Speaker 1: The Vine.
Speaker 2: This week on Prime Cuts, Chad Millman, Sharper Square, John
Speaker 2: Middelkoff on the Buffalo Bills, can Josh Allen carry them
Speaker 2: into the playoffs? And my top takes of the week. Hi, everybody,
Speaker 2: welcome in. You know, I was thinking about the Draymond
Speaker 2: Green situation, and I think, you know, I'm in pretty
Speaker 2: good shape for my age, in my fifties, and there
Speaker 2: are some things I wish I could do over in
Speaker 2: my life. But I don't have the you know, the relentless,
Speaker 2: boundless energy I did when I was twenty four years old,
Speaker 2: where I could go play basketball, pick up basketball, rip
Speaker 2: my ankle up, and then two days later be out
Speaker 2: playing again, have a ski accident. Next day, I'm on
Speaker 2: the slopes. Things take longer to heal. You get into
Speaker 2: your fifties and shit breaks right. But I think the
Speaker 2: advantage to having perspective is I just don't get worked
Speaker 2: up very much. And because I've seen everything seven times,
Speaker 2: like when Elon Musk took over X and Twitter now
Speaker 2: X and people freaked out. Take a deep breath. It's
Speaker 2: going to take six to nine months to figure it out.
Speaker 2: I don't think the user experience is quite as good
Speaker 2: as it was, but I filter out what I don't want.
Speaker 2: It's not the end of the world. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to rush to threads and protest. That seems so juvenile
Speaker 2: and so childish to me. Take a deep breath. If
Speaker 2: you're spending that much time on X, probably need to
Speaker 2: get a life anyway. If you have strong, defiant opinions
Speaker 2: about a social media app, maybe get off the social
Speaker 2: media app. I see it all the time with President Biden. Oh,
Speaker 2: he's the worst, the best, He's neither. He's not the
Speaker 2: best president, he's not the worst. On the stock market's
Speaker 2: over thirty seven thousand, right, inflation down, gas prices down
Speaker 2: in most of the country, unemployments under four percent. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of manufacturing jobs that have bounced back. We're
Speaker 2: through COVID. I don't think Biden's the best president. I
Speaker 2: don't think he's the worst. Age is a concern again.
Speaker 2: I just I'm not outraged by the stuff I read.
Speaker 2: You know, when bud Light put somebody on the can,
Speaker 2: a transgender person on a can, people freaked out. My
Speaker 2: takeaway was, well, I don't think coming off real men
Speaker 2: of genius to that was the smartest marketing plan. But
Speaker 2: I didn't lose sleep over it because I don't necessarily
Speaker 2: care who's on a can of beer. And I'm married
Speaker 2: with kids, and you know, pretty strong, thriving business here
Speaker 2: at the volume, and I work on TV and radio.
Speaker 2: I think people who overreact to stuff are bored or
Speaker 2: they need attention, and there are things to get worked
Speaker 2: up about. We know that, but I just didn't happen
Speaker 2: to me very often. When I saw the Draymond Green
Speaker 2: flailing punch, my takeaway was, go YouTube Bill Lamber. You
Speaker 2: can't believe he was tackling people during the finals, not
Speaker 2: Tuesday games, Wednesday games. Dennis Rodman YouTube him, but literally
Speaker 2: didn't show up to playoff games, went to Vegas to
Speaker 2: hang out. Michael Jordan had to fly out there and
Speaker 2: get him. Is that? I remember the nineteen seventies NBA fights,
Speaker 2: empty arenas, the horrible ownership groups from Donald Sterling to
Speaker 2: Ted Stepien. I don't like what Draymond Green did, and
Speaker 2: he deserved to be suspended indefinitely. Is fine, He'll get
Speaker 2: help deal with some counseling. His agent, Rich Paul and
Speaker 2: Clutch Sports will help him navigate that. But I know Draymond.
Speaker 2: He's a terrific employee. He's a hard worker, he's an
Speaker 2: excellent podcaster. He's thoughtful and very, very reflective, and I've
Speaker 2: never thought he mails it in. He's been a good teammate.
Speaker 2: I think he's the second most important warrior to Steph
Speaker 2: Curry catalyst. He's been a great teammate. There doesn't have
Speaker 2: to get along with everybody. Kobe didn't get along with everybody.
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan didn't get along with everybody. Michael Jordan punched
Speaker 2: the teammate. So it's not that I'm supporting Draymond just
Speaker 2: because he works at the volume. My feeling is when
Speaker 2: you have perspective and you've watched Lambert and you've watched
Speaker 2: Dennis Rodman, and you see Draymon and Lambier and Draymond
Speaker 2: are more talented, better offensive players obviously than Dennis Rodman.
Speaker 2: But it's just perspective. You know, he's not let's take
Speaker 2: a deep breath here. He's not selling drugs to kids.
Speaker 2: He's not a shady politician. He's not selling weapons to
Speaker 2: inappropriate people. It's a sports suspension based on a very
Speaker 2: physical player who is kind of I would call him
Speaker 2: a disruptive player and it's sort of like hockey enforcers.
Speaker 2: Through the years, there's been a lot of hockey enforcers,
Speaker 2: and it's difficult, and it messed with a lot of
Speaker 2: guys heads and a lot of guys who are hockey
Speaker 2: enforcers protecting a great player on their hockey team. We're
Speaker 2: medicating themselves through any means possible off an alcohol. And
Speaker 2: I think when you are Dennis or Draymond or Bill
Speaker 2: Lambier and you're kind of an enforcer that you go
Speaker 2: to the arena every night, you're going to guard the
Speaker 2: best player of your size. You're going to have to
Speaker 2: get in his head. You're going to have to be physical.
Speaker 2: It's different than going out ball handling and hitting threes.
Speaker 2: It's a big difficult task for hockey enforcers and basketball disruptors.
Speaker 2: So I'm always a little lenient understanding that every team
Speaker 2: needs a tough guy, every team needs an enforcer, and
Speaker 2: it's really hard. It's hard to do it. Sounds like
Speaker 2: in football, not all positions are same, not all positions
Speaker 2: require the same focus or attention. It's much easier to
Speaker 2: be a running back in a cornerback right out of
Speaker 2: college of the pros, and it is a left tackle
Speaker 2: or a quarterback or a signal calling Mike linebacker. There
Speaker 2: are a certain position that are just harder and they
Speaker 2: demand more from the athlete. So I think one of
Speaker 2: the things I like about being in this business a
Speaker 2: long time is I don't tend to initially overreact to stuff.
Speaker 2: When Shohei Otani signed and he deferred ninety percent of
Speaker 2: his contractor more, well, it's legal, and he did it
Speaker 2: so he can play with better players. And to manipulate
Speaker 2: the California tax system, people all over California do that.
Speaker 2: Live sixty five sixty percent of the time in another
Speaker 2: state Florida, Nevada, Washington state no state taxes, and then
Speaker 2: live some of the time in California. Nobody had a
Speaker 2: problem with the Yankees dominating the Hot Stove League twenty
Speaker 2: years ago in the Yes network that was making at
Speaker 2: the time four hundred million dollars, had a decided advantage
Speaker 2: on every other regional or local cable network, and the
Speaker 2: Yankees bought whoever they wanted to. Nobody was outraged by that.
Speaker 2: It was celebrated. So I think one of the things
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people in the media, and
Speaker 2: I respect a lot of people in the media and
Speaker 2: trust a lot, but the constant reaction to everything. A
Speaker 2: lot of people in my space pedal outrage. I don't.
Speaker 2: I think my content is smart enough and thoughtful enough
Speaker 2: that I can lay it out there. I don't have
Speaker 2: to try to gear up anybody and freak out anybody.
Speaker 2: I do not pedal outrage. I'm just not upset. Very often.
Speaker 2: I take a deep breath, I watch what happens. I
Speaker 2: give you perspective on how it lands for me, but
Speaker 2: I don't need to. I'm not selling that now. For
Speaker 2: some people, their internet business is their business. Again. I
Speaker 2: have a TV show, I have a radio show, I
Speaker 2: have my own company. Revenue's fine. I don't need to
Speaker 2: pedal anything for growth. Everything's growing organically. But I mean,
Speaker 2: if you're attracted to that stuff, you're probably not listening
Speaker 2: to me anyway, because I'm not selling conspiracy theories and
Speaker 2: I'm not selling outrage. Draymond Green is a basketball suspension
Speaker 2: and he's going to get right. He's been a great
Speaker 2: employee at the Volume and again, incredibly reflective guy, willing
Speaker 2: to take criticism, willing to be coached. But you know,
Speaker 2: I've seen enforcers and disruptors in sports, and it's a
Speaker 2: it's a big lift, it's a hard ask, and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of turbulence. There's a lot of There's been
Speaker 2: a lot of great, great moments in Draymond's career. There's
Speaker 2: been some bumpy ones and this is a bumpy one.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk about Tommy DeVito. So you know,
Speaker 2: great high school player from the area, little college star, right,
Speaker 2: Tommy DeVito does not succeed if he has a defensive coach. Okay,
Speaker 2: now Seahawks with a backup quarterback, Steelers with a backup quarterback,
Speaker 2: New England with a backup quarterback, and until this weekend,
Speaker 2: the Jets with backup quarterbacks. A complete s show defensive coaches.
Speaker 2: Yet Atlanta with a backup, Indianapolis with a backup, Cleveland
Speaker 2: with Joe Flacco, the Giants with Tommy DeVito, all offensive
Speaker 2: coaches remain viable. There is no question defensive coaches can
Speaker 2: win football games if they've got a good quarterback. But
Speaker 2: when you urgently have to make it up in the
Speaker 2: middle of a season, you get a backup quarterback. I
Speaker 2: do not think defensive coaches are equipped to handle it.
Speaker 2: It is not a coincidence that eleven of the fourteen
Speaker 2: current playoff teams have offensive coaches. That is not a coincidence.
Speaker 2: It is also not a coincidence that the three most
Speaker 2: improved offenses in the National Football League in the second
Speaker 2: half of the season are the Rams, the Broncos, and
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers, all offensive coaches. Come on, it's
Speaker 2: not a coincidence. Tommy DeVito, you give him, Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2: I mean, look at the Steelers. They have Mitched trib
Speaker 2: Ski as a backup. Mitch Trubisky made the playoffs twice
Speaker 2: in Chicago, not a well run organization with offensive coach
Speaker 2: Matt Naggy who got fired. Okay, made the playoffs twice.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers was in his prime in that division and
Speaker 2: Mitch Trubisky. They had a good defense, but Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: was in his prime, Aaron Rodgers in his prime, Matt
Speaker 2: Stafford was in that division at the time close to
Speaker 2: his prime, and Mitchell frickin' Trubisky made the playoffs twice.
Speaker 2: He goes to Pittsburgh, disaster, unwatchable, can't get first downs.
Speaker 2: It's not luck, it's not What Brian Dabole is doing
Speaker 2: is on the fly coaching up a young talented kid
Speaker 2: that's got some mobility. De Vito's not real big, doesn't
Speaker 2: have a big arm, but he can move. And I
Speaker 2: think this is just you have to think long and hard.
Speaker 2: If you're the Patriots and you hire a new coach,
Speaker 2: or you're the Raiders, We'll see what they do there
Speaker 2: with Antonio Pierce Chicago, if they hire a new coach Tampa,
Speaker 2: if they hire a new coach, man, you really got
Speaker 2: to think twice about hiring a defensive guy. This is
Speaker 2: Tommy DeVito is not talented enough to move that offense
Speaker 2: up and down the field off a pretty talented Green
Speaker 2: Bay defense with a defensive coach. I know I've been
Speaker 2: banging on this forever, but I'm a huge Day Bowl fan.
Speaker 2: I mean, look at Buffalo. They have no offense. It's
Speaker 2: regressed terribly. I mean, what happened to to Von Diggs,
Speaker 2: What happened to Gabe Davis. They don't throw the ball
Speaker 2: down the field anymore. With the strongest arm in the league.
Speaker 2: Josh Allen, Sean McDermott, defensive coach. All right, enough, nice
Speaker 2: win for the Giants. I thought that game. You know,
Speaker 2: sometimes sports gives you gifts. I mean like when you
Speaker 2: watched you know, Buffalo Kansas City, you would expect that
Speaker 2: would be a good game. You know, we occasionally get
Speaker 2: games we know they're going to be good, and they're good.
Speaker 2: But when you go into this game tonight and I'm thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: I want to watch Miami ug and I'm thinking, just
Speaker 2: Jordan Love, Tommy DeVito, give me something, here, give me something.
Speaker 2: I was entertained for three and a half hours. How
Speaker 2: about that way to go pasta fazoul for everybody? You know.
Speaker 2: I was watching the Cowboys and listen, they've played the
Speaker 2: kind of schedule where they've had several blowout wins, most
Speaker 2: at home, and so when you have a blowout win,
Speaker 2: you know, the snap count for some of your starters
Speaker 2: is lower. You can rest guys, whereas Philadelphia just looks tired.
Speaker 2: I thought Dallas tonight looked fast and fresh. And they've
Speaker 2: had a lot of their players, stars and starters that
Speaker 2: could rest second half and later in games this year,
Speaker 2: and there is something to be said about a heavy
Speaker 2: snap count. So you start looking at philadel I thought
Speaker 2: they'd really show up tonight. It'd be a very, very
Speaker 2: physical kind of a twenty four to twenty game. But
Speaker 2: you know, they've played the Cowboys in Kansas City and
Speaker 2: then San Francisco and then Buffalo and the Cowboys again,
Speaker 2: those are tough matchups. Those are grueling, physical matchups. There's
Speaker 2: no Carolina in there, there's no New York Giants. Your
Speaker 2: defense doesn't get to face the Jets, whereas the Cowboys
Speaker 2: have half a dozen games like that this year, and
Speaker 2: so it does matter, and so I think it's just fatigue.
Speaker 2: I think tonight Philadelphia looked old and tired and Dallas
Speaker 2: looked young, fast and fresh. And right now at this
Speaker 2: point in the season, they're a better team than Dallas.
Speaker 2: But the Eagles schedule lightens up. They get the Seahawks.
Speaker 2: I think it's next Monday, so they get an extra
Speaker 2: day off. They need it. But you know, I was
Speaker 2: thinking watching that game. So one of the Cowboy players
Speaker 2: that had a very good night was Stefan Gilmore and
Speaker 2: they only used a fifth round pick to get him.
Speaker 2: And so you know it's when they went out and
Speaker 2: spent a fifth round pick on Stefan Gilmore, I thought
Speaker 2: it was a good move. Gilmourson passed his prime, but still,
Speaker 2: you know, in big spots against big receivers, really smart player,
Speaker 2: been around, knows how to manipulate it, create fumbles. So
Speaker 2: a fifth round pick has about fifteen percent chance of
Speaker 2: you know, fifteen eighteen percent chance of even making the league.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting. I've always thought if I was a
Speaker 2: GM and I could go get a really good player
Speaker 2: on a good team, I wouldn't waste it. Or if
Speaker 2: it was a position of need, I would make a
Speaker 2: lot of moves like that. All right, Welcome in Colin
Speaker 2: Cowherd alongside John Middlecoff, former NFL scout. He has a
Speaker 2: podcast for the volume called three and Out, very popular podcast.
Speaker 2: We do this YouTube live becomes a podcast for the
Speaker 2: volume Sports. And let's start with the kind of the
Speaker 2: game of the day, which is in the early windows,
Speaker 2: which is Buffalo holding on to be Kansas City. Some
Speaker 2: coaching malpractice down the stretch by Sean McDermott, who did
Speaker 2: not have a good week when a story leaked that
Speaker 2: he did a couple of years ago a pregame speech
Speaker 2: to incentivize his team with some nine to eleven references
Speaker 2: without going into detail that were horrible and embarrassing. And
Speaker 2: you know, everybody makes mistakes. I get it, but when
Speaker 2: I watched the end of the game and him throwing
Speaker 2: the ball and not bleeding the clock out, and maybe
Speaker 2: that's maybe that's a defensive coach not respecting offense. But
Speaker 2: to do that in Kansas City against Mahomes was like
Speaker 2: time out. Sean. I know the nine to eleven story
Speaker 2: was a bad week. I know you're off. I just
Speaker 2: couldn't believe what I was watching. Now they get away
Speaker 2: with it, But when you have a coach on the
Speaker 2: hot seat and you're a GM or a owner, you
Speaker 2: look for these moments sometimes to go how do we
Speaker 2: pull the ripcord on this? Like, how do we get
Speaker 2: out of it? I honestly thought, if they lost that game, John,
Speaker 2: maybe this is hyperbolic, you could have made a decision upstairs.
Speaker 2: End of the year, we're getting rid of him.
Speaker 1: I thought the moment that Travis Kelcey threw the ball
Speaker 1: back and the guy walked into the end zone before
Speaker 1: the play was called back, that was gonna end. Sean mcdermotts.
Speaker 3: Bill's career.
Speaker 1: You couldn't end on the week that he had like that,
Speaker 1: especially because when the game started, Bill's came out, they
Speaker 1: looked like the Super Bowl contender that we all thought
Speaker 1: they were coming into the season, at least some of us,
Speaker 1: and then the game just kind of unraveled from there
Speaker 1: and they were in a position where it looked like
Speaker 1: they were gonna lose. So yeah, I mean, listen, I've
Speaker 1: known Sean since I worked in the NFL. He was
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, and I text a bunch of people that
Speaker 1: worked with him as well. From a character standpoint, I
Speaker 1: always thought like his character was pristine, high level guy. Now,
Speaker 1: I think some of the tight defensive stuff, you can't
Speaker 1: argue that, But some of the stuff that you know,
Speaker 1: at least in my experience and other people that I know,
Speaker 1: said that wasn't the guy that they were ever around.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about Buffalo. I can't speak to the
Speaker 1: I'm just saying in my experience, but today, I mean,
Speaker 1: he is just so dependent on this quarterback pulling plays
Speaker 1: out of his ass. I mean that play when he
Speaker 1: scrambled to his left through it to the Latavious who
Speaker 1: ended up fumbling. I know they got a little lucky
Speaker 1: that they recovered the ball because it went out of bounce,
Speaker 1: but that play sums up the Josh Allen experience like
Speaker 1: no one else in the NFL. Can even do that,
Speaker 1: and obviously his ability to run, you know with a
Speaker 1: violent naturist. He's just a unique player.
Speaker 2: Listen, we know what coaching does. Look at Denver Nat
Speaker 2: Hackett to Sean Payton, same exact players, So we know
Speaker 2: coaching matters. If you put Mahomes in Buffalo and Josh
Speaker 2: Allen in Kansas City, you know who has the rings. Like,
Speaker 2: we know quarterbacks sixty five percent of it. But we've
Speaker 2: seen Jeff Fisher and Sean mcvaywood, Jared Goff, We've seen
Speaker 2: Brian Flores and Mike McDaniel with TUA. We know quarterbacks
Speaker 2: can be elevated by coaches. What you're watching is a
Speaker 2: defensive coach who cannot create a run game today, didn't
Speaker 2: roll the ball down the field virtually at all. Josh
Speaker 2: Allen is carrying this franchise. It's a little bit like
Speaker 2: what's happening to the Chargers. The difference is Josh Allen's
Speaker 2: better than than Justin Herbert. Yeah, but I mean I'm
Speaker 2: to the point now where I feel sorry that the
Speaker 2: prime year and he's probably got three prime years left
Speaker 2: because he's getting the hell beat out of him. Josh
Speaker 2: Allen has about three prime years left, and then he's
Speaker 2: gonna be big Ben and Cam. He's gonna hit about
Speaker 2: thirty two and start aging.
Speaker 1: I would say that. I mean McDermott. I couldn't compare
Speaker 1: him to stay like he is a playoff level coach.
Speaker 1: But clearly it feels like a lot of people are
Speaker 1: gonna act like this team, don't let them get hot.
Speaker 1: I'm not buying it. I mean that what we just witnessed.
Speaker 1: I mean, they easily could have lost the game if
Speaker 1: the guy's cleat is six inches, you know, behind the
Speaker 1: blue line. So they are fly by to the seat
Speaker 1: of their pants. Hope Josh makes some plays, they come
Speaker 1: out strong, and then they just kind of hold on
Speaker 1: for dear left. They've played in that same game ten
Speaker 1: times this year, they've just for the first time lost
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Obviously, they play Dallas next week,
Speaker 1: but I'm not buying that because a lot of people
Speaker 1: are gonna say if they get in, watch out, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I do not see it with this time.
Speaker 1: I don't too much going on because the just because
Speaker 1: you win a game like this, which is important for
Speaker 1: their playoff chances, I don't think it changes kind of
Speaker 1: the the talk around, the coach, the franchise, everything that's
Speaker 1: going on, right. I mean, he was there was a
Speaker 1: microscope on him coming into the season, and then obviously
Speaker 1: they're they're going to struggle to get the nine wins.
Speaker 1: So I think this franchise, it's just in a very
Speaker 1: very weird spot right now.
Speaker 2: I right. His name is Chad Millman and my friend
Speaker 2: for a long time CEO of the Action Network Alledge
Speaker 2: provided by DraftKings. You know, I like theories. I like
Speaker 2: to project what I see. Not always right, but they're interesting.
Speaker 2: So I was listening to Andrew Whitworth the other day
Speaker 2: talking to Kevin Clark about offensive line play. Is they
Speaker 2: don't ask you to block a lot, and the athletes
Speaker 2: are getting better on the defensive side. So here's something
Speaker 2: that I think you have to strongly consider. So the athletes,
Speaker 2: all athletes in all sports are getting bigger, stronger, and better. Right,
Speaker 2: and defensive linemen have always been more physically gifted and
Speaker 2: athletic than offensive linemen, with the rare exception of a
Speaker 2: Trent Williams or just an elite all time left tackle.
Speaker 2: So as they get more talented, the defensive athletes and
Speaker 2: our receivers and our corners. Everybody's getting better. Offensive linemen, however,
Speaker 2: are the least athletic of all the athletes on the field. Therefore,
Speaker 2: quarterbacks are getting hit more and getting hit with more
Speaker 2: velocity and violence. Therefore, backup quarterbacks are playing at a
Speaker 2: higher percentage. Therefore, backup quarterback is a position that will
Speaker 2: never be paid a lot because of the salary cap.
Speaker 2: But if you look at what is happening in the
Speaker 2: NFL now, it is not a coincidence. Let me give
Speaker 2: you teams that have struggled with backups England, Pittsburgh, briefly, Chicago, Seattle,
Speaker 2: all defensive coaches. Here's teams flourishing with backup quarterbacks Indy, Cleveland,
Speaker 2: Atlanta doing okay, Minnesota one a game quarterback did not
Speaker 2: have a practice. Last year. McVeigh with Baker won with
Speaker 2: one practice. So the point being fifty to fifty five
Speaker 2: quarterbacks this point forward are going to play annually and
Speaker 2: you cannot pay a backup. There's limitations on it. Eleven
Speaker 2: or fourteen current playoff teams have offensive coaches, and the
Speaker 2: bubble teams Denver the Rams have offensive coaches. Going forward,
Speaker 2: you really have to strongly consider drafting a quarterback, fifth, sixth,
Speaker 2: seventh round almost every year, and realize that even if
Speaker 2: you have a legendary defensive coach Tomlin, Bellacheck, Pete Carroll,
Speaker 2: absolute limitations. A defensive coach can win with a star quarterback,
Speaker 2: but if his quarterback position is disrupted in season, bad spiraling, worse,
Speaker 2: offensive coaches have a greater sensibility cannot only win. Flacco
Speaker 2: first start looked more than capable. And so my theory
Speaker 2: is offensive coaches have to be a higher and quarterbacks
Speaker 2: have to be drafted now almost annually you have to
Speaker 2: keep three on the roster. And so it was one
Speaker 2: of my takes on one of the reasons I've done
Speaker 2: something this year in my gambling chat that I've never done.
Speaker 2: I'm taking favorites, and a lot of these bets are
Speaker 2: what quarterback do I like more and who's his coach?
Speaker 2: So with that, one of my favorite bets this week
Speaker 2: is Clevelands. I think it's now three against the Bears.
Speaker 2: So it's a defensive coach going to a team that's
Speaker 2: a very good defensive team at home. But I believe
Speaker 2: Flacco will make incremental growth weekly with an offensive coach,
Speaker 2: whereas I think justin fields is to some degree going
Speaker 2: to be what he is. His growth has been long
Speaker 2: in a slower process. I love Cleveland minus three. This week,
Speaker 2: I think Flacco will take another leap first start to
Speaker 2: second to third. Sharper square that was last.
Speaker 3: I'm laughing hard because I know, Joe agree with everything
Speaker 3: you said about offensive coaches, the importance of backup quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: I think the best example is the one that you
Speaker 3: haven't mentioned, but I know is one that you love.
Speaker 3: Kyle Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan has been a genius of a
Speaker 3: coach in his time in San Francisco, and it has
Speaker 3: been over the years oftentimes not just with backup offensive lineman,
Speaker 3: backup running backs, backup receivers, but with second third string quarterbacks,
Speaker 3: quarterbacks off the street. Because I don't think anybody enjoys
Speaker 3: game planning and scheming and the chess match of offensive
Speaker 3: football more than Kyle Shanhan. I don't think there's anybody
Speaker 3: better at it. It's why the forty nine ers always
Speaker 3: get so much respect from professional betters, because they know
Speaker 3: Kyle shann is so good at scheming. And your point
Speaker 3: about offensive coaches is that when you have an offensive
Speaker 3: line that is going to have less athletic players, and
Speaker 3: you know you are going to have a quarterback that
Speaker 3: needs to play when he is ill prepared or not
Speaker 3: as good as a starting quarterback. You need to know
Speaker 3: how to scheme offensive plays. Agree with everything you're saying
Speaker 3: one hundred percent. You couldn't have picked a worst game
Speaker 3: the Bears and the Bird zones. To try to make
Speaker 3: your point, you are so wrong on this side, it's frightening.
Speaker 3: The Bears are the side in this game. The Bears
Speaker 3: are the side to win this game. And I think
Speaker 3: what you're getting here is the inflation on the Browns
Speaker 3: and the value of their defense, which is very banged
Speaker 3: up right now, and you're getting how well Kevin Stefanski
Speaker 3: has coached this team through a myriad of injuries and
Speaker 3: kept them in the hunt for the title in their division,
Speaker 3: even though they are basically down to four to fifth
Speaker 3: six stringers on their interior offensive line. The Bears, meanwhile,
Speaker 3: since Week nine EPA per play expected points allowed per play,
Speaker 3: they're sixth in the league. The Browns twenty fifth in
Speaker 3: the league. Like, this is a defense in the Browns
Speaker 3: that is getting consistently worse, and a defense in the
Speaker 3: Bears that is getting consistently better since they got Montes sweat,
Speaker 3: They're running defense, their rushing defense consistently better now becoming
Speaker 3: a dominant force for them, and that might be the
Speaker 3: only strength the Browns had. I am not buying Joe
Speaker 3: Flacco and the glorious story that happened last week against
Speaker 3: the Jaguars. That was a fluke. That is not going
Speaker 3: to happen again. That was why you fade the Browns
Speaker 3: this week. And also Justin Fields, I'll tell you this
Speaker 3: right now, this is going to be the most fascinating
Speaker 3: four weeks in a generation for the Chicago Bears or
Speaker 3: Chicago Bears fans. Justin Fields is playing for a new
Speaker 3: contract in Chicago, a new coach in Chicago, if that
Speaker 3: is what happens next year. He is playing for the
Speaker 3: next coach he plays for, if the Bears decide to
Speaker 3: trade him, whatever the case is, Justin Fields is playing
Speaker 3: for something over the next four weeks. And since the buy,
Speaker 3: he has been making better decisions, faster decisions, and showing
Speaker 3: he knows how to play the quarterback much much better
Speaker 3: than we thought he did prior to his injury.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get serious. Here are the picks. I
Speaker 2: really like my two favorite.
Speaker 3: You know, I appreciate you throwing that one out there.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know where you were going.
Speaker 2: This is not the best line, but I think my
Speaker 2: favorite pick of the week was Lions minus four. It's
Speaker 2: now four and a half. I don't love that, but
Speaker 2: I think this is a tough spot for Denver. Lions
Speaker 2: are a good team. People sell them because they played
Speaker 2: poorly outdoors. One of my favorite picks of the week
Speaker 2: last week was Chicago get him back indoors off a
Speaker 2: humiliating loss we saw a couple of weeks ago. Them
Speaker 2: jumped out to a huge lead on the Saints. They're
Speaker 2: more than capable. Broncos have had a series of games
Speaker 2: and travel. I think it's pretty tough. I think this
Speaker 2: just feels like a spot. You know that number. I
Speaker 2: love four fours my favorite number. I see it. I
Speaker 2: take the favorites. I like four better than minus four
Speaker 2: and a half. I think the Lions is a side
Speaker 2: sharper square.
Speaker 3: So it was decided four, and then it went up
Speaker 3: to four and a half, and then it went up
Speaker 3: to five, and the wise guy's bought a little bit, a
Speaker 3: little bit back. I'm with you, the Lions are the
Speaker 3: right side here, right. So the Lions. They're four and
Speaker 3: two the past six games. It's not like they're a
Speaker 3: terrible team. They've had a couple bad losses that people
Speaker 3: are remembering. One of them Green Bay, one of them
Speaker 3: to Chicago. But look in those two losses, six turnovers
Speaker 3: two of ten on fourth downs in their two losses.
Speaker 3: Like Dan Campbell likes to go for it. When it works,
Speaker 3: we think he's a genius. When it doesn't work, it
Speaker 3: puts them in more difficult positions. We saw it against
Speaker 3: the Bears last week. One thing I think, one thing
Speaker 3: I think is really important for them, Frank Ragnow their
Speaker 3: center is expected to be back. I do think that's
Speaker 3: incredibly important for their rushing game with Jamier Gibb David Montgomery.
Speaker 3: When they are both playing well and they can provide
Speaker 3: sort of the impetus for that offense to give Jared
Speaker 3: Goff more opportunities, then I think they're a much better
Speaker 3: team than the Broncos. And don't forget the Broncos. Look,
Speaker 3: they are living on fourth down luck. They are living
Speaker 3: on turnovers plus fifteen in the turnover margin during their
Speaker 3: sort of winning streak the past few weeks. Don't forget
Speaker 3: Jared Goff, most profitable quarterback in a dome the past
Speaker 3: twenty years. I am not ready to sell this Detroit
Speaker 3: Lions team, and I love the Broncos. I want to
Speaker 3: cash a Broncos over eight and a half season wins ticket,
Speaker 3: But I don't think this is the red spot for them.
Speaker 3: Neither do the Wise guys.
Speaker 2: Second favorite bet Bills minus two at home against the Cowboys,
Speaker 2: off a big division rivalry blowout win, Buffalo playing for
Speaker 2: their playoff lives. You know, we can say what we
Speaker 2: want about Buffalo. They're in close games, blowing people out
Speaker 2: like three years ago where they were kind of the
Speaker 2: Mike Tyson of the league like it was a first
Speaker 2: round knockout, or they lose late. Now they're actually in
Speaker 2: a lot of close games. I think this is still
Speaker 2: a team that will make a dent in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I think this home spot get the Cowboys in chilli
Speaker 2: Weather off their spot a little out of rhythm, Sharper
Speaker 2: square like the Bills.
Speaker 3: Totally sharp. This is the side a lot of inflation
Speaker 3: on the Cowboys. There couldn't be a higher price on
Speaker 3: betting on the Cowboys right now, and if you look
Speaker 3: at Josh Allen. Look, he's got the interception streak right,
Speaker 3: nine straight games with an interception. But he's carrying this
Speaker 3: team and they're starting to play a little bit better.
Speaker 3: Remember Rasille Douglas, who they traded for at the trade deadline,
Speaker 3: was replacing Tredavius White. He's a fourth rated best cornerback
Speaker 3: according to Pro Football Focus. And also, don't forget they
Speaker 3: had to replace Matt Mlano, who is their best defensive player.
Speaker 3: It takes time for the backups to come in, get
Speaker 3: used to the scheme, get used to playing every down,
Speaker 3: get used to playing with their other teammates. This defense.
Speaker 3: While they gave up thirty seven points to the Eagles,
Speaker 3: they are improving. I think they're becoming a little bit
Speaker 3: more well rounded. I agree with you, it's going to
Speaker 3: be fascinating the next four weeks. They got the Cowboys,
Speaker 3: they got the Chargers, They're going to end the season
Speaker 3: with the Dolphins. Right now, the Buffalo Bills plus depending
Speaker 3: on where you look, three hundred to win the AFC East,
Speaker 3: Josh Allen twenty to one to win MVP. I know
Speaker 3: everybody's saying Dak Prescott has this MVP thing locked up.
Speaker 3: I would not be surprised if Josh Allen and the
Speaker 3: Bills run the table and they make the playoffs and
Speaker 3: he wins the AFC East. He'll end the year with
Speaker 3: a freak load of touchdowns, possibly leave the league in
Speaker 3: touchdown passes, leave the league in total touchdowns. He might
Speaker 3: be a nice, little tasty long shot bet right now
Speaker 3: for MVP.
Speaker 2: One of the under I like Commanders plus six and
Speaker 2: a half at the Rams. I think that game against
Speaker 2: Baltimore winner lose was a lot emotionally. It was one
Speaker 2: of the great games of the year. Rams travel East.
Speaker 2: They lose in overtime. It just I think it took
Speaker 2: a little chip out of them. I think they win
Speaker 2: the game. I get the Commanders off a bye healthy again.
Speaker 2: I think it's always an advantage when you have a
Speaker 2: buy compared to a team coming off a wildly emotional win.
Speaker 2: I think the Rams can win out, and I think
Speaker 2: they will. I think they're a really well coached team,
Speaker 2: but nobody that offense is still kind of dinged up.
Speaker 2: I mean they're really doing it off great coaching scheme
Speaker 2: and Cooper cups not fully healthy. Stafford show signs that
Speaker 2: occasionally he's grabbing something every time off the field, Tyler
Speaker 2: Higbee's not healthy. So I like the Rams to win,
Speaker 2: but six and a half is way too many points
Speaker 2: for me. Sharper square, So.
Speaker 3: You're sharp right now. I will tell you. I'm on
Speaker 3: the Rams, and I don't really understand why the Wise
Speaker 3: guys like the Commanders they do. They totally do. You
Speaker 3: are completely, one hundred percent like Sam Howell has had
Speaker 3: a great year. I think that the Wise guys are
Speaker 3: still looking at Sam Howell from the first four to
Speaker 3: six weeks of the year and giving him a lot
Speaker 3: of credit and thinking, Okay, this is number is too big.
Speaker 3: They're off the by like you just said. I look
Speaker 3: at this though, and I tell you this Commander's defense
Speaker 3: is truly terrible, and they are. They are really terrible.
Speaker 3: And like they had what I call what we call
Speaker 3: like the dead cat bounce. Right. So in finance, when
Speaker 3: like a stock is doing terribly and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden it has a nice little blip, like a moment
Speaker 3: of clarity, right, that's the dead cat bounce. Because it's
Speaker 3: really kind of a crappy stock. This is a crappy
Speaker 3: team that after they traded away basically their entire defense
Speaker 3: and Chase Young and Montes sweat. They went on the road,
Speaker 3: they beat the Patriots. Everyone's like, oh, maybe this team
Speaker 3: has a little more moxy than we thought. They've basically
Speaker 3: been blown out in every game since then, right, and so,
Speaker 3: including at home by the Dolphins. They got blown out
Speaker 3: by the Cowboys. They have looked bad. They got beat
Speaker 3: by the Giants, right, and this is when like before
Speaker 3: Tommy DeVito and like the magic of being Italian in
Speaker 3: North Jersey. So it's a bad team and their defense
Speaker 3: is the worst in the league at giving up passes
Speaker 3: of twenty yards or more. Cooper Cup I think he's
Speaker 3: playing amazing right now. What he did against the Ravens
Speaker 3: was awesome. Pooka Nakua has been final and making fantastic catches.
Speaker 3: I don't know that anyone in Washington can guard them.
Speaker 3: And by the way, Karen Williams has been amazing since
Speaker 3: he came back from his injury.
Speaker 2: Oh fantastic.
Speaker 3: Like, I think the Russian game can dominate against the Commander.
Speaker 3: So you are one hundred percent on the right side.
Speaker 3: I'm making an executive decision. I'm with the Rams. I
Speaker 3: don't care what the wise guys say.
Speaker 2: Another underdog guy like Seahawks plus four Monday Night Football
Speaker 2: against Philadelphia. The move line has moved up all olids
Speaker 2: provided by DraftKings. They played a very spunky game against
Speaker 2: San Francisco and Dallas. These a good teams. They played
Speaker 2: them tight. And my takeaway here is we've watched on
Speaker 2: Monday Night football a very average Giants team win, Cincinnati
Speaker 2: beat Jacksonville. Monday Night Football is one of the last
Speaker 2: places home field is still three points. And I think
Speaker 2: Seattle's a desperate team that has actually lost but played
Speaker 2: pretty darn good in the last couple of weeks. And
Speaker 2: Philadelphia is reeling defensively, They're not running Jalen Hurts as much.
Speaker 2: It's an offense that hasn't solved their issues. And we've
Speaker 2: watched three or four games in a row. They have
Speaker 2: not had a great offensive game for four quarters this season.
Speaker 2: Seattle's tough. Wendy Rainey, I'm gonna take the Hawks plus four.
Speaker 2: Sharper square, Yeah, sharp.
Speaker 3: You know it's interesting. Before we came on the air,
Speaker 3: you and I talked about how this has been a
Speaker 3: sort of dominant season for the public, and when you're
Speaker 3: betting on the public, you're normally betting on the favorites.
Speaker 3: The one area where that doesn't apply is primetime games.
Speaker 3: Primetime games, it has still been the right side to
Speaker 3: fade the public bet with the Sharps, bet on the underdogs.
Speaker 3: So yes, the Seattle Seahawks at plus four will be
Speaker 3: the side that you'll find the wise guys on as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, we do this every week where I want you
Speaker 2: to talk me into a game that I have strong
Speaker 2: feelings with. But I have been watching Sharps and I
Speaker 2: don't think they like it. I actually think people shouldn't
Speaker 2: sell any of their stock of Green Bay. I really
Speaker 2: like them. I think their receivers are twitchy. I think
Speaker 2: Lafleur now runs the team. It's a really fun team.
Speaker 2: It feels like a Matt Lafleur offense. I think Jordan
Speaker 2: Love has made big strides in that game against the Giants.
Speaker 2: He had a couple of brilliant passes in the end zone.
Speaker 2: One got knocked down, one was just a foot the
Speaker 2: receiver couldn't get his foot down before they did eventually score.
Speaker 2: I think they're playing with confidence. I think they're young,
Speaker 2: they'll bounce back. They don't know what they don't know,
Speaker 2: and it was a Monday night football game where they
Speaker 2: went in off beating the Chiefs, so they kind of
Speaker 2: got into their fields a little bit. They went it
Speaker 2: as a favorite, and it's like, no, no, no, no, that's
Speaker 2: not what you are. Now they come home, I like
Speaker 2: a minus three. Talk me into it.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know that I should have to work
Speaker 3: that hard to talk you into it. It's it's a
Speaker 3: really complicated matchup for the professionals. They like the Bucks
Speaker 3: at plus three and a half. At plus three, I
Speaker 3: mean at minus three you kind of lean Packers or
Speaker 3: nothing at all. You need the hook if you're going
Speaker 3: to be interested in the Bucks, and if the hook
Speaker 3: is there, you don't want to bet the Packers. I
Speaker 3: think there's still so much for Jordan Love to learn.
Speaker 3: And you're right about the Giants last week. That was
Speaker 3: the smash spot. That was the easiest money that we
Speaker 3: have bet all season. Never in doubt, never a concern
Speaker 3: like that was just you know, Jordan Love going on
Speaker 3: the road is nearly a touchdown favorite in prime time.
Speaker 3: You're not betting on that at this point in his career.
Speaker 3: Going home. I agree with you. This has been a
Speaker 3: much better coach team. The second half of the year,
Speaker 3: he has looked much better. The challenge is that Baker
Speaker 3: Mayfield all season long has been keeping his team in games.
Speaker 3: He's playing terribly in moments of every game and keeping
Speaker 3: them in games and keeping the cover alive in every
Speaker 3: single game. It happened against the Eagles earlier in the year,
Speaker 3: and then we saw it again with the Falcons. He
Speaker 3: had played horrible and in that final drive, I think
Speaker 3: he had five incompletions. It was like five incompletions in
Speaker 3: a few runs, and then all of a sudden, he
Speaker 3: hits Chris Godwin with a perfect tear drop pass on
Speaker 3: the sideline that gets them close to the end zone,
Speaker 3: and then he makes a perfect throw into the end
Speaker 3: zone to win that game. The beauty of Baker Mayfield
Speaker 3: is that he's always been a guy who just plays
Speaker 3: with a massive amount of courage and does not care
Speaker 3: about what happened before. And I feel like that's when
Speaker 3: the Bucks have been doing all season long. So to me,
Speaker 3: it's scary to bet against them when they're not playing
Speaker 3: a really, really good team that is just so much
Speaker 3: better than them, And I don't think the Packers are
Speaker 3: that much better than them.
Speaker 2: Sharper Squire Chad Milman. Sorry for my long open but
Speaker 2: I just feel, I feel.
Speaker 3: You'll never have to apologize to me for your rants.
Speaker 3: I never know where they're going to go. I always
Speaker 3: find them entertaining. I know you thought of them deeply.
Speaker 3: I know you've got notes on your lead eagle pad.
Speaker 3: I know there's like a tree that you're looking at
Speaker 3: and this is just a branch and yep, I'm happy
Speaker 3: to take a ride with you, brother.
Speaker 2: Good see Anyboddy go bears. The volume