The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Bucs destroy the Eagles, What's next in Philly, Belichick future
Episode Date: January 16, 2024John reacts to the Bucs taking down the Eagles 32-9, what was the biggest issue with Philadelphia, what does Nick Sirianni actually do, and should Jeffrey Lurie look for a new head coach. John also di...ves into how much Baker Mayfield has grown over the years, should the Bucs bring Baker back, and what does Bill Belichick's future look like. Later, John answers your questions during this episode's mailbag segment. 8:30 - What does Nick Sirianni do 13:20 - Sirianni's future 21:15 - Do the Eagles like each other 22:37 - Baker has matured 30:39 - What a great night for TB 31:41 - Belichick's future 43:24 - Mailbag 43:55 - Should the Bears trade Fields 55:34 - Should the Cowboys trade Dak 58:34 - Does the Packers win look worse for McCarthy or Rogers 1:00:00 - Belichick to the Cowboys 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 #Herd See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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What is going on, everybody?
How are we doing?
About 10 o'clock at night,
and I just witnessed the Eagles,
like many of you,
who are probably listening to this in the morning,
get absolutely destroyed by Tampa Bay.
Nick Siriani now officially,
I would say, is joined Mike McCarthy of not if,
but when do they get fired?
Jalen Hertz,
just what a weird season.
I know it was.
was banged up, but he is, he did not look like his
2002 self that was going to win the MVP
before he got banged up at the end of that season.
And Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield.
I mean, Baker Mayfield, what a comeback moment season
for the former number one overall pick.
And what an awesome night for Todd Bowles,
who just might have ended Nick Sirian, his coaching career.
And then Bill Belichick,
who is interviewing or interviewed today with the
Atlanta Falcons.
I think we'll dive into the Eagles and Cowboys.
Don't let the internet fool you yet.
These people are going to be all over them.
And I think Belichick is immediately the number one coaching target for these franchises
if they get rid of their coaches.
So we'll dive in a little bit of that.
Harbaugh looks like he's headed toward the Chargers.
That looks like from everything I've heard and clearly interviewed there.
But, I mean, the buzz around the NFL is Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers feel
like a destined marriage.
But you never know with Jim.
He can be a wild card.
But if he does go to the NFL, I would expect the charges.
So we'll dive into some coaching talk, obviously throughout the week as guys get fired.
And I went on with Colin after the Bill's game, which Bill's Chiefs.
I haven't really got into the upcoming matchups.
We'll do that throughout the week.
Some good games.
I mean, Bill's Chiefs, how awesome is that?
Niners Packers is sweet.
Lions' Bucks is not terrible.
And Ravens Texans is kind of interesting.
but I would say Niners, Packers, and Bill's Chiefs is probably the marquee game of the weekend
just because you got Mahomes and Allen, and those guys have played a lot in the playoffs.
So sign me up for that bad boy.
You guys know the drill.
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So, yeah. Before we talk football, what a weekend. Holy canoli. I got to tell you about very, very close friends of mine.
The official ticketing app of this podcast, I just forwarded today the tickets that I got from my brother on the game time app, the official ticketing app of this podcast.
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Okay, not shell-shocked.
I'm kicking myself.
I hit a nice little golf bet, and I thought about going to the Draft King Sports
book and putting, it was about $1,000 just on Tampa Bay money line.
But I pushed out, partly because I just didn't trust this game.
And you knew right away, I'm like, oh my God.
It was, I think 13 to nothing and then 133, but it never was close.
And to me, the story of this game and the story moving forward is going to the Eagles
and their coaching staff.
Now, listen, their assistants were not good this year.
They did not hire the correct people.
They lost Siriani and they lost Gannon and it was an unraveling,
which is crazy because at one point in time, they were 10 and 1.
But when the season finished and their point differential,
parallel teams like the Saints and Tampa Bay,
you go, well, this isn't actually a good team.
The Buffalo Bills, who were 6 and 6,
and the Philadelphia Eagles who were 10 and 1,
finished with the same record.
And as we see, like, their close game
against the Cowboys at home,
the Cowboys weren't any good either.
So, to me, the coordinators have been
Dead Man Walking for a while.
Brian Johnson was never going to come back
as the offensive coordinator.
They literally fired the defensive coordinator
in the middle of the season for Matt Patricia.
And it got worse.
To me, all eyes now point on Nick Siriani.
And I've asked myself and ask you
and ask everyone over and over and over,
what does he do?
What does he do?
And if you're not going to be a head coach
who is one of the play callers,
motivation, effort,
and just having your squad ready to go
is a huge part of your ability to be a good head coach.
Listen, Mike Tomlin, CEO head coach,
his team kind of in shambles
till the last like five minutes of the game on the road against Buffalo who have a superstar
quarterback, they're right in the game. They're down seven points like five minutes left to go in the
game. Like Mike Tomlin, like his teams fight, right? His teams are prepared in theory. And his resume
speaks for itself. Like to me, Nick Siriani loses Shane Seichen. He's an offensive coach
and his offense unravels. Everyone's going to shit on the defense and it was bad. But their
offense is hideous.
How, and when you're the head coach, even if you're not calling the plays, you know what you can do?
Get on the microphone, get on the headset, and tell the coordinator, keep running the ball.
At one point in time, it was 16 to 9, and the Eagles had the ball.
And every single play, it felt like they were passing.
It's like, guys, AJ's not around.
your passing game is just off in general.
You have a running back who's fresh and is an explosive player
and your quarterback can run.
Like you watched the Bills game earlier in the day.
When all else failed, what happened?
Josh Allen would go, I'm going to go.
And he would take off.
Obviously, he had the big touchdown run,
but he had several other just impact runs.
Even if you don't pick up a first down,
if it's second and 10, maybe you're in third and three.
instead of airmailing some pass over some guy's head, and it's third and ten.
And all night tonight, you know, before the game really got out of hand,
their inability to just, I don't know, lean on the run game, shove them around.
It's like, I don't understand.
And listen, they can blame Brian Johnson, and he's going to get fired, obviously.
But like, isn't that on the head coach?
You're leading the squad.
a huge part of your job is motivation,
but also just the overall tactics of the game.
Like, we probably should run.
That's probably something that could work to our advantage.
The other thing, the game was still in hand,
and your defense wasn't stopping them.
So you could slow down the game a little bit.
But they just refused to not pass the ball.
So schematically, they just have,
as someone texts me today in the league,
tonight in the middle of the game. The Eagles have absolutely no identity. What do they do?
Defensively, they do nothing well. They had moments tonight where the pass rush was making some
plays, which in theory should be a huge part of their whole operation because of what they've
invested in that group. But defensively, they can't tackle a soul in space. None of their DBs can
run or make a play. Offensively, like, what do they do well? They should run the ball well,
but they never stick to it.
With AJ Brown out, their past game is very limited.
And their quarterback, let's face it,
it's always so easy to blame the coordinator.
And oftentimes, like, the coordinator takes and should take a lot of blame.
But sometimes the quarterback has to just make a play.
And that was a guy.
I totally understood why they paid him.
Because not only last season,
but the way he threw it in that Super Bowl,
this guy is a passing quarterback.
But you watch him the night, his eyes are all over the place.
The moment the rush gets even remotely close, his eyes go down, he freaks out, led to the one's
safety.
And he just played like shit.
I don't care what his number said.
He got a lot of hollow yards the last 15 minutes of the game.
He was horrendous.
And let's face it, the coach who, if I'm a betting man, they show Jeffrey Lurie over and
over down the stretch of that game, he looked like he just saw.
a mixture of he can't believe what he's seeing and he's furious.
If we assume Nick Siriani is going to get fired, which I would say, I don't know,
I'd lean 80%.
Like when it comes to Mike McCarthy getting fired, I'm like 100%.
When it comes to Siriani, I guess I could see them completely blowing out the assistant
coaches besides like Stoutland and a couple position coaches.
But obviously the coordinators starting anew on both sides of the ball with the people calling
the place. But you have to imagine the way they just looked their body language. Troy Aikman kept saying
this team looks lifeless. This team like kind of looked like they didn't even want to be there.
Which is crazy. This is a fucking playoff game on Monday night football. I mean, what do you do? Not
even trying? But there's a balance of like, are they not trying? Are they not that into the game?
Are they just not that good? But the quarterback to me is a major, major question mark.
Now, I know he got a lot of money, but in terms of his cap, like the way it impacts their business,
his cap hit the next several years is like $13 million, $14 million.
They spread it out over like 20 years, I mean legitimately.
How he's good doing that.
So it's not necessarily his cap, but they are paying him a lot of money.
Like they are funneling him a lot of real cash.
He's going to make $150 million over like a three-year span.
He's obviously making a ton on a yearly basis.
doesn't impact their ability to build their roster, though they have a very old team,
and they have a lot of big decisions to make moving forward.
But their success moving forward is going to come on him.
And it's, you know, Nick Siriani is probably going to go down as well as the coordinators.
But like, I have question marks with him.
Because listen, I'm guilty.
Sometimes we can overreact to one good year.
Part of being a high-level player, like Josh Allen's been doing this now for four years.
Lamar Jackson won an MVP in 2023.
He also won one in 2019.
Patrick Mahomes has played like an elite player for half a decade.
Being an elite guy means you doing it over and over and over again.
And as a scouting director texts me, like, this is the guy that I saw at Oklahoma.
This is the guy that I didn't have a big grade on?
And you wonder, is he resorting back to some of his tendencies?
There were a lot of question marks with him as a thrower.
Now, the different, we've seen him do it in the NFL.
So I'm not acting like he can't get it back.
but this is, you know, and I understand he's been banged up,
but this was a broken player down the stretch of the season.
It was a guy that just did not look like, you know,
a guy that's competing to be an MVP in the league last year.
And so, listen, you could fire all the coaches, including Siriani,
but the number one question mark's going to be is like,
how do we fix this guy?
And Shane Steichen ain't walking back through that door.
So they're going to have to figure that out.
They have more question mark.
To me, they have even more question marks than the Cowboys.
It's pretty crazy in a 24-hour span.
The two teams that halfway through the season are like the only two teams that can play with the 49ers are gone.
One and done.
See ya.
Adios.
Potentially they might be competing for the same head coach and we'll get into Belichick here in a second.
But that is a collapse.
It's one thing to lose games.
Listen, winning in football in Power 5 in the NFL is difficult.
People lose.
Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, they lost playoff games.
They got bounced in their football.
first playoff game. This isn't like, this isn't the NBA if you give me LeBron or
Steph in their prime. You're just guaranteed to be in like the third round or the finals.
That's not the way it works in football. There's another thing though to lose and the way
that looked. The way it looked two weeks ago against the Giants who I don't know if you saw in the
I think it's the daily news. Pat Leonard wrote a big article on Wink Martindale and Mike
Kafka when it comes to Brian Dayball, not pretty. Are they a sleeper to
fire their head coach.
But that's a conversation for a different day.
That team internally was in shambles,
and they beat the living piss out of the Eagles.
They embarrassed them.
So I don't know what the Eagles do.
Obviously, the scheme, broken.
Players broken.
You saw Kelsey, like, is he going to retire?
Is he not?
Obviously, he looked very emotional on the field.
They have older players on defense that are still, you know,
solid players, but Brandon Graham, Fletcher,
Cox. These guys have been on the team for a long, long time. They've invested heavily in Jalen Carter and
Jordan Davis. They need those guys to be elite players. They just do. And obviously, they're
secondary. I mean, James Bradbury is one of the all-time, and listen, this happens in football.
You re-sign a guy who was in the Pro Bowl last year and it was like a legitimate player,
and then he just stinks for you. Like, he's just god-awful. If he's out on the corner,
every offensive coordinator, every quarterback is going to go at him relentlessly.
And the moment that happens, you have no chance.
And obviously, Slay was dealing with knee injuries.
He got hurt toward the end of the game.
But their secondary was just Swiss cheese.
And it's been like that all season long.
But it really got bad.
They couldn't tackle a soul.
You know, one thing, Stucky, who he hammered this last week on the betting segment,
he's like, I love Otten, the tight end, his over in receiving yards.
They haven't covered a tide end all season.
and Otten had eight catches for 89 yards.
I think his over-under stuck, he said it was like 28 yards or 30 yards.
Honestly, he had a couple drops.
He could have had, I don't know, a buck 40.
They had no chance to cover him.
He might as well have been Jay Novichick or Grinkowski in his prime.
And it's not those guys.
And obviously, Mike Evans, White was running around.
They had no chance to stop anybody.
And offensively, when you can't even score 10 points,
you just end up sucking
and that's what the Eagles are.
The version of the Eagles we saw down the stretch
is like a three or four win team.
It really is.
I mean, that was an awful football team.
Clearly, you could argue,
the worst football team in the playoffs,
that version of them.
Can't score 10 points,
cannot tackle anybody.
You make Baker Mayfield,
who, listen, he's had a solid season
look like the number one overall pick,
the guy that the Cleveland Browns
three years ago,
thought was going to be their franchise quarterback.
I'm not speechless because we saw this coming, but it was still hard.
It's why I couldn't just outright pick the bucks.
It's why I couldn't put my money on it because I was like, ah, this is really going to happen.
I think the Eagles will just figure it out.
It'll be ugly.
No, they just got absolutely destroyed.
And I just, a ton of question marks.
Them and the Cowboys now.
You know, I think sometimes fans, and rightfully so, very passionate.
We spend a lot of time watching these games.
You invest a lot of just energy and effort.
You know, the NFL is built on the back of fans.
So I have no problem with them getting over-emotional at times.
And sometimes, you know, fire everybody is just the easy thing to say.
Sometimes, though, it's true.
And this one to me is like, I understand it.
Mike McCarthy, Nick Siriani, I think both those guys that they're fired in the next 24-48 hours,
it's a justified move.
And at this point, I expect it.
So fly eagles fly from the Super Bowl on the brink of beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl
to now having question marks is their head coach going to get fired.
Is their quarterback salvageable?
What are they going to do with all these old players?
It's what makes the NFL so interesting.
Things can just change at the drop of a hat.
You're like, oh, this team's going to be good for that.
It's like three years.
This is going to be one.
one of the dominant teams in the NFL.
Now you go like, are they even going to make the playoffs next year?
What the hell are they going to do?
You just can't make this stuff up.
Not a soul.
Even if you thought at 10 and 1 they were a little fraudulent in the sense of they were probably
more like a 7 and 3 team, right?
Or an 8 and 3 team, a 7 and 4 team.
They're still a good team.
And the team we saw will look like a last play squad.
And to me, the energy and effort, right?
I think we all just expect everyone tries hard.
It just felt like, what is going on?
Do these guys not like each other?
Do these guys not want to play for their coach?
Something was off.
Think about how many teams, week 18, just tried the Titans.
Clearly, Rable was not long for the organization.
And that team came out like they were playing to get into the playoffs.
They were awful all season long.
And they just gave everything they had.
Arizona Cardinals fighting until the last second of the season.
They're like drafting third overall or fourth overall.
And then you watch the Eagles, like, what is, how is this happening?
But it did happen, and we all witnessed it.
And now what I would expect big time change is coming, because the Eagles, they're the
opposite of the Steelers.
Loyalty is not a big part of their operation.
It's a production-based operation.
And when you don't produce, whether you're a player, whether you're a coach, heads roll.
Cut you, trade you, fire you.
So I think, buckle up everyone in NoviCare because who knows what's coming.
That owner looked like he was ready to hand out some pink slips.
And I can't blame him.
Really can't.
And on the flip side, right before I hopped on, I watched Baker Mayfield talk to Lisa Salters.
And he just seemed so mature.
And I've always said this.
We mature most guys at some of the same.
slower rates than like women, for example. And even most men in general relative to like some
guys are really mature in their early 20s or even late teens. I remember going to high school with a
guy that swam at Stanford and every day he was getting up at like 430 to train. I mean, this dude was
like Michael Phelps meets Tiger Woods. I remember all the teachers like loved him. I was always kind of
impressed in the back but I was like, never want my dad to hear what this guy's doing. He'd fucking
kicked me out of the house. It was always really impressive. But most people are not.
like that. Most guys struggle with maturity through their 20s. And I think Baker is a good example
of someone who just had some maturity issues. And when you watch him talk now, when you watch
him act, he's just grown up a little bit. Right. I mean, and I just think that not everyone's on
the same path. Not everyone is super buttoned up at 23 years old, just because you're a quarterback
or just because you're some finance, bro. And I think he's a good example of
He's got some talent.
He throws a pretty ball.
Now, he's not a great athlete.
He's not super tall.
But you watch him a night, you went, yeah, he's a real NFL quarterback.
That's an NFL starter.
Now, my conversation around him has been the whole time of, if I was Tampa, I'd want him back.
But there's a price point that we got to hit.
I'd give you like a three-year, 60 million, guarantee 30 million of it.
That's something kind of I'd be in the vein of.
Ideally, I'd like to pay him like $15 million.
He'd probably like $30.
maybe we meet at like 22 and we try to find a meeting spot with the guarantees.
But you watch a guy that players like, which is very, very important in the NFL.
We've seen that being the undoing of some former high picks.
They're very, very well liked in the locker room.
He's clearly tough.
He will battle injuries.
And now he's proven to be kind of successful as a bright light sky.
Think of the two places that Baker Mayfield has won playoff games.
the Cleveland Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Do you get extra credit when you win playoff games in historically poor organizations?
It'd be one thing.
It's like, well, he won one game for the 49ers and another one for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
You're like, yeah, no shit.
A lot of people have success there.
This is the Cleveland Browns in Tampa Bay.
He did what Tom Brady couldn't do last year.
I'm watching pretty much same team.
A lot of the same guys.
A lot of Godwin, a lot of Evans, a lot of Vita Vaya.
a lot of Antoine Winfield
I mean, their team, that's the other thing tonight.
You notice against the Eagles.
Tampa for being a team that not many people thought was any good,
and rightfully so.
I mean, they had their ups and downs throughout the season,
have a lot of talent on their roster.
Now, some of it's older,
but they have a lot of high-end players.
A lot of guys that would play for other playoff teams.
And if he plays well, like he did the night,
they're going to be a problem.
Because defensively,
have good players at every level.
They have good D-Bs.
They have two good linebackers, and they have a ton of good guys on the front four.
And obviously, Vita Vevae is, I don't think I've ever seen the tush push stopped.
I sort of got.
Now, I haven't watched every single tush push the last couple years, but every Eagles game
I've watched with the tush push, they have got either the first down or the touchdown
or the two-pointer.
They have never been stuck.
I have never personally live watching Eagles game.
game and seeing that play stopped.
And honestly, most times, like when it's fourth in one or fourth and two, or even they go
for it on the two-point play, it feels like they gain three or four yards.
Like, it's not even remotely close to stop.
Usually, if you say, what happens on the tush push?
I'd say, well, the middle linebacker usually jumps on Jalen's back and he crowdserves
for like three yards because he has no leverage.
They shove the defensive line back and they get whatever they're attempting to gain easily.
yet tonight against Tampa with Vita Vaya
they got fucking stuffed
when that happened
you knew the game was over
and it speaks to like this Bucks team
is not some little random squad
with a bunch of mees
I mean they got a lot of high-end
highly paid older veteran players
who look pretty damn good tonight
and the other thing is
like with Baker Mayfield
there was an energy and an effort to them
that was not
matched by the Eagles.
And to me, Todd Bowles,
who I was around a little bit in Philadelphia,
has always been, and I've always said this about him.
Because I never thought he was a great head coach.
He's an elite defensive coordinator.
As a defensive mind,
he's a former DB understanding coverages,
great blitzer,
great just with the players on defense.
That defense flies around.
And tonight, his team as a whole
just came in with more war-winning this game.
Like one team showed up tonight,
knowing they were going to win, the other team kind of showed up like,
we'll just see what happens.
And one was clearly the bucks that had the belief.
And so to me, Baker Mayfield, incredible turnaround season.
Think about the way his career in Tampa started.
He called them.
Jason Light has said this publicly multiple times.
He reached out to us.
He said, hey, I would love to play for you guys.
I thought it would be a good spot.
This was not some player that people were lined up to get.
and then the night he goes 22 at 36 for 340 yards and three touchdowns.
And he just played very under control.
How many balls were even close to being intercepted?
A ton of balls.
He had multiple balls hit guys in the hands.
Otten had a bad drop.
Mike Evans dropped a ball early in the game down the sideline.
It might have been a touchdown.
I mean, Baker, in terms of accuracy.
So if you're telling me he's matured, the players like him,
and he's just a solid player,
like what if he can be in that, you know, kind of where Kirk Cousins
and DAC have been, you know, somewhere between 10 and 15 for the next several years.
Well, Tampa doesn't need to hit the reset button.
They can kind of do a slow rebuild, keep adding, and keep competing.
So Baker Mayfield actually can keep their organization funneling in the right direction, right?
A little bit like what happened with the Detroit Lions, who ironically they're playing.
Two former number one quarterbacks, the team said, this guy sucked.
Now, the difference was Jared Gough had had a lot of success.
Baker Mayfield had a little
and then got kicked to the curb,
started playing bad,
and then went to Carolina
and last year was really bad.
So I understand a lot of people
being off dissent on Baker Mayfield
because Jared Goff had a big contract
if you wanted to trade for him,
which, you know,
made teams nervous,
which I'd argue he's one of the best deals
in the NFL right now
at $25 million a year.
Baker Mayfield could have been had
for under $5 million.
And people just weren't interested.
And that's one of you look back.
He threw 28 touchdowns this year.
He had three touchdowns a night.
he just looks like a solid NFL player.
He throws a beautiful ball.
He's accurate.
He's got a good arm.
He can move definitely well enough.
I used to be critical of him because I thought he thought he was too good of an athlete, right?
Johnny Mansell, who's a better athlete than Baker, but also had this.
It's like Johnny, this is not college.
You can't run away from these offensive linemen.
You got to play under control, but, you know, pick your spots.
Baker's done a pretty good job of, like, making some plays, picking his spots,
because he can keep plays alive with his legs,
but he can't run away from anyone else.
And the other thing with Baker Mayfield,
is he the greatest slider you've ever seen?
How great are his slides?
He like slides six yards, pops up.
It's like he played for the LA Dodgers organization or something.
Just a natural.
So incredible night,
for shitty as it was for the Eagles and Eagles fans,
which it's probably one of the worst nights you'll ever have,
given the hype coming into the season,
giving how a month ago,
you were like 10 and 1,
What a cool night for Tampa Bay.
Tom quits on you, retires, and rightfully so, understandable.
It was over.
And then to come back, I was wrong.
I mean, I missed on a lot of playoff teams this year.
I thought the Rams were going to suck.
I thought Tampa was going to suck.
I thought the Cowboys were going to compete for a Super Bowl.
So shit, I don't even, don't listen to my predictions when it comes to the beginning of the season.
But watching Tampa, now I'm going to pick Detroit next week.
But I definitely give them a chance.
I mean, if Baker keeps getting healthy, they got offensive weapons,
what does Detroit struggle with?
Covering people in the back end.
What can Tampa do?
Well, they can throw the ball because they got offensive weapons.
So, incredible night for Todd Bowles,
awesome night for Baker Mayfield.
You just can't make up the NFL.
It's why it's the ultimate reality show.
Think about some of the upsets so far.
Right, Houston, upset Cleveland.
Packers destroy the Cowboys.
Tampa beats the Eagles.
I mean, you just, you can't make this shit up.
I do think this leads into Belichick, though,
because it was reported today that he was with Arthur Blank on a yacht interviewing.
I think he's going to have teams lined up for him.
And I knew this was the case.
Whenever I see people in the interweb, like Belichick sucks,
it's like, guys, he's been in nine Super Bowls.
He won six of them.
He's out-coached every good coach in the NFL over the last 20-plus years.
I'd say he kind of knows what he's doing.
And the other thing that's clear is like,
Josh McDaniel is going to come with him.
So the Atlanta Falcons want Bill Belichick, right?
If Siriani and Mike McCarthy are relieved of their duties,
guess what their owners are going to want?
Jeffrey Lurie lost the Super Bowl to Belichick.
He's from Boston.
Jerry Jones has had one coach in the last,
since Jimmy Johnson in Belichick's kind of universe,
and it helped change the franchise
and get them a stadium built in Bill Parcells.
Those two owners are not,
Not some new age, new money just come into the league.
These guys have been around for all of Belichick's run.
They're going to want a piece of that action.
I'll promise you.
Because both teams are in similar situations.
They feel like they're close.
Obviously, Jerry's like over 80.
I don't have much time left.
So Belichick, for every idiot on the interweb that just thought,
who's going to want this old cramaging?
A lot of people.
He is going to get paid a boatload of money.
I think in the history of America,
no 72-year-old W-2 employee that costs 20-plus million dollars a year
will ever be more sought after than Bill Belichick in the next two weeks.
And there's a decent chance in the rest of time.
It'll never happen again.
Seriously.
Are 72-year-old actors making that much money?
When does a guy over 70 as an employee,
it's one thing as a business owner or as an investor or something,
as an employee
ever have the desire
from potential employees
lined up employers
to have his services.
So you watch,
this Belichick thing is really going to heat up.
And you saw Tomlin tonight walk off,
that thing's going to get weird.
The reason why McCarthy
and definitely Siriani
are more than likely just completely fuck
partly is because of my options
if I own one of those teams.
Vrabel's already there.
Well, Vrebel, I get the package
with Arthur Smith.
I've seen them win playoff games,
and he's just a real coach.
We all would take Vrable over Nick Siriani.
And listen,
what crazy thing about Mike McCarthy
is he's actually a good regular season coach.
He was way in Green Bay,
and he's this way in Dallas,
yet in the playoffs,
it's just like not even close.
So to me, Mike Vrable,
Mike Tomlin, Billa-check,
these guys have a proven track record.
So I can talk shit about like,
hey, listen,
CEO head coach,
coaches are risky. It is true. But if you give me the right offensive coordinator with these guys,
if I'm the owner, I know for a fact if I'm going to make, because it's a risky decision
firing a guy that I have won with and then I'm currently winning with that I'm in the playoffs with.
I'm more than likely not going to fire that guy to go hire Ben Johnson, who's 36, 37,
38 years old, never been a head coach. That's a risky move. But it's not risky when you get guys
with long resumes of being in a Super Bowl, of being in the playoffs, of winning Super Bowls.
So to me, Belichick is clearly the number one option for all the teams that are really close.
And for whatever reason, I don't necessarily agree. Atlanta thinks they're really close.
I watched the press conference when they fired Arthur Smith.
They think they have the pieces to compete in the NFC.
I don't necessarily agree, but they believe that.
The owner and Rich McKay believe that.
Clearly, Jeffrey Lurie and Jerry Jones believe that.
So if you think you are close, well, who can give you the ability to get the closest with the guys you have?
It's going to be Bill Belichick.
I've been coached in the league since 1975.
So, listen, everyone that pushes back on that, you're being naive to this situation.
So I wouldn't be shocked to see somewhat of a bidding war between all these owners.
Like, these are rich owners.
These aren't cash-strapped owners.
These are owners that could cut him a four-year, $95 million check without even blinking.
They can fire all their staffs, and they wouldn't even think twice.
Here's your parachute.
See you.
Here's your money.
Audios.
Get out of – pack your shit.
Get out of my building.
So you get ready because this Belichick's Belichick sweepstakes is going to really, really heat up.
And whoever doesn't get him that wants him is going to be all over the Vrable business.
and if and when Tomlin becomes available,
because I'm sorry, him walking off
any coach that has one year remaining on their contract,
Belichick did, Tomlin does, Mike McCarthy does,
you're at a fork in the road.
Do you know what you do?
You either extend the guy or you fire the guy.
No one coaches in college or the pros
with one year remaining on their contract.
That's not the way the business works,
even though most of us human beings, you know, work or,
At-will employees kind of work a year-to-year situation.
It's very normal in society.
But when it's your head coach, it's an authority situation.
If the players know this guy's dead man walking, right, what are they doing?
And that's why when you watch the Eagles, did their players view Nick Siriani as,
this guy's done anyway.
I'm not playing for this guy.
The McCarthy thing just felt like no one was ready to roll.
Like, did they even practice that week?
Did they even watch Jordan Love and the Packers?
play offense over the last four or five weeks, Dan Quinn, are we breaking down film or we just
kind of kicking it on the couch? What's going on here? I'd expect this thing to get wild because
it's pretty clear Harbaugh and the Chargers feel like it's going to happen. It feels like the
Raiders are going to end up hiring Antonio Pierce, which I'm pro Antonio Pierce, but this is not
the NBA. And when Max Crosby says, if they don't hire the guy I want them to hire, I'm going to
demand to trade. It's like, I like you, Max, and you're a stud, and you can play for my team any
day. But that's not usually how NFL teams operate out of the fear of one of their players
being pissed off that they don't hire the guy they want him to hire. You know, it's, you went
8 and 9. I know you had some nice wins over like the Denver Broncos and the Brandon Staley
gutless chargers, but let's not anoint you as like some can't miss coaching prospect. Again,
I like Antonio Pierce, but it does feel like they're getting pressured into that a little bit.
Also, like, Harbaugh might not want any part of them.
Mark Davis doesn't want to, beside Harbaugh, not comfortable paying any of these people.
But I think it's going to play out pretty quickly, and then it's going to be on to Washington,
what they do, Carolina, I think they're at a huge disadvantage.
Now, money talks, but people are going to want to work for that nut job owner, right?
typically, think about Dan Snyder down the stretch of his career, he got guys without that many
options after Mike Shanahan because it was so clear, like, this guy's a kook, this guy is a
fucking loon, and that's what David Tepper feels like at even a higher level, because he
has even more money.
I mean, he's firing people left and right, so I think some of these jobs are going to be
of great interest.
I think Washington now with Adam Peters is going to have a lot of candidates lined up, number
two pick in the draft and a quarterback draft,
I think Carolina is going to be a big, big disadvantage.
And I think when the Eagles and the Cowboys jobs open,
those are places with huge resources.
Those are places where the owner will do anything you want to win.
I mean, buy any player, make any trade,
they will be relentless.
Listen, you can say what you want about Jerry Jones.
He's built a pretty good football team.
Lurie might pull the trigger after three years when he fires a coach
who's had some success, but it's because he wants to win.
he's not firing the guy because he looks at him weird
or he doesn't think he's a good guy
just because he's like you're not winning
I mean it's just a very black and white business
you're a producer you don't
and when you don't I got to move on
now the Eagles leash historically
can you know post Andy Reid
pretty short but usually it's justified
like when have they been wrong
like Chip Kelly had to go
Doug like I'd say that one's aged pretty well
and this Siriani thing feels a little bit
like that last year of Doug
Like, got to go.
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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.
A win is a win.
A win is a win.
I don't care what you're saying.
Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.
You might have seen the skits, the reactions,
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Well, somewhere along the way,
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Okay, I wanted to do a little Middle Cough mailbag. It's actually half time of the Bill Steelers game.
A little bit of a route. And wanted to fire in a mail bag for Tuesday. You guys know the drill.
At John Middlecoff is my Instagram DM's wide open fire in. Get your questions answer here on the show.
We will start with Josh, two Fs, my last name.
If the bears are keeping Iberflus, isn't that evidence that they're going to keep fields?
If they draft the new quarterback and it doesn't go well in year one, they'd have to fire them.
But it would be hard on a young quarterback to fire the coach after one season.
I'm wondering because you seem certain the bears will trade fields.
I was actually thinking about this, watching Josh Allen sling.
it around. If Sunday wasn't evidence that you have to get a quarterback to throw within the
pocket to compete in your own division, I don't know what else information you need. Obviously,
Jared Goff has been solid now for a couple years in Detroit, and Jordan Love looks like a mixture
of Farve and Rogers. Now, I'm not going to just say he's going to have some Hall of Fame career,
but clearly the body of evidence
over the last, I don't know, month and a half,
you would, if he was a stock,
you would buy a lot of Jordan Love stock.
You really would.
I mean, he kind of can do it all as a thrower.
So, Iberflus is on the hot seat entering next season
whether they have Caleb Williams,
whether they have Justin Fields,
or whether Peyton Manning comes back and starts a quarterback for them.
It does not matter.
Matt Iberfus, to me, if they were to start slow like two and four,
he get fired in the middle of the year.
I actually think it complicates like,
how are they getting the cream of the crop offensive coordinator?
Now, money talks, shit walks,
but I didn't agree with the decision.
There were too many good coaching opportunities to upgrade.
Hell, you could have rated your own division.
You don't think Ben Johnson would have been interested
in drafting the number one overall quarterback
and with a team that has some infrastructure of talent
with DJ Moore, some young offensive.
defensive lineman, some young defensive players.
So I disagree with the decision to bring him back.
And I'm not one to call for a guy's job.
And I don't think he's, you know, I'm not acting like he's some complete failure.
He proved this year as a defensive mind pretty solid.
But there's a quarterback coach league and I don't know.
I don't see it.
To me, Justin Fields is gone.
I would bet thousands of dollars right now that Justin Fields will be traded.
Now, to me it's hard to gauge the market.
If you told me they got a fourth form, if you told me they got a second, I can believe it all.
The desperation, you think he'll get a better pick.
But he's going into year four.
You know, contracts end.
And then you have to decide on what you want to do.
It's why the Miami Dolphins find themselves in a tough situation to us better in fields.
But in terms of like, what do you do with this contract?
So, you know, it was officially,
Caleb Williams declared for the draft on Monday.
he's going to be the number one overall pick,
and he's going to be on the Chicago Bears.
Packers fan here.
Love the content.
Question for the bag.
How do you define NFL executive of the year?
Haven't heard much talk about Goudicans
in consideration, despite several factors that I expect would warn
at least including him in the discussion.
Love is looking like a future franchise quarterback,
but does the fact that he was drafted a few years ago
not really helped the case for this year?
Also, Green Bay didn't really have any big free agent signings,
but they seem to have hit on a lot of draft picks.
Are the youngest team in over 50 years to make the playoffs?
I think sometimes with these awards,
Coach of the Year, Executive of the Year,
who cares?
How many Coach of the Years do Belichick and Andy Reed and Pete Carroll?
Like, not as many as you think.
Like, how many years has Andy Reid been arguably the best coach in the league?
Coach of the Year is basically just,
we think you're going to suck and then you're decent, right?
Executive of the year is, yeah, we just didn't think you were that good
and you made some moves and now you're in the playoffs.
So I wouldn't get caught up on that.
To me, your organization has hung their hat on a couple things.
You've always got good young offensive minds to be your head coach,
Holmgren, McCarthy, now LaFleur.
You've always had Ron Wolf, Ted Thompson, and now Goot,
and you've always had quarterbacks.
So whether you get the credit or not, who cares?
If I was a Packer fan, even if you end up losing by 20 points next week,
which they're a 10-point underdog at San Francisco,
and Shanahan has beat him multiple times with Aaron Rogers.
So it's a tough matchup, though this Green Bay team offensively, to me, feels pretty complete.
Now, they're very dependent, like you said, young players,
but to me, the future is very, very bright.
if you guys can shore up that defense,
the best part about what you guys have going for you,
and this is McVeigh, this is Kyle, this is Andy,
your offensive quote-unquote mastermind
that influences the quarterback is your head coach.
It doesn't get any better.
So yeah, I have to fire Joe Barry.
Now, that quieted a lot as he embarrassed that Prescott
in the first half and the game was over going into the halftime.
but I wouldn't get caught up as much about coach and GM of the year and the consideration.
I'm with you.
He made a decision that was very, very difficult.
He said, Aaron Rogers, I'm going to trade you.
And I think a lot of teams would have just tried to figure out a way, right?
And they went all in on Jordan Love.
And I think this goes back to when they drafted him, it was not easy to do.
most of us called him crazy.
You're right there, you're a player or two away.
What are you doing?
Why didn't you trade up to get Brandon IU?
Well, it turns out three or four years later, it wasn't just the right decision.
It could be a franchise alter.
It could be a league altering decision.
Because if this guy's good and just maintains a level of like fringe top 10 quarterback
play, obviously he's playing better than that right now.
I'm just saying like somewhere between seven to 10, you're going to be in the playoffs all the time.
your team's just going to maintain and sustain winning.
If I'm a Bears fan or Vikings fan, I'm like,
how does this happen?
How can they do this?
Because the one thing you say about the Detroit Lions,
Stafford Forever, now Gough,
they've had pretty good quarterbacks.
They've had solid quarterback play over the last 15 years.
The Bears clearly cannot say the same.
And the Vikings have always kind of been patchwork, right?
Trade for Farv, cousins.
but it never feels like, oh, this is going to be the guy for a decade.
And that's what it feels like they have again in Green Bay,
which is remarkable.
It really is.
Love the Pod, Jets fan, and season ticket holder.
Do you blame our multiple decade struggle
more on the bad roster, management, or bad coaching?
I generally think Douglas has made good picks,
Garrett Wilson, and Hall, and Hall?
but has whiffed on Bechton and Zach Wilson.
Oh, Breeze Hall.
I think running solid back is an okay plan,
but generally curious,
I think any time a team consistently struggles
in football where it's just, you know,
every five years you should have a season
where you win 10, 11 games,
it's usually because poor quarterback play.
You guys have had poor quarterback play in a while.
Non-consistency with your coaching staff,
and you've had a lot of turnover there.
And clearly the front office slash the owner.
And one thing that people in the NFL have always told me is like, it's not easy.
One of the reasons Joe Douglas, remember when they were trying to hire him and everyone knew they were going to hire him, kind of held out and ended up getting a ton of money.
Because people in his corner said, listen, Joe, there's a chance that's your one and only shot.
And this is a place you're going to deal with a guy who is not easy to deal with in Woody Johnson.
So when you do pull the trigger, make sure you get as much money as possible.
because it's difficult.
So I always think it starts at the top.
And listen, Jerry can be tough.
But clearly the Cowboys, Jerry, they know football players.
Like Woody and those guys have no clue about anything when it comes to football,
besides getting mad when you lose.
And they always lose.
Now, it's not his fault.
Zach Wilson sucks.
That's on Joe Douglas.
Put all of his chips in the middle of the table,
number two pick on Zach Wilson.
Listen, Fields got flaws.
Imagine if they had just taken Justin Fields.
They would clearly have been a lot better than what they were.
They wouldn't have landed, you know, Josh Allen or Mahomes or anything.
But to me, they are, instead of winning seven games these last couple of years,
maybe they're winning nine or ten because of how talented the roster is
and just because of his athleticism.
Now, is he the long-term answer?
No, but they picked the wrong guy.
Period, point blank, end of story.
And they didn't just pick the wrong guy.
They were adamant about it, and then they kept him around this season
when they brought Aaron Rogers because they thought they could salvage them.
So instead of cutting bait and acknowledging, like, sometimes,
when you buy a stock and it's down by half,
well, if it's a company that's not going to go away,
like Facebook or if Apple or Netflix, you know,
gets cut in half like it did a couple years ago,
it's like, okay, I'll ride this out.
And there are sometimes when it's just like,
you've got to cut your losses.
Like this is, you can't put the milk back in the carton.
Like, this is over.
Clean it up and move on.
And they easily could have done that.
You know, signed just a solid backup behind Rogers
and had a more credible chance.
to be competitive.
But they didn't because they tried to hold on to a draft pick
that they wanted to believe in.
And it cost them.
It really did.
Love getting the Fresno State shotouts on your show from time to time.
What do you think the ideal offseason looks like for Green Bay after this playoff run?
How do we successfully build off the momentum?
Well, one big picture thing that the Packers have to figure out,
and this was their downfall a lot of the Rogers years.
And ultimately, it was a big reason that honestly you could say the Packers,
underachieved at times this year is defense, defense, defense. They can look like Swiss
cheese on defense. Well, it's like they've invested a ton on that side of the ball. They've drafted
a bunch of linemen and linebackers high. Obviously, Jaira Alexander was a high pick and highly paid.
So to me, the pressure on the coordinator, just because you win a playoff game and you know,
you shut out essentially the bears a couple weeks ago, they had what, 17 to 9 and they didn't
even score 10 points. LaFleur and Joe Barry are close friends.
That's well documented.
Is he good enough?
Right?
Because to me, if you get rid of them,
there are other good coordinators available, right?
Like, could you hire Wink Martindale?
Is he an upgrade over Joe Berry?
Or just look around the NFL, right?
I mean, would it shock me if Brandon Staley's their next defensive coordinator?
As crazy as that sounds?
No, it wouldn't.
I wouldn't do that.
But I do think that the coordinator change is the easiest,
place to just have an upgrade.
Listen, it's going to be hard for Miami to just dramatically upgrade their defensive
personnel.
But they have an elite coach.
So if they can just get solid players and stay healthy, you know, instead of losing a guy,
two players a game, they're going to be okay on defense.
Because Vic Fangio is a $5 million coordinator.
So I would be in the mix for an upgrade there.
That would be my first line of business.
And just because you beat the Bears,
the Cowboys and let's assume you lose, which I'm not just going to assume.
Who knows?
The playoffs, maybe they're just super hot.
Maybe Jordan Love is the next superstar of the league.
But if they lose the 49ers, I don't think that changes the fact that Joe Barry's got to go.
I'm a cowboy fan.
This is from Jackson and was wondering what you think about trading DAC for another quarterback.
Kind of like Stafford Gough trade.
Well, this always gets back to, until I know the coach GM with Washington and New England,
now we know Adam Peters is there, now we know Gerard Mayo is in charge.
You start maybe getting a little clarity of what they're going to do.
Until we know the coaching situation, is Mike McCarthy going to get fired?
And as of recording this, he still has a job.
Now, maybe Jerry didn't want to fire him the day because he just took a deep breath,
wanted to take a step back.
Maybe he's waiting until Tuesday when there are no games on to kind of own the headlines.
I mean, at Jerry's core, he's kind of a marketer.
Right?
And if you fired him the day, not that it would get lost in the shuffle,
I mean, we would all talk about it.
But with the two games going on,
it's not as powerful as firing him on Tuesday or Wednesday,
which I would expect him to do.
Then if he's fired,
and I think it's fair to assume,
you know, Belichick is not just in play.
To me, he'd feel like the frontrunner.
Is Belichick signing Dak Prescott to $45, $50 million a year?
I think the answer is no.
But, like, what are the options?
Like, Jimmy G'dow sucks.
You can't bring him in.
Who is that Jared Gough type player that you could trade for?
I'd have to really think about it, but it doesn't really seem like it exists.
Part of Jared Gough was he was a solid player and then had fallen on hard times and the Rams were over.
And let's face it, and I said this the other night, the Lions deserve credit.
They had two options.
The Niners and the Rams both wanted Stafford.
Here's two ones and our quarterback.
And at the time, you assume both ones are going to be in similar spots, right, in the 20s.
So the offers were very similar.
Well, do you want the $25 million Jimmy Gras?
Garoppel or the $25 million Jared Gough.
And because Brad Holmes, who I actually, I forgot his name last night and then that viral
video of him screaming in the elevator, it's like, oh yeah, Brad Holmes, kind of had a brain fart,
chose the right guy because Jared Gough's a better player than Jimmy Giroplo, especially today,
obviously.
So I just don't know if like, who's Jared Gough?
Who's Jared Gough?
I don't know if he exists.
I think that was a pretty unique scenario.
But if I could do that type move, part of the power of Jared Goff, he's made $25 million a year for the last three years and he's scheduled to make $25 million a year this upcoming season. I think his exact number is like 26. How do you beat that?
I mean, he's playing more like a $40 million guy and he's making $15 million less so it allows you to build the team.
Like to me, ideally, can you give him like a three year $100 million extension? Do something like that? Because to me, Dak wants,
$180, $190 million.
And good guy, high character,
solid regular season player,
but there is a James Harden
playoff element to him.
They're just this.
Three straight years, five interceptions
total in the playoff game.
I can't win like that.
Question, this is shocking.
Green Bay Dallas.
I really think sometimes,
I think the Dallas conversation,
you know, can be a little manipulated
because it's the Dallas Cowboys
and they're like the New York Yankees
or the L.A. Lakers.
And then there's what happened on Sunday,
which I've had, what, 24 hours to think about it?
That's one of the craziest playoff games I think I've ever seen.
It was just like, is this really happening?
Kind of like when the Titans ended Brady's career.
That wasn't necessarily a blowout.
I think it might have turned at the end because Tom threw a pick six.
But it got to the point where, like, is this really going to happen?
The difference was it was just they were pounding them, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown,
touchdown, touchdown, pick six.
So does it look worse for McCarthy or Aaron Rogers?
You know the crazy thing about Mike is three straight years, 12 wins.
Three straight years of 12 wins.
They've won the division of two of those three years.
And they've hosted a playoff game now in 2021 and 2023 in the first round.
They lost them both.
Two home playoff game losses in the first round.
That's pretty unacceptable.
Because the one thing I'll say for Aaron Rogers is like,
how do you really judge him this year?
he tore his Achilles five plays into the season.
Now, would it have gone well?
I would say probably not as well as I thought, I mean, shit, I picked the Jets to win the
division.
Would the Jets have won the division with a healthy Aaron Rogers?
Probably not, right?
Probably not.
Would they have won 10 games?
You'd think if he'd stayed healthy the whole time, but would he stay healthy?
Their own line was bad.
All their quarterbacks were getting hurt.
He might have inevitably got hurt.
He's been hurt before, broken collarbone, concussion, who knows?
he was a sitting duck and he can't move like he once could.
So McCarthy's season was worse because of the way it ended in the playoff.
It doesn't get any worse than that.
You could argue Aaron Rogers was just like, you know, incomplete.
But I do think he's going to be heavily judged next year, which it's going to be hard.
First off, big fan.
This is Adam.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
Anytime you say, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
I know you're going to come in with a good one.
Just interested if this bit of history exists or not.
Has any team ever attempted to bug the opposing team's coordinator box?
I feel like this is a ridiculous question,
but curious if it has ever happened,
even been a concern of visiting teams.
Well, if you've studied the Patriots,
it's a major concern for the Patriots
for opposing teams during the Belichick-Bradier.
teams always thought the away visiting locker room was bugged.
They were always very uneasy about headsets going off.
Now, obviously, I've never heard of it.
I'm sure if you got some of these guys have been in the league a long time,
you know, an Andy Reid, Vic Fangio,
guys that are like 30, 40 year lifers.
I'm trying to think of, I mean,
there are countless position coaches who have been the league for 25, 30 years.
They'd have stories.
They'd have stories.
It's hard to throw that out, though, if you don't have evidence.
So a lot of it is just paranoia, which is a huge part of football.
Because a huge part of football is paranoia over your information getting stolen,
which has definitely happened over the years.
Bill to the Cowboys realistically, if they fire McCarthy,
I really think if they fire McCarthy, now that it looks like Harbaugh's, you know,
not the LA Chargers head coach feels like an upset.
That feels like everything is trending that way.
I think there are two made options for the Cowboys.
Do they try to get a long-term answer and go Mike Vrable,
bring him Arthur Smith and kind of add an element of toughness to their team?
Or do they go a little more short-term?
I mean, I'm on a million text threads.
Just offer Bill Belichick three-year, $75 million, right?
Because you're not going to offer him some six-year deal.
He's 72 years old, right?
So Bill Belichick is not, this isn't a,
a 10-year fix. This isn't a five-year fix, probably. So I think, I hope Belichick goes there. That's the most
interesting. But if I was Jerry and Stephen, or definitely Stephen, influencing Jerry, maybe you
want to think big picture, but I think those are the two names. They're not hiring a coordinator.
They're going to hire a guy with a resume. And it doesn't feel like Harba is an option there.
So I think Bill Belichick, everyone's talked about the growing relationship him and Jerry have had.
and to me Vrable makes a little sense.
Kind of a big name, kind of Parcellian type guy,
a Parcells guy, a Belichick guy, a tough guy,
old school, but also new school in the sense of,
you know, he's been coaching in this modern day NFL.
So my guess is when and if,
I guess if and when and what feels inevitable
when Mike is relieved of his duties this week,
that it's one of those two guys.
I would put the leader in the clubhouse is Belichick.
And if you told me Jerry Jones had passed away two years ago
and Stephen Jones was in charge,
I'd be like, yeah, I think they'd be more inclined to hire Mike Vrable,
because that's a guy you could see as like a 10-year head coach.
But because Jerry, over 80 years old,
and Belichick would give, I mean, he would just make them
the number one story in the NFL constantly.
As a Packer fan, who should the Packers go after
for the defensive coordinator?
They're clearly, wink's the name that came to my mind,
but just think about some of the teams that have fired coaches, right?
Do the Raiders have anyone you'd be interested in?
Patrick Graham's their defensive coordinator.
Chargers, Brandon Staley, you're going to think I'm crazy.
Sean McVeigh, they're all represented by the same agent, Richmond Flowers.
Keep an eye on that.
It's, I'm not saying that to make fun of you guys.
Like Brandon Staley to the Packers, I've seen them like Packers' Twitter
and Packers read it.
Like, they know.
It's definitely on the table.
So I would say guys like that.
I would hire Wink over Pran Staley, that's for sure.
Would it make sense for Miami to trade Tua to an NFC team?
I think Tuel would be a better fit at the Falcons or commanders.
And I think it would be interesting to see McDaniel draft and develop a quarterback.
Well, I think you would make some sense for the Falcons.
right, dome team, warm weather division, Saints playing a dome, Carolina's not a frigid place,
and who else am I missing? Carolina, New Orleans, Atlanta. I always screwed this up. What team
am I missing here? Oh, in Tampa. So you're talking warm weather teams. Commanders don't.
Like, that's a cold division. One, they play outdoors, it's cold, Philly, New York.
So I don't think the commanders won with the second overall pick. Atlanta,
make some sense. Maybe the Cowboys, right, do a little DAC for Tua. We talked about player for
player. I wouldn't do that if I was the Cowboys, but it makes some sense. But like I said, the
division, you still got to go on the road in Washington, on the road in Philly, on the road in New York.
Okay, last question. With all the great head coaches stepping down, why don't they get into show
business? They're already beloved by people. I'd pay to see Pete Carroll in comedy, action
thriller, tune in to Bill and Sabin on a pod chopping it up. Because he's got to be a good. He's
guys are football coaches, man. Football is what gives them their juice. All these guys have
been making, they all have $50, $100 million in the bank. Money doesn't drive them. In a weird
way, fame, I mean, they have huge egos, but their fame is correlated to football. It's what they've mastered
in theory. I don't know, Pete, their defense's been bad. But like, when you spend your entire life
figuring out how to do something at the highest level, it's hard to pivot in your 70s. It really
it's easier if you're Jimmy Johnson, you retire, you go to TV for 20 years, right? You fish in
Florida. I think it's harder for some of the older guys in their 70s, like they're football
coaches. Sabin's going to go to TV. Sabin's going to replace, I would guess, Lee Corso, who's, listen,
absolute legend, they should not have been rolling him out on TV the last couple years.
So I think Nick Saban will go there. Him, McAfee, Herb Street will be the group. To me,
Pete Carroll wants to coach. Pete Carroll thinks he's a good coach. Trader Russell won 18 games the next two years.
And Bill Belichick definitely wants to coach.
So it would be cool.
Like, I'd be, it'd be awesome to see Belichick on TV, but he's not going to do it.
He's just, he's just not going to do it.
So I hear what you're saying.
That'd be awesome to hear these guys on the podcast, but they're just, that's just not what
they're going to do.
The volume.
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Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends
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Clifford Taylor the 4th.
You might have seen the skits,
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84 was a wild year.
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