The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Danny Parkins on Caleb Williams' Future, Josh Allen's moment, Giants hire John Harbaugh | 01.16

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Bomani Jones is joined by FS1's Danny Parkins. First, they discuss Caleb Williams' ceiling after his performance against the Green Bay Packers and his matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Later, they break down Josh Allen's opportunity to become the face of the NFL if he can win the Super Bowl this season. Finally, they react to the Giants hiring John Harbaugh and debate whether or not the move makes sense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is Parko Friday.

Danny Parkins, first day first. What's going on, Big Doug? Chilling, man. How are you? Happy Friday. Hey, man. Likewise, likewise. Likewise.

I'm good over here. We got a lot to get to. we'll get to John Harbaugh being the coach of the Giants. We got a big weekend of the playoffs. But, you know, I'm in an interesting place with, you know, where I stand when to come to the NFL and, like, being a fan in that I'm not so far down this road yet that I actually dislike the other teams in my division. You understand what I'm saying? So, like, I root for the Lions, but I'm not yet at a point where I actively dislike everybody else, probably because I don't live around those people. people, you know what I mean? But that allows me to still be somewhat happy for a Bears fan

Danny Parkins. And it tells me a whole lot about what it is to be a Bears fan that you took your ass to Chicago to sit in that cold and watch that game. And I can only presume that that's because you just can't assume that's ever going to happen again. Yeah, listen, I hate going to NFL games. Oh, really? Yeah, but I felt a, I felt like a pull. from the universe to attend that game. It was, I would rather be at Bears Packers in that circumstance than certainly at Bears Rams or even like Bears fill in the blank NFC championship game. Like that was just a, it was like the Caleb arrival, the rivalry, the Saturday night

aspect of it, honestly, kind of a rarity. And the fact that I could fly in Saturday morning, fly back Sunday morning. morning, not miss any NFL games. It was just like a nice standalone thing. And it was the biggest sporting event in Chicago since game five of the 2016 World Series. And yeah, man, I've even in big Bears games before, I've never been like, well, we have the better quarterback. Like literally never once in my lifetime. So it just, it felt like an event that I had to see in person.

It looked cold. It was cold. I think I don't know if I've told you the story before. I probably told it on the air at some point. But I once, I may have even told it. I feel like I've told this story in the last two weeks. But whatever you're getting it again, people, I used to do some work for a company out of Toronto.

And so I'd go up there for some stretches, right? And so I went for my first trip. And it wasn't so bad, right? And it was a winter month, and the cold wasn't really hitting. And then I was getting ready to go to another trip. So when I lived in North Carolina, I looked at the weather. And it was talking about, like, high. in the mid-30s, lows, I want to say, in the mid-20s.

And that seemed survivable. Like if those are the temperatures in North Carolina, we're like, oh, it's going to be cold, but not like you're going to die cold. Okay, no big deal. I got up there to Toronto, and what that 30 was talking about in Toronto was not the 30 that I had come to understand, right?

And it feels like. They got to feel like. Oh, my God. It was, I mean, like temperature is really like what's heavier. a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers. Like, it's maneuvering around that, right? And so I'm there. I'm at a friend's house.

She made dinner. I look out the window and I see the explanation for this situation. This great lake was right outside the window. Oh, yeah. And somehow it had never dawned on me that, oh, Toronto's on the lake. I got an American sense of geography, right? Yeah.

man, it reminded me of maybe 10 years before that or maybe more like 6 or 7. I had gone to Chicago and it was actually New Year's Eve. I don't know why we went to New Year's Eve. I don't know why we went to New Year's house in Louisville. We're like, we're not going to stay in Louisville. We went to Chicago and we didn't do anything. But we went outside for a minute and I have never seen cold like great hours. Woo!

My God. Yeah. And we got one of those great lakes too, Bo. Yes. Good old Lake Michigan. And the stadium is right there. Yeah. Like, at least I understood, like, I know Chicago has it, right?

Right. But I had not really considered that the lake does a thing to the air. Oh, yeah. Lake effect. It's a, it is a, it is a term where it's like, you know, the local weather people, they'll be like, you know, it's 31 degrees at O'Hare, 28 at Midway, and it feels like nine on the lakefront. It's like, oh, yeah, that's that 15 to 20 degree on the lakefront difference.

And listen, I mean, it was, it was two. pairs of socks, toe warmers, two pairs of gloves, hand warmers, four layers, and a lot of cocktails. To watch the bears, I wouldn't do all that to watch one of my kids. Maybe I feel different if I had them, but I, man, look, like, like, that was actually the added benefit. I got 24 hours away from my Oh, there we go. My kids were three and five. So I told, I told the wife, I was like, hey, Hey, Steph, 24 hours, Chicago's college. You got the better end of that deal. Well, I mean, that's because she got you to go to the pinstripe bowl, didn't she?

Dude, this was a great reversal of fortune. My wife is soft. She was like, she's like, saw the forecast that day. And she's like, I don't want to go to this game. And I was smart. I was like, babe, we can go to the pinstripe bowl. Yeah, Danny's wife, by the way, inexplicably went to Clemson. That's right.

It's weird story. But I was like, I, I, I, am not, we will be able to buy tickets day of the game. So it's like, we're going to the pinstrip bowl if you want to go to the pinstrap. Oh, there you go. There you go. And then day of, it was like 22 degrees, Clemson stinks. She's like, you know what?

Let's not great. Well, hey man, let me ask you this. I feel like the Bears game on Sunday is kind of sort of ghost of Christmas present versus Ghost of Christmas past in the sense that, I mean, this is really funny because I think Sean McVeigh is barely older than Ben Johnson, but Ben Johnson is what Sean McVey was. Now, of course, Sean McVey is now a Super Bowl champion in all of those things. But this is the hot shot young brain versus the old hot shot young brain.

That's right. And Sean McVeigh is like best coaching buddies with Matt LaFleur who seems to hate Ben Johnson. What is this? Because they hate, like it seemed that Ben Johnson hates Matt LaFleyn. I'm not sure Matt LaFleur knows what they explain. is behind this. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, listen, this is red meat to the base. So to understand Bears Packers, it's unlike any other rivalry because the Packers have no owner, right? They're owned by the

fans. And the Bears are owned by the McCasky family. Virginia McCasky just passed away. She was George Hallis's daughter. So the McCasky's proudly, like George McCasky will, anytime he steps in front of a microphone, he'll be like, I don't know much about football. I'm just a fan. And so it's like owned by a fan and owned by the fans. And like my old radio station in Chicago, people would listen to us in Milwaukee. Like we know what I mean? It's so the proximity is so close that like my dad's whole side of the family are from the south side of Milwaukee and our diehard Packers fans. I was at the game with my nephew, a Packer fan. Like we are married to these people. We work with. these people. It's like a tremendous amount of proximity. And so ever since George McCasky became

the front man for that family for ownership, literally every Bears coach at his introductory press conference, like Lovie Smith was like, you know, we got a few orders of business. You got to win the division, ultimately win the Super Bowl, but first and foremost, you got to beat the Packers. It is like college. Exactly. But it's, but like, so on Monday, so he, so, you know, Ben Johnson says, F the Packers, it goes viral. He does the icy handshake. whatever. And on Monday, the media is like, you know, do you feel bad for saying F the Packers? And he's like, no, I don't like them. Rivalries. But the thing, the most telling part about it, he goes, but I talk to George and we're on the same page. He is playing, he is echoing what his boss

wants him to say. And it's been a thing for literally every Bears coach since Lovie Smith. And is it corny? Yes. But, oh, I don't think it's corny at all. I love it. Well, here's the thing. The, the, because I, I don't think that Ben Johnson genuinely hates Matt LaFleur. Ooh, I'm not, see, that's, that's, that's, that's where I'm not sure, right? I hope he does. And the reason I say that is, I get it on everything you're saying about beating the Packers.

But when he got the job, he immediately took aim at Matt LaFloor. Like, he said, I enjoy beating Matt LaFleur twice a year. Yeah, that was, that was job unnecessary. And that there's something, or is he the person, is he the Michael Jordan type of psycho that goes in the mirror and invents things? Yeah, listen, I think it was, I think that was his version of the Lovie Smith thing. And he kind of like, he just personalized it instead of globalized it. He put it on Matt LaFloor instead of on the Packers. But yeah, Ben Johnson, he's crazy.

And I, he's been on the show multiple times. I'm a huge fan. I want my football coaches to be crazy. But he's the like, install every part of the game plan, doesn't delegate any of it to his coaches, sleep in the facility. He looks like he's going to age like a president over the course of this job. Like, yeah, he is a special type of crazy. And Bears, if they're going to win, they're going to need to win a shootout

because Matt Stafford might throw for 600 yards on the Bears defense. Hey, man, counterpoint. Stafford got that finger situation. And it's going to be cold. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be cold. I mean, the last time that we saw the Rams in the playoffs in cold like this cold was that game against the Eagles last year. Now, of course, the Eagles weren't out there looking like the greatest show on turf in that cold either.

Like, it was a debilitating sort of situation. Yeah. But Stafford with a banged up finger in that cold. I don't know. And I will say this. And this is where there was a thing. I guess it was really like 10, 15 years ago, particularly with the proliferation of the internet and social media,

where so many people thought they were so much smarter than all the draft analysis people. And it means like, oh, they really care so much about stuff like hand size, right? Now, sometimes they weaponize it, like why you should take Johnny Mansell over Teddy Bridgewater, for example. However, those things matter particularly if you are drafting a quarterback to play in your cold weather environs, right? Josh Allen is not just Josh Allen.

Josh Allen is perfect, but what will be necessary for you to perhaps win a game playing in Buffalo. And Caleb Williams is a physically built for cold weather dude. That dude was making throws in that game on Saturday that I could not believe. He is remarkable. By the way, you were right. I was a skeptic and I just want to go ahead and give you your you were right. And you were right that the number one picking the draft would be good.

Just want to let you know that, you know, you stood out on that limb. Thank you. Thank you. That's backhanded as compliment ever could have possibly given somebody. Doesn't matter. I'm going to have, I'm going to have Ryan Clip. You were right from Beaumonti Jones to me. It's going to be my text message alert whenever you hit me up and it's going to be glorious.

You were right. Oh, both hitting me up. Yeah, listen, I'm not saying that it was a revolutionary call, but there was a huge faction of the Bears fan base. that wanted to pass on the draft rights to Caleb Williams to keep rolling it out there with Justin Fields. So that was a legitimate thing in Chicago for a while. So I will take the victory lap even if it was backhanded from you. He's insane. He's like 6'3 and every bit of 225. Like he is built like a refrigerator and he's got the best arm in football.

You know, I mean, like maybe if it was a fastball throwing contest, maybe Justin Herbert could dial it up a little faster. I don't know. But his mobility, strength, size, elusiveness, it's insane. Everyone knocks him for the completion percentage. And yeah, he misses some layups. But I'm going to debut this take with you. Is there any faction of in the NBA, you know, to shoot 50% from two? All you got to do is shoot 33% from three.

Right. Dude, Caleb is a big game hunter. He does not give a, he will just throw it down the field. He thinks he can make every throw and he can. And so if his completion percentage is lower, but he doesn't throw interceptions and it's just a big play waiting to happen at every moment, man, I'm cool with it. Well, that's the thing.

Nicol and dime efficiency is overrated in this game. And it's something that has, in terms of the way that we evaluate players and evaluate quarterbacks, I think has been a problem for a while, right? Because I think you hit it where it really matters, which is he's not throwing interceptions. Right. It's why the comp for me is still Aaron Rogers.

Well, it's still the comp. Well, it's hard for Aaron Rodgers to be the comp and you complete 58% of your passes. No, I agree. I agree. But like, hunts the big game and doesn't throw picks. Listen, he's year one. He's been in three different systems in three years, right?

Lincoln Riley and whatever the hell it was last year with Luke Getsy, and now, and now this with Ben Johnson. If he doesn't take an efficiency leap from year two to year three in the NFL, year one to year two in Ben Johnson's system, then I'll lay down my sword on the Aaron Rogers comp and say maybe he's going to be a low completion percentage guy for the duration. But like he cut his sack percentage in half. He was six eight times this year. This year was less than 30. and, you know, he's got the verbiage. They're not getting delay a game penalties and pre-snap stuff anymore.

Like, I think he's gonna, he'll work on it this off season. And he's, you know, the number one pick in the draft was good, Beau. So I think he'll be able to, I think he'll be able to hit the layups. Yeah, I do think that with him, it's a matter of, you ain't got to wait till the end of the game to get good, right? Like, it does, it does still feel to a degree,

like playing fully within what my man, Big Brain Ben is doing is still difficult. When it gets late and it's just, just kind of like, all right, man, whatever. Now, because that's what he's, that's what he's been used to doing forever. He's playing video game football, right? Like, I'm going to run around,

run around, somebody's going to get open and look how hard I can throw the ball, right? Like, that's, that's going to be it. So it's going to be interesting to see, especially, you know, the Rams, got a defensive coordinator that's auditioning for jobs, right? People looked up and was like, Shula, you say.

Oh, that sounds familiar. I feel like something I want to give that guy a job. Huh. Yeah. I mean, but the Rams, he's not putting his best foot forward recently since we've, I think it's like the last, since week 12 or something, they're averaging 28 points of game allowed. Like you can, this, there's going to be points scored in this game. Well, let me say something interesting about Shula is that I think, I don't know if we're still

in that window. We're as long as, what's his name, Sean McVeigh had touched a hymn of your garment, you could get a head coaching job when everybody was hiring all his friends. I heard him, Sean McVeigh had dinner one time. that was enough for you to get a job. So we're talking about two dudes in this year's cycle that are being discussed, like straight McVeigh guys, right? One of them is Chris Shula, their defensive coordinator. The other one is a dude named Nate Shieldhast.

Okay, and I remember Nate Shieldhoss because he played at, I want to say, Illinois and quarterback. And I remember this. When we were really deep in Rudy Rule discussions a few years ago, I'm like, how about Sean McVey just hire a bunch of brothers? And then they all going to get jobs because all you got to do is no Sean McVey. And it eventually came to pass for Rahim Morris. He wound up being able to get a job.

But I was like, come on, McVeigh, you need to do more. And everybody talking about this shield house guy. I'm like, oh, shield house. And then I looked up a picture. And buddy, I ain't never seen no shield house that looked like that. That was a shocker. So McVeigh out here doing his part for the people. I see you, big dog.

There you go. And 35 years old, too. He is. He is. But he is also Mr. Shil Haas. Well, he was born. He grew up in high school

in Kansas City, but he's born in Davenport, Iowa, which is on the list of places that are a little blacker than you might expect. Not wall to wall black, but that's one of the places

where the black people and I would live. Before we get into the break, I do also want to hit on the other Sunday game, which is the Texans and the Patriots, and I don't know about you, but I think Patriots

might be in trouble in this one. Yeah, listen, the Texans defense is just awesome. You know, I don't know. We're not talking 2,000 Ravens here, but we're talking like a step below it. You know, best defense we've seen in the NFL in years. Will Anderson might be the second best defensive player in football behind Miles Garrett. He's ridiculous. Their whole secondary is crazy.

Obviously, DeNeil Hunter. One of the things we put out there on the show this week was if the 10th, Texans score 20. They're undefeated. 12 and 0, scoring 20 or more. Most wins at that low of a threshold since the Cam Newton Panthers. So, you know, it's just like, but C.J. Stroud keeps dropping the ball. Like, I just do not, I don't trust him at all.

And C.J. Stroud's three playoff wins, another fun stat for you. This is a crazy one. C.J. Stroud has three playoff wins. In his three playoff wins, the Texas. Texans defense has allowed 32 points. The Texans defense has scored 32 points. Wow. They have five touchdowns and a blocked extra point return for a two point conversion.

Wow. In his three playoff wins. So like, I have to sit here and say that C.J. Strouds a great playoff quarterback because he's got a playoff win all three years when his defense has played teams to a draw by themselves. I refuse. I refuse. You know, he looked the kind of bad.

in the game against the Steelers where people don't like criticize your performance, they ask you questions. They're like, hey, man, are you good? Like, is everything all right at home? Like, it was that kind of bad, couldn't catch a snap, like, and you saw it all over his face.

Like it was in his eyes after these things that happened. And this is a guy that we had given credit for being precocious. The guy that we saw in college, who in those big bowl games, was bawling. He looks totally lost, or at least he did in this particular game, look totally lost. Yeah, right.

I remember, like, changing my whole opinion on C.J. Stroud because of how he played in that game against Georgia. I was like, oh, I didn't know you could do that. My apologies. Okay. Now I see what everyone else says. So, like, yeah, I think he looked, he looked shook, and he has not been good for a long time.

like not like that was like that now that dropping the ball and just like not being able to do the quarterback center exchange that was an extreme but like you look look at the last like 20 games of C.J. Stroud good games are outliers he is he is yes part of it is the offensive line he's been hit a lot he had wide receiver injuries last year but I am I am not at all sold on C.J. Stroud long term I'm not. Yeah this is interesting because he looked so good as a rookie, right? He did, but it was also one of those weird, like, Dak Prescott rookie seasons where it was like he,

he looked so mature. Yeah. The interception number was real low. I think it was five interceptions, his, his rookie year. Yes. But it was only like 21 touchdowns. And I think five of those touchdowns came in one game. And I was like, okay, you're clearly smart.

You are not making mistakes. But what is a ceiling with, a player like this. And it hasn't gotten much higher since. Yeah, I was going to say the thing about if what he has had was a Dak Prescott rookie year, if he turns out to be Dag Prescott, you're doing okay. Like, oh, yeah. Like put Dak Prescott on the Texans and they're probably the best team in the NFL. Oh, yeah, but to be clear, like, I just, I was wrong about Dak Prescott too. Like, Dak for a while to be, his numbers of the first like three or four years were all very similar. Lower 20s touchdowns, mid-s single-digit interceptions, game manager

tight. And I was like, okay, like you're a pro, you great value for your draft pick, but with like second overall pick for C.J. Stroud, you know, but yeah, no, I mean, Dak Prescott the last few years is awesome. If that Prescott was on the Texans, they would be the favorites to win the Super Bowl. Yeah. Now, New England on the other side is interesting, because the reason I'm saying, and I think the Texas are going to win this, it's really not about the particulars. It's about the generality of the fact that monster defense on one side, second year quarterback, second playoff start on the other. Who takes a lot of sacks. Yeah. I mean, we're asking, we're asking a lot out of Maine in this

game. Yeah. Now, maybe he got his bad playoff game out of the way. Like, you know what I mean? Like, maybe it was like, okay, now he knows. Now I figured it out. And he can, he's got the mobility obviously and the athleticism to deal with some of the things that Houston throws at him. It does still feel to me, and it's felt all year like the Patriots are a year ahead. Like they're a year early on some stuff and they need a little bit more high-end talent around him. But Drake May is wildly impressive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I still think right now, Canada Williams still got to show me something to show me that for certain he's going to be better than this guy.

And by the way, that's fair. super big, super strong because it gets super cold over there. Right? Like it's actually interesting. Tom Brady and them were so good that we never really talked about the fact that they were playing. It ain't quite Lambo. But it's that sort of whole field.

It's cold that them up here, guys. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, I went to a Chiefs Patriots playoff game and I was like, man, this thing is in the middle of goddamn nowhere. And it was very, very cold. But yeah, listen, I, these games are real interesting because, you know, you have Texans pass rush against MVP candidate quarterback and Broncos pass rush against MVP caliber quarterback. Like those two AFC games are very much pass rush and defense against all world's quarterback. All right. Hold that thought. We're going to get to that after this.

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ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. All right, we are back on the right time with Danny Parkins, FS1, first things first. Josh Allen, America's quarterback. I'm glad that I've come to like him in a way that allows me to overcome all these people who just want to make me hate him. But I don't. I refuse, okay? This is an interesting one because on one hand, the Broncos are the number one C, the Broncos have this monstrous defense.

You got to go deal with them at altitude. The Buffalo Bills are banged up all of these things, right? On the other hand, they quarterback is Bo Nix. And if you, Josh Allen, we, the role we feel like you should be Bo Nix, even though quarterbacks don't play against each other. That's how it feels, guys. That's how it feels. Yeah, and it's not entirely unfair.

Just based on how we've always done things. If like if you want to say the whole system is unfair, then okay. Right. People pick a hell of a time to realize it if that's what it is. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like this is how we do it and it's not right. And it isn't a one-on-one game and Bo Nix isn't on the field when Josh Allen is. And I understand that. And the bills receiver injuries and the bills run defense and all, like I know all of those things.

But just on the Broncos side of it, this is a real shaky one seed. This is a very shaky one seat. in that all year they have eeked out wins against bad teams when their quarterback has not played well. You know what I mean? I pulled it up here just to remember the particulars. 1311 against the Jets. Yikes. Next week, 33, 32 against the Giants.

Oh, I remember that. That was a crazy comeback, right? Right. And to Tobon makes his credit, he was incredible in the fourth quarter of that. that game, but down huge to the Giants. 1815 against the Texans, we just talked about their defense. Okay, fine. 10-7 against the Raiders, 27-26 against Washington, 24-17 against the Raiders.

It's a lot of one-score field goal games against teams with top 10 picks. Bonix this year was, I believe, six in one in games where he had a passer rating. of under 85. Like, it's just, I don't think that formula wins you a Super Bowl. I don't. And so I do think Josh Allen can go into Denver and get this done and figure it out

and put on the cape as people have been saying. Can Denver hide him? Right? Like, I have seen Kyle Shanahan coach teams without throwing the ball at all in the second half, right? If you can find a way to get a hit, hold the lead, and hide that guy, if at all possible. Now again,

the Broncos model has been somewhat, and maybe this is the case of Bo Nick, someone similar to the Bears model, which is, okay, maybe you get behind late and now you just got to let this guy say Yolo and not have to think about this stuff so much and that's ready to get it done. I don't think that could work for the Broncos in the playoffs. Yeah, like historically,

you would think that it doesn't. And so, and like, I want to try to be kind of fair. Like, Bo Nicks had, let me see, what was the great game? Okay, yeah, the game. against the Packers. That was a very good game. But it was also it coincided with the Micah injury and the Packers defense beginning to fall apart. And so Broncos fans will get defensive and they'll be like, no, he's a great fourth quarter quarterback. And like my guy, Caleb is too. But I'm sorry when I

watch the two of them, I don't think that that is like that you have to look a little bit beyond the numbers here. And I don't think that that's what Bo Nix is in terms of trustworthy or not. So if Bo Nix comes out at home and puts on a show against Josh Allen, you can change that narrative. But until then, I think they are one and done. I personally would love to have a great third quarter quarterback. Everybody talks about the fourth quarter quarterbacks. No, give me a quarterback that's like Steph Curry was. You remember when the Warriors were the illest thing in the world in the third quarter?

Like, you might think it was a thing at halftime, and then they beat the breaks off of you in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, he's over that motherfucker playing Tetris or whatever games. Yeah, yeah, whatever he got on the phone. Now, give me a great third quarter quarterback. I want a quarterback who in the fourth quarter does the nicest handoffs you have ever seen. That's the situation that I want. Listen, I'm with you and Denver then can their pass rush tee off and play with a lead and do that whole Peyton Manning play from a head thing. So yeah, Denver is interesting because that place will be rocking. They got to play at altitude. They are rested.

They are healthier. There's a lot of like old school football things that are very much in their favor. I'd say it is, boy. Josh Allen's on the other side. That's about to say, man. That's, that's, he's reached that place where it's just kind of like, okay, you got all these things. And this is so interesting because this is about a dude that has.

never been out of the AFC side of the bracket, right? And I don't want to say that like he's never done anything. Like a phrase I avoid using is the never won anything because the anything really is only one thing, right? Like just like, you know, put it a little differently if that's the point that you're ultimately going to make. However, he has looked like he can overcome whatever the thing is, whatever the thing may be. You know, he's still a bit hit or miss. He's still going to give you a couple of chances if, this is important if, if you can hold on to them hot potatoes that he's out there throwing, which apparently is more difficult than it seems. That's right. And he is, he has been, like, there have been moments where at the end of games,

he has not driven down the field and ultimately won them the game. And then that, you know, that's how we ultimately remember this stuff. Fine. But he doesn't have a lot of clunkers on his playoff resume. Not since 2019. Well, that's a long time. Yeah, yeah. The game against the Texans was that game against the Texans was legendaryly bad. Yeah, yeah, but it's 2026.

I know. Me and Dominique still struggle to forget about that time. He threw the ball of that square body on the sideline down the field. But he's, but it's it right. You're right. He has not put up the clunker. The point I would make no is he. And I'm sorry to cut you off. he, we did this on the show this week, too.

Three or more touchdowns, zero interceptions in a playoff game. Brady has the most ever with eight. Mahomes, second most ever was six. Tied with Josh Allen. Yeah. Now, how many of those with Josh Allen were in the invitational game? The one where you play against the seven seed team that shouldn't even been into playoffs. Yeah.

Yeah, he definitely beats up on some bums in the two seven. No doubt. And, you know, he obviously has the 13 second game where he plays incredible. We have to stop doing that. We have to stop doing that. I'll never do it. That game they lost. He gets more credit for the 13 second game than the guy who did the 13 second thing.

Oh, I don't know that he gets more credit than Patrick Mahomes? Nobody talks about the 13 second game in the context of the guy that marched down the field in 13 seconds. It's always in the context of what, how Josh Allen was done wrong by the fact that they didn't get to touch the ball. added and it was 13 seconds. Right, but it also gets talked about in like Josh Allen can't beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. Oh, see, it's interesting. I feel like given the fact that the NFL changed the overtime rules after that because it was so sad that Josh didn't get to have the ball that it was much more that it was a grave injustice done to him by his defense and by the NFL. I don't care about the NFL part of it because I don't think overtime is meant to be fair.

but yeah yeah yeah like i i i got no problem with that yeah yeah exactly i i have no problem with that but he is clearly good enough to do it yeah i think that's fair yeah he's good he's good enough to do it and so he's the best he's the best player left in the playoffs at the most important position with more experience now than anyone else in these a fc playoffs so yeah i think he's going to be just fine yeah this You know, it's so interesting that you refer to him as the best player because I think that's probably correct. It's also interesting that Matthew Stafford is probably going to win the MVP this year.

I saw a quote floating around with somebody saying that Matthew Stafford will go down as one of the five or is the 10 greatest quarterbacks of all time. It was one of the two. And both of those statements are insane. Insane. It is people, ain't nobody ever held out hope. Here's all, he is, and I say this, I think this is 100% correct. Stafford is the least scrutinized number one overall pick at quarterback of all time.

He has never, interesting. He has never been on the clock. It has never been treated as, so what are you going to do? He has gotten the always Detroit excuse all the way through. I mean, too bad you had to play with Calvin Johnson, right, buddy? Cam Newton was the number one pick two years after him and lived a much different life of scrutiny than Matthew Stafford ever did. He also has this weird art where he got a little bit better, got a little bit better,

got a little bit better, got a little bit better, and got to hear, he's still going to give you a, he's, the cop I have for him is Carson Palmer. And he's still every now and then going to give you a chance to win the game because, you know, you get out there, he'd do all them trick shots like Mahomes and all that stuff, right? He's got all that there. But none of us think he's better than Josh Allen. I think the Josh Allen thing is a couple.

the running, like the physical gift of the size speed combination is remarkable. And Pooka Naku is first team all pro and Devante Adams is going to wear a gold jacket. Yeah. So and McVeigh, right? That's fair. And what- McVeigh genius. And if there's anything that Matthew Stafford learned in Detroit with Calvin Johnson is,

sometimes you just throw the ball to the same guy over and over again. Right. Right. Right. Like, oh, we got one of those. Oh, he's helping a lot. Okay. We're going to throw him the ball over and,

over and over again. Right, because the bills thing, I don't think it's like Josh Allen doing it by himself. He has a very good offensive line. James Cook is an excellent running back. But compared to arguably best offensive mind and football head coach with arguably best wide receiver duo in the NFL, it's different. And as an I'm not going to make a Matt Stafford top 10 all time argument. And so these are two huge ifs that I'm about to say.

But if he wins that MVP and if he wins a second. Super Bowl, I don't think there are 10 quarterbacks with two Super Bowls and an MVP. I think it's like eight or nine. They're not. And that is a correlative argument that I think makes sense. I'm not making it. I'm not making it. No, no, no.

I understand exactly what you're saying. And that would be a very interesting quirk that worked out fairly well. Like I think in another thing, he's so talented. But in actual performance and result, he, as of right now, is one insane comeback in the Super Bowl away from being Matt Ryan. Yeah. I mean, except Matt Ryan's, for whatever it's worth, been to a whole lot more Pro Bowls and quarterback, better teams.

And while you can make the argument about Matthew Stafford, it was Detroit. Buddy, those were the Falcons. Yeah, yeah. Just don't know. But it's just a, I'm trying to be careful with Stafford because it's not that I don't like Stafford. It's I don't like people and they annoy me. when it comes to Stafford.

I only get to one more game before we get to Harbaugh, just right fast, and I don't think this will take very long. But we just saw Seahawks in 49ers a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. I feel like it's going to be the same. They just going to be wearing different jerseys. You have San Francisco winning the game? Oh, no, I have Seattle winning the game. Oh, you mean?

Oh, they were wearing weird jerseys that night. It's just going to be different. Seattle's going to be wearing a dark color jerseys this time, and they're going to be San Francisco. I mean, San Francisco ain't got no people left, man. Yeah, okay, okay. then we are 100% aligned. That game in week 18 is one of my favorite games of the year in the NFL.

It was jump off the screen physical. And it was the worst offensive game that the Niners have had since Kyle Shanahan's been there in 2017. Like three points, 174 yards, McCaffrey's worst game since he joined Shanahan. So just across the board, a dominating performance. And then since then, Seattle's been kicking their feet up. And the Niners have to play a playoff game and lost George Kittle. And now the game's in Seattle. So unless Sam Darnold has a meltdown game, which I don't.

By the way, on the board, that's the only thing. Yeah, on the board. Yeah, there's a, for the San Francisco 49ers to win this game, the MVP is going to have to be solemn. Yeah. or Sam Darnold doing the DJ Strouddle. Same Donald. Same Donald.

He got better. He didn't change. Right. And when you want, like sometimes you look at the numbers and it says one thing. But when you watch the games, you're like, oh, like if he makes a mistake, they will all start calling a lot of wide receiver screens. Like a lot of like one route, you either throw it here or you throw it away. Like they don't fully trust him. Yes.

Which is totally understandable because he definitely still sometimes makes horrible mistakes, but they're just really good. They're really, really good. Yeah, Dominique makes the point that in watching the film, it is abundantly clear to him, that the Eagles do not trust their quarterback and that the Seahawks do not trust theirs. Yeah, well, the Eagle situation is just messier. It's hilarious. It's so much fun to not be involved.

Just watching the entire ecosystem of the Eagles and everything around the media ecosystem, the whole nine. Yeah, Big Dom, A.J. Brown. There is Big Dom. $200 million. And just like the complicated thing of like, we can still criticize Sam Darnel, no problem. Little tougher in Philly for them to criticize the Super Bowl MVP.

The guy that's been great to Super Bowl. It just, it twists them into not. No, he's not bad. He's not bad. You see the Super Bowl? I'm like, yeah, but I've seen every other game too. Yeah, but they got nothing to gain from thinking he's bad. No, of course.

They have nothing to gain, right? Like, he gets treated like a draft pick. There's nothing to gain from saying your draft pick isn't going to be good. Yeah. Might as well lean in. Yeah, and they are committed. They have walked down the aisle, signed the pre-num, Like they are no pre-in-up, like they are locked in.

They're in. And the other thing is for all the criticisms we have of him, go get somebody better. Right. It's hard. Go find them. It ain't that easy. It ain't that easy.

Now, John Harbaugh, speaking of going down the aisle, is now the head coach of the New York Giants. This feels very looked at apart, right? Like John Harbaugh seemed absolutely like the sort of guy the Giants would want to hire. They rolled up to his crib with all the people. And the stuff that's leaking out about this is hilarious in, like, listen to this called Dan

Rossini tweeted this, okay? The Giants had John Marr, John Mara, Steve Tisch, Chris Mara, Joe Shane, Tim McDonald, and Brandon Brown with John Harbaugh. I know who like three of those people are. One source familiar with the meeting noted Harbaugh's level of engagement saying, quote, he never looked at his phone. He was locked in. It's a goddamn job interview.

Are you serious? And that's an old man, by the way. Like if you wanted to use that standard for a teenager, maybe. Correct. Correct. Like, I'm addicted to my phone. That man is 62 years old. 63.

63 years old. Like, I hope he's not as addicted to my phone as, as his phone as Jackson Dart might be. like, yeah, that is a, that is a low bar to clear for John Harbaugh. But congratulations, he cleared it. Yeah. This whole thing with him is reminding me of a line. I can't remember where I read this, but it was about war. And it says that generals are always fighting the last war.

Right. So like, for example, at the airport, we go through all the, the rigorole that we go through. And by the way, I'm okay with it. I'm not saying stop, but it is to prevent something. It's the last war. Like, I don't think that, I don't think the next frontier of this is at the airport, right? But we got to fight that war though. Like, like, keep all doing it, but we're fighting the last war. Okay. I think there's something somewhat analogous to hiring the 64-year-old head coach under these circumstances. I don't have a great answer for you for why exactly it did not work in the end in Baltimore. However, this was an outfit that

blew a lot of games, right? They did a lot of things that if their coach had been a different person, they might have been trying to get out of there a little bit sooner. It's very similar to what I said about Tomlin. Tomlin got to quit. Anybody else would have got fired after that last loss they had. The Giants are not, this doesn't feel like Andy Reid, right? Because Andy Reid, at least you could argue it was like this offensive visionary who was at the point of basically retooling what it was that he had done, like a comedian redoing his act, came up with this new offense that was much more like a college offense that worked with Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes. And by the way, we're about to start having to ask some questions about Andy Reid's old

ass now, you know, as we go into the future. But the excitement about getting John Harbaugh feels a little misplaced to me. I think he's been a very good coach. I don't know if that means he will be a very good coach. I completely agree with you. And you don't want to to be ageist, but there is, like, it's a young man's game. Yeah. We were talking, you know, like, Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson is a crazy person, and he is sleeping at the facility sometimes and grinding long hours and doing all these things and joking about, like, when was Christmas?

Like, I don't know. I don't know if that's what John Harbaugh is still doing. And that's not to say that maybe he needs to and, like, work smarter, not harder and all of that. But I think it's like so many coaches get hired and then you find out, oh, you can't do the job. Yeah. You got you were where you were as a coordinator, but you can't handle the pressure. You can't handle the media.

You can't handle the game day situations, whatever the case may be. John Harbaugh can do the job. So you're not, you think you're not going to be embarrassed by it. But what just happened with Pete Carroll? Yeah. You know, like I, and I hated. the Pete Carroll hire at the time. And I remember going back and forward with Colin about it. And it was like, he's like, Pete Carroll's a great coach. I'm like, I don't know that I'd hire a guy that old

to try to relate to a 23 year old. It just, it doesn't, it strikes me as a risky thing to do. And so can John Harbaugh coach, like, will he embarrass you? Of course not. But is it the best possible thing to maximize? If you really believe in Jackson Dart and you have Jackson Dard and Malik neighbors on our on rookie contracts. Is it the best possible thing to maximize the most valuable time of Jackson Darts contract? I have a very hard time believing that it is. So I think the question about DART comes down to how you feel about Mockin. Right? Because hey, he's the guy that coordinated the offense where James Winston

through for 5,000 yards. Lamar Jackson, two-time first team all-priced. pro with him and some unreal numbers. Now, Jackson Dart is not Lamar Jackson. Let's be clear about that. But if you think that he's a good guy to work with quarterbacks and there's a fair point to have there, then maybe Harbaugh is the guy because he's also the guy, Mock is not going to be anybody's head coach. So this could be your steady option as offensive coordinator, perhaps. my overall question about the Giants really is, how good is this roster? Because one thing that John Harbaugh's never really had to do is try to do more with less. That's just never been the situation that he's had.

I know the Giants have all those guys that can rush the passer, but I feel like this is a do more with less situation if they're going to get this done. Yeah, but like let's think about that though. If you have Tibido, Burns, and Carter, who can all rush the passer, at an elite level. Well, we'll see about Carter. Yeah. At the,

at the, yes, fair enough. But at the end, it looked better. Yeah. Malik Neighbors, when he played, was a stud.

Like, he looked like, he looked like, I was like, okay, well, he's awesome. Like, you know, there's some,

like, is head on straight, whatever. Malik Neighbors looks right. Awesome. His head seems to be all perfectly straight. He looked, he looked around and was like,

what is this bum shit? Y'all got me stuck in. Yeah, that's right. He seemed like the new AJ Brown. Like, y'all see this, right? All right, I'll okay it in. So if you've got a stud receiver and stud pass rushers,

I just have doubts about Jackson Dart. Jackson Dart's like, I've been playing football this way my whole life. Well, congratulations. Now you're in the NFL. You can't just be getting concussions and then coming back from your concussions and playing the same way and lower in your head into 250-pound linebackers to run a 4-4. It's going to happen again. Hey, how about I got doubts about him even if he doesn't do that?

Like, I have not been nearly as impressed with him as I think there's a desire, again, what's the point of dogging out your new guy, right? They got this thing going where they had him and he was handing a ball to a white dude. You know how excited they get, man. You live up here. You've seen it. You've heard it around the office with the cash. that run the cameras.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they love that, right? Yeah. You know, but like there's the idea that I see Jackson Dart, and I'm like, oh, I think we, this is definitely, no, no, this isn't if you took a job that had Drake May. This isn't if you took a job that had Caleb Williams or Jaten Daniels. Like, I don't think that he's a player of this caliber.

Like there's a, we saw CJ Stroud. How about this? We saw C.J. Stroud look excellent. And now we're out here asking the questions about him that we're, We're asking, and I would be much more sold on C.J. Stroud from what I saw of him than I am of Jackson Dart. I agree completely. I mean, easier to move on, I guess, from Jackson Dart if you get there and realize he's not the guy because it's a late first round pick. It's going to be harder to move on from Cam Ward. Like, whoever gets the Titans job, you're probably invested in Cam Ward for two full seasons. You probably don't have to be as invested in Jackson Dart for that long if you're Harbaugh. Also, again, And Harbaugh, 63 years old, you don't want to sit out a year. So it's like, okay, they got deep pockets.

He probably got $15 million a year or more. Maybe the numbers have come out. I apologize if it has and I missed it. But got a ton of money cashed in, live in New York City. Winnable division, I guess. Like, Philly dysfunction, Dallas dysfunction, Washington will see. Like, winnable division, New York City, a ton of money, a decent amount of talent. And you roll the dice on Jackson Darden top of your guys.

Todd Munkin. The best job available is the job you just left, right, in Baltimore. So of the other eight jobs that are open, is there a job better than the Giants job? If you're taking one this cycle, I would say no. I would argue the Steelers job is the best job just because you're going to get the time. Like as a job. Is it the best team? Is it the best present day situation? That's a different question.

but the best job, the one where I bet you're going to get six or seven years, right? I don't know how bad you got to do tonight get those six or seven years. Right. We've never seen it. That job also probably was not available to John Harbaugh, given the Raven Steelers. Fair. No, no, no. But you had the right point.

Like, Woody Page once told a joke that after he got divorced, he said he was going to marry the richest woman that he could find. And so he married his ex-wife. You know, like, like, you know, like sometimes that's the way it plays out. By the way, how bad must that situation in Tennessee be? Because I think Cam Ward should excite you. Like that should be, oh, well, we got this part straight. And I don't hear anybody talking about wanting to take that job.

Listen, if you're right about Cam Ward and you've got a great quarterback talent and a winnable division with a top five pick and good cap space, then, yeah, it should be a great job. I don't know. I don't know. Cam Awards best highlights felt unsustainable. And there is just no talent there. That's what I'm saying is the sub-total situation. They're like, you've got Tony Pollard. Like, what?

I don't want Tony Pollard. Quote of the year, if we keep it in a buck, we ass. Yeah, yeah. Like, like, that's, that, and he's the young guy who's walking in just like, bro, what are we doing? No, which is probably my favorite part of his rookie year, which is like, okay, at least, at least he's smart enough to know it. And he clearly is very gifted physically, but sometimes you're just, there's so little around you that it's hopeless, you know? So like Joe Burrow gets Jamar Chase and he gets all these things. It's like, oh, okay, all of a sudden it went from hopeless to you're in a great spot.

I don't see a path forward right there in Tennessee. By the way, as we were talking about Scatterboo, somebody sent me a text that is James on New Heights talking about Scataboo. And I can't wait to end this show and go listen to what that is. I can only imagine what. And honestly, it may be the sort of thing that if a white person said it would get them fire. It's totally on the board. Don't as possible when James is on the mic.

I saw, yeah, I saw a James clip that said he, he abstained from sex during his contract year. I'm like, I don't remember the $200 million contract that you signed. So, like, I don't know if you're bragging. I'm talking about your all-time backfires. Yeah, I was I was what I was saying. That feels like the moral of the story was it ain't worth it. Yeah. Right.

Cool. Oh, goodness. I was going to say take the bird in the hand. And that's a phrase that I often use without bringing on the second part. But the second part will have a whole different sort of resonance given the discussion that we're. You know what, Danny Park is, man. Check that boy out over there. At first things first on FS1.

My man, I appreciate you. Bo, as always a good time, man. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the. right time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumbley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 3-2-3-5-9-6-7-67-67. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars.

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