The Ringer NFL Show - Bold NFL Predictions for Three Years From Now | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Sheil and Ben let loose and have some fun with predicting three NFL headlines that will happen in 2026. Who will the Patriots move on from first: Bill Belichick or Mac Jones? Which current NFL coach will be highly sought after for the broadcast booth? Will there be a new division formed overseas? Hosts: Ben Solak and Sheil Kapadia Producer: Cliff Augustin Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Music Composed By: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the host of a new football podcast called Slow Newsday. I want to tell you about it. On Mondays, Lindsay Jones and I will recap the weekend in football that was, as well as look ahead to what's next. On Wednesday, the normal Slow Newsday, the thing you've been watching for years, current players, current coaches, current analysts talking about the football world. And on Friday, it's a wildcard.

Could be some college football. Could be more pro stuff. It's a video podcast so you can watch it on Spotify or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Follow on Spotify. It's Slow Newsday. To extra point, taking Kiel Kapadia

with Ben Solak on the ringer NFL feed. Fun episode today. This goes back months ago. You know, Benny Soles, his mind is always working. He sends me a text. Hey, look at this.

I don't even remember who it was, Ben. Someone had a great idea. It was NBA related, I believe, where they like looked ahead three years and did some type of, here's what's going to be happening in 2025 or 2026 in the NBA. And Ben was like,

this could work. work well as an extra point taken. And we tabled it and we said, all right, we got enough to talk about. Well, now it's the middle of May. We have nothing to talk about. So we said, we're stealing that. We're using this for the NFL. This is the exercise. Ben Solek and I, we're looking into our crystal balls three years from now. It's the year, 26. What is happening in the NFL? Ben, did you have fun doing this exercise? Did you were just like 10 minutes before the show? you're like, oh my God, these are three things that could happen. How did you feel about this?

It's actually funny. The second way is usually how I prepare for the show. And this time, it was more the first way. It was overwhelming because there's just, there's so many things you want to say. And then you want them all to come with sufficient pop, sufficient punch. But you also want them to be something that maybe actually potentially could happen, such that you could swing back three years from now and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, well. And so it was a threading of the needle.

And so I ended up like with a few takes that get a few different predictions into them. You know what I mean? Kind of a yeah. Doing accumulations that way. But yeah, it was a good time. I agree. I had like this long list and I'm like, oh, I just have to pick what are three that I like. But it was kind of fun to look ahead and be like, what could happen in the next three years when I'm an even older man in the NFL?

So without further ado, I wonder if we have any like similar topics, similar principles, similar predictions. It's possible. Let's get to it. Start us off. What is your first prediction storyline, something that's going to be happening in the NFL in the year 2026? All right. Justin Herbert will no longer be the quarterback to Los Angeles Chargers. Oh, baby. If you're a Chargers fan, I apologize if you're listening right now. Okay. So, yeah, let's go back and let's look at, so it is currently 2023. Let's go back and let's look at the 2020 NFL season, right, where we had Matthew Stafford taking snaps for the Detroit Lions, right, where we had Aaron Rogers taking snaps for the Green Bay Packers, and we had

Deshawn Watson taking snaps to the Houston Texans. A lot of quarterbacks, a lot more quarterbacks who feel eminently immovable move. I didn't even bring up the big one, which is Tom Brady, but that's obviously got a little bit of a different circumstance and a different context. When you go and you look at the landscape of currently untouchable young quarterbacks who are clearly never, ever, ever going to leave their team ever. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hertz, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, like that like that like top group, I'm here to tell you in 2026, one of those guys is not going to be on the team that he's currently on. That's just, that's just the law of chaos. That's this, the law of big and disorderly numbers.

when I go and I try to find the guy, I look at a team that tends to struggle to get out of the middle class. It's in an extremely different division, an extremely difficult conference to win that is currently lagging in terms of stars behind the Ravens with Lamar and the Bengals with Joe Burrow

and the bills with Josh Allen and the chief of Patrick Mahomes and maybe even eventually at some point soon the Jacksonville Jaguars. And that's the, I don't say that's the tricky barks. I think there's no way the Jaguars are moving. moving on from Lawrence because Lawrence represents probably the best quarterback in Jacksonville history if he continues on the arc that he's been on, right? Like, it's like Byron left

which probably. Yeah, David, David, Jared, you know what I'm saying? Whereas with Herbert, he's coming off of like the huge enormous Philip Rivers tenure, which, you know, was coming off of a, not enormous, but still significant Drew Bree's tenure. The Chargers don't really move off of star quarterbacks is what I'm saying. So it's a little bit hard to get this take over the line, right? It is a little bit challenging. But if I'm trying to find the most likely world for one of these elite star quarterbacks, of course we're never going to move on from him, why would we ever move on from him? This is our guy for the future, the guy for next 10, 15 years. If I'm trying to find the one who makes the most sense that they move on from him,

Los Angeles is the team that feels like they're going to really underperform relative to expectations, right? If the Javours is like win the South a couple of times and hang around the playoffs, everybody's chilling. The Chargers were pretty good this year and won in in the playoffs. And they might do that again because I'm not sure that they added like their big year for adding talent was last year.

The big year for adding stars was last year. It didn't work. I'm not sure that Brandon Staley isn't on the hot seat. The Chargers feel like the team with instability. And I could very well see at some point

in the upcoming three seasons, not necessarily Justin Herberg. He seems happy just kind of like chill and do whatever. But Justin Herbert's agent and Justin Herbert's team being like, hey, we might want to start making some noise about playing somewhere else

and winning some games. games there. The AFC to NFC quarterback disparity in terms of talent is in desperate need of balancing. And I don't think it's a wild, insane, tectonic shifting opinion that one of these great young quarterbacks for the AFC, if they, if things start to get squirly and their team starts underperform and they feel like they're not getting supported by the front office, if they say, hey, I don't get over to that, get over to that other conference. A little bit of an easier road there.

season success there. So I'm not saying the charges aren't going to extend Justin Herbert. I think they will. I'm just saying that we know that extensions are eminently get outable, more get outable than they've ever been before in terms of dead cap hits and trade opportunities. And if you had to make me bet on one of these young quarterbacks to leave, the guy I would bet on would be Justin Herbert and the charges going for a messy divorce. First of all, great job coming in hot. That's how we do it, brother. So far this episode, it's everything I hope. I'll tell you right now that's not my hottest one. that's not your hottest fun. I was waiting to hear the explanation

and you gave it there at the end. Like, is this more the charger saying, hey, like maybe Herbert gets injured for a year or something and they end up with a top three pick and there's a great quarterback prospect. And they say, you know what? It hasn't worked with Herbert. We can get so much for Justin Herbert.

Let's draft the quarterback. Let's try again. Let's bring in all this draft capital. That kind of thing. But you're saying it would be more Justin Herbert being like, what are you guys doing? I'm not the problem. You guys are the problem. We haven't done anything. I'm embarrassed.

I need to go somewhere that promotes more of a winning culture, right? That's how this kind of plays out. I mean, in that way, it would be more. It would probably be this year's a disappointment. Brandon Staley's gone. They bring in a new coach, and that coach stinks too. And then at the end of that, Herbert's like, all right, you know, this is my third coach. I'm done with it. I want to go elsewhere. Yeah, like, let's say the chargers are, like, let's say the charges are, like, I'd say the Chargers do exactly what they've done in the last two years,

which have been, like, unbelievable years in terms of Herbert talent. Herbert's been so good at football these last two years. And they tripped over themselves in Week 18 to not make the playoffs, and then made the playoffs and, like, tripped over themselves, does not even begin to encapsulate what they did against the Jacksonville Jaguroy's in the game. Let's see they just keep doing that. Like, the next two years are the exact same. They missed the playoffs for knucklehead reasons,

and then they get to the playoffs and they embarrass themselves. You tell me at the end of that 20-25 season, somebody isn't writing the article about should Justin Herbert be trying to get out of Los Angeles. Like it just seems to me like a thing that would definitely be happening. Like they, the logic is too strong there. Now, like I said, there's two main issues you run into. One, the charges are the sort of team. They just kind of like, all right, keep the star quarterback.

Like we're cool, just kind of going like 10 and 7 and whatever. Like they, it's not like a huge market team of like high expectations and like crazy demands from a super involved ownership group. So there's not as much Ignition, not as much as sparks there to kind of like actually spur on a move That's problem one and the problem two is Herbert doesn't seem to me to be that guy right if Herbert were like that big dude that big personality Sure. So it would kind of need to be somebody else in Herbert's camp being like let's go because I think he'd be good to chill So that's where I think it starts to to to struggle I think that's where it starts to lose a little bit of the gas

Honestly that the team the the individual for whom it might be make more sense. And I could see him if his team starts underperforming asking to get out would be like Joe Burrow. But I think they've been backed back to ASC championship games. Yeah, they've been a back to the championship games. Even if they have two underperforming seasons,

they've had the success that he would stay. You know what I'm saying? So like, I can't see Jalen Hertz doing it because of like his like whole commitment to the whatever of like leadership and the way of the eagle structured that deal. Like I know what you said is true. Like contractor get outable. That one was like a bigger commitment.

than it even looked like because they have to restructure that one. So yeah, it would have to be him saying like, no, I want out of here, which seems hard to believe when he's coming off for Super Bowl appearance in his second season. Yeah, when you went through the list, I'm with you. I was like, no, Burrow is not, you know, Burrough is just so linked to Cincinnati. Mahomes is just so linked to Kansas City. Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence. Like, I, as you were laying it out, I agreed with the premise that of all these guys, if there is one that her. would be the most likely. So I like it. Good, good one to lead us off here. All right, my turn. Here's a headline you're going to read in the offseason in 2026.

Bill Belichick, Washington commanders, hope to make the leap in year three. You're saying, Oh, wow. Oh, wow. I missed it. I was like, what? And then I got there. You're saying, what are you talking about? Bill Belichick coaches the New England Patriots. All right. So how did we get here? Here's how we got here. 2023, Belichick's Patriots, went 8 and 9 and missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. That put them at 33 and 34 in the post-Tom Brady era. Robert Kraft said, you know what? I had to make that decision back in the day.

Brady were Belichick. I chose Belichick. Brady went and won a Super Bowl. Belichick's done a lot for the franchise. But you know what? All good things come to an end. I got this guy Gerard Mayo on staff. He's, you know, we lined him up to be the successor.

I think it's time we move in a different direction. They do this all, you know, behind the scenes. The press release might say something like, you know, both sides agree, mutually agreed upon. It's one of those. It's all. We'd love to mutually agree upon things. Yeah. Until Seth Wickersham starts doing his reporting.

She and I are constantly usually agreeing upon podcast direction, podcast. We're mutually disagreeing on everything. Yeah. You know, until Seth Wickersham starts the reporting, everything seems like it's fine there. So this puts Belichick on the open market. on the open market at the age of 72. There's all sorts of speculation. Will Belichick call it quits?

Will he go coach lacrosse? Will he take over Navy's football program? Will he go coach a high school team? What does Bill Belichick want to do now that he's in his 70s? But you know what? Bill Belichick is 22 wins short of Don Shula's NFL record.

And he's never been about himself. He doesn't care. But he does care a little. He cares a lot about football history. And he says, you know what? I've got more left to give. Bobby Kraft thinks this was my fault. This wasn't my fault.

I can still coach. I can still pick players. I'm going to continue to coach. So all of a sudden, we have this amazing coaching race. Who is going to grab Bill Belichick, hand him the keys at the age of 72, have him take over their franchise. Well, several teams are interested, but ultimately, Josh Harris, Magic Johnson, whoever else is part of that ownership group of the commander says, you know what, we got to go after him. We've been irrelevant. We've been a joke of a franchise. The fans deserve better. They've had

this terrible owner for so long. We are going to hand Bill Belichick the keys. They hand him the keys. They say, coach, GM, Magic has a little meeting with him. He sells him on bill. Once you get the record, if you just want to be like our senior football advisor, kind of hang out, you know, direct the franchise. You can do that. Belichick likes that. He likes that it's close to a I mean, Annapolis, fantastic. Have you been to Annapolis, Ben? No, why is Annapolis important? He grew up there, right? He was born there, grew up there. He still goes back. He's in the heart of the great lacrosse programs, Maryland, John's Hopper.

I mean, this is just where he wants to be at this point in his life. So Belichick says, you know what, I'm in. Let's do it. Washington commanders. So first two years under Belichick, mostly mediocre, but 2025. They go 9 and 8 with quarterback Tyler Huntley. Nice season. Something to build on.

Tyler Huntley out of nowhere. Something to build on. They go 9 and 8. They make the playoffs, but they're one and done in the playoffs, but they enter 2026, and Belichick is just five wins away from tying Shulis record. His sights are set even higher.

He thinks they can win the NFC East and make a deep playoff run. Now, there's rumors going into the season 2026. If they don't make that leap, this is probably it. He'll give it. He'll give a nice three-year run. If it doesn't happen, he'll move on to the next phase of his life. He'll have the record

in his pocket. But Bill Belichick, Washington commanders, 2020, really 2024, but 2026 for our purposes. Your thoughts. That has a roller coaster. Belichick for the commanders, Tyler Huntley,

the entire arc in the back to a Um, I'm, I like, I, I, I, I, I struggled to be that convinced that Belichick, I got, I don't see Belichick taking a head coaching job right after the Patriots fire him. I would see him like sitting. He's going to take a year off. He's 72 years old. What are you talking about? Yeah. You can't just waste a year of your life when you're 72 and come back after. What is this? What is this, this, this modern capitalist waste a year of your life at 72? philosophy year. The fact that he's 72 means he should take a year off. He will take a year off.

What it takes to coach an NFL team, the older you get, the harder it's going to be. Now, that I will vehemently. He is not taking a year off and then jumping back in at that age. If he wants to continue coaching, he's going right back into it. Okay. So let's, let's play the game here. I like that with proving we can even argue about hypotheticals that are not even going to happen.

Okay, but let me, let me actually get my hypothetical out before we start commenting on how funny it is that we're arguing on them. So, Belichick Patriots Go 500, Disboring, Mac Jones is angry, Belichick's fired. Who else getting fired this year? Staley's out from the Chargers. They'll give you that one, right? Because I was bringing that one up earlier. Who else you want to fire?

Brown's job opens up, maybe. Kevin Stefansky gone. They underperform. I'm looking here at the question mark on the bills. Jets, if they underperform with Aaron Rogers, that's possible. Yeah. Okay, so AFC teams

We're going to go Chargers, Browns, Jets, NFC teams NFC West, everybody's keeping their job I mean, maybe McVeigh is retiring that's kind of like always a thing that looms.

McCarthy, McCarthy is the possibility in Dallas. McCarthy of the Cowboys, okay, and then Commanders, Juan Rivera. Yep, you brought up. Yeah. Okay, so I'll give you

Cowboys commanders, Chargers, Colts, or Chargers, Browns, and Jets. Belichx, is he chomping at the bit for any of those jobs? Is he so desperate to coach the commanders?

I'm so excited about the... Chargers would be pretty attractive if I'm him. Who'd be? Chargers would be pretty attractive if I'm Belichick. I mean, are the Chargers... I don't see it, but you asked if I'm Belichick, and I'm looking at those, yeah, that's going to be... That's going to be pretty attractive

where you already have the quarterback. Already have the quarterback is nice, but you just told me about a man born in Annapolis, Maryland, who's coached the Jets and the Patriots who moved to the L.A.? Belchuk and an L.A. team. I don't know. You ask me or any of the job is attractive?

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would, yeah, so that would narrow it to the mid-Atlantic states if he wants to, you know, continue coaching. And if you go commanders, you're going new ownership group. Browns are going the Deshawn Watson. You're stepping into that voluntarily into that new cycle. And would he go back to Cleveland? I mean, I don't think he would want to do that. Would he go back to the Jets, right?

Would he go coach for New York? Now that's spicy. Yeah. Dallas, you think he's working under Jerry Jones. I would eat my hat if you took a job under Jerry Jones. I agree. You know what? I think that was actually my initial.

I thought about that one is my initial. But then I'm like, no, I say he's not going to work for Jerry Jones. I mean, if he is even interviewing for the Chargers job, he's walking up to the Spanos family with a printed out list of Tom Telesco's draft history for the last 10 years. And he's like, get this guy out of the building. And they're responding with Bill Belichick's draft history of 10 years ago. And you're not that much better. And he's going, I'm not caring.

I want control over the roster. That's what I do. I'm Bill Belichick, right? I just don't think it's easy for a Belichick worthy job in his eyes to open up in the same year in which he's fired for the Patriots. He might be taking a year off just because he wants to make sure that he gets the job that he wants. Well, that's actually why I chose the commanders because of what you just said. Like, I need a franchise where there's no GM stronghold and the coach could get fired where the owner would just say, it is your show, do whatever you want. I mean, Josh Harris is going to be living in New York.

He's owning the Sixers. He's owning the Devils. he's not going to be a hands-on owner. He's going to tell you, here's what we have to spend, make my team a winner, and Belichick can craft the whole thing. Also, you know, like when I was growing up, this was a proud franchise. Like, this was a franchise competitive, getting to Super Bowls. And so maybe there's a sense of that history with him as well, maybe an appeal of returning the Washington franchise to two prominence. Oh, that's why I picked them.

That's all. All right. Let's take a quick break. well come this. I'm having fun so far. So we should have just done this for like the last five episodes, honestly. Only ever do podcasts three years in the future. After week one, we just do the week one, 2026 pot. I would say we just launch a new, let's launch a new pot rigger podcast three years from now.

That's just the name of the podcast. We can take this to anything. Three years from now, here's what's going to be happening in Ben's fishing life with me mowing the lawn, but anything you want three years from now. I think it has potential. We'll pitch that. All right. Let's take a quick break.

We'll come back with Ben's second prediction. All right. We are back on extra point taken. Hit me with your second prediction, Benjamin Solac. Quote, Los Angeles Rams head coach,

Kyle Shanahan. Excited to pick up where Sean left off. So, Kyle Shanhan was hired in 2017. He has famously not yet won a Super Bowl for the San Francisco 49ers. he, Sean McVeigh and Sean McDermott are the three 2017 coaches that are still employed. Sean McVeigh, obviously, a Super Bowl winner.

Sean McDermott, great regular season record. Kyle's handhand just got over 500. Sean, though, needs a little bit of postseason success, and that's worrisome. Everybody else is more tenured, Andy Reid, Super Bowl champion, Pete Carroll, Super Bowl champion, John Harwood Super Bowl champion, Mike Tomlin, Super Bowl champion, Bill Belichick Super Bowl champion. We are starting to get to the point for McDermott, but also. also for Kyle Shanahan. Sorry, these are the coaches that were coaching in 2017

and are still coaching the teams you're saying? Yeah, these are longest tenure coaches. Oh, gotcha. Okay. So, like I said, everybody who's been coaching since longer than 2017 has won a Super Bowl. That's Andy, Pete Carroll, John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Bill Belichick. The guys who started in 2017 are McVeigh,

who's obviously won it, and then Sean McDonougham and Kyle Shanahan. Okay. Focusing specifically on Shanahan, there's no doubt that Shanahan is a great coach. There's no doubt that he's an incredible coach. He has been in three of the last four. four NFC championship games. It has one Super Bowl birth and a Super Bowl lost to his name.

He also very famously had another opportunity to be on a coaching staff that won a Super Bowl with the 2016 Atlanta Falcons. And that did not go great for Kyle. There is a frustration among the 49ers fan base with the lack of postseason success

around Kyle Shanahan. Now, I would love to tell you that things are going to get rosier, right? The NFC is weak and the team is so good. Is that true? I feel like 49ers. fans love Kyle Shanahan.

You think there's a frustration. Somebody's written a lot about Kyle Shanahan. Yeah. I would say certainly the majority are like, yeah, great coach because he is. But there's definitely a minority, however vocal that's like, well, why, like the guy is a choker. Like the guy can't get it done in the postseason, right? Which he hasn't gotten it done in the postseason. Now, we're seven, three years into the future.

You say, all right, Ben, there's a good chance the Niners win the Super Bowl in the next three years. Is there? Because. the quarterback room right now is Brock Pretty Trayland, Sam Darnold. Kyle started this San Francisco tenure with a quarterback issue, hitching his wagon to Jimmy, who was good but not good enough as they discovered in that 2020 Super Bowl. And since then,

has attempted to improve the situation, but I'm not sure he has. And losing consistently in the playoffs is one thing. Losing consistently in the playoffs the exact same way, the quarterback being insufficient is another thing. It's a frustrating thing. Kyle's also not great at the politics game in terms of like explaining losses and defraying blame and can, you know, be tough with his players and can rub some people the wrong way.

And their frustrations can go there. The other thing that Kyle has done unbelievably to this point in his career that at some point has to expire is the ability to hire coordinators that continue to work, right? Like they lost Sala and it was like, right, they're going to take a step back. And they just promoted D'Amico and D'Amico was great. Well, now they lost D'Amico. So now he's got to get Steve Wilkes in the building who was not like a guy who came up the way that D'Amico Rines was. Not a guy that came up the way that Mike McDaniel was, right?

He's got to take a new coach install them and have the offense run from there. It is a more challenging. It is challenging to do what Kyle has already done. And he's done it so well. It's so very impressive. And yet still doesn't have the Super Bowl win. So I think there's a non-zero chance that the 49ers make a change at head coach because of the lack of Super Bowl success on an otherwise what they feel to be Super Bowl caliber roster.

That would be a bad decision. I would not endorse that decision. I would say that as a mistake. I just think there's a non-zero chance. If and when that occurs, I think Shanahan becomes a hugely attractive head coaching asset. and I think one of the best jobs that might be available around this time is the Los Angeles Rams job not for any of the like oh they might fire him reasons I just listed

because Sean McVeigham might retire at any given time I'm now of the headspace that after any bad multi-score loss to the Seattle Seahawks Sean might just walk into the press room at the stadium back I'm calling it I hate losing so much I mean all the reporting that you've read is just I would be so terrified if I was a Rams fan that this guy's going to wake up on the wrong side of the betting

say that he's done I don't think it actually... Nice tease for my set. Nice tease for my second prediction by the way. I mean, my, my second half of this prediction is, uh-oh. New San Francisco head coach Sean McVeigh, quote, no bad blood between me and Kyle. But that's what I'll see a joke. I'll screwing out with that one. I mean, I'm kind of screwing around with the first bit. But anyway, um, I mean, why it, it, Sean and Kyle are friends. And, and Sean would be the first person to endorse Kyle for the job and also tell Kyle, that he can get the job there, that what he wants,

probably, like, you know, presumably, like the same level of control over the personnel and influence over the GM decisions and so on and so forth. And so I just think that when coaches don't win Super Bowls and they're there for a long time, frustrations can boil. And sometimes that leads to bad mistakes in terms of, of, that coach being let go,

and then they can go somewhere else and be very, very successful. It would not be a good decision, but I think it's still possible. Maybe as you were speaking, maybe a little like Andy, I know it hasn't been as long, but a little Andy Riddish with the Eagles, right? Yeah, that's the exact sort of name I was thinking of, right?

Where I was just like, all right, like, you know what? Like, we all still know he's a good coach. It's just we got to do this, man. Like it's just we, you have to at some point have some trajectory. Even if you're taking a step back, at least you're stepping somewhere, right? Andy was head coached in Eagles 99 to 2012.

That's 13 years. If Kyle was fired in 2026, starting in 2017, that's nine years. It's a little bit shorter. But I'll tell you that, if the world moves faster than it did back in the aughts. You know what I'm saying? I think that's inflation. You know what I'm saying?

That's just the going rate. And so I was considering bringing up Andy in the explanation. I honestly thought you'd bristle at that too much. So I was like, no, I don't want to get figuring the shield about the Andy Kyle comparison. All right. All right. Good. You're giving me a little more faith here in this one then.

Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, it would be interesting to look at a list of how many head coaches have kept their jobs for 10 plus years without winning a Super Bowl. I mean, I would imagine that is a very small list. Yeah. So there is kind of a list. Like, so Wikipedia has a list of just like longest tenured head coaches,

but they don't have it for individual teams, which is tricky. And you can look at it by like, you know, who's, who's been in the playoffs the longest, who's been the longest without a playoff win, who's the longest without a Super Bowl win,

so on and so forth. Yeah. And most of the names that are like 10 plus years without a Super Bowl win or actually like 15 plus years are like guys in the 60s you know what I'm saying these guys were like a long time ago

and Marvin Lewis Marvin Lewis who just like was around for forever and never won a playoff game so it's it's just the nature of like you know change for changes sake

it's just the nature of like a competitive NFL where eventually like if the Niners play three more seasons and go to the playoffs every year and win the West every year and don't have a Super Bowl birth at some point

someone's going to fill their hands up you know what I'm saying and like maybe it's maybe it's a John Lynch thing instead of a Kyle Shanahan thing, but somebody's got to toss their hands up. Yeah, I mean, it's weird to think about it, but as you were speaking, it's like, it's possible that Kyle Shanahan,

like Kyle Shannon's only 43 years old. Like, it's possible he has, like Andy Reid's second act is better than his first act. It's possible, I mean, I don't know that it's likely, it's possible that Kyle Shanahan has a second act that's better than his first act. I mean, I think he really is an appealing coach for a number of real. I mean, two of the things were kind of what you mentioned there, just

an offensive coach who can do more with less than quarterback. Like he has not had a great quarterback, a star quarterback, and he's won a lot of games and made it to the Super Bowl and made it to the NFC championship. And for the last few years here, at least, what, three of the last four years here, they've been a consistently good team. So you've got that. And then the thing you were mentioning about assistance, I mean, you're right. At some point, that's hard to do. But right now that's a big feather and its cap that man you're just you're the the guys who are coaching under you are going on to get head coaching opportunities and one guy leaves and you're replacing with the next guy and then that guy gets hired for a head coaching opportunity like that's a

good job out of him to kind of identify that talent bring people in and then they go on to bigger and better things you're right at some point you miss on one of those and it gets hard in a hurry and that's why i was thinking well you know the andy read thing it's like when did that really go south for them. Well, they had a four and 12 season after he decided that he was replacing Sean Dermott defensive coordinator with Juan Castillo offensive line coach as his new defensive coordinator. I mean, that was really like the last straw where, you know, ownership kind of looks at it's like, is this way, has he lost his fastball? Like, is he still able to do this? And then they go four and 12 in a season where everything goes wrong. And it's just like, all right, we're not in that stretch anymore

where we're competing for a Super Bowl every year. We love you. We know you're, we know you're a great coach. You've done a great job. But like you said, it's been a long time. It hasn't happened. We're just going to move on here. And Andy Reid wasn't like, yeah, I want to move on. I agree. Like Andy Reid did not want to move on at that time. He moves on. And remember, Arizona was very interested right away. And then the chiefs end up hiring him. And the rest is history. He's got multiple Super Bowls under his belt. And I think when I was looking this up earlier, I think he's fifth all time in wins for a coach, which I was like, whoa, he's all the way up to five now. been around then.

Who knows how much longer he wants to keep coaching, but with Mahomes, that's only going to go up. So I don't know. My sense, like I sort of feel like Shannan like you do with, like if Shanahan is done with the night, he's a man who needs a year off.

Like, have you seen how this man has aged over the years? And if you're telling me it's three more years without a Super Bowl, I don't know what he's going to look like at the end of that. And he's young enough where he can take a year off, come back into the mix after a year. But I don't know. My initial reaction was like, no, the 49ers would not be so short-sighted as to say, let's move on.

But you made a good argument. If you're going nine years without having won a Super Bowl, and maybe like the last year ends up being a train wreck and you end up going six and ten, always possible at that point that the team decides to move. Looking off the list, uh, modern, like relatively modern coaches who have not won a Super Bowl in terms of like 10 year length,

which again is not necessarily just with like one team, but you had Jeff Fisher coached for 22 years. years never won a Super Bowl. And then you get down to like John Fox 16 years, Marvin Lewis, 16 years, Norv Turner, 15 years. Ron Rivera, coach 12 years, Lovey Smith, 12 years, no Super Bowl. But most of those guys, like Fox went from Oilers and Titans to the Rams and like added to his tenure that way. He was with Oilers and Titans for like 15 years. Fisher. Yeah, Jeff Fisher. Yeah, Fisher was. Excuse me. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you have him. I mean, like, Ron had how many years with the uh with the panthers before they moved on he was uh 2011 2019 that's that's eight years

right and then they they move on from him and he immediately goes to washington he had he got to super bowl same way that that uh that they got to the game he just couldn't get the the hay in the barn uh eight years for lovey head coach of the bears or actually it's nine years because he had to add the extra year nine years before they they uh they asked him and then he goes to tampa and then eventually to houston and so like eight nine years man like it's not it's not outside of the possibilities. Again, I would not endorse the decision, I don't think, but I get it. Yeah, as you were reading those names, I'm like, Kyle Shanan's a better coach than all these guys in my opinion, but at the same time, you know, things go south. And like you said, it's not like they have,

hey, young, like they tried to have a plan with Trey Lance and that's not the plan anymore. Like if Trey Lance was just on the rise and they're like, this is the guy, now maybe it'll be party, but it is a little less stable than you would think for a team coming off all the success they've come off in three of the last four years. All right. This just shows how far the show is come, Ben, that that was your second one. And my second one, even though we haven't talked at all, we didn't share any information about what we were talking about. My second one.

Synergy. Sean McVeigh replaces Tony Romo as CBS's lead analyst. Wow, getting the Romo prediction in there is smart. That's a good one. You're saying, what are you talking about, Shiel? We read it. We listen to Brian Curtis in the press box. We listen to all the, we read Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

Tony Romo is under contract through 2029 at $18 million per year. How would he be out in 2026? Well, let me tell you how. You know, network execs tried to make it work with Tony Romo. But ultimately, his performance just steadily declined from when he first started. When everyone thought this is the next John Madden, this guy's incredible. He gets the new contract. He really makes money for everybody else.

Aitman, Brady, Joe, all these guys make huge money because Tony Romo kind of reset the market there. But CBS looks at it and says after he got that contract, it's obvious. He's not willing to put work in to get better at his craft. He was great in the beginning because he knew all the players. He knew all the teams he had just come out of the league. Well, that's not the case anymore. You have to do other things. And he's not doing those other things. We're getting crushed on social media. We're getting crushed by all the media critics for some of the games he's calling, it's not going well. So that's where they are with Romo. He says, how does McVeigh get to CBS in 2026? Well, here's what happened. After the 24 season,

Sean McVeigh said he's stepping away from football. Ben mentioned it earlier. He's already kind of had, we saw how much it wore on him, just having one bad season. Well, you know what? 2023 and 2024, those were not great seasons either. And he said, all right, we made our run with Stafford, Cup, and Donald. We won a Super Bowl. We had some great years, but I just need to step away. He promises his wife. I think his wife's name, Veronica.

I don't know if that's true or not. You can fact-check me on that. For our purposes, we'll assume his wife's name's Veronica. They say, we're taking the year off. He commits to him. We're taking the year off. Don't worry. I'm not doing anything else.

I'm not jumping into broadcasting. Let's go travel the world. Cliff Kingsbury sends him some, you know, you got to check out this spot in Thailand. They go there. They go all across the globe. for a year. And then he returns stateside to Los Angeles.

And he says, what do I want to do next after this one year break? Team start calling. They say, Sean McVeigh had a lot of success in Los Angeles. We want Sean McVeigh. He's going to be refreshed. This is going to be his second act. This is going to go really, really well. So McVeigh thinks about returning to coaching.

But Amazon comes in. Amazon's just been struggling to fill their booth. They want to generate more of a buzz. They thought all this money they paid was going to, you know, they were going to have a better product. They haven't been able to nail it quite yet. So he's all set to sign with Amazon. But what happens? CBS higherups call McVease agent.

They say, listen, no one can know about this. You cannot leak this information. We want to talk to Sean. They say, we will come to your house. We cannot be seen in public. They somehow get their hands on an Amazon. Amazon Prime truck. They drive the Amazon Prime truck. This is CBS. Yeah. They take the Amazon Prime truck. They go right up to his house. They're even dressed in the uniform, the vest. They even

have a couple boxes. No one knows what's in the boxes. They go up. He opens the door. They, boom, they go right in. They say, Sean, no one can know about this, but we are thinking of cutting ties with Tony Romo. We're only doing it if we know we can replace him with you. They start talking numbers. Five years. A hundred million dollars. Okay. That McVeigh saying, all right, I'm making that kind of money to announce games. That sounds pretty appetizing. But McVeigh says, you know, I'm not all about money. CBS says, all right, we're giving you a recurring role on the show Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck, Donnie Walberg, and Bridget Moynihan. What about Blue Bloods reference? McVeys going, all right, that sounds pretty good. You know, I'm like dipping my toe in different

waters. It's not all football with me anymore. And so ultimately McVeigh talks to his wife. He talks to his agent and he says, all right, I'm taking the deal. He replaces Tony Romo. It's unprecedented for a network to just cut ties with an announcer who's making this much money in the middle of his contract. But CBS felt like it had no other choice. There's different reporting about whether there's offset language and Romo's contract, if he goes somewhere else, if he's just going to golf and take the rest of the money on his contract, we don't know. But for the foreseeable future, CBS, 4 o'clock games, you're getting Jim Nance and Sean McVeigh. How does it sound? Yeah, this is the most likely one we've said. This is so fun. Again, I want to do every

podcast like this. I don't want to talk about anything that's happening now. I just want to look down the road and throw crazy stuff at the wall. This is like story. I feel like we're writing fiction. I mean, this is so much fun. I don't want to watch film. I don't want to look at analytics. We're writing fiction here.

I can tell by your voice. You slip into like, I used to tell bedtime stories to my girls and now they're too old and this is the only way I get to do this. So they get in an Amazon Prime then and they drive up to Jean-Mé's... I was so proud of that one.

I got to admit. I thought of that little detail like two minutes before we started recording. I was like, when you were like, We have to find a way to get from. I was like, oh, yep, pull out the escalates, tinted windows. And you were like, no, no, no, no, no.

Prime van. Like, that's the modern way to do it. That's very good. Legitimately, I think this is the most likely one we've said thus far. I think that, like, if you made me bet, I would, that if McVeigh retires in the next three years, yes or no, I'd probably bet yes. And then if you made me bet, Sean McVeigh is available, is CBS going to try to swap in for Romo?

But I think that CBS would love an opportunity. to get out of their long, massive financial commitment to Romo in a way that doesn't look like they're just doing that. It looks like they're actually doing something else. And Sean McVey would be that to a tea. I feel like McVeigh would want the ESPN thing just because Gruden, right? Like he would want to follow in the footsteps of his mentor.

Blue Bloods. Don't forget about Blue Bloods. Wait, can you walk me through why Blue Bloods is important? I Googled most popular CBS shows. and it was either Blue Bloods or N-C-I-S and I went with Blue Bloods. I thought Tom Selleck, you know what? I'm going to get that in.

That is literally the only reason. So, besides the Blue Bloods factor of everything, yeah, I feel like you might want the ESPN thing, but ESPN's got Buck and Akeman. I don't envision that not working anytime soon. Yeah. So, yeah, but I very much, like, I considered a lot of Sean McVeigh

retires what happens next outcomes before I landed on the Kyle Shanahan one and broadcast future was definitely something I thought about. I could also see Sean just like going like full like Michael Strahan route and being like I want a daytime tell. You know what I'm saying? Because you visit and Sean just like pretending to be super excited about like a new product for like men's wellness. Yeah. Like when McVease like think about how much he loves the Chunky Campbell commercials and then think about what what's going to happen when he has more time. I think he's, I think when McVeigh retires and enters media,

he's going to be balls to the wall media member. He's going to be an insane hustle, got to grind, I've memorized to the script. He's going to be on everything for everything the whole time. That's why ESPN would be good for him, because just hours of McVe programming. He would love it.

Yeah, I do think he's a football sicko, and even when he wants to step away from coaching, we'll want to do something football related. But I would agree with you. I'm with you. gave me the over under three more years. I mean, I might even take the under for two more years. Like, I'm with you that I think at any point he might just be like, all right, I was on the fence

last year. This isn't what I thought it was going to be. It's time to take a break, refresh a little bit, get my mental health right, and do something else. All right, we will take one more break here, and then we come back with our final predictions for 2026. Back on extra point taking, Shield Capadia with Ben Solac. All right, Ben, hit me with. your third prediction for 2026. Headline. West Coast teams already tasking sports science employees

with figuring out travel to London for 2028 games. NFL's going to have a team in London, I would say 2028, 2029, permanent team. Expansion, four teams in the UK, four teams in Europe by like 2031.

I didn't want to do it like in 2026, because that's too early. We would know by now. was happening there by then. But you can, you can Google this and you can read this. Like Roger Goodell has explicitly said, he was asked, I believe we consider putting an entire NFL division

in Europe. This is from CBS Sports and he said that's part of what we're doing. We're trying to sort of see you have multiple locations in Europe where you could have an NFL franchise because it would be easier as a division, right? Expand into Europe, but you can't just put one team over there, put four teams over there. And that way, everybody's traveling more consistent. It's not like half the league gets screwed

because they have to travel to the UK, another half doesn't. And then it's not like the UK teams have to, or I shouldn't say UK, the Europe teams have to travel every single week. Sometimes they'll be playing one another and they won't have to travel as much because the travel aspect of things is the most challenging aspect of this, right? The travel aspect and like Seattle having to go play a game seven, eight hours ahead on the body clock in London, that's the big problem, right? That's, that's the issue. And one of their solutions is by trying to put a whole division there in Europe. I think we have to sit and look at the fact that Peacock is paying $110 million for

one playoff game. We have to sit and look at how the cap didn't just rebound but exploded after COVID. We have to sit and look at record revenue numbers and look at NFL television numbers in the US and just say the quiet part out loud. The NFL's making too much money to not expand. Even if it's not into Europe and it's just add more teams, like like, you know, at a Lund, at a Toronto team, add a St. Louis team. The Battlehawks fan base for the XFL was sick. Add a Portland team, out of Sacramento team, at a Salt Lake City team, and an Oakland and San Diego's teams. I don't care. But the NFL is making way too much money for no one in the league offices right now to be thinking about, let's do more teams. More teams, more weeks, more by weeks,

more games, healthier players, more money, more stadiums. I don't think they care about that part. Yeah, but. Well, yeah, I was, I was trying to get them in there because that's a part of it. Yeah. But just like, there's no way of like, you know, forgive me, the fat cats aren't looking at this and saying this thing can just be fatter. Like, that's just the simple reality of it. And then when you go and look at what the NFL says when they talk about expansion, their huge focus is on Europe. And the idea of playing, they're playing consistent games in London,

and they would like to play consistent games in Germany. I think that it's very likely that the NFL is thinking about how to get a permanent team in London, and it is just a little bit less likely. It's still quite likely they're trying to figure how to get a permanent team in Munich, Berlin. I don't know what city makes the most sense. here, and I've been to Germany. I got the information. But I would say that by the time we hit 2026, the conversations around consistent NFL presence in London, and to a lesser degree in Europe, but certainly in London, is no longer a question of if, it's a question of when and how.

It's a question of, okay, since this is happening, what do we need to do? Since it's happening, how are we going to change the scheduling approach? Since it's happening, how are we going to add more weeks to the season? Because this has been decided, because this is going forward. because they are constructing the NFL rosters in London right now. How are we going to scrap this thing together, such that there's some semblance of competitive equality and competitive balance? If you were listening to the Extra Pointe-Egan show

on the Ring NFL show, and you are not currently a fan of one of the 32 NFL teams, don't worry. Salvation's coming, because there's going to be more of them within the next decade. So the Jaguars are staying in Jacksonville. We're just adding teams. Yes.

Or they won't. I would say it's more likely they add teams. Like, I don't know the answer to this, but in my head, it's intuitively like, you know, like, I, it seems to me

almost more challenging to move the entire Jacksonville Jaguars operation to London, as opposed to just creating a new London team. Right? Which, if they were moving from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, I think,

think it would be easier probably but to me like jacksville to london to me it seems way logistically simpler to just create a london team as opposed to moving the jacks but i don't know what i'm talking about so i'm perfectly happy to be wrong there uh the london team cut you know they you get a call you get a little number on yourself oh that's interesting someone from london calling me they say ben solac it's uh what year is this 2028 it's happening right 2028 yep okay so it's the 2027 they're planning they say we've been listening to you on extra point taken for years. We'd like your football acumen.

We love the videos you do. You know the X's and O's. You have the energy to live in this world. We want you to be the GM of the London monarch. I don't know. Warriors? Is there already a team called that? I don't know.

Whatever. They say we're still working on the name. Anyway, we're having a team in London. We want you to come be the GM. Are you saying yes before you even hang up the phone. Are you saying, let me think about it? Are you saying, oh, my wife's not going to like that? Where is a 2028 Benjamin Solac as a potential GM candidate for the London football team, LFT? You got it. You got to do it. To start a team from scratch? Take over a team is one thing.

From scratch is awesome. That's a, that's, I've been training for that at Madam Franchise mode for years, brother. We're ready. Let's go. Super Bowl in the next five years. There you go. Ben is in London with you. I like it. that's a good one. Yeah, London is the one that always gets talked about, right? But then they're, you know, they get the Mexico City. They're playing the Germany game. So they're obviously looking elsewhere.

And yeah, as you were just mentioning the American cities, I'm like, I don't know the answer to this, but does any, like, team currently have an attendance problem? It doesn't seem like it when I'm watching games every Sunday, right? I mean, every ticket, it seems like it's pretty hard to come by. And here's the thing with an attendance problem. even if it existed. Is anybody feeling it? Like, oh no, there's not...

It's such a small piece of the pie, yeah. Right, there's not enough people in the stadium for FedEx field. Okay, well, like, the commanders are still making billions. Right. And I'm like, that's why to me, like, when I think about expansion, I think about a complete and total inevitability, unless the NFL just stops working. And NFL's not going to stop working. It can keep working forever.

So that's the reality of it. There'll still be fantasy. There'll still be betting. There'll still be everything else. All right. I like it. My third one. Caleb Williams,

Tampa Bay Bucks, look to defend NFC crown. Wait a minute. I thought you were going to say Super Bowl crown. Let's go. Step up. Well, here's what happened. Okay,

the Arizona Cardinals in the 24th draft ended up with the top two picks, their own and the Texans. Wow. You're just saying this because you wanted to happen because of when you lit up the Texans like a month ago, we're doing this trade. This is manifesting right now.

No comment. They end up with the one and two picks. In a bit of a surprise, not a crazy surprise. A lot of people are split on it. The Cardinal select North Carolina quarterback Drake May with the top pick. Now all of a sudden team say, wait, the number two pick is up for grabs and we can get Caleb Williams, this generational prospect,

and the bidding starts. The Tampa Bay Pucks, who have zero planet quarterback, I mean, they are going with Baker Mayfield and Jeff Griscoll in 2023. They send a massive haul to the Arizona Cardinals, which includes three first round picks and many, many, many more picks, really, since the Ricky Williams trade, like the biggest trade in NFL history since that. And they're only having to come up from five to two

because they were the fifth worst team in the NFL. They had the fifth overall pick. They go from five to two. The Cardinals say, we only have to move down three spots. Plus, we get all these future picks. We're absolutely going to do this. The Tampa Bay Bucks draft Caleb Williams. Williams takes the league by storm.

I mean, year number two, he wins the MVP. He leads the Bucks to the Super Bowl, but they lose to the quarterback. He's most often compared to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chief. So in the off season, the Bucks make a huge splash. They signed Garrett Wilson, the top free agent wide receiver on the market. They pair him with a 30-year-old Chris Godwin.

They still got Caleb Williams. And so the Bucks, after the Tom Brady era, they just have one down year. It results in them getting Caleb Williams. He's already reached superstar status. And all of a sudden, if you're doing the future franchise rankings, the Bucks are as well equipped as any team in the NFL, but more specifically to the point you made earlier, the NFC to compete for Super Bowls in 2026 and the future,

Caleb Williams, Tampa Bay Bucks, year three. That would be looking to defend the NFC crown and get him his first Super Bowl ring. What do you think? My good Bucks buddy, Trevor Sycamore posted at Caleb Williams' Bucks jersey edit about four seconds after the NFL draft ended this year, and I would really not like for him to be able to hit that back up.

Caleb, like, of all the Caleb Williams seems the box is the least interesting to me. That's all boring. We just saw them be good with Brady. Give him to somebody else. Like, Caleb wins. Well, I had to be realistic. I can't, I can determine what the Crystal Ball says. I could just pick a... You get the Cardinals

the first two picks! That's what, because that's what's going to happen. That's what the Crystal Ball said. That wasn't my choice. I think you're misunderstanding, the process. Yeah, and Drake May is also. going to go before the uh before caleb williams too that wasn't contrived listen i'm looking at some nate tice tweets and i they're saying drake e as drake mazes as kuby one you know nate tice has a lot of influence our friend nate yeah nate is drake may peeled we've been we've been chatting about it

he likes the uh the justin herbert he flashes and calab's like you know calip's a goofball caliph's uh as a rule breaker i would like uh i think yeah caleb williams on the cardinals i think to me that's that's That's more fun, right? Is that fun? I mean, Caleb Williams and Jonathan Gannon, you know, to a franchise that's done things that got an F from the NFLPA? I mean, is that really what we want? Oh, is that what we're doing? We're grading funness based off of the NFLPA grades.

I don't know. I'm just saying. That doesn't seem to sound fun to me. Like, who cares? Who wants to watch Caleb Williams on the Cardinals? I like, I like when a team that has no Super Bowl history gets. They've had plenty of success. Kurt Warner, they got him to a super.

to a Super Bowl. They had some good teams with Bruce Ariens, Carson Palmer. They've had some good teams in like the last Super Bowl. Never. I mean, that's fine, but they've gotten there. Cardinals, Falcons, Caleb Williams, uh, picking up where Michael Vick left off getting the Falcons. They should not be rewarded for their patience. I don't want. They're not going to be bad at them. But the Buccaneers, the Buccaneers who just did a couple years of mercenary Tom Brady just fall bass backwards into Caleb? You feel good about that? All right. Now you've got me looking at who would actually be the most fun team. Minnesota Vikings?

Might be a good one. Vikings? The Vikings aren't going to be bad enough. You know what? I think I might have had him going to the Vikings in my first draft of this, but it's hard. I was trying to find a team that was going to be bad enough to be able to move up, you know, to a top two pick. And so that limited my option somewhat.

So that's what I came up with there. But that's going to be fun next year to potentially have two, like, young, great quarterbacks enter the league. I'm with you. They need to get in the NFC to balance this out a little bit. Like if both those guys go to NFC teams, that will be pretty fun. That will be a nice way to quickly balance it. Listen, assuming that their 20, 23 seasons go well.

We know a lot can change from now and next year's draft. But I don't know. I'm very impressed with both those guys and think they're going to be fun when they answer the league. All right. Extra point. You want some. Oh, you have one. Okay.

I got some. I got some takes from the cutting room floor. Okay, what do you got? Yeah, let's hear. Some quick, extra point taken. Yeah, my extra point taken.

Some of these are inherently contradictory to ones that I previously said, which is why they were left in the cutting room floor. But this is just for fun. This is not, this doesn't count at all. Peter King headline, 10 candidates to be the next Mike McDaniel. I feel like we're going to get a Mike McDaniel arc similar to a Sean McVeigh arc.

Really? In terms of offensive. Yeah. I think that I've said, I think I said to you on, during an in-season show, Mike McDaniels is the closest thing we've gotten to McVeigh since McVeigh in terms of like I run. I think that was my take was that McDaniel is the new show of McDaniel. And you loved it. And then I've said it other places and claimed that's what it was right. You're right. Okay. Can Patrick Mahom, headline, can Patrick Mahomes break Brady's record? Him after winning his fourth Super Bowl. I had something similar written down. I did with Patrick Mahomes, but that's where I was going with it. Yeah, he's one. He's one. He's one. He's one. He's one. He's one. He's, he's One, two already. He wins two of the next three. Camp Patrick Mahomes break Brady's record. Lions general manager, Brad Holmes, after NFC championship game loss,

Jared Goff is still our guy. I feel like that's just a gimmie, right? There's no chance. He's 26. Yep. He's 32. He's still in his prime. We feel great.

We got here to the championship game. We still love Jared golf. I feel like that one's a gimmie. This one's for you. Ritter me this. Desmond Ritter is the league's first $60 million. man after a four-year, four-year, $240 million extension. Oh, I wish that was one of your actual ones and wasn't cutting room floor.

All right. Kyle Shanahan, quote, Daniel Jones is the most athletically gifted quarterback we've had in my time here with the Niners. Sean McVeigh always loved the Raiders organization after taking the Raiders job. It's where Gruden coach is where his pop's previously worked if memory serves. Yeah. Oh, Tua Tunga Vailoa, taking Taekwondo this time around. I thought that was just like a good quote from Tua in terms of his martial arts experience

during his tenure, the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. I wrote down literally on my brainstorm list, something on who is Q being the dolphins. I was like, what quarterback can I get there with Mike McDaniel? But I didn't like that. And last but not least, Pete Carroll, quote, could coach for the next 30 years, end quote. Pete Carroll famously 75 years old or whatever he is. I believe it. I mean, when I look at that man, I think my wife even had a comment this year.

He's like, he looks the same as he did when you covered him. And then like the next comment was like, and you don't or something like that. I'm like, all right, yeah, I understand. That is true. I mean, he does look unbelievable. The biggest one I left on the cutting room floor was actually from our, we had a Philly special mailback question on this. I wanted to get a Howie Roseman trade in there.

That was the one I left because. Eagles ownership could change by 2026. Jeffrey Lurie's son, Julian is going to take over at some point, and I was brainstorming something. He takes over. He says, no, he wants his own guy. He trades Howie Roseman for like three first round picks, but I couldn't decide which team I was trading Howie Roseman to, so I couldn't get that one.

But I don't know. I felt pretty good about that one. All right. Did you have any Brady ones? I had like 10,000 half-based Brady ones, but none of them felt me. I wrote down Tom Brady and then got no further. I don't know what he's going to be doing. Is he owning a team?

Is he calling games? Is he GMing? I was like like, I was doing none of the above. Exactly. None of them were satisfactory. I wanted to write like Tom Brady claims to have discovered new variety of avocado. Like that's like it's, that's, that's, that's the only thing that's interesting about Brady in three years.

Yeah. The first name I've written down is Tom Brady and I couldn't figure anything else. If you would ask you before the show, I'd guarantee you, I'd guarantee you, she'll is a Brady one. She'll loves talking about what Brady's going to do. So I was surprised you're bringing Brady. First of all, no, I do not love talking about what Tom Brady's. Brady's going to the Raiders. Tom Brady's going to the Raiders. Tom Brady's going to the Niners. Tom Brady's going to the Packers. Tom Brady, Tom Brady. Okay, I did not say Tom Brady

Brady is going to the Packers for the record. But yeah, what I mean, what he's going to do, he just retires or what he's going to be doing with the next chapter of his life is something that will be discussed. But I had a little Tom Brady fatigue. I couldn't come up with anything there. All right. Great show. Loved it. I don't know if the listeners will love it, but I loved it. You loved it. And that's all that matters here. All right. We're going to take a little extra point taking break, taking some vacation. Listen, if there's breaking news, we'll obviously be back and maybe in an extra point taking format, but we're not going to be with you every Monday for the next little bit as we take a little bit of a break.

Thank you to Cliff Augusti for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. Thank you to Ben Solac. Let us know what you thought about. predictions for 2026. Share your own with us. I would love to hear them. Again, I'm just going to like demand that we do a show like this, like once a month here for the next year. So don't worry, that's not the end of it. All right. Thanks for listening, everyone. We will talk to you soon on the Ringer NFL.