The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Remembering Franco Harris, Nick Foles to start for Colts, Ryan Tannehill “most likely” out for season, the rise of the Jaguars & Lions & more

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Mike Sando and former GM Randy Mueller begin the show by remembering the life and legacy of Steelers Hall of Fame RB Franco Harris. Then, they discuss why the Colts are making the switch to Nick Foles and what’s next for the Titans with Ryan Tannehill likely out the remainder of the season. Plus, have the Jaguars and Lions turned a corner? They look at what has changed over the course of the year for those franchises before talking about Jalen Hurts, the Dolphins and more in the GM Notebook. Follow Mike on Twitter: @SandoNFLFollow Randy on Twitter: @RandyMueller_Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube0:37 Remembering Franco Harris18:53 Nick Foles to start for Colts27:00 Ryan Tannehill “most likely” out for season32:32 Have the Jaguars and Lions turned a corner?39:49 Justin Fields’ development & fundamentals46:38 GM Notebook 1:03:53 Week 16 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, senior writer of the athletic with Randy Mueller, the GM. I apologize for my voice a little bit here. I've been on the weather with a cold, feeling better today. Randy, happy holidays to you. Usually we welcome news on this show, something that happens unexpectedly that we get to talk about and analyze, weather of benching of a player.

But today is not one of those days. The news that we got today, that Franco Harris has passed away at age 72, really hits hard, doesn't it? Yeah, I think it was depressing news for all of us. And some of us that have been around long enough to have witnessed the Immaculate Reception and to have been a part, a small part of what his life was, it hit us hard. You know, 72 years young, fairly healthy. No issues really that anybody's reported or knew about. Looked great.

He looked great. You know. You know, going to the anniversary 50-year reunion of the Immaculate Reception this week, I believe, in Pittsburgh. Yeah. I mean, you tell me that's crazy. Yeah. Two days before the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, three days before the Steelers are going to retire his number 32 jersey. Frank O'Harris passes away, like we said, seemed to be doing well, was doing interviews as recently as yesterday.

And I just thought about this a little bit. You know, with his passing at this time, we're just reminded again that you have to appreciate the moment. You have to appreciate these things in the moment. And life and careers and the things we love go away on not on our terms. Things don't end the way that you hope that they would. So you really got to enjoy them and appreciate them. And just, I was thinking about Franco's own career with the Steelers was unbelievable, 8,000-yard seasons. He was 360 yards away from breaking Jim Brown's record when he was released.

And that was such a shock and an unexpected move at the time, even though he was 34. It was sad. But it was so great to see him reconnect quickly with the Steelers, become, you know, take his place as a Steeler legend. Shoot, they had his statue in the airport when you got. there the last 15 years or so you'd get there. He'd be at the top of escalators there. It was just such an amazing thing. I guess I'm happy that he was able to participate in this coming celebration. He knew about it. He was able to revel in it and do these interviews and know he was going to join, I believe, only two other players in the history of the franchise to have their

number retired, but again, just so sad to see it end before he could even have the ceremony. Yeah, the timing is puts new verbiage to the football adage of day to day, right? Yeah. Injuries day to day. I got news for you. We're all day to day. Yeah. And that's a fact throughout life and no more evident than that.

When I thought about it, I agree with you. There's two things that came to mind for me. One is the reception itself. And, you know, there's a few events in all of our world that we remember where we were, what we were doing. Yeah. Whether it's the, you know, the president being assassinated or, you know, the president. something crazy out there.

John Lennon's killing, you know, there's all these marks in history. The OJ, Chase. You know, you can all remember what you were doing if you were around. Well, and I struggle. I'm one of those guys, Mike, that barely can remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. But I remember where I was in December 23,

1972, I was watching on my grandpa's couch with him. It was the first game of a playoff double header. The play went off and I remember us just shaking our head saying, no way. We were big cowboy fans growing up. And I always thought that that dang reception, I said, that slided one of the greatest comebacks in cowboy history later that day when Tom Landry put in Roger Stauback to

replace Craig Morton and he brought them back over the 49ers being down 21 to 3. You know, that's how that's how I remember the day. And so the immaculate reception, yeah, I get it. That was great. You know, it was an iconic play. I'm just saying that tongue and cheek. But there were more things that day for us. And I'll never forget that day. I was 11 years old and I'm shocked I can even remember that but I can remember the details of some things that day clearer than I could remember what I did yesterday. So that was one of them and then I guess we'll get to it. But a lot of people don't realize that Franco finished his career with the Seahawks.

I do want to hear about that. I will share it. So I think the immaculate reception though, let's let's go on that for one more second here before we get to that. You do have a special story. So I was born in 1970. So I was two years old and I don't remember that. my first real memories of football would be more later 70s, you know,

that I can really remember the plays. And I was actually in the very late 70s. I liked that Rams team that lost to the Steelers in the Super Bowl, 31 to 19. I was just crushed. I had signed some posters on my door that I had written, you know, you know,

disparaging the Steelers and all of that. But I went and looked today because Franco Harris was one of those guys. If you had asked people when I was a kid, you know, to name five players in the NFL, you're going to get Frank, Harris is going to be one of the guys. And the running back position then was more glamorous than it is today. People wanted to be a running back. You, of course, the quarterback position, probably since

Johnny Unitas, that was, that was, you know, that was the most glamorous position. But running back really, getting that running back record was a bigger record than the quarterback records. Yeah, well, think about it. It was Jim Brown. It was, you know, the Walter Payton's. It was these kind of guys, you know, yeah. Yes. And so I was just looking at it, like, from the time, he came into the league in 1972 to the time I was 10 years old, he led the league in rushing. Franco Harris. That was the name. You said, hey, I'm Franco Harris. Okay, then you got to be Walter Peyton or you're going to be OJ Simpson, who was probably winding down then. But those were the names. Tony Dorset was coming on, obviously, late 70, 77 on. These were iconic guys.

Franco was one of those guys. You just needed one name. You know, you could say Walter, you could say OJ, you could say Franco, you could say Earl. People know who you're talking about. And so that's how iconic he was. You know, when he was released by the Steelers, and this will lead into your story because it picks up chronologically. But I was going back and reading the stories around that today. And here pops into the feed. There's a story by our buddy, John Clayton, the rest of soul, John Pittsburgh guy.

But John had this story talking about, you know, how sad it was at the time that Franco was leaving the Steelers roster. And he said this, a week before training. camp, Dan Rooney stood before a sellout crowd. This is John Clayton writing at the Hilton Hotel and read a letter from President Reagan, congratulating Franco Harris for his charity work and his football accomplishments. Harris, a private man who conceals his emotions, cried. That's a pretty awesome recollection of the impact that, shoot, the president of the United States is, is, is acknowledging. Does it get any bigger? That doesn't really happen. You know, I mean, how many people get, even in sports. I mean, that's like, Michael Jordan type stuff. You know, you don't have Muhammad Ali type stuff. So that's

Franco Harris. I got that type of commendation. So he's released then, Randy, and you can pick up the story there. That would have been in 1984. You were with the Seahawks. I was. It was my second year, and we had drafted Kurt Warner the year before. Kurt with the C, the running back from Penn State. Yep. And he had had a great rookie year. The first game in 84, I think it was against the Cleveland Browns. We're playing them in the kingdom. And And Kurt goes down with a torn ACL. And the first game of the year, he's gone. And I remember, and I think we've talked about it on the show before,

Mike McCormick was our GM, Chuck Knox was the coach. I wasn't privy to the inside information at that point. I was the Aaron Boy, right? But they wanted to bring in Franco Harris to send a message to our locker room that we were for real, that we weren't going to give up. We had a good team that year. Franco would be a part of it. And I was the lucky guy that got to go to the airport, got to pick him up,

kind of drove him around his eight, nine weeks, whatever it was, he was with us. I don't even know if he had a car. He had me on, he knew where my office was, and he'd come find me anytime he needed something. And this is the only time in my 40 years in the NFL, I can remember this happening. When he left, I knew he was probably leaving for good. I had him autograph a picture for me, and I still have that. And it says to Randy, yeah, Franco, great gift. getting to know you. And it's one of my treasured pieces of memorabilia that I've kept with me forever.

So I love the guy. And I was only a part of his life for eight weeks. And I was nothing but a driver, you know, at that point. But he took time with me. He knew me. And that's the kind of guy he was. And this one hit home because this is, this is really one of my best memories of my 40 years in the league. And I'll go to my grave remembering this. And I've been involved in a lot of stuff, right? especially in the NFL. Oh, yeah. This is one that I always tell the story and I always think about what he did to uplift our locker room.

Mike McCormick and Chuck Knox, God bless them both. They knew he was at the end. Yeah. But the message was to the locker room, to the rest of the people in the city that, hey, we're going to do everything we can to make this work. We went on to a 12 and 4 season that year and went to the playoffs. So we were good without Kurt Warner. We became no more Chuck.

It was not the ground chuck. It was air knocks. And we threw the heck out of the ball. Franco was marginally effective, but he sent the message that our whole locker room jumped on. And we didn't miss a beat. It was an awesome feeling. And really, I used that lesson throughout my NFL career as a GM or building teams in any way. The messages to your locker room is the most important one.

And he uplifted ours in a time of despair. And so, hey, my two memories of Franco, obviously great. positive ones, both in the immaculate reception where I was, and then having a chance to get to know him just a little bit that last year of his career in 1984 was really cool for me. You know, and in his first game, the Seahawks beat the Chargers 31 to 17, Randy. I've got it right here. I believe the Cucks fell behind in the game maybe early. Franco scored a touchdown in the game, and people will know this name, Reggie McKenzie.

Okay. Reggie McKenzie. Head of the electric company. which is another story, but they turned on the juice for OJ in Buffalo. He was a starting guard for us. Absolutely. Now, he said this after the game. Signing Franco was a smart move.

We're charged up. You know, there aren't many football players like Kurt Warner around, so we're really down when he got hurt, McKenzie said. Franco will loosen the club up. He's a pure runner. He's a veteran. It won't take him long to learn. And you're right.

He wasn't going to go get 1,200 yards. No. But that the team could rally around. that that we're getting a real guy. I mean, and whatever he could contribute. And he did give a touchdown in the first game, you know. His iconic status, Mike, when he walked in the room, you kind of got goosebumps, man. If you were a fan of football, and this was 1984, you knew, everybody knew who Franco Harris was. So I remember that being a giant deal for all of us even in the building. How about this? The story says,

Seattle fans nearly tore the roof off the kingdom with a tumultuous ovation when Harris saw his first action midway through the first quarter. They repeated the scene each time the former Penn State star entered the game. Interesting, they're both Penn State, as Kurt was. It was vintage Harris, the familiar gate, the lumbering slashing style that inspired legions of followers in Pittsburgh. Remember Franco's Italian army and around the country. And I do think the Macon reception is the greatest play in the history of the game. I was thinking about this because I don't think it can be a really recent play. I think it has to have time to marinate in the lore of the league and for generations to grow up knowing about it.

And then I think when you realized, too, that they hadn't really won in a long time or maybe ever in Pittsburgh before he got there. And obviously they got great on defense. They drafted Hall of Famers. But he was at a time when the running game was such a big part of it. You played defense. You minimize mistakes on offense. and you handed the ball off a lot. He was a huge part of that success and sparking that.

So to me, that immaculate deception play, I'm sure people have seen the highlights. But I used to love those old interviews on NFL films. And like the Raider guys were still pissed. Oh, yeah. You'd be talking to Phil Villalipiano in like 1995 or 2010. He's still like, and if Franco hadn't been, if he, you know. Cheated, they cheated.

They cheated us. Yeah. This guy, you know, he was still, you know, He was still mad about it. And, you know, there was the whole thing about the owner of the Steelers went in the elevator was going downstairs because there's only 20 seconds left. He doesn't think they're going to win the game. You know, so I do.

And the doors open to like euphoria, right? I mean, he missed it all. Yeah. Art Rooney. Yes. Oh, which by the way, people need to look on the athletic today. There is a great story by Mike DeFabo who covers the team for us. And just coincidentally, of course, he didn't, no one knew that,

that Franco Harris would be passing away, but he had a story where he talked to Franco Harris about the actual ball. Oh, yeah. And it's a very poignant story. I saw that.

Check that out. The guy who still has the ball went to that game, kind of lucked into tickets to the game. He got that ball somehow. Yeah. And got out of the stadium and bummed a ride with somebody.

He caught the extra point or something, didn't he? Yeah, they used it for the extra point. Yeah, yeah. They used it for the extra point. And so they had got these seats in a raffle. you know, from a guy who couldn't go to the game or couldn't use the seats because he was actually

a photographer who was going to be taking pictures of the game. So the man got the ball. The net malfunctioned or something, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this guy gets this ball and the stories about him and how basically after all these years, 50 years later, he doesn't have a lot left. He's had some tragedies. His wife has passed.

The son who was born that week, 50 years ago, passed away also. He lost another son. And now he's possibly. going to lose his home because they're building a bridge through the area, building a road through the area. But he's got that ball in a vault and what it means to him. And Franco Harris has posed with this man recreating the reception with the ball and says in the story, the right man has the ball. I mean, you talk about a play that checks all the boxes for the greatest play. When we're talking about that, Lord, it almost gives you goosebumps to think that that man's

says, I don't have a lot, but I've got that ball. It means everything to me. And he could sell it for. He's been offered, think what these things go for in memorabilia sales. It might be a million dollars, I don't know. Or more, yeah. More, you know, it might be more than that. And he won't sell it.

Yeah. You know, that's how much it means. That's how much Franco Harris means. And that's how tough it is and just surreal it is, that he's passed away right on the doorstep of this. amazing weekend celebration that he should be right in the middle of, you know? Well, if there were a Mount Rushmore of runners, for sure he would be on it. And probably as iconic status in the league, he'd be in the top 10 for sure. I mean, talk about a guy that at a time when football was evolving and hadn't,

didn't have the TV appeal it obviously has now. I mean, he was a forerunner, man. You're talking about him, Mean Joe Green, Terry Bradshaw. I mean, that was the start of the dynasty. Dynasty, the Immaculate Reception, turned around 30-some years of losing for the Steelers. So they, I think by then they'd won a couple Super Bowls, but that 76 season, they were really injured. I think that was the year the Raiders got to the Super Bowl and won the Super Bowl, I believe. I believe it was 76 season, but they were really injured.

The Steelers were injured. Bradshaw got hurt. And so they had a three-game losing streak during the year, okay? And they were going to be starting Mike Cruceck, remember him? quarterback. Oh, yeah. And they gave the ball to Franco Harris 41 times in the game,

and they beat Cincinnati 23 to 6. There's only been four times in the history of the league that someone's carried more than 41 times in a non-overtime game. That's putting on the back of your best guy when the chips are down, you know, when you've lost three in a row, when the expectations are high,

when you're starting a backup quarterback, and he just wills you to a victory. So rest in peace, Frank O'Harris. All right, we'll take a deep breath here because that's some heavy stuff, and we have a lot of admiration for Franco Harris in his place in history. And we're just going to reset here for a second, and we're going to go into some other football stuff. We've got a full show of newsy-type stuff, items this week with Situation in Indianapolis continuing to devolve with Nick Foll starting. We got Ryan Tannanhill maybe being done for the year in Tennessee.

We're going to talk Lions and Jaguars, a couple of teams that have been down and out that are flexing a little bit right now. The GM notebook is packed. I tried to steal from the GM notebook again, got caught with my hand in the GM notebook. When we're getting ready, I'm like, hey, do we got something on Miami here? He's like, yeah, it's in the GM notebook. Oh, that's right. I don't even have to worry about the items that are in the GM notebook. You got to watch the thief of Santo, man.

He's like, I would not want to share the cookie jar with him around his house. He's hands in it all the time, I bet. That's actually true. That is a real thing. My son gets these little crispy chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's. You ever had those? They're in like a plastic tub. These things are not any bigger than a quarter, you know.

They're real crunchy. I can almost put them in a bowl and pour milk in them and eat them. They're like that good of things. So there's a running thing there now that if those are on the table, yeah, those could be in jeopardy. We will get to our picks. they were interesting last week who got I'm sure maybe not we might not have time for

to talk about the picks but going on in Indianapolis so today we got news so Nick Foles to start for the Colts this week and I just got a question how's that Jim Ursay victory lap looking now after the win over the Raiders is that good

you would not you would not take the bait when they won the first game I was like hey you want to reassess on this Randy and you're like nope everything I said before I'm standing by, basically. We'll see how this plays out.

And the guy who's been around for 40 years kind of knows. But here's the thing. Jim's been, Jim Mercing's been around for 40 years too. He was a ball boy too. He should know better, right? I mean, come on. Just because you got a bunch of money, I guess.

I don't know. Yeah, he's not accountable to anybody around. He can say whatever that you want. He's never been accountable. Yeah. Tiger Bob. Yeah. They're 0 and 4 since that game. Some of the teams, the Colts,

you should look down on, you know, Cincinnati, Detroit. Jacksonville looking pretty good. They're 12 and 1 over that stretch. So I had to laugh going back on Jim Ursa's Twitter feed after they beat the Raiders. All you critics, you criticize all of us in the NFL for losing. When we make moves to win, you act so righteous. Who you crappin? I never heard that. He didn't say that. He said, who you crappin? Just win, baby. You know, so I don't know what was going on there. But India's last two games, Randy, has given up 33 points in the fourth quarter to Dallas, which Dallas hasn't looked great shakes. And then they blew the 33 point half-time lead to the Vikings, which people might have heard about. So now they're going, Nick Foles,

ironically is another Frank Wright quarterback, by the way. But what do you got? I need to take a breath. I'm talking too much here and got a cold. Well, no, you're not. And I'm with you. I don't understand still why they did what they did, but we are here now. A move like this to me just reeks of desperation. I mean, let's face it. They tried to go with Matt Ryan. Then they went with Sam Ellinger and that didn't work. Now we're at Foles. I just don't know what they're trying to do here. Maybe Matt Ryan's just done. He can't play at all. It just seems like there's no reason, no answers that they can get by playing Nick Foles. Maybe he's the healthiest. I don't know. I have trouble connecting the dots here with the plan. I came back to exactly my take when they

named Jeff Saturday is that at some point he's got to make a difference on Sundays and he hasn't. I mean, I understand he's been an emotional leader maybe and a guy they can cry on and kind of a raw, raw guy to keep the ship straight. But that only gets you so far. Eventually, you've got to show your football technique and your acumen to help us win on Sundays. I can appreciate the try-hard approach that he's, you know, a nice story and he's a good guy. but I just don't see how. I mean, I know they can't do anything now. There's only three games left,

so they're kind of playing out the string. But I heard him last week in almost a happy jovial way saying, yeah, I want to be considered. I'm hoping I get interviewed and he laughs. And he says, oh, maybe I won't be interviewed. Well, you know what? You don't deserve to be interviewed from what I've seen so far. And I like Jeff.

But I just don't see, I don't see the positivity here of what are we doing. So I just see a floundering franchise right now. And I feel for the front office guys. You know, I know these guys. Chris Ballard's a friend of mine. I just, I think he's along for the ride, and I don't know how much he has to say about anything. But the ship is definitely listing, going sideways. Yeah.

Yeah. You tell me. Have you ever been in a one in a sideways screwed up? Like, what's your most screwed up for an office thing where the owner is off the rails? And I don't know if there's anything that compares or is, this is an all-timer, you know. I don't know how many times this sort of a thing happens, you know, Is there, I mean, you were in a long time, a lot of foreign offices. You had some weird stuff, but nothing like this?

No, I can't think of anything like this to where you couple it with what's happened on the field, blowing the biggest lead in the history of the league. We're talking about iconic plays. We saw an iconic game. That's the biggest comeback in the history of the NFL. All these games were playing. No one's ever come back from 33 Zip. And that, so this ends, does this end Jeff Saturday at possibly becoming the head coach, right?

Well, I would think so, but. Again, we don't have a vote. This is Jim Mersey, right? I don't know what he's going to do. Hopefully he listens to Chris Ballard, but I don't know that, you know, I would think that the ship has sailed and that they've got to get a professional difference maker at the helm somehow, some way. But hey, everybody can do what they want. It's his ball. And then, you know, this was a team before the season, even if you thought they were roster was overrated or, you know, that they were getting too much favorable press, which people in the league have thought that. get positive coverage. They do get a lot of positive coverage or had anyway. Yeah, they have gotten a lot of positive coverage. And they've had likable leaders, you know, Frank Reich and Ballard or likeable guys. And that's part of it.

Yeah, no doubt. And all of that. Now, I'm just wondering some, you know, if they would have just finished the year as a normal year and it would have been kind of disappointing, let's just say they would have been a little bit like last year where maybe they just missed the playoffs. They would have hung in there maybe. but, you know, then you can possibly have a normal off-season. When you have these types of losses or moments, Randy, when the stain in the carpets isn't going to come out.

Yeah. Sometimes it feels like you have to just remodel the house. You have to recarpet. Yeah. Is this becoming more than a, hey, okay, there's three things we've got to address. Has this experience something that, is going to almost require more of a reset. Well, I don't know.

History shows and tells us yes. I think the guys that are there are good from that front office standpoint. And maybe they retool that whole thing. I don't know. I don't think that it's enough, like you said, just to hire a coach and move on. They probably need a set of eyes from somewhere on the outside doing something other than, and this brings up something else, Jeff Saturday looking at practice tape while Frank Reich was the coach and advising the owner.

To me, that might be the one thing through this whole process, Mike, that gets me the most fired up. That he admitted to this and shockingly thought it was okay and that Frank was okay with it if he even knew. You know, that set the whole table for me as saying, this is convoluted. This is complete crap. Yeah, what are we doing? Yeah, this guy's going to analyze our practice tape and advise the owner.

We got 22 coaches down the room, down the whole. a GM and assistant GM and a whole bunch of people, but we're going to have Jeff Saturday analyze our practice. Hey, and not only that, you got John Fox on the staff. If you want to do somebody like that, do you think John Fox could give you an honest opinion, probably. He's been at a couple practices. Yeah, he might have been to one or two.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what happens. It's a sad state of affairs that I think you might be right. They may have to wash the slate clean or at least something has to appease publicly, to change publicly for this stained. to be removed for sure because these are embarrassing events that we've seen. And they're hard, they become, they take on a life of their own almost. It's, it's hard to change these narratives.

You know, it's hard to live them down with, with a gradual pull out of a nose dive like this, right? I mean, it's. Well, yeah. And I think the, the decision to play Nick Foles is, is as desperate as anything. Now, if it comes out that Matt Ryan is injured, okay, I get it. But just the fact that they went to this tells me, what's the plan? what are we doing here?

It just, it just reeks of more kind of unprofessional. This is, this is a, what is this fantasy football? Yeah. Yeah,

I don't know that I'd ever, I'd want to be part of it if I was there. You know, I think I might, I think the owners also really showed his hand here.

And this is not the job that people thought it was going to be. Agreed. All righty, uh, tanahill out for the season, likely for the Titans.

What a season this has been for them, Randy? They were, uh, shoot, three, four weeks ago, they were in the driver's seat in the AFC South. We knew they were flawed and had some issues, but you can always kind of trust the Titans to fight their way through. Tough team. They had an identity. They sort of know what they're doing. And, man, they're losing these games. Jacksonville has a real chance. Jacksonville, I would pick Jacksonville probably right now to win that division.

They play Tennessee late in the year. If we're looking at Malik Willis for three games, I don't know that Tennessee's going to win more than one more game. They might not win another game. Well, especially when their defense taking on water like it is. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a lot of, I read last week, maybe seven starters were out on the defense or something to that. It's hard to do. So this is looking like a lost season, a different season for them.

And so this is sort of a multiple choice question. I think you can go whatever direction you want to go. But my question would be, okay, there's a Tannenhill question, which is, hey, he's 34, one year left on this deal, pretty good quarterback. I'd probably want to have them back. But then beyond that, there's no GM. We thought that looked like a coach Vrable power play, but I'm not so sure what it is now. Is the whole operation in some sort of peril with the owner,

if they lose out in Jacksonville wins? Can you clear the air here? What do you see? What can we know? What do we think? Is there a lot to this right now? This was a pretty stable. situation a month ago.

Well, I think there's multi-levels, and usually there are when you get to these extremes. I think one thing that comes to mind for me now is if we're going to play Malik Willis, was that part of the rift between Rable and John Robinson, that we had to do this and go with this guy as our backup. Clearly, he's not ready to play in an NFL game. So it's almost like they cut Logan Woodside, who you can say what you want about him. He's a third-string guy that's been around for a while, but he's somewhere else now. So they have cleared the decks from Malik Willis, and they struggle to operate forward passes.

You know, they set sometimes offenses back, the NFL back. Defensively, they really struggle. I think I saw where they're giving up more passing yardage than any team in the league the last three weeks. They've been awful on defense, especially in the secondary. That's Mike Frable's deal, right? He's the defensive guru. So good luck fixing that. And if he was going to fix something, that would be the first place I'd start.

they've got issues you're right and i'm not sure they have the quarterback of the future i don't think they have a chance without tanny hill he's going into like you said the last year of a crazy you know numbered salary cap number anyway so can we even have him i think there's more question than answers yeah i don't think i think the 27 base salary and the 37 million cap number that does sound big but i think that's real manageable for uh you know nowadays with the ceiling of the league going to 50 i think that's not a killer, but here's the deal. Shoot, if you, if you get rid of Taniel, you may see him, you may see him for the indie, right? Or somebody like that. That would be very cult like. Yeah. You think Tanel's got much left? Yeah, I do. I think he's been a good player for them. Yeah,

I liked what he's done. When you see him play and I saw him, I broke down some film earlier from earlier this season, I thought he was very good. He was a difference maker for them when it comes. Maybe it's because the backup is such a step back. But I definitely think Tanyhill has more tread on the tire and they're probably going to have to consider extending him at some point because I don't know if there's going to be another option for him, that's for sure, but you're right. They've got questions now in the front office. They've got questions on the field. They've, they've have squandered some draft picks now. And so you hate to lose first round picks and they've squandered a few of those. So yeah, that's an interesting thing

about you could definitely see the Malik Willis being a divisive choice for the coaches when And there's a change the offense component. There's a big developmental curve. It's going to sacrifice your ability to win now. The team needs to probably be set up a certain way. And then look, those weapons issues that are affecting Tanhill, those are going to affect this quarterback too. Whatever the system is. Yeah.

Whatever the system is. So, you know, they're just suddenly in more of a transitionary phase than I would have guessed they were going to be. Now, look, we've been looking at some of their personnel issues and wondering how they've won so much. I just don't know that, you know, a month ago, I was thinking all of these questions are so much possibly on the table where like almost nothing would surprise me at this point. Nothing would surprise me. A change at something happening on the coaching front or on the quarterback front, neither one of those things would be a shock at the stage, which is amazing. and for how good Tennessee's been. No doubt.

And just how consistent. And they've squandered a pretty good window of opportunity here the last couple of years because now, guess what? Jacksonville's on the come. Houston has shown a little life the last couple weeks. It's not quite as slam dunk. Maybe the Colts are down like we talked about. But they've had this division really in their palm of their hand.

And last year, lose a game that they should have won to the Bengals at home. And this year has been a total, you know, for lack of a better term, shit show. It's just, you know, I don't know. Yeah, no, it's been tough. Well, a couple teams that are known for those types of shows over the years would be the Lions and the Jaguars. I mean, man, a couple of teams that have just had it tough. You wonder how their fans can keep buying the tickets through week eight of this season. These two teams, Detroit and Jacksonville, were three and 12 combined.

If you go back from the start of last season through week eight of this year, the two worst records in the league. And you could actually keep going back years, and it's these two. Yeah. But beginning in week nine this season, the Jaguars are four and two. The lions are six and one. These two teams are combined 10 and three and have real shots at the playoffs. Are we talking about corners turned, Randy? Who are you buying into here a little bit?

What do you think? Well, I think we're definitely seeing progress. And we're seeing, we get a lot of talk, Mike, and it comes up all the time about we've got to change the culture. We've got to change the culture, whether it's in college or pro ball or whatever. I think both these places had to have that. and it is evolved and it hasn't been easy. Sometimes it happens quicker. But I think four different reasons.

For example, Jacksonville, people forget. Jacksonville lost so many games that they had top five picks forever, it seems like, right? Oh, yeah. They have some good players, you know, they have a couple past rushers. They made a good decision drafting the Walker kid this year. They drafted that linebacker from Utah who's a really good player for them this year. So they've started to make some pretty good decisions. the rusher Josh Allen is a really good player.

Now, we'll see what happens, losing Cam Robinson, how that factors in. But, you know, Trevor Lawrence now, guess what? He's a legitimate player, you know? I mean, he's a front line first pick in the draft since he was a senior and high school guy and we're actually seeing it. So we talked a little bit about that last year on the show. So I do think Jacksonville is turning the corner. Detroit is.

Hold on. Before you to Detroit, I like that Trevor Lawrence is something. somebody who's good to talk about here because I remember the, you know, talking to people about him coming out of his rookie year, which you had to discount because it was the Urban Meyer debacle. Yeah, yeah. It was a really tough, you know, incubator there for him. And you give him a pass. But one of the things that I heard, even people who liked him, no one really was down on him.

But they just thought, yeah, you know, I think he can be good. I'm just not sure how good. You know, they didn't really see something special or anything like that. And I don't remember talking to you much about him. How did you feel about him coming out of last year? Do you feel any differently the same? You know, and do you think he can be one of these guys who kind of ascends into that, you know, threatens that real top group of guys where maybe Herbert and Burrow have gotten into?

Do you think he can get up to those ranks? I do. He was clearly a consensus number one pick for me. I didn't really have any doubts. You're talking about a guy that checked all the boxes. The biggest box that I was missing with him is the offense at Clemson, and he had to kind of expunge that and learn something totally new. so you knew there'd be a slight learning curve because that's all he knew, right?

That hurry up, tempo, Clemson, whatever it was, and it is. So he had, but this guy's 6'5, he runs like a deer, he can make all the throws from the pocket. He checks all the boxes. So for me, he was a consensus number one guy. Obviously last year was a total debacle. He didn't get to develop. You knew the game would be really fast for him. He's not playing, you know, East Carolinas of the world.

He's not playing anybody like that. So it was a process. but you've seen now this kid, I think, can ascend into that tier one group that you so, you know, put together every year. I'll be shocked if he's not close to that next year, if he continues to play just like he is now. And he's got a professional system around him. You know, Mike McCoy is a quarterback coach, Peterson, Doug Peterson, a proven Super Bowl coach. He's got some people around him that understand the way pro ball is.

and I think that was the biggest benefit for him was probably the coaching change that gave him a chance. Yeah, absolutely. There's some really nice plays by him. And what a great win for them against the Cowboys. I know their defense got it done in the end. But he had four touchdown passes and just you go, wow. He played good the week before too. I mean, really good. A couple, yeah. And a couple, for a few weeks, he's played really well. Yeah, now for Detroit, six and one. A little Jared Goff, Renaissance. How do we feel about them? Because they were they were really flagging at one and six. And sometimes you just need to win a couple of the close games. They've been in a bunch of them this year. They lost some games, but they're playing better too. No doubt. They're playing better. They have better players. I'm going to give Dan Campbell, and I know he's gotten a lot of credit. I'm going to give him even more credit because he saw where they were headed last year. He made an offensive coordinator change halfway through the season, and he ended up going with this year, a guy named Ben Johnson, who people don't really know and know much

about, but you'll hear his name on the head coaching circuit, probably this year, even though it's early. He's done a great job with their offense. They started out this season really good on offense. So it's not like it's been Johnny come lately. Maybe golf has gotten better and they've executed a little better, but they've been good on offense all year long from week one. So I give Ben Johnson a lot of credit, but I give Dan Cramble credit too. The other thing was, and I knew this, there were rumblings about changes on defense. That group had not come together, especially through the first six weeks of this season. They have now played better. I still think, there without the talent they need to get to the next level. But I think the true culture change

is probably the strength of Dan Campbell's skill set. And he's implemented that pretty good. Holmes, the GM, has done a nice job by making some deals. I think it's one thing to evaluate players and have that skill set. It's another one like we've talked to on here. It's another skill set to actually value those players. And then there's another set into you have to acquire these players and have some deal-making acunim. And I think Brad Holmes has showed he has some of that. So that's the hardest thing I think to get in a GM sometimes is the wherewithal and the instincts and the deal-making acunim to actually do something about your evaluations and valuations. So what is the skill you were talking about for Campbell that you really liked in that way?

I like his culture-changing attitude. Yeah, I like his leadership vibe, the way he is straight head-on. maybe he's not for everybody, but for them right now, that, that style has worked. And I think he's humble enough. He's, he doesn't take himself too serious. And I think that is a great vibe. They, I guess it's maybe more than anything. It's the authenticity of his vibe and his personality that the players buy into. Yeah, absolutely. When they were one and six, I was wondering, the question was, okay, that stuff's great. But, you know, like you always say, can you make a difference on game day. And I was wondering, we're sort of waiting for that to happen, but there has been a switch there. And defensively, I think they've been better and maybe sounder. They seem like

they were all over the place and just doing crazy stuff. And it seems like it's settled down. So sometimes that's who you play or whatever. But that's been a real shift for them. So I think you've got to give them a lot of credit. And man, they're in the mix here late in the season. They're better than the Packers, you know, right now. So that's pretty good. Oh, I would agree. And going to New York last week in getting out a tough win against the Jets who we know are pretty good. That's a great win for the Lions. I totally agree. Yeah, absolutely.

Let's stay in the NFC North. It's been remarkable that, you know, the general vibe on the bears has been pretty. They lose every week. Like every week's a loss. They haven't won a game? I don't remember. They've lost six or seven in a row, haven't they? I'd have to look and see how they won.

Yet Justin Fields has been so exciting that, you know, that's, hey, we'll take the high pick and we'll build around Justin Fields because we're. at least seeing that he can function now that they've changed the offense. And I think we saw some things with him earlier in the year that maybe we talked about some nice ball handling and faking and some good throws and all of that. But it's been a little rougher around the edges lately. What have you seen for him? Are you concerned?

You excited? Where are you at? Well, it's a process, right? And I'm not necessarily concerned. I think the first thing that had to happen and you got to credit the Bears is that that they finally gave implemented an offense that fits his skill set and gives him a chance. This kid's confidence level was so low the first month this season that I didn't know if he'd make it or not. And they've changed some things around to where now he's at least a confident player.

The game has slowed down for him. He's actually been the reason they've been successful and I think that's all good. I think when you run this kind of offense, your fundamentals as a passer may be somewhat elusive. and so I think that's the only concerning part for me at this point. Oh, yeah. I love what he's doing and I love where the offense is, but I saw a player last week with passing fundamentals, footwork fundamentals, mechanics, kind of all over the place,

and that bothered me a little bit. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he just, he can't get away from the fact that I've still got to work on the mastering the trade of passing the football. And I think that'll come, but it wasn't good last week or last couple, really. And the reason I brought this up to our listeners was because Randy had tweeted, I think, on maybe on Sunday, for as great of an athlete as Justin Fields is, he can't just disregard fundamentals footworker playing the position. So I'd filed that away for the show. I think this is really, really important because those things are important for all the quarterbacks.

They all have to. But it's kind of like, we've all known those guys who, you know, just had a 35-inch vertical. So when they played basketball, they could just get some breakaway dunks and be good. But they didn't necessarily have to work on other aspects of their game because they just really had a talent, right? And I think it's so important with the quarterbacks who can run, so many of the times we eventually get to a part where we say, yeah, okay, but that's only going to take you so far because you're going to get game playing out of that. or you've always said and people believe it in the league, they're going to make you win the game from the pocket eventually.

Eventually, yeah, they will. They're going to make you do that. And so it seems so important when these guys are young that that part gets stressed as critically important and that they can understand how important it's going to be later in their career

so that he doesn't peak in year three or your four with all this really amazing stuff that is going to win them games when they get some people around him. So I don't know if you, is there a, how do you walk that line?

Because I feel like you, to really get the most out of him, you've got to play this way. But you've got to grow them out of that. And so like you've seen Jalen Hertz, right? You've talked about Jalen Hertz. They've created a pathway for him where he's improved as a pastor.

He can still do all that other stuff. But he's improved. proved, is there a trick to that? Is it coaching? Is it dependent on the player? Because that's where we're at with him, right? Yes. I think he's got to get there. You've got to steer him here and then he'll come out the other side and he may be unstoppable. Well, I think his skill set even exceeds Jalen Hertz as an athlete and as a passer, but he needs to follow that same track, no doubt. He's, he can make every throw already. There were doubts if Jalen could. But, but he needs to follow that same track. He's, But Jalen outworked, outperformed his own expectations, really.

And this kid, we'll see if he can do that. I think really this kid probably needs this kid. Justin Fields needs another offseason, that's what I think he needs to progress further. You can wipe last year slate off. He progressed not at all. But he has really progressed this year. I do think he can get there. I think the sky is the limit for him.

Nobody runs like this guy. Even Jalen hurts. but I think he's done it now with a confidence level that now he knows he can play. And so it's just the evolution of the position. Now he has to advance his passing skills. But guess what we're saying about Jalen Hertz this time last year? He has to advance his passing skills. It was the same thing.

And he's doing it. And he's doing it. And I'm not saying everybody can, but they need to figure out in Chicago what. And Jalen Hertz should get the most credit. No matter of coaching and everything else, that's all part of it. but Jalen Hertz gets the credit for putting into time. Justin Fields seems like the kind of kid that will put in the time, but he's going to have to advance at that level to become a Jalen Hertz.

And I think his skill set ceiling is even higher than just Jalen Hertz. Let me just say that. Yeah, yeah. You know, we have seen some guys. I mean, the most famous example is Steve Young, you know, somebody who was just an incredible athlete and runner for his era and then became a great passer with an amazing system, you know. So certainly you can do it.

I'm trying to think, you know, Steve McNair became an MVP of the league. He didn't have, but he had 500-yard rushing seasons or things like that. He had some big rushing seasons, but in a little bit of a different era for passing. But it can't be done. Hertz is sort of showing the way. I think it's really exciting for the Bears still in Chicago. But I feel like, man, that's got to be a huge, a huge point of emphasis. And, you know, he does seem like the, he does seem to have the right makeup for that, right, to work on stuff.

learn on it and all of that. So just as Hurch does. Yeah. I don't think the offense as it exists now, even though he's been very successful, I don't think that will get them to the next level. He's going to have to advance in the passing game. But I remember, we said it about Hertz. We've said it about Lamar Jackson as well.

They have to advance the passing game in order to get over the hump. So hopefully he can. I do agree with you. I think he's a worker. I think he'll do whatever. But I challenge the staff there to get him to the next level as a pocket. passer to mix in in advancing of the passing game. You know, you're getting really good at setting up these segways, Mueller.

As we go into the GM notebook, the number one item, I tried to steal items out of the notebook again this week like we talked about. The number one item in the GM notebook is Philadelphia and Jalen Hertz, but not for those reasons. What is your reason for having Philadelphia with Jalen Hertz as your number one item in the GM notebook this week? Well, the storyline in the narrative now is Jalen is dinged up. He's got a sprained shoulder.

Let me ask you this. What's in between a sprain shoulder and a separated shoulder? Is there a difference, Dr. Sando? You know, you're the one who deals directly with the trainer. As a GM, you have to deal with the trainer and medical staff, so you have to know exactly how to partial all this stuff. I think there's probably some relation here, or what are you saying? I don't know.

It just seemed to me like maybe there's something different. I know with a separated shoulder, you end up a little bump on top of your shoulder, and maybe a sprain shoulder is some other ligament. attaches to the clavicle, something like that. That's the Dr. Mueller, Idaho version of my medical degree. Have you had both probably, right? Have you had? I have had neither.

No, I have had neither. No, I've been lucky, knock on wood. But to that end, he's questionable whether he plays this week or not. And the narrative has been the Gardner Minshue, does that slow him down? I don't want to see Jalen hurts hurt. And the question for me then is, as an organization, do they allow him to play or do they set him down for a week or two? There's been options presented by every media platform in the world the last 24 hours. For me, as a GM, I would definitely have a powwow.

We would all sit down and talk about it. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to let Jalen Hertz rest for a couple weeks. I surely would not roll him out there if there's any chance that this can get worse. I've heard people say, well, let's just have him protect it. We won't call so many running plays. Here's what I know for sure. I don't think these guys are winning the Super Bowl without Jalen Hertz. So let's take that out of the equation, all right?

I don't care if we're the number one seed or the number two seed or the number three seed, the number one priority for us should be Jalen Hertz health. So I would have no problem sitting him down. And if it ended up being three weeks, so be it. I don't care about momentum. I don't care about any of that stuff into the playoffs. I want him to be healthy. He knows what he's doing.

The kid can play. Yeah, three weeks, though, it could become five, though, because you have a buy. So you could have a situation where you don't play the final three weeks of the regular season. You don't play the first week of the playoffs. And then you're putting them in. I wondered this. Let's just say you rested in the next two games, Dallas and New Orleans. And then you just treated week 18 if you had everything wrapped up as teams used to treat the third preseason game, right?

Hey, we're going to play our starters for a quarter and a half. Or can you not do that because you do that all of a sudden now AJ Brown rolls his ankle or something and you're, you know, and everyone feels like an idiot. What do you think about that? What if it became a five week? Yeah, I think there is a limit to it. I do like your idea. I think that's probably a happy medium. I don't think I'd play A.G. Brown in week 18.

No. The big factor for me is can you protect the Jalen? I wouldn't have him running. But if the offensive line's going to play a half, I see no problem with playing. They may be playing anyway. Those guys play, right. You're resting starters, but you can't. You don't have.

You don't have 10 offensive line. And so they're going to play. You're going to dress seven or eight. So the offensive line probably is going to play. So I can see playing them a little bit week 18 just to make sure the rust is being kicked off. And I would I would just, I'm just saying I would protect Jalen Hertz as much as I can so that he's healthy week one whenever that is in the playoffs. Absolutely. They are going to have a week 17 game against the Saints.

They own the Saints first round pick next year. So they'll have to if they beat New Orleans find a way there, they'll get a higher pick. I think they need a higher health rating on their quarterback before any of that comes into play. I also have confidence in Gardner Minchu, and I think they can win games with him as well. So it may be a different style, but maybe that advances their passing game a little different in a different fashion. All right. Item two in the GM notebook, I already teased it. What do you got? Well, I've got the Miami Dolphins, and we saw them go to Buffalo and lose a tough, hard-fought game. People probably think I'm crazy. The Dolphins have lost three games in a row, all three on the road.

I think I feel better about the dolphins now than I did a month ago. And I thought they were the most explosive team in the league a month ago. Really? But I think they have, I wouldn't say they accounted themselves well in San Francisco or necessarily L.A., but I thought they really accounted themselves well against Buffalo. They showed to me a mental toughness, a physical toughness that I wasn't sure they had. I think the defensive end, Jalen Phillips is a budding star. I think he showed that against Buffalo.

I just thought they were in that game until the very end, kick and scream. and grinding. Yep. And that's not what you could say about Miami, in my opinion, especially over the last few years. So I like where they're at and the amount of energy they expended, I think makes them a tough out whoever they play. Yep. They came to play.

They showed that toughness about them. I was concerned the last few weeks just watching, watching Tua Tunga Volo's passes. I just, it seemed like to me in that San Francisco game and into the Charger game, one of the Charger game at one point he was like four of 18 and I went back and watched all those not with your evaluator eyes but just just looking at it and I was like oh this doesn't look good there were a lot of times when it looked like he went to throw kind of separated his hands and then thought better of it because it wasn't there or something like and so there was some talk in there that hey people maybe found a way to play them or take away some of those first reads and one of the answers to that was well hey if they can run the ball it all look better well man they ran the ball great against uh against Buffalo, the running game really was there. How do you feel about where the past game is at, the accuracy of two of the comfortableness of him? Was it good enough against Buffalo in those circumstances that those previous two games you're sort of wiping away? I'm okay with where two is, believe it or not. I like that, obviously, the schemes have done everything to enhance him.

I think he has to have his receivers at full strength. And I'm not sure they have been the last couple of weeks. I don't think those receivers are spreading the field like they did. month ago per se. So I wouldn't be opposed to getting them right. I think, hey, let's not forget, they've been on the road for three weeks. They're going to play at home this week against Green Bay. Probably going to be 80 and sunny and maybe a little humid, but it's a little easier. Trust me. And so I'm okay with two, especially at a home game. I've always had the same questions about two of the longevity, the durability, the ability to operate in the pocket, play after play. I think there's that we've seen enough of that to where if he can stay healthy, I think he's

functional. Was he as sharp? No, he wasn't as sharp. But I guess my evaluation of this team is more than just Tua. And it's kind of the rest of the group, kind of, but I think if they can continue to elevate their level, Tua has no choice, right? So he'll have to look his game. What I would love to see for them is instead of this end of the season being what exposes them, which is we were kind of looking ahead, you know, you're going to play 49ers, Bills, Patriots on the road. Jets, these guys are going to wilt. They're going to be exposed for the frauds they are.

No. Maybe what can really happen is this is kind of roughinging up, callousing up your hands for the playoffs a little bit here. That, you know, hopefully for them, they got to win some of the games. Maybe they beat Green Bay at home this week. And then between going at New England and home for Jets, you at least get a split. You know, you at least get a split. And then you're sitting there with 10 wins.

That's a pretty successful season. And some battle scars. You know, Tua has had to play a couple games where he was 100%. He got knocked out earlier. But you're, hey, we're going to the playoffs because that'd be a huge boost for them. Last year they had a 9 and 8 record but missed. I think if they can just sort of get through this thing alive with some bumps and bruises, some dirt in their eye, you know, but look like they've got some character to them.

We'll take that, right? Yeah, and that's what I think I've seen more than anything. Forget the record. I think I've seen some character emerging with the difference. dolphins and that's why I say I think I see a little toughness mentally and physically that I wasn't sure I could identify the first half of the season, even as explosive as they were on offense. But I see a little grit now and I'm good with that. I like their chances going forward.

Which is perfect because the third item in the GM notebook deals with grit or an absence of it. Who do you got in there? Yeah, I'm a little disappointed in where the Cowboys are right now. And I'm a fan of what they're doing. I'm a fan of Kellyn Moore's for sure. I just struggle with them getting hands. handled up front. Houston handled them two weeks ago. I think Jacksonville got the best of them last week. And all the attention always goes to Dak Prescott. And I understand his interceptions have

been, you know, bad. I think he leads the league the last seven weeks in interceptions. So those numbers stack up. But I just think they've been handled up front. And almost to the point where I started to question, are these guys a little soft? I mean, they obviously have always struggled with standing prosperity. They've always struggled handling winning. I don't know whether it's they get their sales filled full of so much BS coming off a win, being in Dallas and America's team and all that. That's a struggle for them for whatever reason. But this team's been handled up front. And I don't know that that's going to change. The defense hasn't produced. We can talk about Michael Parsons all we want, but I don't think this group is rushing the passer like they did a month ago. So they've hit a little lull there.

and usually front seven play determines outcomes of games. And I felt like they've been outplayed by front seven on both sides of the ball the last two weeks. So that's a little bit of a concern for me. Yeah, they'll be interesting to see here as they go. You had mentioned before. I think we talked last week about having some concerns about just what DAC was seeing, you know. Yeah, and I don't think that's changed. And this will be a really psychologically interesting week.

This one, if Jaylen Hertz is not playing, what if they were to lose to the, you know, lose to the Eagles. That wouldn't feel very good in terms of, you know, hey, looking to bounce back. Even though they had won four in a row before they lost to Jacksonville, it would just sort of maybe undermine the confidence a little bit as they finished after that with two road games at Tennessee. I think even though they won the Houston game, Mike, that to me was a little bit of a telltale sign because when you dig into that tape, you see they got handled.

Yeah. So I would be worried about that a little bit. I give Houston credit. They took it to Kansas City, too. So there's something going on there. Yep. What was your last item in the monothe? I had one last item as we woke up this morning, and I think I've told you this.

I'm a San Francisco Giants fan in baseball, right? And I saw where Carlos Correa, the shortstop that the Giants had agreed to sign at $350 million or whatever a week or two ago had failed his physical last night and overnight signed with the Mets. And so before an announcement was made, the, The press conference was derailed and he slips out of town. And he gets to he didn't slip out of town because the Giants failed him on the physical. Let's face it, it brought back some bad memories for me of my Miami time when Nick and I were together with the dolphins. And the Drew Breeze. Yeah.

The Drew Breeze saga of having a deal done in my pocket on a napkin, an agreement with Tom Condon, his agent. And him had, all he had to do was pass the physical. We had a jersey made by the equipment guys. I had it at my house in a bag of fluff stuff that we were going to give him and his wife. And we got the call the next morning from the medical people saying, we can't do this. And so I know how the giants feel. And there's really nothing you can do about it. It's a gut punch.

So I can only imagine that the giant's brass felt the same way. There's nothing you can do. We're not doctors. We've got to trust our medical people. And I get it. And I'm not being critical of the San Francisco Giants doctors for sure. but the player walks out the door he signs somewhere else now we'll see who's right in this case in our case drew went on to have a hall of fame career let's just see how carlos career does and i know this is kind

completely off target for the football gm podcast but it just brought back those memories of and this always made me nervous mike anytime we would sign or get an agreement with a player it was always pending a physical always and everybody nobody ever took that serious right whether it was the the writer the people in our building, everybody operates as if this is a done deal. Oh, yeah. And I always, we got to get the physical, man. I'm telling you, there's something that could pop up.

And everybody always laughed. Yeah, sure, Randy, he's going to pass the physical, blah, blah, blah. Well, another example of they don't always pass the physical. Well, but I can remember. So I had covered college sports before I covered the NFL, but my first year covering the NFL was you were with the Seahawks. I was covering the Seahawks in 1998. and I remember that's where I learned always write expected to or agreed to terms.

Do not write signed. Yeah. Because you, you know, so did I yell at you for writing something? Yeah, I'm sure you did. Yeah. I didn't know. Imagine how bad I must have been 25 years ago. But, but yeah, I remember that because, you know, the editors would sometimes be like,

can't you write this stronger? I'm like, you know, there's a 99% chance this is getting done. but you would warn that that, hey, and you can see, like, by the way, do you still have the briefed dolphin jersey? No, and I've been asked that, and I kick myself, I don't know what happened to it. I know my daughter who had it parading around the house in Miami for that night, because we thought we were truly going to have a press conference the next day, so it was already made up. That's not an exaggeration.

Oh, man. Yeah, well, I think I mentioned this one other time on the podcast, but one time I interviewed Ron Wolf or somebody, no, I was, I think I was working at ESPN, then it might have been Rob Demoski who did the interview, but whatever, Ron Wolf admitted that when they traded for Brett Favre that the doctors failed him on the physical. Now, there wasn't an owner of the team there. Right. And he was panicking, but I think they ended up replacing the doctor. Yeah. We couldn't do that because the doctors were best friends with Wayne Heisinga. Yeah, or maybe there was actually, it might have been a thing where there were more than one doctor or

There was some way that there was some way they were able to keep him and it didn't undo the deal. Like it were maybe it wasn't, maybe he waived that clause. It was something like that. Sometimes you see that the clause of the physical. There was something was waived and he, but he was worried overnight, you know. I'm curious if off the top of your head of what other ones, have you had other ones that have been really close to not going through. Like I did a story a couple of year or a year or two ago about the time that. you were with Seattle and you traded Rick Meyer to the Bears and got a first round pick.

But I'm sure in a lot of cases with these deals, they feel really tenuous until they're actually done, like the relief of getting it done, right? Yes. It must live with you every time. Oh, yeah. It's a reoccurring thing in the back of my mind every time we'd make it deal like this. Well, you remember the Kelly Stoffer trade for Kenny Easley, where we say Kenny Easley to Phoenix as part of that trade.

Well, usually you have to have a precaution in the trade deal in case the physical goes south. So Kenny Easley went to Phoenix, and this is when he was diagnosed with the kidney problems that have affected his whole life, right? It ended his career. Yes. And so they failed him on a physical

and actually were the ones that found this kidney thing. So we ended up sending a fifth round pick in return, and it was part of the deal. We had to renegotiate it, an exception in there. And Kenny Easley came back to us for that reason. But I can remember one other time, and this is actually a Seattle guy that, you know, you probably remember, remember the offensive line, and Brian Habib. Yeah, he came from Denver. Yes, he came for Denver. Washington guy about eight feet tall. Yeah. Yep. He came. We had a deal done,

and he failed a physical for us before we announced it too. And now that's a local kid who played at Washington, who was coming across the lake coming home. And I had to inform him that his knee didn't pass and that we had issues there. And that was already agreed on too. So I've had enough of these scars. He came to the Seahawks. He did come to the Seahawks. Eventually, we had to redo the deal to kind of, he signed a waiver on his knee. But these deals change when you do, when you do have physical evidence of something.

And what usually happens is, and I don't know if this happened with the baseball player or not, but a player can wave his rights to an injury on a particular body part to where if that comes back to get hurt again, he waives his right to collect his money. Or we have partial warranty here. Like, you know, this is not. Yeah, parts and labor only, you know. Yep. So it, these things come up all the time,

especially it seemed like with offensive linemen. Yeah, interesting. Well, unfortunately, we do have enough time to get to our picks segment. I don't think there's any rule that says we have to revisit the picks. Although I went one oh and one. I mean, I guess that's not too bad. Cincinnati had me worried. I had Cincinnati and gave three and a half against Tampa.

but that was looking grim for a while, but they came back and won. And then I pushed with Tennessee getting three against the charges. I thought it might have a chance for a win there, but the Titans might be out of gas. Randy took a close call game with the Jets. He took the Jets, gave a point, and Detroit ended up surprising a little bit there. And then, man, you had the Saints and gave four,

and they only win by three. I guess the lesson on Atlanta is they just play a lot of these games closer than you think, you know? I don't know how. A couple points swing on either way, and I'm a genius, right? You're a genius. I'm a clown. I'm a clown.

You're still a genius. I mean, there's just degrees of genius. There's a lucky genius and an unlucky genius. Yeah, I'm at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to that. But I do like a couple games this week. I don't know where you are, but. I was going to say, what lake are we steering the listeners into this week? What do you want to go?

No kidding. I, and if you obviously listen to the podcast, you'll know I'm kind of, I'm good with Miami, and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is in that Miami's given three and a half at home. I think they will beat Green Bay, and I know they've lost three straight, but I don't think Green Bay has beat anybody yet. They beat a couple bad teams, including the Rams last week. So I'm not ready to drink the Kool-Aid that says the Packers are going to make a playoff run here. So I like Miami at home, given the three and a half for them. Anyway, that's my first game. I'll let you go and then I'll pick a second game. I love, look at this. He didn't put the second game in here because he's afraid I'm

going to steal his game. That's what happened. I love this. I love this. Hey, by the way, on Greene, is there like another game that's not on the schedule this week with they're playing? I don't know about. I mean, this is unprecedented in the history of the picks. All right. So my picks this week before my voice finally goes, hitting the cough button irrepeatedly. I'm going to take Atlanta. I'm going to take seven and a half points against Baltimore because Atlanta just keeps defying.

Lamar Jackson could be rusty. Maybe he comes in and does great. Do you see this stat? I think I saw it from my old buddy James and Hensley, who covers the Ravens. they haven't completed a pass to a wide receiver since week three. Who? The Ravens. Get out of here.

I mean a touchdown pass. Sorry. Oh, okay. They have not completed a touchdown pass. You believe it. You believe that I said any kind of pass. No, no. I didn't.

That's why I said, get out of here. No, no. I'm sorry. Touchdown pass to a wide receiver since week three. You can buy that. That's still crazy. But I'll just, I'm just betting on, I mean, these guys, Dean Pease is getting knocked out in the pregame.

They're switching to. different quarterbacks and they're playing games close when they shouldn't have. I need to see it from Baltimore here. I'll see. I'll take the seven and a half. Now, do I have to give the rest of mine before you give your secret pick or what do we got? No, it's not a secret pick. I like Pittsburgh at home. I like Pittsburgh at home against the Raiders. They're given two and a half points. The emotion of everything that's going on there. We talked about the Franco deal. We talked about the McOdea. We talked about the maculate reception. I think Pittsburgh is a decent team. I don't, I'm not drinking the Raider stuff after the, how about that crazy play?

We haven't talked about that. The crazy play to end the Patriots Raiders game, I think that was a once in a million years type move. I just don't think the Raiders are good enough to go on the road and beat Pittsburgh. So I'm taking Pittsburgh and giving the two and a half. So I like Miami and I like Pittsburgh. I feel you with that emotion there too. I think it's going to be quite something. So we'll see about that.

My under two picks, I'm going to take Cincinnati, give three and a half at New England. I think the Patriots have looked at times this season like a bad operation. It wasn't just to play at the end of the game. we saw Bill Belichick kicking the football when they're playing Minnesota because the quarterback doesn't know to throw the ball instead of takes a sack or kneels down or slides or whatever. And there were discombobobulated plays. I mean, they had a punt block where the wing isn't even looking. He's looking backwards and they come around the side. They get guys moving before the snap.

So I think their coaching situation on offense is a disaster. I think Cincinnati's got the defense. You talked about it. You showed us. They've won five in a row. I'm giving three and a half comfortably. What do you think? Yeah, I'm with you.

I can't. I could not pick New England in another game for the reasons you gave and maybe a couple more. I see Mack Jones as being a very pedestrian NFL player right now. So I don't think he can carry them. And I think unless everything else is great around him, they're going to struggle. And everything like you pointed out has not been great around him. Is that fair, though? Is that fair to pedestrian him?

I know we kind of thought about him coming out, but it just seems like it's so unfavorable to him there. Their offense is just not good around. Pedestrian, are you saying, is he holding them back right now? I feel like they're holding him back. I think they're all holding each other back. I think your first statement was true. It's a shabby operation right now, especially on offense, in every way. Yeah.

Yep. Okay, then I'm also going to take Houston and I'm going to take seven and a half against Tennessee. That's a lot. I mean, are the Titans going to score? seven and a half. Maybe not. It might be a three to two game. Yeah. I hear. I mean, because I initially thought when I watched Houston play Kansas City, man, Houston's salty. I mean, they were taking it to, they were hitting them. They slammed down the homes like it was a 1985 game. They were hitting guys borderline late. Shoot, the receiver for Kansas City was tweeting about it

after the game. Can't believe they're hitting us like this. After the game. Yeah. I wondered they just get up for Kansas City. You reminded me they went after Dallas. Yep, they went after Dallas. And maybe this is something for next week, but I would love to break down and see where Mills is the quarterback. I would love to see if he has what we think he has to be their guy going forward. So I think Mills, the quarterback of Houston,

will be a good tape study for me next week. That's for sure. All right. So I am going to take Houston, like the way they've been playing. Tennessee, I stayed with you as long as I could. If you go out there in battle and win a tough game, tip my cap to you, but I'm going to have to go with Houston based on the tenacity they've shown.

And as you can tell, my voice is winding down. The podcast is winding down. Hopefully it's been a good one. Tough way to start with the news on Franco Harris. We'll certainly Randy have him in our thoughts and his family and our prayers as we head into this week 16. Hope everybody enjoyed the podcast. You can find Randy at meelerf Football.

You can find Randy on Twitter at Randy Wheeler underscore. You can find me, Mike Sando, at Sando NFL on Twitter, of course, at The Athletic. We will talk to you next time. Merry Christmas, everybody. Yeah, everybody have a Merry Christmas. Happy holiday, New Year, all that. This was The Athletic Football Show.