The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Brock Purdy & the 49ers, Brandon Beane’s comments, Bill O’Brien’s return to Patriots & more

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

Can Brock Purdy lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl? Mike Sando and former GM Randy Mueller discuss what they’ve seen from the rookie QB ahead of conference championship weekend. Then, they talk about Brandon Beane’s comments towards the Bengals, the likelihood of an Aaron Rodgers trade this offseason and Bill O’Brien’s return to the Patriots. Plus, they rate the head coach vacancies and share their AFC and NFC picks.Follow Mike on Twitter: @SandoNFLFollow Randy on Twitter: @RandyMueller_Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube1:11 Brock Purdy & the 49ers17:07 Brandon Beane’s comments towards Bengals26:13 Likelihood of an Aaron Rodgers trade34:34 Would a contender rather add Rodgers or Brady this offseason?41:14 Rating head coach vacancies53:47 Bill O’Brien returns to Patriots as OC58:05 GM Notebook1:01:29 Championship weekend picksToday's episode is brought to you by...Peloton: Try Peloton risk free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only at onepeloton.com/home-trialBetter Help: Visit betterhelp.com/mays today to get 10% off your first month of online therapyPenrose Hill: Go to tryfirstleaf.com/mays to get your first 6 bottles for $39.95 plus free shippingPhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthRoman: To get ready, Roman Ready, for better sex this Valentine’s Day. Go to ro.co/athletic today to get 20% off your entire first order. Place before February 8th for guaranteed shipping in time.Tommy John: Get 20% off your first purchase at tommyjohn.com/athletic right now for Valentine’s Day! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome, everyone, to the Football GM podcast. Mike Sando here from The Athletic, along with Randy Mueller, the three-time GM, former NFL exec of the year. I'm trying to butter you up, Randy, as we go here. You can find all his work at MuellerFootball.com. He's on Twitter at Randy Mueller underscore. I'm really trying to get in your good graces, Randy, because you're going to educate me

today. You're going to set Sando straight. It ain't the first time, believe me. I don't know, Mike. You might want to set your standards a little higher. You're taking direction from me. I will say this, I am fired up because championship weekend is actually, I think, the best four teams in the league. So that's kind of the caveat behind all of our discussion.

That's just my opinion. I think these are the best four teams in the league. I think we got them too. I think you're right. I think we got them too. And, you know, certainly at Buffalo at one point might have been one of those. I think we got the right teams. Right now, everybody, of course, can look at all the great topics we're going to talk about today.

But we are going to start out talking about Brock Purdy in particular in the 49ers. And Randy has from day one, I think, said, hey, it's kind of interesting here. They are not dumbing it down. They're not changing the offense for this guy. And, you know, I think as we look at this championship weekend, Randy, there's a lot of knowns, Joe Burr. Burrow, Jamar Chase, Mahomes, Andy Reid, Kelsey, Kyle Shanahan, Debo, Samuel, Christian McCaffrey. Some of the Eagles are a little newer in Jaywin Hertz. But of all of the participants that play prominent roles, I think, without question,

Brock Purdy is the most enigmatic one. Hasn't lost a start since coming in there, has played some really good football. And people like you, Randy, taught me early on. I've joked before when I was first starting out covering the Seahawks, were there. Don't get excited about the preseason sando. Calm down. This stuff will play out. So I've been voice of reasoning. I've been the yabuck guy on. That's because you've been hanging around me. There's too many yabutts. But I'm not the film watcher. I'm more the situational yeah but guy. I'm I'm the one who says, you know, since he's been started, since he's been

starting, they've they've had 22 drives start and plus territory by far most in the league. You know, his receivers were wide open. Kyle, Kyle Shanahan's elite scheming these guys. And, you know, it's a lot of in-breaking routes, early downs. I've been the one, I've been trained to not get too excited. But that's what excites me about today because you're that way by nature. You have to look at it and see it. And now you're going to tell us, I'm going to yield the floor.

I'm just going to go, you know, sweep my office here while I listen to you because you, you're going to tell us the truth from what you've seen. scene. What do you got? Well, I'll say this. Everything you said is true. They have been well scheme. They do have receivers that are open. Kyle Shanahan is one of the top two or three play callers in the business. Their defense is awesome. But I've been kind of on your line of thinking in that I'm kind of waiting to see something that tells me. And I'll be honest, I texted you during the game at one time and I said there may be something here that is flawed fatal flaws here but I want to back it up when I look at some film and when I went back to that film I was not skeptical in fact a believer was made and I'm drinking the Kool-Aid so I'll just tell you a little bit

about what I saw there's some scouting acutonym in there but there's also some things I think we can all learn from it me included when you really study it and don't anchor yourself to a position. Sometimes in the scouting world, when a guy gets drafted late or even a college free agent, you're anchored on your initial feelings or your initial report. And you're afraid to change. So when a guy gets drafted late, you're always skeptical, right? Yeah, I thought this, but I thought he was a seventh round pick. I thought he was a free agent, you know. And so sometimes we just have to write what we see, right? And I tell young scouts, years. I just write what you see. There's not rocket science. If you just see what, look at the film

and write down particularly the good things, the bad things, we'll confab a report from that. So that's kind of what I did with Purdy. And I saw a little different things than I expected to see. I think the big thing with him and the reason he probably got drafted late was really the arm strength. I think he's a prospect with average arm strength where if you watch him in a pro day, where if you watch him at Indianapolis, you'll say, he doesn't wow me. You know, he gets it there. But here's the deal with pro days, with Indianapolis workouts, with all these personal workouts. You don't get to consider anticipation, timing, instincts, all those things.

When the analysts watched, who's the kid from the Titans drafted last year in the first? And the Leake Willis. Willis. Go back and look at his combine. and all the analysis that was being done when he was throwing those pretty long balls and zipping the ball here or there, everybody thought that was going to equate to special traits. Now, I'll give you the fact that he has a skill set, but you're not taking to account anticipating, you're not taking into account instincts, you're not taking to account all of the accuracy

that would be needed at the next level. So there's a lot of things that don't get really organized in one's mind because they're not prevalent when you watch these workouts. And I felt that that was the big deal with Purdy. The biggest negative I could say is his arm strength is average. But what he has is really good ball placement. He anticipates when receivers are coming open. He gets the ball out quickly. He is a decisive decision maker. And I compared him. And I'm not saying this guy's Philip Rivers, but I spent 10 years with Philip Rivers. You would not teach anybody to throw the ball like Philip Rivers. I would say his arm strength is above average. But what made Philip, I think, was all the things I just said, instincts,

timing, anticipation, ball placement, all of the things that are not physical traits per se. And I think those are the strengths of Purdy's game. There are some things. He needs a solid platform a lot of times to throw balls down field, but he always knows he does. He doesn't have great athleticism when on the move to make certain throws. But the upside to that is he doesn't make crazy decisions because he doesn't have that. He's not making Pat Mahomes throws. He's not making these guys. Josh Allen. Yeah, Josh Allen, because that's not him. And he knows what he isn't. So, therefore, the mistakes, the risk has been minimized as well. From a clean pocket, he can make all the throws. He can also change his level that he throws the ball at, whether it's sidearm,

under certain defenders and around certain defenders, he can do that. He does not have to have the same delivery point when he makes throws, which so often is inhibiting to other young quarterbacks when they come in the league because they always got to throw it the right way so that mechanics are sound. So he can make some of the shorter throws without sound mechanics. So there's just a lot of things that were on point when I looked at him. If the pocket isn't clean, he is somewhat limited. But again, he knows where people are.

He understands his checkdowns. He will process information quickly, all intangible things that aren't first and foremost when people evaluate quarterbacks, but as important as any of them are. He gets the ball out quickly and very accurately, very consistently. And those are the bottom lines for him. And I've said this before on the podcast. Kyle does not have to change his game planning. He really doesn't have to change his play calling because this kid can operate all that. Now, the reason he can is, one, he's good at it, but two, what you mentioned.

Really good offensive line, really good receivers, maybe one of the top two or three tight-ins in the league, and a great defense. So all of that comes together. Great back. Yeah. What I didn't find was any flaws that would give me hesitation or make me pump the brakes. So I concluded at the end of all this is, I don't know what's going to happen this weekend or if they make it to the Super Bowl, but I know this.

when they start 2023, this kid's going to be the starter. And everybody says, oh, they gave up all this for Trey Lance. It really doesn't matter. They can't take this kid out of the game because he has not let them down in one game, one iota. So I feel bad for Trey Lance, but he's going to start next season. And they may say it's a competition, but it'll be Purdy's job to lose, in my opinion. And I don't think there's any looking back. Absolutely.

Now, did you even look at him really in the draft much last year? I don't remember that we talked about him. No, I didn't. But when I saw him, I don't know if you remember, we looked at some tight ends, and he had a tight end played for him, too. That actually was another, like, fourth or fifth round pick of the Ravens. And so I saw a glimpse of Purdy when I was watching this tight end. And you see some of this stuff, but I really didn't hone in on him enough to have an opinion one way or another.

Yeah. So now kind of knowing what we know, let's just say that let's just say we know all this and he was in the draft last year, right? Is this second round grade or what, what, what, what, how? I'm trying to find a way to really put a value on it now, right? I mean, what are we saying? I'll give you a comparison, and then you tell me, would you rather have Brock Purdy or Mack Jones? Yeah. I mean, right now you'd take, right now you would take Purdy.

Well, one was the 15th pick in the draft and one was the last pick in the draft. I don't see a big difference in skill set, to be honest with you. Yeah. I don't. I just, I think Purdy does everything Mac Jones does, and he might be a tad more athletic. So I know everybody says it's a small. body work, but it's been six, seven weeks now. So there's plenty of stuff to make a decision on.

The other plus he has is he's going to allow them to continue to build the team with a rookie contract on their quarterback. And so that's, that's gold. Absolutely. That's gold. No, that's huge. Yeah. That's absolutely huge.

We may or may not get to it on the podcast, but today that Brandon Bean of the Bills was talking about that. They were saying, hey, what can you learn from the Bengals? And he's like, well, it's nice to having a star quarterback and receiver making rookie money. So that is a huge consideration. for them. Now, have we, so, you know, we liked Mac Jones and we like Purdy, not love, didn't love Mac Jones. Have we been able to see the other sort of things that kind of separate guys

into those top tiers, which is, you know, the ability to handle a drop back passing situation and all of that. Do we feel pretty good about that with him if they really had to shift a little bit more onto him. I don't think Kyle Shanahan is going to shift too much of his philosophy and his skin. So I think he's got protection there. I compared him to like the diver.

You watch diving and they give a score for a degree of difficulty. Yeah. Yeah. And the one diver hits all of his dives, but he doesn't do anything really hard, but he hits everyone perfectly. Yeah. That's what this guy is. The degree of difficulty of his throws are easy

enough where he's hitting every one, and he never makes a crazy throw because he doesn't have to risk the extra somersault as the diver does. So his range of scores compared to that next diver who's more risky is all within a real short, you know, range. That's the best I could do. Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. What I think about is sometimes when you're at the top of that diving platform, there's a 20 mile an hour gust comes up and now we find out who really can hit the water, right? And that's sort of what football is as you get into the situations of what really, I think I think what we've said is this is a starting quarterback. This is a starting quarterback.

And I guess my point is also it's one that doesn't have top rated physical characteristics per se. He's not 6'5. He doesn't have Josh Allen's arm. But it shows me at any level, if we're going to evaluate quarterbacks, if you can get the ball out, on time with anticipation and really good accuracy, you can play at any level. Trust me. I don't care if it's high school, if it's college, or if it's pro. That's what I would suggest looking at.

When somebody's trying to figure out if a quarterback can play or not, can you get it out on time, does he have anticipation? Does he have accuracy? You can play at any level. Yeah. So what I would say then, for the 49ers, I would compare this then, you know, we've seen with Jimmy Garapolo, he does sometimes make those mistakes, right? he does sometimes get a little flustered.

Strong arm. Might take more risks. Yeah. And sometimes it looks good coming out, a little bit more of a fluid, right, or a whip or whatever you want to call it. But from where they're at, it's just so interesting to me that they liked Jimmy,

but they wanted to get better. So they went all in on this, this Tray Lance, but then they sort of found another Jimmy, right? I mean, somewhat, and that he's good, but has some limitations, but maybe that's okay. I mean, they're in the championship game again.

I mean, maybe this is what they should have. Sometimes it's not in the exact science. Sometimes we back into our answers. It's not, I mean, these guys aren't the geniuses of all geniuses, right? Sometimes it unfolds. You've got to give them credit for drafting this kid at all. Oh, yeah. Because the other 31 teams didn't think he was worthy of being drafted.

And then the development that goes with the coaching staff and the scheme fit. So that's all there. You're right. I don't think they have any choice. I think this is their guy until he proves he's not. And I feel bad for Trey Lance, but it is what it is. Now, the fact that they're this far along almost answers the question, can you win a Super Bowl with him, right?

Because he's here, I mean, you've got as good as good as chance as anybody. I guess that's something that's interesting to me is like, you see these teams, you know, Minnesota has been asked about this too. Hey, you got Kirk Cousins. He's a good pro quarterback. But are you ever going to win it all with Kirk Cousins? And it's sort of an unfair question because, shoot, the Packers have Rogers and they haven't won it for a long time.

But Breeze was great. They only won it one time. It's hard to win it. And it's hard to use Super Bowl results as a litmus test because there's so many factors of your team have to be going well for you to even get into the game. If you have somebody like this who isn't, you know, who is really good, but isn't Josh Allen or Mahom? You should always be looking for those guys anyway, right? But you're not worried really about, well, I guess what's your mindset if you have Purdy going the next season? we've got to still be looking because we need to upgrade from this?

Or no, just be happy for the next two, three years. Well, I can only equate it in my career one time, and that was when we're in Seattle, and you'll know the name I'm going to bring up. John Kittner was an undrafted free agent. Yep. We signed him. He played good for us. We kind of didn't want him to have the job, but he took the job.

We had others. We had Warren Moon. We had John Freeze. We had other people on our team. But Kittna kept given me and the coach feeling that he could do this every time we rolled him out there. So we weren't anchored on our position. We didn't hold them back. We let him prove that he could play and I think he did that. So I don't, you know, I guess the question for me wouldn't be should they look for another quarterback. It should be supporting him and finding the best guy to,

and they have that, I think, in Trey Lance. It may be that they can sit on Trey Lance for another year or two as well before they have to do anything. So I think it's a strong room, but mainly because Pertie's kind of proven he can do the job. It's really fun. It's amazing, really, that they can be in this position in your season. It would be so easy for their season to have gone completely south. And then you'd be talking about, yeah, injury bug got them and they'd have this loaded team around them with nowhere to go, and it'd be so frustrating. But here they are. I mean, I think really the best story that could emerge from this season would be the 49ers to win it all with Brock Purdy. I think that would be unbelievable. I mean, just really unbelievable. It would be. It would be,

in like of Trent Green getting hurt and Kurt Warner taken over and winning the Super Bowl as an unknown, you know, when that happened. With the Rams. Absolutely.

A very similar situation. Okay, as the 49ers contemplate a future that could include Brock Purdy as their starting quarterback not making a ton of money for a while because these guys can't even do new contracts under the CBA, collective bargaining agreement until after their third seasons.

I thought it was pretty interesting flagged this today as Brandon Bean was doing an end-of-season news conference as the general manager of the bills, they had such a disappointing loss through really a tumultuous season. You think about relocating games because of snow, you know, Vaughn Miller's injury, the Demar Hamlin thing, really kind of a unique season. And I think a lot of people were thinking, hey, this is going to galvanize. But I thought whoever it was that said this, someone on their team said it, talked about almost running out of gas.

It might have been Roger Saffold or somebody. They just sort of felt like they ran out of steam, you know? 100%. And it was a lot to ask. And in the end, they had their fourth safety out there trying to make plays with the game on the line. It was a hard deal. But Brandon Bean was asked by a reporter about the Bengals saying, hey, is there anything they're doing? It's kind of a hot button issue right now in Buffalo.

Do they need another receiver with Stefan Diggs to round out that receiving cord? And so obviously, Jamar Chase is on Cincinnati and Brandon Bean, the GM of the Bills, was asked, hey, is there anything, any sort of trend or anything from Sinci, you guys can pick up on it? I think, I liked Breed's answer. I mean, he got a little, he got a little frisky with his answer, but I get it because of the situation they're in. But he said of the Bengals, they have a good team. They right now are on the advantage of a rookie quarterback contract. They had some lean years, and without getting too much into their build, I don't want to suck bad enough to have to get Jamar Chase. That's the part that got my attention. If I'm Duke Tobin, I'm a little.

They're like, hey, we sucked. Yeah. But I think it was the- They earned Jumar Chase. Yeah. It was the emotion, I think it was the emotion of the predicament for Berenham Bean. Because you know you're in the window and you didn't get it done for the second year. And it's hard.

It's frustrating. So he said, Berenhamine said, Jammar Chase, he is a heck of a town. I'd love to have him. But you have to go through some lean years to do that. They were able to get Burrow number one overall and Chase pretty high. And those guys are on their rookie deals. We're paying Stefan Diggs a hefty number.

Josh Allen, a hefty number. there's constraints of the cap. And so Randy, I went and looked. This year, Josh Allen and Diggs are $28 million on the cap to $17 for Burrow and Chase. Next year, it's $60 million to $20. So you really see that kick in. And that's why, as a general manager, you start to sweat a little bit because you don't have those resources. I'm interested to hear your takeaway.

And this, mine kind of was those final 13 seconds last year could really haunt him for a long time because you don't get chances. Every season of this is so hard and you think you've got this long window and now suddenly there's Cincinnati showing up to the party. We didn't know that was going to happen. And now you get a deal with them and Kansas City with Reed. So curious what you thought as a GM, you know, hearing all of that.

I had to go back and listen to it in its entirety because I really, at first I said, whoa, what did he just say? Was he giving the Bengals a backhanded compliment? Yeah. Whoa, whoa. And I went back and listened to it. of the whole thing. And I think after that, my take was a little different. I understand what he was saying. And really what in a summary in my mind was he was saying that every team is a different

build. Every team gets done differently because of some valuations, because of some contracts, because of some evals, that they just get built different. And having rebuilt three teams myself, it's a grind. And it's different every step of the way at every team I was at. So I guess, get it. To go back, first of all, and I couldn't agree with you more and that it looked to me like the bills ran out of gas when some of us, mainly me included, thought they would get an emotional high from the Hamlin stuff. I think it went the other way.

I think they were exhausted from all that. And you're right. You pointed out that they had had a displaced snow game earlier in the year where they had to leave their families and make two trips to Detroit in like four days, you know, to play two games. I think this season took its toll on them. And that showed. And I thought they would come out the other end with an emotional run at the end. And you're right. They just didn't have it in the tank. So that being said, yes, the window and the opportunities that they have to feel like they've kind of missed definitely the 13 seconds last year. And we said it at the time that it might have

been as incompetent of 13 seconds as I've ever seen. And I thought it'd be the most watched piece of film from a coaching and teaching standpoint around, maybe in the history of the game. And I know teams that are still using that as to how we don't want to play this, especially the Chiefs. So that came up. And then to show up against Cincinnati, really, and have nothing in the tank from the get-go. From Jump Street, they had no chance against Cincinnati. So that was a total, for lack of a better term, a total ass kicking. And they really couldn't put up a lot of resistance. So they were spent. So they have, in my opinion, kind of, you know, pissed away a couple of years. And I think that frustration showed in Brandon's comments. Having said that, I think he knows that they have to get

better. He knows they have to add some different parts to this. And what he's saying is, we've got to be selective because our cap is way different than where the Bengals are right now. And we have a very fine line that we can actually use cap dollars to add to where we're at. So he's kind of preparing, I think the fans and as the messenger that don't be don't be thinking we're going to go sign a Trent Williams or somebody like that to make a big difference you know just not probably not going to happen you know though I here's what the as I think about this uh unlike Brandon Bean who had to answer with bright lights in his face you know when he's probably just coming out of a meeting and has his mind in a thousand different things we get to sit here and and you know take two if we want

pause and look at other places online I would say One thing that isn't going to be any news to Brandon Bean, but one thing that every team could hope to do as well as the Bengals have done is maximize free agents that didn't cost you a mint. And some that did. I mean, Trey Hendrickson cost them money. But they have filled out their roster in the pro market, Randy, with guys like DJ Reeder or Mike Hilton or Vaughn Bell.

I mean, you could really go through their roster and find 10 guys, or maybe it's five. But it's probably more than five. It's probably between five and ten guys that they signed as veterans that have fit in and helped their team make plays that didn't break the bank. The types of moves you may be able to do if you, you know, without having a guy in a rookie contract. So that's critical for everybody, but certainly going to be for the bills to maybe find some of those pieces, isn't it? No doubt about it. And I think you mentioned Duke Tobin and the job he's done and he should get accolades.

for it. They added another younger pro personnel guy in Trey Brown, who I have had affiliation with, who I think is one of the better football minds in the business. It's the Otis Brown's son. And he, I think, helped them identify some of these angles

that the, let's face it, the Bengals had not used in the past. They seem to have found ways to not add these kind of pieces, but they've done a better job of that the last couple years. And you mentioned Trey Hendrickson. some of these guys were ascending talent that just didn't either get an opportunity or didn't fit in his scheme somewhere else. And the Bengals have done a better job of this than most teams to that credit.

And that's exactly what the bills are going to have to do as well. They're going to have to identify some young ascending talent for a reasonable cost before they add them to their build. And again, I think this is the secret in rebuilding any team, especially when you get, to cap levels like the bills are now where they don't have a lot of maneuverability. It comes down to getting the best evaluations you can and then valuing these and actually acquiring them at the right number to build out your team to 53 guys. A lot of teams will do this and have 40 guys and then these fill in the last dozen or so as special teams guys and this or that.

You have to use painstaking attention to detail on roster spots 48, 49, 52, 53, and some places aren't like that. Some just won't spend that extra amount of money and effort to do it. I think you're finding that the Bengals did. My guess is the Bills will do it as well. I think the chiefs are another team that's done a really good job of that. And guess what? We got the teams that are in the division championships every year.

Yeah, I can't wait to talk about our picks this week. Not that we did well last week, but just thinking of Kansas City as a one-point underdog at home. That's awesome. I mean, that's on a platter. Yeah. That's on a platter for Andy Reed. Before we get into talking about some of these head coach vacancies, which I definitely want to do, because you've got some great thoughts on that. You know, it seems like we can talk about Aaron Rogers every week, and it could get a little tiresome.

Sometimes it does get a little tiresome. But the reason that we're going to do it is because just an hour going back and forth, Randy is leaning more towards, okay, maybe I'd move Aaron Rogers. And I don't think we've really been in that place. I mean, we've talked about the possibility of it, but it's typically, you know, when you have somebody who is such a good quarterback, you're not, and you're paying a lot of money, you're going to have them. But we can talk a little bit about Rogers and I think Tom Brady and that both of their franchises are kind of on maybe if not on the edge of their seat, maybe the bucks are because they don't really have any control. But the Packers has some things to think about here too. and both of them really are coming off seasons when their production wasn't what it had been

or for a variety of reasons. Maybe they're falling off a little, maybe what's around them, maybe both, all of the above. But I'm curious on this with Rogers because I think we've all gotten a point shoot. Rob Garnkowski was talking, calling out a little bit of what Rogers said.

I feel like there's a little bit of a shift against Rogers here in terms of everyone's a little tired of it, right? And so I'm curious for you as we talk about this because as the GM, you have to do what's best for your team, not just make moves because you're annoyed, right? You can't just be like, I'm tired of this guy and get rid of them and then we're 50% worse. So I would love to know sort of what you're thinking and where that all comes together and where you're at on Rogers. I think you're correct. You have to withhold your personal feelings. You can't be down or up based on what somebody says or does, especially one of your leaders.

you've got to do what's right for the team. And I've kind of been withholding opinion and judgment on Aaron Rogers until I understood the new contract, the cap ramifications. I always felt like there's something that I don't know yet, the knowing of which might change my feeling. So I really haven't picked the lane. And so your assessment of where we've been on the pod is correct. I haven't picked the lane.

But I kind of have picked the lane now. and that the details of the contract are starting to come forefront. This guy's contract next year is $59 million, $59 and some change. That's the amount of money they're going to have to pay it. In fact, the guarantee is $59 million. So it's a fully guaranteed deal with crazy, crazy money. At the end of the day, I'm just not sure that I could write that check for Aaron Rogers, having listened to him for the last year, having used some of that leadership style in a way that I don't think was best suited for the Packers, which is the people running that team.

And now a guy who's approaching 40 and we're going to pay him 60 million a year. That team seems to me like a pretty good jumping off point, especially because we drafted a quarterback three years ago and we think fairly highly of him, probably more than the public does, but they see him every day. So I'm going to trust that they can evaluate better than those of us sitting at home on our couch. So I just thought there had to be a reason that Adam Schaefter this week tweeted or said or reported that a possible trade from Aaron Rogers is now being realized by both sides. And it's a real thing. And it was diving into that contract that tells me not only is it a real thing, I actually think it's a probability. couple that with the stuff that he said about wanting my own guys back, Tunyon, Lewis, Cobb.

I mean, come on, stop. Just stop. You know, I can just see Brian Gutick is sitting in his chair, hearing this and his eyes rolling to the back of his head. You know, this does not serve the Packers great. But I think what Aaron's doing is he's trying to give enough reasons to where the Packers want to move on because I think he already wants to move on, but he doesn't want it to be.

Yeah. His doing. It's almost like the Russell Wilson exit plan in that he blamed the Seahawks because they decided to let him go. He wanted to be there, but they decided to let him go, even though we all know behind the scenes, he was pulling all the strings to get out of there. And then right when they traded him, the owner said, yeah, hey, he wanted out. Yeah.

So this has some of that of deflecting blame or setting up an exit so that they don't get blame to me anyway. I don't know. Maybe you'll tell me I'm not nuts. No, no. I think the part about jumping off points is the real thing here. This is going to end at a certain point. There's enough reasons now all the way around to consider it.

Because you knew when you drafted Jordan Love, most likely, that you were going to move on to him at some point, but it didn't make sense when you're winning almost all your games. You're 13 and 3 or 13 and 4. He's winning MVP's and all of that. But I feel like now at his age maybe, I don't really have this fear there, and Rogers is going to be amazing for the next five years. Do you?

No, no, not at all. Nope. And so this is probably the time to do it if you can just make it nice with everybody. Have a conversation. Hopefully he can do it. Now, the flip side of that is, to me, I don't feel like his market is what it was. Now, I could be completely wrong on this, but when I go through the teams that need quarterback, I think at a certain point a couple years ago, teams would get rid of their quarterback to play Earn Rogers, right?

I think that. Now, when you look at these teams like the jets, the commanders, the Texans, the Titans, the Colts, the Panthers, the Panthers, the Saints, the Bucks, the Giants, the Raiders. Maybe you put Seattle in there. There's a bunch of teams you could come up with that could need a quarterback. I'm just not seen a lot of places where, you know, they want to sign up for all that it in entails or their team is in that position to sign up for it, right? Whereas I think when we talk about Brady, I could see the Raiders for sure makes sense. You got his coach there.

You've got some good weapons. That would be kind of, it's in Vegas. That would be kind of exciting. Shoot, maybe, you know, maybe it's Rogers there. I don't know. But what do you think about that? Do you think that it's no problem to get a bounty for him? Or do you think it's, you're unloading a contract and you're going to have to take a lot less?

Or what do you think? You just listed about eight teams. All I need is two, Mike. make a deal. And that's going to benefit the Packers. So if I have two teams, preferably in the AFC, that want his services, it's up to the GM, Brian Gutikist in this case to get the best deal he can. And I think he can get it. I think there's teams desperate enough that they will pay, you know, a first and a second. And if he does something that crazy, that second goes to a first. And a couple picks at the end to throw into window dress it to make it look like it's four

picks, you know. I think there's a deal out there to be made. Whether it's, It's the Titans. You're going to think Mike Vrable wouldn't go down to his new GM and say, hey, we got a chance to get Aaron Rogers and we don't want to do it. Now, it's got to be a team that can take on his cap because he's got a different type of a contract. Now, maybe you can adjust it once you get him, but there is a window here to make that happen, and I think there will be more than one team that are desperate enough to make a deal. You might be right.

He's not going to get or bring back the bounty he would have if they traded him after an MVP year, but let's just say he's only one year removed from a back-to-back MVP run. So, you know, I think a lot of the Packers woes, you can put some of it on Rogers this year, but I put some of that on a coaching staff that couldn't really figure out a plan and a process to win until the second half of the season. When their season started, we said they've got to run the ball, they've got to depend on him less, they're going to play good defense, and guess what, they did none of that until about week eight. Then they sorted it out and became a running team.

Defense played better. And guess what? They won their share games. So there's more to blame than just Aaron for the Packers not making the playoffs. Just curious. I know this could maybe it doesn't depend on what the team is. Just a neutral team would you rather have, would you rather add Rogers or Brady for a one or two year run? I'd rather have Rogers hands down because I think Roger's skill level is much higher right now than where Tom is.

The difference is, I think the team, and not to jump the shark here, but what teams will want, Brady aren't necessarily for the skills on the field. They're going to want somebody to help them change culture, to be a leader, to have all the intangibles, all that stuff that makes sense for him to go with Josh McDaniel and his Patriot buddies in Vegas. I think Rogers on the field gives you a chance, really, to make a Super Bowl run right now. Seattle wouldn't do it. Just trying to think of who would do it.

Probably not, you know. I would agree with you. I mean, I think Pete Carroll likes going to the young guys. I'm just thinking out loud of where, you know. I think Nashville would. He's not going to want to go to a junk team. You know, he's not going to want to go somewhere where you can't win, right? But I don't think Nashville.

I don't think the Titans are a junk team. I'm not saying there. Oh, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying the Titans. No, he's not going to. They've been kind of a playoff team. He's not going to Arizona or something, you know, someplace. Yeah, yeah.

The Texans, he's not going there. No, yeah. But I do think a place like that with a coach like Vrable, I think there could be some synergy there. What about Miami? You mentioned Miami. You think Miami would make it on it, Rogers? Yeah, I forgot to list them in there.

I love the idea of just, look, I'm sure there's people that spend all their time looking at salary cap spreadsheets who are laughing at some of these ones. But that one, just from on the field, really, would interest me with Tyree Kill and stuff. I think you get real excited about that, and it could look pretty good in a hurry. But if Sean Peyton goes to Carolina, could Carolina make her run at him? I'm not saying he is. I'm just saying, would that make all of a sudden Carolina a player? Yeah. Oh, I think Carolina would be interesting.

Yeah. Carolina would be interesting. I don't think he'd go there unless they hire a proven commodity as a coach, though. Yeah, yeah. I got you on that. I think I would just like to see, I would love to see Rogers in Miami, and I'd like to watch his press conferences and then McDaniels, because McDaniels is funny in his.

You know, he's his little looks and stuff, and he's a little offbeat, you know, kind of, he's off kilter. He says things and you'll have to, like, think about it for a second. And he's almost messing with you. He's kind of being funny about it. So it would be Yale and Cal. So they, yeah, yeah, yeah. Geniuses. But I always feel with McDaniel, it's coming from a good place.

Yeah, I find like he's, I find like I like it about him. You know, he doesn't have some agenda. He's kind of playful. Yeah. He's not out to prove he's the smartest guy in the room. No. That's just the way he is. Yeah.

There's a humility to him, and he's quirky, you know? Like, he has a way of being smart without rubbing it in your face. I sort of like that about him. I agree, 100%. I like the quirkiness that comes with him. I don't know if that has a shelf life at all, you know, but we'll see it along all. I think players like him. I think players will play for him, but not to get sidetracked.

But the shelf life just depends on your record. That's all. I mean, any sort of, I don't think there's anything inherently bad about it. Like it's not inauthentic. Yeah. And it's not self-serving. Yeah. And I think if you remove those two things from it, it could totally work as long as you have to have success for a certain time or you don't have credibility.

No doubt. But they're just a team Miami that's been, you know, mentioned for all these things. And obviously the Tom Brady tampering thing happens. So, yeah. I would love to see that just on the field. In fact, Miami's a fun landing spot for a lot of, like I would love to see Lamar Jackson there too. You know, there's just with that offense with those. guys and that coach, it could be fun.

Yeah, I agree. I think before we get off the Tom Brady thing, can I bring that up? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I forgot. Because these two guys are a little bit intertwined. I would not want to be the Tampa Bayfront office right now.

That's for sure. Yeah. Because of the fact that they've redid some contracts, which they've never done in their history before, but since Tom came, they have. And they've redid his contract enough to where Tom Brady can either retire, return, or walk to another team. I think the bucks would be fine with either of the first two. It's the walking to another team and still playing that his deal is going to avoid.

That's going to leave them with $34, $35 million in dead cap money if he goes away. If he retires, they'll redo a deal like Breeze did in New Orleans, where they won't cut him until after June 1. And so they'll spread out some cap count if he retires. If he comes back, they'll be happy. They'll have to sign him to a new deal, but they'll probably kick to kick to. can down the down the road some more and redo his his cap count and his cash income. So those two things they could live with. The one that it would make me a little nervous is him going to the Raiders just flat out because his deal is going to avoid. They put dummy years on it to spread out

prorated rosters and signing bonus. And now that's going to all come due next year when he walks. Don't you think my feel is he's going to play again somewhere else? Yeah, I agree. And that's bad for Tampa. Yeah. That's bad. Hey, they got their championship. out of it, though. They wouldn't give it back. And they, you know, they kept it together a year last year just to see if they could do it again, and it didn't work out. But I don't blame them. So here they are. Yeah, maybe they could have structured it in a better way. But Tom Brady, amazingly, Tom Brady could be free to leave two teams in about a four-year period, three-four-year period because he was able to leave New England of his own accounts as well.

Yeah, well, he's going to be free because his deal is going to work. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. He's going to have that ability two times. I mean, really, from every team he's been on, he's been able to walk away on his terms. It's a pretty good deal. And we'll see where he winds up. But to me, the Raiders thing just made too much sense for trying to put in the culture there. That's right. And think about the intangibles, the culture, all that. That fits off the field as much as anything else, you know. Plus, you know, not, I mean, Derek Carr has his flaws, but I mean, you're walking away from a starting quarterback in the NFL, You know, who's probably in the, some of the time in the top half of the league, you know, for starting quarterbacks. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah. So you don't. One of these podcasts, yeah, we're going to have to dive into all these guys that are going to be free and kind of line up. Let's line up our top five or six free agents and we'll go through that one of these days. Love it. I wanted to talk about some of these head coaching vacancies. You know, one of the interesting things with Carolina, Houston, Denver, Indian, Arizona being open is that they're still open. Yeah.

Which I think is great. I think slowing down the process is a win, win, win. I mean, it's all about getting the right guy. And I think there's been, if you go back up a couple years, some of these things were getting filled in a week, you know, and it's rushing and we, oh, we got to have Matt Rule, double the offer. We got to have Matt Rule. Well, you don't have to have Matt Rule.

You can think this thing out and actually get the right people in. So hopefully this slower process leads to that. Obviously, they've, you know, they've strengthened different requirements in the Rooney Rule for not only the head coaches, but the coordinator interviews, so that could make it a little bit more deliberate as well. And some of this, I think this year, Randy, wouldn't you agree, is just the whole Sean Peyton situation of him being out there and making the rounds. And then some of these interviews can't happen in person, right?

I think the process and the timing in the system has bogged it down, no doubt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do think you're right. Sean Payton's self-serving narrative kind of slowed it down a little bit. Everybody's taking pause for that, too. That's what I wanted to ask you about before we get in. to these teams and vacancies is just last week we had talked about how Sean Peyton's commentary was not endearing him to the Football GM podcast, which I know is

very important to him. I'm sure he's a big listener. Oh, I'm sure he is. Yeah, big listener. He can probably come over to my house if he's in Idaho because it's not far away and throw eggs at my house. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt about it. But do you think that, where do you think the teams are at with Sean Payton? Do you think that there's pause off of this? I do think there's pause. There may be less pause in a place like Carolina, but the compensation they're going to give the Saints is like we talked about off the charts. So the price is different for everybody.

But I do think that diatribe on Colin Coward Show, I don't think it helped him, that's for sure. I think people saw that as, wait a second, is this really what I want? Is this what I want to sign up for? And then the fact that the rumor was out there that he's going to take 20 million or whatever. Just all that stuff kind of gave franchises. They said, and this is my opinion, they said, let's look for some other options. And that's, I think, what they're doing now. It might be indeed that Sean Payton ends up somewhere. I've got a little bit of a sinister plot there that we'll get to at the end of this that I haven't mentioned to you as to why he might sit out,

but we'll see. Well, you're going to mention at the end? Well, I don't know what else, these head coaches. You want to, I want to go through the places, but I don't. like the sinister plots. I mean, anything I got. And I have no fact of basis on whatsoever. But I've been around the NFL a while and I kind of think a little, you know, different, right? What if Jerry Jones, because this has been said that, you remember when Brett Farrve retired, they were going to give him like $20 million to not play and be a voice for the team or an ambassador

for the team, some crazy amount like that? what if Jerry Jones gave Sean Payton $20 million just to sit tight for another year? Is that legal? I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm not saying he did, but Jerry's a dealmaker, right? He's going to keep as many options open for as long as he can, and the timing just isn't right right now. So it's like putting something in my back pocket. I'm trying to think down the road a little bit.

Do you think that would be a good fit? Oh, I think it'd be terrible. I think the one way Sean would ever go there is to be bought. I think it's a giant money deal which Jerry will pay. And I really think that's the only way Sean goes there is to get paid some incredible amount of money. Yeah. I don't know. Tell me I'm crazy.

But if he doesn't have the ideal place to land this year, if I'm Jerry, I'm just putting him on ice. Could you have a wink and a handshake from Jerry saying we'll take care of you here? I don't know. Just hold tight. Give me another year. You can walk away with this money if you don't. So why wouldn't he, you said the time is not right now? Why?

I mean, Jerry Jones can do whatever he wants. He can, but Mike McCarthy does not deserve to be sent out the door, in my opinion. I think that's crazy. I think he's done more than enough to prove himself. And there seems to be a lot of people in Dallas that are ready to, you know, come out at him with pitchforks. And I don't think it's right. I don't think Jerry wants to either. But who knows how next year will go.

We're talking about Ezekiel Elliott up in the air, Dax. a little bit up in the air. An offensive line, not as good as it once was. That's going to have to be reshaped. So they've got some free agent decisions. They've got to find another receiver or two in Dallas. So I'm just saying there's a lot of unknowns there. Who knows how that'll go next year? Is Kellan Morgan be there or not? Is he going to find a job or not? Is Dan Quinn going to leave with another job? There's a lot of unrest with the Cowboys right now. I might just want to set one aside for later and see if we even need to play that card. See how this all falls out. Maybe Quinn takes a job this year. Maybe Quinn ends up going somewhere, and now your defense isn't quite the same.

Yeah, that's my point. And all of that. And, you know, we'll see what happens to the next season. So, yeah, maybe the timing. I like it. I like it. I don't think that's been done, but I'm just saying down the road, there'll be a 30 for 30, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was on something crazy like that.

Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what really happened behind the scenes with Sean Peyton. I don't know. As far as these teams, you know, and I was trying to figure out for my column on Monday, you know, where I would want to go or where a coach would want to go among these teams. And let's face it, it's not, it's not a, these are not always storied franchises in great, perfect shape. You're going to have to go in there and rebuild the car, sort of speak, and some of them and, and maybe get a new car. But I think we would agree that ownership in the quarterback situation are pretty, are pretty important.

Can you get a quarterback? Do you have one? I ended up having, when I did this, Houston and Carolina at the top, which surprised me a little. little bit. I think historically I would have thought of Denver, but to me with Denver and Arizona being locked into these quarterback deals and having to navigate that, and then we can throw, indeed, it isn't that situation, but to me, the Jim Mersey thing really was a negative, and I know it was to you too, to give me pause. But I'm just curious from your standpoint, you know, what would be your sort of criteria? What teams might of this group it lead you towards when assessing which vacancies should be the most attractive? Well, I do agree with your assessment, especially initially, and I was with you, the Jim Eursay Wildcard, makes me nervous about that.

But when you really sit down and think about it, if I'm a head coach, I want an owner willing to spend some money who will listen and who will add dealmaking acunum. I want to go with a GM who I can partner with that we have a shared vision with on how to build this team. and some place that has cap money. That's really what I want. I was lucky when I went to the Saints, we didn't have any draft picks. So I don't think the draft pick thing is a big deterrent, and we turned them around in a year. But we had a lot of cap money, and we were able to identify what we talked about earlier, some young ascending talent.

I went through your list of the 10 or 12 things that you had mentioned. I really don't think the cornerbacks important. And what Mike did was he gave the best player at several positions. and use that as an equation of good place or bad place. I don't know that a cornerback is going to matter for me. A pass rusher, maybe a little more receiver, not really. Left tackle, yes, that's going to matter a little more to me. And quarterback matters.

But like you mentioned, in Denver and Arizona, it's not a plus. No, you have one. You don't want it. Yeah. And you're tied to them for hundreds of millions of dollars. So those aren't good. So there are some things. And the draft choice.

The draft choices are, you know, it's nice to have them. Houston has a whole bunch. They've done nothing with the ones they've had already. So, you know, I kind of came back to if you can handle the Ursae angle, I know Chris Ballard is a really good evaluator of talent. He's a good guy. I know I could work with him if I was a coach. And I think we could share the same vision on how to build it out.

You said that, and I agree with you, Indy has a good traditional fan base. Very, very good at people backing them. So all the above led me to them. And by the way, the three-year win percentage that you used, it's the highest in Indy for the last three years. So I like the way that matches up. And I didn't at first glance. But after looking at your chart,

I'm not so sure Indy wouldn't be a pretty good spot. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I think the draft capital thing doesn't matter a whole lot, unless it's just an unusual situation. Like I feel like the Broncos having Wilson and not having picks, that's kind of a double whammy. That almost makes it exponential.

Whereas I think Houston, the thing I sort of liked about Houston is I feel like the owner's not good, but I don't feel like he, I feel like he'll spend. I feel like the owner's more vulnerable to having the wrong people in there. But I don't feel like the owner is going to actively meddle or do, make you do certain things. Now, but going in there, you were working with Nick Casario and that's a different experience because of the whole New England thing. So that's a consideration and maybe the fit's not right for everybody. Maybe it's great for somebody else. But I thought it was just interesting to go through. And shoot, I think you've evolved towards Indy even since we talked about it a couple days ago, right?

Yes, yes. Liking that a little bit more. Well, they have $20 million in Cap Room too. Yeah. Don't you think Houston's going to end up with a New England descendant of some kind? Yeah. Yeah, Brian Flores maybe or somebody like that. Yeah.

I felt like that one could potentially be, you know, after doing two one and done, so I feel like the next guy's going to go a little bit of a runway. Maybe that's the opposite. Maybe I should think two guys were one and done. The third guy should be worried too. But I feel like going in there, you're going to get a chance. And you're going to have two ones, a two, three's, 40 million in cap space, probably more if you wanted to get rid of guys.

And I thought they did at least hit on a couple guys in the draft. They got that running back. They got a safety. They got a corner who, you know, may be okay. So I don't know maybe those aren't good pieces, but it seemed like they just had a couple guys from the draft last year who might be okay. And add in the $40 million that they have cap wise this year. Yeah, that's a throw that in there. So I guess six re-player players right there.

You just have to overcome Houston. I think Houston has earned such a bad name because of the whole everything that's gone on there. It's just been a train wreck for three or four years. They fired people, traded people, bad trades. Yeah. you know, put the wrong, done weird things. But if you sort of look at what the future could look like, it may be able to look better than that.

And they were actually decently competitive on defense, I thought at times last year. Plus, I think Cal McNair will spend whatever he needs to spend. He never has been one to me that pumps the brakes on anything. His dad was the same way. You know, frankly, they probably need to hire the best evaluator they can in the whole league to couple with Casario and the new head coach and give that a go as a team build. Interesting. So Casario has the GM title. You wouldn't necessarily say that with every GM being in place. So you think they could use an evaluator in addition to Casario.

100%. The Casario is different from some of these that are GMs. And make it somebody outside the New England way. Somebody that has a fresh set of eyes, someone that's done things differently so that we're not all drinking from the same pot of Kool-Aid. I just think a different perspective makes us all better. And that won't happen there because Casario probably, you think, has the ear of McNair and he's not going to say, hey, we need someone with a different view than mine. So that could actually make Houston, from your standpoint, not as attractive. Yeah, I think you go back and forth on these things. And again, this is just our opinion. They might think we're all wet, but that's why we have a podcast, right? We've got a podcast, almost whatever we want we have so far.

Okay. Before we get to our picks, I think, let's hit the GM notebook too. You got some stuff in the GM notebook? Yeah, there's a couple things that you haven't picked away. Yeah, the GM notebook has blank spots in their mirror. Obviously doesn't trust Sando to not borrow from the GMM. We were going to talk about Bill O'Brien. Are you still going to hit that?

Let's hit Bill O'Brien, yeah, because I think that was a logical move. I thought it was interesting. A couple weeks ago, the Patriots put out a statement saying the Patriots and Belichick have begun contract extension talks with Gerard Mayo that would keep him with the team long term. In addition, the team will begin interviewing for offensive coordinator candidates beginning next week. I thought that was almost Robert Kraft getting it on the record. Bill, we're going to go get an offensive coordinator.

You said you would. Now we put it out there. So it's in print if we don't do this. And maybe it wasn't that complicated. But hey, Bill O'Brien, that's who everybody thought they should hire. What do you think? I think it's clearly an upgrade. He fills an offensive IQ void that was there left when Josh McDaniels headed west.

Any job in the industry where you fill a little. role with people who have never done it before and you can carry that into any industry really it's going to come with a learning curve education experience it's expensive right and they paid the price and unfortunately mac jones development paid the price for the route that they decided to go this year and fill in the offensive coordinator job i just think it's clear cut that they had to do this or something like this with an experienced offensive mind who has done this for living his whole life this is not a training ground okay with all due respect to the Bill Belichick. These aren't on the job training jobs. We're supposed to be the best in the

world at running these franchises, best in the world at coaching these franchises. And I felt like that was a letdown for a lot of people. And you can't really say that about Bill Belichick because of all the Super Bowls he's won. But that to me never made sense. I never could connect the dots as to why they did what they did. And I think they clearly paid the price with a down year and offense that was really in shambles most of time and Mac Jones paid the price. So I like it. I'll say this about Bill, and you asked me that in our call before the show, do you think he'll be a head coach again?

Bill's last couple years in Houston, everybody blames that on Bill being the GM. But I happen to see some film, and there were some things with that offense that let me down or that let me down with his system. And it didn't change at Alabama. For example, the past protection scheme, he had a hard time keeping Deshawn Watson clean his last year there. That kid took a beating. And at Alabama, I don't think we learned anything.

Alabama's offensive line better than anybody's in the league year in and year out. I mean, they're going to be favored to win 11 out of 12 games every year. So I don't know how you can tell who's really good at scheming and coaching at that because they got better players than everybody. They should beat everybody. So it's a total different evaluative set when you come to the NFL. So to answer your question about Willie. maybe he could come a head coach again.

I don't know. I mean, we'll find out. You've got to keep Mack Jones upright better than he did Deshaun Watson at Houston his last year. Well, not that the owner's making the hires know anything about the past protection, though, right? They're not going to be even that nuanced, right? They're just going to look at his record.

Well, I think Bill knows him. I mean, he was there for five years. Yes, yes. I'm talking about as a head coaching candidate. So that gets back to then, you know, the rest of the staff around them. Yeah, hopefully the GM that is with that owner of a perspective. team looking to hire him. And again, maybe that gets fixed this year. Maybe Mac Jones has a great year and he doesn't give up sacks and they actually have a fortified front and past protection is

not a problem. It just was for me a few years ago when he finished at Houston. It'd be interesting to see what they do there because obviously Dante Scarnacia was a big part of their success and Billiichick had asked him back even a couple of time, one or two times as the offensive line coach. There had been speculation is Matt Patricia going to shift over to that. Now there's speculation that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge may or may or may not even be there. So we'll see how the rest of the staff shakes out. They're going to be in Vegas for the shrine game, or that maybe they already are.

They're going to be there soon for those practices. So we'll see how that staff takes shape, but at least they have a real offensive coordinator that's got to be good for everybody there and a year overdue. And again, Bill Belichick not going outside the Patriot way. If you're going to keep it of in-house guys, then it's, It's got to be O'Brien, right? There was almost no one else to get, but it's a good get. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah. What do you got in the GM notebook? Well, I took a little different angle this week in that a couple things were said by combatants from last week's games that I thought were kind of interesting and funny a little bit. I mean, let's face it, Joe Burrough is a really good player. And when asked about the window of opportunity for the Bengals, he said, my career is our window of opportunity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't disagree with that. I think I tweeted out at the time.

He needs to coin the phrase because really it was true for one thing. It's one thing to say you're going to win the three-point contest like Larry Bird. And there's another thing to just go out and do it, you know. And that's really what Joe Burroughs done. He's proved it. And he's probably right. His career is their window of opportunity. He's not going anywhere.

In fact, he's fixed to get a pretty good load of money dumped on his front porch. So that one kind of just made me chuckle. The other one was Nick Siriani in the game the other day. day when he ran down to call time out on the five yard line or whatever. And he said, I know what the F I'm doing. You know, when somebody, you caught it from a microphone that was displaced down there. And it made it sound like someone was questioning what he was doing down there. Trust me.

Nick Seriani knows what he's doing. Okay. I just loved it that he gave it back to somebody who was challenging him. Probably an official or somebody down there. Yeah, that's what I thought. You know, like the guy who said, hey, you're not supposed to be down there. He let him have it, right? Nick's a very emotional dude.

So I just got a kick out of that. I thought it was kind of funny. A little confidence. Yeah. The other thing that I think hasn't got much play this week that happened last week was the Chad Hennie 98-yard touchdown drive. Ah, yeah. When he came in when Mahomes hurt his ankle. I haven't heard much said about that outside of Kansas City.

This is why you need a veteran who can come in as a backup, not having any reps, and replicate what the starter does and the head coach trusts him. This has happened more than once in Kansas City. and Andy Reid clearly trusts Chad Hennie, and they didn't call much different. The first play was a pass out of the end zone. And he goes down and takes him on a 98-yard ride for a touchdown that, you know, I don't know that they win the game if he didn't do that.

That's just because Andy Reid doesn't have any runs on his call sheet. He would have to call. No, that's awesome, though. It was great. Really, they're not, you know, they may not be advanced. They may not have advanced without that type of place. So I really, I really like that from them too. And it made me think about the other backups around, you know, with Gardner Minshue,

is one of them, right? Yep. Yep. Philly, you're okay with that? Yep. You can get you through a game. He could lead a drive like that if you had to. Brandon Allen's the backup for Cincinnati.

I don't know about that. Did you scout him? Yeah, I did. He's functional. I don't know that they're going to have Chad Haney type results, but I do think you, it makes you think about spending some money on. on a backup quarterback. There's some teams that are lacking it, that's for sure.

So I said earlier, the greatest story that could come out of this would be the 49ers winning the Super Bowl with Purdy. I think the actual greatest story would be if something happened to Purdy and Josh Johnson led the... There you go. Funny. I don't think that's going to happen. But shoot, like I said, maybe that would be the real test to Purdy. If Josh Johnson went in there and it looked terrible, then we'd say, hey, we'd have to finally give...

Santa would have to finally say, hey. But I think you convinced me earlier on... On Purdy, that was great. Let's hit our pick segment here. We've only, we're running out of games to pick, Randy. We're down to the last couple. We are, and I'm running out of battery juice in my computer, so I'm going to have to mind up pretty soon here.

We're going to go blank on you. That's fine. I apologize. It's not very professional of me, but I just trying to bear the facts. We were both one and three last week on our picks. So I was, I won with Cincinnati. You won with San Francisco. Some of those letters show you why there's shining.

I think we had the winner. It was just the point spread we didn't have. Points got us a little off on. that, yeah. But we didn't know if Mahomes were going to get hurt either. We thought Mahomes was going to roll, and I think they would have by more. That ended up being closer. What do you got this week? Well, this week for me, I'm going with Philly and I'm going with Cincinnati, not shockers by any means. I think Philly has probably been the team to beat all year long in the NFC since he's been on a role and been so hot that, you know, they're three and O against Kansas City the last three times.

I have a lot of faith in Cincinnati's defense. I can't say the defense coordinator. name Lou Ammo. Anarumo. Outstanding job again. They're guys, and we've talked about it. They don't do a lot of stuff. They just do what they do really good. And it'll be interesting to see how they attack Mahomes with the bad leg.

Are they going to come after him? They're going to let him sit and play coverage. That's going to be an interesting matchup to me. But I'm going with Cincinnati and I'm going with Philly. What is, Cincinnati's a one-point favor, right? Yeah. You get a point and then you've got to give two and a half in the other. I'm going to do the same thing.

I guess my question for, I thought the slip. track last week in Buffalo actually helped the Bengals offensive line. That's the one thing at Arrowhead Stadium with a couple of, you know, replacement offensive linemen. You get Chris Jones maybe moving around. You know, Frank Clark can still crank it up for a game maybe. That would be the interesting component to me is Burrow under a little bit more duress than he was last week just because it's not going to probably be as slippery.

What's the path to the 49ers winning? How do you see that? They're going to have to score some points. There's no doubt about it. Their defense is going to have to do something with Hertz that nobody else has done. They just got to know where he's at all the time. And I think Fred Warner is the key to me. Fred Warner can get Jalen Hertz on the ground.

I think he's a deal breaker. He can make things happen that most teams don't have. So he's kind of the ace in the hole for me. That's what I was thinking too. And he's a hitter. They have guys who hit on the 49ers still at the linebacker position. I think that helps you every week. But with Jaylen Hertz,

navigating through some painful shoulder issues and being such a big part of their offense, like some message sending hits by those linebackers early in the game, maybe that could help shift it in their favor. Maybe we get a Brock Purdy special. Maybe Brock Purdy steps up and just has the game of his life and really makes some plays in the passing. And that would be fun too.

I do feel like Philly's a little better in the trenches on both sides of the ball probably. So I will favor them. But I think the 49ers have more than a puncher's chance. No doubt. We'll see. And we made it through. Randy's battery.

Because you're still down in Dallas, right? I am. Yeah. X-F-F-O. Jim Hazlick could come crashing through the door at any minute with his C-Dragon sweatshirt on. Absolutely. Yeah. Some things never change, man.

It's just, it's a lot of fun. And we've been having a good time. We're in the middle of training camp for those that don't know. That's great. So before your battery lands out, what does Haslut come in like? What are those types of things? that he wants to like about or ask you about. Kramer from, what's name of the show?

Seinfeld. It could be Kramer, just coming through there, looking around like, what, what, what? My feeling is, what is happening now? You know, I always say we're about three hours from a good mutiny at any time. That is no different in the XFL with the Seattle Sea Dragons, trust me. That's great. That's great. Well, hey, no mutinies, hopefully.

Hope you have good time down there. getting organized. Everybody, thanks for listening to us this week. I'm Mike Sando of the Athletic. You can find me on Twitter at Sandoan NFL. Randy Mueller, you can find at muellerfootball.com at Randy Mueller underscore on Twitter. And thanks for coming along. We'll talk to you next time. This was the Athletic Football Show.