Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Drake Maye Rising Chiefs Rolling The Myles Garrett Dilemma

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Geoff and Gabe dive deep into Week 8 of the NFL — from the Chiefs’ dominant win to whether Drake Maye is already proving himself as the real deal. They debate Myles Garrett’s frustration, the MVP race between Mahomes and Jonathan Taylor, and if the Patriots’ new QB-coach combo could be the league’s next dynasty. Then, they break down the massive college football coaching carousel: LSU, Florida, and Penn State are all open, and Lane Kiffin, Deion Sanders, and Kliff Kingsbury are in the mix. It’s one of the wildest weeks of football yet — both NFL and college fans won’t want to miss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, welcome Jeff Schwartz, just Marry on you. Josh Swartz-Marni, presented by Draftings. Draftings, the Crown is yours. Today is Tuesday, October 28th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Gooden. We're here to talk to you about National Football League Week 8, college football, week 9, everything in between. Gabe, I know you stayed up late for that Dodger game last time. I'm glad you're here.

You look fresh. Me and the East Coast didn't do it, but I did watch Chiefs Commanders last night. Maybe not to the full extent, but I've watched most of it. I'm old. I can't stay awake anymore. Okay, the Chiefs had that game iced pretty early, I will admit. That should have been your cue to switch over to the Dodger game. It was the best baseball game I've ever seen. There are other shows for people to unpack it all.

So here's the question. Yeah. Is there a comp to Shoha Otani in the NFL now or ever? Just a level of dominance and like freakish difference from everyone else. Does a person like that exist in the NFL? Yeah, I mean, there are people, I would say, like a Trent Williams that the Niners left tackle that are like Julius Peppers and Aaron Donald. I mean, guys that just are not the same as everyone else. They're different humans.

I've said this for a while when it comes to NFL Hall of Famers. I think I ended up playing with four of them by the time everyone gets inducted. and they're just different. Like they're just different humans. Shoah O'Hanee's a different human, right? Like he's just not like everyone else. And these Hall of Fame football players are not like anyone else, right? And we watched a little bit of that last night with Mahomes.

Like when he played, it's not like anyone else, right? Like when he's on, he is himself and he's unique. And when Showhay's doing what he's doing, that's just show hey. There's no way to combat that. And so I turned to those Hall of Fame type players. And some of the positions that are, I think, more, not easily identifiable. I can't even say that word right now. But the fact is, like, guys that, you know, you can easily see they're much better than everyone else.

And so I think that makes a lot sense to go, you know, some off a defensive line. So sometimes wide receivers are like that. But there are guys in NFL that are like Shohei-O-Tani. Easily identifiable? What, what are what am I trying to say? Identifiable? Identifiable? There we go.

Yeah, there we go. Sure. Sounds good. All right. Well, so Patrick Mahomes could have been the guy you say is like the closest thing. But football doesn't allow you to just remove a guy from the game. It doesn't matter. You can't just say like, well, we're not going to let Pat beat us and then have him not beat you. The way that you can just walk Shohei Otani for the entirety of extra innings. Well, different. I'm actually surprised. This is actually a quick thing about baseball and we'll come back to football. I actually don't get why more people don't walk Otani area. and judge. I mean, we grew up in the era when you just walked Barry Bonds. He's not going to,

he's not going to beat you. Goodbye. You walked 120 intentional walks in a season. Now, of course you should walk Otani. Why would you let Otani beat you? The best guy in baseball, why would you let him beat you with a home run? And I agree with the strategy. Just walk him every time. Don't let that guy beat you. Just like we're saying football, I know, it's tough in football, but like don't let Justin Jefferson beat you. Just double him every play and figure it out from there. Don't let Aaron Donald beat you, right? Don't let someone beat you. And baseball doesn't do that enough. It's just always surprising to me. Yeah, well, that's partially because if you walk him, then he's going to steal second base and then you have two Hall of Famers hitting behind him. You can presumably drive him in for the second. But let's talk about the Chiefs. So you stayed up long enough to feel comfortable that they had the win. They're on a streak. Travis got in the end zone

Another win for the Chiefs We'll talk about the commander's side of this in a second Did you see anything new Is having Rice out there changing anything about the offense Anything you want to make a smarter run with the Chiefs? Well, they're playing really well defensively That's what I've noticed I mean there were some question marks

I still think there's question marks But collectively They're figuring out how to rush the passer a little bit There's still moments where it's not great But defensively they're playing fast some linebacks are playing really well. Offensively, it looks like it should. I mean, Jalen Moore struggled early and left tackle.

It seems like Josh Simmons is coming back at some point. They're without Trey Smith and we're fine inside. The one thing I've noticed, more anything else, I tweet this last night, Indymeet actually ran the ball up 14, like tried to establish some sort of physicality to end that game, which I really liked, and we're seeing, you know, more under-centered runs, more under-centered play action. So it looks like a functioning offense now,

which I said a couple weeks ago, I just didn't see it from there. And they're way more confident now. The way they're playing, they go to Buffalo this weekend. I mean, I don't know. It's a pick-em game. I mean, it seems like a game the Chiefs could lose.

They've lost that game, what four years is running out of Buffalo. But it doesn't change that I think right now in the AFC, the Chiefs are not easily the favorite. They won't have the one seed, most likely, but they are the favorite. Yeah. Okay, you're right, though.

This is the game that they lose every year. And we've started to say, well, yeah, but it doesn't matter. Do it in January. I do think this year it has a little bit more significance because neither team seems like they've been complete. I feel like the matchup this time with the bills tells us a little bit more. I actually think, and look,

I'm not going to go back and remember every one day played, but it does, like, the last couple of years in the regular season, the bills were just much better than Kansas City, right? I think this year that's not the case right now. I know Buffalo beat the shot of Carolina, I get that. they ran the ball to do that. The Chief's run defense is really good. They're not going to run the ball to beat Kansas City.

I think there's still question marks about the bill's passing. Not Josh Allen, but just the weapons Josh Allen has. And the other side, the Bill's defense is super beat up. At Oliver, Torres Bicep now, their best defensive linemen, interior defense alignment. They already had, I think, two other guys on injured reserve inside. Their edge rush is fine. It's fine, but it's not great.

And then Milano is still out as of right now. Of course, it was a record on Tuesday. He could be back this week. Bernard played a little beat up, but he played anyways this week. Like, they're just a beat-up defense. And when they don't have Milano in the game, they're different defensively. So you sort of have an advantage where I think the Chiefs offensively are whole right now, even though they're missing a couple offensive linemen, but more is feeling well for them.

So the Chiefs, I think, in this game, for the first time in a couple of years, are the better team right now. And that's why they're going to pick them. They're one-point favorite. something like that right now as we talk about this game. So this to me is a game that the Chiefs, I think, should win this year, Gabe, where in previous years should win probably wasn't the right way to put it. Yeah, no, that's not how you put it the last few years, as I recall.

A team that should have won more games this year, at least according to people like Hank and Matt, who we spend our time texting with, was the commanders. Now, I've always had my doubts because I never thought that Jaden Daniels was going to be just consistently great for an entire NFL career. He obviously played a great rookie season. He hasn't been able to follow it up. He hasn't been healthy.

They also kind of like leveraged picks for older veteran players. There was a lot of offseason moves that people were like, okay, they're going to make their run for it. Did they go at that a little too early? Were they betting a little too hard on a young quarterback? Did they screw up their future? Many different things you said there. Yeah, pick any of it.

I don't care. Well, I think it's hard to be upset with their approach, Gabe, because unless you think the older players are completely washed. But the idea is you had Janet Deanos who had a historic rookie season. You have essentially two seasons, year two and year three, to get this going while he's very cheap. Now, he might get an extension in year four, but the money won't kick in maybe until year five or six.

So maybe year four isn't that window as well. We see the advantage you have in year two, three, and four with a young quarterback who's not getting paid a lot. lot of money relative to how good he is and you add in veterans around him and the team becomes a Super Bowl contenders. I get the idea of what they did, but Daniels has not been healthy, which, look, I know people will say he's a slight frame guy, he's bound to be hurt. He wasn't hurt in college, and he wasn't hurt much of last year.

I think he had a rib thing last year, but played through it and then ended up obviously finishing very strong last season. So to make the argument that everyone knew he'd be an injury prone guy because he's more of a slender frame is really not fair because he didn't show any of those tendencies out of college. And he hasn't really showed him in the NFL. Quarterbacks get beat up all the time. A rib thing is nothing uncommon. I mean, I think he played through that last season.

So it's unfortunate that he's not playing this season or not playing as much. But, you know, if they were all healthy together, I don't know why the team couldn't get back to where they were last season. So I think I like the swing. They might have missed, Gabe, but I like the swing and the idea of what they're trying to do there okay so we're saying no problem with the front office just sometimes you take a swing and you miss sometimes right i mean nine straight innings after bedtime in a world series game i i don't know yeah i had buddy of mine losing east coast i texted him this morning dodger fan he said up to 3 30 was it

3 30 what time it ended well on this coast it was 1155 okay so two so three a m three am on the on the on east coast um yeah so i look again i i i think you just sort of, you know, the commanders just, you can't overcome quarterback injuries. Their defense isn't as good this season. They can't rush the passer quite quite as well. And then last night they actually did okay rushing the passer, especially early in the game. And the Chiefs sort of figured out what they had to do.

But they lost another DeLyman yesterday. Just injuries are part of the game, man. You have to try to withstand them as best you can. Okay. Well, that means we're segueing to let's redraft the 2024 quarterback class. Aidan Daniels has to be falling. Drake May, unfortunately, I have to. admit it is rising. Maybe he's at the top. I don't know how you don't think he's at the top at the

moment. Okay. Well, I'm ready to give him more than that. I'm ready to say Vrable and May is the new Brady and Belichick. And it scares me for the next 20 years because I see the recipe. Seeing it happen. These guys are good. This is a problem. So Drake May's deep ball, 20 plus air yards this season. He's completing 76% of them for five touchdowns. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. He looks more comfortable every week. I said this at the beginning of the season.

The goal for all these quarterbacks, Caleb Williams, Drake May, Fishery McCarthy, Michael Pennix. We know Daniels can play, so he's not in that category, but sort of these guys that haven't played that much or really haven't played with good coaches, you know, good coaches. Drake may play with a good coach. and get that good coach, you want to see improvement every quarter of the season, right? So basically we're in week nine now as we talk.

Week nine is better than week one, obviously, but even better than week four, right? In week five, you want to see that in gradual improvement. And unfortunately, for other quarterbacks like Caleb Williams, we haven't seen that quite yet, right? You've seen glimpses of it, but hasn't been consistent. You know, Judge McArthur, he's not playing right now. And so Michael Pennix, you know, kind of like, I think still some questions. Drake May, though, has checked all those boxes, right? Every single week.

Again, you're going to have bad weeks. He might come and play the Falcons this weekend, and that past Western Atlanta just knocks him down a couple times. He doesn't play as well. But we're seeing now that sort of every quarter better, right? Gabe, it's better. It's more comfortable. He's able to throw the –

and the wide receivers aren't good. Imagine when they get good wide receivers and better off its alignment. Like, this is – they're on the right track. They're on the right track to having success. And it's fair to note that he's not playing great teams. but what you do against bad teams is you play really well against them if you're good. I made this point so many times, right, that if you're good, good football team, good player, you don't play down your competition, right?

So if you're good, the team you play stinks, you should show that on film. And the New England Patriots are doing that right now. Yeah, and the offense, his defense went against stinks, but he went against the guy who I thought you might mention when I asked who the show hey of the NFL was. Miles Garrett, five sacks, and then obviously visibly, very upset and frustrated with how his overall team is playing,

slamming his helmet, pouting, sitting alone. I don't blame him. This is where you really nerd out and start talking like contracts and rules and crap, but like, when's this guy getting traded? There's no way he can keep playing. Well, I didn't do that. It was, I think it was Hank who put in the,

in the chat. I don't, I, I, I choose to not understand, uh, like cap hits and trade stuff with money. Because I just, I just don't care. They don't seem to understand any of that either. I just don't care because I, because you go to certain websites as different answers. Essentially, if you trade him now, your cap hit is so much, it doesn't make any sense, especially with Deshawn Watson's capits. You just have basically a lot of dead. money hanging out, you know, on your roster. You know, people said Miles Garrett shouldn't have signed that contract.

What was he supposed to do? Just like play for less money and not get traded? They weren't going to trade them. So might as well get the money. I mean, that's just that, you know, fortune part of the NFL is a lot of times players have no power. Could you have done the Michael Parsons? Just not all training camp, not play?

Well, sure. But the Browns aren't guaranteed to trade them anyways, right? The Cowboys did not like Michael Parks for whatever reason. I don't get the sense that Browns don't like Miles Garrett. They want him to be there. They were hoping that the defense along with Joe Flacco, I guess, would be competitive, and it's not that case. He had five sacks the other day, and his team could not stop Drake May.

His offense is atrocious. Gabe, how poorly do they think of Shadur Sanders that he's not even active on game day? Now, he might be hurt a little bit. I don't know these specifics of that. part of it. We're never going to know. But Dylan Gabriel is not good. And after that game, they're like, yeah, we're rolling back Gabriel after the buy. I want to see Sanders play. Can we get some Sanders in the lineup? But what's the point of running Dylan Gabriel out there? Guys, it's not any good. We've seen it week over week. So I feel for Garrett, but he's kind of stuck, man. He's not

going anywhere. And I get why he signed the contract. I totally get it. I would have done the same thing. But he just sort of, it's just, that's where they are right now. It's not very good. It's not a good situation. And Stafansky, who we all agrees, a really good coach, will not be there next season. I can't imagine he wants to stay. And he'll find a job somewhere else, and I'm sure they'll go really well. He'll find a quarterback that he works well with,

and he'll win a lot of football games there. Okay, let's put a pin in the Stafansky topic. I get a way to work that back in later. Why are you sure Miles Garrett won't just take some page out of the Micah Parsons playbook? That worked out so well for Mike. It's too late now.

It's too late now. He has to do in the offseason. again. He tried for a little bit. Gabe, it's hard, man. Like, it's just hard to not be there when your team is in training camp and you're preparing for the season. And some guys feel like they got to practice to be able to play. And if Garrett shows up to week one, it hasn't practiced at all. I'd imagine he feels like he's not ready to play football. And so you compromise. Again, are you turning down all that money in hopes the Browns might trade you. I don't mean like I just think that that's the hard part is is he it's a lot of money they put in his face. He got the money and you just have to suck it up and end up living and

dealing with with your decision at the end, which I know he does but it's unfortunate because he's really good. I imagine if he's in the open market man or they even dangle that that trade. I mean the Eagles will come calling in a heartbeat and he'd probably be a Philadelphia Eagle. I mean, I think most teams have trade the number one pick in the draft. And that some to get this guy. They would. This guy's a freak. They would trade, yes.

He's a known quantity, and you would trade your first round pick for him, absolutely. I'm saying number one overall. Just give it up. Okay. Depends on how you feel about quarterback, but sure. Do we feel great about the quarterbacks coming out this draft? Who's more of a difference maker in the NFL next season? Miles Garrett, or whichever quarterback is taken first?

overall this year. Probably Miles Gere, but what's more impactful three years from now? That's the question. Okay. We just talked about Jane Daniels. We're promised all these things. It's hard to be a great quarterback in the NFL. It's hard to just stay healthy enough to be a good quarterback.

This hard. This guy's doing it every single year. It's too bad to watch. Anyway, the Patriots, yeah, they haven't really played anyone, but we're pretty convinced they're competitive in the AFC. They may or may not win that division. You like them to win a game or two maybe in the party. postseason and you think that this quarterback coach combo is here for a while, right?

I'm just trying to make sure I can set my eye line correctly for what's coming out of new aliens. Yes. I, look, and I think that, you know, it's fair to note that we saw Vrable start fast for a couple years in Tennessee and then sort of petered out. But right now, yeah, I don't know why you wouldn't feel that way. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, another little combo, strange combo of coaches, quarterbacks, but more importantly, running back room in Indianapolis. We do not talk about the team. They're on the band list and they will remain there. They are boring as hell.

But now I hear, they've seen tweets. I hear that you are starting to open your mind to some things your boy here has said about Jonathan Taylor and MVP odds. And maybe there's a smart bet there. What do you, what do you got to say about that? After we talked on Tuesday about Jonathan Taylor. The third time I'd asked about it, you mean? I started thinking about it.

The third time that I brought it up When the value has already dissipated. When what has dissipated? The value in the pick that I suggested to you. I'm saying. I bet on it on Tuesday, 60 to 1. Okay. I thought more about our discussion.

I can show you the bet slip. I believe you. I'm just saying close listeners of this show might recall me mentioning this many weeks ago. Yeah. So I bet it 60 to 1. It's now down to 18. into one.

It's probably so unlikely to happen, but there is a path to it happening. The question becomes, how does Patrick Mahomes essentially finish, right? Like, if Mahomes plays like he has, it's probably going to be hard to give the MVP to John Taylor over Mahomes. But if Taylor, who's on track to, he's a little bit short of L.Den-Talmersons' touchdown record, rush touchdown record, because remember, one of the touchdowns last week, was like a little shovel thing forward. It counts as a pass, not a run.

I mean, he's at 12 right now. The record, I believe, is 27. Maybe it's even like 29. So he's still a ways to go there. But if they have the one seed and the Chiefs are three games back or two games back, I just, I don't, Daniels does not get an MVP, even though you make the case that the difference between this year and last year

and the Colts is Jones, and therefore he is the real MVP, which is a fair argument to make, Gabe. But you look at the rest of the NFL, like, who is in this? Josh Allen's probably not there this year, even though he's the second best odds right now. Drake May's not winning the MVP. Mass Afro's not winning the MVP. Baker, those are ahead of Daniel Jones. Those are six guys ahead of John and Taylor.

I think it's worth a peak, but not now. He's 18 to 1. It's 60 to 1 game. I have a lot of ways to play this down the stretch. So it's not the worst thought. I went back and thought about it, game. I'll give you credit. I think it was it was worth, it was worth, it's worth,

It's worth the thought. Okay. I think it was more worth the thought like week three or whenever I first brought this up with the exact logic. I don't think it was, I don't think the number was any different though back then. It was probably the same. Okay. Well,

yeah, I don't think your boy Patrick Mahomes is going to get it unless he has an all-time Patrick Mahomes year because the record won't be as good. So they're not going to give him the MVP. It's just, you know, boredom. It's the LeBron rule. He's not getting the MVP unless he does something personally amazing, and he's never going to match any of his best seasons.

He's not going to have the record. And this is just the year where it's like, eh, the Colts are weirdly good. We should just give it to someone on that day. And people will say, well, Barclan to get the MVP last year, why would John and Taylor get it? And it's a year to year award, guys. It's not about what happened last year.

It's about the quarterback market, right? Like the quarterback, last year with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson play incredibly well the entire season. And that's why they got the award where right now the frontrunners are Mahomes and Allen. Mahomes has played really well, but is he like MVP Mahomes? I don't know.

Josh Allen's not that way right now. Like obviously there's eight weeks left that can finish as strong as they need to. But Taylor, if they're the one seed man, he's going to get some votes for MVP. Okay. Well, let me ask you this then, because obviously a lot of tweets showing,

I saw one that was like, no, you could not gain one yard on a rush in the NFL. unless you ran behind the Colts line and then it showed just this enormous gaping hole that those guys create. What do you like about their offensive line? You wouldn't gain a yard.

I know I wouldn't. No one would. I'm built like Jaden Daniels. How would I survive? The thing about it is there's always an unblocked defender and the running back makes a miss or the scheme makes a miss

and that I'm back to find it would murder someone in the hole. Well, so a couple of things. One is that Quinn Nelson's playing really well, their left guard, which is hugely important, because he's one of the best players in NFL. And he'd been hurt for a couple years, and he's playing really well. And what they do, they're very multiple. They run a lot of different things. And so he kind of keeps the defense off guard. They run zone.

They run gap. They run some man plays, and they mix it up really well, Gabe, to where defense don't really know what's coming. And then they all work together and communicate. and all get on the same page. So they're just, they're fun to watch men. They're doing some really good things. And,

um, I'm a little surprised they're playing as well as they, as they, they have or they are. I did not pencil them as one of the better units this season, but, uh, they're just doing a really good job.

Since we've sort of disobeyed our own rule, right? This is the most time we've ever given that team, even though they've been banned for a couple seasons. Yeah. Can I propose this on your behalf and Matt's? I think you guys, I think you guys,

got to stop talking about the falcons i think it's time to ban the falcons oh we're done with the falcons um even though this week they're gonna i gave i can't if someone said to me like if someone said to me hey schwartz you have to pick a winner in the nfl your kids are are going to die right it's grim it's grim my kids are probably perish i can't pick a winner to save my life i i i've had bad years i've never had a year like this, man. I hope people are fading me because you've made a lot of money this season. I can't pick a side of save my life. But yeah, the Falcons,

I'm done. We should be done with them forever. Just done. I'm going to help you with that. The Falcons are banned. Let's take a quick break, come back and hit the rest of the league. I like, you know what? I like, we haven't talked about the Cowboys. We haven't talked to the Packers. We haven't talked to Aaron Rogers. We haven't,

you know, we've just sort of hit the things that are interesting so far. I want to bring Shohey back into it in the next segment and then we got to hit college football because the coaching vacancies are now getting very, very spicy. We'll do that next. All right. We are back, Gabe.

Let's get into some more NFL. Good uniform weekend and then the Steelers ruined it all Monday night. What a Sunday night. What a shame. The Eagles Kelly Greens. The Kelly Greens, the Broncos throwbacks were beautiful. And then as soon as I saw the announcement this week that Pittsburgh was wearing those dumb uniforms, I knew our bet was never going to win.

Actually, and I don't even like the Packers all white uniforms, the snow uniforms. Those are bad too. It was a bad uniform game. Yeah, it was not pretty. My favorite uniform of the weekend actually inspired a great movie night for my kids. Okay. The Broncos, yeah, the Broncos old uniform to me looks just like SCLU from Waterboy. Yeah, close, yeah, okay.

So we popped on the Water Boy and against, against Mom's Wishes. She was a little worried. Your kids are a little young from Waterboy. A little young. A couple scenes we had to kind of just like, ah, don't worry about what that meant. But they loved it. Bobby Boucher, now a favorite.

They got a little sad when they were being very mean to Bobby Boucher. You know, my son didn't like that. Correct. Yeah, there's a few scenes you fast forward through. in that movie, I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah, maybe Bob Bouchet can coach the LSU Tigers. We'll do that later.

So uniform game, Broncos great, Eagles great. Still not worth. Broncos still not worth talking about, but the Eagles, they're back, right? I think so. Their offenses looked good in last couple of weeks. That was AJ Brown. Offensal line, that was their best game in the year, running the football.

and you think it's a good Giants defense. I remember the Giants beat them a couple weeks ago, right? And the Eagles look like they're running into form, which look, again, is news every year, where we freak out about the way teams start the season game. Oh, the Chiefs and the Eagles, and then they just sort of, we just for years of the Patriots, oh, my God, they're 2-2 in September,

and then you get to November, and they're right on track of where they're supposed to be. Yeah. There's a lot of ways to get to 6-2, but they all end up at 6-2 and you go, oh, okay, well, wait a second. That seems good. I don't want to say this.

There's nothing glib about this. I'm not rooting for this. I just, I got this weird feeling that the like, the Cam Scataboo thing is over. He had gruesome injury. We're all rooting for his recovery, obviously. But it kind of feels like, you know, like you just got to stay on a heater sometimes

and he's been on one for over a year. And it just carried into the NFL. And I just feel like the momentum is going to be lost. and I just I don't know if we're ever going to get that guy all the way back. Does that make sense? Yeah, there was a shelf wife, I think, on Scataboo, just the way he plays anyways. This, oh, that was gross. Yeah.

Foot sideways like that. I fractured just got into my ankle. It just hurts talking about it, but not like that. That was like a tib-fib dislocation. It was, oh, it was bad. Foot sideways, immediate. I think he had immediate surgery, right? You got to go stable.

Not even stable. I just clean out an infection if there's open wound. The story was that big doll, legal security guard, brought him pizza and cheese steaks to the hospital. When I had, I had surgery five times in New York City. Five times?

I stayed overnight only twice of the five. And I ordered a ton of food to the hospital. It's a good, it's a clutch. It makes it go better. The hospital food stinks. And New York City, you just order anything to anywhere. So I just order.

remember one of my surgery I ordered sushi I ordered pizza one time in the middle of the night like midnight I called the nurse's button I was like hey I want something sweet you guys have any sweet just not really but insomnia cookies not a sponsor are they still around could be a sponsor um I was like okay so I order like a dozen cookies to my room with milk at 2 am in the hospital like this is just you know we try to buy the time in the hospital by eating food I get it I understand that but scaddy his injury is bad oh god he's young though but um Yeah, I, if anyone's got Wolverine blood, it's that guy. And so I hope he heals.

He's been fun. I know my Giants fan friends are probably for it. I didn't think, I didn't think, I thought that that, so we had the Giants plus seven and a half. When he got hurt, I should have jumped on the Eagles. That was such a deflating injury because I think that they take after him, like his attitude and his play really inspires the team because of, the way he plays, his effort, its physicality, relentlessness.

And it was a gross injury, man. There's another way around it. Like, you guys can hurt all the time, but your foot is sideways. It was so visible, too. Like, it was visibly sideways, middle of the field, and you just, it was bad. And so I think that really zapped, I don't think they scored again,

or maybe it took them until the end of the game to score again. Like, it just couldn't have zapped everything they had. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I don't watch when I, if I hear that that happened, I don't seek it out So I haven't even seen it I know how gross it's out I showed someone because I was like

Again like my ankle I didn't do that exactly I just hit my ankle But not like that way he did it And it's not fun I was also older It just took forever to rehab But he's young man

He should rehab fine But you know Will he be 100% next year I don't know It takes simply two years After one of those injuries To feel really good Yeah

All right old guy Who's playing pretty good Got to win granted, got a win against the worst football team in history, but got to win talking about Joe Flacco. And I got to ask again, man, like, what do we need to say about this coaching staff if Joe Burrow in the world?

Faco didn't win. Oh, who'd they start? Okay, so what the hell might be? No, the Jets beat him at the end. Your Jets won. Oh, okay. Flocko played well, though. This is how little, like, I'm sorry.

I got mixed up because I don't even know why I brought this up. I don't care about either of these teams. I don't care if the Jets win or lose. Flacco played well. I just wrote in my head that the Bengals won because the Jets lose that game every single time in my life. So they happen to win. Okay, good, we're done.

We're moving on. Those teams both suck. It's the first time Justin Fields has won a game when his team allowed more than 21 points. You're right. You're exposing how stupid I sound right now, but I'm turning it into a positive. I am lucky that I invested not one single ounce of mental energy in that game.

It won't do it. And there's probably zero ounces mixed in the show. So continue on. Yeah, let's just keep going. I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the audience that I confused the score of the Jets Bengals game. Big effing deal. Okay. Why is there, why is there Mike Tomlin hot seat talk?

What are we doing? Yeah, defense sucks. And he's a defensive guy. And the team just isn't very good. They're going to end the season. Maybe making the playoffs at this rate. And Mike Tomlin chose these players. This is where his guys.

He chose these guys. And they're going to fail again. And how many years do you keep doing this? I mean, look, on their schedule still, they have the Colts this weekend. and they're in Los Angeles by the Chargers. They have the Bills, the Ravens twice, the Lions. I mean, they're going to finish 9 and 8 and 9 somewhere around there and do the same thing all over again.

Their defense game is really bad. It is no resistance for most of the season for any quarterback that could play. They play essentially three teams of real quarterbacks, right? Really four. But New England was still in week three, so Drake May wasn't fully developed yet. But they played Seattle, a lot of 31 points. The Bengals, about 33 and lost, Packers 35. They're just not good on defense.

And it's supposed to be his specialty. Yeah, okay. But you're still going to fire a coach who's never had a losing season? I've said this before. Like, if you are a coach that has a specialty, offense or defense, and you're bad at that, then what are we doing? Like, what's the point of having you used our head coach? If your specialty, you can't get right.

So how many are you going to keep doing this, Gabe? They're going to keep rolling. Here's the thing, too. Are they going to let Mike Tomlin choose the quarterback of the future for the Steelers after the season? Well, I mean, they're going to be drafting. They're drafting mid-first. It's a big quarterback draft. Explain that.

What do you mean by that? It's going to be a lot of quarterbacks drafted. We do we do this all the time. College results. do not determine where you get drafted in the NFL. So there are teams that need quarterbacks. There are lots of quarterbacks that are coming out in this draft. Their college results do not matter.

I know it's weird to say that. It don't matter. It's about upside what you can do in the NFL. So there's going to be a lot of quarterback draft in the first round in this draft, whether you like it or not, not you, but anyone else likes it or not. All right, good. Then we're going to use that as a segue. And I'm going to save time.

Instead of asking you questions about games I didn't watch and don't care about, we're going to stick with college, the number one picking the draft, the team that is making a case to be the best team in college football, and then some major vacancies. So let's switch to college and give a little extra time to that. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be right back, guys. All right, we're back.

Let's talk some college football. Gabe, I'll tell you right now, one of the best bets for this week. We'll be Nebraska plus seven. Oh, come on. that one down. What are you doing, dude? Just mark this one down. You know, Lincoln Riley is 0 and 12 against the spread as a favorite outside the state of California at USC. That's not good. Not good. This is when you know that. Continue on with your college football talk. They're a favorite every time they leave the state. Notre Dame, they weren't a favorite.

But they also don't, they don't cover those games, though. That's the problem. Okay. But what's this straight up? number like three i think three and nine it's hard to go to some random ass part of the midwest and cover a two touchdown spread like hard to do that when you're especially when your defense cannot tackle and they've made no tackles since he's been like zero it's zero tackles at all they've stripped the ball and intercepted the ball yeah they've turned people over on fourth down they have they have tackled correct don't worry though this 2026 class will be ready to go in three years You're ready to go in three years.

Let's go to LSU, buddy. I just want to get a diggin in the USC. It's, honestly, it's worse there. What? They're giant, you know, big signing. The guy they gave all their damn money to and leverage the entire program on is gone. Brian Kelly. Okay.

So LSU is now an opening. So is Penn State. Wow. And Florida. Now, Florida's taking some dings lately, but they're still Florida. Yeah. So, like, rank these openings for me in the modern and, NFL because now we're talking to NIL and portal and we're talking about whoever takes those

jobs is coming from somewhere good already. Which job do you want if you're a major coach? LSU. Okay. LSU won Florida, two, Penn State 3. Look, I think the winning LSU has done is important to note here. They have won championships recently. That matters. That matters to kids you're recruiting.

Hey, we won a championship just five years ago. come to LSU and let's win a championship. Look what we put out in the NFL. Those stuff matter to players. LSU carries that name brand and the winning that comes with it, the culture of football in Louisiana in that stadium and playing night games in that stadium. And Brian Kelly, I think, was 21 in night games

until unfortunately Saturday night. You know, Florida is still a really good job, but they haven't had the winning, right, since Urban Meyer left that we've seen LSU have recently. And then Penn State is Penn State. Like they're a blue ball of college football. But again, I think it's tough to get kids from the South to want to go to Penn State. Of course, you get paid them now.

That certainly does help that. But you have a fertile recruiting ground in Louisiana and Georgia and Florida and Texas even. And same thing if you're the head coach of Florida. So that's why those jobs are super appealing. You obviously have a lot of buy-in. If someone is able to fund $54 million buyout for Brian Kelly, you know that there's a buy-in to want to win. It's a lot of pressure.

Certainly he's a lot of pressure, but there's buying to win. Gabe, what I am most fascinating about is not really who gets the job, but the trickle down of what this is going to do to the sport. There are, I think, 12 openings now. There could be more, right? Florida State potentially open.

Wisconsin, potentially open. There's going to be others that will be open, right? And think about what happened when one coach left Alabama. Nick Saban left, right? Kail and DeBore went from Washington down to Alabama. right. Jed Fish went from Arizona up to Washington. The coached in the United States, Brennan went to Arizona.

Ken Me, Neumato Lolo was the former Navy coach. I think he was at UCLA at time. He's at San Jose State now. So one move, right, ended up with five different changes of programs. We're going to have that on steroids this year. On a level we've never seen before where we're going to have coaches, head coaches, they're not ready for the job. OCs and D.C.s are not ready for the job. Now, you're going to have guys sneak through that are like, again, like the best hire. was Kurtzignetti. I'm not sure in a couple years. No one thought that would be the best hire in the last three or four years. You're going to have one of those in this cycle.

You're going to have a lot of guys that are just not ready for these jobs, and they're going to be back in the same spot in a couple of years. So it's just not that many candidates, right, Gabe? But it's going to give guys at FCS an opportunity to probably move up to FBS football and be able to coach there, which is good for their families and their resumes. So I think it's going to really benefit, like, the lower-level coaches to get an opportunity for the first time to be on the, you know, FBS level. but these coaches, you're not going to hire 12, 15 slam dunks.

And then, of course, when that coach leaves their school, that job now opens up. And then someone has to fill that job. So it just goes down and down and down. And it's going to be a resetting of the, so I was talking to a coach this morning who thinks there might be 8,000 players in the portal. Just remember, if your coach leaves, you have a window now to go in the portal that's longer than the normal window. So I think the portal now is like January 1st to 15th.

It's somewhere around there, like 15 days. If your coach leaves on January 2nd, your portal goes longer than the 15th. Your portal's open. There's going to be an impressive amount of movement from coaches and players in this cycle. And I just say this. I know I'm sure that Scott Woodward, the LSU Afflector, is listening to me right now. All these other athletic directors. Hire the best person, man.

Don't hire the big name. Don't hire the guy you think you have to hire. In all these cycles, the best coach typically, is not the person you think is going to be the best coach, right? Think about four years ago now. Dan Lannning probably emerging as the best coach of that cycle, the one that Lincoln Riley was hired at USC, the one of Mario Cristobal was hired at Miami.

Mario's a good coach as we know, so is Lincoln Riley. Think about Kirksonetti, right? Coming from JMU, five, six years ago is at I-U-P-U-I. Like, hire the best coach, man. Don't hire the big name, hire the guy that's best for the job and can get you results. Okay, great. So let's define best coach then,

Because I think my whole adult life, adult lifetime, everyone has told me that Bill Belichick is the greatest coaching mind in history. But obviously, it's different to go try to build a team in college football now. There's skills and relationships that a great coach might not have. If Mike Tomlin did get fired, I think we'd agree he's probably the best living coach available. except what the hell does he know about getting 18-year-olds to come to, you know, Baton Rouge? Yeah. So that is a really good point. So, you know, I think it's young man's Gabe, young man's Gabe, young man's Gabe.

There we go. A young man's game. And you have to have the energy to recruit and get the energy to buy in to basically always being on and always, thinking about your roster and playtime and what do I do to make these guys happy and what do I do to make sure they don't leave and how do I manage my roster? Hiring a general manager who can help you handle the roster is super important. You have to find the right guy to talent and evaluate. You have to find the right guy to bring in the players.

So look, I know I use Oregon as an example very often, but, you know, they have, I think they had 10 transfers in the last cycle game and 9 are starting. Like, that's a giant success rate, right? And the one that's not as a running back. And we're going to just randomly end up having two, two freshmen that are really good and they're playing a bunch of running back. Otherwise, the portal guys are all starting. So it's about finding the tiny evaluators to get that done.

Now, this is year four of landing. It didn't happen in year one. So it just takes a different type of person to do that. And it typically, I would imagine, as a younger guy, I think young offensive coordinator, like great personality, like those type of guys feel really good to me. If you have a defensive coach,

here's a problem. I'm not saying you can't have a defense coach. Obviously, we have one in Oregon. Defensive coaches, the hardest part about being a defense coach, is that your offensive coordinator is going to leave as soon as he has success, right? So you have a good season. The O.C. is going to be a head coach somewhere immediately.

And you have to keep replacing offensive coordinators, which is really hard to do when we know the important thing the sport is having a good quarterback. So that's a challenge with a DC is when the DC is your head coach, defense coordinator type guy, you lose OC's every two years. Can you keep hiring the right guy every two years to make your program good? Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to shift it a little bit then and ask you more about if you're going to go get a coach who's coming from a winning but smaller program. Yeah.

Don't you, because of everything else you just talked about, don't you want to get a guy who's bringing a quarterback or a few starters with him? Like, that was the obvious advantage of Lincoln Riley was, boom, Caleb Williams is reporter. Well, Kirkson Nettie brought over 10 J&U guys and they're all like the, they're all the backbone of his team. Absolutely. It's why it's so interesting.

So like Washington fans are going to hate this. I don't know how many watch your friends listen, but like Jed Fish, their head coach, bringing along Damon Williams like that's a package deal I imagine that's a huge bonus for anyone looking to hire a coach like that

and there's not a lot of coaches on list right now maybe Eli Drinkowitz can bring Perbula with him who's now out for the season I think he's got a couple of years left wait wait say that name again Drinkowitz or Perbula

there's a guy named Eli Drinkowitz Yeah Missouri's head coach He's gonna be at Florida or LSU or Old Miss, depending on where Lane Kiffin goes. Give me that guy. I imagine Lane's going to bring over Chambers with them.

Like, that's definitely part of the package, right? Is if you get an offensive guy, the quarterback most likely is going with you. So, yeah, I'd imagine that's part of discussion as well. Who's your staff? You know, how are we allocating the money that we're spending in recruiting and for coaching staff?

These are all part of discussion. It's going to happen fast. I mean, after Thanksgiving, it's like go time. You got to get someone in there and get ready to recruit and build a roster. Okay, so do you think the domino is LSU? Do you think that LSU, Penn State, and Florida are all trying for the same guy? Is it, are they independent of each other? So it does feel like the names at least for the jobs, for LSU and Florida, it's Lane Kiffin, Eli Drinkowitz.

Now, if Lane leaves, Old Miss will be open, right? So again, that's trickle-down effect of all of this. I'll tell you what. Lane is completely like sort of changed. changed who he was, you know, previously from where he, I know you, I say you giggling about what, you know, he's just not the same guy was in USC, obviously. And so I think a lot of people like you that know the history, like kind of giggled themselves. Like, what, what are we doing? Lane LSU? He's 50 guys. Like a different guy, of course. So, and he's turned into a hell of a hell of a

head coach, man. I mean, he's good. Old Miss is really good. They're good. And he called off of recruit players and so it's I get the sense that people that remember his USC passed and some Raiders and what not sort of giggle at Lane Kiffin getting one of those jobs but he's gonna if he wants

Florida or LSU he can have it yeah okay that's wild to me but I'm sure you're right it also feels like you know what name's going to come up that I I equate him with with Lane Kiffin I feel like we're going to have a Cliff Kingsbury moment here.

Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, it's, he's, he's going to be on some of these lists, I think, I think. He'll be on that list. Matt Rule obviously deserves a look. Of course, you've got to think about Matt Rule in these spots. There's going to be a surprise, man. I mean, look, a couple of cycles go, right? Lincoln, right, left Oklahoma for USC,

Brian Caleb, Doodian for LSU. There's going to be an odd, an odd coaching high. somewhere that we don't really envision at the moment. And again, it makes the cycle so fascinating for who gets these jobs. Again, there's going to be more jobs open. There's going to be a lot more jobs opening just with the way the rest of the season goes. All right. Last time or last part of this topic, then I just want to talk about a couple good teams.

We haven't said it. Probably first take has. But, you know, feels like a year late. But Dion, is Dion in the mix for any of this? Have you watched Colorado play? No, I know, but I'm just saying a year ago, he would have had the job without even interview. He is, I think, unlikely to be back next season

or even in Colorado. It's not going very well. And with his health issues right now, I can't imagine that it's more, I think it's more, I lean toward the health concerns more than like the code. Like if he was completely healthy, he went six and six,

he'd be back next season. Right. But going six and six and six, and I mean they lost 53 to 7 off a buy to a backup quarterback in Utah well wasn't good they got a lot of tough games left and so if it was just no health concerns but he he mentioned what a couple weeks ago the blood clots might have returned I mean it's it's is it worth being on the sideline still when you have all those concerns with your health well I would say

no but I don't know why two thirds of these guys are out there doing what they do when they already have millions of bank. All right, let's talk about two teams, instead of the coaches and all that. Just give me a thought here on like, I can only choose one team I don't yet believe in to really compete for their conference and then a championship.

I have to choose between Indiana and Texas A&M. Make a case for one of those two teams being real, coming out of their conference and being a real title. Uh, who, good question. I mean, look,

I have not watched a ton of A&M like I have Indiana. Um, but, in Indiana, look, think about Indiana. They might not have

as many elite athletes and body types that A&M has, Gabe. But their style of play is just really hard to beat. They play really well together as a team.

Mendoza is, is, good. You know, he's not Reese. He doesn't run the ball quite

like Reese does. He's more accurate than Reese, but, but, you know, he's, he can run if he needs to,

but it's not with his game. You know, the Indiana offensive line, ANM offensive line. Indiana is probably slightly better, but again,

like, they can't match athletes for athlete. What they do is they play just really good football as a team, Gabe.

And not to A&M doesn't do that, but that's huge important. But let's look at this. A&M is going to be an SET championship game. Right? They're undefeated right now.

They play Missouri with no quarterback. South Carolina, who is just, they're dead in the water. They might need a new coach, too. Someone called Samford, not Stanford, Samford, Samford. Yeah, Samford, yeah. And then they end the season at Hank's Longhorn. So, yeah, I mean, both teams are playing for a conference championship. Indiana will be there, so A&M.

Yeah, all right. Eli Drinkowitz. That was my learn today, Jeff. Yeah, Eli Jickowitz, yeah. I don't know why I never heard that name before, but I'm going to start Googling him and rooting for him. Sounds like a guy. He's a good coach in Missouri.

His quarterback got hurt, unfortunately, but he's a good coach. Okay. Well, I know you're giving out picks in a couple days, so I'll stand by for that. You've already told me you think that USC won't cover on the road, but do you think they'll win? Do you think they'll win that Nebraska game? I hope they don't.

It'll be way more funny if they don't. Well, I hope they do, but I'll tell you what. It won't matter too much in this city because by then the Dodgers look like they will already be World Series champs. And I think people will give you a C a pass this. Okay, can we end with this? More crazy as an athlete, Wembe or Otani? Great question. As crazy as Wembe looked, the answer is Otani.

Think about this. So he, so he, okay, go ahead, go ahead. From the bottom of the ninth on, he was intentionally walked or essentially, intentionally walked five times in a whole other game of baseball that ended in the next day. He was the last guy on the field doing interviews. He was going to go home, take a nap,

and then be the first Dodger on the field to start game four. Like, he, he had, hasn't gotten out in like 12 lead appearances or something. Yeah. When he, when they put him on first, he just steals second. He does everything.

He's a freak. Wemby is great. Yeah. But he's not even Shaq. So here's the question. Is, so we've never seen in Otani before as far as pitching and hitting at this level. Don't go,

don't give me Babe Ruth. Yeah, I'm not doing that. You're not doing. Someone's going to be like, Babe Ruth, yeah, 100 years ago, sure. Yeah, okay. Eventually, Babe Ruth, by the way, stopped pitching. Like, he had a whole career just, is hitter only.

Yeah, so, okay. We've seen better hitters than Otani and better pitchers than Otani. We haven't seen both combined. That's the thing. Like, come on, Barry Bond is better hitter than Otani. But Otani as a pitcher and hitter is something we've never seen before at this level. we've never seen Wembe either. There's just no, there's just no,

his highlights, he blocks a dude. He had two blocks in a row and it's a play and then hit a 35 foot three-pointer. I, I, I, I don't know. I, whatever, man. I hear you, the three-point, the three-point play and the handle are incredible.

I still don't think he's as freakish or as game-changing as Shaq was those first few years in the pandemic. And obviously as much of a war as he was that life. Those are not the same players, though. So you know what to think about, this is tangent quickly. People would say, like, people would say,

sometimes I hear them say, like, well, Shaq couldn't play in this era of like three-point shooting. I bet you if in 1992, shooting three pointers was important, he would have learned how to shoot threes and been just fine. I don't understand like this,

this, I hear people say that sometimes, like, we just highlights of Shaq that we see, you know, every couple of months someone throws up that video of him backing.

Was it Dudley down, just like dunking over him and putting his nuts in his face and like just dominate? Like, Shaq couldn't play now. Excuse me? What are you talking? The dumbest thing a person could say

is Shaq couldn't play in an era. He is physically different than every person who's ever played the game. All you have to do is watch him in his 20s. It was pure insanity. Correct. And again, he would have learned how to shoot if that had been the game. Yes. Yes. The idea that he couldn't,

he wouldn't have learned how to shoot. That would have been, that wasn't the game back then. This game back then was running the floor, dunking, blocking, you know, back to the basket type of stuff. And obviously when he became a Laker, he just became strictly back to the basket. And, yeah, I, uh, Wemby though. I mean, he's, I think they finally list him, like 7-3, but he's more like 7-6? No, they updated it.

What's he at now? So he was 7-3 prior to this season, and they officially updated his height to 7-5. Because everyone was like, dude, he's not 7-3. So he's either been growing or they tried to bring it down a little. Isn't it so funny how Kevin Durant is very clearly 7-feet tall, but doesn't want to be listed as 7-feet tall? I don't understand the minds.

Who cares? The position doesn't change. You're still playing small forward, essentially? I don't. Hank and I have done a little research on this, Jeff. Oh, you have. Things with our free time. Yes, we have. First of all, we were on this long before Wembe admitted his height. We were part of the corner of the internet that knew the guy was probably fibbing about his actual height.

The reason that guys do it. With Wemby, it's like, come on, who are you fooling? You're obviously the tallest guy on the court. But there are other guys, and Garnett is a good example. Tracy McGrady is an example. these guys who are like Kevin Durant is an example who are long and lean and really really don't want to guard the five if they can round down their height by a couple inches

and somebody else gets that assignment like some big stick. He could be 7-7 he's 185 pounds, he's not guarding the five. Okay, so throw Durant out. Kevin Garnett is the best defensive player on the court in any game he plays in. He should be guarding the five, but it takes a lot of work. so he claimed he was shorter than he was so some other stiff had to go guard the big men have you seen the video that shows kevin garnett taking his two-point jumpers and saying if he just stepped one foot back on all his shots he would have scored a thousand more points correct and there's your there's the perfect way to wrap it up if kevin garnett or shack had been like wait a minute what do you want me to do like obviously they could have been doing

Garnett especially. He was a great shoot. Well, Garnett, he would shoot between the 18-20 footers. Just step one step back, buddy, and hit a three. It wasn't the era of basketball they played in. That wasn't the era. No, those shot charts are incredible. Check out Kurt Goldsbury.

The way he shows, like, all the shots taken in a decade and where the red is. It's now a T. Like, now it's just a T. It just goes from the basket up and then all the way out on the arc. Yeah. It's wild.

Okay. That's your basketball corner for today. That's fun. I'm judgment smarter than you. We can talk other sports if you want to sponsor us for more sports. You let me know. All right, guys, we back on Thursday. We can't be worse, Gabe.

That's a positive. But we'll cover all the National Football League games for upcoming week. Please rate if you subscribe. Subscribe takes nothing. Just hit that button on YouTube. Really appreciate it. We're back in a couple days. Guys, take care.