Bobby Bones (24:42)
I would love to see a conversation on I'm a Rams fan and it is my hope that other fan bases are seeing the genius of Les Sneed and what he's quietly done for this organization. Would you put less up on the Mount Rushmore of GMs? And secondly, what are the Mount Rushmore GMs like him and Howie doing so well and put them above ineffective GMs? That's a good question. You know, him and Howie deal a little differently. You know, I mean he's got and I'm not trying to less sneak clearly is an awesome gm. I mean the first time they got high draft picks, they crush it. He's got Sean McVeigh. So as a GM, you look way better when you have a good coach. Brett Veets, be the first to tell you I'm infinitely better as a GM and going to have a long GM career because I work for Andy Reid than if I had some random coach. So you look better as a GM when you got a good coach. But you know, I can I've never been around less. I just know how he there was just like a relentless energy to always be like finding more information. And I think there's never you're not quick in this gets back to like say no. Like let's keep asking questions about stuff and listen how he's pivoted over the years. I think one thing he's done recently is he actually made it pretty simple. I mean he really did. Let's just draft the best players from the best teams instead of trying to overthink this. And it started when he made the Jalen Rager pick when he got a little cute. It's like just take Justin Jefferson from lsu. The team just won the Natty and what have they done since? Just take elite blue chippers. Jalen Carter, Georgia Nolan Smith, Georgia Nakobe Dean, Georgia Saquon's available. Boom. Penn State number two overall pick, elite talent. Let's take them. Let's get Makai Becton, a former blue chip guy and move them to guard. Obviously you got to get lucky. I mean the Zach Bond, Vic Fangio Thing no one saw coming. I don't have a great answer for you. I really don't. I just think. I don't know if there's like a specific process that separates them. I think Jared Verse and Fisk. Yeah, let's just. Who's one of the best defenses in the country last year? Florida State. Who are their. Two of their best players. I mean, three of their players went from pick like whatever. Verse was 17 or 18. It was him who's awesome. Renardo Green, who the Niners took, who's one of their starting corners now, and Fisk. It's like, yeah, these players are really good sometimes it's like, let's go, let's look at a Cal Poly. No, I went there. You should not. Who's playing at Ohio State? Alabama, Notre Dame, lsu, Georgia, Texas. That's, that's. Don't, don't overthink this. And like I said, I can't speak to the individual separating processes. Beside, they're just. Some people are just better at their jobs. Like I'm just better than you for whatever reason. I have more talent. I have more of an. I don't know, I don't know if it's innate, but a natural skill to figure this stuff out. You know, one thing how he's a lead at is understanding value. And I think some of these scouts that kind of grow up just scout, scout, scout, scout, don't quite understand finances. And when you're the gm, I mean a huge part of your job is obviously managing the salary cap with talent. And then the draft is essentially just an economic exercise. What do I need to pay for this player? Do I need to trade up and get them or can I wait to get them or can I trade back to get them and accumulate more? It's basically the stock market and Howie's really smart that way. One thing Howie is elite at. I can't speak to Les. Is his ability to accumulate information of his relationships with agents, media and other GMs. He's pretty good at that. And it's, you know, the job. You need to spend a lot of time talking to people on the phone and texting. Like if you're, if you tell me a GM is just sitting in his office watching tape all day, that's not going to work. Die hard Cowboy fan from Memphis. Coward is my all time favorite. But I must admit the only time I shake my head at his takes is when he crushes Dak. I remember he predicted he wouldn't do much and we ended up scoring the most points per game in the league. Then after Kellen left, everyone acted like we fell off a cliff. Only for us again to have the top offense in the league with Dak arguably getting cheated out of the mvp, seeing as his stats were far superior to Lamar Jackson's. My point is that y'all are way too low on deck and it's a bit of an insult to put guys like Herbert or Kyler Murray above him. I don't know. I don't know who's putting Kyler Murray above Dak. I would find me that human. My theory on why people lowball Dax greatness is because of a stocky, almost fullback build that some are blinded by and just how beautiful the ball he throws is this Dak Prescott. I get that he had a down year and I also get that he has led us to the promise and he hasn't led us to the promised land. But I truly believe that Dak is a top five quarterback. Okay, I don't really know where we're going with this. I just got to disagree there. Dax a good player. You guys have won a lot of games with them. The reason people are hard on Dak is because he has been terrible in the playoffs. That three year stretch where they went 12 games every year, he threw a combined five interceptions. So statistically and these weren't balls tipped up in the air. Freak. I mean, he was hitting dudes in the Niners in stride. He was not good last year wasn't totally his fault against the packers, but we have to admit he was atrocious in the playoffs. And one thing with with Herbert comparing him. If you just pulled every GM in the league, who you would rather have Dak Prescott or Justin Herbert, I think it would be unanimous. Jerry might be the only guy. But Justin Herbert's also five years younger than Dak now. Part of it too is like you play for the Cowboys, you play for the Yankees, you play for the Lakers. Like, you just get talked about more. If Dak Prescott played for the Jags and was doing the same thing, we would probably talk about him differently. I'm an Eagles fan. I feel like nobody in the media acknowledges how challenging it is for quarterbacks to constantly have new coordinators and expect to make so much significant progress. Since Hurts has entered the league, he's had four different coordinators in five years. It looks like he will be on his fifth with Kellen Moore potentially getting the Cowboys job. The only time Hurts has had two years with a coordinator with Shane Steichen and the Eagles Went to a Super Bowl. What are your thoughts on this? It is difficult and this is an underlying issue with the Eagles is like they have, I was going to look how old. It's amazing how powerful Wikipedia is. They have this 43 year old offensive coach who can't call place. So it's like, so let's say as we sit here, Jan 17, Kellen Moore is the next Cowboy head coach. They have to get a new coordinator because their 43 year old offensive coach cannot call place. Like that's just kind of an issue. Yeah. It's not an ideal situation. And even if you quote, unquote, keep the same scheme, keep the same terminology, you fit into our offense, you're still getting a new voice. It's like if you have a business partner for a year, every day you work together every single day. And then all of a sudden the year ends January 1st and I take Jim away and I insert Bill. And then for two years you and Bill work together and you and Bill do a really good job. He's good at sales, you're good at the accounting and the structure of the business and it just goes, well. And then all of a sudden Bill looks at you and goes, I'm out. And then you get Sam. So yeah, even if you keep some of the same processes in place in your business, there's still just a communication. And let's face it, we all are wired differently. So whatever we do, if you were in my business, with me, in the podcasting world, in the digital space of talking about sports, if you're in finance, if you're in architecture, we all have some just philosophical beliefs on the way we do things after a while, in the right and wrong way to be successful. So it's tough. There's no way around it. I don't know what else to say. But I do think it gets back to the root of the problem. Sean McVeigh can lose a coach. Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur can. Kevin O'Connell can lose offensive coaches. It does not change their offense or their communication with the quarterback, because it's them. I'm not trying to just shit on Sirianni, but he's essentially like Jim and John Harbaugh, except he's 20 years younger. What would be the bigger story? The Chiefs three peat or the Lions win the Super Bowl? It's a good question. I'd argue if the Lions were to beat the Chiefs, that would probably be the biggest story. The Bills winning. I think the biggest story would be the Chiefs losing in The Super Bowl. So if that meant the Eagles or the Lions beating them, I think that would be the biggest story. Now, given that the Eagles went to a Super bowl two years ago, they won a Super bowl in 17, you could argue the biggest story possible would be the Detroit Lions winning a Super bowl and beating this team in the middle of their dynasty. Quick question. What step would you take in making the Jets a team that can compete yearly? What coaches, GMs would you bring in? What trades would you make? Well, I don't know if you've seen. I'm sure you have because you're probably a Jets fan. They have interviewed so many people. You could argue at this point when you see a situation like that, like I give the Crafts credit, it's like they fired Jarrod Mayo because they knew who they were going to hire. It's why I have an issue when people freak out about the Rooney Rule. To me, when you have specific people that you're going to hire, like I have a hard time getting up in arms for doing fake interviews, which the crafts clearly did. They wanted Mike Vrabel, you know, the hall of Fame player that played for them, no different than last year. They wanted Gerard Mayo, you know, their former team captain player. It's like, if that's who you want, I got no issue with you. I don't have a problem if you circumvent red tape and the last two years now doesn't Mike Rabel might not work. I bet he will. But I got no issue in that situation. I also think if you're a Super bowl winner, I should just be able to hire you immediately. I remember when the, when, when Mark Davis hired Jon Gruden, they kind of did the same thing. It's like Mark Davis knew he was going to hire John Gruden six months ago. Who gives a fuck? The jets have absolutely no clue who they're going to hire. And you could argue that represents the organization. I think the organization is just lost at sea and it might not be fixable when Woody Johnson owns the team and he's going to continue to own the team. So I'd argue there's not much you can do. You know, I. And who knows, maybe they end up, if I was them, I would just try to get a guy that already had experience so I could just get the trade back on the tracks. I thought Rex Ryan was going to be the coach. It doesn't look like it's probably going to happen, but Rex Ryan, Pete Carroll, Mike McCarthy, I would do something like that over hiring some random coordinator. Clearly you're not getting Mike Vrabel and obviously you're not getting, you know, you're not getting Ben Johnson. So I would just hire a guy with experience and if we could just have a couple years where we win like eight, nine games, that would feel like a win. What do you think of Kyle McCord? Also, how do you think Syracuse will be next year? I have no clue on Syracuse next year. I watched a couple Syracuse games. He obviously looked really good. And it's weird. And this is the hard part about scouting or even when you do. What I do is last year when Ryan day kicked Kyle McCord out of the program, essentially I just kind of lean like, yeah, he's not that good. Ohio State thinks he can't play and moved on. And they were clearly justified for doing it. And obviously they're having success this year. So it's not like they made the wrong move. But I thought they just shorted a player who just wasn't that good. And you look at his numbers last year, he threw 24 touchdowns and six interceptions and he was 66% completion percentage. So he wasn't that bad. Now, there were some games where you watched him. He definitely left some to be something to be desired. He goes to Syracuse, he throws 34 touchdowns. Now, he did throw 12 picks. I probably only watched a couple of your games. I definitely watched the game against, against unlv. And I remember thinking, damn, he's. He's slinging the pill. I think I watched your bowl game too. Who'd you guys play in the bowl game? You guys in the Holiday Bowl? He throws a nice ball. He's got a, he's got a live arm. Like, he's a strong arm. I could see him being like a third or fourth round pick for sure. I don't see why he couldn't be a backup in the NFL. I just got done with your reaction video to the Rams and Viking game. Although I usually agree with most of your takes, I have to disagree with your take on Kevin O'Connell. I understand that he's 02 in the playoffs, but this team was supposed to only win six and a half games. If anything, this team overachieved. Sometimes you just need to find your franchise guy. Andy Reid may have had some success with McNabb back in the day, but he was 1 in 4 with Alex Smith. Andy Reid didn't win his first Super bowl until his 21st season as a head coach. He didn't even make the playoffs until his Third season. I do agree with you that KOC needs to figure out his running game, but that game was mostly on Sam Darnold. Pretty obvious that Sam Darnold has issue. Has an issue of holding on to the ball. Listen, I think when you react live five minutes after a game, sometimes I think people can take the. Just the headline of what you said away and kind of project that on everything. I don't think Kevin O'Connell is a bad coach. Obviously he is a dynamic young coach with a bright future. I think I've really kind of come to the conclusion he's the better version of what everyone told me. Mike McDaniel is, but he still gets put in a category with the guys who have won a lot of playoff games. And he's played three big games in his life. Even he said this, the game against the Giants, the Lions game, and the Rams game, and he's lost them all. Now you can say, hey, they were only supposed to win six games. True. And then they turned out to be good. Why? Because their quarterback turned out to be a Pro Bowler and obviously their defense is good and they were just a good team. So you're in a game. And again, these aren't my words. These are his. We have to be able to be in these close games, the Lions and the Rams, even if we're losing, to be in the game. Once the game gets away, it's a waste. You're fucked. Why can't we keep these games close? In my take, I put the Lions game on Sam Donald. But in that game, when you're down 10 to 3, even 17 to 3, sustaining a drive and scoring a touchdown to make it 17 to 10, or, hell, a field goal 17 to 6, maybe you force Matt Stafford to throw an interception. I don't know. He's been known to do that. All of a sudden you get a pick six or a fumble six. And damn, it's 17 to 13 and you're back in the game. But when you just are obsessed not just with throwing, but throwing deep balls when your offensive line sucks, that's on the coach. That's all I was saying. I thought he coached a poor game. You can be a Andy Reid's coach. Poor games. Mike Tomlin coaches bad games all the time. Kyle Shanahan was an embarrassment most of this season. It happens like I'm not. I'm not acting like you should fire the guy, but we can't just pick the fall guy and say Kevin O'Connell had nothing to do with it. Kevin O'Connell had a good season, so did Sam Darnold. Then they got in the big moment and they both kind of cratered against a Hall of Fame quarterback. And a Hall of Fame coach worked them. I saw this post asking, what's the worst combination of teams to be a fan of? I'm a Cowboy fan, Longhorn, Texas Ranger fan, in Miami, Heat fan up until last year. The Rangers pretty awful in recent memory for all my teams. Just based on expectation and what actually happened. Curious your thoughts are. I mean, I would say the Miami Heat, you guys went to four straight finals with LeBron James. I don't know how old you are. Won two titles. Haven't you been to the finals a couple times with Jimmy Butler? That's not a bad team to be a fan of. The Cowboys have three straight years of winning 12 games. The Texas Longhorns have been in the final four two years in a row. The Texas Rangers, you guys just hired Bochin, won a World Series. That's not even close. I do think a lot of people throw Minnesota in there. Minnesota would be tough. I don't know. You're doing like a mix and mash. So if you just pick an area and go like Chicago, right? The Bears, the Bulls, the Cubs, like that, that'd be tough. But you can't be like, well, you know, I'm like, I'm a Rams fan. I like Notre Dame, I fuck with the Mavericks. You know, it's like, I like Alabama football. If you do that, it's hard. I mean, I think a lot of people have elements of that. So I guess for you specific, like, you're living pretty well. Okay, we'll end on this. If you got a chance to watch the TGL debut, what are your thoughts? I live in Scottsdale, like playing casually and I'm a pretty average follower of what goes on the course. PGA versus Liv. I thought the debut was well executed. In a traditional sport, it's something new. That said, I wonder about the sustainability each week. Even as a pretty avid follower of Tiger and Rory, I could see the novelty wearing off. Thoughts on where it may fit? A couple people have asked, texted me, buddies of mine, like, what is this? I'm like, it's just a made for TV money grab for Tiger, Rory and espn. They're just trying to get something to put on television on Tuesdays and Mondays in the spring and the summer when there is nothing going on. ESPN is not going to carry baseball for much longer. The NBA, like, people aren't really watching, so it's like, might as well. Try some other stuff. And golf simulation is pretty fun. Even if you don't like golf. If I take you to a simulator, you will enjoy it. Now, when you get famous, people, that is Tiger in the event, yeah, I'll pay attention, but I'm with you. The screen. If I just take you to a simulator, the screen that they have at the TGL, I think is 24 times the size of a normal simulator, which are obviously big. So it's cool watching the simulator, but after they hit a couple shots, it's like, okay. And I am a golf sicko. I consume every single event of the PGA Tour. I consume golf podcasts. I follow the sport very, very closely. And I had it on. And Maria looked at me, she's like, are we really going to watch this every week? This is not something, you know, I'm not going to fight for this on television on Tuesdays, every single week. But I was like, hey, I'm watching two weeks in a row. I'm watching the debut and then I'm watching Tiger play. And it was just an easy watch in the background. I mean, for me, it'd be the equivalent of like a guy that watches baseball, but doesn't really watch baseball. He just has it on the background. That's what I did. Pay attention a little bit. See some social clips. Do I think it's going to become some moment? No, I honestly, I think at the end of the day it'll be closer to, you know, when you see like cornhole championships on television, when you see like pickleball, the explosion of that on television, Even like Volt saying volleyball, you know, on a weekend, if you go to the gym and you're like on the treadmill and you're flipping around channels, like Saturday morning, Saturday at noon in the summer and volleyball's on. I think it's kind of like that just on tv. They created this. It probably is a huge help to their corporate connections to take care of those guys. But I guess a long winded way of saying that it's got a ceiling, it's probably going to peak early and just kind of be there on tv. For someone that, when nothing else is on television, do I think it's going to be some transcendent thing? I do not. And it, it's cool to watch for the first, you know, for me, like 30 minutes for probably a casual person, 5, 10 minutes. And then the novelty wears off really, really fast. To me, the key is for them to fuck around and not take it that seriously. And that Happened a little bit with Tiger, I think an element that would definitely help bust out the booze. Like, if you and me went to this thing, it's essentially like a digital topgolf. We would probably have a cocktail or two. It would be very. It's a fun event. So have the guys have, like, hey, if you want to have a cocktail, have a cocktail. Honestly, it's probably better if it could be on YouTube and they could swear. That feels like it would have a higher ceiling than the version of this. It's a little more corporate. But listen, I appreciate them for trying something different. I just don't know if we're gonna look back in, like, five years and this thing's gonna still be rolling. The actual thing they built definitely will. Corporate events, I think they could charge a ton per hour for people to hit on it during the day when no one's there. You know, they will expand to Scottsdale, probably Vegas, Dallas. They'll have other spots and they'll be able to make a bunch of money. It will work that way. But just in terms of the television event, I don't know how big it'll be over the course of three, four years. I do think the business behind it bars there. Hell, I could go, you know, if there was one in Scottsdale and there have been rumors of them building one here. Hey, not doing anything today. Take. Go there with some buddies, Take your wife or girlfriend, grab a couple drinks, hit some balls into the. Into the screen. It'd be cool. Is it gonna be great for tv? I think we gotta be realistic. Probably not. Adios. Have a great day. See you later.
