Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward podcast.
Speaker 2: Kevin Clark tells us how Justin Fields could end one
Speaker 2: of the most bizarre streaks in the NFL. John Middlecoff
Speaker 2: and I discussed the big difference between Russell Wilson and
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and how it could change everything for their teams.
Speaker 2: But first, my conversation with the guys on one of
Speaker 2: the new podcasts we've added to the volume. Fantasy Pros
Speaker 2: know their shit. I think you'll love it. First though,
Speaker 2: my top takes of the week. You know, I was
Speaker 2: thinking about if you go look at the quarterback position
Speaker 2: in the NFL, it almost feels corporate. Even Tom Brady's
Speaker 2: personality was suppressed when he was in New England. It
Speaker 2: was suppressed. He got a little lively and added some
Speaker 2: personality in Tampa. But that's the league. It's very corporate.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting to me. If I said to you
Speaker 2: big personality at quarterback, most of the guys I would
Speaker 2: mention Baker Mayfield, Cam Newton, Jay Cutler, Johnny Manziel don't work.
Speaker 2: The guys that are kind of cliched and coach speak.
Speaker 2: It's been through the years sort of Brady, Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 2: Justin Herbert Joe Burrow is that personality is wonderful, but
Speaker 2: what you're basically doing. The more power you have in life,
Speaker 2: the more you will suppress information because you'll have more
Speaker 2: information and it'll be more vital information. I told somebody
Speaker 2: once when I was in my twenties and thirties, I
Speaker 2: wanted to pretend I knew everything, and then I got
Speaker 2: to my fifth these I have more access to stuff,
Speaker 2: and I suppress more information. Well, when you're a quarterback
Speaker 2: in the NFL, there are discussions you're having with the coach,
Speaker 2: the coordinator, and the GM that are not shared with
Speaker 2: other players. And so what makes Aaron Rodgers very unique.
Speaker 2: He's a star quarterback and he's sort of like a rogue,
Speaker 2: independent personality like most guys that have that. Jeff George
Speaker 2: was outspoken, Cutler was outspoken. It mostly goes sideways. This
Speaker 2: is you are the face of the franchise. You do
Speaker 2: that Wednesday press conference, you stand in front of the media.
Speaker 2: You're not here to be glib and funny. You're here
Speaker 2: when they ask tough questions, to be a cooler, to
Speaker 2: be a blanket, A wet blanket on a possible inflammatory story.
Speaker 2: I mean, they did a sketch in the eighties on
Speaker 2: Saturday Night Live about Joe Montana and Phil Hartman was involved,
Speaker 2: and the whole joke of the scale was Joe Montana
Speaker 2: was great, but the most boring man in the world.
Speaker 2: Because quarterbacks are paid to suppress information, you'll want to
Speaker 2: bring the temperature down in the room and concentrate on football.
Speaker 2: That's the opposite of Aaron. Aaron is our e lax.
Speaker 2: And now with the New York media, who was you know,
Speaker 2: they're created to inflame. I think it's a fascinating relationship.
Speaker 2: And the schedule's tough enough and the old line is
Speaker 2: concerning enough that the Jets could get pushed around in
Speaker 2: the opener against Buffalo, and in fact, one of my
Speaker 2: favorite bets in Week one is Buffalo minus like one
Speaker 2: and a half against the Jets. I think their defensive
Speaker 2: front will give the Jets trouble. And I think you're
Speaker 2: going to be able to identify very quickly what New
Speaker 2: York's problem is. That's why it's really important Makai Beckt
Speaker 2: and Aaron Rodgers the right tackle the quarterback playing against
Speaker 2: the Giants. It's interesting if it's a turnstile. It's a
Speaker 2: problem because the Giants have a good pass rush. You know.
Speaker 2: This is why for years and years I've said I
Speaker 2: don't mind personality. I don't want it at quarterback. Like
Speaker 2: Mahomes is funny, he's able to compartmentalize a lot of
Speaker 2: moving targets. But if you really listen to Mahomes, he
Speaker 2: always says the right thing. Aaron often says the most
Speaker 2: interesting thing. It can be with Pat McAfee, it can
Speaker 2: be at a press conference. He can be direct, he
Speaker 2: can be passive, aggressive. So that's who he is at
Speaker 2: his core. Never married, no kids, independent thinking, one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty two hundred and fifty million dollars net worth
Speaker 2: or more probably three hundred million. So I think that's
Speaker 2: it's not necessarily going to be volcanic. But if you
Speaker 2: look at the big personalities at quarterback, most implode. Aaron
Speaker 2: at the end of Green Bay certainly didn't implode, but regressed.
Speaker 2: It just didn't work even in a small media market
Speaker 2: like it didn't play into his favor. So this is
Speaker 2: who Aaron is. Right, He's not had to sacrifice a
Speaker 2: lot in his life due to his talent and his lifestyle.
Speaker 2: So I can't wait. I absolutely cannot wait to watch it,
Speaker 2: and I think very early they will struggle to protect
Speaker 2: Aaron against Buffalo, So we're not going to have to
Speaker 2: wait very long that Monday night opener Bill's Jets. From
Speaker 2: that point forward, we're going to have ourselves a very
Speaker 2: prickly bumpy story. SEC Commissioner Greg Sanke says the entire
Speaker 2: playoff structure, which is going to expand to twelve teams
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four, needs to be reconsidered because of expansion.
Speaker 2: And I absolutely agree. This is what I have proposed,
Speaker 2: and this is what I believe is the truth of
Speaker 2: the playoff structure. I think it needs to go to sixteen,
Speaker 2: eighteen to twenty four teams. I think there is so
Speaker 2: much money left on the table in college football because
Speaker 2: of so many of these very small town bowls that
Speaker 2: nobody attends, nobody really wants to play in. It's just
Speaker 2: a way to get practices for some of these coaches
Speaker 2: that half of them nobody shows up to the games.
Speaker 2: They're awful, they're optically bad, players could get hurt. Great
Speaker 2: players go into the NFL, don't want to play in them.
Speaker 2: Get rid of those things. I think we now have
Speaker 2: to consider not just twelve teams, but sixteen to eighteen
Speaker 2: because I think college football needs to take a page
Speaker 2: from college basketball and have a dramatic, long playoff scenario
Speaker 2: to cap off the season. It's the icing to the cake.
Speaker 2: College Basketball's primary issue is the cake isn't very good anymore.
Speaker 2: The best players don't want to play college basketball, and
Speaker 2: if they do, it's briefly one year and they're gone.
Speaker 2: College football will maintain a high level of integrity and
Speaker 2: competitiveness and quality because you have to stay in college
Speaker 2: football minimum three years. Most players stay four, some even
Speaker 2: five with red shirting. So I mean you see some
Speaker 2: of these quarterbacks coming out. They're twenty four to twenty
Speaker 2: five years old now, and so they of college football
Speaker 2: will remain high. I've never bought into this argument that
Speaker 2: it'll kill college football rivalries. Really, Auburn Alabama both know
Speaker 2: they're getting into a twelve to sixteen team playoff. You're
Speaker 2: not going to watch the game in Alabama. That game
Speaker 2: won't mean anything. You'll just skip it and go to
Speaker 2: the Falcon Saints game in Atlanta the next day. That's
Speaker 2: so stupid. You love college football or you don't. Rivalries
Speaker 2: will always matter. Do Carolina still a great rivalry and
Speaker 2: we know they could meet again and again and again
Speaker 2: down the road. It doesn't matter. Great is great. So
Speaker 2: Greg Sankee, who is the most powerful person in college football,
Speaker 2: the SEC commissioner, says, hey, we're expanding all these conferences.
Speaker 2: Let's reconsider the playoff structure. I'm all for it. What
Speaker 2: the SEC has done better than any conference. They've been
Speaker 2: willing to evolve, be aggressive annually. And Greg's right. Jim
Speaker 2: Harbaugh self imposed three games suspension at Michigan. We heard
Speaker 2: it was going to be four, right, and then Harbaugh
Speaker 2: and his guys couldn't agree with it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Then it was none. Now it's back to three. The
Speaker 2: NCAA has always been fairly toothless. They depend on the
Speaker 2: reporting of newspapers and media to up end programs. They
Speaker 2: really don't have the ability, very rarely, the staffing or
Speaker 2: the ability to go into a program and monitor these closely.
Speaker 2: And now with name, image and likeness, what's cheating. Harbaugh
Speaker 2: can be a difficult personality. He's strong willed, he's forceful,
Speaker 2: and he's not going to get pushed around by anybody.
Speaker 2: I think in the end, this is probably self imposed
Speaker 2: three game suspension is probably those are weak games. Michigan
Speaker 2: ol roll big picture is it. Harbaugh's just not somebody
Speaker 2: you can push around. When his athletic director a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago asked him to take a pay cut,
Speaker 2: what did he do? Upended the staff, interviewed with NFL teams,
Speaker 2: and has had back to back great seasons. So big,
Speaker 2: willful personalities are not to be eft with, and Harbaugh
Speaker 2: is not going to go quietly into the night because
Speaker 2: you didn't like his answer. When you're the NCUBA, the
Speaker 2: toothless NCUBA, I will always defend these coaches. They have
Speaker 2: to run these programs, deal with nonsense from the nc
Speaker 2: doublea deal with boosters. Yes, they're highly compensated, but there's
Speaker 2: a reason they're highly compensated. They create ninety one hundred
Speaker 2: million dollars in annual revenue to athletic departments. So Michigan's
Speaker 2: athletic department has been revamped due to Jim Harbaugh's recent success.
Speaker 2: There's a total momentum shift, there's a total cultural shift.
Speaker 2: It is a great day to be a Wolverine these days,
Speaker 2: not so much a Buckeye. That's because of Jim Harbaugh.
Speaker 2: I think the self imposed penalty is probably the way
Speaker 2: to go about it. But we're learning time and time again.
Speaker 2: Don't try to push around Harbaugh. He's going to have
Speaker 2: a strong opinion. We had a discussion after last football
Speaker 2: season and I said, you know, we really don't have
Speaker 2: a fantasy group that and I said it's I've always
Speaker 2: been a better over fantasy, but I said, my friends
Speaker 2: are fantasy over betting. And I said, anytime I've done
Speaker 2: a remote and said, how many people play Fantasy, one
Speaker 2: hundred hands go up? And I'm like, how many people
Speaker 2: bet and hands go up? But Fantasy, I believe in
Speaker 2: America is still it's more popular. And so we were
Speaker 2: looking for a group that had personality, that was accurate,
Speaker 2: that was fun, didn't take themselves too seriously, and we
Speaker 2: listened to a lot of tapes and that you guys
Speaker 2: were the obvious choice. And it's really exciting for us because,
Speaker 2: you know, as our company grows, we've got so many
Speaker 2: different shows, like we have a you know, Daniel Cormier
Speaker 2: was an actual UFC fighter, he's ringside. Shannon Sharp can
Speaker 2: do pop culture and sports. We just didn't your space.
Speaker 2: We thought we did a poor job on it. Our
Speaker 2: first two years. We're like, we're just not doing a
Speaker 2: good job. We had gambling talk, not fantasy, and I
Speaker 2: didn't think you guys would be available. I mean, to
Speaker 2: be honest with you.
Speaker 4: I was like, well, to be honest, Colin, if if
Speaker 4: you know, if Colin Coward calls you, you pick up
Speaker 4: the phone, That's what I would say.
Speaker 2: Let's bell which my wife leave that.
Speaker 4: That's another show. We can at a time for that
Speaker 4: conversation today, that's for sure. But Daniel Cormier, by the way,
Speaker 4: came on with me on the Betting Pros podcast and
Speaker 4: he was fantastic. We did a whole preview of UFC
Speaker 4: two ninety one. We talked WWEE he and I because
Speaker 4: we're both big fans. So it was a great time.
Speaker 4: And again I encourage everybody. I'm sure you already know
Speaker 4: about the Volume Network, but the shows they have on
Speaker 4: there phenomenally. You got all the athletes who have their
Speaker 4: own shows on there, and the myriad of different content
Speaker 4: you guys are doing is just tremendous. And I guess
Speaker 4: we're just excited, and I'm excited that you're excited. So
Speaker 4: let's talk about football. Because we've got questions here, all right,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna land this night for you. The first
Speaker 4: burning question. I think these are important because this is
Speaker 4: I always say, you know, we love to talk about
Speaker 4: fantasy stuff, but real football and fantasy that intersects. Everything's
Speaker 4: coming here together. The numbers come around obviously the same
Speaker 4: thing with some of these situations and how they impact fantasy.
Speaker 4: First question, I want to ask you, com will the
Speaker 4: Lions crumble under expectations? It's one thing to be the
Speaker 4: plucky underdog every single year and all of a sudden
Speaker 4: you're building this thing. But now you look at Vegas,
Speaker 4: they're telling you they believe in the Lions. You're telling
Speaker 4: the rest of the league believes in the Lions. Do
Speaker 4: you think that the Lions are ready to believe in
Speaker 4: themselves as a favorite?
Speaker 2: I am as long as the expectations are ten to
Speaker 2: eleven wins and not twelve, thirteen or fourteen. The NFC
Speaker 2: is the weaker conference. If you look at Jared Goff's career,
Speaker 2: it's pretty clear. When he has a clean pocket and protection,
Speaker 2: he's a really good quarterback. He's not as good outdoors,
Speaker 2: He's not as good under duress. He's not as good
Speaker 2: forced to run, but the Lions have a top five
Speaker 2: to six offensive line, more than enough weapons. Jared Goff
Speaker 2: with time to throw in Los Angeles, when he struggled
Speaker 2: against the Niners, the rams O line couldn't block the
Speaker 2: Niners D line. He struggled right and McVeigh saw that,
Speaker 2: And so there's a way. Great quarterbacks don't have to
Speaker 2: win a certain way. Good ones do. Goff does, but
Speaker 2: this team allows him to play the way. He's very
Speaker 2: successful time in the pocket. I think they'll have a
Speaker 2: very good run game. Jared Goff throwing on third and
Speaker 2: two or second and five is a really good quarterback.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I like the expectations too. Ten eleven wins, we start
Speaker 4: pushing eleven twelve and we start having a bad conversation
Speaker 4: Justin Fields. Everybody's talking about him. Well, Justin Fields take
Speaker 4: the next step forward or we fall backwards. In twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three, I know they give him DJ Moore, They've
Speaker 4: given a Roshawn Johnson, Deonta Foreman, some upgrade offensive line pieces.
Speaker 1: Is that enough?
Speaker 4: Are we ready to finally see Justin Fields from Ohio State?
Speaker 4: Or we're gonna see Justin Fields who has been hit
Speaker 4: and miss at the quarterback position. Great in fantasy, but
Speaker 4: that's not everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he'll be a hit because they were
Speaker 2: last in the league last year in yards after catch,
Speaker 2: and so between the upgrade at wide resis tight end,
Speaker 2: and I think the kid that got out of Texas
Speaker 2: the running back is one of the steals of the draft.
Speaker 2: He's going to get much more support yards after the catch.
Speaker 2: That's what makes Kansas City in San Francisco so good.
Speaker 2: Brock Purdy gets it out the debo, McCaffrey Kittle. It's
Speaker 2: yards after contact, it's yards after catch, and so this kid,
Speaker 2: he was asked to do way too much last year.
Speaker 2: He just outside of Mooney and Cole Coment, he just
Speaker 2: didn't have a lot of next level players. Tanyan's a
Speaker 2: really good pickup Claypool. I'm hitting miss on. DJ Moore's
Speaker 2: good yards after catch will allow him to throw on
Speaker 2: third and short and second and five. It felt like
Speaker 2: last year he was in third and nine constantly. So yes,
Speaker 2: I think if you look at his splits last year,
Speaker 2: he was better in the last six games in the
Speaker 2: first six, he's getting better. It's time it'll work.
Speaker 4: Erickson. Your thoughts on fields here and now we've had
Speaker 4: a lot of conversations on the fantasy side. Do you
Speaker 4: see these new pieces and this renewed optimism here for
Speaker 4: fields to take a step forward?
Speaker 5: I do you know last year he's QB six and
Speaker 5: points per game eleven games played from week's five through seventeen,
Speaker 5: hems QB five and that was with no weapons to
Speaker 5: throw to you.
Speaker 3: So it's much harder to.
Speaker 5: Get completions when you're throwing to Chase Claypool who's just
Speaker 5: joined the team. But now you have DJ Moore, you
Speaker 5: have darn all Right added to the offensive line. I
Speaker 5: think that he's set for stardom in year three, specifically
Speaker 5: in fantasy football.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, certainly the rushing equity off the charts. We saw
Speaker 4: that last year if you added him in a single
Speaker 4: quarterback league, even he got to the playoffs. I mean
Speaker 4: that run was just spectacular. Let's go to another one too,
Speaker 4: last year, feel good story, Colin. I love feel good stories.
Speaker 4: The problem is sometimes they don't always last. Can Gino
Speaker 4: Smith replicate his twenty twenty two season, which was really
Speaker 4: good from a fancy perspective, and let's be honest, from
Speaker 4: a Seattle Seahawks perspective, they were very pleased. So do
Speaker 4: you think that this is just the new version of
Speaker 4: Geno Smith or is this a one off?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm split on it. The old line young
Speaker 2: O line, I thought deteriorated a little at the end
Speaker 2: of last year. The running back hurt. So they drafted
Speaker 2: Zach Charburne of UCLA, which I thought was a really
Speaker 2: smart move. So Walker's a really hard running kid from
Speaker 2: Michigan State, but he gets banged up. So they went
Speaker 2: and said, you know what, Gino needs a running back,
Speaker 2: a top running back. So when Walker left, the O
Speaker 2: line deteriorates. It's more on GINO. So I think Seattle
Speaker 2: saw that and said, you know what, We're going to
Speaker 2: go get a running back one A so we're always
Speaker 2: going to have a top running back. They also went
Speaker 2: and drafted a slot receiver with Lockett and DK Metcalf
Speaker 2: and so I think they know what Gino is.
Speaker 3: It's a little like.
Speaker 2: Dak Prescott or Kirk Cousins. With a run game, with support,
Speaker 2: they can manage you to a lot of wins. They
Speaker 2: can't carry you with no run game. They can't carry
Speaker 2: you with a deteriorating O line. So my guess is
Speaker 2: he dips a little bit there, You regress to the
Speaker 2: mean a little bit. But I do think Seattle is
Speaker 2: smart enough. I think the O line will be better
Speaker 2: this year. Just it's year two in the league for
Speaker 2: those tackles, so I think he's going to look pretty
Speaker 2: similar to last year. Passer rating last year was near
Speaker 2: the top of the league. I imagine that pulls back
Speaker 2: a little, but he won't embarrass Seattle. He falls into
Speaker 2: the camp of quarterbacks nine through fourteen in the league.
Speaker 2: You know they can win, they can't carry He can win.
Speaker 2: It's Kirk Cousins is very much in that. But they
Speaker 2: can't carry you. And I think that's what Gino is well.
Speaker 4: And you got to have that offensive line ready to
Speaker 4: go in that division too, because you've got guys like
Speaker 4: Aaron Donald in the front and obviously what you saw
Speaker 4: last year from that San Francisco pass rush. We'll see
Speaker 4: how Nick Mosa wants society, he wants to come back
Speaker 4: and play. We'll see how that works out Ericson, I
Speaker 4: want to ask you this one here. This is a
Speaker 4: is a fun Jet question. You know, we keep talking
Speaker 4: about all we need for the New York Jets is
Speaker 4: what a quarterback, that's it, that's all we need. Well
Speaker 4: they got one. They got a Hall of Fame quarterback.
Speaker 4: He's not quite the same guy he was a few
Speaker 4: years ago, but obviously a huge upgrader over what they had.
Speaker 4: Is Aaron Rodgers really the only thing that Jets need
Speaker 4: to make a run the Super Bowl? And I know
Speaker 4: that sounds lofty, Andrew, but in your opinion, do you
Speaker 4: think that you could take this offense it was right
Speaker 4: twenty ninth the points last year. Put Aaron Rodgers there
Speaker 4: with the pieces they have with these now two running
Speaker 4: backs with Breeze Hall and Dalvin Cook, and actually run
Speaker 4: through the AFC.
Speaker 3: I think in theory it makes sense. You know why
Speaker 3: the Jets made the move.
Speaker 5: They wanted to get the veteran quarterback in the building
Speaker 5: to upgrade, pairing him with his elite defense. But the
Speaker 5: other issues at hand, the brutal schedule over the start
Speaker 5: for six weeks. No one has a tougher schedule than
Speaker 5: the New York Jets. Offensive line issues on the New
Speaker 5: York Jets are specifically at the tackle position, Like that's scary.
Speaker 5: You have a you know, Aaron Rodgers is no spring
Speaker 5: chicken like He's going to be entering his age forty
Speaker 5: season here. They got to make sure he is protected.
Speaker 5: We saw him get banged up a little bit last
Speaker 5: year with a finger injury, thumb in like, if that
Speaker 5: influenced his play, which was not great last year, then
Speaker 5: there's potential issues here. So they need good Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 5: to make the Super Bowl run. And I'm not so
Speaker 5: sure of him at this age. He hasn't passed for
Speaker 5: three hundred yards since Week fourteen of the twenty twenty
Speaker 5: one season. So for me, I'm on the side of
Speaker 5: really fading. The New York Jets hype an ultra competitive
Speaker 5: AFC East, and I bet the under on their protective
Speaker 5: winter all so I'm not in on the Jets, but
Speaker 5: I'm interested to see what Collins take is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Colin, I want to ask you about the Jets
Speaker 4: because with hard knocks on top of it, you're talking about,
Speaker 4: I mean, as much press you could possibly get in
Speaker 4: the situation, and it had enough press in the off season.
Speaker 4: Now you're eating hard knocks to the fire. Is it
Speaker 4: going to get to a point here where the Jets
Speaker 4: that people are going to start believing too much in
Speaker 4: the Jets and should people pump the brakes.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean there's a lot of blinking red
Speaker 2: lights here. Corey Davis now retires. So you have Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 2: a twenty three year old, your number one receiver. Alan
Speaker 2: Lizard's a three. They want to make him a two.
Speaker 2: Andy Reid bailed on Micole Hardman. The tight end position
Speaker 2: isn't highly productive. It's like, and we don't like the tackles.
Speaker 2: Does that sound like an AFC championship team, Like there's
Speaker 2: just you know, everybody bangs on the Giants, but we
Speaker 2: love their tackles. Waller and Saquon Barkley are veteran weapons,
Speaker 2: offensive coach, quarterback in their prime, good defensive front. The
Speaker 2: Jets are flash here. You can argue the Giants have
Speaker 2: really key pieces left tackle, you know, quarterback, prime offensive coach.
Speaker 2: You know, giants planning the same MetLife stadium are getting
Speaker 2: dragged by everybody. And I'm like, I'm not so sure
Speaker 2: that the offensive coach with a quarterback in his prime
Speaker 2: who had a higher passer rating than Aaron Rodgers last
Speaker 2: year may not be the play in New York and
Speaker 2: not the Jets.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the defense certainly on the Jets size working in
Speaker 4: their favors is whether or not the offense can meet
Speaker 4: the expectations. And just like the Lions, now they've got expectations.
Speaker 4: Let's get to another burning question here for the NFL season.
Speaker 4: This is a fun one here, Colin, is Jordan Love
Speaker 4: the next great Packer quarterback? And this historic run that
Speaker 4: they've had of going from far to the aforementioned Aaron
Speaker 4: Rodgers and now Jordan Loves starting the show some flashes here.
Speaker 4: It's only preseason, but I'm sure people all over Chicago
Speaker 4: and people all over Minnesota are starting to say, oh no,
Speaker 4: not again. Do you think we're getting to that point
Speaker 4: with Jordan Love where people are buying in on the hype?
Speaker 2: Well, Farvan Rodgers are arguably top twelve quarterbacks. Ever, I
Speaker 2: feel pretty confident Jordan Love will not enter that space. Agreed.
Speaker 2: The question is there's a lot of boxes he checks.
Speaker 2: You know, he's big enough, he's mobile, his arm's fine.
Speaker 2: I think we have to be honest that, outside of
Speaker 2: an occasional Trevor Lawrence or Andrew Lucker, John Elway, where
Speaker 2: you land is about eighty percent of your success as
Speaker 2: a quarterback. Mahomes landing in Houston is not going to
Speaker 2: be hoisting trophies. He gets Andy Reid, the Hunt family,
Speaker 2: Brett Veach, it' to whole different reality. Matt Stafford Detroit,
Speaker 2: Matt Stafford, Jean McVay trophy, struggling for the playoffs. So
Speaker 2: my takeaway is the Packers o line, excellent run game,
Speaker 2: excellent offensive coach, Wonky division. He's probably going to be successful.
Speaker 2: But what is success? What if he's Kirk Cousins with
Speaker 2: better mobility. I think Green Bay would sign up for
Speaker 2: that today, And that's what I think. You're going to
Speaker 2: have kind of a Dack Cousins with an athletic kid
Speaker 2: who can move. They can move the pocket. By the way,
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur likes to move the pocket, couldn't much with
Speaker 2: Aaron as he declined in mobility. So I think they're
Speaker 2: going to move the pocket a lot. The offense is
Speaker 2: going to look different, it's going to look more youthful,
Speaker 2: and I think they'll be successful as long as we
Speaker 2: keep expectations more toward Kirk Cousins and less toward Farvan
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers Andrew.
Speaker 4: When we're talking about the athleticism of Jordan love Too
Speaker 4: and this ability maybe to get out and do some
Speaker 4: other things Aaron Rodgers wasn't capable of doing. What does
Speaker 4: that mean from a fancy perspective, because I know we
Speaker 4: have expectations they're going to rely heavily on that run
Speaker 4: game that Colin was talking about with AJ Dillon and
Speaker 4: of course Aaron Jones. But Christian Watson's a piece that
Speaker 4: is coming relatively cheap still in drafts, and that guy
Speaker 4: is a huge playmaker. I know there's still some questions
Speaker 4: about the consistency, but we saw the playmaking ability, we
Speaker 4: saw the speed. We saw you could change a game.
Speaker 4: Is he somebody fantasy you're investing in twenty three?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I love Christian Watson and the fact that Christian
Speaker 5: Watson can also He's a dual threat in terms of
Speaker 5: he can win after the catch, so he can take
Speaker 5: a screen or a slant to the house, and he
Speaker 5: can also win downfield, which takes advantage of Jordan Love's
Speaker 5: big arm. So Jordan Love's moving around the pocket making
Speaker 5: off script plays. I think Christian Watson is going to
Speaker 5: be that guy that delivers splash plays down right.
Speaker 4: Now, here's a fun one, Andrew, I'm going to give
Speaker 4: you a shot at this one. First because we had
Speaker 4: this conversation on betting pros. I've had it with a
Speaker 4: bunch of people. I've already made an investment, and it
Speaker 4: seems to be the one where everybody's got a different answer.
Speaker 4: Who's going to win the NFC South? Andrew, go ahead,
Speaker 4: I'm going with the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 5: You know, Arthur Smith has hand picked top ten overall
Speaker 5: offensive players are running back, wide, receiver, tight end of
Speaker 5: our last three seasons, got pits. London Bijon defense has
Speaker 5: added the key players through free agency and the NFL
Speaker 5: Draft with their siteset on winning now, Like people are
Speaker 5: joining this defense because they're not rebuild. Like Kalays Campbell
Speaker 5: bringing him in, he wanted to come to the Falcons
Speaker 5: because I think this team can win. And when you
Speaker 5: look at the division they play in, it's the worst
Speaker 5: division in all football. So I think that the Falcons
Speaker 5: can run the table here. I'm not afraid of Derek Carr. Like,
Speaker 5: if it's Derek Carr and the Saints that is the
Speaker 5: biggest thing standing between the Falcons and NFC South title,
Speaker 5: I'll take that all day. So for me all to see,
Speaker 5: the question mark comes around Desmond Ridder entering year two.
Speaker 5: But I think in a similar way to a Jordan
Speaker 5: Love where he's all he needs to do is facilitate
Speaker 5: an offense with all these skill players around him, similar
Speaker 5: to a Ryan Tannehill that Arthur Smith had so much
Speaker 5: success with in Tennessee. So Ridder wasn't a perfect prospect
Speaker 5: coming out of Cincinnati, but the one thing that he
Speaker 5: did do was win games. Third most wins by quarterback
Speaker 5: in college football history including NFL and college Ridder is
Speaker 5: twenty eight And oh at home the Atlanta Falcons open
Speaker 5: the season at home Panthers and Packers. They're starting to
Speaker 5: and oh, so I'm back in the Falcons.
Speaker 4: What a fun meetingless trend that you threw out there,
Speaker 4: as if that somehow means anything for anything. Look, I'm
Speaker 4: already investing in the Falcons, but it's mostly a Bjon
Speaker 4: Robinson reason. Like that's the whole point that I keep making,
Speaker 4: Like this, as a head coach knows how to run
Speaker 4: the FOOTBA wants to run a fooball needs to run
Speaker 4: the football in an offensive line. They got Tyler alger
Speaker 4: over a thousand yards last year. Yeah, Colin, there's some
Speaker 4: questions here about this division. So when you look at
Speaker 4: it from your perspective, who do you think is really
Speaker 4: the front runner in the NFC South, because once again
Speaker 4: last year it was disappointing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Derek Carr is the best proven quarterback.
Speaker 2: The Saints, I think have the best roster. That's probably
Speaker 2: where i'd lean their schedules a week A lot of
Speaker 2: betters like Atlanta Arthur Smith, good Old, underrated o line,
Speaker 2: a lot of first round tight end running back players.
Speaker 2: So I think in a league that has pivoted in
Speaker 2: the last eight to nine years to offense, they've got
Speaker 2: really high end offensive players with a very nice offensive line.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about Desmond Ritter. I watched them
Speaker 2: in college too, So I mean I would probably go
Speaker 2: Car in the Saints roster. But there is no proof
Speaker 2: that the head coach of the Saints is more than
Speaker 2: a defensive coordinator bombed with the Raiders, and I mean
Speaker 2: Sean Payton to him was an ugly first year and
Speaker 2: Sean Payton won with Bridgewater, Jamis Winston, Drew Brees, Taysom Hill.
Speaker 2: So it's like I'm putting stock that the Saints coach
Speaker 2: finds his he finds himself, he pivots, he somehow finds
Speaker 2: this magic, but there's no proof it's true. Atlanta is
Speaker 2: so hot with all the betters. Sometimes you have to
Speaker 2: acknowledge I didn't see it, so I still have a
Speaker 2: week or two to make my picks Atlanta. I really
Speaker 2: thought Carolina would be interesting, but they have been so
Speaker 2: overwhelmed up front offensively in two games. I mean it's
Speaker 2: not even It's like, oh my god, this is potentially
Speaker 2: Bryce Young small a disaster. So I think Atlanta is
Speaker 2: with the smart money. That's where the smart money's going.
Speaker 2: But I'm not smart money. I'd go Saints.
Speaker 4: Well, now I feel even smarter money because now you're
Speaker 4: talking about everybody else in it, and I'm mean it,
Speaker 4: and Andrews, that's good. We feel good. Let's leave on
Speaker 4: that high note. And I'm glad to brought up the
Speaker 4: offensive line. Is he there, Carolina, because that's another thing
Speaker 4: too that really starts to concern me. That size of
Speaker 4: Bryce Young concerned me anyway. And if you can't not
Speaker 4: protect this that you have to protect him more than
Speaker 4: you would your normal quarterback. If you were going to
Speaker 4: keep this kid upright and playing seventeen games in the NFL.
Speaker 2: All right, you know him you have to. It's essential.
Speaker 2: Kevin Clark, senior football writer, analyst at The Ringer, host
Speaker 2: of the Slow news Day podcast, a friend of the Herd.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna throw something at you. Years ago, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure who said this. It could have been Jerry Seinfeld,
Speaker 2: he talked about He called it the comedy jet stream Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston,
Speaker 2: like New York, this Northeast sort of maybe a little
Speaker 2: higher brow, sort of a lot of times you know
Speaker 2: this educated understanding. We get the joke. And I think
Speaker 2: it was Seinfeld or somebody said people are funnier in
Speaker 2: places where the weather's lousey because life's too easy. It's
Speaker 2: life's too easy in Miami, Tampa and Phoenix, right, it's
Speaker 2: always sunny. And so I've always had a little bit
Speaker 2: of a theory that in the North Northern football team Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: New York, even the Giants teams, the Parcels teams, you
Speaker 2: know that very successful Super Bowl, they were tough. Phil McConkey,
Speaker 2: Mark Bavaro and Chicago. I always think about this. It's
Speaker 2: almost hard to explain how Chicago can never have had
Speaker 2: a great quarterback. It doesn't mean it's ridiculous and you
Speaker 2: think to yourself why. And my theory is that some
Speaker 2: of these kind of cold weather towns they have romanticized defense, yes, toughness,
Speaker 2: and it's not that. And I think Chicago's had multiple
Speaker 2: options in their franchise history to draft a quarterback and
Speaker 2: they went for the rush end or the Mike linebacker,
Speaker 2: and that it's a somewhat but explainable why Chicago. I
Speaker 2: can't even name their best receiver ever al Sean Jeffrey
Speaker 2: like it's it's you know. So my takeaway is when
Speaker 2: I look at Chicago this year, we may finally have
Speaker 2: a dynamic quarterback for the Bears. I'm hoping so. But
Speaker 2: that's my theory on the Bears' inability to land one
Speaker 2: great quarterback. Ever, is it horseshit? Do you buy it?
Speaker 1: I'd buy it? First of all, do you know who
Speaker 1: the single season passing leader is the Chicago Bears all
Speaker 1: time currently twenty twenty three, Johnny Lujack, It's Eric Kramer
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five three eight hundred and thirty eight yards.
Speaker 1: They have never had a four thousand yard passer in
Speaker 1: an era where you can accidentally do that going you
Speaker 1: can walk to the gas station in the NFL right
Speaker 1: now and accidentally pick up a four thousand yard season.
Speaker 1: I mean that's like asking a town if you have
Speaker 1: indoor plumbing, have you had a four thousand yard quarterback?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really easy to do in this and
Speaker 1: the fact that the Bears haven't done it is stunning.
Speaker 1: Dustin Fields, by the way, came out and said he
Speaker 1: will be the first four thousand yard quarterback over the
Speaker 1: season on podcast. Maybe that was tongue in cheek. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I would hope. So there's a high
Speaker 1: floor here. I interviewed Justin Fields a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: I said, does it put more pressure on you the
Speaker 1: fact that there have been these big misses and they
Speaker 1: passed on Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, all these guys who
Speaker 1: could have been quote unquote franchise saviors. And he said,
Speaker 1: it's not my fault that this happened. And I thought
Speaker 1: that was exactly the way to do it. And I
Speaker 1: think he liked his expectations. He said to me that,
Speaker 1: however high the fans expectations are his or higher, which
Speaker 1: I think is the exact way to do it. And
Speaker 1: there's a floor here that I think that people say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Luke gets you in the offensive staff, they've got a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of work to do, and I say, no,
Speaker 1: it's just the opposite. There was a stat last year
Speaker 1: Colin that blew my mind, which is his consecutive games
Speaker 1: with fifty yards and a touchdown of rushing was the
Speaker 1: most since Gail Sayers. Okay, Gail Sayers.
Speaker 3: There's a name that.
Speaker 1: Actually was good in their past. And when you have
Speaker 1: that kind of production on the rushing side, it doesn't
Speaker 1: take much to open up those passing ways. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to see a massive step forward. I think
Speaker 1: that we're going to see an improved team. And I
Speaker 1: was joking with you a couple of weeks ago where
Speaker 1: some people saying, oh, in the first preseason game, he
Speaker 1: just gave the bald to Herbert and to DJ more
Speaker 1: than they did the work. Yeah. Good, that's the point.
Speaker 1: That's the point of a Ryan pol has been able
Speaker 1: to do. The rosters much improved. They had a bunch
Speaker 1: of money to spend, they spent it. So I'm expecting
Speaker 1: a lot. I totally agree with your theory that I
Speaker 1: remember being at a being in a Miami Notre Dame
Speaker 1: game at Soldier Field, which I don't really want to
Speaker 1: bring up because Miami lost by five touchdowns. But they
Speaker 1: as they want to do in the Al Golden Era.
Speaker 1: But I remember just some random Bears fan at the
Speaker 1: concession stand just arguing about whether or not the eighty
Speaker 1: five Bears defense was the best of all time. That's
Speaker 1: their identity. That's what Bears fans want to do. They
Speaker 1: never want to talk about the quarterback. They always want
Speaker 1: to talk. As you said, they want Khalil Mack in
Speaker 1: the first round. They want that kind of guy, the
Speaker 1: big Beefer. They want Mike Didka calling into local radio
Speaker 1: shows and saying, here's what we're going to do. When
Speaker 1: you have those sort of voices, they never really go away.
Speaker 1: You see that all the time. In the opposite. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Florida. When the Dolphins have a good quarterback,
Speaker 1: they immediately get Compton Marino. That's, in a weird way,
Speaker 1: held them back. So I just think a team can
Speaker 1: get buried under its own history, and I think that's
Speaker 1: when you get in trouble sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, you know, when I look at
Speaker 2: this league, it's really fundamentally to me, there's been a
Speaker 2: cultural shift, and I've seen it in basketball where the
Speaker 2: power forward went from essential to a complete liability on
Speaker 2: the floor, like Tristan Thompson was valuable and you can't
Speaker 2: play him in a three year period. In baseball, it
Speaker 2: used to be Dave Kingman. You don't remember Dave probably
Speaker 2: he was like a six six home run hitter who
Speaker 2: struck out a bunch. He would be Cody Bellinger today.
Speaker 2: He was viewed as a complete liability. Now it's the
Speaker 2: ground ball. And in the NFL, if you look at
Speaker 2: the top spending teams on defense, it's Buffalo, it's Pittsburgh,
Speaker 2: it's the Chargers, it's these defensive coaches. And I've said
Speaker 2: this before is you'd have to really convince me to
Speaker 2: hire a defensive coach in the NFL. So you recently
Speaker 2: did an article coming out on the Bengals, and it's interesting.
Speaker 2: When everybody was bailing initially on Zach Taylor, my takeaway was, no,
Speaker 2: it's the right side of the ball. You just can't
Speaker 2: win in this league with an old Andy Dalton, whoever
Speaker 2: it is, And the minute he gets Burrow, he completely
Speaker 2: embraces him. Flores struggled with Tua, Simmer with Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 2: Pete a little with Russell Belichick with Mac. I find
Speaker 2: when the coach is offensive, there is a happier, more
Speaker 2: joyful experience. Offense is celebrated, mistakes are tolerated. Like I feel,
Speaker 2: the locker room feels different. What was your vibe from Cincinnati?
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable because it's not just Taylor, it's Burrow,
Speaker 1: it's Brian Callahan, their coordinator, and there's no football ego
Speaker 1: there and Colin We've talked about this before, but if
Speaker 1: you're going to have a culture changer like Joe Burrow,
Speaker 1: the number one step is to let him change the culture.
Speaker 1: And there are coaches who would say, no, no, no, this
Speaker 1: is my show. Sectator didn't do that. He adapted the
Speaker 1: offense in myriad ways. I mean, at one point twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: some of the coaches are saying they're trying to run
Speaker 1: the McVeigh outside z own stuff. They were terrible at it,
Speaker 1: they gave up on it. Joe Burrow comes in and says,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're going to do this, this, this, I
Speaker 1: want to get five guys into routes. They said, great,
Speaker 1: And what the piece that I did that I recorded
Speaker 1: on I spent a long time talking to the coaches
Speaker 1: and Tyler Boyd and tig into some of these guys
Speaker 1: down in Cincinnati. Basically the angle was they've mastered the
Speaker 1: easy play because last year, NFL defense is sold out
Speaker 1: to take away the deep ball, and basically his deep
Speaker 1: ball numbers were halved last year, went from thirteen touchdowns
Speaker 1: to seven.
Speaker 3: Guess what.
Speaker 1: He was a great quarterback anyway, because there's no football
Speaker 1: ego on that staff or even from Joe Burrow, and
Speaker 1: I think that what's interesting is that modern defense dares
Speaker 1: you to be uncool. They say, you know what, go
Speaker 1: ahead and do whatever you want to do. But it's
Speaker 1: going to be a checkdown to p Ryan, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a checkdown to Joe Mixon, it's going to
Speaker 1: be a checkdown to Hayden Hurst, and it's not going
Speaker 1: to be a fifty yard bomb to Jamar Chase. And
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow said, deal, great, we're going to do it.
Speaker 1: And that's why they were able to win last year,
Speaker 1: especially after Week five. I basically had halftime of a
Speaker 1: Week five game against Baltimore and they started to make
Speaker 1: those changes. But that's not normal. Mahomes said. It took
Speaker 1: him a couple of months to figure out to just
Speaker 1: have that patience, have that foresight. And what Taylor told
Speaker 1: me was basically, He'll check Burrow would check down and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I know, Jamar might be open fifty
Speaker 1: yards down the field, doesn't matter because ten yards wide
Speaker 1: open is great. He gasped. Buffalo like that with Hayden
Speaker 1: Hurst and some of the backs out of the backfield,
Speaker 1: they doubled their targets to running backs last year. And
Speaker 1: I think what we're seeing is I thought Brian Callahan,
Speaker 1: the OC, said something really interesting. He said, it's a
Speaker 1: type of football maturity unfolding in front of our eyes.
Speaker 1: It's just him saying this, this is what I have
Speaker 1: in front of you this year. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: force it. Even though I have the three, I have
Speaker 1: the best receiving core in football, doesn't matter. I'm going
Speaker 1: to let those guys run down field open up the
Speaker 1: rest of the defense. For me, I think it's really
Speaker 1: astounding because Colin, as you know, like when a young quarterback,
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks almost like a boxer, right, their career changes
Speaker 1: so much from year to year. Style. You know, one
Speaker 1: fight can change your entire trajectory all of this stuff,
Speaker 1: and so to go through a year where you're not
Speaker 1: doing the things that you're used to and you're not
Speaker 1: going and the chemistry between Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: is as good as any two young players have ever
Speaker 1: seen in my entire life. And the stories that that
Speaker 1: Chase told me last year about how Burrow will underthrow
Speaker 1: a deep ball because he knows he can throw in
Speaker 1: a double coverage and all of this stuff, it's crazy
Speaker 1: and they said, you know what, I'm just not going
Speaker 1: to do that this year. That to me is the
Speaker 1: sign of a guy who's going to adapt every single
Speaker 1: year of his career. And by the way, now that
Speaker 1: he's successful for it, the deep ball opens back up
Speaker 1: and that's the most amazing thing that they can do
Speaker 1: it again. So the fact that Burrow's on the cutting
Speaker 1: edge of this chess match shows me that not only
Speaker 1: is Zach Taylor are a good coach now as Brian
Speaker 1: Brian Callahan good oh SI, but the Joe Burrows capable
Speaker 1: of anything on football fields.
Speaker 2: So Steven A. Smith reported that Stefan Diggs wants out
Speaker 2: and I've said there are two kind of quote what
Speaker 2: you call diva receivers and you don't see it as
Speaker 2: much today because I think there's so much money in it.
Speaker 2: Players want to win games. They don't feel like they
Speaker 2: constantly have to fight for the ball. The game's more
Speaker 2: wide open. They get the ball. But there's like the
Speaker 2: des Bryant, who was difficult from day one for Dak
Speaker 2: Prescott was just loud. Now he was Jason Garrett once
Speaker 2: told me he fought like hell to keep him because
Speaker 2: he gave you eight to ten touchdowns. And then there's
Speaker 2: the Randy Moss Steffon Diggs, which is they're highly productive
Speaker 2: for three years and then it's their personality they want more.
Speaker 2: Diggs has been targeted a lot, highly productive, it's just
Speaker 2: his personality. And I've said I would go make the
Speaker 2: move for Randy Moss in his peak, and I'd make
Speaker 2: it for Stefan Diggs. I don't feel they're problematic. You
Speaker 2: get three years of productivity and then their personality comes out.
Speaker 2: I can live with that. In this league, three years
Speaker 2: is forever. Legacy's are formed and so let's just play
Speaker 2: the game. Stephen A. Smith says he's unhappy wants out.
Speaker 2: If that's true, is there a team or two that
Speaker 2: you just think of off the top of your head,
Speaker 2: where you're like, gosh, they just I mean, I obviously
Speaker 2: New England's clear, but I think they're trying to get
Speaker 2: value on every offensive player and there's not a lot
Speaker 2: of those with cap space, so you'd have to make
Speaker 2: it work via some trade. Is there any place Diggs
Speaker 2: would work to you? Wow, it's a great question because unfortunately,
Speaker 2: if you take him away from his current team, one
Speaker 2: of the best places it loves to go all in
Speaker 2: right now is the Buffalo Bills. And then that's a
Speaker 2: strange thing, right.
Speaker 1: It's like if you were just saying taking the team
Speaker 1: out of it, you know what the Bill is signed ball,
Speaker 1: nobody which contract they've got, you know, certain cap situations
Speaker 1: where they need to win right now. They're the kind
Speaker 1: of team that does it. So he's unhappy there. He's
Speaker 1: going to be unhappy in a lot of the places.
Speaker 1: A couple other teams like they love making aggressive moves. Well,
Speaker 1: they're full and wide receiver. They can't add another piece,
Speaker 1: and so you get to kind of the dregs a
Speaker 1: little bit, and he's going to go to a place.
Speaker 1: Does a team with a bad quarterback when a trade
Speaker 1: for Stefan Diggs. I don't think they do, so it
Speaker 1: ends up being, you know, a couple of different places.
Speaker 1: But I just don't I don't see a place where
Speaker 1: he'd be happy. You know, does he want to go
Speaker 1: and play you know, would he have taken the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears slot, you know, to be their star guy and
Speaker 1: try to resurrect that I don't know. I mean, and
Speaker 1: if it's if it's a quarterback you can't get in
Speaker 1: the ball, does that make the expiration date on his
Speaker 1: happiness that much shorter? And maybe it's a place like
Speaker 1: Carolina if he wants to reboot and play with the quarterback.
Speaker 1: I don't know. But when you're going out of a
Speaker 1: winning situation, there aren't a lot of options for you,
Speaker 1: and the NFL is going to set your market pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And I think that, you know, Buffalo in general has
Speaker 1: a lot of blow up potential, but they could also
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl, and I think I think there
Speaker 1: are real questions. I was just listening to some of
Speaker 1: their guys at the Athletic talk about how there's still
Speaker 1: questions on the offensive line. Kyer Elam, who's the first
Speaker 1: round pick from a year ago, is just not taking
Speaker 1: the job. The way the coaches want. There's some real
Speaker 1: holes in that roster, but then there's top, top, top
Speaker 1: end talent, and that's why he need Stefon Diggs there.
Speaker 1: If I'm Brandon Bean, I'm doing nothing to move Stefan Diggs.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask for a trade. I'm going
Speaker 1: to try to do a last dance situation because you
Speaker 1: need that top end, top end talent because you've missed
Speaker 1: on a handful of big roster decisions in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and you went all in maybe on
Speaker 1: guys like Bond Miller we shouldn't have. And so if
Speaker 1: I'm the Bills, I'm standing pat. I'm doing everything I can.
Speaker 1: I'm putting it on Josh Allen to make it work.
Speaker 1: Everybody needs to be happy because Stefan Diggs is a
Speaker 1: type of talent you have to have if they're going
Speaker 1: to win.
Speaker 2: The team. I want to watch the most. And because
Speaker 2: the NBA is very much about the shield and corporate
Speaker 2: it's not a drama league, right Like in the NBA,
Speaker 2: A lot of times you don't care about the team,
Speaker 2: but the story's good, you know, Like KD leaves Westbrook,
Speaker 2: Westbrook wins the MVP, good story. You know, can the
Speaker 2: Philadelphia seventy six ers finally win and get to a
Speaker 2: second playoff series? The story's better than the team. Right
Speaker 2: in the NFL, I just kind of like winners. I
Speaker 2: do think the Broncos with Peyton and Russell Wilson, I
Speaker 2: think it's the best story because if it doesn't work,
Speaker 2: they're kind of ft. I mean because Russell, I mean,
Speaker 2: Josh Allen's cap hit next year and you can manipulate it.
Speaker 2: By the time it arrives, it's gonna be like eighteen
Speaker 2: percent of the cap for the Bills. Like they have
Speaker 2: to win now. They can't screw around with Stefan Diggs.
Speaker 2: Like the reason the Dolphins are interested in Jonathan Taylor
Speaker 2: is like two is only four and a half percent
Speaker 2: of the cap. Dack's twelve, right, Josh Allen's gonna be
Speaker 2: eighteen and a half. They have to win this year.
Speaker 2: So I think that's really interesting the drama around Buffalo.
Speaker 2: But I also think it's there's a weird thing in sports.
Speaker 2: If you ask how many players believe in God, it
Speaker 2: would be ninety percent. But Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, and
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson wear it on their sleeve, and a lot
Speaker 2: of people view like Russell as inauthentic, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know, he's very religious, great conviction. I always thought
Speaker 2: that's just who he is. Now people say Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: is soft and corny, and I'm like, he's a family man,
Speaker 2: he's religious, It's who he is. I've had two different
Speaker 2: raiders say, you know, Derek Carr wore some guys out,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, who he is. You know, he's a
Speaker 2: man of faith. And I asked Kevin Clark this yesterday.
Speaker 2: Do you view russ as inauthentic or just religious?
Speaker 3: I view him as inauthentic, but I've talked to enough
Speaker 3: people that is he's kind of robotic. So this version
Speaker 3: that everyone makes fun of is actually who he was.
Speaker 3: Because you know, I would say the thing that I
Speaker 3: value the most in any human being is just be yourself, right.
Speaker 3: It's why I think you know, people in the medium
Speaker 3: were in having the most success or the most honest
Speaker 3: and just act like you, don't pretend to be something
Speaker 3: they're not, can just be very authentic to themselves whether
Speaker 3: you agree with them or not. And I think Russell
Speaker 3: comes off too often, or at least has I haven't
Speaker 3: been locked into all his press conferences. Sean Payton got there,
Speaker 3: but it's just kind of a phony. And you know,
Speaker 3: I heard a story once that he had a golf
Speaker 3: tournament and invited everyone to the golf tournament. Right, everyone
Speaker 3: at the golf tournament was an invitation from him. So
Speaker 3: he knows a lot of performer players, coaches, whoever, and
Speaker 3: he had security when he showed up. So there's an
Speaker 3: element like one of the things that Patrick Mahomes, you know,
Speaker 3: Farv had this forever. I think Peyton and Tom were
Speaker 3: the biggest stars that kind of were able to play
Speaker 3: both sides of the fence perfectly on this as they
Speaker 3: always felt one of the guys right. Tom always felt
Speaker 3: like even though ironically he was a health nut, could
Speaker 3: drink beers right, slam cheeseburgers with his offensive lineman. Same
Speaker 3: with Peyton. You know, you go back throughout the history
Speaker 3: of the quarterback position. Joe Montana was friends with all
Speaker 3: his teammates. Now, I also think that players, if you
Speaker 3: are true to yourself, like Derek Carr is married, he's
Speaker 3: got four kids. Kirk Cousins is very very religious, so
Speaker 3: it is Derek if they think that you're being authentic
Speaker 3: about it. I don't think it bothers guys deep down,
Speaker 3: especially if you're playing well. I think once you get
Speaker 3: the poor play and you have the weirdness. Because I
Speaker 3: remember when I was scouting, I ran into a dude
Speaker 3: from Denver and they had just signed Peyton Manning, or
Speaker 3: maybe it was during the season, so Peyton had been
Speaker 3: there for a while and he was like, Peyton's a
Speaker 3: lot man. We had to dedicate a couple of scouts
Speaker 3: for him. He got his own office. So all this
Speaker 3: stuff last year with Russell Wilson they had done before.
Speaker 3: Well what happened Peyton got there, superstar MVP. They start kicking.
Speaker 3: No one cares. Peyton was not easy to work with, right,
Speaker 3: but when you're winning, when you're playing at a high level,
Speaker 3: and everyone knew they needed Peyton more than probably he
Speaker 3: needed them. He could have gone a bunch of places.
Speaker 3: I think last year Russell everyone opened their arms immediately.
Speaker 3: And then he started playing poorly, and then the story
Speaker 3: started leaking about you know, him making the Seattle It
Speaker 3: just imploded, and I've seen Nathaniel Hackett over his head.
Speaker 3: But and I heard you talking about this, and I
Speaker 3: agree He's definitely slimmer. He moved better the other night
Speaker 3: against the forty nine ers. But the pressure, I think
Speaker 3: the pressure on him and the pressure on Rogers every
Speaker 3: game is gonna be just treated probably five x most
Speaker 3: of these other games. Just part of it has to
Speaker 3: do with who they are, how famous they are, how
Speaker 3: much money they make the trades, how much power they
Speaker 3: have over coaches and owners. It is just you don't
Speaker 3: see it very often these Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I mean,
Speaker 3: Rogers is older, but Russell in his prime. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's what makes the Pete Carroll angle. So are they
Speaker 3: just going to be really good? Is Pete just gonna
Speaker 3: win this trade seamlessly? I know that in Jigbud got
Speaker 3: hurt today, but obviously if they're healthy, Seattle's gonna be
Speaker 3: good again. We don't know. I mean, Denver easily could
Speaker 3: be seven and ten. Pete goes ten and seven. He's
Speaker 3: in the playoffs, Like, I'm sorry he wins the trade.
Speaker 2: Well, I think here's here's my take is that if
Speaker 2: you look at Aaron Rodgers and the Jets and Russell
Speaker 2: Wilson with Denver's there's a lot of similarities. They're both
Speaker 2: in the AFC. They're both in good divisions, they're both veterans,
Speaker 2: they both have you know, declining athleticism, but both still
Speaker 2: good athletes, and they're both going to get a lot
Speaker 2: of Hall of Fame votes. Both have a new coach,
Speaker 2: both have I would say intense coaches. Peyton and Salah
Speaker 2: are intense coaches, and there's pressure on both. This is
Speaker 2: where Russell's optimism could be very beneficial. I think at
Speaker 2: his core, Aaron's more agnostic. Aaron's more cynical, a bit
Speaker 2: more snarky. I think that's who he is at his core,
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a hipster. That's who he is,
Speaker 2: and that's okay. I can be a little bit too snarky,
Speaker 2: and so I think when Fit hits the shan, aarons
Speaker 2: who he is is a little cynical and a little snarky.
Speaker 2: I think when Fit hits the shan, for Russell, he
Speaker 2: tends to be optimistic and we'll get through this. And
Speaker 2: I do think that placebo effect, the power of the mind,
Speaker 2: is valuable. And I do think they're gonna have both
Speaker 2: of these quarterbacks this year. John are gonna have turbulence
Speaker 2: and what I know, you know, Russell will be highly optimistic.
Speaker 2: If they're five and five, we're gonna get through this.
Speaker 2: There's a brighter day, that's the messaging. If the Jets
Speaker 2: are five and five, there's a chance Aaron bails on
Speaker 2: his right tackle who can't protect him.
Speaker 3: Colin. That could happen like week one. The difference, too,
Speaker 3: is in Denver, the head coach is going nowhere right.
Speaker 3: I mean he's on scholarship for a while. He's the boss, Aaron.
Speaker 3: Let's just say it's always easy in football, probably more
Speaker 3: than any other sport. Things are so optimistic in general
Speaker 3: in the offseason and then in training camp, and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, it's middle of September, y're zero
Speaker 3: to two when things are getting tight, and listen, I
Speaker 3: was a big believer in the Jets, and then I'm
Speaker 3: not trying to do all my scouting on hard knocks.
Speaker 3: But their offensive line is a desire right now? Can
Speaker 3: they make up for with an elite defense? Like if
Speaker 3: they're the number one defense and Rogers just understands how
Speaker 3: to kind of manipulate it all. But that's probably still
Speaker 3: best case nine or ten, not thirteen or fourteen. You
Speaker 3: cannot if your offensive line is bottom ten in the league.
Speaker 3: I don't care. If you've got Montana Rogers manning in there,
Speaker 3: probably that's a problem, right, And they got to figure
Speaker 3: that out. And I'm sure they are going to be
Speaker 3: claiming guys off the waiver. They're willing to make trades.
Speaker 3: But that that is to me, the current biggest problem
Speaker 3: for all a team that has the upside. If they
Speaker 3: had a good offensive line, I think everyone would pick
Speaker 3: them to be like an AFC contentment, Yeah, a real yeah, right,
Speaker 3: But if Rogers, who I was reading Peter King earlier,
Speaker 3: he's the oldest quarterback in the NFL by a pretty
Speaker 3: wide margin, right, He's about to turn forty. All the
Speaker 3: other guys, even the older guys Cousins and Daniel they're
Speaker 3: thirty five. It's Russell thirty three to thirty four. That's
Speaker 3: a pretty big gap. When we had a long stretch,
Speaker 3: you know, with the Eli, the Carson Palmers, the Peyton
Speaker 3: Manage the Obviously Tom's a little bit of an outlier,
Speaker 3: but guy Roethlisberger got Drew Brees thirty nine, and there
Speaker 3: are a ton of them now, he clearly is the oldest,
Speaker 3: and let's face it, and I don't blame him, and
Speaker 3: he saw this definitely last year with Tom and I
Speaker 3: think he kind of saw it for two years without.
Speaker 3: You don't want to get a hit anymore. You check
Speaker 3: your bank account, you got you know, nine figures, you're
Speaker 3: already a Hall of Famer. You want to win. But
Speaker 3: there is a level of I'm not going to get
Speaker 3: I'm not going to play like Archie Manning here and
Speaker 3: just get driven into the ground. Every play right, and
Speaker 3: you already kind of you know, if you watch Hard
Speaker 3: Knocks episode two, Rogers's and I don't blame him, I
Speaker 3: mean the offensive line, this is the pros. The expectations
Speaker 3: are high. We've invested a lot, we've we've drafted guys,
Speaker 3: but if they're not good enough. The thing in the NFL,
Speaker 3: this is not the NBA where you kind of suck.
Speaker 3: You will just bench a guy, you will remove a guy,
Speaker 3: You'll move other guys through. But that is that's probably
Speaker 3: the hardest position group to just running backs. I can
Speaker 3: rotate wide receivers, I can rotate DB's offensive line. If
Speaker 3: you've got a constant rotation, you probably got a you know,
Speaker 3: tire fire in well and the other thing.
Speaker 2: And I'm not a psychologist. But there is a reality
Speaker 2: is that if you're married, you have kids, your life's
Speaker 2: a series of sacrifices. I know, I live in that tunnel,
Speaker 2: you know, Aaron's and Kevin Durant, never married, no kids.
Speaker 2: He kind of gets his way a lot, right, so
Speaker 2: you know when when again, when stuff unravels for me,
Speaker 2: I got kids, I got a wife. I make sacrifices daily.
Speaker 2: It's just part of my existence. But you know, Eran's
Speaker 2: in that Durant tunnel where it's rich. He's the son
Speaker 2: in his galaxy, kind of gets his way, wants to
Speaker 2: take a nap, wants to go on a hunting trip,
Speaker 2: fishing trip. I had this thing years ago. I told
Speaker 2: a scout, I like my quarterbacks married, and he joked
Speaker 2: about it. He said, there's value in this is because
Speaker 2: when you're married, you get very responsible, very quickly. You
Speaker 2: have to learn to compartmentalize your life. School with the kids,
Speaker 2: recital practice, film, he goes. Single guys don't have to
Speaker 2: compartmentalize stuff. It all MUSHes together. What do I feel
Speaker 2: like doing whatever I want to do? And I said,
Speaker 2: I think quarterback being married. You know, most of the
Speaker 2: great ones, even ones that drove me nuts, Big Ben. Sometimes.
Speaker 2: He was married, he had kids, He had sort of
Speaker 2: a hierarchy of things, you know, a pattern of life.
Speaker 2: And I guess my point is, if shit goes sideways
Speaker 2: for Aaron, it didn't a lot in Green Bay. Most
Speaker 2: of it was Aaron inflicted and Aaron created. I mean,
Speaker 2: no chaos front office, good offensive lines, never whipped on drafts.
Speaker 2: Media was kind of in a sidecar. You know, they
Speaker 2: were your buddy. What I mean. The turbulence for Aaron
Speaker 2: in Green Bay was kind of Aaron created. He's never
Speaker 2: had it land in his lap, not of his own creation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely something to the
Speaker 3: way the scouting community, but just human beings, right, A
Speaker 3: lot of guys, even if you are career driven. I know,
Speaker 3: for me, up until about my mid thirties, I was
Speaker 3: always like, you know, no serious relationships. Last I'd say
Speaker 3: three or four years, I've been in two serious relationships,
Speaker 3: and I've gotten better at every aspect of my life.
Speaker 3: I've had to give up things that I used to
Speaker 3: be able to do. But you become more balanced, you
Speaker 3: become more relying on other people, they become more relyant
Speaker 3: on you. You drop bad habits, and like you said,
Speaker 3: Tom Brady when he played the best football of his
Speaker 3: life when he got married Gazelle for the next whatever decade, right,
Speaker 3: Peyton was married the whole time. So I think part
Speaker 3: of this just gets back to the Jets are just
Speaker 3: a not the most consistent organization and they have and
Speaker 3: this gets back to the difference between Sean Payton and Russell.
Speaker 3: Like this, if it doesn't go well, Robert Saul is
Speaker 3: going to get fired, right, Joe Douglas is in major trouble.
Speaker 3: That's just the way the sport works, right. If Aaron
Speaker 3: were to want them gone, they would go. This is
Speaker 3: where the other problem is, Like he's got way more
Speaker 3: juice than anyone in the organization now, and he's shown
Speaker 3: before he can be a little selfish, and he's doing
Speaker 3: all the right things. I am throw what we've seen
Speaker 3: out of Rogers. Clearly he's going above and beyond eating
Speaker 3: lunch with all these different guys every single day, coaching
Speaker 3: the defensive acts up like I think he understands it.
Speaker 3: But like you said earlier, it's easy to do when
Speaker 3: everything's going well off season, start one to three and
Speaker 3: everyone talking shit about you everywhere. You look, because all
Speaker 3: of a sudden you start slowing the AFC. There is
Speaker 3: no making up for it, right none. The volume