Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: This is prime Cuts, the best of mccollin Coward podcast.
Speaker 2: Nick Right and I had a wild conversation bunch of topics,
Speaker 2: boldest Week one NFL predictions to UFOs, my go to
Speaker 2: Cowboy insider Matt Mosley said, why this training camp is
Speaker 2: absolutely different than others. John Middlecoff stops by. We discuss
Speaker 2: why he's very bullish on Aaron Rodgers. But first my
Speaker 2: top takes so Sean Payton fires at Nathaniel Hackett day
Speaker 2: later regrets saying it and apologizes. Aaron Rodgers talking to
Speaker 2: Peter Schrager fires back at Sean Payton, calls him insecure
Speaker 2: and should keep his favorite coach's name out of his mouth.
Speaker 2: This is good, old fashioned nineteen eighty five media, before
Speaker 2: everybody was terrified to be canceled and criticized, and the
Speaker 2: avalanche that follows this happened all the time. People were outspoken.
Speaker 2: Buddy Ryan would rip Mike Ditka, Buddy Ryan would rip
Speaker 2: Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson would rip Buddy Ryan, and it
Speaker 2: was wildly entertaining. But there's so much money in sports
Speaker 2: now everybody's afraid to lose their position, their job, their tenure.
Speaker 2: Their gig. Sean Payton was in one of those moods,
Speaker 2: an intense guy said something he regretted. The day later,
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers defended his coach. I loved both Peyton's willingness
Speaker 2: to offend and Aaron Rodgers' tenacity on defending Nathaniel Hackett.
Speaker 2: I think Hackett from what I've been told many of
Speaker 2: my contemporaries, I've got a lot of sources in the league.
Speaker 2: Hackett's one of the nicest guys in the league. Good dad,
Speaker 2: good father, wonderful guy. Just doesn't have an edge, doesn't
Speaker 2: have a bite to him, and you kind of sort
Speaker 2: of have to have that.
Speaker 3: I mean, the five.
Speaker 2: Best head coaches in my lifetime, I think a Walsh
Speaker 2: and Belichick and Andy Reid and Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells,
Speaker 2: they've all got an edge. Bill Walsh had a bite,
Speaker 2: Andy Reid had a bite. We all know Belichick, Parcels
Speaker 2: and Jimmy Johnson had a bite. Hackett doesn't. He's a coordinator.
Speaker 2: He's a position coach. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Speaker 2: Kyle Shanahan was a great coordinator, became a great coach.
Speaker 2: Dan Quinn's a great coordinator, tried the coaching, Okay, probably
Speaker 2: gets a second chance. We don't know if he's a
Speaker 2: great head coach. We know he's a great coordinator defensively
Speaker 2: with the Cowboys, with Atlanta, with Seattle, or with the
Speaker 2: Cowboys and Seattle before he got the Falcons. Gig So
Speaker 2: I like these little whizzing matches media scrums. I think
Speaker 2: they're healthy. I think they're fun. Nobody gets hurt, and
Speaker 2: the winner is you and me and the consumer. When
Speaker 2: we lose is when people are terrified to be authentic
Speaker 2: and afraid to be honest. I've been doing radio for
Speaker 2: thirty years, almost almost thirty years, twenty five years. I'm
Speaker 2: on the air live. Some things I say don't come
Speaker 2: out right. Some things I say are a little harsh.
Speaker 2: Some things aren't as funny as I think. It's an
Speaker 2: imperfect world. You take some big swings. It's not edited.
Speaker 2: Not every time you ask a quarterback or a coach
Speaker 2: and opinion, it should be fully edited. I don't want
Speaker 2: PR people around it. Peyton didn't have a PR person
Speaker 2: around him, and Aaron Rodgers didn't have a PR person
Speaker 2: around him, and it was really really interesting raw content
Speaker 2: loved them both. I kind of feel like First round
Speaker 2: quarterback picks fall into three categories. The first is the
Speaker 2: most ideal. You got yourself a star justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Mahomes,
Speaker 2: Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, And in most cases you can
Speaker 2: identify it even if they're not playing Mahomes, even if
Speaker 2: they've got some growth needed Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. So
Speaker 2: that's ideal. We know who those guys are. Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 2: bad first year, you knew he was a star. The
Speaker 2: second one is he's not going to be a franchise
Speaker 2: quarterback for us, but can we salvage the first round
Speaker 2: pick show him off? The third is we got to
Speaker 2: miss So I think Trey Lance and Zach Wilson are
Speaker 2: both in category two. I don't think Trey Lance will
Speaker 2: ever be the starting quarterback answer for the Niners, nor
Speaker 2: will Zach Wilson ever be the starting quarterback answer for
Speaker 2: the Jets. I think Aaron's around for two or three years.
Speaker 2: I think they're both in the salvage stage and the
Speaker 2: showoff stage. If I was the Niners, I would play
Speaker 2: Trey Lance a ton in the preseason, and I would
Speaker 2: set him up for success. I'd use a couple of
Speaker 2: starting offensive linemen, use some of your starters briefly or
Speaker 2: top backups. Make him look good, get a fourth round pick.
Speaker 2: I've been watching this league forever, so of you. There's
Speaker 2: always seven teams, six teams, eight teams at the bottom
Speaker 2: that by the trade deadline can use a quarterback, especially
Speaker 2: a young one. I think Zach Wilson's in the same spot.
Speaker 2: He'll never be the franchise quarterback. Size, style, lack of
Speaker 2: self awareness. He's got what Lance doesn't, a world class arm.
Speaker 2: But I think Trey is probably a more mature guy.
Speaker 2: So if I was a Jets, I would play Zach
Speaker 2: Wilson every available snap. I think Zach Wilson has the
Speaker 2: talent in the arm. It fooled Joe Douglas and many others.
Speaker 2: Somebody will give him a run, especially a team at
Speaker 2: the trade deadline. Maybe that's off to like a three
Speaker 2: and three start, and they're looking at it thinking, listen,
Speaker 2: the GM and the coach may get fired if they
Speaker 2: don't make the playoffs. You find a team that says,
Speaker 2: we got to go for it. I think it's very
Speaker 2: possible you could move Zach Wilson at the trade deadline.
Speaker 2: He's had moments and games that have been impressive. Trey
Speaker 2: Lance really necessarily hasn't, so I think you have to
Speaker 2: take a flyer on him. But Tray's a good guy,
Speaker 2: quick learner, big body moves well. Salvag Jim So. I
Speaker 2: think for Trey Lance and Zach Wilson. I thought last
Speaker 2: year's biggest story in the preseason at quarterback was Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 2: and by the end of the year I was impressed
Speaker 2: with Kenny Pickett. I think Trey Lanson, Zach Wilson. I'm
Speaker 2: interested to watch their preseasons. Sean McVay changed preseason for
Speaker 2: the best or worst, depending on how you look at it.
Speaker 2: Nobody plays their stars, nobody plays their starters. But I
Speaker 2: think Trey Lance and Zach Wilson are really interesting stories.
Speaker 2: Maybe not traded now, but they're in the salvage stage.
Speaker 2: Somebody's going to probably by the trade deadline, a three
Speaker 2: and three team loses a starter. I can see somebody
Speaker 2: rolling the dice. I mean, let's be honest. If you've
Speaker 2: quarterback with Kyle Shanahan, a lot of people will say, man,
Speaker 2: you bring all that intellectual offensive capital to our franchise.
Speaker 2: You could sell that. You could sell that to a coach.
Speaker 2: All right, we bring on Nick Wright. First things first
Speaker 2: this podcast What's Right with Nick Wright? So first of all.
Speaker 3: First of all, I'm interrupting you.
Speaker 4: First of all, since you keep making fun of my hair,
Speaker 4: I pulled it back where I got a ponytail just
Speaker 4: for you, because you keep making fun of my hair
Speaker 4: on television.
Speaker 3: It's very hurtful.
Speaker 4: And I listened back to our previous podcast, which was
Speaker 4: the first one I had done with you. While I
Speaker 4: was drinking. I drank a couple of glasses of wine
Speaker 4: while we were talking. I thought it was outstanding. So
Speaker 4: now I've upped it to a nice glass of Lobos tequila.
Speaker 4: Shout out to our friends at Lobos. So you're always
Speaker 4: drinking during these pods. I know that I know what
Speaker 4: a little sauce collin sounds like, so I figure this
Speaker 4: should be dynamite.
Speaker 3: But now go ahead.
Speaker 2: Hey, I saw Oppenheim on Sunday night. Have you seen
Speaker 2: it yet?
Speaker 3: So I have not.
Speaker 4: I'm I was trying to get someone in my family
Speaker 4: to go with me, but it's three hours long. No
Speaker 4: one will go with me, so I'm gonna have to
Speaker 4: go by myself. But I want to see so I
Speaker 4: want to see Oppenheimer, and you know my favorite movie trilogy,
Speaker 4: you know, multi series is.
Speaker 3: Mission Impossible the same.
Speaker 4: And I haven't seen Mission Impossible yet either, because I'm
Speaker 4: such a nerd. When I knew it was coming out,
Speaker 4: I had to rewatch the whole six leading up to
Speaker 4: it to really fully prepare, and so I finished that
Speaker 4: this weekend. So I know everyone was talking about doing
Speaker 4: a Barbie Oppenheimer double feature. I want to do a
Speaker 4: Mission Impossible Oppenheimer double feature and just be blacked out
Speaker 4: for seven hours.
Speaker 3: Be amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm the same way. You know, Tom Cruise
Speaker 2: is fascinating that he basically has saved theaters and now,
Speaker 2: I mean for about seven years. He's the last great
Speaker 2: movie star. And because of the scientology, a lot of people,
Speaker 2: my wife included, are just out just will not even
Speaker 2: consider talking about him. But he is really really interesting
Speaker 2: in that he's been very real about his beliefs on
Speaker 2: psychology and scientology, and that authentic belief has not at
Speaker 2: all hurt him in the theater. So it's interesting it's
Speaker 2: not hurting him at all. It hurts his reputation, but
Speaker 2: people could easily cancel or protest him and many hate him.
Speaker 2: And my takeaway is, if this is how popular he
Speaker 2: is with scientology, how popular would he be or is
Speaker 2: Scientology like Twitter that story that it's like one percent
Speaker 2: of people actually care about it?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it also he this is going to
Speaker 4: sound I don't know, this might be bad. He was
Speaker 4: almost grandfathered in as call him an odd guy or four.
Speaker 4: People started getting really under the microscope for stuff, and
Speaker 4: so it would have It feels like if he would
Speaker 4: have come out with all of the things that we
Speaker 4: learned about him twenty years ago, eighteen months ago, it
Speaker 4: maybe could have gone really bad for him. But we've
Speaker 4: known this about Tom Cruise for so long. Yeah, nobody.
Speaker 4: People cared briefly and then didn't. And he is a
Speaker 4: such a dynamite talent, and that I think people I
Speaker 4: think people typically can separate the art from the artists
Speaker 4: to a degree like that, and then it's some there's
Speaker 4: different lines for different people and then there so for
Speaker 4: for a long time I would have told you my
Speaker 4: favorite musician ever was Kanye Kanye, and there was at
Speaker 4: no you know, for a long time Kanye was odd
Speaker 4: or a little annoying or whatever, and then at some
Speaker 4: point he went to me six steps beyond the pale
Speaker 4: and the art. To me, the music got considerably worse,
Speaker 4: and I'm like.
Speaker 3: Not, you know what I mean, I'm not worth it.
Speaker 4: Tom Cruise is still awesome in every movie he makes
Speaker 4: and has been like the same level of weird guy
Speaker 4: since I was a kid. It feels like, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, how long ago was he jumping on
Speaker 4: Oprah's couch? Twenty five years ago?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And so yeah there.
Speaker 4: I mean, there aren't very many movie stars like you know,
Speaker 4: Will Smith and Tom Cruise probably the two biggest movie stars.
Speaker 4: Will Smith not exactly a normal fella up there punching
Speaker 4: people at the oscars like so, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Well, it does prove that mostly the noise doesn't matter Cruise,
Speaker 2: and Cruise is the most criticized actor in Hollywood for
Speaker 2: his personal views has zero impact. And that and that
Speaker 2: you and I have discussed this. It really doesn't matter
Speaker 2: what people say about you on social media. You either
Speaker 2: create a show that's entertaining or you don't. Nobody cares
Speaker 2: it just they don't care.
Speaker 4: It is so and this I think where it matters
Speaker 4: is if the people let it affect them. I think
Speaker 4: that I think it becomes somewhat almost circular in that.
Speaker 4: I think the folks who get criticized by the anonymous
Speaker 4: masses and then it changes how they act or what
Speaker 4: they do, then it does matter, because then they're not
Speaker 4: You're not getting the same person.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 4: Like, for instance, we talked about Anon Rodgers on your
Speaker 4: show and on my show today. Where I will give
Speaker 4: him credit is he for a guy who who historically
Speaker 4: I think was quite thin skinned, he has not. He
Speaker 4: has leaned into some of the non football things that
Speaker 4: he has been heavily criticized for and not run from
Speaker 4: it at all and simply said, yeah, I think my
Speaker 4: biggest critics are the people who could benefit the most
Speaker 4: from the things I do. Like I said that to
Speaker 4: Peter King, he was like one of his favorite lines.
Speaker 4: And again I'll give him credit for this. It's a
Speaker 4: smart line, and I think there is some wisdom to it.
Speaker 4: He says, I wish people were less judgmental and more curious.
Speaker 4: And you know, so I don't judge him for the
Speaker 4: ayahuasca or the Darkness retreat. I think some of his
Speaker 4: views on modern medicine are potentially dangerous, and.
Speaker 3: I'm not a big fan of that. But he does
Speaker 3: not run from that.
Speaker 4: And because he doesn't run from it, like, how much
Speaker 4: can it actually affect him?
Speaker 3: And the answer is not really much at all.
Speaker 2: You are puzzled or dismayed by the lack of UFO coverage,
Speaker 2: And yeah, so I first of all, do not believe
Speaker 2: in UFOs. I think what happens is much like cell
Speaker 2: phone technology, where like Norway was ahead of us. We
Speaker 2: don't always have the best ideas. That's first of all.
Speaker 2: There are people that have like this whole thing about
Speaker 2: no exhaust. If there was exhaust with any of these
Speaker 2: Pentagon pieces of video, then we would know it's not
Speaker 2: outside the galaxy. Is it possible that some other country,
Speaker 2: by the way, like China doesn't treat its citizens well,
Speaker 2: they spend every penny on weaponry. Is it possible that
Speaker 2: a Russia or a China, a non ally went out
Speaker 2: and created it ahead of us. Yeah, that's the first thing.
Speaker 2: Second of all, there are so many satellites in the
Speaker 2: air now, many of them Elon Musk created. There's just
Speaker 2: more in the sky, more moving, more blinking, and it's
Speaker 2: very easy for something like even a plane going overhead
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. I will sit there, have a cigar
Speaker 2: and show my wife and be like, what is that?
Speaker 2: And then she's like after ten minutes, she's like, oh, oh,
Speaker 2: it's a helicopter. So I think there's two things. People
Speaker 2: could be ahead of us, and there's just more crap
Speaker 2: in the sky. It would also help if one legitimate person,
Speaker 2: you know, like Bill Clinton, came out and said, yeah,
Speaker 2: we got UFOs. It's always like a whistleblower who heard
Speaker 2: from another whistle blower. So that's my take. Now I
Speaker 2: want you to take from there. You do believe in UFOs?
Speaker 1: Apparently?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: Hold on.
Speaker 4: Oh wait, I want to be very clear about what.
Speaker 3: I believe in.
Speaker 4: I if I am not a deeply religious person, and
Speaker 4: I feel like it's almost man, if you're not a
Speaker 4: religious person, then it is just almost logically impossible that
Speaker 4: we are the only intelligent life for him in a
Speaker 4: universe that the expanse of it is, it's beyond our
Speaker 4: own mental comprehension. There are more stars in the sky
Speaker 4: than there are grains of sand on every beach in
Speaker 4: the world. So there are trillions of stars in the sky.
Speaker 4: Our sun is just one of them.
Speaker 3: So the expanse of it.
Speaker 4: So I do I believe there's intelligent life for them
Speaker 4: out there past us.
Speaker 3: Of course I do. It's impossible to not believe that.
Speaker 4: Now that is a giant leap from there to they
Speaker 4: have visited us, and they've stopped by, and there's you know,
Speaker 4: they u Oposa landed.
Speaker 3: I don't know that I believe that.
Speaker 4: What was so concerning to me was not that I'm
Speaker 4: convinced aliens are here. What was concerning to me is
Speaker 4: the United States Congress had a hearing. The people testifying
Speaker 4: were from the Navy, from other branches of the military.
Speaker 3: They were not some.
Speaker 4: Wackad, do you know what I mean, coming out of
Speaker 4: off a bender.
Speaker 3: They seemed to be like reputable people.
Speaker 4: They clearly believed that they had either seen or had
Speaker 4: some contact. Again, they could be wrong. Their testimony didn't
Speaker 4: didn't concern What concerned me was, No one cared. What
Speaker 4: concerned me was. I went the next day to the
Speaker 4: New York Times homepage. It was not I scrolled to
Speaker 4: the bottom column. There wasn't a fucking store. It wasn't there.
Speaker 4: They had a long thing about the Appalachian Trail. They
Speaker 4: had three articles on Trump, two on Ukraine. They had
Speaker 4: they had they had two, they had columns about diversity,
Speaker 4: equity and inclusion programs. All of this nothing on our congress.
Speaker 4: People interviewed our military, they said, we have the UFOs
Speaker 4: or UAPs as they called him. Didn't have an article
Speaker 4: on their front page. I went to the Washington Post.
Speaker 4: It's like, all right, maybe the Times is late. I
Speaker 4: don't know. Washingt poasts had one article. The headline was
Speaker 4: Congress hears that UAPs have visited Earth. Americans react met
Speaker 4: and I'm like, this is not I'm not saying the
Speaker 4: movies a real life, but I watched Independance Day as
Speaker 4: a kid, and you know what was reassuring about that
Speaker 4: was not that Will Smith was going to kick the
Speaker 4: alien's ass, but it was the aliens showed up and
Speaker 4: everybody came together, was like, this is an existential threat.
Speaker 4: We all need to set everything aside and unite. So
Speaker 4: what scared me was it seemed to be a bit
Speaker 4: of a Canarian the coal mine for do we as
Speaker 4: a general public have the capability anymore if something major
Speaker 4: were to happen, to set everything down, to turn off,
Speaker 4: like to get off our apps, to stop yelling at
Speaker 4: each other and be like, oh, we all need to
Speaker 4: pay attention and pull together for a common good, and
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: That we can't.
Speaker 4: I saw it was the same thing that the The Times.
Speaker 3: I think it was The Times this morning.
Speaker 4: It might not have been The Times rather the most
Speaker 4: street journal I don't know, but one of their polling
Speaker 4: one of the major reputable polling things, ask the question
Speaker 4: is it hotter than normal this summer? And the answer,
Speaker 4: whether you said yes or no, lined up directly with
Speaker 4: your political affiliation, and I'm like, oh, we might just
Speaker 4: be fucked here. Like even it's like, hey, what's the
Speaker 4: weather like? And the answer is, well, how do you vote?
Speaker 4: Because it's say, it's hot, seems awful liberal and saying
Speaker 4: that feels the same is awful conservative.
Speaker 3: And that's and so people. So That's what It.
Speaker 4: Wasn't so much that I'm convinced aliens are here. It
Speaker 4: was if we get the you know, the alarms go off,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, the President of the United
Speaker 4: States is on TV and is like, there's an asteroid
Speaker 4: it's seventy two days away from hitting us. Would we
Speaker 4: all be like, all right, everybody stop, how are we
Speaker 4: gonna fit?
Speaker 3: How are we gonna fix this?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Or would we spend the first sixty eight days
Speaker 4: being like, that's fease full of it. No, he's not
Speaker 4: full of it and just yelling at each other. That's
Speaker 4: what concerned me about the thing. Do we still have
Speaker 4: the capability to pay attention to important things and come together?
Speaker 3: And I don't.
Speaker 2: I'm not convinced we do, so I'm going to ask you.
Speaker 2: But there's going to be an up seven week one
Speaker 2: that is a shocker. I'm gonna tell you mine, and
Speaker 2: then there's gonna be a team that's a shocker. So
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you my upset. Shane Steiken goes to Indy.
Speaker 2: We don't know what the hell that offense is going
Speaker 2: to look like in Anthony Richardson. Jacksonville has got some
Speaker 2: new pieces, Calvin Ridley. They come in very confident as
Speaker 2: a heavy favorite. It's a division rival game on the road,
Speaker 2: and we have no idea what Shane Steiken, who with
Speaker 2: Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts turned him into superstars, is
Speaker 2: that the Colts are going to upset the Jags in
Speaker 2: week one. Colts are not a good team, but you
Speaker 2: can be good for three hours in Week one when
Speaker 2: the locker room is still convinced you're a really good team.
Speaker 2: Bad teams have a lot of fight for about five
Speaker 2: weeks until they're zero to five or one and four.
Speaker 2: So my upset of the week, I'm going to go
Speaker 2: with it Colts shock the world and beat Jacksonville. What's yours?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 4: So I don't think that's terrible. I obviously love the
Speaker 4: Jags this year and Trevor Lawrence if I were to
Speaker 4: pick a major Week one upset again, even though I
Speaker 4: do not believe in this team or this quarterback at all,
Speaker 4: with a whole off season to prepare with the real
Speaker 4: thing that is a Super Bowl hangover, is it impossible
Speaker 4: to believe Bill Belichick and the Patriots at home beat Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: That's not impossible to believe that, and people freak out
Speaker 4: and Philly will be fine.
Speaker 3: They have too much talent, you know.
Speaker 4: And I don't think New England's gonna be any good,
Speaker 4: Like I shouldn't say any good. They're not going to
Speaker 4: be a really good team. But that's that. I certainly like,
Speaker 4: here's the thing, that's the Patriots getting five at home,
Speaker 4: and that to me feels like that there's real value
Speaker 4: there in the Patriots money line, because if that maybe
Speaker 4: they lose by twenty one, and it's like, oh, Mac
Speaker 4: is not going to be good the Patriots, you know whatever.
Speaker 4: But if that's close, they can win that game. One
Speaker 4: thousand percent they can win that game. And for Philadelphia
Speaker 4: there is the the I think the real hurdle of
Speaker 4: everything is going to feel a little slow motion. Ye
Speaker 4: until later in the year, and you might eat which
Speaker 4: wouldn't exist if they were in the AFC. There is,
Speaker 4: as you were doing earlier, in a different way, the
Speaker 4: sense of urgency of there's too many good, goddamn quarterbacks, like,
Speaker 4: we better not screw around here, because there's going to
Speaker 4: be some great quarterbacks that are on our heels or
Speaker 4: ahead of us. In the NFC, the Eagles got to
Speaker 4: be like, Okay, there's US, there's San Francisco, there's Dallas,
Speaker 4: and then who are we talking about? A Vikings team
Speaker 4: who we annihilated last year and then fell, you know?
Speaker 4: So I think I think that that would be a
Speaker 4: Week one upset. Again, I haven't really dove into this entirely.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to look at the other ones that would
Speaker 4: make sense go ahead.
Speaker 2: So I think we both picked one because that was
Speaker 2: my second choice. By the way, that was my really yeah,
Speaker 2: oh fun. Okay, now you have to have a wow
Speaker 2: prediction on a team, Okay, like somebody's gonna shock us.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna argue Carolina. So I think Frank Reich is
Speaker 2: really good. They built an excellent staff. It's a bad division.
Speaker 2: I don't trust the coach of the Saints. They have
Speaker 2: an excellent front seven. The corners are good but beat
Speaker 2: up that are now healthy. They ran the ball effectively
Speaker 2: last year. The O line is young and emerging, and
Speaker 2: Bryce Young is really smart and capable. He may have
Speaker 2: a lower ceiling, but he'll be good in week one.
Speaker 2: I think week one, Week two, week three, you're gonna
Speaker 2: look at Carolina and you forget last year that defense
Speaker 2: was nasty. I think Carolina has a chance to win
Speaker 2: their division.
Speaker 1: That is my wild pick.
Speaker 3: Okay, So.
Speaker 4: My only antie on that is I don't like tiny
Speaker 4: football players, and Bryce Young is tiny. That's my concern.
Speaker 4: It just a general belief of just so. I'm not
Speaker 4: going to tell you the team, but if I were
Speaker 4: to tell you, a team's first handful of games are
Speaker 4: against the Bears, Falcons, Saints, Lions, Raiders, Broncos. That is
Speaker 4: their first what was that five six games green Bay,
Speaker 4: could they get out to a great start. I think
Speaker 4: the answer is yes. I think that that team is
Speaker 4: there is going to be a bit of a deep
Speaker 4: breath sigh of relief that the Aaron Rodgers stuff is
Speaker 4: just done with do I think there is going to
Speaker 4: be a real chip on their shoulder of.
Speaker 3: Man, this guy sure love.
Speaker 4: It's almost the the the person who's you know, spouse
Speaker 4: left them and then you see that the spouse and
Speaker 4: you know is giving interviews some about how in love
Speaker 4: they are with their new person, like, hey, I was
Speaker 4: great to you, like and like a little bit of
Speaker 4: oh really.
Speaker 3: I think Lafoor is a good coach.
Speaker 4: I think that division is open in this regard.
Speaker 3: I think the Vikings are good. I think the Lions
Speaker 3: are good. I don't think there's a great team and
Speaker 3: the Lions, you know, everyone gas to the floor on
Speaker 3: the Lions concerns me a bit. So I think green
Speaker 3: Bay being you know, a nine win, ten win team
Speaker 3: and maybe finding a way into the playoffs because in
Speaker 3: the NFC finding seven playoff teams is not easy. So
Speaker 3: I think Green Bay is a viable thing. I want
Speaker 3: to kind of turn it on its head. Because everybody.
Speaker 3: I shouldn't say everybody. People talk a lot about who's
Speaker 3: going to be the team that jumps up and shocks people.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh man, they're good.
Speaker 4: We rarely put out there who's the team everyone thinks
Speaker 4: is going to be good that is going to fall
Speaker 4: flat on its face. I think it's going to be
Speaker 4: the Jets. I think that people have and the Jets
Speaker 4: it's the exact, by the way, same reason. The Broncos
Speaker 4: were my pick for that last year, and I was right.
Speaker 4: But it's a lot of the same recipe. A wide
Speaker 4: receiver corps that is wildly being all of a sudden overrated.
Speaker 4: People last year we're talking about the Bronx are like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, all these weapons, and I'm like, I
Speaker 4: like Jerry Judy, fine, but in the wide receiver position
Speaker 4: has never been better than it is right now. He's
Speaker 4: not even close to one of the ten best in
Speaker 4: the league. And then I and then it was like,
Speaker 4: oh no, all these guys. People are talking about the
Speaker 4: Jets weapons like they're great. Garrett Wilson had an awesome
Speaker 4: rookie year. Okay, Alan Lazard was a below average number
Speaker 4: two with Green Bay last year. Hardman's their three. And
Speaker 4: so if we're talking about weapons just in the AFC,
Speaker 4: Cincinnati's is better. The Chargers are better, the Dolphins are better.
Speaker 4: I would argue the Raiders are better. The Bills are
Speaker 4: right in line with them. So we're so they're running
Speaker 4: backs coming off in ACL, they're two. They have two
Speaker 4: left tackles. One has barely played two years because of injury.
Speaker 4: The other is thirty eight years old, literally thirty eight
Speaker 4: years old. And Dwayne Brown. I don't think the coach
Speaker 4: is great the Jets. And also the other thing for
Speaker 4: the Jets is while the end of the year is
Speaker 4: very soft, how are the Jets, who are, keep in mind,
Speaker 4: on a six game losing streak from last year, going
Speaker 4: to react if they start?
Speaker 3: What are they going to start? When it is.
Speaker 4: Bills, Cowboys, Patriots, Chiefs and all of a sudden, big
Speaker 4: game against the Broncos, then Eagles. That first six games,
Speaker 4: you have the Bills, the Cowboys, the Chiefs, and the Eagles,
Speaker 4: and your easy games are the Patriots who have beaten
Speaker 4: you for seven years in a row every single time,
Speaker 4: and then the Broncos that all of a sudden is
Speaker 4: a blood feud because your dear friend Sean Payton went
Speaker 4: to scorch tarth on him. Yeah, that is not an
Speaker 4: easy opening set. So I think the Jets are the
Speaker 4: team that is not going to meet expectations.
Speaker 3: This was fun.
Speaker 2: We did an hour almost we did fifty.
Speaker 4: You got to think about which team's gonna sometime, either
Speaker 4: on the volume or on the show.
Speaker 3: You don't have to tell me now.
Speaker 2: I think Philadelphia is going to be good, but nine
Speaker 2: win good, not thirteen win good. I think they're gonna
Speaker 2: be in a dog fight with Dallas for the title.
Speaker 2: I think they're pulling back. And by the way Shane
Speaker 2: Stiken leaves, they lost multiple linebackers O lines getting Yeah,
Speaker 2: they oh line's old, still good, but it's older. They
Speaker 2: faced a conveyor belt of awful quarterbacks, I mean awful, terrible,
Speaker 2: and then they got to brought pretty break in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: It's like, and every good quarterback after Week two lit
Speaker 4: them up, every single one.
Speaker 2: My takeaway is Philadelphia is really good, but they don't
Speaker 2: feel like the Bully, you know, the broad Street Bully,
Speaker 2: that former Flyers team.
Speaker 3: They don't like.
Speaker 2: Last year they were beating teams like a college team,
Speaker 2: beating teams by thirty. I think they're going to be
Speaker 2: in a lot of close games. I think Dallas can
Speaker 2: line up with them. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 2: teams that can line up with them. And I think
Speaker 2: Jalen Hurts is terrific, but I think he'll pull back
Speaker 2: and I think he'll have to play from behind occasionally.
Speaker 2: I mean, I love Jalen, but good God, when you
Speaker 2: play with a twenty point lead in the second quarter,
Speaker 2: it's just a different environment than trailing late in the third.
Speaker 2: It's a different position. So I think Philadelphia is good,
Speaker 2: but doesn't look nearly as good as last year.
Speaker 3: I think that's the I buy the way. I by
Speaker 3: the way, I agree with.
Speaker 4: That I I am. I'm gonna say this, hold on.
Speaker 4: You can keep this in, but don't have your people
Speaker 4: put this specific thing on social This is a special
Speaker 4: thing for you, for me, to you, for the people
Speaker 4: that made it. At the end of the podcast, I
Speaker 4: am ninety percent sure. I'm obviously picking the Chiefs in
Speaker 4: the AFC. It's gonna be hard to pick against a
Speaker 4: team that's literally gonna go win three straight Super Bowls.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna go ahead and go with them.
Speaker 4: In the NFC, I I really think I'm picking Dallas
Speaker 4: like I don't think the Niners like I just I
Speaker 4: don't think the Niners can. You can't just have nobody's
Speaker 4: at quarterback for every year and just have it worked.
Speaker 4: At some point, it's got to just bite you. And
Speaker 4: the fact that your guy Mike Silver's like, hey, Trey Lance,
Speaker 4: he's throwing one hundred and twenty passes.
Speaker 3: They might cut him. I'm like, are you what's and man?
Speaker 4: And and Shanahan's like, hey, I'll turn Sam Darnold into
Speaker 4: Steve Young. I'm like, Okay, I picked the Niners who
Speaker 4: go to Super Bowl last year. I'm not doing it
Speaker 4: this year. So I'm doing the Niners. And the Eagles
Speaker 4: I thought were a good but not great team last
Speaker 4: year that got hot. Had you know they had more
Speaker 4: Saxony teams since eighty five Bears? They going to duplicate that.
Speaker 4: I don't think. So the quarterback thing is real. So
Speaker 4: if it's not nine Ers Eagles, who is it? Like?
Speaker 3: Literally, am I picking Gino Smith to go to the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl?
Speaker 4: No? Am I picking Jared Golf to go to the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl? No Am I picking Kirk Cousins. No, I
Speaker 4: know it's become very in vogue to say Justin Fields
Speaker 4: one of the five best quarterbacks in football. I'd like
Speaker 4: to see him play five great quarters before I'm ready
Speaker 4: to say that.
Speaker 3: So, so we're running.
Speaker 4: Out of teams. I think I'm gonna pick the Cowboys,
Speaker 4: which is so weird because I'm not the corner of
Speaker 4: people in sports media that are either I feel like
Speaker 4: eighty five percent of sports media is well established pro
Speaker 4: or anti Cowboys, and then there's a handful of you
Speaker 4: me a couple others that's like, ah, I you know,
Speaker 4: I find them interesting, but I don't love them.
Speaker 3: Or hate them.
Speaker 4: But I think I'm going to pick them to go
Speaker 4: to the Super Bowl. I just think I am. I
Speaker 4: just I'm running out of sea in the NFC signing
Speaker 4: Chiefs Cowboys Super Bowl, highest rated ever, Mahomes going for
Speaker 4: back to back Cowboys and for the further it would
Speaker 4: be uh Dyan Chiefs going for twenty and oh versus
Speaker 4: the Cowboys, Oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 2: All right, My guy, Matt Mosley Doomsday podcast with Ed Order.
Speaker 2: He's been embedded with the Cowboys and Oxnard. It's hot
Speaker 2: as you know what in California. We usually first of all,
Speaker 2: it rained like Seattle in the winter, and now it
Speaker 2: feels like Louisiana in the summer. It's humid and hot.
Speaker 2: So what you know, You've been to so many of
Speaker 2: these things. This feel like just another one. No, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I have been to a lot of them.
Speaker 2: And by the way, nobody cares about any southern California
Speaker 2: heat wave. I landed back in Dallas at one oh five.
Speaker 5: All right, It was one oh one at about nine
Speaker 5: o'clock when I landed, about one hundred or.
Speaker 1: Something like that. Oh yeah, so speaking a hundred.
Speaker 5: I just came from my grandmother's one hundredth birthday celebration.
Speaker 5: All right, Wow, Francis Hendricks Lawrence has turned one hundred.
Speaker 5: So pretty neat, pretty neat.
Speaker 1: What's the secret to her life? Boy, it's been a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of clean living.
Speaker 5: Involved in that church secretary for many many years, had
Speaker 5: about a twenty five year run there. But just she
Speaker 5: comes from a long line of people who live a
Speaker 5: long time. And when my grandfather passed away, I don't know,
Speaker 5: sixteen seventeen years ago, just never missed a beat. It
Speaker 5: was just kind of like, you know what, I got
Speaker 5: to keep rolling here, and so as of today even.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's just she was the bell of the ball.
Speaker 5: Everybody came, you know, she had something to say to everybody.
Speaker 5: She knew who everybody was, and so it's pretty pretty
Speaker 5: awesome to watch and we're extremely fortunate.
Speaker 2: So how does this camp feel different?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: I think the McCarthy thing makes it different. With the
Speaker 5: play calling, He's handling himself in a different manner than
Speaker 5: when I've been around him. And I think Jerry with
Speaker 5: each passing year and Jerry's into his eighties now, I
Speaker 5: think Jerry sometimes has a little bit different way about him.
Speaker 5: I don't want to call it an edge, really, but Jerry,
Speaker 5: for one of the first times that I can recall,
Speaker 5: was all business at the State of the Union addressed
Speaker 5: to start. You know, he's generally known for saying something
Speaker 5: off the wall in that in that setting, and he
Speaker 5: didn't even make an opening statement. I mean, we're all set,
Speaker 5: you know, we're set up to hear him talk before
Speaker 5: anybody ask a question for at least twenty minutes, and
Speaker 5: literally they just started the news conference and he said, okay,
Speaker 5: let's go, let's go some questions.
Speaker 1: What do y'all have?
Speaker 5: So there's all it's I think it's hard to have
Speaker 5: a sense of urgency. There are better places to have
Speaker 5: a since an urgency than in Auxnard because of where
Speaker 5: we're used to being and how it feels and how
Speaker 5: much nicer it is and the surroundings and everything. But
Speaker 5: I mean McCarthy met with his player counsel the night
Speaker 5: before that State of the Union and got a vibe that,
Speaker 5: I mean, the team sort of has a little hedge
Speaker 5: and they don't even have the pads on yet.
Speaker 1: Pads come on tomorrow.
Speaker 5: So to me, there was a little more edginess from
Speaker 5: the team To start a training camp. It's usually very
Speaker 5: laid back, not much going on, and I think they've
Speaker 5: since that, you know, a couple of twelve wins seasons,
Speaker 5: not being able to get by San Francisco, Like if
Speaker 5: they're ever going to do it, like.
Speaker 1: It almost has to be this season.
Speaker 2: Well, Zach Martin, tenth year in Dallas, eight time All
Speaker 2: Pro Jerry said, I'm not budgeting on the contract. This
Speaker 2: is one of the rare times I support Jerry. They
Speaker 2: made him the highest paid guard when he signed. He
Speaker 2: was for many of the years of his contract. He
Speaker 2: has made more money than any guard in the NFL,
Speaker 2: that's been in the league for ten years, and he's
Speaker 2: got a couple of years left on his contract. And
Speaker 2: you know, Patrick Mahomes right now is the seventh highest
Speaker 2: paid quarterback. Is do you think that's a I don't
Speaker 2: think Jerry should budge, but do you think this could
Speaker 2: get ugly surly?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: Because Zach is not really he's not up to that.
Speaker 5: Zeke was willing a few years ago to stare Jerry down,
Speaker 5: and Znac doesn't have that in him. And I'm not
Speaker 5: even saying what Zeke did was wrong. Zeke did it
Speaker 5: because he knew his value. And the Cowboys cratered. They
Speaker 5: know they don't have to. I mean, like you know,
Speaker 5: if Zach truly didn't show up, I mean, that's that's
Speaker 5: a big problem. You can't start the season without your
Speaker 5: all pro right guard. I mean, they don't really have
Speaker 5: anybody to turn to in that regard. I heard in
Speaker 5: Jerry's voice was the fact that, hey, there's two years
Speaker 5: left on his contract.
Speaker 1: What's he talking about?
Speaker 5: And and to your point, Colin, he got his rookie contract,
Speaker 5: he's a first round pick, and then he got another contract,
Speaker 5: and so Jerry's kind of right, like I mean, everybody
Speaker 5: loves Zach and it's not like and the other thing
Speaker 5: is he's a veteran and he's so good and he's
Speaker 5: so good at staying prepared that I don't know any
Speaker 5: other position, you know. And Zeke came in and was
Speaker 5: kind of ready to go at the last minute. This
Speaker 5: guy could be so I don't I don't sense any worry.
Speaker 5: And I think you know, you heard Dak say. Dak
Speaker 5: was quoted saying, hey, the man talking about Zach and
Speaker 5: Jerry was asked about that, and Jerry had a very
Speaker 5: funny answer, which was, well, we pay the quarterbacks all
Speaker 5: the money.
Speaker 1: That is funny.
Speaker 2: By the way, I saw that Zeke visited the Patriots.
Speaker 2: You you said Zeke was a little bit the soul
Speaker 2: of the locker room. Now that he's gone, do you
Speaker 2: still believe that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: He was sending messages to the team on the eve
Speaker 5: of their first practice. I think in the meeting room,
Speaker 5: the running backs, they're still hearing from him. Tony Pollard
Speaker 5: still brings him up. I mean, people are still there's
Speaker 5: still an aura about him. Now he had faded some
Speaker 5: of his playing ability, So you're okay, moving away from
Speaker 5: that but yeah, there's still some there's still and that's
Speaker 5: what the call that Bill Belichick made was to Stephen Jones,
Speaker 5: and he just wanted to know kind of where Zeke
Speaker 5: was and ed and I had a chance to go
Speaker 5: one on one with Steven or two on one, and
Speaker 5: that was one of the things Stephen talked about, was
Speaker 5: just his how he went on and on about Zeke
Speaker 5: and what he could mean in one of those running
Speaker 5: back rooms. So, I mean, it tells you all you
Speaker 5: need to know, though, on how much he has left
Speaker 5: in the tank, on the fact that he's still out there.
Speaker 5: He's a workhorse, He's played through all sorts of injuries.
Speaker 5: I mean he's not I don't know if he's anywhere
Speaker 5: close to a lead back anymore. I mean, it's one
Speaker 5: of the few positions you can go from. Think about
Speaker 5: that last year the starter, even though Pollard took over,
Speaker 5: he was almost a symbolic starter. This year, he can't
Speaker 5: even get a role on a team. He can't even
Speaker 5: get out there, right. But Belichick has had a way
Speaker 5: over the years of taking chances on certain veteran players
Speaker 5: that maybe have some deans on their character. This guy,
Speaker 5: he had some issues obviously, he was suspended for.
Speaker 1: Several years ago. But in terms of like.
Speaker 5: What the players think of him and the coaches, other
Speaker 5: than maybe Dak, there's no one who approaches Zeke in
Speaker 5: that regard.
Speaker 1: Colin Pads are a poppin' football. It's kind of unofficially
Speaker 1: here preseason games, but week one, we're almost a month
Speaker 1: away from that Thursday Night doo zi of Dan Campbell
Speaker 1: versus Andy Reid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't want to be Dan Campbell. Andy's been
Speaker 2: the best September coach in football. You know, I thought
Speaker 2: there was something interesting. So Andy all off season has
Speaker 2: been saying we're gonna put more on Patrick Mahomes plate. Okay,
Speaker 2: we're gonna put more on his plate. The Chargers get
Speaker 2: Kellen Moore inside the building. The feeling is with Lombardi.
Speaker 2: They weren't they weren't giving him enough on his plate.
Speaker 2: Kellen Moore is gonna put more on his plate. I
Speaker 2: read a quote today about Dak Prescott where they're trying
Speaker 2: to make the cowboy offense Dak friendly take more off
Speaker 2: his plate, and my takeaway on that, John, you're a
Speaker 2: scout in this league is time out. The great ones,
Speaker 2: the Mannings, the Mahomes just keep throwing layers of stuff
Speaker 2: at him. Dak, They're pulling stuff off the table. I
Speaker 2: hate the sound of that. So Schottenheimer's a conservative OC.
Speaker 2: Mike tends to be a conservative OC seven to twelve
Speaker 2: and one in his last twenty games play calling. That
Speaker 2: was one of those. Doesn't it sound like much? Didn't
Speaker 2: love the comment by Dallas.
Speaker 1: I would say this, Colin, just because you pay a
Speaker 1: guy a premium doesn't mean he's a premium player. And
Speaker 1: once Dak got that forty million dollars a year contract
Speaker 1: didn't change his limitations. I would though, the last two years,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys have lost right in two years ago in
Speaker 1: the first round, in this year in the second round
Speaker 1: to the forty nine ers, and I think they started
Speaker 1: seeing themselves we're a defensive team because we could hang
Speaker 1: with their physicality, and last year they did. They went
Speaker 1: blow for blow. It was like to Mike Tyson's hitting
Speaker 1: each other. It was the most physical game of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But they lost because Dak did what Kyle Shanahan never
Speaker 1: allows his quarterback to do, for the most part, is
Speaker 1: ruin the game. He threw the picks, so you always
Speaker 1: had the stat when Zeke before he fell off a cliff,
Speaker 1: was like, run the ball, don't get too pass happy
Speaker 1: with Dak. That's when he kind of turns into a
Speaker 1: more of an average quarterback. If you can keep him
Speaker 1: probably in the high twenties attempts, you got a chance.
Speaker 1: Especially with how good their defense is. And I would
Speaker 1: say that their defensive coordinator has turned in right there
Speaker 1: with Vic Fangio right as just their defensive personnel as
Speaker 1: one of the betters in the league. So they can
Speaker 1: play a game that most teams can't because most teams
Speaker 1: don't have very good defenses. So if you don't turn
Speaker 1: the ball over, like I think, I'm going to pick
Speaker 1: the Cowboys to win the division, and not because I
Speaker 1: think Dak Prescott is better than Jalen. I just think
Speaker 1: they have like they kind of know who they are
Speaker 1: for the first time in a long time. With the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: they're always kind of fighting one side of the other
Speaker 1: and they don't have a clear identity. I think they
Speaker 1: do have an identity now and if to me, it
Speaker 1: just comes down to Dak Prescott and not turning the
Speaker 1: ball over, because if he doesn't turn the ball over
Speaker 1: against the forty nine Ers, the forty nine ers lose
Speaker 1: that game.
Speaker 2: Well, there's an I don't have it in front of me.
Speaker 2: With Dak Prescott, he wins almost eighty percent of his
Speaker 2: starts when he doesn't have a turnover, which is not
Speaker 2: abnormal for many quarterbacks. But what happens when he has
Speaker 2: just one or more he wins like thirty percent of
Speaker 2: his games, is that it's like Lebron James. Lebron James
Speaker 2: could have a bad shooting night and still be the
Speaker 2: most impactful player on the floor because he does so
Speaker 2: many things. Well, Dak's not talented enough to overcome a turnover.
Speaker 2: He's just not. Brady has won super Bowls with pick sixes. Right, Mannings.
Speaker 2: Both Mannings have had a high interception years, farve huge
Speaker 2: interception years, and they win the division. Dak, the margins
Speaker 2: are tight. It's a little mac Jones, it's a little
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins. Server brings down the wind total. Well, what's
Speaker 2: where Matt Stafford is I think sometimes talked about not
Speaker 2: in that top five to six, but in that next
Speaker 2: crew guys. His physical attributes and talent is far superior
Speaker 2: from kind of that group, right, because he's gonna turn.
Speaker 1: The ball over, But at any moment. He could throw
Speaker 1: four touchdowns in a half. He can stretch the field
Speaker 1: in one play, throw the ball, you know, forty fifty
Speaker 1: plus yards with his eyes closed. It's why you remember
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when the Warriors, I think
Speaker 1: they won fifteen games. Steph got hurt, Clay got hurt,
Speaker 1: Kevin had just left, and they just fell apart. I
Speaker 1: know you know you're down in LA. You're close to
Speaker 1: the Rams. Cooper Cup already injured. They are very dependent
Speaker 1: on like three guys, and if those three guys are healthy,
Speaker 1: they can be competitive because they got a really good coach.
Speaker 1: I think the Rams have a better chance of competing
Speaker 1: for Caleb Williams than they do a playoff spot. I
Speaker 1: think they're going to be really bad because I just
Speaker 1: think it's inevitable. Their players are a little older now.
Speaker 1: Stafford with the elbow, how often, you know, we see
Speaker 1: it all the time in baseball players. Once the alball
Speaker 1: starts getting messed up, it kind of goes. We saw
Speaker 1: in Roethlisberger the elbow never the same. So Stafford's Cooper
Speaker 1: Cup now injured last year, injured again. Now Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: all time great player, but he can only do so much.
Speaker 1: We've seen great defensive players on shitty teams. I mean,
Speaker 1: JJ Watt's been a great player on bat You can't
Speaker 1: this isn't the NBA. So to me, the Rams, their
Speaker 1: margin feir is so thin just with the depth of
Speaker 1: their team, and we're already seeing the injuries happen, and
Speaker 1: last year it happened and they were got awful. They
Speaker 1: just happened to not have their pick. I don't see
Speaker 1: why they think about the division. We know Seattle's going
Speaker 1: to be really competitive. Obviously the forty nine Ers are good.
Speaker 1: Even if Arizona stinks. They play the NFC East, so
Speaker 1: you get three playoff teams in Washington's feisty and they
Speaker 1: played the AFC North, so you're getting the Steelers, the Ravens,
Speaker 1: I mean, the Browns, even if they're not a playoff team,
Speaker 1: have a lot of talent. And then obviously what team
Speaker 1: the Bengals, So I mean, he's got a really, really
Speaker 1: good ye that's a lot. That's a tough schedule.
Speaker 2: So I came out and said I had a very
Speaker 2: good sol or so did Jason McIntyre. That we heard
Speaker 2: the Rams tried to restructure the Matt Stafford contact contract.
Speaker 2: I was shocked when a member of the executive team
Speaker 2: for the Rams came out and made a point of
Speaker 2: Times La Times article saying this is not true. These
Speaker 2: reported taking a shot at me. Two days later, Matt
Speaker 2: Stafford announces, Yeah, we tried to restructure my deal in
Speaker 2: the off season. The Rams are trying to fool us.
Speaker 2: They had discussions, they wanted to restructure the deal, they
Speaker 2: couldn't and had to move off people. They like Matt.
Speaker 2: But Bucky Brooks told me yesterday and I've heard this,
Speaker 2: if Matt gets banged up, they're drafting a quarterback with
Speaker 2: a first pick. They know how good this draft is.
Speaker 2: They look three years ahead of time, and the feeling
Speaker 2: is this is the best draft in a four year window.
Speaker 2: The best quarterback draft next year. Last year wasn't good,
Speaker 2: The following year afters not great. So you get about
Speaker 2: two great quarterback drafts every decade. Like four first round
Speaker 2: guys next year is that draft. And there's a belief
Speaker 2: even if Stafford plays pretty well and they're like a
Speaker 2: seven to eight win team, they'll be four guys. They'll
Speaker 2: be able to get a Quinn yours, a Michael Pennix
Speaker 2: junior at like twelve or thirteen or fifteen in the draft.
Speaker 2: So I think the Rams. You know, if you go
Speaker 2: like and look at Kansas City last year, they had
Speaker 2: a star offensive coach, a star quarterback, a good enough
Speaker 2: O line, one star weapon, great defensive player, good linebacker,
Speaker 2: and kids everywhere. That's a little Rams Ish Ernest Jones,
Speaker 2: Aaron Donald, Cooper Cup, Matt Stafford. The difference, is h McVeigh,
Speaker 2: is that the Chiefs players are all in their prime,
Speaker 2: and to your point, the Rams star players are all
Speaker 2: coming off injuries. So I do think their margins are thin.
Speaker 2: I'm just fascinated to watch Matt Stafford because he took
Speaker 2: a lot of hits in Detroit. He just rented a
Speaker 2: gorgeous house on the beach in Los Angeles, and the
Speaker 2: feeling is last year to in LA. He wants to
Speaker 2: have some fun. He knows it's not going to last forever.
Speaker 1: Can I Sometimes it's unfair, right when a social clip
Speaker 1: comes out of your show. I didn't see the whole take,
Speaker 1: but you've had you nailed the Baker Mayfield thing from
Speaker 1: the start. You had to take. He's in part of
Speaker 1: probably the most irrelevant quarterback competition in the history of
Speaker 1: the league. Right now in Papa, I mean, absolutely no
Speaker 1: one cares. And you, I think you came out and said,
Speaker 1: you know, he should retire, Yeah, because he's got he's
Speaker 1: head right to college football and be a star. I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of crazy just because he's making four
Speaker 1: million dollars. He wouldn't make four million dollars put away
Speaker 1: on TV. And he's got a chance if he can
Speaker 1: do this for a couple more years. But clearly he's
Speaker 1: headed toward and overall, and think about college football. I
Speaker 1: never saw Kirkhurbstreet throw pass. I don't remember a class pass.
Speaker 1: And Matt Lioner, who I think is really good, obviously
Speaker 1: had a very very you know, underwhelming NFL career right
Speaker 1: for his college status, I think Baker. But clearly Baker's
Speaker 1: career is headed nowhere fast. In this Tampa team, I mean,
Speaker 1: they're definitely circling the Caleb wagons, right. They want a
Speaker 1: big part of that. It's I aunsw theer's twofold. Were
Speaker 1: you being dead serious on that? The retirement? And two
Speaker 1: have you ever nailed to take harder than because I
Speaker 1: think the Johnny Manziel a lot of people Baker was
Speaker 1: a guy number one overall. Yeah, I was wrong because
Speaker 1: I thought it really taught me over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. I thought he could be Drew Brees. Well,
Speaker 1: a huge part of Drew Brees was the character and
Speaker 1: the intangibles. And look at all the star quarterbacks. Now,
Speaker 1: the intangibles are have to be off the charts even
Speaker 1: for the average guys. We'll let alone the stars.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, first of all, NFL scouts liked Sam
Speaker 2: Darnold too, so I missed on Donald. I think Johnny
Speaker 2: Manziel I kneeled, Baker, I kneeled. I didn't like Zach
Speaker 2: Wilson at all. I said he was going to be
Speaker 2: a boss, so he didn't. But I like Sam Darnold,
Speaker 2: and I still think if Donald got competent coaching and
Speaker 2: started in San Francisco, he could be a playoff quarterback.
Speaker 2: But he does have a slower delivery and he tends
Speaker 2: to be a hero ball quarterback. He wasn't usc and
Speaker 2: he's not that athletic. He's athletic, he's not Josh. He's
Speaker 2: like a poor man's Josh Allen. Athletically, he's big strong,
Speaker 2: He's not that big and strong. I was being serious.
Speaker 2: My takeaway is there are people that aren't built to
Speaker 2: be backups. Cam Newton, Baker, Mayfield, Tim Tebow. They're too big,
Speaker 2: too many commercials, they're too big. You want Colt McCoy,
Speaker 2: you want Tyrod Taylor. Baker is too big to be
Speaker 2: a backup. So if he loses to Kyle Trask, he's
Speaker 2: still got a chip on his shoulder a mile long.
Speaker 2: Last week, he was quoted saying in front of a camera,
Speaker 2: I don't need anybody to tell me how to play quarterback.
Speaker 2: It's who he is. So he's too big of a personality,
Speaker 2: too much edge to be a backup.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: I always said a backup quarterback should be able to
Speaker 2: put a baseball hat on in the mall and dark
Speaker 2: sunglasses and be unnoticeable. Colt McCoy, melt tbo can't do that.
Speaker 2: Cam can't do that, and Baker can't do that. Secondly,
Speaker 2: he's making four million a year, but to be a
Speaker 2: top analyst at a football network you'd make about two
Speaker 2: two and a half. And the truth is you don't
Speaker 2: want to become a punchline. And if Baker plays for
Speaker 2: two or three more years and this year goes, you know,
Speaker 2: starts and goes one to eight and gets hurt. And
Speaker 2: by the way, he's led the NFL in interception since
Speaker 2: he entered the league two and eight last year. If
Speaker 2: he went owen six this year and that means he
Speaker 2: went two and fourteen and his last sixteen NFL starts,
Speaker 2: he becomes a complete utter punchline. Sam Darnold failed, Baker failed.
Speaker 2: They're not punchlines like people still like Sam and Baker
Speaker 2: got to a playoff. So my takeaway is protect your brand. Also,
Speaker 2: money's not that big for him because he took every
Speaker 2: available penny with all those insurance commercials. So if I
Speaker 2: was his agent, I'd be like, dude, if you lose
Speaker 2: the job to Kyle Trask, they're trying to lose privately
Speaker 2: in Tampa. You get to one in five, John, they're
Speaker 2: moving pieces at the trade deadline. They've got players for sure. Now, yeah,
Speaker 2: they do. Arizona may not do that because if Kyler
Speaker 2: Murray comes back in week six, they don't want to
Speaker 2: bail on him and get him hurt. Right, They don't
Speaker 2: want him to get hurt because even if they were
Speaker 2: moving off him, hard to trade him if he's injury played.
Speaker 2: If they lose their first four in Tampa. I mean
Speaker 2: that front office. They're playing Trask. Baker couldn't beat out Trask.
Speaker 2: They're moving pieces. Guys can get hurt. So I'm dead serious.
Speaker 2: I would say, if you can't beat out Kyle, I'd retire.
Speaker 2: I'd call the networks, take a year off practice, go
Speaker 2: to these companies, say I want to get good at
Speaker 2: this and go be a rock star.
Speaker 1: I'm in agreement on the backup quarterback. You get too famous.
Speaker 1: I also think that happens sometimes when you're a former,
Speaker 1: really really high pick in a short period of time. Right,
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson would fall under that. But Aaron is such
Speaker 1: a star, he's already irrelevant. No one cares. That's where
Speaker 1: Trey Lance is kind of interesting, right, because you have
Speaker 1: Brock Purdy who was mister irrelevant, and even Sam Darnold's
Speaker 1: making three million dollars. Well, Brock Perty's the starter and
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer. And they still got a lot
Speaker 1: of camp left. They got some joint practices, and like
Speaker 1: you said, the preseason games, I would imagine Trey's gonna
Speaker 1: get a lot of juice and maybe clearly he's improved
Speaker 1: his mechanics a little bit. But threw a bad pick
Speaker 1: today at practice. You never know. It's a fluid situation.
Speaker 1: I'm a believer that Sam's going to win the job
Speaker 1: because Kyle had already had that in his mind coming
Speaker 1: into the year. It's why they convinced Sam, who had
Speaker 1: other opportunities to come to a place with like ten quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: He didn't miss randomly come So is Trey Lance, and
Speaker 1: it's not his fault. He makes nine million dollars, that's
Speaker 1: his draft slot. But there can't be there's not going
Speaker 1: to be a team in the NFL there's gonna have
Speaker 1: a nine million dollars third string quarterback. But the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers have had all these quarterback injuries that they
Speaker 1: probably just roll with it. And he's a high character guy,
Speaker 1: so they're not really worried about that. But it is
Speaker 1: a bizarre situation for a team that, let's face it,
Speaker 1: has kind of one goal in mind, and that's, you know,
Speaker 1: to get to the big dance and win the thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not Anthony Richardson's plant. They don't care
Speaker 1: if they They're just going to try to figure it out. Right,
Speaker 1: you see a lot of these young quarters that is
Speaker 1: not what the Niners are in They're in win now
Speaker 1: mode and win big.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of these young coaches, McVeagh and
Speaker 2: Shanahan among them. They kind of want you to do
Speaker 2: what they tell you to do, Like they both love
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins. McVeagh and Shanahan both love Kirk Cousins. Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson's a great athlete. Josh Allen's a great athlete. I mean,
Speaker 2: you'd take Josh Allen. But the takeaway is a lot
Speaker 2: of these young coaches. Andy Reid is different. Andy Reid
Speaker 2: wanted Michael Vick. Andy Reid wanted Mahome. Andy wants playmakers.
Speaker 2: That's why he's the great coach. But a lot of
Speaker 2: these young coaches just want somebody. Bill Walsh had this
Speaker 2: who can simply deliver on my play call. Sean Payton's
Speaker 2: a lot like that. Russell Wilson's going to be a
Speaker 2: challenge for Sean Payton's He's done. He's trying to mold Russell.
Speaker 2: Russell would rather go Deep Breeze, didn't throw Deep Breeze
Speaker 2: was eighteen yards and in so the play design and
Speaker 2: the play golf by Sean Payton was essential. Russell will
Speaker 2: run out of the play call he'll run out of
Speaker 2: the play design. So that's a really interesting situation. Sean Payton, McVeigh, Shanahan.
Speaker 2: They kind of like you to do what they say.
Speaker 2: And you know, you know this, whatever gift God gives
Speaker 2: you a great singing voice, you're gonna use it in
Speaker 2: the shower, in your car, in a chorus. If God
Speaker 2: gives you a great arm, Josh Allen, you're gonna use
Speaker 2: it far big interceptions, name it the Big Interceptions Bradshaw
Speaker 2: and so I kind of think McVeigh. I think Stafford
Speaker 2: mostly does what Sean wants, but he drives Sean crazy
Speaker 2: with the picks ad libbing. He wasn't as athletic. I
Speaker 2: was told very early they established he wasn't as athlete
Speaker 2: as they thought. It was evident, right, but they were
Speaker 2: okay with that. So their takeaway he was kind of
Speaker 2: a physical runner, not nimble and twitchy. But I was
Speaker 2: told Kyle was okay with that. I don't need too
Speaker 2: much twitch. By the end of the first camp, they
Speaker 2: were like, man, we got a throwing issue. So what
Speaker 2: happens with Trey is not only isn't he athletic enough,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't give you the distribution excellence, so it
Speaker 2: doesn't work. Now, Darnold is a little more athletic than
Speaker 2: Trey can struggle with distribution. Pretty isn't that athletic great
Speaker 2: at distribution? So you can And they both love Kirk
Speaker 2: Cousins mcvah and Shanahan. So you can see the model here.
Speaker 2: A lot of these young coaches, John, you know this,
Speaker 2: you scouted. Some of these coaches want you to run
Speaker 2: their play. That's what they want. Well, see, Andy is
Speaker 2: much more it's weird offensive lineman. When you think of him,
Speaker 2: tend to be just like conservative, tough guys. He's really
Speaker 2: more of a free spe let It flow and it
Speaker 2: comes back. He was taught in the early eighties at
Speaker 2: the BYU program that was well ahead of its time,
Speaker 2: throwing the ball all the time. And then his NFL
Speaker 2: stardom came with Brett farr right, the ultimate freelance gunslinger.
Speaker 2: So a lot of coaches the Shanahan tree was all
Speaker 2: raised in. It's a lot of boot and play actions,
Speaker 2: dumping the ball off to a guy five feet in
Speaker 2: front of you. So I just now, eventually it's the NFL.
Speaker 2: You got to hurt, you have to hit a third
Speaker 2: and ten. But there is a lot of first and
Speaker 2: ten of a little flick to Debo or to Christian
Speaker 2: McCaffrey that if you put it at his feet, it's
Speaker 2: a disaster because that's an easy thirteen yards. And that's
Speaker 2: where I think Perty came in and immediately did that,
Speaker 2: and it was almost like they became BFFs immediately, because
Speaker 2: that is what he's really looking for.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Most quarterbacks in the NFL can throw the ball fifty yards, right,
Speaker 1: that's not the majority of the game is not deep bombs,
Speaker 1: And that to me is the most fascinating part about
Speaker 1: all this quarterback Like what makes Mahomes really special? Obviously
Speaker 1: he's instinctive and the physical attributes. The guy is very
Speaker 1: very accurate when he has to be, and he's very
Speaker 1: very football smart. So Andy's always said this about even
Speaker 1: when Tyreek Hill was on the team, is I could
Speaker 1: tell him to do whatever I need to do when
Speaker 1: he pick it up like that. You know, we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about in football all the physical characteristics and
Speaker 1: then all the schemes, but we don't talk enough about
Speaker 1: the intelligence because it's like teaching some of these guys
Speaker 1: that they can never get it and that limits their
Speaker 1: potential in the sport because the game is so complex
Speaker 1: and as the seat like the preseason now is a joke, right,
Speaker 1: but once the season comes in, you're putting in a
Speaker 1: new game plan every single week. The volume