Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Geoff has a Rough Week, Antonio Brown Fallout, and More NFL Headlines

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are here to work through a doozy of an NFL weekend, starting with two huge results that Geoff was sure would go the other way. First, Jamarr Chase and the Bengals detonated on the Chiefs to lock up the NFC North and guarantee Mahomes his first true road playoff game, and then Kliff, Kyler and the Cardinals managed to hold themselves together to pull off the upset vs a Cowboys team that always finds a way to fall apart. Plus, tune in for Geoff and Gabe’s thoughts on Antonio Brown’s dramatic exit from the Bucs comeback win over the Jets.On Moving the Line, Geoff ranks Derek Carr among top NFL QBs, explains why FedEx Field is the worst stadium in the country, and evaluates Mitch’s contract demands. Also, Joe Judge is a liar who can’t quit lying… but he won’t lose his job any time soon.As always, like and follow the podcast if you enjoyed the episode, and leave a comment for a chance to be featured in a mailbag segment at the end of the season!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 4th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe gill and this is jeff schwartz is smarter than you power of the varsity let me start that over you sure you sure you know what the show is uh it is jeff schwartz is smarter than you power of the varsity podcast network we just leave it all in here who cares um i love doing the show on monday morning ish gabe because um we just look so different than the show we recorded last night. We've showered. We're fresh. We have energy. And we have a lot to get to because today I am going to get a comeuppance

that I deserve for the way I talked about the Chiefs and Bengals game. We're talking about the Cowboys and the Cardinals. I pretty much got everything wrong from last week as we head into week 18 now with a recap of week 17. Gabe, just let it go, buddy. Yeah, I mean, Jeff, the show is called Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you, but are we so sure? I don't know, man. This week you took two L's that I can think of. You were mocking everyone on the internet for thinking that the Bengals had any hope against your chiefs I mean all day for days on end just tooling on everybody sarcasm to the nines and then

Joey Burrow MVP candidate Joey Burrow lit up your chiefs and put a real scare into the whole AFC especially those chiefs who might have to face him in the first round. So, Jeff, what would you like to take back from the many sarcastic tweets of last week? Not much. Oh, come on. Chiefs were up 28-14 and honestly, just bad second half, man. Look, Burrow and Chase had some great plays. There's no doubt about it. They did a great job.

Burrow's, I never said anything about Burrow. I mean, there's nothing, I didn't think that they were going to win or lose that game basically off. But I think Burrow's good. You've been clear. You like him. I thought that the Chiefs would play better defense. The Chase has been great. I've admitted my mistake on that whole draft.

And Sewell, by the way, has been great for the Lions too. They've both been good. But I've admitted my mistake on that one as well. Obviously, I'm a Chiefs fan. And from the Chiefs' perspective, wow, man. They did some bad things in the second half of this game. Things that it's been indicative of their season

where they just kind of make these errors they have not made in previous years. One, they drop a ton of passes this year. I don't know why. Drop a ton of passes. Tyreek Hill dropped the one before the first half. Travis Kelsey dropped one the second half. Second half, offense had three possessions, three points.

Like, what are we—I haven't watched it back yet to see what happened the second half of that game. And then just tactically on defense, man, so we saw what happened when you left Jamar Chase one-on-one. Joe Burrow's going to put the ball in a good spot, which he did, and Jamar Chase is going to go up and catch the ball. Yet the Chiefs continually let their corners be one-on-one with Jamar Chase. In the first half, I think it was the first half or early second half, Dan Sorensen, who is terrible, number 49,

who keeps getting played, I do not know why, blows a cover to defense. It's basically as it comes. Number one, Jamar Chase runs up the field. Number two, kind of does a 10-yard little out, kind of sits in that hole right there. Sorensen jumps the inside route, not supposed to do that. Chase is wide open.

Like, things like that, you're like, and here's the thing that bothered me the most about this. Again, Burrow deserves credit for recognizing the pressures and getting the ball out. But the Chiefs front four, the reason why I liked them in this game was I really specifically liked Chris Jones rushing the passer against their offensive line, the Bengals I liked them in this game was I really specifically liked Chris Jones rushing the passer

against their offensive line, the Bengals' offensive line. He won a lot. I haven't looked up the PFF numbers, dude, but he won 50% of the time. Like, every time that Burrow threw the ball, it felt like Chris Jones was getting close to him. And Burrow did a good job of getting the ball out quickly and not having that be a problem. When he had the hole on the ball, Chris Jones sacked him.

He hit him a bunch of times. And that critical third and 27 play, about three minutes left, game is tied, right? Chiefs had just come down and hit the field goal. Bengals had got the ball. There was a holding call. Then a sack, I believe, right?

And now it's third and 27. The ball's at the 41-yard line. Think about this. The Bengals kickers got a great leg. If the ball, if they go incomplete on third and 27, they're going to kick a 58-yard field goal. They're going to try that. That's what they're going to do.

They're not going to punt the ball. What the Chiefs did instead was they ran what's called a zero pressure, right? They just blitzed everyone except the guys guarding the wide receivers. And you do that for two reasons, Gabe, okay? One is you try to force Burrow to throw the ball quicker than he wants to. Hopefully, we need to incomplete pass. In the same vein, I guess you could sack Joe Burrow. It doesn't happen very often in zero pressure, but it's possible.

Two is it forces a quick pass, which then is a quick tackle, and he's down, okay? And then field goal, boom. The risk is what happens. You leave Jamar Chase one-on-one, Burrow makes a great throw, ball's caught, first down. Okay. If you sit back and zone, which is what has made the Chiefs defense good the last eight weeks.

Steve Spagnuolo has changed from more of a man, pressure team. They had run the most two high coverages in the NFL since week eight. And the Bengals had struggled a lot with kind of quarters coverage with cover six lately. Like that has shut down Jamar Chase. The Ravens run a ton of man coverage. They've been burned twice against them. Chiefs run a ton of man coverage in this game too and got burned by Jamar Chase. It did not make sense to me. So sit back and zone. You allow 15 yards on third and 27. Field goal again.

Okay. Field goal's good. Three minutes, three timeouts to get a field goal to tie the game. Touchdown to win the game. Look, I just didn't get what they were doing on defense in this game. It seemed like they got outcoached a little bit. I rarely say that about Kansas City, but they just made some critical errors in this game. Look, the officiating was bad.

It is what it is. You know I don't like to blame officials. And then the end of the game, like the last two minutes, I mean, the Bengals had like 11 plays in the 10-yard line. That was a wild end of the game. But I have to feel that if the Chiefs get a rematch,

they have to feel good about it because a lot of things went the Bengals' way. Even Joe Burrow mid-after the game. But I have to feel that if the Chiefs get a rematch, they have to feel good about it because a lot of things went the Bengals' way. Even Joe Burrow mid-after the game, they got some calls. I mean, the one that bothers me the most, the DPI on Snead was pretty bad that final drive. But that third and one false start, the balls at the two-yard line, third and one, they got a first down, ran the clock out,

kicked a field goal. If that third, if that false start's called left guard, everyone knew, everyone saw it. The Chiefs defense was like, yep, he moved, that guy moved. It's third and six now. Maybe that field goal's kicked with 50 seconds left now, and the Chiefs have the chance to go down and kick. So a lot of mistakes that, again, drop passes.

I thought, look, I really, really hate calling out the effort of players because I was a player. I know how it feels. But Jamar Chase's first touchdown, Gabe, the one where he caught the ball kind of a short route and took off, a little bit of loafing on the field from the defense. Chiefs defense didn't tackle very well.

Again, the Bengals made the plays that were there, but the first half was how I thought this game was going to go. Chiefs are up 28-17. They were rolling, man. And they just came in the second half and laid a dud. And this cost them because now they're no longer the one seed. They probably won't be because the Titans aren't going to lose to the Texans this week. And now the Chiefs have to have three playoff games to get back to the Super Bowl.

Do you know that Pat Mahomes has yet to play a road playoff game? I did not know that. He's only played Super Bowls. Yeah, he's only played at home or Super Bowls. Wow. And in this situation, they're going to have to play

a road playoff game, presumably if Tennessee wins their divisional round game as the bye. But they might get the Bengals in round two. And I will tell you what, though. I am worried about who they might play. We'll get to that in a second, I believe, who they're going to play in this wildcard round

because not only did they lose the bye, but they might play the Chargers. That's the worst team. That's the team I do not want to see if you're a Chiefs fan. Yeah, I'm glad you brought it up. I think I had said they could get the Bengals in the first round. Obviously, that's not the case. It would be divisional round.

The way the divisions worked. Yeah, but they could have to play the Chargers and then play the Bengals in the first round. Obviously, that's not the case. It would be divisional round. Yeah. But they could have to play the Chargers and then play the Bengals again before they get, let's say it's Buffalo or Tennessee on the road. Not an easy path. And all along, you've been saying, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. The Chiefs will be there in the end, but they don't want to have an awful path. They're setting themselves up for one of the worst possible paths. Well, of course. I mean, now that's, it's the problem is

who they're going to play in that seventh seed. That game is Sunday Night Football this week and it's Chargers-Raiders. The winner of that game gets a seven. If everything else kind of goes as it's supposed to go, the Colts win, the Titans win. Like if everything kind of goes as planned,

that game becomes a playing game. want the raiders to win of course the chiefs have been the raiders this year 41 14 and 48 to 9 the chargers beat them in week two or three whenever it was and then should have beat him three weeks ago i'm terrified of the chargers i don't want to play the chargers in now the the benefit, I think, of playing the Chargers is, you know, outside cold weather, Herbert's first playoff game. I mean, there's some things that kind of go in the Chiefs' way there. But man, I just, it has frustrated me. And again, it's hard to be frustrated as a team that keeps making the playoffs every year. But there's just some decisions this year tactically I haven't quite understood. And in this game, especially, if you just sit in zone coverage all game, you're not going to get – they're not going to score these touchdowns.

It's just kind of frustrating. So, you know, if they play again in the playoffs, yeah, they just sit in zone coverage all day and let Chris Jones rush the passer and just let your guys do work. And offensively, again, I haven't watched second half back to see what happened. Bayles had a good call down the low red zone. They showed a zero pressure. It worked out well.

But, I don't know. Disappointed, man. The one seed hurts more than the Chiefs. I mean, the Chiefs would have won by a point. Everyone would have dragged them anyways. They said it was going to be a two-touchdown win. And again, for the first half, it was like, sweet. I looked smart as shit for the first half of that game.

Yeah. Yeah, you earned the name of this show in the first half, it was like, sweet. I look smart as shit for the first half of that game. Yeah. Yeah, you earned the name of this show in the first half. Unfortunately, they played two halves, Jeff. Let's talk about the Bengals for one quick second because everything you've said has been in the context of how the Chiefs mishandled the game. There's a lot of celebration going on. They're lighting up the cigars.

Since he's feeling it right now. And a lot of people in national media, sports media, are all over them. They love them. All of a sudden, Joe Burrow is, you know, the greatest thing in the NFL. I don't think you're quite there. And I know our buddy Mark Schlereth is not quite there. He tweeted, hey, Bengals, you're all so cute. Congrats on your big playoff win.

Oh, wait, your last playoff win was january 6 1991 win something and then get at me is that sort of the right attitude like should the bangles just chill a bit and win another couple games before we put the celebration on or can they celebrate this oh no of course i could celebrate i mean they won the division like of course you can do that um but are they the next so-and-so? I mean, sure. Let's win a playoff game first. You're typically not going to win a lot of playoff games with a bad offensive line. If they fix their offensive line in this offseason, then sure.

I think you would consider them a favorite, one of the favorites to get back to the playoffs next year and do some damage. But you're not this year. I mean, the Colts come to town god of carson wentz oh geez he's one for seven for the first 28 minutes of that game on sunday against the raiders are you sneaking carson wentz talk into this we're talking about the most exciting two teams in the afc and you bring carson wentz up playoffs bangles colts i know you're taking the bangles colts playoff game bangles you would understand yeah because i'm i can't root for the colts and that

brand of boring to advance i don't want to have to see that more times than i need to see it if they get in i see them one time only um so i know i i um either bangles are up and coming of course they're playing good football this year but they have if they want to be a serious contender to win the afc they have to fix their offensive line next season all right fair enough there they have the longest playoff win drought in the nfl currently since that 91 win that mark Schlaireth referenced. Well, of teams that actually make the playoffs, right? Yeah. One of the Lions won a playoff game.

Well, okay, but they got in and haven't won. Okay. So our producer, Hank, who thinks he's awfully sharp, points out that Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase were not even born in 1991 and that Gabe had just graduated high school. Hey, Hank, you dumbass. I hadn't just graduated high school. I wasn't even in middle school yet.

All right, you child. He was a child. So pump the brakes on your notes there, Hank. Topic number two. Another one, Jeff, where I feel like, uh-oh, not a great take. You've been the one trying to talk me into the Cowboys all season long. Every time they win, you tell me you see something you like. And then, you know, the Cardinals, the team that you tell me are frauds

and can't do it down the stretch, and their coach doesn't have it in December. The Cardinals beat the Cowboys. I don't know what to make of any of this, Jeff. Fluke, or you got that one wrong, too. Both teams suck. That's what I get to. I'm out on both of them. All right.

By the way, Hank, let's know. The Lions won a playoff game in 1992. Ah, okay. Good job, Hank. Good job on the research. Actually, doing your job for once. Hank was still negative eight years old or something. Instead of writing jokes about your host, about your bosses.

I guess I'm technically not a boss of his, but nonetheless, it still doesn't matter. All right. Yeah, look, the Cowboys shut down their leg, man. Jeez. I want to believe them so badly, Gabe. I've tried my best. I like Dak Prescott. I like their pass rush, their offensive line, their weapons,

even though unfortunate Gallup got hurt. But, man, do they just come up small sometimes, right? And they came up small in this game. Again, like you're playing an Arizona team that's real. It has not played good football. And Arizona's played well on the road, given that. But a team that has lost four of their last eight, I believe. They're just not playing good.

Lost to the Lions. Just not playing good football. Lost to the Colts last week or two weeks ago now. And you just didn't play well. Like, Arizona took it to you. And I don't believe in Arizona really in the playoffs either, but this is going to be, they're going to play this probably again in two weeks,

Cowboys-Cardinals. Kyler Murray's never lost in that stadium before. It's wild. High school, college, or the NFL. Yeah. Man. The Cowboys, every year I do this game, every year I'm like, the Cowboys, guys, I'm telling you, they can do it.

And then they just, every single season. I mean, I don't feel, do you feel much better at Arizona? I don't really. No, no, no, no. I don't care about Arizona. I mean, the NFC is really, in my I don't really. No, no, no. I don't care about Arizona. I mean, the NFC is really, in my opinion, it's one team as the Packers. I really, I mean, I'm not going to count out Tom Brady, of course, because that's stupid business to do that.

But again, Matt Goff for the Rams continues to play terribly and throw too many interceptions and doesn't run that offense terribly well. Think about this. Joe Burrow the previous week had, what, 525 yards against them? And the Rams struggled to move the ball the entire game. They won that game by one point. Another pick six by Matt Stafford.

Don't trust Arizona. Colton's going to have to go on the road to Tampa Bay. I know they beat them early in the season at home, I believe. No, they didn't play them at home. That was never wrong. They could go to Tampa play them at home. That was, never mind. They could go to Tampa Bay. They have to go to Green Bay, possibly.

Don't, Cowboys. Look, the Cowboys have the pieces though, right? Like, that's the frustrating part, right? If you were to say, hey, look, I have an offensive line, defensive line, defense, scoops of some players, you'd be like, hey, they get their chance to win a Super Bowl. But Dak Prescott just really

has not been the same player since he heard his calf i i mean dac's been passed up by some of these young quarterbacks like would you take would you take herbert and burrow over dac you would right oh yes in a heartbeat right yeah instantaneously you would take just, you know, I feel like Dak is just, he's just not the same guy he was to start the season. So let's get off Dak for a minute because we've had question marks about him for most of the year. You did think he would be comeback player of the year. It's probably Burroughs, right? No, I mean, Dak's still the favorite for that. Really? Okay.

I mean, Burroughs played like 11 games last yearrow played like 11 games last year. 10 or 11 games last year. Came back from a major knee injury in less than a year. And now is an MVP candidate. Dak's not an MVP candidate. I looked, yeah, but that's not really, I mean, Alex Smith is the comeback player of the year. He's not an MVP candidate. I looked at the odds this morning and it's still Dak Prescott's a favorite. All right, fair enough.

But let's get off Dak for a second. The thing that people, maybe you a little bit, but people in general, started getting really excited about with the Cowboys was these two defensive playmakers that they have, Parsons and Diggs. thing with him so he's got all the picks record setting season with picks but he gives up tons of yardage like every stat every nerd comes up with says this guy can't cover people he's a ball hawk and he makes some great plays but he cannot stop you from catching the ball and gaining yards on him so were we was this a mirage the whole time were they just doing something defensively that gave them sacks and picks, but they don't actually stop people when it matters? The sacks and picks are still there.

It's just that Diggs is kind of all or nothing. It's interception or home run. That's it. The two things. And I've seen people talk about, like, he would have one of the worst seasons ever as a corner, but he has 12 interceptions or some crazy number like that. Like, it's feast or famine

which really i think that teams would rather have less turnovers and just better defense right like okay eliminate that from a thousand yards give up 400 yards but no interceptions they'd much rather take the consistency of that sure than just like every game up and down. Yeah. I mean, as a Jets fan a decade ago, Darrell Rivas did not always have double-digit interceptions. But everyone knew nobody was throwing on him, and when they did, they had no success. So even if he only had four picks in a year, he was an all-pro. That's the kind of guy you want.

Well, Rivas also did – the reason why Dames has all these picks too is they keep throwing at him because he gives up they throw yards revis no one threw to him because they never threw his ever threw his son yeah and he didn't even need safety help all right um the the only two teams left in the nfc that you haven't said and i think it's now it's time we probably have to acknowledge it. The Eagles are hot. They look legitimately good. Both sides of the ball.

A quarterback who seems like a winner. I'm not saying they're going to go on a run and win the Super Bowl, but they do look like they could surprise someone in the postseason. And with Trey Lance at quarterback, the Niners are not the same team that they were a few weeks ago. So are either of those two teams a threat to anyone at the top of the NFC? Eagles, no. Even though I do like their offensive line,

they did a great job this year getting this team to the playoff. I just think Hurts is okay. That makes it hard for the playoffs to be just okay. Who's the other team you mentioned? Lance. Lance and the Niners. Oh, no. Not yet. No. Okay. We'll put the Texans. Those are two teams that probably get in.

Let's see Lance beat the Rams this weekend. Okay. Then mark it down, Hank. Next week, if they do beat the Rams, we got to talk Niners right at the top of the show. For now, let's stay in the NFC and talk about the team that, you know, was a lot of people's favorite and then just had the weirdest, scariest, stupidest, I don't know what word you want to use to describe the situation with Antonio Brown. If you listen to this podcast, you've probably already consumed a lot of TV

and maybe other podcasts. You know what happened with Antonio Brown, or at least you know the basics. Jeff, we have said offline that we're more like concerned and like what's going on with this guy than like ready to make fun of him on the air. But I guess I want to know after everything that we've seen Sunday and Monday, like what would you do if you were his teammate and were witnessing any of this and he was still in your locker room how would you even approach any of this well mike evans tried to help him right we saw mike evans for those who haven't seen antonio for those who don't even know we think brown um left the game he took his pads

off against the jets in new york they're playing the bucks playing the jets took his pads off took his gloves off took his undershirt off and ran out the field shirtless in a locker room and never again to be seen in the Bucs. He then took a police ride to the airport, decided he didn't want to fly to Tampa, called up his buddy who picked him up in a, it wasn't Uber, but he portrayed as Uber, picked him up and drove around the city. I just saw a video he put out. I haven't listened to it yet.

In a car somewhere, maybe New York, maybe not. But he's been released by the Bucs and moved on. And the story goes that Bruce Arians told him to go in the game. He said he was hurt. Told him to go in the game. He said no and told him to get out of here. Now, there was a concern about him,

his ankle heading into the week. But I will say this. If you're dressed for a game coaches think you're healthy enough to play all right right or wrong that's the way they think wanted to play didn't want to play um mike evans tried to get him to stop it didn't happen but here's the thing i and i get there's some empathy from tom brady other people around antonio brown which is fine i mean be empathetic i I'm fine with that. I don't know Antonio Brown at all. Tom Brady does. He knows him pretty well.

Is that you're in the middle of a game, Gabe. Like, you can't worry about that stuff. You don't worry about yourself in a game or your team, right? Like, if Antonio Brown doesn't want to play, all right, buddy. Like, it's just like he got hurt, right? Like, he's just not there for the game anymore. You got to move on without him in that moment. Mike Evans tried.

We're talking about he was going to do what he wanted to do. And Mike Evans went to go back to play football. I mean, you can't do any more than that. You can't beg him to stay if he doesn't want to be there. He walked off the field. You keep playing. And you worry about it after the game, which is I'm sure that everyone else worried about after the game.

But what a bizarre thing to see. I mean, we've had players quit at halftime, but not like this, man. I mean, he walked across the field while the game was still going on to go to the locker room. It wasn't like a timeout or anything. He was saluting the crowd. I think it's very irresponsible

for people to assume this is CTE. I see that discussion happening on social media. We're not mental health experts. Leave that to mental health experts to talk about. That's not our job to speculate whether or not he has CTE or he's dealing with the effects of certain things. It's not our job to do. I would advise people tweeting that to stop doing it.

Fair enough. I guess, though, people are looking for answers. There's something wrong with him. I think it's fair to say something's wrong with him, but not jump to a CTE or not jump to like this, give him a diagnosis. We don't know. But yes, I think it's very reasonable to say there's just something that's not right. Okay.

So then do you think as a guy who played as a guy who understands the mindset of a coach and other teammates, but now as a guy who talks about football for a living in the media, do you think that it's fair of guys like Arians and Brady, who by all accounts are like the only two reasons he was in Tampa Bay, right? Brady wanted him. Arians put up with him. Yes. Until he couldn't.

Do these guys really get to sort of duck responsibility for offering some kind of an explanation with like, I want to talk about the guys who were on the field, or I think we should just show him some empathy and compassion? Like, don't they kind of have to explain a little bit more about the situation, given that they were the only two people on earth who gave him these chances? Well, Tom Brady talked about him. I mean, Tom Brady, it's Bruce Arians that didn't talk about it, right? Because Tom, Tom talked about it.

He chose empathy, right? He chose compassion. Yeah, fine. Sure, we will do that. But I think that there's still some like basic facts that need to be unpacked. And that's a reporter's job is to ask, hey, what happened? No, no, no. I mean, there needs to be a, there needs to be, I guess we're not owed this to the public,

but I would like to hear from Bruce Arians about what happened. We heard from Ian Rapport this morning. But what about, what about Bruce Arians? Yes, Bruce Arians is the coach of the team, as a CEO of the team, has got to speak about what happened on Sunday, 100%. Tom Brady doesn't. Now, he did. He's not required to. I mean, that should be up to the head coach to talk about.

All right. Well, so then this idea that it's like an unfair question to ask or a reporter is being, you know, looking for clicks to ask another question or two when they get media access to bruce like that's not fair like to to treat those guys that way would be foolish and bruce arian seems like a pretty decent guy he seems like he's been okay to people who report on the game yeah he uh he he needs to he needs to lay off those reporters for asking those questions that's their job to ask about. You should have a player run off the field. Like throw a tantrum and run off the field.

No, the questions deserve to be asked. They will be asked. I hope they get answered. And there's going to be some, you know, there's going to be some Seth Wickersham will write a long 10,000-word article on this guy, right? Like it's going to be something that comes to this eventually. Yeah.

But I mean, a talent wasted again. Do you think it's another chance somewhere? No way. Right. I don't think so because I thought it was totally unbelievable that Brady and Arians gave him this chance and then gave him another chance on the chance. So I can't see how there'd be a another team who felt they had the quarterback and the coach who would have any hope of you know making antonio brown

happy healthy whatever he needs to be to stay on the team he's also 33 and has only looked like the great player that he once was a few times in the last couple of years. You're right. You're right. Which is, which is why, um, I think he's, he's just done. Like he's NFL course over walk up the field. Yeah. I don't,

I don't think we see him as an NFL player again. And I hope that people will lay off some of the jokes about what happens next to him. Um, and who knows the CTE thing you're right is pretty dangerous speculation, but somebody has got to figure out what is going on with the guy. And hopefully someone like Tom Brady, who had him as a roommate, could like maybe talk to the guy and see if he could use a little help. I know he's not everyone's favorite person.

He's been involved in some pretty awful stuff. But I mean, he needs some kind of help in the short term. That seems obvious. Yeah, but, you know, the thing about it, too, is that you have to be willing to have the help, right? People can offer him the help, but will he accept the help is always a question when it comes to this. And there have been enablers, right? I mean, he continues to get jobs, which to him justify the behavior, right? I mean, he acted like a crazy person in Oakland or wherever they were at that time,

Vegas, Oakland, who knows where they were. They were in Oakland still, but they had moved. He acted like a crazy person, got signed by the Patriots like two days afterwards. So the behavior gets justified. And if his career is over, then it's over. And he ends again with walking out on his teammates during the middle of a game.

Yeah. Well, let me ask you about the B then without him so he's definitely gone they lost godwin now they've lost him i was never gonna feel bad for tom brady's lack of weapons but now all of a sudden you know they actually do have to go to like scooter and some of these other rando receivers cameron brate i feel like it's to get a little more time. Yeah, Scooter Miller. So, like, can Tom Brady just patch it together and make them good? Still got Mike Evans. He's still got Gronk.

They need Fournette to come back for the playoffs and David to come back for the playoffs on defense. Like, this is going to be really tough. I think it's a year where, you know, to be honest, I think there's a bunch of teams that I think could win. Would I bet money on them to win? They're two different things, right? But I think it's going to be a much tougher road, man.

Now, they're going to have some home games, which will be good, right? They play very well at home this season. Then they just might have to win one game at Green Bay or something like that. But it's going to be tougher, look, it's interesting, going back to the Bengals and Chiefs game, one thing that was talked about about the Bengals is look at the AFC North.

They are by far the healthiest team, like not even close. And most years, the two healthiest teams are in the Super Bowl. And the Packers are getting healthier. They're adding players back. Tampa Bay's losing players. Now they might add some back for the playoffs if they're off the short- are getting healthier. They're adding players back. Tampa Bay's losing players.

Now they might add some back for the playoffs if they're off the short-term injury reserve. So it's about health and Tampa Bay's just not very healthy right now. It makes it much tougher. The margin of error is much smaller in a playoff game when you don't have as many weapons there. Yeah. All right.

Well, like we always say here, we're never going to bet against Tom Brady as much as I might like to. It's a stupid thing to do. So we'll keep them alive. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll move the line with a few other topics, make some bets and get ourselves out of here so you can make some picks on Thursday.

But let's take a quick break. Move the line next. All right. Welcome back. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you, even if his takes were a little rocky this week. All right, welcome back. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you, even if his takes were a little rocky this week, Jeff. I want to talk to you about the Raiders.

You gave them a little love earlier, but you said you kind of want them to win so that the Chiefs get them in the playoffs. I'm not so sure you have that right, because Derek Carr very quietly has been an MVP contender down the stretch here um so I want to ask you Derek Carr is a top blank quarterback in the league over under 7.5 how many guys are better than Derek Carr oh more than seven yeah top of your head you can just rattle off seven guys you like better than him. Let's see. Rogers, Brady, Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert.

All right. I have to be missing some guys as well. It's getting a little harder. Josh Allen. You're giving Josh Allen the nod? Would you put Josh Allen? Yolo himself is ahead of Derek Carr? I mean, look, I'm just asking, would you put him ahead?

I think I would, but I'm surprised to hear you would. The rest of the NFL. Lamar's not healthy, so I'm going to knock him out of this. Yeah. Right now, heading into the playoffs. I mean, Jack Prescott, eh. Nuh-uh. I don't think so.

You just said Jalen Hurts isn't quite the guy. Actually, Matt Ryan's better than him, but that's a— He's not going to the playoffs. You mean playoff quarterbacks or regular quarterbacks or anyone? Well, I mean, I think it only really matters if you're a playoff quarterback. Point is, Derek Carr is playing some better ball than we would have guessed. Ryan Tannehill's better than him, but yeah. Yes, he's playing better football than I thought he would.

Yes. better than him but yeah we yes he's playing better football than than we i thought he would yes do you think he stays in las vegas for the next several years or does somebody say you know what he's the missing piece because he's doing all of this without you know remember the coach that crazy situation early in the year with gruden rugs awful situation he loses one of his best weapons and and a lot of distraction wallerer, his best weapon, has been injured for weeks, as any fantasy player will know. His defense, not great. And yet he keeps on winning and making some incredible plays. I can't believe I'm trying to talk about Derek Carr,

but he's been pretty great. So the question, I think, is not whether or not Vegas wants to keep him. It's whether or not someone trades for him. Yeah. Think about Seattle. They're going or not someone trades for him. Yeah. Like, think about Seattle. They're going to lose Russell Wilson. Yep. I'd go get Derek Carr, right?

Yeah. What about Pittsburgh, New Orleans? Go get Derek Carr. I think teams will go get Derek Carr rather than Denver, which I don't think they'll trade in division. But rather than, I think the Raiders will want to keep him, but if they get an offer they can't refuse, then they'll get rid of Derek Carr and start over. Yeah. And it's not from my eyeballs. It's not a great quarterback

class in the draft, especially as Matt Corral is looking hurt. And I don't know. I mean, it's not a perfect year for quarterbacks. Okay. Rookie quarterback in New England. He's been the question mark this whole time. So over under 0.5 playoff wins for the Patriots. They're in. Exact seed is not locked, but they are in. They could go to Buffalo in the wildcard round. They're not winning that game. I'd say under.

Under. They've got to get really lucky with who they play to have a chance at a win in the playoffs. Yeah. I just don't see it. I'll take it. I'll take it right there. I don't need to go any further. We already covered the Eagles. You don I just don't see it. I'll take it. I'll take it right there. I don't need to go any further.

We already covered the Eagles. You don't think they're a winner. You think they're sort of the same situation. They get in, they should feel good about it, and then they probably lose to a better team. Yes. All right. Staying on the Eagles, who won at FedEx Field,

as Jalen Hurts was leaving the field, a bunch of Eagles fans were trying to give him a high five, and literally the stadium collapsed. Luckily luckily it seems like everyone's okay. But like a dozen dudes fell out of the stands and landed right at Jalen Hertz's feet and he helped pick them up and they all hugged and they took some pictures. It didn't look like anyone was badly hurt. Um, so over under two and a half stadiums in the league, worse than FedEx field, our producers are from the D.C. area, so they have a real problem with that field.

There's no place worse now that Oakland has moved to Vegas. Really? It's the worst. Yeah. A couple things interesting about that, because for those who haven't seen it, Jalen Hurts seems like a great guy, which we already knew,

but obviously he was great with the fans, and they fell down, and he tried to help them up. But two things. One, there was a photographer that was right off to the side. He would have been – he barely got nicked by that – he would have owned FedExField after that. But two is that normally when the star quarterback is walking off the field,

there's a security member of the Eagles. There was no security with him. He just walked off the field by himself. Now, luckily, the fans were great about it, and some of the same security came over there. But normally, there's a personnel from the Eagles that's walking with him. He's walking by himself. I was shocked about that because I know like Pat Mahomes.

I got a guy in Kent City who's following Pat everywhere he goes after a game. But Jalen seems great about it, and everyone took a picture with him, and he went back, and it's just that field is a dumpster fire. It's such a bad field, dude. What makes it so bad? I don't think i knew that just hated it so old old stadium bad amenities terrible grass it just fell apart literally the railing fell and because people fell eight ten feet yeah yeah well that part wasn't great i didn't know the field itself was the field it feels not very good uh over under 10% chance that Jeff Bezos buys the team. They're not going to make it stand or sell it.

So under. Okay, fair enough. Last one here. This is too impossible to really truly explain in an over under. Over under 99% chance Joe Judge is completely delusional. Just totally out of his mind delusional. I have seen a lot of and heard a lot of press conferences but this one was out of control so after the game the

giants just don't show up they lose 29 to 3 or some crazy number in in in uh chicago and after the game he's this 12 13 minute rant and part of the rant he mentioned a couple things that just weren't true what about something about new england in 2018 he was coaching i thought he would get they would get fired in the middle of the season they were seven and two game so like that's complete horseshit it wasn't getting fired in the middle of the season or even fired the end of season two he said that the players okay so the players that in the locker room we're still playing hard we're not we're not preparing for vacations no the players the players totally are, Judge. Like, they're totally worried about one week from now,

they're out of the facility. He knocked Pat Shermer, right? When he showed up, everyone told him in the locker room that they needed leadership, and he was the right guy for the thing. Okay, fine. The two that I find, and this is, look, here's the thing about liars, right?

Is they serial lie about things that are easily disprovable. It's a former politician who this sounded very much like, right? Just lying, lying to lie, like stuff that's easily disprovable by just common sense and often by fact. Two of them. And as a former player, I can really... One is current players in the building are talking to him,

desperately pleading to stay in New York for the next, for the upcoming years. I promise you, Gabe, no playing on that team. You sit down with Joe Judge, talk about the franchise status right now. It's not happening. It never happens. Not going to happen now.

Their agents are probably like, get the frick out of New York as fast as possible. And two, he said he has former players calling him who make more money somewhere else that they want to come back to New York and play for him. That is also not true. No player, and there's two that people have identified that could fit the criteria of what he said, are calling him multiple times. He said multiple times a week.

He gets calls from players wanting to come back to New York. Also, categorically not true. That's called lies. He lies all the time. He's lied about other things too. There's a whole list of things he's made up. He just made that shit up, Gabe. Didn't happen.

Has never happened. No one, like, they said it was, one guy said Dalvin Tomlinson, who's on the Vikings now. So Dalvin Tomlinson's sitting at home after a practice. He's like, you know what? I'm going to call Judge and see. Hey, Joe, how we doing? Yeah, I want to come back, Joe.

Can you get me back? Yeah, okay, great. I'll talk to you in two days again. Get out of here. He's like, call up Joe Judge. This guy's just full of shit, man. And I told you guys about this hire. I didn't like it.

This summer, remember, they're running sprints and laps. This guy's not qualified to be an NFL head coach. He's totally not. I don't know why he's still there. But the guy's unhinged, dude. Unhinged. All right. That was great.

That was exactly what I was hoping to hear because I got no love for Joe Judge doing his bad Belichick impersonation. So thanks for filling me in on all that. No, a Belichick impersonation would be to shut the hell up and not talk. Yeah, well, he can't help himself. I assume he'll be fired this offseason or sometime early next year,

even though the reports currently are that he's safe. Maybe he's the source for claiming he's safe. Maybe he thinks some player called him and told him that he's safe. Who knows? The whole thing's unreliable. A couple more quickies before we go.

So Aaron Rodgers, as you know, has just lit up his division consistently. I saw a stat on Twitter. He has 36 touchdowns to zero interceptions versus NSC North teams over the last two seasons. That's just insane, okay? They've won 13 games in the last two seasons. That's just insane, okay? Oh, yeah. They've won 13 games in the last three seasons. Over under 1% chance, Aaron Rodgers is just a fool enough or too prideful to actually leave this division, which he owns.

He's not going anywhere. I've told you this for two years now. He's not going anywhere. So he'll end his career there, no matter what. He might end his career there. He's just might end his career there he's just not going there now he's not leaving now he might leave in two years he's just not leaving next year all right uh last one close to home here uh mitch schwartz familiar name tweeted for those asking yes i am in shape round is a shape but guess people are wondering, would he like to come back and play?

Maybe even for the Chiefs, the team he won a Super Bowl with. He said his contract demands are as follows. Free barbecue in Kansas City for life. No weigh ins during the rest of the year. The Chiefs must buy his old house for five hundred thousand dollars more than market value. And he'd like private jet privileges for his two dogs named cupcake and pumpkin uh mimicking a little bit of lincoln riley here any chance the chiefs take up your brother one percent chance well no because he obviously was a joke um no i mean it was he was kidding i couldn't tell the the chiefs had a bunch of players off the line go out. So people kept tweeting Mitch like, come back, come back, come back.

And obviously a very topical tweet, right? Because he made fun of Wicked Riley. He's got it all in there. Worked his dogs in. He's really enjoying the Twitter life. He certainly is, yes. Yeah. All right.

Well, so we cleared it up here. We don't think Mitch will be part of the Super Bowl run in Kansas City. Jeff, the bets, you got one week left to try to even things out on the season. And you got a national championship game to try to make us some money on. I think we're not going to – I think we have to – we got to go 5-0 this week to get back to even. Oh. Can I tell you a sad story? Yeah. this week to get back to even oh can i tell you a sad story yeah i i told you offline that my buddy and i are doing a really good job with the super contest yeah you guys crap out this week we both

screwed up because the new year's he's usually the driver he'll usually text me on like friday or saturday you put your pics in he was in mexico and i hit him on Sunday. I was like, hey, man, I feel like we missed. Did we miss? He's like, I totally forgot. All we got is Green Bay minus six, and then we got a pick for Monday night. But the best we could do is a 2-0 on the weekend, and I think that's going to be how we end up missing the big money. We were doing great.

What were your other picks have been? Honestly, we never even went back and forth on it, so I don't even know. So I'll be, I think after this week on this show, I'm 40 and 44. There's some ties, like we pushed Buffalo this weekend. But my contest, I'm 62 and 57, so I'm still 52%. So if I finish above five if i finish with a winning week four and three seven picks four and three i've i've won't make any money but i i'll be above 52 which is good i'll take it for my first year doing seven picks a week

contest so it's a lot to manage and you're doing college ball so we got the national championship you and i'll be talking about that early next week. You do picks with Matt on Thursday. Yeah, speaking about that, we're probably gonna have to change our schedule next week, everyone, because the title game is Monday night and we're not gonna put out a college show before the game

because why would we do that? So we might have a little walking schedule next week. Just stay tuned. We'll give you an update later this week about what we're gonna do there. But yeah, Georgia, Alabama. And again, week 18. I'm a little bummed, Gabe, because we entered this past weekend

with like 85 playoff scenarios, and it's kind of narrowed down to like barely any for this weekend. Yeah. It's going to be kind of boring, I think. Well, we got a play-in game, as you said, with the Chargers and Raiders. That should be exciting. And then it's about seeding, and the seeding really matters, as we covered at the top of the show.

So still an exciting end to the NFL season. Jeff, thanks for hanging with me. Thanks for making me smarter, and I'll be listening to you later this week. All right, guys. Have a great one. We'll talk to you in a couple of days. Rate, review, subscribe. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take care.