OverDrive - Schlereth on Sanders' playmaking poise, Cook's signing with the Bills and Rodgers' forecast in Pittsburgh

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

NFL on FOX Analyst and Host of the Stinkin Truth Podcast Mark Schlereth joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around NFL, the perception of Aaron Rodgers on the Steelers, the Bills' forecast on a Super Bowl journey, Travis Kelce's mentality, Shedeur Sanders' poise and more.

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I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're doing very, very well. We were just talking about the Dallas Cowboys about 15 minutes ago, and we were throwing around the idea that they could return to the playoffs this year. I'm curious how you'd answer that. Do you think the Dallas Cowboys can and will be a playoff team? Oh, yeah, I think they certainly can be a playoff team, and I would predict them probably, you know, to be one of those teams that's fighting in for a wildcar birth. And I would think they'd get in the playoffs. And then they'll do what they do all the time when they get in the playoffs. And that's take a dump in their helmets. But, you know, they'll get there, but they'll soil themselves when they're there. You know, and I was saying

this on the Singings Truth podcast just the other day. Make sure you check it out on YouTube if you give the opportunity. But Dallas Cowboys are simply the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing. That's all they are. And so, yeah, they're the most valuable franchise in the National Football League. They have not won a divisional round playoff game since 1995. Like, they are so well marketed and, you know, they've got the star and they're America's team and they're the most valued franchise in the world. And yet we all know what will happen.

They will make a playoff push and then, like I said, they'll take a big, giant, herkin dumping their helmets and they'll be out watching it like you and I are watching it. Yeah. Yeah, I would expect the same thing, man. Yeah. Speaking of helmets, by the way, hell of an image there, Mark. And there's been a lot of talk about helmets

because Aaron Rogers has had to change helmets. He said he'd been wearing the same brand of helmet for 20 years, but suddenly the one he was wearing last year is not legal anymore according to safety standards. And he's got to wear a new one that he says looks like a spaceship. I mean, in your playing

career, how attached were you to your helmet and how averse to change were you? Yeah, I mean, it's what you're comfortable with, right? I mean, of course, in my time, the helmets didn't change. If you look at the helmet I wore in 1989 when I entered the league and the one I wore in 2000 when I exit the league, it's essentially exactly the same helmet. There were no technological advances because back then, you know, the league and I love just telling us there weren't a such thing as concussions, and that if you got, you know, you were soft if you got a head injury. So it was a different time, to be sure, but there were no advancements in technology, and you do, you grow, like, you grow accustomed to the gear that you wear.

And so, you know, your helmet is one of those things where, like, I always, I always, like, I like my helmet, right? And it was interesting, man. I'm playing a game in Green May in December. It was colder than, I mean, just colder than balls. And I broke my helmet in the middle of a drive. And one of the backups throws his helmet to me, you know, from the sideline. And, of course, one of the things we always do, especially in cold weather, we've got those heated benches.

On top of the heated benches, there's these little vent pipes. But they're designed to hang your helmet on. And you've probably seen it before. So you put your helmet on. Then when you put your helmet back on to go out, it's nice and toasty warm. And, you know, it's pliable and it feels great. And you're like, oh, this is awesome. So I get a helmet thrown that the backup is just holding on to

and been holding on to for, you know, three quarters. And he throws it in, and it literally, one, it was about three sizes too big. Two, it was like putting on an ice box, like an ice, like a, just like an ice tray. I mean, it was miserable. And so I'm blopping around out there while they're trying to fix my helmet. So you really do, you really do have certain things. you like, certain helmets you like, things that just feel like they fit you well.

And, yeah, that would be, I'd have a tough time with that. I'd have a tough time changing my gear when I've grown accustomed to wearing one certain type of helmet. So those are real things. You know, those are, like, to me, that's a real thing for Aaron Rogers. Mark, I think Aaron Rogers has always been a very particular guy. He other loves the helmet or hates it. He loves the receiver, hates it, loves the router hates it.

What do you think about this new match with him in Pittsburgh? I want to see how him and Mike Tomlin work together. I'd love to see them become that odd couple and really make it work. But do you think he still has any of that magic left from back in the day? Or is this kind of the end of the decline here? What do you think with Aaron Rogers? Dude, at the end of the last season, man, he was playing good football, like really good football. And like I call a game of his in December.

So I'm there, Jets, in Jacksonville, and in Jacksonville. And I sit down and talk with him probably 45 minutes. and he and I have been really good friends for a long time, and we've got this kind of a vuncular relationship where I'll call him out on his BS, and he's kind of last. And he knows it comes from a place where I actually love the guy. I really do care for him. And he's phenomenal.

He's one of the best quarterbacks I have ever witnessed play. And it was so interesting. So Sunday we have a little talk. You know, he's on the field. He goes to warm up. And I'm watching him throw versus a bunch of 25-year-olds on each team. Mack Jones was one of the guys out there. And it's legitimately night and day coming out of his hand

compared to the other guys. I mean, you want to talk about spinning it effortlessly with just jumps out of his freaking hand and it's on receivers right now. And it was like it was palpable. It was like it was so different watching the 25-year-olds throw the football and watching Aaron Rogers at 40 throw the football.

And I'm just like, dude, if this guy can stay healthy. And last year, you know, it wasn't publicized, but he had a twisted ankle, a hamstring, a knee that was really bothered him early in the season. And, you know, and then they had no running game. The Jets were just a, like, they're just a dysfunction. Like, I was rooting through game balls I had the other day. I've just found a box of game balls cleaning out a closet. And one of them was for the Jets, you know, a win against the Jets. And I just kind of chuckled to myself. Like, nobody should get a game ball for beating the Jets. like that's just like standard operating procedure because they are that dysfunctional.

So I'm really looking forward. I like Arthur Smith, their offensive coordinator. I like the way he runs the football. And Aaron's big about, you know, we need to run the ball. Well, we need to set up our play action, our run action, play action, our play pass. And none of that, you know, none of that was a staple for us last year. So I'm really, I'm like me personally, if he's healthy, man, that dude can flat out play. even at 41, I think it'll be a great fit.

Well, one of the teams and one of the quarterbacks that will get to face the Jets twice this year would, of course, be Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. And the bills ended up signing James Cook. He gets a four-year extension, about $30 million guaranteed. It's 16 touchdowns last year, rushing for over 1,000 yards. I have very high expectations for the bills. They've won the division five years in a row. But do you see enough, you know, year over year to allow you to,

to envision a Super Bowl championship this year for the Bills? Yeah, it really comes down to can Josh Allen out-dual Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game? You know, and more, it's more so the coaching. Like, you know, the coaching for the Buffalo Bills, they seem to pucker up when it's Patrick Mahomes and it's, you know, and it's a playoff game. And so they're going to have to get over the hump, just like the Baltimore Ravens are going to have to do the same thing to get over the hump of Patrick Mahomes. I mean, the thing about Patrick Mahomes, the guy's phenomenal.

And if you give him the ball last, you lose. That's the way it works. So, yeah, like, you've got to be able to beat that guy and that franchise, and they have so much confidence in what they do right now. But I love the way the Buffalo Bills are built. You know, it went from, oh, what are we going to do? We're going to get rid of stuff on Diggs, and we're going to get rid of some receivers. And they didn't miss a beat, man.

They got a solid, really solid group up front. Their offensive line is really good. Josh, you know, does a phenomenal job, not only from the pocket, but his ability to run the football. They became so much more balanced, you know, and everybody was like, it was funny because I think Brandon Bean is their GM, and everybody was on him about, oh, they don't have receivers, you got to go out and get a receiver, and personally, it's the most overrated position in football, and he said, no, you know, we're going to go with balance, we're going to be fine, and you see the results. Now it's just about getting over the hump to come that AFC championship.

game or when you play whenever it is that you play the Can City Chiefs. Speaking of the Chiefs, Mark, we were just having a conversation about Travis Kelsey, who of course is the most famous NFL player, probably on account of the fact he dates the most famous person on the planet in Taylor Swift. And there's a big podcast coming out in a, what, 45 minutes with Taylor on with Jason and Travis Kelsey. But when it comes to the actual act of playing football, Travis is kind of acknowledged in a recent interview with GQ that, you know,

he hasn't been up to his standard the last couple of years, maybe let the trappings of celebrity get the best of him at times. He's trying to get back to what he was before that. But he's age 35 now. How do you sort of handicap his chances of refining the magic and getting that Chief's team over the hump into Super Bowl again? Yeah, well, his Super Bowl was an embarrassment without question. But I still look at that and say, okay,

So his Super Bowl was embarrassing. He still had something crazy, like 98 catches. He still had close to 1,000 yards. The guy still is incredibly productive. And so I would sit there, and I would tell you, you know, Travis, because he had 97 catches, 823 and 3 TDs. And I'll tell you, like, his blocking in the Super Bowl, me, he got his ass kick. There was a couple of effort plays that were embarrassing. for him. And I think that's really the reason. Like, if they win that game, I think he marches off

in the sunset and is part of her roadie crew. But, like, he came back because he did have that taste in his mouth. He didn't play well. Man, I had some of that film where I went out and just, I just laid an egg, where I went out and just got my ass kick. And it's one of those things that's embarrassing. You're like, I hope that film gets burnt and has never seen again. But it's there forever. And so, you know, he wants to be able to wash that taste out of his mouth. And, you know, by all accounts, he's lost a lot of weight. He looks really good. I know he practices his butt off. I've talked to several of the coaches in there. They're like, we have to manage him because that dude is just full go. And, you know, you look at the number of snaps he has based on the time he came

in the league to any other tight end that's been in the league that amount of time. And he's got, I mean, it's over a thousand more snaps than anybody, maybe more than that. So they've got to manage him well, but still, like that's, that guy still runs routes like a quarterback. He and, you know, he and, uh, and my homes have a connection like they went to Hogwarts together, you know. They're, they're incredible. And if he's in shape, man, and he's committed or recommitted to football, I think he'll put, have a real productive season, like a big time productive season where he's close to a thousand yards, receiving, you know, maybe eight, nine TDs and, you know,

another 90 plus catch season. With the Super Bowl champ, Fox analyst, Stink and Truth podcast host, Mark Schlarith. Mark, we were talking Shadur Sanders earlier, of course, constant conversation around the Cleveland Browns quarterback room, and I was listening to one of your last episodes

of Stinkin Truth. I loved your comments on Shador, looking at that preseason game he had. Looks like he's going to miss the next one, but the first one. And I come at with a fantasy football brain of I like the highlights. I like the stat line, cool. But you were speaking about something else, how he handled that pocket and how important that is.

Can you tell us more about that? Yeah, like, one of the things I loved about him. Now, I was up at CU last spring. I was helping Dion out last spring. So I got to see it firsthand in practice. And one of the things, you know, we get as scouts and the scouting departments. I mean, they know, they don't know much about,

football, right? They're, they're scouting, they're scouting measurables, like the 40 times and arm strength and jumping over boxes and a bunch of stuff that truly doesn't matter. And when you really look at Shador, his ability to layer the football, his ability to be on time, his ability to throw it accurately, those are the things that matter in his ability to manipulate the pocket. I said this a million times when Tom Brady was playing. I go, that guy is the best scrambler in football, and he never moves out of the pocket. The guy just suddenly slides from side to side, not looking at the rush, but feeling the rush, moving, buying himself another half a second, and then throw an absolute money ball. And that's exactly what Shador did.

So all these scouts and all these professional guys who evaluated talking about, well, he doesn't have elite level athleticism. So what? I don't, like, I don't care. And you don't need it at the quarterback position. Does he have elite level pocket presence? And the answer to that was yes. When you watched him, now did he hold the ball too long at times? Absolutely.

Why? Because he wanted to make big plays. You know, I get that part of it. But I'm just telling you, accuracy. And you, I will say this, too, you can't be accurate if you're not on time. And, like, you have to be on time. So that comes down to how you set up your footwork and, you know, and when you're ready to deliver the football, and if you're late with the ball,

well, bad things are always going to happen to you. So I looked at those things, arm strength, arm talent. You know, people will talk about, oh, man, he threw the ball, 70 hours in the air. Who gives it crap? Like, ultimately, what, how many times you, you're going to be able to do that. You're two times a year when you throw a hell, Mary, otherwise, a go route comes down between 47 and 52 yards.

And a go route, by the way, is throwing off a five-step drop because the receivers can outrun the quarterback's arm. So you don't ever throw it 70 yards in a game, like that stuff is irrelevant to me. And I hear guys talk about that, and I'm just like, this is such a bunch of hooey. And, you know, and we get all excited because the guy's got a big arm. You know who had a big arm? Anthony Richardson, how's he looked so far in Indianapolis? Oh, he could run, though, right?

Yeah. Man, he could jump over boxes. Maybe the greatest athlete we've ever seen play. That dude ain't worth of score to piss. And, you know, and ultimately, until you learn how to play quarterback, I don't care about all the ancillary garbage that we end up evaluating that doesn't mean anything. He is Mark Schlerth. The Stinking Truth podcast.

You can find it on YouTube. You can download it wherever you download your pods. You see them on the NFL on Fox. Always great catching up with you. Thank you, Mark. You guys got it. Take care. There he is.

Mark Schlarith. Always colorful analysis with Mark. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the glorious sons.

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