The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Shane Steichen to the Colts, Jonathan Gannon to the Cardinals, and more on the coaching carousel

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

The Super Bowl was 96 hours ago. That's enough of a break, right? Robert Mays and Nate Tice are back to dig into all the coaching news from the last few days, including the Eagles losing both of their coordinators to head coaching gigs, Todd Monken returning to the NFL as the Ravens' offensive coordinator, Frank Reich's fun staff in Carolina, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeToday's show is brought to you by...Atlassian: For projects impossible alone, visit www.atlassian.comRoman: Visit ro.co/athletic to get 20% off your first Roman order today!LinkedIn: LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/maysPhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthMorgan & Morgan: For more information on Morgan & Morgan services, go to forthepeople.com/mays or dial 1-(800) POUND-LAW from your cell phone3:05 Shane Steichen to the Eagles16:57 Jonathan Gannon to the Cardinals31:10 Todd Monken joins Ravens as OC39:41 Frank Reich's cool staff in Carolina43:45 OC searches in Tampa and D.C.46:28 Eric Bieniemy moving on from KC?51:01 Restrained optimism about Kellen Moore/Chargers pairing56:07 Super Bowl week restaurant review Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today. It's my good friend Natey. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well. This is the little break that we take between the Super Bowl and the Combine.

And I do mean little. It is a little short, tiny break that we take between the Super Bowl and the Combine. But this is awesome. It's nice. We got kind of deep breath. And then today I spent this morning, I started watching a prospect. I was like, we're here. We're here.

We're here in draft season, free agency season, coaching change season, the carousel. But it's fun. That's what the NFL. It's a year-round sport. This is what they want. And the athletic football show is going to deliver. I already started looking at where we're going to eat in Indy.

I saw the tweet. It made me a little depressed. Not because I'm not excited about going and trying a bunch of new restaurants again, but because I haven't put more than like three or four ounces of raw vegetables in my body over the last two weeks. and I'm a little bit scared about eating like this again that soon. Did you notice the last dinner we got? I got a zucchini pasta. I got two vegetables.

I didn't even order anything else. Because I was like, I need greens. I just need greens in my body. And I think the night before I had like, I made sure to have seconds of the salad that we shared. I was like, I need greens in my body. I can't continue to do this. My mom made pasta. I'm staying at my mom's south of Arizona for a couple days on the back end of the Super Bowl.

then she made pasta the first night that I was here. And she was like, do you want a salad? I was like, yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I do want a salad. So that's where we are right now. We were going to do a Super Bowl film review today. Too much shit happened. There's too many things, too much news.

We don't get the luxury of basking in a second look at the game. I think a lot of the things that we would have talked about are things that other people have talked about, the field conditions, how much slipping there was, kind of getting into some of the nitty-gritty of what the chiefs did on offense. So sad that we won't have time to do that, but there's a ton of stuff that happened over the last 72 hours or so that we really have to dig into. And let's start with the Colts hiring Shane Steichen, which that was going to be my guess, looking at their cast of characters that they were sifting through as part of this just crazy coaching search that they were doing. But then there was that little detour that the narrative and the rumors seemed to take during Senior Bowl Week or Shrine Bowl Week when all the, NFL personnel was rumbic. I don't know. It kind of seems like it's going to be Saturday.

And then I got really depressed. And now them landing on this makes me feel a little bit better about the direction of the Indianapolis Colts franchise. I thought it was the dragging the feet to make it sound like we're casting a wide net. It turns out, you know, Saturday is the best guy. And it really was more, yeah, they really liked a Super Bowl, a Super Bowl team coordinator. And that makes sense. It's the traditional, they have to wait that extra couple of weeks until the Super Bowl's over to kind of get to get going on this. And I think they did cast a wide net. I think they absolutely did. I think a lot of these teams have. The process. Yeah. I mean, them doing like 10-hour Zoom interviews, and it might seem crazy,

but I've always thought that talking to someone for five or six hours about the job is not indicative of what the job is going to look like. So the fact that they put them through situational stuff on the board and the analytics guy was in there. And I mean, you're never going to be able to approximate what the demands being NFL head coach are in one or two. two interviews, even if one of those interviews is 12 hours long. But I think you should try. And it does seem like the Colts tried with how crazy and wide reaching their search was compared to some of the ones that we've seen in the past. Yeah. And I like this higher. I really do. This is a guy that has really grown on me from the last year and a half, season and a half, when he took over play calling duties. Apparently, that was a secret to some people that he was the

play caller and the guy that kind of reconfigured this offense. And really, I, the term that I kind of has come to my head, like think about what Stuyken did as a play caller and what the Eagles did. It's like he's an Occam's razor of play caller. He just to find the simplest straight answer, which I think it sounds counterintuitive, but I think having zero fat with your offense of being a thoughtful guy and understanding of personnel shows strength and shows willing to, and willingness to, you know, It's just simple stuff. And this is all I can do. I can only, I've talked to him once.

And it was at Delmar racetrack years and years ago when he was with the San Diego Chargers. I met him once. A handshake. We've made one joke about Philip Rivers. And he was like, oh, he's awesome. And that's it. That's all I know of the guy. So I have to extrapolate a lot from what I see as a play caller and play designer.

And seeing this guy problem solved throughout the game, seeing him understand the strengths of the offense, understand doing stuff like repeating play calls that a lot of coordinators are terrified to do. I know that sounds silly. but I don't know. I like that. Those are signs that this guy kind of gets it. And that's as much as I can, this is much insight I can give as a head coach because that's such a different animal. But those are all good signs of someone that understands kind of the beast that is the NFL. I think the few different things that jump out to me. I've talked to them more than one time at a racetrack, but, you know, not that many more times. Coming into the 21 season and saying really consciously, we should go outside of what our backgrounds are, their backgrounds being him and Syriani.

let's go watch Baltimore. Let's go see what they do well. Let's go seek out some ideas from the college ranks. Let's make some phone calls. That initial way to build what their offense was that season, I think, really jumps out to me. And then two other things, even from his press conference, that I think are really worth looking at. Do you see he thanked every single member of the Eagles offense?

And that may seem like kind of a gimmicky, forward-facing thing. That idea of I serve the players. That is my job as a coach. Not every coach thinks that. Even in private, not every coach is going to, and you get a sense of which guys do and which guys don't. And I think that his approach of, I'm going to make this easier on our guys,

we're going to do what they do well, and we're going to shape it through them. We've talked about this. The proof is in the pudding. It's there. You watch them play. That's what the offense is. So even that sentiment combined with what the offense actually looks like in practice, I think is very good.

And then how emotional he was during that press conference. And there was a clip that circulated, I think it was last week of him in a team meeting and him getting really animated in the team meeting. And it's always funny to me when you see how some of these coaches are when they're forward facing the media. And then you see what they are kind of behind closed doors. Some guys are the same. some guys the personality that you see out in public is the same personality that you're going to see in conversation Shane Steichen I don't think is that when you when you in conversation I've talked about this I talked about with Connor or when he was on he's very excitable and he kind of reminds me of Philip Rivers when you'll be having a conversation with them about something or talking about an idea and they will at an accelerated pace get more and more excited as they get more excited about the idea Can't relate.

Yeah, right? It's definitely not how we are at all. Can't relate. So that energy, I think, translates to being in the front of the room and trying to have that energy distilled down to the entire building. So from an X's and O's standpoint, interpersonal standpoint, and just being that presence at the front of everything and at the top of an organization, I think he checks a lot of boxes. You know, I'm really excited to see what he will do with this. opportunity and what they'll do at quarterback, how they'll shape the offense. And that's one of the fun things about this is that with so many of these guys who come from one specific tree or one

specific style of offense, you think, oh, how will these players fit into these boxes that this coach will create for them? And with them, it's like, I don't know what it's going to look like. I just don't know what they're going to be. And I think that's a really good thing. That is. I liked what you said. Talking about the players and everything. And that's a lot of the best coaches I've ever been around have all usually kind of in some way shape or form, say this, especially in the NFL. Oh, I've been blessed to coach this guy. This guy. I was lucky enough to coach this guy and understand that, yeah, sometimes, you know you really did help maybe with this player or have like a cool design or anything, but understanding that you're just giving these guys

tools for their toolbox to get answers to. These NFL players, a lot of them made it without your ass. They got to this level without you. You're not God's gift to the, NFL or two football concepts and football coaching. And I think it's just that balance and that humility of going, yeah, I might have streamlined this, but they make the plays. I got to thank them for getting me to this point. So I think that's a great point to bring that up, that I understand the humility that the players play and then the coach is coach.

Players play, though. They're the ones going to make those plays and catching those touchdowns and throwing and running those touchdowns and blocking. And I think just one little thing that I like, it's funny you say about the excitability because my one conversation with him at Del Marr that revolved around Philip Rivers. He got so excited. And he even said like, that, I go, that guy, I remember him saying, this is vivid to me that he said, he makes my ass look smart. And boom, right, right there. It's understanding that Phil Rivers is frickin' Philip Rivers. I'm just a quarterback coach.

I'm just, you know, yeah, this guy's great. And the little play, we talked about it. I just tweeted a clip of it actually of how well, the chiefs played against this for me, or against this play, was that crossing route on third and long. And something that stood out to me that the Eagles did this all all throughout the year. What it is is where they have Kenneth Gainwell on third and long, getting short motion and have him run a crossing route. What I thought was pretty cool about it, it's the same place, same concept. Everyone's doing the same stuff. All the guys where they're aligned and empty, sometimes they're stacked. Sometimes there's a shift out to it. He window dresses a basic concept. And I know that sounds stupid. Not every coach does that. They just line up and do it. They just go,

oh, that's our money play. We'll just do it again. And he just wants a little sprinkling. That means it shows some like thoughtfulness into repeating a play call. I know these are stupid, but again, I have to extrapolate some of these things. And I think those are all good signs. And I actually like that the Colts didn't do the whole opposite thing where it's like, okay, we had an offensive guy. Now we have to go defensive. You know, yada, yada, yada.

You see a lot of staffs and a lot of teams do that. They literally hired an office coordinator from the same team. Same team. They went another Eagles OC. I know, I think the only team I could think of doing that was the Raiders went Broncos D.C., Broncos D.C. going from Dennis Allen to Jack Del Rio. So this is like the only kind of comparison I can have for that.

But I kind of like that. That team was like, well, I just go, no, we'll just take the smartest mind, the guy that we like the most in this interview room. And yeah, I really liked it. I really think he's, I'm optimistic about what he can do. Some questions about what other things are going to look like there. Gus Bradley is going to be the defensive coordinator, seems like. Don't mind that at all.

Guy who's done this for a very long time. Really solid. So you have a guy who's been a head coach. He's fielded the 14th best defense in the league, seemingly every single year for the last, like, seven years. And there's value in that. Colts defense was good last year. Yes, they were good. They were good.

And think about how much better the Raiders were when he was there. I know they weren't great, but their defense of personnel wasn't great. I think he is a very good stop the bleeding option. And sometimes that, especially when you're a first year head coach and you kind of want to contract out that's out of the ball, at least initially. I can understand landing on that as a solution. And he has really good relationships with players, just personality-wise, all those different things. I think that there's value in that.

Offensive staff, kind of a mystery at this point. I don't think we've really seen any names reported. I asked a couple people today, but no real definitive answers about what that's going to look like, where he'll pull from. Really interested in that. He was in with the Chargers, and then he was with the Eagles,

and is it going to be some of those Eagles guys? Does Kevin Petullo go over there? Does Brian Johnson go with him? They have opportunities elsewhere. So that is a question, but obviously the biggest question is who the hell is going to play quarterback for this team. The owner essentially openly came out during the press conference and said that they were going to draft the one. I think we all kind of know this, though. Yeah.

They are, I can't even, if I were in that, if I were in Chris Ballard's shoes, I would want to get off of the merry ground I was on so, so bad. So bad. I think he's getting yanked off it anyways, even if he wanted to be honest. At a certain point, you got to make a decision. You got to pull the trigger on one of these guys, and your future is going to be tied to them. And I think when you have the fourth overall pick in a draft that has, what, four top half of the first round quarterbacks,

it's probably the year to go get one. So I assume that will happen. And now you have a head coach who has been a quarterback coach, who has been an offensive coordinator, and who has had success with three very, very different types of quarterbacks. he's got old late career Philip Rivers, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hertz, and had a lot of success with all three of those guys. That's encouraging to me. It is.

Like you said, wildly different skill sets, wildly different offenses even. I mean, watching what Rivers throws and what Herbert can throw compared to what Hertz can do, I mean, especially as a runner. Yeah, I totally agree. I think as a Bears fan, you guys should be ecstatic with the Colts owner is coming out and saying, It's like, yeah, you're that Alabama kid. It's pretty good. You know, boom, boom. And it's just kind of like, yeah, okay, yeah, keep talking. Can we get someone else to chime in? Anybody else like any of these guys as well?

I think that whatever quarter, it's the problem is if you talk up all of them, then the number one pick almost gets devalued because you can wait a little bit to get one of those guys. But here's what I'll say. There's only one good quarterback in this draft that is a generational talent that's worth trading away. every single draft pick you have for. I don't know which quarterback it is, but every team thinking about trading up to number one, it's the quarterback you love.

That's that guy right there. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about right now. That's him. I don't want to spoil it. There's so much time until the draft. I don't want to give away that take, but there's only-

Quarterback breakdown show to do. That's right. It's months away. So, but if you're thinking about making the trade now, there is only one quarterback, and you should give away multiple future first. Every single pick you have is worth going up for that guy.

That's all saying. But make sure the bear are staying the top six. You know, that's exactly where you want to go. I think it was, I've just been already, just been like shoveling mock drafts into my mouth because that's what I'm going to do over the next time over a long. And there was one I looked at yesterday on NFL.com. I think it was Chad Ruder.

The bears traded down from one to two and then from two to four. That's it. That is it. That's it right there. That's where I'm sitting. Absolutely. With two to four, one to two, two to four.

That's it. We're going to have plenty of time to talk about that, though. That's all, anything else you want to hear about Staking before we move on? Nope. That's what I got. Occam's Razor. That's my new kind of like saying with him as far as I want to sum him up.

So the Eagles lose their other coordinator as of yesterday. The Cardinals hired Jonathan Gannon to be their head coach. Kind of seemed like it happened fast. You know, in hindsight, there's been all that. Oh, Dave, he was one of the frontrunners from the beginning. And that's not surprising when you look. look at how the latter stages of the search were going. The fact that it was just down to Mike Kafka and Luann Remo and everyone was just

kind of like, I guess it's one of these two guys. So they were clearly waiting for again, it's become available. And based on what we've heard and I asked somebody today, I think that the driving forces behind this decision were him and Moniocinfort like each other a lot. They know each other. They got to know each other over the last year. I think as both of them kind of understood, we might be in line to get one of these opportunities you start talking to guys who maybe you'll be a fit with and I think that's what

happened with Austin Ford and with Jonathan Gannon and two it's a leadership thing it's a it's a presence thing it's a front of the room thing it was defense was obviously very good this year but I'm sure a lot of people are going to look at what happened in the Super Bowl and say you want that guy to be your head coach the guy that just got sliced and diced by Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes it's about more than one game and it's about more than just X's and O's on defense so what do you think you think about this? I think it's a good, I think he's going to be better with a step up, him being Gannon, with a step up as far as more that CEO type. That's what it seemed like his defenses were. It's very, I know it's very cookie cutter. It wasn't very always creative as

what he did as a defense coordinator, but to me it always made sense. They had a lot of talented players. Why overdo it? Why overthink these things? And yeah, but I think from all I've heard about him as a personality type and how I think he's a very thoughtful guy. I think also that it's again, it's a different, this is where a different type of personality makes sense to me. You went for the gimmick offensive coach to maybe a sound defensive coach that maybe has a better big picture feel for everything, which is what you need as a head coach. I think he'll be better as a CEO tape. I think just what this franchise needs. I think some people are saying, oh, he's boring as far as the scheme wise and you see the opening clips and everything.

Boring isn't a bad thing. I think that's better. Eat your vegetables. And I think that's what he'll make him do. I think they overall have a ton of work to do as a franchise as far as talent. This team has a lot. So I think it's more on the GM, Osen for it, to start accumulating and figure out ways.

They have a top five pick. That also helps too. But they need to, they need talent. This team needs talent more than anything. I think that's the bottom line what they have to get to. And I also think this guy is connected enough. He's been a respected coach enough that he can maybe get some interesting

hires on his offensive side as well. It may begin to that point as well. It sounds like Drew Petzing, who is the Brown's quarterback's coach, currently is going to end up as his offensive coordinator. Sound. If you're a Cardinals fan and you're curious, Drew Petzing was on this show in the summer of 2021. We chatted with him when we went to Brown's training camp.

At that point, he was the tight ends coach. So he moved to be the quarterback's coach this year. So Drew was Stefanski's kind of right-hand guy since he got there. They were together in Minnesota. So a lot of offensive staffs, you kind of have that guy where it's the, I come in. Sound like board. What do you think about this? And I think the Drew served as that for a Brown's offense that I think we can all agree,

had a lot of interesting ideas since they got there and what that thing ended up looking like. So Gannon was in Minnesota with both of those guys before he went to Indianapolis, before he was the cornerbacks back coach for the Colts. Jonathan Gannon was on that Viking staff as an assistant DB's coach, I believe, for a little while. So that's how all of that gets connected. So I think that you'll see an offense that shares a lot of DNA with what the Vikings were under Stefanski when he was there

and then what the Browns look like now. So run game, under center play action, all that kind of stuff is the bones of what they want to be on that side of the ball. I think it's interesting. I think that in conversation with Drew and what I've heard about him, he got interviewed to be the Raiders offensive coordinator last year. So I think this was eventually coming for him as a young coach in the league.

And this looks like it'll be the opportunity. You always want to see the tight end to quarterback coach pipeline because tight end coaches, at first was kind of one of the position coaches you kind of could hide a guy. That's somebody's brother, somebody's cousin, you know, brother-in-law, you know, give him the job. And, you know, he won't mess it up. But tight end has become such a complicated position. You have to know a run game. You have no pass game.

You have no protections. You have no run blocking, row. all those things, maybe even some special teams as well. So when those guys get bumped up to quarterback coach, it's like, okay, this guy has some ideas or this guy is thinking that whoever the play caller decision maker is likes that. So that could be an interesting hire to me. I think that's what this team is going for. Obviously, when Osafor got the GM job, you can make him, what do you say? He's like, to talk about team rather than talent or something of that sort.

He's, I'm getting the messaging. Like it's kind of bluntness of what they're doing. I understand though. I really do. I think this team was so gimmicky, some amount of necessity, but especially on offense that they are kind of just like, okay, let's get back to the basics.

We have a talented quarterback. Let's kind of build up a good environment around him that maybe we take away some of those question marks where there was unsoundness. Let's see how he does in a better environment. That's more, in a professional. And I'm not trying to like just knock everything they did. I mean,

just but look at what those cardinals offenses were. I just think overall that's what they're doing. They're eating their vegetables like we need to do. They're eating their weedies. They're trying to just rebuild this from ground up, I think, as a whole team. And luckily, I think they really do have a very talented quarterback, even if he is coming off the injury, that you can build around. They can maybe do good things. Maybe a year or two down the road, though.

I was about to do something spicy, but then I opened his spot track page, and it seems a little unrealistic. But if you're a team in the spot that the Cardinals were in, would you think about what a market might look like for Kawamari? You pick up every call. Yeah, I think that. But then I looked at what his contract looks like. It's not feasible, right? It's kind of a mess. He has a $37 million-based salary in 2024.

Oh, yeah. The rolling guarantees are such that I think it makes it a little bit difficult. He has roster bonuses every year starting in 2025 that guarantee the fifth league day of the previous season. Their injury guaranteed at signing. There are a lot of levers in this thing that I think would make a team that was trading. for that deal a little bit weary. It's like a juggling chainsaw of a contract. Well, my thought was how much of it was signing bonus, how much of it if the Cardinals

already paid, would you be willing to take on the base salaries if you were a team that was searching for an answer or a quarterback? And some of those aren't bad. I mean, it's 37 and 2024, but then 18, 22, 19 and a half. But there's huge roster bonuses in most of those seasons plus option bonuses. So there is a lot of entanglements there. if you were a team trading for that deal. So I would have to assume that Cowan Murray will be the Cardinals quarterback moving forward.

Yeah, there's a lot of multi-year huge dead cap hits if you try to trade them or do it. Yeah, it's not just like, oh, one year you got to swallow the big pill and we're okay. No, it's like multi. You have a sustained medicine if you were to do this. So I think that's why he's going to be still in Phoenix for a good amount of time or Glendale, Arizona in the middle of nowhere for a good amount of time. The question, and the only reason I asked that is just because, they are starting from scratch to such a degree that's like, all right, well, how much do you really

want to blow it up? If you're going to trade DeAndre Hopkins, if you're going to have this kind of very strange team that you're looking at, is it worth even looking at what you could get for him as a way to really blow it up? And the answer is probably not. I think if they traded him, they trade him post-June 1 this year. If they trade him post-June 1 this year, it's only $13 million in dead money this year. It's $46 million in dead money. Exactly. So that's the multi-year dead cabins. That's a tough one. That is a tough one.

All right. Anything else on Jonathan Gannon and the Cardinals here? Nope. I like it. I really do. I think this is soundness. Maybe it's not the most exciting things that Cardinals fans want to hear and think like that.

And they watch that Super Bowl if that's their only exposure to him. But I do think he does a lot of good things that understands football. Eagles are in the market for new coordinators on both sides of the ball here. Always fun. Yeah. I mean, you'd hope that some of the guys on their staffs on offense and. defense have been getting looks for defensive coordinator jobs, offensive coordinator jobs.

Brian Johnson, their quarterback's coach, is getting interviewed, I believe, in Carolina, multiple other places for their offensive coordinator jobs. Still, he's still in the running for the Carolina job. Denard Wilson, their DB's coach, was a candidate for the Browns defensive coordinator job in this cycle. So it seems like they have potential in-house candidates on both sides of the ball. And if you have that, it's always wrong. nice to roll with some continuity when you've had some success.

I think, yeah, especially as the maybe play caller, decision maker, final say kind of guy. But then you bring in the fresh talent. So like if Brian Johnson gets promoted to OC, then maybe someone from the outside can be the quarterback coach. And that's where you get your ideas from because that's what Brian Johnson kind of brought in as quarterback coach. You know, he had some came from college. Yeah.

He had some Dan Mullen experience, you know. So he, he had some wide variety of background in college. So that kind of helped sprinkling some ideas. So maybe then when you bring in the quarterback coach, maybe even if it's a vet type of guy or if you do have an exciting guy, someone else, you move around a tight end coach, whatever. You know, I haven't looked at the full staff, but something like that where they can kind of reconfigure. But he seems like the simplest answer to me. He's been an OC before. And him and Siriani can figure out how they do to play calling.

They still have the old line coach too. That really helps having that continuity. But yeah, I think as offensively, I think they have a nice kind of assortment of answers that they can find. And then Kevin Petulah, who's their passing game coordinator, has been for the last two years, another guy potentially in-house if they just wanted to promote from within and what the staff might end up looking like. So hopefully, you know, this is the challenge. When you're really good, the brain drain comes. Can you endure it? Can you sustain success through it?

Some teams are able to do it. Some teams are art. And we're about to see what happens with the Eagles. It helps when you have really good players. Yes. I also, the Eagles have, but I just realized this couple weeks ago, their linebacker coach is. I went to high school. He went to the same high school as me in Minnesota, Eddie Dina.

His name's Nick Rawlis. And I actually know his brothers very well. He was a little younger than us, but I played with both of his brothers in high school. And one of his brothers, the one that was a year below me, Mike Rawless is a wrestler in WDowelley, right now. He's Riddick Moss. So it's got to, but I was like, I looked at the staff. This is all coming up Nate here.

I looked at the staff, but you might see Nick Rawls's name thrown out there. You know, you might see him get. He's their whitebecker's coach right now. But when I saw his name was like, it's like, Nick? little Nick there he is he's not he's not little Nick he was a good player too but it's kind of funny now seeing him him growing but he's he's another name to look out for as far as maybe Eagles or else where maybe falling Gannon to Arizona

we're getting old as shit dude told me all right one other I saw play he was at that you know when they do the little league against the mascots like yeah that was the last time I really remember him was him doing it like seventh or eighth grade and he he he stopped running this he was a badass player. He really was at lineback and stuff. He stopped running into the end zone. He was the running back to truck one of the mascots. And then he went into the end zone to score. And it was

awesome. It's burned in my brain. So yeah, shout out to Nick Rawls. Usually you see the mascots going out of the punishment Oh, yeah. Which is one of my favorite things to watch. I very much like your campy aesthetic is mascots beating the shit out of little kids as a wrestling fan. It kind of sums up nice. It's a lot of my interest right there. So the cartoon with some little football, yeah, some body slams thrown in there. So Jonathan Gannon getting the Cardinals job means that Louana Rumo does not get the Cardinals job.

It means that the Bengals will keep their entire staff again. Because Dan Bitcher, the quarterback's coach, I believe, took himself out of the running to be the offensive coordinator for the Bucks. So a team that was right there with any team in the league, top to bottom, personnel wise, coaching wise. I mean, they are right there as the class of the NFL right now, and they will come back fully intact with, I believe, like, the third or fourth-most salary cap space of any team in the NFL, this off-season. So the Bengals are in a pretty good spot.

You got like one and a half more years at cheap Joe Burrow. You've got to do everything you can with this window and keeping offensive and defensive coaching staff continuity on both sides of the ball is pretty helpful. Staying in the division, I think my favorite bit of coaching news that has come out over the last couple days because it is fun as shit. Is Todd Mocken going to the Ravens as their offensive coordinator?

Hell yeah. Good to see Munkn back. Back in the league, Todd Munkin. Week's better off with having Todd Munkin in the league. I have 100% agree with you on that. I'm a big fan of everything Todd Mocken. Yeah, he hit my dad worked with Munkin and Jacksonville.

So I know Munk a little bit. But man, he that what is his run at Georgia was awesome. And if that's your only exposure to Todd Munkin, there's a lot more to him than that. Offence quarterbacker with the Bucks. Also, the Oklahoma State Days. This is a guy that's kind of done every type of system. Pro style, not pro style. He's a big personality as well.

He's one, you know, he can really motivate you. And I think he's really, I like it because there is a lot of soundness to his stuff, especially at Georgia where, sorry, am I getting into myself. How much of that translates to you? Because that's my question is how much of the Georgia stuff, if I were trying to figure, if I were Ravensman and I was trying to figure out, what is Todd Mocken as an NFL offensive coordinator with Lamar Jackson and our offensive personnel? Where would you start? Would you look at Georgia first? Georgia. I look at Georgia. Georgia and then the buck stuff. The Georgia stuff actually, because it is a little more pro style. And what I mean by that, they run a little bit of everything. Straight dropbacks as well, which is always what translates the best instead of just spamming kind of RPO's over and over. And also, he understands the QB run game. you know, Stetson Bennett ran for 10 touchdowns this year.

And Lamar Jackson was watching a 2018 Bucks game. I was watching the season opener against the Saints earlier today. Oh, my God. Ryan Fitzpatrick scored a touchdown on a zone read play in the Red Zone. Zone Reed, right? Yeah. Oh, God. That game is like a very memorable game.

That's burning everyone's braids. But yeah, all the design runs that he had with Stets and Bennett there, he and not just like simple zone read stuff. What you're saying, the empty QB draw RPO's that we see Hertz running. You see Josh Allen running. He's got that in his bag, too. It's not foreign to him. This past year, he really leaned into 12 personnel, a lot of tight ends because Georgia had the most loaded tight end room in college football history,

maybe since the early 2000 Miami days. University of Miami, not the Dolphins. But they're loaded at tight end, so they used a lot of tight ends. Last year, he had James Cook as one of his rotational backs. And every time you saw that in, he was designing running back, you know, designer running back routes, watch them against Michigan, watch them to the college football playoff. So he dialed up advantage plays for him. He understands his personnel.

He can kind of, he has background on everything, so he can kind of get to everything. And I think the Georgia stuff was so most sound. I've seen it. There's nothing gimmicky about it. Yeah, they did some gadget plays, but I think everything he did makes a lot of sense. So I think his game, his play calling, his play design translates really well to the NFL and also what he can lean into for the quarterback run stuff, which you need to have with Lamar. It's funny because he in my mind should be like a sought after guy for this job. Them getting him, I think, is impressive.

Like, I think that he's a very fun guy to land on. He's making a lot of money as Georgia's offensive coordinator. And he hasn't really been a play caller in the NFL for that long. I mean, I think the only time he was an offensive play caller full time for an entire season was in 2018. I think there was maybe a stretch of the 2017 season where he was where Cutter gave it to him. But even though he's been an offensive coordinator twice. He was the Brown's offense coordinator in 2019. he did not call plays.

And I remember talking to him about it back then. I was like, well, why would you go to a place where you didn't, you weren't going to call plays? And his response was hilarious. He's just like, I was the head coach at Southern Miss. It wasn't fun to be the head coach when you lose. Like, I don't care about being the guy with the title or being the guy who's in charge of everything if the situation is bad. So he's kind of been able to, he looked at the Georgia spot, I'm sure, and just said, this is great.

Kirby Stanley is over there. The defense is going to be great. I can be the offensive play crawl over here. So he's somebody that I think is really good at this. And when we've seen him do it full time, 2018 bucks, awesome to watch. They were fun as hell.

They averaged 10.42 air yards per attempt. They let a fly, baby. They just let it. You know who loves to launch it too? Lamar Jackson. And I want to see that. I want to see them. And I was going to say spread it out,

but they don't necessarily do that. Even when you go back and you watch those Bucks teams, not as much play action as you might think they were actually, James and Fitz down near the bottom of the league in play action. But that's because they were a shotgun-based passing team. So just getting in shotgun and just having some downfield passing concepts and really letting that thing grip and rip it, I'm excited to see what they do there.

If you're going to run this type of offense, you're going to need to make some real investments at your past catching spots. Yes. Unlike what you've done in the past. the last time we saw him as an offensive coordinator full-time call and plays in the NFL, his receiving core was Deshawn Jackson, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin. That's a little bit different than what the 2021 Ravens were trodden out there. Yeah.

And even, and this is also something that I can kind of be as a former badger is sometimes when you play this or some of these kind of blue chip schools and you go, well, it's easy to coach there. They got overwhelming talent. They just five stars. I would say the strength of the Georgia teams have been the. defense, you know, as far as talent-wise, obviously they had a dozen defensive guys drafted last year. And yes, they had talent on the offense. They also had he made the most of Stetson-Bennett.

You know, it wasn't, no one was knocking down the door for Stets and Bennett. He had to go Juko and back to Georgia. Essentially, he had Brock Bowers, the tight end up next year, who's a freak, get ready for him in 2024 guys. He's so much fun. And, Darnell, Washington was a nice blocking tight end. And then last year, he had Pickens, you know, George Pickens. You know, he had James Cook and he hit some other backs. And I think it's just more of that it's a lot of good talent, but it wasn't like, man, they have five first rounders on that offense. No wonder they were able to dominate.

They had a top 10, like you watch the Clemson offenses. You're like, well, they had Deshaun Watson and then Trevor Lawrence. No kidding. They're able to do this. T. Higgins, I think that's where you can see his creativity and you can see his actual scheming come up. And especially this year when sometimes they're just white and guys, late teams on fire. He made stats and been a Heisman trophy finalist.

You know, like that, that's what this guy is done. and understands, again, understands the personnel, understands how they get the most of it. And it's just great to have a personality. It really is. He is a singular personality. He is a one-of-one football world personality is what Todd Mock is, which I'm excited to see him back in the league. The match of Lamar, there's no more hitch routes. There's no more underneath stuff.

That's always the frustration is a great room. Yeah, it's a vertical passing game with a strong run game with the quarterback runs with it. That's a Lamar offense. Lamar is a deep ball, intermediate throws. And if you watch that old Bucks team with the Ryan Fitzpatrick and stuff, they're launching it. It's a bunch of overs. It's posts.

It's goes. It's digs. That's what Lamar's good at throwing. He's willing to hang in the pocket to throw them. So I think it's a great match. I love this higher. Excuse me. I got the number wrong.

It was 10.6, four air yards per attempt for the 2018 bucks. They threw the ball 724 times. And he averaged over 10 yards. Yes. They threw the ball, 700,000. 24 times. That was third in the NFL. It was third in the NFL that season because the two leaders were the Packers and the Steelers, with both of those quarterbacks being in the late career and fuck it aspect of the systems that they played in for a decade. So those Bucks teams were very pass happy. If you're looking for a severe departure from what the Baltimore Ravens offense looked like over the last few years,

Todd Mocken is going to provide you that severe departure. Yeah. Even if he's coming from college and he's had NFL experience, he's modernizing a lot. and I think it's going to be really cool. It's not like they can't just ask some of the players and the coaches that they retain them. Hey, what else did you guys do in the QB run game? Okay, we did this too. It's like, it's not like going away. People don't just lose that knowledge.

So I think you're just expanding and modernizing the passing game. I think this is a great fit. All right. Speaking of staffs that were kind of excited about what Frank Reich is doing in Carolina right now. Dude, is really fun. It really is. Getting a Giro Evereaux, we thought was going to potentially be a head coaching candidate in this cycle to be their defensive coordinator, big win.

Jim Caldwell coming in and being an influence in the building and just kind of being a sounding board for Frank and all of that huge. Josh McCown coming in to be the quarterback's coach. He was interviewing for head coaching jobs last year. This is probably a more reasonable place for him to start, but somebody who's been around for a really long time playing a ton of different offenses, getting Duce Daly to make a lateral move after they'd clearly been building something exciting in Detroit.

He has the exact same job and the exact same titles with the Lion or the Panthers as he did with the Lions, I think potentially a sign that they're just throwing around crazy money for some of these guys? I think so. I think so. That's what you should do. If you are David Pepper and you're worth however many billions of dollars, this is how you can wield that. It's some of these guys, I'm not going to, I don't want to downplay, $500,000.

But it's, that's a player. You know, that's a guy you cut in camp. And why not get it for a coach that can really move the needle for you? you. Keeping the old line coach, James Campin, like, it's dog. I love that because that, look at how good their offensive line was this year. Having some continuity with those young pieces and just trying to build on that. That was another quiet one where I was like, yeah, that's really good. And he brought Dom Capers. That's senior defensive assists. I mean, there's like some like some little like moves here. The Caldwell stuff I'd love too.

I really did. I loved it. This reminds me a lot of the the Giants hiring last year and the staff that Davel put together and I was just like, oh, I like that guy. Oh, that's guy. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Ooh, I like that guy. And you see how the Giants kind of outperformed expectations. And also this Panthers team has got a lot of talent on it. So if you get some really good coaches and I know they have to figure out the quarterback, but there's a lot of good players on this team. Like, they could be a kind of very fun, very fun team this year that wins a good amount of games. And honestly, competing for the NFC South. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but it's, I'm really liking this staff. And I like what the talent on that team is.

of course figure out the most important position. But I don't know. There's answers there. They've got dudes on defense. And this was arguably the best defensive coordinator in the league last season. Like this is going to be really fun. I would have been excited about the pieces they had on that side of the ball if defensive coordinator X was there, let alone a guy who did what a Giro Evereux.

That's an awesome hire. And the O-line was playing great, especially in the second half the year. Ikea Kuanu had a great like kind of last 10 games where it's like, oh yeah, there it is. They've DJ Moore at receiver. I mean, always underappreciated. I think I'm not the only one on NFL Twitter that says that. We all understand how good and talented DJ Moore is. But also, yeah, like you said, they have some real dudes on defense.

J.C. Horn, Brian Burns, Derek Brown, along with other guys that stepped up, Louvo. Louvo. Frankie Louvo. Yeah, sorry, sorry. I'm going, hey, guys. I've gone off my brain that's been rotted from the last week in Arizona. So this is pretty good.

I'm trying to be fresh here. But no, I don't know. I think this is a team. It's going to be pretty fun to watch this year. Sticking in the division, the last real dominoes to fall here, I think, are the O.C. searches in Tampa and then in Washington. The Bucks have interviewed a ton of people for this job. I think it's 10 guys.

Dave Canellis, the Seattle quarterback's coach, has had multiple interviews. Thomas Brown is having his second interview this week. They interviewed Clint Kubiak. he's going to Houston as the run game coordinator. So a lot of guys that they are sorting through here. So that we'll see what happens there. You know, it's an interesting job. You know, the bucks are in such a strange spot with where they're picking.

The fact that they don't have a quarterback and the rest of the offense has still has a lot of talent on it, though. So what they end up doing at quarterback, I think is going to be a huge, huge question. Spoiler alert, we will hit that on our quarterback carousel show that we will be doing that will come out on Monday. So please be on the lookout for that. We'll have a lot of offseason quarterback movement chatter that will happen. And then the other job that is still open here is Washington's offensive coordinator. And it seems like that is probably down to Greg Roman, who interviewed last week, I believe, in Eric Bienamee, who is about to interview for that job. Yeah, there's a couple names that are, like, I don't say, inspiring, but more inspiring than others.

Thomas Brown, I know people have really liked him. and obviously being in the McVay kind of realm for a few years and bouncing our positions, he moved the tight ends coach from everybody just said earlier about being a tight ends coach. I would like to see him get that opportunity and see what he would do as an offensive coordinator based on anything I've heard about him. I completely agree. And I think watching how the Rams running backs when he was a running back coach, how they, could they were in protection.

And I know sometimes Shane guys can be a little dicey on that. you know, if you don't have a 50-year running back coach coaching your running backs, Mike Shanahan has had for time, year after year after year. So I don't know. I think Scotty Montgomery is another name that's interesting, another runback coach with a running back background. He's been a head coach. I know he's been,

he's called plays before. He kind of has a grabback, kind of a history. But those are kind of two of the names that stood out more to me more than others. I know the Bucks interview is just about everybody. But Dave Canales, you know, he's had kind of a, what he did with Gino this past year and everything they did in Seahawks. He, of course, was Russ's quarterback coach for a little bit as well.

Those kind of names are the ones that really stand out to me as far as for this list. But I would like to see Thomas Brown get one of these because I do think he has gotten a reputation as a good coach, a very good coach and a thoughtful guy that even when he was a running back coaches, they don't usually get that kind of talk. You don't get that kind of like they're just, oh, yeah, whatever. They wave him away. But I think he's getting that talk. He's a younger guy. I think that would be an inspired choice if there were to pick one of these guys. That'd be enemy conversation with him potentially having to go to Washington.

I think even in Rapport was talking about it today where why would he take a lateral move to go to get an offensive coordinator job? Why could he? His contract is up with the chiefs. He did not renew it, I think, for probably this exact reason to give him a little bit more flexibility and a little bit more mobility after the season. And it would be to call plays. It would be to call plays and show that you can be the guy doing it. Obviously, there's a Dumble standard there, right? Matt Nagy got a head coaching job without being the play caller in Kansas City.

Doug Peterson got a head coaching job without being an offensive play caller in Kansas City. Mike Kafka was the quarterback's coach. He just got to be the play caller with the Giants. He's now a head coaching candidate. A lot of guys who have been in that ecosystem in Kansas City, even without calling plays, have gotten the opportunity to be a head coach. Eric B. Enemy has been interviewed 15 times, I believe, for that opportunity, and it has not happened.

For what reason? I don't know. but he clearly feels like it might be the best possible path to him getting one of those jobs, getting out from under Andy Reid's shadow, calling his own plays, showing that he can be the driver of a really good offense, even if other guys haven't had to show that in order to get the opportunity. It can be a blessing and a curse when you're with another gifted offensive mind and a talented quarterback. Everyone just can chalk it up to that if they don't like you.

I think this is one where he can leave no doubt and leave no excuses. Like, no, I know what the hell I'm talking about here. I know him, but he was another guy that his background is. a runback coach and I know he was an extremely detailed one. I still remember him coaching up Adrian Peterson about his steps on a zone footwork and going hard on him on Adrian Peterson. And Pearson's like, I can't believe this guy's getting after me so much. But this is that, that's the type of guy that kind of forward to he brings. This is what Matt Lafleur did. He was with McVeigh. He was an OC with the Rams for one year, 2017. He goes to the Titans lateral move, but he was like, I want to call plays.

And then did that for one year, boom, gets Packers head job. So that, that, that can you checking another box especially if you're people are giving you that excuse and why they're not hiring you and that that's you know there might be other stuff but you that like you're leaving no doubt and leaving you're kind of saying no I can check out the box the more you can do I can wear that hat so I understand that like you said the flexibility to do that all right last one here we have not talked about this but we we've talked about in the show but you and I have not talked about this have not what do you think of Kellan Moore going to the chargers I like it but I also have some reservations with Kellan Moore's offenses. Oh, I thought this would have been full steam ahead for you. What are your reservations? I, well, I do like that he's a way more diverse run game. But I also, and also more creativity as a play caller, there's still some that stativeness. And that lack of speed can limit with this offense.

And what have we talked about with this Chargers personnel? But I also, I think it's more Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi and Kellan Moore and Kellen Moore coming from Linnahann. A lot of Linnahann stuff, which I've mentioned before with that offense, is with those offenses, it's a traditional NFL offense. So actually, I think a lot of the stuff that he's done translates. It's going to be a lot of tripsets. There's going to be a lot of simple movements to get,

or simple motions to get into good stuff into the run game, use of tight ends. That's what he was leaning into with the Cowboys. I think the versatility of personnel really helps. I think there's just more creativity, but it's kind of the same breath, as what the Chargers have run the last couple years. So I do think it's a better version of what they run,

but I do think that the same qualms I've had with the Kellynne Moore, as far as I would say he's, I think this, again, this is his best year as a play caller, best year as a play designer was 2020. And still a definitive upgrade. Yes. It is definitive upgrade. Don't get me wrong.

But if there's one drawback to what he does, some of the stateness and the routes and everything that lack of team speed can hinder. It's kind of the same questions he can get to with the chargers or they might have to answer with the chargers. I just think he has more ways to answer it than Joe Lombardi ever did. So better answer, better upgrade for the team. But if there's going to be some frustrations, it might be some of the same, which I think

is kind of funny. First of all, if they don't add some team speed, I'm going to. Dude, they have to. I'm going to riot. I don't know what my response will be unless if they don't get somebody they can take the top off of the defense and be somebody they can stretch this thing downfield. that has to happen. So hopefully those constraints will fall away.

The Packers never draft a receiver under 200 pounds. Like that is what the Chargers should not draft anyone that rubs above a 4-4 this year. 4-4 and below. We're just looking at 40s. We're looking at weight. And then we're going to get just one of those in the middle of rounds. They need just somebody to add some breath or some breathing room into this offense. But I do think, Calhomore's creativity, his use of personnel, he's going to find better answers than Joe Lombardi ever did.

Joe Lombardi is so traditional. I think Kellen Moore is kind of like a nuisance. He's like a fusion on traditional, you know, like on traditional fare. He's kind of like one of those. He has the Bobby Flee. He had some Southwest spice to your traditional fair. That's what Kellen Moore is going to do to it. I, my galaxy brain thing with the Chargers in Kellenmore is that I'm wondering if some

of the stativeness is a remnant of Dack's comfort with the offense. I can see that. DAC has been in it for so long, and DAC played for Alinahan. So DAC is really, even almost as much as Kellan Moore, DAC's control and DAC's ability to dictate what we're doing, because I like this. I want to do it this way. Now that Kellyn Moore has broken away from that,

and they can kind of bolt start over a little bit, is it a shock to both of their systems potentially in a good way? Where Kellyn Moore now isn't tied to anything that, Scott Linahan ever did because his quarterback isn't comfortable with that stuff because he's never done it. You're starting from scratch truly. So is that Blake Slate actually a good thing for Kellynne Moore? I think so. I really do. And I think it's going to be best for everybody. I think him getting out of the Cowboys now the light. He's been there. He went from player to players coach basically. He was injured and he was basically a quality control coach when he was still a player like helping out like breakdowns and stuff. Like this is all he knows as a pro coach. So I do think like not having that. Yeah, that shadow. And I get what you mean with DAC stuff because a lot of quarterbacks get into.

This is the same thing Aaron Rogers had to go through with the transition to the floor was no, static. No, two by two, we're doing this because I want to see everything. If they adjust, I know exactly what their answers are going to be. So like you said, maybe I go into a quarterback. I think Justin Herbert does have some stuff that he does prefer and like. We're still going to see stick, by the way. Don't worry. Callmore runs stick and spacing plenty of times.

But maybe that's because Dak liked it. You know, you don't know what the quarterback prefers and the quarterback goes, no, I'm never running that. So I agree. I think it's a good fresh start. I want to say, I like the hire. I really do. I'm just saying that some of the frustrations might be the same that we had before, but I do think Kellan will have better answers for. All right.

Before we get out of here, people have been asking us to review the meals that we had in Phoenix during Super Bowl week. I'm more than happy to do that. So I don't want to step on it too much. We're actually going to have, I believe, some content coming out this week around the taco stops that I did with a couple members of our video team. We went to three different taco places in the Phoenix area. We went to Taco Boys, which is a little bit north of downtown. We went to Taco Suicho, which is a little bit north of downtown and a little bit east. So within spitting distance of downtown Phoenix. And then we also

went to Tacos Chivas, which is still not a very long drive from downtown Phoenix. I enjoyed all of them. Different offerings, different sorts of field. to each place, different highlights, but those are the three taco places we went to. Please, if you want to, when the video comes out, please check it out for a more detailed review. But then the restaurants that I ate at, we went to Barrio Cafe,

which was fantastic. Went with Beller, went with Mike Sando, and Alex Hample, our video guy came. It was hilarious. We sat down, they all ordered like normal people order, and then I ordered two entrees. and Sando is horrified.

The idea that I would just on purpose right at the beginning of the meal be like, yeah, I'll have these two separate entrees. He was like, you just order two entrees? Like, yeah, of course, I want to try them both. Why wouldn't you order two entrees? So I got the chili,

the chili and Dogata, which is, it's like a pabano pepper filled with like chicken and nuts and it has like an almond cream reduction sauce on it. It was delicious. It was one of my favorite things I ate this week. And they also just had like a huge hunk of Cochinita Bibio, which is like a slow roasted pork that they make in the Yucatan and just

with pickled onions on it. I haven't eaten yet today. So this is like just absolutely brutal right now. It was very, very good. So that was my Tuesday meal. I went to Bacca Nora on Wednesday, which is like a, such like a wood fired sonoran like steakhouse place. So they've got a bunch of different things.

They have a wood fire chicken and then a huge like tomahawk wood fire steak that they serve with casidias and tortillas. and like stewed serrano peppers and onions and just really, really good beans. So I ate that and the chicken. And then they also had what my favorite things I ate all weekend. It was a charred cabbage with like a chilterpeen vina. Chilte pin is like a pepper that's native to the southwest. And the vinaigrette was delicious.

And it was just like a perfectly charred cabbage. Chard cabbage is amazing. So I had that on Wednesday. It was really, really good. Thursday, you and I went to Valentine with a group of people. That was probably my favorite meal that I had. That's the best meal I've had a while.

That was a damn good one. So the way that they describe it is just, it's Southwestern Fair. Like, all that. So it's just kind of, it's like Southwestern tinged small plates. So there was like a grilled chicken hurts with like a Southwestern kind of salsa on it,

like a salsa verde on it. They had an alote pasta with like dried corn. on it that was unbelievable. Very good. The hamachi crudo that they had was made. It was like a brown butter and Tomatio vinaigarette.

We got seconds of that. We got two of them because we wanted to eat more of it. That was so good. That was incredible. They had just like a mushroom. They called it mushrooms Alpasteur, but it was essentially like mushrooms and like a moa that was really, really good.

I mean, we ate very well. I don't remember exactly what the ribs were. The ribs were fantastic. The ribs was fantastic. The ribs were fantastic. I also like the salad that night. That's the salad I had seconds up because the salad was amazing too. They had a little gem salad.

That was it. It was just a little gem salad. It came. We ate it. I was like, holy shit. That's when you know the rest of the meal is going to be good is when the salad is that good. So that was that texture?

Like what's what's going on here? That was a phenomenal meal. I'm not to Robert's extent as a foodie, but like I do have a good experience of eating some nice places and stuff. That one was, that's one that was memorable. That was a memorable meal. Was it as a as a.

rememberable as the performance I put out ordering the meal. I got a great picture of you. Like I said, it just looks like Shaq going into the, you did. You did the kind of sleeve adjustment before you ordered. I didn't get that because I only took the pictures, not the video. So you put out a performance and then you finish without how you ate the meal too. So you set it up and finished. So I thought that was really good.

You punched yourself out there. And then we all went to Pizza Ribeanco on Friday. We had a big old group that went to Pizza Ribianoco. among all the things I did food-wise, how I pulled off getting the table at that place and the planning that went into it was probably the thing that I was most proud of. The constant updates on it. So we're going to go there and we're going to make sure because you had a backup plan. I had a backup reservation in case the wait was too long because they don't take reservations.

I just let you cook, man. I just said I wait. Like I said, I just feed you ball in the post and just watch you go to work. It's the torture chamber that you put these restaurants through. I'm just out there. I'm just out there post that waiting for the corner three just a case. I'll just chop in and hit a couple shots. That's all I need to do at these meals.

That's great. So the dinners were Barrio Cafe, Baccahora, Valentine, Pizzeri, Bianco, are the four places that we went to have dinner. So if you guys want the list, that's it. I would recommend every single one of them. So they were all really, really good meals. It was a fantastic week of eating. I cannot wait to put nothing in my,

nothing but salad in my body for the next, like, 72 hours after I get home. Next Super Bowl, we got Las Vegas. I know. I don't know if I'm going to make it. Oh, man. I don't know. I might live here. I might have heard there's some good spots here.

I don't know if people know. Vegas might be a tourist place and it might have some good food, some well-known chefs and restaurants here in the city. I don't even drink anymore. And I don't know if I'm going to make it through the Las Vegas Super Bowl week because of what the food offerings are going to look like. That's going to be so good. It's going to be fantastic.

I can't wait. I live here. But it's so much more fun when there's a ton of people you like to go to meals with that you get to enjoy them too. And also take you to spots that you might not go to. Because you even teach you teach me spots. even heard of here. That's what's great about Vegas because there's fucking 150 great restaurants that you can try out. You never get bored. Well, I already booked. We need 20 Super Bowls here.

That's what we need. That's exactly what we need. Every other year should be the Super Bowl here. It should be on the rotation. It's going to be great. I booked meals for Indy. So I have dinners every single night. So we'll have to do that before we get to the Super Bowl. All right. That is all we got, guys. Thank you very, very much for joining us. We're going to be back with Lindsey Jones tomorrow doing our biggest offseason questions. And then Nate and I are going to be back on Monday with a quarterback carousel show. Not slowing down. We're going to have a show every weekday on the feed for you all the way through the draft.

So please continue to check that out. A reminder, if you have not listened to the first episode of Between the Lines, Deshaun Reed's narrative podcast series about the Black Experience in the NFL, really encourage you guys to go check that out. first episode, what kind of a wide-ranging history about race in the league from the league being integrated to the role that the AFL played in introducing black players to professional football in the NFL. Really good, succinct history of the Rooney Rule and how it came about.

And then getting into Colin Kaepernick and his influence on the league, activism in the NFL, and kind of forwarding the conversation about race in the NFL. And that's just episode one. We're going to have perspectives from players, coaches, executives. kind of coming in episodes, I think, two through four. So really encourage you guys to go check it out. If you have not, it's going to be running every Tuesday on the athletic football show feed.

That is where you can find it. And episode one is available now. We're going to have Prospects to Proses every Wednesday through the draft. Ran earlier today. Dane, Andy, and Lance Zerlion talking about Dane's top 100. So that should be available to you guys. Update the big board. As we speak, it is draft season.

We are there now. So if you have not been listening to Prospects to Pros, Now is absolutely the time to start. And I believe Football GM with Mike Sando and Randy Mueller will be back with you guys starting next week. But we, no shortage of football content coming your way on the Athletic Football Show feed here over the next couple months. So be on the lookout because we're coming your way. All right, guys, that's all we got. Really appreciate the time.

We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.