Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Harbaugh Out Black Monday Instant Reactions Plus Steelers Survive And Cfp Final Four Takes

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

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

As usual with industry, Gabe, you finish an episode of news breaks. And we did the same thing today. So we're back for a second. The Ravens and John Harbaugh are mutually parted ways. I don't know if that's a way to say that they politely fired him or they moved on. And this was a topic we talked about for two weeks now. Who was going to win the power struggle between Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh? And very clearly they chose Lamar Jackson.

I don't think it's the wrong decision to make because there's no other question. We just talked about this. We're going to talk about this on this show. Is John Harbaugh and the Ravens have done their thing. They have won a Super Bowl. They've had a lot of success. He has done everything he could there. It felt like the time had run up.

Feels a lot like when Andy Reid left Philly, right? Your time just sort of runs up. You've been somewhere so long. It's time to move on. He'll be the number one coaching candidate anywhere he wants to go. The Giants are probably flying there right now to bring them back and make him the Giants coach. But it does feel like they chose, in the end,

Lamar over Harbaugh, and curious to see now what happens to this job who's hired to work with Lamar and where John Harbaugh ends up. What do you think? Well, I don't think it matters what I think. I guess I have some more questions to hear more about what you think.

In the part that we've already talked about, I was posing all sorts of theories about the, you know, the Jets may be moving out of the two and making a deal for Lamar, and now Ravens are sitting on a great pick. I guess what I wonder here is if you're going to get rid of a coach, a Super Bowl winning coach in Harbaugh, and you have a quarterback who you're not 1,000% sold on,

so maybe they are. But if they aren't 1,000% sold on, isn't it better to sort of clear the decks and tell the next coach you want, you get to take over and you get to find your quarterback, either through the draft or free agency? Isn't that the way most of the big-name coaches want? Isn't that how you get someone like Bill Belichick to come back?

You know, you give me total control. Right, but again, you're just not finding a Lamar Jackson in this draft. You're just not. So like, so you can say all you want. Like, I want to start fresh and I want to get a new quarterback, but you're not going to get one this year. So are you going to allow yourself to stink for a year and find one next season? Like Lamar is won the MVP two years ago, like legit.

legitimately really good quarterback. This year didn't go his way. It's got to stay healthy. But you bring the right coach and that team's, I think, can win immediately again. I think it made sense for them to make, to make this decision because there's no other option for them. Like, if you get rid of Lamar, what are you going to do right now? The answer is nothing. Yeah.

Well, I just jokingly mentioned Belichick. Every option is going to be on the table here. I don't. That does not feel like that. right option for this job. And I wouldn't think it's the right option at all, but really the giants are the area where I think the biggest names are going to get speculated, right? So Harbaugh goes in that list. We already had Stefansky on that list. I'll put Belichick on that list because why not? Maybe there's a college guy or two who belong on that list. You're smarter than me.

Who do you think will land Harbaugh, you know, if it's not the Giants? Well, the Giants obviously present the best opportunity because they have the quarterback. I would think the Raiders would make a hard push for horrible. Okay. Same division as brother. Okay, but you get the number one pick in the draft. You have a friend of Mendoza. Like, that's the reason you take that job, right?

And you have a proven leader, a proven winner. Maybe he gets to reinvent himself as a coach in the second opportunity, Gabe, right? You've been there 18 years. Maybe you've been stuck in certain things you want to do because of the quarterback or because of what the Ravens always seem to do. Maybe you have other ideas for what you want to be. And you can do those other things in Vegas. So Vegas to me and the Giants feel like the two options for him immediately.

Yeah. Okay. Would college ever be an option for him? And is there an opening that might even make any sense? There's nothing. There's nothing now. In the part of the show that we've already recorded, We sort of talked about Mike Tomlin, if he were to get fired,

he'd probably instantly go sit on a desk at one of the major networks and take a year or two and have some fun, make a bunch of money and then go right back into coaching at the same level he's already yet. Could we see that from Harbaugh? Sure. I don't know what he wants to do. Maybe he wants to take a year off. It's probably possible.

But I think that they're going to, he'll be offered a lot of money to be the Giants head coach. Like, you have to turn down. that opportunity. And the Giants are still looked at as a premier franchise in this sport. You have to turn that down, Gabe. Like, I don't think he's going to want to turn that down. But Gabe, Hiler Loop makes a field goal.

Oh, man. Harbaugh keeps his job. That's all it is. Right? I'm not going to make the joke I made a text to a couple friends last night. But it is, if you think about the butterfly effect here, what really cost John Harbaugh his job is what got Tyler looped the job and that and all that. So like we're down some weird, weird domino effect here.

I got you three replies on your, on your, your playoff chain, though. The people who are going to stick around and listen to the whole rest of the episode, make it to the end because we've got a wacky theory here. And I thought every time I say something weird and dumb on this show, Jeff sort of beats me up for it. But he actually took the bait this time. I did take the bait this time. So listen to the rest of the show. Here it begins, because we had a breaking news.

news. We did cover. John Harba out as the Ravens coach. Welcome to Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. It is Tuesday, January 6th, and we're here to talk about the national football, the college bowl playoffs, all of that as usual. We are presented by Draf Kings, Draftings, The Crown is yours. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. Gay, we have a lot to get to. We're recording a little bit later than usual. Thank you for making some changes to my schedule. Most importantly, you're looking at the new 10-U-girl softball coach. Me and you, Gabe, we can spend our spring talking about our coaching adventures, looking forward to that.

But more importantly, we're watching some football. How you doing, buddy? Is it more important? Let's get a little bit here. You're the 10-U coach down there in North Carolina. How you feeling, coach? We're going to run the bases. We're going to run the bases.

We're going to be aggressive base running. We're going to use game changer. We're going to update a little bit of technology in the softball league a little bit, because you know, my son gets to have games. game changer and his video, his games recorded. And we don't even have game change. We're going to make some changes there. Emmy's looking forward to it.

I don't want to do the administrative stuff, but I'm looking forward to all of it. I've never been to head coach. I was assistant coach last year. I mean, I coached some games by myself because, you know, she wasn't there or coach. But yeah, looking forward to it. All right, I'm going to give you a segue here. Be careful, Jeff, because even a great coach, and I suspect you're a great coach. I bet you know how to manage a game.

you can quickly get out over your skis when you start trying to manage too many parts of a team, right? And that seems to be potentially what took place here in Baltimore. One of the best coaches we've each seen. Maybe he was taking his eye off the ball. Maybe he was involving himself in too many personnel discussions. Maybe he should have just focused on getting his special teams ready and his team would be a playoff team. Instead, here we are watching one of the most ridiculous meltdowns to. a, the final game of the year

that I've ever seen. So Jeff, use him as a cautionary tale. Just focus on what you can control. Win games by coaching up your players. Are we talking about the Ravens missing a kick to end of season games that we're going with here? That is, I thought, pretty clearly, where I was going with that, yes. Well, so

it's the, the dynamic of how different it can be, like, so obviously, Ravens missed a kick to lose the game. Yeah. And then on the same weekend, Jacksonville's kicker makes a 67-yard field goal with, like, with room to spare. Like, it is wild the difference.

And Lupa's had a good season. But, you know, those big moments we've focused on a little bit more. The one thing I find so interesting about when Kickers miss a kick game, I just don't get it. Is everyone's like, oh, the poor kicker, man. No one says that to me when I had a sack I gave up. Oh, poor Jeff Schwartz. Why don't so much sympathy for Kickers game? Because the spotlight is so bright on them.

He had a job to do. He didn't do it now. Is he the reason they lost the game? I mean, you can make that case, I guess. Final play of the game, he missed it. They got him in field goal range. Those reasons they lost that game. I mean, when Hamilton went out, the defense fell apart for the Ravens.

But the fact is, like, I don't get why we are so, like, oh, poor guy. He missed a kick. Like, why do we do that with no other position? Okay, first of all. Jeff, there's only one thing I've said to you consistently for five years. You, you are different. I can't, I don't know. Why would anyone ever say that?

you're asking me rhetorically, I don't have any good answer for you. And I would just like to just take one little mini victory lap. If Hank can pull up our band topic list, this was a bit controversial on the show. You got to stop eating a spicy terriarchy lunch. He's eating lunch right now. When he gets around to it, he's going to put up the band list. There we go. And you will notice about five names down.

It made no sense at the time, but your boy here said put Tyler Loop on the band list. I do not want to talk about the Ravens kicking situation ever this season. And here we are ending the season with him. I gotta say our band topics, we have to remove one of them for the postseason. That's a pretty good, like a great list to have. What do we got? 13 top of my head, I think it's 13.

And only one of them, we have to remove. We have to remove Trevor Lawrence for the postseason. I think it has to be done. I think Jacksonville might actually make a far in the postseason. We could talk about all that a few minutes. But our band list held pretty strong. The Colts, right? The Colts on the playoffs.

We ban them. we banned a dog and Carson Wentz and the Dolphins as well Florida's whole program The Jets The Jets could ban the Jets who somehow bring their coach back even though they lost five straight games

by at least 23 points or more What a great list What a great list we did this year Yeah well we'll get to it in a minute I think we're going to have to unbanned You're right about Trevor Lawrence Much to our chagrin We do have to talk about him a lot this postseason

We're probably also going to have to unbanned Tush-Bush discourse because I think the Eagles are going to play the most interesting game of the weekend. But let's center the conversation here for a minute on the AFC. And so the Steelers are in. The Ravens are out. First, I want to know, do you think the Ravens, like, what's the offseason going to be for them? Where are we headed with this? Yeah.

So the article comes out in the Baltimore Sun that the Ravens are sort of fed up with Lamar Jackson. And I thought after that article was very clear that he, was gone and Harbaal was going to stay. Then he played week 18 he played really well. He didn't throw the ball time, but he made some big throws, made some big runs. And I think they both come back with understanding that this is the last year to make it work. The coaches have probably been fired who are being fired, right?

I think there's six so far, maybe seven. We'll see the next couple of days. There's no rush in the NFL fire coaches. And Lamar is, you're not trading Lamar, right? I mean, you just can't trade Lamar after that performance. But I think there are actual questions about not Lamar's commitment, but the things that they worried about in the article, I think are legitimate things that they're concerned about as an organization.

They wouldn't let people know that unless they felt a certain way, want to get that out there. I think they would like him to probably, it sounds like it. I'm not in the building. I don't know. Be more committed to ensure you're healthy and you're able to play each and every game. Look, our pal Nick Wright brought us up on his podcast, right? Like that Lamar gets a flu every year.

It's actually, I thought about that's true. Every year he gets a flu. Why is getting the flu every year? Like those are tiny little things that I think in the end matter for overall, like health and wellness. And I know you guys think it's crazy to say something like that, but it's true. Look it up.

He gets the flu every year. Why does Josh Allen like the flu every year? You know, that type of stuff, I think the Ravens actually want him to change about the way he prepares to play. But you can't get rid of them, not getting rid of a hardball. It just feels like they're just rolling along with it. All right. my job here is to throw kind of the internet and fan takes at you and without really a whole lot of research.

And good news. All I am is a fan and I haven't done any research. So here goes. If I called the Ravens and I said, hi, it's me, Gabe, with the Jets, I got the number two pick. I don't know how to draft quarterback. So I shouldn't use this pick. I'll screw it up. But I'm happy to trade it to you for your quarterback.

we can come up with a package. Maybe I'll even give you next year's first as well. It should be a good one. Are we having these conversations this off season? Is this going to be a storyline that continues around Baltimore? Because I feel like they have to pick up the phone if those kind of calls come. Well, the question is, what do they want to do, quarterback, right?

That's the most important thing. So the second pick in the draft game, if Dante Moore doesn't come out, there's no other quarterback to take it to. So you can make the case that, we spend a year and we go get, I don't know, Malik Willis for a year, we get someone for a year and try to bridge it over for a season and then next year we get a draft pick.

I can't imagine the Ravens want to have a bad three and 14 season, right? John Harbor won't survive a three and 14 season. So there's just not a lot of great options right now at quarterback. That's why Lamar, when you look at the draftable players, the possible free agents, the possible. possible trade candidates. The best player is Lamar of those guys, Gabe. That's the best player of all those guys.

And so if it was a strong quarterback year and the second pick was CJ Stroud, yeah, great, but that's not what the quarterback draft is right. If Dante Ward doesn't come out, there is one first round pick probably. Now, there might be more because of that position so important. We'll tell you, though, this is not a hot take, but it sounds like it is.

if Arch Manning were to come out, he'd be number two. Go number two. The draft. Are we still entertaining that possibility? He's coming back, but I think that people have underestimated how much better he played the back half of the season and how much NFL teams draft off potential and traits, not production. I think he'd be a top five pick if he went out in this draft this year.

He might be top of it next year. That's why he's coming back. But if Dante War doesn't come out, Ars just a lot of it. come out, there's no one really to draft it too. So maybe you make that trade and you trade out of two because someone wants Caleb Downs or Reese or wants one of the pass rush or you just kind of get enough ammo to eventually trade back up next season into the position you want. But I can't see the Ravens doing that right now because the option of the quarterback just

aren't great. Okay. First of all, I just like to point out that for the last few weeks, even when Hank is making excuses for doing a bad job behind the scenes, he's real quick at hitting that hookum lower third that pops up for the YouTube viewers. Real quick on that. Yeah, there it is, immediately. Said he'd be delayed on everything he does today, but he gets that thing done within a second. Okay, so that's just point number one. Point number two, I did not expect us to get here, but now I need to spend a minute on it. If I'm Arch Manning or the Manning Empire,

I want my, I want to be coached by Harbaugh. And if I'm Harbaugh, and I see Lamar go somewhere else, and now I've got a project in a rookie quarterback and I can get him at two by trading with the Jets. I'm not getting fired if that doesn't go well. And I might get six or eight more years out of it. So that seems like a great idea. Yeah, but what if the Jets want Arch at two? Okay, but I mean, I'm talking about,

we're talking backroom deal in here. Somebody's got to know that Arch is coming out. So the back room deal is that Arch will come out if the Jets trade. Yeah, get out of it. Second pick to the Ravens. That's right. Okay.

You think there's some people in our industry who could make a call and let Baltimore know that's a possibility. I'm not in those fun meetings. I know you have those meetings all the time in those type of rooms for what you do all the time. I don't have those fun meetings. So I don't get the meetings where like the Jewish committee decides

all the world's things that people claim that would do. No. Do you get those? I want people are like, you can't control the weather. I'm like, what invite do I get for that? Where's my invite? I want to be part of the weather controlling committee. It's too cold.

Come to LA for the last three weeks if you think that. It's not what anyone was wishing for. I want to, yeah, I don't get to go in these. Matt is going to come to the Super Bowl, I think, for a couple days maybe. We're talking about whether I'm going to go or not. He's like, dude, like, we can meet some people. I'm like, I don't go to fun meetings. I don't, that's why I don't go anymore.

Like, I don't really, like, do the fun meetings anymore because no one invites me to them. So I just like stop going. I'm going to go probably for a day because Debbie, my age wants me to go. But like I don't get to do fun meetings game anymore. Maybe I passed that point of my career of doing fun meetings. Well, okay. I'm half teasing about how this behind the scenes could work.

But it's not like the mannings of no history with sort of dictating where one of their guys is going to get drafted. Like this is a thing they've done. So it just, I don't know. You opened up a door here. I stepped through it. I think that the Ravens are going to be an intro. team to watch all offseason. Let's flip to the winners, though. And even though I think a lot of

fans who are delusional in Pittsburgh or Pittsburgh Steelers fans in general, were kind of hoping for failure so that Tomlin would be out so that they could, I guess, get to some better place. I don't know what they were hoping for. Well, he won again. He's in. It's going to be hard to get rid of that guy after stumbling into the playoffs. They could even win in the first round against Texans, right? So what do you make of the Steelers and where they're headed? And did they just buy themselves a few more years of Mike Tomlin whether they wanted or not? Yes. It feels like the Steelers at a point where they're just happy to be in this spot every year where they make the playoffs and then just don't have any success past past.

Like they thrive on making the playoffs with no way to actually. win a championship. D.K. McKaff coming back helps them, right? But to me, there are certain franchises that the goal is Super Bowl, not just making the playoffs, right? Like, I'm going to throw your Jets team astray here. Like, the Jets goal should make in the playoffs. Like, that should be their goal. That should be their goal. The Steelers goal is winning Super Bowls. That's the Steelers. And they're going to lose to Houston and not have won a playoff game now in nine seasons. Is that what the Pittsburgh Steelers are? A non-playoff one. an organization.

And so it's something about hard decisions. Now, this year is not a great year for coaching candidate. So I sort of understand Pittsburgh deciding not to make that happen. But I think at some point you have to acknowledge, like, this is what you get every year. You get nine or ten wins. You don't win playoff games. Is that what you want your franchise to be? I guess they're fine with it.

And I think they want to be known as a friend who doesn't fire coaches, right? They don't fire coaches at all. But it does feel like this is. probably going to be their team every year. Okay, fair enough. So then let me make it not about Pittsburgh. Do you think that a few teams that maybe feel like they're able to become a relevant team again are just waiting for them to lose so that they have a shot in Mike Tomlin?

Like are the giants, are the Falcons will get to some other coaching carousel stuff later? Like, are there teams just waiting and hoping that Mike Tomlin gets fired? so they can call him that second? I think the executives at Fox and CBS and ESPN are waiting for Mike Tomlin to retire and then he'll be on the set somewhere wherever he decides to go. I think he does a year off and then plays... I think so.

Okay. I think he'd be really good at that, obviously. By the way, we're at a point now where we've got to have some boundaries, right? with the broadcaster front office hearing that we have happening right now. So I am contract to contractual obligated to not mention one of the guys.

But Matt Ryan now supposedly is going to be the president of the Falcons and also wants to keep calling games on CBS. How is that allowed? How are you allowed to talk to the other teams, go meet with them, learn about them, have background calls with them? and then also run another franchise at the same time.

Like, look, the Tom Brady thing, he is a tiny minority owner in the Raiders. Like, he might do a lot as far as putting his name out there for what's actually happening in the building. We don't know what he's actually doing, but he's not an actual front office member, right, Gabe? Matt Ryan wants to be the front office president of the Falcons and also can call games on CBS.

You can't do those two jobs. The Tom Brady thing I sort of get, he's just a part-time. owner. He's like, Madge Johnson. Manjohnson throws his name on all these. He owns the Dodgers and part of this friend. He doesn't, not really. He just puts his name on stuff. He owns a tiny sliveret. It's Mattis Johnson, right? Put his name on it. It's a big hubbub. Like, he's a good business person, great business person. It's good to have in the building. That feels like what Tom is doing here, but now he's just adding a little bit more of like, we're helping on the front office.

Like, do you really think John Spitech and Mark Davis in the end are going to choose Tom Brady's Ken over anyone else? I don't think so. well I don't want to go down that wormhole I actually thought when you brought this topic up I thought you were going to name the third guy who's the a lister for another big network who is now reportedly going to help the dolphins figure out who they're next phone off me yes yeah so so Aikman's being used as a consultant right which is I guess a little fancy word to not be like full time he's just helping them with his coaching search right like he's done Akeman's done for the season. No, no, they have one game that's a GM search. I don't think it's a coach search. Oh, GM search. He has one game this weekend on Monday, right?

And then that's it for ESPN. So, okay, so fine. In the offices, if you want to help pick a coach, like, be my guest. But to be the president of football operations and also call games on CBS at the same time, feels like that should not be allowed. I'm not sure they're allowing that to happen. But also, again, like, if you're Tom Brady and you are in meetings with the Raiders personnel department coaches during the week and then also calling games.

I know he's not allowed in the building and all this stuff, but I just think that's a conflict of interest, man, that we just shouldn't let it happen. Yes, agree. I would think with Matt Ryan, if Matt Ryan brought this to the executives where he's working and said, here's what I'm thinking, I would just go like, okay, Matt Ryan,

go do that. We're good. Like, we'll get someone else to call these games. I think that network would be less inclined to do it than some of the other ones that would be okay doing the sort of the split thing there. So nonetheless, interesting development where Triceman's helping the dolphins. Matt Ryan's helping the faculty supposedly. And then Tom Brady's helping hire a coach. That's what they're saying in Vegas right now.

Yeah. All right. Let's stay in the AFC but get to maybe the better teams than the Steelers and the Ravens. I was kind of surprised, to be honest. see that after this great run that they've had, especially the whole second half, that Jacksonville's hosting the bills. The three is hosting the six. And the bills are pretty big favorite from the number I saw. You might have to help me out with the latest. They're not a big favorite. There's a road favorite. Yeah. They're a road favorite in the

playoffs against a recede. Like, that's weird. So I wondered, okay, fine. That's because Jacksonville, think is just not taking that seriously for a number of reasons. But are they just going to be the favorite no matter who they play then? Like that just tells me the market is saying that bills are the best team in the AFC. I think Jackson will beat them. So it'll be the end of the road for Buffalo. Um, well, weren't they one of your Super Bowl picks at one point? What's going on here? Yeah, they're not, they're not anymore. Um, I, so conflicting thoughts here, right? One is that the postseason feels to me to be a quarterback coach tournament, right? Yes. And, John, Josh Allen's the best quarterback that's left in the AFC.

Drake May is a good season, we know, right? Traveler's a good season, but Josh Allen's the best quarterback. Yep. His coach is not the best, though. I think we've seen in many big games is not the best now. Again, I don't know who the best would be. Would it be Vrable? Would it be Champagne, I guess, could be in that mix.

Like Tomlin. The rest, sure, Mike Tomlin. The rest of the AFC, though, is so uninspiring. So Denver needs to beat the Chargers. playing their backups to secure one seat. They don't score one off at the touchdown. New England had the easiest schedule in 25 years. All right.

Then you have Jacksonville. You have Pittsburgh who no one believes in. Houston, who's coming along strong, but their offense line really concerns me. The chargers who are just beat to shit and the bills. Like, it's not an inspiring group of teams. I can argue that every contender has a really fatal flaw, right? Again, the Patriots have played no one.

Like, that's their flaw. Like, they just, when you set up in competition, it's just so much harder. We see it year after year after year, college and the NFL. Denver's flaws their quarterback. Just not good enough, in my opinion, to win a Super Bowl. Hitzburg, the whole offense is just not, and the defense isn't as good this season. Houston's offense aligned, the bills run defense, the charges injuries.

Jacksonville has a least game. Jacksonville is like a legitimately good team right now. They're playing good football. They're good on defense. They run the football well. Lawrence has removed a lot of mistakes from his game. and it feels like they're the team, I think. Now, they've got to go on the road

and play some cold weather games, which probably isn't great for a warm weather team. But there's a, there's a situation where the Chargers, you know, they beat the Patriots, which I think can certainly happen. And the Chargers go play the Broncos.

Jackson can get to second home game and they get to play, you know, Pittsburgh or Houston. And then, you know, and then go play, go to Denver maybe or host it, whatever it is. I think Jacksonville is that team, man.

Look, they have voodoo. They have to franchise voodoo. They have to get over to win these games, in my opinion. But they're playing good football. I sort of do trust their coaching staff, trust their defense, trust the run game. And as long as Trevor Lawrence, and he's done a much better job of this,

doesn't turn the ball over, doesn't make stupid plays. They got a chance to win. Okay. Well, we've seen them win some crazy games. it's hard to argue with the stats from Lawrence down the stretch. The new coach, one story, I mean, I guess. I just, I said it a couple weeks ago.

Like, until they've done it, I can't, I can't bet on them doing it. But that's the entire division. That's the entire AFC, though. The entire AFC's that way. Yeah. Well, okay. I mean, we do have an entire field of teams we previously would have said one and done in the playoffs. But they can't all be one and done.

You can't have seven teams that are like, they got in. but they're going to lose. So someone will emerge. So Jacksonville, that's an interesting place. So are you sprinkling a little, like, you know, hedging some bats? Are you covering yourself this way? I did Jacksonville to win the AFC at 650. Okay.

When did you do that? Yesterday. You saw the field? Yeah. Okay. If the bills get past them, they're your favorite the whole way through or no? No, I just don't trust their defense. Okay.

I just don't like it. I don't think it's good enough. All right. Wow. Well, any other AFC thoughts you want to share, or should I switch gears over to the NFC? Because there's probably some more interesting teams there. The NFC is a little more interesting, but also a lot of things with floss. Okay, well, so let's talk about what sort of feels to me, again, uninformed fan take coming.

I see the NFC championship game as being Wild Card Weekend. I think Eagles Niners, those are the two teams I trust most to make it to the NFC championship game. but they got to play the opening weekend. So one of them's out. Convince me that the Seahawks or the Rams are better than either of those teams. The look on your face is telling me a lot. Yeah, the Rams are winning the NFC. Okay.

They're the best team in the NFC. Yes, they lost the Eagles. They're up 28-7 and lost, or 26-7, they lost the Rams. The Seahawks recently, they're up 34, 14. So those are not good results in the end. But even when the Rams are playing their best football, they're the best team. in the AF, in the NFC.

They had the least amount of flaws in my opinion, right? So Seattle, to me, has a darn old problem. Like, they just don't trust that guy. And we saw even when they play the Niners, it's just not good enough, right? 13 points against that defense, you know, third and long, they're calling screen passes and runs

and just things to not make Donald scrup. Now, you can make the case that because their defense is so good, it's a prudent decision to say, let's not let our quarterback mess this up. But I don't think I don't they trust him very much. Chicago's not good. Like, they're just not they're not this good.

Philly's offense, they play the honors team this week that can't play defense because of the injuries. Their offense has to show up this week. Phillies offense has, I need something, but they've been going downward trajectory. Can they turn it on right now? I don't think so.

Only they can. Lane Johnson should be back, but their offense coordinator just doesn't really, is not a good office coordinator. You look down the list, right? So the Panthers, you're not winning a Super Bowl. The Niners I mentioned, the Packers, what are the Packers, man?

What are the Packers? They're the least scary playoff team. Nothing scares you about the Packers whatsoever, but they're playing a Bears team who doesn't scare me either. That game feels like a field goal game in either direction. And by the way, the sportsbooks are telling you how they feel about these games because they're all mostly within a field goal, right?

The one obviously that's not is the game here in Charlotte between the Rams and Carolina, but it's one and a half, one and a half, four and a half, that Eagles took a lot of money. Five and a half, excuse me, three and a half, I can't read for Chargers, three now for Houston. So these spreads are telling you

these games are going to be very close if you just for home field, right? Like numbers come down and maybe even more a little bit. So there's, so all the things are telling you that they don't feel great about a lot of the teams

and or their 50-50 games. Right now the favorite to the Super Bowl is the Seahawks and the Rams. The Rams don't even have a buy, dude. They have to go in the loser's bracket, essentially, three straight weeks. They'll play three straight road games get to a Super Bowl

and they have the second best to do so. Yeah. Okay. Can I propose to you the exact logic you used for the Jaguars? Yes. Just close your eyes. Now apply that logic to the bears. Why doesn't it hold up? No.

The bears are not as good on defense. They're not as good in offense. They're not as good. Okay. What else do they have to do? Like, I'm convinced. And by the way, the bears made a super. Super Bowl, not that long ago, with, what was it, Rex Grossman?

Like, come on. Things happen. You get in a weak field and you make it. No, no. The Bears had the number one defense that year. They don't have a number one defense right now. The defense's like 20 second DVOA. They're not good defense.

They rely solely on turnovers. You cannot rely on that in the postseason. That's not a way to generate good defense and reliable defense in the postseason. Okay. Well, I. I would say they'd be relying on the greatest playmaking quarterback I've ever seen up close in person. And a guy who's ready to break out on an NFL big stage. But you can say that they would be relying on it.

That's not the case. A USC guy, you have a lot of faith in. Interesting. Yeah, you know what, bummed me out, by the way. What? And this can be a tease for what we'll get to later. It really, it bothers me to see Zachariah Branch as, like, you know, one of the top, receivers expected to be taken in the draft. It bothered me to see him in a Georgia jersey,

and it really bothers me to think that someone's going to spend a first round pick on that guy after he left. The portal has changed a lot of things in college football. And it's interesting because of how quickly you just lose your loyalty for someone because they leave, right? Like you have someone you like and all of a sudden they leave and you're like, F this guy. I'm not really firm anymore and it's i think it's right to feel that way so at usc i did bet on the the lady bruin's the other night it was a profitable wager for me very very obvious bet me profitable wager i just was like randomly looking and so oh oh oh yeah 17 a half yeah i'm fine with that number so uh you know good they had in the first half yeah to win a women's college basketball

wager is always a good one to win when you when you can um all right let's get up breaking do do some college football yes we'll sneak in some some NFL coaching carousel as well, but yes. We're back. We'll do call you up a second here, Gabe. Coaching carousel. We have Titans, I'll top of my head, right? Titans, giants, Browns, Falcons,

Arizona is available now as well. And the Raiders, that's six so far. And there could be more as well coming forward. the oddest thing so far about this on the internet not just these firings all make sense in what and why they happened is this loud chadur sander's group that is like openly celebrating chemist sufancy being fired without realizing that this is actually the worst thing that can happen to chedur sander's because a new coach is going to come in and have no ties to him whatsoever and have and even if sefancy did not want to draft him there's at least a little bit of a connection

there. And the new coaching would come in with no connection to Sanders. And actually, in my, in my opinion, that's actually less playing time for him, less opportunity for him succeed. It's a weird thing. We're just like there's this. And one of the Brown's wives got on the internet and like sub-tweeted the Kevin Savancy's firing. Just a, on organization, man. It's not great right now in Cleveland. But that's six so far. It sounds like we might get a couple more maybe, dolphins potentially. There's no rush the NFL to fire coach. There's no recruiting to be done.

Right. Okay. Well, I don't personally think too many of the names that have been let go are all that interesting as replacements elsewhere other than Stefansky. Like I think if he's out, then obviously somebody would pick him up, right? I think Stephansi's, I think out of all the coaches that got fired right now, Stefani's the most likely to get a job next year as a head coach. Like that's the thing about like people are like why you look there's an internet it's just the internet right like no one in real life talks like this about like how why was syphansky the tweets have gone about my stefansky tweet where I said he'd be hired immediately or just like the worst internet you could imagine right um but the reason why suffolns can be hired again you see the most successful browns coach as they return to cleveland yeah for the browns like he's been a good coach this year was a shit show because he didn't have quarterbacks and

They still managed to win five games, I think. Like, it's, yeah, like, he's a good coach. He'll be hired immediately. And there are teams that are giants who are very clearly wanting a former head coach, whether it's Mike McCarthy or Stefanski, to be their guy. So I do believe that Stavansi will have a job quickly. And it's going to be a team that wants their offense to improve. I would predict that he'll have a job before he even needs to trim that beautiful beard of his.

Before that thing gets a little too unruly and they get unruly, mine's getting close. He'll be back in business. That's my prediction. I think so too. He's a good coach. I think he'll crush anywhere else he's been. Yeah. Pete Carroll, I think that's the end of the road, right?

Yes, retirement. Or he'll take a TV gig somewhere, I'm sure. I don't think Carol's a TV guy, do you? He's a good talker. He's fun. People like him. USC should hire him as a consultant of like some sort. Bring him back on the, bring him back on campus.

Look at you. You're giving me such easy segues. What about Cliff Kingsbury? What in the hell are we supposed to make of him like stepping away, mutually agreed upon? You had this position with the commanders and then he's just out. And where's he going? Well, they fired, they fired, essentially fired him

and the defense coordinator, the offensive line coach. They just, they just said it mutually part of way so it didn't sound like he was fired. Sure. But where's he going? So I'm surprised his name was not linked to more jobs. this off season before this news came out since it's come out everyone's been like oh he'll get an interview here get interview there interview there

I don't imagine he's not a head coach this cycle and becomes an OC somewhere else again for I mean he was good until Daniels got hurt they're really good last season but Daniels just got hurt and it kind of derailed I don't you know there's no college job available for him at the moment maybe he's the he does that senior analysis

role on Kirby Smart's team like you know Nick Sabin for years had like the guys were come in for one year and do the rehab assignment and then go out somewhere else. Maybe he does that. He didn't need that, I don't think. But maybe Zosie somewhere else. I don't know, but he's not in Washington anymore.

That's very clear. Okay. Well, then let's go to college football, the thing we've been waiting to talk about. These jobs, to tell you what, man, like we were, my cousin was over, my wife's cousin was over a couple weeks ago, and we were talking about how much college coaches make, right? Yeah.

And, you know, they make, you know, Kirby's making 13, and Lincoln's making 13. Those top guys at Cunetti's making 11.5 and they were blown away by it. They were like, so like, why aren't you coaching? I'm like, I don't want to coach. It's just too much time commitment. They're like, well, how much would you make if you're an offensive line coach? I'm like, I mean, college offense line coach with experience, I don't know,

a million dollars? Like you're making decent money. So like, well, you have to go do that right now. Oh, yeah. You're probably making a million dollars for a college offensive line coach? Where? Which college is that? I'm talking about like if you're if you're like at the top of your profession yeah I think I think that's what you're making

watch this test see if Hank is paying attention you mean like in Texas if you were at Texas would you make that much like flood like flood was there okay so like here we go so I'll sleep at the wheel he's not paying attention okay so like here's example so in uh let's see here this is this is this is sorry so Oregon's offensive line coach is 30 years old elite Terry is supposed to make 900 and 2025. Why aren't we talking about this more? So that was, uh, yeah, let's see here. Yeah. I mean, that's what it says here. So Belichick could use a hand.

That's just up the road. Why don't you go work for that guy? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah, he's he's making 900. Starting next, starting next year, I think it says here. So, um, but that's, it's so much money. But the problem what it's getting to is the problem is that you just get fired every three years. years and it's just like a miserable like you can be good at your job like the falcons fired Rahim Morris their offensive line coach is fantastic to win letford he's not have a job like you did

your job but your fight the whole staff gets fired now you have to grovel and hope your next coach gives you a job and you're feeling has to move again i just can't do that that's the part i just can't do yeah okay well i'm gonna i'm gonna join your cousin in this uh suggestion that you take this a little bit more seriously in the meantime though let's talk about some of the coaches who were who are doing a good job. So your boy, Dan Lanning, has things humming in Oregon. That was an ass kicking. But now he's up, he got a rematch against Indiana,

who looked absolutely incredible against Alabama. I think anyone who is doubting them, and I'll put myself in that category, cannot do that any longer. Indiana's for real. What do you make of that game? You a little nervous? So there are injury rumors about some of our running backs,

not in their health in this game, is not great. There's, I'm, this is not me reporting this. So this is like, Aaron Fentress reported this, um, that are running back Jordan Davidson number zero,

our true freshman, who at least the team in touchdowns, uh, broke his clavicle collarbone and we'll be out for this game. Uh, he did finish the game the other day. So, and then our four string running back,

uh, Jay Lamar, who played in the game for us last week, who was like running back two for us, is in the portal. He's not going to play this week. So we're down to like two running backs, which is the portal,

the timing of the portal in the playoff is just insane. Like Oregon is down. Our entire backup secondary went to the portal because our starters are freshmen. Like they're never going to play the backups. So if we lose one guy the second day, we're screwed. We lose a running back.

We're screwed. Because the path to beating Indiana is running the football 35 to 40 times. Last, in the game one, working ran the ball. I wrote it down. I read 20 times for 102 yards from the running backs.

Now, Dante Moore added a bunch of sack yardage to make that number come down. They ran the ball fine. And the game plan has to be run the football against Indiana. That has to be the gameplay. They're down, Indiana, down two to different tackles. Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. You don't have me running backs, Gabe. You can't do that.

So I'm kind of curious to see how that lines up. Look, I'll say this about Indiana. Dude, they made Alabama quit, which is incredible. But two, there's nothing like them in history of college football. College football, for a century, has been won by primarily one type of team. Right, Gabe? Do you have more professional football players than your team than the next team does? That's been a champion for a hundred years now.

And maybe there's one-offs like Auburn. Auburn was a one-off, right? Cam Noon and like Nick Fairley, like two pros on that team. But Cameroon was so good that he overcame. that, right? They're also strongly outliers to that. For the most part, it's like the most five stars, the most four stars, that team wins. Indiana breaks the mold, Gabe, right? They have one high draft pick for Nisco Mendoza. That's one. They have other pros on their team. The running backs, their wide receivers, maybe they're tied end, one of their center, their left tackle,

some guys on defense. But they don't have like this plethora of four and five star kids, Gabe, way to be drafted in the top two rounds of the NFL draft. Organized six guys. top 50 if they decided to come out, it has one. And what they're doing is so remarkable. It's breaking the mold of what we have known to be winners in college football. And they're doing it with precision,

with physicality. They make no mistakes, dude. They don't get penalties and don't turn the ball over. They're all negative plays. It's a very, very hard team to beat. Now, they've been close to being beat. I almost beat him. Osset almost beat him. Pensacet almost beat him. Orkin was tied in the fourth quarter. We have to play our best game in the

season game to beat them this weekend. Okay. I've been around you a while. I know what you're up to. That's a bit of a reverse, James. You're being overly complimentary of them, sort of. No, I've said this on every show this week. It's to be hard to beat them.

Can we talk about the fact that among all the other things you just said, what you didn't say, which strikes me is really bizarre, is that their backup quarterback is the younger brother of the quarterback. Like, well, is that ever happened? Well, the sibling thing, they do that for recruiting purposes. Okay, I know. Like, like, Oregon has siblings. I had siblings all the time.

Like, it's the backup of like the third string running back. Yeah, he got a walk-on. His whole family tree is on the bucks. I got that. His brother's just not as good as him, obviously. This one in the Heisman. Yeah, his backup's his brother. I just think that's a bizarre thing.

like his brother's going to go pro and then presumably the quarterback of the team is also going to be a kid named Mendelso, right? No, they brought in Josh Hoover from TCU. Oh, they bring a quarterback next year. Yeah, his brother's not as good as him. All right. So you're saying Oregon, you're not worried, but you could easily see you know with this game. Yeah, we have to play a very clean offense this year against the better teams we play.

Texas Tech, Indiana, Iowa, Penn State. We weren't as clean offensively. So we have to be better offensively for that. But here's the thing about this game on Friday. So going back to January 1st, I thought Oregon had to win that game, Gabe. We had to win that game. And I'll tell you why.

Last year we lost to Ohio State on January 1st, got blown out. And everything you heard about this season and everything you've heard since that game was that the goal of this season was to get to January 1st to win the game of January 1st and then continue playing football, right? That was the entire goal of the season.

And in Lannings' fourth year, he's gotten better every year. So first year was like Hollywood. Second year was a Pac-12 championship game loss. Third year was a big 10 title game win, then a semifinal loss and a quarter-final loss. And this year was a quarter-final win into the semifinals. And we're going to bring back a lot of players to our team next year.

I think most of the guys that are draft eligible outside of the tight end and maybe a defense tackle. I think Donovan was coming back. I think they're going for it next season. And the team is going to. to be better next year. Indiana will not be better next season. They're just not. A lot of those gym, you guys are going to leave.

One thing we're seeing with college football, too, Gabe, Michigan 23, Ohio City 24, Indiana 25 is they're old. They're older team. So on offense right now, Indiana starters, all but one is

in least in their fourth year of college football. On defense, they have one, two, two guys in second. year and two guys in the third year, otherwise guys are in the fourth, fifth or sixth year. It's an older team. Michigan did this. Ohio State this. I think that's a sell for Oregon. In the last year, hey, guys, like, let's bring it back and let's be the old team win a championship. Like, there's a chance next year Oregon's four defensive alignment game are all four and five-year guys. Like, that's what's winning nowadays. And so personally, I feel like it's a little house money right now.

Like, of course, I want to win a championship. Of course. But next year was supposed to be the year anyways. And if we can just grind our way through an Indiana win, like, win or lose, I feel like we're good for next year. I think Indiana probably feels like they got to do this now. Like, this is the year to do it. You know, Old Miss probably feels like, let's do it now. Miami, they're a little older team. Probably feels like, let's do it now.

Working, I think has a chance. Again, I think we're going to be a close game anyways. But I feel a little bit of, a little comfortable that I think that we'll be back here next season. Okay. You mentioned those other two teams. So let's go there. What a game. On the one hand, I feel like suddenly Ole Miss is like America's team, if you like to be trolling.

Like I found myself rooting for All Miss just because it's fun that Lane Kiffin's team could win without him. I don't particularly care about the team or the new coach, but screw him is kind of my feeling. I think a lot of people are with me on that. And then Miami is sort of positioned as an underdog in all of this. But the truth is, you know, we're kind of. where we thought they were at the beginning of the season, with they took a bit of a detour early on, but they're right back where everyone predicted them to be.

So are they, in fact, an underdog? Like, isn't Miami kind of just as good as all these teams? I mean, they're the favorite, though, but... In this game, but I'm saying in the by seed. They're sort of the Cinderella story right now, but they're not. So Miami is in, in a spot of this game, particularly where you know, they are now the favorite, right?

They were the underdog, two straight games, but now they're supposed to win this game. You know, they're in year four now, sort of same where landings at, Mario landing on the same boat, right? Year four, that's the time to sort of get this done. Chambla scares a heck out of me if you're,

if you're Miami fan that he's incredibly talented and making a bunch of plays. I think Miami's better. I think Miami wins this game. I think they're better. And so, they'll get a home championship game. The championship game is in Miami game. Yeah, it's bizarre.

and they could easily find themselves in it. So we'll do picks. You'll do some picks with Matt. We'll do some picks and deeper talk on each of those games as we get closer. Is there anything more on college because I want to throw a wacky theory at you? Well, we are not going to be able to talk about Thursday's game. So that's the Miami Oldness game. Do you want to give me some smart ways to play it?

Yeah. So there are wagers out there you can find. I'm going to pull up right now to make sure I have the right one. Get them, baby. where there's like total rushing, like team total rushes like combined rush yards of, well that's for, that's for just,

there's a, it was up the other day because it, because Bear and I were looking at it. You can bet combined rushing yards for, for a team, like Miami was at 140 to 150. Like I, I think Miami's total team rushing will be,

like I would, if it's not up right now, when it pops back up again, which it will, like Miami over, team rushing would be a good wager in my opinion. Over 27 and a half points would be something I would consider as well. I think they're going to score on Ole Miss.

Ole Miss defense is leaky. The way they're going to try to run the football makes me think that Miami can control the pace of game, control the clock. So I think that they'll bust out some late scores. I like Miami just run the ball really well in this game. Okay. Do you think that there's some idea to the Ole Miss sort of team? rallying around Coach Golding or whatever.

Like, does any of that fun storyline stuff matter on the field? Not really. Not really. And does any of it matter that, like, every day that goes by, and you mentioned the transfer portal and, like, in a lot of teams cases and even some players' cases, we're already thinking about next season. Does it matter that that whole coaching booth, basically,

like, is doing one job while they're getting ready for the next? I mean, Oregon has that problem, right? Both are going to other jobs. I mean, I like to say it doesn't matter, but it probably does a little bit. Now, they're not trying to throw the game. I mean, that, I don't know why I went there. They're not trying to like be any worse. But we know that part of their time is taken with the job at Cal and Kentucky or at LSU.

Like that feels like very much human nature to straddle those is tough. Now, the one thing for Oregon that I think is helpful is that Dan Lennon did this at Georgia, right? He finished out the season with Georgia won a championship. So he's been in this boat before. He's been in a situation where he was the coach who had the new job and stayed back to let, you know, to help his team win a championship. Yeah. That's a great call out.

I forgot about that. That's obviously the case. And it frankly, like, helped the lore of Dan Lannning. I think it helped him in year one for everyone to be like, this guy's serious about this. Like, he's loyal. Imagine, imagine your, your, your Tosh Lupoi. And you're, you're trying to recruit playing. to Cal right now.

What better way is there to say, we just shut out Texas Tech. That's right. It's great. It's fantastic. It's good for him. So it makes sense to do that. Landing off the coach's defense,

that's the offense. So I'm looking forward to it. Look, we got a game Thursday, got a game Friday. And then, of course, we have NFL action. So follow football still left. And we have like these, we have the bowl games now happening.

Like I saw John Gruden installing like 93 ISO in a Hula Bowl. All these all-star bowl games are happening now, too. It's got football from now until, forever. It never ends, Gabe. No, does not end. Do we have another break we need to sneak in? I feel like we might. I think we do. Let's do one more. Let's do the last break. And then I got a crazy theory I'm going to throw you. Okay. All right, we're back. What do you got, Gabe? What

crazy theory got from me? I want to hear this. All right. So I previewed this a little bit on our on our show text thread. Then I refined it slightly. I have a way I think I can help fix the NFL draft. Do you want to hear it? Yes. Would you agree that the problem is that whether players, you've told me many times, players don't tank, players are out there competing every snap. They are in risk of losing their own job. They're not worried about next year's draft. Players are competing. But the front office, the coaching staff, the ownership, they're obviously doing a little bit of a different equation. And so when guys like Max Crosby sort of aren't available, even though he looked perfectly healthy and seems pissed not

to be playing or some knockoff brand backup quarterback for the Jets is playing instead of a perfectly capable tired Taylor. You know, when those types of things happen, it feels a bit like tanking. So I'm proposing that we need to change the incentives for teams that are clearly eliminated and looking for those top picks. How do you do it? What if from the moment you're eliminated from postseason play, however early in the season that can happen.

You know, usually can't be much before we 1011, 12, right? Yeah. From that moment on, the total number of wins that you accumulate

in the regular season goes in standings and the team with the most wins post their elimination gets the first pick. So you have to be real bad to be eligible

for a lot of wins. So the Atlanta Falcons would be like, they're like, 70% I should say after they get eliminated. They've done a lot of winning in the last few weeks,

except they weren't eliminated until very late in the season. Atlanta was eliminated five weeks ago. So then Atlanta, the moment that they were mathematically eliminated, every when they accumulate post that time. I think they're four or five minutes they were mathematically eliminated.

Yes. All right. So let me add one more caveat because this is the way I calculated it and shared it. You're only eligible if you are one of the first 10 teams eliminated. So the fact, that Atlanta was not one of those first 10 teams means that all this winning they've been doing would continue to screw them like it screwed them this season.

Or we play with it. This is where I can use your notes. So basically the idea is that once you eliminate then you have to try to win the most games. The Raiders have to try to win, not give up the season. So what's funny about that is that is that four of the worst seven teams won last weekend. Browns, the commanders, the Giants, and the Raiders.

Um, I mean, so that that would allow them to like, they would play Max Crosby essentially for the last two weeks of season, which is that you get all the best players on the field then. You'd keep the good players on the field. You wouldn't do things like, let's try this out and see what happened. Maybe we have something with this Brady cook guy.

The only pushback I have is this, okay? Yeah. Is that if you are a lame duck coach, why do you give a shit about drafting his highs? possible for a team you're not going to be on anymore. Why would you care to win these games for your team? Good question, Jeff. I thought of that too. Bonuses. Bonuses, just like in the NBA Cup, you get a bonus if you win the NBA Cup. We're going to bonus you based on these draft rankings. So if you have a crap start to the season, just something's, the team wasn't well built,

you had bad luck, injuries, whatever it is. But now the last third of the season, you kind of get hot and you make some good decisions. A lot of bonus money available to you. So, hmm. What would it be, to the coach to the players? Well, I was thinking players,

but screw it. Throw coaches in there too. Yeah, I think coaches would be the ones who would want the money. Sure. Well, I mean,

100 grand will mean a lot more to a coach than a player. That means that your jets would draft like 12 because they lost five games in a row at the season. Yes. but arguably they could have won a few of those games

if they weren't just mailing it in and watching them mail it in is brutal. Interesting. Right? Like obviously, we don't have to totally guess here. We know that if the Raiders had fielded the best team possible, if the Jets had fielded the best team possible, the line on a few of those late games

would have been a lot closer than it was. No, no, no, I agree with, I agree with ideas. it's, you, Damashek always had a loser ball, right? Like, the last two teams play each other in the last game of the season to, like, like it'd be this weekend. Like, they'd play Thursday. Worst two teams play. And the winner of that game,

it's number of being in the job. You imagine, like, Jets, Raiders playing out for Francisco Mendoza. It would be incredible television. Electric. It would be great. That's been Damashik's idea for years. I love it. This is building on that.

Yeah, it's interesting in thought. It's, did you, Did you, I guess when, it would be good to go back and see like when, like when, what, when they got eliminated and like when, oh, you did, you saw it all. Okay, so who would have the one seed? It would be Atlanta probably, right? No, because they were eliminated so late.

So you're giving me a decent note. My, my theory was you just go, first team eliminated is now eligible, second team, third, until you get to 10 teams that have been eliminated, then the door closes. So who would have been, who would have had the first pick in the draft? Well, so I think some, Maybe some dork listening can double check me because I'm not claiming I got all of this exactly right.

I was just working with Google. My belief is the current draft order, Raiders, Jets, cards, Titans, Giants, Browns, commanders, saints, Bengals, chiefs. What it probably would have been, and you have to make a tiebreaker by winning percentage since eliminated, would be the tiebreaker or total wins because you're getting down to one or two wins. I believe it would be saints, Bengals, giants, Browns, commanders, dolphins,

Titans, Jets, Cardinals, Raiders. Wow. That said, if the Falcons were technically eliminated before one of those teams, which is maybe the case,

then the Falcons probably move way up there. I don't think they were, though. I think they were after all these things. Interesting. And now, and now let me just play

a little further since you seem to be taken the bait. The Saints being at number one, now that's fascinating because they just proved, at least to themselves, that maybe they have their quarterback. Yeah, they would trade out in a heartbeat. They'd trade out. The Bengals don't need a quarterback. What are they going to do with that? But they played their butts off since Burrow came back.

They won a few games. The Giants, I don't know. What are they doing? We're talking about that. The Browns got to do the Shador experiment, try to win, but also be okay with losing. like, I think it might have made a few of these teams more interesting down the stretch. This is actually quite interesting. I think I would entertain this.

Why don't you give it a little bit more thought, bat it around with some smarter people, maybe do some DVOA analysis, whatever you like. Did you share, did you tweet, actually ended up tweeting this? Yeah, I tweeted it to Elon Musk made sure absolutely no one saw it. Yeah, as I said, I didn't see it at all. I think I probably tweeted it right in the middle of something important going on. Here, I'm going to retweet it for you. Oh, boy.

Well, give it a read. Make sure you like it first. I don't want to want it. No, it's been retweeted. Okay. Well, now I'll get your trolls. I was probably already asleep. It was at 10 o'clock at night.

Just knocked out. I fell asleep during the Ravens Steelers game with like remote in my hand. It was not just like, like, knocked out. By the way, so did the Ravens. just completely completely asleep um any uh any last words here no i'm looking forward to watching some college football later on my birthday actually later this week happy birthday what's what's your birthday uh the eighth and okay we'll get you a championship from the ducks for your birthday please give me a win i got i got a little on that one um one big on

old miss the other day felt good uh no i'm i'm i'm happy for you my friend the 10 u softball coach I'm real proud of you. Are you using the prediction markets now? Do they offer in California? I'm not going to comment on that, given the nature of this show. Well, D.K. has a prediction market in California. I'm just saying I don't want to endorse anyone in particular,

but I want some money on this. When I go to California, I'm very excited to use the DK prediction market in California. I'm excited to try it out because it should be legal everywhere. And I can't believe that this is the thing that like is accepted in the state, even though it's straight gambling. Like, it's just so funny. The prediction market's fine, but gambling's not allowed.

No, no. Prodiction market is fine, though, Gabe. I also would like to know next time that we strike a country so I can make money as well. Do you see that story, by the way? I saw a lot of this story. And I think someone, someone opened a polymarket account and wagered on the U.S. Striking Venezuela. and made a shit ton of money.

And they think it was like, I mean, it's obviously someone inside the government because, you know, they claim it's because pizza, they have a, there's a theory that when, uh,

pizza orders in D.C. spike at night. It's because the Pentagon is staying late to work on something that's happening overseas. And people then assume they try to put two and two together, right? We're like, the aircraft carriers were moved in a certain part of the country and just like, no, they knew that. Someone told them. Someone told them they were striking Venezuela.

They opened up account in the market and they made like $400,000. That's insane. Should be allowed. If true, completely insane should not be allowed. Also, according to, I believe Market Watch, and I don't know anything about their reputation. They're not paying it out, right? One of the markets is not paying because of the word invade. Apparently, according to some, this was not an invasion. of Venezuela. Therefore, a bet on an invasion does not pay.

It was not an invasion. All right. Well, so you'd fit in nicely on the regulatory side. I don't think it was, I don't think it was an invasion, not to get political. I mean, they, they, they, they just took a family. They took two people out of the country. But the fact that someone made $4,000 on this, which is, you can, the prediction markets are a problem. They're going to be a problem, but it's not my problem to deal with. All right. Not our problem at all. Not our problem at all.

Not our problem to deal with. All right. Well, we'll talk to you on Friday with Matt. We'll preview. We'll recap Miami, Old Miss. We'll make some wagers for the weekend. And we'll talk with Oregon, Indiana. So take care of guys.

We'll talk to you guys.