OverDrive - Schlereth on the NFL playoff picture, the coaching spots and Jackson's role with the Ravens

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Stinkin' Truth Podcast Host and Former NFLer Mark Schlereth joined OverDrive on the NFL playoff picture, the Steelers outlasting the Ravens off a missed kick, Lamar Jackson's legacy, Myles Garrett breaking the sack record, the NFL MVP, the coaching spots and more.

We're joined now by Super Bowl champ long-time NFL or host of the Stinking Truth podcast and you see them all over the NFL. Here's Mark Schlerath back on overdrive. How are you doing, Mark? I'm good. How are you guys? We're doing very, very well. Let's begin, I guess, with that game last night.

Is it too simple to say that? Like the kickers determined the game last night? How do you kind of respond to the Steelers winning the NFC North and the way everything played out last night? Yeah, I mean, there's always a ton of plays to be made in any games. giving game and hey, you know, the kickers are like children in the 50s to be seen and not heard

you just get one thing to do. Go out and kick a field goal. I mean, it's not that hard, isn't it? But, you know, I mean, can you imagine me in Boswell? Boswell misses the kick and you are the goat. Like, you're going to cost your team a chance to be in the playoffs and then that rookie kicker

misses and I'm sure you just like walk over there like, hey, you're going to be okay, kids, you're going to be fine. Not a deal you know it's you shake it off uh he was the most relieved guy in the stadium no question about it um hey man i i get it it's i'm sure it's probably tough uh but gosh it sucks lose the game on a kick that's for sure yeah mark what was your overarching like this season was a very unique season for the NFL what was some of the crazy storylines or you know thought processes when you know when you wrap up yesterday when you're looking at it

and going, man, I didn't see that coming, or I didn't see that coming. Yeah, well, you know, you think that the standards, like, you think Baltimore is going to be good again. And, you know, they ended up, you know, having injuries and all those things that have happened. Kansas City, that's always, that's always a team that you think, I, man, they've just had such a stronghold on the AFC West and now they're out of it. And the other thing that has been really interesting is there's not one team in the NFL that's really established itself as a dominant team. Every team is fatally flawed. And so right now you're whirling into the playoffs going, I could see, you know, I could see six, seven, eight different teams represent, you know, be represented in the Super Bowl. You know, I can see probably four or five from each conference or four from each conference that I think has a chance to be a Super Bowl, you know, in the Super Bowl this year.

So really, you're really strange. Nobody's really established themselves as that dominant football team that normally there's at least one team that really kind of established itself as that team. Well, Pittsburgh went in the FC North when you consider, like you said, the Ravens have been so great. You know, Burrow, you were hoping for a season of health that didn't play out. that way but the uncertainty of Aaron Rogers and what he was going to look like and he threw the ball what was it 47 times last night

he's slinging the ball around now Houston they got Houston this week and that pass rush is going to get after him but what do you think is left in the tank for Rogers for Tomlin and the Steelers when you turn the page and start looking at the playoffs

yeah I mean I don't think they're I don't think they're a great team and I think the Houston Texans are a team that a lot of people don't want to play that defense is legit. At all three levels, they've got superstars. Their two pass rushers are just flat-out beasts in Anderson off of one edge. You've got DeNeil Hunter off the other linebackers can flat run from Toa, Toa, and Al Shire. And their defensive backfield is freaking phenomenal.

So they are legit. They're not real complicated, but man, they fly around and they hit people. They just out-hit people. they play violently. And so I really like them as a football team. And I think they used in Texas are one of those teams. Now offensively, they're, you know, they're a little bit iffy, but you look at them defensively,

and they're a team that I think most teams in the NFL would like to avoid. So it looks like, you know, although the Pittsburgh Steelers kind of eke their way in on a missed field goal, I would be surprised if they advanced from this game. I think Houston is going to go in there and handle their business. with Mark Schlerath long-time NFL or Super Bowl champ on the other side of the ball last night Lamar Jackson you know he's had an injury riddled season

he's obviously an Uber talent he's won multiple MVP could have had a third last year it's about the big games with him did he help did he hurt his cause what did that do for his overall reputation last night well I mean he had a couple touchdown passes late in that game right to get them back in it over the top. Well, you know, some of those are busted coverages and, you know, and guys run

wide open. So, but you still got to make throws. You're still got to be able to see it. You still got to be able to do those things. Listen, the guy is incredibly talented. I've always said this about him in general is that I think when he's got the complete complement of his game, he can scramble around and make plays with his feet, keep plays extended. You know, he's really really good. I don't think he's your prototypical dropback guy and I think that has heard him in the past but

he's been pretty good in the playoffs the last couple of years. So again, part of my philosophy or part of my belief in what what Baltimore does far too often is from a coaching staff standpoint

like there is a certain way that they're built they're built to run the ball, they're built to play a physical style of football, they're built that way and to have that quarterback be a threat makes them really difficult and oftentimes when they get into these critical moments in these

playoff type atmospheres or playoff type games they kind of revert to hey you know Lamar go win this for us go be Superman it's a lot what the bills do with Josh Allen the same thing is hey man you know instead of us being in charge of

maintaining our game plan and adjusting our game plan and everything else. When it gets kind of, you know, nutcut in time, if you will, they just throw it to their quarterbacks and go, go win games for us. And I hate that aspect for those guys because I think it takes, I think the coaching staff doesn't hold themselves almost accountable. Who's your MVP? Oh, man, you know, it's become such a quarterback thing. I hate that. You know, I hate, it'll probably be Stafford.

But, you know, there's so many really good, good players that will, you know, never get recognized because they've had bad seasons or whatever. Like, a guy like Miles Garrett getting 23 sacks on the season on a team that can't play on the offensive side of the ball is, it's phenomenal. It's incredible. You know, so there are a lot of, there are a lot of guys like the value of Christian McCaffrey and what he did for the 49ers is they're going. through, you know, their backup quarterback for seven or eight games.

There are just a lot of guys who are deserving, but I think it'll probably be Matthew Stafford. Well, you mentioned Miles Garrett, and it is funny how he's not even in the conversation. The guy had 23 sacks the most of all the time, and I get it. The record books are always adjusting because you're playing more games. But the guy is, you know, he's a one-of-one, and he's doing it on a team that stinks, and they always stink and they're going to continue to likely stink. But I remember when Strahan set

the record, and Far of it, it looked like Brett kind of said, all right, I'm done. Did you see the same thing with Burrow yesterday? Like, did he throw that sack? How did you see that in the pocket? It looked like it to me, man. Yeah, I was a guy that hates getting

that doesn't want to get hit anymore in a Cincinnati team that does know how to protect. So, like, that was one like, I'm going to just fall down because I don't want to get hit. Right. You know, and that guy's been hurt so much, and I wouldn't want to get hit by Miles Garrett either.

It's incredible. By the way, I was doing my radio show this morning, and somebody did point out, though, although it's 17 games, he did it in a hundred less plays than Michael Strayham. Wow. So, like, and I think the other thing that's interesting, and this is why, you know, the eyeball test is important to me, far more important than statistics, is that you're doing it in a day and age of the NFL. or one, for the Cleveland Browns, they had no discernible form of offense.

So you know, hey, listen, if we can, you know, if we can score 17 points for the most part, most season we're going to win. So you're not going to put, like, you know, you're just not putting your offense or you're not putting your offense or you're not putting your offense in harm's way, meaning you're not going to give him a lot of opportunities to rush the passer. And he's always got a double team on every single play. He's got double-triple team sometimes. And then in today's NFL, like, I look back to my career. At the very end of my career in the late 90s, early 2000, is when the bubble screen became an effective play in the national football league.

That's kind of when it was created. And you think about the bubble screens, all the three-step quick game, all the screens that are part of today's game, all the just outside the numbers, quick throws. Like, they've rarely even run a seven-step drop unless it's like an eight-man protection in today's game. And so there are so many less opportunities to actually rush the quarterback. And you're getting 23 sacks in limited opportunities. You might get, you know, 10, 12 legitimate opportunities in today's game to rush the passer.

And somehow you've created, you know, an opportunity for yourself to get 23 sacks. It's a phenomenal record, man. And it's a, what an unbelievable season he has had. Well, you just don't, you want to make sure that Mark Gastineau is fine with that, too. I don't know if you remember the, uh, the Brett Farve. He wasn't happy. It was not happy. Which is still one of the most awkward transactions I've ever seen, and that was an internet meme.

Right. That was tough. Yeah, yeah, that one, we want to make sure the Gasano gets his due. So, yeah, crazy, but really good, you know, really unbelievable season for sure. with Mark Schler, so the head coaching openings as of right now, Giants, Titans, Falcons, Cardinals, Browns, Raiders. If you were pursuing a job and you could pick any of them, which job would you take, Mark?

Yeah, I think right now, I think the Giants interest me. I like their young quarterback. I think they've, you know, they've increased their roster. I think Atlanta has the best, probably the best roster in the NFC South. And I like to joke around that I'm the official broadcaster of the NSC South because I've done so many of their freaking games this year. I think I had six Carolina Panther games. They're five in Atlanta.

And I've had a couple Tampa games and, you know, but I think three New Orleans games and at least one or two Tampa games. So, you know, I think they're about. the most talented roster in that division. A little concerned about Pinnock's their quarterback. You know, because I just don't, I mean, that guy's like a china doll. He's through college, and now his first two years in the NFL, he's missed five seasons due to injury. Five seasons were cut short due to injury.

He's had two ACLs in college, two shoulder injuries. They cost him near in college, and now he just had his third ACL opposite knee of the two previous ones, but how do you go in the next season with that, you know, good of a roster going, hey, yeah, we believe in Michael Pinnock's, he's going to be our guy. I just, I don't know how you, he may be, but boy, I tell you what, it would be hard to trust him. Yeah, no, I can't blame you on that. I think that's probably why both the coach and the GM are out.

You know, they just spent money on cousins, and then they go and reach on Pennix, and we see what's happened here. lastly before we get chat here on the coaching do you think Belichick is in the running on any of these and do you think there's a chance he gets back into the NFL I don't I think that I think that ship has sailed for Belichick and I mean he was great but you know

I mean the further he gets removed from Tom Brady you see kind of some of the debacles that that happened toward the end of his career and then you see what's going on at North Carolina I just don't think anybody's going to give him a legitimate opportunity to come back from coach. So I think that ship has sailed for Belichick in the NFL. He is a Super Bowl winner, NFL on Fox, the Stinking Truth podcast host, Mark Schleroth. Great catching up with you, Mark.

We'll do it again soon. Thank you for this. Likewise, guys. Take care. Thanks, Mark. There he is, Mark Schlerth. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith.

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