Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Joey Burrow’s Magical Run Continues and the Rams are Going Back to the Super Bowl

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back and Geoff is ready to try to explain what happened to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on Sunday. They dive into the Chiefs’ epic collapse, Joey Burrow’s cool comeback, and what to expect from him looking forward. Then, they discuss the Rams’ super team, OBJ’s continued dominance in Los Angeles, and Matt Stafford’s big game chops. On Moving the Line, Geoff they discuss Tom Brady’s momentary retirement, their overwhelming excitement for the Pro Bowl, and what they think of guys who wear expensive watches - on and off the field. 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 february 1st i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart on you powered by the varsity podcast network and we have a super bowl it is the bangles and the rams just like we all predicted to start the nfl season it is here it is two weeks away what a weekend of football and gabe what an epic collapse by my Kansas City Chiefs no doubt about it it was an all-time stinker and I am here to own up on it um and talk about the game and talk about the Rams and the 49ers and what to expect next couple weeks you also have some coaching news with some sure we'll sprinkle in at some point some other NFL topics but right now I have to basically talk about how my favorite coach in the NFL continues to have these games. Hold on a second, Jeff.

I thought once you make a prediction or tell us what you think is going to happen, your job is to double down on that and explain away your mistakes. Not to just say, well, okay, hold on. Some stuff happened on the field and calmly talk it through. What are you doing? You're supposed to go all Chiefs all the time. I am all Chiefs. Look, I would love to give the Bengals credit. And they deserve credit for like sticking around.

But Nate, make no mistake about this. This is 100% the Chiefs collapsing in this game, guys. Wow. There's no doubt about it. In the first half of this game, against the drop eight coverage, right, which is what the Bengals ran most of the second half. They ran it 45% of the time in the second half.

Drop eight is you rush three guys, drop eight in the coverage, okay? The first half, Pat Mahomes was four of seven for 55 yards, hit that long pass to Tyreek Hill. Second half, they had, I believe, seven drives second half. And his, like, the net yards in the first five were like zero through the air. I mean, how's this possible?

How's it possible to have a drop eight coverage, not even a coverage that, it's not that Bill's anything fancy. The Chiefs had no answers for it at all. And I love Andy Reid. Andy's awesome. My brother was there. I was there there i like the whole coaching staff but gabe this is three times now they've had a double digit lead really an 18 point lead in the playoff game not worse than double digits three times now since 2013 they have blown an 18 point lead or more in the playoffs i was in one of those games

in 2013, grew up 38-10 in the third quarter and lost. Obviously, the Marcus Murray, the same catch game was that, and then yesterday. And since the NFL began awarding home foot advantage in the postseason to a better team in 1975, only twice has the home team lost a game in which they led by at least 18 points. Chiefs and Chiefs.

The Chiefs ran the ball six times for 34 yards in the second half. They dropped back to pass the ball 12 times for a net of zero yards in interception on those same five possessions. Like, I don't... It's hard in audio media to tell you what happened, but Mahomes just didn't play well.

It's that simple. I wish Andy Reid would have run the football that would have helped them out with this drop eight coverage, right? Because the Bengals were so soft, right? They were like, look, we're not going to let you pass the football. And they dared the Chiefs to run the ball. They didn't do it. They rushed the ball for 34 yards on six rushes in the second half.

They run the ball fine. They refused to do it. And then Mahomes just – I had someone tell me that you could convince me Mahomes was throwing the game based on how he played in the second half. Yes. Which he absolutely wasn't doing. But you could convince me, Gabe, that's what happened in the second half. That's how bad Mahomes was.

It was the worst half of his career by far. The worst half under Andy Reid, by the way, in any half of any football since he's been in Kansas City. Go back to the final drive of the first half, right? This is when things change, right? The Chiefs had gained every single yard possible on their first four drives to the one-yard line in, you know, five seconds left in the first half. No timeouts.

I'm fine with them running a play. Mahomes has to know, throw the ball on the ground if it doesn't work. He didn't do it. They didn't get any points. And then it just, the offense just, go to the very end of regulation. Everything finally happens, right? They move the ball down the field. They have the ball at the five-yard line, first and goal down three points.

First play of that drive, they get a one-yard rush. The Bengals call timeout. About a minute 30 left then they go minus five sack minus 15 yard sack take your field goal Bill Barnwell posted a video of that 39 play Travis Kelsey was open he was NFL open Pringle was NFL open twice on that play and Mahomes just didn't throw the ball. I don't know what to tell anyone. Like, I mean, like, again, I want to give the Bengals credit for making an adjustment. But the adjustment wasn't earth shattering.

It was, we're going to play the defense that we call gets an air raid. Because we don't believe that you're going to throw the football. And, oh, man, it just, it was frustrating. The Chiefs got, how about this game? Get so many pressures the Chiefs defensive lines got, how about this game? Guess how many pressures the Chiefs defensive line had on Burrow in this game. I think the Bengals had 42 pass plays, maybe? Something like that.

What do you think the amount of pressures they got on Burrow? I don't think it was anything close to what we'd seen the last few weeks against Burrow. 16 pressures. 16. That's a lot. That's a lot. 16 pressures 16 that's a lot that's a lot 16 pressures guess how many sacks one chris jones has played like 11 playoff games zero sacks like all these things is like again burrow did a great job escaping a couple of those he had some good rushes but there wasn't a signature burrow throw in the game he threw threw an interception in the fourth quarter, came back the next drive, almost threw another one. Hebecker dropped the ball.

The Chiefs didn't even get beat because of an otherworldly performance by Burrow. That's the thing about this loss. It's why it stings. It's why it's tough. Mahomes is going to have to eat this loss. Andy Reid is going to have to eat this loss. And the Bengals are in the Super Bowl. I can't fathom how an offensive line like that is in the super bowl it makes no sense and zach taylor tried

to sabotage the game plan they ran the ball in first down for no success the entire game they put themselves in bad situations every single drive and somehow they came out with the win in the postseason the bangles have five touchdowns and 12 field goals in the Super Bowl in 2021. It's remarkable, dude. After this game, I had to write about it for Fox Sports. I basically just wrote about what I just said. It's hard to even put in a summary, like, what happened? It just—

Can I try? Can I give you a theory? I mean, Mahomes played terrible. That's what happened. Well, let me give you a theory on why that might be. I think Pat, who is a humble guy, who gives us very little to critique, even when he's not playing his best, it's always been hard to blame Pat Mahomes. But I think he's starting to feel the whole like grim Reaper.

No times too little. I doubt he's sitting here watching all the, the take shows, but man, some of this might start to be informing the way he plays. And those two ridiculous sacks, when the whole of Twitter, the, all of football media was saying the Bengals should just let him score.

So at least they have some time for Burrow to make a play. He he's losing yardage. He fumbled. Thank God for his lineman. They even had a chance to tie the game. Then he throws a pick into double coverage. These are the YOLO plays you critique Josh Allen for that Pat made three times when it mattered most.

And again, he normally doesn't do that. That's the part that... Look, the throw in overtime, the YOLO to Tyreek Hill, that was a far, I mean, it was a Rodgers, Josh Allen throw. It was like, I'm going to throw it up in a double cover to see what happens. Again, like we had not seen this from Holmes.

Look, I definitely think that his idea of being a gunslinger gets him in trouble. But part of that is like on third down, again, you go to Bill Barnwell's thing. You go to, I tweeted out. I'm sure you could find it by now. I mean, gunslinger,

man, throw the ball. Dude, dudes are open. Your boy's open. Travis Kelsey's open. Make it happen. You know,

the Chiefs, I think the Chiefs outscored the Bengals like 49 to 17, the first half of both their games, and then scored six points in the second half of both their games. And again, it wasn't like the Bengals did anything special, right? They sacked Mahomes four times, and three of those were after like eight seconds. Like, what's going to—just run the football. There was a third down.

There was a third and two in the fourth quarter where the Chiefs are—they spread the formation out. They motion the running back back inside. For those who are wondering why the Chiefs do that why teams do that it's a man or zone read right so the running back is outside and they motion him in and the guy guarding him is a linebacker and comes back in with him it's man coverage they motion back in they kind of bump over spots the zone coverage and they bumped over spots it was zone coverage the Bengals had three down rushers, three defensive linemen, and they walked a linebacker back into the box with Jared McKinnon.

So there's four total Bengals defenders in the box with five Chiefs offensive linemen. Bengals' safety kind of came down late for a second, but he really kind of didn't make it into the box. Just run the football, third and two. Your offensive line was playing really well. Chiefs offensive line played really well yesterday. They have like six yards to carry. Just run the football.

And I just, Mahomes didn't run the football very much second half of that game. Oh, man. Again, I mean, give the Bengals credit. I get it. And I'm for that. I mean, Joe Burrow's fun to watch. He makes enough plays. But again, the Chiefs didn't lose this game because of a Joe Burrow moment,

which is shocking, right? Because we've seen that's how a lot of these teams lose. There's a big, shocking moment of the game where the quarterback on the other team makes a play. Joe Burrow, what's the Joe Burrow moment in this game? Breaking the Chris Jones sack, right? That's the moment. Yeah, that was the moment.

But there wasn't like a throw that made it happen. It was more about Mahomes' meltdown. And again, Andy Reid, man, has had, he's been in nine conference championship games, gave him only one, three of them. I think he lost five as a favorite. And I love Andy, man, but it is difficult to stomach this one.

Again, for as bad as they played, first and goal at the five-yard line, needed five yards for a touchdown to take the lead. And this Chiefs offense went backwards for 24 yards. All right, so I want to ask you about that and then try to spin this forward and then spend some time on the team that did make the Super Bowl, the me that the most brilliant plays of Pat's career are when he scrambles around, he uses up the pocket, then he finds a way out, and then he miraculously hits Tyreek or Kelsey or someone. But that's usually when he's on his half of the field, and there's all kinds of space. of the field and there's all kinds of space when you're down at the five yard line and you're scrambling around for six eight seconds there's no actual physical space to get open in yeah like how would that have worked even in the best case scenario well that's the thing about and the thing

that i thought pat had done a really good job of in the last two months of the season was just taking the easy throws i mean he had made some great throws the last eight weeks in the pocket. And all he had to do on that third and go back to third and nine play was throw to Travis Kelsey. His dude was open and he has the arm to do it and take a chance. And I think the idea he thought was, I'm only taking the surefire things. I don't want to let any time off the clock.

Or I don't want to stop the clock, I should say, right? Take the surefire things that don't give the Bengals opportunity to come back. But I would have liked to see aggressive Pat in that moment, right? And I don't want to stop a clock, I should say, right? And take the surefire things that don't give the Bengals opportunity to come back. But I would have liked to see aggressive Pat in that moment, right? And I don't know. And I don't. The thing about that. Everyone's going to refer back to last play of the first half, right? Where they didn't convert.

I don't know if I recall a spot I'd been in that exact spot before my career. But the Chiefs had almost 300 yards and almost eight and a half yards per play at that point in the game that shouldn't have crushed the offense like that should have been a point where you're like oh my god here we go again you've been like ah well oh shit we just didn't convert let's go back out and score we had the ball for the halftime and it just didn't they just didn't they just that play crushed them they were one yard away from being up 28 to 10. And this doesn't even matter.

The Bengals weren't coming back from 28 to 10. And it just, man, it was a bad, bad day for the Chiefs. And that is what it is. Can I keep the negativity train going for one more stop? Yeah, go ahead. All right. So here's the problem, buddy. The whole brilliance of this, what some people call a dynasty,

I think that's probably the wrong word, this great run that Andy and Pat have been on the last four seasons. Only one Super Bowl, but let's be honest, they've been the best team in football the last few years, except the cheat code was the way they managed the salary cap. And now Pat is about to cost them a whole lot of money in realized cap money, right? So they go from seven somehow to 36 million next year. Yep.

They did bring in a bunch of good players to help them on this run. I don't know enough about being a general manager, but it seems to me it's going to be hard to keep everyone happy and feed all those mouths if you're paying Pat effectively that much more money. Yeah, it's not good. And look, again, she's been to four straight AFC Championship games and have won Super Bowl. That's good they won one. But now we're kind of getting to what feels like Aaron Rodgers territory, right?

Where it's like you're kind of like – and this is the thing about the NFL, right? Tom Brady is not the norm. Think about the one-off teams. The Eagles are kind of like a one-off team, right? The Broncos with Peyton Manning, they won one Super Bowl. You look at the Ravens with Flacco, right? One Super Bowl. Obviously, Tampa Bay, even with Brady, one Super Bowl.

Packers, one Super Bowl. The Giants have won two somehow in this kind of era, right? The Steelers have won two in this era. It's very hard to win Super Bowls unless you're Tom Brady, who seems to do it every year. And it's obviously, it's the control of just the way Belichick had everything going there. Just no one kind of liked that machine they had in New England.

You know, we give the Chiefs credit for going to four straight, basically went to eight straight ACC games for one point. And I see you smiling over there. We will talk about Tom Brady. Don't't worry everybody in a little bit um but uh yeah they have uh three specific needs very uh quickly off the top of my head one pass rush Frank Clark is gone he's out of there had one pressure yesterday not good enough Melvin Ingram probably gone need to find pass rushers. Two secondary pieces. Honey Badger, it seemed like today via tweets, probably not coming back.

They need to draft heavy there. And they need one more, in my opinion, after this all year long. They need one more wide receiver. They need a big wide receiver. A big guy in the red zone. Go get the ball. They need one more. Here's the thing about this, too, is that Travis Kelsey and Tyreek Hill aren't going to be this way forever.

Like, there's – you have a window with these guys, and it's got to be now. Your offensive line is set. You might need a left tackle if Brown ends up leaving, but you have – you drafted well. And this is between the Mahomes draft pick in 17 and the end – basically the 2020 draft, the 17, 18, 19 draft. The Chiefs were poor. They've drafted much better now, right?

You look at Gay and Snead and Bold and Creed and Trey and Hardman. Like they've had better draft picks, right? They've done a better job recently of drafting. They're going to have to continue to do that. Again, defense aligned, secondary pieces, wide receiver. That's where they need to hammer. And just I want to see them run the ball more under center. Like just kind of, but that's not what they do.

So that's where they are. Disappointing. But we're either going to have a Matt Stafford Super Bowl champion, which I'm leaning in that direction now, or the Bengals, which out of nowhere, six wins all the way there. All right. So you talk about how hard it is to get to and win a Super Bowl. Joe Burrow would

not realize that. In Joe Burrow's mind, it can't possibly seem hard because here he is. His first season ends with a major injury. It's cut short. Then he's back months later on this unbelievable run. Everyone uses words like swag and whatever. You know, he's Mr. Cool. Joe Cool. I'm not fully there yet, but it's hard not to like the kid, I have to admit. I just wonder if maybe the stupid cigars and the jewelry and the sunglasses and the swag, all the comments we make about how cool this guy is might start to get in his head and that he could just get the crap smacked out of him by a much better team in two weeks does it seem like maybe the cool act could hurt him in the super bowl um no i don't think it could hurt him in the super bowl um but i think that the rams are different animal than the titans or chiefs defense um yeah you know i and people talk about this for weeks

now we'll just get this out of the way now the bangles offense line is going to have a very hard time because i've been to line on 59 pressures in three games in the three playoff games so far raiders titans chiefs now they have aaron donald von miller looking like 2015 von miller and leonard floyd and the pass defense, which the Chiefs and Titans didn't have. So, but the coolness factor of Joe Burrow, I think, helps the entire team play loose and play calm and not worry about when they're behind or things aren't going well, right? Because again, I talk about this with Tom Brady forever. The confidence that Tom Brady gives his team that no matter what's happening, I can help you save the day is very important.

The Bengals definitely feel that way, right? If we're behind, we're not worried about it because Joey Burrow can get us right and make enough plays. I like Joe Burrow. He seems like a cool dude. Obviously very cocky, which he deserves to be. He's won a lot of football games in his young career. It will not affect him this weekend, Gabe,

but it's going to be a much tougher weekend, uh, two weekends. And I think Bengals fans want to admit with their offense. A lot. I did find this very interesting though. I know you, you have this in the rundown,

but Scott Cosmere, Scott Cosmere used to work at, uh, football on stars. I believe, um, quarterbacks, uh,

to will their defense, obviously sarcasm there to intercept a pass in the final minute or overtime of a one-score playoff game for the last 20 years. Joe Burrow, three times in the last three games, the most the NFL in the last 20 years of an interception by his defense in the final minute or overtime of a playoff game to help them win. There's a little bit of luck along the way, Gabe, right?

That's just part of winning a lot of times. In 2019, the Chiefs got lucky. The Dolphins beat the Patriots in Week 19. Chiefs got a home game, right? The Patriots lost to the Titans. And then the Titans took out the Ravens. And then, lo and behold, the wildcard Titans show up to Kansas City. Luck is part of it.

I kind of think that runs out in the Super Bowl when you have two weeks to prepare for a team and the Rams are really good. Yeah, so I'm glad you brought this set up. So more luck than even Tom Brady has had in like 20 years of playoff games. So I just wonder, and I'm bringing up a couple of familiar names here.

I just wonder if maybe he's a little bit more Tim Tebow than Peyton Manning. You know, in that he's obviously little bit more Tim Tebow than Peyton Manning. You know, in that he's obviously got something. There's an it there. He will make these unbelievable plays that make you go, huh? But then he does a lot of stupid crap, and his team probably isn't as good as the recent record suggests. There's the Tebow comparison.

Peyton, no one would ever question that Peyton was like the most talented, most prepared, most accomplished quarterback ever. He just seemed unlucky for like a decade. So, I don't know. Like, maybe he wins a Super Bowl. Maybe this is one of ten to come. But it just feels like the story ends with Aaron Donald like wrapped around his waist. I have a very hard time as an offensive lineman continuing to believe they can win this way.

I just, it's, remember last year, and obviously I was rooting for the Chiefs, but I kind of warned everybody. It's like, guys, this Tampa Bay defensive line against the Chiefs offensive line is going to be a huge problem. It's going to be a problem. And it was a huge problem.

I just, the, I'm going to look up the numbers right now as we're talking about this, because I think the Bengals rotated right guards in this game because of how bad the right guards were playing. I'm fairly certain they allowed 12 of the 16 pressures, which, guess who, guess who's going to live over the right guard this weekend or two weekends

now, Aaron Donnell will like, you know what I mean? So you're going to double him and then leave Von Miller one-on-one against your right tackle who isn't very good? Yeah, Jackson Carman and Adeneje had nine of the 16 pressures. They're a pass-blocking grade by football focus. Remember, 100 is good.

I mean, no one gets 100, obviously. Jackson Carman had 20 pass-blocking snaps. He was at a.1. What was his grade uh adena j had 24 pass blocking snaps point excuse me 1.8 then isaiah prince the right tackle allowed four pressures uh including a sack and uh his grade was 50.5 so that tells you how poor the right guard was playing for it's not it's not like they were much better. The best was Jonah Williams,

who's really good at the left tackle. But man, there is... Ooh, buddy. I just... I'm not picking the Bengals for that reason. I just can't. I just think this is going to be a long, long game for the Bengals' front five. And there's not much they can do about it.

You can't do, there's no game planning to play better. Quick passes, try to run the football, some screens. Nate Tice had a funny tweet today. He said basically like, the Bengals screen game works so well because the defensive line just feels like this is in every rep. Oh, I won the rep.

Okay, cool. It's true. Very true. You know, Bengals fans say to me give give our more credit for our defense i think to myself like what what is the i don't know what the credit is like you didn't rush the passer well you pressured pat six times all game and like 45 pass snaps i know even when you rushed four you weren't getting home you You played a zone coverage, like the drop eight. I promise you, Sean McVay's going to run the football if you drop eight in the coverage.

I just don't know what they're that good at. Their DVOA doesn't put them highly ranked at all in anything. I don't know, Gabe. It's very odd. I want to ask you about that, and this will get us to talk more Rams. Will Sean McVay run the football if they go to drop eight? Will Sean McVay do the simple, boring things it takes to win a game he's favored in? Or will he try to pull out the whiteboard and come up with some crazy ass shit?

Because the smart people I listen to, and you're one of them, keep telling me this guy is obsessed with looking cool. He just wants to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. And sometimes you just have an advantage and you should take advantage of it and win the game the boring way. Can he do that? I have determined after this weekend, where Andy Reid had coaching situation problems. I think there were some Zach Taylor issues with fourth downs and kicking field goals. And there were problems with Sean McVay's game management and Kyle Shanahan's game management.

Most of these coaches just suck at game management. And there's more scrutiny than ever before on game management. They're all terrible at it, Gabe. Okay. But Sean McVay has terrible challenges. Oh, my God, he's so bad at challenging. I don't get it. He's bad.

Every week he was like, what are you doing, Sean? They had no timeouts for 10 minutes left in the last 10 minutes of that game. Yeah, I think both. Zach Taylor's game plan, run the football at first down was terrible, was not smart. And then, obviously, McVay had some coaching blunders as well. Yeah, the Rams should just win this game in the trenches. And the reason they beat the Niners was because Stafford made some good throws. They dropped an arm punt of his.

But they won in the trenches, which they hadn't done really in the previous six games against the 49ers. Yeah, and the stats weren't quite as there. There weren't a ton of sacks. There wasn't a ton of sexiness, but they just didn't let the Niners run on them. So then let's talk about what they're doing right on offense. The defense we know has all these guys who showed up to win a Super Bowl, right? So the defense is going to be there. They're going to give Burrow more problems than he's seen so far. How about the offense? Why is Cooper Cupp still always open? He's just really freaking good, dude.

Like, I wish there was a better explanation. He's just really good. Like he just, he's just able to just technique wise and his little movements he makes. I mean, it's, it's just, it's, he's just a special football player. Well, okay. So that's fair. I mean, it doesn't need to be more complicated than that. Lots of people would say, oh, it's because OBJ is there. And so you can't double Cooper Cup. And to say that sentence out loud is insane that OBJ is the one who makes it so they can't double someone else. Like he was always the guy who used to have to talk about doubling. Now we're talking about doubling Cooper Cup, but you can't because of OBJ. But they aren't going to, I think, aren't going to have the tight end. The running game didn't look great. Stafford is still just a wild man sometimes. What gives you concern about

the rams offense if you have any at all i think it's still it's still stafford right like that's it how much do you trust him oh yeah do you trust him hard to but also hard not to love him and love to see him sling it i mean the ball when he throws it to cooper cup and i've been watching these games with my my kids and we've talked about this plenty. Like, it's really fun to watch the kids because I can predict the second the ball is like leaving Stafford's hand. I know if it's a catch or not. Because there's a connection he has with Cup where you can just see it. Like, oh, that's going to be in stride and he's pulling it down.

There was that one drop Cup had had which was out of the ordinary but like i don't get as scared with stafford as i think so many lions fans got trained to be with him he seems like he figured something out is it fair to say he's played better than joe burrow in the playoffs i think it is i mean the stats might not say it but i think it is fair to say that no they do say it well he's got a bunch of picks. He has two in the playoffs. One in the playoffs. He's not the one in the playoffs. Yeah, the last game was he didn't do any

in the first two games. You're right. You're right. I'm thinking about the regular season. The end of the regular season was a ton of picks. Yeah, he had eight in the last four games.

He actually hasn't played that bad, believe it or not. It's just, you know, I think the trust factor is still there for me. But again, the Bengals defense, it's like, I don't know what it is about them, man.

There's like just – it's – if I were to say to you like, okay, who in the Bengals' defense are the Rams fearful of? Bates? Hilton? Hendrickson looks pretty good. Hendrickson. Yeah. Well, they have Andrew Whitworth.

They'll be fine. He didn't look great. He'll have two weeks. He had a knee injury. He'll have two weeks now to rest. Okay. Yeah, he'll be fine. He'll have two weeks now to rest. Okay. Yeah, he'll be fine. Him and Trent Williams were war daddies.

They sucked it up and they played well. Yeah. All right. Well, I mean, I got to ask you about this. So Stafford is probably the most obvious name, but there's a whole bunch of guys who I would call ring chasers on this Rams team. And it might work. who I would call ring chasers on this Rams team.

And it might work. It might be the first time, you know, where we've seen it completely and totally work. It's not the same as Brady came in and then a few of his buddies showed up. Like, this is just a scattershot bunch of random dudes all decided LA was the place starting around the time, you know, Jalen Ramsey came along.

And they might win a ring. And my question to you, Jeff, is, is that going to be a major tipping point for the league? Are we just going to end up with two or three teams like the NBA has where all the guys go and there's no more parody or can the Bengals save us from that? Well, we've, we've mostly not had that because dream teams are very hard to win with. Remember Eagles had a dream team, right? It's hard to meld together. But think about how they did this.

They went all in for Stafford. That's the first piece. You have an unselfish quarterback who wanted to win. Then they added Odell, who is more maligned in the media than he ever is in a locker room. Odell's fine. And everyone likes him. And he fits in perfectly with the personality of this team. And he just wants to win.

And then you have Von Miller, who's like a super chill guy. So you add those three pieces in together. Now, Ramsey's the fireball, right? But he's obviously one of the best players in the NFL. And they built this team up to win now. And they took the risk, Gabe, and they're there. And a lot of times teams take these risks, and it doesn't pan out. And more teams might

try to do it, but you also have to have a general manager willing to say hey look we're going to mortgage the future they have no like they have no draft picks for three years now basically we mortgage the future and if it didn't work this year game they would look stupid but it did work so far this season so i don't think it's a blueprint moving forward teams might try it but you have to also convince jalen ramsey to stay in los angeles right to sign a a new deal you have to also convince Jalen Ramsey to stay in Los Angeles, right, to sign a new deal. You have to convince Matt Stafford to want to be traded to Los Angeles. Obviously, Von Miller and Odell were – Odell was traded or picked –

a free agent, right, free agent to Los Angeles. Odell was traded, I believe. Von was traded, I believe. You have to convince these players that want to come to L.A. and want to play there, and it worked this year so far, Gabe. I don't think it's a blueprint for the future, though. Because think about this. How many teams are going to get a Hall of Fame defensive end,

potentially a Hall of Fame cornerback? I don't know if Ramsey stacks up to that yet, but he's very good. All pro cornerbacks. A Hall of Fame talented wide receiver. Odell's not going to the Hall of Fame, but the talent is there, right? And you add Matt Stafford, who most likely with this, if they win in two weeks, probably in the Hall of Fame at some point. That's hard to do, to add all four of those guys

as they did to the existing roster you already had. And it was impressive that they've done this, and it worked. It rarely works, but it worked this time. I think it does pay off in two weeks with the Super Bowl. All right. Well, it scares me a little. Even though I'm rooting for the Rams, it scares me a little that we could just every offseason see every guy with something left in the tank goes to one place and tries to win there. I hope that doesn't become how football works.

win there. I just I hope that doesn't become how football works. Speaking of old guys who are just trying to win and we can't figure out what motivates them any longer beyond championships. We haven't talked about Tom Brady yet. So we will do that when we move the line or a little over under game. Jeff, get a cup of coffee or something because this this one might not be pretty. We'll be back in a second. All right, welcome back, Jeff. i see you taking a big gulp of coffee that's good um you're gonna be caffeinated for this one um we haven't talked tom brady so we got to do it over under 40 chance tom brady plays another full season of football just because he didn't get to announce his own retirement adam schefter beat him to it what are the chances he has a spite season okay so saturday uh this came out about

2 30 eastern the tom brady and i saw first of all the text either came from i think it was nick or hank one of our producers um i think nick has actually moved up in the world now on the job titles i don't know what his title is now at the company. But I think they said, Gabe, like, your day has finally come. Without even knowing the news, I was like, Tom Brady retired. It went right to Twitter. Tom Brady had announced his retirement. But he did not announce it.

Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington at ESPN announced it. Later on, Ian Rapport of NFL Network confirmed the reporting. I think he's retiring. Ian Rapport of NFL Network confirmed the reporting. I think he's retiring. The question I have is, who told Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington to where they were comfortable writing the story if Tom wasn't ready to announce it now?

Like, who would that have been? Was it Tom himself? Was it his wife? No. Was it his agent? Was it Alex Guerrero? Was it the Bucs?ucs like who if Tom Brady wasn't ready to announce it now who leaked it out or maybe he wanted it out there for some odd reason to eventually announce his retirement in a couple weeks obviously he's he's not due money he already gets the money he has to give back money if he retires before February 4th,

I believe. He's getting his signing bonus. He has to give back money. When you retire early sometimes, before your contract is done, you have to give back money based on prorated signing bonuses. But I think he's retiring, Gabe. I really do. You don't think so, though. No chance in hell this guy is retiring. He will only leave on his terms i'm sure he's contemplated it i'm sure he's had a discussion with his inner circle whatever the hell that means a bunch of crooks and liars that he surrounds himself with but it's clear to me he's not done playing football he just had one of the better seasons of his life and gets full control over who they bring in next year to help him. So I don't see any reason why from a football perspective, why he would retire.

Oh, I can give, I can give you a couple. You want to hear them? I'd love to hear it. I'm praying that he retires. This would be the greatest day of my life. So, well, the Bucs team is a lot of free agents. They're gonna look a lot different next season, but let's talk about him. Okay. So you have two options, right? You can retire now, healthy, off a great season. You've won seven titles. different next season but let's talk about about him okay so you have two options right you can retire now healthy off a great season you've won seven titles walk away or you walk away

off on a on a cart getting injured but those are basically your two options like you rarely guys walk away as they get older without getting hurt because he want to be big ben eli manning barely able to throw the ball getting beat up all the time or does he want to leave the game now as a seven-time champion healthy walks off the field with his head high he'll always walk off the field his head high but the idea of not being hurt i remember when i when i got hurt my eighth year i broke my leg again i got card i didn't get caught off the field, but I was done playing. I go to the Lions and I could have taken a, there's an, it's called like an injury protection insurance type of thing.

I don't know what the exact wording is in NFL. So you get a certain amount of money up to like 40% of your contract and then no more than when I was playing like a million two, okay? Based off your next year deal. 40% of your next year's contract up to $1.2 million if you are hurt in a game and cannot play a game because of your injury, okay? I could have qualified for that. I could have taken, I could have had my doctor fail my physical with my ankle, walked off in the sunset, got a $1.2 million insurance policy. Could have done that. I should have done that. Okay. Wait for why you didn't do that,

but okay. Well, I mean, I could have made nearly the same amount just playing that season. But in my mind, I did not want to end my career being injured i thought i still had a year left maybe two years i went to detroit i thought i'm gonna make the team i'm gonna be healthy but i really wasn't they cut me but i didn't leave the game injured i was healthy when i walked off the field in detroit of course i could have used a million dollars that would have been nice but my point is like players think like that players want to end their career healthy and Tom Brady has to do that now but I thought the TB12 method of eating you know nothing but like plant protein and and never touching tomatoes or caffeine I thought that that would be good

enough I thought you could live to 150 if you just followed him and his wacky trainers methods why is he scared of getting hurt i mean and by the way the logic i get it i hear what you're saying but remember everyone said the guy was dead when he threw a pick six to supposedly end his career the last time in new england and you know what he did he said f you all i'm gonna come back and show you what i can still do and he won a freaking super bowl so he doesn't learn the same lesson other people learn. Yeah, I know.

I don't think, I think he knows his team is gonna be much different next year and probably not gonna happen. All right. Can I pose a couple other crazier theories at you? Yes. One, he just did this to toy with the media because he's sick of the media talking about him and basically investigating him

and looking into him over the last two decades. And he hates them and he loved rubbing it in their face Because it wasn't just the guys you mentioned. It was also Locken for it NFL Network, somebody who knows something blasted out a text to a bunch of guys called insiders that happened. Who did it, though? I have no idea. I have no idea who they would just go to air with that. That wasn't Tom Brady. But it was somebody damn close to him. that wasn't Tom Brady, but it was somebody damn close to him. So did he do it to toy with them? It sounds crazy, but Tom Brady has done some crazy things. There's the idea that he did this to get revenge because of the flake it.

Or any of the number of stories that these guys have had to write over the years about how they cheated. I don't think he would do that. Okay. So it's possible. How about let's cross a couple other weird ones off the list. Could he be angling to go take Jimmy G's job in San Francisco because he knows that's the next easy place to win? No. I mean, the South is much easier to win than the West. I don't think he's doing that. Plus, he's still under contract, right? So he'd have to be traded.

Well, couldn't this be like a Favre situation where you retire and then you come back and you're allowed to sign? I think he had to still give competition to the Packers when that happened. Well, okay. But if Tom wants freedom from Tampa Bay, which looks like a nightmare these days, couldn't he retire, sit some certain amount of time and then come back? Yeah, he'd have to sit a year, which he's not going to do. No, no. I actually, I think you, I think no matter what, they own your rights until you come back and play for them for a year. Okay. Last crazy theory then. So the first couple are a no. Could this be somehow angling to get himself back to New England?

I don't think so. Okay. So you think the most likely scenario is on his terms with his own stupid Instagram post. He does retire sometime after February 4th. We're done with him forever. He's never coming back and we can all rest easy. That's what you really think is happening. He's going to have some like Tom Brady, a big Bitcoin token or some NFT thing that's going to piss you off when he retires. But yes, I think he's done playing football. Yeah. Okay. I'll take it. I'll take that. I don't believe it. I will not believe it. I want to say for the record, I've had two predictions go right for me this weekend. One, I said an LA team would make the Super Bowl. I said that before the season

started. You laughed at me, but it happened. And I said the second I saw that tweet, this is too good to be true. And I kept saying, this isn't real. Don't fall for it. And then, of course, it wasn't real yet. So I've been right a couple of times recently. Jeff, number two here, over under 70% chance that Matt Stafford starting in the Super Bowl and Eminem performing at halftime is the closest that Detroit ever gets to a Super Bowl. Oh, man. Lions fans are rooting for him, right? Got to be. I think he's one of those guys that you still wear the Stafford jersey and are rooting for him. I would say so. Yeah. I mean, they're not getting any. Man, Josiah Johnson is the best follow on Twitter. And he put the image of Eminem from 8 Mile in his car. He's like, just Jared Goff watching the Rams get back to Super Bowl again.

It just was a perfect tweet. The halftime show is going to be great, right? Just Dre, Eminem, Mary, Kendrick Lamar, and there's one more, right? Snoop. Snoop. Snoop. Oh, geez. If Hologram Tupac shows up, and there's one more, right? Snoop. Snoop, Snoop. Oh, geez. If Hologram Tupac shows up, the internet's going to be over. If Hologram Tupac shows up?

I mean. Oh, the real, the real Tupac show up? Yeah, that's where I'm going. After my Tom Brady theories, I'm predicting Tupac resurrection. No, I think there's an absolute certainty that a Tupac hologram for California Love is the closer. That song is not that good. What? Dude. California Love is not the best. It's like number 27 of songs they've done together.

So full disagree. Allow other people to complain in your mentions. Did you know California Love is a sample of a Joe Cocker song? No your mentions did you know california love is a sample of a joe cocker song no i did not know that interesting i was listening to a tiktok video the other day of all these current songs that i just only know based off tiktok and they're all sample of songs when we grew up as kids in the 90s like all all the rap songs, all R&B songs now are all sampled off songs we liked as a kid. So it was cool to watch. Which probably, by the way, is the case for everything Dre made when we were kids.

Oh, 100%. It was all samples of, you know, funk and R&B from his childhood. All right. Over under 10 and a half minutes of Pro Bowl action, Jeff and I watched combined this weekend. Skills challenge included. 10 and a half minutes combined.

What day is this on? Don't know. Tell us what we're going to watch. I think it's, wait, Nick's is Thursday skills? I'm not. Here's, Jeff, so you can help answer this. 10 and a half minutes. I will not be allowed to watch any of this.

Well, I might have it on the background, but, like, will I actually pay attention? I mean, Mac Jones is in the Pro Bowl, for God's sakes. I don't even know, like, what? There's some fun events. Fastest Man. They're going to have, like, sprinting competitions. I will probably take a break from football this weekend before, events fastest man they're gonna have like sprinting competition i didn't even i will probably take a break from football this weekend um before because next week in la i'm gonna be

on la dude it's gonna be like it's gonna be a long couple of days i'm okay i'm already dreading like the travel it's not a logistically great city for a super bowl well i mean you know the city as well as anyone there's ways around some of those problems. What ways around? Are you going to get me a helicopter to take me from Manhattan Beach back to downtown LA? That sounds nice. Yeah. I don't have that money. It's just

going to be what it is. How about this? We currently have two hotel reservations. We have one in Santa Monica for Thursday through Sunday because my wife's coming to town and one in downtown. We're probably going to keep both and just go back and forth between hotels and then have my parents' house to do laundry at

because there's events in Santa Monica, there's events in downtown, there's events in Manhattan Beach. I don't want to drive from Manhattan Beach all the way back to downtown LA at midnight on Thursday. I'm with you, buddy. I have not yet looked into any of the parties i'm not planning on being much of an attendee this time around even though i live in the city uh if you need a place to crash after a long night come over to the goodwin household we wake up early warning three kids yelling pretty early how early are we going

there we're in the sixes it's oh yeah my kids wake up at 6.30, but I'll be before because I'm on East Coast time. I never really get settled in. I think we're seeing each other. A couple Mondays from now, we're doing it in person after the Super Bowl. I will be down in the office. Hopefully, we have better audio than the last time we were there. Stop bringing it up.

Matt will be there. We're going to have a little party. We'll have a little blue duck party. All right. A couple more quickies here before we wrap up. Odell Beckham Sr., over-under, plus 400 for Exec of the Year. Any chance he gets it? He did some great work. He deserves, like, a present from his kid.

I don't know what it is. Maybe a Super Bowl ring is the present. He did good. I saw some salty media member in Cleveland that was like, Odell, this is the new future. Just like stop whining. Odell did what he had to do and now he's in the Super Bowl. And the Rams might not be there without Odell either.

Yeah. I mean, it's time for Cleveland to get over it. He broke up with you guys. He found somebody he's happy with. Move on. I want to know, well well we've already talked about cigars and the fact that i think they're overrated and you love them so we saw joe burrow and his dad and jamar chase and his dad everybody's smoking cigars that's going to be tedious if they win the

super bowl how much cigar talk we're going to have to do um but let's uh let's talk about this obj of course got known for wearing a very fancy watch on the field a couple years ago and everyone freaked out now rafael nadal did the same he wore a, I'm sure I'm not saying this correctly, but a million dollar Richard Millet watch. Okay. Let me just tell you, I'm glad you're shaking your head the way you are. I'm sick of sports being taken over by multi-million dollar like jewelry and designer brands. I don't care about Joe Burrow's glasses. I don't care about some player's expensive watch. It's obnoxious. I'm not interested if the diamonds are real or not. Like I get it. These guys are rich. Why do we have to be so blown away by the things they waste their money on i'm not a watch

person at all i'm not a jewelry person i don't wear my wedding ring because i just don't like i don't like jewelry it is so i was wondering like my wife and i went to dinner this this past weekend it was the first time we had dinner in forever because there was nothing to do saturday night finally and like she has all her rings on like her band her diamond and all that stuff i'm just like ringless do people look think like we're like not together? I've always wondered that. Um, I don't know.

I think a lot of married guys don't wear rings anymore. I just don't, I just don't like the feel of it. I know where it is. At least I think I know where it is around the house. So I'm not like a watch person. My brother is, my brother would love,

my brother like does watch videos. Like he, my brother probably has like mid six my brother probably has mid six figures amount of watches like value of watches in this possession it's a watch guy dude like who cares who's impressed who sees that and is like whoa man cool to me it's like people who do see it and are think it's cool are the last people on earth I want to hang out with. Yeah. I mean, my brother is that type of person.

I guess I don't. I'm sorry, Jeff. I don't want to hang with your brother, I guess. I'm talking about Mitch doing that too. He'll wear like Nike sweatpants, a Chiefs hoodie, and a $50,000 Rolex. Yeah. That's weird to me. Yeah.

Not my jam, but he probably thinks, my brother probably thinks recording a podcast with you is not the coolest thing. I'm sure he would think this is a complete waste of time. All right. Well, look, and he has a Super Bowl ring. He does. And I have nothing but podcast money. You have a tile of my podcast behind you.

There it is. No, I'm not a watch person, man. I have no idea. Not my thing. well uh obviously we're gonna spend the next two weeks talking about the super bowl but specifically betting you got thursday to start talking about your bets i don't know how you and matt are gonna put it all together but plenty to bet uh preview with us and then we'll be back like you said yeah uh next monday normal the monday after the super bowl we'll do together in person we hope and a lot of fun football talk for the next few weeks yeah and then i think we're

gonna do a little bit of uh we'll do a little college basketball probably before march madness we've got some fun things we'll just draft drafts coming up soon man we'll start doing some draft stuff um it is it's uh you know what what 30 teams right now are focused on the draft new coaching hires. We're going to go over all those as we move forward. Josh McDaniels to the Raiders. Maybe we'll do that with Matt on Wednesday or Thursday. We'll go over all the new coaching hires as well.

We'll do some fun odds with those. All right, guys. We're part of the Varsity Podcast Network. We appreciate everything. Please rate, review, subscribe. And Bengals Rams. Who would have thought? But that's what we have now,

and it should be a good game in a couple weekends. All right, guys, talk to you on Thursday. Take care, everybody.