The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Niners OBJ Debut Blowout, Mahomes Break Out, Russ/Seattle Next Move, Week 10 Recap, Mailbag

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

John looks at the Niners rolling the Rams on MNF in OBJ's uneventful debut, and why he's worried the Rams are losing their offensive identity. He also breaks down Patrick Mahomes huge break out performance against the Raiders, why Russell Wilson's time in Seattle might be winding down, recaps some top storylines from week 10 and answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag.Subscribe NOW and follow John and The Volume on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest content and updates! Check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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 IHard 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, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's 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 for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Dr. Andreas Michaelitis, chief psychologist at Noom. But what's Noom and why does Noom need a chief psychologist? Noom is a weight loss program that works, with results that last, because we know that changing the way you eat starts with your mind. With Noom's proven psychology-backed tools, one-on-one coaching, and flexible plans that emphasize progress over perfection, you'll have the tools you need to change your relationship with food. So sign up at Noom.com now and lose the weight for good. That's N-O-O-O-M dot com. The volume. What is going on, everybody? John Middlecopf, three and out podcast.

That's the show, that's me. And we're rocking and rolling. Just watch the Niners demolish it. the Rams. Shanahan's beat McVeigh five straight times. We'll dive into a couple thoughts from that game. Some Mahomes and Andy, the Raiders in Shambles, Rogers, Seattle, kind of fly around the league,

talk a little college football. Volume, big announcement today. Draymond Green will host a podcast. His first guest actually said today with Paid Manning is going to be Mel Tucker, Michigan State football coach. I'm a Warriors guy. I've watched basically every meaningful game.

game, Steph Clay and Dremont have ever played. I mean, I rock with them. They're just champions, love everything they stand for on the basketball court. And I honestly didn't know till about 24 hours ago that Draymond Green was going to host a podcast. So that's awesome. Also, Jay Boy's podcast. He talks a ton of SEC football, but just college football in general. It's fantastic. I'm a pretty consistent listener. And I don't listen to that much sports talk radio anymore. I don't listen to radio, but sports podcast. I'm a big fan of Jay Boy Show. So if you like college football, check that out.

And I'm not just saying that because they're on the volume. I remember texting Colin. I was listening to Jay Boy Show. I'm like, this guy's good. I really enjoy it. And obviously the podcast here, hopefully you enjoy. Tell your friends, you can find us on YouTube. We usually go live on Tuesdays.

Or actually Mondays. We go live Mondays, 2 o'clock Pacific Standard Time. And Thursdays, 11 o'clock. Pacific Standard time on the volumes YouTube page. Basically, just record like 30 minutes worth of the podcast beside the open and like the mailbag. So you can, you know, if you're just hanging out of your computer and want to check it out, fire on those. But let's, and also Middlecoff Mailbag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram.

You slide up in the DMs. We do a segment at the end of the show and we answer your questions. Pretty easy. It's like basically the modern day phone caller, except the only voice you hear is mine. But you get to ask your questions. and DM me. And if I don't answer your question on here, I'll DM back and forth to you. Very active on the old Instagram. Well, let's start with Monday Night Football.

And I do think the Rams are a little lost. I think in football, it is very, very important to have an identity, to know exactly who you are. You could argue in any walk of life, knowing specifically what you do well. I think a lot of like, you know, motivational speakers, famous people have talked about. Too many people try to worry and try to improve on like 10 different things in life and they become average at a bunch of things instead of just dominating and mastering one or two things. You know, and it's why, you know, I don't do many things besides I talk because I can't fix anything. I can't do anything really because I talk. It's like my only skill and you could

argue it's even a skill. But, you know, I think most football coaches do one or two things really well. It's kind of a tried and true formula. And forever, Sean McVeigh was basically Kyle Shanahan, wanted to play physical defense and run the football. Well, I do think he's kind of been lost now that he's got Matt Stafford because with Jared Gough, he had to run the ball. He couldn't rely on Jared Gough to throw it all over. Well, he gets Matt Stafford, who has a way bigger arm and a much better skill set, and they're spread it out going four and five wide. I think he should copy the Green Bay Packers. Matt LaFleur, who brought the offense,

they've all been together, two Green Bay and two Aaron Rogers, meshed it, where ultimately they lean on the power run game. Now, obviously, Rogers is a better player than Matt Stafford, but as you saw last weekend against Seattle, but many times over the last several years, Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams, and now A.J. Dillon, they lean on their running game. Now, clearly the running backs with acres out aren't as good,

but you have to stay tried and true to the running game. The running game can be Matt Stafford's best friend because they're asking him to go four and five wide. We're not in Detroit anymore. We're not in games that don't matter. These games really matter. Now, I know Sean McVeigh knows that. And listen, I'm a Matt Stafford fan.

And he was terrible tonight and he's really been bad the last couple weeks. He was awful, atrocious. That's a, if you're giving him a letter grade, that was like a D plus C minus. Wasn't very good. I'm sure he'd say that too. but he's never played an important Monday night football games in the middle of November.

So he's never had this many people looking this much pressure on him. A team that just traded for Vaughn Miller and now they just signed Odell Beckham and they already had a bunch of star players. Like he's never felt this. And now you're basically putting the weight of the world on his shoulders. You can ask Steph Curry and LeBron James to take 40 shots in a given game. They're used to the heat. They're used to carrying franchises.

two championships. Matt Stafford has carried a franchise to a lot of losing records. And I think the best way to ease him into this is have a balanced offense. And when you watch them, they're not very balanced. And I know tonight they got behind, but still the last couple of weeks,

they get so pass happy. And Sean McVeigh's resume early on in his Rams tenure, ran the ball. Now, I understand his personnel has changed a little bit. He had Todd Gurley those first couple years, and I think they were planned on leaning on acres this year and he got injured.

But it's the NFL. You can find running backs. Most people listening to this had never heard of Elijah Mitchell. Dude's running for 100 yards every game for the Niners. They found him in the sixth round. Their backup running backs,

Jeff Wilson Jr. Probably haven't really heard of him either. You can find no names in this scheme. Now, Kyle has Trent Williams, George Kittle, and Kyle Eusecheck that are three guys. I mean, they have Whitworth, but they don't really have a blocking tight-in

and definitely don't have a fullback. And I think you see with Kyle, he has a true identity. And when he gets away from it is when he's not good. But he has to stick with it. Now, would he change if he had got Matt Stafford? Because remember, he wanted to get Matt Stafford. It was the two most aggressive teams for Matt Stafford, Niners in the Rams. They were all in on getting him.

And was the game rigged, whatever? And, you know, I think not nervous, but if I was a Rams fan or someone that had a bet on them to win the NFC or to go to the Super Bowl. Can we trust him in a big game? Definitely this first year. Now that they lost Robert Woods, Robert Woods was an enormous loss. His first year with the Rams,

86 catches, next to 90-90. This year, he had 45 catches on pace for another 90-catch season. That's a huge loss. And as I said last week when they signed Odell Beckham, it's a big risk. They have a great culture internally. They have a ton of high-level guys.

Aaron Donald, Whitworth, even Stafford, right? I mean, talking Cooper Cup, Woods, high character, grinders, workers, Ramsey had fit in. Trade for Vaughn Miller, a lifetime winner, team captain. It's risky to bring that guy in your locker room. All about me. Look at me. I don't know, man. I think Sean McVeigh is feeling a little.

They just look lost right now on offense. where is the identity of running the ball then passing? The Packers have mastered it, and they're kicking everyone's ass for the last three years. You get Matt Stafford to do that. Because when you get Matt Stafford in the Shanahan scheme, it shouldn't be fair. Ask LaFleur. Ask Mike Shanahan when he got John Elway.

Ask Kyle Shanahan when he got Matt Ryan. Ask Kyle Shanahan when he gets tonight's version of Jimmy Garoppolo. Easily the best game he played all season. Your quarterback doesn't have to be. be John Freakin' Elway in his prime. It doesn't have to be. Look at Aaron Rogers last week. Was off. Hadn't practice in a week. Didn't matter. Hand the ball off. Slam it down people's throat. In a world in society that feels like it softens every day, physicality still wins. Toughness still wins. On and off the field. Always will. I don't care what changes.

In the business world, negotiations, you take the soft guy, I'll take the tough guy. We'll see who wins. you know, I'll tell you who usually comes out on top, right? So it's just, I think he's got to get back to his identity. And somehow the Niners get a win like this in a weird way, they're not dead. They have the Jags coming up. They get back to 5 in 5, and then they play Minnesota. Who's good? Like, I watched Minnesota play the Chargers today.

And Justin Jefferson's a star. That team, that's going to be a huge game in two weeks. The Niners have to take care of business on the road against Urban Meyer. Kyle Shanahan should kick the shit out of them. They should win that game by 20 plus. They should murder them. So, like, all this game would be for naught if you don't go take care of business. Because they already blew it against Colt McCoy and the Cardinals backups.

The Niners should be 5 and 4 right now instead of 4 and 5. They got Colt freaking McCoy last week. But that's water into the bridge. That happened. Now they took care of business tonight. They can take a breath. You get the Jags coming up, a team that should win three games all season, all of a sudden, year 500, the NFC, the wildcard is wide open, wide open.

The Saints have some quarterback issues. The Cam Newton's probably going to be the starting quarterback for the Panthers. Remember him last year? Can't complete passes. So the Niners now can get on a little momentum, on a little roll. They win this Jacksonville game going into Minnesota in two weeks. All of a sudden, we're talking about a team that can compete for a wildcard. And listen, I'm not going to take back what I said about Kyle Shanahan the first half of the

He was bad. He was bad. So it happens. I'll talk about Patrick Mahomes. The best go through struggles. And obviously Mahomes is not on the same, you know, on a different level than Kyle Shanahan. But I think we'd all agree. Kyle Shanan is a good offensive coordinator.

And he hadn't had a good season. Some of it's his quarterbacks been all over the place. He had a rookie quarterback that he threw in there that he didn't trust. But you have a game like, that's what the Niners should be. They have blue-chip players on offense. Trent Williams is the best left tackle in football. George Kittle is one of the most dominant players in football with the ball in his hands. Debo Samuel is an ascending star.

Ayuk is a big time talent. They got like five running backs. They should be able to score on anybody. You're not going to get Matt Stafford every week throwing you a bunch of picks, but that's the 49ers that I think we all thought was going to come into the season. Are you ready to amp up the excitement every college football Saturday this year? All right. It's called Colin Cowherd's Saturday spreads.

It's on fandom. Free shot at big prices. Really simple. I choose 10 of college football's biggest matchups each week. Make your picks against the spread for each one. And the fans who get the most right win $5,000 in prices every damn week. Go to fandul.com slash Saturday spreads. Fandull.com slash Saturday spreads.

Or you can just download the Fandul app. Check in $5,000 every weekend prices. No purchase necessary. age restrictions apply depending on location. Boydware prohibited. See fandole.com for terms and conditions. COLA and so they know I sent you exclusively on the FandulSportsbook app. 21 plus. 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 IHard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 Clifford 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 Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a gas. galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped 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 with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the look back at it, podcast. I'm Sam J. 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 on day, but just so you 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. Thank you 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. President, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia, or West Virginia refund issued as non-witruable site credit that expires in seven days. Max refund, $10,000, restrictions to fly-see, terms at sportsbook, fandul.com.

Same game, parley, available for multiple sports in all states on mobile, slash. web. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado, Jersey, and Virginia. Or call 1-8009 with it in Indiana. 1-800-7-1-7-8-8-9. Tennessee redline is 1-800-9-8-9-7-89. Or go to 1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. Or call 1-800 next step or text next step to 53344 in Arizona. This winter, there's something for everyone with the Disney bundle. Unforgettable stories on Disney Plus, like Marvel Studios Eternals. It's beautiful, isn't.

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Look through your children's eyes to see the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face of a forest. wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They see treasure and pebbles. They see a windy path that could lead to adventure. And they see you.

Their fearless guide is this fascinating world. Find a forest near you and start exploring at discovertheforest.org. Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad council. Well, well, well. Let's go. Okay, let's start with the Sunday night game. and the Chiefs went and annihilated the Raiders. And I think we've all been overthinking this,

and I've been saying for a while with the Chiefs. Let's start with the Chiefs. I think you can overthink things. There is a reason why winners win and losers lose. And the Chiefs are winners. They're going to win their sixth straight AFC West this year. Andy Reidson's joining the Chiefs, once he goes to the playoffs this year,

he will have made the playoffs eight times in nine years. All the guy does is win. He made the playoffs nine times in 13 years with the Eagles. He's now going to be eight for nine. That's 17. I'm no mathematician out of 23 years, maybe 22 years, in the NFL. Like, the guy's a winner. All he does is win.

And when you're eight, have a long history of winning. That doesn't mean you're always perfect. you go through rough times. You don't think like Elon Musk has a bad month. JZ doesn't have some rough times. Cowder doesn't have some bad shows. Human nature. The best in their field are going to have some tough times.

And in pro sports, when you're dealing with 24, 25, 26 year old stars, they can have rough times too. Patrick Mahomes had a rough skid in an almost flawless career. He was turning the ball over at a crazy. rate. Simply put, he didn't play that well. He was just off. But pro sports is one of the only areas in life. Like most of our jobs, no one watches us screw up. So when we have a rough time, when something happens in our life or when we're just off, no one really notices. Hell, if you're in certain positions, nothing might change. You don't even notice your poor performance. Only like

you can notice if you listen to me consistently. And I sound different or my take suck or whatever. You'd be like, what's up with this guy? There are certain jobs that are just public that if you watch someone, you go, God, this guy's just off. And obviously pro sports where there's a winner and a loser and statistics based on every game, it's pretty easy to quantify whether a guy is playing well or whether a guy is playing poorly.

And he was not playing that well. And once you pay him an historic contract, $450 million, if that guy has a downstretch, your team's going to be a little off. but check coach reads resume. He figures shit out. And what did he do? He's playing the Raiders. Like I said, winners win, losers lose.

Andy Reid goes to the playoffs 17 times in the last two decades. The Raiders during that stretch have been once. Let me repeat, been once. They haven't won a division in 20 years. They have nothing in common with the Chiefs anymore, despite they've beat them a couple times over the years. But that doesn't mean anything. thing. One game in a 16 or 17 game season is irrelevant. You have to do it over a season. And the

Raiders never figure that out. And clearly they have a lot of things going against them, right? The Chiefs are kind of set the bar in the division of stability. They've now had the same head coach since 2013. And now Brett Veach has been there several years of the GM and he's going to be there for a long time moving forward. Same with Mahomes. Kelsey Hill. They have a stable of human beings leadership and on the field that just don't change. The Raiders cut two first round picks in the last two weeks. Their head coach is an interim head coach because they had to fire John Gruden. And that whole thing's going to get really ugly with the league.

That's a whole other side story. I don't blame Gruden for suing the league. And Gruden's in a position where he's got a lot of money. Obviously the NFL has more, but Gruden should sue the league. Because somehow they went after the Washington football team and the only guy to get collateral damage was the Raiders head coach. But that is the Raiders. For whatever reason,

it's always the Raiders. And the Chiefs benefit from playing in a division with a team that's just always kind of in Chambles. And when they're on, they kick the shit out of them. And that's what they did.

And Mahomes kind of got his swagger back. Five touchdowns look completely dominant. Hill and Kelsey, you know, look like pro ball, all pro Hall of Fame players, which they are. The Chiefs have gone pretty simply over the last four-year stretch.

When Mahomes plays well, that usually means Hill and Kelsey dominate. And when Hill and Kelsey dominate, you know, they're a 13-win team every single season. And it's not like people like, oh, the defense, the defense has not been that great over the years. Now, they've made plays, and last

night, Honey Badger was making some plays. If they can get pass rush, they're fine. They're never going to be the 85 bears on defense. But where they separate is offensively. And when they're throwing up points like that, there's nothing you can do. Like, no one's beating them when he's playing like that. And he's bound

to play like that. Why? He's a great player. He is a great head coach who also happens to be the play caller. So it's like I think we overthought what was going on with Kansas City. They had a rough month. And that's the Chiefs. Now, are

they going to make it to their fourth or third Super Bowl in a row? Who knows? It's hard. But are they going to win the division? Yes. Because they're back in first place. They're not going to relinquish that moving forward. As we're seeing, the Raiders are a shell of themselves. And in fairness, Henry Ruggs, which the tragic incident had a massive, massive impact on the field.

The guy, for a team that has whiffed on picks left and right over the years, he was going to be a legit player. He was becoming one. And you remove him from that offense. They had a perfect balance of Rugs, of Waller, of Jacobs, of Renfro. Now you remove him, it's not the same. Deshaun Jackson, who, you know, quite arguably is the greatest deep threat of all time, is no longer that. guy. He's still fast, but once upon a time he was a four-two guy. Right now, he looks like he's 4-4-8. Well, when you're 170 pounds and that's what you're doing, like, he's just not

going to be good enough. And I'm not, you know, it's a freak deal with his fumble, but like they're just not as good as the Chiefs. They're not as good as offensively. Derek Carr's a solid player. He's probably like somewhere between 12 and the 8th quarterback depending on the week. But him and Mahomes, there is a wide, wide gap between the two players. Mahomes at any moment, no matter how bad his defense is, no matter what's going on an offense, can just go, guys, get on my back, all carry us to the promised land. Derek can't really do that. And there's really only a handful of guys that can't, right? Russell Wilson when he's on, Aaron Rogers, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen has his moments, Lamar Jackson. You know, even Brady now, like, obviously

yesterday was, or Sunday was bad, but like their team's pretty sacked. I think at 44 years old, Tom Brady is not just carrying franchises anymore. And Derek's just not probably that guy. You know, there's nothing wrong with that. But he's in an organization that's always in shambles. It just isn't very well run. That has an owner that the NFL would kick out in a heartbeat if they could. That does not have a coach.

And who's going to blow up the organization again for the countless time in how many years. It's just a revolving door. It's hard to overcome that. And I know Carr has said that he wants to finish his career with the Raiders. He will retire if they want to move them or whatever. he'll just go play golf. He's already has enough money. You know, listen, Derek, if winning a Super Bowl and competing in the playoffs is really

important to you, like, you should try to get out of there because it's just, it's just not going to happen there. And it's, you know, it's not all your fault. You know, it's just people go there to have their career ruined. And that's usually what happens. As long as the chiefs are around, even the charges are better than you, which is crazy to say, because it's not like Dean Spanus is some great owner. I would try to run.

And I'd run fast. The other big marquee game of the day was Aaron Rogers versus a guy that rehabbed his finger 19 hours a day so he could get back on the field. And let's start with Rogers. And listen, he is one of the, regardless of how he played that game, which he didn't even get to practice all week. He's one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. I think when it's all said and done, he'll be talked about as a top five quarterback

of all time, right? And you could say there was some left to be desired, though he still has more years to win another Super Bowl. I mean, Marino's talked about as a top five guy, I never won a Super Bowl. Aaron already has that. Three MVPs, you know, I think once he gets back to practice, he will be right back in the MVP mix. Though I don't think the media elites will vote for him after everything that will, you know, they're very emotional. So the moment that he, you know, refused to, like, let's face it, Roger's got a lot of shit for lying to the media. He didn't lie to his team.

He didn't lie to the league. He didn't lie to his teammates. Every single person that mattered in his life knew exactly what was going on. The people that were mad were the media because they weren't told the truth. Like they think that they should have to know. Now, you can argue the fans if you're a Packer fan, whatever. And listen, I'm pro fan. Ultimately, fans pay for everything.

Every penny that has provided the league is because of the fans without them. This is just, you know, would be a high level, you know, YMCA games. Let's face. The money comes from the people. So if you're a Packer fan and you thought he was screwing with you, I actually support you being mad, though I can't necessarily relate to that, but I understand where you're coming from. The media, I just don't care. I mean, it's like, I'm sorry. They're not, I don't think a player is required to tell them anything. Regardless, you know, play-wise, but it's just it's their kind of lot in land and that they fight for that real estate, right? But one thing that Rogers did this offseason, which I got down on him, he became a

big time drama queen. Now, I'm sure there were things that happened that we don't totally know about with him and Gutikins with just him. It's a weird organization, right? I saw a story right before I hopped on here that they're selling 300 shares of Packer stock for $300 a share. I'm not a mathematician here, but it should be a lot of money. So if you sell $300,000 for $300, that's going to raise $90 million. So it's just an easy way for the Packers to raise $90 million. And who knows, that $90 million might immediately go to Aaron Rogers, which if they were smart, that's what they would do. The crazy thing is if you buy Packer's stock, it's not like you get any say in anything that goes on,

but you just get to save for $300 you own stock. It's just an easy way to raise capital. Pretty genius. But he doesn't get to like answer or bitch and moan to a Robert Kraft, to a Jerry Jones, to a John Marr, to a Rooney, to an actual human being. Right. He, Murphy is in charge of the organization, but he doesn't own anything. It's kind of like getting yelled at by management. You're like, well, you're middle management. Like, who are you? You are employed by the stockholders. You don't own. This is not your money. You're not in control. At least when Jerry or Cronkey or whoever gets mad at you or you're having a serious conversation, you know that that guy signs the. check. It's like Murphy, you're not signing the check. This isn't your cash. So there's stuff that we will probably never quite know that created to some of the animosity in the offseason. Though, just the information that I have, it does feel that Aaron got a little, you know,

went a little overboard. But regardless, I think we can all take a step back and go, they've had it pretty good, you know, since he's come back and they've won big, that Aaron has it really good. And I've been saying this over and over and over again. He has it really, really good. Because despite not having an owner, the Packers are easily one of the biggest brands. I've been saying this a long time. In all of sports, in the world, if you've ever gone to a Packer game, whether on the West Coast, the South, the Northeast, it is always sold out. And there are a majority of people there outside of Lambot that are Green Bay Packer fans.

They are a massive national brand. And he's the star of the team. And let's face it, he's probably going to go down as the best quarterback they've ever had, potentially the best player they've ever had. He still has some to be written. But think about, like, management has been pretty good to him. When they needed a coach, they went out. And at the time, I thought it was kind of a crazy hire. They hired LaFleur from Tennessee who had only been a coordinator for one year. Now, he had worked for the Shanahan family for a while. But that one year in Tennessee, it didn't go that well. Like, it's not like they were a prolific offense. Now, looking back, Marriota was his quarterback. And it was pretty difficult probably to have a good offense with Marriota, but they hired him, and it was somewhat of a bold move. And he resurrected Roger's career because that next year, Rogers was a little off. And within the following year, he's winning the MVP. And now again, they're going to compete to be the number one overall seat. Like, one of the biggest hires an organization can make for any players, who's the coach? Does the guy knows what he's doing? We look all over the league how terrible most coaches are

because there are only so many good coaches. It's like some people are just better than others. You know, in the private sector, in the real world, you know, there's no such thing as equality. There's a reason Andy Reid makes way more money than Robert Sala, right? He's just way better. Or you can just go around the league. Like, there are better salesmen, whatever job you're at than the next guy. And that guy is worth more to the company. You know, a good coach is worth way more to an NFL team than an average coach, let alone a crappy coach.

And we've all seen the team that we watch closely, a team hire the wrong coach, like draft a player really high, especially a quarterback, it set your franchise back. And the Packers didn't just hire the right coach. They nailed the hire. The dude just stud. Like, I've been impressed. I didn't ever see this coming.

All the guy does is win. The guy never loses. Hell, even the game that he missed Rogers because of the immunization thing, and he's got to start Jordan Love, like they were in the game. It's not like the Chiefs beat him 40 to nothing. Like that, and his quarterback didn't even play well

and they competed well. The floor's good. They draft really well. They've had one of the better offensive lines now for years. Their mid-round picks are fantastic. Whether it was Ted and now Goudicans, like they put a good infrastructure

of players around Rogers. Do they have some flaws? Like, we need better receivers. Yeah, every team can complain about a position or two. But overall, when you watch them, when Rogers on the field, they are a well-put-together team. And even in the Jordan Love pick,

which clearly if they could have a redo, they would redo it. They would not have taken them. But at the time, it wasn't that crazy because Rogers had just played poorly. But I don't think they got enough credit. They definitely at the time, everyone acted like they were morons

for taking A.J. Dillon. And I didn't know that much about him. I don't watch BC football. But I remember a buddy in the league who knows what he's talking about. It was like, bro, I like that guy a lot. That is a really good pick. And then his rookie season,

Jamal Williams, who's now in the Lions, was going to be a free agent. part of being a GM is looking forward. Clearly, A.J. Dillon, you know, you talk about following the board, let the board speak to you, was probably the highest rated guy on the board at the time. And now, you know, Aaron Jones gets hurt,

who's also an awesome player and goes out, they don't skip a beat. A.J. Dylan looks like freaking Marshaun Lynch running over people. So, like, that, the organization gets credit for all this. Think how many teams around the league that we go, God, this is just a poor drafting hill. I see it with the 49ers. You got holes all over the place.

All Gudecans does is Phil holes. Now, does he benefit from inheriting a team, even though he'd worked there before, but I'm saying when he became the GM of having Aaron Rogers, of course. But Aaron Rogers also has to look at the Packers and go, he just played a team that has, you know, somewhat of his equal as a quarterback, Super Bowl champion. You know, he's higher level than Russell Wilson because he's won a bunch of MVPs.

He's a better player. But, you know, Russell's a star. Like, that's a flawed organization. I like John Snyder, but that team's a mess. They're just not that talented. They got issues. And hell, they stick with this coach who, you know, who's just not the most dynamic guy anymore.

And I don't, listen, I'm a Pete Carroll, have a lot of respect for Pete Carroll, but he's seven years old. Sometimes you just stop throwing fastballs. It happens to pitchers, right? One time I'm throwing 96 and six, seven years later, I'm only throwing 91. I don't blame him.

I know he's got great energy and he looks young, but he's still 70 years old. Not every 70 year old is Bill Belichick. Maybe Pete just doesn't have it anymore. And when you look at Russell, you go like, God, they got a flawed roster. And a lot of it is, you know, know, they need Russell. The Packers can compete if their quarterback position is just okay without

Rogers, right? Or even when Rogers is crappy, Seattle can't. Seattle needs Russell Wilson to be a superstar. And listen, I made fun of Russell for the 19 hours a day. Call me a little old school. Like, I don't need to know how hard you're working. Like the price of admission for big boy jobs to make a lot of money in this country, you don't sleep that much. You're up early. You're up early. you're working late. Like, it's part of the deal. We're all doing it in some form of fashion.

People listening to this, hell, that don't even make big money are working their ass off, let alone people that are running companies, running their own business. Like, we all work hard,

you know? And I just think sometimes Russell can get a little cheesy. And it might not be him. It could be his people around him, leaking all that crap. And I said last week, I,

no one ever questions Russell's will and desire to try to get back on the field. He will do have people sleeping over, at his house, working out his finger. But it's like the reach around that happened on Sunday morning for the 19 hours a day. It's like, oh, my God. I mean, we get it, bro.

You work hard. It's just that type stuff to me drives me a little nuts about Russell. Maybe that's just the world we live in with just professional athletes now. But I don't know. I think Seattle's in a little trouble. They're kind of come to a fork in the road. They're three and six. Like, their seasons over.

Pete Carroll, to me, it's twofold. Does Russell even want to be there? anymore. Does he actively want to? You fire Pete, let me pick the coach. Or like, I just want to go. I just want to start over. And if that's the case, to me, the team that would make the most sense to just blow it up would be the Eagles trading them like four first round picks. The Eagles have three first round picks. They could trade them a first round pick the next year. Seattle just kind of gets to do a huge reset, you know, start over. Eagles get Russell Wilson. Like, that's something I would keep an eye on. And it could just be a way for John Snyder to maybe hire a young up-and-com.

coming coach and just reset the franchise. Like they had a great run. Maybe it's not. Now, if Russell wants to stay, I obviously would not trade him. But like, you kind of saw last year. Like, did he want out? Like, does he just kind of tired of being there? So you just kind of feel like it's run its course?

And I'm not going to try to make, you know, a mountain out of Mo Hill one game when he's coming off the injury. But they've been just kind of weird. It's weird. You know, as someone that lives in the Bay Area, whenever they play the 49ers, they never look that bad. But whenever I'm sitting on my, couch and watching them play other teams, especially when they lose, Seattle can look so terrible.

Yet whenever I've experienced them, I've watched them live probably three or four times over the years. They always look unreal, unstoppable. Yet I'd say like eight to ten games a year. Now they end up winning probably of the 10, probably seven of them, but they always look, you know, so flawed. And then their losses, they can look horrendous. Yet I, whenever I've seen them in person, they never look like that. And I know any Niner fan would attest, they never play like that against the 49ers. But they are,

they're a weird team that feels like they're trending in a direction that you don't ideally want to go, which is down. Let's go around the NFL a little bit. I said this last week after the Sunday night football game is I think that we naturally, and when I say we, I just mean fans around the NFL,

obviously, you know, media, but the media gets very influenced by agents. So agents push their clients to them. So when you, you got to take it with a grain of salt, when you see the blue check marks and the heavy hitters in football media, like when they're pushing people, a lot of times is because the agent is pushing their client. It's a little inside the game. But we gravitate toward offensive guys. It's an offensive league. Scoring points is sexy. So those guys get kind of put on a pestle. And when they're good, like McVeigh or LaFleur, you know, Kyle's one year. Right. Andy Reid, Sean.

Peyton, they deserve it. But Mike Frable being a defensive guy, you just don't get the same credit. But the guy, we got to, as the kids say, give him his flowers. He's 8 and 2. Julio Jones is now an injury reserve of the hamstring. Derek Henry has a broken foot. All the guy does is win. All the guy

does is win. If he's able, and I don't know, I mean, we still got a long way to go. If he's able to get the number one seat with the Tennessee Titans, especially if he misses Derek Henry half the year, that's one of the most incredible accomplishments I've ever seen. Even if the AFC is a little down. I just, some people are just born to lead.

You know, they really are. Some people, you know, are just born to sit at the head of the table. And let's face it, most people are not. It's one, it's an intimidating place to be. And the overwhelming majority of people are just insecure about their skills in a working environment. And I just think leaders, maybe they are insecure too, but they are able to mask it. And when I watch Mike Vrable, I just go, this guy was born to be a head coach. This guy, you know, if he hadn't gotten into coaching after he was done playing,

he would have ran several successful businesses. Like this guy was born to be the leader of whatever he was doing. And you're watching him now and you go, yeah, it kind of makes sense. The guy's just, like I said with Andy, he's just a winner. You know, he really is. Everywhere he goes, he wins. As a player, now as a coach, he gravitates toward it. And maybe winning gravitates toward him.

Because even though the Colts are making a sneaky comeback, they're now five and five. he beat him twice. So the division, he's got a three-game lead. He beat that team twice. It's basically a wrap. I really think they're playing for that number one seed. Now, they just, you know, they're not getting much offense with Tanyhill. It's not like he's throwing for 300 yards a game.

I wonder if that does catch up to him. But I don't know, maybe Mike Brable, kind of like Belichick, just figures out when I say Bella check, like it's three different syllables. Just a way to get it done. I would not, I would not discount him. I watched this morning the Bucks football team game. The Bucks played really well. And they say styles make fights.

Maybe the Bucks just feel pretty confident playing them. Because they out physicaled them. Heineke was excellent. Their offensive skill guys, Gibson and Terry McLaren are just making plays. The wide receiver from Sack State was making play. They just looked excellent. Like if you just watched the Bucks in the playoff game against Tampa in January, and then that game, you go, yeah, that's a playoff team.

that was the team that everyone in the preseason was going, this team can win the division, this team can't compete to go to the playoffs. But for whatever reason, they don't play like that. But when they play Tampa, that's how they look. Now, part of it is like, Tampa's got a lot of injuries. Richard Sherman, who's playing because they have a bunch of injuries, gets hurt in warm-ups, he's out.

Vita Vaya gets hurt in the game, who's one of their best players. Gronks on the sideline. A.B. still got some, you know, a boot on his foot. They're just, they're banged up. and I do think at 44 years old, it is a little, like, it is incumbent on Tom's team being really good. A huge reason they won the Super Bowl last year was Tom's teammates. Now, I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishment.

He is nails, you trust him. But let's face it, like if we went back and watched the playoff games, it's not like he was perfect. They have a loaded squad. And in the Super Bowl, why were they kicking Mahomes' ass? Defensively, they couldn't block him. Tom Brady ain't rushing off the edge. and I wonder if their defense is just quite the same. Devin White's still playing his ass off,

but they're missing a bunch of DBs. It doesn't feel like their pass rush is quite as good. I'm not going to write them off. They have too good of a coaching staff, and as long as you got Tom around, you got a chance. But to get your ass kick like that, and let's face it, they get their butt kicked because it was 23 to 19,

and they got a turnover. It was actually 23, I think, to 13. They get a turnover, and they score. so the game actually wasn't that close. Tampa was able to score. And then Washington goes on like a nine-minute drive and scores at the end of it. It goes forward like fourth and one.

Maybe it was like fourth and three. It was sweet. Very impressive win by the football team. The best worst game I've ever seen in my life. It was crazy because Fox and CBS, where I live, had the Cowboy game and had the Patriot game. Both games going into the fourth quarter, the combined score was 80 to 10.

Neither game made it to the fourth quarter on TV. They switched both games. games. So I ended up watching a lot of the Steelers and the Lions. And it was, Dan Campbell's now calling plays. He gave Anthony Lynn the boot. He's there calling plays. Jared Goff's not a very good football player. He's just not. Now it was raining, hard to hold on to the football. That set football back a long time. The Lions are, our god-awful team. They just don't have much talent. And Jared Goff is not very good. So when you don't have much talent, your quarterback's not very good, there's, you know, Belichick would struggle to win four games with that team. But the

Steelers who actually made some play, especially down the stretch, they had two just awful fumbles. But Rothersberger's out with COVID, self-reported. Rap She gave him a lot of credit. He's like, that is leadership. He said he had the sniffles and his throat hurt and he told on himself. It's like, oh, let's give him crows. We just, that's the one thing on Sunday mornings. When there aren't like the polarizing stories like Gruden or a coach getting fired, they actually go the opposite way, like the Russell Wilson, the Ben Rothersberger. And it gets a little exhausting, a little. cheesy for my taste. But they start

Mason Rudolph and he put him in position to win. They just couldn't hold on in the football. And they had just two fumbles that really cost them, but the game ended in a tie. Then everyone makes a big difference or a big deal when Najee Harris acknowledges he didn't know there was a tie. I think people don't quite realize, not every person is a big

NFL fan that plays in the NFL. And it's not like if you're Najee Harris, you're playing any less hard because you think you go to another overtime. But that always like gets people riled up. Donovan McNabb said a long time. Probably a little worse for the quarterback, but I don't judge Najee Harris for not knowing that there's not multiple overtimes. I think they threw for like 300, just a little over 300 yards to two quarterbacks. They played five quarters. So it was a rough watch. The Steelers, I think the

Steelers are in trouble. I still think they'll probably make the playoffs, but they have absolutely no chance to win the Super Bowl. They have no offense. They cannot push the ball down the field, but they have good offensive players. It's very bizarre. Their quarterback situation is just not good. Rothersburger shot and Mason Rudolph just isn't good. And then they don't have a good enough offensive line to have Naji going like for 150 yards a game. Because if you plan on a team with a good offensive line, like if you put Naji Harris on like the Colts, he would, uh, you gave him to like Sean McVeigh, he would be awesome.

I didn't think it was pretty cool. Uh, the Cowboys gave Dan Quinn the game ball. And I saw some quotes Dan Quinn gave to Albert Breer. I mean, they absolutely, I mean, that was the biggest joke game of the year. It was like, it felt 30 to nothing before you. could even blink. It was, I think, 36 to 3 at halftime. It was an embarrassment for the Atlanta Falcons.

But they gave the game ball to Dan Quinn. He said he got emotional. And as someone who's been fired before, and listen, I try to move on. I try not to hold on to the past. But there is, like, if you're prideful, you know, and most of us, you know, if you get fired in football, you're going to go probably work for another football team, right? When I got fired in football, I changed careers. So I never, it didn't really matter, right?

If Chip had success or whatever, though he didn't. I, it wasn't like I wasn't competing against him. Now, when I got fired in radio and kind of made the transition to a podcast, do I get some, you know, get a little excited knowing, you know, I have more success than the station? Of course, you know, we're all humans. I don't spend too much. And the farther and farther you separate from it,

you don't spend too much time. De Quinn got fired last year. If I was in his position, I mean, I would have taken that game ball. I would have gone back out over to the Atlanta Falcons locker room. I would have knocked on the door when Arthur Smith's opened it, I would have spiked that thing right in front of them all and then waved to him. I said, hey, Arthur, thanks for all the money you paid me and give him a due sign. And listen, he deserved to be fired.

The Atlanta Falcons were awful, but that had to feel pretty good for him. That had to feel really good for him. Because they didn't just beat him, they housed him. And they fired him for an offensive coach. So to shut them out basically and destroy them, I can't even imagine how good that couple beers or maybe cocktail or glass and wine with his wife felt that night. after the game to get the game ball. And you could see one thing about Dan Quinn,

I don't know how dynamic he is as an ex-as-nose guy, though I bet he's probably better than I would imagine. The players seem, and they even did in Atlanta to really like him, and if you go back and watch the Cowboys, once McCarthy gives him the game ball, kind of gravitate toward him in the locker room, like he's pretty well liked. And the difference of Dan Quinn so far this year

and Mike Nolan is like going from some random high school coach of Vince Lombardi. I mean, that, I mean, how Mike Nolan, Mike Nolan couldn't have been any worse. I mean, you could have put a cardboard cutout as the Cowboys defensive coordinator last year, and it would have been at worst, unequal. It was that bad.

And Dan Quinn's done a really, really good job. And what he's doing with Michael Parsons, turning that guy into, you know, borderline like all pro. He's definitely going to be probably the defensive rookie of the year. It's been fun to watch. And then last but not least, Washington fired their coach,

Jimmy Lake. There are a ton of college. those jobs open. Obviously, LSU to me is the best job. USC. The University of Washington made the playoffs like five or six years ago into Chris Peterson. They get a ton of NFL people. The University of Florida, who won the SEC East last year, might also become available. Those jobs are massive. And when you get those type jobs available, the dominoes that are about to take place could be pretty crazy. Because people that are going to fill those jobs are going to be people from other programs. So like if Dave Iranda takes a job, if Matt Campbell and Iowa State takes a job,

if hell, the biggest shocker, like Lincoln Riley were to leave, you could have enormous kind of butterfly effect around the country. And I would say used to, probably 10, 15 years ago. Those type jobs might even attract NFL coordinators. Like you'd be like, well, Chris Peterson still influences the University of Washington. Maybe they'll come after Kellan Moore. NFL people don't want to touch college anymore. NIL bullshit. And listen, I don't mean bullshit from the sense, I don't care they get paid. I'm just saying it's a pain in the ass. Recruiting is, I mean, you don't have to do any of that.

As a college coach, you have to game plan during the week and scout. You're basically doing two jobs. In the pros, you just coach. The scouts watch the players. Then in the off season, you know, you watch the guys coming into the draft. But in college football, you basically wear both hats. You are... 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep. That's me, Cliver 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 Clifford 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 Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your point. Podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped 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 with 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 a 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. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

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. You know, if you're the running back coach at wherever you are at the running back coach, you're getting your team ready to play every day,

and then you're scouting all the running backs throughout all the country for multiple classes while you're spending a lot of time, you know, talking to them on the phone. NFL coaches, once they get to the league now, especially with the money being as big, it's not even worth it. So, you know, it used to be like, well, you can get some, suck some guys back from the NFL. I do think that's a little more difficult now because those guys don't want to leave. And these coordinators, if you're an offensive or defensive coordinator in the NFL, you know, I mean, Kellan Moore probably makes like $2.5 million.

A bunch of defensive coordinators around the league make like $3 million. So it's like, wait, University of Washington is going to pay me four. I'll just wait to become a head coach in the NFL. You know, I saw a coward tweet about Mel Tucker, who's probably going to sign a long deal with Michigan State. Like, why wouldn't Mel Tucker, like, yeah, he could go to LSU because LSU is a better job than Michigan State. Or he could just make $7, $8 million in Michigan State.

and eventually an NFL team's going to come to him because if he keeps winning eight, nine, ten games a year, he can stay at Michigan State for a long time. You just saw the coach that he replaced was there forever. And eventually he's got a long NFL background. If he wants to make the jump, he can make the jump. He doesn't need to leave. So, you know, it's become a lot more complicated of a landscape.

But this offseason for coaching turnover is going to be pretty outrageous. It really is because these are some jobs that obviously U.S.C., I mean, LSU is going to pay $7, $7, $8 million. USC is probably going to pay five or six. Washington might pay four. I mean, how many people you know making $4 million a year that aren't playing in the NFL? I mean, that's a lot of money. So it should be a fun offseason.

Really, for college off seasons and about with these jobs already opening, it really heats up probably in about 15 days. I love and I mean I live for the coaching carousel in college and in the pros. My favorite time of year. I like the coaching carousel as much as I do the game. So we will be all over that as we move into December and January. If you love to be remembered as the person who gives the best birthday gifts, I'm here to tell you that 1800flowers.com is your ultimate birthday gifting destination.

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Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad council. Okay, let's dive into Middilkoff mailbag. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. And slide up into my DMs, gave your question answered here on the show. We're going to start with Wade.

Wade Baldwin, full name on the internet. John, after yesterday's Brown's game, a lot of people are once again talking about what to do with Baker. my first reaction was, I think the Browns should throw their hat in the Watson sweepstakes this upcoming off season. An upgraded quarterback could be the difference in them, in my opinion, but do you think Baker plus high value draft picks could be traded for Watson? Also, would it be a fair comparison to compare Baker to Marcus Marriota?

Love the pot. Let's start with your second question. I don't think him and Marriota have much in common. Baker's a better throw over the football. Mariotta's bigger, obviously a much better. better athlete. I think Baker's a better quarterback when healthy. But he's tiny for NFL standards.

I mean, he's, you know, six feet, 220 or whatever. He's big for bigger or for normal person standards. But he's gotten really banged up. And, you know, Kyler got hurt. Little guys get hurt. You know, it is a big man, grown man's league. And even though the NFL doesn't have Steve Atwater and Ronnie Lott hitting you anymore and John Lynch,

it's still very, very violent. Guys have never been faster. The only time they get to hit opponents is in games, and they're coming for blood. And the guy's already breaking down. If Deshawn Watson can figure out his mess off the field and it all goes away, I would imagine they would be in the sweepstakes.

And giving them a quarterback, the problem is you give the Texans Baker Mayfield. Do they have to extend Baker Mayfield? Kind of gets into a tough spot. Kyle, are the Rams creating a super team in the NFL, taking guidance from the NBA. Love the parody in the NFL and hope it stays that way for a while. Favorite bar?

Florida, Alabama. Never been there. I guess the topic I'm curious to get your thoughts around, will we see super team culture in the NFL? Not necessarily because, like you have Vaughn Miller, Jalen Ramsey, and Aaron Donald on the same team, and Matt Stafford and Odell Beckham,

in the NBA, you're guaranteed to be really. good. In the NFL, it doesn't guarantee you anything. The Rams are good, right? But in basketball, a super team basically just means two or three guys. If you have three really good players, hell, the Warriors had Steph Clay and Draymond. They were, now they were an organic super team, but then they signed Kevin Durant. It's not fair. If you have four really good players, I mean, the 49ers have Nick Bosa, Trent Williams, George Kittle, Debo Samuel. They have a core four of guys, Fred Warner. And shit, they've struggled all season long.

I'm recording this part before the Monday night game, but it just, it's just so much different because 22 guys start and then on both offense and defense, another four or five guys rotate in. So you just have so many players. I don't think it's possible. I think the way you get a super team is by having a super quarterback. You get Mahomes, you get Rogers, you get Brady, and then Banning, right? And then you got a super team.

It's much more quarterback dependent. We're in the NBA. Even if I have a superstar, like the Trailblazers with Dame Lillard, if I don't have two or three guys to help them out, I got no shot. None. I was wondering what you think of the rest of the Bengals season

is going to look like. You think they should be in panic mode? Are they a playoff team? Well, I think it's a loser leave town match on Sunday. They're going to Oakland, or not Oakland, to Vegas, and the Raiders are in shambles. The Raiders have now lost two straight games. they got punked by the chiefs.

They just didn't play very well against the Giants. You're coming off a buy. You win that game and you're six and four. I think you have a chance to make the wild card. You lose that game and you go five and five and all of a sudden the Raiders are six and four. I would say that the Raiders would probably have the upper end on the deal. I think we're going to learn a lot about the Bengals coming off a by

going to Las Vegas, taking on a team that's kind of just leaking oil. I think whoever wins that game has a chance to kind of write their season. Honestly, I'll probably pick the Bengals in that game, but I don't really trust you. Cleveland fan. After watching this play on Sunday against the Patriots want us to ask themselves are the Browns headed in the right direction? After separating ourselves from a distraction in OBJ and sticking to the basics by signing two great offensive linemen, why can't the Browns make this work?

It doesn't seem the answer is as easy as Baker Mayfield's injury. There seems to me more to it. On paper, things look great. Higgins, People's Jones, Austin Hooper, blah, blah, blah. Fanbase as a whole believes in Stafansky and Andrew Barry. So what's not clicking? Well, against the Patriots, Baker was awful. I mean, he was terrible. Now, he was injured, but you can't, I do think it's as simple as Baker Mayfield.

When you have a really good quarterback and you have a team as talented as your team, you're not going to lose. Like the quarterback is the most important thing going. When you have a guy that just talented, not that Baker is, but you have Lamar, you have Mahomes, you have a top guy, Josh Allen, you're going to win, right? So Baker is a very limited player right now. He's played the last, you know, I guess he was good against the Bengals,

but he's just had some games this year where he's like a bottom 10 quarterback. And he can't overcome that in the NFL. Not in 2021. You just can't. I mean, I think it's as simple as like, they get a good quarterback. I love everything they got. Now it's harder to harder to get a good quarterback

than, you know, it's one thing to be like, let's go get a quarterback. Well, like, who? How? There's no quarterbacks in the draft. None. I mean, no quarterback you're going to feel great about even if you draft in the first round. Okay, let's go get who?

Trade for Russell Wilson? Well, he's got a demand to trade. Deshawn Watson, well, he's got seven million chicks claiming that something weird happened. So until that goes away, nothing's going to happen. Rogers, is Roger really going to leave? the Packers, I doubt it.

So who's even available? Jimmy Garoppolo? You just kind of, you get in a spot where Baker might be your best option. But if Baker's your best option, you're kind of limited. What do you consider the Titans real Super Bowl contenders? If not, what do you do to get more respect in the NFL? It's hard for me to see them go to the Super Bowl and win it without Derek Henry. He's the best player and their team revolves around him.

And they've been able to win the last two weeks. weeks with Tanny Hill against the Rams, which they won 143 yards, and they won by 12 points against the Saints, which there was a late touchdown. He threw for 213 points. So they've won back-to-back games and really the Saints, that late touchdown. I mean, it easily could have been. And I know, I didn't watch the whole game. I guess there were some controversial calls. So they've won two straight games, one by 12, another by two. So they've, you know, an average of seven points a game. he's thrown for two touchdown and he's averaging like 168 yards,

170 yards. I don't know if that's sustainable. I just don't. So that would be my question. Now, once you get in the playoffs, you have a great coach. Can your quarterback carry you? Now, his stats this year actually aren't terrible.

I mean, he's having a... He's thrown 12 touchdowns, eight picks. I guess they're not that great. I mean, last year, Tanniehill was really good. good. He threw 33 touchdowns. This year through 10 games, he's thrown 12. So he's averaging like 1.2 touchdowns a game. Seven games left. It's pretty crazy if you get the number one seed and he throws for like 20 to 24 touchdowns. That's pretty nuts. That's why I'd probably bet against you. Nick, thanks for what you provide. I appreciate you listening. My Cocks look like a dumpster fire.

If you were the GM, what would you do to turn this thing around? I don't think there's much you can do. You don't have a first round pick. I think you'd have to contemplate sitting down with Russ and saying, hey, listen, we want you here. If you want to stay here, we will fire Pete Carroll. Or we will force him into retirement. And we will get a coach.

You'll be part of the interview process. You just got to treat Russell like an NBA player. Just part of the reality. He's the best player in the history of the franchise by a mile. You don't really have a choice. And worst case scenario, which, is also not the worst case scenario? What if he goes, listen, guys, I'm ready for a change.

And you go, listen, I don't want to trade Russell Wilson, but I'm going to call Howie and I'm going to say, Howie, I'll take your three first rounders and I'll take two more first rounders. Give me five first round picks and you can have Russell Wilson. And I'll just reset my franchise. That's probably what I'd do. Those would be my two options. Had a college football question.

If Texas loses out and misses a bowl game, what do you think the chances are Sark gets fired? I think they give him at least two years. Now, if he goes four and eight, I do think it's a fireable offense. Because you look at his history and his resume, he's not a winner. He's a guy that struggles to win seven games

back when the Pact 12 wasn't very good. So, and this year, fournate with that rot, like that's inexcusable. It can't happen. You cannot lose to Kansas at home. It's a worst loss of my life. They didn't want a game on the road in 13 years, Kansas.

They won 20 games over the last decade. Stark lost in overtime to their backup. Kansas was playing their backup quarterback. Scored 57 points. 57 points? It's just probably too expensive to fire him. But, yeah, I mean, I think he would be in major, major trouble going into 2022. I just went to the Texas, Kansas, Kansas.

game and it was wild. As a BYU alum and Southern California guy, I have seen a lot of Sarkeesian. But this is the worst he has looked. Do you think he could be on the hot seat already? Might he just be an excellent coordinator? There's nothing wrong with being a really good coordinator. It pays a lot.

Just not everyone, like I said about Mike Vrable. Some people are meant to be number ones. Mike Vrable thrives at the head of the table. Nick Sabin thrives at the head of the table. at the table. They belong there. Belichick, Andy, Peyton. Sark belongs the first seat next to the head coach. And there's nothing wrong with that. Luckily, in his industry, it pays millions of dollars. Now, he's, because he has a good agent, and he's got a good personality, he's a good looking guy, he's worked for some powerful coaches. He's able to get the seat at the front of the table,

but he clearly doesn't do very good job in that spot. He just doesn't. And I think sometimes, you know, like I talk for a living. It's like, you're being really critical. Like, no, I'm just calling a spade of spade. I'm just, it is what it is. He just doesn't win that often. In that job, you get based on wins and losses, right? It's clear like Joe Rogan or call her daddy or whatever.

Like, a lot of people listen, they're really successful. They, it works. Howard Stern historically. Coward. Right? Dan Patrick. Like, it's just like, it speaks for itself. Right?

It's just, some people are good at their job. Some people just aren't. Now, luckily for Sark, there are several jobs inside, football you can do. But being a head coach is clearly not a strong suit. I couldn't be a head coach. I mean, most people listening couldn't be a head coach. It's hard. My question is, what will it take for the Vikings to move off Kirk Cousins? I swear if they extend Cousins again, I'm burning all my Vikings jerseys. I hate how the Vikings are okay with being mediocre. I was begging them to move up to number five to draft Justin Herbert back to a couple years ago. I don't know what it is about.

that guy, I saw something special. He just looked like another NFL starter. Well, you're stuck with him. You know, Spielman extended him for whatever, $65 million after he'd already given him $85 million. Like, he's your quarterback. Now, granted, I watched the Charger Vikings game. I thought he looked pretty good.

Justin Jefferson is an incredible player. I don't even think people in the NFL realize how good this guy would be. He is a star. I mean, he was on the field with Keenan Allen, who's a star too. He's just way better. Like, Justin Jefferson was the best player on that field. He is a dominant NFL wide receiver. Dominant.

He's only in his second year. It is pretty crazy looking back that they had him and Jamar Chase. No wonder they kicked everyone's ass. The NFL can't really cover either guy. And they had both of them with an NFL quarterback? Man. Hey, John. Eagles fan from Ireland. What's up, bro? In regards to teams like the Eagles with

quarterbacks like Jalen Hertz and can't be called a franchise quarterback, at least not yet after his current performance, do you think a team in position where a quarterback is not their only problem? Should they go after a quarterback in the upcoming 22 draft or just stick around and target other holes in the roster? I just think you have to keep letting this season play out. I'm not a big Jalen Hertz guy. I didn't watch the Denver game. Obviously, you know, I bring up a stats right now. how he played. I just, I don't know if they're sold on them.

Now, there's not a quarterback in this draft that I think they're going to be sold on either. So you're kind of in a tough spot. What I would hope to do if I was Howie is to trade for a guy. Whether Derek Carr becomes available, whether obviously Russell Wilson, I would trade whatever it took. So Jalen went 16 to 23 for 178 yards. Like, Jaylon's just, meh. He's actually better than I ever thought he would be.

I would try to get a veteran quarterback. And I have the ammo to do it. That's what I think they'll attempt to do. But one has to become available. If not, I just think they use those picks on players and build around Jalen. Not build around Jalen, but build a team while Jalen is the quarterback. What do the Vikings need to do to get out of purple purgatory? Not a Super Bowl coach, GM, or quarterback, but also never bad enough to snag a top five pick.

What would you do if you were the owner? I think the Vikings are pretty good. They're four and five, but they easily could be. be, I don't know, six and three. Like, I watch them and I go, that's a pretty good football team. They have really good players. Their offense is really good when everyone's on the field. You know, I think they are a baffling team.

I don't know what I would do. I think that's a tough spot. You're right. You never want to be in purgatory. But they're better than, I think, some teams that are in purgatory because they go to the playoffs a lot. They have a lot of success. They do have legitimate NFL players in a lot of key positions.

Their quarterback isn't bad. and he's under contract for a while. You know, I guess you fire Zimmer at the end of the year if you miss the playoffs and maybe go try to hire an offensive guy. That's what I would imagine they end up doing. Spielman get to keep his job. You know, I don't follow the team close enough to know. I think Rick Spielman's pretty good at his job.

Now, you get judged on more than just drafting players, the coach stuff, free agency. You know, but I know people around the NFL that I know like him a lot, respect them a lot. It's a tough spot. I mean, I guess Zimmer, but honestly, I kind of like Zimmer. Though I get it, he's old, you know, crotchy defensive guy, you know, rub some fans the wrong way, not innovative. But I saw this thing went viral today. He's doing his media thing on Zoom and Dion Sanders calls.

I think people like Zimmer that worked with him, that have coached with him. Actually, I know one coach that worked with him that did not like him. But, you know, to each his own, I don't know. For a guy that, you know, usually takes a stand. I'm kind of sitting on the fence on this one. Let's just see how the season plays out Because if they go 10 and 7 and we're to make like the 7 seed Probably keeps his job

He probably does Appreciate everyone listening Talk to everyone soon Adios Volume Get right to the romance And find the way to wow this valentines With 1800flowers.com

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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, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that experience. excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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