The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — McAdoo's and McAdon'ts (Ep. 184)

Episode Date: November 15, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi sits down with Tate Frazier to discuss Ben McAdoo's future with the Giants (02:30), the Chargers' innovative ways of losing (06:30), the lack of detail in Oakland (11:00), what's wrong in Denver (16:00), big coaching positions opening up in the NCAA (24:30), and Roger Goodell's contract negotiations (32:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I want to tell you about the ringers gambling podcast. It is called Against All Odds with Cousin' Sal, and you're not going to believe of this, but it is hosted by Cousin Sal. The biggest degenerate gambler that I know. He's such a degenerate. He has three other degenerates that he calls the degenerate trifecta. And they break down every conceivable gambling thing you would ever want to gamble on. They even take you to Captain Morgan's Make Believe Casino, where Sal makes up props on all kinds of things. Sports, pop culture, you name it.

you are going to want to get your gambling advice from these guys. Cousin Sal, he's been a staple on the BS podcast for the last 10 years. So good that we gave him his own podcast. Check it out against all odds with Cousin Sal. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Tate Frazier and I am Sigmundra. Mr. Mike Lombardi, back from New Jersey.

Welcome back to the West Coast. It's good to be back. It was 30-some degrees back there. It was ridiculous. But anyway. You had a tobogging on the whole time? Yeah, I was sick. I mean, it was cold.

I'd get my weird gear out. I'd get the hat on. I looked like, you know, the beanie going, the Italian look going. I mean, it's cold. You don't like it. Hey, I got to tell you, though, somebody sent this to me,

and I think it fits perfectly based on your status. You've been verified. You've got a one-on-one with Stefan Curry going. Your nickname should be Golden Tate Fraser. I think that's right. I think that's probably right. Should I be the Golden Tate the third,

or should I just keep it Golden Tate-Frasier? I would just like Golden Tate Fraser. I think it's kind of like it implies you've got to, now, do you know Golden Tate, Or the original goal? Not personally. Not personally. No, no, no.

But, I mean, you know, like, I think it fits you. Like, you got to come up with a name. Like, it's got to be, you know, Madonna had Madonna. Prince had Prince. I mean, you know, like, when you become this status, you got to have like a... I was hoping for Lorenz Tate or, like, Donovan Tate or, you know, Tate Donovan. No, I don't know. Maybe Golden Tate will work.

I'll stick with that. Yeah. That sounds better. It's better than the other one that they've been throwing out. What they've been throwing out? I heard it on. I heard you on Bill's one. That's what made me think of it.

Yeah. I don't like that one. I love Sal, but I don't like that one. Yeah. Well, cousin, he was distracted. I mean, let's face it. He had Jimmy Kimball's birthday party. I mean, let's face it.

A lot going on. A lot going on in his life. He can't, he's got the Clapper to worry about. He's got Jimmy Kimmel to worry about. He's got Zeke to worry about. He's writing jokes all the constantly. He's got a tough commute. I mean, like, it's hard.

This time of year it's hard to put it all together for Sal. It's a hard knock life. That's for sure. And let's talk about the NFL and our favorite segment. If we're all thinking and we're all thinking. and we're going to play a little game, and it's called Macadoo or Macadone. Right. Can you explain what that means for the people?

Well, look, here's the way it goes. Macadoos would be something that Macadoo would do. Yes. Okay, macadoo's don'ts would be something Macadone wouldn't do. Since we know this, Tate Frasio, he's going to be with us for the next six weeks. He keeps surviving. They said they're not going to make a coaching change. They had their full support.

They left the sentence unfilled. So we must have enjoy them while we have them, don't you think? Absolutely. I'm having a great time. I'm going to miss that haircut. I mean, yeah, I'm going to miss the haircut. I'm going to miss the fact that he wouldn't wear the Patriot gear on the sideline. Like, what is, what goes here, bro?

Like, really, come on. It's the Johnny Cash and the Football. So we're going to have the Macadoos and the Macadones. The Mcadoos would be, what would your team do if it had Belichick as a tech coach? And the macadones are going to be, what jobs are going to be open and are they attractive? So we're going to kind of break it down. Well, let's talk about Macadu's teams first. Let's talk about the New York Giants.

So if we had a man like Bill Belichick. Running the team? Running the team. Running the New York Giants. He's in the mecca. He's handling football. What's it look like for the Gmail? I think the one thing that Belichick would have done if he's running the giant,

he would never have counted on Eric Flowers to be his left tackle. And he would have never drafted another receiver. And he definitely wouldn't have drafted. He wouldn't assign Brandon Marshall. Like it would have been more about fixing the offensive lines. Like he'll never be tackle poor. Yes. Okay.

So he would have made sure he had another tackle on the team, which would have helped fix the offensive line. and then fix the offensive line. And I think he would have recognized that there's something wrong with Eli, that Eli's probably not going to have a long future. So it would have been, how are we going to get a quarterback in here to help the future? So if Belichick were the coach, would the record be better? No doubt about it.

They would have been way different because they're good enough on defense to hang in it. We saw him win 11 games. But what I think fans don't always understand, the longer the coach stays at a place, they become the personality of the coach. Okay? And unfortunately for you, giant fans, your team has his personality right now, Which isn't good. And when I was in Cleveland in 14, we went to Green Bay and we interviewed McAdu for the head coaching job.

And really a nice guy. But he didn't really have a presence that you're going to feel like this guy's going to come in and command the room. He had a notebook full of what they were going to do on practice on October the 12th. This is the big thing in coaching interviews. You have to plan out the whole year. This is like Bob Lamont, the agent from McAdo and the agent for, all these guys. This is his way of like to show people that we don't even know. This guy has a plan. Yeah, right. But we don't even know who we're playing that week, but we're going to show you

how we're going to practice. Like it makes no sense at all to me. Like he came out with a notebook that looked like two New York phone directories. Like he had to have back pain coming out. He probably got a cortisone shot out after he got done. Probably got a cortisone shot after he got done. But anyway, so when you meet him, that's it. So like your team's going to absorb that personality. And the Giants clearly have. And they're not really a tough might of team. They have too many guys that are not willing to do what he's. wants them to do, and you could find players all you want, but you've got to get players to change. So if Belichick were running this team, it would have looked different in the offseason,

and it will look different during the season. But Ben McAdoo has said that he has an open-door policy. So if anyone has any problems, I can go talk to him about. I'm sure that's working out really well from Ben. Is it like I don't understand that open-door policy? Like that, I don't think Belichick has an open-door policy. Well, you can go see Belichick, but, you know, like... You might not want to.

You're not Dr. Phil. I mean, come on. I mean, we could go up to Paramount down the street here and go see Dr. Phil, see how he handle it. Don't do that. You know, like, come on, give me a break, open-door policy. Anyway, so look, I think the Giants, I think the Giants off-season and in-season has been a disaster. It would require Belichick, the GM, to fix them to help Belichick the coach.

I do know one thing. I don't think Bill Belichick would have drafted Davis Webb in the third round if he knew that Eli Manning was going to play regardless. Yeah, I don't think he would. I think he would have drafted a quarterback. I think he would have been, I think this would have been a situation where you, you know, Al Davis has a great saying. The greatness of an organization is to recognize.

something before it happens, that's what the Giants fail to do. The Giants kept kidding themselves. And now they're in this mess. Now they're a macadone. Yep. Or they're a macadou. Anticipation is key. Next up, we have the Los Angeles Chargers.

The artist formerly known as the San Diego Chargers. What does Bill Belichick do with that team? I mean, let's face it, win close games. Like, at some point, you've got to have, like, I've never seen a guy celebrate winning the game. I don't know who, what safety it was. Trade Boston. North Carolina Zone.

Celebrated the game, went out of bounds. Been doing that forever. Right? And then they lost the game. I mean, look, how many close games have this team lost? So you know they would. And with the quarterback that they have and the defense that they have, there's no way this team should be.

I think the Chargers could easily be one of the final four teams if they really had, if Parcells or one of those kind of coaches, Joe Gitt, one of those legendary coaches coaching their team, I think it would be dramatically different. So I call, I've always said the Chargers since Schopenheimer got fired. You know, he's won 14 games and gets fired. I've always said that he left some sort of curse there because all the Charters fans, you know, they were upset. They were winning all these regular season games and they would go in the playoffs and obviously lose with the Colts or the Patriots or the Steelers, whoever it was.

And now it's like the opposite. They can't find a way to win regular season games it feels like. And, you know, so therefore they can't get to the playoffs to have a chance because when they get to the playoffs, if they were a six seed, they're like an Eli Manning, New York giant six seed when the defense is good. They're a scary team. You don't want to see them really. You know, you look at them on the schedule like, oh, my God, we've got to play them. How are we going to win? But then you know, there's an old great, great Bob Knight story about your coach Dale Brown at LSU.

When he's getting ready to go play a Dale Brown down there, he's like, I looked at the sideline and I saw all that talent on LSU's team. And then I saw Dale Brown and I knew everything was going to be okay. You know, that's the same thing. I mean, you know, it's like you're sitting there saying like we're not really ready to beat anybody. And it just doesn't come on Sunday. It has to happen through the season. I think, to be honest with you, I think the Chargers are so underachieving. And I know they've lost a lot of close games, but it's something.

some point, the hardest thing to do in sports is to evaluate why you win and why you lose. And this is where the Chargers are going to have a tough time figuring it out because they're going to say it was unfortunate. We didn't do this. We should have done that. When instead of being honest with themselves and saying, we lost the game because this is an Al Davis pet peeve. He would get on the team playing and he would make you tell him why you thought you won or why you thought you lost. And 90 times, nine times out of 10, all the assistant coaches are wrong. Okay? Like, they're all wrong. Like, I remember we played New England in 2013 when I was at the Browns, okay? We're up by 10 points with over two minutes to go in the game.

Okay. And we're going to beat them. We've got to beat, right? Everybody in the owner's boxes celebrate. And of course, Millie, my wife's over there saying, no, no, we're not going to win that. You've got to, like, relax. So what happens? They lost Grunkowski in the third quarter, okay? And which meant they had no tight ends left. So they went to a four-receiver set. We had bad corners, okay? We had to put Leon McFadden, who's not a good corner. It was a blown draft pick by us, okay? No doubt about it. All right. So we blew that, but he's- Great last name, though. McFadden, great last name. So he's got to play slot corner. But he never practiced during the week playing slot corner. Okay. He gives up a couple, he gives up a play, gets a pass interference, okay? Then they get the on-side kick,

and they beat us. Okay, you imagine that they beat us. So we get on the plane, everybody's complaining that we had to play McFadden, which is true. But A, he never practiced at the corner, right? Yep. So he really had no idea what he was doing. B, we had no idea what the on-site kick was going to be. Like, we had no idea, right? But when you can't figure out why you lost, how are you ever going to get it better?

And I think that's the Chargers problem. Yeah. It's kind of like Murphy's Law. It's like anything that could happen will happen in any Chargers game. It's never over. I mean, if you change the channel when Trey Boston got an interception, you would have thought, oh, the Chargers have won. The game is over.

Right. The fact that that game went into overtime and they had a chance to lose that game speaks volumes to the fact that there's just, for whatever reason, it always happens. The Chargers tend to throw those games away. They fired, they fired, McCoy, Mike McCoy. They fired Mike McCoy and they bring, and they have the same problem. So, like, if you have the same problem after you fire the guy, you haven't really identified the problem, right? Yes. So you've got to fix the problem. I don't know where Anthony Lynn turns around and fixes the problem. I really don't. I feel bad because I don't think he can fix the problem, and I'm not sure anybody else can fix the problem.

But I know one day, Belichick could have fixed the problem. I know that. If they had him, they're going to win the West. If they have him, they win the West. And they probably are in the Final Four. I like it. You know, Phil Rivers would be pretty happy about that. Let's move up to West Coast.

Let's go to Oakland. We got the Raiders. Oh, yeah. You know, Simmons is killing Jackdale. I don't have to worry about killing Jack Del Rios. Simmons is killing him already. I mean, it's so good. I feel bad for him. You know, he had a great year last year. Maybe they're fucking around, but it's not good. The thing about the Raiders are is they have, they have no attention to detail. Like their defense didn't get any better this offseason.

They can't play zone. They can't play man. And people throw the ball on them. And then their offense really has, does, it doesn't have any, their offensive line hasn't played as well. They paid them really good. You know, I think if this weekend, if Belichick were playing them, If Belichick switched sides at halftime, probably that would help the Raiders out. Then the Raiders would win. Bill's going to go over and coach the Raiders for a while and Del Rio is going to coach the Patriots. That might change. But I think the Raiders, to me, are one of the most disappointing teams of the year in terms of because they have no real attention to detail.

Yeah, it's a weird spot for them to be in. But it's a macadol. It's a macadol. I mean, that's the problem. It's a macadone. Before we get to it, Not for Nothing, let's talk about just Monday night football last night. Obviously, we got John Gruden in the booth calling this game. The Panthers looked good last night.

The Dolphins and Jay Keller are not so great. How bad of the Dolphins? Oh, they're so bad. We still have them another Monday night game. Can you imagine that? They're not done. They're not done. I've seen the Dolphins play more than teams.

They're not done with us. They're not done. You're not done seeing them. They're coming back at a theater near you soon. No. How does Gase survive? I mean, will he be fine? We obviously know if Gase is a macadoo.

I think he's more of a macadone. I mean, he's got like, he's got some issues that he's got a fixed turn. of his talent level of the team. I mean, they keep drafting. They have all these great receivers. They can't block anybody up front. The quarterback hasn't played. The joke is, if Tannenhill was playing, we would be better.

Stop. Please, stop. You're not going to dominate it. And then defensively, like, did they really look like they care? I mean, Sue's just doing stupid stuff at this point. Yeah, like, he don't care. And they can't get rid of Sue. Sue owns them.

I mean, that's the complete answer right there. They would know, Belichette were running the Dolphins. He would have never signed Sue. And it's one of those weird things, too, where Cam was having one of those nights where, and I love Cam to death, but he does this. thing where, you know, he runs eight yards and gets the first down and he's chomping to everybody that he runs by. It's like a kid on the playground. He's like yelling back at people. So that inherently leads to people wanting to knock you out and wanted to hit you really

hard. And for whatever reason, they just couldn't put it together. I mean, they had the one almost pick after he did that the first time with their safety. But like, there's no fight in that Dolphins team. They seem pretty content to get, you know, blown out. They were just happy. They were just, like, a wrestling match that they just knew what they were going to lose. Yeah. You know, not that wrestling's fixed. I don't want to imply that at all. But it looked like they were like, they were like, they had no interest in playing in the game. And, you know, if you're gays, you've got to make some changes on your staff. I mean, there's no doubt it. You lost your line coach. Your offensive line can't play very good. I mean, it's a real problem. But back to Monday night football. Yeah, let's talk about it. Let's talk about the booth. Yeah. It was really weird. It seemed as if he was just sort of talking in generalities and talking around things and doing the gruding grinder. And then we obviously had the half time. Who won the Gruden guy? I went to the Clippers game. I can't. Yeah, I don't even remember. Were you in the Sixers game? No, no way I was going to fight the traffic to go down. I figured I just watch him on TV. Congrats. They looked good.

It looked good last night. I mean, once it became, I think once it became 31 to 7, I said, okay, goodbye. I'm going to watch the Sixers play. Covington was really good, by the way. Anyway. My point here is, is like, Gruden, like, was really getting pissed off at Sean McDonough for, like, mentioning that the commercials he had. Were you listening to this? Yes, of course.

It was very odd. And, like, their interactions in general, I've been a little. All right. I'm going to make a prediction. Straight. And I've said this that Gruden's up for the Tampa job. Like, just listening to. Gruden in the booth, and this is why we have them in the macadou-macadones, because Gruden's

going to come back and coach. I mean, Gruden's done with television. You could just see by his energy level and his enthusiasm. It really wasn't there. It was all trying to make it up. It wasn't really genuine. Did you find it genuine? No. Well, I mean, it just seems like he's going through the motions, as I was saying. I mean, it's just, we've heard the same things over and over again at this point, which is fine. But what happens now is, what if Gruden leaves? I wanted him to leave now. I want him just go ahead and get out of the booth because I won't Rex Ryan to get in there where he's unprepared, untrained. Rex Ryan, the head coach. A macadoo.

No, just shooting. Just shooting. So then you got a macadoo, and then we've lost a macadone. Yes, you get a do for a don't. That's probably a good thing, right? It'd be good, yin and yang. I think there's no, to me, there's no doubt. Now, people talk about, we'll talk about this later in the pod, that Tennessee job.

I don't see him going back to college. No. There's no way Gruden could coach in college. They don't have the money to get him back to college. Well, they have money at Tennessee, but they could pay him a lot of money, but I don't think he has the patience to really go out and recruit and go out and home. He likes to coach, you know. I could see him at Tampa.

I could see trying to get the Indianapolis job. I could see him trying to get the giant job. I could see him trying to get a job. There's no doubt. I think he's going to go take that Tampa job. I think he is too. Yeah. If it just strikes him right, I think you will.

Let's get to our favorite segment, not for nothing. We're going to insult a little bit this week. And first up, fans Joseph, the Denver Broncos head coach, first year, having a tough time with his defense. I think John Elway made a bit. I think John Elway has to really evaluate himself this offseason. I think he had probably one of the worst off seasons he could possibly have. And the first thing he did, the mistake he made was he replaced Kubiak, a guy who did a lot of things well, with somebody who maybe did a couple things. The Art Modell theory of hiring is simply this.

So when you worked for Art Modell at the Cleveland Browns, if you did 30 things really good and you do two things bad, Modell would fire you for the two things you did bad, right? And hire somebody who did those two things really good. But that guy only did about 15. So even though he made a change, like he really didn't make an improvement when he made a change. It's a net negative. It's a net negative. There's your Denver Broncos. They made a change that it's a net negative.

I mean, they're worse in every single area of their franchise. And I'm not saying he's going to pull a plug on Vance, Joseph, but I've seen it before where when you know you're going in the wrong direction, you better stop. I mean, you had a really good defensive scheme going with Way. For some reason, Elway wants to be Al Davis. Elway wants to be the commander in chief, control the team, coach the team. I'm sure he'd like to suit up and play like Bill said the other day. You know, like, and then run the team.

And that doesn't work in pro football. Yeah, they keep cutting to him in the box when he's up there by himself in the owner's box. And he just looks so dejected and upset. And he's like pensive and he's trying to figure out what's going on. I can tell you what's going on. He basically can't, you can't run the team from the GM's chair. Like, just because you're the president of the team, it doesn't work. It didn't work for Piole.

It didn't work for Al. Okay. Like, you can't convince the coaches. Al used to tell me all the time, I'll just tell those coaches, tweet them like high school coaches. And what he meant by that was he meant that he wanted the coaches to think there was no other players coming in, no new players coming in like a high school coach. This is what you have. You got to coach it, right?

Yeah. Unlike Jason Garrett, who just blames everything on the player, the clapper. Meanwhile, we'll get to him later. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Tate. So anyway, so you can't do that. Yeah. I mean, he can't do that.

Elway can't control the players on the field. And Joseph, to me, he looks lost. I mean, whenever... If you don't mind me asking, what are the two things that Vance Joseph does really good? Take orders. That I don't know. That there it is. To take orders and basically follow his plan.

Because it wasn't based on the merits of the Miami defense that he got the head coaching job. It was all about his potential as a head coach or potential as a coordinator. Because the Miami defense last year wasn't much better than what it is right now. I mean, it is what it is. Yeah, it's pretty much. The only reason that they're worse this year is because the offense is even worse. And I'm not blaming, I'm not blaming Vanjose for this. I'm blaming John Elway for this.

I mean, you don't have a quarterback. Your defense is getting older. You made a defensive change. The defense is now your problem. It was your strength. Like, you've got to sit down and say to yourself, where did this go wrong? Like, where is this all coming from? And you start looking at guys like Sylvester Williams that goes to Tennessee,

guys that you could have paid to stay there to keep the defense up. Well, they changed their whole model. And I wrote this in a ringer column in June. They changed their whole model. They used to have a middle class of players, right? So they would always do it. But for some reason, Elway changed. Look, the guy that really is to blame for all this is Peyton Manning.

Because Peyton Manning gave him that little bit of success, won a Super Bowl, and now we're a ring chasing. Now we're paying the time. Now Keith Talib is coming in, and we're going to pay him money, and we're going to pay all these guys to come in and try to make a run, basically. Right, exactly. And now, but they're, you know, I mean, you could never tell that secondary could cover anybody on Monday night.

I mean, really, on Sunday night. You couldn't tell. I mean, they've given up 41 and 51 last two weeks. So you've got to insult match Joseph a little bit, but I'm really the guy who are insulting in the Zellway. I know he's a legendary player. I get that, okay? And I'm not sitting here as an ex-front office guy.

I'm like saying the guy needs to really sit back and evaluate where he is and understand what he's trying to do because the coach he picked isn't really the coach that'll work for him. And also realize that Wade Phillips, let's give the man some credit. I mean, look, Wade did a tremendous job. It's a defensive mastermind. He did a great job. And the players love them.

Yeah. The players love them. I mean, and so when you made the change, like if you're sitting there and you're in your Lway and you know you're making a change and Kubiak, who wants to come back and coach but doesn't want to be a coordinator, doesn't want to be a head coach, that leaves the door open to find the best young offensive coach you could have had. Yep. Imagine that they would have hired Sean McVeigh there.

How about Adam Gase? Yeah. That might be a macadone or macadu actually, I should say. Next up, not for nothing. We got the Washington professional football team and Jay Gruden. Look, I went through. I watched that game again. I've never seen a team that looks like Gruden's approach this offseason,

besides losing weight, which I congratulate him for, was that he wanted to get his team healthy for the season. So the first week of the season, so they really, they had a bad preseason. Nothing really was timed together. There's no attention to detail. And then they got through the first week of the season. And they come out to Los Angeles, they start to play well. Then they have all these injuries, but they were trying to avoid the injuries, right?

And then DJ Sweringer comes out this week and says, we have to practice a little harder on Friday. Really? DJ Sweringer's now going to tell the teeth. Like, to me, that was the most revealing comment that I heard all week. Like, how could you say that? Like they are, I mean, I think Bill Callahan's one of the best line coaches in football. He's done a remarkable job with what they have offensively. But, I mean, look, I was just in New Jersey.

I'm sure Torell Pryor's in West Cape May because he didn't even get any looks. He was dressed and never got an attempt, right? That's the rivalry between those two Cousins and Pryor that no one's really figured out what's going on there. I don't know if Cousins doesn't like him, doesn't like to throw him the football. I don't know if Pryor's attitude towards Cousin is why he doesn't want to get him involved in the game. But there's something going on there. That can't, he's too good and too athletic and too big of a target for him not to look at him at all. Actually, he is not even out there.

Like he ran by Marcus Peters on the first play of the Kansas City game. You're like, why can't they just throw it to him all the time down? Just throw a jump ball. And Doxon's a big receiver. Like I watch Washington and I think Washington is way better than a record. And they should be better than the record. And really, they're a macadoo. Like if Belichick was coach in Washington, they could be really good.

I mean, they would be real. I think Minoski has done a remarkable job with what he has on defense. and so is Jim Tomasula, so I'm not being critical of those guys. But to me, there's no detail. They have 10 fumbles. I mean, there's no attention to detail in their game. And they let third and one at the end of the half. Look, here's where they're bad.

They're bad on two-minute offense, two-minute defense, they're bad in the red zone, and they fumble. What does that tell you? There are no details. Yeah. They don't finish out halves. They don't finish out games. They don't.

I mean, they win a game on the West Coast, and everybody's like, you know, what to me, that's the lure that says, they're pretty good. And then they extend this contract this. year? Like, really? They kind of remind me of the Chargers of the NFC and they are. They are such a threat. Like, I would never want to play the Redskins, but you don't think

they're not going to be able to make the playoffs, you know? They're not going to make it. And New Orleans is probably sitting down there saying, but this is going to be a hard game for us, which it'll be. Yeah. And this is the game that they go out and win. This is a game. Weirdly enough. That's just what they do. As long as they don't get in their own way. Yeah. But Sweringer, I think is a little bit, the one thing I was saying about the Sweranger thing is. You like Sweranger. I love Sweranger. I think what he's

trying to say is that they're getting hit in the mouth early in these games and they're having to fight back, which is what happened in that Vikings game. They got, they get blown out earlier and then they had to fight their way back and it's just too little too late. Yeah, I just don't think there's enough attention to detail there. And so that's why I'm insulted them. Maybe they'll replace him with his brother. Oh, man, that would be something. That'd be some family drama. Maybe Jay Grun just go to the offensive coordinator, you know? Yeah, maybe that's, because Bruce Allen and John are, you know, they have a love affair going on. It'd be like the Shanahan sort of, you know, but now this time his brother's not father-son. That could be an interesting conversation.

There you go. We just solved your problem. And then Andy Dalton's coming, so the Washington Red Hens. That's right. Get ready, Washington. Here comes Andy. All redhead him said. Big Red's coming.

Oh, man. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and talk about some college football teams and players to watch out for. Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I wanted to tell you about House of Carbs hosted by one of my best friends, Joe House. I've known him since 1988. And the entire time I've known him, he's been very, very hungry. And now he is a chance to host a podcast about being hungry, all the things that make him hungry, The food that he loves, it is a podcast by the hungry for the hungry.

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House. But listen, check this out. Subscribe right now to have some cars wherever you get your podcast. All right, Lombardi, let's talk about, this is our lottery watch where we just talk about some things going on in college football. And it's not just players that we want to talk about. We're going to talk about some big jobs, some big time jobs that are opening up. And Butch Jones is now out officially at Tennessee. That's a job that's, you know, you got the recruits, you got the support. You obviously got the money. And you got Adidas. So you can find, you can find some players. Everybody thinks John Gruden's a candidate for that job, which I think to me that's an attractive job. I think it's really a good job. It should be way better than it is. I mean, because one thing about

schools, I think, you know, the one thing Tennessee, they can't, there's not a lot of great players, but you're so close to Georgia, so close to South Carolina that you can go into some really fertile areas. Plus, when you have Peyton Manning's been your quarterback, like, you can be able to get any quarterback you want, right? If you have Peyton Manning as your starting quarterback, right? You can just, like, you want to be a great quarterback? Come to quarterback you. You want to be a great receiver. This used to be a wide receiver university at Tennessee. And they've got too much great talent.

They should be able to get a really tough-minded disciplinary and coach. And all these teams in the Southeast Conference think they have to hire an offensive coach because how they're going to beat Nick Sabin. To me, the way to beat Nick Sabin is you've got to build a program and out program them. That's what I would be working on. But when you look at the Tennessee, I mean, first of all, they're in the East. So you're not playing Alabama until you get to – I mean, you play them sometimes, obviously,

but not you get to the title game and the city title game. Well, that matter. So you're basically competing against Florida and Georgia for the most part. And so those are your recruiting rounds. And I think they're losing. They're finishing third in that battle pretty much as far as it goes on the Florida, Georgia line. My question to you is when you look at the Tennessee job, do you think it needs to be a guy like a David Cuth-cliff type,

who's obviously close to Peyton Manning, has run a program at Duke, but it's kind of too big of a job? Or is it like even you're playing like an old guy, an old head that knows how to run a big program like that? Like we've even heard Mac Brown's name, our five-star guy. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, how can they even, how could, I mean, New Heisel said that Mac Brown should be up for

the job. I mean, are you kidding me? Like, it's so. I don't understand. Like, where could he come off saying that? Has he listened to Mac Brown do games? I don't think so. There's no way he has.

I mean, I respect Mac Brown's career. He's won at North Carolina. He won at Texas. But, you know, you put him in a room with X's and O's against Nick Sabin. I mean, like the only way Nick Sabin's ever going to lose to LSU, just so I could, all the LSU people that listen to this podcast. The only way Nick is going to lose, if Nick decides at halftime to go coach LSU, that's the only chance they're going to lose, okay?

That's the only, he's going to out-coach Ed R's Rock. Classic Macadone. Macadone, right, exactly. All right? It's the same thing. But to me, I think you could hire a coach that could build a program. Like the guy at Iowa State, Matt Campbell, there's a guy built a hell of a program there. He comes in and recruits.

It's really not just who recruiting. It's about player development. That's why people ask all the time, all the Patriots, the Patriots develop play. players. It's not how many five stars you get. It's how many players you develop to become good players. And I think you can do it at Tennessee. And then the other job that's going to open up, I think it's Nebraska. I think Nebraska being, you're talking about the perfect situation, they're sitting out there with Wisconsin. This is the only team they have to beat, right? They're in that, what's it called West? I don't know. I get it confused.

Yeah, isn't it the champions and the... I don't know. But really, the only team we've got to beat out there is Wisconsin. The only team you got to beat out there is Wisconsin. I mean, Nebraska should be a good job. The problem with Nebraska. is you've got to go somewhere else to get players. But the one thing about Nebraska is they pride themselves on developing players. When Boyd Epley was there, was their strength coach, that was their whole mantra. They walked on players. They developed players.

I think those are two jobs that really should be better than what they are. And they're two classic places, like when you look at the landscape of college football and who's impacted college football over the years. I mean, a Tennessee is a stalwart in that conversation. Nebraska is a stalwart in that conversation. The history that both those programs have, it's like, but they don't get discussed that way anymore. You know, those new age. They're what I call remember when programs.

Everybody wants to remember when they were good, as opposed to saying, you know what, we're going to reinvent ourselves and turn it over and we're going to come back different. Like the one thing when you hired Nick Saban in Alabama, nobody was comparing, the bear's conversation stopped. He didn't have to listen to that. Like those conversations in Nebraska about the great Tom Osborne and those conversations at Tennessee about Johnny Majors and they got to stop. Like we're going to start it all over. They built this program. We need to excel it.

But we're not going to do it the way they did. And I think that's going to be the change. Yeah. What if they get Derek Dooley to go to Nebraska? With his notes had? I've never seen a guy to take more notes as a head coach on the sidelines of Derek Dooley. I swear to guy. I thought he was a lawyer in a court case.

But he's learning from the best. He's learning from the casino host down in Dallas. I mean, that ought to be good. He's like clapper. Maybe next job he takes so clap. I hope so. Question I have for you, Ted Frazier. Do you think, you think...

That was going to be about the Music City. No, do you think the clapper creams those hands to make sure they're smooth when he claps together? Yeah, he's got Ella. I think he should have like an ad for. for like, you know how Gruden has all these advertisements? I think the clapper should have like an ad for like that. Yeah, like something like that. Like, hey, look, my hands are soft and I clap.

That would be perfect, right? Anyway. He should actually put some of that. You know the basketball players when they throw the smoke up before the board? Like, he should do that just so it adds some more, like some flair to his flag. Before the game, that'd be good, yeah. Come on.

How about Baker Mayfield? Where are you on him? I've gone back and forth. I mean, the whole Heisman race this year, honestly, has been devastating. Every single week, there's a new frontrunner. I mean, between J.T. Barrett, Baker, Barrett, and Josh Adams. I mean, Sacklon, Barclay, hasn't had a hundred-yard rushing game in seven games.

Darnold, you know, don't say a bad word about Darnold. You're going to put you in jail. If you say a bad word about Darno, you are going to jail. I mean, you know, we got, we got two minutes. You know, only Jackson from USC, he's allowed to say it. Do not say a bad word about it. If he throws an interception, it's not his fault. It's not his fault.

It's not his fault. Kishon Johnson's going to come grab me and take me out of him if I say anything else. I mean, I've been watching Mayfield's a frontrun. I mean, I've been watching Mayfield. Like, I didn't really like his personality. I thought he kind of was a little abrasive, you know? And so he's like, that's the best way to kind of start. He's got Mansell syndrome a little bit where like, I know I'm good, I know I'm cool.

Like I kind of rubbed me the wrong way. But the more I watch him, the more I think he's more effective. And I think he throws it well. I don't know if he's going to be over six feet tall. But he's got a feel for the pocket. He can move his feet. I think the guy's a really good player. I think he's a really good player.

I think he's not like, you know, he's not going to be a guy that he's just a good college player. I think he's got a better arm. He's not Chase Daniels, is my point here. Yes. And he's not Aaron Murray. I don't think so either. I heard him get compared to Drew Breeze. Yeah, I mean.

And I think that they meant that in the sense that he knows how, he can tell when the pocket is collapsing. He knows how to get out and make a play. His size doesn't hinder him. You know, he can see holes in the defense. But why do you think Drew Breeze was so good? Drew Breese was so good because Drew Breese was the state, I think he was either first or second, the state tennis champion in Texas. Hand-eye coordination. Great hand, but great feet.

Yes. Okay. And what you need to be a quarterback like that is those kind of feet to move and slide. Because what you have to realize is your arm has to be attached to your feet. Like when you're just a running quarterback, like when you watch your boy Mitchell Tribiskey, and I heard you guys talk about it on the podcast the other day about how uncomfortable he is in the pocket, his feet aren't attached to his arm. Like he has no ability to be patient.

So he starts moving his feet and his arm's not ready to throw the ball. Right. So there's no rhythm to his game. It's hard to get out of it. Where I see Mayfield has that. That's the one thing I like when I watch Mayfield, he kind of has that. And it's the thing with Russell Wilson. Like the biggest thing about Russell Wilson is that his feet, he's always on the balls of his feet.

Right. And he always, his weight is always shifting back and forth so he can flip it either way he needs to to make a pass. His feet are always attached to him. Yeah, I like Bigger Mayfield. I'm starting to, I mean, like, I'm not there yet, but I'm starting to like him. I'm not saying she would the Heisman. I don't know who should win the Heisman.

I don't know who should win the Heism. I feel like some years with the Heisman, I think to make it more of a prestigious award, you just hold it out. Like you're just like there was no one that was good enough this year. Yeah. We just don't need to give it to anyone. Yeah. Like there's no one that took the extra step.

Even Lamar Jackson last year, I don't think he was, you know, I think just put too much of a burden on them. Yeah. And then the other guy's the Heisman trophy winner. And, you know, like, let's just let it play out. And that's where I am with Mayfield. Like, I like that. Like, I like them as a player. I like Oklahoma's team.

I like the Ohio State's team. I jinx them. I'm sorry, Greg. But anyway. Poor Ohio State. Poor Ohio State. They'll be all right. Urban will be all right.

Let's do our favorite segment word on the street. Comes out this week, Roger Goodell, his negotiation, what he's bringing to the table and his negotiations, he says he wants $50 million. It was reported like what, three or four years ago he's making $40 million and people got all up in arms about that. He says he wants a lifetime private jet and he says he wants lifetime health insurance. Right. Those are the three things that Roger Ede. I think he can have the lifetime health insurance. I think that's fair.

I think when you're managing a billion dollar industry like he's managing, you certainly should get well compensated for it. I don't disagree with that. However, I think you should have more of a perspective and more of an understanding of your constituents. Like, I would say, if I were in the room, I would say, if I were the commissioner, I would say, I never want to make more than the top 10 quarterbacks in the league. My salary is attached to the franchise, to the transitional number of quarterbacks. Quarterbacks from, I don't want to make more than them. I don't want to Drew Brees to come shake my hand knowing I make more than Drew Brees.

But I don't want Tom Brady to know I make more. To me, that's the way. He's the most important player on a football team. They're the highest paid players. That's how I would handle that. And I think that, you know, this whole, like, we can tell, you know, like one thing about Al Davis when, you know, when Gruden was the head coach of the Raiders, he always was, every job it opened up was his hometown.

Like Ohio State opened up, you know, his dad was a coach there, so that's my hometown. Notre Dame was going to open up all my dad coach. That's my hometown. You know, like, so he was constantly trying to. get Al to negotiate his contract for an extension and trying to do that, which leverage. Leverage. It really wasn't him. It's his agent, which Bob Lamont, which he should do. That's his job, right? Well, Al never bought it. Like, Al would never buy that. Like, you could never, ever, like, threaten Al. Like, there's no way. You could have two semi-automatic machine guns

pointed out as head. He wouldn't budge it. Like, there's no way. So he just let time, like I used to say there's Al was incapable of making a decision. He was incapable of trusting anybody. He was incapable of letting you do your job. You know, those three things he was incapable of, right? But the fact that I missed on, and I learned a lot from him, was the fact that his inability to make a decision was more attached to his willingness to let the landscape define itself, right? So like, let's really see where we are in 12 months. And I think that's what the league should do with the commissioner. I think they should just wait a year to see where we are. Do we have a better collective bargaining? Do we have better relationships? Have we handled this national anthem thing? Have the players understood

this. Where are we with player discipline? Like, there's too many things that he should still keep doing his job as opposed to just give him $50 million in a private jet. And how tone-deaf do you have to be to let that leak out? You know, that was pretty much my whole thing. I mean, I thought it was fascinating when you guys were talking about on the other podcast when Simmons was

with the ESPN kind of just changed it and took it off the headline. Like, to me, that's like, and look, Mortensen is getting that from an owner. I mean, let's face it, Chris is pretty wired. He knows what's going on. He's been around the league 100 years. He's not making that up from Yeah, that says not a figure that he just threw out there for fun.

No, because they corrected it, it was he wanted 49-5. Yes. Look, one thing is, I think there's one thing clear is there are no secrets. And that's where Al Davis used to hold up two fingers and said, if you tell one person, right, and they tell, that's 11 people really know. So, you know, that's a good one. I think it's true, you know. And so it's the truth. Everybody knows.

So, like, to me, like, his compensation, and I don't know why it's not. Like, T. Frasier, tell me why his compensation. is an attached to a player. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense at all. It should be attached to a player. And then if he wants to private plane, sure he should fly on a private plane.

Why should he fly on a... I mean, let me just say this. I think it's baller that he asked for a private plane and health insurance and stuff. I think that's great to bring a bargaining table. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe he could be smart and say, I want lifetime health insurance

and I want anyone that's ever made a pro bowl to also have that. That's going to incentivize players to want to play it to a certain level. I think they have that. I think there's so much. They do get that with their collective barn agreement. But to me, I think tone deaf is the right word.

He's tone deaf of the world right now. Like, ask for that. But like if he put it on, if he did it the other way and if he said, I want to make as much as the top five quarterbacks in the league, how could you argue with him? Not at all. You can't. And then if you got a guy like Brady that takes less money and then you know that the commissioner is also going to take that pay cut because he wants his best player's team to be great and also help the product. It's like, oh, you're making a sacrifice for us. You know, we're going to sacrifice for you.

I mean, just, I don't know. At some point, you've got to pass the salt. Like, everybody needs to eat a little bit too here. You can't take it all. Yeah. And we have a feast. And we have a feast. Yes, we do.

Stop giving us scraps. All right, guys. All right. This has been another great edition of GM Street, part of the ringer podcast network. We will be back. Saturday sit down. Saturday sit down. We're going to make some picks.

Buffalo Bills. I don't think we're going to pick them anymore. We're done with them. I don't know who we're on this week. I got to work on it this week. But I don't know. I might have my grandson come over and just point his finger at, like, see what he does, and I'll see how that compares.

I don't know. I think the Eagles might blow out the Cowboys. I would say this. Without Sean Lee, the Clapper's in a lot of trouble. I don't know what the Clapper's doing today, but here, let me just say this before we go. Clapper, Brandon Graham is better than Adrian Claiborne. I'm just going to tell you that right now. He's got five sacks going into this game.

I think you just might want to be in a left-hand formation a lot. Just to hunch. Please, I won't win Chip Brandon Graham. Chip Brandon Graham, put a tight end over there, do something. Let's see how, see, this is, to me, this is the fascinating thing about the Cowboys, is they're a macadou, but they really could be a macadone.