The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Mailbag: Super Bowl long shots, active Hall of Fame coaches, picking who to root for, podcast behind the scenes & more

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Lindsay Jones is this week's Mailbag guest as she and Robert Mays answer your questions regarding which team is the 'Rich Strike' of the upcoming NFL season as a Super Bowl long shot, which current NFL coaches could be Pro Football Hall of Fame worthy, a question regarding the QB saturation around the league, insight as to how the postgame episodes of TAFS are produced and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. Today's Tuesday, May 10th. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today is my good friend, Lindsay Jones. Lindsay, how are you? I'm great. We made it through Mother's Day weekend.

It was really nice. And let's talk some football. How was yours? Did you have a nice Mother's Day? It was fine. We were homebound. I thought I had pink eye. I do not have pink eye, but it was a lot of time to stay home with my family.

My fiance is out of town. and I went to the farmer's market with my one of my best friends was five doors down for me in Chicago which is wonderful. So nice to have him there. And they just had a baby. So we're walking to the farmer's market with their child and

somebody says happy Mother's Day to my friend. And I just didn't even click to me that she was a mom. Like I know in my, I know logically she has a baby, but the fact that Mother's Day now applies to her, that's an experience I've been having

a lot recently where a lot of my friends are having kids. It's like, oh, yeah, like, we're 34 years old, but we are, Mother's Day is now an applicable thing for us. It's not just about your mom. Yeah. You are also mothers. Yeah, that's the interesting thing about like Mother's Day where you have to, if you are the mother now, you still have to like make your mother feel appreciated for Mother's Day or whatever. And there's been this whole thing of like, Grandma, sit this one out. But I will say my mother and I celebrated Mother's Day by going to see Jason Isbell at Red Rocks last week. A fantastic way to celebrate. Yeah, when we bought the tickets months ago, we realized it was Mother's Day week,

and we said that was like our gift to ourselves and each other. So that was our big celebration before we were homebound this weekend with eye issues. I had also been eyeing that show as a potential way to go to Red Rocks because I have never been. I've seen like hundreds of concerts and so many different places in America. And I've never been. It's never aligned with my schedule. I am going to see Nine Inch Nails. Labor Day weekend this year. So it's happening.

That's pretty fantastic. It will be a different vibe than Jason Isbell. Yes. I've seen Jason Isbell many times live and I've always enjoyed it. He's played the Chicago Theater multiple times, which is a beautiful setting for him to play. And I've always had such a great time. So I'm jealous of you. Well, he's a big football fan. So we got to get him on the pod. If you're listening, Jason. He absolutely is welcome at any time. All right. Here's the deal. It's the offseason. We are now in our off-season. schedule. The off season really doesn't start until May, doesn't start until the draft is over. We are going to do a weekly mailbag during the off season. We want to give you guys a bunch of pods.

We feel like there's always stuff to chew on. I trust all of you to send in great questions. Thank you for doing it again. We're going to lean on you once a week through May all the way through we get to training camp because we want to keep giving you stuff. You guys do a great job of giving us material with these. So that's what it's going to be. We're going to have a rotating cast of people. We have Lindsay today. We'll have someone else next week. But just keep that on your radar. Know that if you keep sending in questions, we will continue to need them. So don't hesitate.

If you want to rip one off to the email or send us a voicemail, I will always be looking here over the next couple of months. So again, appreciate all of your questions. We got some really good ones. Let's dig into this. Lisa is going to kick us off here. She says, I've listened to this show since you and E from Salam, which I really appreciate for people who don't know.

That was a long, long time ago. It's like 11 years ago of my podcasting. Her question, after seeing a long shot win the Kentucky Derby, what's long shot NFL team do you think has the best chance to win the Super Bowl this season? I love this. This is the time of year for long shot Super Bowl bets and just start to think about what those might be. I have defined long shot in this case, which you asked was a great question, as 20 to 1 or higher.

So plus 2,000 or higher. And then we'll also do some real long shots as part of this conversation. with those parameters in place, what are the teams that came to mind for you? All right. So, you know, if we're looking in that like 20 to one range. This is all via Bet MGM, by the way. Yes. These are a lot of teams that I think could make the Super Bowl, right?

Yeah, I agree. I think a couple of the more like obvious answers there in that range are the Colts who are at 25 to 1 right now. And that's their overall roster talent, stability at quarterback. You have a grown up in the room now there. You've got an experience coaching staff. You know, maybe they could make a run. Maybe the AFC South isn't going to be as difficult to come out of this year and could put themselves in a good situation. A little bit of a longer shot.

And I'm going to pick an NFC one because I think the NFC is a lot more wide open than the AFC. So it might make more sense that a longer shot could come out. And that was the Eagles at 40 to 1. And that would be banking on all of their off season moves kind of paying off. They've upgraded at a number of positions, wide receiver being a huge one. Year two of Nick Siriani, you tend to see teams make kind of a jump in year two with a new coaching staff. And that would certainly be assuming that everything breaks right for Jalen Hertz.

So I don't think 40 to 1 is kind of terrible odds there when you look at the Eagles. That was my favorite long shot. Like 40 to 1. Oh, I've got a longer shot, man. The Eagles are my favorite one. I think that the talent that they have on that roster, and I'm not even overreacting to them making the playoffs last year. I think that's a little bit of mirage, but I think they have a lot of good players on that team. And you add a guy like Hassan Redd to give you more pop up front. A.J. Brown

is a superstar, in my opinion. The guys they added in the draft with Jordan Davis and Nacobobey Dean kind of filling out the middle of that defense. Some concerns about corner potentially. Maybe are they a James Bradbury team that throws some money at him to potentially fill that slot opposite Darius Slay, kind of have that entire secondary come together a little bit. more. But that was my favorite one there. J.1 Hertz is absolutely the biggest question mark there. Do you feel comfortable about what Jalen Hertz can be and can he take a step forward?

But the Eagles are my favorite longer shot. Among the teams in that 20 to one range, it's almost cheating to say this at 20 to 1. The Ravens are my favorite one. I mean, the Ravens were decimated last year with injuries. We've seen the heights that they can reach. Receivers still a question mark for them, obviously. But their offensive line has really come into focus. The amount of guys they added to give.

some multiplicity of their tight end room on offense, what they're going to do with Mike McDonald on defense this year. I'm really interested to see what that ultimately looks like. And then the changes they've made on defense. You know, I'm curious what their defensive ceiling is and with some tweaks on that side of the ball. We're going to talk about the Ravens a couple different times over the course of the show. But that's definitely the most interesting one in that 20 to one range for me.

I almost like skipped over them. Like I didn't even consider them a long shot. Yeah. There are a lot of the reasons that you mentioned. Before we move on to the next question, I've got a real long shot. because I think when we're talking about like really, really long shots and the equivalent of rich strike, we saw that last year with the Bengals, right? I mean, the Bengals this time last year were I think 150 to one odds for the Super Bowl. And they made it. And they were really freaking close, right? So I think the question would be like, who is this year's Bengals? Like who is the best chance to, you know, have that sort of a turnaround? And I'll take the Jets at 125 to 1. their best case scenarios that they could look at the Bengals and say, okay, that could be us, right?

Like if everything breaks right, we could maybe do what the Bengals did, where you have a really big year from your second year quarterback. It's the second year in a scheme. You've got some new receiver talent in that room, not necessarily the receiving talent that they were hoping to get when they made the, you know, they were in on all of those receivers this off season.

So that's like the really, really, really long shot where like, shoot, I'll throw down 20 bucks and see what happens. I had them. It's funny that you mentioned the Jets because I had a note that I think the Jets are a potential value elsewhere if you're looking at other bets. That's a huge long shot bet. And if you want to throw that down, good for you. But if you look at some of the other bets available on a place like BetMGM, the Jets are plus 550 to finish in the top two in the AFC East.

So you don't have to bet them to win it. You don't have to bet them to finish second. to finish in the top two in the AFCs, it's plus 550. And if you're worried about the bills, understandable. But the other two teams in that division, sure. Are you really scared of the Patriots, which we'll talk about a little bit later? Are you really scared of the dolphins with Tua?

That one is a little bit interesting to me. The Giants are similar. They're plus 220 to finish top two in the NFC East. They're in a much different space, obviously. They moved out from James Bradbury today. They're not trying to win at this current moment, but I do think they have more talent than their odds and some of the numbers being thrown around about their win totals might indicate. But the Jets, I think in that places are really interesting.

The Jets, if you bet the Jets just to finish second in the AFCs, if you just say, all right, the bills are great. Bills are the favorite to win the Super Bowl. They're going to win that division. If you bet the Jets to finish second, it's plus 900. It's 9 to 1. It's kind of interesting to me. I think the Jets are not going to be terrible. Obviously, Jack Wilson is a huge part of this, but I think they've added enough competency to say,

all right, let's assume the Jets are going to win maybe seven or eight games. If you think the Jets are going to win seven or eight games, bet nine to one to finish second in the division is not too bad. Because they could easily bump that to nine or ten with a couple breaks. So that one jumped out to me even if I think that's a long, long shot for them to win the Super Bowl. Although at the risk of alienating any of our audience, if you're betting on who's going to finish second in these divisions, May I interest you in some other hobbies? Oh, we have some real, real, real questionable folks listen to this show. I guarantee it, which I totally support.

All right. Next question. And hosting. Certainly. All right. We get a version of this question a lot. I wanted to kind of refresh it for 2022. Joshua Yost says that he's a Browns fan.

Just cannot continue supporting them after the Deshawn Watson decision. He's no issue with those that do. It's a personal choice. But he's decided that it's time for him. to move on. I totally understand that. He says, I don't want to go with the Steelers or Ravens because of my hatred for them from decades of Brown's fandom. The Bengals feel like it's a little too bandwagony.

My friends have suggested the Lions because of the familiar feeling of sadness and despair. If you were picking a team right now, how would you make your decision? Would you go into the season as a free agent or would you make it now based on location, familiarity, team building potential, all of that? Really appreciate the question. My stock answer to this has always been the Chargers. I just think that Justin Herbert is amazing. They don't have any fans.

Compared to what they should, based on how entertaining that team is, their fan base is not as robust as I think it should be. So that's always been my stock answer. I have a couple other ones, though. I think if you take out the AFC East part, AFC North part of this, I think the Ravens are a good choice. They're well-run, they're smart. All of those things, we talked about it on the show I did with Nate after the draft.

I find myself rooting for them because I think they go about this in the right way. But if you're a Browns fan and you can't do that totally understandable. I have a couple others that I want to throw out. But where is your head at with this? Well, I really like the way that Joshua approached to this question because it wasn't necessarily just which team should I root for. It was, how do I choose, right? Is it based on, you know, I look at the rosters and I want to pick guys that I can root

for? Is it the, you know, the young quarterbacks? You know, I think you might, you want to pick players that you like watching, right? I mean, I think that has to be part of this. Don't pick the lions because being. a Lions fan is miserable and you're used to misery, pick somebody that you're going to enjoy watching. If Aaron Donald is your favorite player to watch who doesn't play for the Browns as your previous former team, then pick the Rams because you love watching Aaron Donald. Is Justin Herbert

your favorite young quarterback to watch? Then pick the Chargers. I think those are really, really valid reasons. I think another one, we don't know Joshua where you went to college. You said you lived in Pittsburgh, so I don't know if you maybe went to Penn State or, you know, Big 10 roots, whatever, if there's, you know, a college tie in, your favorite college quarterback or your favorite college pass rusher, where does he play now? Those are some natural connections that you can make. But I would say you should go ahead and make that decision now. You don't have to pick here on like May 10th or whatever, but if you're going to go all the way in on another team, this is a good time to do it because you can get really into now all of the offseason moves and

following what's going on in training camp and the position battles. And, you know, you can shop eBay, for some, like, cool gear, you know, I think that should be part of it, too. Like, what's something that you would like to wear? I mean, you've been stuck with brown and orange your entire life. Like, think of all of the new color possibilities. Like, baby blue and yellow, like Chargers uniforms are really cool. You know, Seahawks colors are kind of cool, although I would not necessarily advise picking the Seahawks as your team right now, even if you went to the University of Missouri or a Dajah Drewlock fan. So I don't know. So go ahead, Robert. Who are your other maybe suggestions given some of these parameters here.

So if he's worried about the Bengals being too at bandwagney, this is way too bandwagony, but the Bills, to me, for a lot of the reasons that you just mentioned, getting to watch Josh Allen every single Sunday would be so fun. It would be such a blast for that to be the quarterback of your team. Love Bill's attire. Bill's gear is excellent. I have been on the hunt for like a Bill's hat just to have one because I love the way that that team has just presented itself visually.

That's another really good one. Zubes. Hmm? Zubes. Yeah, I mean, just so many things about that. I think the bills are really good. My criteria here, what team would interest you? What team, when they're making moves, it's like, oh, man, think about why do they do that?

And just getting into the minutia of it would be interesting. And I think the bills are the answer to that. Obviously, they're way past the rebuild stage of their franchise. But one of the graphics we made during our draft show that I just was struck by. and I kind of grabbed me was the amount of turnover on the back end of the roster. Just all of the guys they've cycled in and out, like guys like Dequan Jones and shy Tuttle coming in for a Starletooli. And just all of that churn and the ways that they refresh it, I just find them compelling.

I find the ways they go about this compelling. And if that, if you like this show, that's the kind of stuff interests you, I think that they're a team that I would really think about when it comes to that. Obviously, you're going to get accused of Jones. jumping on the bandwagon as they're a Super Bowl favorite. But those kinds of teams, the Ravens are similar. That's why if I could kind of chew on a team, the Ravens would be one of them, even if they're off the table for you.

But my stock answer with this, and it's the one I come back to because I think it's the best answer is just the Chargers. All right. And I would like to throw out one alternative. And I know this is like flipping the question on its head because the question is about I would like to choose a new team. How do I do that? The alternative is, do you have to choose a new team?

And I bring this up because my husband is from St. Louis. He was a St. Louis Rams fan. His family had season tickets. He loved the Rams. The St. Louis version of the Rams, which were, for a long time, very, very hard to love. Kurt Warner's his favorite player, all of the like. When they picked up and they moved to Los Angeles, he said, like Les Sneed says FM picks, he said F them Rams.

And he has not picked a new team. So it's been six years and he no longer has like an NFL fandom. Despite he's lived in Denver for 10 years, he probably could. could have picked the Broncos if he wanted to anytime kind of during the, you know, at any point. And he hasn't. But he is still a very engaged NFL fan. He plays a lot of fantasy football. He's, you know, survivor pools. He does the BETMGM apps because that's legal here in Colorado. So he roots for players. He like has, he's, you know, invested in games, but isn't kind of doesn't have that like heartache anymore that comes along with being a fan of one team. So, you know,

don't feel like you necessarily have to pick a team right now that you would be missing out on, you know, maybe the fun of the NFL and, you know, maybe let the next team come to you organically. Or just use this season as a way to really sit in this. You know, obviously the Deshawn Watson news came after last season ended. You have not watched an NFL season without an established fandom. So maybe sit there if you're Joshua, watch how the season unfolds. Who grabs you? Who do you find yourself gravitating toward during this season? I think that's totally fine as well.

My dad, when I got to college, like, don't pick a fraternity right away. You don't know. You don't know what they're going to be like. Just wait, wait and see what it's like to be there and wait and see what's like to be on campus. And I just never did. And I enjoyed my experience and it was great. And so there's value in just kind of taking in the information. Be an NFL free agent for a little bit.

Like say, hey, I want to go see a game in Buffalo and, you know, make that road trip. That's not that far from Pittsburgh, right? Or like, screw it. I want to go see a game in Vegas and fly out to Vegas in that new stadium or go to SoFi and see the Rams or the Chargers because, you know, experience something different. Enjoy the season. Maybe tweet us about it about your journey and let us know who you pick. That's a great, great suggestion. All right.

Next one. Austin Salado congratulated us on our live stream for the draft, which I really appreciate. He says during the 2021 draft process, found that the offensive tackle versus wide receiver debate regarding the Bengals and Sewell and Chase to be fascinating. He leans with going to the offensive tackle. route just because of positional scarcity, but he thought the Bengals made the right choice, given the generational talent of Chase and his obvious chemistry with Bro. Regarding the 2022 draft, he's surprised that there has been more of a debate about what the Falcons did at pick number eight.

Nothing all against Drake London, who is my second favorite receiver behind Alave, but for a team starting a total rebuild, I was surprised they didn't take Charles Cross. I know they re-up Jake Matthews, but they declined Cabo McGarrier's fifth year option. It just seems that high-quality receivers will be available in the first two rounds for the foreseeable future. But high-end offensive tackles appear much harder to come by. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on where the offensive tackle versus receiver debate currently stands and whether you think the Falcons would have been better

serve going tackle over receiver early in their rebuilding process. It's a great question. I've actually been thinking about this because when I was looking at the draft and they took a receiver at 8, all of the sound and fury that came with the Bengals taking a receiver in the top 10 just kind of went away. We didn't talk about it at all as it related to the Falcons. I have my thoughts on this, but I'm curious where you stand with this. Yeah.

Well, I think, you know, we can't maybe just look at this in a vacuum because I think what happened with the Bengals and even with Justin Jefferson the year before, I think is maybe skewing the conversation here. We're now we're having back-to-back examples of rookie wide receivers, not just being good for a rookie, but being one of the best players at his position in the NFL. So it's making it a little bit more palatable to take a guy there. I think, you know, nine out of ten football guys, general managers, personnel execs, they'll probably agree with you and say that the way to build your team, the foundation that you need is to build both of the lines, offensive line, defensive line. And I do think the positional scarcity is there at offensive tackle. I mean, we talked about this a lot before the draft that you're not going to find a starting left tackle in the second round. It's just the history there is really bad. The history of finding a top two. your wide receiver in the second round, especially recently, is very, very good. But I think when we're looking at the Falcons, part of it just might be there's just not a ton of, like, the scrutiny on the falcons just isn't as high right now as it maybe as on other teams. And we're like, okay, this is a team that

they don't have their quarterback. When we were talking about the Bengals last year, it was all within the framework of what is best for Joe Burrow. And after his ACL injury, you had to think the best thing for Joe Burrow is let's protect Joe Burrow. And it's still protecting Joe Burrow really freaking important. Their lack of protection for Joe Burrow was a reason that they probably didn't win the Super Bowl. And it's amazing that they got to the Super Bowl in spite of that. We don't have that in Atlanta. There's no clear offensive plan here of like, here's the quarterback. This is what we have to do to make this quarterback better. Their roster is just barren and the cupboard was completely empty at wide receiver. So they really like they had to,

I think, take a receiver there. I mean, they could have taken an offensive tackle. I don't think any of us would have been overly critical had they done that. But just kind of where the Falcons are at as a franchise, you just need really, really good players and you need somebody who's going to, they literally needed anybody to catch the ball on Sundays. And Drake London could do that. So you kind of just had to get a player in there right now. Yeah. And if you, I think the question is totally valid. but this specific situation if we kind of purged through it. Charles Claus is a left tackle. That's where he played in college.

That's what he is. Some teams and evaluators think he was a left tackle only. So moving him to the right side, does that kind of fuck with the type of prospect that he is? Do you feel good about that? So I think that's part of that consideration. The Falcons looked at Drake London and saw somebody, they were too small at receiver last year, point blank.

The way that they want to play and you think about what Arthur Smith did with a guy like AJ Brown, and just how that size matters when you're trying to create those yak opportunities over the middle of the field. They didn't have those opportunities last year. I also think that if you look at the receivers in this draft period, a lot of small guys went after Drake London. Garrett Wilson isn't that big. Chris Oliva isn't that big. Jahan Dotson, players like that. So Drake London really stood out in this receiver class as that big bodied after the catch player that they could potentially get. I also think their priority, an offense where positional kind of designations are blurrier.

Think about Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts is not a tight end. I mean, he's going to line up in line for them every once in a while. And he's not even, he's a vertical player in that offense. And Drake London, one of the reasons they liked him so much is because of all the different places he lined up over his last two years at USC. So if Drake London's going to be your number three inside receiver on some of these sets, Kyle Pitts is going to play outside.

That flexibility, I think, was really important to them. So that's why they prioritized him in that range, and they knew that wide receiver run was coming. So trading back and trying to get one of those other guys, they just viewed him as a different type of player than some of the other receivers available and especially compared to some of the other pass-catching options that they had last season and the type of offense that they want to be.

So, yes, there is going to be a hole potentially for them at right tackle next year if when if and when i think they move on from cable mary after this season but i feel like if they're building this kind of infrastructure of what they want to be offensively they thought that drake london was the right type of player for who they wanted to be in twenty twenty three as they're building this thing for their quarterback because charles cross again is a left tackle for most people and they're set at left tackle so that i think is the thinking that kind of drove what the falcons were trying to do and you know even if you go a little bit deeper into their draft.

In my mind, they thought that Arnold Evacati was a tier above every other player available at that range of the draft with pass rushing. They were talking about pressure players. He was the only guy they were willing to trade up for, is what I've been told. And they wanted to go get him because they thought there was a huge drop-off. So to leave with a past catcher in Drake London and a past catcher, they think fits stylistically what they want to be on offense. And a pressure player, a high in the second round in Evacati, that's a lot.

what they wanted to hit in that spot. So I can totally understand the directions they went and why with those first couple picks. All right. Next one here. Evan Erie, I think these questions are kind of related. I've been thinking about this idea a lot and appreciate your thoughts. Do we overrate the importance of an elite tackle?

If you look at the Rams, they had a great offensive line without having stars in that unit, especially when Whitworth was hurt. But they also didn't have any weak spots. Everyone was solid. I'm a charger fan. I keep going back to Week 18 versus the Raiders. thinking about Crosby beating Storm Norton the whole game. Chargers' offense couldn't function because of one weak spot.

It didn't matter how good the rest of the line was. I think part of this is because your offensive line is only going to be as good as its weakest point, especially playing against teams of the versatile pass rushers who can line up anywhere. So to give a hypothetical, is it worth giving out a huge contract to a guy like Toronto Armstead if you have huge weaknesses on the rest of your line, which will prohibit the offense from functioning? Is it more valuable to split that money between two average or even slightly below average tackles? Love this question. that's come up in various forms over the last couple years as we've talked about this.

This is part, this is a consideration that you have to take into account when you're talking about the offensive tackle versus wide receiver debate. Because even if there are more receivers available or even if you're saying, well, I want to be where can I get an elite tackle? Do you need an elite tackle versus elite receiver? I think all of these are things to kind of take into mind when we're having this discussion. What is the first thing that you kind of jumped at when you're looking at this question?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really interesting question. And then I do remember in that game where Crosby was like, it just was like he was on a heater. And like, you know, I don't know if Storm Morton is as bad as he looked in that game, he might be. But that was just like one of those incredible performances. We've seen those. Kaleel Mack had one of those games against, God knows, I can't remember which Broncos tackle it was, you know, five years ago. It was like a five-sat game. I mean, this happens where just.

a guy gets owned that much. Von Miller versus Mike Remmers, those type of games. But I think my answer is that I'm inclined to agree with Evan and be concerned about it because the history of what free agent left tackles or right tackles, but the guys that when you give the big free agent contract, those don't work out as often as you think they're going to. You say, we're going to give Nate Solder this huge contract and he's going to fix our offensive line with the Giants or Trent Brown with the Raiders or Joanne James with the Broncos. The reason that a lot of these guys are getting to free agencies because either their old team doesn't value them the way that maybe they value themselves or age or injury history.

So it is, I think, a risky proposition to say we're just going to throw all of our money at this elite or so-called elite left tackle and fill in. kind of the holes the rest of the line. I mean, I think ideally you want to have as good a players at every single position as you can. But I think you can coach around a lot of those stuff if you have replacement level or better players kind of up and down your line. If your quarterback makes good decisions, if he has a quick release, if it's, if you're not just calling, you know, really, really long developing routes where, you know, you put your quarterback in a position to succeed there by putting your tackles in a position to succeed. So I'm I'm not sure if there's a right answer there, but it is a really interesting question in team building and the way that you want to allocate your resources.

We've talked about, a lot of people have talked about the idea of an offensive line being a weak link system. Evan literally uses that term when talking about Storm Norton. If you have one weak link, teams are going to find it. Teams have done such a good job of building pass rush packages about finding the one area they can attack on an offensive line. And in theory, I agree. I think it's better to kind of spread that money out. We have examples of this offseason. You know, the Bengals added three offensive alignment in free agency in this off season.

The Bengals are 22nd in offensive line spending against the cap in 2022. They decided we want mid-tier contracts to kind of fill this out with guys that we think can be reliable starters. And I totally understand that. I do think that there is value in having an elite left tackle because I do think that they're math flippers when it comes to resources and how you're building your offense. I don't have to worry about chipping. I can leave this guy on an island and allow him to play on an island consistently. And there is value in that. How much I think is up for debate?

I don't know if Tehran Armstead is the best example. Toronto Arnstead, his contract is pretty palatable. I mean, it's, I think, 12th in average annual value among offensive tackles in the NFL. And with the dolphins, they have starters elsewhere. I think they're going to let some of those young guys they drafted fight for a couple of those jobs, because eventually you've got to hope that a couple of those second round picks that you spent on offensive linemen end up developing. So I don't mind the Toronto Armstead part of this. But I do think there are examples where it hurts you.

You know, DJ Humphrey is making $20 million for Arizona. Yeah. The Cardinals are number one in percentage of the cap spent on offensive linemen this year. And their offensive line is bad. Like that is where you get into trouble. So I do think that there are examples of that where it can really hurt you. You know, the Niners. Trent Williams is an incredible player,

but their offensive line is not great in some of these other spots. Is that worthwhile? So I can understand not wanting to throw a ton of money at one left tackle and spread it out a little bit more. But I also think it's really important to have functional pieces at that left tackle spot, and it's hard to find those functional pieces. So you have guys, I think, are perfect examples in this way. Donovan Smith and Dionne Dawkins.

I think that they're perfect examples. Second round picks. We're not high-end prospects necessarily. They're getting paid. Second, third deal money. And it's not top of the market money, but they're being paid like pretty expensive veterans. I think those guys make a premium because you need at least functional players in that

spot. So this is an ongoing conversation. I think it's a really good one. But those are my initial thoughts as I kind of think about every aspect of this. Well, and I'd love, I'm sure you'll have Mitchell Schwartz. back as a mailbag guest at some point. I'd love to circle back with him with this question as, you know, he was an elite right tackle, right?

And I think when we talk about, you know, having to have an elite left tackle with how many pass rushers are now not just confined to one side of the defense and how many teams are loading up with that you can have elite pass rushers on both sides, how that's flipping the calculus of, you know, how you allocate your resources between left tackle and right tackle. And if right tackles are now more important than the. used to be and all of those questions. So let's put a pin in this one and make sure Mitchell answers it as well. We could also tag him on Twitter and maybe he can chime in.

If you look at the average annual value of offensive tackle contracts in the NFL, I want to say three or four of the top 10 or 12 are right tackles. Ryan Ramcheck, Brian O'Neill, Lane Johnson, Taylor Moten, Braden Smith. I mean, that gap is absolutely closed. And I think that it should close. So, yeah, it's a really, really good question. and something I'm sure we'll talk about in various forms for a really long time here. All right.

Kent, can you queue up our first voicemail here? Hey, Robert. I have a couple questions. One, I got into a debate with a friend, and I said that John Harbaal will be in the Hall of Fame. Am I crazy? Another thing, I think the Bengals got kind of lucky, and I think Zach Taylor isn't really a great coach. I think he's the Worson Division. Am I wrong?

Love the show. So I want to handle the John Harbaugh part of this first. What do you think? You think John Harbaugh is a Hall of Fame coach? Okay. So I will preface this by saying I am a Hall of Fame selector. Last year was my first year in that room. And it's given me a new appreciation for like what it would when we have these like,

oh, he's a Hall of Famer. Getting into the Hall of Fame as a coach is really, really, really hard. That bar is extremely high. he is going to need, when we're talking about John Harbaugh, he 100% needs a second Super Bowl championship to even be considered baseline. So as we're sitting here today in May of 2022, John Harbaugh is not a Hall of Fame coach. He's just not. If you look at the guys that are in there, if you look at the guys who are not in there, the other guys that you should say, of course he's a Hall of Fame coach. Not in there.

Mike Shanahan. Not in there. Mike Shanahan, two rings as a head coach, multiple rings. is also in championships as an assistant coach, you know, complete offensive innovator, right? I mean, we talk about the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. No, no, no. It's the Mike Shanahan offense and the Mike Shanahan coaching tree. Even if you go back like two steps, because even if you say that Mike, that Kyle isn't on Mike's tree, which I think is totally fair because he didn't start his career under Mike. He was on Gary's tree. Exactly. So his first coordinator job was

under Gary Kupiac, who was Mike Shanahan's offensive coordinator forever. So it still all ties back into each other, but I think that's exactly right. So, and our colleague Mike Sando, who is also a Hall of Fame selector and has been a selector for a really long time, he'll bang the drum really hard from Mike Holmgren, not in the Hall of Fame. He only has one ring, but he also made a second Super Bowl with another team, didn't win when he was with the Seahawks. Obviously, some really major contributions to the game of football.

Multiple rings is an assistant coach. So I'm just saying that the bar is really, really, really high when we're talking about who is going to get in. And it's getting more and more difficult now for coaches to get in. The Hall of Fame board of the board of trustees a couple weeks ago made a change where at least for the next three classes, coaches and contributors are now going to be lumped together. So there are only one person coming out of that group. So that means coaches, this group of guys, the Mike Shanahan's and Mike Holmgrens of the light, you know, that group. They're going to be in the same group with general managers.

owners, officials, front office executives, all of those type of people who might be coming up for consideration. So it's becoming more difficult. And part of that was to allow more members of the senior committee, people who are in the senior committee to get out, that there's just this really big logjam of players who ended up in the senior pool. And it's really difficult. So it's going to increase the number of guys who can come out of the senior committee, but it's going to make it even that much more difficult for a coach. So all of that said, I mean, I think John Harbaugh is under- as a coach in this current era. And I think part of that is because, you know, he's coached in the same conference as

Bill Belichick and he's in the same conference or the same division, excuse me, as Mike Tomlin. I mean, we're in this really great aid of coaches where, you know, some of the guys that have been here forever and ever and ever are really, really good. I mean, I think if there's a couple, there's what, Mike Tomlin and Bill Belichick, I think are Hall of Fame coaches, right? Mike Tomlin's only got one Super Bowl. Yeah, so, but that's interesting, right? I would probably give Mike Tomlin better chances than John Harbaugh at this point.

They're right there, neck and neck to me. You look at John Harbaugh's career and his career as a head coach, 14 years, eight times he's won at least 10 games, eight times in 14 years, two losing seasons in 14 years. One of them was an eight and nine season last year. So before last season, when they were just decimated with injuries and there were 17 games, He'd had one losing season in 14 years as a coach with one Super Bowl. Very similar in terms of resume when you look at Mike Tomlin.

And both of them, I think, are great examples of this. It is amazing when you have that guy with his hand on the wheel and everything else around it can change. And obviously, the Steelers didn't really have to do this on offense because Ben Rothfisberger was there. They ran one style of offense for a majority of Mike Tomlin's time there. I think they opened it up a little bit as Ben got a little bit older. and they got that 3Bs era came into focus. But think about how many different versions of the Ravens we've seen. I mean, Lamar Jackson is so far away from Joe Flacco,

and they won a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco. And I just think having that stabilizing force in the middle of that, that's awesome to me. That's just an incredible place to be as a franchise. And I think we underrate how valuable it is to have that type of coach where he's the rock, and the front office is similar, with Baltimore too, right? Like you can set your watch to the way that Eric Dacosta operated because it's the same way

in a lot of ways that I wasn't using him operated. And just having those and being able to have all these other external forces rotate around them, that is why successful organizations stay successful. And I think that John Harbaugh has been a huge part of that. If he gets another one, I have out of no problem with it. Like having that level of success and being able to shepherd a franchise through various iterations and still be successful, that's immensely. impressive to me. So I do agree that one more Super Bowl is probably necessary for him to be in that

conversation. But if he gets it, we just laid it out, 20 to 1, if we like them in Super Bowl bet this year, I do think that that shifts it a little bit and I would have no problem with him getting in whatsoever. And if you can win Super Bowls with Joe Flacco as your quarterback and Lamar Jackson is your quarterback, that's just showing just, I think, how good of a coach you are at evolving and becoming new additions of yourself. 100% agree with that. I mean, even if you, even the idea of winning a Super Bowl with Joe Flacko and then having Lamar Jackson win an MVP and you get the number one seed. Even doing that is amazing. Like that's so, so cool. Bill Belichick had Tom Brady forever. And there were various iterations of that Patriots team. We saw

them go through so many evolutions on offense and defense. And I think Bill Belichick is similar in the ways that he's approached this. But with Harbaugh, you just have this stark, stark contrast with the offensive styles. And I just really appreciate that. And it is, I know we're going to move into the Zach Taylor portion of this really soon. But it is interesting considering the coaches, the current NFL coaches, because what, Mike Tomlin, I already mentioned, Andy Reed. I mean, where is Andy Reed going to fall in this with his resume? I think we all kind of assume that at some point he'll win another championship with Patrick Mahomes before he retires. But I think he'll have a really, really strong case as a guy who, you know, obviously didn't win a Super Bowl

with the Eagles, but he went to one, just the longevity of his career. Somebody like Pete Carroll, You know, where is he going to fall in this? I mean, it's, it's, we're going to be having some fun debates in, you know, over the next 10 plus years as these guys have now retired and are, are eligible for Canton. And there's not going to be very many spots, but a lot of them who are probably deserving. God, those, it's going to be so tough. I'm not envious to the people who have to be in that room having those discussions. My, if we're just doing like, knee jerk reaction, okay? I throw a name out yes or no.

Okay. Andy Reid, like, yes. Like automatic yes. just for all the reasons we talked about, being an innovator and how successful and consistent they were in Philadelphia and going to four straight NFC championship games, going to Super Bowl there, he's been to three Super Bowls, he's won one to go to the Super Bowl,

or to be as successful as he was with Alex Smith and then do what they've done with Patrick Mahomes. And that's similar to me when we were talking about just quarterbacks who are stylistically so different and you're still able to succeed. So that to me just feels like automatic. I would say like current coach it, like active coaches,

uh, Reed has the best shot after Belichick. I'd say that's totally fair. And I, but how would you stack up Pete Carroll with other two guys we just talked about in the NFC North? It's hard. Pete Carroll has one Super Bowl.

He easily could have had two. And you think about influence defensively. I mean, the Legion of Boom era of the Seahawks completely defined an era of defensive football in the NFL. So that's, it's really tough. Again,

These are hard, hard conversations. We can dig into this a little bit more. Maybe we'll bring this back for Canton Court later this summer like we did last year and we'll include some coaches in the conversation. We don't have to spend a ton of time on the Zach Taylor side of this. My answer is pretty quick. I want to see what happens this year because I think it was hard for them in a lot of ways to function offensively with the offensive line that they had last season. And if they can have this line there and there still are aspects of their offense where it's like, well, this is pretty siloed and predictable.

And I don't really think they're doing that many interesting things. I'm going to table my Zach Taylor opinions until the end of the 20, some point during the 2022 season, I guess I'll say. I guess even as they made the Super Bowl, like maybe I missed it. But was there like a narrative shift that all of a sudden, Zach Taylor was considered a really good coach? I don't remember that. Or maybe it was like on some other version of the internet during the Super Bowl run.

where I think there's still questions out there about like kind of who is Zach Taylor. I mean, we know that he comes from the Sean McVeigh tree, but like, can we really identify, like, what are the hallmarks of a Zach Taylor offense? I'm not sure we know exactly who he is as a head coach. He was not a good coach for his first two years. And I still have questions, even as they made the Super Bowl this year during that postseason run, some questions about, you know, are concerns about kind of the dismissiveness about their. style of play and how they were letting Joe Burrow take as many hits as he was. They were kind of like, this is our line. Joe loves getting hit. He gets up. It's fine. And it's like, you already lost him for half of a year. And you've seen what a transformational player he is. So I just had some

concerns about kind of that like cavalier attitude toward the health of his quarterback. I will give them credit, you know, him and Duke Tobin and the Bengals for realizing that they couldn't keep playing that way this offseason. and they made some pretty significant moves to try to upgrade and address that offensive line. So I'm kind of with you where I want to give it another year and see now how do you deal with success? How do you deal with an entire conference and an entire league who now sees you as a team with a target as opposed to a team that you can kind of a push over, which look the Bengals were for a really long time? So I'm going to table it as well, but I kind of lean towards the like he's maybe an average coach who lucked into a generational quarterback. That would be probably where I would lean at this moment.

I do think Joe does not necessarily help out his offensive line a lot and especially did not last year. His style of play is a concern, which also I should have mentioned this when we were having the offensive tackle debate. I think you can mitigate the importance of your offensive tackles with the way that you play. I think that is hugely important. So style was just schematically how you can marginalize what those players mean to your offense. I think it's harder to do that with the receivers in the modern NF. I think it's harder to say I can make an average receiver a functional piece of this offense than it is with an offensive tackle. I think that's part of the debate.

I'd have to really interrogate that, but that's my, just thinking of it quickly. I think I would feel comfortable saying that. All right. Let's get to our next one here. Don't have to spend a lot of time on this one. But Austin Above said a very nice thing about me, which I appreciate. He's a fan of our work. His question is around our beloved Chicago Bears.

He said, polls and earflus, inherited a mess of a situation. They've been open about how this isn't going to be a quick fix. With that being said, what does success look like for the Bears this season? What are reasonable hopes, expectations for this team, and Justin Fields specifically. We've talked about this in some form over the last several shows. I don't have to spend a lot of time on this. I think if you can protect him with that scheme a little bit, heavy play action, run the ball a lot. He shows some flashes.

It's not a step backward in his development. You're biting your time to figure out what the team. can be next year when you have all of this cap space and these resources. I mean, they're going to have like $120 million in cap space next off season. They can do whatever they want. So using this season to kind of protect him with what the structure of the offense looks like and feel like you can get some information about how good he is, what he does well, how you need to build outside of this.

I think that some of the way that I've talked about this has been misconstrued. I don't feel like them wasting this year of Justin Field. is some organizational disaster that's steering them into an iceberg, I just think it sucks to lose one cheap year of your quarterback's rookie contract and to not be on a timeline where you can make the most of it and take advantage of every opportunity that it affords you. It's okay to not be able to build around him until year three, but it's not ideal.

It just makes things a little bit harder. And when you're in a league where there's a lot of really smart people and really good teams, any degree of difficulty you add to the situation, sucks. It just makes it more, it makes it harder to compete with these really, really good teams. So I think that with Fields, you see flashes, he's protected in ways, again, mostly by the scheme because the offensive line is still a question. And you just say, this was a step forward in the right direction. I don't need him to be a top 12 quarterback. I don't need him to be this guy that is in no doubt about it, like pro bowl player. The Bears can come out of this season

and say, we know how to build around this guy. We're going to commit to doing it next year when we feel like we found our footing. I think that is success. Even if they win five games this year, I don't think that really matters. Yeah, I think all of that stuff is fair. I think I would want to see the foundation of who the bears are going to be moving forward. What is the offensive identity? What is the defensive identity?

I want to see offensive line improvement. I want to see them find players that are going to be. there long term that are going to be part of this offense, this offensive line. Specifically, you know, I want to, I want to see them find these foundational pieces, even if it's only a couple of them, and then they can go out next year and keep adding to that. And I think I would want, if I was a Bears fan, I would just want to be competitive in NFC North. It's a really top heavy division. You know, that doesn't mean, let's say, let's go out and beat the Packers and let's go win this division. But games against the Lions are going to be winnable. The Vikings are

certainly a team in transition right now, probably higher expectations than Chicago and Detroit both have. But I think it's a division where you can like, let's go out and be competitive in those games and really have something good to build on into the next couple of years. And I think that's hugely important because you're selling Matt Iberflus as a coach, the attitude that your defense plays with is like 68% of his, of them selling him as a coach. So it's really important for them to play a certain way defensively. effort-wise, but also just intelligence.

And I was talking to an offensive play caller recently, and we were talking about the Colts and how you could see the coaching points when you would play against the Colts. Defense is fairly simple, you know, relative to other schemes around the NFL, just where you're going to have guys lined up up front. And it really is a throwback in a lot of different ways. But you could see how well coached they were, not just by the schemes being called, but little tiny details.

They play against the Titans. And they were one of the first teams, really the most advanced team and the most pronounced team in this. When other teams were still flying up to stop the run and the Titans were just crushing teams with those play action little in-breakers to AJ Brown behind it. The Colts are just like, you're not moving. You do not react when they run in this heavy, wide zone action. You stand there flat-footed and you be right in that path. half because we're not worried about six yards from Derek Henry. We're worried about an eight-yard completion to AJ Brown that turns into 60.

That's what we can't have. And you just have Darius Leonard and Bobby Okarike just playing flat-footed. And it really took away the way that the Titans wanted to play. Just that kind of stuff. Do you see a defense that's well-coached and plays hard and has a foundation of, you know what, this isn't the most complex scheme in the world, but this team's going to suck to play against it every single week. does that foundation start to exist?

And I think that is really, really important. I'm glad that you mentioned kind of some aspect of that. All right, get to our next one here. We had a Bears one, and then I'm throwing a Broncos one year away. This is why I structured it this way. All right. Ryan Teiglas says, appreciate all the work you do.

I really love the show. As a Broncos fan, I love the selection of Nick Bonito, but I was hoping that we take an offensive tackle or guard in the fourth round. What are your thoughts on the Broncos' offensive line as it's currently built with a new O-line coach and quarterback. I'm going to let you take this one. Sure. So, and I want to follow, I want to maybe start this by saying, somebody, and now I cannot find the tweet, and I apologize. Somebody tweeted at both you and I after I was going to mention this last week asking about why we were kind of dismissing

Billy Turner as their right tackle as being somebody who is, we were kind of considering him like a replacement level player. Because it was a position that I thought the Broncos needed to address more because of the revolving door that they've had at right tackle. And I would say that while I liked the Billy Turner signing in that he's a guy that Nathaniel Hackett, excuse me, is really familiar with. You have to follow the money. And we're not the ones that are saying that Billy Turner is considered a replacement level left tackle or right tackle. His contract is saying that. That's what the Broncos are saying that by giving him a one million or one year, two and a half million dollar contract.

Yes, it's all guaranteed. But that is nothing for a starting tackle in the NFL. I mean, that's less money than Mike Rummers is making. And he is the, like, definition, right, of a replacement level tackle. So that's where that kind of comes from. Like, they've been making these kind of stopgap moves that they might be able to survive with Billy Turner as their left tackle this year. But I believe he's 30 years old. You know, he's kind of bounced around a little bit. And his familiarity with Hackett probably will be to his advantage this year. And I think they'll be better at that position now than they were last year with Calvin Anderson. But I do, you know, I do understand. like wanting to build depth there. I'm not as down on their entire offensive line now as I have been in recent years. I have a big, big, big question, though, about losing Mike Munchak. Mike Munchak is one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL, like maybe ever, right? I mean, huge, huge asset to the Broncos during the Vic Fangio era. I mean, Garrett Bulls probably owes like all of his contract extension to working with Mike Munchack. So, you know, I don't want this to

like be a negative necessarily about anybody who Hackett has brought in on his staff. But losing somebody like Mike Munchack with his, he's just such a good teacher and his knowledge of the NFL and of schemes and of the way that he works with players, I do just, I'm very curious how that's going to kind of impact the entire offensive line and especially Garrett Bulls, who is now there, you know, he's kind of the centerpiece of that line. He's gotten paid. At times, he's played really well, and at times he's been one of the worst tackles in the NFL, very prone to penalties is the big. That's the big thing, right? Holding penalties and false starts have been a big issue for him. So that's kind of my big question there. You know, I think they were very much when we talk about the draft

and not, you know, who they took in which rounds in the second round or the fourth round, whatever it might have been. I think they found themselves in a fairly like, the position of luxury where they weren't going to reach for anybody. They, you know, did some time, there were some times where George Payton considered trading up. Ultimately, he was not as aggressive there. I think there were times that they wanted to trade back and try to get some more picks for next year because they don't have a lot of capital in the 20203 draft.

So I think they were kind of comfortable with like, we're not going to jump up and reach for somebody. I think there were some, you know, they saw a talent gap between the top group of offensive linemen who went on the first day and the group in the second round, which is why they went Nick Bonito instead. And in the second round saying, in Nick Benito, he might not be a week one starter because they have Bradley Chub and Randy Gregory. They have a guy who week one they think is going to be a really significant part of their defense. And anybody they would have been taking on the offensive line at that point at number 64 probably would not have been. So that's kind of where I come down on it right now. I think Billy Turner is going to be fine at right tackle. I would have liked to see them be a little bit more aggressive in free agency.

But where they were picking, it just really wasn't an option, I think, to get a starting right tackle there. Yeah, I think that reasoning totally tracks to me. You can have a rotational pass rusher as part of your immediate plans where your backup tackle isn't. But it's the money to me. He's a, he can swing tackle money. So the idea that he would be your swing tackle and maybe you, you'd go out and try to find a starting right tackle. That's what I thought they might try to do in the draft.

And I understand they had a second round pick and I get going with a pass rusher. But they definitely have a cobbled together plan at right tackle. Billy Turner, Tom Compton, I mean, guys that have been swing tackles or the definition of replacement level players. So they don't have a long-term plan there. I think that's okay. But I just don't think that he's going to be any sort of multi-year solution. I don't think they signed him to be that. And I can definitely understand being worried about the depth.

You know, if he gets hurt and then Tom Compton has to play a bunch of snaps. Dalton Rizner is going to be a free agent after this year. They just don't have a lot of depth there. But they also didn't have a lot of picks. I mean, this is what happens when you trade multiple picks for a quarterback. Even if you get a couple extras from the Von Miller trade, you don't have the sort of capital to fill in all these spots. You have to hope that if you skimp on one position or another,

your quarterback ultimately transcends whatever weaknesses that you have. I think that's what they're betting on. Well, they haven't necessarily invested a ton in new players or spending a lot of money or draft picks in the offensive line. I bet Russell Wilson looks at that group and feels pretty okay with it compared to some of the lines that he's played behind in recent years in Seattle. I think that's totally fair. Hey, Robert.

I want to ask about the ways that quarterback saturation fluctuates. because in one moment it could feel like half the league needs the quarterback. And then like a month later, we have a surplus. And like the situation with Baker Mayfield or like Jimmy G over the past several years. We've talked about the idea of quarterback saturation and what it really means previously. My first thought when I hear that question is that one, this is about timing. I think there are teams who would benefit from having a Baker Mayfield or Jimmy Garoppolo as they're starting quarterback compared to what they have right now.

But either it's a rookie that they have to see through. It's the money problem. I mean, teams don't want to pay Baker Mayfield $18 million right now, and the Browns don't have a ton of leverage. So I think that's where the stalemate has been reached. Jimmy Garoppolo's hurt. And I don't think any team wants to pay Jimmy Garoppolo $24 million this year or whatever his base salary is going to be. So these are money considerations.

And I also think that even if we think that there's a glut of playable quarterbacks, which I do. I do think that there are a ton of playable quarterbacks. Do you don't want to commit yourself to that? You don't want to commit yourself to the 16th best quarterback in the league or the 18th best quarterback in the league. Because I think that's where you get in trouble. So even if there is, I don't think there's a scarcity of quarterback competency. I think there's a scarcity of quarterback excellence. And as long as that's going to be the case, do teams?

have a little bit of a weariness about saying, I want this guy who his best case scenario is for me to be the 14th best offense in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, I think there absolutely is a scarcity of quarterbacks who would fall into the, you know, tier one when Mike Sando was doing his, you know, his famous tier one quarterbacks.

Where is the surplus? It's the guys that are on the wrong side or right near bumping up against that car continuum. Yes. Trademark pending. That's ours right here on the athletic. football show. And that's the, you know, it's the Carson Wences and the Mitchell Trebiskees and Jared Goffs and that group of guys. And like you said, so much of is about timing.

And, you know, some of these guys are having to sign backup quarterback deals for a year. I mean, Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppel are probably going to be backup quarterbacks for a year maybe on the current teams or they might end up being free agents and having to sit a while. It's the Teddy Bridgewaters that are bouncing from one year deal to one year deal. And we see teams that don't have one of those other guys, one of the very small group of Tier 1 guys talk themselves into the other guys. But it's not a long-term winning solution. It just isn't. So there's a surplus of guys that you can talk yourselves into.

We could be competitive in our division if we have this guy. If everything else is right. If our defense is good enough, if we run the ball well, if he doesn't throw a lot of interceptions. But I absolutely think there is still the scarcity. of the really, really top to your quarterbacks. Maybe that pool is getting a little bit bigger as guys that are coming out of college are better prepared to play right away.

But I still think those guys are always going to be at a premium, and that's why you see so many teams doing the aggressive moves that the rest of Wilson trades and the Matthew Stafford trades and those type of things to go out and get those guys because the reverse living on the other side of the spectrum is so painful. You look at the teams where Baker-Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo would theoretically be an upgrade over the quarterbacks that they have. Seattle is a perfect example.

If Baker Mayfield were a free agent on March 15th, and he would get the name your quarterback who's gotten this deal. Andy Dalton, James Winston, got a version of it a little bit last year. One year, 10 million. You're our stopgap starter. I absolutely think a team like the Seahawks or the Panthers would have been interested in that. But with the timeline of how it all worked out and the money, they're no longer interested. Atlanta is another good example.

Atlanta needs a better quarterback than Marcus Mariotta probably, but they're not interested in being good this year. They don't need to seek out all of these ways to maximize the team that they want to be because that's not the timeline that they're on. So I do think there's right around the right amount of starting level quarterbacks in the NFL. I don't think that there is a scarcity of them or a real surplus. I think that if we look at it, it's about 32 guys. So you'd say, all right, we can, depending on what we're trying to accomplish this year,

we can roll into this season with this guy as our starter. Yeah, I mean, how many guys out there that are actually like starting? Because there's a couple teams that probably have a backup who could be a starter somewhere else. And then there's some teams that like the Falcons who have two guys who probably just should be backups or the Seattle Seahawks with two guys who should be backups. Are there 28, 24? Maybe this is a better question for Mike Sando who has such a good pulse on the exact of the quarterback tears. but it probably is right about the right guys. But let's just say the guys on the wrong side of the car continuum.

It's too many. Yeah, it's most of them. And I think that's where we have the surpluses and guys that are in that range. All right. Don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, but I'm going to try. Miklos Manyhart says he's a Jets fan from Europe, an aspiring football journalist. He wants to know more about our routine and preparation for a podcast episode. How many games do you watch in a regular season weekend?

When, how, what do you read? and also, you know, my co-hosts version of this. I'll just go through just Sunday and what that looks like just very quickly. People have asked about this in the past. I have three TVs going on a Sunday. One is on Red Zone. One is typically on the local game, which is the Bears. And then the third TV is split between usually four games on Sunday ticket.

So I have five games going in real time and then Red Zone going. Take notes, you know, obviously during all of those games, we figure out what's jumping out to us what's not what do we want to talk about and then after the second set of games ends which you know there are only three or four on it once much easier to pay attention to what's going on Nate and I will have a call we'll figure out what we want to talk about and when we come up with the five or six games or matchups or things that we're like all right we want to dig into this I will try to rewatch as many of those games as possible in the gap between the second games and the Sunday night games and during the Sunday night game because the 45 minute versions of the games

goes up almost immediately after they're over. So that's typically what we do, and then we kind of figure it out from there. But that is my Sunday routine and has been for the last two seasons, really. Yeah, and I would say, you know, I don't do the Sunday night show with you guys. So my Sunday responsibilities are writing here at the athletic. So, and that can change week to week to week. But I would say, you know, we get these questions a lot from like aspiring football writers,

whether you're in college, whether you live here, you live, you know, in Europe. I think the number one, I think there's a couple of things that are really important. One, it's obviously watching as much as you can. And, you know, there's a lot of great resources. You, mecos, live in Europe where the Game Pass is great. So you make sure you get that European Game Pass. Hopefully American Game Pass will have some improvements coming up in 2022 to make it a little bit more user-friendly for the rest of us here, stateside. So the film is really important, you know, to watch the games from as many different.

angles as you can and try to develop your own conclusions or your own questions and then you want to get answers to that. Why is this happening? I think the most important thing, though, is reading a lot, right, reading the smart people, you know, all of our beat writers at the athletic, you know, there were writers across the country that you admire. But we're in a unique position once you're credentialed, right, once you're actually a member of the media is that we're able to talk to people. And it's taking what you're watching. and then being able to talk to really smart people about it and saying, what happened here? Like, can you take me through why this happened in the fourth quarter or take me through this third down call?

Or why do you like this player here versus that player? And, you know, so for us as journalist as, you know, credentialed members of the media, it's been really hard the last couple of years where, you know, we're texting guys, we're calling coaches, we're calling GMs, those sorts of things. We're going to have the opportunity this year that we're going to be able to be back in the locker room to, to, to, to, talk to the players more in person about what's been happening. And so I think, you know, football fans are going to benefit a lot by by that sort of access and by getting to hear from the players more directly about what's been happening in their games. So, you know, so for me where, you know, I'm not podcasting on Sunday nights, I'm trying to look a lot more at, you know, especially if I'm at a game. And I go to a couple games a month. And so it's wanting to talk to players and coaches

and stuff afterwards to really get into the biggest moments of the games, why this happened, What was the decision here? Whose responsibility was what? And then, you know, I tend to look at things a lot with like kind of the 30,000-foot view. Like, what does this mean for the AFC West? What does this mean for the AFC as a whole? What does this mean for the playoff race? Is there a trend emerging?

Was there, you know, a trend across the league on a specific Sunday? So, you know, sometimes you want to get really granular and look at, you know, specific plays or specific players. Sometimes you want to get really big picture. But it's, you know, that's kind of how I look at it. And it's fun because every Sunday can be a little bit different. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that just, you know, I try to let my curiosity lead me around. You know, what am I interested in?

What's piqued my interest? What do I feel like if I'm watching? What do I want to learn more about? And there's an amazing amount of resources out there now. You know, just all the great football writing and analysis that exists at places like the athletic, at places like pro football focus at the ringer and a place where I used to work. And there's just so much good stuff out there.

So I think just having a routine of like, like, I'm going to read as much as I can every Monday. You know, you read Peter King and Albert Breers, MQB, and just trying to make sure that you try to keep a pulse on that as much as possible, along with watching as much stuff as you really can. I think that's probably what I would say. So that's pretty much what my routine is. All right.

That's all we got. That's fun. We have a great time doing those. I'm excited to do those every single week. We're going to have rotating cast a guess. So please continue to send in your questions. We will try to get to as many of them as we can. I hopefully will try to send you guys some notes if we cannot.

answer the questions on the pod to let you know why or to thank you for your question. I'm trying to be better about that. So thank you to everyone who sent one in. Thank you to everyone who will continue to send them in. Please do that over the next couple months. Just a heads up, scheduling-wise, we will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays for the next couple months through May and June. Various kinds of shows on those days.

So just be on the lookout for that schedule. Lindsay, I think that's all we got. Anything else you want to mention? I'll say my daughter got second place in the 40-yard dash at field day, saw her combine training paid off. Wow, just crushing it. That's amazing. So good for her.

All right, great for Lena. All right, guys. Thank you very, very much for listening. Really appreciate you guys stopping by. We will be back on Thursday. In the meantime, please rate and review the podcast. Any podcast platform of choice? You mean a lot to me.

Please subscribe to the athletic. We're going to be talking to Sando a little bit later this week. please go read if you want to prep. The PC did about talking to all of the executives about the 32 team drafts. We've got a really useful piece up today on Monday about the team needs still left. It's one of the reasons the athletic is amazing. It's just because you have a writer being able to point out the exact need that matters the most for every single one of these teams. Or in the Arizona Cardinals case, Lindsay does it.

So if you please go read that, it's just like such a good primer. And that type of stuff is available all of the time. the athletic.com slash football show. We'll be back on Thursday. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.