Speaker 1: From the King of sports Books comes the Key sports
Speaker 1: podcast Unleashed, presented by the MGM. Here's your host, Jerry
Speaker 1: Ferrara and Olivia Harland Decker. Welcome to Unleashed. The sports
Speaker 1: calendar is absolutely packed. Oh my gosh, last weekend, Jerry,
Speaker 1: it was a lot. I was kind of overwhelmed. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. The college football chaos, some NFL playoff
Speaker 1: type games, all these quarterback injuries that could affect some seasons,
Speaker 1: some betting. Were you overwhelmed? I was overwhelmed, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't help but think of you because you also were
Speaker 1: working this weekend, so you throw that into a full
Speaker 1: NFL and college slate. I was perusing Instagram. I saw
Speaker 1: you doing that. We call that like the home a loan.
Speaker 1: You're home alone in it through the airport. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you must have been. Oh god, I was home alone
Speaker 1: in it. I worked the SEC Championship game, which I
Speaker 1: do every year for like five or six years. I
Speaker 1: love working that game. My alma Maters Georgia, so it's
Speaker 1: really fun. They're usually in the game. Five of the
Speaker 1: last six years they've been in the game, but they'd
Speaker 1: only one once leading up to this weekend, So it's
Speaker 1: so exciting. It been since since Georgia had won, despite
Speaker 1: winning a national championship since then, so they had lost
Speaker 1: in this game. It had just evaded them. So it's
Speaker 1: really fun and like really sweet to get over that
Speaker 1: hump um and just the game was really exciting. Uh.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite moments if I can for a minute,
Speaker 1: just because this was a fun weekend for me. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's this really good defensive player for Georgia named Christopher Smith,
Speaker 1: and he blocked a field goal and l s U
Speaker 1: started getting off the field. They thought, you know, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a turnover, and he just stands there
Speaker 1: for a minute. He pauses. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: saw it on social media, and then he starts running.
Speaker 1: He takes it all the way into the house. And
Speaker 1: during the game, I'm on my phone and I see
Speaker 1: this clip is going viral. Of the Georgia coaches in
Speaker 1: the press box and they're going no, no, no, no yea.
Speaker 1: And so in my postgame interview as the first person
Speaker 1: to talk with Christopher after the game, and I said,
Speaker 1: when you get back to the locker room and you
Speaker 1: get on your phone, you're going to see that there's
Speaker 1: this clip going viral, and I told him about it.
Speaker 1: He was shocked, and so it's just a really fun moment.
Speaker 1: But then I had some key shift moves to do.
Speaker 1: I leave Mercedes Benz Stadium, which is in downtown Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to Hartsfield Jackson, and you know, I
Speaker 1: want to get home to see my baby. I want
Speaker 1: to wake up at home tomorrow. It's just different when
Speaker 1: you got a kid. It really is. I used to
Speaker 1: be able to stay on the road forever. Now I'm
Speaker 1: dying to get home, and I look at my phone.
Speaker 1: It says we'll get there in like thirty minutes. My
Speaker 1: flight boards in fifteen. I made my I made my flight.
Speaker 1: I made my flight. I still don't know how that
Speaker 1: was physically possible, because my flight was boarding as I
Speaker 1: was in traffic, and anyone who knows that airport, it's
Speaker 1: a mess. It's huge. You had to get some lucky
Speaker 1: breaks along the way. I'm guessing you didn't check a
Speaker 1: bag right, carry on nor carry on. Your gate couldn't
Speaker 1: have been too far from security, right. Sometimes you get
Speaker 1: like a twenty minute walk. It was at b gates,
Speaker 1: And again, we're really in the weeds. Here Cardsfield Jackson.
Speaker 1: When you going through South Security, I mean it goes
Speaker 1: all the way to f so B. I got a
Speaker 1: little lucky. I only had two of those like train stops.
Speaker 1: But then I was at the end of the concourse.
Speaker 1: That's when I had a home alone it and I
Speaker 1: was in heels, Jerry, I was in heels and my
Speaker 1: roller bag. I was in like a blazer, like I
Speaker 1: was in like a full work woman outfit. And I'm
Speaker 1: just Lookingna And you can tell my voice is still
Speaker 1: a little bit gone because working that game, you're just
Speaker 1: so excited and you're extending your voice over the crowd.
Speaker 1: But it was a really, really great weekend. I can't
Speaker 1: believe I made my flight. And that was the most
Speaker 1: well deserved can of wine I've ever had in a
Speaker 1: pasta cup on that flight. That that one tasted really good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I enjoyed this weekend a lot. Obviously, the Giants
Speaker 1: Commander's game was interesting. With the time we'll get into
Speaker 1: all that. We have an awesome show. If Mike Lombardi
Speaker 1: joining us, who I mean, I he has one of
Speaker 1: those podcasts that you just learned stuff from, Like that's
Speaker 1: where you go if you really want to learn. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying we don't teach anything, but if you truly
Speaker 1: want to learn about the NFL, so we'll talk to
Speaker 1: Mike Lombardi about everything that happened this weekend. But I
Speaker 1: talk a lot of trash about Sunday don't have no
Speaker 1: kids birthday parties, stuff like that. I did attend one
Speaker 1: because I have all this guilt because I'm working like
Speaker 1: a day job these days with this writer's room that
Speaker 1: I'm in. I Sunday one o'clock Giants Commanders. I was
Speaker 1: at Playhouse Square in Cleveland watching Rudolph the Musical with
Speaker 1: my three year old son, which was incredible. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna fly. I was a hundred percent watching Red Zone
Speaker 1: on my phone and I don't care. I was not.
Speaker 1: I was not the whole time, but a lot. And
Speaker 1: I think that's why they have WiFi in that building.
Speaker 1: For Dad's mom whoever, I just like was bre hitting
Speaker 1: you like a little bit. Jacob was on her lap,
Speaker 1: but like I just kept passive aggressively saying, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's only the biggest game of the year. That's all
Speaker 1: the biggest game for the Giants in five years. But no, cool,
Speaker 1: let's go the route off. All good, all good? And
Speaker 1: how do you justify it? Because then after you're walking
Speaker 1: out a picture, she says, so you know, did the
Speaker 1: Giants win? Tie? Yeah? But because like was it worth it?
Speaker 1: You had to watch a tie? So what are your
Speaker 1: takeaways from that game? I don't know if either of
Speaker 1: those two teams are really good or really bad. I
Speaker 1: can't figure it out. I think they're both decent. The
Speaker 1: glaring thing to me is I think that was actually
Speaker 1: a really positive game for Daniel Jones and the Giants.
Speaker 1: He made the play to win the game. He hit
Speaker 1: Slayton on a pass that would the game would have
Speaker 1: been pretty much over from that point, and Slayton dropped
Speaker 1: its second most drops maybe ever. So I do think
Speaker 1: the tie will help make the playoffs. It's better than
Speaker 1: the loss, but it just puts that much more pressure
Speaker 1: on two weeks from now when they play the Commanders
Speaker 1: again in d C, and that's going to be a
Speaker 1: tough game. I am definitely one of those people who
Speaker 1: cheers on Taylor Heineke, I gotta admit, and he had
Speaker 1: to seventy five yards completions forty two touchdowns. I'm not
Speaker 1: sharing against your Giants I'm just saying that Taylor Heineke
Speaker 1: is a great story to get behind. But yes, his
Speaker 1: work cut out for him because now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there's a bigger underdog quarterback in the NFL. Can you
Speaker 1: even believe what's going on in San Francisco, Mr Purty, Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard to say you feel bad for
Speaker 1: Jimmy g but you do feel bad with every injury.
Speaker 1: You don't ever want to see players get injured. I
Speaker 1: think that was one of the most interesting questions of
Speaker 1: the year going into the playoffs. If the Niners reached
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and or win the Super Bowl, you
Speaker 1: gotta run it back, right. We talked about it last week,
Speaker 1: and that's something I want to ask Lombardi. Is it
Speaker 1: automatic that you run that team back or as much
Speaker 1: as possible? Now? I just think that that obviously doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: But Pretty looked good. I'm sorry that. I mean, the
Speaker 1: defense looked phenomenal, and he didn't need to do a
Speaker 1: whole lot, but Pretty did look very, very competent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks great four to ten, two touchdowns, but I
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to need him to do that much.
Speaker 1: I gotta say That's why I'm not that worried. I'm
Speaker 1: not sounding the alarms for San Francisco right now. They
Speaker 1: have one of the best defenses in the league, one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in the league on the offensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball, best left tackle, some of the
Speaker 1: best playmakers. They're undefeated since Christian McCaffrey came. I think
Speaker 1: that Kyle Shanahan's system has him playing point guard in
Speaker 1: a basketball sense, like he doesn't need to take his
Speaker 1: own shots, he needs to set everyone else up. I
Speaker 1: really think it's it's interesting. But like you said, with
Speaker 1: Jimmy G, this guy's snake bite. I feel really bad
Speaker 1: for Jimmy G. I was just thinking about his career
Speaker 1: as a hole leading up to this. Drafted by the
Speaker 1: Patriots to be Brady's back up, I thought, maybe the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, Okay, Brady's going nowhere, So he
Speaker 1: goes to San Francisco, comes within a play or two
Speaker 1: of winning the Super Bowl. They draft a young guy
Speaker 1: third overall, so now he has a second season ending
Speaker 1: injury in the last couple of years. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: this guy. He can't catch a break. Thank God, he's
Speaker 1: so pretty, but he that's kind of it his football career.
Speaker 1: He's always just right there and he gets he gets screwed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're coming off that Instagram clip of him at
Speaker 1: the Warriors game where every single Warriors cheerleader walked by
Speaker 1: and was like Hi, Jerry. I just kept going. Do
Speaker 1: you know much about brock Purty? Obviously? I think everyone's
Speaker 1: done a lot of research since he's been playing, and
Speaker 1: now seems like the guy who's going to be there
Speaker 1: because I don't think they really I know they signed
Speaker 1: Johnson off the Broncos practice team, but right for a backup. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you know if anything about brock Purty, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, if it's a guy who's like a rookie,
Speaker 1: first second, third year, like I probably covered them in college,
Speaker 1: and I did. I covered Brock pretty a lot in college.
Speaker 1: Actually he has. At Iowa State, he was really relevant,
Speaker 1: big name in college football for a handful of years
Speaker 1: because he played super exciting. He had a big arm,
Speaker 1: he was confident, he was swaggy. He beat out the
Speaker 1: guy in front of him, like mid season. I remember
Speaker 1: one game I think he actually was inserted midway through
Speaker 1: a game I had at Oklahoma State and he was electric.
Speaker 1: So but that's a college you know, completely different game. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it is a different game in the NFL. But what's
Speaker 1: kind of cool about him He got most of his
Speaker 1: college offers really late his senior year because he had
Speaker 1: mono his junior year, so he didn't play much football.
Speaker 1: He didn't get many offers. And then he has this
Speaker 1: amazing senior year, but Iowa State had offered him so
Speaker 1: early that he wanted to stick with them, so he
Speaker 1: even turned down a scholarship to play at Alabama and others,
Speaker 1: but Alabama like so, this guy is talented so much
Speaker 1: so that Nick Saban wanted them. And then he goes
Speaker 1: to kind of a school no one thinks about Iowa
Speaker 1: State and does well in the Big Twelve. And I
Speaker 1: don't think they're done with Brock Purty. No, And the
Speaker 1: defense showed you. I mean, it was a great example
Speaker 1: of defense versus offense. The defense was flat out just
Speaker 1: good enough to beat. They didn't even need him to
Speaker 1: do anything. So but let's just say, my Seahawks ticket
Speaker 1: to win a division, which would dropped last week and
Speaker 1: I was thinking about getting off it back in play.
Speaker 1: There's still only one game back from the Niners and
Speaker 1: they will meet again, so that Seahawks to win the
Speaker 1: NFC West. I know they're the underdog and the Niners
Speaker 1: of the favorite, but that is still very much in place.
Speaker 1: Seahawks looked good. Yeah, I was looking at opening nods
Speaker 1: for that division, so forty Niners opening nods was plus
Speaker 1: two thirty and now it's minus four hundred. That's with
Speaker 1: the Brock pretty news. So there's still the favor in
Speaker 1: the NFC West. Seattle's next up at plus three hundred
Speaker 1: if someone's still trying to buy that ticket. But look,
Speaker 1: if the playoffs started today, San Francisco would play the Giants,
Speaker 1: and I think they'd win. I think they'd win to
Speaker 1: just I don't know how with everything that Giants have
Speaker 1: going on at receiver and lack thereof, I just don't
Speaker 1: know how they would move the ball against the Niners.
Speaker 1: I mean it would have to be a flukey fluky
Speaker 1: type that which Giant. Historically Giants and the Niners that
Speaker 1: hit fluky stuff has happened. You know, Joe Montana got
Speaker 1: knocked out of a game and Colin Kaepernick had an
Speaker 1: awful game like this only bad game of the year
Speaker 1: versus the Giants in the playoffs, so there is a
Speaker 1: history there, but no, I don't know how the Giants
Speaker 1: had moved the ball against that Niners defense since they
Speaker 1: Now this weekend we have a much anticipated, a just
Speaker 1: classic on the Gridiron meeting Rock Purty and Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Listen to very late draft. I mean, brock Purty potentially
Speaker 1: could be like, you can't say he's gonna beat Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: but he has the origin story at least so far.
Speaker 1: You know he was Mr. Irrelevant. But let's just be clear.
Speaker 1: If San Francisco makes a deep playoff run here with
Speaker 1: Rock Party at quarterback, we need have Jeff Perlman write
Speaker 1: his book now just started now because this would be
Speaker 1: the most unheard of thing. It's never happened in the
Speaker 1: NFL before. And you look at Tom Brady, what he
Speaker 1: was a sixth round pick six or seven? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: always confused if he was six or I think six,
Speaker 1: and brock Purty was literally the last pick in the draft.
Speaker 1: Mr Irrelevant. That's kind of a different story. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that is falling so far, and he's a rookie.
Speaker 1: He's a rookie. It's not like he's been like an
Speaker 1: eternal backup that you know is competent whatever, he's a
Speaker 1: rookie and he was Mr. Irrelevant, so this story would
Speaker 1: be incredible if if they can play with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Brady, if you remember, people forget because he's been
Speaker 1: around for a hundred thousand years that first Patriots Super
Speaker 1: Bowl up. All you gotta do is just manage the game.
Speaker 1: Because the Pats had a good defense, I had a
Speaker 1: good run game. They had a great coach. So there
Speaker 1: are eerie things. But look, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 1: Because although Tom Brady for every moment that you're like,
Speaker 1: oh he's done, the Bucks are done, and he does
Speaker 1: some crazy stuff with three minutes to go, it is
Speaker 1: awful watching the Bucks. I I hate I'm like hate
Speaker 1: watching the Bucks all the time. I mean that Monday
Speaker 1: night game was unprecedented. I would love to know the
Speaker 1: viewership from like at the final five minutes when they
Speaker 1: were down there team Tampa Bay and then they come
Speaker 1: back obviously to win. I would love to know how
Speaker 1: many TV sets were turned off. I sound like I'm
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties right now. How many people have
Speaker 1: turned off the game and then quickly turned it back
Speaker 1: on at the end when you know, someone texts them.
Speaker 1: Are you watching this? So you just reminded me of
Speaker 1: my when Entourage first started. My mom would put like
Speaker 1: all the TV's on in the house when Entourage on,
Speaker 1: thinking that each TV like a viewer. So yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's adorable. By the way, later in the show, we're
Speaker 1: going to get back to our entraged segment. We missed
Speaker 1: last week because I was traveling and I didn't have
Speaker 1: time to watch. But now I am caught up and
Speaker 1: I have so many questions to ask you later in
Speaker 1: the show. I'm excited, can't wait. Yeah. I think you're
Speaker 1: entering season five, which is my second favorite season, so
Speaker 1: I'm excited to have a little chat about that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you two on the heels of
Speaker 1: the forty Niners conversation, and we do record this on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: so this might be settled by the time this air
Speaker 1: is on Thursday. But Baker Mayfield was cut from Carolina
Speaker 1: this week, and a lot of people thought, oh, perfect timing.
Speaker 1: San Francisco needs a quarterback. Baker is a former number
Speaker 1: one pick, He's a former Heisman winner. There's still something
Speaker 1: to like with Baker Mayfield. I know he's got a
Speaker 1: lot of haters, but he can play. It's sad that
Speaker 1: he failed a third string in Carolina. I don't really
Speaker 1: know how or why. But do you feel like San
Speaker 1: Francisco is a good spot for him? In last Michael Lombardi,
Speaker 1: But do you feel like there's any team that could
Speaker 1: use his services with the way quarterback was this year?
Speaker 1: I definitely don't think that Baker necessarily needs to worry
Speaker 1: like will he get another shot or not? I think
Speaker 1: he will. I don't think it's gonna be with the
Speaker 1: Niners unless it's it's going to be an insurance package
Speaker 1: almost for them, because I think they're going to roll
Speaker 1: the dice with pretty I think they probably liked what
Speaker 1: they saw. And he's been with the team. He's been
Speaker 1: the backup while he was third string, but then Trey
Speaker 1: Lance went down so early he's been getting reps as
Speaker 1: the backup quarterback for a minute. So I don't see
Speaker 1: it happening unless truly they want to just bolster up
Speaker 1: the quarterback spot. I don't. I don't think it happens
Speaker 1: with the Niners. I don't think they need. And the
Speaker 1: Josh Johnson part of it all, who he knows, you know,
Speaker 1: the la Florsa. He knows the system, so I just don't.
Speaker 1: I just don't see it, and I don't know what
Speaker 1: team really does that. Why not why not just wait
Speaker 1: and then bring him in for workouts and talks and
Speaker 1: sign him in the off season, because you don't even
Speaker 1: if they signed him, and Lombardi could speak to this
Speaker 1: better than I can. You know, you don't have his
Speaker 1: rights for next year or so why not just wait?
Speaker 1: I don't see I don't think there's any other team
Speaker 1: that's just close enough where Baker would put them over
Speaker 1: the edge. The Niners will be the only team. I
Speaker 1: don't think it happens. Do you know. I don't because
Speaker 1: they asked Kyle Shanahan about it on Sunday or Monday,
Speaker 1: and he was like, I'm a fan of Bakers, which
Speaker 1: is not true. I'm a fan of Bakers, but I
Speaker 1: think we're okay, which I think says it all. But hey,
Speaker 1: it's not his decision, so we'll see. Okay, there's one
Speaker 1: more quarterback qualm. I wanted to pick your brain on.
Speaker 1: So we haven't talked about this before. I want to
Speaker 1: air this out and see what you think, Okay, and
Speaker 1: we'll ask Michael Lombardi too. But just as I'm kind
Speaker 1: of looking at where the Packers stand with Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: and everyone's like, oh, the Packers are stuck with them.
Speaker 1: They're stuck, And recently both sides came out saying they
Speaker 1: want to him to return next year. I feel like, again,
Speaker 1: I'm not a GM obviously, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: this really is the best solution, but it is a solution,
Speaker 1: and I just wanna I want to hear what you
Speaker 1: think about this. So Tennessee, they are right there, they
Speaker 1: are ready to win. They have a great defense, good coaching.
Speaker 1: I think could use a better quarterback. Aaron Rodgers is
Speaker 1: building a house in Nashville. Now, a lot of people
Speaker 1: do end up moving to Nashville. We were just talking
Speaker 1: before the show, like a lot of Californians moved to Austin.
Speaker 1: This is a similar thing. But as the Packers and
Speaker 1: Aaron just signed a three year, hundred fifty million dollar
Speaker 1: extension and the only way out of it is really retirement,
Speaker 1: I wonder if he would try to get traded or
Speaker 1: retire and then unretire and try to go to Nashville
Speaker 1: where he could probably win more games sooner, and then
Speaker 1: I don't know if it necessarily is horrible for the
Speaker 1: Packers because they'd get a bunch of draft picks, they
Speaker 1: would hit dead cap space, but it would be like
Speaker 1: sixteen million the first year, million the next year. But
Speaker 1: if Jordan's Love can play, which again we don't really know,
Speaker 1: I think it's a wash because you're not paying Jordan's Love,
Speaker 1: You're not paying all the young guys like Christian Watson,
Speaker 1: Romeo Dabbs. The only like big money guy on that
Speaker 1: team is David Bactieri, your left tackle. So if you
Speaker 1: get all these draft picks from Tennessee, you get a
Speaker 1: receiver that hits, then you can kind of even get
Speaker 1: rid of the next level of money guys like Randall Cobs,
Speaker 1: Sammy Watkins, Alan Lazard and again this may be complete
Speaker 1: vs I'm spitting out here. I just feel like it
Speaker 1: kind of fits for both sides, and it gives green
Speaker 1: Bay a fresh start. I think that is a really,
Speaker 1: really good case that you just laid out because when
Speaker 1: you think of Aaron Rodgers, look with green Bay, they're
Speaker 1: going to get a good draft pick this year, but
Speaker 1: that's only one pick, and they'll have a better second
Speaker 1: round pick, so they will have assets to make the
Speaker 1: team better going into next year. I get and Watson
Speaker 1: obviously has shown remarkable bounce back factor since his start
Speaker 1: of the year, so he's a piece too. It's a
Speaker 1: really interesting scenario because I do think I haven't thought
Speaker 1: of the Titans till you mentioned it. But and I
Speaker 1: clocked the building a house, I don't really ever. I
Speaker 1: think the only time that ever truly factored in was
Speaker 1: when Lebron was building like his mega giant mansion in
Speaker 1: l A. It's like, because he's going to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: like what not a surprise. But I think for a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys, just because they're building a house
Speaker 1: somewhere does not automatically plant No. But I think you
Speaker 1: it brought you to a good, good point because it
Speaker 1: is a good fit and the Titans are really close.
Speaker 1: I liked Tannehill, I don't. I kind of would say,
Speaker 1: see how it goes with Titans this year if they
Speaker 1: make a run with Tannehill and who knows, but if
Speaker 1: they get bounced out early, fou was him, I'd much
Speaker 1: rather play in that division than have to deal with
Speaker 1: the Vikings and the Lions, who look like they're actually
Speaker 1: a juggernaut coming in. I mean, it's insane to see
Speaker 1: what the Lions have put together. I can't believe that
Speaker 1: the Lions are favored at home against the Vikings. Someone
Speaker 1: tell me why I think the Lions are making the playoffs? What? Well, Okay,
Speaker 1: I would love to hear your case, because I sniffed
Speaker 1: around at that too. They're basically two games out and
Speaker 1: their schedule, they are obviously home for the Vikings this week,
Speaker 1: so if they win this week, then I do think
Speaker 1: you are in business. Then they go at the Jets,
Speaker 1: which is no longer a walk game, a walkover game,
Speaker 1: because Mike White has something to say about that. At
Speaker 1: the Panthers. The Panthers are so confusing. They're one of
Speaker 1: these teams I can't figure out, Like they flirt with you,
Speaker 1: like we might be good, and then they just saw
Speaker 1: like they just ghost you because then they suck. So
Speaker 1: I don't know what happens in that game. But then
Speaker 1: home against the Bears, final game of the season in
Speaker 1: Green Bay against your potentially Jordan's love Packers and potentially
Speaker 1: just dead in the water Packers. I they're already dead
Speaker 1: in the war on Every game they win only hurts
Speaker 1: them at this point, it's just the truth. It's just
Speaker 1: I know, I know, but we had to beat Chicago, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: someone had happened. But I think the Lions beat Chicago
Speaker 1: and Green Bay. I think they certainly can beat the Panthers.
Speaker 1: Could they still get in the playoffs if they lose
Speaker 1: to the Vikings and Jets, But when I don't know
Speaker 1: that will put them at Let's see their five and seven.
Speaker 1: If they go three and the two, then because they
Speaker 1: go three and two eight nine, Yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: that gets in because right now you got the Giants
Speaker 1: seven four and one, Commanders seven five and one, Seahawks
Speaker 1: seven and five. It's a it's a two game chase,
Speaker 1: so it would be tough thing. There's a few winnable
Speaker 1: games Allions had earlier in the year. But I am
Speaker 1: just blown away. And fans listening to this show, if
Speaker 1: you are willing to lay, everyone's gonna take the Vikings.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be insane. The Vikings are plus two
Speaker 1: and a half. The Vikings are what eleven and one?
Speaker 1: I don't even know the Tenant too, whatever their record is.
Speaker 1: This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. Suspect line, do
Speaker 1: you think Peter Andrew is gonna hit on that one
Speaker 1: in their final segment. I don't know what we could
Speaker 1: leave it to Peter Andrew because I think he had
Speaker 1: the giant. He so lucky. He I think he had
Speaker 1: the over. You know, we had the under forty and
Speaker 1: a half and the game ended in the tie. Soe
Speaker 1: but a half point. It's like he was rooting for
Speaker 1: the time over time. Oh my god. Certainly he was
Speaker 1: not the only one. So what do you mean these
Speaker 1: teams that are flirting with you? What do you mean
Speaker 1: by that? I mean from a betting perspective, the teams
Speaker 1: that just look when you look at the lines from
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year till now, it's like, this
Speaker 1: is my team, Like if it's like relationships. I ran
Speaker 1: this whole bit out in my mind of just the
Speaker 1: teams that I've had relationships with this year flirty we're dating,
Speaker 1: we're not relationships, and where they end, Like for instance,
Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jacksonville Jaguar are that exact team that you actually
Speaker 1: think you're dating them and they just ghost you completely.
Speaker 1: You never hear from them again, Like they win two
Speaker 1: weeks ago and then they get absolutely crushed by the lines.
Speaker 1: The Raiders are the team you want nothing to do with.
Speaker 1: But now you moved on, they're like, hey, wait, we
Speaker 1: we want to actually date you because you're looking at
Speaker 1: other teams now. The Vikings are always screwing up and apologizing,
Speaker 1: and you always forgive them. The Vikings, they're always again,
Speaker 1: they're just that team. They're like, so sorry, I know
Speaker 1: I was supposed to meet you. I'm sorry. Won't happen again?
Speaker 1: You forgive them. Of course it happens again. And then
Speaker 1: I think there's a t like the Steelers earlier in
Speaker 1: the year. Yeah, I think the Steelers of that team,
Speaker 1: they got like a makeover, They got in shape, they
Speaker 1: bought some clothes, they got their hair done, Like the Steelers.
Speaker 1: All of some walked in the room one day and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh damn, look at the Steelers because they're
Speaker 1: they're they're kind of hot right now. Yeah, Steelers are
Speaker 1: kind of hot right now. Yeah. I think Steelers just
Speaker 1: got a nose job or something and they've had some
Speaker 1: working there had Okay, that was really good. Do you
Speaker 1: have a team like that? Do you have is there
Speaker 1: one team for you on the betting perspective that you've
Speaker 1: been in a relationship with that it's been rocky. Well,
Speaker 1: now that you've thrown out this whole narrative and I'm
Speaker 1: liking it, and I'm following you here. What about the Titans.
Speaker 1: They've won five straight and their streak was stopped by
Speaker 1: a strong chiefstand team could just beat them by three
Speaker 1: at home, but then they won two again since that
Speaker 1: they're looking strong leading their division. And then a home
Speaker 1: lost by four to since and then what they did
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia is unacceptable, thirty five to ten loss, a J.
Speaker 1: Brown's revenge game. All of that, so I don't know
Speaker 1: what's thet there? You ready? Okay? The Titans were at
Speaker 1: the bar, and wow did they look hot. They were
Speaker 1: the hot guy the hot girl at the bar. Everyone's
Speaker 1: eyes are on them. And then it hits two am,
Speaker 1: cancer out lights come on and oh god, whoa, you
Speaker 1: were away hotter when the bar had the lights off.
Speaker 1: That's what happened because everyone bet the Titans this week.
Speaker 1: Everyone bet the Titans this week. Everyone took the points
Speaker 1: with the Titan. Then they turned the lights on it
Speaker 1: like that game should have been much more competitive than
Speaker 1: it was. No, you were so right. That is the equivalent. Also,
Speaker 1: anyone who's been in that position, whether it's someone you're
Speaker 1: talking to, or you're all of a sudden self conscious
Speaker 1: about you. That's a horrible moment when the lights turned
Speaker 1: on in a bar. Listen like, oh my god, and
Speaker 1: the girl. Yeah, these are just I makeup everywhere? Do
Speaker 1: I need? Yeah? Oh it's horrible. Okay, okay. Big story
Speaker 1: this week in college football was coach Prime Dion Sanders.
Speaker 1: He was named the new head coach at University of Colorado.
Speaker 1: So he turned Jackson State into a winner. Now, he
Speaker 1: said to dot the Pac twelve, try to replicate that
Speaker 1: in Boulder. I was really surprised by this, just because
Speaker 1: I thought his coaching career was going to be to
Speaker 1: really help HBCU. Like I thought that was the point
Speaker 1: of bringing his celebrity, all of that to HBCU turn
Speaker 1: a program around shape young men. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: was trying to climb the coaching ranks, to be honest,
Speaker 1: I didn't think that's what he was getting into it.
Speaker 1: For clearly that is what he's doing, and I think
Speaker 1: it's incredible. I think it's anyone who's a hater of
Speaker 1: this move, it's really hypocritical because all we do is
Speaker 1: say that blackhead coaches need more opportunities and then he here,
Speaker 1: he is climbing the ranks, taking this power five job,
Speaker 1: and I just saw a lot of people being like,
Speaker 1: you know, how dare he leave? Jackson stayed after after
Speaker 1: recruiting all those guys and getting them there. But I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of this move. Go coach Prime. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to watch Colorado next year. And I actually I
Speaker 1: have a speaking gig coming up in January with Dean
Speaker 1: Sanders that was booked like a month ago before this happened,
Speaker 1: So I really hope he still makes it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you will, because he's coming. He's he told me
Speaker 1: he's coming. We loved his meeting with his new players
Speaker 1: so much that we thought of a new segment for
Speaker 1: the show, and it's called Audible of the Week. So
Speaker 1: go ahead and listen to yourself. Know, okay, not to compete,
Speaker 1: but to win, not to show up, but to show up.
Speaker 1: Not to be amongst the rest, but to be the best.
Speaker 1: Oh come, I'm flat up coming. This is real. We
Speaker 1: got a few positions already taken care of because I'm
Speaker 1: bringing my luggage with you, and it's Louis. But I
Speaker 1: told him I wanted these kids focus on in FA
Speaker 1: or nothing in high are but guess what they told
Speaker 1: they come. I love the line when he says be
Speaker 1: focused on the NFL, not n I L And that's
Speaker 1: so refreshing. Everything about him so refreshing. Like I think
Speaker 1: people in this day and age, regardless of industry or whatever,
Speaker 1: people just tiptoe around feelings and everyone has to be
Speaker 1: like so woke and blah blah. I feel like he's
Speaker 1: like old school. I love in an era to where
Speaker 1: we've seen every version of a coach is like Rara
Speaker 1: speech or introduct We've seen every version of it, have
Speaker 1: not seen this version of it. It was awesome. And look,
Speaker 1: I'm just I think he's gonna do great over there.
Speaker 1: I just think I'm a big believer. And I think
Speaker 1: some people, athletes, actors, reporters, whatever your job is, just
Speaker 1: need to feel believed in. And I feel like if
Speaker 1: you get coach prime to believe in you, I feel
Speaker 1: I feel like the confidence level you'll probably get to
Speaker 1: do extraordinary things you didn't think you can do. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a guy you want behind you. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: really excited. So that'll be fun. End of January will
Speaker 1: come back to this topic. And I'll ask you what
Speaker 1: I should ask him, because I'm like, I'm seeing an
Speaker 1: interview with him on stage or a National Auto Dealers conference.
Speaker 1: I'm really I'm really exciting. He'll be fascinating. Let's bring
Speaker 1: in our guest. He's a former NFL general manager or
Speaker 1: who won three Super Bowl rings during his time in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and when he's not breaking down film of
Speaker 1: NFL games, he's breaking down actual whole film from the
Speaker 1: Godfather and a good fellas host of the GM Shuffle podcast,
Speaker 1: which is amazing. By the way, if you haven't listened,
Speaker 1: Michael Lombardi is here again a second appearance. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining, Michael. I appreciate it. Good to
Speaker 1: be here, Jerry, nice to meet you. I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1: I enjoy it. It was always a good time to
Speaker 1: watch that show and kind of live a life we
Speaker 1: all wish we lived. I mean, you know, you're a
Speaker 1: dream come true right there. That show. Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I've been a fan of yours for a while, and
Speaker 1: also you are someone who's on my list, like I
Speaker 1: want to have dinner with you because I want to
Speaker 1: like less, I want to talk football, but I'm more
Speaker 1: interested to talk. I'm a big Sopranos guy. I I've
Speaker 1: watched that show ninety seven times through and all the movie.
Speaker 1: I just would love to do movie and show deep
Speaker 1: dives with you because I love when you do love that.
Speaker 1: I think what makes that show so from from a
Speaker 1: writing standpoint for me, and I'm not a writer, and
Speaker 1: I have an idea for a show, but I haven't
Speaker 1: been able to sell it. But I think what makes
Speaker 1: that show so unique and so continuous that in our
Speaker 1: minds is every time he goes to see Dr Melfi,
Speaker 1: the show can take on a different life. So the
Speaker 1: Therapist Sessions, although somewhat annoying and tedious, they really directed
Speaker 1: the show and she wrote the show. And that's what
Speaker 1: makes it so much fun to watch because she controlled
Speaker 1: the narrative of the entire six seasons by her being
Speaker 1: in that office. And yet yet we don't realize that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of fun, and that's what I
Speaker 1: loved about it before we get into some fun football stuff.
Speaker 1: Right when I moved to l A, I had an
Speaker 1: audition for one line on The Sopranos, which was for
Speaker 1: the Jackie Junior part. No one knowing how much of
Speaker 1: a big character will become. I had my tickets booked.
Speaker 1: I'm like, do I stay in New York for this
Speaker 1: one one line thing that's going to be nothing? Or
Speaker 1: moved to l A. And I just went to l
Speaker 1: A and go on the audition and that part did
Speaker 1: become the thing, as you remember. So, oh no, sure
Speaker 1: you could have almost drowned three inches ago, like Jackie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean seriously, he could. I mean that's why the
Speaker 1: jumble Jor's greatest lines. He's got the napkin on his thing.
Speaker 1: He said, the kids wig and he said the dumbch
Speaker 1: fuck almost driving the three inches of water. You know,
Speaker 1: every time I see Jackie Jr. That's all I could
Speaker 1: think about. Yes, agreed, Oh god, you got me. That's
Speaker 1: an interesting decision there, Jerry. But a good, good backstory.
Speaker 1: And I want to know the backstory too, because we're
Speaker 1: just talking off air about the Seahawks tweet with Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll and the entourage and everything, and Jerry, you were
Speaker 1: saying that there's something more there, and then Michael, I
Speaker 1: think you have a take as well. Yeah. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I think Seattle, I said on my podcast all summer,
Speaker 1: and I apologize to Pete Carroll into John Schneiger. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know how they could go on vacation though,
Speaker 1: And Gino Smith was the quarterback, and you know has
Speaker 1: proved me we're out wrong. I mean, like Gino has
Speaker 1: played really well. I think they actually thought Drew Lock
Speaker 1: would win the job. I mean Gino was accurate, I
Speaker 1: mean his pocket presence. Yet last weekend was tremendous. He
Speaker 1: stepped up, he made great brows. They turn the ball over,
Speaker 1: else the game would have been as close. They turned
Speaker 1: it over twice in the Ram territory. But I think
Speaker 1: there was this perception that Russell needed to cook. It's
Speaker 1: always with somebody else's fault in Seattle. You know, it
Speaker 1: was Daryl Bevil's fault. They fired him. It was Brian
Speaker 1: Schottenheimer's fault. They fire him. They bring Shane Waldron and
Speaker 1: oh no, he's no good. You know, you gotta let
Speaker 1: Russ cook, you know. And there was a time Russ
Speaker 1: was cooking at the French laundreef. But slowly Russell became
Speaker 1: the chef of the Hackensack Diner. And now I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not even sure he's cooking in cafeterias
Speaker 1: in high school, Like it's just not the same guy.
Speaker 1: And I think that that relief for Seattle is almost
Speaker 1: like this giant cloud got lifted off their shoulders. All
Speaker 1: I'll say is Russell Wilson was in the Entourage movie.
Speaker 1: At one point he was very close with our show
Speaker 1: creator Doug Allen, who has since been iced out from
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson's life, Like they were really close and one
Speaker 1: day I think Russell just they actually talked about on
Speaker 1: their podcast victory of the Podcast, So I definitely think that, yeah,
Speaker 1: they had a lot of Russell Wilson connotation to it.
Speaker 1: And of course I was on the Ravens a little bit.
Speaker 1: In that game he finally scrambled, which I thought was crazy.
Speaker 1: When the game was on the line, he had a
Speaker 1: nice run which I don't think we saw all year.
Speaker 1: We've seen all year long. You know, one thing that
Speaker 1: happens in sports is a player, but he's a really
Speaker 1: good player, and then people just think he stays great forever.
Speaker 1: Like everybody just assumes Odell Beckham is gonna come back
Speaker 1: and be O'Dell with the one hand to catch in
Speaker 1: New York, Like, who does coming off a second a
Speaker 1: c L. He's gonna have a hard time getting up
Speaker 1: to the level that O'Dell wants played it. Let's just
Speaker 1: be fair, like he's not gonna play at the highest.
Speaker 1: I mean, Chris Godwin. Just last night they were saying
Speaker 1: Brady was saying to the announcers that Godwin is just
Speaker 1: finally back from his a c L. Right, and he's
Speaker 1: been practicing football for six months. So like, we just
Speaker 1: assume a player's great and he's gonna stay great forever.
Speaker 1: And I think when you watched Russell last year, the
Speaker 1: lowest run at rushing totally had his group was a
Speaker 1: hunt at eight three yards. That was last year. He
Speaker 1: didn't run last year. There's a reason they don't run
Speaker 1: quarterback sneak. He doesn't want to run. And when Russell
Speaker 1: can't make those plays, And Olivia like, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: being married to a basketball player, you can appreciate this.
Speaker 1: To me, when I watched Russell, I'm reminded of Allen Iverson.
Speaker 1: Iverson was a little guy who was great. He had
Speaker 1: an incredible burst to the basket. Nobody could handle his quickness.
Speaker 1: But when he lost that little bit of quickness and
Speaker 1: lost that burst, he became a little player. I think
Speaker 1: that's what's happened to Russell. He doesn't have the juice
Speaker 1: in his lower body, and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he's you can catch him, he can't escape, and he
Speaker 1: looks like a little player playing quarterback. Okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: I want to stick with Obi j for a second
Speaker 1: because rumors are as we record this Tuesday, he just
Speaker 1: wrapped up meetings in Dallas with Jerry Jones, with the
Speaker 1: leadership group that includes Dak Prescott, went to a Mavericks
Speaker 1: game with some of the guys. He sounded like it's
Speaker 1: all but done. Jerry Jones sounded a little bit more trepidacious.
Speaker 1: What are you hearing? You know? I think to me,
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna know what the reality of the situation is
Speaker 1: until they examined the meat. Where is he in his rehab?
Speaker 1: What does he look like in a workout? You know
Speaker 1: last night they were talking on the Television's gonna be
Speaker 1: really expensive to sign Odell? Yeah, it might be, but
Speaker 1: if he's only if he can pass the physical. One
Speaker 1: thing I learned in my career in the NFL. The
Speaker 1: doctors will say he's past the physical, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he's ready to play at the NFL's highest level.
Speaker 1: That just means he can start rehabing. That just means
Speaker 1: he can start preparing. We only got five weeks left now.
Speaker 1: If you're signing him and you think it's gonna help
Speaker 1: you in the playoff run, okay, but you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get as much out of him as you think. It's
Speaker 1: gonna take time. Look how rusty DeShawn Watson was. It's
Speaker 1: gonna take time to get back into the flow of
Speaker 1: the game, the physicality of the game, and you're coming
Speaker 1: off a knee injury, a major significant a c L,
Speaker 1: which is the second one you suffered. I know he's superhuman.
Speaker 1: I know he's a talented player, but I think it's hard.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Godwin and I want to stick with the
Speaker 1: Bucks because we were joking earlier abol we wonder what
Speaker 1: the ratings of that game were for three and a
Speaker 1: half quarters versus the final five minutes of that game
Speaker 1: when it just turned into like, oh, Tom Brady is
Speaker 1: doing his thing. I don't know if that's what Tom
Speaker 1: Brady envisioned. We came back, but it's ugly win after
Speaker 1: ugly win, and uglier loss after uglier loss. I had
Speaker 1: what do you think the Bucks offense like, why have
Speaker 1: they struggled so much as it was was grunk that
Speaker 1: much of a factor? Is that health of Godwin or
Speaker 1: all the above. I think if you understand quarterbacks, the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are like basketball players. There's certain spots on the
Speaker 1: field that they shoot the ball well from, just like
Speaker 1: certain spots on the court. Right and Brady wants to
Speaker 1: throw the ball in the middle of the field. He
Speaker 1: saw it last night. Every time he threw a nine rounde.
Speaker 1: It really wasn't what he wants to do. He wasn't
Speaker 1: accurate with and he missed it. It's just not his strength.
Speaker 1: His strength is the between the numbers. And when you
Speaker 1: look at his career over his extended time in New England,
Speaker 1: he always had a nickel running back, start with Kevin Fall,
Speaker 1: Shane Vereen, James White. He always had tight ends Ben
Speaker 1: Watson Brown, Aaron Hernandez, and he always had a slot
Speaker 1: receiver Wes Welker, Danny Amidola, Julian Edelman. He's always had
Speaker 1: three players who could control the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: He's in Tampa, he doesn't have that. He's got Godwin.
Speaker 1: Everybody keeps wanting to get the ball to Mike Evans,
Speaker 1: but Mike Evans doesn't run routes that are really complimentary
Speaker 1: to Brady's game, and so to me, it's a design
Speaker 1: problem with their personnel, like they don't have the ability
Speaker 1: to have the guys inside that can win one on
Speaker 1: one routes. And last night they got the biggest break
Speaker 1: of all. I mean, if mark Ingram gets the first down,
Speaker 1: if anybody was a wake for it, if he just
Speaker 1: gets the first down, They're gonna run two more minutes
Speaker 1: off the clock, and I don't think Brady's gonna have
Speaker 1: time to come back down the field to score two touchdowns. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we now know that Lamar Jackson sprained his PCL.
Speaker 1: He's definitely out this weekend against the Steelers, and it
Speaker 1: maybe up to three weeks. Look, a lot of people
Speaker 1: are saying he should hold out and wait for some
Speaker 1: guaranteed money, wait for the Ravens to make a move.
Speaker 1: Why do you think the Ravens are dragging their feet
Speaker 1: and what do you think is the best course of
Speaker 1: action for Lamar? I think that the Shawn Watson contract
Speaker 1: really through a loop into it, with the Shawn getting
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty million dollars guaranteed. Buttoned up the first
Speaker 1: NFL player in the history of the sport to ever
Speaker 1: do that. When I was in the league, nobody was
Speaker 1: getting any buttoned up contracts. It's still until the Sean.
Speaker 1: When I say buttoned up, that means skill and injury.
Speaker 1: A lot of players get skill guarantees. They get injury
Speaker 1: guarantees when you get both the owners that have to
Speaker 1: fund them money to the league office in an escrow account,
Speaker 1: which is really hurts their cash blow no matter how
Speaker 1: wealthy anyone is. So they've always been able to use
Speaker 1: this nineteen sixty rule, which was essentially put into place
Speaker 1: because they want the owners to cheat the players and
Speaker 1: go bankrupt and say, oh, I know we owed you money,
Speaker 1: but now we're bankrupt. I mean, the NFL was never
Speaker 1: this incredible machine that it is today. So that rule
Speaker 1: was put into basically to help the players not get
Speaker 1: ripped off. That's the rule that stayed intact, and then
Speaker 1: the Browns violated it. They went above and beyond for
Speaker 1: a player that had a lot of off the field
Speaker 1: issues that was suspended. Of all the players to get
Speaker 1: that type of deal, Watson should have been the last one,
Speaker 1: and he did, and the Lamar wants that deal, and
Speaker 1: Steve Bashotti came right out after the deal happened and said,
Speaker 1: that's really bad for our game. And I think there's
Speaker 1: the conflict. I think Lamar is they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: pay Lamar. To me, I don't like Baltimore's passing game.
Speaker 1: Even when Lamar was the m v P in the league,
Speaker 1: their passing game wasn't good enough, and it showed up
Speaker 1: when they played Tennessee in a playoff game. Lamar is
Speaker 1: a lot like Tom Brady. He wants to throw the
Speaker 1: ball in the middle of field. That's why Mark Andrews
Speaker 1: was so good. When he had Hayden Hurst and Mark
Speaker 1: Andrews inside, they were more dynamic. They keep signing little
Speaker 1: receivers on the outside, when when you watch Lamar play
Speaker 1: at Louisville and you watch him play in any game,
Speaker 1: he's a better inside the number thrower, and so to me,
Speaker 1: I don't know what his mindset will be do I
Speaker 1: come back. I know he's a competitor, but to me,
Speaker 1: I think their offense has been broken. Everybody wants Lamar
Speaker 1: to play out of shotgun. I want Lamar to be
Speaker 1: under center. I wanted to take a handoff. I wanted
Speaker 1: to roll out. I want them to play bootlegs. I
Speaker 1: want them to be more of a traditional quarterback then
Speaker 1: this this RPO guy and their offense. Frankly, if they
Speaker 1: don't run the ball, they can't move the ball. I
Speaker 1: say on this pot all the time, we know m
Speaker 1: VP is basically a quarterback award, which bothers me. And
Speaker 1: I've listened to you many times on your pod talk
Speaker 1: about like how Tyreek kill even it's just the m
Speaker 1: v P at the very least of the Dolphins, right,
Speaker 1: I've heard you say that. I can't agree more. I'm
Speaker 1: finally at the point I'm ready to see it. I'm
Speaker 1: ready to see a non quarterback m v P. I
Speaker 1: don't think it will ever happen. But in your opinion,
Speaker 1: who do you think if you could take quarterbacks out
Speaker 1: of the equation, who is Michael Lombardi's m v P
Speaker 1: if it is a non quarterback award. Let's just take
Speaker 1: the first play in the San Francisco game. If you
Speaker 1: want to understand how great Tyreek kills and how he
Speaker 1: tilts the field. He motions across the formation. Sheffield's standing
Speaker 1: on the line, he motions across the formation. Two guys
Speaker 1: run with him. He starts to run down the scene.
Speaker 1: San Francisco is so worried about him going down the
Speaker 1: scene they forget the cover. Sheeft field. He catches an
Speaker 1: eight yard past for seventy five year a touchdown. The
Speaker 1: guy tilts the field. I mean he tilts the field.
Speaker 1: He's hard to defend. Coverages have to go to him,
Speaker 1: and even when he's covered, he still makes a play.
Speaker 1: And he's got insane quickness. I mean, for a guy
Speaker 1: who's as fast as he is, he's got really incredible quickness.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could have this conversation about Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 1: I mean, where would Minnesota be without Justin Jefferson. I
Speaker 1: don't know. These guys are tilting the field in their
Speaker 1: favor and they're really helping him. I mean, obviously, Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts has done a remarkable job and last week proved
Speaker 1: it against Tennessee that he can throw the foot all.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you. I think if there's one player
Speaker 1: outside of the quarterback position, I think it's Jefferson and
Speaker 1: Tyree Hill. I like that Jefferson, especially as you look
Speaker 1: at what the Vikings are doing. They're nine and oh
Speaker 1: in one score games. They're a scary team to bet,
Speaker 1: as we are a betting show. When you actually look
Speaker 1: at what they're going to do in the postseason. What
Speaker 1: sticks out to you that's going to make this team,
Speaker 1: you know, make or break up? You know, they're like
Speaker 1: the TCU of pro football. Nobody does going to Detroit.
Speaker 1: They're a dog this week against Detroit. They're all I
Speaker 1: do is so I do a power ranking every week
Speaker 1: on my show on Visa, and I do nineteen categories
Speaker 1: of what I think determines the outcome of winning. And
Speaker 1: when you bake down the Vikings and just take the
Speaker 1: Jet game last week, I mean, they do the things
Speaker 1: you have to do to win. They played great in
Speaker 1: the red zone, right, they controlled the middle eight. I mean,
Speaker 1: when Sally goes for it on fourth down in his
Speaker 1: own territory, they get three points out of the deal. Now,
Speaker 1: the Jets came back and scored, but those three points
Speaker 1: that that that Sally ended up giving them end up
Speaker 1: being the difference in the game because the the Jets
Speaker 1: didn't manage the middle eight correctly when they had the football.
Speaker 1: So to me, the Vikings played really good at red zone.
Speaker 1: They're really good on third down. Their situational aware. When
Speaker 1: the Jets came back to making a fifteen game and
Speaker 1: they said that momentum seven play drives seventy five yards touchdown.
Speaker 1: They're timely. Their offense is timely. I just think to me,
Speaker 1: the more you win games in the NFL, the more
Speaker 1: resilient you become. Now, could they lose against Detroit. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Their defense gives up a ton of yards, but they're
Speaker 1: hard to score on, and they're hard to convert third
Speaker 1: downs on at times during the game. In their offense
Speaker 1: is very talent. I mean the Miami game to me
Speaker 1: was unbelievable, even though Miami was playing a backup quarterback.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had fifteen drives in the game. They
Speaker 1: punted thirteen times. Minnesota. I wanted to ask you about
Speaker 1: this too. We do record this Tuesday, so by the
Speaker 1: time this air is Thursday, we may have our answer.
Speaker 1: But as Baker Mayfield is going through the process today
Speaker 1: Tuesday of clearing waivers, is there a situation that you
Speaker 1: think fits both him and a team and is at
Speaker 1: So he's got a million three of salary coming to him, right,
Speaker 1: So if you take him on, you take on that salary.
Speaker 1: So for the for the forty Niners to take him on,
Speaker 1: they're saying he's an insurance policy. Would they do that?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, if you watch Baker
Speaker 1: play this year, he did not pay, has not played well.
Speaker 1: He did not play like the first pick overall in
Speaker 1: the draft. He missed open receivers. He didn't really have
Speaker 1: a great sense of timing. Whether it's Carolina's offense or him.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure you know the Texans if they claimed them,
Speaker 1: they could sign him. He won't know their offense. It
Speaker 1: may take a week or two to get him up
Speaker 1: to speed, and then he's a free agent at the
Speaker 1: end of the year, so he automatically you don't have
Speaker 1: him for next year. Would the Rams sign him? Considering
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford's back problems and I think Matthew Stafford considering
Speaker 1: retirement again, the Rams would give up a million three
Speaker 1: of cap room something they don't have to sign a
Speaker 1: quarterback that probably isn't going to play right away for them,
Speaker 1: and then they lose cap room for next season, so
Speaker 1: and then not have him under contract. I think he
Speaker 1: clears the waiver wire. I would be surprised unless Houston
Speaker 1: claimed him. I mean, look, Houston's a disaster there. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're not very good. They've gotten worse this year than
Speaker 1: they were last year. You know, and I know that,
Speaker 1: you know it's another first year head coach. But I
Speaker 1: mean in eight years that Love Smith has been a
Speaker 1: head coach too in Tampa, five in Illinois, and then
Speaker 1: this year at seventy three and one, I mean, he
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to fix it as a head coach.
Speaker 1: And you have to imagine Houston is gonna be going
Speaker 1: quarterback and they're gonna be having Baker's old old team's pick,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna have a lot of options at the
Speaker 1: QB spot in the draft. So I want to go
Speaker 1: to New York for a second. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: do this to you, but I gotta get some giant
Speaker 1: stuff in there. I'm struggling with the Giants in the
Speaker 1: sense of I'm obviously thrilled with the way the season
Speaker 1: is going. I'm thrilled with coach Stable and say Kwan
Speaker 1: and all that, but basically the long term plans and
Speaker 1: the contracts going forward, Daniel Jones is mr Like, we
Speaker 1: need to see you need to prove it. But how
Speaker 1: could you judge him when your number one receivers Darius Layton,
Speaker 1: who dropped the biggest play of the game that would
Speaker 1: have iced the game versus the Commanders. I'm basically asking
Speaker 1: you about Daniel Jones and Sa Kwan going forward, Well,
Speaker 1: how do you handle that giant situation? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think they've done a great job of managing Daniel Jones, right,
Speaker 1: So they basically said, look, we're gonna run a six
Speaker 1: back offense. We're gonna use Daniel Jones in the in
Speaker 1: the running game a little bit offset that, we're gonna
Speaker 1: try to throw a lot of short passes so we
Speaker 1: get a lot of completions, and we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: convert as many third downs as we can and slow
Speaker 1: the game down. We're not very talented, and I think
Speaker 1: they've Daniel Jones in this system has played well. The
Speaker 1: problem is how much do you pay him in this system?
Speaker 1: Do you pay him thirty five over two? Do you
Speaker 1: pay him forty over two? That gets the sixty over two?
Speaker 1: Is he's worth that? He's not winning any games, So
Speaker 1: that's a hard decision. S Quan is not as hard.
Speaker 1: The question is how much do you want to pay
Speaker 1: a running back. I think that's really the issue, and
Speaker 1: they've got so many needs. I think what Brian has
Speaker 1: done for the Giants, he's come up with a formula
Speaker 1: for them to win. They're well coached offensively, they're well
Speaker 1: coached defensively. They typically play well in the red zone
Speaker 1: against you know, like Houston. They had a chance to
Speaker 1: lose against Houston, but they played so well in the
Speaker 1: red zone. They didn't Detroit, they didn't play well in
Speaker 1: the red zone. So their formula is really why they're winning.
Speaker 1: And if they break that formula, you're not gonna win.
Speaker 1: And so to me, that tells you there's a value
Speaker 1: for Daniel Jones, but it isn't at a normal quarterback rate.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna come down to that. I think
Speaker 1: they've got to improve at the quarterback position to get
Speaker 1: somebody who they feel like they can put more of
Speaker 1: the game on him. Whereas right now they're managing Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones real quick, because we'll sticking New York for one
Speaker 1: more second. Because I love hating on my Jet fan friends.
Speaker 1: But uh, that's yes, Like you know, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: I call him a kid because I'm forty three. He's
Speaker 1: not a kid, he's a he's a young man. Zach Wilson,
Speaker 1: I get it. He has not and he's out of
Speaker 1: a job, out of a job, like is he out
Speaker 1: of a job for the Jets in general or you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't know what his future is And can
Speaker 1: it be just that press conference that did him in
Speaker 1: and the team's wearing Mike f and White T shirts
Speaker 1: getting on the plane. That's as bad as I've seen
Speaker 1: it in a while. I don't think it was the
Speaker 1: press conference. I think his interaction with the team. If
Speaker 1: you watch the games, you could tell it's Kyler Murray's
Speaker 1: interaction with his teammates. I mean, they can all talk that.
Speaker 1: You know they love him as a teammate. Watch the interactions,
Speaker 1: you know, you know you can feel it, you can
Speaker 1: see it. It's just like Tyler Herneke. You know he's
Speaker 1: not the best player for watching him, but the players
Speaker 1: gravitate to him. They like him, you know, they really
Speaker 1: believe in him. And I think it's the same thing
Speaker 1: with Mike White. They believe in him. He's not the
Speaker 1: best player. If you watched Mike White workout and Zach workout,
Speaker 1: you would say Zack's the better player. But Zack doesn't
Speaker 1: really build any confidence with his teammates. He's a little
Speaker 1: aloof He's not very mature. His mind seems to be
Speaker 1: other places, and he's not taking the game as serious
Speaker 1: as he needs to take it. He hasn't grown up.
Speaker 1: It happens to a lot of guys that are second
Speaker 1: pick in the draft, third pick in the draft. You know,
Speaker 1: Smith was this way when he came out. He wasn't
Speaker 1: really mature enough to handle the situation. And over time
Speaker 1: he's now become a talented player and more mature. I
Speaker 1: think that's the problem. I mean, Zack's got two more
Speaker 1: years of highly guaranteed money. They got to try to
Speaker 1: rehabilitate him. I don't know if they can, because his
Speaker 1: personality isn't endearing to his teammates. When you used to
Speaker 1: go into the Patriots Kich cafeteria, Brady would be sitting
Speaker 1: there with the offensive lineman. Garoppolo would be sitting there
Speaker 1: with the There was a bot you could tell the
Speaker 1: players like the quarterback. And then when Brady got got suspended,
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to lift up Garoppolo and move forward. There's
Speaker 1: a bond that has to be creative with the quarterback,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be necessarily the best player
Speaker 1: on the team. He's gonna be able to players gotta
Speaker 1: believe them, and I think Heineke leads them. I think
Speaker 1: White will lead them. I think that's the key, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the bigger issue. Speaking of Garoppolo, that
Speaker 1: is something you always here with him, that he's a
Speaker 1: well liked guy. He's the type of guy you want
Speaker 1: to go grab a beer with like that has gone
Speaker 1: a long way in this league. It's amazing that the
Speaker 1: layman would believe that. But looking at what San Francisco
Speaker 1: has to deal with now, do you think and to
Speaker 1: bring up the Baker Mayfield part of it again, by
Speaker 1: skipping any affiliation with Baker, does that say more about
Speaker 1: their trust in brock Purty or more of their disinterest
Speaker 1: in bringing in another quarterback besides who they just got
Speaker 1: as a veteran backup. Well, I think they've watched Baker
Speaker 1: and he wasn't very good. I mean, brock Purty played
Speaker 1: better in that game on Sunday Baker for the six
Speaker 1: games in Carolina. That's just a fact. And I think this,
Speaker 1: I think you gotta go with what you have. When
Speaker 1: Tom Brady got hurt in New England. Belichick had two
Speaker 1: quarterbacks coming in that day for a workout on Monday,
Speaker 1: just for his emergency list, and they sent him home.
Speaker 1: They sent him home. They work either quarterback out because
Speaker 1: they wanted to show mac Castle they had confidence in him.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's what they want to do
Speaker 1: with Party or Josh Downson. This has happened before in
Speaker 1: the national football and we just have short memories and
Speaker 1: we get caught up in Oh, we gotta score, we
Speaker 1: gotta have offense. Right. The seventy two Miami dolphense Bob
Speaker 1: Greasy gets tackled by Deacon Jones in Game five, breaks
Speaker 1: his ankle, and he's out for a while. Earl Morrow
Speaker 1: comes off the bench and leads them to the playoffs
Speaker 1: in an undefeated season. I mean in Hosteddler takes over
Speaker 1: for Bill Sims and leads them. I mean, go back
Speaker 1: to Trent Dilford. I mean there were three games at
Speaker 1: the Baltomore Ravens played in two thousand. They scored fifteen
Speaker 1: points total, right, and yet they were able to figure
Speaker 1: it out and Dilford was able to make enough plays
Speaker 1: and their defense was great. The forty Niners defense can
Speaker 1: be great. There's teams can be really good. They can
Speaker 1: still win games. Now he can't come in there and
Speaker 1: make mistakes. Go back to the playoffs when they went
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I think he threw it seventeen
Speaker 1: eighteen times against Minnesota and then eleven times against Green Bay.
Speaker 1: I mean they won those two playoff games before they
Speaker 1: played the Chiefs with their defense, their kicking game, and
Speaker 1: their ability to run it. I think there's something interesting
Speaker 1: happening in the NFL that I'm a big NBA guy.
Speaker 1: I know you. I've heard you talk some hoops to
Speaker 1: always comment on like who would you rather be? The
Speaker 1: lakers of the Pelicans meeting, Like you got your bubble championship,
Speaker 1: but now you have no picks and the Pelicans look
Speaker 1: like they have a great future to have all your picks.
Speaker 1: That's starting to happen where teams have gotten off their
Speaker 1: quarterbacks who are vets who can maybe still win. They
Speaker 1: give up a ton of first round picks. So if
Speaker 1: you look at the Broncos and the Rams, who both
Speaker 1: give up their first round picks, they're gonna be pretty high.
Speaker 1: Which team out of the Broncos are Rams? Do you
Speaker 1: think sort of in the worst shape for the future
Speaker 1: because things don't look bright without that first round pick.
Speaker 1: Off of the way they played this year, well, the
Speaker 1: Broncos said the better team. They just haven't gotten a
Speaker 1: good quarterback. They've always been a good team without a quarterback.
Speaker 1: The Rams have always been a very talented team with
Speaker 1: five or six talented players, and when once they got hurt,
Speaker 1: they are not a very good team. That kind of
Speaker 1: fell apart. I don't know where Sean McVeigh is gonna be.
Speaker 1: Does he want to come back and coach her and
Speaker 1: really take part in a reconstruction project which is gonna
Speaker 1: take some time. If Matthew Stafford decides to walk away
Speaker 1: from the game, I think that's a hard one. Look,
Speaker 1: they went all in. They deserve it, they got it.
Speaker 1: They were fortunate. You know, there was a couple of
Speaker 1: things that went really well for them. I mean, think
Speaker 1: about the Tampa game down there and Tampa. You know,
Speaker 1: Tampa ties the game up and then they convert that
Speaker 1: third down, they kicked the field goal to win the game.
Speaker 1: And then you know, they play San Francisco the next week.
Speaker 1: San Francisco drops it interception, they win that game. They
Speaker 1: play the Super Bowl third and ten from their own
Speaker 1: fourteen yard line. The false start, nobody calls it, Cooper
Speaker 1: Cup gets called for, they called for legal and next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, and then they don't get it into I
Speaker 1: mean they a lot went right, they deserve to win
Speaker 1: it great, but it's gonna be a long haul. Denver
Speaker 1: to me is the problem is when gonna do a
Speaker 1: Russell like. Somebody's gonna have to have a man and
Speaker 1: man conversation with Russell and say, hey, Russell, you know
Speaker 1: you're not the guy. And they had this with Iverson
Speaker 1: and iver said what did he say? Said, Look, when's
Speaker 1: the last time an m d P comes off the bench? Well, Alan,
Speaker 1: you're not an m VP anymore, Russell, You're not the
Speaker 1: same guy you were anymore. So that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: hard conversation to have. You know, this whole notion that
Speaker 1: you know you can win in that you can rebuild
Speaker 1: your team quicker in the NFL than you can in
Speaker 1: the NBA because it's more of a team, it's more
Speaker 1: than just one player. But someone is getting fired in Denver,
Speaker 1: so it's not a very desirable head coaching job. I
Speaker 1: don't think a guy like Sean Payton would want to
Speaker 1: comment and take that job. What does Denver do there? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a hard one because George Peyton, the
Speaker 1: guy picked the coach, and he picked the quarterback. And
Speaker 1: not only did he pick the quarterback, he game two
Speaker 1: or fifty million, and those are that's three stops and
Speaker 1: you know you're stuck. None of this the owner approved
Speaker 1: any of it. The new owner just walks in and said,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, these are your three decisions, and I'm judge.
Speaker 1: I gotta judge you on that. That's a hard thing
Speaker 1: to do because if when you have that much authority,
Speaker 1: and a lot of guys, including me, we've never had
Speaker 1: that much authority in the league. You know, you can
Speaker 1: have the title GM, but you don't have the authority
Speaker 1: to do what George had the authority to do in
Speaker 1: those situations. And you're gonna have to pay the price
Speaker 1: for it if eventually that's a hard job. I think
Speaker 1: Denver is gonna have to really sit down and figure
Speaker 1: out what they're doing with Russell before they can start
Speaker 1: talking to anything else about their organization and Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: To me, it really comes down to the Sean want
Speaker 1: to take part in this rebuilding process or is he
Speaker 1: going to go to Amazon? Where is he going to
Speaker 1: go to some other TV platform? I know he redid
Speaker 1: his contract, but when you don't have a quarterback in
Speaker 1: the NFL and you don't have any assets to get
Speaker 1: a quarterback, trust me, that's a hard drive to the
Speaker 1: stadium Sunday morning. Look, I've realized to also having that
Speaker 1: coach in place, finally having one, I think with coach
Speaker 1: table with the Giants. But do you think we see
Speaker 1: Peyton returned to the sidelines somewhere? Was it not? The
Speaker 1: job is not quite there yet for him. I get
Speaker 1: that Amazon money. I think that if Sean had a
Speaker 1: chance to get through a great quarterback, like if say
Speaker 1: something happened with the Charge. You know, the Chargers just
Speaker 1: are not very good defense. They have been. I mean
Speaker 1: Brennan Staley is a defense coordinator and their defense has
Speaker 1: really not been very good in two years that he's
Speaker 1: been there. So that's a concern. I mean, they're wasting
Speaker 1: Herbert's great season's here now. I know him, like Williams
Speaker 1: is hurt and Keenan Allen is not the same. But
Speaker 1: you know, this is really a talented player and they
Speaker 1: should be better than six and six, which is what
Speaker 1: they are. I think a lot of that. Anytime a
Speaker 1: guy wants to come back in the league, he wants
Speaker 1: to go somewhere where he has a chance to get
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Right. You know, Peterson comes back, He's got
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence justin Herbert's sitting there waiting for you if
Speaker 1: that job opens up. But if you go to Carolina,
Speaker 1: who's our quarterback? I mean, Matt rules at the breast
Speaker 1: because he couldn't fix the quarterback problem. I got a
Speaker 1: good one for you, and this is the last one
Speaker 1: for me. Do you think there's any credibility in the
Speaker 1: rumors that Tom Brady might go back to New England.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I would never put anything past that.
Speaker 1: I mean, look Tom, when you watch Tom throw and
Speaker 1: you watch him play, he doesn't look forty five, and
Speaker 1: he still seems to have the same competitive nature. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: he's addicted to the process. He's addicted to winning. See
Speaker 1: all of us that have been under that program when
Speaker 1: I was in Cleveland with Bill and then New England,
Speaker 1: we are products of that system, and it's hard for
Speaker 1: us to look outside of other systems and feel comfortable.
Speaker 1: And I know how Brady feels. I mean, he's in
Speaker 1: a different system. That's not something he's comfortable with in
Speaker 1: terms of adjustments, how we practice, how we play, all
Speaker 1: those things. You become institutionalized when you're around that program,
Speaker 1: and it's how you see the game. It's how I
Speaker 1: see the game. And so I would never put anything
Speaker 1: pass him. I think he wants that. I think that's
Speaker 1: something he wants and needs. Were you in Cleveland when
Speaker 1: Nick Saban was defensive coordinator? You know what sure was? Yeah? Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 1: How how was he there the first day? You can
Speaker 1: tell he was gonna be a head coach. Now he
Speaker 1: just came from Toledo where he was the head coach
Speaker 1: of Toledo. Nick had such a commanding presence and a
Speaker 1: knowledge and the ability to focus and have strategy. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of people think yelling is you know,
Speaker 1: is something coaches do. Nick can be demanding, but he
Speaker 1: also is really smart and he could adjust the game
Speaker 1: and he understood how to play the game different based
Speaker 1: on the opponent. You knew it instantly. That's why he's
Speaker 1: at Alabama. Ozzy Knwson was with us there too, as
Speaker 1: he saw it, and so when he had a chance
Speaker 1: to get him to go to Alabama, as he wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna waste that time. He's scary as hell to interview.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that my least favorite coach interview. You
Speaker 1: got to ask the right It's like Belichick. If you
Speaker 1: ask the good questions, you're gonna get good answers. If
Speaker 1: you throw used to say at the scouts all the
Speaker 1: time of the draft room. If you start dangling stuff
Speaker 1: out there to him, he's gonna just smack it out.
Speaker 1: You know you gotta throw fastballs against him. You gotta
Speaker 1: throw good heat. Guys got stressed thinking about asking a
Speaker 1: question to any of them? We'll let you go. But
Speaker 1: I know you've got a new book coming out next year,
Speaker 1: which I am excited for. Can you tell our listeners
Speaker 1: just anything about it? Because I know what it's about.
Speaker 1: I've heard you talk about it before, but something for
Speaker 1: our listeners, Well, thank you, I appreciate it. It's called
Speaker 1: football done right. So what I've tried to do is
Speaker 1: basically go over the coaching trees in the NFL, grade
Speaker 1: the coaches in the NFL, the seventeen men that have
Speaker 1: been coaches, and try to put some understanding around, maybe
Speaker 1: some injustice. Marty Schottenheimer is one of nine coaches in
Speaker 1: the NFL with one two hundred games. He can't even
Speaker 1: get up for a Hall of Fame vote because well,
Speaker 1: he didn't win a big game. He's won two hundred games.
Speaker 1: Only nine men out of seventeen one two hundred games.
Speaker 1: The guy deserves to get in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: So we talked about that. We talked about the impact
Speaker 1: of the draft, television, and trades. Talk a lot about
Speaker 1: the trades and how trades come down. And then I
Speaker 1: grade the top one hundred players. According to me, over all,
Speaker 1: the eras from one to a hundred, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of a comprehensive book. It was really a pleasure to
Speaker 1: write because I studied a lot about the game. I
Speaker 1: got to watch a lot of the great players and
Speaker 1: see the players Like when I watched GAYL Sayers, I thought,
Speaker 1: Jesus looks like Tony Pollard to me. You know, there's
Speaker 1: so many similarities. And now when I watched the game,
Speaker 1: you know, when I watched pro football with this six
Speaker 1: pack attack, I think I'm watching some of the single
Speaker 1: wing stuff that was going on before we started to
Speaker 1: throw the ball by the by when Clark Shaughnessy decided
Speaker 1: to put the forward pass into pro football. Well, it's
Speaker 1: always a pleasure having you on. Do you remember who
Speaker 1: you nicknamed the mayor of munchkin Land on our podcast
Speaker 1: last time? Well, I know it's it's my man. I mean,
Speaker 1: look one thing, Buddy Ryan had this great line, He's
Speaker 1: buddy Ryan said, there's a place in football for the
Speaker 1: little man. It's just not in front of the big man.
Speaker 1: And I still, oh man, I had to remind you that.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being on. You can follow Michael
Speaker 1: on Twitter at m Lombardi NFL, and of course listen
Speaker 1: to him every week on the GM Shuffle Pod. Michael Lombardi,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Appreciate ye, Darry, There's nothing like hearing that opening track.
Speaker 1: I've am when I'm up with my baby and we
Speaker 1: binge a bunch of entourage before the sun comes up.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what we did this morning. So I'm
Speaker 1: about four episodes into season five. I am loving it
Speaker 1: and you, I know, really enjoyed making this season. Why
Speaker 1: you know what, I've given too much away because I
Speaker 1: sometimes send the spoil things for you. Yes you do,
Speaker 1: Yes you do, I will say with season five, and
Speaker 1: I love so much. It really shows you the path
Speaker 1: for an actor of maintenance that it takes to keep
Speaker 1: a career going. All I'll say is like the Vince
Speaker 1: character does get tested in season five, and you really
Speaker 1: just see what it takes to keep a career going
Speaker 1: because he's at such a high and then you meet him.
Speaker 1: He's at such a low in the season five, So
Speaker 1: can we build him back up? You have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. This is my second favorite season. Season two
Speaker 1: is number one because we started really figuring it out,
Speaker 1: and then this season is my second favorite. I'm loving
Speaker 1: it so far too. I cannot believe how far Vince
Speaker 1: has fallen. He's bankrupt, where I'm in, Where I'm the
Speaker 1: show he does the Sweet sixteen. The first episode of
Speaker 1: season five is Fantasy Island. Where did you guys actually
Speaker 1: go to shoot that? They say vaguely it's in Mexico. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was not in Mexico. It was actually in Hawaii
Speaker 1: sou which yeah, and looked at It's amazing trip to
Speaker 1: go out there. As you saw in the episode, the
Speaker 1: Turtle character and the Vince character are hiding out there,
Speaker 1: and then Ari and E and drama take a little
Speaker 1: sea playing in to come get him because he has
Speaker 1: like a job offer. So what was cool about that?
Speaker 1: We saw the whole jet ski thing that we did,
Speaker 1: and there was even a moment where you saw it
Speaker 1: like these whales that was all real. We were shooting.
Speaker 1: And then you know, we had walkie talkies on the
Speaker 1: jet skis, so the guys in the boat were like,
Speaker 1: cut off your engine, cut off your engine. So we stop.
Speaker 1: Our engine almost flipped us over the jet skis and
Speaker 1: these whales just started coming out from the water and
Speaker 1: they were like swimming alongside us. You have to legally,
Speaker 1: I think, shut your engines off when they're there. But
Speaker 1: we went right from that scene on the jet skis.
Speaker 1: I think I showered in like a porter potty in
Speaker 1: the trailer. We went right to the flight back down.
Speaker 1: We're shooting in l A like the next day, but
Speaker 1: a long flight too from l A. But that was
Speaker 1: that was a lot of fun to shoot. Now. I
Speaker 1: know you always do these trips like in forty eight
Speaker 1: hours or whatever, like especially the can trip. I cannot
Speaker 1: believe how quickly you guys were there, But how long
Speaker 1: were you in Hawaii? I think Hawaii was all in all,
Speaker 1: I think it was like four days, but it was
Speaker 1: only two days. For I mentioned like ri e E
Speaker 1: and Drama flying, they're only in like a bit of
Speaker 1: that stuff. And then Adrian and I were left there
Speaker 1: for the extra two days, which was kind of nice
Speaker 1: because we'd work a little bit. I got to play
Speaker 1: some golf. I was like, I think that was my
Speaker 1: first time in Hawaii too, So yeah, I got to
Speaker 1: grow a beard because we're supposed to. That's where I
Speaker 1: really started getting a beard growing out and the hair
Speaker 1: because uh, we were supposed to be on the run. Okay.
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten a chance to ask you about all
Speaker 1: of your co stars very much, but since this episode
Speaker 1: is you and Vince a lot, tell me about what
Speaker 1: it's like working with Adrian, and especially as you've got
Speaker 1: a couple of days, Like really, just you guys to
Speaker 1: hang out in Hawaii. Adrian's the best I I He's family.
Speaker 1: All those guys are family. Adrian was always interesting because
Speaker 1: he would always tell us, you know, I was an
Speaker 1: only child. I didn't have brothers or sisters, so you
Speaker 1: guys are the closest thing to brothers I have, and
Speaker 1: all the rest of us all have siblings, so and
Speaker 1: Adrian was raised by amazing single mother. Stuff like that.
Speaker 1: The joke with Adrian, I think the first or second
Speaker 1: year of the show, we gave out an award at
Speaker 1: the Space. Adrian at the time, maybe he's watched sports
Speaker 1: a little more now knew nothing. Nothing. I say nothing
Speaker 1: about sports, nothing zero. We're on the red carpet at
Speaker 1: the ASPS. We're doing some interviews and someone asks Adrian
Speaker 1: about like the Yankees and who his favorite Yankee is,
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, he didn't even know Jeter. He
Speaker 1: didn't even think to say Jeter at the time. It's
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. I just walked by and you could
Speaker 1: see it in the clip. I go Matsum. He's like,
Speaker 1: I love you know, Deckie Matsumi. So I claim Adrian's
Speaker 1: favorite baseball player of all time that I fed him
Speaker 1: on the red carpet at the SPS. Okay, that is
Speaker 1: a good story. I was saying you off air, and
Speaker 1: I want people to tweet at us if they'd be
Speaker 1: interested in this. But I think we should do one
Speaker 1: whole Entourage episode and have on as many of your
Speaker 1: peeps one episode and asked them about their favorite sports stories.
Speaker 1: Sports fandom everything. So if you like that idea, tweet
Speaker 1: at us. We'll run it by our producer and our bosses, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and then yes, we'll have them on. And then you
Speaker 1: for sure have to go on the Victory podcast with
Speaker 1: Dylan Connelly and Doug Allen because they're recapping them in detail.
Speaker 1: So you'd be a great guest because you're watching in
Speaker 1: the moment, right, very fresh, very fresh. One more question.
Speaker 1: Tony Bennetts in an episode, and I mean, what a
Speaker 1: legend and what was it like shooting with him? Do
Speaker 1: you have any funny off off camera story with him?
Speaker 1: It was amazing. I'm a Tony benefit and my mom's
Speaker 1: the biggest Tony benefit and ever the only story I
Speaker 1: really remember. I don't think he was too great with
Speaker 1: some of the language, Like you know, he'd shoot his
Speaker 1: scene and then he's in the background of ours and
Speaker 1: then my characters like the fun girls here drama. You know,
Speaker 1: you can always feel him be like, ah, these kids
Speaker 1: in the cursing, why they got a curse. But that
Speaker 1: he even says that on the show, right, I think
Speaker 1: that's where that came up from. I think, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that right. I think he even said like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like off camera. I've enjoyed the show You guys curse
Speaker 1: a lot, though, so I think that's where that came from.
Speaker 1: He just was a class act the whole way around
Speaker 1: him and Layton Meester got to do some cool scenes
Speaker 1: on that stage where they're singing together. And then also
Speaker 1: Layton Mester, was this like peak gossip girl fame as well?
Speaker 1: Like she was a big deal in the middle of Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: so yeah, Layton did. She was in like episode two
Speaker 1: I think of Entourage, and then a few episodes here
Speaker 1: are there, And yeah, this was all time, I think
Speaker 1: I remember because it was we had to work around
Speaker 1: scheduling and stuff like that with her. She was always cool.
Speaker 1: Every time we called and asked her to come back,
Speaker 1: very very busy woman at the time, she always came
Speaker 1: back and and hung with us. So, yeah, she's filly.
Speaker 1: Uh got his Entourage? O G. Did you have Tony
Speaker 1: Bennett signed anything for your mom or call her or
Speaker 1: do anything? You know? I didn't, and I should have
Speaker 1: because my mom's maybe the last person on earth who
Speaker 1: loves and autographs still who asks for autographs anymore. Now
Speaker 1: it's all about the selfie and the picture my mom.
Speaker 1: If you asked her, would you rather like a selfie
Speaker 1: with Tony Bennett or his signature? She would pick signature
Speaker 1: for sure. She still values the autograph as a thing
Speaker 1: of memorabilia. So no, I I didn't and I should have.
Speaker 1: But I've I've always had a philosophy with the cameos
Speaker 1: and stuff we've had. I I'm obviously cool and talk
Speaker 1: to them and but I try to give them their
Speaker 1: space and not nerd out. But Tony Bennett was a
Speaker 1: tough one. Not to nerd out with Tom Brady. You
Speaker 1: said he's coming up. You didn't ask for anything with him? No, no,
Speaker 1: but I do think our crew asked for had conveniently
Speaker 1: had some footballs and stuff. And to to Tom Brady's credit,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to that episode, he was so patient
Speaker 1: and signed everything and he was I swear that he
Speaker 1: doesn't need any more love of that I'm about to
Speaker 1: give it. He was so cool the one day he worked.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable with us and the crew and everyone. Okay, good, Well,
Speaker 1: I have plenty of early mornings ahead of me that
Speaker 1: I will continue to watch and get to that episode.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'll end with back in the day when
Speaker 1: it was airing. Most college kids were coming home at
Speaker 1: five am watching Entourage. You are waking up at five
Speaker 1: am with your baby watching Entourage. My how times have changed?
Speaker 1: Oh yes they have, but I'm loving It's good. All right,
Speaker 1: it's time for one of my favorite parts of the show.
Speaker 1: He's back. He might be in the green. I don't know.
Speaker 1: We got total some things up bet MGMs betting analyst
Speaker 1: Peter Andrew, Welcome back, Peter. See now this crazy awful
Speaker 1: parlay I did two weeks ago starting to make more
Speaker 1: sense because now we're in the green. We we're trending
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Here, we're power rankings. I went
Speaker 1: from ten to like probably teetering in the top five.
Speaker 1: There's how many there's only ten teams, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about how many teams there were. But
Speaker 1: let me get a little bit of energy and excitement here. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you did that that every favorite parlay that got you going.
Speaker 1: You know, you also were the I don't know how
Speaker 1: many people were rooting for the tie in the Giants
Speaker 1: Commander's Game. You were one of them because you had
Speaker 1: what under forty and a half? Right, So yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Sweat out that one is right, and I think it
Speaker 1: was twenty third team with like six minutes left in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. I was like, there's no shot this hits.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, it hits, So yeah, I was rooting for
Speaker 1: the under miss field goal at the end by the Giants,
Speaker 1: so we hit on that for a couple of units.
Speaker 1: I think that was a three unit player right there,
Speaker 1: Dolphins Niners. That was the one I was really confident
Speaker 1: about hitting over. So the over forty six and a half,
Speaker 1: I think that kind of showed me what I expected
Speaker 1: somewhat of a high scoring game there. Um and then
Speaker 1: the teaser which almost hit. So the teaser we had
Speaker 1: ounce minus one. I think we collectively we're talking about
Speaker 1: feel good. They're Chiefs over forty six and a half,
Speaker 1: so even though they lost the game. And then Dolphins
Speaker 1: plus ten. So that late touchdown that fumbled by to
Speaker 1: uh Dre Greenlaw put it in the end zone that
Speaker 1: actually killed it. So that would have been an extra
Speaker 1: seven units there, but we stayed above. We're about two
Speaker 1: three units up last week, so so we're going to
Speaker 1: continue to trend in the right direction here. Peter, I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you if you ordered your brock pretty jersey
Speaker 1: yet funny that you say that is because I was
Speaker 1: just at my desk and I was about to pull
Speaker 1: the trigger in order to do it. Why not? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're Mr Irrelevant. I love it. Are you worried about
Speaker 1: your team? Yeah? I think this week is gonna show
Speaker 1: a lot. I think he played really well, but I'm
Speaker 1: also not sold on the Dolphins defense. You saw it.
Speaker 1: They were sending seven eight people at once to try
Speaker 1: to contain him, which is never a good sign for
Speaker 1: a guy who's probably never to start a game, especially
Speaker 1: this year. But probably looking at a Bucks team, if
Speaker 1: Lavonte David's healthy, I know he got shaken up on
Speaker 1: Monday Night, a more worthy defense here. But again, looking
Speaker 1: at it the other way, they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: build a litle bit of schematic offense around what he
Speaker 1: can and can't do. So it's it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: really telling week on on Sunday, the Bucks can't score.
Speaker 1: So that gets right into my first pick. Okay, let's go.
Speaker 1: That's a transition is what we call in the business.
Speaker 1: That's the transition that is that is like you read
Speaker 1: about it, so Brock Purty, Jimmy g Trey Lance kind
Speaker 1: of didn't matter for me. Niners defenses playing unbelievable seven
Speaker 1: points in the second half in the last five games.
Speaker 1: That is a number one ranked defense. Nick Boss somehow
Speaker 1: slotted himself back in the conversation for DPOY with Parsons
Speaker 1: just thirteen and a a half sacks now, so he's he's
Speaker 1: playing real role all pro season. He's incredible, amazing. So
Speaker 1: their defense versus a Bucks offense that just frankly can't
Speaker 1: do anything, Niners are minus four. So I have four
Speaker 1: units on that one. We've taken that one unit we
Speaker 1: normally put on an O G P and taking that
Speaker 1: out this week Thursday came is awful and I just
Speaker 1: don't know which way to go on that. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna go four units. So that's forty dollars to win
Speaker 1: seventy six Niners minus four. Third straight game for the
Speaker 1: Niners at home, and I think they're starting to get
Speaker 1: more healthy. Defense is fully back. I think they are
Speaker 1: probably the team to be maybe outside the Eagles in
Speaker 1: the NFC. So Pee, I'm gonna actually, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at bead MGM right now, it's actually minus three and
Speaker 1: a half, so I'm getting used that number. We're gonna
Speaker 1: give you, I say three and a half because you
Speaker 1: would know you would have waited until right now. So
Speaker 1: it's getting even better Niner fans. Yeah, so it looks
Speaker 1: like there's a potentially a little bit of sharp money.
Speaker 1: You go in the opposite way, but that's what I
Speaker 1: want to see. Yes, I think that's a Niners team
Speaker 1: that can disrupt them to a way different degree than
Speaker 1: the Saints did yesterday and frankly lucky that they pulled
Speaker 1: out that win in the last minute and a half.
Speaker 1: So you've got four units there, fort to win seventy
Speaker 1: six are you? Are you teasing? Are you par laying
Speaker 1: the rest of the way. Yeah, So we're going to
Speaker 1: different teasers here. So we had some success last week
Speaker 1: on the totals, so I want to start with that.
Speaker 1: So we're doing all three overs here. So we've teased
Speaker 1: them down six points, so it's finns argers. We've teased
Speaker 1: that down to forty six and a half. I think
Speaker 1: that's again another high scoring game. You have pretty potent offenses.
Speaker 1: Herbert had a tough week last week versus the Raiders,
Speaker 1: but I think that is a probably a high scoring matchup,
Speaker 1: two teams really really fighting for that potential last couple
Speaker 1: of playoff spots because the Chargers are right there, Dolphins
Speaker 1: start a little bit as kid, they can put themselves
Speaker 1: in a bad spot. So I see that as a
Speaker 1: high scoring one out in l a second one over
Speaker 1: forty one and a half. So this is a really
Speaker 1: appetizing number to me. Going down that six points for
Speaker 1: Brown's Bengals, I think you saw Watson start to get
Speaker 1: a bit more familiar with plan. That's been two years.
Speaker 1: They looked fairly well against the Texans, which is not
Speaker 1: saying much, but I think there'll be some points there,
Speaker 1: and obviously playing the Bengals, who are just absolutely rolling
Speaker 1: right now, again, see that being a probably a forty
Speaker 1: five to fifty point game collectively. And then the last one,
Speaker 1: this is the one that I think is a little
Speaker 1: bit tricky, but it's over forty seven and a half
Speaker 1: in the Vikings Lions games game, that's two teams that
Speaker 1: can put up points, and as we've seen in the
Speaker 1: season and then again more recently, the Lions give up
Speaker 1: a lot of points. So I can see this again
Speaker 1: being a an absolute shootout. This could be a forty
Speaker 1: to thirty five ish score kind of kind of game.
Speaker 1: So three units thirty two win seventy two. So as always,
Speaker 1: that's that plus one forty mark right there for three teams.
Speaker 1: What do you guys think about that one? So I'm
Speaker 1: going all over here, which is always risky. But it's risky,
Speaker 1: but you're the fun guy at the bar who's rooting
Speaker 1: for the over always fun dick who's rooting under. I
Speaker 1: have to balance it after last week rooting for the tie.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I like it, and I agree. I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to wrap my head on the Olivia and I
Speaker 1: were talking that the Lions are minus two and a
Speaker 1: half in that game, so I wouldn't even want to
Speaker 1: touch a side in that game. But I do like points.
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna mirror that teaser on my own. I
Speaker 1: think I love that one. But if Vegas is predicting
Speaker 1: a close game two and a half points, then you
Speaker 1: gotta like the vikings there, you know, if they're nine
Speaker 1: and oh and one score games. So if you're that's
Speaker 1: why I like the overpee. I like your play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's some really really questionable lines this week that that's
Speaker 1: one of them, and we'll get into some that I've
Speaker 1: teased either down or up. It seems like a really,
Speaker 1: really weird week in the NFL, So staying away from
Speaker 1: those to your guys point there for the second teaser.
Speaker 1: So this is all spreads. So we're going kind of
Speaker 1: a back and forth approach here. First one, Texans are
Speaker 1: last time I checked, plus seventeen. That is a big number,
Speaker 1: especially where I'm going to tease it up to twenty three.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still an NFL team at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. That's way too many points for me
Speaker 1: to pass up. I was considering taking the the Cowboys down,
Speaker 1: but I think playing with three scores plus, I think
Speaker 1: is a pretty safe bet. Although they are pretty poor team,
Speaker 1: I think they still have a lot to play for.
Speaker 1: I think Jamie and Pierce still can be a premier
Speaker 1: running back in the league. I think they have lots
Speaker 1: to prove to themselves. So don't see them winning that game.
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty clear, but I see it being
Speaker 1: somewhere around a ten to four teen point game. So
Speaker 1: plus twenty three there, Chief's going to Denver. That was
Speaker 1: a minus nine. I've teased that down to minus three.
Speaker 1: Chiefs coming off tough law us Denver got absolutely killed
Speaker 1: by Carolina. I think three points there is pretty pretty
Speaker 1: favorable all things considered. So Chiefs bounced back week, probably
Speaker 1: the best team in the NFC. I think they look
Speaker 1: they'll be just fine. And then last one Brown's I've
Speaker 1: teased it up from plus six to plus twelve versus
Speaker 1: the Bengals again, same game we touched in the in
Speaker 1: the totals, I think they'll look a bit better with
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson. He looked pretty shaky kind of first couple
Speaker 1: of drives on one o'clock on Sunday, but I think
Speaker 1: he got back into his own rhythm as needed. So
Speaker 1: I think that's generally a closer game than two scores.
Speaker 1: Still think Bengals win at home, but again a seven
Speaker 1: point game and still gives us some points to work
Speaker 1: with there, So I think pretty good all things considered.
Speaker 1: And then again thirty dollars to win seventy two, so
Speaker 1: the same plus one forty and can put ourselves in
Speaker 1: a good position here, and we're playing with I think
Speaker 1: a couple of different totals and a couple of different
Speaker 1: spreads that are pretty appealing with those six points. Pete,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sorry I questioned your strategy of getting
Speaker 1: on base a few weeks ago because it's working. Good stuff. Pete, Hey,
Speaker 1: why we have of all of our mics open and hot.
Speaker 1: I want to wish a congratulations to one of our
Speaker 1: friends and fellow employees, Zach Gayner, who welcomed a baby
Speaker 1: girl this week very anxiety. Yes you won't be for
Speaker 1: I'm seven months out and I'm not sleeping well. Pete,
Speaker 1: thanks so much a lot of fun. If you see
Speaker 1: Zach before we do, tell him congratulations from all of
Speaker 1: us at Unleashed. Make sure you subscribe to the Unleashed
Speaker 1: podcast presented by bed MGM YouTube channel. That's right, you
Speaker 1: can watch us and not just listen to my horse
Speaker 1: voice after an exciting football weekend, and we hope to
Speaker 1: see you guys every week after they subscribe anywhere you
Speaker 1: find your podcast. Thanks for listening to and the d