The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1390 - NFL Preseason Week 2 Recap, Ian Rapport, Dan Orlovsky, Harry Douglas, Jeff Passan, & Darius Butler
Episode Date: August 18, 2025On today’s show, Pat is out of town on assignment, as NFL Network Senior Insider, Ian Rapport guest hosts the show, recapping week 2 of the NFL Preseason, the Trey Hendrickson and Micah Parson situa...tions, the QB battles around the league, who had the best performances of the weekend. Joining the show is 12 year NFL veteran, ESPN NFL analyst/QB guru, Dan Orlovsky to chat about Caleb Williams’ impressive performance, who he’s really liked so far, Matt Stafford and the Rams, and more. Next, 10 year NFL veteran, ESPN NFL AND CFB analyst Harry Douglas joins the show to chat about the Terry McLaurin situation and where he see’s it going, which rookie WR’s he thinks are going to have the biggest impact, how he thinks the Falcons will be this year, and more. Lastly, ESPN MLB Insider, Jeff Passan joins the show to give an update on the playoff race, and discuss Rob Manfred’s comments about upcoming expansion and reshuffling the divisions geographically. Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Pat McAfee show.
I am, of course, not Pat McAfee.
Football!
Yes.
See, I did an elongated break so you guys would do it.
I tried to like, tame it.
I tried to do it properly, but it was.
You did good.
It's better than the previous times.
Yes, it was.
I am Ian Rappaport.
I am guesting for Pat today.
I'm very, very, very happy to be here.
Pat is, of course, not here.
He is...
Parts unknown.
Abroad.
I have no idea.
TBD.
Could be literally anywhere.
Yeah.
Last time I was doing this,
it was doing some sort of WWE thing
in a place overseas or something.
Maybe.
Drinking, I think, if I remember correctly.
I honestly have no idea.
Sounds about right.
But he is not here today.
I am here.
As are my good friends,
Boston Connor.
Ty Schmidt.
Thank you.
Tone Diggs.
Oh, yeah.
And my second favorite cornerback that I've ever covered in the NFL.
Oh, okay.
And that's that true.
My favorite.
Darius Butler in the house as well.
It's actually, who was the first?
Oh, Devin McCordy.
God, dull.
Yeah.
He put, who in safety, you?
So, DB.
So I've jumped back up.
Yeah.
When, when I was in the Patriots locker room as a beat writer,
this is exactly why the people tuned in today.
Kevin McCordy was a corner who was getting toasted by Steve, Stevie Johnson.
Steve Largent.
Buffalo Beach.
Sure, yeah.
Right?
And I remember having a really awkward conversation with him in the locker room,
me not knowing anything, him being a literal NFL corner,
saying, have you ever thought about moving to safety?
And he was really offended.
That's crazy.
That's the worst thing you could say.
It was so, and I was, you know, probably 28 or something,
and wearing like an oversized plaid shirt.
just looking ridiculous.
And he was so, but he's such a nice guy.
Oh, yeah.
But, and then, of course, he goes on to be a great safety,
and I am the greatest football scout of all time.
Yeah, you put him on, you put that little nugget.
He's a pro bowler as a rookie at corner, too.
He was a sophomore struggles, but he's a dog.
All right.
I'm very happy to be here, as I said.
We had a great week of football, which I know you guys were locked in,
as was I, mostly.
Oh, yeah, okay.
Spent some time on the phone talking about some various
trade scenarios, the
Trey Hendrickson thing we're going to get to.
There's a Michael Parsons thing
we're going to get to.
There's a Tarran McClurent thing we're going to get
to. There may be some quarterback news.
We'll see. I know we got the
cult situation, which according to Shane Stikin's
kind of rounding to a close,
it feels like.
Cleveland Brown situation is getting
close to their Saints. We'll see.
Usually,
I'm on the other side of this.
Usually you guys are like,
rap I got a question for you yeah yeah you know so I'm here what do you want to know I mean
the latest in at least the this spectacle I'll ask about it just because it's yeah I feel as though
the only real GM that's come out and said they'll trade a first round pick now is Elliott wolf
he's kind of the only guy at least in New England who's going out and you know that proclaiming
hey we'll trade a first or second round pin or is it for someone well I mean you're asking me
I'm not I'm asking rap I have no idea I'm assuming everybody's kind of on the table
table. But is this even real? Like, is this a realistic, hey, we're going to trade a first
round pick? Is he saying that because he wants all the other teams to kind of go away and so
he can kind of slide in? Or is this a reality where, not including Micah, because I think
everybody assumes if he does get traded that there will be a first and a second one. With Terry
McLaren and Troy Hendrickson, is there a real possibility that those guys are getting moved for
first and second round picks and players? Like, yeah. So first of all, for Micah, it's
going to be, if there is even a trade to talk about, which we'll see, we'll get to that,
but it would be a lot, okay? The Terry McLaurin would be not as much. The Trey Hendrickson
would be, from my understanding, a really good young player. Like we're talking like a starter,
someone you don't have to pay right away, like. It's like second yearish player. Yeah,
like a someone's first or second rounder from last year who's really good.
Sure. Right? And then a pick for next year. Like it would be,
for sure, expensive.
The Patriots have a young quarterback,
who I think is going to be really, really good.
This is the window.
Like, you see teams load up.
So normally I'd kind of be like,
ah, you know, teams open to everything.
I don't know, man.
Like, Patriots seem open for business.
They seem to recognize that this is their window
to do kind of what the Texans did, right?
Which is like just, we'll trade for Stefan Diggs
and we'll just, we'll pay because we will load up
and we don't have to pay the quarterback.
yet. But the commanders who
are kind of in the exact same situation
just a much better team already.
Like why has it got to this point where
you know, because they went out and they did
what you just said. They got Laramette Tunsell and
Debo Samuel and all these other guys. Laramette Tunso trade was like
a great example. Yeah, but like
why was this
on the horizon for a long time? Like why wouldn't
the commanders, you know, to your point
go all in while they have all these things like a
rookie quarterback and you know, momentum
kind of like, why is this happening?
I mean, they're trying to, but it's really just a disagreement of value.
So, Terry McLaurin wants, like, $33 million like D.K. Metcalfe, he's a little older, but same class, similar production, different type of receivers.
Yeah.
Which, like, actually, all right, D. But since you're a resident expert, do you think, as someone who may or may not have had to cover people just like this, do you think that they are similar threats slash, I don't know, about value?
but similar threat. Do you think they should be guys who should make the same amount of money?
Yes, I'll say similar value. I understand the age difference.
Where Terry is, though, he hasn't missed the game, I believe in like five years.
So being out there, we always say your best ability is availability in the National Football League,
especially we have a young quarterback. And early in the season, Terry wasn't getting a bunch of targets
and didn't become a problem or a loud voice or a quote-unquote diva, like a lot of wide receiver ones do in the locker room.
So he kind of stayed, the course, was patient. Let them go out.
and do the other things, let him pay it.
But as far as threat-wise,
D.K. is more of a big play threat.
Like any play can be a 60, 70-yard touchdown,
but consistently week in and week out,
Terry McClureen, he's going to show up.
And he's going to make those big-time plays,
and he is one of the best wide receivers
in the National Football League
at, like, the point of attack.
Like that moment of truth in the ball is air,
he's always been that guy.
So him being around that D.K. number, it makes sense.
It makes sense to me.
Not only who he is on the football field,
but in the locker room, in the community,
everything you want, you know,
before a leader of your team.
Yeah, I mean, so that's, so that's the argument, right?
That's like, it's like they have tried,
the commanders are not there yet,
they want to pay them, I just don't know,
like my guess, this is just a guess.
What do they want to pay them, how much?
Yeah, what have they got?
So my sense is it's around or a little under 30.
So like, if McCoran wants 33
and the commanders want to pay them a little less,
let's just call it, not a real number,
but let's call it 28 and a half.
There's a deal to be made.
That's what T's making.
That's what T. Higgins is made.
Right, okay.
So then, like, let's say it's 29 above T.
That seems like a good deal.
Al-Morrah's at 30.
Right, and if I'm Terry McCoran.
It's not a deal, what, two years ago?
Yeah, the Al-Mun Rale they did before the Lions draft.
Right, but then if you're Terry's agent, you're like, well, hang on, that's two years after.
Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Ayuk was last year, that was at 30.
So, like, they both have arguments, but I think they are trying to do it,
and I think they're also in that all-in mode
because they got, I mean, they got the lottery ticket too.
Yeah, yeah.
So the commanders are saying are more so, like,
of the three, Micah, Terry, and Trey,
like the commanders and Terry are probably the closest
of those three to actually getting a contract done
because we've literally been talking about these three guys for five months.
And I love them so much because it gets us through so many shows.
And then when they get done, it's sort of like James Cook we talked about
and they get done, it's sort of like, okay.
Here we go. Let's go play ball.
But it was like Hendrickson, like, why now?
Did they just assume that even after like he wasn't there that he was just going to play ball and be okay with everything?
Like, why have they waited until the 25th hour to finally be like, okay, we'll trade this guy now?
I mean, I guess, you know, maybe teams get more desperate and they're willing to give up a little bit more right before the season starts.
But like, this has been the exact same situation for since he was on our show at Radio Row.
Like, this hasn't changed at all.
So why is it all of a sudden now, like, oh, I guess he is serious and he really is unhappy and he's not going to play if we don't get him a new deal?
I mean, I think the reason is because somebody needs something to happen.
Like, we are, it's August 18th, the season is two weeks away.
I don't have any answers about it.
Deadline spur action.
Right.
As someone on Twitter said, yes.
And I don't know what the action is, though.
And that's the problem.
It's like, one side needs to bend.
another team comes in and says like, hey, we're going to offer you a good player and a big
contract and a pick next year. Maybe the Bengals go, all right, if we can weaken our team
on the edge, but strengthen our team at guard, I don't know, whatever, whatever it is,
tight end, who knows, whatever it is. Maybe that makes sense. But I think the problem for the
Bengals is they are good. And if you're good, why do you trade a good player? Same thing with the
commanders. Well, then why not pay the good player? Yes, that is the, that is the question. I think
the frustrating thing is like, this doesn't seem to me to be a deal that should be
impossible. Right. The trade or the contract? The contract. Yeah, sure. Like, he's going to get a
big raise this year. How much guaranteed next year and the year after is kind of what the question
is. And because T.J.'s deal is so good. And Miles Garrett's deal is so good. Crossby.
Crosby. It's like, doesn't he deserve that? Of course, he understands.
answer is yes, but then where...
So, is there asking price, though,
like ridiculous to the point
that teams aren't even going to reach out, just
because it's... I don't, so I don't think
so. We've done this before.
We've, with Clownie got
done at the
cutdown day, right? Yeah.
There's been a couple... Bosa was weak of their first
game. TJ was weak of, I think.
The contract, not the trade. The contract.
I was thinking trade, but yes.
No, no, trade. There is
time. And generally, like,
that last week of the season when all I want to do is be at my beach club hanging out,
sunning myself. These are generally the things that we will be dealing with.
We got a lot more to get to. We have a lot more football stuff.
We have someone on the line right now who has been ducking me on the golf course for, I would say,
more than a year. Wow. More than a year. We play at similar places. I go to Connecticut sometimes
to play with a good buddy of mine
to lose to my buddy is Russ and
Brent. Very annoying.
Orlovsky sometimes plays at a similar course
and has been refusing to play with me.
Anyway, I just said his name.
Dan Orlovsky is here joining us.
Dan, why's going on?
He doesn't want to play from the Reddys.
I don't think you've won. I don't think I've ever
invited me to play golf as you, too.
It's not true. I would 1,000%
take you up on it. And three, I would feel very
confident in playing against you.
Wow.
Why did you have to say that last part?
Mark?
I'm a yes.
Why did he say that last part?
Well, he's just, he's an athlete.
He's a professional athlete.
I mean, you two just can't stand next to each other on the T-box.
No.
No, you cannot.
The thing about guys like Dan is you watch your box.
So offensive.
It'll drive back to your box.
No, I was going to say, you'll have to, and then you'll have to drive 75 yards up to the red T's so he can deal.
I can hit it.
I can hit it a little bit.
I can hit it a little bit.
I don't know where it's going, but I can hit it a little bit.
We fixed your swing that one day.
My God.
Orlovsky, what's going on?
Thank you for hanging with us.
What's going on?
You watched a slate of preseason games.
You watched a lot of interesting quarterback situations.
We have all been kind of thinking about this in our brain over the last little bit.
What stood out to you first and foremost?
What did you learn about quarterback play this weekend from, I think, let's start with one of the young guys who stood out for you?
Yeah.
I'll go back to last night, you know, and the standout is coaching just it matters so much.
And I'm not going to make like the, oh my gosh, Caleb Williams is going to go win MVP thing.
But if we're just taking off of what last night was, we're going to, he's good enough to one day.
If we're just taking last night off what it was, he was flawless when it comes to what you wanted to see.
No one wanted to say, man, I don't know if Peelebs is athletic enough to go run around and make plays in the league.
But it was, holds the ball too long, doesn't really get the ball out on time, is constantly, you know, hitching in the pocket, not seeing it and trusting it and letting it go.
That wasn't the case last night.
And there was a confidence, there was a conviction.
You know, I looked at it and I said he threw the ball ten times.
Two of the throws were throwaways.
One of them was a bootleg.
So for the seven throws that he threw within the pocket.
six of them were either on his first hitch or no hitch at all.
Wow.
That tells me he's seeing it.
That tells me he's confident.
That tells me he knows what he's doing with the football.
And is there a reality of like, yes, that number one option was open often?
For sure.
But that's not his fault.
So then the coaching, you sit there and go, man, that was good.
The one time when he got to his second hitch, he got to the second part of the progression.
So overwhelmingly, hopefully.
and confident, impressed by what I saw last night from Caleb, and just the, man, that coaching
matters. Is there Buffalo is playing as basic coverage as they can play reality to that? Yes. I mean,
that was the most basic coverage he will see all season, but he did his job. And so the takeaway is,
man, that coaching just matters and tip of the hat to them, and we'll see where it goes from there.
I'm still sitting there saying it's going to take a long period of time for the ownership and the
mastering of it um you know going to cleveland i was really impressed with what chador did last week
i was equally if not more impressed with what dylan gabriel did this weekend i thought gabriel was
awesome yeah i thought his tape was great um he made some really kite coverage elite ball placement
throws um i thought he moved in the pocket really well they went under center something he didn't
do a ton at oregon um i don't think the interception's all on him yes he at the end of the
day makes the final decision, but there's a lot that goes into that ball being picked off,
let alone a pick six.
The fumble I do put on him, but just some tight coverage throws that you're sitting there going,
man, that's really, really, really good ball placement versus coverage.
That's pretty good.
So I thought he was really interested.
I think it makes the decision-making even more interesting in Cleveland,
and I think it's going to be, by all reports, Joe, as the starter.
Who it feels like?
Who do they name is QB2?
Like, who's going to be QB2 then?
I'll go to Indy
I was really impressed with Anthony
and I can't quit Anthony Richardson for some reason
man I just
We're believers man
We believe ours man
We're believe ours
You know just physically he looked really good
And played fast
And ball went to the right place often
So
You know I don't know what they're going to do
But
It's hard for me to not name him
The starting quarterback if I'm Shane Steichen
Wow
That is
Yeah, that was going to be my follow for you, Dan.
Out here in Indy, obviously, that's the biggest thing.
We made a sign of it with Xavier Howard, but the quarterback, name of QB1 is the hugest thing we're going into this season.
What did you see preseason from both of these guys that will make an argument for either one to be QB1?
I know you say you don't want to quit, you know, AR, we believe ours for sure.
But where are you at?
What you need to see from either one of these guys be named a starter?
I go back to week one, okay, so against Baltimore.
I thought Daniel was sharp.
I thought Daniel got the ball because, like Debutt, they got really talented guys, right?
On offense, there's three or four guys.
Man, Downs is really good.
And A.D. Mitcher is really good.
And Hitman's obviously a really big-time player.
And then they got Moe Alley Cox and then Warren looks and you're like, just get him the ball.
I thought Daniel did that in Week 1 versus Baltimore relatively sharply.
And then Anthony had the moment of the fumble.
And you're like, God bless, dude, just figure it to freak out.
Yep.
And you get that small body of.
work. And then this past week, you know, this past weekend, I watched Daniel, you know,
first quarter 828 misses a touchdown. First quarter, 403 misses a touchdown. Um, you know,
I thought the ball down the sideline first quarter to a way to warn, nice throw. And so,
yeah, this ball, nice throw. Guys wide open, but nice throw, okay? And then Anthony, I go,
good out, good keeper, really good sale, um, really nice, clean stop, played fast,
40 yards
a 40 yard throw
the elite throw with
111 in the second quarter so I'm just
I thought Anthony was really impressive
this past week and
I think D but I said along this
and I don't know the
building enough well enough
if you name Daniel
do you lose Anthony
if you name them do you lose them
should that and then the reality of like
is that I mean
if they're even right
because even on the other side
like if you if you start
AR can you ever go away from him then
because then you lose them mid-season?
We always said the locker room
knows because we only see the preseason
games which are, you know, it's a glorified
live scrimmage practice, but
the guys see both of these guys take reps
at the ones, reps at the twos, you see them
in and out of huddle, you see them in a rack with
coaches and players and just every
you see the whole thing. So when
Shane names the starter, it shouldn't
be a surprise to the locker room. It should be
maybe some people outside, but
inside that locker room, and
If he knows either he won the job or he lost in the same thing with Daniel.
So as the head coach, when you're making that,
that's why you're getting to pay the big bucks.
It's also, Dee, but it's also the variable of he needs to play.
And so if you name Daniel the starter, like my thought is you're kind of saying,
all right, we're moving on from him.
Because if you're naming Daniel the starter, you're naming Daniel the starter in the hopes that he plays well enough
that your guys are winning games
and you're a competitive football team
and he's the guy for the year.
Well, then you're not,
Anthony's going into year four
without playing football.
We're having a Trey Lance situation
then all over again.
And so I'm happy that I don't have to make the decision
because like there's parts of me
that sit there and see it in a lot of different ways.
Man, I want to go to Tone in a second.
But I think you're right,
Oroovsky.
And like this is part of the issue is
it should be who's the best quarterback play the best quarterback that's not I mean these things
don't exist in a vacuum and so it's like right like if you let's say Daniel's a starter then to me
it's like it's over like Anthony Richardson is at some point going to be on another team he is
going to be Trey Lance like that's it's the reality it sucks and I agree he needs to play and
I kind of would like to see him play but if that's what's best for the team then I think that's
what Stuykenessi, but it is not, like, these decisions do not, unfortunately exist in a fact.
Yeah.
Yeah, Dan, I had a question for you because I saw you guys talking about it this morning,
but we were prepping for the show, so I didn't really get to hear what you said.
You guys were running the highlights of Justin Fields, and, you know, it didn't look great
this weekend, and there's been reports out of camp that it hasn't looked incredible.
Because I know you've always been a Justin Fields believer, and I was last year as well.
has it reached the point where like hey this needs we're like he he needs to prove himself right now
what have you seen so far yeah Justin was really disappointing the other night
I don't think he saw coverage it was like he just got the ball and threw it instead of trying
to read he played slow and my one thing with Justin as a pastor that has always been
frustrating is physically it just takes a long time for the ball to get out of his hands
that's why he's never been a quick game guy go back to the first start you know when
called a bunch of quick game and i'm like what is going on so that really hasn't grown which
is one thing that as a pastor i would like to see i think he sees progressions fine i think there's
enough accuracy and all that it just come on man um physically so the other night was frustrating
the only thing i would say tone is this and while frustrating and i don't want to say concerning
I would be really surprised
that this is the offense
schematically they roll out
within New York.
They haven't done anything
when it comes to zone read,
very little RPO zone read stuff
that we see out of some athletic quarterbacks.
Very little non-designed quarterback read, a run.
And that should be the case.
You would never want to show your hand
in the preseason of what you're going to do.
So I am holding off a little bit of like,
dude, this could be a situation
where, you know, he's going to get 10 carries a game.
And they're going to be in the gun running all this zone read
and the combination of stuff that we see with Lamar and Jamie Daniels
and Kylo Murray and Josh Allen.
And so, like, if they're going to do that,
I'm not as doom and gloom.
There's one way for the Jets to play this year.
It's going to be great defense, run the football 40, 45 times a game.
Don't get down by 10.
They get down by 10.
I think they lose.
So I'm not.
not pressing the caution button or the panic button right now just because I don't think
what we've seen for them scheme-wise is who they're going to be.
And this is why the preseason is so I love it.
I really love watching football, even if it's preseason football, but like I don't know
what I'm watching because you're like, is this fake offense or the real offense?
And obviously we'll see, but like I would agree that if this is what it is, then they're going
to have to play some very, very good defense.
Todd Schmidt, question.
Yeah, Dan, I'm sure people are probably.
sick and tired of hearing this, but at what point do you think the Stafford concerns become like
legitimately real? Because it seems like, again, you know, every week, hey, he's fine. If he had
to play week one or if he had to play tomorrow, if it was a playoff game or whatever, he's going
to go. But the more this carries on and we have questions about it, like it seems like something
is definitely going on here and he's not getting any younger and a back isn't exactly a good
thing for a quarterback. Like, if you had to put this on a scale of one to ten, how concerned would
you actually be with Stafford's back injury?
Right now, I'm a, I'm a, as one, like I don't have concern.
Oh, wow.
You told me, wow.
I don't.
Um, I don't.
From what I know, from what I know, this is not a functional thing or a capability thing.
It's just a like a pain management, pain tolerance thing.
I think that everybody knows
he's like the toughest person on the planet
type of thing so that's not
something that gives me
cause for concern
now if it gets to next week
because I think the perspective
and Debut you would know
this well too is dude that
season and that one game
they added makes this season
so long I know it's only
one game but it makes it so long
and this is one of those teams that's probably
in the handful that, like, they don't think they could play into late January. They
expect to play into late January. And so, you know, trying to keep that long-term vision of
we want him as healthy as possible in December and January. So now, if he doesn't practice
by next week, yes, my concern level would go up. But right now, I just, I'm not overly
concerned with it. That's why, I mean, from the outside, I look at it, that's why I'm so
concerned because of who Stafford is and you spent time around him, you know, as a teammate,
but I just know these type of court.
Dan has seen that probably very, very few people.
Yeah, but like these franchise quarterbacks, like, I know it's a long season, but they
don't like missing reps.
Yeah.
And if you're talking about a pain tolerance or a pain threshold, like, that's like, that's,
like, Andrew Luck, for instance, he was one of the toughest guys ever played with.
So when he started missing time and it was like, oh, he'll be back, but okay, it's an ankle,
it's a calf.
that was like early on
it was like concerned every day
every full practice he missed it became more
and more of a concern I have that same feeling
with Matt I know he's not a spring chicken
but you know these reps are valuable
especially getting new weapons in there every year it's a new
team but you got Devonte Adams like you want to get
on the same page with that so I'm
concerned especially when he's hey he's going to practice
this day and then he does it Saturday workout
then it's kind of murky
I'm concerned until you know until he gets out there
and hopefully it's a bunch of
nothing but yeah I'm concerned about nine because
he has been an eye man. We also, but we also don't know who is the end-all, be-all, and why he's not
practicing. Is this Stafford going, I can't practice today? Is this them going, hey, there's no
need for you to practice? Yeah. You know, like, who's the person, because I do agree with your
point of, like, these guys want to be out there, like, and he's one of those people that loves being out
there, but we don't know if it's him saying no. We don't know if it's Sean. We don't know
if it's the doctors. We don't know the person that's making the final determination of
saying, okay, you're not going on in the field today type of thing. And so that, I agree with that
point. I'm just not overly concerned right now. Maybe, you know, I'm jaded with my thought. Are you
not overly concerned because you saw Stets and raising hell out there this weekend? It's certainly
hell. Hey, actually, let me, let me interrupt for a second. Let me interrupt. We have, I don't
know if this is breaking news or not, but the Rams have just posted a little video,
Matthew Stafford is now back at practice.
Oh, okay.
So, Dan, good job.
Now I'm down to a one.
Yeah, I'm a one as well.
And, I mean, there is right there.
That's great work right there.
I mean, that is a, that looks like a relaxed, chill dude is going to have a nice casual day at practice.
And, you know, the Rams have been sort of providing updates on this, and it's been interesting
to hear because it's like he's going to throw, he threw a lot, then didn't
practice that week, and then wouldn't really say if he was going to throw Saturday, and my
understanding of this was like, we just want to get some improvement, just like a little bit
of improvement, and then he can get back out there. Now he is back out there. So that is, I mean,
if you're a Rams fan, or I don't know, let's just say someone who you're good friends with Matthew
Stafford, this is a very, very good sign right now that he is walking for practice. Yeah, I just,
and I, Ian, I think, like, Dee, but you grew up.
in the organization, but like, I remember our time in Indy, and he, you know, a much greater
player than I was there type of thing. But like, I remember when Peyton and them were in their
heyday, how they approached the offseason was directly correlated individually wise to how
many snaps that person played in the previous season. So like, if you were a guy that played
X amount of snaps, you were allowed organizational mandate to start your offseason training
at a certain date. And then if you played 150 snaps more,
you started your off-season work X amount of days later, and if you played X amount of snaps more,
and so they kept pushing it because their whole philosophy was they were a team that fully believed
that they were going to be playing 18, 19, 20 games, and so they wanted your off-season to start
later because they knew your season was going to start later, and then in turn, go into the
next season. So I just think it's an organization that has this mindset of where they are.
They know that this year is an all-in year.
They know that.
And they know they can win the whole thing.
And so they could ruin January by doing too much in August.
And you can't really ruin anything else by starting late.
That's a great call.
And really, we have seen teams treat this thing differently with the 17 game
because they have so much time.
And, like, I was there for Cowboys Rams' joint practice.
The Rams defense should be,
it feels like to me comically good.
So this is a very, very good team.
Balser Conner has a question for you.
Yeah, Dano, you mentioned them kind of expecting to play into late January, early February.
And, you know, granted, this is kind of just a opinionated question.
August 18th is essentially the worst day of every year when it comes to the preseason.
We're halfway through.
We really haven't seen enough.
And then also, we aren't at actual football yet.
So it's just one of those things.
August 18th does.
How do you feel about the first day?
being totally honest. Some people think it's a great
day. Do they? You know what's
funny? I haven't heard that. Tiffany Lesher
thinks it's a great day. No, no. I mean,
it's not like it's a bad day. It's just
when we're talking about fodder. Like, this is
the worst day of the year, by far.
But
to be honest, I'm kind of missing whatever you guys
are talking about, but
when it comes to the, you know,
we'll just stay on the West Coast, even in
that division day. And it feels like the
Niners are one of those teams that
people have kind of forgotten about. And then you think a
teams like the Raiders, where, you know,
Gino Smith, who's played really good football and people aren't really talking about
them because of the Chargers and Broncos and Chiefs and things like that.
But what do you think of those types of teams that aren't getting as much conversation,
but definitely could turn out to be, you know, 11, 12 win type of team?
Do you think the Niners are going to be back to that?
Do you think some of these teams like the Raiders, like the, I mean, Seahawks,
even in that division as well?
That's the team.
That looked very different.
Yeah, so I'm going to start,
geographically. So I think two teams that probably have not been talked about enough that I think are going to be really good teams are Seattle and Arizona. I think Seattle is going to be awesome, man. Clint Kubiak, new offensive coordinator. And in preseason, they looked fantastic just what I watched them present the other night. It looked like a complete offense when it came to changing the snap count, shifting in motioning, different variations in the run game, changing the launch point of the quarterback, different past games when it comes to
Sometimes you're trying to get the ball out quickly.
Sometimes you're trying to push the ball down field.
Sometimes you want to play action concepts.
So I watched that, and I'm going like, man, they look, that looks to be a team that's under control.
I think their defense, secondary-wise, will be fantastic once again.
So Seattle looks to be for a team for me.
Everyone's talking about, and I'm one of them, Rams, NFC West Division favorites, and I still, excuse me, feel that way.
But I think Seattle is going to be very much so in that conversation.
Arizona is going to be really difficult to play against.
I think Arizona with Jonathan Gannon just has an edge to them that is going to be physical.
They're going to play violent football.
Sometimes when I watched their tape of defense last year, I go, I have no idea what this defense is doing in a way that...
They got a good young coordinator, man.
Yeah, and like they were hurt last year at the defensive line position with their young, I think Robinson, who they took out of Missouri.
He's healthy this year.
they signed sweat. It's Marvin Harrison's second year. So I think Arizona's a player in that division as well. So those are two teams. The Raiders, yes, Gino, I'm a huge fan of. Brock Bowers is awesome. I still have concerns about the offensive line. I still have concerns about the defense. The 49ers, I'm a little hesitant on, man. I am. I am. I want to see how Brandon Ayuk is when he comes back, when he comes back. Jennings has got a contract situation and some health situation.
that's going on. That offensive line has been depleted. That's the thing that probably hasn't
gotten enough notoriety when it comes to the fall off of some of their talent. Their offensive
line took some significant shots. That defense has lost a lot of talent. So, you know,
obviously I have a tremendous amount of respect for who they've been and who they're going
to continue to be as far as long term. I don't know if they bounce back as quickly as maybe
public perception has them.
I still think I'm a little bit hesitant to see what they're going to be.
That's interesting.
And I think you're right.
You rightly point to the offensive line is like, all right, if a team is going to falter a little bit, like, let's say, the Raiders who I think are going to be better, or the 49ers, like, that's where the focus goes.
Dan, you have been awesome.
We appreciate you.
I just have one last thing before we let you go.
Yes, sir.
Do you have any plans for today?
Are you going to just like, do you want anything interesting going on?
today? No. I'm working from like 7 to 10
tonight, so. Are you really? Oh, do you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Long day. Long day. No, no, nothing interesting is going on.
Sure. Should we? Should we? That feels like a present, maybe. Yeah? I love a present.
We don't have a present, but we do wish you happy birthday. Happy birthday,
happy birthday, Dan. Happy birthday, Dan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. Appreciate you.
I waited to the last possible minute because birthday.
are still a little bit weird because we're all grown,
but I'm very happy for you for your 32nd birthday,
and you were awesome, and thank you very much for him.
32, yeah.
I assume he's 32, right?
He looks at.
31?
Well, whatever.
Forty-two.
Jeez.
That sucks.
You imagine a quarterback at 42 still?
I can't.
No, dude.
No, no.
I say it.
No, no, you can't.
No, not me personally, but I'd root for one.
No.
I don't know how he does it, man.
God bless him.
You just saw you spin up.
God bless them.
Yeah.
A year's a proble.
Yeah.
40.
Yeah, you embarrass everybody else, remember?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Goodbye, Dan.
I can't stand you.
Love you, Dan.
Take it easy, brother.
Have I'm working on your birthday, brother.
Do you think he was wondering if we were going to wish him happy?
He must have been, right?
No, because he knows.
We're here to talk ball.
No.
You're right.
He had to be the whole time he was like, are they going to say it?
Had to be.
Eventually.
Maybe.
No, Dan seems like the guy.
He would have squeezed the Michael Scott in there if he really had.
to him and like hey Connor I don't know it was your birthday today too I think that would be kind of the
move oh it's not oh okay so it's just fine yeah yeah the uh you had an interesting reaction to
something he said uh when he was talking about the Jets about how they're not actually running their
offense you kind of perked up a bit is that is that happening to run the league right now with
some of these teams it does and like so I had the same reaction to him like you see Justin
field you watch the Jets you're kind of like all right like and I know it is
I think for Jets fans, they went all in with Rogers.
It worked out, obviously, how it all worked out.
It feels like a small bit of a reset or a big bit of a reset.
As far as what I'm expecting, like, if they win seven games, I'd be like very solid.
No doubt.
Very solid.
But then, you know, you watch them, and you're kind of like, all right, like, that wasn't great.
But their offensive coordinator supposed to be really good.
Fields, I personally felt last year, like, should have probably.
kept starting i don't know that's what i felt i would have liked to what do you think yeah at the
time i thought he at when i go back to week seven or whatever it was i thought he should have yes so
but then russ played really well for those first six weeks and then and then fell apart but yes so
you could look back on it but yeah i remember at that time week seven being like yeah let's just
keep this going and that was kind of what i was and so like you know i think they should be better
but then you're watching and you're like they're not and so what i never know and this is why the
preseason could be so frustrating is like what am I actually watching yeah practice like right but
it's like Caleb goes out and plays I mean he I'm with Dan like he looked good like that was when I was
at bears camp it was a struggle like I know he's dealing with a lot they intentionally gave him a lot
and I like you know it was sort of like let's see what he can deal with and then we'll narrow it down
as we get closer and I'm kind of like how is this going to look better and then you look last night
and it really looked better.
I mean, these are some good throws,
quick decisions, decisive,
but then it's sort of like,
what am I actually watching?
Yeah, Dan said it, man.
Like, we all know it.
Coaching, like, it matters,
but, like, this shit is hard.
You know, it's tough to, like,
especially you talk about a guy like Justin Fields.
Like, he's on another team, another offense,
so you're learning a different language.
So, yeah, everyone has the ability.
Everyone that goes out there and trots out of the tunnel
with a helmet on has the ability to play whatever position.
they're signing to play, but actually learning that, creating a relationship, creating
a rapport with your play caller, your weapons, all these different things.
You look around the league at all the good quarterbacks, a lot of them have some type
of continuity with the play caller or the system in place.
So when you're going and jumping around from place to play, like, that's tough.
That's a lot to handle.
So I appreciate, you know, Ben Johnson coming and putting a lot on his plate and then kind
of trimming it down.
And Caleb, we know he has the ability, but you want to just react out there.
You know, you don't want to be thinking.
And so it's tough, man.
I hope he figures it out.
All these guys who are in new place.
Sam Darner, he's over in Seattle, Gino.
All these guys are in new places, so it is allowed on their plate.
But, you know, hopefully the arrow's still pointing up.
Yeah, even Rogers.
You wonder with Aaron if they had some sort of agreement, like when, you know,
clearly the Steelers knew that Aaron was going to be the QB.
You wonder if Aaron was aware of the offense or, you know, how long he's actually.
Must have been.
I mean, I know there are rules, but, like, he can still.
He can go study Arthur Smith stuff.
He's smarter. He can figure it out, right?
Yeah, because when you talk about having a lot of offense,
it's like, how many OCs has Rogers had in the last three years?
Like with the Jets?
I mean, Hackett was the O.C.
When he first started there, and that feels like it was 15 years ago at this point
with the entire situation.
So if the Steelers come out on fire, you might look at that and think to yourself,
like, damn, we really do have the smartest coach and stuff in the history of the football.
I can see it.
I can really see what it is.
I mean, I spent some time with Arthur when I was at training camp there,
and he's the best.
He was in a very good place.
Also, still rocking the mustache.
Which I blame you guys for that.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
You don't want it to be?
No, I'm just saying, like, I thought that that was just kind of like a fun thing,
like a Movember or wasn't that why?
So he was doing it as the Falcons coach, yeah.
Yeah.
But then he realized he looks incredible with him.
Yeah.
And then he shaved it.
And he was like, well, this dog won't.
I need to grow that thing back.
Foxy, is that a video of Artie?
Did you see the...
He was making waves.
Do you see what he was singling in this weekend?
That's the best play in the playbook.
I would like to know more on this.
The next play.
I thought he was doing the next play.
No, they scored a touchdown on that.
They did score a touchdown on the next.
A lot of good memes.
I thought I was to hurry up.
I thought it might be.
But going back to your point about fields and like the preseason,
why it's important
but it ultimately doesn't matter because after
the Packers game people were acting like he was Warren
Moon. He had that one drive and it was like
oh my God look how good
this guy looks and I think he knows too and they're not
going to do it in the preseason like if the
Jets are going to be their most
successful version of the team like he's
going to have to be a weapon with his legs and he's probably got to
rush for a thousand yards and they're obviously
not going to have him you know
taking a bunch of hits and running a bunch of keepers
and read option and all that kind of stuff
in the preseason so like
the book's still out on him but it's week to week you know i mean i said this on friday with
caleb like if he played the way he did last night obviously everyone was going to say
this guy's unbelievable it's working ben johnson's unbelievable if he would have played terrible
last night he would have been getting killed today and it would have been like hey this guy
is not going to work with ben johnson his offense is too complicated he doesn't get it
he you know he can't you know check his his attitude at the door all that kind of stuff like
it's so weak to week like we really we're not going to know any of this stuff until week one
Correct.
It's good he played well, too, because the bag man is a problem.
The bag man is a problem.
The bagel of Taylor Bayesian is legitimately...
Did you hear what Ryan Pohl said?
He's like, nobody works harder than Tyson Bayesian.
Nobody works.
Well, Sefer's father, maybe.
Severus father, who humiliated Tom Pelliserro on NFL Network.
Did he arm wrestle Tom?
I take full credit for it.
Have you never heard the story?
No.
It was at the Senior Bowl, wasn't it?
It was at the Senior Bowl.
So we were out on like a Tuesday or something.
Compound fracture.
Literally, it was...
Couldn't put a base for two months.
Broke his heart.
Broke his heart was the worst.
I mean, that was the humiliation was the worst thing.
So we were out having some drinks the night, like on a Tuesday night or whatever.
We run into Tyson Mason's agent and his dad.
And so I'm like, you know what you should do?
Because Tom, here it is right here.
Because Tom is our silent reporter for Senior Bowl.
I'm like, you should arm wrestle Tom.
And Tom kind of laughs.
I'm like, no, you should actually do it.
Now, I didn't know that this guy was basically, like, a W.W.E. superstar with the mic.
Like, I had no idea. But the humiliation here, like, at some point, he just starts, like, laughing.
And look at Tom. He had, like, I think he went two hands at one point, two. There he goes, right?
Yeah. How many times have you watched it's 200?
I mean, so many. Like, literally so many. And then Tom's face is, like, you think he'd think it's funny.
He does not think it's funny. He's like, give me the mic. Give me the mic. Give me the mic.
yeah I take full guys laughing
was was Tom expecting to go in there
and like go over the top like you know
Sylvester Stallone and break his arm
come on so he think he is Lincoln Hawk
no you never know but like don't you think
that he thought he would be able to like
maybe move it like a
no no no no no you do not think
it guys like a seven time national champion
no you kidding me of course not
but I like the Pellasaro thought he was going to go
in there and I'm gonna beat this
I do like that. Can we do, uh, can we, uh, finish, uh, ask rap since, uh, it got cut off
by Dano? Yes. Yes. Yeah, uh, I want to go back to Micah Parsons because, uh, over,
I can't remember if it was Friday or over the weekend, but Ricky the dog, uh, on Twitter
report. And he's usually, he's got his sniffer up to things. He was very mean,
mean to me on Twitter recently. Well, you know, hey, that's the insider game sometimes. You know,
it's vicious. But, uh, there were reports that of all the teams out there, like the
Packers actually put together somewhat of a serious package or were interested and they called
the Cowboys and said, hey, let's do this. Is there any truth to that? And if Parsons does end up
getting dealt, do we have any kind of timeline? And is the expected like package it would take to
receive him kind of like what it was when the Bears traded for Khalil Mack?
Yeah, okay. Let's start with the last part. I do believe that would be the offer. Now, I think
for Mac it was like a one, a future, two with a pick going. Like it was, I remember at the time
being like this is the biggest trade I've ever seen
like it was for a player was
it was massive and that was I mean
was two ones? Was it two ones
when then a two
it was uh two first round picks
a third round pick and a six round pick
to the Raiders the Raiders also received
a 2020 second round pick
and a conditional 20 25th
round pick and did they swap
did they swap as well? Yeah
uh do a lot of starters for a 22
second round pick yeah okay so it was two
ones with a two
two ones plus with a two coming back,
which is like,
like, if the Cowboys are going to trade Michael Parsons,
like that's what it's going to be.
It's going to be all of the picks.
I don't believe that the Cowboys have received any official offers
because I don't believe that they have accepted or engaged with anyone.
Okay.
Because to have it, I mean, you could,
I was going to say fax over an offer.
You could text over an offer if you wanted to.
I don't believe it's gotten there because teams usually don't make offers.
until they know that, like, we're talking.
I would expect that the Packers would be among the teams interested.
And I would say, I would expect the Packers would be among the teams really interested.
They have paid Jordan Love.
They have a bunch of really good young players, but they haven't.
There's some guys like Quay Walker.
They have not paid.
Doc Dom they paid, but they have money to spend, and they are really good.
And so, like, that's the kind of team that I would.
would say if Michael was going to be traded that he'd be going to because it's like we need
one final piece. This guy is an absolute dog. He's worth all the money, so pay him all the
money. I mean, God only knows what Moologetta would make that contract. It'd be all of it.
But it'd be worth it because you'd get Michael Parsons. And there'd be some other, like, think
of all of the really good teams, playoff teams, who have money and a spot. Like, there's a lot of
them. It's like those are the teams that would be interested, all of the teams.
talking about Jerry a little bit last week.
Is there any sort of sense that
he has lost it whatsoever when it comes to the
business side of it? Because someone actually released
the amount of money
he lost by
waiting for DAC and waiting for CD
and it's like $65 million
over, you know, two different
deals. Like, is there
any sense of that? Like, is there any sense of
Stephen Jones becoming
more serious? I forget who we had on the show.
Maybe it was
Shrager. Swagoo. And Swagoo.
basically was like, hey, we need to just, the Cowboys
need to completely separate the two
when it comes to front office stuff
and then like the Cowboys stuff, like the
tours and, you know, the practices
and things like that, like Swagoo's... I'm just laughing
thinking of Jerry giving tours. Yeah, exactly.
But that was Swagoo's point. Which would actually be
an amazing, like Jerry giving a tour of the
stadium. People would pay top dollars.
Yeah, that'd be sold out for months.
Absolutely amazing. Count me in on that.
But is he like, is there any
sense like that? Is Stephen Jones? Is that
plan already kind of in place? Is that going to happen sometime soon if this keeps going
terribly wrong? So I think it is happening. I think Stephen Jones and Will McLeigh are,
now, you know, there's sort of an eye role, I'm sure, because it's like the son of an owner,
but Stephen Jones is very smart, very well-versed, graded personnel, and very good at value
and like figuring out, like, dealing with the organization. You know, you'd call him the
president, you'd call him the COO, which is his actual title.
whatever. Those guys have been basically in charge as the Cowboys have built themselves into a
like draft and develop, pay your guys organization. But I just, Jerry is the boss and until he
decides for himself that he is not going to be, he is the boss. Do you think other GMs like right
now though are thinking like, oh, this guy's getable now? Like if there's ever a time to go do
something like this, like now's the time to do it because Jerry's kind of got his. Because it never
happens. Yeah, exactly. No, because
I don't think, first of all, you're right, like
no players this good are available
ever. Ever. And that's
why the trade value is so
crazy. It's like, even
Stafford, like, when he was
traded, like the, it was like two ones and
they threw in a golf, which
is ridiculous, but that's what it was. It's like,
these guys are never available.
So yes, I think teams are like,
oh my God, could we get Micah Parsons?
But then you talk to these teams,
or you talk to the Cowboys, talk to people involved,
sort of like, he ain't going over.
They don't talk like he's going.
Like, the Cowboys have not engaged.
They have not said like. Yeah, but exactly.
And like you just said it.
They, they've turned themselves into, you know, like a draft, grow your players,
take care of them.
Like, sure, they've, they are that, but like, they do it wrong.
The line, we just talked about Amunrog and paid $30 million a year and that looks like
the cheapest wide receiver deal of all time.
Like, the Lions are a team that do that.
They, they draft.
can develop and then they pay
and then they save money because of it
like the cowboys are the opposite of
that they don't pay guys
they make it a huge stink and then
it gets done like see we're a year removed
from CD Lamb having Hollywood Brown
and Kyle Murray has his you know
profile picture whatever the hell it was
and people thought he was going to Arizona like that
that's what happens with the Cowboys
every single year so
that CDLAM one never made
sense to me I mean a lot of them don't
none of them do none of them do
I mean, Dak Prescott had his leg cramp up on the field, and then he got paid after.
It was like if you're going to franchise tag your, you know, your quarterback, the future of your franchise,
the reason you do that is just in case they have some, you know, terrible, terrible injury.
Because then you don't have to pay the guy a ton of money.
And that's exactly what happened.
But then they paid Dak, you know, a massive contract anyways after he got hurt.
Like, it just doesn't make any sense.
Yeah, I mean, I think the way the Cowboys see it, and it sounds.
I hate to say, this sounds weird explaining it because it, and this would not be, I would do things more like the lions do it.
No doubt.
Like, and even now, like, you know, whenever they engage on Aiden Hutchinson, like, I expect it to be a deal where it's going to be a lot.
Everyone would be like, oh my God, I can't believe they paid.
And then Michael will come in higher.
Like, they are generally very, very proactive.
But I think what the Cowboys think is like, all right, if we pay them early, that's just more money we pay early.
Let's keep the money in our pockets as long as possible.
pay them when we have to pay them
and like if we have to pay a little
more we have more information
that's generally the thought but like
that does cost them
a little more does the locker room care
Bazzi? I mean it is good for
I think just the overall morale
and like the we always talk about
the buzz world culture
like how
like how the Eagles do business
like hey you guys you do your job
you come in you're good in the field you're good
in the locker room you get paid
Sequam you get a bump
George you get paid
Lane Johnson.
Don't you think that Seiquon contract, everybody was like, oh.
Yeah, and you look at him like, okay.
The second contract.
Yeah, that's Sequin.
You know what I mean?
And that's how I'm sure everyone views Micah in the Dallas locker room.
Because even last year, when they were pretty much out of the playoff run,
Dak was hurt.
He was still out there, you know, playing hurt.
C.D. Lamb, who just got paid.
He was still playing hurt.
So I credit that a lot to Mike McCarthy, who was there as well.
But to Jerry's credit, to Stephen's credit, they do draft well.
like they find good players and they just they pay them late jerry's in his mind it's like okay
if i pay them early i guess you're getting one year closer to that next deal anyway if it's going
to be a guy so you're going to end up paying them big time money paid javon digs early i'm thinking
his third year he's the second round pick but you know micha he's one of the easy guys i feel
like he's done everything right from the beginning he's been an all pro a defensive player
to your candidate every year like just pay just get that one done because he he's not going there
You have his leverage.
You have his rights for the next three years, fifth year option,
then you can franchise them twice.
So, I mean, get that deal done.
To us, it makes sense.
We're not writing the checks.
I get that part.
But, I mean, we never see a player like this available or a player like this play on their
fifth year option.
Like, never, you never see that.
Well, and they can't really lean back on the, like, hey, we'll just keep this extra
money in our pocket right now in case you want to improve the team, you know, more
because you look at what they did last off season.
That's what everyone bitched about.
It's like we guys didn't do anything.
free agency to make the team any better.
Well, yeah, exactly.
Now we're at the point of the game where it's like, okay, you've just alienated your best
defensive player.
And yeah, it's not like there are guys like Mike Parsons out there who are available
to get, you know, in the interim.
Like, it's just not going to happen.
It makes no sense.
And it's hard to imagine right now, but this is going to get louder because the Cowboys
Netflix show comes out tomorrow on Netflix.
And so maybe this whole entire thing.
And if this is the case, then I take back everything I'm
said about Jerry Jones. He's genius. Maybe
he's waiting to sign him tonight
so that everybody knows that this Cowboy show
is coming out on Tuesday
and it's great promotion for it.
This whole thing was just
a joke basically, but
there's going to be a clip that comes
out where Jerry's probably not even
talking about Micah, but something gets
said and then people link it
that he's talking shit about Micah like people
did with Dylan Gabriel after his
game. People said he
took a shot at, you know, should
Sanders, obviously, he didn't,
but people will do that with stuff that comes out from this show tomorrow
because it's basically just about Jared.
I didn't realize this coming out to him.
I actually watched it.
I watched all eight episodes.
It's kind of awesome.
Is it Jerry last season?
No, it's all the way.
It's the whole how Jerry built the Calais.
Like the Chiefs one, like the Chiefs one that just came up.
Yeah, like the Kingdom.
That one I have not seen.
It was good.
I didn't get the sneak peek for that one.
So is it him dealing with Emmett Smith?
Oh, and like, you know, the Emmett Smith. Hold up. There's a lot of Michael Irvin stuff. I'm not going to spoil it.
Michael Irvin is a rock star. I love that. If there was like a, if there was like an MVP.
It was. Yeah, yeah. It's not a shocker. Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, you want Michael playing, you want him in there playing football because, you know, it's nothing like getting into football shape.
I think Jerry already came out said, I wouldn't bet on him out there week one. You don't want to do that. If you're a Cowboys fan, you want Mike out there.
I mean, I really, really hope they get this deal done.
It just does not make sense.
But to your point, if he does do it, it would be an all-time Jerry move.
That would be an all-time Jerry move.
I feel more bad for, like, Ty, at this moment now because as a non-packers fan,
I'm imagining Michael Parsons on the Packers.
Like, that would be so cool.
That would be.
It would be like Reggie White.
It would be just like Reggie White.
minus the two-month-long free agency tour.
All right, before we get to commercial.
Yeah, real quickly,
because we were talking about the commanders
a lot early with Terry McLaurin
and them going all in and stuff.
There was a report this weekend
that they're potentially looking at trading
their starting running back, Brian Robinson.
Is that, is there any,
is there legitimacy to that?
I would say there is some legitimacy.
I don't like the term shopping,
because to me, shopping is like,
if you're shopping a player,
you're going to cut them if you don't like...
Yeah, he's not getting cut.
I don't believe he's getting cut.
I mean, he's a starting running back.
So my sense of this one is like they got a good young running back, right?
They have Austin Echler.
They are probably not going to extend it.
They think they have a good run.
They think they have a good.
He's a rookie, yes.
Right.
They are not going to extend him.
So if you're not going to extend them, let's see if we can get something for him now.
Like, it's interesting.
I'm sure they'll be able to get something.
I'm sure there is a market.
Like, I wouldn't be surprised if he's dealt.
It's just interesting because,
like they're really good he's their starter so it's like how unbelievably confident you have to be
to trade your starting running back before the season in the rookie right in the rookie or in like
we're just going to make it work with 31 year old austin neckler who is so jacked i follow him on
instagram for i don't know why and he all he does is pull-ups yeah yeah he's he's jack that that's
i mean he is like i mean you got to keep in mind when you're looking in the mirror awesome
Eckler is basically looking back at you.
He's just much more jacked and worked really, really
hard, but you guys are like the same size.
You could look like Austin Neckler.
I do the Peloton. He does
the pull-ups. Yeah, yeah, he does real stuff.
Really quick, just because
there's only 30 seconds. Is Kenneth Walker
and Zach Sharbonne? Is that a real
running back one battle?
Fantasy, is that a quick fantasy?
No, no, no. I'm genuinely asking.
That is a great question.
And if only we had a couple more
hours to discuss. Put a pin in that
one. Okay.
Jeez.
That is a good case.
In the business that stay here.
I mean, not here, but basically here.
Yeah.
We'll be right back on the Pat McAfee show with a lot more football talk, some fun guess.
Anyway, don't go anywhere.
We'll be back.
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football the pause was a little too long it was it was okay it was I mean you'll hit it cooler next hour you're one for two it was well I've done the lead line I've done this
like four times, I've not even come close to hitting
at once. You're pretty good, our one. Yeah.
And you're saying, you know,
you want a pet!
That was good? I'm not pat. Yeah. A little
Adam Shine-esque. Yeah, that was a little
shiny. Sometimes I run into Adam Shine
at the
one of the local restaurants. We get some soup
dumplings together. There was a bit of a shine doing.
I like that. Yeah, so do I. And you broke news during the break.
Yes. We have some breaking
news. The Cleveland
Browns have named
named Joe Flacko as their starting quarterback.
What? No!
I would agree it is not a surprise.
But it is reality.
Joe Flacco is their starter.
They have now...
Wait, why are you so set?
Watch week one of the preseason? Christ!
Is what some people would say.
But not you.
All right.
I know you guys have just heard this news.
I know you are quickly digesting it
I want immediate and deep reaction
on what this means and how surprised you guys
You heard it
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones
Jerry Judy is going to have
2200 yards and 25 touchdowns
because Joe Flacco is going to throw it as far as possible
and he finally has a receiver
that will get under every single thing
and his name is Jerry Judy
Ike's right
I mean I think we knew this was going to happen
when Joe Flacco signed with the brown
I think that's probably really that crazy of a story.
Yeah, this goes back to the August 18th thing,
where it's like you were halfway through
and all the stuff we already know,
hasn't been announced yet,
but it's about to be announced.
It's kind of what it feels like.
Yeah, it's like for this, for this quarterback battle in general,
like we always knew it was going to be Joe.
Just because he was, he did so well in the Stefansky offense,
he hasn't played any of the preseason games
because they're not worried about him playing in the preseason games.
They know how good he is.
They probably were never going to start a third round pick
or a fifth round pick
rookie quarterback.
Will they later in the season?
Maybe, and Kenny Pick, it was hurt,
has been hurt basically all preseason.
So, I mean, the writing was on the wall
always for Joe here in this quarterback battle.
Now, some of the other quarterback battles,
I am not so sure who's going to win it,
but this one, it felt like it was always Joe's.
Yeah, Joe and Safansky.
I mean, you have to keep...
Peanut butter and jelly.
I like how all the highlights are just Colts, Joe.
Well, they're from last year.
Yeah, and it's three months.
I know, but I'm just saying, like,
we spent all this time talking.
talking about the Colts and then it's like, I mean, right?
Yeah, it's reminded me that I, uh, I jumped on a sore for Joe last year.
Yeah, it's so, um.
Take us through it.
Go ahead, buddy.
Anthony, you know, tapped out and he did the whole thing.
Hey, let's go with the guy.
He gives us a chance in the locker room, but same thing's going to Cleveland.
He is the guy, week one week we all expected to be the starter.
Do I expect to be a starter week 12?
I think he would have to play really, really, really well.
And then the rookies, both rookies will have to be.
not developing and not playing well
in practice.
So you don't think this is like the whole year?
I don't think this is a
I mean it's tough to commit to
how old is Joe now? 40.
40? Probably 40. 40? Yeah, I mean
flat. This is where I talk about how old he
is and he's younger than me but go ahead.
Yeah, I mean, and look, he's playing quarterback. He's played
quarterback for a long time so he could have
a good year. We talked about Jerry Judy and the
other weapons he has around him. He could have a good
year but I think you got to find out
with the picks that they have next year. You got to find
out what you have in one or two of those young quarterbacks. And I think Kitty Pickett may be the
odd man out. It didn't really give himself a chance this preseason to kind of battle or compete.
But happy for Joe. He got another opportunity to start in the national football. You can't
overlook that ever. And he is a pro's pro. So let's see if he'll figure it out. But young guys
continue to take those reps and take advantage of the opportunities.
You also have to keep in mind here that when Joe Flacco was in Cleveland last, he did the
unthinkable. And, you know, he beat out somebody who died on the field to win combat player
of the year. So when you're
thinking of Cleveland and Joe Flacco
you kind of do have to go
into that thought of, hold on.
Can Joe Flacko?
Took them to the playoffs. And Jerry
Judy and now Isaiah
Bond. I mean, they got
all these guys who were so fast and they got the strongest
arm in the history of the NFL.
Man, I was there for training camp, and I
stood in the end zone while they were doing
Red Zone. And not
only was it like a, it
was on the money. It was on. Like, he
looked good.
We're talking about Joe Flacko.
I just said some schmuck.
I just remember when he was with,
do you guys know that Joe Flacco play for the Broncos?
Yeah.
He's actually on the show when he was on the Broncos.
Yeah, he was.
And he was his...
Circa, 2019, I want to say.
When he was on the Bronco is a game winner.
Yeah.
What was it?
McMannis had like a game winner and McManus was on...
Yeah, he was on the show and
Joe walks in the back.
Hey, Joe, say hi.
He did.
So, yeah, we're highly aware of Joe's.
And he's still, I mean, I just don't know, it's just like the weirdest career ever.
Like, Super Bowl winner, starter up here, gets replaced by, I forget what happened to the guy I replaced him, but I think he's pretty good.
Yeah, solid.
Which is fine.
I mean, that was, you know, great job by Baltimore.
He made the right move.
I think they made the right move.
But it was weird.
You're right.
Like, after that happened, he just kind of fell off clothing.
Well, the Jets happened.
Yeah, but people just kind of.
Oh, wow.
wrote them off.
I forgot about that.
Yeah.
But a lot of quarterbacks go to the Jets to the top.
And then they go to other organizations to be revived and thrive and make the playoffs.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
You're just making in general not related to anything.
But Chad Pennington did.
Okay.
That's what.
Fitzmagic.
Darnold.
Brett Favre.
Favich Magic won 10 games with the Jets.
It's actually a pretty decent little list we got going on of guys that went left the Jets and then did better at their next.
Eagles, I don't remember.
Is this weird?
I think Eagles was just a can of corn.
I don't think he actually played.
Because that's the same year as the Jets.
And then I remember with the, I think it was with the Browns in 2013,
he was signed in week like eight or something like that, right?
2023.
2023, yeah, yeah.
22, right.
Yeah, he was off the couch.
Yeah, he only, yeah.
And nobody, I remember talking to his agent, Joe Linta.
Nobody offered.
No one wanted him.
It was literally over.
And then he signed with the practice squad.
Because they reached out to the Jets, I think,
because Rogers had already gotten hurt, and Zach Wilson wasn't playing good.
And the Jets basically said, like, no, yeah, we're not interested.
It's crazy.
Joe Flacco, also a good dude.
Great dude.
Joe's the man.
I have...
Room for Joe.
I have, yeah.
Never lost his accent either.
Nope.
He doesn't have an accent.
Joe doesn't have an accent?
Yes, he does.
Crap.
Nope.
Are you guys making fun of me now?
No, he has a thick accent.
Look up Joe Flacco saying the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Can we get that so I can laugh at myself?
You just heard it.
You actually just heard the clock.
See, the problem with you guys is I can't tell if you've like had a discussion about this beforehand.
You're like, I mean, we've definitely had discussions.
We have discussions about everything, but this one's real.
I can't believe.
He's got a very thick Philadelphia adjacent accent.
He was a blue head.
Yeah, when you, when you.
Blue head I knew about.
When you hear it, you're going to feel really dumb about what has happened the last minute.
I mean, I felt pretty dumb with Arlofski laughing about my golfing skills and talking about how much he's going to beat me,
but that's probably true also.
What if you go out there and just shove it up his ass?
Could you imagine?
I could.
I'm so happy.
The problem with playing golf against these guys for actual athletes
is I like work so hard and I'm so mediocre
and he's like going to be much better than me.
Yeah, maybe.
Maybe. Maybe he's a foot taller than you.
He has a foot tall.
The real problem is when, you know, you are thinking about playing golf again
and then you see like Scotty Shepler chip in and you're like,
oh, okay, so I could never do that so I'm not going to play golf.
That would be stupid.
I didn't even understand.
I went to, this is definitely why the people are watching.
Well, Scottie Sheffler won the BMW Championship.
He did.
He did.
Scottie Sheffler won the BMW Championship,
chipping in with an absolutely ridiculous chip that you're seeing right here on the 7.
That was 17.
17.
In like the most beautiful, elegant chip that you've ever seen.
Perfect.
And what I don't understand is that at some point is Caddy,
who's actually he's on a different caddy right now.
his caddy's like, all right, land it here, and it's going to roll 40 feet.
And he's like, got you.
Like, if I have a caddy say that to me, I'm like, yeah, bro, cool.
Yeah, well, and it goes back to, like, what Bryson was saying last week about how, like, his distances.
And granted, obviously, he's not, you know, 500 yards on the T-box hitting a driver.
But, like, he knows exactly, you know, how hard to hit the ball.
It is just insane watching, not just Scotty, because there are a bunch of dudes.
And Akshay Batzia had a home-on-one.
From 225.
Yeah.
All the guys are just so good.
Bobby Mack, Robert McIntyre, arguably was like the story of the entire tournament
was just on fire.
And then, you know, that's the difference between him and Scotty Shephyers.
They get paired together.
They're in the final round.
And he bogies three of his first four-holds.
Scotty birdies two of them.
And it's like, wow, that's an eight-shot swing.
Yeah.
And he has that ability, yeah.
Because, yeah, Bob Mack was up.
I think he was minus 14 going into Saturday.
And minus seven.
minus seven was second place, like
just unbelievable first two rounds,
and then you're standing next to Scotty on the first tee,
and everything starts falling apart.
Scott is inevitable.
It is inevitable.
Golf is the worst like that, though.
Like, if you're, like, I know you're supposed to be,
you're playing the course and you're playing your own shots,
but you're obviously not.
This is why, like, match play.
I mean, this wasn't match play,
but it sort of kind of was, like, it's the worst.
Yeah.
Because, you know, you bogey, he birdies,
you feel like you lost a million, you know,
so much.
ground and you're like, how do you not watch this
great golf or just humiliate you on the course?
Oh, and that's how the Ryder Cup is so awesome.
To everything you just said about, like,
you know, it's you and it's just
you know, you're just looking at your school.
That's a pretty good group, by the way.
Yeah.
They are going, this is going to be
an incredible torrent.
You've got to get out there. Just one day.
You'll be out there.
They'll be, yeah. It's close to your house, right?
It's about an hour away.
You've played Beth Page. I have played Bethpage.
What did you shoot?
I shot
170? No, no, no. I played
it, I think, four times. I shot 89
one time. Pretty good.
But it is so much, like,
the first time I played it, I wasn't driving the ball well
at all, and I was in the rough every, and like,
I'm like, all right, in the rough,
six iron to an elevated green
185 away. I'm like, yeah,
it's not, that's not.
Might as well just punch that out.
So I ended up punching out the whole
freaking round. Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
What's it?
What are teas?
Played from the whites.
Smart.
So, you know, like, but it's, it really is, like, it is one of my favorite golf courses ever.
Everyone walks.
And then the, you know, by the end, you get to, like, I think 16 is it, is like from an elevated tea box.
And so you have to walk all the way up there with your clubs.
You're so tired.
It's like a beast of a golf course.
And you're like, three more holes.
And like, these guys are going to do it.
Oh, yeah.
The most intense, you know.
and 18 is so fun too 18 looks like a like a stadium hole basically it's short bunkers all line down green up top like everyone drives it in the bunker and it's like high drama it's going to be very fun yeah what when is it exactly it is the week four of NFL season oh um end of September I believe yes yeah and I think it's Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday right yeah Friday Saturday Sunday so
Because Friday, Saturday is
Best Ball and alternating
and then Sunday, all 14 guys
go out. Speaking of you, Coach.
Yeah, you can't talk big time golf
without talking live, Indianapolis.
I mean, they delivered.
I don't know if you watched,
you were watching BMW.
Did you watch?
I did not.
So my son, Max, is here.
Max say hi.
He's not, he's watching YouTube.
Got a baby, Max.
Maybe.
He has no idea we're even talking about it.
My wife is going to literally kill me
because he's not supposed to be watching YouTube,
but it's fine.
unless he's watching the show.
Better than a different tube.
He's 12, but he's not 15.
Not in the state, that's right.
Yeah, yeah, you're not allowed to in this day.
And he goes...
Basketball, and there's ways around.
Yeah, yeah, we got a guy in...
That's why Bill's got that Chicago VPN.
Pretty, whatever.
I have no comments.
I have no comments.
Go ahead, sorry, where we were going to say.
Your boy's a real live head, is what you were saying.
We're walking through the course,
he goes wait was there golf here yeah and I'm like yes he's like could we have seen it
like yes could have seen it and he had like no idea that the live tournament was literally here
yeah they came it came here a couple of the boys I was not here I was I was home but a couple of
boys they went they sound like they had a great time Ron won which kind of has some people
you know because he won but Joaquin won like five events John Rom didn't win any but he's been
like top five top ten and all no he is
One, back-to-back now, the championship, yeah, didn't win any event.
So the point system, which is, you know, something to be talked about.
But they deliver.
I think they sold out all the tickets here.
They'll be coming back next year.
I think they have one more in Michigan next week to kind of wrap up the team championships.
They have the in-person thing figured out.
They need to get the TV thing figured.
Because there's more people on the TV than there is at the conference.
Yeah, Nick said Nick, for now, who was like the last person I expected to enjoy it,
who said it was awesome.
Really?
Yeah, and I think it was because I've been to, like, PGA events.
Like, I've been to the U.S. Open at Okamond, and the live thing was just so relaxed.
It just felt comfortable.
It was cool.
The music wasn't too loud.
It was a nice vibe.
You could get a great seat, great sight lines.
And Zito was there, too, and I know they hooked him up a little bit.
And it was just a, it was totally awesome.
Look at that smile.
You guys weren't sitting together?
I went on Saturday.
Zit went on Sunday.
Oh, okay.
But you guys didn't sit in the same seats?
I will tell you, people were parachuting in to tell you who they were on a leaderboard.
It was one of the coolest things of all time
And then the fireworks
Is that a euphemism or like
They're literally perishing news
Yeah to tell you who's the lead and who's the second
I feel like this is like the Joe Flacco accent
Yeah I'm on the same page
It's real guys
Just live
Out of the box
They do
It is golf but louder
Why did John Rom drinking milk
Like he just won the Brickette?
It's in Indian
Yeah in India
They had a paste car
I'm sure if they
Okay, so I thought it was cool with that.
Yeah, do it as the locals do.
I think they asked him before the tournament, like, if he would consider doing that if he wanted to.
Yeah.
I think of 60 years, too.
Yeah, that force was very good.
Yeah, I thought that's why they did it, but I wasn't sure if it was something like,
hey, at the end of the live, the champion drinks milk.
It's pretty cool.
Every stop, they do a different, you know, different gimmick, you know, for the locals.
I respect.
I'm not going to make fun of it.
All right.
I love golf talk.
But we have a little football talk on tap for us.
Our good friend, Harry Douglas,
has been waiting patiently while we talk about golf.
Thank you for joining us, former faculty.
Former superstar.
Thank you for hanging with us today.
Do you have any golf takes before we get to football?
No, I'm not much of a golfer,
although I just finished playing in Jim Kelly's charity golf tournament,
Kelly for Kids up in Batavia, New York.
And man, I probably have a lot of.
out of all the holes, I'll probably
hit the ball correctly
three to four times. Okay,
that's not bad. Start.
How do you play 18 holes like that?
What do you mean? I mean?
It's called drinking.
You're familiar with it.
I've heard of this. I've heard of this.
Yes. All right.
This is good.
Now we're on the same page.
This is great.
I just don't like to drink when I play golf.
Dunked on you.
Yeah, loyal boy.
That was as bad as a guy.
That was as bad as he was.
Let's just be real.
Harry, as you were coming on, as you were waiting,
we got the news that Joe Flacco is the starting quarterback for the Browns.
First of all, your reaction to that.
And second of all, what do you think now happens to the rest of that quarterback room?
Can he pick it include?
Yes.
So, number one.
starting with Joe Flacco. It's exactly what I
expected to happen
him be the starting for, starting for week
one. Now, the reason why
I would have went this route as well, when you
look at their schedule, it's pretty
daunting to start off. And the
last thing you want to do is to have a
rookie quarterback say, man, I got to keep up
with all these teams that we have to play.
Joe Burrell is week one, I believe,
in that mix you have Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore
Ravens and so on and so on.
So I felt like Joe Flacco
was the guy for the job, week one,
Now, at some point, gradually, you have to figure out if, you know, is it going to be Dylan Gabriel?
Is it going to be Chador Sanders with the two first round picks in 2006?
But at the same time, when you look at the number two quarterback, now that's up for grabs.
Now, I thought Dylan Gabriel this weekend and this first preseason game had a solid showing outside of the turnovers.
And I don't want to downplay those because if Shador Sanders would have threw a pick six or Shador Sanders would have fumbled the football trying to hand the ball off to the running back,
then there will be a lot of people right here today crucifying him.
Now, Dylan Gabriel did some great thing,
going three-for-three on third down and the first drive,
throwing the ball in tight windows,
where only his receiver can catch it.
Yes, all those things are great,
but at the quarterback position,
the main thing that you're supposed to do is take care of football.
I know in every offensive meeting that I got up to,
or I was in during my 10 years playing,
the number one must that week was no turnovers,
take care of football.
And then for a guy who touches it every single play,
you got to be able to do that.
So, you know, between the two performances,
I will give the edge to Shador Sanders
because he didn't turn the football over.
Okay.
And that's something that I'm not going to take lightly.
Now, Howard, before you were on,
we got a little bit of news.
Another, see, very important piece of quarterback news.
The boys are going to have some questions for you in a second,
but I want to get to this.
Matthew Stafford practiced today.
He was on the practice field.
You can see him now looking good,
throwing some deep balls to Devante and...
Puka.
Puka. You're watching
this now. You've obviously seen that Stafford's
on the practice. If you've been following along like all
of us, what do you think when you see
this right here in front of you?
Well, number one, yesterday was
Sunday, so God answered a lot of prayers
for rent. That's
the first damn thing that comes to my mind.
But this is a great sign
because, you know, Friday, I was
concerned that Matthew Stafford, well,
more than concerned, I was alarmed that he
hadn't practiced up until that point.
And when you have two receivers like Devonte
Adams and also Puck the Kua.
And for a guy like Matthew Stafford, does he
need those reps?
1,000%? No, but you would love for him
to get reps with the number 1A
and 1B receiver that he does have because
I picked the Los Angeles Rams
to have the number one seat in the NFC
as a conference this season. When you look
at their schedule, everyone talks about the 49ers
in their schedule how easy it is.
Well, Sam Fran only played
four games against teams that made the playoffs
last year. The Rams only play
five games versus teams who made the play
house last season. So this is the team I felt like gotten better since last year. And if it wasn't
for, you know, Jalen Carter dismantling an offense alignment, we might be talking about a different story
within the Philadelphia Eagles going and winning the Super Bowl last year. So I really like the Rams
and where they are right now as a football team, but the catalyst to it all has to be Matthew Stafford
at the quarterback position, who can still make every single throw on the field. Yeah, and it really
feels like the conversation like now that we look we'll see tomorrow of stafford we'll hear from
mcvay we'll get his schedule and see kind of like how hard they're going to you know push the
button on him basically but just him being on the field for me feels like the conversation is now
changed like you see him he's functional yeah throws like i think the rams are going to be really
really really good and now that he is at least back practicing that can sort of uh
that can sort of kick off and keep us going in that direction.
But, yeah, let me say this, though.
Here's the catcher, though.
Go ahead.
It's a good sign that he's out there practicing and he's throwing,
but it's also imperative that he doesn't have setbacks, right?
That's the big thing when it comes to a back injury.
Right.
That's a good call.
Boys have some questions for you.
Tone, go ahead.
Yeah, Harry, good to see you.
Reminds me that week zero is this week.
We are basically back to football.
But I wanted to ask you about your Falcons.
Pennix has not played in the preseason,
but I know they've had at least two joint practices
with two different teams so far.
So he's got his work in there.
How do you feel about Pennix and the Falcons this year?
Because I thought he looked really good at the end of last season.
And then if you heard anything about those two young boys coming off the end
that are going to be the difference this year for their defense?
So let me say this about Michael Pennix first.
Last year it was the bird call, right?
When my Falcons were winning games.
This year, Michael Pennix Jr. is the quarterback.
here. The gunslinger.
The gunslinger.
Get ready, baby. They're going to be fireworks all over the place.
So what I love the most about Michael Pennix Jr. is you always want your quarterback to be a cool, common, collected.
He is extremely that in the pocket.
You also want your quarterback to throw dimes and be able to make every single throw on the football field.
Short, intermediate, eat, outside the numbers. He's pinpoint accurate. He does those things as well.
I think Michael Pennix Jr. is going to be able to unlock Cal Pitch Jr.
And that's exactly what all of us have been waiting on.
Cow Pits to be unlocked.
And those two guys being very, very close, golfing buddies as well,
I think that's the last thing when you talk about this Falcon's offense
is Cal Pits really coming along and having a season even better than he did his rookie year.
That's the only year he had for 1,000 yards receiving.
But that's also the year that he had competent quarterback play with Matt Ryan as well.
So I'm looking for a big year for Cal Pitz.
Also from Michael Pennix, Jr.
And you look at this defense, that's the chess piece.
Because three of the last four years, 31st, 31st, 31st, 32nd, and second to quarterback.
That's why you draft a Jalen Walker in the first round.
You give up your 2026 pick with the Rams and you go and get the James Pierce, Jr.
Those guys are going to have to be ferocious, and I don't think they have time to ease into it.
Because a lot of people are telling me that the Falcons need to catch up to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Are people forgetting that the Atlanta Falcons had like a three or four?
four-game lead in the NFC South last season?
And if it wasn't for Kirk Cousins throwing nine interceptions
to just one touchdown in like four games,
we're talking about a different story in the NFC South.
So a lot of people are forgetting that the Falcon had a three or four game
lead in that division on top of beginning the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So if that defense, you don't have to be world beaters,
you don't have to be great, but you have to be able to not allow the
quarterback for the opposing team to be comfortable in the pocket.
And we all know, Debuts, you know this, the pass rush and the secondary go hand to hand.
If you're not getting pressure on the quarterback, I don't care who you have in your secondary.
They're not going to be able to cover for five or six seconds.
Yeah, speaking of the guys that are going to have to get cover, a lot of rookie wide receivers.
I know you're tapped in the college football game and obviously NFL.
A lot of rookie wide receivers are going to be on the board.
You know, Travis Hunter, Matthew Golden out to Green Bay, a Buchanan and Tampa Bay, T-Mack and Carolina.
Who do you, I guess, expect the most out of this year early on?
I think only Golden, I would expect to probably be wide receiver one and maybe T-Mac down to Carolina.
The other guys have other counterpart parts, but who's kind of in that best position that you expect the most production going in this year?
I'm going to go with Matthew going to Golden for Green Bay because finally, you know, Jordan Love has a number one wide receiver.
This is a guy that for the last six games at Texas last year, he led Texas in receiving yards.
and he was their big play guy.
SEC Championship, big games down the stretch.
It was Matthew Golden that Quinn Ewers went to time and time again.
So I'm really looking forward to seeing him.
He has the size.
He has the speed.
He has the explosiveness.
He's a hands catcher.
He's strong at the catch point as well.
So I'm really looking forward to him taking the top off
and also intermediate on crucial downs third and three to five,
third and six and seven, running that slant, catching the ball strong with his hands,
not worried about the safety hitting him.
Looking forward to Matthew Golden.
Here's another chest piece guy.
that I'm looking at, too.
When you look at the New England Patriots,
and Josh McDaniel's going there,
and you go back to his history,
being the office coordinator for the Patriots,
it was always that slot guy, right, that really got off.
So they drafted a receiver in the third round
by the name of Kyle Williams.
Oh, hell yeah.
Kyle Williams is the guy that I really, really love.
He's like a human joystick,
but when the football is in the air,
he's accelerating, going to get it.
If he can get the playbook down and show Drake May that he can be trusted,
Kyle Williams is another guy that I'm high-owned.
Okay.
I like that.
I like it.
Let's stick in the receiver world.
Ty has a question for you.
Yeah, Harry, we've been talking ad nauseum about the Terry McLaren situation
and how, you know, he's been kind of like the poster child consummate professional
face of the franchise for Washington back when they were dog shit,
not just last year, you know, when they went to the NFC championship.
What do you ultimately think is going to happen with this situation?
It seems like they're a couple million dollars apart on where he sees himself
and what Washington is willing to pay him.
What do you think is going to happen with this?
And do you think, I mean, there's no way that Washington can go
where they want to go without Terry McLaurin this year, right?
Yeah, so first things first, this might be one of the dumbest situations
in the national football league right now.
From whose staff?
You're talking about, well, from the front office of the commanders.
Like you have a guy in Terry McLorn who is your number one wide receiver
They were six on third six and third downs last year and converting
They were first on fourth downs so if I'm fifth Kingsbury if I'm Dan Quinn
If I know we go for it on fourth down frequently do you think I want to go for it if I don't have my number one wire receiver out there with my quarterback
I have Jayton Daniels as my number one guy to win MVP
But if Terry McClure's not out there I don't have Jayton Daniels as my number one guy
And here's another part to it.
J.U. Daniels was so good last season.
You know, he covered up for a lot of deficiency that the commanders actually had.
Why would you add another deficiency to J.N. Daniels and put that on his plate
if he doesn't have a number one wide receiver.
He already led the team in rushing last season at the quarterback position.
The defense was 30th versus the run.
That's something a lot of people don't talk about.
He covered up for all these deficiencies at the quarterback position.
Why would you put one more thing on his plate by not allowing him to have his
number one wide receiver.
And for a guy like Terry McLaurin who had 82, 83 catches, well, 56 of those
catches went for first downs, fellas.
So my thinking is, why would you not pay Terry McClureen for the next three years
and extend him when you have this window of your quarterback being on a rookie contract?
I think Jane Daniels the next three years totaling, I think the total is like $31 million
he's counting against the cap.
why not capitalize on this opportunity right now?
Because, no, they're not contending for anything, in my opinion,
if Terry McLaren is not out there in the football field with Jane Dames.
Well, the other thing I keep thinking is, like, you mentioned the runs.
And there were times last year, it was late in the playoffs.
There was a couple games late in the season into the playoffs where he got hit,
and each time he got hit, I'm like, oh, God.
And not just because I'm someone who reports on injuries,
but also, like, can we just keep this guy healthy?
and so, like, what you would sort of think is less run, fewer runs this year and more spreading
it around to the weapons, but that's one of the best weapons.
And, you know, yeah, I mean.
Got it happens.
You go and trade for a guy like Debo, like, from a defensive back standpoint, if Terry's
on the field, that makes Debo ten times more dangerous because you can't really focus in on
him.
He's a guy you get the ball in his hands.
And you mentioned the fourth downs, like, they also do a lot of hurry up, you know, a lot of
hurry up, a lot of fourth down, keeps the offense off balance.
But how important for the people that don't know are these reps?
I know Terry is a savvy vet, but he only played one year, one season with Jayton
Daniels.
How important are these training camp reps for a wide receiver and a quarterback?
On the scale of 1 to 10, I'm going to say 11.
Okay.
Because at the quarterback position, right, you want to have that rapport with your number
one wide receiver.
Now, they had it last season, but remember, it didn't start off that way.
it gradually worked into that.
But if my number one guy isn't practicing the entire offseason
because he's dealing with the contract situation,
he's not going to be ready to go full throttle week one.
How?
That's humanly impossible.
There's nothing that anyone could do away from football
to get in game shape.
And D Buzz, you know this.
There's nothing a player could do to get in shape at home
that he can do going against his guys every single day in practice.
So just him not out there doing that,
I think when he does come back and he practice, once he gets his contract,
you're not going to be able to put him out there for an entire game
and play the, or take the bulk of the load that he's normally taken.
I would say, but also, guys, I would ask y'all this.
Who else on that roster from a receiver position?
And I'm saying this with the, like, in a humble way.
Who is the guy that y'all think that can line up and be the number one wire receiver
against a team's number one corner and get open frequently?
For Washington.
Maybe just Luke McCaffrey.
that's the only guy
I was looking at their depth chart earlier
like right now it's
give us it's Terry
Noah Brown is hurt correct
Debo Chris Moore
Luke McCaffrey and Jalen Lane
the rookie out of Virginia Tech
like that's really
they need to
Harry
we got one more I know Boston Connor wants to get to you
but for for Terry
now he has been practicing
he has been practicing by himself
he's been kind of now he's slowly
ramping up how long do you think it takes to get him from right now which is like kind of been
doing some work to like ready on the field let's go two and a half three weeks okay think about this y'all
receiver a receiver runs 60 yards doesn't get the ball runs back 60 yards right yeah receiver could
run 20 20 yards catch a bench route a deep out okay then you got but they go no huddle though too
now so this is a this is a temple type offense
So all these things you have to factor in when it comes to being a game shape with Terry McLeon at the white receiving position.
One more for you.
Yeah, Harry, I love what you said about Kyle Williams on Patriots fan.
I think what you really need to, and I'm sure you probably already know him, but this guy's taken over, his name's Efton Chisholm.
You know, you mentioned Josh McDaniel offenses, a huge key to those offenses.
Small, no-name, white guy catching passes that no one's ever heard of before.
That is who Efton Chisholm is, but also undrafted guy.
But aside from that, looking at you over there, you got that Louisville Cardinal above your head.
A guy that you started college with, Tyler Shuck, is currently in a QB battle in New Orleans.
What's the word you're hearing about Tyler Shuck?
And realistically, if you're a Saints fan and you're looking at this season, I mean, we already talked about the Falcons.
We mentioned Tampa, things in Carolina seem to be turning around.
What really are you kind of looking for if you're just a Saints fan?
going into this year with Kelly Moe in his first year?
So, number one, if I'm killing more in the season started today,
Spencer Rattler would be the quarterback that I'll start.
And the reason why I say that is because when you look at Shug,
you see some great things.
Last week he had to pick six and then came right back,
double move through the touchdown pass.
But even yesterday versus Jacksonville,
you see moments where he might be holding the football a little too long, right?
And that's just what you can't do in this league.
Taylor Williams has understood that now with Ben Johnson coaching him.
If you want to be productive in this league, you've got to go through your reeds precisely, right?
You have to throw with anticipation.
The minute you sit there and you're like, then that's where you're going to get sacked.
That's when forced fumbles happen.
So I just saw from the standpoint of Spencer Rattler, I thought he looked better in yesterday's performance.
Let's see what the third preseason game gives us.
But, you know, Tyler Shug, he's going to be a good quarterback in this league.
I just think right now I will go with Spencer Rattler as my first.
starting quarterback and at least if you do that like you can you can say all right like not that
you want to bench spencer rattler but you could do it you could say all right bring on the
rookie it's time to do it the other way seems more challenging right like to do it the other way
same with a r and dan jones that's damn near that's yeah i mean it's yeah that's exactly right
because when you do that it's like you know how do you how do you go back to kill his confidence
yeah that's exactly right uh harry great stuff
Appreciate you, man.
Thank you for the talk.
Thank you for the knowledge.
And I would say we will talk to you soon.
I'm sure these guys will talk to you very soon.
I might not, but then again, I might.
So thank you, man.
Great stuff.
Appreciate you.
Also, Ian, don't be scared.
Don't be scared to drink on the golf force, man.
It's okay.
I'm not saying I don't drink.
You won't be crucified for it.
I'm not saying I don't, I'll say, he's got a flask behind the mic, right?
He's got to the airport.
He's only 12.
This is like, it's like happy get more where it's like drinking out.
Yeah, exactly.
Boom.
The mic turns into it.
Boom.
Yeah, there you go.
I appreciate the words of advice.
Thank you, Harry.
Thank you, Harry.
Thank you, Harry.
You guys are right.
I do have, that was great stuff, by the way.
Yeah, he's awesome.
Receiver.
I mean, that was locked in.
Yeah.
Locked in.
It's ready for season.
I also appreciated the Tyler shook a little of the line.
Yeah.
I do have my son, Max, here.
You guys mention it.
Can I bring him up to say hello?
Do you guys okay with that real quick?
He ain't my boy.
Come here, Max. Come here. Come on, Max.
Max is 12.
Max is 12.
As you guys know, he has been in Fiji at Sleepaway Camp.
Max, I say hi to everyone.
Hello.
He has been, I promised him a year ago that I would take him on a trip to Indianapolis for the Pat Mac of your show, not knowing whether or not I would be back here.
Sure.
So now I have the opportunity. He's back from summer camp.
He's very polite.
I would say that.
Yeah, he is.
I would not say that.
He's good a kid.
He's all right.
His mother did a very nice job.
Yeah, he's definitely politely.
Not you.
No one said of it was you.
Right.
I mean, I spend most of my time
hauled up in my basement making phone calls,
yelling at people to give me scoops.
Yeah.
He's very, very polite, very kind boys.
Have you learned anything here today?
Were you paying attention?
Be honest?
No.
Okay.
What was your favorite moment from camp?
What?
From camp?
What was your favorite moment from camp?
When your parents shipped you away for three months?
seven
uh yeah um my favorite moment was probably doing the uh regatta in the camp wide color war
oh you got a regatta that's what you said back one one first place oh hell yeah yeah no big deal
all right all right thank you max hell yeah max i begs max good boy max so is he destined for like
the navy now i have no idea i don't think so i'll tell you what that's actually really mean
No, I think about this all the time.
Like, I have two kids.
They play sports.
Like, both are pretty good athletes.
And I think about all the time, like, all right, what would I do if one of them is, like, great?
Right.
So, like, we're raising him.
He's eight.
He's nine.
He's playing.
All of a sudden, he's, like, the best in the world.
It's like, how would I do that?
Yeah.
And I've never really wondered about that once I've realized.
I mean, these guys are good athletes, but they're not, you know.
And now Max is.
a great sailor it's like what if i have to turn him on to like well you were a great sailor too
well you got to get you got to get an oar in the boy's hand he do i've got he's got row and crew in his
blood does he know about your coxman history he does not goshman he does know um and he loves
and he loves nature uh and he loves being out and so crew is amazing because you're out there
in like the world oh yeah and so like i think it would be great for him build a boathouse in
your backyard we we live in a town that does have water okay
Okay, great.
And they do have some yacht clubs and some other sailing things.
They have a good crew.
I mean, the Northeast, for shoot, I know we're kind of joking around,
but the Northeast for rowing is like a very, very high school rowing.
I mean, it's like a damn nearer pipeline.
It's really just California and the Northeast.
Yeah.
I mean, I think about it as a parent who would love to send their child to like the greatest school.
You could possibly, like, just be a rower.
Yeah, actually.
DuPain?
I was going to say Iowa actually has a fantastic growing team
Really?
Yeah, Boathouse is beautiful
Is this like the Flacco accent thing?
No, I'm dead serious.
The Flacco accent thing is real
and so is the Iowa Boathouse.
Yeah, I used to power wash the deck on that thing
all the time in the summer.
Did you actually?
Oh, yeah.
I don't know if that's real.
I think he's...
See, right, this is what I'm saying.
They don't have a men's team, unfortunately,
because of Title IX, but it is, you know,
it is, you know, they do have winning for a row.
No, it's Georgia.
Iowa was the Hawkeyes
Yes
So anyway
Max is here hanging out
He has been paying
I would say not very much attention to the show
No he doesn't like that
He paid a good amount of attention
He was letting us know how much time we had left
Before the break was over
And that really pissed me off
So it was definitely fun
Someone should tell him I'm gonna beat the hell out of his dad
If he keeps talking
That sounds about right
He's been loading his gullet full of Taco Bell
And playing mini clip games
on his lap top. He did say to me, he did say to me before, before the show started,
he was like, everyone's kind of like running around before the show. And I'm like, yeah,
that's like, yeah, that's kind of how it goes. Controlled chaos, huh? Controlled chaos. You guys
actually miss the best chaos. Oh, yeah, but it's fun. Fun morning. There is a big,
Monday morning. There's a big old storm this weekend here in Indianapolis, high winds, high lightning,
High electricity.
Yeah, let's just say four hours ago, we were not going to be able to do a show.
Actually, serious.
And there was a lot of...
Yeah, that's actually apologies to the start of the show because our ears were hearing some ringing noise.
Hopefully no one else did, but that's how bad it was.
Everything got shut down.
Before you got here, I'd say we were up on the stage for probably like an hour and 10 minutes,
testing everything, and the boys in the back were basically just scrambling and trying to fix everything.
These guys were sweating back there because they were running around plugging stuff.
Yeah, Zito re-belt the whole studio.
Good work, boys.
Shut up.
Which is, great job, boy.
Great job.
Mitt had an unexposed wire in one hand and unexposed wire in his own.
The currency was just flowing through him.
That's kind of how we got to turn.
So we just told him to put him in his mouth and just stand in there.
So he's just got two wires hanging out.
I just, of all of the things that, like, I exist in a world basically full of chaos.
Like, I'm doing the show now and my phone is buzzing and it could be literally anything.
And so it's like, I'm.
used to that. When the weather
screws things up, I want to lose my mind.
Yeah, it is. Like my training
camp tour, which was like 16 flights
and 16 days, every day
was like, how's the weather going to
screw up my day? Like, and I can't
Did it? Yeah. It's a real
pain in the ass, especially when, you know,
weather cancels baseball games.
That does think.
It does. We're trying to connect
the jet. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, that was
good. I noticed that too. We're going to, we're going to
talk a little baseball. We are going to talk a little
baseball not just because we got literally going on on the main thing and we're on the other thing
but also because it's baseball season and my Mets are um they're going to be better they're going
to be better. Have you got any games next year? I've been to a couple games. Did you use
Sikh to buy your tickets? So what happens? Yeah you did with over 30 million download
Sikh is the number one rated ticket in that. Each ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 so the green
dots. Green means good. Red means bad.
Week Zero's coming.
$30 off all tickets with code Pat.
That's just code Pat, P-A-T, $30 off tickets.
But remember, actually, if tickets is like $28, they're not going to give you $2 so you can go a game.
They're not or they are?
You're not going to, restrictions apply to the $30.
So move itself down to field level and then get $30 off that way.
Bingo, yes.
So that sounds like a great company.
Yeah, C Geese, go.
Phenomenal.
Yeah.
Sometimes what I do is, I can.
call people and they give me tickets.
Oh, you schmusion.
It's a good move, too. But you can't really
go to games, can you? Because you have to
I mean, you kind of fall into that category. You can't even
take a shower, remember?
I take a shower, but the phone is in the
show. I missed, what did I miss when I was in the
shower? Oh, so at my house,
I have like a stand
so idiotic. I have a stand for my phone in the shower.
Oh, that makes sense. And so sometimes people
will call me and I answer every phone call
except sometimes like Pat will FaceTime
that does not get answered
sure right
but it's like when I was a training camp
I didn't have my shower stand so I missed the
Kyron Williams contract extension
immediate because of the shower
one one person
who also showers with his phone
I assume I don't know
let's ask him
our good friend
Jeff Passon
yeah
oh baby Jay
Join us on the Pat Maccabee show.
Jeff, thank you for John.
What kind of loser has a stand for his phone in the shower?
Is this not what people do?
Yes.
I knew it.
See, this was like the flag.
Oh, dude, I have a perfect little shelf in there.
Give us it.
Take it through it.
Yeah, listen, you have to adjust the showerhead just so because it's the little droplets
that you worry about, like, getting into the bottom of the phone right there.
That can blow the whole thing up.
So you've got to make sure that that's up against, like, a side and covered.
And you've got to sort of angle the showerhead so that the blowback isn't too bad.
And, yeah, I have broken news in the shower before.
I'm not proud of it, but kind of proud of it.
But you guys are the best of what you do.
I'm sorry.
I appreciate you guys saying that.
You should be proud of it, though.
Because, like, why not?
not. It's embarrassing. Because it's embarrassing. What kind of lives do we lead where we have to take our phones into the shower? Like, that's terrible. That's that quality of life.
It's the world we're living. I just feel bad for the fans who would miss out on having news 30 seconds before they otherwise would just so I can shower. Like, they deserve the news.
And there's no other newsbreakers that would break it. I hate all of you.
Well, no, there's that dog. Ricky.
Ricky the dog, baby.
He's probably going to be tweeting it now.
Jeff, so first of all, thank you.
Hold on. Do you compete with the dog for news?
I compete with everyone.
There's people. There's landmines all over.
He out-scooped rap this weekend, actually.
You can admit it. He did.
Joins a long list of dogs who have out-scoop me.
So I'm a Mets fan. I love baseball.
I'm a Mets fan. I did watch last night.
No, it's good. We're in a good place now, starting
starting this weekend.
Are my Mets going to be okay?
Please tell me my Mets are going to be okay.
I saw we called up one of our top prospects for the miners.
That was very good.
Is help on the way.
Did we do enough at the trade deadline?
Are my Mets going to be okay?
I think if they're going to be okay,
it's more because the rest of the National League is just kind of mid
and they could back their way in.
I will say this.
Nolan McLean coming up,
was really good for them.
And not just because he threw five and a third shot out in his first start,
but because the Mets were 45 and 24 Ian on the strength of their starting pitching.
And they're starting pitching in pretty much the same number of games since then
has been among the worst in Major League Baseball.
On top of that, their bullpen has been leaky.
The top of their lineup is great.
It's going to continue to be, like to me, their biggest strength
when you've got Lindor and Soto and Alonzo in Nemo like they got guys who can hit up there but
if they want to win in the postseason they need to stabilize their pitching and i don't anticipate
that we're going to see a whole lot from the prospect ranks beyond nolan mclean so i'm not
so i'm not getting jonathan probably not he's thrown a lot of innings this season struck out a lot
of dudes uh he is probably more like a may you know depending on how the
the off-season goes, I would anticipate him being like a May 2026 guy.
There's a chance he breaks camp with the team.
I mean, if the Mets really feel like he's got a good chance to win rookie of the year,
in Major League Baseball, if you are a top 100 prospect, you start the season with the team,
and you have a full year of service there, and you get top two in rookie of the year,
you get a draft pick.
So, yeah, the incentive to bring.
a guy up before the season is strong in that regard. And it's why you see a guy like Sam
Basayo with the Baltimore Orioles not coming up until after August 15th because he maintains
his rookie eligibility having less than 45 days on the big league roster and in all likelihood
fewer than 130 played appearances. So he will still be eligible for that prospect
promotion incentive pick next year. Interesting. Interesting. All right. That, that
That's enough nerd met stuff for me.
There's been some really fascinating macro major league baseball issues that we want to get to.
Ty Schmidt has a question for you.
Yeah, Jed, I don't know if this is just kind of like a known thing, but it was kind of shocking
when the commissioner of MLB, Rob Manfred last night basically said, like, hey, yeah, expansion is coming.
And we're also going to have to look at kind of reformatting, you know, the divisions and everything
where potentially in a world, you know, the Yankees and the, you know, the Yankees and the,
the Mets will be in the same division, maybe with Boston and, you know, Philly.
Who knows how they're going to do it?
Was this like expected?
We know this was coming this soon.
And what kind of timeline could this potentially be?
Because hearing that last night, I genuinely was like, holy shit, I didn't realize this was so close on the horizon.
Let's start with the timeline, Ty, because that's the most important thing here.
This is at minimum, like, four years off.
I think there is a possibility, and all of this goes according to, do the A's move to Las Vegas as planned and expected, and what of the Tampa Bay raise?
They just are in the process of selling right now, so the likelihood is that they will remain there.
There would be two expansion teams if owners go forward with it.
And look, owners want the two-plus billion dollar expansion fee that they're going to get at the same time.
They also understand that this next television contract after 2028 that they expect to sign that
they want to cover everything in baseball, not just national TV for the World Series and for the
postseason, the All-Star game and other things like that, but they want it to be all of the
local television rights as well, and to pull those and get an enormous number that they can
then distribute out to every team.
So they have to get their ducks in a row, but expansion just makes sense because of the
the windfall that would come from those expansion fees being redistributed out to all the other
teams and listen i think nashville is almost a shoe in at this point yes you've also got you've also
got salt lake city which has really impressed people at meld and they've got ownership in place
they've got a stadium plan in place uh Des Moines is not going to be but you can't represent
don't talk don't talk shit on the midwest i don't want to hear a single word from your obnoxious
coastal ass as if the Midwest is any less worthy of baseball than you turns out on the coast.
Anyway, beyond that, the realignment thing to me is the most interesting part of it.
Because the question is, what does Major League Baseball want?
Does it want to realign into eight divisions with four teams each?
or does it want to radically
re-align to eight divisions
with four teams each?
And the radical sort of realignment
that I'm thinking of
is putting the Yankees in the Mets
in the same division.
It is putting the Dodgers
and the Angels
in the same division.
It is putting the Cubs in the White Sox.
Geographic.
And the idea of destroying the American...
Yeah, I mean, it's...
Rap, it's going to be
within the realm of possibility.
When you are, when you are talking
about realignment. That makes sense. And Rob Manfred, I don't think it was an accident. He talked
about geographical realignment. When you assign the word geography to realignment, what else would
you think other than they're going to find those little metropolitan area pockets and that northeast
pocket right there with the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Mets, and the Philadelphia Phillies, or potentially
you could do... These are all the games. That'd be awesome. Dude, listen, I know, but beyond that,
The issue to me that is really at hand here,
are we going to have an American League in a National League
and is it going to look anything like it has historically?
Like baseball fans have been willing to accept a lot over these last few years,
and I think most of the moves, frankly, have been great.
I adore the pitch clock.
I think it's fantastic.
I think ABS, the challenge system with automated balls and strikes,
is going to be a net positive.
But, man, if you do anything to mess up,
what has been in place since the advent of the game and the lens through which fans view that
and the rivalries that exist right now, I think there will be significant pushback on MLB
if they entertain the idea that there cannot be a New York versus New York World Series.
If they were to split up the Cubs and the Cardinals from the same division.
It's crazy.
When they realign guys, they're going to have to be judicious, thoughtful,
and understanding of these things that fans hold so dear.
God, I hate the Yankees so much.
I would hate them even more if we played them more,
but that just seems.
Well, it weakens how special it is when the Yankees and Mets play each other right now.
But I guess that's the Jeff's point.
You know, it's like, hey, that's just something you're going to have to get over with.
I mean, I got over, like, Pitchcock has been amazing.
Manfred has been controversial and I think really, really good in a lot of ways.
Like, Pitchcock, I don't know about saving baseball, but that has been an all-time.
So, like, I don't know.
I want to get to, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite Mets who no longer is a member of the Mets.
Tone Diggs has a question for you.
Yeah, Jeff.
You reported yesterday that Zach Wheeler has a blood clot near his shoulder, I believe went on the 15-day I-L.
I mean, the Phillies are, I believe they're second right now in odds to win the World Series.
Do we have any more information on Wheeler?
Because this would be a ginormous blow for them in the World Series hopes.
Yeah, they're doing more testing right now and they're going to reassess and try and figure out,
is this something that can be mitigated?
Is this something that can be fixed before the end of the season?
I mean, if you would need to go on blood thinners, for example, the likelihood would be that his season is over.
But we're not there at this point.
Regardless, not having Zach Wheeler changes things for the Phillies.
Because, you know, they went out and got Joanne Duran at the trade deadline, and that was a really good move for them.
it gave them that closer that they desperately needed,
particularly with Jose Alvarado out for the postseason
after a positive PED test.
But if the Phillies were going to win,
it was going to be because they rode their starting pitching.
It was going to be because Zach Wheeler was there in game one,
and Christopher Sanchez, who has been as good as the best pitchers in baseball this year,
was going to be pitching game two.
And they could go with Rangers Juarez or Aaron Null.
They have a deep, deep starting pitching roster,
which is going to allow them to be.
be okay without Zach Wheeler? Will it
allow them to be great? That's
the question. And something to keep an eye on.
I'll be curious to see if they call up
Andrew Painter among the top pitching
prospects in baseball, a guy who
just was off limits in trade
talks at the deadline.
I used to love Zach Wheelers and member
the mats. I don't like him so much anymore, but you just
this is the worst and you hate it and
I don't know where the answers are and there's been a
couple of these in football. Christian
Barmore has been one.
Trace Smith coming out was certainly a blood-caught question.
The Chiefs figured it out, and he has been one of the best players in football.
So it is possible, but you just hate it.
I mean, Zach Wheeler is.
Metz never should have to let him go, but he is awesome.
It happened with Wembe in basketball this year, too.
Yeah, that's right.
David Andrews.
Dame Liller, too, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Got it.
Anyway, Jeff, great stuff.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate you hanging out with us.
I kind of wish you would give me a slight, small bit more Mets, like positivity,
especially after the big win.
Last night in front of all the Little League kids who were trying to trash talk Pita Lanzo,
which was ridiculous, but they literally were screaming in his face
despite that he's Pete Alonzo when they're not.
But you are-
Raff, can I say one more thing just as long as we're being negative right now?
Gumpi, how tall are you?
Breck and Jeff are 6'3.
All right, take it easy, Jett.
All right, relax.
I mean, bro.
Those are two legendary footy players, brother.
Six-three.
I stood next to you, Jet.
Come on.
That's not fair.
Gumpy,
they may be six-three,
but you make them look seven-foot.
Like that?
Not standing on a box like you, Jet.
I cannot stand tomorrow.
See you, Jeff.
Thank you.
Gumpy is too short.
Sorry.
All right.
See you guys.
Good fit, gum.
Holy shit.
It's a good pick-off.
I was kind of mean that he
dunked on Gumpy like that
Well, I mean, of all things to do it
Also, you're understanding the height of those two
I think they're taller than 6-3
They're definitely taller than 6-3 and Gumpy
You snuck it in there, but
Jet's a little skyscrap
Jet ain't 8 feet tall either
I've stood next to Jed at a basketball game
You know, he's not towering everybody
Anybody who's flip flies
You're told me the jet
So I'm we hung out at
That's not fair.
That is ridiculous.
Where, I mean, what?
Jets on a box there, too.
That's not fair.
Bumer played left tackle in the NFL for 28 years.
Sorry, he's seven feet, weighs 475 pounds.
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Now, Kirkshin, on the other hand.
Kirkshin is not very tall.
Kirkson's an old man.
Okay, that's true.
In his heyday, he's 6'1.
He shrank a little bit.
Now he's 5'4.
The thing I always heard about Kirchin, and I'm pretty sure
this is true. He's the goat. Yeah, it is true.
You know what I'm to say?
No. Timmy K. He said he's the goat.
He is the goat. He is a great
basketball player.
Yeah, that trap.
No, like, he was like Bob
Poozy. Both of you
watch your fucking mouth. It was a battle.
You see this trouble right here?
Yeah. Bobby won. Why is that
trophy still sitting there? What is that?
Did you guys 3D print that? Oh, you probably
don't know. No, you need to ship this shit
to O KC. Oh, you don't know. You should know. You should know.
When you win a title, you keep the trophy.
The next team gets a different one.
I know, but for this show, it feels like it shouldn't be sitting up there.
Well, that sucks, boys, because it is.
Yeah.
What are you saying about Kirkshan, though?
He's like a dog on the table for it.
So in my-revolution.
In my previous life, I was an intern at ESPN Classic.
Wow.
Like a long time ago.
Yeah, that was Channel 48 for me.
I love that channel.
Yeah, it was awesome.
For me, it was so cool.
So I was between junior and senior year of college.
I was the one intern for ESPN Classic,
and what I did was do, like, log tape
and do work for their sports century documentary.
And so I worked on the Billy Jean King documentary,
where I developed a crush on Billy Jean King,
which then when I met her at a Mets game,
I said, I had a big crush on you when I was like 20
from watching all these old tapes.
And she said, I wish I had met you sooner.
which is one of the greatest lines
I've ever had anyone tell me
ever in history.
That is sweet.
For many reasons.
How far are you what that happens?
How many people do you text?
Everyone I know.
And then the other one was the Cal Ripkin Sports Century.
And so I heard from Kirk that Cal Ripkin would have
like pick up basketball games and Kircham would just kill everyone.
He was like the best point card.
You reach, I teach!
He used to be saying that all day long.
The people.
Is that right?
Slaping the floor.
I got to see the Timmy K tapes.
Yeah.
I mean, you could, you've had some game.
Yeah, but I'm no, I'm no, Tim.
The internet is telling me this is true.
I mean.
The internet saying it's true?
Yeah.
The crossover from Timmy K.
See ya!
What did he say?
What did he hit that corner three to win the league championship for?
Yeah, it was something like, like,
you can't sniff my jockstrap, bitch.
I think he said that's a cow Ripkin.
Oh, that's what it was.
Yeah, yeah, he was chirping Ripkin.
Yep.
He did the big ball dance all the way down the court.
Tim Kirchon.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Do you know what Tim Kirchard sounds like or no?
Yes, I for sure did.
Then how the hell did you just ask who is this?
Because I didn't know if you guys were punking me again like you did previously.
Since we've been talking.
Has this been a stressful show for you just because there's so much news that
could break very soon and you just
Wow. Look at, I mean
that is. The Jerry Seinfeld. Holy shit.
That is Bobby Hurley. Yeah. The kicks are
clean. Both of them.
Look how sweaty Ripkin is.
I like how Ripkin is Rip. They're going
harder. You can look at a freeze frame and know
if you got a hoop or not. Like,
Bingo. Boom, one more dribble, spun back
to the right. Fade away off the glass.
Yeah, McConnell. Yeah. And
Jeez. Yeah. I mean that's
So Carson was a dog on the basketball court.
Yeah, played with John Shire.
I was telling someone this the other day,
one of my great regrets in life is I have no basketball game whatsoever
and have never played pickup basketball.
You're a rassler, right?
Yeah, but, like, you'd think I could be able to, like, join like...
No, wrestlers don't play basketball.
Why would you regret that, Rob?
Here's, I'll tell you exactly why.
When, uh, was it the Super Bowl here?
I was here at an event, and somebody was like,
we're going to Butler or something like that.
We're going to go play pickup.
Do you want to come?
And I'm like, that would be so cool.
No.
No chance.
Can't do it.
Yeah, can't do it.
When you start golfing, though?
When I was 10.
Okay.
So when I was like 10, like when I was Max's age, I was really good.
And now I look like someone who used to be good.
But basketball never.
Fine.
At least you're good at some point.
What news were you about to talk about with McVeigh?
McVeigh talked to reporters after practice.
Okay.
Gave an update on Matthew Stafford.
And as far as I could tell from the internet, he said things went good.
Okay.
don't really, you know, of all the things
he could say, it's just like, it went
well. I mean, he's not going to say if things went bad
either. I mean, he would say, yeah, you're
right. That's probably true. I mean, the only thing that matters
to me is, like, does he get back
out there tomorrow?
Is he able to continue?
And, like, you know, the weird thing is, like, you know,
you talked to all these people, he talked to McVeigh, talked
to all the rent, and they're like, we love Jimmy
Garoppolo, we got a lot of confidence in Garoppolo.
And, like, the reason Jimmy
signed is because
they think he can compete and he goes and he's going to want to be a starter next year
if he plays he could sort of reinvent his career and that would be awesome
and it would be great and everyone in the world hopes that that does not happen
my big thing with him is just like week one if he's out there and he gets blindsided
and gets sacked like is his back going to be able to hold up yeah yeah you know
it's like you're back when you're that age like that's not something that's going to get
just he's not going to wake up and it's just going to feel better like that is increasingly
probably going to feel worse over the course of an NFL season.
Yeah, that's why, like, even him practicing today, like, who cares?
What are we talking about?
He should go every other day, every third day, damn near.
Like, whatever.
Until, yeah, until next, you know, I guess the day after the last preseason game,
like it really does not matter.
And maybe it's just kind of hitting me now again,
but you forget how little this stuff matters for the Staffords of the world,
for everybody else is, I mean, the most important time of their lives.
But, like, when you're Matt Stafford and you've been in the league forever
and you've already won a Super Bowl, it's like, it's August 18th.
You definitely need to throw.
Yeah, you need to throw.
You just never play with Devont.
You just need to let your body get through, like.
You got to feel like a lot.
I agree.
It's not only him.
It's the guys, you know, the other 10 guys in the huddle.
You know, you get the used to, you know, hearing his cadence and the voice and the play calls
and the shift, especially in that offense.
I mean, outside looking in, it's a lot of moving parts.
You saw we had poop going, and he was, I think, running into one of his linemen or some shit in the backfield.
So all of those things definitely matter.
And to Ty's point, if you're managing it at this point where, hey, you got to go every other day.
Like, it's not getting you shorter with an 18-week regular season in the NFL.
So we hope, like Harry said, there are no setbacks.
And he is, you know, a guy can go out and be somewhat healthy.
We know, Matt, if he can walk and throw the ball, he's going to play football.
So, hopefully, I mean, it seems like they're being cautious right now, which is good.
To your point, it's August 18th.
November 18th, we'll look back on this.
Hopefully, they're in a good spot because they are a damn good football team right now on paper.
I keep thinking about you guys talking about, like, oh, you know, Stafford, like, he's got to get his, you know, connection with Devante.
And, like, this is so my life is weird as we discuss with the shower thing and many, many other things.
So I broke the Devante to the Rams news.
I was extremely happy. Thanks, it was a great moment.
I didn't have the picture ready, so I had to just tweet the words and then add the picture later, which I hate whatever.
So you just post whatever the agent sends you, right?
I cannot comment on who sent me the news.
But then you go out to the joint practice and I have to like remind myself like, oh, Devante.
Yeah.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, of all the preseason things, it's like, wait, this guy's on this team.
With McVeigh?
With, and so like chat with McVeigh.
Before it, and he was like, Devante is, like he is.
Yeah.
So good at football.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, I think that will be a fun one to keep track.
All those guys on the Jets, they really do just get an immediate bad rap.
Like, it's not even funny.
And not that Devante needs to prove himself at all, but I do feel like because of last year,
there is this thought that, like, oh, so what, Devante's on the Rams?
It's like, people do forget how dominant.
he is when he has a quarterback that can throw it.
Just near him.
And he was a guy who like every year was not only, you know, a top three receiver in the NFL,
like going to the playoffs.
Like he's been on shitty teams for the last like four or five years of his career like that.
Those Raiders clips of him in the Netflix show, I was like, I was feeling for him.
Well, that's why people are talking about like the Rams.
Like, oh, the Rams really like Jimmy G.
Well, guess who doesn't?
Devante.
And everyone's going back to those, you know, clips.
saying stuff like that but like the rams or sorry the Vikings fall into like the category of
Kevin O'Connell's there so we have faith in them and it's almost like we forget with the Rams
that McVeigh is also one of those guys just because he's got Stafford we didn't even talk about
the Vikings that I feel like so I was texting with the Vikings person before the show
who was okay it was Kevin Pell Sera doesn't count okay um because I was
I was actually wondering like has JJ been as good as we've heard
Like that was, which is like, he, I guess he lit up the Patriots pretty good in their joint practice.
Yeah, day two, he, I guess the Pat's going to get a stop in the same day.
And that was when I started getting texts like, hey, like, this guy's, this guy's going to be good.
And, you know, it was kind of like, we'll see, he's got a long way to go.
But like, no one's talked about the Vikings at all.
All they did was add a starting quarterback and, you know, watch their other starting quarterback get paid by someone else.
Like, they could be good.
Got O line and D line.
They got Jonathan Allen.
It really just depends on the quarterback position.
Yeah.
Which is...
I mean, if he plays decent,
NFC Championship.
Even if he doesn't play, yeah.
That's the chance, that's true.
Dan Osses, it's a birthday boy.
If he's anywhere between
15 and 18 as far as
ranking the quarterback this season.
Yeah, I think that's right.
N.S.A championship.
What a ball. Yeah, I mean, some of these
some of these highlights are like,
I wish we had better film
of the joint practices.
Yeah. Yeah, because you see more
in joint practices.
We cover them, like, as a, and they cut off.
Yeah.
You know, they cut off when you can video them.
And some venues are really hard to, like, there's some practice.
I want to say it's either Jets or the Eagles or something like that,
where they're sitting under awnings, and there's just poles, like, actual, like, metal poles that you have to film.
Yeah, they're not very good.
I mean, the Pats, the, when the Pats had their first joint practice, when we were on break, when Vrabel got all bloodied up, like, there wasn't one video of that entire thing.
What do you mean?
We haven't seen, have we not seen why he...
We saw the second one.
No, we saw the second one, but the first time it happened when it was reported like Mike Vrable bloodied up in, you know, Patriots' joint practice after getting in a scuffle, or scrum.
The only thing that came of it was a photo of him, like, walking away with, like, an ice pack or a towel on.
It should not be that.
That's it right there, yeah.
It's interesting, though, to your point, you do, because I only saw the day one J.J. McCarthy clips were against.
the Patriots where it wasn't great, but
then day two, all I see
were reports about how dominant
he was, he was like 15 and 17 or something,
but I didn't see any videos, aside from that
long screen.
I don't know what. I mean, it's just impossible to know.
It's impossible to know.
Like I was saying, I was following Colts Packers
joint practices, and it's like from all the Packers,
beat reporters are saying, hey, they're dominating the day.
And then you go and you look at some of the Colts beat reporters,
and it's like, man, Anthony Richardson and Daniel
Dimes have looked unbelievable today. It's like,
Okay, so, you know, both these teams are going to be in the Super Bowl, I guess.
Here we go.
Yeah. Preview.
Yeah.
This is why, like, again, like, I love the preseason, but it is an exercise in frustration.
Oh, yeah.
It's like, I still, even though, like, I'm so interested, I still feel like I don't know anything.
Like, watch the Giants.
Like, and if you are a Giants fan and you watch Jackson Dart.
Looks really good.
He looks really good.
And you're like, why would you not start Jackson Dart?
But it's like, we're not there.
Like, Russ looked good, too.
So are James.
So Jamis. So Jamis.
But now the only thing I'm thinking, especially watching these clips is like, okay, what teams are just walking out there?
Hey, we're not going to show anything.
We're just going to play all of them.
Everybody, three, four, cover two.
Yeah, literally.
Every single one of them.
All of them.
You don't want to show any.
The only thing preseason is getting out healthy.
Obviously, you got a, you know, a percentage of the roster that's trying to make it is very, very important.
But that's a tough spot to be in, too, as a player.
There's so few, like, that's not that many players that are, like, on the bubble.
Like, how many bubble players do you think there are?
Yeah, no, I mean, I would say the teams know, what is it, 52 guys, they know.
Is it more or less than 10?
I would say that's around that number, probably like 7 to 10, depending on the team.
And then some coaches and some organizations are different where there are some places they know who are going to play in what position,
and other places where you can literally go out there and really win a job where it's open competition.
You said New England was always like...
New England was, I mean, game week, week four was open competition.
You had a bad Wednesday or Thursday.
It was a chance that you showed up on Sunday and you weren't dressing that game
because somebody else is doing something on special teams and you were the third or fourth
corner and like, no, we're going to...
So like, that was one of the organizations, but that was very different.
That was rare in the national football league.
But I want to ask you, you were just talking about Texan KOC and you were,
beat reporter, you know, when he was, you know, a quarter, young quarterback in New England.
How crazy is there for you? How many guys are there now that you covered at that point?
Now there, you know, Dan Morgan in the front office or head coach.
It's weird. I mean, especially for him. Now, first of all, I was hitting golf balls with my dad.
I came back from a break in training camp. I was hitting golf balls. And Mike Reese broke the story
that Kevin O'Connell was released. These are the things I remember. And I was so annoyed that I
that I missed the scoop on that one because he was like a very important.
and hot name, it's weird.
And like, the craziest thing is, so, like, the one that did it for me was I was in
Indianapolis at, what was before Prime?
What was the name before Prime?
No, I know.
Almost?
No, no, no, no.
It was.
No idea.
Whatever.
You had a steakhouse.
With that same steakhouse, whatever it was beforehand.
And I had a young quarterback coach come up to me.
And I just, I can't remember.
I.
I just.
No. Outback?
I hate you. I hate you.
One time I did it, no, I'm not going to.
Round round. I'm not going to tell that story.
I'm not going to tell that story. Never mind.
I had a young, I was like, you know, I just started NFL Network and I had a young
quarterback coach come up to me and be like, hey, are you Ian?
And I'm like, yeah, he goes, hey, I'm, you know, I just started out.
I'm the quarterback's coach for the Denver Broncos.
My name is Adam Gase.
And I was like, oh, hey, Adam, like, I'm in Rapport.
And, like, that's how I met him.
Yeah.
And I'm like, oh.
like he's Peyton Banning's quarterback coach like that's cool like maybe that will be like a thing
and then he ends up being a two-time coach in the NFL and leads the most prolific offense ever and I'm
like wow like this happens super forget and so you do you do or his eyes rolling around his head
when you were both we were both a little okay so maybe maybe yeah but that's but those moments are
weird because it's like you go from like art quarterback's coach and like oh he's kind of picking up
it's like oh he's the hot name like I remember when Ben Johnson was in
Miami. He was kind of like just a guy, you know?
I was a good young coach. And then like, and it's just weird.
Like, you have to re-evaluate who these people are all the time.
Yeah. The thing about Mike McDaniel, I had no idea who Mike McDaniel was when he got hired.
Didn't even know. Now, genuinely, if you told me to pick out Mike McDaniel from a, you know, from a line, I wouldn't have been able to when he got hired, he was a nobody.
We got hired?
Yeah, when he got hired
what was he the run game coordinator
of the 49ers?
Sorry, not a nobody, but
typically you're thinking
of like OCs and DECs
and you know coaches who maybe took a year off
or something like that and he was kind of the first
like, hey, random run game
coordinator is now the head coach and then
you know two years later
everybody's doing the motions or trying to do the motions
that he like basically started
and it's just crazy how fast
it happens and it's also crazy how much
like insane
insane knowledge is in the NFL and places that you wouldn't even, you know, guess.
Mike Greenberg.
Mike McDaniel was the guy who Kyle Shanahan kept around because he was like his run game
guru essentially and like he would never, like would never go anywhere without him.
And I'm like, I don't know who this guy is, but I guess maybe Kyle thinks he's good.
I thought that was pretty interesting too, you know, that like he got all the credit for the 49ers run game when you're like, you're running.
Shanahan's dad was the one
who kind of, you know, did all that.
But hey, you know, by all means,
let's Mike McDaniel's the genius.
You want to cry?
Yeah, go ahead and cry.
I mean, this is going to be a very interesting year
for the dolphins.
Like, he's gotten, he is like extremely.
Is he at the top?
Is he the number one?
Would you say?
Hot seat?
Yeah.
I mean.
Who else is really even on the hot seat?
Giants would be a.
Yes.
Yeah.
The ball.
You know, Giants would be sort of there.
I don't think the Titans
because if Cam Ward is...
Yeah, you're new quarterback.
Right.
But like the crazy...
I mean, Indy, but I hate this
because, you know, they haven't played...
Like, Giants could be...
Defense could be really good.
Yeah.
Russ, if he plays like the Russ
from the first little bit of last year,
they are going to be absolutely fine, you know?
I got a question about one.
Okay.
Sean McDermott.
Like, how long in your minds,
And again, if I'm a Patriots fan at this current moment, it'd be great to be a Bill's fan.
Okay, I understand that.
But, like, how long do you think it's going to be?
Because it's hard to imagine they ever just fall off and win seven games.
Like, that's never going to happen with Josh Allen unless he gets hurt and something terrible happens.
Or even still.
Even still, yeah.
Like, they're going to be in it.
How many times, like, how many chances does he have, like, actually?
So this is a great question.
And this is one that I think about a lot
because it's like, it's the same way when you have a player
you're like, can't win the big one.
I'm like, that is nonsense.
Like sometimes you lose, like,
I will never be convinced that Josh Allen can't win the big one.
Yes, Petra Mahomes is great.
So like sometimes Mahomes, like, but there's nothing there that like stops him, right?
And so like.
Well, and he doesn't have like what happens with Shanahan.
Like Shanahan people say this, but the Niners, you see like people get hurt.
They've been snake bit.
multiple seasons like with the bills also have been sneak snake they've been
snake but in some in the defense sense yeah but they just which is
speciality yeah that and that may be in I'm a Sean McDowern I think he's a good
coach I like he I think he's a pretty good coach but as if I'm thinking from
my owner perspective that will probably be the one thing that will make me to have a
switch like okay I got to get an offensive guy yeah who maybe we just got like
whatever the case this is this isn't working we've had no
Number one defenses, we've had this, we've had that.
Maybe I'm moving from an offense guy.
Move on from Sean for an offensive guy just to get that extra whatever out of Josh Allen.
But, I mean, if you're looking around the league, I think Sean McDermen is still easily in the top, you know, probably 12 of coaches.
But when you have an MVP caliber quarterback, an MVP quarterback, you know, you want to win a big one.
You got to win it.
Just get to.
Well, in that sense, too, then, like, what about Zach Taylor?
like because it's like hey how long are we like that that's awesome you're you know an offensive guy
and a lot of people say that you know burrow should have won MVP last year but you know like
you got to make the playoffs you know you can't you can't survive on hey we went to the super
bowl forever and like they've kind of put i mean they're they need to win offensively but like
if they start oh and three again or you know whatever the case like how much time does it get
Hot, yeah. I mean, Joe Burroughs so good, and I think the offense is going to be so good.
And they made a change of defensive coordinator that was debated, like hotly debated.
Like, Lou Aniruma was a very good defensive coordinator.
They chose they wanted to go in a different direction.
I think that surprised some people, including me.
If they start, like, and they've done everything to start fast, playing guys in the precinct.
So if it doesn't work, the Bengals have traditionally been very patient.
So I think they'll be okay, but I see what you're saying, because at some point it's like, all right, like, you got Joe Burrow.
Now, Zach Taylor helped make Joe Barreleet, but the bill's thing is also interesting, right?
Like, because I was thinking about what you said, D, but, like, Sean McDermott, I do not believe he is in any trouble, okay?
Let's just state, I do not believe he is in trouble at all, nor should he be.
However, Joe Brady is their offensive coordinator.
Joe Brady is going to be a hot head coach candidate this year.
At some point, they may lose him.
So do, like, you know, this is the teams that face this decision before.
The Bucks did it, and they ended up with Dirk Cutter, which didn't work out.
So it's like, that's the only thing where I'm like, Joe Brady is going to leave
if it's some sort of disappointing season, which I do not expect them.
What happens?
Bucks are going to have to deal with that this year again.
Yeah.
Losing Liam.
You had a great, probably, not probably, a Baker-Mayfield's best year.
Then you lose.
That's always the thing you're dealing with.
Like, Patrick Mahomes, you're never going to deal with that until Andy Reid decides to a
retired. John McVeigh Stafford. Jalen Hertz has been successful with a bunch of different
offensive coordinators. New one this year. Yeah, you know, Siriani has some, some input on the
offense. So that's always for me, you know, Lamar Jackson's been, he's one MVP's with multiple
coordinators. So you do have quarterbacks who can play with multiple any coordinators, but a lot
of times it comes down to, you know, two-minute drives, you know, getting field goal or a touchdown
and having that quarterback play call or been on that same. We always see all the behind the scenes,
my homes and Andy Reed, hey, let's call this play. Let's go to this one. So, I mean, it is important,
but, you know, I think Sean's a great coach. I think they have good pieces in place. They
built the teams. They've been in it at the end. You know, it just comes down to a handful of
plays. And that always makes a difference. But, you know, we have, you know, Michael Jordan
in the league right now. It's going to be tough to get one. He's also a legitimate head coach.
And I feel like that is, like, that was my biggest thing. I mean, you talk about Zach Taylor,
like, that was my biggest thing with the floor before they got halfway. It's like,
hey i understand you're an unbelievable offensive mind like you're not the oc you're the head coach
so like what the defense does is also on your plate you can't just be like well my offense is
unbelievable my defense has been horseshit for the last it's like it doesn't work like that
when you're the head coach happily was a good hire i i i did not expect that and i was
me neither but he's been really good but that's the thing like with the bangles too i mean and you
kind of threw in there and me and tie chimed in a little bit like zach tay didn't
fucking make Joe Burrow, first of all.
But Joe Burrow and the
This is the same argument I have with Belichick and
British. Again,
that's my point, exactly. Belichick
and Brady, Baker and Bowles.
There's a thing
where if you have a quarterback
that is like a Joe Burrow,
you don't need some
fucking guru. You really just need
a guy that is going to do what Joe Burrow
says. And also, to
be fair, when you
are a team, you know, and you
have a quarterback in two number ones, which Tampa, Mike Evans, Chris Gobwin, you know,
Bengals, same exact thing. It's like, hey, offense, as far as coaching goes, I know it's very
important. But when you have an MVP guy at wide receiver and quarterback, like, does it really
fucking matter what play is coming through the wire? Even with those, like right now when we're
talking about Josh Allen and we're saying like, you know, Shaw McDermott, he's a defensive guy,
do we hang on to Joe Brady
just in case like that doesn't make
any sense to me because
Josh Allen has had success
before and after Joe Brady. I know he didn't win
an MVP but typically
when we were talking about Josh Allen it was more so
like hey why the fuck is he throwing it across
the field 60 yards down the field
versus like man this play costs
I mean part of that is on coaching though because
usually
the power dynamic
in the organization
like that quarterback once you're a franchise quarterback
like you're, you know, unless you have an Andy Reid or Bill Belichick or that type of coach.
But you also have to have a coach.
And I was speaking to Joe Burrow seeing more of him on quarterback and even like his personality.
I love that.
He's going to be a lead by example guy.
But like Brady, Manning, Breeze, like they'll get after guys.
Like they'll set the tone of the game that week.
Your defense can be on the field and you're still hearing Brady talking shit as far as execution and things like that.
Not to say that Joe Burroughs any less of a quarterback, that's just his different personality.
So that's when you need that head coach or whoever to kind of, because we always talk about teams take on the identity or a head coach.
It's what people will say you see in Miami.
And then what you see in Detroit with Dan Campbell, like nobody will look at Dan Cameron and say, oh, he's a genius.
But you know how his team is going to come out and compete week in a week out.
So the talent, everybody's going to be talented.
And obviously when you're talking about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Holmes, those guys.
guys on a different level, talent-wise, but the coaching still matters, like, game planning,
like the tempo of the play calls, changing up tempos, got to have it plays.
Like, Josh Allen, he's a great player, you know, Ken Dorsey got fired, you know, that,
you know, that never happened.
I mean, you mentioned it, like, Lamar changed completely when Todd Monkin got there.
Yeah, and he needed that.
It was time for him to, and he was an MVP quarterback with Greg Roman, but it was time for
him to evolution of his game.
I mean, Steve Young came out years ago and was like, you need that.
Like, he's going to need someone and put him in a sophisticated pass game to expand his office.
Because we saw him do it in college.
It wasn't like a guy who ran triple option in college.
Like, he slung the ball with Petrino at Louisville.
So you definitely need that.
These guys are supremely, you know, uber talented, but you still need coaches kind of set the tone throughout the week,
throughout the game, throughout the season.
And when you're a head coach, obviously, that goes beyond, you know, just one side of the ball.
When would you say, like, Brady Manning and.
and Breeze, and you might not know
like when would you say that does settle
in though, where it's like, okay
like this, like, do you think
Burrow and Allen and Lamar
and Mahomes are at the point now when
like Brady and Breeze and Manning
finally became like the, hey,
this is my fucking shit. I'm going to
say what we're doing. Pat's already there.
Yeah, but Andy runs such
tight ship is a lot that
Pat, I was just from the outside looking in
and we see so much more now too
than we saw, you know, back in the day.
So, like, I'm sure it's things that Pat doesn't necessarily have to do, but once Pat speaks, you know, everybody's going to follow, that's the general.
But I don't know, and all these quarterbacks that, like, their personalities are so different.
Like Aaron Rogers, he completely different personality than, you know, Philip Rivers.
Like, these guys are good quarterbacks, but personality is a big part.
It's just like any workplace, like the CEOs or those people in position, like people are going to kind of follow that guy in the battle.
You know, that's what it is on Sundays.
But so Lamar, Josh, you know, Joe, all these guys are the unquestioned leaders of their team.
But then we see Lamar.
You see how he leads.
Or like he leads in his very unique way.
And I've seen him get after guys more.
He gets that.
But that's not the only thing I'm looking for.
You can tell he's working his ass off Monday through Saturday because that's the only way you can talk to grown men a certain way to check them.
If you're showing up and you're being accountable, you know, day to day too.
Well, and Pat tells the story, you know, he has a couple times.
about Peyton where it's like when he came in with the Colts like he interviewed them they didn't
which I feel like is very rare so it's almost like he came in and he was like hey if you pick
me like this is my fucking show right away already so like let's not get let's not get this cross
at all and obviously like he's one-of-one there aren't a whole lot of guys like that Brady obviously
wasn't afforded that opportunity not being the first pick but like the borough was yeah but you
obviously like talking about quarterback like you just personality wise yeah joe burrow is not
Peyton Manning.
You know, he's much, much different.
And that's, like, the change of the time, too.
Because, like, I'm assuming they were having the same conversation about Peyton Manning
before he won the Super Bowl that we're having about Josh Allen.
It took Payton Manning, not what, 9, 10, 10 years just to win a Super Bowl.
So it's not like, it's not as if, you know, these guys are never going to win
or one Super Bowl will be enough.
But it's one of those situations where every year,
but if it's Mahomes, Allen,
you know, Burrow
in Lamar,
like there is a chance
that two of those guys
just never end up with one
because how good Mahomes is,
it's crazy.
So much shit around them
got to go right too.
Yeah.
It has to be,
like lightning has to strike.
Yeah, it's like,
you look at defense.
You look at Mahomes.
Great defense,
great special teams,
great ownership.
What's going on in Buffalo?
I think they have a really good ownership.
Philadelphia.
Good ownership, good front office.
You know,
So you're going to be, Baltimore.
They've always been great in the front office, ownership-wise.
So, yeah, the talent and the quarterback is a big part of it,
but all the other shit that goes into it
because we can look at almost any playoff run.
Rarely do you just see an offense just blow like an Ohio State
and the college football playoffs.
You know, some point in time,
a defense is going to have to win a game of a 17 to 13 game
and then the offense gets hot or something like that.
Joe Flacco, when he went on his run,
Joe Flacco got hot and played out of his mind.
He turned in the bottom with a good defense.
So a lot of shit got to go right.
in football. It's not like basketball. It's like, all right, we got bronze, we got weight,
we got Bosch. We're going to be in the finals every year. Like all that other shit,
organizationally has to, you know, be right in the place. So that's the other thing to look
at when you look at these, you know, quarterbacks that are in a position to compete.
That's why this is the best.
Oh, yeah. For 20 years, 20 years, it was. We almost here.
It was Brady Manning and Big Ben. And Joe had that one run. Like the Ravens, like,
if you're one of those teams, you have to have to, everything has to line up perfectly.
Yeah. Hell yeah.
You guys are the best. I appreciate you very much.
Great job. You're a job.
Much better today.
Yeah, well done, rap.
You're just much more comfortable.
Maybe Max been here.
Yeah, Max.
You don't want to embarrass yourself in front of your boy.
Who paid very, very close attention.
Of course.
But we're so excited to be here and just walk around and play with all the things.
You guys are awesome.
No comments and whether or not I'll be back at some point in the near future.
Okay.
You guys enjoy whoever you have over the next couple weeks.
That's all we have from the Pat McAfee show.
I'm going to say goodbye.
So you could do like a team on three thing.
Team on me, team on three.
You guys punk me again?
No, no.
We actually just, I don't watch it.
Every day.
I watch until the end of the YouTube, obviously.
I say what, one, two, three.
You clearly don't.
Team on me, team on three, one, two, three.
All right.
Team on me, team on three, one, two, three.
Team!
Yes!
Nailed it.