First Things First - Ravens hire Jesse Minter as HC, Drake Maye’s mindset, Chiefs hire Eric Bieniemy, BUD List

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

(0:00) Drake Maye not worried about taking shots, MVP shortlist (27:13) Chiefs bring back Eric Bieniemy, Have the Bills worried Josh Allen?  (41:34) Big Ben suggests Mike McCarthy as HC for Steelers (47:16) BUD List (01:07:29) Can the Broncos win the Super Bowl? (01:24:44) Could Sam Darnold be elite if he leads the Seahawks to the Super Bowl? (01:29:59) Seahawks ‘all time great team’, Patriots blowout or Broncos upset?  (01:52:39) Frenemies (02:05:09) Ravens hire Jesse Minter as HC (02:12:16) Should Chargers feel optimistic with new coordinators? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Freaking All, live from New York. It's the show that was accused of being a germaphobe. In the kitchen, you know how those cups. It's like almost impossible to give them apart. So I ripped them apart. And I get mine and I say to Wilds, you can use that one. He's pulling the other ones apart. I say, use that one.

No, your thumbs were on it. Your fingers were on it. Is that not? You know those cups. You have to get in there. and pull it. Yeah. Everyone knows if there's one lone cup, that's the thumb cup.

You can't touch that one. I did not know that. You've been taking the last cup. No. Everyone's getting in there. That thing used to be this tall. It's terrible. It's terrible.

Can we get some regular cups? It's like a workout. It's like a workout in the kitchen. I'm in there seven minutes. Like, squeak. I mean, it's crazy. It's ridiculous.

Like, just my God. You do look strong. Regular Dixie. What about a good old fashioned red solo? Whatever happened to go? Right. There you go. Exactly.

All right. Today, Mayday, Mayday. Drake is airing it out in Denver. Meanwhile, how should Josh Allen feel about an incongruent press conference from the decision makers in Buffalo? Not good. And finally, the most motivational segment in all of sports, the Bud List, featuring the one and only, Jackson Blade, alongside. Outside Nick Raynor. Kevin Wilde's,

Drew, have you dealt with Jackson Blade's fame infringing upon your own? It is. It's taken on a life of its own. It really has. I like when people are like, that guy looks just like Jackson.

Someone proposed a possible Jackson Blade movie to me. Movie. I'm open to it. I'm open to it. Well, yeah. Would you play Jackson Blade? Of course. Of course, obviously.

I don't know. Obviously. I just got to tell you something. I didn't think, I didn't necessarily think it 90 seconds ago. Today's going to be a great show. Oh, good. I can feel it. We start with Drake May.

He has been dropping the ball. Yes, indeed. He's also won both of his playoff games by double digits against two of the top defenses in the whole world. Here he is on not playing conservative against Denver. I don't think, you know, trying to change it. I think last week, you change it, and K. K.

make the play. So little things like that are just knowing the time and place for it. I think trying to get the ball out of my hand and just being cognizant of the edge rushers and taking care of the football is number one thing. So if we have time and have a look down field, you know me. I'm going to take a look and take a shot. Brut, did you like this mindset? I'm going to be honest, Nick. Like, all this is a game you can be conservative. What are you doing? What is going on? Go ahead, Brew.

Do you need me to go? I don't know what I was doing. Go ahead. I have no idea what I was doing. It's fine. Just ignore him. Do your thing. I think this is a,

I don't know where you think I'm going. I don't either. But Nick, I think you're going to agree with me. Yeah. This is a game where you don't need to score 30. Yes. Be conservative. All right.

Jared Stidham is on the other side. They're going to be trying to protect him. Yes. All you have to do is play a clean game, and your defense will take care of the rest. You can win this game without explosive plays. Yeah. So I don't like it. I love it.

Thank you. I love it. I love it too. I love it. I can't help it. I can tell. I'm shocked you knew. You knew.

Because you like big plays. I do. He's a great big play quarterback. And you got to be yourself. This is not the time to start changing who you are. And I like that he said the number one thing is protecting the ball. So he understands that. But you got to be who you are.

And you don't play to lose because I think going out too conservative, Nick, and I'm done after this, is you're playing to lose. I agree with that. I think you got to play to win. Don't just play not to lose. play to win. So I agree with that. And the reason Drake May is going to finish in the top two in MVP voting and the reason

the Patriots, no matter the schedule, we're going to have had a good to great offense this year is because of the mind meld between McDaniels and Drake and Drake's not only accuracy, but ability to make big plays. There is no denying that. And this is a theme of how I look at life and look at sports. Everything has a cost. Everything. And when you see Drake's, the tax on Drake,

because let me back up a tiny bit, I don't actually believe that of all the quarterbacks in the league, if they were all in identical circumstances, Drake May is the best quarterback already under pressure and the best deep ball thrower. But the numbers say this year he was. The tax on that has been the sacks and the fumbles. Yes.

That other guys might throw it away or take a sack. He hangs in there and sometimes takes a sack, which doesn't hurt his passing numbers. And sometimes he makes a play other guys live to fight another day. Yep. And so when you look at he has six fumbles, right, this playoffs. One was he was running the ball. And the final one, the last one, which we can show at the end, was an instant pressure.

But I want you to watch these other four fumbles as they happened. And what you will see is, I think a more, we'll see this one from the beginning. This is after a pump when he, he, he, he. He sees the rush, I think I can still make it. Yep. And the balls, he feels the pressure, pulls it down, and then just tries to throw it anyway. He's hunting a play even though he knows there's a rusher right there. Show the next.

I didn't love those. Well, I'm gonna show you all of them because I don't think there's any you're gonna love, KW. This is another one where he obviously knows pressures right there. He's stepped up and he, instead of eating it, he's like, nope, I'm hunting the big play. Go to the Houston game. Again, these aren't instant pressures. He sees the guy. That's in his face.

And he's like, I can still make this play. That is very similar to what to one of CJ's. This one, pick six, actually. Again, it's a seven-step drop. He is, that is his blind side, but he sees him. And he's like, nope, I still can get it off. And then the last one, which was the quick pressure, the only noteworthy part of this is

this is where you have an eight point lead and the Texans have shown they can't move the ball and it's still so Well, two back was even worse when he was on like the eight yard line. Correct. But at least the game still like you don't know at that moment that you're not going to need 30 points. That CJ's going to be

in full meltdown mode. I hope I don't have to apologize for sending that. And so I just think that This can be the right mindset if you guys are in the Super Bowl against the Rams and the wrong mindset on the road against a backup quarterback with a great pass rush. So you're saying he should be different. Yeah, I think that you need to just like you should have game plan centric offenses.

I think he's saying you could have a game plan centric approach that weighs in your opponent. what you think the game's going to call for on how risky you want to be. Because that Texans game was a massive boom-bust experience. You keep focusing on the boom. I think a little too much. I'm focusing on the bust. Maybe you think a little too much. But four fumbles and three awesome touchdown passes is the epitome of a boom-bust game.

My only counter to that is, and I didn't pull the three touchdowns, I would like to see, Dusty, if you can immediately get the touchdown. how close he was to getting hit on the three touchdown passes. And if they went into it, and certainly your game playing can't be to fumble the ball four times, but if they went into it like, hey, man, the price of doing business is getting hit. And if you're constantly scared, for lack of it, like, if you play like Aaron Rogers, we cannot win. There's no chance we can win if you're playing like Aaron Rogers, quickly release, quick release, don't get hit.

You're going to have to stand in there. You might get hit. We might grab the ball. We might not. So I'm going to analyze. We can't see him. No, but you see it when they show it again. Early.

I mean, he's not pressured yet. He gets this. This is. Yeah, I see, I would prefer that. Yeah, yeah, of course. And so, and I'm just, I am, it is, and this is the difference between a young quarterback that is going to be great and already has flashes of brilliance and a great veteran quarterback, is being able to on the fly.

kind of do a cost-benefit analysis and, you know, danger assessment. And so and some guys... There are some benefits to being young and not knowing what you don't know either. You know, you go out there and, you know, you play with reckless abandon. And I just think, I hear you because they probably have to walk a fine line. You know what I mean? Between... And if early on, if he makes a few mistakes, then maybe you dial it back a little bit.

but I think you can't go out there and say, okay, we're going to get away from what we've done all year because like I said, that's playing to lose. Next thing you know, here comes the fourth quarter, and it's a really tight game

that could then swing it either way. My final, and this might sound like being an apologist, but it's how I really feel. I am encouraged by the fact that he hasn't made any real bad decisions coverage-wise. Like the two interceptions, one was bad and one was the end of the half.

have Hail Mary. There's no... He's seeing the field clearly. Perfectly. So it's like, all right, I'm going to take a shot. I'm going to hang in. Maybe I should have... Once he's getting his jersey grabbed,

I'd rather he'd just tuck it and go. But so far, it's worked out. But yes, we can certainly get better. And I didn't include it because it wasn't germane to the topic of, is he, you know, attempting being too risky in the pocket. But the fumble when he was running the ball, to me, was indicative.

and we have seen this throughout his young and this year, brilliant year, but his young career, he is going to be, I think, a high fumble quarterback. I think the combination of style, this is the one spot where hand size does obviously and clearly matter. Like when Coach Mianini was talking about the play where he instantly gets hacked on the blind side,

Rogers, for instance, who has historically, you know, big hands. How many times have you seen the role? Rogers play where he gets hit just like that and somehow he one-handed holds onto the ball. That's not going to be Drake May. And so I just, I think that if the Patriots don't turn the ball over, they can't lose this weekend. And so I think that's the, I'd feel different if Bo Nicks were playing. I might feel different if we're, you know, at home if there's different things. But in this spot, I think the only path for the Broncos is win the turnover battle.

So I would dial back the aggressive. That's fair. All right, who wants to be the Eagles offensive coordinator? Mike McDaniel? Nope, probably to the Chargers. Eric Bienimi, back to the Chiefs. Drew Petzing to the Lions. Brian Dayball was Jalen's OC in Alabama.

He interviewed with the Bills for their head coaching job and might be the Titans OC, according to Diana Rossini. Currently, Philadelphia is the only team brew that didn't fire their head coach who still have a vacancy at OC. And it begs the question is this. This is actually a bad job? Not in my book. Now, look, I understand McDaniel going to the Chargers.

That's a, you got a more talented quarterback as far as throwing the football than Jalen Hertz and Herbert. You got a coach who's, I'd say, as good as Siriani has been as far as his record. I mean, Harbaugh, I think, is a better coach. But, you know, so, but even if you want to say, oh, Siriani's won this and that. Well, Harbaugh has, I think, more security, you know, than Cheriani, more job security. So I think that's a job I can see. And it's just less pressure. You're not going to have the media, the fans all over you in L.A.

like you, for the Chargers like you do in Philly. So I understand that. Daible, I don't really get that one. I guess he loves Cam Ward and you can mold him and, you know, all that. But Philly, I think it's a good job, Nick. I get the media, how they're on you, the fans. You've got a Super Bowl winning quarterback who needs to improve on some things, intermediate passing and things like that.

But a Super Bowl winning quarterback, a great running back that I think is going to have a bounce back year, you still, Lane Johnson has said he's not retired. So you still have Jordan, Malada, Cam Jerkins, like, you should have a good offensive line. If they're healthy, I expect a bounce back year from the O line. obviously two very good receivers, even if you get rid of AJ, which I don't know if they're going to do that because of the cap situation,

but even if you do, you still got Devonte Smith. Very challenging roster and a great organization. Not only the talent, but two offensive coordinators in what? The last three years have gotten head coaching jobs from being with the Eagles. As the OC, if you're a name or kind of established like McDaniel was, you got full autonomy on the offensive side of the ball. Like they've said, like,

Siriani's not going to be able to meddle with you. You're going to have your way. It's going to be your way or the highway for the offense. So I think it's a very good job. I see some of the drawbacks, but I think it's a good job. So here's why I don't think you'll have full autonomy on the office. That's what they're saying, I mean, unless it's a new guy.

No, no, no, no. I believe that no one is, no other coach or management is going to meddle with the offense. But I do not think the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles has access to the full playbook. And I think that has, I think that, and we saw it with Kellynne Moore and where, where Kellynne Moore quarterbacks throw every year he's been the play caller and how much of it is, that intermediate middle part of the field. that a lot of these teams really have the meat and potatoes of their passing game being in that area. That is not where Jalen likes to throw the ball.

I don't know that it's fair to say, I don't know what's being, what is fairer to Jalen? To say he can do it and doesn't like to do it. That would be weird. Or to say he'd like to do it, but he can't do it. That seems cutting. But it's got to be one of the two because he just doesn't throw the ball there. And we've seen that repeatedly. I think that

so if he's your quarterback and you don't have a either dynamic running game which they might have again next year but they might not and Jalen is not as much of a running threat at this point in his career as he was when they went to the first

Super Bowl which again we'll see if last year was a blip or a trend that then the offense is going to be limited And so it's certainly not a bad job, but you know I love just making lists. KW. I think the following are better jobs. Oh, here we go. Tell me if I say one you disagree with.

The chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens, the Bengals, the Rams, the Patriots, the Jags, the Bears, the Bears, the Cowboys, the Commanders. Oh, so you're naming the Lions. The Lions. that aren't even in the market. Oh, yeah. I'm saying, I'm saying of a 32, of where I would like to be the offensive play caller, offensive coordinator,

if I think, I have head coaching aspirations, I'm, you know, and I was going to include Detroit, Tampa, and the Chargers. And that's 13 teams. Those are 13 teams that if their, if their play caller position were open, I think is more attractive than the Eagles

play caller position. Wow. I don't agree with all those teams. So, and so that's, I don't think, it's because of the things you said on the front end, it certainly to me does not qualify as bad job. Like I think right now Cardinals' offensive coordinator,

that's a really tough job. You don't know who the quarterback is, you don't know a lot of talent. This is not that. But it's also weird to me that this job seems to be a temporary job that either ends in your promotion

or you're firing and no in between. So let me show you this. This is Jaylen's play caller. It's such a bizarre thing. We included college there. So a few things. To Nick's point, one, and you said it too, you know, Kellan Moore's got a job, Stuyken's got a job. Peterson bounced around, obviously. And then these college coaches are also successful. But the question I have for you, Brew, is, if you were Chris Broussard, offensive play-calling genius, and you show up in Philadelphia, you, I don't think you start with a clean slate.

It feels like you've got not necessarily the baggage, but the patchwork quilt of stuff that Jalen has incorporated from all of these guys that he still wants to run. That's a theory. Well, look, if I were interviewing for this OC job, obviously I would want to meet with Jalen and talk with Jalen and talk to him about some of the things I want to do that I think he can improve on. He, when he entered the league, when Siriani got there and Jalen was, people thought not even a franchise quarterback, he, his passing looked really bad.

And he improved on that. It's similar like you talk with Caleb. He has improved on so many things that I think he can improve on the intermediate game. I think he can improve on things like, like, he doesn't really like a lot of pre-snap, you know, activity. So I think he can improve on that stuff. So I would sit down with it. And maybe this is what some of them did and say, look, I want to run a lot of this stuff.

And I think you can do it, but we have to work on it in offseason. Where are you at on this? And look, if Jaylon's like, that's not really my strength. I won a Super Bowl, been to two without it, I don't think we need it. We got a lot of talent. Then you might be a bit discouraged. But that's how I would approach it. Like, I want to work with you on some improving in certain areas.

Can I ask you one more question? This might be a better question for coach. Would I be crazy if I said, I want Jalen to pick the O.C? I think. Didn't he pick kind of Brian Johnson? He had a long-time relationship. I don't know if he picked him, but I thought they, I thought he got the job. I thought not because of J-LIN.

They had a long-time relationship. thought that that was someone Jailen be comfortable with. I just don't know. I think that giving, there's a difference between you pick it and, hey, we like this guy. Why don't you sit down and talk with him like Bruce said and see if you think you guys are on the same page? I just don't think it's fair to ask Jailen Hertz to have been like studying Clint Kubiak's offense. I know he's looking for head coaching job. Like does how does, does he know that Nate Schill House, the kid from the Rams, like, you know,

His passing game scheme. But I think that guy wants to be a head coach, too. But regardless, my point is, I don't know that he knows the schemes of the hot, up-and-coming coordinators to, like, this is the guy, unless it was. And beyond that, I agree with you totally on that. But also, I don't know that that's always a, I think most of the time that's not a great situation to have a player, any player, pick the coach. I just don't think.

I know. I just can't tell. If he's just, if he's gone through so many guys, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, nine, ten. Yeah, twelve guys, it just feels like I need some stability. The reason why he has had growth, but it's kind of, like, I'm getting a new guy every day. But it's not a job.

I know we, I want to get to the next thing. Offensive coordinator in the NFL is not a job that there's not a lot of 10-year offensive coordinators for the same team. It's a job where you get... The Hose 5 would be into me, which is... Right. But it's really Andy. Josh...

Right, exactly. That's the thing. You need a guy like McDaniels who like has... Sorry, but failed at head coach a couple times to where what the chiefs have in spags. He's not going to leave him to be head coach. No one's giving him a job. He's just going to be the de-coordinator. That's hard as offensive coordinator.

And for the Eagles, two have turned into head coaches. The other two got one and done fired. All right. NFL released their own version of Brew's ballot called the NFL. MVP finalists. Their list alphabetically. Josh Allen, CMC, Drake May, the Prince,

and Matthew Stafford. Brew, do you think they got this right? They were close. They got about 80%, not about 80% right. Only one they missed is Miles Garrett. And look, if you're a defensive player, you got to be saying,

what in the world do I have to do to get on the ballot? It was. Well, look, you bring that up. They clearly took, And I always, I vote for NBA. I take record into consideration. But Nick, we all know this is a two-man race.

So then after that, I kind of looked at it like, yes, winning mattered, but also who did something spectacular. Yeah. And Miles Garrett broke a 24-year record. And so that's why I had him instead of McCaffrey. Look, McCaffrey has had a phenomenal season. I'm not taking anything away from him. I'll just say he's worthy of being on it. But I'll just say less than four yards of carry.

And I get it, it was for the all-purpose yards. Didn't lead the league in yards from scrimmage. It was Bejohn Robinson, who had almost 200 yards more. So I'm just saying that that's why I had Garrett over McCaffrey. Guys, can we take a moment here and look at the screen? Top five finish. Can we take a little better than his top seven minutes? Can we take a moment here and look at the screen?

He's back. Here are, since the NFL expanded. Because four years up all of history until four years ago, MVP voting was you submitted one name. Right, right. And now you submit a full ballot and they do the NFL honors. Here are the finalists for MVP since they've done it. See if you've heard of these guys. Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hertz, Jared Gough.

Matt Stafford and Trevor Lawrence, along with Drake May. Along with Drake. I'm leaving out the three position players, Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, Seekwon Barter. So what are you trying to say? He's arrived. That's a lot. Do you officially feel like he's arrived? Yes, I do.

I do. I don't feel like this year was a fluke. I don't feel like the 13 wins was fake. I, yes. I understand he had the bad moment in the playoff game, but I thought overall for 59 minutes of the playoff game played really well. And then there's one other tiny piece of news here, I think, because they also announced the finalist for offensive player of the year.

My God, that's what I had too. I was going to ask you. Oh, go. Puka, Bijan, CMC, JSN, and Drake. So Drake's the only guy appearing on both lists, which in my mind says, ooh, he's going to win MVP. And then in the other mind I said, ooh, he's not going to win it. First of all, CMC's on both lists.

Oh, CMC, I'm sorry. You're right. He wasn't on Bruce Bell. which is why you did. So I took this as this is even more so than the all pro balloting confirmation he didn't win MVP. So can you can you tell me? Yeah. Explain it to me like I'm a five year.

Because historically. So I know what I know how it works, but why if you're he doesn't, neither guy plays defense. I don't think either one of them can tackle this. Okay. I have to tell you historically because it's just what the way this has gone in the past is. is MVP is for quarterbacks, offensive player of the year is basically best non-quarterback. Like why wouldn't Stafford? And when that has not been the case, it has been because there were two great quarterback MVP candidates and people treated this as a silver medal.

So I read it as voters that were like, man, Drake May was awesome. I'm voting Stafford MVP. I'm going to vote Drake May offensive player of the year. That's how I read it, and that's how I would bet it, and that's what I think it's going to happen. And sadly, I think it means he's going to win neither. Because he's not going to win offensive player of the year, and he's only going to win MVP. I would rather have offensive player of the year become a non-quarterback award officially. I agree.

Well, you know, my- My. Yes. And then MVP can be for everybody. I love that idea, bro. Should Josh Allen be worried about the bill's future? That's next on FS1 on the Fox Sports Channel on Sirius X-N. Weird to call it the Cy Young Award, though. Hey, check out the podcast.

Wow. Yeah. We're cooking. We're under 10 million to a billion views. I can't wait for this. Also, I'm putting out an official ask for Cardi B to come on the show. Now, does that have anything to do? We haven't gotten an answer yet.

I'm just going to meet. I like that. You have a relationship with Cardi B? Well, relationship feels strong. Well, I'm saying any for any, I'm not talking about like that. Yeah, I'll ask her. Get out of town, dude. I know people.

Get out of town. Yeah, you should have been asking her. That would be a good, great get. Yeah. Go ahead and ask. Head to Buffalo. Our press conference left us questioning the direction of this franchise. Bill's owner, Terry Pagula and GM Brandon Bean,

played the blame game for Trapped in Keon Coleman. He's still on the team. Then said they hit the ceiling as a franchise under McDermott. Also blamed the refs for Brandon Cook's, air quotes, catch. So they should. Should have won the game that wasn't for the refs, but since they didn't cost McDermott's job. Meanwhile, some of their interviews feature three candidates that have already been in the building, Joe Brady, Brian Dayball, and Anthony Lynn.

Should this week be concerning it all for Josh Allen? I wouldn't love it if I were him, coach. And it's for a number of reasons. One is the owner of the team said, and this, he might not have been telling the truth, But he said, yeah, going into that game, I wasn't playing on firing Sean McDermott. But when I saw how inconsolable Josh Allen was, that's when I knew I needed to do it. If I'm Josh Allen, I already felt terribly, obviously. You know, we saw it.

And now I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Like I, so you're, it's, I felt awful because I turned the ball over. But if I had hidden it better, maybe you don't fire the coach. So that's, you know, a little punch right there. They also then made it very clear. The Keong, I think everybody kind of missed the bigger story of the Keon Coleman thing. When he's like, that wasn't a brand, or Bean pick. That was a coach's pick.

And it was like, oh, and the coach is now fired. And maybe I'm wrong. But I would imagine that as strong voices, Sean McDermott, the defensive-minded coach would salve in which receiver they want. The offensive coordinator, play caller, has a very important. very strong voice in which receiver they want. And not only is that guy still there, he's interviewing to be the head coach. And we haven't heard from Josh yet.

We haven't heard anything from him publicly. So all of this, when you add to it, the other thing they made very clear was, we think this roster was absolutely Super Bowl caliber and we underachieved. All of that if I were Josh Allen would leave me feeling a little wobbly after the way the season ended. Well, the good news is he knows if he doesn't like the new head coach, just cry after one of the game. That dude will be out in a hurry.

Yeah, you should absolutely be worried. So the guy who, this is a billion dollar corporation, walks in after the most emotional game of the season, and suddenly decides to make a massive shift in the direction of the organization because his players are emotional and he wasn't gonna fire him prior, and he fired him based off a play that he doesn't agree with, that should have been a catch,

that wasn't a catch, that would have won the game, and then he wouldn't have been fired? How does any of that make sense? And how does any of that give you confidence that moving forward, the decisions are gonna be well thought out, unemotional, objective, and in the best interest of the long-term success of the organization and not just emotional reactions

to whatever's happening during the course of business? It's so hard to do. I brought this up so many times with when they took over the sabres and what happened since they've owned the sabers and the five head coaches and the four GMs that have been there. And the more they get involved and this becomes business as usual, the more we're going to see coaches turnover. And there's a huge playoff drought before Sean McDermott got there.

And maybe Sean McDermott hid a bunch of the problems that were inherent in the organization. Maybe he overachieved as a coach there. based off the amount of mentally as opposed to underachieve. I don't know, but sure making a strong argument for that. It's hard for me to believe. Like, I actually think Bean had a lot to do with this. It seems like from the reporting, there was at least tension between Bean and McDermott. I have a hard time believing that the owner, there was no discussion or even thought of getting rid of McDermott going into that game.

What backs you up on that brew is by 10 a.m. Monday morning, not only was Sean McDermott fired, but Brandon Bean had agreed to a big new job and a promotion, which I would imagine is not done in 90 minutes. Like maybe I'm, again, I'm speculating. Well, it could be. It's like, hey, I'm going to fire you or promote you. What do you think? Oh, yeah. I mean, I guess you're right. I mean, that's a fair point. I also think, coach. It would take me long to make that decision. You know, you know, I've dealt with a lot of owners, you've dealt with some as a coach.

I think if you put a lot of owners in front of the media, they're not going to come off well. Because I don't think they're generally used to being in front of the media. You know, even a lot of media people, their first time on TV, first few times, they're not comfortable. You know what I mean? You don't know. You don't know the media is jabbing you. The media is trying to get you to say something crazy. So if you don't deal with that every day, you're not used to it.

And so I think that is part of why the owner came off poorly. Look, I agree. And the other thing, Brew, is when your whole life, everybody tells you how smart you are and how great every comment you say is. Most of these owners. Yeah, like, and then suddenly there are people like, hmm, maybe that's not the case. Right, right. Yeah, look, I don't have the most faith in being.

I think he should have been gone along with McDermott. but I do think they had to do something different. I mean, what, seven tries? Like you can say, McDermott is a good coach. Nobody disputes. He's a very good coach. But you're just saying, I think we're going to get over the hump eventually with no proof of doing it. It's not like you lost to the Chiefs every year.

It's not like you never beat the Chiefs in the regular season. You know, you lost to other teams, most notably recently to Bo Nix. and you beat the Chiefs in the regular season and lost continuously in the playoffs. Like I think they needed a change. And I think Josh understands that. And so I get it. You might be concerned about what they're going to do going forward.

But they needed a change, I believe. Can I ask you a question, Coach? Because I think sometimes when we talk about coaches getting fired, we just think about the head coach and maybe the assistants. Can you kind of outline the dominance? the domino effect on how low it goes when a head coach gets fired from strength and conditioning, nutrition, all of it, analytics. And what I, because what I'm trying to get at is if J-Quahuan McMillan doesn't make that play,

or if, you know, the overtime rules were different, or if Josh gets the tush push, they're right there on the edge, and now they're changing a wholesale leadership group in Buffalo. Yeah, and it depends on who comes in. So look at what the Giants are going through right now. The longtime personnel guy who was there 28 years, he's now gone. Their trainer, I forget how long he's been there. 45 years. 45 years.

He's now transitioned to a new role. And it's going to, that organization, which had had a ton of continuity in coaching and in the building, because they went and got John and John had very certain demands in terms of how far his reach could go. Now a lot of people are losing their jobs outside of the coaching staff. And to some degree, I think there's merit in that. I think that everybody in an organization needs to be pushing in the same direction and everybody needs to feel the same sense of urgency. So the trainer, the, you know, the trainer, the equipment guy, the strength condition guy, nutritionist, everybody needs to feel that because you either go, you know, you rise together.

or you fall together, and then everybody's pushing in the same direction. But will there be less of that? I would imagine there'll be less of that in Buffalo because Bean, who was there four months shorter than McDermott. They were there, basically, not only is still there, but got promoted. Harbaugh came in, and Joe Shane got demoted, and he's over him. So am I right in assuming there's going to be a lot of, like, what you're talking about, like institutional stability that I would imagine Bean is going to keep in place, Is he still there?

I don't know the reporting. It's funny in a lot of buildings you can walk in and see who has the power by who has the best offices. So if the personnel guy has the power, all the scouts and, you know, guys in free agency, their offices are the best. It overlooks the field. And then if the coaching staff has the power, those offices shift. And every time there's a new, like, power shift, I don't know how many times the Brown's building has transformed, depending on who's in it and which offices, you know, the people have.

And Pagula said, KW, that the new coach will. report to Brandon Bean. So that Bean is that that was the promotion. He's got the juice. Shared office. Oh, yeah. The enemy's back and maybe he's getting the old band back together.

Travis Kelsey was enthused in Tyreek, as he often does, flirted with going back to Arrowhead for a reunion. Here's Travis. I love that. I think it's great. I think it's a marriage that's going to pick up right where it left off.

I can't wait to see him back in the business. He's one of my favorite coaches of all time. One of my favorite people of all time. I've had so many unbelievable, you know, growing moments under him as a player, as a person. And I just love the guy and it's going to be awesome to see him back in the building and see him back wearing the Chiefs logo, baby. Very interesting. You got 31 minutes, KW.

For what? For what? What's in 31 minutes? What time will it be? Sports Media online. It would be 412. Wow. Going to break news?

No, before the sports meeting on Buzzman hits, would you like to retract your report from yesterday? What did I say yesterday? Well, yesterday you reported that Travis Kelsey was not going to be back, and that doesn't sound like a man. You reported that he was going to be? Nope. I reported that your report was erroneous.

Well, if my report's wrong, that means your report is right. I am saying we don't know. We don't know. I don't know if it's a lock that he's back. I, again, I am very clearly not reported. he is back. I am not saying it is anywhere close to he's back. I am saying that the assumption that he's done is premature and erroneous. Would you now hear when he says it's going to be great to see him back in the building, the possibility that Travis Kelsey will play at least

one more game with the Kansas City Chiefs seems a little greater today than it was when you were reporting he was done. I don't think he's done. I have always thought that he's taking a little off season plus eight. Can I bring up my concern here? Sure. So Travis Kelsey is a free agent, correct? Yeah. So now the question is, how does the organization value him?

So is he still valued as an elite tight end? Or do they value him as a guy who's somewhat... He's marrying a billionaire. I understand that. You can say that. There's a big difference when someone says, hey, you are making whatever, $15 million a year. And now we want you.

back, but you're really, you're going to be at 7 or 5 or whatever. And even though he's maybe marrying someone very wealthy and has a lot of money, there's an ego component to that. So can they find a place where he's happy with the contract and they're happy with the contract because it's not a lot organizationally that it's in their best interest to pay him as a top flight tight end if that's not really where he is at this point in his career? To be fair, he was one of the. five best tight ends in football last year.

Like to, that doesn't mean he'll necessarily be on the following year, but he is not, he is nowhere close to peak Travis Kelsey, but he is still one of the best at his position. Here's, but here's what I will say. I haven't really thought about the money component of it, because I think Wilde's might be right, that he takes some time off and comes back. Wherever Travis is on his decision on coming back, Eric BNM being back helps a yes. That's good. You know what I mean?

Whatever, wherever he. is on it, it moves it at least a little closer to a yes, and that is one of the many reasons I like this. Unfortunately, Eric B. N. Me doesn't control the salary cap. No, I don't I, the coach, I just trust me when I say this,

whether or not Travis does or doesn't come back, the money is not going to be, I'm not going to say it doesn't matter. Money is not going to be the issue there. I would also like to shout out Chris Broussard, who called this months ago. Thank you. Thank you. Teammate of the year. That's why your teammate of the year.

That's what I call. called him. Wilde wouldn't name one. Wilds wouldn't name a teammate of year. He was like, if I give brew a pizza. I did once he twisted my arm, but I just thought everyone did a great job. Brew, I didn't need my arm twisted.

I said it, it's obvious. Are you going to make the all decade team? Team made of year. I think when I think about the decade. Brew, I said for the fifth consecutive year, Chris Broussard, teammate of the year. That's what I said. A little voter fatigue for me.

Weird is the most wonderful place. And a rough night for my guy, La Melle Ball. 0 for 10 from 3. Big Ben is suggesting a Green Bay reunion in Pittsburgh. Mike McCarthy as coach Aaron Rogers as QB. Take a listen. Mike McCarthy is an offensive-minded veteran coach. Guy that's been there, done that.

He has Pittsburgh ties, so he understands the Steeler way. Positive side to him coming in here would be the potential of Aaron Rogers coming back, right? relationship together. Now, I don't know what the relationship is, but I assume that it's good enough. They want a Super Bowl together. You could bring his offense in. Everyone would know the offense. He would feel super comfortable. I don't like it. Oh, man. Are you serious? I wish you had said that. Now I have to soften what I was going to say. Had you not said you like it, I was going to say this is one of the dumbest things I've ever. I wouldn't want to insult you. They've got nothing. Buddy, what is this is? That's just giving up a year. Correct. Correct. There is

no chance of them winning a Super Bowl. Well, actually, I've seen it winning a Super Bowl. Take that back. I have seen that combo with the Super Bowl. Let alone, not let alone, but probably not even win a playoff game. And Rogers might get you to eight, nine wins. And then what? You're stuck in the middle.

Like, it's better for them to bottom out next year. I know that's not their plan, but. Coach is going to rip us, brew. Go ahead. I'm not going to rip. I'm with you guys. I don't see how this makes sense. And what are his Pittsburgh ties?

Did he coached for the Steelers? McCarthy or he's just from the area? I don't know if from the area makes you understand like how the organization works. And I don't know. But he like knows the good sandwich spot. Yes. Well, that's a good.

It turns out. I like it with like Pittsburgh's really like, you know what? They love winning football. And I'm not sure how good their relationship is. Well, that's the other part. I thought Aaron, it sort of seemed like he might have been part of the reason McCarthy moved on to the Cowboys.

Time heels. And his play for McCarthy in his last year or two was not good. We thought he was done. All of a sudden, he gets the floor and he becomes MVP again. Yeah, and I'm not opposed to Aaron Rogers coming back as long as you're going to get a young

quarterback. Like if you're looking at him as a bridge guy as you bring in a young quarterback. Sure. But to me, the getting like just running it back, with an older coach and an older quarterback,

you're going to be in a lot of the same spot. I think at this point you've got to take a chance, try to go get someone young, try to go get a new quarterback, and just see if you can build things to the future in a really meaningful way. I do not think Bills or Ravens fans would be excited about a Mike McCarthy hire.

But if they did it, I would understand it. If it's like, we can't, it's, we have too great of an asset as our quarterback to roll the dice with a young first time head coach. We need to have an element of stability. Like that's the type of team that I would get it for Mike McCarthy, who has shown he is at the very least a good coach in different situations in this league. There's no, these are great coaches. No doubt. I, I reserve great for maybe a little different. No, but I said at the least, at the least, a good coach. in this league.

Pittsburgh is in the opposite situation of Baltimore and Buffalo. Pittsburgh has is totally incentivized to take a chance like they did with Mike Tomlin. Young guy, we will give you time. You can learn on the job, so to speak.

And by the way, we're going to keep taking swings at quarterback. We got to. What we're not going to do is re-sign a guy who would start the season as the oldest day one starter in league history not named

Tom Brady. We're not going to do that. I think you might have the reset on the defense. You can't have the oldest highest payee defense. It might be time to hit the reset button. Absolutely. And try to compete for the next 10 years just not be in the middle and they have the benefit of

Pittsburgh, I think in doing this on the fly. But I would imagine is the only fan base of the 31 that if you were to take a poll and be like, hey, would you prefer nine wins next year or three? Three would win. I think that fan base is, now, they would prefer 13 more than any of them. But that fan base is not going to kill you if you, now your worry is that you would long-term

bottom out, which is a concern, but they can do it for a year. Pittsburgh, aren't you? I don't know if it's a rebuild. He said a week. It goes from Brooke Pryor. Who said this? I think one of the Rooney's on the... Okay, sorry, go ahead.

I don't like that word that much. We'll try to compete day one if we can from Brooke Pryor's article on the Steelers. Yeah, I think you can try to... You're going to play hard and you're going to coach them up, but I think you are not signing a 43-year-old, 42-year-old quarterback, and you might be trading away some of the older defensive... And you might have to be comfortable with being a little uncomfortable for a few years because you've been so used to at least being in the mix for a long time.

it might not be that right away. I like competing. No, you like bottoming out to get Drake May. Right. I did not like that at all. But how do you like it now? Well, now it's nice. They had to go through that thing.

Right. Live from New York, it's a show that's preparing for the most motivational segment in all of sports. The Bud List, and I am excited. Let me just tell you something. I'm excited. Second hour, first things first. We're trying to sell the audience, you know? Today, did Sean Payton give all of New England and Patriots fans around the world?

It's a global franchise, you know. Bulletin board material. And my take that you're not going to see coming. Meanwhile, it's true. You're not going to see it coming. Like Drake May with the past rock. Much like Drake May with the past run. Might not see it coming, but it might still yield great results.

But right now, it's time for the most motivated. same in all sports and focus. Also a time where we read viewer mail. A lot of people just think that because we're so close to a billion views on YouTube and we're so current, you know, we're very big on social media. They're like, certainly they don't just do old school mail wrong. We do. Christina went to the mailbox.

Dear Wilds, love the show. Are you nervous about the updated Broncos quarterback depth chart that they just Cheers Ryan and Brian. They did release a brand new depth charts and Beau was out. Stidham, Ellinger, and then of course the one in only. Jackson Blaine. Wow. I hope he plays.

Jackson, he plays. Amazing. Stun. All right, I like that, Wiles. Thank you. Well, thank you. Here we go. You might go with a cowboy, like, riding a Bronco.

Like, I thought we were going to get cowboy brew back, but you, I'm sorry, is this dueling pianos? You know, Joe, you put a dollar on you? I don't know. I do have a request. Can I get a black cowboy hat for Jackson Blade to match the... Please add a black cowboy hat. You can make requests.

Okay, good. All right, number three, you'll like this, Rob. Okay, good. Drake May. Oh. First of all, Drake, I think I speak for all football fans outside of Denver or outside of Colorado. Yeah. Just get to the Super Bowl.

We don't want to see a backup quarterback. Jared Stidham in the Super Bowl. It's just kind of a downer. Look, I get Nick Foles, I get Jeff Hossettler, all that stuff, but it's just kind of a downer. I want the MVP. That's a great point. Do you think the world is pulling for the Patriots?

I just think we would all be more excited going into that Super Bowl, those two weeks going into the Super Bowl, if it's Drake May versus whoever on the other side, versus Jared Stidtham, whoever on the other side. side. All right. So now, here's the thing,

Drake. The first two weeks of your playoff career, you're playing with house money. The Chargers, I get it. You're supposed to beat them. But nobody was going to kill you if you lost your first playoff game to a good team in the Chargers.

Certainly no one is going to kill you if you lost to the Houston, Texans, one of the best defenses in the league. But now, the pressure. The pressure is on. Now, you can't lose to Jarrett the Javelin Stiddle. All right.

So the pressure now is on you. And I say this, and I think you have this mentality, but seize the day. Don't look at this as, man, my second year. Yeah, of course I want to win it. But I'm going to be back. You know, I got plenty of opportunities. No, you don't. Not necessarily.

Ask Joe Burrow, who made the Super Bowl his second year. It has never been back. hadn't even made the playoffs the last three years. As Dan Marino, who won the, I think the MVP, the Super Bowl, got to the Super Bowl his second year. I'm sure he thought he was going back, never got back again. So this is the moment for you, Drake. I believe in you.

All right. At number two. Jared Stiddlem, speaking of Stiddlem. All right. What an opportunity, coach. I think there are very few times in professional sports where you have this type of opportunity. I'm not laughing at you.

The bar. You need to play like state him. Again, Dusty. That's why he's teammate over the year. All right. But here's the deal, Coach. You have a, you're on the huge stage. You have a chance to get to the championship

and make history. and there are absolutely no expectations. None. If you go out there and struggle, he's a backup. He's a journeyman. He hasn't thrown, this is true, he hasn't thrown a pass in an NFL game in two years.

And you expected him to go out there at the AFC championship game against a good defense and play well if you don't play well. That's so this is this is to me high reward no risk no risk now there is a little if you do play well Jared I think you put your name in the hat of potentially being a starter I know you got one more year left in Denver is the backup but maybe some they trade you I don't know or you know two years from now a year from now some team brings you in and you have a chance to start in training camp

So this could really change your career. There is a bit of a downside, though. Right now you've been rolling off of the nobody really knows. Nobody's seen you. You know, Jordan Palmer loves you, thinks you have, I guess, MVP potentially. He said you can play as well as Drake May. All right? I mean, that's what he said.

Josh McDaniels loves you. You know, Sean Payton loves you. So all of us who haven't seen a lot of you are, well, these are good football guys. They say he can play, okay. But now you've got to go out there and show us. You'll lose all of that if you don't play well. I'm going to be honest, Jared. I don't really believe in you.

But I do think you have a chance to win this game. I actually think that's on the board. And Bruce, you talked about him getting a starting quarterback job. He could get a Cor's light, could build a statue in front of the arena to win a couple games. Like the Bud Light did for Nick Foles. It's happened before. All right, at number one, Sam Darnold.

This is it, Sam. This is when you put the bust, pumpkin mold, all of that to rest. You bury it right now. You could go from I'm seeing ghost to I'm raising banners. I'm wearing rings or at least one. I'm wearing a ring. This is your chance, Sam, to do all of that. Also, and I should have said this yesterday, I would have won must win.

Oh. Bragging rights in one of the great quarterback classes in recent memory. All right, 2018, you were the third pick. Baker Mayfield was in that draft. Josh Allen was in that draft. Lamar Jackson was in that draft. And you could become the first one of those three to not win a Super Bowl, get to a Super Bowl.

That is some serious bragging rights. And so here it is. Now, of course, there is a downside. If you go out there and throw three interceptions this weekend, which is your average against Seattle, against the Rams this year. Sorry to admit that. But if you do that, you are going to have to live with pumpkin mode, bust, all of that, not bust, but pumpkin mode for the next year, at least, the next calendar year.

Yeah. Unless you would go next year in the playoffs and be lights out and win. So Sam, I am starting. Oh, I'm starting to believe in you. Starting to believe in. Go to what you're one of your favorites. The bus list is like, it's like a roller coaster ride from me. I'm just hopping on.

First you're saying, I don't, nobody wants to see Stidham. Nobody wants to see it back when I'm thinking, yeah, they do. This is a dream scenario. You come in the AFC championship game with a chance to take your team to Super. That's amazing. And then you put Stidtham on the list. And I'm like, oh, okay, he does leave. And you're like, no, but I don't believe him.

And then you throw it, he's self-scouting must win. I mean, it's every week you surprise me. Thank you. So I'm going with a little bit different. I'm going with the Patriots offensive line. So this is back-to-back weeks against very good defenses, excellent defenses. But there's been five sacks.

Five sacks in the first week, five sacks in the second week. But it's got to get easier this week, doesn't it? Doesn't get easier, fellas? So let's just take a look at what you're facing here against Denver. So in terms of sack percentage, 10.3% first in the NFL. Knockdown percentage. So that's where the ball is actually thrown, but the quarterback's on the ground. I call that penalty percentage.

First in the league there, there's 13.5%. Hurry percentage, well, what could that be? Well, that's where you have to throw the ball either quicker than you need to or want to, or you got to roll out of the pocket, you got to escape. There's seventh in the league there at 9.3 percent, so you can completely. Bine all those together, 40% of the plays, one of those things have been happening during the regular season from this defense.

And then you add in the component of the Blitz. They bring a lot of pressure. The good news is Drake May has handled that very well. Now with the offensive line, I went and looked at the coaching staff. The Patriots have three offensive line coaches. So they didn't, they don't have Dante Scarnacia, so they compensated for that by hiring three guys. So you got three guys to coach everybody out.

And when you listen to some of the comments, it's not like Josh McDaniels hasn't been giving you help. Campbell actually said some of my worst plays are when I've had help because I didn't adjust correctly to it. So it's not like there's been a where Josh has overlooked the fact that they might need a little bit of assistance. He's done that too. So I think that you have a real chance,

Drake May has a real chance to light these guys up if he gets some time. Because we saw it from the Prince. The Prince lit him up. Thank you. Trevor, or Jackson Dart, he lit him up too. Drake May can definitely light him up, but in order for that to happen,

you guys can't have any of these blind side hits, and, you know, at that point, anything is possible. Coach, are you first to market with the Patriots blowout take or do I still have that in my back pocket? I think it depends on how well he's able to sit in the pocket. But if he has a little bit of time, I think he can light him up. Oh, that was an excellent. Markets, for whatever it's worth, I'm not saying right or wrong.

Markets moving against that take. Yesterday when we talked about this game, it was five and a half. It's now four and a half. So some money is coming in for whatever that's worth. I would like it at 10 minutes. Great news, everyone. It is about five, four, three, two, one. It's four 12 on a Thursday, which means it's time for a really great segment.

It's the sports media ombudsman, and this time, I got a preview, it's going to be good. It's fair. This time. Do you guys know the subject of the first ever sports media embudsman? Before it was even called the sports media ombudsman. It was back in the spring, or I'm sorry, the fall of 2024. during the baseball playoffs, when the Internet had decided,

Bob Costas, you stink. We don't like your baseball commentary. And I, paraphrasing myself, called the Internet a bunch of spoiled petulant children who didn't appreciate that Bob freaking Costas, arguably the single greatest sportscaster ever was calling baseball games as a senior citizen as a service to all of us.

Now, I also, if I made just a brief personal story, I had extra motivation for that because when I was 11 years old, I met Bob Costas, walked up to him and said, where'd you go to school, what did you do, how'd you become Bob Costas? And not only did he say, I went to Syrac, I worked at W-A-E-R, and from that moment,

that's the only thing I said I was going to do, he gave me his home address and said right to me. And not only I write to him, I sent him all my sports takes three times a year, and then he wrote me back postcards, good takes once again. And it was the greatest guy ever. However, that criticism really did, it got, it, it made its way to Costas's door from the internet. And he wasn't on the playoffs last year. And we were all the worst for it, because Bob Costas doing baseball is a great thing in American sports.

Yes. Well, I was just so pleased to hear that this year with NBC's coverage of baseball, Bob Costas is back. And it is an honor to be broadcasting, be able to watch sports and hear Al Michaels calling football games, Bob Costas calling baseball games. Again, I understand these are different networks, but these are the legends, the older legends of the field that guys like our folks, you know, came, up listening to. So congratulations to Bob Costas. I'm glad he's back and I think

everyone in sports media should be glad he's back. That was nice. I told you it was gonna be good. You guys are laughing at it generally it's ripping people. Well, listen the ombudsman, there are no sacred cows for the unbuckers. I love that Bob Casas did that for you. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's a letter of recommendation for Syracuse when I was 18 years old. Saw him once a year. It was unbelievable. Yeah, it's great. It's pretty sick if you get a letter for recommendation from Bob Cost. Yeah. They did. He set up, very very quickly. He set up a meeting with me

and the dean. I met with the dean and the dean told me listen, you have a recommendation of Kostis, your smart kid, obviously, he's like, but just so you know, you have maybe the worst radio voice I've ever heard, you shouldn't do it. That's true. The dean said that? The dean. Dean was like, your voice will never work on radio. It's all nasely and whiny. I was like, oh man,

I'm in a rough spot. But I did it. That is true. Have you passed that on to anyone? The nasely, whiny voice? Not the nasally whiny voice. Have you taken any young broadcasters? Under your wing and they'll allow, give them your home address. And you write back good takes.

Or do you criticize their takes? I've tried to pay it forward as best. He was, he was Zach's mentor for his project. I was, I was Zach's mentor for his project. No, there's there's there. Yeah, I don't want to need to get into that. That just, I thought that was a great sports medium. That was very nice.

Back to the NFL, I am putting Keon Coleman, really the bills on the bud list. because during the Pugula's press conference, he decided to interrupt the normal procedure and say, I just want to stop down and basically call drafting Keon Coleman a mistake. The only problem is Keon Coleman is still on your team. So every once in a while I go on the internet, you know, the internet gets serving stuff up to me. And they go, I'm always trying to self-scout like you. You know, red flags, green flags. You're seeing that, like red flags in a relationship.

I'm in a long-time relationship. I'm in a long-time relationship. I'm like, I should self-scout. Am I doing any of these red flag things? Yeah. And it's always like when you go out to dinner, you're mean to, you're rude to the bartender or the wait staff or the hostess. You're just not concerned with the people around you that are making your experience successful.

I felt like the Bills organization did that a little bit. Maybe Keon Coleman didn't have the best year. Maybe he was late to a meeting. Maybe he was a healthy scratch. But he was a rookie, and he was on your team, and you did draft him. And I'm sure there's a responsible, more comfortable, more emotionally sensitive way to handle a young player who underachieved on your team. So here's how Keon did this year.

not excellent. Fair. 96th and targets, 128th. Maybe he's not even going to be a future Buffalo Bill. And if he's not... This is over his two years and... Over two years.

Sorry. This is second year. I'm sorry. That's not a bad year. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. Over his two years.

Second year on the team. I just didn't like how Keon Komen was treated. And I thought that this was a bad sign for the organization overall coach. I'm just surprising a long-term relationship. your wife hasn't told you what the red flags are. I'm always self-scouting.

Can I tell you something? Very nice. When I eat peanut butter, when I eat peanut butter out of the jar, this is a little pro tip. Don't just put the spoon in the sink, okay? It's covered with peanut butter? Don't do that. Okay?

You shouldn't need to be told twice. Yeah, look, in fairness, the Keon Coleman, that's not. that's not the way you want to find out that the ultimate person who decides your fate doesn't really like you. And not only is he talking about you, but he's talking about you in terms of who's responsible for what a big mistake you are. I don't know how Kean's been in the building or, you know, what his personal activities have been like in terms of meetings and all that stuff. You know, that comes into play. But yeah, there's definitely a much better, more sensitive, thoughtful way to handle it. And that does, look, we're not the only ones that see that. Free agents see that.

Other players see that. And this is a very harsh game, but they're still human beings and human beings want to be treated with respect. And any team that was like, I might trade a fifth round pick for 33rd overall pick Keon and now is like, I might be able to get him for a seven round pick. But, Brew, I think you'll be with me on this. In part, Because, you know, you do a lot of, I think it's fair to say, mentorship type of things. Keon Coleman's 22 years old. It's very young for a guy who's been in the league two years.

He came in very young. I look at this press conference as a fork in the road for him. And fork in the roads, sometimes you take the wrong. Like, it doesn't mean like, oh, now everything's going to be better. He might have watched this and be like, those old dopes don't know what they're talking about. I'm going back to bed. He also, I think it's on the board. He saw that and was like,

I'm going to prove that old man so wrong. And you know what, that I am going to. Right, like you, that should have been. But he's got, I don't think he plays in those. No, not with them, but I'm saying, I'm saying for his career. I'm not saying, I think his career with the bill is probably over. But I, but who cares? Yeah.

If you're Keon Coleman, you're 22 years old. You can play another 10 years of good football. If you channel what made you the 33rd overall pick and get, it's been maturity issues. He's sleeping through meetings, he's doing stuff like that. And so maybe this was, while mean, I think, mean and poor for him by the bills, good for him if he takes it as motivation to prove them wrong. You hope so. The only thing I say is he's had plenty. I mean, when he didn't, they didn't suit him up, all that stuff.

He's had opportunities to be like wake up calls. Yep. And apparently hadn't taken them yet. But yeah, you hope that's how it works out. Coming up next, Sean Payton's bulletin board material. Next. Saturday, college hoops tip off on Fox, noon Eastern. Villanova versus Caravan number two Yukon Huskies.

And then at 3 o'clock, ooh, the Aligni taken on number four, Purdue. Do you agree with me, KW? What? Number four is a little high for Purdue. Feel more like the seventh or eight. After this recent loss, definitely. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, a little overrated.

Yeah, that's what I think. They'll probably lose this one. I guess Illinois. Yeah. Illinois is probably better. Destroy. Come on. All right, Sean Payton was asked if he had a message for fans who he encouraged to be loud for the game against the Patriots.

Here's what he said. You'll love this, coach. Coach, for about the past month, you've had a message to fans every single week about noise. Do you have a message for them this week with being the final game? Well, they're going to have plenty of rest after this one, two weeks. Coach, your reaction to that? Well, I think, I don't think this is arrogance. I think this is trying to project confidence.

And the situation where you're playing your backup quarterback, maybe he believes that firmly in it, but this feels more like, hey, I'm going to make sure everybody knows how strongly I feel about our chances to win with Stiddy. You know, it wasn't even Stittem. It was Stiddy. And now I saw that Braywell was asked about it, and he said, we've got plenty of motivation.

But I can tell you the first time we were playing the steals the AFC championship game, they had talked about how they were doing the logistics for the Super Bowl and getting tickets set up and hotel rooms set up. And I remember when we talked about that and when we beat him, our guys were asking the players, hey, can I get those hotel rooms you got? Yeah. So as much as you may say, you're not going to use it for bulletin board material, I'm sure there's going to be some two-week phrase or they're going to be referencing that.

But from, I get where Sean's coming from, this could be a situation where. everybody's like, oh my God, we're playing with the backup quarterback, and he's projecting it, no big deal, we're ready to roll, and we're locked in. I just realized what's about to happen. This is going to be the worst moment I've experienced on this show. Why? I just realized, no. What are you doing?

You don't know what you're talking. You don't know that. You don't know what's going on. Because I have an out-of-the-box take. Let me hear it. Brew, you know they call me the mayor affair. Yes. And much, even though I have been critical of Caleb Williams, for example, after that miraculous

throw, what is there to be critical of? He ran back 26 yards and threw a game tying touchdown. It was amazing. Sean Payton's bravado has been an easy target on this show. Yeah. Starting really, it's really AFC West focus. And I think he called Bo Nix Mahomesian one time. And then he said, you know, if we didn't beat the bills, we liked playing against the cheese.

We didn't like that or something like that. I am not mad at Sean Payton for this quote as a Patriots fan. Because earlier, Dusty can you put up the headline? We criticized Sean Payton for this. This Broncos team is capable of winning the Super Bowl. He said that on August 4th. And we all laughed at the guy. But it turns out he was right.

That team was capable of winning the Super Bowl. And if Bo Nix didn't get hurt, maybe they would have. That being said, it does count as bulletin board material. God, dog. And because the chiefs are no longer at the risk of sounding mean relevant, I will make my first foray to the board. The door of destiny bulletin board. Dun da da da da da da da. Why?

Why is it so small? This is fantastic. What is this? What is this? What is this? Yeah, it's harder than it looks. Exactly. You look like a fool. And why is it the size?

Great job. I'm anticipating that we have a lot of people talking trash leading up to the Super Bowl, and it's empty because the Jets don't talk a lot of trash, to be honest with you. Like the Panthers don't talk. We had a pretty easy schedule. It's kind of a naked board. There you go. The new bulletin board.

Coming up next, Patriots Banners. That's not, we're not leaving the same. We're not leaving the segment, but it's okay. That was well done. I have the destiny. I gave you the destiny. You're giving it back to me. Team of the year in the running, finalist.

Well, well done, wild. Thank you. But I do agree with coach. I love this from Sean Payton. Really? And I, look, I'm sure it was calculated, I would think. But he, you know, watching the full clip, not just cutting up. It almost looked like he said it matter-of-factly, like just he's that confident with Stidim.

And whether it was calculated or it just came out that way, it does to me. His confidence, I mean, from the moment he announced that Bo Nix was, you know, out for the season, he has shown nothing but confidence in Stidham and their ability to win. And I'm sure that's, you know, spilling over into the locker room with the players. So I do like, you know, I like Peyton saying this. I love him saying. Do you buy that spilling over to the locker room? You think the players are like, we got this?

Not arrogantly, but I don't think we got this, but I don't think they feel like we're screwed. Right. That's what I think. And I don't think this is the only thing he's doing to project confidence in that building. That's just what he's doing publicly. He's doing other things that are projecting confidence in that building

that I'm sure will come out after the game. Very interesting. Head over to Good Morning Football. No, I don't think so. I'm sure good morning football talked about Drake May. I'm positive they. I didn't watch the full program, but I'm sure they did. But we're going to get, they also talked about Brandon Cook to Brandon Cooks.

We're going to do that later. Good morning football talked about Drake May. We're going to do our own version of Drake May. Road favorite against a great defense. He's undefeated on the road, you know, and still playing confidently despite dropping the ball several times, coach in his first. two playoff games. Take a listen to his attitude. I don't think, you know, trying to change it. I think last week, you know, you change it and

K. Sean doesn't make the play. So little things like that, just knowing the time and place for it. I think trying to get the ball out of my hand and just being cognizant of, you know, the edge rushers and taking care of the football is number one thing. So if we have time and have a look downfield, you know what me. I'm going to take a look and take a shot. Bruce said he didn't like it. He loved it, coach. Did you like it or love it? Yeah, I like it. And I think there's going to be real, opportunities for him, but I think it's going to be in conjunction with the scheme, because there's a difference between taking your shot and taking advantage of an opportunity. So you've got a

press corner, man-to-man, post-safety, okay, that's time to take a shot, or hard sell play action, you've got the deep over, it's time to take a shot, you've got the protection is going well, you've set things up, and you take those shots. It's important that he does that, and I think he can hit some of those. Now that to me though, there's a difference between those opportunities and being reckless. You can't hold the ball against this group.

You can't, yeah, it can't be I've decided that this is my moment to take a shot because I think a shot is needed. It's got to be, this is the time I'm going to take a shot because this is when the shot is available. And that's a big distinction. And listen, one of the reasons

he's been so good against pressure and he's been so good passing number, against the Blitz and all these things is because he stands in there. And it's also one of the reasons his sack numbers are so high. And these playoffs, his fumble numbers have been high. And this is my concern for this game. Because I, if they play in the Super Bowl against the Rams, who I think with respect to the Pat Stevens are going to be able to score points,

then I think you have to be with, you know, some boom bust plays for the pets. against a backup quarterback, I feel like they need to just be careful with the ball. And if we, Coach, here are Drake's fumbles on passing plays so far these playoffs. And this is not a quick pressure at all. He feels the pressure, steps up, pump fakes, and still decides. Look at how quickly the dude's passed.

No, but hold on. But coach, I understand he is passed. But Drake May knows it, sees it, and then still rears back. to throw the pass. Yeah, he's getting grabbed. And instead of eating, it's like, no, I'm going to try to make a play. Let me show you the next one. This is the same.

Okay, here's the next one. He is, again, the offensive line was not good on this play. But he sees it, knows it, and still is like, I'm still going to make it. Tucks it and it's like, no, I'm still going to try to do it. The Texans game, it was more of the same. Here, so is that the first one? You're inside your own 10. This is a quick pressure.

There's no doubt about it. But it's on his, it's in front of him. He sees it's there. He still says, I'm going to try to make the play. And then show the next one. The next one, and I'm not, the, there's time and he's reared back. And so that's my, there is a time and a place to be like, man, we've got to go make a play. But look, like, look at this one.

The reason you wouldn't think this is going to happen. See how you've got help from the back? There's not, like, from a, from a, from a. I'm just saying from his perspective, he knows not only does he have the left tackle, but he's got two people on that pass rush. The last thing you're thinking. Yeah, that's the one that Campbell was talking about. But that's where you're thinking.

Like, I'm not getting pressure from over there. I don't doubt that. My point is the other thing that I think a more, and I think Drake May is awesome, but a more experienced quarterback would be thinking it's 21 to 10 with 30 seconds left in the first half against a team whose quarterback's throwing four turn interceptions at this point. The only way Houston goes into the half with any type of juice is if I turn the ball over. Now they recovered this fumble. So you know what I mean?

So it ended up being fine. It's also why I'm not as generous on the Hail Mary as you because he tried to turn it over two plays before the Hail Mary interception. But like that to me, Brew is the concern that he doesn't need, and we don't have to run the last one, dust. Like the last one, the last one was we can run it if you, want. The last one was just a quick pressure, but I, the, and it's hard to blame him. This is the one that, to me, was the least on him. That is a quick pressure from his blind side. The other ones, it felt like he had the opportunity to just eat it or be more conservative. Obviously, you don't want him to be reckless. I like that he said the number one thing is

protecting the ball. And I'm sure he went into the Houston game thinking the same thing. But there has had to be a focus on that this week. Like, look, we can't afford. turnovers. The only way they can beat us is if we turn the ball over and all that. But I think he has to be himself, Coach. I agree with you. Like, I don't think he can go into this game. Like, some people might say, look, it's a backup quarterback. You don't have to score 30 points. Just be conservative, you know, and don't make mistakes. But that, to me, is playing not to lose versus playing the win. And I think they have to go out there and play to win. Now, again, don't be reckless and stuff, but he's taking shots all year.

He's been the best deep ball throwing the league. So I just think he has to have the mentality. And as a coach, I don't really want to take that away from him either. I think you've said it before. Sometimes a young guy is best, you don't know what you don't know. And again, you can't be reckless. You have to walk a balance. But I want him to have an aggressive mindset and be ready to burn him.

And one of the things that I said when we talked about Drake May early and Kevin was talking about the Dodor set to Destiny, sacks were a real issue in the early part of the season, and it got a lot better. And even though I put the offensive line on the bud list, sacks are, it is a combination of both the quarterback and the offensive line. So he does have accountability there.

It is frustrating the fact that they've gone from, that he's doubled his sack total, you know, percentage-wise in the playoffs. But to the next point, you don't want him to totally go into a show, but more games in the NFL are lost than one, and this game could be lost more so than one, especially considering you do have a backup quarterback situation. I think I'm ready to go on to Good Morning Football. People are going to be a good idea, K.O.Rourning football. Quite a tease. Had Brandon Cooks on the show, and he talked about his catch that wasn't. Take a listen.

At the end of the day, it was a catch. Not just what it looked like, like you said, of what it felt like. You see examples throughout the league all year in previous years, and you're like, wait a minute, if that was a catch, then there's no brainer that this was the catch. But I think when you look back at it, the time that was spent on it to review it wasn't enough. And given the magnitude of that game and the situation,

it's a little disappointed. I like the honesty. Nick, your reaction. Yeah, I mean, this is not productive. this is par for the course, this team. They wind about the tush push for five months after their last playoff loss. In, you know, my contemporary, the last team that really whined about something for a month, this has only been five days, but months after was the Eagles and the field in the Super Bowl,

because it was such a weird. People don't remember the Super Bowl three years ago. When the Chiefs had the ball, they played on turf. When the Eagles had the ball, they played on grass. A lot of guys right in there. European soccer. And again, correlation causation. I don't know, but that was the year the Eagles team tanked at the end.

I just, it also feels like so much of football culture is accountability, you know what I mean, and this feels like whining. And I know, I know. Brandon Cooks wants to be back with the bills next year. Like I think they probably hope to have him back. I don't look at it as a guy who's like, that was my last game and I got screwed. Like, I just, I don't think it's productive. I don't think it's good.

I don't think blaming the refs particularly for what was the correct call is the way to go about things. Yeah, it's funny. I run into people all the time who still complain about the tuck rule, you know, with Tom Brady and they said, you know, that was a fumble. And it's like, yeah, the ring's still there. So you can complain about it all you want. It's not going to do anything. It doesn't matter. And, you know, things have already changed dramatically.

That whole organization has turned over because of catch, no catch. So to the next point, the only people that care are Buffalo fans. Look, I agree with you guys. But if I was in Brandon Cook's shoes, I'd probably be saying the same thing. It probably makes him feel better that it was a catch. I caught that. You know, that's what people, it's like a defense mechanism. mechanism.

But I don't think it was a catch. I think it was the right call on the interception. And, you know, you saw him after, everybody talks about Josh and Dionne Daniels. Dionne Dawkins crying. He was crying, too. And I think he feels, he probably feels like he let the team down as well. It's a tough catch. And you can say he should have, and yeah, you would have liked him to really secure it.

But he didn't. So he probably feels best. So I get what he's doing, but it was the right call. Can I say one other thing? I do not believe Brandon Cooks. I watched Brandon Cooks. I watch football 12 hours of Sunday every Sunday. He did not react like a player who thought he had just made the game when he catch.

That's a good point. He reacted like a player who was like, oh my God, he took the ball from me. Brandon Cooks did not get up after that. Signal first down. You've got to do that, by the way. But no, but I'm just saying, in real time in the moment, his body language and reaction was not a player who was shocked. Oh, my, what do you mean? Interception.

He knew it in real time. That's what, just to circle back to the Patriots and the Drake May when I was at that game, the fact, I didn't like that Drake was coming off the field so quickly. You got to immediately, it's like, I was throwing forward. I was throwing out. Like, stay here. The offense stays on. We're not going anywhere. We've got to sell it.

Sunday on Fox, a trip to Super Bowl. Six years on the line. The Rams are in Seattle. Six o'clock, three o'clock Pacific time. Only on Fox. We're going to discuss that game right now. Sam Darnold trying to get to the Super Bowl after yet another 14-win season. Let's check out his ranks the last two years.

He's 29 and 7, including the playoffs. That's the best win-loss record in the entire league. Passing yards. third, yards per pass, he's third. Touchdowns, he's got 62, that's fifth, and his pass-for-rating, just a hair over 100, is eighth.

The question is, if he wins this game and goes to the Super Bowl, are you willing to say that he's an elite quarterback? No, one, getting, because you're not even saying, and he plays awesome in the game. But even if he, even if he plays awesome and they get there,

one awesome playoff performance judged against the entirety of his career and part of the entirety of his career is two consecutive excellent regular seasons doesn't I take you from wherever he is right now to elite and there has to be more of a path from he can't go into this game it's like he might be pure pumpkin

or elite like there's got to be a middle ground I know it's shocking though but it feels like he can not to me when I'm listening no matter how he plays this Sunday now plays great this Sunday

they get to the Super Bowl plays great in the Super Bowl they win this like then that is now more of a discussion but there is nothing that can happen on Sunday to where if Monday people are like

Nick name the elite quarterbacks in the NFL I say Sam Donald I mean I just I wouldn't I think that's fair. Yeah, I feel like if you had the picture of the pumpkin and he plays great, then half the pumpkin gets eliminated, and then he plays great in the Super Bowl, then the other half of the

pumpkin gets eliminated. But you don't get to move up from Elite that you just get the pumpkin erased. There's too much pumpkin to go from Pumpkin to Elite. Yeah, I agree. Like, the thing is this, because Wiles, you might be thinking, well, he has had two really good, elite regular seasons. Yeah, great. And if those were his first, first two years or two of his first three, then I think if he goes out and plays great this weekend, we would think, okay, he's elite. We might be thinking he's elite already if these were early in his career. But he has those six seasons, I think it's six seasons of just poor play.

And so you do have to factor that in. I even go to, and you guys mock me sometimes, Rich Gannon. Rich Gannon had 11 bad or mediocre seasons and then went to Oakland for four straight years made the Pro Bowl two times was all pro and won the MVP and got to the Super Bowl and lost and he was not considered elite I don't believe and so I think I do think there's a path for Sam this year though

if he cooks against the Rams like is great and if he cooks in the Super Bowl and win, I think you'd have to say he's elite. But elite quarterbacks are viewed as the reason we won. Right. And right now he's a not a system guy, but he's certainly not the reason. He's kind of the weak link right now. I mean, they have one of the best offenses in the league.

They happen to have one of the best defenses as well. He's the major concern going into this game for Seattle. Like, is he going to play well? And remember, the last time, the first time they played, we talked about, about this being a moment for him, and then he threw the four picks. KW. Where are you at?

Do you think he's better than Jared Gull? I don't think you do. I probably don't. But the problem, what I don't like, and it happened to Jalen Hertz a little bit, if there's nothing the guy can do outside of getting into a time machine, I think it's unfair.

No, it's KW. But I guess what I would say is, we're not saying never. We're just not saying immediately. Well, you're asking for it to be immediate. He's yet, he has, in his career, he has played two playoff games. One, he was awful. One, he was somewhat non-existent.

And they won the game by 30. I understand, but I'm not holding that against him, but it's not like he was. We haven't seen him. And so I think it's that the last two months of the year, he had eight touchdowns, eight picks. Like, and they were eight and no. I just, I don't think that one good game, all of a sudden, you're better than Jared golf. You're better than Jalen Hertz. You're better than quarterbacks that we don't consider elite. I don't know if anyone needs to leave the elite club. I think he's giving Kevin some love, though,

for his take that he's Minnesota should have kept him. Yeah, no. I mean, he's, he stood on the table all, all through that. Those guys aren't in the elite club. New team made of the year. Nobody has to leave it, but those guys aren't in it. So everyone in the elite club. Live from New York, first things first overtime today. Is there a chance? And Danny Parkins is going to make the argument, I think, that the Seattle Seahawks are an all-time great squad. Meanwhile, what would another Super Bowl mean for Matthew Stafford? Is this if he wins it or if he just makes it? First, if he makes it and then we can build from there.

Yeah, perfect. Got the case for both. And finally, Travis Kelsey opens the door to playing next year. Maybe the full season, maybe just a cameo, more than a cameo. Well, again, to be clear, he's not talking about. a cameo or anything. This is your pet theory. He's opening the door, certainly. He said it's great to see

E.B. in the building. That means he's going to be in the building, not for like, old timers day. Well, that's what I would hope. But his access card still works. So he could just come to the building. I would think he might be around there. Does he stay in Kansas City? I mean, he does live in Kansas City, but he plays for the team.

I don't know if he's a world travel. He's going to live in Kansas City. Don't mean wrong, the royals tickets are a great deal. I'm just saying I don't know if you're such a bad guy. You're from somewhere in nowhere Connecticut. I never make fun of you. Wow. Submarine capital of the world.

See this guy. Chris Bussarke, Kevin Wilde, Nick Wright, and Danny Parkins, who is about to educate everyone, a little football history. I'm excited. Sure. Something that might happen. Yeah. Sean Payton did two things while meeting with the media the other day.

One, he encouraged the fans to be loud in Denver when the Broncos host of the Patriots. Two, he gave the Patriots some bulletin board material, Danny. I put him on the bulletin board. I love the bulletin board. That was great. Take a listen. Well, they're going to have plenty of rest after this one. Two weeks. Josh is fantastic at putting together good plans offensively.

I mean, he, and so there's alerts, there's kills, there's all. And so that, look, let's go. You know, right when the, again, I keep emphasizing, just as the huddle begins until the ball snap. He's really big on them making noise while the other team is huddled. He has, like, made that point two weeks in a row that fans typically get loud once they're already going to the ball, and he wants, he thinks the most important thing is when they're in the huddle

trying to communicate the play. That does make sense. It makes sense, but I've never heard of coach. He's really like trying to coat. I've been very critical of Sean Payton. I want to give him credit because he is now also coaching up the fans. He is like, this is how we have a real advantage, all those things. I was at the Bears game, by the way, just real quick.

Every time on the scoreboard it was like, quiet, please, when they were on offense. Because the Bears would never have a good offense, so they didn't know. Just screaming. I don't like when I'm at a game being reprimanded by the court. It's literally like Caleb Williams and the video board going, shh. It's hilarious. All right, more likely the Patriots blow out the Broncos or the Broncos upset the Patriots, Parkins. So I think the game will be close, so my prediction is not either one of these, but more likely is Patriots blowout.

There we go. Right. I mean, it has to be on the board that Jared Stidham is just bad. If we don't think that Bo Nix is great, maybe league average somewhere around there, maybe slightly above average, and this is his backup. So Jared Stidham is worse than a quarterback who is league. average and Drake May this year as a top two quarterback in the sport that's a huge disadvantage like we've seen if we define blowout as what double digits yeah right 14 more than yeah all right well Jacksonville right that's the only team that blew out Denver

this year yeah it happened once and that game was 3420 Bo Nix had a fumble and a pick and Trevor Lawrence played a great game now those turnovers only actually did lead to three points but it was just a lot of empty possessions for Denver because of inconsistent quarterback play. And so, Jared Stidham, it is obviously on the board that this is too much for him. Four career starts, zero

passes this year, that he is completely overwhelmed by the moment, and that would lead to a blowout. So, yeah, it certainly blowout is on the board, but I totally disagree with that that's the more likely of the two things, because I think the Broncos winning is also on the board, and I think the Broncos

winning is more likely than the Patriots annihilate him, and I disagree with your the Bo Nix, Jared Stidham analysis. Like, Bo Nix this year was, I think, 27th in passer rating forever that's worth. And they won

a bunch of games this year with what was not league average quarterback play, what was bad quarterback play. I also don't think, let me make this very clear. I do believe Bo Nix is better than Jared Stidham. However,

if Siddham were better than him, I don't think that means Stittam would have been the starter. You know what I mean? Bo Nix was the guy they drafted. We're growing with him. I think that even if Stidham was marginally better than him in training camp, there was no quarterback competition in Denver this year. Like that was, that's the guy there to be going with.

And so while I do not think it is on the board, Jared Stidham gives them the level of quarterback play they got from Bo Nix last week and they needed every last bit of it. It's the best game of his career. I do think it's on the board. He gives them the level of quarterback play they were getting in September and October from Bo Nix where they want, but where they beat good teams and won games. And so if the path, just like you were saying, the path for a Patriots blowout is very, we know what it is. Stidham is just bad.

The path for a Broncos upset, we also know what it is, that they don't recover half of Drake May's fumbles. that the Broncos defense get, that the Patriots offensive line gets beat up again, and the Patriots defensive front goes from going up against two of the two worst offensive lines in the playoffs to the best offensive line in the playoffs, and they're not able to wreak as much havoc. And this is a 13 to 13 game in the balance, and you have a young quarterback on the road to go to the Super Bowl. Like that is, like you said, I'm also not predicting the thing that I think is more like,

but I think we are more likely on Monday to be discussing a 16-13 Broncos win than a 31-10 Patriots win. I do think that. Yeah, look, I think both things are on the board. And I'm with Nick, though. I'm not made my pick yet, but obviously I think I'm going to pick the Patriots.

I expect them to win. But I could see a Broncos win. Like, it's not hard for me. to envision a Broncos winning. Like you said, it's just the pass rush, which is the best in the league, getting to Drake, Drake making some mistakes,

the Broncos playing otherwise great game defensively, and smart game offensively. And Stidham, being careful with him, not putting him in positions to make mistakes. He's probably a smart quarterback and a quick processor,

and he does just enough to get them a few points, maybe one touchdown or none, but maybe one touchdown he throws and they run for another. Low scoring game that Denver wins. I think this is going to be a tough game for the Patriots. Yeah, again, I do too. I think this is going to be a low scoring close game. That is what my pick would be.

My bets will correlate to that. But I just think the biggest X factor here is a quarterback who's thrown zero passes this year. The last two years. Yeah. And so I just, I think it is most likely. like what's the more likely result? Jared Stidham great game or Jared Stidham bad game? Jared Steadham bad game is more likely result, but there's the...

There's a middle ground. And also the Broncos, I don't think the Broncos lose all of the bad Jared Stidham games. They lose all of the awful Jared Stidham games, but I don't think they necessarily, you know, like I don't think Jared Stidham bad game guarantees a loss. I also think, right now we'll say at the very least, I believe the best first first, half any quarterback will have played against the Patriots in these playoffs will be Stittam on Sunday. He is going to be better than Herbert was in that first half and certainly better than C.J. Stroud wasn't that first half. It would be impossible to be theirs. The Patriots

forced, you know, to their credit, just one out of a hundred quarterback performances from the opposing quarterbacks. And those games were one score games deep into the second half. Like the Patriots, and again, the flip side to it wilds is, I don't think we might disagree. I don't think Drake Mays played a great game yet. He's had great moments, but I don't even know if he's played a good full game yet, and they've won both the games comfortably. So that's a testament to how good the Patriots team has been.

But I don't think there's going to be huge drop-off from playoff Justin Herbert, whatever's going on with C.J. Stroud and Jared Stittam, as far as the quarterbacks, the Patriots have been up against. I'm pretty confident that the Patriots. are going to blow out the Broncos. Oh, you're predicting a ball out. I think so. And we have won both of our games pretty easily.

Like we won the Chargers game pretty easily. And Justin Herbert, like, people were picking the Chargers to win. It wasn't like all of a sudden it was like, oh, my goodness. Turns out the Chargers offensive line isn't great. And the Patriots took care of them. A lot of people, some whole shows picked the Texans to win. I didn't think that was easy. Stroud had a bad game against the Steelers.

But you thought the Texas game was an easy game or you guys pulled away at the end. Right. They were within. I mean, it's a final score going into the fourth. It's a five point game and booty makes the catch of the year. Right. Like that is. No.

Yeah, but that was at the end. You're saying the final score was a blowout technically, but it was. You felt you watched that. You were at the game. No, I mean, I felt like that was an easy way. I felt like we were in control of the game. Oh, I do think you were in control of the game. Never in danger of losing it.

We put up 28 points. You know, we had to pick six. That, like, it's a team game. So here's the, why I think it's why I think we're going to blow out the Broncos. One, and this is like, well, this is going to be close. This is going to be, you know, iron sharpens iron. Drake May is the best completion percentage. Broncos defense is, you know, best at stopping it.

But, Danny, I'm going to read you a list of quarterbacks. And you tell me which one you think Drake May belongs in. And look, hurt people, hurt people. Okay? I have been having to deal with the slings and arrows of a cupcake schedule, knowing that the Broncos also had a cupcake schedule. But everyone can, and Drake May has gotten happy off of playing weaker defenses, even though the defense is actually okay.

But I think the Broncos defense has also gotten fat and happy off of playing these quarterbacks. They held Cam Ward to 12 in his debut. Jake Browning to three. Justin Fields to 11. Gino to seven. Davis Mills to 15. And these count, even though they were late in the year.

Oludken to 13. And Trey Lance to three when the Chargers were resting everyone. So tell me if Drake Blight May belongs in that caliber of quarterback or this caliber of quarterback. Josh got 30 this weekend. Trevor got 34. Daniel Jones put up 28. Jordan Love put up 26. Marriota put up 26.

Jackson Dart put up 26, DAC put up 24. So I don't think it's going to be 1310. I think it's going to be 21, 28. I do think we can have, if not a defensive score. I don't think a guy who hasn't thrown a pass in two years is going to have a flawless game. But Drake May might be rattled.

I don't think that actually makes rational sense. No, I think the rattle would be, it's the crowd noise, it's the road, it's all of that. I think that really matters in the NFL playoffs. And I also, if we're going to do the tit for tat on that, what I will say is this, because Drake May has been great on the road. The converse is who are, if we have it, I think we do, the road defenses that they've played. So none of them are good.

The best ones, the bills, and you swore to me, all year the bills defense was bad. So this is far and away the best defense he has faced in a tough environment. And so I do think like that is the... And there's a big mismatch of Broncos pass rush, Patriots left side of the offensive line. Like that could just... There could be three more fumbles in this game. That is just a undeniable mismatch. If you turn the ball over a bunch of times, I don't care if you're Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, it's not going to work.

He has to hold on to the ball, but I am predicting a comfortable win. And I think that instead we come on like, oh, it's, you know... 1410, I think we're saying, of course, the defense is really good, and they're playing in an MVP against a guy who hadn't thrown a pass in two years. When you say it like that, it makes a lot of sense. You know what, Danny? That's why your teammate of the year. Oh, wow, thanks, buddy.

Ram Seahawks Sunday at 6. This one's on Fox. Donald says he's going to play confident. Take a listen. I got to take care of the football at the end of the day, and, you know, that's where my mind's at, but, you know, if we get the right coverage and the right play, and I feel like the guys open, going to let it rip. We've kind of seen throughout the playoffs, honestly, too. Like teams that take care of the football are, you know, usually the ones that end up in the

wind column at the end of the day. Just for the record, not always. Danny, is it on the board that the Seahawks are an all-time great team? Shockingly, yes. I like this. I've said that they have been the first or second best team in the NFL all year. And they have the most blowout wins, and they have the best point differential. So those were things for like this season. But I honestly hadn't really looked until Pact stats yesterday in the comparison to the Legion of Boom of where they ranked historically.

But if you do scoring 28 or more, and we have the list of the teams here, and allowing 17 or less, it is a who's who of some teams that you just know. And only the 90s, the 90 Bills did not win the Super Bowl. And if you look at it, it's like, okay, does it feel like a Sam Darnold-led team belongs on that list? Probably not.

But if all of the underlying stats and the accomplishments, and then they ultimately, they have to get it done, right? Like the 90s bills also did not win the Super Bowl. But if they actually end this thing with a Lombardi trophy and the stats are, their point differentials all time, their points allowed as low, their points scored as high, why wouldn't they be? Go ahead. I say the thing, if they can put, you can put that list back up there.

The only quarterback who wasn't great. Mark Rippin. Rippin and Jim McMahon with the Bears. Well, right, but so, but Mark Rippin was, and he was second team all pro that year, fourth an MVP. That wasn't Riggins. Riggins was before that. Before, correct.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying. You got Hall famers on it. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like a lot of the elite teams in history, have had great offensive players, great, like Hall of Fame. Now, again, some of these defenders might emerge is that. But Seattle's got JSN, but outside of him, there's nobody I see on that offensive team, you know, that I'm saying, like, is all-time great?

And so that would be, and then you got the darnle factor. Unless he, is he about to go on? Now, look, five years from now, if he has become one of the best quarterbacks in the league, won a Super Bowl, then we'll look back at this like, oh, yeah, that'll change things. But right now it's hard for me to say a team is all-time great with Sam Darno and a quarterback. So I think on that graphic, the only team that I feel like would be a comp is the 91 Washington team that our friend Stink was on. That it because they, when people talk about the greatest teams in NFL history, nobody ever mentions them. They were not wildly memorable.

They didn't have a bunch of iconic players. But if you look at the data, it's like, that's certainly one of the most dominant single seasons ever. And if this, so I, again, this is similar to, I want to make this clear, the Texans thing I was doing last week, it is predicated on if they end up running the table. You know what I mean? If they win the whole thing, if this team wins the whole thing, they will have gone. 17 and 3. The three losses will have been week one of the season where they

had down four with a chance to win fumble the ball. Does not count? 3835 game to Baker and the Bucks where they're up seven with 90 seconds left. Lawa touchdown fumble either a kick return or shortly thereafter lose on a

field goal and by two to a Rams team when they turn the ball over four times that they then went back and beat twice more. Yep. Would have had one of the hardest schedules in the best division in football and their first playoff game,

they won by 35 points. And so if they do all that and then beat the, you know, and then win the Super Bowl, it will, I think, objectively be one of the greatest seasons ever. Like an all-time great season. No, it doesn't feel like that.

No, it doesn't feel like. But it's just all season long we've said are there any great teams? And this is a year that feels like a down year kind of for the lead. But how much of that brood do you think is because we don't really like if Seattle was on the east coast and a market if like if. If the Cowboys were having this. Or yeah, or I mean even if the giants just or the. But a lot of it is that like I said, like even that Jim McMahon team, they had Walter Payton. You know, like they don't have an elite all-time running back, an all-time quarterback,

JSN, okay, I'll give you him. Could be. But like that, and that Washington, that's a great comp. Like you said, the data would say they're one of the all-time great teams. Does anybody think of them as one of the all-time great teams? I wonder if it's because we don't have any momentum for this team, that it's not even like the Chief's team that you saw, you know, lose to the Patriots, but here comes Mahomes and Tyreeks explosive.

Even the Eagles had a great run. Like they lost in the Super Bowl, then a down. You know, you have a story. This is just, bang, Sam Donald's now on the Seahawks, and they're an all-time great team. What did they win last year? 10. 10?

10 and missed the playoffs. And missing the playoffs, I guess. Because, like, they were good last year. McDonald was talked about as a really good coach last year, and their roster is deep. And I went back and look, because, yeah, Stink would say, 91 Washington, best team in NFL history. And then you go back and look at it.

It's like Ernest Beiner, like, Derell Green. Like, you know what I mean? It's like a weird. Darrow Green, excuse me. Yeah, it's just like, it's like a weird, it's a weird moment in time. But there were six guys who made all pro that year. To ask you another question, Danny? Did, and I'm only, I don't mean to put you on the spot if you don't know it,

but you are the king of cool stats. Oh, here we go. Does the 20, whenever you put the cap on it, 2817, I think, is like the new. Is like the new sort of offense skew this at all when we're comparing teams from the 90s? Or is it? Oh, you mean because, well, but that would cut in both directions. Because that would mean it's harder to keep teams under 17. No, I mean, I don't.

I think this is, listen, I'm going to pick the Rams this weekend. I think the Rams had bad punk coverage on Rashid Shaheed's return, and that's the reason they're not the one seed. I disagreed with Brew. but you know that's I disagree with that there's not a great team but the great the great team that I think is playing in this game is the Rams it's like I so

I'm not so I am not projecting any of this but I this to me feels like as an element almost a fairness if you have played that one of the toughest schedules in the toughest division had the best record annihilated your first playoff opponent,

and you have been blowing people out all year, even if going into the year we didn't really believe in you because we don't really believe in your quarterback and you play in the Pacific Northwest. Like, to me, that is... You are right there on the verge of calling Sam Darnold Elite, though. You're right there on the verge. No, but you could be on an elite team

without having an elite quarterback and some of the guys there. What's interesting to the era point, though, the Eagles would tell you that last year's team was an all-time great team. They were telling, they kept saying it. And by point differential, they were. And by the stretch that they went on down the stretch. I do think maybe now there are, like the teams at the bottom are worse.

So we have more blowouts. Like I would like to look into that. Yeah, I think that is a thing. That just the bad teams are really bad, that there is no sort of middle class of the NFL anymore. Yeah, because this team, at the end, they are going to have a very easy case to make, even if no one will believe it. I'm going to call Sam Darnal Elite. You wouldn't do that 40 minutes ago. You just laid out a great point.

You just ran the hardest schedule. They're blowing team guy. That was a spout the Seahawks. You called the team elite. Well, who's leading the offense? Sam Darnold. There you go. Guys.

He walks right into that one. Guys, if a restaurant, like, this is the best restaurant. This is one of the best restaurants of the world. Hey, is the chef any good? No, actually, no. He's good. He's not great.

Well, how's the elite? It's so good. Thanks for hanging out with us on front of me is a breaking news edition. The Ravens have just made it official in the last minute that they have made a hire. Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is Lamar Jackson's new head coach. The Chargers defense ranked ninth in points and first an opponent pass rating. The 42-year-old Minter, former defensive coordinator at Michigan, of course, with the Chargers, had a coaching stint earlier in his career with the Ravens. Nick, do you like this higher for Baltimore?

I don't dislike it. I feel like for almost any of the first-time head coaches, a lot of people in our position, opinion is informed by what we are told about the person. And so he did seem to be of all the first-time head coaches, potential first-time head coaches that were in the cycle, the hottest name two months ago, one month ago, certainly on the defensive side,

with Clint Kubiak being on the offensive side. I do find a lot of it very interesting. Like, first of all, his entire, almost the entirety of his kind of adult football life, if you will, has been with one of the Harbaugh's. So he was with Baltimore from 17 through 20 with John Harbaugh, brief Senate Vanderbilt, then Michigan. with Jim Harbaugh wins national championship and then last year obviously

or last couple years with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan or at with the Chargers and now he takes over for John Harbaugh. I think it is interesting that the Ravens plan is for Lamar's, they hope for Lamar's entire career him to never have an offensive-minded

head coach and I also think it is interesting that they are taking what I consider a big swing here rather than going stability of, you know, whether it's Mike McCarthy or whomever. Like I know they weren't interviewing Matt Nagy, but someone who has been a head coach before, they're taking a swing and it's impossible to judge it. It does seem like he's a very Ravens type of hire, but I did, I thought they might go outside of the box on this.

Yeah, I think that Jesse Minter did a great job with the Chargers. Like, if you just think about their roster, their defense outperforms the level of talent that is on their defense. They have good players, but Herbert's expensive, Slater's expensive, alt's expensive. They've used first round picks on the offensive side of the ball. And then you look at their defense and it's like, wow, number one rush defense two years ago. This year, number one, an opponent passer rating, dealt with some edge rushing injuries this year, Kaleel Mack most notably. And they still performed pretty consistently.

I have no other deduction or conclusion to come to there, then that's good coaching. They overachieved relative to the talent level on that side of the ball. You know, I like younger coaches. So 42 years old can just, you've got a long runway in theory, if it works. You can be there for a long time.

But I, too, would have thought they would have gone offense because the thing you've got to figure out is, can you transition Lamar Jackson from great? quarterback and elite athlete to just great quarterback as the athleticism wanes into his 30s. And now the immediate question becomes, who is Jesse Mintz are going to hire to be Lamar's offensive coordinator? And listen, our friend and colleague Diana Rusini reporting that Lamar has some affinity for Cliff Kingsbury, that to me would be very interesting. I think Cliff is a very good offensive coordinator.

and I think that's the job he should have. I didn't, you know, whether it was at Texas Tech or at Arizona, I didn't love Cliff as a head coach, but everywhere he's been as an offensive coordinator makes a ton of sense. It also, I believe Jesse Minter's first job is developing a relationship with Lamar Jackson because what the fact that Lamar, whatever the relationship with Harbaal was at the end,

well before we were at the end, the head coach of the Ravens over the last four years has not been able to get an accurate read on the health status of the quarterback of the Ravens. The quarterback of the Ravens is the same guy. We now have a new head coach. So I don't know what pointers, you know, John Harbaugh can give, tell his brother to tell Jesse

or how they can get to get, whatever it is. but I find it very interesting that they are hiring a guy that was there when Lamar was drafted, a guy that there's not many players on the defense that were there then, but that the team itself is familiar with and a guy who learned under John Harbaugh. Mike McDonald was there. They lost him. Obviously can't bring him back. He's the head coach in Seattle.

But they're bringing this guy back. There's something like Apple releases a new product and you're like, it's probably going to be good. They got into the watch game. It was very popular. I do think that there is something to be said of, the Ravens are a really good organization, and they know this guy,

and they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Oh, yeah. Just benefit of the doubt, tie goes to competency. They're a well-run organization. I'm sure, like, not sure anybody can flame out or get over-promoted, but they know this guy, and they deserve the benefit of the doubt that they're going to get it right.

Oh, and he was the hot, like, the, I think the hottest candidate of any of the people that didn't have coaching experience. I like this higher more than I would have liked Robert Sala. I'd tell you that much. Yeah, I agree. We're upside. And so I like this higher more than I would have liked Jeff Hathley, which was one we didn't spend much time talking about,

but I was a little surprised that he got a head coaching job this cycle. I just, I don't want to repeat myself. I am, it is bold to say we're the Baltimore Ravens. We're just sticking with a defensive culture and a defensive head coach. I mean, Brian Billick was, they had those great defenses, but he was an offensive guy. John Harbaugh was special teams guy. And so I guess another way to look at it is this is the first defensive-minded head coach they've had because Billick was offense and Harbaugh was special teams.

teams, even though we thought of those teams when they won championships as defensive teams. Yeah, and we talked about how special this job opening is and how rare it is to be able to coach an MVP under 30. They're higher, like, they know how good the job opening is. And they're entrusting it to this. Just real, to reiterate that point in the last 50 years in the NFL, man, prior to three weeks ago. Twice, right? No, well, twice, but the same player.

Same team. The only MVP quarterback in his 30s. to have the head coach, or before he turned 30, pardon me, job come open was Brett Farr. And Brett Farr, it wasn't because they fired Mike Holmgren. Mike Holmgren wanted more power. They wouldn't give it to him, so he left. They then hired Ray Rhodes, didn't like it after one year,

brought in Mike Sherman. This never happens. And in the last three weeks, two or two weeks, two of these jobs have come open. One of them is now filled, and now we see what the bills do. Yeah, it being filled by a first time head coach is a pretty crazy thing. Big come up for Jesse Minner. Let's talk Matt Stafford because he is on the precipice of reaching a second Super Bowl.

He obviously has the one ring and people think he is about to win his first MVP. I'm going to make the case for you here. And the question is, what does a second MVP mean for Stafford? A second Super Bowl. A second Super Bowl, excuse me, a second Super Bowl appearance mean for Stafford. And when you just start parsing the list, put it together. These are quarterbacks who have won an MVP and appeared in two Super Bowls. He'd be the 12th to ever do it.

And the list is a who's who of the NFL. Everyone who's eligible to make it into the Hall of Fame did, except for Joe Thaisman. Obviously Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, they'll be there shortly. But if you, then if he wins the Super Bowl, you can cut out four names from that list. And it gets down to seven guys who, have done it. And am I ready to make a Matt Stafford as the eighth greatest quarterback of all time argument? No, but he is also going to be top five in passing yards next year, assuming Aaron Rogers retires. Like it is very quickly going to be a pretty ironclad all time great case when

it comes to accomplishments for Matt Staff. So listen, I think the, let's just go player for player. Sure. And let's just say, wins this weekend. We don't know what happens in the Super Bowl. Yeah, we can take a step at a time. Sure. Matt Stafford, all-time quarterback ranking versus, we'll start with the easy one. Philip Rivers.

Stafford. Versus Eli. Stafford. Now it gets harder. Versus Big Ben. So Big Ben never. Big Ben never won an MVP. Right.

But big to me, he is. even with, and I'll say, even if he wins the Super Bowl, I don't know if I'd elevate him ahead of Big Ben. With an MVP in two rings and top five all-time passing? So Big Ben, Big Ben is, you know, the consistent excellence, also two rings, would have a third appearance. Yep. And then the other name I was going to say, Drew Breeze.

Drew Breeze, no MVP, only one Super Bowl. It would be hard for me to argue, even though. he would have those accolades, like Big Ben and Drew Bree, is not on any of those graphics. Right. I... Bree's second all time and pass. Yeah, I'm not ready to put, elevate him past the room those guys are in.

I'll put him in the room with them. But the... And so all those guys you mentioned, especially on your second graphic, are in a totally separate room. I mean, the second graphic is Brady, Bradshaw, Montana, Mahomes, Bart Star, Peyton Manning, and John Elway. Yes. It's just, it's arguably...

the, you know, four of the seven greatest quarterbacks of all time. I just the counting stats piece of it for him is interesting because he's always just been a gunslinger. He's sometimes, he played on bad teams who was trailing a lot. Some of it's a garbage time argument at the time in Detroit. But if he does play three more years,

he's not playing three more years, bro. He's 37 years old. He almost retired. He's not, listen, I, yeah, I mean, if he compiles more and more and more, but I, I, well, I mean, he plays one more year. He becomes the fifth all-time leading passer. plays three more years, he becomes third.

And he would pass Fav and Peyton. He'd pass Favre and Peyton if he plays three more years. It's just he needs a few thousand yards extra then all of a sudden gets him up there. I don't know. It's a pretty... It's an exclusive club. Listen, I...

Here is where I will just pump the brakes a bit. And I am a huge Stafford guy. The... As of six weeks ago, he was an underdog to be a Hall of Famer. And so I'm not yet, I'm not going to say within 10 weeks of being an underdog to be a Hall of Famer, he can then become a top 10 all-time quarterback. I get it.

But if those six weeks, you win a Super Bowl, a second Super Bowl, and a big MVP, it's a pretty big six weeks. I don't think he's had a better career than Big Ben, even if he wins it. And I don't think he's a better player than Drew Breeze. I don't hear on that one. But Eli, Rivers, the other MVPs of Azera, Ryan and Matt Ryan, Cam, Cam Newton, obviously. I haven't had it. Willie Colon and Coach Mangini come out to react to the big news out of Baltimore and what it means for Lamar. We got Willie Colon and Coach Mangini out here on the OT continuing to react to the breaking news

that Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens have a new head coach. and it is a former assistant coach with the Ravens. Most recently, the defensive coordinator of the Chargers, Jesse Minter, 42 years old, gets the coveted job of coaching the two-time MVP Lamar Jackson. Coach, your reaction in how you think Lamar should feel about this higher. This makes a lot of sense. And I've talked a lot about how long that personnel department's been together

and whether it's the GM, the pro-personnel director, or the salary cap director, right on the line, there's people that have been in that building for a long time. So for them to go hire a coach that's been in the building, understands how things work. The owner was probably familiar with him, not as intensely as maybe a defensive coordinator or offensive coordinator, but he's worked with the group,

and they know him, and he knows them. So that's a real positive. But yet then he left, went and got experience at Vanderbilt, that at Michigan was able to coach a game at Michigan and be a head coach and then had the success with the Chargers. So you get a young coach who's also familiar with a very established organization. You have a chance that to hit the ground running have the new ideas. And so I see why that all fits together. In terms of hiring a defensive head coach versus an offensive head coach, that to me can be a little bit overrated.

It's more important that you get a head coach of the whole team. And it also sounds like Lamar was involved in the head coaching process by what's been said. So I imagine there was some sign off there also. Yeah, listen, I think it makes sense from a philosophy standpoint. They're staying consistent. Harbaugh was a special team's defense amount of guy. They got another guy. You know, he's 42 years old.

You imagine the runway will be long just like it was for John Harbaugh. I think right now it's about how do you kind of get this. defense back on par and being that daunted raven's defense. That's one thing you need in the AMC North, especially if you plan on making a playoff team. Every playoff team right now, it has a defense. If you have aspirations of going back to the playoffs, you need somebody that can get the best out of Kyle Hampton, Kyle Hamilton, and some of these young guys that they have on the

roster. Nevertheless, man, you know, you just want to see this team getting back to what they believe in. That's playing in meaningful games in December and cracking the playoffs. The Ravens have, I think, more talent than the charge. do on the defensive side of the ball. And the chargers under Jesse Minter this year, ninth in points,

15 yards, first an opponent pass a rating, seventh and takeaways, 10th and sacks. He coached them up. They overachieved. And yet Eric Acosta, the GM of the Ravens, has already put out a statement, like welcoming him back to the family. So I do think that there is continuity here.

It's just a, it's a great job opening. To be able to coach 29-year-old two-time MVP, Lamar Jack. Jackson and have it be your first job as a head coach. It's just a, it's a premium gig for a first gig. Well, it's a great opportunity for him, too, because having that relationship with the GM, having that relationship with everybody in the building, that can be a real challenge, too, for a first time head coach, being familiar with.

And not as many introductions, right? You already know the answer. It's not even that component. It's how do you work the draft process? How do you work free agency? how do things work in terms of organizational hierarchy? There's so many elements to it that can be, it's a learning curve for anybody who comes in the building.

At least he's got, he has that exposure to the system. And he does have an extremely strong personnel department to support him. And that's huge. That should be a huge asset on top of Lamar. Yeah, I think the only, I guess, con, if you will, that he doesn't have any head coaching experience, right? And sometimes... I forgot about the one game at Michigan.

A little suspension situation. Undefeated. Right, so that's maybe the one thing you kind of worry about because as much as he's been a part of the kitchen on how to make the sauce and kind of get things developed, there's still something about, as coach, you know, I can't tell you enough about it, is sitting on that sideline being the guy making the decision,

especially in, you know, late game decisions and having to have to take all the arrows in front of the media, having to talk to your guys before the game and after the game and really have to rally a bunch of guys who are looking for some type of facelift, right? Like, John Hallbaugh was their guy for 18 years. Now you're the new guy. People pay attention to how you move.

Like when I was there with Mike Thomas first year, and, you know, a lot of what he had to do was convince guys from a preparation standpoint and an end-game standpoint that he was worthy of the job. That takes time. That's trial through fire. So that's something he's going to have to go through. And hopefully, you know, I wish him the best, but I don't. Yeah, right.

And I know there's a discussion about Cliff Kingsbury. If you go and you do hire someone like Cliff, to me it's not just about him being an offense coordinator, but having a former head coach on the other side of the ball, that has real value too, because you can be confident that he can handle that. But it's also nice to have a guy who's done the job before to go bounce ideas off of. Because there's always five things that come up each day that you've never had any experience dealing with. So to be able to walk down the hall and say, hey, this came up, what do you think? That has huge value.

So I'll admit, I normally am biased towards offensive coaches. I know it's a huge shocker. It's the Madden player. But no, my argument always was, like, for your quarterback, you would want the continuity. If your offensive coordinator got hired away, you know, you'd want that continuity for your quarterback. But the exception I would always say was, like, unless you have an established great quarterback where, like, they are the offense. So, like, if the Bengals wanted to hire a defensive coach, it would be no problem. And I guess my question is, does Lamar fit into that category?

Because clearly he is an established great player in the league. But I would imagine he needs to be ready to transition parts of his game as the athleticism wanes for Lamar going forward. Yeah, there is going to be a transition. But Joe Burrough, I'm sure, wishes he had a better defense a lot of times. So he doesn't have to go out and score 30 plus points every game. And that can be a fantastic asset to a great player because we expect them to be great every single week, but it's not going to happen. The guys have down games and to have a really good defense that can support you and all the great things that you do. That's huge.

42-year-old Jesse Minner, the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens when he got there, the charges were the 24th ranked defense. They've been the third-ranked defense overall in the aggregate for the last two years. and Justin Herbert have now lost their offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator what it means. But they do have Mike McDaniel. It's coming up on the O.T. Welcome back to the O.T. The other side of the coin. So the Ravens have hired Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to be their next head coach. That means the Chargers. They've lost Greg Roman.

They fired him as their offensive coordinator. Lose Jesse Minter to a head coaching job. Mike McDaniel is expected to officially be named the head, the offensive coordinator of the Chargers. their defensive coordinator position is now vacant. A lot of people thinking that's going to be a promotion from within. Coach should Chargers fans be feeling optimistic with changing new offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator in one year? Well, if it was a year ago, and you're looking at the Philadelphia Eagles who did it and had a ton of success,

you'd say yes. But then if you look at the Detroit Lions this year, who changed both of them and it didn't work out as well as they hope to. Typically, when you change them both, it's not great. And I'd say the Eagles were more of an aberration than the... Norm. Yeah, I mean, for the offensive side of the ball, you would hope this run game comes in life, comes alive. And also, they're going to have to figure out what they're going to do with this

offense in line, right? Because you can't go through another season of watching Herbert pick his back off the turf, right? And one thing you can stabilize the offense is by having a run game. Hope, I always love what McDaniel was able to do in Miami. If he does land a job with the charges, hopefully that's a bright spot for the team. Yeah, it's pretty obvious, right? The expectation would be that the offense gets better and the defense probably gets a little worse. You bring in Mike McDaniel?

Mike McDaniel, you get Joe Alt and Rishon Slater back. Right. I have a hard time believing the Chargers offense is going to be worse next year than it was this year. Yeah, if you're healthy, you're typically better. Right, if you're healthy, you get a great coach. But the defense will probably regress a little bit. But you know what? Build around Justin Herbert.

It's a sound plan. We'll see you tomorrow.