Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Danny Dimes, Brock Purdy, and What Stands Out from Wild Card Weekend

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Geoff is back alongside Gabe to talk through all of the fallout from an action-packed Wild Card Weekend. AFC contenders looked shaky across the board, will the Chiefs have an easier road to the Super Bowl than expected? Also, is Daniel Dimes the real thing? What about Brock Purdy? What's next for Lamar Jackson? Tune in for all those answers and more.On Moving the Line, Geoff shares what he learned about the league's coaches from this weekend, Gabe defends Al Michaels, and nobody knows where Kliff Kingsbury is.Be sure to leave a rating or a comment to share what you think about the show. Have a question you want to be discussed? Tweet @geoffschwartz to submit it for an episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday january 17th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart new powered by the varsity podcast network five of six games of super wildcard weekend are in the books as we record this right now a great weekend of nfl action mostly chalk gabe but a lot of action nonetheless a lot of fun some close games a lot of fun, some close games, a couple blowouts. But nonetheless, Gabe, we are here. We recorded this before the Bucs and the Cowboys play on Monday night. So beware of that. We're going to have no Bucs and Cowboys talk, even though we know Tom Brady is going to win this game. So we can just kind of fast forward to the next week's games if we want to, Gabe,

where Tom Brady is playing in San Francisco against the 49ers. Okay, so a couple of things here. First of all, yeah, we're doing this before that game because after that game, I'm not going to be capable of speaking professionally into a microphone. That game is going to kill me. I'm certain. I'm absolutely certain. Tom Brady in a one score game is going to get whatever call, whatever these sky judges have been up to in these other games, it's coming in for Tom Brady this week. Also, you said all chalk, but also like a bunch of covers, right? Like all the favorites won, but nobody covered.

I don't think anyone covered. I mean, look, I guess it depends on what you, well, the Niners covered. I guess it depends on what your idea of like, I thought the Giants were going to win. So them, like, winning to me is not an upset, really. And they're a three-point dog or two-and-a-half-point dog. Same with Jacksonville.

I mean, Jacksonville was a slight underdog at home. So the Chalk won as far as the big favorites, right? Buffalo, the Bengals, and the 49ers that were the big favorites heading into the weekend. Now, they didn't win easily. There was a lot of reason why, well, we'll see there's some warts here and there on these teams. And look, it's playoff games, man.

Divisional opponents in certain cases. But there's a lot to take from these games this weekend and how it might apply to next weekend. Well, so let's start with the craziest of them all, which was that Jags-Chargers game. Well, let's so let's start with the craziest of them all, which was that Jags Chargers game. I mean, I think a lot of people just turned that game off and moved on with the rest of their evening and were stunned to see the finish of that game. Yeah. And then the takes as the weekend finished, the takes were what good news for the Chiefs. The rest of the AFC is crap. The good teams could barely get past the bad teams. This just means the Chiefs are marching to the Super Bowl. Jeff, I'm sorry. That seems a little too simplistic for me. I would argue, no, the good teams got their bad game out of the way, and now they're going to wake up and the Chiefs are in real trouble because they're going to have to go through Trevor, who has irrational confidence, and then the winner of the most

emotional game of the season between the Bengals and Bills. I do not like where the Chiefs are. All right, let's unwind all of this. So let's go back to what happened between the Chargers and the Bengals. So I thought to myself, you know what, man? Jags, Jags, Jags. Jags, Jags. I could get an early night to sleep, early bed, right? On the East Coast, it was a night game. However, just like the rest of the country, I knew better. I know what the Chargers do. They charge her for a reason. There's a verb for what they do. They charge her, right? And I laid money on Jacksonville money line. I laid money on Jacksonville plus 17 and a half.

I knew what was about to happen. Obviously, the Chargers blew that game, right? There's no doubt about it. I've been in one of those games. I was on Kansas City. We were up 38-10 in a wildcard game in Indianapolis. We lost that game uh but the difference is we had seven eight nine guys go out with injuries charge had none of that now they'd

mike williams out obviously because brandon said they can't manage his roster in a game that did not matter but the chargers blew this game because they didn't run the ball in the second half um their offensive design is so but when you watch what like, Brian Dable has done for Daniel Jones, and you see what Joe Lombardi is doing for Justin Herbert, it must make you furious if you're a Chargers fan. It does not seem like they're going to fire Brandon Staley, by the way. They need to get themselves a new offensive coordinator to figure out what to do with this offense.

Now, Herbert's not all the blame. He missed Keenan Allen early in that game. Excuse me, late in the second quarter, but early enough in that game for a touchdown that might have changed the trajectory of that game. And Jacksonville. Jacksonville played great in the second half. They were fantastic. The offense was humming.

The defense got stops. They were wonderful. So, yes, they're playing a Kansas City team. Look, the Chiefs have their issues, right? Special teams. Defense is getting better, which is important. I had said all along that the Chiefs just kind of need to be about average on defense. They're 17th right now.

They were like 25th a month ago. They should be average to win these games. Jacksonville's defense, by the way, 26th. Now, to part of my irrational confidence, yes,sonville right now is on an all-time high they're gonna be an all-time high they had that big comeback they're gonna go in canada city with a bunch of confidence but the chiefs have a way of kind of just like suffocating teams in the playoff games right that kind of average of points we've seen for so many years now, especially in the first game of the postseason they're hosting at home.

The points come fast, they come hard, and it's hard to play in that environment if you're Jacksonville. They played about six weeks ago. Chicanas, they easily won that game with not even really a B game, kind of like a B-C-plus game. So there's going to be a lot of momentum, a lot of confidence, more importantly, for Jacksonville, but so will Kansas City.

I mean, my take from this weekend is not that Kansas City is going to win the AFC. They still have the same flaws. We have not seen them play. My take is the flaws of Buffalo and Cincinnati might be more than I thought. You know, Buffalo and Cincinnati both played bad games, but for different reasons, right?

So Buffalo played a poor game, and they did not get the turnover luck, right? They played a poor game because they turned the ball over. They played a poor game because Josh Allen, and not all his fault, right? There were turnovers, tip passes, an overthrow, the fumble, and Miami cashed in on those short fields. Miami only had like four yards of play-ish, 230 yards. That was it.

24 offensive points. Like, Miami wasn't great. Buffalo kind of handed out that game. On the flip side, the Bengals got the turnover luck in that game, right? They got the turnover luck. Buffalo didn't. The Bengals got the turnover luck and won that game with the turnover luck. And the Bengals offensive line, I'd never seen

a team overcome more offensive line issues than the Bengals, Gabe. But you're three offensive linemen down now. It's a problem. The offense second half wasn't very good. It's a problem without having an offensive line in place to go to Buffalo. So the warts are there for these teams. The question is, you know, if each team is playing their best game or which team can force someone into a worse game or can force someone into a game that they don't want to play, will come out victorious. I feel confident that Kansas City winning the game.

Maybe they don't cover. I think they'll be fine. But Buffalo-Cincinnati, man, is going to be a really good game. I like Cincinnati heading into the playoffs as far as winning the AFC. If you listen to the show long enough, you know that I felt they're playing the best in the AFC. But that offensive line stuff really worries me, man. It's a big problem.

It's a big problem. And again, if Hundley doesn't try to push the ball over like he did, which was uncalled for, he did that himself. That was not the called play. It was a QB sneak. And if you watch the replay, Gabe, he probably gets in if he just sneaks the ball as usual. And then it's 24-17.

Maybe they go for two at that point. They probably go for two later in the game. And the Bengals aren't even playing in Buffalo this weekend. So they escape, again, a different way than Buffalo did. And so that offensive line really concerns them in heading on the road. Yeah, that was the concern throughout their amazing run last season. Might as well still be the concern. I think, obviously, that game in Buffalo is going to be talked about heavily all week long. And coming out of that game, who knows what kind of emotional stuff people will be going concern. I think obviously that game in Buffalo is going to be talked about heavily all

week long and coming out of that game, who knows what kind of emotional stuff people will be going through. Whoever wins that game is obviously going to have been through the hardest game of their postseason and then presumably going to Kansas City. Or I guess that would be the neutral side game, wouldn't it? Let me back up. The neutral site game would be if the bills and chiefs play if the if the right if the bangles and chiefs play the games in kansas city yeah got it let's back up to trevor for a second because i think i think this week is really their week um you know a lot was made of he's never lost on a saturday from high school to college to it's just one of those things obviously played most of his normal games on Saturdays but then the

big games weren't played you know the championships he won were on Saturdays the ones he lost were not whatever he's a clutch dude it seems he had an absolutely atrocious first quarter and bounce back like is there just something at any level about certain guys who can look their teammates in the eye and everyone knows all right this guy's still got this i mean down 27 oh absolutely there just is so how do you define that what does that look like or what does that feel like to players around him um so i felt this way with like alex smith or eli manning really there's you know there's like a look in their eye like you just have this faith that they're gonna do it and And there's no look of fear in their eyes. There's no look of doubt. And they just keep slinging the rock. And that's what he did. But partly, like, sometimes

you just have bad luck. And you know that as a quarterback. Like, some of those were not his fault. They just were tipped and they had weird plays. And the first one hit three chargers, right? The third guy caught it eventually. Weird stuff happens in games. If you accept that there's variance in games, you accept that things might not go perfectly every time. And he kept slinging the rock. The Chargers just couldn't make him uncomfortable, right? There was not enough pressure in the second

half. And when you have confidence that you can win any game any time, and I'm sure Doug told him in half time, like, guys, I've been in the opposite seat. He was coaching for the Chiefs in that game in 20 and 20 and 2013. He probably was like, guys, like, I've been here before. And they were only down 20 at halftime. We were up 28 in the third quarter.

And you can kind of feel that when the Chargers gave up that touchdown at the end of the first half, you kind of felt that shift a little bit right there. They got a stop, came out and scored again. And it was on from there. And Trevor Lawrence, man, he's always had this in him. We've seen him play college football. Like, there was no doubt he had this in him. He needed Doug Peterson to bring out of him.

And, again, they're a very confident bunch, Gabe. But playing Arrowhead is a different animal. It's a different beast. And they have not done that in a playoff game yet. They had a home playoff game. They're facing a Chiefs team that's well-rested. I'm fairly certain they've scored. I know Mahomes got hurt in the first game of 2020

against the Browns in the first playoff game they played in that postseason. But I think they had 17 points at halftime while he was healthy. They're scoring in like the 30s, these games in the playoffs, when they're off a bye. It was 51, excuse me, it was 31 against the Colts in 2018, the first game of the playoffs. It was the famous 51 points in 2019 against the Texans.

2020, as I mentioned, it was only 22 points, but Mahomes was hurt. It was 17 at halftime. And then last season, they put up the 42 against Pittsburgh. So, like, they score a bunch of points in these early games. And I think Jacksonville's going to have to withstand to withstand that like how do you withstand a chief team that's gonna score a ton of points can you match their energy offensively with your defense that you know you've shown moments to be good but not a great defense um you did allow 27 first half points you know 30 points a game against the charged offense without Mike Williams or the

offensive line sort of leaky like can you withstand that if you're jacksonville a barrage of points from the chiefs early in this game well i mean certainly seems like a barrage of points isn't going to phase the quarterback we haven't mentioned the coach yet he's obviously you know headline 1a here what i still don't quite understand how a guy can take over what is one of the biggest dumpster fires in recent memory in professional sports and this quickly turn it around without doing a whole lot now remember all the moves they made in the offseason in addition to bringing in peterson were we crushed we were like what if you're giving that guy how much like nobody thought this team got much better and here they are and we're taking them

seriously what what is peterson doing i i don't get it how did he shift it that quickly that dramatically um well you know this is just what happens when you have um a culture where everyone buys in and believes in each other, right? And then when you start seeing the success on the field, you start buying in more and you start understanding, you start giving your full faith to the coaching staff. If they tell you, hey, this is what's going to work, you trust them. Hey, it's going to work. I'm going to do exactly what he says. It just kind of just rolls downhill each week you start playing better and better and better you start believing and

believing belief's important right gabe belief is important thing and we in everything we ted lasso right you gotta believe right like it's very important all walks of life to believe you can do it and jacksonville believes they can do it because they have a coach who's done it before if i if doug peterson's in front of me and he says, hey, guys, I've won a Super Bowl before. And I played with Tom Coughlin, right? Like, I didn't win a Super Bowl with Tom Coughlin. But if he said, hey, this is what we did to win a Super Bowl. Yes, coach, I'm doing that.

I'm doing that. It's worked, right? If Doug Pearson gets up in front of his team and says, hey, we ran this play in 2017 and it worked for us. I'm going to run it here. Great coach. Let's go. You know,

like there's a confidence level with, with, with a coach like that. That's been there before. That's done it before. That's winning. And I think he has a way to communicate that works, obviously the way his offense is set up.

And then it comes from Trevor Lawrence as well. Trevor Lawrence, the ability to lead and be calm in moments that are hectic. And then look, even the play that he made the two-point conversion play that was on his own like the instincts that he shows on the field are very impressive as well okay well then i'm gonna shift gears and throw two guys under the bus here and say from what you're telling me uh kevin o'connell and Kevin O'Connell and Kirk Cousins do not have that same look or that same effect because we all wondered when are they going to collapse lots of people including you predicted this

weekend would be when and sure enough they lose to a Giants team that kind of barely belonged in the playoffs in the first place so what is it about the vikings that like you never really did take him seriously but like what the hell why why can't they actually win when it matters well they're working on defense i started watching the film today with giants vikings i mean there were so many times vikings defenders just ran into each other like on the field just ran into each other um weren't guarding the right players how many times were guys just wide open now of course you gotta give credit to Brian Dable and Mike Kafka and staff for getting this Giants team to where they are and having guys open they're just not good on defense then offensively offensive line

was a big issue as we thought with injuries they had against the Giants' defensive line. But it comes down to the quarterback. I just talked about Trevor Lawrence and all the things that he does well. Cousins just doesn't. I mean, he wasn't bad yesterday. He wasn't bad yesterday. But you expect a lot from a player getting paid that much money. And these critical moments, Gabe, he just, it's just not there, right?

It seems far too often to just not be there. And we said all year long this one score record was going to change. It did. And the Giants were more physical. They looked better coached. And we thought they would win. All right. So then by, are we then getting a little too excited about Daniel Jones?

Because yeah, he won that game and yeah, he played pretty well. And there's some cool stats about things he did that people haven't done before. But like, you know, I'm seeing a lot of comparisons to some all timers that don't really feel warranted one day after a playoff win. Um, are we getting the wrong takeaway if we're starting to crown daniel jones because he beat a team that really wasn't that good in the first place look i i thought he played really well um so let's give him credit where where it's due but i think it's worth pointing out that a lot of guys are just very open.

Like, that's also part of it as well. But Jones is throwing to the open guys. The best thing that Brian D'Abel has done this year is he got Daniel Jones to stop turning the ball over. Like, stop making the critical mistake. Now, are you paying Jones $35 million next season to be your franchise quarterback? It feels a little rich. It feels a little rich. But I understand the argument.

If you get better wide receivers, you get a better offensive lineman, okay. Well, now when you pay the quarterback that much money, you can't be paying everyone else that much money, right? So now your roster is not going to be the same. You see that everywhere, right? You pay the quarterback that much money, right? So now your roster is not going to be the same. You see that everywhere, right? You pay the quarterback that much money, you sacrifice some other places on the team. So they try to win on that rookie contract.

You know, again, the Chiefs got rid of Tyreek Hill, got a bunch of wide receivers on these low-level deals. They move the ball still, right? The Packers tried that. How'd that work for them this season, right? So you can say, oh, you want these things, but if you pay Daniel Jones too much money, it doesn't work out, you're not, you know, you're, it might end up costing your team.

But he played well yesterday. He definitely deserves credit for that. Philly's a different monster, man. It's interesting. Matt and I will talk about this game later this week. Matt's going to be in the Giants. I'll tell you that right now. I'm not going to be.

It's game's so interesting, right? Because the Eagles have not looked terribly good the last month of the season, but the Giants are not better anywhere than Philly. Like, nowhere. Like, the best thing the Giants do, their defensive line, the Eagles' interior offensive line

is the best in the NFL. Like, they're going to be fine. It's just like a weird thing where everyone's on the Giants this week now. Eagles are still pretty good, guys. And so the Giants have just a ways to go with talent. And if you pay Daniel Jones all that money, are you going to be able to afford the rest of the players you need

to make that team really good? I'm curious to see what they do. But he definitely played well yesterday. He deserves credit for playing as well as he did against a poor Vikings defense. Nonetheless, you're supposed to do that if you're playing a team that's not very good yeah and the vikings are just trapped right because everything you just described with contracts like they're just trapped being a playoff team who can't win more than a game in the playoffs i saw i saw something that basically said like the vikings needed to rebuild this

season like they have their way over the cap for next year. They were perfect candidates for sort of a rebuild on the fly type of situation and just didn't do it. And instead they went sort of not all in, but sort of went all in. And now they're kind of stuck again next season.

There's a, it's sort of admitting like we're not going for it this year. We're going to pull back a little bit and then sort of go full speed again in two years.

They just didn't do that. So now they're sort of go full speed again in two years. They just didn't do that. So now they're sort of stuck. Sort of stuck. Yeah. The Lions look like they're ascending. I don't think, I think if Rodgers comes back, the Packers aren't going to be this bad. I don't think so.

You know, the Bears, presumably, just more talent, better football team. And again, the Vikings were 11-0 in the regular season and one score games that typically that'll go like 4-11 next season i'm assuming 4-7 next season and that'll sell you're a 500 team yeah our buddy sam monson had a good tweet he said uh miami buffalo delay pushed the final drive into prime time kirk cousins never had a chance yeah um i saw the uh and look the final pass in the game was short it was short of the sticks it's funny to

laugh at but there was pressure in his face there was no one open like he kind of had to throw the ball it kind of kind of just had to kind of had to so you know people can blame him all you want and certainly there's reasons to but got pressure he threw the ball

we've reached the part of the show where we finally get to talk about brock purdy i think we've gone further into a show than anyone else without mentioning this kid i'm i'm gonna say two things here jeff one um brock purdy was mr irrelevant is not just approaching has surpassed ryan fitzpatrick went to har for me. Oh, okay. That's now the most overstated thing around NFL circles. But also Brock Purdy won't win a Super Bowl because he's a rookie. Sorry, not buying it. I feel like this guy could win it all. They're so freaking good and I don't see any flaws with him yet.

They're for real. Yeah, they're really good. They scored 38 points yesterday, or I guess not yesterday, now Saturday. And their quarterback didn't even play that well. That kind of shows you

where they're at right now with all the weapons they have. They're really good. And Perry didn't play terribly well. Missed those early on. Even some of the throws that he did complete were great passes.

He wrote a couple concepts of the same, and he just kind of kept hitting the same sort of concepts over and over again. They're really good. The question becomes can the Eagles basically slow them down in two weeks? Because I don't think Tampa or the Cowboys can do it next week.

The thing about Purdy is he still has yet to be in that spot. There's one more spot I want to see him do it in. One more spot. Again, I've mentioned this many times. It's on the road in Philadelphia in the fourth quarter. Like, that's it.

I just want to see that. That's what I'm waiting for right now, Gabe, because everything else is fine. He's hit every mark. They're going to win this weekend, in my opinion, in San Francisco. Now, Shanahan does some you know first half of that game some coaching decisions again like i don't shaking at times right got bailed out that that strip sack of geno smith changed the course of the game the seahawks were driving into maybe go ahead and third quarter stripped game that game changed from there so

that's what i'm waiting for he's played well he wasn't great but again like it wasn't great to score 38 points they're a good football team they have a ton of weapons yeah i was thinking brock purdy is costing jimmy g a lot of money because i think what what we're seeing is if mr irrelevant there i just did it myself, can outplay Jimmy G in Jimmy G's offense. Jimmy G isn't great. So, like, I think the teams that were like, we could get a really competent guy who's been to a Super Bowl. Like, we could get him to be our starter. Maybe we're a playoff team with him.

I think a lot of teams have been like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Maybe we don't need to pay that guy. You buying that logic? No. I think Jimmy G will get a lot of money if he's a free agent to go play anywhere. Really? If he needs a quarterback. Yeah.

I don't know what matters. All right. What about this? Because it springs from a few of the topics we've already had. We'll have plenty of chances to talk about the Niners because I'm with you. I think they'll win next week and we'll just keep on talking about them. So Lamar sits out. We'll get to him a little bit in a while daniel jones

balls out um the niners have this funky qb situation were there any big picture like qb's on the move kind of takeaways that you got out of this weekend because i feel like it changed the power rankings a little bit um well i mean i think what what do you mean by like who would you well so so i think with lamar not playing and there being a lot of speculation as to why i think where he's now seeming less likely to be franchised and more likely to be on the move let's do that now by the way i'm Let's talk about that now. That's a better term. Let's audible here. Yeah. Talk about it.

Okay. So Lamar Jackson did not play this week against the Ravens. There's two ideas why not. One, obviously, he just wasn't ready to play, right? Too much swelling in his knee, which he tweeted out, wasn't ready to play, and he just couldn't play. Okay? Plain and simple.

When he said that, by the way, I have too much swelling in my knee, basically, via tweet, they asked John Harbaugh, his coach, about it. And he said, like, ah, HIPAA laws, I can't talk about it. Well, you can. These aren't HIPAA laws. HIPAA. Your quarterback tweeted about it, so you're allowed to talk about it.

And he didn't say, like, man, he's trying his hardest to play. He's like, I don't want to talk about it, basically. Right? He just didn't want to talk about it. So, a little bit of a red flag. He's like, I don't want to talk about it, basically, right? He just didn't want to talk about it. So a little bit of a red flag.

Mike Vick comes out in the pregame show yesterday and says, suck it up and play. Put a brace on it and go. RG3 comes back, says, I tried to play through a torn ACL, MCL in a playoff game, which we saw. It didn't go very well. Now, a PCL is different than an MCL and ACL, first of all. But the general sentiment from players is like Michael Vick,

which is like, suit up and play. Like, it's a playoff game. Get your ass in the playoff game. Now, I really don't care what Lamar does, because if he feels like he can't play, Gabe, he shouldn't play, right? Like, if he feels like 50% of me, I can't really get done what I have to do to win this game,

okay, fine. Then don't play. I mean, some guys can't really get done what I have to do to win this game. Okay, fine. Then don't play. I mean, some guys can. Like, Phillip Rivers played with no ACL one game. Okay. Jay Cutler famously didn't come back in with an MCL strain. Like, everyone's different, right? Some guys can play with injuries.

Some can't. I think the Ravens feel like you should have tried to play, is my guess. It's a playoff game. Like, you should play. You should try, at least. And he did. Now, the contract stuff is a big part of this, in my opinion. Yeah.

If he had a contract signed in place of guaranteed money, I absolutely believe he would have tried to play. Yes. And this is why I mentioned all the way back in the summer, I did not mention this specific situation, but this is why getting him under contract was so important because it sets up everything else for the future, first of all, but it avoids situations like this where, again, could he have played? I don't know. I really don't know,

and I totally get Michael Vick saying get out there and play. I get RG3 saying not to play. I kind of err, maybe stupidly, on the side of trying to play through injuries. And I've done it in my career. It didn't always help me out, but I did it. So I get it. I get both sides of it.

I totally do. I should have not played sometimes, but I played anyways. It hurt me, hurt my career. I get it, man. The best mentality I had is an offensive lineman. But if he's under contract he 100 would have played in this game no doubt about it the question is now where do they go

from here it does not seem like things are going well in baltimore um jk dobbins came out after the game the running back and was like why didn't they give me the ball like what's going on here i should go out of the ball you know tyler huntley on that on that quarterback sneak trying to push put the ball over the pylon now i think that's a play that's not used enough if you remember drew breeze did that all the time he would get hike jump over put it over trevor lawrence did it but trevor lawrence did on his own that wasn't what the play was called he has six6 with giant raptor arms. It just was like, I'm not sure raptors have long arms, whatever. Like giant arms.

I think they have very small arms, actually. But I know what you mean. Giant bird, whatever. Giant arm, okay. And then like Tyler Huntley just goes rogue on his own and does this. Is that a sign of like bad coaching culture where guys are trying to do rogue things or is that a sign of a player just a young player trying to do too much that like the plays like that worry because you don't see that happening in kansas city you don't see that happening in buffalo

in cincinnati like you don't see that happening those places now again easily can make the case it's just one rogue one rogue decision by a backup player trying to do too much. But the thing about it is he scores if he just does what he's supposed to do. They got a ton of push. The scrum went over the goal line. And so the vibes don't seem great. That testy, why are we doing these mid-corner interviews? Like, it was so, it was like, Harbaugh did so bad.

Poor Melissa Stark, man. Like, she got eviscer was like harbaugh that was so bad poor melissa stark man like she got eviscerated by harbaugh um he the vibes aren't great and i think comes back to lamar jackson's decision not to play this game um and again i don't know what's in his knee i i trust the player um in this instance kind of contradicts what i've said earlier with the way I approach these sort of... Again, it hurt me in my career. There are times I should have been more blunt. I'm not playing this game. Didn't have the leverage to do so. Just didn't do it.

So, I just think that it's not good. Now, the question is what do they do? Do they franchise tag them and wait for someone to trade two first-round picks? Is my guess what they do? Do you let them him and wait for someone to trade two first-round picks? Is my guess what they do? Do they let him walk? Because the Ravens are not meeting the $230 million guaranteed demand

that he's going to ask for. They're absolutely not doing that. So for those who kind of backtrack, Deshaun Watson got $230 million guaranteed from the Browns. The next closest is about $160 million guaranteed, which I think is the Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray sort of. The Ravens would pay that in a heartbeat. Okay, we'll give you 160 guaranteed.

Basically, three years guaranteed money. You're in on that. Lamar, rightfully so, wants 230.1. He wants more than Deshaun. He should get more than Deshaun. He's a better player, better human, all those things. But he's into two straight years now and into reserve. The Ravens aren't paying him all that money.

They're just not. Now, if he would have come back, Gabe, and played in this game, and not even played well, played, the Ravens would be more inclined to pay him, in my opinion, this offseason. But again, if he plays poorly, they could use that against him. If he gets hurt even more, it hurts his free. There's lots of factors in play here, but it comes down to if he was under contract,

he would have played in this game. And the Ravens, I think, screwed up by not getting him under contract in the offseason. All right, I got a question then. If, let's assume they do franchise tag him and then somebody trades to go get him and they give up a lot and then they sign to go get him and they give up a lot and then they sign him and expect him to be their guy for you know five years at least

does he need a very specific type of offensive coordinator a specific type of offense around him like fantasy players know you know wide receiver one doesn't do much with the Ravens. The tight end does, and a bunch of running backs by committee seem to do. But, like, Lamar's always felt like kind of an odd fit with most offenses or most offensive weapons. So I'm thinking a lot about my former team, the Jets. If he went to the Jets, would they even be able to do anything with him? Or, you know,

is he just, you have to build around him and that takes time. Well, this is the question, right? The Ravens really never built an offense outside of what they currently run now. And what happens if they do?

Like what happens if you run a more traditional offense? What is, what is Lamar Jackson? I want to see it. I don't know, Gabe. He's never done it. He didn't do it. He's not in the NFL.

Jeff, we can move off Lamar Jackson and my sort of... I was dabbling with maybe being a Jets fan again if he went there, but I'm just concerned that no offensive coordinator can recreate him at his best. It was Greg Roman for a little while. It hasn't been great lately. I don't know. I just don't buy him being dropped into anyone else's offense. By the way, I'm also reconsidering something, Jeff. I think I'm the problem. So, you know, we've talked a lot about how I'm a

Chargers fan now, but the Chargers jets more than they Charger USC. They jets, you know, like I, I think it's probably me. As soon as i start to care about a team they crap the bed what about the bets do that too yeah that's right i only all my teams are famously good at crapping the bed here's the thing about this buddy everyone does this right like i'm a chiefs fan what happened in the in the in the in the championship game right the chiefs did that as well the oregon ducks allowed oregon state to run for 500 yards in the fourth game. The Chiefs did that as well. The Oregon Ducks allowed Oregon State to run for 500 yards in the fourth quarter of their game in the Civil War. This is a sport.

It's sports. It's why we love it, but also why we hate it. Yeah, but you're wearing a San Francisco Giants sweatshirt, and they've won like four World Series in our lifetime. It's been three, by the way. Yeah, and you're a Chiefs fan, and you've got a ring or two there. Oh, no, I'm not complaining about where I'm at as a fan. I wish Oregon would win a championship,

which seems less likely by the day. But, yeah, I'm a Lakers fan, so I've had a good run of success over my life. Yeah. All right, let's talk about a guy who's had a good run of success. We are taping before Tom Brady gets six calls to go his way, his defense bails him out, and he wins in comeback fashion over the Cowboys

because they stink because their coach doesn't know what he's doing that's all gonna happen we know that oh yeah then the story will quickly become but wait a second why is he playing on a monday now he has to turn around and play a team who hasn't played since saturday like is that fair is this scheduling a top you don't care no i i don't think the players are care either it's a playoffs man like any get it done any way possible is it absolutely fair no it's not i i'm i agree i agree um i thought they would wait they're playing but their play they play on on sunday anyways so what's the issue that that the niners have one extra day of rest two extra days it's like really kind of like two days of rest, yeah. Two days of rest?

That's the issue. I don't think it's an issue. And by the way... But the Bucs still get six days of... I thought... No, it's just fine. They'll be fine. They're grown...

They're NFL players. They'll survive. God forbid something doesn't go exactly Tom Brady's way once in this league. You know, this is that time. Yeah, this is just, this is totally fine. They'll survive. Okay. Let's take a quick break, come back, move the line.

We got a couple more topics. Jeff, we're back. Over under 55% chance Mike McDaniel is the next Andy Reid, a genius coach loved by his players, but can't really manage the clock as well as a lot of guys who play Madden for a living. What do you think of that? It was interesting that this weekend,

the coaches that are kind of referred to as the geniuses all lost. Stanley McDaniel, right? These geniuses, the young geniuses, all lost. Stanley McDaniel, right? These geniuses. The young geniuses lost this weekend. I woke up with Daniel a little bit of slack because they're playing with a third-string quarterback, but it was pretty bad, right? Like, you have to... Sometimes it's not about the perfect play.

It's just about getting a play in, right? Like, how are you sort of just not ready to go? You're not ready. It was bad. Too many delayed games. It just wasn't good enough. It needs to be better in a situation that costs us an opportunity to win that game because they weren't able to have the clock ready, the plays ready,

make it all work together. My favorite thing I saw all weekend about McDaniel, did you see the tweets trying to claim he was vaping on the sidelines? No, I didn't see that. So he would call a play and he'd put like his glove

up to his mouth and it looked like, I think he was just blowing it to his hand. Right. Because it was cold out. But they said he was vaping on the sidelines.

I was like, cool, yeah. No, no, absolutely not. No, look, the Dolphins play as hard as they could with a Thursday quarter. I thought Skyler Thompson actually played pretty well in that game for the situation that he was put into. So, I didn't think that was going to be fun. The Dolphins have a Tua question, man.

Like, I think the questions are still there about Tua. I think the questions are still there about Tua. You know, is he the, is he the, is he good enough to win the Super Bowl in Miami compared to the rest of the conference and the quarterbacks in the conference? Are you asking me that? No, I think the answer is no. I don't have anyone to argue that.

Like this weekend, look at the AFC right now. You have the four best quarterbacks in the AFC. I think Herbert's up there, so maybe the four or the five best quarterbacks. Is Tua better than any of these guys? Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Lawrence, and oh, if Herbert gets anything better than an F-minus offensive coach, he's going to be here every single season. Lamar Jackson, maybe he stays in the ravens maybe

he goes and goes jets like there's texans get bryce young like the dolphin i think with two are kind of like they need to be able to smoke and mirrors their way through entire season but typically the smoke and mirrors ends when you play a better team in the playoffs yep and that was what happened with gino smith so over under 85 chance gino is still the starter week one next year they sticking with this he was there to tank and then he ended up being comeback player of the year and getting to the postseason okay so comeback player from what all right well i know but that's what's gonna happen i agree with you i don't know come back coming back from sucking for a long time because man he still isn't even as good as people want to believe he is but yeah whatever he's gonna get the award um yeah so okay um cx are in tough

spots so they had the fifth pick in the draft i believe because of the broncos trade and they might not be able to get themselves Stroud or Young, the way this breaks out, right? Because if you look at, like, the Bears, I would imagine, are not drafting a quarterback. I know that we're going to have to listen to many, many, many, many stupid takes

between now and the draft. But they're not taking a quarterback. Houston, I think it's up in the air if Houston does or doesn't, honestly. I think they could definitely take Will Harris and John Carter and then just like try to get Caleb Williams.

Because with Lovey not being there now, you can sell one more year of stinking to get Caleb Williams or Drake May. If Lovey stayed, you can't sell two years in a row of tanking. The Cardinals at three are pretty interesting because with a new coach,

that coach could be like, I don't want Kyler Murray anymore. It's possible. Unlikely, but it's certainly possible. The Colts are 40 to quarterback. So Seahawks are probably at five unless they turn it up or not getting quarterback.

So you have to bring Geno back. The question is, how much are you bringing back for? The last six, eight weeks weren't great, Gino. $20 million a year? That's the problem for Seattle right now. He's not good enough

to win many playoff games, but you're probably, unless you try to tank this year and you try to get yourself drake may and uh you know you could there's a scenario where you have the fifth pick and you get will anderson or jaylen carter and then you have your other first round pick and you get yourself a really good playmaker and you just have a terrible quarterback and you have this good roster around you just waiting for a quarterback and it's just stinking you get yourselves quarterbacking next year's drafting you just kind of boom hit it but pierre caro's at the age i don't think he really wants to take

that's not gonna feel like his his uh you know what what he wants from his coaching career no i wouldn't think so uh they but they do seem a bit stuck in in a way similar to the vikings where it's like they're they're just a little too good. Not good enough, but too good to really be super relevant. This is why I argue, and I know it's hard as a fan. I get it. You can be really bad or really good. The middle is the worst place to be.

But I get if you're a fan rooting for wins, if you're a coaching staff playing for wins, I get all that. But being in the middle is like purgatory, man. Unless you want to trade up for a quarterback, it's the worst place to be. Yep. That's where the Jets were all season. You know, Hank wants me to ask you some questions about Al Michaels. Some people didn't like the way he called the game the other night.

I'm not going there. I like Alaels it wasn't great but whatever i'm not here to dump on al michaels guy's a legend and by the way my dad has been stopped on the street and people say you know man you sound a lot like al michaels oh so i have like a little bit of a family bond al michaels we're not doing any questions that get into slandering al michaels on this show um i want to talk college football for a second the uh the new always you know way too early poll came out at espn for next year um ohio state is two but cj stroud is now going to the draft so two feels kind of high to me um so over under 24.5% chance the Buckeyes make the college football playoff next season. I don't know who the quarterback is next year. It's probably another five-star candidate.

I'm sure they got two of them waiting to go. They have a better chance than USC does to make the playoff. That seems like totally unnecessary slander. So I feel better about Ohio State than I do USC. So how about that? Does it make you feel better? Maybe Bo Nix could play his 900th college football season and transfer to Ohio State and play for them.

Maybe. Oh, you got me there. You slandered me. You got me. I don't know. You're bringing up my team for no reason. Well, I'll bring up yours. No.

Yeah, Ohio State's going to be one of the seven teams that can win a championship next year. It's going to be the same seven teams. It's going to be, guess what? Georgia, Alabama, like LSU will be good next year probably. Clemson, Michigan, Ohio State, done. So your seven national championship contenders next season. All right.

And try to predict for me, we'll have a lot of times to talk about this this summer. What happens with the quarterback situation in Texas this year? That's an honest question. I don't actually understand what they're supposed to do with like the two biggest name up and coming quarterbacks in the country. Well, if Archibald Manning can't even keep his,

his own school ID in his pocket the first week of school i don't know if he can be trusted to slim that rock around yeah um uh who cares about texas i don't know we're gonna win seven games and hey um i guess a measurable part of our audience that makes it this late in the show cares deeply about the longhorns whether we like it or not jeff we gotta please them got to give them some longhorns i i would imagine that arch manning starts if he's ready to play and then quinn ewers where's he going somewhere else he's he's on he can he move he's on the move again you think he can move but you have to ask for a waiver or something for your second transfer what about going back to ohio state boom well he would do it after spring ball

essentially right i don't think man they would announce a starter until like the season anyways so i would say that he wouldn't even leave he had to sit as a backup everyone gets hurt he was hurt last year too so he might he gotta be ready to play i think arch if arch is that good he'll win the job yeah yeah okay um so cliff kingsbury who you have spent a lot of time telling us how bad a coach he is on this show uh people have finally caught up to where you were years ago he was fired um that's normal you know coaches have bad runs and they get fired and they come back somewhere else well apparently cliff has gone off to thailand on a one-way ticket um so how many new tattoos has cliff kingsbury gotten since arriving in thailand over under one and a half

oh he's gonna get so many of them um oh man the memes that jokes about brandon staley showing up in thailand too after the loss were incredible. Are you ready for this? This is going to happen. Kingsbury is going to be USC's analyst this year for Lincoln Riley. I promise you. It would not stun me. That's my guess of what he does during the season. He just has USC's analyst, gets paid $0, just hangs out in Los Angeles

and coaches USC. Well, it's not really a coachable position, but he's just in the facility watching film and helping out his his buddy riley um i love this man like he's one of the only coaches i've ever heard be like yeah i'm gonna take my money and just be gone for a little bit all those guys want to coach and coach right away and meet like matt rule immediately coaching again he's like screw this i'm out of here um good for him terrible coach i mean i don't know why it was expected he was gonna be good in the nfl so i this is about what i thought his career would would be it's happened um and i just do not think um he will be good anywhere he goes that coach maybe it's oc i guess but that's not gonna

be oc this year he's gonna be an analyst at usc so it's gonna happen okay then basically you're putting him on the lane kiffin path like huh we got a little too excited about this guy a little too quickly let's slow things down let's let's reverse course and then build him back up again yeah lane was like okay early in his career though right like he wasn't bad and there's a lot of like a lot of big jobs given to lane kiffin that didn't really pan out from my memory and then but then he matures and he ends up at old miss and now he looks pretty good so maybe wasn't it wasn't it wasn't he okay with probably what his record was at Tennessee. Yeah, he was way too early to get that job with the Raiders, obviously.

That was too early to get that job. He's only there a year though, right? Dude, I don't remember. I'm just saying the trajectories are very similar. Guys with sexy looking lines on their resume. And nobody's going to give up on them. The guy's, what is he, 40-something years old? They're not going to give up on them. The guys, what is he, 40 something years old? They're not going to give up on him yet.

But Wayne's perfect to Ole Miss, man. Yeah, exactly. So maybe Cliff will take some SEC team and make him a contender in a few years. If he comes back from Thailand, we'll just have to wait on that. Maybe he never comes back. I wouldn't if I were him. Yeah. Just stay there forever.

Yeah. All right, Jeff. Hey, you got anything we didn't cover yet? I don't think so, man. I'm excited for Tom Brady to win tonight, just so he can go back to the Bay Area and then he can have... How happy is Fox, by the way? They get Niners against either the Cowboys or the Bucks and Eagles-Giants this weekend.

Yeah, they're probably quite pleased with those matchups. Outside of, like, Green Bay, those are probably the five best teams you could ever ask for. And then Chiefs, Jaguars, and Bills Bengals, which I'm glad we got Bills Bengals because that deserves to be played. Just after a couple weeks ago with what happened with Hamlin. He's doing great too, by the way.

So if those are not kind of picked, that shouldn't do a great. Fantastic story. I'm glad he's doing better. All right, guys, we're back with our picks later this week. Less pictures, general talk about the games. We'll do that. Please rate, review, subscribe. Kyle Lerner, Marci's Podcast Network. Talk to you guys

next week.