The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Mailbag Monday: Contract-year players, best QB + coach upgrades ever, the importance of aging on rosters, and more

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Mailbag Monday rolls on as we get deeper into summer and closer to the start of training camp. Among the questions answered by Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen on this edition...where would Baltimore fall among QB supporting classes in the NFC? Which contract-year players have the widest range of outcomes this season? What are the best single-offseason QB/coach upgrades of all-time? Hear their answers to those questions, and a whole bunch more, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Hosts: Robert Mays and Derrik KlassenWith: Michael BellerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...⁠Apple⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠YouTube⁠Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Beller on Bluesky: @mbeller.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. It's another Mailbag Monday here on the Athletic Football Show. You guys know the drill. Got a ton of great questions yet again. I say this every single time we do one of these. I'm going to continue to say it. I really appreciate how engaged everybody is with sending in questions, how thoughtful so many of the questions are.

It's just one of those small things that I'll just never take for granted. Like how engaged and thoughtful and smart and fun our listener base is. and your guys' ability to contribute to something like this, I think it's rare and cool. And I just will never tire of acknowledging it and letting you guys know that I have a lot of gratitude about it. So thank you to everyone who sent stuff in. Really enjoyed doing this yet again.

Let's get to another mailbag with Michael Beller and Derek Classen right now. It's another mailbag Monday here on the Athletic Football Show. As always, very excited to dig into your questions with our producer Michael Beller and my co-host, Derek Classen. Bellar, let's just get right into it. No reason to beat around the bush here. We got a lot to get to, so I don't want to waste any time before we start digging into the questions. Absolutely not.

Let's get to it. Blake Burr with the first question for us. He said you guys did the AFC supporting cast show last week. So this is a little bit old of an email. And then the NFC one as well, Baltimore, number one in the AFC. But do they even crack the top five or six in the NFC? What do you guys think, Robert, take this one first? I think it's important to remember that I was tiering these teams in the NFC before we start this conversation, right?

Because I think that part of me, if I'm trying to stay consistent with how I've been ranking these teams, it would be hard to put Baltimore behind Philly because of the questions about the play caller with the Eagles. I think the easy answer for me is Baltimore would be in the first tier of teams. Like they would be with the teams I had one through five, which were the Vikings, the Rams, the Niners, the Packers, and the Eagles. where they would fall in that group, I think my answer is probably right in front of the Eagles and behind those other teams. Again, if I'm being consistent with my criteria here,

because we know what Todd Monkin is, there's a level of certainty there. But I definitely think they're a little bit further down the list than they would be in the AFC. They're not the clear-cut team. And I think you probably put them at like four or five if I were redoing this whole exercise. Yeah, I think for me,

the conversation probably starts after, or two for me, the one in two were Minnesota and Philly, just based on the talent on those two teams, I think it was kind of overwhelming. Then I think you can start to get into the conversation. Like I had the Bucks 3, and I think there are a more talented roster, but we know that Monkin is one of the best play callers in the NFL. And so I think that is where, like, I think four, then I had like the Rams and then the Packers. Like that, like three to five range with like the Packers, the Bucks and stuff like that.

That's probably the range for me. Blake brings up a really good question that I'm going to ask you. Okay. If you think about Lamar with Kyle Shanahan, does it change where you would rank the Niners in your supporting cast rankings? I don't know. Maybe a little bit because of what Kyle Shanahan could do specifically with Lamar, but I still think all of the other questions about like every skill player being hurt and the

offensive line being bad outside of, you know, one and a half players. I just, I don't know. I would probably bump them up a little bit. And I will say that's probably the team I should have bumped up anyway. Like they should have been fourth or fifth for me anyway. But maybe if they did have Lamar Jackson, I would have bumped it up. I was hoping that would be just a way to reframe it for you and make you even a little bit more excited about it.

Like you dropped Lamar onto the current Niners. Does that make you think differently about how good the Niners supporting cast is? It might honestly. And like, especially too, I remember Kyle Shanahan specifically when Lamar Jackson was coming out of college, kind of talking about him fairly effusively. So it would get me going a little bit. Let's get to the next one, Barr. Okay, guess what? This is another question from a Blake about the supporting cast episode.

So just tie the bow on those right now. Blake Sheridan writes in and says, after your recent episode about NFC supporting cast, I had a question about how heavily you weigh the skill of a play caller, particularly on offense. You, Robert, had teams like the 49ers, a team that won. won six games last year and has multiple questions on offense ranked congruantly with stronger rosters like the Lions and the Buccaneers because of the Shanahan factor. As a younger NFL viewer, I view play caller as the single most important factor to offensive success when previously it felt like the quarterback was the undisputed key. As older viewers, time comes for everyone, Derek.

As older viewers and people who have been following the game much closer and longer than me, do you believe there has been a similar change in scale to the offensive play caller versus roster construction. And if so, when do you believe this change started to take place? Derek, why don't you take this one first? So I actually think the older versus younger framing of this is actually pretty instructive. Because again, I started covering the league in like 2013, 2014. That's right when Kyle Shanahan was doing the stuff with the Browns.

And right when Sean McVeigh took over for Washington once Kyle Shanahan left. So to me, those guys being the baseline for what we've done in the NFL for the past like 15 years. and me jumping into the league right when those guys were really taking off. In my mind, the offensive play caller has always been really, really important because of what I saw those guys do at the very starts of their careers. So I do think obviously quarterback is still the most important position, but I do think that maybe when I was, I don't know, maybe I just wasn't as tapped in when I was younger as to like how much the play callers

were doing. But ever since I've been covering the sport professionally, to me, the play callers have always been super, super important. Yeah, I think this question where, I mean, Blake's saying that he thinks the play caller is more the most important thing. The quarterback is the most important thing. Like, having one of the best quarterbacks is still the most important thing. Even if things have changed around the quarterback, and I do think it's a little bit different now than it probably would have been 20 years ago, Sean McVeigh still would not go for as much in a trade as Josh Allen would.

Like, Josh Allen is still, I think, more valuable than any single coach could be. and I think those four quarterbacks at the top probably make up that group. So I still think the truly elite quarterbacks are the most important thing you can have. But I do think that play callers have become a little bit more influential and a little bit more important for a few different reasons. Back when in this previous version of the NFL with the previous collection of elite quarterbacks, Rogers, Brady, Manning, Breeze, I think that the game was a little bit more static and quarterbacks had a little bit more control over how the game went. And I think as the game became a little bit more dynamic in like the 2010s and into that like 2015, 2017 range with McVeigh and all those guys, I think you saw just all of the layers, all the motion,

all of those aspects of it. And I think that's when we started feeling the difference between having a difference making play call or not having one. And I think the reason or part of the reason that it's happening right now is that the flatness of the football world and how ideas and information travel means right now if you don't have somebody who's consistently staying on the cutting edge, you're going to fall behind. People can access any play and any idea from the football world at any time now. And so I think the evolution is just happening so much faster because of that, that if you have somebody who's average or below average as your offensive play caller,

you feel it immediately. And I don't think that necessarily would have been the case 10 or 15 years ago. You would have felt the difference if you had a below average quarterback versus a really good one. But now I think that same thinking applies to the play caller, even if at the tippy, tippy top, the quarterbacks are still probably a little bit more valuable. And I also wonder a little bit, like, how much the practice structure has changed that. Like, when you had more practice time years ago and, like, quarterbacks could just see some of this a little bit more, like the value of them and what they could do on the field and what

they were able to handle pre-snap and all that was a little bit different. Whereas now that there's a little bit less practice time, I think there's more of a value on, like, okay, how much can the coach clear that gap for us and what we might have gotten value out of as a, you know, in practice? That's a good, that's a good thing to bring up to, just like the coach taking things off the plates of the players and how much that matters now. But I think that the playcars are probably more important than they've ever been just because of how fast the information is traveling and like how quickly you can get found out. I think you just separate the good from the bad and really obvious ways now in ways that you probably couldn't before. but I still think the quarterback is ultimately going to be the Trump card and like ultimately what matters the most. Okay, guys, Parav Patel has our next question.

He says that this will hopefully bridge Robert's love for food and the NFL. If you had to design or suggest your ideal pregame restaurant visit followed by watching a game in person for this upcoming season, what city combo would you pick? So this is a game that is actually happening this season. A bonus point for suggesting a whole city visit for the day, meal, bar, drinks for postgame, nightlife recommendations, all that good stuff. And then Robert will indulge the recent vacation a little bit also your favorite singular mouthful of food while you were in San Sebastian. I'm going to handle this slightly differently because I don't want to talk about restaurants I've been to necessarily just because there's so many good ones that it would be hard to pick. If I were building a day this year for which game I would go to and where I would want to eat, there are three American cities that I feel like I haven't.

spent enough time in to eat at all the restaurants I want to. Number one is Philadelphia. Like, Philadelphia has a really good restaurant culture and there's so many places just because I'm only there for like one night a year that I haven't been able to go to. And always, it seems to be I'm there on the wrong night. Like I'm there on a Monday and everything is closed. But I went to a place called Her Place Supper Club in Philly last year that was really, really good for dinner. But they've got a bunch of places. They've got a Thai restaurant. They called Kataya that's really good that I haven't been to. There's a place called Friday, Saturday, Sunday that's there that's supposed to be really,

really good. So Philly is just a place that I would go for an Eagles game and just eat at one of the many very good restaurants that Philadelphia has to offer. Minneapolis, I've said this many, many times that the Twin Cities is the most overlooked and underrated food destination in the country. The James Beard Awards were recent and the Best Chef Great Lakes was from the Twin Cities. And so that's a restaurant I haven't been to. The best new restaurant in America.

the James Beard Awards was from Minneapolis or St. Paul. So just going up there for a Vikings primetime game and eating out on Friday, Saturday before you went to the game on Sunday. I think you can make yourself a really, really fun weekend in Minnesota. And the last one, even though the logistics of it are a little bit different because of where the stadium is situated, I haven't spent a lot of time in San Francisco as this version of myself as an adult. I was there a lot in my 20s because I lived in L.A.

and so you'd pop up there. But from 2011 through 2019, I was like mostly drunk and broke. So I didn't really go out to a lot of nice restaurants. So I'm very, very excited this year to be there for a week for the Super Bowl because it's just a city I haven't explored in that way whatsoever. So those are the three cities I'd probably say with a primetime game with either of those teams, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Minneapolis in some order because I've not been able to try all the places I want to in any of those.

bots. That is one of the few cities I might actually have a good restaurant for you. In San Francisco, I went to, three years ago, I went to the League of Legends World Championship there, and we had an insane dinner one of those nights that I don't remember the name of the place now. I'll have to find it later specifically to send to you, but I definitely will. It was, it was phenomenal. It was like a 12 course tasting menu, all that, all that jazz. It was a really, really good time. My choice is a little bit more like simple. I love C-Fourts. I don't research restaurants and stuff to the same degree, but I love seafood and I love the chance to watch Lamar Jackson play live.

So October 12th, they play the Rams at home in Baltimore. I think that to me would check every single box I need for like a weekend watching an NFL game. Just go eat a shitload of crab while watching Lamar Jackson play football. I really like that one. That's what else do I need? The second question that Parov had, my favorite bite in San Sebastian, it's hard to pick. It's one of the coolest food experiences I've ever had and I cannot wait to go back. there. But we had dinner at a restaurant on our second night there. And one of the courses was,

it was a lobster chowen mushy. And so chowen mushy is like a Japanese, like, savory custard. And so it was, that part of it was great. But in the Basque country specifically, for a very short amount of time in like late spring, early summer, they have these types of peas. They're called Guissantes Lagrima. And they're really hard to harvest peas. And they're only in season for a very a short amount of time. And so they call it my green caviar. Like, they're very expensive and very hard to access. And so they had these little peas on top of the chow and mushy.

Peas are some of my favorite food. Like, I shelled peas is truly one of my favorite flavors in the whole world. And the chance to have the best pee while on this trip. I didn't even know it was a thing until we were there. And we had them multiple nights in a row because all of the nice restaurants had them while we were there because they were in season. So eating those peas. with like a crazy good Shaoamushi, which is already a food that I love, that is probably the

bite that will stick with me the most. I don't know what I thought the answer was going to be, but it wasn't going to be that. Basque food, by the way, though, is phenomenal. So that makes a lot of sense. I mean, truly, the food culture there is just crazy. It's awesome. It's just, that's what you do. You just kind of eat.

And that is something I can absolutely get on board with. So I'm very excited to get back there at some point in my life. Okay, guys, we move on from food to head coaches and coordinators. Sam Melanson writes this one in and he says, why do we see more culture setting offensive coaches like Dan Campbell in the NFL? There seems to be a generalization when it comes to who becomes head coaches. They tend to fall in one of two general buckets. You've got the schematic offensive wizards and then you've got the culture setting defensive guy.

It suggests that defensive-minded coaches are better equipped to handle the CEO duties of an NFL locker room than an offensive coach. and that makes no sense to me. I hear Robert mentioned all the time how being a head coach is a completely different job from being a coordinator. So the premise that being a DC versus an OC better equips you to be a head coach

is never tracked for me. What are your thoughts on this? And are we collectively overgeneralizing these traits? Derek, take this one away first. I think there are a few ways to go with it. I think part of it is that with the offensive guys, it's that in a lot of cases when they take a job,

they want to continue calling plays. And so you just don't have to ban. with to be a CEO style coach. Whereas I think for one reason or another, defensive guys are a little bit more willing to branch out, let other guys take on some certain responsibilities, all that other stuff and really oversee the entire operation.

And, you know, I mean like Pete Carroll, I think was certainly this way. That's a good example of a guy who was willing to let other guys kind of take the reins and do stuff. And offensive guys, they just, they get very,

it's their offense in a way that I think defensive guys don't always hold on to that. And some do, like D'Amico Ryan's, I think, is very held on to like this being his defense, but not every defensive guys like that, whereas I think all the offensive guys are like, if my offense isn't putting up points, I'm going to start getting a little itchy here. I think it's about identifying and understanding what your personal strengths are and what personal strengths you're bringing to the job. And I think a lot of coaches have said that, offensive coaches have said that when asked about whether they would continue to call plays.

their stance is that's how my value is derived. Like I bring value to the team because I'm able to put the team in good situations as a play caller. And so I'm going to continue to do that. I think on defense, guys just don't see it that way necessarily. Like they don't think being a defensive play caller is quite as important where I need to be doing this in order to give my team the most value. There are exceptions to that, obviously, right? Like Mike McDonald is more of a defensive version of the offensive. guys we've gotten used to where the schematics are at the forefront of what he thinks he's bringing

to the table and that's why he's doing it. But I will say, I mean, we've had several recent examples of CEO type head coaches on the offensive side of the ball that have had success. Like Dan Campbell's an example of this. Nick Siriani is an example of this. Nick Siriani isn't the offensive play caller for his team. So I think it's just about what are, how is my role best divvied up? How is my time best divvied up? If I can do more overseeing how the locker room feels, connecting with players, all of that, and someone else can be the play caller, I might as well do that. Jonathan Gannon was like this.

I remember talking to Jonathan a couple of years ago when he was trying to figure out who he wanted to call the defense, whether he wanted to call it. And he was in a very honest way. He's like, I think Nick is just better at that than I am. Like that's just not where my greatest strengths lie. So I'm going to handle a different side. of this. Brian Daibald did the same thing in his first year as a head coach.

He's like, I would rather be somebody who is touching every aspect of the organization and be able to be present in a lot of these areas rather than being locked in a room, figuring out the offensive game plan. So I don't think, I think that we see more defensive coaches make

that decision, but I don't think that offensive-minded CEO head coaches are off the table. I think that we've seen teams succeed with those in recent years when everything else is kind of right around them. And I think part of it too is just like where we're picking these offensive guys from, right? We're picking all of them, not all of them, but a majority of them from the Shanahan McVeigh tree. And it's like, yeah, the assumption is that if you're the next guy from that tree,

you're just going to call the plays the way that everybody else in this tree has been calling the play. So like it's, it's kind of just part of it is a fact by virtue of how we're hiring these guys in the first place. Yeah, absolutely. And I've got it. But again, I think that we're going to see defensive coaches who are kind of in the play caller mold. I just think it's harder to, I think this goes back to something we didn't put in the mailbag, but it was a question somebody asked. It's like if you could build the best defense and the best offense every single year, which would you rather have? I'd rather have the best offense or rather invest in offense because offense is just more consistent from season to season.

So I think that's why formulating your entire identity as an organization and like what we're going to be good at is we're going to have the best offense possible. I think that's just a cleaner way to be consistent. good than it is on the defensive side of the ball. So I think that's why somebody kind of drifting their focus away from, I'm going to be the play caller here and looking at it more holistically. I think that may be the reason stated or unstated why defensive coaches kind of have more of a big picture view of this than offensive coaches might because their value as a play caller is just inherently going to be a little less impactful than the value of an

offensive play caller year over year. Someone who does not know much about having the best offense possible is our next emailer Jason J. Consoli, and that's because Jason has spent his life as a Jets fan. But he has a question based on a recent one that we received also. He says, Tony the Cowboys slash Cardinals slash Baris fan, asked you guys a question on fandom that got me thinking about my own sports marriage to Leba. I am a lifelong Jets fan in my 40s. As you can imagine, I can count on one hand the positive memories I've had rooting for this miserable franchise. Recently, I was presented with an opportunity at work that would require me to relocate my young family, two boys, age five, and under from New York

to Dallas. Of the many advantages the move would give us lower cost living, better work, life balance, I can't help but think this might be my chance to divorce myself from this god-awful team that's caused me nothing but pain and suffering since the 80s. My friends think I'm crazy for talking like this, but at the same time, no one can give me a compelling enough argument to keep the JETS Jets, Jets, Jets, chance going deep in the heart of Texas. It would be an amicable divorce like any ex-spouse. The Jets will always hold a special place in my heart, but ultimately, it's not you, it's me. More importantly, think of the children. What kind of a parent would I if I brought this type of dysfunctional baggage across state lines with us.

What do you guys think? Is fandom really till death due us part or do you believe in life after love just like Cher? Robert, what do you got for this one? This is a, there's a lot going on here. This is a complicated question.

I think you should mostly stick with your team, but I also think that people should take care of themselves. Your relationship with your team should be like your relation, any relationship you have in your life. I think you should evaluate all of your relationships under the scope of How does this serve me? Does this serve me in a positive way at all? And if the answer is no, then I think it's okay to reevaluate that relationship.

With this specifically, I can understand saying, oh, you know, this has been awful. Is it worth it? Here's the hypothetical I would bring up to Jason. Let's say the Aaron Glenn era hits. Okay. Let's say this is the next fun, exciting team. Let's say next year they draft a quarterback. and you're dropping a quarterback into a team that has nothing but good vibes.

You're going to be like Squidward looking out the window if you're watching all the other Jets fans back at home, having the time of their lives, and you missed out on it. Imagine being a Lions fan that jumps ship right before the Dan Campbell era started. Imagine being a Washington fan that jumped ship right before they got Jaden Daniels. It'd be miserable. It would be absolutely awful. So I would just, I'd consider that before you decided that this wasn't worth it anymore.

Let the kids do what they want to do. You know, a fandom for kids of that age, I think is very different than it was for me or Jason or Bell or anybody growing up in a different era of things when you had less access to every single team. But for you personally, I would just play out the hypothetical that this Jets team is good and fun and that you suffered through all of that for absolutely nothing. But but but but but then what? What if it's not good?

And then three years from now he has to do the same song and dance with like whatever ex-coordinator they hire now and then on again they'll draft the quarterback like then you just get trapped in the same cycle. I just like you're afraid to leave because you think it might get better. But you're always going to tell yourself it might get better. That's the point. That's the problem. It's a terrible way to think about a relationship.

It's like it's how you get stuck in a terrible relationship. But I, I don't know. no, I just think that the potential downside of leaving before it gets good is better than any potential upside of the pain of rooting for that team or what it would be like to root for the Cowboys in Dallas. Just hang on to it. Like, you've gone so far now. What are you really getting if you move on from the Jets and talk and root for another

team? Especially the Cowboys. Like, to me, it's just... So that's the complicating factor. And I've said, somebody responded when we were so dismissive of Cowboys' fandom and the process of being a Cowboys fan. There are two things I would say to that. One, the idea of being a Cowboys fan and rooting for a team owned by Jerry Jones,

operating in the way that Jerry Jones is currently operating, would drive me insane. Like the idea that your owner could do everything he wanted to make your team better and doesn't, to me is almost a non-starter. Two, can you imagine something less interesting than choosing to be a Cowboys fan when you're not from Dallas? And in this particular offseason and stuff, like, yeah, there's no reason to do that. At least like 20 years ago, they were the team de jure from the 90s. And it was like, oh, my dad was a Cowboys fan when they were America's team.

But even that, I think it's actually more interesting to choose it now because it's a little bit of a zag than it would have been 20 years ago. But at the same time, like, if somebody asked you, you're a fan of X NFL team and your response is the Cowboys. And you're not from Dallas. I would immediately think less of that person. That is pretty ridiculous. That is pretty ridiculous. That's the only part of this that makes it complicated. If it was a different team other than Dallas,

I think I would be a little bit more like, yeah, you should just push away from them. The thing I'll say about moving on from the Jets is like, I think a lot of people are going to say that it's weak and it's like disloyal to jump ship from a team. I think it takes a lot of guts to be like, I'm going to sever all of these old memories. I'm going to save my kids to trouble. I'm going to move into this new section of my life as a sports fan. I think it's brave. And again, this is sports, man.

Protect what is fun to you. And if the Jets are no longer fun, I don't know if the Cowboys are going to be fun, but they're not going to be the Jets probably. I think weighing it on both sides is difficult. Like the downside of if they stay bad and the upside of if they end up being good. But I think if you did the math on that and you thought about the satisfaction that would come with the right Jets team,

in the end, I think that that math is probably in your favor. You're going to come out in the black if that does end up happening. I say this, like, being a Cubs fan was miserable for so long. It was so long.

I cannot describe to you what 2015 and 2016 felt like. It was worth every single awful moment and more. It was tenfold worth it. And so the fact, that that remains a possibility, even if it seems remote, I just want you to consider that before you sever ties forever because I think there might be some regret if it ends up turning

in the right way. There might. And I think that's the difference here. Like, I don't have an experience like that where my ex team was terrible for so long and then they were finally good. But I guess it is a matter of like how long can you put up with it? I don't know. I don't know the answer. You've done it this long. Come on. You've made it this long. But then that's like some cause fallacy. that's like, you know, it's like... The kids are a different thing. Like, I don't think, if you are a fan of an awful team,

I don't think you should imprint that onto your children. If you're watching Jets games and they're around and they want to be with you and they want to spend the time with you and they develop the love for that team in part because you're doing it, that's fine. Like that just happens naturally.

My dad wouldn't let me play football. I wanted to play football because my dad loved football and it was just something that was around. But there was never a you have to root for this team or you have to play this sport. It's just something I wanted to be closer to because of him. And if that ends up happening, that's fine. But I don't think you have to make your kids be Jets fans if you continue to be a Jets fan. Red Zone is available.

They can root for Lamar or whoever they want to because they have access to that stuff now. I think that's a fair spot for us to both agree on. Regardless of whatever your choice is, leave the key. kids out of it. Let them pick whatever they want. All right, fellas. We are going to get to a bunch more questions, but first, we are going to take a quick break. Cotter Burke brings us out a break

and says, we talk a lot about second year leaps from players, but does the same thing apply to play callers? 11 of the league's current defensive coordinators were hired in 2024. Six of those, Anthony Weaver, Zach Orr, Danard Wilson, Jesse Minter, Jeff Halfley, and Chris Shula were first time defensive coordinators last year

and more or less are fully in control of the defensive side of the ball for their teams. Which of these guys are you most excited to see how they evolve in their second season and who in this group has the potential to be the next Mike McDonald where something they do schematically spreads across the league and they become a star head coaching candidate as a result? Derek, you take this one first. That's the million dollar question, right?

Is who's going to be the guy who does something that a lot of other people aren't doing? That I think is a little bit harder to answer. I of that group kind of picked three that I'm really interested in for very different reasons. Denard Wilson, the Tennessee Titans play caller, he is the one that I have at Topolis, most because I look at that roster and outside of some of the guys that they have up front playing defensive tackle,

I was just baffled that they were able to get the defense to play at the level that they were able to get them to play at. And they do do some interesting stuff. They are one of the biggest man-in-quarters teams on first down. No other team in the league ran men or quarters over 50% of the time other than the Tennessee Titans. And so like that, that's a very specific style that they were doing it with. And so I just kind of want to see how he continues to iterate.

And then the other two were obviously Jesse Minter did a really good job with the Chargers. But I talked about in our lingering question show, it was a little bit more of a simple defense than I think we, it felt like in the moment. And I kind of want to see how he expands. And then Anthony Weaver with with the dolphins. To me, one of the most interesting things any defensive play caller can do right now is send pressure and play some sort of too high behind it. The Chiefs and the Vikings love doing it with quarters. Some other teams love doing it with cover two. Anthony Weaver threw a lot of pressures with cover two behind it last year.

So he's one of those guys who is a little bit on the forefront for some of his stuff. So those are probably the three names I'm most keeping my eye on. This is a cop-up, but I think it's all of them. Like, I'm excited to watch what all of them do. Like I think that Chris Shula did. And it was so funny, you know, talking to Chris and also just people in L.A. last year before this season. And this wasn't meant as a slight to Rahim Morris whatsoever.

I think it's just a really good observation for how defenses can manifest differently when they're being called by different people. And so Rahim is a secondary coach by trade. Like that's what he did. His background is obviously super varied. He was an offensive coach. He's done everything. But when you think about where he started and most of his time, it's in the secondary. Chris is a front person.

And so one of the things I think was interesting when they were talking about how the defense might be different this year is like just by nature, I'm going to, to think about defensive football differently than Rahim is because I'm going to start with the front first and work backward where he kind of started with the coverage first and worked forward. And if you look at some of the stunts and the games and how dynamic the Rams front felt last year, you saw that. And so I think that's just a very cool little detail. And I'm curious to see how they take that into year two.

Jeff Halfley, when you think about how dynamic the Packers defense felt last year by necessity because they weren't getting home and the ways that they had to pair a lot of cloud and too high coverages to protect some of their defensive backs with the need to manufacture pressure, a lot of that I think is outside of what we expected from Jeff Halfley in year one.

And so that level of nimbleness and versatility, I'm just going to want to watch a coach who can do that. Like how does that manifest in year two? How does that idea of, all right, this is what I got. It's not working exactly how I want. wanted it to, how do I fix this? That's an interesting process every single time. So I can't wait to watch that again.

You mentioned Jesse Minter. I think he did an excellent job in year one. What does that defense look like in year two as they start to build on everything? I'm 100% with you on Bernard Wilson and Anthony Weaver. And think about how much better the Ravens defense was in the back half of last season. And you have Zach Orr, who's like 33 years old, now heading into his first full, like his second season as a defensive coordinator. think about Mike McDonald in year two versus Mike McDonald in year one.

Like every single one of these guys, I think presents a lot of intrigue as they head into their second seasons. They're all worth watching. And I think because of the Mike McDonald thing, the resurgence that the Ravens defense had at the second half of last year, it feels like Orr doesn't quite get enough credit for it. Because obviously the McDonald defenses were better and they were insane. And then our first exposure to Zach Orr for those first eight weeks or whatever, they just weren't that good of a defense.

They didn't quite know what they wanted to do. And like, that should have been natural, right? First time play caller, calling it differently than the last guy. But it felt like we didn't quite appreciate when it got really, really good that Zach Orr was doing an awesome, awesome job at that deal. I mean, Kyle Van Nuoy had like 10 sacks again. That doesn't happen if the defensive play caller is not doing a good job. There's just so many good defensive architects and play callers in the league right now. And a lot of young guys, which all of these are, you know, I think Anthony Weaver is.

probably the oldest guy on this entire list would be my guess and he's like 42 years old 44 so for the most part these guys are all like in their 30s and 40s and so I think that's really exciting because now Jeff Halfley's actually 46 but he presents much younger than that I think guys that kind of feel like a cool counterbalance to a lot of the younger offensive coaches I'm enjoying that I think that's going to be a fun cat and mouse game over the course of this season. Kyle Kirchner with the next question. This is a question we've received a handful of times over the last few weeks.

So we are going to answer it here. He sets us up with trick play specifically with wide receivers getting the ball that they are now going to pass down the field. He says, why don't they just throw it away if their receiver is covered rather than running out of bounce a few yards behind the line of scrimmage for a loss? Is this due to their inexperience handling the ball behind the line of scrimmage or is it simply not coached? Robert, what do we got here?

I think the answer to this is pretty simple. And again, we're only answering as multiple people have asked. this question. If you're running a reverse of some kind and it's a run play, the limer going to be downfield. You're going to get a penalty of some kind if you end up throwing the ball. So I think that's probably the biggest deterrent. That is definitely the biggest one. And I will say, actually, I don't think it's that it's a ball handling issue because I would think, especially in the scenarios where it is a designed pass, the only reason you're calling those plays is because you actually do trust the guy to handle the ball, whether it's like, I'm thinking

of like Muhammad Sunu, Julian Edelman. It's like you actually are trusting them. So to me it's not that. It's that like you don't want to run the risk of illegal man downfield. Because at that point any wonky play is going to like you're risking that. It's even why RPO's I think are tricky in the NFL now. And the way that they are starting to call them is because like you're just risking illegal man downfield.

Nothing good can happen. If the play's coming back anyway, only something bad can happen if you end up throwing the ball. And so I think that's why it's just not worth doing. All right, guys, little service journalism. Good job us. Ellis Johnson with the next question here. And he says, do you think we look too much into free agency signings and draft picks as indicators of whether teams have gotten better or worse and not enough about the teams simply getting a year older? I think that important players being one year older often has more to do with the improvement or regression of teams than it gets credit for. At this point in the offseason, the vast majority of fan bases seem to think their team has taken a massive step forward because of the players they added. But every year, there seems to be a team or two that unexpectedly falls. because some of their star players take a step back. And this brings me to another question, which teams do you think could be most vulnerable

to this type of regression this season that aren't being talked about? Derek, let it roll. I think this is a really good question. And I think it's, it's, I do think that you have to weigh free agency and like, especially first-on draft picks pretty heavily in terms of like what can improvement be

because you're just adding a new factor. And because we don't know exactly what the value of that particular, thing is yet, you can sell yourself on the idea that it's going to like really amp everything up. And that's why I do think that is important. I do think sometimes we- Think about the Philadelphia Eagles. Yes, you add Sequin Barclay to the mix. Again, they were already like one of the most talented offenses, but you add a guy that explosive.

Coming off of a pretty objectively bad year, then yes, like certain stuff like that can happen. You can go win a Super Bowl. And Quinyon. Yeah, and Cooper DeGis. That's a good point. They are the example of like if you just add stuff. then yes, eventually, if it all hits right, then you can get there. And I do think getting older, though, I do think that that is important.

And it's kind of why I'm betting on this year, the Packers offense in general, like, I know we keep saying they don't have a star player, but to me, the fact that they're all so young have continued to play together in the same offense. And offense, I think is called really well. I'm going to continue to bet on them because they're young and getting older. And then the Bucks offensive line, they're all like 25 years old and on contract for the next couple of years together. That because they're going to get older together, play together, grow together.

That's why I'm betting on it. So that to me, like, and they're a good example because, like, I think Igbuka is going to help the Bucke's offense, right? But to me, I'm more betting on them and betting on any sort of improvement because the young offensive line who we know is good is going to keep getting better and playing together. So this is fascinating. You did not answer Ellis's question.

He didn't mention getting, he wasn't talking about getting a year older as a good thing. he was talking about being a year older as a bad thing. But here's the funny part about this. When I first read the question, I read it like you did. Not until Beller reread it, did I actually see what he was saying? Because that's the part I thought was interesting, is that when you're thinking about why teams are going to improve, I don't think we account for growth from their in-house players enough as we think about that.

To me, the best example of this is the Broncos from last year. The Broncos didn't do anything crazy in free agency in the draft. They drafted Bo Nix and obviously changing out the quarterback is a huge part of this. But the Broncos weren't this super aggressive team in free agency last year. The biggest things the Broncos did for why they improved were like Nick Benito getting a lot better as a young player. It was Cortland Sutton playing at a different level than he had over the last couple years. And so I think that's the part I kind of locked on to because I identify that as something that we're not very good at picking up on because it's really difficult to do. Because as you're thinking about the Eagles defense last year, obviously going out and getting Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeGine is hugely important, Zach Bonn.

But the growth from Jalen Carter from what he was as a rookie to what he was in his second year, that plays a huge role in it. And you can't automatically pencil that in because it's not necessarily going to happen. But I think that explains some of the variance and some of the misses with how we project these teams because it's just really, really difficult to account for that sort of in-house improvement. Yeah, you don't actually know. Like Carter took the huge step. We all thought Benton, Keanu Benton, for the Steelers, are going to take the step. And then he didn't.

And then even with the Eagles, it's like they're kind of the best of both worlds because they added all those new players. right, like Quinyon Mitchell, they added Cooper DeGine, and they were huge hits and made them better. But also, like, Nicobi Dean played better and more healthy than he had ever before. Jordan Davis, I think, was actually better than he had been before. Even Milton Williams, who was a younger player for them, had taken a step. Like, Nolan Smith, off the edge, like he had taken a step. And so all of their young guys took a step. So I do think those, like, mid-20s guys getting another year is always going to be successful.

To answer the question of teams that were maybe scared or getting a little bit older, the reason I had the 49. as low as I did is in part because of that. Like Christian McCaffrey's an older back. Kyle Uschek is getting old, by the way, for a guy who plays as violently as he does. Trent Williams, obviously getting older. George Kittle, even though he's coming off one of his best seasons.

Like they're just a team where if a lot of those age cliffs hit at the wrong time, you're looking at something a little scary. I don't know what other teams I would necessarily throw in there as teams that are a little bit older and like regression might be coming for them. I have one. And I really don't want this to happen because I think the best version of them could be awesome.

But like with the Rams, you have Matthew Stafford, who's an older quarterback. Devante Adams is getting up there. And even Rob Havenstein, exactly. He's 34 now. Like, it's just, there's a world where some of those guys can't play quite to their peak anymore. If you look at it, there aren't that many good teams around the league that are among the oldest teams in the league on either side of the ball. like Minnesota actually is older than you think based on who was playing last year but now the quarterback's getting really young so I mean I think there's a chance that the Vikings

that's all Harrison Smith Harrison Smith but also Stefan Gilmore last year like they had some older pieces that are no longer as central to their plans I think the Niners offense is probably the best example the Niners offense was the oldest offense in the league last year by snap weighted age and so that's even before you think about that group getting a year older so the Niners essentially feeling a little bit creakier than you want them to is a good example of this. Other than that, I don't think there are that many clear-cut teams that, like, oh, man, are they going to age faster than we want them to? I think the Niners' offense is probably the best example.

Okay, guys, we are going to take one more break here, and then we'll come back, answer a few more questions, and get on out of here. Andrew Grubbs gets going here. Raiders fan. This offseason has been so positive. It got me thinking of how bad things felt short while ago. And one offseason this team went from Antonio Pearson, Gardner, Minchu to Pete Carroll and Gino Smith. I've been racking my brain trying to think about a time where a team has improved at those two important spots more drastically in one offseason, and I can't think of one. Is this the single biggest single season upgrade at Coach NQB ever? Ever.

Robert, what do you got here? I think it's hard to do the coach part of this because I'm not sure how measurable it would be like, what's the actual improvement from Coach A to Coach B? I will throw out two possible answers here that switched out their coach and their quarterback in one off season. And I think the upgraded quarterback was arguably bigger for these two teams. The 2012 Arizona Cardinals, who were coached by Ken Wisenhunt, had Kevin Cobb, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley,

each start at least four games for that team. The following year, they hired Bruce Ariens and traded for Carson Palmer, which is a pretty drastic upgrade considering Carson Palmer started playing. Carson Palmer that next season threw for 4,300 yards after those other guys were the collective four quarterbacks for those Cardinals teams. So the Bruce Ariens, Ken Wisenhunt thing, I think is a complicating factor, but that would be one of the ones I would throw out. And then one after Derek's heart here, the 2010 Carolina Panthers going from Jimmy

Claussen to Cam Newton the following year. and John Fox was the coach. You know, John Fox has been a good coach. So maybe that upgrade to Ron Rivera isn't that extreme. But I think that one's absolutely in the conversation just by virtue of the upgraded quarterback. Yeah. You're both, you're both of those are playing after my heart because the Newton one is, in terms of like going to rookies, like I tried to hold off on rookies because sometimes you just don't know. But that in terms of like rookie improvement, that and then luck the year after our two of the most insane.

Like we went from nothing to a very obvious. superstar at the position. So those are good. And then the Palmer one is actually where my mind went first. Like that Ariens and Palmer team, like they, they were so good. And obviously 2015 was the year they really took off. But that that team was insane. I had a couple of other ones, though. Andy Reed and Alex Smith in 2013 taking over for the chiefs. That's such a good one. That's such a good one. Romeo Cornell and Matt Castle beforehand, which is like, Romeo Cornell is a good defensive play caller. But I think as a head coach, it usually did not work for him. So that was one I had.

That was one way. And we've said that. We've made that comparison between that chief's team and this Raiders team multiple different times this offseason. And that's one more area where it's the simple act of how much of an upgrade it is. I think is worth noting in both cases. That's a really good one. How funny is it too, by the way, that that and the Cardinals one happened in the same year where they both went from like terrible quarterback and head coach and then instantly became 10 win teams because you change it. Sometimes it's that simple. And then I did have one more. Sean Payton and Drew Breeze in 2006, replacing Jim Haslett and Aaron Brooks. Drew Breeze immediately led the NFL in passing yards.

Immediately. You threw for like 44 hundred yards and they won 10 games. So that might be the best one, honestly. I think that's probably the best one. Getting a Hall of Fame quarterback and a Hall of Fame coach in one single offseason when you had below average results at both of those spots, that's a really, really good one. I'm actually a little bit jealous that I didn't think of that one.

and they won the Super Bowl, what, four years into that, five years? So, I mean, that's pretty dang good. Okay, guys, Alec Aitian's got the next question. He says, I've always been confused about the positions people claim, quote, you can find anywhere in the draft. I feel like I have most commonly heard this about running backs, receivers, linebackers, and most confusing to me, corners. What about the evaluation process or the different ways these positions are used in the NFL, makes it so these ones in particular have such a high likelihood of vastly outperforming their draft position. In particular, the corner spot where the narrative has always been that it's one of the hardest

positions in football and theoretically should be even harder for rarer prospects drafted later on to adjust to. Robert, you take this one first. We've talked about this in a lot of different ways. I think their receiver is probably, I would not include receiver in this. I think there are more receivers available than they've ever been. But I still think that there's probably more of a scarcity there when you look at how the position is rewarded and paid.

Like there's always going to be a Pukuner. Nakua every so often or a third round pick that outperforms expectations. But I do think that receivers are still a highly drafted position for a reason. Linebackers, safeties, I think I would throw into this as well and running backs. You can find them in a bunch of different places for a lot of reasons. They're not rewarded in free agency. So you can find capable starting caliber players in free agency at those spots where you can't at a lot of other positions.

Like you're going to have guys like Blake Hashman. It's just like a name out there out there. Like there are not Blake Cashman's available at receiver in free agencies, in free agency most years. Like look at, look at free agency receivers or free agent receivers over the last like three or four years. It just doesn't happen very often. And I think the other part of this,

and we've talked about this with linebacker, but I think it extends to some of these other positions, they're not necessarily positions where successes derived and dictated by physical ability. So it's going to be harder to identify the best players, and it's going to be harder to identify, capable players at those spots, which is why you can find them a little bit later in the draft. And I think with corners specifically, part of this is just what's being asked of corners in the modern NFL. You can just hide your corners a little bit differently and a little bit better

when you're playing as much zone and as much too high zone as a lot of these teams are. So they're just more available corners that can execute the scheme that you're trying to run. That's honestly how I approach the question is that position, that you can quote, you know, find later are usually because you're hiding them or dumbing down the scheme in one way or another to allow them to work. Like, sure, you can throw anybody out there at corner if you want to play a little bit more cover two or just play base cover three all the time. Like the Colts kind of got away with that for a little bit. Like run stuffing defensive tackles, we kind of talk about it as a position that, oh, you can just find them anywhere.

And it's like, yeah, because the use case is like, no matter what front we're playing, we're just going to put them in the middle on first and second down. And that's going to be that. and it's like not that complicated to get him out on the field. Running backs. Like if your offensive line is so good, the talent of the running back probably matters a little bit less and you can go a little bit cheaper there and kind of make that work. And then corner, you make a really good point.

Like I think to play corner at the highest level and to be a Christian Gonzalez, Patrick Sartan, like one of the elite guys, it is really, really hard to do that. But you can just kind of not dumb down the scheme, but play a certain handful of coverages. We're not going to put a lot on the corners. We're going to ask our safeties and linebackers to do a lot. We're going to throw a bunch of BS pressures at you and we're going to win that way. You can get away with that as corner.

If we were living in more of a man coverage world like 15 years ago, then no, I don't think that you could find corners anywhere. But you can find Cam Hart's now to give you decent zone coverage play. Looking at corners specifically, okay, looking at the average salary for corners. And I think you can compare this to a position like linebacker, for example. Here are the highest paid cornerbacks in the NRAC. NFL in order. And Jair Alexander would have been on this list, but is no longer because he obviously got cut. In order.

Derek Stingley, J.C. Horn, Jalen Ramsey, Patrick Sartan the 2nd, A.J. Terrell, Denzae, Ward, Marshaun, Lattimore, Marlon Humphrey, Trayvon, Diggs, Tyson, Cable, with Jerry Seneed, Jalen Johnson. The first, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight names on that list were first round picks. Yeah, I mean, that's all but two, right? Yeah, Trayvon Diggs and Tyson Campbell are, were second round picks. That's right. was a second round pick.

So the only guy I just... It's just Sneed. It's just Sneed. It's just Sneed who's outside of pre-mead. It's just Sneed among all of those guys. And so you do the same exercise for offball linebackers. Okay. Fred Warner was a third round pick. Roquant Smith first round pick.

Tremaine Edmund's first round pick. Zach Ball and second round pick plays a different position. Jamie and Sherwood, Nick Bolton, Patrick Queen. Nick Bowling and Patrick Queen were second round picks, but Aziz Al Shire, Tarell Bernard, Drey, Greenlaw, Zaire, Franklin. We're talking about a different thing there. Let's get to safeties.

Okay? Safety's Kirby Joseph's the highest-paid safety in league. He was a third-round pick. Antoine Winfield was a second-round pick. Derwin and Minko were first-round picks. Buda not a first-round pick. Trevor Merrick, not a first-round pick. Xavier McKinney, not a first-round pick. Jesse Bates was a third-round pick. Javon-Hawlin was a second-round pick.

Cam Bynum was like a fifth round pick. Kyle Dugger was a second-round pick. Jailen Petrie was a second round pick. So there's no first-round picks at safety. compared to all first round picks at corner. And if you look at the receiver list, for example, that's a lot of first round picks again. So I think that's what we're talking about here.

It's like the idea of being able to find them anywhere, it changes a little bit. Corner, though, is it's funny that the highest paid corners are all first round picks, though. It's about what you want out of your cornerbacks when you're trying to have this discussion. Well, and that's the thing. I think you can find playable corners anywhere, so to speak.

You can't find the all pros anywhere. You need to find those guys in the first round. Yeah. And I think receivers kind of like that too. I think there are more examples of receiver. Outside of the stray Pooka Nakua. Yes. And the Pukukua's and the AJ Browns are going to happen every so often.

But a lot of those guys are going pretty high in the draft these days. Ryan Hall has our next question. He says, Therz Pailer used to say the contract year is undefeated. The Chiefs 2022 draft class was among the best we've seen in recent memory. And that was a pretty loaded class overall. They have some incredibly tough decisions to make, as will many other teams. With that in mind, I'd love to hear about some guys entering contract years that could alter the NFL landscape going forward.

Which players are you thinking about that are facing a truly pivotal year to earn a second contract, level up their demands, or truly establish themselves as elite players at their position? Derek Classen, take this one first. Yeah, I kind of viewed this mostly as the guys who are kind of in the Milton Williams-esque era. like, it's a great example. And so to me, that's like, Abe Lucas could be this, right? Where, like, if he has a really healthy and good season,

either the Seahawks are going to end up paying him a shit ton of money or somebody on the market is going to be willing to pay him a ton of money. And so he's kind of a player I had in that bucket. AJ Epinessa, I think is a guy who, like, he's, one,

it's a contract year for him. But two, they just brought in Joey Bosa to, like, kind of replace him. And I wonder if that's one of those things where he just gets a little of it, you know, fire lit under him. And he, he kind of has a season where he goes out and maybe has 10 sacks and he's a guy who gets paid. Another passer rusher was like Adafio way for the Ravens,

obviously. Like if he has, he's had decent seasons before and if he times that well, he could have another one. The one to me that I was looking at, not even from the perspective of a guy who's going to make the jump to a leap, but a guy who I think has a chance to get like his last really good payday and is coming from a bad situation. David and Joku has very little. competition in the Brown's past catcher room. And if he has a really healthy season, this is like his last chance to really go get paid. He's about to turn 30.

That's one I'm actually like kind of interested in seeing how that goes. You had a couple deeper cuts on yours than I have on mine. I went a little bit closer to the top of the market. But just guys that I think there's a decent amount of variance for what a good and bad season for them would look like. I think that there are timelines where George Pickens makes one year and like $8 million in his next stop next year. I also think there's a timeline where George Pickens makes like $25 million a year.

Yep. In terms of shaping the market and like shaping the landscape of the league, that actually probably is the biggest one. Because money-wise, he would probably be the most per year. There's just a ton of variance with him specifically. Less variance, but I do think that a big season from him, another big season from him, could net him a ton of, of money.

If he takes a step back, maybe he falls outside of that, like, top or second tier, like Nick Benito. Like, let's say Nick Benito gets another dozen sacks this year

compared to a five-sack season. I think what he's getting paid, there's a little bit of a difference there. And the last one I would throw out, I think it's closer to the Pickens one that it is the Benito one, Tareke Wallen. Oh,

that's an incredible one. That might, I think that's more interesting, than the pickings one, honestly. That's a really, really good one. But couldn't you see having Tariq Wohlin having the type of season where he's up near the top of the cornerback market? And couldn't you also see him having the type of season

where he gets one year $8 million? Oh, absolutely. I could see him being the guy that somebody signs, like early on in free agency next year where they're just trying to give him one more chance to see if we can fix him. Or he could have an incredible season in the second year of Mike McDonald's defense.

And he's, you know, maybe not resetting the corner market, but he would be pretty high up there. And that one, not even for shaping the landscape of like free agency, money, all that stuff. How good would the Seahawks defense be if he plays to that level this year? They would be unbelievably good. We got a couple of cool questions about like X factors and like the most important players on certain units that we'll do as part of preview shows later on. But I think Tariq Wall and may end up being a pretty big X factor for the Seahawks and for that defense this year. You better be. They've got the worst offensive supporting cast in the league, according to one of you guys.

You know what? You know what? Fuck. Never been a better time to have the last question of the episode. That comes to us from Curtis Hughes. Curtis says, I live in Eastern Canada, not really near any football cities, and I'm heading to my first NFL game next season. I can appreciate that this answer might be different for every person, but what to you makes for a great NFL game day experience as a fan? Is it the seats, the tailgate, being at your team? team's home field, food, the other fans, stadium, your team winning. What is it? Robert, you take this one first. To me, it's just all atmosphere. And that can be a bunch of different aspects to it. I think that there are certain stadiums where the tailgate culture becomes a part of what

it's like to attend a game at that place. And the two that immediately jump out to me are Kansas City and Green Bay. Like, when you are going to Arrowhead or you're going to Lambo, there are such huge parking lots around those places that the tailgate just becomes part of the. experience. And I've always appreciated that. I went to, at the time, it was a big 12 school, but it was, you know, big state school football team was really good. And there was tailgate culture on that that was really cool. But the first time I ever went to like a real SEC tailgate before a football game is when

I went to see Alabama play LSU when they were one and two. I want to say it was like 2012 or 2013. I went to write a story about it. And I've never experienced anything like that. So that element of it where you're eating cool. stuff. There was a tailgate with like alligator and I had some of that. And so just those kind of like fun foods, everyone that's out grilling, like that aspect of it I think is really fun. But for me, it's always, what does the stadium feel like? Like is that place rocking in a way that is memorable to you? And I think the two I come back to where I was just sitting there before the game and I was like, I cannot believe I get to do this for work. Where a cup there with the Seahawks game when they

played the Niners in week two of the 2013 season because that stadium is so cool. It's at like I think the north end of downtown and one end of the stadium, I think it might be the south end of the stadium. There's like a huge staircase that you walk up to to get to the stadium and then it's kind of open. Like it's not a closed stadium on that side. They have seating there, but it's almost like a bunch of bleachers the way that it looks. So there's still like you can see into the stadium even though there is seating in that end zone.

And so I always love that. Like you walk up into it and you're kind of like looking into the stadium in a way that you wouldn't be in others. And then obviously that place is notorious. Like it's just loud as shit. It's unbelievable. And then the other one was the Minneapolis Miracle game when that stadium was new, that place was rocking. And so that to me is the most important thing. It doesn't matter if it's home or away, especially if you don't have a team that you're rooting for.

Like going to a place where you just feel how electric it is, that's the thing. to me is what dictates whether or not is a cool or not cool experience. You want as much stuff as you cannot get from watching the game at home. That's what you want. So if it's the atmosphere of the tailgate and stuff, and that's why probably pick a fun city, right? Like I'm sure like Philly is really fun for the purposes of this. Like just a place where you know, that's the thing.

I would want to pick a game where I know the home crowd is going to get up for it no matter what, which like, again, Philly is going to be like that. Seattle's probably going to be like that. A place like that, I think makes a lot of sense. To me, the thing I would say for seating is like if you are, if you are really trying to watch the game, obviously a higher seat is better, you can see more. If you are just trying to experience the sport, the closer you can get the better. And your view is going to be worse.

But there is something that you can't get from watching football on TV about like feeling how fast and how hard those guys are hitting. I think that's hard to do in person. I think there's a better chance you'll find yourself in no man's land. you try to sit close, then there is that you'll be close enough to actually get a sense of that. I would encourage people to sit a little bit higher up at an NFL game if they were going. Maybe if it's your first, but I don't know. That's one of those things that I feel like if you get close enough, you can, you can feel it in a way that you're never going to on TV.

Interesting. I've never really thought about that. I guess it's because I watch enough practices now where I've like seen it really, really close. Yeah, but it's very different. It's very, very different. I think the sport where that's felt the most different to me when it comes to the experience of watching it on TV versus watching it in person is like hockey and basketball. When you're sitting really, really close for both of those sports, it changes. You can only sit so close in an NFL stadium.

Like the stands are very far away from the playing field. So even if you're close, you'd have to be in like the first 10 rows, I think, to really understand like the violence of it. And if you look at NFL ticket prices right now, it's hard to get into the first 10 rows. It's hard to get there. I'm just saying, like, if you can, I do think there's an element of like hearing the crunch that close that is, it's a little bit different. I enjoy sitting up high. We had seats in the end zone when I was a kid.

I always loved watching it that way. So even now, I don't mind being a little bit higher up so I can see everything unfolding as it's happening. So that's probably the advice that I would give. All right. That's all we got for this week's mailbag. As always, sincerely appreciate everyone who spent the time to send in questions. It really means a lot.

We always get such great ones. I've enjoyed doing these every single week. So thank you very much for your role and all of that. For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.