Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The Chiefs Did it Again! Championship Round Reactions and More

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Geoff is back alongside Gabe to celebrate the Chiefs beating the Ravens in the AFC Championship game to advance to their fourth Super Bowl in five years. Plus, how do the Niners stack up in this Super Bowl rematch? And will the Lions be back next year?Be sure to follow the podcast for new episodes twice a week, and leave a rating, comment, or tweet @GeoffSchwartz to share what you think!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's monday january 29th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smarter than you we have just completed championship weekend the national football league we're here to break it all down next week we will have a show where it's me it's gabe it's matt all together for the super bowl in los ang. We'll have prize picks back. We'll have Volta back. We'll have it all for the week of the big game. Gabe, it is the Chiefs, it is the 49ers. This is a rematch of the 2019 season Super Bowl. The game was actually in February 2020. It was the last major event in the world, I think,

before we just didn't leave our houses for seven months. So I don't think that'll be the same this season but niners chiefs meet once again how was your weekend i saw you made some uh some usc basketball i think i saw you there at the women's or men's game women's game juju watkins best player in la and the men's game didn't go so well for the trojans no less so but uh watched a lot of football with the kids yesterday excited to talk to you about it uh and um you're gonna be here like you said you're gonna be in los angeles so maybe we'll get some eggs and bacon and all kinds

of yummy stuff while you're out here um jeff there's a lot of angles that a lot of people are talking about and then there's a lot of angles that people are pretending that other people are talking about so they can get angry about them and they don't make a lot of sense to me i want to save all that nonsense okay let's do i want to get into some real football talk with you because we had two pretty good football games with some very good teams and now we are officially at the part where we have to actually talk about like bona fides goat convos for andy reed patrick mahomes travis kelsey this core chiefs team yep um before we do legacy stuff why did they look so good why did the ravens look so overmatched why did everything click in the most important game so far this season so i watch all sports just like you do we've watched sports our entire lives i have never

believed in the idea of a championship team turning it on in the postseason outside of the nba i feel like the nba is a sport game where we've seen where teams can turn on the postseason and sometimes that's just injury right the wars a couple years ago got healthy the last week of the season, it felt like. The Lakers didn't win a championship last year, but they certainly turned it on in the postseason. Football, you can't do that. Baseball, you can't do that.

Hockey, maybe get a hot goalie, and you have the 8C, what, Blues, right? They sort of ran through the postseason. But it's very rare, right? In the NFL, it's nearly impossible. It's just the sport's not built to sort of just decide we're going to play much better in the post it's very rare right in the nfl it's nearly impossible it's just the sport's not built to sort of just decide we're going to play much better in the postseason because you're often not in the postseason if you don't play on the regular season but the chiefs have me believing that maybe they're the outlier that they just turn it on because the things that plague them

in the regular season just just dumb mistakes, right? Just like dumb football. Outside of the McCall Hardman play against Buffalo, we haven't seen dumb football. The drops, drops plagued them the entire season. There were games they lost because they could not catch the football. All of a sudden, the postseason, catching every football. Travis Kelsey, a lot of times this year, looked a little bit slower,

a little bit a step lost. Seven catches against the Dolphins in game one, five against Buffalo with two touchdowns, and obviously yesterday had a great, great first half. The penalties, we saw penalties all season long on the offensive line, can't line up correctly. All of a sudden, Gabe, the penalties have disappeared. You know, Mahomes and the way sometimes this year he looked a little bit off,

not quite the same, still the best quarterback in the NFL, but some bad throws. All gone, Gabe. All of it's gone. And all their focus now is on winning these playoff games in the most efficient way possible. It's not the way they've won in previous. They don't score 17 points in offense.

Even if you want to take away the bad holding call, that's still just 21 points, right? But they're winning in different ways. There the idea that that they have been here before the coaching staff the players and not all the players have been to the four super bowls but a lot you know the main guys have and the coaching staff has as well and they're just able to understand what it means to play these postseason games and they have played great the last three weeks there's no doubt about it the defense is much better game credit for we talk about the niners defense we'll get to that game like it's the chief defense game is one of the best the nfl and they fooled them more yesterday got in bad situations and i just think in general this team

understands how to win playoff football games yeah i. I mean, I I'll keep it real simple. It seemed to me time of possession was the point of emphasis for the chiefs. They dominated time of possession. And so even a few drives that resulted in punts in the second half served their purpose. It seemed like the whole goal was to clock and take Lamar out of the world where their run game was accessible to them. They barely, the running backs barely touched the ball. Lamar did not do as much as he can with his legs. They were slinging it and throwing deep balls, just trying to get back in the game. And it just felt like a perfectly executed game plan from, from the chief side. So you mentioned the running backs.

I think Gus Edwards and Hill had six combined carries in that game. And it's an atrocious game plan by the Ravens. It's unacceptable. The Chiefs are not going to stop in the run, and they did not do it enough. And to your point about the tempo, one of the hard things about play calling the NFL is what happens when things don't go exactly right right like what what do you do and it felt like the the Chiefs have never really had this problem where they just call the game plan as they call it no matter what the what what sort of part now

I think Andy Reid throws the ball too much but but that's just always what he's done. But the tempo of this game was not how the Ravens wanted it to go. And they just stopped running the football. I don't know why, Gabe. And one thing, though, this is a very specific sort of gripe I have about RPOs, okay? It's a problem I have with the Ravens, a problem I have with the Oregon Ducks at times.

It's very football nerdy, but let's do it. When you have an RPO, it's a run-pass option, right? So you're reading the defense, and you're going to give them all the running back, or you're pulling it away and throwing the football. Now, at times, the quarterback might run also, so maybe it's a run-run-pass option. It doesn't matter.

But when you're an RPO-based team, the opponent can force you to throw the football based on their defensive alignment and there were times in this game where the ravens threw the ball to the edge because the chiefs defense aligned in a way where the numbers were better to throw the ball well some of those throws zay flowers it was a bad throw one didn't catch it another one got got t, and they got tackled the line of scrimmage. And these are wasteful plays instead of just running the football and lining up and saying, we're going to smash you in the face,

and we're going to run the football. And so it negates the physicality that Ravens had, I think, on their offensive line, their ability to run the football against a Chiefs defense that was out without their nose tackle, without their middle linebacker, well, one of their middle linebackers. And that's a bad game plan. Oregon had the same problem this year in some of their games. And I just don't like it, Gabe.

Just call and run the football. Yeah, you can have a check off of it if it's really that overloaded and you got to throw the football. I get it. But the RPO part of it, I think, really hurt the Ravens this game. They had more called runs. They just didn't do it because they saw the look was, let's throw the football.

And I thought they got outcoached. They got outcoached in this game. And it showed, obviously, in the final result. Lamar didn't play his best game, obviously. That throwing the triple coverage was not good. He was sort of rattled with the pressure packages, the Chiefs problem. I thought the Ravens' defense was generally fine, Gabe.

They didn't allow any second half points. 17 points typically will win you a lot of games. Obviously, the fumble by Zay Flowers was not good. For the life of me, man, was that second down or third down? It would have been the dive to the end zone i i'm gonna make sure i have this right yeah i just don't understand unless it's fourth down or even if maybe a third down you're behind the put the ball over into the end zone because the the things that happen on those plays

are always bad and not good. Sorry, it was second and eight. Second and eight. So it would have been third and one at the one if you had just dove into the end zone, secured the ball. Or maybe, by the way, you dive through the defenders and you get a touchdown anyways. But the putting the ball out, only bad things happen.

Nothing good ever happens. Like you went at third and one from the one and you would have scored a touchdown in two plays. bad things happen. Nothing good ever happens. Like you went a third and one from the one and you would have scored a touchdown in two plays. And so the Ravens made mistakes. We saw in both games. This is something that we talk about on this show. I don't know how many other people talk about this very often. I don't listen to a lot of other shows, Gabe, is that oftentimes you can lose a game more than you can win a game. And the Ravens and Lions yesterday, I thought, both lost their games, right? The Chiefs did some good things, obviously.

The Niners did good things. The Lions and Ravens did some good. But they had too many mistakes, Gabe, to beat good football teams. The Ravens made too many mistakes. The penalties, I thought, were – look, the Zay Flowers won. I'm firm. I think taunting should not be a penalty. Honestly, I don't like it.

But when you push a defender back on the ground and spin the ball in his face, you're getting a penalty. Those are the rules in the NFL. If you hit Mahomes in the head as he's throwing the football, you're getting a personal foul penalty. The client didn't have to do that. Just hit him in the chest. And so the Ravens just did not play smart football in this game,

and they lost the game. The Chiefs, it was there to take. It just didn't happen. Yeah. Well, the Chiefs did play a very good game. It reminded me a little bit of one of these UFC fights with Kamaru Usman, where he might fight somebody who can do more exciting things, but he just understands

how you score points in the UFC. He understands how not to open himself up to a huge knockout. He's just technically more skilled. And so even though he might not give you the fight of the night, he's just going to wear you down and beat you. And that sort of seemed like what the chiefs did to the Ravens, the Ravens who might've been a more exciting team all year, just lost to the team that was better at winning. Also, I... The Ravens are going to be full of regret

today, Gabe, because this was the year to do it, right? Think about the rest of the AFC. Chiefs aren't as good. Bills have injuries. Quarterback issues in the rest of the afc chiefs aren't as good bills have injuries quarterback issues the rest of your division because of injuries right dolphins can't win the cold herbert injured wasn't good this year trevor lawrence wasn't good this year like you had this is the year to do it yeah and the chiefs can be better next season with better

wide receivers. And this is the year to do it. You were the healthier team. You're at home. And you texted me yesterday that if I was jinxing the Chiefs by saying they thought they were going to lose, I did think they were going to lose. But I'll tell you what gave me a little bit more hope

they were going to win is that Vegas needed the Chiefs to win yesterday like everyone's on the ravens everyone's on the ravens and vegas need the chiefs and vegas gets what they want and the chiefs won the football game so i was uh i was i was yeah there there's my conspiracy corner today well vegas uh very literally gets the chiefs because that's the site of the Super Bowl in two weeks. So let's talk about some sort of historical stuff here. So I think anyone who pays any attention to X or Twitter throughout the games has already seen a lot of these comparisons. But basically, as the game wound down, it was an endless stream of Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady comps, Chiefs versus the dynasty, the Patriots dynasty.

And in every comparison, Patrick Mahomes, I'm sorry everyone who loves Tom Brady. Patrick Mahomes comes out ahead. All right? 28, he's already been to, what, he's been to six AFC Championships games. Now he's in his fourth Super Bowl. He has a chance for a third ring. You know, all the individual records, he's already got most of them. And he's in his fourth Super Bowl. He has a chance for a third ring. All the individual records, he's already got most of them, and he's only 28.

It took Tom Brady until about 34 to reach most of those achievements. So do we have to actually talk about this now? Is the Brady-Belichick-Pats run still better than the Mahomes-R, and Kelsey Chiefs run. It seems like they've done more in fewer years in KC. The Patriots had essentially two separate runs, right? They won three in four years. Yeah, defense-led.

Three and four. They went in 7-11, lost both those years to the Giants, and then went 1-14, 16-18, I think, with one loss to the Eagles and 17 in between. Brady leaves, he wins in Tampa. The Chiefs have made six straight AFC Championship games. They made four Super Bowls in six seasons. And I looked this up today.

I just wanted to make sure. The Patriots never had to play two never played two road games on the way to a super bowl they played two road games before and lost in the in the championship game but never won two road games uh aaron schatz who was a football outsiders does the dvoa now at ftn bets he put this out uh earlier today so he still does dvo we've talked about dvoa a lot It's not a surprise here. The Chiefs will have the hardest Super Bowl path by opposing DVOA if they beat San Francisco.

They've been through a gauntlet, man. And, Gabe, they were not behind a single minute of this game. They were leading the fourth quarter the entire time in Buffalo. I mean they look is Mahomes better than Brady yes I I think the answer is he can make throws Brady could not make um his ability and I gotta study Tom Brady on this exact thing, but his ability, Mahomes' ability to do two things sort of in the same thing, where his ability to know where the defense is going to be post-snap, right, where they're looking to, especially zone coverage,

where they're going to be, and then where his receiver has the optimal opportunity to catch the football in that zone and we see this often where we saw this with travis kelsey he kind of passed early game where he sort of was running a curl a deep corner route you know and he kind of caught up between three defenders and he stopped in that zone caught on his inside shoulder was able to catch a ball and spin up the field right a lot of quarterbacks don't throw that ball right there. They lead Travis Kelsey into a safety, or they sort of throw it maybe low and outside

where he catches the ball and sort of dives into safety. But Mahomes' ability to throw the ball in the exact perfect spot in a zone and the wide receiver to catch the football and get up the field, man, there's nothing like it because that's not called. When you look at a route concept, it's not like run and sort of like run a corner and then stop. It's just like run a corner, right? Just like run the route.

And the ability for Mahomes as well just to know exactly where that point should be on a field, man, there's nothing like it. There's just nothing like it, buddy. And that's, I think, what sets him apart from brady i think they're both excellent leaders um you know obviously there's no what cheating allegations with the chiefs which i know that you love to hear that it's a i mean there's no wait it's not allegations it was proven cheaters but it's a known uh andy reed is just not there's not his personality i mean obviously andy reed is is so much fun one thing too this is this is a big advantage for the chiefs is i mentioned you they've been here before right now i've never played this far i've never been to super bowl

before i've been a couple playoff games but when you look at the chiefs locker room after they win these games it's so business-like it's just like they come in, they hug each other, we did it, and then as soon as Andy Reid talks, he talks for 30 seconds, hey, he's like, great win, guys. We got one more, but let's enjoy this one. How about them Chiefs? Like prayer, done. It's so workmanlike.

It's so businesslike. They've been here before. They've done this before. There's no worries. There's no concerns. They can't do the job, and that permeates all through because they they have a young roster they're young at wide receiver they're young in the secondary now some of those guys were there last year obviously they're young at defensive line outside of chris jones like but it they just believe

they're going to win every game and my early feeling on the super bowl is they're going to win the super bowl as well. I get a choice between Brock Purdy and Patrick Mahomes. I know who I'm taking in that matchup, but this is the best year they've had, and this is sort of Brady's 2018 season, right, where they just sort of cobbled together an offense and made it work, but man, it's impressive to watch him.

Well, since the Brady comparison is obvious one, I'm going to throw this comparison at you. I actually think that this Chiefs team over the last six seasons reminds me more of the Tim Duncan Spurs than that Patriots team. And the reason is because they're just mostly homegrown, right? They've been a core. Those guys came up through the program. It wasn't like big free agency signings.

They've been consistent to the point of boredom and they're beating all time greats. You know, Duncan was playing in an era with LeBron in his heyday, Kobe in his heyday. You know, he was beating or at least superseding teams that, you know, were in the top 10 of all time type players. So I'm curious if you see that comparison because it's, you know, coach-led, culture-based team that we every year take for granted, which was what the Spurs were in the early days. That's a good call. Except, of course, you know, like Tim Duncan was not Patrick Mahomes in a sense. You know, like, he was an all-time great, but not maybe the greatest. But I think the coach is certainly – the coaching, I think, I'm with you.

I don't – Andy Reid's not going to turn into a curmudgeon like Rob Bobovich has become, but I think that's a really good – because they're not flashy, right? I mean, this year especially, it's defense's defense it's physicality it's hard nose it's it's all the things that you would love about a championship team this is why i thought the ravens by the way were gonna win because they had everything that you love in a team in a winning team so um man uh it's it was impressive man impressive and to extend this analogy though it's also a lot of guys who you look at, and this will get us to Kelsey for a minute. You look at it and you go, yeah, that guy's really good.

Like, really good. But I don't think he could do that anywhere in the league. I think it's only, like, Manu Ginobili, great player. It's not like Manu Ginobili just show up anywhere and be that good. Tony Parker, same thing. Tim Duncan, obviously. There's something to the system that takes repetition. It's also fairly interesting about Travis Kelsey

because he is a dynamic player on a limited play count. He is not a guy that is playing every snap anymore. Did he play the second half of the game? Did he have a catch in the second half? He's just in spurts. He is an all-time great still, but you're not even getting a full 60 minutes from him

because of his age. He's just an older player. They came out and just blitzed, they spammed Travis Kelsey receptions which I I lost that wager but there were a ton of them that just were like you know one yard receptions like I mean one yard passes they spammed Travis Kelsey early in the game and man they just like he just showed up for that first half kicked ass and then sort of just hung on the second half but that's what you're getting from him

you're not even getting a full 60 minutes of brilliance anymore but he's so impactful because of how well he can play with Mahomes and how well he just plays as a as a player yeah I mean and I again this is where you have to explain things I just look at every play pre-snap and I'm like man if I was a linebacker and I saw Travis Kelsey and I like you know second and long third and long like I'm just crapping my pants because I know the guy is going to come find some space and I'm going to have to go try to pull him down and he knows exactly where the sticks are my home's going to put it exactly where it's supposed to be like I'm going to get burnt right now that's how I would approach it if i was linebacker it's got to be so disheartening it's really hard um it's a good point you know but part of what makes it really hard too is

is what i mentioned earlier like he kind of just finds the hole in the zone and so you're sort of never right gabe right Like if you think he's going to run a certain route and you're in a different coverage that doesn't work for that route, he'll just run a different route and the homes will find him. And like, that's the part that is, you can't teach it obviously, but you also just can't even show it on film. Like there are times when you don't even know if it's happening. Now the quarterback series with Mahomes, we sort of saw him explain this a little bit but there are times and my

brother said this like they're watching film and all one coach like yeah this is not what we called he just does whatever he's like that's what he wants and mahomes knows exactly what's going to happen and by the way we're sort of seeing this with Rishi Rice now where he's sort of picking up on those cues of where he needs to be on any given snap. And it's making a difference in the Chiefs passing game. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm not coaching. I'm helping with, you know, five and six year old basketball now and the thing that is the hardest to explain but you see makes the biggest difference is can you just figure out how to make eye contact with your

teammate get to a place where they can throw you the ball and then you have a look at the rim like if you can figure out those you know that geometry you're going to be much better there's no play for that there's no real way to explain that but that seems like the thing that they have, you know, more than anyone. So we hit on it with Lamar. I think we covered the Zay Flowers like Cadareous. Tony looked like a frigging rocket scientist compared to Zay Flowers on that one drive. Is there anything left to say about the Ravens? I think nice year.

And unfortunately, it flamed out the way it has a few other times in the past. They're a contender next year. But until they do it, we're not betting on them, right? That's kind of the summary of the season. I think the summary of the season is always bet the Chiefs to win the AFC and the Super Bowl and just figure out who can beat them at some point. All right, well, so let's talk about that other team that absolutely could beat them. And obviously, the lines will open and then we'll spend two weeks talking about who wins.

The easiest thing to say is what you just said, my homes versus Brock Purdy. Who's going with Brock Purdy. Yeah. Well, dude, let's be honest. That second half was unreal.

And the guy actually has legs. The guy makes huge plays when he has to. Yes. He has some great weapons, but he did a lot of things right. And I think even a Chiefs fan, as confident as you feel right now, has to admit the Niners do look scary. This is not an easy Chiefs win. Well, okay.

We will preview the Super Bowl another time. I have many thoughts on the Super Bowl. I'll have an article up on Fox sports later today, by the way, that'll explain a lot of my thoughts on the Superbowl early. Let's talk about the Niners and Brock. Yeah. First half was not good.

Second half was, was much better. That's what Brock Purdy is at times, right? You get the good and the bad. A lot of times it's been good this season, Gabe, but he decided at some point in the third quarter, like,

okay, fine. I'm going to be the guy now. A lot of times I think they win not in spite of, but as a collective offense, right? Where the Chiefs, let's say for example, win because Mahomes is incredible or the Ravens win because Lamar Jackson's great. The second half of that game, the Niners won because of Brock Purdy, right? Now, of course, they ran the ball better. They forced a turnover. Dan Campbell, we'll talk about him in a second. Decision-making process.

But they won because of Brock Purdy. Not in spite of, which happens at times, but not as a collective. Because Brock Purdy decided, you know what? I'm going to run the football. It wasn't even like the throws. I mean, the IU catch should have been interception. That would have changed, obviously, the game if that had happened, but it didn't.

That's sometimes the breaks that you get. But Purdy's ability to just turn to playmaker mode was super important that game. He ran the ball well. I heard the number he got six first downs via rushing the ball, which you would never think that with Brock Purdy. So that was an impressive game. The first half was bad. And, you know, you play that way against Kansas City,

it ain't going to go well. But when the Niners are on schedule, they are a very tough team to beat. Off schedule, you know, it's a little bit different. But that second half was they were down 24 7 and 24 and answer points man like that it's an impressive second half yeah it sure was and i don't know why the lions who'd literally never been there before acted as though they had um you're not going to catch me criticizing Eminem, but I don't know, man, that middle finger that went viral, maybe not have been the best timed one. Gardner

Johnson sort of waving goodbye to the Santa Clara fans a little too early. Let's talk about Dan Campbell. I saw an endless amount of criticism of play calling decisions and just generally coaching was to blame was the way that X had it as the game was winding down. Not how I saw it. Please explain to me why people are so pissed at Dan Campbell, a guy who apparently until this moment could do no wrong. Remember, we were so in on Dan Campbell, everything he did was brilliant and perfect. And totally he was the reason the team was there and then they blow a lead on some bad plays and now it's all completely his fault okay so um this discourse is so bad

um i don't have a hot opinion on the dan campbell going for it i am a person who would prefer my team stay aggressive gabe uh we talked about this when it came to Oregon and Dan Lanning against Washington this year. Like, just push, push, aggressive. Go for it. Go for it. Like, just I want that out of my team. It's what the Lions are. It's who they are. It's how they got here.

It's how Dan Campbell will call a game next season. I understand when the margin is three points. You look back and say, well, if they kicked that field goal, they would have tied the game. You're not wrong. But what about the fumble? What about the drops? What about golf not playing on the second half? What about the defense allowing the Niners to just run right through them? There's other reasons why you lost. I'd rather my coach be aggressive and go for it and try to win the game

and settle for long field goals on the road. The crazy number two is their kicker, they sent him in December, I believe. He had not kicked outside the entire season. They had played only games inside from just basically October on, which is an insane number, Gabe. But I'm fine with it. It just didn't work. It's not why they lost the game.

They lost the game because the Niners kicked their ass in the second half, and the Lions wilted under the pressure of that moment. They didn't play well in the second half. They just didn't, and that's why they lost the game. Yeah, well, thanks. And also thanks to Dan Campbell for finally we have our leader. The cancel kicking movement is being led by Dan Campbell. I used to think it was Brandon Staley.

He seemed allergic to kickers. By the way, same kicker Badgley. Um, I, I liked the fact that they just say, screw it. We're not bringing some soccer player out here. We're going to ram it down your throat and win. And you're right. It didn't work. It didn't work, but he's consistent with this. And when it, it had, it worked, had he converted on a few of those, we'd all be praising him for that approach. So you can't have it both ways, everybody. Yeah. You can't. And that's, I think, the issue, right?

It's like all season long, people are like, oh, Dan Campbell, go for it. Great. Let's make it happen. And now it's like, well, no, no, no, no, no. Field goal time. Right. You can't have it both ways, Gabe.

Yeah. Everyone was loving on our buddy Greg Olson during the broadcast. We like to hit on the media side of this. He was terrific. We like him and we nerd out for the way he analyzes it, but if you can as succinctly explain

why he's great as he succinctly explains why plays work, that would be nice. I think it's an easy thing for X to key in on, but why is Greg so good at this? Um, so I, our podcast just worked as smart as you, right? The goal of that fancy title is to try to educate, right? The listener and the viewer on social media about the game of football, right? And I try to do it in a way that is not overly aggressive with football terminology, is not overly aggressive with trying to confuse you and sound like I'm smarter than you by just

saying, oh, you know, guys, it's trips right, snack left, why zebra with a Mike Sam will pressure. We don't do that, right? I try to explain football to you in layman's terms, as concise as possible. That's what Greg does. I'm not saying he got it from me. He's much better than me at that job. But the point is like, he explains what's happening in very simple terms, Gabe.

And he explains to the listener exactly what happened on the play. And so you come away feeling like I'm smarter as a football fan. I learned something about this play because of the way Greg talked about the play and so you come away feeling like I'm smarter as a football fan I learned something about this play because of the way Greg talked about the play he also is willing to talk about coaching decisions whether you know that third down the Lions ran the ball and had to you know kill a few kill a time out there Greg talked about that it's just it's happening he said in the end like guys if they run the football here gotta call timeout i'm sure it passed the football they ran the ball he was ready to talk about that

play he's just ready for all the moments of the game game and look i'm not here to to really talk down about anyone but like romo doesn't do any of that you don't learn anything during the game when tony romo talks like absolutely nothing I learned something about the game when Greg Olson talks, and that's the big factor here. He's just talking about football. And he knows the offensive line too, which is important, I mean, to me obviously in my world. But playing tight end is interesting because you learn the offensive line

and the passing game. You've got to know both if you're a tight end. And Greg's able to talk about it and be concise about it and share it, man. And he's, he's smart, dude. We know that already,

but it doesn't come off as condescending. It doesn't come off as a know it all. And it's everything you want in a play by play guy. I mean, he's a color analyst. He also absolutely loves the game. And I would say this, not to focus on Greg too much,

but I think there's a generation of players, and you're in it, Jeff, as evidenced by you referencing DVOA earlier. I think we are now getting to the point where there's a generation of players who do believe in advanced analytics, who do understand that there is something mathematical about analyzing this game, that fans can keep up with that

as long as you don't overdo it. And it's nice to hear an informed person speak about the percentage play and not be cast off as some nerd. You never used to have the former star player sitting in that seat talking about what the percentage play was. They just would go with like, well, you know, coach has a strategy. It was very simple. Greg somehow manages to both have been a star player and look at the spreadsheets but also explain um you know explain like that it's not always the numbers to look like i think dan campbell

those are analytics essentially that's just him being aggressive yeah you know like greg was able to explain those things and i i don't know what they do with him at fox uh you know i i fox colleague of his i hope he continues to call games i think it would be a shame to let him go and i think that you know cbs would take him in a heartbeat nbc would take him in a heartbeat obviously they don't the number one slots are not really um you know there's not a spot for him in a heartbeat. NBC would take him in a heartbeat. Obviously, the number one slots are not really, there's not a spot for him in those places, but he's great. Well, I agree he's great, and I'm certain that he will have one of the biggest jobs out there, because it seems like fans, players, executives, everyone seems to respect the job he does. It seems like fans, players, executives, everyone seems to respect the job he does.

Let's use him, though, as a segue to cover a couple other things, namely the code. Can we take our little break right now? I was going to tease the break. Yeah, Jeff, I was going to be a broadcaster. I could see you needed a little break to let the guy in. We're going to talk about coaching carousel. And by the way, Greg Olson's name somehow fits into all that. So we'll keep the Greg talk going. We'll take a quick break. When you're ready, we'll be back. We'll finish the show.

All right. Be right back. All right. We're back. My dog is off to his activity. My wife only schedules things, Gabe, when I have one hour of podcasting to do throughout the entire day. So always great. All right, let's talk to coaching carousel. What do you want to get into? Well, I mean, I was sort of half joking when I was saying Greg Olson's names involved. But there were reports at one time, who knows what agent or, you know, rep was was helping

this but there was discussion of maybe Greg moves into the head coaching ranks in the NFL. I certainly think he could if he wanted to. I'm not sure that's his goal, but there are still a few jobs out there and there's still a few names. It appears that Bill Belichick is more likely to be on TV than to be coaching a team.

Are you buying that? Like, let's just on face, do you buy the idea that Bill Belichick is going to go work on tv and not be a head coach yes and mike vrabel will not have a job as well um here's why so it seems that there's two jobs open seattle and washington and it's ben johnson and mike mcdonald uh the ravens dc will be in Seattle and Ben Johnson will be in Washington. The reason why is Belichick and Vrabel want control of the roster, right? They do. So it's what they want. And teams are telling them no, right?

Atlanta, the GM didn't want Belichick to be in control of the roster. Vrabel kind of famously, him and the Titans general manager did not get along, right? They had different visions for what they wanted to do. I think these teams are saying, no, you're not doing that with us. And the Chargers obviously were cool with Harbaugh being in charge of personnel. That's why they hired him before they hired the general manager. But that's a big part of it is those guys want personnel control and the NFL teams that they're, you know, and they're saying, no, you're not getting control.

So explain to me apart from ego and just having more responsibility and anyone who works in corporate America understands how that stuff works. What is the reason why a head coach would want more control over the roster beyond the obvious beyond just well i like this guy i want to have him like what advantage does that have if it's all done right well i think that the coaches want players to fit their scheme and what they do and why doesn't the g GM understand that as well? Why does Bill Belichick need to be in charge of that as well? Can't somebody who's good at giving him what he needs

go get him what he needs? Well, the best do that, right? Like Brett Veach and the Chiefs have done that, right? I mean, Baltimore for so many years has done that. But once you give a coach personnel control, then it's hard for them to not want to do it anymore one of the one of the guys that actually successfully went away from that was andy reed he had a personal control affiliate got to kansas city and famously just said i'm not doing this anymore i don't want the response it's a lot of stuff like imagine imagine now your season ends

you've spent no time scouting these players now you have to spend a month the next two months just scouting 400 players and figure out who to draft let the general manager and scouting department do that you don't know the red flags of these players you're not watching every game of these players and i think that's a big part of why it's really tough to do both jobs well they're both they're jobs that are both at a high level and enemy the general manager you have to work salary cap situation it's just a difficult job man and there's obviously a collaboration that we see happen quite often between a coach and a general manager it's not like the the gm chooses every single player there has to be a sort of

understanding between the you know the the coach and and the and the general manager on what quarterback works best for someone's given offense but like why i don't think andy reed or anyone should be drafting the fourth round corner like what are they they're not watching those that's that's why it's hard to do both of those jobs well yeah yeah i also just like it takes a certain amount of confidence uh and andy reed seems like that's why I compared him Popovich earlier. It seems like the perfect guy to be like, Hey, like I don't need to prove that I'm also smarter than you.

Like I'll just do my job. You do your job. We'll work on working well together. And like, that's enough responsibility. I'm fine. Like that takes a, that takes an amount of confidence that some people do not have.

It's also why I think Andy Reid is not going to retire. I know it's just only really only Mike Florio, the conspiracy theorist is talking about it. It's, well, he is. I mean, he just has conspiracy guys all the time. I know, I just don't take it seriously. But no, my point is like people see this and people have asked me, like, was he going to retire? No. Guys, he just now gets to go like to a beach somewhere for a month after

the season and then he just refreshes himself and gets back to work with the best quarterback of National Football League. Like, he's not choosing players anymore. He's not spending time grinding away trying to figure out how to better his roster. There's people doing that right now. He's not getting burnt out. All he's doing is coaching football, man. He's coaching the best quarterback in the National Football League. He's not burned out.

He's not going anywhere. Yeah, I don't see why he would. Quick aside, Travis Kelsey, they win? Does that make him more or less likely to retire? I honestly don't know. My guess is no. Either way, he will not retire. My guess is he will spend the offseason,

the first month of the offseason, just like doing fun bro stuff. Just like drinking, enjoying his time, celebrating, partying, just having fun as a 34-year-old. He'll probably go visit Taylor across the continent as she does her world tour. And then he might think like after the season while he's doing this,

like, man, that's kind of what I want to do. Like I'm sort of just over football. But then about March, April, when you kind of – your body feels like it's feeling better and football starts calling your name, you'll go play again. That's my guess. We're going to hear reports of like, oh, he's thinking about it. And then come April and May, he's like, oh, my body's good again.

I feel really good. And the Chiefs notoriously have not had tough off seasons. I mean, it can't be tough anymore. But just their off seasons have not had tough off seasons. I mean, that's not, you can't be tough anymore, but just their off seasons have not been as tough. And I just think that he's going to be just ready to play again next season. All right. I'm going to continue to propose to you that I believe his brother, Jason, will end up on the Chiefs somehow, some way.

I think that will become better for all of them and the things they do away from the field as well. That's just a guess. That's not based on anything. I'm guessing that Bill Belichick will not end up having a weekly appearance on Pat McAfee's show, even though Pat would probably like that, that Bill will find a head coaching job somewhere, somehow. I do not see him showing up on TV. I'm sorry. Like deep down Nick Saban is like a joyful, seemingly happy guy. He just doesn't like to show that publicly. I don't think that Bill Belichick is like a good hang anywhere. And I don't think anyone thinks that Jason Kelsey is going to have whatever media job

he wants. Gabe, I think that's what he's going to do next season. I like the idea of him doing a tailgate show. Just travel from week to week, just going to new tailgate. Are you pitching him? Are you pitching him right now for this? No, he's that's been out there. That's a, that's a thing going on out there. For NFL or college?

I don't know. Whatever he wants, bro. Just, I saw it on Twitter and people were jumping all over it. I think our buddy Mike Bullock Jr. mentioned it. For like, like for like his for his podcast or someone like a network page and do that i think nfl tailgates are not that would not be a good show college yes there's never an nfl tailgating show for a reason you would know more than me i'm just saying i agree with you he will he will write his own ticket let me ask you this uh since we we set this up as a coaching carousel topic or veering away from it did jim harbaugh make a mistake going to the same division as andy pat and travis like they've got how many more years left dominating that division

like no matter how good a job jim harbaugh does yeah is he playing for you know five and six seeds every season what how easy can that be? Yeah, it's Justin Herbert, though, so you can't fault him for doing that in the end. You can't. I mean, sure, but I don't think Harbaugh views it as like he's never going to win. I think he views it as a challenge.

Yeah, all right. Last question from me, and then if there's anything else we didn't cover, feel free. But since it's going to be dubbed the grateful dead verse taylor swift super bowl who can you name more songs by the grateful dead or taylor swift oh taylor swift yeah okay i'm the other way well that's not surprising why is that not surprising i'm like the grateful dead my daughter was singing taylor swift in the car this morning okay i'm not amused i'm not a song remember or title remember i don't know if i can name three tennis with actual songs i can tell you that if you put the song on oh

that's how it was swift i don't know the names of taylor swift songs well that's why i was saying it the way i said it i wouldn't recognize a million songs by her but i don't know what summer is one of them i think right is that one summer's definitely a song karma um my daughter likes this what love story isn't that one is that the one from like 2009 my daughter likes that one i don't know from her first album i just get good songs but that's not the grateful dead's library we were listening to we were listening in the car this morning to i think it was channel 10 which is uh the 20 the 2000s or 2000 to 2010 whatever the 10s they called i think and that taylor swift song an early test of song on and my son said oh this is when she was doing country music my son gabe my son is a kid who remembers every single song lyric of every song he ever hears it is yes we will be i'll have a song i'll have a

song on the car and he'll be singing in the back seat i'm like dude when have you ever heard this song before he's like i heard i heard a couple of times. Mom played it. It's unbelievable. He's like, I don't know how he does it. Yeah, that's, that's crazy. Cause my kids recognize the melodies and the sounds of certain songs, but they don't know any of the lyrics. They sing everything like, uh, or that Adam Sandler thing where he used to do Eddie Vedder. And it was just like, that's what they sound like. And they, they don't know what the hell they're saying for anything. So maybe he's got some special skill that you don't know about. You might want to look into that.

Jeez. Hank knows a lot of Taylor Swift songs. That's not surprising. Hank is texting you the names of Taylor Swift songs. Do you know, does Hank know the, no chance he knows who the Grateful Dead is. I wouldn't imagine he knows much.

One of the, one of the lead singers was there, right? At the Niners game? The lead singer is Jerry Garcia and he's been dead for 20 something years. Who was there at the family? Yeah, he just was like a full... He looks like very, very

old. Yeah. Well, yeah, man. He's been on the road for 50 years. They still tour. It is amazing how these musicians just live forever, and they just have done a lot of recreational drugs. If you get past 27 as a rock musician, once you get past 27, you're good to like 100. It's just a lot of them don't get past 27.

That's the hard i went to an arrowsmith concert in 2012 with uh jordan gross who played with the panthers and jordan knew one of the drummers we got to go backstage and i thought for sure gabe it was gonna be a bunch of debauchery i'm like oh shit this is gonna be fun the stories will be great nope just they're all sober it was quiet it was boring will be great. Nope. Just they're all sober. It was quiet. It was boring. There was nothing happening whatsoever. All business.

They're like doing yoga and eating vegan stuff. Yeah, no, it's debauchery. Yeah. I mean, they got it all out of their system in the 60s, 70s and 80s with those bands. I know you hear about old stories about Eric Clapton. And like, I mean, you know, the stuff that those guys were up to, he and George Harrison, like they had, they shared a life. Yeah, there's some weird, weird times, man. It's not like it is today.

By the way, speaking of which, and we can end on this. Are you what do you make of this like straw man argument that there's supposedly some group of people who are upset with how much coverage taylor swift is getting it's like somehow taking away from the nfl wait i'm not seeing anyone saying that in any sincerity why is why are we pretending that's an argument okay so i uh i don't understand it because i'm all these people too by the way that was never like because I'm one of these people too, by the way, that was never like, oh, they show too much kneeling. I'm like, it's four seconds. They show a touchdown, they show her cheering,

and they go back to the game. What do you want to see? Do you want to see Travis Kelsey dancing instead or them celebrating for four seconds? But Gabe, here's the thing. My daughter loves seeing Travis on the TV. Of course. She's seven and a half. Like that makes her entire day to see Taylor Swift.

She knows who Travis Kelsey is because of Taylor Swift. That's why they're doing it, guys. They're doing it for my seven-year-old daughter, who doesn't care about football at all, but it's like, Taylor Swift, oh, look, she's on TV again. That's it. It's not for me and you. Like, just who cares?

I am – I just do not care. I think so. Like, I showed the entire game. And, by the way, Gabe, you saw the picture of her and Andy Reid pointing at each other? Did you see that picture? Yeah. Taylor Swift seems like a genuinely good person. Like, every story you hear about Taylor Swift is how kind she is,

how philanthropic she is, how good she is to people that work for her. I just, who has a bad story about Taylor Swift? She could easily be a douchebag. She has two private planes. That's how much she's worth. Two of them and people.

And she seems like nicest person ever. And whether she's faking it or not she seems really into his career rooting for the chiefs like i i i find it so odd that people do not like her i get it if you're if it's a political thing you're like oh she's too left-leaning i don't like her i mean fine i guess but there are people on the right that i don't like politically that i think are good humans i i mean like it just seems like an odd thing to just be so angry about them showing Taylor Swift. I'm kidding, man. And I'm with you.

And obviously, as a dad now, like I said a week or two ago, anything that gets more of your family to give you less grief about watching football all day on a Sunday is a good thing, guys. It's hard to negotiate. I said to my wife on Friday, I was like, buckle up. I'm not doing the like, yeah, we'll have it on

if I'm lucky thing this Sunday. The game is on and we're watching. She was like, what do you mean? I was like, I'm just saying I'm not doing that. Don't worry about it. I'll, I'll watch what I can red zone. So this is what we're doing. No plans. And she got on board. Cause she's like, you know, there's something there for her too. She's into the conversation, dude. It's only good for a national football league and for fans to have tanning swift be involved and i don't care if it's fake or it's not it it's it's good it's good and she seems like a great

person a kind person a giving person like it's everything you sort of want and so um people are going to be angry about it because they're losers. It's that simple. I didn't have nothing to talk about. All right. Well, we have a lot more football to talk about in the next two weeks. You said we'll do a special show. We'll combine a bunch of things. We'll preview the game in a lot of ways.

That's coming up later. Yes, we will do a show Friday with Matt. I'm hoping to – we're going to recap our gambling year. We have not done that so far from our futures. We'll talk a little bit about early bets. We like, and I'm going to get some mailbag questions. So please at,

at Jeff Schwartz on Twitter or Instagram, you leave them in the comments. You like on, give me a five-star comment with a question. We'll get some, some listener mailbag stuff on Friday. Then as Gabe mentioned next week on Tuesday, we will be all together

in the same studio doing a show, the three of us. I don't think we've ever done that before outside of the draft special that we do. We do the mock draft. So it'll be a lot of fun Tuesday in Los Angeles. We'll talk to you guys on Friday, guys. Have a good week. Hope you enjoyed the game this weekend. Looking forward to the Super Bowl.

Talk to you guys on Friday. Take care, everybody.