Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Bills in Full Panic Mode, Bears Can't Close, and more Divisional Round Reax

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Geoff Schwartz and Gabe Goodwin discuss NFL and college football headlines. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code GEOFF to get $200 in free bonus bets when you bet just $5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Monday, January 19th. I'm Jeff Schwartz. That will be gig. Good, and this Jeff Schwartz is smart. You're presented by Draftings. Draftings, The Crown is yours. And we had a wonderful weekend of divisional round football game. We also have tonight the National Championship game between Indiana and Miami.

There have been 10 NFL games played between the last time college football played. It is a problem with the cultural schedule. We'll touch on that. We talk about the game near the end of the show. But first, Gabe, how is your weekend? This is the best weekend of football, man, in the NFL. Just the night game on Saturday was what it was. But the other three games were fantastic.

You were angrily texting the group thread defending Caleb Williams' honor. You did a good job with that. Your check from him will clear shortly. But nonetheless, good weekend of ball. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. I don't know about you, Jeff. Well, I do know about you because we get to talk every week.

But I pulled what I would consider a veteran move. And I got ahead of things with my wife. And I said, hey, what about if we have like all the families, you know, Littal League, all the people we hang around to, how about we have them over after practice? You know, the games can be on. We'll go outside. The kids can play. Maybe we'll order some food.

And then boom, without her realizing it, I had two football games to watch. I barely left the couch. So I've watched more football than unusual. Not good. Look, I do this. I told you this before. What we do in this family is we have people over on Sunday to make it to where my wife has like the friends over and the family over.

And then the kids are playing by them. themselves and the dads get to watch football. So that's what we do every Sunday. Every Sunday, Saturday's a little different. Saturday is a lot of kids' activities and whatnot. I've told you before. Oregon's a priority, but I'll fit in college football like when I can. Sunday is like the day we sit there at 1 o'clock, have people over, grill when the weather's

nice and have a lot of fun doing that. Did not do that this Sunday. It was only two games and my kids were skiing. But nonetheless, a lot of fun to watch games this weekend. I think we're going to start with Buffalo, correct? Yeah, I mean, listen, one of the guys who could be sitting on a couch, you know, next to the other fellows in the neighborhood soon is Sean McDermott. Kind of a surprise because the Buffalo head coach is fired after, you know, coming up short of expectations several years in a row here. They keep making the playoffs and then not getting where they want to be, which is the Super Bowl.

But oddly, and this is the part I'd like you to react to, oddly, the GM was promoted, not fired. And many observers, including our Palmyna Kimes, sort of point out, like, there are, Plenty of things wrong there. Coaching wasn't it. GM might have been. Like, what's going on in Buffalo? Okay, so this is where I net on this. After the game, you saw Josh Allen's emotions, correct?

You saw Dionne Dawkins' emotions. And those are normal emotions to have, right? Being sad, you put in a hard work for the season, you lose in the playoffs. Everyone's sad, right? It's terrible. But this felt especially worse than most years. I thought that this loss was the one that would break Buffalo, right? Think about what was the stake this year.

No Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. They put the graphic up during their game. Josh Allen 0 and 5 in the playoffs against Burrow and Mahomes, undefeating against everyone else, right? And so this is your opportunity. This AFC is the weakest that's been since what, Gabe? I mean, no Tom Brady Patriots, no, no chiefs, no, no, like good Joe Borough team, right?

Like this is, this is no Baltimore team. This is the time to do it right now. I mean, the championship game is, is Bo Nix. I was known he's not playing, obviously. And Drake May, right?

Think about the court by sitting at home right now. This was the opportunity for Buffalo to get this done. And they didn't play well. No, Josh Allen didn't play well either, right? That's part of the discussion. He wasn't his best self. And as the years have gone by,

he's played worse in playoff games. It's a little bit much how the media coddles him. Like, I get he's emotional and sucks to see someone emotional like that. But this wasn't his best game, right? You do bad interception, a really terrible fumble. This is where coaching matters, right? Because before the knee, Sean McDermott's got to say, hey, man, we're just taking a knee.

Like, we're, like, we're just, we're not, you know, I thought Romo was better than usual yesterday, actually. Romo said at the time, he goes, you're not going to score on that play. Why bother run the play? He's absolutely right. So there was some coaching issues, but Josh Allen didn't play very well. And, and something had to,

change because I really do feel if they were to run this unit back the same as they did this year, they would have had like a chief situation, like a six and ten season or seven and ten season, something like that, where it just didn't go their way. Like they seem very broken after that game. It's easier right now, I think, to fire the coach

than the general manager, even though I think the general manager's very much up for debate here. Brandon Bean has not drafted very well. I think the last, I think this is in Josh Allen draft, he's drafted like two pro bowlers. They draft no wide receivers. I mean, it's legitimately a bad roster. Josh Allen rises up above that, so he deserves credit for that.

And I know Brandon B. got promoted, which I find shocking. But I think setting aside that part of it, it wasn't all McDermott's fault gave, but this is the end of the line. Like, it's just done. And there were a couple examples of you. You fire a coach who has a good team like this. The next year, they win a championship, right? happened with Dungeon, Grun, I believe.

One of the example where you basically fired a ready-made team. I think actually, it might be another way around with Dungee in Tampa Bay, I mean, in Indianapolis. Like, you fire like sort of a coach and the new one comes in and boom. Like, this feels like a situation where that could happen here in Buffalo.

But the excruciating pain the way they lose these games, something had to be done. And it's just easier to fire the head coach. Now, I'm surprised at GM got a promotion, but that's a chain of custody thing, right? Like chain of command that I should say, like where it very clear was McDermott reported to the GM and the head coach, the GM and the owner. Now it goes, you know,

coach GM up to the owner. Like they just made the latter different essentially. But this had to be done in my opinion, Gabe. It's not McDermott's fault per se, but this is the end of the line for him. So I'm going to make a comparison to sort of corporate setting, right? Like, there are kind of jobs where you're really busy all the time doing the thing, right? And so in my world, like, they're great showrunners, producers who are just like going out and like making the stuff. And they're busy all day and they're up all night and they're always thinking about the show and the talent and everything else. And then there's like executives, you know, and I've been both of those people. You have time in your day as an executive to like go kiss the boss's ass or send that extra

email or kind of frame things up in a meeting that kind of favor you over somebody else. you can even if you don't mean to do it you can kind of establish like some finger pointing if you have that kind of job a head coach in the NFL does not have time for those politics i wouldn't think so do you think that like gms basically see a point where they're like i got to kind of blame this thing on coach so i can protect my job and yes intentionally or otherwise just knife them yes look think about this during a game who is the owner typically sitting with i assume the GM or the equivalent. Some front-off as big brain guy.

So when a bad play happens on the field, you can just be like, look at that dumb coach. Yeah, talk to him about that last week. Right. Right. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's easy to do that. While you might not be absolutely doing it to throw the guy under the bus on purpose,

it's easy to come off as that pretty easily, right? Like, 100%. And so I think that this is the relationship you have with the owner as a general manager is a lot different. It's why these GMs survive. The GMs survived. If you hired a coach that was bad, and then you hired a draft a quarterback that was bad.

Why do you think you're going to hire a better coach in a year two? Or not year two, but this I can go around, right? Gabe, we draft a quarterback better. They said, go around. Brandon Bean has Josh Allen. They got to draft better. You got to develop players better.

I mean, we were texting before the show. I think Hanks sent this over. The bills haven't had a sack from a defensive end in what? Six divisional playoff games? I think it's in the losing games. Yeah, like they just can't put pressure on the other team No, they lose, yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of talk about the, you know, the calls

the end of that game. Bosa hit, hit Bo Nix four seconds after the play was over. So the first PI, which I didn't agree with, it was a personal file anyways. He was getting 15 yards. Like, he was irrelevant whether we liked it or not. And so the way they're losing, it's easy to put it on McDermott.

I think McDermott, if you want a job, again, it'll be higher tomorrow. He's always done in what Buffalo's win and make the playoffs. That's all you can ask it. But he just has him over the hurdle. You know, we've talked about, you know, there's just so many stats where it's like Buffalo, you know, is this good but hasn't won a Super Bowl.

I mean, there's, I'm pulling up the, you know, the, the text thread now. I mean, Ben Solac put out, you know, only four teams Super Bowl era have won a playoff game in 60 consecutive seasons. The Cowboys won three Super Bowls. The Patriots won three, one three super bowls. the Chiefs won three Super Bowls.

The bills are not playing a Super Bowl. There's all these stats, you know, the most wins of a quarterback that's not playing Super Bowl, the most wins of a quarterback has a head coach as a coached Super Bowl. There's something blocking them from getting where they want to be.

And this was the break that they had to have. The thing about it, though, Gabe, I say this a lot. When you fire a coach, you better hire someone better. I don't love the options at the moment for Buffalo. Brian Dable's better than John McDermott. that's the choice that's your boy brian dable the future alabama head coach hey man don't put that guy on me

i said that if cainland george kept screwing up like bill bell i keep hearing bill belichick's name for this job which was silly to me um you the hot coaching candidates seem to be sort of like the the defensive coordinators that have had a chance but should have like brian flores right should have a second chance right like there's sort of those names right matt naggy second chance head coach and the group of guys seems to be this young hot shot OC, right? Like the Jacksonville Jaguars guy, the Rams guy. Those that haven't even called plays yet. Like they're not ready through a Buffalo Bill's job at 31 years old.

And I don't know who I don't know who the right guy is. I mean, look, Harbaugh would have taken that job probably if it was available. I mean, Josh Allen, she's, you want that job. But the roster's not in great shape. The GM is there for a while. So very curious who they end up hiring. Well, okay, let's focus then on the quarterback for a second longer. I like Josh Allen.

He's fun to watch. I think almost any team other than Kansas City would trade their quarterback for him. Right? Yeah. Just about. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But here's the thing, man.

Like, in overtime, the game simplifies, right? Finite amount of time, basically stop them and score is the strategy. There's not a whole lot else going on. There's not a ton of clock management. Not a lot you can do with different personnel looks. a drive versus drive. It's the closest thing to like boxing or combat sports, just like better guy wins.

Josh Allen has scored three points in seven OT games, and he had the ball with a chance to win in six of those games, and a few of them are famous, right? Like, it just feels like we do have to ask ourselves a couple harder questions about Josh Allen and the way he plays in his decision-making, because a coach doesn't have as much control in those settings. No, no, I think it's fair to look at those games and ask why is Josh not getting it done?

Now, in this game in particular, it wasn't his fault in the post in the postseason in the in the overtime, right? I mean, Cooks has got to catch that football. Like, that's just there's, that's not his fault unless there was another play I don't remember in overtime. But now again, the three points you lost in the first half, that that's Josh Allen's fault, right? So there are other opportunities in the game, I think, that are issues for him. But that, you know, that Cooks wasn't his problem. He obviously famously didn't get the ball back against Kansas City. I don't remember how last year went.

But look, when you get to a certain point in your career, Josh Allen's at this point, Mahomes, Lamar, you get judged off playoff wins and losses. You might not like the quarterback wins thing, Gabe. And I certainly think it's not the best way to evaluate quarterbacks. But a certain point, you get to a point we know. your baseline is good enough to be in the postseason. How do you elevate your team now when it becomes time? Because he just has to get there. You know, you want to compare him to like Marino and Elway,

some of these guys that sort of never, Peyton Manning, like sort of just never got there, but eventually Marino never did early in their careers. But they played in Super Bowls. He hasn't even been to a Super Bowl yet. I think Marino played one in 84, right? Like he got to Super Bowl in the second season. Elbeye got to, I think, three Super Bowls

and lost all three of them. He's not even getting there. They're not getting there. They're not getting there. And the answer-chantry games he's played in, I don't, you know, they lost the Chiefs, I think, by three in one of them, right? They lost Chiefs both times.

And that wasn't the 13 second again. That was a divisional round game. Oh, that was divisional? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was a divisional round game, yeah. The Chiefs lost the Bengals, I think, the next week. And they lost, no, they lost the Chiefs, by 14 the first time.

And they lost by three the second time. in an FTA championship game. But they're not even really getting an FD championship game very often as well. So something's got to change. And it made sense while this move was made. And now McDermott becomes the best coach on the market. Man, he can coach.

He can absolutely coach. Well, okay, best coach on the market. I'm always going to use my time on this show to point out that Mike Tomlin is a coach. Mike Tomlin is available. Yeah, but Mike Tomlin doesn't want to coach this cycle, though. It doesn't sound like he wants to coach.

He's coming to be a part of our podcast, right? I'm happy to give him my seat. Let me ask you this real quick. It was the story, apart from the bills screwing it up again and melting down, there's really two other headlines we haven't gotten too yet from this game. They're both obvious. One was this hotly debated and often sort of confused conversation around the interception or what some people might think should not have been an interception.

So it's a little bit hard to do in audio, but can you just talk to me about? your not only your feelings on that debatable call, but also the commentary that followed. Yeah. Okay. So I thought I've, I've, I've wobbled on this, but I think it's fair to have that sometimes. All wobbled too. Call in the field. Now, part of it was like we had, we had, as a group, had Brandon Cook's over receiving,

so that cash would have made us some money. But I thought originally was intercept. then I watched too many, then I looked at too many still pictures and thought maybe it was a catch. And then I saw Devante Adams in the night game last night who caught the ball very clearly

down and then lost control where Cooks never had control of the ball. They're just two different, they're two different place. So you're seeing here on screen, like Adams is down, two hands on the ball, secured. Cook's on the other side is down,

but the guy's got the ball. in his hand. Like he's got, they're wrestling for the ball. I just think hooks can't let that happen. You cannot get the ball ripped from you. You just can't do it. Like, Devante Adams has two guys on him. He's down. Okay, the ball comes out.

The guy was like on your backside and he rolled over and grabbed the ball from you. I just, cooks just can't let that happen. So I actually think that was the right call. I think it was interception. And I think the other one was correct too, where Devante Adams was down, firm control of the ball, ball comes out, that's, that's, you know, not an interception.

Did you think that the various freakouts? Was anyone arguing in good faith? Because it felt like Rorschach, like if you, depending on who you were rooting for, you could see whatever the hell you wanted in both situations. Of course. I mean, you know, that's why, you know, that's like, you know, with, you know, with McDermott, like after the game talking about how he's defending Buffalo. And I was on the radio yesterday.

My radio co-host was like, what's he talking about? He knew he knows it's intercept. What were we supposed to do? Supposed to defend himself. That's what we supposed to do. Yeah. Where you fell on the gambling spectrum is probably where you felt this game, the result. But look, I think in the end, very clearly, one was a catch, one was an interception.

And they have to, again, cooks to me, it's on cooks. Like, you got to just, you got to secure that ball man. Like, you can't let it be ripped from you. Yeah. That's all you need to hear on that topic. Let me switch to the other losers who, and for moments there, looked like the actual winners of the game. And you're right.

We were texting through it. I'm going to transition by saying this. Caleb Williams will win a ring before Josh Allen does. And I know that his team lost. And I know that he threw an interception in a critical spot, which anyone who knows football could see is not his fault. But that guy has something extra to me. Physically, they're very similar.

But Caleb has something that Josh is missing, in my opinion. And I just, I think he's got a good team with a good coach. I think he gets the ring first. It's not this year, clearly.

Yeah. So it's a good comparison, I think. And the things that both of them have to clean up as young players are the same where Williams makes the wow plays but completely 52% of his passes in the playoffs. Gabe,

like it's got to be better. You got to complete, you know, this year was like 58%. You got to be 65 playing. Right. like in literally the windy city. I'm just talking about, yeah, you can complete more passes. I think that's his next step is the consistency, right?

It's consistency of like, let's just be more consistent. Even some of the throws yesterday were behind guys and not the best. But then again, I mean, he threw the longest 14-year-old Hail Mary I've ever seen in my life. And Cole Komet, that was a great job by him. If Williams can make those plays and then be a little more accurate on the easier-type throws, Yeah, man. Like, he's, he's a rocket ship going up.

And Ben Johnson, okay? What I love about Ben Johnson is he has a game plan. He knows what works. He runs what works. Like, you don't watch those games. Like, they, I thought had an all-time terrible game plan yesterday. Like, just an embarrassingly bad game plan. Didn't run the ball enough, despite it working, through the ball too much.

Now, you might disagree with Ben Johnson going for in a fourth down. I certainly thought she could a field goal the first one. I didn't love his play calls on third and short, but he has an identity, Gabe. And after year one, the goal for me, if I'm a Ben Johnson backer or Bears fan, was to know Caleb is my guy, done. He's my guy.

Now, how do we hone the offense? How do we get Williams to be better? How do we bring in some more wide receiving talent? How do we improve the defense? So now you know you have your guy. Now the world is your oyster, right? You can figure out how to build around him. And they have good pieces.

Like, around him and he can get a little more accurate, which is Josh Allen's problem. Josh Allen made these yolo plays. He just needed to be more accurate. When he got more accurate, he was a better football player. I think Ben Johnson is a better coach than Sean McDermott. So you have that part of it as well. Okay.

All right. I think he managed the game much better. Fair enough. I think the bears have a lot of promise. I think we should just close out this first segment by talking briefly about the two other losing teams. Odd how we did this. A lot of focus on the losers coming out.

out a divisional round. So I'm going to save us time. The Niners, obviously, you know, they got to figure out what's going on with that electromagnetic field. That's the only issue in San Francisco. In Houston, the issue is the quarterback pretty clearly. The defense can play. Even their offensive players, when given a chance to hit, like, level dudes, Woody Marks with a big hit on a, you know, turnover. What are we supposed to think about C.J. Stroud? Because we were all told to believe he's the next thing. I never bought it. Now we're here being told he's terrible. He's probably not that bad.

What is C.J. Stroud can he win in Houston? Your boy, Woody Marks, I think set the record for leaving every game this year with an injury. I think he left every game this year with an injury. Well, he's making too many tackles. Okay, so we have a tweet up on the screen. CJ Stroud became the first part since Kerry Collins in the 2000 Super Bowl to complete under 43% of pass to no four interceptions. Producer Hank, not knowing who Carrie Collins was, was a wake-up call. Gabe for our age.

That hurt. It hurt a little bit. It did hurt. I had to like really talk like talk to him about it. Like who that is, how that's not that long ago. And it got me down a whole dude. It was weird because it got me, you're a Coughlin guy, but it got me into like, this is how old I am. I was like, what the cool?

He started a Super Bowl, Hank. Yeah. That's what I told him. And I was like, you know, he played for a coach who was pretty good coach. And I even worked with the guy. And why can't I remember the damn name, Jim Fossel? Jim Fossil. I mean, he played, he was played with Joe Paw, like at Penn State.

Like, I think he went a Rose Bowl there. Okay, that's not the point of this. No, it's not. Kerry Collins, look him up, kids. C.J. Stroud. Terrible. Okay. So I actually, so I love the Troy Eakman, by the way, who does these games at ESPN now, like, sort of feels like free,

freer to say negative things about guys. I thought he sums up pretty well. he said then in that game he's like I do radio with a guy named Jared Stilman from Nashville and he jokes all time about in these playoff games that

they do the the broadcasters mourners cottage where they like at the end of the game like you know you know Jim it was a great season for the Texans but they were doing he was doing the Mortars Cottage for the use of Texans

he texted me the other day and he's like Romo's doing it. He's doing the Morton's Cottage again. We do the Mortonis Cottes. He was just mourning the Texas. One thing he said about it was like Stroud has been chasing the rookie year success and just hasn't got back to it yet. And it feels like that year is a one-off, Gabe.

It feels like that year is a one-off. Since then, he's not been very good. He's had spurts of being good. They changed OCs. The offense line's not very good. I can tell you're never going to forget the Morton's Cottage now, the broadcast caught us. It's the best.

It happens every time. I get it. I'm wondering what percentage of this audience is wondering what the hell you're talking about. More people had to look up mourners cottage than Kerry Collins. I can tell you that. Probably. Probably. So the broadcaster's cottage.

That's what we're calling it. You know, Strout, dude, the confidence, as you could tell, just zap from his face. Like, just no confidence was there whatsoever. Even when he was throwing the ball, it was behind wide receivers, wasn't on time. and yeah, the offense lines are a problem, absolutely. But he doesn't, and Nico Collins didn't play, but his weapons aren't terrible. You know, he's got decent wide receivers,

good tight ends, running backs, you know, they're fine. But, you know, I thought they were going to bench him at halftime, which would have probably been the end of C.J. Stroud in Houston. So, I think they probably should have been. They probably should have been. So, I mean, that New England was getting after him

and whatnot which didn't help. But it's not. It's not good, man. I don't think you feel great if you are a Texans fan right now. I wouldn't feel good. I also would, sorry to just pile on, but I'll bring the group chat to life here. I would also not feel so confident in people like Jaden Daniels because we see this. Like one good year in the league doesn't mean anything.

You follow that up with a tough season, some injuries. Like, it's hard to get back there. C.J. Stroud and J. McDaniels or come into the league with kind of the same, what did I just call him? No what I mean. They come into the league with sort of the same thing. And I just don't know that one year's ever enough to feel like you got your guy. Yeah.

I appreciated what you said about Caleb, but it takes more than a year or two. The thing with Daniels, though, is that. Did I give him a Mick Daniels? I think I did. He's just, he just was hurt this year. I mean, it just, it just, that Zapt is. But Stroud is now, I mean, two years now, he's now in year four. I mean, he threw a pass so bad yesterday that someone tore his ACL trying to stop and catch the football.

That's true. I don't mean to laugh at that guy, but you're right. That happened. He tried to stop and his foot got caught in the turf and he tore his ACL trying to stop. I mean, it was just a bad performance. But again, I think the thing that worried me the most was that Stroud didn't look confident at all. You can have a bad game and still look like you belong in that. moment.

Sure. He didn't look like he belonged to that moment. And I was listening to someone, I forget to who it was, but I think in the three playoff games, Houston has played with C.J. Stroud, the last three years or whatever, whatever number it is. They've scores many points on defense to have on offense. Yeah. They've kind of been that team.

Whenever they're good, they're good because their D can keep them in a game. So, you know, they've had years where they're big scoring offense, but those were not the years that they were very good. Correct. And so I am, they have to give him his fifth year, right? I mean, you just have to, not, you don't have to extend it, but you have to agree to do the fifth year option. I feel like you can't just ignore that. But I don't know what, I don't know what they do here. Another OC, do another OC? I don't, I don't think so. I need you have to, to hope that he, you can find some, some way to get him to play more confidence. Let me ask you this as we go to break. Because I also have questions for you about we've got to put it in the rundown. So this is my reminder. I really want to hear about what they call, not my term,

White Boy Wednesdays in the locker room. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Here's another question about just your aunt. You've played whatever eight or so years in the NFL. Like, do you guys know, just know? Like I've worked on shows where the host, I'm like, this isn't, we're not.

This isn't going to work. you know, like they're nice people. I'm proud of whatever we can pull off, but I know this thing just isn't going to go anywhere. Like, do you as a player just know, like, yeah, we're a good team. We're just, we're not going to get to a Super Bowl with this quarterback. And do you ever talk about it with your teammates? Um, good question.

So I think you always feel you can win a championship because you have to convince yourself of that to do this job. but you know if your quarterback can do it or not right and so i feel like i play with i won't throw one of the bus but i play with some quarterbacks one perspective like it's just like this guy's just not very good like immediately not very good everyone else i played with matt more even jake delome alec christian ponder like you you think you can win you just do you have to convince yourself with ponder we made the playoffs in in 2012 So you convince yourself of that. I'm just,

I'm sorry, I'm stunned that Christian Ponder is on the list you just said. And not that other list. I know. I'm just, that's very kind of you to have included Christian in the, this guy can play list. I mean,

it was like Adrian Peterson 2000 yards season. I mean, he's the reason why we were where we are. But the point is that you entered the playoffs. Like he didn't play in that game because he was hurt in the playoff game. But you're into the playoffs like, hey, guys, yeah, we can.

What about us? Why not us? So I think you can convince yourself I don't think Houston I don't think the players in Houston are really going to think to themselves anything other than what I just said like let's retool next year

let's get him an offensive line we know what he can do let's just let's get right back here again and be better next season I don't think a lot of players look at CJ Stroud in on the wrong on the team and think to themselves

we can't win with this guy okay well that's interesting because wide receivers usually show you what they're thinking. Yeah, but I don't, I don't, I don't, white outs are divas, whatever. They think the same thing all the time.

Yeah. Okay. Well, why don't we, why don't we switch over to the teams that won, do a little bit of preview of next week, get that white boy Wednesday thing, and also, you know, some more coaching carousel stuff that's lingering.

All right, Gabe, let's talk about the winners now. Normally we do winners first, but today we did mostly lose because it's more interesting to talk about some of the losers first today. What do we got, buddy? Well, I think it's because you kind of told us

this was going to happen. I think for so many weeks, we've kind of known who was going to come out on top in the NFC. You picked the Rams. I assume you're sticking with them against the Seahawks,

but you did. You picked them. You told me they were going. I don't feel great. We took a future bet. I don't blame you for not feeling great now. We, we,

I think we took a bet in one of our futures, which I don't think we had a great futures year, was the Rams to lose, yeah, Rams to lose the ATSC chance in the Rams lost a conference championship game plus 850.

That was one of our ways That's just, that's like a nice, smart value pick. I'm saying in my conversations with you, not when we're making official picks, not when we're putting money on the line. You've just sort of convinced me, the Rams are the most complete team in the NFC. They have the coach, the quarterback,

they make defense. They didn't look great. Yeah. How do you like him against Seattle? Oh, man. I don't love it. The Rams are one of those teams that you just sort of like hope for a little bit more from.

You know, like you watch them play. They're so talented. And then it's like, like, give me that. Give me that little more. And that little more is just not there right now. And that to me is what the issue is. If, if we get a full 60 minute Rams game, play calling, Stafford, pass rush, secondary. run the ball, they can easily beat Seattle.

But Seattle is playing better football right now. They are true to their identity. They're credible and defense now. Zach Charbonnet is out for the season with a knee injury. That's big for them because they rotate their back so much. The run game has gone better. I worry about their offense a line. But dude, Jared Verst didn't hit Caleb Williams.

It was playing at a backup left tackle yesterday. So I, I just, I just, I have my right. reservations about the Rams heading into this game on Sunday. Yeah, I also do. My household will be no more can, you know, we were conflicted last night because we're a USC household, but we're Rams fans, at least my kids are. So I was like, coin flip went to Caleb last night and I was the loser, but the kids are happy.

Rams advance. We're rooting for the Rams. I just, it does feel like one of those icky, forgotten to history type years where you're like, these are the two teams in the Super Bowl? Can we just get this over with? And the Seahawks could be that team. It just feels like that. The other team that it feels like it's going to be

that's super icky for me is the Patriots. Because I haven't believed in them. I haven't wanted to believe in them. Obviously, we spent a lot of time talking about how they beat up on bad teams. Now they're getting a backup quarterback in a QB room that didn't even have an obvious starter. They're getting Stidham.

I saw that pass to Booty. that kind of put the game away from Drake May and I thought okay these guys are actually good these guys are actually scary their defense is good that ball was perfect no you're shaking your head okay good talk me into it why are the Patriots

gonna lose well I mean bonus was playing I feel much better but Drake May this postseason two interceptions two fumbles loss and three extra fumbles that he recovered it's not been a great postseason for Drake May And these are, again, the two best defenses they might have played all season.

Now they play their first road game on the road, a game in a game they're six-point favorites in. The Patriots are the first team, it's the 1988 to win a playoff game, with 250 yards or fewer, 13 or fewer first downs and three plus turnovers. They're four yards of play. They're sacked five times and we're bad on third down. They just, their offense has not been as good in the postseason. Now, you're playing Jared Stidham.

I will bet on the Broncos. I will. When Sean Payne was out, Drew Breeze in New Orleans, he played when I attended Bridgewater, who's better than Stid him, I get it. But he'll find a way to generate offense. The one concern to have for Denver is, I like their offensive line,

but they can't run the football because they're running backs are not very good. They're small. RJ Harvey's small. McLaughlin's small. They miss Dobbs. They need him in the lineup. He's obviously out for the season,

so it's not going to happen. But I would not be surprised if Denver won this game, man. I really would not be. Okay, well, you know another guy who wouldn't be surprised. The tweet of the year, I think so far. Nick Foles, note for the Broncos and their fans. I know it's been an emotional 24 hours.

I feel for Bow and the team, and I'm sending prayers for a strong recovery. A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs and championship-type games. Nice troll, Mick Foles. Nice self-awareness, too. I love it. I love it so much. I like it. And I think, and Stidham has some.

New England ties, by the way. But I feel like Sean Payton more than most of this new generation. You know, there's the Shanahan tree. I think the Peyton tree is better proof that, like, the right big guy can run my offense for me. And I don't know if they'll be much of a drop. I just don't, I don't see Bo Nex being a huge difference maker over Jared Stittam. But Bo, Bo Nex, as much as you might, he makes some big throws, dude.

He makes, he knows big moments. He has made a lot of throws this season. and his ability to run has been important. Now, by the way, is it getting on the internet, it looks like they opened up Dobbins practice window, did Denver with a thought of me, might be able to play this weekend. That would be a huge bonus for this,

for this Broncos team. Bow-Nicks game makes enough big plays in these games to where it might make up for being a little inconsistent early in games. What I loved about the Broncos on Saturday afternoon now, two times the bills had secondary players leave for injury. What happened the very next play, Gabe? Denver threw right, the backup for a touchdown. All people don't do that.

Clearly, Sean Payne, Gagne's ear was like, hey, here's the play call, throw to the backup nickel, the backup corner, backup safety. I love those things that Sean Payne does. And that, I, with Bonnick's playing, I would have picked Denver easily in this game. So the questions we're talking about, like how much does it matter he's out? I think it matters enough, but six points a lot, man.

Again, I think New England's got trouble scoring this game. De Broncos defense is good. New England's offensive line struggled. Will Campbell struggles to return from injury? It's not been, it's not a daunting wide receiver group, right? They're good at running back. On the flip side, their defense has gotten better this season. But the Bronx's office line is really good.

Like, they got good weapons to do the Broncos. They got to stop dropping some passes every now in them. I think it's going to be a really good game. man. I wouldn't put past him to win. Well, I hope they do. I'll be watching with Broncos fans, and I won't allow Patriots fans in my house. So let me ask you this. Yeah.

There were some rumors. I think I even texted it to you. I noticed he didn't respond. There were some rumors that maybe there's some debate about when this ankle injury happened with bone eggs. People weren't sure during the game. Then he did a post-game interview. Didn't show signs of having a really badly hurt ankle.

and there was some question of could this have happened in the locker room? Like what do you say to all that nonsense? No, no, no. So there was video of him limping pretty heavily off the field after the kneel down. And then it makes sense. So the defensive pass interference throw that we saw, it was a poorly thrown ball, like it didn't have enough distance on it. That's probably because his ankle was broken.

Right. You couldn't throw the ball. It makes more sense now. I was like, when he threw the ball, that's how weirdly, through the ball really, really high. and then after the game who was doing the, it would have been Tracy Wolfson. Was that who was on the sidelines doing that game? I don't remember who it was.

But there's a picture of them doing the post-game interview. And Bo Nix is like not really putting weight on his leg at all. I find the timeline so fascinating. So this is what I gather. So Sean Payne, the game's over, going to locker and they celebrate. Sean Payne does his press conference with the reporters. Comes back inside. They talk to medical crew,

talked to Bowdoinx, realize that it's broken. Then he goes back out to tell the media that he's out for the rest of the season. I found interesting, Gabe, that there were people that were wondering why he just said it and just, like, didn't play coy.

NFL, you've injured reports. Like, they would have been, Boeux would have been out with the ankle during Wednesday. Like, of course, he just said to me now. Why, why make this a whole week? Jared said him starting. Let it be the starter.

Don't play coy. Don't lead a week of media speculation. Just it happened, make it happen, and then move on from it. Well, that's clearly the choice he made. I think we should take a break here because I want to save the remaining time we have for a few other topics. Let's take one more break. Let's come back and hit White Boy Wednesday. All right, Gabe, White Boy Wednesday.

What do you want to get into? Well, so we could be talking about the national championship. we could be talking about Mike Tomlin and all the various other coaching carousel stuff. We got time. I read a tweet and I shared it with you. It was about a player talking about how he loves rock music. All right.

This was a young guy, black guy. And he was like, I like rock music. I think it's Al Shazir, right? Their linebackers, who was? Yeah, I thought it was. And he said, I love Wednesdays because that's when I get introduced to like rock music. music and I learned this saying from and he he quotes a uh was it limp biscuit no it was yeah yeah

was limp biscuit no it was a different band corn Lincoln Park Lincoln Park yeah Lincoln Park yeah in the end it doesn't even matter right and I thought wait a minute hold on and he's like we I learned that one on white boy Wednesday that's when the white guys get to choose the music now first I don't know who's picking Lincoln Park in 2026 but I am instantly was like Jeff you got to explain this to me. Okay. So what the hell is you talking about? Okay. So in the waiting room, there's like two ways to listen to music, right? There's either the first, the first players in there or the older players choose the music. Okay. And then you get into fights, right? Because like sometimes it could be a week full of one genre. The next week, it's full of another

genre and like people don't want to listen to the same music every day. So they, we have days. So like we'll have White Boy Wednesday. We just play White Boy music. And, then one day we play country one day we play rap music one day it's a hip hop day one day it's a mix so you just have these days so you know like what to expect her music in the wait room okay but what are you forced to play like stereotypical or cliche choices like do you have to play link in park i don't know what i don't know if it's a pandora mix of like classic rock or alternative rock or heavy metal or whatever they put on. But yeah, you just stick to the genre.

If it's White Boy Wednesday, you're playing rock and roll, most likely. Or country. Yeah, but country might be a different day. I don't know. Do they have, is there ever like subgenres? Like, could I get like old hip hop instead of, you know, like future or whoever is most popular in the locker room now? Yeah, I would prefer that over the rap now.

Yeah, of course you were. I'm saying, like, are there people teaching the youngs about what the old's liked? That's a good question. I don't remember. It was often a lot of the new rap. It was often that's what was listened to. And sometimes it could be, it's a little rough sometimes, a little rough. Okay.

And so do you think that other players have the same attitude that Al Shazir has of like, that's kind of cool change of pace? I learn some things I like. Like there are songs I listen to on the rap days that I didn't know existed. I was like, oh, shit, this is a good song. They go into your playlist after that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. And do you think that any guys are like, you know what? This Chris Singleton guy, he's pretty good. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's my locker room's great, man.

Like, you're just like a belting pot of cultures. You get you get forced to. to, you know, have to learn about other cultures. If you don't, you just want to doubt. You just won't make it in the locker, right? So it's one they always loved about it. Yeah, so White Wednesday is a thing. And I like Alters here, it's in on Lincoln Park.

Now, you don't strike me as a person who would have commandeered the, you know, playlist very often. The ox court, I think it was the oxcord back in my days. The ox cord, yeah. Did you ever? And if so, what was your contribution? Well, well, it would back back then it would have been probably like West Coast hip hop Now we know what it would now we know what it would now we know what it would be so

Sure. I mean dip one was is coming Avichi Tiesto would be loud luxury two friends we'd be all we'd be all we'd be all we'd be all We'd be all in that that's what'd be my world now But back in the day it would have been like you know would have been like West Coast hip That would have been what I would have put on. Okay. All right. Coaching Carousel stuff, look, I think it's, there's a lot of jokes right now about all these, you know, the Harbaugh and Stafansky probably wish they hadn't already signed up for the job they did and not knowing Buffalo job would open up.

Correct. But give me a couple predictions. Where do you think a few of these guys land? We're talking a lot about OCs that could get put here or there. The other place, Eric B. Enemy is apparently talking to the chiefs again. Make it a little sense of that and then we'll hit the champ game. So obviously BNami come back to Kansas City with signal Matt Nagy is getting a head coaching job somewhere else, right? I guess.

And the Eric Bianney things interesting because it's always Indy Reed's offense, but clearly it worked better with Eric Bianney there than Matt Nagy. Yes. So I don't know what it means for the offense other than they're going back to what worked best, which is Eric Biener in the building. And so I'm curious about that. Look, the coaching is just don't really inspire me. It's either retreads or it's like 30-year-old office coordinator hasn't ever called plays being a head coach of 30 years old. You know what I mean? Like it doesn't feel like a great list of coaches.

Magazine getting a job. It feels like Flores is probably getting a job. Mike McCarthy probably getting a job. Then there's the Rams office coordinator. It seems like he's getting a job. But it's hard to figure out who the other jobs go to. Are any owners, GMs, decision makers ever? approaching two guys who are like a 1A, right, and saying, hey, Mike McDaniel, pretty interesting

guy. You run a great offense. You haven't done great as a head coach. Hey, Robert Sala, really like you, seem like a leader, do a good job on the defense. You did a bad job as a head coach. You two are together. You don't get to pick. like you're the team go figure it out did they ever do something like that well if i do a podcast

called gm shuffle with marty herney he says the number one thing he looked for as general manager was who the head coach was was hiring as their coordinators yeah so that's a big part of the discussion right if you're going to hire you know john harba even john harbaugh like who you bring who's your oce who's your dc so fan's because you're ocey who's your dc so those yes Those decisions absolutely matter. Now, I wouldn't, if I was in remember, I wouldn't force someone on a head coach. That doesn't seem to work. But you have to bring in the right assistance for it to work.

But I wouldn't force like this guy. Now, unless like, I do think some position coaches, if you're good off at the line coach, you should keep your job. Good position. You know, good wide receiver coach. Like, do de line coach. Like those things I think make more sense. But to force coordinators on coaches feels a little bit tough.

I'm almost wondering like co-coach. Like just no ego Because one of the notes that we just heard We wanted to get to I think we'll save time though James Harrison basically said of his former coach Like Mike Tom is not Hall of Famer because he's never developed any other coaches And he implied that ego had something to do with that

It is rather interesting that the Tomlin's tree is like nothing But there's no like any reach coaching tree Has it won a Super Bowl I don't think They've been to a couple right Rivera's been to one Dermit's been really good I think Harbaugh is one of his guys maybe Harbaugh is a But like Indyman has an extensive coaching tree

You know Bellocheck Like him or just like it has an extensive coaching tree right Tomlin has like zero I mean right Which was held against him by his former player Which is kind of James Harrison just doesn't

I don't think he doesn't like Tomlin very much though by general I think he's maybe not the best The best person to talk about this But He never said anything nice about him, does he? I don't tend to listen closely to what he has to say. So James Harrison, we would train in the summers at the same gym. He didn't train with my trainer.

He would train the same gym. But he, the strongest human I've ever seen in my life. Of course. Like he would a couple, one time we were pushing a truck. It was a duly like a Ford F650 with a duly truck. So I had four wheels in the back. and we were pushing it and James Henry was coming in to work out and he's like look you guys are weak I'm how much is this thing away we looked up was like 6,500 pounds

he goes let me push this thing just no warm up nothing just freaking dominated us just like got behind the truck it just like just like it was he put on we would we push a sled he put on it in every weight possible on the sled like 1545s and push that. This incredible amount of strength this guy had. It's unbelievable to watch him, to watch him do stuff in the weight room. Sorry, can you back up a second here? You're saying you went to like some big fancy gym in the off season where all these NFL guys show up. And the best way you guys can figure out how to work out is to push a truck. Yeah. So, yeah. Okay, so when I worked on the off season, I went to Offitzel line only place, right? La Charles Bentley

Bentley was doing it back then. Now my buddy, Duke Mannyweather, Oline masterminds, he's the one does it now. So the way we get in shape as offense alignment is pushing and pulling things. So we need to run. I didn't run for seven weeks in the office but I showed for training camp and pass conditioning test.

And you have to push a lot of weight. You get to push sleds. You got to pull sleds. You got to push trucks. You have to push stuff. Now, we would do it. Now here's why, Gabe. So we'd be pushing the truck

and someone will be sitting in the front seat and they would hit the brake. All right? And what that would force you to do is reset your hips and then attack the truck again. Same as you're blocking someone. If I'm blocking someone, right? And they sort of stalemate me, I got to reset my hips and boom, pop up and then like drive them again. So that mimics doing that, but with the truck and the heavier weight.

Does that make sense? Your explanation made sense. I just think the idea that there's like a guy sitting in the cab of a big truck and then you're just pushing it around. Yeah. It's like functional trains. You're doing conditioning, right? Strengthening your legs and also working on resetting your hips

and being able to come to a complete stop and then reset your hips and pop again and drive the truck, you know, however long you have to do. It wasn't long. But that's how you get, that's how we got in shape, pushing and pulling stuff. So we would push sleds, obviously, different weights, different, you know, different types of pushes. We'd also pull sleds do, you know, RDL walk. and do spider walks and do VMO walks.

Like just that's what we did. I also push us a little once a week at the gym. It's awesome. All right. You're really giving me a lot here, but we don't have enough time to cover the national championship. I just think it's, it's funny to me that somebody watched Rocky 4 and was like,

yeah, those training montages look good. I'm going to do something even dumber looking than that. We should, we should, I wonder if we have video, have you ever chased the chicken? I've not tasted a chicken before.

You ever climbed? a mountain with a log on your back? I have not done that. Oh, well, what are you doing? I'm going to see if, do you have any videos of pushing a truck? I'm going to see if I can get you a video. I would like to see that. All right, while we've got the remaining few minutes here,

give me a feel. Game starts in a few hours. Yeah. I just got to tell you, I don't know how anyone in their right mind could bet against Indiana after what we've seen this season. I had better Indiana minus seven Um No it's fascinating part of this game

It doesn't nothing to do with the game It's honestly the whispers about the cheating stuff Yeah Like it's not going away It's not going to go away tonight It's not going away after the game Um I don't want to believe it

Uh and I'm not going to I know you are more inclined to believe these things than I am You love this story I can tell you look at you Like you sat you sat up You perked up Um So basically the gist of it is that

people believe Indiana is hacking into some sort of cloud service, some sort of server, and getting two things. Practice film and opening script. Because the opening scripts, I were told, are basically put on a server so everyone can see them in the building, right? So, like, they're not, like, you know, just print it out and handed it to 15 people. And it would explain a little bit of it. I think the thing that is most interesting is that, you know, people have changed their signals

against them and they still know the changes. Like that it's, it's, I don't know, man, it would be the, there are other scandals in this sport off the field, on the field. It would be the biggest sports scandal we've had probably in the sport, right? if you're hacking into a cloud server and pulling off practice film and getting the opening script. So, I'd explain a few things. I will say, I will say, again,

I'm just passing information along. I don't believe it necessarily, but people in the coaching industry believe it's happening. I mean, the quarterback sort of seems like a computer hacker more than he seems like a quarterback. Maybe he didn't. the thing that like things

so here's talking about about about this okay and I talked about this when it came to the Michigan stuff right is like how much are the players because with me

the thing about conspiracies for me is that the why and the execution of it is always is the thing that I push back on right like why would this

conspiracy you believe what's give me the The why. The why is always just some nonsense that makes, that never makes sense to me. The why is easy, right? The why is the way is easy.

The why is to win the football. The how is the question I have here. Because are the players in on this? Like, are, that was my thing with, with Michigan, right? Like, the Michigan thing. Like, the signals you stole,

as a quotation, they're opening the public. So you're not really stealing them, right, but you're recording them. Are the players in on it? Like, do the players functionally, know at Michigan that when you tell them, hey, they're going to do this that they have stolen the signal or you just think your coaches are smart.

Like those are two separate things, right? You directly know they stole the signal or the coaches are just like, oh, my coaches know what they're doing. Like I think, right? I'd bet a billion dollars. It's that. The second one or first one? A player is like, man, my coach really got me ready for this game.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, good. So in Indiana's case, which one? one do you think it would be? Because I don't think the players could be in on this. I think it would talk too much, right? They'd be in, they just would, it would blab too much. So coaches would be in on it

and they would just tell their players, hey man, when they're in this formation, these are two route concepts they'd like, just be prepared for those. I don't know, man. I think you guys are going to kick Miami's ass. I think they're going to kick their ass too, fair or otherwise. And until we hear any actual evidence, we're going to just assume they're doing it right. They've had a hell of a season.

Coach is a great story. Quarterback's a great story. The fact that they're doing this with a bunch of like 24-year-old guys who nobody saw coming. It's all cool. What we're talking about is just sort of amusing for now. But I would throw this into the mix. If I were Indiana, what I would do, or excuse me, if I were Miami, what I would do is what they do in like mob movies. And I would plant fake info.

Fake play. And see if they prep for the fake play. You know, they did in The Departed. It's a big plot point. There's a new movie on Netflix. I don't want to give anything away, Jeff. The Rip? Yeah.

I haven't watched it yet. It's been saved. I'm not going to give much away. But this is a tactic that people use where you sort of deceive. You let people get the wrong info. Maybe Miami could do that. Yes, that would be fantastic. I have not watched a rip yet because it's one of those.

My wife's not going to want to watch. I don't have to save it to, like, want to travel or something. My wife stepped up, got up after 10 minutes. It was like, this one's not for me, all you. All you. Are you, you watch Landman? No. Okay.

Well, they finally had a good episode last night. I watched the linebacker Landman last night, but I didn't watch a movie. No. Okay, no. That's a joke for those who get it for the Rams linebacker, Nate Landman. There you go. Now we're in. We got it.

I got us back to football, though. And I think that's where we end. I think that's where we end as well. All right, everyone. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll be back on Friday.