The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — Eli Manning's Benching, Tennessee's Coaching Vacancy, and Joe Flacco's Floundering (Ep. 192)

Episode Date: November 28, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss Ben McAdoo's decision to bench Eli Manning (01:00), Joe Flacco's check-down routine (18:15), Miami's many struggles (33:30), and the college football coaching carousel (42:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is JJ Reddick. You may know me as a basketball player. You may have seen me play during my college career at Duke University or perhaps over the past decade playing in the NBA for the magic, the bucks, the clippers, or the Sixers. Well, today I'm here to tell you about my new show, the JJ Reddick podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. This is where you can find me interviewing athletes like my current teammate, Joelle and Bede, as well as in-depth conversations with celebrities like the late, late show host James Corden. The very first episode goes live later this week, so make sure to subscribe to the JJ Redick podcast wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome to GM Street part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Tate Frazier and on the phone line, Mr. Mike Lombardi. Tate Fraser. I just saw you earlier today and then we've had the bat phone rang by the time I got home. You know, with L.A. traffic, it took me an hour to get home from the studio. and by the time I landed back here, the basketball rang, and my man Ben McAdone had a Macadoo, or Macadu had a Macadon, I'm not sure. I think Macadu had a macadone.

So we recorded a podcast, a full podcast that was set to go up tomorrow, right after we finished our live NFL show, which we called, what do we call, three and out, I think was the name of it? Three and out, just like, yep, three and out. Just like our boy, Eli Manning, a lot of times this year. And then Ben McAdoo made a decision. He decided that Eli Manning, who has started 210, consecutive days in the National Football League.

The record is 297 held by the great Brett Farr if he will not match that record or beat that record because Ben McAdoo has decided that Gino Smith is now the starting quarterback for the New York Giants. Mike Lombardi, what is your first thought when you hear this? Not going to be somebody like this. And for me, my first reaction was if Eli's going to go down, it can't be for Gino Smith. It can't be for a guy who averages who started 30 games in the NFL, who averages 6-9 yards per attempt, who's thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, who averages 57% completions in a league where its completions are everything.

I'm not an Eli fan. I think Eli's days are beyond them, but you can't treat a guy who's won two Super Bowls for you and whose name is on the wall of the stadium eventually. Like this, you just can't bench him and seize it. You've got to grit and bear it. You've got to suck it up. And if you do play somebody else, it can't be Gino Smith.

And so this all comes out, and obviously a lot of people's first reaction was, I guess the Giants have already thrown the season. They're trying to go for draft picks, so they've made this decision to put Gino out there because they don't want to win football games. But that's not what Ben McAdoo's saying. He's saying he's binging to Eli Manning

because he thinks he has a better chance to win with Gino Smith as his quarterback. And you're saying that's not the case, right? I mean, there's no way that can be the case. I mean, they're two, they've won two games, right? Or they've won one game, right? Two games, yes. They've won two games.

The Kansas City Chiefs, yeah. That was probably the highlight of their season. They've won one game. I mean, like they're going to win anymore. I mean, right now they're sitting there with the 49ers, you know, for a chance to a game. So, like, look, you know, they're sitting there with the second pick in the draft. No doubt that they keep playing Eli, they're going to get the pick. But this is beyond the pick.

I mean, this is tanking on Sturroy. This is ridiculous, okay? The reality of the situation is Eli has won championships for you. Yes, he's not the same player. Yes, he can't do a lot of things. But this team is bad. whomever you put it quarterback. And so we can wait.

Gino Smith, if you want to learn about Gino Smith, go in the back room, go to your computer, put the 30 games he started for the New York Jets on, watch every throw he ever made. You'll learn everything you need to know about him in that tape. Because when you put Gino out in front of this bad line and you put Gino out in front of this offense, it's only going to get worse.

So stop this. To me, this is what you get for hire in Ben McAdoo as your head coach. Look, I've said it, I've been on McAdoo's case since the day he got the job. I interviewed him when I've done. was in Cleveland, I was least impressed. I think the key point here is this, John Mara had a sign off on this. Like, they're not doing this without John Marriss.

This is not a Jerry Reese Ben McAdoo decision. This decision has to get approved. To me, that's the biggest mistake of all. So do you think of the Marra family in general, are they trying to send a sign to Eli Manning that, hey, we don't, we aren't necessarily tied to you. You're too comfortable at this point. We want to send a message.

Because it feels like it's sort of that thing, because Ben McAdoo actually came out and he had his press conference not too long ago, and he says, just because Eli got bench does not mean his time with the Giants is over, as if he, you know, there's a chance he comes back and starts next week. Why do they let him go to press conferences? Like, why do they, they just got, somebody's got to take the keys away from this guy. Like, don't let him drive.

He, you know, my dad's 91. I don't want him to drive anymore. It's the same thing of McAdoo. He shouldn't be going to the podium. Like, this is ridiculous. Of course his career is over with. You just slapped him in the face. You just disrespected him.

It's like Uncle Junior says to Tony, I show you in my hand, you slap it away. I mean, he disrespected this guy. Look, we bench Bernie Cozard in Cleveland. We never won a Super Bowl in Cleveland. We never did a day. The fan club, we would have kept on, but we had to do something to turn the team around.

We made that decision. This guy's not a problem in your locker room. This guy isn't causing confusion on your team. This is Testiverty played much better than that. Isn't that situation. And you've got flags hanging in your stadium that this guy won, whether it's the past, whether it's the unbelievable throat of Mario Manningham.

in the end zone. I mean, he's won. Again, I'm not a fan. I think his career's beyond him, but to do this to him, I think it's an injustice. Yeah, because there is some sort of common courtesy there when you have a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Like, even if you are falling off the mountain top as it's happening, they usually don't just bench a guy like this, especially when the season's already lost. I mean, is Eli going to dress out? Is he going to be on the sideline as the number two quarterback? Or is it going to be one of those things where he's just not even active for the game? Which will make no sense at all. He'll count a quarterback in the 45. cut Eli, then go down at Jacksonville and go play down there.

Go back from California. The only way, the only shouldn't say that because just release them. Just release them, let them go. Like, why put them through this? I just don't, I think we can blame McAdoo and we can get on McAdoo's case all we want. But really, this starts with John Marr as the president of the team. He's running the team. This isn't like the old days where George Young ran the Giants and he had final say over everything.

And he had to sign off on this. And this is one of those things where a lot of times when you have a superstar or a guy who's won titles. I mean, you can even look back, you know, if you were in the Los Angeles area, remember that Kobe his last year, I mean, there's no reason that Kobe Bryant should have been playing basketball when he was out there. I mean, he wasn't, you know, he was a shell of his former self, but there was this sort of, there was an air of class about Cupcheck and the bus family. They wanted to send Kobe off because of what he had done for the franchise. He had won on these rings, so they wanted to give him his spotlight and then, you know, send him off

in a right way. But the way that they're handling this with Eli, I mean, this may even ruin his relationship with the franchise down the road, right? I mean, he's not going to come back to New York. Yeah, I mean, this is not good. I mean, he knows John Marron made this decision. I mean, you know that he knows Jerry Reese might have been. I mean, this is a, I mean, there's sometimes, when you treat somebody like, it's never going to end pretty, so you know that, but you could end it in the offseason.

Look, this offseason, you were never going to pay him that roster bonus. So this offseason, it would have been easy. Look, Eli, we're rebuilding. It's not. But this, to me, is a slap in the face, and this is disrespectful. It really is. It's really tough to see. I never thought that Eli would go out like this. I thought he would keep going.

And, I mean, that record of consecutive starts for quarterbacks, I mean, I know a lot of people don't necessarily care about that. But, I mean, Eli was on pace to possibly tie Brett Farve or past Brett Farve and doing something like this, you know, obviously ruins his chances of that. I mean, I just think it's horrible. And look, the pressure, the Giants off the great Paxton Lynch in the end zone, to me, if you really believe Smith in the game to win, I mean, like, you just can't go.

Ben McAoo is going to be eating some Vienna sausage, probably at the end of the season. He's on the lamb right now. I mean, he's got to go on the lamb. Look, I mean, this is what you get. And the ironic thing, Tate Fraser, is this. The reason Ben McAdoo has the job is because O'Dell Beckham, Jr. And Eli Manning went hard for him, okay? And then the Eagles wanted to hire the whole thing.

The Eagles wanted, he turns on Eli. This is like Tesio when he turned on Mar. Michael. Like, this is horrible. It's all about leverage. And with that Eagle's offer, he had a ton of leverage. McAdoo comes in. And it's been a sour end. I mean, it's kind of crazy that he turned on Eli like that, his quarterback.

And now he's got to, you know, put Gino Smith out there and see what happens. Any more thoughts on this, Lombard, anything else that you've got to say? We could have done a face-to-off. I'm happy. I can't wait. And you know what? Let me just say this. It wouldn't make any sense here. Like, that makes no sense at all. Like the next couple of games isn't going to determine whether you need a quarterback, right? You could get enough out of watching Davis Webb in practice.

Like that's not either. That's not the answer either. Like at the end of the day, you need a quarterback and you're the New York Giants of the season, okay, when you have no reason to hurt him. At the end of the season, you're still going to need a quarterback. You're still in the same place. Not a whole lot, just like Ben McAdoo's coaching career with the New York Giants. We're going to take a quick break here, and we're going to come back and get on with our regularly scheduled GM Street.

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Akio binge mode! Protect Hedwig! Jason, I have some. Very distressing news for you. Welcome to GM Street part of the the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Tate Frazier, and it is a lovely Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles, and I'm joined by Mr. Mike Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, Tate Frazier. It's good to see you again, you know? I mean, we've been doing the phone thing for a little bit of while. It's kind of nice to have

you, like, right back in the house. I know. It feels like it's an old school GM Street. You know, we got away from our roots a little bit. We got away, we have this nice logo behind us that they fixed up for us. And as soon as they fix it up, we just stopped coming in. I don't know. And they got it framed, too. I love it. I love the whole framing thing. It's awesome. Thanks to Framebridge. Framebridge, yeah. No, I heard that on the Sal. Let me start off.

Before we get into DB Flatco. Please. I like to clarify something that cousin Sal said the other day that I was screaming at people at a table at a restaurant here in Los Angeles. I can't imagine it being any further from the truth. Now, I tend to get a little excited about the clapper. I will admit that. I mean, I am not going to deny this whatsoever. However, I don't think I was screaming.

I think I was just talking. They were egging you on, too. We should say this. I mean, I think that... Oh, I was getting egged on. If I wanted, you know, I was not at the restaurant when this was happening, but if I want to do a play-by-play of what I think that occurred, I think that you came over, like the gentleman that you are to say hello,

pass your good graces upon the table. Like any great Italian man would do, correct? Yeah, like, one of the people at the table is one of my closest friends, and I love him to death. So when I actually, Millie saw the back of his head, like, which was remarkable. That's how you know it's real friendship. And, of course, Millie's like, oh, I had a premonition somebody who was going to be in the restaurant. Like, it's amazing.

She can do that. Which 99.999% of the time she's always right. So I'm not going to argue this. But anyway, so she saw the bag of his head. It went over. It was fun. It was good. And it was great to see Cousin Sal.

It was good. And actually, one of the people at the table asked me to tell an Al Davis story at the table. So at the end of this, I'll share one of my favorite Al Davis stories with everyone. And that's what we like to call in the business a tease, folks. That's a tease, yes. I learned that from you, Dave, Bray. Let's talk about a real big tease. that's Joe Flacco and his quarterbacking skills.

The Ravens played the Texans last night on Monday night football. 23 to 16, the Ravens get the win. They stay in the wildcard hunt. They're now six and five on the season. I think they have the six seed, correct, in the AFC right now. Yeah, they do. They nudge Buffalo out of it with that win last night. But how long will this last, I don't know, D.B. Flacco, look, you know,

I thought it was ironic. You know, the Toronto Argonauts, and I apologize on the Sunday sit down, we... We said the Alouettes, correct? I said Montrelle. Which, Tresman, Mark Trestman, actually worked for the Aller. before. He was the head coach there, but he went, now he's in Toronto, so I apologize on that. And I also like to correct. I said that Rashid Wallace went to Simon, I went to Roman Catholic. He did not. He went to Simon Crats High School. And it's reliably reported to me about

your friend, Rashid Wallace, that he is a chief fan, and at workouts, he would always wear a chief jersey, and he loves Notre Dame. I always saw him wearing a chief jersey, like back in the day when he was like on the pisses and the trailblails. But the Notre Dame thing just kind of like got me off for a loop, but he loves Notre Dame, loves Notre Dame football or something. He must. He must. I think you and Titus need to get him on the college basketball pilot. I think he would be absolutely tremendous. And, you know, speaking of podcast, I see JJ Riddick, a 76er has one of ours. Like, how am I not a guest on Riddick's podcast? I don't know. I mean, like, can't we talk oops once? Like, I'm putting it out there, Tate Fraser. You record it.

Let me know. I'll reach out to J.J. if I can. I'll see what I can do. I'm just on you right now. It didn't sit well with me. All right. Okay. But I'm just kidding, JJ. I'm excited for that podcast. That'll be fun. The Rashid Wallace stuff. You just don't like it because it's a Duke thing. Oh, I mean, JJ Redick, if you had told my 10-year-old self, 13-year-old self, that this

would happen later in my life, I would not have signed up for it. I would have stayed in North Carolina. So this was, you know, I was blindsided by this whole thing. When you look at, let's talk about the whole playoff picture, right? Yeah. Should we do that? Well, let's talk about Flacco first. So we got off the I got off the tangent there. So they

fire trustment in Baltimore to improve their office. They hired Marty Morning, which that really hasn't improved. And then they were going to fire Marty Mortingwig after the last season. But then John Harbaugh talked to Flacco and DB Flacco said, no, I really like Marty. I've had too many coaching changes. He wanted to bring in Greg Roman. So now he's brought in Greg Roman to be the run game coordinator. I don't know why.

It's like a co-offensive coordinator thing. Right. And you see it on the tape, okay? And what I was tweeting last night was about, look, the best teams in football, run their running plays all have play action passes attached to it. There's not a disconnect, right? So if the linebacker reads run, he steps up and then a play action passes behind him. I mean, that passed a gronk that we see scronk's wide open 95% of the time, which you always sit there and say, how is he so wide open? Well, because the linebacker, it's a run formation. It's a run, and they

played the run and they got behind him. So, you know, Baltimore is so disconnected that, you know, that John Harball, the head coach of the Ravens just went ahead and kept trying to make two people happy. and so he has a committee mentality. And now he has nothing. I mean, Deshawn Watson's stopped playing football November the 2nd, right? He has 16. Flacco has nine. I mean, James Winston, remember him?

He used to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. He has 10 touchdown passes. Flacco has nine. He's missed how much time? Like, Flacco's getting passed by everybody on touchdown passes. And as much as I think Flacco's played poorly, and there's no way the Ravens can duplicate what Jacksonville's trying to pull off. Because the one thing the Ravens can't do,

that Jacksonville can do is run the football effectively. Like, I don't see it. So for me, I think Baltimore has that six seed, and they've got to rely on their defense. But I don't think Baltimore is good enough in their offensive line or their running game or their coordination of their offense to be able to withstand this. And they're going to take them the Lions this weekend at Detroit.

No, I think it's at Baltimore. Oh, no, it is at Baltimore. You are correct. So they have a home game. A team that used to dominate at home. Right. That was what they were known for. But, you know, look, I think that last night,

with all due respect to Tom Savage, if Houston, which I think Houston was remarkable last night, really. They got a beat-up offensive line. They had no players on defense. Some of the names that they're calling out on deep. Who are these guys? They played really well.

They gave up 23 points. But for the most part, it took a, you know, a fake punt. Baltimore played the way they had to play. But I think, I just don't think Baltimore is a complete team in terms of they're always going to kick field goals. They have the greatest field goal kicker. I mean, the guy doesn't miss it. It's right down the middle of the cup.

But for me, I think they can't duplicate what Jacksonville's duplicating because they're just not good enough on defense. And Flacco just can't get any better. I mean, his average yards per attempt. And what I think people have to understand, that's one of the things I talk about all the time is yards per attempt. It's a key component. You know, I remember being in Cleveland with Belichick. And this is, and Bernie Kozhar at one time was a great quarterback. But at the end, he had gotten hit so much that he really couldn't take.

any more hits. And partly was because, you know, the line fell apart, but also because, you know, he wouldn't take any hit. So quarterback's like boxers. Okay. So when they, when their eye levels up the field, they'll throw the ball down the field. Like Danny Marino's eye level never changed no matter how many times you hit him, right? So he kept looking down the field yards per attempt. That's a key stat. But when your eye level lowers and you know what the left tackle's doing or you know what the right tackles doing, then you say, all of a sudden you start checking the ball, the ball becomes a hot potato. And one game, we were playing Miami in a game in Cleveland Stadium, and Belichick benched Kozar. And Kozhar comes off the bench, and he's like, oh, I was 17 for 19.

How could you bench me? Yeah, but we threw for 30-7 yards. You know, like, that's not going to work, right? You got to throw it up the field. That's where Flacco is. I think Flacko's back is a real issue. I think his inability to want to stay in there and get hit. And I think his receivers and the passing game isn't tied together.

I don't see Baltimore as a playoff team. Do you? No. I do not. I mean, the AFC, let's just talk about the AFC in general. That whole playoff picture with those guys, they're now a six seed. We talked about the Bills being a team that was there before last night. It's just that whole bottom half of the AFC. I mean, you got the Jaguars, the Ravens, and Titans.

We should take one of the teams. Like my solution for Auburn and Alabama and Georgia is to just put Auburn in the game and make Alabama and Georgia fight for that. Well, we should just take an NFC team and move them over to the AFC and like eliminate the six seed, right? Because it would balance everything else. Because whoever the sixth seed is, and to me, the AFC, like there's nobody from four, from three to six, and maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I don't see any of those three through six beaten one or two, do you?

Absolutely not. I mean, the four teams that you're talking about right now as it stands are the Ravens are the six seed, the Jaguars are the five seed, the Chiefs of the Four Seed, and the Titans are the three seed. They're not beating the Steelers and they're not beating the Patriots as the stands right now. No, and I mean, look, that's something we want to talk about on the next thing is the Chief's offense, but I don't see the Chief's cure in this. because they don't really, they're not great on defense.

Their offense, which was carrying them early, is not great, unless they get turnovers on defense. So I think the AFC is really a bunch of bad teams. It really is. And is there a team that's in the AFC that's not necessarily in the playoff picture right now that you can see jumping up? And the team that jumps out to me is the Chargers. It's the obvious one, right?

It's the Chargers. They're the best team. And I mean, if they would have been able to beat Denver earlier in the season, if they would have been able to beat Jacksonville when your guy, Trey Elston, I think it was, who celebrated the kid from North Carolina? Oh, Trey Boston. Trey Boston celebrated, right? I mean, if they win any of those games, I mean, they're in command of their own destiny.

They're playing the best football right now. They are the Auburn of the NFL. They're playing their best football right now. Yeah, they got hot in November. They're hot in November. And they got Cleveland coming to town to Stubhub, and they're a 13-point favorite going into that game. I mean, look, if they can't beat Cleveland, they don't deserve to get in. But to me, I think it is.

Buffalo, I don't see how Buffalo can do it. Buffalo's in a must win. If they don't beat New England at home, they're not going to beat New England in Foxborough. right? So they're not going to win down there. And there's too many other games that they could potentially lose that's going to knock them out. I think the Chargers and the Chiefs end up, one of those teams wins the West and might win

the playoff spot too. Might win the wild card. Might win the wild card. Exactly. Because the bills, if you look at it, they wrap up the season at the Patriots, at the Dolphins. They have two road games to wrap the thing up. Probably will lose the Patriots this weekend.

You have Colts at home. That's a must win for them this week. It really, it's all or nothing for them. They got to put, they got to do, they got to KGB it. They got to put all the chips in. Start licking the Oreo cooking and go all the way in. Hear that, Sean McDermott, make it happen. Let's look at the NFC.

We have our Eagles, the 1C, 10, and 1, a team that has basically been coordinated as the best team in football by everyone. Everybody. The parade's already, the prey route's already been decided. So don't even worry about it. Stop. Stop. We got Minnesota. They've beaten one team of the winning.

Look, I think the Eagles are really good. Yes. I think they're really good. I'm not disputing that. I know my comments about Doug Peterson. I'll hold on that. But, I mean, they are really a good football team. I think there's a front seven.

Jim Schwartz is really a good football. Jim Schwartz doesn't get a head coaching job. Exactly. Based on this year what he's done with this entire Eagle team and the way the culture has been set in Philadelphia, I don't see it. I mean, to me, he would be the perfect candidate for a team that really wants to change their culture.

What about the Denver Broncos, a team that has a defense that he could really work with and boost up? I think he would be really good in Denver. I think the one thing with Jim Schwartz, not to jump ahead, but Jim Schwartz gives you an identity of what you want to be on one side of the football. I mean, you can draft to identity, That's what makes them so unique.

And that's what's made Howie Roseman a better general manager. That's what's made the Eagles a better team because defensively, he's given them the blueprint on what we need to win with. I want defensive linemen that look like this. I want defensive ends that look like this. I need linebackers that look like this. Look, most of those guys on defense, the Nigel Branham, those guys came from Buffalo who was with Schwartz.

So there's a true identity about what he wants. And that makes the personnel guy much better. That's what I always say I was way better with. Belichick because the identity was already declared by him, which it should be, the coach, right? So then it was easier. It was fitting players within the system. It didn't become, well, I like this guy. Well, I might like him, but if he doesn't fit what we're doing, I think that's where the

Eagles have had success. If they lose Schwartz, that's going to get real interesting. Then let's revisit them. Yeah, when you know what the puzzle looks like, is easier to put the pieces together when you know what the end result should be. Right. And so, look, I like the Eagles. I think they're really good.

But they haven't, look, a lot of teams they have them, there's a lot of, I mean, they're playing Chicago, which is dysfunctional to begin with. I mean, Denver, we realize when they blew Denver out, how bad Denver is now. So, you know, this week's a true test. I think Seattle game will be a true test. I think they're better in Seattle. I think they'll beat Seattle. Seattle, to me, is the arrows pointed down.

When you lose two home games like Seattle has, when you usually dominate at home and you can't beat the 49ers, you beat the 49ers by a field goal, then, you know, I think the things are starting to slip away due to injuries, understandable, but they're just not very good offensively. And they have at the Seahawks, and they follow. that by going to the Rams. They're going to stay out here on the West Coast. They're going to play the Rams, which would be another good game, which would be a great test for them. I think the one thing Philadelphia needs to do is become battle tested. I think they need to be battle tested. I think

I know the parade routes being hosted in Philadelphia, but I think you need to be battle tested. I think you need to be go through it and really have to understand what it's like to overcome. Look, the year we won the Super Bowl in New England when we came from 14 points down twice in that game, which was the first time. I mean, we had been battle tested. We had been battle tested. We lost in Green Bay. We had a really hard game the next week against San Diego, and that was, you had to come back and fight and win on the road. I think those things really help you when you have to play a championship. When you just ease along, like you're the Harlem Globetrotters and you just get to the final, you know, then you're not quite bad.

When the playoffs come, you're going to have to be battle tested. I think the Eagles should embrace this and really use it as an opportunity. And let's look at the rest of that, the bottom bracket, the wildcard weekend guys. We've got the Falcons who right now hold the 60s pocket. They're at 7 and 4. right now play the Los Angeles Rams, who are the three-seed. And then we have the Panthers who are also eight and three. They're the five-seed, and they would play the Saints who are the NFC, South, the class of the

NFC South right now, who are the fourth seed. So as it stands right now in the NFC, we have three teams from the NFC South. They're all good. They're all good. And they all belong in there. And they all look like they could potentially win the division. I mean, the Panthers get a revenge game at New Orleans. They all look like, I mean, I don't know about New Orleans.

I think New Orleans would have lost to the Rams even if they had Lattimore back on defense. But I think New Orleans is really good. I was a little worried about Drew Breeze last Sunday. I didn't think Drew Breeze and them watching the tape of them. I didn't think that they were really explosive in the passing game. I think that if they played Philadelphia, that Philadelphia would lock them down. The Phillies defensive line would exploit them a little bit. But there's too many good teams in the NFC.

At least, well, let's say there's eight, right? Eight or nine. And then there's the cliff. Then there's the really bad teams, right? There's no middle class in the NFC. Right? There isn't like a team that's rising. Like the Redskins, there's just no details they ever get handled.

Plus, they're beat up. They can't, you know, and the Cowboys, the Clapper, his team, you know, he has to coach a Pro Bowl team. Packers without Rogers. Packers are without Rogers. There's too many, but there's a lot better teams in the NFC than are in the AFC. I mean, the AFC, it just goes off the cliff, right? I mean, there's really no, after you get those, once you get past two or three, it's really with Kansas City floundering. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, the Seahawks and the Lions are the two teams are the two teams are the two teams are the playoffs picture. Of those two teams, I mean, which team do you think has the best chance? I think the lions are. I think the lions are, they're a funny team. They love to be 17 points down. Nobody embraces getting behind by 17 more than Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions. Okay. And, you know, now that Terrell Austin, let me say this, you know, this, we're on the college coaching search seasons. Ray Anderson, who's the athletic director at Arizona State, you know, he'd been in the NFL for a long, long time. And Tony Dungey loves Terrell Austin, and he's pushing them to be the head coach Arizona State. And I hope Terrell gets the job. It would be well deserved. So those conflicts come in and take away from your planning and your planning and your preparation. So that kind of distorts it. The lions, to me, just aren't a very good team. They're a competitive team. They fight. Stafford throws the ball as well. They get behind. They come back.

But when they play the good teams, I don't think they can control the pace of the game. And I think that'll be their downfall. Seattle, I'm waiting for Seattle to defensive front to show up. And it's going to have to show up this week against Philadelphia because the only way they're going to be able to beat the Eagles is if their defensive front can put pressure on Wenz and tackle them, which is a hard tour. Absolutely. Wince has that Ben-Rothisberger factory where he just seems to get out of anything. And the officials give them the extra cut. But this is a great opportunity for Philly. You're going to have to deal with crowd noise.

It's going to be loud. You've got to check the plays at the line of scrimmage. You're not going to be in the perfect play all the time, which I think we see the Rams are really good at doing that. Yeah, we're going to see if the 12th man is back. That's right. Which it hasn't been. It's been strange.

But I will agree with you about your prediction that Seattle, if Seattle doesn't beat this team, I don't see them going to the playoffs. If they don't win this home game, they're not going to go. I don't see it happening because you're going to have to get the 10, right? And I don't know. I just don't see it. And when you look at just all the teams that will be on the NFC, the AFC, I think it's a two-man race.

It's the Steelers and the Patriots. The NFC, I can see a scenario where the Eagles just dominate and go to the Super Bowl. I can see a scenario where the Vikings' defense steps up in case Kingdom can get them in the Super Bowl. I can see a scenario with a Rams somehow outscore team. But every single team that's in that picture, I feel like has a chance. And you didn't mention your Carolina Panthers, which I really think if Cam could play better, I would think they're the best complete team. I mean, remember, they had Philadelphia in that game on Thursday night.

They had Philly on the ropes in that game, and then Keeckley gets hurt at the halftime. And Cam played one of his Cam typical games this year in that game. He was not very good. And yet I do think that they could if Cam played better. If he plays like he did against the Jets this last weekend, they're hard to really endorse. I mean, they really are. They're just not, he just doesn't make enough plays. They're too inconsistent on offense.

And he's trying to figure it. out with Funches. I feel like Funches has really helped his offensive game a little bit to have someone to bail him out. But we know the thing with Cam. Cam is a guy, if he's going to miss, he's going to miss high. And when he misses high and it gets in his head, that's when things start to spiral down. Think about it. They're eight and three, right? I mean, they lose a horrible loss to Chicago in Chicago. I mean, they're nine and two, really, they should have been nine and two in that game. And they lose the Philadelphia at home and they get blown out by New Orleans. I mean, they're a team that really when you look at them if they're healthy they're a dangerous team that's

really laying below the radar because philly's taking all the publicity but if cam just ups his game a little bit wow i think they to me they would i would be fearful to play them in a playoff game because they're good in the defensive front they're good in the kicking game and he's the x factor and when the x fact he's a little like iverson i mean he could score 40 on you or he could shoot two of 14 you know you don't ever know And Cam, that to me is the only reason I can't get behind it. He's a great, I mean, that's a great comparison. I think the thing with Cam is if he's inside third and four, he could get the first down himself pretty much every time.

And that changes everything from a defensive perspective because you have to worry about him. So to me, I agree with you. There's so many teams in the NFC, but Carolina looks to me like if Cam played better, they would be dangerous to compete with Philadelphia. All right, let's keep it going. We're going to insult a few a little bit. This is our favorite segment, not for nothing. Mr. Lombardi this week, who's getting insulted?

Well, there's so much to do. I mean, the Baltimore offense certainly could get insulted. Denver, we insulted on the Sunday podcast. You know, I think the Miami Dolphins deserve to be insulted more than anybody. I mean, look, they're playing Denver, a team that's lost seven games, right? And seven in a row, by the way, Tate Fraser.

And they're hosting those Denver Broncos in your own stadium. And Vegas thinks so little of your team that you're a one-point underdog. That just blew me away. Like what I print out, not that I gamble or anything like that, but for the Saturday, sit down, I always want to look at see what's the, you know, and I saw that. And then I really watched the tape of the Patriot game.

I studied the tape. And Miami's a bad team. I mean, Miami's really a bad team. I mean, I think Miami has to really sit back and evaluate themselves this offseason and say, who do we want to be? Like, you talk about the identity that I was talking about with Schwartz. Like, they don't really have one. They have a bunch of skill players that everybody thinks they're great, but yet they can't

score any points, right? Like, they have, like, what I think you missed the boat on so much, and I think people tend to overlook this, which is why Alvin Kamara should win rookie of the year, when you're in spread formation, the back makes the spread, not the receivers, right? You have to worry about the box. When you worry about the box, is he going to run the ball on us? They're going to do it. Then you worry about the back. Can he catch the ball? You know, when you're a one-dimensional back, then it becomes a little difficult. But when you're a back like Camaro, And you can explore and you spread the, then the receivers become better. And I think that Miami has these three receivers that allegedly are the greatest receivers in the history of football, led by Jarvis Landry, who averages under 10 yards.

I don't see it with their team. And then defensively, like, I know they have good defensive line. I mean, they beat Brady. You know, Sue played Sue type game last week. He kind of got up for it. But they don't tackle very well. They're not very physical when you get to the linebackers. I mean, I really think they're a bad team.

And I think they need to really, the playoffs hurt them in their own. evaluation. Yeah, and you obviously see Jay Ajai, who they make this trade, they sit him up to Philadelphia. People think that he's falling off and he goes to Philly and completely turns his whole season around and turns a thing around. There's a disconnect in Miami. I think if you're the GM of the Miami Dolphins, I think you have to be really cognizant of where you play, the type of players you bring into the organization. And I think this Jarvis Landry situation, you know, I reported it this summer that they were trying to trade them. And of course, they came out and denied it. Then the Miami Herald reported it during the trade line.

and then, of course, they denied it. They've definitely been trying to trade them, but they're almost so sensitive to him, right? Like, they almost care more about how he feels as opposed to making sure that they just run their team. Like, I get you have to listen to the players. I get that. Like, I'm not insensitive to the players, but somebody better be a commander-in-chief of the team. And I know that Adam Gase has got this great reputation for being an offensive coach, but he's a head coach now, and their offense isn't very good, and their defense isn't very good.

Their defense wasn't any very good last year. And Vance Joseph got the – I mean, when they won the – games. I mean, they were, nobody was scared of their defense or scared of their scheme on defense for sure. I mean, John L. Way, higher advanced Joseph. Why, I don't know, but he did. But it wasn't based on the Miami Dolphin defensive tape. Yeah, I will say this. Matt Moore is the guy. I wish that they would let him just play. Every time he goes out there, he does some good things. But the more Matt Moore plays, the less you like Matt Moore. Okay. Of course. He holds the ball. Like he got a couple sacks. And I mean, the Patriots, I think, had seven sacks in the game or something like that.

Like some of them, Matt Moore, just throw the ball away. Don't you see a land in Roberts coming right down the field. He's trying to be a hero. We just got Bill Simmons just walked in the house. He's the clapper. He's clapping. It's a good invitation. It's good for him. He looked good doing it, too. Yeah, that was good for him. Is he going to be the new head coach of the Cowboys? I think he should be. I think he and Cousin Sal. Cousin's Sall should be the office coordinator. Cousin Sall would be the new Wade Phillips. We'll figure this thing out. What else are we going to talk about? Who else needs to get insulted? Obviously, the dolphins do. I mean, do we have it? Can I say one person I want to insult. go ahead. Leonard Fournett.

Now, I know that I don't like to pick on players, and I like Leonard for net. You're player friendly. Yeah, I'm a player. I'm a player first, not program first. Leonard Fournette. Such a millennial. No, he came into the NFL and he's talking all this junk about how he's going to, you know, dominate football. This is what he's been waiting for.

You know, he had to bide his time at LSU to get to this moment. It's not that hard to him, all this stuff. And my guy in crunch time, when they need him, when Blake Bortles needs someone to, first of all, block for him, second of all, hand the ball off to, so you can get some yard. and run some clock. He's standing on the sideline just sitting there. And you got T.J. Yeldon on the field. What's going on there?

I mean, you get out there and make some plays if you're going to be this big bad dude that you can say. I mean, we talked about it before. I mean, look, he's not very good in past protection, so that's a problem. And then they don't feel comfortable that he knows everything. And God knows we have to protect Blake Bortals. So, I mean, the Blatanic, I mean, you know,

I'm disappointed in that too because he's a big component of what they do. Because when you get a big guy like that, catch the ball in a flat, he can break some tackles. All of a sudden, those checkdowns instead of being three yards, become 13 yards. And we're trying to stack the box, too, when you have a guy like Fournette back there. When you know it's Yeldon, I mean, Yelden is a guy that's on the outside for the most part, mostly stretch plays. I mean, I think it changes the whole dynamic of how you get covered. Right. That's a great point. See, I think that's why the most common formation now in football

is this three-by-one look. Everybody's running it. So, and like Kansas City with Travis Kelsey, the best receiver is always away from the three-by-one because it makes it easy on the quarterback to read the coverage. It's like last night when we were watching the game, Hopkins was away from the three-by-one, it made it easy for Tom Savage, maybe easy's the wrong word. It made it so that you could see what was going on on the field. And those formations help. Whereas if you had that in Jacksonville and you knew that and Fournette was the back, you should be in the perfect play all the time. That's the goal of offensive football, especially with the 20, with the headset communication, is to be in the perfect play all the time. Because you can change the play. It's

why the Rams are so successful. I mean, look at what's happened with golf. Did you see that clip on the Houston Texan game where Sean McVeigh basically is the quarterback of the Rams. Yeah, he's making the audibles live in the moment. Live in the moment, which the only way that can truly happen is if the 15, after 15 seconds, that communication should shut down. If it doesn't, like for me, if I'm a defensive coach now in the NFL and I'm playing the Rams, like this week, if I'm the Arizona Cardinals, I don't change. I tell everybody to line up in a cover two shell and at 14 seconds on the play clock,

change. Change. Like, show them what you are. change and force their hand because you know they're reading our coverage. It's like when people used to steal signals in the NFL. I mean, if you know it's coming, you know, and look, let me say this, for the record, the Patriots, you know, got stealing signals is an art form. Every team in the league did it. There's coaches in the Hall of Fame. And I'm not going to mention their names that were great at stealing signals. And everybody in the league knew it. Everybody protected yourself because

that's part of the game. Anyway, back to this. Same thing in baseball. For people that played baseball, It's the same thing. Understandable. Not for nothing. Do you have anything else? No, the other thing I wanted to ask you is where is, as a millennial, as a man who represents the millennial nation? I do not represent those people.

I want to know where are you on like the uniforms, like Ohio State's uniform against Michigan. Where are you on that? Like I actually thought Ohio State's uniform was really pretty. I thought it was beautiful. I thought the black with the white, with a little bit of gray. I thought it was really a beautiful uniform. However, where are you on when you're playing? Like if North Carolina is playing their number, Duke, right?

Would you like North Carolina to wear a throwback or a old-fashioned uniform or is, you just want them to wear their standard uniform? I'm a classic trumps everything. You know, I believe in that. And as far as uniforms go, like Carolina just played in this Phil Knight tournament. Right. And they have these Nike black UNC writing. It looks just terrible.

It looks like something off NBA stream volume two. But it was in a tournament, right? Yes, exactly. But what I'm saying, I think that Nike, got this Oregon fever where we need to take and enhance all these jerseys and make them look cool and do all this sort of other stuff. And if you're a classic, if you're Texas or if you're a North Carolina or you're Notre Dame, if you're Penn State, if you're USC and you have this classic combination that's already there and people recognize, you don't need all that. I mean,

I understand if you're Oregon and you want to flare yourself up or if you're, you know, Texas A&M and Adidas wants to do some, you know, blackout jerseys. I'm all for that. That can be cool. But don't ruin the classic stuff. Yeah, I have a hard time. I'm all. four of the different kinds. I mean, I know this generation wants to have different color uniforms, but I think... It's all for recruiting. I get that. And I'm all good. But when you have a classic game, when you're playing a game that's gone on since time of memorial,

you should wear the uniforms. Like, Detroit on Thanksgiving Day should wear their classic uniform. And Minnesota should wear their... Like, it should be a classic day. Yes. Like, it shouldn't be like, you know, I get like the Thursday... Pay homage to the past and also, maybe upgrade it a little bit, add a little extra, you know, for the moment. To me, I think that that's wrong. And I'm like watching the games.

I think, look, Baltimore wearing all black last night. I got no problem with that. Like they don't really have a classic uniform. Like, you know, like the Celtics. Right. The Celtics don't change their uniform, right? The Yankees don't change theirs. And they seem to sell fairly well, right?

Of course. That's what I'm saying. Classic, like the pinstripes. Something that you can, when you think of something, when I think of Texas, I think of burn orange. When you think of North Carolina, you think of Carolina blue. I mean, things like that. If you think of Notre Dame, you think the gold, you think the gold helmets.

Stuff like that, just keep it. You can't change that, right? There's no need to. Speaking of college, the one thing I would like to insult is the University of Tennessee. As you know, I'm a huge Greg Ciano supporter. And I've known Greg for a long time. He would come in. He's the Ruckers coach.

I find it fascinating that people say, well, you know, he didn't win at Ruckers. I don't think people really understand that. And then I also find it fascinating. Go ahead. No, I just want to say, for people that have not watched, North Carolina, 2008, North Carolina were Navy pants for the first time. They played at Ruckers against Greg Chiano. Butch Davis versus Greg Shiano, one of the most underrated football games you've ever seen, the amount of talent on the field.

Talking about Robert Quinn, Hakeem Nix, Mohamed Sunu, all these guys. Right. Ruckers in North Carolina. It's a great game. People want to go watch it. Please do. And so, you know, I'm a fan. And I've been in the New England's program.

And Bill, obviously, Belichick's a huge fan of them. And I got to know him pretty well there, too. And, you know, the players that played for Greg, like, if you call Devin McCordy today and ask him about Greg, he would absolutely love him. And I know I hear all this stuff. But what happened to him at Tennessee to me is really, really unfair. I mean, if you don't want him to be your head coach, if the fan base doesn't want them to be your head coach, that's one thing. But to then to cast these shadows upon them that I just don't think are fair or have been proven fair is really disturbing. There's a great movie called Absence of Malice.

It's way past you weren't born before this. It's with Sally Field and Bella's favorite actor, Paul Newman. Love Paul Newman. Bella loves them too. She just likes the cookies more than she likes the actor. And the dressing. The doll cookies, she thinks are the best. But anyway, Paul Newman plays, and it's a little bit along this line of the same thing that happened.

Paul Newman played this character, and it just smeared his life, and he had to take some retaliation. And it's a really good movie. It was done by Cindy Pollock. Sally Field was in his great. I recommend anybody who's interested in this, watch it because the way we are now, if you don't want Siano to be your head coach of Tennessee, that's fine. But if you want to smear a guy's campaign, I think it's really unfortunate. I think it's really bad when I hear somebody from. Tennessee get on and talk about how, you know, they think he's a bad coach. Well, the guy that's

saying this and who's got all these followers on Twitter, what does he call Belichick and ask him what he thinks to Siano? Like, who is judging coaches now? I guess that's my question to you. The media and, you know, people online. And it was a, it was a campaign that was pretty much all grassroots and from the internet. And it led to the top. And Tennessee made a decision now to hire Sceano after deciding they wanted. You know, the guy runs a Tennessee football program is Jimmy Haslam. I mean, the Hazam family runs a Tennessee football program, and they run the Browns program. See a connection there?

You do the math. All right, listen, while we're talking about college, we might as well just keep it up. This is our lottery watch. We always talk about what's going on in the college world while we can. Tennessee job is out there. Obviously, there's a lot of problems with the Shiano thing now going on with them. They're interviewing Mike Gundy. That's what's been reported.

Mike Gundy, and it'll be interesting to see where they go, you know, whether they go to a Tennessee guy, T. Martin, Lane Kiffin. Have you been following Lane Kiffin on Twitter at all? been great. I mean, he's been like campaigning for the job. I mean, Lane Kiffin's like let him out, like let him lose. He's won these games. Like, there's no denying them now. Put him back in the Power 5. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's somewhat entertaining. It's funny. I mean, Dan Mullen takes the Florida job, which Dan Mullen's been trying, Dan Mullen really wanted the Georgia job, couldn't get it. He thought he had the Tennessee job. Was Tennessee's number one choice when he did,

he turned them down to take the Florida. I mean, Scott Frost has started this whole domino effect, right? So Scott Frost had his chance to be the Florida head coach. He turned that down. Obviously, he must want the Nebraska job. And then he took that job, which then opened it up for Mullen at Florida, which then opened Tennessee up. And Siano was on their B list, and they hired him. So it'll be fascinated to see where they go. Mississippi stayed within. The interesting is going to be one is Texas A&M.

Texas A&M is a sleeping giant. Yep. Kevin Sleman just got fired after being there for six years. Unbelievable facilities. Unbelievable wealth in the community. They can do whatever they want to do financially. And if they're able to get Jimbo Fisher, and I'm told reliably that if they offer Fisher, enough money, they'll get them. Like, it's going to have to be $8, $9 million to get them. But if they do,

they'll get them. And then that opens Florida State up, which is another job. I mean, the college jobs that are open are really remarkable. And maybe the best one of all is if Frostleaf Central Florida, that might be the best job of them all. Why? Because it's got... Blake Bortles? Yes. Blake's a spokesman for your team. You get any... You're basically quarterback you because you've had Blake Bortles there, right? So, because you got so... You could take all the twos and threes. I mean, people want to see their sons play. And, and... and this Florida is so fertile for football, it can get you a tremendous job.

And Chip Kelly at UCLA, what's your thoughts on that? I think that's good. I think it was surprising. I didn't think Kelly was going to take the job. I mean, a lot of people pointed this out, but Chip Kelly, obviously, what he did at Oregon was basically sponsored by Nike, and he became a Nike guy.

And going to UCLA, being an Under Armour program, I think that changes things for him. I think him being back in the Pac-12 is going to be good for him. I think that's where he's going to thrive. I'd be more concerned if I were Chip Kelly as to that recruiting landscape against USC. But I don't think it'll be a problem. I think he can do it.

Mora did it for a little while. I mean, you're a national school at UCLA, right? So you can go back into Jersey. Actually, one of Springsteen's backup singer's son, Devin, I forget his last name, the wide receiver played there was drafted by Atlanta in the seventh round. You know, UCLA's always going back in a jersey. They've always gone into different areas. And with your Chip Kelly, you know, when he was at Oregon, he had a nationally recruit too

because, I mean, Mariotas from Hawaii. Well, you know what he did at Oregon. He just went to Texas and was like, all right, three star that's really fast. You want to come here? And to me, there's nothing wrong with that. Like Texas. Seastrunk, whoever it was. To me, Texas is mis-evaluating more players than they are evaluated them correctly.

That's why they're messed up. You know, like I told a coach from Texas just recently. I said, if you're in the top five recruiting teams in the country, I'm going to be really pissed off at you. like that's wrong like you don't want that like you don't want to be like you don't want the mac brown award like getting all the five stars right you don't want that award you want to get good players who are hungry you want to work hard most of the five stars are pretty fat and happy by the time you get to campus yeah i mean that this typically doesn't they're not going to turn your program

around so but texas an m is a job that i think is going to be really worth watching because that can shift the balance of power if they get the right guy can i ask you about t martin so t martin is out here at u sc he's the offensive coordinator he was a great quarterback in Tennessee. His son, this is a weird fun fact. His son plays at Clemson, and Clemson's top freshman wide receiver T. Higgins is named after T. Martin. So there's all these weird T. Martin Martin, you know, things going on at Clemson. It frustrates me because if I'm Tennessee fan and I see T. Martin's kid going to Clemson, this guy named after T. Martin's at Clemson. T. Martin's out here at USC. Like, why don't I give him a chance? I've heard great things about T. Martin being

professional. I think they should hire T. Martin. I think T. Martin was our quarterback at the Raiders when I was there. Great kid. Works hard. I mean, he's a kid. He's worked his way up in the coaching ranks. Nobody's given him anything. It isn't like he's had this great NFL career and they just turned it over to him. So look, if you want to have a national – if you want to have a guy – look, if Tennessee wants a Tennessee guy, that's fair. I get that. I'm not complaining about that.

I'm complaining about the process they went through. But if Tennessee wants to get a guy that they feel like can lead their program, then I think – you ought to give Team Martin because you're going to have to recruit. Look, Tennessee, Kentucky, Tennessee, all those places, there's not enough good players in the state to make you – against the great programs. So you have to go somewhere else to get them. You've got to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. This is what's made Clemson so great. I mean, Dabo has done a tremendous job of recruiting out of the state. He's gone to Georgia. He gets Watson. He's gone all over the country to get players. He's gone

into Florida. When you could do that and you can correctly evaluate him, which I think is even more important, is correctly evaluated. I'm like, you don't want to go. If you're Chip Kelly, you don't want to leave Southern California and take a guy who you can find in your backyard. This is a little bit of the Al Davis thing. Al Davis used to always say to me all the time, I'm not trying to get incrementally better. I'm trying to get a lot better. Like for me, I always wanted to try to get incrementally better.

If there was a player that would say you graded a guy of 57 and you could find a 59, let's get the 59. Because to me, all those incrementally better players make your team overall better, hours from the belief, I'll take the 57 and live with them because he knows what to do. But when I can get the 65, I'm going to take the 65. There's some argument for that. I get that. And I think that's the way you have to approach recruiting. Don't leave your state to take a guy who's just incrementally a little better than the one at home, but go get the superstar. And that's what I think Chip Kelly will do. I think Chip Kelly hiring at UCLA's tremendous. I think it's going to be great. Absolutely. Is there anything else in college football that really stood out to you? Obviously, the coaching carousel has been unbelievable. Can I ask you about Harbaugh at Ohio State and Michigan, that whole situation? I mean, I know that Harbaugh is untouched. We love that he wears the khakis and the sweater and the glasses. Everyone loves talking about that. that. But he's 0-3 against Ohio State. Urban Meyer is basically...

kicking his butt. Yeah, exactly. And one of my favorite things about college basketball and college sports in general, and I think they matter more is because of rivalries and what they mean. Ohio State, Michigan, I've always equated to North Carolina Duke. In the same way, I always watched that game. I enjoyed it when Lloyd Carr was there and it used to be a fun game. Trusso obviously came in and dominated the rich ride years, all this other stuff at Michigan. I thought Harbaal is going to change the tune of this whole thing. But now he's 0-3. And it doesn't like it. I mean, they have a quarterback problem. I don't know. What's going on at Michigan? I think they have an offensive court.

I think offensively, you know, I've never been a big believer of the PEP Hamilton offense. And I know Jim runs the offense there. And I just, I think offensively they need a better design. You know, it's tough to just always run what they run and just dominate, especially against a team like Ohio State who has a really good front. And let's face it, look, whenever you find a program that's not being successful, it starts because you didn't get the right quarterback.

I mean, O'Kern, I think that's how you say his name, right, the quarterback. I mean, he was really, he's not a very. very good player. You know, I know he transferred from Texas, from Houston and all that, but had no feel for the game. And I think that that's really caught him off guard. Now, they supposedly have a great quarterback that they've redshirted. And if that's the case, that'll turn them around.

But until they fix the quarterback, which is hopefully what you do with Jim Harbaugh, like all these coaches who get hit, like if I'm Dan Mullen, like if I'm Dan Mullen, forget about putting my staff together. The first thing I'm doing is give me the list of the top five quarterbacks in the United States. I want to watch them. I'm going to go get me one. Yeah, maybe even go to junior college and try to find some. get me the best quarterback that I could, because until I get him, it doesn't matter who else I have on the staff. It doesn't matter what else I have in the program.

Same thing when you take over an NFL team. You've got to fix the quarterback. I think that's Jim's biggest issue. He hasn't fixed the quarterback. And if you look at Stanford, I mean, obviously Harbaal leaves Stanford and David Shaw takes over. I think if you had told someone that in 2017, you would be more impressed with what David Shaw is doing at Stanford than what Jim Harbaal is doing at Michigan. People would not believe that was the case. I think David's done a really good job of taking that offense and expanding it out and making it uniquely. Now, it's different in terms of who we plays, the level of comp. But for the most part, I mean, they're more creative. I think... It's an impressive win over Notre Dame. I watch that

whole game. Yeah, they kick their butt. Yeah, they kick their butt. And I think, really, when you look at Michigan, I think Michigan needs to be a little bit more diverse offensively than what they've been. And I thought they had a really good game plan. I mean, they did everything in their power to stay with Ohio State. The quarterback just couldn't make some easy throws at a great red zone production. I mean, I think Jim just sometimes Jim collects more people. He has a big staff. I think sometimes less is more. I wish that they had Bryce Love.

Bryce Love is probably my favorite running back in the country. Probably should have had Bryce Love. And, you know, Jim figured it out in Stanford. I think he'll figure it out here, but the pressure's way on him. I mean, Urban's really good at what he does. I mean, so you're going to have to find somebody who can compete with, and Urban's good at getting players. I mean, look at all those guys that they have on that Ohio State team. I mean, Urban goes into Texas. It'll be a

fascinating. I think it'll be good. But I could see what you're saying. I mean, I could get the people that aren't like drinking the Kool-Aid on Jim Harbaugh. I get that. I'm just worried. I want the rivalry to come back and for it to be fun because those are too cool. When it happened, it almost seemed like it was made up, you know, to have Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh going head-to-head in that rivalry. It seemed almost too good to be true, and I don't think we've been, I don't think we've gotten what we want so far. Anything else? You get an Al-David story for the week?

All right. So anyway, I'm in this restaurant the other night, and so one of the people at the table says, tell me an Al-David story. So my favorite Al-David story, it's in the book. one of my favorite ones of all time. And it's, it goes back to, I want to say, I think we're in 2004. We're playing the Chiefs at home. Is the year after losing to the Bucks in the Super Bowl? No, this is two years after. North Turner's the head coach. Rob Ryan's the offensive coordinator. Don Martindale's the linebacker coach. So, you know, every day that I worked for Al, I would get phone called after practice to go over what the practice was. And I, again, once again, I could never ask a question I just had to answer. So I got three things for you today.

Did you see, you know, they ran Alvis Wittittitt, too much at practice. Did you, you know, like, why are they doing this? Why they, you know, okay, so I answer those. So this one Wednesday practice, we're getting ready to play this chief team. And the chief team was really good. They had Eddie Kennison. They had Johnny Morton. They had Larry Johnson at running back. Trent Green was the quarterback. Al J. Jason Dunn was the tight end. I mean, they were explosive offense. Al Saunders was the offensive coordinator. Was Gonzales on that team? Gonzalez was on the team. Jason Dunn was the other tight ends.

So they had two tight ends. They could be in 12 personnel and just kick your butt, you know. And so we're playing them. And so Wednesday practice, we run this coverage that I had never seen us run before. It's a new coverage. It was kind of like you look like you're playing cover two, but you revert to three. And it was kind of like a weird thing. And I never said it.

So what I typically would do is because I'm not allowed to ask questions, I cut it out and I saved it on my video because I figured he would ask me and then I could send it over to him at the hotel. Wednesday night, no question. We run the coverage again on Thursday, Thursday night, no questions. We run the coverage again on Friday, Friday night, no questions. Okay, he didn't ask. He obviously doesn't, you know, it's not concerned about it. You're not concerned about it. Fast forward to the game on Sunday. We pretty much dominate the game and then the Chiefs make this comeback. We're up 31 to 27 late in the game. There's actually 2.10 to go in the game. And it's second and five. and we had run the coverage before during the game, no problem.

And then on this time, we run it again. And Eddie Kenneson catches a slim post or bang eight. And Trent Green hits him in stride. And Kenison's probably still running today. Okay. It's a touchdown, right? We lose the game 34, 31, and game over. I get home and my telephone rings.

And, you know, he's going berserk on me on the telephone. He's going absolutely berserk. Who's that coverage? Don't lie to me. where you put that coverage. Mr. Davis, look, I'm telling you, I put, I got it, I got it clipped out. I'll bring it to your office tomorrow. I mean, I'll put it, I'll bring it to the hotel.

By the time you wake up tomorrow morning, because he never woke up before 10.30. So by the time, he wouldn't go to bed to like three, right? So I'm not, like, his schedule was Howard Hughes. So anyway, it was like, okay, once you wake up, it'll be right there at your room at the hotel. I don't want to hear that click hangs up the phone. The next morning, now I'm worried, right? So like the next morning I get to work really early. The next morning I go in and I wait for, I wait for Rob Ryan and, and I wait for,

Martin Dell, the linebacker coach now. They commuted together. They both lived way out in Livermore. And Rob's, you know, he's got, he always had good and plenties in the car. I love good and plenty. So it comes bouncing in. I'm like, Rob, I'm just telling you. Wink, I'm telling you.

We called Don Martindale, wink, Martin Dell. I said, Don, wink, I mean, the old man's on the warpath. He's coming to get you. I don't know what you're going to tell him, but you better make sure that you have your story straight. That you both have your story straight because he's coming after you tomorrow. I mean, I've never seen him this pissed off at all my life. He's really pissed off at the coverage. And without a blink, Rob looks at me and says, what the F are you talking about?

That was his coverage. He made me put it in. That's it. That next day, nobody said a word about the coverage. He never brought it back up to me. And God knows, I didn't say, hey, Mr. D, that was your coverage, wasn't it? No chance, right? That was the end of the story.

That's one of my favorite ones of all time. Just being able to, everybody, like, as long as nobody communicates, everybody will know. What do you think about that, Taboragia? I love that. That's so good. He's got you all messed up. That's so great. I'm glad he never brought it up.

I'm glad you never brought it up. I never brought it up. Rob Ryan and I and Wink, we still laugh about it today. Whenever we see each other, we talk about it. It's hilarious. That's so good. That's a great story. And good for Rob Ryan to bring him up.

That was great. He's, you know, great defensive coordinator. If you need getting good and plenty, Rob will have some. Trust me. He loves some good and plenty. Yes. Is there anything else before we get out of here? Thursday night football?

Thursday night. We got the clapper or Thursday. We just had Bill Simmons come in and give us a little clapping. I'm excited. No, it'll be good. That'll be good week. We'll see what happens with Jason Garrett if the rails continue to go as they're going. Jerry said, have we forgotten that he was coach of the year?

And I tweeted back out. Yes, we have. No, we didn't. But have you forgotten that he lost to Green Bay at home who then got smoked in Atlanta by Atlanta? So, I mean, look, Jerry wants to be the head coach of the team. And Jason's the perfect guy to have if he wants to coach the team, which let him coach team. It's his team. He owns it. Keep clapping. This has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Tate Frazier. That is Michael Lombardi. We will be back.

Saturday for a Saturday sit down. We'll see you then. Thanks.