The Ringer NFL Show - Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Nora and Steven are joined by The Ringer’s own Lindsay Jones to discuss an interesting first night of Super Bowl week in Las Vegas and compare the proceedings to media nights of the past. They end the pod by sharing their takes on some of the breaking coaching news around the league (23:21). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Guest: Lindsay Jones Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Or really a triple threat. We've got an episode of this evening. We're recording. I'm Norman Ciotty. I am with Stephen Ruiz, as always, but also Lindsay Jones. We are in the big Dorito Pyramidot Hotel. That's right.

The Super Bowl week has started. It's been a weird day. It's been a good day. We just went through Media Night, saw all the stars, all the players were out, like coaches. Taylor's boyfriend was there.

Taylor's boyfriend was there. And yeah, it's just a bizarre, it's a bizarre collection of human beings who have all been brought to the same place for their own individual reasons.

Yeah, at a certain point, you kind of feel like, I followed someone that asked a question that I can't remember what it was. It was ridiculous. But I kind of feel bad about asking a, normal football question after like someone asked him like, what's your favorite pizza topping?

And just catching them off guard. Like I asked Fred Warner a question. He just was not prepared for it at all. And I should have asked that question. Do you like pineapple on pizza bit is very commonly invoked at media night? That's like that. I actually asked Kyle Shanahan about that. No, no, I'm joking.

I did not do that. Okay, Stephen, you did ask Kyle Shanahan at a very particular question though. Yeah, this was at the end of the night. I had asked my serious question. questions and I asked Kyle Shanahan because he had named his son after Little Wayne. I'm a Little Wayne fan and I asked him about the Carter 2. That's Little Wayne's best album in my opinion. And I've heard Kyle Shanan say the same. I asked him for his favorite song on the album. And he said, let the beat build. Most Little Wayne fans will know that was from the Carter 3.

I was very disappointing Kyle. And I no longer consider him a great play caller. Jimmy was carrying him. Brock is carrying him. Fraud watch. Oh yeah. No. No. No. No watch. He's on the list. He's on the list. I do remember hearing Kyle Shannon tell a story about like, and I think it was when he was in Washington. The details of this are probably wrong. So, you know, don't ask Cal Shannon about them. But he told some story about how there was one week where like all he did was he would just like watch film, work on game plans. and then listen to Lil Wayne in his car

and like not sleep and he thought he was like going crazy or something like that. I feel like we learned a lot about the psyche of Kyle Shanahan. The psyche of Carl Shanahan is like one of my favorite topics. What did you, Lindsay, were you in the Shanahan's scrum at all? I spent a little bit of time there. I learned that his favorite Mexican food is enchiladas. We with green chili.

I saw that too. That's very Colorado. Yeah. Somebody, they specifically said, what kind of chili. And I was like, say green, say green chili. And he said green chili, which is very like Colorado, New Mexico thing. So I was, I was very happy that. And he got very detailed about his pregame routine, which I learned the last thing he does before he like goes onto the field is trim his beard. Yes. Which, I don't know. I felt like I would, you know, maybe we were worried about the

game plan. I'm trying to picture Kyle Shannon after a game. And I do feel like he, like he's seen him post game with a little bit of five o'clock shadow. Maybe it's. It's very meticulous. Right, it's trimmed. It's not, okay, yeah, no, I get it. Calculated. He, like, has to make it exactly how we want. So, yeah, apparently a lot of facial hair things going on with the head coaches in this game.

But it is, I mean, in all seriousness, it is like, it's a weird night. You can get football stuff out of it. If you're going there being like, I'm going to get everything I need to report all my stories this week, probably not the best place. But it is the official kickoff. I feel like I'm now in, like, the Super Bowl. swing. It is just every, and I mean, it's probably like, it's maybe very jarring to people for me to start this podcast being like, this is the weirdest thing I've ever done. But that is how I feel after every media night. It's just like, how is there a room every year? Or usually a basketball

arena, in this case, Elysian Stadium where the Raiders play and where the Super Bowl take place, where you get, I don't know, a heavy. percentage of the NFL covering media. Then you get just like people for like e-news, you get the guy with the puppet. Then the blue man group is running around. Very heavy international media core. Heavy international media presence. A lot of like sponsor sort of adjacent people.

Many kid reporters. too many kid reporters. I'm going to be honest. They get to cut the line and ask the questions. Right. Like the kids have to be stopped. I'm kidding. Do you know it was new this year that I don't recall being at other media days?

Was the like other NFL podcast going out, going around? It was like the busing with the boys group and then there was some other pod. And they'd be like, what's your favorite NFL podcast? They'd be like, yours, man. Great. And then they'd walk away. Like, cool. Great.

great interactions now. They should make them name it. If you can't name the podcast. Because I bet some of those two people were like, yours, I had no idea what they were saying. Kelsey did, Travis Kelsey did very clearly know the bus end of the boys ones.

But there were a couple others that you were like, I don't know, it was like, come on the Wolfman pod. Or some guy who was just begging Travis Kelsey to do a TikTok with him. Chief Seaholic. Speaking of, I got to ask MVS about the Chiefsaholic tweet. This is very, this is the best, thing I got all night. I asked him, was that in your drafts before the game? Did you think of that

before the game? He said, nope, in the locker room, in the moment. I told him it was a banger and he agreed. Did he respond to that question in a way that makes you think that MBS does have a few bangers saved in the drafts? Yes. He was very proud of himself, I have to say, and he's very pleased by the question. I agree. I agree. That was a very good tweet. So was there anything like actually newsworthy that came out of this? Well, so the one Kyle Shanahan piece that I do think made some headlines is the 49ers are maybe not happy with the field with their practice field at UNLV, although Shanahan was asked and said that he has no issue continuing to practice on it and they'll do it

and they'll be fine. Lindsay, you are our representative at the Goodell press conference earlier today, where I believe that also came up. Yeah, he was asked about it. He was asked about a couple turf-related issues, one having to do with like overall stadiums. And then a two-parter with are the Niners going to move and no longer practice at UNLV because they're very unhappy with it. And Roger made a very quick, like, quip. like, oh, the brand new field that we installed there for them to practice on. So it was kind of like a quick complaining, your field is fine.

And look, it's been very rainy here in Las Vegas. I think there was, you know, a little bit of minor flooding on the strip. It's not been super pleasant. So the grass fields are in a different condition. I think than they normally would be we saw the playing surface when we were over at Allegiance Stadium. They covered it with a tarp. evening. So hopefully we'll be overwatered like last year's field was. But look, I think it was true that Kyle Shanahan was not happy with the condition of their practice field. It would be very

in character for Kyle Shanahan to be approaching a Super Bowl or a big game and being pretty uptight and wound up about some things like that. So he's got to let it go, man. Just, you know. He's got he's got to get his he's got to get his Carter straight. And he's got to let it go. He's just got to let it go. I have the numbers on the field. Apparently, NFL fields have to be at or below 100G, which stands for units of gravity, which sounds like something made up.

It sounds like something I would make up if I was writing like a sci-fi movie. I'd be like, yeah, units of gravity. The field has, the field has gravity? Yeah, units of gravity, apparently. And it has to be below 100. According to the source, the field that is at 50, whereas the 49ers prefer 70. The field is on the ground. I don't know.

So it's like at the squish level, like how much you sink in? Because I think that was the complaint. Was that like the field was too soft? Yeah, it was too soft. I don't see where gravity comes into that, though. It's wearing powder blue uniforms. That's a callback from an earth.

Nailed it. Beyond the field stuff. I mean, Stephen did anything stand out to you from players or coaches or any of the podiums? No, like the most surprising thing to me was Eric Armstead. He didn't have a lot of reporters around him, but I asked him about the Chiefs run game. And he, I think it was a little more candid than his coaches would want him to be. Oh. Like I asked him about the Chiefs run a lot of same side runs from shotgun, which is very unique in the league.

And he talked about how unique it was. And he was like, yeah, but it's something we've been talking about all week long and we've been preparing for it. And we're ready for it. And I was like, I don't think Kyle Shane hadn't wanted you to say that. But that's like that was like the most football thing I got out of the questions I asked. Calshanian might not have wanted him to say that,

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$10 first deposit required bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. So, Lindsay, you brought up what Goodell said about the playing surface at UNLV. Stephen and I were not invited to Roger Goodell's press conference. So should we set the table about the whole Roger Goodell? Everyone's mad. It became a really big thing.

So look, I've been covering, this is my 14th Super Bowl week. It's going to be my 13th Super Bowl, which is important, obviously. It's Taylor's so lucky number. Did you know that, Stephen? I did. Yes. But so there's been like a lot of different iterations of the Roger Goodell like state. of the NFL press conference.

Media ice capes, extravaganza. And it was very weird that the big change this year is that was on Monday afternoon about an hour, I guess technically

it was two hours before the start of media night. And it very much felt like they were trying to hide him and that he was not going to be made available to all the credentialed media

and he wasn't. It was a invitation only because they held it inside the Raiders' locker room. So they had... That's also so weird. Wait, what? Yeah, it was very odd. So it was, you know, we, um, there were about a hundred people there. And it was a lot of national reporters. It was people who like regularly cover the NFL

league meetings. Um, there were, we were, I was doing a little counting of how many people there from different outlets. There were a couple people from ESPN, a couple people from the athletic and Sports Illustrated in New York Times. Um, I think there were three NFL network reporters there. But it was like a fairly small room. And actually I had never been in the Raiders locker room before. And it's not a very big locker room. I thought with this huge fancy new stadium,

the Raiders would have this huge locker. And this was not a huge space. And but they kind of had it set up with chairs and a little, you know, a little riser for. Okay. So he had a little, he had a little, it was kind of like just like a little raised to stage. And then they have a...

He wasn't like standing in front of like... Max Crosby's locker. No. Yeah. there were no nameplates up. I was wondering if there were still like cigars around from the post McDaniels celebrations. They had cleared out the cigar smoke. But yeah, it was like kind of, you know, it was a little more intimate.

And look, over the last couple of years, there have been two smaller Roger Goodell press conferences. It was the 20, the Super Bowl in 2021, which was in Tampa, which was the big COVID impacted year. Right. When, you know, there were not that many of us that even covered that Super Bowl to be. begin with. And you had to be fully masked up and it was pre-vaccine. So it was like not even, you had to like take negative tests to be able to get in. And it was this very small group. And then two years ago in Los Angeles where it was kind of the first we're getting back to having some in-person access. And that was on the, it was like at the NFL network like turf field. Right. And that was also like they limited attendance there, but also had like proof of

vaccination and Omicron was everywhere, so we wear your masks. But so they kind, I think the NFL liked that smaller format. They went back to like the big press conference last year, if I recall correctly, but it just felt like the optics of it were bad, right? Like they tried to spin it. They tried, their explanation was, we want Roger Goodell, our commissioner, kicking off this week. We want him to be the first thing of Super Bowl Week. And instead, what happened was he talked, he answered questions for 45, 50-ish minutes. And then meeting night started.

Like, that's it. Nobody's going to be talking about. Right, because they also have this whole event called opening night that they describe as the kickoff event of Super Bowl Week, where the flippin blue man group is running around. Implicit, I believe, in the presence of the Blue Man group is that this is the kickoff event. And Roger Goodell is not the kickoff event.

Yeah, I mean, it used to be that it was on Friday. When I first started covering Super Bowls, he was on Friday. And it was basically the only thing that happened was the big Roger Goodell Press Conference on Friday. And it was a big, it was a big event. It was in a huge ballroom. All the networks would carry it live. And it was, you know, it really felt like the end of the week and then you were to the game. And this very much felt like we just.

don't want him to be making news. Right. And like, look, there was not, I mean, there's been a lot of bad stuff that happens in this league on a regular basis. But there wasn't this, like, one big flashpoint. Like, you guys have been to these before where, you know. Where you know someone's going to ask the whatever. I mean, and, you know, and this isn't the most serious thing in the world.

But, like, I worked in New England for however many Super Bowls. And it was always just like, there's like four or five reporters who every year the Patriots were in it, Goodell would get up there and it was just like, who can say the meanest thing to Roger about deflate game? Yes. Yeah, exactly. And everybody did that. And it was an event. And then there were years. I mean, the Super Bowl that was in Atlanta came, you know, was two weeks after the, at the time, the worst officiating disaster with the NFC championship game with the Saints and the Rams and that no call. And it was just this like huge officiating crisis. There was the kind of the Ray Rice year. And even in Atlanta, I mean, Goodell got some of the questions about the halftime show because that was the year when... Was that Justin Timberlake's year? No, that was Minnesota. It was in Maroon 5. It was Maroon 5.

I blocked that one out. It was when Maroon 5, like... In Atlanta. Yeah. didn't do a press conference because they were so afraid of what was going to be asked or potentially getting booed. And there were good questions at that, if I recall, about, like, what are you going to do about the halftime show? And after that, that was when the Rock Nation partnership got started. And so, you know, again, like, we're not, that's not the most important question Roger Goodell has ever been asked. But, like, there's sort of interesting stuff that happens.

And there were good questions asked today. There were multiple questions asked about gambling and how the league went from 10 to 15 years ago being so, anti-gambling. You know, Tony Romo couldn't hold a fantasy football event here. And Roger Goodell had been on the record 10-plus years ago about, I mean, all of the horrible things that gambling could do and the integrity of the game. And now, you know, clearly they're embracing a lot of aspects of gambling, certainly the money, but the sports gambling industry has provided to the NFL.

So you got asked a lot of questions about that. He got a number of questions about diverse hiring, the coaching cycle, the lack of black offense of coordinators that have gotten jobs during this cycle. He got asked a number of questions when we talked about the turf. I mean, so he got a lot of like relevant hard questions. It was more the idea of, and look, I'm on the executive board of the pro football writers of America. And there were a lot of people who were just wondering,

why this was not an event that was open to all credentialed media. And they always control who gets to ask questions. That has been the case as long as this happens. But it was just the idea that, like, if you cover a local beat and there's stuff that's important to your beat, if you're in whatever market you're in, you know, Buffalo or Philadelphia or anywhere, and you don't get the invite, then you don't get a chance to ask the question. And I think Roger Goodell likes to...

consider himself to be like available in a guy who's around and does a lot of media availability, but that honestly is just not the case. He does it at league meetings and once he are at the Super Bowl and they very much limited the people who were there. And by tomorrow, nobody's going to be talking about that press conference anymore. Yeah, I feel like the timing after the Jim Trotter question last year, that like feels like that had something to do with them putting it on Monday. Like the concept of them wanting to kick off the week with him instead of the players like it's always been just doesn't track with me. That doesn't make any sense. And the thing is like, so we, you know, from like a PFWA kind of side and just, you know,

that's what they're in the business. Like it was a big deal. There was a lot of like, who got invited, who didn't get invited? And a lot of it, we just kept coming back to the league and saying it's like it's the optics of this. It looks like you're trying to hide something. It looks that you don't like you don't want Roger Goodell to be available. The problem is like, and we were talking to this before we were recording, or like, they don't care. Like, this Super Bowl in six days is going to be the highest rated that they've ever had.

They're going to make a gazillion dollars. They're going to, you know, they're not going to care that you can't get around on the strip. Like, they're not going to care about any of this stuff. It's just, you know. Yeah, the funny thing, though, is that, like, Goodell, from their perspective, is good in those sessions.

Oh, yeah. It's not like he's never made a headline that annoys them, but he's good. He is tough to pin down. Yeah. He's really good at not actually answering questions, and he will flip them pretty quickly, or he will, like, avoid answering the meaty part of it

to answer just the part that he wants. And you said this earlier. Like, if you aren't perfectly precise and say exactly what you want to say, or if one little detail isn't quite right, he will latch on and he will just dismiss the entire premise. So it's funny because he's actually very nimble in that kind of situation, which to your point, it seems like it probably unfortunately comes at exactly zero costs to them. So what do they care?

Put him on Monday. But it's not as though he's like weak in those situations where he is available to everybody, which just makes it a little funny. Oh, I will say there was one bit of news that came out of that press conference, which was very strategically planned. The NFL was ready. They had a press release ready to go. but they announced Roger to kind of just slipped it in in the press conference that the first game in Brazil that they're going to have next year is going to be on Friday night of week one.

So they are coming for our entire calendar. That is a traditionally, like, you know, they don't play on Friday nights and Saturdays during the fall because of college football and high school football, but they're moving it to South America so they can play on a Friday night. So week one of next year, we're going to have Thursday. night, Friday night, Sunday night, Sunday night. So hopefully, Stephen will still be covering the NFL next year. So we can have bonus pods on Friday night. They're really running out of ideas for the opening weekend.

They're running out of days. There's almost nothing left. They're going to create a new day. That's what's coming up. That's what the competition committee is getting up to this office. Flurs day. Take an eight-day weekly calendar. There's going to be a,

Carrie Underwood song Waiting all day for Fla Thursday night. Other than media night stuff wanted to just quickly recap because there were a few sort of coaching cycle and coordinator moves including

Stephen and I were talking about just this sort of weird fact pattern with the commanders hiring on our last pod and some of that has resolved itself Cliff Kingsbury is going to be offensive coordinator there and there was the

the slow process of wrapping up whatever was happening with Eric Bianami but Dan Quinn has now said that he is not staying with the team. Obviously this is happening at a stage in the cycle where a lot of positions are full and

at least on a surface level this seems like a pretty rough break for Bianami particularly after you know making that lateral move to go there so that he could have play calling which was this thing that had been held against him and head coaching

surges do you have a read on what's going on yeah well I mean you know I feel like when it was right about a year ago it was like right after the Super Bowl last year it was the week after the Super Bowl that Eric BN made left the chiefs to take the job in Washington in the first place. And I remember hating the move at the time.

It always felt like he was being held to a different standard. And I hated that he felt like he had to take that job and leave. Because I think we all, it was pretty clear that Ron Rivera was not and didn't have great job security. Right. Like granted the team sale and all that stuff was still in flux. But they hadn't been good for several years. they didn't have their quarterback situation settled. And, you know, to go from coaching Patrick Mahomes to Sam Howell, it's just, it's a huge

difference. And he was going to be held to this very, very, almost probably unreasonable standard where this idea of like, you want to call plays? We want to see you call plays. And if you're not producing like a top five offense, then, nope, you're not good at it. We don't have to give you a job. And they weren't a very good offense for a lot of reasons. a lot of which had to do with the talent at the quarterback position.

But it was just like a very weird, like the timing of it, you know, the way that entire search played out. So it's not just that they've had this weirdness with the offensive coordinator hire this week. It's that they're still like continuing to engage in this weird like battle of he said, he said in leaks and what happened with Ben Johnson. And it's like it all just feels really, really weird. I can't wait for Seth Wickersham and Don Van Hanna had to drop up a 40-page expose on exactly who texted whom when about whether Ben Johnson was going to interview a second time with the commanders or whatever. I want to see the screenshot of the text. Was there an emoji at the end? Did he use punctuation?

Did he say, that's fine, period? But I really feel for Bianne because, like, I went to that training camp a couple times. And they weren't trying to hide the fact that this was a role where he was eventually going to become the head coach. Like Ron Rivera was like, I'm mentoring it. Like, I'm setting him up for this job. And just how, what do you have to deal with in Kansas City? And then you get set up with this job where you think you're going to step into a head coaching job finally.

And then how it plays out. It's just he's had the roughest like last four years, I would say. And he's had to deal with so much like, explanation. nations for why he didn't get a job. And it's been like, oh, he wasn't a good interview, which kind of sounds familiar with Ben Johnson right now. And it's just rough. I don't know what he's going to end up doing.

He might have to go back to college. That's where he was before Kansas City. And that's sad. And he didn't even get to play his best quarterback this year. Right. He was kind of forced to- Justice for Jacoby. Yeah, I think he might have a job if Jacoby plays

because I think that offense looks a lot better. Or even if they had, I mean, again, just the whole thing with the commander's search was so, you know, and it is this sort of new era where they're hoping to be a little bit more stable than they were under Dan Snyder. And now obviously that's a high bar, is that a low bar?

It's a very low bar, I guess, the right phrasing. But their first go of it has been pretty chaotic. And part of that, I mean, you know, it's a tough business. and hurt feelings, there's a lot of executives and decision makers who aren't worrying too much about that. But people remember how you act in those situations. And I do think some teams would give a little bit more thought to, like, let's get the timing in a way where it's at least wrapped up so this guy can get another job. Or if we're not going to hire him,

if we're desperate to hire Ben Johnson or, oh, no, just kidding, we're not. And we really don't like him, actually. Just the not figuring it out in time for him to just have a few more potential openings or just a little bit. Yeah, it was weird, though, because there wasn't a whole lot, there was not a lot of, like, buzz out there,

reporting out there that, like, other teams were, like, super eager to hire him. Interesting. Yeah. To hire him. and that he was like being requested for other jobs and was being blocked. You know, like, you know, like Ryan Nielsen in Atlanta, like was initially being blocked, but then they finally let him go and let him go interview for jobs and got something else.

Like there was none of that buzz out there. And that's what's kind of weird. And like, look, I wonder about the timing with Kansas City. Andy Reid is a huge Eric B. Enemy fan has like, you know, gone to the wall for him, has challenged privately in the like the owner's meetings where it's head coach and owners, you know, man to man, why haven't you hired this guy? So I wonder if, you know, he might come, he could end up coming back to Kansas City at some point or like Stephen said, if going the college route, I live in Colorado and Eric Yanami is a university of Colorado alum. There was always

a lot of like smoke linking him to various CU jobs if, at some point if maybe he could wind up somehow coming coaching in college again but um yeah it's just like it i don't know what happens now because he also didn't get a lot of interviews last cycle right so this time this time last year and it just sometimes happened like it just it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for him now and you know for a lot of years he was the face of the NFL's like problem with diversity and diversity and hiring and you know i think this year there's a lot of like wins to celebrate in a lot of ways there has been some progress. But the fact that Eric B. Enemy is just at this point,

I don't think he's ever going to get a head coaching job. And that's just unfortunate for him. Yeah, and it's unfortunate that it seems like, you know, because I agree with you last year, it was sort of like, all right, if the move to Washington is really what it's going to take to springboard him and get out from the Andy Reid shadow and check that box off, then sure, fine, go do it. but it felt, it just felt like he shouldn't have had to.

Yeah, right. And then for that to end in what feels like at this point, even a step back from that where, you know, it's not clear where he's going to go is just annoying. He's really good his job. Someone should hire this guy. And Matt and Aggie's going to get another head coaching job from the chief's OC position.

It's going to be inferiority. Right. Right. Steve, can I ask you a question about Cliff? Yeah. Since you, so you live in the district, you, I don't know if you'd, was Caleb Williams like on your radar as like a stud high school player? Not really? He went to the same high school as my grandfather, but no, I hadn't been following.

So is there? It's outside of D.C. It's probably like 25 minutes away from D.C. So now with Cliff Kingsbury coming there, the commanders have the second pick, which, you know, the bears really get to dictate what's going to happen at number one. But it wouldn't be entirely cost prohibitive to potentially move up to number one. one. So do you think there's any link posted something on Instagram right when he

got the job congratulating him? Yeah. I like a local angle, like they would pursue him because of that. Yeah, or just and now the link that Cliff Kingsbury is now the OC there as well. Yeah, I could see that. And I think it would make sense. And I think it's like an easy win. Because like Damatha, that's the high school you went to. DeMatha is like a big deal in that area. It's outside of D.C., but it's like a very famous high school and their sports program is very famous. So I'm sure there are a lot of people who he was on their radar.

Maybe I wasn't, but yeah. You're not grinding the prep tape. I, no, I wasn't grinding the math of tape. I'm sorry. I wasn't. But yeah, I could see that. And I think the match makes sense. Like if you're going to hire a coach like Cliff,

you should get a quarterback who can move around. We've seen that anywhere he's been. That's helped his offense. And the knock on cliff is like sometimes his passing game, how it's designed isn't very, isn't too creative and you need a quarterback who can create after the fact because a lot of the time the receivers aren't getting open. What do you think of Cliff plus Drake May or does this make a lot more sense as a? I think it still works because May is a good athlete.

Like he was like a great basketball player apparently. He does a little bit of the zone read stuff. I don't think you want to major in it with him. Like I don't think you want to major in it with Caleb Williams either. But I don't think May is more like a, he's close to. to Justin Herbert, where he has the athleticism, but he doesn't use it enough. And actually, I wouldn't say he doesn't use it enough, but he doesn't use it as much as Caleb Williams. He doesn't go off script, but he's more of like a robot in that sense.

And I don't know how that's going to look in Cliff's offense. I don't think, I think you need a quarterback that helps the coach more than the other way around, which is how we talk about this stuff usually. And I don't, I wouldn't want to see Drake. I'm a big fan of Drake May's game, and I don't want to see him in Cliffs' offense. I'll put it like that. dun dun dun all right there were a couple more that we were going to hit

before we got out of here yeah I was looking so there were a couple dominoes so cliff kingsbury was going to be the Raiders offensive coordinator until that all fell apart and now Luke Getzzi

the former Bears offensive coordinator is going to be in Las Vegas on Antonio Pierce's staff do you have any quick Luke Getzzi I have no Getsy takes

because like Justin Fields is such a I don't want to say weird quarterback but he's such a quarterback that changes everything you have to do, that I don't know what he did in Chicago is going to translate to what he does with Aidan O'Connell or whoever ends up being quarterback.

Russell Wilson. That might be like the Justin Fields offense, actually, now that I think about it. It works. But I like Getty. I think he showed that he eventually got to the offense that worked for Justin Fields. There was a slow period, a slow start,

but he figured things out. So I think he's got some stuff to him. I believe you also have some Shane Bowen takes. Now, I have Shane Bowen takes for days. Yeah, I'm a big Shane Bowen fan. Giants, listen up. I think he's the reason why the Titans overachieved as much as they did. And it's always hard because they had a defensive-minded head coach.

You don't know who's really controlling the game plan. Bowen was obviously the play caller. But that was the most impressive thing about them outside of Derek Henry, just being a very big fast man, was how well coached their defense was. And, like, they were on the forefront of all the stuff we talk about, like, as being cutting edge, like with Mike McDonald's, for example, like the simulated pressures, the creepers and all that stuff. He had too high stuff.

They were ahead of the curve there. Wow. All right. I have one more offensive coach question for you. Greg Roman, Jim Harba, Justin Herbert, your thoughts. Oh, man. I'm just happy they haven't said he's the OC yet. It's a, quote, prominent role.

And they did that on purpose. I know they did that on purpose because. the quote tweets, the replies to whenever they announced it, would not have been kind to them. And those were just yours. Yeah, and that would have just been me. Stephen would likely to tweet something

that will get him fired. But it is good for my brand because if he does become the O.C. or he does have a big hand in the offense, I could just blame it on him like I did with Lamar. All right. Maybe we call it there. I think that works.

Well, it's been a joy to pod with you both inside our pyramid-shaped Dorito Dorito Hotel This has been dual threat Thank you to Lindsay Jones for joining us Thanks for letting me crash

Love having you Thank you carrot top Thank you to the Blue Man group Thank you Stephen obviously For lending your thoughts We have so much stuff coming up this week So many pods.

So much content. There are just so many podcasts. They will be in this feed. Where you are right now is exactly where you will get them. Shil Kapadia and Ben Solac. Stephen and I will be back. Sheel, Ben, Stephen and myself are all going to get together on Friday, I think, and do an episode that we're calling Extra Threat, right?

I think. So just lots of fun stuff. Stay tuned for that. Thank you to On Location producer Christopher Suss. for his work on this episode with additional production supervision, also in person, but I literally supervising. Literally so supervised. All right. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you soon. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandwell is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem,

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