the sec, he knows how to win the national championship. So when Bill is screaming at these guys who are clearly not as talented because his roster is not Miami, it is not Ohio State, it is not Oregon, he doesn't have that level of talent in college football. Unlike the pros where the margin of error isn't that big, the majority of the games are one score going into the fourth quarter. A lot of the time are defined by the coaches. The players got to make plays, but it's the play calls. It's the X's and the O's. Where in college we typically break down the X's and the O's more in the playoffs. When it's Miami versus Indiana, when it's Indiana against Ohio State. Right. When it's Oregon against Texas Tech, then the play calls matter. But when Oregon is playing Rutgers or Ohio State is playing Maryland or Bama is playing Mississippi State, it typically doesn't matter as much. Why? Because the Jimmy's and the Joes are so much better. The play calls don't mean so Bill's great advantage is his mind is his schematics. But if he doesn't have the players, it doesn't matter. And if he can't relate to younger people, he's not from the south, he's not from the North Carolina area, he's from the Northeast. He's a grumpier individual who only knows one way to coach and that's to ride guys till the wheels fall off. And at New England, they usually figured it out. They led by Tom Brady and other good players. It worked. It's not going to work in college because it doesn't work in college. And if you are going to ride guys like Bill does, because Kirby rides guys, Saban road guys, Signetti's riding guys, you can coach guys hard. Urban clearly did. You better not only have the Best players. But they better know. I know he knows what he's doing. Look at all the guys he's had drafted. Because at the end of the day, Bill telling some guy in 2005 I won the super bowl with Mike Vrabel as my starting lineback. What I, I was born in 2005. Hell, 2015 we made another. I was 10 years old. So times do kind of matter. We love talking about Michael Jordan. There's a large percentage of humans on this earth that not only never saw Michael Jordan play, like don't know much about him at all. I don't mean like they've probably heard the name the shoe brand. It was like John Madden. When I grew up, I didn't know John Madden coach. I just knew him as a TV personality. So Bill screaming at guys and doing what he does on guys, making it really difficult, making them know a million things. One, that doesn't really work in college, especially when you don't have the best players. And two, like you got to lighten up a little bit, you know. And this is like part I would imagine if you went to Ohio. Nick Saban did movie night before every game. I'm pretty sure his whole career at Alabama. I don't know if everyone, they watched a movie as a team. Now that's not exactly going to the water park, but it's, it's like you're dealing with kids. So this Belichick experiment and it's not even about the messenger, it's just, yeah, did you think he was going to go there and be a different human being? Especially if things weren't going right? Let's face it, if Bill Belichick was a pitcher who once threw 99 miles an hour, he's currently throwing about 82. And his stuff hasn't worked now for a while. And one thing proved, once his coaching staff kind of fell apart and Josh left him, his offense was a nightmare. I mean this year he hired Bobby Petrino who knows what he's doing but is also not Mr. Touchy Feely. So I'm not sure in their program they have a lot of people smiling. One thing that jumps out to me constantly about seeing Matt Patricia in interviews at Ohio State, any clips that come out of Ohio State seems like he's in a great frame of mind now. I would be too if I knew that every single year I'm going to have three or four first round picks and countless second and third first round picks on my defense. But he realizes, like being a dick and being an a Hole, which he clearly was when he was in Detroit. That made everyone want to jump ship is not going to work here. We will fail if I act like this. And it feels like he dramatically changed. You know, Josh McDaniels had Dan Pompeii write this long article after a couple years after the Indianapolis thing, when it was clear he was going to be willing to take another head coaching job. And it was about how he journaled, you know, looking in the mirror, how he had to change and then he got another shot of the Raiders and he was exactly the same. A lot of humans do not change as we age and I would imagine it is much more difficult when you're wired to do things a specific way and you naturally have some asshole dick in you to just be a more smiley guy. That's not how it works. And if you have the right players, if you have, if you're in the right situation, it's not going to matter, right? But if I put you with a team that is not nearly as good as it's going to blow up in your face. So this Belichick, North Carolina thing I think could be even worse this year. One thing I've never understood is TV executives when it comes to hiring people in sports, they love hiring just the most famous player, which I get. TV's different than the medium I'm in, right? I'm, I, I, by no means I'm like some great looking guy that you would see on some like love series on one of these streamings on Netflix, right? That's, I'm not some Hollywood actor here. So I, I get part of TV is to have good looking people involved. But part of sports especially, you know, when it comes to football, like I want to hear your thoughts on what's going on. It's why like I respect J.J. watt a lot of, but when he comes out and says like part I, I told these guys, like, I'm gonna call games, I'm never gonna be the guy criticizing players. It's like, well, your job is kind of call the game. You don't just have to criticize guys to, you know, be Skip Bayless. But if stuff is going wrong, coach or player, like there's millions of people sitting on their couch. Football's the biggest sport in America by a mile. We all kind of know what's going on. Like, I don't need the COVID 2 broken down on a down in, down out basis. I kind of just want to hear like that was crazy and be willing to say it when it comes to something that we're all thinking. And that's why I think Troy Aikman is really kind of reestablished himself because he can just be critical. Why? Because it's football. That's part of the, that's part of the job. And Russell Wilson was quoted recently, the jets made him an offer to be one of their quarterbacks. I think to be their backup quarterback. Which is kind of ironic because Geno Smith once backed up Russell Wilson and now Russell Wilson is a backup Geno Smith, which would just be a disaster waiting to happen. Not because like something personal between the two, but just those two guys are your quarterback room, which might be what they're looking for. So it leads them to a top quarterback in this draft. As long as some of these quarterbacks in this draft go on to play really well, which you never know on a yearly basis. But Russell Wilson said the jets made me an offer, but I'm weighing options between television and the New York jets, which I don't blame him. Like, wait, I could make millions of dollars doing TV or play for the Jets. I've already accomplished everything. My career is going the wrong way. Wouldn't blame him at all doing tv. But putting Russell Wilson in a suit, which I get it, he's a good looking dude. Like you just put him on tv, he's gonna look. He looks the part. But what about the stuff coming out of his mouth? Because if you remove the comments that the back and forth he had with Sean Payton a couple years ago, which I would venture to say any human being, whether you're confrontational or non confrontational, whether you're a big talker or not a big talker, if someone is specifically talking about you, the easiest thing in life is to just defend yourself. So I don't even count that. Defending yourself is not like taking a hardcore standard. But other than that, Russell Wilson has said the most bland, generic comments over the course of his career with a microphone in front of him. Is anyone shocked that Charles Barkley became the biggest television personality in the history of basketball? Of course not. He was like that as a player. Shannon Sharpe's a big great example. Is, is it crazy that Shannon's got big opinions and willing to say whatever he, he was like that when he played for the Denver Broncos. Now not everyone is a crazy personality. Like I. The Tom Brady move. I, I think it's fair to say, one, he is so famous and two, there were business connections there that Fox made a bold move and he had to dramatically improve. And he's never Going to be a guy that says crazy stuff. He's going to tend to lean on pretty corporate, which I, I don't love. Like, I wish Tom would talk like he did in the locker room, but because I know Tom talks like that. The one thing with Russell Wilson, everyone that plays, that's just how he is. He's like that all the time. Never gives you anything. Even Marshawn Lynch, I saw it said on his podcast like a year ago that like he wanted to come to his birthday party. And Russell's like, hit my people. He's like, russell, I'm your teammate. I have your number. Can I just, can I just text you? And I, I just, I, I don't get it. You know, this is when I was a kid. Joe Montana, Emmett Smith, some of these guys, there's like these, yeah, they're really famous. They, they're not good on television. That's not going to be their skill set. It's like we got Russell Wilson on a desk to say nothing. Like, I, I just, I would much rather have a way lesser known player who doesn't give a shit and who's just going to let it rip. You know, people get on the Kelsey's for being overexposed. At least they're willing to talk. At least they're willing to say some stuff. That's all I want. Just be willing to say. But now all these guys who are borderline just corporations are never willing to ruin anything, any business deal they have because they're just like one corporate entity as a human being. I think Russell Wilson on television would be a nightmare. I remember when, when Drew Brees first got hired, I'm like, drew, I get it. You're a really famous player. You're gonna go to the hall of Fame one day. You're putting me to sleep here. And I thought when he came back, he was much more aggressive and just willing to kind of let it fly a little bit. You're no longer as a player, you really have one goal, right? To do everything humanly possible to win. Whether that's with your coaches, your teammates, you're just singular focused. When you're on television, it's, we're paying the bills, the consumer, you know, like entertain us. And you know, the game's naturally going to entertain us. But if I'm watching a studio show, I don't think he's that great on television. I think, you know, know relative to hype. But I understand hiring Rex Ryan to put on television or Randy Moss, because historically those guys didn't give a bleep. They, they would say whatever, whenever. Then sometimes you watch them. It's like, God, I wish he'd let it rip a little more. But I, I totally understand the hiring of those human beings. I, I, if this guy's hired to do a CBS crew, I, I just, or, you know, studio show, it's just, it's I, I just, I, I don't relate to these C suite sweet executives. It's like we don't see the same thing in talent. 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John Middlekauff
The other thing is James Gladstone. There's been conflicting reports because there was a report out before the draft. I think we talked about it on the show that Travis Hunter was just going to focus on corner. Then I think Liam Cohen a couple weeks ago kind of pushed back against that and Gladstone came out and said that is not true. He's going to play both ways. He's just primarily going to focus on corner. Which I think they're setting themselves up because they don't want Travis to not be fully invested. And we're still going to get some wide receiver packages because when you draft a guy two overall and you give up a first round pick, you're expecting them to be Ohtani. The problem is if Ohtani was a football player, he would essentially be Justin Jefferson mixed with Patrick certain. If he was Travis Hunter he would be the most talented guy at both positions. That's not the case with Travis. And as Harbaugh said last year, there are not enough this gym John Harbaugh, not enough hours in the day to do this. Because of course they're not. It's too difficult. And if you're going to play full time corner in the NFL every single week, you're going to be going up against sweet dudes. Just think about his own division. Think about Travis Hunter. If he's just their starting corner. Well, week one you're playing the Colts well. They just gave Alec Pierce, well they gave him $100 million. Most people don't even view him as like some elite player. The Titans, they just drafted CARNELL TATE, Number 4 Overall, we don't like, I would imagine it's going to be decent. The Houston Texans, oh, they got this guy named Nico Collins. He's built like an NBA player. Good luck. I'm not even counting the Jamar chases and the Zay flowers and the DK Mech. Every single week you're going up against a dude all different shapes and sizes and they all can bowl. So you're also going to try to like learn the offensive install because the best corners, certain Sauce Gardner, you name it, you go around Christian Gonzalez. All they do all week is focus on the offense. The tendencies, the play calls, the individual opponent, the multiple wide receivers that they might see, the quarterbacks tendencies, the play caller's tendencies. That's what they spend their 50, 60, 70 hours just preparing for the game all on and off the field. You're going to try to do both? I, I, I don't think it's possible. And I think the best case scenario, because no one wants to look like an idiot. No one wants to look like I regret making that move. Because the only reason you would trade up for a guy who wasn't an elite, elite prospect at either position is because he can do both things, which most of us I think agree, like that's probably not going to be possible in the NFL is to kind of keep playing this game. If you just make them like a Pro bowl corner, that's a huge win. No one will talk shit about your pick. One thing I've noticed with the NBA is they signed this massive television deal, right, which has been by all accounts a disaster for NBC, who's losing money because they gave billions of dollars and the, the average NBA game, I mean they knew what they were buying, but they just, the price of live sports is really valuable. They wanted in on the product and they obviously paid a lot to control the playoffs. Well, from my recollection and I, I lived doing this job and when I had in my other podcast we did a lot of warriors. Playoff games were always staggered, right? Once you got in the first round you got a lot of games. But once you get to the second and third round, especially the second round, you get two, two, two, two, right? You get two games a night and one game on the east coast would start at 4, 4:30 and the other game would start depending on the time zone, 6:37, 7:30. So one game would end, the other game would start. Obviously, if the early game went to like triple overtime, maybe the other game would have to tip off. But for the most part, one game ends, the other game starts. That's how it's always worked. Well, I've noticed the last couple nights is last night the Pistons Cavaliers started on Peacock and then the Lakers game, which is by far the biggest brand with the Knicks left in the playoffs and something that you would want in a primetime spot. One game started at 4, the other one started at 5:30, like this didn't happen. I don't even blame NBC. I wouldn't want the Laker game starting at 6:30, 7 o'. Clock. If I could play them in a prime time slot so I can get the east coast and the west coast people to watch. I'm doing that as well. But when you sell out for tons of money, you don't have as much juice to dictate what they do. Now the NFL is a little bit more unique, right? The game times, you know, Thursday and Monday now that there's no doubleheaders or standalone games. But clearly they have been not shy about talking about a new television deal and shattering financial records to up the revenue for the league, which is a good thing for everybody. Players benefit, the coaches benefit, Scouts don't really somehow they don't make that much money relative to these, to the other coaches. But financially, if you work your way up, you will benefit as well. And obviously the owners benefit. But if I give you an ungodly amount of money, what if I want to do things a little different from a time slot standpoint to maximize the ratings? And that's where I think the NFL could just, if they're paying attention, have some hardcore stipulations because unlike Adam Silver, if he was going to get that amount of money, which I'll give him credit, no one thought he would get, I definitely think he's going to 3x your media deal. When your TV ratings were down, a lot of props made a lot of people a lot of money. Players are making historic cash, right? Some of these guys are going to be making $70 million a year in a couple years. Unless your name is Wimby, you know, one of the top three or four guys. I, I'd argue you're stealing because you're definitely not generating the eyeballs or generating the revenue for the league. And the, the television partners are losing money, but that's on them. It's not the player's fault. I think that the league's Got to be very careful about signing historic amounts of money. Because if I give you a historic amount of money, like, what are you gonna do? Yell at me, like, take the check and shut up? Like, it's part of the business partnership. I buy it, and then I do what I want with it. So I think it's gonna be very, very fascinating how the future of the league works, because what if TV or the streamers have some different ideas with where they want to play some of the games where we have always been accustomed to. Right. 10am kickoff, a 1pm kickoff, one night game on Thursday, Sunday and Monday. It's definitely something to keep an eye on because it just kind of hit me with the amount of money that's getting thrown around now in the billions upon billions upon billions of dollars that people are uncomfortable paying, but they know they have to pay it because they know these. They need the live rice because that's really the only thing most humans watch. I'm going to do what I need to do on my end to try to, at minimum, break even, let alone attempt to make some money from this. So something to keep an eye on there. I saw Golden Tempo. The horse that came from last place and won the Kentucky Derby is not going to be in the Preakness. So we got horses now. Load managing. Now I get it. I think the Preakness is a shorter track. Not a horse guy, but I know enough about the. You know, the. The Triple Crown kind of sucks. You win the Kentucky Derby and you're not even going to attempt for the Triple Crown. It's like, is the horse hurt? No, just. Just being safe. That sucks. Definitely gonna take away from the buzz for the Preakness if you were watching, too. I turned it on right as they were loading the horses. It's always my favorite part. It's like, there's two horses, there's one that's gonna race, and there's the other one kind of guiding them. And there's always a couple that are just kind of pissed off. One just did, like, a backflip. Luckily, the jockey kind of jumped off, and then they had to yank all the horses out. I mean, I'm sure many of you were watching, but if you weren't, then the vet had to check the horse to make sure it was okay. Then they had to scratch the horse and they had to reload all the horses. Tough sport, you know? Tough sport. A lot of respect for those jockeys. Let's do a couple mailbag questions. You guys know the drill. I need you to hop in the mailbag at John Middlecoff at John Middlekopf. Is the Instagram fire in those DMs? Questions answered here on this little old podcast. We'll start with Matt. Lions fan. We managed to get a new center in free agency, drafted a right tackle and drafted an edge to complement Hutch. We've revamped the O line, arguably the best left tackle in the league. Panay and a new oc. Are we officially back? I do think you can have like legit high hopes. You know, I, I think the, the mindset going into camp, assuming health. You know, you got Branch coming off right at torn Achilles. Terry and Armstead had that thing where, like his buddies were in town, someone robbed him. It was an inside job. And then they re ro the guys back, but it was their own stuff. But they held him hostage. So we'll have to see how that thing plays out. You guys got a lot of good players. If laporta's back is good, you still got Gibbs, you got Pennaisu, you got Goff, you got Amon Ra, you got Hutch, you got Jack Campbell, who they didn't pick up his fifth year option, but it was more because, like the number, it didn't make financial sense. They'll probably extend him. You're just going to need the DBs to play better and to stay healthy. So I think the Lions. I'm picking the Bears, but it wouldn't shock me at all if the Lions won the division. Slow times get to this whenever. Where do you rank LeBron all time? It's a good question. I'm not a huge, like, try to act definitive about guys I didn't watch. So you can watch YouTube. You can see the stats clearly. The Wilt Chamberlains, the Bill Russell's, even Magic and Larry. Like, I didn't watch Magic and Larry. They were basically retired by the time I was eight. So I, I don't feel that confident. Like, is this guy four, is this guy six? Clearly they're four or five of the best players ever. Dr. J. So in my lifetime, 90s to now, I think he would have to be too. Michael would be one, a clear one for me. Without hesitation, I would take Mike. I do think you can make an argument if I'm getting like from 21 to 30 years old that I've seen in my lifetime, you could make the argument to take Shaq. Because if I get Shaq on my team from 21 to 30 and do a good job building the thing around them, I'm Gonna dominate now the games changed a little bit with the three pointers, but even with the three pointers he's a good passer. That to me you could make the argument now if you just look at body of work, no one's ever gonna have the longevity of LeBron. So like how much credit do you give in the longevity at his peak, he's clearly one of the greatest players of all time. I would say the group of like Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Curry, you know, Hakeem, when I was really, you know, when I was kind of coming into my own as a sports fan, was older but was still dominating when they won a couple championships. I do think the special thing for Curry and Duncan, you get them in your franchise and like Brady, you just build the franchise around them and coach them hard and everyone falls in line like the Patriot way. Curry and Duncan bring that to the table. Like the one thing with LeBron it's like every five years if you're not he's going to, you know, just. It's gonna be a lot now when he's unreal. It totally I guess worth it, but still a pain. Like would I rather just be in business with Duncan or Steph. They're just a little easier to be in business with. You know where LeBron's demanding I trade every first round pick every single year. But just from a player standpoint, I think you would be crazy to not say he was two. The Eagles they drafted UR Bernard in the seventh. He's 6430036 inch vert, ran a 4, 6 and 6% body fat for the mailbag Eagles draft pick. What are your thoughts? Maybe explain the video of this freak on the podcast. I think they're just going back to the well they had a bunch of success with Jordan Mylota who didn't know a first down from a touchdown and turned him into a Pro bowl left tackle. I do think these picks because my, my wife actually brought it up. She must saw it on Instagram. It's not like easy, you know, you got. We've talked about this before. You got to have someone on staff working extra with him. He has to. You never know till the pads come on. What you don't learn till training camp. You kind of got to feel out like you think you know the position and then you kind of maybe it's a different position. So seventh round pick, bad draft. I got no issue with it. But for every Jordan my lotta they're gonna be a lot of guys. That is just impossible to play I do think when you have that physical profile the only thing that no one knows Jordan my lotta you kind of knew because he played rugby is put him in the trenches what's he look like in the goal line Drill one just from can you keep your pads low enough and not stand up it's just difficult So I think it's a you can't have a bigger flyer Never played football went into this international program I think I read in 2024 he's from is it Nigeria small village I mean clearly just a freak but I wouldn't bet on it working out and I don't think the Eagles are just spend some time I think they'll kind of know early by the end of OTAs like how much does this guy even can comprehend like are we have we made any progress over the next month and a half or is this like a three year project But I I got no issue with a 7th round pick niners question let's be honest the draft raise some eyebrows Yearly fan meltdown with all the stats talk that have been circling post draft is there added pressure on or slightly warmer seat this year for Kyle and John I'm not always sure has more power when it comes to strategy in the draft lynch is the GM but they're always a clear choice is their running back. You never know in the draft but they're clearly gone a different way and suffered from it. Hopefully I'll be eating my words next February. Just want to know your thoughts. I don't think either obviously are on the hot seat. I do think it's this season. These young guys from this class and definitely last year's class do not make major impacts and look like core guys moving forward. Part of the way the Rams flipped it around is they they had like two drafts that changed their franchise and that was the 49ers mindset last year and clearly this year. Like they love stribling. They love Keon Black. He was the second running back on their board which everyone I talked to in the NFL thinks that's like are they on drugs? They think it's insane. Well their running back Coach is like 70 years old. He's been with the Shanahan family for decades. Who do you think made that pick? I I have a hard time. I I even saw the quote from like their assistant GM about scribbling and one of his first comments about the player was our coach loved him and again I'm pro scribbling and I think most I've seen a Lot of draft analysts that are too, like, it's not a crazy pick, but it was, the coach loved him. So it's like, Kyle, one thing I could see happening, if these drafts are weird, hey, Kyle, you don't get to make the draft picks anymore. We don't want your assistance running the draft board. That's not how a healthy organization works. So I, I think it'll be a major, major point of conversation. Like if training camp goes by and Black just gets cut, it's like everyone thought this guy was a fifth or sixth running back. Full disclosure, I liked him. I mean, we all watched a lot of Indiana football this year. Solid player, third round. I understand. A little bold to me though, if I was a fan and you're getting mad at drafts or whatever, like no one would care that this. Let's use the Steelers for an example. Like they, you know, should we have given so and so this much money, how much we invested in the defense? Those wouldn't be conversations if the Steelers were winning 12, 13 games a year. Look at the Ravens. They, they have one eight, nine year and the coach gets fired. So it's the NFL, man.
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John Middlekauff
You don't get many, just free passes. I think it's going to be an intense, intense year, especially if Seattle and LA are kicking ass. I'm a Bears fan. What do you think about the Bears draft? Thought we needed more D line help, but I like the Thienman pick but didn't think we needed all the offensive players on day two. This is the thing with picking for needs. You know, we need multiple defensive linemen. Colt Ballard heard this forever. We need a quarterback. What if I don't like any of the quarterbacks every round I pick, it's like the Bears, I would imagine he by far was the highest graded guy on their draft board. So if he's a highest graded guy on your draft board, do you ideally want to take a safety in the first round? Probably not. But if you do and the guy's good, he's your favorite player on the board, that's best player available. So if you're going to have the best player available strategy, you can't be like, yeah, our best player available on the board is a tight end, but we need defensive linemen. They do need defensive linemen. To me, their key to success is going to be the Oregon safety, the dude from Seattle, Kobe Bryant. They need Jalen Johnson to kind of get healthy and look like a Pro Bowler again. Then all of a sudden their secondary looks dramatically better. Now in A weird way, their defense wasn't good last year, but they had like a million interceptions that, that can be hit or miss year to year. But if you can cover people, your defensive line can look a little bit better. But who were they going to take? Because Lawrence went, you know, the Cowboys took him at 24. It's kind of a tough spot. I don't think you can just force defensive lineman to force defensive linemen if you don't like them now, you could argue should they have been aggressive and moved way up in the. In the second round because there was the run on defensive lineman. I. I think. Let me pull up the draft second round. There was a run after like the first. Yeah. So The Bills took T.J. parker, 35 and then the defensive lineman started flying. Cade McDonald went 36. The Chiefs at 40, took our Mason Thomas from Oklahoma. Cassius Howell from A m went at 41. Christian Miller, who a lot of people like the DT from Georgia went at 42. Jacob Rodriguez, the stud linebacker from Tech. So a ton of front seven guys went really Derek Moore, the edge went to the Lions. Zion Young, who's a student went to, I mean the Ravens draft. So well, they get two of like, I mean they just get two plug and play starters. So by the time the Bears pick at where's their pick and they take the center from Iowa, Illinois D lineman a lot of people liked. Jack is from Gabe. Jack has went to New England. CJ Allen, the middle linebacker went to. I mean they just. A lot of good defensive players came off the board that you know from linebackers. And the Cincinnati backer went. If anything he wanted to be critical. Should they have moved up? Should they have moved up once the run started? But if the Iowa center like one thing I would push back is what are the chances the Iowa center that the Bears drafted isn't a solid player. Most of the offensive linemen for Iowa just kind of plug and play and they're good foreign. Listener. Been a Steeler fan since I was a kid. I love the black and gold. So I got to defend my boys on this draft quote debacle. While I agree on the optics aren't great and we clearly wanted lemon, but why are we acting like the follest sky is falling around the Steelers? Building in the trenches is preached as a necessity in the Steelers. And the Steelers did that by drafting a legit prospect. Also, the Steelers fixed their big mistake immediately the next day by trading up and getting Bernard in the second Alabama whiteout. I think he's a steal the rest of the picks filled needs beside the reach for aller I'm with you on the pick in the fourth. That was crazy. I think the hour pick was a little crazy too. I listen I do not think Makai Lemon I'm a little iffy on that player in general. Like I those type guys, you know kind of the puka mold can be kind of risky when they come in the NFL. Like I I thought that was honestly a little surprised the Eagles took him like he definitely wasn't there were wide receivers in the second round I like more than him especially when you factor in the value So I by no means is some am some big Lemon guy but they were like they wanted them. The Cowboys knew it and you know I think the offensive lineman is viewed a little bit as a project the Arizona State kid but I'm with you. I I'm never going to crush you for taking an offensive lineman in the first round. Right. Even if the guy's a little bit of a project. I have no the Cowboys did it a couple of years ago with Guyton. No issue with it. None. But they didn't want him. That's my thing. They didn't want him. I'm with you Bernard. A lot of people believe that he he's got a chance to be the steal of the draft, especially in the second round. Like people like him a lot. So they need a quarterback who's going to throw these guys the ball. Big Wisconsin fan here. Question for you. What happened to the Badgers? We did not have a single player selected in this year's draft. That hasn't happened since 1978. I can remember the days when we had first round offensive lineman, second round running backs and solid defensive players drafted every single year. With the recent departure of our ad, Fickle has to be on the hot seat. I think that's a fair statement. It's why I thought it was so crazy that Dan Orlovsky when he used Ty Simpson's best drive of the year it was against Wisconsin. Like this has got to be one of the least talented Wisconsin teams I've ever seen. And clearly it was. I mean, what's a drive that he did against Georgia? Show me a drive that he had. LSU's defense was good. Not Wisconsin. He's not playing any NFL players. Might as well be. No offense to Montana. Montana probably had more guys drafted. So I don't know much about your financial situation, but I've seen Big Cat writing about this. Clearly the nil I saw Bubba Cunningham, the UNC AD was asked today, is a $2 million wide receiver more important to the athletic program than the tennis program when it comes to men's and women's tennis? And he said, the uncomfortable answer is yes. If you want to win in football, you have to spend a lot of money. And they're in a conference with Ohio State, with Penn State, with Michigan, with Oregon, usc, these pro Washington, these programs are spending a ton of cash ton. Nebraska, Indiana, I mean, you're just going up against in your own conference teams you're going to play every single week that are spending way more money than you. I just don't believe. Clearly fickle. I've heard some stories. You know, I don't think people love him like, the NFL community. You know, he's like Vrabel's best buddy, which is weird. You think he'd be like, pro the NFL community, but I don't think he's great with the scouting community. He's kind of just a weird cat. He was really good at Cincinnati. There's no disputing that. Recruited a lot of good players. And then it's just been a nightmare ever since. So I don't know. Am I crazy for saying the Rams should have just drafted Aller in the third if they wanted a quarterback to sit behind Stafford? Aller has all the physical traits to be an elite quarterback, and if he went to a team like the Rams, I feel he could be better than Simpson. We'll end on this. Quarterback guys and offensive coaches do not like quarterbacks that don't have a feel for the position. And when you watch Aller, you kind of see a robotic guy play. It was kind of the knock on Carson Beck. One thing I heard, Carson's really good. If, like, the pockets clean. He. He can look like a NFL starter, but when he starts getting blitzed, when he starts getting pressure, when things start going poorly, kind of collapses. Aller, to me, is just hit or miss, no matter what. And part of the reason they love Ty Simpson less and obviously Sean got on board is like, his understanding of football. Like you do. Watch him. He'd go through his progressions, his feel for the pocket, like he's a very instinctive football player. Now, is he physically gifted enough? Like, if you put Ty Simpson's brain on Drew, in Drew Aller's body, you probably have the number one overall pick. But that's not the way it works. So to me, I think you got to be careful about the Drew Aller types. I think I would have a philosophical belief in a draft room. We just don't ever mess with them. If I think you have no instincts, that that's kind of a deal breaker for me. I like instinctive players because you've been in college, especially at the highest level by then, high school, college, like your basic football instincts have kind of been determined. You know, like Shady McCoy, like his feel for being a running back had that from probably when he was like 12. And I I if you don't have instincts, it's very hard, if not impossible, to be a good player in the NFL. So I I hear what you're saying. But to me, Drew Aller probably would have been a no draft guy for my team. Appreciate everyone. Talk to you tomorrow.
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John Middlekauff
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