Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreeger as a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with my Heart Radio. Yes, when that
Speaker 1: music hits, I get very excited. I'm Peter Schreeger. I'm
Speaker 1: the host of Good Morning Football in the NFL Network,
Speaker 1: and I am also the host of the Season with
Speaker 1: Peter Schreeger, just the podcast we do every Tuesday here
Speaker 1: in New York City. My boy, my producer, my man,
Speaker 1: Aaron Woon Kaufman. What is up, dude much? How you
Speaker 1: don't welcome back from Germany. I'm back from Germany. Um?
Speaker 1: Should I get right into it? Yeah? Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to hear about it. So if you're wondering why I
Speaker 1: wasn't in Germany and I was recording last week's podcast
Speaker 1: with Jeff Perlman, uh from a Brooklyn apartment. I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure I could talk about it last week because I
Speaker 1: wasn't I was actually gonna get to Germany. I'll just
Speaker 1: empty the bag right now and let everybody know. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to leave last Friday, got to the airport,
Speaker 1: had my bags packed, had my passport. My passport expires January.
Speaker 1: I'm good. I went to London a month ago. I
Speaker 1: had a great week. No one said much like just yeah,
Speaker 1: good luck. Here it's your ticket, go whatever. Get to
Speaker 1: the Luftanza Airline ticket gate thing at Newark and the woman,
Speaker 1: with very very little room for negotiation or desire to
Speaker 1: have a conversation, um, is like, you cannot fly. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean I can't fly? Here's my ticket? Um,
Speaker 1: really important. I talked about football for a living. I
Speaker 1: must go to Germany. It's a must, it's my right.
Speaker 1: She says, Uh, No, your passport expires in less than
Speaker 1: three months. Doing the math, it was like November four,
Speaker 1: my passport expired January eleven, and yeah, in less than
Speaker 1: three months, my past I didn't know this rule. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone else knew this rule, but
Speaker 1: in certain countries Germany included, you need uh to have
Speaker 1: three months or more left on your passport. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting with Jamie Ertole, who's my lovely co host uncle
Speaker 1: Morning Football, and like it was almost like a scene
Speaker 1: out of a movie like Home Alone or something like
Speaker 1: she had to go to the gate and get on
Speaker 1: that plane. And I literally called an uber X from
Speaker 1: Newark Airport and it was like the saddest drive back
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn just of like, you know, you had a
Speaker 1: bad day, and it's just like I'm crying in the
Speaker 1: back seat as everyone else gets to go to Germany
Speaker 1: and I'm going home to Brooklyn. I compared it to
Speaker 1: when I was in I guess my freshman year of
Speaker 1: high school. I didn't play football, but all the guys
Speaker 1: on the football team got invited to a to a party.
Speaker 1: And at this party, it was from uh the girls
Speaker 1: from the the neighboring school, but it was just the
Speaker 1: football guys and I was friends alw these guys in
Speaker 1: eighth grade. I didn't play football, and they all went
Speaker 1: and it was like the first week at school and
Speaker 1: it was all these new girls that I didn't know,
Speaker 1: and they played like spin the bottle and um. All
Speaker 1: these guys had stories for for months about this amazing
Speaker 1: party that they were invited to. This is what that
Speaker 1: felt like. Like. I was getting texts from from Kyle
Speaker 1: Brand and Jason mccordy and Jamie Ard all there, like
Speaker 1: we're at this amazing beer hall. We're at Oh, it's
Speaker 1: the funniest thing. Like we're being treated like royalty because
Speaker 1: we're football and we're at this amazing Uh, soccer game.
Speaker 1: We're at the Byron Munich match. Man, we miss you.
Speaker 1: And yet those techs started coming in less and less
Speaker 1: as like the longer it became, and I was like
Speaker 1: total fomo. Right. So Monday morning, UM, I was told
Speaker 1: that you couldn't get an expedited passport if you go
Speaker 1: to this passport office in Lower Manhattan on like Barick
Speaker 1: Street and you get an appointment. We get an appointment,
Speaker 1: go in there. I tell him the whole story. They
Speaker 1: don't give up about like you know, UM, NFL or
Speaker 1: don't you know that Geno Smith is going to Munich?
Speaker 1: Someone needs to talk about it for five days on
Speaker 1: a lightly viewed cable channel, you know, someone needs to
Speaker 1: be there, especially election week, like we need to watch
Speaker 1: it lightly view That was kind of not necessary. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll just say very highly viewed cable network, NFL network.
Speaker 1: We love what we do, UM, but it's a very
Speaker 1: niche audience. The the audience that's tuning in on a
Speaker 1: Tuesday to see me breakdown Kenneth Walker's running style. UM
Speaker 1: on election Tuesday in the middle of the first week
Speaker 1: in November. So I wait there five hours. It's like
Speaker 1: you're literally at like the Delhi. Uh, and you take
Speaker 1: the ticket, you know, and it's like thirty one and
Speaker 1: it's you know, you've got like sixty seven. Um, but
Speaker 1: get my passport. The amazing Wendy Moyer, I'm gonna shout
Speaker 1: her out. She works for the NFL network. She is
Speaker 1: like on the phone with me throughout out this. We
Speaker 1: book a flight, I get on the plane. Until I
Speaker 1: get on the plane, I'm like, there's no way I'm
Speaker 1: actually getting there. This thing isn't happening. Um, get on
Speaker 1: the plane, get there and literally land and run from
Speaker 1: the airport to the set. And I was on Wednesday morning, um,
Speaker 1: and somewhere in between there. I don't even remember doing it.
Speaker 1: We did a podcast last week, Aaron, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not assaulting you. I have no recollection of the Jeff
Speaker 1: Promon podcast. I'm sure it was great. I know he
Speaker 1: was doing it from a car. It was raining. I
Speaker 1: was checking my phone the entire time, like, am I
Speaker 1: Am I really getting this passport? Am I really going
Speaker 1: on the flight? Got there? It was fantastic and an
Speaker 1: amazing experience. And uh, I'm here today and you made
Speaker 1: it back successfully too, Which is I mean with all
Speaker 1: the trouble you went through getting there. It's good that
Speaker 1: you got back. I did um four downs. You want
Speaker 1: to do it, let's go, let's go experience bro Um
Speaker 1: first down. Besides the travel, was Germany a success, US huge,
Speaker 1: huge success. Good Morning Football first of all was a
Speaker 1: really big success. We set the stage for the weekend
Speaker 1: that was to come. And I was there Wednesday and
Speaker 1: it was awesome, and then Thursday was cool, and then
Speaker 1: Friday it was like the comparison I made was I
Speaker 1: guess it was like Bourbon Street, not Marti Grab. But
Speaker 1: when there's like a big college bowl game or when
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl was there, and it was like just
Speaker 1: a celebration of sports. I could not walk through the
Speaker 1: streets of Munich without sing a Seahawks fans sing a
Speaker 1: Buccaneers fan. And at first glance it's like, oh, they
Speaker 1: all flew in. Okay, I get it. Then you talk
Speaker 1: to the people. They're German, they are German fans and
Speaker 1: they love football. I was very, very ignorant to all
Speaker 1: of this going in. I didn't know the history of
Speaker 1: Germany and football, but the NFL Europe really did have
Speaker 1: a strong, strong footprint in Germany, so fans really fell
Speaker 1: in love with the game, and then they stopped NFL Europe.
Speaker 1: Some of those teams play in semipro leagues. The NFL
Speaker 1: still has some sort of connection to that. But this
Speaker 1: was the first ever game in Germany and the amount
Speaker 1: of German fans who know the game loved the game.
Speaker 1: They were live at our show on like Thursday and
Speaker 1: Friday in the town square, which was incredible. But then
Speaker 1: you saw the footage on Sunday. I have friends, um
Speaker 1: who were there, obviously from the NFL network. I've got
Speaker 1: another buddy, my buddy, Mike Carella lives in Amsterdam full
Speaker 1: time with his family and he does that for a
Speaker 1: corporate job. And he came and met me in Munich
Speaker 1: and then he went to the game on Sunday and
Speaker 1: he's taking photos of this and it's like this felt
Speaker 1: like the Super Bowl. And it wasn't gimmicky, it wasn't kitch,
Speaker 1: it wasn't this like you know, Wacky's anything. It was
Speaker 1: a legitimate game between two division leaders, and the fans
Speaker 1: knew what was going down, and it was a celebration
Speaker 1: of football. And I mean this and that Brady did
Speaker 1: a lot of postgame sound and was calling it epic
Speaker 1: and everything. Brady went on his podcast with Jim Gray
Speaker 1: and Larry Fitzgerald on Monday night and it was like
Speaker 1: he was like it was awesome and it was really
Speaker 1: important for me. And I think and this is like
Speaker 1: bringing it back to the football stuff, Like I think
Speaker 1: Brady needed this, Like it's been a rough couple of months,
Speaker 1: obviously with the divorce, but also the team being terrible
Speaker 1: and not like reaching expectations. I think the last thing
Speaker 1: you would have told Tom Brady that he needed was
Speaker 1: to go on a on a forty eight hour trip
Speaker 1: to Germany. But like he seems like he's at ease,
Speaker 1: he's at peace, he was energized, and the fans love
Speaker 1: him so much over there that it was such a
Speaker 1: cool experience to see. I don't know if you watched
Speaker 1: the game, errand, but with about two minutes left, you know,
Speaker 1: the game is on the broadcast on and Eisen and
Speaker 1: the boys are doing the and it's in the background
Speaker 1: you here country Roads Take me, and You're like what,
Speaker 1: And there's a huge chant of John Denver's Country Roads.
Speaker 1: And I don't think they know what West for Gin.
Speaker 1: It is, like, I don't know if they know it.
Speaker 1: And the West Virginia Mountain Mama, and I'm like what,
Speaker 1: and then it's Sweet Caroline. And then the game ends,
Speaker 1: and uh my buddy who works for the Bucks text
Speaker 1: me a video and he's like, check this out. Thirty
Speaker 1: minutes after the game, the Bucks team comes back onto
Speaker 1: the field and seventies six thousand fans are still there
Speaker 1: doing a karaoke sing along to like American Like American
Speaker 1: Pie by Don McLean. Um. I don't know. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: pessimistic a lot of times. I live in a negative
Speaker 1: like mindscape a lot. And then especially with the way
Speaker 1: things are going in America, it's easy to get down.
Speaker 1: And you know, now there's a recession, there's inflation, the
Speaker 1: crypto markets have blown up, all this stuff and all
Speaker 1: anyone tells you that the world is terrible and all that,
Speaker 1: you see a bunch of seventy six thousand people in
Speaker 1: arm and arms singing country roads in Germany, You're like,
Speaker 1: all right, that was kind of cool, Like that was
Speaker 1: a fun moment. And I think for Brady it was
Speaker 1: like a brief reef rest bite of like a moment
Speaker 1: where it was like, all right, I love football, this
Speaker 1: is awesome. I got to experience this, and I think
Speaker 1: for Goodell in the league, speaking to people there, they
Speaker 1: were overwhelmed. I don't think anyone that's exceeded expectations beyond
Speaker 1: anyone's wildest dreams. And we had Commissioner Goodell on Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football on Friday and he threw it out there.
Speaker 1: He's like, I think we're gonna have multiple games here,
Speaker 1: um over the next few years. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: just gonna be Munich. I think we're talking Frankfurt. I
Speaker 1: think eventually Berlin. I think eventually, you know, Cologne. I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not well versed in the history of
Speaker 1: German football. But what was a cool deal American football
Speaker 1: in Germany. A cool deal was talking to a native
Speaker 1: German UM, this guy Alex, who worked at our hotel
Speaker 1: that we were staying at, and he said, what's what's
Speaker 1: interesting is, you know, obviously there's the NFL Europe and
Speaker 1: there was the World League and all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: there was this great, like little seed of this German
Speaker 1: uh love for football. Then in like two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: there's a TV station called Free TV, which I equate
Speaker 1: to like ESPN, I guess, and one game a week
Speaker 1: they have an NFL game. One on Sunday, they play
Speaker 1: one game. And he said, for the majority of like
Speaker 1: the two thousand and two thousand twenties, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: a lot of that was Seahawks. So the Seahawks have
Speaker 1: a huge fan base there, but a lot of them
Speaker 1: are also Chiefs and of course Patriots. And he said,
Speaker 1: the biggest fan bases are Seahawks, Chiefs and Patriots, and
Speaker 1: they are real fans. They go to sports pubs, they
Speaker 1: go to like Irish bars in Germany, and they go
Speaker 1: and watch the games. Um. I can't speak enough about
Speaker 1: the experience. From a personal standpoint, I thought it was
Speaker 1: really eye opening and really cool. But I think from
Speaker 1: a league standpoint, and maybe later on in the season,
Speaker 1: we'll bring on Peter O'Reilly who runs all the events
Speaker 1: for the league, or um, you know, Henry Hodgson does
Speaker 1: some of the international stuff, and I would like to
Speaker 1: get their perspective. But gosh, just from these these two eyes,
Speaker 1: it was it was spectacular alright. Second down from the
Speaker 1: German fan base is celebrating their teams. To me, lamenting
Speaker 1: my team, Are you as concerned as I am with
Speaker 1: the bills? After these two losses. Well, I know you too.
Speaker 1: For the listeners, Aaron comes from a family of Bills fans.
Speaker 1: Let me first, you know, swing it around to you.
Speaker 1: Two losses to the Jets and Vikings, both in weird fashion.
Speaker 1: Are you concerned with your Bills? I mean, yeah, a little.
Speaker 1: I think I just said to you before we started recording.
Speaker 1: It's it's tough being involved in the quote unquote game
Speaker 1: of the year two years in a row and losing
Speaker 1: both of them. Uh, it was a great fight, and
Speaker 1: you know, Josh Allen did really well except for these
Speaker 1: red zone interceptions. It's not my favorite stats to lead,
Speaker 1: but um, yeah it was. It was rough and suddenly
Speaker 1: the Bills are in the wild card race now I
Speaker 1: mean wild correct to the six seed. This went from
Speaker 1: me saying like no one and I went on Bill
Speaker 1: Simmons's podcast, I'm like to literally before the Jets game,
Speaker 1: I don't think the Bills are gonna lose in the
Speaker 1: game this season. I don't. They got through Kansas City
Speaker 1: like they'll roll over the Jets, they'll beat the Vikings.
Speaker 1: Then after they lost to the Jets, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, but they won't lose a home game all
Speaker 1: season and they already have the tiebreaker over the Chief,
Speaker 1: so they'll be fine. And they lose to the Vikings
Speaker 1: and what was just epic fashion. Now what worries me
Speaker 1: is that Allen continues to make these strange decisions in
Speaker 1: these plays, like which I'm I'm baffled by because I
Speaker 1: thought we got over that. And then their defensive backfield
Speaker 1: it's just riddled with injuries. So no Trey White still,
Speaker 1: I don't know where he is. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's coming back. Jordan Poyer is like the captain of
Speaker 1: that defense. He wasn't out there. Michael Hides not coming back.
Speaker 1: Elm the rookie who's been playing well, he wasn't there.
Speaker 1: See have Dane Jackson, and you've got this Christian Benford,
Speaker 1: who's a lovely young man. He's a sixth round pick
Speaker 1: out of Villanova, but like that's a big spot and
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson just eight and Kirk Cousins picked him apart.
Speaker 1: And if this thing is going through Buffalo, I still
Speaker 1: like the Bills out of the a f C. But
Speaker 1: right now it's not. And my reason for concern is
Speaker 1: it's a really hard thing to go on the road
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. And it's a really hard thing to
Speaker 1: win an Arrowhead and they've done it now twice in
Speaker 1: the regular season. But like, I have no confidence that
Speaker 1: this Bill's team is going to go on one of
Speaker 1: these stretches where it's like, say that to play in
Speaker 1: Miami and then they got to go, you know, to
Speaker 1: Baltimore whatever it is, and then you know, I call
Speaker 1: it the Arrowhead Invitational, you know that an f C
Speaker 1: championship game in Kansas City. Like, I'm not sure that's
Speaker 1: a that's a no brander anymore, a catastrophic loss. And
Speaker 1: that fumble, it's like Bills fans have been through so
Speaker 1: many heartbreaking losses that fumble. I don't think it's up
Speaker 1: there with Scott Norwood. And I don't think it's up
Speaker 1: there with last year's to the Chiefs. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's up there with that stuff. But like
Speaker 1: that's it's just enough of a wacky doesn't happen type
Speaker 1: thing that you're like, we are just doomed, like we
Speaker 1: are just cursed and we are not allowed to have
Speaker 1: nice things like that. That play is you run that
Speaker 1: a thousand times, that happens one time, and it happened
Speaker 1: and it didn't just happened. They scored a touchdown, so
Speaker 1: that you have to come all the way back and
Speaker 1: get the field goal. Um, I'm not concerned about Alan,
Speaker 1: He'll figure it out. I think they're a playoff team
Speaker 1: for sure. Obviously. I am concerned that this puts them
Speaker 1: in a position where they have to dig out of
Speaker 1: a hole. And I don't want to see the Bills
Speaker 1: in Kansas City. If I'm a Bills fan, I'd rather
Speaker 1: be home for that playoff game. Ye. Same, alright, third down,
Speaker 1: we're a week remove now. He talks about Jeff Saturday
Speaker 1: last week. Now, what's your take after they win against
Speaker 1: the Raiders? Something? Right? So I had a take that
Speaker 1: I thought was like hot fire on this podcast thing.
Speaker 1: I didn't like the higher because of multiple reasons. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that I was just like dipping my toe
Speaker 1: in the shallow and compared to some of the takes
Speaker 1: that were coming out. We had Joe Thomas on uh
Speaker 1: Good Morning Football in Germany on Friday and literally on
Speaker 1: Thursday night, Joe is wearing ederhosen, drinking beers, all smiles,
Speaker 1: like having the greatest time at the Huffbra House, which
Speaker 1: is one of the great beer halls there and we're han't.
Speaker 1: He's like the almost happiest, go lucky, like loving fun
Speaker 1: guy I've ever like hung with. And he's talking about
Speaker 1: how he owns a farm and he's never been so
Speaker 1: content and his family was in Paris. And then this
Speaker 1: topic comes up on Good Morning Football and Joe's entire
Speaker 1: tone changes and his take was this, when you hire
Speaker 1: your drinking buddy to be the head coach of an
Speaker 1: NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful
Speaker 1: things I've ever seen in my entire life to the commitment,
Speaker 1: the lifestyle, and the experience that it takes to be
Speaker 1: an NFL coach, any coach, much less the head coach
Speaker 1: of the Indianapolis Football Colts. You have got to be
Speaker 1: kidding me that this is something that Jim Orsay and
Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday, who's not blameless for accepting the job, could
Speaker 1: have talked and decided that this was the best thing
Speaker 1: for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season.
Speaker 1: I was happily eating some fine French food and drinking
Speaker 1: French wine because I was in France with my kids
Speaker 1: earlier in the week. But when I saw this, I
Speaker 1: thought it was a joke. I thought maybe I had
Speaker 1: a little Google translating. I all of a sudden, I'm
Speaker 1: in the wrong calendar and it's April first or something
Speaker 1: going on. It was the most egregious thing I can
Speaker 1: ever remember happening in the NFL. And I went one
Speaker 1: in thirty one. Sure enough, Sunday morning, I'm on my couch,
Speaker 1: excited for some football, and the you know, the Brady
Speaker 1: thing just ends in Munich. I flipped forward to CBS
Speaker 1: and there's Bill Kauer and he's on the CBS show
Speaker 1: and he comes out and he called it a disgrace,
Speaker 1: a disgrace. What about the assistance on this staff right now,
Speaker 1: the guys that were there in training camp, the guys
Speaker 1: that were there early in the morning and late at night,
Speaker 1: the guys have gone through the first six weeks in
Speaker 1: that building, Guys like Gus Bradley, Scotty Montgomery, John Fox.
Speaker 1: Don't they deserve the opportunity for an owner to hire
Speaker 1: a coach who's never been an assistant at the college
Speaker 1: level or the pro level and overseeing a very much
Speaker 1: a lot of candidates. They are qualified for that job,
Speaker 1: as we see in Steve Wilkes, an opportunity to build
Speaker 1: a resume. It's a disgrace to the coaching profession in
Speaker 1: regardless of how this thing plays on. What happened Indianapolis
Speaker 1: is a travesty. That clip was courtesy of CBS Sports.
Speaker 1: In the NFL today, I mean, people were really really
Speaker 1: upset about the Saturday thing, and then there comes this
Speaker 1: moment where all right now he has to go coach
Speaker 1: a game, and sure enough, because this is how this
Speaker 1: thing works, like they go and they win, and then
Speaker 1: there's everyone looking for receipts afterwards that it's saying, you know,
Speaker 1: eat it, Joe Thomas and eat it Bill Kawer. And
Speaker 1: my whole thing is this that team. It was awesome
Speaker 1: watching that Colts team rally around Jeff Saturday and his
Speaker 1: postgame comments were eight and Ursa was so fired up.
Speaker 1: But that team is a good football team. If that's
Speaker 1: what it takes, then shame on me, egg on my
Speaker 1: face that I was wrong and saying that I would
Speaker 1: have rather seen another guy get the opportunity then than
Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday. If that's what it takes too to have
Speaker 1: someone have you know, the stones to say what we're doing,
Speaker 1: starting Sam Ellinger when we've got Matt Ryan under contract,
Speaker 1: and he's a former MVP and he still wants to
Speaker 1: play like Matt Ryan's our quarterback. That's what it takes
Speaker 1: to see Quentin Nelson, uh, you know, block his ass
Speaker 1: off and look like the twenty million dollar offensive guard
Speaker 1: that he is. Then great, you know, bring in Jeff Saturday.
Speaker 1: If that's what it takes to see Stefan Gilmour play
Speaker 1: like the number one corner that we know he is
Speaker 1: and has been awesome, I stand corrected if I said that,
Speaker 1: You know, I would have liked to have seen one
Speaker 1: of the younger guys, and I wasn't one who is like,
Speaker 1: give John Fox the job. I don't think that would
Speaker 1: have done anything. I was talking about guys like Bubba
Speaker 1: Cotrone or Kato June or Scott Montgomery or you know.
Speaker 1: But then again, there's this guy, Parks Fraser, who's a
Speaker 1: thirty year old, you know, offensive coach no one knows
Speaker 1: much about him. Goes in there, Colin plays and he's
Speaker 1: dialing it up and it's like, here's Parks Fraser's moment
Speaker 1: as the play caller. And I don't know if he
Speaker 1: gets that opportunity of Frank Reich and Uh, Marcus Brady
Speaker 1: are there, and I don't know if he gets an
Speaker 1: opportunity if you just hired Gus Bradley or John Fox
Speaker 1: is the interm. My big takeaway is long term. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure how this whole thing plays out, but hey,
Speaker 1: I picked the Coast to win the an FC South
Speaker 1: before the season. That team that I saw and Jonathan
Speaker 1: Taylor actually running the football, Yeah, that's the team I
Speaker 1: thought we were gonna get this season. So if it
Speaker 1: takes Jeff Saturday to get that team on my TV screen,
Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday, welcome. Alright, fourth down? Who do you want
Speaker 1: to shout out this week? Can I give a shout
Speaker 1: out to Colton McCoy. Um, This is part personal, part objective. Quote.
Speaker 1: McCoy is one of my favorite people in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I've gotten to know cult McCoy very well over the years.
Speaker 1: Culte McCoy has been a starting quarterback in this league,
Speaker 1: but he's also been a backup quarterback to Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: to Robert Griffin, the Third Uh, to Daniel Joe, to
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, to you name it. He has been around
Speaker 1: a lot of young quarterbacks and they all love him.
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray grew up in Texas when the University of
Speaker 1: Texas football was everything, and Kyler Murray grew up loving
Speaker 1: Culte McCoy. So sure enough they bring him in and
Speaker 1: he is now his backup and it's like Murray's not alone.
Speaker 1: Murray is is one of many young players in this
Speaker 1: league who look at cult McCoy as that dude, because
Speaker 1: he have his college career, of course, but also because
Speaker 1: he's one of the best people to have in a
Speaker 1: locker room. Cliff Kingsbury rolls out Colt McCoy and like,
Speaker 1: I would have bet, like my life that they were
Speaker 1: winning that game, just knowing how the teammates respond to Colt,
Speaker 1: and to see a J. Green make plays, to see
Speaker 1: Rondel Moore with the one handed catch, and to see
Speaker 1: Colt under centertor's doing his thing, like Culte McCoy wins games.
Speaker 1: And here's the crazy thing. Quote McCoy is now three
Speaker 1: and one as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals. The
Speaker 1: rest of the team loves him, They rally around him.
Speaker 1: There's suddenly a we're in sixth team. They've got a
Speaker 1: Monday night game in Mexico City coming up, and like
Speaker 1: if I'm Cliff. I don't know, like, do I rush
Speaker 1: Kyler back from my amstring injury or do I say,
Speaker 1: let's see how this thing goes. Let's roll the dice. Now.
Speaker 1: When I say it's a I've got a bias towards Cole,
Speaker 1: it's because I've really really enjoyed his company. I've got
Speaker 1: to know him really well over the years as a reporter.
Speaker 1: He's always wonderful to us in the media. He's always
Speaker 1: very gracious with his time. This past summer, I attended
Speaker 1: Sean mcveigh's wedding out in l A name drop. They
Speaker 1: would only PLoP that one right in here at our table,
Speaker 1: my wife Eric and I, we're sitting next to Colt
Speaker 1: McCoy and his wife, and we're sitting next to Kingsbury,
Speaker 1: and it's Brandon Staley and his wife, and Kevin O'Connell
Speaker 1: and his wife, and this gentleman, Chaz Gasner. Everyone google
Speaker 1: Chaz Gasner, that dudes, the man. Chazz Gasner played for
Speaker 1: Belichick in the Patriots and then was coached by Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh when Sean McVeigh was the h head. It was
Speaker 1: one of the offensive coaches for the Florida Tuskers in
Speaker 1: the UFL. Yep, we're going back that way. Anyway, We've
Speaker 1: got this great table of great time. Coult McCoy and
Speaker 1: my wife hit it off in a way that at
Speaker 1: the end of it, I'm like, all right, chill out
Speaker 1: with talking to Colt. I'm here, I'm your date, all right. Uh.
Speaker 1: Just an awesome, awesome guy, his wife awesome. Another thing
Speaker 1: that Aaron, you'll like about Colt, which I always appreciate.
Speaker 1: Coulte McCoy, Uh, play for the Giants for one year,
Speaker 1: won a huge game for them in Seattle, and people
Speaker 1: love it. Coulte McCoy chose to live with his I
Speaker 1: want to say, four kids and his wife in Manhattan
Speaker 1: when he played for the New York Giants during COVID,
Speaker 1: and I was like, why would you live in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: You've got to drive an hour out and two hours
Speaker 1: back from the facility. Why would you live in Manhattan?
Speaker 1: And Coulte McCoy's whole thing was like, well, I knew
Speaker 1: I wasn't living here the rest of my life. I
Speaker 1: knew so once in a lifetime experience. I wanted my
Speaker 1: daughters to experience living in New York City. So every
Speaker 1: day they would go to the Central Park and they
Speaker 1: can go in the rest of their life and say,
Speaker 1: like I had to, I had that experience. Life's all
Speaker 1: about the experiences. And uh, that's four minutes on Coulte McCoy.
Speaker 1: But gosh, if you can't tell what a fan I
Speaker 1: am of that guy and how happy I am for him.
Speaker 1: And again, this is on Tuesday, and recording this, everyone
Speaker 1: is assuming Kyler is back on Monday and performance are not.
Speaker 1: Don't be shocked if I see McCoy under center in
Speaker 1: Mexico City next Monday night. Now you're shoutout fourth down, Aaron,
Speaker 1: take us home. Wow, I I love that called McCoy story.
Speaker 1: You were right like them wanting to live in Manhattan. Um. So,
Speaker 1: my fourth down is Christian Watson, who his parents are
Speaker 1: in the news to his mom coming out, she talks
Speaker 1: so much about him, she defends him on social media
Speaker 1: all the time. And Christian Watson the rookie receiver for
Speaker 1: Green Bay. First game, he has this big drop Rogers
Speaker 1: throws in the ball. He doesn't get it. It's he's
Speaker 1: wide open that that could be such a setback, and
Speaker 1: instead this week he took over the game for them.
Speaker 1: UM four receptions on eight targets, but he had a
Speaker 1: hundred seven yards and he had three touchdowns, including a
Speaker 1: thirty nine yard and a fifty eight yarder. And in
Speaker 1: the fourth the Packers were down in the midst of
Speaker 1: a five game losing streak. Watson was like the X
Speaker 1: factor that helped force overtime and then they eventually win
Speaker 1: the game. Um, we had to talk about Tom Brady
Speaker 1: like feeling rejuvenated, kind of felt like Aaron Rodgers, Like
Speaker 1: you see Rogers flexing, Rogers flexing, he like found his
Speaker 1: new ride receiver maybe here, and and you know, earlier
Speaker 1: in the year Romeo Dobbs. Dubbs was like the big
Speaker 1: rookie for them. But Watson is a pretty incredible athlete.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about that game, because he
Speaker 1: dropped two balls early that he has the big touchdown
Speaker 1: and then Rogers goes back to him again and he
Speaker 1: drops it, and Greg Olsen's on the call and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wasn't looking in the right direction, and it's like, alright, dude,
Speaker 1: he had one. Yeah, Rogers has lost faith. And then
Speaker 1: Rodgers goes to him twice in the clutch and he
Speaker 1: makes the plays and he was so fired up. You're right.
Speaker 1: We had him on Good Morning Football last year before
Speaker 1: the draft. He's a tall drink of water. This dude
Speaker 1: is like six five, skinny, play with Trey Lanson College.
Speaker 1: So a lot of questions were, like, you know, we
Speaker 1: thought Watson would go third, fourth round, he goes early, second,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't going well the first few weeks. To
Speaker 1: your point, and to see the emotion, to see it
Speaker 1: like if Rogers finally trusts one of these young guys,
Speaker 1: that might be all it takes for that offense to
Speaker 1: change and gosh, what a win for them. Um, great
Speaker 1: fourth down? Are we ready for our guest? I think
Speaker 1: we are. Yeah, who do we have today? I am
Speaker 1: so excited for this. He is the thirty seven year
Speaker 1: old first year general manager of one of the most
Speaker 1: historic franchises in all of football, the Chicago Bears. I'm
Speaker 1: so fired up to bring on their GM, Mr Ryan Poles. Now,
Speaker 1: he's a thirty seven year old first year general manager
Speaker 1: in the NFL and he's having an outstanding first campaign
Speaker 1: over there in Chicago as the general manager of one
Speaker 1: of the most historic and legendary franchises in our fine league.
Speaker 1: It's the Chicago Bears general manager and a man that
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to get on the podcast since we
Speaker 1: started this thing, Mr Ryan Poles. Ryan, what's up man?
Speaker 1: What's going on? How you doing? I'm doing great. As
Speaker 1: we're doing this, you are currently in your office at
Speaker 1: like Hollis Hall. Uh, we're now eleven weeks into the season.
Speaker 1: Does it Does it ever sink in that? Oh? My,
Speaker 1: I am the general manager of the Bears. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's awesome. It's a dream come true with just
Speaker 1: working for a franchise like this with you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of history. It means a lot. It's all over
Speaker 1: the walls, it's in the entrance like we talked about
Speaker 1: back in the combine, So you're reminded often and uh,
Speaker 1: you know you feel the way to that too, which
Speaker 1: is which is good. I love it. I love the challenge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I love the fact that you're in there and
Speaker 1: it's it's a Tuesday and you're like, Okay, here's what
Speaker 1: we got now, but we're building. We're building. When you
Speaker 1: walked into those interviews, what was your selling point to saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: i might be in my thirties, but I've been around
Speaker 1: some really good builders. And I've got some really forward
Speaker 1: thinking ideas I want to bring to this franchise. What
Speaker 1: did you tell the McCaskey family, and really what was
Speaker 1: your selling point saying, hey, take a shot on me. Yeah, listen,
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate, right, I've been. I've worked from some
Speaker 1: really good general managers and coaches, and I think the
Speaker 1: key part was I've been through this journey from the
Speaker 1: ground floor all the way to the top, um and
Speaker 1: those challenges along the way, and each organization is gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit different. You can get different wrinkles, um,
Speaker 1: but you've learned to adapt and adjust. You've learned what
Speaker 1: really good football players look like and how they can
Speaker 1: help your team. You've learned, you know, different schemes and
Speaker 1: making sure that their scheme fits. You've had some really
Speaker 1: good cultures. You know, some really good locker rooms, so
Speaker 1: you know what kind of guys you need to add
Speaker 1: to that room to be a championship level team. So
Speaker 1: you know, I was up for the challenge, and I
Speaker 1: think they knew that because I've been through it in
Speaker 1: my past and I've been able to learn a lot
Speaker 1: so I can apply this, you know, to this job
Speaker 1: and get this organization backward belongs. Well, let's go through
Speaker 1: the resume. I think everyone loves like, Okay, so how
Speaker 1: do I become an NFL general manager? It doesn't happen overnight. Um,
Speaker 1: let's go back to Boston College where who was your
Speaker 1: quarterback when you played offensive line for the for the
Speaker 1: Boston College. Yeah, Mattie Eyce, Matt Ryan. You were Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan's offensive lineman in college you play. Did did you
Speaker 1: have dreams of being a player or was it always hey,
Speaker 1: I'm either go into coaching or being in the front
Speaker 1: office back then? Yeah, No, it was it was definitely
Speaker 1: being a player. That was the first and foremost. Um
Speaker 1: had a pretty good career, you know. Unfortunately, I think
Speaker 1: it was like late October my senior year, fifth year,
Speaker 1: senior year, we go to Notre Dame and I ruptured
Speaker 1: my achilles. So at that moment when I found out,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, you know, this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: tough journey. So, you know, I think it's it's just
Speaker 1: how I've been ray is that I rehab that worked
Speaker 1: my butt off to get back, which brought me to
Speaker 1: Hollis Hall, you know, to have an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: an undrafted free agent trying to make the team. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know that didn't work out. Wasn't talented enough, really
Speaker 1: wasn't in the right shape. You're just coming off that injury.
Speaker 1: But there's cut of years this since j Cutler years,
Speaker 1: like who was like, what was the team? Then? Yeah
Speaker 1: it was Jay and they were like rotating with Rex too, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: Devin Hester just seeing him run around with old and crowds,
Speaker 1: just how he held down the old line room and
Speaker 1: Lance Briggs and and Ur Lockers. So there's some special
Speaker 1: special guys on this team. So you don't make the
Speaker 1: team and then what Yeah, So I was trying to
Speaker 1: get my mind right. I had a buddy from BC
Speaker 1: who was like, I know where you're at mentally. You
Speaker 1: want to go to Alaska with me? So we jump
Speaker 1: on a plane and go to Alaska. Really oh yeah, Anchorage,
Speaker 1: but listen to this. We go to Anchorage, then we
Speaker 1: go to Kodiak Island. Then we take a boat to
Speaker 1: another island and we helped one of his dad's friends
Speaker 1: shut down this camp fishing camp before the winter comes.
Speaker 1: So really cool time. Something like if you get a
Speaker 1: chance to do something like that, I've never heard just
Speaker 1: piece and quiet like that in my entire life. So
Speaker 1: we fished. It was good just to get some how.
Speaker 1: I was about ten days, ten days of just serenity,
Speaker 1: no football, no life like, no career. Just I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, I live in New York City. There's
Speaker 1: no chance we're going to Anchor to Alaska unless my
Speaker 1: career goes sideways and there's there's some job at local news.
Speaker 1: But I would say that you get there and like
Speaker 1: you had that piece of mind moment, you had, that
Speaker 1: moment is in yeah, yeah, great moment collecting myself for
Speaker 1: you know that next phase, um, and this was I
Speaker 1: get back. I'm living with my wife Oupen at the
Speaker 1: time of my girlfriend in Vermont. I get a call
Speaker 1: from Boston College is, hey, do you want to come
Speaker 1: and be a graduate assistant? And really that was the
Speaker 1: first step that that set me up because you go
Speaker 1: from playing ball and going to school. You've never had
Speaker 1: that in office field before. So I don't I'm stabling
Speaker 1: papers all messed up and like just so tighten that up.
Speaker 1: Just the administrative thing, like how do you work in
Speaker 1: the office with others? How do you you know, work
Speaker 1: in the computers and things that you just don't get
Speaker 1: a chance to when you're playing. So UM, I was
Speaker 1: able to meet some really cool scouts that came through
Speaker 1: Scott Prioli, John Dorsey. Uh, and that kicked off the
Speaker 1: idea I want to get into scouting, so semi resume out,
Speaker 1: had a bunch of interviews, and that brings me to
Speaker 1: Kansas City, which was what thirteen fourteen years ago, and
Speaker 1: that kind of started my journey in the scouting Yeah.
Speaker 1: And well fast forward through those Kansas City years. So
Speaker 1: many great NFL executives you mentioned p Reli of course,
Speaker 1: but Dorsey and then you get to work you know,
Speaker 1: alongside and and under Brett Veach and that front office
Speaker 1: is often looked at as like the gold standard of
Speaker 1: teaching you from the ground up and giving you other opportunities.
Speaker 1: What were those opportunities within that chief's organization over the
Speaker 1: course of fourteen years, different hats that you wore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if my career was just you know, open puzzle
Speaker 1: that still needed pieces dropped in, those three guys really
Speaker 1: um gave me some really big parts to to build
Speaker 1: who I am. And Scott with just the detail how
Speaker 1: to run the office, how to lead UM with Dorsey
Speaker 1: just an unbelievable. Like talent evaluator, how do you evaluate talent?
Speaker 1: How do you run meetings? We run meetings just like
Speaker 1: we did there, which goes all the way back to
Speaker 1: Round Wolf, which I put probably should say too loud
Speaker 1: around here with the Green Bay connection, but um, it's
Speaker 1: it's a really good way to scout when you build
Speaker 1: a draft board as well as free agency and then
Speaker 1: reach like you know, each it's just his brains always going.
Speaker 1: It's it's who doesn't stop. No, it's four steps down
Speaker 1: the road because you have to be on your toes
Speaker 1: and anticipate because whatever you think is gonna happen, it's
Speaker 1: gonna change and you've got to be able to adapt
Speaker 1: and adjust and kind of have those next plans put
Speaker 1: to put in place. So really just to have those
Speaker 1: three kind of build me up and build that foundation.
Speaker 1: Who was a big, big part of me being here today.
Speaker 1: You know, we had Joe Shane on a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago and I said, when you were scouting Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: what did you see? And he told a great story.
Speaker 1: They played Nebraska and Allen threw four interceptions and Joe
Speaker 1: gave him an a plus grade because he's like I
Speaker 1: just said that, I've never seen in somewhere with a
Speaker 1: cannon like that. So you're in Kansas City, it's sixteen,
Speaker 1: it's seventeen, you get this thing that, Hey there's this
Speaker 1: kid from Texas Tech. Um, what was your initial impressions
Speaker 1: of Patrick Mahomes. What were the conversations had there in
Speaker 1: Kansas City? And how did you guys keep that quiet?
Speaker 1: Because I don't think anyone in the league knew that
Speaker 1: you guys were hot on him. Yeah, no, you know,
Speaker 1: And I give I give each a lot of credit
Speaker 1: because he was excited about that guy for a long time. UM.
Speaker 1: But I'll never forget sitting in the room and with
Speaker 1: Coach Reid and breaking down that tape and all of
Speaker 1: the guys that year. And although the stat sheet said
Speaker 1: one thing with interceptions like Josh Allen, what you saw
Speaker 1: was a guy out there just slinging it and making
Speaker 1: it work with what he had. UM. And there was
Speaker 1: a lot of There was accuracy, there was arms strength,
Speaker 1: there was ability to add live and just make it
Speaker 1: happen when it really wasn't there. UM. So to see
Speaker 1: that from that moment and see a play out to
Speaker 1: to who he is today, it's incredible, but that journey
Speaker 1: was awesome to uh, to go through with those guys.
Speaker 1: When Mahomes first got there, obviously, Alex Smith was the
Speaker 1: quarterback and we've talked about it a lot on our
Speaker 1: show Good Morning Football. So we had Paul Rudd on
Speaker 1: earlier season. He was like, Alex Smith deserves so much
Speaker 1: credit for just being secure enough and who Alex Smith
Speaker 1: is and to be willing to show Patrick the rope.
Speaker 1: But that first year, when he only played in that
Speaker 1: final game against Denver, did you have an idea like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this dude's gonna take the league by storm next season? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you had an idea. I mean there was I have
Speaker 1: clips still on my phone today from like a little
Speaker 1: kid like at practice, like did he just do that?
Speaker 1: And you're like you take a clip of it and
Speaker 1: like send it to one of the scouts on the road, like, Bro,
Speaker 1: this dude's a real deal. Um. So yeah, you you
Speaker 1: had a sense of it. But are exactly right what
Speaker 1: Alex brought to him? You know? I was thought they
Speaker 1: were kind of opposites, Like what Pat didn't have in
Speaker 1: his game, Alex was really good at and he had
Speaker 1: to show him how to manage the game, when they
Speaker 1: take chances. When not to take chances, Um, when it's
Speaker 1: okay to check it down, you know, and play the
Speaker 1: safer route so you can just continue to move the
Speaker 1: chains and protect the ball. So um. And then obviously
Speaker 1: being a pro, that's one thing. You know, we have
Speaker 1: a really young team here and you're learning to be
Speaker 1: a pros hard. You gotta take care of your body,
Speaker 1: you gotta take care of your mind. You have to
Speaker 1: eliminate distractions. Um, you gotta be a master of your craft,
Speaker 1: you know, at this level if you want to be good.
Speaker 1: So Um, Alex was definitely able to show Pat that,
Speaker 1: which was really cool. It's cool. And then you get
Speaker 1: an interview with Carolina last offseason. You prepared for that,
Speaker 1: you don't get that job. Walking out of that situation,
Speaker 1: did you feel like, Okay, the next interview, the next opportunity,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna crush this night. Yeah. Yeah, clearly a confidence builder.
Speaker 1: You walk into a situation that you don't You're unaware
Speaker 1: of what it's gonna look like. Um, there's a little
Speaker 1: you know, question like am I ready for this? Like
Speaker 1: am I really ready for this? And you go through
Speaker 1: the steps, you go online and do your your your
Speaker 1: Skype or your zoom interview and like, damn right, I
Speaker 1: can do this. And then in person, Yeah, you go
Speaker 1: in person and share your philosophy and how you want
Speaker 1: to do things and what you believe in. And again
Speaker 1: you walk out the room like, if I don't get this,
Speaker 1: the next opportunity, you know, I'm gonna be ready and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a really good job too. So definitely
Speaker 1: was a great experience. Get my foot in the door
Speaker 1: for that first interview. Um, gave me a ton of confidence,
Speaker 1: gave me some directions. I think the big thing is
Speaker 1: like where are my holes at? Like what do I
Speaker 1: what was that not comfortable answering? All right? Now? How
Speaker 1: do I go fill that? Right? How do I develop
Speaker 1: myself in some spaces that I'm not good enough right now?
Speaker 1: And you do that and you fill up on it,
Speaker 1: and you educate yourself and you meet people that are
Speaker 1: really good at it, and you just try to build
Speaker 1: as a person. Then you know, that's something I tell
Speaker 1: my staff here. I want them to continually develop their
Speaker 1: weaknesses so as a group will get stronger and stronger.
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny because a lot of times there's
Speaker 1: a young coach and there's almost like a rolling of
Speaker 1: the eyes. Like I remember when McVeigh was thirty, it
Speaker 1: was almost like I would get text from thirty one
Speaker 1: of their coaches being like, who is this hot shot?
Speaker 1: Looking for him to fail? I'll think it's not the
Speaker 1: same with you, Like I feel like maybe it's the
Speaker 1: fifteen years or the ten thousand hours you've put in,
Speaker 1: but you are universally respected and really well liked by
Speaker 1: these other general managers. And one of the things I
Speaker 1: think that was really respected was you came in with
Speaker 1: Chicago and you guys had to hire a new head coach.
Speaker 1: And tell me if I'm wrong here. You didn't have
Speaker 1: much history with Mattieberflus. You didn't just hire a buddy.
Speaker 1: You didn't just go the safe route. You guys had
Speaker 1: a real search and you hired the head coach and
Speaker 1: you thought was best for the Chicago Bears franchise, not
Speaker 1: who's gonna make it most comfortable for you. Correct. I
Speaker 1: think the other thing too, was I've learned quickly it's
Speaker 1: you have to do this. You know, you gotta have
Speaker 1: a criteria. It's for the head coach, if it's for
Speaker 1: a player or even decision making, and you gotta believe
Speaker 1: in that and you gotta act on it. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times there the noise from the outside
Speaker 1: is telling you to do one thing or the other
Speaker 1: or what's popular. You gotta do what's right for the
Speaker 1: football team and what's right and what matches the philosophy
Speaker 1: that you think is gonna win, because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, sometimes decisions look great the
Speaker 1: day that you make them, but it's really how how
Speaker 1: does the playout. That's how you're gonna be judged at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. So um, I love my
Speaker 1: interview with Matt. You know, the leadership. I talked about
Speaker 1: it all the time because I have to the emotional
Speaker 1: intelligence to be demanding but also love guys up to
Speaker 1: let them know that you're demanding for a reason. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? I think that's such an important thing,
Speaker 1: especially in two in the way that we're mental health
Speaker 1: plays a bigger role, I think in the conversation. And
Speaker 1: we know when we grew up, coaches were not as
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy as these coaches. But Matt's not a
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy guy. But you also see that the
Speaker 1: players love playing for him. Maybe the compassion is what
Speaker 1: is what it's there and just say what does that
Speaker 1: mean to you? And I think as we move along here,
Speaker 1: the athletes coming in from college, they think a little
Speaker 1: bit differently than what we thought. I just when I
Speaker 1: was coaching you, you did what you were told to do.
Speaker 1: You didn't ask why, But now you have to give
Speaker 1: the why. You know, why are we doing what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Why are we practicing so hard? Why are we practicing
Speaker 1: lighter um? Why are we fanatical about, you know, punching
Speaker 1: the ball out and things like that. Well, we're gonna
Speaker 1: give statistics about turnovers and how they leave the win wins.
Speaker 1: So he does a really nice job laying everything out,
Speaker 1: but what we want to be, what our standards are,
Speaker 1: and then the why behind it and how it's gonna
Speaker 1: make us successful not only now but but down the road.
Speaker 1: So his ability to tie that together is it's outstanding.
Speaker 1: It's genuine. I love our team meetings, every team meeting
Speaker 1: is I wish I could take all of them because
Speaker 1: he's a special guy in front of the room and
Speaker 1: it's authentic, it's real, it's not fluffy. You walk out
Speaker 1: with direction. Everyone has a direction when they leave and
Speaker 1: they feel good about it. It's funny because your team
Speaker 1: is not necessarily the top of the standings. But I
Speaker 1: think there's a universal, like good vibe around the Bears
Speaker 1: right now, and that includes a very critical fan base
Speaker 1: that has been through a lot of different tenures and
Speaker 1: a lot of different down years. But like even the
Speaker 1: loss to Detroit and we could go through all that
Speaker 1: that that we're coming out of, it's like, yeah, we lost,
Speaker 1: but gosh, that was there were some moments and I
Speaker 1: think I would be doing the fans are great disservice
Speaker 1: if I didn't just ask the leaps and bounds that
Speaker 1: Justin Fields has taken over the last few weeks. I'd
Speaker 1: say coming out of the bye week and that New
Speaker 1: England game was really the kickstart. UM. I know you're
Speaker 1: the general manager. You might not want to speak necessarily
Speaker 1: too much in the weeds, but you gotta admit this
Speaker 1: has been a sensation the last month of football. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you got a compartmentalize and things like obviously,
Speaker 1: like if you talk to me if this was yesterday,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been very like fun to talk to. UM.
Speaker 1: We expect to win games. That's our standard. UM So
Speaker 1: just kind of being Okay, we're losing. It is really
Speaker 1: not gonna fly around here. But you do have to
Speaker 1: take the time to look at the little victories that
Speaker 1: you do have. UM, and Justin's one of them. Justin's
Speaker 1: playing really, really well. I give credit to him buying in.
Speaker 1: I mean that this dude works his butt off. He
Speaker 1: puts time into it. So to get results, um, you know,
Speaker 1: on individual performance and as an offense, UM means a
Speaker 1: lot to me, to him, to our coaching staff. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of credit needs to go to get
Speaker 1: to as well. I mean, he adjusted, he adapted to
Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses, and he is able to put together
Speaker 1: some really good performance by our you know, by our offense,
Speaker 1: and we're continue to get better and we're learning about
Speaker 1: what we have and the guys that we have. And
Speaker 1: we have a young team, so it's exciting to see
Speaker 1: the direction that we're going. Your first big decision during
Speaker 1: the season, of course, was the ro Quan trade. It's
Speaker 1: very well documented, You've spoken on it. It was one
Speaker 1: of those deals where, from what I'm putting words in
Speaker 1: your mouth, you love the player, but there was an
Speaker 1: impast with with what was going to happen, so let's
Speaker 1: get some picks in exchange. When you make that decision,
Speaker 1: is that one of those where you say, I gotta
Speaker 1: block out the noise with the fans like you were saying,
Speaker 1: and just do what's best for this team, and I
Speaker 1: wish the player the best moving forward. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: that's the tough part about this this position is you
Speaker 1: constantly have to balance today versus down the rope um
Speaker 1: and a lot of times those decisions are gray. You know,
Speaker 1: they're there, it's not black and white. It's not easy. So, um,
Speaker 1: we really took a lot of time with that. We
Speaker 1: just felt like it was in the best interest too
Speaker 1: to do something now that could benefit our team moving forward. Um.
Speaker 1: It is really really difficult, you know, to move a
Speaker 1: guy that's a leader in your locker room. Um. But again,
Speaker 1: that's why I have this job, as I gonna make
Speaker 1: hard decisions that I hope we'll benefit our team for
Speaker 1: a long time. So we did that and and you
Speaker 1: know that helped us acquire Chase, you know, Claypool, who's
Speaker 1: coming along as learning offense right now, and um, again
Speaker 1: that should enhance our offense, enhance you know, our quarterback
Speaker 1: and get our team better as we move along. You're
Speaker 1: the youngest GM in the league. Um, A lot of
Speaker 1: people look at you and say, hey, that's the path forward.
Speaker 1: There there there is a place for me in the
Speaker 1: NFL on that level, on that executive level. That's a
Speaker 1: that's a that's a heavy burden for you to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, start setting the path for a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are younger than me and saying
Speaker 1: this is this is possible. You can do this. You
Speaker 1: can be an NFL general manager. If you've got an elevator,
Speaker 1: say it at the combine with a twenty five year
Speaker 1: old man or woman who looks at you and says, Ryan,
Speaker 1: what would be your piece of advice if I want
Speaker 1: to get into this profession and I want to someday
Speaker 1: be where you're at, what would be your learning lesson
Speaker 1: and what would be your you know, your elevator speech
Speaker 1: for them? Yeah, I think it would be you gotta
Speaker 1: send your foundation up um to me. If I didn't
Speaker 1: have the experience I had as a graduate assistant at
Speaker 1: at Boston College, I wouldn't be here today. If I
Speaker 1: didn't have to grind and do hard things as a
Speaker 1: scouting assistant. I mean running, get coffee, airport runs. I'm
Speaker 1: learning how to multitask because you had It's crazy. I
Speaker 1: think back to it, which is nuts because I I
Speaker 1: had to hire my first scouting assistance and I had
Speaker 1: this like flashback of when I was hired in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: But you know, I want them to be able to multitask.
Speaker 1: You know, you have a lot of things you have
Speaker 1: to do, but you also have these responsibilities like airport
Speaker 1: runs and waiting at a doctor's office for physical to end.
Speaker 1: And you learned quickly, well, if I'm sitting at the
Speaker 1: doctor's office, I probably bring my computer and I can
Speaker 1: knock out, yeah, three tasks while I'm there. And you
Speaker 1: learn a multitask and juggle different things and then you
Speaker 1: fast forward to where I am today. It is I
Speaker 1: mean it is you juggle, man, You juggle a lot
Speaker 1: and um, but you gotta do it with detail. You
Speaker 1: gotta do you know, I gotta be dependable to everyone
Speaker 1: else so they can trust you and I can trust
Speaker 1: everyone else. So UM, set that foundation up and don't
Speaker 1: be afraid to do hard things that really gives you
Speaker 1: those galluses so that you can withstand you can take
Speaker 1: on more as you grew up and go through the ranks. So, um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the pitch I would give to set
Speaker 1: that foundation for sure. I got a couple more of
Speaker 1: them and let you go. Sunday, I'm watching the game
Speaker 1: and there's an undrafted free agent at a Wisconsin Jack Sandborn,
Speaker 1: a linebacker just all over the field, wearing fifty seven.
Speaker 1: I'm looking up on my media guide, I'm like, where
Speaker 1: did he go? Oh, Wisconsin? I remember that name. You
Speaker 1: see a guy like that, an undrafted guy is do
Speaker 1: you get more of a reward at a scene that
Speaker 1: happened on the field or when it's the first round
Speaker 1: pick having success or is it all equal to you?
Speaker 1: At this point as a general manager, I feel like
Speaker 1: there's gotta be some great pride in being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got that guy to sign here, we liked him
Speaker 1: out of college, and he's making making an impact as
Speaker 1: a rookie. That's pretty cool to see. Yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, as undrafted free agent, to see those guys
Speaker 1: kind of rise up and get opportunities and take advantage
Speaker 1: of him is one of the more exciting things that
Speaker 1: we could do as a general manager, because as you
Speaker 1: go through the draft and you're evaluating, you're really honing
Speaker 1: in on just a couple of traits. You know, I
Speaker 1: knew Sandborne's variant. Thank you for player. UM. So you
Speaker 1: you bring in your building and you watch him develop
Speaker 1: and then he gets an opportunity. That's why, like over
Speaker 1: the last few years, I've learned not to freak out
Speaker 1: from you know, injuries or trades because sometimes behind the
Speaker 1: door there's some really cool things that happened and guys developed.
Speaker 1: UM and Jack's on his way, man, I mean that
Speaker 1: last game he was everywhere. UM, two sacks, double digit tackles,
Speaker 1: should have had an interception, should have had to pick.
Speaker 1: We will talk about it. The league is very sensitive,
Speaker 1: UM kidding area. UM. So I love seeing you know,
Speaker 1: those things and those guys stand out. So I'm pumped
Speaker 1: for him and the direction he's going. Alright, Historically you
Speaker 1: mentioned my homes when you were on the road doing
Speaker 1: the college things, like we talked about this we're talking
Speaker 1: about with Shane and I always talked about with these gm. Um.
Speaker 1: Sometimes there's that player that like your eyes linked up with,
Speaker 1: and then the draft comes around and you're sitting in
Speaker 1: John Dorrise's office or you're sitting in Brett Beach's office
Speaker 1: and it's fourth fifth round talk and it's like, this
Speaker 1: is my guy. I'm gonna bang the table. Was there
Speaker 1: a bang the table guy for you in Kansas City
Speaker 1: that you go back on You're like, hey, that was
Speaker 1: my dude, And you know, whether he panned out or not,
Speaker 1: there was a guy that you really were like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be as biggest advocate in the room. UM. I
Speaker 1: would say, it's hard to like put your finger out
Speaker 1: like one player over the years. But I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that I take a lot of problem
Speaker 1: being a part of UM was going from losing the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl against Tampa UM and PA getting pressured all
Speaker 1: the time, and then sitting down as a group with
Speaker 1: Beach and Borganzi and tell Us and Bradway and being like,
Speaker 1: we can never let that happen again. And and then
Speaker 1: going to work and coming away with Tray Smith, Creed Humphrey,
Speaker 1: Joe Tuney, Orlando Brown, you know, and flipping that thing
Speaker 1: quick in all those overnight like literally one offseason, you
Speaker 1: guys went from the you know, this is the Achilles
Speaker 1: hild the team to be in one of the strengths
Speaker 1: of a team, right and I think we really leaned down,
Speaker 1: like what do we stand for? Like what do you
Speaker 1: want that group to look and feel? Like? Those dudes
Speaker 1: are smart, tough, and dependable. Um So, really just taking
Speaker 1: your values using free agency, trade and draft in the
Speaker 1: beginning and the end and kind of putting that thing
Speaker 1: together was a huge accomplishment that I thought was like
Speaker 1: the bowl on the on the top for me leaving.
Speaker 1: Not only that, I my last game was that Buffalo game,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, that that was really cool walking away
Speaker 1: from at least being a part of that. You're beloved
Speaker 1: in Kansas City. I mean I talked to all those
Speaker 1: guys and it's still like, you know, and now Chicago
Speaker 1: is starting to get to know why you are the
Speaker 1: badass that you are and you make decisions and you
Speaker 1: go for it and you go with your gut, but
Speaker 1: you do it backed on research. As we wrap this,
Speaker 1: if you have one message to Bears fans as we
Speaker 1: head towards the final months of the season and then
Speaker 1: of course your first official big off season where it's Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm running point on everything and it's my guys in
Speaker 1: those decisions of power, decision and all that. What would
Speaker 1: be your message to the fan base who is just
Speaker 1: thirsting for Bears football to be on top once again. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: first I gotta just correct you a little bit. I'll
Speaker 1: say this. You know, the biggest part of me is
Speaker 1: it's not just about me. It's it's my crew. I
Speaker 1: got an unbelievable group of scout who's the crew, Let's
Speaker 1: shout him out? Who we got you? I don't even
Speaker 1: know you're I don't even know who you brought with me?
Speaker 1: And Cunningham who was it? The Giants? Right, Eagles with
Speaker 1: Philly in Baltimore. Um, Jeff King who's been here, he
Speaker 1: was a player, Love Jeff Trey Cozy, Carolina Panther, Jeff King, Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: Tray cozil Um. Those are kind of my my top
Speaker 1: cabinet there. Matt Finstein who worked in the league. He
Speaker 1: house with Cap and at cliff Stein. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of my main cabinet, and a bunch of really good
Speaker 1: scouts under them as well. So it's not just about me,
Speaker 1: but in terms of this program getting to where it
Speaker 1: needs to go. Listen, there's a lot of really cool
Speaker 1: stuff going on. I'm we're all about winning here, So
Speaker 1: it stinks not having more wins and we've been close,
Speaker 1: but there's progress being made. We're bringing the right people
Speaker 1: or quarterbacks developing. Um. So I'm excited and just know
Speaker 1: that this group, like I said, our coaching staff, our
Speaker 1: front office were relentless in acquiring talent and development players.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna come together. I'm excited about it. You know,
Speaker 1: the future is right and we're gonna get this this
Speaker 1: place cranked up. So you know what I liked. I
Speaker 1: like seeing r Lacker involved. I like seeing Lance Briggs
Speaker 1: get it like a little bit of a I know
Speaker 1: Peanuts gonna be like that's my heir, and I know
Speaker 1: it's I know there was the eighty five Bears, and
Speaker 1: I almost always say this on Good Morning Football. I
Speaker 1: like Bears fans deserve like you know, because eighty five
Speaker 1: is a long time ago now, right, And I have
Speaker 1: a certain sentiment for that oh six super Bowl team.
Speaker 1: And I love Erlacker and Tillman they both worked with
Speaker 1: me at Fox and love those guys. And I actually
Speaker 1: got to know Cutty pretty well and he's a cool
Speaker 1: dude also. But like there's like a youthful exuber into
Speaker 1: this Bears team, and I think it starts with you
Speaker 1: and Matt obviously, but from the quarterback on down, Dude,
Speaker 1: I think the Bears are in good hands. And I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for joining us during the season
Speaker 1: and and doing our podcast to kind of give the
Speaker 1: the blueprint on how the Monsters of the Midway return
Speaker 1: to dominance in the NFC North. It feels like you
Speaker 1: was just yesterday. We're at Mikado Sushi. Huh do you
Speaker 1: want to do? We want to talk about it because
Speaker 1: this is where it all begins to get to the
Speaker 1: color episode. Okay, So at the combine I mentioned this.
Speaker 1: I got breakfast with Joe Shane a few years ago
Speaker 1: at Patache, which is like the breakfast spot. But we
Speaker 1: had a table and I don't know if we want
Speaker 1: to go the names, but each was there a bunch
Speaker 1: of the Chiefs guys, and you and I hit it off.
Speaker 1: And it was at a sushi restaurant in Indianapolis, Mikado,
Speaker 1: a landlocked city that I don't think has probably the
Speaker 1: best access to good sushi. Yet I was stuffing my
Speaker 1: face with that yellowtail. Bro. You were probably a little
Speaker 1: disgusted with how I went. I went to town Um,
Speaker 1: but you and I hit it off and I'm so
Speaker 1: proud of you. You're doing all this stuff now and
Speaker 1: Chicago isn't in any better hands and than having you
Speaker 1: at the grips, no problem. Awesome, Ryan Paul's the season
Speaker 1: with Peter Schreeger. Thank you for joining us. Bro. How
Speaker 1: good is Ryan Poles? Aaron? I mean that was that.
Speaker 1: Dude is the real deal. When you listen to him talk,
Speaker 1: do you not feel like the Chicago Bears are in
Speaker 1: great hands? It makes me more excited for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been great watching them and then just hearing him
Speaker 1: talk about the vibe with the whole team and the
Speaker 1: coaching staff. I love it. He's learned from some of
Speaker 1: the greats, um and he's been made smarter by some
Speaker 1: of the greats. And that's a great segue to our
Speaker 1: next segment. We do a segment on this podcast called
Speaker 1: make Me Smarter. I have amazing access to some of
Speaker 1: the smartest minds in football, and a lot of them
Speaker 1: work for the NFL Network research team. One of them
Speaker 1: is the great Taylor Kyle's I get Taylor's emails a lot,
Speaker 1: and I use a lot of that content on air,
Speaker 1: and it helps make me sounds smarter on television. But
Speaker 1: It also helps describe the game in a different way
Speaker 1: than just listing stats their historic perspective. There's insight and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of opinion as well. With no further ado.
Speaker 1: This week's guest on Make Me Smarter, Mr Taylor Kyle's Taylor,
Speaker 1: what's up man, I'm excited to be here. Peter, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. Man, you are great
Speaker 1: at what you do and we've got to give you
Speaker 1: some love on the season with Peter Schrager. And I
Speaker 1: asked this to to you and to to Aaron when
Speaker 1: I started this week's prep, I'm like, all right, now
Speaker 1: there's there's unit. It seems more like unanimous that Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson is that dude. He's the number one receiver. And
Speaker 1: then we go through all these historical things and it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, no one has done more in his first
Speaker 1: three years and this guy, no one has had, you know,
Speaker 1: a greater first two years. Make me smarter? Just how
Speaker 1: historically amazing is Justin Jefferson two and a half seasons
Speaker 1: into his NFL career. Alright, So if we're going by
Speaker 1: the numbers, all right, there's a lot of really big
Speaker 1: names that he's on list with. So you want to
Speaker 1: look at most receiving yards per game all time, you
Speaker 1: got Justin Jeffery Sen above Julio Calvin, Jamaar Chase another
Speaker 1: young stud obviously l s U teammate, and Antonio Brown.
Speaker 1: Then you get most receiving yards in his first forty
Speaker 1: two games. Only person who's had more the great Odell
Speaker 1: Beckham Jr. And then Justin Jefferson is right behind him.
Speaker 1: And then most games with the hundred plus yards and
Speaker 1: a player's first three seasons since he got Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: above Randy Moss oh b J again, and then there's
Speaker 1: four guys tied right behind them. So I mean he's, uh,
Speaker 1: he's doing pretty well, I'd say in his first few seasons. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then Sunday's performance is like National TV. If you
Speaker 1: hadn't watched him do all this work on these vikings
Speaker 1: teams that weren't playoff squads the last two years, you're
Speaker 1: now seeing him do it on an eight in one
Speaker 1: squad putting up these numbers. What do you see personally
Speaker 1: as a student of the game, what do you see
Speaker 1: that makes him so special? And what are his skills?
Speaker 1: Because he's not he's not Calvin Johnson. He's not six
Speaker 1: ft six and he's not Randy Moss running a four
Speaker 1: to forty out there, right. So really, what it is
Speaker 1: is it's impossible to get this guy at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. The only time you're really going to be
Speaker 1: competitive with Justin Jefferson is if you get your hands
Speaker 1: on him, because if you're an off coverage when he
Speaker 1: gets to the top of the route, he can shake you.
Speaker 1: He's really good at getting in defender's blind spots, which
Speaker 1: basically means they can't see him, uh, and he gets
Speaker 1: right behind him and he's able to break off routes.
Speaker 1: He's great at manipulating defenders. But one thing you saw
Speaker 1: a lot in the Bills game, and this is a
Speaker 1: tendency I've noticed, is in critical situation, so third down,
Speaker 1: you know, two minute drills, when you really need to play,
Speaker 1: what they'll do a lot of the times is they'll
Speaker 1: put him outside the numbers. Now usually he's inside, so
Speaker 1: you don't know if he's gonna break insider out, which
Speaker 1: is what makes him so dangerous because he's such a
Speaker 1: great route runner. But at the same time, he's also physical,
Speaker 1: and like you said, he's he's that guy. He's him,
Speaker 1: so what you really need as we saw making that
Speaker 1: crazy catch that, in my humble opinion, was even greater
Speaker 1: than the Odell a few years back. I agree fourth
Speaker 1: and eighteen the context matters. O'Dell's was on a worthless
Speaker 1: Sunday night game for a bad Giants team that got
Speaker 1: on out by the Cowboys. And then and then you got, uh,
Speaker 1: you got Justin Jefferson doing it on fourth and eighteen,
Speaker 1: and it got to have a situation. And what they
Speaker 1: did in a lot of those third downs they put
Speaker 1: him outside so they had true one on one matchups
Speaker 1: because the Bills since the Chiefs game, they went from
Speaker 1: being a zone heavy team where they just wanted everybody
Speaker 1: to throw underneath and they come up and rally and tackles,
Speaker 1: playing a lot more man. So the Vikings knew that,
Speaker 1: so they put Jefferson all the way outside, so we
Speaker 1: had that one on one matchup. Obviously, the Bills are
Speaker 1: struggling in their secondary with injuries, and they were just like, hey,
Speaker 1: win on go balls, win on you know, uh deep
Speaker 1: in cuts, and he was doing it. He was roasting
Speaker 1: those guys. And then sometimes they put him in the slot,
Speaker 1: have him run a corner route. And that's a scary
Speaker 1: thing about Jefferson is he can run all these routes
Speaker 1: down field and he can win. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you're right on his hip, doesn't matter if you're trailing
Speaker 1: behind him. You make up. He's extremely competitive and he
Speaker 1: can catch anything on top of being able to separate
Speaker 1: from anybody. It was. It was an amazing performance, it
Speaker 1: really was. And you know, you go through that draft
Speaker 1: class of all those Vindory receivers that were taken and
Speaker 1: in the order that they were taken, and I thought,
Speaker 1: for you know, for the next decade we debate like
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb or Brandon aiyuk or, and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll due respect to Jerry Judy and the rest, Like
Speaker 1: it's justin Jefferson. Then it's a huge gap to even
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb as the next guy. Absolutely, And it's it's
Speaker 1: the big moments, you know, it's all right, he got
Speaker 1: all these great receivers. Of course, and obviously team matters
Speaker 1: being in position to actually be able to capitalize and
Speaker 1: make those plays. But I mean it's it's the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1: You've got the game of the year. Obviously, hindsight is
Speaker 1: but uh, it was a competitive game and in all
Speaker 1: the clutch moments, justin Jefferson making all these plays, and
Speaker 1: he's already putting together a resume obviously beyond the numbers.
Speaker 1: If you just look at the guy, it's hard to
Speaker 1: say that anybody, especially in that talented draft class, is
Speaker 1: really doing more than he is. Taylor, you made me smarter,
Speaker 1: You made us all smarter. Where can we find you
Speaker 1: on Twitter if we want to follow your stuff and
Speaker 1: get all your information? Yep? So I am at t
Speaker 1: K y l E S thirty nine on Twitter? Thirty
Speaker 1: nine because of Stephen Jackson. Thirty nine. Why what's thirty nine?
Speaker 1: Danny Woodhead? Actually Danny Woodhead fan? Let's go? Dron stated,
Speaker 1: Did I say it right? I don't even know I
Speaker 1: what made you a Woodhead fan? Because that guy was
Speaker 1: a jet, a charger and was a raven. It was
Speaker 1: just like the ultimate, Like we need six yards on
Speaker 1: a screen fast, he's getting a seven. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: he exploded once he left the jet, So I mean
Speaker 1: that kind of made it one of my favorites immediately.
Speaker 1: But actually did he would start really watching football until
Speaker 1: about and that was when wood Ed was having his
Speaker 1: breakout year. I remember just anytime I watched the Pats game,
Speaker 1: you got this guy who's the shortest one on the
Speaker 1: field making these crazy plays, just juiced up, so hard
Speaker 1: guy not to fall in love with. And yeah, I've
Speaker 1: been a Danny Woodhead fan ever since. I was sad
Speaker 1: to see him go, but I cheered for him even
Speaker 1: when he was on the Ravens and the Chargers. We
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta tag Danny Woodhead to this clip. That's incredible. Other,
Speaker 1: thank you, Bro, so good as always, and we'll bring
Speaker 1: you on next week or the week after that and
Speaker 1: we'll get a little smarter from you. Awesome brother, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Taylor was awesome and Justin Jefferson is too.
Speaker 1: And now to the final part of our podcast. One
Speaker 1: of the most popular things that we're doing to end
Speaker 1: each one of these podcast is I'm bringing on a
Speaker 1: friend of mine, either someone i've worked with professionally or
Speaker 1: someone I grew up with who's got a take and
Speaker 1: it's a take on anything. And so far we've talked
Speaker 1: about everything from Game of Thrones to to whether or
Speaker 1: not it's morally right to give up baseball. Back to
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge, who happens to be a five million dollar
Speaker 1: man and doesn't necessarily need the money anyway. Takes are
Speaker 1: what we're here for, and I'm bringing out one of
Speaker 1: my best friends from childhood, my buddy Deetro, who was
Speaker 1: made for this podcast because Detro texted me with a
Speaker 1: little preview of something and he had to take around
Speaker 1: it that it might be the best of something that
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. Deetro. Welcome to the season with Peter Srigger.
Speaker 1: How are we doing this morning? Peter? How are you, sir?
Speaker 1: It's great to see you, great great to hear from you.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to hear. And we've known each other more
Speaker 1: than thirty years. You're one of my dearest friends. We've
Speaker 1: grown up together. And when you come in with a take,
Speaker 1: you come in piping hot, and you come in well researched,
Speaker 1: and you very often come with a ton of knowledge.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna see the floor to you, Detro, what's
Speaker 1: your piping hot take for this week? Here's what I
Speaker 1: want your listeners to understand that there are fifty two
Speaker 1: weeks in a year. Everybody knows that, and most of
Speaker 1: the time, when a great week happens, you tend to
Speaker 1: look back on that week and say, God, I wish
Speaker 1: I would have known that that was gonna be a
Speaker 1: great week. I would have engraced everything a little bit
Speaker 1: more and really sort of sunk my teeth into it
Speaker 1: a little bit more, because that turns out to be
Speaker 1: a great week. What I want everyone to know is
Speaker 1: that starting this Saturday, November nineteen, running through the following
Speaker 1: Sunday November, that is your absolute prime, pinnacle week of
Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty two. And I want everybody to
Speaker 1: be prepared for it now because you need to embrace
Speaker 1: it now. Don't look back on it and say I
Speaker 1: wish you What do you mean? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: Just a great week explained? Let me walk in through
Speaker 1: this week. So, first of all, you go into this
Speaker 1: weekend Saturday, you get a full slate of college football games. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna sit there and try to convince you
Speaker 1: that is the best slate of college football games. I
Speaker 1: get you don't want to watch Alabama, Dustin pay don't
Speaker 1: watch it. But you get a full Saturday of college
Speaker 1: football and there aren't many of those left. So enjoy,
Speaker 1: embrace it, have a fantastic Saturday. But then we go
Speaker 1: into this Sunday and you get your full NFL games
Speaker 1: right there. And if you're starting off, there's a couple
Speaker 1: of intriguing games on Sunday. You gonna want to You're
Speaker 1: gonna want to tune into. You got Bills hosting Browns.
Speaker 1: There was a twenty year spending between our lives, you
Speaker 1: know where Bills hosting Browns. I wouldn't watch a single
Speaker 1: snap of that game. But now, coming off that ridiculous
Speaker 1: Bills lost this past Sunday, you're gearing up for Bills
Speaker 1: Browns because you want to know are the Bills for real?
Speaker 1: Are they're gonna bounce back? Because are they this juggernaut
Speaker 1: sixteen and one team that they looked like, or are
Speaker 1: they gonna try to sort of, you know, back in
Speaker 1: its week into the playoffs, whatever it might be. You've
Speaker 1: got Jets going up to New England for a certain
Speaker 1: section of the country. That's a fantastic game to watch
Speaker 1: this Sunday. A lot of playoff amplications on that one.
Speaker 1: Me and myself, I'm a giant fan. I know you
Speaker 1: don't want to watch Giants, Lions don't watch it. I
Speaker 1: get it, But then you get you four thirty matchups
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna take you out to Minnesota Ultimate promo. Look,
Speaker 1: this is this is part of the week. You better
Speaker 1: get ready to embrace it because you've got Vikings Cowboys
Speaker 1: this Sunday. Somehow this game ends up on CBS. It
Speaker 1: used to be somewhere all in Madden or prostam. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll take Nance and Romo. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: But that game has enormous playoff complications stretching all the
Speaker 1: way to who's gonna be the number one seed coming
Speaker 1: out of the NFC. So that's a fantastic game right there.
Speaker 1: That gets you through Saturday and Sunday and now you
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Week is starting. You get Monday. For those of
Speaker 1: you that work in office, everyone's starting to mentally check
Speaker 1: out right around. That's just how it goes. You're out
Speaker 1: of office, message starting to come back to you. Nobody's
Speaker 1: planning big conference calls and big meetings in the conference
Speaker 1: room Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday next week. So you're you're rolling,
Speaker 1: You're all free. But from a from a sports standpoint,
Speaker 1: Monday afternoon, writing is starting to mentally check out. You
Speaker 1: get the Men's World Cup, Men's World Cup, you get
Speaker 1: Usa playing Whales. I know Wales that may sound may
Speaker 1: not matchup. And you only get the World Cup every
Speaker 1: one four years, so it's not the most populous sport
Speaker 1: here in the Cup. But Men's World Cup you're in.
Speaker 1: And if you don't think Wales is a big deal,
Speaker 1: well the former Prince of Wales is now the King
Speaker 1: of England, so wills it pretty big? Then you're home
Speaker 1: through Tuesday and Wednesday next week, which if you again,
Speaker 1: if you're working for a company in an office setting,
Speaker 1: you you have zero meetings, zero conference balls. Everybody is
Speaker 1: on cruise control, heading out, heading out the office. Companies
Speaker 1: are closing early on Wednesday. If you're a teacher, you're
Speaker 1: not starting any new planned lessons on Tuesday or Wednesday
Speaker 1: next week. You're you're making macaroni necklaces in the classroom.
Speaker 1: You're putting the week on a knee, and that that
Speaker 1: that that's just how it goes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Speaker 1: next week from a professional standpoint. But then you get
Speaker 1: to Thursday, then you actually get to Thanksgiving. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and do some sort of buzz feed
Speaker 1: list of top ten side dishes anything like that. You
Speaker 1: don't need to hear that from me. I think we
Speaker 1: all generally agree the meal and the keating on Thursday
Speaker 1: are phenomenal to the top two day of the year
Speaker 1: to eat. We don't have to go down that road.
Speaker 1: But from a sports landscape, what are we have on Thanksgiving? First,
Speaker 1: you get your bills at Lions. That's an intriguing game.
Speaker 1: Obviously Bill spot it is to watch that one. But
Speaker 1: you know the Lions always show up and fight on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: What do we say? They're frisky and and they're extra
Speaker 1: frisky on Thanksgiving. It's one of those games where it's
Speaker 1: thirty five thirty one in the fourth quarter and I'm
Speaker 1: texting you, would you look at these Lions? Where where
Speaker 1: different Lions teams been all season long? They should be
Speaker 1: seven and three right now. That's kind of how that
Speaker 1: plays out. Then ready to getting ready to sit down
Speaker 1: to eat on Thanksgiving? Where we're going. We're going down
Speaker 1: to Dallas. You've got Cowboys, You've got Giants. That's an
Speaker 1: old fashioned NFC each NFC East slug fest. That's a
Speaker 1: fantastic game. That's a lot of fun. There's a few
Speaker 1: segments of of the NFL fan base out there either
Speaker 1: you're a diehard Cowboys fan. You're a pump for that game.
Speaker 1: You're a diehard Giant fan. You're a pump for that game,
Speaker 1: or your every other NFL fan out there that basically,
Speaker 1: let's just say you hate the Cowboys, you're pumped to
Speaker 1: watch that game. You know, that's the type of game
Speaker 1: that does a monster rating right there, Like it's a
Speaker 1: playoff game. Love that you get into Thursday night. Now
Speaker 1: the week is you know, you're still rolling tron in
Speaker 1: this week. You get it the Thursday night, you've crushed
Speaker 1: twenty calories. The fatigue it starts, You've watched seven hours
Speaker 1: of football. You get ready to sit down. What do
Speaker 1: you got? You got Tariko, you got NBC. You got
Speaker 1: the Vikings hosting the Patriots, which is another intriguing that's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. You gotta if you're able to
Speaker 1: stay away to watch that whole game because you've been
Speaker 1: up all day eating and drinking and you're exhausted. That's
Speaker 1: a fun one big playoff implications. Then you go to
Speaker 1: sleep that night, you wake up Friday, all right, you
Speaker 1: may think Friday is a little slow. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: it easy today, ease into the day, after Thanksgiving. I
Speaker 1: haven't checked my work email in three days. It's fine.
Speaker 1: And what do you have on Friday afternoon? At two o'clock?
Speaker 1: You get team USA playing England in the Men's World Cup.
Speaker 1: Gets set get ready. It's been two forty six years
Speaker 1: since we've declared independence. Here we go. That's a fan.
Speaker 1: You can't plan a better day after Thanksgiving than to
Speaker 1: settle in for USA England in the Men's World Cup.
Speaker 1: I couldn't name a single player on either team, and
Speaker 1: I'm incredibly excited for that game. Can't wait for that one.
Speaker 1: Give me a little you ninety seconds? Your take, guys
Speaker 1: for listeners detros the guy that will text me be like,
Speaker 1: have you seen blank on the History Channel? And so
Speaker 1: give me a little US England, Give me a little
Speaker 1: revolutionary war take ninety seconds? All right? Well, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: this game is not exactly being played in Yorktown. I
Speaker 1: get it. My my take on it is that no
Speaker 1: matter how much time passes from the eighteenth century when
Speaker 1: that all happened, there's always gonna be in USA England
Speaker 1: sort of first cousin the kind of battle and half hatred,
Speaker 1: half love and can't wait to play you and can't
Speaker 1: wait to beat you kind of thing that that that's
Speaker 1: just how it goes. So when they match up on
Speaker 1: an international stage, I'm in that game ends. That that
Speaker 1: game ends. You've had you leftover turkey sandwich. It's Friday,
Speaker 1: you're exhausted, your spouse has been crushing Amazon Prime. Everything
Speaker 1: is going crazy. Right now, you take it easy for
Speaker 1: the rest of that night. I'm sure there's a couple
Speaker 1: of other a little you know, there's there's some college
Speaker 1: football games that maybe you can tune into, a basketball
Speaker 1: tournament in Maui. There's always something like that. Always. But
Speaker 1: then the next day, now you got Saturday morning and
Speaker 1: you wake up and what do you have. First of all,
Speaker 1: you have at noon on FOPS Ohio State Michigan. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can handle all this sports.
Speaker 1: There's just so much sports. That's why I'm giving you
Speaker 1: a few days right now to prepare to mentally with
Speaker 1: the palette, because come sa Saturday at noon for Ohio
Speaker 1: State Michigan. You may think you've had enough sports, but
Speaker 1: you're getting two undefeated teams. This game is everything. This
Speaker 1: game is college football playoffs. I mean, you don't get
Speaker 1: a better matchup than that if you're looking to watch
Speaker 1: college football next Saturday, it just doesn't happen. That's what
Speaker 1: you get. You get The rest of the slate of
Speaker 1: college football is also great. I'm not gonna walk you
Speaker 1: through this game back game, but later on that night
Speaker 1: you do get noted Dame at usc which is always
Speaker 1: a fun one. That's always an intriguing one. Seven thirty
Speaker 1: that that that's always a fun game, regardless of if
Speaker 1: you're a fan or not. It's a fun college football
Speaker 1: game to be watching. And then we get it a Sunday,
Speaker 1: another football Sunday. You got another full slate of football Sunday.
Speaker 1: I feel like a glutton right now. You gotta keep going.
Speaker 1: You gotta keep going. The appetizers come out of Would
Speaker 1: you excuse me if I didn't watch football on Sunday
Speaker 1: next week? Thanks, I'm just like you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: football out. I did the soccer thing on Friday. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know how these husbands are gonna be explaining to
Speaker 1: their wives that like, oh no, no, no, I actually
Speaker 1: needed another nine hours today and I need another nine
Speaker 1: hours today. Get back on Amazon, Pride taed in there?
Speaker 1: Do you a holiday shopping? That's what has to do.
Speaker 1: If this is the time when they got to go
Speaker 1: out and buy all the Christmas presidents to do that,
Speaker 1: that's fine, But let's face facts. It's a football Sunday,
Speaker 1: and that's just how it works. If you gotta run
Speaker 1: some marans early in the morning, you run your errands,
Speaker 1: But come one o'clock the games are kicking off. You're
Speaker 1: not just gonna say, okay, well you know what, I'll
Speaker 1: give up football today. I'm not gonna watch it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna settle in from one o'clock through the night game
Speaker 1: and do an entire football Sunday. And by the time
Speaker 1: Sunday night comes rolling along and you have Steelers Colts
Speaker 1: that kick off, or excuse me, Sunday night at night
Speaker 1: is Packers Eagles, which is a incredibly intriguing game to
Speaker 1: finish off the week. Yeah, you're gonna be on your couch.
Speaker 1: You may take your phone out, look to see if
Speaker 1: a single work email has come in over the past
Speaker 1: six days, which it probably hasn't. And here we are,
Speaker 1: it's Monday night. You're settling in Packers Eagles, you're exhausted,
Speaker 1: you've gained ten pounds. But if you realize, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what an unbelievable week that just passed. I wish I
Speaker 1: would have embraced it a little bit more. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm telling you now, get ready to embrace it now.
Speaker 1: Because a week like this, with the NFL and college
Speaker 1: football and the men's World Cups wriggled in when you
Speaker 1: get to USA Games life from Qatar, that's it. Get
Speaker 1: ready and embrace it now because weeks like this don't
Speaker 1: come along very often. You're gonna look up in three months.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be that third week of February. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a long, cold, dark, bleak week in February. There's
Speaker 1: no NFL, there's no college football. Baseball with the pitchers
Speaker 1: and catchers are barely showed up the training camp. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be miserable, and you're gonna say, jeez, I wish
Speaker 1: you would have embraced that week in November a little
Speaker 1: bit more. What an unbelievable week. I wish you would
Speaker 1: have known that it was gone now, you know God,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm gonna finish up with this because are
Speaker 1: This podcast is three hours long and you're the best
Speaker 1: part of it. Um really quickly the listeners at home,
Speaker 1: you hear how this man is a master of words.
Speaker 1: He can talk, he's an incredible salesman. Um, just real quick,
Speaker 1: let's go. You're you're a married man now, but let's
Speaker 1: go back a few years, maybe a decade, the Wednesday
Speaker 1: night before Thanksgiving? What's that mean to a single man?
Speaker 1: Totally different ball game. Where you're at, where I'm at
Speaker 1: right now in life, and where maybe ten fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: the night before Thanksgiving it's night and day. But for
Speaker 1: your single guys out there, let's say between the ages
Speaker 1: of I don't know, three to thirty five Thanksgiving, this
Speaker 1: is it. Get ready, get your plans set, get to
Speaker 1: the A T M Machine early. Make sure you have
Speaker 1: your credit card refreshed and ready to god, your credit
Speaker 1: cards are fresh. You gotta get ready to go. You
Speaker 1: bet in the show, but the bar you get, the climb,
Speaker 1: you try to buy a you gonna You're gonna buy
Speaker 1: an old fashioned round of I don't even know what
Speaker 1: the park is drinking apple APW because they they give me,
Speaker 1: give me, give me twelve yeager bombs, and they gave
Speaker 1: you a bill for a hundred and twenty dollars and
Speaker 1: your credit card can't afford that. You're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: be laughed out of the room. So get ready to
Speaker 1: go get your hair cut on Wednesday morning, get your
Speaker 1: fresh out, reading rock, have your plans set, know what
Speaker 1: you're doing, because this is the night. This is what
Speaker 1: I just talked about, Peak week coming in right there. Well,
Speaker 1: for a certain age group, this is peak night. This
Speaker 1: is it. People say it's for amateurs, It's not for amateurs.
Speaker 1: News Eves for amateurs, Thanksgiving Eves for professionals. Show Off.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was amazing. I love you, buddy,
Speaker 1: I love you. Thanks for having me on. I will
Speaker 1: and and gosh. That's how we're gonna end the podcast.
Speaker 1: That was fantastic. Um, we went from being denied passports
Speaker 1: at the airport to Ryan Pole's giving us a very
Speaker 1: studied take on why the Chicago Bears are in good hands,
Speaker 1: to lesson on Justin Jefferson, and then a lesson on
Speaker 1: why we should appreciate the following days if you're a
Speaker 1: sports fan, and then why you really got to get
Speaker 1: after it the Wednesday before Thanksgiving if you're a single man.
Speaker 1: All this is what we do on the season with
Speaker 1: Peter Schreeger. Guys, until next week. Aaron Jan Kaufman, the Best,
Speaker 1: Jason English, the Best, I Heart NFL, Jack Run on
Speaker 1: the on the one, twos were on Fire. Let's Go
Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL and partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.