The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1183 - NFL Preseason Week 3 Recap, Bill Belichick, Bill Cowher, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat this weekend’s preseason action and break down everything from week 3 including Caleb Williams continuing to make spectacular plays, Bo Nix starting to look more and more like the guy in Denver, both QB’s struggling in Pittsburgh, and everything else we need to know as the season is right around the corner. Joining the progrum as he will every Monday this football season is 8x Super Bowl Champion, the greatest coach and GM of all-time, Bill Belichick, to chat about his biggest takeaways from this weekend of the preseason, a lesson on how to manage to salary cap, what he thinks Sean Payton will do with Bo Nix, knowing when your team has enough depth going into the regular season, and more. Later, Super Bowl Champion, 1992 NFL Coach of the Year, Hall of Fame, and analyst for the NFL on CBS, Bill Cowher joins the show to chat about the Steelers QB situation, how preseason has changed from when he was a player to coach and to now, his thoughts on the new kickoff rule and why he misses the surprise onside kick, and why we need to temper expectations with rookies after watching them play in the preseason. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. We’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this Overreaction Monday, August 19th, 2024, this program starts now. Football! It is all the way back. Football is happening all weekend. We watch all of the preseason games so that you don't have to, and we will be going through all of the highlights. Some teams have immense hope for what the season should look like because of their preseason performances. Some teams have immense hope for what the season should look like because of their preseason performances.

Some teams have lost all hope on what this upcoming season will be. Are either of them right? We have no idea. We shall see. Does preseason matter? We have no idea. We shall see. But we have seen some spectacular things already happen.

We'll run through all of those. We'll also have Bill Belichick on the program today in about 15, 20 minutes or so. We'll have legendary head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Carr, join us in the second hour. And we'll obviously be chit-chatting about everything happening around the sports world. End of the week, we're in Ireland. Oh, baby. Saturday, just six days from now. Five days, if you count today, is already being done, which you shouldn't do.

Nope. Because you've got to enjoy the hell out of every moment that we have. Five days from tomorrow, Georgia Tech, Florida State, kicking off this lovely college football season that's going to be bigger and better than ever before. We cannot wait to get over to J.R. Mahon's. We'll be live at 5 p.m. local on a Friday night. So I do believe it should be a pretty good time in Dublin.

We cannot wait to get over there. Seven and a half hours over, eight and a half hours back on a tube. Yeah, it should be great. Cannot wait to get there. Allegedly, the reaction has been very positive, and it should be a packed house. I cannot wait for that.

And then, obviously, the that. And then obviously the game and shout out to Ireland being great hosts before we even get there. The Talks of the Day was here at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt. Great shirt. They're back in America. Panda diplomacy is real.

Yeah, thank you very much. Don't know about that, but I just figured, you know, green. You know, I think it's a green week. We're going to Ireland. Might as well celebrate it the entire time. I cannot wait. I think you taught right though.

Yeah, I mean, I don't really give a shite about many of the... Oh, what's the crack? Oh, the crack? Of course, yeah. I'm still trying to catch up to the Ireland terms. I'll be completely honest. The crack is like the story, I do believe. Of course. Oh, okay. What's the story, situation, what's the crack, plan, yeah.

Ah, okay. Slanch, obviously, cheers. Lod is like... Us. Lod. No,, obviously, cheers. Lod is like... Us. Lod. No, that, of course. I cannot wait to just be the American assholes over there for 24 hours. We are so thankful and lucky for the opportunity. Should be an absolute blast.

Ty, don't want to look now. Green Bay Packers might be the worst team in the NFL. Oh, no. Ladies and gentlemen, from Hammer, Don, Bruce, Brad, the Giants obviously are in the middle of quite a situation. And once again, this is if we're judging second and third stringers or starters who are paid $40 million a year for one particular team off preseason football. And, you know, the conversation around preseason football is certainly an interesting one because it does imply that football is back. It does get our wheels turning, our emotions kind of starting to brew up, our blood starts focusing on its football season.

But what can you really take away from any of the games? Do we know if a team is going to be great? Because even if their starters are in preseason playing well, are they playing against a defense that they're going to see in the regular season, or are they going to be able to handle that in the regular season? The preseason is like one of the most ridiculous things to try to judge success in a season off of the Indianapolis Colts whenever they had the winningest decade in NFL history I think they I don't think they won a preseason game for like 10 years like I don't remember what the actual number was but it was a very abnormal

thing for the Colts to get a win and I think the Detroit Lions whenever they went completely defeated for a season which has only happened, whenever they went completely defeated for a season, which has only happened in two cities, got completely defeated for a season. They were undefeated in the preseason. 4-0, baby. Going into the season, people thought, wow! Detroit Lions! 10-6 in a playoff win.

I said it that year, 100%. This is it. This is the time. And then they go and have historically worst season of all time. Kenny Pickett just a year ago for the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is certainly a part of this entire discussion and will make an appearance in our preseason highlight segment that's about to take place here in a matter of moments. Kenny Pickett

and the Pittsburgh Steelers were a buzzsaw. They have a great defense. We know that with Tomlin and TJ and Cam and literally everybody on that side of the ball, adding Patrick Queen. Now Kenny Pickett, Matt Canada is an offensive genius. He has expanded the playbook. He is taking advantage of people.

This Pittsburgh Steelers team is going to be great. That was one year ago. Then you get the regular season. These guys can't find a first down. They can't complete a pass. Matt Canada can't call play to save his life. His name is getting chanted around the entire country. And it's not saying we love matt canada no it was

fire canada fire canada and utah in the south in the northeast in hawaii i think even in europe at one point during a brexit meeting they were chanting fire canada they weren't talking about the country they were talking about matt canada who was the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But in the preseason, he was a hero. So what can we take away from these preseason games? Well, we can find highlights and get fucking jacked up. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for some preseason highlights. And always remember, does any of this matter?

Good question. I think there's some things you're going to see in these highlights that you're going to say, yeah, this matters. Ladies and gentlemen, the number one overall pick out of USC might be a guy. Caleb Williams, Roma Dunze, Chicago Bears taking on the Cincinnati Bengals. Look at Caleb escape the pot. Get dropped in a bucket. What a dog.

We were wondering, will Caleb Williams be able to do the Caleb shit in the NFL? Well, what's the Caleb shit? That. That is the Caleb shit. It is the most ridiculous, athletic, freak show stuff that you could possibly pull off. We're going to run for a quarter mile, and then what? Hey, laser. Is he inbounds?

No. You got two end lines, though. And they were talking about the seams because of some soccer game that was taking place. So, obviously, Rome maybe needs to learn which one's in, which one's out. Pile on, especially as we're improvising on the play. Chicago also forgot to paint inside the lines, too. Yeah, so there's a lot of things there that Rome, you could see how his mind, per if, could potentially be off a little bit.

But what we know is this Caleb Williams is a spectacle. Everything he does is worthy of watching because any play could become a home run play. Here he fake sets up like he's going to throw again so he can get his offensive line in better position. Literally baits the entire defense and goes in. You know why? Because Caleb's been doing this in high school. He did it at Oklahoma. He did it at USC.

And now seemingly he's just going to be able to do it in the NFL. Congrats to Chicago. Got a defense. Look out. They got weapons. They got special teams. They got a really cool looking head coach with that new haircut. They got a young general manager who's not scared. Ryan Poles.

They're about to have a new stadium. Where? Where are they going to park? Where's that going to take place? They have no clue. That potentially is old problems of the Chicago Bears, peeking their head into new Chicago Bears. But if I'm a Chicago Bears fan, from what I've seen, I should be incredibly excited.

We'll be able to beat anybody, but Caleb is going to have some situations that are going to pop up during the regular season from all that shit. That's going to go the other way, and we've got to remember the promise is still there. Why? Because we've seen it in preseason. Now, let's head to the kickers and punters always stealing the show. Speaking of, how about Cam Johnston for the Pittsburgh Steelers? His first year there, he's formerly of Houston, and he hit bombs this weekend in pittsburgh i think that's

a 61 yard punt there in the air obviously no bounce the way he punts is a tight spiral and he swings real real hard it's a 64 yard punt i do believe whenever he encounters it pittsburgh not notoriously uh a friendly punter environment have struggled for a long time especially with somebody uh who can help their defense out because of how good their defense is. They used to have this guy, Presley Harvin. New spot, new bombs. The graphic says it's Mitch Wischnowski.

Wrong! That's Presley Harvin who just got signed earlier this week. First punt with the Niners. Ooh! New face, new place, new balls, new pins. Maybe Presley Harvin has found his home with the San Francisco 49ers, even though Mitch Wischnowski is a phenomenal punter. So Presley Harvin has earned himself a job, hopefully at another place,

because I'm a big fan of his. Although every single punt in Pittsburgh was not great, so he didn't set up the defense all the time. Maybe he has a new home in San Fran, and Cam Johnson becomes the guy that they're going to need. Let's go to some rookie kickers. Hey, how about that guy from the UFL, Jake Bates? He was kicking for the Detroit Detroiters and the UFL. He was hitting 60 yarders all season. And we wondered, is this guy going to be able to make an NFL team? Is this guy going to get an opportunity to do his thing? Oh yeah.

50 some yarder, 43-yard game winner is the guy for the Detroit Lions. And there's players mic'd up on a sideline going, I got nothing but faith in this guy. This team has seen this guy on the internet from the UFL all offseason. So even though he's new to the team, they all know him.

Normally that happens with other positions. For it to happen at the kicker position, I assume they've welcomed him. They've had question marks in the kicking department over the years. Oh, yeah. Since Hanson. Yeah. Hanson was there for 50, 60 years. Hanson and then Prater, and then it's been a toss-up since. And now this guy in Detroit

for the UFL, potentially going to remain in Detroit. Good for the Lions. Now, long season, though, and that leg goes from UFL right into preseason here, training camp, into season. I'll be excited to see how Jake Bates, who seemingly does not have any weaknesses in that thing,

kind of handles it all. Speaking of rookies, how about Braden Narveson for the Tennessee Titans? Rookie from 59 in Tennessee. A Nashville Knight to get to the top. He got a bang, bang, bang home. Wow. A 59-yarder.

Obviously, the boys are pumped. Wearing number 47. Coach Callahan says, we're going to have to get you a new number, kid. Feels like you potentially earned a spot on the roster. Well, not just yet. How about a game winner from 46? Walk off. Congratulations to the Rook.

Go, Brandon. Brandon doing his thing. And then there was one kicker that hit a ball that only one other person in the history of the NFL has done. Brandon Albrey. Dallas Cowboys in his second season as a Dallas Cowboy. Last year, I don't think he missed a kick in practice or in a game. Live from 66 at about 1 a.m. when this game was being played. He goes long.

Coach Michael Carther goes, oh, shit, I didn't expect you to make it. I mean, we sent you out there. Preseason will do our thing. Vegas, good place to kick for sure. But also for 66 yards, you've got to hit that thing so pure to kind of make it go in. Kickers and punters seem to be. And if you think about Justin Tucker hitting a 68-yarder last week, look for Showtime out of these kickers this year.

I can't wait for it. Now, speaking of Showtime, let's go to Patrick Mahomes. Here we go. The highlight of the weekend, ladies and gentlemen. It does feel as if the Chiefs are still the Chiefs. Yeah, for sure.

We're living in it. And some people don't like to see great. Some people don't appreciate the same teams or the same people having success over and over and over and over and over and over and over again that's why the new england patriots organization is hated so bad for sure by everybody else in the nfl because not only are we sick and tired of seeing this entire thing but also they probably

beat your team at one point and cause you a hard time bad day boo heartbreak heartbreak that's right this team has done time and time again this Chiefs team is starting to get like that. Obviously, trying to accomplish something that has never been accomplished in the NFL. Winning three straight Super Bowls. Are you fucking kidding me? Three straight. You know how hard it is to obviously make it to one Super Bowl? I did my rookie year.

Bear made it back, obviously. And I'm not saying I had anything to do with any of that. Getting there or not getting there. I mean, there is a lot that has to go into your team being able to survive the entirety of the season. Can't have any injuries to any important players or role players. In the offseason, after you win, they're going to want to sign

your best players. They did. Tyree Kill, gone. They still win again. And now they're primed to do it, and they're doing shit that, you know, just dicking around. Shouldn't be a lot. We saw him doing the Louisville chugger last week in practice. Now he's doing actual behind-the-back passes in the middle of a fucking game to Travis Kelsey,

who's still Travis Kelsey, by the way. So there's going to be people that don't expect that Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City Chiefs to be able to go three straight. There's going to be people that think they get lucky. There's people that say that Patrick Mahomes is lucky. There's people that compare Patrick Mahomes' stats to other quarterbacks' stats, and the only stat they seemingly don't put on there is Super Bowl's won

by the time you're 27 years of age. And now they're doing behind-the-back passes in the game. Now, you see this, you think to yourself, well, that's magical. Very. This Mahomes guy's magical. Let's hear what Andy Reid had to say about the entire play in his press conference after the game. Sure.

I mean, that's good. I mean, yeah. I think it's – listen, they do it in basketball every game, so several times in every game. So, I mean, it's not that big of a deal. Behind the back. Why, hey. What are we talking about?

Basketball all the time. Wait, you should see me. I get a cheeseburger. Yeah. Boop. And I go, look at that. It's in my left hand now. How about that?

How about with my grandkids? I'll have like a rock in this hand, and I'll go behind my back, and I'll go, which hand? And then they guess, maybe the other one. I go, neither hand. I dropped it. Boom. Like a Mandy Dufresne. Gotcha. So that is not that impressive. Trying to undersell it a little bit. guess maybe the other one like neither hand i dropped it boom like i'm andy defray gotcha so

that is uh not that impressive trying to undersell it a little bit trying to undersell it is he is he trying to make it just like hey this is just going to be a part of our repertoire is andy reed kind of setting people up to be like this isn't that big of a deal and we don't know why this hasn't been happening because although the pads are a little tight and unlike basketball if you do one of those you can lose the game you know there's a lot of passes there's a lot of turnovers there's a lot of possessions in football you do one of those and you're off that thing goes the other way you lose the game so for people to do that especially you know if you have any cheeks too you know you gotta fit it right is uh with shore pad and he wears the yeah he wears this thing so I don't

know if basketball players are wearing all that stuff. I don't think they are. There was a couple players back in the day, though, that had the full wall. Yeah, the pads. Yeah, they were doing their entire thing. But anyways, that is not easy. And for him to complete it to Travis Kelsey, of course he did. What a play call.

I wonder what they call that play. Well, let's go to Travis Kelsey in the middle of the game. Patrick said that the behind-the-back pass was improvised. That wasn't a play. What do you have to say? It wasn't a play? No, it have to say? It wasn't a play? No, it was a play. It was a first down, you know?

He, um, you know he's got the voice thing. And so he kind of mumbled out the play. I couldn't hear it. I was walking up to the line. I was, like, trying to decipher what he was saying. Before I knew it, he snapped the ball. And, uh, yeah, and then I kind of saw him out of my peripheral run to the sideline. So I was trying to go help my guy out.

By the time I looked over there, he was already in mid-form, like a photo on a sports card, throwing the ball to me. So it was just, I guess, right place at the right time. Okay, so he says, nah, and this was after Patrick Mahomes was interviewed during the game, and he said that out of spite he actually threw it and did that. So the Internet obviously goes, well, that's not true. There's no way that's true. Here's Patrick Mahomes in a press conference immediately after the game talking about the play that captivated the entire Internet that so the internet obviously goes well that's not true there's no way that's true here's patrick

mahomes in the press conference immediately after the game talking about the play that captivated the entire internet because we all realized quickly that the chiefs have patrick mahomes and guess who does it everybody all of us here's patrick mahomes talking about the play we had a play called where it was rpo play and travis was supposed to run an out route um we had the leverage we wanted. I should have known because he asked me what he had as he was motioning over. You can see him kind of look back at me. I thought I told him, and it was going to be open.

So I pulled it, and then he wasn't out there, so I was going to run for it. And, of course, he was blocking, and then he just turned around, and I just threw it to him. So it wasn't how it was drawn up, but I always told you it has to happen naturally. I can't, like, force it. And I did it, and then I actually forgot about it and then that like as a game when only asked about it was like, yeah, it probably looks pretty cool, but I haven't actually got to see it yet. Yeah, not necessarily.

I think it's just naturally gotta happen. Like if you look at that play, like, I'm not gonna say it's the only way you can make that throw, but it was kinda, it would've been hard for me to kinda turn and throw it back across above the two guys chasing me, I think. So we'll see when we get on film, but it's not something that I'm gonna try to major in, it might be something that just kinda happens every once in a while. When you let it go, what did it feel like? I knew it was low.

I was just hoping it got to Travis. I knew it was kind of on target. It just was low. But like I said, it wasn't like I didn't do it to look cool. I literally did it as I was pissed. I was like, why didn't you run that route like that? And it just worked out. Okay, so it does feel like unless he's

one of the greatest thespians of all time, that was not a play call. And this is just something that's been added to his repertoire. You know, we got a chance during quarterbacks to kind of see him and his quarterback coach and his body coach. And they talk about working on all the off-balance shit. You know, C.J. Stroud has his own way to go about doing it. But Patrick Mahomes' workouts during the offseason, former baseball player.

I don't know. That's right. He played baseball. Yes, he did. Did you know he played? His dad also. Yeah, pitched in the big leagues. So we just want to be able to utilize that arm talent that he has,

but also make sure that he's prepared for it. So nothing is really off balance. Everything is in balance. They talk about people not having to reset and get their feet under them. His feet need to be always under them, and that's what we work on all the time. And people talk about Patrick Mahomes as this guy who's incredible. I think his work ethic also phenomenal. So all that shit that he is doing has obviously been worked on for 10,000 hours, seemingly,

to get the confidence to be able to pull it off in a game, preseason game. That's a different level. Joining us now is a guy who had a lot of success. You know? At what point? So many. The most amount of success. By far.

In the history of football. For the longest time. The most amount of, did it's in the history of football greatest gm of all time greatest head coach of all time ladies and gentlemen eight time super bowl champion bill belichick hey pat how you doing i love i love what's behind you right now. That Scrabble board has got me zinked up. That Scrabble board? Hell yes.

I mean, I would assume you're a master Scrabble player. Is that something that's accurate? I don't know about that, but that's all right. I appreciate you doing that. It looks cool, and we're very thankful that you're joining us. We were just talking about the Kansas City Chiefs and obviously the Patrick Mahomes behind-the-back play that they're saying was not a called play.

It was improvised. It was really the only way for me to get the ball to Travis, who ran the wrong route. We all have heard about the Travis routes and how that whole thing works. What are your thoughts on this Kansas City Chiefs team being able to sustain success when the entire world is not only kind of hoping you fail, but looking for you to fail?

How do you continue to get better, and how do you continue to drive, and what do you think about this particular group with Andy Reid leading the way? Yeah, you know, I think that's a really interesting question, Pat. Let's see, let's start on offense. It looked to me like they wanted to play uh worthy with my homes and my homes gave him a bunch of targets uh you know i got him on that first flag route and then uh another route they ran a reverse uh to him things like that so it looked like it

was uh let's get some timing with the receivers with rice with uh worthy uh kelsey for a little while in there and i think that was for the quarterback and receivers just to get work under game conditions, not just practice. And so I think that was the purpose of it. Then Andy let the rest of the guys play throughout the game. But I thought offensively, it looks like it's just going to be an effort to get the young guys timing with Pat so they're ready to go and ready to go early against Baltimore. Obviously, they have the big opener there.

I think the bigger issues are going to be on defense. You know, they couldn't turn the ball over. Look, they played very well in the playoffs, so that's where it counts, and that's the most important thing. But overall, as a team, run defense, turnovers, I think that's an area that they're going to want to improve in. And I just think it's going to be tough this year. They're a good team.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that. I just think this third year for it all to fall into place three years in a row is tough. I think if anybody can do it, it's probably Kansas City. But it won't be easy. It won't be easy. They'll have a, you know, I'm not sure how tough the AFC West is going to be. But I think in the end, you know, they're going to have some tough opponents, you know,

through the course of the season and playoffs. But, you know, Andy will have them ready to go. And I think they'll maybe score more than they did last year. We'll see if they're, you know, see if they can hold up defensively. You know, I lost a couple good coverage players, obviously Snead. We'll see how all that comes together. Okay, so let's talk about, you know, winning for a third straight time, and I believe in players

just like I believe in Andy Reed. Like, the coach and the player, quarterback and coach, I think we all kind of believe in. So it's an easy thing to see them be able to accomplish it. For them to be able to win three straight, all anybody's talking about is some of the teams that you ran you ran obviously they're like even the Patriots even the Patriots weren't able to win three straight which is a massive compliment congratulations that's

gonna be that's gonna be forever right which is which is forever but why is it so hard to go back to back you think and what was your message and like kind of mindset after you win a Super Bowl for the next season is it just same exact shit every single year or do you have to adapt your messaging after you've got to the mountaintop well i think it's two messages really one is starting all over again rebuilding everything starting at the base you know and putting the stacking days together and weeks together and training camp on your fundamentals and you know building those pillars that give you strength to get you through a long regular season and postseason particularly in the fundamentals uh so it's starting over but it's also finding a new way to win and each year

is a different year uh even if you have some of the same players there's always uh some differences whether it's your opponents or um the circumstances that you go through during the course of the year, that varies from year to year. So we'll see what Kansas City's challenges are this year, whether it's a fast start and maybe a little dip in there or vice versa. I mean, who knows? But it'll be there. I do think one of the biggest things they have going for them is, you know,

great leadership from the quarterback. I think Mahomes is, you know, hardest worker on the team which is a great thing to have we had that with Brady so nobody slacks off when the quarterback doesn't slack off the receivers the offensive line and the defense you know puts a lot of pressure on them I'm sure the practices are very competitive so you know two most important people here obviously are Mahomes and Reed and and they're really good. But, you know, that player shown right there is a good example of Mahomes, you know, trying to get the ball to, you know, his timing with Worthy

and, you know, see how that works out. Then, you know, Wentz ended up hitting him for a touchdown pass. But there were four or five targets to Worthy and to Rice in the game, and I think that was important for Mahomes to get that. You talking about, you know, Patrick Mahomes, and I think, I don't know if it was Travis who was talking, somebody talked, maybe it was Tom Brady. Nah, Peyton.

I think it was Peyton, actually, that said, Patrick Mahomes is okay with Andy Reid coaching him. And, like, he needs to be coached. And he accepts criticism in heart. And so everybody on the team sees that. And obviously it is being immediately compared yet again to your relationship with Tom and you mentioned about how Tom is your hardest worker. He was also a guy that was willing to take coaching.

Now, at what stage did you know that he was gonna be different than most superstars and how fragile almost some superstars can be, especially whenever they've been coddled their entire lives, which quarterbacks have been, high school, college. Now I know he was back up 199, everything like that. But quarterbacks have been lifted up since they're kids pretty much, if you can throw a football, and then still having the mental toughness to be able to be coached.

When did you realize that with Tom? And you acknowledge, obviously, that that is a massive piece of the entire culture builder in there as well. Yeah, absolutely, Pat. obviously that that is a massive piece of the entire culture builder in there as well yeah absolutely pat uh well look tom's one of our hardest workers as a rookie and he didn't even play um you know we had a lot of rookies on the roster we didn't have any salary cap space so the the team was filled with rookies and you know he would take those guys out extra after practice and run through the plays and that type of thing but he really improved a lot in obviously 2000 to 2001 when he beat out Heward for the backup spot then from 2001 to 2002 even though the team wasn't as good you know I thought Tom took strides as a quarterback 2003-2004 so

you know I think look he improved every day for for 20 years but I think the biggest improvement came in the first four years but he continued to work and again the big thing every year was you know who are the receivers who are the tight ends who are the runbacks how can I make them better you know when you get guys like Gronkowski you know that's different than than Dan Graham and Watson some of the tight ends we had before that and we had different receivers like Randy Moss to Edelman to Troy Brown I mean those guys are all good but they're all different and so how do you learn to use those players and I think that's one of the things that Mahomes does really well is he knows what his players can do

how to get the most out of them and and I think you know having Pacheco healthy and being able to have a good running game there you know really takes gives a good balance to the offense that gets tough he runs so mean he runs so mean high knee just just through you know really takes gives a good balance to the offense that kids talk he runs so mean he runs so mean high knee just just through you know there's some people in I think Kyle Brandt angry runs obviously highlights it but as a person who potentially had to accidentally tackle people you know for a living it was like there's some returners that like the way they ran on film I was like okay we can kind of do the you know if we need to then there's some people the way they ran on film, it was like, okay, we can kind of do the, you know, if we need to. Then there's some people, the way they run,

it's like, oh, they're attacking me. They are going to be attacking. Pacheco has been that since what? Rookie, I assume, as well. He's been that since the very, very beginning. Fun to watch. Last year, they said they relied on the run and the defense.

That was new for Patrick Mahomes. He even acknowledged that midway through the year. Now he got worth. Coach, they got better somehow. Now on defense, I know they lost their thing. Now let's talk a little preseason football. Ty Schmitz got a question for you, Bill. Yeah, Coach, we talked to you last week about this, and then we've been talking about it as we've been watching the games, which a lot of these teams, you know, we're seeing the twos and the threes on either defense or offense, and some of the games haven't been very competitive. They've been blowouts. At what point do you realize when it is all twos and threes going like oh wow we we might not have

the type of depth that we're going to need this year and at this point in the preseason is there any way you can remedy that before the regular season starts uh right i think that's those are good points um but really i think you just got to take a very close look, and each coach knows his team well. Sometimes the players are good enough, but collectively they're not playing well together for some reason or another. Maybe it's the amount of reps they've gotten together or just the execution of that particular group.

But individually, you have some pretty good players. Sometimes you're lacking a couple of players, of that particular group but individually you have you know some pretty good players sometimes you're you're lacking a couple players and if you're light at a certain position that can show up pretty quickly in a preseason game um you know tackle against defensive end or you know center against defensive tackle or receiver against the corner or vice versa so uh those mismatches don't don't occur as much during the regular season i think you just really have to take a good look at your individual players, who they're playing against, and then if there's a reason why the overall execution of the offense or defense isn't good, it could be player-related

or it could be communication and scheme-related. And a lot of times that happens on defense in preseason games where you just don't cover the patterns properly or have the right adjustments or maybe you don't even have very many adjustments in the game. So it really depends. I wouldn't think there's just one answer to all those questions. It's a combination of things. It's really how well the coach and general manager make and evaluate their team, you know, very specifically to the combination of people they have out there and who they're playing against.

So you walk over to the mirror and say, all right, Coach Belichick, speaking as general manager Belichick, and you guys just kind of figure out what you need. Was that – nobody will be able to do it again, you think? You being coach and GM, why are you – and this is me asking you to talk good about yourself it again you think why you being coach and gm why why are you and you're this is me asking you to talk good about yourself which you won't do so this is going to be uh this is probably we'll learn as the season goes here every monday on how i should set up questions here look i would just put it this way

you need you need two people to run a football team and then a lot of people underneath them you need personnel person and a coach, right, however that works. And that could be a general manager. The titles really are, you know, they could be whatever they are. But somebody's got to run the personnel and somebody's got to coach the team. And nobody can do both. It's too big of a job. Actually, either one of those jobs, you need a lot of good people to work with you.

Ultimately, somebody has to have the final say. It's either the head coach or the general Ultimately, somebody has to have the final say. It's either the head coach or the general manager, the personnel guy or the coach, however it is. And then whichever one doesn't, then the other person works with them or, you know, you work collectively. But at some point, somebody has to have the final say. Usually, my experience has been there's not a big discrepancy in those decisions. You know, most everybody's on the page, on the same page and sees it the same way but occasionally uh you know somebody has to make the final say you know now owners get involved in that sometimes as well so that's another factor but between the personnel and football uh you know generally speaking i think that for the most part i think that those people are pretty much see the

team the same way the construction of the team and the way it's developing but at some point one of those people along with the owner has to have the final say in in the in the moves and so that's you know that i'd say that's how it works but one person can't run an organization it's just too much there's no way did you reach out to your friend billio whenever he was getting more titles every single day down in houston he was the head coach, GM, lead counsel, PR. Head contractor. Yeah, I forget. He just took on more and more and more jobs as it went. He was like, this guy's got to be underwater.

And it turns out it did not work out. But we've heard none of the good things about the guy from a lot of people that know him. But as we were watching that kind of take place, the comment was, oh, this guy thinks he's Bill Belichick. This guy thinks he's Bill Belichick. When in reality, I think some of those things were kind of just thrown on the floor. I think it was an interesting situation for him.

Connor has a question for you. This one now goes back to draft night. Yeah, Coach, there's been a lot of talk about Sean Payton and Bo Nix throughout this whole entire preseason. So we went back and pulled this clip from the interview with Sean Payton. Fox, you were on it. Nix has played a lot of football. He's played a lot of good football.

Kind of felt like the short passing game was part of the system, but he could definitely get the ball down the field, and nobody's NFL ready. But I'd say of the college quarterbacks, he's probably pretty close to being NFL ready. And like you said, the best quarterback in the pocket, best in those situations. There's a lot to like about this kid, and he wins.

I think it's hard to be an NFL quarterback if you're not somewhat accurate. We were there for the pro day, and then our private workout was the following day. We threw 80 more balls. And I can't think of a pass where the first sign of an inaccurate quarterback is when you're throwing these shorter routes because the ball's got to be on the right shoulder. It's a little bit easier down the field to stretch the ball and maybe hide your accuracy deficiencies. Man, it was impressive. I just remember we got in the car afterwards and I just looked around and I said, are you kidding me? How do you feel about what

you've seen so far, Bill, from Bo Nix and Sean Payton working together? And at what point do you think that they kind of do go full force ahead? Bo Nix is our quarterback, and we're going with him for the entire year in Denver? Well, I think you go with him when you feel like he's ready to go. What you don't want to do is you don't want to put a rookie quarterback in there. Let's, for example, here. What I don't think you want to do is put Bo in there, and then after three or four games find out you need to take him out and put Stid back in there and go that way. I don't think that would work.

I think that just creates a lot of confusion, and I really don't think that's what you want to do. If you're sure Bo Nix is the guy, then you go with him, but you don't turn back. You stay with him all the way through. If you go the other way and start with Stid, who's actually played, I think, pretty well in the preseason. You know, he showed some toughness scoring last week and, you know, had an interception when the ball got batted at the line of scrimmage. So, I mean, overall, I thought he's done a decent job. If you feel like he gives your team a better chance to win and you want to give, you know, the younger player a little more chance and you don't think he's quite ready yet, know the younger player a little more chance and you don't think he's quite ready yet then then when you make that move you're going to make it whether it's to start the season week three

week six weeks eight at the bye week whatever it is once you make that move then you know i think you're committed to it all the way you don't want to you don't want to change it at that point so i'd say once sean's sure that that bow is you know ready to go and you know he knows that this is the direction and he's ready and and he just needs some reps out there and it'll continue to get better, then I think he'll make that move. Look, he's played well in preseason, but it's preseason. The coverages are simple, but he's delivered the ball well. He's got it out on time. He sees the field well. He's done a good job of taking care of the ball. He's done a good job of extending

some plays and making good decisions of the ball. He's done a good job of extending some plays and making good decisions with the ball in his hands under some pressure. But, again, it's against very vanilla defenses. I think how it goes in practice against both the Denver defense and their joint practices, that's part of it too. We just haven't seen those. But he's obviously done a good job. I mean, he's gone in there and played very well in a couple of pre, too. We just haven't seen those. I think. But he's obviously done a good job. I mean, he's gone in there and played, you know, very well in a couple of preseason games.

So that doesn't surprise me. He's, you know, he's played a lot of good football in his career. I believe in Bo Nix. Sure. He's big. He's fast. You know, and the way Sean Payton is seemingly, it seems like he's going to be durable, too. Played a lot of football in college.

Obviously been through a lot, so it feels like he's calloused potentially through a lot of different situations, especially down there in Auburn with how that whole thing went and the whole conversation. I think those are good things as you head into the season. And it's like Sean Payton, who thank you for booking him during draft night while Oz the Mentalist was doing one of the greatest tricks in the history. But it feels like he's going to want Bowe to do well too. He knows the situation that just took place.

Tone's going to ask a question, but he knows the situation in Denver. They're taking $83 million in a cap hit to move on from their previous quarterback, Russell Wilson, which Tone is going to ask about here in a minute. But I don't want to say he wants Bo. Every coach wants their players to work. But, like, he feels really invested, right, in the Bo Nix selection, it feels like, from outside looking in.

And are they a perfect fit, seemingly? Well, it looks like – look, I think Sean's done a good job with, you know, with Stidham too. Sean's a great quarterback coach, and he'll have those guys ready to play, and he'll tail the offense around whoever the quarterback is. So I think for Sean it's probably, like right now, it's just getting to know Bo Nix and feeling comfortable with Bo. What's he really good at?

What maybe do we not want to emphasize quite as much, keep him away from certain things? Or maybe he feels pretty good about everything and, you know, he just needs a little more time. But Sean's offense is a very fast offense. They don't go no huddle, but they substitute fast. They call the play. They get up to the line of scrimmage.

And once the ball's snapped, everything's moving fast, as fast as anybody in the league. So there's a lot of mental processing and decision-making that has to take place in a hurry. And assuming the quarterback's good at that, then, you know, we've seen Breeze execute it. We know what it is, but it's still, I would say it's still, you know, not easy to do. If Bo can do it, then as soon as, I think as soon as Sean's comfortable with what Bo can do, he'll, you know, he'll just ride it out with him coach that Oregon offense I don't know how much you watched it obviously you've

seen a lot of it but whenever Bo was running it I mean that was just like it way it almost feels like should be a good match of feel like it should be a good match even though college defense is like 75% completion I mean look granted not every pass was 80 yards downfield but I mean I don, I don't care. 75% completion is still 75% completion. I like that you just called it stid, too, by the way. We're going to head over to Hammer. Don, Don, you can grab a water if you need it. Go ahead, Tone.

Yeah, Coach, things aren't all warm and fuzzy in Pittsburgh from the fans' point of view after watching Saturday's preseason game and seeing Russell Wilson get his first action and Justin Fields as well. Do you think there's any chance that Russell Wilson can get back to his 2020 style play where he was, I mean, that 40 touchdowns, 30 interceptions, we don't even need that, but is there a chance that Russell Wilson can get back to where he was in his Seattle days? And what do you think coach Tomlin is thinking when he's making his decision between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields who now turns it over a little more than Russell Wilson but is a little more electric and obviously can make plays with his legs? Well I think the number one thing in Coach Tomlin's mind is taking care of the football don't turn it over and that's

something that Russell is very good at um i think there are probably more concerns about that with fields uh but look i think they have bigger problems than the quarterback position i mean that's my opinion i think that the defense is a you know it's a pretty solid unit um the offensive line you know had a hard time um you know being consistent there uh they lost the tackles so now they got jones over there playing right tackle and and uh or it brought her playing right tackle dan jones playing left tackle uh they you know i'd say inside you know i have a rookie center frazier so he's got a way to go you know the guards are i mean they've had some too, in the first two preseason games. So, look, I think Arthur Jones is a great fit, you know, for that offense, for what Coach Tomlin wants.

They need to get the running game going. They have good backs. They need to get those backs started. Russell's good out of the pocket. He'll be able to, you know, hit those play-action passes. I thought the throw he made to Pickens in the game was what Russell Wilson is. He's one of the best downfield throwers in the league. So he put the ball, you know, to Pickens right there on the sideline. He was just out of bounds, but that's the right idea. And, you know, those are the plays that

Russell makes, you know, down the field there. And I think the offensive line really needs to, this is it right here. I mean, it's, you know, it's a great throw and, you know, just barely misses, but he'll hit those. And I wouldn't really worry about that. He'll take care of the ball. I think the biggest thing for Pittsburgh is to get the running game and, and, uh, and the offensive line, you know, playing consistently, being able to get a hat on a hat, uh, the inside players being able to get up to the second liner and to the second level and get that his own run going for Arthur Smith. But, uh, you know, I thought Arthur did a really good job with Atlanta last year with some quarterback, you know, situation there.

They didn't have a lot of explosive players on offense. And obviously Robinson's a good back, but, you know, he kept them in a lot of games. They just, just didn't play well enough a quarterback to, to have a better record in my opinion. But I think that Arthur's the right, the good fit. He's a really good coach. I think he'll get a lot out of this team.

It may take a little while, and I think the sooner the offensive line can come together and create some consistent running lanes for the backs so that they're not in long yardage, they can stay on track on first and second down, give Russell a chance to get the ball down the field. I think that's their formula to win, whether they can do that or not remains to be seen.

But I think the problems are bigger than Russell Wilson. I think it's really the offensive line and the running game. I think everybody is waiting for Russell Wilson to not do well so they can bury him. You know, that's kind of classic Russell Wilson football at this point. Because of the danger, which because of the Mr. I'm in the middle. Which I'm not sure you even know what that is but somebody should show you at some point you know he has this personality that kind of is a movie quarterback in the nfl everything he says when he's mic'd up like clear eyes full hearts let's

go you know like what he's saying on the sideline i've never heard an actual human in real life say uh but i've never been on a uh field with like Tebow, who I think is always like Tim Tebow. And Russell Wilson, I think, is always like Russell Wilson, but the way he is, whenever it's going well, people are like, hey, this is perfect. But when it doesn't go great, people want to kill him. Now, him going to Pittsburgh is good news. Double-edged sword, though. If he plays very good, he'll have a bunch of yinzers going to bat for him,

which is a great shit-talk and they will go but if he if it does not go well now you got that great shit talking community also added to the entire which everybody from denver is telling pittsburgh fans this what we were saying with russell the entire time he won't it's not too bad he'll be able to keep the ball he won't turn it over uh but then it never came the the calvary never came he's pretty much what they said do you think now granted i guess the offensive line is the biggest question is can you figure that out how long does it take to figure out offensive lines and how do you go about fixing that because isn't that a big chemistry type deal to the offensive line as a whole well it's it's chemistry, but it's also performance.

I mean, there are several examples in the game where they're getting beat inside. The guards are getting beat inside. Center's giving up an edge. Tackles are getting beat around the edge. There's some protection issues there. And then I think after Pickens, just looking at the receiver situation, look, they're obviously trying to acquire a premier type of receiver, somebody to add to the

receiving core they haven't been able to do that uh there's still a long way to go there between the final roster cuts and you know in-season trades and so forth so we'll see all that comes along but you know they're they're clearly trying to upgrade that their receiver position which would certainly help them but if if they had a little more consistent play from the offensive line so the running game could go i think that would take the pressure off everything look this isn't a team that wants to go back and throw the ball 45 times we know that that's what they have to do then it probably isn't going to go very well you know unless they can play great defense and and you know get a lot of turnovers but their defense is good at getting the ball out uh they can you

know they can keep the score down they don't have to go out and score 50 points to win every week. If they can get the running game going and create some plays with another receiver besides Pickens, they have Friar move. Najia Harris is an excellent receiving back. I think they can

be competitive in that division, but they're going to need to obviously do better than they did last week against Buffalo offensively with just more consistency moving the ball. Pittsburgh's very worried. The internet reaction is Pittsburgh's very worried. We go from one bad quarterback to two bad quarterbacks. That's really good news, but hopefully the offense settles in. Hopefully the offensive line is able to figure it out. You just talk about them trying to acquire a big name wide receiver. You've been following along with the IU story like the rest of us. And I know there never seemed to be any of this type of shit with the Patriots.

Now, there have been rumors of contract disputes and drama things happening behind closed doors. And then those players getting traded out of town the next day. Literally the next day. There's rumors. I don't know if it's real. These are just rumors that have taken place. Whenever you have these types of, hey, hey, we're hitting a fall.

Allergies are... Cold season. Hey, we're in the middle. We need you loading up, coach. Okay? You know, and obviously... You got it. I got some vitamins we could send over there, too.

Toughen up, you know. Yeah, it would help. I smoked enough cigars this guy's won. Natural honey yeah natural in there but whatever one of these situations happens like the iuk situation has taken place alongside trent williams as well which is obviously everybody knows about it how do you hand how did you go about handling this type of stuff did it ever happen and is there messaging to team whenever somebody isn't there it's just like we got to worry about who's here is that kind of how you addressed it like the iuk situation seems very loud there's vlogs coming out there was vlogs coming out there's posts there's comments it's

very public like everybody kind of understands the situation here and there's quotes cd cd lamb situation in dallas with what jerry's saying like yeah maybe maybe not uh they got a number we got a number we got a fun how did How did you handle these types of things? And do you see this happening more often now, I think, over the next few years in the NFL? Is this going to become more of a trend back again? Well, it certainly looks like a little bit of a trend now. You know, over the last couple of years and then this year, you know, a little bit more of it. I think that's a combination of some of the agents.

There's certain agents that, you know, have that kind of hold out, hold in strategy, the hold in strategy now, because of how much the players are getting fined for not being in training camp, $30,000 a day, whatever it is, that if they miss preseason games, if they're not in camp, then that's what those are game checks. So the players are coming in and they're saying, you know, they have an injury, a sore back, you know hamstring ankle whatever it is and so they're you know effectively using an injury to take themselves out so i would say the club's options

are limited um you know it's hard for them to go to the player and say well you know you're not hurt i mean that brings up a whole another set of circumstances and the player is not going to leave camp because the amount that he's getting fine now Trent Williams is out but with the level of his contract one or two million dollars once they finally resolve it probably isn't going to make a huge difference so you know he's taking a little different tact and that's what he did at Washington so I think as a coach you just have to you just have to take the cards the way they're played and try to make the best of it. I think if the player comes in, like Junon did this last year,

he came to training camp and effectively didn't practice. But Matt was going to play last year, and so he worked and trained hard on his own until we were able to resolve the contract. My position was, we're not going to negotiate with you if you're not working and you're not here. So if you leave, then that's a really bad precedent as well. If he leaves, then start giving him money. We'll have everybody out. So come here, work hard.

We'll talk to you. Let's see if we can make it work. What we did with Matt was something that we did with Gronkowski. We did with Rob. We did with Julian, where if there was a gap between where they were and what they thought they should make. And if we thought that was reasonable, then we put it in incentives. So you have a good year with Judon. The market was around 20. He was somewhere around 15. I forget the exact numbers. We gave him incentives to call it 19. And so if he had had the same year he had in 21 and 22, he would have made the 19. Unfortunately, he got hurt. And so

the whole thing was a moot point. But the point is that I think you try to find a way to compromise sometimes uh incentives or maybe it's a new contract i think it bats age last year the new contract plus he had two years to go on his contract so uh that's another one we didn't renegotiate with uh gilmore with two years to go on his contract we didn't renegotiate with judon with two years to go on his contract i think when you start renegotiating with two years to go, again, you could have, you know, 15 man parade coming in there with two years to go that want to renegotiate.

So our position was always do it the last year. And so, you know, if it was two years, then we try to find another solution rather than renegotiate. So we didn't have the two year precedent. So those are some of the things that we did. I'm not saying those are the answers. I think every situation is different every team is different and i think ultimately the team has to decide what they're comfortable with and what they're not i think the the

cincinnati situation is interesting you know higgins came in there signed his tender right away basically said hey i'm playing football i'm gonna go out there and have a good year uh you know and jamar didn't take that same you know approach similar situation so it's uh you know i don't think there's any uh cookie cutter deal here you know each guy and each agent has their own you know strategy for what they think is best for them and their player um again i think when you start at the top with a guy like mahomes or a guy like brady who do everything to make sure that there's no issues with their contract then that makes it you know a little bit easier with everybody else

you know and everybody else can you know respect the you know the overall team concept and the team goals not not saying they want to play for nothing. That's not the point. But to try to find some way to compromise to work it out. You know, when Mahomes is out there working out hard and Brady's out there working, you know, the other players, they want to be out there with them working too. And I'd say usually it's a better solution when the quarterback's not part of the problem. Judon getting hurt, not getting his incentives,

is a massive piece of what his agent was probably telling him this year about how, hey, we're not doing this whole song and dance again. But that was with two years left, not one year left. He's now down in Atlanta. They've been making moves down there. Good luck to Atlanta and Raheem Morris. You talk about Tom Brady there with his contract not being a deal. You guys almost started like the salary cap gymnastics.

Do you view it that way? Whenever you moved it to signing bonus and then kicked the can down, I don't want to say kicked the can down the road, but spread the money out throughout the rest of the contract. Now, that became like, that's everybody's move. You guys were doing that for a long time

because when it was first getting announced, it was like Tom Brady, hero, is taking his entire salary and getting it on one day instead of getting it throughout the entire season. But in doing so, frees up $10 million, $15 million to the New England Patriots, yada, yada. You guys seemingly were ahead of the curve on that.

Did that happen before you guys started doing it? And when did that become, like, the move? Because it feels like teams should and have weaponized that particular signing bonus to spread out the rest of the contract over the season. You guys were obviously doing that with Tom, I feel like, back in the day. Yeah, we did it a couple of times, Pat, but I wouldn't say that was very frequent. Really, we tried to – we didn't have voidables except for the last year with Brady. We didn't have fake years in the contract where the defensive ends are making $60 million

and you have to cut them and things like that. And so we just didn't do that and i think that was really how we were able to sustain our success for so long uh was that the cap was managed we were always at the cap and we pushed it but then there were a lot of players that um you know didn't finish their careers with us for one reason or another you know when when the salary cap became an issue, we had to make some tough decisions. And unfortunately, I would say release some players that, you know, or trade players that I really didn't want to do that with. They were good players. We just couldn't afford them all. I think when you look at what Kansas City's doing, you know, that Andy and Brett had done a really good job there, particularly in the last

couple of years with, you you know they didn't pay Tyreek who's obviously a good player they didn't pay Snead who's you know a good player but they've drafted well and they've replaced those players and now even though they have some expensive players on the roster they have a lot of young players especially on defense and you know two thirds of their caps on the offensive side of the ball one third's on defense but they have some draft choices on defense and so they've been able to maintain that. And so I think that that's, you know, you've got to find some young players, some undrafted free agents. You've got to find the, you know, the Ryan Wendells, the, you know, late-round picks like Edelman or, you know, Jacoby Myers or, you know, people like that to keep it going.

You just don't have enough money to pay everybody. If you look at teams like Philadelphia, New Orleans, even Atlanta is starting to fall into that category, too, where they have so much money pushed out that they really don't have a lot of flexibility going forward with multiple free agents that are up this year, five, six, seven, eight guys, and literally no cap space or very little cap space. Not that you can't create it, which New Orleans has done that, but again, New Orleans has taken some hits this year, especially on the offensive line.

They haven't done anything with Kamara's contract. It'll be interesting to see how they handle that because I don't think he has any very much really dead money. Most of his contract is just if he's on the roster he gets if he isn't then that becomes a big cap saving so it'll be interesting to see what happens with him but those teams that haven't pushed out you know with voidable years uh you know all over the place in their in their contracts or or in their salary structure or you know at some point those credit card bills are going to have to come due.

And I think that Kansas City, besides having a really good football team, you know, has managed that well. You know, San Francisco is kind of at the other end of that. I'm talking about the two Super Bowl teams trying to push a lot of money out. They lost, you know, quite a few free agents this year, whether they wanted to lose them or couldn't afford to pay them, whatever it is. Now you've got a lot of other guys that want more money and they're getting

into a tight spot here. Now the quarterback's not very expensive right now, but if that changes, then that's another issue. As you know, Pat, when the players hit free agency and you re-sign them on your team, just take Brady, for example. Brady goes from, call it $5 million to $15 million in a different cap scenario.

His cap number goes up by $10 million or whatever the number is. Well, he doesn't get any better from year four to year five. You have the same player. It just costs you a lot more you know so brady matt light you know those guys you know when when three or four of them all hit at the same time you don't get any better as a team you actually get worse because their salary goes up to what it should be but in order to afford them you have to you know drop players that you were able to afford you know a year or two earlier when they're when they were on their rookie deals so it just gets into you know team management but or two earlier when they were on their rookie deals. So it just gets into, you know, team management.

But having Mahomes solidified, which, I mean, look, eventually they're going to have to do something with him. But I think one of the, you know, one of the issues that, you know, every team's got to look at, and I'm sure they all did, but you look at these quarterback contracts that have come out recently, and you mentioned it earlier, the 83 million dollars with russell right so if those quarterbacks work then great they're worth the money if they don't work then you can end up with a russell russell wilson situation like denver has and that's really

you know could be very difficult to manage i mean it's hamstrung the team now for Sean for, you know, a couple of years. So if all these guys play well and stay healthy and all that, then, you know, great. But it's not just the 50 million that they're getting paid. All right. It would be the acceleration of somebody who, you know, doesn't play to the contract or whatever the circumstances are. Team gets saddled with that. That's a big anchor to drag around. So I just think as an organization, you've got to be really careful when you make that commitment that you're all in because if it doesn't work, we see where Denver is. I mean, it's a tough situation to get out of for a couple of years.

Yeah. I mean, I'm excited to see how they manage that with that roster, with an $83 million deficit. If it has success, other people will think about doing the same thing. If not, others will just hang on for the ride and continue to ride into irrelevancy. Coach, you're the best, man. Thank you so much for taking time. Thank you for that Scrabble board. That's fucking

beautiful. And I hope that Lombo wasn't the reason that we're coughing right now. We appreciate you. We'll see you next Monday. All right. Sounds good, Pat. Have a good week. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Will Belichick. Yeah, Coach! Just went through a PhD of roster. Yeah, crazy. We don't have. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Will Belichick. Just went through a PhD of roster. Yeah, crazy.

We don't have the voidable years like all this shit. Believe me, I started hearing all these voidable years, $60 million. He's not making that much money. That's fascinating. I mean, and then you wonder where situations like Dallas are popping up. It's like, that's probably Jerry Jones coming from an old school type mindset.

You've got to think that that's another thought that they might be having. So you are starting to believe the trend that is starting to really kick up on the internet that Jerry Jones isn't making any moves until he hears what the hell Bill Belichick wants next year. Well, I mean, not only that, but it's like, hey, how many times can you go 12-5 and then do nothing in the playoffs and continue to do that same thing over and over again? I appreciate that Bill's like, now, Chiefs defense played great during the playoffs, which is the only time that matters, he wanted to say. But they got some things to figure out over there.

I love listening to him talk, man. What a genius. Football genius. Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under but this time, not from you. It's through their UberTeen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak

equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardins Business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business. Football! It's the greatest. It's awesome to get a chance to chit-chat about the greatest sport on earth,

American football. Hell yeah. And I only say that first word, you know, to pay respect to all of the international soccer that's taking place right now. Teams are playing all over the world in games that definitely matter for things that people are going to hold in high regard for the rest of their lives. They won't forget about them until the next tournament comes around literally 10 days from now. And the last one does not matter.

Shout out to soccer happening. I don't know if you saw this weekend. Guy got brutally assaulted. Brutally assaulted. Newcastle, Southampton. Red card out of there. I actually watched some of the games Saturday morning. This guy, boom.

All right, who's going to get ejected from this game? Everybody wonder. If you said the person in the yellow, you're wrong. The one with the black and white stripes, ejected. See ya. Get them out of the game. Can't do it. Just got attacked, assaulted by this little handsome bachelor-looking son of a bitch in the yellow.

Just no room for that. And then you answer. You say, hey, how you doing? You know, you want a little something, something. And then boom, gone. See ya. Red card. Red card.

You're going to mess with the magpies and get away with it, brother. A red card. I mean, you display that type of violence, you're going to have to answer for it. So thank God we saved the word football. You know, when we turned it into our football. But soccer's great, Gump. Soccer is great. They need guardian caps. Great start to

the season. Guardian caps, guardian capes. That's going to happen, man. Guardian capes, too, for when they fall on their back. They're just playing bubbles. Yeah, maybe bubble wrap them all. Yeah. That'd be smart. Including the ball. Gump, that can't happen. That's what VAR is supposed to be for. If that gets thrown to VAR,

they should fix that. Instead, they actually stuck with it. That's the problem. We love the soccer, don't we? We invested time in the soccer, didn't we? We invested money into the soccer, didn't we? You know what? We invested money into it. What? T you know what we never into it what tst we're definitely doing tst again that's different i'm not talking tst here that's the best soccer yes

it is that is the most superior tournament yeah tst boy boy boy uh let's talk stable at boss connor anti-schmidt from hammer dot Bron. Giants look great. Yeah. You know, I mean, Daniel's first pick six, second drive interception wasn't great, but, you know, it'll happen. The O-line looks solid. This is what I appreciate from the New York Giants. All offseason, we literally heard everything they said about everybody that was on their team. All the big decisions that were made, we watched on Hard Knocks with NFL Films, the offseason. First time we've ever been sitting in a general manager's room,

talking to his staff while he's saying, nah, we're not dealing with this guy anymore. We're not paying him the amount of money. And also, we're going to find out if our quarterback is actually a $40 million quarterback after paying that person $40 million and that person having to hear that that's how the building is talking about him,

even though it is very obvious that that is the reality. And then in a preseason game, that does not matter at all. This happens. And Dayball, who's the head coach of the team, who we fell in love with after Hard Knocks, to be honest. For sure. Very much a weapon in all these meetings. Every time he was on camera, it was awesome to kind of hear him.

He has lost 150 pounds as well. I mean, shout out, shout out. It's like saying why. Pilates. Shout out. Pilates, you know, some food restrictors probably in pounds as well. I mean, shout out, shout out. It's like saying why. Pilates. Shout out. Pilates, you know, some food restrictors probably in there as well. Somebody whose weight fluctuates. I have nothing but mad respect for what Dayball was able to accomplish

with his health and his fitness. But, boy, Daniel Jones did everything that if you want to talk shit about the New York Giants for paying him $40 million, he did everything you'd want him to do. And that is terrible decisions, a couple bad throws. But there was a lot of promise and there was hope. Here's Coach Dayball talking about Daniel Jones. I'm curious what you saw when you went back and looked at Daniel Jones

in sort of that first quarter and then what you make of the difference of the first quarter and the second quarter. Well, look, I thought there was two plays that I'd like to have back, that we'd like to have back, but I thought he played fast. I mean, it's different when you're out there in practice. This was good for him to get out there and get some live reps. Never played before. With the rush and the ability to get hit.

He had that scramble. He's a rookie, rookie, yeah. But I'd say he operated well in the pocket. Obviously, the backup play, we've talked about that one. We'd all like to have that one back. The interception, you know, it's a one-on-one throw down the sideline to Hyatt. So, got to do a good job of saving some space and going up there and giving them opportunity.

Then if the ball is up there, we got to go up there and get it. So, I thought he made a lot of good decisions as the game went on made some nice throws and guys create some separation a couple drops but you know first time out there after after a long layoff live ball it was good for him i love the way he handled that daniel jones is listening to everything now because he's got a chance to hear what the general manager is saying about him in meetings and he now hears his head coach going to bat for him. I think Dayball handled it perfectly. It's preseason. We shouldn't judge it.

That's how Giants fans are viewing this? Or are Giants fans very loud about, we suck again? What is the Giants fans' reaction to a preseason game? I do think it's somewhere in the middle because this is year six for Daniel Jones. We're not talking about, like you said. No, but he's just getting a feel. It's going to be a lot. He's coming off the ACL.

Yeah, he hasn't played in a while. But we have seen time and time again boneheaded interception. Doesn't have any pocket presence. Boom, it's a fumble going the other way. Kind of culminated last season with the 95-yard pick six against the Seahawks last year when they were in the red zone. And then he tried to daggle them and he ran it back for a touchdown. It's just like we cannot have it going forward. Luckily, there's an out of his contract after this year.

Oh, oh, oh. We're back in the picture. We are all in. We are all in. Chips on the table with Danny Yelms, but we got a purse with $25,000 in it next to the table, and we're ready to buy back in next year. Got it.

Okay. We'll still play the same game, but we are going to try to find certainly some new chips to be able to handle this. Daniel Jones, he's obviously not thrilled with the way that went. You know? Yeah. He's excited.

And he knows it's a preseason game, so hopefully he's able to get past it. Let's head to Hammer. Time. Time. Tone digs. Tone, listen. Whenever we're talking about these rookie quarterbacks, I know you did some research.

We were talking earlier. Caleb Williams, what? Oh, hell. Might be. You committed me? That was going to be my last question to Coach Bill Belichick, but we came off to a hard out on the hour, and he was talking about salary cap gymnastics and roster management,

like giving a PhD, basically, on how they were able to sustain for 20 years while on a salary cap with everybody else playing by the same rules. I was going to end that thing with showing these highlights and just talking about greatest player of all time. Greatest player of all time. Just to see his reaction because that would be something that, you know. Oh, my God. Because he said three times and three different answers.

Once again, it is preseason. We can't really – there's no – we'll see how this entire thing goes. And we referenced earlier the Detroit Lions when they went 0-16. They were 4-0 in preseason. And then we've talked about teams that have gone on to win the Super Bowl that were 0-4 in the preseason. Just last year, Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Steelers were unstoppable in the preseason.

And then literally the only thing that was stopping was you watching their offense when they were on the field during the regular season because it was horrendous and it was very boring to watch. Rookie quarterbacks have a chance to have some success, though, and we're seeing some glimpses. Tony, you did some research, I do believe, on these rookie quarterbacks? Yeah, looks can be very deceiving in the preseason, Pat.

Like you said, Kenny Pickett last year was the greatest quarterback of all time, and now he's potentially the third stringer for the Philadelphia Eagles. And now Caleb could be an outlier, okay, in this situation, like Big Ben was who came in and went 15-0, I believe, his rookie season. And CJ Stroud last year. But like Caleb, Big Ben came into a great situation with a good defense and a veteran offense and things like that. But 57 rookies have started at least seven games in year one

in the last 20 seasons. They have won 41% of those games straight up. In the last 10 years, they have won 36% of the games in year one as a rookie. And they are currently on a 2-18 run in their last 20 games on games that go week one to three so those first three weeks of the year the rookies are not on a great run so while we are seeing them perform lovely in the preseason um it normally doesn't start great and you shouldn't expect them to win more than half of their oh geez i see jeez. Wah, wah, wah.

I see Caleb do a little whoop-de-woo into a droop-de-doo into the hoo-hoo-hoo. Yeah, he could be the outlier because he's going to a better – but, like, you know, obviously Drake and Daniels and Bo, they're going to teams that aren't supposed to be good. So I don't know if we should... Let's just not build them up too high and then they don't play great and then we automatically, we're staying here and we say, these guys suck. Maybe that's what Atlanta's doing with Pennix. That's why they didn't have them play in the second preseason game.

Why? The Falcons can feud. They draft the guy at eight. They've seen enough. They've seen eight passes from a guy in one preseason game. That was enough. That've seen enough. Could work. You're sure they've seen enough? They've seen eight passes from a guy in one preseason game. That was enough or whatever.

He's going to be a starter. I can't remember who tweeted it, but I thought the same thing this weekend. Is Kirk Cousins not playing week one? Are we worried? Is that a reason? Is that why? Dude. He's been fully cleared.

I will say this. I will say this. Atlanta Falcons, it could all work out. Yeah, it could. We have no idea. It could all work out. A lot of head scratch We have no idea. It could all work out. A lot of head scratchers, though. Not seeing Penix in the second week.

Yeah, we're holding him out. We've seen enough. Fascinating. Because if this goes how it's supposed to go, to your point about Kirk, $180 million, he's a starter. Penix is there to learn, back, learn, to develop, then be starter. So wouldn't you want to see him in preseason games so that he can get some live action balls that isn't Washington? Then they say no.

None of it makes sense. Anyways, so Tony, you're saying these rookies are probably not going to be good. 2-18, first three weeks of the season over the last how many years? So that's on a last 21 games. So I'm not sure over how many years that is. But over the last 10 years,

36% win percentage. All right. Thank you. We'll move on from the doom and gloom from what we're seeing on these preseason games because this rookie clash is being heralded as potentially the greatest of all time. Yeah, I mean, I could see it. Joining us right now is the greatest jaw of all time, jaws of all time in the history of sports. First, in an attic in Ohio,

a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawke. Yeah, Hawker! That's a good job. So, Gumpy, tell me why you use that VAR situation and you can't, they cannot reverse a fake headbutt and a flop?

Was I? Did I make the call? That's what I'm saying. But VAR is like, is that just video replay or is that when you say VAR, I think tennis. I think the laser lines in tennis. That's VAR. They send it to a guy watching the play on a screen. Or a woman.

It's just their big word for instant replay when it comes to NFL. Instant replay. It replays everything. VAR. What is video assist replay? Absolutely. Video assistant referee. Assistant referee.

There it is. It's another ref. Yeah. So it's not a video assistant. You're allowed to hit somebody from behind but I'm not allowed to put my forehead on you? We don't think the VAR did that. We think that they didn't even go to VAR.

No, they did. That was the issue. That went to VAR. What? He tried to kill him. He tried to take his head off. I tweeted that Saturday. I was like, what are we doing? That guy might have been sick, though. Who knows?

What if that guy was sick and he got that close? They could have clipped it right after that. I heard there's monkey. Maybe it was the monkey paw cough. You know, maybe there was somewhere they were telling him, don't do that. Don't get too close. You were in his personal area. You know you were.

See, right there. One push. They said it was okay. Cough See right there One push They said it was okay Coughed right there Try to split his head open First push Try to split his head open And spit in his mouth

At the same time Can't do it Red card That guy That guy's got an axe to grind too I don't know what The dude who got the red card did That ref also sucks too

He's one of the worst in the EPL Well Gumps What I'm learning About soccer refs Is maybe they all do. Maybe they all do. I'm not going to argue on that, brother. Gumpy almost got ejected out of two of the three TST games from yelling at the refs.

Guy told me that was one of the top refs in the MLS. Best of the best. And then the MLS guys on the team were like, this guy does actual games. It's like, Gumpy, how? In the middle of the game, Gumpy losing his complete mind. And before we went back to the VAR because A.J. Hawk was dumbfounded, I said that we're about to be joined by the best jaws in the history of sports.

I'm not talking jaws like the shark or jaws like Ron Jaworski. I'm talking about actual jawline. Look at that thing. Look at that jaw. You'd say, damn, that's a damn good jaw. Is that the greatest jaw in the history of sports? No. There at that thing. Look at that jaw. You'd say, damn, that's a damn good jaw. Is that the greatest jaw in the history of sports? No. There's one man. He's

Ianzer, former coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now he's on CBS and thank God that he is. Shows up with Dunkin', or not Dunkin' Donut, any donut, any pastry every Sunday for J.J. Watt and somehow J.J. still has his 2% body fat.

We need to start asking some questions, JJ. Ladies and gentlemen, legend Bill Carr. Yeah! I like AJ's job. Well, you too. I mean, we got a real, you know, AJ had that in

WWE 2K. I remember when you had that in real life as a kid growing up somebody would mess up and that thing was your kind of your battle against the face mask of the helmet that you were yelling at is that how you viewed your jaw no I just wanted to make sure they could see my face so I just kind of

portrayed it out a little bit so you know you led with that you know you did you know and then you'd start spitting on people. I mean, it would get going. No. I was a phallic, Pat, about what I had to message I had to say. Passionate.

That's what you need in football. Yes. That is exactly what you need in football. Let's talk about the current football happening. Preseason football. How did you feel about it as a coach? Obviously, it was viewed vastly different back whenever you were leading the Pittsburgh Steelers versus where it is now. The future, I think they're going to be getting rid of games and have joint practices, but how did you view preseason and how

do you view it now? You know, I think you look at the preseason and to me, I looked at segments of it when our starters were in there, how efficiently were we in terms of what we were able to do collectively, but I use it as an opportunity to develop young players i get concerned about the concept of going 18 and 2. you say well the fans don't like the pre-season games so it's not about what pleasing the fans get other people lower the prices it's about developing players these are players you're going to ask to play at some point week 7 week 10 maybe even week 12 and the only past experience they're going to have playing will be in the preseason so i want to see these guys who are in practice what they're like when the bullets are flying what they're like in game

like situations who can i count on where do i have real depth and where do i really have minimal depth because the only way i can really assess them so many times is in the game you see great practice players but you really see how they really play in course of a real live game. So to take that away to help stop developing players is a concern of mine. Joint practices are seemingly going to be the replacement for it. Do you? Yeah, yeah, kind of. What do you thought? Yeah, joint practice is what we have seven on seven. We have blitz drill. We have one have one minute again these are all situational things that you do practice and it's great to have more people you're going to guess it's not a group but live situational football where you have officials backing you up 10 yards you have a change of possession that takes place somebody else goes down these are the things that

you have to deal with in a regular season who can i count on so i need to have these guys in live situations knowing exactly what they're able to do, and I want to see how they respond in the game, not how I'll find out how they respond in week four or five when now I have no other choice. And this guy really played, what, one series in the preseason? Yeah, I think an earthquake has hit a couple times in Indianapolis, down in Charlotte as well, not in Ohio.

Happy you're safe. And we don't know if it's an actual earthquake or if it's just the electricity of Coach Bill Cower. Your screen is bouncing whenever you're going. I love it. I started bouncing with you, just team aspect. AJ left you hanging there thinking

that's kind of, that's AJ football. AJ, go ahead, pal. Coach, just for, this is for me, I don't know if anyone else cares, but can you compare what it was like when you were in training camp as a player compared to now and how different it might be? Yeah, I mean, it's much different, honestly, just having one practice a day.

I mean, I always thought about training camp of having two practices. You know, when I was there, you know, Dick Vermeule, it was two padded practices that they for an extended period of time so but i used to have the you know take off the pads in the morning and kind of work specialized situations one minute teamwork um and then you had the padded practice in the afternoon so it was a two day was a grind and it was like you were together and so now all of a sudden we're doing everything in the morning one time are we even meeting at night i don't know i think you lose a little of the camaraderie which i thought training camp was all about was spending that time together collectively and all of a sudden it's just you and

them and over a period of time you you create a bond and you create a trust an understanding of the guys you're lined up next to and i think think a little of that gets lost right now, Jay, in my opinion, because of the fact that we're not together and we're not asking to do so much. I love training camp, and I miss it. We used to go up to La Trobe, and that was a special place. Yeah, St. Vincent's, obviously. I used to go up and watch your teams as a kid because it was free. You get to go there.

You get to meet everybody. A little low five, high five. How you doing? Keep it moving. Maybe get a chance to see Chris Fulmato fall, you know what I mean? Or do the entire – I mean, it was slash, maybe slash play wide receiver in one of the drills. Maybe it would be a punt returner in the middle of the drills.

Like it was – those were good times, those things. And for teams, when I was on the Colts, we went every year. We went somewhere. First it was Rose Holman in Terre for teams, when I was on the Colts, we went every year. We went somewhere. First, it was Rose-Holman in Terre Haute, Indiana, home of the Engineers. Smart. It's a smart area there. Then we went out to Anderson University,

which was a super-duper religious school. It was awesome. Getting away, though, for me, I got to I got to sleep and, you know, hang out. And I was certainly doing a lot of this. Yeah, you know. Motivating. But I was trying to bring the energy. But watching everybody, like, kind of grind together, it's like blood, sweat, and tears almost.

It builds you. You know, there's a certain development and a bond that can only be kind of earned through that. And I don't know if it's ever going to be gone because I think training camp is always going to suck in football because it's a physical contact sport. It does feel like it's all getting more commercialized. It's all kind of getting a little bit more modern and everything like that. In St. Vincent this year, for the first time, long time,

quarterback battle! Let's go to Hammer. Yeah, Coach. I'm not saying Russell Wilson is Mike Tomczak. I'm not saying Justin Fields is Cordell Stewart, but you know, you could see some similarities there. If we were talking about the situation that you went through as well, how, what do you think about the current quarterback situation there and what goes into coach Tomlin's decision? And how did you know when kind of to go with Cordell and maybe a more athletic quarterback who could make plays versus, you know, the old vet who, you know,

won't turn the ball over, but, you know, the ceiling isn't as high as it once was. You know, I think I look at the first two games, the only thing I would just say is this, is I think Russell Wilson, I don't know how totally healthy, how much they really wanted to open up the offense under Arthur Smith. I think Arthur is saving a lot of these things right now. Obviously, the offensive line, Broderick Jones, I think they're trying to pencil that left tackle. The number one pick gets hurt.

He has to go to right tackle. Did not play very well the other day. They have to get that group to work together. But what I saw was this. If I'm Mike Tomlin and you sit there and you look at this situation, has anyone distinguished themselves? Yeah, you see a lot of the flash plays with Justin Fields, but we also see an offense that's trying to also get their feet under the ground. I think they are going to be wanting to run the football

and that's going to be a major part of what they want to do. But I think with Russell Wilson, you start the season with Russell. And I say it for this reason. Justin Fields, you know what, if he starts as a second guy, have a package of plays. Let Justin, if all of a sudden you need a spark, something to kind of incite you, get your offense going again, put him in. If you have to take Russell out, he's been there before. It's not going to destroy his confidence. I don't want to start Justin Fields and feel like I have to make a change and I take him out. I would worry about, okay, all of a sudden I didn't live up to the expectation. Lim to the expectation.

Limit the expectation you put on Justin Fields. Let him be Justin Fields. Let him get to know this offense and get really comfortable with this offense. Hopefully Arthur will have a series of plays because he's still going to be the best runner they have on that offense. So let him use his legs. Let him use all the things he can bring, the improvisation that he has with the plays. When things do break down, he can make it up. so I would take the pressure off of Justin start Russell and Russell may take it run with it but at the same time I think that's the way you have to enter the season I

I'm excited to see what they do with both quarterbacks you know and I'm excited to see if Russell Wilson can get back to form and if that run game goes it feels like everything else goes everybody's saying the same exact thing, they're able to figure it out in Pittsburgh because that's what Pittsburgh football is. And Pittsburgh became such a big football city because of a voice, you know, that by self-admitted could cut through concrete. We had a Myron Cope kind of tribute last week, Coach. And in the video, the highlight package that we got off of YouTube

from the Ge boys i do believe youtube uh channel you were in there obviously a couple of different times with myron talking about bell cars chan is getting as big as mount rushmore you know that entire thing with these priests my my terrible towel right behind me yeah the creator of the terrible towel who's raised and create generated so much money for kids and I think cancer, everything, like the amount of money that this man did. And during his preseason, we're hearing a lot of local commentary from places because each team produces the one we're watching on NFL Network.

And all I could think about was how great my childhood was with this guy on the microphone. I didn't get to know him personally. I saw Sally Wiggin, who might be the mom of Pittsburgh, I think my entire generation would say. She came out and said that he was one of her best friends. You obviously had to be very close to this man. How did you feel about him as a human and also these local kind of broadcasts

and how they go about kind of changing the way the game is viewed completely. Yeah, you know what, Pat? It's great. I'm glad you brought him up because I remember my first day when I went into Pittsburgh in 1992, 34 years old, named head coach. Chuck Knoll was there in a press conference the day before. Getting everybody in the building, you know, you walk in the building. What's the mystique of the Pittsburgh Steelers? i'm just trying to gather and take everything in and that evening they said where i want you to go over to the studio we want to go on the myron cope show and i'm like wow i

get to go on the myron cope show my dad was in crafting he's listening to it probably has a head of beer iron city beer right there which he did every night and he'd sit there and listen to myron cope and all of a sudden he's gonna listen to myrcope and his son on the same radio broadcast and that's all i could think about was wow how far have i come i've made it now i'm actually on the show and my dad's probably sitting back there with an iron city beer he's listening to his son talk to myrcope i go okay if i lose that if i lose a game i don't even care i just made it that's uh that's a wonderful story yeah just because every yinzer feels the same way myron was a beast we showed the highlight of him last lose a game i don't even care i just made it that's uh that's a wonderful story yeah just because every yinzer feels the same way myron was a beast we showed the highlight of him last week

and obviously a lot of humans were introduced to him for the first time and they're like had no idea that weapon existed it was like yes and he was that way all the time started out as a very like i think established writer i think he was like Sports Illustrated or maybe The Times. I don't know. Yeah. And then he gets like actual journalism. And then just why would I talk like I'm trying to do a biology exam? Like just absolute weapon for Pittsburgh, I think. Pittsburgh had that. And the other guy they had was Bob Prince, who did the baseball.

I mean, those are two legendary guys, announcing guys. And then laying on the Penguins with Stein. Lang. Yeah. Like, there was, I mean, Pittsburgh is a sports town, obviously, always will be. It was nice to take a trip back in town. And during Mayan Cubs highlights, it was nice to see that mustache.

Fired up. You know, that yinzer on the sideline wearing a starter jacket, you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let's talk about current football a little bit here. Other topics. Ty has one for you. Yeah, Coach. A couple weeks into the pre preseason now we've got the new kickoff and i think a lot of people especially old school football guys have basically said like hey it

looks weird it's not football i don't know why we're doing it but also on the flip side of that if they're if they don't do it then they're just eliminating the kickoff um as we've gotten a couple weeks of it here what are your overall thoughts of it? And do you think the NFL is happy with how it's gone so far in this rollout? Yeah, I mean, I think we have to let it play out, but I think they are very happy with it. I think, obviously, we wanted to bring the kickoff return back into being a play because that hasn't been. It goes back to the Super Bowl always kind of is the precedent to rule changes.

What we had last year, 14 kickoffs in the Super Bowl and not one was returned. It looks different, but I like it, and I like it. The only thing I would just say, I don't think the penalty of kicking a ball into the end zone or going to the 30 is a great deterrent. I think if you moved it to the 35-yard line, if you move it to the 35-yard line, if you move it to the 35-yard line,

now as a team kicking off, I don't know if I want to give you a first down. I'll give you five yards, but I'm not sure I want to give you a first down. So it'll be interesting to see. I know if it was me right now, I mean, we're all kicking into that zone because we want to see guys cover kicks. We want to see what kind of a body of work we can gather with it. But it'll be interesting to see when the season starts, is it really worth the risk of the unknown in terms of what they may be showing to you

in only giving up five yards? I think if they move it, which I think is a chance. I don't know if they will, but I think they're coming together at the end of this month for one last talk about it because I think once we get into the season, they'll stay with the rule. But I think moving it to 35 would be a great move. Okay, I didn't know we could still potentially sway some voters in this rule. I agree with you 10,000%.

And that was Young-Wei Ku making a tackle down there for Atlanta. Missed a couple kicks, laid the hammer. Okay? There's going to be games like that. There's going to be games like that. Young-Wei Ku was also an incredible onside kicker, which has seemingly been kind of taken away from this. Obviously, surprise onsides are done.

That's a big-time tackle by a kicker right there. I love everything about it from Young-Wei Ku. I did not know we were still voting on this, potentially changing this. We need that to go to the 35. That was the original pitch as well. And then as they're selling this new kickoff that looks weird and a lot of people that didn't know this was coming are like, what the hell is this?

This doesn't look anything like it. They're still going to get all the touchbacks at 30. They're still going to. And the way you worded it there is is wonderful and it's also percentages as well on scoring uh starting drive drive start like the percentage you will score on that entire thing you say i'm not going to give you a first down i'll give you five yards though because that could happen 35 would be a vastly different game i and that was originally the pitch from the special teams coaches. It changed last minute, I think, Coach. I think it changed last minute.

Yeah. You know, the other thing, you're talking about that tackle by the kicker. The other thing you ought to look at, how about a guy like Justin Tucker? Do I want to risk Justin Tucker now being a part of this play when he's a guy I'm going to need in Week 16, 17 playoffs going down the wire, the best kicker in football? So there's a degree that you're right. Theer down becomes an element and the poor part of that play He's gonna be involved with that. It's like a punt almost anymore to me

That's what it is. It is gonna be a lot of back And you know, I think you're used to feel it a lot more than you're seeing right now There's a lot of imagination creativity that so many special teams coaches are talking about I know I would be in terms of throwback, in terms of reverse from a frontline person, and maybe coming back and giving the ball to him. And so I think there's a lot of creativity. But again, I go back to the same thing. It's risk and reward.

And to me, I don't know if I would risk that for just five yards. Ten yards, I think we have to talk about that now. Yeah, I wonder if they'll change it or not. Because if not, it's just going to be touch, touch, back, touch, back, touch, back, touch, back. I mean, it's supposed to be a new electrifying addition. Now it just looks different, looks weird, and it's the same outcome potentially. Well, you know, it may take a whole year, Pat. And I'll say, because I think you look at the number of returns we have right now in the preseason,

it's been way, way up. I mean, it's a huge number. Again, now in the preseason it's been way way up i mean it's a huge number again it is the preseason i caution everything even as we sit there and judge quarterbacks the same thing um about you know it's not good be careful it's a preseason it's very very simple coach stop right there stop right there have you seen this play caleb will Williams, number one overall pick. Gets a stab. What's he doing? Oh, he's in the pocket. He's dancing. He's going, uh-uh.

Flip, hip, dip, shit, bucket. Wow. Greatest player of all time. I'm saying that. I'm very pumped. I'm very excited. But everybody that knows. Those four guys rushing will be on the developmental squad.

Okay. Okay. All right. I'm just saying. No, but to your point about this is preseason. It'll be on the developmental squad. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm just saying. No, but to your point about this is preseason. Like, coaches right now, special teams coaches, no touchbacks here. What are we doing?

Like, even if we were going to kick touchbacks all season, in preseason, at least two of the games, it's like, hey, we got to see who can if we have to have a cover. And with this new kickoff, the surprise onside kick is gone. And you talked about it right there you said I knew I know I would from your documentary I learned which I don't think I knew special teams coordinator I believe is where you started this entire thing right oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I started and so Bill Belichick also started as a special teams coach so we we come from this we were we were out of the same breed I mean we both were special teams

coordinators go to the the special teams coaches, defensive coordinators, and then you become a head coach. That's why, yeah, we take this stuff seriously. Well, and also, 1996 Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, surprise onside kick. Yeah, it's no longer, yeah.

Surprise onside kick in the Super Bowl. It's like, here we, I mean, what a move! It was. Norm Johnson to Deion Figures, there he is catching it. We had it the whole Bowl. It's like, here we, I mean, what a move! It was. Norm Johnson to Dion Figures, there he is catching it. We had it the whole time. Matter of fact, I knew that play was there.

And one of the thoughts I had was, do we do it to opening kickoff? And I thought, well, if you do the opening kickoff, do you really gain any momentum? You really don't gain a possession. So I said, so we saved it. And obviously the third quarter

we ran it. But that play now no longer exists in the game. So, you know, thank you for showing it. I appreciate it. Hey, Sean Payton, he opened up the second half. Yeah, I know. It was his Super Bowl. Yeah, I was there.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll tell you more about it. I was there. Let's have a moment of silence for that son of a bitch. No, not that one, obviously. A moment of silence for the surprise onside kick. Yeah, please. Well, we're trying. Thank you. Coach. Coach. Appreciate that. obviously. A moment of silence for the surprise on-site kick. Yeah, please. Well, we're trying.

Thank you. Coach. Appreciate that. It's a moment of silence. Thank you. Appreciate it. Coach, silence is what we're looking for. This is good, Coach.

You know, I was on the competition committee for four years. We're trying to have a fucking moment of silence for the on-site kick. I know. I know. But before you do so, before you do so, I'll give you a little background. Mike Holmgren tried to get rid of the on-site kick, and I used to stand up every year at the league meetings and sit there and talk about that play.

Mr. Rooney, I'd say, he'd go, not now, not now. I'd go, he goes, not now, coach. He goes, now. I'd stand up, and I would give this talk about the fact that you have one of the greatest plays in our terms of a game. It's about strategy. It's about a game. It's about strategy. It's about matchups. It's about decision making. And what greater play is there of a strategy and decision making to try an onside kick, just even to try one and then to successfully do one to get

you back into the game. And you're going to take that away from us. Please move in the science. that away from us please moment of science you're a great play tower stood all right Jesus I miss you I will always miss so you calling it in the Super Bowl was so that the next year whenever they try to take it away you could stand up and say in the the biggest games, in the biggest. 100%. And it worked. It worked every year. So Mike Colgren finally got his wish to tell Mike that he finally got his wish.

But I defended that game, that play for so long. And when I just saw this new rule, and I told Roger, too, at the Hall of Fame, I was there for that weekend. I was very, very disappointed in this decision. But I embraced it. I know he wants the kickoff return back. We had Devin Hester go in. It was a great weekend.

I think you were there. You were coming in as I was going out. Because Dwight Freeney, I mean, what a great group it was. And love going back there every year. Kind of kicks off the season. And, hey hey we're calling it right there now how about kg look at the guy you see how far the guy was leaving he was doing that the entire year can't be peeking hey see the ball off the tee see the ball off the tee it's

been said a thousand times i love a good onside kick surprise onside as well rest in peace honestly and thank you for your tribute. Even though you were kind of – no, you made a – the moment of silence was not needed at the time. We needed more information. What was Holmgren's problem? Why didn't Holmgren like it, Coach? Because he just thought it was a dumb play.

It was injury-ridden. And I said, well, you know what? Like, okay, then let's do something with the end of the game when everyone's on one side and we go try to blow everybody out. I get it. From that standpoint, it was not a... You were on the hands team, were you, AJ? I mean, like, no one wanted to be on the hands team, like, particularly at front line.

You're going to get blown up, okay? I get it. But the surprise element of that, to me, is what makes our game great because I mean, we are about strategy. It's move, counter move. It's a great game we have and that was always a big part of the game.

I don't know. I think Mike didn't like it because I liked it. Well, I love that. If there's those types of petty beefs happening in the rules committee. Oh, you know that happens. That's the case. Don't say that. We don't need to even get in on that because all these things that start happening

that I don't want to start diving in and judging humans. Okay, yeah, thank you. I appreciate, though, that whenever you talk about it, you had such passion for it, and obviously you live it. I hope it can continue to be a play because they're talking about just eliminating kickoff. That's basically what they seemingly allegedly said. know i know yeah yeah all right i i i i like it the more i was watching it i just i think the first thing you start thinking about is okay

you if this was you catching it what can we do and you know how far back can you move that front line and maybe if i put a deep and off a receiver on the outside and I let him come back and I start to return one way, so maybe there's a crossing there and it takes place that, oh, maybe I hand it off, maybe I don't. And so it's like, yeah, it's like, hmm. It's like, yeah, it's like, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like, hmm. So I like the concepts and things you could creatively do with it. But I don't know if I would, you know, I would kick off.

Again, I go back to the same thing. Five yards to me is not a big deal. Agreed. Hopefully they're able to change it. We get some magic. And the surprise on side, we need to figure out how to figure, get that back into a game somewhere because everything you talked about with, if this is not our game, what is, it's like, how about the courage to call it to and to pull it off the curve and like the, I don't want to say like the stick-to-itiveness,

but normally when you call that you're in it, like, Hey, we are going for this regardless. And it's like, that's a massive piece of when you call that, you're in it. Like, hey, we are going for this regardless. And it's like that's a massive piece of the game as well. Execution in a big moment. You only get one opportunity. We did some surprise onsides. And, like, the feeling before one of those was just, like, so sweet. It's like, all right, if this does not work, we are pretty fucked.

And that's, like, a good feeling. Yes, and even the middle one with the little bunt that you do. Like I always used to try to practice the bunt. You know, like just bunt it and get two guys to take out that middle guy. The kicker can just jump on it. So it's just like make sure you get it there 10 yards. Just don't kick it nine, you know. Yeah, kick it perfect, actually. Kick it 10 and a half yards.

Have it bounce up right to you like you need it to. And then have nobody hit you either yep that is that's what happened to me that actually happened in a game you're covered on psychic nobody touched me either no I mean it was yeah cuz we hit a surprise right and then we did surprise left so they had hands team up both sides then all of a sudden we're just sitting staring at a wide open yeah here it is this is in Houston bang pal oh my wow didn't even touch me i didn't even have to eat any like helmet spine nothing it was but as i'm running up to that ball

it's like uh okay here we go probably gonna get a shot to the spine probably the liver i don't know what else is back there and uh you got to make sure it doesn't go too far and if we get it uh great if you don't just walk off the field you don't, just walk off the field, though. Just walk off the field there because obviously those – That was well done. That was well executed. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, I could never do it again. I only had to do it once, though, and we move along. Connor has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, how do you feel about the Raiders' decision to go with Gardner Minshew and then also to the point that's been kind of hammered home today?, like if these defenses are very vanilla and you're going in, you know, to a quarterback battle and both guys are kind of doing the exact same thing on the field, you know, playing well, what is kind of the deciding factor to go with one guy over the other if these preseason games aren't as meaningful as, you know, the common eye might think?

You know, I think he knows what he has, Pierce. He knows what he has in Nate McConnell. And I think that going with Gardner, Gardner's got a little fire to him. He's got one of those, you know, things you see him before a game, getting everybody fired up. So he probably has got a feel for that. And through the course of practices, that he's kind of been that veteran leader that they really, really need on that

side of the ball. So I understand that Devonta Adams, I'm sure, has a good feel for that as well. But, you know, again, it's going to be the defense. You know, I like where they are defensively, but getting there, they're going to run the football. And I think Gardner-Vinci, they trust probably more at this point. And they got two guys that he feels good about. But, you know, I don't think either one of them has been overly impressive. So you go with a veteran. Coach, thank you so much for taking all the incredible time with us today. We can.

Anytime. And you talked about how when you went on the Myron Cope show, he was a 34-year-old. You knew your dad was going to be in the back with an Iron City listening to it. It's like if, you know, my dad obviously works here fishing this weekend. I think he really, I think maybe a little Van Damme weekend. Wow. I think there's a little Van Damme.

Best ever. Yeah. Anytime you come on, obviously, he's incredibly pumped, as are all of my family and friends back in Pittsburgh. So thank you for being so gracious with your time. And I'm pumped that you've never changed. You know, you've been a Yinzer your entire being, and we're all better because of it, pal.

Thank you, man. And I'll make sure I take care of JJ during the season. We bring out different pastries from local bakeries from right here in New York City. And I just want to make sure I keep everybody fueled up for our show. Okay, well, thank you for doing that. I don't know if you've seen he's got like two percent body fat now he's completely shredded I don't know if he's always been like that I don't I don't see him naked often he's posting thirst traps now on Instagram uh he's also in the Pittsburgh Steelers

facility whoa okay yeah what's that well all I know is I was just with him last week at our seminar, and I know he weighs exactly the same playing weight that he did when he was playing. So all I can say is, like, I don't know what's going to happen this season, if anything were to develop. But I know JJ is ready. I don't think he'll take that phone call, but I think he'll listen. Yeah. Well, he has said that openly that this is the last year, right? Yeah, that he will.

This is the last year that I will keep my phone on if anybody needs me in a perfect situation. He said publicly. It's like, oh, JJ, you're trying to get a little courted. Interesting. He's in the perfect situation right now. He's with us at CBS right there on the desk, so he's good. Hey, you guys are a great show, and I think JJ's fit in well.

You guys changed the set. It's a different set this upcoming season? Yeah. Matt Ryan is in, J.J., myself, Nate, and J.B. Yep. How's Matt Ryan? He came here to Indianapolis. It did not work out, but I've heard great things about him.

I've heard great things about him. Matty Ice has been great. He's been fantastic. You know, he was in the Super Bowl. The Belichick's come back, the 17-point thing, that whole thing. 25 points, coach. 25 points. Jesus, coach.

Is that when it was 25? Okay. Hey, let's have a moment of silence. Let's have a moment of silence for that. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Bill Cowher. We appreciate you. Yeah, coach. Hall of Famer.

Hall of Famer legend. As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month. Every month. At Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at Fizz.ca. What a human.

17. Come on. He does love that surprise onside kick, doesn't he? Oh, yeah. Man, he is passionate. I love his passion. Let's have a moment of silence. Come on. He does love that surprise onside kick, doesn't he? Oh, yeah. Man, he is passionate. I love his passion. Let's have a moment of silence. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. But like. Talk through the whole thing. Say a prayer for the onside kick. And he said, thank you. We will moment of silence. We miss you.

We will remember you. Yeah, we will forever. You and G. That was awesome. All right. Let's cover some stuff happening around the NFL that we haven't chit-chatted about yet. James is obviously back giving more speeches. Foxy, please roll that wonderful goodness

that Jameis Winston can deliver and nobody else can. Tell yourself this. You deserve it. I do. You deserve it. I'm a close future. You done paid so many dues. Hey, but never lose your cool.

My little cousin ain't coming, but you deserve it. You deserve it, alright? Every day you go out there, lay it on the line. Let me tell y'all something. I don't care if you're here tomorrow. I don't care if you're here next week. We need to get a W in the house. We need to get a W. The last thing you put on film

is a W. Think about that. That's the mentality that you gotta have. We go out here and win. I guarantee you you're gonna find a home. You hear me? Because today is all we got. Today we all we got. So go out there and land on the line. No problem. Alright, bring it up.

It's told with us. It finished with us. Us on three. One, two, three. Us. Listen, I'm looking around. There's a lot of sorry motherfuckers around here. Hey, why are you getting cut? All right? I don't know if you're going to hear about it tonight.

But we win. I love James. That is a smaller circle. Fun fact. A little worried. Go ahead, Tom. Browns are now 0-2 after James' first two preseason speeches. Okay, hold on.

That's not what it is. No. That's not what it is. It. That's not what it is. It's not his speeches that are – How about the first quarter? Check the first quarter. Maybe first drive. Let me check the box.

They get out to a hot start. They got to get out to a hot start. Hot start. Fast flying out the gate. They were down 10-7 first quarter. What about the first drive? Let me look. Let me look.

Nothing ever. How'd they look, though? The boys, they look fresh? Juiced. They looked zeeked up. They gave him a touchdown on first drive. Shit. That was a defense.

They were aggressive. The offense, looks like the offense scored a touchdown on first drive. That's what we're looking for. DTR was quarterback. Okay. Where was James? James motivated him. I don't think James played.

No, yeah, he didn't play. Why would he? That's why he was giving a full. You got. Yeah. That's all you got today. I appreciate him stopping my program. Absolutely.

He's the best. I don't know if you heard, speaking of programs, Ohio State is one that is either boom or bust this year. Yeah. It's either we win a national championship or everything's over. AJ, do you agree? What about, did that just all of a sudden happen? Did someone just declare that?

I'm setting up for the next subject that we are going to be speaking of. Come on, huh? But I think that people need to know the current state of Ohio State so that we can talk about the past of Ohio State. In Ohio, they're used to winning. These Buckeyes, okay, we win games. Okay. These Buckeyes, we've had good teams, good outfits, good programs.

We're support. We win nannies around here. You got one of these? Uh-huh. Get you one of these. You got one of these? Where's D-Bone? Coach Dutch Danger, you mean?

Yeah. And D-Bone, I guess. D-Bone doesn't have shit. But you got one of these? They've had a lot of great football players there. And this year, it seems like all of the Ohio folk that I have encountered are expecting a national championship, or we're expecting a new program starting next year now that's just the people that I've talked to AJ not being one of them I'm not

saying anybody associated with said program but if I happen upon a few Ohio folk the first thing I say is oh they go I oh and then I go we went in it this year? They go, we better. That is how every interaction has gone. Is that good or bad? That is good, I think, because that means your team is ready to go. In the last couple years, obviously, you've seen a team from up north dancing all over everything. Well, one of the greats of Ohio State has never had a chance to succeed and enjoy all the things that the greats of Ohio State have in the past.

A.J. wins a national championship literally his freshman year. You go through all the legends, there's been some sort of Big Ten championship, Rose Bowl championship, national championship. One player who has never got to experience that because of the team from up north, Marvin Harrison Jr., was asked about where he stands in the history of Ohio State wide receivers and this was his answer. I saw graphic like a couple of days ago that was talking about like top wide receivers that were either at Ohio State are you in that list are you but you put yourself top five I think I'm the best look at it from a number standpoint you do per game on a per game because I think Michael Jenkins or Chris Carr they started their freshman year. Started their whole freshman year.

I didn't get to start my freshman year. I started one game my freshman year. That was my two years. I did my thing. You look at the accolades. Two-time receiver of the year. Big-time player of the year. Unanimous All-American back-to-back years.

I mean, I did it all. No, that's a fact. From an Ohio State standpoint, they always say, well, you didn't beat Timo North. So it's like, I mean, I didn't. I think that's a team kind of accomplishment. But that would be the only thing you can say. I mean, that you did as well. That's like a tribe.

That's why I think I was on the best. From an athlete and statistical standpoint, obviously talent-wise, we have some great Chris Carter Hall of Famers. I can never discredit him. Okay, there has been some great wide receivers through Ohio State Buckeye, and shout out to Zaire Franklin and the Trenchu Show. They recorded that after a joint practice.

So we've seen some videos of joint practices. Obviously, Marvin Harrison Jr. is a part of the Colts family. But Zaire has that interview, and they gas him up too, which I respect and appreciate. Let's have a good convo. How do you feel about that? They put him in an awkward spot, obviously,

and Marvin Harrison could have gone any different direction. But I think what we're seeing is this dude is going to be generational. I think if you learn from his work habits and see what he's able to accomplish in his pedigree and then the shit that's coming out of arizona right now with what he's doing just naturally looking like he's a 10 year vet in this entire thing because he is like a 21 year vet with his dad seemingly teaching him everything along the way what are your thoughts on that chatter that conversation and how do you

think marvin harrison jr is going to do as a rookie with the cardinals i think he answered it perfectly i think any of the receivers that he was talking about chris carter michael jenkins i mean joey galloway there's a ton of them you go down the list they're all they all can say that no i'm the best one like but in my era what you need from wide receivers yeah you your why was they all better your number three receiver should think he's the greatest of all time to have come through there and still be a good teammate but no i think marvin as far as his success in the NFL, if he can stay healthy, let's just say Marvin just had the physical freak abilities he has, how fast he is, how big he is, how he runs routes, how he catches the ball, but he was just a turd off the field and didn't work. He'd still be a stud. He would still be unbelievable. But I think

we hear the complete opposite, that this guy, all he does is work. He's such a team guy and he does all of those little things on and off the field. That's what makes me think, yeah, this guy is where all he does is work he's such a team guy and he does all of those little things on and off the field that's what makes think yeah this guy could absolutely like you had larry fitzgerald there for a long time and then bam here comes marv all right well good luck out there more for all proud of you hell yeah i'll get him more i can't wait to watch yeah just catches everything and also and also so yeah kyler back uh another so smooth with his routes are just so smooth and and he's never rushed. That's what I like.

Yeah, never seems to be in a hurry, but gets there fast, which is certainly an interesting dynamic for a rookie wide receiver where there's been more of those over the past couple years. Not as many as it feels like because there's so many home-run, young wide receivers. There's going to be a lot of misses in every single draft, but it feels like the reason why he's number four overall, number four overall pick, is because

he's a guy that didn't have to run a 40. He didn't do any of the song and dance. He wasn't screwing around. Didn't win Big Ten. Didn't beat Michigan. Wasn't in the National Championship. Yeah, I'm not doing any of this shit. Does it matter if you fall in the draft? Nah,

whatever. Wherever we go, we're going to play. My dad was So does it matter if you fall in the draft? Nah, whatever. Wherever we go, we're going to play. My dad was in Indianapolis. Nobody really knew at the time. You can do whatever you need to do. And he's a top five pick without doing any of that. Think about the amount of respect they have for what he's going to do on a football field for that entire process to be the way it is. It's like everybody seemingly knows that this dude's a guy.

Well, and you guys have talked about it all the time, like the bloodline of the NFL. Like this guy, he's, you mentioned Marvin Harrison, like how much success the kids of these elite pros have already had in the NFL at all positions is one thing to say. Speaking of elite guys, Stephon Gilmore has signed and found a new home. Ladies and gentlemen,

congrats to the Minnesota Vikings! Yeah! For the Minnesota Vikings, obviously. J.J. McCarthy, out for the year with a surgery on his knee, an arthroscopic surgery, allegedly, a scope surgery, that ended up an entire year being taken away here to start his career. We can't wait to see what he does whenever he gets back. It'll be Sam Darnold's team with Kevin O'Connell on the offense.

And on defense, aside with Brian Flores as the coordinator, they will add Stephon Gilmore to the mix. He was with the Colts. Then he was with the Cowboys. Then he was a free agent. Nobody understood why he was a free agent. Now he's a Minnesota Viking. What do you think this means for the Vikings and Stephon Gilmore, AJ?

Well, think about it. You're pairing him up with Harrison Smith there in the back end, that secondary with the Vikings. You talk about the knowledge that these dudes have and how many plays they've made in the league. That's going to be huge for, I think, everyone else on that defense. But, yeah, it was just a matter of time before Gilmore signed. So I think this is great for Minnesota.

He's like a hired gun now. Go in there and shut one side of the field down and keep moving. Yeah, and shout out to Chris Barr and Colts. Just let him go because he said he saw right on the wall for what was going to happen with the team. Yeah. He was already there. He didn't want to come back to Indiana.

That's kind of what happened. That's literally what happened. He had time left. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we understood. Played well. Played well for you guys. It's kind of a vote of confidence from the Vikings front office

in the Sam Darnold team, right? Spending money? Yeah. Yeah. Giants needed a corner. We didn't go get them. Hey, how do you feel about Danny Dimes? A couple they want back, just a couple.

But other than that, he was efficient. What about just the whole situation around Daniel Jones? That whole offseason? I hope it comes out hot. For him, I hope it comes out hot. I hope it comes out first quarter just guns blazing. Oh, this is what he did in the first quarter of the preseason game. It doesn't matter.

It's preseason. It is preseason where every coach we've talked to has basically said, like, the defense is showing you nothing. I mean, it is the most bland defense of all time. He's throwing pick six backed up. Now, he's been getting some live action, though, which is obviously what Coach Dayball mentioned. We will wrap up here on ESPN.

We will continue on ESPN Plus YouTube. And that's it because TikTok kicked us off. We'll see you tomorrow. Raw tonight. I think he got it. Oh, he got it. For sure. TikTok kicked us off. We'll see you tomorrow. Raw tonight. I think he got it. He got it for sure. TikTok kicked us off because Jack Carr saved the world in a video. I bet they would be pissed about that.

How long? Until Friday. When we're in Dublin. And then cranking Guinness. You'll probably get kicked off again. Which is going to happen. But we'll just use glasses. And that's not actual Guinness.

Anything you see us drink on Friday is not anything that you think it is. No alcohol. And we will talk as if it is something that you think it is. Because we're all in this thing together. It is not. You know? CBD is what is potentially. And Sage is doing this.

And whenever you see us on Friday, that is not a delicious pint of Guinness beer. No. Absolutely. It would never. Yeah, that's all. It's coffee. From just. Yeah, it would be a frosted coffee.

Tall, frosted, black coffee. And the reason why we're drinking it is because of how tired we are because we travel all the way over here. Gelag. Gelag. Yeah. Gelag. And they're going to be pouring that coffee. That's how they do it over there.

The coffee kegs. Yeah. Cold brew. I've seen that. I've seen it too. At the Bucks, I believe they have it. Yeah. Nitro cold brew. Yeah. It's a couple of the Bucks. They're not all the Bucks. No, not it, too. At the Bucs, I believe they have it. Nitro cold brew.

Yeah, it's a couple of the Bucs. They're not all the Bucs. No, not all of them. Just the elite Bucs. And they run out by like 10.30. What's that all about? They got a keg back there at a Nitro. Well, then somebody's got to go do the whoopity whoopity wham.

Put more beans in there. Yeah, anyways, what you see us drinking on Friday is not what it appears to be. It is vastly different. But, boy, we are going to be there. Those things are going to go down so smooth. If we get loosey-goosey. I'm a little bit worried, honestly, because we have all flipped into the same mindset.

It's kind of the point, right? This is a celebration of the end of the offseason. It tastes better over there, too. I'll tell you that. It really does. Oh, no. Yes, it does. We're there to work.

We're there to work. We're there to work. Remember, boys. Amen. That's right. And celebrate. Get pretty fucking boozed up. No, no, no. Not actual.

No, no, no. Yes, after the show. After the show. After the show. Friday should be a real doozy is what we're saying. Oh, dude. And we'll be, that's going to be the time. Where we are going to be positioned in this bar is right in the middle of the action, boss.

Are we by a window by chance? I mean, there is actually. Going to be ripping cigs the whole time. Yeah. Irish cigarettes. Yeah. Those are doing over there. Those are healthy.

Yeah, those are healthy. I don't know what they are. I'll be looking for some Colorado cigarettes in Ireland. Sure. Absolutely. California, Michigan, Arizona, Illinois. Massachusetts. Ohio, Massachusetts.

New Hampshire. Oregon, Washington, Montana. Montana's got great, great cigarettes. Nobody would know because I don't think anybody's like saying, yeah, I want to go get yeah cbd in montana great went to a nice little house beautiful little setup hey welcome you need anything everything's available it's like wow that's very rare at these particular stores because they got a short show front and then it's like we're out we're out we're out we're out gotta go through the ipad there

walking around showing me the place. It was really nice. Anyways, can't wait to see what they got in Ireland. Yeah. Can't wait to see what they got in Ireland. Not taking it. I've seen too many locked up abroads. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. No chance. Anytime there's a real operation happening, you got to watch it. Be careful. Yeah. Coming back into Indiana, can't do it. Nope.

Because it's, you know, they shut down here. Every state around Indiana. Yeah. Because it's shut down here. Every state around Indiana. Yeah. Really? People just fleeing Indiana to spend money. Not even medical? No. To spend money other places.

Just spend your money other places. Yep. Matter of time. Matter of time, right? It's got to be. If you get completely surrounded, you got to just give up. Yeah, 30 to 50 years. Yeah, I think that's probably right.

50 to 70 years. In our lifetime. Sounds like Bruce doesn't remember the Alamo. It does feel like that, doesn't it? That's odd. Wow, that's weird. That was different. It wasn't Indiana.

But they were surrounded, brother. A couple more things happened in the sports world that we need to talk about. Hideki Matsuyama won the FedEx St. Jude Championship. It's the first round of the PGA Playoff. They went from top 70 to now top 50 next week. Then top 30 will be the final finals where they will have an advantage on the scorecard depending upon where they rank throughout the entirety of the PGA season. Scores Sheffles number one still even after Matsuyama gets a big time win. His first event of the FedExCup playoffs

dub. Congrats to him. That's big for golf. Anybody watch? I watch all the preseason. This dude's mentally tough. I just happened to see he had a five-shot lead, and then he doubles, and all of a sudden, he went from being three or four up, and boom, he was in third or fourth

place, and Victor, I think, was first. But then Matsuyama comes back in the last hole. He birdied the last one to win. four up and boom he was in third or fourth place and victor i think was first shawfly and then but then matiama what comes back in the last hole he birdied the last one to win god i wish i would have watched it birdied 17 par to 18 18 is the hardest uh hole on the course so he was reeling he also had a real and it was rough he also had a new caddy because i believe they were in england i think and they got robbed and his caddy's uh passport got taken and couldn't make it to the saint jude so he was uh with the new caddy this week i taken and couldn't make it to the St. Jude. So he was with the new caddy this week, I believe, as well.

Jeez, we got people going to jail before things kick off. Getting robbed, not being able to make it. Golf's tough. Yeah. Hey, golf's not an easy sport. Also, Liv had a big showdown, right? Brooks Koepka, John Rahm had a playoff one hole. Brooks Koepka

beats Rahm, even though Rahm almost rolled one in from what was like 15 feet, seemingly, 15, 17 feet or so. If this falls, they would have went to a second playoff hole, but just rims out. I thought that was it. The Rahm rim job robs them of a job against Brooks Koepka. And I think the thing I like most about Brooks Koepka is how everybody else, whenever they sign their deal, however big it was, would live.

They said, yeah, we'll give up every other sponsorship. We'll just wear your shit, our shit. Yep. Team shit. Koepka said, I'm keeping that. I worked really hard to get a Nike deal. Yeah. Okay.

It'll be the same color as what everybody else is wearing, but I'm wearing a Nike. He's got a Nike hat, Nike shirt, Nike shoes. And the rest of his team that come out here and do the champagne, they all have the same color, but Smash is on the logo. Not Nike. Smash is on the hat. And I think Smash even on the shoes or whatever. And it's like Koepka is the boss of that team, the owner of that team.

And he was like, you guys can pay me $600 million, but also. I'm not looking like a jackass. I'm just doing it. You can sell that bullshit if you want to. Send the hats out to everybody in the polos. I'm not fucking wearing that while I'm playing. I love it. Yeah, it's awesome.

And Brooks now back with a big-time win. Rahm and Brooks in a playoff. That is what Liv dreamed about. This is what we're looking for. Only was one hole. Hopefully, they'll continue to see that. Whenever golf's strong, it's good for everybody Can you get booted though? Can you get booted from Liv?

I saw Bubba there Wasn't there a cut line where you get relegated Almost like old JJ's soccer team Yeah, there's relegation Pat Perez and Bubba Watson are in relegation No You're not going to pay them a ton and then send them somewhere else. Putt-putt somewhere, I guess.

You might play mini-golf in the same city. Nine-hole golf. Have you ever seen those putt-putt world championships? Oh, awesome. There's some talented putt-putters out there. Is that the concrete? There's like intense, concrete putt putt Is it really intense

Yeah That thing's rolling like crazy What was that place in Monroeville Playing at putt putt Maybe I forget I've seen that I don't think anyone ever knew what it was actually called But they had

They started having like tournaments As we got older and you could qualify for like a regional and then they were giving out like what 75 bucks to the winner 100 bucks to the winner and I showed up at one of these things and I was like I'm pretty good little butt butter yeah you get like hole-in-ones on like 13 of the holes oh yeah some of these dudes that are putting in there and they were just coming in hustling and I'm like guys carding like 23. turn it in you're shooting par two golfs right next to the uh gateway grow yep there it is that is exactly they had tournaments and the qualifiers in this entire thing i remember showing up thinking i was something and no that is not the case at all and then it was on espn

and these are like i don't know if they're mathematicians or whatever it is to know yeah yeah like the aliens kind of yeah it is it was billiards pretty much the way they were handling and operating it was wild to watch but i'll tell you what when i get a hole in one at putt-putt oh man nothing better especially if you got to do a donk ski yeah off the wall oh my god how good do you feel i feel like a super genius oh yeah gotta put it through the windmill yeah or one of like the little little pipes. You've got three little tubes and you've got to really thread the needle. Yeah, if not water.

I don't like that they do this anymore. And it's the ones that I've visited in multiple states. They let you cop out. There's a cop out option. I don't like that that's even an option. You mean like a layup? Bingo. Yeah.

Shouldn't be an option. You're right. layup? Bingo. Yeah. Playing safe. It shouldn't be an option. You're right. You should have to go hit it over the bridge if it falls in the water. You've got to go home. This is putt-putt. What are we talking about? That's the separator, though.

Yeah, but also let's learn having to execute. Well, that's why on 18, if you see your ball going in like a hole-in-one, you grab that sucker because you know you're going back for another round. Yeah, bingo. Because 18, it doesn't do the tube. You usually suck it back to the clubhouse. All the time. And you go, good job! Hole-in-one! And get the fuck out. Alright. Jeez, I was trying

to steal a couple holes out of you. Yeah. I love putt-putt. Great game. I remember I did go for the... I used to go growing up, but then whenever I went as a quasi-adult, maybe, I got done in like seven minutes. Like, oh, this is it. Okay. Yeah. My wife loves putt-putt. Loves the putt-putt. It's so hot. I adult maybe you got I got done in like seven minutes like oh this is this is it okay yeah my wife my wife loves putt-putt loves the putt-putt it's so hot there's so many things you know

especially on the days in which you're able to go play putt-putt what you have to deal with a lot of humans going to be there probably not a lot of space you know because it's like hole to hole to hole yeah and it's very very hot but when we go, wife loves putt-putt. We will really battle and get after it, but it's over so quick. If there's not a bunch of lines, you're through pretty fast. I don't remember it being like that

when it was growing up. They just opened up a place in Vegas. It's a two-story one. I think you just pay for two hours or whatever and they must have over 200 holes or whatever because I think you just go for two hours or whatever, and they must have over 200 holes or whatever, because I think you just go until your time runs out. What was that place in Pittsburgh that was across the street from the hotel? What was it?

It was like a bar, lounge, putt-putt place? The puttery. The puttery? The puttery, right? Yeah. That was awesome. Genius. Didn't do it.

No. Just saw it through the window. They had like 36 in there, different themes for each course. Tiger Woods has a bunch of those. Actually, one's in Indianapolis. Yes, there's a place in Indiana. I was just going to say. It's 36 holes, and it is fucking nuts.

Really? Yes, actually, 36. Yeah, that's it. I think it's Birdies. Where is it at? I think Noble's still. Yeah, Noble's. Like Boeing alleys?

Do they do that, I would assume? What, the night time? Cosmic? Is it Cosmic? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of everything. It's all outside. I don't know if there's any cosmic stuff,

but I think they do have lights so you can play at night, but it is 36 wild holes. Man, I did enjoy this shit out of going bowling. When they introduced cosmic bowling to the world, that was certainly a move. So far. Certainly a move. That had to be the most fights I've ever seen in my life

is the parking lot of the Cosmic Bowling Place. I was just signing up for it. Like going to a high school hockey game, we go watch Phil play hockey, guaranteed. Just guarantee of something happening outside the parking lot. Cosmic Bowling, another one of those spots. Putt-Putt always pretty jovial. Yeah, it is.

It's a good time, yeah. Yeah, Putt-Putt was always all this. A lot of is. It's a good time, yeah. Yeah, putt-putt was all this. A lot of little kids around, so getting in a full brawl with the other high school might be a little weird. Not as much booze. Yeah, I guess. Those were good times back in the day. Kennywood's still for sale. Anybody buying it? Yeah, I bet they have a putt-putt

thing on the outskirts. No one's buying that. Maybe we add one, AJ. Investors? Possibly you. How about it? There's another thing in Pittsburgh up for sale I'm learning. Giant Eagle. Is it Giant Eagle that's selling their kit?

They're selling Gitgo, yeah. Their gas station convenience store chain. Ooh. Oh, nice. You could really get a Pittsburgh haul here if you're Mark Cuban. That's got to be a lot of money. You get Kennywood, Sandcastle castle and john eagles convenience stores i mean mark cuban could just buy hold on because i think hank hi hank jay heinz's uh plant no they have other plants obviously it's not just pittsburgh

there's numerous places that create heinz ketchup so it's like if you were to buy, you potentially own. Cornwall Market. Some BC is going to scoop it all. Oh, you're talking about the Boston Celtics? Maybe. Because from what I'm gathering and hearing, somebody with a lot of money who likes sports is coming in to buy the Boston Celtics. Here we go. Is that what you're hearing as well?

That's kind of the word on the street. There's somebody with a lot of money who is a big basketball guy, and he wants to see. Who's that? I'm not revealing my sources. Well, it's not your sources. I think you read a tweet from somebody who potentially had sources. Oh, we're talking about Hefe Bezos? Yeah.

Yeah. Hefe. We're talking about Hefe Bezos? Yeah. Yeah. Hefe. Hefe Bezos is going to turn the garden basically into the next NASA space station if he buys the Boston Cell Station. That's what Bill Simmons, I guess, said on one of his podcasts over there at The Ringer and Spotify.

Bill Simmons has been doing sports, for those that don't know, Bill Simmons has been doing sports media for a very long time. Years. Years, like decades. Written a lot. Wrote a lot. He created things that we've all seen. Documentaries. He's a big part of that whole thing. A lot of people don't know that,

I think. He's connected. 30 for 30, right? I can vent 30 for 30. Very connected. Long time doing what he's doing. Long time doing what he's doing. So whenever he comes out and says like uh jeff bezos who's interested in buying the celtics that's pretty big deal because he's from the area right boston he's a boston guy yeah yeah what if jeff bezos's first professional sports

thing is the celtics because you would assume it'd be nfl like you would just assume an nfl team would be what he wanted because you know amazon, Amazon got into the NBA right, so I guess, in this entire thing. But it's like, that's very fast because he could buy anything. Literally. Yeah. Literally anything he wanted. And maybe it's the Celtics is what Bill Simmons is reporting. What are they?

Is there, like, an estimate of what the price would be? Zito says, just reading the article in the back there, $6 billion. $6 billion. That'd be more than an NFL NFL. Yeah, because it's only 36% stake. Yeah. It's like Cowboys status. Oh, you don't get a majority stake? Yeah, Cowboys are 10.4. They're the most valued professional

sports thing. Unless that's a new valuation. That would be sweet. That seems crazy for basketball. That must account for relocation costs because I read the first thing he's going to do is fucking move him out of Boston. Oh, yeah? He said, get me out of this shit. Build an arena do is move him out of Boston. Oh, yeah. He said get me out of this. Build an arena in Arkansas. Move him down there.

Oh, really? Arkansas Seas. Why? I don't know. John Daly coach. The Washington, D.C. Celtics maybe. Oh, you think. Not the Wizards.

So Forbes had Celtics at $4.7 billion value last year. So six would potentially be the number to, especially if they would have to price in whatever, I don't know. The garden's got to be part of that, right? The garden has to be. Yeah, I know. Yeah, and they just did this massive thing with the garden. They put these two towers on top of them, like shopping malls, apartments, this whole thing.

Do they own the garden? Yeah. City doesn't own it. I mean, I didn't really understand his question. He just said, do they own the garden? Yeah. City doesn't own it. I mean, I didn't really understand his question. He just said, do they own the garden?

Yeah, do the Celtics own the garden? The Celtics own. Oh, and the Celtics own the garden. Yeah, for it to be that, it'd be worth that much money. It has to be part of it, right? Nah, they rent. They don't own it.

They don't own it. Yeah, I was going to say, TD Garden, that'd be wild for them to own, especially with the Bruins brewing in there as well. Yeah. And concerts, right,

all year round. So the city probably owns said arena, if we had to guess. It's a company called Delaware North. And that is... Owns the Bruins. Yeah, Jeremy Jacobs is the Bruins. Actually, the Bruins own TD Garden.

Hockey! Love that for the state. Love that. Alright, we're going to get the hell out of here. I've got to get to Monday Night Raw. Last one here for the state. Original six, bitch. Love that. All right. We're going to get the hell out of here. I got to get to Monday Night Raw. Last one here for a while. Yeah. I'm very bummed out about that.

Where is it? Fort Lauderdale. Way down there. Quick play. Dottie Dottie. Or Sunrise. It's in Sunrise, I think. Yeah.

Flying to Lottie. If that makes sense. Shred some of the panther boys. Beautiful. Should be beautiful. Should be incredibly hot, I assume. But, yeah, last one for a while. Bummed out.

Very bummed out. Now, it means college football is literally right around the corner and football is happening and everything like that, which I'm definitely excited for. But this morning it really kind of hit me. It was like, oh, this is the last time for a while. I obviously have loved my time with the WWE all the way back to whenever I was working with NXT doing their pre shows to the content

innovation lab that was down in Orlando, Florida, all the way through. Whatever I read all of it. I love everything that I've gotten to do with the WWE feels like it's where I'm supposed to be. Like feels like it is the profession that I'm supposed to do with the WWE feels like it's where I'm supposed to be. It feels like it is the profession that I'm supposed to be a part of and I'm very lucky that they have let me in there to do the things that I do. Every Monday I tell

Michael Cole at least four times I cannot believe they pay us to do this right now because of how much fun I have, how cool everybody is and Michael Cole obviously greatest of all time. So I'm going to try to bask in all that this evening, enjoy the hell out of myself.

I'm going to try to enjoy the hell out of myself as usual. And that means one thing and one thing alone. College football, college game day is literally just five days away. Wow, fucking right. Which I'm pumped up about. But I am very very very bummed out about the ww because i just i wouldn't survive as a human you know like i would i would with five days a week in this particular program and then college game day which i'm incredibly

lucky to be part of it's an institution in sports it's an institution in football there's only so many job opportunities that in that particular show it's one of the most legendary historic just everything in the football world so getting to do that awesome but then the same exact thing can be said about the wwe in the role that i'm in about how many seats there are how many opportunities there is and it's like dreams you know dream like so have to do one or the other kind of forced into that by numerous people my My wife included. Nick Kahn also. That would be... I mean, what your schedule already is

crazy, but to think of staying with that throughout the football season. Come on now. You would die. Something would suffer. It's just a human nature. Probably happiness. I think I'd probably... That for sure. Monday Night Football. My energy. Yeah, Monday Night Football. Yeah, there's just... just So tonight's the last one

I'm gonna give it a go You know I'm gonna let Some things fly Hell yeah Stack hard Yeah Rip them Stack hard

Yeah I'm gonna let it Fly a little bit You know What are some things I've been wanting to say But haven't said You know What am I thinking

We shall see Shall we Hell yeah I might get a little Emotional out there As I say goodbye To everybody You know

Because you never know You have no idea What the future looks like. Obviously, everybody's conversation is going to be back, but it's like, okay, who else is going to... Everything changes so

rapidly and quick. It's cool stuff. I'm lucky to do it. All right. Boys, great work in the back tomorrow. We can't wait to hammer away. All the storylines that are developing have happened in chit-chat with people that we absolutely love. Tomorrow's stacked card on this. Oh yeah. Should be fun. Boys, great work over at the Talks.

Appreciate you. You too. Bruce Brown from Hammer. Good work today, pal. New Johnson just fine. Live from Hammer. Good work, pal. Thank you, lad. I appreciate it. What were those dooming stats again about these rookie quarterbacks? The dooming stats were 36% win percentage since 2013

and 2-18 run on the last 20 games, week one to three games. With that being said, Jay Daniels just got named the official starter for the Commanders. Congratulations, Jay. Saw some real promise. He's been spending it a little bit. Has good composure. Seems like a professional.

Everybody likes him. Brandon Ayuk, at one point, was potentially trying to leave the Niners to go play football with him. That has to be a good sign. New ownership. Trying to turn over a new leaf and make things happen. Throwing strikes, Jaden Daniels,

official starter for the Washington Commanders. Commanders caught up in a little bit of a PR situation with a punter from the Ohio State who had a workout with the Commanders, filmed it all, and then made a video because he's a content creator. I've seen him do DoorDash in Uber. I've seen him work out. I've seen him punt. I've seen his drop. I've seen a lot of his content. And he made a video about a day in the life of a punter or kicker that works out for a team, and they asked him to take it down from the Internet. He did not, and then he screenshotted the message from his agents, I think, telling them, like, hey, commanders legal has said, can you please take this down?

Wild scene. Commanders definitely don't want to be caught up in this as they're trying to become you know the next iteration of the washington commanders with that being said i i don't i don't think you know most people uh and companies are a-okay with people just filming people from like a corner like candid camera yeah in their building you know without asking for me if you didn't i don't i don't know if that's the case And then just editing it and then just putting it out, letting it fly, especially NFL teams. I guess another NFL team didn't mind that it happened. I assume this could be easily figured out, though.

Let's go ahead and figure this whole thing out. But also, when you film people and then put them in videos, you know, normally – I hope he said something. I hope he said something. I hope he said something beforehand. So I don't know the entirety of it. I'm a fan of Dude. I like Dude. So I don't want to judge him,

and I understand how people just want to bury the commanders in the NFL. But it's like, also, if you did just film somebody without telling them and then put it in a video and then promote it, it's like, this is how this place works. It's like, that is not normally kosher either in how things work in this particular world. So hopefully they'll be able to center that and move that. But it feels like the commanders are moving forward

in a beautiful fashion. All right, let's get the hell out of here. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Hell yeah. We're in this thing together.

Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye.