First Things First - LeBron James voted to All-Star Game, Patriots underdogs to Seahawks, Raiders to hire Klint Kubiak?

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

(0:00) Seahawks 4.5 point favorites over Patriots, LeBron voted to 22nd straight All-Star game (28:01) Does Justin Jefferson miss Sam Darnold? (42:37) Should the Raiders hire Klint Kubiak as next HC? (48:01) Should Sam Darnold reaching the Super Bowl impact how the NFL handles QBs?  (01:07:00) Would SB MVP mean more for Darnold or Maye?  (01:16:02) Danny Amendola joins the show (01:26:58) Surprised Drake Maye is this good this fast?  (01:51:09) Will Darnold or Maye have a dud game? (02:02:19) Issues with HC Carousel (02:09:39) Super Bowl Media Night predictions? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

from New York. It's a show it's learning something every day. Yeah, that's right. What? What? We're having an edge orio. We're having an editorial disagreement. That's fine.

KW. Let's not worry about that. Let's worry about the fact. Happy Groundhogger. That's not. Didn't even know it was Groundhogger. Is it Groundhogging? Guys, come on.

Did he see a shadow? Did you see your shadow? Sorry. Six or eight more weeks of winter. I don't know. Okay. That's not what I want to talk. Talk about those.

Six. Thank you, Hubbs. This is the week, Brew. Either a week from today, that door leaves the studio. Actually, no matter what, a week from today, that door will leave the studio, and it will either be sent to Canton, Ohio, or it will be demolished by Brew and I on 504th Street. I don't know if demolishing the door, I said. Well, I mean, we've paid for the sledgehammers already.

Yeah. Although actually, say it, Brew. Brew's fair. Brew is fair. That's why he's the mayor of fair. He's fair. I'm feeling a little better about the Patriots. Wow.

Oh, what's turn of where I'm going yet? Wow. I love this. I need to get up in the lab and do some more. I love this. But I'm feeling better about it. Thank you. Oh, my goodness.

Let's go. They didn't say I was picking them. No, I know that, but I like that. Wow. Seahawks and Patriots touchdown in Northern California. I let Hobbs get into my script. Who will have the most touchdowns in the game? Hubbs, you crush that one.

That's good. Meanwhile, friend of the show and two-time Super Bowl champion, Danny Amindola joins us. He took a little quick, a little three-year-four-year break from joining us. But hey, welcome back Danny Amandola. Is Drake going to run some of Brady's favorite plays that Amandola was on the receiving end? And finally, is there a chance the Seattle Seahawks are getting too much respect? I think there's some interesting statistics that say yes. Really?

Some interesting statistics that say yes. Alongside Chris Brissard, his mind is not made up about the Super Bowl. I'm Kevin Wilde's and I'm still keeping an open mind. I am. Yeah, right. I am. You have the Cilocks. The only thing you're debating is are the Patriots winning by 7, 10, or 14?

That's the only thing you're debating. Or more. 14 plus. First of all, or more is on the board. Also, two is on the board. And if I'm open, if you come up with some great stuff in this show, I will change my mind. Great. I promise you, I am open.

Perfect. So it's on you. Nick Wright, he's going to, if you do it. Who even know? You don't even know what side I'm going with. We'll find out. We start with the Patriots. They flew to Santa Clara and boy, are their arms tired?

Stop it. left. It's not my fault. Especially Drake May has been dealing with a bad shoulder that he and his coach admit is less than 100%. Seahawks coach Mike McDonald was asked about Drake's shoulder. And here's what he said. He is a tremendous player. He really is. He's strong. He's fast. I mean, you know all the things. Great talent, great decision making. Yeah, we got to be on our stuff up front. popping in off of the injury report for the Patriots, how much do you take that into account at this point? None.

None. I had Josh and Hubs pull Drake's Super Bowl props. So I was trying to get a gauge and wanted your reaction to this game. It feels like if he had a bad shoulder, I feel like these numbers are still pretty good. 31 pass attempts. These are all over under passing yards are up there, passing touchdowns. I mean, that's 220 passing yards is not a huge number. But Seahawks don't really allow anybody to throw over 11 times Seattle defense has held QB.

No, I mean, I think that Vegas thinks Drake May is going to have to throw the ball a lot. And I, you know what I mean? And I think they're right on that. So do you think we are overreacting to Drake's news of Drake's shoulder or lack thereof? Well, no, I don't. This is definitely something. Like, whenever we ask the, are we overreacting questions, it's a little tricky because I don't know if we have an agreed upon reaction level. for everybody to like the room temperature of reaction.

But I haven't seen mass panic about this. That would be overreaction. But in a world where on this show we have said Bill Belichick not making the Hall of Fame has some impact on this game. I think that Drake Mays some. See, he said, I doubt you and I have seen it. No, but the show is a collective.

Really? Some. Some. Some. See? I told him. Like this whatever it was.

How about none? No. None is not. None is off the board. How's this impact the game? How's Belichick not being just discredited, doubted. He's just saying it's adding to the week. Nobody believes in us factor.

I maybe shouldn't have brought that up because. Just a little bit. So in that world where that is a little bit, this is more than a little bit. Yes. This is certainly something. And listen, he has been sacked this season. 62 times. He's run the ball another 120.

Now, I didn't want to make Josh waste his time by be like, all right, how many of those rush attempts were kneel down to how many did he run out of bounds? So, you know, I'm going to say he's probably been tackled around 150 times total. Oh, with the sacks? Right, with the sacks included in it, somewhere

around there, and it has worn on him. And in the brave new world of lines of demarcation statistical analysis, like what the, last week when we got in the semi-argument about, was the Rams defense good or bad or average? Because they were really good and then they were bad at the end. Something very similar has happened with Drake May's deep passes. And it well predates any concern about a shoulder injury, which is Drake May, the first two months

of the year, was the best deep thrower of the football by a lot. He didn't do it all that much, but when he did it, it was unstoppable. And Drake May, since those first two months, has been dead average at it. The completion percentage is bad, but the touchdowns are good, and we can show you that in league ranked terms, right? First two months of the year, first in completion percentage, third in touchdown interception on deep passes,

five to zero touchdown interceptions, or even those third is outstanding, and a passer rating that's 0.8 tenths off best possible, best perfect. That's just a stupid, in a good way. Right. Like perfect fascinating deep passes. But the ranks are what to me is interesting. The last three months, Drake May on deep passes has been definitionally mid.

And so that was before there was any concern about his banged up shoulder. Do you think that is, and I know the playoff numbers probably drag that down? A little bit. Yeah. Because that's three out of how many games. for whatever it's worth, you know, one of the four touchdowns is the booty pass, which is in the playoffs. But you think it's related to his shoulder?

No, what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is he already had for a couple months come back down to earth on what was a remarkable deep pass heater that he was on to start the year. That plus what I do think is a banged up shoulder is something. I don't, I don't, to me it's certainly not nothing. How many passes was that? That was, well, I could have done the math. Or is it just like a handful of- Just show the first one, graphic again.

I think it's 41 passes, if I remember it correctly. Because it was 33.6 per game, and I think it's been, yeah, 3.6 a game. They've played 11 or 12 games, so it's, you know, it's right around 40. Josh could tell me, but I mean, oh, no, it's right there. It's 43. It's on the screen. Sorry, 15 of 43. It's on the screen.

So that's, yeah, it's not nothing. It's a real number. Also probably defenses, obviously scouting them. Yeah, how good he was at it, all of it. Correct. Yeah, we'll defend it better. I don't think it's a big deal. I'm looking at this.

I'm looking at Drake May's shoulder like I looked at Sam Darnold's oblique. I thought, oh, this is just something to be concerned about. He wasn't throwing the ball in practice leading up to the game. And then he comes out there and plays the best game of his life. So yes, I think it might be sore. He banged it up, but I'm sure he's fine. They don't seem concerned in the least bit. I get it if you were.

They probably wouldn't be putting it out there. But I just, I think he will be fine. I think if there's pain, they'll shoot him up. He'll be pain free when he plays and he'll be able to do his thing in the game. If he doesn't play well or if they lose, I don't think the shoulder will have anything to do with it. The Hofanga hit was kind of the line in the sand that everyone says like, oh, look at he's grabbing his shoulder. There was another idea that he was adjusting his shoulder pads, maybe both. But after this hit is when they run the flea flicker to Mack Hollins, which he throws like a nice little pillow here.

So this was immediately after it. So if his shoulder, I mean, that's a pretty good throw. but I don't have a lot to go on because after that we stopped throwing the ball. Right. And so here is, here would be my, my biggest concern if I were New England. Again, I don't think this is a big concern,

but I don't think we can ignore it. Sure. Would be if it really was, whatever made him mispractice or be listed with a shoulder was not, because I know there was reporting, oh, he's been dealing with it for weeks. And my skepticism of that is,

because he wasn't on the injury report. And I think it was the Hufanga hit that really made this an issue. And I just want to say this very quickly about the injury report stuff because Josh Allen came out on crutches and everyone was like, oh man, he had a broken bone in his foot. We had no idea.

Yeah, we did. We didn't know what the injury was, but he said he got hurt in week 16 and go back and check the Bill's injury reports every week after that. He is listed with a foot injury starting after the game he got hurt. teams about their quarterback have to be very careful about just not listing anything whatsoever.

I would feel better if I were a Pat's fan if it were true. If it is true, he has been dealing with this for five weeks than if it was, no, something happened on the Hufong game. Because if it had been dealing with it for five weeks, we kind of know. I don't think the shoulders why he's fumbling the ball. And he has thrown some really nice passes throughout this playoffs, even with the mistakes. But if it's something that happened in the second half of that game and he didn't throw much after that, that's where my concern would be of how much will this impact? All right. Seahawks still favored by four and a half. Now, a spread this large has not been historically kind to the favorites, two and five outright.

And no favorite has covered in the last 20 years. Brew, do you think this spread is too large? Sadly, Wilds, no. I thought you were what about the top of the show? Yeah, I mean, I got a week to decide what I want to do. I am feeling a little better. A little bit.

Early. The interest should be like, yeah, no. Late last week, I was like, only four and a half. No way. Now I've come a little bit closer to you. So look, the Seahawks had the best point differential in the league

by 20, almost 20 points. And that was against the fourth best. schedule in the league, the fourth toughest schedule. You guys were third in point differential, but that was against the worst schedule in the league or easiest schedule in the league and really one of the easiest in NFL history. And they demolished a good San Francisco team. We get it. They were banged up and everything.

But Purdy, McCaffrey were there. They had played them tough in the regular season. And then they handled a very good Rams team. All right. you guys struggled with a Denver team quarterback by its backup. And so I think people looking at it, strength of schedule, blowouts throughout the year, as far as quality of teams and things like that, are justified in saying, I think Seattle has an advantage here, and I think they can win this game by more than four points or five points.

So I don't think they're disrespecting you by that. So, you want to know what the sharps feel, KW? Oh, I would love to hear where the dumb money is. Well, I don't know where the dumb money is, but I can tell you what the, there is a consensus amongst the Vegas sharps that if you are playing the money line, that even having just straight winner, even having to lay minus 200, Seattle's the play.

But Patriots plus the points is the play against the spread, which means the sharp money thinks this is basically a Seattle three or four points. when and so they think the spreads a touch too big. I'm surprised that hasn't come down. Well, I don't know that's maybe a discussion for, a longer discussion for your highly rated podcast, which

is moving the line on Super Bowls is a very dangerous thing to do to where books can get middled and they move it to three and a half, it ends up Patriots minus, or Seattle wins by four and then the early, they lose the early money and the late money that happened famously

won Super Bowl, but doesn't matter. Again, it's for your podcast. Here is why I don't, I disagree with the Vegas Sharps and I disagree with you. Because I'm assuming you think it's too big about mine. Seems large. Young quarterbacks

and first time playing Mike McDonald's quarterback, or young quarterbacks against Mike McDonald's defenses have done terribly. And all quarterbacks, the first time playing Mike McDonald's defenses, have done very poorly.

So quarterbacks 25 or under, or under 25, I should say, against McDonald's Seahawks. They're 1 in 9. They have a 68 rating. They score less than 16 points per game, seven touchdowns, 12 picks. Now, again, most young quarterbacks are not as good as Drake May. And so I understand that, but it is. But there was, I forgot who was saying it, but there was an idea that Stafford is the outlier just because he's seen him. He's seen him so many times.

And you know what I mean? Twice last year. First time this year. First time this year, and his first time this year was his third time going against him because he played him in the division. And then this is all quarterbacks against Mike McDonald's defenses, including his two years with the Ravens. So when Mike McDonald's called your defense, all quarterbacks in their first time against

it, 39 touchdowns, 40 picks, 65 rating again, right around 16 points per game, and a passer rating under 80. Like that is That is spooky If you're a Patriots team That I believe KW The strength is their passing game Like the way they got I know it hasn't been in the playoffs

But the way they got here Was through their passing game Oddly that might be less spooky of a stat If we had gotten Say Bonix was healthy A Broncos Super Bowl or even a Texan Super Bowl A team that's like 16 points Right

Okay Like a like who signed us up and see. And I'm not saying you guys couldn't win a 16-13 game, but that has not been really your path here, even though it's been your path in the playoffs. The most, why I think it's too large of a spread is because, like you said, Brew, it feels like the Drake May against the Broncos

has cast this long shadow over the Super Bowl. And Sam Darnold versus the Rams has done the same thing. Drake stock really fell and Sam's Darnold's has really risen. So, does see if you can grab the Seahawks' turnovers graphic from, I think it's in the D block. And I haven't seen people bring this up because we know that the Patriots defense is playing great. They're on like a 2,000 Ravens pace as far as points go. But they're playing a quarterback who throughout his career has really given up the ball. And the Seahawks in the regular season have fumbled the ball the most, lost the most fumbles,

have 15 interceptions, which is seventh most, and the second most giveaways. So to me, I don't know if this is a game that's going to sound weird, but stay with me, the Patriots need to win or the Seahawks need to not lose? Does that make sense? Like, does Drake need to play phenomenal, or is this similar, similar echoes of the Denver game?

No. Like, you know what? I think, Donald will give this one up. I think, I think is, I am not sitting here saying, and I'm sure Brew isn't either, the Patriots can't win or the Patriots need to play perfect to win or any of that. But Seattle has the resume and the bona fides of the best team in the NFL this year. Right. The idea that you can walk into a Super Bowl when I think they're a well-coached and healthy team and just be like, if we don't make mistakes, it's a similar spot as playing stintom. No, I'm saying an echo of it.

I'm not saying like, I'm just saying if you're playing a team that gives the ball up, is a mistake going to turn the game when these, this is a matchup between, I think it's the first time since the merger. It's both teams are top four, scoring, defense, and scoring. So I would say like a mistake is going to turn it. And I just don't know if I even agree Seattle's a turnover prone team or if they were just turnover prone in those Rams games. If you just told me they had 28 turnovers and seven of them were in the Rams,

the two Rams regular season games. That, to me, you know, skews it a bit. I don't know. Yeah, their offense is so much better than Denver's. I mean, the receivers are better. They got the best, arguably best receiver in the league. I'm just saying it's like their game.

I'm not saying I should have brought up the Denver game, but it's just a game that turned on a mistake from the quarterback. But if you're saying you think Seattle, like your guy's path is winning the turnover battle. Oh, yeah. I think that is, I think that's probably smart. I just feel like darn. Darnold has played really clean football, you know, in this postseason and dating back to

week 18. I just think he is, you know, and I think the Seahawks stock is up from not just the Rams game, but the 41 to 6 annihilation in the round. I think your guy's stock dropped in round two a bit in that Texans game, whether you think it should have or not, I think it did, and the Seahawks stock skyrocketed in that 41 to 6th. Yeah, I might be a man on an island, but it felt. like the 49ers were a puncher like surviving another round.

It's like they're going to give it up. They were, yeah, but it wasn't annihilation. Look, Nick is making me feel less good about the Patriots. Wow. He has some. Wow, I'm moving. I'm just saying.

I'm taking everything in right now. I'm a blank slate right now. I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm claiming it on decided voter and then you check he's only donated to one party his whole life. God.

At 22 last. night in the garden and during the game he was named to his 22nd all-star game. Voting of course via the coaches for the reserves. Here's LeBron on the honor. Super humbling. My coaches, coaches voted right? So my respect to the coaches and them seeing, you know, when I'm still playing at this, you know, I'm starting my career and to be able to be an all-star, I mean a lot to my family, you know, people that's been following my career. LeBron faithful, you know, to follow my journey.

But as a, I don't know, it's always, it's always supporting. All right, Bray, your reaction to LeBron's All-Star nod. Well, I'm happy for him. I feel like it's only right. Like, the All-Star game is a showcase and an exhibition. And LeBron has been the face of the league for the past 20 years. So you, I think it is right to have him there. And when you.

look at his numbers and the way he's played, 22 points, about six rebounds, six assists the game on 50% shooting. I'm not saying he's been terrific. But you can, on the sixth seed in the West, a team that, you know, is playing pretty good basketball, you can justify having

him on this roster. And so I feel like it was fine to put him on there and you can't look at his performance and be like, this is ridiculous, this is a joke. So I think it's good to have him on there. Now, I do think, Kauai Leonard is playing better than

LeBron. Kauai not being on this team is one of the biggest lights I've seen in a long time as far as All-Star snubs. They've won 17 of their last 21 games. Kauai's averaging almost 28 points a game. He's playing great. But the guy I would have had off instead of LeBron to put Kauai on is Denny Avdia. Who is a great

young player in Portland? I mean he's playing lights out, but they're four games below 500. And I do think you can look at LeBron. LeBron is the second option when Reeves isn't there. And darn near the third option when Reeves is there. I do think LeBron could score more if that was his role or he was being asked to her if Luca wasn't there. So I'm fine with LeBron.

I'm glad he'll be there for this type of showcase. But I would have had Kauai over Avdia. Or Chet. Yeah, I mean, I think the feeling was just that OKC. record's so good, you got to put them in. So this is my, this is where I get frustrated with some of the coverage of LeBron. Because Hollinger, who I like a lot.

Yeah, he torched it. And is not like a hot take guy. No. Called it outrageous. One of the most outrageous things he's seen. And I just wonder if folks, when it comes to this player, just have a total inability to remember anything that happened with other players that sit in the same room he sits in. Because in my lifetime, there are three players that were in that no doubt top 10 and, you know, kind of legendary icon status that had long careers and at the end got some.

Are you active? Are you still you? You're going to be an All-Star, and nobody cared. The first was Kobe, who we could show you his last three, two All-Star appearances. But here's the last one. The team was 11 and 44. He averaged 17 points a game and was 35% from the field. Nobody thought it was an outrage.

Michael Jordan. Was he, well, Kobe and Jordan, were they voted by the fans? That I'll be totally. honest, that I couldn't look up. I couldn't find that. So I'm not, that I'm not certain. Here's Jordan's first year with the Wizards, you can make the case.

He was a legitimate, even if his name was Michael Jamison, All-Star. His second year with the Wizards, you know why he made the All-Star team? He ended up averaging 20 that year. That, yeah, so he must have picked it up. He had second half of the year, he average a little more. He made that team that year because he was Michael Jordan.

And Kareem, his final year, was nine, Nine points a game. And that he picked it up as well. I think he got to 11 in the second half. But you know what? He was Kareem and he was acting. I'm guessing Dr. Jay was an all-star. Oh, I didn't even pull Dr.

He probably made it his last year. And so it is disingenuous, in my opinion, for folks to act like this is unprecedented. What would have been unprecedented would have been LeBron. even if his numbers were half of what they are this year. Bruce said he's 22, 6 and 6. The precedent is if he were 11, 3, and 3, and the Lakers were the 12 seed, he's an all-star. That's the precedent with the Lakers. And so I think people lie to themselves a bit about what is expected and what is not.

Can I think the counterpoint to that? I think that those were almost honorary ads. And that's not what LeBron. We're trying to make an argument against Kauai as just like a raw numbers merit-based ads. But there was still someone left out. They didn't add a spot. I understand.

But it just feels like I don't think you were making that no one's making, wasn't making a statistical argument that Kobe needs to be there. Versus LeBron is almost a victim of being too good. Like I would argue, you're like, if LeBron was down to 10, 4 and 4, like, of course LeBron needs to go.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, that's fair. I know what you're saying. It would have been more of a sympathy. Let's see him. Just like an honorific all-star versus like a merit-based ballroom. We don't know if this is LeBron's last year. Like, and whereas Kobe, we knew Jordan, I believe we knew Korea.

I don't think we knew with Jordan for sure. But maybe. But I also, and I didn't want to inundate people with numbers. For whatever it's worth, for Kobe and Kareem in particular and kind of for Michael, Michael's second to last year with the Wizards, his numbers were almost identical to what LeBron is right now. 22, 6 and 5 on 50%, or I think his percentage was lower. But Kareem and Kobe, their second to last year, the numbers were way worse than bronze this year. But again, they were Kreme and Kobe.

The point I'm making is this, KW. I think you might be right, that it's like, are. Are we making the argument that if it was anonymous ballot, like, you know, the blind resume, he'd be an All-Star? No. Which is why I think the people writing about Kauai's snub, juxtaposed to LeBron's inclusion, are missing it. Kauai's snub was, should be juxtaposed to Chet or Denny or whomever.

Because LeBron's in. Like, LeBron's in. Booker's playing great, but, you know, there's seven. I'm all my Phoenix Sun's getting in. To me, I look at LeBron like this year, and again, if he plays 28 years and every year could be his last year, then at some point, maybe you have to pull the plug on it. LeBron's active and he's healthy. He's an all-stone. Yes.

I think it's pretty simple. He didn't want Keonté George to be an all-star because he was too busy watching golf. Justin Jefferson. That's in Sam Darnold. That's next on first things first. Like Jamal Murray got in. All 10 of the NFL's head coaching. vacancies are now slated to be filled. Seahawks O.C. Clint Kubiak to the Raiders,

a Rams O.C. Michael Flore, Matt's younger brother, brew to the Cardinals. No black head coaches were hired in this cycle. Your reaction? Well, it's disappointing for sure. Now there are three black head coaches in the league, three out of 32, which is low. And we know the climate of the country, this administration is less focused on diversity and things like that. So could this be a reaction to that? I don't know. I'm willing to give it another cycle, like the next cycle, which probably be next summer, if there are a lot of openings and then no blackhead coaches, then it'll really be, okay, alarming to me. I do think there are several guys that could have been, could have gotten a job. Vance Joseph, we talked about him. Denver, one of the best defenses in the league this

year. He did a great job there, D.C. Obviously, we always talk about Brian Flores. And I don't really I get it. Some owners may hold the fact that he's suing the league against, you know, for racism against him. But he is working in the league right now, you know, and he's, he's respected, he's doing a great job. And then I think that the guy, Shieldhouse, you know, the Rams quarterback, Nate Shieldhouse, the Rams quarterback coach, that's one of the best passing, or he's their passing game coordinator. He seems like one of those hot, young, offensive minds. Now, Mike McDaniel could have got one too. You know, he didn't.

So I'm not, you know, ready to just, you know, shout from the rooftops. And yet I do think it's unfortunate and disappointing. I'm willing to give it another cycle and see what happens then. But I think there are several qualified guys. Hopefully they'll get some of these jobs next year. And I will say this, though. I would like to see the Players Association release a statement. Just saying how this is disappointing.

There are many qualified African-American coordinators and coaching candidates that should have gotten a job. And I would like to see them just put that on the record and release a statement. And then going forward, we'll see if this improves. If not, then you have to take more, you know, do more things to write this situation. Yeah, this has been something that's been talked about for a long time and hasn't really changed very much. If anything, the numbers have gone down in the most recent years. And you look at the group of defense coordinators and defensive passing game coordinators. I think there were 14 guys there.

There's less on the offensive side where that would typically, where those candidates would be drawn from. So the fact that Brian didn't get an opportunity, I'm sure it relates to the lawsuit. And he brought attention to this, what was it, three years now? It seems like three or four years. And he said, you know, I don't want to go on an interview for the sake of going on an interview. The Rooney rule. Yeah, which makes a lot of sense. So the rule that was in place has now become something that's maybe not as positive as, you know, it was hoped to be.

And then I'm sure there's frustration because you'd say, okay, we're drawing from offensive and defensive coordinators. But you see a guy like Philip Rivers get an interview. And then how do you justify that? If you're anybody looking at this and say, you know, okay, it's just court, you know, if we're going for the coordinator group and maybe there needs to be more black offensive coordinator, but then you go to Philip Reardon, like, this doesn't make me sense. So it doesn't, it doesn't. So listen, there's the, Brew, you said there's three black head coaches right now. There were three in 2002, which was when they created the Rooney Rule.

It was such a problem 25 years ago with those numbers created the Rooney Rule. now we're sitting here with three right now. I understand that ebbs and flows over the course of many years. It was seven, I think is the high. 2017. Right. And so, right, like I said, it looks, it's kind of felt like two steps forward, two steps back, one step forward, one step back, and we end up right in this, around the same place.

So why do we end up right and around the same place? I think there's two primary reasons, and none of them, neither of them involve any type of nefariousness, intentional, malignancy or racism. racism necessarily. The first one is flat, old-fashioned nepotism, which is, and the fact that typically white people marry white people, black people marry black people, your family is typically the race of, you know, single-race family. It's just a lot of names we recognize. It's like, brother, nephew, son, Shanahan's and Shulahs and Shulahs and LaFleur's and Harbaugh's and Taylors and Schottenheimer's. There's two Kubiak kids showing up. The Joe Lombardi that just got fired by the

Broncos is Vince Lombardi's grandson. So there are football families. And again, families come in all different shapes and sizes. I get that. That is my reality. But typically, you know, families are monoracial. And so that happens. So that's a piece of it that I don't think means there's any bad acting going on, but it is just a reality that in comes to coaching, general managers, certainly team ownerships, white folks have had a huge head start. And so when it comes to hiring sons and nephews and whomever, the Belichick's, you know, were part of a coaching tree of Bill had stayed. Like this is what happens. The other one is a little more troubling, and that's what I would call, because I want to be charitable and I want people turn their ears off,

subconscious bias, which is at the highest level decision. making. I do think for some there is an unintentional subconscious bias of I trust this person to motivate my team, to inspire my team, to get hand in the dirt, show my team how to run a drill, and I trust this type of person to be a quarterback whisperer, to be an offensive genius. And that's why I think what you see is, as coach mentioned, a lot of the black coaches being either funneled towards or topping out at defensive coordinator and the white coaches getting the offensive coordinator QB coach jobs, which have become where like teams, that seems to me the pipeline is quarterback whisper.

And I do think there is an old school, again, I'm not accusing any individual of racism, but what is a racist mindset of subconsciously, I don't know if this black guy is smart enough to do that. And that is racist. Of course it's... And that's what played

quarterbacks. Correct. 20 years ago. And 20 years ago, the argument was, well, no, it's guys who played quarterback turned into coaches and for some reason or another, the quarterbacks are white. But now the quarterbacks are, you know,

there's as many black quarterbacks as white quarterback. So that goes away. So I agree, Brew, that is racism, but you don't have, I think there are people who would pass a polygraph that they're not racist that might not realize subconsciously what boxes they are putting people in. You know what I mean? And so that's, that's to me is what's happening. And I hate to do these types of important things and have no solution. I don't have the solution because I don't think the Rooney Rule has worked really well.

And I think it's end up being insulting for some guys who it's like, you know who you're hiring, but you have to check a box to interview me, so I'm coming in. So I don't know what the solution is, but I believe very deeply that is the cause. I think if this continues, the players would have to really speak up and even maybe not play at times. You know, like say we there,

because some of us will go on to be coaches. Now, a lot of players are in the league only going to be there two years, three years. Are they willing to do that for, or the future of African-American people. Maybe not. But that is something where players could change a lot of this if they would take some stances.

I'm not trying to jump on the players, but I'm saying if discontinued, there could be something like that. I would also throw this out. I do think there are some owners and maybe front office people in the league who feel like they're dominating on the field. They're 70%. There are 13% of the American population and 70% of the players. We need some, we want to place in this game too.

And if it has to be coaches, front office people, decision makers, that's what we'll do. I do think there are a lot of people that feel that way too. And so I know a lot of African Americans, I'm thinking mainly basketball, but feel like the increased and heightened importance of analytics has been to, now there are some African-Americans doing analytics, but it's overwhelmingly white and other races. And they feel like that has been a way to like find a spot for whites in the game when blacks are dominating it on the field or on the court. So I think that that thinking is there too among some people.

Okay. Do you have any final? No, no. Final thoughts. Okay. The Vikings watch Sam Darnold walk out the door after a season where he threw for 43. 300 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 14 wins. Justin Jefferson sounds like he misses.

Take a listen. Everyone knows the difficulty of the quarterback position this year of how we was dealt it. But of course, you know, having a quarterback that's already had a season under his belt with us, knew the plays, knew the playbook, knew the players, you know, of course throwing to me, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson, all of these guys. I definitely felt like we would have done better but you know it is what it is okay reaction of missing Sam Darnold

listen I think he's definitely right brew I don't think I would have said it like the he didn't say it he said it nicely yeah but I just don't like listen the numbers are Darnold last year Darnold with the Vikings and then JJ with the Vikings it's I mean it's not like you're like

well actually here's what he it's not even close and everybody like It's not debatable. I just don't know, coach, how helpful it is for JJ, who they hope is their quarterback next year to hear this from the best player on the team. Like, I agree with him. It's just so blatantly obvious. Like, if he didn't say it, it was almost like patronizing because it's so obvious, I feel like.

Well, the owners just said it. I mean, the owners just said it loud and clear. They just fired the gym. And they fired him because he let Sam Darnold go. So that was a $25 million cap hit if they had franchised him. And then there's been talk about the fact that they could have traded up to get Drake May. So now Drake May, who they didn't get in the trade, and Sam Darnold are playing each other in the Super Bowl. So that's problematic.

And then there's also Daniel Jones. He was in the building too. He goes and has a really, you know, surprisingly positive season in Indianapolis. So you've got three guys that played much better than the guy that was there. And for him to say what he said, I'm with you, Brew, the owners just said it loud and clear how they felt about the quarterback decision and about the quarterback situation. So he's just parroting that.

The Vikings are lucky Justin Jefferson is kind of a fun-loving guy. Because as much as I criticize like A.J. Brown, he could probably use a little bit of AJ Brown. You know, just not maybe to go that far, but some of it, Justin Jefferson would be fully within his rights to be ticked off. This is his career. Like in 2021, he has 1,600 yards receiving. 22, 1,800.

That's with Kurt Cousins. 2024 with Donald, he had 1,500. And then this year, career lows in yards. He was just over 1,000 yards per catch. He only had two touchdowns. Like, this is his career. We just talked about last week. Is he still the best receiver in the league?

They finally found someone who could stop him. His quarterback. Right. Like, I get, I mean, this is, he still could be, obviously is on a Hall of Fame pace. But, you know, it's stuff like that. He is. It's like, dude, I'm busting my butt to be the best I can be. Get me a quarterback.

KW. you. Do you want him traded to? Because you know who he, it reminds me of? Stefan Diggs. No. He's the offensive Miles Garrett at this point. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like in the

That's interesting. To your eye, one of the best you've seen, statistically you know, on a per game basis historically great. This is just his first year. Has been to the playoffs a couple times. What did you say? This is his first year not like sort of being a non-story late in the year. No, two years

ago. Yeah, two years ago. The year of, Kirk's last year. But what did? Kirk got hurt. Kirk got hurt. Yeah. And so the, but still, even with Kirk, it's just like, you know, they made the playoffs, I think, three times in his career and it was with Miles, been in playoffs twice

in a longer career. So it's not, it's not perfect. But an all-time great that feels like, man, in that spot, you're going to be in rough shape. Because in that right now, if you're, the Vikings, sorry, Vikings fans. but I don't see an easy path for them. They're in that division having seemingly having to start over again at quarterback. That's a rough. I thought you were saying that JJ McCarthy was Sam Darnold early in his career.

No. No, no, no, no. I don't think that. You can't give up on him. Maybe bring Kyler in the building down from 10. That does not fix it. Now you really want him to quit. The weirdest and most wonderful plays.

I was there for that. What do you think of it? Lighting. Seahawks, O.C. Clint Kubiak, preparing for the Super Bowl and to take over the Raiders. Mendoza, the overwhelming favorite to be his quarterback. What do we think this pairing means for the AFC West? And this has got to be great news for you because you had the... This is your team.

I don't understand how I, am I just a Raiders guy for life now because I thought last year they were going to be good? What's like how I thought the Patriots are going to be good? It's like you thought of the Raiders. All right. listen, here's what it means. If Kubiak's the right coach and Mendoza is the guy he's supposed to be, then within two years it's a problem for everyone else in the AFC West. Just varying levels of problem.

But as we've talked about throughout this year, if you have the right coach and the right quarterback, then you are competing within two years. We see that time and again. And if you're not, then one of them's not the right guy. And so that's the that's kind of the big picture look at it. When you have Bo Nix, Sean Payton, Harbaugh,

Justin Herbert, Mahomes, Andy Reed. If these guys are the right guys, that's your 4 for 4 in coach quarterback combos would be pretty sick. In the short term, here's what's tricky for me, bro. Why did I believe in the Raiders last year? It wasn't just because I liked Ashton Jente. You liked Gino, I think. You like Pete Carroll, too.

I said that. Love. If you make a major upgrade at coach and quarterback, you can have a quick turnaround. So, again, if these are the right guys, then obviously Pete Carroll wasn't good last year, and obviously, Gino wasn't good last year. That could the Raiders be frisky next season if they're the guys? Yeah, they could be by the same logic. And so it's not what I would be anticipating happening, but I can't be a, they call me Mr.

Consistency for a reason. I've got to be fair. Very consistent. I think next year they're going to continue to be the worst team in the division. Unless the chiefs just, you know, why would the chiefs be the same? I'm just saying if they fall off like unsuspectingly really. They were six and eight this year.

So if they really, if it's like, oh my gosh, they're just not the same. But I think the chargers are going to be really good with Mike McDaniel as the OC. Denver, I don't think is going away. And then I do expect the chiefs to be good. So I think they'll be the worst team in the division. But like you said, I think that down the road coach, they will be, there'll be a tough team to reckon with in that division. Because Kubiak obviously did a great job, has done a great job in Seattle.

And if Mendoza is that guy, you got Brock Bowers, you got Gentie. Like if they just need to build, don't be so concerned. I get it that they want to compete next year. But the main thing should just be building a. the group they have, building up the defense, and seeing if Mendoza is the guy. And then I do think they could really be tough in the future. Yeah, I think this is going to be pretty challenging because you've got the salty group with the Chargers defensively.

You've got Denver's defense. That's problematic. You've got Kansas City's defense. You can say what you want about them, but they bring a lot of different looks. They create a lot of problems and they'll get better. So you've got that to deal with as a first time. And then I looked at it and wanted to see where Kubiak was with young quarterback development. So if we can pull this up here and look at the quarterbacks that he's worked with, most of them have been old quarterbacks.

So you got cousins, you've got Russ. He had the one season with Purdy, Carr and Darnold. Now, when Spencer Rattler started six games for the Saints that year, and during that time, he went 0 and 6 with four TDs, five interceptions, and a 37.1 quarterback rating. And you could, you know, maybe we'd give him credit for the Purdy. year, but that Trey Lance was also part of that too. So do you get the upside of Purdy or do you get the downside of the number three overall draft pick, not being a bust? So it's not like he has developed a ton of young quarterbacks. Now taking someone directly out of college, being responsible for that and the organization without a real track record, it's different working with veterans like that than it is working with a kid just out of college against three defenses in that division that all,

are problematic. That's interesting. And with Purdy, obviously, he has Kyle there. Right. Kyle's there. Who Kyle is working directly with the quarter. And I was just saying, do you give him the credit or do you look at the Trey land? Well, again, Trey played well those first couple of games.

He's got his leg broken and the same. I mean, that's just, let's just. So do you think he needs to hire somebody else just specifically for Mendoza? Well, I just think the optimism of, okay, you're going to get the number one over a draft pick, the quarterback. You hope that he can save the franchise and you get the, you get the, the hot coordinator and you're thinking, okay, pair those two up, this thing should take off pretty quickly. We've seen a lot of that with young quarterbacks,

but you also have to take into account how well he's done with young quarterbacks, and there's really no track record for him developing guys. Interesting. What's next for Sam Darnold? Is he changing the game for several other quarterbacks? I think everyone's a hypocrite. About this, when I bring up Zach Wilson, yeah.

Bye from New York. It's a show that is cooking up some fresh Zach Wilson takes. No, it's not. Stay tuned to. The point of the teases to get people to watch more of the show. Some people are a lot of people. A lot of people are like, Zach Wilson. I haven't heard his name in a while.

Exactly. Well, Sam Darnold's in the Super Bowl. Wild is uncovering nuggets. Sam Darnold's in the Super Bowl. No one believed in him. That's not why he's in the Super Bowl. But no one believed in him. Does anyone believe in the Super Bowl?

If the answer is no, that means he could go to the Super Bowl. Funny. Second hour first. Today, who does Super Bowl MVP mean more for? Very interesting. And who's our Dark Horse candidate? I think I've got mine. I think I have it perfect.

Really? Yeah. Meanwhile, a friend of the show, Danny Amindola joins the show. You never worked with Danny Amadola. Did you coach? No, we almost drafted him, knowing Stephen. Oh. Yeah.

You should have. He's super old. He probably worked out better for it. He was an excellent player. Right now, we're going to get to that Zach Wilson topic. That's not a Zach Wilson topic. This guy's a favorite to win MVP, Sam Darnold. He's already brought home the MBA.

Most valuable acquisition. I don't know if it's given out by CBS, but it was named, he was named MBA in an article. Okay. In an article? I don't know if it's some random article. I don't know if there's any hardware attached to it. Probably not. If he wins the Super Bowl, he will be the first quarterback to win who has played for five different teams.

After he has played for five different teams. Should reaching the Super Bowl change how the NFL handles quarterbacks? Maybe quarterbacks will play for the Jets. Not at all. Not at all. I think directionally on how long of a lease should we give our first round pick quarterback, which is what we're talking about here, teams are correct. Because for every Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, there have been the opposite mistakes.

Tua, Kyler, Blake Bortles, guys. Well, Tua's story's not completely written. Okay, no, but teams... You haven't even gotten to the Sam Darnold phase of these. No, no, no. But okay, so let me explain what I mean by that. Because I think this part of the story is written. Teams that have questions about the player, despite those questions, swallow hard and pay

him that second contract and it ends up being something they wish they hadn't done. So even if Tua does, you're right. Kyler as well could write a whole other chapter. Daniel Jones falls in this bucket where even if he writes another chapter, the team that drafted him gave him a second deal that they then instantly regret it. So I think that for the most part, teams that cut bait with quarterbacks that they drafted in the first round are proven correct. It was smart for, you don't have to talk, Zach Wilson, if you think he's an unknown.

It was smart for the Patriots to move on from Mack Jones, even if one day he's good. It was smart for the Jets to move on from, Jets didn't draft Justin Fields, the Bears to move on from Justin Fields. For the Bears with Trubisky, the Steelers with Kenny Pickett, the Cardinals with Josh Rosen, the Broncos with Paxson Lynch. Like those teams, after a couple years, were like, he ain't the guy. Occasionally, teams will make a mistake, or in Darnold's case, I think more likely is the case. I don't know that the Jets made a mistake because I don't know if Sam Darnold was ever going to be good with the Jets. And so I think that the best thing for Darnold might have been them moving on and whatever needed to be done. But no, I think in general teams tend to make the opposite mistake more often,

which is hold on to a guy longer than they should because they can't get over the sunk cost of him being a first round pick, and they want to grab on to whatever hope that he's going to validate that decision. I think a lot of that's smart. With Darnold, the Jets, now I do think they failed him. I don't think they had the team in place to really help him excel. But then I think they got on the timeline. It was like we got to kind of decide do we want to pay this guy or keep him or move on. So it was tough for them.

But I got coached three ways I think that Darnold should affect things. One, again, I think teams should not be in a rush to automatically start your rookie quarterback. I get the whole financial thing of we want to. want to get this guy playing well on his rookie deal so we can put a bunch of high price players around him and be good. But if some guys just aren't ready. Now, some are. If they are ready, Caleb and Jaden, Daniels, C.J. Stroud, that's fine.

I'm not saying hold him back. But Drake May didn't start initially. And I get it. That regime is out of there now with Gerard Mayo. But maybe that was smart. Like, I just think if you see your quarterback's not ready, don't just throw him in there. because that could ruin him, you know, when did you give him a year? About Caleb?

Because you put Caleb in the he was ready. But is going through those lumps because there's a lot of times he did not look ready. He took a ton of sack. They were also five and two at one point with him. But do you think that taking those lumps as brutal as they might be is just getting calloused? Helped him. I think for some guy. But look, I think if Ben Johnson hadn't showed up, then I don't think this would have been the success story

that it looks like it's going to be. Second thing, coach, I do think some of these other guys, the Zach Wilson's, the Kyler Murrays, they should get another look. And, you know, just because a guy failed in his first stopper, his first few years, doesn't mean he can't, because it's not just Donald and Baker. Matt Jones now.

I mean, if he was a free agent this summer, he'd probably get a good look somewhere. And maybe they'll trade him. Malik Willis. Yeah, so there are other guys. And then I think this, the third. third thing is Donald should be

like the poster boy for that that new middle class of money, quarterback somebody. Like now it's like if you're pretty good and you're up, you're going to be the highest paid or at least in that ballpark. And you guys know as much

as I like Brock Purdy. I was saying I'd want to be around 40, 45 is for him. And it was helpful. He was from Iowa. He was getting upset. But like, Darnold Baker's in that middle class, Donald at $55 million a year, I don't like as much, and they probably can't put as much around him. So him making 33 a year, like I do think Tua at that much.

You look at the guys differently if they're in that middle class. I get it, them and their agents are going to push for as much money as they can, and they should. But I just, I think it would be good for the league if there became a middle class of quarterbacks making not quite the max, but, you know, 30, 40, whatever it is. Right, but who wants to live in that middle class?

Do you want to live there? Well, look, I'll say this, Coach. If I was Sam Darnold, and maybe there becomes a push, let's say they win the Super Bowl, and people are saying he should push for a raise, 50 million. I get that, and I'm not saying I would, I think he's better off,

not making just 30 million, but he's better. off in Seattle, making $30 million, then going to another team where it wasn't as good of a fit. He didn't have the players around him. And he gets the $50 million. I guess financially he wouldn't be as well off. But for his career, I think it would be smart for him saying, no, I'm happy here making the

money I'm making because I could really do something here. Yeah, good luck selling that to anybody in the world. Hey, I'm Super Bowl MVP, and I'm happy making $20 million a less than Brock. 33 or whatever you don't worry about it now that'll never happen and and with this look guys develop at different rates and and unfortunately with with what we're seeing this year so Vrable goes to new England now they're in the Super Bowl after being terrible you get Seattle that this is two years out new head coach new quarterback there in the Super Bowl everybody thinks the turnaround can be quick same thing with with quarterbacks Mendoza he gets there with Kubiak is this going to change everything the pressure is on for him to perform right away and some guys do that early and some guys don't, but you've got to be objective about the evaluation of where those guys are, as opposed to just saying he's a first-round draft, he was here, he should do this, because it's not realistic. And I think about Tom Brady, if we hadn't kept four quarterbacks that first year and he had been cut and gone somewhere else as a sixth-round draft pick,

what would his trajectory have been like? He sat for a year and look, it wasn't great early on. And even the first year that he played, you know, those were more defensive-centric years than offensive-centric. He evolved into the player he was. But if he hadn't been paired up in that system that really maximized his skill set and didn't rely on mobility, what would have happened? What if he, you know, gets cut as a six-round draft pick? You're just sort of out in the ethos at that point. But it worked out incredibly well for everybody because there was that time. given. So as much as Sam Darnold is a lesson

to people about second chances and growth and the value of coaching and learning and working hard every year we're going to see, I want my turkey, but I want it cooked in a microwave. And it's not going to taste good. I like that. That's true.

Turkey in a microwave. You know what it really should have changed, KW? What? The respects people put on guys' rivals ratings. His gut ratings? The rivals ratings. Like, Darnold, the, Darnold kept getting all these chances because of USC in high school. And the prospect that he was. Wasn't he below, like, a wide receiver who?

No, Joanne Jennings was a super highly rate. No, but he was, but he was still a near five-star top-ton quarterback recruit in the country. He gave up on them. But he kept the people, like, people that believed in Darnold, it was all pedigree. It was all the measurable stuff and what the prospect he was. supposed to be before he set foot in the NFL. You know what I mean? There was nothing he had put on film

up until last year that gave you any belief he in the league. In the league. That's what I'm saying. It was all pre-Nefel stuff. I just wonder if Mack Jones's career would have been different if Josh McDaniels hadn't taken the head coaching job. Possibly. You know who doesn't think that? Mac Jones,

who was like, ah, I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't know. I got the greatest coach of all time. I'm sure he knows what's best. Turns out. Not so much. It wasn't great. I'm like, yeah, maybe she'd be worried. Mike McDonald and Mike Rable are the first defensive-minded head coaches to match up in what Pringle's calls the big game. Since Belchick and Dan Quinn, which oddly, after a 28 to 3 head start, delivered the biggest defensive collapse in Super Bowl history, which defense do you trust more going into this game?

Coach, we're going to start with you here. It's our defensive mind. Yeah, I really like watching New England's defense. It's watching the AFC championship game. So they had a fourth-round draft pick starting at safety. They got a rookie free agent coming in, rotating an outside linebacker. They got a bunch of castaways from other teams, a couple guys that they paid money to, all coming together, and they're doing a really good job of communicating,

they're disguising coverages, they're matching up, they're bringing multiple looks, they're running to the football, all those things that you look for, and they're playing everybody. There's a ton of guys that rotate through and, and, and do, like, contribute in meaningful ways, in meaningful roles that don't have to be the primary role. And guys get hurt. Someone else comes in, does a really nice job. So watching them reminded me a lot of the team that we had during our first Super Bowl run because it was the same type of composition.

Where it was, Kevin, it was guys that, like, guys that were not high free agents, you know, high money free agents, because we weren't. in that market. And then everybody kind of came together and found roles and were willing to play whatever part they had to play. And when you put all of that together, it's a really good package. Thank you. That's making me feel better. There we go.

You're back. Coach, I'm a clean slate. When are you going to get a call? Friday. Excellent. I love this. But right now, I trust Seattle's deal. Yeah, they looked good against them.

They look. I mean, look. They have played, you had to deal with Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy. I know they had a lot of other guys banged up. But they dealt with him. He likes Purdy now. He's a Purdy guy now. I'm going to let Brew make it.

And then, of course, Stafford and that great receiving court. You guys, Justin Herbert, who has not yet played a good playoff game, C.J. Stroudreld just imploded. I mean, just totally imploded. And then Jared Stiddle, the backup quarterback. So they have faced. tougher competition. Now, they haven't been as impressive, you know, particularly in their second game as you guys.

They were as impressive in their first game. First game. Yeah, absolutely. But they face tougher competition. And they, now you guys have had a pass rush in the playoffs. Oh, yeah. But overall, regular season, their pass rush was much better. They were top eight in the league.

You guys were bottom eight in the league. So overall, I trust Seattle's more. But I think you guys are right there in that same class. And going into the playoffs, you trusted. Seattle's more. Yes, I didn't realize that I wasn't expecting the defense to get better. No, and so in there, you, if you're, you know, want to be fair, the whatever curve you're putting on Drake's performance because of the weather that as we get further away from these games, the weather gets worse and worse. That route, that, the further we've gotten away, the further we've gotten away from the Texas.

game, the Texans all of a sudden it was a monsoon throughout. The further we get away from the AFC championship game, that snow was starting right. It came. People tried to do a neutral field. And so, but that same curve impacts how the defensive performance. Seattle, you know,

first round of the playoffs, Seattle allowed 0.0 yards. Yeah. They didn't play. Second round, they were dominant. And third round, obviously, the Rams moved the ball considerably. I think New England's got a really good defense. I think Seattle is certainly the best defense in the NFC and maybe the best defense overall.

It's different than the Texan's defense that, to me, was the other team in that conversation because the Texan's defense seems to have so many more splash plays as opposed to what you call like the boa constrictor, like just slowing you down. But here is what Seattle's defense has done this year against playoff teams. And it gives you an idea of how good the defense is.

And so, again, just under 17 points game, opponent pass rating of 82, 300 total yards per game. And then, and this, you know, might not be fair. You might not care about this. But if you remove the games against Stafford and the Rams, this is what they did against playoff teams. Now all of a sudden, it's 200, less than 250 yards per game. It's 12 points. a passer rating of 70, which is, again, like, against quarterbacks this year, not named Matt Stafford,

what that past defense was, was utterly and thoroughly dominant. Now, again, Drake May was awesome this year like Stafford was, so you might say he can do something similar to what Stafford did. I think Stafford's, the fact that this was Matt Stafford's third, fourth, and fifth time playing the Mike McDonald defense gave him, an edge that Drake May is not going to have his first time playing the Mike McDonald defense. So I just think Seattle's got better overall personnel, and they would get my answer. They don't have some salty thing. Well, they're obviously really good, but I think, Coach, if you were doing a draft of the players,

which isn't how the defense works. I get it. It has to be a collective. I think of the 10 best defensive players in this game. I bet Seattle ends up with seven of them. Now, that doesn't, again, to coach's point, they're rotating so many guys out, like maybe that doesn't matter.

I just do think they have a slight more talent. Can I show you one quick quote panel from the ringer in Capadia, who did an excellent job? And I just want you to ask like a question. I'm like, I wonder what coaches answer this because I have the Patriots, but I'm wondering how they're going to play.

And earlier I talked about the Seahawks giving the ball up. The Patriots have to decide whether their defensive game plan will focus on, making Darnold methodically move the ball down the field or whether they want to prioritize trying to force him into mistakes. Coach, how do you think the Patriots play that? I would think those probably have methodically move the ball down the field. I would probably double Jackson Smith and Jigbuck.

Keep eight in the box. So take the post safety, double in Jigbuk, put Christian Gonzalez over on Cup and say, okay, beat us with the other guys. See whether you can run the ball against eight in the box. We're going to double that dude who's the best dude. and then we're going to take our best corner and put on your second best receiver. And let's see how you do. Coach, if the Pats did that and the Seahawks responding, like, okay, we're going to put our third receiver out there, Rashid Shaheed, who's faster than anybody on your team.

Well, he caught three balls in the playoffs? Well, I mean, in the play. Well, they didn't throw much in game one. In game two, he did make a big play. I'm just like the, I mean, how would that count? No, no, yeah. But then again, they're going to their third best receiver has to be. you and if if and that's typically the way that you want it to be is okay as long as the

star doesn't beat you and you know it ends up being the second or third guy then you can live with that it's just it's it's when you lose a game to the guys that you know can beat you you're like what are we doing they're David Tyree unfortunately we'll come up with a big catch every now and that the great American race returns with back-to-back champion William Byron looking for a eighthest. historic three Pete. We will be there the 68th running of the Daytona 500 February 15th only on Fox. It's going to be excellent. Right now we're going back to the Super Bowl. We're looking at Super Bowl MVP. Donald's the favorite. Drake has moved up to number two. Who would have a Super Bowl? I thought he's been number two. I thought he was deep. I thought he was like three. I thought JSN was to at some point. No? I that would be shocking. I know. Maybe just that. You're that unexpected to win. No.

Wild is just wrong. There is no chance that Drake may ever didn't have the top two odds. I put it in my disrespect me. Put him on the board. There's no shot. There's just all Seahawks. That in a four-point spread, there were Seahawks skill position guys with better odds than Drake came. It's not what happened.

Go ahead. Who would a Super Bowl mean more for, Donald or Drake if he somehow wins it? this is tough because I mean both and obviously every quarterback that wins the Super Bowl you benefit but I mean these two I mean it would darnels already rewritten his legacy but that would really you know take it to a whole other level and then Drake may just being in the second year so it's tough for me I'm going to go Drake just because I think if Drake wins it he's like sealed as elite like he enters next year we always talk about those four guys and you can throw Stafford in there now he's in that group

there's no question if he wins this Super Bowl and his Super Bowl MVP whereas if he loses it I mean he still had a great year probably second an MVP just getting them here was great but you go from kind of being okay Joe Burrow

but if you win you you surpassed Joe Burrow and so I think that it just seals as an elite quarterback if he wins this thing. Whereas if he doesn't, it could be, okay, he was another good quarterback to make it in his second year. We'll see how he does going forward.

Yeah, I see it totally different. I don't think Sam Donald has secured his legacy at all. I think last game was great. I think that was a huge step in in rewriting what it's been. And the question was, could he perform in a big moment? And you look at the 49ers game, it's like they were so lopsided. wasn't about him. And then this last game,

to have to play the way he did, now it's like, okay, maybe he's really over the hump. But now we're in the biggest moment, the biggest possible moment. And if he has one of those four interception games

or two picks, two fumbles, everybody's going to be like, yep, yep, the same old Sam Darnold. And the biggest moments he folds up.

Where with Drake May, this is second year, you know, I think it's a totally different story. totally different timeline. It would be nice for him to perform that well, but it just means so much more. I think of Darnold than Drake. So I'm really focused on not just the winning the Super Bowl, but winning Super Bowl MVP here. Because if the Pats win the Super Bowl, even if Drake May is

not Super Bowl MVP, the story of their season is Drake May. Right. You know, because he was the guy in MVP conversations, he might win it. We'll find out in the next few days. he's certainly going to finish top two. And so he is minted no matter if the Pats win, even if Ramandre or Christian Gonzalez, even if someone else is defensive MVP, is Super Bowl MVP. I think it's sneaky important for Jalen Hertz that he was Super Bowl MVP. Oh, definitely. And not Sequin.

You know, like because the story all year was Jalen Hertz, you know, bus driver, bus rider, that type of, I'm mixing metaphors. a bit. But when they play the Super Bowl, he plays great, and he is minted as the MVP of that game. It removed a lot of that. Like all offseason, when we were talking about it, it's like, well, you know, he literally was MVP of the Super Bowl. That's how I look at Darnold. I don't look at Darnold as yet being looked at as the definitive bus driver of the Seahawks team. Like that, he's had a really good year and his secondary really good year, but on a really good team and these, you know, these other factors. So if they,

win it and a defensive player or JSN is Super Bowl MVP, I don't think he gets quite the leap as if they win it and he's Super Bowl MVP. So that's where I think the bonus for him, it's a bigger

reputational bonus for him than for May. You know what I mean? Because you obviously can't win it without your team winning the Super Bowl. So I think that's... Well, you should be able to. Of course you should be able to, but voters have only got that right once ever. Coming in third and fourth, JSN and Kenneth Walker, both Seahawks,

who do you see having a more impactful game here, bro? I'm going to go with, believe it or not, Kenneth Walker, the third. If it's a shootout, I'll go with JSN. If it's a low-scoring, nipping tuck, tough game, I'll say Walker. And I think that's what it's going to be. I hope I'm wrong. I want to see a shootout. But I see a game that's a game that's a game.

tough, that's close, that's hard fought. And Kenneth Walker, with his running ability, I think we'll make more of a factor in that type of game. Yeah, I think it's got to be Kenneth Walker. And I think if Kenneth Walker doesn't have a really good game and isn't a big part of the offense, then New England's going to win this game easily. So if they shut out Kenneth Walker,

then they're going to be able to do a lot of other things that they want to do. But if he gets going and now they've got to adjust and they've got to figure out other ways stop the run outside of the initial game plan, then that's going to open up things in coverage for Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. So it's got to be him. Otherwise, they're going to have problems.

Yeah, I think it's J.S.N. And I understand your point of don't let the best player beat you. I understand that was Belichick's thing and your thing and a lot of smart coaches thing. Seahawks played smart coaches various times this year. I bet most of them been like, we're not going to let J.S.N. beat us. and JSN, for most of these games, beat people. And I don't think that doubling him without one of the, what you said of double him, put Christian Gonzalez elsewhere,

I don't know if that'll work. I think JSA has been splitting double teams and been beating coverage shaded to him all year long. And so I'm not saying it can't work, but I think that I think JSN is playing at an incredibly high level. Teams have been game planning to stop him all. year long, and I think the Patriots have when Milton Williams is back a little underrated run defense.

And so I think that JSN's going to have to have a big game. And I think that he will have a big game. Coach, I'm very worried about JSN having a huge game, largely for what Nick is talking about. And I expect that we're going to throw multiple looks at him. It won't just be Marcus or it won't just be Christian Gonzalez. But you seem more confident that JSN won't be a game breaker, let's say. Well, look, if he does, it won't be for. lack of trying to stop them.

You know, it won't be, it won't be like, okay, we're going to play our, we're going to play our defense. They're going to actually do some things, I'm sure, have multiple ways to try to handle them, whether it's high, low doubles, inside out doubles. Maybe they push Gonzalez over to him when they want to blitz, but different things, maybe they, you know, make sure they're jamming them at the line of scrimment, a lot of different ways to try to handle them. And they're going to know where he is on every plate.

Does that mean that they're going to be able to shut up? out a great player? No, but what's even more or less effective against him is single cover. Oh, yeah, of course. That's really problematic. So, and then I do think if you, if you take him away, then you've got Sam Darnold trying to figure out what do I do next. Where do I go next? That's fair. And then is he doubled? Is he not doubled? And having Sam Donald have to post-snap, figure that out, which then allows the pass for us to continue to come, that That's how you make them see ghosts. And look,

Rabel's been part of the family tree that made him see ghosts. In terms of smart coaches, he's one of the smartest guys I ever coach. Brew, you're starting to come around a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. Friend of the show, Super Bowl champion Danny Amandola joins the show next. Is he picking the picture?

That would be if he picks the Seahawks. He's got to be fair. He's got to be partial. He's got to hurt my feelings. He doesn't have to. Joining us now is two-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots, three-time Super Bowl player. Danny Amandola, Danny.

Thanks for joining the show. He's fresh off of 18. How did you play? We didn't even ask you. I played okay. I part a lot of holes, you know, bogeyed a few, birdied one. So it got me coming back for more. I'll be out here next week.

Nice, good. You know. The grind never stops. Yeah, that's right. The grind never stops. Danny, I want to start you off with a play that I've, been accused of being a conspiracy theorist on you. Oh.

As you're going to go sideways, but hey, again, like I said, we're locked in. So against the Jets, okay, this is Josh McDaniels, obviously, is calling the plays. Josh McDaniel calls this play against the Jets that in Drew Brees is on the call. Drew Breese is like, oh, that's reminiscent of the Falcon Super Bowl. Now we can cross-world to the Falcon Super Bowl, which you catch this two-point conversion that tied the game at 28. The conspiracy is the digs touchdown made the score 28 to 3. I'm using this as a springboard.

They both did involve your legal picks downfield. Watch it. When you watch the Patriots, do you see, you know, Josh, like echoes of your playbook with Josh McDaniels behind the scenes with Bolt? Absolutely. And you can tell by both of these plays. They're the same exact play. He dressed it up a little bit different with the motion.

in my play. I went in motion and then in the in the more recent play I believe that was hunter Henry went in motion across the line but what you need in this play is man coverage and really only have one guy to beat with that corner that's cover and dig so if he beats that corner then he's in and that's really all I had to do to tie the Super Bowl there is just beat my corner and and we knew if we had at man coverage we're going to have a good look you could tell when the tight end goes in motion versus the jets that it was a man coverage play and they knew they just had to get a you know three or four yards, which is very advantageous for Diggs to do there. They walked in there.

Same play, just with a little bit extra dressing on there. And, you know, these teams see these players, you know, for years and years. And Josh McDaniels has a great job of just dressing it up just a little bit different. So it's a little bit unexpected. Danny, you know, Drake May had a solid rookie year, showed a lot of flashes of his potential. But obviously this year just took it to a whole other level. How big has Josh McDaniels been in that succession? you feel. I remember going to training camp and meeting with Coach McDaniels. I coach

under Josh McDaniels out in Vegas and we have a great relationship and we were talking about Drake May and just his how he's progressing and how he's seeing the game. And I know I knew Josh McDaniel is going to help him out tremendously. Coach McDaniels is one of the best coaches I've ever had. He's just a great teacher. You know, he can relate to the players. He has a multitude of film and resources that he can pop on in and, and, show the guys and show Drake just how it's done at a high level. And Coach McDaniels, you know, he sets the standard with the players at a very high level. And you've got to show up every day and get better.

And I'm not surprised by Drake May's success. Danny, I want to talk a little bit about moments in your career because I think there's ways to juxtapose them to the Super Bowl. So if people don't, if we have young viewers or whatever, Danny obviously was a very good player throughout his career and a borderline legendary playoff performer with the Patriots. Like you had some of the biggest Patriot games and wins are littered with Danny Amandola, huge plays and touchdown. So I want to go to what I think is your first huge playoff game, which was the comeback against Baltimore.

And that game is most remembered for John Harbaugh flipping out on the sidelines because you guys were doing putting the right tackle in the slot and you were playing right tackle. something weird with the formation legal, but they couldn't stop it. Can you take us to the install of that kind of the story on how that came to be that you guys practiced it? And what made you guys activated in that game? We actually got that play from a college cut up. I think it was an Arkansas game. They ran that year.

And in New England, I mean, they got guys for everything so innovative. you know, these coaches watch countless hours of film on college, on pro football. And we just try to find an edge. And one thing about playing in New England, one thing about playing for Bill at the time, and obviously Braves is from that tree,

McDaniels was there throughout the whole run, is that they're going to scheme up plays where we're going to have an advantage. And we just got to get out there and execute. I think, you know, those plays in particular, you know, gave us an advantage of the game. We were down 14 twice in that game. So we were scratching and clawing.

And thank God we put in, you know, the double pass that year. Thank God we put in, you know, these misdirection, kind of, you know, different formations to get us open and, and scratch and claw and come back and win that game versus a good Ravens team. But, you know, it's just a testament to the coaching staff and how hard they work. And, you know, I'm excited to see what kind of schemy plays come up this week. or next week for the Super Bowl. I mean, you know, when you have a year's worth of film, you know, the other team has a pretty good indication of what you're going to do.

So you try to run plays off what they think you're going to do and scheme them up that way. So you try to, you know, work their cards against them. So I'm excited to see what they're going to do. I know Josh has some stuff dialed up for them and it's going to be a fun one to watch. I want to ask you about one other part of that could apply in this Super Bowl, which is big Super Bowl comeback. So Brady and Mahomes both have multiple double-digit Super Bowl comebacks. No other quarterback has any. Yeah.

All of your playoff touchdowns came in big comebacks. You had two in the Jags. AFC Championship game was a big comeback. The Seattle Super Bowl was a big comeback. And then the one Wilds referenced earlier, the Atlanta Super Bowl, the 28 to 3. How were you guys able to maintain calm? and belief in the face of that type of deficit in that Super Bowl? Well, to answer your question, first off, I think, you know,

everybody would love to get out ahead early and run the ball all game and run the clock out and just have it have a landslide. In these particular games, we were down, you know, by a considerable amount of points. So we had to spread the offense out. We had to resort to throw in the ball, which, you know, usually if it's, if we're winning and it's four minute offense, I'm out. I'm really not even in the game. We're going to run the ball, try to run the clock out.

But we were down and we tried to, you know, get our skill, you know, our receivers out there, three or four receivers out there and throw the ball, put the ball in Tom's hand and come back from a deficit that way. But, you know, the reason why I think we were able to compete and win, you know, late in those games, because we were a well-conditioned team. And it all goes back to how Coach Belichick ran our organization, tough, smart, fundamentally sound. we condition late into the season. Even in the Super Bowl week, we'd be running hills. We would be, you know, running conditioning after after practice.

So when we got into these tight fourth quarter games and we had our skill position out on the field for, you know, in this place, 65 plays, 70 plays. I think we ran like close to 90 plays that game. So it was it was a lot of running. But I just, I just, you know, it goes back to the type of conditioning that we were in at the time. And we were ready to be out there all game. For as long as it took to win, we were going to be able to go. So it's hats off to the coaching staff and to our players that put it in the bank. Danny, we were talking earlier about Jackson Smith and Jigba.

And he's obviously a great receiver, not the fastest guy on the field necessarily. What makes him so effective and great as a receiver? Well, funny story, man. And I love JSN. And, you know, I actually trained him out in Austin when he was coming out of Ohio State. He was, I think he had one more year in Ohio State. And he was with Garrett Wilson. They're both Austin kids.

So they came down to Austin, and I got to run routes with them. And, I mean, this kid is like a human joystick, man. He can shift. He doesn't really have to change his levels when he's running routes. So everything looks very consistent. And he can kind of weave in and out of routes. And he has great ball skills, obviously, right there. I could see him with the one-handed catch.

This guy's a tremendous young receiver. He's the type of guy that you can tell that he's going to be in the NFL for a long time. He's already a professional and he's making big plays. And I'm excited for him. These guys played in a lot of big games coming out of college. And then this year, he's, you know, he's been lights out. And it's just another thing for him for him this week. Obviously, it's going to be the biggest game of his career.

And I think he's played on these stages before. This one obviously would be a little bigger, but, you know, the kids ready to go. Okay. So you train JSN, so it's not just all Patriots, you know, alumni, okay? So I think that's fair. This is an action. This is actual. This is going to be an objective answer.

This is actual analysis. Yes. Do you have what we call a score and a storyline? How do you see this game playing out? And who do you have winning? And I know it's going to be, you know, the, you know, the Seahy are favored by four points. I think, you know, if we can shut down Walker, like coach said, like I feel like we could, we could, you know, win in, you know, fundamentally sound football.

We can control the clock late. I think, I don't know what's going to happen, but I think the Pats are going to win by eight points. So they're going to come to points. Oh, yeah, eight points. Wow. That was real analysis. He was written for JSN, too. I mean, listen, I don't doubt that it was real analysis. He also said we three times. So I do think there was, I do think he might have a little partiality in this. I think that was. It's great.

Fantastic. Danny, thank you very much. Yeah. Have a great get back out on the Greens. Work on your game and enjoy the Super Bowl. And stop by the studio next time you're in New York. Yeah, come through. You're going to be a three-time guest.

We'd love to have you. I will. All right, Dan. Thank you, Danny. Appreciate you guys. We'll talk soon. More first things first after the break. Live from New York, it's a show that doesn't pound the desk.

We haven't been pound the desk for three weeks now. I didn't pound the desk. You're always getting ready, though. It's how I get my game face on. I'm out here to perform. Parkin sits down here with the game face ready to go. I'm happy to pound the desk. Today, Drake destined for more Super Bowls.

Meanwhile, has Donald's path to the Super Bowl cleared the way for other quarterbacks to have their own little Renaissance or just usance you know like you know other other Jets quarterbacks we saw it with Gino a little bit and then we saw Sam Darnel yeah and then like maybe we saw Aaron Rogers be washed and make it to the playoffs does Aaron Rogers count as a failed jet's quarterback of course he looked like he yeah I guess so Zach Wilson's like hello Justin Fields like I'm Max baby he needs one more and final Lebrano

Kawhi in the All-Star game. Fair or foul? Kawai is hot. I like how you did 17 and 4 in last 21. I only had 16 and 4 in the last 20, alongside Christmas Sergeant Kevin Wilds, Nick Wright, and Danny Parkins. Seahawks fan.

Are you open to hearing about the Patriots? Because I'm open. Are you just closed? Am I open to hearing about the Patriots? I expect to hear about them. No, are you closed with your predictions? Are you closed finding? I'm closed finding.

Not me. Yeah, I'm not open. You are close-minded. Brew and I are the only available voting. I am leaning heavily. I am leaning heavily towards people. All my research. Can I tell you something?

If someone hits me to something, I'm like, can I tell you? There's money to be made. America, if we found out tomorrow, Drake May was out and Josh Dobbs were started. I don't know what Josh. Wilds would panic for eight hours. And by Thursday would be like, I don't even know if it's. going to be close. I'm just telling you.

Josh Jobs can play, though. You see, I respect that. Drake's college coach, Mack Brown, had some kind words for his quarterback as we watched the Patriots touchdown. A big posted stamp on that. Take a listen to Mac Brown. I told scouts when they would come through that he'll, he's a Super Bowl guy. He'll win a Super Bowl.

I didn't know he was going to have a chance to be the second youngest guy to ever do it or the youngest guy ever. win one. But he's just, he's got, he's got everything. He's got the end factor. I think Drake has the upside right now that, uh, hope he wins this one. If he doesn't, then there's another Super Bowl out there for Drake. And I think Drake will go down not only being one of the best that I've ever coached, but one of the best ever play. Wow. It's a lot. I appreciate the sports a lot even for me. Are you saying a little biased? Surprise, Drake is this good, this fast, Parkins.

You have to be. What he was just alluding to there is he will be the second youngest quarterback to Marino to start a Super Bowl and he'd be he'd beat Ben Rafflesberger's record for youngest ever to win one. So history is on the line for Drake May on Sunday.

Jim Brown was an MVP at 21, Lamar at 22, Mahomes at 23. He's going to probably be the runner up at 23. So when you're in that conversation of of talent for both individual and team's success this early, it is by definition historic. So, yeah, I am surprised by it.

And I think that he's going to be great for the next, I don't know, 10 to 15 years. I think you're set up in a great spot. Liz, I agree with the last part you said. I think he's going to continue to be excellent. I think he enters next year a top five quarterback and stays in that group, you know, barring injury or something unforeseen for the majority. you know, not the majority, the rest of this decade and further past that. But I totally disagree with the first part.

I don't think this is surprising really at all. This has become commonplace. Here's just guys, from Mahomes to now, to do something like this in year one or two. It is almost every year. Mahomes in his second year's first year's starter, one league MVP through 50 touchdowns. Lamar in his second year, one league MVP. Burrow in his second year made the Super Bowl. CJ Stroud in his first year and, you know, unbelievable rookie season.

That's the number one in yards per game? Yes. Hold on. Brock Purdy made a Super Bowl and Brew argued had a, it wasn't the only one. He was fourth. Right. Yeah. It could have been MVP.

We think Drake May is going to be second in MVP. Jaden last year almost did it. And Jane last year didn't have the MVP argument, but he did have the is this, you know, top five. quarterback moving forward. So I don't think it is that shocking. Now, maybe you could argue it's shocking that it's him and not Caleb, but after their rookie years, that's not shocking.

You know, I thought Caleb could do this within his first two years. Jaden kind of did it. Like, I don't. And if you're hung up on the fact that, like, he's, if he were born nine months later, like, I mean, he's his second year player. Well, no, but I mean, I just think that, like, a lot of the comps on that list. Like, C.J. Stroud is not

comparable to this. Okay, so take C.J. off it. All the other ones are. But he did have a great rookie season. Yeah, but, and he is. Rookie Susan was fine. But, look. Jade and Daniels making the NFC championship game is to me not comparable to being in the Super Bowl and being second for MVP.

He had a great rookie season, but this is much more impressive than what Jay Daniels. Barack Purdy and Joe Burrow and Lamar and Mahomes, which is four in the, you know, four since Those would be better comps. And then I think when you also factor in age and the team that he's on relative to what their

preseason expectations are, like this is a pretty big out of nowhere Super Bowl. The closest one I think on that list would be Burrow. Just because Burrow took a team that was, you know, a mess. Yeah. And all of a sudden got him to the Super Bowl.

And the Patriots won four games last year. I think your list is obviously it's an impressive list and you're right. Like someone, comes out of college and is impactful right away. I'm surprised, though, that it's him. And obviously you thought it was Caleb. I'm sure you thought it was going to be Caleb as well.

But I thought Matt Jones, I mean, Drake May was not a project, but I thought raw. Yeah. Like I was like, yeah, coming out of college, I was like. I think he was. He's got talent galore. There's no question. But it's going to take him a little while. and he could be great.

But I didn't see it coming this fast. I think Josh McDaniels is huge in that. And it's interesting that he's the youngest outside of Marino. Marino, because I remember him very well, you guys were much younger, in college, his last year at Pitt, he declined. That's why he fell on the drive. Yeah, exactly. Drake May, his second season at North Carolina,

was much better than his last season. I mean, it still was a good last season, but he declined as well and dropped. And now both of them come into the league and take off right away. But, yeah, I'm just surprised that he was so poised and he doesn't look raw now. Like he looked, we thought he was raw coming in. Now he is poised. He's spectacular with the deep throws, but also can manage the game. Like, he just looks like a fully equipped quarterback, and that is surprising to me.

judging by what I saw in college. You guys know I have that puffer coat, that blue puffer coat. Yeah, it's a good look for you. Thank you. That was nice of you to save him there. It's a nice coat. I have no idea. I mean, I don't know what a coat I would.

I know what a puffer coat is. I'm not really studying your garb on the videos. You don't know that I have a navy blue coat? Thank you, Danny. I got you. I just listen to the things my feelings. Just go ahead. I know you dress up.

for us on the Monday video. I have a nice puffer coat, right? Famously. Famously. Yeah, it's a great coat. I was like, I like a longer coat too. Because this is like a ski coat. I kind of want a longer coat.

I went to a store and I'm like, I need a long coat. And I didn't look at how much this price was. And I took off this heavy coat and I put it on and it was, honestly, I looked like you and your robe. It was like furry. I looked so amazing. I looked in the mirror and it was like thousands of dollars. I put it back. Like, this actually looks too good.

I'm uncomfortable with how good I look in this coat. I know the feeling. It's spectacular. If Drake May wins Super Bowl MVP, and he's the youngest player to ever win the Super Bowl, I feel like there is an argument that he is the best quarterback in the NFL. That being said, I feel uncomfortable in it. Because it's too much.

I feel like it's too much. So, and that brings me to, it brings me to my next point. It is too much. And that is too much, I think, on the rankings. So I am surprised, borderline shocked, that Drake May is this good, this fast. But I know this emotion that I also have. I'm not happy about it. You don't deserve it.

Like, you specifically. Oh, here we got to talk about him in third grade. Oh, my God. It's not just me. It's not just Bears fans. It's all fans. Dolphins fans. It's Dolphins fans.

It's Dauphins fans. You know what? It's eight degrees here right now. Okay, Dolphins fans. You don't appreciate how good you've had it. And I don't think every- We didn't make the playoffs for four years. Oh, four whole years.

But I want to tell you, I'm going to extrapolate it. I'm going to extrapolate it, okay? All of Boston, you have it too good. And you know, it's like, oh, it couldn't happen to a nicer person? This is the exact opposite of that because of Boston sports fans. Look at this list. Okay. Your four teams since your first Super Bowl have played for the title in their respective sports 21 times and you've only had 18 losing seasons.

13th. Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots since 2002 have had 18 losing seasons against 21 title possibilities. So the fact that we're seven years removed, from Brady and you already have the guy who might be the youngest Super Bowl MVP ever and you're back in the Super Bowl. I resent it on behalf of everybody else. Oddly, Danny, I root for all the Boston teams, but I am not a Bruins person. So if you want to take out the Bruins and put in Huskies, men's and women's basketball. Right. It gets really up.

It gets really bad. You got it rough, man. Justin Jefferson's former quarterback is in the Super Bowl. He says he's going to be pulling for him. But you know what? It would have been nice to keep him in a purple jersey. Take a listen. Everyone knows the difficulty of the quarterback position this year of how we was dealt it.

But of course, you know, having a quarterback that's already had the season under his belt with us, knew the plays, knew the playbook, knew the players, you know, of course throwing to me, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockinson, all of these guys. I definitely felt like we would have done better. But, you know, it is what it is. All right, Danny. What has Sam Darnold proved on this run? So I think what he's proven for, like, his own narrative is stuff we've talked about all

playoffs. And it's pretty obvious. Like, the Seahawks were right to move on from Gino to him. He's a great contract. It's a knife. Yeah. Just a knife. It's thought I'd mention it.

He's a great contract. He's not a choke artist. We don't have to keep referencing, like, seeing. ghost. He can get it done. They can win a big game because of him. Like, that was a question up into the NFC championship game. Eight days ago was a question. Eight days ago, right? So I think for him, all of that's been answered. And now, if you're the Steelers, the Jets, the Browns, the Cardinals, you look to the draft to find your quarterback, but also you're like, who is the next Sam Darnold? Like the Sam Darnold, Baker-Mayfield type reclamation.

project because Sam Donald was a bust with the Jets. But the question now is like was that Sam Darnold or wasn't the Jets? Right. He was 20, right. He was 21, 22, 23 years old and he couldn't save the Jets. So like can one of those teams turn

Kyler Murray into the next Sam Donald? Like can one of those teams like Daniel Jones? He was on his way to doing it with the Colts before he got injured. So like the quarterback that was a huge prospect that went to the bad situation that is deemed a bust, but has all of the physical tools where if they went to a good spot for 30, 40 million

bucks would be a bargain. Kyler Murray's the guy that's going to fall into that category this offseason. Yeah, I think it proves that guys develop at different rates. And if a guy, because we don't know, Donald's 29, 28, 29, 28. I mean, who knows if he could have seven great seasons after this and be, I mean, I'm not predicting in this, it would be a Hall of Fame or something like that. Like, he could go on to have a really great career. Remember, Kyle called him Steve Young.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It wasn't, you know, good in the NFL until he was this age. Really only had like eight awesome years. Matt Stafford got his first Super Bowl, 34. Yeah, I mean, his situation, yeah, it was, but, but yeah, I get that. And so guys develop at different rates. If the quarterback doesn't come in and right away within the first two or three years, blow you away doesn't mean

he can't do that in the future but then also maybe even bigger the importance of like we have these guys we think of as QB whispers and a Kyle Shanahan guy like those dudes know what they're doing if Donald doesn't go to San Francisco

who knows what happens then now maybe O'Connell would have done it the next year or would he have even been in Minnesota you know and so like the Jets just weren't equipped. They did everything. They were terrible.

They ended up getting the top pick, the number three pick in the draft. That's how you get your quarterback. That's what we're saying. The Raiders just did. That's what we're saying the Steelers should do. You got it. And your organization was not good enough

to make something out of it. And there are other ones around too. And so if I'm an owner or something, I'm like, man, I do not want to be in that position. We were just joking about, you know, Darnold, if you want to kind of throw in Aaron Rogers, who, Gino Smith, like, none of them were good with the Jets. And they went elsewhere and were pretty good.

Zach Wilson. We don't know. So if I was an owner, I'm like, looking at Sam Donald saying, man, I am going to make sure my organization is tight. So if we're in this position, we don't mess up a potentially Super Bowl quarterback. So, yeah, I was looking at this question from about what he's proven for himself, but I'll stay with where you guys are as far as kind of big picture

what it means for other quarterbacks. The inclination, the implication I should say is so don't give up on a guy. Like if you draft a guy and you believed in him, even if he has those struggles, don't give up on him.

But I don't think Sam Darnold was ever going to be this with the Jets. And by the way, if we remember, the Jets got, good draft pick compensation, a second rounder and something from Carolina for Darnold. Because Carolina is still believed in the traits.

And then Carolina flat gave up on him. And that's why he then had to kind of bounce around as he did back up in San Francisco. So I, the lesson I would have is a little bit of a different one, which is one of the reasons Darnold is being this successful. He has been excellent.

But it is also tied to the fact. fact that he has gotten the maturity, the experience, without coming with the price tag that normally comes with the maturity and the experience. And if Kyler is going to be successful at his next spot or two at his next spot, it will in part be because they are not, those guys got paid and were asked to elevate their teams. Daniel Jones, you're right, was looking like he was going to be able to do something special with the Colts this year, even if I was skeptical of it. But again, that was you got the experienced veteran quarterback on a discounted rate.

I still, I don't think, I think people would be making a mistake if the lesson that teams take from Darnold turning into this, eight years into his career at what we call like a middle class quarterback salary is, man, that means I should, that means I really need to just stick it out with Bryce Young. Like that means I just need to. But that doesn't mean that Bryce Young in four years making whatever the equivalent of the Darnold salary is in a better situation can't look better than he's ever looked in Carolina. Does it make sense what I'm saying? That's also why I mentioned the traits, like 6-3-Mobile with a big arm. Like put that guy in a good situation.

If you trust your coaching, you could probably turn him into something. Which is where I would not put Bryce Young or Tua. Well, Kyler ain't got none of those traits. He's mobile with a big arm. He's small. I'm looking for it. I have my next Sam Darnal. Guy who people like feels like he's like underachieved.

People want to give up on. But I think he could be good with the right guy. Justin Herbert. I take back everything I said about your coach. I take back everything I said. Big arm. Imagine he's like that Sam Darnold with three. inches dollar.

Just wait until Mike McDaniel and Justin Herbert come together. The league is in big trouble. That's I agree. That sounds true. LeBron at 22 last night. I was so excited at the guard. He's real proud of himself for that one folks. You're just sitting there waiting for it.

LeBron at 22 last night at the garden. He also made his 22nd all-star game named as reserved by the coaches. Here he was after the game. Super humbling. My coaches, my coach is for the right. So my respect to the coaches and you know, them seeing, you know, when I'm still playing at this, you know, I'm starting my career and to be able to be an all-star, you know, I mean it's a lot of my family, you know, people that's been following my career, you know, my, faithful, you know, been following my journey. And as a, I don't know, it's always, it's always rewarding. Okay, so one of the arguments is Kauai versus LeBron, Danny. Kauai has been available. And the Clippers have been cooking recently.

Are you okay with LeBron in over Kauai if that's theoretically whose spot he took? Of course. I get why Klippers fans wouldn't be. It's in their building. Luckily, there aren't any. Right. Sure. I check.

No. Feel bad for that one guy. Billy Crystal was outraged. Clipper Dary and Billy Crystal are outraged. Yeah, but listen, I love the NBA All-Star game, as flawed as it is. It's like a guilty sports pleasure of mine. I watch everyone start to finish. Absolutely.

But like, Shaq goes through the legs and pulls up from three. Like, it's not a, they do half-court shooting contests in the middle of the game. This is an exhibition for the game where there are often ceremonies that celebrate to history of the league. And this is LeBron's record-setting 22nd All-Star game, three more than Kareem, in his 23rd season.

I don't even know if we'll play in the game. He might sit it out for rest. Games. Right, exactly. One of the problems with it now. But it is a celebration of the sport. That's what it is. It is an exhibition that's a sell,

and I know this isn't a commissioner ad, and you can argue that he got in there on merit because it's wildly impressive to be averaging 20. 22, 6 and 6 at the stage of his career. But of course, it's fine that LeBron is in the All-Star game. What's not fine is that people are acting like it's controversial. If you want Kauai in, then great.

Then he should be in over Chet or he should be in over Denny Avdia. He should not be in over the all-time leading scorer, who is right now the second best player on the six-seed, who's averaging 22, 6-and-6. When the precedent is, if you are a minted, no doubt, as Simmons would call it, Pantheon guy, you just keep going to All-Star Games. Kareem got three on the back end

after he stopped being awesome. He was still the captain and still was, you know, those teams were really good. Nobody has, everybody knows how much respect I have for Kareem. But Kareem's last year making the All-Star game, going into it, he averaged nine a game. Jordan got in his set, both years as a wizard. His first year, you could argue,

it would have been just on merit if you didn't know it was Jordan. His second year, it was because he's Michael Jordan, and Kobe was shooting 34% from the field for an 11 win, a team that was 11 and 44 at the break, and he got in. These guys, and there's a very short list, always get in, and people framing it as if Kauai didn't get in because LeBron did his nonsense. LeBron was going. So if it's either Denny Obdi or Chet Holmgren, pick your guy to make the argument

Kauai should be in over, because LeBron's got to be there. I agree with what you guys are saying. I'm glad LeBron's there. He should be there. This is the league showcase event other than, you know, in the regular season. But you, and I don't remember, neither of us remembers. A lot of times fans vote in those legends. And I think the uproar, because I was even wondering, we talked about it,

maybe it was even off air, were the coaches definitely going to put LeBron in? want to see him there, but a lot of times the coaches might go with, you know, they might have just gone with, okay, these are the guys I think should be there. And there's an argument for LeBron. Kawhi Leonard is playing better than LeBron. I know he's not to draw. And we don't, I'd rather see LeBron at an All-Star game. But Kawhi should be there, I think, over Avdia, who I put him over.

But I, usually it's the fan vote, I believe, or something like that gets him in. But LeBron is playing, like you said, he's on the six seed, his numbers are solid. You can't like rip, oh, this is a travesty, how is he even in an all-star? No, his numbers are all-star worthy. And the team is winning. It's not like you're just putting them up on a bad team. So I'm fine with it. But Kauai, I think, should definitely be in.

And I think he will get in over some injured players. Dylan Brooks. Bill and Brooks are an all-star. Is he? He's not. Well, he shouldn't be. Really? Over chat? Over Booker? Back here on the O.T. We got Willie Cologne and Coach Mangini on the desk.

You know, our very own Kevin Wilds. He once coined the phrase, defense wins championships. He was the first to say it. Super Bowl 60, prime example of that. McDonald and Rabel being the first matchup of defensive head coaches since Belichick and Dan Quinn seven years ago. Our own defensive coach, Mangini out here, these two quarterbacks, they're going to have their hands full. who is more likely to struggle?

Look like a dud, Darnold or Drake? Well, watching New England's defense, I really like what they're doing. And it's multiple. It's a lot of pre-snap disguise. They're using, it looks like everybody defensively. They'll rotate guys in both at outside of linebacker, inside a linebacker on the defensive line.

And that, to me, puts Darnold in private, the position to have the best chance to be a done. I think they're going to force him to make a lot of decisions after the snap, and that's where you can make significant mistakes. Now, it's going to be interesting because there's so much communication with the looks and multiple packages, how much Seattle's pre-snap motions and their sort of gadget formations affect that communication, that's my biggest concern from a New England defensive perspective.

Yeah, I agree with coach. I think as long as Seattle doesn't give Drake made the answers before at the line of scrimmage he's going to struggle. Nevertheless, we've seen him throughout the playoffs struggle against elite defensive lines surely because of the protection on the left side. Will Camel on that other rookie. I also think right now, if you look at his production during the playoffs, he's only four of 15, four for 15 on deep balls, right?

He doesn't have that kind of explosive play power production rather that we've seen during the regular season. I do think right now the blueprint is out as far as how do you get after Drake and make. the pocket. Don't let him scramble up the middle, you know, speed him up, and really allow him to kind of choke the baby in the pocket. And if you're able to do that, you can get to him. So I can see Drake May struggling. So I was going to make the case for

Darnold at the other side in a second, and I'll get to it. But like, Sam Darnold is coming through a run where they had the buy, then they played San Francisco defense. We talked about decimated by injuries. Rams' defense had really been falling off. Whereas Drake May is coming through this gauntlet. of Chargers top pass defense, Houston best defense in football, Broncos in their building, best pass rush in football, top five defense.

Is there something too? Because I agree that the Patriots are playing their best defensive football of the year. It's been a while since Darnold has played a top defense, whereas Drake May is kind of in a rhythm of playing top defense. Drake May has only seen great defenses for the last month, whereas it's been over a month since Darnold's seen a great defense. Is there anything to that? Absolutely something.

We look at Drake May's production. It hasn't been very good, but it's somewhat understandable why it hasn't been very good based off of who he's had to play against. And the fact that he played against Denver in Denver, and then you had the weather situation. You know, that didn't help either. And for me, it's about how well Darnold is going to be able to process

after a snap. And will they try to double Jackson Smith and Jigba, maybe put Gonzalez over on Cup, take away, you know, put their best corner on the number of, two and then double team the number one and see whether or not they can beat you with everybody else. And you can do that and still play eight in the box. Instead of playing a post safety, you just shade the safety over to Injigba. So I'll show you the numbers real quick because in the regular season when these two opponents played playoff teams, Sam Darnold was the one

who struggled and Drake May cooked. But the playoff teams that Drake May played in the regular season, he played Pittsburgh, but it was early. Carolina and then Buffalo. And we know the struggles that Buffalo's defense had. Then when you flip it to the playoffs, when they obviously are both playing playoff opponents, it's Donald's been cooking and Drake Mays really struggled. But again, there's a huge difference, Willie,

in the caliber of defenses that those two teams are playing. My gut tells me that Drake is more likely to look like a dud because he has struggled against these great defenses in the playoffs. But now you guys haven't had me questioned in my logic here. Well, I think part of that Sam Darno's out is that he's had a run game to kind of stabilize the offense, right? It hasn't solely been him, Dinkin and Duncan, or really did it live in a football in a massive way. Yeah, he's had some big-time connections with JSN. But Kenneth Walker has been the stabilizer for that offense.

So he's been on schedule because of the run game. And I think that's been able to kind of neutralize the defense that he's been going against. I think moving forward in this game is going to come down to winning on early downs. And you do that with a really effective running game. They showed it in the NFC championship with Kenneth Walker on the first. on the opening drive when they went 81 yards and he kind of finished it off. So for me along as the run games, Humming, Donald's going to be

where he needs to be. It doesn't matter what defense is on the field. Yeah, and I actually think New England can do a good job shutting down the run game. They've been very effective up front. They're physical. And then they're mixing in some other pressures, both run and past game pressures, that can then generate some negative plays.

What have you seen as the biggest difference? Because to me, it is very obvious that the Patriots are playing their best defense of the season, late in the season. facts. Well, when you start with a group like they started with, and there's a lot of moving parts, right, a lot of new guys. So during the course of the season, you have to figure out where do guys fit, what do we do well, and then really good coaching staffs are then able to maximize what you do well, build on those packages leading into the into the playoffs and

now into the Super Bowl. And I think that's what Mike's done is he had this group of guys where so many were new and now were how many ever we, later, they've got a great sense of what each guy can do. And they're doing a good job of putting those guys in positions where they maximize their ability. It's funny because their defense reminds me a lot of Vrable's defense when he was playing with Seymour and Roosevelt-Colvin and Ty Green. Like they have those no-name guys who are just disciplined at what they do as far as condensurate pocket and owning agaps. And that's how Barmar and Milton Williams play. They own, they, that between Agap to A-GAP, they eat. They dominate. They're filthy. They're filthy.

But that's how his defense was when he's played. So I see a lot of similarity in that regard. And the outside linebackers, too. Chason, they're big physical dudes. He's a mom. He was a lot of shoe. People forget him. Yeah, he had a great AFC championship game.

But whoever they roll in, that guy goes in and does a really good job. I mean, they didn't, you know, they were missing some parts last game, and they roll in other parts. Slow down. We got a game on Sunday. You guys have me ready for this game right now. You're going to do the X's a host break out of it. It's a game week, though. I'm very excited right there.

Let's stick with the Seahawks here because no matter what happens in the game, they're going to have big changes coming to the coaching staff. Coach, you know all about this. They're losing their offensive coordinator. Clint Kubiak is reportedly in line to be the Raiders next head coach. Vegas currently, of course, is the number one overall pick where they're expected overwhelmingly to draft Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza. Willie, should Raiders fans be fired up for a Kubiak-Mendoza pairing?

I wouldn't. No? I'm just keeping it a buck. Does it excite you? It doesn't excite me. They fired their last three head coaches, and now you're looking at a team that's deficient in multiple areas,

and I get it. Clint Kubiak, I think he's a damn good offensive coordinator, the Seahawks finished top three in the offense. But I'm looking at a team that wants to compete in a division that can play defense in the offense. Obviously, you have Herbert and Mahomes on and on, but I understand the young kid and what he's been able to do. But if I'm the Raiders, man,

you're setting Clint Kubiag up for failure because I understand what the young stud is. But if you trade out of that and get him enough pieces where he can be. build on them potentially going to the draft next year where the quarterback draft is richer. Now you have something to lean on. For me, it just sounds like we've seen this episode. Right?

You're a big builds the team before you draft the quarterback guy. That's what you came up in Pittsburgh. What about you, coach? Look, there's merit to that. Unless you, if you feel Mendoza is really the guy and he's a franchise guy, then you have to take him with this pick. And it sounds like that's where they're leaning. But even with that, then it's a question of can the coach develop that talent? And the expectations are sky high with the number one overall pick, and nobody really waits for it.

So I went back and I looked at who Kubiak's work with. And it hasn't been a lot of young quarterback. So he started out with Kirk Cousins. Then he moved to Russell Wilson. He had the one season with Brock Purdy. But you look at that and you say, okay, if you give him credit for Brock Purdy, do you take credit away for not being able to develop Trey Lance? So there's that dichotomy.

Then he had Derek Carr. Now, in that mix, he had Spencer Rattler, who started six games. That went very poorly. Yeah, so he, Spencer Rattler had four TDs, five interceptions, a 37.1 quarterback rating, 57% completion, not very good. And now he moves to Sam Darnels, who also is a, you know, say what you want, but he is an experienced quarterback. Can I, can I flip side of that? Because I was looking at that 24 Saints team. I mean, why are you guys, why is the 2,24 New Orleans Saints getting so many Google searches today? It was me, coach.

Derek Carr was impressive, those first 10 games before, before, you know. he got, when he got hurt, the team like basically didn't win another game. Right. You know what I do wonder if you're like, okay, so he got Purdy to be good, Derek Carr to be good, Darnold to be good. That's a pretty good recent track. He was already good. He was nasty in Minnesota outside the playoff game.

We had to know. Yeah. And Derek Carr had some really successful seasons when he was when he was with the Raiders. My point is all those guys were experienced guys. They weren't being introduced to the NFL. They weren't going through their first training camp, their first, you know, extended season. all the different looks that you're going to get from teams. And now you have to take that young, inexperienced guy with sky high expectations

and turn them into something that's very productive right away. Also, there's no receiver. Who's he throwing to? Brock Bowers. Okay. Yeah. Well, here's what I'll just say about this. I like this for the Raiders if they do it with the quarterback,

because I do think if you are in a division with Sean Payton and Bo Nix, Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, and Andy Reed, you have to swing for defenses and a number one quarterback and a young offensive head coach, it might bust, but it is the way to hit a home run. It does represent the highest possible ceiling if you, I don't know if it'll work, but in terms of like, I don't want to. I think the numbers show it won't work when you don't have an office line or receiving goal. Sure, but I wouldn't want to play it safe if I was in that today. Look, if you can get the franchise quarterback, you go get him. I mean, if you believe this guy is a young coordinator that can become a great head coach, you go get him too, but you better marry that

with a little bit of patience and not think, okay, we're going to be in the Super Bowl next year because the Patriots are able to do it after one year. All right. Well, so that's the story of one hiring there in Seattle. All 10 head coaching vacancies are now filled. And there's a macro story that the league would be best suited to address when they look at it in totality. Coming up on the OT. Back here on the OT with Willie and Coach.

So after the Super Bowl, Seahawks offensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak, as we were just discussing, will be the head coach, the final one to be named, he'll be going to Vegas. But the real headline here might be the larger issue in hiring in the NFL. The athletic rights, with a record-tying 10 openings, NFL teams hire zero black head coaches. Will you played, of course, under Mike Tomlin as your head coach for five of your years in Pittsburgh. What is your reaction to this story? Well, it's a problem because of the optics and outcast. come, right? You're talking about 10 openings, that one black head coach that's hired. And when you listen to these owners talk about the why, it's because of a fit. So I go, so let's examine the fit. It seems like the league is drifting towards having an offensive-minded head coach that can develop young quarterbacks. Then I say, okay, well, let's look at the pipeline. And when you start examining these guys that are getting hired and you start examining their staffs, like somebody's, if there's a lot of position coaches that are black, but none,

none are elevated to office of coordinator. So when they sit down at the table and explain their resume and what they've been able to do, and they've never had the opportunity, they're not getting a fair shot at the table. You get what I'm saying? And that's the problem. So if I'm worthy enough of being a runnerback coach, a past game coordinator and a receiver coach, but not an OC, or at least being considered as an OC, how can an owner who's now, not offensive in mind ever take me serious?

And on top of that, my second point, too, is I'm frustrated with the fact that a lot of these coaches like Brian Flores. Not under Brian Flores comes with an asterisk because everything he's been involved with it. He's got a lawsuit with the league. Right.

A lot of these black head coaches who were at least head coach at one point never get the same or multiple opportunities that they see from their white kind of parts. That's an issue. So when we examine all that, once again, the optics and the outcome

seems like there's a problem here. And it feels like the league is going backwards. And I think right now in 20206, we should damn sure it'll be moving forward because we do, we know there's talent. county guys out there. They're just not being given an opportunity. Yeah, three black head

coaches when the Rooney Rule was formed, three black head coaches today. And when you look at it, Brian Flores has an asterisk on it, because he called out this problem, what, three or four years ago, where he said he didn't think that his interview at the Giants was a legitimate interview. So now he has an asterisk for calling out the problem that we're talking about today. But he's obviously a very qualified candidate to be a head coach. He just signed an extension in Minnesota that's going to make him one of the highest paid defense coordinator in Lee. And, you know, there's a lot of guys who get second shots at head coaching jobs after they've done a really good job as a coordinator, which he's done consistently, but yet he doesn't

get one. So that add an asterisk for him calling out something that's apparent to everyone. And to Willie's point, there's 13 black defensive coordinators and only five either passing game coordinators, the running game coordinators, but no offensive coordinators. So if you're pulling from an offensive group, it's a disproportionate amount. But even

that being said, how does Phillips Rivers get an interview? You're telling me that you can't interview a running back coach or a tight end coach or another position coach because he's inexperienced, but you're going to pull somebody who's coached high school football and played some

games and say that's a legitimate candidate? So there's a problem and it's been it's been tried to be addressed but we but it's been a long time and you're in the same exact situation now that you were how many years ago what's it been for 23 years yeah well the thing so i you know i've mentioned you in the context of course of mike tomlin yeah and mike tomlin i don't know if everybody knows the story around his hiring because he is a tremendous success story of the Rooney Rule, but he actually wasn't the Steelers Rooney Rule candidate. No.

They had already... Ross Grim. Ron Rivera. Ron Rivera had been interviewed in that cycle. Well, also, so to your point, there was also Russ Grimm, who was the office of line coach, who was on a Super Bowl team, who played for Pitt, won the original hogs. He was a guy who we thought internally was going to beat a shoe and to replace Cowr. So as I was watching back to the story today, they, you know, they talked, Dan Rudy talked about interviewing Ron Rivera as an external candidate to check the box, as people say.

But Mike Tomlin had gotten an interview with the Dolphins at 34 years old. He'd only been a defensive coordinator for one year. The stories that came out of Miami were that he was too hip-hop for that job. They end up hiring Cam Cameron, who goes one in 15 and is fired one year later. The Dolphins have had six head coaches and no playoff wins in the 19 years that Mike Tomlin was there. Tomlin, the Steelers hear about his interview in Miami, make things. the call, interview him, and obviously the rest is history. So the thing that bothers me is the problem isn't the Rooney Rule.

That is a well-intended thing that gets people an opportunity that maybe, if Mike Tomlin doesn't get that opportunity in Miami, he's not on Pittsburgh's radar and who knows what happens, but you've got to figure out a way to get the people doing the hiring to look past whatever implicit biases they may have to open up their eyes to try to find the next Mike Tomlin. And the bias is real. We have a stat right here that shows you the disconnect right now as far as like, look at it. I mean, years when no black head coaches were hired since the start of the ring with you. Like, that's egregious, right?

And so when you look at those numbers and you kind of process all that, when you talk about a coach possibly being head coach, being too hip hop, if you will, there's obviously some old billionaires that just feel like they're going to have it their way no matter what they see or what they're here. They already have a pre, they're already locked into who they want their guy to be. The problem is there's a lot of young, talented head coordinators or future coordinators. Like Antoine Rendell, one of my favorite teammates, well respected. I only played the game. Receiver coach should be a candidate for head coach. Anthony Weaver, who I thought was definitely going to get a shot, played the game, beloved by his guys. I just don't understand what they don't see.

And I will love, and coach, you've been a part of the process. I don't know where the disconnect happens when the guy steps in the office. Because all those guys from the time they walk into the door, because of the name, and how they perceived is always grade A. I don't know how they fail at the table. Yeah, I'm not sure what the disconnect is either. And to your point, Dandy, the Rooney Rule was designed to get past that bias. It was designed to open up some avenues for communication that maybe weren't going to be there.

And unfortunately, it seems to have become more of a box to check off as opposed to what the original intent was, which was to open up the pool of candidates so that, some maybe inherent bias or whatever could maybe then be overcome. Well, from a story that absolutely matters to one that could not matter less. Media night tonight for the Super Bowl, you guys have both dealt with it. There's often headlines that come out of it. We're going to try to pick a winner coming up on the O-T. Back here on the O-T with Willie and Coach.

All right, the countdown to Super Bowl 60 is underway. Both teams have arrived safely in San Francisco. Opening night, kicking off in just a couple of hours. Willie, of course, you would be my pick for Media Night MVP. I'll light it up. I'm sure you would. But coach, who's going to say the more bombastic thing? Willie or coach?

I don't know. But coach, I know who you are picking to win Media Night tonight, and I agree with you. So I'm going to go to you first. Who's your own people? I'm going with Mack Holland. It's the only choice. He's got a big presence on TikTok. He's got a big presence when he enters the locker room.

He doesn't like shoes. He doesn't like shoes. He likes costumes. He's working the. the Warriors angle that it's been so popular. Great movie, by the way. He likes to be grounded. Like, he's definitely.

Is that not a distraction? But that seems like a distraction. It is. You ask me who is going to be the star tonight at Meady Night. This is, this is my obvious pick. Mack Hollins is going to use tonight to launch a podcast. It's an undersaturated market. He wants to get into the space.

Yeah. For me, I'm going to Irv Jones, the linebacker. You have another pet? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to go with him. Off the board.

He's borderline going to get. give a prediction. Please go. Oh, yeah. You're guaranteed victory? Yeah. I respect it.