The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Wentz Trade and How It Affects the Eagles' Draft, Plus Darnold, Watson, and Garoppolo Rumors With Albert Breer

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on NBA All-Star voting (1:30), before talking to SI's Albert Breer about every angle of the Carson Wentz trade and how it will impact the Eagles in the NFL draft. They also discuss first-round draft QBs, NFL trade rumors, Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, and more (6:00). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (50:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We have a ton of great football quarterback stuff for you on this podcast. Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer is going to take us through every detail of a Carson Wentz trade and if the Eagles are still in the mix for a quarterback, especially at the top of the draft. And we'll take a look at the rest of the quarterbacks as well, and some life advice at the end. So we're taping this Thursday night, and that's what I decided to do because I wanted the football stuff out early on a Friday, because sometimes the Friday release can be

a little late, so we want to do that for you guys. And basically, once I saw the lineups being changed again from another one of these marquee matchups, I was like, alright. That's why there's no Nets-Lakers reaction to this right now. The thing that I did want to jump on, I don't, you know, I'm not big on the all-star stuff. You know, snubs, I think it's interesting. I think it's good topical stuff, but every year

it's like, yeah, there's a couple of guys, like it should be hard to be an all-star and there's a couple of guys that aren't going to be on it. What happens every year now though, as they dice up the fan media and player vote, the player vote now has reached a new record where 310 players got at least one starter vote for the All-Star game. Not just vote, starter. 310 players. So this is a problem. People look at it as like, oh oh you're in the media so you care trust me the media screws up stuff too but not like this not like this i mean i kind of do the segment every year when it happens but we're at 310 guys tyrese maxi the sixer says hey i vote

for my teammates i'll vote for myself as well so he just voted all sixers all right cool um dario sharic said he votes for all the croat guys and guys he's friends with. He's like, but mainly the Croatian guys. And I'm like, okay. Um, Damian Lillard, who normally always has this stuff figured out, said, look, I don't make it personal. I vote for who I think should be in it. And John Wall, who there's just a lot of times where I like what John Wall says. I know that may not be popular or maybe surprising at times because people have gone on this

case for a few different things. But whenever he talks about the league and some of the stuff, I've always appreciated what he's had to say. And he goes, look, I just go, I write down the guys that go real hard and the guys I have a harder time with. So I vote for the guys

that make my job more difficult. I did think it was interesting when I looked at some of the player vote and just general pettiness, although Steph's a starter and he got player media and fan vote number one at the guard position. And the other part of this was, when I was looking at some of the Eastern Conference stuff,

like Durant and Giannis are one and two in both fan and player rank. The media part had Durant three, probably because he's missing games, and had Joel Embiid two. So those three are your frontcourt players. Tatum's out, which seems impossible, but it's not really when you think about it, unless you feel like he should be in there over Durant. But I mean, that's just, that's not reality.

And Durant's a better player. And we can go by season and all that stuff. But there's two guys that jump out in particular. Trey Young, who is not a starter. He was sixth in the fan vote, sixth in the media vote for guards and 11th by the players. I could see that strictly being about how they have to play him because of the way he's officiated. So the players are upset about it too.

And then Gordon Hayward, who was ninth in fan vote, seventh in the media vote, and then 15th Gordon Hayward, no love. Um, and look, Charlotte's more competitive. So it's not like he's just on this last place team. And I do think that that matters. I think there's guys, if you're on one of the worst five teams in the league and you're just putting up huge numbers, I know Bradley Beal ends up becoming a starter. He's leading the league in scoring. I

don't have a huge problem with it. But I think for other guys that are kind of borderline in comparison to somebody else, if you're just putting up big numbers, we've talked about it. Numbers are easier to come by than ever before, but it is a classic example, once again, of whenever there was something that has to be decided, whoever is deciding on it, we immediately have. It's a lot like the college football playoff where you go, oh, well, this is stupid. We didn't like the computer. We didn't like the BCS with the AP poll and then the coaches poll and then the AP part of it pulled out because they didn't think

it was right to have the media voting on this. The coaches poll is arguably the worst of any of them. The Harris poll was a combination of a bunch of different people. And then they used the computers where people couldn't quite figure out like, wait, how does this work? Because ranking played into it. So if you're ranked higher earlier than the computer still could like you at times when it didn't seem like that made any sense. And the computer could not adjust for things that I think a room of people can adjust for. But now that we have a room of people,

so basically what we have here is the all-star vote being once again, another example of whatever current system you will have on deciding something like this, this happens a lot, like no matter what, people are always going to have a problem with it. But your change may not be any better. Now, the players should have a vote, I guess. It would seem weird, especially with the way that we care more about these things and we want them to be

more equal. And hey, the media can't just go ahead and decide this. And we've seen the fan vote screwed up all the time. But once again, no one does worse than the NBA players voting on who should start in an all-star game. Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated, one of the best national football guys going. So we're going to do all sorts of fun stuff here. The Wentz deal, though, is official. He's going to the Colts, third rounder 2021, second rounder 2022, and could be a first rounder, basically, if it works out. I mean, it's kind of one of those deals where if the Colts make the playoffs, they're more than happy to have moved on from a first rounder.

So let's start kind of where we were at a couple weeks ago. We kind of knew that he was going to be dealt. The Bears were in the mix. How did this deal with Indianapolis happen? I think part of it was him willing his way there. I think it was really clear from the beginning that he wanted to be there. And he's got a close relationship with Frank Reich. And it's sort of interesting that the two teams that were there at the end,

the bears and the Colts both had deep institutional knowledge of them. And kind of the funny thing about this, Ryan is when Wentz was going really good in 2016 and 2017, the dynamic on that coaching staff, Frank Reich was the good cop. John DiFilippo, who's in Chicago now, was the bad cop. And I think because of some of that history, that's why Carson wanted to go there. And so the Bears really did a lot of homework on Wentz.

And from my understanding is Flip said, I think we can work with him. Like, I think I can fix him mechanically. Ryan Pace had actually liked him when he came out in 2016, it would have been. So there was a lot going for Carson Wentz in Chicago. But I think because of the spot they were in, because they knew he wanted to go to Indianapolis, because of a lot of different things, they never even made an official offer. They just sort of monitored it.

And the Colts sort of knew all along, we want to be fair with the Eagles. We want to make sure that we're not insulting anybody. But we think we have an idea of what the value is for Carson. And I'll be honest with you. I think over the last two weeks, the Colts offer didn't change much. I think it sort of was what it was and Chris Ballard stuck to his guns. And, um, and yeah, that's sort of how we got to where we are,

where I think the league sort of let you know what, what they thought of Carson Wentz, where, you know, the, the Eagles had initially asked for the Matthew Stafford return. Um, some teams were turned off by that altogether.

You only had a couple of teams at the end and, and the Colts stick to their guns and get their man. Yeah. I'm glad you said that. It's one of my favorite things about the league is we'll sit here and be like, you know, the league a lot of times answers the questions that we keep asking. And it may not be the specific answer, but it'll tell you the market with a bunch of different players. So let's just stay on the Bears thing real quick and then kind of move on to who Wentz is because it's turned into, oh, the Bears are never serious. The Bears are never serious. It feels a bit like when Romo got like 17 million from CBS

and people said, well, ESPN never made an offer and I'll go. So they just magically got to 17 million. So, I mean, there's usually some kind of comp. As you said, you know, if you were talking to different teams, there are only so many landing spots. If he didn't want to go to the Bears, it may have turned them off. So what should we believe about the Bears? You're saying they had interest, but sometimes it's just semantics about the official nature

of what an offer is or isn't. Yeah, I just think there was just too much there for them is the way it felt like to me where they were like, all right, I don't know if this is really a fit. If he doesn't want to be here and he already had like, you know, with John D. Filippo again, and I think Filippo was really good at this when they were together, but he was the bad cop. So if you're like, all right,

like he may not want to be here to begin with. And we have the guy here who can coach him hard. He may need that, but that may also turn him off. Like, and you have a GM and a coach who are going into a situation where, you know, in all likelihood, they're going to be fighting for their jobs this year.

I can see where you would look at that and you would say, it's not really a fit. Unless we can get a really good deal here, it's not really a fit. So I think, like I said, it was just more monitoring the situation than anything else on the Bears' end. And I think that there was a feeling with the Eagles. The Eagles felt like, oh, maybe we'll be able to get something out of them at the end.

And really it was the Colts offer all along. That sort of was the like steady thing there. Let's do two things on Wentz. Let's start with the player. Then we'll get to the person, the player. Yeah. I mean,

if you read social media right now, he's Nathan Peterman. I mean, he's the worst guy to ever play the position and that dirty Lord and quarterbacking. Right. I was trying to think of the best one, and I actually feel bad for Peterman. Once that guy got into a game, it was just on for him.

And, you know, I'm probably, you know, it's always good to remind all of us that social media isn't a real representation a lot of times. But there are plenty of football voices that I respect. Former players are just so out on him, the player. He was a disaster in 2020. And it was kind of the thing where, like, hey, there's some bad stats. And now this is just off the charts bad, arguably the worst guy to actually get a chance to play all season. But 17 is real. 19 happened and he had no one to throw to. So you can tell me you think he sucks. You can show me every single number. And I'm not going

to tell you you're wrong. But now to act like there's no chance of him ever getting to the point where he's at least, you know, in that 12 to 15th best quarterback range. I don't think that's all that unrealistic. Obviously it's going to take some work here, but the perception of him, this isn't even a Zach, the perception of him, I feel is far too negative now. Yeah. And I think like the concern would be like, is he broken? You know, like RG three, because I think he's sort of RG three sort of become the model where it's

like, all right, like we can coach him up and we can game it up. And while they're on their rookie contract, we can surround him with great people because we've got all this extra cap space, you know, and then they grow up and the league catches up to them.

And now they're making more money and circumstances change where they have to evolve personally they've got to play with lesser people around them and i think that there's always this feeling like is that really revealing who the quarterback is you know like when he has to play on a bigger contract he's got less around him when scheme wise there's less that they can do to fool people. So I think that would be the concern. And look, I think a part of it was the contract that the Eagles had less depth as a result of him getting paid. And they got old in a lot of spots. Alshon Jeffrey got old.

The offensive line, Jason Peters, Jason Kelsey, Brandon Brooks, those guys got old, they got hurt. And so I'm with you in that it's wrong to look at him as Nathan Peterman. I just think it's hard to get a clean read period. You know what I mean? Like, I think it's just hard to like, look at him and say like, how do we look at this guy when he was getting hit so quickly? The guys he was throwing to at the end of the 19, the guys, I was throwing to like Greg Ward and like Travis Fogum like this

year like there's just there's so many different circumstances at play there where you look at it and you're like can we get a clean read on the guy because his circumstances went so sideways the flip side of the argument there though Ryan is if you're going to pay a guy that much you're paying for him

to be able to cover up holes right and the best guys can cover up holes. And Carson didn't show an ability to do that the last couple of years. There was stuff coming out where it was like, he was just straight up, not a great teammate. He was selfish. It certainly looked that way at the end of this past year. I don't know what he's entitled to. You know, if he had won the Super Bowl with them, we'd probably give him a little bit more leeway, but he doesn't. So that's always going to be held against him, both outside Philadelphia and inside the city. I always feel like, look, if you took any person, asked 53 people to work with you or work with me, you're going to find a couple of people who are like, I don't like that person.

And here are some reasons why. So I don't know that that's always entirely fair. But what kind of read do you have on him as Carson Wentz, the person? Because is he actually just... I don't know. Is he a jerk? Is he tough to get along with? Or is he a guy that... Go ahead. No, I don't think he's a jerk. I think it's more... So he didn't

react very well to hard coaching. That was pretty well documented that he needed to be coached a certain way. And that was... Mike Groh, who's the receivers coach in Indianapolis now, didn't get along great with him. John DiFilippo, like I said, had been the bad cop before. So there was always this feeling like he doesn't react great to hard coaching, which sort of evolved into who does this guy think he is? He's carrying himself like he's Tom Brady and he should be controlling everything. And I don't think it was intentional by Carson, but he'd been built up by people in that organization to such a huge degree that you can almost not fault him for carrying himself. Like, hey, I'm the franchise quarterback.

In fact, the other day on NFL Network, they were showing old Super Bowls. And you know how at the Super Bowl podium, you know how they only allow three or four or five players up there, right? You know what I mean? Like the one they put on the field? It caught my eye the other day.

The Eagles Super Bowl was being replayed. Do you know Carson Wentz was one of those five guys? I didn't know that. He was one of the five guys who was standing up on that podium. And you think about that level of treatment, and it's like, okay, he carries himself like that, but you are treating him like that too. Like he was hurt. He didn't play in that game. Like Brandon Graham, who like made the biggest play of the game. He was down below like Carson Wentz is up on the podium. So I think that there's like a little bit of that. And then I think the other part of it too, I'm not sure he

related to everybody in the locker room. I don't think he was a jerk, but I don't think he had the ability that some quarterbacks have to relate with every single guy in the locker room. I don't think he was a jerk, but I don't think he had the ability that some quarterbacks have to relate with every single guy in the locker room. And I think you know where I'm going here, but like your Brady's, your Patrick Mahomes, like they're like the, a lot of the really great ones have an ability to like relate to the guy from LA the same way they can relate, relate to like the farm boy from Mississippi. You know what I mean? And I don't know that carson really had that so that was an issue too i'm glad you brought up the podium

thing because i hadn't thought about it i mean i'd forgotten but i'll never forget brady after they beat the rams and he's smacking bledsoe shoulder pads being like yeah you know we fucking did it we did it we did it and bledsoe's looking back at him being like yeah this is awesome you know because what are you supposed to do if you're in that spot like you're kind of happy and it's not an anti-tom thing you're just like this yeah man yeah i mean like think about that like if your car like i like i personally if that was me i think i would decline to go up i mean i don't go up there in a way But I don't think I'd want to go up there, right? No, no.

So he's standing up there with three or four of the most valuable players from that game. I think it's a certain level of treatment that he got because when Howie got the power back and Doug became the head coach, Carson was sort of the centerpiece of the whole thing. became the head coach, Carson was sort of the centerpiece of the whole thing. So even through the injury and everything else, psychologically, it was just like, this is our guy and we got to keep showing him support. And I think that that sort of over time began to backfire on them. Something else to add this and then we'll just move on. But some of the worst commentary right now is anything Deshaun Watson related and what it means as far as transit. So it's like, so what does Deshaun have to do? And we're like, all right, you have to trend down now for about two years and you have to be dreadful.

And then you too can be traded for a second and third round or potentially a first. So the Deshaun thing, I think is very easy to explain. The Texans are in no hurry to do him any kind of favor because they wanted to see if they can try to repair it. I don't think it can be repaired, but what's the market like? I think the best way to ask this is, what's

the sense that you get from teams that are even checking on his availability or what the market would say? I mean, they've got a hard no. It's don't even ask. They've gotten calls, but it's a don't even ask. What's hard about this is that on the other end of it, you have the Texans who've tried to reach out to Deshaun

and have basically got ghosted by Deshaun. So it's like when you're trying to forecast where this is going to go, what's hard about it is the Texans aren't listening to other teams and Deshaun isn't communicating with the Texans. So what breaks that stalemate? And I think the only real deadline we have,

especially if you look at the structure of his contract it sets up this way where he doesn't you know really have another dollar coming to him until september really the draft is the only like hard deadline we have coming up you know i mean like yeah maybe some teams come off the board in march that like settle their quarterback plans you know like but i like but like, if like, I don't, he's such a valuable commodity. I don't think that kills his value. If like three or four teams decide on other quarterbacks in March, that doesn't mean the Texans aren't going to be able to get three or four first round picks for him. You know what I mean? So it's sort of like his

value. He's such a good player. His value is going to hold all the way to the draft. And the Texans don't have to do anything. And so, you know, and I think it's hard for Nick too, because, you know, Nick Casera, their new GM, like he, like either your first move is to hold your franchise quarterback. Either your first move is to have like almost a hostage situation with your franchise quarterback.

And then you're kind of putting that on your first-year head coach who hasn't been a head coach before. Or you're trading away a top five quarterback at 25 years old. One or the other. That's your first major thing as a general manager. Tough spot to be in. What's this mean for the Darnold market? I don't know that it means that much for the Darnold market,

but I do think, I think Sam might be available soon. Um, so the jets, like the first week after, uh, after Stafford was traded, uh,

they got calls from four different teams. Um, and then the week after that, they got calls from some more teams. And, and really the response that they've given those teams at this point was our new coaching staff is still going through the roster and still going through the draft quarterbacks. We'll get back to you. And so I think part of it is strategic and waiting to

see what happened with Wentz, I think. But another piece of it is, they want to look at Zach Wilson versus Sam Darnold. They want to look at Justin Fields versus Sam Darnold. They want to look at Zach Wilson versus Sam Darnold. They want to look at Justin Fields versus Sam Darnold. They want to look at Trey Lance versus Sam Darnold. So then they know, okay, if we're going to trade Sam Darnold, we know we've either got A, a shot at Deshaun Watson if we want to make that run at it, if he becomes available between now and the end of April, or B, one of those three quarterbacks that isn't named Trevor Lawrence. So that's sort of where they're at. And I think that the fact that they haven't hung up on teams and said no, the fact that they've sort of let this thing linger tells me they're leaning towards making him available

in the next month or so. Now, does that just line up with draft projections here that they're going with Zach Wilson? Yes. Yeah. I think if Watson's not available and if they trade Darnold, I think it means they're sold on one of the quarterbacks. And based on the people that I've talked to, I think Zach Wilson would right now be the most likely one to go second overall. So he would be the one that you would look at if they are going to move off of Darnold. Because at that point, if you are going

to move Darnold, at that point, you have to be comfortable with Zach Wilson or one of the other two, because there's no guarantee that Deshaun Watson is going to become available between now and then. Yeah. The Wilson rumor, when I first heard it before it was in the mocks in early January, you know, in whatever level of,

of, you know, I have, I have some NFL people that love the NBA that will, will hit me up and be like, Hey, what's going on with this or whatever. Then be like,

man, we're hearing Zach Wilson in, in me at McShay onay on who um you know i think he's always a little careful about any joe douglas stuff because they were teammates uh in college so he's never told me anything you know again if he told me something off the air i wouldn't share it here on the podcast but i can say that he hasn't told me anything either about it but it just felt like this in early January I was like really whoa that's kind of weird and now it's it's weird to suggest anything different even though McShay was telling me that when he talks to front offices the evaluations on the four or

five quarterbacks are all over the place even though the mocks always seem to have Wilson penciled into the Jets yeah and I think that there's a so the three of them, I would tell you, Wilson, I've had a couple people tell me they think Wilson is going second overall. People in front of offices. And I think that there's a lot about Wilson that's intriguing. Now, buckle up because this one's going to

be a little wild, right? Like he's a little skinny. He wasn't a captain, which is something that I'm sure is going to come up. The Connor Cook wasn't a captain. He was not a captain. Right. But that's one of those things, right? Like he was not a captain. Like, and if you're the quarterback, like a returning starter at quarterback, like it's obviously going to be a question, right? Am I wrong there? It's unheard of. I've done it with the NFL because one of my favorite things to laugh at is when, you know, somebody is doing the broadcast. You're like, well, you know, they, the locker room is bought in.

They've made him a captain. You're like all 23, I think 23 teams have permanent, permanent captains in the NFL and it's 23 quarterbacks. And then the only ones that aren't permanent are weekly captains. And then I think there's one team that has no captains historically, like they've never had any. So becoming a captain as a quarterback, even as a rookie in the NFL, and then especially in college, like you're right. It's a really weird deal when you aren't, because it's basically just

handed to you as if you've actually done anything. I think Joe Burrow was a captain like three weeks in Cincinnati, right? Preseason. He was a captain like right away in Cincinnati. No, but you know what I'm saying? yeah i mean i feel i feel like a little bit of a prick when i'll point out stuff on national broadcast because i've been on one with the nba stuff lately but yeah you just be like well they made him a captain so you know that uh and you're like come on man so go ahead i mean i've heard he's a good like i've heard he's a good kid but it's going to be asked like my point is it's going to be asked and so there's a lot of stuff with him where I don't think publicly

he's been dug into as much as Trey Lance or Justin Fields have. Now, Trey Lance is interesting to me because he was seen as a really high-end prospect coming into the year. And he played that one game and he didn't play very well. And he hadn't thrown an interception

like the entire year before. It was like 28 to nothing touchdown interception ratio. And he didn't look very good in that game. So how much stock do you put in that? I hope not a ton because it's, I mean, hey kid, you got one game. It's a weird spot, right? Can you imagine somebody telling you that?

Like, hey, this is your NFL showcase. Go play. And you know you're not going to get the Senior Bowl because he's not eligible for that because he's not a senior. All of that. And then Fields, I'll tell you what, the interesting thing about Fields, and I'm saying this from an unbiased point of view because everybody knows where I went to school. really good his first year at Ohio State. And then he had like two or three real clunkers his junior year. And I've had a couple people bring up Justin Herbert to me

and say, are we overexposed to him? Did we just build him up for however long? And then all of a sudden, you see a couple of cracks and you make a bigger deal out of it than you need to. And the Herbert comparison kind of, not that they're the same as players, but it carries over some.

They're both seen as raw, big arms, can really move, have some natural accuracy. So that's what's fascinating about these three, about Wilson, Fields, and Lance, is it's really, really easy to poke holes in any of them. And the question is, which problems do you think are most fixable? Trevor Lawrence is the perfect prospect. Take him out of the group. But the other three, each of them, there's going to be holes poked in them.

And I think for each of the teams, it's going to be, what do you feel most comfortable with? And part of that's the pre-draft process, which is going to be really weird and different this year. Speaking of the draft part of this, because we can bring it back to the Eagles a little bit, would you be surprised if they took a quarterback at six?

No, no. Is that what you're hearing or just based on common sense? I think they're going to give it a good look. And that doesn't mean they're taking one, but I think they're going to give it a good look. And that doesn't mean they're taking one, but I think they're going to give it a good look. And I think you're going to have... I'd say everyone in the top 10 who has even a remote need for one

is going to be doing this. And to me, it's a little bit like 2018. And I know how closely you follow college football. But if you remember going into the 2018 draft, there was a real question, like, are there any great quarterback prospects in 19? Right? So if you remember, it was Baker Mayfield,

Josh Rose, and Josh Allen, and Sam Darnold. Guys we'd known, Lamar Jackson, guys we'd known about forever. And then the next year, it was like, whoa, like there might not be anybody. And the result was three teams trading up into or within the top 10 to get Darnold, Allen,

and Rosen. And so I think that for all the teams that are in the top 10, there's that sort of effect this year. I mean, Keaton Slovis from USC, JT Daniels from Georgia, maybe Spencer Radler from... I don't know if there's a guy that you can look at now and say,

that guy's going in the first round next year, right? So if you're the Eagles, I think you have to consider it. And I think this is one of the reasons why they will, and I think other teams will. I think everybody in the top 10, again, who has a remote need for one will, is if we don't do it now, what does next year look like? Yep, that's fair. But I would say

that would, every time you do that, history will tell you, actually, that's not what happens. I mean, other than the EJ manual year where it was actually like, whoa, look at this huge void. Although in 19,

you know the three quarterbacks who went in the first round were? Kyler, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins. I mean i mean we don't jury's out on jones i think kyler's kind of a beauty in the eye is that me in the eye of the beholder and haskins we know what happened with him but i would i would say that there's always you know look trask could have finished the year maybe even being a first round grade mac jones looks like he's going in

the first round based on mocks. Who knows? We could be surprised there. The way these guys put up numbers, man, and like the job was hard enough to evaluate first rounders. You know, the thing I always bring up 50% of them are straight up busts.

Yeah. And you know, I don't, I don't know how to do it better. So I don't, I don't look at the GMs and go, all these guys are idiots. It's just that hard.

But there's going to be two or three guys that put up crazy numbers. Then we like their physical attributes. I mean, look at Burrow and who he was before his Heisman season. Yeah, no, that's fair. And then on the other side, we had Matt Barkley, who was a lock-to-go top 10,

decides to go back to USC for another year. And what is he, fourth rounder? So the variance of who, who we think a guy is year to year before they even play is all over the place. So I'm not disagreeing with the point. I'm just telling you history is more often is going to come up with a couple of guys.

We're not even thinking of that, put up massive numbers and then we all talk ourselves into it. There's no question that there's no question that probably happens, but can you count on it? You know? And I think, I think, I think subconscious's fair I think I think subconsciously with a lot of the decision

makers they do look at these things two years out and like I can tell you for example like the Jets process when they took Darnold and they wound up I mean they wound up being wrong on this but you know they started to look in 2017 at the 18 quarterbacks and said are we better off

building for a year and waiting? And that of course was Watson in the homes and Trubisky. And that's why a lot of the guys who were there then aren't there anymore. Right. But, but like, but they did look at like a two year mosaic. And I think that that's sort of part of the equation. So the Eagles to get back to the original thing, you know, like I think Howie Roseman's always kind of been part of front offices

that have over-invested in the quarterback position. If you look back, Andy Reid kept drafting quarterbacks when he had Donovan McNabb, and he acquired Michael Vick, and he had Kevin Cobb on the roster at the same time. And so I think that if they look at it, they'll keep doing it.

If they see somebody worth taking sixth overall, I don't think that if they look at it they'll keep doing like like if they see somebody worth taking sixth overall like i don't think that they would hesitate the question is you know after going through the process will they see somebody who's available to them that way i always wonder if the recency of like some sort of story would be like okay well we like fields because people were off of herbert and herbert just wasn't good in the second year now ducks fans will tell you there's a change in the staff that that changed him i watched a lot of those games and i think at first we're so enamored with guys and then we start we start with a higher grade and almost everybody works their way down which is kind of the way we are with with people so herbert i always thought was more of like a personality

thing because he just was so void of any juice you know scouts would be like i don't know man i don't know about that like a lot of never left eugene like he never left out lived outside of like a 10 mile radius or something like that yeah he sneaky had like some of the most it wasn't a character flag thing with him it was a personality flag and i'd argue even to sean it felt like maybe is guilty this overexposure stuff you're talking about too because you you look at those monstrous years then he comes back and we expect you to be super human and I remember you know part of it was like oh he misses some of the easy stuff you know he's gonna have to be more consistent and then now you look at it and you go yeah except he also makes the most impossible plays maybe of anyone at the position right now I mean he's he's at another level of of guys of keeping stuff alive

and it actually working out. Yeah. Well, shoot. You could say the same thing about Trevor, right? Like the overexposure thing. Like he was getting this criticism as a sophomore, right?

You remember like a soft, like his sophomore year. People forget this now because he bounced back junior year. But his sophomore year, he's coming off of winning the national title as a true freshman.

And I feel like for like five or six games there, there was like a little bit of a, there was a, what's wrong with Trevor narrative. Like Dabo went crazy. Cause I was looking up Dabo stuff recently for this other thing I was working on.

And I got caught in this wormhole of him being asked about what's wrong with Trevor. Is his shoulder messed up? And then I think it was a throwing shoulder. Cause we know it was non-throwing. What do you think, by the way, as an urban guy, what do you, well, now that's actually a bad thing to say.

I probably shouldn't, I shouldn't say it to you that way, Albert. What do you think of him as an NFL head coach? I think he's, I think a lot is going to come down to his staff. But I think like as a culture guy, I think he's got the right idea. I talked with him a couple times about this over the last year and a half. And one of the things that I thought was most interesting was he would talk

to all of his alums. Guys who played for him at Florida, guys who played for him at Ohio State. And he was gathering information on what works and what doesn't work in the NFL. And I thought what was the most interesting thing was he said, he's like, you tell me that this guy's a bad player, that guy's a bad player, I think you're full of shit. That's not a bad player. That guy's in the NFL. He's like, the difference isn't this player

or that player being a bad player. He's like, the difference is this from player to player in the NFL. The difference is in the programs. The difference is in the kind of culture you have. And he's like, every single guy I talk to, that's what they say. And he's like... And I thought it was interesting because he said he goes to his... He had a bunch of guys on the Saints at the time,

Lattimore and Mike Thomas and all those guys, Von Bell. And he goes, he goes, I go to the Saints. They can tell... I asked them what the culture is. They tell me exactly what it is. I go to somebody on another team.

I asked them. And it's like, Coach, I don't even them what the culture is. They tell me exactly what it is. I go to somebody on another team. I ask them and it's like, Coach, I don't even know what the culture here is. I have no clue what our program is. So he has this deep belief that culture and program can make it work at the NFL level. Whether or not it does, we'll see. Because I just

think part of it when you're as tough as somebody like he is and the Saban-Belichick old-school way of coaching, you got to give guys results quick. You know what I mean? You have to... You can't have it linger where you're

4-12, 4-12 because after a little while, it's going to start to wear them out. I think so much of the key with it's going to start to wear them out. I think so much of the key with what's going to happen with Urban, I think, is how quickly he can turn that place around and get results and get individual players playing really well. And a lot of that is going to be on his coordinators and his position coaches, too.

But the culture part of it, I don't know if there's anybody outside of Nick Saban and Belichick that have been better in this sport at building a program than he has been over the last 20 years. You covered the Pats locally for a long time. So I'd imagine your perspective on this is better than most. And I don't know what your ties are because there's a Super Bowl and having Brady have this kind of year and Bill having this kind of year with arguably one of the worst seasons I've ever seen from a quarterback in camp. What do you think his honest with his buddies, his vibe was after watching that? I'll give you a good i'll give you a good anecdote on that it's about 10 years ago um and even then like there were questions how

much longer is bill gonna do it and i had somebody who knows knows him really well say to me i'm telling you he wants to prove that he can do it without brady okay he wants to prove that this program isn't all brady so whenever Brady leaves, tack a few years on, and that's when he's retiring. It won't be until he can prove that he can win beyond Brady. And I just filed that one away. And then I would ask different people. And some would say yes. And then others would be like, I can't really deny that. But I never got a no, unlike that being the way that he thinks. I'd imagine if your goal was, I want to prove that it's not all

Brady, and then the first year post- Brady, you go 7-9 and he wins the freaking Super Bowl. I'd imagine that would burn you up a little bit. I think it's going to... I think Bill is probably supremely, supremely motivated to show that his program was more than one player

and more than just all the different things that Brady facilitated for him over the last 20 years. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad Brady, you know, early on here is winning the Bill Brady thing because I think in a weird way, I was already pre-pissed off about it if Brady had gone 8-8 and missed the playoffs, as if the previous 20 years didn't mean anything. Right. Because as the player, you know, if you're going to take this slice of his career

and have it be at the end, that's not a fair representation. Like, that doesn't admit all the other things that had happened. But it ended up playing out way worse for Bill. But Bill still has chances. Bill still has chances. And I'd imagine, you know, if he doesn't spend a million dollars on a quarterback, he'll probably put himself in a better position. What do you think they're going to do a quarterback? My guess right now, looking at the landscape would be, looking at the landscape would be, I would think like maybe a mid-level veteran that they can tread water with and then see what happens in the draft.

And I think they'll go through the paces with all the top guys in the draft. So like the name that I've sort of been throwing out there for the last month, and again, this is more educated guess than anything would be Marcus Mariota. I do think that Josh feels like he could get maybe a little bit more out of him. He'd be a good deal financially for them. And they wouldn't have to sell out. If you go and you trade for Carson Wentz, the Colts probably aren't drafting a quarterback in the first round for the next two

or three years. You're sort of taking yourself out of the quarterback market. So what I see the Patriots doing is maybe taking somebody who has some high end potential, the same way Cam did last year, that doesn't completely take them out of the running for a quarterback over the next two or three years. A guy they can compete with, but maybe a guy that they don't need to invest that deeply in. So Mariota would be sort of an interesting answer there. And then I think that they're sort of lying in the weeds waiting to find whoever the next guy is. And I think we've seen too, Ryan, like, like the way they've operated, that doesn't necessarily have to be in the first round. Like they envisioned Jimmy Garoppolo being the next quarterback. They took him at the bottom

of the second round. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think the most likely scenario is they find like treadwater guy at quarterback and maybe they can get more out of a Marcus Mariota. He was the second overall pick. But at worst, he's a guy who maybe buys you some time to find the long-term answer. That's a bummer

of an answer for Pat Spence. By the way. Why you would think you'd be able to figure it out differently than anybody else. mean as you know when you talk to teams and especially with some of the analytic push on this and some of the stuff i was talking about with the misses that there are teams that believe just keep drafting them just keep drafting them now granted when you draft one right after you just drafted another one you're diminishing but i i think these teams know you know you know how players are i loved asking those guys when you'd

have in the studio, be like, give me an example of somebody like day one. You're like, oh shit, this guy sucks. And they're like, it happens all the time. And you'll kind of know now, yes, there are development stories and all that kind of different stuff. But to be on the opposite end of that, like we're going to find a way, like Mariota is not the guy.

He's just not. I don't, I don't, I don't, I'd be shocked. He'd just be a little bit more expensive than Cam I mean Mariota's Mariota's problem yeah I mean Mariota is gonna fool some people can fool you too you watch him you're like wow he looks great if you talk to the people in Tennessee what they'll tell you is he just he sort of lacks instincts to play the position conventionally and like if you try to play him conventionally, he'll play it really safe, check down, that sort of stuff.

And you can play him the way they played him at Oregon, right? You can play him in a college option-style offense. The problem with that is if you do that, chances are he's getting hurt. That's the catch-22, is you can be successful with Marcus if you play him

a certain way, but history has shown that if you play him that way, he'll wind up hurt. And that's the catch 22 is you can be successful with Marcus if you play him a certain way. But history has shown that if you play him that way, he'll wind up hurt. And that's, you know what? I mean, it's a great kind of metaphor for what that level of the market is, is when you're shopping in that neighborhood, in like the $10 to $20 million a year neighborhood, like the Teddy Bridgewater neighborhood, like there's going to be some sort of strings attached. With Teddy, it was ceiling. With Mariota, it's injuries. And I think anybody that you're looking for at that level

is going to have some sort of strings attached like those. Yeah, the thing with Mariota, I really think the people that know it can tell you. You can put up numbers with predetermined throws, predetermined reads, a little bit more handholding. But the real special guys that sometimes don't even have better numbers, the guys at the top throw people open. They know how to calculate risk over the course of a game. This is a throw I stay away from here. This is a throw that I ignored, but now game clock situation,

I have to make this throw now. And it was really revealing when Trubisky was in that playoff game against the Saints, where Romo's basically at the end of the game going, yep, well, you know, you got to start making some of these throws, man. You know, you're back there and this is the score. And it was Romo telling you Trubisky's not good. And numbers have confused, I think think us all from understanding who's really good and who is kind of propped up. And I think all of this, like, this is just my little rant here, but all the seven on seven and the wide open offenses and throw, throw, throw, and all this different stuff. Like we'll look at the arm strength and the physical stuff and a guy's released and you're

like, Oh, that guy's awesome. That guy's awesome. That guy. The position is I have to make this throw now when I couldn't make it in the first quarter. And I think even the pros have a hard time with that. And I think that's kind of how the whole position has evolved here. At least my. I think it's like so much of it's just when things get muddy, you know, and there's not one way to like, there's not one way to like, that was like the limitations for golf. You know, golf was the, the. Goff was the perfect example of everything I was just talking about. And that was what frustrated Sean in LA was like, okay, we can go to a certain point with him,

but then when things go sideways, we're screwed. And I can game it up and I can continue to coach him a certain way. But if things aren't perfect, we're going to wind up getting the same result. And you see how Stafford played in those sorts of situations. But if things aren't perfect, we're going to wind up getting the same result. And you see how Stafford played in those sorts of situations. For all the flaws Stafford has, he's great in those situations. You know what I mean?

You can see what Sean saw in him. And so I'm with you. I think that so much of it is, what can a guy do when things aren't perfect? What can a guy do when he's not just following the coaching? Burrow is a great example of it. Burrow doesn't great example of it. You know, like Burrow is not a... Burrow doesn't run 4-3. But, you know, he knows how to get himself out of trouble.

He plays the game situation. You know, obviously, Mahomes and Brady are great at it in very, very different ways. So I'm with you. Like, I think that's such an important trait. And, yeah, I mean, like, it's... You see some of the guys like a mariotta like a golf who can't advance past the coaching and um it's a huge huge part of playing the position no question

about it golf's the best example so i'm glad that you brought him up and we brought it up before like whenever i'd have dill ferrano we just run through hey where are guys at you know he you could you could see it or pained him to say it because I think he liked Jared. And he would just be like, yeah, Goss is probably the best example of that and hand-holding that we were talking about a little bit there. By the way, I watched the Super Bowl again. And we're going to sound like a couple guys

that have been in the Northeast too long. As great as Mahomes is, and that Chiefs team, I remind everybody because people were trying to like, oh, you know, they're never really that good. And you're like, dude, they were 17 and one if they wanted to be. Okay. They'd won 25 of Mahomes' last 26 starts. You know that? There is no version of that game playing out the way it played out in the second half with Dante Skarnecchia. There is no way he would let that happen with the limitations at tackle

in the second half where like hey we're just never really going to change it and they actually did change the game plan a little bit when they ran it with success you know if brady doesn't get that late suit that touchdown at the half and you're thinking about wait they're still in this thing but it it's one of those deals that you can't understand unless you'd watch the pats for this entire run is that you had all the faith in belichick but you had an incredible incredible faith in Dante Skarniecki, the O-line coach who should be in the Hall of Fame, who just wasn't, he'd be like, okay, hey, we don't have it outside.

They've got us. Tom, let's figure this out and let's change this. And it's just weird. Like, it's not an anti-Mahomes thing, but it was weird to go, wait, this didn't happen with New England. This stuff wouldn't happen. It was also like being married to the way that you play. It was like the ultimate.

And if you ever hear, you can go back over 20 years of Belichick's press conferences and hear him say, they do what they do. And that's a subtle insult to other teams. When he says that, he used to say that about the Steelers a lot. That generally means we got them. They do what they do.

And I felt like there was a little bit of that in the way the Chiefs played That generally means we got them. They do what they do. And I felt like there was a little bit of that in the way the Chiefs played. I was talking to Todd Bowles, who's another Parcells guy, about this the other day. And he just said to me, he's like, we were okay with them taking three or four chunks in the running game as long as it wasn't 15 or 20. And hey, if Mahomes scrambles for 10 or 15 yards, at least it's not 60 or 70 down the field. So they were giving them the running game. They had six men in the box the whole game. They were spying Mahomes,

but Mahomes could pick up yards when he wanted to. And it sort of felt to me like, and now we're both going to sound really old, but do you remember like Super Bowl XXV when the Bills had to adjust and then Thurman Thomas wound up like 150 yards rushing? It was that game, right?

It was like, so why didn't the Chiefs start running the ball? And it's just they never did. And that would have done so much to A, exploit what Tampa's throwing at them and B, protect your quarterback because if they got to start to defend the run, now all of a sudden you're talking about a different ball game up front.

So I'm with you. I didn't think the Chiefs adjusted very well. I love Todd Bowles. And I loved, I think I saw that number where they basically were like in third and long coverage more than half the time on first and second downs. Right. And that one adjustment was when they came out in the half and they started running and they were running,

they were getting good chunks. But it was almost, it's just hard for like we have my homes are we really gonna do this it felt like half-hearted too didn't it like every time like you saw them it's like okay like now they're going they were like all right enough of this and now they're in third and 13 like three plays later you know what i mean like it was just like it did it felt like they their their heart wasn't really into the idea of doing it that way. Yeah. You could check out my man, Albert Breer at Albert Breer. Very,

very simple. Um, you're the best. Thanks, man. All right. Thanks, Ryan.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari three 55 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Alright, we got a couple good ones here. Our first one here, traditional start. He wants to let us know he's 31. White. Can still dunk. Alright, good for you. Springs on this guy. He wants to let us know he's 31 white can still dunk. All right. Good for you.

Springs on this guy. I'm usually right around one 90 ish. Are we going to get to any, uh, you guys, I love that you're doing this, but everybody's doing it. And, um, I, we've had a guy who wrote an email, Kyle submitted it and it went on for paragraphs and it had nothing to do with anything. And then like the last question, he was like, hey, what would you suggest for a portfolio? I'm like, first of all, you shouldn't listen to me.

And second of all, like what the hell was all the other stuff? You wrote like a book. It'd be like reading Moby Dick. And then at the end, it was a book about a time machine at the very end. Don't steal that idea. Okay, so here we go. All right. I think I find myself in a common dilemma for men my age.

Maybe this can help more than just me. My girlfriend and I have been dating for almost two years now. We're at the point in time where all of her friends are getting married and having babies. It's definitely giving her FOMO. That's fear of missing out for some of our other guys out there. And her biological clock is ticking away. She brings up the fact that she wants to get married and have babies all the time, especially after a few glasses of wine. Now, this is really annoying, but not so bad because I love her. I do want to start a family with her eventually, but not going to lie here. Her consistent nagging and crying on the topic is kind of pushing me away. Part of my reservation on popping the question is because I just feel like marriage is kind of a weird religious tradition. I've never been to church. Oh, and I've never been to church. Why does the government need to be involved?

All right, Mel Gibson. I get it, but it's 2021. I feel like we're past due to rethink this whole marriage thing because it's not working out for like 50% of the marriages anyway, right? Not to mention the fact that shit is expensive and we're in the middle of a pan. He says pandemi. Kyle, you use the phrase pandemi ever? No, no, but I appreciate it. You like it? Lightens it up a little bit. Okay. All right. You know what? Yeah.

Does the pandemic need a rebranding? I don't know if that's been brought up yet. That's a good question. Okay. So I'm going to not judge the guy because I think his heart's in the right place here. All right. But I have an issue here. All right.

So do I give her the Heisman, Ryan, on the topic until I'm ready? Or do I cave into my girlfriend's wishes, bite the bullet, give into societal norms and commit to the dad bod. Thanks. Okay. Yeah. Not anything crazy unique here,

but let's just put it this way, guys. If you, like you said, you love her and you do want to start a family with her eventually, then you have to do that. You know, I don't think it's crazy for women to kind of get on our cases about like, look, let's start having the kids. And I'll tell you too, the people that have had families, which is pretty much everything I know,

almost every one of them says the only thing I regret about it is waiting, which always makes me feel great. But you have to, you have to like factor that into it. Like I rarely, I don't know that I've ever heard anybody say, you know, maybe the people that, but again, even generationally people are getting started later and later. So I don't have like a lot of friends at 21, 22 immediately, you know, right out of college, married and having, having families. But we have a couple of guys in mid to late twenties that got it going and have kids. And now we're looking at, you know, teenagers that are in high school, which, you know, was, is normal for, for guys my age. But they all, almost every one of them was like, you know, I'd rather had been

a dad earlier, even if I wasn't in the best position. Because, you know, life has a way of working itself out. I know this is going to sound like a total derailment here, but I was looking at a picture of Van Pelt and I, we were doing a show together and the picture's great. But in the moment I wasn't feeling it. There's all sorts of stuff going on. And I was actually kind of miserable. And I looked at that picture and I go, everything that was going on in your head at that time, none of it mattered. None of it really mattered.

And it all kind of worked out. And in a way, it worked out even better than you ever thought it would. And so all this stuff, the baggage that you were dragging around with you every day, not talking to anybody about. And you look at that picture and I know in the picture where my head was at. But I know that looking back and I'm like, what a waste of time. And none of it really mattered. All that stuff that you're obsessed what a waste of time. And none of it really mattered. All that stuff that you're obsessed with, none of it mattered. None of it mattered.

You're obsessing over, over and over again. So you being stressed about this, you're going to end up having kids with her and you're going to look back on this going, you know what? Maybe I shouldn't have been so ridiculous about the whole deal. Now, if you're not ready right now, I kind of get it, but that's the part where being a man can be really selfish because, you know, biologically it's different for us. And if, if she wants to get this going and you love her and you want to have a family, you know, sometimes you have to give in and, you know, not everything is just a straight up compromise. Like, all right, we're going to have kids, but we're not getting a marriage license. You know, like, look, man, most people do want to do it. I'm not even saying you're wrong. I'm not saying that marriage maybe isn't some completely outdated thing, but if you like her enough that you're

admitting in the email that you want to start a family with her, um, pushing back on that when, you know, women have to worry about this more than we do, it can be a really selfish thing to do. And so if you were to spend more time with her and get more annoyed, and then you're, you decide to call the whole thing off, say, and that's not what you're saying here. Like if you're, if you can possibly think of it from a female perspective, it's like, wait, so I spent three or four years with this guy during these, these years of my life. And now, you know, I kind of have to start over again and we can sit there and go, oh my God, this girl's crazy or she's nuts. And trust me, like I've been through it where I still know I'm right, where I'm like, oh, that person I dated was a little difficult, a little difficult to deal with.

And you're not even in that that boat at all. So I would I would start to try to see her side of this a little bit more. Yes, I'm sure after a couple pinos, it gets annoying. And, you know, as guys like I can do the same thing. It's like, all right, now you're annoying me. So now I definitely don't want to do this. And it guys, I can do the same thing. It's like, all right, now you're annoying me. So now I definitely don't want to do this. And it doesn't even have to be about relationships. You can be like, now you're so annoying about this. Now I don't want to help you. But this is different. There's a partnership here. And you said you love her. You said you

want to start a family. You said, all right, so part of it, you're not loving. It's a title. It's a title and a marriage license and the paperwork to make it all real. It's going to make her feel more comfortable and more committed. And yeah, I mean, you know, weddings and incredible waste of money. It's unbelievable. The markups. And honestly, like if I were starting over and young and getting married and people were going to spend 30, 50 grand on what I'd be like, let's use that towards a house. And that's probably why I'm not married. So, um, just try to think about her a little bit more on this one instead of you just being annoyed. Because you being annoyed is a far, far, like that burden is far less than her worrying about, you know, is this guy all the way in?

That's what she said. Nice. We get a ton of these. And I don't know because usually it leads to asking for a job, which I can't get you. But I'll do one of these now. All right. I'm sure you get these all the time. I'm dedicated to this and would love some advice on the topic.

A couple of friends of myself are looking to the sports podcast world. We're all in Michigan. I'm sure you're aware, but sports gambling is not legal there. We've all been gambling since our late years of high school, 10-ish years ago. Wow, look at you guys. A couple of Bronx tailors over here. And I've been chomping at the bit for it to finally become legal in Michigan. I know there are probably a bunch out there, but we'd really like to start a sports podcast.

There are a few, yes, that center around sports gambling. I'm sure every group of guys has sat through and thought to themselves that they should work in sports. I really think with the unique backgrounds of the three of us and what we like to think is our expertise in certain sports, we could really be a triple threat. I know super cheesy, but it just fits. We have schedules that work pretty well where we can get together a couple nights a week to lay out our upcoming shows, but just don't want to know, but just don't know where we should really start. Any advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated. Hope all is going well with you. I look forward to your response.

All right, so we are going to respond to this one. So there's a million of these out there. And you could say like, oh, you know, competitive wise, like I wish there weren't as many podcasts. It doesn't, go for it. You know what I mean? I would say what's kind of weird though, when you think back to like the days of who was on the air for talk shows you would be one of the few people that had a sports

talk show like even you know i made this comp when i talked to some kids that were graduating from school in boston and i was like well how many you guys want to work at at that time it was really just eei and they were like you, half the room raised their hand. And you go, well, think about it. Like even in Boston, where it's this major, major market, as sports crazy as any other city, you know, how many great on-air jobs are there? Are there 20, 25? So there just wasn't any room.

The math never made any sense to me. You get kids graduating from all over the country, thousands of journalism, communication degree majors. And now with the challenges in print and stuff, like the math just doesn't add up. And I don't say that to discourage anybody, but what is great now is our emailer says here, you just go ahead and start your own podcast. I think the key that you have to remember here is like, what are your goals, right? Are you doing this to be just do like, this is an incredible thing to think like, Hey, I'm going to get together with two of my friends

and we're going to do a podcast and, and we're good to go. Um, no, one's going to listen to it, right? Like no one's going to listen to it for maybe the first couple of years. And then maybe no one listens to it after that. And I'm not saying that to be a dick, I'm just going like, you have to be realistic about what you're doing here. Because what happens a lot is, you know, if you're starting off and you want to turn this into a career, you have to stand out in a really special way. When people ask me about ESPN, the only reason I got started is because availability. I'd like to think I had some skill that was pretty good for a 29, 30-year-old at that time, but I got in the car and drove down there all the time. And that's not available to almost

everybody that's listening to this, okay? Because at the very least, I'd still had a few years under my belt on air at other places. And luckily enough, I was in Boston and it was convenient enough to drive down there. But when I would look at some of the other people that could come in from the outside and really crush, Todd McShay started with this basic startup. It was him and he was the number two guy. And they started breaking down tape on their own, two guys sharing a studio apartment. It was this guy that was much older than him. And Todd was just good at breaking down tape. And they started a company and then ESPN bought the company. And that's how Todd's career started. Brad Edwards, who I traveled with for years, as big a college football guy as I've ever met, was one of the first people that ever really understood the BCS formula. So that was the value that he brought to ESPN. So he was researching.

He was never going to be on the air. And then he would sit at home at night calculating how the BCS projections would work out. And he was kind of like the guy that figured it out before anybody else did. And then he would try to tell everybody what the hell he was talking about. And people were like, wait, what? And then he ended up on air because he knew it better than everybody else. So he figured out that one unique thing. I mean, I can keep going here.

Um, Joe Lenardi bracketology, you know, he branded himself as the bracket guy. I believe before anybody else did, if I'm forgetting someone else, that's fine. But ESPN went ahead and said, okay, go grab that guy. So that's what would happen with, with a lot of the success stories. Now, there's the traditional go to Syracuse, go to market, whatever the fuck, go to market 40, go to market 20. And then, hey, I'm really good. And I can be a guy here for a long time.

And I mean, male or female here. When I say guys, it's a little general, but that can happen. The analyst thing where we can't comp ourselves, any of that kind of stuff. Um, even Max Kellerman who, you know, he found a way in, he was doing, I think like a local access cable boxing show and somebody luckily, cause he was in New York and somebody saw it in that market and they go, this guy's just, there's some energy about him. So whatever you think of Kellerman, like he came in from the outside and then all of a sudden he's doing Friday night fights. And then they go, this guy can talk about anything.

And, you know, he's had an incredible run and he left and came back. So you have to find a way if you're really going to pursue this. And so I'm not even talking to the podcaster just here because I don't know what your goal is to have fun with friends or if you really think this is going to be a career. Because if you really think it's going to be a career, how many years can you go before it's actually feasible? Because the downside to having an opportunity is that everybody else has the same opportunity as you do. So it's hard to do, but you have to kind of figure out what's going to make you stand out. And unfortunately the business reward standing out in the look at me bullshit opinion stuff, where I feel like that stuff always has an expiration date, I guess,

except for a few people. I would never want to do it that way. I just couldn't because I'd be lying to the audience. I'd be lying to myself. Not that I deserve some fucking medal for it. I just couldn't ever do it. And it's really hard to go, okay, what can I do here? And first of all, you got to be good enough. I mean, there's also a chance that three of you just aren't going to be that good on the air. And there's a chance, there's a really good chance one of the three is going to be bad at it. I mean, it's just, it's kind of like first round quarterbacks, right? So again, none of this is to discourage you.

It's just to be realistic about it. Because if this is supposed to be fun, this is awesome. Like, how great is that? How great is that? How great is that? The three buddies can get together and do this. But if you're doing it with the goal that you're going to be able to support a family or something like that long term, it is really, really crowded. And you have to figure out, and this speaks to anyone, not just you emailing, you have

to figure out what that lane is for you. Because now the hiring seems to be like all right do you have a ton of followers and do you have some video presence because i think they brought in like a couple basketball highlight people the last couple years just because they had a following and then next thing you know they're doing on-air content because their following was so massive and then you have another guy who bought like 1.6 million fake followers and got a huge fucking contract out of it and then when there was a purge, they were like, oh, I guess that guy didn't have that many followers.

So there's ways in, but you got to stand out to have your podcast out there. And then the other thing too is like just to do it totally on your own. It's tough. And also to do it, you know, without that platform,

I needed ESPN at a time. You know, all of us that were coming from ESPN platform. I needed ESPN at a time. All of us that were coming from ESPN, even Bill needed ESPN. Big Cat and PFT, they needed Barstool at some point. Rare is the person who can just say, I'm me and hit the record button and then people start to listen.

And what's definitely happened more and more, and I can speak this firsthand, is that because everybody's doing a podcast, you'll do like seven episodes and then somebody goes, hey, did you just ring a ron about us? You're like, I'm going to go ahead and save you some legwork here,

but it's probably going to be no. It's probably going to be no. So, you know, if the goal is to make this a career, you have to do a couple of years, get those thousands of hours in, learn the skill, listen to yourself, listen to yourself and go, would I want to listen to this? Because that's a hard thing to do when you listen to yourself and go, you know what? I'd probably turn this off by now.

But you also have to have this. There's also another part of it, too, where you could listen and go, hey, I'm awesome. And you're just bad at listening and you don't even know what you're doing. So, um, every young person that's starting up a podcast, be realistic about what's I, I would never tell anyone they can't do something, but be realistic about how just flooded it is. Like I reached out to somebody the other day, it was like a big time guy who has nothing to do with sports. So he just knows that I, you know, I suck on Twitter, so I don't have that many followers, but enough that it's like, okay, this guy's been around for a while. And, um, I was like, Hey, you know, would you want to jump on the podcast ever and talk about some of the stuff you're doing? He was like, dude, no way. Podcast invite. Like,

do you want to come on my podcast? Is the new, you know, add me as a friend. It's, it's almost now a joke among people when you add, and then you're like, well, yeah, but you know, add me as a friend. It's, it's almost now a joke among people when you add, and then you're like, well, yeah, but you know, there's a decent amount of people listening to mine. So, you know, do you want, and it's like, oh yeah, no, you got a podcast. Cool. You're like, yeah, I do actually. But so, you know, that part of it's kind of funny because it's evolved so much in such a short amount of time. So, um, I hope I wasn't, I hope that wasn't negative. It was just, uh, the reality of what's in front of you. But again, if it's just you and your boys just want to hang out, awesome.

Great. Have fun with it. All right, let's jump into this one. Eyes wide open. All right. Hey, Ryan, listening from the start of this pod, and while I know this isn't the type of show, I thought I'd share a recent experience to get your thoughts on a quick background. My wife and I were each married before, have kids from those marriages that we have half

the time, including every other weekend. We were upper 30s, typical middle class people. This past weekend, we went out with another couple for my birthday. Long story short, after a lot of tequila, we all ended up in bed together. That's not a movie, right? I'm sure it's a scene in a movie somewhere but yeah double checking this isn't something any of us ever experienced or even discussed before but now what the next day a short everyone good message was sent and all involved sits yes All involves it. Yes.

What, uh, what's that thread going to be like the next couple of weeks? Hey, have you guys seen this CISO hotel doc? Highly recommend. Oh, thanks for the heads up. Meant to check that out. Is it good? Yeah, it's good. Can you forward me that tapas recipe you were talking about?

Okay, excellent. All right, so everyone said yes. Do we try to broach the subject or let it be? Are they wondering the same? Next time we all go out, will we think it's an invitation for that again? Where do we go from here and how do we go there? Thanks. I don't know.

I don't have... If this were my deal, I wouldn't admit it, but I can just tell you honestly, this is not my deal. Pandemic, man. Doesn't sound like there was six feet of distance there, but I just can't believe how awkward this is going to be from now on,

unless this now becomes your lifestyle. And that my man is a hard left turn, you know? Cause then I think you would get invited to all sorts of stuff. Like, I don't know if this pineapple thing in the front yard is real or not. I've heard about it. Um,

I swear, I think everybody hears about this lifestyle. It's like Sasquatch, you know? I mean, look, some of you guys listening right now, you're like, no, it's a real thing. And that's, that's, you know, that's cool. I'm not judging, but that relationship is forever different. Like you understand that, right? Um, and the chances are, you know, as, as you expand the, the group dynamic, um, somebody's going to have a problem with somebody else and then i

guess there's all sorts of rules you know where i think a lot of these end up where like there's there's a cross matching there like in transition defense and basketball you know where somebody's like i actually do kind of i like this matchup better than the original matchup that i was assigned to we tipped it up and now, uh, you know, then the other people are like, you're switching too much. So yeah, I don't, I don't really have, um, I just, I think, you know, I think, you know, that this is going to be forever different. I think I'd worry more about the wife part of it. Cause what if she's like, yeah, that's actually my deal. You're like, whoa, maybe you're into it. I don't know. Maybe you just untapped something in your late 30s

where now you're fulfilled in a way that guys only see on Showtime late. I just don't have much for you. Sorry. Kyle, do you have anything to add to that? I'm fine pulling up zero times on this podcast. I got nothing. You're not a big orgy guy then?

Is that what you're telling us? Yeah, I just got nothing to say about this one. And that's all I'll say about this one. Okay. Yeah, I think everybody's better off than that. I mean, this guy's just emailing. You're on air. I have the podcast named after me.

So, yeah. But I'm just wondering if this is just emailing. You're on air. I have the podcast named after me. I'm just wondering if this is... I mean, look. Obviously, this isn't so far-fetched. It's not like it's Cure Lyrics here. I think we're good. Enjoy the weekend, everyone. Some will enjoy it more than others. you