Transcript
John Middlekauff (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast.
Matt Jones (0:05)
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John Middlekauff (0:28)
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John Middlekauff (0:38)
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Matt Jones (1:05)
This is Matt Jones and I'm Drew Franklin and this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen NF Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Greg Rosenthal (1:37)
Football is back. That's right, the new NFL season is here and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 60. It's in the name NFL Daily so you'll have fresh content in your feed all season long. Join me, Greg Rosenthal, in an all star cast of co hosts for previews and recaps of every single game. NFL Daily will keep you up to D everything you need to know so you can sound smarter than all your friends. Listen to NFL daily on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Matt Jones (2:09)
The Volume.
John Middlekauff (2:23)
What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? It's Tuesday and I said, you know what? We we've been reacting to the games, giving our thoughts and takes on everything that's going on. I looked at my DMS at John Middlekop is my Instagram and they were packed. We have a lot of questions. I'm like, it'd be a good time to just do a massive, massive mailbag. Probably cut this into two videos, but gonna try to answer a bunch of your questions. It's how we like to interact with the people here because this season, you know, it's not that long ago. I remember being in Lake Tahoe for a little summer vacation and thinking, God, the football season's still pretty. Even in training camp, it kind of drags. Then all of a sudden you blink and I mean, we're 48 hours away from the bills probably being three and oh, and here, just week threes here, college football, some of these teams have already gonna play four games and you just flies by. So we gotta try to enjoy it sometimes I'm just on to the next one. We just got to, we got to embrace, enjoy and, and just BS about football because that's what we do here. So you guys know the drill. Firing those DMs going to be a big mailbag. But first, 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 in America. You know, I went to Texas, Oklahoma last year. I probably was a year too early. This would have been the better game to go to. I would love if I had an easier way to make sure I was back in my office bright and early Sunday morning to go to a college game. Specifically in the south, maybe a Georgia game, maybe a Tennessee game. I mean, that Tennessee Georgia game looked fantastic. If you want to go to one of these college games, if you want to go to a NFL game, either home or away concert, get out. Break up the monotony of life. Go out, enjoy yourself. Take your wife, take your girlfriend, take a buddy. Just go out and have a good time. Do it with my friends because they're the best in the business. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use a code. John, that's Johen for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account. Johan for $20 off down the Gametime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Let's dive into the mailbag and we're going to start with Cooper here. Question slash hot take for the mailbag. Caleb isn't the main problem for the Bears. It's the run game. Yes, he has some accuracy issues, but he's vastly improved from last year with getting the ball out of his hands on time. However, he's always trying to make the big play because he has no run game. DeAndre DeAndre Swift can't find the fucking gap and stutter steps like a ballerina before making a decision. Look at any quarterback that has success. They Have a good run game. Love and Jacobs panics and Bijan, jaden Daniels. Year one, he had Brian Robinson and Eckler. Even McCarthy looked good. Week one by the second half because of the running backs. My question is why does nobody bring it up how bad the run game is for Chicago and instantly blames Caleb for missing passes. Every quarterback will miss passes, but it seems that his get exaggerated. Do you see the Bears trading for a running back this year or are they just opting for the draft? I would agree that the week two loss was way less on him than week one. Right. The week two loss, the defense just clearly ran out of gas. Slash might not be good. I mean they're missing dbs. Jalen Johnson's now it looks like. I see a report yesterday he's out for the year. Obviously he played in that game and then got banged up. You miss him. I mean he's, he's a high level corner when he's healthy. So that's going to be a major blow. Listen, the Bears have a lot of issues and I said this the other day, you know, Caleb is such a lightning rod. Anytime that you're the number one pick, you're in this huge market, you know, you have some controversy that follows in terms of the way you got there. You're like, I don't want to go to Chicago, then I want a piece of equity. There's a lot of things that sometimes the number one picks like that doesn't happen. Right? There's just not much to the story either good or bad. I do think this situation is going to turn more to Ryan polls, like how is the general manager going to survive? You know, they drafted Roma dunes a ninth overall and I think looking back, clearly they should have taken an offensive lineman. But this guy is obsessed with wide receivers, which is kind of ironic because he's a former offensive lineman. I think it's fair to assume he has no clue what he's doing, which is crazy. Like decent amount of GMs feel like overwhelmed. Like they have no clue because a lot of GMs and we've talked a lot about it on this show, like talk the talk. They go, you know, I love the trenches. I care about the line of scrimmage. And it's like pick eight. You're like, give me that slot wide receiver who runs fast. You're like, that's exactly what we didn't talk about. Like we gotta follow the board. It's like, I'm not in the business of taking a wide receiver really high Unless I think the guy is going to be a superstar. Like, he better be. Malik Neighbors. I mean, look at the wide receiver draft. Just in that group. Marvin Harrison, Malik Neighbors and Roma Dunes, like it's. Malik's in a different universe than those two. I mean, it's not even. It's not even. They have nothing in common. Malik, it's clear his physical attributes, his, his skill, his overall like playing demeanor, I mean, that dude's a badass. The other guys are replaceable players. And you take 1 4, you take 1 9th, you just can't do that. Now listen, you're not always going to hit on, on offensive linemen either, but I will never have an issue with someone taking an offensive or defensive lineman high. I won't. So I might not agree with the pick with the player, but I said this about Genty and you know, I'm a John Spy Tech fan, but I was like, I don't know, man. Running back number six overall. Aren't you better off? Like, could we take an offensive or defensive lineman here? Is, is there someone that can impact the line of scrimmage? We took a running back and you know, through two games he has 80 yards and I, People think I hate the player. I do not. I'm an Ashton Genti fan. I just think when you're drafted 6 overall, especially coming from a small school, it's just difficult, man. It is. It's pretty rare that guys like you watch Bijan Robinson, like, he has hall of Fame talent, right? Saquon Barkley has Hall of fame talent. Christian McCaffrey has Hall of Fame talent. If I'm gonna take a running back in the top 10, he better be that. If I'm take a wide receiver, like, it doesn't have to be that. If I take a lineman that high, can the lineman just start for me and be an above average player? Like, I feel okay, ideally I'd want Lane Johnson or Tristan Worst or Penne Sewell, right? But if I just get a good starter for a long time, I feel pretty good about it. We nitpick these skill guys because the difference between a high end guy and an average guy, it's like could have found that guy in the third round. But overall, the Caleb thing, this is a big week for, for, for Green, not Green Bay. I'm looking at a question about Green Bay, about the Bears play the Cowboys, who are pretty bad on defense. I mean, clearly they made Russell Wilson look like the greatest quarterback we've ever seen and he still can throw a deep ball Give him that. But I just think that if the Bears can't win this week, when are they winning and we're going to get Tom? You know, Tom's be interesting Some of Tom's comments about Caleb what's up? John Tyler from West Virginia As a Packer fan, I always notice how much we prioritize the offensive line. Other than the Eagles or the Lions, I haven't heard much about other teams doing the same. Am I wrong in thinking it's not a big deal around the league? Could the Bengals cough or do other teams also try and stack the offensive line and it doesn't make headlines as often? Here's the thing. When you take at pick 10 or pick 6 or pick 20, the offensive tackle or offensive guard, it is not a sexy pick. When you draft, oh my God, they just drafted whatever wide receiver or whatever cornerback or tight end that is a much sexier pick for the fan base because their highlight package is them scoring touchdowns, right? Them making plays with a football in their hand. It's like, hey, we just got Zach Martin in the draft from Notre Dame. Like how many pancake blocks can you can you play draft an offensive lineman draft pick on Thursday night or even Friday night is just not as sexy as some of these other positions. So that is a huge reason, like I go out of business if I broke down offensive line play, right? It's not a sexy, but it is. You can't operate without it. And having good offensive lines is equal success, right? Having good offensive linemen changes your team. I just think skill guys, there's never been more functional skill guys all around the league and all over college like you can find. You can get guys no problem in the twenties, the thirties, the forties, the fifties that become all pros at wide receiver. I mean the 49ers drafted Ricky Pearsall at the end of the first round and there's a decent chance that he's going to be better than Brandon Ayuk who just got $75 million. It's like you didn't need to give him that money. What you should have done is use those resources, that money, like buy some offensive linemen. But hell, no one listens to me once you tell us about your friends, your partners. And the official ticketing app is Kirk Cousins, the most sought after quarterback at the moment. Could the Falcons look brilliant by being able to parlay him into a third round pick and maybe offload, if not all the contract on a team like the Vikings or the Commanders? What about Cousins in Cincy I think he would be an upgrade over Browning and he is a Midwest guy. I would think he'd love the opportunity to throw to chase into Higgins. Well, the Bengals are cheap so they would have no interest on taking his, you know, $27 million prorated over the next 15 weeks is not happening. And they believe in Jake Browning so they're not doing that move. You would have to have a devastating injury to Jaden Daniels to get them to contemplate that move. And the other team you mentioned was the Vikings. I'll be honest, something's a little fishy about the J.J. mcCarthy injury. Now we just saw it with Purdy where a guy finishes a game and then after he's out. So it. And it's happened. It's not like it's never happened before either. But clearly Purdy just threw a game winning touchdown like they, they would not want him to not play. McCarthy was a train wreck. I mean a complete disaster for seven out of the eight quarters. So if you told me it's like he's kind of banged up, but it's like we need to give this guy a breather. See, just get Carson Wentz in there because this guy has lost his confidence. So conspiracy middle cop here has just got that situation red flagged. I'm not saying he's not injured. I do wonder if there's more at play, something to keep an eye on. At least Wednesday when Kevin o' Connell talks, I'll just be interested the way he kind of verbalizes his thoughts on the entire situation. But they're not going to trade because part of also trading for Kirk Cousins if you're them, like McCarthy's not playing the rest of the year. Cousins is not really a tradable asset. He's just not. Unless you would need a season ending injury to a team that is just desperate to make the playoffs. See, I'm getting asked the same question. Is there a chance the Bengals tried to go after Cousins or a guy like Dalton or they are going to roll with Jake Browning for the, for the foreseeable future. He would have to be a train wreck for them to pivot. He just won them a game. Said the game winning touchdown. He made a bunch of plays. He's actually five and three in his career as a starting quarterback for them. Like they're not, they're not in the business of these other guys. Look at what they did today. Like they're bottom feeding. They're taking guys off practice squads. They're all in on Jake Browning. They would need A devastating injury to him, which you could say with their offensive line is possible. Now, I, I could be wrong here, I mean, because I'm basing this a little bit when he was younger, but I do feel like Jake's a better athlete than Joe Burrow, so maybe he's got a little more mobility. But I, as long as he's able to play, like, I don't see them going with another quarterback. They're not the Eagles, you know, they don't think in desperation mode. If anything, they're opposite. They're like, slow, steady, try to save some money. I'd be stunned. I really would. But I mean, I was stunned. I think I put this out on the everything app about halftime. Like, I'll be stunned if the Atlanta Falcons win this game and they won the game 22 to 9 or whatever. So it's not like I'm always right. I don't know. But I would not expect the Bengals to trade for Kirk Cousins. It's kind of sad, you know, it shows you. And in fairness, he definitely probably didn't see the Pennix thing coming. But like, once you become mercenary guy doing everything for money and I, I guess it could happen in some of our industries, but clearly pro sports toward the end of your career, because unlike most of us, our careers can go like, it's not like, hey, I only peaked as an architect for two years. Like, you can do things for a long period of time even if your industry changes a little bit. Like, you can kind of pivot, but you should have 50 year plus career if you want. Professionally, these guys got to strike where the iron's hot. But Cousins already did. And him and his agent, which I respect, I mean, I'm a capitalist. They are obsessed with getting every penny. And when you do that, like, sometimes you're just going to get fucked in life. And I have little to no sympathy for seeing him just kind of, he kind of feels like he's just standing there pouting a little bit. I mean, the last year of his career or two years of his career just kind of come on, the bench sucks. But he, this is what he wanted. I mean, he's getting paid. He's the highest paid backup that didn't start the year as a starter that got benched in the history of the league by a wide margin. I mean, who are the highest paid backups currently? Because backups have never made more money than they make now. And like, what's mint? You make $10 million for Kansas City. You know, Daniel Jones got 14 well, he immediately started. You just go around the league like find me, you know, Mac Jones, the backups like two years, $8 million. I mean cousins is making $27 million to be the backup. Now they would tell you, well Panix is only making six or seven, so our total quarterback room is 35. Well imagine if you didn't have Cousins, you'd have other room. But in fairness, they probably would have traded him. He had no trade market. As a commander's fan, how concerned should I be about Tom Brady being involved with the Raiders? Tom Brady called our game week one and now we play the Raiders this week. Do you think this is something Dan Quinn, Adam Peters would think about when they were meeting with Tom in the week one production meetings? Thanks. I clicked on Bruce Arians who was with McAfee and he said that he thought those meetings could be a little overblown. How much information gets shared? He said the thing that would be very, very glaring if he had access to and he doesn't is the Friday practice, Saturday walkthrough and any sort of the last 48, 36, 24 hours, anything on the field with players. I do think as Tom Brady, people are going to want to talk to him. Like one advantage Tom and Peyton, who does the, the Banning cast really have is offensive coordinators. You know, if the GM doesn't want to talk to him, the assistant gm, these guys are going to want to be friends with those two guys so they can gather information. Like I have no. And I remember if you talk to any coach, I remember Coach Reed telling me stories about how he used to, like Al Davis used to call him all the time, like when he first got the Philly job or early on in his career. Like these guys are constantly on the phone with each other. Howie Roseman's on the phone with other teams nonstop talking. Now what information you give back and forth, you know, depends on the relationship. But like think about like John Spytek and Jason Light, right? They work together forever. It was his right hand man. They're like best friends. You don't think they share information. So it's less about quote unquote sharing information and it's more just throwing it in your face. Now Dan Quinn has been around long enough, but we're human beings. If you're just saying stuff, it's one thing. If I'm just talking to Greg Olson, I'm sure Greg Olson has a couple people that he would consider very close in his life in the NFL, whether they're coordinators, whether they're GMs, he came on this podcast and he didn't specifically say names, but clearly he's got some people since doing this job and probably when he was playing as well, guys that were position coaches that have now moved on to be coordinators throughout the league that he texts all the time. And they. What do you think? You talk about just like what the weather is. Of course they're talking different ideas, but when Greg Olson walks into your building, if you're the Eagles, Sirianni and Howie, your guard isn't necessarily up. You're not worried about him giving all your information to the Dallas Cowboys or the Washington Commanders. Even though he's going to talk to those teams, it's inevitable because he's going to call their games. But there was just like, it's like a scout. When a scout walked into Nick Saban's practice, Saban wasn't petrified of him sharing the information, though he could. He could easily walk right into Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, if they're playing him in a week or two and tell him what they saw. Right. But, like, that's kind of. No, that's not really what you do. And not that it. It's. It couldn't happen. I just think the optics of Brady sitting in that coaching box, even if nothing actually changed, we already knew exactly what his role was, is something that's going to be hard for teams to shake. And specifically the Chiefs, the Broncos, and the Almost called in the Clippers, the Chargers. I just, I. That one would be tough for me. And it does feel, and I could be wrong, that there is more crossover than ever of AFC and NFC games on Fox and cbs. So it's like Brady's not just going to have, like, Bears, Cowboys, right? He's going to have some AFC games, and it's just going to be interesting to see how this thing plays out. I do think the story is not going to go away. Once he was in the booth, that was crazy. I mean, he was not just there to have a cocktail and eat some chicken fingers, which he probably wouldn't eat anyway, but like a lettuce wrap or whatever Tom would actually eat. I give Tom credit as someone that's really trying to work on my diet and my caloric intake. He is not. Doesn't feel like he's budged at all from the diet situation from when he played to now. I mean, that chiseled jawline, like, he. He is not eaten cheeseburgers and onion rings. You know, sometimes it's like, hey, you can let your Guard down a little bit. It feels like he's as dialed on the diet as ever. But I, I guess I didn't answer your question. I, I, I, I just wonder if teams, especially after on Monday night, are going to be really, really guarded with because it's not just him. If he's not allowed in the meeting or whatever his restrictions are, whatever you tell his crew. And I'm a huge Kevin Burkhardt fan. How is Kevin not going to relay stuff or Tom asking Kevin to ask them specific stuff? So it's, it's kind of complicated and I understand, like I'm not hating in the fact, if I was Tom Brady, I'd want to own the Raiders too. Mark Davis gave me an opportunity to own a team when I'm not nearly as rich as these guys to get into the country club, right? There are certain country clubs, guess what? I would love to freaking join. And I probably can't afford slash get invited to, but if I did get invited and they'd also kind of cut me a deal, I would join in a heartbeat. Right? And so he got involved in a country club that most rich people would love to get in on, especially at the price point in which he got in, which became controversial. The other thing that every single person, that former player that wants to get into talking about football, whether it's on podcasts, whether it's on TV or calling games, there is not a player alive that would have turned down the $375 million. Even if you're like, I don't want to travel, I don't. $375 million, I'm doing it. So I would have taken, if I was him, both those two opportunities. But it's, it's, it's kind of made everything a little more complicated, you know. We are extremely excited to announce our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. Everyone knows and loves their hotels and casinos. But now you can use the top rated Hard Rock Bet sportsbook to place all your NFL bets this season. Hard Rock Bet is the only legal sportsbook in the state of Florida and is also available in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Colorado, with more states to come. You can also play on Hard Rock Bets online casino if you are in New Jersey. As we gear up for the NFL season, sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get 150 in bonus bets. If you win, head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today, payable in bonus bets, not a cash offer. 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