The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Head coaching additions, teams adding need and the GM notebook

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

There's been six new head coaches hired since our last episode. Mike and Randy discuss these coaches and how the teams hiring knew what they were in need of. From there, the guys look at whether or not each of the six teams made the right choice. Then we shift our focus to the GM notebook and Championship Sunday predictions.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show's football GM podcast. Welcome everybody to the Football GM podcast. Mike Sando here along with my co-pilot, Randy Mueller, the general manager. Randy, we got to get you rolling out of here. You're going to Mobile, Alabama, right? Next week is a senior bowl. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Seeing a lot of good players and a lot of people who I used to run the roads with out in the scouting world.

so I'm anxious to get down there. Oh, so great. I'm so bummed that I'm not going. Just the way the schedule worked out this week, I would have been too pinched with some other things I've got going on. I haven't made that an annual trip, basically because when I was on the road so much for so much in my career, that was probably the, if I would have added that,

I probably would be divorced at this point, you know, we'd think. It was just, I just couldn't add trips because I spent a lot of time on the road. Now I'm not on the road as much, certainly not during the season. And I look forward, and my kids were older, right? So it's easier to go on the road, but this one just didn't work. So you will have to hold that down. But I can't wait to get out there with you on things like that because I want to learn from you and watch how you sort of evaluate and take notes and all of that.

It would be a great learning experience. So maybe next time, okay? We'll plan on it. That would be awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of good players. Jim Nagy, the chairman of the Senior Bowl, has done an awesome job putting together rosters, especially the last few years. And I'm anxious to see some of these guys who will be talking about all spring when we get ready

for our draft and all the prep work we do. So seeing guys face to face and live really is a part of the evaluation component that I think sometimes goes unnoticed for the people on the outside because they don't get to see it. They don't get to be around these kids and really kind of figure out what makes them tick. So I'm looking forward to doing that, both at the Senior Bowl and at the East West game for myself. And, you know, our listeners who've benefited so much just from hearing your reviews going into the draft. off of the film only. I mean, we've not stumbled upon,

but we've identified really good players way ahead of time. And I laugh because, you know, I've got, there's a couple guys I know that are, you know, really into fantasy football and stuff. We were telling them about guys that you were watching a pre-season film to help them win their league. You know, I mean, guys were drafting Ty Chandler

in their dynasty. My son drafted Ty Chandler in his Dynasty League before the season. that would have not happened. And then by the end of the year, he's starting and looking good. So the fact that you can get your eyes on them in person will add another sort of layer to the analysis, right? You'll be able to feel maybe even more in some of these cases. Plus, you're going to be talking to other guys. You know how to sort of synthesize the information that you get, just from talking to people, just from being around the other guys who are doing this, you know,

200 days a year, right? Right. Well, it's natural that if you do something every day for about 30 years that you're going to hopefully get pretty accustomed to it and feel comfortable and confident doing it. It's interesting. I've really gotten into watching a lot of tape the last couple weeks, but it's been on NFL free agent guys. Because as you know, at the athletic, we're fixing to put out a list here at some point of free agents and who's going to be available and kind of a priority list of all these guys. And I've really gotten into, gosh, old days watching a lot of tape one after another and it's been a lot of fun. So I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I smile to myself when I get deep in the film room on these NFL free agents now,

and I can't wait to put that together for some of our readers and listeners. It's really going to be great. I can't wait, too. But we've got a lot of coaching stuff to talk about. And we've got to get you on that flight to Mobile, too. Probably not a direct flight there from Idaho, huh? I'm guessing. Oh, you're in Seattle.

You're in Seattle now, so you'll be fine. I can get it. Most parts of the free world from Seattle. Yeah, that's right. Right to roll. Oh, that's a huge relief. That's a huge relief. That direct flight ban means everything.

So let's get into, we're going to go through these hirings and the two that haven't hired yet for head coaches. But just big picture, Randy, what, six head coaches hired, two were internal promotions. Right. Of guys who really were not going to be candidates elsewhere as much, Gerard Mayo and Antonio Pierce. Another Dave Canalis, I don't think he had a single. interview outside of where he ended up in Carolina. Jim Harbaugh kind of seemed fast track to the Chargers all along. He wasn't necessarily on everybody's list. And so really of the other two guys that were hired, Brian Callahan and Rahim Morris were probably the only two of this

group that kind of made the rounds and really seemed like they were candidate, could be candidates in a lot of different places, which is a little unusual to me. You know, maybe it's, you I don't know to what degree. It just feels different to me. Like we've had all of these guys hired, but the, the interview lists for Seattle and Washington aren't really that affected that much.

These weren't all guys they were looking at. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. No, you're right. The whole thing and the whole process has been interesting. And I think, like you mentioned, somewhat predictable with the types of hires that kind of fit into the buildings

of the people that are doing the hiring. And as we've always said, it's not always the most qualified person that gets these jobs, whether it's GMs or head coaches, because it's really fitting somebody into a box and we can hit on each team. And I know we're going to from, you know, but from 30,000 feet, I think you're right. The two teams that seem to be casting a wide enough net to, I think, show that their criteria is a little different. And that is Seattle and Washington. And I think they plan to hire the right coach regardless of anybody's agenda. And that's for my money, the way to go.

I understand that some of these other teams, the hirings they've made have been, I think, lauded for the most part. And I agree with the hirings. I'm not saying those teams haven't done. Yeah. No, not at all. It just means that I think the net is different for the criteria as it kind of shakes out around the league.

And so much of the establishment, so much of the. people in the building affect even the criteria of the people they talk to. Totally. And so while I think one of the big takeaways this year is, oh my gosh, Belichick doesn't, didn't get one of the jobs, we're going to look at this from a little bit inside out on these buildings and go through and talk about that. I want to, before we do that, I just want to say, you know, the theme this year to me was more about or is more about keeping the status quo than really shaking things up. Now, within that sort of let's not rock the boat too much paradigm, the league did hire three black coaches, one with Mexican heritage and Canales.

So right there, major progress in an area that's been, frankly, an embarrassment to the league as the number of black coaches in particular, head coaches, has shrunk to ridiculous levels for a league that has so many black players. Let's just say it. It's ridiculous. But so there's a little bit of a DeConneby here. here paradox how can this cycle be about maintaining the status quo when such important change was affected and I would just say well Brian Flores got zero interviews he's suing the league and he's perceived as someone who's going to come in and shake things up Eric Bienemy got one interview from the team that employed him last season okay he's perceived as someone who can have a super strong

personality doesn't mince words not going to be the most comfortable guy to have in your building And that's where the overlap is with Belichick and Vrable, because those two guys are also uncomfortable conversation guys. Don't suffer fools. They're going to say it how it is. You can't BS them, someone in the building who doesn't know what they're doing or doesn't have chops, skins on the wall, all those things we talk about. They're not going to sit there and nod their heads and go, okay, yeah, right? They're going to challenge you and be a little bit more difficult. So I think you can have great progress, but still have a status quo hiring cycle in terms of what you're getting in your building.

And I think that's sort of what we've seen. And so I wanted to pivot off of that and say, wait a minute, Randy, the traditionally comfort-seeking chargers are the only team that really hired a coach who's perceived to be kind of a power coach, perceived to be maybe an awkward conversation person, possibly in a different way than some of those other coaches, they hired Jim Harbaugh. So like we said, the guys who really are going to challenge your building were on the outside this year, Belichick-Rabel, Bianami Flores. Where does Harbaugh fit in that to you? Are the charges really changing or what? From day one, I thought Jim Harbaugh was the best hire for him. But to answer your question to see how he fits in with the other, and it's really culture-changing type personalities, that's really the guys who you've talked about are more

front and center, more in-your-face-type culture-changing people. And I think Jim Harbaugh has a reputation of being that way, but I'm not sure that that can be mixed or compared to really just being an ultra-competitor. I think that's really what he is. He's a competitive dude. Everything he does, he wants to keep score on. And that itself can be culture changing without having to post people up or without having to ask a certain amount of awkward questions. So I think the chargers did exactly what they were in need of and have done it. I think for once, in my mind, the chargers were self-aware. They knew that they had hired three prior coaches and that none of this had worked in the past. So they had to get outside their comfort zone.

I think the hiring of Don Yee by Jim Harbaugh told me that this might be a good fit from day one with them in L.A. As we know, Don's an L.A. guy. There's reasons for why that early on a month or so ago or even before the national championship game, I thought this might be a good match. But again, I think it's a good move by the Chargers for the cultural reasons and for their set of criteria and needs within that building. I mean, I spent 10 years in there. I hope to understand a little bit about what makes them tick and how they work things. The other reason I think it was really good is the hiring of Harbaugh, Mike puts them kind of on par with Kansas City, with Denver.

We're talking about some legitimate coaches now who are developing players who are really heard and understood from a league standpoint. And Harbaugh now gives them a chance to compete against those top line head coaches in that there's no training needed. there's no period of adjustment needed. Harbaugh's been there, done that, and he kind of fits with those two guys in the AFC West, which I think will kind of become now a really hard division, one to get out of, but two, for the other divisions in the NFL. Yeah, so now let's talk a little bit about their internal power structure then.

So they've had a couple of GM candidates emerge Brandon Brown of the Giants and Joe Hortiz of the Ravens. Is this a case where maybe they can have a quarter of course? quote unquote power coach, but in a different way. Like you said, he's more of a competitive culture changer than he is a general manager of your team. Does this preserve some of the status quo internally where maybe John Spanos, son of the owner Dean Spanos, and effectively the runner of the team for a while now, basically preserves more power than we might think for a team that's supposedly hiring a big name coach?

Well, I just knowing Jim like I do, I don't think his personality is overreached in the areas of finance, of contracts, of acquiring players per se. He'll have a few questions and some things, but he's not going to be demanding in those areas. So I still, and you bring up a good point, I still think John Spanos, the cap people, they kind of have run that whole franchise. And I think they will still be able to do that. But there'll be a little louder voice on the football side and maybe one a little more adamant about, hey, this is what we need to do, which is, it means they need to be pushed on the non-football side. And I think Jim Harbaugh does that for him. I wonder if it's sort of a relief for them because there's now someone else who's going to take

responsibility for the fortunes of the team, you know, and in the past... 100%. Yeah. Yeah, you've had guys where, you know, they weren't big enough to do that, right? Their most recent coaches really since Marty and Norve, right, Marty Schrotenheimer and Norv Turner would probably be the last really higher profile guys who had been head coaches multiple places. and we're kind of the focal point of the organization. And now it falls on somebody who's bigger again, right? Yeah, 100%. I think not only that, it makes them relevant again.

I think it's been kind of an irrelevant franchise for the last, you know, dozen years or so. Yeah, you can say we made the playoffs a couple times when Marty was there, when Norv was there. But since then, it's been one first time head coach after another and a process of evaluating and acquiring players that has been. been a little bit off the board. I think everybody should be lauded for this hire, but you're right. It's going to take ownership, I think, off the hook. It's going to take a little bit of the

non-football side off the hook because you're right. The focus will be on the coach and everybody sees this as a plus. So let's just say it doesn't happen overnight and they don't make a Super Bowl next year like half the world is picking them to do now. They got a lot of roster work, Randy. Yeah, this team is not there yet. But everybody seems to think this is all that was missing. It's coupling Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh now, and they're headed for the Super Bowl next year. If it doesn't happen as quick as some think it is or will, I still think that buys them time. They're not going to be criticized for a hire like this. As long as they continue to open the purse strings and keep those somewhat loose, which allows them to stretch the cap a little bit,

they've never stretched the cap, as we've talked about here before, ever. Until this last year, really? Yes, until this last year. and now they've been able to kind of stretch their cap, which hopefully means more depth, more dollars, maybe a few more veteran players. These are all philosophies that they've not used in the past. So I like where they're headed for sure. And I agree with you. I think this does take some pressure off those in the charger building. Also for hiring first-time coaches that probably knew less than them, now they've been able to say, okay, maybe we need some help here. And they've hired someone with some skins on the wall.

All right, so we'll talk about Rahim Morris to Atlanta, which we're going to definitely talk about him as a coach. What a great candidate. I think it's a good hire for him. And about time, he got a head coaching job. You really couldn't do more to prepare yourself to be a second chance candidate. As far as looking from the inside out, looks like a little bit of a win for the Terry Fontno, Rich McKay. As the structure of the organization does not change as fundamentally as it would of had they hired a Bill Belmont. But it was kind of interesting, Randy, that the owner of the team, Arthur Blank, announced that the head coach general manager will no longer report to McKay, to Rich McKay.

So that looks like a loss for Rich McKay, but maybe that's losing a little bit of a battle to win the war, which is we're not bringing in Belichick. Do you see it that way? Yeah, I see it totally that way. I think there were hangups with regard to Belichick that were at the top, and that's what most are saying that, are in the know, so I understand it. I like this structure. I think this structure works. I think the people involved with the hiring and everything else, it works for them as well. I think Rich was a bigger personality than some had known with regard to Terry and Rahim. He really, it doesn't sound like, we'll have as much influence over, but I'll say this. On paper to make a hierarchy

or decisions like this to change the responsibility of who reports to who is one thing. But in real life, as we know, it sometimes isn't what we think it is. So I think they'll need to have some time to figure things out. I even think they could go one step further is if they did hire a little bit of another team building philosophy or another experienced person like that on the Terry and Rahim's side, which then I think even helps. further, they don't need that need of falling back to Rich for this or that. And I think that would be beneficial. And nothing against Rich. Rich has had his day. He's been well regarded in the

league for 40 years, for gosh sake. So I'm not beating up on him at all. I'm just saying the direction, the vision, the buck, and the answers have always stopped on his desk. Now they can maybe take a little different approach to it. And I think different approach as team builders with regard to Rahim Morris and Terry Fontno would help even further that progress in my opinion. And meanwhile, Rich McKay still, I think, CEO of the team and still is going to be, have the ear of the owner you would think. Which I think has been a positive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

So as far as Rahim himself, my gosh, long time between head coaching stints, which probably too long, but I like time in between. What I don't, what I think becomes a problem is when, you know, like Adam Gase goes from Miami and five minutes later he's hired in the Jets. That's not, that's too soon. I think you need the time in between. You look at all the things Rahim Morris has accomplished and done, all the roles that he's filled from, let's face it, a time when he was too young and not ready for the job, probably in Tampa, probably by his own admission, you know, to now where he's more than ready. I mean, this just feels like if you've ever been around him, I mean, he just, if you've spent

any time with him, you feel like he should be hired as a head coach yesterday. He really does resonate just in terms of his leadership. And he's done some kind of cool stuff with different schemes, different places. He's coached on offense. He's been a connector on coaching stats. If you go back to win, if you go back to when Dan Quinn was coach of the Falcons, and they brought in Kyle Shanahan, a very strong offensive coordinator. They actually moved Rahim to the offensive side of the ball at that time.

And look, I don't think it was necessarily because Kyle Shanahan, needed another voice to help him drop the plays. But you can see the personality of somebody like Rahe Morris is a huge asset to your organization if you've ever been around him. So that looks pretty good. And I think really as great as Bill Belichick is as a coach, maybe that time has sort of passed Randy in terms of the style of coaching and that sort of a thing. Do you think he coaches again in the NFL? Well, I do. I don't think it's necessarily the coaching part that's been bothersome. I think it's the other team building aspect that people struggle with. And some can call that culture, but that culture of a domineering person making every finite decision, even though he does listen to others, that culture is what's passed by.

I just think these franchises aren't run by one person anymore. So, yeah, I do think he coaches again, though, Mike, and I think he'll find the right opportunity. Yeah, I don't think he wants to walk away from coach. I don't think that was his intent in the divorce in New England. I think he thinks he'll have another opportunity and maybe he will at the right place. But I even think at age 72, hey, that's the new 62, right? We all. I hope so.

I mean, it's like closer to those older ages. I like to hear that. But I don't know. I just feel like, look, there was one team that even really considered Bill Belichick this time. And there was no other teams firing. Because they don't want, because it's kind of like this. I wrote about this in my column Monday. Why didn't people try to sign Lamar Jackson?

It wasn't because they didn't think he was better than their quarterback. There was a whole package of utter stuff that came along with it. You've got to do a fully guaranteed deal. You've got to give up two number ones. There's a whole bunch of other things that went into it. It wasn't that anybody hopefully saw that they liked Sam Howell better. Are you kidding me? Lamar's 100 times better as a player.

But to get him, you had to do a, you had to probably enter into a bad contract that would make the Ravens not match and all that. So no one thinks that Bill Belichick's a bad coach. No one thinks that Bill Belichick isn't as good as Dave Canales in coaching football. No, there's nobody who thinks that. But to get him, you have to do the equivalent of a really bad contract for a player and give up two number ones, which the equivalent is hand over all this power, get rid of your team president. And then by the way, we're going to put into implement a plan of somebody who hasn't been able to manage a staff in the last few years who has made put together bad plans for the quarterback. and we're going to turn it all over to them and everyone in our in our front office's heads have to roll.

Who's signing up for that today? If it wasn't Atlanta, which we thought it was, who's signing up for that in the year? I agree with you. I think a desperate team will. But I agree with you. Those are all valid points, and I don't disagree with a lot of them.

Maybe that leads us to Bill having to kind of reinvent himself a little bit to come back in a different form if that's what he wants to do. Yeah. I always think, just like with Pete Carroll, we think we've seen the last defeat, I don't know, as we find out. He was not quietly as much at the end, but really pushing for that charger job as all the rumors we start to trickle out were true. We find out we're true. So who knows? We'll see. I think the Bill Belichick version that we saw in New England build and have a dynasty forever for 20 years, I think that version

is done. So we won't see that version of Bill coaching again. But if he does want to I won't say take a lesser role, but work in a little more partnership fashion with others, then it's the possibility of him being a good coach, I think, is still a pretty high-level competence, and teams could do a lot worse. Well, we'll have a lot to write about if he doesn't get a head-coaching job this year as we get into December of next year. Where's the fits for Belichick? It'll just be like the last three years with Harbaugh. I just think there's a lot that comes along with hiring him that makes him less likely to be hired than you would think.

based on his incredible resume of success in the league. Most times you'd be signing up for that. So, all right, let's move on to Dave Canales to Carolina. Last week, I think you and I just talking off of the side off of the show, we were saying, hey, could we think of a place like Carolina that seems, you know, I don't know what the word we use, but where nobody might want to take the job. That was, I don't know if toxic was the word, but just sort of like a hard place to really, you know, want to go as a coach.

So with all due respect to Dave Canales, who for all we know, could wind up being a great head coach, it kind of looks like when you hire a guy that no one else was going to hire, of course there's a fit component, but could they have, did they have a lot of choices here, Randy?

Was there a big line outside overnight, kind of like before Black Friday outside of the, it used to be back in the day, you know, outside of Best Buy everyone to get in the new PlayStation? Or was there no one outside the building trying to get in?

Well, I think they definitely had choices, but I also think they limited himself by the actions of the owner the last few months, that's for sure. I think there are a lot of people, and they had to use back channels to contact a lot of these coaches, right? And some may have said, hey, this is just not for me. I'd rather move on. And I don't know Dave Canales. He might be the right guy for them. But I'd say this, they had a really small box to fill internally. They were looking, and we heard the owner say it, we need a play caller.

He was not aware that they needed anything else. He doesn't think this team needs a builder. He doesn't think they need a culture change. He doesn't think they need really much of anything except a play caller. And that's not to minimize Dave Canales, but the fit with the GM, Dan Morgan and him, obviously having years together in Seattle makes that a comfortable relationship. And the fact that he called plays this year in Tampa and had a relatively successful run, made it really a one-man show for me

and that that made the most sense for the owner and it made the most sense for the GM. So one year of play calling, I'm just sorting this here. How many plays did Tampa have this year? All right, 1176 plays called. That's the body of work. Yeah.

Which isn't a record low for these hires, but very interesting to me. Yeah, I, I, wish I knew Dave better. And you might, Mike, I don't. I actually don't know him well, but I would say this, I think that he brings a ton of positivity. If you listen to him, Dave Canalis kind of, he's sort of a version of Pete Carroll's positivity, okay? And if you look at his history of where he's been in Seattle and even in Tampa, but especially in Seattle, he's been somewhere in Seattle, they had a successful plan for an undersized outlier quarterback in Russell Wilson,

who had really good years and was a very good player. Yep. And then he goes to, while he's still there, they get Gino Smith and everybody laughs. Gino Smith, are you kidding? Well, he was a pro bowl player that year and had great, great progress. Then he goes to Tampa Bay. And you know what, Gino Smith probably fell off just a little bit in Seattle. I don't know if that had to do with Dave Canales,

but I know Baker Mayfield looked reborn. And another guy who's not the prototypical size, he's six, whatever, six one, but he had a really good career. And so if you are looking for somebody to come in and be super positive with Bryce Young because he's had a tough go out of the gates and it's been a very difficult situation,

you're going to get somebody who at least has some positivity and has a history, has seen it done successfully, and probably had a hand in it done successfully for a quarterback who was who quarterbacks who were not typical size. So from that standpoint if you need someone to come in

to this job, they have to buy into Bryce Young. Yeah. And they have to feel it genuinely. Remember in Carolina there was always those questions? Wait a minute. Did Frank Reich like Strad really? And you kind of go, well, he probably did. I mean, if you could have picked Peter 1, I think you get a chance now

to have somebody who probably believes he can and is probably super excited to build something around Bryce Young. So that's where they're at. That's what they got. Do they need more than that? Probably. But for what they were probably able to get and they get someone who is an ally with their president and GM and Dan Morgan, you know, they could be making a best of a bad situation. That's my positive spin on it. You buy any of that? I'm buying a lot of it. I think it's great analysis. So I think all of some of that. column, geez. Yeah, what the heck you doing?

You're wasting it on the show. Come on. You could have strung it out in a couple weeks of columns. Excellent points. I believe it myself now. Geez, I convinced myself this is the best higher in 20 years. Well, I'm not ready to go that far, but I am ready to connect a few more dots because you're right.

The building around a height challenged quarterback is a thing. It is real. You do have to build your team differently. And I do think this, that Dan Morgan had to be. be in favor of drafting Bryce Young or he wouldn't be in that chair now. So you're right. It's a all points bulletin on what do we have to do to get Bryce Young to play at a higher level. And not only do we not have to just listen to somebody's sales pitch on that, Dave Canales has history and it has facts to back it up. And he's done a good job with these guys. So I agree with you. I think there

needs to be positivity sometimes when this whole world is so negative, especially in the NFL, and that makes sense. So I like some of your points. I understand why it even might be a better fit than we initially even gave it credit for. And I don't think any of us were against it. We understand kind of what we're getting with Dave Canales and the options that the owner had boxed themselves into. So maybe they made the best of what the owner was willing to give up to still find the right guy to lead at least the quarterback room. I think the problem will be, can he lead the rest of this team in the same fashion? And it was, he got a six-game contract, right?

Wasn't that the, what I read was the six-game contract? Six-year contract. Oh, six-year contract. I thought six games would be good for Teper because he gave Frank Reich 11 games, and you figure someone without Reich's experience wouldn't get an 11-game contract. You'd probably go a little shorter than that six games, but six years, that's pretty good. I think that made us shake our head a little bit. Let me just ask you this, not for the sake of being an ass, but who were they bidding against to have to give a six-year contract a day?

Really? Normally these contracts are fully guaranteed. I wonder if there's any sort of clauses in there. That's awesome for Dave Canales. I mean, six-year contract. Awesome. Especially when the bidding is seem-what to be relatively low-level. I don't know. I mean, yeah. I'm happy for anybody who can get a great contract. I hope it's a great contract for him, but six years, shoot. That's pretty good. You know, it's kind of interesting, though. Like, remember when the 49ers had the Jim Tom Sula one year? They came back and gave John Lynch. and Kyle Shanahan six-year deals to kind of show, hey, we're in this for the long haul. I think that's different with somebody with the Shanahan name in the league. Yeah, no doubt. That's a long time, though.

And it's something that's not given out without notice around the league. Trust me, everybody in the league sees six years. What does that mean for the coordinators? How many years can they get? Is it still just going to be three? Well, you get a three-year deal as the coordinator there? I don't know, man.

That's a hard one. I know this. It all seems like in Carolina that we're all week to week. So regardless of six years, six days, I think everybody is day to day and until Tepper shows some patience and less impulse, that's probably the use of the persona from the outside the way it looks. So what they're going to do, I think Dan Morgan was probably a buffer a bit in that front office that was needed last year to whatever extent. And now he may need one too. So we'll see if they bring in and that are executive there and how this all sort of fits together.

but they've got their coach. Let's move on to the Tennessee Titans hiring Brian Callahan. What do you make of that? I got a few notes, but I've been talking too much. What do you got? Well, no, not necessarily. I think you're making better points than I am. I don't know, Brian, and I've said that about a couple of these guys,

but I love his resume. I think he comes from a position of having been exposed to a lot of successful programs, a lot of successful people. Obviously, his dad is one of the more renowned offensive line coaches in the league. So not that that makes your son a guarantee to be effective, but I do like it. I do have people that I know in Cincinnati that I trust that have a lot of good things to say about Brian. So there is a little bit of a leap of faith there because he has not been a play caller. As we know, though, there's some pretty good head coaches right now that have ascended to

Hall of Fame status and they were not play callers before they were named head coaches. So I don't think that's a must. I think the big thing for me, regardless of who they hire as a coach in Tennessee is can the group evaluate talent, regardless of who is the play caller, who's the coach. It's clear to me that they think they have found their quarterback. And I think the hiring of Brian Callahan and the work he did with Jake Browning this year in Cincinnati probably went a lot, long ways for him to get this job in Tennessee. The owner said it.

Obviously, she heard it from the GM. I guarantee that that's where this narrative is coming from. This hire is all about Will Levis. And if they can really develop. up him as their quarterback. I think that's the number one criteria for Callahan. That's the number one criteria, really, that Rand Carthon will be judged on. And it seems to me like they have picked their lane with Will Levis. So we'll see how all of this shakes out. But I think that's the number one goal going forward. As I recall, you weren't leading the bandwagon for Will Levis.

Or do I think his season really led me off of that very up and down. You see a lot of flashes of Big arm and NFL skill set, but I also saw a lot of struggles to process, holding the ball forever, things that sometimes I've found that could be deemed fatal flaws. So we'll see what Brian can do. Obviously, Will Levis's physical skills are going to be above where Jake Browning was in comparison to what Callahan had really developed and did a nice job with this year in Cincinnati. So I'm not going to say that they'll never get the best out of Will Levis. Um, time will tell though.

Yeah. So I'm going to apply the same lens here that we've done on some of these others. The inside out view to me on this organization looks like big win for Rand Carthorn as the GM. So if you look at where this thing was. It's a promotion to and title. Proost from entitled and the owner, the owner said he has shown that he provides a competitive advantage in the drafting free agency.

I would, I mean, I, I would love to know how she can know that. A competitive advantage in the draft and free agency is provided right here. So, I mean, that right there puts the rest of the AFC South on notice, I think. I mean, I'm saying that facetiously. But I just, things like that just stand out to me when owners say things like that. Yeah, there's some definitive statements being made there. And I'm not sure that, you know, everybody else sees it like that. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't get that at all. But he certainly emerges with more power from this thing. I think, you know, if we go back to a little bit over a year ago when the former GM was fired, we thought, I thought possibly, is this a Mike Ravel power play? Well, in retrospect, no, it was not that. It was an owner deciding she did not want to have that general manager. And guess what? A year later, she didn't want to have that coach either.

So the firing of John Robinson was really foreshadowing the firing of Mike Rable. And who is one of those big, strong personalities. It looks here, this move. is not just a win for Rancarthon, but the owner wants to have no single person be an overly strong and dominant personality. Doesn't it look like that? Other than the GM, because when you give somebody all the bells and whistles that Rancarthon now has in Tennessee, it's a one-man show.

He's going to have to work in conjunction with others, but he has the control of the roster. He has control of every move they make. I tend to think this. When this happens in franchises, where the GM stays, I think two things are the case. One, they have underachieved or at least people think they've underachieved. And there is an inordinate amount of blame being put on the head coach. That's what I think. And so whether it was Mike Rable or whether it was Pete Carroll or whether it was whoever, when that coach leaves and the existing front office stays intact, it tells me that

power. Yes, and gets more power. It tells me they think they should have been better this year. So time will tell if they are and if they have as much talent there as they think they do in Tennessee. Great point. Yep. So they, yep, they think their talent and it will levis and all of that. It'd be interesting to see, because I agree with you on Brian Callahan. I think he's got a great pedigree. I've heard good things about his knowledge of ball, K-O-B, knowledge of ball. Is that what that would be? and so if he likes, if he likes Will Levis, that's kind of interesting to me. Like a separate set of eyes from outside the building who's been with really good quarterbacks over the years.

That's kind of interesting to me because I'm always open to, you know, hey, if someone has a different opinion, then let's hear why. I can't wait to hear him talk about Will Levis if that isn't indeed the case. A couple more here. Antonio Pierce stays with the Raiders. to me looks like a win for Mark Davis, who wants his finger on the pulse of the locker room and gets it with a coach who is a former player and seems to have his, you know, have the full backing of the team to the extent that Max Crosby said, hey, star player. Yeah. You hire someone else. I'm asking for a trade. That's pretty good backing from the locker room if you're a coaching candidate. Wouldn't everybody want to have that? That was pretty cool for him. I don't know what it means for the organization, but it was pretty cool for him. Well, yeah, I think two things. One, Mark Davis didn't want to make the same mistake he did before, and the viewing of letting Rich Basachi leave as his interim coach to go elsewhere set him back. There's no doubt. That cost everybody time, capital, conviction, everything going forward. So he didn't want to make that call. And he also didn't want to be the one to go down and tell Max Cosby, hey, here's the deal. We're not hiring your guy. I just don't think that sounds like Mark Davis. Yeah, end of story. I'm going to hire who I want to hire. I think what he did was by

coupling him with a veteran experienced GM, whether he comes from a division rival where they were deemed fatally flawed or not, I think that's Mark Davis's view of giving Antonio Pierce a little bit of help and accountability. We can argue all day if Tom Telesco as the GM is the right move for them to make. But I think the resume and the thinking that Mark Davis put behind this is probably correct in that he needed to have a veteran presence in the front office if we were going to do this, if we were going to acquiesce to what the players wanted and give the job to Antonio Pierce. Now, Antonio Pierce might end up being a really good coach.

I think he showed a lot of positives this year in tougher circumstances. And we'll see. I just don't know that there's a lot of body of work there to really jump back and look at a former player with this little coaching experience at the NFL level being given a job like this. So as we know, these jobs are great until you have to fix a whole bunch of problems. And really, the Raiders, the last six or seven weeks were playing with house money. They could throw all of their risk to the wall and see what stuck. You know, when they tried to do a lot of things, each and every week to really save and give Antonio Pierce footing to really want this job and

deserve it. Now we're going to see from the ground up if they can rebuild this team in the fashion he wants and that he can fix it and keep it on course for a 17 game season. I'm very much interested in watching what happens with the staff. I think Patrick Graham did a really nice job with the defense and hopefully for them he comes back. He's in the mix in Seattle and may have an opportunity there depending on how their search goes for a head coach. but I've kind of been impressed with Antonio Pierce's just sort of, I sense, there's not a lot of evidence, but I sort of sense an awareness of some of the things that are needed. I want to see it followed through with the staff.

The offensive staff is going to be really important for him, and I think last year was difficult because Josh McDaniels was so controlling of everything on offense, and to have that removed in mid-season, and, you know, they had Bo Hardegree, who took over the calling, but, you know, wasn't a veteran caller. You had Scott Turner, who is a veteran caller, but wasn't fully versed in that system. I think that was a, had to be a really big challenge, you know, on the fly. Suddenly the guy who controls everything about the offense leaves,

and we have Antonio Pierce, who wasn't involved in the offense at all as the head coach, and they also didn't really have a starting caliber or a quarterback. And it wasn't like the whole operation just fell to pieces. They went and scored 63 points or whatever on the chargers. So I kind of, even though you don't want to read too much into some relative success with house money by an interim coach, I just kind of have been more encouraged than discouraged by what I've seen from Antonio Pearson. I'm kind of interested in seeing more. I agree.

Totally. I think he did a great job for what he was, you know, shoveled on through his lap. he didn't ask for a lot of it. He handled a lot of the communicative things that seem to be missing. Obviously, when Josh McDaniels runs a team, it's totally different. And there's a lot of oxygen being chewed up by one person. It seemed to me like that team all of a sudden got a breath of fresh air. They were all of them given oxygen.

They all could talk and be heard for the first time in a couple years. And they, you know, you saw the positivity. from that. Let's just see if they can maintain that with enough structure that going forward, we can still be disciplined, we can still allow our players to speak and do what they want to do, but understanding that there's going to be times when Antonio Pierce has got to say enough guys, here's what we're going to do. And let's see how he can, yes, be a player's coach, but yet still have accountability with really the whole building. Well, and I'll say this, they got rid of Marcus Peters at one point last year.

Yeah. That was a little bit of an accountability move. I saw that as between him and the GM at the time. Camp Kelly, that was sort of a move on the radar that showed. I think he has that in him. I think he does. He played for Tom Coughlin. And so I think he's a player's coach, but I think he has a little bit of a hard edge to him in his personality.

I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of it. Do you sense that he has that? Yeah, I do. And I also like the addition of, it sounds like Marvin Lewis is going to be in the building some way somehow with him. And I think that's a real good gift. for them because there's somebody that's been through ups and downs and ways to do things

and ways not to do things with a long tenure in the league, especially in Cincinnati. So I think that addition really gives comfort for me that Antonio is also willing to listen. I think that's a perfect example of a younger, inexperienced head coach. I almost wish more GMs would do that, have a guy that they can at least use as a sounding board to listen to. So the addition of Marvin Louis for me is really helpful in Tonyo Pierce's, you know, future. And Marvin Lewis, at the time he took over Cincinnati, had a ton of administrative responsibilities, too, I believe. They were not a hugely staffed team.

He made them competitive for a long time. People point out, yeah, but they didn't win in the playoffs. Hey, look, what he did there being over 500 from what they had been during the 90s, and they had injuries in the playoffs. Marvin Lewis was a heck of a coach and just a stabilizing force, in my opinion. So I think that's a great sign. So I'm generally more positive than I think you would be for this organization where they've had the backdoor up to the owner's suite, like you've said from the locker room. That's usually a bad thing.

And then you could say, hey, Antonio Pierce, what are his, you know, this was a position coach. You could easily on paper poke holes on it, but I kind of feel better about it for those reasons. So we'll see how that goes. Thank you. The last one here is Drod Mayo to New England, which to me, I know you've put some nice notes here

that just said, I'll explain. I don't even know what you're going to go, but I saw this kind of as a, as a, almost a boomerang off of the Belichick years where they didn't have access to the football operations, and now it's kind of a win for the crafts,

maybe especially Jonathan Kraft, who is younger, obviously, than Robert Kraft and probably has some longer term aspirations. There's been some, talk there about what does it mean and what's going to happen for the GM and all this, but it kind of feels to me like they got a guy they're comfortable with and maybe the ownership there can exert itself a little more. What do you think? I totally agree. I think it's a case where Drodmeo gives not only Jonathan or not only Robert but Jonathan a chance to really

take their team back. I think that's what it'd become. It'd become the Belichick show for so long, whether it was intended to be like that or not. And let's face it, they've had so much success that no one was going to push back against that. It gives the crafts a chance to now kind of regarner their own team. And I think you'll see Jonathan more involved. We kind of heard rumbling of that over the last year or two that he would like to be more involved. So whether that's good or bad, I don't know. I do think this, that they've acted since the promotion of Gerard Mayo to that head coaching role.

they've acted as if they're in no sense, no urgency at all to hire a GM. So I don't think they think they need one. I don't think they think they need to adjust any of the structure. I think something within gives them the mechanisms to think they can operate just like they are. When I heard them say, well, maybe after the draft would do something, that's talk that comes from the outside world. And maybe those questions will continue to be raised. But I don't think that the crass believe they need anything right now. They're just going to carry on with the people they have. have and someone has to obviously organize it and make the decisions at the end of the day. But I think Jonathan will be the tiebreaker there and be involved in a lot of those

decisions that maybe Bill Belichick would have kind of just said, hey, I'll do this in the past. This is what we're going to do in the past. Now there's going to be a little more collaboration and more involvement from the ownership. Do you think the crafts maybe are going to be on the coaching staff here as offensive coordinator. I'm saying that as a joke because one of the big frustrations there was obviously Bill Belichick's staff in recent years, but one of the challenges for Gerard Mayo is he came up from within that. So I wonder how many, you know, relationships he has around the league to really upgrade the staff, which has, I think, been a new issue. I know there's been a standing offer to

Bill Belichick's sons to stay, which is actually kind of cool. But what staff he puts together is and it has to just be so critical, right? Isn't that just going to be huge for this first-time coach who hasn't been in necessarily really prominent leadership roles just because Belichick ran everything? You know, getting rid of Bill Belichick and getting rid of some of that structure and having a little bit more ability to own and run the team is one thing. But we've got to have a competitive edge on the field. field with the staff that replaces them, right? And so I think that's going to be, that's an area

where I think the burden of proof is on the team right now. I'm not feeling overly amazed by how that's coming together. What about you? Well, that could be. I do think this, when they, perhaps have owned the team for, what, 25, 30 years now, whatever it is. Yeah. I think they think they know. I think they think they know who the coaches are that are effective out there. Maybe it's Jonathan, maybe it's Robert. I just think they will be involved in every move now, and that includes hiring a staff. You're right. Mayo has not been anyplace else.

So his world of the NFL has been seen through Patriot Glasses only, how they find their coordinators, how they find their systems. I don't think the systems are going to change much. I think their systems are going to be what Bill is used in the past, and this is going to be my vision on defense especially, and especially if they've offered one of Bill's sons, the defensive coordinator job, whether it takes or not, I don't know. But I think that won't change. The offensive system needs to evolve,

and I think they realize that and know that. So I think crafts will be involved in every coaching hire, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Like you mentioned before, it wasn't the strength of bills to put together a staff that seemed like it was competent, especially the last few years. Maybe the crafts think they can do just as good a job with some input from Mayo. So we'll see.

Lots of good stuff there. We're going to just go into the GM notebook before we hear over to the loudspeaker that your flight is final boarding. In final boarding, we don't want to get you there. That's just a ton of great stuff. We got a lot of stuff in the GM notebook. We have our picks this week as well. I want to talk about some of these games.

Well, there's two games. So we'll talk about both of these games. But what do you got in the GM notebook, Randy? Well, there's a few things that jumped out at me this week, just in regard to the teams that maybe that have been eliminated over the last week or 10 days. And a couple of the press conferences where people were announced, they were staying, going, whatever, just some of the moves that these teams that are on the outside looking in now have. And the first one that struck me as a little bit odd, and I know if you saw this. Did you see the Nick Siriani presser that him and Howie Roseman had the other day? I mean, yeah, do you see the tabloid journalism there?

The tabloid headline had a short of picture of Howie Roseman and Nick Siriani, and they both looked like they'd just been berated by the owner for about three straight hours interrogated in the back room. And they didn't look happy in other words. And the headline said, glum and glummer. And it said, it said Howie and Nick send in the frowns. They like to play on the term sending the clowns. I mean, it was super harsh.

I mean, people were kind of mocking this press conference. So, yes, I did see, I do know what you're referring to. Continue. It was awkward, to say the least, I totally agree. It was just short of, like you said, maybe having cigarettes poked in their eyes with spotlights on for the last three or four days, heck with three hours. Yeah, it was very awkward. But I thought it was even more awkward when asked by the media, Nick Seriani, the head coach,

they said, so what is going to be your role going forward? I mean, just think about that. Let's just think about that question. Yeah. What do you think a head coach in the NFL's role is? Do you think that Don Shululieu was ever asked that or Andy Reid in Philly or Bill Belichick? Hey, coach, what do you think your role is? Anyway, yeah.

I just struggled with the whole concept that it was thought of that this is a question. But anyway, it only got more awkward when Nick really couldn't answer it. He said, well, you know, I'm not going to be like the head coach of the offense or the head coach of the defense. I'm going to walk around and be in all the meetings. And then, okay, I think being in meetings is great. I think that's a communicator needs to know what's going on in all areas of the building. But I'm not sure that he's going to have a lot of input, especially on the defensive side, now that we know that Vic Fangio is coming to run the defense, do you think he's going to wait for Nick Sariani to come in and kind of outline his defensive play playbook for the week?

Probably not going to happen. It's hilarious. It's great. I can't wait to add Vic to this mix. I know. I love Vic's entire countenance. I love his entire, he's right out of coach central casting. He's got the same. I mean, he probably, if Vic Fangio went to Safeway, he'd have a whistle around his neck with like a gym coach's sweatshirt.

And he looks like, he looks like, he looks like what PE coaches looked like, you know, back in the day. And he doesn't, he's one of those guys, too, doesn't probably suffer fools very well, right? or, you know, he's got his own thing going. And so that will, here's what, here's what cynically people in the league are saying, okay, and we'll see, they haven't hired offensive coordinator yet, right? Right. But cynically, people in the league are looking at this going, okay, are they hiring Vic

and maybe they'll get someone else, you know, hire other people with a lot of experience? And then they'll have kind of, you know, potential interim head coaches there if this thing doesn't go well next year. That's sort of what the optics are within the league. that people are saying, which plays into what you're seeing, what the public's seeing off of the press conference, the news conference is kind of, you know,

what's going on here? And I think for a coach in all seriousness, like Nick Siriani, who has the record that he has, typically you would say, that's enough. What is anyone talking about in terms of making a change?

This coach had them in the Super Bowl. But when things come unraveled, it's not just about one and six to finish the season. It's about the elevator are just continuing to fall and free fall and not having the answers. And then when you have time to think about the answers and talk about it and express it after the season, you don't seem to have the answers then either.

I think there's just a general overall feeling of, wait a minute, what is the solution, what is the fix here that is lacking and that invites these questions for somebody who, let's not forget, has a great record. Suryani's record there's amazing. They were 10 in one last year. It just doesn't feel that way at all. does it? Well, I thought the answer gave me an exact indication of what's going on inside, because the description that he gave for what he's going to do and his job for me made very little sense.

I got done listening to it, and I said, what the heck's going on here? But go back and look at the season, like you just mentioned, one and six, and that made no sense to me either. So there was no ability to adapt, no ability to fix the problem, no ability or answers going forward. So my point is that there was a parallel between his answers at the presser and his results of six or seven weeks on the field. So I struggled finishing, just listening to it because it just led me back to what you kind of just said is, I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know what's going to happen here. I had no idea what he said. I had no clearer picture of how we're going to fix things going forward other than we're going to hire a couple new coordinators and hope they

were better than the last two. That's all I can think from. Yeah, and, you know, I'm sure they can get better coordinator work, but I don't know if that's the whole issue for them. What else you got in the GM notebook? The other one I had is, you know, the bill's lost last week, and a lot of people came out, you know, kind of against Josh Allen for the most part saying he should be able to carry that team, blah, blah, blah, and maybe he's just not built to win playoff games. I just, it made me the whole thing shake my head. And I just kind of look back as to what really happened to this team? Where did they go? For one thing, any criticism I think of Josh Allen is comical.

This team was devastated by injuries on the defensive side, and that's not making an excuse at all. But I do think what I see is, and this has parallels to I found, the Colts back when Peyton Manning was there, and you talk about perception inside the league with most people in the know, I think their perception of the Colts. back then was an average roster held together by an awesome quarterback, Hall of Fame player. So we kind of thought without Peyton Manning, this is a 500 team. Well, I kind of think the same with where the bills are right now. I think it's maybe a 500 team, again, being pushed and prodded and brought along by a great Hall of Fame quarterback for the most part. And I think what happened was he had them in position to win games in the past and others

have failed him. but what I saw with the bills is a team that kind of needs to be retooled. Their roster has limitations in my mind. I don't know where they're going to get the money to do it. But for me, I think Brandon Bean has to step up and find ways to retool this team. This team is not missing a window. I just don't think this team's good enough to jump through that window. And I would take that challenge if I was being, and I think he probably will.

They've got to find ways to upgrade talent on defense, especially in the secondary. They've got older safeties that can't run and cover like they used to. regardless of what TV announcers say. And I think offensively, they struggle on the perimeter. Gabe Davis is going to be a free agent. I think he's an average two receiver as well. Anyway, Diggs was not Diggs. He's 30 years old.

I don't know where that's going. But they have limited offensive weapons. When your tight ends are the focal point of your passing game, that's an issue for me. And that's kind of what they've become on offense. Less explosive, more tight end oriented. Dalton Kidd Cade is a great player, but he's a tight end. We've got to find ways to spread the field and score from deeper instead of having to turn games into single wing Josh Allen running the ball.

So I just think this offense is really, or this roster is really where the criticism should go not on any particular player, especially the quarterback. I don't know how you feel about that. Oh, I do. And I actually, I do have some, I get some deeper thoughts on this. I'm going to save some of it for my Monday column because. Okay. Because I do think I can go even bigger picture than that on where they're at and I want to,

but I think your points are really well made. I can't imagine anybody watch. It's hard to imagine that you could watch them play and think they have a Josh Allen issue. Yeah. I mean, talk about 500 without them. I mean, what was Peyton Manning, missed, I don't know how many games the Colts actually won. Yeah, they won two games. We were dead wrong.

They only won two games. Yeah. They only won two games. So this guy's holding up the whole tent for me. And sure, we can, are there issues with sometimes he takes chances or does this or that? And yeah, that's some of that. Some of that's with him, but I think that's their problem. My gosh, this guy was carrying the whole train.

He was pulling the whole train from my standpoint. So what else he got in there? One other note, and this comes from a totally different angle, but we see a lot of teams making changes now. And whether it's new decision makers, new GMs, new coaches. As far as a GM for a team that's really kind of ahead of the game now, and in his same seat and is already focused on free agency, I always found that as an evaluator, you had an advantage because you have a staff in place,

you have a plan in place, and you have a process in place, and it's been in place for several weeks now. Some of these other teams are playing catch-up. And the one place I focused on that I would probably spend a lot of time on, and this may not make sense to people because the team wasn't very good,

but I would focus on the Washington commanders right now if I was another team looking to maybe steal a player or two. And that's not to say that Adam Peters isn't going to make the right decisions. I happen to like Adam a lot. I think he's really good. But this is a team that has 70 million in cap money available, which is more than anybody. I think it's like 73 million. And that's beside the point.

They're going to have a chance to reshape this roster because of that. But they also have around 20 starters, contributors who are going to be free agents. Being that they have a new staff in place now, new coaches, new front office, new everything, My question is, for one of these sitting GMs, is how will that new staff in Washington value those 20 guys? Can I find a guy or two here that's been either misused, mismanaged, or mis-evaluated, and maybe go get them in free agency and not have to pay top price? So I'm just saying there's ways that GMs look at striking. They might see a little blood in the water with these teams who are changing decision makers. and I might start my focus on them to make sure we have our ducks lined up that maybe I can

find a guy or two from a place like Washington with so many free agents now, such bad chemistry and bad culture and bad reasoning. You might find a player or two that are willing to one jump ship for less money and two that don't feel like they've been given a chance there. So I'm just saying the timing is right to go and really finally focus on a team like the commanders if I'm another team looking to upgrade in a couple of. areas. Meaning when free agency period starts in March, they will have some guys that will be

sort of cast out of there just through the change and through the excitement of, hey, we, we've got all these resources we can get guys. And there may be some people that could do better in a different setting that fall by the wayside as a result. Yes, exactly. I'm glad you were able to connect a few of the dogs. I wanted to make sure that you didn't mean like you were acquiring by trading or something. No, no, no, no.

That's right. It's exactly right. Yeah. Come first of the league year, they're ready to roll. and maybe have already, as we know, developed some, thrown out some breadcrumbs along the way that connects a few dots so these agents and players actually know, hey, I might have a home here, something like that. See, I have to rephrase it just so I can understand it. Well, I'm glad that. For me, because of my simplicity, because of my simplicity.

The GM notebook's got four things in here. I thought you had another note. Well, I built in the fact that you might steal a couple of these and we may have already talked about it in the basis of the. show. But the only other one I had is a quick note on just the personnel addition, which you don't see very many at this point in the season when we're in the conference championship games, is as we saw, Zachertz, the tight end who was cut by Arizona in November, was signed by the Lions this week. And I just thought it was worthy of a point because when I watched the Lions last week, I said this under my breath. I said, Sam Leporta is not Sam Leporta. He looks like

he's dragging his knee. He's not 100 percent. And then come to find out. the backup to Sam gets hurt and he's done for the season. They end up signing Zach Ernst last week off the street and I thought somebody would have already signed him by now. I just think that's a quiet move that might pay immediate dividends this weekend because I would be surprised if Ernst isn't on the field for some plays and I think an option for golf. So I just like the idea that Detroit had this available to him that they acted on it and really saw what I thought was a weakness that had been a strength. The tight ends in their game have always been a strength. And this is a chance to add a quality player still in Zach Ernst at a late date in the season.

You kind of get the feeling the Detroit Lions know what they're doing, don't you? Yeah, I think it's a great point. I totally do. I think maybe they should have signed him earlier, but the fact is they did. And I do like and applaud a lot of the moves that Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell has made for sure. And that's easy to say now they're in the conference championship. But I think people have thought that all along, you know? Yeah, but they've really, they just continually prove it. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, we'll see on that.

All right. We both went two and two in the picks. You took all, you took all chalk last week. You took all the favorites. I took all of the underdogs and we both went two and two. You know what they always say? The truth is in the middle somewhere. We both had extremes.

And sure enough, the truth was in the middle. Yeah, absolutely. So this week we've got Baltimore. You're saying Baltimore's a four and a half point favorite now. Is that what it is? Over the chiefs? That's what I saw. Most recently.

Okay, we'll go with that. And then are we saying seven and a half, 49ers for seven and a half? That's what I saw. Yep. What are you going to do? I'm still undecided on one, so I'm going to listen to you to make your case. Well, I think they're both great games. And I do think they both have, I think you could make a case for just about anything.

But I am going to take Baltimore in the matchup. I think Baltimore is healthier. I think their defensive scheme is their strength, especially in coverage. They play a ton of zone coverage. And I think these are things. things that the chiefs in general have struggled to all be on the same page with. And we've talked about the perimeter players and Mahomes being on the same page. I just think that's a struggle for them.

I think Tuni, the guard being out for Kansas City is a factor. I just think it's also Baltimore's chance. I think Baltimore is healthy. I think their offense is problematic for whatever defense comes and shows up from Kansas City. So I'm going to take Baltimore. I think the points are a little much for my liking. Pat Mahomes on the road, you can say, do you think his offense isn't going to travel?

I think his offense is always going to travel. I think the environments that they play in always present different structures, different pushbacks for them. But I'm going to pick Baltimore. And I think the 49ers in the game over Detroit is probably my favorite of the two games this weekend. Because I think San Francisco has a lot at stake. I think there is windows, there's opportunities, There's things that you just can't let slip if you're them.

I think they win the game, but I just found the seven and a half points to be crazy for me. That is a lot of points. And they have to give that many points to Detroit. So I think this. I think San Francisco wins, but I think Detroit covers. So I guess that means I've got to take Detroit and getting seven and a half points. Do you feel pressure because our producer, Toneke, is a big 4-9 fan. Do you feel pressured to take them in this segment?

Well, she has a way of pressuring. There's no doubt about that. Her demeanor is such high stress, high. That's not true. That's not true. We wouldn't even get this show off the ground without her. No, I know that. She is a big 49th fan, so we'll be both, all three of us will be watching that one extra

closely. So, oh, man, I'm just not a, I'm not a good decision maker sometimes, Randy. When I go to the restaurant that has too many choices on the menu, I have a hard time picking. I want to have all of them. You know, I want to have all the food. And so sometimes I'm not decisive enough. I'm going to take my homes in the points if you're giving me four and a half because I agree with you. It feels like it's Baltimore's time.

I feel like, and I wrote about it on this last week that, I mean, their record of blowing out good teams, they don't just beat them. They have a historic record, Randy, the best in the history of the league in terms of their point margin against teams that are three or more games over 500. It's unbelievable in the history of the league. Now, it's a pretty strong recommendation. That being said, I think there's certain axioms, certain laws. And one of them for me is you get Mahomes in the points, you take Mahomes in the points. So Mahomes has been an underdog only 10 times in his career, okay? Seven and three straight up, covered eight times.

Failed to cover once, pushed one other time. He failed to cover one time. So when I look at the body of results, and you look at how up and down the chiefs were this year and how tough it was to get their offense going, I'm on Baltimore all day to win by touchdown or more. But that component, am I going to really believe that, to pick Mahomes, you have to buy into that history

and buy into the last couple games, that, hey, they've got this thing going a little bit better offensively. I'm going to take them, I'm going to take Mahomes, and I'm going to take their defense to match up decently against the Ravens wide receivers. And I think they're going to make it a little bit harder. Unless Lamar Jackson can really get it going with those tight ends, he does get Mark Andrews back, it'll be a little bit harder in the passing game for Baltimore.

And that's going to set it up for Lamar to win it the way only he can, which is to have a lot of rushing. And I think Josh Allen had some good rushing. They didn't have a great ability to stop Josh Allen either. And I think Lamar is a different type of runner, probably more explosive, maybe a little bit less powerful. But that's going to be on a platter for Lamar Jackson to win this thing, bring it home, be on the brink of being a two-time MVP and a potential Super Bowl winner.

A huge career pivot. I'm not betting against him. I'm betting on Mahomes and taking the points. So we'll see how it turns out. I just think it's a fascinating matchup for those reasons with, and Lamar said it great. To be a champ, you've got to beat a champ. And, man, it's tough.

He's tough. He's not getting, he's not lucking into some one-off team here. Right. He's playing Patrick Mahomes. It's awesome. So can't wait for the game, but I'll take a Pat Mahomes, four and a half. Which brings us to our utter game. Why am I sensing your indecision here?

you're kind of wiggling, you're fidgeting, and your care. Super tough. Because I think the lions can throw the ball on these guys. I think the lions are going to have past game production. I agree. So because of that, I'm going to take the points. I'm going to do what you did. I'm going to take the points.

I do feel like the 49-inch are the better team, and I do feel like the lions can sometimes be vulnerable to getting rolled with the line. bit and they've struggled to hold off the Rams and they struggled to hold off Tampa and yet when they played a team like the Ravens they got beat really big so I'm a little nervous doing it but I will take I will I will take those points seven and a half's a good number you figure if the lions are passing the ball successfully which I think they will that even if they're down 14 points you know they get a touchdown to cover that sort of a thing and they're going to be relentless and just keep

coming the whole game and that's why I would do that. So we'll see. I can't wait for these games. I have, I'm glad I don't have real money on them because I do feel like it would be a nerve-wracking weekend, uh, the way these teams are, don't you feel? Definitely. I can't wait for the games. I think it's going to be fun to watch. And again, I could make a case really either way. But as a fan, I mean, what, what else could you ask for? A really cool matchup. So I'm looking forward to it. A wild card round for me. Going five and one that week means, Randy, that for the season, I could lose all of these for the rest of the year. be one game over 500. So I feel like the pressure's off a little bit. And you're right there

close to. So it's been tough. It's been tough picking against the spread this year. But we've done okay. And we're going to get you out of here, Randy. You're going to make it. Sounds good, buddy. I appreciate it. Everybody, you can find us on The Athletic. You can find us on X at Sando NFL at Randy Mueller underscore. We'll talk to you next time. Enjoy championship weekend. This was the athletic football show's football GM podcast.