The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Mailbag Part 2: Mobile QBs, Rams’ team building philosophy, hiring coordinators & more

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Robert Mays and Nate Tice continue their post-Super Bowl mailbag by discussing mobile QBs and if the league attitude has shifted this season. Plus, is there a QB surplus in the NFL with more qualified candidates than actual positions? They dive into that, the Rams’ team building philosophy and their dream coaching staff for an expansion team. They wrap the show by discussing their most unpopular take. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. Today's Monday, February 21st. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today, it's like a good friend Nate. How you doing, buddy? I feel like I never left your side.

That's how I'm feeling right now. But doing well, I'm excited that we keep to do these mailback questions. Fans have been, I mean, some of these are great. I loved it. The last one we started with a Philip Rivers question that was tickled my brain. I got to think about the mid-2000s. That was perfect. I love a little nostalgia.

So you guys do a great job sending these in. I'm excited to get to more of them. It's why I enjoy doing them, because the questions are always great. And they're always worth answering and they make me think about stuff. You guys do such a great job with them that there's no reason for us not to lean into this every once in a while. And it's a perfect time to do it here as we wait into the offseason a little bit. So we're going to keep going through these.

A lot of good ones still to come. We're going to start with Corey Kranick. I sent in a question last offseason asking if we'd ever see a non-mobile quarterback get drafted high again. It was pretty clear you thought it was must in this age. However, it feels like league attitude has shifted a bit after this season, with Mack being the best rookie and Burrow being great without being a huge running threat. I still can't shake the feeling watching these guys.

They're still playing with a different set of rules than mobile quarterbacks, Alan Jackson, Mahomes, Herbert level speed. Have two thoughts and questions. Do you feel the same as last year about the Russian fat? Practically speaking, would you rather have Burrow or Herbert also Fields or Jones? I still think I want the running threat, even if the week-to-week consistency isn't there yet. as a Browns fan, it feels like it should be part of the calculus of Baker, even if he recovers him in the shoulder and finds a way to be consistent.

His play is still lacking that run threat and therefore cap the different level. If he had the same up-down play but was dynamic, I'd be more willing to stick it out. I have certain thoughts about this. I'm curious how you would answer to this right now in February of 2022. It's actually really a continuation of our discussion from the last mailbag. And that's, I'd much rather have heard just because of the room for error that a quarterback that can maneuver and create can do.

And not that burrow is, you know, some stiff. He can create plenty with his legs. That's actually, I think really, that's not a limitation for him. It's just that he rather win for the pocket. Yes. It's, yeah, it really is. He'd rather win from the pocket. And then he has that emergency, you know, break glass in case of emergency attribute to him

and be able to create with his legs. We've got to see in the conference championship game. And I think that's, that's what it is, is Mike Jones is actually a great kind of like test tube to like watch this unfold a guy day one coming into modern football that's truly a pocket passer he's okay using his legs like but he he does not want to do it you're not running design runs with mac jones you're not running zone read with mac jones you're not doing any of that type of stuff so i think you need it you need those guys that can create it doesn't have to be oh scrambling around running around like lamar but it also it has to be just creating off platform and getting a bucket

is how I always put it, but extending plays outside the pocket. And then when you say that, it's turning a play that would have been one, two, three into one, two, three, four, five as far as time to throw. And that's what you need. You just need. And also the other thing is we, we'd say athletic, athletic, athletic. It's big and athletic. You can't just be a skinny quarterback in these days.

It's too many hits. It's too many guys grabbing at you in the pocket, too much speed coming at you. And that's where we're going about talk about Baker in a second. You know, some of the limitations of smaller guys crop up. and talking height and girth as well. But these big, freaky guys, I just think it's like, it gives you so much more room for error and room for success. The nuances of how we talk about mobility.

It's not rushing threat to me. It's can you create something that isn't fair? Are you a playmaking quarterback? The way that a play is supposed to unfold, you get a play call, ball was snapped. The routes distribute how they're going to do, the defense alliance how it's supposed to. Can you do something beyond?

what the details of the play allowed. Can you do something that it shouldn't be there? Can you make your play call right when the play call and the defense that was called should make it wrong? Joe Burrow isn't Lamar Jackson the way that he runs, but he absolutely can do that for you. Think about how many guys Joe Burrow makes miss in the pocket. My thing is, can you make a play that isn't there and do you have a superpower? Do you have a superpower as a quarterback?

You have to have one. Joe Burrow has one. Joe Burroughs pocket mobility and his anticipation and accuracy, I think, are there. But to me, his pocket mobility and the way that he can navigate that space, that is his superpower. Okay. Matthew Stafford has a superpower. The backside throws and the arm angles, the freaking no look throw to Cooper Cup, that is Matthew Stafford's superpower. The arm angles and the things he can do on the backside of stuff, that creates something that is not available in the typical one to two design of the play.

So can you do that? does your quarterback make your play caller right? Or does your quarterback have to be pointed in the correct direction all of the time? And that is what Baker Mayfield is. Baker Mayfield has to be pointed in the right direction. When he is pointed in the right direction, it looks good, man. He can really throw it. I mean, there's some RPMs on that ball.

But if you break that picture for him in the slightest and he has to create on his own, think about how panicked he looks in some of those moments. Yeah. Kirk Cousins is an example of this. Kirk Cousins, when it's all pointed in the right direction, it can look real good, man. Amazing. Really good. As a thrower of the football, he is really talented.

As soon as you change one of those variables and the picture becomes unfavorable, it's over. And that is what you have to have. I don't think you need a guy that is a bulldozer like Josh Allen is on third and three. But I need somebody that is going to create a play that isn't there. That is the bar that I need clear. Yep. And that's what it is. It's Herbert.

And that's the other thing about Herbert. And we talked about this on the last mailback is that, yes, he's a big, freaky quarterback, but he's also cerebral as it gets. And he goes to the right spots. And so that's why he is so good is that he can go to one to two to three if it's all clean for him or you can go one to two and go, oh, screw this. I'm going to, I'm going to go make something happen or I'm going to, you know, change the angles of the throws.

This comes up a lot in the red zone when because red zone happens so fast. And it's usually one and done. You are rarely getting it to two because that's just how it works. So when you see these guys, and this is where Mahomes always stands out and seeing these guys break contained, change the arm ankle and throw a little sidearm ball to the sideline. That's a touchdown. That play wasn't there. That's getting a bucket. That's creating something.

And that's really the parameter for this. It's guys that when it's clean, they can create or clean, they can read it out. Guys, when it's not clean, they can create something or they can find the clean throw. It's like a pre-snap post-nap operation. And that's what scares me with Baker always. I've made the joke that he's like Russell Wilson without the athleticism. And now as Russell doesn't scramble a lot, it's kind of funny how they kind of started in the middle in the middle.

And having this where I bring up the size stuff as well, we think of size and the height with quarterback position being, oh, they get the ball batted all the time. Guess what? There's tall quarterbacks that get the ball batted all the time too. It's more that they can't see that area of the field from zero to 10 yards over the middle of the field in between the hashes. It's just very, very hard. And when you see a guy like Baker who always has to drift back,

or kind of drift to the side to find those throwing lanes or just straight. Or it's tippy toes. Just finds a way to avoid throwing those throws going, well, that's answer. That's one a one or that's one to two. I'm going to always throw two because I can see it. If you ever knows, I always saw this in college was bait. They would run a ton of mesh. Of course, it did Lincoln Riley.

On mesh, sometimes you can tag the outside route just to be a straight out route. I've never seen a quarterback throw the out route more than Baker did on mesh. And it's vivid in my brain against Tennessee. You can look it up against Tennessee. He threw it like seven times. I'm like read it out. Throw the dig. The dig is going to be wide open.

I guarantee you if you read it out, but he just kept there on the out for 12 yards. It was fine. It's fine in college. I get it. NFL, those players are a little better. I think that's what Baker. He doesn't have that supernatural athleticism.

He thinks he does. He thinks he's faster. He absolutely does. And that's where you see his limitations because that it used to get away with it. And now he can't. So now he has to. operate on time and that's just not his deal. It's just that, yeah,

that's the limitations at him that crops up. And it became more prevalent this season as maybe, you know, his footwork really came unraveled throughout the season and he just didn't have that consistency to help him out. Going back to the Mac Jones part of this briefly, I don't know if Mac Jones has a superpower. Mac Jones might be like 96% of what Mac Jones is going to be.

And we'll have to see how that ultimately plays out. But just because he was the best rookie quarterback so far, doesn't mean he's going to end up being the best rookie quarterback. Joe Burrow's ceiling to me was certainly higher than Mack Jones's, even after that rookie year, because of the pocket mobility and because of the ability to extend. If you look at even Joe Burr this year, like the aggressiveness when anyone would send more than four, every single time they blitz, there was a play available down the field because of how he could extend plays and just his overall physical skill set is better than Mac Jones is.

So I think that Mac Jones, like you said, will be a good test case for that as well. because if you don't have one of those obvious superpowers, even in a subtle way, the way that Joe Burrow does, what ultimately ends up happening to you. Yeah. And that's the thing with Mac Jones is, yeah,

if I say he's 96% there. That's how I feel about it. Whatever the numbers. Maybe it's 70%. I don't know. But I think it's closer than it is with some of these other guys. Because how he wins is Mac Jones is incredibly accurate. So that's how he wins.

Okay. That's his ace trait. Now, okay, you can be super accurate if you're going to the ball with the right spot or you have the time in the pocket to find a spot to be super accurate too. Now what if you don't? Now this old line's good for the Patriots. What if in a couple of years it falls apart? And he has to carry the team.

Okay. That's where the question marks come up for him. And that's what you say. Yes, right now, a rookie year, he had the best situation for these rookie quarterbacks to be dropped into. But this kind of feels like it's it with him, which is fine. It's fine. But that's the thing.

That's the difference. When you get adjusted and fields, okay, you're looking for the flashes because then this is that he had a terrible situation that he went into with the bears. Now you see the flashes. If it gets more consistent around him. And now it's like, ooh, now not everything has to be relied on him. And he just grows and those flashes become more consistent.

It's like those highs are so much higher than like a guy like Mac Jones can hit. And I don't want to talk ourselves into that too far. I don't want to be characters of ourselves and be like, oh, look, think about those highs of Justin Fields and ignore the quiet traits that Mack Jones does well. Like there are aspects to the way his feel in the podcast. pocket, the way he plays on time, everything else. That is encouraging to me.

The timing of the way that Justin Fields plays, we're going to have a lot of second of your quarterback conversations over the next couple months. But just a slight preview of that. I am worried, you and I've talked about this, the internal clock stuff with Justin Fields, the pace at which he plays the position does concern me at times.

And that is not the case with Mac Jones. So you're talking about two different things. You're talking yourself into the inverse of each one, right? With Justin feels like, oh, the highs are so high. I'm willing to ignore the process stuff every once in a while. With Mac Jones, like, oh, whatever, the process stuff is fine. The highs aren't high enough. So you're having two different conversations, and it becomes really interesting.

So we will talk a lot about those guys a lot more here as we get into the off season. So no worries about that. All right. Marissa, what's our next voicemail here? Hey, Robin, Nate. This is Nick Collins and Brooklyn. Love the show. I appreciate all the time and content you guys have given us over the course of the last few years.

With all the veteran quarterback trade rumors and movement over the last few years and seemingly, you know, three to five first round quarterbacks coming into the league every single year, is it possible we are in a position now where we're going to have a quarterback surplus in the league with more qualified candidates than actual position? Curious what you guys think of, you know, we've always thought about quarterbacked as this very scarce position. Is it possible we're heading in the other direction? We love to show and look forward to your answer. this is a corollary, I think, of the conversation that we've been having. But how would you answer this question? Okay. It's for me, it's a two part.

I'm going to talk a little about both sides of my mouth here. I think that that low bar for starting quarterback, like what looks decent out there, I think the quality has risen for maybe 20 years ago, 25 years ago. There are more competent quarterbacks now. Competent, yes. But, but the high end is, it's like the, It's kind of the line going upwards. Like to get that high end guy, it's going to be even harder to find those guys.

We're talking about I just said Justin Herbert, such a rare package of traits. It's going to be very, it's harder than ever to find that because you don't win just being cerebral now. You have to be also a plus athlete with plus size. And getting that package of guys or package of traits in one guy at a quarterback position is going to be harder than ever. But I do think that lower bar back in the day, it felt like there's only 10 guys that could really play as. that quarterback in the league. And you're like, wow, every year. Oh, who's this guy starting?

Tommy Maddox? Yeah, sure. Come on down. And now it's more, okay, 22 guys feel like, okay, at least we don't look like a total shit show. We always want to get better. But that's the thing is that each tier bump is a huge bump for team play. Quarterbacks raise the ceiling of your team.

Each tier raises you another couple wins. Like each tier of quarterback is worth another one to two wins for your team. It just is. That's what it is. And now it's even harder to find that top, top tier guy. So it's kind of talking about both sides of my mouth. Yes, the bar is a little lower, but the ceiling is even higher for these guys, I think. All right.

Let's do a little exercise. Okay. In his four years as the Vikings starter, what do you think Kirk Cousins is quarterback ratings? Oh, man. Probably, I think it's right at 100, right? 103.5. 103. Okay.

It was a big deal when I was growing up to be over 100. This is what I'm getting to. Big deal. In three years as the Titan starter, what do you think Ryan Tanhill's quarterback ratings? Oh, God. 99. 102. Oh,

another one around there. In five years as the Niners starter, what do you think Jim McGrawless quarterback ratings? Oh, God. 105. It's 98.3. They got flipped it. So all these guys are right in the same range, right?

Yep. You can get that. You can get the numbers and the efficiency that's going to, and quarterback rating is garbage. We don't know that, but it's going to put you right at the old standard of really, really good.

That is where the baseline level of quarterback play exists in the NFL. And this is for a number of different reasons. The three guys that I talked about are in incredibly quarterback-friendly situations by virtue of the offenses that they play. Half the league now runs some version of the Shanahan system, which has always been an argument. The argument for it is that it lifts quarterback play to a certain baseline level. I think there are different offensive systems in the league, but I think that overall, the teams pressing the easy buttons more often, schematically about putting their players in positions to succeed,

about just a different view of how coaching in the league should work, has been one reason that quarterback play has been elevated. The rules have made it much easier to play quarterback in the NFL. The amount of passing at lower levels has made it a lot easier to play quarterback in the NFL. Finding a functional quarterback, somebody who is not going to trip all over himself while playing the position in the NFL, in my opinion, has never been easier. But where does that get you? cares. Right. We can find another one. You have one of the dozen guys that, you know, can complete 68% of his passes and have 100 pass a rating and is all bunched up in that middle group. Where does that bring you? It makes you just good enough to lose a lot. That's exactly what it does. So I think that filling that spot of starting quarterback on a depth chart and not being embarrassing, that is where the surplus exists. But that only means that the elite guys.

They're still as valuable as they've always been. Yes. One of the guys that's a tier or two above it, like you were saying, is still an unbelievable advantage, even if the bottom tiers of quarterback look better aesthetically than they may have in years past. And it's also like the question always with like expanding the NFL is like, oh, we don't have enough quarterbacks to go around. Now it's more we don't have enough offense alignment to go around.

It's like, because we could have, if you have two 14s, it's like, no, we can find guys. They'll make you look decent. Like you can find the Jared Goffs of the world. Like there's there's Austin like James Winston. If you want to have him be a start this year, Jamie, Jimmy Garapolo. There are all these guys. All of these guys is just if you want to keep moving them around from team to team,

it's going to give you a functional NFL offense for the most part. But we need to be shooting higher than functional NFL offense. And I think that's the conversation. It's, it's, it's that it goes up exponentially. It's just that's what it is. It's at the tippy top. There's only a couple of those. But then there's, yeah,

the glut has gotten bigger at the bottom. So next one here, question for Nate. How often do teams run true spot drop zone as opposed to pattern matching? And what scenarios is that a good tool to use? Just very quickly, explain the difference between spot drop zone and pattern match zone and which is more prevalent in the NFL right now. Yeah, I would say in the last seven, eight years match coverages have become just the standard. And what that is is if you're spot drop zone, I'll reverse explain this. There's man, there's zone, there's match.

Zone is I covered this area. Usually it's a flat, a hook curl, or I'm sorry, curl flat, a hook curl, a middle area, a deep third, a deep half. And so you have that spot, that spot drop. You are turning. It's on the field, like the seam. Seam area. And then curl flat is the seam area to the flat, just as you're picturing.

Visual. And then cover two is just flat for the corners. But in that, I have that area of the field. There's some rules with it. Oh, I got a collision to this guy, all that. But it's really sometimes it's just literally turning and running to. your spot and then giving eyes on the quarterback and trying to. Eyes on the quarterback is a big difference, right?

If you're looking at it, when you play that true zone defense, think about the Falcons in that Dan Quinn era early on when they allowed 17 million receptions to running backs every single year because no one was looking at the players. They were all looking at the quarterback. They're all just looking back at the quarterback trying to squeeze that. And it's like, oh, shit, we got a rally and tackle underneath. And match is I got one, I got two, I got three. It doesn't matter what body type they are.

And man, guys, you'll match body type. to body type. So a corner with a receiver, a safety with a tight end, a linebacker with a runningback, match body type. That's how you can really find these differences in man in zone when teams are trying to disguise. That's why I always make a big deal about like when teams shift in or they put the tight end at the slot, all that kind of stuff. Match is I have the number one spot.

I have the number two spot. You only can go up to four. You only can line up four guys on one side because of formation rules. So what the rules are with that. So when you see spot drop more, it's kind of weaned away. But teams still run it as like a little bit of a change up. the bucks, I would say, are the most prevalent team to me mentally, the Bengals last year. I think the Giants have some spot drop stuff as well.

And you usually see it more with cover two. But if you're running like a single high or a two high match, or I'm sorry, spot drop zone, usually see it out of base personnel, out of base defenses, a three, four, or four, three, where there's bigger bodies on the field. And why that is is because you don't want the matching with certain. It's more complex, the past schemes that you might see out of sub personnel, which is 11, 10 personnel for an office. offense. So if you're facing two tight ends or a fullback in a tight end, okay, there's only so much you can get to if you're going to be in a traditional

eye formation or a wing formation of that sort. So we'll spot drop as opposed to matching it because how the offense can attack you. Offenses use that to their advantage by going in a heavy personnel and splitting it out. That's what Kyle Shane and likes to do all time because you get guys basic in their coverages. So usually, I would say overall, you only see about 10%. If I had a ballpark a grand number on it, I really don't know with the actual numbers. But that's what it feels to me. Teams use it mostly as a changeup.

I sometimes like an offensive line, because I just like to cross my metaphors here, but with an offensive line, sometimes you just full slide the protection because it takes it off the offensive line off the quarterback to sort stuff out, even if it's not always sound. Sometimes the defense likes to do that too.

All right, we don't have to match, figure out who's fast to the flat and who's the crosser and who has to take up that. We'll just go to an area and cover it. And we can just take a nice break for us. Like if you get a three, four, four, three team as well. This is why the bucks do it because they like to be in a true three, four on base downs. If they're in base personnel, you don't want Jason Pierpaw, trying to pass off stuff and figure out who's to the crosser.

It's much easier to have Jason Pierpaw run to the flat. It's just the personnel that you have out there. So that's when you see it more. Personally, when I like to see it is a second and extra long or a second and long call when you just kind of like, hey, hey, this is nice and basic. but we're not going to get screwed by some fast motion. We're not going to get screwed. We're just going to run basic and rally and tackle underneath. That's when I like to see it most.

But I just like it as a change up once or twice a game because quarterbacks will get on you. And you'll start seeing more fast motion. You start seeing more switch routes. And that's his own spot drive zone is a way to kind of like be basic and not worry about all the complicated stuff the offense is doing. Long-witted answer to say it. It comes up every once in a while. No, that was great.

That's exactly what I was hoping for. Let's get to our next voicemail here, Marissa, from a 5-7-3 area code, which I love. How do you think the Rams win and how they went about it with their team build, philosophics toward draft picks, things like that? How do you think that will impact the league moving forward, particularly this offseason with a lot of big names like, you know, Russell Wilson potentially on the trading block?

Thanks in MIS. So we, the 573 is Columbia, Missouri, which is why the MIS. So the beginning of that voice mill is a little choppy. So we played just the Rams part of the question. How does the Rams win and the way they go about their business? How might that affect things? I think a lot of other people asked a version of this question. Essentially, how does the Rams success potentially influence the rest of the league

in the way they think about resources and team building? This will be an ongoing conversation. I want to talk about this with Jordan on the show a little bit later this spring. But for now, I think the most interesting part about this is, if I'm thinking about it in a theoretical way, what is a quarterback worth? What is the right quarterback worth? And that brings me to the Russell Wilson conversation. Paul and DC asked what a potential Russell Wilson to the Eagles trade would look like.

I think those questions are connected. If it's three first round picks, if it's all those first round picks to the eagle that the Eagles have, is that worth it to you? Oh, yeah. I think about how many people when that, when that Stafford trade happens, like, oh, man, two first round picks. That's a lot for Matthew Stafford. Yeah. The right guy is so, so, so important. It's, again, related to so many of the different conversations we've already.

had on these two mailback episodes. If you go from a guy to one of the guys, that jump and what it can mean for you can mean everything. So what is the price tag? What should it be? I think it's higher than we like to admit it should that it is. Yeah. I still, because we've been workshopping these ideas and trying to like, you know,

that's what's fun about the show, by the way, is me and you just kind of like expose our brains and our thinking processes to all the way. listeners and you got to see how dumb I am. But it's going from a, I really think that going a tier of quarterback and you also have to self-awareness with this. That's the number one thing is too. To make these trades, you have to be right and or always feel you're right or justify. Of course, no shit, Nate. But going from a average to a one tier above average quarterback, that's a first. If going from two tiers, I average to good. That's two first. And that's how I go about it. Russell in his best days is MVP talk. I should say let Russ Cook. Yes. Yes. But

Pro Bowl, guaranteed pro bowl quarterback. That's what really Russ is. Like it is best day. Guaranteed pro bowl quarterback. Wouldn't you much rather have that than can this guy do it that you have with Jalen Hertz? And it's like, can this guy lead us there? I'd much rather have that the hardest question answered. And it's like, okay, and then what else do we have? And then you just play pickup from there. Okay, we can piece this together. We got to hit on that. middle pick just makes all the other answers come to light. So sometimes it alleviates some stress. But I think I think you're starting with three first and then you got to start working some

other stuff in there. I mean, just that that's what a true Pro Bowl quarterback is worth. It's that they just, I mean, but it's worth it. It sounds like a lot, but it's worth it. And if you have the chips to play with, why not spend them? Like, why not bet them? And that's what the Eagles are sitting on right now. But I don't know.

I don't know really it is. But I really too, like the Brady free agent. and then the Stafford trade, it really shows how open these coaches are now about, hey, we're one and done with these years now. It's no more like the team building for four years. Yes, there are aspects of that. You want your building blocks. But now it's realizing, hey, we need a cherry on top.

Hey, it's easy to adapt with these guys now. It's no longer like, wow, we need two off seasons with them. We need two spring balls with them to really develop him and really get a feel for the offense. it's coaches are willing to do it now. And I think that's awesome. I think that's so cool because we're going to see more and more of these, not just with quarterback, but other players.

The Vaughn Miller trade, middle of the season. Like, you know, it's happened before, but usually it's a cheapie. It's some guy for a fifth rounder, not like a true star player going in the middle of the season. So I think all that's a willingness from these younger coaches and this new kind of thinking of the NFL is that, hail, it's a copycat league, remember? Pretty easy to mesh ideas, like as far as midseason. and it's a willingness. I think just willingness from all these people,

players and coaches, execs to adapt and to just find the best players. It's no longer this thing. It's like, we need a full training camp to get this guy up to speed. It's like, no, we can make these next steps.

That's other positions, maybe not quarterback, obviously, but still. The Rams team building philosophy. That's the question that's asking. And I think it's important to recognize that. Yeah.

You have to want to win the Super Bowl to win the Super Bowl. You have to want to get there. And as these other teams are going to be super aggressive, like the chiefs are trying to hunt for Melvin Ingram in the middle of the seas. they're all in all the time. Think about the way the chiefs have spent over the last few years,

going to trade for Orlando Brown, giving Joe Tuny that contract, moving the money around that they do. Those are the teams you've got to keep pace with. That's where this is right now. The bills are spending to the cap with the ways that they've built this team. They're going to try to go get their Emmanuel Sanderses

or the versions of that every single year. That's what the bills off season is going to look like again. You have to be willing to push this stuff into the middle. The Rams version of it is more, stream in the way they've spent those first round picks. But it's important. We talked about this with Jordan on the show. You can't just think about that side of it and not think about the rest of it.

Think about all of the quieter moves the Rams made to help them win the Super Bowl. Going to get a distressed asset in Austin Corbett when he kind of fizzled out in Cleveland, figuring out that now he was a starting center until August. Yeah. And like, yeah, you know what? This isn't really yet. We move him to guard, we put Brian Allen back at center. This is the pieces and how they all work together.

What A. Sean Robinson was for them in postseason. A guy like that who is an afterthought when you consider some of the other big splashy moves that they've made, but a quiet, super impactful signing in free agency. Cooper Cup is a homegrown player that they drafted in the third round. Ernest Jones was awesome in the Super Bowl. He beat back and getting those snaps instead of Troy Reeder, plays a huge role in them ultimately winning that game. Ernest Jones is a mid-tier or a mid-round pick that's a rookie.

They need those sides of it. So it's tempting to say if you trade all your picks away, you've got to have both pillars of this to hold the building up. And that's what the Rams have done. I think it's important to continue remembering that. If you look at value generated from their picks, even without as many picks, the Rams are pretty high on that list.

So it just, there's a way to balance this. And they have found that balance, but I think it's really, really difficult to strike. Trafting always matters. It just does. I know it, yes, it's a crapshoot and all that, but you need to, you need to hit. You need to. Like, it's just otherwise you get yourself lost in no man's land. And then you're trying to answer this and you're giving reps to bad players.

Like that's the other policy when you draft a guy that's poor. It's like, well, we got to give him a chance. We draft them in the first round. I mean, and so now you're playing a below average player, 100 snaps. or 500 snaps and it's like, well, if we just had a guy that wasn't this. So that's the thing is you always have to hit some picks and all that. But there's a million ways to skin this cat. That's team building is so understanding what you are and understanding when the circumstances are available.

Do you think this year began the Rams are like, we're going to end up with OBJ. And we're going to end up with Vaughn Miller. No, but recognizing when there's a chance to attack, understanding we're this close to winning the title. This is where our team is. This is the landscape of the NFC. Let's take a chance at it. And yeah, that's what's, it's really cool because it's been years of, I think the Ramsey trade is so interesting to me because just mentioned on the other show was how hard it is to find a top tier corner. You usually got to take them in the lottery.

I mean, it is what it is. All right. Well, we're going to be picking into 20s every year. So let's trade a couple for the top corner in the game. Like, and it's like, sounds obvious, but it's one of those words like, yeah, no shit. It's like, why don't teams do that? Like this guy was pissed off in Jacksonville. why not go after him?

Because this type of guy is not available always. You have to understand when those circumstances are available. And that's what the Rams did better than anyone. It's understanding when these circumstances came up and striking them, right? Of course, this is all great when you win the Super Bowl and we can say all this. But I liked it throughout the season. It's like, hey, you got to understand when your window is and you got to take advantage of every opportunity you have to keep that window open or get through the window.

There's a lot of conversations about past rush versus past coverage and the value of it. I think the Jalen Ramsey thing is such an. interesting study in that because coverage is more valuable when you know you're getting the coverage. There's a volatility in the performance of corners versus pass rushers. The best pass rushers are typically the best every single year. Corners not like that. If you can guarantee you're getting the best corner in the league, the guy who's going to be the best corner in the league, that has a value that in my opinion, outside of an Aaron Donald-like interior pass rusher has value to your defense that nothing else has. So if you're looking at which defensive players

theoretically could be worked two first and a contract extension, the list is like three or four guys long. And they happen to make the move for one of those guys. But the names you listed off before, Odo Beckham, Von Miller, I just said Von Miller took picks. But guess what those guys weren't? They weren't outside free agents.

You look at what's happened over the last two years. In the 2021 draft, the Rams had comp picks for Dante Fowler and for Corey Littleton. They also got two compics for Brad Holmes, getting hired to be the GM of the Lions. In the 2022 draft, the Rams will have one, a piece in the third and fourth round. Their projected comp picks is my understanding of it because of the John Johnson, Samson, Akubam, and Troy Hill signings. They will have three in the sixth round.

They're not signing outside free agents. The guy they spent money on last offseason was Leonard Floyd, who they had signed on a one-year deal the year before and had brought him back. They're a little tiny secret ingredients to this sauce. Yes. Really, really, really help it. If you're making all of these picks, even if you're not making first round picks, eventually you're still giving yourself dice roles here in order to add talent to your team. That's a key part of this.

Man, that Dante Fowler thing is stealing. But that's what it was. They understand. We have Aaron Donald. Nothing before him and now that I'm walking free agency. Yeah. And get the third. We have Aaron Donald, one of the best defense players ever.

Let's just rotate who he plays with. That's what they're. That's a team building philosophy. That's their version of it because they understand the circumstances that they are in. Yeah. You have one rock on the front side of your defense. one rock on the backside of your defense and everything else rotates around it every single year. That's how they do this.

It's very hard to pull off, but guess what? Look at the Browns. Okay. Miles Garrett is there. Jadian Clowny is a free agent. A lot of other questions. Miles Garrett is going to be that guy that the entire defensive front rotates around, the same way it does with the Rams.

This is a thing that teams are thinking about. So I think there are elements of this that are worth chasing, even if it is tough to replicate. I think it's understanding what stars are worth. even more than we pay them. I think that's like a, I think a good way to look at it. I remember reading an NBA,

how a super max for the top tier guys, actually is you're underpaying the top tier guys. Like they can't be paid enough in a sense. And honestly, quarterback obviously is that. But when you're premium position stars, pass rusher, past coverage,

office tackle. Yeah, you really can't pay them enough because they're worth so much for, think of getting a star tackle. Like say some team traded for a district, well, Trent Williams coming up to sitting out for a year

and all that, but that's a whole other story. But if you managed to get that, wouldn't that help out the rest of your offense align? Because that's what stars do. They make everything else easier for the rest of your team. It's math. It's math changes. That's all it is. All right.

Next one here, Matt Strom says, has the NFC ever looked as wide open as it does for the 2020 season by playoff seeds? Packers might lose Rogers and cap problems. Bucks lose Brady retirement. Daleks seem shaky and has cat problems. Rams have potential retirements and free agency losses. Arizona question marks. 49ers transitioning from McGratho to Lance Philly question marks.

I guess the conference is there for someone to take it but looks very mediocre or maybe just plain bad. Who is your way too early favorite in the NFC? I went with the 49ers and I think it's more of their defense and I think the Lance drop off. Yeah, there might be some drop off in some areas, but his strengths will bring a whole new bevy of problems for defenses. And I know they have questions on offensive line. I think that type of offense negates some of the issues that you think are traditional issues. I mean, they just played the entire season with Daniel Bronskill as a right guard. And it was just like, I'm still like in shock that that had become a nuclear factory for them every week.

But I'm going with the 49ers. I like what that defense is, man. And they're going to keep them in a lot of games. If Trey Lance is better than we assume, it's like hold on to your hats because that offense would be terrifying. I think if they're the team of the fewest questions, right? because we know the quarterback is going to be. But if you're looking at this, if Rogers is back,

then it's probably the Packers again. The Rams, if all the guys are back, the Rams are probably in that conversation again. I think it's still the same teams. We want to project all of this turnover onto these teams, but if the core of these rosters are back, then I think the Rams and the Packers are still right in that conversation.

What'd you go with? That's who you're at or Packers and Rams? I'm going to say the Packers, Yeah, because Packers was my other one. I said maybe the Packers. If Rogers is back, it's the Packers. It has to be,

right? I assume Adams will be back. I assume they'll figure it out that they'll do what they need to do to keep him. So I, to me, they got all their picks. And the Rams are right there. Like I'm not ready to kind of annoying any weird team or throw anybody up there.

I think that those two teams. I have to follow with it. That we're the best or still the best. I know that's not. Bold take. I know. That's like me, me saying,

Hey, I think that Patrick my home's guy is still pretty good guys. All right. Andy Saylor says Robert and Nate, thanks so much for making the season so fun and interesting. We do our best. I appreciate you saying that. My question is the NFL just expanded with the team in St. Louis. You're the GM. You can claim any active coaches, including head coaches, as your head coach, DC and OOC,

and any active player to start building your team. Who would you choose? This is fun. It's kind of too easy because you can just stack your lineup. But I'm curious who you said. Head coach is Tomlin. Same. Like Tom.

Offens coordinator at Calh-Shane. I'm sure. Are you going to say same there too? Yes. Okay. It would have been Tomlin or McVeigh. Those were my one-to because Sean Payton's out of the league now. So I can't say Sean Payton.

Okay. DC is fun because I can't say Fangio because it's not the league right now. Oh, I said Fangio. That's funny. So I had him won, but then I went Staley and Dennis Allen. I, I, Dennis Allen. No ballot check, huh? No ballot check just because I'm going to lose him in a year or two.

someone's going to swoop him up because he's such a good coach. But I actually want to be honest, I just didn't even think of Belichick. It's just not fun. That's why I didn't think of Belichick. It's almost like a non-Belichick division is where I kind of pull these guys from. Yeah. I would Dennis Allen for my DC because I've always been a big fan of Dennis Allen of how he's adapted, what his defense has done based on his personnel.

I really, what the job he did in the last couple of years has been, I know he's now he's the head coach. So it's not like I'm making any crazy statement. But it's, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a fan of Dennis Allen more than I ever thought of like getting in like than I would have been five years ago, let's say. But I thought he's done a really nice job. And I think how he can adapt no matter what my defense is going to look like, he can he can handle it.

I had Mike Tomlin as my head coach just because when you don't have to worry about who the coordinators are in terms of being that CEO type guy who's at the center of everything, culture center, all of that. Mike Tomlin's as good as it gets. Addap to every personality possible. Everybody. Everybody. So just as a head coach, like that whatever that paradigm.

is, whatever that archetype of a true head coaches, he fills that for me. Obviously, Kasha and him, I think McFangio is, we'll get to one of these questions I think is really interesting a little bit later on. I want a coach that makes it hard on the offenses that he's playing against. Like, I understand that

doesn't seem revolutionary. That's what Vic Fangio does. He makes it really hard for you to play offense. That's why people are stealing from that defense right now, because it's just hard to play against. So I want the guy who came up with that defense he's still a very very good defensive coach who is your player i i have to go with my

homes i mean that's i feel like that's just a no-brainer for me if it's not my homes it's herbert i went with herbert just because yeah i have to i got committed i'm already in yeah there's no going back now yeah you rip off the shirt you got have a herbert picture right out there on the shirt like i mean i get it uh but also it's um i forgot i was going to say with this oh can i uh can i hire mike zimmer as my passing game coordinator you certainly can't That would be on the table here. Anything on the table. Passing game quarter.

I had Mike Munchek as my offensive line coach. O'Callaghan. Yeah. In my new Calihan. Yeah. I know what else could we get to. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. What else is going to go?

I'll go like Matt LaForre as my quarterback coach. I'll just rebuild the 2016 Falcons. You know, I'll just rebuild that offensive staff. That's what I'm going to do of, of weight, Wade Harmon as my tight-in coach. All right. Next one. Brian Haza says, question for you and Nate.

Can Carson Went to be salvaged with better past catch your talent or the Colts need to cut bait and move on. We got a lot of Carson Wentz questions. That's why I wanted to answer this. Jordan from Columbus, Ohio left the voicemail. It was a little tough to hear. Chris Romano asked about the QB future. We got at least five questions about this.

My opinion here, it's time. I don't know who the upgrade is, but it really does feel like Carson Wentz has lost Frank Reich. And the moment that he lost Frank Reich, it was over for him in Indianapolis. Just period. I don't know who the clear upgrade would be. I would be very surprised if they weren't shopping hard over the next couple months to upgrade over Garson once.

Yeah, I just wrote, cut bait. He is what he is. The mistakes he makes is not a, oh, man, he needs upgrade. He needs some better receivers. He needs a better off of the line. The mistakes he's making are mental and a fundamental way. In a, hey, that's okay if you're a year two in the NFL. You have enough starts under your belt.

This is what he is. It's his DNA. There's no change. It is. there isn't when you're throwing back on a naked i know there's only a couple of plays i'm i'll talk about here but when you're throwing backwards on naked it's like in situations you shouldn't it's like he makes rookie mistakes that a veteran quarterback should not be making and not like a year two you three guy but he has enough starts where it's like this is what are you doing

and i know that this coach has faith in him so he's trying to build confidence with him so it's not like he's in a bad situation where you're like well that coach gets out of there they're a little you know they're beating head you know button heads a little bit he's trying to make a play that happens sometimes, but no, no. This is the big coach that would have been able to salvage him. Correct. Correct. This is what you were hoping to get. This is the ideal situation you want to rehab him.

He still looked like two years ago, he was legit the worst quarterback in the league. I mean, statistically, I test, everything. And this was like a half step better than that this past season. So he is what he is. All right. Let's get to our next voice, Melham, Marissa. Hey, Robert. I'll just find me well.

First time, long time. One half you had made a question about coordinators. on one side of the ball are coaches who hire an opposite coordinator that seems to be a scheme they want to go against. For example, Frank Reich in Indianapolis, you know, hiring Iber pluce and it's kind of soft cover two, defense. Sorry. And then, you know, John Gruden had an aggressive West Coast system, but he loved that four

down front hired Gus Bradley as well. It seems like there's cord. And Vic Fangio had a pretty conservative ball control offense with. with Shermer as well. I wanted to ask you guys, why do you think these coaches who really excel in one side of the field seem to hire coordinators that have systems they would want to gain plan against? It's almost as if that they have coordinators in schemes that they have on the other side of the

ball where they just want to protect the respective units as a coach. You know, for example, Kyle Shanahan, you know, ran a really conservative bland defense with Sala for four years. And then Joe Woods added some variety, I know, at the end, before Sala for the Jets. and Woods left as well. It seems like that if they thought more outside the box like Sean Exa got with Staley, there should be some more dynamic results. Appreciate everything you guys do and shout out for Barrington.

Thanks. What do you think about this? No, I mean, I agree. Good point. Yeah, I wish more coaches. That was when Dan Quinn came into the Falcons and they hired Kyle Shanahan. This is before Kyle Shanahan and it was Kyle Shanahan. Well, according to some people.

OS you read Grantland. And it was that he said, Cal Shannon is the hardest guy to prep for for my defense. That's why I wanted to hire him. And that made a ton of sense to me. I was like, okay, yeah. I mean, wouldn't you want that? And yeah, there seems to be some bones with that to pick.

Like, not bones to pick. That's a terrible, terrible metaphor. But whatever. There's something to it. There's something to it. But there's, there is. And I think some of it is the old coaching thinking. There's a lot of the familiarity complex that happens in the NFL.

I wouldn't go as far as to say old boys network, but there is some aspects of that. That's where you see, hey, I know this guy. No, he's not going to rock the boat for my team. So, you know, I'm going to hire him and just, you know. Set it and forget it. You can contract out that. Yep.

And so they just go, well, I hire. And so if you take a chance on some, upbringing and salient of the world and it goes wrong, and you have to answer to ownership, you have to answer to a GM. You have to answer to fans and going, like, you hire this no name guy to do that. I think that's what some of these guys were protecting themselves from.

I do. And I think this is one of the going to be the offseason things. As these coaches get younger, as we get more guys that are truly gen X millennial type of coaches, they are willing to expand their tree. They're willing to try, they understand what good is. I feel like they have such a better feel for the league and just knowing where they

stand. That's something just, it's anecdotal, but I really do feel that's coming into the league. It's not more of this. Why I worked with this guy 14 years ago when we were GAs together at some, there is some of that. But I think that we kind of are weaning away from going like,

I just want the best freaking coach. And that's what we're starting to see more of. It's a great point. I wish all coaches would think this way, but it seems like a lot of defensive coaches are just going. I think that that's an NFL offense, and it's competent. You know what he's talking about.

At least I'll be average over there. Yeah, I think we're getting away from that, hopefully. But I think we'll see more of it. That's why the Gus Bradley thing to Indianapolis is just like, guys. What was that? Guys, it's just so uninspired. Especially for them.

And Dan Quinn, I had the same reaction when the Cowboys hired Dan Quinn. Dan Quinn showed a willingness to radically change the way that he was willing to go about this. Oh, my God. Yeah. We've seen Gus Bradley at all these different places. It has not changed. It has not changed. It looks the same to the point that he was literally signing all the same guys.

You know, there is a one J-Ron curse in Dallas. But for the most part, it's how do I unleash these guys in the right way? Yep. You know, a lot more man coverage, a lot more blitzes, so many stunts. The way that that defense looked was different than, I guess, versions of the Falcons look. Near the end, they were doing some more of that stuff. But it still was, I was different flavor. Totally different flavor.

Sorry. Yes. So it's just, that's my thing. We just want to be average on that side of the ball. And if that's what you're shooting for, I think ultimately that's what you're going to get. And you're probably going to be disappointed. The Brandon Staley thing with McVeigh hiring him is a product of I want something that's hard for me. That's what I want.

I want a defense that's hard for. me to play against. And I don't think enough coaches do that. I think this is a very good point, and it's a frustrating one when you look at some of these hires around the league. Kyler, this one's going to, I'm going to absolutely butcher this. Tyler Kaluiski, Kaluoski, I don't know how to pronounce his name. So I'm sorry about that Tyler.

He said, I've been a huge fan listening for years. And I have a question I've been holding out to for months that I wanted to get both your opinions on. It's based on something Nate previously said. Back when Urban Meyer was fired, you guys did an episode talking about what type of coach system would best return to Lawrence. and named mention how he didn't need a Shanahan-type system since he was so advanced and willing to push the ball, etc.

But the next topic was how the Flores system was a perfect match with Rogers because it gives him layups combined with his downfield precision. So I guess my question is, why wouldn't every team provide a system that gives the layups, even if the quarterback doesn't necessarily need them? Isn't that the exact thing we ding coaches for not doing? Sorry for the rant, Tyler from Philly. All right.

I have an actual answer to this that I think is worth exploring. Okay. if you look at the Shanahan offense and you look at the examples of the Shanahan offense that have been truly successful over the last five to ten years, what are the best examples of them? 2016 with Matt Ryan. Yep. Rogers the last couple of years. Yep. And I'll throw out 2018 golf, but that was also an awesome offense around him.

But that's really the ones that come to my head right away, like atop my head. What is the similar through line between Matt Ryan, Aaron Rogers, and Matthew Stafford as it relates to those offenses? Man, good quarterbacks really make offense very easy. And veteran quarterbacks. And veteran. Oh, great point too. Yes. This offensive system has never raised a quarterback.

Think about it. It's existed for 30 years. And it has never raised a quarterback from infancy to start him, ever. John Elway stepped into it as a veteran quarterback. he did very well, but that was in. Matt Schaubb was a couple years in the league before he came over to Houston. If you look at, Trey Lance is like a real test tube for this.

It is absolutely a test tube for this because guess what this offensive system does? It diminishes your quarterback. It limits the things he's doing at the line of scrimmage. If you look at what Joe Burrow can do with the line of scrimmage and check into plays and this isn't working, I want to get to this cover zero answer, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. there's none of that. There is none of that baked into the way this system raises its quarterbacks. And I think you could make an argument that in some ways it depresses quarterback development,

even if it lifts the floor of those quarterbacks. The reason that the Packers are so successful with this offense is that it's in a combination of what Rogers likes to do with the RPO game and the Quick game and everything else combined with elements of the Shanahan's. system. Same with the Matt Ryan year. That was a hybrid offense. Yes, the bones. There was a Shannonhan offense. Don't get me wrong. But there's, there's a lot of tweaks that were my Ryan like favorites. There's a lot more seam balls, if anyone remembers, that you've ever seen in a Shanahan offense, because that's what Matt Ryan likes to throw. I think it's the Shanahan offense gets you layups. It gets you layups, gets you layups, gets you layups. You need some three point shooters. And that's what a quarterback does. It's like, yes, you're getting those two points. And yes, I can

hit single. I'm using every sport possible here. Yes, we can hit singles all day. Sometimes you need a guy that's going to swing over the fences and bring everybody home. And that's what those quarterbacks do. The Stafford no look play. And it's going to play on loop for years and years and years in my head, at least, is that play Stafford is progressing on. He goes one to two to three to four on that play. That's how quick he does it. 90% of those quarterbacks, the Jimmy Gs of the world, the golfs of the world, the Kirk Cousins of the world, we had taken the underneath throw out and it would be catching tackle for seven yards all day every day. That's what they would have programmed to do.

Program. That's seven. That's the single or double. That's like, hey, that was a pitch. Hey, we made contact. We made contact with the Staffords of the world, the Matt Ryan's of the world, the Aaron Rogers of the world, the top quarterbacks is there's a single option. I'm going to hit the triple right here.

I'm tilt my shoulder up a little bit or throw in a nook pass, however you want to put it. but that is what those guys create is they had two available options. They took the more aggressive one. And that's what these quarterbacks do. It raises the ceiling of the play call, the team and the play call. It's getting the most advantageous weapon of that concept. And that's what these guys do. So yes, their layup was there.

But he said, nah, I'm kicking it out. I'm hitting a three pointer. Now we got three points instead of two. That's what those guys do. Talking about having two options and going with a slightly different one, think about what the Chargers did last off season. Brandon Staley comes from McVeigh's staff with that offensive system. As he picks the offense he wants to run for Justin Herbert,

he goes to New Orleans and picks that, which is an extremely quarterback-centric system that plays through its quarterback that puts a lot on its quarterback. It's a hard offense, guys. They hire Shane Day, who is the quarterback's coach in San Francisco as their passing game coordinator because you sprinkle in elements of the shift. jenahan offense rather than having the baseline and the bones be that system because there are

different things you put on your quarterback with all these different versions of playing offense and again we have never seen a quarterback raised from the beginning of his career to start him like true elite quarterback play within this offense the best example is Kirk cousins yeah yeah in a funny way yeah that's right i don't think i'm missing anyone no i know because i'm I'm trying to think of all the 2000s guys. And it's like, no, I,

there aren't that many because there was that, there was that weird dip in the 2000s where not a lot of people were running this offense. Broncos and Texans. And then Washington became one. And then then it proliferated throughout the league. Well, you can look at the Cleveland year, Cleveland year was Hoyer.

Yes. Like, you know, there was Hoyer and then it was Matt Ryan. And then now people started running all this shit. It's because from 2000 through 2010, all everyone wanted was Peyton Bannick. So there was.

there was no copying into this offense because the type of quarterback and the vision of the guy that you wanted and the offense that you wanted to run looked a lot different. So this is like a football history thing that we stick into a lot. But I think that's part of it is that I wouldn't necessarily want to drop my very young quarterback into this specific type of system because you get layups. But there's a chance. All you get is layups. Yes. And it's like, well, but that's what that's so fun about Trevor Lawrence. that's why I had that common is he doesn't need the training wheels.

Training wheels will help. Like, yes, it's going to make it look more competent, but he's a sailing razor. That's what he is. It's, yes, he needs a breather every one. That's actually a great, like, little, like, little data point here is what the Bengals ran this year because they kind of run up the greatest hits offense a little bit with their stuff. They did not make it easy on Joe Burrow. No, no nakes, no sprint outs, barely any screens.

No play action. I could do more of it. Please do. Please make it easier on this guy. Like, but they didn't run it. They didn't run a naked. They didn't run a screen. They ran a couple draws.

It was like just none of those changeup plays that help on your quarterback. It just takes some weight off of them. And so that's what this offense does. It takes weight off of them. It's one to two. Everything's easy. But yes, that's what I like,

I'm so optimistic about Trevor Lawrence is I've seen them run harder concepts. That's not split field reads. That's not true progression stuff. And he's able to do it. That's why I'm very optimistic with him. So he's a ceiling razor. All right. Last question here from Brandon Southward,

slightly non-foot. What is your most unprofable? popular take. This can be about food, sports, anything. What's a take you have on something that no one else agrees with? I have a couple. And I don't know if they're too controversial, but we'll see. I think pizza should only be the Holy Trinity as far as toppings. So it's just either cheese, pepperoni, sausage. And I know we had a delicious pizza last week. So don't, don't get mad at me. What a terrible, terrible opinion that says. Why? I think it should just be the whole train. It's people have gone too crazy, man. And I, we got to rain these millennials back in. And I, we got to rain these

millennials back in. We got rain them back in. We got too crazy with these funky ones. But the fact that pizza, it's a, it's a nice treat every once in a while to have the funky stuff on it. But just having a nice, really good ingredient pizza, it's like, that's all you should. That's all you need to do. That's all you need to do.

You don't need a whole pie that's pineapple and chicken. You don't need a whole pie of it. A pineapple and chicken is just ridiculous. But there are people do it out there. No, this is just wrong. You, you disagree with like peppers on pizza. Like the one of the staple. That's an auxiliary item.

One of the staple pizzas at the place by me in Chicago is Poblano peppers and pepperoni. It's awesome. Okay. So that's, see, that to me, peppers is his own little thing. I'm talking about the meats and all that. Okay, because. What about mushrooms? Like my mushrooms on a pizza?

I'm not a big fan of that. No, I know that. That's a classic item. I know. So I know, oh, I had a worst one. I took away. But they, but honestly put it, I love jalapinos with my pepperoni pizza, but I still consider pepperoni the basis.

The basis of it. That's why I think pepperoni should be on most pizzas. Like pepperoni or some sort of spicy sausage like. Okay. We're still on the Trinity there. That's two of them. Some sort of like, yeah. I think some sort of like spicy Italian meat should be on a pizza.

That is to me the baseline of pizza. Spicy sauces is very good. But I only having those things is just wrong. All right. What's your next one? Oh, well. I don't know if you know this about me, but I used to really like new metal and I still do. Oh my God.

Limp Biscuit actually has some bangers. And I will stand by that. I will stand by that take. I know that makes me a basic. Give me some examples. Oh, man. Rearranged. Rearranged is a good one.

And then if you get, you start getting into some of their kind of like, I would say slower songs. I'm opening up my Spotify as we speak because I have more other songs like. I also like in together now with Method Man. That was, that was a good one. Other songs,

Walking Away also a great song. but like lip biscuit behind blue eyes or uh uh behind blue eyes they have a cover of the who great that's a i know that's a cover it's a cover i'm not going to like see everyone thinks of like break stuff and all that it's like no no i'm not saying like that take a look around my way my way was also a great promo for wrestling x7 between stone cold and the rock and it's like one the most iconic wrestling promo like this is the most early 2000s thing you've ever said i know can you believe i'm from the Midwest like can you believe this is what I love but yeah that's that's one of my I think it's a very unpopular take to say I mentioned that to Jordan Rodriguez because Jordan Rodriguez is a big rock fan

and so I was like I actually sent her a limp biscuit song because she sent me one for my tool and I was like actually this song's pretty good and she's like if you told me in 2021 that I'm listening to limp biscuit you're like she like I could see my like standing in her eye drop like a whole tier we're talking as it should as it yes it's shut they these words popular takes. These are unpopular takes. I'm gonna hear some of yours. I have like three. Okay. Okay. My first one is I think Christopher Nolan's filmography is fine.

Like I do not like Christopher Nolan movies compared to the way. I'm trying to get a movie one in mine and I just kind of rope one in. So I just, okay. Christopher Nolan's movies are not important to me. I don't think there's some like high art. They're whatever. Interstellar's overrated. I think intercellar's overrated. I don't think Dunkirk is that great.

I like the I like the dark night a lot. I enjoy the Batman movies. but I don't think Inception is some Dramatic. Memento is good. I enjoy Memento. The things that have come after it, I think their intellectual reach far out seats their grasp.

I just inception is one of those first time you see it. Holy shit, what a movie. And then the next time you see it, right. Well, you think about it for 10 minutes. You're like this is dumb. So I've never really liked

Christopher in all movies. That's one of mine. I've said this one in public before. I think most fries aren't worth it. like most french fries i just i don't need them i think i can't say i'll do that one i think most them are just whatever like fries a really good fry like a really crispy high quality like skin on fries somewhere like a duck fat fry from a place that comes right out of the fryer great most fries they're worthless within like five minutes after they've been cooked they get soggy

i like stuff on fries like i like a puteen fries as a base of something great yeah like a low like nacho fries of some kind. Animal style for a minute out or something like that. That's fine because then the sagginess doesn't matter. They're the base of something else. But a fry for the most part goes to hell way too fast for me. What's your normal fry dipping sauce? Like if you're just getting a fry and you had your choice of like a dipping sauce.

Are you a ketchup guy or aoli? I'm like an aoli person. Like a garlic aoli or like some sort of spicy aoli I enjoy with a fry. So I just, I'm not a fry person. I think that most fries aren't worth it is kind of how I would phrase it. The best fries are great. But like fast food, I would never get fast food fries plain. Just no interest to me.

There are so many other things I'd rather eat. Those kind of make me sick now. Other than that once, like, I've had a McDonald's fry lately. And it was like the fries made me sick. Not the chicken nuggets I had. No, it's the fries that made me. Just not a huge fan. All right, guys, that's all we got.

That's all we got for a while. Dane and Lance will be back on Wednesday with their draft show for the week. So please check that. out. We will be back next Tuesday. Taking the rest of the week off, we're going to take a little bit of time. We're in the very short offseason. That's a week long this year before we get to the Combine. Starting on Tuesday of the Combine, March 1st, we'll be back that whole week. We will be back four times a week, including Dane and Lance's show, all through the draft.

So not a lot of time without us. We'll be back in full force starting a week from now, all the way through draft season. We will have all of your free agency needs covered. We will have all of your draft needs covered. Very excited about all the things we're going to roll out here over the next couple months. For now, we are going to take a little break. Again, really appreciate you guys listening all year.

Sincerely appreciate the support. Sincerely appreciate all of the questions for these two shows, the fact that you guys take the time to put as much thought into them as you do. Sincerely, it means a lot to me. So for Nate, for me, thank you guys. very much. We'll talk to you pretty soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.