Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How does Cam Newton fit and where does Mike Zimmer rank?

Episode Date: July 3, 2020

Matthew Coller and Myron Medcalf discuss whether Cam Newton still has anything left in the tank and how good he was in his prime. Plus Mike Zimmer cracked the top 10 on a coach rankings list, does he belong there? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey everybody, Matthew Collar here. Make sure you're paying attention at the end of the show to hear an exclusive trailer for a new podcast from Blue Wire Studios called Golden Goal, Stories of Soccer Legends. It's narrated by Blue Wire host Brandon Kelly, and each Monday, two new episodes will take a look at some of soccer's biggest stars and the moments that define their careers. From Messi to Rapinoe and many, many more,

each episode will focus on the historical plays and personalities that make the sport great. So stay tuned after the episode and listen to Golden Goal, stories of soccer legends wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's start the football talk. Hello, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and I am joined by ESPN's Myron Metcalf. And Myron, as soon as Cam Newton signed with the New England Patriots, I thought, I need one person and one person in particular's analysis of Cam Newton to the New England Patriots, and that is Myron Metcalf.

So let's just begin there with your hot takery on Cam joining the Patriots. I mean, is there a luckier franchise in sports, man, like you lose Tom Brady and here you are not just getting Cam Newton, but getting Cam Newton for pennies on the dollar and having a complete win-win situation for you if you're the Patriots and Belichick because if Cam is still not healthy, if he's still not the Cam of old, okay. You got a backup sitting right there,

a young guy that you've been waiting to test out. And if he is great, you've got a great year out of him potentially, and then you can figure out what to do next summer. It's just – it seems impossible that they would be that fortunate. And I'm just intrigued, man. I'm intrigued by Cam's skill set in an offense that's governed by a coordinator and a coach who's done a great job of limiting the risks that Tom Brady subjected himself to. And you've got a guy in Cam Newton who's taken probably far too many risks

in his career. So, like, what's the balance there? And I'm just fascinated by what we might see but I love the the move I disagree with the people who are saying how could anyone else have you know why didn't Cam get more opportunities I mean Cam hasn't played football in two years consistently uh Cam is calling off some serious injuries in the middle of a pandemic and if cam newton wants to be a starter in the league for a team that is good or has a chance to be good like where does he go i mean more than anything to me it was less about cam newton and more about maybe the richest

crop of quarterbacks that we've seen in this league in a long time the veterans that we thought would be gone are still playing at a high level. Your mid-career Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins guys, they're not going anywhere. This young batch of quarterbacks, your Lamar Jacksons, your Patrick Mahomes, even a guy like a Kyler Murray going into the second year, those guys are set. And then you've got young guys like, okay, Cincinnati, maybe they wanted a veteran.

They got Joe Burrow. They're going to build around him. You got Dwayne Haskins in Washington. Maybe they wanted to make a move, but they want to see what he has too. So there just weren't that many opportunities, and I think Cam fell into the perfect spot. If he's healthy, I think we could see a team that might be the third best team in the AFC.

But I don't know if anyone has enough information at this point to decide which Cam we're going to see. But my goodness, man, there's not a team I want to see more than Cam Newton and the New England Patriots right now. I'm excited about Brady and the Bucs and all the other teams, but give me Cam Newton, New England. I can't wait to see that pairing, man. I agree with you that I don't think that Cam was victimized here. When you've had this amount of injuries recently, not getting a big contract with a lot of money should not come as

a surprise. I mean, Teddy Bridgewater did get kind of a huge deal to go to Carolina for somebody that had his catastrophic injury, but he stayed healthy for a couple of years now, and you're getting a guy who just went 5-0 filling in as a starter. So you get paid for that. Andy Dalton ends up as a backup, but he gets paid more than Cam Newton, but he has been healthy and just mediocre over his last few years. Cam Newton has not just little injuries, they're massive

injuries. The Liz Bronk thing is a huge problem for somebody who runs all the time. And a shoulder issue, I remember hearing this about pitchers in baseball, that if you have a shoulder injury, it would be like a horse in racing breaking its leg. Like it's very, very hard to come back from when you have a shoulder injury. Now, Drew Brees, of course, did it. But Drew Brees is maybe the most accurate passer in the history of our universe. And that is not Cam Newton. And when his shoulder went down, he really, really struggled. And this is not a guy who has ever relied on pinpoint accuracy. He's relied mostly on explosive plays, throwing into tight windows, throwing lasers down the field and getting big chunks of yardage and then getting

more big chunks of yardage with his legs. And that's how he's won a lot of football games, which he deserves all the credit for, but that was in the past. You're not paying for his 2015 season, you're paying for what the market is for an often injured player over the last few years, and you really have to go back to get any sample of him playing to the beginning of 2018 where he was healthy in Norv Turner's offense, and surprisingly with Norv Turner, he was throwing the ball a lot shorter, and no surprise, his completion percentage, which has been a big criticism of him that went up as they were designing him to get a lot more easy completions in yards and I do think that if Josh McDaniels knows anything it's easy completions I mean he's

been doing this for Tom Brady for a few years now to get your James White 75 catches a year on his backfield and Julian Edelman with three yard outyard out routes that he can take for 10 more yards. I think it's a really good fit for the offensive coordinator that he lands with, too. And I wonder if you think, if you were a gambling man, would you have the Patriots as the champions of the AFC East with this happening? It's too early for me to say, but I pick them now, I guess. You know, I'm not 100% on that, only because I don't know Cam's health. Cam is healthy.

I think they're a step ahead of Buffalo. But I also think people are dreaming if they think Buffalo's an easy out, and that Buffalo, that defense, what they were able to do last year and how they came on, and the chance that Josh Allen develops here next year, I mean, I don't think that's an easy matchup for anyone, clearly. But I think you'd have to give it to New England if you get a healthy Cam Newton. And, you know, to your point about Josh McDaniels, it's about the short throws, but it's about getting the ball out of your hands as quickly as possible because we want you to stay on your feet, which is what they did so well with Tom Brady,

is they kept him on his feet and they helped him play until his early 40s. Cam Newton, my biggest question is, how does he play? Because if you're Josh McDaniels, the first thing I think you're saying to Cam is, listen, you're in your early 30s now. I helped a guy play for another decade from where you are right now at a high level, and I want the same for you, but you're going to have to take fewer risks and more calculated risks if you're going to make this work. So how does Cam respond to that? Can Cam be more of, and it's basketball, but a setup man, a John Stockton, or does he have to be Malone? Because I think that's going to dictate how he performs in New England. Let's be honest, man.

The real star of the New England Patriots show is that defense and what they've been able to do and what they were able to do last year. I mean, that's the unit that's going to make or break your team. If you're going to win the AFC East, you're going to have to have a great defense. If you're going to contend in the AFC, you either got to stop Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson. Defense is going to win championships in the AFC. So how does Cam respond to that? Because I think if Josh McDaniels can put him in the right mindset,

where it's not about showing everything you can do on every single play and it's more about knowing when to use sort of that uncanny skill set I think that to me is the perfect marriage for Cam Newton because I think he can be a very effective and efficient player. And what he had, Norm Turner, and he was healthy in the first half of 2018. He looked as comfortable as we've ever seen him in his career. And he looked like a guy who was headed in the right direction before the injuries. So I just think I want to know Cam's mindset, man. I want to know if he's here to prove something to everybody and try to get some big

contract in 2021. And doing that and playing that way could hurt him. I mean, you mentioned Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater came in and said, listen, I'm going to be efficient. I'm going to be effective. I'm not going to make a ton of big plays. Guess what? I don't have to. I've got Michael Thomas. I've got Kamara. I've got all these other weapons around me. I'm just going to show you guys that I can lead a franchise and not lose a game, and that's what I did. I think Cam Newton can take the same approach and not only have a lot of success with New England, but put himself in the perfect position for another big deal next summer. Yeah, and when you think about last year, Tom Brady ends up with an 88 quarterback

rating, and that team is still one of the best teams overall in the NFL. Now, they don't have weapons to give Cam, but they do have a very creative offensive coordinator that I think would know how to play to his strengths, and it seems like Belichick has been a fan of Cam for a while, and he used to shred apart the Patriots, it seemed like, every time that they would play, and I would imagine Belichick likes that. But also, Belichick is the ultimate play-to-your-strengths type of coach. And when you go to somebody who is not going to ask you to do things that you can't do, that's a big advantage, I think, for him in this situation.

Now, the looking forward on Cam is very interesting for the 2020 season. The looking back on Cam is always an intriguing debate to see what people value when it comes to a quarterback. Because Cam is just a completely different person from so many of these other quarterbacks. He's the most prolific runner outside of Michael Vick of all time. But even Michael Vick maybe didn't do it for long enough. With Cam Newton, he's done it for his entire career. He's definitely the most prolific threat ever at the goal line, which is a big deal, scoring touchdowns last time I checked,

but not the most accurate passer. Also did not have great supporting cast. What was it? Ted Ginn was his leading wide receiver when the— Calvin Benjamin? Yeah, not a good group. Right, Calvin Benjamin, he leaves Carolina, he's out of the league. And so Cam has had to put a lot on his shoulders over the years. They didn't necessarily have superstar running backs either

that could be in the backfield and play off of him until they got Christian McCaffrey and then he gets hurt. I was looking this up. Pro Football Re reference has a statistic called approximate value, which is kind of sort of a wins above replacement type of thing. It tries to take your individual contribution to your team's success. And so it adds up over the years. And I was looking at active players and Cam Newton right now is in the top 15 of players that are active and some of them just built up a lot of stats over the years like Eli Manning is on this list but

that's years and years and years the top quarterbacks are Brady Breeze Rivers Roethlisberger Rogers Ryan and then Manning Eli Manning and then after that Russell Wilson and Cam Newton. So kind of this era's quarterbacks, where would you put him if we were looking at, say, 2006, 2005 to 2020, the last 15 years? Where do we rank Cam Newton for NFL quarterbacks? You know, I mean, there's obviously that class of your Manning, Breeze, Brady, I mean, Rogers, guys like that. I mean, I thought those were your top four or five, but Cam is right there behind them when healthy. I mean, if you add up the times that Cam Newton has been healthy, he has certainly been one of the most potent weapons this league has ever seen.

But you also can't just ignore the injury because there have been so many of them you know he's not a guy where you can say oh you know Brady getting hurt and missing most of the season I mean this is a guy who's missed chunks of multiple seasons uh in the prime of his career but I think healthy Cam Newton I don't know that there are six quarterbacks during that stretch you're describing that you would necessarily want over him. There's definitely some who have been elite and some of the best of all time. But once you get outside that best of all time group or future Hall of Famers like a Russell Wilson, I think Cam Newton is in that conversation. But I also understand the people who say, wait a minute, we haven't seen him healthy, and you don't know if he's healthy now.

So I get all the questions about Cam Newton's physical makeup, especially in the middle of a pandemic where, you know, he looks great working out, but that ain't football, right? You know, defensive ends aren't coming to take his head off. I do have a problem with the people who question things outside that. Cam Newton's work ethic has never been an issue. No one has ever said that Cam Newton is not trying hard enough, that Cam Newton isn't putting in the work. And a lot of people will take the flamboyance, the post-game outfits, the post-game celebrations, or the touchdown celebrations, and they'll say, well, I don't know if you want that guy to be your leader. What does that even mean? Belichick and Cam Newton will work out because both of them are crazy about football. And you've got Belichick.

Well, I don't care what anybody says. It's out to prove that he can do this without Tom Brady. I don't care what anybody says. He understands that his legacy is intertwined with Tom Brady's, and he wants to prove, listen, I was the mastermind behind this. And you've got a guy in Cam Newton who was obsessed, obsessed with proving everybody in Carolina wrong, every fan wrong, and trying to show that, hey, you guys remember when I was MVP?

You guys remember when I led that team to the Super Bowl? You remember how great I was when I was healthy? Now watch this next chapter of my career. But I think the injuries, I get it. But all the other stuff beyond that is crazy to me. He works hard. He's an incredible talent. And, yeah, I don't know that there are six or seven quarterbacks

that you would take over Cam Newton, healthy Cam Newton, during that period you described. But I don't know. Is that crazy? Before we get back to the conversation, I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. They just launched their partnership with Michelob Golden Light

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code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. No, not at all. I mean, the hard thing to separate with Cam Newton and a lot of the other great quarterbacks of the era is just that your Phillip Rivers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady were so and Peyton Manning in his era so prolific as passers and Roethlisberger too and this is someone who was not and did it completely differently I mean if you look at numbers that show the efficiency of his passing, even like adjusted yards per attempt, they're not great when it comes to Cam for many seasons. I

mean, his first couple of years, he was averaging almost eight yards per attempt, but that dipped quite a bit. 2015 looks more like an outlier season. And I don't even look at really quarterback rating entirely, but just what you did yards per attempt combined with your completion percentage and all that sort of stuff, it doesn't speak too highly of him as a pure passer. And neither do his pro football focus type of grades that just grade that per throw basis. And efficiency has been the name of the game over the last 15 years. So Tom Brady completes 70% of his passes, throws two interceptions a year, and keeps moving the chains and moving the chains. I think that when we look at someone like Cam Newton and we pull up his stat page,

it's a little bit different than those guys, but you also have to consider kind of how he did it with more explosive plays, more throws down the field. He led the league in 2012 in yards per completion and kind of stayed in that range of 12 to 13 yards per completion in a league where we were seeing yards per completion go down and down and down with a lot of shorter passes. And if you ignore the running part, if you just took all those touchdowns from his running and dropped them into his category on his pro football reference page of passing touchdowns, because Brady wasn't running touchdowns and his running and drop them into his category on his pro football reference page of passing touchdowns because Brady wasn't running touchdowns and Rivers wasn't and Roethlisberger

wasn't uh if you dropped in 14 touchdowns in a year or 50 or 60 touchdowns you'd have a lot better quarterback rating and you know I also think sometimes that the name of the game is winning and there are a lot of different people that win in a lot of different ways. Drew Brees cannot throw a football 50 yards. He wins by just cutting you apart with a scalpel. And I go back to, I've talked about on the show before, but someone like Jim McMahon or Teddy Bridgewater, they win by never turning the ball over, by being safe, by playing to the score. So if you are down, then you start to let it loose. Then you start to use your arm a little bit more. And those guys

were good at it when they were asked to do that. So Cam won in a way that very few quarterbacks have ever won. And for a long time, we were told that you can't win this way with somebody who was a running quarterback as a big part of it. And he was able to do that. Now, from the personality point, I would just suggest that anybody, if you want to hear about what Cam Newton is like to play with, go back and listen to my podcast with Jeremiah Searles, who played with him for an entire training camp in preseason before Jeremiah got hurt, but he raved about Cam Newton as a teammate, and unprompted. I didn't ask about it he just I asked him to tell me his the best players he ever played with and he named Cam and talked non-stop about how Cam would take

care of his teammates and how they loved playing with him how competitive he was how like you said obsessed with football he was how he picked up the new offense really fast and was in complete command of it so from a personality standpoint, if you're reaching back to, hey, he took some money at Auburn, good for him. I'm glad. Hey, he said that one thing in the media that one time, which he apologized for right after. I mean, the stretches that people have to make, just say you don't like him. But when we're actually making legitimate arguments, that's pretty hard to do, especially when across the board,

his teammates come out and say, no, this was actually a great guy to play with. Yeah, and I think that obsession and that chip on his shoulder is what Belichick will love. And, you know, to your point, Cam doesn't fit anybody's mold. I mean, he's the greatest athlete I think we've ever seen at that position. And that's no disrespect to Michael Vick or anyone else we've seen do this. But I think, I mean, you look at the guy, 6'5", built like a linebacker or something. I mean, he shouldn't be able to do the things that he does with his body.

Now, part of the problem is he has those gifts and he's used them often, and that leads to injuries. But when I think about him and the Patriots, man, I think about a team that will eat you up, you know, little by little. They're a bite-sized kind of team, five yards here, eight yards there. And then all of a sudden, you get Cam Newton inside the 20, not knowing what he might do, whether he runs, whether he dumps it off. That, to me, is the kind of team that they can be with Cam Newton, just putting him in a position

to make big plays. I think that will be the goal. And if you tell me that Cam Newton will be healthy and he will consistently get opportunities in the red zone to make his mark and to make big plays, I think New England could have an incredibly difficult offense to stop when it comes to those situations. And you combine that with the defense and they can compete with anybody. Cam, to me, again, it goes back to risk. Because, I mean, what he did with North Turner was great. But I don't know if the injuries since then have maybe limited his ability to be that efficient again. Like, we maybe saw Pete Cam Newton as a thrower already.

Like, I think it's fair to question that. So what else does he offer? He's still probably going to be fast and strong and have all these physical gifts, but how do you put him in a position so that he's not sitting on the sideline on week four? That's up to Josh McDaniels and Belichick. That's what

they have to figure out. I think Belichick is just so excited to have someone like Cam Newton sitting there ready to bring him into that offense and turn him into the new leader of the New England Patriots, knowing what he can do. And you said, you know, the Patriots are a play to your strengths kind of franchise. I think that's why we got to stop saying, well, Brady did this in that offense. It's not going to be the same offense. It can't be under Cam Newton. Cam Newton has a different skill set. We all understand that. He's not the efficient passer that Tom Brady was, but Tom

Brady wasn't the versatile playmaker that Cam Newton can be when he's healthy. So the idea of Belichick and Jasmine Daniels game planning around what healthy Cam Newton, if he's healthy, can do, that's the most fascinating storyline in the NFL right now, in my opinion. Nothing against Tom Brady. Tom Brady's got a ton of weapons in Tampa Bay. I mean, you had a guy who was half the quarterback, throw for 5,000 yards in that offense.

We know what Tom Brady can do with all those pieces. Cam Newton in New England is more of a mystery. But I think that's how Belichick likes it, man, for people to feel like you can't pull this off. And then he's going to. And then we'll all say, you know, he told us. What I really respect about Bill Belichick is that he only thinks in terms of championships. And he does the things that give you a shot at a championship or

they will blow up in your face and those are the only two options when you trade for Randy Moss to come from Oakland to New England you are either I know they didn't win but you're either going to the Super Bowl or it's going to be a giant disaster and it will ruin your franchise but he will always take the option Albert Hainsworth like there was like there was a chance Albert Hainsworth would come in and be the most dominating defensive tackle in the NFL, and he didn't, but it was worth that shot. How about Aqib Tlaib had plenty of issues before he went to New England. He's always willing to take that risk if the ceiling on that risk is you could

potentially go to the Super Bowl, and a lot of teams just will not go there. A lot of teams will, and this is what I like about the Patrick Mahomes move for Kansas City, like Alex Smith capped what you could have for success, and they just decided, you know what, he's good at football, love him, great guy, but no, we can't cap our success at just being a first round out in the playoffs. And Chicago did that to themselves this year. They're not winning the Super Bowl with Nick Foles slash Mitch Trubisky. They might not make the playoffs.

You capped yourself at, hey, if it works out, maybe you go 10 and 6. And that's okay, and you'll all keep your jobs and everything else. But you could add Cam Newton instead, and maybe it blows up. That's what job security does for you as well and that's a big part of it is that you can take those types of risks um so i wanted to switch gears with you and talk about a list that i found because it is list season in the nfl this is where it's like every day there's a new list that the entire internet could be mad about but this might be one of the first times in history of lists and football that I found one that a lot of people maybe not agreed entirely on the order,

but agreed on the names of this list. So this was from CBS, their top 10 coaches for the 2020 season. I'm going to read them, and you can react whatever way you want to. So they had Belichick as number one, Andy Reid number two, then John Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, Doug Peterson, and Mike Zimmer coming in as the 10th best coach in the NFL. Reaction? It's a really good list. I mean, I don't know who you would swap out at this point. I think the best coaches

in the league are right there. John Harbaugh is too high. To me, he's not over Sean Payton. I'm picking Sean Payton any day of the week. Harbaugh, to me, isn't that... He's got the Super Bowl, right? So you have to give him

that credit. But I don't know that he's significantly better than Zimmer. You know, I think they have a similar kind of makeup. And the thing about Harbaugh was a couple years ago, we were talking about him maybe having to save his job. And then Lamar Jackson blossoms into this savant that few people thought he could become. And that kind of turned things around. Now, I think he's a top-ten coach, but Sean Payton is above him. I love that Shanahan's on the list. Listen, there's not a whole lot you got to see. We know what this guy is.

I mean, that's why they just gave him another gigantic extension in San Francisco. You know what a guy can coach, and when you take, you know, those players on that offense, that defense, and what they become, you got to give them credit. I mean, that was one of the more efficient offenses in the league, and Shanahan was a big part of that. So I think he belongs in that.

Sort of guys you would pick right now, top four or five for sure. Yeah, like everyone else, Tomlin could be higher. I mean, you know, he's a guy who, Tomlin has, I think his consistency is underrated. And I think what he did, really what he's done the last couple of years, he had to deal with Le'Veon Bell saying, I'm out. I'm not going to show up. He had to deal

with Antonio Brown essentially trying to sabotage the entire season. I'm not sure the guy still has a chance to get into the playoffs. I mean, they're still right there with no quarterback. You know, Roethlisberger hurt, and that to me was a sign of just how great he could be. But it's a good list. I think Zimmer, 10 makes sense. And I think the 10 really is only based on getting to the Super Bowl, you know,

and being one of those guys. A lot of those guys on that list, most of them, I believe, have won Super Bowls. And I think all of them except Zimmer have led a team to the Super Bowl. So that's really the only gap between Zimmer and, I think, 789, man. But I respect the list a lot, man. What about you? Before we get back to the conversation, I want to remind you that there is no shortage of action going on right now

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Visit BetOnline.ag. Use the promo code BLUEWIRE for a free welcome bonus. That's one word, BLUEWIRE. BetOnline, your online wagering experts. I think it's a right-on list in terms of the names that you got. Like you said, you could shuffle them a little bit. Kyle Shanahan getting his recognition. If you've blown two Super Bowl leads, that means you were in the Super Bowl twice.

I mean, I know he was an offensive coordinator once, and he didn't offensive coordinate their way out of that Super Bowl. They were up 28-3, and he also didn't offensive coordinate their way out of a 10 Bowl. They were up 28-3, and he also didn't offensive coordinate their way out of a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. It's one of those things that annoys me very much about people saying, well, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo, who knows if he's really a great quarterback. Dude, he put his team up 10 points in the Super Bowl by playing really well, and he got a pass batted down, and all of a sudden you're saying he's not good uh feel free to make a stop on third and 15 but anyway a little different conversation Zimmer is the only one here

as well without locked in job security I think so I mean if it goes tremendously bad for Mike Tomlin it's always possible but you're yourself, are we really going to get a better coach than Tomlin? Doug Peterson's magic might run out if they miss the playoffs this year, but would you fire him? I don't know about that. Zimmer is sitting here looking at all these other guys who have job security and are loved and thought of as the top coaches, and his name is in this conversation without a contract extension.

That is a bizarre thing to feel because I can't say decidedly and look at the other coaches that were not included in this list and say decidedly, oh, no, no, no, this guy or that guy is way better than Mike Zimmer. I can't say that about too many people. I mean, maybe you'd have Bruce Arians in this conversation as well. If you think he's still got his fastball, which I guess we'll find out this year, maybe you'd have him over Zimmer instead. But to be right there and not have a contract extension, I think it tells you about the circumstances post-2017 and just where you set the bar as an organization and maybe in some ways unfair to set the bar I get back to the NFC championship game when you probably peaked and came down the

other side of the mountain but I also think that there are reasons to wonder like is Zimmer modern enough to be on this list as somebody who wants to run the ball more often. I mean, maybe that's part of it. There's somebody who openly makes fun of their analytics department at the combine when he gets asked about it. Right. Like, I mean, a lot, a lot of the common thread here is Belichick and a bunch of other guys that are very progressive, modern, even Andy Reed is old, but has always been sort of a forward thinker. Where's Doug Peterson on the list?

He's ninth. So, I mean, they're different to Doug Peterson wins that NFC championship game and goes on to the Super Bowl and wins it. So, you know, I think, yeah, the modern thing, I mean, Shanahan, McVay, guys like that, you're going to see more and more of those guys. I mean, Matt LaFleur takes his team to the NFC Championship. I think this list will get younger, much like the quarterbacks in this league. Suddenly you're going to see more turnover, I think.

Excuse me. And you're going to see some younger guys move up the list. But I think Zimmer with no contract extension, all the uncertainty here, it's a lot of pressure on him, but it's also hard to feel sorry for him. Just in that what happened in 2017, no matter how you see it, I think he accepted the burden of this is our window. And I think he preached that and promoted that.

And I think when you endorse the signing of a Kirk Cousins, that's you saying we got a chance. You know, when you have the defensive pieces they have, when you bring in the weapons that they had, you're saying and communicating we got a chance. You know, watch out for us in the next three to four years. So I think to in that stretch without a run I mean you beat New Orleans on the road that was impressive but without any real

proof that you're a legit contender and and to watch San Francisco go from a four-win team to a team that now you've got to deal with to get to the Super Bowl. And I understand they got Garoppolo, and I understand there are a lot of elements that changed for the 49ers, but what really changed was Kyle Shanahan. And they had a coach who was one of the best coaches in the league. So I think to watch other people kind of wave the magic wand over their franchises, that hurts Zimmer as well because he's not the consistent Mike Tomlin guy who's kind of always there in the mix.

And he's not one of these young, innovative guys who can just kind of hit the switch and all of a sudden you've got Aaron Rodgers playing better, you're Matt LaFleur, and that's sort of the trend, bringing the young coordinator. So it's almost like has the game passed him by? And I think we're going to find out, to your point, in 2020 if that's true or not. But I also think Zimmer knew what was coming,

and he understood the position he was in after 2017. Yeah, right. He wouldn't have quit after 2017 because expectations are going to be high. The point on Tomlin, though, I do think that there's a lot of similarity there between more recent Tomlin and Zimmer where Ben Roethlisberger has not been superhuman over the last, I don't know, five or six years and Tomlin is always in the mix and when quarterback things went really wrong, he still finds a way to get you eight wins. And that's one thing that Zimmer does is he puts a floor that's very high that if things go really wrong, tremendously wrong, like they did in 2016,

you still end up with eight wins. But I also think there's an order of operations type of thing with Zimmer's, I guess his history of how it's happened that influences us. I mean, even in 2016, if they go 8-8 and they go, you know, I don't know, 2-3 out of the gate and finish 8-8, we go, well, that was not bad considering you lost your quarterback to start the season. But they went 5-0, and then they collapsed. And if you went to the NFC Championship game in Philadelphia and you lost,

you'd go, well, okay, I mean, great year though. But you lost 38-7. You got murdered there in Philadelphia. And even to some extent what happened this last year is you went out to San Francisco and just weren't really very competitive in that game. And your defense got run over in that game, just like it did in the NFC championship. And when you peaked in your third year and set the bar high, then everything else was a disappointment,

even though you've come away with a well above 500 record over the last two years. And then there's the, you poured $84 million into a quarterback. So the way it's all happened influences the way that we look at what the head coach has done. Plus, I think he burns hot and he's a very emotional type of coach and he will let loose at times and I think alienate people and make people around him uncomfortable with how, I guess competitive would be a very nice way of saying it, but also sometimes it seems like he can pour gasoline on fires. That, you know, when you have an offensive coordinator who you're not getting along with and you just have to fire him,

that doesn't look like you resolved the situation. It looks like you made it worse. And that has happened a couple of times with different people throughout his time there, so that matters. All right, before we wrap up, real quick, a little game of would you take Zimmer or this guy or they're the same? Okay, so I'm just going to throw some other coaches at you, and would you trade Mike Zimmer for them? How about Sean McDermott in Buffalo? Would you trade him for Sean McDermott?

No. Would you trade him for Kevin Stefanski? Oh. Some people in the organization would. I heard that last year. No, but I get the conversation. I understand the conversation. I'm going to go maybe.

I'm going to go maybe. I'm a maybe. I want to see it, but I really like a lot of the things Stefanski did last year, especially given the circumstances where they told you, yeah, you've got to actually have Gary hanging out with you. And they were – I mean, their offense just shot up from 2018. How about Mike Vrabel? Did you take Mike Vrabel or Mike Zimmer?

Give me Vrabel. I mean, it's hard to deny. Yeah, well, it's hard to deny what he did last year and seemed like a player's coach. I like Vrabel. I'll take him. How about Frank Reich? Oh, man.

7-9 with Jacoby Brissett starting is not bad. Yeah. I still would stick with – I think they're the same. I mean, I don't know that they're that different. I'm still sticking with them. For me, it's you got to be better to me. If you're the same, I'm keeping them. How about Ron Rivera?

Ooh. It's Super Bowl five years ago, right? I'm taking Ron Rivera. I'm taking him. Yeah, I think he's proven himself in that stretch. Cliff Kingsbury. Would you take Cliff Kingsbury over Zimmer? You get the most attractive coach.

You get the guy who's the most modern. You do not get Kyler Murray with him. But would you trade straight up for the young and sexy coach? No, I'm not. I mean, I think Arizona is is actually gonna be a very interesting team in year two so i think if you ask me next summer that might be a different conversation but not yet i got to see more from kings bear who didn't really win a bunch in college had all these weapons i need to see more film right yeah you go i mean even though they didn't

have much to work with and a rookie quarterback you you go five, 10 and one, that's not exactly a reason to put them in the hall of fame just yet. But that, that would speak to the, like, is that the type of guy that you want instead of Zimmer? And for me, I don't care how you get there. Andy Reed's old and he's the best offensive mind. Kubiak's old. He's really good at offense. It doesn't matter how you get there exactly. I think from a head coach, the one thing you need to be better is that at times, not every time, but at times when things have gotten really hairy, Zimmer has not always handled it the way that maybe he should have. In 2016, he said some things where the cornerbacks took it out on him in Green Bay, and the DeFilippo situation. I get that it's not working out with your offensive coordinator,

but you don't have to let the whole world know every week in your press conference, and you also don't have to bury him every week after when you compare him to Kevin Stefanski. There are things like that that alienated some people that you could criticize. But the bottom line is that he's won a heck of a lot of games and is curious that he does not have a contract extension. Myron Metcalf, ESPN, a great man, a great golfer. You're going to be covering golf soon for ESPN.

I'm looking forward to that. It might be terrible. We'll see. Don't look forward to it yet. It might be terrible. Well, golf is all we have left in this world at the moment. So golf and NASCAR. Well, anyway, always appreciate getting together with you, Myron.

Great stuff. And we'll talk to you again soon. See you, man. Thanks for having me. This is Brandon Kelly, the host of Blue Wire's new podcast, Golden Goals. He takes everybody up. Messi has done it. From Lionel Messi to Marta to Pele,

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