Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Pat Mahomes Gets a Significant Raise

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

Geoff & Gabe are back to — like the rest of the NFL world — put together the pieces of Pat Mahomes' record-shattering 10-year extension. How will Kansas City build around him? Later, we'll discuss why players want to skip the preseason entirely and college football turning to splash shields. Pat Mahomes: (0:38) Skipping preseason: (15:04) Splash shields: (26:45) 'Move the Line': (36:23) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Believe that this is our moment. Ain't no better time to be great than today. Believe in each other. Play together. Play fast. And let's go dominate the game, baby. Let's go playmakers on three. One, two, three. It's Tuesday, July 7th. Pat Mahomes has signed the richest NFL contract of all time. Players want to skip the preseason entirely, and we'll tell you why. Sneeze guards on helmets is a bad idea. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz of Smartly.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July. As we get closer to football, I think, Gabe, my confidence meter has gone way down, but my confidence meter in the Chiefs is way high. They signed Pamela Holmes, the richest contract of all time,licting reports of what the actual deal may or may not be, but we know he has two years left on his rookie contract. They tacked on 10 more years at approximately $500 million. $500 million. I can't even get it out of my mouth.

It's so much money. The exact structure of the deal, I can't even get it out of my mouth. It's so much money. The exact structure of the deal, we don't quite know. There's conflicting reports on what it is. Schefter reported 140 million injury guarantees, which is actually kind of very low, because it really makes it a four-year deal for 140 that Ian Rapport tweeted out that he has $477 million in guarantee mechanisms, which is basically like a roster bonus of sorts, right?

If he's on the team March 5th, let's say, of 2021, then 2022 is fully guaranteed. Obviously, that's going to be down the line, but that's the best example to show you about what I mean. It's a monster deal. He deserves it. Gabe probably will disagree, but go ahead, buddy. No, I don't disagree. And I guess all I want to bring up is that I hate days like today on Twitter because we should be celebrating that our favorite player in the NFL and the defending champs got the biggest contract in sports history. It should be an exciting, fun time to talk about how great of a football player he is and the Chiefs dynasty potential, et cetera, et cetera.

And instead, everyone I follow turns into an NFL insider, an agent, a salary cap expert, a frigging fortune teller. Everyone thinks they know best what the Pat Mahomes should do. And the take that drives me crazy, and I see a lot of it, is, oh man, bad deal for him. He signed a long-term deal. He's costing himself money. Oh man, why did he do such a thing? Okay, that's pretty easy for you guys to say when you're gambling his money. He just locked up 100 million plus guaranteed dollars. He was going to make like two or three next year. He got 100 million plus. This will change his family forever. So what if maybe

in 2030, he could have made a little bit more? He's set to make a half a billion dollars. How could this possibly be presented as a bad thing? I hate it when people say that somebody changing their life is a bad thing. Well, I think initially there was thought that, and this is the thing with how Twitter works, right? Is we kind of, the stories leak out, right? So first it was he signed a 10-year deal. Then it was, well, actually it's more of a 12-year deal because you tack on the two that he already has. Well, then is he getting a percent of the salary cap,

which we'll discuss in a second. That's actually a really interesting way to set up a contract. And then it was like, well, he really only got, you know, a 10-year deal for 450 million which oh my which which look in theory though if that was true and it might still be um in year like six or seven that's probably going to be cheap for a quarterback but nonetheless it's what it is and then now we have the final deal supposedly 10-year deal 503 million. And I am so happy when players sign because this game is absolutely brutal.

I know best. I've been hurt so many times in the NFL and every player should strive for as much money as they can get. They should never take a hometown discount. And in this case, obviously, it appears that Pat did not take a hometown discount. I mean, maybe in year nine, he has a hometown discount,

but right now it's not. And he should should he should get all the money in the world because he is the best quarterback in the nfl right now so i'm so happy for pat i'm happy the chiefs have locked up their guy it makes me really like giddy inside seeing players have this much money and no i do not get jealous only i do get jealous about game with these deals is that I want private jet wealth. Like I can just fly in a private plane. This is private jet wealth. Like Pat will never fly commercial again. And that's what I'm jealous about.

I'm jealous about that. That's it. That's it. Otherwise, I'm so happy he got his deal. I feel like you're responding to some Twitter mentions when you're bringing up jealousy. I don't know that anyone's worried about you being jealous. You've got that lovely pool completed in your backyard. You've got a good life, Jeff.

Well, okay, so let me ask you this. Is it possible, let's just say that the people who are pouring water on this and saying it wasn't a great deal for Pat, he's silly, he could have made more in years eight through whatever of this deal. I'm going to kind of disregard them and say, can't it just be that he's playing on the team he wants to play for with the guys he wants to play with that he has the chance to build a dynasty like we've never seen before that he realizes because firsthand that even this season

almost didn't happen for him he was injured he missed games then he played hurt okay they have this magical run and here he is, not sure if the next season will even happen. Okay? Couldn't it just be that he said, hey man, bird in the hand, better than two in the bush. And this bird happens to be worth

a hundred plus million in guaranteed money and a half a billion in a decade. So I'm with you here. I actually thought as we got closer to the season and a season that we might not have, and we'll discuss that in a little bit, that it made sense for pat to do this deal now instead of waiting because you know the salary cap essentially might go down next year i think there's going to be some finessing of the salary cap to get it back to where it could be i don't think we're going to see

nine percent growth uh this year i think we're going to see them borrowing from the future to pay for this for next year, basically the year after that. I think after that, it'll be fine. New TV money will come in and hopefully, you know, in a couple of years, the pandemic is over and we've gone back to life and everything is back to the way it was. So I do think that was smart for him to sign now. That's why the percent to the cap deal, which is what people said, was very interesting to me because, you know, right now I think he'll put he's getting, you know, he'll get like almost 20% of the cap, basically, almost. I mean, he's getting a lot of money in that cap. And that's about the top of the market,

I think. If you look at quarterbacks, I think Rodgers is in like the 18% range. But if you did it on cap numbers, then he could just make exponentially a lot of money, right? I mean, in year five, six, seven, he could be making $60 million a year, $65 million a year. But the risk was the next couple of years, he wasn't. The next couple of years, he could have gone down with the cap. So I like the way they did it this way. It provides just, to your point about security, for a player, and really, if a quarterback's a little different because you really don't change teams, right?

If you're good, you just stay on the the team forever but there is a peace of mind knowing you're locked up for now at least probably six more years like he knows he's got two years on his rookie deal left plus those four injury guaranteed years like he knows for six years now i have a home i have a city i can settle down i'm sure he has a house um you know i can get married i can have kids like he knows where he's going house. You know, I can get married. I can have kids. Like, he knows where he's going to be. And that's such a peace of mind for players. It makes them play faster and quicker with more ease, knowing that you are set up for life, right?

I mean, I remember when I signed my deal with the Giants. Like, it was great. I was set up for life. And I earned that contract. It took me seven years, excuse me, six years to get it. Pat has earned this deal as well. The one question I have is if you're a Chiefs fan, Gabe, how many Super Bowls can you expect to win more?

How many more between now, 2020 season, and let's just say it plays out to 2031? How many Super Bowls is realistic, do you think? Well, I mean, you know me. I'm the guy who's always scared of the Patriots. I can't, you know, go to sleep without having nightmares of them. So you got to figure the Patriots or the Ravens or some team that hasn't sort of built itself up yet, like the Broncos or whoever might be the team in a few years, will steal a few. But I have to imagine they think two are available to

them in the next decade, which would mean he'd get three rings in the span of about 10 years, which by NFL standards is insane. Let's not compare him to this totally lucky, freakish run that Tom Brady's been on, which lasted almost 20 years. If he can get three rings for Kansas City in a decade, that's got to be considered peak Hall of Fame status. I think two is the number, in my opinion. Two is the number where you'd feel really good. So let me see, they've won three in Kansas City, right? Including last season. But if you look at the NFL in the last 20 years,

let's throw Tom Brady out because that's just not realistic, in my opinion. You have the best coach, and Andy Reid's a fabulous coach. You have a great system, obviously. You have the defense that he had, all that stuff. They had two separate dynasties. They had the first dynasty, they won three and four.

Then they lost the Giants at seven, lost the Giants at 11, and then won three of five, I think, to end his time, Tom Brady's time. That, in my opinion, is never going to happen again. We're not going to have a 20-year run in the NFL where you go to nine Super Bowls, okay? So I think realistically, you're looking at two more wins and probably go to three or four of them. If you look at, you know, in this era,

you know, Peyton Manning went to four. Big Ben's been to three, I believe. I think he lost one, right, to the Packers. He lost one to the Packers, I believe. So he's been to three. That's it, right? Like, that's Eli went to two and won two. Like, you don't get to Super Bowl

it's hard to do that it's so hard the injuries in this league the attrition and Pat is going to outlive uh outlive in football terms Travis Kelsey Tyree Kill my brother Eric Fisher Frank Clark maybe not Chris Jones but Tyron Matthew like he's gonna outplay these guys. So they're going to have to find replacements for these players as they retire, get cut, move on. And so the Chiefs front office now is going to have to go to work. They're going to have to draft really, really well. And they're going to have to pick up free agents in spots where they need to add to the roster. And so you're going to start seeing this is a big year. This is the year where they kind of have to win it.

Like they're going for it this year, right? And then I think after this year, we're going to start seeing, this is a big year. This is the year where they kind of have to win it. Like they're going for it this year, right? And then I think after this year, we're going to start seeing a couple changes on their roster because they just can't pay everybody. You really can't pay all the guys they're paying. So I think Chiefs fans, two Super Bowls is very realistic to win between now and 2031. Three or four appearances, probably about right.

And also too, and and this discussion Andy Reid has got to be coaching him for next 10 years which I don't know if Andy's gonna coach for that long he said he wants to coach Pat's entire career but that's a lot of years left yeah but this also sets itself up well for Eric Biennium taking over and just sort of like it being the Mahomes Biennium team right I mean once they've got a dynasty in place and they figured out who the guys who are irreplaceable are and who are the moving parts you know the the the Brady Pats figured out who had to be around and it was a few guys on the line and a few key guys on defense they had to you know have some continuity but

the other guys were all interchangeable even some of of the stars. So once they, once they get it figured out, maybe Andy can move off. I was going to ask you about that. How restrictive is this money? If we're talking between 15 and 20% of their overall cap, as we see it right now, does it make it hard for them to get the types of pieces they need? You know, remember the beauty of this team was the quarterback was the best player in the league and he was relatively cheap. We always compared it to the Warriors with Steph Curry. team was the quarterback was the best player in the league and he was relatively cheap we always compared it to the Warriors with Steph Curry he was the best player in the league and he was pretty cheap does this blow that up well I mean we'll find out this year because I don't know what the cap number will be this year but we have not seen quarterbacks with huge cap numbers win Super Bowls we just haven't I mean I think though I don't know when the last time it

was I mean Tom Brady doesn't have a huge cap number um it wasn't carson wentz and nick foals um it wasn't pat mahomes last year right i mean like it just that has not been the case and so but but the chiefs they have guys under contract right now which is hugely important they don't have chris jones under contract well they franchised them um and so that's all my point about kind of making it work this year it's important because um you know tyree kill is going to want money calisthenics want more money guys are going to start wanting money a lot of money and um it's just not going to be there and so again they have to do really well drafting the thing about you mentioned the patriots in interchangeable parts that's just how their defense was like the

the defense was spags it's not like interchangeable like you can't just kind of like swap out Frank Clark for someone who's not as good as Frank Clark it needs to have a pass rusher like Frank Clark the Patriots were able to get by because they have a genius running their defense and they're able to kind of move these interchangeable parts back and forth so So the Chiefs, I don't think, have that capability to be so interchangeable. All right. Well, this is why you explain how things work here. And I just sort of say conventional wisdom. Thank you for correcting me.

I want to throw this joke at you, but it's kind of not totally a joke. This is from our buddy, Cousin Sal. He said, Jerry Jones currently moving at a furious pace to cut Dak Prescott's internet and phone service. This has no bearing on Dak Prescott, right? I mean, come on. Well, I mean, he can't possibly think this relates to him. His agent's going to try to do it that way.

But nobody thinks they're in the same category and nobody thinks their money should be comparable. No, I agree. But we know that what you get paid is typically based off what the last guy got paid at your position. And this obviously will be something his agents will fight for. He's not going to get $45 million, but it might have upped his price to like 37 and a half range, which Dallas is kind of stuck. They're going to have to pay it, but they shouldn't.

Well, God bless. I mean, get your money, Dak, but this should not have any bearing on what he's worth. And I would just say one more point, and maybe i'm getting hung up on this but i just really everyone just chill man like you're the you're the drunk guy leaning over the blackjack table right now telling the guy to split tens like no man take a winning hand be happy go to the buffet enjoy your night pat like all these other people say oh man year 2027 you could have made twice as much look at the way the cap works like we don't even we can't even predict football will happen this year like just get paid get paid yeah our great producer zuri drops this nugget here over the last 10 years of teams whose quarterbacks have had the highest salary cap number have missed the

playoffs eight times well because it makes it really hard to get the rest of the other 52 guys paid the right way and put a roster together. Injuries and attrition. I mean, it's all part of this. Look, and the Ravens are really good still. Like the Ravens, we'll get to them in a little bit. But they're really good, man. So, you know, this will be a fun conference to watch for years to come.

Yeah, well, let's hope we get to watch. That gets us to the next topic. What we thought was kind of going to be the first thing we discussed today until this deal came together right before the show started. So, no other way to say it. NFL players are starting to push back hard on playing this season without some big plans put in place. The NFL has been pretty quiet with details the last few weeks. We know they want to get the season going, but they haven't really shared with

the teams exactly what that means. So now players through their union have proposed a few things, canceling all four preseason games. Um, they want to come back to camp in a few weeks, but not have 11 V 11 drills, um, have 20 or fewer players in the facility at one time, like basically come up with a lot more safety protocols and practice a lot less. Basically, let's focus on the games and nothing else is what the players seem to be saying. Coaches, meanwhile, today are meeting to talk about how the hell are we going to make that work to be safe, but also to be fair. So we all follow the same rules. I don't want to call it a mess but it's starting to feel like they're only getting to the hard part now and this was stuff i wish they'd figured

out a few weeks ago where's your head on this well i think they had an idea of what they wanted to do and then coronavirus cases spiked across the country and things changed very quickly which is kind of where we are right now my thought of this is a couple things one is it it does appear they want to play right both sides want to play, right? Both sides want to play. I think the Goats want to play and the players want to play. They want to do it the safest way possible. And we're seeing that in other sports, guys just aren't playing, right? We're seeing that baseball guys are not playing.

And in basketball, guys have opted out. I do not think we'll see a lot of NFL players opt out, no matter what ends up being the protocols for this season. I do think a player like Freddie Freeman, the Braves' first baseman, who's been healthy in his entire life, his entire career, has COVID. He's symptomatic.

He has issues right now. So I wonder if that's giving players pause and why they want to put in more protocols for the season. So there's a lot to break down here. But I'll just say off the top, it does feel like the players are trying to use this to not play the preseason a little bit. I hate saying that, but I just, I look, the three questions I have when it comes to all the protocols they want in place, specifically the practice stuff, not like the, not the temperature checks, not the protocols. Like if you test positive, what happens, which they've kind of leaked out, or negative or asymptomatic. That doesn't seem to be any of the issues.

The players don't seem to have concerns about how they're testing, what that process is going to be, how that works. They're worried about just being in contact with each other more often than not. So a couple of things here. One is that do they want the preseason, which they really want to have a ramp up period for three weeks, but basically a two week period of practice with no pads and then eight padded practices before week one with no preseason, obviously, no preseason games.

So a couple of things that I wonder here. One is that, is this an issue of just COVID? I don't want to get sick. The less contact I have with people on my team, the other teams, the less chance I have to get sick. Is it two, that I don't think I'm going to be physically in shape to play.

We need to have a long ramp up here to get me physically in shape to play. Or three, you know, we're going to use the leverage to not play the preseason, which I think it's a combo of all those. I think it's more two and three. I think guys are worried about being in shape to play but i'll say this 2011 game in the lockout we had a full preseason full preseason and i worry that

they're scaling back too much that'll actually lead to injuries so football for a lot of positions you actually have to hit each other in practice. Offense, defensive line, linebacker, tight end, maybe safety, wide receivers and corners, go ahead. You don't have to hit each other. But you do have to feel like some sort of contact in practice because that gets your body used to being hit at weird angles. It gets your body used to the stress of being pounded on. It gets your body used to the actions you're going to see on Sunday.

And the less time you have doing that, the more susceptible, susceptible in my opinion you are to getting injured on game day and I know a lot of starters don't play in the preseason anymore but they play a little bit a little bit right just something something get used to to move in full speed again Joe Thomas once said the longtime Browns left tackle who'll be a future hall of famer he needed only 10 practices to get ready well they only have eight padded practices now so even for a guy like Joe Thomas, this will not be enough to get a Hall of Famer ready to play. Yeah. So like, I just think it's not enough practices to get players ready to go. I'm really worried we're going to have a ton more injuries because players want this extended ramp up period. Yeah. And like you said, let's assume that it's more about preferring not

to practice than just being genuinely scared of getting COVID. If that's their fear, then they're perfectly welcome to that fear and we should all honor it. But it does seem a little bit foolish to avoid practice. And I'm going to throw this at you because you often speak up for the guys sort of in the bottom third of the roster. It also seems a little bit selfish by the bigger name guys who know their spot is safe, doesn't it? I mean, when you watch Hard Knocks, it always seems like, man, that 53rd spot is going to be decided in week three and four of the preseason. It does. Your performance in those games matters for the guys who aren't making $10 million a year.

So is it unfair to them if they miss that chance? it definitely is unfair to them it really is um you know i've talked a lot about roster construction on this podcast because i think we overvalue competition in that word and the way we talk about rosters but you're absolutely right the final couple games of the preseason are very important to the back-end roster guys it's only important about 10 guys guys not all 37 of them it's just 10 and maybe it's six in week four but those are important reps that you're not going to have now um this is going to hamper rookies preparing for this season imagine if you're a rookie and you get eight pad of practices and offense alignment and then you have to go play week one against you know you know

um jj watt or von miller. You're going to get toasted. You're going to get destroyed. So I understand what the players are trying to do. But look, if you... Testing is not where I thought it would be by now. I thought testing would be like you get tested, you get a result back, and you move on. It's clearly not.

The baseball players yesterday were talking about how they just can't even get their test results back. Baseball had to cancel some workouts because they didn't have results back after three days. I think even someone said up to a week, they didn't get results back. I thought we'd have results back like now. But let's say in the next couple of weeks, we get some technology that allows us to do that much quicker. You know, if you test everybody in the facility and they test negative as they walk in the door, then why can't you just practice? Like, why can't you continue doing what you normally do if you assume everyone is just healthy?

Now, I know there's, look, I know it doesn't manifest for a couple of days. So there might be a concern there. I know that, you know, some tests are faulty. But like in theory, if people are in the facility, they are deemed to be healthy. And you should be able to practice, I think, pretty much normally if everyone is healthy. We're getting into the real hypotheticals here, but I know this came up. There was like a player's conversation about all the various rules they want and what the sort of unintended consequences might be. And if I have this right, Philip Rivers, who's, you know, still in the league somehow,

he raised a question on this NFLPA call last week. And it was basically this. If a player tests positive for COVID-19 during Super Bowl week, like one game left to go, but that player is asymptomatic, so they aren't like putting their body in any huge risk by playing, would they still have no choice but to sit based on the rules that they want in place for the whole rest of the season you know they want to seclude guys and make sure everyone stays healthy and not let it be a huge breakout but if it gets down to the super bowl and the quarterback gets it but feels fine

can he just say screw it and they go for it well you know we would let a guy do that he would let a guy play with a lot of injuries if it came down to the super bowl we've talked about this what if someone tested positive saturday and the team just withheld it like pat mahomes test positive they just withheld it from pat and told monday obviously to be open for liability if anyone found out but the player would have to sit like that's that's what the season is we have looked for football to be back on the nfl side game we have to get used to being basically uncomfortable with the way things are going to happen if you're a player you have to be uncomfortable like it's just not gonna be your routine is gonna be we are very routine based individuals right we wake up at the same

time we show up at the same time i showed up between 6 35 to 6 40 in the morning i went to the bathroom i got breakfast i got my treatment got a meeting. Like very regimented schedule, right? We're going to have to be very flexible with when we show up probably, when we work out, how we do meetings, how we travel, how we shower,

how we take a poop. Like all those things are going to have to be very regimented, excuse me, be different than our normal regiment. And coaches are the same way. GMs, front office, it's all going to be different this year.

And we have to get comfortable with that idea that it is going to be different. And I hope that they understand. I feel like they don't quite, the players at least, don't really understand that it is going to be very, very different. I hope they do. I think some do. I'm not sure they really grasp the concessions they're going to have to make to make this work. I'm not getting the feeling that that many guys

get it. Some do, obviously, but too many guys are testing positive and too many guys are doing things that are deemed risky for me to think that they get what's going to have to change. And you said it, others have said it. I noticed it over the weekend on Twitter. You know, look, we all want football back, but we're going to have to be realistic. Football only gets to come back if the country is in a better place, which means everyone has to step up and do a little bit better job. You know, like that's just a reality. That's not a political stance. That's just the fact that if you want the thing you love and we all want it, we've just got to be a little bit better at this. Period. Players, fans, everybody. Sean Doolittle, the Washington Nationals, is he a pitcher? I think he's a pitcher. He said that... Or a doctor. I'm not sure.

Yeah. He said that sports are a reward for basically a functioning society and that he doesn't believe we're functioning at a high level. We're not. We're absolutely not. So he's absolutely correct. And something that I've said for a while now, too, is that sports do feel like they would be a reward for functioning properly. And we're not there right now. And so we're going to battle through it, though.

I mean, we're going to find a way to play, I think, in the NFL and just get through it. I mean, look, I think the suggestion, like, go to Canada. I mean, Canada is looking pretty good right now. I mean, why don't they just move up? They have football stadiums. Just repaint them for the NFL. Is that a bad idea? Well, I mean, I think there's some people who'd like to move to Canada for other reasons.

But no, I mean, it's not a bad idea if Canada will let us in. I'm not so sure they want to take that problem on. They got things under control up there. They're letting hockey go up there. Hockey's going to do their little bubble up there. Yeah. Well, they like hockey a lot more than they like football. I think it might be worth the risk for them with hockey.

Would we let a bunch of hockey teams down into America and putting us us at risk i don't think so i don't think no i mean there's states that are like we're open come come for who cares positive test positive test whatever come come play come come do what you want to do um and that leads me by the way right into college football because oh boy oh the old the old jeff schwartz positive positivity meter is not very high on this one. No, and unfortunately, if we're starting to go dark and doomsday, I think it's about to get worse. So you mentioned college football. Yeah, so that's sort of a state by state thing, right? And a lot of the schools are tied to their state government.

So I'm going to just spell it out. I think it's great that college football is really trying hard to preserve a season that is looking more and more doubtful. They're coming up with some creative ways. The Ivy League is considering playing its football season in the spring. I know you have thoughts on that. And then a lot of teams, I think 60 plus D1 teams, big programs, the ones we watch every Saturday, not the Ivy League. every Saturday, not the Ivy League, they're going to install this thing by Shutt called the Splash Shield, which is basically a face mask around your mouth where normally you just have the bars. So it's basically plexiglass where your mouth is

to keep the COVID droplets from spreading around. And this is the new big idea for how to keep players a little bit safer and healthier. So no bad ideas in a brainstorm. Got to give it a shot. But I have a feeling you have doubts about this helping anything. Well, the reason why you have to wear the splash guard,

let's say the spit guard, is because there's going to be no uniformity in college football this year. There's going to be, every conference will have their own testing protocols. They'll have their own way to deal with this. They'll have their own way to report it. They'll have their own way to travel.

And the NCAA has bowed out. They're letting everyone figure this out on their own way to deal with this. They'll have their own way to report it. They'll have their own way to travel. And the NCAA has bowed out. They're letting everyone figure this out on their own. Every state will have different regulations. Some will have fans. Some will not. It's going to be an absolute shit show. And I do think that they're going to play. Some teams will play.

I don't know how many will play. I don't know if all of them will play. I don't know what time they're going to play. But some will play. I don't know how disjointed it's going to be. I have a feeling that Power 5 schools will make it work. We had the commissioner of the Pac-12 conference on my Pac-12 show, Pac-12 Today, and he said that 85% of their budget is based off football.

Like, there's a financial reason to try to make this work, and they have to find every way possible to do that. So some solutions are the face shield, which is stupid. But moving the season to October, which I saw Power 5 athletic director mentioned today, like, hey, man, maybe October is the way to go. But Gabe, is it going to be better in October? I don't see any reason to believe it will be. Probably not. Just conference schedules, which is basically October.

And then the spring football idea, which is really, really silly for Power Five conference schools to do. First of all, let's just simple fact. Let's go weather, okay? Weather is in February. You're going to play outdoors in most of the country. It's going to be an utter disaster. It doesn't benefit the players or the coaches or the staff

or anybody at the game watching the game to play a February game in most of these college cities. It seems utterly ridiculous. The NFL draft, the NFL mentioned they're not moving the draft, guys. Their season's going on. They're not changing the draft. The draft will be in the middle of the college football season. Guys will be getting drafted while they're playing football. Most guys won't be playing football if they're in the top three rounds.

They'll sit out. They'll sit out, they'll sit out, prepare for the combine. They'll do all that. They'll go to the NFL in April, and you'll miss all your college stars from your favorite team. But the number one reason why spring football is just a silly idea is the idea that you can play two seasons in one calendar year. That's just ridiculous.

By calendar year, I mean like January 1st just ridiculous by calendar year i mean like january 1st to january 1st right not like within a year um so you have a season february let's say the minimum game it's a conference schedule nine games right so three basically three months okay february march april so that leaves may june july to get ready to go back to camp in August for a fall of 2020 season. But that's like at the minimum, the minimum requirement you could possibly have to get everyone's body back and ready to play. But there's a reason why, you know, the NFL is off for seven months almost, right? I mean, OTAs are not very much. College football has spring football practice.

It's like, it's not, you know, they don't really hit no more in spring practice. You know, it'd be very hard to get your body back and ready for a season. What if someone gets hurt in the spring football season? They could be out for the next season, which is silly, right? It sucks for them. Right now, if a guy gets hurt in September, they're probably back the following september but if i get turned in february it's probably not playing september if it's a bad injury so there's many reasons why there's not i just don't think it's going to happen this way maybe the ivy leagues do it the ivy leagues have no bearing whatsoever on what power five conference uh do um you know you're a fan of usc usc has said they're going to have basically online classes only.

How comfortable do you feel if the campus is essentially closed, but USC athletes are allowed to go practice and get ready to play? I don't know about my comfort level, but I've seen some players voice the opinion that I tend to agree with, which is, hold on a second. All the other students aren't coming back to campus, but we're supposed to still be here playing football for free? Uh-uh. And I think that the players who've raised that sort of question or maybe just stated that opinion that they don't want to do that have every right to say that. And it's just going to further

this topic of when are these guys going to get paid? Because then they'd be turning down money and you'd say, well, that's sort of a grown up choice. Like they have that right. But being asked to be on campus to entertain us with football when the whole rest of the population of students are not there because it's deemed unsafe, that seems wild to me. I do see why players are fighting that. It is. But you know how schools are going to get around this, right? They're going to just be like, okay, well, you know, we have some labs open,

the library's open, student services center's open, you know, like the quad's open, but, you know, but mostly online classes, but, you know, football players can still come anyways. Look, the question becomes, Gabe,

is that if you signed a scholarship, it's basically a contract, right? And I know you're not getting paid. I'm very much on the side of name, image, and likeness. I'm not so much on the side of just straight salary for the players. You signed a contract to play. And if your school tells you you're playing, then you're playing. I mean, I think it's kind of gross to make the kids play through this,

even though I think most of them would say, F it, I'll play. I don't care. I'm 18 years old. Why do I care about coronavirus? Hasn't really affected me. And if I don't have an autoimmune issue or I don't have a pre-existing condition, it's not going to affect me, whatever.

I think a lot of kids feel that way. But how much do we look at the adults in the room to make sure that they're safe? So again, there's so much money involved, Gabe, that like like it just like college sports would almost never recover if they missed a football entire football season i mean like you you would lose all olympic sports it would you'd have to cut a bunch of staff it would be it'd be so tough to continue athletic department without football yeah i mean the

unintended consequences of canceling a football season, particularly at schools, you mentioned USC, like USC, I mean, that could impact our Olympic team for years to come. I mean, that impacts baseball, which is a great program, and women's sports, and the whole local economy. I mean, all of that stuff is a byproduct of what happens to the football program at USC, and I imagine that's the case at most power five schools. So, yeah, I mean, they got

to be careful with this one. But I also think you've said it. Adults have to make adult decisions and nobody is going to love the outcomes in any of these scenarios. All right. Well, you said this very quickly and we can move on. But I just want to make sure I understand what why is the mask face shield thing such a stupid idea to you why are you just dismissing that one to me i just i think it's going to fog up very easily now nicole arbuck who wrote the article said that and i should have done a better job of looking at the article said that a semi-protein wore these and didn't have fogging up issues okay i'm a mouth breather like i'm not an, I would fog that. I mean, I think it would just fog up in a heartbeat.

Yeah. Well, I just know pushing my stroller around with my kids when I get the mask and the sunglasses on. We got foggy glasses. But if you've ever been skiing or snowboarding, you know, hock a little spit into the thing, rub it around. Doesn't that work? Sort of like scuba goggles. Can't you just, you know, defog it that way with a little spit?

Yeah. You could put on like, you know, when I used toog it that way with a little spit yeah you you could put on like um you know when i when i used to go swimming i put a little like baby shampoo on the uh the goggles and would keep them you know from fogging up and you know getting in my in my eyes so um yeah i could see um that being the case i just think that look i i do agree that we should try everything possible to play but but I'm not sure how much that's really going to do anything. Well, no. So you know David Chow, right?

Pro football doc. He was on a radio show he did last week, and he said, like, look, it takes about 15 minutes in, like, a room that has COVID floating around to, like, get in your body, right? And he's like, look, playing football, you're really not going to spend 15 minutes, like, on top of somebody breathing in their face all the time. That's why the indoor activities are being banned, like bars. We've seen, unfortunately, people have parties and whatnot and movie theaters and eating inside.

So I hope that being outside would eliminate the need to wear these face shields. Yeah, I hope. I guess, like I said at the top, like no bad idea in a brainstorm. I think we should just be open to the possibilities. And if it means getting football back and the kids or the young guys

who are playing feeling comfortable, I'm all for it. So until somebody comes up with an idea that makes people unsafe, I say give it a try. Should we move the line to our little betting segment? Let's do it, buddy.

All right. These are some over-unders I set for you to bet on. Just a few more topics to hit. So I want to know Lamar Jackson's place in MVP voting this year over-under 2.5. Will he be in the top three or not? I would say the juice on it. If it was an actual bet and there was juice on it, that would really move my answer here. I just would say that probably no.

Pat Mahomes will be one or two. And then I think you have a surprise. We've seen surprise MVPs the last couple of years. I mean, Mahomes kind of came out of nowhere. Lamar came out of nowhere. Maybe it's Carson Wentz. Josh Allen. Maybe it's carson wentz maybe it's alan maybe maybe it's carson wentz maybe it's maybe it's it's your boy uh uh tomas brady and tampa um maybe it's dac prescott i mean it feels like there's you know guys out of nowhere come up and get this award i just i i would bet no on this. Okay, but that's really,

you're just sort of playing the odds of the field is very big. Lamar's got a really, he's got a really good season. Okay, because that's what I really wanted to get into was your boy Bill Barnwell really dug deep into Lamar's season last year and everyone acknowledges that was,

you know, unreal and we can't expect that from him every year. But he has sort of, through his own stats, debunked the notion that the league has figured lamar out or that he was so bad when they were behind you know something you talked about and convinced me of was that yeah this whole you know lamar offense works great when you're leading what happens when you're behind he isn't great in that situation well the stats say he's he's at least average he's a little better than average when he's behind um and there's plenty of hall of famers who have sucked in those situations um but he's still doing just fine so the smart guys like barnwell have crunched the

numbers and said don't expect some regression to the mean this guy could keep it around that level because the league hasn't caught up lamar was not behind in many games last year and the couple he was like the chiefs game where he was down bigger than threw up like two, two arm punts that were caught essentially. And then in the playoff game, he was behind a bunch. Yeah, he threw for a ton of yards, but they didn't score. I mean, I get that his passer rating might be good, but the offense doesn't function as well when they're behind.

I do wonder how much they work into the offense, just kind of some more passing concepts just to kind of be ready in those situations. I'm very curious to see if there's a kind of a new look offense. I think Lamar will have a great season still. I do think this offense is hard to figure out and will not be figured out. And they are a real contender to win the AFC. Well, let me ask you this then, because we talked about this several weeks ago, but it feels more relevant now. My theory back then was that teams that are built just around, you know, athleticism and having similar personnel this year as to last year, if we don't have a preseason, right, if we don't have the chance for everyone to

sort of get up to speed, does the guy who can just do it all by himself get even better? I mean, I hate to be so simplistic about it, if if what lamar does is not that complicated he's just faster than everyone and now everyone's out of shape or hurt oh isn't he gonna get even better agree yes i think veteran teams this year with high functioning offenses are going to come out of the gate and just crush teams all right so let's bet the ravens over and i want to be clear it's not like easy what he does. He's an accurate passer in the play action pass game. I mean, there's many things he does very well to make the offense go.

It's not just easy. I want to make that clear. Yeah, no, I think you've been clear. You've been fair about that. I mean, your criticism of him has always been qualified in that he's terrific and good at a lot of things. But what he does won't work through 17 weeks and three or four weeks of postseason. I'm clear on that. I just like bringing him up because, you know, you kind of ate a little bit last season. I did. That's correct. All right. Let's talk about another guy

who usually triggers you. It's Baker Mayfield. I want to know his QBR this season, among other third year quarterbacks, will he be ahead or behind 0.5? Is he going to rank number one or somewhere down the list? And by the way, Lamar's in that group. So we're going to say Lamar's ahead of him. Then does Baker come in next? I think he does. I think he's going to have a big bounce-back season.

I'll tell you why. Yeah, Kevin Stefanski is a play caller who's now his coach. He incorporates the play-action pass game a lot. And those are just easy completions. Those are easy completions. And he has the talent to make those completions go very far. And I think that the offense will be designed a lot more around making sure Baker has high-quality pass attempts

and not just force, right? They've upgraded their offensive line. They've upgraded their defense. They've upgraded their play caller. They should be really good at offense this year. And also, it's more of an indictment on Josh Allen, who I just has shown a tiny bit of improvement, but they have a really, really tough schedule this year.

And I don't think Josh Allen is as good as he was last season. And that's, I mean, he completed 58% of passes. He wasn't very good last year, but I don't think he's going to be any better. Okay, so it's Lamar clearly ahead of the pack. Then Baker, you think, improves this year and is okay. Josh Allen, you're not a buyer. Sam Darnold gets too much money.

I mean, I'd probably put Sam Darnold third then. Sam Darnold third. Josh Allen fourth. Josh Allen fourth. And then there's a few other guys from that class who are seeming less and less relevant every day. Kyle Allen, Josh Rosen, done. They're not. Yeah, and Mason Rudolph, we're not talking about him any longer.

Thank God. Well, okay. So, I mean, I'm going to hold you to this, that Baker Mayfield might actually have a decent season. He's got a hell of a division to compete in. I think third place is about as good as they can hope for. But maybe his numbers will start to improve. Okay, we can switch gears to something a little goofier now um i don't know if you've had a chance to look at the topic so you may not be ready for this oh i have give me your best guess here hot dogs jeff schwartz could eat in a hot dog eating contest with the nathan's rules if he had the proper training whatever

the hell that means i want to know over under 24 and a half hot dogs, Jeff. Hot dogs are disgusting. Yeah, I agree with that. The way that they eat them. I like them on a grill, but. I mean, I don't like them ever. Oh, wow. What?

You don't like hot dogs? Yeah, I'm not a hot dog guy. So I would say, I mean, probably when I was younger, yeah, 24 and a half. I probably could get that with the proper training. I mean, I've always caught on very well to training and to preparing my body for events. My favorite part about the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is a couple of things. One is that this year, Michael Jr. got to do the play-by-play, which is the fat guy's dream. But secondly, all the old white men on social media that are

very upset that we watch hot eating contest there are many old white sports writers who are very very upset guess what guys just don't watch i watch two minutes i watch like my goal talk for two minutes i was like great job buddy send him a text and moved on like i just like i'm not sitting i'm not spending my fourth of july watching people eat food like that was fun like when i was 12 it's not funny anymore to watch i'm a grown adult that i don't need to watch him stuff his face with hot dogs hey i'm with you i've been out on the nathan's hot dog eating contest since like the second year i had to prepare segments on cold pizza about it you know and it was joey chestnut and kobayashi back then too like i got over it real quick wow yeah i tried to watch they did a 30 for 30 on them and i just

was like it was i was so grossed out i was like i'm just done with this supposedly joey chestnut then goes out and drinks afterwards like he doesn't even like he doesn't even just like throw it up or nothing i don't even know how that's possible i mean yeah and not to take it here but you know you brought up pooping earlier uh with the routines that NFL players have and they're going to have to get used to changing their routines. I don't know how he digests that and that makes its way through his system. I don't quite understand how that all fits in there and then what happens when it needs to come out if he's not just barfing it all up. He might take an enema, just just popping up there and get after it so um that uh yeah that that might be something um a quick quick aside here please anything to get off of this

Schefter has tweeted out that um he Pat has a bunch of incentives he gets 1.25 million for winning the AFC championship game 1.25 for winning the MVP that's 25 million of incentives. He gets $1.25 million for winning the AFC Championship game, $1.25 for winning the MVP. That's $25 million of incentives to take his deal from $477 to $503. So we're starting to see more of what's, it's not, you know, a lot of this is not realized money. So if he does everything at the level that we think he's capable of for 10 years, he could make a half a billion dollars. Half a billion, yes. Yeah yeah that seems pretty good to me um all right let's wrap things up with another question i don't know if you even attempted i would like to know days until jeff finishes

watching hamilton on disney plus over under 5.5 from today well i've watched most of it so far you've got a head start it is long i know it's very long but it's very good so did you see it in new york no i'm like one of the few uh bougie people who did not get to see it i saw it in charlotte and not with the original cast and i couldn't understand a word they were saying it was just long and so i've enjoyed watching it uh my kids love it they asked to put it on every morning so far i was doing the peloton yesterday and my daughter sat on the couch with her ipad watching hamilton she loves when the king sings absolutely loves it she loves it and he's got have you seen the spit yeah yeah yeah yeah she loves the king but the first night so the first

time we put on for about 45 minutes with the kids we put in the bed my wife and i watched some more and i fell asleep like it just was it's just two hours and 45 minutes that's how long plays are so it's it's like a super long movie but it's probably a normal length broadway show so so how far in are you now and when will you resume just so i can get an answer to this question of over, under. Well, every time, every time that my, every time that my,

that my kids want to watch it, I want to start from the beginning to watch the King. So I'm not even sure where I left off. I would say that I do not finish. I mean, I've watched half of it. I guess I'd finish it tonight. So I would still say, I just,

I still say I probably don't do it tonight though. I will. I have to say you should, that it is one of the very few things in life that has been among the most overhyped things i've ever heard about especially living in new york when it came out and i happen to be friendly with or used to know some guys who were like connected to it i mean like the guys in the show and so it was it was constantly being talked about in my circle and lots and lots of friends went to see it.

Everyone said it was phenomenal. I never got to go. It's actually maybe even better than I thought it would be, which is incredible because most things don't live up to the hype. It's honestly that good. Did you – you thought it wasn't going to be good? I mean I thought it would be good, but like it couldn't be as good as everyone said it was. And I actually think it might be better it's i've never seen anything like it i true i have no idea how they made it the original cast is much better than the cast i saw in charlotte like

there's a clear there's a clear like it's just it's it's really good i have a more better picture now i don't have like my mom's appreciation for it where she like cries every time she watches it like that's a little much to me she loves the songs i mean like i just i don't like it like that but um yeah it's it was it's been good it's been fun to watch my kids like it which i'm shocked by yeah that also confuses me because there's almost nothing for a kid to understand in that it's hard for an adult to follow it but i can't imagine a kid understanding my my son loves the fact not loves but he loves that he can talk about this he realized that hamilton got married and that they kissed on the lips and it's been grossing my son out he's okay he's at that age where that grosses him out

a little bit six almost six yeah okay so this is he said he's gonna have that feeling for a while yeah he said like he's like they, they got married and they kissed. So he loves that he knows, understands like what happened between them. Well, wait till he gets to the part where Hamilton starts kissing some other women. He's really going to hate that part. He also thinks it's funny that it's, I mean, we have been there, but he just doesn't know this. It's funny. He also really is into the fact that the sisters are so very friendly.

And he's like, why are the sisters so friendly with each other? They're adults now. And I'm like, bud, you and your sister can be friends forever. Like, what do you mean by so friendly? He thinks it's really weird that they're still like really good friends. I guess that makes sense. I think he probably, he's counting down the days till he can outgrow it all and say goodbye to his big sister um well listen uh i hope you finish it in less than 5.5 days um i don't i haven't watched it

over and over again like some people but i'll probably watch it again one day and the guys who put it together are geniuses so anyone listening who made it to this point in the show give it two hours and 45 minutes, especially because we got no sports. You'll have fun watching. I'm just like, I thought to myself watching it, like the amount of production that went into this. It's impressive.

It's incredible. And it's like running an offense. I mean, every single piece of staging and singing, it's all connected. Like one guy screws that up and, you know, quarterback's getting sacked hard. single piece of stage of staging and singing. It's all connected. Like you, one guy screws that up and, you know, quarterbacks getting sacked hard. So it's a really,

it's a phenomenal production. So I enjoyed it. Um, I love ending on the fact that Ian Rappaport had to tweet out the exact thing, the exact thing I said about the guarantee mechanism. So I feel very, if you've made it to this part,

then you know that I'm right about what a guarantee mechanism is. So I just assumed you were the whole time that never, I never got enough of that. He said that the team guarantees Pat Mahomes salary year out. And if they don't pick up the guarantees, they have to cut them. That's, that's what a roster guarantee and bonus can be that.

All right, guys. Well, we had a great show today because of the chiefs. Thank you, Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs, for giving us something to talk about. We had a show planned to scrap the first segment. I absolutely love the fast-paced moving of our team.

I'll be back Thursday. Gabe, have a great week. We're back together on Monday. Really appreciate it. Rate, review, subscribe. Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you guys later