The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - The Mahomes/Purdy contrast, the euphoria of a Super Bowl victory, and the keys to Super Bowl LVIII with Chase Daniel and Mitch Schwartz

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

We at The Athletic Football Show are lucky to have two members of our extended family who have been on Super Bowl Champions. We have the further good fortune of having one of those players be a recent teammate of Patrick Mahomes. So what's it like to win the Super Bowl? What's the week of prep like? What are the keys to Super Bowl LVIII? And where might Patrick Mahomes stand among the all-time greats if the Chiefs win on Sunday? Chase Daniel and Mitch Schwartz join Robert Mays to answer those questions, and more, on this episode of TAFS.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Chase on Twitter: @ChaseDanielFollow Mitch on Twitter: @MitchSchwartz71Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Great show for you guys today. Mitchell Schwartz, friend of the program, is going to be joining us a little bit later to chat all things Kansas City Chiefs. But before we get to Mitch, I'm very excited to welcome our resident quarterback here at the Athletic Football Show. It's Chase Daniel.

Chase, how you do, man? Good. Good, man. I like this setup. You're in Vegas. I'm in San Diego. And it is literally nonstop raining for five days. And so I'm on a first flight out in the morning.

So I'm going to a little bit colder weather. I'll be there in Vegas around Radio Row on Thursday. So maybe I'll see you guys. We will be here. We will be at this table for a very long time here over the next couple days. All right. Let's dig into all things Super Bowl here. I want to start with the quarterbacks.

We've had a lot of quarterback conversations this season. This is the culmination of all of that. I don't think you can take two guys in more disparate situations than Patrick Mahomes and Brock party. Patrick Holmes is a first round pick. He's won multiple MVP's trying to win his third Super Bowl, I think is objectively the best player and best quarterback in the NFL. And you have Mr. Irrelevant on the other side, a guy who's value to his team standing within his own team has been debated ad nauseum here over the entire season. What about this quarterback matchup interests you the most? Well, you know, I was an NFL network opening night last night.

We did three shows, Total Access show, and we had to watch, not had to. We got to watch the entire Super Bowl opening night. And I thought it was awesome that the thing that stood out to me was when the teams were up on the stage together with Scott Hansen, like the very first thing that they did when they were together. And, you know, Purdy is over there, like seventh round. Mr. Irrelevant and just like taking it all in like Mr. All-American, all of his answers. I mean, like what he said to like life isn't about you. It's about being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Like that whole quote to me was like awesome. Like how do you not love this guy right now with everything that he's doing? And then just in the background, like they went to Purdy first. Just in the background is Patrick Mahomes just lurking and got that smile on his face. Like, man, you got no idea what's in store for you. Like that was the best moment of the night because we all said it like the analysts up there that we were talking about. And I'm just like, oh man, like, Purdy just is glad he's here. Mahomes is like, I'm going to freaking cut your like cut you down, man.

Like you could just tell. But like Mahomes is nice and everything and all that stuff. And look, it's just two completely different ways like you said on how to get here. Mahomes is without a doubt, like especially if he wins this is in the running for the greatest quarterback of all time. And he's only played seven seasons. right six straight a fc championship you can just list the superlatives and then you have brock pretty back to back in fc championship games but misrelevant and he was their third string quarterback and i thought it was so fascinating how kail shanahan he got a little bit open with everyone and he was able to say

to us and talk about the game manager tag in my opinion and i thought his quote was awesome because he was like listen guys he was like finally what finally some fire under him and talking about brock purdy like listen i love that my quarterback's the game manager i actually want game manager because one you got to be able to manage the game two you got to be able to run the system that you're asked to run and if you can't you're going to be on your way out and three you got to make plays when all that other stuff breaks down and he said if you don't do those three things you're going to find yourself on the outs and whether that's two games or two years or two or whatever it is.

And he's like, Brock does them all. And that's exactly what I want out of my quarterback. So I really feel like he's finally got his guy. Like he had Matt Ryan and in Atlanta with the OC, 283, that's been well documented. He had Jimmy Gropolo, 2019. They had 10 point lead with eight minutes left in the game.

And then he finally gets to, I think, someone that he really trusts to run the offense. And, you know, they're going to have their hands full. And then you go to the other side with Patrick Holmes. It's just like, like, what else? do you want me to say like the best player in the world the best player in the world is getting better and he's gotten better as a season's progressed which is really scary for teams and so it's just something that you look at and it's like from a like I feel like you're going to look back on this

super bowl in five years and you're going to be like man like Mahomes versus Purdy and then I think you're really going to see Purdy ascend I don't know if he's going to be ever be on the level I mean he won't be on the level of Patrick Mahomes but I think we talked about this and you asked me maybe a month or two ago no maybe like two or three months ago in october when purdy was rolling it was probably about halfway through the season maybe not even it was early and you asked me you said would you be okay paying purdy and i was like i don't know and now i'm like yeah yeah i would like he's proven himself to me that he can run a franchise yes he has great players yes he's a game manager and kallel shan enhancer that's exactly what he wants

and so if Cal Shanahan and John Lynch are going to be around like I would expect Purdy to get paid and he's got another year they got him on a rookie contract for another year they don't have to re-up until after next year but just such an interesting dynamic another thing too and I know we'll probably get to this but I did want to hit because I was looking at this I was like I love these questions is I don't think even if Brock Purdy wins the Super Bowl that he's going to stop getting hate like I feel like he's going to continue to get hate his entire career like I like you You're telling me that our hater's going to be out in droves if he wins a Super Bowl. And I'm going to say, yes, they're still going to find a way to pick him apart. And I think he's just got such a really good demeanor about himself. So I want to talk about this on a couple of different levels. One, the game manager thing. The game manager tag is wrong. Even if you are a detractor or Brock Purdy, the detraction shouldn't be that he's a game manager because he's not.

That's not what he is. His selling point is that he's actually making plays out. side of what the offense is presenting to him. Jimmy Garapolo was a game manager. There's a lot of underneath throws, a lot of stuff that was on schedule, very little outside of the structure of the offense. Brock Purdy is not a game manager. He's more aggressive. He's pushed the ball down the field. The work he's done as a scrambler is a selling point. If you're going to take away from what Brock Purdy is, calling him a game manager is wrong, pointing to the help that he has, that is potentially correct. It's how much help he has

compared to how much help other great quarterbacks, including Patrick Mahomes, have, from a past catching and offensive structure standpoint. My biggest thing here is, when you look at these two guys and you look at the way these teams are built, you have a quarterback at the top of the sport that's getting paid at the top of the sport, and you have a guy that's making absolutely nothing. So you have two different team-building propositions. You can build it around the quarterback and have to skimp in certain areas and understand, okay, the quarterback is going to lift the weaknesses in other areas of our roster.

On the 49er side of it, you have, okay, the quarterback is making nothing so we can build a super team around the quarterback. So they're very different builds and very different philosophies. So now we get to a point in the playoffs where you get to answer the question, can you win that way? Can you have a quarterback who is sort of a role player within the team or do approaches from opposing defenses get so focused on making that guy beat you in the postseason? that it's actually really hard when you build your team that way. And that's why I think the game plans from the Packers and the Lions have been so interesting. Because for me, when I'm looking at this, and I think about the Niners' offense in general, my first thought is I'd rather lose four and a half yards of carry at a time than let them dice me up with explosive plays.

So I'd rather play with lighter boxes, kind of tempt them into running the ball consistently, rather than loading it up and allowing them to throw the ball. What's funny, though, is that both of the teams that they've played in the playoffs have not done that. They have loaded it up. They have played with base defense, and they brought a lot of pressures with the Packers. It was these 5-0 looks. So they have tempted Brock Purdy to beat them. And it has been a mixed bag.

He's played well in some stretches. He's made enough plays, but he hasn't played his best football. So I think that to me is the most interesting part about this entire game, is that the chiefs do the same thing, and the chiefs are the best defense that they will have played in the playoffs, is this going to be enough where if your quarterback is just sort of another guy on the roster, when we get to the highest stage against a really good defense and they're focused on making him beat you, can he do it? And I think that is the biggest question entering this game for me. Yeah, and I think that's a great point. But if you look at Brock through the playoff

games, like obviously by week, then rust in the first half against Green Bay let him back to a victory against Green Bay in the second half. Start of the Detroit Lions game, he was awful in the first half. like too many nerves and then he was 14 to 16, 1170 and touchdown in the second half. So it's like the battle of halves for me. He's got to figure out a way. And we talked about this a little bit on NFL network last night. He's got to find a way to start fast.

And whether that's a first 15 script, whether that's screens to debo, whether that's bootlegs, whether that's under center runs, which the chief struggling. They're the fourth most, they're the fourth worst defense in all of the NFL, giving up under center runs.

they've given up over 1,900 yards under center. So I imagine that Calh Shanahan understands that, hey, Brock needs to fill himself into this game. Okay? And so I imagine that they're going to go 22 personnel, two backs, two tight ends, and 13 personnel, and get chiefs and big people. Because Spaggs in general over the last three or four years,

his whole menu when you're facing 22 personnel or 13 personnel on offense, it shrinks. It shrinks. It shrinks, not as much pressure, more coverage, less ways to, you know, skin. the cat is like what he used to say. Like, hey, if they're playing heavy personnel, we just want to play one or two coverages and we're going to have one or two blitzes.

So I can imagine that early in the game to let Purdy get settled, to also protect that right side of the offensive line. Really, the center from the right side has been not good at all. And that's the biggest thing with this top five pass defense from the Chiefs is, I think that the key of the game is going to be, how can Spags affect that right side of the 49ers office? offensive line. Is it from pressure? Is it from secondary pressure? Like the double edge stuff, is it from four-man front? Is it from overloading that side to make sure those three are one-on-one at all

times? Is it from chipping and thumping on each sides, which this 49ers do a decent amount of, but they like to get an empty lot. And I just can't imagine, other than some quick game, that they're going to leave these five offensive linemen. Really, you know, Trent Williams can do your thing, really the four offensive linemen, just alone on island. So it'll be interesting to see how he comes out with these first 15 because Shanahan is a really good first 15 scriptor. And because that the halftime is a lot longer, I would expect him to have a first 15 in the second half as well. Because halftime is almost twice as long.

We did it in New Orleans. We went into the locker room and we took our pads off because it's like 20, 25 minute long halftime. We reinstalled another first 15 script in 2009. And we went out and I obviously ever knows that we won that game, but we played a lot better in the second half. So it's going to be, in my opinion, come down to how Calh-Shanean handles that right side of the offensive line for himself. I think that's a great point.

And if you look at the way the Lions did it, it was a lot of overload pressures. There was a lot of five-man fronts, a lot of guys mugged up. I mean, they were not afraid to blitz. And I think that the chiefs are going to be the exact same way, even if it's fewer blitz looks, fewer pressure looks that they can get into out of that heavy personnel. Because that's what the chiefs have done. They've matched those big bodies with big bodies consistently. And I think that we're going to see a very similar approach. I'm glad you mentioned the 2009 game and maybe the difference in the way that you guys handled it.

I want to talk about just preparation and game planning for the Super Bowl compared to any other game you're going to play. Obviously, you get two weeks to prepare. It's the biggest game. A lot of these guys are ever going to play in. What is different about Super Bowl preparation compared to just a normal even playoff game that guys are going to be in? Everything, everything, because you have two weeks, right? I mean, it is. It's just, you have two weeks and some guys like it.

Some guys would just rather play. But I do think you need the two weeks because the first week, the first half of the week, I would say like you win on championship Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, for the most part is just like getting all the other stuff other than football figured out. How are we getting to the game? How are we doing hotels? How many family members are we bringing? Who's going to get the to buy the tickets? Where do we need to buy these tickets? Where do we want the top row or the bottom row?

like all this stuff. And it's just constant. The teams do a really good job of planning it out and having a checklist for you. So you can literally get everything done. So everything other than football should be. And every teams that I've known that have gone through should be done by Wednesday. So then Wednesday you probably start game planning a little bit. And I know the chiefs.

I'm not sure. I hadn't heard about the 49ers. The chiefs install the entire game plan the first week. Like 99% of the game plan. They'll do from when they leave. on Sunday, like Thursday will be a Wednesday. Friday will be a Thursday game plan, which is third down. Saturday will be a Friday and then they leave Sunday to go to Vegas. And that's exactly what we did in New Orleans. I think that's great. I think it's also you get a lot of your film work

done the first week. And the second week is you maybe add a few things, a few wrinkles that you just from watching film. I think the biggest thing you don't want to do as a player is you don't want to overwatch or overthink things. Like, try to make it as normal a week as possible, even though it's not normal whatsoever. You're pulled in so many different directions. You got Super Bowl opening night. 30,000 people were in the stands last night. You have to be there for an hour.

Like all this stuff. And I think the people and teams that embrace it, I think have shown a tendency to just like, not just, hey, enjoy you're here or complain about it. Like, yeah, look, we have to do this. Like, like, it's asked of us. And then, you know, the rest of the week is Tuesday off day and then they'll be into their normal game week prep. Like the chiefs were in full pads yesterday. They have a bonus Monday, which Andy Reid is usually pretty keen on doing on bi weeks.

And that's why he's so good coming off buys. I mean, they're in full pads. Explain that. What's a bonus Monday on a buy week? Yeah. So like if you're coming off by week and Andy Reid's done this for as long as I can remember, he did it all three years. I was there. He likes to give teams and guys the entire week off of buy week. Okay, so say you play Sunday, we'll be like, hey, we'll see you, we'll see you Monday,

next Monday. And that Monday, usually on weeks that you're playing and you don't get a biweek, that Monday and Tuesday are prep days. They're not practice days. You get an off day Tuesday. Monday's like, hey, come in and watch the film get a workout in. Really what they do is they call it a bonus money. You steal an extra practice, but it's only about an hour, 15, hour, 20. And you're going full speed. You're getting the cobwebs out. And then you get off on Tuesday.

And then you're back into normal prep base downs on Wednesday. So he steals a practice, but it's also a way to get the cobwebs out because you've been gone six, seven days. It's a little bit of install. We'll give you 20 base plays that we're going to run, maybe a sneak preview of third down. And so he calls it bonus Monday, which they just steal an extra day of practice. That's so interesting. So if you were trying to pinpoint,

the advantages that Andy Reid creates and the reasons behind the success he's had coming out of the bi-week, do you think it's more about the structure of that week or do you think it's more about the game plan stuff that he's able to cook up with that extra time? I think it's both. I think the biggest thing for guys on biweeks and every team I've been around does it differently is you want to just get away from ball for just like a little. Now, you won't get away from ball in Super Bowl week. You're going to constantly be. but sometimes if it's like week 10 and you've just been going and going going like sometimes it's just good to just like reset and I think that's what his players do and honestly the coaches too

they'll get two or three days off they just get a breath they can come up from life they can say hi to their kids they can do all this stuff to make themselves feel like an actual human being and a person of this society and I think that's I think that's big but also I think Andy's always in the back of his mind thinking about and always stay in one or two steps of head so he is getting that advantage on teams where he is prepping and it might just be at his own pace. He doesn't have to rush through the film a little bit more. And I think all that stuff matters when you break it all down. When you're talking about Andy Reed just as a planner and as a schemer and as somebody

who's preparing for a team he's going to play against, we've talked about a little bit about this, but I think it's worth bringing up now that they're on this stage again. What stood out to you about some of the insights that he would have as he was planning for opposing defenses? Is it defensive structure? Is it situational awareness? Is it how to take advantage of maybe one or two weak links on a defensive unit? Where do his insights and just observations consistently give his team advantages?

Well, I think he's always on the cutting edge of staying new in terms of like, let's not just be stuck in 10 years ago just to be stuck in what they did 10 years ago. Like the game is constantly evolving and I think that's where he separates himself. he's not afraid to try new things. The biggest thing with Andy is like if a player, like a Mahomes or a Kelsey or somebody that he trusts, be like, hey, like, I think we should like maybe try this. He's always, always, always taken advice, not advice, but taken plays from players and be like, yeah, let's do that.

I mean, like, I remember when I was there and that was like what I felt like I could do the best was like to try and like come up with red zone plays or like stuff like this. And every once while I'd be like, yeah, let's try, let's do it. Let's try it. Let's practice. Let's fill it out. Even if it was foreign to him, he never said no. He's like, well, let me think about it. Like, that could be a good idea. But I also think he's so good at finding weaknesses in defensive personnel groupings.

So if you're in base personnel on offense and they're going to be a nickel, like, of course he's going to run. But there's layers to this that, hey, if we're in big people and we can spread you out to empty, we know for a fact, it's going to come. down to 90% of the time you're playing cover three. So let's get in 22 personnel, motion out to empty and have a cover three beater. I mean, there's all, and that's just one play. So I think he's constantly looking at defensive personnel groupings. And honestly, when you have the team that he had with Tyreek, I mean, you could draw up anything and it would work with the speed.

I mean, it was, it was insane. He couldn't miss. But I think that's sort of where he's always got the head up. is like he's always open to someone else's ideas. And it better be a good one. Or he'll call you out on it. And be like, no, that place sucks. Like, no, Chase, like, rethink that.

Like, no way. Like, no. And I just think it's a cool way to feel like as a player, especially, that you're part of this game planning situation. Yeah, you're empowered. Like, you feel an urgency to be creative and to be a part of it just because you are empowered in that way. If Andy Reid wins a Super Bowl this weekend,

he will have three. There are only in NFL history, one, two, three, four coaches who've won at least three Super Bowls. Bill Belichick has six, obviously, Chuck Null has four, and Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs have three. So he'll be one of five coaches ever that has won three Super Bowls if they do that this weekend. You played for him for multiple years. What has it been like to kind of watch him just get his due and kind of rise to this level in football history as somebody who spent years with him who has an appreciation for him? who really respects the way that he's gone about this.

It's been so cool because you look at Philly. I mean, they never got a chance. They got to a bunch of NSC playoff games or championship games and never really got their chance. And then it comes here after a 2 and 14 year. And 2012 for the Chiefs, he comes there in 2013. And it was just cool because, like, I was able and lucky enough to be able to get recruited by John Dorsey and Andy Reid

to come there. And honestly, people asked me like, why did you go there? Because they were 2 and 14. You weren't sure what they were going to do. And I'm like, Andy Reed. It's Andy Reed. He's a quarterback whisperer.

Everything that about him just states that he's all about quarterbacks and developing quarterback. So when we got there, it was cool to see sort of the blocks and the culture building put in place in 2013 to what led them to obviously like the thing that changed his dynamic was Patrick Mahomes. Right. But I do think the way he coaches. Patrick Mahomes is a way that empowers him.

And also, like, he probably lets Mahomes, even early on in his career, do more than any other quarterback he's been around because Mahomes showed the trust that it needs to be able to have that. And so I think he's made Andy Reid a better coach, obviously. But I think what Andy has done with him and just given him sort of the reign and let him show his personality has been second to none. And then so to win three Super Bowls, especially. after like really a Hall of Fame career almost in Philly that you had to come and to be 11 years now in KC. It's just so cool because I was able to get a peek under the curtain right when it started.

And I saw how that place was built. And it was built with high character guys, people that you trust and obviously with Andy Reid at the forefront. Let's talk about some of the specifics there because I think that we throw around the word culture all the time in the NFL and how you build a culture and how you reshape a culture. What about those early years? what specifically do you think were the foundational aspects that allowed that shift to take place? Well, I think discipline. I think discipline was, and I'm not saying like, oh, like, don't do that. It was just like, hey, we got to be a disciplined football team because what we've been doing has not been working.

And I think guys at that time, like Eric Barry, Derek Johnson, even Alex, the leaders on that team and Jamal Charles, like they were hungry for somebody to come in and to, oversee what they're doing and to lead them out of misery. Because there's 2 and 14, like Javon Belcher, the suicide, like all that stuff happened. And it was just a tragic year for Chiefs and Chiefs fans and everyone. And I mean, I'll still remember like, you know, the owner, Clark Hunt, flying up to the Philadelphia airport, like the day Andy was fired, I think, or the day after he was fired and said, I'm not leaving until you come back here.

So that culture from the owner that says, hey, I'm not giving up because I know you are the person that I need to turn this around. And then just empowering your guys and getting rid of the bad apples because there were some bad apples on that team. Because one or two bad apples can turn a team really quickly. And if your locker room's not great and you don't have the guys with high character, like he did that. He made a lot of trades this first year. He got his right guys in.

And Dorsey was a big part of that. And Veach obviously overtook that when he was there. But Andy oversaw a lot of the personnel decision. So he got his guys in. He understood that. And we started 9-0 in 2013. And it was like, okay, this is the right way to go. And he did it with building that locker room.

You guys won a Super Bowl in 2009, which was, I believe, your first year in the NFL, which is insane. The fact that your first year in the league, you guys end up winning a Super Bowl after you go to New Orleans. This is a very simple question, but I really am curious about it. What does it feel like? When you're sitting there and the confetti's falling, you're on the field and you get there. What is that moment actually like? Honestly, like, it was such a whirlwind year for me because I was a rookie. I was third string.

I was the go get the coffee for Mark Brunel, who was twice my age and Breeze and just all these jokes. Like, I was just, I was just happy to be there. And it was such a cool experience because, like, you know, you start, we started 13 and 0 that year. And it was just wild from the start. and we just kept rolling off wins, and then we lost to Dallas, and then we lost to somebody else, and then we rested our starters the last week of the year because we had the 1C. We were 13 and 3.

We're like, oh, my God, we just lost three in a row, but we hosted a divisional game, I think, against Arizona or Detroit, smashed them. The Minnesota NFC championship game, Brett Farr, played lights out, and we barely wanted to kick that game. It was just, it was crazy. And then when you get to the Super Bowl, I was out there just enjoying it.

And then when Tracy Porter got that pick six off Peyton Manning, and that was the moment that we were like, holy cow, we are literally about to win a Super Bowl. But up until that point, you're just so nervous, especially because I feel like I've always been more nervous on the sideline and what we're doing because I'm not the one playing. And so you're always constantly like obviously more nervous. with being on the sideline.

But I think the confetti started the fall, and then you have your family on the field, and then you just go back to the hotel. You have a massive, massive party with all these huge artists and people and family. And it's almost a relief. You know what I mean? Like, it's almost a relief from all the hard work

that you put in and everything that happened. And I think that was the biggest deal for me. It was like, man, that was so cool. But as I got older in my career, like I almost was like, I wish I would have enjoyed it more and knew how hard it is to get to that point because I've been a part of some awful playoff losses, bro. Like Minnesota Miracle was a part of like two, literally the top two comebacks in NFL playoff history, I was on the other team. Like the 2013 Indie versus KC game, we were down, that we were up 27. we lost and then and then we that was the Andrew luck jumped through the end zone game and then the Jacksonville Jaguars charges game we're up 28 a half like I've been a part of some bad playoff losses and

so how hard and how much of luck you need to get there like I just think it gives you a deeper appreciation of it I mean you're young though whoa you 23 24 like you're not expected to have that level of perspective at that age it's impossible that there's absolutely no way to properly appreciate that in the moment it was a long time ago but I'm curious like who turned up the most in the day, two days after the game. Like, whose behavior do you remember in a good way after that Super Bowl was over? Okay. I've only told this story one other time.

And I don't think it was on camera. But we did the Super Bowl parade. And in New Orleans, man, they know how to throw parades. Yeah, it was a parade every day. Like Marty Gras season. And we got a chance, which if you're in New Orleans, I still don't quite understand it. But like, Marty Girl is a huge thing, like almost as big as the Saints. And they spent all year getting these floats ready, Bacchus and Demi and all these crews.

And we actually got to ride on the Marty Gras floats through the city of New Orleans. And I'm telling you the, I mean, the drinks are flowing at 7 a.m. of Parade Day. You're having pops all day long. And we were on a float. it was the quarterbacks and the offensive line. And that's all. And so there was like a king chair. I think we were like on Bacchus or some and Drew was sitting up like high up of the ground

and a king's chair like throwing beads, you know. And it's me and Mark Brunell on either side of them, all the offensive line on the front. And I just remember the entire parade. First of all, the parade route was like two miles around the city. It took us like seven hours, eight hours to get three. So you're constantly just like, yeah, there was, I mean, I don't know, there wasn't a million people on the on the streets, but it sure felt like it. And the only thing I can remember from all seven hours is Mark Ronell coming out to me and be like, hey, man, like, we better hold on to Drew.

Like, he's going to fall off this float. And because he's throwing it and he's having a good time. And so me and Mark Rinell the whole time, I mean, I've looked through footage, we're just holding on to a sweatshirt and his jersey. So Drew, Drew had a great night. but I feel like everyone in that city had a heck of a night on parade night. Yeah, a party in New Orleans, a Super Bowl parade in New Orleans, the fact that you're taking it up a notch from what New Orleans feels like every other day of the year. I love New Orleans.

One of my favorite places in America. I have my bachelor party there. I've had nothing but good experiences there. But being there for a Super Bowl parade just seems to be an entirely different level. That's a fantastic story. Good for Drew Brees, man. At that point, his career, everything that he had been through, what it was like to kind of help resurrect that,

franchise going to the city after katrina like he could do anything he wanted during that parade and i would completely understand anything yeah we we got some not so safe not safe for work stories that we'll talk out about another time about that but it was it was a fun night man to say the least chase daniel very much appreciate the time sir have appreciated it all year i've had such a good time doing this and now we're here we are on the eve of the biggest game of the season and it is going to be a good one you are all over on the phone network and everywhere else this week so please get some rest while you can and uh i'm sure we'll see you here in the next couple days joining us now is a long time NFL offensive lineman and friend of the show mitchell schwartz

mitch how you doing man i'm doing good i'm not in Vegas so i'm going to get a all my sleep how are you doing uh i'm sleeping terribly i've gotten to the point in my life where i cannot sleep in hotels anymore for some reason i don't know why and that's going to be a problem if i continue to try to travel for work is it because you and nate are sharing a queen bed or that's exactly right yeah his 6-5 frame and me after a bunch of holiday eating. It's not going very well on the same bed. All right. Let's chat all things,

Chiefs here, because it's been a fascinating season, and just the ups and the downs and the path to this point. I wanted to ask you sort of a question that I asked Nate Taylor yesterday. Was there a moment during this year when you were watching them that you just felt like this ending or getting to this moment was not going to be a possibility? Yeah, after the Raiders game, It just seemed like too much had eroded that was kind of the core foundational pieces of Kansas City.

Guys were making mistakes at every position. It bled into Pat, which was very atypical for him to kind of let any of those things around him bleed into his play. But I think he was struggling in terms of his trust, his ability to know where guys are going to be, get them the ball, they're going to do the right things. He wasn't getting protection up front the way he's used to. guys were letting him down in the skill positions. And the defense was playing, obviously not this good. They were still playing good ball, but we see it all the time that as offense wanes, it's really hard for defenses to kind of keep up the pace of how good they're playing. They're so emotional and it's such a charged side of the ball that, you know, if you're not getting the support from the

offense, it can look a little bit worse. And so, yeah, that Raiders game was kind of the, I don't know, nadir of the Andy Reid, Patrick Mahome Chiefs. And it just didn't seem like they were going to be able to go into the playoffs because that solidified that the chiefs weren't getting the one seed. I didn't think the chiefs were going to be able to win three games in a row against good or better teams, one or two of which we're going to have to be on the road. And it just didn't seem like that was in the cards for the chiefs this year. But credit to the team, they've turned it around. And I think this is a much different team now than what we were looking at five or six weeks ago.

Okay, so that's what I wanted to ask you. What do you think have been the most important changes to take them from the team that we saw on Christmas against the Raiders to the one that we saw last week in Baltimore or even previously in the playoffs. I think the single biggest change, at least in terms of, you know, this sounds like a cop-out because I'm a former offensive lineman, but I think the offensive line is playing so much better than they were. I don't think it's how about at all.

I think that that is something that we should drill down on because that when we were looking at why they struggled earlier in the season, everyone was talking about the past catchers and I'm just like, that was not an issue last year. They were throwing the ball, the Juju Smith-Schuster and McColle-Hartman in the same group of guys, but the line was so much more cohesive and playing at such a high level last year and you watch guys, I think, collectively and even individually with some of them. It's like things have just taken a step back, but it doesn't feel that way. It feels like they're playing their best ball right now.

So I don't think that's misguided at all independent of your background. Yeah, I think each guy has gotten better over this time period. And I don't know, it kind of ties into what I've seen from Pat as well. It just seems like a simplification of processed. You know, what am I supposed to do on this play? This is my little checklist of things I need to get done. And I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. It doesn't matter, you know, if you're Tray Smith at right guard and, you know,

Jawan's setting super deep and you're supposed to pass off all these ETs, maybe there's a chance that you feel like, oh, man, I'm really getting screwed by my right tackle. He's setting super deep. The defensive ends coming to pick me. Maybe I need to do something different because of him. Like, no, like you got to trust that your tackle is going to deliver that end to you. You got to block your defense a tackle. If you're feeling, you know, we call it a fish rush, but basically the guy is not giving

you a real rush, then you can start to look around and figure out where the twist is coming from. Just simplify that process. my job and trust the guy next to me. And that's what we've seen from Pat as well in terms of trusting his drop back, trusting the rhythm of the offense, trusting if he gets the ball to the guy, he's going to make the play. But it all starts up front with the offense line. I mean, that was the big takeaway from Tampa Bay Super Bowl, I guess three calendar years before Super Bowl's ago now, is that the operation doesn't work if the O line doesn't have a certain level of play. And through the first 15 games of the season, the O line didn't have the level of play

week in and week out that we've come to expect with the Kansas Chiefs. So as those guys have picked their games up, it's allowed everyone around the team, especially on the offensive side, to play better. And this had been a team that could not overcome critical mistakes. You know, they had made mistakes throughout the course of the game, and the team wasn't good enough to overcome them, especially against good teams. Well, now the team is good enough to overcome those mistakes because you look at the Buffalo game and the McColl Fumble. That was a debilitating, you know, play that as of a month ago would have sunk the game. And you look at, you know, last week, back-to-back holding calls, one of which is the screen. touchdown to Rishi Rice. Well, that used to be the differentiator in the game, but now the team is

good enough to overcome mistakes. And you can't play perfect football, especially against good teams. But they're playing so much better that they can overcome them. And that's just what they weren't able to do early in the season, combined with, of course, making a few more of those mistakes as well. My untrained eye, someone who's not as familiar with just the team in the operation, Trey Smith is the guy who has stood out to me the most. You watch the way he played in that Miami game, and I know that front was banged up, but he had Christian Wilkins for a good chunk of that game and I think that he played fantastic football. The physicality, what he was doing in pass protection.

Would you say that he is the guy who has stood out to you the most compared to the way that he's played in the playoffs compared to what the regular season looked like? No, I think you're right. And I think, you know, if you probably asked him, he would say he didn't feel like he played up to his standards throughout the course of the regular season, especially, I would say, in the past game, I think, you know, he got talked about a lot that rookie year because he played so well for being a six-rounder, of course. And it was kind of compared to, you know, his true talent level versus where he was

drafted because of some injuries. and health stuff. And then I think his past protection got a little bit overrated early because of the full package of the physicality. And we just kind of went along with the fact that he was a really good player. He's graded well. He's always been pretty good on film. But especially when he compare it to a guy like Tuny, that's his strength of his past

protection. And as a team that throws the ball 60 plus percent of the time, you know, Trey's past protection seemed to take a step back this year. But, you know, Creed's did a little bit as well. And, you know, the two tackles were trying to figure things out in their own right of how to kind to blend into what the Kansas City offense asks of offensive tackles. And so, yeah, I think Trey is the guy that's probably made the biggest leap, but also you look at, you know, a guy like Joanne, he has played a lot better over this past past month or so. And, you know, he'll still

be good for a penalty every now and again. But the procedural penalties have come way down. And guys are going to hold. That's the nature of the game. And obviously, this matchup against Bosa, you know, he's probably going to have a bad player too because of who he's going against. But, yeah, I'd say that right side in particular, has played a lot better. And, you know, I don't know if it's getting healthy, you know, it could be as simple as that. It could be that, you know, these guys, Jo-Wans in his fifth year, first of Kansas City.

Trey is still young in its third year. But it is really difficult to be that physical game in and game out every single time, especially when the teams you're going against, kind of circle you when the schedule first comes out and, hey, we get a shot at the Chiefs. There is that element of like raising your game, raising your focus and kind of knowing, like, all right, I only got a ball out for four more weeks. It's the playoffs now. I can kind of lock in here.

Whatever's hurting me. It's only a month away from not hurting me anymore. And so it seems like everybody has kind of taken that notice on them to raise their game, raise their focus level, raise their physicality. And, you know, we're seeing the dividends. They were struggling in the run game. And I think that just speaks to just the lack of cohesion that was happening across the unit. Has there been anything schematically a pairing down of the amount of runs their try?

Yeah, it does seem like they've kind of simplified the playbook just a little bit because run game is pretty simple. There's, you know, there's gap, there's zone, there's man. And then from those, that's where everything kind of sprouts from there. And Kansas City is very particular about the angles that you play on and where the running back is in relation to where you are, how inside zone looks different in the shotgun versus under center, how, you know, mid zone looks different here and there. Is there a jet sweep? Is there a counter motion? Is there an RPO? And so you get into like, okay, it's three main concepts, but now you're tagging all these little things and you're trying to identify like, okay, on, you know, 18 this versus 14 that, it could be drastically

different even though all the rules are the same, but the angles are so different, and you have to be locked in. And so, you know, I think there was an element that with, again, Jawan and Donovan are the two new guys, and then Donovan gets hurt and you got a rookie coming in at left tackle, of trying to figure out what those tackles are best at and how they're best, you know, suited to this offense. And there were some weird kind of assignment-related things that usually you don't see from especially these three interior alignment. And so I think they kind of went back to, what are we best at, lining up, going forward,

double-teaming guys and kicking people's ass and just getting back to that. Because the offense, even though it's not the downfield offense that it used to be, you know, Pat's yards per attempt is like the lowest ever. It's still an offense that gets, I feel like, guarded as such. And so there's space and there's room in the run game to make hay. And especially if you're able to displace guys vertically and get that actually. you know, two yards of push, well, that can cut linebackers out of gaps. That can do so much for the run game.

And I think that just kind of got down to what do we do best, putting four hands on defensive alignment and going to work and letting our big bruiser for running back, you know, be physical and try to run people over. So I think that went back to, again, what came out of that Raiders game. Like, let's just get back to playing simple football and executing it and playing it well. And, you know, I think they've done that in the run game as well. you were obviously a part of the team the last time they played the Niners in the Super Bowl. I'm wondering how much do you think the approach to that Niners defense carries over to this version of the San Francisco team they're going to be playing this year?

I think there's some elements because I think Bosa's kind of the key point of the defense. I was picking out a little bit. Yeah, he's still there. Yeah, he is. But the defense of line is to my eye not playing anywhere near the level of what that, you know, 2019 San Francisco defense line was looking like. And, you know, I mentioned this last week. We felt like if we could do our job up front, there was hay to be made back then.

You know, they had Sherman. Their secondary was playing really well. But we felt like that secondary was propped up by how good the defensive line was. You know, they had eight deep. They could throw at you, you know, my job. I had to block arm set on early downs. He was, you know, an outside early down guy. He'd kick inside the three tech and then D.

Ford would come out. Luckily for me, Bosa lined up across from me only once the entire game. And it was on an option play that I got to leave him alone and not touch him. So I literally didn't touch both all game, which makes it funny when people complain that I was the one holding all game. So he stayed over on Fish's Side, and I was very grateful for them about that. But you had DeForest Buckner in the middle. You know, you had an armstead comes in, and they just had waves of quality players that could throw at you. And the names are there now, but the production has not been there, especially these two playoff games.

And so the focus then was so much about eight deep on the defensive line, the defense of line, defense a line, defense a line. and it was two weeks of watching a bunch of film and basically all their film was just defense line highlights. You couldn't avoid it and just like being super nervous and stressed out about it. And so now I think it's still an offensive line focus. You know, as we mentioned 10 minutes ago, the biggest difference in the Chiefs from six weeks ago is the offensive line. So they have to keep doing their job.

And you still got Hargrave, you still got Armstead and, you know, Chase Young. We've all seen the clips of the backside of runs and stuff like that. But still a very kind of freak show athlete in the past. game. And so the onus is still in the O line to show up and it's still on Coach Reed to kind of do all the things that he would do normally to help the offensive line to give them an easier job because, you know, as good as these linebackers are, okay, I mean, linebackers in the past game, you know, can only kind of take you so far as a defense. And so if the offensive line's able to do their job up front, if Coach Reed is able to, you know, kind of put Bosa in that

little bit of blender that he had him in a couple years ago and make life uncertain and difficult and what's going to happen next, you know, can I get off as hard as I want to because the Jet Suite might go by me or a screen might come behind me or I might get cut or this guy might chip me. If you put that seed of doubt into these defense-aligned mind, that helps the offense line and that's what Coach Reid is so good at. And I would imagine the carryover of doing everything we can to still run as much of our offense as we want to, but helping the O-line as much as we can along the way as well,

I would imagine is going to be a key kind of schematic coaching point. It was funny watching, rewatching the 2022 game this week and trying to pick up on little things that they did that maybe would carry over. And you watch some of the run concepts that the chiefs were using against the Niners even last year. And there's a lot of carryover to what the Packers and the Lions did over the last couple weeks. I think they ran maybe one pin pole play that I saw that was similar to a lot of the stuff we've seen over the last two weeks. But the two McColl touchdowns on Jet Sweeps, when you think about how the play actually unfolds, folds, it's essentially a pin pull play. There's no difference in the actual structure of it. So that's why if you're trying to build an optimistic case for what the chief's plan might be on

offense, the stuff they were doing last year falls directly in line with the things that the Niners have struggled with over the last couple weeks. Yeah, and I'll take it a step further. The JetSuite players are so awesome because you don't even have to block the best player on the defense. You can let his stance and his get off, just block himself. And so on a traditional pin pull, you know you're relying on a Kelsey or maybe one of your wide receivers to at least get in the way long enough to make it valid. But on jet sweeps, you're just straight up saying like, you're going to be wrong on this play. You know, there's nothing you can do that's correct. You're going to get in your stance.

You're going to get coiled up. You know, you spend your entire offseason trying to get your 10 yards split from 161 to 157. And we're going to use that against you. And so, yeah, every single time that you can not block the best player on the field and have a productive play, like that's so amazing for an offense. And that's great for all the linemen because then they don't have to go hit them either. because it's not like I want to go drive block Nick Bosa. You know, that's like probably the worst assignment of all time. So, yeah, I think that's kind of what I was getting to is making Bosa wrong with whatever he wants to try to do.

You know, if he wants to try to get off as much as he can and get a field, get a field, get a field. Well, there's a whole package of plays that are going to make him wrong every time he's trying to do that. And then once he starts to lessen that first step just a little bit, that's when the past game comes out. And that's when Joanne now has the advantage in terms of getting to his spot and not feeling as rushed and not feeling like the, edge of the pocket is collapsing. And so that's the kind of that game within the game that is not player versus player. It's Coach Reed versus player. And historically, he's obviously been the best at that. Yeah, he gets a lot. He gets the upper hand in a lot of those matchups. But watching Mahomes this year, even on the TV copy, the amount of work he's doing at the line of scrimmage just feels like

it's more expansive and there's more being put on his shoulders than ever before. And I don't know if you've talked to people there or even just from watching the TV copy. some of the things he's saying, what sort of difference is the mental load that he's undertaking now compared to even the last year that you played with him? Yeah, it's a lot different. It's a lot more. I would say when I was still there, there was an emphasis on trying to make run and pass look very similar. But at the end of the day, I mean, you'd rather get into your stuff. And even if the defense maybe knows what the play is, be confident in yourself. And this is the offensive line coaching point of is he tipping stances? Or is he given away, you know, a run past, tell in his stance. I'd rather Nick Bosa know it's a pass and me be comfortable in my stance

and feel like I can get to my spot as opposed to me being uncomfortable and him still being a freak show athlete off the edge and not having that confidence. So what I've seen at the line of scrimmage this year is trying to make every single play look similar, trying to make all the calls look similar. You know, kind of like you mentioned, there's a lot of verbiage going on at the line of scrimmage. Do we know if this is run verbiage? Is it past verbiage? Am I using similar stuff in the run game and the past game and trying to throw them off? You know, you hear a lot of different numbers. You hear a lot of different code words, a lot of different colors,

and you don't know what those are supposed to be and who those are meant for. And so, yeah, what he's doing at the line of scrimmage, I think is taking a step. It's all stuff that he kind of knew about before, but now it's just more of an emphasis on him to actually do it. And also your centers now in his third year. You know, this is stuff that three years ago, I was off the team, but Pat had to pick up the slack a little bit because he no longer had veteran centers. You know, he had Mitch Morse early, who was pretty good of that stuff. And then he had Austin, Ryder, who's also really good at that stuff. And so it's always been a quarterback directed pass scheme.

Pat's the one with the keys. He's the one that's able to see, you know, is it a man's own tell? Is it inside leverage, outside leverage? Does that mean it's a certain blitz package because of that? But the center was always really good at helping out with that. Well, now you've got a rookie three years ago in Creed, and Pat has to take on more of the onus. So I think that has been part of speeding up his kind of at the line acumen because, you know, when the quarterback, he got to fully on his shoulders. You know, you do have to take a little more pride in it. And then,

like I said, as much as you want to try to make everything as neutral and balanced and not obvious as possible to the defense, you know, if you're going up to the line of scrimmage and pointing out guys only in the past game, they're going to catch on to that. They're going to understand that. If you're saying certain words and only certain situations, they have the TV copy. They can hear everything. They're going to pick up on that. And so making everything look as consistent as possible in terms of operation, I think that's been the biggest indicator of him at the line of scrimmage and it's been really cool to see because to your point it's it's a lot he does a lot on every single play how much is relaying information to the line and

the offense in general and how much is him changing protections or checking in and out of place if you had to guess i would say there's i think the relaying comes more in terms of blitz packages in terms of you know it's this pressure or it's this if it's man versus zone stuff like that um you know for the most part, what the structure of the defense is doesn't matter, or the defense of front, at least doesn't matter as much to the offensive line, because our rules were kind of independent of that. But this is kind of the chief's genius of Coach HEC as well, the offensive line coach, is he's so good at teaching you scheme and defensive structure and where guys are supposed to be.

Because, again, of the space that's created, you know, there's defense alignment that line up in certain positions and there's linebackers line up in certain spots. and sometimes you have to disregard a guy who looks like he's kind of in the box playing the run, but he's just trying to play in the middle of the slot in the 3 by 1 formation, and he's trying to middle that. And if you're, you know, the center and you're, you're creed and you're locked in on, all right, it's a certain formation. I know that, you know, we have a pass option out there.

It's going to be an inside zone. And that middle or the, you know, the slot guy of the three receivers is going to actually pull the linebacker out of the picture. I know it's this coverage because this guy's aligned here, that guy's aligned here, and that linebacker has to leave, as opposed to knowing, like, if they're aligned up here and it's man coverage, he's probably going to step into the box and we have to account for him. So again, this gets like the complexity of the offense and understanding spots, understanding space, who to account for, who not to account for. And that's where I think this team is really good.

And so, yeah, Pat's able to kind of call out all those things. But I think the most communication obviously happens on the past plays and the protections and his ability to, you know, see what's outside of the box and relay that the offensive line. But there is some value in the run game as well to understand the structure of the defense. How different do you think his acumen, just ability to kind of win the game between his ears is now compared to what it was four years ago? Oh, I think it's drastically better. And I don't think it necessarily has as much obviousness on the field. You know, he was pretty good back then and pretty successful.

just winning, smashing records and winning MVP awards five years ago. But still, when you talk to people, I was talking to a coach last night. And he said he's gotten to a point now where he's doing the Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers stuff where he's like correcting defensive players. He's like, I actually are lined up a little bit wrong here. You want to be like a little six inches over to the left. And the fact that we've combined that with what he is physically is fucking terrifying. Like, I just don't know what the ceiling of a guy with those two things working in concert

with each other ends up looking like. truly can't comprehend it. Dude, I've, I've said this since he was young. He's, the mental side is only going to get better. There's no point in his career where he's going to be less good mentally than he was the year before. And when you look at what he is as a player and then you compare him, and of course, the comparisons are to like Brady and Breeze and Manning in terms of the mental aspect, we're

not comparing 28-year-old Pat with 28-year-old Manning with 28-year-old Brady. We're comparing 28-year-old Pat with 38-year-old Drew Breeze. 44-year-old Tom Brady and 37-year-old Peyton Manning. And so he's similar enough to those guys mentally at this stage. And think of the wealth of knowledge they had, having played 15 seasons, and he's only in year six of starting. And so that mental ability to just keep kind of stacking things. And I think where it comes out the most obviously for him is it becomes subconscious.

It becomes these are the things, again, kind of getting back to what's the checklist of things on this play. You don't have to mentally go, all right, do I have to mentally go, all right, do I have that one, do I have that one? You just kind of know it. You feel it. You know it. You get through the checklist. And then you get to, you know, the Uber top level of the Andy Reid checklist on the things he can provide you. And now you can spend mental focus on those minute, minute details that you weren't able to in years two and three because you were still thinking about, all right, I got to look at this corner because on this play, if he's outside leverage, that means too. And he doesn't have to do that anymore. That's all subconscious.

And he can get to the end of the checklist quicker. And that's where the ease and the flow of everything that he's doing out there becomes apparent. And you can get into the stuff at the line of scrimmage more easily because, again, he doesn't have to like think about, all right, you know, we're going up against this team. And this team likes to blitz primarily from the tighter shade. So kind of away from the three technique. Let me look at the front. All right, what's the front?

That's the tighter shade. Let me look to that side. It's just, it's, you line up. I know where the three technique is. I can see the indicator. He's not coming. Okay. I'm going to get off of that and go somewhere else.

And so the quickness and the rapidness. and the tempo and the pressure you're able to put on a defense when you're able to do that subconsciously. Yeah, he's going to keep getting better. He's physically, he's 28, so he's entering his physical peak, which is probably going to be a six to seven year run with how well he keeps himself, regardless of the shirtless photo in the locker room. Combined with, again, when he's 32. I respect that. The shirtless photo in the locker room is one of my favorite things that has happened over the last two weeks. my barometer for whether things have entered the greater like public consciousness is whether my wife mentions them to me.

So she sent me a picture of the Mahom shirtless in the locker room. And we were talking about it. And she wanted me to be clear about this because she knew I was going to talk about it on the show. She's like, I was not making fun of him. He doesn't look bad. But he looks like any man. He looks just like any random dude. And I was trying to explain to her.

I was like, this is maybe the greatest football player who has. has ever lived. We are going to mention him with like the greatest athletes in the history of North American sports. And that's what he looks like. That's why it's incredible. Every person who has a slightly doughy body should believe they are capable of anything because that photo exists. Okay. Look, you live in a cold weather city as well. Obviously, we know how cold it was the Miami game. You know, you got to do what you can to stay warm when you're living in a cold weather city. If he was playing in Miami or Arizona or, you know, L.A., it might look a little different. You know, you don't have to keep on a couple extra pounds to stay warm in the winter. But as a guy who's got

a play in, you know, minus 30 wind chills, maybe that's the advantage that we're not talking about. He's a dad of two now, right? Like, I mean, he's got a lot of stuff on his plate. I'm sure there's a lot of like chicken fingers and bullshit that are being thrown in the microwave at the Patrick Mahomes household. So I have no fault of his own and I totally respect it. How many guys belong on a list with him when we're at the end of this. I think that we're already at that part of the conversation. you know, this, if he finishes this off, if it's three Super Bowls in the first six years, if it's two MVPs, if it's Super Bowl titles in years where you're not supposed to win it, when you're an imperfect version of yourself, when you're arguably the worst version that you've been,

have you, like, sat back and really considered that you played with a guy who might go down as, like, the greatest player of all time? Yeah, which is why I'm rooting for all the success, because I want him to stack that resume, and I want to say I played with the best player ever, and I won a Super Bowl. with him when he was still young. So yeah, I have considered that. You know, I, all the, the arguments and who's, who's better, who's not, we can't compare him with Brady because Brady has a 22 year resume and totally, you know, not to go full Mike Tyson, but the resume is unimpeachable and all those things. Like, you can't argue with the resume until Pat's retired and until you look at what

the resume looks like. I think you can compare six year windows and six year peaks. And, you know, I think Aaron Schott's looked at that and originally said Pat had the best six year window and then changed it and said maybe Peyton Manning of the best six-year window. But I think given the age and given everything else going on around him, I would say this is the best six-year window of quarterback play, you know, especially adjusting for the fact that it carries, you know, years, ages 23 through 28, and it's the first six years of the guy's career. Absolutely. And the playoff performances. Right. Exactly. So the fact that he's played an MVP level for 17 playoff games combined with the regular season stuff, that to me is what puts it a little bit over

the edge. Right. And so the best argument I've seen is, you know, not Jordan, not all. It's the Tiger versus Nicholas, where, you know, Jack has the 18 majors, and that's a record that's not going to be broken, obviously. But Tiger, those first five or six years of his career, he was so much better than everyone else, so early, and it was so obvious that he was the best guy that's ever done this, combining the physical and the mental. And I think that's where Pat is right now.

I think it's pretty obvious for anyone who's watched that he is the best version of what an NFL quarterback has looked like from a well-rounded perspective that we've ever seen. Now, it's only six years. So, again, it's hard to compare that against the guy like Brady, who's so accomplished, and probably gets underrated physically based on the fact that he was, you know, a stiff guy in the pocket and he wasn't running and stuff. But people need to go back and watch the Super Bowl and watch him throw the ball 78 yards across the field to Randy Moss. He had a fucking cannon.

He's 6-5. He had a cannon at the peak of it. When you look back at like 0-7 to 11 Brady, it's insane. Yeah. And so, you know, Brady's more physically gifted than people get him credit for. Just he was not a mobile guy. But again, what Pat can do and what all those things. I think this six-year window is, to me, the best six-year window of a quarterback play,

especially when adjusted for the age. And so, yeah, I'm hoping he stacks up wins and Super Bowls and accolades. And I hope when it gets to the end of it, you're able to kind of compare him more favorably to Brady. And he'll have a similar amount of team success combined with kind of more on-field flare and feeling like the physical talent level was higher. So, yeah, I'm hopeful for that, and I have thought about that. Was there any point during your career, or is there any point even early on where you thought this might be possible?

We would be having this sort of conversation six years in, or is that just too far-fetched to even imagine when you're in the moment? I think we knew, based on the first couple years, how special he was. I just think Tom Brady ruined everyone's expectations for what the best quarterback of a generation looks like. And you, like, to expect, you look at all these other quarterbacks. I mean, the top other quarterbacks went to four Super Bowls and Montana won four, I believe, and Bradshaw won four, and Aikman went to three, and Peyton went to two.

And you kind of look at guys, and no one had really been to more than four Super Bowls. And so you can't say, like, you should expect your quarterback to go to the Super Bowl 50% of the time he plays in a full NFL season. Like, that doesn't seem fair. And here we are. and we're in number four of six seasons. And so he's already like blown through the expectation level, even adjusting for Brady of what every other great quarterback of all time has been.

And so that's the part where early on just kind of being a realist and just understanding the realities of the NFL, like yeah, it would be great if he could get to six, seven, eight Super Bowls and maybe win four or five and kind of be in that realm. But I don't think anyone could plod. possibly say that, you know, even after two or three years, the expectation was still that he would get to four Super Bowls in six seasons and play in six straight conference championship games. Like, I think you'd be a dreamer to say that.

Like the talent was there, the ability was there, but just the realities of the NFL weren't there. And it's, yeah, it's pretty special. As somebody who loves this team, who knows this team, who still feels like you're a part of the fabric of this team and wants the chiefs to win on Sunday, what is the thing you're most worried about? Like, what are you going to be going to bed on Saturday to be concerned about? I would just say that the offensive line keeps up its level of play, because as we discussed, that's kind of been the biggest differentiator of the past month and a half or so.

I'm not too worried about San Fran's offense versus, you know, Chief's defense. I know there's the stats of number one rushing attack versus, you know, 29th and run defense or whatever it was. The Chief's run defense has never been good, and that's never really mattered in the playoffs. And when we had to stop Derek Henry in that rushing attack, we did. And we had to stop St. Fran, we did. And every single time, Spaggs has had an answer. for a rush defense that's not necessarily good on paper,

stopping a rush offense that is good on paper and in reality. And of course, that's of the four matchups. That's the one that's least important to me anyway. So I'm not as worried about their offense versus our defense. I just think so much of the Chiefs relies on the offense, because even when the Chief's defense is playing their best version of ball, if the offense doesn't do their part, it's still a loss. And I think that's what we've seen these past few weeks.

weeks is that the offense is able to do their part, especially early, give the Chief's defense the confidence that they can go out and they can even be more physical and they can maybe take an extra liberty or two to kind of do their job because we've already got the lead and the offense is playing well. So yeah, I would just say it's again, offense line-wise, making sure the operation's good, they're getting up to the line of scrimmage, able to get through, you know, all the double and triple cadences and recognize things. Because I think San Fran is going to throw stuff at Pat and this offense that maybe is against what they normally do because everyone knows how static they are. Yeah. So being able to stay on top of the operation and to give Pat the time to make different calls, see what they're doing, get in and out of different snap counts to confuse the defense line, obviously block the guys physically up front, handle the volume of plays that's going to be in. That's the biggest pause, just because can you trust four weeks over 16 weeks? You know, that that's kind of the worry, as it were, for me as a Chiefs fan.

I know that you want this from Homes and you want this to keep going on this trajectory. Who else? Like when you're thinking about if the Chiefs were to win this game, the person that you have in mind for, I really want this for them. Who comes to mind for you? Well, if he's starting and playing, it would be Nick Allegretti. I think that would be kind of a really cool first, cool full circle moment for him. You know, he was thrust into action in the Tampa Super Bowl. And that was his, you know, kind of first taste of playing in the Super Bowl.

and that was obviously a rough game for the offense line and for the team in general. But just knowing the guy he's been, you know, how valuable he is around that organization and in the locker room and how good of a guy he is. And I think he has two Super Bowls at this point. So it's not like he's hurting for rings. But I do think it is different if you're not the guy that's out there for every single snap. And you're not the guy kind of representing the offensive line. So, you know, for the people that have seen it, that clip of him after last game being emotional and kind of showing, you know, how much it meant to him to be able to play in that game against Baltimore and to perform and to. and to come away at the victory and him being, you know,

still one of my best friends on the team. I think that would be especially cool for him. That's all I got for you. Always great to chat with you, my friend. I'm sure you're going to be more nervous than half of the guys that are playing in this game by the time it kicks off on Sunday because I know that's how you're built and how you're wired, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be a great game, very much looking forward to it, and always appreciate the time.

Yeah, thanks for having me. All right, guys, that's all we got. Thank you so much to Chase. Thank you so much to Mitch. Really enjoyed both of those conversations. I hope you guys did as well. We only got one more podcast going your way before this game kicks off from me,

and that is our monster preview episode. We will have a fun surprise during that monster preview episode that may involve me paying off a bet that I lost. So please be sure to not only check out the podcast version of that show, but also the video version because it is going to be particularly embarrassing for me,

and I hope enjoyable for you guys. For now, that is all we've got. Appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletics football show.