Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: This is prime Cuts, best of the Colin Coward podcasts,
Speaker 2: Loaded Week. Former Alabama quarterback and host of Always College Football,
Speaker 2: Greg McElroy and I chop it up Nick Saban, Georgia
Speaker 2: Big Ten realignment. We talk everything. Former bearon Dolphin coach
Speaker 2: Dave Wanstadt been to Bear's training camp, some thoughts on
Speaker 2: two as well, and John middlecoffin. I go deep at
Speaker 2: a bunch of good NFL topics, but first my top takes.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about last year's preseason exhibition season and
Speaker 2: all the years I've been doing talk radio. It was
Speaker 2: the slowest preseason of all time Becausehaan McVay several years ago,
Speaker 2: as I've noted multiple times, stopped playing starters, and all
Speaker 2: these young coaches followed suits. The only story we had
Speaker 2: last year in the preseason was Kenny Pickett, who was
Speaker 2: a good college quarterback, not stupendous. He wasn't a hot
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams, Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence prospect, not even a
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray, DeShawn Watson, Baker Masonfield prospect. He's a solid
Speaker 2: guy who had a lot of college starts. And I
Speaker 2: remember thinking, after about two weeks of Kenny Pickett discussion.
Speaker 2: Thank god he plays for the Steelers. What if he
Speaker 2: had played for the Jaguars, there was just no story.
Speaker 2: This year's preseason feels entirely different. First of all, there's
Speaker 2: three first round quarterbacks. All could succeed, but I do
Speaker 2: think one of them's fascinating. Anthony Richardson for the Colts,
Speaker 2: not only because it's six five, two fifty five. He
Speaker 2: has big Ben, Cam Newton, like Josh Allen like where
Speaker 2: he will just be such a force, a productive force
Speaker 2: running the football with that new offensive coach Shane Stike
Speaker 2: and a brilliant guy who had Herbert and Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 2: So I think the culture going to be a fascinating watch.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're gonna be a great team, but
Speaker 2: between Jonathan Taylor, the run back in Anthony Richardson, I
Speaker 2: think they're going to catch people off guard. I think
Speaker 2: they're gonna look like Cam's rookie year, although he's not
Speaker 2: as polished as Cam, Big Ben, a little Josh Allen,
Speaker 2: and a little Lamar Jackson. It's going to be all
Speaker 2: of that mixed into one. So I think that's fascinating.
Speaker 2: I think Bryce Young is interesting because Frank Reich is
Speaker 2: one of those coaches that didn't get a ton of
Speaker 2: credit because he had reclamation projects. He had to clean
Speaker 2: up Andrew Luck clean up Philip Rivers clean up Carson
Speaker 2: Wentz all three, three for three. Frank Wright did an
Speaker 2: amazing job. Now he gets a rookie Bryce Young, who
Speaker 2: I think was head and shoulders above the other quarterbacks
Speaker 2: coming into this draft. I'm fascinated by that. Also in
Speaker 2: this preseason, Sean Paytons said I'm gonna play Russell Wilson
Speaker 2: really interesting. My guess is Russell reverts to about seventy
Speaker 2: five to eighty percent of what he was at his prime.
Speaker 2: But I don't think he's as good. I think quarterbacks
Speaker 2: that move get hit more, quarterbacks that get hit more,
Speaker 2: age much quicker. I mean, Big Ben got old fast,
Speaker 2: Cam got old fast. I was talking to Michael Vick
Speaker 2: on FS one yesterday and it was about, you know,
Speaker 2: year five or six that Michael Vick, the fastest player
Speaker 2: in the league, couldn't outrun Carolina Is outside linebacker Thomas Davis.
Speaker 2: And that's when Michael realized, Okay, everything's changed. So I
Speaker 2: think this preseason's got a lot of stories not to mention.
Speaker 2: I think Week one Buffalo and the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. Listen, man,
Speaker 2: you look at that Jet schedule and that's a tough
Speaker 2: matchup with Buffalo, very good front seven, very good pass rush.
Speaker 2: Jets start zero to one. Fair not there's going to
Speaker 2: be heat on Aaron Rodgers because their early schedule for
Speaker 2: six games is a gauntlet. So I feel differently about
Speaker 2: this August. I'm excited for it. Last year I felt
Speaker 2: like I was just trying to fill space. But Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 2: Bryce young A, Russell Wilson all really interesting to me.
Speaker 2: And the other one I'd throw out there that I
Speaker 2: find myself kind of rooting for is mac Jones of
Speaker 2: the Patriots. I contend that mac Jones is as good
Speaker 2: as Kenny Pickett, not as athletic, doesn't run as well.
Speaker 2: I think he throws a better football, and I thought
Speaker 2: I thought the organization completely got in mac jones way
Speaker 2: last year. I think mac Jones is going to revert
Speaker 2: to a good B quarterback, sort of a Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: with maybe a little better arm. I think mac Jones
Speaker 2: maybe not quite as accurate, but a little better arm.
Speaker 2: And if mac Jones becomes Kirk Cousins. Then Bill Belichick's
Speaker 2: back on track and can make the playoffs and win
Speaker 2: playoff games, maybe the division. So this preseason pro football
Speaker 2: fired up. I want to give you a story though. So,
Speaker 2: as many of you know, last football season, I had
Speaker 2: Sean Payton joining me four out of five Mondays. He
Speaker 2: was spectacular, and Sean and I got along great on
Speaker 2: the air, off the air discussions. I think he trusted me.
Speaker 2: I certainly learned a lot from him. And as the
Speaker 2: football season approached the Super Bowl near the end, he
Speaker 2: had asked me, I think I can share this now, Hey,
Speaker 2: what's my market value? What should I be looking at here?
Speaker 2: He was really interested in Fox. He liked Fox, he
Speaker 2: liked broadcasting, and he really enjoyed it. He liked living
Speaker 2: on the beach in Los Angeles. He just loved it.
Speaker 2: He was all over town. He was really genuinely happy,
Speaker 2: and he was really committed to it. He really cared
Speaker 2: about it. He made calls. He was terrific and may
Speaker 2: still be someday, but he was really committed and very focused.
Speaker 2: And then one day he wasn't because the Denver Broncos
Speaker 2: offered him four and a half to five times more
Speaker 2: than Fox did. A man is as loyal as his
Speaker 2: options as committe and Chris Rock want sent for those
Speaker 2: belly aching about USC UCLA, Washington, Oregon leaving the Pac twelve,
Speaker 2: this is a conference that has continued to drop the ball,
Speaker 2: hired the wrong people to run the conference, been slow
Speaker 2: to see stuff about the future of college sports that
Speaker 2: appears obvious. Sometimes stubborn, nose in the air, a little
Speaker 2: too precious for their own good. And so the Big
Speaker 2: Ten is a bigger, broader conference, It's a better conference,
Speaker 2: smack dab in the middle of the country with that
Speaker 2: mid Western work ethos. Even though they produce significantly larger
Speaker 2: revenue than the Pac twelve, they don't have their arrogance.
Speaker 2: And maybe it's because the Stanford cal UCLA excellence academically, historically,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. But the Big Ten is big boy stadiums,
Speaker 2: sold out stadiums, better TV contracts, more committed financially, more
Speaker 2: committed fan bases, more committed boosters. That's where you have
Speaker 2: to go. What in the world has col ever done
Speaker 2: for the PAC twelve's football conference? Why would you be
Speaker 2: loyal to that? Why would you be loyal to an
Speaker 2: Oregon State Arizona game in corvallis what does it mean?
Speaker 2: This is a better conference, a better opportunity, and sometimes
Speaker 2: it's survival of the fittest and survival of the brightest
Speaker 2: and survival of the future. We're seeing the globalization of
Speaker 2: economies college football. This is like globalization. And when I
Speaker 2: hear the belly aching, my takeaway is what are we
Speaker 2: losing here? Some regional rivalries. Washington's already said they want
Speaker 2: to play Washington State, all right, Okay, Oregon will probably
Speaker 2: continue to play Oregon State.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: We're not losing a lot here. And I can tell
Speaker 2: you firsthand that USC has been looking and discussing moving
Speaker 2: away from the conference for the last four years and
Speaker 2: then they finally did it. So you know, when I
Speaker 2: hear anybody in any industry clamoring for loyalty, my takeaway
Speaker 2: as always, have you ever been offered something that's spectacular
Speaker 2: a role, a job, a salary, a relocation, an opportunity.
Speaker 2: It's easy to bang that loyalty drum when nobody's clamoring
Speaker 2: for your talent, or your team or your business. Life
Speaker 2: is about opportunities. The four best football programs in the
Speaker 2: Pac twelve arguably three for sure, Washington, Oregon, USC and
Speaker 2: then Utah is better than UCLA. But sometimes market size matters.
Speaker 2: They're all going to greener pastures, greener in terms of revenue,
Speaker 2: in terms of stadium capacity, a commitment. And I hear
Speaker 2: this too, Well, what about the other sports? What about them?
Speaker 2: They lose money? College football drives a bus. So you're
Speaker 2: going to take care of football first. If you were
Speaker 2: in a family and you paid all the bills, shouldn't
Speaker 2: you have the greatest say? You know, when you look
Speaker 2: at the NCAA March Madness Tournament, CBS foots the bill.
Speaker 2: They pay for the wedding. If I paid for the wedding,
Speaker 2: don't I get a say in the seating chart? So
Speaker 2: if CBS says we're not going to pick what teams
Speaker 2: get in, but we'd like to say in the second
Speaker 2: and third round matchups, potentially, why shouldn't they they're paying
Speaker 2: for the wedding. They just want to say in the
Speaker 2: seating chart. So I grew up with Pac twelve football,
Speaker 2: but it has been eroding for years. It's out of touch,
Speaker 2: it's too precious, too snooty, and the Big ten's a
Speaker 2: better product now and going forward it's not even arguable. Well,
Speaker 2: Greg McElroy was at the very early stages of the
Speaker 2: Alabama dynasty, and the early stages of the dynasty, quarterbacks
Speaker 2: got no Efen credit. It was all defense. Now it's
Speaker 2: not about linebackers and safeties and corners. Now, Saban, the
Speaker 2: brilliant man that he is, has really pivoted in transitioned
Speaker 2: to more of an offensively dynamic dynasty. And Greg, I
Speaker 2: want to bring you in on this. The world changed,
Speaker 2: and a lot of people Greg don't change with the world.
Speaker 2: And I got to give Saban a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: About the time Lane Kiffin got there, he started really
Speaker 2: really upping his game with offensive play. When he started
Speaker 2: your years, it was McLain the linebacker, it was corners,
Speaker 2: it was right, and guys like you were like, well,
Speaker 2: Greg just hands the ball off. And I always feel
Speaker 2: like Greg actually played in the league. Greg was really good.
Speaker 2: But when you look at it now, there are some
Speaker 2: remnants of it. But when did you notice that it
Speaker 2: really pivoted to more of a usc feeling dynasty or
Speaker 2: you know, a mac Brown dynasty where the offense is
Speaker 2: a sixty forty advantage.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's well observed it had to
Speaker 1: have been fourteen when Lane Kiffin came in, and it's
Speaker 1: easy to look at it through the lens of the
Speaker 1: USC because that's where Lane came from.
Speaker 3: Site.
Speaker 1: They really started to acknowledge there was a time and
Speaker 1: a shift in college football at that time where Ole
Speaker 1: Miss was starting to roll a little bit and they
Speaker 1: needed to kind of start scoring some points. Auburn had
Speaker 1: just been to the National Championship in twenty thirteen on
Speaker 1: the heels of a high obtained, high tempo offense that
Speaker 1: really created a lot of conflict for the defense. I
Speaker 1: think coach Saban started to realize and it's going to
Speaker 1: be really hard to win games twenty one to thirteen
Speaker 1: moving forward, So we're going to have to get real
Speaker 1: comfortable winning games forty two forty one, which he's had
Speaker 1: to do a couple of times now. I actually think
Speaker 1: Colin where it's starting to go back, though, because teams
Speaker 1: can now simulate with their scout teams the tempo. They
Speaker 1: can simulate the quarterback play, they can simulate the run
Speaker 1: pass options. But what they can't simulate is incredible offensive
Speaker 1: line play. A fullback that's coming at you one hundred
Speaker 1: miles an hour and blowing up your middle linebackers. So
Speaker 1: I actually think the pendulum starting to shift back the
Speaker 1: other way. And we've kind of seen that with Nick
Speaker 1: Saban's hire of Tommy Reese. Because of Notre Dame, we
Speaker 1: knew what he was all about. It was three yards
Speaker 1: in the cloud of dust, right downhill until you liked it.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if you're sensing something similar in college
Speaker 1: football as well well.
Speaker 2: I say, you can't really look at Georgia and say
Speaker 2: we could duplicate that. Okay, so the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: You better recruit, you better be able to get some
Speaker 1: dudes in on defense.
Speaker 2: Georgia was always the sleeping giant in college football. I
Speaker 2: mean for years and years you would talk to NFL
Speaker 2: scouts and they're like, why doesn't Georgia win more? You know,
Speaker 2: we always know that the state of Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
Speaker 2: California have a lot of players. Ohio, Georgia now has
Speaker 2: as many D one players as California, and you have
Speaker 2: a third of the population or a quarter of the population.
Speaker 2: So I don't think Georgia is something you can duplicate.
Speaker 2: They do remind me a little of Alabama early where
Speaker 2: it's a defensive culture with very capable quarterbacks who are
Speaker 2: going to get drafted. You Aj mccerroon. Maybe not superstars,
Speaker 2: maybe not like like a Caleb Williams or a Vince Young,
Speaker 2: but it's a defensive leaning culture. I just think they
Speaker 2: recruit at a different level. And George has always been
Speaker 2: a sleeping giant. But you know, I've said this for years,
Speaker 2: even though I work at Fox and we have the
Speaker 2: Big Ten, and I said this for years when I
Speaker 2: worked at ESPN. People SEC dominance, recruiting, Draft Day and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Get over it. It's the best conference. Here's though, what's
Speaker 2: really fascinating by including Texas and Oklahoma, and I think
Speaker 2: specifically Texas, that's another game on the schedule that's going
Speaker 2: to be It's becoming an arms race Texas money Texas coaching.
Speaker 2: I know the SEC fans thumps their chest, but do
Speaker 2: you really want to face LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas in
Speaker 2: one season? Is there anybody in the South that's going
Speaker 2: this isn't potentially and you're going to add Clemson in
Speaker 2: Florida state here in the next eighteen months as well.
Speaker 2: Could you become just too rich, you're the AFC, you're
Speaker 2: too powerful, there's too many stars. I think that there
Speaker 2: are programs. Mississippi State a good example.
Speaker 1: When the schedules came out for the twenty four season,
Speaker 1: Mississippi State didn't have Alabama on the schedule, they didn't
Speaker 1: have many of their SEC West foes, and they were
Speaker 1: doing parades through the middle of Starkfield. But hang on,
Speaker 1: that's your closest team as far as proximities can start,
Speaker 1: even more even closer, as far as just straight mileage
Speaker 1: from Starkfield and Tuscaloosa than it is to Oxford, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: where all miss resides. And they said, no, no, no, we
Speaker 1: don't want to play. So I think for some they
Speaker 1: are a little bit not all to say intimidated, but
Speaker 1: it's they kind of acknowledge where they are at in
Speaker 1: the pecking order. But I also think too if players
Speaker 1: are going to flock to it and the money's going
Speaker 1: to be there, but we look at the I mean,
Speaker 1: the Big Ten is comparable. I mean, I think I
Speaker 1: think Wisconsin's an unbelievable program with tremendous history and success.
Speaker 1: We know what Michigan is, we know what Ohio State is,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing Michigan State at their best, even though they
Speaker 1: didn't have their best that date, but they were eleven
Speaker 1: to win Team ten twelve years ago, playoff team back
Speaker 1: fifteen SC is. I think you reference Georgia is a
Speaker 1: sleeping giant. SC to me has been a sleeping giant
Speaker 1: for two decades, because there was a time when I
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old when I never thought I'd see
Speaker 1: him lose a game. I think UCLA is dangerous because
Speaker 1: Chick Kelly, now in the nil era with his NFL pedigree,
Speaker 1: understands how to work that system. Washington is just getting
Speaker 1: started at or killing the morse. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: one right now that is significantly more difficult than the other.
Speaker 1: I think the SEC bottom is better than the big
Speaker 1: tenth bottom. But at the top you have very capable
Speaker 1: programs with tremendous resources that they're disposed.
Speaker 2: As a PAC twelve, die hard and loyalist. I had
Speaker 2: told friends five years ago that it wasn't going to survive,
Speaker 2: and my takeaway was once the NFL came back to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles with two teams, is that you know Pete
Speaker 2: Carroll was in a time no NFL in La all
Speaker 2: the resources, all the resources all the time, sellout and
Speaker 2: also people were spending their money on USC. People were
Speaker 2: totally supportive of USC. Games were sellouts. Also, you didn't
Speaker 2: have a Pac ten tournament you could lose. You didn't
Speaker 2: have to play a semmifinal game. If you were great
Speaker 2: and you beat your Oregon States, Arizona States, in Washington,
Speaker 2: you ended up playing for the national championship if somebody
Speaker 2: thought you were good enough. So it's a different time,
Speaker 2: and so I'm not that I'm not bothered. I'm bummed
Speaker 2: out about the Pac twelve, but I s was it's
Speaker 2: a sec Big ten money is just greater. How is
Speaker 2: that viewed in the South? How do you look at it?
Speaker 2: You guys always think we're soft out here anyway, But
Speaker 2: how is it viewed that the four best teams are
Speaker 2: basically going to join the enemy in the Big ten?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if I want any of my
Speaker 1: Southern friends to know that I'm actually originally from Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't want to be perceived as soft.
Speaker 1: I don't think you are, necessarily. I do think that
Speaker 1: there is a bit of a perception that when it's
Speaker 1: good against good and best against best, the likelihood of
Speaker 1: the SEC winning that game is higher than that of
Speaker 1: what we see sometime from the Big Ten. I mean,
Speaker 1: Ohio State did beat Alabama at fourteen, has beaten the SEC,
Speaker 1: team came within a field goal a way of probably
Speaker 1: being the national champion last year, but those have been
Speaker 1: more few and far between, even dating back to the
Speaker 1: two thousand and six two thousand and seven when the
Speaker 1: Big Ten just had a difficult time matching up on
Speaker 1: annual basis against the best that the SEC had to offer,
Speaker 1: when the SEC won every championship from O eight all
Speaker 1: the way up until twenty thirteen when Florida State finally
Speaker 1: brought it home. So I think that will be kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting evaluation. It's going to be a tug
Speaker 1: of war. I mean, we don't like them, they don't
Speaker 1: like us type of mentality for Big Ten fans and
Speaker 1: for SEC fans. Some will pound their chest about the money,
Speaker 1: or some will pound their chest about the ratings. Everyone's
Speaker 1: seemingly trying to find an edge, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I still feel like the edge is that both leagues
Speaker 1: are beyond delete. It's just whether or not.
Speaker 3: Now the Big.
Speaker 1: Ten, which doesn't have as much talent density as the SEC,
Speaker 1: if they'll be able to go south and attract kids
Speaker 1: up to the north to play at some of those
Speaker 1: places with a few less Division IE level high caliber
Speaker 1: prospects that they would normally have at their disposal of
Speaker 1: the SEC. Like South Carolina goes down the street, they
Speaker 1: can get fifteen guys that can play high level D
Speaker 1: one ball io one might have to go two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty miles in every direction and they might not
Speaker 1: find that many. So I think it's just a little
Speaker 1: bit more difficult when it comes to the recruiting pipeline.
Speaker 1: But if the identities are clearly established in the Big ten,
Speaker 1: I think they can play with anybody.
Speaker 2: I love Saban. I think sometimes he can be If
Speaker 2: Nick wants to talk about something, he's going to go
Speaker 2: to the podium and he's going to find something that
Speaker 2: can get him into what he already wants to talk about.
Speaker 2: He does this all the time, about three times a year.
Speaker 2: It's like, I'm going to talk about transfer portal. I
Speaker 2: don't care what your question is, I'm going to bring
Speaker 2: it up. And there have been two different occasions where
Speaker 2: he's complained about the NIL and he said, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not even it's not fair. And my takeaway has
Speaker 2: always been that's a message. And my gut feeling was
Speaker 2: he's a little concerned about Texas, that the fact that
Speaker 2: Texas money is like USC can't comp with it, Phil
Speaker 2: Knight and Oregon can't comp with it. The Longhorns have
Speaker 2: two to three billionaire donors, and that when Nick talks
Speaker 2: about the NIL, my takeaway is he's doing some battles
Speaker 2: with Sark and some of these they're wrestling people away.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're getting great recruits. That's my take What
Speaker 2: is yours? When he complains about the NIL, because Alabama
Speaker 2: is collective, I'm sure is just fine. Why is he
Speaker 2: doing that?
Speaker 1: I think it's as much calling to rally the troops
Speaker 1: of his own fan base. Everyone made a big deal
Speaker 1: about the argument between Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban back
Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty two. It was never about
Speaker 1: Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban. It was never about Alabama
Speaker 1: against Texas, A and m what he was doing and
Speaker 1: what he thought was a controlled environment amongst friends and
Speaker 1: family on knowing that there was televisions there and all
Speaker 1: this other stuff and say hey, look these guys, look
Speaker 1: at the recruiting class they were just able to bring home.
Speaker 1: You guys better step it up. That was a call
Speaker 1: to action for his own fan base, I think more
Speaker 1: so than it was being frustrated with the current system.
Speaker 1: I mean, are there as many billionaire donors in the
Speaker 1: state of Alabama's that are on the state Texas. No,
Speaker 1: But I would be willing to probably go probably on
Speaker 1: the record and saying I'd be willing to bet that
Speaker 1: people to worth five or six hundred million are putting
Speaker 1: up a higher percentage of their net worth to make
Speaker 1: sure that Alabama succeeds than maybe in Texas or in
Speaker 1: California or other places. It just means a lot in
Speaker 1: this particular state. So I will be interested to see
Speaker 1: how that all unfolds and how the arms race really
Speaker 1: ends up working out. I'm really actually more interested, though
Speaker 1: not as much in nil. But what would you do
Speaker 1: if you were one of those teams right now that
Speaker 1: is perceived to not have that war chest of nil
Speaker 1: at your disposal, if you're behind as far as you're
Speaker 1: as far as your approach right now and your television contract.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say Florida's taking Clemson because I
Speaker 1: think they have enough resources to be able to support
Speaker 1: them on the recruiting trail. Just look at how they've
Speaker 1: fared in recent years. But what message would you said
Speaker 1: if you were one of those teams that was lacking
Speaker 1: behind and not a part of the Big two or
Speaker 1: hopefully en route to the Big Two.
Speaker 2: Well, Greg, my belief is is that college football is
Speaker 2: going to become a little bit like college basketball, that
Speaker 2: the playoff is going to be a big chunk of
Speaker 2: the sport. It will go to twelve, then I think
Speaker 2: it will go to sixteen or twenty four. Now people
Speaker 2: are concerned that will ruin the college football regular season,
Speaker 2: and here's why it won't, Because Greg, March madness did
Speaker 2: not kill college basketball's regular season. We watched Latner, we
Speaker 2: watched the run in Rebels, we watched Georgetown. We had
Speaker 2: March madness. What is killed college basketball is one and
Speaker 2: done culture. The quality is not good. The playoffs not
Speaker 2: going to hurt college football. Because you watch LSU play Georgia,
Speaker 2: there's thirty four NFL players.
Speaker 3: On the field.
Speaker 2: Because of the cultural reality of college football, you have
Speaker 2: to play three years. Most guys play four. You have
Speaker 2: grown men playing. People think by adding to the playoff.
Speaker 2: It'll hurt college football's regular season. And I said this
Speaker 2: two days ago on my show. Texas is playing Bama,
Speaker 2: You're not watching. Really, Georgie's playing LSU or Oklahoma, you're
Speaker 2: not watching. Really. USC's at Michigan. You're watching, and you're
Speaker 2: watching even though they made meet to get in the playoff.
Speaker 2: You're watching because Caleb Williams is going to be against
Speaker 2: their first round quarterback pick. It's Harbaugh and Lincoln Riley
Speaker 2: play end of the year. Playoffs don't kill the sport.
Speaker 2: Lack of quality has killed college basketball. Hell Victor Weban Yama,
Speaker 2: he didn't even play college basketball, Scoot Henderson, Jalen Green.
Speaker 2: So as long as you're forced to go to college,
Speaker 2: I'm going to watch Georgia, Bama, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan,
Speaker 2: Ohio State. But I do think, Greg to your initial question,
Speaker 2: the bottom part of that ten eleven, twelve, that's gonna
Speaker 2: be the area where in Oregon State can win that
Speaker 2: Mountain West. If that happens and they can get in,
Speaker 2: you're gonna get four from the SEC, four from the
Speaker 2: Big ten, one or two from the Big twelve. But
Speaker 2: instead of getting like Cincinnati, and we argue about it.
Speaker 2: You get two of those, you get two of those,
Speaker 2: And so I think what will happen is we're gonna
Speaker 2: do twelve for about four years. It's gonna make everybody
Speaker 2: a fortune, and everybody's gonna go, all right, let's go
Speaker 2: to sixteen and it won't hurt the sport. You're gonna
Speaker 2: watch Auburn Alabama even if you played a second time, Greg,
Speaker 2: you and I have watched march Mandess since we were kids.
Speaker 3: If Duke and.
Speaker 2: Carolina play in the Elite eight for the fourth time,
Speaker 2: we're watching.
Speaker 1: You're right, there's no denying that. But I am curious
Speaker 1: your thoughts. Are we getting to a point in the
Speaker 1: nil era in the college football world where they're looking
Speaker 1: at the top twenty five. The Coaches Pole came out
Speaker 1: the other day and people are saying, all right, how
Speaker 1: many teams can win it? And people aren't getting past
Speaker 1: five right now as far as teams that can actually
Speaker 1: win the championship. Now, Caleb Williams elevate his team to
Speaker 1: a level that is just unrecognizable and maybe pull off
Speaker 1: two upsets and route to a championship. Sure, but the
Speaker 1: Vince Young taking over the game against USC back in five.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like it's as capable nowadays? Do you
Speaker 1: still think that Cinderella or a run like a Cinderella
Speaker 1: is possible in college football?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do because I think the SEC has always had
Speaker 2: more elite athletes, but the game used to be tighter
Speaker 2: and smaller, and that Nick Saban could suffocate you. I
Speaker 2: watched the Ohio State play Georgia, and just because of those
Speaker 2: receivers for Ohio, Ohio State and CJ. Stroud, they moved
Speaker 2: that ball. I thought they were the better team that day.
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams, quinn yours, c J Stroud. The game is
Speaker 2: you know, if you go back Greg and go back
Speaker 2: to Nebraska when they were winning titles, they had one
Speaker 2: receiver wide right. I mean everybody was jammed up.
Speaker 4: On the size of my screen.
Speaker 2: The game is so fast and so wide, and so
Speaker 2: many young players now want to be quarterbacks or wide
Speaker 2: receivers that nobody, including Nick Saban or Georgia is going
Speaker 2: to cover Marvin Harrison. You can't do it. And so
Speaker 2: I think the USC's and the Texas and the Notre
Speaker 2: Dames may need to have a Caleb Williams or a
Speaker 2: Vince young. Okay, they have to make up something right.
Speaker 2: Stetan Bennett's good. Caleb Williams is different. Trevor Lawrence beat Spama.
Speaker 2: Those schools to beat the SEC king have to be
Speaker 2: better at quarterback and probably transcendent. You know, a Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2: That's a different Caleb's a different kind of number one pick.
Speaker 2: I mean, Baker was a number one pick. Caleb that's
Speaker 2: not close. And I do think the field is so
Speaker 2: spread now and the offense of coaching is so good
Speaker 2: that if you have that superstar quarterback and you're eighty
Speaker 2: five percent of George's roster Obama's roster, you can win.
Speaker 2: I watched Tennessee last year. Drop A was like a
Speaker 2: fifty burger on Alabama. They couldn't stop them with Hndon Hooker.
Speaker 1: That's it. They've scored fifty two. Look at you, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you please, sure rub it in and bringing it up.
Speaker 1: I appreciate, appreciate the reference. I am curious your thoughts
Speaker 1: on this because I don't think anyone in the world
Speaker 1: does a better job with analogies and being able to
Speaker 1: recreate the idea and the visual. As I'm listening to you,
Speaker 1: you can sumped up something up and I'm like, how
Speaker 1: did we come up with that? And I tried to
Speaker 1: do my best calling Calbert impression and said, if you
Speaker 1: put too much on the quarterback's shoulders, it's like the
Speaker 1: quarterback is the bicep and all you do are curls. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: your triceps are atrophy, your tecks are atrophy, your legs
Speaker 1: are atrophy. If you put too much on that position,
Speaker 1: it's going to actually result in the rest of your
Speaker 1: team not be is good. Now, it's totally opposite from
Speaker 1: what you just described, but I think there's a real
Speaker 1: analogy to be made at say Alabama, maybe even USC
Speaker 1: to a certain extent last year at Ohio State at times,
Speaker 1: especially on defense back in the end of the Urban
Speaker 1: Meyer era, early early era of what Ryan Day is doing.
Speaker 2: He's the former Dolphins head coach, Chicago Bears head coach,
Speaker 2: Cowboy defensive coordinator, part of the Super Bowl twenty seven win,
Speaker 2: longtime pit coach. One of Natty is a Miami DC
Speaker 2: Rose Bowl d line coach for USC, analyzing football for
Speaker 2: NBC Sports in Chicago, the Big Ten Network six seventy
Speaker 2: to score in Chicago and on the thirty third team,
Speaker 2: which has been really a quickly growing website full of
Speaker 2: former NFL front office guys and coaches that I really like.
Speaker 2: It's Dave Wanstat. So last time we talked, you said
Speaker 2: Chicago's a seven eight win team. You were at practice Wednesday.
Speaker 2: They've now added a rush end from the Ravens, who
Speaker 2: was on the market. You were at practice Wednesday. Do
Speaker 2: you still feel like it's a seven eight win team?
Speaker 3: I do. I'm going to say, call them. When you
Speaker 3: were reading that introduction sounds to me like a guy
Speaker 3: couldn't hold a job very long anywhere. No. The Bears, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was up there. I'll tell you what. They have
Speaker 3: been fantastic to me. I spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: with George McCaskey when I just happened to bump into
Speaker 3: him when I got there and I was up with
Speaker 3: Matt Eberflus's office. We were talking defense and coverages on
Speaker 3: the board, and then stood with Ryan Poles most of
Speaker 3: the practice. So I got a real good feel for
Speaker 3: not just what they did that day, but kind of
Speaker 3: the big picture and the vision, and a couple of
Speaker 3: things jumped at me, you know, because everybody's talking about
Speaker 3: this would go for any NFL team, any college team.
Speaker 3: I think everyone's talking about, well, they got started and
Speaker 3: the defense, the offense is where they're supposed to be,
Speaker 3: the defense is ahead of them. Well, I've never been
Speaker 3: on a team at any level where when you start
Speaker 3: training camp where your defense better be ahead of your offense.
Speaker 3: If the offense is out there and they're tearing apart
Speaker 3: and they're making plays from the get go and the
Speaker 3: defense is trying to catch up, it doesn't work that
Speaker 3: way in my opinion. So I kind of like where
Speaker 3: the Bears are at right now because defensively they've had
Speaker 3: some great additions and another year in Mattie Reflus's system
Speaker 3: everything that goes along with it. So I like where
Speaker 3: they're at right now from an offense, defense, special teams.
Speaker 3: The second thing that I looked at was, you know
Speaker 3: a lot of players they run four or five in
Speaker 3: shorts OTAs and then you put the pads on and
Speaker 3: guess what they become four eight players. They can't carry
Speaker 3: the pads. That's not the case with the Bears. This
Speaker 3: is a fast, young football team, and I was impressed
Speaker 3: on their and not just their energy level, but how
Speaker 3: quick they were across the field. And the last thing
Speaker 3: was that I walked down and there saying, Wow, you
Speaker 3: know what, Ryan pooles, he has a plan and this
Speaker 3: guy's gone a good job. If you look at their
Speaker 3: free agents that they've signed, and you look at the
Speaker 3: draft picks that they've drafted, you know, this guy has
Speaker 3: got a plan and he has stayed with it. And
Speaker 3: you mentioned he just you know, they just added Yanic
Speaker 3: probably the not just maybe the best edge rusher available now.
Speaker 3: But he's twenty nine years old, right, and that's that's
Speaker 3: kind of been a foundation platform for the Bears. Every
Speaker 3: free agent they didn't talk to anybody that was older
Speaker 3: than twenty eight years old. So they're a young football
Speaker 3: team moving forward with a lot of team speed right now.
Speaker 3: And they get some great competition going they really do.
Speaker 2: You know, it is interesting the Chase Claypool acquisition got heat,
Speaker 2: but because Mooney's a smaller athlete at Claypool is a
Speaker 2: beables like a tight end. I understood it from body,
Speaker 2: from the body perspective. He just didn't have anybody on
Speaker 2: your roster like him. So Cole Comment, Robert Tanyaan, Chase Claypole,
Speaker 2: those are big bodies downfield. Mooney, who I think is
Speaker 2: a terrific players. Tiny, I do worry about Claypool. Last
Speaker 2: year he kind of disappeared. Are they worried about him
Speaker 2: because they gave up a second round pick for him?
Speaker 3: Yeah? They they are, but they aren't. I'll tell you
Speaker 3: why I call him. He said his fourth year. He's
Speaker 3: in a contract year. And you know that's that motivates players. Pressure,
Speaker 3: peer pressure or money, that's what motivates these professional players.
Speaker 3: Let's get you know that that's real. And so they
Speaker 3: got clay Pool right where they're going to get the
Speaker 3: best effort that he can possibly give, and we're gonna
Speaker 3: find out what that is. You mentioned Mooney. That was
Speaker 3: another bright spot. They were talking about Mooney a month
Speaker 3: ago here in Chicago maybe being ready for the opener. Hey,
Speaker 3: I saw him. I was up there in full pass.
Speaker 3: He got knocked down and got right up off the
Speaker 3: ground and got back in the huddle. So he's backing
Speaker 3: in DJ Moore and in Comet. They we know Cole Kmett,
Speaker 3: but you know who might be the sleeper of their
Speaker 3: free agent signings. Robert Tunyan from Green Bay. This guy
Speaker 3: is a player. They flex him up, they flex him out,
Speaker 3: and from an athletic standpoint. He's not going to be
Speaker 3: an every don all round player like Comet the physicalness,
Speaker 3: but you flex him out in the slot like they
Speaker 3: used to do with Gronk and Tony Gonzalez and get
Speaker 3: him one on one with the linebacker, he's gonna win
Speaker 3: that battle. That was a good sign for the Bears. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 2: He's also good in the red zone. Smart player, He's
Speaker 2: a guy that gets open in tight spots. So now
Speaker 2: I think they're offensive. I think Justin Fields has to
Speaker 2: post eight or nine wins, has to show improvement. My
Speaker 2: guess is he does. You know you coach the Dolphins
Speaker 2: for years and you know them very well, and it's
Speaker 2: a they're sort of in the league for me because
Speaker 2: of to his concussions. I just don't know what to
Speaker 2: make of them. But I did think of this. So
Speaker 2: they went and got Mike White a backup, and I
Speaker 2: thought to myself, generally speaking, even in blowouts, Peyton Manning,
Speaker 2: Tom Brady Mahomes, stay in the game. I could see
Speaker 2: Mike McDaniel saying, listen, we're up plus ten points, eight
Speaker 2: minutes left, we're getting two out of there. What would
Speaker 2: you do? Because it's not in any other injury, Dave,
Speaker 2: if he has a concussion, there's going to be so
Speaker 2: much public and medical pressure and media pressure. You can't
Speaker 2: plan for a month. He gets hurt September fourteenth, you
Speaker 2: can't plan until October twentieest. How would you manage the
Speaker 2: Tua concussion situation?
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know you're you're right, and it's
Speaker 3: almost to the point where you know they he went
Speaker 3: and did the what he do the karate or jiu
Speaker 3: jitsu or everything, and then he put on weight. I
Speaker 3: like the idea he put on a little bit of weight, okay,
Speaker 3: because he's a good enough athlete he can carry. That
Speaker 3: should give him strength. But I'll tell you the number
Speaker 3: one thing that I would tell him, we are not
Speaker 3: going to try to extend plays. I think that's when
Speaker 3: he you know, it's going to have to be a
Speaker 3: situation where I drop back, I see my first read.
Speaker 3: If I don't like it, maybe get rid of the football.
Speaker 3: That's what I would be spending time with on Tua.
Speaker 3: You cannot hold the football because everybody talks about, oh, well,
Speaker 3: they're teaching them how to fall when you get hit.
Speaker 3: You know what they say, the guy that gets quarterbacks
Speaker 3: and causes turnovers. It's the guy a quarterback doesn't see,
Speaker 3: you know. So I don't buy this stuff at all.
Speaker 3: Here they come now, I'm going to cradle run, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna put my That doesn't happen that way. That's unrealistic.
Speaker 3: So he's because the guy's hitting him. You never see
Speaker 3: him coming. So I would just say, let's prevent holding
Speaker 3: the ball that I think that's the best answer, and
Speaker 3: don't over talk about it. It'll become a mental thing
Speaker 3: with the kid.
Speaker 2: Well, the good news is Shanahan and Mike McDaniel run
Speaker 2: the same offense, and both those coaches like the ball
Speaker 2: out of your hands quickly. I mean, Garoppolo had some limitations. Dave,
Speaker 2: he got that thing. He got rid of that thing
Speaker 2: fast and accurately. And so you know, Miami's got the
Speaker 2: vic Fangio. I was told by somebody in the league
Speaker 2: that they thought Fangio was the best defensive mind in
Speaker 2: football today after Belichick in kind of Layman's terms, what
Speaker 2: makes Fangio tick? Like, what are guys like you? What
Speaker 2: do you hear about Fangio? He didn't have, you know,
Speaker 2: he didn't get a head coaching break until he was
Speaker 2: like late sixties, So he's probably not a big personality guy.
Speaker 2: But people that I talked to in the league just
Speaker 2: go on and on about his schemes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've known Vic for thirty years. In fact, when
Speaker 3: he was up at the Bears as a defensive coordinator
Speaker 3: with Ron, I was up and we spent time together
Speaker 3: and just reminiscent and so forth, and so I studied
Speaker 3: him close. I've coached against him, and one thing that
Speaker 3: he is he is not. You know, he's not a
Speaker 3: big blitz guy. Okay, so he's he's a guy that's
Speaker 3: going to put the defense. He's a little bit of
Speaker 3: the Belichick mentality, what are you doing best? We're going
Speaker 3: to take that away, and they do not make mistakes.
Speaker 3: When you play against the Vic Fangio defense, you're not
Speaker 3: going to see guys running wide open down the field,
Speaker 3: and you're not going to see open gaps at the
Speaker 3: line of scrimmage. I mean, these guys are going to
Speaker 3: play hard, and they're gonna play sound, and they're going
Speaker 3: to make you out execute them. And I think in
Speaker 3: today's NFL world where everybody's at all, these offensive guys
Speaker 3: are geniuses. They get bored. Colin You've heard me say
Speaker 3: this for years. Don't get bored. Most offensive coordinators get bored. Okay,
Speaker 3: they got bored. And we talked about the head coach
Speaker 3: down on McDaniels. He got hired because he was the
Speaker 3: run coordinator at San Francisco. And they're playing the Buffalo
Speaker 3: Bills and they got a third team quarterback in there
Speaker 3: last year, the kid from Kansas State. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: think of his name, Skyler Thompson. And they throw the
Speaker 3: ball twice as much as they run it. If they
Speaker 3: run the ball in the fourth quarter, they win that game.
Speaker 3: I mean, it made no sense to me. So how
Speaker 3: do you help Tua and how can you help that defense?
Speaker 3: You know, and I know it's tempting. When you got
Speaker 3: Tarik Hill and you got you got Dwaddle, you got
Speaker 3: a lot of skill talent there. The tempt is to
Speaker 3: throw it, throw it through it. But I'll tell you what,
Speaker 3: they have to be balanced if they're going to be
Speaker 3: a serious contender. Miami Dolphins have to be balanced, in
Speaker 3: my opinion, and that's going to help the defense, and
Speaker 3: that's going.
Speaker 2: To really help to What did you make is somebody
Speaker 2: with thirty plus years in football of Sean Payton publicly
Speaker 2: ripping Nathaniel Hackett. Did it catch you off guarden?
Speaker 3: Yes, it totally caught me off guard. And I'll tell
Speaker 3: you what. When I was at USC, we had Bill
Speaker 3: Walsh come in once too. We had a pack it
Speaker 3: was I got it. I guess it was pack eight
Speaker 3: or pack ten. I think it was pack eight back.
Speaker 2: Then before Arizona schools.
Speaker 3: It was I'm dating myself, but he came. We used
Speaker 3: to have an assistant coach's golf tournament. We always had
Speaker 3: it at Stanford because they had a nice golf course
Speaker 3: up there on campus, and we would all go up
Speaker 3: there and we would bring it. And Bill Walsh came
Speaker 3: in and talk to us and he said, let me
Speaker 3: tell you, young coach or something. And we were just
Speaker 3: in our thirties. Just he says, all you guys are
Speaker 3: probably going to get fired. He says, well, it happens to Dolphus,
Speaker 3: he says, And when you get fired a couple of
Speaker 3: rules in coaching, get out of the city as quick
Speaker 3: as you can. Don't sit there because everything that the
Speaker 3: fans and media are going to talk about is every
Speaker 3: day is going to be better. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: this team is going to be tougher and this team
Speaker 3: is going to be smarter. Think about it. He says,
Speaker 3: it's going to happen. Don't You don't want to be
Speaker 3: reading in here that stuff. Well, with that being said,
Speaker 3: that was what disappointed me the most. Is here showing
Speaker 3: another coach and just respect, and everybody talks about code.
Speaker 3: I don't know what the code, and all that I
Speaker 3: would just say is one man to another in the
Speaker 3: same profession. Sean, you know what goes into winning a
Speaker 3: game and winning having a successful season. Your GM is involved,
Speaker 3: right your quarterback Russell. I can go right across the board.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of people involved that the head coach
Speaker 3: does not necessarily have control over the circumstances. And it
Speaker 3: really was disappointing to me because Sean knows better and
Speaker 3: he came up like all of us did in this
Speaker 3: profession and you just don't see that happening and just
Speaker 3: because of respect for another guy, and it just disappointed me.
Speaker 2: I thought, HBO, Aaron's using it as a rebrand. I'm
Speaker 2: a good guy, I get along with others. I'm not selfish,
Speaker 2: I'm not arrogant, and I think Tom Brady had a
Speaker 2: bit of a rebrand when he went to Tampa like, hey,
Speaker 2: I have a personality, I'm fun. It's helped his business
Speaker 2: and endorsements. I thought Aaron came across says, hey, man,
Speaker 2: I got to do this thing. I'm going to rebrand it.
Speaker 2: And I think you can watch HBO and Aaron are
Speaker 2: trying to convince you, Hey, I'm a different guy and
Speaker 2: I'm not the bad guy. The media portrays me as.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's wrong. I think it's smart. But
Speaker 2: that's how it felt to me. It's a rebrand. Aaron's
Speaker 2: all in and HBO is helping him, and I'm not
Speaker 2: criticizing HBO. I think they think that's an interesting, captivating
Speaker 2: part of the jet story.
Speaker 4: Well, it totally is. I've been out on Hard Knocks.
Speaker 4: Every other show eventually gets canceled or stops, and that
Speaker 4: keeps going. But if you're just going to give me
Speaker 4: Aaron Rodgers, Hacket and Solid for four episodes, I'm in
Speaker 4: because I don't care about the random undrafted free agent
Speaker 4: that's eventually going to get cut. But I can watch Aaron,
Speaker 4: Rodgers and Hacket figure out this offense like that, that
Speaker 4: to me is intriguing. He's done a rebrand really since
Speaker 4: he showed up right, I mean the whole thing of
Speaker 4: being there in the offseason, taking all the young guys
Speaker 4: out to Madison Square Garden, going to the concerts with
Speaker 4: again the young guys, which was the issue last year.
Speaker 4: Hey Aaron, we got a lot of young guys. I'm
Speaker 4: not coming in the off season. Then he pulls the Brady,
Speaker 4: which he deserves credit for because I don't care who
Speaker 4: you are. Thirty five million dollars a lot of money,
Speaker 4: gives it back to help the team, and he even
Speaker 4: said it's not even just for this year, it's about
Speaker 4: the big picture.
Speaker 3: I'm in.
Speaker 4: I believe what they say, and they've clearly done a
Speaker 4: good job of this process of him. Believe in trusting them.
Speaker 4: You and I talked about it a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 4: I think it's easier too, when the super rich owner
Speaker 4: tells you, like, hey man, i'll cut this check for
Speaker 4: this guy. We'll do this guy. I'll tell Joe we
Speaker 4: have no problem trading a first round pick next year
Speaker 4: if we need to go get our Trent Williams or
Speaker 4: we'll do whatever it takes for. You write a little
Speaker 4: NBA style, And that's how I think he's being treated
Speaker 4: a lot like Tom was treated. So it's easy to
Speaker 4: be happy when everyone's kind of kissing your ass. So, like,
Speaker 4: let's face it, they're kissing his ass as they should be.
Speaker 4: They're desperate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know a lot of times the Dallas
Speaker 2: Cowboys are brought up, and I'm guilty of this, And
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm guilty. I just think this is
Speaker 2: my business plan.
Speaker 3: Is when I was a.
Speaker 2: Local radio host, you would talk about local teams. When
Speaker 2: I got the syndicated job, it became very obvious to
Speaker 2: me that you couldn't just talk any team you wanted to,
Speaker 2: that you had to talk the biggest brands and that
Speaker 2: would accumulate the largest audience. So very early I was
Speaker 2: in the Brady and Lebron Notre Dame football, Duke basketball,
Speaker 2: Yankees baseball. I've moved off baseball lot since the twenty
Speaker 2: years ago that I started doing it a syndicated radio.
Speaker 2: But the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers, the Steelers have a
Speaker 2: lot of reach. But I actually think this version of
Speaker 2: Dallas this season is kind of fascinating Dak and there's
Speaker 2: a clear correlation. The more you ask of him, the
Speaker 2: more mistakes he makes. I mean, there's a line of
Speaker 2: Dak marcation thirty five or more throws. He's way under
Speaker 2: five hundred thirty three or fewer. He's a really good quarterback.
Speaker 2: And so his most efficient year as a pro was
Speaker 2: year one, Zeke number two in rushing yards, best on
Speaker 2: line in football. Dak was on the cheap the next
Speaker 2: year year two, John, if you remember, Zeke suspended six games.
Speaker 2: In those six games, Dak had five touchdowns and seven picks.
Speaker 2: The minute you asked him to do more, he provided
Speaker 2: more mistakes. So here we go into this year. He's
Speaker 2: been a Pro Bowl or twice. In both those years,
Speaker 2: Zeke led the NFL in rushing attempts, in yards. Zeke's
Speaker 2: gone oline rebuild, working in a new receiver, lost an
Speaker 2: elite offensive coordinator, and Dak now is having a camp
Speaker 2: full of interceptions. I love this defense. What are we
Speaker 2: going to get from Dak this year? Because there is
Speaker 2: a correlation, the more you need, the more mistakes should get.
Speaker 2: It's not arguable at this point.
Speaker 4: I think I'm not just saying this because you're here.
Speaker 4: I make a point to listen to. You have Albert
Speaker 4: Breer on every week. I think he's he can articulate.
Speaker 4: He's to me one of the best hybrid of just
Speaker 4: knowing guys in the league, articulating what's going on, and
Speaker 4: just and being able to report just his interactions with people.
Speaker 4: And he said something to you about what McCarthy said
Speaker 4: to him about their asking Dak to ad lib and
Speaker 4: be a little bit more of a playmaker. And when
Speaker 4: I heard that, my jaw dropped, Like Mike, this is
Speaker 4: not Aaron Rodgers here, buddy. The reason he was a
Speaker 4: fourth round pick because his physical actue. He's a good athlete.
Speaker 4: He does not have a great arm. The clip of
Speaker 4: there was a pick. Yeah, I don't know he's throwing
Speaker 4: a bunch, but yesterday or the day before, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: like a post route where digs undercut it. Rogers, you
Speaker 4: can miss that ball deep, you can't miss it short.
Speaker 4: That's where the ball always gets picked off. And to me,
Speaker 4: Dak is much closer from an arm standpoint to Alex
Speaker 4: Smith to Kirk Cousins. Play within the context of the offense.
Speaker 4: I could have Rogers, Alan or Mahomes at living because
Speaker 4: they're throwing one hundred miles an hour so well. Hud
Speaker 4: McCarthy had the most successful his career Aaron Rodgers. So
Speaker 4: maybe in his mind he thinking that if that, if
Speaker 4: that is honestly their mindset, I think they are batshit
Speaker 4: crazy and that is going to be a disaster of
Speaker 4: just trying to have him be a quote unquote playmaker.
Speaker 4: The reason Cousins is having so much success over the
Speaker 4: last four or five years statistically teams that their defense
Speaker 4: is good, consistently go to play. He just plays within
Speaker 4: the offense. And when Dak does that, he's pretty good too.
Speaker 4: But when he starts ad libbing, I do I mean
Speaker 4: that pass? His arm is actually for a guy that's big, right,
Speaker 4: just because if you've ever met Alex Smith, he's six four, Right,
Speaker 4: Just because you're six to four does not mean you
Speaker 4: throw one hundred miles an hour, right. Pedro Martinez was
Speaker 4: shorty through ninety seven, so Tim Linskin was small. Some
Speaker 4: small guys throw harder. Baker actually has a pretty good
Speaker 4: arm for a small gual, right. Aaron Rodgers is six
Speaker 4: one and a half to eighteen. Kyler Friz Yeah, so
Speaker 4: it just it doesn't translate. So I maybe it's because
Speaker 4: they're not as confident. Hollard's a little more of a
Speaker 4: hybrid back, not a true like pounded between the tackles,
Speaker 4: and it's Smith's style. But last time I checked, when
Speaker 4: they were winning a bunch Treyman, it wasn't a big
Speaker 4: ad liber right. He just kind of just played the
Speaker 4: position like it's supposed to be played.
Speaker 2: Is there a team Carolina for me? They played the
Speaker 2: Packers yesterday and gave Aaron some trouble I have. You know,
Speaker 2: there's always a team in this league that doubles their
Speaker 2: win total. So last year my big one was Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Now they didn't double their win total, but I said
Speaker 2: most improved team in the league. So yeah, so I
Speaker 2: got that one right. There's something about Carolina. I love Reich.
Speaker 2: He makes your quarterback more efficient. I think Bryce Young
Speaker 2: is one of those lower ceiling but ready to play today.
Speaker 2: I think they're front seven's good. I think their own line,
Speaker 2: due to the draft last couple of years, is now
Speaker 2: more than competent, you know, and the division's a little vulnerable.
Speaker 2: Carolina is my as Aaron Rodgers found out in the
Speaker 2: inner squad scrimmage. They got dudes, They got real big talent.
Speaker 2: Do you have a team like that for you that
Speaker 2: you just people look at it and say five or six,
Speaker 2: and you're like, I watched Carolina a couple of games
Speaker 2: last year without Reich. They're spicy, they can play. They
Speaker 2: definitely have a lot of talent. The team I told you,
Speaker 2: I think we talked about this over the summer was Washington.
Speaker 2: I'm going to throw that take into the garbage going there,
Speaker 2: and I was kind of low on the Giants. I
Speaker 2: thought they would come back. But the one thing, if
Speaker 2: Darren Waller is healthy and high at the receiver from
Speaker 2: Tennessee that is running like Hussein Bolt, no one can
Speaker 2: cover him. They might actually and now Saquan is in
Speaker 2: a good place, maybe they get back to ten eleven.
Speaker 2: To me, the team talking with some people in Jacksonville,
Speaker 2: I don't know how great the defense is going to be,
Speaker 2: but the division stinks. Could they be a top two
Speaker 2: or three offense in the league. I mean, Doug Peterson
Speaker 2: is just Taylor made for modern day NFL. His personality,
Speaker 2: his understanding, Like obviously he's the play caller. He succeeded
Speaker 2: there him dealing with Trevor. Trevor last year, what twenty
Speaker 2: five touchdowns? Could this year be one of those, like
Speaker 2: thirty eight touchdowns? You get Calvin Ridley, who I'm told
Speaker 2: is just they're blown away by him. We saw Christian
Speaker 2: Kirk was a really good signing for him. Etn's like
Speaker 2: the modern day hybrid back. Now you never want to
Speaker 2: discount Tennessee and I have, but I do. You know,
Speaker 2: you got to take for very seriously. I think in
Speaker 2: a coaching draft he'd be a top five pick. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's the real deal, but Brighton talent's just not quite there.
Speaker 4: Could be a little bit of a comeback year, So
Speaker 4: I think the Jags, I don't like him as a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl contender just because their defense is going to
Speaker 4: be good enough. But last year, I don't want to
Speaker 4: call it hollow because that was a big year, especially
Speaker 4: based on the Urban year. But I think this year
Speaker 4: could be feel more real than last year was. And
Speaker 4: you can kind of see like they're a piece or
Speaker 4: two away on defense. Maybe get their Nick Bosta or
Speaker 4: their Brian Burns or something then watch out.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought they played the Chiefs twice last year
Speaker 2: and I'm literally watching both games. I had the same feeling.
Speaker 2: It's like the NBA playoffs Denver two years ago, Sacramento
Speaker 2: this year. In the NBA, they're just not ready to
Speaker 2: win big, close games yet. I think the Kings will
Speaker 2: be next year with de Aaron Fox and I watched Jacksonville,
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, they're a year away. They need to
Speaker 2: lose to Kansas City twice. They don't know how to win.
Speaker 2: They don't know how to put those twelve play drives
Speaker 2: together the way Mahomes and Reid and Kelsey they they're good,
Speaker 2: they don't know how to manipulate games. So Jacksonville, I think,
Speaker 2: has to get to that point. And that's a real thing.
Speaker 2: Like the really good teams New England manipulated games where
Speaker 2: they were outplayed. I think Kansas City does job. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, Jacksonville just has talent, they just don't
Speaker 2: know how to They don't know how to win games.
Speaker 2: They don't play perfect football.
Speaker 4: Well, they might win or lose the game, but the
Speaker 4: three guys in the AFC Mahomes, Allen and Burrow never
Speaker 4: walk on the field against the other guy, and definitely
Speaker 4: the rest of the league thinking that they're not the
Speaker 4: best player on the field and they're gonna win the
Speaker 4: fucking game. And I wonder if Trevor, you know, for
Speaker 4: the first time in the league, had a taste of
Speaker 4: that last year. Had the big you know, had it
Speaker 4: couldn't gone any worse, right, He basically if he was
Speaker 4: a golfer, hit like seven shots out of bounds on
Speaker 4: the first hole in the first half against the Chargers.
Speaker 4: And then to me, the mental fortitude, I mean that
Speaker 4: he eagerly could have gone in the tank and no
Speaker 4: one would have blamed him. Like you know, first playoff taste,
Speaker 4: bad game, threw a bunch of picks, he did not flinch,
Speaker 4: came back, made a bunch of plays. So I would
Speaker 4: expect just a massive year from him. And to me,
Speaker 4: Doug has a person now a lot like Andy very
Speaker 4: even Keel. Not a big screamer, offensive guy, former quarterback,
Speaker 4: you know, just kind of He's just an NFL guy.
Speaker 4: He just gets pros and I think he's going to
Speaker 4: be really good for them. He has been.
Speaker 2: One thing you touched on this week, and I want
Speaker 2: to bring it back for people that didn't hear it
Speaker 2: is your take on Ron Rivera and Eric b Enemy,
Speaker 2: where Ron not only stepped in it, he created it
Speaker 2: with the comments about the enemy. Take our audience here
Speaker 2: back to that, because I thought it was a poignant
Speaker 2: point about in the NFL, there's enough landmines. Don't throw
Speaker 2: your own grenades.
Speaker 4: Well, to me, there's a reason. And I don't blame
Speaker 4: coaches for lying right, it's not. It doesn't behoove them
Speaker 4: to give out information that just creates chaos. Most people
Speaker 4: on the team are well under thirty live on their phone.
Speaker 4: You got to be very careful. It's why so many
Speaker 4: coaches don't say anything, and when they do, it all
Speaker 4: leans positive. For him to come out and acknowledge, it'd
Speaker 4: be one thing, right, if there was something simmering, there
Speaker 4: was a powerful story from a Wickersham from the athletic
Speaker 4: would be like, what's going on? He gets asked about it,
Speaker 4: any kind of steps on it, you would understand it.
Speaker 4: Maybe you got cornered a little bit in a press conference.
Speaker 4: That was not the case at all. I don't know
Speaker 4: about you. I hadn't heard anything. Unless you knew a
Speaker 4: player or someone on the staff, no one would have
Speaker 4: been talking about it. So for him just to acknowledge
Speaker 4: that was borderline unprecedented. I mean, you never see that
Speaker 4: in the NFL, unless you know is he already trying
Speaker 4: to point the finger at him? He sees it not
Speaker 4: going well ron the thing. It's not like Ron is
Speaker 4: some modern day, progressive, easygoing NFL coach. This guy's an
Speaker 4: old school screamer, yeller, defensive guy. So he wouldn't have
Speaker 4: a problem with you coaching hard. Does he think it's
Speaker 4: not going well? He does? He see our quarterback situation
Speaker 4: is a disaster. I've seen some headlines multiple times. Part
Speaker 4: of the reason I started getting off them before this
Speaker 4: story even kind of came out because of Ron was
Speaker 4: because he kept mentioning Jacoby Brissett. He kept don't sleep
Speaker 4: on Jacoby Brissette, No, and I went, what we've seen Jacoby,
Speaker 4: just keep him as your backup. What are we talking about?
Speaker 4: So maybe there's some butting of heads when it comes
Speaker 4: to personnel. You got new ownership. Let's face it, if
Speaker 4: Ron were to go seven and ten or like his
Speaker 4: he would not get fired. He's never going to get
Speaker 4: a head coaching job again, like this is. His career
Speaker 4: is over. So it did feel a little bit like
Speaker 4: he's pointing the finger. Not just a bizarre story, just
Speaker 4: that when you never see you never see coaching hard,
Speaker 4: What does that even mean? You go to a practice
Speaker 4: in high school, people are getting screamed at. It's not
Speaker 4: even that weird.
Speaker 1: The volume