Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast Stay Away from My Wife
Speaker 1: Mark Miss Westling podcast Studio. But New Year's Eve party
Speaker 1: that went sideways with Zavalton Sessler. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think he's referring to someone else and their wife that
Speaker 1: I like you namely that came from you. I know, yes,
Speaker 1: it did nothing to do with it. I'm Dan hansis
Speaker 1: that I got heroes here? Wow, scandal to start the show.
Speaker 1: Colleen Wolf, Greg rosenital Mark Sessler? What's up? Hey? You
Speaker 1: know what we're gonna This is like stage right now.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stage to the top of the show here,
Speaker 1: because I feel like that was maybe the wrong way
Speaker 1: to start things with Mark for sure on the wrong foot.
Speaker 1: So here everyone's pointed. Though it didn't seem vague, it
Speaker 1: was directed directly at Mark. It was a warning, do
Speaker 1: you know anything about this? Justin the story behind the
Speaker 1: zummy drop. M Drops are usually inside jokes referencing something
Speaker 1: that happened on the show five months ago. It happened
Speaker 1: on the show, and it was words from you too. Yes. Oh,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't a premeditated here used this. It was
Speaker 1: just something that was coming to do. He is, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with Jason's wife, and you
Speaker 1: no good to clarify that. Do it again? Like most jokes,
Speaker 1: it's good to discuss what it really meant afterwards, you
Speaker 1: need the autopsy. Yeah alright, humor coach Greg Ross until
Speaker 1: showing in. That's right. A showman, a growing showman, a growman.
Speaker 1: Remember in the off season there will be did we
Speaker 1: just said, what was the name of it? The Showman's showman,
Speaker 1: The showman, Showman's show Man. Yeah, where it will just
Speaker 1: be a dissertation Greg and the audience Mark and I
Speaker 1: teaching him where the glories. I can't wait for the
Speaker 1: performance speak being a showman, Greg is going to have
Speaker 1: a stage to work on his craft. Because that live
Speaker 1: show that we're doing, the a t N Homecoming show
Speaker 1: from the Bourbon Room in Hollywood, it's sold out, So
Speaker 1: I like a Taylor Swift concert. Go flood the secondary market.
Speaker 1: See if you can find a ticket for a few
Speaker 1: thousand bucks to try to get in the door. But
Speaker 1: you can no longer buy tickets because we sold the
Speaker 1: bastard out. And I just want to thank everyone who
Speaker 1: has uh supported us along the way. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun in Los Angeles. I walked
Speaker 1: by it the other day and someone was, you know,
Speaker 1: that's it's up on Hollywood Boulevard. Those like iron gates
Speaker 1: to close it so it doesn't get broken into at night.
Speaker 1: But he was opening it and I just said, can
Speaker 1: I take a picture of It's got a neon sign. Um.
Speaker 1: He said, well, wait, who are you? And I explained, like,
Speaker 1: I'm part of this football, nerdy football show that's broadcast.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, the shows sold out. He's like, come
Speaker 1: on and take a look. I took a look at
Speaker 1: the venue. Beautiful, beautiful venue. I can't wait to tailgate.
Speaker 1: There's a big tailgate right yeah. Um, so much going on,
Speaker 1: so that's happening next week. Of course it's also New
Speaker 1: Horizons week in the NFL. A little bit weird, Greggy, Um,
Speaker 1: We're so used to doing this. There's always, you know,
Speaker 1: six to eight coaching changes, it seems every year. And
Speaker 1: of course not all these guys are out of the woods.
Speaker 1: But we knew Frank Reich and Matt Rule we're gone,
Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday and Wilkes in term coach, We'll see what
Speaker 1: their futures are. Cliff Kingsbury was let go officially on
Speaker 1: Monday Lovey Smith as well. So we're just at four
Speaker 1: right now? Is this the calm before the storm? Or
Speaker 1: is this a fier year? Interesting in terms of maybe
Speaker 1: is it only four for some reason? I thought was
Speaker 1: missing somebody? I don't know. Uh, did you mention the Broncos?
Speaker 1: I miss le Broncos. So I think there'll be one more. So,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what what that one
Speaker 1: will be prosper We'll get to Sean McVeigh. That one's
Speaker 1: hanging out there. I think some of these playoff teams, Uh,
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy doesn't win. I think he's out. Based on
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones is preseason comments that we need to advance
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Jarah is known to you know, with
Speaker 1: the wind to change certain opinions that but yes, especially
Speaker 1: with another Shawn out there potentially anyway, so much to
Speaker 1: get to. So well, even as this episode goes on,
Speaker 1: you never know, we could get some breaking news on
Speaker 1: another change at the top of a head coach or
Speaker 1: a coaching staff org chart. But while we wait for that,
Speaker 1: let's go through all the kind of news out there's
Speaker 1: a big news heavy show here. As we get you
Speaker 1: caught up Thank you if you made it through the
Speaker 1: seventeen hour Week eighteen recap of Around the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: before I went, I did my Good Morning Football hit
Speaker 1: with Kyle Brandt this morning, just making chit chat. Kyle
Speaker 1: said something like, yeah, man, a pretty long podcast on Sunday.
Speaker 1: It was, well, maybe listen, maybe you just saw a
Speaker 1: tweet of somebody saying the show is too long. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know we're gonna try to shorten this one,
Speaker 1: but we're off to a great start. Five minutes in. U,
Speaker 1: let's do a whole bunch of news. Don't let these
Speaker 1: tears for you. It's all dog around his mod. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't want to let go of the Lions, and
Speaker 1: he certainly don't want to let go. Jamal Williams. Uh, Connie,
Speaker 1: our friend, I love him. We talked about on the
Speaker 1: Powers podcast today, Connie that Jamal Williams, who was a
Speaker 1: really a Hard Knocks favorite on our podcast. Um he
Speaker 1: ended up scoring eighteen touchdowns and breaking Barry Sanders record,
Speaker 1: and then giving the postgame interview over the year beautiful.
Speaker 1: It was the biggest plot twist interview that I've ever
Speaker 1: listened to, because it was definitely leading me down one
Speaker 1: road and then all of a sudden it was just
Speaker 1: a straight you turn to somewhere else in the other directions.
Speaker 1: So I really enjoyed it. I think branch of emotions.
Speaker 1: Now that's a showman. I mean, I thought he knew
Speaker 1: exactly what to do in the moment. He's born with it. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get into what's going on a thing
Speaker 1: or two from him. Ouch, get the stage out again, showman. Yes,
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury one of the dismissed coaches Arizona Cardinals. Also
Speaker 1: Steve Kime is out. We know Coime's got some things
Speaker 1: going on. And and in concert with the announcement that
Speaker 1: um they had all right, they did the hard knocks
Speaker 1: as well. UM, Cliff out, they also said, come is
Speaker 1: stepping aside, so comes out. They're blowing up the whole thing. Um.
Speaker 1: And we we learned the Kyler Murray, the quarterback who's
Speaker 1: rehabbing his own UM kneed injury. Uh. And that's a
Speaker 1: storyline around this team. Uh. The owner of the team,
Speaker 1: Michael Bidwell, UM have this to say about how Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray factors in. We're in communication and uh and and
Speaker 1: we should be talking later today. We're texted and and
Speaker 1: either today or tomorrow, and so absolutely want to get
Speaker 1: the input of our leaders, including Kyler and spoken with
Speaker 1: a number of leaders already makes sense. I mean that
Speaker 1: should always, especially after you get into business at that
Speaker 1: level of the quarterback, Greg, I don't know how much
Speaker 1: you you power you give him in the in the room,
Speaker 1: but you want his voice to be right. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be that much. But the point of getting
Speaker 1: a new coach is to maximize Kyler Murray. That's the
Speaker 1: that's the biggest point. I mean, you have to be
Speaker 1: able to run the entire organization something I'm not sure
Speaker 1: like Cliff Kingsbury was incredibly strong at and I don't
Speaker 1: know if he was incredibly strong at schematically creating an
Speaker 1: advantage for Kyler Murray. And so that's why you see
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury get let go. I did like him personally
Speaker 1: more after watching this Hard Knocks, and I did watch
Speaker 1: a decent amount. I think he was like a good caler,
Speaker 1: both of them. Could I meant Cliff, I think Cliffs
Speaker 1: are like a good person trying his best and it
Speaker 1: wasn't just wasn't gonna happen for him, Like this was
Speaker 1: not the job for him, Like it was maybe in
Speaker 1: a little over his head, but he was doing his best,
Speaker 1: trying his best, like believed in his players. I think
Speaker 1: it was what like like that wasn't all the problem?
Speaker 1: Did everyone getting really carried away with them spend all
Speaker 1: the money on that extension. At the time we killed
Speaker 1: that extension, we said, this is a ridiculous extension to
Speaker 1: be extending Steve Kim and Cliff Kingsbury through. But it's
Speaker 1: not my money. That didn't matter in the end, Like
Speaker 1: the only like the extension had no difference if he
Speaker 1: had added one year or five years. It's the exact
Speaker 1: same to Cardinals fans. So I'm glad they did that.
Speaker 1: And when you really think about the money involved, your
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, they're cheap and they don't want
Speaker 1: to spend all that money. I get that, But you
Speaker 1: spend more on like one season of Kelvin Beecham than
Speaker 1: you do on five seasons around the same of Cliff,
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury and Steve Kind. So in the scheme of things,
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's the money is part
Speaker 1: of it. And you're right, like if you're a fan
Speaker 1: of the team, like it doesn't affect your salary capital,
Speaker 1: and if your owner is willing to make this change,
Speaker 1: it shows you that he doesn't care about the money side.
Speaker 1: If he wants to get it right. That's to their credit.
Speaker 1: But their discredit was, as we critique to your point, Correight,
Speaker 1: just the fact that they they saw enough in Cliff
Speaker 1: Kingsbury and Steve Kin a year ago to say this,
Speaker 1: these guys definitely need an extension. Coming off into playoff
Speaker 1: pipe out against the Rams, I could say this for Kingsbury.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a tough spot this year. They used a
Speaker 1: franchise record one players. They were the fourth most injured
Speaker 1: team in the league. You didn't have DeAndre Hopkins for
Speaker 1: a big chunk of the year, You lost Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: for the back end of the year. Used four quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in four games in a row at one point. That's
Speaker 1: enough to get a coach in the hot water and fire.
Speaker 1: But that also hast nothing to do with White Cliffs. Yet,
Speaker 1: does anyone Does anyone feel that the Cardinals are making
Speaker 1: a mistake here? No? This was this whole season was
Speaker 1: a disaster before it even started, with Kyler Murray scrubbing
Speaker 1: any evidence of the Cardinals from his Instagram and then
Speaker 1: obviously the contract stuff that happened, and then all of
Speaker 1: the off field drama moved onto the field when you
Speaker 1: had Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury screaming at each other
Speaker 1: on the TNF game and Kyler was telling him to
Speaker 1: calm down and DeAndre Hopkins had to kind of like
Speaker 1: take him away and move him out of that, like
Speaker 1: the whole situation. But didn't I mean, Cliff was brought
Speaker 1: in initially four or Kyler Tyler, and obviously that didn't
Speaker 1: work out, and you want to have Kyler Murray's input,
Speaker 1: but I don't know, like it just seems like the
Speaker 1: same mistake will happen again, and they need to bring
Speaker 1: in a coach that's going to not only get along
Speaker 1: with Kyler Murray, but also get along with Michael Bidwell
Speaker 1: because he's really proactive and just have a better sense
Speaker 1: of who is a good offensive coach because there were
Speaker 1: a lot of people who did not believe Cliff Kingsbury
Speaker 1: was a good schematic offensive coach and that that's the
Speaker 1: thing that struck me, was like people talking about, oh,
Speaker 1: the maybe the Patriots are gonna hire him, Maybe he'll
Speaker 1: go with the Rams if mcfah stick around. It's like
Speaker 1: I think the Cardinals offense was defined by its lack
Speaker 1: of ability to adapt over the last four years. They
Speaker 1: were one of the easiest offenses to attack. Before it happened.
Speaker 1: It was because Kingsbury and Kyler Murray had known each
Speaker 1: other forever. But I do think it was a personal thing.
Speaker 1: I was think it was more like this guy will
Speaker 1: maximize Kyler as a player, and Kime didn't even do
Speaker 1: didn't do him any favors with the way that the
Speaker 1: roster was set up because there were key positions. I mean,
Speaker 1: the roster has no debt in general, but then the
Speaker 1: offensive line. You look at what they have coming up
Speaker 1: in terms of free agents. I think four of their
Speaker 1: five starters or free agents. They got to figure out
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do with Zach Allen and Byron Murphy.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot that needs to be done. And
Speaker 1: they are hiring a GM before the coach, so we'll see.
Speaker 1: The idea of Cliff always seemed like it was something
Speaker 1: that the Cardinals liked. He fit the profile of a
Speaker 1: guy that was leading the team. He's a young, confident dude.
Speaker 1: Remember the shot on draft day of him iconic like
Speaker 1: in his beautiful den or whatever, with his feet up
Speaker 1: on the table, desert behind him like that. There was
Speaker 1: an image of like what this guy brought to the team,
Speaker 1: but then a reality of maybe he wasn't really what
Speaker 1: they hoped he was going to be, so they start
Speaker 1: over and the kind of thing. I'm expecting more to
Speaker 1: the story to come out at some point, if anyone
Speaker 1: cares to. I don't really need I don't need to,
Speaker 1: but I just think there will be lawsuits, is what
Speaker 1: I'm expecting. It just seems like whatever was going down
Speaker 1: with him that he had to leave the team in
Speaker 1: the middle of the seems like a guy that's dealing
Speaker 1: with some personal like and he's been through stuff before
Speaker 1: and we had the had the public d u I
Speaker 1: and yeah, close with the bid Wells, I would be
Speaker 1: a little concerned. Like Bidwell said, yeah, he'd rather hire
Speaker 1: the GM, but that wouldn't get in the way if
Speaker 1: like the timing didn't work out, And so it's now
Speaker 1: it's just Bidwell hiring these coaches. It had been kind
Speaker 1: essentially in the past, and I do think it's a
Speaker 1: logical place for Sean Payton. If I'm Sean Payton. The
Speaker 1: organization maybe as a big bit of a concern, but
Speaker 1: the Kyler Murray factor would beg um in other new horizons.
Speaker 1: We had to Nashville new horizons, new horize. The Titans
Speaker 1: fired four assistant coaches on Monday, including off coordinator Todd Downing,
Speaker 1: who had been in that position for the past two seasons.
Speaker 1: They also fired their offensive line coach Keith Carter, secondary
Speaker 1: coach Anthony Midget, and offensive skills assistant Eric Frazer. Hey, um,
Speaker 1: first of all, did I get the last name right there?
Speaker 1: Tony midgett okay? Um? Okay? With this? Is is Downing
Speaker 1: an unfair fall guy? Or was it time to mix
Speaker 1: things up? And is this just the beginning because they
Speaker 1: could save eighteen mill I believe on their cap by
Speaker 1: moving on from your boy Ryan's Tannehill. Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: that you know, the Titans offense was the only times
Speaker 1: were the only team in the NFL this season to
Speaker 1: fail to score thirty points in a single game, and
Speaker 1: they never topped twenty eight points in a single game.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the offensive line was banged, they played with
Speaker 1: multiple quarterbacks. Receivers aren't good, but the offense got noticeably
Speaker 1: worse after Art Smith left to become the Falcons head coach.
Speaker 1: Todd Downing had two years to show that he could be,
Speaker 1: you know, a good NFL play caller, and I don't
Speaker 1: think he was ever above average. If anything, he was
Speaker 1: below average or bad. So I think it was the
Speaker 1: right move for the Titans direction here a bad offensive
Speaker 1: line every single season. Is coaching. Yeah, that's it's not
Speaker 1: about personnel, uh, and that's the coordinator. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot on rable he he he is risking becoming a
Speaker 1: little Bill O'Brien like here because he got the GM fired.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna assume that that he was involved in
Speaker 1: that decision and they didn't win a game after that.
Speaker 1: It's worth saying they did that in the middle of
Speaker 1: the season, not like the GM is doing a lot
Speaker 1: in the middle of the season to create wins and losses.
Speaker 1: But just interesting. And then now he's gonna be hiring
Speaker 1: the new coach. It's just a lot. Well, if you
Speaker 1: got him fired. Part of it was the GM decided
Speaker 1: to trade a J. Brown, which completely sabotaged their entire offense.
Speaker 1: Did the worst wide receiver crew league wide and showed
Speaker 1: for the note not scoring thirty points. I think there
Speaker 1: we talked about Vrable on draft night when they traded A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown and his visceral and body and body language and
Speaker 1: everything was just like, no, don't do this, domino. And
Speaker 1: of course the injuries are a big part of the
Speaker 1: story with the Titans on offense, but the domino is
Speaker 1: starting with that decision. How that impacted the quarterback play,
Speaker 1: how it impacted obviously their wide receiver and playmaking ability,
Speaker 1: how that hurt the offensive coordinator's ability to enact the scheme.
Speaker 1: All this stuff is kind of connected. Sometimes one decision dominant,
Speaker 1: and you have so many new pieces now coming in
Speaker 1: this season, and I guess it's a good thing considering
Speaker 1: how the season went. But like I mean, when Gravers
Speaker 1: talking about the way that they didn't score any points,
Speaker 1: I mean thirty yards per game second half of games
Speaker 1: also just like really stood out to me because they
Speaker 1: just their second half adjustments were like, We're just not
Speaker 1: going to show up for score any points. Like I
Speaker 1: don't know what that was. They had the worst second
Speaker 1: half point differential of any team in the league, and
Speaker 1: to your point, calling, it never got better. Like they
Speaker 1: were bad in Week one and they were just as
Speaker 1: bad in Week eighteen. So well, after years of over
Speaker 1: or under indexing on this show and and calling in
Speaker 1: terms of how much we talked about the Titans and
Speaker 1: Dan calling them the Titoons for you, I think we've
Speaker 1: over index now with Graver here and we are now
Speaker 1: taking a break. It's gonna be a month. Do we
Speaker 1: want to fire the Titans in the sun for a
Speaker 1: little say we're gonna take a break. Don't we want
Speaker 1: to cover who they hire as their new general manager
Speaker 1: at when it had a possibility, but it's not made.
Speaker 1: At least mention it and and and we'll keep moving.
Speaker 1: I will say, since I became their fan at one
Speaker 1: point during they didn't win a game, they went oh
Speaker 1: and seven and turned into an absolute, raging, fiery nightmare.
Speaker 1: And just for any listeners that might be curious, this
Speaker 1: new arrangema with the Titans for the time being, it
Speaker 1: will not carry over to other teams like the New
Speaker 1: York Jets, but the Titans specifically much less. Yes, just
Speaker 1: for the time I just need a break, uh and
Speaker 1: other new horizons. We head to the Cleveland Browns, where
Speaker 1: Joe Woods and other new horizons. New HoriZone I think
Speaker 1: that's sage snowed under our musical director. That's in the
Speaker 1: industry parlance, that's the queue when you hear Horizons, got It,
Speaker 1: got It, got It going forward and like the last
Speaker 1: five years of the show, Um the Brown's Fire defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Joe Woods on Sunday Night. After back to back
Speaker 1: losing seasons, Mark, I'll see you up on this one.
Speaker 1: They didn't prove as the season one along with this team, Uh,
Speaker 1: you could say underachieved defensively, especially terrible against the run,
Speaker 1: which was a major problem for them. So they are
Speaker 1: rebooting leadership on that side of the ball. In Cleveland.
Speaker 1: They went into the year really short on the interior
Speaker 1: defensive line and so the run thing, there's that's part
Speaker 1: of it. Uh. They were in the mid twenties and
Speaker 1: d v o A for most of the season. They
Speaker 1: did tighten up since weeked thirteen played some good games
Speaker 1: and we're kind of closer to like twelve thirteen. But
Speaker 1: like Joe Woods always felt like the obvious fall guy
Speaker 1: here because it's like Stefanski surviving because you didn't have
Speaker 1: your quarterback for much of the season. X Y and Z,
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced Stefanski's the guy for Deshaun Watson on
Speaker 1: aiming level that they fit together. But Woods is your
Speaker 1: scapegoat here. Uh taken out of the school book depository
Speaker 1: and on the breadline now. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: I watching the team waste Myles Garrett's career, you got
Speaker 1: to find the right guy. They are looking at Brian Flores,
Speaker 1: Jared Mayo, Seawan deciding there's guys out there that could
Speaker 1: that be great. But but I mean there's skilled there's
Speaker 1: good players here. They were not used correctly this past season.
Speaker 1: Something I know he's probably not coming back, but he's
Speaker 1: definitely he even turned, like Myles Garrett against him with
Speaker 1: what he did. I mean just like, well, there were
Speaker 1: so meant that thing that really like struck me was
Speaker 1: how many players came out and very openly talked about
Speaker 1: how they needed a fresh start, like Greg Knewsome talked
Speaker 1: about they may be needed to keep things more vanilla
Speaker 1: on defense, and that Joe did a great job in
Speaker 1: the second half of the year, just realizing, you know what,
Speaker 1: maybe we don't need to call everything. Let's just shorten
Speaker 1: the menu down. And then John Johnson said, I don't
Speaker 1: even like talking about scheme too much. He said that
Speaker 1: I think you're getting your players to play. That's the
Speaker 1: main thing. That's what I want. So that's like a
Speaker 1: more of a motivation thing. And we talk about Mark
Speaker 1: to your point about the defense getting better in the
Speaker 1: second half. They also their their past defense definitely did.
Speaker 1: But they faced quarterbacks like Kyle Allen, Tyler Huntley, Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz, like, I mean, Kenny Pickett, who's been doing better.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like powerhouse quarter didn't get to face
Speaker 1: the worst um quarterback in the division on their own roster. Though,
Speaker 1: Andrew Barry, I think the biggest takeaway from this was
Speaker 1: how they're keeping Stevanski and that they were pretty fourth
Speaker 1: rate in that saying like we we know we've got
Speaker 1: a good one and Kevin Stevanski, we're gonna keep him.
Speaker 1: But great head coaches get involved with the defense, and
Speaker 1: I think some of the reporting is that Stefanski kind
Speaker 1: of just like a defensive year is Joe Woods. He
Speaker 1: made that higher of Joe Wood. Did you think there's
Speaker 1: a chance that Stefanski was gonna go? But with all
Speaker 1: these teams, you never think, like when there's a surprise firing,
Speaker 1: you don't always see it coming. So he was sort
Speaker 1: of on the long list of like would that be
Speaker 1: that crazy because of what you're saying with Watson, But
Speaker 1: they have bought into the Watson and him being a pair.
Speaker 1: And Stefanski, if you, if you do want to be
Speaker 1: a great head coach, you need to be better at
Speaker 1: hiring your defensive coordinator and you need to like figure
Speaker 1: out how to help that side of the don't you
Speaker 1: look at like the Stefanskis and like the Dennis Ellens
Speaker 1: of the world and be like, here's the problem. To
Speaker 1: keep these guys like they're fresh, um, they're fresh, new
Speaker 1: fall guys, like come week fourteen next season to be
Speaker 1: let go because nothing is going right. And then you're
Speaker 1: taking your team with no quarterback the Saints or just
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson situation and put it into a third developmental
Speaker 1: or second developmental year. I like I like Stefanski, though,
Speaker 1: I think they should see it through and see if
Speaker 1: he can get Watson to work. And if it doesn't,
Speaker 1: like you like this. I got this text screen grab
Speaker 1: on my fantasy football thread from my Buddy Elliott headline
Speaker 1: from the Akron Beacon Journal. Deshaun Watson wants quote man
Speaker 1: to man conversation with Brown's coach Kevin Stefanski on plan
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson hasn't had a man to man conversation with
Speaker 1: anyone for two years now. He wants to dictate the
Speaker 1: direction of this franchise. Who was a hot mess on
Speaker 1: the field, which, by the way, he can because ownership
Speaker 1: gave him three hundred damn million dollars or whatever it
Speaker 1: was guaranteed. Who whoo. Elliott added the addendum, this is
Speaker 1: insane on so many levels. He's sharp on it. He's
Speaker 1: sharp it. Shout out of eli. Uh, here we go.
Speaker 1: What else we got? What else we have? Let's take
Speaker 1: a break. Let's take a good break. Let's take a break.
Speaker 1: That's we'll be right back now. All right, we're back.
Speaker 1: Here we go, we roll on new horizons week here better.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it's solved. Um, who's safe? Who's safe?
Speaker 1: Right now? There's once Van Sky seems like Josh McDaniels
Speaker 1: in uh Las Vegas seems safe. Dennis Allen seems safe.
Speaker 1: But I wrote about this in the Power rankings. This
Speaker 1: is a bit of a trope of this time of year,
Speaker 1: almost specific to this day and Monday. UM, after the season,
Speaker 1: when the coach has the press conference, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure I give you the exact quote, although it
Speaker 1: is a very similar quote. UM. When he was Dennis
Speaker 1: Allen has asked about his job status after his first
Speaker 1: year or the Saints, whether he has a job, but
Speaker 1: whether he's gonna be the head coach, and his reply was,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any need to discuss that any further,
Speaker 1: and I'm certainly going forward with that anticipation. That's the
Speaker 1: indication that I've been given, and I'm excited about it. Um.
Speaker 1: It always seems like a weird, unnecessary situation. UM, And
Speaker 1: I understand it's the timing. Also, maybe the team is
Speaker 1: not sure what they want to do yet. But when
Speaker 1: you send your head coach out for that end of
Speaker 1: season press press conference a day after the final game
Speaker 1: of the year and he doesn't actually have it on
Speaker 1: like authority that he's coming back, so he says that
Speaker 1: thing like, no one's told me I'm not coming back,
Speaker 1: so I'm just assuming I am. Always feels like a
Speaker 1: bit of a tough sitch put it that way. For
Speaker 1: the old HC. In this case, Dennis Allen agree like
Speaker 1: McVeigh put himself in a different situation and get to
Speaker 1: that later, but he also didn't seem to have his
Speaker 1: own clarity. I watched the Dennis Allen press conference for
Speaker 1: some reason because I just thought it might be awkward,
Speaker 1: and he didn't say anything. He just didn't answer any questions.
Speaker 1: He it's sort of limb. It seemed like it wasn't
Speaker 1: about his job. I'm saying, like about the team and
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do in different things, and he just
Speaker 1: sort of like refused to say anything meaningful. But do
Speaker 1: you think that might be connected to him maybe not
Speaker 1: knowing if he is. Yeah, he tried to nip that
Speaker 1: in the button. You read the quote right away, like
Speaker 1: stop asking me about this essentially right away, stop asking
Speaker 1: me if I'm fired. It really seems it really seems
Speaker 1: like he's safe, because the whole Sean Payton idea seems
Speaker 1: to have come and gone. In terms of Sean Payton
Speaker 1: potentially coming back, that doesn't seem like it's at all
Speaker 1: in the cards, all right. In other news, Sean McVeigh,
Speaker 1: of course, the Super Bowl winning coach of the Rams.
Speaker 1: Big story going into week eighteen that he might step
Speaker 1: away from the sidelines, at least temporarily. Uh. He spoke
Speaker 1: to the media on Monday, and this is what he
Speaker 1: had to say about his uncertain future. I don't get
Speaker 1: the sense in the least, but I'm done coaching, right.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of what does that look like
Speaker 1: as it relates to the immediate future. I think what
Speaker 1: I'd like to do is be able to take the
Speaker 1: appropriate time never going through anything like this. But you
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're considered of the people
Speaker 1: that are affected. That that's the most important thing, and
Speaker 1: that's probably you know, you want to be able to
Speaker 1: the consistent conversations and dialogues that have existed with the
Speaker 1: people that I love and really care about. Hey, do
Speaker 1: what you think is best for you and Veronica. Um,
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean it takes away the empathy the
Speaker 1: level of responsibility that I do feel for the people
Speaker 1: that would be affected. Um, you know, as it relates
Speaker 1: to my decision moving forward. And so those are the
Speaker 1: things that you don't take lightly. And we learned that
Speaker 1: he has let his coaches as assistants know that it's
Speaker 1: cool to look for outside work, which seems like another
Speaker 1: indication like they that was from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that like if you wanted to take another job, And
Speaker 1: our our friend Jordan read Reg added some context that
Speaker 1: there would have been a lot of changes to the staff. Anyways,
Speaker 1: we already knew the offensive coordinator was leaving, that was
Speaker 1: a month ago. I think that was more of he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be brought back and found a job situation,
Speaker 1: and I think there could be more. Morris is a
Speaker 1: notable guy on that staff. There d C for it
Speaker 1: to get to this point. Whatever Sean McVeigh is going
Speaker 1: through mentally has to be really really taxing for him
Speaker 1: to just come out and be like this is like
Speaker 1: nothing I've ever experienced. Hey, staff, go ahead, like look
Speaker 1: for other jobs. Don't stay here because of me, because
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I'm gonna do. I mean that,
Speaker 1: especially in this NFL right now and this time, like
Speaker 1: when you see guys getting hired and fired and all
Speaker 1: of the success that he's experienced from the jump with
Speaker 1: the RAMS, I just think that there's much more that
Speaker 1: we don't know um about what he's going through. And
Speaker 1: I bet that everything has been really hard on him
Speaker 1: this year, Like the expectations were really high. And I
Speaker 1: know you guys were talking about this the other day
Speaker 1: on the pod just about like he just got married,
Speaker 1: and I honestly can't imagine like having an in laws
Speaker 1: family going through a war torn situation like that is.
Speaker 1: I understand, like you have your your work life and
Speaker 1: your personal life, but a lot of times those things
Speaker 1: have to be in the same scope, like you're still
Speaker 1: just a human being dealing with other human beings, and like,
Speaker 1: I think he has to take whatever time he needs
Speaker 1: to step away. But it is kind of weird because
Speaker 1: we don't hear it all the time for a coach
Speaker 1: to say I need this. Yeah, I think it's countercultural,
Speaker 1: and it's it's he's a younger coach. Obviously a lot
Speaker 1: of the guys like the Cliff Kingsbury's were hired because
Speaker 1: of the Sean McVeigh effect. You go find this young
Speaker 1: guy that is so driven in so resourceful, and he's
Speaker 1: a brainiac and a wizard and he's going to change
Speaker 1: your offense. But Sean McVeigh always took so much on
Speaker 1: like I'll just never think we talk on something that
Speaker 1: feature that came out before the season, just the weight.
Speaker 1: I remember being at the UH the combine after they
Speaker 1: lost that Super Bowl of the Patriots, and and Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh was up on stage the Diaz in that big
Speaker 1: room talking to Good Morning Football early before a bunch
Speaker 1: of press showed up, and there was just this sort
Speaker 1: of weight to his entire demeanor, like that Super Bowl
Speaker 1: weighed so heavily on him. And I think it's such
Speaker 1: a release after the one one. But then now you're
Speaker 1: right back in the thick of it in an organization
Speaker 1: that maybe if you're thinking personally like I'm at this
Speaker 1: place where this crossroads and need to make a countercultural
Speaker 1: move and go treat my family situation, my mental health,
Speaker 1: all that stuff before football, which is different than the
Speaker 1: old school coaches that just like burned through this, never
Speaker 1: around their families. They sleep at the facility that they're
Speaker 1: eighty weeks, even if they only need to be there
Speaker 1: fifty four. McVeigh is not from necessarily that world, and
Speaker 1: he's telling us that. I think he's saying like coaching
Speaker 1: isn't over immediate. Coaching might be as also being courted
Speaker 1: left and right by television, And I just think, like
Speaker 1: I guess from a Ramos angle too, they he's done
Speaker 1: so much for him that you'd be like, we want
Speaker 1: you to do what you want to do, but do
Speaker 1: you really if you're a player, And this is not
Speaker 1: against Sean McVeigh, because there's no doubt that he's all in,
Speaker 1: Like do you want to coach every January taking press
Speaker 1: confidence whether or not you still want to do this,
Speaker 1: it's like you need like you need that coach needs
Speaker 1: to be the anchor. So if he's not able to
Speaker 1: be the anchor for whatever reason, float away for a
Speaker 1: bit and maybe we see you again. I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The one thing that was difficulty What he said was
Speaker 1: he'd never been through anything like this before, and that's
Speaker 1: true in terms of this season, but he was going
Speaker 1: through something exactly like this a year ago. At this
Speaker 1: time he considered going leaving the job. But it's two
Speaker 1: years in a row. That's what I'm saying. It's because
Speaker 1: you so that I agree that you you can't be
Speaker 1: in that spot and put your team in that spot
Speaker 1: you're after And he's very conscious of that, and you
Speaker 1: could hear him speaking to that and it makes you
Speaker 1: think that he will go away, but it's hard to guess.
Speaker 1: And I think Jordan's our friend. I'll mention again like
Speaker 1: hit on I think a key point here. You said,
Speaker 1: like there had been this sprint from him basically his
Speaker 1: whole football life since he was like John Gruden's mentee
Speaker 1: almost fifteen years ago, of like getting to the mountaintop,
Speaker 1: getting you know, becoming the best coach in the league,
Speaker 1: getting anything, winning the Super Bowl. And you hear this
Speaker 1: from a lot of people who have experienced a lot
Speaker 1: of success in their lives and they realized when they
Speaker 1: get to the top and they achieved everything they ever
Speaker 1: wanted to that actually, isn't that satisfying. That it's not
Speaker 1: that fulfilling. It is in the moment, but it's not
Speaker 1: gonna change who you are are in in the long term,
Speaker 1: and that whatever he wants to do like that alone
Speaker 1: isn't going to make everything. Okay. I I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I think we've probably seen the last of
Speaker 1: him for the Rams right now. It seemed like this
Speaker 1: does a super Bowl? Winning the Super Bowl calvinize you
Speaker 1: two wins, five more's or was it more of a
Speaker 1: relief And it just felt like it was just more
Speaker 1: of a relief to Sean McVeigh at times then like
Speaker 1: I want to do this for thirty more years. Don't
Speaker 1: ask it again. I think about when we reached the
Speaker 1: end of the season put on the bus, but burnout
Speaker 1: that sometimes we feel. I can't imagine being a head
Speaker 1: coach and knowing that they are the amount of work
Speaker 1: that they are pouring in the hours, everything that that
Speaker 1: burnout must be next level. Stafford says he's coming back regardless,
Speaker 1: by the way, whether mcveigh's here or not. He doesn't,
Speaker 1: He's playing football. And I'm sure that Sean McVeigh is
Speaker 1: sincere about the passion he has for the job and
Speaker 1: the idea of burnout. But I'm not ruling out the
Speaker 1: possibility that it takes a ton of money to work
Speaker 1: for Fox for a year and then signs a huge
Speaker 1: new deal with a different team and a much better
Speaker 1: We're watching potentially exactly about it, but like you could
Speaker 1: it could be like this is all too much for
Speaker 1: him his personality type, or it could be he thinks
Speaker 1: it's signed for a reset as well. It's sort of
Speaker 1: players retiring and then like all of a sudden, coming
Speaker 1: back and playing for a different thing. His again, his
Speaker 1: the guy who he learned from John Gruden right did
Speaker 1: the exact same thing essentially and I always remember this
Speaker 1: article by Bill Belichick. For some reason, Bill Belichick wrote
Speaker 1: a column in the New York Times after John Gruden
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl, and it was kind of like, alright,
Speaker 1: what's next, Like that your life just changed so much,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have all this thing happened, and then
Speaker 1: at some point you're gonna realize like, oh, I'm just
Speaker 1: back to being the same coach I was before. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I was reminded of it with Jordan's article this
Speaker 1: week speaking of Bill Belichick. He will be coming back
Speaker 1: for his twenty four season on the sideline, uh with
Speaker 1: the Patriots. And you know, he's a perfect example like
Speaker 1: everyone's wired differently. I don't. I'm sure McVeigh lives and
Speaker 1: dies in every single way with his team, but don't
Speaker 1: tell me Bill Belichick doesn't either. I mean he's and
Speaker 1: here he is Nappie Carroll and he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: fiftieth season on the sideline and various capacities. Uh. He
Speaker 1: can't get enough as he's I think seventy three years
Speaker 1: old now. Belichick, Um, he's coming back. But he also
Speaker 1: acknowledged that the future for the Patriots, you know, things
Speaker 1: have to change, is what Bill had to say, as
Speaker 1: we do every year, evaluate everything, UM and try to
Speaker 1: make the best decisions that we can UM to move forward,
Speaker 1: to be more competitive, to have a stronger team. Uh
Speaker 1: in the future, Son, Robert and I'll talk about the
Speaker 1: talk about that was the staff. Certainly individual conversations with
Speaker 1: you know, many of the players, as we always do,
Speaker 1: well all the players, but there's some that are, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is Terri or will be more commonly
Speaker 1: than than others. He's the best. He's seventy. Just want
Speaker 1: to run through a wall. He choosing his words carefully.
Speaker 1: He's choose his words carefully. Did you watch the game?
Speaker 1: I wish I had asked for it. This would have
Speaker 1: been a better showmanship here. That you mean when you
Speaker 1: were yelling at our producer behind the glass before the
Speaker 1: shows too much true? That is not too much sound?
Speaker 1: Never would never never raise your voice, I guess not
Speaker 1: true now. Uh to Curran was like to Curran, who
Speaker 1: has been there forever, was just came out with it
Speaker 1: and said, well, a lot of us thought it was
Speaker 1: dubious when you hired Matt Patricia. It just said the
Speaker 1: word dubious, and then you didn't really Belichick answer let
Speaker 1: Belichick answer, and he gave his Belichick answer of like
Speaker 1: I was just doing what I thought was best for
Speaker 1: the team. And then Tom responded by being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but like when we think you do things that are dubious,
Speaker 1: you don't ever give us like an answer. Uh, so
Speaker 1: we just have to just sort of say it and
Speaker 1: then it sits there. And at that moment Belichick actually
Speaker 1: started smiling and laughing, and then Karen was like, this
Speaker 1: is not really a question, it's more of a statement.
Speaker 1: And then Bell was just like, thank you Tom about
Speaker 1: this flashpoint. Belichick with Tom current, I would the series
Speaker 1: is just we got we got flashpoint. May feel in
Speaker 1: the past, Wow, write these down rams was on our
Speaker 1: on our radar. That's really good. One more time, come on,
Speaker 1: but I want to hear again the flashpoint sounded yeah.
Speaker 1: Legendary former producer Sydney Carlson crushing the musical theater amazing
Speaker 1: all right. In other news, Bob McNair cal McNair, excuse me, um,
Speaker 1: discussing the Texans situation at coach uh Nikossario could step
Speaker 1: away if a new head coach chooses, uh that as
Speaker 1: the more righteous path for the Organization's interesting The team
Speaker 1: is also requests out to Jonathan Gannon, um a yearro Evero,
Speaker 1: Damiko Ryan's, d C, A Niners, Shane Stiken, and Ben
Speaker 1: Johnson O C of the Lions. So casting a wide
Speaker 1: net as they look to replace Levey Smith, who has
Speaker 1: fired on Sunday. The Broncos, by the way, also a
Speaker 1: team looking to replace a head coach. They have scheduled
Speaker 1: interviews with Dan Quinn, the Cowboys d C or request
Speaker 1: not a schedule. They've gotta be granted. Request to interview
Speaker 1: dan Quinn, DMKO, Ryan's and Morris who we got Morris
Speaker 1: will get that request granted. They also did interview a
Speaker 1: zero ever O their own defensive coordinating all right, so
Speaker 1: they want a defensive guy the Panthers for while we're here,
Speaker 1: Panthers are talking to Jim Caldwell, uh Ken Dorsey, Shane
Speaker 1: stike In, Ben Johnson, Frank Reich, Steve Wilkes, Mike Kafka.
Speaker 1: Yeah wow. Interesting And speaking of the Panthers, there has
Speaker 1: been a lot of speculation about Steve Wilkes and whether
Speaker 1: he did enough to earn the job. Um. I didn't
Speaker 1: get the vibe listening to Fitterer that that's really going
Speaker 1: to be an option. I know Wilkes is formally interviewed
Speaker 1: or a scheduled to this week for the job. But
Speaker 1: here's Fitter talking about how he sees the Panther's job
Speaker 1: is very very uh, you know, savory, tasty. It's a
Speaker 1: tasty gig compared to the other ones. It's a young teams.
Speaker 1: This division is up for grabs here in the next
Speaker 1: few years. There's no dominant quarterback. They look at our
Speaker 1: offensive lines and the pieces that we have and the
Speaker 1: way we're growing right now, and with a few tweaks
Speaker 1: here and there, you know this is this is a
Speaker 1: division that we can we can take over. You know
Speaker 1: that opportunity is there. But no dominant quarterback, including on
Speaker 1: your roster. That's been the problem. And Scott Fitter is
Speaker 1: not solved that. You know, it's not just a small
Speaker 1: tweak to find a dominant class. By the way, unless
Speaker 1: he knows something we don't know, I guess Tom Brady
Speaker 1: is either no longer a dominant quarterback or he'll be
Speaker 1: in Vegas in a couple of months. I think he's
Speaker 1: probably right about that. Yeah, I think he probably they
Speaker 1: will be on the bucks. He's definitely not dominant uh
Speaker 1: this year that I really was surprised that Wilkes, I
Speaker 1: agree with you, doesn't seem like he's getting a great
Speaker 1: chance here just because he did so well, and I
Speaker 1: think I did a lot of the hard things about
Speaker 1: being a head coach, and the reporting is he has
Speaker 1: a pretty concrete plan of what he would do in
Speaker 1: terms of hiring an offensive cording. So if if you,
Speaker 1: if Steve Wilkes shows up with a great offensive plan
Speaker 1: in terms of who his coach would be, that would
Speaker 1: be attractive to me. But everyone else they're interviewing is
Speaker 1: essentially a defensive he had this audition this year was
Speaker 1: pretty great for him, though, considering the way that the
Speaker 1: offense looked before he took over in the team in general,
Speaker 1: and then afterwards, they had a single game record for
Speaker 1: total yards five and seventy, They had a single game
Speaker 1: record for rushing yards, like they were the NFL's most
Speaker 1: efficient passing attack for six weeks, like they no one
Speaker 1: thought that they were going to be able to do
Speaker 1: anything on offense, especially after trading Christian McCaffrey, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they were able to run the
Speaker 1: ball really well. I know that he's a defensive coach,
Speaker 1: but the team in general looked a lot better under him.
Speaker 1: It looked like if they would have beat the Bucks
Speaker 1: in week seventeen, is a good chance he keeps the job.
Speaker 1: That's possible, But the results oriented business. I think Woks
Speaker 1: did a great job, but also sometimes you gotta win
Speaker 1: that game. I don't know, I point to I. I
Speaker 1: think it's a hazard sign for coaches don't take these
Speaker 1: interim jobs because Rich Possacci a year ago did go
Speaker 1: to the playoffs in a in a in a whirlwind
Speaker 1: of turmoil, and when a team that was you know,
Speaker 1: vaguely suspect to begin with, did a great job, goes
Speaker 1: and doesn't really get a shot to get that job
Speaker 1: because you know, the time of his life though there
Speaker 1: is something to that, but yeah, but I'm that time
Speaker 1: of his life is great. But it's like, if you
Speaker 1: think that it's a pathway to get the head coaching job,
Speaker 1: what more could Steve Wilkes have done here? That team
Speaker 1: was a hot disaster and he totally turned them around.
Speaker 1: They beat up on teams, showed a lot, the players responded,
Speaker 1: and you don't really get in a fair shake here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to circle back to the Texans quickly, because
Speaker 1: the Casario part of it was very strange to me.
Speaker 1: He was sitting up there knowing that he needed to
Speaker 1: take responsibility that he hadn't done a good job. You know,
Speaker 1: he'll be the first GM in NFL history to ever
Speaker 1: get a chance to hire a third head coach after
Speaker 1: hiring two straight one and done. Of course that's never
Speaker 1: happened before, like where the Texans are now, or as
Speaker 1: as dysfunctional as in that way of like turning over
Speaker 1: head coaches as any team in NFL history right now.
Speaker 1: And those were his choices, and he even said, well, admittedly,
Speaker 1: I will let other people be more involved in this
Speaker 1: head coaching search, like the mcnari's, but I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a choice. And then he also kept saying like
Speaker 1: if the new coach chooses I guess, like you know,
Speaker 1: and doesn't want me here, i'd have to work with him.
Speaker 1: I could step away. It's like, what is he doing
Speaker 1: up there on the podium. Then it's sounded like he
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily know, kind of like these coaches, what his
Speaker 1: status is gonna be. So I took from that that, look,
Speaker 1: if they hired a big name, but it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like they're going for one. Then they could get rid
Speaker 1: of Nick Kisario, but they're going for assistance around the league,
Speaker 1: and there was a report to that Damiko Ryans might
Speaker 1: not even want to interview with them after you know
Speaker 1: how they've treated the two last black Head coaches that
Speaker 1: they hired and pretty much got rid of it. I know,
Speaker 1: it's always like, just take the open job, someone's gonna
Speaker 1: take it. It's like I'd be really careful about some
Speaker 1: of these openings. Such a shame too, because the opportunity
Speaker 1: there with two first round draft picks this year and
Speaker 1: next year for whoever is coming in like it looks great,
Speaker 1: but then you realize it's the Texans and their track
Speaker 1: record recently abysmal record by the way, for how many
Speaker 1: coaches one team is paid at the same time. At
Speaker 1: one point was paying Rob Chittzynski, I believe, for three
Speaker 1: different outings as a Browns coach at the same time
Speaker 1: the Browns around the mid the early coaches three ears
Speaker 1: is very unusual and I'm wondering when the last time
Speaker 1: that even happened. They're probably O'Brien so they might be
Speaker 1: onto their their fourth. That's one azing I'm looking concurrently,
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is the red? This is the type
Speaker 1: of stuff that the you got drew behind the glass,
Speaker 1: all nine ft four of them. Like the research Would
Speaker 1: they know that with the research group here at NFL Media,
Speaker 1: I think they would. I think they have the ability
Speaker 1: to check that out. John Madden might know that in
Speaker 1: a local laboratory. Uh, super Bowl City. I don't know
Speaker 1: who knows. You just gotta get the information wherever you
Speaker 1: can get it. Let's take one more break and then
Speaker 1: we'll finish things out. All right, welcome back. Let's see
Speaker 1: other transactions. Dean Peas. Dean pas I said Bill Bellichick
Speaker 1: was seventy three. No, it's Dean who's seventy three. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he's retiring the defensive coordinator of the Falcons. He's
Speaker 1: he's actually retired two other times previously, but he said
Speaker 1: this time he thinks it's gonna stick. He had some
Speaker 1: health issues. Uh this year, got run over on the
Speaker 1: sideline a couple of weeks ago, But he said that
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the decision. He just said
Speaker 1: it's time to walk away. So danps has been coaching
Speaker 1: for I think fifty years. Happy trails to you, good sir,
Speaker 1: h defensive coordinator on the U eighteen and one Patriots.
Speaker 1: Dean Ps also the defensive He's got that conference championship
Speaker 1: right Bowl like six hundred times when Dean PS was
Speaker 1: squaring off against Tom Brady and week eighteen. These guys
Speaker 1: know each other from you know, their time together, their
Speaker 1: shared time together in New England. We got it. Won
Speaker 1: his Super Bowl with the Ravens with one of the
Speaker 1: worst Ravens defenses of all time. The Niners year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the way the year they won the Super Bowl was
Speaker 1: one of their worst, but he stuck around and they
Speaker 1: had a lot of great defense, a great defense with
Speaker 1: some medversity. He was also the Titans defensive coordinator when
Speaker 1: they ended the Brady Patriots dynasty. About the title again,
Speaker 1: can tanker as fool? Is that what we called? I
Speaker 1: believe he just believed. He loved how he gets agitated
Speaker 1: during press conference. I mean, it happened with the Falcons
Speaker 1: before in the best way. That's what I liked about
Speaker 1: Mike west Off, the old special Team's coach. Just just
Speaker 1: a cranky. Oh he's on our show and he's cranky
Speaker 1: with us UH one defense recording and not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Is Joe Barry. Matt Lafleur, the Packers head coach, said
Speaker 1: that Barry will return, So there's a little bit. We
Speaker 1: also say that Nathaniel Hackett might come back, leaving the
Speaker 1: door open. I think, as I understand, he was asked
Speaker 1: about it and he's like, yeah, we're open to that,
Speaker 1: but and perhaps it will happen. But that's interesting, of course,
Speaker 1: into something that he It's sometimes you just get elevated
Speaker 1: a little bit too high. It's like, let's just bring
Speaker 1: it back to where you need to be. You'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Come back home, come back home, all right. In other news,
Speaker 1: so that's kind of like the roundup of all the
Speaker 1: coaches is and what's going on in that realm a
Speaker 1: little league news. There was a significant signing extension today.
Speaker 1: Ro Kuan Smith, who has done very good work with
Speaker 1: the Ravens since coming over in that trade at mid
Speaker 1: season from the Bears, agrees to terms on a five year,
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollar contract extension. Uh. That is a
Speaker 1: lot of money. Forty five million fully guaranteed, sixty million
Speaker 1: in total guarantees. And for a team that I've told
Speaker 1: you on this podcast, I'm kind of over. They kind
Speaker 1: of bore me. Giving a one hundred million dollar extension
Speaker 1: to an off ball linebacker is on brand. It doesn't
Speaker 1: get my juices flowing, but it doesn't matter. And they're
Speaker 1: very happy with this man and he's made their defense better.
Speaker 1: So good job. That was just kind of boring. The
Speaker 1: Ravens a huge signing on a Baltimore Smith millions. The
Speaker 1: defense will get to it Thursday. I think they're a
Speaker 1: tough matchup for the Bengals, just the Bengals offense. They
Speaker 1: have the franchise tag now if they want to use
Speaker 1: it on Lamar, right, that's huge. And he also served
Speaker 1: as his own agent and got the biggest money ever,
Speaker 1: so you know the agents are sweating this. We do
Speaker 1: have some more coaching news, though. We have some breaking
Speaker 1: that I didn't you want to give it to Mark? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to please, I don't know, just like
Speaker 1: we well, I just let you know we have some
Speaker 1: breaking news here. Let's go. Let we already covered that
Speaker 1: they were in a minute. All right, give it back
Speaker 1: then for the Greg you announced what it is. I
Speaker 1: just want to announce the music, all right, there you go,
Speaker 1: So we came down in a good spot. Alright, Wait, wait,
Speaker 1: let you take the music wants the bump wants the
Speaker 1: last line about Rokuan Smith Smith, what a guy we
Speaker 1: do have. By the way, a little bit of breaking
Speaker 1: news Park on top of things, as always Greg, the
Speaker 1: Commanders have fired offensive coordinator Scott Turner. Young Turner, Young Turner. Shoot,
Speaker 1: this is how you become young Turner anymore. This will
Speaker 1: aid you. This is escaped a Manders in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And the Pentagon. I know, well, maybe they're losing Commanders
Speaker 1: rapid pace. Ron Rivera was talking on Tuesday, so I
Speaker 1: guess he sort of strategically did this after conference of
Speaker 1: like how he wanted to be a run first team.
Speaker 1: That's how you win in the NFL. You control the
Speaker 1: time of possession, this and that, and I'm just like, uh,
Speaker 1: And I'm also thinking, why did they wait till week
Speaker 1: eight teen to see same? How that was fun? Wait?
Speaker 1: By the way down the stretch they were one of
Speaker 1: they were like the most run heavy team in the
Speaker 1: entire NFC. And if anything, Young Turner was using all
Speaker 1: sorts of different players and creative ways on the in
Speaker 1: the ground game. Where did that come from? Young Turner? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, son of Norv Turner deserves better and I'm
Speaker 1: sure he'll get another opportunity out there. We will. By
Speaker 1: the way, about the NEPO babies right now, you're hearing
Speaker 1: all this Neppo baby stuff going on out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm not thinking his career is indebted fully to that.
Speaker 1: But I think Scotty's gonna Scotty too. Hottie will land
Speaker 1: on his feet. There are some NEPO babies out there,
Speaker 1: but it's um. He also has done some things on
Speaker 1: his own. You know, the NFL is rife with nepotis.
Speaker 1: It's certainly to your point, Neppo babies all over this joint.
Speaker 1: Let's see, let's see, let's see we have anything else
Speaker 1: to add on ro Kuano by the way, or did we?
Speaker 1: I think Mark came in. I'm not. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's boring, and I understand we hit the Slien. Just
Speaker 1: the Ravens excite me. I didn't cut Greg announced breaking
Speaker 1: news to break away from real quansation. Yeah, okay, I
Speaker 1: was just trying to get a feel button things up.
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't. You guys are too dynamic. Uh.
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel said, the Dolphins head coach, that Teddy Bridgewater
Speaker 1: could have played on Sunday. Okay uh dislocated pinky uh.
Speaker 1: He suffered in weeks seventeen against the Pats, but they
Speaker 1: went with um the kid. Why don't Skyler Thompson, who's
Speaker 1: now I don't think he's saying like he was at
Speaker 1: his full strength, but it was a pretty good indication
Speaker 1: to me that Teddy has a strong a strong chance
Speaker 1: to play this week as this though like it was
Speaker 1: a win or die playoffs scenario. If there ever was
Speaker 1: a time to put or die. Typically you could do
Speaker 1: something poorly and then you do die. But where is
Speaker 1: any chance? And I know we talked up Teddy pretty
Speaker 1: highly on the show. She hasn't done a lot of
Speaker 1: in recent years, but he would have given them a
Speaker 1: much better chance, I would think than Skylott Thompson, who
Speaker 1: is not ready for this. But Fingertice it did not
Speaker 1: look good for him throwing the ball. I don't know
Speaker 1: why you need to say that. If you're McDaniel, that's
Speaker 1: a weird comment. But I like every a lot what
Speaker 1: he says, so I'm going down that road. At the point,
Speaker 1: he was close in his mind, and that I think
Speaker 1: every time I saw him with the walkie talkie and
Speaker 1: the aviators like I couldn't help but laugh. Really I
Speaker 1: did enjoy that. He's He's what we thought. We thought
Speaker 1: we would get two of those. We thought the other
Speaker 1: would be Nathaniel Hackett and that turned not fun. And
Speaker 1: about six and a half minutes into Week one, I
Speaker 1: wonder if Hackett will, you know, sit, sit it out
Speaker 1: a little bit, get back into the hip hop dance
Speaker 1: classes like a ton of money? Why why are you?
Speaker 1: Why go into anywhere? Yeah, all right, grow a beard Spanish.
Speaker 1: Hey the Eagles, your Eagles, Connie, are not playing this
Speaker 1: upcoming week, so I'm not going to dive deep on
Speaker 1: the Eagles. But I did think it was notable because
Speaker 1: I wish I would have seen this on Sunday night.
Speaker 1: We didn't see it and didn't get to it. But
Speaker 1: here's some sound of Sirianni Nick Sirianna talking about Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts on uh Sunday post game, about him, you know,
Speaker 1: making his way through that Giant's game coming out of
Speaker 1: it okay, even if he wasn't really okay, this is
Speaker 1: just something notable. I want to get on the record.
Speaker 1: We didn't feel like there was more risk, but you know,
Speaker 1: I know he was hurting, and he was hurting bad.
Speaker 1: And uh, but that's the kind of a competitor that
Speaker 1: he is, that's kind of the person that he is,
Speaker 1: and the kind of teammate and leader that he is.
Speaker 1: Um that he was able to go out there and
Speaker 1: stick and tough through it. I know he was hurting
Speaker 1: and then he doubles in it. He's hurting bad. And
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking to myself, after two weeks he comes
Speaker 1: back and he was clearly less than got the dub
Speaker 1: got that by there's just no guarantee, Connie, that he's
Speaker 1: gonna be pent even after this by It's gonna help, obviously,
Speaker 1: But I thought it was notable that he came out
Speaker 1: and said how badly Hurts was playing in pain during
Speaker 1: the Giants. If he was hurting so bad, why in
Speaker 1: the world did he drop back forty two times? Like
Speaker 1: they have the ability to run the ball and do
Speaker 1: other things, and they just weren't employing any of those
Speaker 1: concepts like and they needed to, and obviously they needed
Speaker 1: to for couple of different reasons, like one to put
Speaker 1: away the Giants who were playing their backups, but also
Speaker 1: to preserve Jalen Hurts. Here, I didn't like it. It
Speaker 1: was strange and he he did not play a great game. No,
Speaker 1: it's worries. I agree. He talks about it on the
Speaker 1: Power Rankings podcast. That interception in the third quarter was
Speaker 1: one of the worst decisions I've seen him make all season.
Speaker 1: And they played a very conservative game plan to avoid
Speaker 1: making Jalen hurts. Get him in positions where he could
Speaker 1: take hits. That. I get all that, So I don't
Speaker 1: make too much of the fact that they only had
Speaker 1: one touchdown or it's more got called back for a
Speaker 1: really bad call an a legal man downfield. Come on
Speaker 1: the next place. I wouldn't tell whoever your opponent is.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't let anyone know that you're starting quarterback is
Speaker 1: hurting anywhere. He's fine, he's great, because let's really emotionally,
Speaker 1: everything's great. It's a lower body or upper body injury.
Speaker 1: Right a right, Okay, howie mother, it's a good be
Speaker 1: a good Catholic. Just bury it all inside that organization, right,
Speaker 1: all right. Brandon Cooks wants to be traded. F y.
Speaker 1: I we knew that over in Houston. Everybody wants out
Speaker 1: of Houston. Uh, he doesn't want to be part of
Speaker 1: a rebuild. Well, you better not be in Houston. Uh
Speaker 1: and finally, um, well not finally, Penultimately, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. I know this this interest people because
Speaker 1: he's gonna always be asked about him. But Zach Wilson
Speaker 1: UH spoke to the media and was asked how he'll
Speaker 1: handle competition, knowing that it's coming to the Jets quarterback
Speaker 1: room in you said, you're a competitor. So if they
Speaker 1: come to you in March and say, look, we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep you, we like you, we're going to develop you,
Speaker 1: but we're signing veteran X to be our starter, which
Speaker 1: to me, I'm gonna that is life hell and practice
Speaker 1: every day, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out
Speaker 1: there and do my best to just show the coaches
Speaker 1: that I deserve to be there. And you know, and
Speaker 1: it's not it's on in a negative way. It's a
Speaker 1: positive way. It's making everybody else you know, better hopefully,
Speaker 1: and you go out there and you just attack every
Speaker 1: single day. He's just a baby's younger. What he needs
Speaker 1: a beard? What a change by the way that that
Speaker 1: sound by compared to what things were entering a training
Speaker 1: kid in print versus hearing him say it. It's kind
Speaker 1: of as like like in print, it's like, why did
Speaker 1: you say that? Just don't say that it sounds inflammatory.
Speaker 1: But then here I'm saying, it's just like a nice
Speaker 1: little kid. Yeah. What it reminds me of. It reminds
Speaker 1: me of like Tim Tebow joining the Jets, saying like
Speaker 1: competition is gonna make us all better. I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: and make Mark iron sharp and iron. The real story
Speaker 1: that people should pay attention to coming out of Jersey
Speaker 1: yesterday was that Quinnin Williams, the best player on the Jets,
Speaker 1: arguably a pro bowler and potentially an All Pro. Um
Speaker 1: he Um said, I'm not going to be heading to
Speaker 1: voluntary workouts unless I get my new contract. He wants
Speaker 1: to be the highest paid defensive tackle in the sport,
Speaker 1: and the Jets do not have a great track record
Speaker 1: of taking care of their own stars. Get this one right, Joe,
Speaker 1: or you're gonna have a problem with me. Finally in
Speaker 1: the news and Rich Eysen, I mean, and the two
Speaker 1: people that you don't want to mess within the world
Speaker 1: me in the face. Finally, and this is good news,
Speaker 1: great news to marrow Hamlin Bill's safety back in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: so he gets out of the hospital in Cincinnati, out
Speaker 1: of the I see you. He's got all of his
Speaker 1: mental functions, he's speaking, he's he's still recovering though, so
Speaker 1: he's still getting hospital care, but he's back in Western
Speaker 1: New York. So great news on tomorrow, Hammon. This could
Speaker 1: not as bad as things were a week ago Monday.
Speaker 1: They could not be in a better place than they
Speaker 1: are right now. The doctors from the UC Medical Center,
Speaker 1: I feel like I have now gotten to know them
Speaker 1: from watching the press conferences, and really I just want
Speaker 1: to say that I feel like they're America's doctors now.
Speaker 1: Where the uh the hamblin Jersey is just like saying
Speaker 1: thanks than I mean, I was like, that's too much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, just like it could have gone in so
Speaker 1: many directions, and I'm glad that it quickly got here.
Speaker 1: For the bills, for Buffalo, for football, for everything, especially
Speaker 1: for tomor Hamlin. I mean, just like I couldn't. I
Speaker 1: think we're in the best possible Rerailm at this point
Speaker 1: beautifully said that's it. I think you're totally the listener
Speaker 1: caught up. And if you're just finishing now the Sunday
Speaker 1: Night recap, you can now roll into this episode and say, oh,
Speaker 1: it's only it's a tight sixty. We did it well,
Speaker 1: we're disciplined. We'll be back on Thursday. And Thursday is
Speaker 1: an important episode that you cannot miss because it is
Speaker 1: our super wild Card weekend preview breaking down all those games.
Speaker 1: And again, if you want to go see us at
Speaker 1: the Bourbon Room in Hollywood Secondary Market. And I would say, um,
Speaker 1: keep saying that as if like there is how can
Speaker 1: you find it? How do you how do you know
Speaker 1: your kids college funds? Nothing should be off limits in
Speaker 1: terms of finding a way into that any family finances
Speaker 1: that might be hanging in the balance. So I think
Speaker 1: my my little girl's gonna need braces. She'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Of generations what lived without braces, they were fine. Who
Speaker 1: needs teeth? You don't even need? Well, her teeth are
Speaker 1: going to be there. They just may not be a straight.
Speaker 1: But you will be at the Bourbon Room for the
Speaker 1: A T N Homecoming show. If you guys want to
Speaker 1: get under an hour, you should wrap it up right now. Okay,
Speaker 1: why do you you don't think this is an essential conversation? No,
Speaker 1: I just like, do you have a goal of actually
Speaker 1: coming in or does it not matter around like one
Speaker 1: more new horizons keeping eye up. We'll also we're going
Speaker 1: to continue yes to track this week new horizons Thursday
Speaker 1: coming up. Mark, I'll give you the final word, goodbye.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful as that THELA just like that, breaking
Speaker 1: news you all right till Thursday. He the call