OverDrive - Saturday on Allen's subpar ending, Bills' coaching search and the conference championships

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

ESPN Football Analyst Jeff Saturday joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NFL, Fernando Mendoza's draft stock for the Raiders, Curt Cignetti's role for Indiana, the Bills' head coaching search, Josh Allen's tough performance and more.

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ESPN football analyst, Super Bowl champ. Here's Jeff Saturday. How you doing, Jeff? Doing fantastic. How you all doing? We're doing great. Well, we were watching that championship game last night. And, you know, it's always tough to get a read on exactly.

how someone's going to look from college to the next level. But I don't know how much you track college football, but it sure would, you got to believe Mendoza is going to go first overall after winning the way he did all season, playing he did the way he did last night, winning the Heisman, you know, Brady was there, Davis was there.

Do you get the impression that Fernando Mendoza, his game will translate to the NFL and he's a guy that the Raiders can build around if they take him first overall? I do. I mean, look, he's checked all the boxes, right? and I know, you know, people talking about he's not a generational talent, whatever that means. I don't even know what that means.

But, you know, they're like, well, he's, but I will say in the biggest moments, he plays his best. And as a guy who, you know, you go out and block for these guys and lay it on the line week in and week out, when the moments are big and they make those plays, man, you feed off of that. And you saw the run to get in the end zone, which will be an iconic, you know, poster. and every young kid's room in Indiana for the next 25 years with probably in between the bracket arms of Kirk Signetti holding up the touchdown sign, right? It'll be a perfect poster that goes up.

But it's not just that, right? It's the fourth down throw, the back shoulder, it's all the different moments throughout the season that he's done and put under his belt that you so appreciate. The biggest thing, though, for me, is, and you said it. Like, what do you surround him with? more QBs are ruined in our game than developed. And I think so for me, I want to know the process.

How are we going to get this guy? What are we going to surround him with, you know, offensive line-wise? You know, you got Bowers. I get it. You have Genti. I get those. But you're going to have to improve the offensive line.

They got a bunch of money. But the other thing, and I say this all the time. I think it goes way under-discussed is a great defense, right? Like, there's not a bigger friend to a quarterback than not worrying about having to go pun it because, you know, your offense is stalling a little bit. And just look at all the teams that have made it deep in the playoffs, how many great defenses there are. And the guy that's drafting them being Tom Brady, boy, he sure did benefit from those defenses early in his career. And I know because I played them. And I can still remember all the names of all the jerseys, of all the freaking guys who, if they're not in the Hall of Fame or going in the Hall of Fame,

or going into the Hall of Fame because they were legitimate, man. And having that balance, I think, is the biggest key for the Raiders is you, your money-wise, don't forget, don't just neglect the defense. Make sure you have that piece and part in place because it sure does take the pressure off of not having to perform each and every drive, especially a young one. Jeff, you just mentioned Signetti, that coach. I can't tell if he's going to be like the next Saban or he's a guy that's Google's quotes and tries to be funny and he flames out and just amounts to not much.

Like if those were the two extremes, where do you think this guy falls? What, like, basically, what is he all about? Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, when you see, yeah, when you see this guy, I'm telling you right now, I said this on television today, if I'm an owner or a general manager, I'm called, this dude would be, you know, I don't know that I would hire him, but he would dang sure be in my office and I would be, I would be talking this guy up. If you think about the way that he goes, he goes and works with Sabin in his 50s, then leaves Sabin and goes to a program no one hears about, no one knows about, and then basically builds his way up, makes JMU a legitimate team in the country, and then gets to IU the losingest program in history.

And in two years, he loses two games last year and then goes undefeated to win a national championship. like he knows process, and that's with zero five stars, right? So when you think about getting the most out of your players, like there's not a better coaching job that's been done over the last 24 months at any level in football. And so when I look at him, he would be a guy that I would come in and be like, hey, what do you need? And he can specifically tell you, and he's in his thing.

He's done this, man. Like this is, he understands what he needs, and you can tell he believes in loyalty because his coordinators have been with him for dang near a decade, if not more. And those guys have grown with him. And so, I mean, I love the story. Again, I played all my ball in Indianapolis. So, you know, I pull for them. I was excited for them.

But Signetti, man, he's the real deal. Like, he's not just a flash, you know, flash in the pan. This guy knows what he's doing. With Jeff Saturday. Well, a bunch of things you just said, you know, leave me to the bills. conversation because, you know, the bills are now short a head coach and everything you said about building a defense and making sure the quarterback feels good about it probably applies to Buffalo with Josh Allen and where he is and what he wants to see happen with his team in the future.

Where do you, where do you stand on the type of coach the bills should hire and, you know, how much change do you expect to happen here with the bills this offseason? trying to take advantage of, you know, Josh Allen and him still being in his prime. Yeah, you know what? This was the biggest shock for me in the NFL this year. And I had heard this was a possibility. And, you know, throughout the end of the season. But I'm just going to be honest with you, like, being not getting it and Dermit getting it shocked me.

And I heard the whole, you know, conversation about this is Josh Allen's best chance. to win it because of, you know, teams that aren't in it. But the team was not there. It was not there. Like I'm just telling you, like as I looked at them, you weren't scared to the defense. You weren't, you know, you weren't scared of any receiver they had. You know, they ran the ball especially well. And look, Allen didn't play good, you know, last week. He played bad. Like, you know, he was part of the problem, right? You got to protect the football. He did not protect it. But as I look at that team, this would not have been the year where I would have laid that on McDermit. And so I was, you know, he was a part of the problem. And so I was, you know,

I was surprised by the firing, and I would say this. Like, I would want to get a, you know, a manager of all. I wouldn't just necessarily go get a offensive coordinator, or, you know, I would go get a guy who I felt like could help me in all three phases. Because you just heard what I said, and I believe strongly in, they got to get their defense better. And, you know, drafting two pro bowlers since you've had Josh, since you've drafted Josh, that ain't enough, man. I'm just telling you, like, surrounding your best player with other great players is vitally important.

And right now, they're just not there. And so they've got to either do it through the draft through free agency, but getting a guy who can manage all three phases is really the most important to me. The culture is there. The stability of vision that McDermott had will stay in place. And I live through this with going from Jim Mora to Tony Dungy. right. We were already a pretty good team. We had a bad year with Mora. They fire him. Tony comes in. I think we won 12 games. I don't know. Eight years or a whatever it was. But it was all, you know, but we had a good foundation. Buffalo's got a good foundation.

They're just, they weren't good enough to get where people thought they should get to. And so whoever comes in, they better be ready for a, you know, a firestorm. Because if Bean and people believe that this team should have gone further this year, you better go win the Super Bowl because there ain't, you know, if you get to the division and win in playoff games each year and that not being enough, is that is a tough, a tough ask in our game, especially watching what the Patriots have just done this year and knowing that's going to be a division foe for the next, you know,

next decade with maybe if it may stay healthy. How much does it fall on Josh, though, Jeff? I mean, you just mentioned not managing the football. Like, that seems to be like a three-year-ago problem where it was like this guy makes bad decisions in big times and big games. And then he got through that. And then all of a sudden it was Mahomes was a problem or Burrow was a problem or the defense couldn't make a stop. I don't think most people on the bingo card would have managing the football as an issue at this particular time in his career. So how much of is it on Josh?

a large majority this past week you know he he was culpable for the loss like when you think about the end of the first half and just being lackadaisical to ball even the interception it's like the deep over on the right side um the ball is underthrown man like if if he throws that ball out in front it's not an interception it might not be a kid but it's definitely not an interception so he threw bad balls. He didn't protect the football. And so, you know, here's the difference. Like, I'd never blame Josh Allen. Like when they walked off the field with the lead against Kansas City,

whatever it was, 18 seconds, I can't remember what the time. But you know what I mean. And they end up losing that game. But Josh Allen played well enough to win. He did not play well enough to win last week. Now, even if they did win, I would have told you that. He didn't play well enough. The team around him, you know, carries.

him in this one. He didn't do his, and he didn't, and he knows he didn't do his part, you know, that week. And that's just unfortunate because it's the biggest game of the season and you don't play your game and you play probably your poorest game, and to your point, regress back to what you did, you know, quite a number of years ago, which is we're not expecting that. It was disappointing. I got, I said it on television this morning. Most disappointing, you know, a player for me this week was Josh Allen. I never thought I would. say that because he is more than stepped up come playoff time. But this was a poor performance.

And unfortunately, you got to own those the same way you own the good ones. Jeff, I'm not sure a lot of people would have had these two conference championship games in the preseason. Patriots going on the road as favorites to the Broncos, the Rams going on the road to the Seahawks, you know, these two games. Which game do you think is going to be more compelling? And who do you like? Well, you know, I hate that Nix is out. So I know Stimms coming in, everybody's going to talk about, you know, Sean loves him.

And I guess, you know, I'm sure he does, right? You know, your backup quarterback is always your most popular guy in the locker room. They're great. And, you know, you wish him well. That's tough sledding. And so, you know, I think that they, I don't think it's going to be like an embarrassing loss with the defense that the Broncos have. If Drake May doesn't protect the ball, like he didn't protect. at the ball at all this past week.

If he does that, then Denver will stay in the game. If he protects it, smart with the football, they play, you know, lasered in. I'm leaning more towards the Patriots than that one. The other one to me is the game that we all wanted to see, right? Third time, Seattle, Rams. And, you know, I'm all here fighting with Chris Canty this morning on the first take about it, and he's talking about how, you know, Josh, I mean,

Sam Arnold has exercised. this deal. I'm like, what are you talking about, bro? Like, they were down. They had a two-point conversion that nobody knew was a two-point conversion. They had all these crazy plays to end up winning this game. But the Seahawks have run it super efficiently the last few weeks. Rams have not been nearly as physical since like week 13 on the defense.

This is going to be a freaking game for the ages. Brian's fired up for this one. I hope that McVeigh runs the ball more. he did against the Bears because I thought he got out of his game. But I am as fired up for this one as you can be, man. I mean, you talk about Sam Donald, who's played about as good a quarterback as you can play without winning big games, you know, like playoff games and championships. He has a chance to unseat a Hall of Famer and Matt Stafford.

Let's go, baby. I mean, like, it don't get better. This NFC one, it's something to talk about, man. I'm fired up for it. Yeah, it's going to be a great weekend. Absolutely. It always is. Great catching up with you, Jeff.

We really appreciate it. We'll do it again soon. Appreciate you, fellas. Have a great one. There's Jeff Saturday of ESPN. Super Bowl winner joining us here on Overdrive. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship.

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