The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Dan Snyder situation, Ron Rivera’s animated press conference, Bears’ play-calling for Justin Fields, roughing the passer penalties & more

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Mike Sando and former GM Randy Mueller discuss another eventful Thursday Night Football game. They talk about the latest report involving Dan Snyder and his future owning the team before diving into Ron Rivera’s comments on Carson Wentz and his animated postgame press conference. Plus, they examine the Bears’ play-calling for Justin Fields, what went wrong for Matt Rhule and the Panthers, the controversial roughing the passer penalties and more. The close out the show by discussing what they are watching in Week 6 and they share their picks.Follow Mike on Twitter: @SandoNFLFollow Randy on Twitter: @RandyMueller_Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube4:33-9:59 Amazon halftime/postgame crew’s honest criticism of games10:00-20:18 Dan Snyder situation20:19-25:59 Ron Rivera’s fiery press conference26:00-32:03 Commanders-Bears takeaways32:06-39:37 Matt Rhule fired39:38-52:54 GM’s notebook (Cowboys defense, Steelers struggles, roughing the passer calls)52:55-1:06:50 Games to watch in Week 6 & picks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome everybody to the Football GM podcast. Mike Sando here from the Athletic, along with the GM, the three-time GM, Mr. Randy Mueller. How are you today? Doing great, Mike. Looking forward to a little fireside chat today. We've got plenty to talk about and move it on the field, some of it off the field. So a lot going on in the NFL, that's for sure.

Absolutely. And we're going to hit a ton of it. But, you know, it's funny, as we looked ahead to what was the game. the Thursday night game, Washington, Chicago, you think, you know, let's go out to dinner instead. But no, there's so many amazing things to talk about off of that matchup involving these teams. And we're going to do that. In fact, at one point, Randy is going to take us on to Daniel Snyder's yacht.

You believe that? I mean, this is unbelievable content here on the Football GM podcast. But we're going to talk about a lot of things off of this game, the halftime and post-game broadcast vibe, which is totally different than anything we've seen before. We're going to obviously talk about the Daniel Snyder situation with Randy's analysis, not only on that, but you might have if you follow Randy on Twitter,

which you should at Randy Mueller-Uller underscore. He alluded to that through what Al Michaels had to say. Some interesting analysis off of that. We'll talk about the game itself too in the Chicago scheme. And by the way, the post game, add this on there. The Ron Rivera rant kind of felt like, I remember as a kid watching pro wrestling, and I can remember calling my dad into the room to try to convince them that it was real, you know. Dad, no, no, look at this.

They couldn't fake this. And then, you know, dad would be like, hey, you know, you know, whatever. Ron Rivera had that sort of mean Gene O'Kerland vibe going at the microphone, rowdy, Roddy Piper, you know, rant. So we'll talk a little bit about that. We got to, we got so much stuff. I got to scroll down on our notepad today, Randy. We're going to get to the game itself. We're going to get into Matt Rule being fired by the Panthers.

Talk a little bit. We had a great question from one of our listeners, Mike Fink, who follows us on Twitter and had a great question about college coaches. There's no one more qualified than the brandy to talk about that. He's worked with him. He's hired him. He knows the ins and out to that. We'll get into the GM notebook. Some stuff on Dallas in there.

We've got Steelers. We got roughing the passer. We got matchups of the week. We got picks. This is pretty good. Mike means that I agree with you. My night started last night when I switched on the game. I'm a big New York Ranger hockey fan, right?

And they were coming last night too. And my night started with, gosh, I'd rather be watching the Rangers tonight. But I'd probably better tuning in this NFL game. And it's still giving us stuff to talk about. Yeah. And the Rangers did good without me. So I was glad to hear that. Yeah, you know, living in Seattle area, I turned on the Mariners a little bit yesterday.

But that's been a tough one here, the last couple games for them. But I do enjoy playoff baseball. You know, we're both old enough. I remember bringing a radio to school. That really dates you. But we used to do that to listen to the baseball games. And I can remember things like who won the World Series in a certain year then, but not now. I couldn't tell you who won it five years ago, but I can tell you back then.

It's interesting that people complain about day baseball now, these playoff games that are on in the day. Back in the day, I don't know if you remember this, but I remember sitting in sixth grade elementary school with a TV and the teachers allowed us to watch them. Big Red Machine against the Oakland A's. And so we watched these games on in daytime because the teachers wanted to see it too. And it was a little of the day. So it's come full circle now to where some of these games are on TV. I like it, to be honest with. I think it's great.

You can come cleaner. Andy, was it color TV in the school or what do we have? No, it was color, but it wasn't color. Not all the colors. That's for sure. I do love that. I just love the drama of sports, you know, and whether it's like the same thing. Hockey, you put on a hockey.

you put on Stanley Cup and, you know, a game, whatever it is. I mean, that's awesome, the drama of it. So there's different types of drama off of the Thursday night game in the middle of October between a couple of bad teams in Washington and Chicago. But that's the great thing about the NFL, Randy. If you, there's a lot to follow. There's a lot going on. I don't know if we got the order of this stuff right.

I put down the halftime post came broadcast vibe. Is that a good place to start? It's an awesome place to start because it is unique. Like we've both pointed out. So go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So last week we had Richard Sherman and Tony Gonzalez on there.

And of course, Ryan Fitzpatrick is part of that show as well. But last week, if you were watching on the Indy Denver game, you noticed, and there's obviously a personal history with Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson that maybe clouded this thing. But they really went in with a level of criticism, almost vitriol towards Russell Wilson that you wouldn't normally see on a broadcast. Typically, these broadcasts, you know, the broadcasters leverage their relationships with people. in the game to get the information and have a feel. But with that comes a level of respect that they afford those guys. They don't always bring up. You would have never heard John Madden say, one of the greatest broadcasters ever,

but John Madden wouldn't say, I don't know what the hell Bill Walsh is doing here. I mean, he's going to lose the freaking game. I mean, you got to throw the ball. You wouldn't get that. And you may not want that throughout the whole broadcast. I mean, I think in some levels it could be a little distracting. But on the post game show, the analysis, thing. Somebody said it, replied to one of my tweets about it was, this is the closest thing to that

NBA show, you know, on TNT that's so amazing. You don't even have to follow the NBA, but if you got Barclay and Kenny Smith, I'll watch those guys. I don't even have to watch the game. Shack. Yeah. You know, it's awesome. They have a great interplay. The interplay between Sherman and Gonzalez and these guys isn't there yet. But this analysis, they're ripping Luke Getzky. Yeah. The offensive coordinator of the Bears saying, you've got to set this offense up around your quarterback. That, a lot of people find that refreshing. How about you? Well, I find it the most refreshing part of these last couple Thursday night games, that's for sure, is what they're going to say, pre-game, post-game, halftime, because one, the quality of play has been bad. And again,

I always go back to, I don't learn a lot during the broadcast. And I know Kirkh Street has been awesome in college. I don't find that awesome in the NFL. So I find what I gain from knowledge is pre-game, it's half time and it's post game. I don't think their analysis is any different than maybe some of the NFL insiders would see, but these guys are willing to say it. That's what I think you're saying. They're willing to say it. They're willing to observe it and actually say it and not protect those relationships

and not protect the people that are involved like you get so often, whether it's on an NFL channel or an NFL serious channel, radio, any of those things. There's a lot of protecting going on, and I understand why they have to do it. But this is raw. It's unfiltered for the most part. And these guys will tell it like it is. And I'm with you. I absolutely love it. And behind the curtain that they've shown have been really the reasons I've tuned in the last couple of weeks. Now, they may have different relationships to protect. If you're a player, right, it's easier than to blame the coach or whatever. They may not call out their buddy who missed the lined up wrong in the defensive line. And that might be their guy. But

I was really struck by this with Richard Sherman. Richard Sherman was asked by the host of the show, I believe. They were talking about the NFC West. And, you know, hey, you get the 49ers, who's the next best team? And he was asked whether DeAndre Hopkins returned to Arizona's lineup would fix the Cardinals issues. It was a type of question you could say, hey, here's the impact of Hopkins. Here's why it helps Kyler Murray.

And Richard Sherman goes, is he going to help Kyler Murray? study the playbook this week? I mean, now, my question out of all this, Randy, is there's still, the teams in the league still have to give these guys a pass to be there. They still have to provide players to come on to the postgame show. Is this going to be short-lived? Are there people sitting in the top media job at a place or even the coach somewhere saying, these guys are, or, so wait, we're going to make these guys available to them?

I'll set this one out. How do you think this is going to be sustainable? I wonder. I think it's sustainable because of the amount of money that Amazon's paying to the NFL. So that decision is going to be made way above the club level, way above a player's level. If I'm going out there or not, it's going to be made by really the owners and the commissioner. And you're going to supply them with what they want because they're paying so many billion dollars a year. So that's going to keep it going.

And it's the same thing that, like you said, has kept the basketball show going on T&T. And it's really what people tune in for. They want authenticity. They don't want. Yeah. Well, Coach, speak. They don't want bullshit, you know. I mean, they don't have time to hear that stuff.

And then when you factor in all the agendas are at work in most of those platforms, some of us just don't have time for that. This is educated people who know behind the curtain what's happened and they're not serving any agenda, except they also have personality in that they're giving their information in a personal way that fans want to. see. So I think it's outstanding. And I do think it's sustainable. I really do. Yeah, I want to see that grow. I guess when you mentioned the league, you know, making a bunch of money, I guess, I wonder if the limits are can Richard Sherman call the commissioner a clown or, or can it escalate to a level where that type of thing. There's some railing. Yeah, some railing. There's some sort of railing. But within that railing, there's a lot of room for saying really, you know, sharp commentary that you wouldn't normally get on a broadcast. So I totally agree that that's been great.

lots of other stuff going on with this game, with Washington being in it. And I'm sure everybody saw the ESPN report by Seth Wickersham and Don Van Nata, which basically painted Daniel Snyder as being someone who feels cornered and is threatening, you know, that he has information on the commissioner and other owners. They better not vote him off the island because he'll, you know, he's got X, Y, and Z. First off, before we get into this, do you buy that? Do you think he's really got enough stuff? or is this just a desperate guy who's talking big?

I think it's a poker game. I think it's something that he thinks he needs to play. I do think he's caged into a corner and he's going to play every card he can. I mean, it's politics at its highest level, right? Why would we suspect anything different? It's Washington, D.C. Now it's their football team. So these stories run deep.

This one especially and has wide-ranging tentacles that, you know, I think everybody's going to play the cards that they have. and it's probably going to get played publicly. And I think he's trying to embarrass the owners, maybe Roger, into just almost blackmailing him. So to answer your question, I think he has some information. I don't think it's going to make a difference at the end of the day. He's going to try to drag as many people down in the mud as he can for sure.

Do you think, though, we will get to a point with him where he has forced to sell the team? At the end of the day, it is unprecedented, but yes, I do think he's going to have to move on at some point. Okay. And again, as we go through this and talk about it, I can give you some reasons why I think that. It's almost a good news, bad news scenario for the owners. The owners don't want to have to force Dan Snyder out, in my opinion,

because that could be them one day. Just like we really didn't want to force Donald Sterling out with the clippers and the guy with the sons, they really don't. Those guys made it so easy, you know. The older they get, they don't want to be forced out. But the other side of the thing, that coin is, especially in Washington's case and the owner's case, that franchise is going to be sold for more than any other franchise in the history of the NFL. Trust me. It's an old guard

team. It's an old guard team. The league is better when the Washington football team is at its time. Instantly, you change that owner instantly their season ticket demand. And so the value that they would get in their own franchise, having done nothing, except the, the, the Washington team changing hands is going to drive their investments way up. Yeah, and the new owner would be able to get a stadium just by being a civil human being who doesn't make everyone skin crawl. I just think there's so much baggage, Mike, I'm sorry to interrupt, so much baggage that, again, to answer your question, I don't think it can be wiped under the rug and him continue as an owner.

And I think it's starting to make the league look bad, the more he's involved. Yeah. And, you know, I alluded to the top here. You know, you've rubbed shoulders a couple of times with Dan Snyder. Impressions? Well, I don't have any doubt that the value of the franchise has been somewhat diminished by his actions. But I'll say this. And at one point in my career, I was being recruited to be the GM of the Washington Redskins at that time.

And as part of that recruitment, I was sold on the fact that this is the only organization you can run in the entire. world where you are guaranteed three hours every year with the leader of the free world sitting on your right. And you can converse about anything you want. If that makes, if you don't connect the dots, they always are on Monday night. And usually back in those days, the president was always there. The president of the United States was always at a redskin game and in the owner's box. Yep. Whether it was George Bush, Bill Clinton, all the way back to Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan. Yeah.

It kind of recruited me with, hey, you're going to have an audience of the President of the United States for three hours guaranteed every year. At least for us, if not more. Yeah. So that value alone made the job pretty good, you know. I mean, it's hard.

I love Paul Allen. God bless him. And I love sitting next to him every day, but wasn't the president of the United States. Yeah. There is a critical value with the Washington football team that is created by owning that franchise for sure. And owners believe that.

And not believe it, that's a fact for ownership as well. You don't think a legitimate owner could get something done at the highest levels of U.S. politics during a Monday night game. And back then was RFK Stadium. Yep. I bet they could. Just trust me. I'll bet they could. And for a little kid from Idaho who spends his time hunting and fishing, that was a pretty big selling point for me.

That was, whoa, it was almost over my head. So I couldn't really relate. But at the same time, my buddy said, hey, you ought to consider this. Yeah, well, shoot, you've been, you know, meeting with him, and you've met with obviously multiple owners, but Paul Allen's about as wealthy of his owners as you can get. I mean, he was at the time.

He could have bought the whole league. Maybe he first came in for three or four years, yeah, no doubt. So I've had lucky and been fortunate enough to be around some high hitters. But my point is that that's the value that this franchise holds. It's special for everybody involved, including investors, owners, GMs, teams, coaches. So the owners won't have any problem getting their money out of this team if they do force a sale and if it changes hands. So you tweeted something interesting last night, Rainy, during the game, Al Michaels, long time, play by play, man, made a comment that grabbed

your attention in a big way and you tweeted about it. I'll read what you tweeted it and then you elaborate. I think this was great analysis. Al Michaels, and this is my words now, Al Michaels is not like those guys in the post game show, if you noticed, right? Al Michaels is all about having cocktails with the right. Very political. And very well-connected.

So you said, Al Michaels is wired in at the top of the NFL food chain. For him to say, quote, the league would like for Dan Snyder to sell, end quote, is delivering a message from somebody. What do you mean by that? Well, for me, for Al to say that,

it was obvious to me that this is the league's position. And I know these broadcasts can at times be used for messaging by the fans for a variety of influential people to kind of get messages across, whether it's the league, the commissioner, the NFL. This whole, you know, Dan Snyder thing is going to get public. But I felt like this was the league saying, hey, I'll just mention this. Let's just send a message to Dan and his people. He can walk away quietly if he wants and nobody's going to be drugged through the mud.

it's kind of a white flag to say, hey, if he's willing to sell, okay, I get it. I just don't think Al would say that on his own. That's my only point. And I could be wrong. This is just my feeling of being around the NFL for all these years. Yep, yep. He's not, Al Michaels is not going to speak on behalf of the league off of the cuff. No, that's right.

Because he does have a seat at the table when Roger Goodell is in town. Yes. He is there. It doesn't mean. All the owners, you might mention over the years, all the, all of the ownership groups when Al does a game, they're always talked about on the broadcast at some point, you know, at some point in good light, in very good light.

Yes, yep. And even on this one, he walked a little bit. He didn't trashed Dan Snyder, if you noticed, either. He just sort of delivered a messenger that was very, very interesting. So we'll see now maybe it will get, maybe it will get ugly, you know, maybe it will. I don't see Dan Snyder going quiet. could be could very well be i don't know how it's going to work out but i do know this that the league

is the best PR machine i think in in the history of sports for sure in that that questions don't get asked very often at the league level that they don't already have the answers for in the backroom so they've already been through all this they already know what's going to happen and as stuff leaks out you know as unfair as it is you talk about wrestling we know the end to how the end's going to go So the league has a team of lawyers, a team of researchers, a team of every kind of angle of messaging out there that kind of have already thought this through. They're the best. I mean, I used to admire Roger every time I hear him speak because I know that he knows the answers to before the questions even come up on any topic. So it's, I think it's going to be hard for Dan to win a mudslinging contest with the NFL.

I really do. Yeah, unless he had, I mean, he could do some damages. depending on the nature of what he might know. But I would imagine, you know, people know certain things about him, too, because I don't think that's all come out. So it could depend in the end how dirty he wants it to get. Or I felt like there was some bluffing with that, too. I felt like in the story that came out, they, which was very well reported,

they quoted people very close to Dan Snyder. And they gave specific quotes. Now, if, Randy, if I'm, that close to Dan Snyder. I would be, normally, I'd be very worried about somebody being identified, giving out the information because he wouldn't want to tick off this guy that you're close to. If you're close to Dan Snyder, believe me, it's on his terms, not yours. Right.

And so that made me think, well, Dan Snyder is fine with his guys putting this out there because he wants this message to be delivered that, hey, I got, I got dirt here. And yep, I am making big threats. I'm talking big behind the scenes because it's going to get ugly for you guys. And I just don't think the league's going to, would blink on that unless they, if he really had stuff like that already, he would have, it would have leaked out, wouldn't it have some of it? Probably. But I think, again, the league already knows what it is and they're prepared to deal with it. That's my point.

They're always going to be a step ahead of the game here. They're pros in politics. Absolutely. All right, pros and politics. Before we get to the game, let's segue. that into the post game because after the game, we had Ron Rivera, the coach of the Washington commanders, get pretty chippy. Got pretty chippy.

If you go back earlier in the week, he sort of made his own bed a little bit when asked about the, hey, how come these other NFCs teams are doing well and you guys aren't? What's the difference? And he mentioned the, well, the quarterback. Then that created a whole firestorm. I don't know if you saw Alex Smith, the former Washington Commanders quarterback, on one of the analysis shows. I forget which one it was.

Was he doing Monday night? I can't remember where he was on. But he was like, this is, he's throwing Wentz under the bus. Then we come back to this game and someone asks, hey, there was a report or something. You didn't really want Carson Wentz, Ron. And Ron Rivera then goes off and, you know, swears and says, everyone wants to keep saying I don't want anything to do with Carson. Well, bullshit, I'm the effing guy.

He didn't say effing guy that pulled out the sheets of paper that looked at analytics. That's what I took away from it, by the way. I know you'd get a kick out of that. I said, what? Looked at the analytics. That watched the tape. What? That's what pissed me up because the young man doesn't deserve to have that all the time.

I'm sorry, I'm done. And he walked off, he walked off pro wrestling style. Your optics on this one? ready? Well, I think you're right. I think Ron took the bottle of kerosene and poured it on the fire last week. But my take on that was a little different as well. I think he was, this is just my opinion. Okay. I think he was deflecting criticism of the job they've done there last week by saying, all we need to quarterback. And he kind of threw it out there as if it's not me, it's not me. We've done everything except get the quarterback right. And then afterwards thought, oh, gosh, I have one here.

I'd better go mend that fence. So remember he said, oh, oh, you know. So then he went and met with Carson and covered that all up and made that good. So I think it started, you're right, last week with some somewhat agenda-based answers to some questions that the media had. This week, I thought, was a little bit, a little contrived. I know it came across as a passionate plea, and I can appreciate that. He's sticking up for his players and also understanding. that they'd lost four in a row.

Frustration mounts, I've been there, I've been in it. You either get really pissed or you get really sad. And I think he'd probably been through the sad parts, and now he's going to fight. Stages of losing. Yeah, 12 stages of losing. And when you get four in a row, it's a struggle. Wait until you get eight in a row.

I've been there once too. And I guess that's more when the sadness kicks in. That's one where you go, oh, boy, here we go again. Yeah, yeah. But yes. And then the fact that he stormed away, meant to me that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. I made my points.

I'm good. Now I'm staged right. What I want to ask you, though, if he was, if he instinctively earlier in the week kind of protected himself when he was under fire by standing up and saying, no, it wasn't Daniel Slender who wanted once. It was me. Is he standing up for his owner in the post game? That's what it almost felt like there because Snyder's taking a lot of heat.

Well, guess who signs Ron Rivera's checks? It's Dan Snyder. And Ron may have his own opinion of Dan Snyder. He may not think he's, there's 32 of these jobs. it if you want one of them, you've got to work with Daniel Snyder, right? I put that as definitely a self-preservation comment as well. I thought, yeah, I got to take some of this pressure off, Dan. He's not telling us what quarterbacks we can play.

And the other thing was, I think it was enough. And Ron is a good leader. Ron is a good man. He's a good leader. I think it was his way of standing up and saying, hey, I'm the man. Criticize me, not anybody else. So in a way, he was sticking up for his own. in a way he was.

Hey, criticize me, but this press conference is over. Yeah. And we don't have another game for 10 days. And that's why he exited. Like I said, like you did. We're not going to talk about it. I'm going to say what I want to say here. And then see you in 10 days.

You know, I'm just too mad to continue talking about this situation. I don't want any follow up questions, please, at this time. That's right. Because I might say something else. And some of this just hits to the whole culture of the organization. And a culture of a lot of organizations is self-president. and politics. And it's not like everybody's on the same page pulling for each other. And there's there's a lot of butt protecting that goes on in these jobs in these buildings that are

dysfunctional where you're not evaluated by the right things. They don't even know what to evaluate you on. They don't even know what you do. A lot of cases, yeah. Whatever your job is in there. And so everyone has to, in a lot of these places, create their own narratives to survive. It doesn't even have to be true. You just have the right people have to believe it. Oh, no doubt. And it's whose ear do you have. It becomes an internal, you know, strife as to who has whose ear.

I always say the best owners that I ever worked for were the ones that didn't listen to the radio. They didn't read the editorials because they could make up their own mind and heard it from the people who were on the inside. Yeah. And sometimes the owner doesn't want the best coach. He wants the one he's comfortable with. Yes, exactly. And because you can get mobile parcels, but something comes with that now. He's going to tell you to get the hell out of his office and don't bother him until after the season.

No doubt. As we found out, you know, that's another case study and another podcast with the history of the Dallas Cowboys and the coaches that Gary has hired over the years. To be comfortable with, not to push his program to another level. We are going to talk about Dallas in a positive light later. As we get going, let's get into this game itself. Randy, Washington 12, Chicago 7. I don't know how Chicago could lose this game. It seemed like they were down inside the 10-yard line

enough times to get more than seven points. Maybe we'll circle back a little bit to have Richard Sherman's criticisms and those guys' criticisms of what Chicago's doing. Do you feel that? Yeah, 100%. And I agree with you. I thought Chicago, and this is not going to sound crazy because they weren't efficient. They weren't effective.

But I thought they dominated the game for the most part. I just thought they had control the game. And even though they were behind, I didn't know if they would win, but I thought they had played well enough, controlled the line of scrimmage, at least enough to win this game. So I agree with Richard. Hey, the stats show that Justin Fields leads the league in percentages of being pressured, right? I think he's pressured on 46% of his drop back pass, as I read that yesterday. Here's an idea. Stop putting him in drop back pass positions. That's not his drink. He's not prepared for that. And here's the other thing. We're not prepared to protect him when he's standing in the park. Oh my gosh. That is awful. It's scary. I think I said at the time last night during the

game, I want to know what he sees. I haven't seen the film yet. I want to know what he sees when he hits his back foot on his last draw. I want to see what he's looking at. I don't know where the rush is coming from. I don't know if there's separation downfield by receivers. I just don't know enough about that to answer it. But I know this, he's not effective from that position. He's either not processing it quick enough or people aren't separating to get open or like we all saw last night. They can't protect him at all. Or all of those things are happening. Yeah, I think you're probably right.

So I do blame. Luke Getsy's the coordinator. The coordinator for trying to bring the Green Bay offense and put it in place here when he doesn't have Aaron Rogers. He doesn't have the parts. And I actually think Justin Fields could be a good quarterback someday. But I'll tell you what's going to happen first. They're going to destroy the kid. Oh, my gosh.

I felt so bad for you. They're going to destroy him. Did he look totally disconnected last night to anybody but me? Like he didn't really believe in anything we were doing. I saw very little communication on the sidelines with anybody. I saw a deer in the headlights stare coming on and off the field. I just felt bad for the kid. He had no chance.

And he knew it. That's what I felt like. His body language showed me that he knew he had no chance. So that's a confidence that you can't play that position in high school, much less college or the pros if you don't have confidence in what you're doing. And it's got to show. He had no swag, no, I'm not the man at all and I know it. But I'm going to call these plays.

I'm going to do my best. And guess what? I'm going to get killed. I understand that. Killed. This is like the boxing corner keeps sending your guy back out there. And he's just getting pummeled. There's not a strategy to help you.

And I felt like he was going to be injured. He was injured. He was thinking about five minutes to get up every time he got pounded. Two plays in a row, he took upper body shots. Maybe they just knocked the wind out of him. But he was, that was a hurting man. Then he took one in the legs where I thought, you know what it reminded me initially of?

Remember when Napoleon McCallum got his knee bent the wrong way? That's going back a long time. He never played again. But he had, he got his foot caught in the ground and got his leg bent the wrong way. His knee bent the other way. It's one of the most grotesque. In fact, Al Michaels was probably doing that game too, I think back then and the day. It's one of the, but I cringe on the one where Justin Fields was standing there because it was not that far away from that being able to happen. His foot's in the ground. A guy's flying into his leg. I mean, this guy, how sure is Justin

Fields? They're lucky that this guy is young. He's put together well and he is tough. I mean, I think we saw that at Ohio State. He's a tough guy. Every big play that was made, Mike, was made outside the structure of the offense, whether he was running a long pass that, you know, was a second level throw or the running back, breaking a tackle and breaking back against the grain. Every big play that was made was made outside the structure. It just kills me that Chicago cannot design a system that predetermines targets and frees up fields his mind so he can actually execute a plan, not process information. They're trying to make this guy into Peyton Manning and he's not and it's a shame.

I just, his skill set. It's not his fault. Yeah, it's not his fault. His skill set is so unique. He is such an elite athlete that if they could use correctly his skills, this defenses in the NFL would have to change the way they defend him. Absolutely. And it's sad.

It's sad to see. They're going to ruin this kid's career as an NFL quarterback. But they might get him killed first in the process. So I don't know which is going to come first. Absolutely. And last week against Minnesota, fourth and four. They get it only because of him. It's not even the sign.

He just runs up the middle because it's the best thing they got going. And look, I'm not a coach. I don't know the X's and O's as well as Lou Gezzi or anybody, not even close like that. I don't think you have to know the X's and O's, Mike. Yeah, you have to give him some answers. You know this, that on 46% of his dropback passes, he's feeling pressure. That's all I need to know. Stop dropping him back.

Please, stop. My dog can say that. Stop. Stop getting me. Yeah, yeah. Very, very difficult. So was there anything much to say about Washington on this game? Carson Wentz, I guess, heard his hand in the game, but he passed for 99 yards.

It wasn't very pretty. It wasn't pretty. The running game got going. They underachieve defensively. They still, you know, really can't stop certain things. Now, this Chicago offense was very stoppable last night, but I'm not going to go away saying, oh, the Washington commanders have fixed anything. I know they got a win, and I will give them credit for that.

Traveling on a Thursday night game is really good to do, and they did do that. But it was more about what Chicago could not accomplish than it was anything to stick a feather in the cap of the commanders. Okay, let's move on to Matt Ruhle being fired by the Panthers. Not a big surprise there. I think if anyone would have asked us or anybody before the season, who's the first coach likely to go? You would have thought Matt Ruhle, based on the situation there. I don't want to limit you with what thoughts you might have on this. What struck you or what strikes you about the Matt Rural era, the firing, whatever.

Is anything interesting here? Well, again, I'm not sure this. And sure Matt can take some of the blame, but I think they set him up for failure. I'll be honest with it. He was a very successful college coach. They gave him all the bells and whistles and the authority to be the top decision maker in order to get him. He had no training. in the NFL. He was an assistant online coach one year. That's zero. He had no training in the NFL at all.

So to come do this and learn on the job, it's just not going to happen. I remember a quote that came out years ago in the old USFL where one of the owners of the Tampa Bay team, you remember John Bassett. He's a Canadian guy and he had tons of money. He was loaded. And his quote was, usually when the man with money meets the man with experience, the man with experience, all the money. And in this case, the man with experience, there's 30 of them out there in the NFL. They ate Matt Rule up. He can't learn the game. This is not on-the-job training. This is the top of an industry in the world. You cannot take over a franchise like this with no experience. I'm telling you, if this happened in the real business world, Mike, they would laugh you off of CNN. They would laugh you off of the money show on TV. You'd say, no way can you do this. This guy's never done this before.

So you better arm him with some great people around him, including a GM that is proven that gets it. Matt didn't have that luxury. He didn't have any of this experience. He had nothing when he showed up. And I'll get on to the team building. It's such a different game. It's a different game on the field. This is a different game off the field.

This is a different game in the front office. And it's guaranteed to be it's a complete different team building process and operations. So I just think he was set up to fail. He tried. Now at the end of the day, he swung and missed on three different quarterbacks. and that probably got him because he did make some improvements at the rest of their roster. But it's just too much. The trial and error gets you killed because the margin for air to succeed is so small at the NFL level.

And a member of the owners knew it too. Yeah, he was a new owner hiring him too. And there's no training ground for that either. You're really, all you have to do to own an NFL team is have money. Yeah. It doesn't make you a good owner of an NFL team. It doesn't make you a smart football guy either, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got a good question here from one of our listeners, Mike Fink, on Twitter.

He said, I was thinking a lot about college coaches and why they fail, pointing to Urban Meyer last year as well. Only really three have won the national championship and Super Bowl titles. And really, you have to count Barry Switzer for that, which was on Jimmy Johnson's coattails. If an owner is considering hiring a college coach, Randy, that's what Mike Fink asks. What should they be looking for that will assure they won't be the next fail? of a franchise? Well, I alluded to a couple of the things. Having lived this, you know, as most of know, I was with Nick Saban in Miami.

I think the greatest college coach ever. Yeah. But when he was in Miami and he was charged with having all the decisions, it was really hard on him because there's a lot of areas he didn't really understand. The other part of it is it's a total, like I alluded to earlier, it's a total different game on and off the field. It's totally different in how these players are dealt with individually and coached. They communicate completely different than college kids. These kids can push back. They're not kids. These men can push back. The parts that are moving in an NFL season and an NFL

front office are multiple, way more moving parts than you would have in college. I mean, college has 85 scholarships and that's your team. You're not operating with any illusions of having place this guy or that guy and cut a guy and bring a guy in and make a trade and just completely different dynamics than they're used to. The ones that have struggled for my part are those that have been given the keys to the Lamborghini without having a license to drive it. That's all. So they got to have the right people around them. This is just my opinion. You may disagree. They just make too many mistakes and there's not enough margin for air. Nick used to say to me, he said, I know, it just kills me. We only have one first round pick. He said, I can recruit five.

at LSU. Well, that's the margin for air you have. You can recruit five, and if two of them don't work out, you're still okay. If our one first-round pick doesn't work out, guess what? We're getting fired. So the margin for air is a lot less at the NFL level. I just think you've got a team, a guy like Matt Rule, with a successful, proven NFL GM, who understands all the things that that coach may not.

The problem is that coach won't necessarily acquiesce or trust or whatever give that authority to somebody else. But he has to. And that's what kills him in the end. They all, they think and the owner thinks they're hiring the next Bill Belichick because he does decide everything. It just shows you how special Bill Belichick is. Well, yeah. And so the problem basically is what you have, the concessions you have to make to get these guys. So if you're a, if you're luring a college coach to the NFL,

and it's a big name coach who's had great success, like Saban, you know, Mount Rule wasn't on that level. But he turned three places, I believe, right? In the college ranks, I mean, he was a hot, well-regarded coach. You don't just sign them for $5 million a year and say you report to the GM. You have to give him $40 million. And in doing all of those things, you really set yourself up for greater challenges. You have to give them more than they're able to handle. and anybody who's in that situation is going to have a hard time.

You know, whether it's Justin Fields being given an offense that isn't set up for him or whether it's Matt Rule being given the keys to an organization, the same sort of things come into play. You need that infrastructure. You need that help. And when those guys get, they want to look at Russell Wilson. He wanted to go to Denver. He wants to be the guy.

He wants to be Peyton Manning. He wants it to be a drop-back pass offense. Well, guess what? That's not what he's good at. No, that's right. And he's sinking. But he got everything he wanted. Right.

But he's sinking. I agree with you. So the structure around all of these people, especially the coach who's trying to run it all critically. I have no doubt that Matt Wool is a good coach. And I think this, and this is not hindsight being 2020, I think Nick Saban would have been a good pro coach too. He just didn't want to take that step back and fight through that year or two of figuring it out. That's where they've had so much success their whole life. Nick had never had a losing season in his history of his coaching career.

In his first year in Miami, I think we were nine and seven and won our last six. The second year, we finished six and ten, and he just wasn't used to losing like that. So I get it. But I do think if he would have stayed, it would have worked out really good for him at the end. And he would have been a successful NFL coach for sure. Yeah, absolutely. What do you got this week in the GM notebook? Well, I think you mentioned earlier about the Dallas coaching.

staff and that is one for me that's a fascinating topic because of all of the criticism we included have given Mike McCarthy for the last year and a half. I mean, he's been, nobody's been roasted more than him, right? Yeah. I just think between him, Kellen Moore, Dan Quinn, and you can even throw the special teams in there now. They've done as good a job with all due respect to Brian Dayball with the Giants. I think they've done as good a job as anybody in the league. They found a balance and flow on offense without DAC. The ball's coming out on time. They're executing at a higher level than I can remember them doing even maybe up until DAC got hurt two years ago. On defense, Quinn has found an awesome way to be complicated enough,

but yet have his players play fast. And the rotation, the combination of the rotation of personnel, of assignments, of alignments, of packages, make for a really deceptive game plan, but yet his guys can play fast, and that's tough to do. And it's tough for offense is to figure that out. So the defense has played really well, and we all know how talented people like Michael Parsons are. And oh, by the way, they blocked the punt last week in their game as well. So I just think that group, and I put that in my notes for the GM notebook, we ought to give them credit because if I was voting for a coach of the year right now and you might think I'm crazy,

I'd vote for Dallas. I just think as a group, they've done the best job. Anybody in the league has done. It's a big surprise. I mean, if you would have thought coming into the year that they were going to lose

Dak Prescott, that there's just enough there that could have gone wrong and we hadn't seen enough the way they pulled through this. I thought this struck me, Randy, reading this off of, I think I read this in the athletic,

while answering a question Monday about Kellyn Moore's growth as offensive coordinator, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy provided an interesting response about the shift. quote, this is a defensive first operation. That's mandated by the head coach because that's our strength.

We identified that in the spring. I think Kellan's done an excellent job adjusting to that. Whoa, hey, somebody grabbed the reins here and said, I'm in charge of this operation. I think that was pretty cool because I think it's really hard to do there, given the profile that Jerry Jones has. I think it's hard to coach there. And that's why I think they've ultimately had limits on how far they can go. and those limits are probably still there.

I think it's still the structure there is flawed, clearly. But that by this first five games of the season, McCarthy's saying that, having it be true and how they're running the ball, they're not trying to get Kellan Moore a coaching job by making Cooper Rush into the next dropback pass, or they are doing what Justin Fields should be getting, right? They have better talent than Justin Fields, but they're taking the ball. Shoot, you watch Cooper Rush. They hit a couple of deep balls.

But the ball's out in like three, two, one second to a guy who's running seven yards down field and he dives towards the line. I mean, they've got a plan for what they've got. They're recognizing the type of team they have. Are you surprised how good their defense is? Because they were so turnover reliant last year. A lot of times the turnover's coming bunches. You can't rely on that. But they've been just a great defense. They've been a great defense because really a lot hasn't changed. And you can play faster the more continuity you have. They didn't have a ton of change. They can rush the passer. They made it. a couple of additions to replace pass rushers that they lost last year. And so I think they're all thinking at the next level. They're not learning to do defense this year. They already know the defense. So anytime you can have continuity and think at second and third level, regardless of what your job or your role is, you're going to be better. So I think they are going to get better.

It's an up-and-coming defense that I think is maybe the best in the league already. And I think it's scary when you have a guy like talented like Mike Parsons is. there's some other guys playing really good on that defense too it's not just all about micro parsons you know one of the things i i just thought about do you hear troyickman's comments this week about the quarterback and hey they'd have a decision to make and at first i thought come on i mean the offense would clearly be better that kreckmonds followed that up and said hey look early in my career um i was clearly the guy but we got hot with steve berlin and they wrote him in the playoffs and he goes i was pissed off about it because this is my team i'm not feeling that i don't i feel like they're

they're protecting Cooper Rush from this. I would rather put Deck Prescott in there. Now I don't care if they've won because they've been winning with defense for any. They haven't allowed, I don't think, more than 20 points in a game. The whole year, anyone's going to win with that. Do you see any decision to make their quarterback? No, I really don't. I think that the defense has carried them without a doubt.

But I'll say this, every quarterback that is in the position like a Cooper Rush, it takes a different amount of time for that comfort to sink in. Now, what if Jack doesn't play two more games and they win two more games? then do we have a little bit of a comment? That's what I'm asking you. Because to me, clearly, Dak Prescott's better than Cooper Rush. As we sit here right now, I could never give the reins to Cooper Rush right now. But all I'm saying is let's fast forward two or three more weeks.

And if for some reason DAC hasn't played, then you're talking about six or seven weeks of a season, you almost can't mess with it then. I don't care who DACA is. Yeah, but what if you're still winning on defense and scoring, you know, your offensive score and 17 or 20 points? Well, that matters how Cooper plays. Is he turning the ball over? He's not.

Let's say he's not. Let's say he's game management. Is the offense having balance and as efficient? Why would you screw that up? So if you do bring back back, do you keep doing it the same way? Yes, exactly. Or do you open it up? Yeah, they learn.

You can't change. This is what they are. Why would it be any different? That's my whole point. And I think they found a balance. And maybe it took losing DAC to do it. But they have found the balance and flow that they have, black for the last year and a half. They have found it. And again, I'm not saying that that Dax

shouldn't have a job back. I think he definitely should 100%. But the longer we go, you know, maybe Steve Burland only needed three or four or five games to prove that he can carry the load. Cooper Rush might need six or seven. He probably won't get six or seven. But if he does, then we probably have to revisit the whole conversation. I know. And the way these things go, obviously the, you know, the games are won a certain way. They could have lost one or two of these games. they've won them. You could put DAC in. He could play 20% better than Cooper Rush to play, but you might lose the game just because

of who you're playing or the fact that sometimes you'll lose a game in the NFL. And then everyone will talk, well, they were this and this with Cooper Rush. You know, I think you have to be, I think you have to be able to handle that and understand and explain how we're winning and losing the games. And Mike McCarthy seems to understand that, talking about what type of team they are. I think that is encouraging. I agree. I think it's made them better, no matter what.

But I do think the more body of work there is, the more consideration you have to make before you make this take to make all these decisions. Yeah. What's next in the GM notebook? The other one I keep coming back to, and maybe I'm kicking a dead horse, but didn't we forecast the struggles of what the Steelers were going to be on offense and what might happen when they decided to. Yeah. Can Mitch Trubisky and bring in the young kid? Yeah. The offense hasn't changed.

The definition of crazy is to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Well, I don't care if they put Terry Bradshaw. and it's going to be the same over and over again. If I see one more underneath screen or a bubble screen to a receiver, I'm going to pull all what hair I have left out. I mean, it's crazy. This is a finesse sideline-to-sideline offense with really not using the parts that they have, whether it's the running back or collectively they're not playing good up front,

but individually you're not playing good up front either. I just thought that the blame went to Trubisky for the offensive struggles. Now Kenny Pickens in there. Be careful. We're going to ruin him. too, if we're going to keep blaming him. I just don't think anything's going to change, I guess is my point, until the system changes a little bit.

Whether that's Matt Canada changing or he changes his style, something has to change because it's not working. Because it didn't work last year with Big Ben either. You know, I wrote about this in my pick six column on Monday, just looking at the Steelers' big picture, as Mike Tomlin is now 50 years old going into this next chapter of his career. What was interesting to me was Chuck Knoll had this amazing record with the Steelers.

And then Bradshaw retired and, you know, things were a little bit, it was a little bit harder and they had, they were up and down. From age 50 on, Chuck Null was a 500 coach, 76 and 76. Before that, you know, all the titles was great. Just hard to keep it going that long. Bill Cowher retired after his age 49 season. So he never got that chapter. But if he'd hung around, I think he would have won because they had been authosburg, or all that good organization.

Mike Tomlin had the same thing as Chuck Null, 60s. some percent wins. Now, he's 50, he's one and four. It's not having nothing to do with the age. But sustaining success is hard to do in one place. As I look at Pittsburgh and see Dan Rooney died five, six years ago, I see Kevin Colbert retires after 20 years. I see Ben Rothesberger retires after 20 years. And I see Mike Tomlin, who I think's been a great coach. I think he is a great coach. But we're talking about that infrastructure that we assume has always been there in Pittsburgh, is Mike Tomlin going to be above 500 from this season on in his career with Pittsburgh? Good question.

I think he's going to have to make some tough decisions and some changes if he is. I think we all have to evolve, right? It can't be the same forever, and that's what you're alluding to. I just think he's going to have to make some tough decisions. The dynamics of the front office is totally different. He doesn't have, I mean, for all intent purposes, Kevin Colbert there to kind of guide. the ship on player acquisition. The new GM, Omar Khan, is a contract guy. He's an administrative guy. He has not, he's not going to be able to tell you if a guy can play or not. Now, they've

leaned on a couple guys that they've brought in with Omar under him, Andy Weidel, Mark Sadowski, guys who I'm familiar with, who are a big football guys. So the dynamics change, though, and they aren't in charge, but they can supply some information to the decision makers. So I think the whole group is in flux right now. And I think sometimes you have to change a little bit to get better. I don't think we've seen the end of the changes that are going to have to be made there for them to be successful for the next 10 years. That's for sure. Ruffing the Passers also in the GM notebook this week, Randy. And you've been around a long time. These things ebb and flow. Do you feel like we're in a crisis now? Or what do you got? I think the crisis was all created by the Tua incident. And I get it.

there should have been a crisis. I just think these calls have maybe come from the ivory tower, the Park Avenue. 345 Park? Yeah, protecting our game. And I understand they have to change the narrative. We have to err on the side of caution. We have to protect our quarterbacks publicly. And that's really what these calls are doing because we all know they're not rough in the

passer. I mean, that's ridiculous. I just don't think it's realistic to keep calling these for the rest of the season. People, fans, they'll lose faith in the process because these are a fans. games. Now, can this happen for three or four weeks? Yes. And do I think the message is way above the officials? Yes. I think they're coming down from the top saying, we're going to call this. I don't care what kind of criticism you're going to get as an official. I got your back, but we're going to call this. And it's not about a particular game or a particular instance or a play.

It's way bigger than that. So call this for now. We'll eventually come out of this. And I get it. That's my point is I think it's a bigger. It's from 30,000 feet, the view of the game of football at all levels and they're protecting the game for everybody's sake. We're going to, we're going to fight it, we're going to hate it, but it's probably the right thing to do, to be honest with you, the way the two things left that taste in our mouth. It was bad, it was wrong, and we've got to do everything we can to kind of move on from that, but protecting quarterbacks is the number one thing that will allow us to move on from. Yeah, I hope that it doesn't, we're not seeing these types of things every week because that really was a bad one in the game.

I mean, even Derek Carr, I mean, would have to say that wasn't a, you know, now Chris Jones, who got penalized for Kansas City talked about maybe there could be, maybe they need to, if they're going to do this, they need to have replay involved. But that brings in a whole other level of administration and, and different stadiums with different cameras. Let's make bigger government. Yeah, bigger government for the NFL. Yeah, that's what you're looking for. So I think when you add layers to things and administration to things in the NFL, it doesn't always fix it, too. You can make it more complicated. but I would have liked in this situation, in this situation, I would have liked for when those officials huddle,

and they're all connected to New York, I would like someone in New York to say, hey, guys, pick this one up, wave it out. You don't have to explain it if you don't want to, but this is, the ball was actually coming out and he braced himself. So, you know, that would have been a better way.

I think you can fix it in that way in these situations when it was clearly over the line. Get some good games this week, Randy. I agree. Really good games. fun games. I wish I could beat two or three of them for sure. Yeah, I starred three of them here. Maybe you start them. I can't remember who started them. We got Buffalo, Kansas City, Dallas, Philly, Baltimore of the Giants. We will get to our pick segment after that.

Randy is dominating. I don't know that. That's right. Even if the blind squirrel finds an acorn every now. Hey, there you go. Buffalo, you live with the squirrels there in Idaho, happens in the time of the years. So you have an advantage with the squirrels. You've got a deal, side deal with the squirrels. My dog kill squirrels directly in the house. I heard my wife scream last year.

What is going on? There was a dead squirrel. Our little Roxy, our little Boston Terrier, who is so sweet, brought in a squirrel and two possum in the house. How about that? So blind squirrels, Buffalo, Kansas City, what a great matchup. Speaking of blindness, 13 seconds of blindness a year ago, we get to relive that, right? Completely blind. Buffalo's been thinking about this.

10 months, right? Can we have had Amazon crew do that post-game? Oh, yeah. That would have been awesome. I would have prayed to see that, no doubt. Inside the NBA has now become inside the NFL on Amazon, no doubt. Richard Sherman just blasting the coaching staff. Can you imagine?

And you, Mike, not to rehearse it or go back on this, when they start to get after each other, which is coming, the more comfortable they get, it's going to be must-watch TV. I agree. It's got great potential. So what do you see in this game, though? Well, I can't remember. Is this in your picks?

I don't think you're picking. No, it's not. So what's your feel on this one? You wouldn't touch it. It means more to Buffalo. Yep. I think Kansas City still, I think Kansas City still has a really good chance to win the game because of the location

of it. It's going to be another lesson in where these playoffs are played are important. But I think Buffalo is the better team. I just don't know if they can win this game. That's all. So I don't know how it's going to go. I don't know how it's going to work out. But Buffalo's got to try to win it to get this game back in Buffalo at the end of the year.

That's all. I feel like this. Buffalo for sure has had this circled. I mean, this has been their big game. This is their regular season Super Bowl. Got to have it. But Kansas City has really impressed me with their ability to manufacture an edge this season. I think coming into the year, you know, Mahomes was, shoot, I can remember this one.

My quarterback tears thing came out. One guy, you know, had a criticism of Mahomes. Shoot, they took offense. I mean, they were on alert. They were talking about it. Then before the year, oh, you don't have Tyree Kill. Well, guess what? I think you told me the stat.

They had 60 plays and 30 first downs or something early in the game. The offense looked great. Yeah. Then last week, you could see the edge Patrick Mahomes has when they're down. I mean, he's chipping. He's, he's, these guys are fully engaged. they are acting like a team that hasn't won a Super Bowl. They look as hungry as Buffalo to me.

That's why you can, I agree with this. You can gain more in a loss sometimes than a defeat. They're embarrassed by the Colts game. They were totally embarrassed by the Colts. They came home and totally refocused and did an awesome job. And that's credit to Andy Reed, I agree. So I'm very anxious to see because this seems like the classic game, hey, you know, the chiefs have been to the mountain top.

And yeah, they're good. But there's no pressure on them in this game. This means everything to Buffalo. I've been so impressed by Kansas City, the edge that they play with. And really the indie game, but they lost it on special teams. Fluky things happen. That's going to happen once every five years. You're going to lose a game like that.

But they've had an edge. They've brought it. And I like how they play. I like how some of their players are running with the ball with some aggressiveness. I just, I think it's a great game for that one. We talked about Dallas already. Dallas Philly, you wrote down here. I'd pay to see this.

you can pay me if you want to. Well, I think you're going to have three chances to pay to see it. Because they're going to play again later in the season. I think we're going to play again in the playoffs. So there's three times you're going to get to see this matchup. I think it's a really good matchup. Here's the one thing I like. And this game might come up in our picks, by the way, later on.

I think Dallas is playing so fast that their defense is one that could control Jalen Hertz a little bit and force him to have to do things different. I don't think Philly, who dictates every week what they are and what they want to do. I'm not sure they can dictate that to Dallas. So that's the fascinating part I want to see. Yeah, and I want to see what Cooper Rush and the offense can do, because this may be a game where I think it could be a game where both defenses have their way a little bit.

And so then even if Dallas has an advantage in that does hurt good enough with his ability to create on his own. And even when things are struggling, he's going to make two or three really great passes, it seems like. You know, he's going to, he's going to make a play. Now, they may have turnovers too in the game, but is that going to be enough for Philly to sort of win the game just because one more time or two more times in Cooper Rush, he's going to give an advantage. I think that's the thing I'm waiting to see.

It's going to be fun to watch. I like the fact that Dallas is a complete team right now, and that's going to force Philly to bring their A game for sure. Philly's won a couple games with a B game. I don't think they can win this game with their B game. Yep. We will get into that one in the picks. Baltimore Giants is sure is fun with Link Martindale and the Giants, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's awesome because you know the numbers with Lamar, right?

I think he's 12 and O against NFC teams. I don't think anybody in the NFC sometimes, it's like preparing to play Navy, right? Ramar in his own way. You don't really know. You think you know how Navy's going to block you, but until you see those guys biting at your kneecaps and cutting you, you don't know, and it's too late. Well, that's the way it is. Good luck trying to duplicate Lamar in practice this week, okay? Or anyway, we can't do it.

So you really don't know. So these NFC teams, I think, are at a disadvantage. But you mentioned it, though, who knows Lamar Jackson better than week. Wink Martindel practice against him every day. He knows Greg Roman's playbook as good as Greg Roman knows it, right? He should know the kryptonite. So I want to see what he does because I think there's a blueprint there. If he doesn't have a plan to stop Lamar, it tells me nobody can stop it.

Because he knows what he knows what he can and cannot do. So his plan should be reflective of that. Yep. And if you look the last couple of years, I was looking at this, the last time I was watching, maybe it was Baltimore's Cincinnati game. You know, Lamar Jackson's stats against the AFC North, if you just go the last couple of years, are not as good as they are. And there's some good defenses in there. You know, I'm not saying that it's just because of familiarity. But I think the familiarity when you're playing a unicorn, it helps to have played the unicorn. He's different than anybody else And he's going to make incredible plays

So we'll get to that So we'll get to our pick segment here Randy sadly I did win with Dallas I took Dallas five and a half at LA Yeah you were so bad What are you talking about? Well That'll win your money

I know but I went against you I mean dude that was news right there in itself But because I also took I took the three five and a half point games I was right on one of them Dallas I got five and a half and they really controlled the Rams who looked like they're in some trouble. And then I took Seattle five and a half because I thought, yeah, I taste some hell.

I mean. Seattle guy, you're bent with your home. Yeah. That's all. No, I was out against Seattle the week before and lost. I've been wrong on Seattle. I took the lions and the points, you know. They got you.

And so that one, shoot, they scored 32 points and can't win the game. And then Philly I gave, I liked Philly at Arizona given five and a half and they could do it. By the way, what did you think of the end? of that game with Arizona spiking the ball in third and one. Chaos. I mean, that's, that's, that's, how can we never talk about Arizona's execution down the stretch, how they executed exactly the plan, how they had details lined out perfectly? How can we never talk about that with Arizona?

The only thing they say that, when Kyler just takes off, it's, it's chaos. And that was what that end of that game was. Chaos. He didn't get the first down. He gets up and spikes it. Nobody knows. He says everybody's in his ear. I got news for it.

only one guy can be in your ear. That's the way this communication system set up. You can only hear one voice in your ear when he said, everybody's telling me to spike it. It's just chaos. And it's just more Arizona stuff. I just don't know if that system and Cliff in particular can tighten it up, get our shit straight for a lack of a better term in the end of games to win big games. I just don't know if that's ever possible. Well, Randy, you won with Arizona and five and a half against Philly. So they worked for you last week, at least they were close enough. You won with New England resoundingly.

You took New England and gave three and a half against Detroit. You called it a mismatch and strategy coaching and said Daly Zappi people play well. So I need to be taking your advice to think because that's a great call. They don't just beat Detroit. They undressed Detroit. They made Detroit going to their buy and wonder if we have if we're on track. Yeah, no, I agree. That was just a bad matchup at all levels.

And I thought Zappy would play good, and he did. Yeah, you liked him. You know, I just, yeah, it was a, it was a mis-hance. Do you, after seeing Zappie again, I assume you watch some of it, are you, you know, we talked about, hey, you know, Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush, well, guess what? Mack Jones ain't Dak Prescott. He doesn't have five years of efficient play. Would you, as part of you, I know you liked Zappie coming out.

He was in your number two quarterback in the draft last year after Pickett. Do you, any thought there? Would you go with Bailey or no? I would not. I think in this case, Mac Jones has earned the right to gain his footing back, but I'll say this, he better not stay here too long. And he better show that he's 100%. Because they already know the other kid can function and be fine with it. And I wouldn't make the change now. But again, after two or three weeks, I might. Did you notice this week, Bill Belichick was very noncommittal as to who he was going to play. And if this was Mack's job for the long haul, he was very noncommittal. He said, we're dated. day on everything. So I just thought that was, I know they're happy with Zappy. I mean, obviously his first start to go 17 out of 21 for 188 touchdown. And that's, that's good stuff for a rookie's first game. Absolutely. That's early Brady. I'm not saying this guy's going to be Tom Brady. Don't say that. But it's just, you know, the efficient, don't screw up the game. We're going to

run the ball. We're going to play defense. He fit into that and didn't mess, didn't wreck the game in a bad way. So who's on your radar for picks this week? Well, I mentioned it earlier. I'm going to take Dallas, but here's why. Obviously the reasons are I think their defense can affect Jalen Hertz, but you're getting six and a half points too. So I'm taking Dallas. I'm taking the six and half points. I think they're a good enough team that their team speed will be reflective on both sides of the ball and be hard for Philly to deal with. But at the end of the day, they may not win the game, but I'm betting it's going to be closer than six and a half points. And the other game for me is I like San Francisco over Atlanta.

I'm taking, San Francisco is favored by five and a half points. I think San Francisco is going to control the clock. I think they'll control the line of scrimmage. I think they'll be low risk, and I don't think Atlanta can score in a fast break way. So I think it's going to be a low-scoring game that San Francisco dominates in the trenches.

And so I like San Francisco giving the five and a half points. Yeah, I think that is an interesting one. You know, Atlanta has kind of impressed me as a little bit of a frisky team that they're getting rolled by Tampa, but in the end they got Tampa a little bit nervous. They get their attention. They sort of stay with the game in a way. But do they have the –

because the last thing you want to do against San Francisco is being a drop-back pass situation. Well, guess what? If Atlanta's down by 20 points, they're going to run the ball 60% of the time anyway. So we'll see if they're – They'll lose by 12 if that's the case. They're going to lose by 12 if that's the case. And Cordell Patterson's situation plays into this as well. So he has not been healthy.

So I think that's an interesting one. I'm going to go with you on, I like Dallas in the six and a half too. I want to see how Jaylen Hertz and the Eagles offense deals with pressure in the game. I probably could like Philly to win the game. But to me, six and a half is a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. This feels like a four and a half game or a four to me with the venue.

If you give two or three points to the venue in Philly, I get that. Yeah, I'm with three and a half or four to me is probably where. Yeah. But on a neutral field. like I think Dallas wins some of the games. So I'm going to do that one. The 300 ones that I'm not going to pick, but I'm going to say that I'm tempted to.

I may pick one of them. I'm tempted Jacksonville two and a half at Indy. I just think Indies problems are real. Jacksonville sort of has their number coming off of a bad game, but it could be close enough that it comes down to a field goal either way. Tampa, seven and a half at Pittsburgh is interesting to me, because what has Pittsburgh got? I just don't know how.

they, without getting interceptions off Tom Brady or something. I think Tampa may win that one by double figures. I'd be tempted on Kansas City, getting the three at home. I do agree with you. I feel like Buffalo may be the better team, but if you can get Kansas City at home with points, I don't care who you're playing. That feels like that could be a similar game to last week where it's close. And we'll see.

Maybe Buffalo is just a standard deviation better and much better than the Raiders. and maybe like it wouldn't surprise me if they won it by touchdown. That's why I'm not picking it, but it tempts me. I'll take the Dallas game and put my tail between my legs and see how these other ones pan out. That sounds great, Mike. Looks like we've kind of wrapped it up, huh? I think we did. I think we did.

By the way, that's great progress by you because last time I tried to let you wrap it up. You didn't know what to, you know. I'm not saying I know anything. You said everyone's in your ear. You were like, you know, Kyler-Marie. Fixing the news listeners here the longer we go. You spiked it on third and one on the last time we tried. Now you're kneeling down like an old pro at the end of the show.

So, hey, everybody, you can find Randy Mueller on Twitter at Randy Mueller underscore. We'll say that before we sign off. You can find his work at Muellerfootball.com. You can find me, Mike Sando, at Sando NFL on Twitter. And by the way, everybody, next week, a little bit of change in the game plan as the football GM moves up in the lineup, Randy? We've been batting. Last year, I think we were batting ninth in the lineup.

little VH, pinch hit. We got it in the game this year with recording on Thursday for Fridays. Starting next week, we are going to be recording on Wednesdays for Thursdays, later in the day Wednesdays. Moving up one day, one spot in the lineup, I guess, huh? Yeah, I don't know what we're going to talk about without having the Thursday night show to rip off of because that's been a boon to us, but I'm sure we'll find something, and we look forward to that.

So you can, I told you where you can find Randy, where you can find me. Next week, you can find us right here on the football GM podcast, right here on the Athletic Football Show feed just a little bit earlier. In Thursdays. Yeah. So thanks, everybody. We'll talk to you then. This was the Athletic Football Show.