Speaker 1: The Volume.
Speaker 2: Hi, Everybody, Welcome in Great podcast for thirty minutes Today.
Speaker 2: John Middlecoff, former NFL scout, part of the Volume team.
Speaker 2: His three and Out podcast is Money But First. This
Speaker 2: baseball season continues to heat up. You could watch it
Speaker 2: on TV, but what's better than going to the park
Speaker 2: on a beautiful summer day with friends for last minute
Speaker 2: amazing deals on tickets. Check out game Time, the fastest
Speaker 2: growing ticket app in the United States, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: stop at just sports, summer concerts, comedy tours all across
Speaker 2: the country. Game Time has your tickets. Download the game
Speaker 2: Time app and the redeem code is Colin. That's me
Speaker 2: cl i N twenty dollars off your first purchase twenty bucks.
Speaker 2: No matter where you live, go out in the summer
Speaker 2: in style, comedy, baseball, concerts. It's the game Time app.
Speaker 2: Last minute deals, lowest prices, guaranteed twenty dollars off your
Speaker 2: first purchase twenty bucks.
Speaker 1: Terms apply, Colin. Football season is upon us. So that
Speaker 1: is out. How you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great? I'm you know, I was saying today
Speaker 2: there's a lot more than you think. There are ten
Speaker 2: teams in this league, and I won't count Tampa because
Speaker 2: I don't think they have what they perceive as a
Speaker 2: franchise quarterback in the building. There are ten teams in
Speaker 2: this league, from Mac Joe in New England, Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 2: Justin Fields, the Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson San Francisco
Speaker 2: brock Pertty. There's ten teams in this league Atlanta, Desmond,
Speaker 2: Ritter that are really in the We hope we have
Speaker 2: the right guy in house stage, and so tonight c J.
Speaker 2: Stroud is the first look we get at him. Now,
Speaker 2: his numbers were very good in college, but you can
Speaker 2: go up and down the list the last seventeen years,
Speaker 2: going back to Troy Smith, all Ohio State quarterbacks, but
Speaker 2: up big numbers. So what was yours? A former NFL scout,
Speaker 2: what was your view your prospect profile of c J. Stroud?
Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't the biggest fan because a lot
Speaker 1: like Mac Jones and even Tua, who you know last
Speaker 1: year was better than I thought he would be. I
Speaker 1: think he benefited a lot from playing with Tyreek Hill,
Speaker 1: who's just one of the great players of all time.
Speaker 1: But when you play with a team that has better
Speaker 1: wide receivers that you will have in the pros in college. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that offense. It's like with Mac the one year
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. It was shooting fish in a barrel.
Speaker 1: But part of it was, you know, he's a pocket quarterback.
Speaker 1: He's throwing the wide open guys. But then in that
Speaker 1: Georgia game, he showed what I think the modern day
Speaker 1: quarterback needs to do. Right, keep plays alive with his legs,
Speaker 1: be a playmaker, very instinctive playing against I mean all
Speaker 1: eleven those guys. When you play Georgia, they're all in.
Speaker 1: It's you're playing an NFL team, especially on defense, and
Speaker 1: he was. He was awesome, And I think that changed
Speaker 1: the perspective around the league because the big knock on him,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of an old school pocket quarterback, easy
Speaker 1: offense playing. He has way better athletes than the rest
Speaker 1: of his conference for sure, right, you know all the
Speaker 1: teams they play in the Big Ten. But that game
Speaker 1: changed my opinion. And listen, Dimiko is just a stud
Speaker 1: and to me, he's the real deal. And if he
Speaker 1: signed off on you Caserio, kind of old school Belichick.
Speaker 1: They're big on character, so that they really like this guy.
Speaker 1: Now I don't have inside information. A lot of people
Speaker 1: thought the owner was force feeding it on, which which
Speaker 1: you know that can happen. That guy signs the checks
Speaker 1: and he's a little kookie. But yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: was definitely more bullish based on that big time performance, right,
Speaker 1: because it really was. It was not It was one
Speaker 1: of the better performances of the season any player. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, justin Herbert game against Wisconsin, people thought he was mechanical.
Speaker 2: Then he ran against the Badgers and Tom Tellsco the
Speaker 2: Chargers told me he was there, and it was it
Speaker 2: was a wow moment. It's like, well, he's making all
Speaker 2: big ten defensive players in Jim Leonard's system miss completely
Speaker 2: in open space. And Telesco said, he said, you know,
Speaker 2: I had this high appraisal of Tua, and then I
Speaker 2: sat there and watched how big and lean and quick
Speaker 2: he was, and Badger linebackers who are all conference are
Speaker 2: missing on him in space completely, and it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: we've got a franchise quarterback. So I do think a
Speaker 2: lot of times college coaches john if they don't have
Speaker 2: a capable backup and are playing for what they perceive
Speaker 2: to be an elite Bowl gamer championship, they don't run
Speaker 2: their star quarterback until the last game of the season
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: And that's where I think the evaluation process could be
Speaker 1: very difficult, right, because it's not often right when you're
Speaker 1: an offensive tackle and I think, hey, you might be
Speaker 1: a top fifty player and you don't play one guy
Speaker 1: who's going to get drafted off the edge, right, if
Speaker 1: you're in let's say the Mountain West Conference, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he's got all the skills and he's got
Speaker 1: the intangibles, but I've never really seen him until the
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl, which an all star game is not a
Speaker 1: regular season game. It's why the SEC thrives because you go, well,
Speaker 1: that's an NFL player. That's an NFL player, and for
Speaker 1: three straight weeks they're going to battle with third round
Speaker 1: or second rounders, and it makes the evaluation why sometimes
Speaker 1: small school guys they get drafted high. Sometimes they hit,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're just big whiffs. And honestly, it happens
Speaker 1: at Ohio State and Alabama too, but little less likely.
Speaker 1: You feel pretty good when you draft a guy from
Speaker 1: Georgia right or Michigan right now than when you draft
Speaker 1: some of these random schools.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and his comp has been Jared Goff. Jared
Speaker 2: Goff was a wreck when he had the wrong staff,
Speaker 2: then when he had McVeigh got to a super Bowl.
Speaker 2: So if you're betting, really, if you trust Amko Ryans,
Speaker 2: then c J. Stroud's story probably has a happy ending
Speaker 2: because I don't think I said this today on FS one.
Speaker 2: The NFL only gives us about one every five years.
Speaker 2: Burrow and Andrew Luck a quarterback good enough to overcome nonsense,
Speaker 2: bad old line, bad coach. Burrow did it right, Burrow.
Speaker 2: We didn't know the coach, we don't love the owner.
Speaker 2: The organization's wonky battle line got hurt. Burrow just overcame it.
Speaker 2: Andrew Luck did it. Yeah, Yeah, I mean as good
Speaker 2: as Trevor Lawrence and Herbert are, they had to get
Speaker 2: the right coach to get like playoff wins. So I
Speaker 2: think Luck and Burrow in the I think Kayleb Williams
Speaker 2: has some of that secret sauce too, But I think C. J.
Speaker 2: Stroud falls into the Jared Goff, right coach, right direction
Speaker 2: probably succeeds now two revelations on TV this week as
Speaker 2: a scout the Johnny Manzel Netflix story where he didn't
Speaker 2: watch Tate Now, I was told for years by people
Speaker 2: inside the building with the Steelers that Big Ben would
Speaker 2: watch tape during practice, you know, nine in the morning,
Speaker 2: eight in the morning till four or five in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: but he would never take it home. Is that what
Speaker 2: Johnny Manziel was saying, or is Johnny san you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't even really give a shit in the meetings
Speaker 2: because if you watched it in the facility and he
Speaker 2: just didn't take it home, Big Ben wasn't known as
Speaker 2: a voracious consumer of tape at home.
Speaker 1: You don't have a choice when you're in the building
Speaker 1: because the majority of your day is in a meeting room.
Speaker 1: Right You're only in the practice room for two hours,
Speaker 1: So even if you're putting a seven eight hour day,
Speaker 1: their meetings, position meetings, group meetings, if you're just awake,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see it. I think what he was saying
Speaker 1: is I did nothing beside what was mandatory of the
Speaker 1: rest of the team. And to me, my take this
Speaker 1: week was simply, the majority of guys in the NFL
Speaker 1: are not Mahomes, Josh Allen, Trent Williams, Micah Parsons are
Speaker 1: not the elite guys. The majority, just like in any business,
Speaker 1: are just all kind of in the same level right now,
Speaker 1: because the NFL it's such competitive industry. If you don't
Speaker 1: do everything to maximize it, you have no shot. And
Speaker 1: I'll never forget I think one of his first games,
Speaker 1: because a huge part of his success in college was
Speaker 1: running around, right, it was running around. He even he
Speaker 1: said this was like the best throw of my career.
Speaker 1: I think it was a game against Alibi. It's not
Speaker 1: like throwing. I mean, he was obviously played quarterback, but
Speaker 1: he was known for his athleticism and making plays in
Speaker 1: the lags. Yeah, and then when he got to the NFL.
Speaker 1: I think they were playing it was either his first
Speaker 1: or second star. I thought it was. I think it
Speaker 1: was a Thursday night game and Luke Keikley for every
Speaker 1: step Johnny took, Luke was taking about three and caught
Speaker 1: him within two seconds. And Johnny didn't even get close
Speaker 1: to running around like he was used to playing, even
Speaker 1: obviously the SEC has fantastic athletes, and I went, this
Speaker 1: is not gonna work. And I thought he was a
Speaker 1: pretty intriguing process, but it didn't have a great arm.
Speaker 1: And then when you factor in zero work ethic, I
Speaker 1: mean I watched it with my girlfriend. She looked at me, like,
Speaker 1: this guy's a loser, you know, and that's just that
Speaker 1: position doesn't translate to being a loser. The difference with
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger elite physical attributes, right, Yes, I mean, so you
Speaker 1: can get by with a little less work ethic Shaquille O'Neill.
Speaker 1: Ben Roethlisberger, they're outliers physically, but he was, you know,
Speaker 1: much closer to the rest of the pack. And you're
Speaker 1: either growing or you're dying. And it's every team in
Speaker 1: the league has the saying like you're either getting better,
Speaker 1: you're getting worse. Nobody stays the same because it is
Speaker 1: kind of true, right, the thing that makes Mahomes or
Speaker 1: Josh Allen or even the great players Bosa, they're constantly
Speaker 1: getting better, even if it's just incremental, and they're already
Speaker 1: way past you. So when you kind of are average
Speaker 1: and then you just don't improve it or don't even try,
Speaker 1: that's that. Honestly, it's pretty embarrassing, you know, it really
Speaker 1: was to like take pride in not trying, like this
Speaker 1: is a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I think it's it's kind of that Baker
Speaker 2: Texas Oklahoma attitude. Yeah, you know, it's kind of I've
Speaker 2: seen this Jay Cutler, kind of the southern attitude, kind
Speaker 2: of there's a coolness and a casual nature of it,
Speaker 2: like I'm talent, will Will Levice has something of this.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a cool I'm quarterback, got a little attitude,
Speaker 2: going to show off the gun show and they almost
Speaker 2: take pride and I'm so talented, I don't have to grind,
Speaker 2: you know, Brady and Eli Manning. I mean take Brady
Speaker 2: not cool, a grinder, Russell Wilson, some say Cringy, Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 2: you know, like not cool. But I see Johnny Manzell
Speaker 2: and it reminds me a lot of Baker, where it
Speaker 2: was like he's almost more concerned about being viewed as
Speaker 2: cool than winning football games.
Speaker 1: You know. I heard you say something today on the
Speaker 1: radio show that and I've always thought this for years
Speaker 1: is the disingenuous nature of the media when they get
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with the questions that are asked during the draft period.
Speaker 1: It's like a team is not just hiring some twenty
Speaker 1: three year old out of Oklahoma to pay him seventy
Speaker 1: five grant if they're drafting the guy in the top
Speaker 1: fifteen they're paying him millions of dollars other company that
Speaker 1: was making an acquisition. You know, first a top ten
Speaker 1: pick is getting twenty twenty five thirty million dollars guaranteed.
Speaker 1: You do a lot of I don't know, due diligence.
Speaker 1: Right when you make an acquisition of a business, the
Speaker 1: business is the person. So what are you gonna do.
Speaker 1: You're gonna look into the person. And sometimes you got
Speaker 1: to ask uncomfortable questions. And where do they usually come
Speaker 1: from your scouts when they go into these schools being
Speaker 1: alerted to this stuff. It's not like you can pull
Speaker 1: them out of thin air that the most of these
Speaker 1: gms never enter the schools until the draft process starts
Speaker 1: around the combine when they're given all this information to hey,
Speaker 1: we need to look into this, this and this, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that opens doors into other things. But the majority
Speaker 1: of the NFL, and you know a bunch of these
Speaker 1: guys you've been talking to them for a long are
Speaker 1: high level guys. You don't have to spend that much
Speaker 1: time on their character. But there is a percentage, especially
Speaker 1: that are drafted pretty high, that have some red flags
Speaker 1: that you have to ask uncomfortable questions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Lane, Kiffen told me years ago he begged
Speaker 2: Al Davis not to draft JaMarcus.
Speaker 1: Russell wanted Calvin Johnson. Right, that's a high character, all
Speaker 1: time great player.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, and Johnny Manziel was telling you
Speaker 2: what he was. You know what maya angeloute. People tell
Speaker 2: you who they are, believe them. He was bragging about
Speaker 2: money and you know the money sign. He told you
Speaker 2: who he was. Cleveland didn't want to listen, all right.
Speaker 2: The other TV revelation, Not sure if it's a revelation,
Speaker 2: but I thought I thought HBO Aaron's using it as
Speaker 2: a rebrand. I'm a good guy. I get along with others.
Speaker 2: I'm not selfish, I'm not arrogant. And I think Tom
Speaker 2: Brady had a bit of a rebrand when he went
Speaker 2: to Tampa, like, hey, I have a personality, I'm fun.
Speaker 2: It's helped his business and endorsements. I thought Aaron came
Speaker 2: across says, hey, man, I got to do this thing.
Speaker 2: I'm going to rebrand it. It's and I think you
Speaker 2: can watch HBO and Aaron are trying to convince you, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm a different guy and I'm not the bad guy.
Speaker 2: The media portrays me as I don't think it's wrong.
Speaker 2: I think it's pretty smart. But that's how it felt
Speaker 2: to me. It's a rebrand. Aaron's all in and HBO
Speaker 2: is helping him. And I'm not criticizing HBO. I think
Speaker 2: they think that's an interesting, captivating part of the jet story.
Speaker 1: Well, it totally is. I've been out on Hard Knocks.
Speaker 1: Every other show eventually gets canceled or stops, and that
Speaker 1: keeps going. But if you're just going to give me
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, Hackett and Solid for four episodes, I'm in
Speaker 1: because I don't care about the random undrafted free agent
Speaker 1: that's eventually going to get cut. But I can watch Aaron,
Speaker 1: Rodgers and Hackett figure out this offense like that, that
Speaker 1: to me is intriguing. He's done a rebrand, really since
Speaker 1: he showed up right, I mean the whole thing of
Speaker 1: being there in the offseason, taking all the young guys
Speaker 1: out to Madison Square Garden, going to the concerts with
Speaker 1: again the young guys, which was the issue last year.
Speaker 1: Hey Aaron, we got a lot of young guys. I'm
Speaker 1: not coming in the offseason. Then he pulls the Brady,
Speaker 1: which he deserves credit for because I don't care who
Speaker 1: you are thirty five million dollars a lot of money,
Speaker 1: gives it back to help the team, And he even
Speaker 1: said it's not even just for this year, it's about
Speaker 1: the big picture. I'm in. I believe what they say,
Speaker 1: and they've clearly done a good job of this process
Speaker 1: of him believing trusting them. You and I talked about
Speaker 1: it a couple weeks ago. I think it's easier too,
Speaker 1: when the super rich owner tells you, like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: i'll cut this check for this guy. We'll do this guy.
Speaker 1: I'll tell Joe we have no problem trading a first
Speaker 1: round pick next year if we need to go get
Speaker 1: our Trent Williams or we'll do whatever it takes for
Speaker 1: you write a little NBA style, And that's how I
Speaker 1: think he's being treated a lot like Tom was treated.
Speaker 1: So it's easy to be happy when everyone's kind of
Speaker 1: kissing your ass. So like, let's face it, they're kissing
Speaker 1: his ass as they should be. They're desperate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know a lot of times the Dallas
Speaker 2: Cowboys are brought up and I'm guilty of this, and
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm guilty. I just think this is
Speaker 2: my business plan. Is when I was a local radio host,
Speaker 2: you would talk about local teams. When I got the
Speaker 2: syndicated job, it became very obvious to me that you
Speaker 2: couldn't just talk any team you wanted to, that you
Speaker 2: had to talk the biggest brands and that would accumulate
Speaker 2: the largest audience. So very early I was in the
Speaker 2: Brady and Lebron Notre Dame football, Duke basketball, Yankees baseball.
Speaker 2: I've moved off baseball a lot since the twenty years
Speaker 2: ago that I started doing it a syndicated radio. But
Speaker 2: the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers, the Steelers have a lot
Speaker 2: of reach. But I actually think this version of Dallas
Speaker 2: this season is kind of fascinating Dak and there's a
Speaker 2: clear correlation. The more you ask of him, the more
Speaker 2: mistakes he makes. I mean, there's a line of Dak
Speaker 2: marcation thirty five or more throws. He's way under five
Speaker 2: hundred thirty three or fewer. He's a really good quarterback.
Speaker 2: And so his most efficient year as a pro was
Speaker 2: year one, Zeke number two in rushing yards, best on
Speaker 2: line in football. Dak was on the cheap the next year,
Speaker 2: year two, John, if you remember, Zeke suspended six games.
Speaker 2: In those six games, Dak had five touchdowns and seven picks.
Speaker 2: The minute you asked him to do more, he provided
Speaker 2: more mistakes. So here we go into this year. He's
Speaker 2: been a Pro Bowl or twice. In both those years,
Speaker 2: Zeke led the NFL in rushing attempts in yards. Zeke's
Speaker 2: gone o line rebuild, working in a new receiver, lost
Speaker 2: an elite offensive coordinator, and Dak now is having a
Speaker 2: camp full of interceptions. I love this defense. What are
Speaker 2: we going to get from Dak this year? Because there
Speaker 2: is a correlation, the more you need, the more mistakes
Speaker 2: you get. It's not arguable at this point.
Speaker 1: I think I'm not just saying this because you're here.
Speaker 1: I make a point to listen to you have Albert
Speaker 1: Breer on every week. I think he's he can articulate.
Speaker 1: He's to me one of the best hybrid of just
Speaker 1: knowing guys in the league, articulating what's going on, and
Speaker 1: just and being able to report just his interactions with people.
Speaker 1: And he said something to you about what McCarthy said
Speaker 1: to him about their asking Dak to ad lib and
Speaker 1: be a little bit more of a playmaker. And when
Speaker 1: I heard that, my jaw dropped, Like Mike, this is
Speaker 1: not Aaron Rodgers here, buddy. The reason he was a
Speaker 1: fourth round pick because his physical attute. He's a good athlete,
Speaker 1: he does not have a great arm. The clip of
Speaker 1: there was a pick, I don't know he's throwing a bunch,
Speaker 1: but yesterday or the day before, Yeah, I like a
Speaker 1: post route where digs undercut it. Rogers, you can miss
Speaker 1: that ball deep, you can't miss it short. That's where
Speaker 1: the ball always gets picked off. And to me, Dak
Speaker 1: is much closer from an arm standpoint to Alex Smith
Speaker 1: to Kirk Cousins. Play within the context of the offense.
Speaker 1: I could have Rogers, Alan or Mahomes ad libbing because
Speaker 1: they're throwing one hundred miles an hour. So well, whod
Speaker 1: McCarthy have the most successful his career Aaron Rodgers. So
Speaker 1: maybe in his mind he's thinking that if that, if
Speaker 1: that is honestly their mindset, I think they are batshit
Speaker 1: crazy and that is going to be a disaster of
Speaker 1: just trying to have him be a quote unquote playmaker.
Speaker 1: The reason Cousins is having so much success over the
Speaker 1: last four or five years statistically and his teams that
Speaker 1: their defense is good consistently go to play He just
Speaker 1: plays within the offense, and when Dak does that, he's
Speaker 1: pretty good too. But when he starts ad libbing, I
Speaker 1: do I mean that pass? His arm is actually for
Speaker 1: a guy that's big, right, just because if you've ever
Speaker 1: met Alex Smith, he's six four, Right. Just because you're
Speaker 1: six to four does not mean you throw one hundred
Speaker 1: miles an hour, right. Pedro Martinez was shorty through ninety seven,
Speaker 1: so Tim Linskin was small. Some small guys throw harder.
Speaker 1: Baker actually has a pretty good arm for a small guy, right.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers is six one and a half to eighteen Kyler.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it just it doesn't translate. So I maybe
Speaker 1: it's because they're not as confident. Pollard's a little more
Speaker 1: of a hybrid back, not a true like pounded between
Speaker 1: the tackles, and it's Smith's style. But last time I checked,
Speaker 1: when they were winning a bunch, Trey Aikman wasn't a
Speaker 1: big ad liver, right, He just kind of just played
Speaker 1: the position like it's supposed to be played.
Speaker 2: Is there a team Carolina for me? They played the
Speaker 2: Packers yesterday and gave Aaron some trouble I have. You know,
Speaker 2: there's always a team in this league that doubles their
Speaker 2: win total. So last year my big one was Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Now they didn't double their win total, but I said
Speaker 2: most improved team in the league. So yeah, so I
Speaker 2: got that one right. There's something about Carolina. I love Reich.
Speaker 2: He makes your quarterback more efficient. I think Bryce Young
Speaker 2: is one of those lower ceiling but ready to play today.
Speaker 2: I think they're front seven's good. I think their on line,
Speaker 2: due to the draft last couple of years, is now
Speaker 2: more than competent, you know, and the division's a little vulnerable.
Speaker 2: Carolina is my as Aaron Rodgers found out in the
Speaker 2: inner squad scrimmage. They got dudes, They got real big.
Speaker 2: Do you have a team like that for you that
Speaker 2: you just people look at it and say five or
Speaker 2: six and you're like, I watched Carolina a couple games
Speaker 2: last year without Reich. They're spicy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they play. They definitely have a lot of talent.
Speaker 1: The team I told you, I think we talked about
Speaker 1: this over the summer was Washington. I'm gonna throw that
Speaker 1: take into the garbage going there. I was kind of
Speaker 1: low on the Giants. I thought they would come back.
Speaker 1: But the one thing if Darren Waller is healthy and
Speaker 1: high at the receiver from Tennessee that is running like
Speaker 1: Hussein Bolt. No one can cover them. They might actually
Speaker 1: and now Saquan is in a good place, maybe they
Speaker 1: get back to ten eleven. To me, the team talking
Speaker 1: with some people in Jacksonville, I don't know how great
Speaker 1: the defense is going to be, but the division stinks.
Speaker 1: Could they be a top two or three offense in
Speaker 1: the league. I mean, Doug Peterson is just Taylor made
Speaker 1: for modern day NFL. His personality, his understanding, Like obviously
Speaker 1: he's the play caller. He succeeded there him dealing with
Speaker 1: Trevor Trevor last year, what twenty five touchdowns? Could this
Speaker 1: year be one of those? Like thirty eight touchdowns? You
Speaker 1: get Calvin Ridley, who I'm told is just they're blown
Speaker 1: away by him. We saw Christian Kirk was a really
Speaker 1: good signing for him. Etn's like the modern day hybrid back.
Speaker 1: Now you never want to discount Tennessee and I have,
Speaker 1: but I do. You know, you got to take Rabel
Speaker 1: very seriously. I think in a coaching draft he'd be
Speaker 1: a top five pick. I mean, he's the real deal.
Speaker 1: But Brighton talent's just not quite. There could be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a you know, comeback year. So I
Speaker 1: think the Jags, I don't like him as a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl contender just because their defense is going to be
Speaker 1: good enough. But last year, I don't want to call
Speaker 1: it hollow because that was a big year, especially based
Speaker 1: on the Urban year. But I think this year could
Speaker 1: be feel more real than last year was. And you
Speaker 1: can kind of see like they're a piece or two
Speaker 1: away on defense. Maybe get their Nick Bosta or their
Speaker 1: Brian Burns or something then watch out.
Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, I thought they played the Chiefs twice last
Speaker 2: year and I'm literally watching both games. I had the
Speaker 2: same feeling. It's like the NBA playoffs Denver two years ago,
Speaker 2: Sacramento this year. In the NBA, they're just not ready
Speaker 2: to win big, close games yet. I think the Kings
Speaker 2: will be next year. With dearon Fox and I watched Jacksonville,
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, they're a year away. They need to
Speaker 2: lose to Kansas City twice. They don't know how to win.
Speaker 2: They don't know how to put those twelve play drives
Speaker 2: together the way Mahomes and Reed and Kelsey they they're good,
Speaker 2: they don't know how to manipulate games. So Jacksonville I
Speaker 2: think has to get to that point. And that's a
Speaker 2: real thing. Like the really good teams New England manipulated
Speaker 2: games where they were outplayed. I think Kansas City doesn't
Speaker 2: that time. I think yeah, And I'm like Jacksonville just
Speaker 2: has talent, they just don't know how to They don't
Speaker 2: know how to win games. They don't play perfect football. Well,
Speaker 2: they might win or lose the game.
Speaker 1: But the three guys in the AFC Mahomes, Allen, and
Speaker 1: Burrow never walk on the field against the other guy,
Speaker 1: and definitely the rest of the league thinking that they're
Speaker 1: not the best player on the field and they're gonna
Speaker 1: win the fucking game. And I wonder if Trevor you know,
Speaker 1: for the first time in the league, had a taste
Speaker 1: of that last year, had the big you know, had
Speaker 1: it couldn't have gone any worse, right, He basically if
Speaker 1: he was a golfer, hit like seven shots out of
Speaker 1: bounds on the first hole in the first half against
Speaker 1: the Chargers, and then to me, the mental fortitude, I
Speaker 1: mean that he eagerly could have gone in the tank
Speaker 1: and no one would have blamed him, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: first playoff taste bad game, threw a bunch of picks,
Speaker 1: he did not flinch, came back, made a bunch of plays.
Speaker 1: So I would expect just a massive year from him.
Speaker 1: And to me, Doug has a personality a lot like
Speaker 1: Andy very even Keel. Not a big screamer, offensive guy,
Speaker 1: former quarterback, you know, just kinda He's just an NFL guy.
Speaker 1: He just gets pros and I think he's going to
Speaker 1: be really good for them. He has been.
Speaker 2: One thing you touched on this week, and I want
Speaker 2: to bring it back for people that didn't hear it
Speaker 2: is your take on Ron Rivera and Eric b Enemy,
Speaker 2: where Ron not only stepped in it, he created it
Speaker 2: with the comments about the enemy. Take our audience here
Speaker 2: back to that, because I thought it was a poignant
Speaker 2: point about in the NFL there's enough landmines. Don't throw
Speaker 2: your own grenades.
Speaker 1: Well, to me, there's a reason. And I don't blame
Speaker 1: coaches for lying, right, it's not. It doesn't behoove them
Speaker 1: to give out information that just creates chaos. Most people
Speaker 1: on the team are well under thirty live on their phone.
Speaker 1: You got to be very careful. It's why so many
Speaker 1: coaches don't really say anything and when they do it
Speaker 1: all leans positive. For him to come out and acknowledge
Speaker 1: it'd be one thing, right if there was something simmering,
Speaker 1: there was a powerful story from a Wickersham from the
Speaker 1: athletic would be like, what's going on? He gets asked
Speaker 1: about it, any kind of steps on it, you would
Speaker 1: understand it. Maybe you got cornered a little bit in
Speaker 1: a press conference. That was not the case at all.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you. I hadn't heard anything. Unless
Speaker 1: you knew a player or someone on the staff, no
Speaker 1: one would have been talking about it. So for him
Speaker 1: just to acknowledge that was borderline unprecedented. I mean, you
Speaker 1: never see that in the NFL unless you know. Is
Speaker 1: he already trying to point the finger at him? He
Speaker 1: sees it not going well? Ron? The thing, It's not
Speaker 1: like Ron is some modern day, progressive, easygoing NFL coach.
Speaker 1: This guy's an old school screamer, yeller, defensive guy. So
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have a problem with you coaching hard. Does
Speaker 1: he think it's not going well? Does he see our
Speaker 1: quarterback syste situation is a disaster. I've seen some headlines
Speaker 1: multiple times. Part of the reason I started getting off
Speaker 1: them before This story even kind of came out because
Speaker 1: of run was because he kept mentioning Jacoby Brissett. He
Speaker 1: kept don't sleep on Jacoby Brissette, Oh no, and I went,
Speaker 1: what we've seen Jacoby, just keep him as your backup.
Speaker 1: What are we talking about? So maybe there's some butting
Speaker 1: of heads when it comes to personnel. You got new ownership.
Speaker 1: Let's face it. If Ron were to go seven and
Speaker 1: ten or like his he was not going to get fired.
Speaker 1: He's never going to get a head coaching job again.
Speaker 1: Like this is his career is over. So it did
Speaker 1: feel a little bit like he's pointing the finger. Not
Speaker 1: just a bizarre story. Just when you never see you
Speaker 1: never see coaching hard. What does that even mean? You
Speaker 1: go to a practice in high school, people are getting
Speaker 1: screamed at. It's not even that weird.
Speaker 2: John middlecoff Go Low is his golf podcast, and three
Speaker 2: and Out is his football podcast. Full of information. This
Speaker 2: is fun. We'll be doing it every week during the
Speaker 2: NFL season. I'm watching the game starting tonight and all weekend.
Speaker 2: Can't wait and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Have a good weekend. Colin the volume