The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Bob Myers in the NFL, Belichick's future, Tiger and Nike break up

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

John reacts to the first couple head coaching firings around the NFL and discusses why the Commanders made a very smart decision to hire former Golden State Warriors Executive Bob Myers to help find the team's new GM and head coach, what does the future look like in Atlanta, will Mike Vrabel stay with the Titans, and the importance that Tiger Woods meant to Nike. Later, John answers your questions on this episodes mailbag segment. 5:25 - Commanders make massive changes 12:22 - What's next in Atlanta 21:45 - Bill Belichick's future 25:48 - Wink out in NY 28:26 - Injury updates 34:04 - Tiger and Nike 40:30 - Mailbag 43:42 - Could Vrabel go to NE 47:02 - Is Trevor Lawrence a bust 1:10:34 - Will KC get it together 1:23:53 - Green Bay needs to build around Love 1:36:44 - Chargers next steps Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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How are we doing my people? January 8th, we had officially some firings this morning. We got some buzz on guys like Vrable and Belichick. Some injury updates for players who are pretty important this upcoming weekend. Quick thought on the draft and where the bear sit owning the first and ninth pick. And then Tiger Woods no longer would Nike have a just a big picture take on that as someone who's actually wearing a Nike shirt as we speak. We'll talk about some football,

and obviously we're going to have content all week long. If you're listening to this, then you're like, what are your takes on the national championship? Went on with Colin after the game. I'm recording this before the game, but I'll give my thoughts with coward after the game. So check out that podcast.

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I've said forever, I do think it's a little bizarre that the, Sixers owners owns a football team in the Eagles division. Now, I've said forever, I don't think he could have pulled off being the Cowboys or the Giants owner that wouldn't have been tolerated. Partly because Washington has been so out of sight, out of mind. They have been such an embarrassment for decades. I mean, the Eagles traded one of their best players in franchise history to the Washington at the time they were the Redskins in Donovan McNabb.

Like, you take them. They would never have traded Donovan to the Giants of the Cowboys. I don't care how bad he was at the time. It's a little bizarre. But it does give you some insight into how this Josh Harris is going to think. And he was obviously famously behind the tankathon with Sam Hinky. But over the last since they got capable players,

starting with Joel Embed, he's hired real coaches. Doc Rivers, NBA champion, winner, Nick Nurse, NBA champion, winner. Those have been his last two coaches. in his last two GMs, a Calangelo, didn't end great, but had a resume in the NBA. And obviously, Daryl, who has some flaws,

but he's a real high-end NBA general manager. So he is going to go Big Game Honey. Today, the report was Bob Myers and Rick Spielman have joined forces to help run this search. And I want to start with Bob Myers. Because it's a little weird. Wait, you're hiring the guy that used to be the general manager of the Warriors? Now listen, I've indirectly talked to Bob a couple times.

I don't know him personally, but I know a lot about him. And I think Bob is one of those guys who, no matter what industry he went into, he would have been successful. If he went into finance, he would have ran a hedge fund or ran a bank. If he went into politics, he would have won and he would be in an office somewhere. As a senator, as whatever he would have done. There's nothing he has put his mind to that he hasn't been successful. successful at. Played at UCLA, walk on, won a national championship. The guy has been consistently a part of winner, winning. And then he became an agent with for Arn Tellum that had all the best

NBA players. When he transitioned into the NBA as a GM, he obviously was a major, major key into the Warriors dynasty, not just making moves like adding Andre Aguadala or adding Kevin Durant, but running an operation that was not easy. He worked for a guy in Joe Lai, who, I'm not comparing these guys in terms of their knowledge for their sport, but they're just daily intensity, has like a little Al Davis in the 80s, George Steinbrenner and the 90s tool. Not an easy place to work. A big reason I think Bob got tired of it. And Bob's one of those guys who probably gets bored, needs a new challenge. But when it comes to football, do you know who Bob's or one of his really good friends in the Bay Area that kind of became

very close over the last, I would say, half decade? John Lynch. You know why? Him and John Lynch have a lot in common. Both guys that could do anything they wanted. Obviously, John athletically was a better player. He played in the pros. Bob did not play in the NBA. But in terms of anything they want to put their mind to outside of sports, they could have done. And anything in sports they can do. Bob Myers is a deal maker. He gets along very well with important people. And when you run one of these searches for a coach, for a GM, it's all about having the decision makers and being able to get inside with them and figure out, it's going to cost this, who do we want

this guy? And I'm telling you, he might not be an NFL guy. I would want Bob Myers associated with my operation, whether he ran an NFL team, whether it was an NHL team, or whether I was trading stocks. Bob Myers, to me, is just, he's just successful in whatever he does. I wouldn't ask him to run my NFL team. I wouldn't want him to be the GM of the NFL team, but I think he could transition pretty easily to the NFL. And it would not shock me if Bob kind of got bored a little bit with basketball and wanted a new challenge. And I'm not saying he's going to end up being the GM or the team president, but I would bet the reason he's a part of this is because Josh Harris saw how impressive this guy is. And I think his greatest strength is being able to

to deal with agents. And I got news for you. In 2024, agents control the coaches now too. Some of these stories I hear with NIL when it comes to coaches and feeding players to different agents is pretty nuts. Probably get into that this offseason. But I think a lot of people shook their head because it's the first reaction anytime you do something different.

I think the Bob Myers thing makes a lot of sense. I think Rick Spielman makes a ton of sense. He's worked in the NFL for decades. One, he was just a really good GM for the Minnesota Vikings. Look how many good players he drafted. Countless, countless NFL Pro Bowl players. He was a big reason they signed Kurt Cousins. He hired Mike Zimmer once upon a time, who was an older.

He was kind of like a Bruce Ariens type. Wasn't a guy going to get a lot of run, and he did it. And up until it ended pretty ugly, like it was, pretty a lucrative partnership. If I was Washington and Bob Myers and Josh Harris, I would contemplate hiring Rick Spielman as my general manager. I thought the moment he got fired, like, I think he's pretty good. I think Rick Spielman deserves a second opportunity.

Now, maybe he doesn't even want that. Maybe he's still getting paid. Maybe he just kind of wants to dip his toe in. But to me, like, Rick Spielman is a real NFL guy. He's a real human being that can become a general manager. for your operation. So a little different tactic here for Washington. Remember a couple years ago?

The Bears went on a search. And listen, this guy's in the Hall of Fame. He's an all-time great. They had Bill Pollian, who's like 80 years old, lead the search. I'm sorry, it's 2024. Needs some younger blood. They kind of know what they're doing. They can take on the modern economics

and the modern landscape of the sport. So I was pretty impressed when the story broke that these are the two guys helping Josh Harris run the operation. And I would expect them to go big game hunting. Because when you look at Bob Myers, well, what did he do? They landed Steve Kerr.

They landed Kevin Durant. Like, they're not fucking around. You know, it's not what he's used to. When he was an agent, they were going after all the big fish. Like the best players in the NBA. And Spielman has just proved, like, he knows what he's doing

when he's looking at coaches and he knows what he's doing when he's looking at players. So if I was Josh Harris, I would want Rick Spielman around in some capacity, even if he doesn't become my GM, just moving forward part of the operation.

Atlanta. I think it's pretty clear now. I made a lot of fun of Arthur Smith for the blowup with Dennis Allen, and rightfully so. I think it's embarrassing anytime you complain about getting scored on. But I do think that was indicative of the pressure he was feeling about to be fired. And any time you think you're going to be fired, even if you're ready to leave, even if you're over the job, any ambitious person has pride. So it hurts when you're told you're not good enough. Pack up your shit and leave, even if they owe you $20 million. It sucks. And I think you saw a guy who had a meltdown, which, you know, in football, it's like, bro, keep your shit together. Somewhat, I guess, understandable if you just put yourself in his shoes, knowing that when you flew home from New Orleans and landed in Atlanta, Arthur Smith called a meeting and fired you. So it sucks. No one wants to get fired, right? But Atlanta had to do that. They had won three straight years of seven games. This guy was not a head coach. I've been saying forever, there's nothing wrong. being a number two in the NFL.

Arthur Smith proved to be an unreal offensive coordinator. When he had to motivate the team, when he had to run the coaches, when he had to run the entire operation, he was overwhelmed. And the offense suffered. But I saw him as an offensive coordinator for Mike Vrable. He was really good. And I think the same thing about Dennis Allen. I think the same thing about Todd Bowles.

We saw it with Vic Fangio. Some guys are destined to be number twos. In the NFL, in that industry, it pays like $3,4 million. Who cares? Hell, the SEC is paying defensive coordinators $2.5 million. The money's enormous. It's Wall Street on grass or turf. Not turf for long, but turf and grass right now.

To me, Atlanta, there have been a lot of stories that, like, keep an eye on Arthur Blank, who's 81 years old, clearly not getting any younger, how many years he's got left, to be in the Bill Belichick sweepstakes whenever, if ever, Bill Belichick comes around. To me, if I'm Arthur Smith, they haven't officially fired the GM, he gots to go too. I'm doing what Washington's going to do, what Carolina did. I'm blowing every fucking guy out. we are starting from scratch because one we have a lot of assets on the team we don't have a very good team and to me arthur smith deserved to be fired just from the simple fact of you came into a

season and desmond ritter was your starting quarterback it's inexcusable it can't happen that's a fireball fence in itself getting worked by dennis allen getting worked by the chicago bears was a nail in the coffin but arthur smith would be fine if rabel goes somewhere i would imagine one of his first calls is Arthur Smith to be his offensive coordinator. I would expect Atlanta, just like Washington, to be sniffing after the big names with a legit resume. To me, when you say big names, sometimes that's a negative connotation, there's something different like big name who's good at his job.

And I think either if they hired Mike Vrable and Arthur Smith, obviously that wouldn't happen in Atlanta, but if Washington did that, Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels, that would be a huge coup for these organizations that have been going nowhere and nowhere, fast. Carolina. The moment that visual went viral of Tepper throwing the drink and Scott Federer just didn't budge. Like yeah, he's probably done too. And he was fired this morning. And listen, Dave Tepper was never going to blame himself for the Bryce Young trade, which, let's face it,

looks like an utter disaster. Now, it's only a year in, but if you could do a redo if you were them, I got news for you. They'd do a redo. They just would have taken C.J. Stroud. The other thing as part of that trade is the Bears wanted three guys. They wanted, you know, if you weren't going to give us the max amount of first round picks that we wanted, you had to include one of the players. Derek Brown, Brian Burns,

and DJ Moore. Well, their big thing was, you know, it's harder to find defensive linemen, so take DJ Moore. But you're taking a quarterback. Don't you want to keep your wide receiver who's a really good player and who's under a cheap second contract? Clearly, you're not acting like Brian Burns

the next Miles Garrett, T.J. Watt, or Nick Bosa, because you haven't extended him yet. So you should have traded Brian Burns, kept DJ Moore with your young quarterback. That was a debacle. And I'm putting that one on the general manager. And you can say, Middilkoff, well, it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback

as we sit here in January 10 months later. Well, yeah, it's their job to get that right. When you're the GM and you're deciding, you have to get that right. And I watch them talk about it. They wanted to keep the defensive linemen. And that was a major, major mistake. Really was.

So you could fire him off that move alone. Because the quarterback, part of the reason he was so embarrassing, the scheme, the coaching, didn't everyone to throw him. Well, you had a fucking guy on the roster who was really good. Who's like, you know, 90% of Debo Samuel, who's under contract. So that was, to me, the move that as the season went on, I bet Temper never shook that one. Now, clearly, you know, Josh Harris, like,

guys clearly like working for him. It's been pretty fruitful with the Sixers. We have an example of these guys go in there and have success. I know they haven't made the past second round, but it seems like Doc Rivers like working there. Nick Nurse, Darryl Morey, Joel L&B, like it's a pretty healthy environment. So I would bet on the commanders moving forward to be completely different than the Dan Snyder operation, which was the laughing stock of the league. Atlanta, it's a city a lot of people want to live in. And guess what? Their owner has Buku Bucu Bucks. They're going to be in the mix for some stuff. Carolina to me is a major wildcar. Their owner is a loony tune, right? Super rich guy, super successful in the finance market, but in terms of owning a team has been an insane

man with an unlimited amount of money. Sometimes if you're an insane man like Al Davis, you know, back in the day he didn't have as much capital. So, you know, it was harder for him to do crazy things. He probably wanted to do 50 more crazy things than he actually did, but he didn't have the money to do it. This guy at any moment can just like change his mind, pay you to go away. Just do whatever he wants because he has so much cash. So I think David Teper is probably one of the biggest red flags in the league as just someone to go work for.

The Mike Vrabel situation. I think it's pretty clear that Mike Vrable is not comfortable with the way things are set up there. And like sometimes in life you've got to shut your mouth, right? And usually that's when you don't have options. Pat McAfee talked a bunch of shit about an ESPN executive last week. He doubled down on it today. You know why? Pat McAfee has options.

He didn't need these guys. He took their money, but he was making a ton of money without him. If they fired him tomorrow, he'd continue to make a ton of money. He does not need any of these people. So he can talk like that. It's why most of the media is so uncomfortable.

He's like, I can't believe he's doing this. He's not like you. He's not intimidated about losing his gig. He does not care. If he had to, it's obviously ESPN has been fruitful for his operation. when I go to the gym, it's on every TV. That would not have been the case if he was only on YouTube.

But he was making millions of dollars without ESPN. He might make a little more now, but he would have been fine. He was already rich. Anytime that you have leverage in the sense of you don't need somebody, it empowers you. Right? Like, he's been in the trenches as an entrepreneur. And that ESPN is used to having just people fall in line and be their sheep. Well, he's not.

And it's no different with coaches. Arthur Smith, if he wanted to keep his job, he probably had to kiss Arthur Blank's ass all year long. You know who doesn't need to kiss your ass? Belichick as he starts winning Super Bowls. Mike Vrable right now. He knows he would have options. So he doesn't need to beg for the job.

He can go, and I don't know all the details. They're kind of, you know, it's just pretty clear patching together the reports. Like, maybe he's not cool with the GM. I didn't hire this guy. I don't want to work with him. Maybe I don't think he's any good. Maybe I'm not cool with the president ownership structure.

And he could go, say his piece. I want this, this and that. And if they go, well, we're only giving you half of that. He'll say, okay, I'm out. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be here. And if a guy doesn't want to be there, you don't want him there either.

So he's got leverage because if he's available, a ton of people are going to want him. So Mike Vrable, what I appreciate is clearly he's going to get to the point where he's going to draw a line in the sand. You're either going to do what I want you to do or not. And then if they do capitulate and give him everything he wants,

then it's on him. It's like, okay, see what you got. And if they don't, I would imagine he's saying, I don't want to be there anymore. And then I do think a lot of these teams would be all over the guy. And I think Mike Varyble was pretty good. I watched him yesterday. Going out, I'm going to kick the living crap out of Doug Peterson and Trevor Lawrence.

And he did. Beat the living piss out of him. With an old Derek Henry, which is a pretty cool moment, obviously going out with a buck 50. And I saw this viral clip of them thanking all the cooks and the equipment guys, clearly just a high-level guy. And Ryan Tannyhill. And we're going to embarrass you.

and you guys like us, your season's about to end right here in Nashville. So Mike Vrable's got options. Anytime you got options, you can act a little different, right? And I appreciate that about people. Because sometimes, like, I'm just going to kiss this guy's ass

because that's what I should be doing. I can't stand this guy. I don't want to work with him. Right? Pat McAfee, we just see him do it if you're following him online. Right, Mike Vrable, you know, is different as a coach.

You've got to be careful. I bet, you know, he snapped their reporter last week. I just think he's kind of fed up. with whatever their situation is there. And I would expect it to come to head here very, very quickly. The Belichick thing, it clearly feels like it's over. And everyone has reiterated this point. Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, even though Jonathan doesn't feel like,

at least from my vantage point, ever speaks, Robert does, has been given ample opportunity to come out and say, Bill's going nowhere. We've got some stuff to figure out this offseason. Bill Belichick is going to be the coach in 2024. We're standing by our guy. We've stood by him for 25 years. He's going to be here next year.

We're going to figure some stuff out, maybe out of GM, maybe do something, but we're going to work with Bill. They haven't done any of that. There's been no support. And listen, sometimes you come out in public support, like, this guy's going to continue to be our coach and he still gets fired. That happens a lot in the history of sports. Craft said nothing. And sometimes silence is obviously not ideal. And I think this is very, very difficult for this to end because of the end.

because of the history, because of the equity he has built up in the area. Because clearly he's not just some, you know, like some of these guys have no business being head coaches. Bill is an elite leader slash defensive guy. Offense is a problem. And his offensive coordinator is very, very important. He needs to get Josh back wherever he goes. But I would expect, I don't know the timeline,

but I think it's pretty clear that Bill Belichick is not, would be a huge upset if Bill is the coach in New England. And if I'm the crafts, like, it's time. There's nothing wrong. Like, some divorces are meant to happen. And everyone benefits. He gets remarried. She gets remarried.

The kids are happy. It's fine. Some divorce are ugly. Some divorces suck. This feels like it's just one of those. Now, it might suck because Bill is petty. He's old school. He's crumagony.

He's just, he's not going to take it well. Which I don't blame him. But in some divorces like Andy Reid, he got fired. He addressed the entire organization in Philadelphia in the cafeteria. I remember. So it's like everyone. one's a little different. This one, it's sad because it shouldn't be as ugly, but probably will be. And I'm not going to get into every coach so far, teams that have extended. We want to interview

this guy. We want to interview that guy. Because it's pretty clear that a lot of coordinators get interviewed. Obviously, you know, the former head coach is the big name guys. I do, from personal experience, can say I think Adam Peters is easily the best general manager candidate on the open market. And it chose you. Like, he didn't get the Carolina job a couple years ago. Wanted it. Try to get it. They went with Fitterer.

So sometimes in life, when you want something professionally and it doesn't go your way, might be the best thing that ever happened to you. Here's what Adam Peters did. He played at UCLA. He became, you know, started at the ground floor with like the Josh McDaniels, Patricia crew in personnel in New England, worked his way up, saw multiple championships in the first Brady era with Vrabel and those guys. Then, in the late 2000s, went with John Elway, or 2010 or whatever this specific year, to the Denver Broncos, was a part of that Peyton Manning run, won a Super Bowl there.

And then John Lynch's first hire in 2017 was Adam Peters. So this entire Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch run, Adam Peters has been there. They haven't won a Super Bowl yet, but they've obviously had some elite teams. So Bill Belichick, New England Patriot Super Bowl. John Elway, Peyton Manning, Super Bowl. San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan, John, and John, how much more experience can you have at the highest level of winning? To me, it's a no-brainer.

If I was the Raiders, if I was the Chargers, if I was a commanders, I would be all over Adam Peters. I'm not a victory lap guy. Because when I say something, one, it's either opinion or two, like, I'm not a media guy. I'm not a journalist. I have a lot of information because I happen to know a lot of people in the national football league,

from assistant coaches to general managers, to assistant general managers, to just area scouts, and I get a lot of information. And a lot of times when I talk about football, I use their information to shape my opinion. Well, about a month and a half ago, I told everybody, it's like, it wasn't reporting,

I was just telling you what I was hearing. That Wink Martindale and the defensive staff hated Brian Dable. And the volume put a clip out, a bunch of New York blogs got it, and just were calling me an idiot. A bunch of guys were like, Never seen you at training camp? Yeah, I don't go to your training camp.

Never have, never will. I don't need to go to get this information. But I just told you that this, they don't like the guy. And today, Wink Martindale quit, retired from the Giant, said, I'm out. I'm not working with this guy. It was clear the last month when they played in a couple of national televised games. One night, Trey Hickman and Joe Buck met with him. They're like, yeah, that was kind of weird.

He didn't like him. He didn't want to work with him. They fired a bunch of coaches a day. All their coaches won out. the Giants have a major problem, and it's Brian Dayball interacting with his assistant coaches. I don't know Brian Dayball. I'm just being told this information,

and then it was validated today. None of this stuff is like, I don't have an agenda with anything. That's one of the rare instances when I just laid out 100% what I was hearing internally about a team. And it came to fruition. I knew about it a month and a half ago,

and as I said then, if you watch the moment when Dayball hands winked Martindale, the game ball, didn't hug. Brian Dayball was making it about himself because he knew it would be on camera. That was one of the fakesest moments of the national football regular season in 2023. And it was proven today when Wink Martindale couldn't get out of there faster. He lied for the last month. Don't blame him because he's still coaching the players. He doesn't want to have them think he quit on them because he didn't.

He coached throughout the season. He just was never going to work with Brian Dayball again. Wink Martindale's good at his job, and he's going to have a lot of options. And I think to me, him leaving is a direct reflection of Brian Dayball ability. Part of being a head coach is more than just working with a quarterback or scheming an offense, which Daibald does not do. But it's working with your coaching staff. That is a tough, it's not easy to do.

It's why good coaches are good at it. Guys that are over their head struggle with it. And clearly, Brian Daibald has a lot of maturing to do when it comes to being a head coach and managing down. because it's easy to kiss the owner's ass that's paying you $10 million a year. Can you get along with their defensive coordinator who kind of knows what he's doing? Because to me, one of the better aspects of the New York Giants for the last couple years has not been the offense.

Their offense like Week 18 against the Gutless Eagles team, that wasn't a normal occurrence for them. But usually their defense is pretty good. Kept him in a lot of games. In Week Martindale, I don't know exactly contractually how this is all going to work, but he'll have options. A couple other things. Just wanted to hit on some quick injury update. I understand why they played Sam Leporta.

He was trying to break a rookie record. He hurt his name. And as Dan Campbell said today, he has an outside chance to play on Sunday night. So not ideal. But I think it's fair to say, like, probably unlikely that Sam Leporta plays. And that sucks.

And that's a major blow. That's why I told Colin on Sunday night, like, I can't pick Detroit until I know this guy's status. And if you tell me he's not playing, he's definitely going to be compromised if he does. Let's assume he's like 50%. That's a major problem.

That is a huge blow for their offense. Because Leporta was elite this season. He's, I mean, he looks like a superstar. So that sucks. T.J. Watt, I said from the jump that this is not a successful year in Pittsburgh. It's just not. It's not because I picked them to win the division. No, because as the season played out, they wasted a ton of games on Mr. Bisckey.

And they were in a position where they had to play everybody against the Ravens, who did not, and then their best player got hurt. And as his brother, I think, broke the news, has a grade 2 MCL spring, who's out, who is not going to play this week. So you were missing your best player because you were forced to play them in a game that you had to win to just give yourself a chance to make the playoffs. So, and maybe, listen, he might have tried to play anyway to break a sack record, or not a sack record, but be the leader in sacks for the season.

You know, he'd already been paid. I doubt it if they were already a lot to be in the play. But that is a devastating entry. Not like I would have loved Pittsburgh even if he was playing, but that sucks. Gabe Davis, who's had some incredible moments for the bills over the years. Specifically in the playoffs. Remember that Chiefs game, he would look like Jerry Rice once upon a time, but has a PCL spring and is questionable this week.

That's a pretty big blow. Jalen Hertz turned out his finger, no fracture, but clearly he's been banged up all year his fingers point in a different direction. Major question marks on A.J. Brown in his knee and Devante Smith in his ankle. Obviously, to me, if Jalen, Jalen's going to play, but those other, if they can't go, like, losing is a possibility for the Eagles. And if losing is a possibility, if Siriani, they started 10 and 1, and they finished 11 and 6.

So he went 1 in 5 down the stretch. If they were to lose the Tampa Bay, I don't know, man. We've seen crazier if he got fired. I'll tell you that. Something on the draft, I think is pretty clear. We don't know exactly. Everyone acts like Iber Flucelot to be back. I'll believe it after a couple weeks.

Not that I don't believe it, but like, listen, sometimes people's ownership and organization say something, and then Thursday of the week it guys fired. So let's just see how this next 10 days plays out. But I do think the bears are an incredible position. One, obviously they're going to trade fields. Justin Fields is not going to be on the team next year. Can't throw from within the pocket.

You can't throw from within the pocket, you can't win big games. Like, they lost that game yesterday because one quarterback could and the other quarterback couldn't. And the one quarterback that could is on the Packers and look dramatically better. Because he is. He's a much better player than Justin Fields. Now, because of the quarterback desperation and because he still has positive things going for him, you're going to be able to trade him. I don't know exactly how much.

My first inclination was like a third rounder, but then it would have multiple teams are bidding. Maybe you get a couple threes, maybe you get a two and a three. It seems a little bold for a guy that, you know, you know, Are you going to pay them a large contract in a couple of years? I don't know. But they would get something of value. Well, if they take a quarterback number one overall, they have the ninth pick in the draft,

which is their own pick. Well, think, let's just assume three other quarterbacks go. So they take Caleb Williams, number one, three other guys go between two and pick eight. That means that four other position players beside quarterbacks would be off the board. So depending on the bear's draft order, they are going to end up with the quarterback they want in this draft.

I'm assuming it's Caleb Williams. It could be someone else. And then a top five player on their draft board. This couldn't work out any better. You're going to end up with a new upgrade at quarterback, in theory, and one of the best players in the draft. So losing that game yesterday, one was good because we don't even need to pretend

about this Justin Fields thing anymore. And two, it helped your draft position. Because you weren't making the playoffs anyway. You already had some positive momentum. You have a bunch of good younger defensive players. DJ Moore is a really good player. You got some young, offensive linemen, but now you have the chance to get one of the best players in what looks

like a pretty talented draft. Whether you go with a lineman, whether you go with one of the skill guys on the outside to pair with DJ Moore, maybe a tight end from Georgia Falls to you, but you're going to have options. And you have a real, real chance to really improve your team. So if I'm a Bears fan, one, we'll see how this plays out with the coach and the organization, but I'm pretty excited about my options, about getting a new young quarterback, and two, getting another good, really, really young impact player. Because a lot of times when a team, like the last couple years, like the Lions or the Lions last year, right, they had the high pick and they also had their own pick, but they had gone

nine and eight. So like one pick was like 18 and the other pick was six, right? Remember a couple years previously, I forget the team, was it the Eagles? Was it last year the Eagles? You have a pick in the single digits and another pick in the 20s. You have pick one and pick nine and you just had a relatively, successful second half of the season. So I would be really, really excited on the Lions.

And last but not least, I just want to hit on something that's near and dear to my heart. Tiger Woods and Nike broke up today. I'm wearing a Nike button-up shirt because it was the only purple thing I had in my closet, and I'm recording this before the Washington Huskies play the Michigan Wolverines. I wanted to support the Huskies because I got some money on them. But I think that partnership is one of the most important thing to ever happen to business casual wear. I think it literally changed society

because when Tiger got with Nike obviously people have always worn collar shirts but I think the high level collared shirt like I know in my adult life right in the 2000s and definitely in my professional life in the 2010s up till now you could go into any business setting

how many people listening to this right now that 15 years ago that Nike polo that all the other companies copied you wore to work so like if you're not a suit guy at work, you could put a pair of jeans or a pair of slacks and a collared shirt on the nice dry fit and wear it to work and look nice. I don't know if that was happening in the 80s and the 70s and the 60s. And that officially happened in 1996 when Tiger Woods and Phil Knight

connected. And if you've read Shoe Dog, Phil Knight to close that deal, Nike was already massive in the mid-90s, obviously Michael Jordan was a rocket ship, followed Tiger Woods at his third U.S. amateur. He was about to turn pro every single round. for like six straight days. Phil Knight followed him every single hole to close that deal. And I think him and Michael are easily the two most important people in the history of that company. I think you could take the next 10 people in that company. LeBron's, Kobe's, tennis players.

I think when you look at financially, maybe they'd add up to be the equivalent, but when you look at the cultural impact of Tiger, on polo shirts, and Michael on shoes, I don't think the next 20 have even close to the impact. And obviously the next 10, 20 guys have had massive impacts in the business of Nike. But I think what he did to the business casual wear in this country, I can't speak for like Italy and France,

but I just know friends that work in New York and Florida and Texas and San Francisco and Arizona. And think of all these companies now, right? from Travis Matthews to Link Saul to all these different polos that you might be wearing on your way to work right now listening to this. All spawn from that partnership

25 years ago. People building these brands and this apparel that's comfortable, that looks good, that you can wear on a date, that you can wear to work, that you can wear lounging around the house, barbecuing. And that just, listen, when I was a kid in the early 90s, that shit didn't really exist. It wasn't, most colored shirts

not only weren't comfortable, they didn't look good. and to me, Tiger changed the collared shirt just being cool, slick look. I can't imagine many of you listening don't own some sort of Nike polo in your closet. I'd be stunned if we had a lot of people that listen and watch this podcast, 90% of you. I don't care what age you are, whether you're 10 or whether you're 65, I don't care what you do for a living. I would imagine the overwhelming majority have some sort of. Nike dry-fit polo in the closet. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the iHeart radio.

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clivert Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to the Clivert Show on the IHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Then you're finishing that sentence. Yes, I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years. for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll start with Shea. Honestly, you didn't even know this was a thing. Haven't been too locked into the internet today

besides some Black Monday stuff, but Rudolph or Pickett, who would you start? Is this something that's being talked about right now? Like, is there controversy on who's going to be the Steelers starting course? This weekend? Honestly, I didn't know. Because to me, there is no debate.

Mason Rudolph's starting quarterback. I mean, he's a starting quarterback till you lose, which I expect you to lose this weekend, but under no circumstances are you going back to Canny Pickett at this point? You can't. I mean, the season changed when you put in Mason Rudolph. To me, it's pretty simple. What is your opinion on Dennis Allen apologizing to Arthur Smith?

And how does the team not listening to him overriding his decision? to take a knee, now prove that the players do not respect him, and he has lost the locker room. Well, if you listen to Sunday night's podcast after I react to the bills, I hit on it. Now, at the time, Arthur Smith hadn't been fired yet, so it makes a little more sense why he was super mad. He was on tilt. You know, getting embarrassed by Dennis Allen and Derek Carr was the nail in his coffin. But I understand after just watching everything over the last Dennis Allen told when you're head coach and I tell you to run left and you run right

when I tell you to pass the ball and you run the ball when I tell you to blitz and you don't blitz when I tell you the meetings at 8 a.m. And you show up at 8.20 a.m. I get like a huge part of football as authority. I clicked on Shannon and Chad Ocho Cinco last night.

And Shannon was crushing James saying that like basically you can't have in football, if people aren't willing to listen to the head coach, regardless what he says in a moment like that, he can't be the head coach. He lacks the authority. I was like, I didn't really think about it like that. There is some credence to that. Somewhat of a unique situation, I understand they were in victory formation,

wanted to get Jamal a touchdown, but I get it. Listen, I'd fire Dennis Allen. I don't think he's good enough. Really good defensive coordinator, head coach. You just miss the playoffs in a horrendous division. Right? you get these two wins at the end of the season, you beat the shit out of Atlanta,

you dominate Tampa. Who cares? You're sitting at home. I mean, you needed other teams. You wouldn't even have went if Green Bay had lost because Seattle won. So you actually weren't even, there's seven teams now, right? This is not 2015,

where it was pretty hard to make the playoffs, right? Most 9 and 18s would never sniff the playoffs. And you didn't win your division. You just, you're sitting at home. So, listen, I get it. I think there's some merit to it. I have no problem with James doing it. But would James have done that?

And listen, he's always been a little anti-authority. Would he have done that to Andy Reid or Pete Carroll or Bill Belichick? Probably not. Would he do that to Sean Payton? Doubtful. Will you do it to Dennis Allen? Well, he proved. He would.

He did. Longtime listener and first-time mailbag question. Is Mike Brable to the Patriots the best hire if Bill leaves? The defensive mind and former connections make too much sense. You know, there's been a lot of talk about the Patriots in Gerard Mayo, the long-time linebacker, now he's been on the staff for a long time, being the transitional piece, being the guy on staff when they fire Belichick that is just going to take over. We'll see how that plays out over this week.

You know, I think it's going to take a couple days for this Belichick thing to take shape. But ultimately, my question is going to be, do you want to be the guy that fires or follows Bill Belichick? because usually you want to be the guy that follows the guy that followed the guy. Easier to replace. It's not going to be easy to be the next head coach to Alabama. There are a lot of positives, right? The program's rolling and everything, but it's, that's not easy. You are compared to Nick Saban.

You are compared to Bill Belichick. To me, if I'm Mike Brable, I would probably just try to stay at Tennessee for a couple more years, let that situation, you know, kind of play itself out if we still suck go. Because Belichick's not going anywhere. The other thing is, right, excuse me, Robert Kraft and the Kraft family, love the guy. I'd be a little shocked at this point. Again, this is just educated guests.

I don't know, Vrable. I understand the connections. Obviously, he played a huge role. The crafts love him. He kicked their ass and ended the Brady Belichick era in 2019. Kind of ended the dynasty. But personally, again, I'm biased on this one. I'd much rather live in Nashville than in the New England area, a lot colder.

Vrable's a Midwest guy, right? He's from Ohio. Went to Ohio State. Maybe he isn't as big in Nashville as I would be, or maybe you would be. So maybe he would end up there. I also think if Mike Vrable is truly available, there are going to be a lot of teams very interested in him. And what can he do? And this is why I like Belichick.

The defensive coach is a little riskier when they don't have their offensive coordinator. Well, Belichick has Josh McDaniels available. So if I'm one of these owners, Washington, Atlanta, Tepper, Belichick gets to come with his offensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels. I'm assuming that. I mean, I don't know. Josh made so much money getting fired, but what's Josh going to do?

Sit and watch TV and eat ice cream all day, which clearly was hard for him when he coach. Gained a lot of weight. Maybe he's lost some pounds. Maybe he's got his energy back. And pair with Belichick and try to make another run. So, well, what does Mike Vrabel have? Arthur Smith, who is the best offensive coordinator he had?

Available. Arthur Smith's proven. He's a good number two. There's nothing wrong in the... I say it all the time. I understand why Todd Bowles, Dennis Allen, accept these head coaching jobs. They're number twos.

And there's nothing. And listen, Todd Bowles has proven to be, you know, probably a mid-tier guy, right? He's credible head coach. But he's an elite number two. Same thing with Fangio, an elite defensive coordinator. And I'm not just judging him off this year in Miami. If you give him good players, he will dominate. Arthur Smith has proven.

You just give him an average quarterback and he's the offensive coordinator. Can't handle the whole team. But if he can just focus on the offense, Vrable leads the team, motivates, you know, handles the defensive side of the ball. They're a good tandem. Listen, if you can get Mike Vrable with Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator, I think teams will be all over that. Because here's the other thing.

You don't have to worry about Arthur Smith getting a head coaching job right away. Who's hiring Arthur Smith in the next couple years? News slash, nobody. Huge fan. Question for the bag. Do you think Lawrence is a bust? I saw a stat graphic the other day comparing Trevor and Daniel Jones. Nearly identical records and stats through their first 48 career starts.

Trevor was hyped to be one of the best. quarterbacks, prospects to ever come out of the draft. Yet he's been very disappointing. Would love to hear your thoughts. I would say this about Trevor Lawrence. It has been hugely disappointing because of the expectations. Relative to when you draft a quarterback, a huge part of the way we judge you,

you know, when it comes in sports, is about the hype. So whenever in life you hype something up, like, hey, this is the best restaurant I've ever been to. You've got to come eat with me here. You got to come. This is the best sandwich I've ever had. Happens with food all the time. You tell your friends, you tell your family, like, I'm telling you, it's the best slice of

fucking pizza I've ever had. And then you take someone to have that slice of pizza with you, and I'm like, kind of overrated. But you set the expectations. So the expectations on Trevor Lawrence, one of the best prospects we've ever seen. Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning became top five quarterback of all time. Andrew Luck clearly was really good, right? And Trevor Lawrence, compared to that.

Well, what happens? He doesn't remotely live up to that standard. By Andrew Luck's third year, they're in the playoffs back-to-back years. He's winning playoff games. His general manager let him out because no one could block for him, and he was a little reckless as a player. But I think when you look at Trevor Lawrence, he's a product of the hype,

and the hype he has not live up to. Now, relative to his draft class, Mack Jones bench for Bailey Zappy, who also stinks. Trey Lance is a third-string quarterback in Dallas. Zach Wilson, they can't get rid of them fast enough. Got benched by his second year in the league. And Justin Fields, who is the second best quarterback of that group, is really just a runner with a couple splash plays,

can't play within the pocket. To me, Trevor Lawrence, you watch him, like, okay, that's, oh, he overthrew him. So he's just, this year was really bad. Now, is it injuries? Is it, sometimes you watch him, you wish there was a little more oomph to him. Like, when you watch Young Peyton Man, you're like, fuck, this guy is all in. Like, this guy is not messing around.

You watch Josh Allen just laying it on the line, laying it on the line. Even too, I don't think he's that great of a player, but it feels like he's giving you it as all. Sometimes with Trevor Lawrence, and it might just be because of his talent, right? I think you see this with Anthony Davis. Now, I'm not comparing Trevor Lawrence to Anthony Davis because Anthony Davis is an elite NBA player when he's on the court and he's having a great season. I haven't watched a minute of Laker basketball. I see that they're in Shambles, though, and that makes me happy.

My point is like, Anthony Davis was clearly everyone would want them. Like Trevor Lawrence, I was listening to Bill Simmons and Sal this morning at the gym. It's like if you called the Bears right now, hey, if you're going to trade fields, would you give us the number one pick for Trevor Lawrence? They'd hang up on you. I think Washington would hang up on you. I think the New England Patriots would hang up on you. And part of it is like, well, he's going into his fourth year,

contract right around the corner. He's not getting paid this off season. How much is he worth? because there is like, not everyone is just this max player. And that's what started happening in the NFL a lot with quarterbacks, happened in the NBA forever. The overwhelming majority of these NBA players are not max players. So it's why you have so many bad contracts in the NBA.

And so many contracts are like, that's going to hinder that team. Right? For the most part, like, how many guys are truly worth the most amount of money? Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar's proving that. obviously the Brady, the Rogers. I'm talking every single year if he's on, he can win the MVP, he's going to lead me to the playoffs. Football's a little weird, weird chick can happen.

Like, Mahomes could be won and done this year. Who cares? There's a lot of pressure on Lamar, but he's proven to be worth every penny. Turvin Lawrence, like, got a ways to go. You know, the NFL is the first time he's had adversity in his life. He went to Clemson when they were already winning a national championship. Like, he got there. They had already won.

Then he gets there. They win, and they're obviously really good. during his tenure, but it was pretty easy. It's kind of the question sometimes when you see these guys in college never have any struggles. It's what I liked about Jalen Hertz. Nick Sabin said, you're benched, you're not good enough.

He had a transfer. I mean, he was told, everyone made this big deal when Jalen Milrow was told by Bill O'Brien, you should play another position. Like, have you watched Jalen Miller? Not a very good thrower of the ball. But he literally, like, they told Jalen Hertz leave.

Even this year with Caleb Williams. Their team sucked. It was not easy. You know, so honestly, I'd view that as somewhat of a positive evaluating the guy. It's like he went through some struggles. As an individual, as a team, it was Michael Pennix, Indiana, getting hurt all the time. Team sucked, Bo Nicks, run out of town in the SEC. A lot of guys in this class, you could argue J.J. McCarthy would be the one guy who's always had a success as the starter.

But even him, like didn't get to be the full-time starter immediately when he got to Michigan. Remember, what was the guys day, McNamara that he had to split time with? Like, Trevor Lawrence, the first sign of turbulence he'd ever had. Well, he got handed it immediately when he got Urban Meyer. So it's been in the NFL. And it's why I talk about, I think the biggest, I think, thing for any young person in life is to gain experience. Good and bad, right? So any industry, just start working right away.

It's why, you know, obviously in college, try to do jobs that you ultimately want to do. Get in any way possible. and you can kind of see with your own eyes what works, what doesn't, and you build on those experiences, right? Because you've got to go and understand that like, this shit's hard, no matter what you do. And the faster you go through the failures, the easier it is to come out on the other end.

Right? Now, I don't know, you've got to be mentally tough to come out on the other end. And there were some question marks about Trevor Lawrence. How much does he love football? Because he clearly is physically gifted, but you watched him yesterday. You're just like, God, there's something to be desired. that there's something missing.

And clearly, he's not some all-time great prospect. Like, that's a fact. He might become a really good player still, but he's not the fastest guy. He doesn't have the biggest arm. And let's face it, he's not very accurate. He turns the ball over a lot. So to me, his ceiling is never Mahomes or Josh Allen.

Like, I witnessed Josh Allen, year three. He looked like Cam Newton meets John Elway. Right? And you watch him now by year six or whatever year he's in. He's just an elite dominant player. Same thing, what Mahomes proved very early. Listen, I'm a big believer in Justin Herbert, but it would be a lot of pressure on him next year. Just like you saw Jaylen, there's a lot of pressure on just sustaining it every year. Lamar answered the bell, and he answered the bell fast.

So I, yeah, I think they're just major question marks. And the only way that he can answer him is next year, play well. And next year, earn a contract because this year he did not. Now, you could argue he was banged up, and I don't have like his, you know, only the team truly knows how injured he was. but he was healthy enough to play yesterday and he was I would say relative to the hype was

one of the more disappointing games I've ever seen right a couple turnovers the throws at the end of the game I mean the throw that ended their season was not remotely close it's one thing listen sometimes you make a bad throw Gardner mint you on that play the 31 that lost him in the game

not a great throw still hit him in the hands still gave his guy a chance I mean we can say it's got to be better And it does. You got to hit the guy in stride, but he still could have dropped it. Trevor didn't even give his guy a chance. So maybe he lost his confidence. That's another thing.

I've lost my confidence before. It's happened in multiple industries. It happened when I was in the NFL. And Chip Kelly came in and things started getting weird. It happened when I was in the radio business. When we got new management and I could tell, like, I'm probably on the outside. You just lose your sense of keeping pedal to the metal and full belief in yourself. Right?

And I don't care what you do. When you lose confidence, you know, I think it's easier to maintain confidence the older you get back to what I said with experience you can lean on that but when you're younger even you know for most human beings being young is like in your 30s or early 40s but in this profession like early early mid 20s you start losing your confidence athletes talk about it all the time you can become a scrub fast even if you have the physical capabilities and that's kind of what he looked like like a very very average player which is extremely disappointing for a guy that was a no brainer number one overall pick and after last year looked like a guy ascending and this year he went the other way.

Question for the bag. Obviously lots of people are blaming the wide receivers on the chiefs for their offensive woes this season. But since promoting Matt Nagy to offensive coordinator, the offense looks like it has regressed and the play calling has been stale. Outside of drafting some wide receiver high in the draft, could you see Andy Reed firing Matt Nagy? and reuniting Mahomes with Cliff Kingsbury to bring some new juice. No chance. Absolutely none. One, their wide receivers are really bad.

Like, they lead the NFL and drops. And last time I checked, I think it was by a pretty wide margin. Like, listen, Andy Reid is running the offense. He has since he got in Kansas City. They just, they're having a rough stretch. They won 11 games. And this is what I talk about with expectations. Do you know how many teams in the NFL their owner would give like their pinky toe to have the season that Andy just had?

Wait, you're the three seed. You're hosting a playoff game. You're a huge favorite in the first round. You're likely to play in the second round. You won the division for the 20th straight time. It's like they're a product of their expectation. The reason we're hard on Trevor Lawrence and, you know, I'm easier on Brock Purdy. One guy was the last pick of the draft.

The other guy was a generational prospect. Like the chiefs aren't compared to, everyone's given the Packers a lot of praise. Rightfully so, or the Houston, Texas. They had no expectations. The Rams. I thought the Rams were going to fucking suck. I thought they were going to draft in the top 10.

Now they're in the playoffs, they might win a playoff game. Everyone expects Mahomes, Andy, Super Bowl. Sometimes you happen up and down here. Happen to the Patriots multiple times during their 20-year run. They'll be fine. They'll reload.

Andy's the mastermind there. I promise you. They'll be okay. I'm a Vares fan, and I agree. It's time to take Caleb. But not enough people are talking about how bad of a planner and play caller Luke gets he is.

Do you know what I love about football? And this is what the other sports don't have. It's like no one believes in baseball, the hitting coach makes that big a difference. Like, dude, stop swinging at the outside slider. Like, it's on the player. In basketball, no one knows 99% of the assistant coaches. We just, they just don't, are viewed as very relevant.

In football, every fan of their team in Division I football, definitely the SEC and the Big Ten, and obviously the NFL knows their coordinators. And I would say the majority of their coordinators are not highly thought of, especially when the team struggles a little bit. Fire the coordinator! Can't take the throne without going through Green Bay. They saw them every time and he's from there. Can't put this ugly loss on fields.

He's equally culpable. I think they keep the head coach, but the only way Chicago finally solves its century-long quarterback problem is to hire an offensive savant at offensive coordinator, like Bianami, Reich, or Kellyn Moore. Somehow Caleb would actually respect what say you.

Well, Frank Reich, his offense, has been absolutely hideous the last several years. Kellyn Moore got away from the Cowboys umbrella and did not have a good year and Eric B. Enemy, I saw, they scored more points last year with North Turner's kid, Scott Turner, than they did with Eric Biener.

And at one point in time, the Washington commanders, Redskins football team were on pace to break David Carr's single sack record. Now, you could argue all these guys, your personnel, who's injured, who's not, I think sometimes I'd be very hesitant about all these guys Now, if you're them and you do fire gets in,

here's what I would say. You are playing with a quarterback who can't play within the pocket. He can't. When he freaks out, he doesn't slide, he runs. If you watch Jordan Love, if you watch most good quarterbacks,

they scramble. There's nothing wrong with scrambling to throw. Fields had a couple great outside the pocket throws. He could make as incredible of a highlight. play as anyone in the league. But when there's a little pressure from the left, from the right up the middle,

instead of just sliding, and we talk about this all the time, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, became the greatest quarterbacks of all time by doing that. They couldn't move a lick. He takes off, and he runs into half his sacks. He's an awful quarterback within the pocket.

It's one thing, to me, Lamar, like, you talk, well, stats aren't as good as 2019. He is dramatically better as a player in 2020. he's much more calm, he's less likely to freak out under pressure, he slides before he runs. Fields is either, it's there, if it's not there, he looks to run, and half those he runs into pressure. So we can crush Getsy, but like I don't think he was dealing with a very good pocket

quarterback. And when you don't have a good pocket quarterback, it's hard to play. And then if all you do is run him, everyone's like, well, all you're doing is running them, let him throw. Well, the reason, remember last year when all they did was run him was because he can't really throw from within the pocket. It's why I love the Packers this week. Everyone was like, oh, Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, Chicago.

No, man. Jordan Love is a way better player than Justin Fields. I'm not saying he's faster. I'm not saying he has a bigger arm. He's a better quarterback. And that was on full display. It was on full display on Sunday afternoon in Lambeau Field. And if Luke Getsy had Jordan Love, I think they would look better.

Now, I don't know Lou Geatsy. I'm not trying to defend the guy, but I think this is a scenario where quarterbacks like that can make your coordinator look bad. Never forget Russell Wilson, every offense of coordinator he's ever had besides Sean Payton has been fired. He's not an easy guy to coach. And Russell Wilson is obviously dramatically better than Justin Fields. But when you're not great in the pocket, it's hard to scheme for you.

Because if I just call normal pass plays that all the good teams run, my guy can't execute it half the time. So then he starts scrambling and he runs into sacks half the time of those plays. I just think it's a little more complicated than you think. Okay, hey John, long-time listener, born and raised in Jupiter, Florida. Always wanted to go there. Home of obviously a lot of golfers and just seems like a great place. Lifelong Eagles fan.

Never been the biggest believer in Hertz. My question is betting on the guy, as you say, is the answer to giving away big contracts. On town alone, I think scouts could find similar quarterbacks to do what Hertz does, but what separates him is his leadership. But when the team is in a rut, I see him pouting. He does not see the field well and has horrible pocket awareness. How difficult is it to move past a contract like this? And do you think the Eagles and other teams should keep the core of skill O-line D-line

and keep trying out quarterbacks without the big contracts? To second this, Hertz does have enough talent to elevate the team, example was the day versus the Giants, doesn't have enough talent, should be able as a franchise quarterback to put him on their back. He is untalented and has a bad attitude. Yeah, I don't think he's untalented. I think this year he's developed a lot of bad habits. And this is what I get back to the Eagles problem right now,

is their coaching structure, right? They lost their offensive coordinators proven to be really good with the Indianapolis Colts. And they're dependent on Nick Siriani, who is like turned in somehow to John Harbaugh. Like, you just lead? Like, are we scheming? like what are you bringing to the table?

Because Bosa said this a month ago when the Niners beat the shit out of him. He said going into the game, we knew that we'd get after Hertz because his eyes go down. He looks at the ground when pass rush comes. And he gets flustered easily. We talk about this all the time.

Eyes with quarterbacks. Keep your eyes up. Because it's very hard to play. That's why you get $45 million. You have to feel pressure, slide, eyes up down the field. So you can see all your different targets, go through your reeds as pressure is coming.

shit happens fast. And to me, you watch a guy that does not look remotely the same. And to me, he proved enough last year when he had a good coach, a good offensive coordinator, to be a really good player. The Eagles were in a tough spot. He was going in to his final season. They extended him betting on the come. And I would say it backfired a little bit.

But I think it's an easy fix because they'll add a new offensive coordinator. The one thing the Eagles will do is they're very aggressive with coaches. They wanted, what's his name, Vic Fangio last year. They just got screwed up by the timing of it all. He would have been their defensive coordinator. And they had a backup plan this year if Decide didn't work in Patricia. Now, it hasn't worked. But they're always thinking like that.

I'll promise you. Brian Johnson is done. He is not going to be the play caller next year. Zero chance. And they're either going to put it on Siriani. Like, hey, can you coach this position? Can you run this operation? Can you coach our most prized asset?

Definitely our most expensive asset. Because if you can't, like, we're going to have to go in a different direction. That's what I would say. So I wouldn't sell Jalen Hertz stock fully now. I do think you just kind of hold. I wouldn't keep investing in it. But I think next year is a huge year. Get a new offensive coordinator.

Get a new guy to coach him on a daily base. Because right now it's not working out. He's getting worse. His fundamentals are awful. Eyesights awful. He's never going to be Peyton Manning, Tom Brady in the pocket. But he was much more comfortable last year. Right?

And part of it is a huge part of his game was running. And when you watch them and they're playing decent, they're mixing in runs with him. That's where Lamar took his game to another level. Like he doesn't have to run. Lamar could just be a passing quarterback. And part of being a passing quarterback when you're a fantastic athlete like that is moving around behind the line of scrimmage and still making passes.

To me, when Jalen's playing his best, you know, a decent percentage are from within the pocket. And a lot are on the move. Right? And then you mix in a couple runs here and there. but when I can just force him to be a pocket passer, I'm going to win. I'm going to win. I'm a Vikings fan, so I have no dog in the fight. But how could DeMico Ryan's not be the coach of the year over Sifansky

given how bad the Texans were for the last couple years? Kudos to keeping the Browns afloat with a backup quarterback. The Texans sucked for years before D'Amico. Yeah, I mean, D'emico did an incredible job. No way around it. and the best thing that ever happened to the Texans, you could argue in the history of the franchise, was this off-season.

They got a coach quarterback combination. Like it turned out Watson and O'Brien were never going to work long-term. O'Brien's crazy. Watson's got issues. And it was, while it looked fruitful early, it was destined to fail. This thing looks destined to sustain. One, because both guys,

super high-level good people. I mean, D'Amico, elite character. When you just look at the history of the league, like all the highest character guys in the NFL, D'emiko's at the top. Like, he's a Walter Payton Man of the Year type guy. And C.J. Stroud, just from watching how impressive he is, his rookie year, seems like a complete stud as a guy. So I think the Texans, whether he wins it this year or not, like, who cares?

I think sometimes awards, especially coach of the year, MVP, it's much harder to win. Coach of the years a little random, right? I mean, Stefansky easily could because he won all these games with Joe Flacco. Dan Campbell would be my vote. I mean, it's only the second time in the franchise history. They've won 12 games.

The franchise has been around since like 1934. The franchise has been around. The Detroit Lions have been around since 1934. They've won 12 games two times. Basically a 90-year franchise. I mean, the Niners have won 12 games in the last decade, like five different times. So what Dan Campbell did with Detroit,

I think's impressive. Now, if you wanted to vote for Stofansky, you wanted to vote for Domeko Ryans, I'm not arguing with you at all. Lifelong Giants fan, can you detail your opinion on Brian Dable? It felt like the prevailing view after last season was that he overachieved getting Daniel Jones

into the playoffs and that the Bills and Josh Allen seemed to take a step back with his absence. This year was obviously a tire-fire and it seems that the narrative has shifted. What's the view on him? High-level offensive coach or just walk-around guy? Who's losing sway in the locker room and his coaching staff? Yeah, obviously I'm recording this.

Wink Martindale just quit. I was very impressed with him last year because I thought his roster sucked. I didn't think his roster was any good. I thought it was a four-five win team like they were this year. I do not think the Giants have a very good roster. But I didn't know anything about it. And then this year I started hearing them.

I'm not a reporter. I don't even consider myself a media guy. I'm here to entertain, make money. And sometimes the order of that changes. That's all that matters for me. There's no, I don't have agendas. I don't give a shit. I've never met Brian Dayball.

I don't know them personally. None of this stuff really is personal to me when I'm talking about coaches. And the things I know, I just know a lot of people in the NFL, on a lot of different teams that hear a lot of different things. And I know when stuff's pretty credible. And I talked about this earlier in the season that Wink Martindale hated the guy, couldn't stand the guy. And the reason was,

is because Brian Dable like screams at you. Like Belichick does. I don't even know if Belichick does it to the extent this guy does. The difference is Belichick knows everything that's going on. Knows every play call, every scheme, every piece of information. Brian Dable doesn't call the offense. He's just a walk-around guy.

And from what I was told is like, he tries to be buddy-buddy with the players. He's a complete asshole to the coaches so the players don't turn on. them, but all the coaches did. And Wink Martindale, who has been saying for a month now, like, everything's fine, everything's fine, it was lying through his teeth. Couldn't quit fast enough.

Everyone in the league knew that this thing was over. To me, the question is, like, does John Marr have a problem on his hands? And only time will tell. I think the Giants kind of do. One, just the roster, the quarterback situation, and this coach. Like, Wink Martindale's really good. You watch the Giants for the last couple years, their defense has not been their problem. Their offense has.

Well, isn't Brian Dable an offensive coach? It's like, oh, they really took a step back in Buffalo. Did they? I watched Josh Allen today, or last night, fucking win the division, four straight time. Heading into the playoffs is the number two seat. Sure seemed like when they got Ken Dorsey out of there and when Joe Brady, everything turned around.

Yeah, throw some picks. It's kind of how he plays. Big fans started listening last year. My question is, do you believe there's any chance Mahomes and the Chiefs offense get it together for the playoffs? Or do you think they are going one and done? I don't think they're going one and done because of the matchup.

And I think round two has a chance to be pretty cool. You know, the bills, assuming they can take business against Steelers, I expect the Chiefs to take care of business against the Dolphins. We get a matchup that is just Elite TV. I mean, that's got Saturday night written all over. That is a primetime NFL playoff game. Chiefs at the Bills with the Bills a chance to, I would say, get the monkey off their back of what happened a couple years ago

with 13 seconds because that's something that's kind of lingered over them. And if the bills house the Steelers, which I expect them to do, even though they're kind of banged up, then they beat the Chiefs, like we're going to be talking about can the bills upset the Ravens assuming that they beat whoever they have to play? So I think the Chiefs win a playoff game because of the matchup. And then listen, they're going to be a tough out. Champions are tough outs. You usually have to kill a champion to get them to tap out.

Average teams, teams that don't know what they're doing. If you're not good enough, you're having an off year, you're usually fold. Like, the Chiefs are not going to fold. I don't expect them to. They might lose by 10 points to the bills in the second round because their wide receivers just simply aren't good enough. Here's what I'll promise you this offseason. The Chiefs will sign a legit NFL veteran wide receiver.

They will invest in a tied-in in wide receivers. They will do that. That's coming. Happen to the Patriots. Happened twice of the Patriots. when they shifted to get Welker, Moss, and that crew, and then when that crew ended, and they went with Gronk, Edelman,

and kind of James White and that crew. So, like, this football, it's very fluid. They made some transitional moves, and some of them worked, some of them left some holes that they hoped to fill through the draft. It turns out they kind of couldn't, right? It's sometimes a draft players,

and they're just not the first team to miss on that. For the mailbag, Chargers fan here. Christmas came, early last year. Beside Harbaugh and old-ass bill, how much should we pay if we don't land those guys? Still cheap. I think that the Chargers have to sign a guy who's been a head coach. They can't afford. I've been saying this forever. Are they going to land Harbaugh? No clue. I know a lot of people in the NFL think he's going to end up there. Would they land Bill Belichick? I don't see. If Bill Belichick's available, I don't see him coming out west. Tomlin were to be

relieved of his duties. To me, he would make a lot of sense. Same with Mike Brable. They need a guy that knows what he's doing. They need a guy. They're not looking to win Super Bowl here. They're just looking to like go to the playoffs for back-to-back years. And to me, the only way you feel good about that is hiring a guy with a resume of winning, who has been a head coach. You can't keep hiring these guys who have never been a head coach and then complain when they're not good enough. You know, Dan Quinn, to me, is a little risky because when he didn't have Kyle Shannon and he wasn't very good. Right? Now, to me, Mike Vrable, Arthur Smith, no-brainer.

If I could get Tomlin and pair them up with one of the top offensive coordinators, no-brainer. And again, it doesn't look like Tomlin's going to be available, but you know what I mean? I don't think Belichick's an option, but if I get Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels, I'm doing that yesterday. Do I have faith that the church are going to do any of that? No. Do I expect them to just hire some random coordinator? Probably. I know everyone's like, this is their year.

This is the time they're going to do it. Well, when they finally do it, I'll believe it. Until they do it, I'm not believing it, right? I'm not betting on Rory McElroy to win the Masters. When he finally wins the Masters, I'll be excited. Don't, I'm not putting money on it. Not happening, not doing it. Listen to every episode from Australia.

How quickly do you think the Chiefs can retool and overturn their offensive receiving court? Are the offensive struggles something that can be fixed in the off season? One issue I think with the Chiefs is their offensive line kind of got old and didn't play as well. So you could argue it's more than just their weapons, their offensive line has been a problem. But this gets back to. If I have to retool my offense, is there any better coach in the league to have than Andy Reid?

How many different offenses has he retooled in his life? Think of all the different iterations in Philly, like the Philadelphia Eagles I was a part of, were like the third iteration. Macklin, Shady, Deshawn, Jason Peters, Michael Vick, Brent Selleck. Like he had had several other groups over the 2000s. before I got there in 2010.

Think of the groups that he had in Kansas City. When he got there, he traded for Alex Smith. He had Duane Bo. He had Jamal Charles. And then he shifted. They drafted Travis Kelsey. They drafted Tyree Kill. They signed Jeremy Macklin. So he'll be fine.

They will figure it out. If I was a Chiefs fan, and this is where Belichick had earned this, when they made some changes, feel confident in the long-term belief in your operator. Most teams do not have that. You have that. Yeah, this year you're probably out in the second round. And who knows?

I can't see Miami in zero-degree weather beating them. But playoffs football, things are weird. I just have a hard time seeing Tua play well in that environment. But I guess ultimately, you guys would be fine. Probably just isn't your year. There's nothing wrong with it. Commander's fan. Colleges, JMU.

I think that's James Madison. Who are the best fits for head coach? and general manager. I just think you guys, I talked about this on the podcast. To me, this one's pretty simple. Your owner has proven his last couple of hires in Philadelphia,

he got Doc Rivers, who was one of the higher paid guys and a champion and who had proven they'd go to the playoffs every year. And then when they fired him, they got Nick Nurse, who won of NBA title with the Toronto Raptors and Kauai Lenter.

And who's his GM been the last several years? Darry Listen, I don't always believe philosophically in Darry It's like, hey, you're shooting 27 straight threes And he's like, statistically those odds were on our side

How about you get to the fucking rim At about Miss Number 19 And maybe you beat the Warriors And you go to the title And you win it in Houston But they refused But save what you want Like Darry knows what he's doing

Weird relationship with James Hardin But that's a conversation For another day you'll go big game hunting. You will get guys who are good at their job. I'd feel pretty good about that. You know, I think the guys they have running it, I also talked about them in the podcast, Bob Myers, Rick Spielman,

I would expect you guys to have success with whoever you hire. And I would imagine they're going to be famous guys with long resumes who aren't going to be cheap. I'm a non-geographic Seahawks fan, and I've been wondering about what the team should do. quarterback-wise for the future. I know Gino was a huge revelation, but that's not the long-term answer.

Our team drafts and develops quite well, especially late and in the past, which is why I come to ask what you would do if the hawks trading up to get Michael Pennix Jr. He was a Washington guy, wondering if, because he's older, that the geographic closeness matters, and we have a lot of young studs at wide receiver,

would love to hear your thoughts. Well, I think the GEOC's, geographic closeness when you're an NFL team, you just have the best information for that guy. And sometimes it can cloud your judgment, right? Like the Tomlin and those guys with Kenny Pickett. You could argue they knew him too well. They valued that. Because sometimes when you like a player and he's a super high character guy, you like fall in love with the guy,

and you let the guy kind of overshadow average talent. I saw it with the Niners. When they drafted Solomon Thomas, who's a good NFL player, should never have been drafted number three over. role. But John Lynch was taking this leadership class at Stanford. Solomon Thomas happened to be in it. They became buddies. It just can cloud your judgment sometimes if you're too close. John Schneider has proven to like twitchy guys, to like big time athletic guys. He wanted Josh Allen. Never forget in 2018, he wanted to trade Russell Wilson for the number one pick

and draft Josh Allen. Russell Wilson, like obviously smaller player, but big time athletes. big time arm. Why did he want Drew Locke back in that trade? Because he liked Drew Locke a lot. Well, what do you see when you see Drew Locke? Obviously, he's got some flaws as a player. Huge arm. So to me, Penix is like a better version of Tua.

I like Pennix. I'm recording this before the National Championship game. I got money on Washington. I'm rooting for Washington. But I see him liking more of a Jane Daniels. You know, J.J. McCarthy might have some more physical tools. Like, he likes the tools. I think when it comes to quarterback.

So I would be a little surprised if they went with Pennix over some other guys assuming they trade up. Mailback, do you have any know-how of this going on? And if this is true, what do you believe Jaden Daniels is on the Vikings front of the Vikings' mind? This is a tweet. This is exactly what I heard from multiple people. I don't think people realize how hard the Vikings tried to trade up

for Anthony Richardson last year. the hall they put on the table was massive. They were going to give away the entire farm. All of it. They were going to give up everything. But it takes two to tango. I've never heard that. Wouldn't shock me.

I think Anthony Richardson was a guy that a lot of teams like. And think how perfect of a situation that would have been for the Vikings. You trade a hall for Anthony Richardson and you do the exact same thing that the chiefs did with Patrick Mahomes. Now, obviously, I'm not saying Anthony Richardson would have became Patrick Mahomes. But you redshirt. You get to integrate them and onboard them, as the tech people say, into your operation, practice every day, and just try to develop them as Kirk Cousins plays out his last year. And ironically, this season, once Kirk would have tore his Achilles,

you would have been able to put them in the middle of the season. So it wouldn't shock me at all. The Vikings are definitely a team. We talk a lot about the Seahawks. To me, the Vikings are a prime, prime team the circle of would not shock you on draft day when you do do do do it. And it's like, their trade is in, and it's the Vikings have traded up to pick six or eight or whatever. That's something that feels like it's going to happen a lot. There's been a talk all year about Tomlin and Belichick.

What are your thoughts on Pete Carroll and the Seahawks quarterback situation? They're in the same spot with an older defensive head coach, and they seem to have every option at quarterback. Resign Gino, trade for a young quarterback. Well, Gino's under contract. So Gino, they don't, I mean, he's staying. So you don't have to re-sign him. I think personally, listen, Pete has been incredible the last 20 years. He consistently wins.

I think he's had, what, one losing season with Seattle? I guess two, because when he first got there. But post-Rust Russell Wilson, one losing season, they missed the playoffs a couple times with nine wins. He's 72 years old. And he's got an incredible amount of energy. You could only, any young person aspires to be that energetic and be that passionate about what you're doing when you're his age,

I would have zero critical comments if they fired him. Or if they're like, can we go in a different direction? Like, let's just start over. Because you do have a young nucleus. You kind of have a lot going for you. If you're John, like, kind of let John Schneider pick a coach and go offense. Because think about this.

There's no guarantee Arizona's ever going to be any good. But as long as Sean McVeigh, doesn't want to be a full-time dad and stays coaching. And Kyle Shanhan's in San Francisco, you clearly have, in 2024, the third best coach. And when it comes to a quarterback situation, the third best quarterback situation, obviously the fourth.

I mean, you'd rather have Kyler Murray than Gino Smith. So, yeah, I mean, I personally would fire him. And I'm not saying that like Arthur Smith or Ron Rivera, like, it's just time. I think this is about Belichick. I think this about Tomlin. Sometimes, professionally, a breakup, a fresh start is the healthiest thing that can happen. Now, would people hire Pete Carroll at 72 years old?

I don't know. You could argue Bill's similar age. I think Bill's good at his job. I watch Pete Carroll. They're awful on defense. It's like, Pete, you're a defensive guy. You watch Belichick. They're fucking awesome on defense.

So when all the dust settles, you know, if Bill just has his offense coordinator and Josh, his defense is going to be good. Why is the greatest defensive mastermind we've ever seen? And I just think Mike Tom, I would just rather have Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll. I don't really, I mean, can't justify it with stats they both win. I just, if you gave me the choice, you get Mike Tomlin for the next five years of Pete Carroll, I'm taking Mike Tomlin. Lots of support from Manchester, England.

I'm a Packer fan. I really liked what I've seen from Jordan Love. The latter half of this season, I think we should do all we can to add the supporting cast this offseason and in free agency. However, given the Packers can be a little conservative, at times, I doubt they will. What do you think the Packers should do to help their young quarterback, aside from firing Joe Barry? Well, offensively, you guys are awesome.

You have a boatload of offensive weapons, multiple young wide receivers. You've got to find a way this offseason to me to figure out this hamstring issue with Watson. Like, that's a big deal. Debo Samuel used to get him early on in his career, and I don't know what they did training-wise, they figured something out and he doesn't get hamstring injuries anymore.

You can't have him being hurt because when he's on the field with everyone else, holy shit. We know you guys do a good job with offensive linemen. Defense, defense, defense, defense. When you guys were great with Holmgren and Farve, you had an unreal defense. The year you won the Super Bowl, your defense played well. Most of the years you got balanced with the MVP versions of Aaron Rogers, your defense lets you down. So I would just defense, defense, defense, defense. but they always invest in defense in the draft.

I've heard you mention that you live in Arizona because of the great financial and tax benefits it provides. So my question to you is this. Do you think that the Chargers, Rams, Lakers, struggle to hire good coaches or players because of the high cost of living? In your career, have you known people within the sports industry

who got to work for one of the L.A. teams because of the high cost of living, associated with the city. Also, if you could pick any city you wanted to coach or work in front office, which would it be? You know, there was an article that came out that Buster Posey said San Francisco, it was very, very difficult for them to land-free agents because it had a very toxic vibe. All those players have played there, they don't like it.

L.A. to me, is just in a different, like, it's his own little world when it comes to California because of the beach and you can live in Newport. Right? Like, Shoea O'Tonni lives in Newport. Kobe Bryant lived in Newport. So to me, L.A., with the taxes, it really is nice. I grew up hating it because I hated its teams. But once you get to a point where you're making as much money as Phil Jackson,

LeBron James, Showy O'Tonnie, Matt Stafford, I think people enjoy it because the areas you can live in are so nice. And unlike San Francisco, it's not like, people don't live downtown L.A. These athletes or these coaches, they live in the sweet suburbs. You know, sometimes San Francisco, like the Giants and the Warriors playing downtown San Francisco. and right now it's not great. It has a lot of issues. And there's no amount of money you could pay me to live there right now. Part of why I left is one, I just needed a change.

Two, the tax benefits and what I do. But it was like I wanted to live here. You know, this is where I wanted to be. And for business reasons, for big picture reasons, just building my operation moving forward. So it was much more lucrative for me to come here. But I'm also like, it's not like I'm making. making like a player $200 million.

Right. And I think sometimes in sports, it's easy for us to talk about it. You know, in the NBA, you can be offered the most money. Same thing with coaching. I don't think it has any impact on the Southern California teams. I think it directly impacts. The Niners run face. The Niners also don't play in San Francisco.

All those guys live in like Palo Alto, like where Stanford is. It's 45 minutes away from the city. So like their experience, I'm not a big San Jose guy. but their experience is dramatically different than the two teams in the city. So I would say on the LA thing, no, though I did know someone who works with a guy that used to work for the Rams

in a major college program and he told me that this guy, I think he was making, I'm not making up the number, but I forget the exact number, let's just say $350 for the ramps. And when he moved to this college program in the South is making less, let's say $2.50.

yet he has more money in his bank every day and the cost of living, bigger home and everything for way cheaper. So yeah, it factors it for some people. Like Sean McVeigh, I mean, he's making $18 million. Is he losing more in taxes, making $18 million there than he would if he was making $18 million for Vegas?

Yeah. Sean McVeigh lives in a fucking, probably a mansion somewhere in the hills. So I think L.A. is kind of uniquely equipped that way. The older you get, the more money you have, LA is just dramatically better than Northern California. And I'm born and raised Northern California. But it's not even close.

It just isn't. I had a question for you. You read a quote today from the Marine about expectations and preparation. Do you mind sharing that? Didn't have a chance to write it down having a hell of a time finding it again. It was in a mailbag last week.

I forget. I don't want to butcher it. It was something about preparation and expectations. Expectations, I'll butcher it. So I didn't write it down either. It's hard for me to write it down, made podcast, but I think it would have been Wednesday's mailbag.

It would have been Wednesday's mailbag or Thursday's mailbag. It would have been one of those mailbags. So I will, I'll look to find it because it was a really good one. Big fan of the show. Most recent mailbag you brought up Ryan Day, and I couldn't agree more with what you said. As an Ohio State guy and living in Columbus,

I'm surrounded by people that believe he is the best coach Ohio State can get. And moving on from his, him would mean a downgrade. I disagree with that. As Ohio State has to be a top 10 job nationally. Top 10 job. You guys are like a top three job.

You could argue if you're not a southern guy, it's the best job. So yeah, I'm with you. Both NFL and college. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. If you were the AD, who would you hire? Well, I don't think Vrabel would want it because I have a hard time seeing Vrable NIO and stuff, but I would hire Vrable in a heartbeat over Ryan Day. I mean, listen, to me, Ryan Day, it's clearly on the hot seat going into this season, and if he loses to Michigan again, he's done.

I just think it's over. You can't lose to Michigan four times in a row. You just simply can't. Ryan Day is praying, and I don't blame him, that Jim Harbaugh leaves, and then whether they keep Sharon Moore, whether they hired Du Boer, and then hopefully he can beat that guy. Obviously, he couldn't beat Sharon Moore this year. But, yeah. As a Bears fan, that is sadly accepting the fact that Iberfus is likely to return, who are some of the potential offensive coordinators that would be a fit in Chicago?

I think the guy mentioned it earlier. I mean, Kellan Moore proved that he had a success with Dak. BNME was pretty bad this year when he got to run a show. Like, it was really bad. It's not, I got no issue with the guy. I always heard from people in Kansas City. I thought he was a good coach. He got his opportunity to run his offense and it was pretty ugly.

Frank Reich, guys like that, like that, no. I would do what everyone's been doing. I would go to the McVeigh-Shannaandtree, Kevin O'Connell, and try to find a guy like that and run that offense. That offense works, and it's very quarterback-friendly. Now, you could say, you know, your guy, Goetzy, Goetzy is the GM of the Packers,

ran that. I don't really think they did because of Justin Fields, but if I drafted Caleb Williams, that's what I would do. I would run some mix and match what Sean McVey does a little more pass-happy with the run elements of Kyle Shanahan. Go to those two staffs, hire one of their offensive guys. Brian Greasy, who's now been the quarterback coach with Purdy and Kyle for the last two years,

making the offensive coordinator. How much noise do you think Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA will make in the Big Ten next year for years to come? Could any of them overtake Michigan or Ohio State as the face of the conference? I think it'd be pretty difficult. One, Ohio State just is so relentless with their money that they will, in this day and age, will refuse to suck.

So to me, Ohio State, like, we're going to see if Michigan is just going to sustain this dominance of Jim Leaves. Because I saw them without Jim Harbaugh. They were fucking bad. They were really bad. So I don't think they're a lot. Ohio State is always good. Ohio State's been good in my entire life.

And they just spend so much money. I do think now that Michigan has got the taste of what Harbaas brought them, they will open up the checks book no matter what to keep winning. So I would say for the foreseeable future, those would be the programs. Oregon is willing to spend what it takes because of Phil Knight, because of the money they have, what they invest in recruiting. To me, Washington might be a little flash in the pan in terms of being a 13-14 win team because of the perfect storm with Pennix.

But Kalin-Dubor is good. So to me, Oregon and Washington are going to come in and clearly going to be, you know, are going to be eight, nine win teams. Washington, for sure, Oregon might have a higher ceiling than that if they get a good quarterback play because the talent they're going to have on their roster. Washington, I could see taking a little bit of a step back next year, but the conference sucks. James Franklin has no offense, right?

Nebraska is going to be all in on an 18-year-old quarterback. Wisconsin fell off a cliff. Minnesota Think about some of the teams we're talking Michigan states and shambles though Jonathan Smith's a good coach UCLA is zero threat Chip Kelly barely winning six seven games in the Pac-12

Over the last several years Obviously this year, you know had The Pac-12 was good And USC, they got a lot of questions to answer I know Lincoln can scheme offense But that program was a little disarray They went seven and five this year with Caleb Williams Seven and five

I like Lincoln and I'm rooting for him because I like the USC brand and what they mean in college football, but he inherited a monster in Oklahoma. He inherited a dumpster fire at USC and by year two they were trending in the wrong direction. So I would have more faith in Oregon and Washington assuming DeBoer stays and doesn't go to Michigan.

If Harbaal leaves, then USC is a major question mark to me and UCLA to me it's just going to be a random Big Ten team. They're going to be like Minnesota. I think a great idea for your podcast would be to start interviewing players, coaches, GMs. We're going to definitely mix it interviews this offseason or once the season ends for sure.

I get some ideas for sure. And even more than just coaches and GMs, just a bunch of interesting people. First off, putting out the best football content, I like this guy. So I'm a New Yorker living in Chicago. Downtown for New York fans has made me emphasize with Bears fans.

That's a tough life. Got me thinking I figured out how to fix the bears this offseason. Maybe I just played too much bad in franchise mode as a kid. Here's the plan. Trade off the first pick, get the hole. Maneuver and be able to draft, Pennix, and Adunzei. Fill in the gaps with O-line and find another impact defensive player in the draft as well.

Your offense will have cohesion, two stud-wide receivers, a real grown-up at quarterback, and draft capital for the future. Am I crazy or does this work? Also, you think this is the argument for the Giants to stay with Dayball? Yeah, I think you've got to balance. The hard part is, is what happened in college doesn't happen in the pros. It's why we see time and time again guys be unreal players in Power 5 conferences, the Big Ten, the SEC, and struggle in the pros.

There is no guarantee. I love Pennix and O'Donze. There's no guarantee either one is going to be some dominant NFL player. You would say, O'Donzee, you feel more. confident as because usually good, really good wide receivers that have translatable skills are good NFL players, assuming they get a decent quarterback. Quarterbacks is such a, you know, flip of a coin. The problem with your idea is a lot of these trades now happen well before the draft, right?

Teams like to pull the trigger end of March early April. Well, if you trade it back from, even if you trade fields, right, using your example, and go from like one to four or five, what if Pennix go? And then all of a sudden, Penix isn't there. So if you want one of the other quarterbacks, I don't think you would do that till draft day. If they trade before, maybe they would roll with fields, but I would doubt they do. Okay, last question.

I'm a charger fan. But you're an intelligent man, I want your take on this. What steps do you think are the most important for a franchise to take in a situation like the chargers are in? What positions are the most important to get right? keep or do everything else or do something else with. I believe in Herbert as an all-time dude, and we cannot waste his potential. Well, first and foremost, this for all this.

Like, until we talk about the draft order, well, who's, is Iberful who's back for sure? Who's Washington's coach? What does the Patriots do? What are the Titans doing? So before, like, we talk about the draft order, well, who's coaching the team? If you tell me Jim Harbaugh is the coach of the Washington commanders, maybe they take J.J. McCarthy number two. Maybe Michael Peddick's recording this before it throws three or four touchdowns on him he takes him.

So Jim Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh had the Chicago Bears jump. I don't think he'd be 100% locked to take Caleb Williams. So who's your coach? Who is your coach? Once you get the coach, then I go, okay, I know what type players they'll want. The number one thing Harbaugh would do immediately would be to build a line of scrimmage, offensive and defensive lines, and get a better running back. Right?

You need, he'd want a power running game. He had success in San Francisco. he had Frank Gore. His success these last several years Blake Corum has been a stud It's kind of his version

of Frank Gore. He's going to want a running back who can do it all because that is where it's why Kyle Shanahan's favorite player is Christian McAfrey. Why? Because the whole offense is built around him

because he can do it all. Catch the ball, run the ball between the tackles, outside the tackles, inside zone, outside zone, pitches, sweeps, fucking do it all. It's what Harbaugh likes.

And that makes it easier on the quarterback. You could argue draft the tights, end. Hardball loves tight ends. Blake Bowers. Take him early in the draft. Put him with Herbert. He's his Travis Kelsey. He's his George Kittle. He's his Robert Mkowski.

Quarterback's best friend. Good blockers. I'm going to tight end. Why? Because most tight ends are within 15, 20 yards of the line of scrimmage. Max. Easier to get the ball to. You know, Keenan Allen, I saw said today he wants to return. Well, Keenan's been, I like Keenan Allen. I've been banged up a lot. Will you take a pay cut? they're spending a lot of money on Mike Williams towards ACL. I would imagine Khalil Max not on the team.

They're going to need Joey Bosa to play. You need to get 17 games out of you. Defense needs a lot of work. Personnel-wise, scheme-wise. Good thing with Harbaugh, you know when he comes. They'll have a real defensive coordinator. He'll be good. But when it comes to personnel,

to me, the charges got to figure out the weapons, and they've got to figure out the defense. And to me, they need a good tight end to go with Herbert and a real running back. Echler's a solid player. To me, he's like a gadget guy. A really good gadget guy. I think sometimes it has like a negative connotation.

I need a guy that I can just ride like a horse. That's how Harbaugh plays. It just helps kind of when things are a little off kilter in a given game, kind of mellow everything out. It settles the game down. So obviously, you know, you get that guy in like third or fourth round, but I think they need a big physical back as a presence in that offensive lineup. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get. your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the Look Back at it podcast For 1979 that was a big moment for me 84 was big to me I'm Sam J

and I'm Alex English Each episode we pick a year unpack what went down And try to make sense of how we survived it With our friends, fellow comedians And favorite authors Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s 84 was a wild year

I don't think there's a more important year I don't think there's a more important year for black people Listen to Look Back at it On the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.