The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - INSTANT REACTION: Seahawks Dominate Patriots To Win The Super Bowl, Sam Darnold’s Incredible Career Arc

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Colin’s joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” to react to the Seahawks dominating win over the Patriots in the Super Bowl. They start with Seattle’s dominating defense pressuring Drake Maye all night and the Patriots offensive line being overwhelmed (2:45) . Colin highlights the arc of Sam Darnold’s career and that with the right coaching he was an effective game manager that didn’t make a big mistake in the biggest moment (5:15).  They point to New England’s defense getting tired in the second half due to their offense being unable to stay on the field and the dam finally breaking… but Colin argues that New England is still in a “rebuild” stage despite being in the Super BowL (9:30). They evaluate a Seahawks roster that doesn’t have an apparent “need” and debate what pieces they should look to add to their Super Bowl winning roster (14:15), and Colin argues there haven’t been many better stories in NFL history than Sam Darnold (23:15). Colin says Drake Maye has nothing to hang his head about and lost to one of the best teams in the last decade… but that Drake wasn’t ready for this moment (31:30). They look ahead to the 2026 season and predict which teams will be back in postseason contention & who won’t, and they agree the Seahawks GM John Schneider has locked up his case for the Hall of Fame (37:45).  Finally, Colin believes the ups and downs of Sam Darnold’s career will lead him to continue taking team friendly deals in a favorable situation (53:00), and they agree the Seahawks sale price just went up by a billion dollars (1:00:30).  (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right. This is an emotional one for me, John. This is an emotional one. I was sitting there with my guys all night. We were just cracking jokes about, am I going to lose it? am I going to start crying? 2913, Sam Darnold. Darnold didn't make any mistakes. Walker ate up the clock and got the yards. Myers were the field goals and the scoring. I thought New England could move the ball a little bit through the air.

I didn't know if they'd run the ball. Are you surprised it was, I mean, one of the real blowouts in Super Bowl, 25-year recent history? I think when you have a bad offensive line and, And, you know, all these teams now in the playoffs have good front fours. We've seen New England play Houston. They were barely winning that game if it wasn't for C.J. Stroud. Last week, it was hard to tell because of the blizzard or two weeks ago.

Seattle just manhandled their front. And if you have a bad offensive line in a game against a team with a good pass rush, it feels like you're not really trying. It's like watching a baseball team that strikes out 15 times in the game. It's like they're trying. They're just not making any contact. You got no chance. I mean, they had no, because here's the thing with Seattle.

You're not going to run for 100 plus yards on them. So you have to throw. And they have a left tackle who I think when the dust settles, probably going to end up playing guard. That's what we thought. So it's like you put them out there and they're just getting pressure. And then McDonald, who, let's face it, is kind of like an offensive wizard just happens to be on the defensive side of the ball.

I thought three quarters through the game, you could give him the MVP as a coach. And a play caller ever won the MVP? Could have given it to Mike McDonald. I thought Kyle Shanahan, coaches twice said things in this game. Kyle Shanahan on the pregame show said, um, if Sam Darnold and Seattle don't turn it over,

they have a chance to blow New England out. And that was, you don't hear coaches say that about other operations. I mean, Kyle said very, I mean, Kyle knows he's seen the film. Kyle's like, they have a chance to blow him out. meaning Kyle and McVeigh and those guys, they thought the Super Bowl was the NFC Championship.

And then Mike Vrable at half when they asked him, I know Mike well enough. You've seen Mike enough. Mike Vrable knew at halftime, John. I don't know if you remember the interview. Yeah. But they were asking him, and he was just like, listen, you know, it was almost kind of acknowledging that's why they were so damn aggressive in the first quarter. They needed Sam. They were trying to speed Sam up.

They needed Sam to make a big mistake. I think Vrable knew they were going to struggle to move the. football. He went hyper aggressive on the early blitzing and coverages. And like to the point, you're like, man, if they, if Seattle hits on one of these, what they were trying to do is speed up Sam. That's when Sam can get reckless. But the story arc for Sam Donald's fascinating. Because Johnny starts out of this wildly talented kid who's reckless. Then he becomes this kid that finally gets opportunities can still be reckless, but you get all the upside. And now he proves against the Rams and against the Patriots,

he can be the world's best game manager. Not make mistakes, throw it away, hit on a couple of big throws, use his legs once or twice. He was basically asked the last two weeks, especially in this one. Just don't make a big mistake. Don't make a big mistake.

You've talked about this two weeks ago. He doesn't make, he takes sacks. There was one here with about two minutes left in the game. He just sat down. He's like, he wouldn't have done that five years ago. He would have tried to make something out of it. And so it's like the story arc is complete. When you get the right coaching, young people, once you're 35 as a quarterback, you are what you are.

But for a young quarterback, 25, 26, 27, like those are the years you're malleable. You can be taught stuff. And between Sam's upside and now his ability to not, I mean, he did against the Rams, but like not get regularly reckless. He feels like a top 10 quarterback to me. Yeah, I mean, doesn't it show you, too, that, you know, I saw McCaffrey on your show, and I think we forget because that Carolina is so forgettable, he's like, you know, the most probably powerful thing that Sam brought to the table was his attitude.

You know, you've never heard a bad word uttered about him, and he has seen some dark times in his career. You know, and he kept a positive attitude, and he kind of just kept his head down, was a good guy, and just kept swinging. and then the dam really broke last year and this situation. I mean, Minnesota's defense was good. It's not this. I mean, he's on a team. I don't know all their contract status,

but pretty sure a lot of these guys are coming back. Like Seattle's not going anywhere. Their coach is a star. They are going to have to replace the offensive coordinator, but I would be stunned, wouldn't you, if they don't keep this same offense implemented, this Kubiak- Shanahan, which his skill set fits perfectly. and now if he's going to be a good decision maker,

he went through that little, you know, mid-season spell where he's turning the ball over. I feel like he hasn't turned the ball over in a long time. You know, you go back to that Rams Thursday night game. He's kind of played flawlessly at the highest level of being a game manager. You know, the problem for Alex Smith is a game manager or some of those type guys, Jimmy Garoppolo, they didn't have the skill set. That's right.

He missed Shaheed on the deep ball. His skill set, his arm strength. Fred Warner said it on the. pregame, he's like, this guy can rip it. Even Kyle Shanahan said on the pregame, we got too much credit. We just put him in a situation. He had the skill set.

We just kind of built up his confidence, but he took it and ran with it. And props to him, what an awesome, genuine story. We don't get enough of those anymore. Sam Darnold in the playoffs, five touchdowns, no picks, 700 total yards, 102 passer rating, and a Lombardi trophy. That is more Super Bowls than the four teams that

let him go over the last 32 years. You know, and like I get San Francisco. They had Brock Purdy. They weren't paying him anything. They wanted to keep him. He just got 10 million from Minnesota and they couldn't pay a backup 10 million. What are you going to do? No, it's, I mean, a lot of people have said, you know, Colin, you, you, I mean, it was 19 nothing at one point in this game when he had A.J. Barner and I'm thinking, because I thought it would be low scoring. And I thought New England, I thought the first half looked like I thought the game would look. That's what I thought. the game would look like the first half. But I thought New England would move the ball enough, John, that their defense wouldn't get tired. I felt in the second half in that third quarter,

you could feel New England's defense didn't tackle as well. See it, like, Donald had like an extra second, an extra beat to throw. It's like, okay, that's you're, you know, I mean, at one point, you had like seven completions Drake May late in the game. Like they just, until he hit those back-to-back one's the Mac Holland. So I thought Chris Collins were said something at the start of the second half. And again, you're working for NBC. You don't want to say this out loud. But Chris Collins, to his credit, just said, Drake May's not ready. He's just not there. He's not. And think about this. Matt Stafford against the Seahawks. The last time they played in Seattle, 374 yards, three touchdowns, over 20 completions. And that's the difference. But this is what I talked about between

Matt Stafford and Drake May. One, Stafford knows the why every time he walks up to the line. Drake May doesn't know the what yet. He didn't really figure out Seattle until the very end. But a lot of that was Seattle was in a more prevent defense than weren't as aggressive. Collins were said this. They were getting pressure with four. So I think New England, you and I had said this, New England's the strange team.

I'm not sure if this has ever happened before. They got to a Super Bowl, John. I still think they're in a rebuild. I mean, I think their offensive line. They need another tight end, another receiver. I think they need two more offensive linemen. I think Will Campbell gets moved inside. They drive to left tackle.

I think New England's still in a rebuild offensively. Yeah, New England's going to be fine. Think about, you know, that first series of the game for Seattle on offense? It felt like Sam Darnold could have thrown a couple bicks. They were kind of squatting on some of the outroutes. Yep. And it was like, whoa, is this going to be? And it felt like he wasn't quite comfortable.

Well, what does he have going for him? you know, eight years of experience. He's seen the lows. Pretty unfaced. Got better as the game went on. You used the Drake May thing. He was completely rattled. And this is a defense and a defensive coordinator that can really rattle you.

Use the Stafford example. I think Brady talked about this in his 40s. Like, the game's never been easier. I've never been smarter. I've never, there's nothing I haven't seen. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl he couldn't throw. Drake, what is Drake mate? He's had one season of playing high-level football.

He played at North Carolina. and his rookie year was, I mean, they were awful, right? They drafted fourth. This is the first time he's played in games. This is mattered. It does feel a little bit like some historic quarterbacks that it's like this was his first kind of, I would say, playing in the big leagues, and it went really well. They made it to the freaking Super Bowl, and he was completely overwhelmed.

Because Josh is proven, like, do I think Josh had a bad game plan? I mean, Josh has coached enough Super Bowls. I mean, they've lost Super Bowls where Brady threw 500 yards, right, against the Eagles. So I think this was a quarterback being a little over an offensive line. If you can't block people, whether it's a regular season game, whether it's a Super Bowl, whether it's a playoff game, you're in major trouble. They couldn't block Houston. It just happened, C.J. Stroud played like me or you.

You know, if he's, Shanahan said this. He said there were two Super Bowl defenses, and the Niners played Houston. They could win the Super Bowl as long as the special teams in offense just didn't screw it up. Seattle and Houston. Well, the offense for Houston screwed it up. You know, Seattle, their special teams. Has Myers missed a kick this year? I mean, I feel like every game I watch, he's splitting the uprights.

Their special teams is just fantastic. They didn't even need it tonight. And it's defensively, you're playing a young quarter. That was a mismatch of personnel versus a young quarterback in an offensive line that just isn't Super Bowl caliber. Yeah. I don't know how many people are taping this, by the way. I was going to show a show of hands to people taping it. I thought, for me, I loved the first half.

Like I, you're taping this, right? And we have like four other people taping this right now. Is that we have? Yes. I was thinking about that. I thought that my wife said at halftime, she goes, this game is boring. And I'm like, no, this is this game is exactly what this game has to be for New England to win. Like, people may have thought it's boring, but I'm like, New England was not going to drop 20.

if I told you the score right now, 29-13, you know who won the game. There was only one way, and I think Collinsworth said it before, for New England to win, Drake May has to play really well. Sam Darnold just had to avoid turnovers. Drake may had to make six or eight great throws in this game to win. Darnold just didn't need a pick six. And that was the difference going into the game. Now, again, I thought it was really going to be played within the 30s,

and it was for the first half. But, I mean, they held it in the first half. JSN had one catch for four yards. I will say this. Great players play great in big games. Kenneth Walker, amazing. Darnold, very solid. Weather spoon was amazing.

Christian Gonzalez for New England kept that thing from being a blowout in the first half. Like, he was sensational. But when you watch Seattle, like I was thinking about during this game, I'm like, New England will be fine. I mean, Darnold's got two more years on this deal. very young. I mean, Leonard Williams is one of the expensive older guys. They have a first, second, third, I think a couple of six. I was thinking about, John, what are they draft? They'd probably draft a receiver.

Skill guys. I would guess. I mean, they've got three backs, two they like. They both kind of get banged up. Seattle's in that weird space, John. I don't think they have a need. I think they need another receiver, you know, office at JSN. I don't know if they'd waste another, not waste, but use another first round pick and a receiver. They did with JSN. But it's very rare when you see a team and they don't have a lot of free agents. They're really young. I mean, this is what Green Bay has been for the last three years. But Green Bay had to go and make a trade for Micah Parsons.

Seattle just went and found Demarcus Lawrence. Like, I'm not sure what Seattle's hole is. Tell me another team in the league. The Rams are the second best team. We don't love their special teams or their corners. I'm not sure what Seattle needs in the first three picks. What do they need? Yeah, to me, I think you just keep doubling down on the defensive line.

Lawrence and Leonard Williams are older players. They're not cheap. So I think you can never have enough defensive linemen. I mean, think about their secondary, Colin. It's all even Worry and Witherspoon are young players and kind of the heartbeat of the operation. Pretty sure Ernest Jones is under contract. How about John Snyder when he made the Russell-Wilson trade

and Denver bottomed out and they got the fifth. overall pick. Not that he wasn't a high-level prospect, but it was like, damn, he's going to take Witherspoon fifth overall. I mean, what did he look like? Ronnie Lott tonight? I mean, the guy coming up the edge, his closing speed. I mean, he was fantastic. I didn't go skill guys, but look at Schneider's history as a GM skill guys. D.K. Meckhaff, second round. Where was Lockett drafted? Middle of the draft. Back when they got Marshawn Lynch, they got him for a fourth round pick. They have fair value on offense historically with with skill players. So, I mean, they have nailed premium positions.

The guard this year, defensive linemen in the past, you know, powerful secondary players they've drafted high. Even Warrior's second round pick. Witherspoon was a fifth overall pick. So if I'm a Seattle fan, I have so much faith in the operation. Do you know what I was thinking? You know, he kind of cut his teeth with Green Bay backers. When you can maintain winning with different coaches and different quarterbacks. Yeah.

You are, they're kind of like the coastal packers. You know, the Ravens have proven they can win with different coaches and different GMs and different quarterbacks. Philly has proven that over the years now, different coaches, different personnel people. Seattle just is a high functioning, high-level American team sports organization now. It also proves. Seattle, you can argue, has three of the top five coaches, not Seattle. The NFC West has three of the top five coaches in the NFL.

I mean, if we ran a draft from scratch, I think all three guys are going on the top five, right? Especially if you factor in age, you know. Oh, if you factor in age, you may get the top three. You may get the top three. And I think that's what, you know, we've, listen, I grew up around the Niners, Bill Walsh, Shanahan, Holmgren, they all came from that world. There's something pretty special about a genius defensive guy. And historically, Bill has been known as the greatest one. but he was just, he was easy to hate.

He's just so angry, he's such a crumagine. This guy seems pretty likable. He kind of feels like his classic 38, 39-year-old millennial, just kind of a good guy, just easygoing. Like, I've never heard anyone say a bad word about, like, the way he treats people. Just, they seem like they got a pretty, pretty good thing going with Mike McDonald right now, Colin. Today's show brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet,

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You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No, I mean, I have a couple people really close to John Snyder, and I've texted John a few times. You know, you've interviewed John, is John is a really big believer. They were talking tonight about what John drafts, John Snyder, the Seahawks. GM. And he said, like when you get a coach, it's a marriage, you have to, somebody's got to share the same vision, the same values. So much in the NFL is collaboration. Bill Belichick's kind of way of doing it wasn't collaborative. That's not, that was not his generation. Belichick, that he doesn't work that way. Nick Saban in college, it wasn't about much about collaboration, although Nick was better than Bill. This modern era, the place. Players make more money. Players have some power, not NBA level or baseball. But I also think the reality is people are bigger and faster and stronger. Like football is a sport with a regulated level of violence, like hockey. When you play football, John, you're sacrificed. You can get paralyzed. You can get hurt seriously. And so there's a humility built into the sport. You can never get too cocky. I don't care if you're the size of gronk.

If you're an athlete like Christian Gonzalez, he gets banged up all the time. There's something, the reason it's so easy to accept Sam Darnold, if you're a Seattle Seahawk, is everybody knows you could have been drafted to the Jets. You could have gone to the Saints. You could have gone to the Bengals. I always feel like in football, there's this understanding that, like, a guy will make a mistake in a game and people will run over and, like, put it. their arm around him in football. Like, you don't see that necessarily in other sports that level. And I think a lot of it is football is hard, John.

Football practice is hard. And that's what makes Sam Darnold's story so redemptive. And it's like, he hit the bottom. I mean, your first team may go poorly. He hit the bottom. He was like, I see ghosts, like a meme. And I think Sam Darnold is one of, in my lifetime of football, is honestly one of the great quarterback stories ever, of redemption of what football's about.

There's so many messages in Sam Darnold. Like, keep your head up. Life isn't linear. You're going to fail. It's how you react, not act. I just, I know people will say this is a boring Super Bowl, but there's just not a lot of stories in the history of football better than Sam Darnold in terms of quarterbacks being buried, bad organization.

You know, it's, I just, I, it's. I just was so damn happy for him, I guess. Yeah, I mean, just a very genuine moment. I mean, for a guy that he was a linebacker coming into college, right? He played linebacker and quarterback. And I saw our guy, Ty Dunn, had a Q&A with John Schneider this week. And the one thing John said is like, we just looked at him like a football player. Former linebacker, the toughness, the humility like you would get in a guard, right?

or a linebacker. Because at any moment, you get to, whenever you hear an old NBA or an NFL player telling a story, they always talk about the time so-and-so humbled them on the field, where they just got destroyed by a guy. Because at any moment, it's why, you know, you can't really tank in football. You want a half-ass of football game, you will get injured. And there was, listen, most guys in Sam Darnold's category, once they failed that much, let's face it, fail forever.

or just become a backup and kind of become irrelevant. I mean, how many guys of his generation that just became backups? Marietta's a good example. Star college player. Heisman Trophy. I mean, it's part of the rise of the dominance of Oregon. He's been a locked backup now for what? Feels like a decade, you know?

There's nothing wrong with that. You know, you're going to look up, Mariotta will have made $100 million. The rest of his life, he'll have played in the NFL, tell people for 14 years. I mean, Sam Darnold's a Super Bowl champion. And this wasn't, you know, we had the Dilfers and the Brad Johnson's. That was not the case with this.

And even coming into the scene, when you have a year where you throw 35 touchdowns on a team that won 14 games, like that's honestly that momentum of last year, I think kind of validated the realness behind the player. Like this wasn't just a guy dinkin. This wasn't Jimmy Garoppel. No. Right? Even though he had moments where that's all they needed. just manage the game, don't turn the ball over, and he didn't.

But yeah, I mean, it was a, what a cool story. I mean, you couldn't make it up. People wouldn't have believed you three or four years ago coming in that Sam Darnold's, the star quarterback on a team that just won the Super Bowl. And I would imagine when we look at the odds, they're going to be near the top coming into 2006. I would think the Rams would be number one, and the Seahawks would be number one or number two.

It'll go, I mean, Stafford and McVeigh have such power. And, you know, they're revealing. kind of in NFL circles. Stafford's going to get more money, so the Rams are going to have to hit on some draft picks and they have two ones, and it's not a quarterback draft. So, I mean, Rams are going to address corner, probably these special teams. The thing you see, though, and the one thing that Sam has and that most quarterbacks have now, it is difficult.

And I know Stafford has had an excellent NFC championship. When you can't move at all in the way the game is played now, it becomes a challenge. I mean, how many plays tonight did Sam just maneuver just to keep a play alive, even in completions. Matt, who he once, I would call a great athlete, but he was a good, remember Detroit, he could really move around. He is now what Eli Manning or something. You know what I noticed about, what I moved about staff, noticed about Stafford tonight, excuse me, what I noticed about Darnold tonight. His in pocket movement is better than Drake May's in pocket movement. May, may beat Sam in a foot race now in terms of movement. Yeah, he would. But May drops back.

and he kind of stays where he's at. Because he doesn't have a feel for the pro pocket yet. Sam, multiple times tonight, moved within the pocket. That just comes from years of practice and game snaps. Darnold now, I mean, think about this. Darnold had multiple times in that first half. Even Collinsworth said they should probably diagram runs for these quarterbacks. They can't move the ball.

Darnold now doesn't really run. But, I mean, I've watched every Seahawk game. He'll take off about twice a game, May about six times a game. And a lot of that's because May can't read the defense like Donald. He's just too young. And Seattle's got J.S.N. who's usually open. But, I mean, a lot of Donald's growth is he just hangs.

He not only throws fewer picks, but he hangs in the pocket and moves better to buy time. That was always Brady's strength is side-to-side movement. Darnal does that very well now. Part of the seeing ghosts, I think a lot of people thought it's just that he didn't know where to look, that he would see things that weren't actually there. It's also when you're getting hit a lot, you start freaking out and seeing things that aren't there so you run into sacks. And tonight you saw that with Drake May.

He was not very comfortable in the first half. Yeah. And that led to very, very inaccurate throws that Collinsworth a couple times. Like, that's kind of a layup throw in the NFL he's got to make. And I think once you start hitting. a quarterback on top of clearly Mike's moving people around on the back end. He had no clue what was going on, which is very understandable. This guy didn't train with Nick Sabin in college.

He played at North Carolina. I mean, a lot of these quarterbacks, part of the reason that drives me nuts about C.J. Straths, like, you come from Ohio State. Like, you've played in some bright lights games. Like, I understand the NFL is a different level, but you just need to calm down a little bit. Drake just, North Carolina Boston College is not preparing you for these NFL playoffs. There was a point where he had, Drake May had eight drives, eight punts, and seven completions. And I bet you, my guess is Mike Vrable, if he has a moment with him, John, if Mike Bravel has 15 seconds with Drake May that nobody hears, he's going to put his arm around him and said, kid, you probably played the best defense in this league and certainly the best team in the last eight to ten years in the NFL.

I mean, I would argue, you could say, oh, Philadelphia, Jalen Hertz is not right now as consistent in the pocket as Sam Darnold. He's not. He struggles to see over the field. Sam throws over the middle of the field a lot. And I can see Braybill just saying, kid, yeah, nobody was winning today. We could. I mean, I just think that you know the first thing you saw, and I think you saw the same thing, first drive, you're like, oh, Will Campbell is a guard. he can't block. He's going to get eaten alive. Whereas you saw that versus Houston, but Houston's

offense, they can't run the ball. They're not as consistent. So it's like very first drive, I'm like, okay, this is what I talked about last week on Fox. Like this was my concern. Like they, they're not going to be able to run the ball. That I knew. They're not, all the numbers told you they wouldn't run the ball. I'm like, okay, three strap drop, get it out. And I'm like, oh, they may not be able to do that much. One thing, too, is when you look at Will Campbell, his body doesn't exactly look like he's Lane Johnson or Trent Williams. And while he can work on that in the strength room over the course of the next couple of years as a young player, Howard Mud, the late great Howard Mud, the offensive line coach taught me something that I never forgot.

He says functional strength. Like you can add 100 pounds to your squat or your bench. Your functional strength typically as a college player, definitely as like an early, maybe a rookie, doesn't you? You don't look 10 years and a guy that was weak is now. strong like Trent Williams. Your strength is kind of your strength. And you're watching him, you go, he's not powerful. And in three years, he's not going to just be stoning guys on the edge. And clearly the length. And you can't have the weakness at left tackle in this NFL. How many teams now, Colin, have multiple big time pass rushers? Even if your best past rushers are

defensive tackles, remember when Aaron Donald was kind of like, you know, they didn't have a great defensive line, but they had him. If you had a weak right tackle or left tackle, they would put him on the edge. So they will find your weakness and just expose it. These pass rushers move to right to left. They don't stay on a side. They will just attack him over and over. And they were. And then he starts bringing corner and safety blitzes the other side. And Drake May got all frazzled. Now, I'm not anti-Drake Mae at all. I think there are some parallels. Did you watch the Lway Doc on Netflix? I haven't seen it yet. If you haven't watched it. But in there is that game where they got blown out by the 49ers, like 55 to 10 in the Super Bowl.

And John's like, looking back, we had no chance. They were way better. But he's like, I made it worse as I started freaking out and forcing things. And that's what it looked like a little bit with Drake. They're overwhelmed. And he kind of starts getting frazzled and forcing things. And it kind of got worse. Because beside the two passes to Mack Collins, it was horrendous.

Offensive football, right? It was really bad. He threw obviously a pick on a couple drives later. He could have easily thrown a. another pick on that jump ball into like triple coverage, where even Collinsworth was like, God, it looked like they were, they were fair catching the ball. I mean, it was just, he's had an excellent season. I think we got the right guy won the MVP, like Stafford belonged as the MVP, especially when you- Kenneth Walker won the MVP here, by the way.

Oh, in the, he deserved you. You could have given to, I thought you could have given to the kicker, but you could have given it to Mike McDonald as well. Listen, Drake May, we might look back on a couple years and he goes, listen, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. of great quarterbacks. Ask Peyton Manning. Got his ass kick for years in the playoffs. Think about this. The Legion of Boom, you know, humiliated Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl. But I think they only had one sack in that game, if I recall. This team had seven sacks. And it was, I mean, Drake May, I mean, there's a difference between the pocket being muddy and the pocket being quicksand. Like there were times he was throwing the ball. And it was like the difference between.

between me and somebody sitting next to me in this chair. Yeah, I just don't think, I mean, I don't think there's, I mean, obviously, if you had a more veteran quarterback, but I said it this week, I said, just look at Matt Stafford. I mean, his family, the kids, like, he's an adult. You can't be president tier 35. Like, Matt Stafford has more fourth quarter comebacks in his career for wins than Drake may has starts.

and there is something to be said. Like you saw in this game, Drake May got nervous. Matt Stafford doesn't get nervous. Like, again, when I said the MVP, and I don't know if it was Meena Kimes or somebody was arguing it, and there's a lot of stats. It's like, it's not about just stats. I mean, first of all, Drake May didn't have as many big plays, big throws, they call it, had more mistakes. But beyond that, when Drake May goes to the line of scrimmage, he's not all, how many times, in this game, did you see him audible out of plays? I don't recall one, not a single one. Whereas

Stafford does it, I mean, and when you're audible out of a play, you're audibling out of a Sean McVeigh call, and he does it four or five times in games. So, I mean, what Drake May struggled with tonight, I don't think anybody. I don't care. I mean, Andrew Luck, I think, had nine different games with three picks. Andrew Luck, like, couldn't memorize a phone book in two afternoons. Drake May wasn't born, wasn't ready for this moment. That's why I kept saying Drake May was one in seven going into this game when he has to throw 35 or more. If New England couldn't run, like they had to play great defense. And they did for a half. They were really good for a half. But he's just, he's not ready for this moment. I thought watching as their offense

could just sputter series after the guy who's got to be sick to his stomach is Josh Allen and the and the reason they cried after that that Bronco game is I'm not saying they beat Seattle, but you'd be hard pressed if you're sitting with Josh Allen watching this game going. That's the team that represented. It's one thing when it was Mahomes, right? I mean, Kyle Shanahan watching Seattle win it, he's like, shit. I mean, we would have loved to run into this Patriot team in one of these Super Bowls. We're running to Patrick Mahomes.

And Josh Allen, the night, had to be thinking there was a reason he was in tears because he knew he had to go through Bow Nicks and, you know, second year, Drake May, whose team just, the Patriots team is going to be dramatically better in a couple years. It's next year. It's pretty crazy. Like last year when the commanders made the NFC championship and this Patriot team made the Super Bowl, typically teams that, I would say, new into their rebuild from a talent standpoint and a roster construction, do not make runs like that.

And, God, they got exposed tonight. I mean, it's just, and it's not, you can't tell me it's the coaching, Vrable's established as a great coach. Josh McDaniels coached a million of these games, and there's nothing they could do. Nothing. They had no, when you can't block, Bill Walsh could have been calling the plays. It would not have mattered. Well, the difference between Washington and New England is Kraft.

We don't know if Josh Peters, is he the owner of Washington? He took over for them. Josh Harris. I'm sorry. He's more of a basketball guy. We don't know if he's going to be a great football owner. Robert Kraft is. If Vrable's a better coach.

than I think than Dan Quinn. Yes. And Drake May doesn't have a history of getting hurt. Jaden Daniels is a spindly guy. We both love him. We both said about Jaden Daniels. He is thin. Kind of a Teddy Bridgewater build where you like him, smart,

a lot of things to like, but you're like, man, can that guy take, is that a 15-year starter in the league? So there's going to be no drop-off. They're going to be better. They draft well. They got the right ownership. Josh McDaniels.

I mean, Cliff Kingsbury's already gone in Washington. Josh McDaniel is going to be there for 10 years. I thought there were some real telling signs early in this game. Vrable was telling you by the early game plan. I mean, he was telling you how super aggressive they were. Like, they needed to take a lead. Like, he knew we can't play from behind. I mean, they were jumping routes in the first two series.

Like, they were taking big. And their take was, I mean, we have to create something, guys. We can't play. Once it was 19 to, even 19 to 7, 19, nothing, 19 to 7, you're like, I'm sitting there thinking, New England can't, they're going to need a blocked punt. That's literally what I kept thinking during the game was New England's going to have to block a punt. You're not going to return a touchdown on a kick. Kickoff. You got to block a punt.

They got kind of close to one. But I don't think New England's going anywhere. I think they'll be better next year. That's why for Josh Allen, you know, Burrow, Lamar, and Mahomes, and Justin Herbert will have his tackles. This was the year to win in the AFC. This was it. time. I mean, and the AFC, though, even for the Patriots, is never going to be, not that it was easy for them by any means, but it'll be much more difficult from a quarterback standpoint. If you just look at the average the last five years, you're going through a lot more talented than the C.J. Strouds and the way it broke with them was Stidham, right? I mean, they got some pretty good. And listen, Herbert's going to have to answer some questions in the playoff games. We all know, like, he can't really prove much in the regular season anymore. He's going to be judged with Mike and Harbaugh in January.

I'm not jumping ship. I'm not selling my stock. But, I mean, he's played three games. They've been pretty bad. What do we do with Sam Darnold now? Because I think you and I think the same thing. The roster's young. The GM's great. The coach is amazing. They don't have to move off anybody. J.S.N's young. The Cooper Cup will be on the team. They'll probably draft another. And plus, they got that kid that got hurt earlier from Colorado State. The receiver's actually kind of an interesting player. Fortin, is that his name? Yeah. Yep. So my take is going in the next season. Tell me the quarterbacks that are definitively

you would take tomorrow over Sam Darnold if you got a three-year contract. Well, I mean, to me, you don't even he doesn't really need to worry about the AFC, the Mahomes, the Allen's. When you look at the NFC, it's like, I mean, Caleb makes some great plays in the fourth quarter, but God, he's throwing 50%

completion percentage. This is right. Look in the NFC right now. You take him over Goff because of his arm and the ability to move. Stafford's old. Pretty can be injury prone and small. Jordan Love, we like, but he's not, I mean, I think I feel about Jordan Love, there's a lot to like, big moves whip, maybe it's a little slower thing, but he doesn't want enough big games. Caleb's great, still a work in progress. I would argue would I shock you next year.

Baker came back to Earth, Dax's older. If I said to you, the two best quarterbacks in the NFC next year are Caleb Williams and Sam Narnald. Is that crazy? Yeah, I mean, the Caleb thing. I mean, we got to, he makes some great plays, and he makes some great winning plays. But, I mean, we got to get more consistent. Yeah, he's a little uneven. Now, this is a huge off-season for him. I always bet on the coaching. So it's like, it's why Purdy's not going anywhere.

He's got Kyle. It's why Caleb's not going anywhere. He's got Ben Johnson. Right? It's why Sam's not going anywhere. He's got Mike and the infrastructure with John. So it obviously, Stafford's just established. He hasn't gone anywhere for a long time.

Even love. Like, I mean, he's got to be a little more. assistant, but he's been solid. I mean, they go to the playoffs every year. It's just the high end in the NFC is not the high end in the AFC. I mean, John Allen, probably the most talented player of all time. Holmes might be the best player of all time. We'll see when it's head and done.

Lamar Jackson is, I don't know, the most unique player I've ever seen. Like, the Steve Young I grew up on wasn't running like the guy in the late 80s, right? Lamar, the way he played, now can he maintain it? But Burrow, when he's on, looks like stronger Montana. So, I mean, those guys. are, I mean, these are all-time great talents. When you look at the NFC, there's a lot of, like, Dax and Goffs.

And, like, to me, that's what makes the NFC unique is, you can watch Dack over the aggregate, and he's fantastic. Then the playoffs, he has been atrocious, right? And Jared Goff sometimes in these bigger games, if you can pressure him, he can't move. Purdy has had some big moments, but it's like, can he totally carry you with his team for a little down? Like, he's got some limitations.

Caleb, you're just not. going to be able to consistently win thrown in the 50s. It's just going to be difficult. His complete percentage on the layups is going to have to go up. But he's got a knack. He's got kind of something special that it's hard to even describe. So I think the NFC, I'd expect the same teams to be back in the NFC. Like, who's going to be in the NFC playoffs next year?

Seattle, the Rams, the Niners, the Packers. I mean, it's like, I don't expect probably the Eagles. I mean, I don't really expect much different. The bear, I mean, it'd be pretty shot. Like, who's Atlanta Falcons. the cowboys? Like, I mean, what are we talking about? With the big game coming up, we're all about enjoying the moment without paying for it the next day. Whether I'm hosting friends, jamming, cheering from the couch, heading to a watch party,

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It's interesting because there's at least four new teams every year in the playoffs. But it used to be like it felt like, I mean, the two things, we always had six or seven new coaches in the NFL. This year we had 10. Why? Because the owners are all billionaires and they're more impulsive. So I think we're going to have a trend of like eight to 10 new coaches. It's going to become a thing every few years.

You didn't feel like it used to be that impulsive. The other thing is, I think it's easier to predict. I mean, like, I've done this like four years in a row where I take two teams. and I said, yeah, they're going to be the two best, most improved teams. This year it was Seattle and New England, right? It's not that difficult. Like the New York Giants, for instance, are easily going to double their win total with John Harbaugh. And, you know, when they shore up the right tackle position, probably a tight end.

That's an easy one. The Raiders with Mendoza could be a double your win total team if Clint Kubiak is, you know, average the slightly better than average is a head coach, and they can get their O line healthy. It was all beat up last year. But it is. there's not, I mean, the AFC will have the new playoff teams. Kansas City's probably finding their way back in. Baltimore, probably Pittsburgh out.

Aaron's a year older. If Aaron comes back, it may be Will Howard. You can look at the AFC and go, okay, this, this, this. NFC, that's why I say about Sam Darnold, it's like, you could see, you could see, like, Stafford getting banged up. That's happened to him a lot in his career. You could see, you know, the Rams draft the tackle. he's not ready to quite play. One of their tackles gets hurt.

Stafford gets banged up, maybe misses a few games. You could see San Francisco. Again, they're old, expensive. They have to hit on some draft picks. Seattle is one of the sure-fired teams to me in the league, unless the Clint Kubiak replacement whiffs totally, but they're going to get somebody out of that tree, somebody that brings the same offense.

So there's very few guarantees in the league. I kind of feel like, strangely, two guys that we think, I mean, New England's going to be good. that's a guarantee. I think that's one of the safe guarantees. But I mean, I think the bill is going to be pretty good too. I mean, they'll be fine. But we don't know if Joe Brady, you're probably right. But Seattle does feel a little bit like a, yeah. They're going to be back here a lot. Well, think about this. When Sam went to Seattle, if you would have said to most people that fall football, let's say he could have stayed in Minnesota. You'd like stay there. Better now looking back, the GM was just forced out. Clearly, they got some dysfunction internally. Flores wouldn't resign his contract until they got rid of the GM. Now the coach who has never won a playoff game pretty clearly has all the power, which you know a lot of these personnel guys, that can be scary.

Andy Reid went to Kansas City. He's like, I don't want to be the GM anymore. I don't want that job. So now you got Kevin O'Connell, Colin, free agency is in a month. They don't have a GM. Who do you think is picking the players for free agency or any of their moves? The coach. You go to Seattle where, I think we all thought highly of Mike McDonald. After this year, we go, geez, and he's one of the best coaches in the league. He's one of the brightest young coaches I ever remember.

Because, you know, he kind of, I don't want to say came out of nowhere because he's been in the Ravens Tree, but defensive guys, it takes a little while for their hype to grow. In about a 24-month span, he went from like, this guy's a big-time defense coordinator. This guy's one of the best head coaches in the league. And they have a GM. I googled it.

There have been two GMs before this that have. have won a Super Bowl or multiple Super Bowls with different head coaches and different quarterbacks. That's Howie Roseman and Ozzie Newsom. Ozzie Newsom's already in the Hall of Fame as a player. He might as well be as a GM too. He's a Hall of Famer. Howie Roseman, when the Dust Settle, it's going to be a Hall of Famer, too. John Snyder's a Hall of Famer. Minnesota just had to run their GM out because he hit on two out of 28 draft picks. John Snyder hits on three draft picks every year with his eyes closed. So it's like they actually went to a place with just fantastic infrastructure that you would just bet on in the future

where Minnesota you go, that's now a young coach would just Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVeigh, they have powerful GMs and like Les and John have a lot. They can calm their guy. Who's telling Kevin and Brian Flores what to do right now? The answer is nobody. So in a weird way where it looked like, God, you'd want to stay in Minnesota. The best thing that ever happened to Sam was him getting out of there.

and going to this place that is now, like you said, has this runway and a place that just, like, he just kind of gets to have a home and create. Like, he's going to be their quarterback. I mean, what would you minimum five more years? Like, he's not going anywhere. You're talking about contract extension. Yeah, I mean, he broke into the league. He was 20, so he's 28 now. And you can just tell from his body, like, he stays in shape.

He's also, Sam's also gotten much smarter. Like, he sits down. He doesn't take sacks. Sam's, I mean, and I think they, I remember reading this once about autistic kids. It was an article and they were saying, you know, autistic kids sometimes have advantages because they know they're very good strategic people because they know they have to be to succeed. You have to be more strategic when you're on the spectrum. And I don't remember where I read this. It was years and years ago.

And I also think people who fail initially in their professional career, it really, it's, it's, serves two things. One, you're so incredibly grateful. You're such a great teammate going forward. If you've been crapped on, if you've been in a bad environment, you're so appreciative of a good environment. So that's an advantage when any time in life professionally, your first two jobs are awful. I mean, you in radio, you're like one of the easiest guys ever, you got treated like crap in radio. I remember when I listened to your first tape and I'm like, why did they let him go? I don't understand it. But the reality is you're probably now more grateful because you had a bad situation. 1,000 percent.

And I think that's what ingratiate Sam is like Sam was always like a humble guy. But when it goes sideways, you just have like there's there. It's the duality of life. You know, if something, if you don't get this in your life, if you don't get that, if you have to deal with something, there people usually like are more appreciative. They're more humble. They work harder. I mean, there's no question.

If you took the average trust fund kid and the average kid that work up in a working class family and had to work in a farm, you know, the advantage to the latter is that his work ethic just may be so exemplary because he's always had to work. Like he never had the fancy cool stuff, right? Like the shoes and the cars. Like so life is just about give and take and action and reaction. And I think, you know how Tom Brady still cries when he talks about being drafted in the sixth round? it won't matter what will happen to Sam Darnold. My guess is John, he will always take reasonably team-friendly deals. He will always take them because he knows how bad it is when you don't have enough talent.

And my thing is, I think Sam's going to look at this and go like, man, I got lucky. I could have gone to Carolina. Like, I think Sam looks at it. And you could say, boy, I bet he wishes the Jets never happened. But in a way, he's going to be. one of those guys that's going to be like, you know what? It's like Matt Stafford's taking some team-friendly deals. Why? Because he was in Detroit. Right? Like, you know, Aaron Rogers, to his credit, took a team-friendly deal, which is he deserves credit for that because in Green Bay, it never bottomed out. Like, it was always

pretty good. So I think Donald's career, I think going forward, he's always going to be a guy that's going to sign quick, team-friendly, great teammate. He may have always been that because he's a great guy with a great family. But there are advantages sometimes to getting punched in the ribs early in your professional career, early in your life. Well, and, you know, it's harder to be introspective when life's pretty good, right? I mean, it's easy to look in the mirror when you're like, you know, things aren't going great. Look at, look at the chiefs this off season. For the first time, some of those guys are going to have to go, God, that sucked. It could be one of those you look back in five years where Mahomes goes, it's the best thing that never happened to us. We had to do some

re-evaluation. What do you reevaluate? when you're making the Super Bowl every year, win or lose, right? So I think the other thing is a team-friendly deal in a couple of years, Colin, could be like four years, $150 million. So it's like the boom of the NFL, you know, when I hear about these coaching situations, well, this guy, you know, the everything that happened with the 10 coaches, only one black guy. Well, if I'm Brian Flores, I would rather make $6 million and work for Kevin O'Connell. I'm making more than Todd Munkin and the Arizona. I wouldn't take those jobs are terrible. I wouldn't, I wouldn't. touch those jobs with a 20-foot pole.

If I'm Flores, unless the Steelers or the Ravens are hiring me, I'm not going to these other places. I get it. I've already had my career derailed and I'm being compensated to be the number two here. But I wouldn't, the Cardinals job, that's as bad. There are 15 college jobs that dwarf that. I mean, that's a terrible football. The Browns, like that is, all those guys are going to get fired in a couple years.

I bet my life on that. So I think when you look at the NFL, some of these situations, you know, I'm, It's just, it's pretty rare to win all the time. What's the last time? Has John Schneider ever lost to the GM? Like, they're bad seasons. It's been like nine and seven. It just, they don't lose.

So most of these teams never win. I would have told Robert Sala, I said, you better be pretty sure going to Tennessee. I mean, that is a place where you got a lot going for you. Your career is only going to go like this from the way people talk about you. You go to Tennessee. It could really derail you. Rahim Morris, who clearly.

had changed his career around, takes the Falcons job. Like, I don't know if the Falcons is a good job. I would argue to fan, like, that thing's not really going to work. Just because it's just not a good place. The Giants do have the infrastructure. They've just been hiring the wrong people. So I think when you look at Sam Darnold, and you look like a lot of these guys, the story Schefter put out today.

They want to get rid of Tua and Kyler. Well, both those two teams paid them top of the market. They weren't top of the market players. It's like John Morant. You're not going to be able to give those guys away. You're not going to be able to give either. Maybe Kyler, if they eat a bunch of money because he's got some physical, you know, he's got a big arm and he can run around a little bit.

To a, I don't think there's a team in the league that would touch him. The veteran minimum of he was cut, you know. So the Miami, you pay, overpaid these wrong quarterbacks. We have a great lesson over the last like five, six years. You go all in on the right guys, okay. But you go all in on the wrong guys. It's going to derail your franchise. guys. I don't care who your coach is.

Former NFL scout, John Middlakov, his podcast is three and out. The Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champions, 29 to 13. Kenneth Walker is the MVP. Jason Myers, Super Bowl record, Sam Darnold, no turnovers, solid performance. I mean, his story arc is complete. He can game manage. He can get in a shootout. You think the Allen family just got an extra billion dollars selling it into a Super Bowl championship? Does that add a billion on it? Probably, honestly. What's your guess on the number right now?

Eight. I might even go like eight and a half. I don't see how it goes for a number that doesn't blow people out of the water. Well, if you buy it for eight and you're worth $25 billion, you pay four and a half. You own 55, 60 percent, but you get other investors. That's what you do. So that's what Mark Cuban did with the Mavs. You buy the majority share, but then you get Elon Musk with Twitter.

He's using all sorts of money, right? So if somebody's worth $25 billion, they pay $4 billion cash and they own, you know, 51, 52 percent. And then they get six other rich guys, but they have the final say. And $8 billion becomes pretty affordable in the oligarch world pretty quickly. John, I'm happy. I'm going to sleep well tonight. Yeah. I can imagine.

All your Seattle friends, big moment for the Pacific Northwest. That was cool. I'm going to call my sister right now. All right, bud. See it. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to...

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What you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports.

And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me

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