Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Super Bowl Recap

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

Geoff and Gabe talk about what the Bucs did to slow down the Chiefs offense and come away with a dominant win in Super Bowl LV. They talk Tom Brady's status as the GOAT, what each team needs to do to be back here next year, and much more. 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.

It's Tuesday, February 9th, and Tom Brady is officially the greatest team sport athlete of all time, taking down the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 to a Super Bowl 55. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz of Smarter Than You. Look, I'm going to talk about everything I could spit out of my mouth about this game in 30 to 45 minutes please stick with me here Gabe there's so much to talk about how are you doing I know you're a little upset Tom Brady won you hate Tom Brady but there's so much more of this game than Tom Brady great let's talk about all the parts of this game that don't involve Tom Brady and I'll probably have a nice

half hour with you if we have to talk about Tom Brady the whole damn time like every other show in history I'm probably not going to enjoy that very you. If we have to talk about Tom Brady the whole damn time, like every other show in history, I'm probably not going to enjoy that very much. We will not on this show. There's so much more to talk about. So many people deserve praise on the Bucs. It was an ass kicking, man. It was an ass kicking.

And something that I had talked about this week, publicly, very strong privately, but publicly a little bit because I'm a Chiefs fan, so I'm still kind of rooting for the Chiefs. It's like, guys, this offensive line is a big concern. And the reason why we ignored it, all of us, was because of Pat Mahomes, where we thought Pat Mahomes could overcome the offensive line. But I go back to this.

If I tell you any week of the season, any other quarterback, hey, you're missing a left tackle, you have a string left guard a second string right right guard and a third string right tackle against a defense like Tampa Bay you'd say ah crap that team's not gonna win and it was the most predictable outcome ever the team with the better line on offensive defensive line bucks offensive line's fantastic the team with just kind of better talented I think Tampa has more talent overall won the game what a surprise and they won it obviously very convincing fashion so um where do you want to start yeah I mean you glad you took it there because I'm more interested in hearing about that than yet another

you know celebration of Tom Brady and his seventh ring and his greatest athlete of all time look that's miserable too Too many of us vomit every time we hear that crap. He gets all the credit always. It's unfair and stupid, but whatever. Another MVP for him. I think we should be complimenting those refs that gifted him all the yards and extra downs he needed in critical moments. That second quarter was an absolute joke. 90 yards and two touchdowns credited to the Zebras. Not Tom Brady. Embarrassing, but fine. And then you mentioned the O-line. Those are the two things that popped out to me as why this guy got another ring. The Chiefs' lack of an O-line, I should

mention. So you spent a lot of time, you said it, publicly, privately discussing something that I want to bring up in specific terms now. You told me when we saw Bakhtiari go down for the Packers, that the problem with losing one player is that sometimes teams will then rotate guys around on the line and effectively create backups at multiple positions. And you spoke about it. Like it was a big problem. If it happened and then boom, it seems like the chiefs, ironically because of your own brother, did exactly the thing that you said teams shouldn't do.

What the hell were they thinking on the line? Well, look, when you get past a couple starters being out, you don't have a choice. There's no choice, right? There's no, there's typically you have one swing tackle and it's Mike Remmers, right? Mike Remmers. So my brother was out to put Mike Remmers at right tackle.

Then Eric Fisher got hurt. The next best option was moving Mike Remmers to left tackle. Even if you put someone else at left tackle, I don't think the outcome would have mattered. Let's start with the Bucs' defensive line and kind of go outwards, okay? Because there's a guy who deserves all the credit, and we'll get to him very quickly. So what they did, and we'll get to him very quickly um so what they did and we

talked about this in the podcast with chris long last week was they did a great job of coordinating their pass rush to affect mahomes so when you rush the passer guys it's not always just full speed ahead um you know no rules we're just gonna get there right part of it is is it takes patience and coordination we saw the bucks every single time they did something different and they forced mahomes to roll to places where there were defenders coming through they got in mismatches inside they moved guys around they pushed them sometimes vita vea played defensive end and pushed the pocket back next play he's inside and jpp's outside and shaman. They just did a great job moving everywhere. But in coordination with that was the pass defense, which was fabulous.

It was fabulous. Look, I love Andy Reid to death, man. I play with Andy. I love Andy. My brother was there for, still there, I should say, for many, many years. He got outcoached. Todd Bowles, the Bucs defense coordinator Gabe was fantastic in this game fantastic in this game so we talk a lot about this with Belichick about how when you are as a

coach not really general manager because Belichick general manager is different than the Belichick coach the best coaches in the NFL are adaptable right they mold themselves to what they have to do that week. And the Bucs had two options on defense in this game. Option one was play too high, right? So put two safeties back, put underneath coverage, whether it's zone or man coverage, and say, hey, we're not going to get beat deep. But guess what?

We might allow a couple underneath passes. We might allow a couple runs, but we're not going to get beat deep. And along with the too high coverage, we're not going to bring pressure. We're not going to bring pressure. We're going to sit back and be patient. You know how hard it is for a defense that relied all season long on bringing pressure to sit back, to sit back?

That takes, you cannot have an ego to do that, right? You have to be pliable, moldable, flexible, cannot be stubborn. The other option was, let's just do what we did all year. Let's just bring pressure. But guess what? Mahomes is great against that. So Todd Bowles said, hey, we're going to do the former guys. We're going to sit back and coverage. They blitzed under 10% of the game and half of those were in the first quarter. So as the game went on, Gabe, they adjusted. So we're going to play too high.

We're going to sit back. We're going to let our four down linemen get after Pat Mahomes. So the question is, what are the answers from the Chiefs, right? What could the Chiefs have done? Because early in the game, it was very clear they expected man coverage. So A is run the football.

So when you play too high defense, you have less guys in the box just by numbers, the way they didn't have to be spread out. So they could have run the football. So when you play too high defense, you have less guys in the box just by numbers, the way anything has to be spread out. So he could have run the ball more, but Andy Reid doesn't like to run the football. And when you have so many backup offensive linemen, the thought process, I get the thought process by Andy Reid. Okay, we have backup offensive linemen. We want to avoid third and long situations.

If we start to run the football and they're not doing a good job, we're going to get in third and long situations. So let's just have our quarterback be the guy. Let's have Pat Mahomes win us the game as they've done so many other times. That's why they didn't run the football. And they actually ran the ball okay. They had a long run to start the second half and some other nice runs as well. They just didn't do a lot of it because he didn't trust the offensive line

to block this great Bucs defense. Devin White, Levante David, those guys were outstanding. The back end, they were physical to line of scrimmage with wide receivers. I cannot say enough about Todd Bowles and the game plan he put together. Okay, well, we'll get back to Todd Bowles in depth. He's one of the people who everyone was giving credit to, and I think there's a longer conversation about him and his future in a second. I want to understand a little bit more about the difference between sitting back and then putting

immense amount of pressure on Mahomes because what you're telling me is they didn't blitz anyone but those front four guys were all over Mahomes all day long and just to give you a little bit of perspective that I don't think has been said yet. There's a stat out there. I didn't even know there was a way to track this, but apparently Mahomes ran 497 yards before throwing the ball or being dragged to the ground on all of his pass attempts. If you look at a graph, there's this amazing graph guy named Michael Lopez, Stats by Lopez tweeted it, a graph of all of his pass plays showing where he ran versus where Tom Brady ran. all of his past plays showing where he ran versus where Tom Brady ran. It's like an enormous sea squid, you know,

covering the entire ocean from a homes and Tom Brady's one little dot. He never moved the entire game. So how is it that they had so much pressure without even sending anyone blitzing basically all game long? I don't understand. Is it just mismatches like just really good players up front? It is. It's that simple, man. They just, they just just really good players up front it is it's that simple man they just they just beat the chiefs offensive line like it's funny the chiefs offensive line coach andy heck who i like and i put my best season there he's great he would say sometimes like sometimes you just lose a rep he played nfl for a long a long time so he understands

i think it was a former number one pick overall by the way i didn't know her name left tackle and he put like 11 12 12 years in the NFL. He just gets it. Sometimes you just lose. And the Chiefs just lost. They didn't have dudes. Even if you had offensive line depth, okay? And Mike Remmers, by the way, played right tackle for most of the year just fine.

He was not my brother, but he wasn't killing the team. They have depth. It's just you lose too many guys, and eventually this is what happens. So the Bucs defense knew this is the way to get to Mahomes. Look, think about the 2007 Super Bowl, right? The Giants defense line against Tom Brady. 2011 Super Bowl, Giants defense line against Tom Brady.

This is what that was. Now, you mentioned the scrambling, so this is important to talk about here. The thing the Chiefs offense needs to get better at, including Pat Mahomes, the offensive line, everybody. They need their chart. The chart you're talking about was tweeted out by a bunch of people. They need the chart next year to look like Tom Brady.

Needs to be in the pocket. Needs to be in the pocket. And I get it. Mahomes is great outside the pocket but eventually this is what happens he gets the shit beat out of him Tom Brady was hit one time last night I believe on a sack otherwise he wasn't hit that is the way that's how he's made it so long in the NFL and a lot of the best offense in the NFL do that when when Pat Mahomes was in rhythm, when he just planted his foot, boom, through the ball, stay in the pocket,

he got there. So there has to be some sort of trust between Pat Mahomes and the offensive line in figuring out how this is going to work. Even when they are blocking

while Pat Mahomes drops too deep. Because guess what? He has an amazing arm. He can do whatever he wants. Even when his footwork is bad, his arm makes up for it but the older he gets and the more teams figure out this is what he's going to do they're going to find ways to exploit it especially in big games like this when you have a defense like a lot of

defenses just can't exploit this problem but the bucks are able to do that so my home says i said this all year guys i know chiefs and tate when i say this my homes has got to get better in the pocket he's got to get better at staying in the pocket finding his quicker options maybe Andy Reid has to go back to kind of some west coast staples and get the ball out quickly some spacing concepts some quick stuff some mesh stuff and get the ball out quickly because this is going to be a problem going forward it again against the Jets no offense against the Panthers the Falcons it works just. But against a good defense in a game with two weeks to prepare now, it does not work. And I know it's a very small sample size and I know the Chiefs are in the

Super Bowl. So it's obviously working to some extent, but the one thing they have to work on this off season, it's not, it's not a major thing, but making sure that that his scatter plot after the season looks a lot more like Tom Brady's right in the middle of the pocket than it does spread out everywhere. Okay.

So then two other things that a lot of people were saying on Twitter that I think I agree with that I think you might burst a hole in one his incompletions were the coolest highlights of the game the way he was throwing the ball and he literally hit two dudes in the face yeah in the end zone like i saw balls ricochet off trusted hands faces he was getting no help is my point like he was making these unbelievable plays and getting no help isn't that also an excuse uh no i don't know i i i look you can say you can say offensive line you can say look yes it's all an excuse look, yes, it's all an excuse. But game, it would be an excuse if it was 31-28. It was 31-9.

Like, in the end, they just got their asses kicked. Like, I know that that ball was 30 yards. Like, he was laid out literally parallel to line of scrimmage as he threw the ball. I mean, parallel to the ground. I mean, it's an incredible throw by Pat Mahomes. It was also fourth down, so he could get away with kind of making that pass. Could have been intercepted.

Could have not been. I'm pissed, by the way. I shouldn't. My total sacks was my favorite bet of the weekend. And I was right. I was right on the money. But Mahomes kept making these plays. I finished half a sack under.

That was a great throw because I think we just, it's impossible to make that throw. And he did. But they didn't lose the game because of the two drops. I mean, Kelsey's dropped though in third. It was pretty big early in the game. They had an opportunity to kind of move the sticks there. But just remember too, Tampa got stuffed in the one yard line. They could have 38 points or 34 points if they hit the field goal.

Like it was a, it was a butt kicking and it's okay to admit that Chiefs fans. I know it's hard to, but sometimes you just get your ass kicked and just happen to be the biggest game of the year in the super bowl um against tom brady against the bucks defense it's their first bad game on offense gabe in like two seasons like it's good it happens amazing how tom brady always faces hall of famers having their worst game of the year when he needs it most weird how that luck works out the other excuse i saw and i think you sort of shredded to pieces was what the hell why don't they get someone in to give help on pass pro and you know use someone else to to chip at one of those rushers like why if the line can't handle it why don't they keep someone in there to block for pat and i think you gave a more

thoughtful explanation of like what there's a, what, there's a downside to that. Can you explain that to us? Well, first of all, that number was very, very wrong. Um, I went and charted, where's my notebook yet?

I went and charted, um, this morning, the chiefs, um, how often, I don't even know where we went now. How often now looking all around his trophy room for his little note.

here's right here. Ah, got it. ESPN stats and info tweet out that my homeomes had 52 dropbacks and 48 were empty protection. That's just not remotely accurate. I mean, I have first half right here. Running back chipped. Play action pass.

Running back in protection. Max protect. Both the tight end and running back stayed in. Another running back stayed in. A six-man protection. Play action pass. Another chip. Another chip.

Another chip. It wasn't true. They helped the offensive line plenty. But here's the point i should make so when you face a good pass rush you have two options okay one option is you do what everyone says you do you help right you chip with the running back help with the tight end. But then you have less guys out in the route, especially if they're going to play a soft zone coverage. So there's a good example of this. Go to my Twitter, at Jeff Schwartz.

Early in the game, the Chiefs had a three-man route concept. Only three guys went out. It was Travis, Hill, and it was Watkins or McCall Hardman. The Bucs dropped seven defenders. All three wide receivers were double covered because the running back stayed in and the tight end stayed in. If you spread those guys out, you have more passing options. And Tom Brady's done this for years against great pass rushers in New England.

Peyton Manning did this as well. Aaron Rodgers, a great, great way to combat a good pass rush. You go five wide, throw the ball quickly. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it just didn't happen. The Bucs did a great job. They pressed the line of scrimmage. There was no quick passing to be had.

And even sometimes, Gabe, where the Chiefs' offensive line got help, they still got beat. It didn't even matter sometimes. Yeah. All right. So now I have to bring up the name

that I was, I'm glad actually we spent the first several minutes without really dwelling on him. Um, but let's go back to Brady for a minute. Uh, he had the opposite experience. You mentioned the one sack basically clean. Uh, he didn't need to change clothes. You know, he was just fine. Uh, what did he or Byron left, which who deserves a lot of the credit, the OC there, the coach Arians, like who gets the credit for why Tom Brady was so clean? Because, I mean, I don't understand it.

We know that you got to hit the guy. We know he's 100 years old. Like break those stupid non-caffeinated alcohol free bones in half. Just smash him. What's wrong? So their offensive line was great um you know they have three all pro guys that better you know alan marpet ryan jensen and tristan werf's tristan werf's the right tackle was fantastic and standing the right guard played really well um and then

donovan smith the left tackle played well i'm gonna have ryan jensen on by the way later this week camp base center i'm excited to talk to him repeat guest's going to be a little bit smarter than anything I'm saying. I'm looking forward to that. First repeat guest. I'm looking forward to, I was talking last night on the way to, to their party. He was,

he was very excited, obviously as he should be. So, so they did a couple of things. One is they did a ton of play action pass. It was the most they used all season. So why is that important? I talk about this all the time.

Play action pass helps the offensive line because you get to simulate the run, and if you do it correctly, the defensive line has to stop their feet and look where the run is, okay? And if you are rushing the pass or you stop your feet, hard to get to the quarterback. So good job. They did a good job with the screens. They threw the ball very quickly.

They just did a lot of good things that good offenses do in big games. Again, the play action pass was huge. They moved the pocket not very much, but they ran a bunch of screens. They ran not a bunch of screens. They ran that little tight end screen. They got the ball quickly to the running backs. I love the four net over. It hit very easily on receiving yards and reception.

So all of it was just a great game plan. They even threw to an offensive lineman. He dropped the pass. But Lefwich, Arians, I think it was more Lefwich great game plan like they even threw to an offensive lineman he dropped the pass um but left which arians i think was more left which he calls the plays um he he saved his best game his best two games for the end of the season they call a great game against green bay too uh again tom was upright threw the ball quickly um everything they wanted to do again i don't look was he the mvp of the game i don't think so i think you make a case for devin white levante david todd bowles i mean you make a case for the bucks defensive line i'm

not sure there was a good option for mvp the court it's kind of a quarterback award um wow but it was uh oh i mean it's hard to give it to a linebacker i mean who doesn't have a name it was tom brady or pat mahomes were etched into the stupid trophy before the game was played yes yes yeah well okay so you mentioned the extra linemen and this came up i heard barnwell i think talking about this so i didn't realize this during the game you probably did which is why as you keep mentioning we should have a lineman available during the broadcast to break certain things down that other, you know, bigger name guys are not seeing. I didn't realize there was a lineman eligible on several plays. We all saw it on the drop touchdown,

but what does that do? Why would you have, I think it was Hague, an extra dude, big fat guy on the line. When you have all these great weapons, you could put Evans, Godwin,

Miller, Antonio Brown, Fournette. You could have a million weapons out there. Why are they going with an extra lineman? Just because they can try to pound him. And they want to run the football. So that's what they do.

They run the football and then they play action pass off of it. And you'll keep an extra lineman and it kind of helps the play action pass. But the difference between the Chiefs play action pass and the Patriots, the Patriots, the Bucs, the Bucs do the traditional under center play action pass, right? Which you don't need as many guys in the route concept when you do that because you sell run a lot easier. When you do it from shotgun as a Chiefs do, you're not selling run as much. So you have to kind of get more guys out.

So if you take away a receiving option to put an extra offensive lineman in, you do from under center, it's not that big of a concern. If you do it from gun, it's not that big of a concern. If you do it from gun, you spread everyone out. And so that's kind of the little nuance there of why it doesn't matter so much when you hit that play action pass with an extra lineman in the game. Okay.

And you conveniently dodged this, but I think you're also then overlooking how at least half the internet feels right now, which is, you know, this is another screw job by the refs, at least in the first half. Like, come on, man. They keep two drives alive. I think Brady had something like 90 yards on penalties in the second quarter alone.

You know, he's bombing the ball downfield and hoping for flags. So, yeah, they had a lot of penalties in the first half. I think some of them, the Hardman thing, whatever. You got to call it. But like the rest all seem like, huh? The Mike Evans one where he, which one? Hardman on the field goal, as much as I couldn't believe that they got the ball back and got to drive again. That was just insane, but it's undeniable.

That's a penalty. So here's what I think happened. First of all, Carl Jeffers' crew calls a bunch of penalties. Not surprising. What I think happened, and Tony Romo mentioned this, is the Chiefs are very grabby on defense. And it's a great technique because, hey, Seattle's done this for years. They're not going to call everything, right?

So just grab as much as you want, and hopefully you don't get called for it. I think what happened was the referees, they watch game film too. They get reports. They talk to the coaches on both sides before the game. They were alerted that Chiefs are very grabby, and I think they just were on the lookout for it. Because a lot of those were like, eh. Right.

So I think they were on the lookout for it, which is, look, that's what the refs do sometimes. Hey, this team, they hold a lot. Let's be on the lookout for hold. Hey, they do this a lot. Let's be on the lookout for that. So I feel like they were on the lookout for a lot of this from the refs do sometimes hey this team they hold a lot let's be on the lookout for hold hey they do this a lot let's be on the lookout for that so I feel like they were on the lookout for a lot of this from the Chiefs you felt the honey badger pick the flag needed to come on the other contact on that play like you really thought that was a needed call I know the pick I do not remember the contact because there was like four on that drive right there was a bunch of well there were

four and then a fifth that didn't matter but four penalties that moved the ball or kept the drive going i don't remember that one executive drive that changed all momentum i remember the pick but they were holding mike evans on a bunch of those though i mean those were holdings it's just um you know sometimes they don't get called but isn't there i mean look momentum matters right like it's a one score it's a low scoring game what it definitely matters but I don't think they were out there like purposely trying to get Tom Brady to win well I don't know if they're purposely trying to get him to win but sure enough we're it looks like we're gonna end the first half and kind of like a huh that's weird it's a defensive

game a lot of punting it's gonna be 7-3 or 7-6 or 10-3 whatever and then no no actually it's a 21 score game like and and then all of a sudden we got to bring the weekend out and put everyone to sleep or confuse the shit out of all of us i did not how was that i don't know we'll get to that and over under it was bad okay um all right well so you're not blaming the refs fine that'll just be my little thing i'll have to move on Let's talk about Pat and sort of next year because Vegas still likes them as the favorite. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Next season. I mean, I guess that makes sense. But, you know, you know a lot about the team. You know a lot about, you know, they look banged up. They've got a lot of guys who want to get paid. And, you know, the offseason is always tricky when you're that good of a team yeah so i'm just curious this is deflating loss they might lose their offensive coordinator obviously i don't want to make light of it but that you know this awful situation with uh coach reed's son happens just a few days before the game there's just a lot going on in kansas city are we sure they're going to come back strong next year so if you, if you look at their roster,

so the reason why they lost this game, you could argue was the offensive line, right? Well, the offensive line, Eric Fisher, my brother under contract for next year, you know,

they drafted a third round pick last year who sat out for COVID. So, you know, they could draft a guard in the first round and they'd be fine. Their offensive line would be fine. They don't really have any free agents though. Most of the team is back for next year. I mean,

I don't think Sammy Watkins will be back. You could find yourself another wide receiver. But the core of this unit is back. And, Gabe, they just won like 24 of 26 games. Like, they're not a scrub team. It's like they lost one Super Bowl. But the point of this, in my opinion, is this. It's hard to win in this league.

The idea that people are talking about Pat Mahomes winning seven Super Bowls or making it to six, which would be second all-time, right? It's Tom Brady, Elway with five, then Bradshaw with four, and Joe Montana with four, Peyton Manning with four. Getting to six Super Bowls is hard. And this is really the first time the Chiefs have had to deal with injury problems in the Super Bowl. They were healthy last year. They were healthy against New England two years ago in the AFC Championship game.

Three years ago now. Like, injuries are part of the game. You know, Travis Kelsey's getting older. Tyreek Hill's getting older. Everyone's getting a little bit older. I think they'll be fine. Maybe, maybe not. They make it back next year, right? There's so many changes year in and year out. I don they'll be fine. Maybe or maybe not. They make it back next year.

There's so many changes year in and year out. I don't know. But they're not going away. They're not going away after this. I promise you that. They'll win the division next year. Okay. And so if everyone tries to improve every offseason,

if you were in charge, how would you try to improve the Chiefs? What are you looking for in the draft? What would the agency trade? I would go find myself a offensive guard to put in there somewhere um and i would i would find some a faster linebacker like you need a faster middle line you need like faster linebackers um those are my first two priorities um out the gate offensive line linebacker and i think at some point you gotta start looking for like a travis kelsey too really okay like good luck finding one of those not like

he's being replaced but maybe just like a younger guy you can maybe groom into that spot i'm not sure this year is the year to do that but you know you kind of just i think that's there's no real backup tight end that you can trust at all um i would kind of go there that's kind of they don't have a lot of holes still yeah you know it's interesting while i'm listening to you talk uh i'm thinking we've compared this this chief's team and the run they're on to the warriors you know just a few years ago and i'm thinking about it more and it's sort of like we all kind of didn't really, or you did, but the rest of us did not give enough credit to what it would mean to be without the two tackles in the Super Bowl. If Draymond Green had just, like, not been in the finals, you know, nobody would have been like, oh, man, the Warriors are obviously going to cruise to a victory here. Like, you need certain tough guys.

You need certain pieces to win. Like it all falls apart if those things are not in place. So beefing up the line, even though they already have a great one, seems like a logical thing to do. Look, there's a theory of best player available, right?

As you just take the best player available. And the reason why I like that for a lot of teams that draft at the bottom of the first round is you never know when injuries are going to happen. So for example, the for a lot of teams that draft at the bottom of the first round is you never know when injuries are going to happen. So, for example, the Saints a couple years ago took Ryan Ramchick,

the offensive tackle, with like 19 or 21. They had a perfectly healthy offensive line. And then all of a sudden, Zach Streif, the right tackle, who played years at right tackle, gets hurt in week two.

And here comes Ryan Ramchick. So sometimes you just draft the best player there. If it's an offensive guard, sure. If it's a wide receiver, sure. If it's a wide receiver, sure. If it's someone that... So the Chiefs have many options.

Some of that might be best player available. I think if there's a guard they like who's at 31, go get him. Again, if there's a speedy middle linebacker, go get him. There are some spots you could... But I wouldn't overdraft anyone. If you have a wide receiver at 31 who you graded the 14th best player and he's there go take him all right you're sounding

like me on on fantasy draft night usually i'm a few budweiser's in when i start making those choices hopefully they'll be of sound mind but so let let's let's talk about this from the other side then uh go get them go get them go find talent best player available this is perhaps my pet peeve but i think a lot of fans were picking up on this during the game the bucks are kind of a frustrating team besides brady for all the other guys who they're you know who now have a ring because they joined that team this offseason or mid-season in ab's case so the nfc looks like it's crumbling tom brady announced last night he's coming back they want to run it back

did you see him did you see him in the post game like he wasn't even celebrating just like put his shit away like usual yeah i want another one i just i want another one and we'll talk about this to with ryan this week like it's just he's just a machine dude he is a total machine i don't know what gives him joy in life but apparently even winning super bowls is like his family he seems his family game well joy was happy with his kids last night oh okay great let's talk about these these people he brought in to help him win this championship so and there's a reason i'm bringing this up leonard fournette forces his way way out of Jacksonville because that's what you do if you're good at football and signs just before the season.

Okay, this guy who not long ago looked like the best running back prospect ever is all of a sudden just like on the team. Okay, Gronk comes out of retirement from the WWE and Fox broadcasting. We don't need to chronicle the AB saga, but mid-season after suspensions and legal troubles and all the other crap, he's suddenly available.

Shady McCoy had joined the team after he had gone to the Chiefs the year prior. He's now won a ring in two consecutive years without doing jack. The entire postseason for either team. Here's my concern, Jeff. This ring-chasing thing is working. It's working, and big big name players are noticing it and the rich are going to get richer and I'm scared of who Tom Brady might attract this offseason they're just going to keep getting better all I know is this I do not have a Super Bowl ring

if I had Super Bowl ring this show would be like Josh Horta Smarter Than You presented by so-and-so and we'd be on a different network we're making a ton of money I wouldn't be here so I'm I'm okay with anyone winning a Super Bowl ring

because I would have loved to just practice squad injured special consultant whatever it would have been if I had a Super Bowl ring

you know this as well as I do this would be Josh Horta Smarter Than You brought to you by so-and-so but paying us a shit ton of money to do it just because I won a Super Bowl ring, you know this as well as I do. This would be Jeff Schwartz of Smart on You brought to you by so-and-so. They pay us a shit ton of money to do it just because I won a Super Bowl. That's that simple. So congrats, Shady McCoy.

Good for you. Like, good for you. Anyone chasing a ring, go chase a ring. Be my guest. I love it. I'm super jealous. Go ahead and do it, everyone. Okay, that's great and all, Jeff.

That's a very player-friendly point of view. But don't you think it's kind of icky that these guys are all taking discounts? By the way, they're in Florida, so they don't even have to pay taxes. Like, it doesn't really seem fair that Tom Brady can just go like, hey, everyone, I think I'm going to go try to win one over there, and they got some cap space and some good drafts lately. Like, what do you say? Should we just all do that?

And then he just gets to have them all they're they're free agents right well i mean one of them was out of the league body slamming people the other guy was looked like he was headed to prison after two at least two meltdowns like it might still happen um look gronk coming out retirement, Gronk just didn't want to play for Belichick. It was that simple. He just didn't want to play with Belichick. You don't think this is going to become a trend? You don't think that maybe... I mean, it always is a trend.

Look at Deshaun. I mean, everyone's trying to force their way out now. This doesn't bother you the way it seems to bother me, and I think this is where... I have, like like levels of shit to give for things in my life and like the levels the levels i give a shit about this is very low like there's too many other things that i'm passionate about players chasing rings is not one of them all right well then then we're gonna get to you know betting on next year's teams and

you know looking ahead a little bit with a number of teams that were good this year in our over-under segment. But I will ask you this. Are the Bucs your favorite in the NFC right now? I mean, they have to be, right? They were my favorite in the NFC before this game for next year. I mean, this should have happened this year.

This should happen next year. Like, next year was the year they won the Super Bowl. Not this year. Okay. That's gross. All right. Let's circle back to a couple coaches who we spent a lot of time talking about one of them and then nothing really happened and then last night you know

rightfully so much of the coverage after the game was about todd bowles assistant coach uh defensive coordinator for the bucks who you know pitched basically a perfect game in his role and so everyone is saying how come eric theemi and Todd Bowles still do not have head coaching jobs after the great seasons that they've had and well-documented good careers? All right. So obviously race comes up a lot. We've addressed that on this show. I want to ask you a slightly different question than the other shows are asking. Should the rules be changed? Should the league prohibit teams from hiring their next head coach while the season is still going on so that everyone has a fair chance at the interview process?

Basically, the doors open today. Talk to your coaches. Everyone go at it at once. So Eric Biennemi is no more tied down doing his job than Sirianni or whatever the hell the guy's name is who ended up in philly like wouldn't that be a more fair process i think it would be more fair if they did not allow anyone to get hired to after the super bowl now it might lead to teams you know taking a coach who just had one good game in the super bowl and choosing a wrong guy fair enough but teams already choose the wrong guy all the time like that's not going to change anything i think i think an under talked about aspect of the coaching cycle is teams almost lack of willingness to wait till the playoffs are over to hire someone right i mean brian

dable the bills oc was talked about as being a candidate so was leslie frazier the bills dc so is eric b enemy so was todd bowles and all these guys were still coaching their teams and maybe it turned other teams off like hey man I just want to get my guy in the building I want to start the process of scouting building my roster up and you know they fall in love with someone in an interview you know they're able to interview in person right we know that these coaches they can interview if you're still playing you have like one day you're allowed to interview because you have to you're not allowed to like interview whenever you interview if you're still playing. You have like one day you're allowed to interview because you're not allowed to interview whenever you want because you're preparing for your team.

So you're allowed to second and third interview if you're one of the other coaches as well. I think that we would have a serious talk about almost more than top bowls. Byron Lefkowitz, I'm surprised he didn't get any love. Look, we talked about this before. Eric Bien-Aim does does not call the plays does he suggest plays yes does he help game plan yes all that's accurate uh and in the end it's

in his offense i'm fairly certain byron left which calls all the plays in in tampa like i think that i think he calls all of them bruce obviously is part of the offense but byron left which is calling the plays all the plays so i'm surprised he didn't get a look and i think going forward um he will be getting interviews a lot of them next season yeah well i i think part of that might be that people don't know where the tom brady sort of perfectionist genius brain starts and stops with his offensive coordinators right like i'm not taking any credit away from byron people who know stuff like you say he's doing a great job i believe you i just think people after mcdaniels are like wait so is it brady or the who do i give credit to how this works all right and that's fair um but why wouldn't you explore that though right i'm of

course yeah so todd bulls was the one who everyone and booger mcfarlane i thought did a good job of Um, but why wouldn't you explore that though? Right. I'm of course. Yeah. So Todd Bowles was the one who everyone and Booger McFarlane, I thought did a good job of speaking up for a bunch of guys and Bruce Arians sort of credit. This is probably the most diverse coaching staff. He also has some, some women in his coaching staff. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that's admirable. Um, and Booger called it out and that's cool. I guess, um,

is Todd Bowles sort of now the guy, instead of Eric Bien-Ami, who everyone sort of says, what the hell? Why hasn't he gotten his shot? And I can say, with a little bit of bias here about the fact that I am a Jets fan, I know why maybe teams aren't in such a rush to hire him as their head coach. I've seen what happens if he's the head coach. It didn't work out that well. Let's not forget.

He did an amazing job with this defense in this postseason run. But he has been given a pretty decent team, and it hasn't gone very well. So maybe that's also on people's minds. Well, that's definitely fair. I mean, you saw him coach in New York. I don't remember his coaching when he was there. You would know better than I would. It was totally

forgettable they were a losing team every year but the first right so so um i still think he will get consideration for another job um you know we've seen other coaches get second jobs to do much better i don't know how much this propels him because remember he will not get interviewed for a position until after next season so if Tampa Bay goes and plays worse defense next year which is typically what happens you regress a little bit on defense many people forget about this game yeah all right well I'd like to forget about that game let's take a little break we'll do our over under game we call it moving the line that's uh that's right after this boom there it is. Wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. That's cool.

But with my wireless, I get unlimited for just $30. Impressive. But does yours have 5G included? Of course. And my wireless saves me $400 a year. That's because you all have Xfinity Mobile with your internet. It's wireless so good, it keeps one-upping itself. $30 per line per month.

Taxes and fees extra. Compares pricing of top carriers. Xfinity internet required. Reduced speeds after 20 gigabits of usage per line. Most reliable based on root metrics. UL's report. Results vary. Non-endorsement. All right, Jeff, welcome back. Time to move the line. A few bets for next year. These are not exactly real bets you can go make online. By the way, a lot of books had real trouble yesterday. Apparently, a lot of books had real trouble yesterday the uh apparently a lot of people a lot of books were not able to get the money in just before the game and it uh really pissed a lot of fans off i don't know if you want that the book i use uh i'm not in a legal

gambling state um um it uh it basically did not function yesterday yeah Yeah. Bad day. Bad day for servers to crack out. I tried to get in the Bucs. They're up 14-7-3 or 14-3. I tried to get the Bucs, like, grab some points. None of it worked. Yeah. Well, probably, you know, there's a whole other conspiracy theory there we won't get into on this show. I want to give some bets to you now.

Total seconds you turned the sound up during the weekend's performance over under seven and a half seconds i'm curious so i was doing a live stream for fox sports i did not watch the halftime show but funny story so my son's six and a half goes to bed about 7 38 so he stayed up and they were like they woke up at 5 a.m sunday morning i do not know why they never wake up that early so they were tired so we sat up and they were like they woke up at 5 a.m sunday morning i do not know why they never wake up that early so they were tired so we sat down and watched super bowl 6 40 eastern my daughter fell asleep on the couch in 20 minutes we put her to bed at seven o'clock now so my sweet little boy is stuck with his mama and we came up to my office where i'm at now

to get ready for the halftime show and him and and mama and alex were sitting on the couch back there and they were they were watching the they there and they were watching the game. And Alex was tired. He was like fighting. He was fighting it hard, but he wanted to be part of it, wanted to watch the game. And Meredith said to him, hey, there's a performance, the weekend, let's watch the weekend perform.

So they left my office and went in the other room and watched it. And so I got done with my halftime stream. Norman was sleeping. And I went downstairs and Meredith said, Alex said to me, Mama, I thought it was just one song. I want to go to sleep. I'm tired.

Atta boy. He thought it was one exact song for the halftime show. He was not about that life. So he went to sleep. Atta boy. I respect the hell out of that. And by the way, if you're good at the halftime show he was not about that life so he went to sleep attaboy i respect the hell of that and by the way if you're good at the halftime show all you need is one song you don't need to play a medley of nine interchangeable songs from commercials to try to fill up the time you also don't need to run yourself through a golden maze and and to have 10 000 people dancing around you in weird like apocalyptic looking outfits with

jock straps on your faces you don't need any of that shit if you're good see prince people that that's all it takes it was bad man i i couldn't stand that one yeah um i haven't watched it yet so i gotta go back and watch it don't bother bother. All right, let me ask you this. This is a nightmare scenario for me. Over, under, seven and a half rings for Tom Brady. Are we done? Is he going to win another one? I would say we're probably done. I don't know.

We're probably done. It just feels like, I mean, they could win next year. I don't know. I always like taking the under in this stuff. All right. Well, I mean, I don't know why you would bet against him, but obviously you get the whole field versus one guy who's going to be 44 and that's the part of it that's hard to you know

the field is always a good bet on these okay all right bet the field okay here's a fun one over under mahomes or kelsey more likely to end up being considered the goat at their position um well i i think so would you say the greatest tight end of all time is gronk right you have sold me that i think probably that's right most people agree he helped his case last night i think kelsey's close to second dude he said five straight years of a thousand yards and he might get six next year i might get you, two of those were with Alex Smith. It's not like he's just Pat Mahomes. If he continues to play at the rate he's going on,

he might be considered the best tight end of all time, too. So it's a great question. Well, so they're chasing, obviously, right now, it appears they're chasing Tom Brady and Gronk. Yeah. You know, it's going to be probably in our lifetimes we're never going to see anyone catch Tom Brady's rings, okay? So the question becomes for Pat Mahomes, is he the greatest arm talent plus winner?

Let's say he wins three or four Super Bowls. Or is he Aaron Rodgers? One Super Bowl, very talented. So I think it's, I don't know, this is a tough question i think if i had to maybe kelsey because the super bowls don't matter as much for that position yeah but it doesn't discount at all what pat mahomes did last night he's tough as a b man he got his ass kicked he got his ass beat up last night tough he's a tough kid man yeah all right um a couple more quickies cars Carson Wentz wins next season over under eight and a half. I don't know where he's going to be,

but he's going to get traded under, under eight and a half, wherever he goes. Yeah. I think he's yeah. Under say under. Okay, Jeff,

let's move it along over under championship weekend. Are they going to make it there or not for the following teams? There's probably not many who you're going to say yes to, but let's give it a shot. Chiefs, are they getting back to the championship game? No. Odds would say that's not going to happen. I'm not asking for odds, Jeff.

Put some money on the line here. I would say no. Are the Chiefs going to the AFC championship? I would say no. Really? Okay. Are the Bucs going to the NFC championship? Yes.

No hesitation there. What do the odds say there? Are there worse odds? odds no not really you think the bucks are more likely to make the bucks should be better next year i keep telling you they should be better oh god okay i might just skip watching nfl next year this is sounding horrible what about the bills if you don't think the chiefs are going back, who's going back? That's a good question. I'll change this.

Okay, I'll say the Chiefs are going to go to that because I think the Bills are going to regress a little bit. Okay. So I'll change it. I'll say Chiefs, yes. I'm waiting for Deshaun Watson to be traded somewhere. Like, if he goes to the Dolphins, they could very well be in this game. Who are the Colts going to get at quarterback? I mean, there's so many unknowns.

Who are the Steelers going to get at quarterback? What are they doing with Big Ben there's like so many unknowns so far in the AFC with with quarterbacks okay all fair Packers they're an unknown there because Aaron Rodgers seems unhappy but are they getting back I would say yes they're just they're just they're probably gonna be a one seat again because they're going to run through their division. Okay. All right. That means something's going to get healed with Aaron Rodgers.

So by definition, that means the next few are a no, but I want to ask you quickly about each of these teams. The Rams, they've tried to improve. No. You don't think it'll work with Stafford? I don't think they'll win an NFC championship. I don't think it's an NFC championship game. No. All right.

So they're going to have a year like this. They're going to be pretty good at times, make the playoffs, and then be wiped out. Yeah. You feel like the same for the Seahawks or maybe one last Russ run? I don't think so. We're kind of there, right?

We're on the downslide of Russ, unless something happens. I think so, yeah. Okay. Are we maybe seeing the rise of Kyler Murray next year? Could he make it? I don't trust Cliff Kingsbury. Okay. And the Colts, if the quarterback situation is just right, could the Colts make the AFC championship game? Yeah. Depending on the quarterback. Yeah. Okay. So we'll have to

see if somehow like Deshaun Watson ends up in Indy. We like, we like them a lot. I think so. All right. Over under 40% chance any of these teams make the playoffs. The Patriots. We haven't talked about Bill Belichick this whole show. The Patriots. I would go over. You think they make – they have a pretty good shot at making the playoffs. Yeah, we don't know who the quarterback is, though. But if they good quarterback. They went seven, nine with, with a bum roster last year.

Okay. Yeah. It's terrifying. If they get a good quarterback, what could happen there? Right. What about the Jags? They're going to get the number one pick and they got coach.

I'm going to bet under their wind total. Yeah. I would bet them down no matter what. Yeah. What about the jets? Um, no, no,

you don't think they could find themselves a quarterback uh there's roster still needs work yeah tons okay the texans it comes down to the coach and the quarterback two giant question marks so you'd say not likely a playoff team no all right uh will the nfc east have any playoff team next year will anyone anyone qualify? No. No? No. Zero. Zero! Do you want to try to predict a winner of the NFC East next year? Dallas.

Dallas because Dak comes back and they fix things and they win nine or ten games. Yeah. Alright. Fair enough. Jeff, it's been a fun season. Is there anything that we missed from the game that we should be telling people? You're talking to Ryan Jensen later the game that we should be telling people you're talking to Ryan Jensen later this week

that should be fun yeah that'll be I'm just tired man I'm ready I slept like three hours last night I'm ready to go take a little snooze

I'm going on Chris Long's podcast as well to return the favor from last week so thank you guys for listening

hope you enjoyed it it's been a great season we're going to have a lot of fun this offseason as well again congrats Bucksucs, man. They kicked the Chiefs' ass. They deserve this.

Tom Brady, greatest team athlete of all time. Talk to you guys later. Peace.