Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Brady Retires, Coaching Hires, and Early Super Bowl Thoughts

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Geoff and Matt are back to break down Tom Brady's (second) retirement announcement. Gabe is celebrating the occasion with loved ones, or else he would be here as well. Plus, checking in on the coaching carousel, including expectations for the Broncos' and Texans' hires, and how do the Chiefs match up with the Eagles?If you enjoyed the episode, leave a rating and a comment, and follow the pod to get notified when new episodes drop. If you didn't, tweet @geoffschwartz or @mmford10 with what you disagreed with. They love it when people do that!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Thursday, February 2nd. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Matt Ford. This is Jeff Schwartz of Smart on You, powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. And Matt, I didn't think we were going to do a show today because I didn't think we'd have enough to talk about. And guess what? We have so much to talk about.

We have the coaching carousels almost finally complete in the National Football League. One of the all-time greatest players in the National Football League has retired once again. It feels very official this time. I don't know if you feel that same way. And we'll get into a little bit of the Super Bowl between the Eagles and the Chiefs. We'll do all of that in just a few moments.

How are you today, Matt? How was your experience watching the games this past weekend? It was mostly good. I will say when it was, what was it it 13-3 or something like that in the chiefs game i did bet the bangles money line plus 410 um and i was very invested in that outcome because i thought that that was the best bet i've ever made it was like right when there was a change of possession and somebody was like plus 410 feels a little bit crazy to be down only 10 points in a game that every time the Bengals have come back and won. So I was disappointed, but I, you know, I don't know.

I was watching it with rose colored or orange colored glasses, I should say. And it did feel like on that last drive on the punt return, they missed a clear block in the back. And then that penalty, as soon as he hit Mahomes out of bounds, poor Asai, I was just like, well, that was fun. Like, it's been real.

Yeah, that was a penalty. For sure. The block in the back would have been on the gunner because the block in the back that people thought happened closer to Skymore was not a block in the back.

If you watch on film, he just stood there and kind of put his hands up. The guy just tripped. He fell down. The block in the back was closer. But my thing with all these calls is if it's a 50-50, don't call it. I'm always going to be that way. 50-50, just don't call it. But here's the thing about these Bengals games too,

the Chiefs-Bengals games. If Mahomes doesn't just lose the football on that random play, the chiefs go up two scores in the third quarter, the game's over. And none of this even matters. And just like, that was no doing of the Bengals. That was just Pat Mahomes losing the ball.

Weirdly. That was the first fumble he'd lost all season. Well, it's so funny. Like when, I mean, we'll get to this with Tom Brady, I'm sure somehow in a minute, but like's no nuance right like if if the chiefs had lost if you know

that 15 yard penalty didn't happen or if butker had missed a kick and it had gone to overtime or you know whatever um can you imagine how different the story would be about the homes it's like yeah i mean you know the play of the season was that fumble like that's how different we are and now you know people are already doing the like well tom ready's the greatest for now wait till mahomes finishes his career like that's the kind of difference we're talking about in these narratives oh i know joe burrow would be the face of the league if if that game had gone differently you know what i mean like it's so crazy to think people just get so i I mean, we're doing it too. We have to have opinions

and takes on whatever and you use the full set of your data, but it's just crazy how fine the line was. Look, and I thought Mahomes was better than Burrow before this game,

and now after the game, I feel the exact same way, but now people are doing the other thing where they're like, Mahomes is just so much better. I'm like, Burrow played pretty well too.

He did. He had a bunch of good throws, but here's the thing is like, Burrow played pretty well too. He did. He had a bunch of good throws. But here's the thing, it's like, last year Mahomes got knocked for not finishing the game in overtime against the Bengals

in the NCAA championship. Obviously, the second half he didn't play well. Burrow had the ball with two minutes left with a field goal. All he needed

was a field goal. And they didn't win the game. And we knocked Mahomes for those moments. We knocked Payne Manning for those. We've knocked all these quarterbacks in those moments. And Burrow needs to get the same sort of credit. Now, again, it doesn't change Burrow's trajectory of his career.

He's still, in my opinion, you enter this next season with Mahomes one, Burrow two, Allen three, Herbert four, like Lawrence five. I mean, it's pretty much Lamar six, like kind of like those are the top quarterbacks. You maybe you throw in a, an Aaron Rogers if he's in the right spot or Dak Prescott next up, but who else? Jalen hurts.

Oh, sorry. I forgot. Jalen hurts. Yes, absolutely. Jane hurts up there. I know it's for getting someone's own.

Basically just, just run down the, the AFC quarterbacks. Yeah. Tyler Huntley, down the AFC quarterbacks. The AFC. Tyler Huntley, the Pro Bowler. Okay. I know the Pro Bowl game is this weekend. It's not even a game anymore.

The Pro Bowl festivities. It's just time to get rid of it. When Tyler Huntley made the Pro Bowl, that's a signal that it's over. This event is over. It's over. I like Tyler Huntley. I covered him at Utah. Great story.

He started at what, Matt? Five games this year? Six games? He had two touchdowns passing. Two. He's a pro bowler like there's no one else. Josh Allen backed out of the Pro Bowl and is playing in a pro-am this weekend. He's totally fine. He just wanted to play golf instead.

The Pro Bowl is done. Just be done with it. There's no purpose anymore. It used to be a prestigious thing. I made the Pro Bowl. It used to matter toward Hall of Fame voting, right? Okay, this guy made so many Pro Bowls. And it still does, I think. But how can we treat it seriously when a backup quarterback who didn't even play?

Doesn't Brock Purdy deserve more of a pro bowl vote than Tyler Huntley does. Like, what are we doing here? I mean, how about, I mean, there's so many,

it's funny. Like how bad is Kenny Pickett that he didn't get that, that he didn't get that slot. Like how bad is Mac Jones that he didn't get that slot. Like you run out of guys who played, but like Tyler Huntley played only half a season like kenny pickett was probably more important to his team than huntley was like you're but who cares that doesn't matter it's you're right like people did used to think of it

as something and i do even remember like growing up in like you know in the 90s and being like wow like here's like champ bailey guarding you know to in a game like this is awesome and like the guys you used to didn't turn it down unless you were actually injured and i think because it was in hawaii like people like to go with their families and they just sort of threw it out and now it's like i thought the flag football thing was fun and you know that you could really like see some wacky stuff on the field um but at this point, it's like, what are we doing? Here's my general take on all-star games now versus when we were kids, okay?

This is like a millennial take, I guess. We're like the upper echelon of like millennial age, right? I believe we are. Is that when we were kids, we couldn't watch everyone play every night, right? Like there weren't the options to watch all the stars play. Like I grew up in Los Angeles.

Like I had to watch the Lakers play. I had to watch the Dodgers play, the Kings play, the Clippers, no one watched the Clippers play, but there was an option to watch the Clippers play. And so, you know, you just watched, and I was not a Dodgers fan. I was a Giants fan, but I watched the Dodgers play. That was what was available to me.

And then obviously, if you're an our age range, you watch the Braves on TBS and you watch the Cubs on WGN. Like that's what you had to watch, right? And there were a couple of national NBA games on Saturdays and Sundays and a couple of national

college basketball games. So the All-Star game was the first time all season that you might have seen someone play that you had not seen play all season but there was an excitement to watch i remember watching the you know the major league baseball all-star game seeing a pitcher that i had maybe seen once all season pitch i'm like oh my god right or like

or ken griffey jr or like or like ken griffey jr i hadn't seen him play all season i had to watch a home run derby with ken griffey oh my, like how cool is this? Yeah. And you know, and obviously the Pro Bowl is the same way that, you know, the, the, the, the slam dunk contest.

But now dude, I can go to my, I can watch it on every, every night. I'm sitting, I sit at home. I, while I do radio at night,

I'm watching, I just put on any college basketball game I want at ESPN plus. There's 300 of them every night. I can watch anything I want at any time. I have MLB package. I have a football package. I don't pay for the NBA package. But how many games a week are there on?

So there's less of a thirst, I think, for wanting to watch these games, these All-Star games, because we see it all the time. I get to see all these NFL players play each week because I can watch every NFL game imaginable. I don't feel the thirst. Same with the All-Star weekend of a basketball star weekend or mlb all-star weekend i watch these guys hit home runs every night i don't need to watch the home run derby anymore it's not there's not exciting for me and for younger folks than us

who've seen 100 all-star games like you can just do it on madden or 2k like you can just put like your christian mccaffrey on you know with patrick mahomes like you know what i mean like that's that's what the fun of the pro bowl was at one point was, you know, oh, wow, there's Peyton Manning throwing to, you know, Chad Ochocinco. Awesome. Like that would have been so cool. But now it's like, I can just do that in Madden whenever I want. So, I don't know.

That's why I think it's so, that's why I think it's so different now. Like I just, and players don't take it seriously. Like we were talking yesterday on the radio about – remember the old skills competition with the quarterbacks and how cool that was to watch those quarterbacks? Yeah, it used to be so fun. Imagine now like a star quarterback plays in one of those and blows his shoulder out.

Let's just say he blows his shoulder out. Dude, there's no guaranteeing that that quarterback is back after the season. Like teams move on from guys so quickly. There never was much loyalty. But losing your job in the NFL because you threw a quarterback competition at the Pro Bowl, no one would ever sign up for that now. There's too much money involved. And so it just doesn't make sense now.

I'm seeing videos of guys. There's a golf outing as we're taping this right now on Wednesday at the Pro Bowl. Yeah, it's fun to watch guys goof around. I'm not saying it's not fun to just see guys enjoying themselves around their friends. That's fine. But it's not what it used to be. And if they just said, no more Pro Bowl, we're just going to vote for the Pro Bowl. So it will tally on your record sheet of, okay, Jeff Schwartz, you made a Pro Bowl. Matt Ford, you made a Pro Bowl. But there wasn't the alternate system when the seventh alternate makes a Pro Bowl, and we just left it at that.

This weekend was just no football this weekend. I would survive. I think we'd all be fine with that setup. Yeah, it's a shame because it used to be really fun, and everyone's had this on their radar for the last few years. Tyler Huntley is the death knell um for the pro bowl but you know i think we're the first show in the history of podcasts to talk about tyler huntley for five minutes before we talked about tom brady retiring um so tom brady retired um i saw one of your tweets this morning that was like can i just can i just re-rack my opinion from last year? And the answer is no.

You're going to have to give us a new opinion. Tom Brady is retired because that's lame. Another year happens. I mean, you could give your same opinion. It's your show. But yeah, I'm curious. What did you think of the whole thing? I mean, it seemed to happen kind of out of nowhere.

It was a Wednesday morning. It was between the the pro bowl week this week where nothing's going on um and it was just this sort of like hey it's me i'm retiring where last year was eight million instagram posts of everyone he ever played with i'm just curious what you thought about how how this unfolded and if this feels a lot more authentic doesn't it like i'm just making a 20-second video, I'm out. We felt this season watching him play that he was exhausted. Now, obviously, it's hard for us to quantify how much his personal life played a role in his football season this year, but I have to imagine it did,

right? I mean, going through a divorce for anyone is probably mentally draining and then obviously doing it while playing football and then doing it while TMZ reports on everything that's happening in your life probably makes it much more miserable right and then trying to be Tom Brady on the football field and then doing it in Tampa Bay where you have a new head coach that doesn't really mesh with I think the way you want to play football. Your offense is a disaster. Your offensive line is beat up. And this year, he just looked miserable all season.

And the video to me just was like, look, I just don't want to do this again. I'm just going to get my phone out. I'm making a video. And I'm done with it. Now, in a month, he might say I'm coming back. making a video, and I'm done with it. Now, in a month, he might say I'm coming back. I just think he, I think Matt, he's doing it now to tell everyone that it's preparing for the offseason,

all these teams, like, look, don't count me in your plans. Like, if you're the Raiders, if you're the Niners, if you're someone, do not count me as a guy you can count on to be your quarterback. And he's just getting it out of the way, getting it done with. Also, too, you know, he has maybe media obligations next week, other things he's got to do in his life.

He wants this to not be a distraction for him, for anyone else moving forward, just like I'm done. But this felt authentic for once, right? It just was him on the beach, it looked like, done, moving along. Um, and look, greatest of all time to ever do it. We know that. Um, I mean, his last pass of the season at like 45 years old was a 60 yard pass that, you know, it was an incredible pass. He could have probably still played. Like you could have easily sold me on him going to the diners and winning the Super

Bowl with them next season. Like easily sold me on that. But I just think, man, and I've made this argument for years with Tom, like at some point, that family life juggling was going to be too much, right? Like,

his wife had made it clear for a while that it was time to be done with football. There is a burden, man, with trying to play the sport with your family for a long time. And as his family got older, it felt like that was a burden. Obviously, it became too much. I think it just was over. It was burden, man, with trying to play the sport with your family for a long time. And as his family got older, it felt like that was a burden. Obviously, it became too much. I think it just was over. It was time, man.

Most of us that play the sport don't have fairytale endings. We don't. Now, Tom could have had a fairytale ending. He could have just been done at Tampa, won a Super Bowl and walked off. Most of us don't. Most of us end injured or like Tom, where you're just like, all right, I'm just done.

I'm over it. I'm ready to move along. That's what it looked like to me. Like, I'm just done. I'm done. I'm over it. Let's move my next chapter in my life. Most of us end like that.

Very rarely do end like John Elway, Payne Manning, where you're just your superstar and you walk off in the sunset after a Super Bowl victory. And so he's one of the best to ever do it, obviously. Maybe he's in Super Bowl coverage. I don't know.

Maybe he's on to the next venture. But it just seemed like this seems real this time, Matt, more so than last time. I don't know if you feel the same way as I do on that one. I do too. And I think the timing of it is part of it. He's got that stupid movie coming out. Are we seeing that together?

80 for Brady? Is that a movie premiere? Should we make a – I think you need to fly in Hank and you guys have to see it as a group. The four of us? Because you got to come in too. We'll get four seats at the AMC and the Promenade in Santa Monica, and we can all check it out.

What do you think? Oh, my God. I'm being grumble. Hey, love, I'm flying. Hey, Meredith, I'm flying to Los Angeles. It's a research project. I have to go to see 80 for Brady. Yeah, it's for the podcast i'm staying at mass it's

gonna be fine um but honestly like there's going to be a lot of talk about him in this stupid movie in the next week then there's the week of everybody dying for a story for a week at superbowl like i you've been there it's like it's like uh being at a club and there's you know you're there's one woman and 900 men it's like everyone's just desperate they're like please someone give us something to talk about for a week it's sad so this if he really wanted this to be a story and like a big thing he would have done it at a different time i think he tried to get out of the way now so he didn't have to then deal with it for the next couple weeks and i think he i think he's done for sure and i i think two things one is there's a lesson to be learned here for like

the lebrons the all of these all-timers as they sort of ride off into the sunset like even michael jordan didn't retire right right Right. Like he could have. And part of the Michael Jordan lore is that he retired at his peak. He left and everyone sort of wondered like, man, what else could this guy have done? And he could have had a few seasons like Brady's last two seasons where it was like a honorable playoff loss that didn't really, you know, didn't really change the course of the NBA. He didn't he didn't do that until he came back to the Wizards, and no one even thinks about that. Brady could have left

after that Super Bowl, and think about how differently you'd feel about him. Whatever happened in his personal life, we wouldn't have cared. He would have been out of the league for two years. We wouldn't have seen what it looked like when he stopped sort of caring as much about the game on the field, for whatever reason. Something obviously is going on in his life besides football. And it's really interesting, the the timing it's like lebron should be watching this and taking notes honestly but i my big question was what was the goal this year like it probably changed because of whatever you know obviously his marriage but what was the intention was the intention to actually come back to the bucks and

win a super bowl was it just to keep going until he was as old as he could be like that was at one point his goal is just to keep playing forever for tb12 or whatever like what was the goal and did he meet it because i think like maybe what happened was halfway through the season whatever his goal was was he was just like it's not happening and that's what I think we all saw on the field. And, you know, that's between him and whoever else in his life. We'll never know. I think that his goal was always to win a Super Bowl. And then when he realized maybe it wasn't happening this year, plus he's off the field,

you know, it just kind of all came crashing down on him, right? But he wanted to go to the Dolphins, right? Like, that was at one point the thing, was he wanted to go to the dolphins right like that was at one point the thing was he wanted to go play with sean payton and sean payton just signed up with denver who he must they must have talked at some point like do you know what i mean like this whole thing maybe maybe he just was going to get docked for some integrity thing for this for this dolphins thing like maybe there was some other reason that he had to come back and play for the Bucs and he just never was really into it. I think – I say this often and I don't know if this is – if it's applicable to Tom Brady at all.

But, you know, when football becomes your life right now, there's like two ways to look at being a football player, right? One is, you know, it becomes, it consumes you 24 seven. Right. It's your life. And there's a lot of that has to, you have to be good to do that. Right. It was also then the football player who's like, you know, plays football, but also has a life. Like I felt that was me. Right. I was consumed by football, but I also, and mostly because I had to also have to play on four teams in four years. I always expected there to be an end. So I was always prepared for the end to happen. Like if you're Tom Brady, you probably never meant to was prepared for the end to happen. Like if you're Tom Brady,

you probably never mentally prepared for the end to like ever really happen. You just thought you'd play forever. And some of those guys that play football their entire lives, man, it becomes who they are and they can never see the end of it. Like LeBron has played basketball. He's been a prodigy. He was 12 years old, whatever it is. Like

Matt, he's never not been a basketball player. So for him, why would he do anything else but play basketball? That to me feels like with Thomas. I've always done football. It's always what I've been. I've always been a football player. And I think he finally realized last year,

maybe I'm more than that or I'm done. I've done my football thing. It's time to move on. I wish him the best. I'm curious I'm done like that's I've done my football thing it's time to move on I wish him the best I'm curious if we'll see him at the Super Bowl I feel like it would almost be counter to everything we just said if he was just like cool I'm just gonna like go to you know Arizona and just like do the game with

Kevin Burkhardt it doesn't feel like that's in the mix just based on the tone of the ball I don't know I don't know what he's gonna do for them this year Greg i mean greg olson's in tomlinson i mean greg olson kevin has such a great job so i don't know we'll find out yeah shout out to them um well obviously i mean there's there's so many things to talk about today why don't we just quickly mention that this is a giant ripple effect in terms of the qb market this year i think everyone assumed that he would end up either on the raiders or the niners um then you know now we have another open slot first of

all and second of all we have one other guy who's left who's not going to take up another slot so you know derrick carr's agent's got to be thrilled jimmy g's agent's got to be thrilled. Jimmy G's agent's got to be thrilled. Aaron Rodgers has even more leverage now. I guess, like, what was your first sort of, like, football thought in terms of what's going to happen after this news broke? Well, yeah, the ripple effect, obviously, being Tampa Bay has Kyle Trask on their roster now, right? Like, it just opens up. Blaine Gabbert, the hero.

The NFC is just, like, a wasteland of quarterbacks right now. The NFC South is just bad. If you're the Bucs, just tank for Caleb Williams at this point. Do the Raiders get rid of Derek Carr if Tom Brady announces this two months ago? Or at least vocally want to get rid of Derek Carr too, right? Great question. Like, do they say – is it on their radar to get rid of him if Tom makes this known two months ago? I don't know.

You know, the Niners, I think, were going to roll back with Purdy and his elbow injury changed things, and it might be changed for the better. I think the Niners just – you play Trey Lance. Like, you just roll with T lance you you drafted them just play them you'll do the bucks trade for aaron rogers now um so yeah i mean tom there was you know i think there was talk about i saw what did you did you tweet me this you sent the tweet this morning of the commander was commander's talk of tom brady the commanders, Tom Brady to the Jets. Three days ago, Rex Ryan predicted Sean Payton

and Tom Brady to the commanders, and that did not age well. No, that did not age well. So these teams that were kind of eyeing him now obviously are out of that discussion. The NFC quarterback situation is even worse. I mean, the best NFC quarterback right now is Jalen Hurts. And then it's Rodgers, Dak, Cousins? Yeah, if you assume Rodgers is on the move.

So what's the answer out of that? It's Hurts, Dak, Cousins. I mean, after Hurts, honestly. Who else is in there? Kyler, Geno? No. Daniel Jones? That's who we is in there? Kyler, Gino, Daniel Jones. That's who we're talking about. Healthy Stafford, maybe.

Healthy Stafford, which who knows if that's going to happen ever again. That is, it's crazy. Like when you really think about it and then like, you know, Justin Fields, maybe like you look at, you look the the conference and i don't know it's like maybe we'll see one or two end up in uh in the draft coming through but like the texans are getting one of the top guys the bears have that top pick but they're not going to take it like who knows who's going to get that that pick the number one pick so it's pretty wild the future of the nfc at quarterback is uh is not looking great maybe maybe you know lamar or something will end up there

speaking of quarterback futures that well maybe this one did get a little bit brighter russell wilson just got a genius offensive mind and sean payton to come over um to denver it was interesting what sean payton's one of his first comments said something about russell's a really hard worker and we're going to really invest in that running game to take the pressure off of him i thought that was a pretty interesting first message from sean payton uh about the 250 million dollar, but I guess I could – I'll ask this the trolling way. Are you worried now that your divisional rival has a possible Hall of Fame coach and Hall of Fame quarterback to run their offense? So the Chiefs win the Super Bowl this year with a wide receiving core that ended the game with Marcus Kemp,

who had eight targets in his career, playing the last snaps of the AFC Championship game, with at one point in the fourth quarter, five rookies playing on the Chiefs defense. So no, the answer is no, I'm not worried about Sean Payne and Russell Wilson. I've said this before. I don't know if you knew this piece of trivia.

The Broncos have more recently won a Superbowl than have been the Kansas city chiefs. Wow. Yeah. That's astonishing. Yeah. Wow. Um, uh, so here's so many thoughts about this. Um, he obviously wasn't their first choice. And I think for a couple of reasons, one is the cost of the trade, right? So you're trading away assets that you really didn't want to give up for Sean Payton and you already did not have, you know, many assets to give up in the first place.

And obviously how much it costs to get in there. Maybe you want a more personnel control. Now Sean Payton has the personnel control. This is what happens often in hiring though when you hire the opposite of what you just had that did not work so i had a first-time head coach and nate hackett now they go the opposite direction in the hall of fame super bowl winning coach and sean payton it's opposite complete opposite right so you hired an adult an adult who knows how to run a team in your building. The issue, Matt, with this hiring is that Sean Payne's offense

and what Russell Wilson does well are not the same thing. And so I wonder if there was talk of like, if it doesn't work this year, we'll eat the money, get rid of them, and you can find your own guy. Because they don't match. Sean Payne's offense is rhythm, ball out, spread it out,

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Russell Wilson is not a rhythm thrower anymore. It's not what he is, man. And unless Sean Payne's changing what he's done for his career and Taylor's offense more to Wilson, which is certainly possible, the fit schematically is not there. Now the adult in the room, the,

you know, the, the, the building, the team building, all those things are great. The Broncos needed that, but the schematic fit to me don't quite understand it.

And I just don't know if Wilson is, is going to buy into what pain wants to do. So we'll find out. Two questions. You said that this wasn't their first choice. Are you thinking the first choice, do you think it was Harbaugh or do you think it was Ryan's?

I think if they were to choose, they would have chosen Harbaugh. They could choose anybody. Based just on tea leaves or was that reported out? I think it was Harbaugh than Ryan's. And you think that Ryan's spurned them for Houston? Yes.

Interesting. I thought, I mean, Rappaport, that's what he tweeted. I felt that was maybe a little bit of a generous assessment because you don't, I don't think that Sean Payton is your backup choice. I don't think you do what they did. I think it was the backup choice because of the of the the assets that

give up to get him. But then why do it? You know what I mean? If he's your third choice. If you're like if you are I was asked this today

you know is a first would they have a first and a second right for Sean Payton? And a third. Yeah. But they got a third back

I think right? They ended up swapping thirds. Oh, maybe that's what that was. Okay, yeah. So, what team right now would you trade a first and a second

for a coach? So, my example is like, if you're the Chargers, you would trade a first and a second for Andy Reid in a heartbeat. Like, there are teams you would absolutely do that for, right?

Sean McVay, Kyle Sheffield. Yeah. Like, you would trade like who's a young young team that would could use like a young quarterback use sean mcveigh like you would trade that in a heartbeat right like yeah just anyone justin herbert like just anyone for justin herbert yeah um so But in this situation, that feels a tiny bit steep for this season. Now, if the goal is this season is like a tryout, if Wilson doesn't work, we just throw the season away and get rid of him, then okay, fine. Because you still have your picks. I think next year you kind of get your picks back. But for this year, it's a pretty steep ass to get better with no one to draft.

I guess. You're kind of in a tough spot with your cap. My guess is they told him, you're not stuck with Wilson if he doesn't work after this season. And we'll have to do whatever we can, but we'll eat it. I think that's the part of this that's so interesting to me. I think we're about to see something happen in the NFL that has happened in other sports, but hasn't happened in the NFL yet. And it's the Broncos ownership is like a multitude. It's like they're exponentially richer than most NFL owners.

They have a different type of assessment of cost benefit. This is not like, I'll use Dan Snyder as an example. Dan Snyder bought the Washington Ben Redskins for under a billion dollars. It was like $800 million or something. He did not even have all that money. There were lots of other partners. He had to take all his debt.

Right, right, right. That was who used to buy football teams. Now, when Dan Snyder sells the Commanders, the people was who used to buy football teams now the when dan snyder sells the commanders the people who are going to buy it like jeff bezos might buy it that's a guy with you know 10 nine figures in his bank account like it's a different breed of rich and we're going to start to see this i think like income inequality in the nfl like you've seen in baseball and even in the nba where bob myers and the and the um or joe lake up in the NFL, like you've seen in baseball and even in the NBA where Bob Myers and the, and the,

or Joe Lake up in the warriors are just like, sure, we'll just pay the income tax. Who cares? We want to win. I think that's what, that's what struck me about this for Denver is like, they can get out of the Wilson thing.

Like whatever, like whatever, we'll just eat the cap. Like, Oh, Sean Payton, we have to trade some stuff and then we have to pay him an absurd contract. Like who cares? We already are. we have to trade some stuff, and then we have to pay him an absurd contract.

Like, who cares? We have this asset in Russell Wilson. We have to get the best possible thing out of him. Let's see what we've got, and we can go from there. And I feel like that's what struck – I don't know if that's like reading too much into things, but like this is not how like the Raiders would have done this. You know what I mean? Like there are certain teams that can't think like this.

Oh, correct. And the Broncos can. Oh, no. The Broncos owners absolutely are just throwing more money at the problem because they have it.

Absolutely right. They're probably paying $15 million a year. Easily. They didn't even think about it. It's like, sure, whatever. Who cares? You're absolutely right about that one.

They can pay more than others can to fix the problem. Now, the question obviously is this fixing the problem? can to fix the problem. Now, the question obviously is, is fixing the problem? Will it fix the problem? Maybe not with Russell Wilson, but if you're able to clear your contract of him in a couple of years, you got Sean Payton there and he's done a lot of winning in New Orleans. So you're, maybe it works with Wilson. If it does great.

If it doesn't, you got Sean Payne for many years as your coach. So it's, again, you threw money at the problem and you can afford it. So go ahead and do it. I think, you know, the way they played this with Hackett, where they fired him before the season was even over, and they basically said, I think they're looking at this and saying, we are putting the best possible person in this seat to deal with this problem of Russell Wilson.

If Sean Payton can't fix it, we can rule out that Russell Wilson's good, right? Like there's no question after this that if you can't work in this system, he's toast. So I think from a business standpoint, it really makes sense for them because then they can just sort of fail fast and they're not scared of oh well we're gonna have to like pay out all this

dead money like whatever they can figure that out so that's why i don't totally buy the uh the ryan's thing because with dameco ryan's like maybe he's an amazing head coach i hope he is i'm sure he will be in houston um but he's not like an offensive genius where they could rule out that Russell Wilson sucks. You know what I mean? The one, the one thing about the D'Amico Ryan's hire is, is look,

I am, I love the praise that he's getting. It's great. But the one thing I will say is that like, I would love to do the research on this. I don't have the time is like, who does, when the media,

when every single person praises a coaching hire, does that coach end up being really good? Because it feels like the coaches that we- Everyone loves Nathaniel Hackett. Yeah. It feels like the coaches that we mock, like Nick Sirianni, Doug Peterson-

Mike McDaniel. End up being the really good, like first-time head coaches, not guys that we've already seen coach. Like, first-time head coaches. Not guys that we've already seen coach. Like first-time head coaches. I don't know, man. Demi Grimes might be the best coach of all time.

But everyone's assured that he's the best coach of all time. I have a feeling I think you have as well. Like, okay. Sure. Yeah, let's see. This happened with Robert Sala sala if you remember like he was another defensive coordinator for the niners he looked the part on the sidelines like everyone saw him they're like that's a head coach like look how much the players love him look how smart

his defense was and we'll see i think sala's actually done a pretty good job with what he's had but he needs a quarterback i think he had a quarterback well yeah that would help demico ryan's demico ryan's will be good if he gets a quarterback and he would be good. And again, Domingo Ryans will be good if he gets a quarterback. It can be a simple job like that. If he gets a quarterback, I think he'll be fine. And again, everyone vouches for him, even players, former players. It's not a knock on him. I'm just saying that I just saw the automatic tweets pouring like,

greatest hire ever, greatest hire ever, greatest. I'm like, I want to do a a research on like who each year we said is the media, like the best hire. And was that person the best hire three years from now? Yeah. Well, I think, you know, that's absolutely true. I think there's a lot of good ways to be a head coach. And like the difference between Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni, like Andy Reed is this brilliant offensive mind.

Nick Sirianni obviously knows what he's doing, but you know, sometimes it's just like, who's a good CEO of the program. Like the Eagles have both their offensive and defensive coordinators are getting head coaching interviews, right? Like clearly there's more talent on the staff than just him where we've, you know, we've all been talking about Eric Biennium for what feels like an eternity. You know, it's, it it there's differences in what people can do. Um, so I hope that he does well. I hope they get a great quarterback that certainly shortcuts things. But,

um, I agree. There hasn't really been a take about D'Amico Ryan's other than like, this seems great. Like good for Houston. Thankfully. Thank God they, that they're after two embarrassing years. two embarrassing years, they did what seems to be the right thing. I guess I don't know. What should we do from here? Do we want to just go right to Super Bowl and do a little preview before we get out of here?

All right, so the line opens. The Chiefs were an early favorite. Then it got bet back to the Eagles. It remains the Eagles laying a point and a half, I think. I don't know. It's interesting that all the money came in on Philly first. The big talking point this week, I think, is that Philly hasn't played anyone. I saw something that they played like the 32nd

DVOA schedule, and then they had this cakewalk through the playoffs. I don't know. Do you think the line is fair? I think the line is fair. I saw that the best quarterback the Eagles have played all season for QBR, cumulative season QBR, is Jared Goff. And that was like week four when they were on a losing streak. Theagles though are so good in the trenches that it might not matter like the chiefs just it's just hard to beat them man like

they're gonna have to find a way to stop the eagles on first down to get him in a situation where hurts has to become the offense like hurts passing the ball has to become the Eagles on first down, to get him in a situation where Hurts has to become the offense. Like, Hurts passing the ball has to become the offense. Because if not, then again, like, it doesn't matter. Like, the Chiefs are not set up to be great on third and two, like, in stopping the zone read. That's what I'm just concerned about. And then being able for Riddick to block, to be blocked.

Like, I just, you know, I think Wiley is much better to give him credit for. But the Chiefs' offensive line has got their work cut out for them. It's a tough matchup. But the thing that makes me feel better about the Chiefs is they have the best quarterback in this game. And you're always in it with Pat Mahomes, right? That always gives you the opportunity to win the game.

So, I don't know, man. I picked the Eagles early just for the offensive defensive lines, which I think is cumulatively better than the Chiefs. But I do think there is something to the idea that the Eagles have not played a tough schedule. Now they've blown out bad teams, which they should do, Matt. They should do. Yep.

But that's kind of like going to where I sit right now. I do think if the Chiefs win, it's probably close. I think the Eagles could have the opportunity to win a bigger type game than the Chiefs would be able to win. I completely agree. It feels like every Chiefs game is the same. Every Chiefs game is the whole game. You're just white-knuckling yourself the whole time.

And then you exit. If they just played like one game, like the Niners game this year was the one game they played this year where you're less like, yeah, how about you play that game all the time? You win 41, 21.

Yeah. It's a good team. Like they have that in them. They absolutely do. They just don't do it. They never do it. I, they,

I swear it's, I don't, it's like you can count those amounts of games on one hand and it's like that when they play the texans the following week that happens all the time with them but then you look at the eagles and eagles seem to i mean last week's game was a great example when it was 7-7 after that mccaffrey touchdown and it was clear that they that the 49ers didn't even have a quarterback, did you for one second think, like, could this happen?

Like, could this actually happen that the Eagles blow this? Like, they get a little bit tight when they have a close game, but when they're rolling, they are cooking. Like, they are just like an unstoppable force when they're up. Like, if they're up 14-0, game's over. I mean, Mahomes could try to make it close, but the Chiefs are the team that comes back down two scores. Well, here's the thing.

So that Niners game, remember, it was 14-7 before halftime. If the Niners just go in the half and don't have Josh Johnson try to pass the ball, it's 14-7 at halftime. It was not this blowout. Then Josh Johnson fumbles, now it's 14-7 at halftime. It was not this blowout. Then Josh Johnson fumbles. That was 21-7. If the Chiefs can make Jalen Hurts have to drop back pass in this game,

that's their best way to win. Make him – I'm sure someone will tweet me, his EPA went in the pocket. I'm like, fine. We saw last weekend, though, that when you have to make him sit in the pocket, it's not as good as when it's play action or in rhythm, but like you get him to kind of just like squeeze the pocket a little bit and make him a little bit uncomfortable.

So I'm excited, though. I mean, look, man, the Chiefs are not supposed to be here. They're not. And they're here. And they have a ton of cap space and all the draft picks. Like, it's awesome. Can the Chiefs just not do something stupid in this game? Can we have no shovel passes, please?

Can we just have, like, nothing dumb? Can we just have like nothing dumb? Can we not fumble the ball like Mahomes did? It wasn't his fault. Can we just do nothing stupid, Matt? Is that possible, you think? I don't think so. I think that's part of the full Andy Reid experience. I do think, though, the thing that worries me about,

I mean, you mentioned a lot of reasons to worry if you're a Chiefs fan. The other thing that concerns me is, will they actually commit to running the ball enough? Which isn't the thing that they do super well. I thought probably more than most about the game the Eagles lost when Hurts was in there to the commanders. Washington beat them the Eagles lost when Hurts was in there to the commanders, right? The Washington game, yeah.

Washington beat them by – McLaurin had a really nice game, but they ran the ball so much. They ran the ball 50 times. Robinson had 26 carries, 86 yards. Those aren't huge numbers, but they just controlled the clock. They didn't let the Eagles go and do that quick drive, score, bang, you're down 14 the clock. They didn't let the Eagles go and do that quick drive score bang. You're down 14 games over. They didn't let them do that.

And you can run on them. And then when you get that pass rush on the heels a little bit, then things kind of open up. So Pacheco looks amazing. I feel like they really found something with him. And if he were to be able to get a good start going, I think that the Chiefs might be able to just slow down the Eagles enough that they can keep this thing in range.

And we've seen it with my homes. I think we can say it confidently. There's no one you'd rather have in a close game in the second half in the NFL at any position than Patrick Holmes. So if it's close in the second half, the Eagles are fucked. I just don't feel great about like the chiefs having to stop the Eagles running the close in the second half the eagles are fucked i just don't feel great about like the chiefs having to stop the eagles running the ball in the fourth quarter yeah no it doesn't

seem great but last week i mean look mixon didn't do anything maybe he wasn't healthy so he ran didn't do a ton either and you know i think like the emotions are going to be like we'll see like you know the eagles haven't really been here before in a lot of these places. Like A.J. Brown's going to want the ball a lot. Like, I don't know. It's really going to be interesting. I think the Chiefs, you know, you're basically just saying, is Mahomes that good that pretty much the entire roster not being on the same level as the Chiefs or as the Eagles doesn't

matter. And I think it's very possible. And obviously Andy Reid. What's your lean for Wager so far? The Eagles will be my lean right now. They were my first lean. But I'm not going to lock it in for a few more days. But I think that Pacheco overs are something I'm interested in.

You know, we'll see. I'm interested in. You know, we'll see. I'm very curious. The other thing that's, I think, not being talked about quite enough is Jalen Hurts still doesn't look right. No, he's not 100%. And both of these quarterbacks. And we'll see in another two weeks, another week from now. I think Mahomes actually, I think Hurts' injury is probably worse.

I think we'll find out. It's a grade three AC sprain. It's much worse because you can tell. There was a run he had to the left in that game, I think it was, where he just curled into a ball and fell down. Yeah. Mahomes should be fine. Also, due to the health of the Chiefs wide receivers, who knows?

I mean mean they lost three guys in this game that's important to figure out as well so we have fun man yeah the Andy Reid Andy Reid Philadelphia thing yep might be the the commanders

OC after this game we'll find out well I don't even know if that's good isn't there talk about commanders? Yeah, there's some Anthony Lynn talk. How does it feel for you and Mitch that the Kelseys are really on your corner here? I mean, this is like NFL

brothers. This is a tough game for the Schwartzes. Mitch didn't want to do a podcast. I asked him. I tried my best. I mean, Travis is... We tried. You guys are both amazing players, you and Mitch. Travis is like one of the, what,

two or three best guys in his position ever. And now that they're both in the Super Bowl, this is a tough week for you guys. I mean, they're both Hall of Famers. Mitch and I are not, so that's a little bit different. But I tried, man. I tried to get Mitch to do a podcast. He didn't want to do it.

He didn't want to be locked into a schedule, he said. Is Jason a surefire Hall of Famer? Like, is he like the best center of his generation? Yeah, yeah. Especially if he wins another one, too. He'll have two times your bowl champion. Pro Football Reference has a Hall of Fame calculator thing they do,

but I don't think Kelsey... Let me look up here. I looked up the other day. They have a calculator thing. I don't know if he's... I think he's pretty close to calculating enough Pro Bowls and weighted things they do for like...

He's made first team – Yeah, he's made pro football, I mean, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. So he's five years straight of being first team all pro. Jeez. That's incredible i mean part of it i think honestly is like the unfortunate thing for offensive linemen a lot of the times is the famous ones get a little bit more buzz and i think sometimes you know i'm just curious like from your watching like if he's if he's i would i would put him i would put him in the hall of fame yeah so they have here it is the pro football hall of fame uh monitor they have an 11th among centers so that's probably not like good enough to probably get in but we'll leave that to the

voters we're we're this deep in the podcast and i I want to ask you a question for the people who stuck around this long. You know some people on the Chiefs. Was this really a high ankle sprain? Or is it intentionally diagnosed to the public differently than it actually was? Okay, so who told us it was a high ankle sprain? Because the Chiefs certainly didn't. Right? Because they don't certainly didn't. Right? Because they don't actually tell us that stuff.

So they either told Adam Schefter or Ian Rapport about it. And who knows who told them. Right. The chiefs, I mean, yeah. I imagine maybe it's just not a bad one. I wondered. I mean, our boy Ravel said he called six orthopedist and they said it's no way it's a high ankle sprain yeah he couldn't have played but i almost feel

like that was the biggest that there's a lesson there where it was like oh we're seeing him walk without a brace like he's fine it's like are we sure it's actually a high angle sprain because it didn't come from a real source and i feel idiotic that i didn't just bet the chiefs when they were couple point underdogs i tried to warn people did my best i told you guys he would be fine i did my best warning i warned everybody i just achieved homer but i warned everybody you could have been a little more explicit with your boy like at this point i think we're I warned everybody. Just a Chiefs homer, but I warned everybody. You could have been a little more explicit with your boy. At this point, I think we're close enough buds that you could have just laid it out for me.

Bengals fans, you guys had to eat that, man. I'm sorry. You talked shit for a year. You had to eat it. Sorry, you just had to eat it. You had to eat it. You had to take it. I know you're upset and you didn't like it,

but you talked shit for a year and you just had to eat it. You had to eat it. You had to take it. I know you're upset and you didn't like it, but you talked shit for a year and you just had to eat it. That's what happens. All right. Super Bowl week coming up, guys. Coaching Carousel got a couple more down, a couple more left. We'll catch up with you guys next week. Have a great weekend, everyone. Enjoy the Pro Bowl skills competition, college basketball, the NBA,

whatever else you're doing. There's no football this weekend, guys. Have a good one. Take care. Thanks, buddy.