The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Saints/Dolphins MNF Reaction, Jags Job Appeal, Brandon Staley Red Flags, Playoff Stafford Expectations

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

John reacts to the Dolphins beating up a severely COVID hampered Saints, if the Jags job is better than people think, why Philly HC Nick Sirianni deserves ton of credit, which teams could be looking for new coaches after next season, why he's out on Chargers HC and media darling Brandon Staley, and what he expects to see from Matt Stafford in the playoffs.Follow John and The Volume on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest content and updates and 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. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild year. It 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, 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 Podcast Network on TikTok. Get right to the romance and find the way to wow this Valentine's with 1800flowers.com.

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John Middlecop, three and out podcast. Back at it again. Monday, December 27th, just witnessed Ian Book. Versa Tunga Vailoa, a little Notre Dame, Alabama action. And yeah, we'd happen what we thought would happen. You know, we'll dive into a little bit of that. Some thoughts. I saw tonight that it was story broke that Trent Bulkie is going to stay as the GM for the Jacksonville Jaguars,

who I think a lot of people view, you know, with the young quarterback, depending on who you talk to is a really good job still. a couple thoughts there and then a lot going on we'll dive in all over the league some NFC East thoughts you know the Eagles the Cowboys Sean McVey and Matt Stafford

Brandon Staley the guy's become a little bit too much of a politician for me for a guy that makes Rex Burkhead look like Walter Payton it's like bro he's a little too big of a cheese ball in the press conferences for someone who's a defensive guy and his defense can't stop a nosebleed

just I've had enough I'm out I'm out. Twitter likes you, that much, I'm out on you. It really that's simple. And the Middokoff Mailbag at John Middilkoff, the Instagram, as my Instagram handle, slide up into those DMs. I'm going to save the mailbag, I think, for Friday.

We'll have the big Friday show. Maybe we'll put out the podcast Thursday. I'll have to think about that. Because I guess Friday is a holiday. And I'm already kind of liking a little bit of an upset. Little upset city. Maybe Cincinnati Bearcats. against Alabama.

But we'll let, we'll marinate on that for a little bit. And let's start with what we witnessed tonight. And let's face it. I thought this weekend, what was borderline silly? You know, all these teams playing with 10, 15, 20 guys out on COVID lists. I mean, you're playing with guys that it's one thing to, you know, you get a guy breaks his leg, you move up a guy from the practice squad. It's another thing to just sign guys off the street and have to start at right tackle.

We saw it happening all over the league. Now listen, I was watching tonight, you know, obviously, you know, where I live, I want the 49ers to make the playoffs. But I refuse to root. It's one thing to root for a team. Like if you're a Titans fan, you want the Chiefs to lose so you can get the number one seed. You're a Bucks fan. You want Dallas or Green Bay to lose so you get the number one seat. Okay, that's really good teams, you know, fighting for top seating.

I can't get behind rooting for teams. to win or lose when you're fighting for a six or seven seat. Again, maybe I'm not as emotionally tied, though financially I am. I couldn't get behind it. But Ian Book, and listen, if you're going to be Ian Book and start one career game, because more likely that'll be the only game he ever starts in his career, you wouldn't want it to be on Monday Night Football. Now, and if you are going to get your ass kicked, which he did, not all of his fault,

you'd want so everyone can watch, especially in a holiday week. and it also shows you Ian Book really good athletes actually from Sacramento I mean I bet he's when he played at Notre Dame besides maybe the game they played against Alabama

he was always one of the better athletes on the field every single time the night when he tried to run around Miami defensive tackles chased him down it's always crazy when you see a guy

that's a really good athlete I'll never forget when Johnny Mansell it was his first or second start it was against Carolina and it was against Luke Keeley and Johnny was used to just running away from guys outside of the pocket. He got outside the pocket. He tried to get to the corner. Luke Keekeley

caught him in like three steps. It's like this ain't Mississippi State, brother. And it's, you know, that was a hard situation for him to be in. And on the flip side, Brian Flores, you know, I don't know all the details why they picked to a one thing we never know as fans, how I know a lot of people in the NFL. You never truly get all the details when things go wrong. And an underrated part of the job, is owners have a lot of pull. And Tua was such a famous player. There is a chance. I don't have any inside information.

That the owner made them take Tua. Maybe there's a chance that Brian Flores loved Tua. Maybe it was his GM? I don't know. Clearly they would want a do-over on that pick. But I was just texting a buddy in the NFL. If they got a do-over, does that mean every team gets a do-over? Because if we did a do-over, aka a redraft,

Joe Burroughs probably going one. But I'll tell you who's going to. It's Justin Herbert, the Washington football team, Ron Rivera has taken them. I watch a lot of Pac-12 football. Don't really know why. Hasn't been very good the last several years, but I'm a sucker for it.

It's my conference. It's my teams. I feel very, it's like the NL West in baseball, the NFC West and football. You know, the Pack 12. If you live in the South, you watch the SEC. You watch the AFC or NFC South.

We all have different things that we grew up on that just feel very natural, comfortable, however you want to describe it. And I love, Justin Herbert, in terms of the physical attributes, the intelligence, I didn't think he was going to be this good. Neither did the Chargers. Obviously, Miami, if they knew, they wouldn't have taken Tua.

Because you watch Tua, and you go, you know, he's not as good as Mac. If I had to choose Mac or Tua, I would take Mac. And if you've listened to me for a while, I'm not the biggest Mac guy, but I think Mac is a better player than Tua. For Mr. Accuracy, he's really not that accurate. There were a couple throws a night. He's just off on like quick slants. Now he does throw a beautiful deep ball,

but I give Brian Flores credit because it felt, I mean, at one point in time, the Eagles, they had their pick, it was going to be in like the top five. It looked like they were destined to win three or four games. And you look up tonight, and listen, have they beat some crappy opponents? Yes, but you can only beat who you play,

and now they're eight and seven. And there's a decent chance that, you know, they get to nine and eight. When you're one and six, I think they were one in six or one and seven. If they were one and seven, they would have won seven straight games. so maybe they were one and six.

To have a potential of being over 500 is a great coaching job. If Brian Flores, I was thinking about this tonight. And I'll talk about Brandon Staley later in the podcast. If he made as much effort as Brandon Staley to make the media like him in press conferences, he would be beloved. Instead, he gets a ton of shit because he comes from the Belichick school. He's not worried in his press conferences making people like him. And sometimes he's just edgy.

and I kind of appreciate that. He's not a politician when he gets in front of the mic. But when I watch him coach, he's a defensive coach. And guess what? His defense is good. Is his quarterback a little questionable? Yes. But that, I mean, they just drafted the wrong guy.

But they've coached around it. And back-to-back years, they're competing for a playoff spot. I mean, last year they went 10 and 6, and they missed the playoffs because it took 11 to get in the AFC. This year you go 9 and 8, you're right there in the mix, given how you started. That's an impressive season. They have the 49ers draft pick in the first round,

so it's not like they don't have a first round pick. Now, we'll see how the Niners play the next couple weeks. So that pick could end up anywhere from 15 to low 20s. But I think Brian Flores is a good football coach. You know, his defenses are good. His team is just, the ship was sinking this year. They were talking about trading their quarterback in the middle of the season. They had to come out with reports that the owner, you know, got their back and wasn't going to fire him.

That building was essentially on fire without being on fire. and somehow he just kept it afloat and they just kept on sailing and now they're still competing. I have a lot of respect for that guy because it goes back to New England. Remember when Maddie Patricia got the lion's job and their defense was terrible? And then Flores took over the Patriots and their defense was good. You know, sometimes you see that with a coordinator. It's like one guy coached the same defensive players, the other guy took over and they were better. And then we've seen him be a head coach at a team that, you know, in my adult life, the last 20 years,

the dolphins for the most part have been pretty shitty. he makes them pretty damn competitive with a pretty below average below might be strong average of best quarterback slightly below average quarterback they're really good on defense and he's a defensive guy

so you got to give the dolphins just refuse to stop fighting where a lot of teams would have imploded another story that I saw and listen I've said this before on the podcast and sometimes I have people that have been listening for a long time You know, the number show business is booming.

We got a lot of new people listening. So, you know, I don't know if everyone's heard me say this. I can only go off my interactions with someone. I think we can all relate to that. You know, I'm sure during the Christmas times, when you're around your family, just a lot of gossip comes up, right, about people we all know, right?

Family, friends, whatever. And everyone gives their side of the story. Sometimes people claim that so-and-so's an asshole or so-and-so's a great person. You go, God, in my interaction, it's the opposite. For most part, if someone treats us well or is nice to us, we're going to like them. Even if a lot of other people tell us they don't like the person. And in my interactions with the guy, Trent Balke treated me well.

He was always cool to me. But a lot of people, and let me repeat, a lot of people that I know do not like him. And his reputation around the NFL is not great. People think, you know, again, this is not my opinion because he treated me well, but a lot of people think he's an asshole. and Urban Meyer somehow he got his way to becoming a GM and Urban Meyer gets fired and then Rapsheet said today,

I saw it right before the Monday night football game, is that he's going to basically run the coaching search. And I saw Benjamin Albright who lives in Denver but covers the NFL and knows a lot of people. And I think Florio tweeted this out too. Like I don't know if that's going to make it easier for them to hire a coach. Remember several years ago when Joe Banner was running the Browns

and no one would take the job? and I think people start telling Jimmy Hasol, like, no one's going to take your head coaching job with this guy as your president and eventually fired him. Like, you know, in this day and age, too, it's hard. Because so many coaches that have some juice want to bring in their own GM. Whether that's the right way to go or not,

it's one thing if it's Sean Peyton or Andy Reid or a guy with a long history of winning. It's another thing for some of these young coaches, you know, to just think that they get to do everything. And it's a balance, right? But if you want to hire Byron Lefich, and you have, in theory, a pretty good job. Because you have Trevor Lawrence, you have some cap space, you have a lot of good young players.

But I just wonder, like, let's face it, even if you don't know him personally, and listen, Jim Harbaugh is a nut. He is a crazy SOB. I have a soft spot for him. I'm going to bet on Michigan this weekend. I'm a Jim Harbaugh fan, but I'll be the first to admit he's crazy. So it's not all Trent Balke's fault, but they had a pretty public breakup. You know, they butted heads big time. And Trent was kind of known.

He backstabbed some coaches. fired guys and just was always kind of a survivor. And it's the nature of the business, right? Because when you become a GM, you start making seven figures, everyone answers to you. You don't want to give up that job. Like, I have friends in the NFL that, you know, think this guy's a backstabber. And there's a lot of backstabbing going on, especially the higher you get in the profession. But I do just wonder how difficult it's going to be for them to get the exact guy they want.

And is Trent Balke going to want a guy that's going to want some juice? or is he's going to want a guy that just takes orders from him? And Brian Dayball left with some of these guys, like they might have some options. Doug Peterson has won a Super Bowl. Now, he's a mature guy. He's been around the block. But he also came from Philadelphia,

where, you know, the front office has a lot of juice and he's been through that. Does he want to go through that again? Because I think it's fair to say that the Jags need a little bit of experience to get around this young phenom, who has looked pretty bad this season. You know, but young quarterback sometimes. have bad starts, but he didn't just go from this highly touted can't miss guy to sucking in a year.

Now, he may never live up to the hype. And if I was a betting man, if you said, John, $5,000. Does Trevor Lawrence become a borderline Hall of Famer or does he become an average to below quarterback? I would bet on the ladder, right? But that doesn't mean that he can't turn it around. Coaches have such big impact, but I will be fascinated to see, do people want to work for Trim Balke? And I'll talk a little bit later about Joe Judge.

It is complicated, right? When you have incumbent GMs or when you have incumbent coaches, like there's a hierarchy. And there are, and coaches love poo-pooing this, it's going to be collaborative. It's going to be collaborative. Like, yeah, we've all grown up in a house, right? The mom or dad either points to the other like Jeff, Joan, Bill, James, Megan, you know, mom, dad. Someone has to make a decision. Say it all the time.

It's much easier to make suggestions. someone eventually has to make a decision. And in a draft room, it's either the coach or it's the GM. So they can say, well, you know, we collaborate, we get on the same page. Eventually, someone grabs the fucking magnet from the wall.

You don't both go up there with each hand and grab the magnet together. That's not the way it works. In the history of the sport. Hell, in the history of sports, right? There's one person for the San Francisco Giants making decisions. There's one person for the L.A. Dodgers making decisions.

Now, there are a lot of people in the room. Same deal with the Miami Heat. You want to sign a player, Pat Riley's signing off on it. Now, Eric Spolster has a lot of input. He, I'm sure, has his ear, and Pat Riley might rely on him for certain stuff. But at the end of the day, if Pat Riley wants to do something, they're going to do it. Just like forever with the New York Yankees. If George Steinbrenner wanted it, he was getting it.

If the Dallas Cowboys, if Jerry Jones really wants it, is happening. It doesn't mean that he doesn't rely on several people, his head coach, is, you know, his top scout, whatever. But ultimately, there's only one person, like, when you got grounded, one parent looked at the other. And I've, obviously, in my home, it was always my dad. I was in other homes as my friends growing up, their mom, you know, kind of dropped the hammer. But it was always one person, because one person was always, I don't want to say, indifferent or deferential to a situation, but was just, would kind of pass the buck. And anyone, we've all been in these

situations if you were older in like 25, if you've worked normal jobs, where eventually it gets to a point where someone has to decide. And I just wonder if people want to stake their career on Trent Balke picking their roster. You know, because as a head coach, if you're going to take a job and we're right around the corner from that season, right? We are, if you're listening to us on Tuesday, we're five days and a week away from Black Monday and the coaching topics. Who's going to take what job? Who's getting hired where? It's a fun topic. Don't get a twisted. I love talking about it.

But that is a huge element of these people taking the jobs. Who do I answer to? Who do I report to? Do I get to pick the players? Do I only get to set the roster on game days? Does he get to draft the players? And it's easy to everyone act like it's kumbaya, but certain people just are a little more alpha than others.

They want to make the decision. Some people don't care. But most people don't care until they start losing games. And I think it's a fascinating, kind of dynamic that the way the league has changed, right? When Matt Rule got, however, $62 million to go be the Panthers, it was clear he was going to pick the players. You can put a guy in the GM spot.

He answers to Matt Rule. He just does. There are rare situations, Sean Peyton and Mickey Loomis. They've worked together for 15 years. Andy Reid has known Brett Veach for over almost two decades. So yeah, he's proven and Andy lets him pick the players. But if Andy wanted to, he could pick the players. He relies on Vech because he trusts him.

But it's taken them and I was there when the trust was being born. Right? And it's continued to grow. Same thing, John Snyder and Pete Carroll. You know, John Snyder earned that trust over time. But when you first start working with each other, you know, it doesn't just happen. I think I would imagine if you just had drinks with Dan Campbell and his GM or Arthur Smith and his GM in Atlanta in some of these newly formed relationships, like they're not

true believers in each other. They may have disagreed on this. They may have agreed on that. They may have listened to them on one thing. Like, it just takes, it's like any relationship, right? Especially, and unlike our dating lives, when you start dating someone, it's usually really good at the beginning. Most coaching lives, especially when you get hired as a new, especially a young coach, you're going to a terrible team. So, it's a very good. So, it's going to be tough. It's actually going to test the relationship. Most of our normal relationships, whether it's a business partnership or a significant other, if you get tested early on and it's really ugly like you would be in like a three-win season, you probably wouldn't last. But if you do,

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or West Virginia. Refund issued as non-witrable site credit that expires in seven days. Max refund $10. 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. A win is a win. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports. and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-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 on day but just so y'all know I mean at this point this is the second episode where we've discussed crack so I'm starting to see

there's a through line We also have AIDS on the table right now So Thank you 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

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Let's start with the NFC East. and for a long period of time it was called the NFC least and a lot of people made fun of it and obviously this year with the Cowboys bouncing back it no longer quite feels like that because it has one you know I think it's fair

to call them a powerhouse team and then it had the Eagles which let's face it when they hired Nick Siriani he you know he had some Jim Tom Sula vibes in terms of his press conference and you can never make

you know, grand decisions, justifications, beliefs off one individual press conference, but it's pretty hard to lose the opening press conference, and he kind of did. I mean, it was a disaster. And then they started two and five, and it didn't look good. They deserve a lot of credit, and him specifically deserves a lot of credit. He's won games with multiple quarterbacks. He's made Jalen Hertz be very competent. Now, I retweeted this video yesterday of Jalen Hertz.

He's clearly a smart football player, understanding offense. And if you think about it, he learned from Sabin, he learned from Lincoln Riley, and then he spent a year under Doug Peterson and now was Siriani. He's a pretty high-level cat. Now, I think sometimes there's a thrower in a vacuum, not ideal, but they can work around it and they have a lot of talent on the team. But the Eagles, like I said, who started 2 and 5, are now 8 and 7. and play the football team,

there's a pretty good chance they're getting to nine wins. If you get to nine wins, obviously you will have an above 500 record. I don't think any human alive would have, that opening press conference, but then early on in the season when they were well under 500,

would have picked them to be competing for the playoffs, let alone probably in the playoffs. It's pretty impressive. Now, they built a team, and this always translates, right, when you're good in the trenches. They have a good offensive line and they lost an offensive lineman.

Will they draft in the second round landed Dickerson from Alabama who's coming off, ACL who's really good. They have a really good defensive line. And they lost one of their better players early on in the season in Brandon Graham. But the infrastructure,

the coaching staff he put together, definitely offensively. He can coach. You know, he comes. Think of where Siriani comes from. Frank Reich. Philip Rivers, throwing the football.

Right? I mean, they've run a drop-back passing game. And him able to kind of institute, I would say more of a collegiate what they did at Oklahoma style with the Eagles, has been really, really impressive. And the other thing sometimes you get with young offensive coaches, it can be hit or miss, is your team's not that tough. And part of it, when you run the ball a lot like the Eagles do, you add some tough, just like they're a tough team. Now, they've benefited from playing in the division, taking advantage of the Giants,

taking advantage yesterday. I guess the Giants beat him earlier in the season. season. But they beat the Saints. They beat the Broncos who aren't terrible. Obviously, you know, they're going to probably sweep the football team. They did get throttled early on the season against Alice. Now, obviously, week 18 against Alice in Philly. It's hard to tell with two weeks remaining who's going to play guys, the seating. There's still a lot up in the air in the NFC. It'll be interesting. Obviously, Green Bay, more than likely, if they win these, I mean, it's not more than likely. They win these last two games. They're going to be the one seat.

But then the seating with Tampa, Dallas, and the Rams, assuming the Rams are going to win the division, which I'm going to assume, we'll get a better feel for what's going to happen. So, yeah, I mean, I give the Eagles a lot of credit. And I think, you know, I get some DMs. You know, I don't know. He probably won't win the coach of the year. But I think if you voted for Siriani coach of the year, especially if they win these last two games. And again, Dallas could sit everybody and they could get to 10 wins by, you know, pretty easily.

That is a really, really impressive thing to do when you started two and five. And then on the other end, one of the biggest stories in the league, I guess over the weekend was the Giants announcing, maybe they didn't announce, but indirectly they did through the media. The Joe Judge and Daniel Jones will be returning to the Giants. Let's start with the coach. I understand where they're coming from. This would be their third straight coach that they fired after two years.

That's not an ideal situation. Now, McAdoo was a disaster you had to fire him. Shermer, you never should have hired him in the first place. But this was a pretty big, bold swing for the fences, right? When they hired Joe Judge, unless you're like some diehard Alabama or Patriot fan, I don't know if a lot of us knew exactly who the guy was, or you're a Mississippi State fan and you had watched him play in college. Because I didn't.

And I do this for a living. And I was like, who? What? So it was somewhat out of nowhere higher. But now they're going to be. be in this weird spot of Gettleman's done. We already know that. Gettleman is going to be fired. So does the next general manager have to at minimum spend one year with Joe Judge and almost evaluate him a little bit like George Patton is doing with Vic Fangio? And then if he has another down season, you just immediately fire him and then you get to hire your own guy. Is that an ideal

situation to be in? Now, there is, when you're losing, you know, who is he to dictate any terms? does Joe Judge get to influence the general manager hiring? Because of me, that's a major question mark. Because if you're letting him a guy that has not won many games and whose team, let's face it, now they have serious issues at the quarterback position, which he doesn't necessarily pick the players, his general manager does,

but they're getting throttled every week. You know, gutless might be strong, but effort is pretty questionable as the season has gone on. And that happens to bad teams. But part of keeping a guy who's losing is like, Well, is this team fighting? Do you want to go to war with this guy? What is the deal?

And I think right now you could question that. Now, one thing I've heard from my buddies in the league is like there are some teams like the Jags, right, who are just poorly coached and were poorly coached all season. And then you get a team like the Giants who they say actually fundamentally pretty, you know, not a poor, you know, the coaching isn't as bad as some of the lower level teams. They do have some fight or at least they did up into the last couple weeks. but they just don't have that much talent. And so it's easy to blame the general manager.

But in one-off season, are you going to fix this thing? Because whenever you say something about a quarterback returning, I don't put that much stock in. Like Daniel Jones returning, he's under contract. You're not going to cut him. You've already paid him all this guaranteed money when he's the number six overall quarterback. The question is, and there are some breaking news today,

Jimmy Garoppolo sprang his hand, so it's not a serious injury, but who knows? Maybe Jimmy misses the rest of the season. To me, Jimmy Garoppolo is the Giants written all over him. You bring in him, you have him compete with Daniel Jones and Jimmy beat him out. But I do not believe, or at least I will be pretty shocked if Daniel Jones is the New York Giants opening day starter in 2022, especially with Gettelman, probably the only believer in

Daniel Jones gone from the building, especially when you get a new general manager in. And if Joe Judge is still the coach, he's going to have influence on who's a starting quarterback, especially because, you know, at his core, he is a former quarterback, coach some wide receivers, even though he's known for a special team's coach. I actually think that Jimmy Garoppolo in New York makes a lot of sense. But I just don't, I'm not quite sure how they're going to do this whole general manager thing. You just independently let the guy interview the guy with how Joe Judge around.

Does he get to influence? I always hate when they're off kilter. And that's what the Giants are about to be, off kilter. Matt Rule, who, that team, I watched some of that game yesterday, they stink. I mean, the Carolina Panthers are awful. And I looked up today, because sometimes I think I threw out the wrong number, they gave him seven years, $62 million. So basically $9 million a year from that rule.

Now, in fairness, that was based on what he was making at Baylor, and he was making a lot of money at Baylor. So it's not like he was making $3 million in college, and they gave him a $6 million a year raise. That's not what happened. He was making huge cash in Baylor. He was comfortable there. They had to spend a lot of money to get him.

I do not blame David Tepper for hiring him. A lot of people were interested in Matt Rule. It was the right type guy to be on. Now, I also think he was known for being... 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 apps. 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.

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now. An NFL coach, he had spent one year in his career as an assistant offensive line coach with the Giants. It's not like he had been in the league, like Mel Tucker, people like he's an NFL guy. Google Mel Tucker's resume. spent a lot of time, right? When Pete Carroll went back to Seattle,

or went to Seattle, left SC, he had spent a lot of time in the NFL. Like, there were some people, like Steve Mariucci, coached a cow for one year, but it'd been with the Packers for a long time. Right? And then he coached the Niners.

And then he coached the line. Like, he was an NFL guy. To me, Rule was a college guy. And there's clearly, it's a challenge because they're completely different industries. But like Ryan Day, I'll give Ryan Day some credit. He spent several years in the national football league.

as a position coach. Not an assistant position coach, as the position coach. Now, when I say Ryan Day, and I personally think of Ryan Day, I think of them more as a college coach. And some guys, like, what's Pete Carroll? Pete Carroll's done it both.

Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh's done it both. Matt Rule, so far, successful college coach having major issues in the NFL. Now, he compared the Panthers to JZ, and it took JZ seven years. I don't know if he's at the JZ part in his life

when JZ was like selling crack, because I'm pretty sure Jay Z hit it pretty big, pretty early on. I'd have to go to Jay-Z's Wikipedia page. But anytime you compare yourself to Jay-Z, probably, you know, top three or four most successful individual in his field,

I think it's a pretty bold stretch. Because right now, Matt Rule, you're like vanilla ice, but you don't even you're not even a one-hit wonder. You haven't had any success in the league. You went five and 11 last year, you're five in 10. And there's a pretty good chance you're going to end the season at 5 and 12.

Now, ultimately, they can't get the quarter position right. Last year they didn't have one. This year they made a trade for Sam Darnold. He wasn't any good. They had to, you know, kind of scrap him. They re-signed Cam Newton, which I said at the time was kind of a PR stunt. And let's face it, it kind of was. The problem is Cam's not any good. So the PR stunt after the first week kind of dwindles. No one cares. And I don't really know how you overcome this, how you fix the problem? Because how do you get a quarterback? You're stuck because you picked up as fifth year option with Sam Darnold on the books. So now that you're stuck with them on the books,

what do you do? I don't know the answer to that. But I don't really know how they ever become JZ. Like, how do they become just a guy that can sell some albums? Like, how could he become some artists that anyone would want to listen to?

Because right now they're unwatchable with, let's face it, not much hope in sight. You know, they really don't have. And the other thing is, whenever you have a new owner like this, and Dave Teper, I think, is a lot of parallels to Steve Balmer.

just unlimited amount of wealth obviously balmer's richer than Tapper but big ego smartest guy in the room always the most successful guy it's very very hard at least in basketball he could they made a move for Kauai Leonard right there is no Kauai Leonard to be had

like who are Air Rogers ain't coming to the Carolina Panthers Russell Wilson who I think we have to question like Russell Wilson kind of sucks right now we'll get in him a little bit later but I just don't know how you improve that spot you're paying you're running back.

Listen, when the guy's healthy, I love Christian McCaffrey. Who doesn't? He's a stud. He's just always injured. So you got a lot of money tied up in him. You have no quarterback, and there's no way to fix that thing overnight.

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Know what else grows in the forest? Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect from this and connect with this, We reconnect with each other The forest is closer than you think Find a forest near you and start exploring At Discovertheforest.org

Brought to you by the United States Forest Service And the Ad Council Let's get to a game that was near and dear to my heart Because I put several shackles On the Los Angeles Chargers They're playing the Texans The Texans have 75 guys on COVID list They have a rookie quarterback.

They have a bunch of role players who are starting. And you're like, you know, Chargers, big game. Going into the game, they're one of the playoff wildcard teams. They got Justin Herbert. You're like, they're going to kill these guys. The number by kickoff was almost 12 points. They were huge, huge favorites. And I didn't think it was that crazy.

And then by about midway through the game, before halftime, I knew I was screwed. Now, I didn't think the Chargers were necessarily going to lose the game, but I knew they weren't going to cover. And by the second half, the Houston Texans throttled the chargers. That was a good old-fashioned ass kicking. And here's the thing with Brandon Staley. It's pretty easy to play the media.

And I noticed one thing he did early on in his tenure is he called all the media members by names, all the scribes in the press conferences. Like, that's a go-to move to get them to like you. Now, it's an easy one, but also to me it can be a little fraudulent. Like if you watch Belichick, you watch Andy, they might call some guys by names. They know them for 20 years. You know, Brandon Staley first on the job,

it's like he's almost too smart for the room and he's playing. It's a very political type move. And again, I notice this stuff, probably more than most. But he said something a couple weeks ago that just made me want to puke in my mouth. Joey Bosa had got his bell rung.

And obviously, any time that you have a potential concussion, you go right to the independent neurologist. This is no longer the Joe. Junction Boys, this is no longer Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells grabbing you and telling you get back into the game. That has been legislated out. So when you have a potential concussion, you go to the neurologist. And wherever your team lives, like the 49ers, their neurologists are coming from Stanford. When you play in L.A., your doctors are probably coming from UCLA.

Dallas, I'm sure it's like TCU, right? You just the top academic doctors from all the different regions, right? And Brandon Staley, they ended up not. putting him back in the game, even though he cleared protocols. And he said something after the game that I was like, give me a break. He's like, as long as I'm the head coach here, I will always, you know, lean on not putting a guy back in the game. And the media loved it. He had them eaten out of their hand.

It's like, bro, you're not teaching life lessons here. You're not saving people's lives. If the doctor gives you the go ahead, every single coach around the league puts the guy back in the game. Hell, it happened to Bose's brother the other week. Nick, I think two weeks ago, had something, it might have got a concussion, goes to the independent neurologist and says he's good to go. Nick comes back in the game.

But when Brandon said that, as long as I'm the head coach here, it's like, give me a fucking break. You've been in a league five years, buddy. Stop acting like you're reinventing the wheel here, my man. You're 8 and 7. You're underachieving. You're a defensive guy,

and your team gets their ass kicked on defense every single week. You're star quarterback that literally every GM, except like four in the league would do anything to get their hands on right now can be a little hit or miss it's a little weird he did not play well in that game he was better last season start to finish now they've had some injuries or whatever but to me this brand and saly guy is the apple of the media's eye they love the guy yet i watch him coach he's a defensive guy his defense blows i mean i think the texans almost ran for 200 yards to arian foster ain't walking through that door you know it was rex good. It was some guys that Davis

Mills thrown to, I'll be honest, I've never heard of, because most people haven't. I mean, the Texans have a random guys on the team. Destroyed the Chargers. And it was a big game. It's not like the Chargers are 12 and 3 and that game wasn't going to, like they were going to the playoffs no matter what. Like, they got to win.

Losing the Texans. At one point in time, they're down like three scores in the second half. The score ended up being closer because they got some hollow touchdown. So I just, I think the Brandon Staley love, we need to pump the brakes a little bit. Now, it might not be all his fault.

They've drafted several guys on defense the last couple years in the top 50. They're not playing very well. But isn't that why you hire Brandon Saly? He's their defensive coordinator. I say this all the time with experience. Experience matters. There's only so many Sean McVeigh's and even Sean McVeigh.

When Sean McVeigh got hired by the Chargers, I think he was 32 or 33 years old, he had been in the league for a decade. A decade. He'd been a coordinator for several years. years for Jay Gruden. He'd work for Jay Gruden. He'd work for Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan, and he'd work for John Gruden. Brandon Staley had been in the league before he became a head coach for five seasons. Sean McVeigh had worked double the amount of time. Now, he was younger

when he got hired than Brandon Staley, but he was definitely more equipped. He had been in the league longer. Hell, he had been, you know, I think, I don't know if he technically ever was, but he had been part of staves that were fired. So Brandon Staley, to me, I think it's fair to say, is he a little over his head? Nobody can give a better press conference calling the local LA Times writer by his first name. Say in some comment that will get 50,000 retweets like, this is my guy. But yet when we actually play the games, the way we judge you on Sundays is wins and losses. Everything else is fluff.

It's all bullshit. None of it matters. Do you win or do you lose? And right now, you inherited a team. Last year they went seven and nine. And we say no team in the league underachieve like the Chargers. Well, right now, I mean, are they going to end up eight and nine?

Because if they did, hell, even nine and eight, feels like a pretty average season given the talent they had on their team. Especially when you factor in, how terrible their defense is. How do they have the same record right now as the Raiders? The Raiders coach was fired five games into the same. season over emails that

were his, but it was part of an investigation that he had nothing to do with. Their star wide receiver killed somebody is going to go to jail for decades. Their other corner, a first round pick who wasn't any good, they had to cut because he had machine guns and an Instagram. And they're 8 and 7?

They're 8 and 7. You have Herbert, Keenan Allen, Bosa. I know he didn't play yesterday, but still, you have all these top picks and you're struggling to win. in games? I just don't get it. But, like, everyone wants to love this guy, but I'm just judging him on his results. And his results are pretty average. Hell, literally average. Eight and seven. I mean, you're either eight and seven, seven, and eight. That's, that's average

at this point in time in the year. The other thing that I was thinking a lot about today was that, I give the Rams a lot of credit. They made a huge swing for Matt Stafford. And listen, anything you do in life is risky. You know, getting in your car to go, pick up your children is risky, right? You get hit. Having children is risky. Taking a job is risky. Eating food is risky. You don't know who cooked it, especially if you go pick it up, right? You have no clue. Everything you do in life has some risk to it. And obviously in business, you have to take risks to make progress. If you don't, you will stay in the slow lane and you will get past. So I admired their willingness to take a huge swing. And I have always been a

Thafford believer. Obviously, new people with Chicago Bears who played him for years. They sing his praises, how talented he is. Most of us don't watch that much Lions football, besides Thanksgiving and occasionally. They've only been good a couple times in his career. But if you follow the NFL, you knew his physical attributes are pretty special. And then I've known a couple of guys that have played with Matt Stafford. They love the guy.

He's easy to root for. I am a Matt Stafford, the person fan. But as a player, one thing I've thought about this year, just watching him, play is that maybe I've overvalued him a little bit. Like, listen, the Rams and the Niners took huge swings. And obviously there was way more data on Matt Stafford, right? He had been in the league for a decade. He had won games.

Like, you knew, Trey Lance might have been one of the biggest Hail Mary's in the history of the draft just based on he'd only been a one year starter. He'd played one game because of COVID the following year. It was a, both are huge risks. But at least there's a lot of unknown. Trey Lance, he may turn out to suck. And hell, he might have to start the last couple weeks, so we'll learn a little bit

how far he's come, but we have no idea how good or bad the guy's going to be. But I think we got a pretty good idea with Matt Stafford, who he is. He has a massive arm, he can make some enormous plays. He's a good athlete, he can keep plays alive, he will turn over the ball. The picks he threw, he has

three games this year where he has double-digit interceptions. I don't know how, and the Rams clearly are going to have to play three games to get to the Super Bowl, right? They're not going to be the number one seat, even though they've had a good season. And they've won 11 games, there's a decent chance they end up with 13. Again, it's hard

to tell that last week, who's going to play guys. I think they are, they play the Ravens this week. I'm going to give them a win there. We don't know if Lamar's going to play. At worst, they're going to be 12 and 5. They could rest everyone the following week. 12 and 5 is a really good season. But, like, when you watch Stafford, I get nervous a little bit when I watch him.

And I'm not, he makes some plays that are like rookie level decisions. Now part of it could be new offense, whatever. That's what I kept telling myself early on in the season. Like, it's past Christmas. What are we doing here, Matt? Like, there were a couple plays in that game, and he said it after the game.

How's he making that throw? I'm not expecting him to play like Aaron Rogers. Just throw no picks. Just completely take care of the ball at all cost while making extraordinary plays. Part of the deal with Matt Stafford, he's going to turn the ball over a little bit. I can live with that.

His turnovers, though, can look like Zach Wilson or Jimmy Garaplo. Right? Now, can he, over the offseason, more practice? Can he get that to go away? I don't know. Only time will tell. But right now, I know this.

And again, I understand why they did it and I would have done it too in their shoes. It was the right move. But I wonder if you were sitting there, you poured a couple, you know, double Tito sodas with Sean McVeigh, put your feet up over his nice, multi-million dollar pad that overlooks Los Angeles

and just started talking football with him and talking his team. If he'd tell you, you know, I didn't quite realize some of these boneheaded decisions the guy would make. I thought once we got him in our infrastructure with a better team, he would just be better. You know?

Now, but he hasn't. And I don't know how you can trust him in some of these games. I was thinking about if I was going to rank the quarterbacks in the NFC going into the playoffs, there's obviously Brady and Rogers who are in a different stratosphere than everyone else in the NFC.

I would then go, and obviously these are going to be the four teams that are going to win the division, I would take Dak-Prescott, Dakota Prescott over Matt Stafford. If I had to have one quarterback, it's why I would hitch my wagon to the Cowboys over the ramps.

Just because I trust Dak more. And Dak can do some dumb things too. But I would say over the life of his career, he's a more trustworthy player than Matt. Now Matt's been playing longer, but you cannot have a multi-pick game against the Cowboys, against the Packers,

against the Bucks, and win. You will lose in the playoffs. You can do it against Minnesota, who was hanging on for Deer Life, and he tried to keep him in the game, but he does that, like, several, like if you watch them all season long, I'm not going to agree with the people

that thought he was super, super overrated. But I'm also, like, I am no longer of the camp that he's like an underrated, he's not a gem, because we all know who the guy was, but I'm somewhere in the middle. He's a very talented player who is probably going to let you down.

Now, he's going to have the chance to shut us all up, but I will be stunned. I think it'll be hard for them to... I can see them getting bounced in the second round, especially if they have to go on the road. A couple other stories from this... Russell, I mentioned it earlier.

Like, listen, he's been back now from the hand injury for a while. He looks... Like, he used to be... He was never Kyler Murray or Lamar Jackson. That wasn't his style as a runner. But he was a very, very effective runner. He can't run anymore.

He looks slow. You know, now, I wouldn't say he's fat because he's always been thick, but he just looks like a slower version of himself. Now, whether he's carrying extra weight, whether it's just age, whether it's just he doesn't want to run. I don't know.

I can't put my finger on it. But I have been watching Russell Wilson very closely his entire career. obviously I get all the NFC West games just living in California so I probably get just on my national feed I don't know it feels like 10 of the 16 games a year of Russell Wilson

and then he just naturally plays in a lot of prime time games he looks terrible right now now there was some scuttle butt on the internet like if he does ask for a trade his trade value he's still going to go for a lot because he's still 33 years old his body of work speaks for itself But I do think it's fair to say to be like, would you be a little more nervous?

Like, just a little nervous because part of Russell Wilson has been his athleticism. Even though I never considered him a runner, he was more of a scrambler to throw it. A little bit like Aaron Rogers. They scramble a lot behind the line of scrimmage to then make throws. When I watch him do that, now one is accuracy's way off. He makes some throws. Historically when Russell Wilson would roll the left or the right. turn, set his feet, and let it rip.

I'd always think there's a 30, 40, 50, 50 yard completion. There were a couple times, and I get it was snowing in Seattle, where the ball just overflew the wide receiver by like 15 yards. I'm like, this is not the Russell Wilson that I know and love.

He is, you know, Steve Young was easily my favorite player growing up, him or Fav, but I was a minor fan growing up, so I gravitated towards Steve. And I always said that Russell was like the modern day Steve. you know, he was super athletic, but he was so accurate, and he was just such a playmaker, and he was just such a winning player.

Now, Steve, I was a better player, but Russell was pretty remarkable, you know, especially given how fast the NFL has become the last, you know, five, six years, so much speed on the field that he could always play fast, yet play under control, it's way off. Now, it might just be simple as season from hell, we've seen it from players, right? Philip Rivers, like, seven, eight years ago, had a season that looked like, is this guy's career over? I think he was like 33, 34 at the time. And then he had like four or five bounce back years. So I'm not trying to write the guy off.

He works too hard. He cares about football too much. But it can't be disputed that he has been pretty terrible this season. Like, looked very, very off. And we judge, like, we judge Steph Curry. We judge Garrett Cole. We judge Bryce Harper. We judge Devante Adams.

like Russell Wilson, the best players in sports, they get judged at a higher level. We nitpick them differently. It's always why when people get mad, like, why are we being so hard on these, you know, these quarterbacks in the draft process? Because these teams are going to hits their wagon. The franchise is going to invest literally the franchise into the player.

So you better nitpick. Like, I don't nitpick defensive linemen. Like, I don't care if they're a little dumber if they skip some class in college, if they're not the nicest guy. Do they rush the passer? because if they do, I want them on my team. Like, I can have a wide receiver be a little all over the place emotionally.

Doesn't bother me. But my quarterback, like, I'm shooting four Rogers for Brady for my homes. Josh Allen, like, Lamar Jackson, like, we're talking high-level talents and high-level people. And Russell Wilson always fell into that category. But now his talent, again, it might just be a one-off season, but it's off right now. got to give the Texans some credit. We all made fun of them all offseason.

What's his name? The evangelist, you know, who's preaching that they were going to not win a game. Like the Lions, they've won more games than Lions. They've never known one for it. They've played really hard. And like, I don't want to say they got something,

but they definitely might have a little something in Davis Mills. The quarterback from Stanford, who on my other podcast, we had talked to David Shaw during the draft process. he kept just hammered home. Like this guy, David Child's been around a lot of NFL players that he's produced. David Child worked in the NFL.

And obviously Davis Mills had injuries in college. But you watch him play like he looks pretty good as a third round pick. Like he does. And it's not like the Texans are good. So Zach Wilson has not looked good. You know, Trevor Lawrence has not looked that great. Right. Justin Fields has been very hit or miss. Well, the Texans fall into that category of just not being a great team.

And these last couple weeks, he's been pretty consistent. You got to give David Colley some credit. I'm a guy that, you know, I've known him when I've worked with Philly. He was Andy Reed's wide receiver coach, one of the nicest guys in the world. I didn't think he was going to be a good head coach. I'm not saying he's a good head coach. But the guys are, say, him and Dan Campbell, like his, their teams play hard for them. That can't be argued.

That goes back to the Joe Judge thing. It's like when we're judging you, we're not even judging you on wins and losses. But you're definitely just not winning games. So, uh, you know, excuse me, it's, we're not judging on the wins and losses, but we do judge you on the effort. and the effort has been there for the Texans. It really has. Also, last but not least, the Raiders, it really, you got to tip your hat to the just,

their interim head coach, the guys that are playing. You know, Darren Waller hasn't played in forever. He's been injured. But Max Crosby, Derek Carr, Josh Jacobs. I don't think they're going to win these next two games. They go to Indy.

They're like a 10-point underdog. Then they play the Chargers, the final week of the season. I think that games in Vegas. So maybe they could win that game. even though they'll be, I'm sure, an underdog in that game as well. But just getting to eight, potentially nine wins is a pretty remarkable accomplishment given one, just how dysfunctional their organization is.

I mean, they have, you know, Dan Snyder, Mark Davis. I mean, it's just one of the worst owners in the league. Not necessarily because he's not a meddler or anything, but it's just his resume speaks for itself. And then all the things they went through from Gruden to Henry Ruggs. I mean, they had to sign to Sean Jackson in the middle of the season. their offensive line like Leatherwood, the guy they drafted in the first round,

is terrible. And they just compete. You know, Rich Pascotia, there's a reason that every single former NFL player who had been around them, swears by him,

loves them, called him a foxhole guy. They have not tapped out. They have not quit. And somehow, you know, going into basically 2022, the Vegas Raiders

are still alive for a playoff spot. I would not have seen that coming. Whatever, three months ago. Or I guess probably even less than that two months ago. So props to them. Adios.

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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.

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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

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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 hear, 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. It was a wild year.

It 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.