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John Middlekauff (2:07)

The volume what is going on everybody? Happy Fugazi Friday. Hopefully everyone is doing and getting ready for a big nice weekend. Today we are just going to do a big mailbag at johnmittlecoff @john middlekop is the Instagram fire in those dms and get your questions answered on the show. We had Willie cologne on yesterday, so if you missed that podcast, you got to subscribe to three and out podcast. You got to subscribe. It's separate from Collins feed, obviously, as well as the YouTube, but today will be a mailbag only, so fire in those. Get those mailbag questions. Obviously, we got a long summer, so buckle up. The sun's shining. It's warm outside, and we will be mailbagging because this is your guy show, so we like to interact with the people. Well, I mean, technically, it's mine, but without you guys, it doesn't exist. It'd just be me talking to nobody. And, yeah, other than that, no plans beside mailbag today, so let's. Let's dive in. But first, you know, I got to tell you about my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing app of this podcast. Game Time. Here's the drill. Usually the afternoon NBA playoff game, the eastern game, I don't watch right away. I'm out doing stuff. Maybe I was taking the dog for a walk. Running errands. On Wednesday. Check my phone. The Knicks, it's the second half, and they're down. I'm like, oh, they're gonna lose by 20. Then I check again, like in the beginning of the fourth or maybe a couple minutes in, they're down, like, 15 points. I'm like, this game's over. And then I just don't even turn on the tv, which is unlike me. I mean, I probably watch as much TV as any human in America, especially. I do it for a living and try to always have a game on. On one of the televisions in the house. Didn't do it. Then I checked my phone. I got some burgers on the barbecue. Knicks have lost, obviously. Up to O. Going to the Garden. Probably the most expensive Knick ticket potentially ever. I mean, when you factor in inflation, everything. So if you live in that area, you want to watch your squad. Any playoff basketball game, any playoff hockey game. Baseball often running. Dodgers look good. The Padres look good. So you want to check out a baseball game, football game. Football's not that far away. It's not right around the corner, but it's not forever. So we've already passed the draft. We're just like, I mean, a couple months away from the 4th of July, and then, boom, training camp will be here. So if you want to get your. Your tickets early, you know, we got you covered. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code John for $20 off down the game. Time out today, last minute tickets, lowest prices, guarantee. I think I'll bang out some questions and I'll give my my fugazi Friday probably in the middle, and then I'll bang out some more. How do you survive the off season? I swear I'm losing my mind over here. Just don't say baseball or basketball. They don't even come close to filling the void. There is no fill in the void. But as someone that, I mean, I watch a lot of football, like many of you, I can take a deep breath for a couple months. I, once the sun comes out, play a little golf, enjoy some family time, just take a deep breath. Calm before the storm. So I like the buildup of the summer. I mean, I'm a summer guy, not a winter guy, so I'm a football guy through and through. But I do like to experience summer, even if where I'm at, it's 115 degrees. Question for the bag. How cool would it be if Arch ended up on the Colts? It's also a decent chance it's happening because the Colts are gonna stink. We talked about this the other day. Arch Manning gets discussed like he's Peyton's son, even more than Eli. It's like he's Peyton's guy. The crazy part is he's not Peyton's son. He's not Eli's son, he's Cooper's son. Obviously they're all synonymous with each other. I would say Peyton, you know, I guess if you're older, if you were like my dad, you knew that family from Archie. But Peyton has really taken the mantle of being the most famous man and he deserves it. Even though his brother had won multiple Super Bowls before. He had won multiple Super Bowls and won his first super bowl before Peyton won one. Or maybe I guess Peyton won one and then Eli won one. But regardless, I do think we talk and just the casual person. I'm sure I'm guilty of this. If we're having a cocktail just bullshitting about him, it's like, oh, man, he's going to be like Peyton. So, guys, he's Cooper's son. Like, you know, if I was going to argue with you, I'd say, why couldn't he go to the Giants? The Giants had Eli. They won multiple supers Super Bowls with Eli. Hell, Peyton only won the one super bowl with Indy. I think it would be cool if he went to either spot, but Again, he's not Peyton or Eli's son. He's Cooper's, who was a great athlete, was going to Ole Miss to play wide receiver before he got. I don't want to screw up whatever he had. But it forced him to retire from football. And if you've watched that special on the Mannings, it was a big driving force for Peyton and like kind of drove him through college and early on in his NFL career. It was like playing for Cooper. Huge Ravens fan here. Over the past few years, the opinions of Ravens fans have have increasingly grown sour on Harbaugh year after year. We are very dominant team in the regular season, but always seem unprepared for the big moments. For example, in the Bills divisional game this year, if you told me they didn't practice ball control the entire week or at halftime adjustments, I wouldn't bat an eye. I think we should have promoted Mike McDonald last year while he was still in house and clearly showed the Ravens mentality. What do you think about John's recent success during the Lamar era? I think anytime you're in a situation like him and Mike McCarthy was a little bit of a version of like this, when you win that super bowl early, it gains you a lot of equity with the franchise. So he won it, whatever against the 49ers, just like McCarthy wanted early against the Steelers. And that carries with you with some of your devastating losses. I think at this point in time, over the next two or three years, because listen, you guys consistently win. You're one of the better run organizations. He hires fantastic coaches. I mean, Mike McDonald's pretty good hire. Like you get credit for that. Jesse Mentor, his brother's guy. Like that was John Harbaugh's guy. Anthony Lynn son, who's now the USC defensive coordinator. Like that was a John Harbaugh hire. They are great at hiring defensive coaches. I mean, they really are. So he does a lot of good. But when you have a player this dominant, especially in the regular season, in a defense that is consistently pretty sweet, I mean, they're not always like two years ago, best defense in the league, but they, they are never. It doesn't feel like. I'm sure we could find some examples, but during the Lamar era, they've been really, really good. I would say these next couple years and I would say the same thing for the Bills. When you got Josh Allen, when you got Lamar Jackson, I mean, it's super bowl bust. You know, they are probably two of the only teams like Chiefs are truly the only team in the league. You can say the Eagles now because they got over the hump and they won it with Jalen. They're like, if you said right now the season ends and you lose in the super bowl, like, that is a major disappointment to the Chiefs, to the Eagles. And I think the Ravens and the Bills are two teams that, like, when you have a quarterback this freaking good, it's on your coach to get it done. You know, you want to become like, John Harbaugh can become a legend by winning another Super Bowl. But it also feels in a weird way like they're far away. I mean, two years ago, they get worked at home by the Chiefs, who, you know, it's like, scored 17 points. And then last year, they lose the Bills, who I think they were clearly better than. Now, I don't put Mark Andrews drops like that. Is that John's fault in ball security? Like, what's he supposed to tell Lamar? Hold on to the ball. He's not the offensive coordinator, so I don't know. I mean, I hear you. I just think beside, like, nitpicking Mark Andrews dropping the ball or Lamar fumbling the ball in the pocket. Regardless, like, John Harbaugh's got to win with these teams. He's got to win a Super Bowl. I mean, it's because this team is more dynamic than the team he won a Super bowl with the first time. Are the Steelers slowly becoming the Saints, where they probably would have blew it up and started their rebuild, but they're holding on to the super bowl hopes, so they just keep getting old and expensive. You know, I would say a major difference is the Saints have had some lulls, right? They've had the Luls the last couple years. They had them for in the middle of the Drew Brees era. The Steeler team has never lost, right? They have never been like, oh, the steelers just went 5 and 12. Like, that is not happening now. Their seasons feel like a disappointment because, you know, they're winning whatever, nine, 10 games and then getting rolled in the first round, and that's totally understandable, but I don't think they're comparable at all. And they're definitely not comparable franchises. I mean, the Saints, when I was a kid were called the Ain'ts. They were called the Ain't. People wore paper bags to the games. People get mad at Mike Tomlin because he keeps going 10 and 7. So it's. I don't think it's comparable at all now relative to, like, their situation for good teams. Like, yeah, they. This. They're just in A weird spot. They really are. And I don't really think anything gets better this year necessarily. Even though I like their draft. The defensive tackle is good. The running back from Iowa. I watched Iowa in a weird. I don't know why, but a couple times this year he was a stud. That's a good pick. How do you think the Patriots draft did with their draft? While giving draft grades immediately after the conclusion of their draft is silly, I feel like they did pretty well addressing needs while also adding value players in the mid to late rounds. Curious to hear your thoughts I've come around on not that I was ever down on them, but the Listen, you can nitpick arm length all you want, but talking to Willie Colon last week or not last week, I mean literally yesterday. I do think when you're wired the right way and you're just a smart tough guy, like, you're just not going to fail. He's just not going to fail. Now how good is he going to be? Because anytime you draft an offensive lineman in the top five, you want him to be a Pro Bowler. Time will tell, but I think we have a long history of like you don't bet around those type guys or you don't bet against those type guys. Will Campbell, you just don't like they're going to play in the NFL for a long time. Now how good it'll come down to does that arm length become an issue? But as Willie said, if you coach these guys the right way, like you can't play maybe like Jonathan Ogden or Trent Williams, your style is a little bit differently. And Josh McDaniels for a long period of his career, you know, I wouldn't say Matt Light is exactly Trent Williams, you know, or now I know Josh, you know, he was in the 2000s. He wasn't always the offensive coordinator. But my point is simple, is that you can figure it out. And if you have to attack your protections a little bit differently or coach the technique a little bit differently, that's what you got to do. But I think he's going to be a good player. And obviously Henderson, the Ohio State running backs a stud, I mean home run hitter. They drafted a guy, Kyle Williams, the wide receiver from Washington State in the second round. I did not love the Polk pick last year from Washington. I thought he was the third best wide receiver on his own college team. Now granted that college team was in the championship and they had good wide receivers, But I think McMillan for the Bucks is a better player and I think they realized they needed to Kind of restock the cupboard there. But you know I'm not going to break down your third day picks but other than that I'd be pretty bullish on the Patriots. This is a guy not happy because yesterday I said that the. I think Cowboys gave up a little too much. I mean I just thought that giving up a third round pick for a guy that is going to need a new contract that not a lot of other people wanted. I just didn't like the deal. And the comment was how he gave a third rounder for Dotson. We really needed a number two wide receiver. The Cowboys were going to draft McMillan but the Panthers took him at eight. The Cowboys were trying to trade for him during the draft but the Steelers wanted a first or second form. You take your take on this needs more context. Just like the Steelers will wait for Rogers because they are desperate for the Cowboys. Here's the thing. Let me, let me pull up the Eagles trade for Dotson. So the Eagles gave a third round pick and two seventh round picks in exchange for a fifth round pick. Yeah, it's not a good trade. I don't disagree. But I'd say Howie has a long history of making good trades and maybe he underestimated. I forget at the time like was someone injured, did they not like the rest of their room? Did they think he brought something different? I think it's. He would say he would like that one back just because someone else paid something like he doesn't like that trade and he has a long history of making sweet trades. In your most recent history of Jerry Jones making two big trades, a fourth and a third round pick which are valuable picks for a team that is very like three or four players at the top of their org chart. The Trey Lance thing was a disaster and you just gave away a fourth round pick. This third round pick, I just can't get behind it for a guy. I thought the Datsun trade was weird too, but I gave Howie the benefit of the doubt. Like Jerry recently hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt based on his recent moves in the trade world. And you go wait. Especially when you factor in, you know how he bet on their draft grade. It was a local kid and again they regretted it. You know this cowboy thing was like we're desperate for this elite town. Well, it's like that is the team that's punting on this guy. I wouldn't have done a deal with him. I'm sorry. Now I hear you. I don't disagree that you need offensive help but I Just think that's a steep price to pay for a guy that is a one year rental that you're a team that is very desperate for picks your owners proven to be cheap. The other thing is like Jeffrey has proven over like a three or four year period like he'll spend the most cash in the league right behind Jimmy Haslam. Your guy won't even though he's really rich. Like that's a fact. And I've always just, I'm guilty of being like, oh, Jerry's rich. He's wheeling and dealing kind of cheap. Crafts were like that forever too. We talked about that yesterday. So I hear you. Listen, if he's good, no one will really care. Been watching your videos for the past seven hours. Good stuff. That's a lot of watching me I, I give you credit because I, I don't think I could do that. Well, I can't. I mean when I, when I get shared like my Instagram like the reels and Twitter videos, I just press repost. I can't even. I hate watching myself. But I appreciate that. Wondering your thoughts on the Broncos is upcoming season. Keep up the hard work. I think I said it last year that that was going to be the worst version of the Chargers and the Broncos. There's going to be their worst teams from a roster standpoint. Now you can win 11, 12 games and have a better team and win, win a game or two less. You write a fumble doesn't go right here. An injury happens, but your team's going to be better. Now Sean Payton really liked that. Was it the UCF running back? You know, like they were. He talked about it after the draft. Who did the Broncos draft? There should just be a page where I can pull it up really quick. The Texas DB was one of those guys that during the season people weren't talking about him as a first round pick. And then the playoffs happen and the combine and everything happens and he, I wouldn't say he's a riser because he's viewed as a really good player. But I asked a buddy in the league because some of my friends were definitely lukewarm on him where he was drafted. And then some of the pundits loved him. Right? People were really high on him. Clearly teams were high. The Broncos are high on him. I said Brian Branch, the kind of safety, hybrid nickel from the, from the Lions who was people coming out. The reason he went in the mid second round is because like kind of small. What position does he play? And it's like he's Clearly a first round pick. I said, well is this guy that. And I had some friends that said I like Branch more. So you know, this is a nickel, which is a starting corner position in the league. Like if you can play the slot, you are a starter and if you can kind of play that hybrid role, like I can play safety, I can play corner in a pinch on the outside, I can do a lot of different things. There's a lot of value there. So I think depending on who you talk to, people really high on them. Some people thought it's a little bit of an overdraft. Clearly they liked Genty a lot and it was clear that Genty wasn't going to be there and that they weren't going to be able to trade up and that's not a good move. So they take RJ Harvey in the second round, who Sean Payton loved. So I listen, I give him the benefit of the doubt when he's evaluating that player because he has a pretty good track record. I think the only question is going to be, specifically because it's going to be one of their rivals is they could have taken Hampton in the first round. They could have just taken the guy the Chargers took. So if it we're going to going to judge those two players like you could have had Hampton. If Hampton becomes one of the best running backs in the league, there's a lot of pressure on Baron there to be an impact player. And if he doesn't and Harvey does, then he'll look like a genius, right? And it'll look like the Chargers overdrafted him. So sometimes it doesn't necessarily like if a running back had gone two spots later, but it had gone to like the Cardinals, like whatever, but like it's going to a team in your division that you're going to play twice and just going to have a huge impact on every year you play. So it's going to be fascinating to watch. I think the Broncos are going to be pretty good and like I said, he's earned the benefit of the doubt because Harvey's another guy depending on who you talk to. But catch the ball, get him in space, he's fast, 48 touchdowns, I mean yeah, he's just, he's talented player. Big 12 kind of sucks, but he dominated him. 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