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What is going on everybody? John Middelkopf three and out podcast brought to you by my friends at Zone Pouches. Hopefully everyone is having a great day. Better than Stefanski. Carolyn Gannon who felt the wrath of Black Monday all fired. We will dive into some thoughts with those guys. Some of the GMs did survive. We'll discuss selective accountability in this Matt Ryan story how it looks like he's going to be an executive for Atlanta but keep his television job. Have some thoughts there as well. And a little mailbag at John Middelkopf at John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs and get your questions answered here on the show. Again, it's just my Instagram fire in the dms questions answered on the show. And if you listen on Collins feed make sure you subscribe to three now wherever you may listen to podcasts as well as subscribe to the YouTube channel. So just fire to the YouTube channel. We got you covered. We will be reacting Thursday and Friday to the college games and then obviously Saturday night with Bears packers which pretty good Saturday night game we saw earlier this season. It was. It was incredible theater. So buckle up baby. So let's just dive right in to the Black Monday and the Raiders, the Arizona Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns all fire their coaches. I mean well before you're probably finished breakfast depending on where you lived. I mean when I woke up slept in a little bit this morning but Stefanski was already done. I think by the time Jonathan Gannon at least my time in here in Arizona was like maybe 9 o' clock in the morning. Pete Carroll was felt inevitable. And I think when you look at those three guys situations, I, I think becoming a head coach, there is something that clearly makes or breaks you. Listen, we harp on ownership, we harp on the relationship with the gm, but at the end of the day, if you get the quarterback right, you're gonna, you're not only gonna survive, you're gonna win games. You know, getting in a relationship or getting in a business partnership with another individual can change your life for the good or the bad. I know a lot of people in my life that have gone through divorces and they get pretty ugly, especially financially. If you get married to the wrong woman, it can have major consequences. If you get into business with the wrong person, it can be a disaster. And I'm not just talking money, I'm talking emotional stress that comes along with it. You dedicate a lot of your life to these things. No different than a football coach. They spend countless hours in the office. Honestly, probably too much. Saw Signetti went on a rant about these guys, like, you don't need to work 20 hours a day. You know, Bruce Arian's been saying this forever, like, you don't need to be in the office till 1 o' clock in the morning. What are you doing? We're playing football here, right? We're not reinventing a bridge. And I think all these guys share a common characteristic. They got in bed with the wrong quarterback. It was pretty simple. You know, when you look at Pete Carroll, he went with Geno smith, who was 35 years old, who he had some success with with the Raiders. Now you could argue it wasn't all his choice. There were some rumors that Tom Brady was anti Sam Darnold. Clearly wrong decision there and clearly the right decision for Sam Darnold to go to Seattle. But Geno Smith was a disaster. I mean, simply put, a disaster. 19 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, was 2 and 13 in the games he started and was just not very good. Turned the ball over at way too rapid of a rate and you couldn't win with them. And clearly their team is not good enough to overcome average quarterback play, let alone bottom five or six quarterback play in the league. Arizona. Jonathan Gannon accepted a head coaching job when he was in a great situation that he could have been, I would say, somewhat choosy with where he went with Kyler Murray. And listen, at the end of the day, at this point in time, like, this is nothing personal, but this is just a reality to the NFL. Kyler Bur's Got a lot of people fired. Cliff Kingsberry running out of town. Steve Keim run out of town. Jonathan Gannon run out of town. Awesome. For the GM is going to survive and he's going to run Kyler out of town. So Kyler was one of those guys. If you went all in on him and he became your quarterback, you were not going to have a job long, and he was going to make a lot of money while you were around him. And it did not go well. And listen, he got hurt on their watch. Obviously he didn't play very well when he did. I mean, he essentially got benched this year. They can say it was the injury, but clearly Jacoby was way better. And then when you look at Kevin Stefanski, I'm not putting the desean Watson situation all on him. Only Andrew Barry Stefanski and Jimmy Haslam and probably Mulgetta truly knows the dynamics, how that deal got done. But that thing was an absolute train wreck. And Jimmy Haslam's not going to fire himself for that because he signed off on the contract. But here was the thing, and I was thinking about this this morning. They gave Stefanski the opportunity to kind of find his purdy. Maybe not at that level, but just a guy that could just get them going in the right direction. Kevin Stefanski did not need to make the playoffs this year. This was a season for the Browns where if he had drafted a guy in the second, third or fourth round and just had them competitive, you know, I would say between seven to nine wins and just kind of in the mix, win some big games and just look like a functional organization. I think Kevin Stavanski would still be the coach in Cleveland, but you can't convince me that when they took Dylan Gabriel, that he wasn't all over that, because that is the type quarterback that those type coaches like. I remember when Kyle Shanahan first got the job, he drafted C.J. beathard in the third round. It was an insane pick at the time, but he likes guys like that. He drafted Rourke, the quarterback from Indiana, last year, in the seventh round. We see a lot of these guys in the Shanahan system. Sean McVeigh drafted sets and Bennett in the fifth. They don't need like, they will gravitate toward guys that the scouting community will be like, what? And the Dylan Gabriel situation was a epic disaster. He can't play. So, like, I would even separate the Shador thing because who knows the dynamics in that. I think the owner was heavily involved, but to me, once he got his opportunity to just get them moving. His choice was borderline unplayable. And I think that that had to play a huge factor. And I think you see all three of these guys, Geno Smith got a decent amount of money. They trade a third round pick for Kevin Stefanski, just third round pick on Dylan Gabriel. Most people I knew in the league that he was an undrafted free agent and obviously Jonathan Gannon just took a job where they were heavily invested in Kyler Murray. And when you take that job, you go, yeah, I can make it work. Because you want to say that you get this huge raise, you start making way more money, you know, and then it blows up in your face. And obviously this year they had a million injuries and they were just a train wreck. I mean, they haven't won a game in forever. And honestly, they weren't even playing that bad yesterday against the Rams. It just the war of attrition. As the game went on, the Rams just started running circles around them. So I think you got to be very careful. And the number one thing I would tell all these guys, and I get it, it's, it's these are ambitious people. And I'm not just talking Gannon and Stefanski and Pete Carroll, but I'm just talking a lot of coaches in the league, they want to be at the head of the conference table, not on the side. Right? That is what they aspire to do. They don't want to make suggestions, they want to make decisions. They want to go. And financially it has a huge, huge impact on, on. You make a lot of money being a coordinator relative to the rest of society. You know, a lot of these guys, they're OCs or DCs are making 2, 3, 4, $5 million if you're like guy like Robert Sala. But you want to be a head coach and becoming a head coach can pay you 8, 10, $12 million. Ben Johnson last year was making a lot with the Lions, and then he became the head coach of the bears and makes $13 million a year. So there's financial aspects of it. There is just ambition, you know, in someone's soul. And what they aspire to do there is wanting to take your shot at the highest level against the best of the best. But you better know what you're doing when you sign up. And the quarterback position more than all the other positions changes the course of your life professionally. No different than, like I said, who you marry and who you get into business with. Because if you make the right decisions on those, life's great as well as it can be. Obviously there are twists and turns always we don't control anything, but it makes life a lot easier. And these guys, you know, just had quarterback situations that became, you know, toxic fast. It did not work. And they all got fired. And I, I was, I said the same thing on Sunday night about Raheem Morris. What got Raheem Morris fired was the month stretch where he gave Kirk Cousins two years, four year contract, but he gave him two years, $100 million and they drafted Michael Pennix, number eight overall. Two years later, Cousins has made I think 90 to $100 million and Pennix has a torn ACL. That's why he got fired, full stop, you know, because that led them to losing games. And I think it's no different with these guys. So. And that leads me to like the selective accountability, you know, when guys are hired, GMs and coaches like tandem duo, they're on the same contract, they both have five years. Here's the problem is when you're winning, everything's great. People are arms and arm and arm. The, the city loves both guys. You know, positive reinforcement from the fan base, from the ownership. When you, when you are losing, no different than life. When hits the fan, you find out someone's true colors. That's how football is. Because when you start losing, people start pointing fingers. And that's where coaches very quickly can be out on a professional island. Because every time that we're sitting on our couch watching these games on Sundays, where are the general managers? They are typically in a suite with the owner. And here's the other thing. The language the coaches speak, X's and O's, The, a language that most human beings, even scouts and people in the front office can't speak. The language of an offensive or defensive code, of a coordinator or a head coach or a special team. They don't speak that language. Well, the owner definitely doesn't speak that language. What language does the GM speak? Contracts, basic players. This guy's good, this guy's bad talking. The draft coaches during the season have a whistle around their neck and they're obsessed with plays on offense and defense and what will work on Sunday. I mean, the owners obviously chimes in and talks, but he speaks English, they speak Chinese, which is football. So they, they can't communicate on the same wavelength. I'm not talking every coach. I'm just saying once you get in trouble, the GM is speaking more what they can understand. And here's the other thing about the GMs, they don't want to lose Their job. Because unlike coaches, most general managers get one GM job in their career. A lot of coaches like Kevin Stefanski. There's a decent chance Kevin Stefanski is going to be hired in the next, like, two weeks, right? If Andrew Barry was fired, there's no guarantee that he's getting another job. Not just this cycle, but many cycles. He could just be a number two for a while. We've seen a lot of guys, BGM GMs Thomas Dimitrov had a really, really good run in Atlanta, right? Drafted Matt Ryan, drafted Julio Jones. They went to an NFC Championship game, they went to a Super Bowl. Never been to GM again, never will be. That's just over. Dan Quinn, meanwhile, he got a second shot. How's that going in Washington? Last time I checked, not great. But they get a second shot. And I think that's the thing with GMs, they are in survival mode, just like a lot of people. You know, I worked in the corporate world for a couple years in radio, and I had never been in that environment. And I just saw all these people just that are just survivors. And many of you that are watching or listening this can relate. People in management positions, they're like, what's this guy do? I don't know. But he'll do anything to keep that job. That pays him six figures. He will do absolutely anything. And that's no different than GMs, because you can't convince me, like, how does Stefanski lose his job and Andrew Berry keep his job? How does Brian Dayball lose his job and Joe Shane keep his job? How does Jonathan Gannon keep his job or lose his job and Monty Austin Fort keep his job? Pretty easy because they, they force the coach on this island and they get cozy up with the owner and the owner likes them more and trusts them more and he can badmouth them where when they're in the middle of the game getting their ass kicked, even though they bear the responsibility. I watched John Spytek's press conference today. The first thing he says is, I bear more responsibility on this than Pete Carroll. Now, the difference in that situation, I would say than Joe Shane and Day Ball, then Austin Ford and Jonathan Gannon. It was clear when they hired Pete Carroll, like John Spytek and Pete Carroll were not arm in arm for the next 20 years. Pete Carroll's 75 years old. They just wanted him to get the train going in the right direction. It turned out Pete Carroll should have retired and never come out of retirement. And they made a mistake. But these other guys showed up with the younger coach and did it together until they started losing and then the coach did it by himself. It's like, oh, that's his fault. You know why? Because they say my players are good. I don't know Monty Austin for at all. But I know this. He had the fourth overall pick a couple years ago and he took Marvin Harrison Jr. Who is clearly not the most talented player in his own draft class. Malik Neighbors, who went two spots better. Everyone in the league, if you gave the opportunity to take one or the other. And it's not like, well, one guy's hurt, well, the other guy's hurt too, would take Malik Neighbors. But here's the thing. Your offensive line stinks. Why not lean the line of scrimmage? Well, who did John Jim Harbaugh take the pick after Marvin Harrison Jr. Joel, who when he's on the field is an all pro. And who would Jim Harbaugh have taken if he had the choice between Marvin Harrison and Joe Walt? He would have taken Joe Walt. So I go like. And you go, john, you can play Monday morning quarterback on any of these picks. True. But when you have these high picks, why should I trust you? So I think this league, like any business, becomes backstabbing so fast, finger pointing and trying to push the responsibility on others when you are equally to blame and you should, you know, get the ax as well. But I do understand if I was these GMs knowing that like, yeah, Jonathan Gannon, he'd go somewhere, be a DC for a couple years and get another shot. I will not. So it's just kind of the nature of the beast and it's the way that we have kind of, you know, created these allegiances that have been going on since the beginning of the sport. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, the official sportsbook partner of the AFC south champion Jacksonville Jaguars. Duvall is going to be jacked up this weekend. You know what I love doing with these standalone playoff games? Same game parlays, baby. Lock in one matchup at a time and stack your picks. Maybe A quarterback throws 250 yards. 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Concerned about gambling in Florida, call 1-833-Playwise in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem, call 1-800- Gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. I can't believe they're having a gender reveal for their dog. No, no, no, no. This is a breed reveal. Oh. So, yeah, they're finding out the breed of the puppy they're rescuing. So they could just be spending all their money on like pet insurance. Instead, we got lemonade for Rosco and it covered vaccines, microchipping. We saved 90% on vet bills. Oh, here we go. What do you think beige confetti means? I don't know that we'll never get this Saturday back. Get a quote for any breed@lemonade.com pet. And last but not least, Matt Ryan. Listen, all these guys, for anyone my age that's grown up in the Internet era of quarterbacks, with Peyton and Brady to Rodgers, to the crew of Eli's, Matt Ryan's, Philip Rivers, Rothsbergers, Drew Brees, we've been very lucky to obviously this new crew of Mahomes burrow, you know, Herbert Allen Lamar. It's been awesome to watch. We have been very lucky in the NFL. It's a huge part of their business plan. They need new, young, exciting quarterbacks to come and take over when other guys disappear. And Matt Ryan's a stud. I always been a fan, always appreciated his game. I, I would almost call him an overachiever. Clearly a very, very smart guy. But Tom Pelissaro reported today that Matt Ryan plans, like all signs, are pointing to him to become this role that like Tony Bacelli got last year, which is like, I'm not the gm. I don't own the team. But, but I'm like somewhere above the gm. Spielman in Detroit has a similar role. And they're like, we're going to do that with Matt Ryan. I was like, Oh, I, I totally, I, I have, I have no issue with those type moves. If Philip Rivers wanted to do something like that, I'd be like to do it. That's, that's awesome. I'm excited to watch you. Here's the problem is that it was reported today that Matt Ryan plans on continuing to do tv. I went, what? That's not the way this thing works. You'd be like, well, Tom Brady does it. Here's the difference. Tom Brady bought into the country club. Tom Brady is an owner. So now we can disagree with his tactics. Still living in, in Florida, playing golf, hanging out, enjoying life while talking to spy tech and kind of dictating the terms in Vegas while not living there. Is that an ideal situation? Of course not. But he paid for the right to do that. These other guys are being paid like Tony Bacelli, Spielman or Matt Ryan to be an executive to compete against Brian Gudekens. Especially if you're in the NFC like Atlanta, Howie Roseman, Jason Light, I know they had a bad season, but last I checked, Jason Light's been in this business for like 25 plus years and is widely considered one of the best GMs. John Schneider, Les need John Lynch. You don't see, you know, John lynch is going to be, you know, like the president gm, but he's still going to do some Fox games. You know why that's not possible. You can't be in an industry as competitive as football with as much on the line against people that are grinding seven days a week, 365 days and have a shot to compete. Because I'll say this about Tony Bacelli. I looked up at the Jags game multiple times this year. Him, Gladstone, the GM are on the field and they're hugging. Liam Cohen, he's traveling with the team. He's full time. This is his job. It's not like I, you know, I turn on TV and there's Tony Bacelli calling games on Sunday. That's not how it works. And I don't blame Matt Ryan if they give you the right, like, you don't deserve anything you get when you negotiate. So clearly Matt Ryan wants his cake and eat it too. Don't blame him at all. But it is not realistic to do the job couple days a week. You have no chance on God's green earth to be competitive doing it that way. You just don't. Not when you have a bunch of juice and are making decisions not against the John Schneider or Howie Roseman that this is their life, they're 10 toes down. You know, I, if I'll use myself as an example, a couple years ago, I used to do multiple podcasts and I got to the point where, like, I'm kind of spreading myself thin and I, I told Colin, like, this thing started kind of taking off. I'm like, I'm going all in on this. You know, this is, this is all I'm going to do. I'm not going to spend any other time. Other shows, I had a local show in the Bay Area even when I moved to Arizona. I'm like, I, it's taking too much out of me. And to get this where I want to go, I, I have to give all my energy into this. And it's the best thing. And financially it's the smartest thing I've ever done by a mile. And I knew I had to do it because you only have, especially as you get older in competitive industries, you only have so many bullets in the gun. And there's a small, select group of people that can dominate like seven, eight things. Most human beings, even the richest people, are pretty dialed in on one or two. And it takes all your energy, it takes all your effort, right? All of it. And I just don't think it's possible, even a job like you just sitting there on a set, something not even that difficult. It does take time because you know what? On Sunday, he could be at a venue talking with the opposing team, talking with players, just getting a feel for it. There's a reason these GMs travel with the team. It is beneficial. So I, I, I, I understand Matt not wanting to give up his, you know, responsibilities with TV and the, all the different income streams, like, I, I get it. But I'd also say if you want a chance to be good at this job against the best in the business, because the nfc. Here's the one thing you'd say about the NFC ton of good front offices. I mean, a lot that are now combined with really good coaches. And there's a reason Atlanta's been getting drubbed belt to ass Arthur Smith and then the last couple years have not gone above.500 with the amount of talent they had on their team. And that's with two guys, two guys they just fired that were all in that that was their only job trying. So it shows you how difficult it is. It's why so many coaches. I remember Tom Coughlin after he used to win, like he, he used to always talk to the team whenever videos. This is like early days of videos in the locker room. And he'd be like, hey, boys, we're humble in the, we're humble in victory. We're humble. You know why? Because you can't start pumping your chest because the next week you're getting teeth kicked in. You got to be very, very careful because it's too difficult. There's just too much on the line. These guys are too maniacal, like, you know, hard. I know they had a bad year this year, but do you know how many hours like Andy and Veech are putting in in football? It's their life. It's their life. I remember seeing the clip in that documentary they did last year on the Chiefs and Coach Reed was crying after, you know, it was after the Super Bowl. But like, you're so invested. There's not like, well, he's doing like three other jobs. No, that's not the way it works. So I, I, when I saw that, I went, even John Elway, whenever he started with the, the Denver Broncos as the quote, unquote, GM and the president, that that was his job. That's all he did. I, I'm just not a huge believer. I don't care what you're doing. But in any business that has any sort of like, high level competition of other individuals and whether it's I doesn't matter, you better be all in or you are going to get rolled. And I'll get out of here on this. You know, let's talk about some people that are going to be zoned in right now. And I think the coolest part about the playoffs, obviously the players, you can become legendary, but so can the coaches. And, you know, we see some of these guys, like Jonathan Gannon gets fired, never made the playoffs. And when you make the playoffs, it's a really big deal. Like Ben Johnson taking the, the Bears to the playoffs is a huge deal. Liam Cohen taking the Jags to the playoffs, massive deal. But winning a playoff game, even just one playoff game, is huge. Winning playoff games on the road, lafleur, who wants a contract extension, is worth a lot of money. So obviously these coaches are just nuts. They spend all week an unhealthy amount of hours during when you're playing the crappy teams. I do think there's an just elevated level of focus and intensity when it comes to this week and the next several weeks. And I think the coolest part about this is like, all of a sudden you look up and the Jags are in the AFC Championship game. You know, you think Liam Cohen gets a lot of credit winning 13 regular season games. The two playoff wins would basically be worth a season of a 13 win year. It would buy. I'd give him a contract extension. You know, Sean McDermott, most people are kind of off the center of the Bills. He goes on a little run right now. That's, that's the way you get a massive contract extension. That's the way you get so much equity that, like, you're not getting fired. And I love the playoffs, man. I really do, because everything is on the line. You know, we talk. You guys know where I stand on people talking about the process. No one cares about your process if your results suck. It's just, that's just the way the world works. And I think a lot of these guys, when they get results, that's when people really start like, what the heck? Jim Harbach goes on the road and beats the Patriots. Be like, God, this guy's won a lot of playoff games. You know, this guy truly is a pretty legendary individual. And obviously for a lot of these coaches, they're very dependent on their assistants, their coordinators, their position coaches. This just a massive week because it sucks. It's one. Once you get to the second or definitely the conference championship game, obviously losing is a kick in the nuts, but it's still like winning playoff games. You advance, you get bounced in the first round. It sucks. And these spreads, I mean, we'll dive into it later in the week. They're not big. It's going to be very hard to gamble on. It's going to be very hard to pick. You know, it's like I, I, I love the Jags, the way they've been playing, but am I comfortable picking them against the Bills? I'm just very, very excited to watch all these coaches zone in for the week. At John Middlekopf. At John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMS questions, answer, answered here on the show. Easiest way to get involved. Let's just dive right in. How bananas were you going when Baltimore missed the kick? Wasn't that the last thing you needed for your big parlay? Honestly, when Likely and Lamar made, I mean, I saw TJ coming around, I'm like, he's going to sack Lamar. Beautiful pass, incredible catch. Jalen Ramsey, a step short, step late. I just thought the game was over. So I, I kind of checked out. Could barely watch the field goal and you knew it right when he came off his, off his foot. So it was, it was pretty incredible. Now that the number, now that the Seahawks are the Number one seed. I want anyone but the Rams. If you had to rank the NFC teams, who has the best shot of making the Super Bowl, Clearly, Seattle. Home games, two games. I mean, huge home field advantage. And they have a great defense. So when you have a great defense and you play at home, if the quarterback can just play solid and run the ball, they're going to be a problem. They're getting their left tackle back. They just have a much easier path then to me, it depends on, you know, if, like, let's say the packers were to upset the Bears and the Eagles beat the Niners, like the Eagles get a huge advantage playing at home again. So to me, the home games are huge. The Rams, in theory, should be good. One, they're not playing that well, and two, they got to go on the road. You know, they definitely got to go on the road the first two weeks. So even if Carolina is not a very good team, right, you still got to fly five hours, beat them, come back, then fly again. Maybe to play Seattle. If the Niners or the packers were to win, you probably got to go, you know, to Chicago. It's just a lot of travel, and I think it's pretty clear Seattle won. And then I would probably do some combination of, like, Philly and the Rams, you know, the Bears. I just think you can't be that bad a defense. And this is where I'd put the Niners under the Bears. The Niners lost even more guys against Seattle. They lost their starting linebacker that replaced Fred Warner. Taurus growing out for the year they had. Someone sent me the injury report today. It's like, you can't have that many injuries and keep winning these games on the road. It would be an incredible accomplishment. I think it's going to be difficult, even if the Eagles are weird, for them even to kind of keep it close. How are they going to stop the run now? Maybe Kevin Patola doesn't call run plays, but I think it's really Seattle, the Rams, or Philly. I just have a hard time seeing Chicago with the defense just terrible. I mean, their defense looked really, really bad against the Green Bay Pack or against the Lions. And I get it. Emotional come down. But, like, those are their players. You know, it's not like, well, they got reinforced. No, it's like, Jalen Johnson's out there. He's coming back from injuries. Doesn't look the same. Their DBs look so slow. You're a 49er guy, I'm a Jags guy. So we most likely both don't like bulky. You know what's funny is everyone always hated Balky in my interactions with them. But he kind of big time me once when I was a GA at Fresno State. But once I was doing the media stuff and coming around, he was always cool to me, came on the radio again, he turned a lot of people off, was never bad to me. So a lot of people hate him. He is kind of universally not liked by a lot of people. I never had an issue with him. I would say that. So your question is. But watching the Jags play this year with mostly bulky players playing out of their minds, is it clear Doug and Press were holding the Jags back? Well, I, I think as a gm, you're only as good as your coach, you know. And Balky picked a bunch of players, got Jim Harbaugh and they won a bunch of games. Now he also inherited some guys from Scott McLuhan, but clearly did a pretty good job of drafting some players. They also lost a lot of games. So they drafted high. But the success is they got the coach right. Liam Cohen would have been good with Gladstone or with Trembalki. Clearly he's a stud coach, right? Ben Johnson be good with Ryan Poles or me. He's a stud coach. So when you hire the right coach, they make players look a lot better. It's why I never understand these GMs that want like a yes man at coach. Like you need to get the best coach that gives you the best opportunity to win. You know, the Eagles are kind of stuck with Sirianni, but they pay a lot for like they pay Vic Fangio a lot of money. They, they've gone through. Like they'll pay for Kellen Moore. They paid if Patola gets fired. Like they'll pay for whoever the top coordinator is. They will not hesitate. So like paying for coaches makes you look a lot better. And it comes to the owner. Do they want to open the checkbook? So obviously the Jags have talent because you watch them. Team speed, physicality, you know, Does Trent Bulkey get credit for Trevor Lawrence? I wanted to get your thoughts on the current playoff format. Specifically division winners with losing records. For example, teams like the Panthers 8, 9, but still making the playoffs by winning a weak division. Do you think there should be a rule that prevents teams with more losses than wins from qualifying for the playoffs? Well, I've been talking about this for a while. I think it's simple. If you go under.500 to win your division, that is, it's, it's hard to win a Division, like it is difficult, right? It is. Look at the Chicago Bears. Like the lions just went 9 and 8 and they had a horrendous year and they kind of worked the Bears most of that game, right? And that's just like you had to beat them. You had to beat the Green Bay packers, you got to beat the Minnesota Vikings. All those teams beat them. It's hard. That division is good. Seattle, it came down to the last 60 minutes against the 49ers and they also had to beat the Rams a couple of weeks ago, who are all 12 win teams. So when you go under 500, like that's a reflection on the competition that you're playing six games against. It sucks. So I, it has to matter. I'm not anti divisions. Divisions matter. They do. I totally agree. But also if your division sucks, like you should just get a home game if you went 8 and 9. I mean the Panthers had in theory a must win game and they lost. They're just, they're just not good. And they get to host the Rams. That seems crazy to me. I think the solution is simple. You can stay the four seed, but if you go under 500, you play on the road to any team that you have a worse record than and you're going to have worse record than everyone in the playoffs because you went 8, 9. That's such a bad record. Like the Falcons went 8, 9. They just fired everybody. Think about that. Todd Bowles, I mean there's a decent chance he still gets fired. They're meeting tomorrow. Probably. My guess would be as of recording this on Monday, he gets fired. I'm a Denver fan, but trying to be objective. Something just feels weird about Sean Payton and what he's doing in Denver. Do you ever recall a team that gets the number one seed and is looked down upon as much as the Broncos? I feel like the Charger game was played that way on purpose to handle the win and move on. BO was barely allowed to throw and they just looked handicapped the whole game. Do you think Sean is strategically doing this to still get the number one seed and have everybody fly under the radar? I think the skepticism is simple. Their offense, a lot of the year has not looked good. That game was a joke. Trey Lance stinks. I mean he's, he's not good. I mean it's pretty crazy. Looking back, the 49ers trade through first round picks for him. That's an all time whiff. He's, he's. Man, he's bad. I mean the drop off from him To Herbert or from Herbert to him is like the size of the Grand Canyon. I am not sure he's an NFL player. Honestly. Chargers got very lucky that he didn't have to play real games because they would lose them all. I would say this about Denver. When they're right, they're going to be very, very tough to beat. But their defense looked a little shaky down the stretch. And Bo Nicks just has games like against the Chiefs or against the Raiders that people don't trust him. Simple. If he plays like he did against the Green Bay packers that one game, just 75% of that, they'll win the AFC. But most people just don't trust him. So I think it's less about Sean Payton and more about what people see with Bo Nix. I think it's really that simple. And their defense simply is not as dominant. They just haven't been playing that well. Colin has a lot of talk about Stefanski going to the Raiders, but if you're him, don't you want to see if any of the one and done playoff teams like the Bills could fire their coach? What do you think about JA17 and Stefanski as a combo? Who's JA17? Mine, idiot. John Harbaugh, 17. I don't know who that is. Am I, am I a. I, I would say this about Stefanski. I think it was reported today the, the Giants, the Titans and is the Cardinals like he's. He's going to interview with. He's getting a job. I think if you're the Raiders, you're drafting Fernando Mendoza. So when you draft Fernando Mendoza, you want to him to be equipped with a good coach. And I think the thing with Tom, if Tom looks back like he did get Charlie Weiss and then they Transitioned to Josh McDaniels, Bill O', Brien, Josh McDaniels, he had a really good offense to Bruce Arians. He had great offensive coaching his whole, his whole career. And I think Stefanski. You know, when I see the thing about day ball and Brian Flores, my question would be this. Say Brian Flores did shake the Patriot thing and is actually turned good coach the second time. If Brian Dabel does a good job with Fernando Mendoza, he will get another job. A 100% lock. He'll get another job. So wouldn't you just hire Brian Dabel? I think it's really, really important if you're going to take a number one overall picket quarterback to just surround him with competence, you know, I mean look at Jaden Daniels. I'm not the biggest Cliff Kingsbury guy. I know he's a nice guy, people like him, but like, I don't know, something that that's wouldn't be my first pick. Look at Caleb, they got Ben Johnson. It's like if Caleb somehow ever fails, that's on Caleb, not Ben Johnson. We see it works, right? And that's where variable's lucky. Josh McDaniel's not going to get another job. Sean Payton, like he's not leaving Bo. Nick's got him. Did you see that bad snap in the Bears Lions game? Caleb stood on like the 2 yard line and flat footed 50 yard rope to get rid of it. Is it crazy to say is the biggest arm in the league and the most talent out of anyone? Not to mention the ball he threw against the Niners of Loveland. I did look up and that ball that went through his hands. One thing Caleb has is he's just such a good athlete. He can just turn around and get places fast. I, you know, do the size factor into talents? To me it does, right? Like if he was 4 inches taller, he would be the greatest prospect maybe ever. I mean he'd be right up there with John Elway just talking prospect. Like the difference of him and Josh Allen is he just shorter and just a little easier to see over guys. So I, I would say Josh Allen Herbert would probably be considered the two biggest arms. I'd put Caleb right there with him and I, I do think the one thing he has over those two guys is Josh is obviously fast. There's like an explosion to Caleb that is like more, a little more Lamar. Maybe not the long speed, but there's like a shortier quickness to him that he's got. Yeah, he's got elite talent. I mean, I don't know what else to say. No one disputes Caleb's like physical characteristics. The only knock you have on the body type is just a little shorter than you. Like obviously the player you'd like a little more touch. But maybe he. I think that's, I said this before, I think you can develop that over the off season or I mean that's, that should be the number one thing you're working on to develop beside like the growth of the metal game. Because there was a pass yesterday, I think it was Luther Burden. It was like a quick slant and I get. It's the NFL. You know, you touch it, you clutch it. He threw a slant. It looked like a Nolan Ryan fastball. I mean Burton turned around and that thing was off his. It's like you, you just got to Take a little off it. You can still throw it fast. I think he's really got to work on that. If it's even correctable. Some guys are never able to develop that. If the Rams go to Charlotte and just skull bleep the Panthers. Does the NFL in the off season make a change regarding the eligibility for the playoffs? It's crazy. The Lions are sitting at home while the Panthers are not only in the playoffs, but hosting a game. I don't think anyone would disagree. The Lions are better than the Panthers, clearly. I mean, I watched them. Jameson, Williams, Amin, Ross, St, Brown, Gibbs. Not even, not even close, right? But divisions, as of right now, they matter. It's. You guys know where I stand. I'm not even against kicking them out. I just think that you should not get a home game. You shouldn't. You watch. It'll probably be a tie game in the second half. Why does the NFL announce primetime games week one through 17 before the season starts? I feel like they should announce 1 through 10 before the season and then around 8 or 9 announce the rest of the schedule. This way they make sure Thanksgiving and Christmas games are going to be great. Every year there are so many teams that we think are bad and end up being interesting. We never get to see on primetime. For example, this year everyone says the Jags have been great. Their only primetime game was against the Chiefs. And they weren't even that good at the time or two years ago when Rogers got injured. Week one. I don't pretend to be some schedule master. I pretend to understand the ink, the all that goes on behind the scenes to it. I do think it's a little more complicated than the way you're playing it out. One, you can't not announce a short week games. Teams have to know so they can prepare. It's why teams are very adamant about no flex short week games. Right. It's. It's hard to flex a Monday Night Football game because the way I've prepared, the way I practice, it can be a unfair advantage. So I, I think it's more challenging than you say. But Sunday Night Football, I do think that maybe after October, what's the difference of playing in the after 1 o' clock or 5 o'? Clock? So I would make Sunday much more flexible. You know, the problem is Fox and CBS pay a lot too. So it's like, yeah, flex the afternoon CBS game. CBS goes, we pay premiums for Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow. Fox would say we pay a shitload of money to show the Eagles and Kyle Shanahan and this good Seattle team. We want these games. So that's where it's like well, NBC just doesn't get to monopolize corner the market on the sweetest games. They like the afternoon window and let's be real, the morning window a lot of weeks sucks. Some of the games get entertaining down the stretch, but it's not very good matchups. And the NFL is really turned into if you kind of take a step back Thursday night, Sunday afternoon, CBS and Fox, Romo Nance in the Brady game and then the Sunday night and Monday night game and Monday night can be a little hit or miss, but it's still Monday Night Football. It's fine, everyone enjoys it. Some games are better than others. But the Sunday morning games are not great. A lot of weeks, I mean are really bad. It's a lot of like Browns and Cardinals and Giants commanders. It's, it can be rough. Great Sunday night show, a little easier to keep up the great work. It is, I mean there's nothing better in football season. It does not get any easier than reacting to the games. It's, it's the best podcast if you, if you can't do that, you might as well quit. They really pay me for, you know, May, June, July. Question for the bag. I know the sexy pick for coach of the year is the Patriots or the Bears, but Seattle in a division with the Rams and the Niners not only win the division but lock up the one seed. If you wanted to vote for Mike McDonald, Mike McDonald, I wouldn't argue. I think it's really, really hard. I think Kyle once he loses that game is, is out because Mike would have to take him over. I, I, I think it was a group going into the last week of Five Guys, Vrabel, Liam Cohen, Ben Johnson, Mike McDonald and Kyle Shanahan. If I had to guess right now, I, I think Ben Johnson or Liam Cohen, I think they will get the nod over Variable. Schedule was so easy. I think that will be fair or not. I think Variable's a stud. If you voted for him, I, I don't wouldn't blame you. But I think that will be his undoing for the award. So my guess will be it will be Ben Johnson or Liam Cohen. Just because that organization was a joke, the one thing you'd say for Mike is he was unreal. This year they're he inherited a nine win team. I mean he didn't inherit the Bears. That would be the argument for Variable. He inherited a team that won eight games in two years. This. This is not even a question. It's basically my take on the Ravens. They played like shit all year. We should have been better all season. We aren't Harbaugh or Bunkin and Lamar. It was all a pro. Yeah, I agree. They put themselves in that position, started 1 and 5. Lamar missed a bunch of times. Their defense early in the season was awful. They still had a chance to win the game. And let's face. They should have won the game. One thing I didn't touch on after the game is they got conservative. Right. He had a time. He had. Did he have multiple timeouts when likely caught the ball? I guess they called a timeout when likely catches the ball. I think you could have been a little more aggressive, got a little closer. You had a rookie kicker into the win. Boswell just missed. Yeah, just. I'm with you. Whoever had lost that game, it's hard to feel sympathy for either side. Right. It just is a bigger kick in the nuts when you lose in that fashion. Why does ownership matter this much or so much? It seems like Mark Davis tries to do the right thing and stay out of the picture. As a Raider fan, I'm generally interested in. In ownership, interference. These teams interference tank these teams more than fans know. I actually, I've always said this about Mark Davis. You know, I was around him a little bit. And then he hires Gruden. He hired Josh McDaniels. He's like, you do it, you do it. Which is not Mike Brown. And that family's heavily involved. But he let Brady into the club, let him buy in. Now Tom has a lot of juice and by all accounts, like, John Spytak didn't want Chip Kelly. That's a classic. Tom Brady, Chip Kelly's boys with Belichick. That was the dumbest hire ever. It's like Chip Kelly and Pete Carroll. This is never going to work. So, like, Tom has taken a role. Like, he's pretty involved. Everyone that's. That knows more than me is like, reporting this. The people in the Raiders building call him the boss. And ownership all over the league. I'll use this example today when I'm getting my podcast ready. I don't like, hey, these are the seven things I'm gonna. I'm gonna talk about today. These are my angles, and I forward them off to Colin and three other people at the volume, and they go, ah, like this, don't like this. Let's go with this. I just do whatever I want, right? Kyle Shanahan and John lynch less need. And Sean McVeigh. When they want, John Schneider. When they want to do something, they do it. Obviously they tell ownership, but ownership lets them do whatever they want. I'm getting rid of DK Metcalf. Cool. Your decision, like that's, that's not the way it works in places. And Jeffrey Lurie, how are you doing? What do you want to do this off season? We're going to trade A.J. brown. Let it rip, Howie. So when someone tells you and micromanages you and listen when the guy's signing your checks, what are you going to say? You say nothing. You do what they tell you to do. So it becomes difficult. I think Mark Davis's downfall hired the wrong coaches. You know, let's face it, Gruden thing. I like Gruden. He entertains me online. It was not going that well. It really wasn't. I like Mike Mayock too, that. That wasn't going to work. I mean, come on, let's. Let's be real. And the Josh McDaniels thing, like I supported. I thought it made sense. Blew up in his face. Blew up in his face. So if you hire the wrong people, even if you don't meddle, that will fail. If you do meddle, you don't really know what you're talking about and you just make things more complicated. So I think it's a lot of just chiming in with your ideas. More of a podcast question. I'm not sure you've answered this, but will you continue to do live post game reactions once the Netflix deal hits? If so, will it be an opportunity for you to put out an audio only version somewhere that is simultaneously live? I think we're still working on the live situation. Obviously the season's close to over, but next season, I mean, I. We're dealing with a progressive company here that I don't see why as we work through this that, that I. Hopefully it's available. The audio for the podcasts have been consistent the entire time we've been doing video. They typically come out early in the morning the following day. This is a very fluid process. So I don't have all the answers. We will. I will try to hammer that down the next couple weeks. Probably gonna have a baby, I would imagine, in the next 10ish days. So it's. We're in a fluid part of my world. I'm not quite sure everything. I don't have all the answers. I guess I will get them to you as soon as I know them. I sound like a coach when there's an injury. Like I'm not a doctor. But we will let you know when we know. I I truly don't. But I I don't. The audio is not going to change. The the audio will come out when it's been coming out. I'm pretty sure which will be the first thing in the morning. Why is everyone saying there shouldn't be a massive pressure on Josh Allen to make the Super Bowl? I'm tired of people saying the Bills roster is horrible. He doesn't have the play of Burrow Lamar or the guy who beat him four times with Mahomes. He is by far the best quarterback. I think there's tangible pressure on them. I think he would get a lot of credit if we look up and they're in the Super Bowl. He got to win this week. I get the Jags are really good. Gotta be Trevor Lawrence and the Jacks. That's a big game for him. You get a lot of credit if he wins because they're good. But like that's tough to be one and done in the playoffs in the prime of your career. But what happens if he plays well? He throws four touchdowns and they lose by 10 points. Is that his fault? Let it play out. But 100 there's pressure on him. He's playing Trevor Lawrence who's been awesome. Would you trade Mike Tomlin for Mike McDaniel? The dolphins need a culture setter and the Steelers need to develop. Mike McDaniel can now be the coach of the Steelers. Can't happen. There's just no way. The Rooney family would Never hire Mike McDaniel. Ever see how cold that guy looks in cold weather games? He would not even be on the short list when I hire him as my offensive coordinator. If I was sure Mike McDaniel's never going to be the coach of the Steelers. If Mike McDonne Mike McDaniel is a coach of another NFL team. It'd be like the Cardinals. You know. It'd be a team like that. It would not. He would never be the coach of the Steelers. Mike Tomlin coach of the dolphins 100 I could see that. Mike McDaniel, though. Never. I grew up on rugby. I cannot believe someone that hasn't. Someone from that world hasn't sold themselves to a team. As a tackling expert, I know NFL players think they tackle well and some do. But I cannot believe how many missed tackles I see every week. I just watched the Steelers running back run through four weak tackles. I think he's talking about the Jalen Warren Run on the outside every year or every yard counts. Coaching staff wouldn't want to do that. Like what am I paying the linebacker coach 750 grand for what am I paying my defensive coordinator 2, 2 million dollars for? If anything, those guys should reach out on their own time and figure out some techniques. But if I'm an owner, I, I would. Why do. What are my coaches teaching? I also think this, You know, the practice in football has changed dramatically. You don't really practice tackling. So it's hard to not really practice tackling and then just play in games against Jalen Warren. Expect a win in a one on one spot. I think that factors in in a big, big way. Listen to you and Colin about Mendoza's comp. It's Burrow good, not great arm but really good down the field. Accuracy comfortable when flush from the pocket and can throw in the move. Not a runner but has mobility. This guy's like a scout. Most similarly clutch in the fourth quarter late game situations. Oregon, Iowa, Penn State and Iowa State all required Mendoza to score, keep possessions and he never blinked. I don't hate that at all. I think there are some similarities there for sure. You know, a lot of Joe Burrow's ability is just he's not the most physically gifted guy, doesn't have the biggest arm, is definitely not the fastest, isn't the tallest. He's just really good even though he didn't really play that good kind of down the stretch of the season. But I don't hate that at all. The Matt Ryan thing, Matt Ryan to me couldn't move. So I see more of a mobile. I, I like the Joe Burrow. Like Joe Burrow can move, you know, like a taller Purdy. He can move, he can make plays with his legs. I'm trying to think of some other guys. I actually think there are a lot of similarities. Trevor Lawrence a better athlete, but I think the physical arm coming out of college, I think there's some similarities there. How do the Niners get pressure next week? I just don't see it. This no slash can't pressure game plan is agonizing to watch. They don't have any pass rushers so how are they going to get pressure? They're not. I guess you could blitz the house. If you blitz the house with a mobile quarterback. You saw this with Caleb and with Jalen. If they want to make you pay with their legs, they can. To me, if I'm Kevin Patola, there's the 49ers D winners is going to be out for this game and Tatum Bethune is out for the season. The Niners do not have any linebackers and their defensive line is decimated. I think they had multiple defensive line injuries in that game. Saquon Barkley, if he doesn't have 30 plus carries in this game, I would fire him on the spot. If the 49ers beat the Eagles in this game, how is he gonna be firing some people? Because there's no. They have no business losing because their defense is just decimated. They should. If, if you told me right now over. Under rushing attempts for the Eagles, if it's not well over 35, they're not doing it right. I mean, that's. That'd be really bad. I think the 49ers are in a lot of trouble. You. You just. You can't lose that many players on defense because this is an offense where it's like, I can scheme DeMarcus Robinson up, I can call some plays for Kendrick Bourne. What am I supposed to do for a pass rusher that can't rush the passer? What am I supposed to do for a practice squad linebacker in a playoff game against Saquon Barkley? It's really difficult. So I. You might as well just throw the kids in sink at him. My game plan would be simple. Listen, you just kind of got to lean on Lenore Stout and Bernardo Green and hopefully they can kind of COVID the wide receivers. And I would just blitz the house and stack the box and be like, you know, we're just. We're just going to try to somewhat neutralize. If Saquon keeps Saquon under 75, 80 yards and just take our chances with Jalen down the field. But if Saquon. If you told me right now he rushes for 140, 150, 160 yards, the Niners would be in major trouble. The other thing is their defense is pretty good and they got multiple pass rushers. They got good linebacker play. It's. It's going to be hard. It would be. It would be one of Kyle's truly great wins with the roster that he's coming in with. Truly would be, which I think Ricky Pierce saw. Kyle said today that, you know, re injured his PCL before that game, so I would guess he's not going to play. I don't know. I think the Niners remarkable accomplishment winning some of these games. Winning that Bears game was crazy. But I just, I think they're. They're just out of bodies and there's no reinforcements coming. So all the pressures on the Eagles, they are favored in this game. They should win this game. But I guess that's why you snap the ball. That's why you kick it off. Play 60, maybe get some turnovers, maybe you got freaky shit to happen. But Robert Sala is going to have to just dial up some blitzes or. I don't even know. I don't. I don't even know what you can do. Clearly, they're going to have to score points. I mean, they're going to have to be in the high 20s to me to have a shot to win any playoff game. Adios.