John Middelkopf (21:20)
He takes off and he gets in some trouble. The Chiefs are like, well, stand by our man. They're like, Tammy won that. They're like, we're not going anywhere. And I don't blame him because that dude is a baller. He is by far their best offensive player. Travis Kelsey. No, he's a bright lights player. He had a fantastic touchdown. And you're like, are they going to score 50 points in this game? And the thing is with the Cowboys, like, okay, you want to get into a scoring contest. The one thing that isn't debatable, and here's where I was wrong about Dallas, is at the beginning, really going back to when Jerry made Brian Schottenheimer the coach. I like most people, and I don't want to say I was like a sheep or fell into group think here, but this guy wasn't getting hired by anyone else to be their offensive coordinator. Now that would have been wrong because clearly he's an excellent offensive coordinator. We're watching his work on a weekly basis. He's really good at his job. But there is no other team in the NFL that would hire him be the offensive coordinator. Fair enough. And definitely no other team would have hired him to be their head coach. And sitting here after Thanksgiving, heading into December, he's been fantastic. And just as an offensive coordinator, he's been pretty elite. I mean his rapport with this quarterback, Dak Prescott. Today we had some really good performances by quarterbacks. Mahomes played well, obviously the two guys in the morning, I mean Jordan Love was, I thought fantastic. That Prescott was just elite. I mean that's, that was especially spags defense. You know, they got some momentum. It's not like they're not playing for anything now. He is parlayed. When they made those trades, whatever three weeks ago, the game against the Raiders, the game against the Eagles and the game against the, the Chiefs, even Brian Schadenheimer in that, in that locker room was like, how about those four days? I even think when you factor in the Raiders. Now I understand the Raiders are a complete joke. Their. Their coach, a Report came out today. Chip Kelly like didn't know the plays, was calling in the wrong plays, was calling in plays to Geno Smith that they hadn't even installed and the players didn't know. It's like Chip, are you boozing or something? Like what the going on? Like what I. I've been on this for a while. I'm not gonna beat a dead horse. But like that performance against the Raiders was really high level. Then you, then you bring that to the Eagles comeback was like really impressive today. Felt like the icing on the cake. What an incredible three day run. I mean incredible three day run for Jerry as the gm because I do think we talk about Jerry sometimes. Obviously they get discussed all the time by all major shows, by the major networks, by a lot of podcasts. Like they're just a major story and they're in the mix with making trades and doing big time stuff. Micah Parsons trade is, I don't know, one of the bigger trades of like my adult life. Trading two first round picks for a potential hall of Fame pass rusher. Like it doesn't happen very often. And I mean literally. I think him and Khalil Mack are the only time a guy's ever been like all pros under 25, you usually give those guys a second contract. So it's just going to make waves now. I thought the Schottenheimer hire was crazy. I did not think the Micah Parsons trademark was crazy. Now once he starts trading for Quinn and Williams, I'm like, this is Jerry's like just kind of gunslinging right now. But every time you look up, 92's in the backfield. George Pickens field J threw this out before today. Now the Steelers haven't played, but coming into today he had more receiving yards than the entire Steelers receiving core. He is D.K. metcalf isn't the number one wide receiver. Like I got news for you. But the Steelers pay him $150 million like he's Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson. Meanwhile, Pickens today I saw a stat had four slants that he ran that went for a combined 75 yards. Last time I checked, slants where you're catching the ball, I don't know. No more than 7, 8 yards by the time the ball hits your hands past the line of scrimmage. His ability after the catch for a guy that it's not like he's worthy or DK Metcalf in terms, it's not like he's a 4:2 guy, but making guys miss breaking tackles Using angles. George Pickens has been elite, but that's why George or Brian Schottenheimer deserves credit. Because when you trade for a guy like that, you're like, how are you, how are you going to use him? How are you going to handle this personality? Then the Cowboys get him and he becomes Dax. I mean, a lot of this season has been his number one target, has been the most productive player on the field. I mean, how many times a day it's like it's probably going to go to George and something big happened. And obviously CD Lamb had a massive game. So you're keeping these two guys. I mean, there's a story that comes out a couple weeks ago. It's like they're boozing late night and I gave him respect. Kind of like a throwback to my youth. A couple dudes on the road all nighter and who even knows what exactly is true, but who cares. Brian Schaden item are completely unfazed. Play the Eagles, both those guys crush. Play the Chiefs Thanksgiving, front of 45, 50 million people. Both those guys make huge plays and a huge reason that they win. Obviously, you know, Ferguson had the play that I guess it was overturned, but every time I watch him I go, listen, I understand he's. This isn't George Kittle, but he's pretty good player. I mean, I think he's just extremely productive. Their entire offense just produces. I mean, what was Dak today? 27 to 39, couple touchdowns, 320 yards. CD Lamb, seven catches, 112, Pickens 6 for 88. Ferguson 5 for 36. Javante Williams, productive. Malik Davis had the big touchdown run. Their offense is just legit. So it's like my head coach, who is. And here's the thing, it's not like some random dude who was coaching like John Carroll and then got like a quarterback job on some shitty team and just all of a sudden came out of nowhere. Like, this guy's been around football since he was shitting in diapers. Like, this guy's a football guy through and through from day one. And once upon a time in his 30s, he was like a shooting star and didn't pounce on the opportunity. This is why assistant coaches have told me over the years when I'm like, bro, why are you taking that offensive coordinator job? And they go, john, two things. One, they signed me to a three year contract at each year's worth. Over. And this is like over the years, over 800 to 900 to a million dollars. This is like 10 years ago now. An offensive coordinator jobs pay like 1.2, $1.5 million for guys that have never been coordinators before. So they pay a premium. And once you kind of get in that mix, you're just kind of in that mix. And like this guy was a stud. This guy was a star. But then his career kind of got derailed like after that Jet situation. When he didn't take a head coaching job over the course of the 2010s he was kind of all over the map. I mean at one point in time he was the Georgia offensive coordinator. In the mid-2010s. This was after the jets had him as their offensive coordinator in his mid to late 30s and they were the number one rushing offense. Back to back years in the AFC championship game. Back to back years, the New York jets. And like five years later, he's coaching the Georgia Bulldogs. And this ain't the Kirby Smart Georgia Bulldogs. This is Mark Richt. So like, listen, sometimes your career goes down the wrong path for some people. It ruins them and they never become, you know, a coordinator or head coach again and they just kind of get lost in the shuffle. Now this isn't the worst industry to work in that still gets paid a lot of money, but there had to be a time and point in this guy's career where he thought this was never going to happen. And then he gets it and then the Parsons trades happens. The whole media thinks like this whole thing's going to crumble. And even at one point in time it's like, ah, it's going to be a pretty big uphill battle. Now you're looking at them 6, 5 and 1. They play the Lions next week in what could be honestly an elimination game. I think Dan Campbell said after the game that St. Brown's not out for the season, but he's definitely going to miss next week. So they're going to be missing their best wide receiver. The Cowboys defense ever since, since getting Quinn and Williams looks like a completely different unit. I mean Quinn and Williams is all over the place. Clowney, Jadavion Clowney had multiple sacks today. The dude they traded for from the Cincinnati Bengals, he's been excellent. Obviously they're get over shown back, he's making plays. Their defense just looks completely different since the trading deadline. So like when I see Jerry on James Slater's Instagram or Twitter page with a huge piece of turkey in his hand with a big ass smile like he should be swinging that thing around. This was an incredible, like, this is where you get credit. Like, listen, what are Most owners doing right? Not much. They hire their guys and listen they ideally good ones give them the, give them the money but like they're not wheeling and dealing. Like Jerry's a huge part of this. Jerry's the ones like Micah Parsons out. He's even kind of admitted during that preseason game when Micah Parsons laid on the training table. I think Jerry said within the last month he's like I, I've owned this team for whatever 35 years. Never seen that happen in my entire career. Like I really pissed him off. Just like it would have pissed anybody off. It would have pissed coaches off, owners off, GMs off. It was embarrassing but I didn't listen Micah. They were at odds and they split up and everyone took Micah side and listen the packers don't regret it. I'm watching Micah today. There was that one play was kind of a broken play and he kind of comes around. Goff kind of holds on. He crushed him. Michael's flying around like Mike is a really good player. But like do you think Cowboys regret doing that? No. This is kind of a win win so far this year. And then they parlayed it. I think a lot of people were stunned when they trade for Quinn and Williams. He's a 27 year old elite defensive tackle. He's really, really good. They still have two picks. Now. Are the, are the Cowboys going to make the playoffs this year? I still doubt it. Right. Even if you go best case scenario like 10, 6 and 1. I doubt that gets you into the playoffs, but you'd have a chance. But if I would have told anyone alive that November 27th, when the Thanksgiving Day, when that game ends that the Chiefs and the Cowboys are going to have the same amount of victories, there's not a soul that would have believed you. I don't think Jerry Jones would have believed you. It's just a remarkable accomplishment this year from the Cowboys. And one thing is like what about the penalties? What about the flags? Officiating in football sucks. It's bad all the time. Like really, really bad. There are calls that could go either way all the time. There are calls that are made that should have gone the other way. So if you want to say that these past interferences shouldn't be called. Yeah like I'm anti past interference call most times. Let the guys duke it out. I fucking despise, I mean despise defensive holding. It's my least favorite call in sports. It's so over called. But it's football. The Chiefs have benefited a ton over the years. From calls. It's, it happens. Like I didn't watch that game and think the Dallas Cowboys won because of the officiating. I think Dallas played a really good game and I don't think the Chiefs were that bad either. Right. I mean what was Mahomes today? Bring up that box score. He was 23 at 34 through four touchdowns. If I would have told you at the beginning of the day going into the Cowboy game, then my homes would be 23 at 34 for four touchdowns and no picks. You would have probably said the Chiefs win by 4 or I mean win, win by 10, win by win by double digits. Because you would assume probably. Well, I bet Kareem Hunt gets a running rushing touchdown. It's probably 35. It's like the Cowboys offense is good, but I can see the Chiefs making some plays and win that game like 35 or 33 to you know, 20, 23. That's not what happened. Okay, Cowboys score 31 and, and that's where going back. The thing they hang their hat on is they're so explosive on offense. And you go back, obviously the Raider game was a joke. I mean, I mean you're playing again. I, I mean the stories about the offensive coordinator are b, are as embarrassing as anything you're going to hear. And while I do think Tom Brady has really, really improved on tv, I mean dramatically. I think Tom Brady's pretty good now. He's solid. He's an easy listen thought he was better than Tony Romo and Jason Garrett. I mean whatever that NBC executive is that thinks Jason Garrett is like the next John Madden. I, I, I don't root for people lose their jobs, especially with AI incoming, you might never get one back. But that guy should be relieved of his duties, you know, I mean come on man. I respect Collins Worth has in his contract. I do not work Thanksgivings. Even though Romo works. Even though Brady works. Chris Collinsworth does not. Tareco works. Tariko's gonna be doing Sunday Night Football. But we get Jason Garrett. I, I take anyone else, Anyone else. I should I take Collinsworth's kid. I don't care. You can't give me Jason Garrett. But the offense is just, it's, it's been unreal to watch and I, I don't know if he can win the MVP because I do think Stafford, if the Rams win 14 games and you know, he only his stats are awesome and he's clearly just a dominant player week in, week out. I think he's going to have a pretty good I think the story matters a lot. It was kind of like Josh Allen last year. People kind of wanted to vote for him. But Daxman, pretty good man, and the team's been pretty good. Schottenheimer's been awesome. Jerry deserves a lot of credit. It really does. And I think when you look big picture, you go, well, we got two first round picks next year, so we're going to have. Even if we miss the playoffs and win nine or 10 games, we're going to have a lot of momentum into next year. Clearly our head coach is a play caller, so we don't have to worry about losing our offensive coordinator. We have some young dudes on defense. Quinn Williams under contract. He ain't going anywhere. Kenny Clark's under contract. He ain't going anywhere. Add a couple edge rushers and look at your division. Like, Washington was the oldest team in the league this year. They got, they got a lot of problems. Debo's been pretty productive for them. Debo's a free agent. Laramie Tunzel is going to want to get paid. So, you know, can Jaden Daniel stay healthy? And the Giants got a long way to go before they even have a long way to go. I mean, we got no clue what the hell's going on there, right? Even though we all like a lot of their pieces. Like, they don't even have a coach, let alone like who's running the draft and free agency. Like, is the GM gonna survive? So we'll have to see how that thing shakes out. If I'm a Cowboy fan, I'm pretty proud right now. And Jerry's taking a lot of shit. And listen, they have underachieved in the playoffs. And I was messing around with people on Twitter during the middle of the day. Having a few, having a few cocktails. The Cowboys have been a well run organization over the last 10 plus years. Really. In the Dak era, they have had some really good teams. The downfall has been Dak did not play well in the big games in the McCarthy era, they had two really good teams. They lost to the 49ers twice with defenses that I thought could have won a Super Bowl. And the reason they lost those games is Dak played like shit. I think he had three picks in the two games combined. One of the games he had two picks. He was bad, he just was not good. And obviously the game against the packers, the defense completely fell apart and he, I think you remember he threw a pick six. But in the two Niner games, like that team that lost the packers they had some issues the previous two seasons. The year I guess it would have been 22. They were really good on defense and if Dak just played solid, they would have competed for a Super bowl. And obviously McCarthy and Kellen Moore, a lot of people got blamed there. Stacks just didn't play well. That's the thing about football, you know, in basketball, in a seven game series, if I had the better team than you and I got Steph Curry or I got Jokic or some Luka on my team, they could have a bad game like game two. Luca can score 17 points and we lose by 20. Whatever. See you tomorrow. See game three. Football's. The playoffs are not like that. It's what, it's what makes the sport so unique. You have one shitty game, you have one bad half, it could cost you a Super bowl run. And that's kind of what's happened to the Cowboys. And I've always said this about Dak. Just like Jared Goff, just like a lot of the Kirk Cousins, they're capable back to back weeks in the playoffs if everything's going right. Like they could throw seven touchdowns over two games and be right there in a championship game or depending on their seed, be in a Super Bowl. It's possible. We've seen it happen before. It happened with Flacco. He got red hot. Where was his team? Super Bowl? Eli did it twice. It's gonna put him in the hall of Fame one day because he got red hot at the right time. And that's, you know, I do think Dak shows this in individual games in the regular season all the time. Like he can play at a really, really high level. And their success with this Dak Prescott era is like whenever they get another opportunity in a playoff game, can he just throw for like three touchdowns? Not in a game too where. The one playoff game that he won during the McCarthy era, they were playing the Bucks. It was Brady's last year and they were just done. Brady was checked out. They were terrible. They couldn't. I think they were historically poor at running the ball and deck, if I remember correctly, threw like five touchdowns and was awesome. But they need that against a team that actually, you know, it's like they're equal, not a team they're going to beat. And he hasn't done it. But I, I think like most people that watch football, he's easy to like, he's kind of earned, he like earned your respect over the course of his career. It's like, God, I kind of like, like this guy like watching him play, just, he's just a good player. Now I understand his playoff resume speaks for itself and that's the only way that he's ever going to be able to kind of validate everything. And if he could just get the Cowboys to the championship game over the course of the next like three years. Because now they're kind of in a little window, right? They're probably not going to make the playoffs this year. I wouldn't completely write them dead right now. I mean there's, there's hot as a team in the league. I mean the four game, the four day stretch, they just had that come back against the Eagles in the end of days. Gotta be one of the better four day stretches in recent Cowboy memory. Especially when you just factor in the two teams they beat. To do that to Philly and then to do that to Kansas City. And I understand this Kansas City team, like, I actually think they're not that bad. I mean their defense isn't quite as good, but offensively like they're playing pretty good. Mahomes is playing well. Rasheed Rice is dominating. Kelsey's been relatively productive. I think they'd like a little bit more out of Xavier Worthy. You know, you draft him in the first round now Grant is the end of the first round. There was a big play today that he had that went for 42 yards, is a great example. Some of the great elite speed guys, Tyreek Hill, desean Jackson, guys Andy have had, can take a play like that and kind of look and go, I'm going to cut this thing big back and just basically play one on one with the safety. Instead, Xavier Worthy just kind of keeps his momentum and just keeps running and ends up running into like his other wide receiver and a db and the safety comes over and the play just kind of ends. That's a play that Tyreek Hill or desean Jackson just hit the brakes, cut on a dime, take off going 50 miles an hour and score a touchdown. And it's the play of the day and he doesn't quite have that capability. Again, he's not bad, but I think you'd like a little, if you had that extra oomph with him, with Rice, with the way Kelsey's playing, they would be a pretty dominant offense. But it does show you like they're very dependent on Rasheed Rice, who's a pretty dominant player. I mean at 8 for 92, a couple touchdowns a day, they can give the ball in the, out of the backfield on end arounds, uh, you know I think the running game, Kareem Hunt's been really good for them in terms of short yard stuff. But do they have a true guy that they can rely on? But the offense, they couldn't stop him. Now you can say, oh, the penalties, penalties. I mean that wasn't that. The knock on the Chiefs over the years is they get way more penalties than the other team. I, I just, I kind of hate doing that. And I get it. I mean those couple toward the end of the game are huge. I mean, the Cowboys got what the or The Chiefs got 10 penalties for 120 yards, Cowboys seven for 50. I mean, it's a really, really big deal. But I don't know, I mean, I just hate, I just hate playing that game. It obviously doesn't have no impact, but it's like, are the Chiefs a nine win team if they're getting better calls? I think they're just not quite as good and they're missing a little something on defense. And I do think that now when you start looking at the math, the playoffs are probably not going to happen this year and you know, they'll probably end up going 9 and 8 or 10 and 7, miss the playoffs. And it does feel like we're kind of at the end of the Kelsey Chris Jones era. You think now maybe, you know, I thought Travis Kelsey would retire after the season maybe if they don't make the playoffs and he gets January off and he gets a much longer off season that he comes back. Because if you're given five, six catches a game, it's not like they're going to kick you to the curb, right? It's not like they wouldn't want him back. They have to pay for him anyway. Like, you know, he's under contract so you know, Chris Jones is a guy that still makes big time plays, but is he someone that you can just depend on on a weekly basis? I think they were going to have to find kind of their next generation of impact guy on defense. And it's hard, you know, to do it typically when you're drafting 31st, 32nd every single year. Now maybe you draft 18th, maybe you get aggressive and you get up to like 10th and that's what the Chiefs are going to have to do. Potentially this off season is like if you're drafting 18th or 19th, does Veeche just go, you know what, fuck it, let's take the 271 and go from 18 to 7 and get the second best edge rusher in this draft and kind of put all of his chips in the table for next year and do something aggressive like that. And that's where I think the Chiefs are in a position where they can do aggressive things that other teams probably hesitant to do because I think, listen, they're going to keep battling their ass off and playing hard. But, you know, they were, you know, Tony was kind of breaking it down on the broadcast. When you looked at the, at the standings, if you just look at the conference, they are 6 and 6 right now and sitting in ninth. Well, the Texans are 6 and 5. The Bills are technically the 7 seed at 7 and 4. So if the Bills beat the Steelers this week, they'll be 8 and 4. The Jags play the Titans Sunday, so more than likely they'll be 8 and 4. So two teams that beat you are going to be 8 and 4. I think the Texans, I don't know if they're the hottest team in the league, but their defense is playing as well as any unit in the NFL. They play the Colts this week. I don't know if you saw the clip on Daniel Jones. He can't move. So I don't know about you, I'm taking the Texans in that game. You know, it is. They despise and like their value of Anthony Richardson is so low that they would rather play a guy that cannot move against a defense that literally could break your other leg than be like, you know what, we're going to give him the week off and play Anthony Richardson. Who knows? Maybe Anthony Richardson ends up playing. But this week could be pretty devastating for the Chiefs. You lose and the Texans, the Bills and the Jags all win. I think it's very likely that that scenario plays out. The Texans, the Bills and the Jags all win. Chargers, a little bit of a wild card because they have so many injuries, but I just checked, they play the Raiders this week. So, I mean, there's a decent chance that all three of those teams, Chargers, Jags, Bills are 8 and 4 and the Texans win and they're 7 and 5 and they've already beat you. So it just, it's one of those scenarios where the Chiefs, and this is why the Ravens are a little lucky that the Steelers are just such a disaster that their slow start doesn't completely derail their season. When you start 1 in 5, if you are in a credible division, you have 0% chance to win it. The only way you have a chance to win a division at one in five is if you're in a division with awful teams because 9 and 8, I mean, it's going to be hard to achieve, right? If you get 10 wins in the AFC north, you're going to win that thing by multiple games. I'd bet a thousand dollars right now, nine and eight wins the game or wins the division. So I think, you know, you look at the Chiefs, it's like some years, 10 and seven, boom, get you the 17. Some years, you know, you got to win some tiebreakers with 11 wins to get in. And it feels like that's the case with the Chiefs. So listen, hell of a run. Five super bowl, six years, not the end of the world. I also think that they could flip this thing pretty easy in the off season, kind of transition to next year. Because, listen, I think Mahomes, he's still really good, but I think he's closer to, you know, this version of Lamar obviously is not an elite guy. You know, Burrow's been injured all season. Josh Allen's kind of been all over the map. No one's really playing of all the top guys to their elite caliber. But Mahomes is the same thing again. He's still really good. I would take him on my team in a freaking heartbeat over 95% of these other guys. But like, he has moments in the game where it's like, oh, that's really impressive throw. And he has other moments where, ah, I'd like a little more and like, maybe he's just going to be a really, really good player. The days of his, you know, time being the most dominant guy is over. He's just going to be really good, which is fine. And now I think, you know, Veech would be the first to tell you it's on me to build a really good team. So I need to pick the right players on defense so I can get. I clearly have, you know, Andy and Spags, we just need a little more oomph. We need better players. I think I saw a report when I was scrolling, maybe at halftime that Josh Sim or Simmons, that's the first name Josh broke his wrist, the star left tackle from Ohio State. So that's not ideal. I mean, last time I checked, you break your wrist probably out for the season. It's just not their year.
