John Middlekauff (2:17)
What is happening everybody? How are we doing? John middlekop three and Out Podcast hopefully everyone is having a good Friday and the game plan today will be a little thing we call the middlekop Mailbag. We're going to empty the clip here, do a big, big mailbag. So at johnmittlekopf@johnmittlecoff is the Instagram fire in those DMs. We're doing a big mailbag. It's Fugazi Friday, but we're gonna be happy today. No fugazi today because it's Masters weekend and I'm just gonna bang out a bunch of mailbag questions. So fire in those DMs. We'll get you next week. It's obviously a little slower time in the lead up to the draft, so fire in those dms and get your question answered here on the show. But before we dive in, you know I got to tell you about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Best ticketing app I've ever used by a mile. We got baseball in full swing, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs. You want to go to any event, concert, comedy show, download that app. You can search by venue, you can search by team, you can search by price point at the arena or the stadium or the venue that you're looking at. It kind of maps it out. It gives you sight lines. It doesn't get any easier to use. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use the code JOHN for $20 off. Your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code JOHN for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today, last minute. Take his lowest price guaranteed. Okay, guys, let's start with with this question some nice words. Huge Bills fan, very proud of our team despite not coming through when it mattered. My question is about coaching. During the game, obviously we were having trouble with the tush push versus the Chiefs on the pivotal 4th and 1. Who's making the call in that scenario? Is it Brady or is it McDermott or is it Joe and McDermott approving it in real time? I think the thing that makes football so fascinating that that is a question that the only people that know that answer, like Josh Allen, probably doesn't even know that answer, right. They have to buzz in to get to the headset. That could be just the offensive coaching staff, I would imagine during the week. I think it's fair to assume that they thought, and rightfully so, that Josh Allen, who's a thoroughbred, could convert short yarded situations. And it was not working in that game. Now, late in the game, I think there were multiple spots in the second half. Does Brady go, hey coach, you still like this quarterback sneaks or do you want to try something else? Very possible. Could it be just like McDermott lets him call the game and if he's got an opinion, hey, Joe, let's, let's mix in a screen pass. Hey, Joe, let's, let's mix in a play action bootleg. Sure, he's the boss. I don't know. It's a great question. I think because they kept running it. I think it's fair to assume that Brady, he just let Brady call the game because if they would have tried something else, you would think that he would have chimed in on the headset like, hey, let's throw a curveball here. But not only they not throw a curveball, they were like throwing BP fastballs. Mike, Carolina Panther fan here. I know we're still owned by Tepper and had the worst defense statistically in NFL history. I did not know that. But have we graduated from the little Porta Potty Panthers? It was a roller coaster for Canales and even Bryce did look like a real player in the last nine weeks. And it seems like him and Dan Morgan and the GM are aligned. What are your thoughts for those of you new to the show early on in the year when they look like one of the worst teams in the history of the sport? I nickname them the Porta Potty Panthers because they were so smelly. You know, like when you get into a Porta Potty in the summer and that humidity and that heat and even if you just need to take a leak and you look down and the toilet seats up and there's like Mount Everest down there of just disgustingness and that smell when you're trapped in there, even if it's just for 30 seconds or 45 seconds. I remember a couple years ago I went to Morgan Wallen at Chase Field in the heat of summer in Arizona, the Porta Potties. I mean it was, it was rough, man. It was rough. I saw one of the amateurs today at the Masters. He's actually from Arizona State. He's a Spanish kid. He, he went, he took a piss into the creek on like the 13th hole, which I can't imagine Augusta was cool with. But he said he really had to pee and he did it. So I would say yes, you graduated from the Port A Pond Panthers. And to me, the coolest part, if I'm a Panther fan, your team roster wise, pretty shitty last year should be vastly improved. Now. Does that mean nine, 10 wins? I don't know. But it did look early in the season like Bryce Young was headed to the ufl. I mean, it looked like he was an all time bust. Now I don't know if he's ever going to live up to being the Number one player in the. In the NFL draft, but he was really good. I watched a decent amount of you guys down the stretch like, he was a good player. So listen, you don't start from Nick Saban for multiple seasons without being really mentally tough. Like, I'm not the biggest to a guy as a player. I respect his mental toughness. If you play for Nick and start at any position, let alone quarterback, like, you got some serious shit to you. And I think Bryce kind of proved that last year of, like, not getting rid of me this easy, you think I'm going to fucking tap out. So congrats to him. What are your thoughts on a head coach and coordinator switching roles on a different team? Like Staley and Kellen Moore, who was the OC and head coach of the Chargers. Now more and Staler, the head Coach and the D.C. for the Saints. I just think it's like a little, I scratch your back, you scratch my back. You know, it's. It's a unique business where there aren't that many jobs. There are only 32 head coach, D.C. and OC jobs. So when a guy takes care of you, when you get fired, it does feel like guys take care of them on the. On the reverse. I think highly of Kellen Moore. I'm a big fan. I. Brandon Staley is one of my biggest red flags in my life, any walk of life, any industry, politics included. But he took care of care of Kellen. So I think Kellen kind of paid him back. I would not have done that. I'd hire someone. I didn't know who's good, but Kellen hired him. I don't even think Brandon State is that good of a defensive coordinator. He had one good year as a defensive coordinator with the Rams when they had Aaron Donald in the prime of his career, who's basically like Reggie White or Lawrence Taylor and Jalen Ramsey in the COVID season. But. And you got to be careful, like, if the defensive coordinator sucks, you're an offensive head coach as the play caller and gets you in trouble. Wonder if you watch McAfee and the Big Night Show. I'm a fan and love the show. Great guests, huge giveaways. Are you a McAfee fan? And if you think and if you watch the event, what do you think? I. I have a lot of admiration for what he's built. I mean, he started this thing from scratch, and he's built something that Disney has no control over. What a legend. And he's brought his buddies with him. Now, am I like a Daily Watcher. I'm not. There are certain interviews I definitely watch of them. I. I did watch some last night. I clicked on it when Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg came out. I'm like, this is awesome. I mean, Pat and Snoop, they were high. They were higher than a kite. I mean, Snoop hand in Pat and pass like dancing. I'm like, this is. Dude, sold out. An arena had Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg getting high on stage. I was like, this guy, man. And I watched when Parker McCollum came out and then Sidney Crosby and Roethlisberger. So, yeah, I got a lot of respect. And when the traditional media hates you, I'm just naturally gonna like you because I usually disagree and hate everything they like. And it does feel like that all those type hate Pat. Like, Pat's built something. Like, people love going on a show, love going on a show. It's really impressive what they built from scratch. I have had trouble trying to formulate this question, but I'm going to try to ask you. How do you separate team and city history regarding football? For example, I'm a Colts fan from Indy, and obviously the Colts used to be in Baltimore. So I do. I view the history of The Colts before 84 as Baltimore claim or Indianapolis claim to part of history. You can ask similar questions with the Browns, the Raiders and the Rams. What city claims, team history? It's a complicated question. I do think if the move happened before you were born and the team claims it, it's like if you're a Laker fan and they say they have whatever, 20 titles or whatever that number is 18. Some of those are from when, you know, when they were in Minnesota. I don't even know when they moved. 60s. Yeah. I mean, if you want to claim that, some people will make fun of you. I don't care. Now, if you're the Raider, like, if you're a Vegas Raider fan, it depends. Like, if you were an Oakland Raider fan and you're like 60 years old, you can claim everything, right? If you're like 15 years old and you live in Vegas and you're a Raider fan now because they moved, are you claiming, like, Rich Gannon? That's where it gets weird. If you're a rams fan in LA and you're like 30 years old, like, you don't get to pound your chest about Kurt Warner and Marshall Falk. So I think it depends. That's a good question. I also think those type things are kind of. I mean, that's like really nerdy argument when you're either really drunk or you just got way too much time on your hands. Like to me, when I, when I close my eyes and think the Colts, I think Harbaugh in the 90s, they actually drafted Marshall folk, Peyton Manning Luck. It also, you're right. I mean it depends how old you are. Johnny Unitis, big fan of the show. How does a team draft board look? Does a team have a list of 400 players ranked or is it more like a board with a few players at each team's projected pick with who they are happy to draft? Curious to hear your teams organize the board well, you wouldn't have it like organized by each pick because you could trade a lot. So you usually do it. You know, some teams do it by whether you're like a starter, a backup or you know, fringe guy. Most teams probably do it by rounds. The board that they kind of go off during the draft. When I was with the Eagles, we probably had more players than most teams. I always heard stories that the Patriots didn't have many players. I don't think it's 400. I would guess I'd have to text some people. Most a good team like the Chiefs or the Ravens would probably have a couple hundred players up there. Now there are going to be players that you go, hey, this guy is going to get drafted in the second round. This guy's going to be a fourth round pick, give or take, right? You know, going in the draft, like this guy's a draftable player and could get drafted in the top hunter picks, but he's not a scheme fit. He doesn't character, no issues. It's like this guy does not fit our team. So you could not put him on the board if you wanted. Again, there are dynamics with the owner. You know, if you don't have a magnet, it's like, did we evaluate this guy and the owner looks at everybody. So there are a lot of different variables. But 400 would be a lot because you don't have 400 guys in the draft that you would want. You would only have the guys up on the board that you would want to draft. So I think that number probably somewhere between 175 and 250 maybe, maybe closer to in the high twos because of undrafted free agents as well. Like you do get a lot of names like the fifth, sixth, seventh round and maybe you have less in the first couple rounds. So it can be weighted like it's. It should be really hard to be a top 100 player where it's like, most guys that are draft eligible that are kind of like in the mix to get drafted, they're going to be a ton of guys in the sixth, seventh, and undrafted free agent range. There's always a shitload of players there. So I also think the, like, I know the Eagles, I think they have a big digital board. So many things are going digitally now that when I was there, we had the magnet and you'd print it out and you kind of paste it on the magnet. Those things, I mean, we're probably in the next, I don't know, five years max. Those not even existing. So once you get to there, it's like it wouldn't even matter. You could just have a board. You could have as many players in the. In the system as you want. Now, you would have to know who you'd want to draft. So you'd have to create a board. But like, when you're putting it on the wall, like, he's either up there or he's not. Right. If it was digitally, I can kind of mess with that a little bit. With your background, could you do your own mock draft with the top five picks? Not what will happen, but what you think you would do as a gm? Let's do it right now. We'll just do a quick one. Titans. I would take quarterback. They don't have a quarterback. Their quarterback positions a joke. Their division sucks. If Cam Ward just turns out to be like, pretty good, doesn't even need to be like some star. If he's just a top 15 quarterback, you'd be in pretty good shape. So I think, I mean, who's the best quarterback they've had, like the last 20 years? It's like Ryan Tannehill. So I would take him at 2. Listen, I have a lot of respect for Travis Hunter, but we talk about this over and over. And assuming he's healthy, which I saw he got medically rechecked and they said it's healing well. I mean, let's face it, he's got. He's got a foot issue. So if the foot issue is a question mark, then clearly you take Travis Hunter. But assuming health, which you know, Drew Rosenhaus, of course he's going to say he's good if he's healthy. I would take Abdul Carter over Hunter, and at three, I'd take Travis Hunter if I was the Giants. So if I was the Browns, I'd take Carter and just be like, well, we already have Miles Garrett. Well, now I got two of them. Good luck passing against us. Travis Hunter three would be the easiest pick of all time. I don't know what the Patriots would do because there was a clear drop off. I wouldn't overthink it that much. Like, you know, I think there are a lot of question marks. Kelvin Banks, the offensive lineman from Texas. Will Campbell, the arm length because if he does become a guard over the next couple years, you would really regret taking him at 4 overall. Even if he's a good player. I'd probably just take like, I don't know, Mason Graham, maybe defensive tackle from Michigan. Jags. I don't know. Top four the fight for the jacket is on in Augusta. Get in on all the action at DraftKings Sportsbook from the opening round through championship Sunday, DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with live betting, player props and so much more. Have you never bet on golf before? Don't worry, I got you covered. I love it and I do it all the time. You just have to pick a simple golfer to win the tourney and make your pick. It's that simple. They also got top tens, top twenties, head to head, a lot of different options. Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers bet five bucks to get 150 in bonus bets instantly download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use the code JOHN. 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