The Ringer NFL Show - Undefeated Indiana, Mendoza's Ceiling, Bills Fire McDermott, Titans Hire Saleh, and Button Down Shirts

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Undefeated Indiana is the story of college football and the guys try to explain how Kurt Signetti pulled it off while arguing about Fernando Mendoza’s upside and “aura” . They also break down the Bills moving on from Sean McDermott, the Titans bringing in Robert Saleh, and a completely normal conversation about button-down shirts and locker-room drip (00:00) Intro - Indiana (06:30) How Did Curt Cignetti Do This? (19:43) Fernando Mendoza (27:25) Bills Fire Sean McDermott (40:28) Falcons Hire Kevin Stefanski as Head Coach (44:35) Titans Hire Robert Saleh as Head Coach (49:41) Dolphins Hire Jeff Hafley as Head Coach (54:01) Coordinator News (57:40) Emails Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Check out the 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings: https://fantasyfootball.theringer.com/ Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Kai Grady, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

to the ringer fantasy football show. My name is Danny Hight Fitz, and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. And we have a lot of news today. The bills fired Sean McDermott, their head coach. The Titans have a new head coach, Robert Sala. The Falcons hired Kevin Stefansky as their head coach. The dolphins hired Jeff Halfley.

We can pretend to have opinions about Jeff for Miami. Right. Well, you know, whoever else is. He's got a sick flat top. That's all I know. No, yeah, stylish. But first, Danny Kelly, the Indiana Hoosiers are flipping champs. Flipping champs!

What do we do? What's doing out here? This is a crazy story. I don't know if people realize how big of a story this is. You know what I mean? Like Indiana, wind, go undefeated.

Just an awesome story. The coach, Signetti's a great, like, story, hilarious dude, finally smiled at the very end there. Just a lot to dig into.

I think it was a really fun game. The second half was fun. The first half was pretty, pretty boring, to be honest, the national title game. But, yeah, got fun at the end there.

Yeah, first half was defense. Second half was offense. I mean, the memes are funny. I can already see all the memes now of just the, you know, after sending three emails on a Friday and then it cuts the Kurt Signetti, like, I'm going to open a beer. And he's just the absolute best. But I mean, there's so many things that this Indiana one,

this Indiana story, and I think it's all, it's been hit a lot. But the one that this stat, someone said this at ESPN this morning. I couldn't believe it. Indiana went 136 seasons without winning 10 games. And then Kurt Signetti showed up, which just stopped me in my track. And then the other one that's incredible is Indiana is the first team to win 16 games since Yale in 1894, which struck me because Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in 1890. After Yale won. Like in the Red Dead Redemption 2 storyline, Yale had already like Yale had won.

They were taking like horse drawn carts to the game. And I bet you some of those players were in the game. Yeah, exactly. Oh, oh yeah. Oh, the 1894 Yale team, don't worry. I checked it out. They had a guy named Frank Butterwork. We went by Silent Frank.

Frank Butterwork? Butterworth. Butterworth. But they called him Silent Frank. And he was famously enucleated by Burt Waters during the Bloodbath and Hampton Park. He was famously what? I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means.

It just all it says Harvard Yale, the Harvard Yale games, the administrators were so shocked by the violence of the Blood Bath and Hampton Park football game that the games were canceled for three years. What is? Oh, yeah. I've been in New York. heard of this. It's like Dodgeball when it's like the Helsinki, 1919.

Wasn't Rogers inuculated before the COVID season? Exactly. He was. He was inucleated. It was like on brick tanlin. He's like, are you guys doing your celebrity golf tournament again this year? Nah, too many people died last year. They literally did that for three years.

Did your opinion of Fernando Mendoza change at all after watching the national championship? I think maybe a little bit. Yeah. I think over the last couple of games, watching him play in those situations, just absolutely sort of unflappable, it felt like. He's just so confident, always kind of even keeled the ways that he put Indiana in position to win. I think this guy's the best back shoulder thrower I've ever seen in my life. He just is so good at timing that. That's obviously hyperbole, but he's very good at the back shoulder throw in like those key clutch situations.

his run on fourth and five for a touchdown it's going to go down in history that's an all time play it is honestly um and it's like such a great you know like the basketball term posterizing someone like that is a poster shot of him diving into the end zone you're going to have so many kids like emulating that play over the next couple of years so just a really really cool um you know obviously job by indiana but i i think mendoza in particular he cemented himself as my you know as as the number one pick for the raider I think they have to take him at this point. He's just such a infectiously positive guy. I think people are going to make fun of him for being a total cornball, which he is. For sure.

But I kind of like it. I kind of like him. He Ted lassoed me. Yeah. That's a good call. He's very Ted lasso. He should be made fun of for it. It's fun to tease him for it.

I think he's game for it and it's like open to it. Yeah. That run was pretty special. Did you see his arms after the game? Oh, yeah. His lip was bleeding. Yep. His arms were all beat up.

He's sneaky large. man. Like I feel like his personality makes you think he's small, which he's like six, five, two, 30. But even his forearms and his hands and his wrists, he is a huge dude. I'm excited to see him in person because I feel like he's going to be bigger than I even think he is right now. Just seeing him like get interviewed on the sidelines. He looks massive and super tough physically. I mean, him taking that, that hit to the back extending into the end zone on that run. After getting like double crunched, turned around, stopped, plants on that knee, turn. turns around and extends into the end zone and gets crushed in the back.

One of the tougher runs I've seen from a quarterback in a long time. Yeah. I was a ballsy call too. Oh my God. To run a quarterback draw in that situation. Yeah. Four and five. Well, let's be honest here.

Kurt Signetti, they almost blew it because, I mean, the clock manager from Signati was pretty, Signetti was pretty terrible in this game. The end of the half, they had this crazy. I honestly was wondering if Indiana didn't know they had two timeouts because they just had 34 seconds left at midfield and just didn't use one until five seconds left. And Signetty was screaming. But then that. drive. They literally had fourth and five. We're late deciding to go for it. So the offense was

late running the play and they called time out on fourth and five. Well, they didn't run the kicking unit out and then they changed their mind? Yes, that was the second time because it happened twice on the same drive, which is like how does that happen? It's like a simulation. Fourth and five, late for going for the first time out. And then literally the exact same thing happened and they came out of it. I love Signetti was just like, yeah, we just got to thought they'd be in the same coverages of the previous play. And they were. So, you know, we're champs. But, uh, by the way, With that in mind, you got to go read, Roger Sherman wrote for the ringer this week that he posited

that Frank Signetti has done the best job, the best coaching job, sorry, Kurt, what did I say? Frank? No, you think about silent Frank from the 1894 year. Sorry, my right, right, right. Kurt Signetti has done the best, he's done the best coaching job of any coach ever this year,

which I think is a very interesting argument. He says it's not the best, to be clear, it's not the best coach of all time, but the best coaching job of any coach ever. in this season and they obviously won undefeated won the national title indiana especially being a team that i think some people could have considered it literally the worst program in in college football you know that certainly has a major conference well sure yeah um so pretty wild pretty great also frank signetti is kurt signetti's brother who is he was an NFL coach and he's the offensive coordinator

at indiana university of pennsylvania so it is a little confusing which is where kurt signetti was which is insane no way that is that is That is a little weird. That's the thing. I, we can get back to Mendoza in a second, but the signetty thing, I don't know. We can go back to Mendoza in a moment, but we're not,

I am not like some college football expert, but I don't know how we don't talk. Like, how the fuck did he do this? We should say that, that recently Mark Cuban decided to give Indiana like $20 million. No, that, no, that was during this season, I believe. That was before, Mark Cuban saw how good last.

year was where he got them to the quarter finals. And then Mark Cuban saw that and was like, okay, this guy knows what he's doing. And I think also there's, I think both of them are from Pittsburgh. I think Cuban is and also is a netty. But that wasn't baked in when he took the job. I don't know what you guys think. But when he took the job, sure, but this team had the NIL money, right? Yes. This team has NIL money. But like everyone has NAL money. Like everyone has their billionaire that's doting upon them. Texas Tech is just like when you're going up against like Alabama and Georgia and whoever. It's like, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the larger thing with like, college football right now is like the larger thing in society is I feel like in the 1800s,

you know, there's always like rich benefactors and like Andrew Carnegie used to like build libraries everywhere in America. They used to build opera houses and art. And now it's like, football teams. That was like they built football teams. Like that's what your local billionaire does. Your local friendly billionaire pays. Which quarterback can I buy for my former alma mater? That is what benefactors do now. But I, I, I, anything, I, maybe I'm wrong. They used to, they used to pay for like Michelangelo to sculpt seven, you know, whatever's. Now it's just, I want to sculpt a national title. You could make the case that NIL is ruining college football.

You could also make the case that it's making it way better because all this stuff was just happening behind closed doors. And now it's like a little bit more out in the open. And I think people are more open to like people like Mark Cuban being like, yeah, I'll help Indiana. It's kind of cool now that it used to just be. Who's it going to be? Is it going to be Bama, Clemson, or Georgia this year? And now it's like, well, there are other teams now that can make a run. And seeing a team like Indiana do this, I don't know.

I was going to say hi Fitz. You wrote this down, but I think it's so fascinating. It's almost like a money ball situation type of deal where this is one of the oldest teams ever in college football. I think you wrote down it's like two years younger than the Packers average age of like, yeah. I think that's exactly what happened here. So the average age of Indiana is 23 and the average age of the Green Bay Packers this season was 25. This is great. There's an old Mitch Hedberg joke.

He's like, I wish I could go back to Little League now. I'd kick some fucking ass. It's like these 23 year olds. played a bunch of like 18 year 19 year old December. Meanwhile like freaking Tony on the Gators who obviously I did a jump scare. He's actually 18. Yeah. A few weeks ago. Like

when I started watching Miami a few weeks ago, it's just like desperately Googling if he was Gaddaer is Tony's brother or something, which thank God he's not Malachi Tony. He was malachi Tony was born in September of 2007. Very good. He looks like Percy Harvin. He looks like Percy Harvin. He looks like he does look like Percy Harvin. But like the fact that Brady's MVP, like the 16 and

O Patriot season, Brady had six passing touchdowns already in that season and the kid had been born. Trip me up a little. It's like, Signetti is almost doing what some college basketball teams do, which is just like, we're just going to be the oldest team in the league. We're going to have these like three,

four star guys who are more developed. They have chemistry rather than the five star freaks who are 18 and 19 years old, who might be a little more raw, but more talented. Signetti went the other way. He's like, we're going to get the guys who I know are productive.

This was a tidbit from Rogers article. And I think, I'm just off the dome here, but he said basically in the era of, recruiting where they would do stars. The national title winners every year going back to since this has been a thing has had at least 50% of their roster,

four and five star players. And eight percent of Indiana's roster is a four or five star player. So that's the two star, right? So this is, what's amazing about his story. He wanted to walk on at Miami. He also literally tried walking on

because he grew up a mile from the freaking stadium. He literally could have walked on and they wouldn't let him. And that was the story they had last night where his mom was basically like, They tried to get them to transfer there last year. His mom was like, fuck that. Like, we tried to go, you didn't want us.

But I totally agree. And Roger's article on this for the ringer was awesome. But I think that it's baked into why this happened in Indiana, at least the way I've wrapped my mind around like what happened with this team is again, it's, I feel like I've been talking about this all month, really, about like coaches, anyone, like, you're going to have a certain world view or philosophy of how you build your team. And then like at some point, the world maybe shifts in your direction. And I think Kurt Sidetti, the line he always says is, predict.

reduction over potential. And I think that's a division two mindset. Like he was at James Madison and they went from FCS to FBS, whatever you want to call it. But he had all these James Madison FCS, FBS guys. And I think that the reason

Indiana is dominated is that mindset now works in the NIL era and no one knew it. Because what had worked with that stat with Roger where you need a bunch of five and four stars, that makes sense when kids sign up and they're there for four years

or five years. because you're an elite athlete and you're going to develop. But if everyone's in a one-year contract, which is what NIL is, potential is irrelevant. There's no point to having potential if you weren't good now. Like if you're Malachi-tonin, you can perform at 18, that's fine. But if you actually need time to develop, who cares? I only want guys who are professionals and can play now. And that to me, that mindset happened to be perfect right when this NIL stuff started.

Yeah. It's a little bit like to make the college basketball comparison again, like John Cali Perry, the former coach of Kentucky, who's now at Arkansas. Like, they were always super talented, right? They always had these guys that were lottery picks, but they would kind of flame out in the tournament because they were all 18. They had no chemistry. And they would leave after two years, right?

They'd been on campus for five months and they were getting ready to leave the second they would lose in March Madness. And that often would like come back to bite them a little bit in the tournament. And it's kind of what the opposite of that is what Indiana did, where it's like, we're going to get guys who, yeah, like you said, If it's like they have chemistry, you build up in the program. They might be a three star, not a five star, but they've been around,

they know Signetti, they know the system. And it's like, that ends up working. They're relative pros, too. Yeah, they're disciplined. This was a,

again, shout to Roger. They were one of the least penalized teams, I think, in college football. They were just like a professional team. Like a pro team. Yeah.

And to the point, again, the whole thing, well, they weren't three stars. I forget, I think someone, I apologize,

I forget who said this in college football, but the point, Their point was these guys were three stars like seven years ago. They're 23 years old. Like Carson Beck is the quarterback from Miami. Malacartone who was 12 years old when Carson Beck enrolled in college. And so there's a big gap here.

But the other thing with the three stars is, you know, whoever listening to this, remember when you were 23. Maybe you don't feel like you were that mature. But then think about what you were when you were 18. And how much you learned between 18 and 23. The male brain keeps developing until our late to 20s early times. Your body changes a lot in that time too. Your body, it's crazy different.

And so that's another reason why, cap in the flether for why I don't think that flur should be fired because the Packers are two years older than Indiana. They're 25. I just look at this Indiana team. That's an amazing stat. It is. And I look at this Indiana team. Could the Packers beat Bama like Indiana did? Oh, man. The yeah, but I just, I, I do think that's the lesson is the potential. In a way, like, the NFL is, has the system now, like the rookie contracts in a four-year development cycle, they need potential more than college does, which is funny to think about. But I just that old system of Nick Saban bringing in a five star.

And then like every year the Bama running backs was the mean, right? Mark Ingram. And then it's like Derek Henry or Nanjee Harris. And it was just like T.J. Eldon was this endless stream of Bama running backs because they'd go and you'd wait two years and then you were that guy and you win the Heisman. And now those guys won't go there if they're not going to start. Exactly.

They're more spread out across the country, which means that the layer of five stars is thinner at the top. Well, it's just the idea that just get the guy. Basically, it's funny because I figured this out playing the college football video game that came out. If they're going to play for you for one year, you don't know, actually need the high development trait of like this guy could be a 99 right they just they're in 85 right now that's all i care about i don't need a 79 overall that could be a 98 i he's gonna

because if he gets that he's gonna leave so i don't know it's really cool what he built also hall of fame kurt signetti shit talking backing it up first ballot hall of fame goes to indiana with who at the time he took over never won 10 games in the season he's and they're like why should what are you going to Toot Cruz, he's like, I win. Google me. Is there another advantage of someone back talking so much shit? He said Penn's like talking Ohio State, Michigan suck at basketball games for Indiana before he'd even coach. Like, has anyone else talked this much shit and then it backed it up to this degree ever in anything?

Bobby Knight? Like, I don't know. He's like right up there with that. This is like, I was going to say, this is up there with like Babe Ruth fucking calling his shot. Pointing. It's way better. This is Joe Namath saying they're going to, yeah,

I don't know. Yeah. No, Joe Namath is the right thing. Like, we're going to, because that was the closest thing to the joke. That was like the could Bamma beat the Browns.

That was what he was saying. That's a thing like. Yeah. He should never leave Indiana. I mean, I was going to ask, what's his next move? He was offered a lot of jobs and he resigned with them.

He's like, fuck that. I'm staying here. He's 64 years old. To me, this is like the whole point. You know, that's like the meme now.

Sometimes I almost forget this is the entire point. Like, this is the perfect situation. Do not bail and pull a Nick Sabin and go to the dolphins. Like, stay and enjoy this and be on Indiana for the rest of your life and have the best sunset of your career ever and revitalizing this dormant franchise from over 120 years. Like, what's better than that? Who cares?

Don't go to an NFL team. This is the best spot you could ever be and enjoy your life. How much is he making? I wonder. As much as he wants, it's a ton. More money they could possibly spend. He gets Chipotle for lunch every day. He said, $5,500.

50 street days at Chipotle, they said. I agree with that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What? He just, it's like, you know, the Obama did this. He's like, Dickay with casadias, but with Cholet? Yeah, so you have to make so many decisions every day. You don't change your lunch order.

So it gets the same lunch order every day. But did you just throw out a number? Is that real? No, that's real. I don't know if it's 550. It's like 512 here. 500 plus days in a row of the same Chipotle meal? Maybe Christmas he didn't have it.

But like, they get him lunch. The guy knows fall. Work every day. He goes to work probably 3060 days a year. Holy. Oh, Wall Street Journal. He's eaten 500 bowls at Chipotle at maybe it's not well. He's eaten bowls.

That's actually more healthy. Look at that. Yeah. Bowls are great. Oh, he has the calorie count down and everything. Yeah. Wow. He's like, is he eating Chipotle like like Kai style where it's just chicken and no sauce?

He does not scream hot sauce to me. No, I think he's playing it safe. Wait, we have the order way here. I bet you like to, he's monitoring his gut bio. Yeah, guess the order for Kurt Signetti. White, right. They say rice. I assume it's white. White rice, chicken?

Yes. Pinto or Black Beans. I'm saying he's pro beans. Correct. I'm going to say he does cheese, guacamole, and mild salsa. No cheese. And corn and corn. No cheese, yes, guacamole. It's just rice beans, chicken guac is the order, allegedly.

Rice beans, chicken guac. He is like Kai. So it could be fake. I, no, Kai would never get it. Glock is way too spicy. Gwacamole? No. It's a remarkable story.

You know it's also funny about Indiana. Their offensive coordinator, do you know the name of the Indiana offensive coordinator? Oh, yeah, the Shanahan is not related to the Shanahan. His name is Mike Shanahan. What? It is not related to the Shanahan. Mike Shanahan, not his father.

He's going to get hired by the Steelers accidentally because they think he's from the different family. One other funny thing about Signetti that I found out, I don't know if we talked about this on the pot or not. So Liz, my wife, went to Elon in North Carolina, small kind of liberal art school. Kurt Signetti was the head coach of Elon for one year, 2017 to 2018, and he got them fucking ranked.

They were ranked. Yeah, that's the whole thing. More impressive. Did you Google him? Craig, you Googled him. They were like 24th of the nation at the end of the season. All he does is win.

It's unbelievable. It really is. There's a lot, you know, a lot of these Miami players will talk about Carson Beck and feel bad for, but you just have to come back to Mendoza. D.K., you mentioned it. I mean, I don't think we can even pretend.

like Fernando Mendoza will be the number one pick in the draft. I think he cemented it. I mean, Tom Brady was there at this game wearing Raiders gear. It's in Miami. Like Brady's- I know. Brady's on the sideline just like reveling in it. And I think Mendoza locked in. And again, he has the physical traits as a player.

Like he has the arm strength. Brady himself is the one who's like, you need to be able to throw a dig to the opposite hash. And I think actually that's one of Mendoza's biggest strengths. I think the pocket mobility, not fast, but he can move. Like he is able to navigate the pocket as a passer as a runner. Like he has all the things you want. as Craig said, the size.

And I think the biggest question was, I mean, personality is the wrong way to put it. But like, he's a goober, you know, he's like, the way Craig put it, eager beaver is funny. But I think that this game, I think, cement. I mean, the ultimate one was your friend Jackson, D.K. texted as someone tweeted that way, I have to pull it up. The best description of Fernando Mendoza all over see. Someone posted that Fernando Mendoza looks like he makes his animal crackers fight each other before he eats them. So vivid.

Vivid. Vivid imagery there. I saw another one that said, Shirley Temples do not stand a chance around Fernando Mendoza tonight. It's so, it's so, go to Vegas. Vegas, baby. Ricky Williams

was talking on Dan Lebitard show about being at the Heism ceremony. And they asked, oh, you guys are Belknott? Oh, no, I didn't go. Give it to me, I missed this. Ricky Williams said not to blow up a spot and then immediately blew up a spot. And he was like talking to the high,

and apparently he did all this research and he researched all the Heisman winners so they could talk to them. Like, he knew all their backgrounds and everything. and like treating it like a 23 year old on LinkedIn, like researching for a networking event. And apparently he was talking to Tim Teabo and he said, so he says,

I'm going to have to like get into girls soon and like, do you have any advice to Tim Tebow? And I'm like, this guy's fucking locked in. Wow. Wow. This guy's locked it. He's going to be at the facility. That's like what you asked your older brother before you start high school.

He's going to have to get into girls soon. He's going to get into girls soon and he's like, do you have any advice? Also, the fact that Tim Tebow was like to me. Well, buddy, you're about to be in Las Vegas. Yeah. have a lot of advice. Oh, yeah, go to the suburbs.

Stay away from the strip. I, but I do think that the reason Mendoza will be number one is, I mean, one, dude, this is like manifest destiny. Like, he was born in Boston. He's lived a mile from the stadium, but he born from Boston. He's a Patriots fan. He grew up rooting for Tom Brady. And I always talk about like Caleb wanted to rooted for Aaron Rogers.

Daniel Jones wanted to be Eli Manning. Daniel Jones went to Duke because Eli's coach was at Duke. Like he wanted, Mendoza wanted to be Brady. He's the first guy that's going to be an NFL. quarterback who grew up idolizing him. He's the same height. He's more kind of the same way. And I think that all the leadership stuff, but I think that what Brady is going to be obsessed with this kid for other than saying let's fucking go when he won the title is Mendoza got the shit kicked out of him in this game. Like he got the targeting that wasn't called. He was bleeding

from his, he was spitting up blood basically on a towel. He didn't let the cameras catch it. But he was yeah. You can see it on camera. Yeah, he was he was spitting it. The first thing that he said after the game was that we could not protect for Nato Mendoza. Miami's defensive line was so good. We'll talk about Ruben Bain was all over him, yeah. The halftime the half time interview with Cignetti was basically him just bitching about the late call, the late hits on

on Mendoza for like a solid minute. He was like, we can't be having that. They keep hitting him right after after he hands the ball off. I've been yelling at the refs. That was like his half time. That was his half times. The most honest half time answer ever. It was the first time anyone's actually just answered the questions. Just 30 seconds. These fuckers keep hitting my quarterback.

Signetti had the most honest half time conversation of all time. Like he actually answered the questions. It was unbelievable. He just was like, look, you know, the referees, I'm all for letting him play, but at some point you got to draw a line. And then he just was like, as for the game, you know, they had, we had a couple crosses that head over double mug. That was great. Got to get back to that. And then Holly Rose was like, thank you. And she was shocked. It was the most genuine. She was like, thank you. Thank you. It's shot. I couldn't believe he answered the question. Uh, but the,

but the, but yeah, I know, he kept, Sygnati kept talking about how they couldn't block for him and that, I mean, the Miami defense line was so good. But it was just so beat up during this game that I think frankly, the fact that the Indiana players are saying that they think he, Mendoza plays better when it gets hit. Like the Iowa game, Ohio State, there's this game like getting hit locks him in. That's kind of like the next level that like, frankly, you go all the way through the wormhole of everything you needed quarterback. That's what Tom Brady wants to hear and see.

And so I think that like the fourth and five play, see Mendoza get the crap kicked out of him to win the game. I think that is the last level of championship. I think Mendoza absolutely is going to be the number one pick. I do feel like he has both a high floor. and a high ceiling as a prospect. Like I do kind of think he could probably come in and be like a solid pocket passer, a big tough. You're Matt Ryan, your Kirk Cousins type.

But then, you know, the ceiling is the roof, potentially for a guy like him. Outside of the lack of kind of mobility, although he's more mobile than guys like Matt Ryan. I was going to say, physically, how different is he than Joe Burrow? Joe Burrow is pretty athletic. He can run around, but it's not that different, right? In terms of his ability to kind of scoot around.

Yeah, I think they're probably in the same tier. Burrow might feel a little bit more. Bro's a little more straight line speed and stuff like that. It's funny to say that actually. DK never thought about it. But it's funny that Burrow probably did have more mobility in college and we forget because he tore his ACL like that rookie year. And he doesn't run around nearly as much anymore.

I mean, he can't extend, but he was better at it. I was just thinking, Hyphitz, when you were talking about how he's such a funny sort of contradiction because he is so tough and physical and like he doesn't get going until he gets hit in the face kind of deal. But he's also Yeah, such a dork. By the way, that was not real.

That was fake. I wanted it to be too. It might as well be real. He does make his animal crackers fight though. That you can't just prove that. But I was thinking this during the game and it's so funny because there was one in particular play where I think it was late in the game when he hit Becker on the back shoulder

and that kept the drive going. And that was like three minutes left or something like that. And he just looks over at him and gives him a thumbs up. I saw that. I think that was that play. I can't remember exactly. Good job, buddy. He was like, good job.

It's like so genuine. Ted lasted me. He won me over. Do you know badly I wanted to make fun of this guy like all season and then all off season? And like the college football playoff like he's, you know what? I love this guy. He's kind of got ice in his veins. There was another play too where he, he shouldn't have thrown this pass and it got broken.

It was basically a pass out into, it was like a little stop route. And the Miami DV jumped it and almost. picked it off and it was potentially a disastrous throw and it zoomed in on his face after the throw and he was just like that he just like kind of like shook his head like that was dumb he's just like what's nice about him is like you at least know that if it doesn't work out in the NFL it's not going to be for lack of effort or preparation right he is going to give it everything and he's going to prepare and he'll be the first guy and last guy out like you know that he will have that mentality which is i mean totally and it's it's going to be a weird draft because there's basically no competition for him at the

quarterback position to be the top overall pick. So I don't know if that will, if that will actually increase his status in our mind or actually make him a bit of somebody who's overlooked and just under disgust because he'll just be the locked in number one overall pick. In the same way that when Trevor Lawrence went is like, people

just like didn't talk about him that much because he was the number one overall pick. That's a good question. He calls his offensive lineman the hogies. We're going to freaking talk about this guy. I think that like, let's freaking go. But there's going to be no comparison. There's going to be no, should it be him or Dante Moore. Let's compare his traits to the other top three quarterback straight. It's not going to be the Caleb year where you had Jaden and

Drake May and Panix and all these guys. So it will be an interesting offseason in that respect. It will. We'll just have to get by like I'm still want him to accept my, I try to pay with him on LinkedIn and he didn't accept that. So like you can talk about that. He hasn't updated by the way. I wonder if he's, you know, been drinking too many Shirley Temple. Yeah, he's not really looking for a job at this point. Okay. Should we get into some coach news? Yes. A lot of has happened since we last spoke. I guess we should probably start. with the bills fired Sean McDermott, their head coach after nine seasons.

The, did you guys read the, I did. The goodbye letter that the Buffalo ownership wrote Sean McDermott. There was like five spelling errors, including them saying that he did an admiral job. Like the rank, admirable. Not an admirable job. Not admirable.

That sounded like, he did an admiral job. Yeah, it's like that almost like that was like voice to text or something. They didn't bother checking it. This is, this doesn't bode well. for the organization. That was what happened after he got fired. I mean, there are entire HR departments. His entire job is to check these things before they go out.

Like crisis PR. He did an admiral job is up there. Yeah. Sean McDermott. I saw a stat here from Ben Solac, our former colleague who's now ESPN, which this blew my mind about Sean McDermin and the bills. So this is per ESPN research. Only four teams in the Super Bowl era have won a playoff game in six consecutive seasons.

Only four teams have done that. The four teams are. are the Cowboys in the 90s who won three Super Bowls over that stretch, the Patriots in the 2010s who won three Super Bowls over that stretch, the Chiefs in 2018 to 2024 who won three Super Bowls over that stretch, and the Buffalo Bills, who did not make a single Super Bowl. Ouch. The poor bills.

God. I feel like it's a like, that's a Roershack test because you hear that and you're either like, that's why McDermott had to go or you're like, that's why McDermott had to stay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nine seasons is a while, but. Hyphitz, what is your reaction to this? You think this is the right move?

I'm surprised it. So they're keeping the GM. Brandon Bean is staying and he's actually in charge. No, he got promoted. Promoted. Right. And he's now in charge of bringing in the next coach. I would like to hear the argument for why the coach should be fired, but the GM should be promoted.

I don't think it necessarily has to be Brandon. It's little finger stuff. Well, Brandon Bean came in after McDermott was already there. No, for like three weeks. They were tired together. But my point is that Brandon Bean was not a part of the hiring process for McDermott. And so I guess, but I will strongly. We push back on that because I think that what happened is, it's like what the Dolphins hire the Packers' GM or the Packers assistant GM.

And they go 10 days and they're like, we'll hire the Packers defense coordinator as her coach. I'm like they both came from Carolina if memory serves. And so they were a package deal, I think. Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not supporting. I'm not saying I support this because you could argue that the biggest problem with the bills over the last however many seasons has been personnel, particularly offensively, which is a Brandon Bean issue and not a Sean McDermin issue. So, Hyvitz, what is your reaction to this? I want the bills to win a Super Bowl. I mean, I don't think that's a hot take.

I feel like if there's a player that isn't on your team that you most want to win a Super Bowl, everyone's like, I wish Josh Allen would win a Super Bowl. I want the bills to win a Super Bowl. My reaction is I hope that this works and I hope they know what they're doing because I think this is like a careful what you wish for situation. Like the good example is like John Fox, you know, took the Broncos with Peyton Manning to a Super Bowl. And then the next year, the really close game, they should have won a divisional round. They lost and then they fired John Fox. And the answer was, hey, we don't care you made a Super Bowl last year. Peyton Manning can do this and like anyone can do this and they brought in Gary Kubiak and guess what they won a Super Bowl.

And maybe it'll be like that. They bring in a new coach and maybe they hire Brian Dable, whatever they do and that someone else takes this and they get them to promise lid. I hope that happens. I'm rooting for it. The flip side is I just don't want to forget what Sean McDermott did for the bills. I don't know if some people might be too young who are listening to. Some people might have forgotten, which is the point. The bills literally before Sean McDermott was hired had the longest playoff drought in all of the American major sports like football,

basketball, baseball, hockey. Nobody had missed the playoffs in more seasons in a row than the bills. 18 seasons. And then Sean McDermott shows up and they make the playoffs in eight of nine years, including before they drafted Josh Allen. Josh Allen was not even on the team. And they made the playoffs and broke that drought. And then as Craig said, like they won the division title five years in a row. And then this year they lost to the Patriots and their easy schedule and Mike Rable. So the phrase from this press, the presser that I thought I liked was that they said, Sean McDermott helped change the mindset of this organization. That is true.

Like the bills were fucking losers and they were like the Cleveland Browns basically. They were one notch above the Browns. They were a laughing stock. I mean, the quarterbacks that were there. I mean, the bills were an afterthought. Tyra Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick, they had J. Lossman.

They had Trent Edwards, E.J. Manuel. I remember they was the first quarterback. First round. He was like 15th overall E.J. Manuel. Kyle Orton was on the bill. Careful making fun of E.G. Manuel. He was on television this morning, ESPN. And like you, Craig, his mic also didn't work

for like a stretch of the show. Is that right? Yeah. All right. I'll take that back then because that's extremely relatable. But yeah, man. Do you think John Harbaugh now is looking at the news and thinking, man, maybe I should have waited a week.

Damn it. He'll never admit that to anyone, but Stifansky taking the Falcons job. They all have to be. This is a remarkable time for head coach vacancies. Lamar and Allen. Lamar Jackson and Josh. Allen, the last two MVP's are available to coach? Yeah.

It's literally like, it's coach this coach Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen and the goals go win a Super Bowl this year. Like what an amazing thing. The third option is be the fourth Pittsburgh Steelers head coach since Richard Dixon was president and there was a mood landing. Like is also like what, I know the situation isn't incredible, but what a legendary job to be the Steelers coach. And then what's the fourth best option is the Raiders and coach Fernando Mendoza and then

Tom Brady's the owner. I know the Brady thing maybe wasn't as appealing. last year. But now that there's a quarterback, they're going to take Mendoza and you get to be the coach. And Tom Brady is going to basically mentor Fernando Mendoza. Those are the, or, you know, you could be the Browns head coach. But it is pretty crazy that those are the four openings on the table on January 20th. Cardinals. Oh, yeah, that's sick. Don't forget about the Cardinals. Love that. They're available. Yeah. Makes sense that you forgot. Yeah. I think it probably, you have to start with. I think it's, it's, it's, bills are the top option than the Ravens. I would probably put the Raiders three

with Mendoza. And then it's probably Steelers and then bottoming out, Browns. and Cardinals. Thank God the Giants locked down Harbaugh after their four-day negotiation or whatever. I don't know. Yeah, we didn't really talk about that. There was, so for people that were watching from afar, basically there was an announcement that the Giants had hired Harbaugh and High Fitz

celebrated. We did a whole show about it. Everyone did. The Giants Twitter put out a winking emoji. It came out the next day that he hadn't actually been signed. And he was basically holding the Giants feet to the fire and doing a power move or whatever. What do you call it? Like he went for the top and basically got approval from the owner that he reports to the owner not to Joe Shane, which is a great, great job by him.

He absolutely should have done that. Which is. So now Joe Shane is like assistant general manager, assistant to the general manager. I think Joe Shane, I think contractually they put it down that Joe Shane's due office is just a chair in the corner. Hi Fitz is tweeting out cut chair pictures. Well, he is. That's what it is. Joe Shane is.

Why is he there? Fire him. Somebody got to do the scouting shit. Harbaugh's not going to do that. This happened with the Patriots where Elliott Wolf was like the GM in New England and the Mike for him Brunabin and Elliott Wolf is still there, but he's not the GM. He's just like an awkward. He's a vestigial organ.

He is the giant's appendix. It is just not worth cut. They're going to ask his kids who they want to draft. That's what he's there for. Kids actually had a great take. I just, Joe Shane seems like a nice guy. Vistigial organ and it's just like, why don't you just cut your appendix out? Well, it's kind of a lot of work to do the surgery.

So unless he gets an infection, like we're not going to cut him out. That's really what happened. This is, yeah, this was kind of, I think I said this. I was, I don't understand why teams will fire a head coach and not their GM at the same time, especially if both had sort of not really. I mean, I guess you could say that that Shane has picked some good players, certainly. But, um, this is why it makes it so awkward is when you keep a GM, then the whole new coach coming in situation is weird.

Then you got to make sure they get along. Yeah. You see eye to eye on personnel moves. There's just so many things that you have to be in alignment about. And this is a big risk. that they're not going to be. Maybe this is the situation where they get through this draft and then they fire Josh. Yeah, or next year. Once Harbaugh's there, it's there. My cynical thing, same thing with the bills situation. Again, Joe Shin came from Buffalo. So as Brandon B and the

GM, they're getting promoted. My cynical view is, or maybe just Occam's Razor, when a owner fires the coach, the GM can search for a new coach. When the owner fire as a GM, you have to look for a new GM. And it's just you have to hire a consulting firm. And now you either have to find some football friend who you trust like a Matt Ryan, like Arthur Blank, owns the Falcons in his 80s. Now I need Matt Ryan to help me. Or you have to hire a consulting firm who's like, you know, it's a consulting firm. They don't actually, you know, so that's why you have these guys.

Now it's like Tom Brady with the Raiders. One of the things Mark Davis is like, good. Now Brady can do this. He owns part of the team. He's going to want to do this. I don't have to know what I'm talking about football anymore. Brady can do this. And like, you've seen that all over.

Troy McMahon with the Dolphins. It's like when you hire, fire the GM, the GM is, it's not just a GM. The owner has to have a football consigliary that they trust. And you fire the consigliary, you're like, fuck, who do I hire him as my new consigliary? So the Giants one, it's weird because, like, obviously that's what Harbaugh's role is. I don't know why they didn't just do what the Jags did when they hired Liam Cohen. They just throw Trim Blanky overboard and like, whatever. I mean, you keep the draft prep.

You want to keep the draft. I'm just saying, you want to keep the draft. He did an admiral job and then we chucked him overboard. It's true. Well, Balky didn't. But John Harbaugh, I think, did the right move, which is. And also the other thing, I don't know what ended up happening. but there's a lot of ownership, friends and family

in the organization and in the scouting department. I mean, it's Chris Mara who owns the team and is kind of running the team because John Mara has cancer and is not too great. And Chris Mara is running the team, his brother. Chris Mara is like a senior personnel guy. So imagine being in the room and like one of the people with a take on a player you don't like is the fucking owner of the team.

And you're like, this is going to be honest? This is functional. This is terrible. Like if the owner, like let's say Chris Mara, who gets running the team did a good job bringing in Harbaugh. Let's say he's the reason they drafted Jalen Hyatt. And now you want to cut Jalen Hyatt. This is my sympathy for Joe Shane is why is Jalen Hyatt on the team?

I'm like, well, maybe fucking Chris Mera loved Joe Hyatt. Or Jalen Hyatt, I don't know. Maybe the assistant director of personnel, Tim O'Donnell, who his mother also owns the team. The Giants, like he, like the little like John and Chris Mara's nephew is also like in the personnel department. They got to put these guys in freaking marketing or something. Why are they running the team?

I'm also doing that. And that's what I'm saying is I think John Harbaugh. Just put them in charge of ticket sales or something. Work upon a logo refresh. Yeah, maybe. Come on. Well,

that's kind of, so I think that also was part of it is that like, I think John Harbaugh probably wanted control of certain personnel. Basically saying, I want to be able to fire people who are related to you and I want that in writing. And I, and this is not known, but my high suspicion is that Harbaugh wanted in writing that like,

if you're going to give me the keys to the castle here, like, and what are the Giants going to do back out after everyone patted them on the back? That would look, the optics would be horrific. Yeah. No, he would run to the Buffalo and the Giants would be fucked. And so I think that's best for everyone. I think it was Lord of the Rings.

Gandalf walks in. Craig, remember the Lord of the Rings to the two buildings? And he just like does the little staff with the king and just purges them of evil. And so all the family members in all these places. And I think Joe Shane, maybe Wormtong is a little mean. I don't think he's that bad. But he shouldn't be fucking. Joe Shane should not be John Harbaugh's boss.

Peter Schrager was talking about who he thinks is most likely to get hired or top candidates for Buffalo. and he mentioned a couple people. There's the current coordinator, Joe Brady. He mentioned Brian Dayball, who Josh Allen is very fond of and they're very close with. And also Davis Webb, the former backup quarterback in the NFL, who is currently the past game coordinator for the Broncos. And apparently he is best friends with Josh Allen.

And, I mean, he played football. He's only 30 years old. He turns 30. 30? He turns 31 in two days. Oh, my God. And Davis Webb is thirsty for a coaching job. Davis Webb once had coaching job.

I think he's a thirsty man. Yeah, but Shrager was pointing out that it actually, Josh Allen and Davis Webb might be too good of friends to actually bring him in. I mean, they're the same age and they're best friends. You probably can't do that. Yeah, that's interesting. I think Brian Daibler would probably make sense as the bill's coach.

I think he's certainly the best offensive coordinator candidate out there as Daible. And I think the bills should look at him, but I don't know. Who the bills bring in is so interesting. but Greg Rosenthal made this point on Twitter, I believe. He said that he doesn't think the the McDermott firing happens without the blessing or input of Josh Allen. Would you agree with that? Like behind the scenes, they're probably not firing Josh Allen's guy.

So that's kind of a layer to this whole thing. I don't know if I necessarily agree with Greg. Greg's really smart. knows more stuff than I do. But just knowing the nature of the bill's ownership. Just kind of feels, yeah. I don't know. Who's the best candidate available?

I mean, we can go through these other hiring. So the Falcons hired Kevin Stefansky as their new head coach coming from Cleveland. Right. Two-time coach of the year, Stephen. Two-time coach of the year with Cleveland Browns. Made the playoffs with some of the worst quarterbacks you've ever seen in your life. D.K. Yeah.

Does this hire inspire confidence to you? Is this a middle of the road decision? Where does, where does this? I think it's like a B plus. I think it's good. I think it'll give them stability. He's, he's obviously a good coach. I mean, the two-time coach of the year on the Browns to me is like all you need to say,

really. And that's fine. It's hard to assign blame with how the Browns have gone the last few years because of all the moving parts with the Deshawn Watson thing, with the Shudder Sanders thing and like the apparent disagreement between ownership and coaching staff and all that stuff. So to me it's hard to assign blame for their failures when you've got the front office working at least not in uniformity or whatever with the coaching staff. So I still think he's probably a really good coach. And it gives the Falcons some stability.

I don't know if it's like a home run higher necessarily. But I think I think you should feel good if you're Atlanta. I think grading on a curve, it's an A because the Falcons are not the Baltimore Ravens or the Buffalo Bills. And if the Ravens hired Kevin Stefanski, it'd be like B minus, but you're the Falcons and they have,

Stephansky is the head coach, which I think works per, I mean, Kirk Cousins was his coordinator in Minnesota for a while. Sorry, Stavansky was Kirk Cousins, scored data in Minnesota. So I think the Falcons keep Kirk Cousins, who obviously ended on a winning streak

that the Falcons ended up tying for the division lead, even though they were eliminated on December 2nd or whatever. So they have Bill Callahan as the offensive line coach. He's one of the better offensive line coach in the NFL. And they kept Jeff Oldbrick, the defensive coordinator.

And I mean, the Falcons were dead last in Sacks over a six-year period. And last year the Falcons were actually quietly second in the entire league in Sacks, which is ironic because the trade up to get the pass rusher, James Pierce that led the team in Sachs is what got everyone fired because they gave it the first-round pick. But I think this is, I think the Falcons, who have not had a winning record in like eight years, I think the Falcons should be the favorite to win the division. I think this is really funny because it's just indicative of the whole coaching carousel, the whole cycle.

It's so funny how it's just, it's the old Brian Regan joke with, if you needed logs. It's like all these coaches are just switching teams. I saw our buddy Charles McDonald tweet this. He used the picture of fired with Stefanski, like from when he got fired by the Browns is like his celebratory.

Like we got it. It's just like a giant fired on it. It's just like so funny that these guys are switching teams. I mean, I think it is a good hiring. It's like kickers. Yeah. I do think, TK, that what you're talking about is the point for this coaching cycle because I think people are probably wondering.

So why are 10 coaches being fired? Why are there 10 openings? A third of the league has a coach opening when all we could talk about entering this was there aren't good candidates. And I think it's related to what I've been saying for like a couple months in the show of we're in between eras in the NFL. And that Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow level of dominance is like kind of not ending but like subsiding. but then this new era is starting of like, you know, Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson of the Bears and Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars are in that division. You know what I mean?

Like we're seeing the Broncos, with Bo Nix, Rabel with Drake Bay and the Patriots. We're seeing all these like new blood teams. And I think a lot of owners are fucking pissed that they didn't move a year earlier. I think that the Falcons are like, man, like we like some teams either waited a year too long.

Like everyone's mad they weren't in last year's cycle. Like the Falcons, you know what I mean? The Falcons had Rahim Morris. Maybe they were a year too early on them. that. Like, you know what I mean? Other teams had, like, the Giants fired Brian Dable. I'm like, oh, if they were early, you could have got frable. It's about timing. It's like relationships. Like, have of it is just like, do you, are you lucky enough to be bad when there's a great quarterback in the top five? Like, a lot of it just comes down to that. And same with the coaching.

Because this year, you know, last year was a lot of coordinators getting promoted to head coaches, right, Ben Johns and Liam Cohen, stuff like that. This year, it's a lot of head coaches just switching other head coaching. Yeah. John Harbaugh, head coach to head coach. Kevin Stefanski. Robert Sala, the Titans hired Robert Sala, who, who, was a defensive coordinator for one year for the Niners after previously being the head coach of the Jets for quite a while. This feels like Sala going to Tennessee

feels like a real adult in the building higher. I want somebody who we trust, who can handle things, who we know is liked across the league, who players like who players will play hard for. It felt like the Callahan era struggled with that in terms of just like

gaining respect in the locker room. And Sala is kind of the opposite. opposite of that of a guy who can immediately step in the room and inspire people. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's the Callahan era was marked by a couple of pretty high profile flubs in the media in terms of some of the things he said. It made you feel like he didn't understand the rules of the game or how to run a team kind of deal.

And I think Sala is, he just has more cachet as a coach. He's done it. He's been a head coach before. It's hard to judge, same deal with the Stefanski thing. It's hard to judge what Sala did at the Jets because they're just such a disaster. But he's been a very highly respected coach. He's the kind of coach that is going to get the players playing really hard, I think. And that's like a big thing too for them.

And so I don't know. I'm kind of lukewarm on this, this hiring. I know High Fitz really likes Sala. I don't really know if it inspires confidence for me. I have made the joke. He just has too many kids to be a head coach. I'm only partly kidding on that. He's seven children.

How do you do that and have it and be a head coach in an NFL? That's why you're qualified. If you have seven kids, you can do a head coach to be a head coach. And it's like, how do you have time? I guess obviously you just goes to work. It's not even hard. Because someone else is raising them kids. But yeah, I don't know.

It's just it is, it's a hard situation to have seven kids and have a job that requires 80 hours of work week. I think he's, I think they can figure that out. I think they can get some child care. I'm only, I'm only partly serious on that. I love Sala. I think Sala got shafted with the Jets. And I, I will go down believing that he was a way better coach than people remember.

I still can't believe. I mean, he was fired as a defensive at coach. The offense was outsourced Aaron Rogers as a decision ownership made. and then Sala, the defensive head coach, his defense gave up two touchdowns in the last three games and he fired him. And everywhere Sala goes, he is, the hole is greater than the sum of the parts.

The Niners defense this year was like obliterated by the substation and like, it was supposed to be like, hey, it's going to be a bunch of young guys around Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. And then Nick Bose and Fred Warner immediately get hurt. So you're down a defensive player of the year, the best lineback in the NFL. You're down you're starting three linebackers. You're down three your top four defensive ends.

Everyone left is freaking 24 younger, except for a couple older guys. And like they're competitive. They almost got the one seed in the NFC. entering week 18. So I, everywhere he's been, I think I've been impressed. He's a players coach. Players love him, I think. He gets guys to buy in and play really hard. I think the Titans, it's really easy. They're opening stadium in 2027 and they suck. And they need to be competitive this season because they need to sell tickets for 2027. And I think the Titans owner Amy Adams

Trunk sees an issue of what if we have a top three, top four pick three years in a row and then we have to sell season tickets. That isn't good. And they want, I think, solid. I think they were going to give this job to Matt and Aggie for Cam Ward. And then I think Robert Saul blew them away about the competitiveness. So I think that's why you have the job. I know maybe he will be a good head coach again, but that would have been the most underwhelming hire, I can imagine. Yes. It would have. I would have. But I don't know. I think the Titans are kind of chasing the ghost to their former coaches. Like they fired Rable in part. Matt Lafleur went to the Packers. And I do believe that the Titans were so mad that Matt Lafleur were succeeding in Green Bay.

They were like, wait, we need someone to help a quarterback so they fired Rable. And now, they have Brian Callahan to do a Matt Lefleur impression and he sucked. Now, guess what? Mike Vrable, as a defensive coach in his CEO role, who's not calling plays, is like doing an unbelievable job with the vibes and Patriots. And now they're like, you know, if only we had a defensive coach who could be, you know, overseas stuff like a Mike Vrable. They could have had Mike Vrable and kept him, but instead, now they needed Robert Sala.

So they're kind of the tails wagging the dog, but I do like Sala. Well, and the Patriots, fortunately have somebody like Josh McDaniel, who now the Titans need to bring in the right OC. and maybe they regret letting Vrable go. Maybe they regretted letting Arthur Smith go and maybe Arthur Smith is going to go back and call plays with the Titans. He interviewed with them,

as did Brian Dayball, Mike McDaniel. It does feel like for Cam Ward, you have to make sure you get the right guy to come in here because, like, you only have a couple years before you kind of know if you have it or not. Did you guys ever see,

this is a terrible reference, but did you ever see the movie Good Luck with Dane Cook? Oh, God. The storyline was every woman who slept with him. would get married to the next guy they dated or whatever. So he like started getting all these girls that wanted to sleep with him because they wanted

to get married to the next guy. Sure. So not a great movie, Jessica Alba. And now Brian Dable is going to go to the Titans be the coordinator and then he'll right. So the Titans are good luck Chuck. Everybody finds their forever coach after they coach with the Titans. What are the Jets then?

Bad luck, Chuck? The Jets are just like a one-night stand. That didn't, that was shameful and regretful. What is it? The walk of shame in the morning. You're just always on the walk of shame. The last hire here, the only coordinator to get promoted to head coach,

if I'm not mistaken, is the Dolphins hired Jeff Halfley, who was the defensive coordinator of the Packers for two seasons. He was the head coach of Boston College before that. Carlos, long-time Dolphins fan texted us. I feel nothing when they hired Jeff Halfley. That's how I feel, too.

Well, it's funny. High Fitz, do you agree with that? Like, what do we know about? I mean, the Packers' defense did a good job. That's kind of it. He has a tight fade. He's been a coach in the NFL for two years. He's got a flat top.

Yeah, he was like a defensive backs coach before Boston College in the NFL. So he has been around. But yeah, we don't know a lot about him. No, it's always funny when we have to, like, pretend, like, we know how some coordinator will do as head coach. It's like sometimes you have a beat on a guy. Jeff Hathley, the nerds love him. The nerds love, like, I think scheme, I think what he did with the Packers is impressive

on defense the last couple seasons. And so it's just like, you know, maybe not. We always talk about how Pete, Carol and Mike Tomlin have kind of failed the test of can you stop modern offenses and like what worked 10 years ago does. I think Jeff Halfley is just has a modern approach to defense and in terms of changing coverages, making quarterbacks confused when they look like what you see pre snaps, not post snap, what you see one second in doesn't look like three seconds in.

And that's what Mike McDonald's going to get to the Seahs to the Super Bowl maybe that way. And so that's kind of what he's doing. And then I think it's just combined with he was the head coach of Boston College for a few years randomly. And I think it's the idea that not that Boston College is the my. Miami Dolphins, but the idea that the mix of scheme stuff with you actually do, you have had experience running a program being the guy. Like maybe you're not a Josh McDaniels fucking tyrant the moment you step out or Matt Patricia, where you're just a tyrant the moment

you're in charge and like Boston College did all right one under him. I think that's the idea. And I do think this is a package deal. They can never say that because of, you know, they have to comply with the Rini rule and certain things. But they hired the GM or the, sorry, the VP player person, John Eric Sullivan from the Packers. He was in the Packers for like 20 years. Yes. And so then he came over with Miami. me, Jeff Halfley wasn't with the Packers for as long. But generally speaking, when a GM's hired and then they're like, we are going to conduct a full search.

And then 10 days later, they're like, I have an idea. The guy I was already working with 10 days ago. I like him. They're like, all right. So that was kind of the handshake deal a while ago and everything else is kind of checking boxes for public appearances. So, but that's how it is now. That's just kind of how it goes.

So the, we'll see. I mean, good luck. Like, you're going to have whatever the bills do with Josh Allen. You're going to have the Patriots and Mike Vrabble. The Jets suck. But like, good luck competing with them. I don't know. There's a lot of people connecting the dots with Malik Willis now too.

Malik Willis is a free agent. The Tua era almost certainly over at this point. So that's going to be really interesting to see if that ends up panning out where they bring in another green bag guy. This is one of those things. I was just looking at Hatfley's resume. I don't know if this matters or makes any difference, but I thought it was fascinating that he just left being a head coach to go back to the NFL to be a coordinator. He left Boston.

He left Boston. Boston College. He's like, I'm just like, NIL. That's like, I know, but it was just, it's just kind of funny that he was the head coach of the team.

He's like, I'm going to go be a coordinator again. Can I, I mean, on that note, I, yeah, I forgot the other day,

David Shaw, who was the succeeded Jim Harbaugh as the coach at Stanford and was like considered a candidate forever. David Shaw is just like on the Lions coaching staff as an assistant. Like he's like the passing game coordinator. He's not even the opposite.

Like David Shaw left the head coach job at Stanford to just to just be an assistant on, line staff. Being a head coach in college, I think is really difficult right now. Now that's the thing is like David Shaw was like Stanford. He's like we have great student athletes who want to get a great education and actually take classes and take the hard road. And now it's just like a dude now you're just like kids are coming to you on one year deals. It's like there's a flight. Chip Kelly just like left the head coach. Chip Kelly did the same thing. Yeah.

Be the court in Ohio State. And he was like as long as I don't talk to the kids. So I want to talk to anyone. I'll just sit in my little booth and draw up place. I kind of I respect that actually Dude Carson Beck said he hasn't been to He hasn't had a class in two years Oh dude he he were like Are you supposed to say that out loud? Well no he was like the class

He's like well I graduated two years ago He's like obviously you know your master He basically was like so I'm in a six year program He's like I mean I'm not gonna like finish it My God It's so weird I graduated two years ago A lot of people go to college for six years Yeah well there you go

Well it used to be doctors Yeah sure That's a good point The only other piece of news here coordinator news. The Lions hired Drew Hetzing. This is a bizarre. Who has been the offensive coordinator for the Cardinals since 2023. Not an inspiring time for Arizona, I would say. Hyvitz, are you surprised by this? Yeah, I was. I mean, I guess you have to, I trust Dan Campbell. I trust Dan Campbell. I think I don't

know what exactly the logic was. It's funny. I think coordinator jobs are so hard to, they're opaque. I still think the best coordinators out there if they don't get a head coaching job would be Brian Dable who I think, you know, if you want to develop a quarterback, Brian Dable with Jalen Hertz and two

at Alabama and then like, what did he did with Josh Allen and then Daniel Jones best years until this year were with him and Jackson DART. I do think Dable should be a coordinator. And I think Mike McBeal would be an amazing coordinator.

But I, Drew Petsing, I frankly, I'd be lying if I was like, I just kind of trust Dan Campbell Campbell to make the decision. And like, you know, I didn't know who Ben Johnson was

before they hired Ben Johnson. So like, kind of just hope it works, but it would be disappointing if it failed. It's funny. I was thinking about this the other day. I feel like we care about coordinators so much more now than we ever used to.

And we even know the names of coordinators more now than we ever used to. I was talking to Chris Ryan about this. I was like, you know, in like the 90s and early 2000s and before that, like did anyone know the names of coordinators? And he was like, no. They are more famous now.

Yeah, yeah, mythology. Yeah. Coordinators are more famous now more than ever. People are paying. Oh, like the Eagles offensive coordinator is a huge. huge talking point. It's like the most important

the Eagles decision of the offseason is who's going to be calling plays. And it's funny that that never used to be a narrative. And I don't know if it's more now because like scheme is more valued than personnel where it used to be like if you get the quarterback, it's kind of just up to them. And now it's like actually if you have the correct scheme,

the Shanahan style, I can make the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garapolo that that has made the play calling and the offensive coordinator become so much more prominent. But it does feel like everyone, I mean most people can probably name the offensive coordinator on most NFL teams, which I think is kind of crazy. Yeah. I mean, Seth Myers went on Bill's show.

Yes. Talking about your Steelers and he had the great rule that if other fans know the name of your coordinator, that's a terrible sign. Matt Canada. Matt Canada. But it's true. It's like Kevin Petulow is like people who don't root for the Eagles know who Kevin Patullo is, which is why he got fired.

Like his name was said more than Siriani's probably this year, Kevin Petulow. I just think it's fascinating that the coordinator position matters more than it ever has it feels like. Also, along those lines, there's an insane amount of turnover at that position, at that, you know, offensive coordinator in particular. It's like half the league. Yeah. I was talking to our buddy East and Freeze and he made a list of it. It's like, in addition to all the new coaching staffs, like head coach changes, there's the lions, bucks, commanders, chargers, chiefs, Eagles, maybe the Bengals, maybe the Seahs, Cubs, Cuviac is getting a bunch of interview requests, maybe Jags, maybe 40-9ers, maybe Rams.

there's going to be like half the league is getting a new offensive coordinates next year like the longest tenured I want to say coming into last year the longest tenured offensive coordinator was like two years or something it was crazy how much these guys move and it is a large part due to if you're really good at offensive coordination you're going to get head coach job almost surely so there's a lot of turnover and movement on that front but it is just fascinating calling back to what I was saying people just shuffling chairs on the what's the expression of shuffling the chairs on the deck of the Titanic or whatever. It's like just, I don't know. Let's get this guy. Maybe he'll do something different. Let's get this guy. He's going to do something different. Yeah.

Okay. Anything else in this? You guys wanted to emails. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. This is from Sean. Sean. That's bone.

So Sean, the breakfast you'll see in a second. So Sean writes, you guys were having a discussion on the podcast about gum. And one of the complaints we had about gum, for me was like, what do you guys do with the gum when you're done? and Sean writes at some point in my 20s, I decided I would just swallow my gum.

Mm-hmm. And it's been years and I'm fine. It doesn't matter. Just swallow your gum. He's got a giant gumball in his stomach right now. I think this is crazy. He literally said we're all riddled with microplastics. I don't think passing some gum is going to make a difference.

Can you guys swallow gum? How often you do that? As somebody with eosinophilic esophagitis, I am not trying to swallow gum. I can hardly swallow regular food. I'm not swallowing gum. That's fair. I have swallowed my gum in the past.

I don't like to do it. It's, it feels very weird. But if it's like an emergency, you're in a meeting or something and you can't just like spit it out somewhere, then yeah, I'll swallow it.

I guess. I don't think it's like the old wives tale is it gets stuck in your system for 10 years or something like that, which I don't think it's true. I don't know. Maybe surgeons or doctors talk to us. I've always had trouble.

You know what I've never understood. This happens all the time in movies. It's like the ex cop who's going through something and he needs his pills to get him through the day. And he always like pours the pills into his hand and he just like shoves them in his mouth and swallows like four dry. I've never understood that. Does anyone actually do that in real life? Oh, it's so swallowing pills dry. There's a generational divide there, Craig.

The boomer generation or whatever, the people a little bit older than us, they can take pills dry and they can do the whistle. thing with their hands. Yeah. Our fucking generations never learned that shit. I don't know anyone my age. How do you do that? I really want to learn how to whistle like that. That's like one of the coolest moves ever.

Like maybe one Advil, which is kind of sugar-coated and smooth. Maybe a liquid gel. Yeah. Just take it just a little head tilt. That's all you do. Yeah. But dude, it's like the little, it's like, it's always like five pills that you need to take

for whatever reason. Yeah. And they just got gun them down the throat. Dude, there was an episode of McGiver. He used to watch McGiver rerun. when I was a kid. And there was an episode of McGiver where he like had taken some poison

and he had to take the antidote and he barely got it. It was a pill and he just took the pill and swallowed it. And I was like eight years old. And I'm like, I don't even know you could do that. I thought you had to take water with it.

And so now I think about this. The lead in like some badass movies like choking on a pill. I think about this every day because I go to take my giant vitamin C and I'm like, I wonder if I'm not bitch like McIver. And some days I just,

if there's not a water in my bedroom already, I'll just try. And sometimes I end up like like the stupid orange flavor of vitamin C. see like an idiot. This is how I start my mornings. Don't understand that at all.

It's a lost skill. It's a skill that's being lost to time. It should be. We don't need that. It should be. Men used to go to war and take pills dry. Dude, Beau Burnham. My granddad turned 27.

He fought in Vietnam. And when I turned 27, I built a birdhouse with my mom. It's just always like, like we did the rewatchables on this movie, too, for the money. which is a ridiculous movie with Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey about sports gambling. And Pacino is like, you know, in his 50s or something. He's a heart issue, of course. And so it's like three times throughout the movie he has like, you know, some minor cardiac arrest. And he collapses to the ground and they always got to like pull out.

He's got a shaky hand trying to pour the pills so he can get his pills to calm down his heart, which of course, you know, happens instantaneously for some reason. Like the second it touches his tongue, his heart stops fluttering. But yeah, it's like he's always like laying on the ground trying to, swallowed three dry pills and I just don't understand. The physics just don't work. All right. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you, Craig. Thank you for listening. Thank you, John Harbaugh for getting that contract signed. And then you're Joe Shane, not being your boss. Thank you for listening. Thank you to Cam, Carlos, Kai, Austin. Emails at Rianfancy Football.gumel.com.

Includes your breakfast in the emails. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, Tame and Paula. Nice. Love Taming Paula. Oh, yeah? I don't know a ton about them.

I think you would like, it's one guy. But it sounds like a band. I think he has like a backup band, but it's one guy. Forget his name. Kevin Parker. Kevin Parker, yeah. Australian. I definitely thought they were banned and found out they're not a band on this

on this show because we've done this before. Oh, I don't know if they're considered a band. If he has like his same guys with him all the time. But I believe it is just like Kevin Parker kind of as the, main artist here. You guys have, Taman Paul is the perfect example to me of, do you guys have certain artists where you don't know the names of the songs, but I can see the album cover. It's like there's a room with sand filled in the corner, but I don't know what to look up. Yeah, or one, there's the one Tamant Paul album that I really like looks like a like a neutron and like the middle

of like an electromagnetic field. You know what I'm talking about? It looks like a like a, oh yeah, I can see that now. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's great. I, I've, Taman Paul is like one of my favorite artists, especially at college and a little bit after college. He makes great music, big fan. DK, I think you would like it. Yeah, I've heard a couple of his songs, and I was like, oh, this is good. I don't know anything about this band, but yeah. Is it kind of like, imagine Dragons thinks they're making Tame and Paula's music?

Yeah, he's like, I don't know how to describe Tame and Paul as genre. It's like, it's rock, but there's like some, the psychedelic or electronic elements to it. Yeah. It's good. Yeah, what's the album with that looks like that? Psychedelic. music.

Yeah. Solid though. How'd you think of them? Just what I said, I listened to a few songs of theirs lately and I was just like, or his lately. I was just like, oh, this is pretty good. I've heard about this band before, but I never really dug into it. Currents is a very good album.

You could like rip that whole thing and there's like nine great songs on. Okay. Who are the other bands that are like one guy or one person and then like, like, Blondie? Isn't that just also? Or no, isn't that also just like one person? I thought Blondie. people. But you know what I mean? There are other ones where you think it's a band and it's one person.

Right. It was formed by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Oh, okay. But yeah, I know what you mean. Where it's like you're just one person, but you don't use your name. There's a lot of, I think, musical acts that will float between different, they have like different bands and different projects. They don't want to just like do one thing. So they're all kinds of different stuff. Non-monogamous. Right. You know who was a band that was kind of in the alt-man? or in the Tame and Paula range from me was an Alt J. Do you remember them?

Alt J was really good when I was in like college right coming out of that. They do the breeze blocks? Yes. I think Alt J is the perfect example to me of like people who would tell me about music and I'd listen to it and I would pretend to get it. I think like they would show me like and they're like

and they're like yeah yeah, yeah, this is good. You know what? I'm like, I don't, I don't know what the fuck they were talking. I don't know what they were doing. I feel that way about geese. Geese is now blowing up. You know that band? Yes.

No, I don't know that band. I just found out of it at the last week. I don't, were there the companies? Geese. Geese. Geese. You heard about geese? All the cool people like geese.

Are you saying geese? See, to me, AllJ is melodic still. All J is like, this sounds good to my ears. My, ma ma ma ma ma ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, that's actually pretty good. in your night, it's pleasure. I was like, I'm kind of getting, I understand exactly what you're saying, yeah. Geese is like,

there are certain bands that are so cool. I feel like they are actively trying to sound bad. It's like a social experiment. Yes. It's like we are going to purposely make music that is not melodic and see if we can get people to like it. Because to me, geese, it's so alternative that, I don't know.

People really like geese though. Okay. Check out them out too. Yeah, we'll check out geese. Despite what I say about being an old

fuddy-duddy and listening to say music is when I was younger. I really do like to find new stuff that I really like. You're good about that. Email us at ringer fantasy football at email.com. What do you guys want?

I want other bands that you kind of would just be like, yeah, yeah, I get it, but you don't get it. For me, that was always all, Jay. If you had to pick, if someone that you respected their musical taste asked you,

give me your favorite new band or whatever. Like what's the best new thing that you're listening to? I want that. And it like you're afraid of getting judged. Oh, no. I'm not afraid of getting judged. Sylvan Esso.

I like Sylvan S. Oh, I know them. Yeah. I like them a lot. Did you ever listen to Olivia D&DK? Not yet. I'm going to write that down right now. By the way, how was how was Transformers?

I haven't watched it yet. Okay. I didn't realize I was supposed to watch it before the next show. I thought I thought I had some time. Would you like to set a deadline? we probably should or else I'm never going to watch it I'll give you one month before we are in Indianapolis

you need to watch there we go throw it on on the plane although that is disrespectful to Michael Bay's spectacle but I was gonna say you can't watch a Michael Bay movie in a plane I watched the revenue on a plane and the first scene of the revenue is like this like shot of the sunlight morning sunlight hitting the river and I'm just like man he shot the entire movie with natural light

two hours of natural light a day in Alaska for six months and I'm like I'm watching this on a fucking plane I heard that was not not the easiest shoe. Yeah, the Revenant natural light, it's, I guess it's, you know, it's like my socks being matched with the rest of my outfit. I don't really understand the importance of it a few years ago. And now I'm starting to understand it.

You feel like you have a, you have a better grasp on. What are you wearing right now? What's your socks situation? Well, I mean, you know, now I'll get the lower half. You got clocks on or something right now? Like, you know, brown socks. You're wearing brown socks right now at home? I am.

Some people, some people like to get dressed like they're going into work. Like me, I do that. even though I just stay at home. Are you currently dressed like you're going into work? Yeah. Do you make a t-shirt? Well, I work in sports media. I'm not fucking wearing a suit.

But you're saying, you'd be like, I like to get dressed like I'm going into the office and you're just in a t-shirt and a hat. As opposed to just wearing like sweats all day. Yeah, I was going to say sweat. Craig, wearing a sweatshirt. Like, what else would you be wearing? We're a hoodie.

I'm not dressing like I'm going into the office. We don't have to dress up to go to the office, but no. I'm just saying getting dressed in general. Is that us being older or is that like a change? I agree, but also is that just we're in our 30s now? You're embracing a new, new era of your life. I think COVID, work from home, the access to like easy food delivery,

there are so many more reasons for you to never leave your house that I feel like when you go out now, looking nice feels good. You know, something's like you put a suit on to go to a wedding. You're like, you know, it's kind of nice to wear a suit. Yeah. I think on a lesser scale going out to dinner and dressing a little bit nicer rather than wearing like, you know, joggers in a T-shirt. shirt, I think it just kind of feels nice. It feels like you're breaking, you're breaking up your day,

the monotony of like wearing the same clothes all the time. Yeah, I agree with that. Or I'm 31. I think it's probably both. Maybe it's both. Yeah. Or I'm like, this Ralph Lauren Polo looks nice. Wow, you look good. Would you change? I don't know. I put on real clothes. Yeah, I'm wearing jeans and a button down. Greg's like, it's also just 31 and we're like, you know, maybe it's COVID. Maybe I just have opinions on sconces now. Backsplash. Do you guys say button up or button down? For what?

A button down. For sure? A button down. Maybe both. A button up shirt? Great question. I definitely say button down. Button up is like you got to be buttoned up.

It's like, oh, it's like, you know, for a social setting. But like button down is the shirt in my head. Now I think about it. I think I say I wear a button up shirt. It's funny. Or you say a button down as its own. singular word instead of a button down shirt you say a button up shirt or a button down yes it's funny because you don't even need up or down it should just be a button shirt yeah that's true

that's very true i mean really when you think about it's a good point this shirt has buttons we don't need that it's got it yeah yeah what if it's a button sideways so there you go so they just explain for everyone yes so the shirt has buttons on it that's why you know they go up and down Yeah, yeah, just for people. It's all about perspective. Yeah. Goodbye, everyone.