# Prime Cuts - Super Bowl Preview, Belichick Hall of Fame Snub? Broncos Win With Bo Nix, NFL Coaching Carousel

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 31 Jan 2026, 45 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/8f7257a4-d432-4494-84a2-b3e20140c49c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin’s top takes of the week. First, he’s joined by Danny Parkins, host of “First Things First” on FS1. They start with Bill Belichick not making the Hall of Fame on the first ballot and Colin recaps all the cheating scandals the Patriots were involved in, and that the people claiming his first year exclusion is outrageous… are suffering from collective amnesia (3:00). They preview the Super Bowl & Colin predicts the young Seahawks roster could play tight under the bright lights and that the Pats experience might lead to him picking them to win, but Danny argues the Pats are a bit lucky to be there & not as dominant as Seattle (12:15). They debate where to rank Sam Darnold in the quarterback hierarchy if he wins the Super Bowl, and why Darnold’s redemption arc should provide hope for other young quarterbacks who landed in bad situations as rookies (19:30). Then, he’s joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out”. They break down the Patriots win in a blizzard over the Broncos (29:45) and Colin argues that the Broncos would have won with Bo Nix. Finally, they break down the NFL coaching carousel & Mike McCarthy’s hire by the Steelers (41:15). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Sam donald Slinging Sammy d is the Louisiana Hot Sauce
[0:08] Speaker 2: Player of the Week, You name him player of the Year.
[0:11] Speaker 2: He finished with three hundred and forty sticks passing yards
[0:14] Speaker 2: three touchdowns. Seattle's went over the Rams. My guy, Sam
[0:17] Speaker 2: Darnald becomes the first quarterback from the twenty eighteen draft
[0:20] Speaker 2: class to make a Super Bowl. Yeah, the original Louisiana
[0:25] Speaker 2: Hot sauce stuff is so good.
[0:28] Speaker 1: Pepper's vinegar, salt.
[0:29] Speaker 2: I put it on chips, eggs, nachos, burger I put
[0:33] Speaker 2: it on everything. I'm having a cocktail. I knocks him
[0:36] Speaker 2: in there too. Hit any tailgate food with a bold,
[0:38] Speaker 2: handcrafted flavor of the original Louisiana Hot sauce. That is
[0:41] Speaker 2: Louisiana Hot. Buy you some, all right, I'm not sure
[0:50] Speaker 2: where it's gonna go. We never do. It's Danny Parkins,
[0:53] Speaker 2: So I'm gonna throw this out. So when I used
[0:56] Speaker 2: to take phone calls on my show, which was mostly
[1:01] Speaker 2: ESPN days, then when I started doing it as a
[1:03] Speaker 2: TV show and a radio show, this it's like TV
[1:06] Speaker 2: shows don't take phone calls, but I for years, So
[1:10] Speaker 2: I stopped taking them for a while. On the Patriots,
[1:13] Speaker 2: because every single caller was they're cheaters. So what has
[1:18] Speaker 2: happened in America, Danny is collective amnestia. So during the
[1:24] Speaker 2: Patriots run, and I think I was the biggest pro
[1:27] Speaker 2: Patriots supporter or defender during their run on national radio.
[1:32] Speaker 2: Obviously the Boston radio guys were mostly in support of it.
[1:36] Speaker 2: There was Spygate one, they lost a first round draft
[1:40] Speaker 2: pick and the coach was fined half a million dollars.
[1:43] Speaker 2: That's pretty serious. That's like Houston Astro's level. You're losing
[1:47] Speaker 2: top picks. There was Spygate two, which people forget about,
[1:53] Speaker 2: where they were fined and lost. And that was by
[1:55] Speaker 2: the way, in like the twenty twenty one it was
[1:57] Speaker 2: a Bengals Browns game.
[1:59] Speaker 1: They lost eighth third round pick.
[2:01] Speaker 2: There was defleet gate where they were fined a million
[2:05] Speaker 2: dollars had lost another first round pick. When you have
[2:08] Speaker 2: three gates on your resume, it is reasonable. I said
[2:14] Speaker 2: this today on the show. If you have three asterisks,
[2:17] Speaker 2: I think it's reasonable to ask should we pause or collectively?
[2:24] Speaker 2: Yet today it is viewed as outrageous if we go,
[2:31] Speaker 2: you know, how about a little punishment. Just wait for
[2:36] Speaker 2: a year, since you know Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh and
[2:40] Speaker 2: Joe Gibbs had to wait five years to be eligible
[2:43] Speaker 2: and still didn't get in in their first So it's
[2:45] Speaker 2: funny how the pendulum has swung the American sports fans, Danny.
[2:50] Speaker 2: They want a happy ending. We know that movies do tests.
[2:54] Speaker 2: People don't like negative endings. They get furious with the
[2:57] Speaker 2: Patriots when they get in the way of Super Bowls
[3:00] Speaker 2: and great seasons and get in the way of their
[3:03] Speaker 2: team Spygate two to play Gate. But they also don't
[3:07] Speaker 2: like when you get in the way of Belichick's Hall
[3:10] Speaker 2: of Fame voting. It's a sad ending because they want
[3:13] Speaker 2: to they don't want the turbulence. But it is as
[3:15] Speaker 2: if there's a collective amnesia. Is that I literally the
[3:19] Speaker 2: whole dynasty Kansas City, it was rigged their dynasty because
[3:25] Speaker 2: everybody loved Mahomes. Wh's rigged New England's dynasty is they're
[3:28] Speaker 2: just cheaters And today when you suggest one year punishment's
[3:34] Speaker 2: not the end of the world, people are outraged. It
[3:36] Speaker 2: feels like collective amnesia to me.
[3:39] Speaker 1: So there's obviously a ton of wrinkles to this story,
[3:43] Speaker 1: and there's no doubt collective amnesia, Like the same people
[3:46] Speaker 1: who are outraged at the cheating are now outraged at
[3:48] Speaker 1: the exclusion from the Hall of Fame. That is obviously
[3:51] Speaker 1: logically inconsistent. But I do think it was ridiculous that
[3:58] Speaker 1: he didn't get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
[4:00] Speaker 1: on the first ballot. And I will tell you why.
[4:04] Speaker 1: In baseball, there is a morality clause. Yes, it's written
[4:08] Speaker 1: into it. There are like instructions impact on the game, accomplishments, morality,
[4:15] Speaker 1: integrity of the game. The Pro Football of Fame it
[4:20] Speaker 1: just tells you who you can vote for. There is
[4:24] Speaker 1: no guiding principle.
[4:26] Speaker 2: By the way, it's basically only fans with cleats and
[4:29] Speaker 2: a helmet. You can do anything you want or now
[4:31] Speaker 2: there's no guidelines and it's and.
[4:34] Speaker 1: I'm sure you voted for things in your in your career,
[4:37] Speaker 1: like I do you have a Heisman vote?
[4:40] Speaker 2: I used to, and I thought it was so provincial
[4:42] Speaker 2: and tribal it was ridiculous.
[4:44] Speaker 1: Okay, I just said, this is stupid. Okay, But the
[4:47] Speaker 1: Heisman Trophy vote, there's like literally over a thousand people
[4:50] Speaker 1: who vote for it. Yeah, so one vote is not
[4:53] Speaker 1: that significant. Baseball Hall Fame a lot of people vote
[4:56] Speaker 1: for it. Pro Football Fame. It's fifty people who vote no,
[5:02] Speaker 1: So one vote is two percent.
[5:05] Speaker 3: Okay, that is crazy.
[5:08] Speaker 1: So exactly so if you need eighty percent, that means
[5:12] Speaker 1: you need forty out of fifty people to agree. And
[5:16] Speaker 1: I don't know, if you've looked around the world recently,
[5:20] Speaker 1: you can't get eighty percent of people to agree on anything.
[5:24] Speaker 1: So expecting anything to be unanimous is probably unreasonable. Into
[5:32] Speaker 1: twenty six. But the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I
[5:37] Speaker 1: think what has been cool about it is that it
[5:41] Speaker 1: is the hardest Hall of Fame to get into. Because
[5:43] Speaker 1: of that, Like it's you know, guys have to wait years.
[5:47] Speaker 1: There's a long jam at positions. There's coaches and contributors,
[5:51] Speaker 1: and then the first ballot guys and then the senior committee.
[5:54] Speaker 1: But it all comes down to this like five person hall.
[5:56] Speaker 1: It's very difficult Hall of Fame to get in. But
[5:59] Speaker 1: like there is Bill, some guys that just passed the
[6:03] Speaker 1: test of since it is a meritocracy because there is
[6:06] Speaker 1: no voting guidelines. Oh, Randy Moss's first ballot. You say,
[6:14] Speaker 1: Randy Moss, He's first ballot, And I think Bill Belichick
[6:17] Speaker 1: for all of us reached that threshold. Bill Belichick most
[6:21] Speaker 1: Super Bowls, most playoff wins, second, most regular season wins.
[6:25] Speaker 1: If he can't be first ballot, who is? And then
[6:30] Speaker 1: you get the Bill Polly in nonsense of great journalists
[6:34] Speaker 1: say he was leading a campaign against them, and then
[6:37] Speaker 1: he gets contacted him He's like, I honestly don't even
[6:40] Speaker 1: remember who I voted for. And he's like, well, wait,
[6:42] Speaker 1: you're two percent of the electorate and you claim you
[6:46] Speaker 1: don't know who you voted for. That is obviously problematic.
[6:51] Speaker 1: And then I don't know if you saw. He's a
[6:55] Speaker 1: buddy of mine. Vaje. Gregorian. He's the only person. And
[6:59] Speaker 1: if I've missed it in the last hour, I apologize,
[7:01] Speaker 1: but it broke just before I went on the air
[7:04] Speaker 1: at five eastern. Vaja Gregorian posted his column in the
[7:07] Speaker 1: Kansas City Star. He used to work for the Saint
[7:09] Speaker 1: Louis Post Dispatch, then he lived to working in the
[7:11] Speaker 1: Kansas City Star. So he's been a Midwest reporter and
[7:15] Speaker 1: columnists whole career. My friend Terrez Paler, who wrote for
[7:19] Speaker 1: the Star and Yahoo, tragically passed away a few years ago,
[7:23] Speaker 1: had way too young of age. He had a Hall
[7:25] Speaker 1: of Fame vote. When Terres passed, Vaje. Gregorian took the
[7:30] Speaker 1: Kansas City vote and he posted a column I would vote.
[7:37] Speaker 1: I forget what the headline was exactly. I want to
[7:39] Speaker 1: get it, want to get it exactly. I just want
[7:42] Speaker 1: to have it correct. I remember the argument, I want
[7:44] Speaker 1: to get the headline. Bill Belichick belongs in the Hall
[7:47] Speaker 1: of Fame. But here's why I didn't vote for him.
[7:50] Speaker 1: And he said it didn't have anything to do with cheating,
[7:54] Speaker 1: and his argument, which I do not agree with him,
[7:57] Speaker 1: he acknowledges in the column most people will not was
[8:00] Speaker 1: basically a procedural issue that now the coaching candidate Belichick,
[8:07] Speaker 1: the contribution candidate Craft, and the Senior Committee people Elsie Greenwood,
[8:16] Speaker 1: Roger Craig Ken Anderson were all in the same pool
[8:22] Speaker 1: and you could only vote for three of the five,
[8:25] Speaker 1: and VA Hayes's deductive reasoning was, well, these guys he
[8:30] Speaker 1: thought that Craig, Greenwood and Anderson all deserved to be
[8:32] Speaker 1: Hall of Famers, and on the Senior Committee would be
[8:34] Speaker 1: their last chance of being up because other people would
[8:36] Speaker 1: come in behind him. So he wanted to take a
[8:39] Speaker 1: last stand for these guys. Now, I personally think that's
[8:43] Speaker 1: ridiculous and not how I personally would vote, because they
[8:47] Speaker 1: if they made it to the Senior Committee, maybe they're
[8:50] Speaker 1: not Hall of famers, Like maybe they're right because they
[8:53] Speaker 1: had to go through the whole normal process, the Eli
[8:57] Speaker 1: Manning process that he just didn't get in all that.
[9:00] Speaker 1: Vajee disagrees I don't have a vote. He does, it's
[9:04] Speaker 1: worth two percent. But so and so he argues in
[9:07] Speaker 1: the column, he's like, you basically had Robert Kraft and
[9:10] Speaker 1: Bill Belichick with the same accomplishments competing against each other.
[9:14] Speaker 1: So I went with the Senior Committee, guys, And I
[9:17] Speaker 1: at least respect that he came out and said why
[9:20] Speaker 1: he did it, because everybody else seems to be running
[9:22] Speaker 1: from the heat. And so if every if eleven people
[9:26] Speaker 1: came out and said steroids were my issue, I want
[9:30] Speaker 1: eleven people to stand on it. Instead, we have one
[9:33] Speaker 1: person saying I voted for the Senior Committee guys because
[9:36] Speaker 1: of a procedural issue, and one person saying I don't
[9:39] Speaker 1: remember who I voted for. So that's just it's not
[9:45] Speaker 1: you and I are logic, guys. Your argument of collective
[9:48] Speaker 1: amnesia is logical. My argument of hey, this thing's a meritocracy.
[9:53] Speaker 1: He's the best to ever do it. He has the
[9:54] Speaker 1: most accomplishments. There's no morality clause put his ass in
[9:58] Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame like a one year punishment. It
[10:00] Speaker 1: feels trivial or whatever. Like, I think both of our
[10:03] Speaker 1: arguments are logical, and I just don't I don't like
[10:07] Speaker 1: that no one is standing. No one has come out
[10:10] Speaker 1: and said, yeah, he cheated, so I didn't vote for him. Still,
[10:13] Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. We're just assuming, like on his behalf and
[10:17] Speaker 1: with some reporting from Seth Wickers having van Nada, we're
[10:20] Speaker 1: just assuming it's because of cheating. No one has said
[10:22] Speaker 1: it's because of cheating yet.
[10:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've said I said today I would vote
[10:27] Speaker 2: him in. I would have slept on it. If you
[10:29] Speaker 2: have multiple asterisks, I think it deserves sleeping on it,
[10:35] Speaker 2: because I would take my vote very seriously. But I
[10:38] Speaker 2: would have voted him in. But I get somebody who
[10:40] Speaker 2: said spygates, spygate two, deflate gate, multiple draft picks three
[10:44] Speaker 2: different times, multiple Like, I get it. The Seahawks are
[10:48] Speaker 2: the second youngest team. They'll be a little tight for
[10:51] Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. They'll be a little bit tight. My
[10:54] Speaker 2: guess is whereas the Patriots spent two hundred and fifty
[10:58] Speaker 2: million plus in free agency, they're older in some spots.
[11:01] Speaker 2: Defensive line, they're a little older. You know, Stefan Diggs
[11:05] Speaker 2: is a little older that they're a little Vraabels been
[11:09] Speaker 2: here before, Josh McDaniels has been here multiple times. That
[11:13] Speaker 2: I think if there was a team that would be
[11:14] Speaker 2: a little tied, it would be the younger first time
[11:17] Speaker 2: for Darnold, Mike McDonnell, it would be the it would
[11:20] Speaker 2: be the Seahawks. The other thing that I think is
[11:22] Speaker 2: absolutely true, and you saw this with Miami and Indiana
[11:25] Speaker 2: in the Natty. When you tell young athletes you may
[11:29] Speaker 2: get blown out. Miami's first two series against Indiana, they
[11:35] Speaker 2: literally bloodied the lip of Mendoza. They were like late
[11:39] Speaker 2: hits after the wit. It was so clear Mario Cristobal
[11:43] Speaker 2: had said, nobody respects you. They played angry for about
[11:47] Speaker 2: a half hour and eventually we're kind of won the
[11:51] Speaker 2: war in the trenches. But Mendoza made the plays. And
[11:54] Speaker 2: I look at this and I think I think I
[11:57] Speaker 2: may pick New England to win. Pressure won sixteen of seventeen.
[12:03] Speaker 1: Older team.
[12:06] Speaker 2: Really get you're really playing the underdog as such. Remember
[12:10] Speaker 2: the Dynasty started with Brady being a fourteen point dog
[12:14] Speaker 2: to the team that everybody loved. Everybody wants Seattle to win,
[12:18] Speaker 2: So there's that kind of it. There's a little bit
[12:20] Speaker 2: of a pressure on sale. You're the favorite and you're
[12:22] Speaker 2: the popular team, and you look like not only a favorite,
[12:27] Speaker 2: you're really more. You are more athletic. If you put
[12:30] Speaker 2: in the tape of both, one is just wow and
[12:32] Speaker 2: one is what they're really efficient. I really think, I
[12:39] Speaker 2: really think New England's going to be trouble for Seattle.
[12:43] Speaker 3: Listen.
[12:43] Speaker 1: I know it opened at three and a half and
[12:46] Speaker 1: you know it went up to four and a half
[12:48] Speaker 1: and maybe it'll hit five by by game time. I
[12:52] Speaker 1: bet Seattle immediately. I bet it as soon as Championship
[12:55] Speaker 1: Sunday ended at three and a half, and so I
[12:57] Speaker 1: got the good number. I think that they are are
[13:00] Speaker 1: better top to bottom, and I think, yes, I think
[13:05] Speaker 1: they're better top to bottom, and I think that they
[13:09] Speaker 1: are more tested. Like they came through the NFC westy
[13:15] Speaker 1: New England came through this crazy easy schedule in the
[13:17] Speaker 1: AFC East, and I think New England loses if Bonnick
[13:22] Speaker 1: doesn't break his ankle, and I think New England maybe
[13:24] Speaker 1: loses to Houston if CJ. Stroud doesn't play the worst
[13:27] Speaker 1: football game anyone's played in town. So I personally that
[13:32] Speaker 1: is not to say that I think that they are
[13:34] Speaker 1: a fluke. I would buy all of this. I love
[13:36] Speaker 1: Drake May coming out of North Carolina. When I first
[13:38] Speaker 1: saw him play a game against Duke, I argued on
[13:41] Speaker 1: Chicago Radio, is like, Caleb's the guy, but the debate
[13:43] Speaker 1: should be Caleber Drake, not Caleber Jaden. Like I love
[13:47] Speaker 1: Drake May, think he'll be a star. This is not
[13:49] Speaker 1: an anti Hymn thing at all. I just personally think
[13:53] Speaker 1: that they a lot of things have happened where they are,
[13:57] Speaker 1: like the team that is a year or two early
[14:01] Speaker 1: that woke up in the Super Bowl.
[14:03] Speaker 2: Just they do feel like they're a draft away from
[14:07] Speaker 2: being final. That Seattle is ready to go. In New England,
[14:10] Speaker 2: their offensive line is a still a major work in progress, correct.
[14:15] Speaker 1: And so I just I think that this is which
[14:18] Speaker 1: is like, it's a very unfair. If I'm a Patriot
[14:21] Speaker 1: fan listening to this, I'm like, well, screw you, man,
[14:23] Speaker 1: Like that's like an unfair thing to say because we
[14:25] Speaker 1: are in the super Bowl. But again, it just a
[14:29] Speaker 1: lot of things broke your way. That happens. It's single
[14:32] Speaker 1: elimination football, it's pro sports. But like you played the
[14:36] Speaker 1: easiest schedule, you had a path to the Super Bowl
[14:40] Speaker 1: that was difficult in terms of the caliber of defenses
[14:43] Speaker 1: you played. And by the way your quarterback did struggle
[14:46] Speaker 1: against those defenses, he kept fumbling a lot. He has
[14:49] Speaker 1: six fumbles in the playoffs, three lost, three recovered. I like,
[14:53] Speaker 1: it's just you're a little fortunate to be here. Whereas
[14:58] Speaker 1: I think Seattle all year number one in blowouts, number
[15:04] Speaker 1: one in point differential, only team that finished top three
[15:07] Speaker 1: offense and top three defense, blew out San Francisco in
[15:11] Speaker 1: the first playoff game, like they have just been you know,
[15:15] Speaker 1: go wire to wire with the Rams again in another
[15:20] Speaker 1: week sixteen thirty eight, thirty seven heavyweight fight Classic, the
[15:25] Speaker 1: championship game against the Rams thirty one to twenty seven
[15:29] Speaker 1: Championship Fight Classic. Like they are more battle tested and
[15:33] Speaker 1: they have more impressive blowout margin of victory. Oh, we
[15:38] Speaker 1: are in a different class review games than New England
[15:41] Speaker 1: has had this year. So I'm with the favorites, and
[15:45] Speaker 1: it looks like I'm with the public. The concern for me,
[15:48] Speaker 1: like when you're talking about like soft factors and confidence
[15:51] Speaker 1: is Sam Darnold went from we don't trust you at
[15:55] Speaker 1: all in any big games to oh, wow, good for
[15:59] Speaker 1: you. You just had the best game of your life in
[16:01] Speaker 1: the biggest game of your life, and now for two
[16:04] Speaker 1: weeks that's all anyway. He's like, well, say, you can't
[16:08] Speaker 1: doubt Sam Donald. Can't doubt Sam Donald anymore? Sam Donald,
[16:12] Speaker 1: and like throw a first quarter interception and you know,
[16:17] Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like I'd be a little concerned
[16:20] Speaker 1: about about that again. But I do think Seattle is
[16:24] Speaker 1: the better team, and I think a lot of stars
[16:26] Speaker 1: have aligned, Like New England to me, feels like they
[16:28] Speaker 1: should have made it to the divisional round of the playoffs. Yeah,
[16:31] Speaker 1: and they're in the super Bowl, so hey, they can
[16:33] Speaker 1: win it, no doubt. But I still think Seattle is
[16:37] Speaker 1: Like you play this game ten times, I think Seattle
[16:39] Speaker 1: wins seven of them.
[16:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, I do too, I do too. I'm just I'm
[16:43] Speaker 2: you know, again, it's really early. But if the number
[16:45] Speaker 2: goes to five, I'm like, that's a lot of points.
[16:49] Speaker 1: That's a lot. Yeah, it's yeah, it is, it is.
[16:53] Speaker 1: It is a lot of points.
[16:55] Speaker 2: I asked Albert Breer today, I said, Tom Brady was
[17:00] Speaker 2: available on the market in twenty twenty. Was it twenty twenty? Yeah,
[17:05] Speaker 2: it was twenty twenty, wasn't it. You mean before Tampa,
[17:10] Speaker 2: Right before Tampa, he was on the market for the league. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
[17:14] Speaker 2: and two teams, Chargers, Bucks were aggressively after it. Four
[17:19] Speaker 2: year later, four years later, he was the fifth fifth
[17:21] Speaker 2: quarterback still in the league. Darnald was available to the market,
[17:26] Speaker 2: and Briars like, yeah, Minnesota and Seattle were it. And
[17:28] Speaker 2: I'm like, the hell, trust your eyes, Brady Donald. You're
[17:34] Speaker 2: trying to make inexperienced small quarterbacks franchise guys. And he said,
[17:40] Speaker 2: early evaluations die hard in this league. And so here's
[17:46] Speaker 2: my question. Darnald wins the Super Bowl? Where do you
[17:53] Speaker 2: put him in the league? What the hell do I
[17:55] Speaker 2: do with Darnald? Since his benching in Carolina? If you
[18:01] Speaker 2: go back to that year twenty twenty two, he gets
[18:04] Speaker 2: benched in Carolina for the first time in his career.
[18:07] Speaker 2: November twenty seventh, he gets his job back. From that
[18:10] Speaker 2: moment until today, he is the winningest quarterback in the
[18:14] Speaker 2: league percentage wise, and the most one hundred passing outings
[18:19] Speaker 2: percentage wise, it's like, Okay, we've got now four teams
[18:23] Speaker 2: four years. He wins the super Bowl, What the hell
[18:27] Speaker 2: do we do with Sam Darnold.
[18:29] Speaker 1: I think so a couple of things. I think you
[18:36] Speaker 1: it'd be very difficult to put him in like tier one,
[18:39] Speaker 1: like if you're gonna if it's gonna be mahomes Allen
[18:46] Speaker 1: Lamar Stafford, like if that is your like your top
[18:54] Speaker 1: five that I think most people agree on, between talent
[18:57] Speaker 1: and accomplishments and all that. I think it's very, very,
[19:00] Speaker 1: very difficult to say with one ring, Stafford gets in there,
[19:04] Speaker 1: even though obviously Lamar, Burrow and Josh have no rings.
[19:08] Speaker 1: But again, this goes back to our earlier conversation. It's
[19:11] Speaker 1: not just about who won the ring. It's got to
[19:13] Speaker 1: be there's got to be a blend of all of it.
[19:16] Speaker 1: But then I think that like it can be a
[19:18] Speaker 1: personal preference game between six and twelve when you talk
[19:25] Speaker 1: about Drake may Dak Prescott, Caleb Williams, Justin Justin Herbert,
[19:35] Speaker 1: you know, like, I think that I think it's totally
[19:38] Speaker 1: reasonable for if he if he wins the super Bowl
[19:41] Speaker 1: and has a great game, for you to put Sam
[19:44] Speaker 1: Darnold into that conversation of player, which is a remarkable
[19:49] Speaker 1: come up from you from what you're going to see.
[19:53] Speaker 1: And the other thing, because I did this on the
[19:55] Speaker 1: show on the Monday after Championship Sunday, we you're right,
[20:00] Speaker 1: first impressions diehard. It's a good way to say it,
[20:03] Speaker 1: but if you actually do go back and look at it,
[20:07] Speaker 1: it's like, man, we labeled this kid a bust because
[20:11] Speaker 1: at twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three years old,
[20:16] Speaker 1: with Todd Bowles and Adam Gase, he wasn't able to
[20:20] Speaker 1: save the New York YA, right, And then it's like, oh, well,
[20:24] Speaker 1: then he gets a get. He gets to go to
[20:26] Speaker 1: that really stable, great quarterback factory of Championship Carolina Panthers
[20:34] Speaker 1: with Matt Rule, and he got a year before they
[20:38] Speaker 1: brought in the one quarterback in his class, Baker drafted
[20:41] Speaker 1: in front of him, and so Baker, you know, he
[20:44] Speaker 1: plays six games and then it's back up for Kyle Shanahan,
[20:50] Speaker 1: backup for Kevin O'Connell, but fortuitous injury and first time
[20:56] Speaker 1: he has, first time he gets to play for a
[21:00] Speaker 1: real head coach with real weapons, with real weapons, he
[21:04] Speaker 1: wins fourteen games. Well, it's like, so I've been trying
[21:09] Speaker 1: to think about who is that instructive for? I think
[21:13] Speaker 1: Daniel Jones it's instructive for. And while I am not
[21:18] Speaker 1: the biggest fan, and I know you probably aren't either
[21:20] Speaker 1: because of size. If I'm Kyler Murray's agent, I'm like,
[21:25] Speaker 1: hey man, my guy's got talent, but like, can give
[21:30] Speaker 1: give him something? Don't bet on the talent. Like is
[21:34] Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson done? Like I think so obviously that brings
[21:38] Speaker 1: in a different whole host of issues. But like if
[21:42] Speaker 1: Sam Donald, Sam Donald's twenty eight years old, If he
[21:45] Speaker 1: wins his first Super Bowl at twenty eight and he
[21:47] Speaker 1: has back to back fourteen win seasons with back to
[21:50] Speaker 1: back four thousand yards, Matt Stafford didn't win a Super
[21:52] Speaker 1: Bowl till he was thirty four, Like we could be
[21:55] Speaker 1: talking about top ten quarterbacks Sam Donald for the next decade.
[22:00] Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and Seattle because they draft so well, they're
[22:02] Speaker 2: not paying anybody. I mean, JSN, They're not paying any
[22:07] Speaker 2: of these guys. I mean, Charles cost A, left tackle,
[22:10] Speaker 2: Gray Zabel's not getting paid. Most of their defense isn't
[22:13] Speaker 2: getting paid. Witherspoon's not getting paid im and Maury the
[22:16] Speaker 2: safety's not getting paid like DeMarcus Lawrence has been a
[22:21] Speaker 2: it's like a wildly dynamic player for his age. But
[22:26] Speaker 2: when you have a great general manager, the truth is
[22:29] Speaker 2: you can pay the quarterback a little more and you
[22:31] Speaker 2: don't have a regression on roster. Like that's the problem
[22:34] Speaker 2: with the Bills. They haven't drafted well enough defensively.
[22:37] Speaker 1: Yeah or period. Yeah, they And like there's a big
[22:43] Speaker 1: difference between paying a quarterback sixty five million and thirty
[22:46] Speaker 1: five million. I can do the math. It's about thirty
[22:47] Speaker 1: million dollars, you know. That's that's two real starters. Like,
[22:52] Speaker 1: so Sam Darnold is a bargain for because yeah, the
[22:56] Speaker 1: best way to do it is if you could have
[22:58] Speaker 1: Drake may be a super star on a rookie contract.
[23:01] Speaker 1: But the next best way to do it is to
[23:04] Speaker 1: do it this way, to have top ten level production,
[23:07] Speaker 1: but pay him the whatever. He is the fifteenth or
[23:10] Speaker 1: eighteenth highest paid quarterback in football. So he set up
[23:14] Speaker 1: for a long time and we just we all do it.
[23:17] Speaker 1: But we oh, twenty two year old kid goes to
[23:22] Speaker 1: dysfunctional franchise, plays for three years. Two years didn't save them.
[23:27] Speaker 1: You must stink like for some guys. I'm sure for
[23:30] Speaker 1: some guys it's obviously true. But the guys to your
[23:33] Speaker 1: point who our mobile are big, have a big arm
[23:39] Speaker 1: like that, have all of the traits and don't seem
[23:41] Speaker 1: to be like complete knuckleheads, should probably not sell all
[23:44] Speaker 1: of our stock in those players. And so I think again,
[23:48] Speaker 1: I think Daniel Jones is a pretty good example of that.
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[25:15] Speaker 2: New England beat Denver ten to seven. So I think
[25:19] Speaker 2: snow or not. I think New England was a better team,
[25:23] Speaker 2: but I will say the second half was useless. I
[25:26] Speaker 2: mean it was just survival. It was like a Man
[25:29] Speaker 2: versus Wild you know, one of those TV shows like so,
[25:34] Speaker 2: I almost thought they should have if they had the
[25:38] Speaker 2: weather forecast shut it down for an hour. I'm like,
[25:40] Speaker 2: this is brute, CBS. I felt bad for you couldn't
[25:43] Speaker 2: see anything.
[25:45] Speaker 3: You had no clue yard they were on. I mean,
[25:47] Speaker 3: how would you look up like I don't know where
[25:48] Speaker 3: they are on the field.
[25:50] Speaker 2: So there was a moment when they could have gone
[25:52] Speaker 2: up ten nothing and Sean Payton elected with a backup
[25:55] Speaker 2: quarterback to go for it. I would not have. I
[25:58] Speaker 2: would have kicked the field goal to go up ten nothing.
[26:01] Speaker 2: Now I did not know. I looked up the weather.
[26:02] Speaker 2: I didn't think there was a blizzard in the forecast.
[26:05] Speaker 2: I thought it. You know, they were saying Tony Romo
[26:08] Speaker 2: at one point said the weather is getting really bad
[26:10] Speaker 2: and it's way worse than you see on TV, meaning
[26:13] Speaker 2: you can't tell wind necessarily when you're looking at field
[26:16] Speaker 2: in players unless you see a flag, so you know it.
[26:19] Speaker 2: Obviously you couldn't throw the ball. So what did you make?
[26:24] Speaker 2: First of all, I would have kicked the field goal.
[26:26] Speaker 2: This is analytically, I just disagree with this. I've said it.
[26:30] Speaker 1: In the NBA.
[26:31] Speaker 2: I think the mid range game, especially in the playoffs, matters.
[26:34] Speaker 2: So I need a bucket, not a three. I don't
[26:36] Speaker 2: care about math. Get me a bucket, get me a
[26:38] Speaker 2: stop and I'm sorry when you get to the playoffs,
[26:41] Speaker 2: I want points. Especially with Jarrett Stidham, I want points.
[26:45] Speaker 2: I mean, that's what's your take on that.
[26:47] Speaker 3: I don't know when it became so in vogue, I
[26:50] Speaker 3: mean obviously the last several years. To go for it
[26:54] Speaker 3: early in these games, like late in the game of
[26:56] Speaker 3: that Ram Seattle game, it's a four point game. No
[26:59] Speaker 3: one has any price with McVeigh going forward on fourth
[27:02] Speaker 3: and four because it was essentially fourth and goal, you're
[27:04] Speaker 3: down for it felt like the game right there. Totally
[27:06] Speaker 3: understandable in these first half of NFL playoff games. Most
[27:12] Speaker 3: of these do not play out to high scoring events,
[27:15] Speaker 3: especially in the AFC where the weather plays a big factor. So,
[27:18] Speaker 3: like you said, even if you don't know the crazy
[27:22] Speaker 3: blizzard is coming down the street. Here, you have a
[27:26] Speaker 3: backup quarterback playing. You are a defensive team. I mean,
[27:30] Speaker 3: over the last couple of years their defense it hasn't
[27:33] Speaker 3: played as well, but has definitely been one of the
[27:36] Speaker 3: better units in the league. You have a chance to
[27:38] Speaker 3: go up two scores against a quarterback who's what played
[27:41] Speaker 3: and this is his third playoff game of his career
[27:43] Speaker 3: and is aw he's coming from bam Ohio State hasn't
[27:45] Speaker 3: played in that many big games the last five years.
[27:47] Speaker 3: So you go up multiple scores and Sean Payton and
[27:51] Speaker 3: Dan Campbell said this he got his aggressiveness from watching Sean.
[27:55] Speaker 3: I'm never anti being aggressive, but in the first half
[27:59] Speaker 3: of a game when they have zero points, I never
[28:02] Speaker 3: understand not going for a field goal when you're opponent
[28:04] Speaker 3: at zero points. It's become an epidemic of teams going
[28:07] Speaker 3: Ben Johnson's the worst at this. In zero zero games.
[28:10] Speaker 3: It's like, you know, field goal, you get the lead.
[28:12] Speaker 3: Here I second half of games when both teams are
[28:16] Speaker 3: in the thirties, I get you, right, if it's the
[28:18] Speaker 3: Bears Niner game, that's Sunday night or Monday night game,
[28:20] Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, no one's stopping anybody. Five minutes into
[28:24] Speaker 3: a game or ten minutes into you have no clue
[28:25] Speaker 3: how it's gonna play out. And look how this thing
[28:27] Speaker 3: played out. The points were literally the game, I mean
[28:30] Speaker 3: that decided the game. Now they ended up forcing a punt,
[28:34] Speaker 3: but then George Stidham had that fumble play that that's
[28:38] Speaker 3: a backup quarterback. I mean, that's at any moment. I
[28:41] Speaker 3: know Sean tried to speak it into existence. This guy
[28:44] Speaker 3: hadn't played, so to think that you could come out
[28:47] Speaker 3: and running the scout team for five straight months and
[28:50] Speaker 3: then just play well, especially in a game, even if
[28:53] Speaker 3: the wins and the snow hadn't come, it was still
[28:55] Speaker 3: twenty five degrees. So that's a big difference than what
[28:59] Speaker 3: we just went. It's in the Nike.
[29:01] Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean, I listen. I Denver only had
[29:05] Speaker 2: four first downs in the first half, but New England
[29:09] Speaker 2: wasn't exactly moving it up and down the field. My
[29:11] Speaker 2: take was, if you watched.
[29:12] Speaker 3: It first dominated getting dominated in that game.
[29:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, So my take was, if you watched, if Sean
[29:17] Speaker 2: was watching the offensive line, his d line, Zach Allen, Benito,
[29:22] Speaker 2: we're dominating New England up front. So my take is
[29:24] Speaker 2: just take the ten nothing lead, dude, they are they
[29:27] Speaker 2: may beat you instead of May throw a pick six
[29:30] Speaker 2: and make a huge mistake. But there they are struggling
[29:33] Speaker 2: up front to block great May was on the run
[29:36] Speaker 2: every play. In fact, it was interesting because I thought
[29:39] Speaker 2: the Seahawks O line, I mean, they had a couple
[29:42] Speaker 2: of blitz sacks. The Rams did, but the Seahawks O
[29:45] Speaker 2: line is the weakness of that team. I thought they
[29:47] Speaker 2: played pretty well. Left side of it's pretty good. But
[29:51] Speaker 2: I think somebody said four teams have never made the
[29:53] Speaker 2: Super Bowl. Robert Kraft has made eleven.
[29:59] Speaker 3: I mean he's made more Super Bowls than the Steelers
[30:02] Speaker 3: and the Niners. Think about that. They didn't what they
[30:05] Speaker 3: had been to two super Bowls up till two thousand
[30:07] Speaker 3: and one. The league had been rolling then for what
[30:09] Speaker 3: thirty plus years they've been to two? How many they've
[30:12] Speaker 3: been to? What Bill went to nine? Now Verbel they've
[30:15] Speaker 3: been to ten with in the last twenty Can you imagine,
[30:18] Speaker 3: you know who today was a bad day for being
[30:20] Speaker 3: a Bills fan. You've had the best player in the sport,
[30:23] Speaker 3: or one of them now for in his prime of
[30:25] Speaker 3: his career the last five years, and the Patriots just
[30:28] Speaker 3: bottomed out. And then a couple of years later they
[30:30] Speaker 3: got Verbel May and Josh McDaniels and there at the
[30:33] Speaker 3: Super Bowl.
[30:34] Speaker 2: How about this. The Patriots first dynasty started with a
[30:37] Speaker 2: tuck rule game in the Blizzard their second dynasty. Maybe
[30:41] Speaker 2: did it start with this, because I'm I'm serious, John,
[30:45] Speaker 2: I've never seen a half of football that washed out
[30:48] Speaker 2: by weather. I mean, it was insane. If you were
[30:52] Speaker 2: going against I mean, if you were going against the snow,
[30:55] Speaker 2: there was nothing you could do. You couldn't see, which
[30:59] Speaker 2: I just I'm not. I'm not a snow game guy.
[31:02] Speaker 2: I'm really not. It's like anything else. I don't think
[31:04] Speaker 2: anybody My dad was a pud foreman, my stepdad, so
[31:08] Speaker 2: he got hit by lightning one time. Where the poll
[31:10] Speaker 2: did he was at.
[31:11] Speaker 1: So it's like.
[31:14] Speaker 2: Nobody performs at their best in bad weather. I don't
[31:17] Speaker 2: care if it's a pilot, I don't care, if it's
[31:19] Speaker 2: a pud forman, I don't care if it's a quarterback.
[31:22] Speaker 2: I'm just I like to see these great athletes. You know, again,
[31:25] Speaker 2: I don't I don't mind. You know, sometimes you play
[31:28] Speaker 2: in a rain game and nobody's got there. It's kind
[31:30] Speaker 2: of fun. Rain games are kind of fun. Guys are
[31:32] Speaker 2: slipping around. But I don't know. I just I looked
[31:37] Speaker 2: at that game and I was I just thought it
[31:39] Speaker 2: was a huge disappointment for the league that were deciding
[31:42] Speaker 2: Super Bowls and blizzards.
[31:44] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[31:44] Speaker 2: It just didn't sit with me.
[31:45] Speaker 3: Well, one big advantage for the Patriots during that game
[31:49] Speaker 3: was May's legs and he kept plays live in Jersidham.
[31:52] Speaker 3: Who I was told was this athlete. I mean, I
[31:54] Speaker 3: don't know. I didn't really see it, and I'm not
[31:56] Speaker 3: blaming him. He's a backup quarterback. Like you expectations. I
[32:00] Speaker 3: had no expectations for him. The first drive he had
[32:02] Speaker 3: of the game, I was like, damn, he's clearly that's
[32:05] Speaker 3: a pretty big army through a nice touchdown passing the
[32:07] Speaker 3: back of the end zone, through the bomb earlier on
[32:09] Speaker 3: that drive. But as a game goes on, you and
[32:12] Speaker 3: I have talked about this all year. You gotta be
[32:14] Speaker 3: careful about that first drive. In the NFL. Yeah, it's
[32:16] Speaker 3: a fake. It's a it's not quite a fugazi, but
[32:19] Speaker 3: it's kind of. It's been mapped out in the top coaches,
[32:23] Speaker 3: their first drives usually look pretty good. You see Kubiaka,
[32:26] Speaker 3: see McVeigh, you see Shanahan, see Andy, you see Peyton
[32:29] Speaker 3: Like if they if they they usually go down the
[32:32] Speaker 3: field they're disappointed with three typically, So as the game started,
[32:36] Speaker 3: you saw him, he started getting raped a little bit.
[32:38] Speaker 3: He started scrambling when he might not need to. And
[32:42] Speaker 3: then by the time they get to the second there
[32:44] Speaker 3: was one play in the second half where May through
[32:46] Speaker 3: an out route and it probably missed him by like
[32:48] Speaker 3: seven yards. And then they throw a back view of
[32:51] Speaker 3: the wind and the snow. You're like, you would hit
[32:54] Speaker 3: a driver one hundred yards into this wind. You know
[32:57] Speaker 3: it's the wind. And that's why Romo I said it
[33:01] Speaker 3: you couldn't feel it. There was a time like how
[33:03] Speaker 3: bad is it? And then it started. It was so
[33:05] Speaker 3: clear that it was like you can't even function. But
[33:09] Speaker 3: that's kind of a that was always a Belichick thing,
[33:12] Speaker 3: no matter what. You kind of felt they had the advantage.
[33:15] Speaker 3: You know, Vrabel takes this thing over. They had probably
[33:18] Speaker 3: better players than a lot of four win teams, that's
[33:19] Speaker 3: how bad their coach was. But they were not very good.
[33:22] Speaker 3: And last year Drake May and the offense was an embarrassment.
[33:25] Speaker 3: And this year we can talk about their schedule all
[33:28] Speaker 3: we want. They did beat the Bills in the regular season,
[33:30] Speaker 3: then they beat Jim Harbaughs, Sean Payton and the best
[33:33] Speaker 3: defense in the league. Like, they've had a pretty good
[33:35] Speaker 3: little run here for a UK.
[33:36] Speaker 2: I would have taken Denver to win if bow Knicks
[33:39] Speaker 2: would have played today. My feeling is, boy, that would
[33:42] Speaker 2: be hard not to take Denver. Bo just played the
[33:44] Speaker 2: best game of his career. It's interesting nobody likes Bo
[33:47] Speaker 2: Nicks or Sam Darnold. I mean that Donald was great
[33:50] Speaker 2: today and bow Knicks. I think I probably would have
[33:53] Speaker 2: probably would have taken Denver if bow Knicks plays. But yeah,
[33:59] Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I think it's a good super Bowl.
[34:01] Speaker 2: I think you have you have the Robert Kraft returns,
[34:04] Speaker 2: Vrabel and Drake May story is at the next Tom Brady.
[34:07] Speaker 2: So I think that's a great play. And I think
[34:09] Speaker 2: you have a seah Owk team. I think the Sam
[34:11] Speaker 2: Darnold redemption story is a real thing. And listen, these
[34:15] Speaker 2: are two really well run organizations, Seattle trying to win
[34:19] Speaker 2: a second Super Bowl with a new coach, a new quarterback.
[34:22] Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's I think you and I have
[34:25] Speaker 2: talked about this, and I think the audience has heard
[34:27] Speaker 2: us say this is Seattle's GM. He may not make
[34:31] Speaker 2: as many deals as Howie Rose, but there's an argument
[34:34] Speaker 2: John Snyder, in terms of just drafting college athletes, is
[34:38] Speaker 2: the best we have in the sport. He does not
[34:40] Speaker 2: miss much at all.
[34:43] Speaker 3: I mean, well, I mean, look at the guys making
[34:45] Speaker 3: plays for him today. You saw, you know, the guard
[34:48] Speaker 3: from North Dakota State. You see or are you making
[34:51] Speaker 3: plays left and right? You see? I mean Cooper Cuff
[34:54] Speaker 3: as an acquisition. Well, I'd even say Jackson Smith when
[34:57] Speaker 3: people took him, he was good, but no one thought
[35:00] Speaker 3: he was going to be this And they pivoted off
[35:02] Speaker 3: DK Metcalf. They're like, we need him out of here
[35:04] Speaker 3: so we can feature that, which I don't blame them
[35:06] Speaker 3: for trading DK, but they thought highly more highly of
[35:09] Speaker 3: Jackson Smith, and I think I definitely I did. I
[35:12] Speaker 3: mean they should. He led the league in receiving. I mean,
[35:14] Speaker 3: he was basically Jerry Rice for like eighty percent of
[35:16] Speaker 3: the first half of the season. And to me, the
[35:18] Speaker 3: thing with Vrabel is how often it probably happened more
[35:23] Speaker 3: in like the seventies and eighties, former big time players
[35:26] Speaker 3: would become coaches. Now, with the money that these coach did,
[35:31] Speaker 3: these players had made, they're less likely to become into
[35:33] Speaker 3: the grind of coaching. A nice Demiko's obviously kind of rare,
[35:37] Speaker 3: but Vrabel he'd be the first guy to ever win
[35:40] Speaker 3: a Super Bowl as a player with the team and
[35:41] Speaker 3: then coach that same team and win a super Bowl.
[35:44] Speaker 3: So they didn't lose a road game. I think Kraft
[35:47] Speaker 3: gave him the ball after the game. I mean, this
[35:48] Speaker 3: team has been I thought they would be good and
[35:53] Speaker 3: make the playoffs because of their schedule, but being the
[35:55] Speaker 3: Super Bowl, you can't. You can't luck your way to
[35:58] Speaker 3: the super Bowl, especially when or not the one seed.
[36:00] Speaker 3: That means you gotta win three games. So it's you'd
[36:03] Speaker 3: be like, well, this wasn't a great Charger team. They
[36:04] Speaker 3: still got Jim Harbond and Justin Herbert and Jesse Minter
[36:07] Speaker 3: just became the Ravens coach, like they got a pretty
[36:10] Speaker 3: that's that's a pretty buttoned up operation, right, and then
[36:13] Speaker 3: Demiko Ryans to beat that defense and then today to
[36:16] Speaker 3: win a game in these conditions on the road. I mean, Rabel.
[36:22] Speaker 2: When it comes to it, I don't know. Fantastic, Yeah,
[36:25] Speaker 2: clock management, it's he's the opposite of Mike McCarthy, where
[36:31] Speaker 2: his clock management is maybe the best ever. His use
[36:34] Speaker 2: of timeouts are sensational. Vrabel is so good it's squeezing
[36:39] Speaker 2: all these situational plays in his favor. Let's end it
[36:43] Speaker 2: with this. Mike McCarthy got hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers,
[36:47] Speaker 2: and as we talk about the Patriots Seahawks, let's just
[36:50] Speaker 2: give this five minutes. So McCarthy, to me, is an
[36:57] Speaker 2: offensive Mike Tomlin. He feels like Pittsburgh. He'll win games,
[37:04] Speaker 2: He'll be loose when they face a really well coached
[37:08] Speaker 2: team with a good quarterback, you'll feel like you have
[37:10] Speaker 2: the second best coach.
[37:12] Speaker 1: But he's a.
[37:13] Speaker 2: Good motivator like Tomlin in defense, he does no offense.
[37:19] Speaker 2: His teams play with great enthusiasm. But to me, Pittsburgh,
[37:24] Speaker 2: once again, is always reminding us how important Pittsburgh is
[37:28] Speaker 2: and how they really love Pittsburgh. They love to hire
[37:31] Speaker 2: Pittsburgh guys. They you know, they draft Kenny Pickett, they
[37:34] Speaker 2: hire Mike McCarthy. It's kind of a Pittsburgh thing. They're
[37:38] Speaker 2: the inserts. They're very proud. I thought they could have
[37:41] Speaker 2: done better. I mean, I probably. I don't know if
[37:44] Speaker 2: Chris Schule is the answer. You could hire him tomorrow.
[37:47] Speaker 2: What did you make of the higher.
[37:50] Speaker 3: I feel like the reaction was shocked, people like they
[37:53] Speaker 3: really hired Mike McCarthy. I honestly when John Harbaugh got fired,
[37:57] Speaker 3: my jaw hit the floor, just because I didn't expect
[38:00] Speaker 3: him to get fired. This was a situation where I went,
[38:03] Speaker 3: of course, they hired him the owner whatever it was
[38:06] Speaker 3: two weeks ago when Tomlin steps down said I'm not
[38:09] Speaker 3: into throwing a season away. We do not plan on
[38:13] Speaker 3: tanking losing. We plan on competing every year. That showed
[38:17] Speaker 3: me when everyone in the Pittsburgh fan base was tired
[38:20] Speaker 3: of Tomlin, the roonies were not. They like going nine
[38:25] Speaker 3: or ten wins. If that is there, you know the floor.
[38:28] Speaker 3: They want no part of the tanking teams. They don't
[38:30] Speaker 3: ever want to have a season like the Jets. So
[38:33] Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy represents at minimum stability of competing and at
[38:37] Speaker 3: least giving us a chance to maintain what Tomlin has done.
[38:41] Speaker 3: And he can say I can coach quarterbacks and call
[38:44] Speaker 3: the offense, because in fairness, he's right now. I was
[38:47] Speaker 3: thinking about this. This is going to be his first situation.
[38:50] Speaker 3: When he got hired with the Green Bay Packers, Brett
[38:53] Speaker 3: Farv was on the roster and the year before they
[38:56] Speaker 3: had drafted Aaron Rodgers. He was the offensive coordinator of
[38:59] Speaker 3: the Niners who took Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers talked about
[39:02] Speaker 3: this like you had to get over it a little bit.
[39:04] Speaker 3: Then when he went to the Cowboys, they had an
[39:06] Speaker 3: established Dak Prescott. He's now going to a team where
[39:09] Speaker 3: they don't have a quarterback, right, so he's got to
[39:13] Speaker 3: be involved in which you and I watched a lot
[39:16] Speaker 3: of college football. This ain't a great quarterback draft. And
[39:19] Speaker 3: I don't know who's really on the open. You know,
[39:21] Speaker 3: the Davis Mills and Mac Jones types. There's not a
[39:24] Speaker 3: lot of There's no Dak Prescott's or Aaron Rodgers walking
[39:26] Speaker 3: through that door this job. I don't know if you
[39:29] Speaker 3: watched the Dolphins. Guys they're two really at the press conference,
[39:34] Speaker 3: it was like, I see why Troy Aikman likes The's
[39:36] Speaker 3: two guys. They're impressive. But Stephen Ross clearly we're gonna
[39:39] Speaker 3: need a little bit of a reset and be bad
[39:41] Speaker 3: before we get good because we're in shambles. It's kind
[39:44] Speaker 3: of the Steelers, a lot of old guys, a lot
[39:46] Speaker 3: of bad money. Why not once upon a time you
[39:49] Speaker 3: did this with Mike Tomlin at thirty four. Now, the
[39:51] Speaker 3: difference is that team was equipped to if Tomlin was good,
[39:54] Speaker 3: they were gonna be good than they were, but like,
[39:57] Speaker 3: why not just go a little younger, do a reset.
[40:00] Speaker 3: It's like, well, the Rooneyes don't believe in that, Like
[40:01] Speaker 3: they're at like that's a core value of that family,
[40:04] Speaker 3: which in a weird way I can respect. But I
[40:07] Speaker 3: think this thing is not. You know, when he got
[40:09] Speaker 3: to the Cowboys, twenty twenty was a fake football year,
[40:12] Speaker 3: right right, remember, But once he kind of settled down,
[40:15] Speaker 3: got dan Quinn, they were a real team there for
[40:18] Speaker 3: four years. Google who was on that team? Like they
[40:20] Speaker 3: had young in his peak, like a twenty three twenty
[40:23] Speaker 3: four Michael Parsons, they had Dak Prescott in his prime.
[40:26] Speaker 3: They get ceedee lamb like that this is this is
[40:29] Speaker 3: not the Steelers And how are they equipped to acquire
[40:32] Speaker 3: any of these players? TJ. Watt is making a ton
[40:35] Speaker 3: of money, he's a lot of respect for his career,
[40:38] Speaker 3: but it's trending the wrong way.
[40:40] Speaker 2: The good news for McCarthy, I think he realizes that.
[40:43] Speaker 2: I think the first thing they have to do to
[40:45] Speaker 2: me is and they're not going to be able to
[40:47] Speaker 2: find their quarterback unless they go get TYS.
[40:49] Speaker 1: Simpson.
[40:50] Speaker 2: But let's say they can't get.
[40:51] Speaker 3: It in the weather in that in that conference or
[40:54] Speaker 3: that division.
[40:55] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[40:58] Speaker 2: They have to switch the money from the defense to
[41:00] Speaker 2: the offensive side. So they've had the highest paid defense
[41:03] Speaker 2: four years in a row. So you just in the
[41:05] Speaker 2: way to do that is They've got some very good
[41:07] Speaker 2: young offensive player Fraser the center, Warren Friar Moose not young,
[41:13] Speaker 2: but he's a good player. They need another wide receiver obviously,
[41:17] Speaker 2: but in the quarterback. But my take is they've got
[41:20] Speaker 2: their offensive lines got some youth in it. The running
[41:23] Speaker 2: back room's got some youth in it. They're dynamic. I
[41:25] Speaker 2: think Friar Moose really good in Washington. Broke his arm,
[41:28] Speaker 2: but you know, those are two big bodies, good players.
[41:32] Speaker 2: So and DK Metcalf still athletically in his prime. It's
[41:36] Speaker 2: one of those things where they have to do is
[41:37] Speaker 2: they have to take about six different defensive players and
[41:40] Speaker 2: just get young defensively. If you look at the Seahawks
[41:43] Speaker 2: and the Rams, if you really look at the secret
[41:46] Speaker 2: of it is the Seahawks and the Rams are not
[41:49] Speaker 2: paying a lot of their defensive players. They're not they're
[41:51] Speaker 2: paying their quarterbacks. They're paying like maybe a left tackle
[41:55] Speaker 2: or somebody on the offensive line they're paying one of
[41:57] Speaker 2: their weapons. But I mean they're if you really look
[42:00] Speaker 2: at what the Kansas City Chiefs have done, as they've
[42:03] Speaker 2: paid Mahomes and Travis Kelcey and Joe Tooney, they've kept
[42:08] Speaker 2: that defense really really young. So you know, I've talked
[42:11] Speaker 2: to GMS about this going forward. The recipe for success
[42:16] Speaker 2: is you pay for offense. You just keep drafting defense,
[42:19] Speaker 2: stay young. And the Rams, who are they paying on
[42:22] Speaker 2: a defense? I mean, nobody's getting paid yet. Same with Seattle.
[42:26] Speaker 2: Murphy will get a lot of money. Leonard Williams probably
[42:29] Speaker 2: makes it pretty some coin. But I think Pittsburgh's got
[42:33] Speaker 2: it all backwards. Pittsburgh paying everybody on defense, so they've
[42:37] Speaker 2: they've got a draft about six to seven different guys.
[42:39] Speaker 2: I don't know what their draft picks look like. Whatever,
[42:42] Speaker 2: just draft defense. Let about four guys walk trade another
[42:47] Speaker 2: and just switch where the money's at. And once they
[42:49] Speaker 2: can do that, then you can go find your quarterback.
[42:51] Speaker 3: If I want to defend McCarthy like he has a
[42:54] Speaker 3: branding issue because I saw people putting his resume next
[42:57] Speaker 3: to John Harbass looks pretty similar. Google John Harbaugh. The
[43:01] Speaker 3: last several years with some of these big leads a
[43:03] Speaker 3: lot of l's Google Mike McCarthy's resume next to Tomlin's
[43:07] Speaker 3: resume pretty similar. Not a lot of playoff success. Recently
[43:11] Speaker 3: made the playoffs a bunch people. His branding is bad.
[43:14] Speaker 3: You know, John harbug gets fired. Ten teams are calling
[43:17] Speaker 3: his agent. McCarthy's begging for a job last year, No
[43:20] Speaker 3: one will hire him. So this is not McCarthy's better
[43:23] Speaker 3: than the way we speak about him, right, Yeah, because
[43:27] Speaker 3: he can coached. The other thing he's got going for
[43:29] Speaker 3: him Jesse Meant a really impressive defensive coordinator. First time
[43:32] Speaker 3: head coach in a in a pressure pack job. That's
[43:35] Speaker 3: not going to be easy. You know, Zach Taylor is
[43:37] Speaker 3: going to be coaching for his job surely this year
[43:39] Speaker 3: that that coaching staff there.
[43:40] Speaker 2: Cleveland didn't have a coach.
[43:42] Speaker 3: I mean, Colin, did you see the story that Cleveland
[43:44] Speaker 3: makes you write an essay to try to get the
[43:46] Speaker 3: this It'd be like you telling me, hey want you
[43:49] Speaker 3: to do a podcast for us, Can you write us
[43:50] Speaker 3: a three page essay. It's like, Colin, this is a
[43:52] Speaker 3: verbal medium, Like I don't care the coaching is. It's
[43:55] Speaker 3: a verbal job. You don't You would never write an essay. Ever,
[43:58] Speaker 3: even your the things that team puts out, the pr
[44:01] Speaker 3: staff does that for you. It's really I don't want
[44:03] Speaker 3: to go talk about the Browns much, but that's I googled.
[44:06] Speaker 3: I couldn't figure it out, but I would imagine Barry's
[44:09] Speaker 3: parents were in academia because I couldn't even grasp how
[44:13] Speaker 3: someone would go the personality test. I understand it's a
[44:16] Speaker 3: big job. I don't know, but doing homework in essays.
[44:19] Speaker 3: So McCarthy and the Steelers have an advantage on the Browns,
[44:23] Speaker 3: but it's I think it's going to be a little
[44:25] Speaker 3: more difficult than his Cowboys stamp. But he also he's
[44:29] Speaker 3: been the head coach of the Packers, the Dallas Cowboys,
[44:32] Speaker 3: and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It'd be like I've been the
[44:36] Speaker 3: head coach of the Knicks the Lakers. Like pat Riley's career.
[44:39] Speaker 3: He doesn't get any better than that football wise.
[44:41] Speaker 1: Going the volume

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