The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Mina Kimes on Rams vs. Seahawks Showdown, 49ers injury theories, Patriots vs. Broncos | 01.23

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Bomani Jones is joined by Mina Kimes of ESPN. First, they break down the third matchup between the Los Angeles Rams & the Seattle Seahawks and what it means for Sam Darnold & Matthew Stafford. Later, they discuss the bizarre situation with the San Francisco 49ers and their rash of injuries. Finally, they air their frustrations with the ongoing Josh Allen-Lamar Jackson discourse and talk about if Jarrett Stidham & the Broncos can shock the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Bomani 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 Mina Combs Friday.

Meena Combs, what's going on? Hello. I'm so excited to see you. It's been so long. And I just found out you're not going to be in San Francisco. So we're not going to have our annual like 2 a.m. Hang out. I know, right?

We normally catch up in like what the way party is or something like that. But so the trick back for me with the Super Bowl is the real value for me is to go and to go on other people's shows at Radio Row.

But when it's on West Coast time, Radio Row still run on East Coast time. And so it's one thing to go out there and prostitute yourself at regular business hours. This is another thing to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to Walter Stroll.

And I just don't need the money that bad. Yeah. The West Coast time zone is going to screw up a lot of people, but the benefit of it is someone who lives in L.A. right now. When I'm done with work at like three post days, right? Because that's when the show's in. And I think people are going to discover that. There's going to be, because typically in Super Bowl week or when it's on the East Coast or whatever, everybody finishes about six, you get a little

second, and then you go out to dinner at eight and party or whatever. Everyone's going to be done at three. So you got hours to kill in the afternoon and people are going to figure that out real quick. Now that part, I think that you are totally fair about. I will also acknowledge that when it was Las Vegas, I didn't care about any of these things that we are talking about. I was there for that. The 4 p.m. casino. Oh, dude, I was just in Vegas this week.

Vegas was the time. I got off, I got into casino at 3 o'clock, and by 5.30, I had $1,400 that I didn't have when I walked in. What is the best and worst time to be in a casino? The best and worst time to be what? in a casino. Ooh. Okay.

So are we talking about a casino in Las Vegas or just a casino generally? It's a really important distinction. Let's do Las Vegas. Okay. Honestly, for me, it all feel like the same time at the casino in Las Vegas. Like, no matter when it is, the time that makes you feel a little worse about yourself is when you're sitting at the table at 9 o'clock in the morning, right? But I didn't come here to do nothing else, and there's not that much else to do at 9 o'clock in the morning in Vegas.

I had a day once where they canceled my flight and I had to go from taking a 9 a.m. flight to the red eye. And the problem with free time in Las Vegas is there's nothing to do but let them in your vein. Like that, that's what there is. Now, luckily, I came out on top on the back end of that. But that's it. 9 o'clock in the morning, everybody says they're not judging you,

but then you look at who's sitting next to you and you realize that's bullshit. Yeah, we were, when the Vegas Super Bowl, when I would have to get up to do first take or whatever, walking through the casino to the set, it was a tough scene. It's a tough scene. That's 7 a.m., 7 to 8 a.m. Because, you know, at like 6 a.m.,

you still got the night owls wrapping up. I think that it has to be like breakfast time where you can actually start judging people. But look, I mean, again, I'm not a gambler, so I don't really know a lot about it. But I would do a Super Bowl back there in a heartbeat. Oh, yeah, look, if they have Super Bowl. in Las Vegas every year.

I'll show up in Las Vegas every year for the Super Bowl. But this is, you got a special Super Bowl here, Seattle Seahawks fan. You got your guys facing up against the Los Angeles Rams. I feel like, isn't that kind of your side piece, though, the Rams? I do the Rams preseason games. I get a lot of flack from both sides throughout. There's no real, like, no one's really taking my side in that relationship. especially I'm an MVP voter too

and I have been public about the fact that I pick Drake May. I do a podcast every year where I explain my thinking and I'll get into it there. But yeah, I've definitely gotten some angry Rams fans coming at me about that, especially after doing the preseason. I feel like even in a road game in that incredibly loud stadium, especially after Charbonnet toward the ACL,

I feel like for me, this is a no excuses game for the Rams. Right. If all the principles on the Rams are whom I have been told, all the principles are, you win this game because that team has Sam Donald on it. But they also have the best defense in the NFL. I hear you. All I'm saying is this. They say they want to hire the defense coordinator supposed to be getting people's jobs, right? All of this stuff. You have got that guy right there that we know there are things that you can do

that will rattle his brain every single time. We are aware of these things. You have a quarterback that we are putting in the Hall of Fame. If he wins this one, MVP, at least top two. We've got that. You have generally speaking, McDonald, of course, has done a great job with Seattle. But you've got McVeigh,

who somehow was purged out to be as advertised and when we started off when he was 31 years old, saying that he was like an all-time great coach. It's all set up there for you to go beat a team that has fewer players that have been at this level than your team has been. Well, and you also have a super opponent who you should beat, right so this is it like you got not to you know sorry patriots fans but i i am of the belief that

the nFC championship winner will win the super bowl it reminds me a little bit actually of uh the 2014 when the seahawks played the niners in the nbishop the tip game and then the super bowl itself as you remember was pretty anticlimactic against denver who could be there um that year felt like it felt like that was the super bowl and i know i'm getting out ahead of myself but it does feel to me, Bomani, like the winner of this game is going to win it all. And it's kind of, I mean, do you like the repeats? I like three pieces. I like three pizzas and analysts because it gives you a lot of obviously tape to rewatch and matchups to think about. Do you, do you think fans like it when teams that are familiar with each other face each other multiple times and it culminates

an important game? I think it depends on who the teams are that we are talking about, right? So I think of this in the context of college basketball. all, right? So if you tell us that Carolina and Duke are playing a third time, that is always amazing, right? Almost, it almost doesn't matter what the circumstances are. That is going to be amazing. So the only way you get this is if you have conference opponents, right? People who play against each other fairly regularly. So you've typically got some kind of twinge of rivalry that perks up and that's what makes it better. Like if it's Steelers Ravens and you're telling us it's a third time, hell yeah, we're going for that. The old NFC East,

and everything was a giant robbery or anything in the AFC West where every game, they all hate each other in a very particular way. This division, which has only existed now for fewer than 25 years, right?

Seattle and San Francisco had their thing in the previous decade. There's some real hate there. Yes, it's really there. This one doesn't feel like it has it the same way. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think Seahawks fans and Rams fans really hate each other

the way Seahawks fans and Niners and then the CX Niners sings, you allude to this. This goes back to Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick was the quarterback and Russell Wilson. Like those fan bases despise. You remember that Bo's commercial

with Conn Cabernick, which is... Oh, that's right. What an artifact, by the way. Yeah, of like angry Seacx fans screaming at him. But wild sentence, by the way, remember that Bo's commercial with Kong.

happening. Real thing that happened. But anyways, yeah, like that was a real, that was a lot of real hate. There was, felt like there was, there were two teams that were like both peaking at the same time, both with the young quarterbacks, both with the coaches who legitimately did not like each other for people who forget Pete Carroll and, and I love coach hate. So, and I don't think like Sean McVeigh and Sean McVeyton don't like, just like each other. You're right? Like, there's nothing there. I think this is a great matchup from like a football perspective because I think that the Rams offense and the Seahawks defense are the two single best units left in the postseason. But from like a fan base narrative perspective, I don't think it really does it for people the same way.

You're right. I miss Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll despising each other as they did. Like it's a shame it didn't work out for Pete with the Raiders because we could have got it right back. I know. It didn't even like, I don't even think we got like an angry handshake. And I was trying to remember what's your deal was in college, right? That was, yeah. Oh, my gosh.

What a great moment that was. And then there was a moment in the NFL where I think Pete, I don't want to fake. Maybe this has been, it's a false memory, but I think he slapped him in the butt once, like running off a field or something. He did that to Jim Schwartz. And Jim Schwartz was ready to fight him.

Love Jim Schwartz. That was an amazing moment because I can only imagine how hard he did it. Right. Can you imagine like a Jim Harbaugh handshake when he's like amped up. Can you imagine Jim, Jim Harbaugh and Mike McDaniel having a conversation, by the way? I've been thinking about that. Okay. So for people who don't know this, Mike McDaniel, um, continuing a lineage of Jim Harbaugh doing what he can. He's a very diverse

hireer. Okay. And he hired Mike McDaniel. Didn't see that coming, did you? That's right. That's right. Jim Harbaugh is the unlikeliest ally of all the allies. But he hired Mike McDaniel to be his offensive coordinator, two guys who couldn't have more opposite personalities, but what is so amazing to me about it and what I like for McDaniel truly is, Mike McDaniel runs, which should be seen as a very physical offense, but his teams were seen as being very soft. Nobody is ever going to call a Jim Harbaugh team soft. So you combine what Mike McDaniel brings to you with Jim Harbaugh toughness, and y'all might want to watch out. This was like, of all the hires that have come in, coaching offensive coordinator, whatever. This is the only one where I

feel like it's been met with a universal approval rating from fans, from the football nerds. Everybody seems to love it. It seems to me like a genius choice for Mike McDaniel, who I imagine wants to get right back in the head coaching mix pretty quick. You see he pulled out of the Browns, like he was considered for head coaching, and he was like, I mean, I think from a career perspective, you get to live in like L.A. by the beach. Nobody bothers you because it's the Chargers. You get to follow Greg Roman.

We saw Todd Munkin get that bump, right? So I thought this was a perfect hire, even if the idea of them talking for more than like 60 seconds is hilarious to me. Yeah, I think Harbaugh, I don't know. Harbaugh is so interesting to me because I feel like he apparently figures this out better than one would expect, right? It's also so interesting that he and his brother, our brothers, look exactly the same. We don't feel that way about John Harbaugh at all. He seems to be a somewhat normal, well-adjusted person.

Yeah, it is weird. It's like a perfect case study in nature versus nurture. And I've been around both of them and like interpersonally, they are exactly how they seem. Like there's no affect. Like Jim Harbaugh legitimately is that strange in person. And John Harbaugh is that normal in person. Jim also seems to be exactly all the way down to the face like his father. And I can only imagine how his father went over with people.

of an entirely different generation. Like before we had a tolerance for being a weirdo. Yeah. Before we had a tolerance. But maybe Daniel's also very, he's not, he's odd, man. Yeah, he's a completely different archetype of weirdo. Yeah. And they're going to bring this together with their quarterback who used to cut his own hair.

I think they're going to have to hire a defense coordinator because I think they're, who I think is very good. Their defense coach, I think is going to get a job too. So. You know, we'll see. Did any of the hires that have happened so far? So we got Harbaugh to the Giants, solid to the Titans.

I don't, I'm, he must, I don't know if he owes people money. Solid. But, I mean, this is going to be his last head coaching job.

Yeah. That's why I don't understand him doing this. Like there's, I don't see a world where it works for anybody on that job. Oh, you're saying like, why would he choose that job? Yes.

Uh, first of why I have a third of, theory on that job and him that is completely galaxy brain. But until the hire happened, Beau, it really seemed like they were going with Matt Nagy. Do you see all that reporting? I did see that. And that leads to my point. The people that were willing to hire Matt Nagy, that's who you went to work for. Or Galaxy Brain, those people put out the Matt Nagy stuff so that when they hired Robert Salah, Titans fans were like, oh my God, this is amazing. Like the reverse smokescreen, like set the expectations real low and upset your fan base,

and then make a move that everybody's cool with. I don't think it's that bad of a job, though. I really don't. I know that ownership's odd and there's a lot of odd stuff behind the scenes there, but I feel like the bar is very low. There's an understanding that the roster is still in a rebuild. And I liked what I saw from the quarterback, year one. I really did.

I think he's really talented. I do think, and maybe that's the thing with Salah, who just left his situation with the Jets where he didn't have a quarterback. Yeah. And he looks at this one and he sees, oh, there is a quarterback. And I think his understanding that he'll always be able to come back home to Kyle if it comes down to it because defensive coordinators for reasons good and bad don't stay there very long. Can I tell you another story about Robert Salad that I think will be of particular interest to you?

We were at NFL Live. You know, we're on site for Mondays. like wherever the game is, right? So we go out like a three to five Eastern. So the coaches and everybody's kind of starting to arrive. So Sala does this thing every game. I think they've shown it a lot on the broadcasts where he runs the entire stadium.

That's why he's so jacked. You're wondering, like, why is Robert Sala an amazing shape? He literally runs up downs the entire stadium before the game. He did it when he was the head coach of the Jets. He did it when he was a defense coordinator of San Francisco 49ers. So we were at, I can't remember which game, but it was a Niners game. And we were at the NFL,

at the end of NFL live, we, they showed on camera. They were like, oh, there's Robert Sala, like running up and down the stadium, doing his like,

and I really didn't want to throw our director under the bus. But we came back and I had to point out, that was KJ. Wright. He got bald profiled. K.J. Wright is the linebacker's coach for the same thing. Yeah.

I'm honestly in case anybody wants to feel old. And that's a new generation of player turned coach. Oh, my God, that's so funny. We had a topic once on do you question on highly questionable. And I'll never forget seeing this happen. And I imagine it wasn't the first time this happened. At the time, Purdue was coached by a dude named Darrell Hazel. And he was black.

I think he had coached like at Kent State or something before that. And it was a do you question something. I think it was, I want to say it was Jerry Killed, who coached at Minnesota at the time. and the clip is post game. It's time for the coach handshake. And Jerry Kill walks up to a black dude and goes to shake his hand. And the black dude goes over there and directed him to the actual head coach

because they had walked up on the wrong black dude. And I kind of, why would you think it was two? You know what I'm saying? Like I kind of understood where it was that he was coming from. But oh, my God, I could not stop laughing. Could not stop. That's tough. That's tough.

What was the last time you got? mixed up. Now, let me think. Because something happened recently that made me ask the question of do you think I'm somebody else? But I have not, I've not had it in person.

I have always like, so for example, one time inside the NFL asked me to come on. And this is, I think it was on Showtime. So, you know, James Brown, Phil Sims, Ray Lewis is doing the show at the time. And Brandon Marshall couldn't make it whatever reason and they asked me to come. And I did tell my guy to ask them, are you sure they're not intending to call Dahane Jones? Because that's a very player show. I don't get it a lot.

Yeah, you got to, you got to stand alone out here. I was going to say, there's no like, there's no like Cassidy Hubbard walking around doing NFL. I mean, Michelle Steele. Yeah, yeah, that was one. But yeah, I, when I was younger, I used to get mixed up more for other Asians, but not so much these days. Yeah, now I do have to remember we got this game that's actually going to happen here.

Yeah, hey, man, we having a good time, baby. You know how it goes. Am I being too hard on your man as you are the sympathizer and I call him same Donald? Am I being too hard on him? Because he's been rather cheeky for the last month or so. Yeah. No. So the second half of the season, it really started with the Rams game in week 11. The offense kind of fell off a cliff, particularly the passing attack. Statistically, this is borne out. It's not just like turnovers and, you know, satisfied as fair share of those. Like the passing attack became way worse. And I think, you know, so you're just pointing out what's factual, frankly. I will say the run game started improving, though, around the same time and has gotten

better and better and better as the season has gone along. And I think you saw, certainly against San Francisco, which is a very wounded defense, obviously. When the run game has been dominant, it does settle him to some degree. And I think that's kind of the key in this one, right? Because they ran the ball really well on the Rams in Week 16. If they can do that again with Kenneth Walker, who's been really, really good as of late, then I'm feeling good about Darnold. If it ends up being like a drop back, let's see who could throw you out of this thing. You're not feeling good given what this defense, this defensive coordinator has done to him. So, yeah, he, he, he is not carrying this team right now. And I don't think he would say that either.

It just kind of comes down to whether or not he's going to make the sort of boneheaded mistakes we've seen against this defense. Man, I got us back to talking about the game and talk about ginger cuss and I already got us a tangent that I forgot about. We go wind up talking about San Francisco as much as we talk about anybody else. Have you paid attention to how apparently a urban legend is now maybe affecting the way to San Francisco can attract players, because I'm going to be honest with you. I need your help a little bit on this because I don't really understand the urban legend. It's like, okay, as best I understand it, because I know, and you know what my metric is

for when a story is broken, contain when my husband asks me about it. So for those who don't know, my husband is not a football person, doesn't even care. He gets all of his football news from hood clips, which means I, so the questions he asks me, or like very specific. But he was like, what's going on with this electrical thing? And Sarah Scott was like, all right, this means I got to figure what the hell's going on here. So the theory is this like substation or whatever could be explaining what's going on with all these Niders players and these injuries. I believe I've seen scientists debunk this.

And to be clear to people, it's like some electrical substation that is right next door to the stadium or the facility. Yes. It's the practice facility. Yes. Yeah, or they practice. And because, you know, I think what's so confusing about the Niners injuries is it's not one side of the ball. It's not any particular kind of field. They seem to happen everywhere in every stadium to lots of different kinds of players.

So you can't look at Kyle Shannon and be like, his offense is putting guys. It is literally both sides of the ball. It is contact. It is non-contact. There's no through line to it. I did see that, like, Lynch was, I think. said he was going to look into it. Did I miss, I get, I don't hope I didn't get a fake news on that.

My theory, Bo, is just that they played a lot of football because they go deep. They've been going deep in Kyle Shanahan. They've been playing postseason games for so many of the years. And because of the NFL being the way it is, if you play a lot of football, you're more likely to get hurt. I know there's other teams that have played a lot of football, like Philadelphia that don't seem to have the same issues. But there is pretty clearly a correlation. Detroit has the same issues. And they played a good bit of football.

couple of years. If there's something I know about injuries, the more you play, the more likely you are to get them. And that's not even like in those games, right? Like you play a lot of football, you get less of an off season, you get, you practice more. There's just, it's just, we think about how violent and how physically taxing the sport is. And this is why there's such outcry over adding games every year.

Every single game, every single additional week matters a lot. Yeah. I want to make sure to people understand this. Somebody sent a tweet that said, It's this electrical substation that's right next to the San Francisco 49ers practice facility. And it caught on like wildfire on the internet. And it caught on with players where you had like agents and the likes asking questions about, hey, what's going on here?

John Lynch at their end of season post-mortem press conference said yes, that they have had to address this with people, that this thing bounced around on the internet. And now people are afraid that their ligaments is getting wobbly because of this thing that's next door because somebody said it on the internet. The problem is it was presented somewhat plausibly in such a way that even rational thinking people had to ask their smart friends.

Hey, this isn't real though, is it? And I don't know enough about science to take. It is crazy with the Niners though, right? Yeah. They're a fascinating franchise, man, and they got, look, every now and then good teams get their doors blown off, but I did not. That was, I thought, even as decimated as they were,

that spoke a lot to how strong Seattle has been the way that they just kicked their ass. You know what, it also spoke to, and I'm sorry, this is going to sound like a hater comment, how horrible the Eagles offense is. What the hell? Were you not thinking about watching, Gimpy, like Sam Darnold was, I thought he, you know, he didn't have to do a lot, but you look fine.

They were running rough shot off them. I'm watching this thinking, damn, Philadelphia, you couldn't even put together a drive on this smash unit. Hey, hey, let me tell you something. Next year for both Philadelphia and Buffalo is going to be really interesting to see like how you recover from what just happened. Now, granted, the last time the Eagles had a how do you recover for what just happened season, they won a Super Bowl. Yeah. It is full on chaos there.

But that was a loss where if they decided to fire Siriotti, it's understandable because you're not supposed to lose to that team. You should not. They should not have lost second. And, you know, credit to Chanahan and Sala and all of that. But like, that is, that looks a real. I don't think. I'm not talking about the defense because I think that Niners offense. I mean, I saw them move the ball despite injuries on. They beat teams with Mack Jones. Like that's, they were a little bit healthier on that side of the ball. They were a lot healthier on that side of ball. And like, obviously, they didn't have kiddle against the Seahawks. That's respectable. Fine. not being going to move the point defense is so bad. Yeah. So I think the flip side of that, to go back to Siaks though, is like that's why I'm not overconfident about the Seahawks offense coming off of that beat down because I don't think it's very impressive to, to, you know, beat San Francisco.

All right. Coming up next, we've got the AFC championship game and whether or not we even need to pay attention to it, given that one of the quarterbacks in it is Jared Stiddle. Every Friday from 6 to 7.30, It's NBA Happy Hour on Fanduel, your pregame for the weekend. We're talking limited time specials you won't want to miss. Boots, bonuses, surprises, all dropping in the app during Happy Hour.

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right? They'll tell you what they think of game is not going to be bad, everything else. Not in the NFL, boy. I saw that boy Peter Shregor on TV talking by Stitty. He was hype. He's just like Bill Belichick chose Stitty. Josh McDaniels chose Stitty. Sean Payton has chosen Stitty, a bunch of guys that have never actually really chosen a good quarterback before. Just so we're clear, right? Belichick had Tom Brady. Josh McDaniels had Tom Brady. Who's the other one? Sean Peyton. I mean, he got Drew Reed. He chose him as backup. Sean Payton did not choose his Jared Stead to be.

Yeah, yeah, but that's what I'm saying. These guys had a good quarterback one time that does. I know Drew Breeze was good. I knew Drew Breeze was good by the time Shaw Peyton made the decision on him. You see what I'm saying? Anyway, he's going to be starting in the AFC championship game. They're going to get that game at home. They have an incredible defense. They have won a Super Bowl 10 years ago in Denver with a terrible quarterback. But the terrible quarterback was Peyton Manning. Right. Like he could still do Peyton Manning-y things at times.

They're going up against the Patriots. Drake May did not look good against a great defense when he had it at home, though he still made some big plays. To me, this feels like a game New England should win. I agree. I'll say one thing about the run with Manning. I think that defense, the no-fly zone defense, was better than this Broncos. defense. So I think that's important here. I think the Texans and the Seahawks were cut above

Denver. I think we've seen that. And I think New England, first of all, Drake made his face like I can't have defense is good Lord, right? You got to go. Chargers really good, really well coach. Texans might be the best in the NFL next to Seattle, DeBroncos. And then if they could potentially base the Seahawks, right? He did enough. And I thought he made some impressive plays. But as far as like the other side of the ball, I'm not going to lie to you and say like Jared instead of him is the next Nick Foles. I think he's competent. So, you know, I watched his games to prepare for this week.

This is not, who was the last time we saw, like, a truly, who was last backup quarterback who had to play in a, other than Foles? When Pardy got hurt in that game against the Eagles. Jesus. Did they even have a quarterback? Josh Johnson, right? I felt like they was out there running the wing teeth.

It was Josh Johnson, I think. And then they talked about, like, does Christian McCaffee going to have to go into this game? Yes, that's what it was. Okay, so Jared Stim is competent. I genuinely believe that, like, after watching him, he is not going to pee down his leg. He is not, like, should not be playing in the NFL type of guy.

Not at all. But I do unfortunately think for him, assuming the Patriots defense feels like it's kind of peeking at the right time. Like, guys have been getting healthy. They look very well coached. That Milton Williams was extraordinary in the last round. It was like their big signing. So this is not like, if you, if, sorry to keep arping on this,

but like, if it was Jared Stidham against the Niners, Bo with Sean Payton. I actually think they could move the ball on them. I think the Patriots pose a bigger challenge. They're going to have to force Drake made a fumble. And that's been an issue for him in the postseason. This defense is going to have to play the game of their lives. Nick Bonito, step right out, be a legend.

Patriot's left tackle has been struggling, right? Yes, he has. Yeah, it's been rough. So I'm not going to tell you this is going to be a good game, but I also don't think it's going to be a blowout either. I really don't because of that defense. You know, I think I'm talking myself into another direction here because to be fair to Sean Payton, we have seen him in New Orleans and even, I mean, he did some things with Russell Wilson, right?

By the, at a point in which Russell Wilson, it went from let Russ cook to Russ is cooked, right? And he's still, I mean, Russell Wilson made the Pro Bowl that year in spite of whatever was going on up there. But they had non-terrible offenses in New Orleans. with James Winston, Taysom Hill, Teddy Bridgewater, just, you know, a run of okay guys. Now, the fact that Peyton convinced himself that Taysam Hill could be that dude, that part is a demerit. But his ability to make it okay with him makes you think that maybe just for this week,

they can pull it off. Payton's really good, too. Like, I think, like, maybe, I don't know why. I feel like he hasn't gotten as much appreciation. for the job he's done with Bo Nix in that offense this year. Well, that's because you and I still don't think Bo Nix is good and other people do.

I'll say this. I'm watching the Broncos offense on tape every week and I see the way Payton, Sean Payton, is so good at creating matchup advantages for his guys. He's so good in-game. Like against Buffalo last week, you just saw every time like a Bill's defender got hurt, Peyton would immediately find a way to score touchdown on them, right?

And I just think his unique ability to game plan for the weaknesses of your defense, coupled with that defense, coupled with the Broncos probably have the best offensive line left in the playoff. That matters a lot because the Patriots defense, I know they've looked good. They face the Chargers and the Texans offenses. And those offensive lines are turnstiles. And this New Denver Bronco's offensive line is fantastic. So I'm not trying to sell this to you as being like a Jared Stenham's going to like lead this team to me. But I think there's enough factors that play that favor Denver that could at least keep this close.

I'm picking New England, of course. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm so glad that you have watched Denver on film and all of these things because this thing happens from time to time. The clearest example I remember for me was the 2011 49ers. and what happens is a team plays well and defies expectation. And I don't necessarily believe it's going to keep going. And then it keeps going and it keeps going. And the next thing you know is the AFC championship game.

And I have not actually like watched the Broncos like for real play outside from that, that Buffalo game. Like I mentioned, I mentioned the 1149ers because I didn't watch them play until that division round game against the Saints where Dante Wittner, knock Pierre Thomas out at the goal line. And I was like, shit, these boys be out here. Yeah.

Oh, Dante Wittner. I would have loved to watch these guys play football. And then I was on it after that. With Denver, I've watched enough of them in late game windows, right? Because it's something, too, they play a lot of games in the late game window where they're not the game of the week. So you just kind of pop in, like I'm at Nick's house

and it pops in on the TV that's set for the Red Zone channel. and you see Bo Nick's Feaster Famine or something going on along those lines, I just know the defense is good. Don't ask me who play on it. I just know they're good. I know they got Nick Bonito who does not look like I would think

a Nick Bonito would look, you know, but he good. He is fast. I mean, I know maybe this can take us to a Josh Allen conversation. During the game, when Josh Allen had the goofy fumble before halftime, which was his worst play at the game,

I made the mistake. posting on Twitter, that's an incredible play by Nick Bonito because it was an incredible play by Nick Bonito. He was rushing the passer, he reverses field and chases down Josh Allen in the open field and gets an arm on it.

And then Josh Allen's holding the ball like this and that's entirely on him. No question. But for Bonito to do that, outrageous play. This is how I knew the Josh Allen thing was going to go off the rails this week. I posted that and immediately

there were people who were, I got rink. show like you're making excuses for Josh Allen. I was like, what is happening? I was trying to say Jake Bonito made an amazing play. And I deleted it. I was like, you know what? I'm not getting to tweet about Josh Allen today because this is, this is apparently this is going to be radioactive.

I had somebody accused me of making excuses for Josh Allen. And if they think me and you are making excuses for Josh Allen, what has the world come to? Like, I started getting hit with the well, if Lamar, I'm like, pardon me?

Me to come. You're accusing me of being anti-Lamore? Like I was like, all right, I'm just going to stay away from this one. But I would, I just want more thought of Bonito before we get to Allen stuff. That three-play sequence, dude. Before the half, he forces a fimbled. Second play, he stops to run. Third play, he forces another fumble.

One of the most impactful three-play sequences you will see from a defensive player all year along. He's been extraordinary this year. And I think he has potential to take over this game. Josh Allen turns everybody on the internet into Sam Darnel. They all be seeing ghosts. Because the thing that happens with the internet stuff now is it's so tribal, right? Like it's not about your point.

It's about whose side you're on. And people just argue the side. So what's the conclusion has been drawn? By definition, like the word that worries me the most on the internet is y'all. Anytime somebody makes a reference to what y'all are doing. Right. So one person thinks that Josh Allen is the greatest quarterback of all time. There's another person who thinks that Lamar Jackson is overrated. Those aren't always the same people, right? And so if you have enough of a critical mass

of people saying one thing on one side and then people say one thing on the other, then it turns into a but y'all be da-da-da-da. And it's like, oh, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like this could go a bunch of different ways. And so with Allen, I mean, look, I've said what's going on for years and people thought I was crazy and then it really just came to bear here. It's some people heavily invested in Josh Allen being that dude. They know who they are, only they know what their reasons are, but they're there. And we ain't never had a dude in year eight have four turnovers in a playoff game and be a

former MVP who still has not gotten to a Super Bowl. and the prevailing sentiment from the media was, isn't it sad? What? So here's where I landed on that because I don't think anything you said is wrong. And obviously, you know, he had a bad game, right? Right.

He's been good in the postseason. He was bad. And the same could be said of Lamar Jackson. And I tried to say that about Lamar Jackson in the past and it's been kind of the flip side of it. But I think what I have, have seen what really struck me, especially with an innocent post about Nick Bonito forcing a fumble with a hustle play, is there's been a lot of built up, clearly a lot of built up feelings among sports

fans that the media has been too high on Josh Allen. And I think there's validity to that, right? I have, my stance on it has about like perception of Josh Allen and kind of the way he's talked about is I never agreed with the idea that he was in a tier above Lamar and Joe. I have, and you know this because we've talked about quarterbacks forever. I've felt pretty strongly there's a big four in the NFL right now, those three in Mahomes. I have continued to insist that Mahomes is still the best quarterback on earth. You guys can go to any of my quarterback rankings and see this. And then I have felt that the other three I probably would put Alan and Lamar of LaBerroo personally.

but just, you know, they're pretty, pretty equal. So I have always objected to the idea, and I've seen people to be to do this, that Allen was above them. That's, I've been clear at that. So I think I am sympathetic to kind of the general annoyance. I have also seen this week people arguing that Josh Allen is no longer a top five quarterback. Josh Allen is, you know, like, and like, all right, like,

to me, you know, I think we've seen that, and this always happens right, with anything on the internet. Like the pendulum is swung. a little bit too far in terms of a reaction to a playoff game. But I understand that it's driven by what people have been seeing the way this quarterback has been talked about the last few years. And I get it. I get it.

I understand it. Josh Allen is what if David Duvall had panned out. And so when I say that, when Tiger Woods first hit the scene and really took it on fire, we needed to find a rival, right? And David Duvall was. the first guy that we really tried it out there to try to make into a rival. And then it didn't work. And then it kind of moved to Phil Mickelson, right?

Like, you know, we kind of bounced around to different people. I guess Maria Sharpova, these are the, but the difference is Sharpova, to be fair to her, won their first couple of matches. And so there was reason to think it was a thing. And then Serena just kicked her ass for the rest of their lives, right? After that it happened. but Allen actually did turn into that guy. What's weird to me about it,

and I guess maybe it's just in terms of games they played against each other or whatever, but the idea that it is clear that Josh Allen's a better quarterback than Lamar Jackson is insane. Like if you go look at what Lamar did last year, that was one of the greatest individual seasons. When did like 41 touchdowns and four interceptions

or something like that? Like this idea that Lamar Jackson can't pass is insane, right? There's legitimate debate about which of those two guys is better. Now, if you are a, type who likes a big, strong, hard-throwing quarterback, then Josh Allen's going to be the one that you prefer, right? If you like a full-on legitimate dual threat, Lamar Jackson's going to be your guy. There's room to decide between those two. What I find to be strange about it is we never truly positioned Mahomes and Lamar as rivals, right? It was never which one you got between the two of those,

but we did do that with Josh Allen, even though Mahomes is kicking his keester or beating them every time the game mattered. And it felt very much contrived, right? But the sad part is, and I think you agree with me on this, Josh Allen is damn near as good as they say he is. Yeah. It's just that when he's bad, he's so much worse than they say he is. I think also, because I totally agree with everything you said

about like why is Josh Allen being positioned here even though, you know, I, like you said, Mahomes had the head to head and all that. To me, this felt what we've seen over the last week and the frustration also just felt like a lot of spillover from the MVP stuff last year. Yeah. And it was like kind of simmering. And I said this.

I voted for Lamar. I said my reasoning, whatever. I also thought it was close, but I still thought Lamar deserved it. And I think people were very surprised when Alan won. But because of the postseason results. there wasn't like quite the blowback necessarily with Lamar. And then I think it like simmered, simmered, simmered, simmered, simmer for a year. And it felt like it came back to the surface in a big way.

Because the thing that Alan supporters have always had on Jackson is postseason, pointing to the postseason. So for Alan to fall flat like that in a postseason game was like an uno reverse card. And suddenly, you know, that didn't exist anymore. And, you know, I get the frustration. Like I said, I think I think people are right when they point to the, way he's talked about. And I have disagreed with the idea that people will put him above or put him in the Mahomes tier. But, you know, it is impossible to. And nobody wants to talk about the one thing, right? Like this is, it is very interesting that black quarterbacks have not,

they, the idea of having a black quarterback is no longer really provocative, but the idea of the black quarterback is still provocative, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Like we're, we are passed a point. I said when we did our series last year on the top 25 athletes of the last 25 years that Lamar Jackson, I felt like was the last black quarterback to really be up against blackness when he came into the league. Like we're talking about moving you to a different position and stuff like that. I don't think that's going to happen anymore. But it's so obviously the subtext of what is going to here. And we knew it was the subtext because in the way them Bill's mafia people were about Tyrod when all he did was get him to the playoffs at the first time in 19 years. And all they wanted to do

was get him the hell out of there and then lied for two years about how good Josh Allen was. Like the investment was so obvious in what happened. And like I say, my favorite thing about it, you and I,

we were holding out on Josh Allen. My favorite thing is, thank goodness he's actually good. It's been so much fun to watch. And then they make it hard. And I think also this isn't just a fan thing. Like Mike Sando does these great QB tears, which they're not his tiers.

He's surveying executives and people around the league. And consistently, I have seen in these tiers, is Lamar be underrated relative to Allen and Burrow. And these are NFL coaches. And exactly, like, this is a real thing. At this point, my feeling is anyone who does not acknowledge how good Lamar Jackson is as a passer is not worth my time.

I just genuinely, I'm not going to get in these arguments anymore. You don't, you're, you do not have the ability to watch football to me. I just, statistically film any of it. I'm just not doing it with you. It is funny. So Dominique, there's absolutely like a huge racial undertone to all of this. And like, it is funny. I, do you see the registered voters, NFL players thing going around by the way?

The somebody put out like all the NFL positions and who they were registered to vote for. I saw that. And they're like, this is obviously a race thing. You know what's talking about it. It's kind of how I feel about this. I will say this. When people are talking about like the double standards with Josh Allen, it's interesting conversations and nuanced conversation and people are rightfully bringing it. Lamar Jackson is the

counterpoint and I think that is the basis of this conversation. I see Jalen Hertz fans trying to edge their way to the conversation. Get out. I mean, they're like, well, you know, people say Jaylon Hertz, you know, Josh Allen had a great offensive line. He's got, I'm like, we are not comparing the bills in the Eagles roster. We're not doing this. We're not comparing these quarterbacks. You get out of this conversation. You're not helping the case. Yeah, you got to go back over there a little closer to the median, right? Out of here. He goes, fans who get mad to me for saying this.

Yes, say, we over here in club, Outlier, all right? Like, you need to, you need to go back over there with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, they're coming out. They came out. Well, well, the one I saw. Jalen hurts. People act like he was so off with the playoffs, but he didn't turn over the ball once. Congratulations. raise the banner, zero turnover.

What are we doing? Stop it. Stop it. God, I can't wait for the Eagles to come back around next year. I cannot. While we're here with the bills, though, before I let you go, this is the first show that I have done. We were recording during the Terry Pigula press conference with Brandon Bean.

And so, look, I think it's fair to say the wild part is, I don't think McDermott getting fired is nearly as egregious as a lot of people do, especially since they've had terrible playoff defenses, and that's his thing and how close he was to getting shit can in the last couple of years. I think we all recall that. But it was the idea that none of us think that roster is good enough. All of us think that roster is too Josh Allen-centric. And from what we learned from Tyler Dunn series on McDermott a couple of years ago,

that's not really a McDermott is not a guy that wants to just give the ball to his quarterback and go, say, go make the world happen. McDermott was an assistant on the 2015 Panthers, and he saw Cam Newton as being the problem. Like that's the kind of guy that we're dealing with there. But then they promoted the GM to run the whole operation. And that's where people are like, hey, okay. So I feel like I watched that press conference with Terry Pigula,

and if you didn't see it, go check it out. And I think all of us then had a certain empathy for Josh Allen, at least those of us who have ever worked for a moron before. because it appeared that that team is being run by a moron. I feel like Terry Pagula saw Steve Bishadhi, the Ravens owner, be like very blunt and get praised for it and thought, let me cook.

Yes. Because the Steve Bichaddy president was legitimately one of the more entertaining presents I've seen from an owner. And Steve Bishotti, by the way, wisely took his quarterback side. I mean, that's a whole other conversation, but he chose the quarterback.

The craziest thing about this, So I guess if you've been living under Iraq and you missed it, the biggest moment that is really just broken everyone. Like, I mean, I was just like an incredible moment from an owner. Brandon Pagula or Brandon, Brandon, Ben, Benz asked about the drafts. Terry Pugula is like, hold up. I got something to say. Notable, right? Because he wasn't even asked about it.

He was like, no, the world needs to hear me. Brandon Bean didn't want Keon Coleman, a wide receiver who was still on your football team. the coaching staff did. So he simultaneously throws Sean McDermott under the bus, his own wide receiver, Kead Coleman, and the coaching staff, who by the way is still, like Joe Brady's being considered for your head coaching job. It was one of the all-time, what, like,

why are you talking moments from an owner that I've ever seen? And like, I, it's still an attractive job. You know, you got Josh Allen, but like, who boy. But I was it with a player who just, caught a touchdown in this playoff game, by the way, who something is not right there with him, obviously, and he seems to clearly have struggles with self-confidence, and this ain't going to make it better. It's also just, like, I've seen Bill's fans, we're like, well, you've been, you guys have

been criticizing Keon Coleman. I'm not his boss. Can you imagine if, like, the head of your company was, like, out there, crap? And it's so hard, it's, not there, it's so easy to say nothing. Yeah, I'll say this though. A big part of the Keon Coleman's story and it not working out. And of course, obviously I wanted to work out.

He seems delightful, right? Like, I think we all had a we wanted to work out. The issue with Coleman is who was next in the draft and who was next was Lab Mac Conkey. And Mac Conkey, Mac Conkey, wouldn't be very clear of what I'm saying, Mac Conke is great. He's been very, very good with the Chargers.

And what we got here is not only did you not take a player that was better, you didn't take a player that we all know the mafia would have loved. He'd have been a made man in 18 months. But it's such, Josh Allen was throwing go balls to Brandon Cooks all the season. Like it's not just the Coleman thing, Brandon Bean. Like your entire, he, I mean, has any sports radio clip aged worse than Brandon Bean freaking out about being asked about the rights receiver group last season? Yeah. Like, what, and you, and immediately, by the way, after this Coleman thing, everybody's posting clips because I guess they did some, I don't know if it was hard knocks or whatever.

I saw it. Everybody's posting clips of Brandon Bean talking about how bad they wanted Keon Coleman. So I, the whole thing stinks, honestly. it stinks. I guess if I had to give him one piece of praise, Terry Pagula, you know, most owners would have just leaked that to an insider. Yes. At least he said it with his chest.

But it still stinks. And if you're a fan, you should be upset about it. Terry Pagula played a role in firing Shaw McDermott, who won five AFC East in a row, and then they went to the playoffs again this year. and also James Franklin, because he's the money behind Penn State football. Like, he's fired a couple of pretty good coaches, that it was understandable why you would fire them,

but a shit better work on the other end. I don't know anything about hockey, but Sabers fans seem to despise him. He appears to be similar to Jim Dolan, and that Jim Dolan is a terror or has been a fairly terrible owner for the Knicks, but not as bad with the Rangers. Okay. And it seems to go kind of in the opposite order on this one.

But yeah, Sabers fans seem to, it is fascinating to me when that happens, where the fan bases have these like divergent opinions of the same person. Yeah, that's funny. Alan was like that for a little bit with the Blazers and Seahawks. I, look, I don't think firing with Dermott was a great injustice for the reasons you describe. I thought the timing was very weird. and then of course coupled with the bean promotion, it was odd. But the last thing I'll say on the matter is this,

you're going to hire? Like that's the other thing, right? I think the best coaches are defensive, and I don't think they're going to replace them with a defensive guy. I could be wrong. Offensive. I mean, there's a lot of heat around Brian Dable coming back. Y'all, that's insane to me.

Or Joe Brady being, first of all, the Brian Dable thing just feels like a pure nostalgia play. Like, oh, remember when we were, were on the rise and we were fun. Okay. I remember when you guys got, you know, like whatever anyways. But there's not good offensive

options out there. I mean, I will make this point. And I was thinking about this when we talk about like Allen being rated higher than Lamar when they do these polls or whatever. I would love to see those broken down by offensive coaches and defensive coaches because I have always felt like defensive coaches,

look at them quarterbacks, like that can move as a much more terrifying situation. because you have to think about more things. You know, Allen is a hybrid of sorts in this discussion. But I always think the defensive guys are the ones that are like, no, no, no, I can work with something there. Or you hire a defensive guy and you can wind up with something like Tony Dungy where you make your offensive coordinator like the head coach of offense.

And then he can just worry about, let him worry about how to hold this lead that our quarterback winds up getting. I mean, they just had nine years of McDermott. So if you go back to a defensive guy, I don't feel like you're in a bad case if you can go find who the right young offensive guy is. You know what's so interesting because you're absolutely right about that distinction. When I talk to defensive coaches, they really hate

global quarterbacks. But then when I talk to defensive players, they really hate pocket passers. I find that so interesting. It might be more of like a like, the defensive coordinator is like, I can plan for this. I can't plan for that. Whereas the players like, the perfect pass is just going to kill. You know, but I always found that really interesting. It was why like when Harbaugh lost his job, I met.

mentioned Flores because Flores had the Brian Flores in Minnesota had all those quotes talking about how like unbelievable Lamar Jackson was but he's obviously not alone in that sentiment. By the way, I'd just like to make it clear to everybody. The league is telling us this year that Brian Flores is going to be

the head of coach of the defense for the rest of his career in the NFL. They gave him an attention, right? They did. They did. You know what he's going to be? He's going to be a Rooney Roole all-Star. He's going to get all these frequent flyer miles jumping on planes for in-person interviews so they could they could do this can i say something on that right fast because i normally do a long run and rule thing but i haven't done it so i'm going to do this with you here just something to bring up and i saw somebody i think it was

albert brier and i don't want to i probably shouldn't even said that because i don't want to single him out because it's unfair because he's not the only person who does this but when people report that a team has interviewed the two guys and then they said they have satisfied their requirement and now they are free to interview who they so choose. You're doing a disservice to the whole process when you do that because what you're saying is you're treating interviewing black candidates simply as an obligation and not even entertaining the possibility that maybe just maybe these are qualified people, right? Or maybe just maybe this is what a team actually wants to do.

Now, do the teams deserve the benefit of the doubt? Not necessarily. But like continuing to say it as though this is just some nuisance that you got to deal with before you actually start looking for a coach. That's bad business for everybody. Yeah, I've been so, like, beaten down on this topic, right? Like, I feel like I used to, I used to be more like pointing out the obvious, you know, like when teams are skirted in and whatnot. I think the rule itself just appears to be so fundamentally broken now in terms and also the way it's reported and discussed that it's like, I can't even like, I, right?

Like, what am I going to say? Well, they skirted it. well, if they were never going to hire them in the first place, am I really going to be outraged that they didn't do the interviews and such? It feels like it's not doing its job anymore, but I don't. Yeah, my thing is the rule it, the rule isn't the problem. The problem is these people. Yeah.

And we need to keep staying on the next of these people. They're the ones that's come. If the people weren't a problem, we wouldn't have no rule. You get rid of the rule, we still go ahead of the same people, be the same problem. And look, who knows all this forcing you to interview these people and maybe just maybe you might find a good coach. Nobody wins more from the Rooney Rule than the teams. Maybe the owner should do pressers more, though,

because it's good for the public to see what we're dealing with here. Yeah, man. But hey, we got Mina Coms here. Check her out on the Mina Com show with Lenny and all over various ESPN properties. I appreciate you, ma'am. It's good to see you, bud. Sorry, I won't see you in San Francisco.

No, likewise. I say, how let me next time you get around here? I talk about this with Dominique. The problem of living in New York is everybody got like a 20-person list in New York. You get like one a year when somebody comes to New York all the time. All right, Bo. Three quick questions sponsored by Fandoul. We got three massive NBA games this weekend.

New York Knicks taken on the Philadelphia 7-6ers. Knicks have been in free-for-all recently losing 11 of their last 14 games. What do you make of what's going on with the Knicks? I think the most interesting thing with the Nix is now we're getting the reports of I don't know my role. I don't know if I like playing for Mike Brown. And all of us was out here campaigning for their legs when they were playing with tips, right? Like, no, somebody needs to look out for you. And they were like, oh, no, we kind of like playing a zillion minutes.

And now this has happened. Bottom line is what is happening with them, and I don't know if it's fair to the protagonist in the point I'm about to make. But I told y'all that eventually y'all was going to get tired of the Carl Town's experience. and he is wildly talented and you soak that up in the first year and then everything you don't like about him, you notice that in the second year. And that seems to be what's happening here. I also think that even with that free fall,

they can still win the East when it's all said and done. Right. I mean, the ultimate, listen to me now, believe me later on, is the Carl Anthony Township. Yeah, yeah, and I know how it went. But, I mean, I think what really makes it bad for the Knicks this year is the fact that the Celtics don't have Jason Tatum and somehow are still second in the East.

You know what I mean? Like you looked around and you said to yourself, if you're the Knicks, there's nothing to stop us this year. And the Celtics are like, y'all still ain't even better than us. Right. All right. After that, we got Golden State taking on Minnesota. Obviously, Jimmy Butler went down earlier this week with torn ACL.

He's going to miss the rest of the season. What should the Warriors do with another season looks like in the tubes? I mean, it looks like their plan is to keep Jimmy and hope that he comes off the injury next year around this time and gives them a jolt. similar to the jolt that they got when they traded for Jimmy right at the trade deadline. That seems to be an ambitious ask of a guy his age coming off an injury like this. And somebody who's been physically slowing down. But Ryan, I don't know if you've seen this, man.

They are so much better when he's on the court than without. Like I think he has their best all and off plus minus numbers. Right. On the whole roster. Like, he is the great player that people for some reason don't want to truly acknowledge his greatness and the impact that he has. on the roster that he's been on. But if that's the plan,

then I don't know what they're supposed to do other than just try to have a good time this year. Right. I mean, Steph is still performing, you know, performing at a high level, even at his advanced age. But, I mean, it's almost turning into, like, Kobe's last few seasons of the Lakers.

Yeah. Well, well, nothing will be that bad. No, yeah, for sure. Because you've heard of these other guys that are on this team. And he's got so much more left than Kobe does at this point. But this, it's been a really interesting four years since that last championship. And that championship they won was kind of a somebody has to win it this year.

Right. We're learning a lot about Steph Curry in his capacity for loyalty because just about everybody else would have asked to bail on this. And by the way, I think him not bailing is the right decision. Right. But I think most people would have bailed. For sure. And finally, the Lakers are taking on the Mavericks.

Lakers have been up and down over the last month. Ron's starting to run in the form. do you believe in the Lakers and their championship aspirations? Oh, no, absolutely not. Your three best players can't guard anybody. Their record is 26 and 16. They are fifth in the West, and their point differential is negative,

which is to say they have given up more points than they have scored. I mean, their record is not in line with what the actual point results have been. I believe that this is going to go down. And then from there, how well J.J. Reddick holds it together for this team and how well he holds it together for J.J. Reddick. Like, this is going to be a lot, man. Like, they've, I've never seen a team that was expected to be any good who gets less defense from the centerpieces of the roster. Never seen anything like. Right. Yeah. I mean, we have another trade down only coming in less than two weeks, which we're about due for a passive aggressive LeBron text or tweet about that time.

Hey, look, man. I'll take that. over his air sniper shoes that I can't believe he thought that was a good idea. I can't believe. Thanks so much for joining us here on The Right Time. We do this four times a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voice mail line 3-2, 5, 6776767. And remember, follow the right time, 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. we'll talk you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.