Undefeated Indiana, Mendoza's Ceiling, Bills Fire McDermott, Titans Hire Saleh, and Button Down Shirts

Summary

Podcast Summary

The Ringer Fantasy Football Show

Episode: Undefeated Indiana, Mendoza’s Ceiling, Bills Fire McDermott, Titans Hire Saleh, and Button Down Shirts
Date: January 21, 2026
Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck

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Episode Overview

The hosts break down one of the wildest weeks in football, led by Indiana’s stunning undefeated season, the meteoric rise of QB Fernando Mendoza, and major NFL coaching shakeups—including the Bills’ surprising firing of Sean McDermott and key hirings around the league. There are plenty of historical fun facts, sharp fantasy football insight, and the usual dose of irreverent humor, from Chipotle lunches to button-down shirt debates.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Indiana’s Undefeated National Championship (01:48–18:29)

Theme: The “impossible” Indiana Hoosiers’ perfect 16–0 run; Fernando Mendoza’s legend; head coach Kurt Signetti’s miraculous turnarounds.
Highlights & Timestamps:

• Historical Rarity (02:45)

  • Indiana is the first team to win 16 games in a season since Yale 1894.

  • Stat: Indiana had gone 136 seasons without a 10-win year before Signetti arrived.

    "Indiana went 136 seasons without winning 10 games. And then Kurt Signetti showed up…"
    —Danny Heifetz (02:45)

• National Title Game Reactions (04:45–06:04)

  • Second-half fireworks, wild memes, and Coach Signetti’s meme-worthiness.
  • Frank Butterworth (“Silent Frank”) and the Harvard-Yale “bloodbath” tangent.

• Fernando Mendoza’s Ceiling (04:45–07:58)

  • Craig: "He’s just so confident… the best back shoulder thrower I've ever seen in my life. His run on 4th and 5 for a touchdown… that's an all-time play." (05:04)
  • Mendoza seen as the surefire No. 1 overall pick—compared to Ted Lasso, “infectiously positive,” a “total cornball” everyone wants to root for.

• Signetti’s Miracle (07:58–09:47)

  • Debate: Has any coach done a better one-year job ever?

  • Funding/Mark Cuban’s support: Indiana’s ability to compete in the NIL era with old-school, transfer-heavy roster (average age 23—just two years younger than the NFL’s Packers!).

    "This is one of the oldest teams ever in college football...the average age of Indiana is 23."
    —Danny Heifetz (10:41)

• “Production Over Potential” & The NIL Era (12:27–16:50)

  • Signetti’s approach leverages mature, proven transfers in the NIL/transfer portal era rather than chasing five-star recruits.

  • Comp: John Calipari/Kentucky basketball's disappointing tourney runs with one-and-dones vs. Indiana’s seasoned squad.

    "The mindset now works in the NIL era and no one knew it…there's no point to having potential if you aren’t good now."
    —Danny Heifetz (13:50)

• Indiana’s Statistical Outlier (12:09–14:06)

  • Only 8% of the roster were 4/5 stars—most champions have 50+%.
  • “These were three-stars like seven years ago…” (15:01)

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2. The Legend of Kurt Signetti (16:50–21:00)

Highlights:

• Unabashed trash-talker who delivers (“Google me”).

• 550 Chipotle bowls in a row (his lunch every day—white rice, chicken, beans, guac).

• Track record: winning everywhere, from Indiana to Elon.

  "All he does is win."
  —Craig Horlbeck (20:52)

• Indiana’s OC is a (non-famous) Shanahan, furthering the team’s unique backstory.

• “He should never leave Indiana—enjoy the best sunset of your career ever.” (18:00)

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3. Mendoza as NFL Prospect: The Ultimate “QB1” (21:11–28:37)

Highlights:

• Mendoza’s football attributes: arm strength, pocket navigation, physical resilience.

• Unique personality—“looks like he makes his animal crackers fight each other before he eats them” (22:01).

• Brady’s admiration and fit with Raiders' culture, plus “Ted Lassoed” everyone: “He won me over.” (27:09)

• Comped to Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins, Joe Burrow for play style.

• Raiders (with Brady as owner) locked to draft him #1 overall.

  "He’s such a dork…he Ted Lassoed me."
  —Danny Heifetz (26:33)

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4. NFL Coaching Chaos: News & Reactions (29:54–51:22)

a. Bills Fire Sean McDermott (29:56–34:43)

• Nine seasons, six consecutive playoff wins, but no Super Bowl berth.

• Emotional: “He did an admiral job” typo in the team’s press release (30:17).

• Debate on whether firing coach but promoting GM Brandon Beane makes sense.

• Broader theme: Is this a necessary reset, or a move they’ll regret?

  "I just don't want to forget what Sean McDermott did for the Bills…the Bills were fucking losers."
  —Danny Heifetz (33:23)

b. Coaching Carousel Rundown (43:04–54:33)

• Falcons Hire Kevin Stefanski: “Like a B+, gives them stability, two-time Coach of the Year.” (43:22)
• Titans Hire Robert Saleh: “An adult in the building” needed for new stadium, expected to inspire confidence and professionalism. (47:39)
  • Debate over whether Saleh’s “vibes” outshine past misfortune with the Jets (“He has too many kids to be a coach—seven.”)
• Dolphins Hire Jeff Hafley: “I feel nothing,” but noted for modern defensive approach and prior HC experience at Boston College. (52:30)
• Dolphins’ rumored plans for a Malik Willis QB/potential end of Tua Tagovailoa era

c. The Rise of the Coordinator (57:33–60:06)

• Increasing importance and recognition of OCs in the NFL.
• Half the league could have a new coordinator next year.
• Joke: "If other fans know the name of your coordinators, that's a bad sign."
  —Seth Meyers [via Danny Heifetz] (58:35)

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5. Listener Mailbag & Offbeat Banter (61:21–74:08)

Fun Segments:

• Swallowing gum: right or crazy?
• Why do movie characters swallow dry pills like badasses? (62:25)
• Button-down vs. button-up shirt debate (73:07).
• Wear “work” clothes at home—is it an age thing or a post-COVID shift?
• Tame Impala = one-person “band” music tangents (64:32–69:50).
• “Best new bands” challenge.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "He’s just so confident… the best back shoulder thrower I've ever seen in my life."
  —Craig Horlbeck (05:04 about Mendoza)

• "He Ted Lassoed me."
  —Danny Heifetz (05:53)

• (On NIL-era roster):
  "The average age of Indiana is 23, and the average age of the Packers this season was 25."
  —Danny Heifetz (11:03)

• "This is like Babe Ruth fucking calling his shot."
  —Craig Horlbeck (17:34 on Signetti’s swagger)

• "He’s gonna have to get into girls soon. Do you have advice?"
  —Danny Heifetz (22:23 on Mendoza’s Heisman networking)

• "If other fans know the name of your coordinators, that’s a bad signal sign."
  —Danny Heifetz quoting Seth Meyers (58:35)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Indiana’s Undefeated Feat & Game Analysis:
  [02:16] – [14:24]
• Kurt Signetti & His Amazing Track Record:
  [16:50] – [21:00]
• Fernando Mendoza’s NFL Prospects:
  [21:11] – [28:37]
• NFL Coaching Changes — Bills, Falcons, Titans, Dolphins:
  [29:54] – [54:33]
• The Coordinator Shuffle:
  [57:33] – [60:06]
• Listener Mail/Offbeat Tangents:
  [61:21] – End

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Tone & Style

The team’s classic Ringer energy—smart, irreverent, heavy on memorable analogies ("production over potential" in NIL college football; button-up vs. button-down shirts), and real fandom. Quotes and reactions capture a blend of expert analysis, inside jokes, and thoughtful sports fandom.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode delivers both dazzling insight and fun: It’s a can’t-miss for anyone wanting to understand Indiana’s fairy-tale football reboot, the new rules of roster-building in college and the NFL, and the chaos of this year’s unprecedented coaching carousel. Along the way, you’ll get bold takes on the future of football, enjoy geeky asides about music, and even learn what to call your dress shirt.

Transcript

[Danny Heifetz]

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[Danny Heifetz]

Welcome to the Ringer fantasy football show. My name is Danny Heitfitz and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Korlbeck. And we have a lot of news today. The bills fired Sean McDermott, their head coach. The Titans have a new head coach, Robert Sala. The Falcons hired Kevin Stefanski as their head coach. The Dolphins hired Jeff Halfley. We can pretend to have opinions about Jeff for Miami, right? Well, everyone, you know, everyone else is, we could just.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's got a train sick, flat top. That's all I know.

[Danny Heifetz]

No, yeah. Stylish. But first, Danny Kelly. The Indiana Hoosiers are flipping champs.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Flipping champs. What are we doing out here? This is a crazy story. I, I, I don't know if people realize how big of a story this is. You know what I mean? Like Indiana wins. Go undefeated. Just an awesome story. The coach Signetti's a great like story. Hilarious dude. Finally smiled at the very end there. Just a lot to dig into. I think it was a really fun game. The second half was fun. The first half was pretty, pretty boring to be honest. The national title game. But yeah, got fun. At the end there.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah. First half was defense, second half was offense. I, I, I mean, the memes are funny. I can already see all the memes now of just the, you know, after sending three emails on a Friday. And then it cuts to Kurtz Ignati, like, I'm gonna open a beer. He's just the absolute best. But I mean, there's so many things that this Indiana one, this Indiana story, and I think it's all, it's been hit a lot. But the one that this stat. Someone said this at ESPN this morning. I couldn't believe it. Indiana went 136 seasons without winning 10 games. And then Kurt Signetti showed up, which just stopped me in my tracks. And then the other one that's incredible is Indiana is the first team to win 16 games since Yale in 1894. Which struck me because Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in 1899 after Yale 1. Like in the Red Dead Redemption 2 storyline, Yale had already like, Yale had one.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They were taking like horse drawn carts to the game.

[Danny Kelly]

And I bet you some of those players were in the game.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, exactly. Oh, oh, yeah. Oh. The 1894 Yale team. Don't worry, I checked it out. They had a guy named Frank Butterwerk. We went by Silent Frank.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Frank Butterwork.

[Danny Heifetz]

Butterworth. Butterworth, but they called him Silent Frank. If he was famously enucleated by Burt Waters during the bloodbath at Hampton Park.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He was famously. What?

[Danny Heifetz]

I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means. Someone went, it just Harvard, Yale. The Harvard Yale games. The administrators were so shocked by the violence of the bloodbath and Hampton park football game that the games were canceled for three years.

[Danny Kelly]

What is it? Oh yeah, I've been in feel like.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I've heard of this.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's like dodgeball when it's like the Helsinki 1919.

[Danny Kelly]

Was it Rogers inuculated before the COVID season?

[Danny Heifetz]

Exactly. He was, he was enucleated.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This is like Brick Tanlon. He's like, are you guys doing your celebrity golf tournament again this year?

[Danny Heifetz]

Nah.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Too many people died last year. They literally did that for three years.

[Danny Kelly]

Okay. Did your opinion of Fernando Mendoza change at all after watching the national championship?

[Craig Korlbeck]

I think maybe a little bit. Yeah. I think over the last couple of games, watching him play in those situations, just absolutely sort of unflappable. It felt like he's just so confident. Always kind of even keeled. The ways that he put Indiana in position to win. I, I think this guy's the best back, back, shoulder thrower I've ever seen in my life. He just is so good at timing that that's obviously hyperbole. But he's very good at the back shoulder throw and like those key clutch situations. His run to on 4th and 5 for a touchdown, it's going to go down in history.

[Danny Kelly]

That's an all time play.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It is, honestly. And it's like such a great, you know, like the basketball term posterizing someone like that is a poster shot of him diving into the end zone. You're gonna have so many kids like emulating that play over the next couple of years. So just a really, really cool, you know, obviously job by Indiana. But I think Mendoza in particular, he cemented himself as my, you know, as. As the number one pick for the Raiders. I think they have to take him at this point. He's just such a infectiously positive guy. I think people are gonna make fun of him for being a total cornball, which he is for sure. But I kind of like it. I kind of like him.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, he. Ted Lassoed me.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, that's a good call. He's very Ted Lasso. He should be made fun of for it. It's fun to tease him for it. I think he's game for it and he's like open to it. Yeah, that run was pretty special.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Fourth and you see his arms after the game.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

His lip was bleeding. Yeah, his arms are all beat up. He's sneaky, large man. Like, I feel like his personality makes you think he's small, which He's. He's like 6, 5, 2, 30. But even his forearms and his hands and his wrists, he is a huge dude. I'm excited to see him in person because I feel like he's going to be bigger than I even think he is right now. Just seeing him like get interviewed on the sidelines, he looks massive and super tough physically. I mean, him taking that, that hit to the back, extending into the end zone on that run after getting like double crunched, turned around, stops, plants on that knee, turns around and extends into the end zone and gets crushed in the back. One of the tougher runs I've seen from a quarterback in a long time.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, ballsy call too.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh my God.

[Craig Korlbeck]

To run a quarterback draw in that situation.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, let's be honest here, Kurtz Ignati, they almost blew it because I mean, the clock manager from Cignatti was pretty. Cincinnati was pretty terrible in this game. The end of the half, they had this crazy. I honestly was wondering if any of it didn't know they had two timeouts because they just had 34 seconds left at midfield and just didn't use one till five seconds left. And Signetti was screaming. But then that drive, they literally had fourth and five. We're late, deciding to go for it. So the offense was late running the play, and they called timeout on 4th and 5.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Well, they didn't unit out. And then they changed their mind.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes, that was the second time because it happened twice on the same drive, which is like. How does that happen? It's like a simulation. 4th and 5 late for going for the first timeout. And then literally the exact same thing happened, and they came out of it. I love Stick that. He was just like, yeah, we just kind of thought they'd be in the same coverage as the previous play, and they were. So, you know, we're champs.

[Craig Korlbeck]

But by the way, with that in mind, you got to go read. Roger Sherman wrote for the Ringer this week that he posited that Frank Signetti has done the best job, the best coaching job. Sorry, Kurt. What did I say?

[Danny Heifetz]

Frank? No, you're thinking about Silent Frank from the 1894 Yale Bulldog. My bad.

[Craig Korlbeck]

My bad. Kurt Signetti has done the best. He's. He's done the best coaching job of any coach ever this year, which I think is a very interesting argument. He says it's not the best. To be clear, it's not the best coach of all time, but the best coaching job of any coach ever in this season. And they obviously won undefeated, won the national title. Indiana especially, being a team that I think some people could have considered it literally the worst program in college football. You know, that certainly.

[Danny Kelly]

Of the major conferences.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Well, sure, yeah. So pretty wild, pretty great.

[Danny Kelly]

Also, Frank Signetti is Kurt Signetti's brother, who is.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He was the NFL coach and he's.

[Danny Kelly]

The offensive coordinator at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. So it is a little confusing, which.

[Danny Heifetz]

Is where Kurt Signetti was, which is insane.

[Craig Korlbeck]

No way.

[Danny Kelly]

That is a little weird.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, that's the thing. I. We can get back to Mendoza in a second, but the Signetti thing, I. I don't know. We can. We can go back to Mendoza in a moment, but I am not like, some college football expert, but I don't know how. We don't talk like, how the fuck did he do this?

[Danny Kelly]

We should say that recently Mark Cuban decided to give Indiana, like, 20 million.

[Danny Heifetz]

No, that. No, that was during this season. I believe that was before Mark Cuban saw how good last year was, where he got them to the quarterfinals. And the. Mark Cuban saw that and was like, okay, this guy knows what he's doing. And I think also there's. I think both of them are from Pittsburgh. I think Cuban is. And also Zagnetti, but wasn't baked in when he took the job. I don't know what you guys think.

[Danny Kelly]

But when he took the job, sure, but. But this team had the nil money, right?

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes, this team has nil money, but, like, everyone has NAL money. Like, everyone has their billionaire that's doting upon them. Texas Tech is just like, when you're.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Going up against, like, Alabama and Georgia and whoever, it's like, yeah, yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, that's the larger thing with. With like college football right now is like, the larger thing in society is. I feel like in the 1800s, you know, there's always like, Ben Rich benefactors like Andrew Carnegie used to, like, build libraries everywhere in America, and they used to build opera houses and art. Football team that was like, they bu football teams. Like, that's what your local billionaire does. Your local friendly billionaire pays for.

[Danny Kelly]

Which quarterback can I buy for my former alma mater?

[Danny Heifetz]

That is what benefactors do now. But I. Anything. I. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They used to pay for, like, Michelangelo to sculpt seven, you know, whatevers. And then now it's just, I want to sculpt a national title.

[Danny Kelly]

You can make the case that NIL is ruining college football. You could also make the case that it's making it way better because all this stuff was just happening behind closed doors and now it's like a little bit more out in the open. And I think people are more open to, like, people like Mark Cuban being like, yeah, I'll help Indiana. It's kind of cool now that it used to just be. Who's it going to be? India? Is it going to be Bama, Clemson or Georgia this year? And now it's like, well, there are other teams now that can make a run. And seeing a team like Indiana do this, I don't know.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I was going to say, hi, Fitz. You. You wrote this down. But I think it's so fascinating. It's almost like a moneyball situation type of deal where this is one of the oldest teams ever in college football. It's. I think you wrote down it's like two years younger than the packers average age of like.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, I think that's exactly what happened here. So the average age of Indiana is 23. And the average age of the Green Bay packers this season was 25.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This is crazy. There's an old Mitch Hedberg joke. He's like, I wish I could go back to Little League now. I'd kick some ass. It's like these 23 year olds playing a bunch of like 18 and 19 year olds. It's so great.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah. Meanwhile, like freaking Tony on the Gators who obviously I did a jump. He's actually 18.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

A few weeks ago, like when he. I started watching Miami a few weeks ago is just like desperately Googling if he was Kadirius, Tony's brother or something, which thank God he's not Malachi Tony. He was Mal. Yeah, Malachi Tony was born in September of 20 2007.

[Danny Kelly]

Very good.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He looks like Percy Harvin.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, he looks like. He does look like Percy Harvin. But like the fact that Brady's envy like the 16 and oh Patriots season. Brady had six passing touchdowns already in that season and the kid had been born, tripped me up a little.

[Danny Kelly]

It's like Signetti is almost doing what some college basketball teams do, which is just like we're just going to be the oldest team in the league. We're going to have these like three, four star guys who are more developed, they have chemistry. Rather than the five star freaks who are 18 and 19 years old who might be a little more raw but more talented. Signetti went the other way and he's like, we're going to get the guys who. Who I know are productive.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This was a tidbit from Roger's article and I think I'm just off the dome here. But it was.

[Danny Heifetz]

He.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He said basically in the era of recruiting where they would do stars, the national title winners every year going back to since this has been a thing, has had at least 50% of their roster four and five star players and 8% of Indiana's roster is a four or five star player.

[Danny Kelly]

So that's just why.

[Danny Heifetz]

So this is. Yeah, he could we those. This is what's amazing about his story. He wanted to walk, tried to walk on Miami. He also literally tried walking on because he grew up a mile from the freaking stadium. He literally could have walked on and they wouldn't let him. And that was the story they had last night where his mom was basically like, they tried to get him to transfer there last year. His mom was like, fuck that. Like we tried to get. You didn't want us. But I totally agree. And Roger's article on this for the Ringer was awesome. But I think that it's baked into why this happened. Indiana, at least the way I've wrapped my mind around like, what happened with this team is again, it's, I feel like I've been talking about this all month really about like coaches, anyone. Like you're going to have a certain worldview or philosophy of how you build your team and then like at some point the world maybe shifts in your direction. And I think Kurt Signetti, the line, he always says is production over potential. And he, I think That's a Division 2 mindset. Like he was at James Madison and they went from FCS to fbs, whatever you want to call it. But he had all these James Madison, fcs, FPS guys. And I think that the reason Indiana's dominated is that mindset now works in the NIL era and no one knew it because what had worked with that stat with Roger where you need a bunch of five and four stars, that makes sense when kids, kids sign up and they're there for four years or five years because you're an elite athlete and you're going to develop. But if everyone's in a one year contract, which is what NIL is, potential is irrelevant. There's no point to having potential if you aren't good. Now, like if you're Malachi Tony and you could perform at 18, that's fine. But if you actually need time to develop, who cares? I only want guys who are professionals and can play now. And that, to me, that mindset happened to be perfect right when this NIL stuff started.

[Danny Kelly]

Transfer portal. Yeah, it's a little bit like to make the college basketball comparison again, like John Calipari, the former coach of Kentucky who's now at Arkansas. Like they, they, they were always super talented, right. They always had these guys that were lottery picks, but they would kind of flame out in the tournament because they were all 18, they had no chemistry.

[Craig Korlbeck]

And they would leave after two years. Right.

[Danny Kelly]

They'd been on campus for five months and they were getting ready to leave the second they would lose in March Madness. And that often would like come back to bite them a little bit in the tournament. And it's kind of what the opposite of that is what Indiana did where it's like, we're going to get guys who. Yeah, like, like you said, if it's, it's like they have chemistry you build up in the program. They might be a three star, not a five star, but they've been around. They know Signetti, they know the system and it's like that ends up working.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They're relative pros too. Yeah, they're, they're disciplined this was a again shouts to Roger. They were one of the least penalized teams I think in college football. They're just like a professional team, like a pro team. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

And, and that to the point again, the whole thing. Well, they weren't three stars. I forget, I think someone, I apologize, I forget who said this in college football. But the point, their point was These guys were three stars like seven years ago. They're 23 years old. Like Carson Beck is the quarterback for Miami Malachi. Tony was 12 years old when Carson Beck enrolled in college. And so there's a big gap here. But the other thing with the three stars is, you know, whoever listening to this, remember when you were 23, maybe you don't feel like you were that mature, but then think about what you were when you were 18 and how much you learned between 18 and 20.

[Danny Kelly]

The male brain also keeps developing until our late 20s, early 30s.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Your body changes a lot in that time too.

[Danny Heifetz]

Your body, it's crazy different. And so that's another reason why hat captain the fleather for why I don't think Matt Leflore should be fired because The packers are two years older than Indiana. They're 25. I just look at this Indiana team.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's an amazing stat.

[Danny Kelly]

It is.

[Danny Heifetz]

And I look at this Indiana team.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Could the packers beat Bama like Indiana did?

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh man, the yeah, but I just, I, I, I do think that's the lesson is the potential in a way like the NFL is has the system now like the rookie contracts in a four year development cycle they need potential more than college does. Which is funny to think about. But I just that old system of Nick Saban bringing in a five star and then like every year the Bama running backs was the meme right. Mark Ingram and then it's like Derrick Henry or Naji Harris or and it was just like TJ Elden was this endless stream of Bama running backs because they'd go and you'd wait two years and then you were that guy and.

[Danny Kelly]

You win the Heisman and now these guys go there if they're not going to start. Also ex more spread out across the country which means that the, the layer of five stars is thinner at the top.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, it's just the idea that just get the guy basically. It's funny because I figured this out playing the college football video game that came out. If they're going to play for you for one year, you don't actually need the high development trait of like this guy could be a 99 right. They just. They're an 85 right now. That's all I care about. I don't need an A79 overall. That could be a 98.

[Danny Kelly]

I.

[Danny Heifetz]

He's going to. Because if he gets that, he's going to leave. So I don't know. It's really cool what he built. Also hall of Fame, Kurt Signetti, shit talking, backing it up. First ballot hall of Fame goes to Indiana with who had. At the time he took over. Never won 10 games in a season. He's. And they're like, why should. What are you going to tell recruits? He's like, I win.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Google me. Google me.

[Danny Heifetz]

Is there another advantage of someone talking so much shit? He said pence. He's like talking Ohio State, Michigan suck at basketball games for Indiana before he'd even coach. Like, has anyone else talked this much and then backed it up to this degree ever in anything?

[Danny Kelly]

Bobby Knight, like, I don't know. He's like, right up there with that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I was gonna say this is up there with like Babe Ruth fucking calling his shot, pointing.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's way better.

[Danny Kelly]

This is Joe Namath saying they're gonna. Hey, I don't know.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, no, Joe Namath is the right thing. Like, we're gonna. Because that was the closest thing to the joke. That was like the Kabama beat the Browns. That was what he was saying.

[Danny Kelly]

That's like, yeah, yeah, he should never leave Indiana.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I mean, I was going to ask what's his. What's his next move?

[Danny Heifetz]

He was offered a lot of jobs and he resigned with them. He's like, fudge that I'm staying here.

[Danny Kelly]

He's 64 years old. To me, this is like the whole point, you know, that's like the meme now. I. Sometimes I almost forget this is the entire point. Like, this is the perfect situation. Do not bail and pull a Nick Saban and go to the Dolphins. Like, stay and enjoy this and be on Indiana for the rest of your life and have the best sunset of your career ever. And revitalizing this dormant franchise from over 120 years. Like, what's better than that? Who cares? Don't go to an NFL team. This is the best spot you could ever be in. Enjoy your life.

[Craig Korlbeck]

How much is he making, I wonder?

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh, as much as he wants. It's a ton more money than you possibly spend. He gets Chipotle for lunch every day. He said 550 street days at Chipotle, they said. I. I agree with that. And I.

[Danny Kelly]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. What?

[Danny Heifetz]

He just. It's like, you know, the Obama did this.

[Danny Kelly]

He's like, quesadillas, but yes.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah. So you have to make so many decisions every day. You don't change your lunch order. So he gets the same lunch order every day.

[Danny Kelly]

But did you just throw out a number? Is that real?

[Danny Heifetz]

No, that's real. I don't. 550. It's like 512 here.

[Danny Kelly]

500.

[Danny Heifetz]

It was five.

[Danny Kelly]

Something of the same chipotle meal.

[Danny Heifetz]

Maybe Christmas, he didn't have it, but, like, they get him lucky work every day he goes to work probably 360 days a year. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Holy. Oh.

[Danny Heifetz]

Wall street journal. He's eaten 500 bowls of chipotle at. Maybe it's not.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, he's eating. That's actually more healthy. Look at.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, bowls are great.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, he has, like. He has the calorie count down and everything. Yeah. Wow. He's like. Is he eating chipotle like. Like Kai style, where it's just chicken and I bet you sauce.

[Danny Kelly]

He does not scream hot sauce to me.

[Danny Heifetz]

No, I hear.

[Danny Kelly]

I think he's playing it safe.

[Danny Heifetz]

Wait, we have the order. Wait here.

[Danny Kelly]

I bet you.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I'm monitoring his order. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Guess the order for Kurt Signetti.

[Danny Kelly]

White rice.

[Danny Heifetz]

They say rice. I assume it's white.

[Danny Kelly]

I don't write white rice. Chicken.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes.

[Danny Kelly]

Pinto or black beans? I'm saying he's pro. Beans.

[Danny Heifetz]

Correct.

[Danny Kelly]

I'm gonna say he does Cheese, guacamole and mild salsa.

[Danny Heifetz]

No cheese.

[Danny Kelly]

And corn. And corn.

[Danny Heifetz]

No cheese. Yes. Guacamole. It's just rice, beans, chicken, guac. Is the order alleged?

[Danny Kelly]

Rice, beans, chicken, guac.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He is like.

[Danny Heifetz]

So it could be fake. I. No. Kai. Kai would never again.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Guac is way too spicy.

[Danny Heifetz]

Guacamole. No.

[Danny Kelly]

It's a remarkable story. You know, it's also funny about Indiana, their offensive coordinator. Do you know the name of the Indiana offensive coordinator?

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh, yeah. The Shanahan is not related to the name Mike Shanahan.

[Danny Kelly]

Related to the Shanahan.

[Danny Heifetz]

Not Mike Shanahan.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Not his father.

[Danny Kelly]

He's going to get, like, hired by the Steelers accidentally because they think he's from the different family. One other funny thing about Signetti that I found out. I don't know if we talked about this on the pod or not. So, Liz, my wife, went to Elon in North Carolina. Small kind of liberal arts school. Kurt Signetti was the head coach of Elon? Yeah, for one year, 2017 to 2018. And he got them fucking ranked. They were ranked.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah. That's. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

More impressive.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Did you Google him? Craig, you googled him?

[Danny Kelly]

I googled him. They were. They were like 24th of the nation at the end of the season.

[Craig Korlbeck]

All he does is win.

[Danny Kelly]

It's unbelievable.

[Danny Heifetz]

It really is that there's a lot, you know, a lot of these Miami players will talk about Carson Beckett, feel bad for, but you just have to come back to Mendoza. Dk, you mentioned it. I mean, I don't think we can even pretend like Fernando Mendoza will be the number one pick in the draft. I think he cemented. I mean, Tom Brady was there at this game wearing Raiders gear. It's in Miami, like Brady's.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I know Brady's on the sideline just like reveling in it.

[Danny Heifetz]

And I think Mendoza locked in. And again, he has the physical traits as a player. Like, he has the arm strength. Brady himself is the one who's like, you need to be able to throw a dig to the opposite hash. And I think actually that's one of those biggest strengths. I think the pocket mobility, not fast, but he can move. Like he is able to navigate the pocket as a passer, as a runner. Like he has all the things you want. As Craig said, the size. And I think the biggest question was, I mean, personality is the wrong way to put it, but like he's a goober, you know, he's like the way Craig put it. Eager beaver is funny, but I think that this game, I think cement, I mean, the ultimate one was your friend Jackson. DK texted us. Someone tweeted that. Wait, I have to pull it up. The best description of Fernando Mendoza I'll ever see. Someone posted that Fernando Mendoza looks like he makes his animal crackers fight each other before he eats them.

[Craig Korlbeck]

So vivid, vivid imagery there.

[Danny Kelly]

I saw another one that said Shirley Temples do not stand a chance around Fernando Mendoza.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's so. It's so going to Vegas.

[Danny Kelly]

Vegas, baby.

[Danny Heifetz]

Ricky Williams was Talking on Dan LeBatard show about being at the Heisman ceremony.

[Danny Kelly]

Yes.

[Danny Heifetz]

And they asked. Oh, you guys are both nodding.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, no, I didn't go give it to him. I missed this.

[Danny Heifetz]

Ricky Williams said not to blow up a spot and then immediately blew up a spot and he was like talking to the Heisman. Apparently he did all this research and he researched all the Heisman winners so they could talk to them. Like he knew all their backgrounds and. And like treating it like a 23 year old on LinkedIn, like researching for a networking event. And apparently he was talking to Tim Tebow and he said so he says, so I'm going to have to like get into Girls soon. And like, do you have any advice to Tim Tebow? And I'm like, this guy's fucking locked in.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Wow. Wow.

[Danny Heifetz]

This guy's locked in.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's going to be at the facility.

[Danny Kelly]

That's like what you asked your older brother before you start high school.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's going to have to get into girls soon.

[Danny Heifetz]

He's going to get into girls soon. And he's like giving advice. Also the fact that Tim Te.

[Danny Kelly]

Well, buddy, you're about to be in Las Vegas. So I have a lot of advice.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh yeah, get. Go to the suburbs, stay away from the Strip. I But I do think that the reason men does it will be number one is. I mean one dude. This is like manifest destiny. Like he was born in Boston. He's lived a mile from the stadium. But he born from Boston. He's a Patriots fan. He grew up rooting for Tom Brady. And I always talk about like Caleb wanted to rooted for Aaron Rodgers. Daniel Jones wanted to be Eli Manning. Daniel Jones went to Duke because Eli's coach was at Duke. Like he wanted to. Mendoza wanted to be Brady. He's the first guy that's going to be an NFL quarterback to grew up idolizing him. He's the same height, he's more kind of the same way. And I think that the. All the leadership stuff, but I think that what Brady's going to be obsessed with this kid for, other than saying let's fucking go when he won the title, is Mendoza got the shit kicked out of him in this game. Like, he got the targeting that wasn't called. He was bleeding from his. He was spitting up blood basically on a tally. The cameras catch it. But he was bleeding from his lip.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, you can see it on camera. Yeah, he was bleeding from. He was spitting it.

[Danny Heifetz]

The first thing Sigdetti said after the game was that we could not protect Fernando Mendoza. Miami's defensive line was so good.

[Danny Kelly]

We'll talk about was all over him.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, the halftime interview with Signetti was basically him just bitching about the late call, the late hits on. On Mendoza for like a solid minute.

[Danny Heifetz]

He was like, we gotta be having that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They keep hitting him right after the.

[Ad Read Speaker 2]

Like after he hands the ball off.

[Danny Heifetz]

I've been yelling at the refs.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That was like his half game. That was his halftime.

[Danny Heifetz]

The most honest halftime answer ever. It was the first time anyone's actually just answered the questions. Just 30 seconds. These fuckers keep hitting my quarterback. Signetti had the most honest halftime conversation of all time. Like he actually answered the questions. It Was unbelievable. He just was like, look, you know the referees, I'm all for letting him play, but at some point, you got to draw a line. And then he just was like, as for the game, you know, they had. We had a couple crossers that hit over double mug. That was great. Got to get back to that. And then Holly Rose was like, thanks for answering, coach. Thank you. And she was shocked.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It was the most genuine. She was like, thank you.

[Danny Heifetz]

Thank you. It's shock. Couldn't believe he answered the question. But the. But, yeah, I know. I. He kept saying that. He kept talking about how they couldn't block for him and that. I mean, the Miami defensive line was so good, but Mendoza was just so beat up during this game that I think, frankly, the fact that the Indiana players are saying that they think he. He. Mendoza plays better when he gets hit. Like the Iowa game, Ohio State, there's this game, like, getting hit locks him in. That's kind of like the next level that, like, frankly, you go all the way through the wormhole of everything you need at quarterback. That's what Tom Brady wants to hear and see. And so I think that, like, the fourth and five play, see Mendoza get the crap kicked out of him to win the game. I think that is the last level of championship. Cal. I think Mendoza absolutely is going to be the number one pick.

[Danny Kelly]

I do feel like he has both a high floor and a high ceiling as a prospect. Like, I do kind of think he could probably come in and be, like, a solid pocket passer, big, tough. You're Matt Ryan, you're Kirk Cousins type. But then, you know, the ceiling is the roof, potentially for a guy like him, outside of the lack of kind of mobility. Although he's more mobile than guys like Matt Ryan.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I was gonna say, physically, how different is he than Joe Burrow? I know Joe Burrow is pretty athletic. He can run around, but it's not that different. Right. In terms of his ability to kind of scoot around.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, I think they're probably in the same tier. Burrow might feel a little bit more straight lines, funny and stuff like that.

[Danny Heifetz]

You say that actually, dk, I never thought about it. But it's funny that Burrow probably did have more mobility in college, and we forget because he tore his ACL like that rookie year, so.

[Craig Korlbeck]

And he doesn't run around nearly as much anymore.

[Danny Heifetz]

I mean, he can extend, but he was better at it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

The thing I was just thinking hyphens, when you're talking about how he's such a funny Sort of contradiction because he is so tough and physical and like he. He doesn't get going until he gets hit in the face kind of deal.

[Danny Heifetz]

But he's also nuggets and Mac and cheese.

[Craig Korlbeck]

But he's also. Yeah. Such a dork. That, by the way, that was not real. That was.

[Danny Kelly]

That was fake.

[Danny Heifetz]

I wanted it to be.

[Danny Kelly]

It might as well be real.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, he does make his animal crackers fight though, that, that. You can't disprove that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Um, but I was thinking this during the game and it's so funny because there. There was one in particular play where I think it was late in the game when he hit Becker on the back shoulder and that kept the drive going. And that was like three minutes left or something like that. And he. And he just looks over at him and gives him a thumbs up.

[Danny Kelly]

I saw that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I think that was that play. I can't remember exactly, but it was. He was like, good job.

[Danny Heifetz]

But I love him though.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Genuine.

[Danny Heifetz]

He Ted lassoed me. He won me over. Do you know how badly I wanted to make fun of this guy like all season and then all off season and like the College Football Playoff, like he's. You know what? I. I love this guy.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's kind of got ice in his veins. There was another play too where he. He shouldn't have thrown this pass and it got broken. It was basically a pass out into. It was like a little stop route and the Miami DB jumped it and almost picked it off and it was potentially a disastrous throw. And it zoomed in on his face after the throw and he was just like that. He just kind of like shook his head like that was dumb.

[Danny Kelly]

He's just like, what's nice about him is like, you at least know that if it doesn't work out in the NFL, it's not going to be for lack of effort or preparation. He is going to give it everything and he's going to prepare and he'll be the first guy in, last guy out. Like, you know that he will have that mentality which is. I mean, totally. And it's going to be a weird draft because there's basically no competition for him at the quarterback position to be the top overall pick. So I don't know if that will. If that will actually increase his status in our mind or actually make him a bit of somebody who's overlooked and just under discussed because he'll just be the locked in number one overall pick in the same way that when Trevor Lawrence went. It's like people just like didn't talk about him that much because he was the number one.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's a good question.

[Danny Heifetz]

He calls his offensive lineman the Hoggies. We're going to freaking talk about this guy. I think that like let's freaking go.

[Danny Kelly]

But there's going to be no comparison. There's going to be no should it be him or Dante Moore? Let's compare his traits to the other top three quarterback straight. It's not going to be the Caleb year where you had Jaden and Drake May and Penix and all these guys. So it will be an interesting off season in that respect.

[Danny Heifetz]

It will. We'll just have to get by. Like I'm still want him to accept my I I tried to pair with him on LinkedIn and he didn't accept that. So like with that. Yeah, he hasn't updated by the way. I wonder if he's, you know, been drinking Shirley Temples.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, he's not really looking for a job at this point.

[Danny Heifetz]

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[Danny Heifetz]

Okay, should we get into some coach news?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yes.

[Danny Kelly]

A lot has happened since we last spoke. I guess we should probably start with the Bills fired Sean McDermott, their head coach, after nine seasons. The did you guys read the I did. The the goodbye letter that the Buffalo ownership wrote Sean McDermott? There was like five spelling errors, including them saying that he did an admiral job.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Like the Rank ad. He did an admiral job.

[Danny Heifetz]

Not admirable.

[Danny Kelly]

That sounds.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He did an admiral job.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, it's like that. Almost like that was like voice to text or something and they didn't bother checking it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This doesn't bode well, for the organization, that was what happened after he got fired.

[Danny Kelly]

I mean, there are entire HR departments whose entire job is to check these things before they go out, like, crisis.

[Danny Heifetz]

He did.

[Craig Korlbeck]

An admiral job is up there.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. Sean McDermott. I saw a stat here from Ben Solak, our former colleague, who's now at ESPN, which. This blew my mind about Sean McDermott and the Bills. So this is. Per ESPN research, only four teams in the super bowl era have won a playoff game in six consecutive seasons. Only four teams have done that. The four teams are the Cowboys in the 90s, who won three Super Bowls over that stretch. The Patriots in the 2010s, who won three Super Bowlays over that stretch. The Chiefs in the. In 2018-2024, who won three Super Bowls over that stretch. And the Buffalo Bills, who did not make a single Super Bowl.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Ouch. The poor Bills.

[Danny Heifetz]

God, I feel like it's a. Like that's a Rorschach test. Because you hear that and you're either like, that's why McDermott had to go, or you're like, that's why McDermott had To stay.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. I mean, nine seasons is a while. But if it's. What is your reaction to this? You think this is the right move? I'm surprised that. So they're. They're keeping the gm. Brandon Bean is staying, and he's actually.

[Craig Korlbeck]

No, he got promoted.

[Danny Kelly]

Promoted, Right. And he's now in charge of bringing in the next coach.

[Danny Heifetz]

I would like to hear the argument for why the coach should be fired, but the GM should be promoted. I don't think it necessarily has to be Brandon.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It's little finger stuff.

[Danny Kelly]

Well, Brandon Bean came in after McDermott was already there.

[Danny Heifetz]

No, like, three weeks. They were hired together. But.

[Danny Kelly]

But. But my point is that Brandon Bean was not a part of the hiring process for McDermott. And so I guess.

[Danny Heifetz]

But I will strongly push back on that, because I think that what happened is it's like, what, the Dolphins hire the Packers GM or the Packers Assistant GM, and they go 10 days and they're like, we'll hire the packers defensive coordinator as your coach. I'm like, they both came from Carolina, if memory serves. And so they were a package deal, I think. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

I'm not saying I'm not supporting. I'm not saying I support this, because you could argue that the biggest problem with the Bills over the last however many seasons has been personnel, particularly offensively, which is a Brandon Bean issue and not a Sean McDermott issue. So, high. Fitz, what is your reaction to this.

[Danny Heifetz]

I want the Bills to win a Super Bowl. I mean, I don't think that's a hot take. I feel like if there's a player that isn't on your team that you most want to win a Super bowl, everyone's like, I wish Josh Allen would win a Super Bowl. I want the Bills to win a Super Bowl. My reaction is, I hope that this works, and I hope they know what they're doing, because I think this is like a careful what you wish for situation. Like, the good example is, like, John Fox, you know, took the Broncos with Peyton Manning to a Super bowl, and then they. The next year, really close game. They should have won in divisional round. They lost, and then they fired John Fox. And the answer was, hey, we don't care. You made a Super bowl last year. Like, Peyton Manning can do this and like anyone can do this. And they brought in Gary Kubiak, and guess what? They won a Super bowl. And maybe it'll be like that. They bring in a new coach, and maybe they hire Brian Dabel, whatever they do, and that someone else takes this and they. And they get him the promise that. I hope that happens. I'm rooting for it. The flip side is I just don't want to Forget what Sean McDermott did for the Bills. This. I don't know if some people might be too young who are listening this. Some people might have forgotten, which is the point. The Bills, literally, before Sean McDermott was hired, had the longest playoff drought in all of the American major sports, like football, basketball, baseball, hockey. Nobody had missed the playoffs in more seasons in a row than the Bills. 18 seasons. And then Sean McDermott shows up and they make the playoffs in eight of nine years, including before they drafted Josh Allen. Josh Allen was not even on the team. And they made the playoffs and broke that drought. And then, as Craig said, like, they won the division title five years in a row. And then this year, they lost to the Patriots and their easy schedule and Mike Vrabel. So the phrase from this press, this presser that I thought I liked, was that they said Sean McDermott helped change the mindset of this organization. That is true. Like, the Bills were fucking losers. And they were like the Cleveland Browns, basically. They were one notch above the Browns.

[Danny Kelly]

They were a laughingstock. I mean, the quarterbacks that were there, I mean, the Bills were an afterthought. Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick, they had JP Lossman, they had Trent Edwards, EJ Manuel. I remember there was the first quarterback, first round draft. Yeah, it's like 15th overall. E.J. manuel. Kyle Orton was on the Careful, Careful.

[Danny Heifetz]

Making fun of G manual. He was on television this morning, espn. And like you, Craig, his micro also didn't work for like a stretch of the show, so.

[Danny Kelly]

Is that right?

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

All right, I'll take that back then because that's, that's extremely relatable. But yeah, man. Do you think John Harbaugh now is looking at the news and thinking, man, yeah, maybe I should have waited a week.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Damn it. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

He'll never, he'll never admit that to anyone but Stefanski taking the Falcons job. They all have to be.

[Danny Kelly]

This is a remarkable time for head coach Vacancies and for Lamar and Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. The last two MVPs are available to coach.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, it's literally like it's coach this, coach Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen. And the goal is go win a Super bowl this year. Like what, what an amazing thing. The third option is be the fourth Pittsburgh Steelers head coach since Richard Dixon was president and there was a mood landing. Like is also like what. I know the situation isn't incredible, but what a legendary job to be the Steelers coach. And then what's the fourth best option is the Raiders and coach Fernando Mendoza and then Tom Brady's the owner. I know the Brady thing maybe wasn't as appealing last year, but now that there's a quarterback, they're going to take Mendoza and you get to be the coach and Tom Brady is going to basically mentor Fernando Mendoza. Those are the. Or, you know, you could be the Browns head coach. But it is pretty crazy that Those are the four openings on the table on January 20th.

[Danny Kelly]

Cardinals.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh yeah. That's sick.

[Danny Kelly]

Don't forget about the Cardinals. Love that they're available.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, makes sense that you forgot.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, I think it probably you have to start with. I think it's, it's Bills are the top option than the Ravens. I would probably put the Raiders three with Mendoza and then it's probably Steelers and then bottoming out Browns and Cardinals.

[Danny Heifetz]

Thank God the Giants locked down Harbaugh after their four day negotiation or whatever.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Where.

[Danny Heifetz]

I don't know.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, we didn't really talk about that. There was so for people that were watching from afar, basically there was an announcement that the Giants had hired Harpa and Heifet celebrated. We did a whole show about it.

[Danny Heifetz]

Everyone did. Twitter put out a winking emoji.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It came out the next day that he hadn't actually been signed and he was basically holding the Giant's feet to the fire and Doing a power move or whatever. What do you call it? Like he went for the top and basically got approval from the owner that he reports to the owner, not to Joe Shane, which is a great, great job by him. He absolutely should have done that.

[Danny Heifetz]

Which is.

[Danny Kelly]

So now Joe Shane is like assistant general manager. Assistant to the general manager.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think Joe Shane. I think contractually they put it down that Joe Shane's new office is just a chair in the corner.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Kai Fitz is tweeting out cuck chair pictures.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, he is. That's what it is. Joe.

[Danny Kelly]

Why is he there? Fire him.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Somebody's got to do the scouting. Harbaugh is not going to do that.

[Danny Heifetz]

He's.

[Danny Kelly]

It's.

[Danny Heifetz]

This happened with the Patriots where Elliott Wolf was like the GM in New England and then Mike Vrabel brought him in and Elliott Wolf is still there, but he's not the GM and he's just like an awkward. He's a scout. Joe Shane is a vestigial organ. He is the Giant's appendix. It is just not worth cut.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They're going to ask his kids who they want to draft.

[Danny Heifetz]

That's what kids actually had a great take. I just. Joe Shane seems like a nice guy. Vestigial organ. And it's just like, why don't you just cut your appendix out? Well, it's kind of a lot of work to do the surgery. So unless he gets an infection, like we're not going to cut him out. That's really what happened.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This is. Yeah, this was kind of. I think I said this. I. I don't understand why teams will fire a head coach and. And not their GM at the same time. Especially if both had sort of. Not really. I mean, I guess you could say that. That Shane has picked some good players certainly. But this is why it makes it so awkward is when you keep a gm, then the whole new coach coming in situation is weird. Then you got to make sure they get along.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah.

[Craig Korlbeck]

You see eye to eye on personnel moves. There's just so many things that you have to be in alignment about.

[Danny Heifetz]

About.

[Craig Korlbeck]

And this is a big risk that they're not going to be. Maybe this is the situation where they get through this draft and then they fire Joe.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah. Or next year. Once Harbaugh's there, it's there. I My cynical thing. Same thing with the Bills situation. Again, joshing came from Buffalo says Brandon being the gm, they're getting promoted. My cynical view is. Or maybe just Occam's razor. When a owner fires the coach, the GM can search For a new coach. When the owner fires a gm, you have to look for a new gm, and it's just.

[Craig Korlbeck]

You have to hire a consulting firm.

[Danny Heifetz]

And now you either have to find some football friend who you trust, like a Matt Ryan, like Arthur Blank is. Owns the Falcons in his 80s. Now, I need Matt Ryan to help me, or you have to hire a consulting firm who's like, you know, it's a consulting firm. They don't actually, you know, so it. That's why you have these guys now. It's like Tom Brady with the Raiders. One of the things Mark Davis is like, what? Good. Now, Brady can do this. He owns part of the team. He's going to want to do this. I don't have to know what I'm talking about football anymore. Brady can do this. And, like, you're seeing that all over Troy Aikman with the Dolphins. It's like when you hire, fire the gm, The GM is. It's not just a gm. The owner has to have a football consigliere that they trust. And you fire the consigliere, you're like, who do I hire as my new consigliere? So the Giants won. It's weird because, like, obviously, that's what Harbor's role is. I don't know why they didn't just do what the Jags did when they hired Liam Cohen. They just throw Trent Balky overboard and, like, whatever. I mean, you keep the draft prep. You want to keep the draft. I'm just saying, you want to keep.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He did an admiral job, and then we chucked him overboard.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's true. But. Well, Balky didn't. But John Harbaugh, I think, did the right move, which is. And also the other thing, I don't know what ended up happening, but there's a lot of ownership, friends and family in the organization and in the scouting department. I mean, it's Chris Mara who owns the team and is kind of running the team because John Mara has cancer and is not. Is not too great. And Chris Mara is running the team. His brother, Chris Mera is like a senior personnel guy. So imagine being in the room and like, one of the people with a take on a player you don't like is the fucking owner of the team. And you're like, this is going to be honest, functional.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This is terrible.

[Danny Heifetz]

Like, if. If the owner, like, let's say Chris Mayer, who gets running the team, did a good job bringing in Harbaugh, if, let's say, he's the reason they drafted Jalen Hyatt and now you want to cut Jalen Hyatt. This is my sympathy for Joe Shane is why is Jalen Hyatt on the team? I'm like well maybe fucking Chris Mayer love Joe Hyatt or Jalen Hyatt. I don't know, maybe the assistant director of personnel, Tim o' Donnell who is mother also owns the team. The Giants like he like this little like John and Chris Mara's nephew is also like in the personnel department.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They gotta put these guys in frickin marketing or something. Why are they running?

[Danny Heifetz]

Well they're also doing that and that's what I'm saying is I think put.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Them in charge of ticket sales or something.

[Danny Kelly]

A logo refresh?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, maybe. Come on.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well that's kind of. So I think that also was part of it is that like I think John Harbaugh probably wanted control of certain personnel. Basically saying I want to be able to fire people who are related to you and I want that in writing. And I and this is not known but my high suspicion is that Harbaugh wanted in writing that like if you're going to give me the keys to the castle here like and what are the Giants going to do back out after everyone patted them on the back?

[Craig Korlbeck]

That would look. The optics would be horrific.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, no, he would run to the Buffalo and the Giants would be fucked. And so I think that's best for everyone. I think it was Lord of the Rings, Gandalf walks in, Craig, remember the Lord of the Rings, the two buildings and he just like does the little staff with the king and just purges them of evil. And so all the family members in all these places and I think Joe Shane maybe warm tongue's a little mean. I don't think he's that bad, but he shouldn't be. Joe Shane should not be. John Harbo's boss, Peter Schrager was talking.

[Danny Kelly]

About who he thinks is most likely to get hired or top candidates for Buffalo and he mentioned a couple people. There's the current coordinator, Joe Brady, he mentioned Brian Daball who Josh Allen is very fond of and they're very close with. And also Davis Webb, the former backup quarterback in the NFL who is currently the pass game coordinator for the Broncos. And apparently he is best friends with Josh Allen and I mean he played football. He's only 30 years old. He turns 30.

[Craig Korlbeck]

30.

[Danny Kelly]

He turns 31 in two days.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh my God.

[Danny Heifetz]

And Davis Webb is thirsty for a coaching job. Davis Webb, once I had coaching job I can. I think he's A thirsty man.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, but, but Trager was, was pointing out that it actually. Josh Allen and Davis Webb might be too good of friends to actually bring him in. I mean they're the same age and they're best friends. You probably can't do that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think Brian Dable would probably make sense as the Bills coach. I think he's certainly the best offensive coordinator candidate out there is Dable. And I think the Bills should, should look at him. But I don't know who the Bills bring in is so interesting.

[Craig Korlbeck]

But Greg Rosenthal made this point on Twitter. I believe he said that he doesn't think the, the McDermott firing happens without the blessing or input of Josh Allen. Would you agree with that? Like behind the scenes they're probably not firing Josh Allen's guy. So that's kind of another layer to this whole thing.

[Danny Heifetz]

I don't, I don't know if I necessarily agree with Greg. Greg's really smart, knows more stuff than I do. But I, I just knowing the nature of the Bill's ownership just kind of.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Feels, yeah, I don't know.

[Danny Kelly]

Who'S the best candidate available. We should, I mean we can go through these other hirings. So the Falcons hired Kevin Stefanski as their new head coach. Coming from Cleveland.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Right. Two time coach of the year seven.

[Danny Kelly]

Two time coach of the year Cleveland Browns made the playoffs with some of the worst quarterbacks you've ever seen in your life. Dk yeah. Does this hire inspire confidence to you? Is this a middle of the road decision? Where, where does, where does.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I think it's like a B plus. I think it's good. I think it'll give them stability. He's, he's obviously a good coach. I mean the, the two time coach of the year on the Browns to me is like all you need to say, really. And that's fine. It's hard to assign blame with how the Browns have gone the last few years because of all the moving parts with the desean Watson thing, with the Shitter Sanders thing and like the apparent disagreement between ownership and coaching staff and all that stuff. So to me, it's hard to assign blame for their failures when you've got the front office working, at least not in uniformity or whatever with the coaching staff. So I still think he's probably a really good coach. And you know, the fact it gives the Falcon some stability. I don't know if it's like a home run hire necessarily, but I think, I think you should feel good if.

[Danny Heifetz]

You'Re Atlanta I think grading on a curve, it's an A because the Falcons are not the Baltimore Ravens or the Buffalo Bills. And if the Ravens hired Kevin Stefanski, be like B minus. But you're the Falcons and they have Stefanski as the head coach, which I think works per. I mean, Kirk Cousins was his coordinator in Minnesota for a while and sorry, Stefanski was Kirk Cousins core data in Minnesota. So I think the Falcons keep Kirk Cousins, who obviously ended on a winning streak that the Falcons ended up tying for the division lead even though they were eliminated on December 2nd or whatever. So they have Bill Callahan as the offensive line coach. He's one of the better offensive line coach in the NFL. And they kept Jeff Ulbricht the defensive coordinator. And I mean, the Falcons were dead last in sacks over a six year period. And last year the Falcons were actually quietly second in the entire league in sacks, which is ironic because the trade up to get the pass rusher James Pierce that led the team in sacks is what got everyone fired because they gave up the first round pick. But I think this is. I think the Falcons, who have not had a winning record in like eight years, I think the Falcons should be the favorite to win the division.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I think this is really funny because. And it's just indicative of the whole coaching carousel, the whole cycle. It's so funny how it's just, it's the, it's the old Brian Regan joke with if you needed logs. It's like all these coaches are just switching teams. I saw our buddy Charles McDonald tweet this. He used the picture of fired with Stefanski, like from when he got fired by the Browns as like his celebratory, like, we got him. It's just like a giant fired on. It's just like so funny that these guys are switching teams. I mean, I think it is a good hiring, but kickers. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

I do think TK that what you're talking about is the point for this coaching cycle. Because I think people are probably wondering, so why are 10 coaches being fired? Why are there 10 openings? A third of the league has a coach opening when all we could talk about entering this was there aren't good candidates. And I think it's related to what I've been saying for like a couple months on the show of we're in between eras in the NFL and that Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow level of dominance is like kind of not ending but like subsiding. But then this new era is starting of like, you know, we have Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson and the Bears and Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars are in that division, you know what I mean? Like, we're looking, seeing the Broncos, the Bo Nicks Vrabel with Drake May and the Patriots. We're seeing all these like new blood teams. And I think a lot of owners are pissed that they didn't move a year earlier. I think that the Falcons are like, man, like we like some teams either waited a year too long. Like everyone's mad they weren't in last year's cycle. Like the foul, you know what I mean? The Falcons had Raheem Morris. Maybe they were a year too early on that. Like, you know what I mean? Other teams had. Yeah, like the Giants fired Brian Dable. I'm like, oh, it's about timing relationships.

[Danny Kelly]

Like half of it is just like, do you. Are you lucky enough to be bad when there's a great quarterback in the top five? Like a lot of it just comes down to that. And same with the coaching because this year, you know, last year was a lot of coordinators getting promoted to head coaches, right? Ben Johnson, Liam Cohen, stuff like that. This year it's a lot of head coaches just taking other head coaching jobs. You have John Harbaugh, head coach to head coach Kevin Stefanski, Robert Sala. The Titans hired Robert Sala, who was a defensive coordinator for one year for the Niners after previously being the head coach of the jets for quite a while. This feels like Salah going to Tennessee feels like a real adult in the building. Higher. I want somebody who we trust, who can handle things, who we know is like liked across the league, who players like, who players will play hard for. It felt like the Callahan era struggled with that in terms of just like gaining respect in the locker room. And Salah is kind of the opposite of that, of a guy who can immediately step in the room and inspire people.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's the Callahan era was marked by a couple of pretty high profile flubs in the media in terms of some of the things he said. It made you feel like he didn't understand the rules of the game or how to run a team kind of deal. And I think Salah is. He just has more cachet as a coach. He's done it. He's been a head coach before. It's hard to same deal with the Stefanski thing. It's hard to judge what Salah did at the jets because they're just such a disaster. But he's been a very highly respected coach. He's the kind of coach that is going to get the players playing really hard, I think. And that's like a big thing too for them. And so I don't know. I. I'm kind of lukewarm on this, this hiring. I know High Fitz really likes Salah. I don't really know if it inspires confidence for me. I have made the joke he just has too many kids to be a head coach. I'm only partly kidding on that. He's seven children. How do you do that and have it and be a head coach in an NFL?

[Danny Heifetz]

That's why you're qualified. You make seven kids, you can do anything.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It's like, how do you have time? I guess, obviously he just goes to work.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's not even hard.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Someone else is raising them kids. But. Yeah, I don't know. It's just. It is. It's a hard situation to have seven kids and have a job that requires 80 hours of work week.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think he's. I think they can figure that out. I think they can get some child care.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I'm only. I'm only partly serious on that.

[Danny Heifetz]

I love Salah. I think Salah got shafted with the jets and I. I will go down believing that he was a way better coach than people remember. I still can't believe. I mean, he was fired as a defensive head coach. The offense was outsourced to Aaron Rodgers as a decision ownership made and then solid, the defensive head coach. His defense gave up two touchdowns in the last three games and they fired him. And everywhere solid goes, he is. The hole is greater than the sum of the parts. The Niners defense this year was like obliterated by the substation and like it was supposed to be like, hey, it's going to be a bunch of young guys around Nick Bose and Fred Warner and then Nick Bosa and Fred Warner immediately get hurt. So you're down to defensive player of the year, the best linebacker in the NFL. You're down. You're starting three linebackers, you're down three or top four defensive ends. Everyone left is freaking 24. Younger, except for a couple older guys. And like they're competitive. They almost got the 1 seed in the NFC entering week 18. So I. Everywhere he's been, I think I've been impressed.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's a players coach. Like, players love him.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think he gets guys to buy in and play really hard. And I think the Titans, it's really easy. It's their opening stadium in 2027 and they suck and they need to be competitive. This season because they need to sell tickets for 20, 27. And I think the Titans owner, Amy Adams trunk sees an issue of what if we have a top three, top four pick three years in a row and then we have to sell season tickets? That isn't good. And they want, I think, solid. I think they were going to give this job to Matt Naggy for Cam Ward, and then I think Robert Sal blew them away about the competitiveness. So I think that's a good job.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I know maybe he will be a good head coach again, but that would have been the most underwhelming hire I could imagine.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes, it would have. I. It would have. But I don't know. I think the Titans are kind of chasing the ghosts of their former coaches. Like, they fired Matt LaFleur, went to the packers, and I do believe that the Titans were so mad that Matt LeFleur was succeeding in Green Bay, they were like, wait, we need someone to help a quarterback. So they fire Vrabel, and now they have Brian Callahan to do a Matt LaFleur impression, and he sucked. Now guess what? Mike Vrabel as a defensive coach and his CEO role who's not calling plays, is like doing an unbelievable job with the vibes and Patriots. And now they're like, you know what? If only we had a defensive coach who could be, you know, overseas stuff like a Mike Vrabella, they could have had Mike Vrabel and kept him. But instead, now they needed Robert Sall. So they're kind of the tails wagging the dog. But I do like Fasala well.

[Danny Kelly]

And the Patriots fortunately have somebody like Josh McDaniel who now the Titans need to bring in the right OC and maybe they regret letting Vrabel go. Maybe they regretted letting Arthur Smith go. And maybe Arthur Smith is going to go back and call play for the Titans. He interviewed with them, as did Brian Dabal, Mike McDaniel. It does feel like for Cam Ward, you have to make sure you get the right guy to come in here because, like, you know, you only have a couple years before you kind of know if it's. If. If you have it or not.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Did you guys ever see. This is a terrible reference, but did you ever see the movie Good Luck, Chuck with Dane Cook?

[Danny Kelly]

Oh, God.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Every. Every. The storyline was every woman who slept with him would get married to the next guy they dated or whatever. So they. He, like started getting all these girls that wanted to sleep with him because they wanted to get married to the next guy.

[Danny Heifetz]

Sure.

[Craig Korlbeck]

So not. Not a great movie. Jessica Alba, but.

[Danny Heifetz]

And now Brian Dable's gonna go to the Titans, be the coordinator and then he'll. Right, he'll be.

[Craig Korlbeck]

So the Titans are. Good luck, Chuck. Everybody finds their forever coach after they coach with the Titans.

[Danny Kelly]

What are the jets then? Bad luck Chuck.

[Craig Korlbeck]

The jets are just like a one night stand. That didn't. That was shameful and regretful. The what? What is it? The walk of shame in the morning. You're just always on the walk of shame.

[Danny Kelly]

The last hire here, the only coordinator to get promoted to head coach, if I'm not mistaken, is the Dolphins hired Jeff Halfley, who was the defensive coordinator of the packers for two seasons. He was the head coach of Boston College before that. Carlos texted us. Carlos, longtime Dolphins fan, texted us. I feel nothing when they hired Jeff Halfley.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's how I feel too.

[Danny Kelly]

Well, it's funny. Hi, Fitz. Do you agree with that? Like what do we know about. I mean the packers defense did a good job. That's kind of it. He has a tight fade. He's been a coach in the NFL for two years.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's got a flat top.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, he was like a defensive backs coach before Boston College in the NFL. So he has been around. But yeah, we don't know a lot about him.

[Danny Heifetz]

No. It's always funny when we have to like pretend like we know how some coordinator will do as head coach. It's like sometimes you have a beat on a guy. Jeff Halfley, the nerds love him. The nerds love like I think scheme. I think what he did with the packers is impressive on defense the last couple seasons. And so it's just like, you know, at the it maybe not. We always talk about Pete Carroll and Mike Tomlin have kind of failed the test of can you stop modern offenses? And like what worked 10 years ago doesn't. I think Jeff Halfley is just has a modern approach to defense and in terms of changing coverages, not making quarterbacks confused when they look like what you see pre snaps, not post snap. What you see one second in doesn't look like three seconds in. And that's what Mike McDonald's going to get the Seahawks to the super bowl maybe that way. And so that's kind of what he's doing. And then I think it's just combined with he was the head coach of Boston College for a few years randomly. And I think it's the idea that not that Boston College is the Miami Dolphins, but the idea that the mix of scheme stuff with you actually. Do you have had experience running A program being the guy. Like, maybe you're not Josh McDaniels fucking tyrant the moment you step out. Or Matt Patricia. Well, you're just a tyrant the moment you're in charge. And like, Boston College did all right, went under him. I think that's the idea. And I do think this is a package deal. They can never say that because of, you know, they have to comply with the Rooney Rule and certain things. But they hired the GM or the. Sorry, the VP of player personnel, John Eric Sullivan from the Packers.

[Danny Kelly]

He was on the packers for like 20 years.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes. And so then he came over with Miami. Jeff Hoffley wasn't with the packers for as long. But generally Speaking, when a GM's hired and then they're like, we are going to conduct a full search. And then 10 days later they're like, I have an idea. The guy I was already working with 10 days ago, I like him. They're like, all right. So that was kind of the handshake deal a while ago, and everything else was kind of checking boxes for public appearances. So. But that's how it is now. That's just kind of how it goes. So the. We'll see. I mean, good luck. Like, you're going to have whatever the Bills do with Josh Allen. You're going to have the Patriots and Mike Vrabel. The jets suck. But, like, good luck competing with them. I don't know.

[Craig Korlbeck]

There's a lot of people connecting the dots with Malik Willis now, too. Malik Willis is a free agent. The TUA era almost certainly over at this point. So that's going to be really interesting to see if that ends up panning out where they bring in another Green Bay guy. I. This is one of those things. I was just looking at Hatfully's resume. I. I don't know if this matters or makes any difference, but I thought it was fascinating that he just left being a head coach to go back to the NFL to be a coordinator. He left. He left Boston College.

[Danny Heifetz]

He's like, I'm just gonna nil.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's like, I know, but it was transfer portal. It's just kind of funny that he was the head coach of team. He's like, I'm gonna go be a coordinator again.

[Danny Heifetz]

Can I. I mean, on that note, I. Yeah, I. I forgot the other day, David Shaw, who was the succeeded Jim Harbaugh as the coach at Stanford, and it was like, considered a candidate forever. David Shaw is just like on the Lions coaching staff as an assistant. Like, he's like the passing Game coordinator. He's not even the like David Shaw left the head coach job at Stanford to just be an assistant on the line staff.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Being a head coach in, in college I think is really difficult right now.

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, now that's the thing is like David Shaw was like Stanford. He's like, we have great student athletes who want to get a great education and actually take classes and take the hard road. And now it's just like now you're just like kids are coming to you on one year deals. It's like there's a flight. Chip Kelly just like left the head coach be the coordinator out of state. And he was like, as long as I don't. He's like, the kids don't want to talk to anyone.

[Danny Kelly]

I'll just sit in my little booth and draw up plays.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I kind of, I respect that actually.

[Danny Kelly]

Dude, Carson Beck said he hasn't been to. He hasn't had a class in two years.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh, dude, he. He's supposed to say that out loud. Well, no, he was like the class. He's like, well, I graduated two years ago. He's like, obviously you know your master. He basically was like, so I'm in a six year program. He's like, I mean, I'm not going to like finish it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh my God.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's so.

[Danny Kelly]

I graduated two years ago.

[Craig Korlbeck]

A lot of people go to college for six years.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, well, there you go. Well, it used to be doctors. Yeah, sure, that's a good point.

[Danny Kelly]

The only other piece of news here. Coordinator news. The Lions hired Drew Petzing.

[Craig Korlbeck]

This is a bizarre coordinator who.

[Danny Kelly]

Who has been the offensive coordinator for the Cardinals since 2023. Not an inspiring time for Arizona, I would say. Hi, Vitz. Are you surprised by this?

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, I was. I mean, I guess you have to. I trust Dan Campbell. I trust Dan Campbell. I think. I don't know what exactly the logic was. It's funny. I think coordinator jobs are so hard to. They're opaque. I. I still think the best coordinators out there if they don't get a head coaching job would be Brian Dable, who I think, you know, if you want to develop a quarterback, Brian Dable with Jalen Hurts and two at Alabama and then like what he did to Josh Allen and the Daniel Jones best years till this year were with him and Jackson Dart. I do think they should be a coordinator and I think Mike McDaniel will be an amazing coordinator. But I drew petsing. I frankly, I'd be lying if I was like, I just kind of trust Dan Campbell to Make the decision. And, like, you know, I didn't know who Ben Johnson was before they hired Ben Johnson, so, like, kind of just hope it works, but it would be disappointing if it failed.

[Danny Kelly]

It's funny, I was thinking about this the other day. I feel like we care about coordinators so much more now than we ever used to. And we even know the names of coordinators now than we ever used to. I was talking to Chris Ryan about this. I was like, you know, like the 90s and early 2000s and before that, like, did anyone know the names of coordinators? And he was like, no, they are more head coach.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Like, yeah, yeah. Mythology. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Coordinators are more famous now more than ever. People are paying. Oh, like the Eagles offensive coordinator is a huge talking point. It's like the most important Eagles decision of the off season is who's going to be calling plays. And it's funny that that never used to be a narrative. And I don't know if it's more now because like, like, scheme is more valued than personnel where it used to be. Like, if you get the quarterback, it's kind of just up to them. And now it's like, actually, if you have the correct scheme, the Shanahan style, I can make the super bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo. That. That has made the play calling and the offensive coordinator become so much more prominent. But it does feel like everyone. I mean, most people can probably name the offensive coordinator on most NFL teams, which I think is kind of crazy.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

I mean, Seth Meyers went on Bill's show.

[Danny Kelly]

Yes.

[Danny Heifetz]

Talking about your Steelers, and he had the great rule that if other fans know the name of your coordinators, that's a bad signal sign.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Matt Canada. But it's true. It's like Kevin Patullo is like. People who don't root for the Eagles know who Kevin Patullo is, which is why he got fired.

[Danny Kelly]

Like, his name was said more than Sirianni's probably this year. Kevin Patullo. I just think it's fascinating that the coordinator position matters more than it ever has.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It feels like also along those lines, there's an insane amount of turnover at that position, at that, you know, offensive coordinator in particular, it's like half the league. I was talking to our buddy Easton Freeze, and he made a list of. It's like, in addition to all the new coaching staffs, like, head coach changes, there's the Lions, Bucks, Commanders, Chargers, Chiefs, Eagles, maybe the Bengals, maybe the Seahawks. Kubiak is getting a bunch of interview requests. Maybe Jags maybe 49ers, maybe Rams. There's. There's going to be like half the league is getting a new offensive coordinate next year. Like the longest tenured, I want to say coming into last year, the longest tenured offensive coordinator was like two years or something. It was crazy how much these guys move. And it is a large part due to if you're really good at offensive coordination, you're going to get a head coach job almost surely. So there's a lot of turnover and movement on that front, but it is just fascinating. Going back to what I was saying, it's people just shuffling chairs on the. What, what's the expression of shuffling the chairs on the deck of the Titanic or whatever? It's like just, I don't know. Let's get this guy. Maybe he'll do something different. Let's get this guy. He's gonna do something different. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Okay.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Any.

[Danny Heifetz]

Anything else on this? Can you guys want to do emails?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, let's do it.

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[Danny Heifetz]

Okay. This is from Sean.

[Danny Kelly]

Sean, that's bone.

[Danny Heifetz]

So, Sean, the breakfast you'll see in a second. So Sean writes, you guys were having a discussion on the podcast about gum. And one of the complaints we had about gum, at least for me, was like, what do you guys do with the gum when you're done? And Sean writes, at some point in my 20s, I decided I would just swallow my gum. Gum. And it's been years and I'm fine. It doesn't matter. Just swallow your gum.

[Craig Korlbeck]

He's got a giant gumball in his stomach right now.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think this is crazy. He literally said we're all riddled with microplastics.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Why?

[Danny Heifetz]

I don't think passing some gum is going to make a difference. Can you guys swallow gum?

[Danny Kelly]

How often you do that as somebody with eosinophilic esophagitis? I am not trying to swallow. I can hardly swallow regular food. I'm not swallowing gum.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's fair. I have swallowed my gum in the past. I don't like to do it. It's. We, it's. It feels very weird. But if it's like a. Emergency and you're in a meeting or something and you can't just like spit it out somewhere, then yeah, I'll swallow it.

[Danny Kelly]

I, I guess.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I don't think it's like the old wives tale is it gets stuck in your system for 10 years or something like that, which I don't think is true. I don't know, maybe surgeons or doctors talk to us.

[Danny Kelly]

I've always had trouble. You know what I've never understood? This happens all the time in movies. It's like the, the ex cop who's, who's like going through something and he needs his pills to get him through the day. And he always like pours the pills into his hand and he just like shoves them in his mouth and swallows, takes them dry. I've never understood that. Does anyone actually do that in real life? Are people just swallowing pills?

[Craig Korlbeck]

There's a generational divide there, Craig. The boomer generation or whatever. The people a little bit older than us, they can take pills dry and they can do the whistle thing with their hands. Yeah, we, our generations never learned that. I don't know anyone recipes. How do you do that? I really want to learn how to whistle like that. That's like one of the coolest moves ever.

[Danny Kelly]

Like, like maybe one Advil, which is kind of sugar coated and smooth. Maybe, maybe a, maybe a liquid gel.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, just take it. Just, just a little head tilt, that's all.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, but dude, it's like the little. It's like, it's, it's always like five pills that you need to take for whatever reason. Yeah, and they just gun him down the throat.

[Danny Heifetz]

There was an episode of MacGyver. I used to watch MacGyver reruns when I was a kid and there was an episode of MacGyver, where he, like, had taken some poison and he had to take the antidote, and he barely got. It was a pill, and he just took the pill and swallowed it. I was, like, 8 years old, and I'm like, I didn't even know you could do that. I thought you had to take water with it. And so now I think about this.

[Craig Korlbeck]

The lead in, like, some badass movies, like, choking on a pill, trying to take it.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think about this every day because I go to take my giant vitamin C, and I'm like, I wonder if I'm not bitch. Like MacGyver. And some days I just. If there's not a water in my bedroom already, I'll just try. And sometimes I end up like. Like the stupid orange flavor of vitamin C. Like an idiot. Yeah. This is how I start my mornings.

[Danny Kelly]

Don't understand that at all.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It's a lost skill. It's a skill that's being lost to time.

[Danny Kelly]

It should be. We don't need that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It should be. Men used to go to war and take pills. Dry.

[Danny Heifetz]

Bo Burnham. I mean, My granddad turned 27. He fought in Vietnam. And when I turned 27, I built a birdhouse with my mom.

[Danny Kelly]

It's just always like. Like, we did the rewatchables on this movie, too, for the money, which is a ridiculous movie with Al PACINO and Matthew McConaughey about sports, gambling. And Pacino is, like, you know, in his 50s or something. He's a heart issue, of course. And so it's like, three times throughout the movie, he has, like, you know, some minor cardiac arrest, and he collapses to the ground. And they always got to, like, pull out the. He's got a shaky hand trying to pour the pills so he can get his pills to calm down his heart, which, of course, you know, happens instantaneously for some reason. Like, the second it touches his tongue, his heart stops fluttering. But, yeah, it's like he's always, like, laying on the ground trying to swallow.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Three dry pills, and I just don't understand the physics. Just don't work.

[Danny Heifetz]

All right, thank you, dk. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you, John Harbaugh, for getting that contract signed. And then you, Joe Shay, not being your boss. Thank you for listening. Thank you to Cam Carlos Kai Austin. [e-mail] include your breakfast in the emails. Thank you, Lord.

[Danny Kelly]

Lord.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Thank you, Tame Impala.

[Danny Kelly]

Nice Love, Tame Impala.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, yeah. I don't know a ton about them.

[Danny Kelly]

I think you would like it's one guy, but it sounds like a. I think he has like a backup band, but it's one guy. I forget his name.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Kevin Parker.

[Danny Kelly]

Kevin Parker, yeah.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Australian.

[Danny Heifetz]

I definitely thought they were banned and found out they're not a band on this. On this show because we've done this before.

[Craig Korlbeck]

And I don't think he's considered a.

[Danny Kelly]

Band if he has like his. The same guys with him all the time. But I believe it is just like Kevin Parker kind of as the main artist here.

[Danny Heifetz]

You guys have. Tame Impal's the perfect example to me if. Do you guys have certain artists where you don't know the names of the songs, but I can see the album cover. It's like there's a room with sand filled in the corner, but I don't know what to look Up.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Up.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. Or one. There's the one Tame and Paul album.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That I really like.

[Danny Kelly]

Looks like a. Like a neutron in like the middle of like an electromagnetic field. You know what I'm talking about? It looks like like a. Oh, yeah.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I can see that now.

[Danny Kelly]

You know what I mean? Yeah, he's great. I. I. Tame Apollo is like one of my favorite artists, especially like college and a little bit after college. He makes great music. Big fan.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Dk.

[Danny Kelly]

I think you would like it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, I've heard a couple of his songs and I was like, oh, this is good. I don't know anything about this. This band, but. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Is it kind of like Imagine Dragons thinks they're making Tame Impala's music.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. He's like. I don't know how to describe Tame Impala's genre. It's like. It's like. It's rock, but there's like some. The psychedelic or that's what electronic elements to it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, it's good. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

What's the album with that psychedelic music? Yeah. Solid, though. How'd you think of them?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Just what I said. I. I listened to a few songs of theirs lately and I was just like. Or his lately. And I was just like, oh, this is pretty good. I've heard about this band before, but I never really dug into it.

[Danny Kelly]

Current is. Is a very good album. You could like, rip that whole thing and there's like nine great songs on it.

[Danny Heifetz]

Okay, who are the other bands that are like one guy or one person? And then like Blondie. Isn't that just also or no. Isn't that also just that one person?

[Craig Korlbeck]

What's up?

[Danny Heifetz]

Blonde, Two people, but you know what I mean. There are other ones where you think it's a band and it's one person.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Right.

[Danny Kelly]

It was formed by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. But yeah, I know what you mean. Where it's like you're just one person, but you don't use your name.

[Craig Korlbeck]

There's a lot of, I think, musical acts that will float between different. They have, like, different bands and different projects. They don't want to just, like, do one thing. So they're doing all kinds of different stuff.

[Danny Heifetz]

Non monogamous.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Right.

[Danny Kelly]

You know who was a band that was kind of in the Alt J or in the Tam and Paul arrange for me was Alt J. Do you remember them all? She was really good. When I was in, like, college. Right. Coming out of that.

[Craig Korlbeck]

They do the Breeze blocks.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes. I think Alt J is the perfect example to me of like, people who would tell me about music and I'd listen to it and I would pretend to get it. I think, like, they would show me, like. And they're like. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, this is good.

[Danny Kelly]

You know what?

[Danny Heifetz]

Now I'm like, I don't. I don't. I don't know what the. They were talking. I don't know what they were doing.

[Danny Kelly]

I feel that way about Geese. Geese is now blowing up. You know that band? Yes.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I don't know that band.

[Danny Heifetz]

I just found out about them last week. I don't.

[Danny Kelly]

Were there Geese?

[Danny Heifetz]

You heard about Geese?

[Danny Kelly]

All the cool people like.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Are you saying Geese?

[Danny Kelly]

See, to me, Alt J is melodic still. Alt J is like, this sounds good to my ears.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's actually pretty good. I was like, I'm kind of getting. I understand exactly what you're saying. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Geese is like, there are certain bands that are so cool, I feel like they are actively trying to sound bad.

[Craig Korlbeck]

It's like a social experiment.

[Danny Kelly]

Yes. It's like we are going to purposely make music that is not melodic and see if we can get people to like it. Because to me, Geese, it's so alternative that I don't know. People really like Geese, though.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Okay.

[Danny Kelly]

Check out.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Check them out too.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, we'll check out Geese.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Despite what I say about being an old fuddy duddy and listening to same music is when I was younger, I really do like to find new stuff. Stuff that I really like.

[Danny Kelly]

So you're.

[Danny Heifetz]

You're good about that. Email us at Ringer Fancy Football gmail.com. what do you guys want? I want other bands that you kind of would just be like, yeah, yeah, I get it. But you don't get that. For me, that was always all J.

[Craig Korlbeck]

If you had to pick, if someone that you respected their musical taste asked you, give me. Give me your favorite new band or whatever. Like, what's the best new thing that you're listening to? I want that. And it. Like, you're afraid of getting judged.

[Danny Heifetz]

Oh, no, I. I'm not afraid of getting judged. Silvanessa. I like Sylvanessa, though.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Oh, I know them. Them?

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, I like them a lot.

[Danny Kelly]

Did you ever listen to Olivia Dean dk?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Not yet. Make a list. I'm gonna. I'm gonna write that down right now.

[Danny Kelly]

By the way, how was. How is Transformers?

[Craig Korlbeck]

I haven't watched it yet.

[Danny Heifetz]

Okay. You don't like.

[Craig Korlbeck]

I didn't realize I was supposed to watch it before the next show. I thought. I thought I had some time.

[Danny Kelly]

Would you like to set a deadline?

[Craig Korlbeck]

We probably should. Or else I'm never gonna watch it.

[Danny Kelly]

I'll give you one month.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Okay.

[Danny Kelly]

Before we are in Indianapolis, you need to watch.

[Craig Korlbeck]

There we go.

[Danny Kelly]

Throw it out on the plane. Although that is disrespectful to Michael Bay.

[Danny Heifetz]

Spectacle, but I was gonna say you can't watch a Michael Bay movie in a plane. I watched the Remnant on a plane, and I. The first scene of the Revenue is like this, like, shot of the sunlight. Morning sunlight hitting the river. And I'm just like, man, he shot.

[Craig Korlbeck]

The entire movie with natural light.

[Danny Heifetz]

Two hours of natural light a day in Alaska for six months, and I'm like, I'm watching this on a plane.

[Danny Kelly]

I heard that was not the easiest shoot. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

The Revenant, natural light, it's. I guess it's. You know, it's like my socks being matched with the rest of my outfit. I don't really understand the importance of it. A few years ago, and now I'm starting to understand it, you feel like you have a.

[Danny Kelly]

Do you have a better grasp on.

[Craig Korlbeck]

What are you wearing right now? What's your sock situation?

[Danny Heifetz]

Well, I mean, you know, now I got the lower half, got cloth.

[Craig Korlbeck]

You got Crocs on or something right.

[Danny Heifetz]

Now, like, you know, brown socks.

[Danny Kelly]

You're wearing brown socks right now at home?

[Danny Heifetz]

I am.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Some people. Some people like to get dressed like they're going into work like me. I do that even though I just stay at home.

[Danny Kelly]

Are you currently dressed like you're going into work?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Do you bring a T shirt?

[Craig Korlbeck]

Well, I work in sports media. I'm not wearing a suit.

[Danny Kelly]

But you saying you. You being like, I like to get dressed like I'm going into the office, and you're just in a T shirt.

[Craig Korlbeck]

And a hat as opposed to just wearing, like, sweats all day.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, I was gonna say sweat. Craig wearing a sweatshirt. Like, what else would you be wearing? Wear a hoodie.

[Danny Kelly]

Well, it's a Craig looks nice. Like, I'm going into the office.

[Craig Korlbeck]

We don't have to dress up to go to the office. But I'm just saying getting dressed in.

[Danny Heifetz]

General, is that us being older or is that like, a change? I agree. But also is that just. We're in our 30s now.

[Craig Korlbeck]

You're embracing a new, new era of.

[Danny Kelly]

Your, I think Covid work from home, the access to, like, easy food delivery. There are so many more reasons for you to never leave your house that I feel like when you go out now, looking nice feels good. You know, something's like you put a suit on to go to a wedding. You're like, yes, every once in a while, it's kind of nice to wear a suit. Yeah. I think on a lesser scale, going out to dinner and dressing a little bit nicer rather than wearing, like, you know, joggers and a T shirt, I think just kind of feels nice. It feels like you're breaking. You're breaking up your day. The monotony of, like, wearing the same clothes all the time.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, I agree with that.

[Danny Kelly]

Or I'm 31. I don't.

[Danny Heifetz]

I think it's probably both.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Maybe it's both. Yeah.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Or I'm like, this Ralph Lauren polo looks nice.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Wow, you look good. What'd you change? I don't know. I put on real clothes.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. I'm wearing jeans and a button down.

[Danny Heifetz]

Craig's like, it's also great. We're just 31 and we're like, you know, maybe it's covet. Maybe I just have opinions on sconces now. Backsplash.

[Danny Kelly]

Do you guys say button up or button down?

[Danny Heifetz]

For what?

[Craig Korlbeck]

A button down. For sure, A button down. Maybe both. A button up shirt.

[Danny Heifetz]

Great question. I definitely button down. Yeah. I think I said button up is like, you gotta. You gotta be buttoned up. It's like, oh, it's like, you know, for a social setting, but, like, button down is the shirt in my head.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Now that I think about it, I think I say I wear a button up shirt.

[Danny Kelly]

It's funny.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Or you say a button down as its own singular word. Instead of a button down shirt, you say a button up shirt or a button down.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yes.

[Danny Kelly]

It's funny because you don't even need up or down. It should just be a button shirt.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah, that's true.

[Craig Korlbeck]

That's very true. I mean, really, when you think about it.

[Danny Kelly]

Good point.

[Danny Heifetz]

This shirt has buttons on.

[Danny Kelly]

We don't need that.

[Danny Heifetz]

It's got it.

[Craig Korlbeck]

Yeah, yeah. What if it's a button sideway?

[Danny Heifetz]

So there you go. So they just explained for everyone. Yeah. So the shirt has buttons on it. That's why, you know, they go up and down. Yeah, yeah. Just for people.

[Danny Kelly]

It's all about perspective.

[Danny Heifetz]

Yeah. Goodbye, everyone.

[Danny Kelly]

Sa.