Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast Hunters Are People Too? Well,
Speaker 1: that's an e and thing from the Chris Westling podcast studio.
Speaker 1: What are we doing? Yeah? What are we doing at
Speaker 1: this point with the Zummie drops? Where we at? Somebody
Speaker 1: suggested that one sounded good. You like punt to celebrate punters?
Speaker 1: I celebrate kickers, probably unaware of the origin of the
Speaker 1: I'm a young lad. Okay Rich is the face of
Speaker 1: the company, you know from the Chris Westling podcast studio,
Speaker 1: It's around the NFL. Dan Hansis, Gregg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Colle Wolf, what's up? Hey? Are people Too? But I
Speaker 1: think the other thing that's a little jarring, uh, is
Speaker 1: we just witnessed on Monday night, um awaking nightmare for
Speaker 1: a place kicker Right, there was no punting drama over
Speaker 1: the weekend, So it's like, kickers are People Too? Is
Speaker 1: really what this is about? Yeah? I wish I had
Speaker 1: at that drop. In essence, the opening drop didn't fit,
Speaker 1: um the topic of the show, various topics. It was
Speaker 1: awkward and it got us off to a weird start.
Speaker 1: Thank you everyone involved, Welcome to everyone listening. This actually
Speaker 1: is a show that people enjoy typically and We're gonna
Speaker 1: try to get this thing back on track here. Yes,
Speaker 1: how are you colling? I'm great, I'm great. I got
Speaker 1: my club arm here. So Colin was attacked by a
Speaker 1: vicious dog over Christmas. Thank the dog got me and
Speaker 1: uh still healing and I feel like I have a
Speaker 1: club now that I can hit people with. And Colly
Speaker 1: and I do the same thing. As pointedly not asked
Speaker 1: what became of Tank? I was gonna ask, like the
Speaker 1: next The logical next step is Tank is not existing.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know anything has been decommissioned, perhaps
Speaker 1: for the safety of others, but also at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's something you don't want to think about. We're just
Speaker 1: happy here, don't with us? Um? Yes, big show today.
Speaker 1: You know we have a guest, Uh, the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: They are a relevant football team in the middle of January.
Speaker 1: Sorry about that, Greg Um. So we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: him some more. Pat Leonard of the New York Delly
Speaker 1: News will join this when the chips are down. The
Speaker 1: only one who believed in him my Giant last week
Speaker 1: picked them to win and they didn't. I'm not picking
Speaker 1: him this week. I think I will. That was a
Speaker 1: short journey. Greg, Yeah, I mean might cover. I might
Speaker 1: take him to cover, you know. All Right, so we'll
Speaker 1: talk to Pat about the Giants and where they're out
Speaker 1: ahead of their big showdown with the Eagles. Man, I
Speaker 1: gotta say we kind of thread the needle on Super
Speaker 1: wild Card weekend because um, no big upsets, but also
Speaker 1: we got an entertaining football for the most part um
Speaker 1: and what we get out of it now is just
Speaker 1: a stellar divisional round we got. We got weekend of matchup.
Speaker 1: So I like that. That's saucy. There was part of
Speaker 1: me kind of like rooting for the Dolphins to generate
Speaker 1: total chaos, but then it's like, now three days later,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm glad that they were dismissed and taken
Speaker 1: care of. Right, we don't need Miami going to Kansas
Speaker 1: City in the divisional round. But we got a good
Speaker 1: slate of games until the last one that was the
Speaker 1: one that had nothing to it. And there is something
Speaker 1: strange about the Monday night Football Wild Card game, Like
Speaker 1: you've just had this like huge, great meal essentially five
Speaker 1: monster games over two days, and you're a little even
Speaker 1: though it's like the meal was great, you're a little
Speaker 1: stuffed for dessert. You know what I like, wasn't there
Speaker 1: for what that should have been? Cowboys Tom Brady like
Speaker 1: that was supposed to be fair and even before the
Speaker 1: game started and then the game was nothing. There's been
Speaker 1: two of these now. Last year the Rams absolutely butchered
Speaker 1: the Cardinals in a game that was over by the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter, and it was kind of
Speaker 1: similar in this game. We're gonna get to that game
Speaker 1: and the news that's been happening around the legal last
Speaker 1: few days. In fact, why don't we dive into it.
Speaker 1: Let's let's wrap up, let's close the door on Super
Speaker 1: Wild Card weekend. I'm a good boy, I'm a good
Speaker 1: corporate boy. With the Cowboys and Bucks from Tampa. You
Speaker 1: think they're calling them off side? Maybe maybe they're gonna
Speaker 1: run a play fourth and four back to throw it
Speaker 1: after the lock on alone card at the two and
Speaker 1: I walk in touchdown for Ceedee Lamb. How did you
Speaker 1: not cover the second team All Pro? Great question. I
Speaker 1: gotta ask Todd Bowls about that, because Ceedee Lamb did
Speaker 1: what he wanted to do, Dalton Sheltz did what he
Speaker 1: wanted to do, and most of all, Dak Prescott did
Speaker 1: what he wanted to do, and I thought a career
Speaker 1: best performance five touchdowns, no turnovers as the Cowboys coast
Speaker 1: past Tom Brady and the Buccaneers thirty one to fourteen,
Speaker 1: and what could be probably not we'll get to it
Speaker 1: tom Brady's final game. I'm kind of need to have
Speaker 1: huge conversations about that after last year, but it's it
Speaker 1: is part of the storyline coming out of this game.
Speaker 1: But of course we start, Uh, Colleen Wolf with the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. I know you're not Dallas Cowboys fan as
Speaker 1: a Filly native, but you had to be impressed with
Speaker 1: a team that looked like it was limping into the postseason.
Speaker 1: Flipped the switch and what a polar opposite performance from
Speaker 1: last week against Washington. Like, if the Dallas Cowboys can
Speaker 1: play this way next week, they'll definitely beat the Niners.
Speaker 1: They have a great shot to do it. They looked
Speaker 1: so good. Doak was dealing. This was his best game
Speaker 1: in so long, the first time in eight games that
Speaker 1: he didn't have a turnover. The defense was swarming. I
Speaker 1: mean him and Dalton Schultz. Like Dalton Schultz had a
Speaker 1: great game. He led the team in catches, touchdowns, yards, targets,
Speaker 1: all of it, but it just seemed like every time
Speaker 1: he and Dak connected, they were just on a different level.
Speaker 1: It felt like I was like actually saying out loud,
Speaker 1: wow or oh my god, did you see this, or
Speaker 1: like looking back waiting for the replay. Um not just
Speaker 1: on the touchdowns, but on some of those completions to
Speaker 1: really nice completion. So, I mean, was a slow start
Speaker 1: for Dallas to three and ounce to start the game,
Speaker 1: and then finally everything turned around, and I mean even
Speaker 1: Brett Maher bounced back at the end. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: That fourth down touchdown we just heard was maybe largely
Speaker 1: because Maher had missed those four extra points and they
Speaker 1: didn't want to send him out there first jogging on
Speaker 1: the field, and then Zady was like, no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to ask the act the bells out
Speaker 1: here and were surprised that it waited. They waited so
Speaker 1: long to just go for two or to go for
Speaker 1: it instead, like instead of continually sending him out there
Speaker 1: to miss kicks like I don't. I was trying to decide,
Speaker 1: if you're the head coach, do you when you're up
Speaker 1: that big do you just keep sending him out there
Speaker 1: to break it, Like, I think that's I think it
Speaker 1: would have been different if it was a tie game.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I agree with that it was tough,
Speaker 1: and I think he's thinking about next week. That's the
Speaker 1: guy who's played great all season, Brett Maher And when
Speaker 1: you're up that much, you can afford to be like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's one point. Well, we'll see, Like we shouldn't be
Speaker 1: as surprised how one sided this was. I had the
Speaker 1: Cowboys winning because, like they were a team that over
Speaker 1: the courts of the season scored twenty more touchdowns than
Speaker 1: their opponent, whereas the Buccaneers were like scored ten less
Speaker 1: touchdowns in their opponent. The Buccaneers were a bad team
Speaker 1: all year. But I was on the fence of who's
Speaker 1: gonna win this game? I think most people were. And
Speaker 1: you see Dak at his best, and it's just like
Speaker 1: I said this while ago. He reminds me of Tom
Speaker 1: Brady more than any of the young generation quarterbacks. Although
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott at this point is the oldest quarterback left
Speaker 1: in the playoffs by a few years. Patrick Mahomes is there.
Speaker 1: It is crazy because he's gonna win before the snap
Speaker 1: and he's gonna adjust to what you're doing before the snap.
Speaker 1: If he gets a little confused early in the game,
Speaker 1: like he was, like, he's gonna figure it out. He's
Speaker 1: just smarter than most quarterbacks in terms of being able
Speaker 1: to make decisions and decide what's gonna happen. And like
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, if you give him time, like he's just
Speaker 1: gonna carve you up. And the Bucks never had a
Speaker 1: pass rush this year. They didn't an offensive line in
Speaker 1: this game, so both of their lines were just pathetic.
Speaker 1: And Dak Prescott was out there like cooking pizzas back
Speaker 1: there on one of those like you do a play
Speaker 1: action on third down with all these fakes in the
Speaker 1: red zone where you don't expect to like have that
Speaker 1: much time, and he's just chilling back there. Uh for
Speaker 1: I think that was his third touchdown. It's like, if
Speaker 1: you gave Dak that amount of time, he will kill
Speaker 1: you every time. He's that good. Yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: like if you the experience of the Dallas Cowboys, the
Speaker 1: experience of Dak Prescott and how they're dealt with by us,
Speaker 1: by everyone, Like had this happened in Week one, we
Speaker 1: wouldn't be going back to that Week one game, saying,
Speaker 1: remember that Dak Prescott's best game of all time. It
Speaker 1: happened at the most critical mass moment it could for Dallas,
Speaker 1: and where would we be had he had those two
Speaker 1: three and ounce the game the way the game started.
Speaker 1: Had that continued, we had had his Week one performance
Speaker 1: against the Bucks where he was terrible. Well, also got injured,
Speaker 1: So that's a different narrative, but just the way that
Speaker 1: the Cowboys worked the way out of that after last
Speaker 1: week's implosion, which they were heavily criticized for rightly, I
Speaker 1: think that Dak Prescott goes into San Francisco, and so
Speaker 1: does the whole team with a completely different mindset and
Speaker 1: so much pressure off their shoulders compared to the way
Speaker 1: they went into this game. I think it was just like,
Speaker 1: will Dallas implode, Will Mike McCarthy be blamed because he's
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy has been blamed for everything other than stuff
Speaker 1: for DAC And I just think that for Dallas to
Speaker 1: go in and absolutely destroy Tampa Bay and to leave
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay with so many questions, and like time, I
Speaker 1: know Tom Brady, we know who he is. He's the
Speaker 1: best of all time. He looked awful last night. That
Speaker 1: was one of that. He was his worst graded PFF
Speaker 1: performance all season. It looked that way. He looks like
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't want to get hit. He had thirty
Speaker 1: one in completions, and for me, it's like, where does
Speaker 1: he go next? It's like it has to be a
Speaker 1: perfect situation from Tom Brady because he doesn't raise all
Speaker 1: the players around him the way he did in previous seasons. Um. Yes,
Speaker 1: I I think the his interception, which again this speaks
Speaker 1: to Tom Brady's greatness. It was his first red zone
Speaker 1: interception since he's been on the Bucks and this was
Speaker 1: the last game of his third season. But yeah, he is.
Speaker 1: He seems much more vulnerable these days, and I think
Speaker 1: he's one of those guys and I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: affect his decision. I think he's coming back and we'll
Speaker 1: we'll play some sound from Brady and moment. But um,
Speaker 1: I think he could still play. But he's at the
Speaker 1: stage now where I think he really does need that
Speaker 1: great set up around him for things to work. He can't,
Speaker 1: like Mark said, lift things. And I thought the game
Speaker 1: kind of turned um in early in the game after
Speaker 1: they were going back and forth three and outs. Uh,
Speaker 1: the the Tampa Bay has the ball. After Dallas gets
Speaker 1: their first touchdown, Mar mrs his first p I T
Speaker 1: P A T and and they go down the field.
Speaker 1: Four team play seventy yards and Brady throws a terrible
Speaker 1: interception and I don't know. It kind of looked like
Speaker 1: maybe he's trying to throw it out of bounds, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. Whatever it was, it was one of
Speaker 1: his worst passes. You'll see Cowboys take over. They go
Speaker 1: fifteen plays, eighty yards and you know, after a miserable
Speaker 1: goal line attempt by Eazake Elliott, who I agree, by
Speaker 1: the way, Greg looks cooked right now. Um, fourth down
Speaker 1: at the one yard line in a six nothing game.
Speaker 1: That feels I can go either way. Great naked bootleg
Speaker 1: call Dak Waltz is into the end zone and from
Speaker 1: that point, even after another Mar miss P A T,
Speaker 1: they had this game under control. So I I totally
Speaker 1: with you on that too. Mark, like the flips the
Speaker 1: whole script for Dallas, they now get to go to
Speaker 1: San Francisco. Last year, San Francisco came to them in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and they were expected to win. Now they're
Speaker 1: not expected to win, and they have some confidence. I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be a tough out, especially if Dak
Speaker 1: feeds off this game. I don't like it. I don't
Speaker 1: like it at all. At least you're not getting you're
Speaker 1: real nervous, I know. So for me, best case scenario
Speaker 1: now I gave you the unbiased Cowboys take. Now for
Speaker 1: the Eagles to beat the Giants and then to beat
Speaker 1: the Cowboys to make the Super Bowl, and then you know,
Speaker 1: beat Doug Peterson. We'll like you definitely. You know you
Speaker 1: have an active sandwich prop that the Eagles will not
Speaker 1: win a playoff game. Don't know what was going on
Speaker 1: with you in August, but that was that's sure. Either way,
Speaker 1: you could either get like a burrito from Tacos porfevore
Speaker 1: or the like that. I love burritos. This doesn't change
Speaker 1: Cowboys Like it doesn't change my feeling about the Cowboys
Speaker 1: moving forward, because I knew they were. I thought they
Speaker 1: were one of the six teams or so that could
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl this year, and they can. Like
Speaker 1: they played like a top five offense in defense very
Speaker 1: often this year, not always at the same time, sometimes
Speaker 1: at the same time, but like their ceiling is as
Speaker 1: high as any team in the NFL. Can they do
Speaker 1: that four straight weeks? I don't know. Can they do
Speaker 1: that against the worst team in the playoffs like they
Speaker 1: showed that they can, and I think they could do
Speaker 1: it next week too, And they might lose that game
Speaker 1: even if they do it, because they're playing a great
Speaker 1: forts team. But it doesn't change to me. Like I know,
Speaker 1: it's the playoffs and it's massive for them to get
Speaker 1: over that hump. But the Buccaneers were one of the
Speaker 1: most consistent teams in the NFL. I thought this year
Speaker 1: the NF we say how the NFL is so unpredictable.
Speaker 1: This was the same team all year. Like they they
Speaker 1: managed to have a knack for winning comeback games against
Speaker 1: awful teams and awful quarterbacks in the fourth quarter, or
Speaker 1: they would have been a six and eleven team, And
Speaker 1: so that's what made them more of an eight and
Speaker 1: nine team. But they were a sub mediocre offense and
Speaker 1: a defense that could beat up on some bad teams,
Speaker 1: but was pretty mediocre itself when it played the good teams.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't like change. It was good to this
Speaker 1: version of them. Their upside is there, that's what we see.
Speaker 1: But Connie and I did the Power Rankings podcast. You
Speaker 1: can check that out today. Like I had them at
Speaker 1: six going into the wild card round, I have them
Speaker 1: six now. I still think those big five teams, uh,
Speaker 1: the two teams in the NFC and the three a
Speaker 1: FC teams are ahead of them in terms of the
Speaker 1: pecking order. But when they when that version of the
Speaker 1: Cowboys plays, it's very close. They just know. And I
Speaker 1: you said that this version of Dallas would destroy I
Speaker 1: think you said the Niners wouldn't. I mean, well, I
Speaker 1: thought you were stronger than that, which which I mean
Speaker 1: maybe if he has five touchdowns. On to the consistency thing,
Speaker 1: like the Niners have been. There have been a couple
Speaker 1: of quarters or drives here and there, but they have
Speaker 1: been as consistent as any team out there, more so
Speaker 1: than even Philly, who's got a quarterback with a shoulder
Speaker 1: situation right now. Like I don't trust this. I'm with you, Greg,
Speaker 1: This doesn't change the way I feel about the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I love seeing what they did. I thought it answered
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about Deak Prescott. But do I
Speaker 1: think that they're gonna this is just they play pristine
Speaker 1: from here on out. Absolutely, Niners, the Niners have won
Speaker 1: eleven straight games, like they have been streaking for a
Speaker 1: very long time at this point. But now I feel
Speaker 1: like the Cowboys are at their peak and if they
Speaker 1: can continue, then they can ride that through the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Do you have a shorter week to which I really
Speaker 1: had like more concerns about their defense coming to this
Speaker 1: game than their offense have. There's one thing I do
Speaker 1: feel better about. It's that they dominated the Bucks offensive line,
Speaker 1: which really hasn't been that bad this year, and you
Speaker 1: look at the stats and it ends up only being
Speaker 1: one sack. But that's why Tom Brady looked so bad
Speaker 1: last night, is he doesn't You're right, he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to get hit. He freaks out after he holds it
Speaker 1: for two and a half seconds. But it was for
Speaker 1: a good reason. They won basically every snap. There was
Speaker 1: very few snaps that the Cowboys defensive line, which is
Speaker 1: what we saw early in the season, weren't winning. And
Speaker 1: Layton Vanderys his return I thought was really big for them.
Speaker 1: He's been great for them. I always think think of
Speaker 1: West when old l V is stepping up because his
Speaker 1: his career trajectory has been a roller coaster, but he's
Speaker 1: playing played really well this season in his returns the
Speaker 1: door his rookie season, but then he really had had
Speaker 1: a thing for a while there. Let's let's listen to
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. So Brady, of course, his contract was the
Speaker 1: contract is up um in March. He's a free agent.
Speaker 1: Very interesting to again see what his market will be.
Speaker 1: The last time this is a real thing was after
Speaker 1: his last Patriot season and he had kind of a
Speaker 1: luke warm market and then went to Tampa and was
Speaker 1: a monster in his first two years. This third year
Speaker 1: not so much. But first, how does Brady play it
Speaker 1: with the media after the seasons over? This is how
Speaker 1: he ended his press confidence. This was interesting and his
Speaker 1: h comments to reporters there. I just want to say
Speaker 1: thank you guys for everything this year. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: all your effort. And I know it's hard for you
Speaker 1: guys too. It's hard for US players to make it
Speaker 1: through and you guys got a tough job. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate all that you guys do to cover us and
Speaker 1: everyone who watches and a big fan of the sport.
Speaker 1: We're very grateful for everyone's support and um, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully um you know, I love this organization it's a
Speaker 1: great place to be. And thank you everybody for welcome
Speaker 1: to me, all your regulars, and um, just very grateful
Speaker 1: for the respect and and I hope I gave the
Speaker 1: same thing back to you guys, So thank you very much,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Let's try to do some translation of athletes
Speaker 1: speak here. Mark Szezler, Um, I think the only thing
Speaker 1: first of all, he got classy gesture. Uh one. Yes,
Speaker 1: it seemed like maybe a goodbye to the Tampa reporters. Um.
Speaker 1: He The one thing that caught me is when he
Speaker 1: said hopefully and maybe he was going to finish sense
Speaker 1: like hopefully I'll be back here. But then he stopped
Speaker 1: himself purposely kind of leaving things as murky as possible.
Speaker 1: I think he's definitely gone, because, first of all, I
Speaker 1: have no doubts that he essentially got Bruce Arians shoved upstairs.
Speaker 1: I mean he he his sticking around was contingent. I
Speaker 1: think on Arians leaving, now you've got Todd Bowles coming
Speaker 1: off a bad season. I think Byron left, which is gone,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of changes. I don't think Tom
Speaker 1: Brady after report we had Scott Reynolds on the show
Speaker 1: that it was the reporter who said left which will be?
Speaker 1: And I like, I also heard that there was gossip
Speaker 1: that they were going to get rid of Left which
Speaker 1: during the season two, at some point when things were
Speaker 1: going really likely. I mean, why would Tom Brady ever
Speaker 1: come back to this? He wouldn't. I think he's gonna,
Speaker 1: He's gonna. You're there's like the raiders are out there
Speaker 1: as an obvious reported concept. I think in a different
Speaker 1: world if if the Dolphins thought differently about TWA or
Speaker 1: to his health, Like the Dolphins kind of fit for
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, who they've courted him before. It's a Shanahan
Speaker 1: type system. But the idea that you'd go to the
Speaker 1: Niners who have two quarterbacks on rookie deals, And I'm
Speaker 1: not even sure he's even better than Brock Purty right now,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I know it's a small sample size.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't see that happening. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: there's a big market place to hear that out there though,
Speaker 1: And that was I think it depends to where Sean
Speaker 1: Payton lance like where he might go. True? Interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Sean Payton and Tom Brady to Houston. How about that? Uh,
Speaker 1: it's actually not quite as crazy as like you would think,
Speaker 1: Vegas makes more sense to me. I thought Brady's reaction
Speaker 1: though on the field after the game was interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: he was very generous, I would say, and like in
Speaker 1: a good mood to other players on the other team.
Speaker 1: I watched that whole press conference, and it wasn't like
Speaker 1: the end of the season Brady press conference. He maybe
Speaker 1: seemed a little relieved. There was a comment from Troy
Speaker 1: Aikman and Joe Buck who said the people inside the
Speaker 1: Bucks said, over the last three weeks, he's kind of
Speaker 1: been back to being the real Brady. Like the cloud
Speaker 1: and the stuff about that's off the field that even
Speaker 1: more than you guys don't know about has sort of
Speaker 1: lifted lately. And I don't I'm not exactly sure what
Speaker 1: all that's about, but it almost seemed like he was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is this is done here, and maybe it's not
Speaker 1: the end of the world. I've been through some rough times,
Speaker 1: but let's move and you know, we don't have to
Speaker 1: try to dig too deep into like behind the scenes
Speaker 1: of his life. But he did go through a divorce
Speaker 1: and now he is untethered. From that standpoint, it would
Speaker 1: really surprise me, uh, to see that the personal life
Speaker 1: go where it was, and then he steps way and
Speaker 1: leaves again. I think he's definitely back. I'd be shocked
Speaker 1: if he was back. Um, but I guess we'll find out.
Speaker 1: He made it sound like he was gonna take his
Speaker 1: time before taking the time thing, because it's just then
Speaker 1: it's suddenly on us to discuss this over and over.
Speaker 1: Can we just like press a button and everyone goes
Speaker 1: where they go? Now, yeah, just just and we find
Speaker 1: out now. I don't think we haven't need to have
Speaker 1: another conversation about this until something comes out from him
Speaker 1: or his camp moratorium substantial like Derek Carr, where there's
Speaker 1: gonna be updates because he can and likely will be traded,
Speaker 1: maybe even before the super Bowl, kind of like who
Speaker 1: is that Kirk Cousins Alex Smith rather a few years ago?
Speaker 1: Five years ago? Now? Uh, there's nothing to update with Brady.
Speaker 1: He's a free agent and he can't be franchise tag
Speaker 1: attempt to stir excitement in me about where Derek car goes.
Speaker 1: I don't care, all right, um what like it's just
Speaker 1: like it's like filling the blank. Average mezzanine level quarterback
Speaker 1: going to New team you might be talking about every
Speaker 1: single show when he's the New York Jets quarterback. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of hoping not for Dan that happens too, because
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a solution. Everyone makes it. I
Speaker 1: think he would be good for the Jets. But talking
Speaker 1: talking about Tom Brady, uh, and we'll we'll hit the
Speaker 1: break by talking about Dak Prescott, who ended the night
Speaker 1: at a point seven nine e p A per dropback,
Speaker 1: that is expected points added per play. That would be
Speaker 1: good for the eleventh best playoff game since two thousand.
Speaker 1: That makes sense. I mean that was about as close
Speaker 1: to a perfect via r B S. Feel like some
Speaker 1: nerd had to go back and do the expected like
Speaker 1: e p O a business not at all, except that
Speaker 1: they weren't doing that in year two thousands, so someone
Speaker 1: had to go back and mark every every single game
Speaker 1: back to e p A is just numbers, so you
Speaker 1: can just run the numbers. I think true true media
Speaker 1: does it. Like on Cynthia's machine. It's there's no like
Speaker 1: PFF is grading and there's objectiveness to the you know,
Speaker 1: subjectiveness to that. E p A is just numbers. You
Speaker 1: just pressed the button. Sounds machine, are you by the
Speaker 1: way are you? Are you unbeat by Derek Carr? I
Speaker 1: never was plucked. Oh good, well until the night, never
Speaker 1: even never even check checking. You guys got David Carr
Speaker 1: and Lindsay Rhodes took care of that for Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's still back on it, though, did you check? I
Speaker 1: just went to look at Derek Carr, Derek Carr, and
Speaker 1: it said these tweets are protected. Then I realized it's
Speaker 1: actually Derek Cark QB And now yeah, he doesn't file.
Speaker 1: But we're safe. We're safe. And I do I do
Speaker 1: know that David Carr, he's on Twitter. He likes likes
Speaker 1: our tweets sometimes, so I do try to keep that
Speaker 1: in mind if I'm going to fire. And he said
Speaker 1: hi to me, and I said, hi, David back, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I think he's aware of these comments that you've made
Speaker 1: in this episode. I hope that he would understand that
Speaker 1: his role is perilous. And if he's hoping that no
Speaker 1: one ever critiques his brother, who's a pro quarterback, you
Speaker 1: would hope that he understands his brother is a mezzanine
Speaker 1: level quarterback. According to Mark Well, I don't think up
Speaker 1: this week I could let him know, let him know. Please,
Speaker 1: let's let's just keep let's keep this up. Let's take
Speaker 1: a break and we will hit the news. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome back. We got the final wild card game out
Speaker 1: of the way. Here is the schedule. By the way,
Speaker 1: Saturday Jacksonville's yeah you are? Is that Chiefs for thirty
Speaker 1: Giants at Eagles eight fifteen on Saturday night? Sunday Bengals
Speaker 1: at Bills three Eastern. That's great? And UH the nightcap
Speaker 1: of Divisional round weekend, the best round of UH playoffs
Speaker 1: in the NFL Cowboys at nine or six thirty pm Eastern.
Speaker 1: Hawmona HAMMANA HAMMANA HAMMANA all right till you watch the
Speaker 1: Eagles in the hotel? Are you gonna go to like
Speaker 1: a Buffalo bar? I don't know. I haven't figured it
Speaker 1: out yet. You're gonna go to a Buffalo bar? I think?
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone in Buffalo. You will by the
Speaker 1: time that night end. I'm just gonna go to I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna post up at anchor bar. I guess, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: But are you're gonna be decked out in Philly and
Speaker 1: say they don't mind there? There's no cross pollination, all right,
Speaker 1: let's do some news. Oh my god, I got to
Speaker 1: be kitting. I've never seen anything like it. Why are
Speaker 1: we kicking? Why are we kicking? What is he talking about?
Speaker 1: A buzz kill? No one's ever missed three three extra
Speaker 1: points in a row. That's kind of halftime for playoff
Speaker 1: game'd be a a record, as Mike Vanderjack get a test too.
Speaker 1: That's Eli and Peyton on the Manning Cast last night.
Speaker 1: And that was after the third mar miss Uh he
Speaker 1: missed four, which was that he was the first. He
Speaker 1: wasn't the first to miss three, he was the first
Speaker 1: miss four. I'm so glad he made that. I don't understand.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to make What do you do
Speaker 1: with some four points? If you really want to put
Speaker 1: it in? Like you see the kicker this weekend, Like
Speaker 1: are you really going to roll into the divisional round
Speaker 1: playoffs against the Niners after that happened? I don't think
Speaker 1: you can. Do you bring in a brand new kicker?
Speaker 1: Honestly think you have to. And he I put out
Speaker 1: the Kicker power rankings last night. Postpone got it out there.
Speaker 1: And Mark because he had a big time year, so
Speaker 1: the game or after the game, mid game, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know it was based on the
Speaker 1: regular season on I got to say that during the
Speaker 1: regular NFL now hit on the kicker power rankings. They're like,
Speaker 1: all right, Dan, I hadn't seen that mar has dropped
Speaker 1: eighteen spots this week. You don't even have it on
Speaker 1: a team. I would keep him, I mean his overall
Speaker 1: body of working. When he misses his first kick in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. I think that, like you know, that
Speaker 1: was such a wesssum that kickers mentally become so derailed,
Speaker 1: and we've seen it with so many of them. But
Speaker 1: you I don't know what the better option is right
Speaker 1: now with the guy second kicker. I know nobody. It's weird.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before, Like for a position that's
Speaker 1: so valuable, they never teams never leave themselves any safety net. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's no backup. No, it's like a cornerback that tryouts,
Speaker 1: like the thirty fifth best kicker available. Is it great,
Speaker 1: But there's like a fifty percent chance he'll be about
Speaker 1: the same as make But the yips the yips, and
Speaker 1: it's all sports, but the kicker as really um in football. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the most obvious case of yips that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1: Like when that happens, I mean it was hard to watch,
Speaker 1: like from a human stampoint. You felt so badly for
Speaker 1: the guy except for Peyton Man. And Peyton doesn't care.
Speaker 1: He does not care, although he cares about the game.
Speaker 1: I flipped it in the third quarter just because the
Speaker 1: game was so bad and they had Dan Campbell on
Speaker 1: and and I watched that part, like the third quarter.
Speaker 1: They're so into like they're living and dying at twenty four,
Speaker 1: nothing about a bad play that the Bucks made, And
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I love that. They're mean, they're getting
Speaker 1: paid to be into the game. But yeah, but like
Speaker 1: I don't doubt that they aren't organically if that's I
Speaker 1: think he he just seems like hurt when like a
Speaker 1: safety makes a big mistake or a quarterback makes a
Speaker 1: big in a way that like most announcers are not
Speaker 1: that into the game, not that in So would you
Speaker 1: cut him? Would you cut I would? I would have to.
Speaker 1: I mean they know him as well. I would think
Speaker 1: you would have to take a look at him in
Speaker 1: practice and see what happens. But it's either way it
Speaker 1: is team put him on like the inactive list and
Speaker 1: sign another kicker that you can of without letting him
Speaker 1: know that this has been done behind the scenes. It's
Speaker 1: a huge roll of the dice either way. I mean,
Speaker 1: everything kind of is on the back burner. Jason Peters
Speaker 1: also got hurt in that game, which is causing their
Speaker 1: line to be shuffled again. But I think that is
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that's hanging over this team. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it's a shame because everything else was beautiful for Dallas
Speaker 1: in that game. You love it. By the way, Eli
Speaker 1: said during the Manning cast that he promised and he
Speaker 1: vowed to himself that he would never go back to
Speaker 1: the terrible city of Philadelphia his words, I'm paraphrasing um
Speaker 1: after he retired from football, but he said he will
Speaker 1: be going to the play off game and he's expecting
Speaker 1: a record amount of double birds. Reception is going to
Speaker 1: be great for him. I can't wait, alright. The reception
Speaker 1: for Sean Payton is saucy across the football landscape. The
Speaker 1: former Saints coach um is hot and in demand. Peyton
Speaker 1: was on the Herd with Colin cow herd Uh Did
Speaker 1: I say that right? And he was setting to meet Wait,
Speaker 1: what is it? Colin Coward like cowards. I don't they
Speaker 1: put you on that path by calling up the Herd.
Speaker 1: They absolutely do, but I don't know it's Colin Coward.
Speaker 1: Basically what I do a take two the Herd with
Speaker 1: Colin cow Herd? Did I get it that? That's fine?
Speaker 1: That anyway. Peyton was said he was going to meet
Speaker 1: with the Texans, the Broncos, the Panthers ESPN's Adam Schefter,
Speaker 1: so the Broncos interview will take place Tuesday in l A.
Speaker 1: The Panthers meeting is set for Ridea and Greggy Um.
Speaker 1: They completed an interview with Peyton on Monday, and he added, Peyton,
Speaker 1: I don't he's very open about this in the public
Speaker 1: that he absolutely would take the Texans job. I appreciated
Speaker 1: like him being on and the fact that this is
Speaker 1: an unprecedented story, but I don't love the idea and
Speaker 1: I've seen this that like, oh, he's being so honest
Speaker 1: like and so open and transparent. It's like, no, everything
Speaker 1: he's saying is incredibly calculated and a lot of it
Speaker 1: is holding the Saints over a barrel, like he is
Speaker 1: essentially doing these interviews to send messages to the teams
Speaker 1: he's talking to, including the Texans um. He mentioned David
Speaker 1: Tepper by name multiple time and really sounded pretty intrigued
Speaker 1: by by the Panthers. Like if you just listen to that,
Speaker 1: you would think he liked the Panther's job the best.
Speaker 1: But I also think that might be related to like
Speaker 1: driving the price up because they're the division rival of
Speaker 1: the Saints. But he also threw out the draft compensation,
Speaker 1: which is like boxing Mickey Loomis into a corner. And
Speaker 1: then he's also saying, uh that, hey, the price is
Speaker 1: going to go down a lot next year if I
Speaker 1: don't pick a team this year in terms of draft compensation.
Speaker 1: So that's something you gotta keeps an analyst now as well.
Speaker 1: So he's what he's doing is Saint Mickey, don't f
Speaker 1: me here. And this is a guy that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be like a friend of his and the Saints,
Speaker 1: and I think it's all fascinating. I'm not saying anyone's
Speaker 1: like right or wrong, but it's it's certainly on precedented,
Speaker 1: and I really thought it was funny him talking about
Speaker 1: the a f C South and like that he likes
Speaker 1: the Texans job. I think in part because Bill Bill
Speaker 1: Barselves used to like Yeah, you take the team at
Speaker 1: the bottom and then you're the hero when they go up,
Speaker 1: and I can be the boss here in Houston. I
Speaker 1: think he also looks at the FC South and he
Speaker 1: thinks it's trash. They're in a division that you can
Speaker 1: at least look at and say, all right, Indie, Tennessee
Speaker 1: Jacksonville is nothing, but you can I think you can
Speaker 1: actually coming out of his ears two or three wins
Speaker 1: that they had this year, the Gears are turning like, oh,
Speaker 1: I need to pivot out of this point that I
Speaker 1: was making that the whole division sucks. He stalled out
Speaker 1: twice on that drive. That's good, you know, Greg, I
Speaker 1: I see and you love this stuff. Um, it's all
Speaker 1: the game within the game. I mean this, he's playing
Speaker 1: the game. He is the I don't play chess, but
Speaker 1: let's say whatever. He's like the kingmaker here. He gets
Speaker 1: the opportunity to dictate how this plays out. The Saints
Speaker 1: they have to be passive and see how it plays
Speaker 1: out themselves. But it's Peyton, because of his standing in
Speaker 1: the league, that is going to be able to dictate
Speaker 1: how how this goes. And you know he's he's playing
Speaker 1: the game and he knows how to play it. He's
Speaker 1: a savvy guy. He's not gonna go somewhere. I don't
Speaker 1: think that doesn't have a set quarterback situation capital well,
Speaker 1: all three of these don't. Yeah, I think he keep
Speaker 1: saying the quarterback doesn't matter, it's about ownership and the structure,
Speaker 1: that we didn't have a quarterback when they got to
Speaker 1: New Orleans. He did talk about like the fact that
Speaker 1: the Saints and Texans had multiple years where they practiced
Speaker 1: in the preseason against each other and scrimmage, and he
Speaker 1: he went out of his way to like compliment like
Speaker 1: the the cal McNair family, like in Houston, which surprised
Speaker 1: me because I think of that as one of the
Speaker 1: lower tiered ownerships situations out there. But in terms of
Speaker 1: getting the quarterback, in terms of having a ton of
Speaker 1: draft picks for years to come and a roster that
Speaker 1: has some good young players on it as well, Like
Speaker 1: I kind of think the Texans make more sense than
Speaker 1: anyone else. Chasing the Broncos make zero sense to me
Speaker 1: on any level. You're you're saddled with a quarterback who
Speaker 1: maybe can't play anymore. I mean, everything we saw this
Speaker 1: year says is that Carolina. What I guess David Tepper
Speaker 1: like completely one over Matt Rule and those two mind
Speaker 1: melded when they met and then it went apart. And
Speaker 1: like David Tepper has not been able to get the
Speaker 1: quarterback he wants. Veteran Wise year after year, I don't
Speaker 1: they have no they have where where's their quarterback coming from?
Speaker 1: Cant they keep hearing uh in Sean Payton said, so
Speaker 1: that they'll get like a mid to late round draft picks,
Speaker 1: so it wouldn't be like the number two overall picks.
Speaker 1: So you got you go to the Texans. You can
Speaker 1: take a quarterback number too. In a way, you go.
Speaker 1: I think you're completely set in Houston. In other Seawan news,
Speaker 1: Sean McVeigh he ain't ready to leave the sidelines. In
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, NFL networking centers Ian Rapport and Mike Carefull
Speaker 1: reported on Friday the McVeigh intends to return as the
Speaker 1: Rams coach after taking a few days to consider his future. Uh.
Speaker 1: The team then announced the news mcveigh's figuring out his
Speaker 1: coaching staff, but after a five and twelve season where
Speaker 1: it looked very much like he was headed out the door,
Speaker 1: mark he instead is coming on back. Yeah. I again,
Speaker 1: I don't know why we needed to have all the
Speaker 1: reporting and the drama around it. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: how this thing works at this point. Uh. I always
Speaker 1: thought Sean mcmaybe was not into the concept of a
Speaker 1: RAMS team that was flatlining and needing to rebuild, and
Speaker 1: I thought maybe Matthew Stafford would have a similar viewpoint.
Speaker 1: They're both coming back, but there's a lot of work
Speaker 1: you need to do on the Rams. I think it
Speaker 1: starts with a Bengals esque offseason rebuilding of your line
Speaker 1: because what's fixed there, what's different? I mean, they're they're
Speaker 1: they're top heavy, you have no draft picks. I think
Speaker 1: the future is bleak if you don't find a way
Speaker 1: to continue to trade for players and mortgage the future
Speaker 1: even further down the road. Just like what happened in
Speaker 1: those couple of days, because he talked to the media
Speaker 1: on Monday, you said you don't like the process. But
Speaker 1: it only is happening because Jehan McVeigh is talking about it.
Speaker 1: So why is he Why does he need to tell
Speaker 1: us all this? But when he did, but then they
Speaker 1: were like, Okay, he's gonna go away for two weeks.
Speaker 1: The next two weeks are crucial. He spoke on Monday,
Speaker 1: sounded very tired by Wednesday. We heard it's coming by
Speaker 1: the end of the week, and it happened on Thursday.
Speaker 1: So it's like, it's not like he got away. He
Speaker 1: probably just didn't want to hear about it anymore. He
Speaker 1: already knew his answer, so he wanted to like shut
Speaker 1: everyone up about it. I guess. But he's the only
Speaker 1: reason we're talking about it. We don't talk about this
Speaker 1: with any other coach. It's because he's he. I think
Speaker 1: he's an open guy with a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: he just was expressing, uh, ambivalence. I always thought like
Speaker 1: the story and some of the reporting around the story
Speaker 1: was always a little bit weird. That's like, uh. And
Speaker 1: I took some fire on this, uh in social media,
Speaker 1: like when I mentioned that he mentioned the war in
Speaker 1: Ukraine and his wife. Obviously that's a way more serious
Speaker 1: situation than anything that's going on in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: I just was a little bit drawn taken aback by
Speaker 1: that being involved and mentioned with the other very normal
Speaker 1: football things that he was facing at that time. UM,
Speaker 1: and I wondered, I wondered the idea the sincerity of
Speaker 1: the entire UH plot line that was unfurling, whether this
Speaker 1: was something he was really struggling with or whether he
Speaker 1: was looking for a way out. The fact that he's
Speaker 1: coming back UH tells me. It makes me think, Okay,
Speaker 1: I think maybe he this is a more sincere thing
Speaker 1: and he was something he struggled with and now and
Speaker 1: now he's back. So that's kind of my thoughts on
Speaker 1: it and where I where I've been coming to the
Speaker 1: story in general. The fact that ends up right back
Speaker 1: where he was surprises manage. I almost think he's so
Speaker 1: open and honest, and the fact that he hasn't been
Speaker 1: in this situation before while he's been coaching, just on
Speaker 1: a team that has struggled this much. He's probably being
Speaker 1: a totally different line of questioning at this point too.
Speaker 1: So it's just kind of uncharted territory for him and
Speaker 1: probably an area that he's learned from maybe to not
Speaker 1: be as open he was, but he's being open, like
Speaker 1: off the record, it's a good It's an interesting like
Speaker 1: capital JA journal question is like when the primary source
Speaker 1: is not always like a reliable source, like I believe
Speaker 1: everything that happened the whole time, that he that all
Speaker 1: this was happening in his head because he didn't know.
Speaker 1: He's just like going through all this and he's speaking
Speaker 1: about it openly. Told someone like Sean Payton, for instance,
Speaker 1: it's very calculate. I don't think he's being honest. So
Speaker 1: it's like which which you want? Part of the story
Speaker 1: that was like, hey, hey, coaching staff, like go look
Speaker 1: for other jobs. It's cool, and then like two days
Speaker 1: later he's back. The thing is, there could be seven coaches.
Speaker 1: There could be seven coaches going through the same taxing
Speaker 1: end of year process where the losing and the time
Speaker 1: and you're probably separated from your family so much it's unhealthy.
Speaker 1: Like I did this one article at one time. But
Speaker 1: the coaches that go away for a year and like
Speaker 1: it long for it was a long form bringing back.
Speaker 1: Just just go read that one. How about that? But
Speaker 1: all their health across the board completely changes, like they
Speaker 1: still are with team doctors, like everything about their physical
Speaker 1: physical body improves. Like they go away and they watched
Speaker 1: football from a global bird's eye view and like Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy went through that you know, epiphany or whatever it was,
Speaker 1: which I didn't buy at the time. But Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: the one again today is wearing that the PFF subscription
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't know, it's Tom Pellicero. Long former
Speaker 1: should be built in sabbatical for everyone that works at
Speaker 1: the NFL. Yes, what I'm getting to? All right, this
Speaker 1: maybe this is the nexcess of long form. Uh, here's
Speaker 1: a theory. I'll just throw it out here. I just
Speaker 1: thought of it. McVeigh is younger. Uh, he's in Colleen's
Speaker 1: age bracket, firmly in the millennial. Maybe the millennials. You
Speaker 1: know that that's part of like you at your feelings.
Speaker 1: You definitely are. Then Bill Parcels was thirty years ago
Speaker 1: where you don't share anything about your inner thought process.
Speaker 1: You just you know, disappear from one job, reappear a
Speaker 1: couple of years later. I think it was unhealthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then get like trash Talk by Mike west Off
Speaker 1: when you joined the Around the NFL podcast, A generation
Speaker 1: of now on that front, or do you have any
Speaker 1: other big millennial takes you want to share? Um, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'll let you prepare for that. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be an offseason show. Connie the Millennial I also had
Speaker 1: and I wrote this down. I forgot to mention picture
Speaker 1: it on a like a cloth napkin like a fancy restaurant,
Speaker 1: or then in red lipstick like scrawled pigskin gossip with
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler. I mean, I would adore that segment. I
Speaker 1: don't know where the lipsticks coming from. It on a
Speaker 1: cocktail napkin, that's it, next to a cocksticks shop. Because
Speaker 1: you mentioned gossip later. Usually it's more like reports, and
Speaker 1: you went gossip and I thought, oh, they or something.
Speaker 1: There was some shadow that I heard. Yeah, okay. Um.
Speaker 1: In other news, another sean in the coach of ranks
Speaker 1: know his name is Jim Jim Harbaugh to remain as
Speaker 1: head coach of the University of Michigan. Uh. Two weeks
Speaker 1: ago he said he expected to remain with the Wolverines,
Speaker 1: and now he's well, this is good. Yeah, just another
Speaker 1: version of this tedious you know. But I get that
Speaker 1: they had to have a big announcement that like said,
Speaker 1: he's staying, which is basically an announcement that like everything
Speaker 1: he had been saying the last week or two actually
Speaker 1: was meaningless and lies, but this time it is for real. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Eric at Holm does really good stuff for us. He's
Speaker 1: the lead draft writer for NFL dot Com. Wrote the
Speaker 1: article on it and Uh in the lead, he says
Speaker 1: that he's stuck to his word. Harbaugh did, even with
Speaker 1: a few NFL franchise expressing interest and prying him away.
Speaker 1: That wasn't kind of the reporting that we heard at
Speaker 1: a Charlotte with the Panthers, where it was almost a
Speaker 1: courtesy interview we got. However, the fifty nine year old
Speaker 1: was believed to be one of the Broncos prime anidates
Speaker 1: for their head coaching job. Um. He also has tied
Speaker 1: he had ties to other jobs, including the Cults. But
Speaker 1: in the end, don't you get the feeling Greggy And
Speaker 1: I think you do, because I think you already made
Speaker 1: comments about it that if a team really wanted hardball,
Speaker 1: he would be back back. As he just didn't get
Speaker 1: a job. He was one of the people in the
Speaker 1: mix for the Broncos job. He couldn't close it quickly
Speaker 1: or anything. I don't think they were giving him any
Speaker 1: signs that he was like going to get that job.
Speaker 1: They said we're gonna have a process for another couple
Speaker 1: of weeks and like so he tried to get a job.
Speaker 1: No one gave him a job out Sean Paynton, No.
Speaker 1: I wonder how he interviews because he he I thought
Speaker 1: he like. I liked covering him back in the day
Speaker 1: because he's one of the more bizarre guys on the
Speaker 1: up on the podium you'll find, and like these coaching
Speaker 1: interviews which we never are privy to, like maybe if
Speaker 1: he's already got this great, high paying job, that they
Speaker 1: want him around for the next decade plus, like do
Speaker 1: you do you ultra prep for that? He just roll
Speaker 1: in same like I'm Jim Harbaugh and that might not
Speaker 1: be enough. It's been a while, that's been a while
Speaker 1: since he's been in an NFL coach now. The one
Speaker 1: thing I thought that was kind of interesting about the
Speaker 1: statement that was released, it was the Michigan president that
Speaker 1: put it out, saying that Jim shared with me the
Speaker 1: great news that he's going to remain as the head
Speaker 1: coach of the Wolverines. Blah blah blah. This is fantastic
Speaker 1: news that I have communicated to our athletic director, m
Speaker 1: Ward Manual. Yes, And there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are like, well, wait a second, why are you
Speaker 1: breaking the news. Why are you telling the athletic director.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't the athletic director be in the mix this? So
Speaker 1: I don't know around the Big ten. In other news,
Speaker 1: offensive coordinators out the Door, Chargers have fired Joe Lombardi.
Speaker 1: Lombardi um, listen, heads are gonna roll. When you blow
Speaker 1: twenty seven nothing lead in a playoff game, heads are
Speaker 1: gonna roll. And I think Jim Trotter nailed it in
Speaker 1: his speculation reporting on Twitter a couple of days ago
Speaker 1: everything about this franchise and pointed to them keeping Brandon Staley,
Speaker 1: who's under contract for multiple years, and bring him back
Speaker 1: after a ten win season. But somebody's got to go.
Speaker 1: So it is the offensive coordinator and the same thing happened,
Speaker 1: and we haven't hit this whole. I'll connect these two stories. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Jets collapsed down the stretch. Ownership didn't want to
Speaker 1: make a change at head coach, but somebody's gotta go.
Speaker 1: Someone's gotta pay for it. So Mike Laflour, their offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: gets fired, so to O c s at the out
Speaker 1: the Door and both of those a f C teams
Speaker 1: looking for one. I see them as different situations because
Speaker 1: I think there's connective tissue with Joe Lombardi de emphasizing
Speaker 1: the magic of Justin Herbert all season long and parts
Speaker 1: of it's like that this is this wasn't just about
Speaker 1: this one game. Yet you're right that you've got to
Speaker 1: find a scapegoat for what happened, and they did. Mike
Speaker 1: Laflour got saddled with a totally failed draft pick, Joe
Speaker 1: Flacco and verre in hot and cold Mike White. It's
Speaker 1: like it's a it's a tougher situation. I'd like to
Speaker 1: see like we do this with quarterbacks and coach, give
Speaker 1: me Mike Lafloor with Justin Herbert, and I think you're
Speaker 1: geting a different offensive coordinated the Herbert heads. Uh would
Speaker 1: be excited. I'd be excited. Did they have a stat
Speaker 1: on PFF called perfectly covered plays where basically every player
Speaker 1: in coverage you know does doesn't make a mistake. And
Speaker 1: the Bucks and the Chargers of all the playoff teams
Speaker 1: this weekend almost doubled every other offense out there, which
Speaker 1: tracks when when you watch it, when you watch this
Speaker 1: Charger's offense, they could also use someone that like doesn't
Speaker 1: you know run of five oh forty, Like that is
Speaker 1: the slowest group of receivers when Mike Williams is not
Speaker 1: on the field, And even Mike Williams is like a
Speaker 1: burner Justin Herbert. It's just this the second season for him.
Speaker 1: I was listening to your the last show that you
Speaker 1: guys had, what was that was at the recap show,
Speaker 1: and you were talking about Herbert Hive and about Justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: If you're going to take one of those two quarterbacks
Speaker 1: that were on the field to to move on um with,
Speaker 1: you would have taken Trevor Lawrence because he just looked
Speaker 1: like a more dominant player, more dominant quarterback. And I
Speaker 1: feel like we've speen We've seen Justin Herbert take like
Speaker 1: a step back. Numbers regressed as well this season. So
Speaker 1: if Brandon Staley's not going to go, then obviously the
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator has to. Yeah, and uh, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: with you guys on the fleur with the Jets. Maybe
Speaker 1: you give him Derek Carr or Lamar Jackson and give
Speaker 1: him another chance. But I think not that the Washington
Speaker 1: Post had it right about the head coach, but I
Speaker 1: think Woody Johnson, their owner, was like was putting his
Speaker 1: beak in a little bit and was like, Hey, something's
Speaker 1: got to change here, and and Salad made the decision,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to walk the plank, so Mike does
Speaker 1: my But the way Solid talked it sounded like he
Speaker 1: didn't make a decision, which is another sign of a
Speaker 1: dysfunctional organization, Like you stop trying to stop trying to
Speaker 1: spin it spinning, like you obviously aren't happy with how
Speaker 1: like the Jets ownership has handled things like let Sala
Speaker 1: be ahead. I'm just saying you. I think I think
Speaker 1: maybe it's subconscious you want the Jets to be dysfunctional.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think it's a dysfunctional organization
Speaker 1: right now. I think the owner making a coach fire
Speaker 1: a guy based on yeah, based on Sala's comments, and
Speaker 1: wanted to just like you wanted him to fire the
Speaker 1: head coach. Do you think and the people covering the
Speaker 1: Jets are all saying the exact same thing. Do you
Speaker 1: not think though, that probably Brandon Staley was put into
Speaker 1: the same position. These coaches are loyal to their assistance
Speaker 1: and maybe by to me was gonna be fired. I
Speaker 1: think barring like a Super Bowl, I think that was
Speaker 1: an appropriate move on situation. I just not sure that
Speaker 1: Stanley came up with the kinds not defending Woody Johnson
Speaker 1: and I for at all, but let's not act like ownership.
Speaker 1: They own the team. Um there. I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot of teams successful ones too where they have
Speaker 1: a voice. I mean, look at Robert Kraft. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean it's necessarily uh dysfunctional. Let's see what happens. I
Speaker 1: just I'm trusting Robert Sala's judgment. Oh you had a
Speaker 1: conversation with him else? Wow? Wow, I just sit back
Speaker 1: and listening. This happens. This mad since I said that,
Speaker 1: like hiring Amster mcagnet or whatever was like this function
Speaker 1: you could see bounce right off. Cardinals hired Titans executive
Speaker 1: Monty Austin Fort as general manager. I think the most
Speaker 1: notable notable thing about him is he looks like a
Speaker 1: cross between Steve Kim and Nick Shook. Alright, dial in
Speaker 1: on this. Anybody else have any other young young look.
Speaker 1: You can even see the head shot Shook with Austin
Speaker 1: Fort in the end of a long time when Kim
Speaker 1: was hired. So he's basically a replacement another freaking Patriots
Speaker 1: you know, offshoot, who was in Tennessee for a long
Speaker 1: time and that's where he kind of made his name.
Speaker 1: More but all he talked about was Kraft and Belichick,
Speaker 1: and it makes you think about Brian Flores maybe as
Speaker 1: a potential candidate. Marks Udy, I just wanted to comment enough.
Speaker 1: You guys saw this. It just happened pretty recently. One
Speaker 1: of his first comments in the press conference was, ego
Speaker 1: will not be tolerated in this organization? Is that Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray subtweet? Or what is going on there? You go? Organization? Organization?
Speaker 1: What's the other way? What's Canada like? Organization? An organization?
Speaker 1: An organization? Your organization? To me sounds like I'm organizing
Speaker 1: my death. So what is the team based out of Jacksonville?
Speaker 1: The Jaguars, jag Wires. I don't get that for a
Speaker 1: little bit. I think maybe Yessica's accent is having some influence.
Speaker 1: Is it a Yessica situation? Uh no, I would never
Speaker 1: blame her for anything. Hey, is Yessica going to join
Speaker 1: us at the live show from the Bourbon Room tomorrow
Speaker 1: night Wednesday in Hollywood? Will be there? Yes? You will? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I thought that that'll be fun. That's good for you.
Speaker 1: I feel uncomfortable. What makes you feel uncomfortable? I don't know.
Speaker 1: The Browns Cecy, The Browns are high. Jim Schwartz is
Speaker 1: their new defensive coordinator. Jimmy Schwartz Uh, the former Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions head coach who has also won a ring with
Speaker 1: Connie's Philadelphia Eagles as DC. He's been successful in his
Speaker 1: career and now he replaces Joe Woods the embattled Jo words.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great higher nice. The one thing
Speaker 1: that kind of would concern me is that you're hiring
Speaker 1: someone that might be seen more of a head coach
Speaker 1: than your actual head coach and things go off the
Speaker 1: rails early next season. Got him, Well, it's nice to
Speaker 1: connect the current Browns with Mark's favorite iteration of maybe
Speaker 1: not favorite, the Bill Belichick Browns and Jim Schwartz. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was should wide nine talk Cleveland. How about a
Speaker 1: little uh Belichick letters the Mark Seessler loans. Again, it's
Speaker 1: already been written. You can go. You can go read
Speaker 1: that if it's still available on our website. Is it
Speaker 1: still available on our website? That would be at the
Speaker 1: question you an ideas man about the Schwartz letters letters.
Speaker 1: Shorty year old man writes letters to a fifty six
Speaker 1: year old football coach. I think that's a little strange. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that, by the way, but he would not write
Speaker 1: me back, and if the email wouldn't be, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: have hapen to be a whole different thing would be
Speaker 1: texting to each other. And the weird thing about that story,
Speaker 1: you know, the weird thing about that segment would be
Speaker 1: in that show on our network we're launching. That's also
Speaker 1: a lipstick on a cocktail map. Yet well, you know
Speaker 1: there's lots of partiny glass. It's just taken away to reveal,
Speaker 1: all right. And finally the beacon of functional functionality, the
Speaker 1: New England Patriots. They're looking for an offensive coordinator. Bill O'Brien,
Speaker 1: old Billy, oh b the top target. You like that,
Speaker 1: I would like that. I thought it was interesting they
Speaker 1: like released the statements saying we're trying to keep Gerard Mayo,
Speaker 1: We're going to have interviews for offensive coordinators. It was
Speaker 1: a level of transparency and a sign that like Craft
Speaker 1: is trying to do some public outreach after noticing some
Speaker 1: of those empty seats at the end of this, you know,
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick the only coach he ever hired that he
Speaker 1: hadn't worked with before. Because this is Bill O'Brien just
Speaker 1: playing the hits. If you bring back Bill O'Brien, but
Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna Greg Siana was the only
Speaker 1: one and he didn't even make it. Literally fell out
Speaker 1: of my chair. Did not get a lot of sleep
Speaker 1: less night. The voices in an outer Yeah, the rain stopped.
Speaker 1: It's like it was nice when it was raining and
Speaker 1: l was barking NonStop at can hear that? Interesting? There
Speaker 1: you go, that's what's happening in the news. All right,
Speaker 1: we'll be right back, and then Pat Leonard of the
Speaker 1: Daily News talk to do right back during the week,
Speaker 1: nobody tells it like the Daily News, odd drive past, paste,
Speaker 1: prou news you need, but Sunday it's city Lights, TV
Speaker 1: week two magazines, comics and coupons, gossip and sports. What
Speaker 1: you need? What you want? That Daily News? Ah, Yes,
Speaker 1: the New York Daily News, New York's hometown paper and
Speaker 1: now joining us from the Daily News. It is a
Speaker 1: man who has covered the New York Giants for seven
Speaker 1: years now, and it probably hasn't always been the most
Speaker 1: glorious gig, but it doesn't feel uh that way anymore.
Speaker 1: It is Pat Leonard. Uh, Pat, Welcome to around the
Speaker 1: NFL and welcome to relevant January football in the New
Speaker 1: York Giants, Dan, thank you, thank you fellas for having
Speaker 1: me on. It's been a while, as you know, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's fun to watch competent, winning football and roster construction. Frankly,
Speaker 1: even on the back end, you're looking at them and
Speaker 1: you're like, wow, not only is this a real NFL
Speaker 1: team again, but they might be able to build something
Speaker 1: sustainable down the road. Yeah, we were talking before we
Speaker 1: went on live here that you know in the A
Speaker 1: T N Era, which um, we're naval gazers by our nature.
Speaker 1: Um we started in two thousand thirteen. Other than like
Speaker 1: some endless Eli Manning, Uh is he good? Is he bad?
Speaker 1: Will he retire? Will he get benched? Conversation? The Giants
Speaker 1: have kind of been on the back burner, and as
Speaker 1: fans are annoyed as well. I'm a Jets fans. There's
Speaker 1: always plenty of Jets talk, maybe not as much Giants talk.
Speaker 1: So here we are now and after that big win,
Speaker 1: um this weekend against the Vikings, you know it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really interesting, isn't it pat to see how they
Speaker 1: react now against an Eagles team. The last time we
Speaker 1: saw them week fifteen. We don't really count the week
Speaker 1: eighteen game. Come on, it was forty two with Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts as you wrote in your column, uh this week,
Speaker 1: staying into that game late into the game. Did that
Speaker 1: rub the Giants the wrong way? The way the Eagles
Speaker 1: handled that game at the at MetLife? Yeah they notice?
Speaker 1: Did they hate the Eagles? And I know, I know
Speaker 1: that rivalries are a well known thing when we talk
Speaker 1: about the NFL and division matchups, but this one's nasty.
Speaker 1: And the Eagles have gotten the better of the Giants
Speaker 1: in every which way, Like when the Giants beat the
Speaker 1: Eagles finally, like they've lost eleven of the last thirteen
Speaker 1: in this series. They haven't won that Lincoln Financial Field
Speaker 1: since two thousand thirteen. I think five field goals from
Speaker 1: Josh Brown that day, by the way, and um, yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: and when they beat them with Joe Judge as head coach,
Speaker 1: I mean the amount of not vitriol but emotion behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, just finally getting the Eagles back, but obviously
Speaker 1: hasn't been enough. The Eagles have won a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: more recently than the Giants, even though they have four
Speaker 1: um and they have just owned this head to head series.
Speaker 1: They pants the Giants front off as a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago in the draft, trading over them to draft
Speaker 1: Vante Smith, who the Giants were eyeing eyeing there in
Speaker 1: that draft. Obviously they end up trading back and a
Speaker 1: cat Darius Tony, and a first rounder that becomes Evan Knee. Know,
Speaker 1: we'll see where that goes. But just you know, then
Speaker 1: you have the Nate Sudfelt coming in and keeping the
Speaker 1: Giants out of the playoffs. So there is so much
Speaker 1: on the Giants minds going into this game. From an
Speaker 1: organizational standpoint, from an ownership standpoint, from a front office standpoint.
Speaker 1: The players are gonna play the game. But when you
Speaker 1: look at that blow out and the fact that Hurts
Speaker 1: played so deep into it and they were throwing the
Speaker 1: ball late, running big plays and gashing the Giants defense,
Speaker 1: yeah they noticed and they'll remember it. I just wonder
Speaker 1: how they match up physically with them, because like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're upset that the Eagles are pouring it on,
Speaker 1: but it's because they got bullied and that that felt
Speaker 1: like a bit of a turning point. The Eagle season
Speaker 1: wasn't quite as pristina after that, and certainly I've come around.
Speaker 1: I thought the Giants were very lucky for most of
Speaker 1: the season, and I think they've played their best football
Speaker 1: the last three or four weeks. But how do you like,
Speaker 1: how do you just think they match up physically? Because
Speaker 1: I look at that's where the Eagles to me, separate
Speaker 1: themselves up front on the offensive light and the defensively. No, Greg,
Speaker 1: I think you're you're absolutely right. Um. You look at
Speaker 1: the Vikings, right. Kevin O'Connell did a lot of good
Speaker 1: things as a coach, but one thing he did to
Speaker 1: play into the Giants hands was he didn't run the
Speaker 1: ball on third and fourth and short. Kept spreading it
Speaker 1: five wide, and that plays into Wink Martindale's hands. He
Speaker 1: can scheme up pressures. The Giants were giving up four,
Speaker 1: eight eleven seven yards rushing to Cook on these carries.
Speaker 1: You look at the Philadelphia Eagles. If the Giants don't
Speaker 1: stop the run, guess what the the Eagles are gonna do.
Speaker 1: They're gonna keep running the ball and knock them back
Speaker 1: and they're not gonna stop. You know, Jalen Hurts, Miles Sanders,
Speaker 1: Boston Scott, the Giants killer. That matchup for the Giants,
Speaker 1: um is not in their favor. And I will say
Speaker 1: this too after that game. I've been covering this team.
Speaker 1: This is my seventh season. They've been bad for a while,
Speaker 1: But I have never heard a Giants team admit so
Speaker 1: readily and honestly after a game that they were clearly
Speaker 1: inferior to their opponent. Then after that game, and it
Speaker 1: was so strange to me at the time because even
Speaker 1: though they were just being honest and then they were correct,
Speaker 1: You're you're looking at the standings and you're saying they
Speaker 1: could meet that they're meeting them again in week A
Speaker 1: team they can meet them in the playoffs. And here's
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones saying flat out, this was proved that we're
Speaker 1: not where we need to be yet. So can the
Speaker 1: Giants finally and suddenly get to where they need to
Speaker 1: be to beat that same Eagles team that just demolished
Speaker 1: them and met Life Stadium in a month. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's there's a reason this game is a seven point spread,
Speaker 1: even though the Giants obviously put a lot of good
Speaker 1: football in the field of Minnesota. You know, like Dan
Speaker 1: and I grew up right around Giants Country watching the Giants,
Speaker 1: and and I mean we go back to like the
Speaker 1: Bill Parcels days where Giants Eagles was a legitimate rivalry,
Speaker 1: and you know how it is when a team um
Speaker 1: stinks up the joint for a decade plus, these rivalries,
Speaker 1: um you can call them that, but they melt away.
Speaker 1: And I would just ask this because I think this
Speaker 1: is such a huge moment for Danny Dimes, Like if
Speaker 1: he like what we saw in the last game, and
Speaker 1: where is the way developed if he were ever to
Speaker 1: go an outduel Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, Suddenly everything
Speaker 1: we think about him and everything that we think and
Speaker 1: thought about the Giants completely transforms. And I just wonder
Speaker 1: is like, has this Daniel Jones do you think in
Speaker 1: the last couple of seasons been there all along? It's
Speaker 1: just that Brian day Ball came in. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what a quarterback whisper really is. We
Speaker 1: throw that term around, but is this a Brian day
Speaker 1: Ball effect? Or is Daniel Jones finally surrounded by healthy players?
Speaker 1: He himself is healthy, But I see a different player
Speaker 1: in the last couple of months then in years past
Speaker 1: to completely transform quarterback. Yeah, well said, I do think
Speaker 1: it's both. I think the coaching is the biggest change,
Speaker 1: and certainly I know for a fact that previous staffs,
Speaker 1: or particularly when Jason Garrett was the Ovens of coordinator.
Speaker 1: You know, the Giants were coming off really the main
Speaker 1: goal was to stop turning the ball over for Daniel Jones,
Speaker 1: and so combined with what Garrett already has known for offensively,
Speaker 1: there was a huge focus on protecting Daniel from himself.
Speaker 1: And so if you're doing that with a quarterback, you're
Speaker 1: never going to fully unleash him. And also, whether you're
Speaker 1: doing it overtly or not, it's going to seep in
Speaker 1: that you don't have full confidence in his decision making
Speaker 1: and his ability to push the ball down the field.
Speaker 1: So I think chicken in the egg there with some
Speaker 1: of those things, but it kind of breeded a lot
Speaker 1: of um, you know. Either even if he was not
Speaker 1: turning the ball over in games they were low scoring
Speaker 1: and there was a low margin for error. I will
Speaker 1: say this, Dable and Mike Kafka and Joe Shane when
Speaker 1: they came in, they didn't profess a ton of confidence
Speaker 1: in Daniel Jones coming in, and so even from the
Speaker 1: inside they put pressure I felt on him to kind
Speaker 1: of show them. And at the start of the year,
Speaker 1: if you look at tape of their first couple of
Speaker 1: games and tape of their recent games. This has been
Speaker 1: an evolution of him earning their trust. And so the
Speaker 1: other side of it is Daniel's dual threat skills have
Speaker 1: been there. We know that he can run, but as
Speaker 1: he made the plays and protected the ball while making
Speaker 1: them early in the year in targeted spots, Dable and
Speaker 1: Kafka slowly pushed a little bit more onto his played,
Speaker 1: a little bit more onto his plate to the point
Speaker 1: where you're watching games like that Colts blowout where Daniel's
Speaker 1: running ability is the center point of the offense, or
Speaker 1: in Minnesota where it's his running and it's his arm.
Speaker 1: And let's just face it, guys, forever now, especially since
Speaker 1: they drafted Barkley, they have been a team that we
Speaker 1: need to run the ball with se Kwan and supplement
Speaker 1: it with Daniel. But you watch these last two games
Speaker 1: Jones has played against the Colts and the Vikings, and
Speaker 1: this is now a quarterback centric offense that has se
Speaker 1: Kwon Barkley. And that's something I'll be writing about this weekend,
Speaker 1: talking to Brian Dable about is to be the maximum
Speaker 1: best offense you can in the NFL, your quarterback has
Speaker 1: to be your best player. And I think what we've
Speaker 1: seen recently is the coaching has brought out the best
Speaker 1: in what was already there with Jones to the point
Speaker 1: where he is now that And you know, the proof
Speaker 1: was right there in the transaction wire with the Giants
Speaker 1: entering this season when they declined to pick up the
Speaker 1: fifth year option on Jones's contract, And now he's obviously
Speaker 1: taken this big step forward. I'm curious, like what your
Speaker 1: vibe is around the team, Um, Like, how much in
Speaker 1: your mind is riding on what occurs on Saturday night
Speaker 1: or perhaps beyond, uh for Daniel Jones? Or do you
Speaker 1: think this is a situation now where this team is
Speaker 1: going to roll forward and and give him a contract
Speaker 1: and to make him their guy going forward? Do you
Speaker 1: think he's already now shown enough where they're locked in
Speaker 1: on Jones for as a long term answer there? I do?
Speaker 1: I think uh. I mean, he definitely, even let's say
Speaker 1: a month or two prior, already had earned that he
Speaker 1: was going to be their quarterback next year. But of
Speaker 1: course that could have been franchise tag, transition tag, and
Speaker 1: even entering the playoffs, I think it was still trending
Speaker 1: towards and it still could be a situation where they
Speaker 1: start with a tag on Jones to protect the asset,
Speaker 1: and then they go from there based on how the
Speaker 1: negotiations go, while probably trying to sign Barkley to a
Speaker 1: sensible multi year deal. But I thought that game in
Speaker 1: Minnesota was a flash point. And I'll just tell you this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys know this, but Joe Shane, he
Speaker 1: comes in and he's got a much more unemotional vantage
Speaker 1: point and removed sense of evaluation for a guy like
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones compared to Dave Gettleman who was here before
Speaker 1: and drafted him and this and that. So if it
Speaker 1: were just Shane making the decision, it might be still
Speaker 1: more calculated, cut and dry. Giants ownership was already in
Speaker 1: love with Daniel. I mean the way that they were
Speaker 1: pounding their chests and shouting from the rooftops after this
Speaker 1: Vikings game about Daniel about their organization being turned around.
Speaker 1: Even if you even if you removed all physical checkbooks
Speaker 1: from the offices of Steve Tish and John Mara, I
Speaker 1: think they'd find some way to wire the money to
Speaker 1: Jones's agents and get it done. I don't. I'm working
Speaker 1: right now on what the deal will look like, because
Speaker 1: going into the Vikings game, I talked to some smart
Speaker 1: people on the league who are very plugged into this,
Speaker 1: not only Jones's conversations, but also quarterback market and value,
Speaker 1: and they felt that if a long term deal happened,
Speaker 1: it might look something like a three year, hundred million
Speaker 1: dollar deal with anywhere from six to seventy five million guaranteed.
Speaker 1: So that would be like thirty three and a half
Speaker 1: a year, but that's still below like the thirty five
Speaker 1: million of Kirk Cousins. You look at what Jones just
Speaker 1: put on the field against the Vikings. Is he not
Speaker 1: worth more than Kyler Murray? Is he not worth more
Speaker 1: up to the is he not worth up to this?
Speaker 1: He's not worth more than Kyler Urry To answer your question,
Speaker 1: that's my answer. Who has more playoff wins? I think
Speaker 1: those component exactly. I think those comps will be talked
Speaker 1: about behind closed doors, though though Greg I can't say
Speaker 1: disagree with I think that the average own, the average
Speaker 1: person paying this money, he is worth a lot less
Speaker 1: because you have four years of play now, every quarterback
Speaker 1: ends up getting paid, so I think he'll get paid
Speaker 1: in His value is so much more now than it
Speaker 1: was two months ago. And I think it's worth more
Speaker 1: right now than anyone else that's going to be available
Speaker 1: off this offseason, which is maybe the most important. Like
Speaker 1: it's it's more than Gino. I think it's more than
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. Like ultimately, um, it's more than the Jimmy
Speaker 1: G's and everything of the world. So they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to tag him at worst. Does he like, does Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones give you anything kind of behind the scenes, because
Speaker 1: he he just seems like he doesn't want to give
Speaker 1: like the media or anyone anything, so largely he does
Speaker 1: not UM a year plus ago, so I think it
Speaker 1: was prior to the season. Going into that off season,
Speaker 1: I had the same thought you did, of Okay, this
Speaker 1: guy puts up a good front, but who is he really?
Speaker 1: Because I had had enough conversations with teammates and coaches
Speaker 1: and family members and people behind the scenes you know
Speaker 1: you're not seeing the real Daniel. There's so much more
Speaker 1: to him, and I'm saying, we'll prove it. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to go to one of his workouts down in
Speaker 1: North caw A Line and just spend a day with him.
Speaker 1: And try to get behind the curtain. He suggested, why
Speaker 1: don't we go to dinner when I come back. I
Speaker 1: said fine, and we sat down in Hoboken for a
Speaker 1: few hours at a steakhouse and I was able to
Speaker 1: do a story off of that and the pay in
Speaker 1: the Daily News. And what Daniel wanted to stress to
Speaker 1: me at that dinner was what did he get, by
Speaker 1: the way, what order he ordered? Uh? He just ordered
Speaker 1: a New York strip. He did not. He wasn't big
Speaker 1: on the sides. I remember, I'll never forget he said
Speaker 1: he doesn't like mac and cheese. That always stuck with me.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, everybody likes mac and cheese. What are you talking?
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, also only eating mac and cheese once
Speaker 1: in my life. So Daniel Jones and I have something.
Speaker 1: There's a link between us. He didn't he didn't drink.
Speaker 1: He didn't drink. I ordered a drink. He didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of put me on the defensive a little bit.
Speaker 1: That's the first time we went out with Greg Rosenthal
Speaker 1: when he came to the NFL that and it was me,
Speaker 1: Mark and Greg, We're trying to feel this guy out.
Speaker 1: And he didn't get a drink. Either, and it put
Speaker 1: us on our heels. We didn't know what to think exactly.
Speaker 1: You kind of you kind of blink a couple of times. No.
Speaker 1: So his message to me though that night was I
Speaker 1: got to know him a little bit better. You know,
Speaker 1: he likes basketball, um, you know, values his close friends
Speaker 1: and family. But he wanted to let me know that
Speaker 1: everything he does is in the best interest of what
Speaker 1: he thinks helps the team the most. And it was
Speaker 1: kind of his way of saying so. In other words,
Speaker 1: he still didn't fully open up to me, but he
Speaker 1: was trying to stress to me that, listen, I do
Speaker 1: everything I do for a reason. So if you think
Speaker 1: that I'm not helping you, or I'm not giving a lot,
Speaker 1: or I don't answer a question maybe the way you
Speaker 1: would expect or you would like, it's all based on
Speaker 1: what I think is going to be best for the Giants.
Speaker 1: And so he's he's hyper aware of um, the position
Speaker 1: he is in and how visible he is, and that,
Speaker 1: you know, the most interesting thing to me that night
Speaker 1: was he's tall, so people notice him. But not until
Speaker 1: we were walking out of the restaurant did I hear
Speaker 1: somebody say, oh, there's Daniel Jones. You know, so he was.
Speaker 1: He was able to kind of slip in and out
Speaker 1: fairly undetected. I think that's gonna stop Derek Jeter Mode
Speaker 1: of New York Media Management, Mark, what do you got? Well?
Speaker 1: I just I wanted to know, Um, you know are
Speaker 1: we have had Cavon Thibodeau on the show a number
Speaker 1: of times. Um, it got to the point where we
Speaker 1: thought we had a friendship with him. UM. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure after our last interview with him that we that
Speaker 1: we would claim that necessarily know. I asked him if, um,
Speaker 1: Brian Dable, if he thought, you know, getting to know
Speaker 1: Brian Dable, whether he was a big spoon or a
Speaker 1: small spoon in his private life. He didn't want to
Speaker 1: answer that. I will ask you a Brian day Ball
Speaker 1: question in a different way. What makes him special? Because
Speaker 1: he feels it feels like this is the day ball
Speaker 1: arrival has changed everything for the Giants. You've gotten to
Speaker 1: know him better than we have behind the scenes. What
Speaker 1: makes them unique or special? The players say that Dable
Speaker 1: lets them all beat themselves, and that he lets the
Speaker 1: captains and the leadership of the locker room kind of
Speaker 1: police the team, and that they appreciate that versus other
Speaker 1: places they've been. The caution to that management style is
Speaker 1: if is it creates some looseness to how you're managing
Speaker 1: things at times, And so Xavier McKinney goes to you know,
Speaker 1: Cabo and spring Break and bust up his hand. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, things like that maybe don't happen if the
Speaker 1: ship is tighter and and you're you're kind of looking
Speaker 1: over guy's shoulders more. But in the long run, when
Speaker 1: you've been in an environment where guys have the weight
Speaker 1: of the world on their shoulders and all the conversation
Speaker 1: is about how the offensive line stinks and the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: on his way out and all this stuff, they really
Speaker 1: have felt that Dabel has been a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 1: He gives a lot of people a voice. He's collaborative.
Speaker 1: Like one thing that happened at the end of the
Speaker 1: Judge Gentleman regime was, um, you know, they did not
Speaker 1: see eye to eye, and Judge ended up trying to
Speaker 1: take everything on himself. He basically stopped delegating, and so
Speaker 1: that was something that was obviously a byproduct of poor
Speaker 1: decisions made all the way up to that. But what's
Speaker 1: happening now is now that Shane and Dable talk to
Speaker 1: each other and our friends and came from Buffalo together.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of you know, alignment, I guess is
Speaker 1: the right word. And frankly, you asked me about Dable.
Speaker 1: But this is operating a little bit like a baseball team,
Speaker 1: where you know, Joe Shane is theo epstein and he's
Speaker 1: sitting with Brian Dable on Friday and Saturday making the
Speaker 1: game day lineup, and so Dable is inclusive in that regard,
Speaker 1: and Shane deserves credit also for kind of how the
Speaker 1: coaching staff is deploying the team on game day. Interesting
Speaker 1: all right, So there you go. Pat Leonard, New York
Speaker 1: Daily News, check him out. Uh. He also has a podcast,
Speaker 1: Talking Ball with Pat Leonard. Uh, look that up wherever
Speaker 1: you get podcasts. Ball. Loved it. And one last thought,
Speaker 1: I mean, you mentioned that that Daniel Jones had a
Speaker 1: flash point moment against the Vikings, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: if you were aware of the around the NFL Flashpoint series,
Speaker 1: which really has taken off this year. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if that just seeped into the culture or if
Speaker 1: you were aware of it. Either way, it was great
Speaker 1: to hear the word flash point and I can I
Speaker 1: have that audio and play it for Daniel absolutely the next,
Speaker 1: the next steak dinner and Hoboken. I used to live
Speaker 1: on tenth and Clinton and Hoboken. Good times. Twenty four
Speaker 1: year old zoos. All right, Pat, thank you very much, buddy,
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on the show. Pat, your Guys show
Speaker 1: is awesome. Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1: Thank you. There he goes Pat Leonard, all right, put
Speaker 1: him on the list grave Digger, the database of of
Speaker 1: the guys we like and the gals we like and
Speaker 1: the list of the damned. Yeah, we found our giants. Guy,
Speaker 1: got a good giants. Guy love Pat. Pat's great, A
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Yeah, Simonds was again again. Do not
Speaker 1: even try to get in the door at the Bourbon
Speaker 1: Room UM in Hollywood Wednesday night where we're going to
Speaker 1: be there and maybe Colleen to yeah, nudge nudge, and
Speaker 1: we know Yessica will be there as well. We did
Speaker 1: say it, we teased it. I'll be there, so make
Speaker 1: sure you're there if you've got tickets, and flood the
Speaker 1: secondary market and see if there is one. Your daughter
Speaker 1: doesn't need braces, You just should have braces. And I
Speaker 1: think that's an important distinction. You need to be able
Speaker 1: to tear children's needs along with your own needs, and
Speaker 1: I think your need comes first here without any conflict.
Speaker 1: You only get one one life on this blue marble.
Speaker 1: It's like, why does everyone's teeth have to be so straight?
Speaker 1: Let's bring back crooked teeth. That's it, right, like the
Speaker 1: olden days. Yeah, let's be imperfect, all right, that's it. Uh.
Speaker 1: Dan Hands is signing off four Quiet Storm, the Old Boss,
Speaker 1: Connie Fox, the Tiny Box, the Grave Digger who will
Speaker 1: also be in Hollywood. Is your chance to meet Justin Graver?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, heed the call