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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human the volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? John Middelkoff three and out podcast today will be a massive mailbag. And you guys know the way to get in the mailbag is just my Instagram at John Middelkoff. Fire in those DMs and you get your questions answered here on the show. Very, very easy to do. So a little slower time. So we will definitely get aggressive with the mailbags. Fire in the dms. Questions answered right here. A lot of different questions. People saying I'm an idiot, people saying I'm smart. We'll talk a lot of football because that's what we do here. So that. That will be the game plan today. And other than that, we got Orlovsky on this Ty Simpson kick. We talked about that yesterday. You know my guy, Ethan Sherwood Strauss has been writing on a substack for a long time that the agencies utilize their people on television to push narratives. It's what this one feels like a little bit. See, McAfee is not. I'm with them. I even some of my Raider people. Not spy tech, but other people with the staff. Like, this is insane. What. What are we doing? And that's the world we're in. So this is a conversation that's not going to die, but I addressed that yesterday. Yeah. Other than that, make sure you subscribe to the podcast. If you listen on Collins feed three and out. We also are on Netflix channel. Check that out. You can subscribe, get an alert, never miss an episode. Put out a golf golf podcast today. I got some wagers this week. Your boy's hot. So if you want a tail, listen and you can tail because I plan on winning some more money. And let's just dive into the mailbag. Let's just. Let's just dive right in. And we'll start with Danny, who does not like one of my takes. Love the podcast, but Kyler to the Vikings is one of your worst takes yet. Do I think they got a top 10 quarterback? No, I don't. But he's far more accomplished and better than Darnold. When he got to Minnesota and they won 12 games, they actually won 14. If Koc is the quarterback whisperer everyone talks about, can't they win 10 plus games? It's basically the same team with a solid defense in pieces on offense, we've seen Kyler compete with worse Cardinal teams. P.S. this is coming from a Niners fan. Okay, well, I actually pulled up some of Kyler stats. He was drafted in 19 number one overall pick. They were, they were bad obviously. So I listen. He threw 20 touchdowns as a rookie, ran for another four. You know, it was clearly like, okay, this guy has the physical attributes. Even being a smaller quarterback the next couple years, you know, 20, 20, little bit of a fugazi year, right? A lot of places didn't have fans, but he, he showed a lot of signs. They went 8 and 8. They had some momentum. With Kingsbury, he threw 26 touchdowns. He ran for 800 yards and 11 touchdowns. So his second year he threw 26 touchdowns, was 67% in Kingsbury's offense, ran for another. I mean this guy accounted for a lot of offense. And this was a team on the come. And the next year, remember they started like 8 or 9 and 1. It was like they're going to roll to this division. They didn't win the division. They fell apart at the end of the year. And part of it was kind of twofold. I remember one, Cliff's offense, as the season goes, physical teams can get in them and Kyler kind of gets beat up as the season goes. So they went nine and five. They ended up being a wild card team. They played the Rams and they lose on the Monday Night Football game, which I think if memory serves me correct, was the first Monday Night Football game of the new playoffs he threw that year. He was really accurate, almost 70%, 24 touchdowns. But his rushing changed. He was 88 attempts from the previous year, 133 times. And over the course of the next several years now he was banged up. He just wasn't as potent of a runner. And since 2021, like he just hasn't been that productive. A couple Years ago in 24, they went eight, nine. He threw 21 touchdowns. But his rushing, I guess he ran for five touchdowns. My take is not that he's some scrub. It's not at all. And I do think their ceiling is 10 wins, right? They, they can win 10 games with this guy and it wouldn't shock me at all if he has some big time moments and some big time games. The sustainability over the course of the season, like you're right, he has had much more on his resume going into the year than Darnold ever did when he resurrected his career. But the way Darnold plays over the last couple years is a much more real thing in the NFL at 6, 4 and playing from within the pocket than the way Kyler plays. Like I don't think it's really sustainable. Like when you watch Lamar and he's humming. He can make a bunch of throws from the pocket like dominate. He does not need to play like DeSean Watson and Russell who obviously both fell off a cliff. They had to make a lot of plays outside the pocket. They were good throwers and explosive throwers outside the pocket scrambling around to throw. Lamar could do both. To me, Kyler is much more like those guys because he just can't see it. 5 9. But I, I just think that this is a guy that's had a bunch of injuries. How potent is he as a runner? I'm not acting like they're going to be some shitty 3 win team but I, I do think a lot of people think, well they went 9 and 8 this year again they were 4 and 8 and they rattled off a bunch of wins at the end of the season playing bad teams. So I'm with you. He more accomplished than Sam Darnold. Do I think that he could have a 35 touchdown season like Sam Donald? I don't know. Could I be wrong? 100%. Am I betting against it? I am. Am I picking the other teams in that division to be better than them? I also am going to do that. Do I think they have an excellent coaching staff? I do. You know their offensive line can be a little hit or miss. Part of it's no one's fault because the guy's fired now is Quesi his draft picks, he had like a four year stretch where it's like they had the least amount of play time in the entire league so they had to supplement that last year with a bunch of free agency and it kind of backfired in their face. So I, I'm just out on it. Not out on it in the sense that I think they're going to be like the Arizona Cardinals and win two games, three games. But I think the hype and people like oh they could resurrect at 12, 13 wins. I, I don't see that. Did you see Dabo's press conference where he went scorch earth on Ole Miss tampering with Clemson's recruit? I'm all for Dabo calling out Ole Miss, but it makes me think it can't be good for his image amongst other coaches and programs. And it seems like the entire sport is doing exactly what he's accusing Ole Miss of doing and no one gives a shit. Hell, Ole Miss lost their coach mid season last year. Why the hell would they care about tampering? Also if nothing stems from Dabo bringing the receipts from this obvious tampering Is this the unofficial end of the ncaa? The NCAA has been dead for a while. I mean, they still exist, but no one cares anything about what they say. And the moment they tell you no, you immediately get sued. You know, I, I was seeing. Think about how stupid. This happened a lot in my, the Internet age and it's happened forever. But that I can remember, you know, in my 20s and my 30s, that it was like they're vacating that championship. Like, no, I saw Memphis was in the title game. They went to the Final Four. Like that happened. Reggie Bush, usc. They, they won the championship. You know, it was like Rick Patino. No, they won it at Louisville. I watched it happened. That there is nothing stupider to me than pretending wins or games didn't happen. It's like no one cares. They've always been so like sanctimonious on their high horse about certain stuff. It felt outdated for a while. Now what's happening right now is, is chaotic and probably extreme. And Dabo was mad about them recruiting a guy who ended up. They stole, who I'm pretty sure again, not dialed in on Clemson's roster. The guy was like an all American as a freshman. So he had played for Clemson, was one of their best players. They recruited him to stay, gave him a bunch of nil and Ole Miss stole him away. Pretty sure he's a tight end, don't quote me on that. But he's like part of the reason Dabble is mad. He's. He's an elite. He's like a first round talent. But I'm also with you. Is going on these rants. And he's not the only coach to do this. Other coaches have as well. Maybe not as extreme and maybe not as famous as him, but I, I don't. It doesn't do anything because I'm with you. Why would you not? It's like, wait, there are no rules. And I want these five guys on other teams who I've already recruited and know. Why don't I recruit them? So until you get in trouble, why would you stop doing it? So to me, like, it's. I think his heart's in the right place. Now he's also being selfish because they stole his guy. He wouldn't have gone on the rant if that same guy had been stolen from Miami. He wouldn't have cared. Miami just stole Duke's quarterback, you know, so it's like it's a free for all. And when you're in a free for all, you get two options. You can and moan about it right while you're getting lapped or you can just join in on the fun. And this is not, you know, one of those where it's like hey, you do these three things, you can really get rich. Isn't this illegal and can't we get caught? It's like yeah probably, but no one's paying attention. And then people start getting caught and people start going to jail. It's like no one's going to jail for this. This is one of those like what's going to really happen. They're just going to change the rules one day. So these are the rules at hand. You might as well play the hand that are dealt. And you know, it goes back to the, the saying from, from one of the warriors co owners, not Joe Lako, but what the hell is his name? I'm forgetting his name. There are no rules but break them at your own peril. That's how the business world works. Peter Goober. That's not how this works. There's. There literally are no rules and if you break them, no one cares. So yeah, I feel dabbles pain because it would suck to lose a guy that you've recruited and played well for you. But what are you going to do about it? Is 48 year old Tom Brady a top quarterback in 2026? Show me the clip from the, from the flag football. I think he throw. He would be as accurate and throw as good of a ball as anyone in the league. He doesn't quite have the arm strength like Josh Allen or Herbert but he's got a high end arm and his accuracy is elite. He cannot move right so his, his, his mobility in a league that the offensive line play is worse. There are way more good defensive line men per team than any time in the history of the league. Like they've always been great hall of Fame defensive linemen but most teams didn't have like three pass rushers and most decent teams now have a D tackle and a edge rusher. The good teams have like multiple interior guys and edge rushers. So I, I think his style of play is not as much suited for now. And this gets back to what we talked about yesterday. He doesn't want to get hit which again don't blame him. And he's not, it's not like Tom was ever scared but once you get in your 40s so I, I think on an individual game basis he could dominate. Do I think he could play the course of a season? I don't because we saw him and for Tampa he wanted no part of it. How did he go about getting peptides? I the place that I go to get ivs, it's like a wellness center had them, they have dissolvable peptides and they have people there because that's where I got right next door. It's like this company that's where they did the my allergy test and they do a bunch of different tests if you want them. So they're all kind of owned by the same company and they all kind of. They kind of swim in those waters. Feeling good. The peptides. I definitely feel like I have way more energy. The other thing I do is I get a. I get a B12 shot. Gives me a little juice as well. Question for the pod following free agency, how do you think the Pats are going forward? I know we won't win the division but hopefully make the playoffs. I think one thing is key, it's to get figure out the left tackle. Like was he banged up? Can we get him right? Can he improve? If he can just be like a solid option at left tackle then you're in pretty good spot because you have an elite quarterback. You drafted Kyle Williams last year. You drafted Henderson last year, the Ohio State running back. So you got some explosive young players on the roster. You have a big time coach. You have an awesome offensive coordinator. Like even if you don't win as many games this year I would buy stock in the Patriots for sure. It's Pittsburgh making the most quarterback non dependent offense possible. The skill positions are absolutely huge beside Warren who plays bigger than he is. DK and Pittman are both 636 4. Washington is right tackle who happens to play tight ends. Friarmouth is 65260. Dowdle is a big back. Is this a lean on you type of offense that can be simple for God forbid. Will Howard 6 round pick Brady and Purdy be damned or keep Rogers and Kirk Cousins upright. Love the dad Diaries. They do have some pieces. There's. Listen, they were a second wide receiver last year away from being a solid offense because Gainwell was good. The tight ends were good. DK was like a unique option because of his speed. They just didn't have the second guy. So now you put Pittman with him. McCarthy's an excellent offensive coordinator. If you tell me that they trade for one of these young quarterbacks I think they're a pretty interesting team now. Now the question is, you know TJ showed serious signs of age. Like if he is still a top five pass rusher then it's Just hard not to have a solid defense because you have a guy that could just pressuring the out of the quarterback but they have him. They resign Hayward like their defensive lines a little bit older obviously. I mean Cam's been in the league for 20 years. They did draft the D tackle last year from Oregon who they need to play. Well they still have some other good pass rushers. I just think their defense as the season went on kind of showed signs of life, you know or or didn't just showed signs of like they weren't bunch of big names but weren't playing up to those names. That that to me is the bigger questions like who's going to play quarterback and defensively like are they just big overpriced older names or are they like big time defense? I usually agree with your takes, but the AJ Brown discussion has much more gray than black and white. You lay out at times describing the Waddle deal as a direct comparison is not even fair. The Dolphins are in a fire sale. Waddle is more durable. Brown missed as many games in the past two years as Waddle has in his entire career. While I'm not an insider, I'd bet a reasonable about Waddle is miles easier to deal with in house. As a Charger fan I would be ecstatic to get Waddle for this. But if they trade AJ who I could also can argue is going to get age worse for that amount, I'd be livid. Well, one thing I was told at the combine is A.J. brown ain't the problem. Beloved in the locker room, don't let the media hype and the way and listen, I'm guilty of this too. But I found out information like some of my takes on A.J. brown were wrong. Now if you want to question his durability, that's fair. So is Waddle more durable? Yes, he's also a small little player. It's so it's like is he taking over in December and January? I think that's a fair question to ask, right? I know AJ Brown can AJ has been an all pro. Jalen Waddle has never sniffed being an all pro. Now I know Jalen Hurts has played well in the super bowl, but he's a pretty erratic high end quarterback. So he dominated with Tannehill. If they're both on, I'm taking A.J. brown every day of the week. I hear you on the fire sale, right? So if two homes are selling and one guy's like I'll just rent it out, I don't care. I don't need the money and the other people are like we need the cash. Now clearly one team is more desperate to get rid of a guy. But if you think that like that home that's desperate sells for a million dollars and it's like well my home's way nicer but I'll take 900 grand. That ain't the way it works. So if you don't think that that deal impacts how he's marketing, I don't know what to tell you. I mean I'm not saying that someone's going to offer pick 31 or 32 or 29 for AJ Brown, but if you're Howie, you cannot get give AJ Brown away for the DJ Moore deal. You just can't. So I, I hear what you're saying. I don't even necessarily disagree with some of your valid points, especially with the injuries. But I, I think when they're both humming it's not even a comparison who's the better player. And I like Jaylen Waddle. Question for the pod. Why are the Steelers still waiting for Aaron Rodgers? It's like when a desperate guy texts a girl constantly only for her never to respond. Been there, done that. Or wait weeks to respond and she only responds because she might like the attention. Get some self respect. They could always get Derek Carr trade for Mac Jones or a wild card trade for Will Levis. I don't think they're trading for Will Levis but I hear you. Worst case scenario, he sucks and they're in a position to draft a good quarterback or drastically improve with McCarthy as the head coach. I don't know. I, I, I can't tell you what they're doing. I, I think they're, I mean they did this last year. I don't know why they would do it again. Makes a little more understanding because McCarthy's connection to Rogers. But I, I, I, I can't, I can't answer that question. I can. Why they're just not going to roll with Will Howard who might end up being good. Who knows? I mean we like someone asked you just usually don't go all in on six round pick, right? If you give me Tom Brady and Purdy. Both those guys came in during the season. Neither were the starter. You, you don't get to be the starter as a six round pick. It just doesn't not the way it works now if guys go down, you get thrust in there. All of a sudden you're Kurt Warner. It happens. But no one ever just like that's trying to win and the Steelers have said over and over they're trying to win. The owner said it, they hired McCarthy for that. He will not be named the starter, fair or not. But I so I don't know. Can I tell you my friends at Hard Rock Bet? My wife looks at me the other night and she goes, why are you rooting so hard for Arkansas? You would have thought that Coach Cal was my dad. I said 50 to one I got the Razorbacks to make a freaking run. Duke, bring it on baby. Today she's like, why are you rooting so hard for the Johnny's? I said, rick Patino, that's my guy. Let's make a run. Gotta take down some one seeds. But that's the thing. Even if your bracket is busted, if you gamble, if you bet on these teams, it makes a tournament so exciting. So Hard Rock Bet, they have daily boosts, have parlay profit boosts every single day. More ways to shoot your shot and get cash with boosted odds. 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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. Mailbag if the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys were each a stock and you had 10k to invest in any or all of them, how would you allocate your 10k? The goal is to make the most money in the next three to five years. Well, you know, money's all relative. So the 10k if I doubled it 20k, don't get me wrong, I would take 20k but not changed my life. So with a 10k investment, it's kind of why I bet golf. I like big returns so I like taking big swings. And if the Eagles were a stock, they would be you know, a consistent winner, like a meta, you know, Microsoft, right? They've been to three Super Bowls in less than 10 years. Maybe their stock's a little bit down right now. You can make money off them, but at this point in time, I mean they just won the division. They hosted a first round playoff game. So you're not going to 10x your money. The Giants would be a team that a previous year before Harbaugh you would have been like if you bet on them, you could find a 20 bagger. But now that John Harbaugh's there, I think they are a heavily invested stock. I think a lot of people, coward to all sorts of people, like the Giants are going to be good. Most people, and I don't even disagree. I think they're trending in the right direction. But if we're sitting here today and they were a stock, I think in a weird way they'd be a little overvalued. It's like, listen, their quarterback's talented. Is he good? Is he good? I'm a pro Harbaugh guy. Love the family name. My son, not necessarily after their father, but fellow Jack. As I told John, I, I buy stock in the Harbaugh family, always have. John Harbaugh was going to get fired not that long ago. And then they used on their second draft pick, they took a guy named Lamar Jackson who replaced Joe Flacco in the middle of that season and saved his Ravens career. So like Jim Harbaugh is a good example. Took the Charger job because they had Justin Herbert. It's hard in the NFL. Like want two things. Can you win games with Jackson dart like 12 and two, can you stay on the field? Those are unknowns. One thing I know about the Cowboys coach, major question mark, the talent on their offense is big time. Their offense is going to be one of the best offense in the league. They got picked 20. I mean they tried. Rumors were today they, they tried. They offered the 20th pick in OSA for Max Crosby. Then they came back and offered pick 12 in a third round for Max Crosby. They're not going to get Max Crosby because he's staying with Vegas now. But the Cowboys are being aggressive and they got ammunition. If they hit on their first round picks, which historically they do. Who's to say the Cowboys this year couldn't win like 12 games? And why I would bet on the Cowboys. Like if you said, hey there's a million dollar investment, I would allocate it probably heavily to the Eagles. They would be the safest and then I would my flyer would probably be much more on the Cowboys and the Giants because I think it's the Giants a little overvalued. But in this scenario versus 10k, not necessarily changing my life unless I could turn that 10k into like 100k. There is a path for the Cowboys to just be pretty good this year. They just hired the Eagles defensive coordinator who's really highly thought of if their offense maintains and their defense just dramatically improves with a bunch of new talent. So from a value standpoint, I would put it all on the Cowboys. It's kind of crazy. We don't even talk about the commanders. I mean they're either going to come storming back or just not be good. I don't see much middle ground for the commanders. Like I have a hard time seeing them be like 8, 9 wins. I feel like commanders are either going to be good because Jaden's is healthy and Ballin or it's just a weird year. Question for the bag with a 2G two day gap between the tampering negotiation period and the official start of free agency, why don't more teams try and snipe each other's deals? With the deals becoming public 48 hours before they're actually official, we why don't more teams try and outbid the original contract? For instance, reek Wolin got 1 year 15 million from the Eagles. Why didn't another team call his agent and offer 2 for 32? I would have thought more teams would try and quote snipe deals given that they're made public two days before. Here's the thing, because the tampering period didn't start on Monday, it starts at the combine. So when those deals are announced, they've already, you know, pimped their deal around. Like they've already set their numbers all over the place. So when they agree to said number, they know on Monday that is the most they can get. Because for two weeks before, even though it's not allowed, they know and the negotiations start. Maybe they start a little bit before the combine, but truly, I mean I was with a couple GMs and they're like these, some of these negotiations, like these meetings with agents are exhausting. One guy gave an example, is like, you know, you sit down, he's like what do you want? And the guy's like US 7 to 15 million range. Like what? So at the combine, numbers are just getting thrown at the wall and then the more and more they meet, the more interest they get from specific teams with specific players. The reason the Eagles got him for one year, 15 million. I don't know what the guarantee is because he either realized he maybe could get multiple years, but no one was sniffing the amount he thought was worth signing a multi year deal for. And two, maybe the Eagles just offered enough money that's worth it for just to kind of resurrect his market that he thinks that should be higher. So the reason that no one comes in and snipes the deal, because they've already said no. Like they saw the deal that was offered and if you were interested in said player, let's just pick Devin Lloyd or Jordan Jalen Phillips or Tyler Lindenbaum or whoever. You know those numbers before Monday, like we're out. It's not, It doesn't come out of nowhere. That's what I would say. If you're interested in a player you know by the time that you're getting into the weekend, heading into Monday, are we in on this or not? Do we want to go to there or not? Do we want to outbid them or not? So the those decisions get made kind of off camera, off Twitter. Would you consider Larry Fitzgerald underrated? Where would you put them all time? Wasn't Larry Fitzgerald Disney first ballot hall of Famer? Could be wrong. But he, I mean he's going into the hall of Fame. Isn't he a first ballot hall of Famer? You, you cannot be underrated if you're a first ballot hall of Famer. So I would say he's not underrated. I would say he's properly rated. Anyone with a brain goes, larry Fitzgerald is a fucking badass. So I would not consider him underrated all time. It's hard for me to like speak with great conviction of like the 70s and the 80s, you know, Jerry Rice, Randy Moss. I would consider one, two. I think Terrell Owens is probably the most physically gifted when you factor in strength and speed, he's a top five guy. I, I truly believe in the peak of his powers. Tyrique is as good and talented of a guy, you can say Antonio Brown too. Both a little bit of a wild card, but I, I would. Tyreek's better than Antonio, but I don't think we've ever seen a guy that fast, that elite with ball skills. Great route runner, ability to get open short, intermediate, deep. And then you have a lot of like Marvin Harrison's senior, not junior. I think we got some guys in the league right now who are pretty, pretty Good. Jamar Justin CDs, not bad. Trying to think 2000s era, who am I forgetting? Calvin Johnson was a freak show. He just didn't play that long. Julio in his heyday was pretty unstoppable. So yeah, I, I would say Larry Fitzgerald is properly rated. Is there any player you were scouting that you pushed for and got away and turned out good, as you expected? I've told this story before, how he said I was really aggressive at the combine when I was talking to him for the podcast. I would say that's true. And not like when you're in your late 20s, you're not like dictating the terms like, coach Howie, we gotta sign this guy. It takes time to get comfortable doing that. So I used to like my first or second year, I had to do like the ufl at the time it was, might even usfl. I forget the name of the league, but there were like six or seven teams. Like Sacramento had one, Vegas had one, Omaha, Nebraska had one. I think like Alabama had one. There was this guy, I think he was playing for the Mountain Lions, Sacramento, named Andrew Sendejo, who had played at Rice. And we didn't even have a grade in the system, you know, back now, like every player gets written up. Up until like 15, 20 years ago, a lot of guys if you just, who's this guy? Like, you wouldn't even write the guy up and his career would just end. It was harder to get on practice squads. Rosters were smaller. It gets changed a lot. So he didn't even exist in the system. I was like, this guy's making plays now. At the time, maybe I just didn't have the confidence. I just went to Lewis Riddick and he just made fun of me. It's like we got to look at Andrew Sindeo, we got to look at Andrew Sindeo and nothing happened. And then Andrew Sindeo went on to have like a 10 year career for the Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings was a starter on the Minnesota Vikings who were one of the best defense in the league. No big deal. White guy, big hitter, I think played with Harrison, Smith, Kendricks, really good defenses for the bag with Kyle and John entering the ninth, their ninth year. And their core group of top drafted players, Kittle, Warner, Bosa, all closer to the end than the start and all coming off major injuries. How do you think before they trade one away or cut and if so, who goes first or lifetime Niners? Last year Kyle said it was a three year plan to Kawakami, so I think two seasons max. Well, Kittle and Warner just got contract extensions last year. So I would say they're. They feel pretty safe unless physically they can't recover from their injuries. But I feel like a lock those guys get a couple years. I wouldn't count triple Trent because he wasn't drafted and he's older. He's kind of year by year. I would say Bosa would be the guy paying a ton of money, underwhelming couple years ago, last year injured. He would be the guy like are we getting a 15 sack season off? You coming off an ACL, are you going to be one of the top four or five pass rushers in the league? Because if you're no longer that guy, to me he would 26 could be his last season on the 49ers. Now, I'd have to look at his contract, but I, I would say he would be the guy to watch over Warner and Kittle McCaffrey. Kyle just looks at McCaffrey like he's Jesus. So he's probably safe too. Rank these short quarterbacks. Knicks, Baker, Purdy, Bryce, Kyler. I would go Purdy, Baker, Nicks, Bryce. To me, Kyler's in his own category. I, I just, I don't even know. I'm down on him. I. He hasn't really played much the last couple years. He's had major injuries. To me, he's just a wild card category. He's to me wild card. So I, I would go of the guys that I'd go, Purdy, Baker, Bo, Nicks, Bryce, that, that's how the guys, how I would want them. You got to put some respect on the Steelers name. You said the Steelers don't have a quarterback while talking about the bum Bengals. I'm tired of hearing about the possibility the Bengals and the Ravens winning the division if they just fix their defense and got a little bit better on the offensive line. It's the same as the Cowboys. This is our year. The division has to gut through Pittsburgh and they will have to go in 2026. Again, Rogers or not, Steelers got better this offseason through players and coaches. Ravens even took from the Bengals defense. It's laughable at this point, Pittsburgh was beating these teams with Kenny Picket. Well, you guys played the Ravens two years ago in a playoff game and they beat you by multiple touchdowns. And that year too, the Bengals, whose defense was atrocious, beat the out of you at the end of the year. So I listen, I, I'm not anti Steelers. Like I said, I do admire the way they approach business and how much they care and they refuse to tank. But the other teams have kind of run the division like you've been going 9 and 8 and getting blasted in the playoffs. The Bengals went to a Super Bowl a couple years ago. The Ravens were the number one seed. So as we sit here right now, I'm picking the Bengals. And you know Trey a couple years ago was banging off 17 and a half sacks. Last year was a disaster and he missed more than half the season. So I know they got him cheap. Relative to he wanted $40 million a year they still gave him $60 million guaranteed. So to me Trey Hendrickson for that thing to work is going to need like 14 to 16 sacks for them to feel good about it. Appreciate you not charging folks for the mailbag compared to other shows Fugazi people charge for a mailbag? That seems kind of ridiculous. I don't even know how I would do that. Love me some Sammy D. He's earned everything and it was fun watching him. He is of course the starter next season but if they see Milroe take the next step over the next year or two to fulfill his potential that we saw glimpses of in college, what do you do? Sam is still young enough to be a high end starter for the next five to seven years. Would love to see Milroe be the next superstar quarterback. Mike wants his Lamar lastly, any Hawks fans not giving John and Mike the benefit of the doubt? Need to kick rocks. I agree. I was thinking this when I saw your question earlier when I was screenshotting them all. If they knew that they were going to win the super bowl and the Darnold would go on to be a good have a good season. I know they paid him money but I wonder if they would have drafted Jalen Milroe. I I really do because in the offense in which they run it probably makes more sense to have like I don't know, just a more normal backup than Jalen Milroe who is so different from Sam Darnold in that offense. So I I wonder if he could have a redo and I get it. He just saw value this freak talent maybe could play another position but I I see Jalen Milro not taking Jalen Milro was pretty bad his last year in college. Played in a passing offense for DeBoer and it did not go well at Alabama. He's physically gifted, he's fast, he's strong as he's got a huge arm. Not sure he knows where it's going but I I do wonder if they had a redo on that knowing what they know now which, listen, you could do that in the draft every single year with every single team. If they would do a redo and go, yeah, we probably would have taken someone else. I'm curious if you heard anything from your GM scouting buddies on Will Howard. I'm holding out hope. He could be the guy we have a six round quarterback contract to build a team around. In college he was a winner. Has some dog in him, is huge and can move. Are you hearing anything on him? Can he be the guy? Last time I was with Coward, I thought he said it really well. Being a winner in college is so overrated. Tim Tebow was a winner. Everyone that plays at Ohio State, especially in the NIL era, isn't just going to win. They're going to win big. Like worst case scenario, they're going to be in the final four Elite eight most years. They're going to be favored in every playoff game. Now he was excellent for them in the playoff run and he seems like a great guy. Aaron Rodgers talked him up. I'm not anti Will Howard, but we've talked about this over and over. No quarterback ever is going to be named the starter as a six round pick. It's never going to happen. Now they can come into it with injuries, crazy things happen. But even if Rogers doesn't come back, there is no way Will Howard will be the starter just because there's like an open competition. It just doesn't work that way. Not with a team that plans on trying to win nine or 10 games. If they were bottoming out then yeah, you would just roll with Will Howard. And who knows, maybe Will Howard be good. I'm not disputing that. Maybe he'd be fine. You just, you got big receivers. Yeah, McCarthy's good with quarterbacks, but I just have a hard time seeing it could be wrong. Maybe McCarthy loves him. Did you ever figure out a name for your listeners? What about caffeine addicts? Like caffeine. We were gonna do coffee. It's hard to beat Jim Rome, the Clones. That one's. That one's pretty tough to beat. The barstool as the stoolies. It just has to be one word I've never figured out. I, I don't hate Kafia but it's just I don't like IYA like I, I, I. Something about that like the cronies. I think that that was Jim's. Rome had that one too. The cronies and the clones. I don't know. It's got. I'll know when I hear it. I've never heard it where I was like that, that. Do you think the Pats will go over the. Under, over, under. Nine and a half wins from Vegas. You know, it's funny. It's like forever. It's like Vegas, Vegas doesn't set the tone anymore. DraftKings is based in Boston. FanDuel. I think their parent company is like an international company. It's funny. And don't get me wrong, I. I grew up loving Vegas. First time I ever went to Vegas, I was like a pig. And I was like, oh my God, this is incredible. Taking out credit advances to get some thousand dollars cash when I was worth like 200 in my name in college. But it's. It ain't the same anymore. You know, I think we need to change our vernacular because Vegas doesn't set the tone. They really don't, but it's just muscle memory. I get it. I. I'd put the paths like nine or ten wins. I think that's fair. I. I wouldn't bet it though. I don't think I would bet it. Question for the pod. I was just texting with a buddy after he sent me a meme about the NBA. Him and I both realized we hadn't watched the NBA at all this year. In fact, I would argue I've watched more NHL after the Olympics this year that I have NBA my whole life this year than I have the NBA my whole life. When it comes to who is the second biggest sport in America, do the three leagues behind the NFL have a premium or game importance issue? In the NFL, you get games on a weekly basis, only 17 of them. Making each game feel important even when it comes to. To the teams in regards to draft position. Would the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball ever consider significantly reducing the amount of games on their schedule to. To increase the importance of the games that are being played? Or is there another solution that would make regular season games feel more important leading into each respective postseason? I hope that makes sense. Well, there is no disputing that. The NFL's great advantage. One, it's an incredible television sport. I mean, the sport was made for tv. I've been to a lot of NFL games. It's way better on television than it is attending. It's cool to be there if you're there for a big game, but it's much easier to watch on tv. That's not, you know, if you have good seats in the NBA. Like being at an NBA game is awesome. Being at a baseball game school. I think being a football Game, it's, it's communal, but it's a much better experience on your couch. Especially now that you can get 85 inch TV at Costco for $1,000. I mean 4K. So that's a huge advantage. The games look great on television and they're, I, I know they play on Thursday and Monday, but the majority of their inventory is on Sunday. What do we do on Sunday? Most of us don't do anything. Most people in America do not work on Sundays. So it's like you can just watch. And then their other two games are prime time, you know, on Thursday and Monday night. So they have a television advantage. The problem is for baseball they have 160 games. And for teams like the Dodgers, the Cubs, the Phillies, the Mets, in theory the Giants, the Yankees, they make a lot of money from, for having 80 home games. So the business model for home games matters, especially now that local television is kind of fucked. The NFL, you make clearly a lot of money from suites and stuff, but even if it, if you didn't make a penny on attendance, it would impact the NFL owners little to none. Now it makes them a lot richer, but the money they make from the television deal is what changed the game for them. And basketball a little like baseball, you get 40 plus home games. I mean, that's a lot of inventory. And obviously if you're the Memphis Grizzlies, I saw some clips of like, it looked like there were 50 people there. But the Lakers, the Knicks, right, the good teams, the Thunder, I'm sure this year, in the last couple years, the warriors forever. Like that's a lot of inventory to make a lot of money. And part of their business model is less. Think about baseball and basketball. You know, the warriors, the Lakers, like they have local television deals. There is no local television. With football, there's not like, well, let's watch the local broadcast for the 49er Cowboy game. It doesn't exist. It's on Fox, it's on cbs. You know, Chiefs, Bills is going to have Jim Nance and Tony Romo calling the game. You know, like it's all national football. And basketball is much. And hockey as well. It's a regional local sport in terms of how they make their money, how a lot of their business revenue is. So they will never, you know, Steve Kerr's gone on this rant about the season's too long and listen, I don't think he's, he's necessarily wrong, but they're not changing that. They're just not. And for what they Lose in the juice. I don't think they care because they're making so much money on now the national television deal for basketball and these home games. So I. Part of what made the World Baseball Classic so good and what makes the NCAA tournament so good is every game matters, right? You're watching Kansas play St. John's whoever loses that game goes home. Where in baseball and basketball, like their playoffs are seven game series. So it's like this is not a win or go home game. We see blowouts in the playoffs all the time. Like you get ransacked in some of these games, it doesn't even matter. The warriors one year beat Memphis. I think they lost the game by 50. I swear to God, I don't quote me on that. Might have been 40, but I think it was 50. You know, in, in the NCAA tournament. In football, like you can't you lose the important games, you're done. Regular season games feel big, but that's, it's just the setup of the sport. It's really the advantage of football because if they could, they would play every day. But you can't. You need to practice, you need to game plan. Like in. You think NBA is game planning a lot of nights? No, you're kind of rolling the ball out some of the time. Even in baseball it's like, oh, we got some scattering reports in the pitcher, but you just play the next day, you know, get to the yard, take some swings. Obviously there are, there are scouting reports, but it's way different than football where the coaches game plan Monday, Tuesday, give the scouting reports Wednesday morning, you go through them, you practice it, you change it on Thursday, you go over it again on Friday with the different situations, third down, fourth down, all the different, you know, down and distances, time of game, two minute drills, end of game situations, end of half situations, doing that every week. You think in baseball like game 40, you approach it the same way, like it just no chance. Or in basketball, I mean LeBron, they historically like hasn't practiced in a decade, don't practice, they don't practice football. The whole sport of football is practice. So I, I, I don't think it changes. And I, I, I think that it just kind of is what it is. And these sports, like if games get big, if there are big playoff matchups, if you get the right brands, like when the Yankees are involved, when the Lakers are involved, it's big. But one problem for basketball, I know the Thunder are excellent and that dude's 7 foot 5 on the spurs and he's Incredible. They ain't moving the needle for the casual guy. Not exactly Michael Jordan versus Shaquille o', Neal, you know, and they would die for those guys to be on the Knicks or the Lakers or the warriors because more people would pay attention. It's like the baseball is pretty lucky right now that like the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Red Sox and the, the Cubs and the Phillies and the Mets are good. Right. Because if it was flipped and it was a lot of smaller markets, the sport would be in trouble. But you can't manipulate. Like, by the fifth week of baseball, it does. It's not going to feel like, you know, that Bryce Harper home run. The wbc, because it was a one game situation. What was the Pat Riley's the greatest two words in sports. Game seven, NCAA tournament. Every game's a game seven. WBC, you know, the Olympic hockey. Every game's a game seven dot Hockey's the same thing. Yep. Do all these games matter? No, they really don't. The Giants play the Yankees at the end of the week, opening day. It's cool. Like, I'm, I'm die hard Giants fan growing up. Don't care as much now. Whoever wins that game, it'll feel cool. It doesn't matter at all. I mean, you literally have 161 games left. Whoever wins, it just doesn't matter. So I, I think that's part of the problem. You know, podcasting, you can't really. It's. It's not that big. Baseball's not that big because you can't react to the games. You know, even a lot of basketball is like reacting to big picture stories. Like, you listen to Bill Simmons, like, where's Giannis gonna go this off season? It's like you're breaking down all the games, you know, in football and every game matters now as the season goes on. Some teams, like, we're not talking Titans and some of the shitty teams, but it's like all about the games, all about the games, all about the games. You know, baseball, it's just you jump off a bridge before you broke down every game. In basketball, it's a lot of like, bravo kind of the drama until you get to the playoffs. I think the NBA might get saved this year. If the Lakers are actually good and they can make a run, that would. Adam Silver would cream his pants to get Lakers Knicks in the NBA championship. That would be the number one draft pick. Number two would be Lakers Celtics. He would not want the spurs or OKC back. He saw OKC in last year. Against the Pacers, it did not go well till game seven. Just like baseball, like they really benefit from the Dodgers being a powerhouse right now because if it was like Diamondbacks, the Rangers, it did not go well. They would love Dodgers, Yankees again. Like that's what they want, that's what I want. Or, or you know, Phillies, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox in the AL and NL championships. They're very, very brand dependent where football, none of that matters. The, the Bills, the Chiefs, I mean the Cincinnati bank, these aren't. Chicago Bears had been good forever, it doesn't matter. And that's where football is like recession proof is they're not dependent on specific teams. So I think it's a lot of different things going right now. Yeah, actually ran in today at the gym to Richie Incognito. I met him at the Super Bowl. He was at the party and he was, you know, he knows Ty Dunn because Ty comes covers the Bills and he played for the Bills. And I, we were waiting for smoothies, little post. We ended it with a little executive workout in the steam room, in the sauna. We got a new cold tub. Our gym did this crazy renovation. The locker room has been shut down for six months. It just opened this week. I did like a two hour executive workout today. It was incredible. So I'm waiting for my smoothie. I see Richie. I, I talked to him a couple times and, and I told him like, you know what's crazy is like when this guy, you know, he played in Nebraska in the NFL forever. Football is big. It's never been bigger. It's never been more universally like everyone has a thought, everyone has an opinion. Women as well. I, I don't want to say it's the peak like a stock, but it just can't maintain this forever. It just can't. It's like Nvidia, Nvidia wasn't going to go up hundreds of percent every single year. Forever. There gets to a point. Doesn't mean it's ever going to crater. But eventually something will happen. I've been saying this forever. Very fortunate that I got in the football business. I mean I easily could have been like been a baseball scout. If that opportunity, who knows, like I could have done something else. I wouldn't be sitting here today. Right. So I, I, I'm, I'm, I, I'm rooting for the NFL to maintain this. But it does feel like how do you keep getting bigger? And Rogers told us he's trying to go international now. Is it going to work? I don't know, but that's their next move, because they go. I. I don't know if we can even get that much bigger in America. Everyone watches. Adios. Talk to you soon. See you. The Volume. This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.