PMS 2.0 1483 - Super Wild Card Weekend Preview/Picks, CFP Semifinals Preview, JJ Watt, Nick Saban, Adam Schefter, The Trenchys with AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0, Episode 1483

Date: January 7, 2026
Topic: Super Wild Card Weekend & CFP Semifinals Preview; NFL Coaching Carousel; J.J. Watt, Nick Saban, Adam Schefter, and Trenchys Awards

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OVERVIEW

This episode delivers Pat McAfee’s signature blend of high-energy football commentary, locker-room humor, and sharp insight. With Super Wild Card Weekend and the College Football Playoff semifinals approaching, the Thunderdome crew—Pat, AJ Hawk, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, Ty Schmidt, Connor Rogers, and guest appearances from J.J. Watt, Nick Saban, Adam Schefter—break down the biggest NFL and CFB storylines: the wild NFL coaching carousel (especially John Harbaugh’s historic Baltimore exit), head coach hiring philosophies, top offensive lines, and predictions for the week's most consequential games. The episode is full of vivid banter, memorable analogies, and inside-the-locker-room stories, making it as informative as it is entertaining.

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MAIN THEMES

• Super Wild Card Weekend hype and picks
• College Football Playoff semifinals preview
• NFL coaching carousel: John Harbaugh’s exit, coaching philosophies, search firms
• NFL/CFB leadership qualities and what makes a “winner”
• Guest interviews: J.J. Watt (CBS), Nick Saban, Adam Schefter
• The Trenchys: Celebrating top offensive linemen
• Classic PMS humor: fandom, rituals, food tangents, locker-room laughs

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DETAILED SUMMARY

1. NFL COACHING CAROUSEL DOMINATES OPEN (00:00–16:46)

• John Harbaugh Out in Baltimore
  • Pat announces Harbaugh’s firing after 18 years: "An 18-year stint comes to an end with one tweet... John Harbaugh out in Baltimore." (00:18)
  • Locker room disconnect, fans growing weary, and how AFC North legends like Harbaugh and Tomlin shaped the division.
  • McAfee muses on the nature of coaching cycles: “Is Mike McCarthy also going to get looked at... Are we about to see third chapters of guys becoming something very special in this hiring cycle?” (02:25)
  • Rumors: Even teams who haven’t fired a coach are making exploratory calls to Harbaugh.
• Head Coach Hiring Trends
  • Shift from the mania for offensive “geniuses” toward “CEO-types” who can “lead a group in the same direction.”
  • "Leadership of men is going to become a main requisite for who you hire... who can lead a group." (03:12)
• Coaching Pool Highlights
  • Speculation on top coaching candidates and whether college legends might make the leap: “Maybe a college coach... the greatest football coach of all time, taking a 30 meter leap right up there into the pool.”

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2. THE TOXIC TABLE: FANDOM, RITUALS, LOCKED-IN ENERGY (05:42–10:48)

• Playoff Mindset
  • Connor and Ty discuss playoff life as impassioned fans, complete with wardrobe rituals and superstition.
  • Connor (Patriots fan): "I'm jacked up, juiced up, and hydrated. This is my playoff fit. This is why it’s different in New England.”
• Banter, Jokes, Injury Updates
  • Joking about “playing hurt” as a fan: Connor reveals he’s wearing big headphones due to an ear infection—“Everyone’s playing injured, you know, it goes right back to ball, man.” (10:49)

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3. FOOTBALL’S ALL-ENCOMPASSING WEEKEND: NFL & CFP HYPE (09:23–14:41)

• Packed Schedule
  • Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl Thursday and Friday. NFL Wild Card games Saturday through Monday.
  • “This is the good old days. This is what we've been waiting for.” (07:58)
• USXFL Spring Ball Detour
  • Quick detour about USXFL and minor league football as a “bridge” for the offseason blues.
  • “Let’s make sure whenever we’re watching these games, we are certainly enjoying them for what they are, which is special.” (09:23)

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4. HARBAUGH REACTION FROM PLAYERS & INSIDERS (15:37–17:01)

• Gumpy (Steelers fan): “As you were like, over these last couple weeks... Harbaugh’s definitely the name to watch... the Ravens organization should be so grateful... all the AFC Championship games, AFC North titles... It’s going to be really, really hard to replace him.” (12:09)
• AQ Shipley (former Raven): “His messaging has always been consistent... what you get with Harbaugh is the same principles of an Andy Reid team... but listen, the guy’s a winner.” (16:08)
• Reflection: Discussion on the rarity of Harbaugh’s special teams background and the likelihood this path persists with the evolving NFL landscape.

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5. J.J. WATT: NFL ANALYSIS & POST-PLAYING CAREER REFLECTIONS (18:30–56:41)

Notable Segments:

• J.J. on Harbaugh: “He’s phenomenal... built a culture built on defense, toughness, special teams, all three phases.” (16:08)
• Coaching Philosophy: Watt prefers the “CEO type” head coach: “There is so much that goes into head coaching... setting the vision for the building.” (32:02)
• Texans Defense & Playoff Preview:
  • "The Texans defense, without a doubt, can stop anybody. It’s going to come down to their ability to put up points on the other end." (23:39)
  • Doubts about Houston’s offense repeating that output in the playoffs.
• QB Development/Evaluation:
  • Praise for Riley Leonard (Colts): “This guy, actual Hooper... I was shocked at the throws he was making. Maybe Riley Leonard would be a good tight end because of how athletic he is...” (25:18)
  • Asks, “How long has he been like this?” (26:46)
• TV Booth Experience:
  • J.J.: “I absolutely loved [broadcasting] way more than I thought I would... I think there's a perfect line where you’re explaining why things happen, but you’re not talking down to the viewer.” (43:54)
• Classic McAfee/Watt Banter:
  • J.J. drops breakfast, jokes about his kitchen, playoff eating rituals (pizza rolls), and family/food stories.

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Notable Quotes:

• J.J. Watt (on coaching):

  "Everybody has opinions. I personally like a head coach to be a CEO type, not the coordinator calling plays type." (32:02)

• Pat McAfee (on Harbaugh):

  "Sometimes legends are just legendary, no matter where they’re at." (17:01)

• Pat McAfee (on food):

  “Are we talking about Pirate’s Booty or... actual butt here?” (47:30)

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6. COACHING SEARCH FIRMS, NFL EXEC POLITICS (39:30–43:10)

• Search Firm Critique:
  • J.J. Watt: “The winners in all this are these search firms. We all don’t know who the candidates are, and you can't just call... have to bring in a search firm or two and [pay] a whole bunch of money... to end up in the exact same spot you were going to end up." (39:08)
• Pat’s Take: “You’re in the actual position to make a decision... when you opt out of taking any of the blame by hiring out, I just think you’re not the person who should be in that seat.” (40:24)
• Debate: Darius notes that many teams have made bad decisions—“Why not try something new?” (41:48)
• Cynical Humor: Possibility that consulting is just a business racket, ripe for Pat & J.J. to jump into for big paydays.

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7. NICK SABAN ON CFP, COACHING TREE, LEADERSHIP (68:18–86:03)

• On Alabama Not Hiring from Saban’s Tree:
  • “If somebody was available, I’m not sure anybody was... [New coach Kalen DeBoer] is a really good coach... Tough transition, but I fully support Greg Byrne, what he decided to do.” (69:57)
• All Four CFP Coaches from Saban’s Coaching Tree:
  • “One thing I see in all these teams is a mentality... physical football, a lot of mental toughness and how they compete.” (72:19)
  • Special praise for Indiana’s quick turnaround: “These cats, man... they got some dogs on defense now.” (73:33)
• On College-to-NFL Coaching Jump:
  • “It is a fairly difficult transition... I had been in the NFL for six years before taking the Dolphins job... If you’ve never coached in the NFL... it’s a lot different." (74:50)
• On Creating Value:
  • “We were able to create more value for players... not just on the football field... Strength and conditioning, medical staff, nutrition—we were always a little bit ahead of the curve.” (80:10)
• College Football Playoff Preview:
  • “All these teams have a shot... I don’t think you can win unless you can keep from getting beat... It’s important to be able to play good defense, but the way people score points now... if you can’t score points, it’s hard to win.” (83:12)

Notable Quote:

“Leadership and winning, baby. This is the type of consultant you call for anything. We appreciate you.” — Pat, congratulating Saban (85:39)

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8. ADAM SCHEFTER: HARBAUGH'S NEXT MOVE & COACHING CYCLE (95:52–110:41)

• Schefter on Harbaugh:
  • Disputes reports of locker room friction: “Players were coming in his office crying, hugging him... If they felt that way, why are Mark Andrews and Zay Flowers coming in crying?”
  • “Sometimes nobody does anything wrong... it’s just time to go a different direction.” (98:03)
• Coaching Demand:
  • “John [Harbaugh] is the bell of the ball right now. He can pick the spot he wants.” (99:33)
• McCarthy in Demand:
  • “He’s gonna have a chance... At least two teams will interview him... But early in the cycle, hard to say how it shakes out.” (103:18)
• Coach Type Trends:
  • “I think John Harbaugh is getting a job. I think Kevin Sten is getting a job. Now, now we got some really interesting candidates: Robert Saleh, Vance Joseph, Brian Flores, Minter...” (107:42)
• On “Overthrowing” CFB Coaches to NFL:
  • “To this moment, right now, nobody has said to me [Signetti's] looking to go to the NFL.” (108:32)

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9. THE TRENCHYS: CELEBRATING THE BIG BOYS (125:03–153:17)

• Trenchy Awards:
  • Recognizing the best offensive linemen in football, AQ Shipley leads a detailed film breakdown and celebrates the importance of line play.
  • "People are getting full speeches at press conferences for doing it and we appreciate them... we're happy about offensive linemen getting recognized." (60:28)
• Detailed O-line Praise: Run game resurgence, more six-man protections, and the chess match between O-lines and evolving defensive schemes.

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10. PICK'EM & PREDICTIONS: SUPER WILD CARD WEEKEND & CFP SEMIS (153:24–168:16)

• **Each host makes their case for every Wild Card game (Rams-Panthers, Packers-Bears, Bills-Jags, Eagles-49ers, Chargers-Pats), with spirited humor and reminders that “it’s the playoffs—anything can happen.”
• Trends emerge: Value of home field, importance of the trenches, skepticism of cold-weather west-coast teams, and injured stars returning.

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HIGHLIGHT REEL—MEMORABLE MOMENTS & QUOTES

• Pat on playoff saturation:

  “Super Wild Car Saturday. Super Wild Car Sunday. Super Wild Car Monday. I mean, we’re in it right now. This is the good old days. This is the great days.”

• AJ Hawk’s birthday and “self-handicapping” Steelers fans (66:28):

  “Tone, deep down, though, he really wants the Steelers to win. He does this to protect. Like he doesn’t want to get too hurt if for some reason it doesn't go his way.” (67:05)

• J.J. Watt on pizza rolls and booty (snack edition):

  “Are we talking about Pirate’s Booty or actual butt here?... You never wait for [pizza rolls] to cool off and then you just destroy the inside of your mouth…” (47:30)

• Nick Saban’s candor on hockey:

  “No, I don’t know shit about hockey.” (85:32)

• Adam Schefter on search firm business:

  “The winner of it all are these search firms. That is hands down the winner of it all.” (39:30)

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TIMESTAMPED SEGMENT GUIDE

• 0:00–16:46: NFL coaching carousel, Harbaugh exit
• 16:46–18:30: Reaction from ex-players/insiders
• 18:30–56:41: J.J. Watt: Texans, TV, food & philosophy
• 56:41–68:18: Special teams, Patriots/Ravens/Steelers/Colts fan banter
• 68:18–86:03: Nick Saban: CFP & coaching tree
• 95:52–110:41: Adam Schefter: coaching market, trends
• 125:43–153:17: The Trenchys: all-trench team, award explanations
• 153:24–168:16: Super Wild Card picks & playoff banter

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TONE & LANGUAGE

• Conversational, playful, sarcastic, football-obsessed, and highly knowledgeable.
• Frequent ribbing between hosts/guests, “locker room feel,” punctuated by moments of deep insight into sports leadership, culture, and front office politicking.

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IN SUMMARY

The episode is a rollicking ride through football’s most compelling January stories, balancing expert analysis (from Saban, JJ Watt, Schefter, Shipley) with the Thunderdome’s signature hijinks and fandom. Listeners will get:

• A front-row seat to the drama of NFL coaching searches and leadership philosophy.
• Smart, inside-out previews of Wild Card and CFP games.
• A passionate celebration of the game’s unsung heroes—the offensive line.
• The locker-room humor and self-awareness that make PMS a one-of-a-kind football experience.

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For anyone who missed the show, this summary captures every high and low, blending humor, expert insight, and unfiltered passion for football.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this super football weekend. Wednesday, January 7, 2026. This sports program begins now. Football is magical and it's always changing and evolving, isn't it?

[Nick Saban]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

An 18 year stint comes to an end with one tweet out to the world saying john Harbaugh has been fired. Let go. John Horbaugh out in Baltimore. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network went on his show insiders last night on the NFL Network and said like, yep, a lot of guys didn't like him in the locker room. That's basically what it came down to. The ownership kind of found that out later as it went on. We'll hear from schefter in a second hour at about 01:30 Eastern Standard Time to hear what he's hearing about the entire situation. Hell of a run over there though, coach. Honestly.

[Connor Rogers]

Hell yeah, coach.

[Pat McAfee]

18 years, very, very rare in the NFL. Very rare anywhere. And obviously the only way you do that is if you are one hell of a ball coach. And he certainly was that. I think we all knew what we expected from the Baltimore Ravens football team whenever Harbaugh was coaching it. That's hardball football. We're going to be a tough team. We're going to be a hard nosed team. Harbaugh comes from the special teams world. So we're going to be diligent in all three phases. I think we saw that out of the Baltimore Ravens a lot. Baltimore Ravens, though, very similar to Pittsburgh Steelers who have Mike Tomlin there for 18, 20 years as well. Two staples of the AFC north, two staples of the NFL who have been doing battle in a big way for very, very meaningful playoff spots. Every single AFC north titles for the better part of the last two decades. Fans kind of getting sick of the message. You know, some people say the coach will lose the messaging to the locker room. Well, I think you lose the messaging to the fans as well. When the fans give up hope and think that you can't win a Super bowl anymore, they grow louder. Especially in football towns like in Pittsburgh. Definitely like what happened here in Baltimore. Now there's a lot of conversation about Tyler Loop misses a kick, there's a fumble at a half yard line, there's a drop in the end zone. How come John Harbaugh is being punished so bad for this? I think this is potentially a good thing for both sides. I think John Harbaugh, who is now the bell of the ball of the coaching cycle, allegedly seven, eight teams have looked into talking to John Harbaugh he gets a chance to rebuild, which I think a hardball person enjoys doing. Jim has moved multiple times and had to build up a bunch of programs. John really hasn't had the opportunity to do that because he had so much sustained success in one particular place. I think a fresh start will be good for John Harbaugh and a fresh start for the Baltimore Ravens people. I think I'm excited to see who it could potentially be. But all of a sudden, John Harbaugh is the guy that everybody's looking to hire. And then you start looking at stats and it's like, well, is Mike McCarthy also going to get looked at the same exact way? Are we about to see third chapters of guys becoming something very special in this hiring cycle? There is certainly a chance. We met a graphic about the NFL coach pool right now, and it is certainly a very large pool. And then if you look at the very back of this pool, there's a high dive. Don't look. Now there's maybe a college coach that people are calling the greatest football coach of all time, potentially taking a 30 meter leap right up there into the pool with all these NFL coaches that are certainly out there being talked about. You know, Ben Johnson, the last couple coaching cycles, he was the guy. He was turning down jobs going back to the Detroit Lions. Then it was like, well, which team is going to be lucky enough to be chosen by Ben Johnson? He picked the Chicago Bears. It worked. All of a sudden this year, there isn't really the Ben Johnson. There isn't really the, this is who you should hire. This is who you have to hire. For a long time, the coaching cycle was, need an offensive guy, need an offensive guy. Oppenheimer came up this one. He split the atom. If you hire an offensive head coach who calls the plays, then if your offense has success, nobody is going to poach your offensive coordinator because your head coach is. And so you're going to be able to maintain that. You maybe just have to replace the defensive side, but if you have the offensive side figured out, that's good news. Especially with the success of Sean McVay and other offensive gurus. And everything feels like leadership of men is going to become a main requisite for who you hire. Not necessarily on the offensive side, not necessarily on the defensive side, but if you get some dogs in there, potentially the teams are going to run a little bit harder. Look at what happened in New England. Mike Vrabel. Mike Vrabel is actually telling players, star players, shut the fuck up on the sideline and Then talking shit to him immediately afterwards. And then they're dapping up and winning and doing something that. That we were hoping would never happen again in New England, which has become dominant again, like a dynasty. So whenever you're looking for your next head coach, I don't think anybody knows who's the right pick this year, but I think the one thing that they should be looking for is who can lead a group in the same direction. And we're going to need somebody to be able to do offense, because if the quarterback's ass and the offense is ass, your chances of making it ass. So good luck to all the teams and good luck to Harbaugh on his next voyage. Now, you saw that pool. There was a couple names in there that people were like, who is it? Who is it? Shane Steichen's in there because allegedly.

[Ty Schmidt]

What's that about?

[AQ Shipley]

What, he's coming back?

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, this is a coach's pool, okay? We just took a picture of it, all right? We're just telling you what. What's potentially possible out there. And that could be another coach that currently has a job. But Harbaugh allegedly has had a team that still has their coach and didn't make any announcement about firing a coach. Calling his team, saying, hey, would you think about. So Schefter was alluding in his tweet, basically, like, there's teams who were going to keep their coach and potentially even their GM as well, that now hear about John. I'm not saying the culture anywhere near that. I'm just saying it could. Got a lot of good history with Baltimore, things coming from Baltimore to Indianapolis, you know, things work out. Harbaugh family. Harbaugh's up in the ring of Monterey. The brother is there. I'm just saying maybe they think about it, maybe they think about it. You know, maybe. Maybe John Harbaugh does that. Or maybe it's another team and a fan base that thought, oh, we're doing status quo, we're staying the exact same. And now all of a sudden, John Harbaugh is available and ownership goes, wait a minute. That is exactly what we are looking for. Where we are at. Let's go to the toxic table. Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt, con man. You look a little different today.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, locked in. I mean, all this talk you're, you know, mentioning about the off season and about, you know, coaches being higher places. That's cool. I'm locked in on the playoffs because I got a game. You know, Ty. Ty's got a game. He's in his, you know, entire get up with the Green Bay Packers. This is my game day. Game. Okay? This is my. Hey, this is the playoffs. This is a classic Nike Tech playoff fit.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay?

[Connor Rogers]

So, I mean, look, I'm jacked up, I'm juiced up, I'm hydrated.

[Pat McAfee]

Is this your first time wearing one of those?

[Connor Rogers]

No, not my first time. I wore it last year a bunch, but it wasn't for my own playoffs. This is more to get into the headspace of it. That's why I wasn't on here. Now that the New England Patriots are back in the playoffs. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is a full effort. And this is why it's different in New England. You know, this is why they've won so many Super Bowls. Because it's not just the team locked in telling, you know, like Mike Vrable, you said it. Telling Stefan Diggs to shut the fuck up. You know, it's. It's each other telling, hey, you're a fan of the Patriots, we'll shut the fuck up and get locked in. You know, there are things of that.

[Pat McAfee]

We're back.

[Connor Rogers]

We're back. Yeah, there's. We're the two seed.

[Pat McAfee]

And this is what you used to do during the dynasty right here.

[Connor Rogers]

Every, every single playoff run we had. I mean, we could probably pull up the tape when Mac Jones and the. The New England Patriots went up to Buffalo and got the doors blown off them. I believe that was the game. They had a perfect game from the Bills. They scored a touchdown every possession they had. I was wearing this on Friday before that Saturday night game. I remember because. Because I got so hammered I fell asleep at the bar. I remember that to a tee. And I was wearing this. I was with Gumpy, he can attest. But again, we're back. And if this was Friday, I probably would have waited. If we had a program on Thursday or Friday, I would have waited to wear this. But we don't have a program tomorrow or Friday because we're doing, you know, the Fiesta bowl of Peach bowl, so I had to wear it today.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Well, Ty, it looks a little different. I would say a little bit. But it is nice to know that he's locked in on super football weekend. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And like you said, you know, he's got a game this weekend. I got a game this weekend. So it's.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

It. It's weird because he's wearing this and it almost does. It almost feels like the game's tomorrow. It almost feels like a friend well.

[Pat McAfee]

It is good news.

[Ty Schmidt]

There are games.

[Pat McAfee]

We got the Fiesta bowl tomorrow. Okay, get locked in, boys. See, that's super football. Come on. Thursday night, Fiesta Bowl. Friday night, Peach Bowl. Super Wild Car Saturday. Super Wild Car Sunday. Super Wild Car Monday. I mean, we're in it right now. This is the good old days.

[Nick Saban]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

This is the great days. This is what we've been waiting for. And after this. Okay, we don't even need to talk about it.

[Darius Butler]

No, no.

[Pat McAfee]

Football starts going real.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, we got the USXFL.

[Pat McAfee]

I forgot about the US XFL. And the thing about it, I heard AJ McCarron's locked it. Yeah, I like AJ McCarron doing.

[Ty Schmidt]

So is Ricky Pearl.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I like that St. Louis Rams.

[Nick Saban]

Great.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ricky Pearl is the new head coach of the St. Louis Battle Hawks.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Exactly.

[Connor Rogers]

They are McNamara, Kate McNamara star.

[Pat McAfee]

Is he.

[Connor Rogers]

He was the first pick, I think last year, two years ago.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. And we hope Pavia has an incredible NFL run. Okay. We are pulling for Diego Pavia to have a great NFL run. USXFL could give him an entire franchise here in Nashville.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, need to throw the kitchen sink.

[Pat McAfee]

Expansion thing right there in Nashville. Yeah. And once again, this is him making the NFL. This is obviously alternate, but here's 2026 USXFL coach. What's the problem? They don't know their own logo. It's crazy. Or league name. Anthony Beck, West Virginia studio. Okay. Absolute legend out of West Virginia. Play for the Jets. His kid, Rocco Beck. Where's he going in transfer portal? Maybe his entire coaching staff over there at Penn State. Congrats to him. He feels like he's been playing for 45 years. AJ McCarran, Ted Ginn. Oh, great hire, Ted. I like what they're doing over there at the US xfl. Maybe this is the spring where we get some spring ball. But let's not bank on it because of what we have seen in the past.

[AQ Shipley]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

So let's make sure whenever we're watching these games meaningful. The most meaningful of all season. We are certainly enjoying them, for they are, which is special. That Fiesta bow tomorrow kicks off the College Football Playoff semifinals. We'll be on the sideline for it. What a great way to start Super Football Week, man.

[Darius Butler]

Cannot wait. Just like comment. I got a few games. Obviously it starts tomorrow. Hurricanes. And obviously I got a couple teams in the tournament as well in the NFL. And I was looking for a Nike tank as well for some reason. Sold out everywhere. But I'm looking.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you never. You've never. You've Never done Nike tech.

[Darius Butler]

I've been. I've been wearing them for years, but for some reason, I don't know, I.

[Pat McAfee]

Think prices are up, too.

[AQ Shipley]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

Because this one kind of looks new. I don't. I don't remember Connor ever wearing.

[Darius Butler]

I remember I've seen him.

[Pat McAfee]

You have?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. I mean, that's like.

[Pat McAfee]

If you.

[Darius Butler]

You remember bowl games, bowl game season, travel, you know, everybody's in the. Hey, everyone look the same.

[Pat McAfee]

Swag.

[Connor Rogers]

Not just the pats, too. To D. Butts Point, you know, still still got one Fri. Got one Friday too. You know, that's the difference, though. That's what it's like having multiple teams.

[Darius Butler]

The ears, though. The ears are different. Headphones.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

What's that all about? Bad news, Bears, gentlemen. Got an ear infection. Can't put any of those earbuds in my ears right now, so just kind of had to go with the over the top headset. Don't love it. Don't love it. Actually, it's very, very hard to hear myself with these headphones on, but doctor's orders.

[Pat McAfee]

I think any headphones with the ear infections could potentially get you. Is it one ear?

[Connor Rogers]

Both ears. Both ears, man. It's a nightmare.

[Pat McAfee]

How'd I know it was both?

[Connor Rogers]

It's a playoff, so. Hey, look, everyone's playing injured. You know, it goes right back to ball, man.

[Darius Butler]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

It does go back to ball. Miami Ole Miss tomorrow it's Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Oregon, Indiana, and then a full weekend of awesome NFL games that wrap on Monday Night Football with the Houston Texans and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh Steelers taking a victory lap because they basically got Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh fired and father Maximilian Maxwell. I heard he's doing a little extra a little bit on this. Let's head to Hammer. Todd, your thoughts on a massive shakeup in the AFC North? I mean, I'm 38 years old. You're 37 years old. I do believe large portion of our football lives here. John Harbaugh has been representing the Baltimore Ravens, who have been battling with the Pittsburgh Steelers in a huge way. Used to have citywide pep rallies whenever they were taking on the Baltimore Ravens. Mikey and Big Bob would have a pep rally the Friday before we played the Baltimore Ravens. Come on down. Swing a sledgehammer at a Baltimore Raven car that we're going to tear up. Like that is what the Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers was for a large portion of our lives in Harbaugh and Tomlin were. That feels like tone. And this is a huge move that I think was almost being forecasted by these insiders before the final game of the season.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, as you pointed out, we were both in college when Tomlin and Harbaugh were hired, and seeing the pictures of them from their first game to their last game is insane. It is a huge shakeup in the AFC North. But as you were like, over these last couple weeks and we kept talking about it and you picked up on what the insiders were saying, and we're like, yeah, Tomlin, not so sure. But Harbaugh is definitely the name to watch. And who knows what reporting is real, whether he wouldn't get rid of his coordinators or if the players didn't disagree or didn't agree with him or. Or if it was just, hey, you've been here for so long, things haven't gone to what we wanted to. As far as winning a Super bowl with Lamar. Like, it. Maybe it's just time for a change. But I had a, I had a thought last night. Like, watching him, you know, leave the Ravens organization, like, and how, like, the Ravens organization should be so grateful for what he did for them. Win a Super bowl, all the AFC Championship games, AFC north titles, like, just being a good team for that long is insane. And it's going to be really, really hard to replace them. It's. I don't know what kind of hire they're going to go with. I don't know if it's going to be offensive for Lamar or try to fix that defense of what was going on the last couple seasons there, but it's going to be huge, huge shoes to fill.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sorry.

[Gumpy]

In afc.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I agree. Huge, huge shoes was an aggressive decision to go with. I appreciate your brain doing that. You. On that note, would you be saying or being thankful for Ravens fans saying Steelers fans need to be very, very thankful for John Har or for Mike Tomlin and what he did for the Pittsburgh Steelers immediately upon the exit of Mike Tomlin, if this was to go the other way. Because that's kind of how it was being talked about. Mike Tomlin. It wasn't really being talked about him being fired. It was more so like, I think Coach Tomlin will make that decision. Also look for him to maybe get into tv. Like, TV was being talked about a little bit too much there. And then we immediately start thinking about Coach Tomlin on tv and it's like, God be the greatest. And the amount of money that people are streaming platforms trying to get sports audiences right now, they're investing in NFL, they're investing in live games who has a resume. That's great. Well, obviously he does. That's why this conversation's even happening. Who is an incredible talker about the game, leadership storyteller, you know, everything basically it's him. So you start putting together like oh, he's going to TV if they lose this game and then on the Baltimore side Harbaugh is going to leave. If they lose in this entire. And they were even saying the day after Harbaugh gets fired or leaves Baltimore he'll have five jobs lined up. And I guess that's exactly how this is kind of all gone. They've almost been telling us this for like a month now. Feels like toad.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, they have. And yes, last night when the, when he got fired or whatever, it did make me think about Tomlin and think like, hey, whenever this run is over. Yes, I know there's been the criticism and it's come from me, it's come from everyone over the last, you know, five, seven years or whatever, how long it's been since the killer bees that like there. Hopefully there is an appreciation for what a person has done for two decades as a football coach in your city. But no, I mean it's, it's insane. I mean, yes, and they said the same thing about Tomlin and Harbaugh. If they get fired, they're going to have job offers the next day. And you saw it happen with Harbaugh. Teams with coaches are calling Harbaugh to see if he potentially has interest. Is are the reports and yes, I believe Tomlin would be the same way. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't have ended in Baltimore or if it does end in Pittsburgh, it doesn't mean it shouldn't end in Pittsburgh. It just means that they're such a good coach that somewhere else will, they will improve the situation at somewhere else much more.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I'll say I think there is a freshness here.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I think there is a freshness to professional sports in which it's a meritocracy. Joining us now is a man who played for coach John Harbaugh over there in Baltimore. A 12 year NFL vet, Super bowl champion player, coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, former Baltimore Raven, Arizona Cardinal, Pittsburgh Steeler, Philadelphia Eagle and Indianapolis Colt. Ladies and gentlemen. Aky, tell me about Coach Harbaugh. Obviously you played for him over there in Baltimore, had great times. I, I think you, from my understanding, big fan of Coach Harbaugh, huge fan of Coach Harbaugh.

[AQ Shipley]

I think he's phenomenal. I think his Messaging has always been consistent. And what you get when you get Coach Harbaugh is the same principles of an Andy Reid team. Remember, he came from Andy Reid's team, team and system in Philadelphia. He goes down there and built a culture built on defense, toughness, special teams, all three phases. But listen, the guy's a winner. He's averaging 10 wins a season over his 18 seasons. He's been phenomenal. Their defense hasn't been up to par the last couple of years. Their offense obviously let them down a little bit this year, and then obviously the special teams at the end. But this guy's an absolute animal. Head coach that. That anybody would be happy to have.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I think it's. What it sounds like is people are certainly looking into it. He's still lifting too, I think, right? He's still getting under the bar and all that.

[Connor Rogers]

Big time.

[Darius Butler]

Horrible.

[Connor Rogers]

Do you think he's the. You think he's the last, you know, guy to probably go from special teams coordinator to head coach? It feels like that does not happen very often anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

So I think with kickoffs being more important now, I think special teams coordinators that are really good, I think will start getting a conversation. But on that note, it's going to be a tough gig, you know, even then, yeah, like, that was a very abnormal hire. Don Harbaugh, special leader, I think is the way they kind of viewed it in Harbaugh family, kind of known as being great coaches. Special teams, although the coordinators talk to everybody, okay, every day, basically have relationships with all three phases, are good at making decisions, right? Critical situations, game situations, game management. Because normally that affects special teams somehow, whether it's kick a punt or hey, we need to get out, we need to stop the whole thing. So I think they are normally very good candidates in theory, but I think it's hard for the ownership pull a trigger if they don't have like a offense person sitting right there. And they know the quarterback thing. I think it's a tough decision to make for people. Which goes back to Harbaugh being. Yeah, that was a special hire. And then him being there for 18 years. Job well done. I like the move for both sides. I know it's not good for the family. He's going to have to move. They've been there for almost 20 years. I assume they're a staple in the Baltimore community. Joining us now is a man who might have an idea on how this goes. Remember, he was staple in a city, then gets up and goes somewhere else. Guess what he does there oh, it becomes a staple in the city as well. You know, sometimes legends are just legendary, no matter where they're at. Maybe that'll be Coach Harbaugh Story. Wherever he heads, we know it's for this man. Ladies and gentlemen, the third member of the Bull Ring of Honor down there for the Houston Texans, future first ballot hall of famer, friend of the program, CBS broadcaster with a new haircut, J.J. watt. What's this you're wearing a 3, 3 and 14 teams hat over that new hair that you debuted?

[J.J. Watt]

I'm already having a morning. I'm already having a morning. I don't need anything put on top of this morning that I'm having.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, all right, all right. Stay away from it. I was very excited to see your hair. Your hair looked unbelievable on Sunday. I was very excited. And then I just learned of the record of your team. This is.

[J.J. Watt]

I. I made my entire breakfast this morning, and I was extremely excited to eat it. As I carried it from the counter to the table, I caught the edge of the counter and my entire breakfast ended on the floor.

[Pat McAfee]

So that's where I'm at.

[J.J. Watt]

No, I don't need any shit from anybody. I've already got enough on my plate.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, off your plate. Oh, Jade, we're sorry to hear that. Dude, it's Super Football weekend.

[Connor Rogers]

Got a new coach for him, don't you?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Good call. Hey, I'm sorry about the eggs because I've heard about the way you guys all eat over there at the Watt family. That was like an entire thing. Takes a long time to all the. You know, I mean, he's doing that. It's a long process, so we apologize that that happened. You weren't able to get the proper protein. Start your day you need for J.J. watt, I did learn a Burnley's record. Okay. I didn't like it. I didn't like that it was shown.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't like it either.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we're gonna fix it, though. Just like we're gonna get more eggs, more chickens popping those things out. I don't like that. This was shown right to my eyeballs. Three, three and 14, I believe, is what your team's record is, even though it's not on that particular graphic right there. 3, 3 and 19. Sorry. Jesus.

[J.J. Watt]

Big match. Big match. Big match today, okay?

[Pat McAfee]

So if you're thinking about a new coach, though, I got a guy, Dumpy. What happened to this dude? He was the Columbus Crew coach. Then he goes over to coach Celtic, right? Is this not accurate? We got an MLS coach That got called over. Okay. To go coach elsewhere. What happens? Gumpy?

[Gumpy]

He's the MLS coach of the year. He goes to Celtic. After 33 days, he gets canned, loses.

[Pat McAfee]

Six out of eight matches. He is now unemployed. It's not good for.

[J.J. Watt]

That's the business. Tough business.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was the sell.

[Connor Rogers]

That's the.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the new coach.

[Gumpy]

MLS coach of the year.

[Pat McAfee]

2024 you talking about?

[Ty Schmidt]

He just got the call up and.

[Pat McAfee]

The bed got Celtic. That's tough job in Scotland, dude. He won two out of eight out of 25. Exactly. Guppy, do the math. Sorry, the Canadian has to do the math here.

[Connor Rogers]

I miss company, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Two out of eight. He won two out of eight. They won three out of 25. Barnes over there, Remember? That's. Look at the odds.

[Ty Schmidt]

I was expecting something wildly different when I heard that over there, but. Oh, we maybe got a guy for Burnley. I was expecting like.

[Pat McAfee]

Like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, basically it was like the heir apparent to Pele. Not some guy who was the MLS Coach of the Year and then got the call up to the big leagues.

[AQ Shipley]

And then they found out quick this.

[Ty Schmidt]

Guy sucks and fired him. And you want J.J. to hire that guy at Burnley?

[Pat McAfee]

Two wins in eight games. They'd be dying for that right now. Burnley. Okay, please. And we need an MLS guy to represent over there. KKB get fired 30.

[Ty Schmidt]

Doesn't sound like he's the right one.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't think he's the coach of the Year.

[Darius Butler]

Where's the soccer coach?

[Pat McAfee]

Pool. All right.

[Connor Rogers]

Higher Land and Donovan to pool.

[Darius Butler]

Because.

[Pat McAfee]

Lando.

[J.J. Watt]

Am I missing something here? Did Connor just get off a plane from Venezuela?

[Pat McAfee]

Don't bring us down. You should know. You should know of all.

[Connor Rogers]

I mean, you know what this is? This is a Nike Classic. Tech. Okay, first of all, how many times. How many times did you walk into a game in a jumpsuit? Okay, that's what I'm doing. I'm ready for the weekend, brother. I got a huge playoff game this weekend, man.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, okay. Okay. All right. All right. You're oiled up. You're ready to roll.

[Darius Butler]

I'm not.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not.

[Connor Rogers]

I wouldn't go that far.

[Pat McAfee]

Not yet.

[Connor Rogers]

That's more of a game day thing. But I mean, especially if it's cold. Yeah, if it's cold out, you know, and it's going to be cold in New England.

[Pat McAfee]

Hope Herbert's ready get his Nike tech ready.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, you better have a couple classic Nike tech sport things from the playoffs.

[J.J. Watt]

Speaking of special teams. Yeah. They did a great job getting you suited up there.

[Pat McAfee]

Geez. A lot of special forces out here working in our favor. Okay. And that's a good news, especially in this football world that we're talking about. Let's go. The fact that you're giving inside information to the Texans opponents, when you call Texans games, they are undefeated. Two of them are against the Indianapolis Colts, most recently this one that just happened. Don't love it at all. Everybody's worried about Tom Brady, the other third member of the Bull Ring of honor, potentially just, you know, infiltrating. And I'm sure Shane, big fan. Shane, younger guy, probably loves J. Let me tell you everything we're going to do now. Couldn't stop Riley Leonard for a bit.

[J.J. Watt]

But didn't know Ryan Leonard was going to be going bombs over Baghdad, over the top of the defense all day long.

[Pat McAfee]

Just Moore, I appreciate the. I thought you were just doing all international incidents and stuff like that, things that are going on around the world, but I. Riley Leonard is a guy. And on the flip side, this Houston Texans team giving up like this to Riley Leonard a week before playoffs. Have you a little bit worried? What are your thoughts kind of going in for this Houston Texans team who I think obviously with that defense is going to be able to win any game. If C.J. stroud gets loose, they can win. Houston Texans could win it all. That is a very, very real statement. How do you feel after watching them so much this year? And how do you feel coming out of the last game?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, the last game was a weird one. I mean, obviously we were on the call there and the vibe was just strange because Jacksonville jumped out to a big lead early and the Texans pulled their starters at halftime. And even going into the game, I mean, yes, everybody said all the right things and. But you kind of. You kind of knew and you could sense it just around even in the stadium, the fans and everything like, yeah, we want to win this game, but we also want to get to the playoff playoffs healthy and we want to make sure that we're. Once we're in the playoffs, everybody is ready. And so it was just a strange thing. Now give credit to the Colts, right? Leonard comes out on his first third down deep to Alec Pierce. There's a little bust in the coverage there on the back end. They'll have Kamari Lasseter back at corner. So when you look at the afc, I mean, this year is, as everybody said more than ever, feels like the most wide open it's been. The Texans defense, without a doubt can stop anybody. It's going to Come down to their ability to put up points on the other end. That is going to determine how far they actually go.

[Pat McAfee]

The Houston Texans defense brings the boo birds to your stadium. That is what they do. Your team fans normally going to be booing your offense because the Houston Texans don't give up anything. That's why when I see Riley Leonard do what he did to them, I'm like 10 years, 500 million. Let's see if we can do that going forward. We're running it back obviously you know that. But that is what we expect from the Texans defense. C.J. stroud, we assume he's going to play his best ball in the biggest moments. That's kind of how I view CJ.

[J.J. Watt]

I have a question first before we move to this next game. Is there obviously you guys are in Indianapolis Colts territory. Has there been any thoughts or discussions or questions after watching Riley Leonard play.

[Pat McAfee]

About what if whenever we go back in time. So he had a hurt knee, remember first that first week he had a hurt knee whenever we put Phil in. Now granted, does he get healthy and then we go roll with him that next one after watching him spin it and be able to move, remember? J this guy, actual Hooper, true Hooper in high school with his size, incredibly athletic. We never said this publicly because we were big fans of the way he operated and how he was as a human and a teammate and everything like that. But he couldn't throw. He was a bad thrower. I mean he was a bad thrower. I was third string quarterback in the NFL for numerous years of my career. Have a couple throws under my belt. Not as good as Rigoberto Sanchez this past weekend. There was no reason for you to bring up that other play in real time while I'm watching that game at home. But like having a chance to come of like watch practices, NFL practices with how many different quarterbacks come through and what NFL quarterbacks look like when they're throwing the ball. It's hard to take serious somebody that misses a lot of throws and Riley Leonard was just missing all these throws. So I was like maybe Riley Leonard would be a good tight end because of how athletic he was. So I just assumed he was ass with his arm. Then he comes out and he starts layering throws he's been on. I'm like obviously he's an incredibly athletic dude. He's clearly worked on this and good for Shane Steichen and quarterback coach for developing him. But yeah, I didn't expect any of that before seeing it. J. I genuinely did it and then I started asking the same question you were asking. It's like, we had this guy the whole time. How long has he been like this? You know, that's the next question.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah. And like you said, I mean, obviously the first game he wasn't available anyway. And Philip came in and did what I don't think that O'Reilly might have been able to do against the Seahawks defense. Having to read all those disguises, coverages, everything. Philip gave him an unbelievable shot. And it was really cool for us to talk to Philip this week and just hear his whole experience, perspective, the fact that they live a mile apart in Alabama and that he hosted a minicamp for Riley and the Notre Dame receivers two years ago. Like, it's just the story goes crazier and crazier the deeper you get into it. But Riley's movement in the pocket, the way that he was able to shuffle around, set his feet, feather throws in, fill some in, and also run, run the ball. And they didn't even do that that much because they were protecting against having to put in their backup who just arrived on Monday. So you add in a zone read layer to you, add in a little more run game. There's no question there's something to work with there. Some of those throws were impressive. I mean, unfortunately, Pittman dropped two of them for him right in his hands. So it's like he played a good game. It was enjoyable to watch. And I think there's at minimum, if Daniel Jones is the guy next year for them and he does need a little extra time, you are more than happy to put Riley Leonard out there.

[Pat McAfee]

And it would suck for Daniel Jones if he was to re sign with us and end up being Riley backup. But I think we in Indy would be cool with that. Hey, if Riley, you have to sign.

[J.J. Watt]

Pierce, can you sign Pierce?

[Pat McAfee]

Pierce? I think Jonathan Taylor is going to want money too.

[Darius Butler]

You know, Pierce ain't signing unless Danny Dimes is the guy.

[Pat McAfee]

He came out and said that. That certainly is a part of the entire process, which I respect him doing that. People are going to want Pierce on their team, though. I saw a lot of Colts fans saying, Pierce needs to shut it. It's like, we want him back. He's going to get. We would like very good, Very good player.

[J.J. Watt]

Also his objection, in my opinion. I get it. I understand the rules. That ejection was. That's. We gotta. We gotta figure that out.

[Darius Butler]

These refs appreciate you in a jj.

[Pat McAfee]

These refs have gotten worse and I appreciate you calling it out now. I do fear that they are going to keep putting you on Houston Texans, Colts games because you do it. But I appreciate you doing. Hey, we need.

[J.J. Watt]

I was shooting it straight, dude.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, like, for the good of such.

[J.J. Watt]

It was such, like, yeah, you throw the flag, that's fine. But like, I don't.

[Pat McAfee]

I just.

[J.J. Watt]

That doesn't have to be an injector. Are you kidding me? Right there, there. Like, if you showed that video to somebody and said somebody got ejected from this play, they'd be like, all right, where's the rest of the video? What happened? That's what got him ejected.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on, listen. Yeah, I don't like it at all. I appreciate you speaking up for it in there because there's some commentators that won't tell the ref. Analyst, hey, shut it. How about that? You know, And Steritor, I appreciate how he operates. We would like Steritor to speak for everybody. Everybody. You know, Western Pennsburg guy. Paon knows it.

[J.J. Watt]

Big pig guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. Certainly. Pittsburgh calls me.

[J.J. Watt]

He calls me Babe all the time. Cracks every time. I love it. He's such an old school dude. All right, Babe. Great, Great call, Babe. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gene. That just gave me some confidence.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, flies on, too. Give him a Grazzi one time.

[Nick Saban]

In. In.

[Pat McAfee]

It's Pittsburgh.

[J.J. Watt]

As opposed to.

[Pat McAfee]

You said he's a big pit guy.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, yeah, I do that all the time. I didn't realize that that was such a touchy subject over there. I used to always just call it pit and say, how's it going? I did not realize that they were so sensitive to.

[Pat McAfee]

It was just the reality of what it actually is.

[Connor Rogers]

It's the backside, you nickname.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, there's a lot of.

[J.J. Watt]

There's a lot of cities and places in the world that indies, you know, some people. Yeah, exactly. So I didn't. So sensitive would be the word.

[Pat McAfee]

No, sensitive would just be understanding. It's different there.

[J.J. Watt]

It's different there because I also got yelled after saying the Berg. I like the Berg.

[Pat McAfee]

You can say Berg, you can say the Burg.

[J.J. Watt]

I said the Burger Bird. And people are like, it's not the bird. Nobody calls it the Berg. I'm like, I don't know. It's pretty cool.

[Pat McAfee]

That's true. We don't. But. But I think you. The Berg is cool. Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

All right, all right. So the Berg is fine, but Pit is not. Why University?

[Gumpy]

Can you use it in a sentence? Can you use the Berg in a sentence?

[Pat McAfee]

That's a good call.

[J.J. Watt]

Actually, I thoroughly enjoy all the Time I spend in the Berg and it is significantly hillier and more. I don't know, it's much different than I thought. You could. You could die on the roads in.

[Pat McAfee]

The winter, so you'd have to. Is there a comma in there somewhere? I don't know.

[Gumpy]

Say I enjoy going down a burg. It's got a lot of hills and stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Dberg.

[J.J. Watt]

So did you drop the. Oh, okay. So it's dberg. D Bears. Dberg.

[Gumpy]

They put it down before.

[J.J. Watt]

Okay, yeah, in.

[Pat McAfee]

Down. In. In that. If you want to toss it on the back. But Pitt is the University of Pittsburgh. Okay, let's go Mountaineers. And Pittsburgh is the city. City. Not everybody that is from Pittsburgh goes to Pitt. Pitt kind of took that. They did great branding with it, by the way. They just took the first four. I mean, they. That was a good move by genius. They're smart. They're smart. That's a very smart school. I think that's a good thing. But you know, you got Duquesne Dukes in Pittsburgh. You certainly got a lot of people that don't go to college in Pittsburgh. So not everybody wants to be associated with Pitt.

[Connor Rogers]

You know, Carnegie got it.

[J.J. Watt]

The Berg dub Duberg.

[Connor Rogers]

There it is.

[Pat McAfee]

What a weapon you are. All right, all right, let's talk ball. Let's talk ball. D Butt has a question for you, Jay.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, J.J. today's NFL, you know, without. Obviously it's always conversation around a quarterback and a lot of people want the offensive savant. What are you looking for in a head coach right now if you're hiring, especially in this cycle in particular?

[J.J. Watt]

I personally, everybody has different opinions on this. I personally like a head coach to be a CEO type, not the coordinator calling plays type. I think there is so much that goes into head coaching from a day to day operations standpoint. Setting the vision for the building and also running things for the entire team, not just your side of the ball. And on game day, when it comes to managing the game, managing timeouts, managing challenges and everything, I believe that the guy should be a CEO type. And even if he is one of these hot coordinators that comes in, which Ben Johnson is certainly making a case for the other way and some of these great coaches, but it's just there's so much that goes into it, man, I like a CEO type, so I like a guy that comes in and still hires somebody to run everything else. And you saw this year d' Amico handed off the play calling duties of his defense to Matt Burke. Defense went on to become the number one. Texans went on this nine win streak. So I just, I like it like that. That's me personally.

[Pat McAfee]

You can always help, you know, you can always, like, help on the defensive side. But there's. If somebody's spending their entire existence focusing on something, there's a chance they're going to be a little bit better at it or more in tune with it or more dialed in on it. Now, on that note, McDonald's calling it out there in Seattle.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

They're number two or number one in every other category other than than Houston. Now, how many years does that last? The M.O. is obviously not in his first year. Second year as a head coach like McDonald is in his first couple years. Like, will that be on forever? It's just so much another counterpoint to.

[J.J. Watt]

My own argument as I'm just debating myself for no reason. Liam Cohen this year was telling us a story about how early in the season he tried to spend a lot of time with the defense because he knew the bias he had towards offense. And he was like, I need to go over and make sure I'm a head coach, not just an offensive coach. And then he said after a few weeks, it wasn't working that well. And he was like, no, I just need to focus on the offense, offense and let my defensive guys handle the defense. So I do think it can work if you have full, complete trust in your defense, like so. When I was in Houston, we had Gary Kubiak as a head coach who also ran the offense, and we had Wade Phillips on defense, who was basically a head coach of the defense. And we were essentially two units that were working at the same time. But Kube was the head coach of it all. But we had two head coaches, essentially. It was a really cool setup, and if you can do that, I think that's very, very effective.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, especially if there's respect for each other. Was that the Bears back in the day, they hate each other. It's like literally two different teams almost rivals of each other. And that defense, I think, won, you know, big time. Long term. It's really the only person we talk about is defensive side. Well, I shuffle it.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, sure, yeah. Jim McMahon, though, he was nice.

[Connor Rogers]

The fridge.

[Pat McAfee]

The fridge. But they did have two units basically kind of in it all. If you can have respect for each other and keep it moving, great. But if one team starts doing a lot better than the other team, that starts getting better. That's when things start getting bad. Let's talk about another coach. That you played for. Go ahead, Connor.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, J Guy that you played for as well who play caller, Cliff Kingsbury. He is gone now from Washington. Him and Dan Quinn went into a room and maybe beat the shit out of each other. No one really knows yet, but he's no longer the coach for the Commanders. What was your experience with him? Do you think that is one of those situations where maybe he was. Was, you know, play caller and head coach and learned from that after going and, you know, doing some time in Washington and now as he gets back into the cycle might change it up a little bit. Or was he one of those guys that could do, you know, two separate units, great on offense and then just have someone run the defense because it feels like he's had a bunch of success as a head coach. Obviously had a bunch of success with, you know, Jaden Daniels in his first year back in coaching after getting let go from Arizona. How do you feel feel he will do if he does get the opportunity to be a head coach somewhere?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I think Cliff certainly learned a lot from his experience as a head coach and then since then being in other roles and having time to reflect and grow. I think I love Cliff. He's, he's, he's one of my great friends and I think I hope he gets another shot. I would imagine that he will, but we did have something similar when I went to Arizona. A big part of it was also because Vance Joseph was a defensive coordinator. Vance Joseph is another guy who I believe will get a head coaching shot again at some point. He's running one of the best defenses in the league in Denver and he is a guy who can manage the room extremely well even in tough circumstances. So I would imagine he'll get one as well. But these guys that have been head coaches before, you would certainly think and hope that they've learned since then and wouldn't do it the exact same way the next time through. But this coaching pool in general is an interesting one. Just there is not necessarily that same. I mean, now that Harbaugh is in the. Certainly changes it. But like last year you had the Ben Johnson where it was basically okay, it's a sweepstakes that's number one. And now maybe Harbaugh slips right into that role, but it's, it's an interesting pool this year. To me, it's not the same as always and I, I always have a funny take on GMs. Like every single year there's a whole lot more head coaches fired than there are GMs yet they're the ones choosing things. And it's. It's just.

[Pat McAfee]

No, but we don't know. The GMs and the GMs only speak, what, once a year or whatever, basically. So they kind of keep themselves guarded. And that's a smart play.

[J.J. Watt]

Sit very close to the owners. Smart. Smartly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's. It does seem like there's some politicking. I'm putting your team together. It's an honor to do as such. You know, we certainly have all seen it, I assume is what we're speaking from personal experience. Middle of punt, period. That's crazy. Right across the field like that right now. It's crazy. Why would. Oh, okay, that makes sense. So that's an interesting thing. So, you know, just the whole thought though, that if the GM and the coach aren't on the same page, definitely not going to work. Like, definitely not going to work. So we Talked to Coach McCarthy a lot and obviously his name is going to be up for a lot of jobs, as they should if he wants them. You know, he's told us basically, yes, he's going to try to get back into it. How has it gone for the entire process? We don't know. We are excited for him to get back in the ball. He loves it. But the amount of times him and every other coach that we've ever talked to has all talked about a lot. Alignment.

[Darius Butler]

So important.

[Pat McAfee]

I need alignment. I need alignment. I need alignment. Owner, gm, head coach, and hell, even quarterback. We all need to be rowing the exact same direction, not trying to undercut each other. You know, because GM says front office personnel, they got good players. That's a good roster. Coach need to get better out of them. Coaches say, our roster sucks. These guys are terrible. We're ass. We didn't even get good guys for our scheme. Once that starts happening, then you find out who is politicking with the owner a little bit better. And then that person sticks around longer. They made a better case. And then all of a sudden, next head coach comes in. Well, you already know that this person's willing to bury this person. We've seen it already happen. So this new person that comes in, you're not going to bury whenever things get rough. Like, how does that kind of go? Then we saw teams start to interview coaches and GMs together. Remember that agencies were kind of like piecing GMs and head coaches together for interviews. Like, hey, these two will get a little long if you were to hire him as a thing. And then now with the Places that we're at, it's like a lot of GM sticking around with head coaches coming in.

[J.J. Watt]

The winner of it all are these search firms. That is hands down the winner of it all. Like, we all don't know who the candidates are. And you can't just call and bring them in and interview them yourself. You got to bring in a search firm or two in some cases and have them run the operation and take just a whole bunch of money to end up in the exact same spot you were going to end up.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Oh, they're geniuses. Do they know ball? Maybe we'll learn about it. Do you know our building? What? You tell us. We know. Do you know our city? Yeah. Travel down there all the time. Do you think you will know what's best for the company that I own right now? Yeah. Plus, you get to pay me 20 million. What an honor. And these owners are like, yup. And then I don't. A.J. sorry, I need to move on.

[Connor Rogers]

Had the same conversation with AJ Yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

That's on me. I'm so sorry, J. I'm. You're all. Not all whites look the same, especially big, athletic ones with J. I apologize for that one. I told Shefty, though. Soon as Shefty told me about the two down there in Atlanta, he said, you know, some people, I said, call them cowards. And then Chefy was like, oh, what do you mean by that, Chef? He got, like, intrigued by him. Like, well, you're in a position to make a decision. Decision. Okay.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That is what you are there for. There's not a lot of people that are. That is what you're getting paid for. That is what you're. That is why you are there to make a decision. So whenever you opt out of taking any of the blame of a bad decision by hiring it outside, I just think you're not the person that's supposed to be in the place that you're in. Like, that's. That's just.

[J.J. Watt]

Well, the problem is, is you're taking the heat when things go wrong anyway. So, like this. These search firms have been placed as a buffer. They're trying to be like this buffer where, hey, we hired the best people possible, and they made the decision. Don't put it on me. Told me this was the best person to make yet. When stuff goes wrong, people go straight to the owner, and they say, hey, you got to fire this guy. You got to do this. You got to do that.

[Nick Saban]

You.

[J.J. Watt]

You put us in this spot, get us fixed. Well, if you're Going to take the heat for it anyway. Just make the decision and actually own it.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think you and I both agree getting recommendations, not a bad idea. Like, having other eyes, like Troy Aikman's getting brought in down there for the Dolphins. I think Dan Marino is down there as well. Like, I don't hate that. Like, I don't hate that. Having search firms that don't have anybody related to ball in them just to do, like, human HR search, like, whatever they're doing. I just think that is such a terrible decision, especially in the NFL. There's only 32 of these teams. There's only 32 people, technically, that are sitting in an actual position to make an actual decision. Like, you get to do that. You don't have to do that. Like.

[Darius Butler]

But to be a devil's advocate, we've seen them make plenty terrible decisions.

[Pat McAfee]

But is it.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, yeah. So why not try something new? If you're the New York jets, why not go. And I don't mind the, you know, the 33rd team, at least those people, no ball. You got former coaches, former gms, et cetera, now going into just another firm. And obviously, consultants do this and all these other, you know, Fortune 500 companies, but if I don't mess it up for 35 plus years, let me hire somebody else.

[J.J. Watt]

But it's these firms. Like, are these firms only working for one team per year? Because if you got. If you're. If you're the firm doing multiple teams, teams, who's getting choice 1A, who's getting choice 1B? Like, how are you selling this? Like, hey, I found the best one, but don't tell the other team that I also found the best one for them.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, on that note, we need to not kill this business. Remember, I'm not in the business.

[J.J. Watt]

What do I give a about.

[Pat McAfee]

Not yet. Not yet. We will be, though.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't want to be in it.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't want.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't need anybody calling me asking who to hire.

[Pat McAfee]

James, you don't know what is possible in future. What if I go to some owner and I say, hey, we'll be able to make good decision? J.J. watts coming. You pay me $25 million and I go, JJ, got $10 million for you to come in here and look at some candidates.

[J.J. Watt]

I'll write a list down real quick.

[Connor Rogers]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So let's not. Let's not bury the business as a whole. We just like the right consultants to be consulted with, you know, for the good of the business.

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, apparently I'm the only analyst not consulting, I guess, on some team in the nfc.

[Pat McAfee]

So telling the raps it's not consulting with ownership. Hey, we appreciate you in there for the people. Appreciate you in there for the people. Speaking of being in the booth. Go ahead, Tash, man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, jj, I don't want to just blow smoke up your bunghole, but because you dropped your breakfast this morning, I, I figured you could use a compliment. You were absolutely terrific in the booth this year. That is. No, and I think we've seen a lot of these guys, like former players, former greats, the first year year, they're kind of getting their feet wet still and, and maybe aren't as good as they could be. I think you came in like gangbusters with iron and were incredible. What did you think of being back in the booth for your first year? Is there anything you maybe think you need to improve on and just the experience as a whole? Like, what did you enjoy most about it?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I, I appreciate that very much. I do. Going into it, I truthfully didn't know what to think. I had no idea. I said my whole career I didn't want to do it. I didn't think I would enjoy, enjoy it. And I was wrong. I absolutely loved it way more than I thought I would. And I had an incredible team to help me out. Everybody at cbs, but obviously Ian, for having a guy like Ian, who is a stellar play by play guy, but also has the wit and the humor and the personality to play off of and we had such great chemistry. I'm so thankful for that, Evan down on the field. But then even beyond that, I mean, our production meetings and everybody, Ken Mack and everybody, everybody giving me the ability to grow and to learn. I have a weekly call every week with our producer, Ken and I would go over the game with him and he would give me his notes. And we're trying to find the best way to make this thing great. I really love it, man. And in terms of what I want to work on going forward, I mean, I think it's always about balancing the amount of football logistics and knowledge and explanations with the fun humor laid back, like sitting on the couch talking ball, because you can get too in depth with the football stuff, but you can also not give enough. And I think there's a perfect line that you're always trying to find as an analyst where you're explaining why the things in the game are happening, but you're not talking down to the viewer. I never want the viewer to feel like this guy thinks he's smarter than me. I want you to feel like it's just we're hanging out. And I know this because I played the game. So I'm going to try and fill you in on it.

[Pat McAfee]

How much steak, how much sizzle? You know, that's kind of what we're trying to figure out. And try to serve. I think you did a great job.

[J.J. Watt]

Job.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think your angle there from defense, Ben, especially with the Miles Garrett story, which you were a part of a couple different times. Obviously you had TJ with Houston. You obviously had a lot of things you're a part of. And there was a lot of opportunities for you to potentially be a biased journalist. And you didn't, you know, you remained good for ball. I think that is kind of how you viewed it. I don't know if you actually did view that, but we want to let you know you were good for ball. The way you talked about it all, and we saw two Colts losses against Houston Texans with you on the call, I thought you were phenomenal, man. And you talk about the entertainment, the levity of it all and trying to be a huge. I think that is very important. Very. Anybody can get up there and just talk about exactly what's going on and try to showcase how smart they are ball wise. We just saw it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of conversation on the Internet about that already happening. So, you know, that is the difference, you know, between just being somebody at home and being J.J. watt, who is also somebody that people at home would view a friend, you know, as opposed to superstar J.J. watt. So I think you did a great job.

[Connor Rogers]

Love that segment.

[J.J. Watt]

It's a blast.

[Connor Rogers]

Where they ask him questions where like ask think. I don't know if it's called. That's where they like have questions like sent to ask him. And then JJ wat. Maybe it's called JJ Answers questions.

[J.J. Watt]

Brilliant idea by the production crew. I mean, top notch stuff there from the think tank.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, remember, we forgot about it a couple times, you know, so CBS is not. So we didn't have.

[J.J. Watt]

We didn't have a graphic like you guys do, though. We don't have a cool AI generation graphic.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, whoa.

[J.J. Watt]

There's a lot of people that think you can eat more pizza rolls than me. I will say that. There are a lot of people that believe me in a pizza roll143.

[Connor Rogers]

I don't know if I have pizza rolls, but if it was like bags of pirate's booty, I'd your shit up, dude.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so what is that?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, you get deep in that pirate's booty, don't you?

[AQ Shipley]

You got.

[Connor Rogers]

No digging for treasure.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah. We're talking double knuckle.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, dude. Family size, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, wow.

[Connor Rogers]

We're fisting two hands.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for you. I don't think I fully know exactly what we're talking about.

[Ty Schmidt]

Little like the snack. Popcorn type adjacent. Snack. Very good.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought there was a chance we're actually talking about ours. Butt.

[J.J. Watt]

You're telling me Kenzie's never had a little pirate's booty?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I don't think so. What do you guys, what is it?

[Connor Rogers]

Pirates booty? Cheddar or not cheddar. Corn cheese. You could say like snack so good.

[Darius Butler]

Kind of like a white popcorn blended with Cheeto. The Cheeto?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

A Cheeto puff.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Gumpy]

White cheese curls.

[J.J. Watt]

There you go. Free ads.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think. I mean it sounds like they've done a lot for our lives. Not our lives, but your guys's lives. It's no free ads. I mean they've certainly, they've. Yeah, they've delivered booty to you guys. I don't think I've ever done the. I don't think I've ever done the pirates booty.

[J.J. Watt]

I honestly would say don't even go down in the blink of an eye. Yeah, that is, it gets deleted.

[Connor Rogers]

Deleted.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, and that is the one thing they could maybe do is it's about 80% air, 20% pirates booty.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But it's not just the booty doing that. I think there's a lot of kind of bagged items that have become really like gassed up air.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

For our sake.

[Connor Rogers]

They say that's why Pringles, they always deliver, you know exactly how many are.

[J.J. Watt]

In there and they, they don't fill that sucker to the top. They don't fill that sucker to the top, certainly.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you talking about the little ones that you have to peel off the property?

[J.J. Watt]

Actually I'm talking about the full tennis ball tin. It's a big dog.

[Pat McAfee]

No, because it used to be so high you couldn't get your fingers down to get it out there. You know, the Pringles can use and it's still kind of like that.

[Connor Rogers]

I'd say you look like you're digging for booty the way we do with the two finger thing sometimes.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[Connor Rogers]

If you. Because if you don't want to get ahead of yourself because you can eat a full. I mean you could probably eat 10 party size bags. You, you do just kind of do like a twofer just to get a.

[Pat McAfee]

Couple out and then he's throwing like Tom Cruise.

[Connor Rogers]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, I got it.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. Yeah, you do a little bit of this.

[Pat McAfee]

How you doing?

[Connor Rogers]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. All right. I think you did great in the booth, though, nonetheless. You said 100. What? On those pizza rolls.

[J.J. Watt]

Well, I, I, I said, I think 150 or 143 to 158 or something like that. But you have to remember it was to pass out. It wasn't to throw up. It was to pass out. And so I do think I might need to raise it even higher. What comes first to pass out is a lot.

[Pat McAfee]

Because you're gonna puke. Yeah, you're gonna puke and then keep eating. Are you a pizza roll guy? That's why this question came up, or.

[J.J. Watt]

Obviously I've had many of them in my life. I don't know why the question came up. Somebody just asked. But everybody knows the problem with the pizza rolls is that you never wait for them to cool off and then you just destroy the inside of your mouth and you have to stop before you're actually done time. So I would need all the corners cut off if we were doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the corner cut off is a big deal, but still doesn't matter because that sauce is coming whenever it happens. I love a good late night beach roll. Used to, at least I don't do much anymore. I feel like I would certainly make the amount of dumps you're going to have to go through too, for that 140.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, a lot of. A lot of. Yeah. There's going to be a lot of wipes. There's going to be a lot of wipes.

[Pat McAfee]

And we know how you freaks do it, don't we?

[J.J. Watt]

I was a hot Pocket guy. I was a ham and cheese.

[Darius Butler]

Hot Pocket.

[AQ Shipley]

Ham and cheese. Wow.

[J.J. Watt]

I was a ham and cheese pepperoni. Nope, nope, nope.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a Philly steak.

[Pat McAfee]

1. That's pretty darn good Philly cheese. Yeah. Ketchup on out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You can really get cooking in that entirety. Did you do what, what did you eat as. You ate everything as a kid, right? That's like kind of the wild thing. We ate everything. We just eat.

[J.J. Watt]

We ate a lot of food. A lot of food.

[Nick Saban]

Yes.

[J.J. Watt]

A lot of food, dad.

[Pat McAfee]

Firefighter. Chef, too, right?

[J.J. Watt]

Yep. Went to the firehouse all the time. They'd be making up good food over there. Yeah. Very fortunate. My parents. I mean, my dad was trying to bulk us up. There's no question. We had milkshakes every single night. Trying to put some weight. He'd buy some of like the. Whatever the cheapest form of steak was. He would buy those like, I don't know if it was sirloin or like the lowest grade. Just no steak. I don't. Is that lower.

[Pat McAfee]

The steakums. I think those ones that you're peeling out. Sizzling. I think that would be the lowest form of steak if you had a.

[J.J. Watt]

Whatever, whatever protein. Like we were. He was like, we need. I know you need protein. And we'd have like spaghetti, like plain spaghetti and everything. Yeah. Just hammering food 24 7. Every time my friends came over, they knew there was going to be to be food.

[Pat McAfee]

It worked out, didn't it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Look at you now. TJ's got the second most sacks in the history of NFL season.

[Connor Rogers]

Insane.

[Pat McAfee]

You're both going to be first ballot hall of famers. What are you third most in a season? I have no idea.

[J.J. Watt]

And I'm the only one to ever have 20 plus twice.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's see that Miles Garrett.

[Connor Rogers]

Think he's like one of five to have three straight defensive player of the years is as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, let's get a milkshake every night for Kenzie. It sounds like only.

[J.J. Watt]

Only three players have three defensive player.

[Pat McAfee]

Of the years there.

[Connor Rogers]

So not one of five. Who is that? Aaron Donald.

[J.J. Watt]

Aaron Donald and Lawrence Taylor.

[Connor Rogers]

Lawrence Taylor. Yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pretty good company.

[Connor Rogers]

Which Lawrence Taylor.

[J.J. Watt]

Pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

They're right up there. They're always looking right over my shoulder to remind you.

[J.J. Watt]

And just in case you need to remember, I actually did play football before I had cool haircuts.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we can't see him now because you're wearing. I'm not going to say what I was just about to say.

[J.J. Watt]

It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good right now.

[Pat McAfee]

That's his old hair. And now let's flip to the new hair that debuted.

[AQ Shipley]

Just.

[Pat McAfee]

Ooh.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You look very superheroish with the new hair. A lot of people are saying maybe this guy's on a local news. Maybe he's selling insurance. What I'm saying is, is this dashing lad with a great haircut. And I'll tell you what, you look younger than ever out there and I think you it was the right move to celebrate the season with the new haircut. And it sucks that this happened this morning to you. We got footage from your ring cam inside of your house. Obviously it's a nightmare situation for Jay.

[J.J. Watt]

That's incredibly accurate. Unbelievable.

[Darius Butler]

Good looking breakfast.

[Pat McAfee]

It's got A lot of food. This guy never stops eating.

[AQ Shipley]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

That's kind of the. What way.

[Connor Rogers]

The only thing that's not believable is how small that kitchen is. I bet his is huge, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Think about the island. How big the island is.

[Connor Rogers]

2 or 3.

[J.J. Watt]

Look at how close the island is to, like, the countertop over there. AI really can't have messed it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, it's not an island. It's just an extension of your cabinetry. Obviously. There. That's what that is. The island is behind us. What color is your kitchen? White. White cabinets, for sure.

[J.J. Watt]

No, navy blue.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, j. Okay. Do we have. We have massive island in the middle. Is there, like, a massive island? Is there a hibachi oven in middle?

[J.J. Watt]

Nothing is on the island besides a little wet sink. But no, the oven and everything is on a wall. The island is just an island for the most part.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulate you. Did it, man.

[J.J. Watt]

Hell, yeah, J. I've also realized that for anybody out there with islands, there's a certain size that the island is an inconvenience as opposed to a convenience. Whereas you can't reach the middle. I got super long arms, 34 inches, actually, and I can't reach the middle. So I put. There's no reason to have anything in the middle of your island.

[Pat McAfee]

JJ Walk. Can't touch the middle of his island in his kitchen.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

That's when you know, shit.

[Nick Saban]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for you.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah. It's like you with your planes. You know, you can't reach your arms out and touch both sides. That's how you know you're on the right side.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll have you. We didn't have Starlink on one of our flights.

[Nick Saban]

It was.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was tough.

[Pat McAfee]

It was tough to get there.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We did a peek and go.

[J.J. Watt]

How was the. How was the. Stop The New Year years. That was crazy. How'd it go?

[Pat McAfee]

It was good. Everything was good. A couple hours of sleep.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, yeah. That voice really secures it.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it was. It was a good time.

[J.J. Watt]

It's kind of like our fake punk back with the Pagano.

[Pat McAfee]

There was no reason to bring that up. You said my name, too. And I understand across the bottom of.

[J.J. Watt]

That, you were on the field. You were on the field.

[Pat McAfee]

I was trying to get off it, but obviously I didn't sell it good enough because nobody bought it from New England and they stayed. Right.

[J.J. Watt]

Dude, how sick was that when they went with the punt team? Staying on the field on first down.

[Pat McAfee]

Genius. It's genius.

[J.J. Watt]

That was so good.

[Pat McAfee]

It is such a good idea. I'm not even gonna say. I'm not gonna say anything. But yes, it was a genius idea. Is absolutely. I'm happy everybody's response to it is that it's a genius idea and I'm happy that it worked and I'm happy somebody tried it because boy, it's been sitting there this entire time. If we don't sub, then they can't sub right immediately after the play. Yes. Throw a go ball in this thing. We should have too many men. The natural reaction for the defensive team after a pun is just to walk off the field. They're tight. Hired the whole thing like, ah, they just ran a fake on us. This sucks. Walking off the field, head down defense, actual defense, jogging on field, pissed. Once again, you're talking about a lot of pissed off people not paying attention. It's like, first of all, there's going to be 15 people on the field. Second of all, is anybody going to be covering gunner if we were to throw a go ball here? I don't think so. Genius stuff.

[Darius Butler]

This was a. This was a Carly call. This is right from the top.

[Pat McAfee]

Could potentially be what saved them their job. Could potentially be what save them. Drop. And I'll tell you what, if we're going to get more of this type of think I'm all about it. I'm all about it. All right, jj. We got a heart out, brother. We can't thank you enough for joining us. You're the man. Good luck to your Burnley squad. We need it big.

[J.J. Watt]

David, up the clearance.

[Pat McAfee]

Up the clearance. At least a couple times, you know, maybe two times in eight games. Get that Columbus Crew guy. I'm not calling for any jobs, so I'm just saying there is one that is certainly wide open and maybe. Trust me.

[J.J. Watt]

I'm gonna go make some breakfast. I'm gonna make some breakfast.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's keep an eye out.

[Connor Rogers]

You got this.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get a little self awareness. I know it's the offseason.

[J.J. Watt]

I got you.

[Pat McAfee]

But let's make sure we check this island. That is what, 13ft by 13?

[Ty Schmidt]

Sounds like it.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, J.J. watt.

[Connor Rogers]

J. J.

[Pat McAfee]

That was great appearance by J.

[Connor Rogers]

Fantastic.

[Pat McAfee]

J.J. watt. Can't get to the middle of that thing.

[AQ Shipley]

Golly, it's a pool.

[Pat McAfee]

Let me get a broom.

[AQ Shipley]

Imagine having short arms.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, AQ's on there like a little boot. Hey fans. Welcome back to Fansville's cheers and tears. Aw. Okay, so like everybody deals with losing, right? To a rival and a last second field Goal, Whatever.

[AQ Shipley]

It's fine.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm totally fine. But I cope with losing with an ice cold Dr. Pepper.

[Nick Saban]

Mmm.

[Pat McAfee]

Those 23 flavors are like so delicious. They totally wash away the pain of your college football team taking a big fat L. College football. It's a pepper thing.

[AQ Shipley]

This is arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction.

[Pat McAfee]

Adventure where most of humanity shelters underground.

[AQ Shipley]

Raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater. In the rust belt. Every run is pressure. Every decision is a play call. Face the relentless machines of ark and rival raiders chasing the same prize.

[J.J. Watt]

Push forward or extract while you're ahead.

[AQ Shipley]

Team up, trust no one. ARC Raiders is on sale now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC Rate A T for teen.

[Pat McAfee]

Football is the greatest. God, we love it. And we're heading into super football weekend. Listen, whenever you talk about super and football, you automatically su think about the super bowl. But we're heading into super bowl season because super wild card weekend's here in super semifinal. The college football playoff weekend is here. Thursday, Miami and Ole Miss in a semifinal college football playoff trying to figure out who the national champion is. Oh yeah, they're back. Oh yeah. We're live on ESPN2 with a field pass Friday, Oregon versus Indiana in the PS2 Big Ten teams collide for the second time this season. Indiana undefeated and favored over Dan Lanning. And the ducks will be live on ESPN too for the field pass. Rams, Panthers, Packers, Bears. On Saturday of super wild card weekend, Bills has favorites on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Welcome back to hosting a playoff game to do. Niners, Eagles, Chargers, Pats and then Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers. This is super football weekend and we're certainly excited about it. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. The toxic tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt, 9 year NFL vet, absolute stallion of a brain in the football universe.

[Darius Butler]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Host of NFL matchups on ESPN2 and ESPN Plus.

[Darius Butler]

And ESPN. ESPN Deportes.

[Pat McAfee]

Really nice.

[Darius Butler]

Disney plus what?

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Worldwide. Darius.

[J.J. Watt]

Appreciate that.

[Pat McAfee]

Good to see you D. But the all everything DB team yesterday was phenomenal. It is award season. We'll certainly be celebrating some awards here in a matter of moments with our 12 year NFL vet, Super bowl champion player, Coach. Ladies and gentlemen, AQ Shipley. Dr. Trent. Today, yes, today was almost trenchy's Wednesday, but super football weekend because what we got going on, well, you know, it's like five days action so we're certainly going to talk about that a little bit more. But it was almost trenchy's Wednesday because this trenchy has kind of been a trailblazer in the offensive line of Ward space for a few years. They're actually doing it at the NFL now. I don't like that they're not taking our trophy that we give out here at the Trenchy, but I like that more people are giving awards. Offensive lineman, I appreciate you paying attention all year to who should win them.

[AQ Shipley]

Absolutely. And I think they should have given us a little credit maybe, maybe given us a little bit of credit. Just saying. I mean there's some other people got some credit. We've been doing this, we've been doing this for quite some time now.

[Pat McAfee]

People are getting full speeches at press conferences for doing it and we appreciate them. We are happy about offensive lineman getting recognized and we are fans of offensive linemen, which is why we are excited that more people are going to be celebrating the big boys because that's who decides if you're going to win or not, especially in the games that matter. And this is the trenches, ladies and gentlemen. That's a trophy. It's been a trophy since day one. And on top of that is a man who is shaped like a, I.

[AQ Shipley]

Mean, I look s right there.

[Connor Rogers]

Let's, yeah.

[AQ Shipley]

Before you say anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So that is A.Q. shipley. I, I, I didn't, I was going to say just random NFL offensive lineman. That's AQ Shipley. If the boys who stole a skeleton from his front yard during Halloween knew that he was shaped like this, I don't think they're showing up not jazz or running away. I think they're probably just walking that thing out of there now. On that note, this, this trophy signifies the greatness of the big men and we can't wait to give them out later. Great season out of the big guys.

[AQ Shipley]

The big boys were awesome this year. It was really cool to see it was a little bit different the way defense has played this year. We saw resurgence of the run game a couple of years ago when we started to see five yards per carry this year there was a clear effort to stop the run on the defensive side of the ball. Started bringing another safety down in the box and forcing teams to beat you through the air. But the big boys still got after it. There were still some really good run games this year and pass protection picked up a little bit this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, on that note, feels like people are doing a little bit more six man protection, maybe big tight end. Was that just me watching the Pittsburgh Steelers and a couple other teams or is that Become the new norm because of what defenses are doing.

[AQ Shipley]

Well, listen, we've talked about it a lot about tight ends DNS being a horrible matchup, especially in the run game. Right. So now instead of doing that and sending the tight end through like McVeigh has done in recent. Recent years, now we can just get a big guy there and we can get back to running old school football, putting a tight end on a dn. But that tight end now is Spencer Anderson from the Pittsburgh Steelers, who's 6465-320-Pounds. And you feel really good about that match.

[Pat McAfee]

Darnell Washington from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

315 or whatever that is.

[AQ Shipley]

He might as well just switch his number to a 70s number.

[Pat McAfee]

No, he's got what Then he'd have to report eligible every single play.

[AQ Shipley]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Because he's out here doing this one. This one here. He's doing this one here. But you're right, he's doing all right. Lot of this stuff right here.

[Darius Butler]

More money.

[Pat McAfee]

What with 70 something?

[Nick Saban]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah. Why doesn't he just start working on.

[Connor Rogers]

It now that he broke his arm? Maybe he does.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean just. You're already there, right? He's. You're already here. Yeah, I mean he's already got it. All right. So he just needs to work on this, which is the hardest part. You become premier left tackle in the NFL. I mean that's a lot of money.

[Connor Rogers]

I know Jason Peters even the right side now.

[AQ Shipley]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. I guess because run game becoming so important and obviously we need. We need probably 4 or 5 guys anyways. Tackles being good would be good news. Why doesn't. Is that something that's much harder? I would assume that's very difficult to learn how to do.

[AQ Shipley]

Probably. But again, Jason Peters, he mentioned him that that was what he was. He was a tight end at Arkansas. Started off first year or two special teams. That guy's got good feet. He's about 300 pounds. Let's. Let's maybe work an off season like this and all of a sudden you get one of the best tackles to ever play the game.

[Pat McAfee]

Now you got small arms, obviously operate in inside of the offensive line. If he was coming shipyard two, three months would be able to get him to kicks a lot on that thing.

[AQ Shipley]

It's still a tough ask. I mean I. I have worked.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't go to him.

[AQ Shipley]

No, it's still a tough ass.

[Darius Butler]

I.

[AQ Shipley]

The biggest thing that you have to understand about offensive line play, even moving from tackle to inside, is a whole different world. It takes some guys. Two, three. Can you do it? Yeah. But it still takes guys two, three years to become comfortable moving from tackle into guard or tackle into to center. It's a whole different world. I think so many people in the scouting world and the GMs and the front office are like, oh, well, it's not working. Attack, let's just move them into guard. Peter Skonsky, for instance, has become a damn good offensive guard.

[Pat McAfee]

Makai, is he still playing?

[AQ Shipley]

He's still playing. But again, when you make that move.

[Pat McAfee]

Renaissance, move there for the Philadelphia Eagles.

[AQ Shipley]

And again, he was much better under Jeff Stoutland's tutors. He kind of took a step back this year, as that whole offensive line out in LA did. But when you move from tackle to guard and then if you take it another step, tackle to a center, Whole different world.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Darnell, I think he's. Just get him online. Right. I saw you teaching your nephew. Just get him online. That's all I need him to do. Right.

[AQ Shipley]

Well, we start. We got to start somewhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Couple of those.

[AQ Shipley]

That's it.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get a hammer. AP Ton, how's it feel to maybe have your premier left tackle or right tackle already on the roster? All he needs to do is head to the shipyard, maybe.

[Connor Rogers]

Come on.

[Gumpy]

Steelers fans have been saying this for a couple years. Tomlin's been asked about it a bunch. I know Daniel Jeremiah has suggested it as well. Yeah. We could see Darnell being tackle for the future because the center, right guard, right tackle, second year, they're. They're the offensive line for the next 10 to 12 years. So. Yeah, left tackle Darnell being there.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, that'd be.

[Gumpy]

That'd be awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

And maybe Aaron Rodgers just plays for another 10 years.

[Gumpy]

He could at least one more.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Gumpy]

He needs to play at least one.

[Pat McAfee]

More year after the season. Yeah, that's your public ask right now.

[Gumpy]

Yeah. Because there's basically no quarterbacks coming out past the first. First two, and there's no quarterbacks in free agency, so.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Ty Simpson declared for the draft today. You don't know who the next shuck's going to be. That guy was a third rounder. Now we got people saying, yo, this is going to be the guy.

[Nick Saban]

Sure. Yeah. 100 agree.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers make a big time play with the draft in Pittsburgh. You never know.

[Darius Butler]

Got Will Howard and waiting.

[Gumpy]

I agree, I agree. But they ain't gonna.

[Pat McAfee]

They're not gonna play them.

[Gumpy]

They don't get it.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean they don't get it. They drafted them. They did.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Nick Saban]

Yeah.

[Gumpy]

And who did he beat in the national championship? Riley Leonard. Riley Leonard just carved up the Houston Texans defense. Maybe. Maybe Will Howard should start this week.

[Pat McAfee]

So you want Aaron Rodgers and now Will Howard.

[Gumpy]

I'm just saying Will Howard could do.

[Ty Schmidt]

It, but such a Pittsburgh fan.

[Connor Rogers]

I mean, how many years did Jordan Love sit behind Aaron Rodgers?

[AQ Shipley]

Three.

[Connor Rogers]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is live from an attic in Ohio. He just turned another year older yesterday.

[AJ Hawk]

Yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody knows January 6th, this guy's birthday. College football national champion, super bowl champion, Router cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk Hawker. How was your birthday night with the fam? Hope you got a chance to celebrate. Everybody happy. You survived another year, thrived another year.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep, everybody's happy. Survived and thrived another year. But yeah, everything's good. And it's. Tone kind of worries me. Tone is such a flip flopper for the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'm not sure what to think.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, is that worry you about the Houston Texans coming into town with the number one defense in the league on Monday Night Football and with what just happened in Baltimore, all eyes on Pittsburgh. Because the way Tone's talking right now, Will flip flop and tone, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think Tone, deep down, though, he really wants the Steelers to win. We know he's just protecting his feelings. That's what he does. Like, he does this to protect. Like he doesn't want to get too hurt if for some reason doesn't go his way.

[Pat McAfee]

He's self handicapping. I said.

[Gumpy]

I said not one word about the game on Monday. Not one. And it's weird that you let another man.

[Pat McAfee]

You said Will Howard. Maybe Will Howard should start this, this upcoming game because what Riley just did to the Houston, that was just hypothetical, but it was a word.

[Gumpy]

Okay, you guys don't get it. That's clear.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what it sounds like. Nobody gets.

[AQ Shipley]

We don't.

[Gumpy]

And AJ lets another man affect his opinion on what he says. So, you know, is he actually a man?

[AJ Hawk]

Okay, Tone. Trying to use some of my own material.

[Connor Rogers]

I get it.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, I like it.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Happy birthday, AJ Hoggle. Happy birthday, Walker, ladies and gentlemen. Joining now. He's the greatest of all time. We are so incredibly lucky that he obviously joins our show every single week. Also getting a chance to listen and hear his thoughts on the state of college football is obviously something we all need a little bit more of. Ladies and gentlemen, the former coach of Alabama, lsu, Michigan State, he was at Cleveland Browns, Ohio State, as well. And probably somewhere before that.

[Connor Rogers]

Miami.

[Ty Schmidt]

Miami Dolphins.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, forgot about that.

[AJ Hawk]

State.

[Pat McAfee]

They wouldn't hire him. Remember, he played there. He's an alum. They won't give him the job from my understanding, if that is accurate. Proud golden Flash, ladies and gentlemen, Nick Saban. Yeah, guys, Is that right?

[Nick Saban]

How we doing?

[Pat McAfee]

Great. How are you doing, man? Was there a time you wanted the Kent State job and they didn't hire you? Do I remember you saying that sometime?

[Nick Saban]

Yes. Yeah, you're right about that. I came in second. Sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don't.

[Pat McAfee]

Amen, brother. Amen. Speaking of good deals, we got a great Final Four here for the college football playoffs that obviously start tomorrow at the Fiesta bowl with Miami and Ole Miss. And then we got Oregon and Indiana. And obviously you are going to know a lot about all four of these teams because these are four of your disciples leading the way here. And I don't know if you heard or message got back back to you, but the other night, okay, and you said, I'm one of your close friends, so, like, I view you the same way. I'm happy we view each other that way. And as your close friend, I want to let you know I will get disrespected for you. I will feel disrespected for you. So all these other schools are hiring Saban disciples, okay? The Final Four are all Saban disciples. Then Alabama loses, and they don't have a Saban disciple, and you're already there. Did you ever think about that whenever the decision was being made with Greg Byrne? Like, were you part of the conversation on whether or not should we continue with one of my guys? Should we. Should we go a different direction? Like, why do you think that happened? And should I feel disrespected for you for them deciding not to hire one of your disciples when it's clearly the right decision in college football in 20, 25, 2026, and forever?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, well, I think if somebody was available, I'm not sure anybody was available, that they could have maybe gotten to come here. And I do think that Kate on DeBoer is a really good coach and doing a good job here. This is a tough transition, especially in this environment that we live in in college football in terms of, you know, players coming and going. I think there was, like, 26 players that got in the portal when I retired. So that's a lot to overcome for anybody, and it would have been a lot to overcome for even, you know, one of the guys that Formerly coached for me. So, you know, I fully support Greg Byrne and what he, what he decided to do and how he's done it. And I'm hoping that they get to get the ship going in the right direction here. It's not bad to get in the playoffs and finish, you know, in the final eight, but not the expectation around here, which is tough to live up to sometimes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, you created that expectation, obviously and we will certainly talk about your disciples having the success that they're having and what you see from their teams that maybe you see from the programs that you were building there. But Alabama losing in the way that they lost, I think all of us are like, this ain't Alabama team that we know. And it's easy to just automatically point fingers. Kaylin DeBoer signed up for the job. We think he's the right guy for the job at the time because of how much success he has had in the past. Felt like he was mature enough to have to fill in for your shoes. And we're not saying that at the time we weren't on board with Kalin DeBoer. We're big fans of Kalen DeBoer. But now that we're looking at these four teams and they're all from your tree, it's like, wouldn't that have been the right move? Maybe keep, maybe keep the success train rolling. I appreciate you saying, I don't know how many people were available at the time and obviously you support Kalin, but let's talk about these four teams. You know, obviously Mario, Crystal ball and you very close. We got a chance to see that hard nose football team, Ole Miss, this golden guy. I don't know if anybody else could have been able to do what he has done in this mental toughness that is needed to keep everybody going in the same direction. With a massive destroyer distraction that it was with Lane Kiffin, Dan Lanning, this guy, seemingly psycho for football, loves this thing out there, has completely run Oregon into a place where it is a premier destination for all five stars, basically. And then Kurt Signetti in Indiana, obviously this is literally out of a movie. What do you see from these four programs that you think, you know, maybe I did have a little piece in helping create the cultures of these places. Is there anything that you see?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, well, you know, one thing that I see in all these teams is they have a mentality about them to play physical football and a lot of mental toughness and how they play and how they compete in the game. And I think that's contributed to their success. Even Ole Miss, who is a fastball advantage throw. But they run the ball extremely well. And, you know, Dan Lanning has changed the culture of Oregon as well in terms of a physical, tough on the line of scrimmage, scrimmage team. Every one of these teams have tried to build themselves on physical, tough on the line of scrimmage teams that, you know, play with great intangibles. And I mean, Indiana, man, I mean, they were impressive in the game. Not that Alabama played great and they made some mistakes early on that hurt them. But these cats, man, and everybody talks about their offense. They got some dogs on defense now. I mean, these guys play hard, they play fast, they make play plays. They play together. They don't make a lot of mental mistakes. They're well coached. They fit the runs. And this pop they put on Ty right here.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. Pawns. Yeah, that's pawns right there. Hit that. I mean, absolute hit stick right there.

[Nick Saban]

And he's. He's a good player. So incredible. The job that they've done at Indiana, I mean, just, you know, Kirk Zig has done a fantastic job, though, there's no question about that, because his is a tremendous turnaround from a program that had no real tradition in football and has been able to establish what he's established in these first two years he's been there is phenomenal.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, on that note, Connor has a question for you, coach.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, Coach, as you can see, I'm ready for the playoff games this weekend and on Friday with Indiana. And right now, people are kind of pontificating that Sig could be a candidate to go to the NFL. NFL, Especially to the Raiders in Mendoza, kind of a package deal almost at the number one overall pick. And then Sig as the head coach. What do you think about that type of situation? Do you think that's something that might, you know, intrigue Signetti? Do you think that's something that might work? And what do you think would be kind of the difficulties with Signetti going to the NFL? And then also, real quick side note, did your golf buddies kind of understand that, hey, Indiana isn't Indiana anymore and they need to put some respect on their name now?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, they're all bought in. They're all bought in.

[Pat McAfee]

Good.

[Nick Saban]

So I've never talked to, you know, Kurt about going to the NFL. I don't really know that he has any interest in doing that. You know, I will say this, though. It is a fairly difficult transition to go from college to the NFL if you've never been in the NFL before. Before, you know, when I took the Dolphins job, I had been in the NFL for six years. You know, prior to that, four years as a coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, two in Houston as a secondary coach. So I understood the NFL, but if you've never coached in the NFL, you know, I mean, developing players is not a lot different, but how you bring players to the team is tremendously different. And. And I think you got to have a organization that is vertically integrated from top down to be able to have success in the NFL, because you have a lot more impediments in terms of competitive balance in the NFL. You got a salary cap, you got. You can't draft whoever you want to draft. You got to draft who's available when you pick. So that sometimes that doesn't work out. You know, you got to pay the right guys on your roster and on your team. Team, and then you got to develop a team chemistry that is a little bit different than, you know, working with college players. So it's. It's a lot different in terms of the system and the parity of the system, you know, things that you can do in college. And that's one of the reasons I came back to college after two years in Miami. I said I can control my own destiny a lot better in college than I can in the NFL, because here we have a team that I took over that's 4 and 12, oldest team in the league, $17 million over the salary cap, and no draft picks because they gave him all up for Ricky Williams. You know, all that is kind of hard to overcome. And I love Ricky Williams. You know, he's a great competitor and a great player and played great for us. But, you know, there's a lot of obstacles in the NFL that are a lot different. And you don't see a lot of games in the NFL, like, 70% of the game are, you know, decided by a touchdown or less. You don't have that. That. That same parity in college football. And I think it's. It's more difficult to succeed because of that. Prepare that, you know, sort of competitive balance that's created by the league, which is really good and what makes the NFL what it is. I mean, really. You know, you've heard me say this before. If Everybody was, you know, 500 going into the 18th week of the season, everybody would be happy because there'd be 32 fan bases that are still cheering for their teams to get in the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, optimism is certainly high now in the NFL. You got a Lot of fan bases that know their team's ass about three weeks into the season and they still hate watch the rest of the year. But the NFL's numbers, outrageous. College football's numbers, obviously outrageous. I think a couple of things you mentioned there, obviously hysterical. I think you said impediments, which is a great word. I'm gonna start using that as my own. I'm act like it's mine. But also impediment, a hindrance or obstruction of doing something. Incredible word. I love the fact that whenever you're in Miami, you're just like so many impediments around me. So many. What's a word I can say for all this shit that is everywhere around me? Impediments. Contracts are real there too, you know, at salary cap, contracts are real. Here in college, you can kind of hit and miss as long as you have somebody continuing to back you. Go ahead, ahead, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, coach. I think a big thing that people don't think about, someone has a great coach, they hire a great staff under them. I guess your coaching tree is legendary. It will be forever. When you, like, you can evaluate players obviously very well, but you seem to be able to evaluate coaches and bring in the right type of people. What is it like, how did you hone that and how did you learn as you were a coach? Like, hey, this is the right guy to hire. This is not the right guy, maybe.

[Nick Saban]

Well, you know, I always look for people that had great character. Character, good knowledge, could relate with people, good teachers, could present to players as good teachers. But also, you know, you have the advantage of what is the track record. You know, most of these people that I hired had a good track track record. I mean, they may have had some issue along the way, but they had a pretty good track record in terms of what they were able to accomplish with whatever group they were responding responsible for. So, you know, players, you don't always have as much of a track record as you do with coaches.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the Nick Saban Waters has blessed a lot of people, you know, a lot of people. I don't know if you've been hearing the quotes these coaches have been saying about you. Brother, I hope you have. Signetti said, I learned more in one year with Coach Saban than I did in the last 27 of assistant coaching and how to be a head coach. And then Coach Lanning talked about, you know, the one year I was there and then I was with Kirby, which is basically the same thing. And they all talk about like, basically the attention to detail Is kind of. You had a plan for everything. Do you think that was your superpower? Like, what do you. What do you think you were able to do that maybe others weren't? And what do you think these guys take from you and kind of take it to their day? All four of them lining up compliments for you, Coach. And honestly, most people would hate that that's happening, but because it's you, everybody's like, hell, yeah, happy to see this guy get his flowers. That's very abnormal. You're a very abnormal character. You need to know that. But what do you think is the superpower of your program?

[Nick Saban]

Well, I think what we were able to do is create more value for players, and not just in terms of how we developed them on the football field, but, you know, whether it was academic support, graduation rate, medical staff, psychological development so that you could help them sort of figure out what it takes to be successful. Strength and conditioning program for development. I mean, we. We had the best of almost every one of those things. Nutrition. We were always a little bit ahead of the curve. And I think some coaches look at things through a straw just like, okay, I coach the offense. I'm worried about the plays that I call and the offense and all that. But there's so much more to it than that when it comes to being able to recruit good players and showing them that you're going to create value for them so that they can have success. Success, not only here in college, but maybe when they go on to the NFL. And then when this process that you develop comes to fruition in terms of how many games you win and having the most players playing in the NFL making the most money, it just sort of brings in the next player that's pretty good. And I think that they kind of understood that this is a process that's much more detailed than just what we do on the field.

[Pat McAfee]

And once you see a billion dollars in contracts are having it, it almost starts recruiting itself. Yeah, but I still got to go out there. Hell, Ms. Terry, you saw me two stepping up in the house. You saw me doing the whole thing.

[Connor Rogers]

You.

[Pat McAfee]

You got to do all that stuff. But it all matters is basically what everybody's saying about the way you go about doing your business. I've been looking.

[Nick Saban]

I can step through it, though, right? I mean, you. You saw me stepping through it. It wasn't like I was.

[Darius Butler]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And you also had the upper body timed up with the lower body. You know, I think that's maybe your baseball, maybe your golf as well. I Don't know if that's where you got your rhythm from, but obviously you can move, you can do a little Tuesday. I don't know if I saw the cupid shuffle up there. I would like a little bit more action maybe. We'll see if you can kind of get into that. Let's talk about the action though, that's about to happen on the field. Go ahead, D. Bud.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, coach. Playoff time. This goes for the NFL. In the cfp, you kind of are who you are. You know, your identity is what it is on both, both sides to the football. But if you had to lean one way, obviously you have to adjust as the game goes. If you had to pick one a red hot quarterback just kind of on a heater or an elite defense, which way have you lean going into these big time games?

[Nick Saban]

Well, I, I think you need to do both things really. I don't think you can win on one side of the ball or the other. And when you look at these teams, I, I think that all four teams that are in the finals for the couple College football playoff could be either one. Either, either team could be in a one game, could be the other team. Like the three plays that Chambliss makes against Georgia and the drive that put them ahead. It's 57, 58 and 59 on the playlist if you want to look at it. I mean this guy scrambles around three times in a row and makes big plays that change the whole game.

[J.J. Watt]

Game.

[Nick Saban]

He could do that against anybody. Now Miami, you could say they have such a good defense and they're so athletic. Maybe he won't be able to make those kind of plays against them. That remains to be seen. You know Oregon, you know the Oregon Indiana game, the first time was 20 to 20. You know, Indiana made a couple plays, critical plays in fourth, the fourth quarter of that game. That turned out to be the difference in the game, 30 to 20, 20. I know they were playing at Oregon, but either one of those teams could have won that game depending on how they finished the game. So look, I don't think you can win unless you can keep from getting beat. So it's important to be able to play good defense. But the way people score points now, and the whole reason that we changed our whole philosophy here from running the ball, old fashioned kind of NFL football play action, passes, running it more than you threw it. Derrick Henry gaining 1800 yards, playing good defense. Hard to win that way now. Hard to win that way now. As soon as people started going no huddle spread advantage, throws, RPOs, all these things that took advantage of the rules. People started scoring more points. So if you can't score points, it's hard to play good defense and win games.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we got the four right teams. Man, I'm so excited to watch these crazy squads. Thursday, Friday, leading into super wild card weekend. It's a wonderful time to be in ball. How are your Predators doing? Are we winning? Are the National Predators winning or losing? I don't know what's going on.

[Nick Saban]

They're 6 and 2 since we bought in, so they're doing all right. They were six one, they were three, and oh to start with, so maybe I need to go give them a pep talk or something.

[Pat McAfee]

No, they're oh and one. Remember that. The night you actually signed. I don't think any of them met you, and I don't think you did a press conference yet. They lost, so that would mean they've been on quite a tear. Have you talked to the boys? Have you been in the change room? That they have?

[J.J. Watt]

No, not.

[Nick Saban]

Not that. Not this team. I. They. They have. I don't know what they call it in hockey, but like a minicamp for a lot of their prospects, whether they're playing in college, whether they're playing in American Hockey association or whatever. I went to that camp. I talked to. To those guys. I've talked to the front office on occasion, so it's fun to be involved, you know, it's fun to be involved with the team.

[Pat McAfee]

Can we get you on skates? Have you been on skates before?

[Nick Saban]

No. I don't know shit about hockey.

[Pat McAfee]

Leadership and winning, baby. This is the type of consultant you call for anything. We appreciate you. Safe travels out to Arizona, Coach.

[Nick Saban]

Hey, we're looking forward. I guess I'll see you out there tomorrow, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you got it, brother. What are you heading out there? You had not forget.

[AJ Hawk]

I'll see you out there tomorrow in the morning.

[Nick Saban]

I'll see you out there tomorrow.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Adam Schefter]

Long flight.

[Pat McAfee]

Have a good one, guys.

[Nick Saban]

Appreciate you, man. Thanks.

[Pat McAfee]

Long flight, coach. Long flight. Long flight. Lots of them. Obviously, we're flying good and easy, but it's like, you know, send a text, hey, how long's the flight? And then also how long is FIO to where I need to head to? Just so we. We know the entirety of it all. And it's like, whoa, this school's way out there. All right, we got a long drive. We got a double. We got a long drive on the other side. That was like, lax. That was lax. Whenever we got out there to Rose Bowl, I don't think any of us expected that.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, somebody a couple people had a short drive.

[Pat McAfee]

They happen to be right here.

[AJ Hawk]

Just landed right near my room.

[Pat McAfee]

The Marshall be awesome. It's a fantastic time to be alive. Now who will be getting hired, you know, in these jobs? Who will be getting each individual franchise back on track? Who will be the guys tasks or ladies? Hey, no women in this pool here. But maybe, maybe there's somebody that we haven't, you know, brought up that maybe gets a head coaching job in the NFL. But nonetheless there's a lot of places that are down in the dumps and these dudes are going to be tasked with turning an entire city city around. It's not as easy as a couple of these guys that made it look. Think about Liam Cohen. That's dream situation right there. Liam was hired so late with so much chaos that they thought he wasn't going to be able to provide a staff. Remember, they thought he wasn't going to be able to hire a staff. It's too late. This guy's not even going to be able. Is he going to have a running backs coach? I don't even know if he's going to have a running backs coach. Yeah, he's going to have the greatest season in history of Jacksonville Jaguars that are going to host a playoff game. Crazy that can happen like this. No new gm. How old is that kid? What is that thing these idiots are trading how much for the number two overall pick for a wide receiver in a corner? What the Jacksonville Jaguars gonna do? What Duvall do? Man, that just sounds hilarious. And then they turn it around completely and it feels like their culture is completely set. And then you see them in real life and it's like, hey, they look like they got it. That Jacksonville Jaguars team really does.

[Nick Saban]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a scary ass game for the Buffalo Bill I would assume.

[Darius Butler]

I think so too. And a lot of people obviously just coming in. If you haven't watched the Jaguars all season long and just knowing who Josh Allen is and who he has been since he's been in the league, you will lean that way. You always look at the quarterbacks with this team on both sides of the ball. You talk about hiring the staff. Anthony Campanelli has been great with that defense, turned the ball over and also playing good with the other numbers as well. Trevor Lawrence has been unlocked. He's finally the guy that a lot of people expected him to be. So I cannot wait to see these teams on this stage because everything, everybody knows the playoffs, you know, is a completely different landscape. And as far as the coaches go, nine offensive coaches, five defensive head coaches now in the NFL and I think four of those five defensive coach are all on the AFC side. So I'd be interested to see how that impacts this hiring cycle.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. And to your point about, you know, Trevor Lawrence being unlocked in Gladstone, once they got you Kobe Myers, like the entire team, it felt like change. Like Brian Thomas Jr. Had that really slow start. I think Jacksonville actually led the league in drops or at least drop percentage. I don't know how those graphs work, but they had a bunch of drops. They bring in Jacoby Myers, that offense completely changed. Parker Washington you brought up earlier, he's been unbelievable since Jacoby came in and became that like kind of safety valve for Trevor Lawrence in the offense.

[Pat McAfee]

Liam Cohen, what does he do on the offensive side, aq, that makes people sometimes be wide ass open, seemingly during.

[AQ Shipley]

These games, it's the same thing Sean McVay does. He does such a good job of using his tight ends and disguising them, sometimes putting them in the backfield, putting them through the B gap. They get lost in coverage and all of a sudden Breton Strange is wide open. Missed coverage down the field, it's Parker Washington. It's the shifts and the motions. It's the run game. It's. It's all the stuff that you see what makes McVeigh so good. Liam Cohen brought that same thing.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ they got an edge to him too. These guys got an edge age, which I, I think we all love, obviously. But it's dangerous in the playoffs age.

[AJ Hawk]

It's. It's definitely dangerous. I just like, I think how Debug put it, like Trevor Lawrence has been unlocked. I feel like Liam Cohen is the guy for him. And if you remember, early in the year wasn't. Remember like the rumors back and forth that they weren't really getting along or seeing eye to eye, maybe 100%. And that absolutely is not the case now. They are definitely both on the same page for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Packers, Bears, how do we feel as we sit on this particular Wednesday, just a few days from super wild car Saturday?

[Ty Schmidt]

Ty I still feel good about the packers in this one, but you know, both, both of their defenses have kind of been shite the last several weeks. So it feels like whoever can get a stop late in the fourth quarter might be the one who wins the game. Like both of the games so far this year haven't been too high scoring. They've been pretty Back and forth. But I mean, I think both of these defense or offenses are going to move the ball at will and score points.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'm excited for super Wild card weekend. I'm excited for all of these games. I'm also pretty excited for if you guys get a chance to kind of watch tennis. I didn't know they do this. Did you guys know they do this? You can just kind of sign up online, win a raffle, and then just like the field goal contest that happens on game day, you can win a chance to be in an actual professional tournament. This lady right here, that's an actual.

[Connor Rogers]

She was.

[AJ Hawk]

I thought she was rope a doping her and then all of a sudden she turned it on later.

[Pat McAfee]

No, she got two points from two double faults from the actual professional tennis player. A lot of people in the tennis community are saying, hey, probably, bro, you're double fault against this person that has never really held a racket before. This is almost like super dog down there in Australia for the break dancing.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Ray Gun.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ray Gun.

[Pat McAfee]

Ray Gun. Yeah, Ray Gun.

[Connor Rogers]

Super dog. Yeah, Ray Gun. Same thing, same difference.

[Pat McAfee]

She was super dog. She was. Do you remember whenever they were coming out saying, I trained hard for the afterwards, they were trying to get mad at people and then they kind of just bought into it, I think like, yeah, we kind of did that. We're in. We're in Olympics. So don't. This lady in an actual professional tennis game, Congratulations to her. She had no right to be there and she knew that whenever she stepped up to the plate into the tape. So we appreciate the hell out of that.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. Could have qualified for Wimbledon. I think they should put a player like this in each tournament anyways just to show how good tennis players are. Ray Gun ended up. There's a big scandal there. Right. Ray Gun was. Ended up married to the guy who ended up picking up.

[AQ Shipley]

Yes.

[Connor Rogers]

Who. Who won the goal or who was supposed to be on the team.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't remember it exactly, but I do remember that people were certainly saying Ray Gun was not our best representation of breakdancing around this island continent of Australia. And after going to Australia and seeing the humans and how jacked they all are, I assume there is some phenomenal break dancers out there and they're probably pretty bummed out they got dead last place in that entire thing. But the run in a circle while laying on your side. My daughter was doing it the other day. She's two and a half. I thought to myself, that's Olympic break dancing.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Change the Game.

[Pat McAfee]

She did. She ab. Super talk changed it all.

[Connor Rogers]

And who are we talking about? You know we're this far removed. We're not talking about who won gold or silver or bronze.

[Pat McAfee]

True.

[Connor Rogers]

Talking about Ray Gun.

[Pat McAfee]

When I landed in Australia I asked four or five people is this town Ray Gun's from got a lot of. They used a punt word to me though. Not it's like a. Basically at knowing that I was joking and telling me to scram. Basically. I don't think they have a lot of gratitude towards the superdog. The break dancer.

[Ty Schmidt]

They should.

[Pat McAfee]

But we should be respecting hell out of this lady. Did you imagine if she accidentally puts arm up like this? Daria. It hits and just right down on the line after something comes back so fast and then all of a sudden start stacking points. Make maybe this one accidentally little drop shot because her technique's so bad. Third he love. Oh wait a minute. What do we got going on?

[Connor Rogers]

Get one here.

[Pat McAfee]

All of a sudden we're stealing one. Now we got a brand new movie. This is like the garbage picking field.

[Ty Schmidt]

Goal kicking Philadelphia phenomenon.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what we have happening here right in front of our eyes potentially. I didn't know tennis allowed this. We need more people to start signing up for the super duper raffle to play the professionals.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was also bullshit because she is a hardcourt player and that was on clay. So she really wasn't ready for the surface. I think that's what threw her off a little bit. Why didn't know where she was supposed to serve from, etc. Etc. Like had this been the Australian Open for instance where they play on a hardcourt. I think she probably that that suits her skill set a little bit more than the play.

[Connor Rogers]

Learned how to play from weed tennis.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean I don't even know that's what I'm saying. I think it hasn't even.

[AJ Hawk]

Definitely surface. Definitely surface issue though. Ties right on hardcore. She's unstoppable.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's the first thing I thought I said. Well, she's not a clay. She's not a clay court player.

[Pat McAfee]

Is a square stand jump serve.

[Ty Schmidt]

The move Taylor made for hardcourt.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[AQ Shipley]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I like that she walked right out there. She had to have a couple friends in his stance. It I'll play. You hear what. You hear what? Whatever her name is. He's doing what she. She's in an actual tournament tomorrow. Has she ever played before? And she looks over. Probably a little confused cocktail too. No, I have no idea what I'm doing. Pumped though. So excited.

[Connor Rogers]

It's gonna be fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Does the lady you're playing know? No. Walking in there with the thing, doing it. We're supposed to have Chef or seven minutes ago, he's been on the phone with the owner or two. So who knows what potentially being made. You know, maybe Shefter will have news break for us, even though he'll save it to tweet it. Yeah, we'll have a chance. Well, the thing about the X, and I've realized this over time with these insiders, because these things like to compete. Yeah. Oh, yeah, these things. The X is the scoreboard. That is the certainly. This is the original. This is when you're putting your. Your score up. This is the time. This is when I got it. So that is how it. I. I believe it is all tracked on who had what at the time. So every time these things tell us, like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And we're like, tell us, tell us. Wait, okay, okay. Ownership fired. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like that. They need to get that, that. That needs to get on X as fast as possible. So anytime this man takes time away from his multiple phones and his life of gathering NFL information, we appreciate him. Michigan man. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, Chef.

[Adam Schefter]

What's going on, gentlemen?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, new watch. Wow. This guy.

[Adam Schefter]

Same watch, same watch.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the ACs there. What's the middle name? Charles.

[Darius Butler]

Cheris? Chester.

[Pat McAfee]

No, Adam. Adam. Charles. Adam. Chuck. Adam. Chucky. Shefty.

[Adam Schefter]

Craig.

[Pat McAfee]

Craig.

[Connor Rogers]

Craig.

[Ty Schmidt]

Craig.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, Craig.

[Adam Schefter]

You know what, Pat? You'll appreciate this. My mother wanted to make my middle name Scott, but then, then the initials on the shirt, you know, you can only imagine what that would have looked like.

[Pat McAfee]

Been sick. I like that she's thinking that far ahead. But also, Adam Scott would have been such a good insider. It would have been good. What could have been. But we're in a good spot. Obviously. Shefty bombs are a thing. You dropped one with the Harbaugh firing from Baltimore. Felt like you guys kind of had an inkling that this was possible. Heading in to the last week, basically. And I'm saying, you guys, I'm talking about the insiders as a whole. Rapaport said on the insider show that he had heard from his source sources that maybe the locker room didn't like Harbaugh anymore and maybe they known that there's been a riff. What is kind of your information on how we got to this point and obviously what Harbaugh.

[Adam Schefter]

I don't think that information right there could be Any more true? Any less true? The players were coming into his office crying, hugging him, sending him goodbyes, calling him one by one. If they felt that way, why are Mark Andrews and Zay Flowers and Isaiah likely and all these players coming in crying, hugging him, giving him these long, warm goodbyes? I'm not buying that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's go ahead and slide that to the side. Is something that is not happening. AQ Shipley, who played for the Ravens, said that Harbaugh is his favorite coach that he's ever had. So I think there's a lot that.

[Adam Schefter]

Would be consistent, that would be consistent with the type of things that I've heard.

[AQ Shipley]

Chef D. I've never seen a coach take their players back more than John Harbaugh, especially in the media. Media, too. All the stuff that FA Lele took early in the season, he stood at the podium, he stared every one of them in the face and had his back. And I think every player respects him because of that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so how did we get to this point then? What do you think was the reasoning? Was it just everything that we had talked about?

[Adam Schefter]

I just think, here's the deal. Sometimes nobody does anything wrong. You go on for 18 years and it's time for everybody to go a different direction. It's okay. Nobody has to do something wrong. That doesn't have to be some salacious reason, doesn't have to be some fight or something like that. Sometimes it could just be they fell short the last few years. Whether it was for Zay Flowers dropping the ball, fumbling the ball at the goal line, or Mark Andrews not catching the two point conversion, or Tyler Loop missing the field goal and you don't get the job done. And you know what? It's time to just go make a change. Like when I covered the Denver Broncos back in the day, Dan Reaves was a great coach. And after a while, Pat Boland just felt like, you know what? It's time for me to take back my franchise. He wanted to go a different direction. He hired Mike Shanahan. They won Super Bowls. That's what happened in Denver. John Fox took them to the number one seed three times. He did a great job. It wasn't like he did something wrong. They shook it up. They moved on from him. They hired Gary Kubiak. They won a Super Bowl. It doesn't always work out with a happy ending, but sometimes, sometimes these owners just feel like time to make a change. We see it in the business world. There are companies that make changes of CEOs after 1012, 15, 18 years. 18 years is what John Harbaugh did. He won more road playoff games than any coach in history. He's the bell of the ball right now. These teams are going to trip over themselves to hire him. He can pick the spot he wants right.

[J.J. Watt]

Right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay?

[Connor Rogers]

It's just.

[Adam Schefter]

It's just time to make a change sometimes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. And then making a change after 18 years, something that they haven't done because he is the CEO, was the surprise. I think a lot of Baltimore Ravens fans were potentially looking for the same thing, that maybe you're pitching there, like a little refresh, a little reset, new voice in there. You talk about him being the bell of the ball. You put out a tweet that alluded to maybe a team that hasn't fired a coach has already reached out to John Harbaugh to potentially look at an interest, and then you followed up with that, like, at least. Least one likely more. Okay? So right now, everybody around the NFL, outside of. I don't. I don't want to give a particular number, but there's a lot of teams looking at their situation, wondering if John Harbaugh would be better, that maybe wouldn't have been thinking that if they didn't. If they didn't know, when they didn't know that Harbaugh was available. Is that accurate?

[Adam Schefter]

I think what happens is, and I think it was a little bit like when Bill Belichick is let go, when there's a legendary car coach who's out the door. I think every owner looks at himself and says, okay, do we think that John Horrible or Bill Belichick would be an upgrade over what we currently have? And there were a couple of teams with acting, sitting head coaches that reached out to just kind of see what was the temperature. You know, this is what Brian Harland said.

[AQ Shipley]

And.

[Adam Schefter]

And again, all these teams make decisions. There are the immediate team teams with openings, okay? And I can tell you that the majority of them, if not all of them, have some level of interest. Some that I've spoken to is extremely high, Extremely high. So, again, John's going to have his choice there with what he wants to do, and you have to evaluate the situation. Who's the owner, who's the gm, who's the quarterback, what about the market and the city? These are all the things that you take into consideration. I don't think there's anything more important than the quarterback situation.

[Pat McAfee]

Anything.

[Adam Schefter]

And if you go back to Washington a couple of years ago, that that organization was as bad as there was for Decades. And all of a sudden they draft Jaden Daniels and in one year, bam, they transform themselves into a place that's exciting and interesting. Interesting. They didn't play well this year and they're struggling, but for a year it was magic. And so I think it's going to be about the quarterback and who you can build on. One other point I want to make about John Harbaugh here. When Sean Payton of another pedigree was available, the Denver Broncos gave up first and second round draft choices to go hire him. First and second. John Harbaugh is about as accomplished as.

[J.J. Watt]

Shane.

[Adam Schefter]

And so he's now free where the team that hires him doesn't have to give out any compensation. No first, no second. Just go hire the guy. So how would that not be wildly attractive to any one of these teams out there? It is. And he will be. And he'll have a job if that's what he wants. And I believe it. It is what he wants.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so there at the end, you. You kind of noted that he does want to continue to come because I don't know what the contract setup is with Baltimore, but obviously he's very accomplished. Some coaches take a year, just kind of breathe a little bit. Whenever everybody in the NFL that needs a coaching change is calling you, offering you 18, $20 million, whatever it is, to come in and fix their place, obviously you got to listen. Congrats, Harbaugh. You've earned it. Now, let's talk about another older coach, one that was AJ's coach for the entirety of his at Green bay. Go ahead, AJ.

[AJ Hawk]

Coach or. I'm sorry, Shefty. What about Coach Mike McCarthy? What are you hearing about him?

[Pat McAfee]

I hear.

[AJ Hawk]

We hear rumors he's interviewing for the Giants or other teams. What do you think about him? What's the timetable? And is it likely that he gets a head coaching gig in this cycle?

[Adam Schefter]

He's gonna have a chance. I would say that he's gonna interview the Giants next week. He's gonna have another team that lines up an interview, from what I understand. So there'll be at least two teams that are interviewing him. Now, again, let's be honest. Again, I come back to John Harbaugh because I think he's going to be option 8A for a lot of teams. So if all of a sudden the Giants put on the full court press and they get John Harbaugh, bam, they got their guy. If not, I think a guy like Mike McCarthy absolutely comes into play, he'll be in play elsewhere as well. He's been around, understands what it takes. Teams know what they would be getting. I think he's got a chance. But early in the cycle right now, hard to say how it's going to shake out.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, let's talk about previous head coaches. Yeah. Tell everybody. And we appreciate you doing this. It does feel like there's some sort of hammer hitting something at one point.

[Adam Schefter]

Hold on, Let me go shut this door. Hold on one second. Hold on, hold on, Chef.

[Pat McAfee]

You shut down a set. Shut down a set. Shut down a set. We got good Tupperware down there. We made our lunch.

[Adam Schefter]

Let me tell you what's going on here. Let me tell you what's going on here, Pat. Okay, we had a. We had some. We had a leak in our kitchen. Mildew. And so they got to replace all this stuff. And I, I, I, I. I can't even tell you the way we're living for the next three, four months here. This is. This is going to be as unpleasant as it is.

[Pat McAfee]

No, you got to go get Airbnb, brother. You got to get out of there. Black mold potential. That'd be your excuse. You need to get out of there, dude. Because if that's what. Where are you at? What's.

[Adam Schefter]

You know what? You know what? My wife doesn't want to leave. We got, we got two disabled dogs that we can't have them disoriented. We have to kind of take care of them.

[Darius Butler]

Okay.

[Adam Schefter]

And so we're here. We're. We're going to live through it and ain't to going to be fun.

[Pat McAfee]

You can make adjustments, though. You're like three, four months. Yeah, three, four months. I mean, we can find something similar to what it is. Maybe same decorations even in there. You know, you got. No, but, but, but, Pat.

[Adam Schefter]

My wife took the occasion to. While they're doing this, of course they were just going to redo the whole kitchen.

[Darius Butler]

Of course.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, we have to. You never know where that black mold is. That could be anyway. Kill you.

[Gumpy]

Now's the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're right. That three, four months too. That's definitely, definitely how long it's gonna be. Yeah, yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

How old are the dogs?

[Pat McAfee]

That's certainly how disabled.

[Connor Rogers]

I don't want to go.

[Adam Schefter]

We have a 19 year old dog, blind, deaf, has lost her vision. We have a 16 year old dog, lost the use of her back legs. We have to take her out every time she needs to go out. We have two other dog. We, we run a assisted living puppy facility, like a dog care facility. It's amazing.

[Pat McAfee]

16 and 19 years old. Hey, that beat the game. Congrats to them.

[Adam Schefter]

They, they refuse to leave us. They, they, they, they love it too much.

[Pat McAfee]

My wife gives them too many treats.

[Adam Schefter]

And bones and everything like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Respect. Shout out to those dogs. Living the long life. Okay, let's get back to ball here. That's your house. I thought for sure you're in public.

[Connor Rogers]

No doubt. Hotel.

[Pat McAfee]

3, 4, 6, 7 months. You know, these contracts certainly working.

[Darius Butler]

It might be two months they're working.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe.

[Adam Schefter]

It just start. It just started this week too.

[Pat McAfee]

Just started. Oh, and they found out at your house. Did they know it was your house before they give a full projection or after? Just now. Are they learning at your house?

[Adam Schefter]

I don't. I have no idea. All I know is, you know what my wife gets very anxious for?

[AQ Shipley]

Good.

[Adam Schefter]

For obvious reasons about travel. She doesn't like to get on an airplane. I tell her, and I mean this, I feel the same way about construction and noise and all these workers and like porta potties in your driveway that she does about travel.

[Ty Schmidt]

You shit your bathroom?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

Better than them dumping in your room. You don't want them in your mask.

[Pat McAfee]

Get one of those like super nice porta Johns. That's like a trailer outside. Make sure these guys cheeks are paid off. And let's not have single ply out there so they can get this done a little bit quicker. But what I'm saying, soon as they looked and saw it was you, buddy. Three, four. We got an idea here. We got a new upgrade in this. Oh. Logistical issues. Weren't able to travel this stuff. But guess what, we got a replacement. 500 bucks more. It just easy amount. Just similar. You're about to get worked out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's going to be 18 months.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, hey. Stay strong out there there, brother. Good luck in there, man.

[Connor Rogers]

The head coach. Insert team name. Once they know. I mean, you get a couple Giants fans in there.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Leaks are coming out of that kitchen.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Not just through the pipes, right. Oh, you gotta keep that locked down, Chefy. Okay, let's talk about this coaching cycle as you're certainly battling. Go ahead, D, bud.

[Darius Butler]

Yes, Chef. We know hardball. He'll be a special teams. He's a special teams background guy, so he's kind of the rare one. But your early lean on more detail. Defensive or offensive head coach, when you look at this coaching pool right here, more hot defensive names right now. But what's your early lean right now?

[Adam Schefter]

Wow. I mean, that's. Wow. Well, I Again, I'm going to take the layups. I think, I think John Halvall is getting a job. I think. I think Kevin Sten is going to get a job. So there, there's my two jobs. And now, now we got some really interesting candidates. Robert Sala. Vance. Joseph. Brian Flores. Minter. Minter. Oh, I think Minter's gonna. I think Minter's got a real chance to get a job here.

[Pat McAfee]

Sig.

[Adam Schefter]

Who else?

[Pat McAfee]

Signetti up there on the high dive. You never know if he's coming in.

[Adam Schefter]

I don't see it. I haven't heard anything yet that tells me that he's going to the NFL.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. That's great news in Bloomington, by the way.

[Adam Schefter]

That doesn't mean it can't be. But to this day, to this moment, right now, nobody has said to me, cursing, that he's looking to go to the NFL.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Adam Schefter]

And no NFL team has said to me, we are plotting to make an overthrow of the Indiana football coach.

[Pat McAfee]

An overthrow?

[Ty Schmidt]

Slowly top of the regime.

[Connor Rogers]

I mean, it would just destroy Indiana. Indiana's holding on to IU football like there's no tomorrow. It's all they got, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we got sick. What, for 10 years? Right. For a 10 year deal. And that deal changes every single time a new deal is signed, basically. And Sig's putting Green diner goes from three to four to five to 18 holes.

[Connor Rogers]

You know, going to be Wahlberg's backyard by the time it's all said.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Is that still for sale? That house was so nice.

[Ty Schmidt]

So nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my gosh. How does he ever leave that place? Well, he doesn't. He spends.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's why he's waking up at 4am he wants to see the whole house. That makes a lot more sense now that we know his schedule. That place was so nice.

[AQ Shipley]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I think he just built one down in Florida. That's what Sig's going. Bloomington. Exactly. He also has a statue on the way already.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, already has a statue on the way for the Big Ten championship. All right, Shefty, we appreciate that.

[Adam Schefter]

I would, I would say take Kurt Signetti off that board until further notice. Take him off.

[Connor Rogers]

Who should we move up forward, Closer to the front?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Who needs to be bigger in the pool? Let's see who's far from the Shalala.

[AJ Hawk]

Anyone on? Anyone not on there? We need to add.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. Halfley back there, Kubak Weaver.

[Adam Schefter]

Halfley. Jeff Halfley definitely needs to be on that board. Definitely.

[Pat McAfee]

But he's in the way back he's behind. Yeah, he's behind Salah Garrett Chula.

[Adam Schefter]

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's. It's always. It's hard at the beginning to know how it's going to shake out. Exactly. Like a lot of speculation. Again, I'm going to come back to John Harbaugh just like I think teams were waiting to see what would happen. He's free now. We have to see where he goes. And then everything follows that Ben Johnson.

[Pat McAfee]

Of this year, the Vrael.

[Adam Schefter]

Vrabel or Ben. Yeah, Ben Johnson. But yeah, either or. Those are the choices.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he's like Vrabel.

[Connor Rogers]

Ain't no Vles in this pool. Okay. We know that.

[Pat McAfee]

That guy's ready for super football weekend. Do you have one of these Nike Techs? Shefty?

[Adam Schefter]

What are the Nike ticks?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't.

[Adam Schefter]

I don't know. I don't got one of those.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a sweatsuit. I think you should. You know what? It's going to be hard for us to find them these. These days.

[Adam Schefter]

Connor's got more cred than I do, obviously. And he's got more connections and more pole than I do. I don't. I don't got one of those.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he's not the most important person or. Sorry. Yeah, it's pretty important. Yeah, very important.

[AJ Hawk]

Down south.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Way to. Yeah. Nike Tech's in the news today. Obviously you wouldn't know that because you got happening in your kitchen for the next six months and a coaching cycle happen. We appreciate the hell out of you.

[Adam Schefter]

Chef D. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you, brother. That's Adam Schefter.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Chef D. Kitchen isn't where you hang out in your house either.

[Connor Rogers]

Never.

[AJ Hawk]

We gotta have him on every day to see how frustrated he gets with the more and more banging that's going on.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you hear that? Let me shut this door. Okay. Cutting marble and cabinets over there. That's going to be a while. Soon as they saw Chef or two, you talked about the same watch, same watch. They saw that too.

[Nick Saban]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

For one of those watches, we can add a full. Think about this. How about an island right here like J.J. watt has? You won't. Definitely won't even be able to touch the middle.

[Nick Saban]

You.

[Pat McAfee]

We got that here for you.

[Connor Rogers]

We'll have a little hole for you.

[Pat McAfee]

Pop up in the middle. You're already paying this amount. Just an extra 10,000. That's nothing really in the grand scheme of thing. Get a little. 30 years, 10,000. Start doing the math. Paying 33 bucks 333 bucks. Worth an island. Certainly worth. Don't you think? Oh, yeah, his wife. Oh, I didn't know that was possible. It's gonna take us from three to five months though. You're already doing three months.

[Connor Rogers]

Done.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, how about this cabinetry over here? We got a chance to really put in a hibachi grill. And we have to change the fan above it because that's gotta be an exhaust fan, you see. But then we need to build an entire exit up to the top of the roof. Only takes two or three more weeks on construction and on the build. But you have an hibachi oven right next to your other oven. And then obviously you got multiple, multiple grills out here, but you got a hibachi grill, you have friends over, you do the thing. Oh, how many more weeks? Three weeks. Oh, 20 more grand. Put it on there.

[AQ Shipley]

What's that?

[Pat McAfee]

700 bucks over 30 years. Oh my God. No more. No problem at all. Boom. Now that we get, that's going to take us five months to seven months. Okay, no problem. We got to build it all the way up. But that's actually 12. This guy's in this for the next two years. Without a doubt, those dogs aren't going.

[AJ Hawk]

To make it through the renovation.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't like the way you guys were talking about 19 year old 16.

[AJ Hawk]

That might be part of the plan, to be honest.

[Connor Rogers]

At a certain point, 19 year old dog, that thing is just begging. Begging to run into the street at the right time.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no. That 19 year old dog waking up fighting every single day. That's what dogs do. That's why they're absolute dogs. Yeah. I got Val right now. Val's old dog, senior dog. It's an interesting thing with Val.

[Connor Rogers]

How old though?

[Pat McAfee]

Thirteen? Twelve. Twelve. Dang.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

Seven years.

[Pat McAfee]

That's so long.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh my gosh.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we're off tomorrow and Friday from the show, but we're live on the field Pass and college game days. Super football weekend kicks off tomorrow with the semifinals of College Football playoff. We appreciate you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. We'll see you on ESPN2 tomorrow night. Goodbye. All right, we got to make picks. We got to give out trenches. Nice. We got to wrap up this beautiful Wednesday on the other side. Let's enjoy the hell out of this.

[Connor Rogers]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah, boys. It's super football weekend. It's award season. Woo.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go to Hammer. Don, Don, Don, you pumped the ball. Award season.

[Gumpy]

I love award season. My favorite season of the year.

[Pat McAfee]

Or John Harbaugh goes to Cleveland Browns.

[Gumpy]

Oh, I believe his wife's family is from there.

[Connor Rogers]

So.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh.

[Pat McAfee]

What if he says, you know what I want Battle of Steelers every single year.

[J.J. Watt]

I believe he grew up a Browns.

[Gumpy]

Fan and was born in Toledo.

[AQ Shipley]

I think he. I think he played at Miami of Ohio too.

[Gumpy]

And Stefanski goes to Baltimore.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Listen to the Steelers fans. That being said, he'd have to be a to go coach the Browns.

[Gumpy]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

What if he did it?

[AJ Hawk]

Imagine if he turned him around though. Imagine if he made him something.

[Darius Butler]

I don't think Tone thinks he's a good coach. You don't think Harbaugh and Stefan's good coaches because you want him out of your division? If you thought they were. We know that gimmick.

[Gumpy]

No, I just thought that would be a fun thing where they just flip flop.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, Jason Garrett to the Titans. Make sense? Let's get to a break.

[Gumpy]

When you think about it.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Gumpy]

Don't do that to Cam Ward, dude.

[Pat McAfee]

What that guy had winning football diner in Jack.

[Darius Butler]

Jason Garrett.

[Gumpy]

Garrett's doing great doing Sunday night Football, doing those dances. He took Romo from Northern Iowa to the number one commentator on cbs.

[Connor Rogers]

Good coach.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like to say I agree. On that note, I would like to say that I think Jason Garrett on TV is one of the best we've seen from league to tv. He's phenomenal and everything I hear him say, I think to myself, that guy should still be coaching with the way he's acting and talking. So if he's going to go down Nashville, save Nashville's team and the AFC South, I like to see him do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, can't lose him from that show. Can't do it. Cannot do it. Will not do it. Can't win with it. Can't do it.

[Connor Rogers]

Won't do it.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

He's a Nashville guy though.

[Pat McAfee]

Won't do it, isn't he? I mean, you can see it.

[Connor Rogers]

He can dance.

[AJ Hawk]

We know he can dance.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. We would like to give a shout out to that entire Football Night in America crew for their commitment to the bits of the TikTok dances. I mean, they're. I don't know how many days in advance are getting these things. There's some real choreography happening in some of them. I respect and appreciate their full commitment to the bit. Very much so. I do also appreciate the fact that Mike Florio. Okay, Mike Florio commits fully to these things.

[Connor Rogers]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

But also he is going to find a hilarious angle for Every single piece of information. Somehow his tweet today about the ratings being the highest since 1989. And then in parentheses going, interesting, there's more viewers in 1989, isn't it? Especially with the way everything is today. Back into parentheses. Here's the layout of how it all works. It's like, what a fucking hilarious thing. All time high in ratings, basically all day. In 2025, the NFL had its highest regular season viewership since 1989, which means more people were watching NFL games in 1989, which is kind of surprising given the current popularity of the sport. It's like, what a fucking angle. I would not have been able to think of that angle. That is a good. You're right. Holy shit. I was two. So I don't really know if I was contributing there or anything like that. But just hearing that stat and then immediately going, 1989, kick the out of 2025, that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? It's like, that's amazing. Just immediate.

[Darius Butler]

A lot more impressive now.

[AJ Hawk]

Attention grabber.

[Darius Butler]

A lot more. Because 1989, would you have seven options to watch on TV if that. Eight platforms just to watch, you know, streaming and TV. Like only thing people watch now is live sports. Like live outside of that. Like my kids barely watch. Like regular tv, The.

[Pat McAfee]

The cord cutting.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Generations are happening. There's still a lot of people that have it. Obviously the numbers are outrageous for linear stuff. I mean, these numbers are crazy. 57.33 million on Thanksgiving. Congratulations. Thanksgiving it down as the best football holiday. We need these turkey bowls to still happen.

[Nick Saban]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We need kids that are unathletic going outside in the yard, maybe on street telephone pole to telephone pole. Maybe hurting himself playing ball for the good of America.

[AQ Shipley]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Thanksgiving is clearly a football holiday.

[Connor Rogers]

Always will be.

[Pat McAfee]

Amen. Well, we know the actual holiday. We like to let everybody know. We do know the whole thing. That felt like a good moment of people coming together. Just like football.

[AQ Shipley]

Thankful.

[Pat McAfee]

Super football weekend. Let's see what these numbers are, huh? Football up into the right. Sports up and to the right. Feels like we're all understanding that sports are the great unifier. Hi there. Surprise. 30 for 30 presents. Booyah. Can I get a witness with the congregation? You can't stop authenticity.

[J.J. Watt]

Booyah.

[Pat McAfee]

Stuart was exactly like you saw him on camera. Off camera. He dialed it up 10%. Can you imagine the impact of young black boys and girls looking at that, going, I feel seen. He changed the culture. He changed sports stream.

[Ty Schmidt]

Booyah.

[Pat McAfee]

Presented by Modelo right now on the ESPN app. Football. He is the greatest. That's A.J. hawk. The toxic table is here. Looking very normal at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. I'll tell you what age, no mention out of you. Pretty crazy. We thought that was potentially going to be the first thing that you were saying. But instead you took a shot at Hammer Dan Tanz a because his little wishy washy Pittsburgh Steelers takes that have been happening all year. He's kind of self handicapping himself but expecting a Super bowl and if it doesn't happen, going to be very pissed. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Twelve year super bowl champion, an absolute legend. Ladies and gentlemen, AQ Shipley. Age. Yes. At the end of the show. Yes. I'll be eating booty, brother.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I heard.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you ever had one of these booties?

[AJ Hawk]

Pirate booty? I've had, yeah. Kids love that stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, the boys here certainly love their booty and I have never, I can genuinely say I've never tried this.

[Connor Rogers]

Dude.

[Pat McAfee]

I have seen the bag. I think the bag kind of looks like ass. So maybe that's why I haven't chose it. I'm more of a Cheetos man myself and Cheetos household, you know, Cheetos puffs, I believe are what Mackenzie enjoys whenever she's trying to eat something. Something in this avenue of food. But I'll tell you what, AQ is telling me that he's going through two buckets of these things a day. Con man said he's eating booty from morning till night, basically.

[Connor Rogers]

I'm not kidding. I'm eating enough booty to feed a family. Like it is a full family sized pack of booty.

[Pat McAfee]

And in Iowa. Did you guys eat booty as well?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, not, not as much. I am not also like buying boot booty, but like if I, you know, if we get on a plane and there's some booty there, I'm gonna eat it. If we, I come in here and I have to open the bottom drawer and there's some booty there. Guess what? I'm eating it. So it's kind of one of those things where it's like if you see booty, you eat booty.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, Bruce brought it up. It might be an east coast thing, like New England. We've been eating booty since I believe it's made in new. Okay, there it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Is it? I don't know. I'm not 100. Sure.

[AJ Hawk]

The trailer kind of a younger thing. Younger kids are into that. A Lot more than older.

[Connor Rogers]

No, no, it's.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I regret to inform New England. It's not another great thing out of Hershey. Pennsylvania.

[Connor Rogers]

I knew it was a Pennsylvania.

[Pat McAfee]

Pennsylvania. But that's creating greatness. That's crazy.

[Connor Rogers]

That's the thing. PA just doesn't eat booty like New England. No, they do. I. I don't think so. Because if that was the case, I feel like Pittsburgh.

[Pat McAfee]

And I don't know if I'm the right person to judge anything though, as we all know with how I kind of go about how I evope operated with everything.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, but if we got multiple. I know a booty eater when I see one.

[Pat McAfee]

Tony Diggs.

[Connor Rogers]

Tony Diggs. He would have been the one pounding the drum.

[Gumpy]

Yep.

[Connor Rogers]

And my.

[Gumpy]

My daughter eats booty literally every single day. So.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so what about when. When you were a little. Little lad, little paisana. Were you. Were you a booty eater? I don't think. No.

[Gumpy]

We were more of a Snyder's cheese curls, City Snyders of Berlin cheese curls, barbecue chips.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I remember spinning the big.

[Ty Schmidt]

Spinning the top.

[Pat McAfee]

Big top thing. I mean. Yeah, that's what I was. That's this genre of thing.

[AQ Shipley]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Connor Rogers]

But not. But not. You don't get that as much. It's not as it doesn't leave a mark. It's the type of booty you eat that just kind of goes away.

[Pat McAfee]

My wife texted me and told me the booty eating is like eating air. It's a little lighter than. That's kind of what Ty said.

[Gumpy]

That's correct.

[Nick Saban]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Which is why it's great. You could. And which is why you can eat 10 gallon bucket of booty in one sit.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess my wife not a big booty eater from. From what the text messages and life. From what I my understanding, you can.

[Connor Rogers]

Learn to love it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You can learn to be a booty again. Never buying taste.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm not going to the store and buying booty not. My kids aren't to that point yet. But again, if I see booty, I will eat some booty.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, let's talk about the origins of booty here. Pirates. Booty was started in 1987. Same year I was born with Robert Irving Ehrlich, who founded Robert's American Gourmet Food and created the Cheesy puff snack in Seacliffe, New York. Aiming for simpler, more natural ingredients than competitors. That began as an organic focused snack, later sold to B and G foods and then to the Hershey Company. But its origin lies with Ehrlich's vision for a better cheese puff. And listen, I saw the pop tart story as well. Getting something to really pop off is a big part of, like, you know, transforming your family's life in an entire area. Hershey obviously grows in one of his pop tarts in entire town blossoms in this. I assume booty has done a lot for a lot of these towns. Yeah, I assume booty has really done it for Hershey. If I had to guess. Phenomenal chocolate booty. People eating chocolate booty, I assume.

[Connor Rogers]

Well, in Hershey, they come with booty. I'm assuming you get a booty sandwich, you know, you can get some chocolate, put some booty in between it, and then you can kind of like a s' more almost.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

I gotta, like, get the salt and the love.

[Pat McAfee]

Some chocolate booty rare.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Connor Rogers]

See?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so that's basically Hershey, Pennsylvania. It sounds like Hershey, Pennsylvania is chocolate booty heaven.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. Capital, South Florida.

[Pat McAfee]

You guys making chocolate booty down here? I don't know. This says it's in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They're making the chocolate booty that we're talking.

[Connor Rogers]

Got another factory down there.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, upgrade kind of off the.

[Connor Rogers]

Off the.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you think South Florida has a little bit better chocolate booty? Boom. I mean, there's a chance.

[Connor Rogers]

There we go. And that might be south beach on the back, actually.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they might be knowing. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I think there is. I think there is some chocolate booty hubs, if I had to guess.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And, yeah, I mean, I haven't even had regular booty yet, so I guess I'll give it a go for chocolate booty at some point down the road.

[Connor Rogers]

But, I mean, we're gonna be in one of the cities this. This. This weekend.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, any city.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, I believe Atlanta.

[Darius Butler]

Atlanta.

[Connor Rogers]

I believe Atlanta.

[Pat McAfee]

Atlanta has. Atlanta has a. I believe Atlanta loves ch.

[Connor Rogers]

Chocolate booty, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Very similar to how Pittsburgh, you know, it's in Hershey pen, and it's worked its way up north, you know, to New England. South beach, clearly Hub. And it has worked its way up to Atlanta.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, Atlanta is a chocolate booty.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. I think they also like regular booty.

[Darius Butler]

Much like ty not buying a booty, but see the booty.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, Atlanta's big for Pringle cans, too.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, they like Pringles as well.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[AQ Shipley]

Remember we talked about Pringles earlier? They're Pringles.

[AJ Hawk]

Make it disappear.

[Pat McAfee]

I think you're. I think you're going to get a lawsuit. I think you are talking about different stuff there, honestly. Yeah, we don't need to be talking about pray, just we're talking about booty here. I'm going to try this at the end. We got a lot of things to get through. And not just get through, celebrate through. Ladies and gentlemen, it is award season. That means we need to go ahead and spotlight those who are great this season, greater than the others. And although everybody is good, who is the best of them all? Well, ladies and gentlemen, for I think the third annual year, it is time for the Trenchies, presented by Acush Shipley. Go ahead, Akush.

[AQ Shipley]

Here we go, boys. We are going to start with the rookie trenchy, which is the rookie lineman of the year, Gray Zabel of the Seattle Seahawks.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you say? Go on, gray. Go on, gray. Hey, hey. What do you say? Go on, gray. Trenchy winner this early into his career. Wow, that's a big deal for him.

[AQ Shipley]

One of 12 rookie players across the entire NFL to start all 17 games this year. This guy was available. He was durable, he was mean, he was nasty, he was a prick. He was the starting left guard out of North Dakota State. Let's watch this screen. Get out in space against the Niners in a huge game to get to the place. Bury his ass. We got another screenplay coming up against the Rams again, another late game season. Watch this dude run, get downfield, be the lead blocker out in space.

[J.J. Watt]

Boom.

[AQ Shipley]

Put his ass down. I mean, that's a big time play now. You want to see physical, you want to see physical, come inside. Boom. Put his ass to sleep.

[Pat McAfee]

You're not coming near me, right?

[AQ Shipley]

Big touchdown too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's Sam Darnold ball. And obviously are we going to see more of that in the playoffs? Obviously, I think so. With how he performed. Earn the number one overall seed. Did not know they had a rookie sensation. Congrats to Gray winning the rookie trenchy of the year. Who do we got next?

[AQ Shipley]

A we got the guard, trenchy, and that is Mr. Joe Tuni.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow, Joe. Congratulations, Joe. Way to go, Joe. Way to go, Joe.

[AQ Shipley]

All right, all right, let's talk about this. Nine years in the league, nine division titles, one of the fewest penalized offensive linemen in the history of of the game. He's unbelievable in the model of consistency and oh yeah, he breaks ribs whenever he's uncovered. Right there. Let's look at the next clip here. Check this out. As he's sitting there, he's going to go get some more ribs.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[AQ Shipley]

Go. He's phenomenal in pass Protection. Now this last one is awesome. Now check this out. Zone Play away. Now watch this. Go behind the center. There it is. There's the big cut. Touchdown, Joe Tuney.

[Pat McAfee]

Chicago Bears invested in the offensive line as soon as Ben Johnson got there. Seems like paid off. Nine years, nine straight division titles. Three different teams. Why is that, you think?

[AQ Shipley]

I think he started in New England. He is a leader, first of all. So obviously they were great there. But it starts with him. He was always one of their best offensive linemen. Then he goes to Kansas City. He's their best offensive lineman. Everywhere he goes, he's the model of consistency. He does things right. He's accountable. He's always available, never misses games. He's always in it for all 17 games or 16 games prior, whenever there was a 16 game game season. But he's physical and he's a technician.

[Pat McAfee]

All right? So congrats to Joe Tuney. One in a trench. He's won a lot.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats on finally getting a trenchy up there on the shelf. All right, what's next?

[AQ Shipley]

The tackle.

[Pat McAfee]

Trenchy goes to the best center.

[AQ Shipley]

A. Oh, we are starting with center.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. We all were. Yeah. Yes, Evan, we're all here to say he's getting jacked up.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, my fault, my fault, my fault.

[Pat McAfee]

He's getting.

[AQ Shipley]

Okay, I'm getting jacked up.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that you're jacked up of him.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Trenches. Give me J.

[AQ Shipley]

All right, the center trenchy. My favorite position goes to Aaron Brewer.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[AQ Shipley]

This guy's an absolute animal. Absolute monster. And listen, didn't even make the Pro bowl. So I'm not just going with what everybody's saying. I'm going with film. Biggest Pro bowl snub. Let's watch Aaron Brewer. Watch him go. Here we go. Climbs up on the second level.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[AQ Shipley]

Watch this. Throw his ass out of the club.

[Pat McAfee]

Got khakis on, too.

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, boy.

[Pat McAfee]

Right in the middle of the trenches. He's about to go through a little booty, maybe.

[AQ Shipley]

That's all right.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, that's crazy news. Sorry about that. Best center and ball doesn't deserve to have a massive code red DEFCON 1 poop situation with Ty Schmidt happening in the middle of it. This is a trenchy, Ty.

[Connor Rogers]

Come on.

[AQ Shipley]

Well, check out Aaron Brewer against the Indianapolis Colts. Being that we're in Indianapolis, let's watch him climb up to the middle linebacker, take him 10 yards.

[Pat McAfee]

That's illegal.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, exactly. And that was.

[AJ Hawk]

That wasn't.

[Pat McAfee]

Get hurt.

[AQ Shipley]

AJ AJ Watch this on Luvu downfield. Put his ass on the ground. That's not a hold. So don't even say it buries people. This guy's physical. This guy's athletic and he's the best center in football.

[Pat McAfee]

He seems to keep his feet too normally fall whenever you have a pancake. This guy's somehow keeping his feet feet and going forward. Congrats to a Miami Dolphin winning award. Congrats, Gumpy. You got to feel good about this.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Gumpy]

Best pair on our team all year.

[Pat McAfee]

He was unbelievable.

[Gumpy]

He goes down field, never stops working, never stops running. He's been lights out all season long.

[Pat McAfee]

So are you guys going to continue the trend since he's the best player on your team to trade him? Oh, no, that's what the Dolphins have been doing.

[Gumpy]

Steelers trade worked out pretty well actually. Make it was lights out all season.

[Pat McAfee]

Jaylen. Rams looked a little long in the tooth last game. Oh, it was a tough battle with the Baltimore. That's a John Harbaugh led team. You know. It's going to be a tough fight depending upon where he heads to next. Now, ladies and gentlemen, the mountain who wins the tackle trenchy of the 2025, 2026 NFL season.

[AQ Shipley]

AOU possibly the greatest of all time. Mr. Trent Will.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations, Trey. You did it, buddy. You did it.

[AQ Shipley]

He's unbelievable. And he does it all. I think this first clip against the LA Rams. Watch him go against Jared Verse. Boom. Just a simple punch puts him down on the ground. Second one's obviously against the Indianapolis Colts. Get a two for one. Boom. Boom. Kyle Juszczyk has no one to block. He's like a spider monkey out in space. And then let's watch this last one as we show his athleticism. Pull around. Yep. Watch this. Get a DB in space. Stop.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God.

[AQ Shipley]

Take his ass down. Now watch this. Now watch him just nuts right in his face as he walk.

[Nick Saban]

Little lip.

[Pat McAfee]

I see the teabaggin happen. Yeah. AJ felt like there was some holds in these highlights of these trenches winners.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, you know, that's just some savvy vet play, I think. I don't know if you call it a hold. It's very quick, very quick. Savvy vet. Yeah, that'll frustrate you a little bit if you're a defender. The guy's physically dominating you. And he also has those little tricks.

[Pat McAfee]

Like that Trent Williams with a dog. He's so much fun. Obviously NERs are different now hamstring interesting because a hamstring can pop up whenever, you know, and obviously we hope he's healthy. We hope he's good. We assume he'll fight through it all because he's an absolute dog. Him coming out first with the boombox has obviously been a staple of the San Francisco 49ers team. What a special talent. We're lucky we get a chance to see him live. And he's moving, striding. I mean, he's striding out there. He's way too big. They had him in motion last year. I don't think they've done that this year. Wait for that. In the playoffs, I guess.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. To your point about him being a dog, I believe the last time that they were in the playoffs two years ago or whenever they were making their own in the NFC championship against the Eagles, he had, like, a very, very bad ankle. And he was still just doing everything that he does.

[Pat McAfee]

David Lombardi at. Lombardi himself is reporting that no practice for Ricky Piersol and Trent Williams today to begin the week. Shannon said Pearsall aggravated the PCO during the Bears game, but he did participate in the 49ers three light practice sessions last week. We'll keep an eye on Trent. Williams looked upbeat on the sidelines last week. Okay, so those are the trenches. What's that?

[Connor Rogers]

No.

[Darius Butler]

So Wednesdays. Wednesday is typically the day you'll give like a G day or extra rest day. Thursday, Friday, he's not practicing. Yeah. Be a little.

[Pat McAfee]

Little concern. Yeah. Friday we should see something or hear something about him moving a little bit. Just get a little test out, is what you're saying.

[Darius Butler]

Absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so, too. That's a good call. Hey, Trent, we hope we get to see you back on the football field. You're a modern marvel, bro. Modern marvel. As are all the trenchy award winners. Now, can we get a full offensive line? Who are the first team? All trenchy members, AQs.

[AQ Shipley]

Okay, so if we look from left to right on this graphic, it's right to left because they're facing us. You got Trent Williams, Joe Tuni, Aaron Brewer. That's your trenchy award winners. And then you got Chris Lindstrom and Darnell Wright.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[Darius Butler]

Graphic stick.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's a drastic way to go. Debone offensive lineman. He.

[Nick Saban]

He.

[Pat McAfee]

He's looking to win a trench for trenchy. Graphics is what D bound is looking for. Remember D3 national champion, although his team, North Central, wasn't able to get it done against Wisconsin River Falls this year.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, and I think he still has a chance to get on this list. I mean, he's been back in the gym. It feels as though he might put on a Couple lbs of muscle and maybe play for the Colts next year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I mean there's a chance I think he's going to do open trial. Maybe we send him to one of those tennis tournaments that you can just sign up for that. We saw that lady playing in.

[Nick Saban]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean anything is possible right now. Deboun. He's working out for two hours during the workday. That. That be. That is like his new thing. That. That seems to be pretty sweet. I like that he's committing to his fitness and to his health.

[Darius Butler]

Current U ball champion as well. We, you know, won't mention that. But also Fish is freight. He made true. Hey, Detachle. Right left guard kicker to me, goal line quarterback. Think about it.

[Connor Rogers]

Kind of the team of Indy right now. The Fisher's Freight. I mean, I've heard a lot of people are kind of of done with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Colts and that they might jump to the freight.

[Pat McAfee]

That's not what they're calling a call. Nobody's saying Mickey has clubhouse, which is a great show by the way. My daughter loves it. Thanks for doing what you do down there. And Goofy. So goofy. But whenever we're talking about the Colts, we're talking about maybe a team that just, you know, their fans are. I don't know what to say about them, man. Honestly, I don't know how to spin it. I hate it. I hate what's going on.

[Connor Rogers]

The nicknames are flying, flowing though, which is at least good for.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know how you.

[AJ Hawk]

Would you. Would you have rather been terrible all year?

[Pat McAfee]

No, I enjoyed what we were because it was cool to see all the players that have been here for a large portion of their lives. You know, these guys who are on their second, third contracts having success like that was cool to see, you know, because there was a lot of belief in these guys for a long time that they were going to be the next ones. And it was like I was obviously just a punter here for. For the Colts, but I live in Indy, love Indy and I'm a huge Colts fan. I'm very thankful for what the Irsay family did for me. They took a shot on me. They continue to back me whenever I had my fuck up. So it's like I'm very thankful for the Colts organization as a whole. But I'll tell you, man, it's hard just to continue to lose. Three different Jaguars coaches have won the AFC south since the last time the Colts have won the AFC South. Jacksonville Jaguars. I didn't know that that used to.

[Connor Rogers]

Be the easy game you circled and.

[Pat McAfee]

You'Ve had less coaches and less GMs. Now Chris Ballard, he's a good, good guy. He's a good guy. He's been good to us. Got a great accent. He's a good guy. Shane Steichen, I think he's got great bra energy. Like, I like Shane Steichen. Like, I, I enjoy Shane Sty. I saw him with Gardner Minchu. I saw him with Danny Dimes. I, I've interacted in here. Yeah, I, I enjoy Shane Ste. Steichen, but it's like, yo, like, what are we. How long do we just assume that something great is going to come? Well, you saw it was. Yeah, but then it wasn't. And as soon as there was an excuse for this particular locker room to stop playing good football, they took it and it just went immediately down. Is that a culture issue? Is that a team issue? Is that a player issue? Is that a building issue? Like, there has to be some sort of something for this long, sustained suckness, you know? And it's like, well, is it just bad luck? And it's like, well, well, okay, well, can we try to change our luck? You know, it's just like, I hate where we're at right now, but by the time we get the season, I will be pumped. I assume they'll make some moves. I assume if we get Danny Dimes back and Danny Dimes is projected to be healthy and we got a chance to do that, I'll be back to being excited. Riley Leonard, if we're going to give him a shot for what he did with Houston, I'm back with that. But I don't know if the culture is like a winning culture. I think you got a lot of people looking for reasons to lose in there. And I, I don't know if that's fixable. I, I don't like it. I don't like it one bit, actually. I don't like. And I'm paying a lot of money to be a season ticket holder. A lot of money. I'm trying my best in there. Credit dances, we got a chance. Try to bring that place alive.

[Darius Butler]

Sense of urgency has never been higher.

[Pat McAfee]

I respect that. I think that was a clear, like, hey, if this, this is it. Like, I think that was a clear one of those. And now, obviously, Colts fans, you got.

[AJ Hawk]

The first eight games. Is that what it means? Hey, you got eight games and if you don't start out hot, see you.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know, man. Cuz Colts fans are like, well, when was the urgency. You've paid these guys all a lot of money. You paid all these guys and the players all. Everybody you've paid.

[AQ Shipley]

And that's where the injuries have happened, too, which sucks. Like DeForest Buckner, you're paying him a half the salary cap and he gets injured. Dimes, Daniel. Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Sauce. I mean, there's always sauce.

[AJ Hawk]

Getting hurt sucks. That sucks. Having Sauce get hurt.

[Pat McAfee]

There's always, like, legit excuses, like genuine legit excuses. But it's like, well, how come our team always has that then? Don't we? Should we not potentially look at maybe something different than it doesn't happen? Is it in the building then? Is it not that, like, is there anything to try to, you know, do.

[AJ Hawk]

Something Long off season.

[Pat McAfee]

You look around the AFC and it's like there's a lot of good young teams out there, and we're just staring down what not being good. Well, we're going to try to get back to what we were with Dimes. It's like, okay, I found faith in Dimes. I respect Dimes. What's that deal going to look like? How long is that going to be for? And when's he going to come back from an Achilles and a broken leg? I mean, there's just so many, you know, And Jonathan Taylor's going to want money again. We're not in the playoffs. He's going to be demanding money. It's like, first half of the season. He certainly warranted the most money in the history of running backs. But are you going to not pay Jonathan Taylor? Because it hasn't worked going to the playoffs. We've proven that's not the case before. It's like, I don't know. And they released their annual letter to their fans. Fans. You know, this is an annual letter that they write, the Colts send out. And it's like the timing of it was immediately met with. We heard the press conference. We don't need you to do it. It's like, what's that? We do this every single year. We just. We don't know if everybody hears everything and they're getting. It's like everything they're doing right now is just getting, like, absolutely crucified. And that's because it appears as if they're content with us not being good at football. And this is the most exciting time. We're Super Football Weekend.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And the Colts have been able. Phil Rivers took us to Buffalo in 2020 for playoffs. Okay. And did we think Phil Rivers gonna win a Super Bowl? Yeah. Because that's what you do when your team's in the playoffs. And he's like, we don't get to experience that really anymore. It's tough. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. A man who might. Might have just won the Super Bowl.

[J.J. Watt]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

You know what I'm saying?

[AJ Hawk]

Jogging a little bit.

[Pat McAfee]

Had a baby.

[AQ Shipley]

Ty.

[Connor Rogers]

Good hustle, good hustle.

[Pat McAfee]

Lighter. You look lighter already. That's incredible. Going into super football weekend, you were able to lose some weight. It appears DEFCON 1 is what you said. Code red. Did we battle through? Are we in a good spot right now?

[Ty Schmidt]

I fear that is my first battle of many today.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's round one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. That was a well planned sneak attack I was not prepared for. I'm gonna have to be ready for the next one.

[Connor Rogers]

Hey, I hear you. The sneak attacks.

[Pat McAfee]

What did you eat? Is there any sneak. What did you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Honestly? Just your basic run of the mill chick fil a sandwich, which I have not done.

[Pat McAfee]

Was it spicy?

[Ty Schmidt]

It was not. I do not do the spicy anymore because although it is delicious, I. I know what comes on the back half of that.

[Pat McAfee]

So this is just running the mill.

[AQ Shipley]

You know what?

[Ty Schmidt]

I did have some of their.

[AQ Shipley]

What was it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Maybe the honey sriracha sauce. That could have. That could have had something to do with.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, and then also, what? Gallbladder Nick was eating right next to you again. Welcome back.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, the jets pizza.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, he hasn't had that in months. Yeah, he's been eating. Remember, he's been eating lettuce. I know every single. This guy's been eating apples and lettuce leading up to, you know, the procedure he had done. Got the procedure done. It's green flag racing right back in there. So I think you're potentially inhaling some of that grease while you're eating the chick Fil A. And then all of a sudden you got a 12 round bout with absolute shite all day.

[AQ Shipley]

It looks, without a doubt, you know, and that's the first one of the new year.

[Ty Schmidt]

I haven't had one of those situations yet, so. But like I said, I fear that I'm going to be in one today.

[Pat McAfee]

We know you're more than ready and capable.

[Ty Schmidt]

I hope so. You just never know.

[Pat McAfee]

Khaki pants.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know, I know. But luckily, you know, I kind of got it. I got the bunghole clenching down to an almost science.

[Pat McAfee]

You've dropped bunghole twice today.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

Both times that you said it good. Pop out of my soul. I just want to let you know it was good to have it back. Very good to have it back. Speaking of, did you know that we have first team all trenchy? And then we also talk this year, second team, all trenchy. Who is it? Thank you, Shipley.

[AQ Shipley]

Okay, on this graphic, let's go from right to left. Tristan Wurfs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Quint Nelson from the Indianapolis Colts. Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs. Quinn Minors. What a dog. Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions. Penny Sewell, right tackle, second team.

[Pat McAfee]

Whenever you think about Quentin Nelson being on there, I like to think that's a guy you want to build around. Creed Humphrey, Same thing. Quinn Miners. This guy. Remember, he was on NFL Network every day before the draft, and we thought, this guy's a clown. Why is he on tv? He's got dreads, the whole thing. He's an absolute dog over there for Denver. Has been since the day you stepped foot in the NFL.

[AQ Shipley]

He's an absolute animal. And whenever he gets downfield, watch out, because he puts people on the ground every single time.

[Pat McAfee]

Pen. Congratulations. Detroit got some representation and some awards. And then Tristan Wurfs, he was in right a little bit.

[AQ Shipley]

He missed the first couple games of the season, but since he came back, he's an immovable object.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, maybe they just need to give him the ball down there in Tampa.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did have a touchdown this year.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, he did.

[Pat McAfee]

Easy Iowa guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, he is.

[Pat McAfee]

I always got some pretty good athletes. Yeah, they do. Did you see the trailblazer yesterday on everything?

[Ty Schmidt]

DB I did. I absolutely did. He might be the. The best of the bunch.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. All you crooks.

[Connor Rogers]

That.

[Ty Schmidt]

That'd be a fair argument. It be a fair argument.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go to the top five offensive lines of the season. Officially in the trenches with AQ Shipley. Who are the top five offensive lines of the 2025, 2026 NFL season? AQ, number five.

[AQ Shipley]

Number five is the Denver Broncos.

[Pat McAfee]

Sean Payton said he wanted to build before he got the gig. After he got the gig, before he got in the building, he said, I need to fix the offensive line. You and him had a conversation off stage. Seems like. Like you think he's done that.

[AQ Shipley]

Well, he has, because they tied for the fewest sacks allowed in the entire NFL. This offensive line unit. And they were fantastic all year, even in the run game, about 120 yards rushing per game. That guy we just talked about. Quinn, Miners, right guard. There he is. Boom. Put him on the ground. Keep climbing.

[Connor Rogers]

Boom.

[AQ Shipley]

Get the safety. And there you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations, Denver Broncos. Top five, top five, top five, top five. Who's the number four offensive line of the 2025, 2026 NFL season.

[AQ Shipley]

AQ Seattle Seahawks.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Okay, Seattle. Yep, he's playing good defense. Ain't got number four offensive line in the entire league. Gez Louise, they're doing it right over there. Schneider with the pits.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[AQ Shipley]

You will hear a common trend here. 5th fewest sacks allowed for this unit.

[Pat McAfee]

But again the Rams.

[AQ Shipley]

Seattle Seahawks at 4. We just moved.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. Here we go. There we go.

[AQ Shipley]

That was on me. So Seattle Seahawks again. Again, fifth fewest sacks allowed, 123 yards rushing per game. Look at Gray's able on the backside getting that block. And then you cut out the backside. Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker, two headed monster. They've been fantastic.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what, Charbonnet is untackable. I appreciated Troy Aikman dropping a little piece of information. He said, I watched this kid at UCLA because Troy Aikman, obviously UCLA legend, he said nobody tackles this guy. Nobody tackles him on the first go. And it's like that is going to be huge. If you. They can run the ball, eat the clock and then their defense able to get three and outs. It's like they can, they can really punish some people. All playoffs. Seattle Seahawks. Fascinating story.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Fas. So far away. So far away. So nobody respects them as much. They're almost like the NFC's Jacksonville Jaguars in my eyes.

[Connor Rogers]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Just a dominant team. Just an absolutely dominant team that not a lot of people talking about deep.

[Darius Butler]

Kind of sounds like, kind of sounds like you want to crown him. You want to. You want to just go ahead and hand him a Lambo right now. And a lot of people do you talk about a great offensive line. We always talk about at the end of the season, if they're on this list, they got a good chance to run the table and win it all. Obviously been a one seed in a bye week. Great defense, odds on favorites to win it all. Just going to come down to the quarterback. Can he do it? We've seen him do it now in the big moment. Can he do it now in the biggest stage? That's the question.

[AQ Shipley]

You know, one of the biggest pieces was was Cooper Cup. It's not talked about enough because Smith and Jigba gets all of the credit. Right. But when you watch all of these runs, all their big runs, runs all year, guess who's the lead blocker? It's Cooper cup all the time. He's been fantastic.

[Pat McAfee]

I love Cooper cup going back Home up there, going back home. Maybe bringing them a title. Maybe Seattle Seahawks winning. Super blood's on favorite shout out to DraftKings doing that. And I do appreciate the crown over there at DraftKings but he has earned not just talked about. I also like the New England Patriots too.

[Darius Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

I like the. I like the Mike V. Town. Stefan Diggs. You shut the up on her side. I'll take talking with him. Like, I really like that boy. I really like that.

[Darius Butler]

You write it down. Seattle England matchup for Pat.

[Connor Rogers]

I mean we've seen it before.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, okay, I, you know what about 11 years ago, Houston Texans defense, Jacksonville. I mean those are good odds right there on Houston Texans PL +13 Hun and Jacksonville Jags +13 Hunch. Those are good odds, especially because we've been talking this entire basically last half of the season like who knows just going to win this. And I think that's strictly because nobody wants to crown the Seahawks because they're so far away and it's such a quick turnover and nobody wanted to crown the New England Patriots because of, you know, new quarterback, first year regime. Same with Liam Cohen. New quarterback or not, new quarterback, new coach, new regime, they're not going to be able to do it. And then Sean Payton and Broncos going in the season, everybody's like, broncos might win it all. They get the number one seed. Nobody's really like, broncos are going to win it all. It's good. Hey, good playoff. Yeah, it is really good playoffs. Not a great offense. Offensive lines, I think we know, but who's the number three offensive line? Yeah.

[AQ Shipley]

I tried to grab a play from each of these teams that embodied who these teams are. This team switched to 13 personnel. You see the tight end going across to the left. You already have a tight end left. 87, Davis Allen in the backfield. That's your third tight end, fullback. Yep, there it is. This is the first play against the Seattle Seahawks. Everybody wants to crown the Seahawks. The Rams have beaten them, the Rams are beating them and the Rams can't beat them. If this is a matchup that happens in the playoffs, watch out because that's the one team that has played well against Seattle.

[Pat McAfee]

Sean McVay is a wide receiver. He's offensive guru. Obviously Devonte Adams has 15 touchdowns or something like that. I forget the number. Matthew Stafford, potentially the mvp. I appreciate the fact that you're pointing out they go to 13 personnel and they'll run that shit. And they certainly will. They'll stay patient with the run, too. They're not Scared just to get past happy. I think that's the maturity of McVeigh. But also having Matthew Stafford back there.

[AQ Shipley]

It'S been really cool to watch them adjust this year because they've always been an 11 personnel team. Well, they got three really good tight ends. They really have four because they just got Higby back. Higby was fantastic this week against the Cardinals, so watch out for him in the playoffs as well. But they got him. They got the young guy in Ferguson, they got Parkinson and they got Davis Allen as their fullback.

[Connor Rogers]

Jeez.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, really good.

[Connor Rogers]

A lot of weapons with the Rams.

[AQ Shipley]

Forget about that.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. All right. That's Connor talking about the MVP race between Drake and Matthew Stafford. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a big one. And if you would have said this last year or the year before that, people would have laughed in your face. The number two offensive line in the entire NFL for the 2025, 2026 NFL season is who? AQ Shipley.

[AQ Shipley]

The Chicago Bears.

[Nick Saban]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrato.

[AQ Shipley]

It just shows that if you invest in the trenches, you have a chance to at the end of the year, what they've done, they went out and invested in the interior. Three, Dalman Tuney and Jonah Jackson. But this embodies who they are as well. We get the motion as we as you're going to see this. There's the motion. They rock and roll the safeties. You send the tight end through like we talked about earlier, and then you get the kick out and then huge holes against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

[Pat McAfee]

So the Chicago Bears, not only does Ben Johnson design plays to set up good blocking schemes, they invested in good blockers and they weaponize it, is what you're saying.

[AQ Shipley]

Absolutely. And they do such a good job with the shifts and the motions to create leverage. We always talk about leverage on defense and offense. They create the leverage by the shifts, the motions. They get a safety to move out of a gap. Now you get Colston Loveland up on the safety right there and you get the blocks, the easy blocks, front side. It's too easy.

[Pat McAfee]

This is what you're missing up there, Maron. This is it. Foxy. No, big time. I mean, it's no coincidence we were on this list last year. We're not this year. The only difference, no Ben Johnson. It's a big time bummer, but that's what mcdc is going to fix this offseason. He's in the NFC North. Oh, yeah, I know. He's young.

[Connor Rogers]

Caleb's pretty young, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Ben might have like really gray hair by the time he's done in Chicago. You know, like super long eyebrows.

[AQ Shipley]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Cold as calling a game. You see it that that gray hair's underneath. Maybe we got snot frozen.

[Connor Rogers]

With nose hair?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, with nose hair. And he's still good. Better besting. You know, he's still got intensity, but he's still dialing it up. And Caleb at that point, just shotgun not moving. Kind of doing this whole thing that's potentially what the future looks like. And the Lions fans are just going to have to sit there and watch the entirety. That's crazy to think. Well, let's. Let's slow the brakes down here a little bit. They haven't beat us yet.

[Nick Saban]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

He's undefeated against Ben Johnson right now. So we're doing okay right there. Just got fix the O line, that's all. Oh, a couple banners up.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's easy.

[Darius Butler]

Johnny Mo got thrown under the bus.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hey, big time, big time.

[Pat McAfee]

What they do?

[Ty Schmidt]

They fired his ass. You suck out of here is all your fault. All your fault. That's basically what they said.

[Pat McAfee]

We knew it was coming.

[Connor Rogers]

Hard to argue. We knew it was coming.

[Pat McAfee]

And then they say, bet. Look. Look who we had.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Down there in Chicago. And then mcdc took it. Every sub party offense, too.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, Johnny W car plays what, six, seven games and then. All right, enough.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think it was like week nine, Week nine or ten. I wonder if it was cultural fit too. You know, that's like Dan Quinn meet with his OC in D.C. going in the meeting thinking you like him, hear some things. I don't like him. I'm not doing this again. The out of here. Ladies and Gentlemen, the number one offensive line of the 2025, 2026 NFL season in the trenches. The Trenchy Award winner for greatest offensive offensive line in the NFL goes to who?

[AQ Shipley]

The Buffalo Bills.

[Pat McAfee]

Buffalo Bill?

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey. That's a shock.

[Connor Rogers]

Look out.

[AQ Shipley]

Hey. Led the NFL in rushing at almost 160 yards per game. Spencer Brown, Dion Dawkins, absolute dogs. Torrance at right guard, obviously, McGovern at center, and David Edwards as the left guard. This group has been fantastic. But I need to mention Jackson Hawes, who they drafted as a tight end, and Reggie Gilliam, 41, their fullback. This was their bread and butter play all. All year long, you get YNF counter going backside. How easy is that?

[Pat McAfee]

Don't they run the same play against you? If it works, they'll run it.

[AQ Shipley]

They just keep running the same exact plays. Against the Steelers, it Was the duo.

[Pat McAfee]

Play 22 times or something like that.

[AQ Shipley]

Over and over again it was duo to the right or it was inside zone to the left. But early in the season this was their bread and butter and they will get back to this.

[Pat McAfee]

But that is exactly what like you would judge an offensive line on. Like hey, if you can actually take over the game now, let. James Cook is a special talent obviously at running back and you need that obviously behind you. But the offensive line was winning games for them. Obviously having an alien at quarterback and James Cook behind him helps it all out. But like this offensive line in your eyes, number one offensive line is the reason why they are in the position that they're in right now.

[AQ Shipley]

Far too many times this season you turn on the game film and they are imposing their will against the guys across from them. That is a good offensive line. That is the best offensive line. Those are the traits you're looking for against the Pittsburgh Steelers when you can just line up and run the same play to the right, to the left 40 times and beat the out of a really good defensive line as we saw against the Baltimore Ravens the other night. I mean damn, they, they, they're very.

[Pat McAfee]

Good up front, man. Congrats to these top five performing offensive lines lines of the 2025 NFL season. Yin's all get trenchies out there. Hope you hang them up air high, put them on the shelf, polish them up. We'll send them to you soon. Okay, you'll get this. This trophy will arrive soon and if it doesn't come, just know it's coming soon. Yep. And then coming eyes peeled. Yeah, just keep never know. And we try to get it there. Might got lost in the mail or whatever but there it is. The trenchy's on away and best trophy of Sports. Hell yeah. KG's hair on top of AQ Shipley's body is certainly something that you would definitely want if you were laying it all in the line for your team every single week. Congrats to the Bills, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos. Hell you know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hell yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Now we know can win it all.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that kind of scares me. It's time to make our picks because I've been kind of leaning one way pretty heavy.

[Connor Rogers]

Me too.

[Darius Butler]

And they're not on this list.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're not. And the other one's the best of all kind. All right, let's not worry about that just yet. We'll get to that when we get there. Let's start with Saturday super wild card Saturday, Sunday NFL countdowns from 10 to noon. And then I think there's a bunch of basketball games on. And then, ladies and gentlemen, on Fox At 4:30, the Los Angeles Rams will take on the Carolina Panthers. Rams favored by 10 and a half down there in Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina. Five, six weeks ago, the Carolina Panthers beat the Los Angeles Rams. Will that happen again? 10 and a half points is a lot. D bucks, your thoughts on this game. How would you lean if you were to pick it?

[Darius Butler]

Well, we're just picking against the spread, right? Okay. So obviously I trust Sean McVeigh and Matt Stafford on this stage. Been there, done that. Won a Super Bowl. But something they've done. Even though Matt Stafford has had an MVP season, they kind of played down to their competition at some big points in this season. So I'm going with the Panthers plus ten and a half at home.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Home underdogs in the wild card round are 18 and 14. Win, loss. RA record over the last 1978. 2291 against the spread kg Affairs. Normally in the playoffs, especially first round Super Wild card weekend, nobody wants to blow their entire season by making some stupid mistake. Let's play close to the vest. AQ Shipley, Rams, Panthers. 59% of the bets are taking 10 and a half points with the Panthers. So is Darius Butler. How do you see it?

[AQ Shipley]

I will take the Panthers with the points as well. But let me also say if we're just going straight up, I got the Rams coming out of the NFC as your super bowl contender.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So not only this game, he says if I'm not around the next one too. And the next one. Okay. A.J. hawk, do you agree with the boys and the public or are you going with the Rams to blow out the Panthers?

[AJ Hawk]

I think the Rams win this game, but I am taking the Panthers plus ten and a half with those points.

[Pat McAfee]

We all see it the same way. It feels like kickoff will be 71 with some a little bit of rain. You know, I think everybody will be okay. Bank of America Stadium has quite a gladiator feel. That thing goes straight up and down. Should be a incredible environment for the Carolina Panthers hosting a playoff game. Congrats to them winning the NFC south on a couple of different technicalities. And good luck to all parties. I like that you're already picking your super bowl contender for the nfc. Let's go to the Green Bay packers versus the Chicago Bears. This has flipped one and a half. One way, one and a half, the other way, one and a half, one way, one and a half the other way. There was one time where the underdog getting the points was actually the favorite in the money line. Whenever it looked at the odds, sportsbooks are saying this is a toss up. This was a split during the regular season. D butt Green Bay, Chicago. Are you good, better, best or do you like Toyota Thorn?

[Darius Butler]

Hey, when you talk about a tossup or kind of a pick them game, a lot of times I automatically lean to the home team. Third time playing. I do have a lot of faith in Caleb and Ben Johnson. He's been playing great late in games. If Caleb can play better in quarter one through three, it'll be big for him. Kind of banged up in Green Bay. I'm going Chicago winning in cover.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, winning plus one. Getting a point right now, getting a point and a half. Yesterday you would have been favorite which is crazy that that's happening that quickly. It actually happened in real time while we were looking at DraftKings AQ. Who do you like? How do you like it?

[AQ Shipley]

Same thing. I like the Bears with the points. The reason why is because they played their guys and I think there's going to be a little bit of rust with the packers sitting some of their guys and obviously Jordan Love's been out for quite some time.

[Pat McAfee]

Time leading in game whenever Green Bay won 28:21 on December 7th says Hembo. 34 minutes and 51 seconds zero. And then on December 20th, 22:60:42 minutes to zero. I don't know how that makes sense. There's other time. I guess it would be tied in those other situations.

[Ty Schmidt]

Tied going into overtime. So that doesn't account for that and I guess. Yeah, because they've scored in overtime and one. So.

[Pat McAfee]

So Ty, how does that make you feel? Good or what does that make?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I mean I watched both these games and like the, the packers choked that second game away.

[AQ Shipley]

If you.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean we all remember they couldn't recover the onside kick. I mean they are banged up and that is, I guess the big thing is they sat all their guys week 18 so they're healthier now than they have been for a while. But based on, I mean like they dominated the second game they played and they dominated a very large part of the first game they played. It being in Chicago and like the weather, the elements don't really matter to me at all. I think there's a chance it's going to snow Saturday night in Chicago. But yeah, I like, I like the Packers.

[Pat McAfee]

We need a little snow in Chicago.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Saturday night super wild card weekend. Packers, Bears A little snow, little frosted football would be fantastic. AJ we know kickoff, 34 degrees, chains snow. I think it's not 32. Perfect 31. That's like perfect day here. What's the wind doing 19 mile an hour there in the fourth quarter? Oh, going to be a windy City, Windy football game.

[Darius Butler]

Depends on what. 19 miles per hour. Because what were they saying in Texas a and M? 15 or 16. We felt 40, so we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Soldier Field does have a little bit of a resume being windy as hell in there. Good luck to all parties that are kicking and throwing footballs. That should be fun. A.J. you're taking the packers favored by one and a half.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep. I think the packers go on the road. Jordan Love plays well, and they win this thing. I know you want to pick Chicago.

[Pat McAfee]

I do. I. I really do.

[AJ Hawk]

But they're good squad.

[Pat McAfee]

They were cast this last week, like, well. And they were allegedly trying to. To play football, right?

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that's what Ben Johnson said. We are playing football and we're playing football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Which I think was a shot at the Packers, I assumed, resting all their guys in week 18, but that is that, like, Love didn't play against the Ravens either. And he left in the first half of the Bears game. So, like, he hasn't played in two and a half, three weeks. So, like, is he going to be a little bit rusty maybe, But Josh Jacobs is the first time he hasn't been on the injury report since like week 11, so they think he's healthier.

[Pat McAfee]

How's that defense without Micah? I remember. Remember that being a problem.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's. I mean, hit or miss, you know, it really is hit or miss because they, they, like Halfley is really good and they've been decent. Like, they were very good against the, you know, they. They basically shut out the Bears for the first 55 minutes of that game. And that was post Micah. And I think that game kind of, whether it was like the mojo of the team or whatever, because then the following week, obviously Derrick Henry runs for, you know, 800 yards against them. So they're kind of tough to pin down Right. Right now, too.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, I'll pick the Bears strictly because they played like ass last week. Give Ben Johnson a lot to, you know, kind of yell about, is this going to end with a good, better, best? Never let a rest till your good is better and better is best. Feels like it. Holy. Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears. I don't know. Jordan Love, dude, he's so good. Jordan loves.

[Ty Schmidt]

This is Kind of the big like, hey, especially with like all the chatter about how well Malik Willis, like Love's got to play well, well on Saturday night. Not that, not that there's going to be any like big but like just everything, you know, like the pressure with like Leflore. Who knows what happens there if they get beat if Love doesn't play well. Like, this is a. Is a massive game for the packers whole.

[Pat McAfee]

Ben Johnson loves that, I bet. Especially because he came in talking to LaFleur, didn't he?

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Good, better, best buddy. All right, I'll give it to the Bears at home. Let's go to Sunday. Bills at Jags. Buffalo Bills number one offensive line in the league, says AQ Shipley. Okay, nobody's talking about that. Whenever people are talking about this particular matchup, they are favored down in Jacksonville. Having a chance to see the Jacksonville Jaguars live in person. Holy hell. Big, fast, mean, locked it. Okay. Seems like they got it all to potentially go on a run. And then the Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen. No Lamar, no Mahomes, no Burrow. If not now, then when Josh Allen debutt. We'll start with you as the Bills are favored in Duvall.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Jags, they've been very impressive wire to wire on both sides of the ball. Liam has done a great job. Trevor Lawrence, I mentioned it earlier, unlocked and then everything what you said, the experience with Josh Allen been in the playoff been in these moments. Also the head coach, Sean McDermott, he's been here. Lot of pressure on him to at least get to the Super bowl bowl at this point. I don't think they lose in the first round. I think they handle business. I said coming into the playoffs it'll be tough for me to pick against Josh, a Josh Allen led team. So I'm gonna stick with that in this first round. Going Bills winning in covering one and a half.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, you like the Bills. I'll tell you, this is an interesting game to start on Sunday. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, this is going to be. Anytime Josh Allen plays football, it's awesome. But then you add in this. Liam Cohen, Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars team at home for a playoff game. I mean, it's going to be a special game. Highest points differential at home this season. Obviously these are with wild card line there in parentheses. Jaguars are plus 98. Nobody's close except for the Patriots at plus 90. You know Foxborough, he's a real home field advantage. But so is Duvall. They're saying you get in front of those pools and you get in front of those Jags fans, things start to happen. Maybe they become a wagon. What do you you think happens? AQ Shipley is the Bills head to Jacksonville as favorites.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, this is the hardest one for me to pick because you think back to Mahomes, right? Like they always didn't have the best team, but they had that guy Mahomes. It's the same thing for me. They got a great offensive line and a great run game. I don't think they have a great receiver. Really good tight ends. They got a not a great defense. So it's like where do you go in the. Nflski said, yeah, good job, Dan.

[Pat McAfee]

I just think sounded kind of condescending.

[AQ Shipley]

I just don't think they have a good defense. But again, the Jaguars, I'm hot on them because every time I watch them, they play physical. They look good. Parker Washington's been fantastic. Their tight ends are good. I mean, they got guys and their defense looks good. I'm going Jags.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, there you go. You're about to talk yourself out of it. It sounded like. Because it's too good to be true almost for the Jacksonville Jaguars. AJ who do you like? How do you like it in this one?

[AJ Hawk]

So I was leaning Buffalo early and then watching AQ present them as the best offensive line in the NFL. I am taking the Buffalo Beals on the road here.

[Pat McAfee]

How about him? This is once a second year in a row now. Best offensive line in the league going to pick them not to win. You know, and the entire cell of the in the trenches segment is the offensive line decides who wins the game. Philadelphia Eagles last year. They're going to lose. Well, I thought the offensive line decided was. Are they playing quarterback, too? They're not playing quarterback. Guess what the Philadelphia Eagles want to do. He had a right literally from the beginning. Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl. Now he's doing it again with the Buffalo Bills. Is that what it feels like is happening right here?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it feels like the exact same thing. And I quite frankly, just don't understand it.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't understand. I don't like it. Are we supposed to take this serious or not? I. I don't understand.

[AQ Shipley]

Best run game. Love the group. Love the protection they're going to get. Josh Allen's going to have time to throw, but does he have a receiver that's going to separate and make plays?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so this is offensive line always doing this one right here.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah. And the Jags, I have the number one rush defense in the NFL, so it's kind of number one versus number one. But the Jags are the team that's the underdog at home, which their head coach is aware of, which will probably lead to more motivation on Jacksonville side.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the Jackson Jaguars plus one and a half. I don't like it though, because I like this Bills team and I would like Josh Allen and I would like Josh Allen to have that success. But boy, if the Jags do what I think is going to they're going to do, which is win this game is going to be so loud on Monday. Holy fuck, it is going to be so loud up there in Buffalo.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

New stadium, new this. I mean, it is in Buffalo. Fans are very passionate and they for good reason. They got the number one offensive line in the league. They got an alien playing quarterback. They got the best running back in the league. Figure it out. McDermott, what are you doing? If he doesn't and they don't and it's the Jacksonville Jaguars, which we like the Jacksonville Jackson Jaguars.

[Darius Butler]

Good, good ball, Good ball.

[Pat McAfee]

Jacksonville Jaguars is a good football team. I think it's gonna be hard to sell those Bills fans. Like we're losing to the Chiefs every other year now. Somehow we're losing Trevor Lawrence to the Jags. Liam Cohen is what? Like that's going to be cool.

[AJ Hawk]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

I like the Jags to do it just strictly because I sink them. I sink this team. They are unbelievably athletic, fast, large and physical. I mean, it is what I think football is supposed to be. Speaking of San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles absent from the top five. Yeah, that's first time, long time. Lane Johnson though potentially back is what we are hearing. And then The San Francisco 49ers can't get the win for the number one overall seed. Have to travel to the link instead. They're four and a half point underdogs. What are your thoughts on this game.

[Darius Butler]

D. Buck I've heard AQ say it for years that how much one guy can change an offense, defensive line and kind of a team. So if Lane Johnson comes out of that tunnel and that glass breaks, I think they can flip the switch with Saquon who had to rush the title last year. I'm going to Eagles at home to win this one. I trust the quarterback, I trust the coach and I trust the offensive line and damn sure trust the defense.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, on that note, Sirianni and Hertz at home in the playoffs. Currently they're five and oh average score 35 to 14. They have zero turnovers with 14 takeaways.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's pretty impressive.

[Pat McAfee]

They've trailed five minutes and 43 seconds in five total games at home in the playoffs.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So Sirianna gets the dogs barking. They got a lot of dogs over there. Are they going to be their best in the biggest stage? We shall see. D Butt thinks. Yes. Do you think that as well?

[AQ Shipley]

Just like D Butt just said, an offensive lineman can change everything. I think on the other side there's a guy named Trent that if he plays could change everything. The problem is they might be starting. Kaiju White and Eric Kendricks at linebacker. Don't love that. I'm going with the Eagles.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. You're both these boys like the Eagles. AJ Hawk, who do you like?

[AJ Hawk]

I'm with debut here. I think Lane Johnson, getting him back. I think they find a way to unlock this run game and unlock Saquon. He goes on a run here in the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

66% of the bets are on the San Francisco 49ers plus four and a half. All of us are on the Eagles minus four and a half. And I think that's just because we've seen it before and we expect them all to turn it up because it's the biggest stage.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Darius Butler]

Talk about defense and taking care of the football. Those are two critical, critical things in this stage.

[Pat McAfee]

And the Johns are going to go crazy over there. And Coupe's going to Coop's going to Coop.

[Ty Schmidt]

Coop's going to Coop, baby.

[Darius Butler]

What's the forecast for this one?

[Pat McAfee]

Tell me something, Bruce. I assume it's going to be 30, low 30s.

[J.J. Watt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

45.

[Nick Saban]

Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

Unseasonably warm.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, feels like 40 across the board. 11 mile an hour winds, 10 mile an hour winds. Okay, so it's slight chance of rain in there. Okay, so this is a good Philadelphia day. I mean rain sucks. I will say cold and rain is the worst possible but it is just chance of rain there. 40 some percent or 43 degrees. I like the Philadelphia Eagles in this one. Not that I think it's going to affect the Niners. I like this Niners team a lot. The whole the fact that they've been able to do this while Bosa and Fred obviously goes to what Salah has been to able. Able to accomplish. Shanahan being able to continue to dial it up whenever you lose your $50 million a year quarterback for a portion of it. Congrats to them. I like the Eagles though. Let's go Chargers. Patriots. Patriots favored by three and a half. How's the weather going to be up.

[Connor Rogers]

There, I believe 30 and cold and possible snow. I think that Philly precipitation rolls up north kickoff.

[Pat McAfee]

It's 36, slight chance of rain. 35, slight chance of rain gets down to 34. So it's just rain, seven mile an hour winds at the end of it all the way through. Gusts up to 16, 17 miles per hour though. Okay, so it's going to be a little breezy, it's going to be rainy, it's going to be cold. This is ass. This is ass conditions right here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Take time.

[Pat McAfee]

This is not desirable at all. It's exactly what Vrabel wanted for the New England Patriots. Or is this what Jim Harbaugh wanted the Los Angeles Chargers to travel into and maybe be forced to do what they do? D butt. Who do you like? How do you like it?

[Darius Butler]

This probably would be what Harbaugh wanted if he had his offensive line intact, but he does not. And you talk about a west coast dome team going over to Foxborough at this time of year and if the evil empire is really back, they ain't losing at home in a wild card game. They are winning in cover. I'm taking Vrabel, Drake, man, the boys.

[Pat McAfee]

To winning cover to expedite that point. Greg Roman's offenses in playoffs with Baltimore Chargers 12.8 points per game, two and a half turnovers a game. Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert has the starting quarterbacks in four of the five games. So they're saying Greg Roman's offense is maybe whenever they run into a playoff, defense don't have as much success. And especially with a defense that is like this New England Patriots defense, everybody's smart, everybody's physical and they're everywhere. They're a young group of lads, not a lot of stars yet. But those will come over the next few years. We all think all these guys are going to be humble household names from what this New England team's going to do. Con man, do you hate or like where you're at in this position?

[Connor Rogers]

Oh, I absolutely love it. Milton Williams came back last week. He's the highest paid player in the history of the New England Patriots. D tackle from Philly. Very aware of what it takes to win a Super Bowl. Just did last year. And then Christian Barmore, the other D tackle, they are the two best D tackle tandem in the NFL. They actually have the highest or second and third highest rate as far as getting to the quarterback, all that. So the whole entire thing about New England having a bad pass rush, that'll change. Mill Williams weakness of the Chargers team is their offensive line and then we got the guys in the secondary and in the middle. Bob Spain coming back will be huge team's leading tackler. And then Drake May and Josh McDaniels in the playoffs. Josh McDaniels has already game planned against a Chargers team before and one aq.

[Pat McAfee]

We haven't seen Drake May do it in the biggest stage though. Haven't seen him do it. You know, we assume he'll be able to because he's a dog and he's a little brother and he has. He hasn't had any situation kind of rattle him thus far. He's in his second year, he's 23. He's in the MVP conversation very legitly to win this entire thing. His wife, he's married, she makes cookies for everybody. Feels like it's a perfect setup. Do you think Drake May on the big stage gets his first dub or do you think Herbert travels in there and gets a win?

[AQ Shipley]

We haven't seen him do it, but we're about to. Pats by a million. Healthiest they've been all year and hate the Chargers offensive line. Zion. John Johnson's really good at left guard. Other than that, they've been decimated by injuries. Coming west coast to east coast, healthiest the patriots have been. Plus Josh McDaniels. Pats by a million.

[Pat McAfee]

Pats by a million. AJ do you agree with that?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I don't know if I'd say pats by a million, but I do think that this is going to be. The Patriots are going to grab the momentum early on. They're going to get up early and that place is going to go crazy. So give me the pat.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that song you guys sing up there? What's the song in the stadium whenever good things start happening?

[Connor Rogers]

They do thunderstruck a lot. ACDC shipping up to Boston is also another one they don't really have a go to like the Colts in some other teams do.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, so I, for some reason I remember maybe shipping up to Boston is what it was. They played a lot of music.

[AQ Shipley]

You probably remember this.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They shot enough to take up multiple minutes to these fuckers. I mean they scored a lot against us. Look, Garrett Blunt's still running. Oh yeah, that fucker's still going. I don't know how he's still is running and scoring more touchdowns against us.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, that's what I mentioned earlier in the week. Sony Michelle. His rookie year, he had three touchdowns. I'd expect Trivon Henderson and Ramondre Kind of both. To have massive days shot to Door.

[Pat McAfee]

Dash, you can get a sweatsuit, you can get your local favorite food. You can do basically anything you need. Door Dash is your assistant, isn't that correct?

[Darius Butler]

Absolutely. Every day, every morning I use them.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And if you need a Nike tech, maybe because you forget that your entire pre playoff routine is the to wear Nike tech with sunglasses and headphones. DoorDash got your back.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, get them if you can get them while they're hot. I've had this for years. So anybody who wants one, you should try and go get them because they are sold out basically everywhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Save up 250 bucks this season. Whenever you order on game days. Win every week with DoorDash Streak. Shout out to DoorDash. Honestly, I almost put a tweet out, but I didn't want people to call me a corporate show this weekend because I ordered baby girl some food. I ordered, ordered her a snack, I ordered the dog a toy. All from different places. And then my wife ordered something and Boris had 13,000 deliveries and we had five different deliveries happening at the same time. And they all got there like 25, 30 minutes and just like kind of answered a problem that we had in so many different places. And I almost put a tweet out that was like congrats to DoorDash. Like honestly. Yeah, way to go. And thank you for what you've added added to our lives. Some of the fees get a little bit absurd and you know the standard to express thing we need to lock in on. But the drivers are up 13,000, 14,000. I think Nick had a guy who had 19,000. Maybe I forget 19,000. Hey, we appreciate your services for what you guys are doing. Honestly. Doordash Thor Dash is brilliant concept, brilliant concept. Especially with the whole Covid time we're not allowed to leave our house. Well, don't worry, we'll bring it to you. And then I don't know how this didn't happen earlier. You know, we had pizza delivery for so long. How did not everybody think that that was the right move for literally everything? And then Door Dash came in and was like, we got you, we got you, we got you. We got you for everything.

[Darius Butler]

Especially me this time of year. Like once I get home after work, I ain't leaving. So anything I need is probably getting.

[Pat McAfee]

Door Dash shout out to DoorDash. We appreciate you, Door Dash. There's multiple seasons on DoorDash. I think it's like three of them with them and we appreciate the hell out of them. And to Be honest. They'll never be able to pay for this particular show. Enough for to get the money back for us that we have spent on them. This. This gate right here has a camera on it strictly for door dash delivery drivers.

[AQ Shipley]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean that is. We have a door dash cam that we set up for this entire. I'm not saying it's a good thing. We're not saying it's great thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a necessity.

[Nick Saban]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Door dash.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

A necessity.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Who do you like do wonder the.

[Darius Butler]

Premium we've talking to me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I took patriots here.

[Pat McAfee]

What you say?

[Darius Butler]

I certain do wonder the premium we play paid on food not just here but just home everywhere. Like oh yeah. All time if you looked at that. I don't want to that Excel spreadsheet.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't want to scary. Listen, we don't need any P. L's on door dash. Okay. We don't need any of that. Cuz I know the ROI is happiness.

[Nick Saban]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

And convenience.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm going pay it and time it saved in your life.

[Pat McAfee]

Think about that D. If, if. If you're a happy person, do you do better work?

[J.J. Watt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, how do you kind of equate that entire thing? Because I'm really happy when PF Chang shows up and I don't have to drive. I don't have to drive 20 minutes to it. I get really pumped up when there's some Chang's chicken. Okay. And then there's some shrimp fried rice right there. Egg roll, two fortune cookies. So I can kind of make the decision. So I feel like the universe is kind of taking me one way or the other. Because if it takes me to the right one, then I know what it says inside is a big deal. And that crap crack that open and boy, I'm putting it right in the pocket. And guess what? That's living there. Until that thing gets washed. Who knows when that's gonna be jeans. You know, it might be this week, might be next week. Hell, that thing might be carrying me forever. Now. I do it a little bit differently than people from Michigan. I don't know if you know about this. I don't think any of yours have came true from what it sounds like. Yeah, I think we look around and see if that's real or not. But for you, the people from Michigan, they actually opened the fortune cookies. Shout out to Whichever Fortune Cook Co. Restaurant you order from for door dash. They open it, they read it, and if they like it, they eat it. So it. It actually becomes a Part of them. Like. Like the boys did with the Rose Bowl.

[Connor Rogers]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And then it comes true. Foxy does that.

[Darius Butler]

I can see grass.

[J.J. Watt]

That.

[Darius Butler]

That makes sense, Granddad.

[Ty Schmidt]

Natural.

[Darius Butler]

That's what we're going to end up with. Eating paper.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We're at the airport. We stopped by Panda, I think. Yeah. What's it called?

[AQ Shipley]

Panda Express.

[Pat McAfee]

Panda Express. Panda Express, sir. I was calling a red pan. Obviously, it's not. Yeah, there's one red band. You know, that entire thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

But I'm sitting next to this psycho. We're eating in the airport. Pretty tired, I assume, at this time. And cracks that thing open, reads and goes. And just pops that thing right in his mouth. I go, what the is that? Because I like that one. I don't want to come true. So I ate it. So it comes true. And, boy, I don't know, maybe the next three weeks. It was all I could really talk about with Foxy. Yeah. And then you eat the cookie with it, wash it down, makes it easier to eat, and it comes true. So that's. You got to be very select because you don't want to eat that much paper. And then it all comes true. This dude's pickle back in a fortune. Out of a fortune cookie.

[Connor Rogers]

Need one for a new OC.

[Pat McAfee]

I probably should order Chinese. It's a good idea. You should. With your friends. With our friends. At doordash a necessity. All right. I picked the Patriots as well. Let's go, too. The Monday night. Oh, we'll pick it on Monday.

[Connor Rogers]

Yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Good show. Le.

[Connor Rogers]

Good show. Good show, boys.

[AQ Shipley]

Great show, boys.

[Darius Butler]

Great show.

[Pat McAfee]

Great week.

[Darius Butler]

See you soon.

[AJ Hawk]

Wash the hand.

[AQ Shipley]

Can't.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I'm not talking to the desert animal, aj.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm here. I'm shaking here.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you, aj. There it is. You want to shake hands or aq.

[Connor Rogers]

Stealing.

[Pat McAfee]

All of them. Yeah, I like stealing. Stealing a good. I'll tell you what. That's a good move just for you to take amongst your friends. Fist bump. If two of your friends are by the fist bump, slide your hand right in the middle and just say, stole that? And just keep walking. It's a good reaction every single time.

[Nick Saban]

It is.

[Pat McAfee]

Nobody expects it. I mean, it is something that is very unexpected. Just two guys or ladies. I don't know how much fist bumping is happening in the ladies groups, but if you go for a fist bump, just go ahead and slide your hand in there and then on. On either side. Got good. Walk away. It's a fun little game. You were trying to do that with air handshakes.

[AQ Shipley]

Hit an air high five.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's see.

[Connor Rogers]

Saw that coming.

[AJ Hawk]

Nice blocked.

[Pat McAfee]

I know you could. He had two glasses on. I just realized that you had two glasses on. Feels like this isn't what you always do for playoffs.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah, well, first year with glasses, you know, typically, you know, kind of have to deal with that with all the glasses. I. I got like 50 pairs of sunglasses. Those don't work anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

Just got to get the Raiders in there.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[AQ Shipley]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

I got them. Hey, Tony, why don't you come out of Hammer? Let's get out of here. We'll see you tomorrow night on ESPN2. Game day. Also tomorrow. I think Ton will know better cuz he got the rundown.

[Connor Rogers]

Six o'.

[Pat McAfee]

Clock. What time?

[Connor Rogers]

Six eastern.

[Pat McAfee]

Six eastern to 7:30. Got it. Hour and a half. College game day to kickoff. The Fiesta Bowl. AJ I'll let you know. Fiesta Bowl. I didn't know that's like kind of your. Your bowl game.

[AJ Hawk]

I played it three times.

[Pat McAfee]

Won it all three times.

[Connor Rogers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

D. But he didn't just win it all three times. One of them being a national championship.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, we talked about that. His true freshman year. He, you know, he downplays it. Didn't play that much. But I did not know the other two times he played. And he was the defensive MVP of.

[Pat McAfee]

The Fiesta Bowl 2004 and 2006. MVP of the Fiesta Bowl. Legend, three time Fiesta bowl champion. We had no idea that was the case. We need to be celebrating you. Is the Fiesta bowl having a fucking parade for you whenever you come back for this field pass tomorrow or what's going on? Honestly, Are you the greatest Fiesta bowl player? And it's the Lombardi Award.

[Connor Rogers]

So he's won multiple Lombardi.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, a career. Played for the Ohio State winning Lombardi award and earning an all American.

[Darius Butler]

12 tackles, three and a half TFLs and two.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well.

[Darius Butler]

Split jersey game.

[Pat McAfee]

Jersey was split.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was a split jersey game.

[Darius Butler]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

And he was trying to split. His helmet wasn't. Hey, we had no idea. You're one of the greatest Fiesta bowl players in the history. I happen to be on the Fiesta bowl team as well because I murdered punt. I mean, murdered punts. I think I had something like. Like 69 yards. I forget what it was.

[Ty Schmidt]

66 yards. Longest pun. The Fiesta bowl history.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. Thank you. And Fiesta bowl people tell me that now. Do they tell me that strictly because the position that we're about talking currently in. Yes. So I do feel like all these things are kind of outrageous. But we had a Lot of success at the Fiesta Bowl. Loved the Fiesta bowl and felt like a big game whenever we were out at the Fiesta Bowl. Thought it was a great host. Thought it was incredible. I had no idea that you were actually the best player in the history of the Fiesta Bowl. We should have been talking about that a little bit more. I think so. Can't wait to get back to your bowl game tomorrow night as we watch Miami and ole Ms. Play. AJ that's.

[AJ Hawk]

I had a great time out there every. Every year I was there. But we. That was old school. ASU stadium, like, carved into the mountain. That place was. That was a special spot.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so we didn't play there. I don't think that's where we played. We played at the University of Phoenix. I. I think we played at University of Phoenix. We must.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Might have been the last time they played it my senior year. Might have been the last time they played it there.

[Nick Saban]

I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Look at this guy right above me right here. He's so pumped that you're an Ohio State Buckeye. I love this guy. How could you not? Defensive MVP two times. Centerville Oak jacket.

[Darius Butler]

Remember that jacket he had at the Rose Bowl? Oh, the real one. He needs a real. Yeah, with the patch.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Hey, we're expecting something. Fiesta Bowl. This guy's the greatest ever play. And we'll be honored to be back there. I hope you guys will join us on espn, too. We're so incredibly lucky that we get to do all of this. And you're the only reason why it happens. So thank you. Boys in the back. Great work this week. GDB's hilarious work this week. Hilarious work.

[Nick Saban]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

Mitt is running 4 miles at 7 minute miles pace on this treadmill after work. And it's loud. Yeah, he's pounding that treadmill, certainly. Don't worry about it, Mitt. We don't have anything going on over here for the good of the business. And he comes walking over. I go, so what did you do over there, man? You know, four miles. I go, you're really getting after seven minute miles. I'm like, that's good pace. That's really running. I'm getting after a little bit. I'm rolling a little bit. It's like, yeah, I hear you. And then I'm like, okay, you can do this breathing somewhere else. But I am very proud of you, M. We're proud of you, M. Hey, M. We're proud of you. M. Taking care of himself. He really is. Zeno. Good work. Congrats. To your Chicago Bears and to everybody that watches. Way to battle through another three days of our show. You know, feels like we really gave some shit this week. We'll be back again next week with some more. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Hey, Kyush, anything on the way out?

[AQ Shipley]

The best weekend we've been waiting for. We got football and big time football. Now the playoffs are here in the NFL. Let's fucking go.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Like he said. Hell yeah. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team goodbye.