February 13, 2025 • 58 mins
John opens the podcast by giving Jalen Hurts his well deserved praise. Despite having doubts about Jalen's talent earlier in the season, he has made many people rethink their views on him as a player. Next, John dives into Travis Kelce opening up on his podcast about what happened in the Super Bowl, and if KC should consider a move away from Kelce. Later, John dives into the Super Bowl ratings.
Later, John answers your questions during this episode's mailbag segment.
4:07 - Given Jalen his credit
15:17 - Trvis Kelce speaks
23:04 - Super Bowl ratings
29:06 - Louisiana Hot Sauce
34:07 - Mailbag
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. #Volume #Herd
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Hopefully everyone is having a great day, enjoying whatever you
(00:22):
may be doing. I'm trying to get a little better here.
I just sat in the steam room in the sauna
for about, I don't know, forty five fifty minutes. Hopefully
that starts to clear me out. I just I'm just
I can't believe I'm sick again. It's miserable. But I
think the game plan is here is this will be
the last podcast of the week. We've been grinding pretty hard.
(00:45):
Just just I just need a couple of days to
just clear my head. I've given, I've laid it all
on the table, give my people behind the scenes a
couple of days just just chill. So this will be
the last podcast of the week. I will talk a
little football and we'll do a little mail bag as
well at John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms,
(01:06):
get your questions answer here on the show. I didn't
gonna need a bunch of mail bag. So it's the
off season obviously, football questions, free agency, the draft wide open.
I mean, I'm not gonna be breaking down seventh round picks,
but anything goes you know, life questions, fire fire in
those dms at John middlecoff is the Instagram, make sure
(01:28):
you subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you listen on
Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to that as well.
And yeah, we're gonna take a couple of days, take
the weekend, and come back swinging. We have the combine
right around the corner, Free agencies right around the corner,
so we're gonna hit the ground running here. But I
think this, I'm out of juice, so I need a
(01:51):
little refresher and uh, we'll empty the tank here and
then we'll see We'll see you early next week. I
do want to start with with Jalen Hurts, and I
think big picture when it comes to sports. Most players
I've been following sports like as a passion, as a lifestyle,
(02:11):
the majority of my intellectual capacity going toward it for
thirty plus years, and the overwhelming majority of players in
any sport are polarizing. There is a small few that
hit a point where it's like what do you even
say about them? Right? Like a Tiger Woods, a Roger Federer,
(02:33):
or a Michael Jordan. It's like, clearly the best, no
flaws dominate like, what are you even gonna argue, There's
nothing to argue. They're by far the best player that
if you could pick them on your fantasy team, on
your actual team, if you could bet on them, like,
they're just the no brainer best player favorite. That is
a tiny, tiny percentage of these guys, the majority of
(02:58):
guys the best player. When I was a kid, Shaq
and Kobe Like, they were pretty polarizing. Peyton Manning early
on his career could not win big playoff games. Tom Brady,
people thought after he won championships, was he even any good? Honestly,
that was a conversation when I was in high school
and in college, tom Brady, what is he really doing?
(03:21):
Obviously that changed in two thousand and seven, but his
first three Super Bowls he was not viewed anywhere close
to like the Tom Brady he began. It's part of
the business. It's what makes this fun and the thing
I liked the most about sports, which probably has a
lot of parallels to a lot of industries you guys
work in. It's very black and white, right in this business.
(03:43):
How many people are listening? How much revenue are we generating?
Are we increasing listenership? Are we increasing revenue. You're either
doing it or you're not right in your jobs, Like
you got quotas, you got to hit quarterly numbers, you're
either doing it or not. In sports, like at the
end of the day, ye winnose games. But a huge
part during those games is us judging you within the
(04:05):
context of the game. And I think Jalen Hurts has
been a polarizing player since he was in college. Like,
Jalen Hurts didn't just come on the scene when Howie
drafted him in the second round. He was benched in
the National Championship game in the peak of the Nick
Saban dynasty. And let's face it, that is the last
(04:28):
college football dynasty we are ever going to see. Nil
will never and transfer portal will never allow that to happen.
So in the peak of the Alabama dynasty, he was
benched for another guy who is extremely polarizing into a
Tongua Baila. And I think the one thing anyone that's
watched Jalen talk it is it's very admirable his resiliency,
(04:53):
his focus, how serious of a guy he is. You know,
I joke with my buddies on the Eagles, like the
two biggest curmudgeons on the team are Fangio and Jalen.
They're not smiley, happy, go lucky individuals. Like they're old school.
Now understandably with Vick he's sixty six years old, but
like that's kind of Jalen's the way he conducts himself,
(05:16):
and it's why he's talking talked about it over the years,
why he got along with Saban because they were very
similar and like, part of what makes Jalen fascinating is
he's never gonna throw for thirty five forty forty five touchdowns.
That's not gonna happen, like in his short career. Like
he's not getting to twenty five touchdown passes this year.
(05:37):
There were twenty guys in the NFL who threw more
touchdown passes. But I dove into some numbers today and
I was like, maybe I'm missing the boat on this
guy a little bit. Because if you're gonna throw eighteen
touchdown passes in a season, you can play on a
team that's super loaded like the Eagles, and you know
you can get by, but that's not ideal. I would say,
(05:58):
at a minimum, you would like your quarterback to throw
mid to high twenties. But the one thing Jalen brings
to the table to well two things. What is a passer?
Only three full time starters average more yards per attempt
than Jalen Hurts. So while he's not you know, Josh
(06:19):
Allen or Brett Farvar, Aaron Rodgers slinging that pill around,
when he does let it rip, he is pushing the
ball down the field. And we've given him a lot
of credit on that. He is a guy that is
a great deep ball thrower and it shows when they
play and Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff and Brock Purty actually
(06:41):
are the only three guys in the NFL that average
more yards per attempt and the forty nine ers will
you know, they had an awful season offensively, they were
really really good. They were just bad in the red zone.
Obviously Jared Goff and Lamar dominated. But those offenses push
the ball down the field or attempt to the forty
nine ers are kind of a hybrid. They break a
lot of tackles. But like when Jalen makes plays with
(07:03):
his arm, he is not dinking and dunking. He will
let it rip and he's accurate when he lets it rip.
But the other thing he does that we talk a
lot about they have a play that's unstoppable. It's literally
an unstoppable play. It'd be like every time a batter swung,
(07:25):
he's going to hit a home run. Or it'd be
like anytime Bryson Dcambau hit a drive, it's going to
be right in the middle of the fairway. And it'd
be like Steph Curry if he never missed. It's like
every time he shoots, he gets a three, Like, well,
how do you stop it? Like, well, you don't. You
just lose. And that's what happens with the Touschbush. So
(07:45):
he accounted for fourteen rushing touchdowns fourteen, So really you
have to look at him, like, you know, Lamar, Lamar
is a better thrower of the ball, and he is
a guy that's proven now that he can get thirty
five to forty touchdown passes in the year. But like
Jalen's gonna get you fourteen to sixteen rushing touchdowns on
the ground. Last year was fifteen, the year before was thirteen.
(08:08):
If you just pulled the average guy, you just walked
down the street, even if you went to Philly and
said who had more rushing touchdowns and I'm not talking
about super nerdy guy that's always on you know ESPN
dot com stat sheet, just the average fan. Hell, you
could go to a game and just pull the average
fan who had more rushing touchdowns this year, Saquon Barkley
(08:29):
or Jalen Hurts. I do believe that majority of people
would say Saquon Barkley had more rushing touchdowns. Honestly, before
I looked, I would have said that Jalen had more.
And it was only like Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Jamiir
Gibbs that had more rushing touchdowns than Jalen Hurts. Jaden
Daniels was like, oh, this dynamic. He had six rushing touchdowns.
(08:52):
So part of what Jalen brings to the table is
like his rushing ability and his scoring ability as a
goal line running back. He's just he's an outlier player.
We just haven't seen anything like this, you know, because
part of like Lamar, it's speed. It's like the elegance
(09:13):
in the open field with Jalen's power. We're gonna get
down and listen. I don't love the play like, I'll
be honest, not because I think they're like fucking anybody
by breaking rules. They're not. They're just following the letter
to the law and taking advantage of it. And they
got a lot of power up there, starting with with him.
A lot of teams we saw Josh Allen try to
(09:34):
run it. He can't get low enough, so it's an
advantage they have. My issue with the play is when
they go into the position, it just never fails. And
part of sports is like when Steph Curry shoots, I
don't know if it's going in or not. I think
more often than not it's going to go in, but
he misses. Bryson doesn't always hit the fairway. That's part
(09:54):
of it. Like when he gets understander and they go
to touch bush, it's you know, especially on the goal line,
he's scoring it touchdown. But like I think we need
to come to grips with we're evaluating Jalen, like is
he a top five eight quarterback? Well, in the traditional sense,
if you're comparing him like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady
and Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes and Josh Allen, No, he's
(10:17):
not gonna play like those guys. But when you look
at production, the fucking guy's productive and he's a huge
part of their running game. So he gets fourteen touchdowns
on the ground, you had thirteen more with Saquon. If
you have twenty plus touchdowns from your running backs, you
are in great shape. I mean great shape. If you
(10:38):
get twenty seven from your top two backs. And I'm
including Jalen in this, so between Jalen and Saquon, you
have a dominant running attack. So to me, the Eagles
like I just I just think he's a unique player
and you try to put him in a box. You
can't because he's not a player that can be put
(10:58):
in a box, and he's just his career has been different.
I will say this, you play big in big time
moments in sports, it's worth a lot more. It just
is you see in the NBA all the time, like
a lot of guys can score forty in a random
game in January and Sacramento, no one gives a fuck.
(11:21):
A lot of guys hit four home runs. I don't
want to say a lot, but people hit four home
runs in a game, or three home runs, or you know,
thrown eight scoreless innings. It's cool. It's July. What happens
in September or October when everyone's watching it's harder, and
he now has played really really well into super Bowls,
completely under control. And that's where I think his kind
(11:44):
of mantra of like, he's not a super celebratory guy.
He's not mister jumping for joy all the time. Neither
was Belichick, neither was Saban and like their teams usually
played well in the biggest moments, because that personality sometimes
doesn't always serve you in early October. It's like, why
aren't you showing more fire? Because this is a marathon,
not a sprint. And I just I have a lot
(12:08):
of respect for what Jalen accomplished in the playoffs, specifically
in that Super Bowl, because that was really, really impressive,
speaking of a guy that obviously didn't have an impressive showing.
I saw a clip from his podcast where he was
just you could tell Travis Spreshelle shocked. It's one thing
to lose Super Bowl. It's another thing to just get
curb stomps like they did. Now, I think, as a
(12:30):
fan I said this, I do believe it's easier to
just get your teeth kicked in to just the game
basically being over in the first quarter, like we're just
gonna get killed than it is to lose in like
historic fashion like a Malcolm Butler pick or twenty eight
to three in overtime, Like I think those the level.
(12:53):
I mean, it's like getting kicked in the balls over
and over and it just feels like that pain never
goes away, like there's not that much pain because it's
over so fast. It's like getting hit by Mike Tyson
the first ten seconds of the boxing match. It's another
thing to lose in the fifteen round, just bloodbath. You're like, God,
I couldn't have given it anymore. And I think, here's
the thing with Kelsey. These situations are complicating. And I
(13:16):
saw it last year with the Warriors and Klay Thompson.
Now it was different, Like the Warriors were never gonna
cut Klay Thompson. They were never going to He was
more than likely he was gonna play for someone else eventually.
That's not the case with Dras Travis. Kelsey is going
to retire a Kansay Chief If he wants to retire
(13:37):
right now or if he wants to retire after next year,
it's gonna be his choice. The Kansay Chiefs will not
cut Kelsey this offseason, though they could for two million,
and I think if he was any other player not
named Mahomes or Chris Jones, he would get cut. But
he's an absolute legend. He's one of the most impactful
(13:58):
and important players of his generation, not just in the NFL,
but for Veitch and Andy. He's in a league that
is really not full of anyone on scholarship he kind
of is. I also think he's owed close to eighteen
million dollars next year, and I understand he's made ninety
five million dollars and he's dating, potentially engaged, maybe ends
(14:22):
up getting married to a woman that has an unlimited
amount of money, but eighteen million dollars still eighteen million
dollars and living a high priced lifestyle. I've heard a
lot of people talk to like cover sports media about
Tom Brady, like he's not giving up ten years, three
hundred and seventy million dollars. You know how much money
that is to work one day a week. It's like
(14:42):
he has an expensive lifestyle. Rich people like to keep
up the rich lifestyle, you need the money to keep
coming in. For the first time in my life, I
flew first class to New Orleans because we had some
like extra credit from Maria, so I combined it just guys.
Just going by myself, I was, damn, this is pretty
good living. I've always wondered what it felt like to
(15:04):
sit be the first guy on the plane sometimes in Southwest.
I am, but I gonna pay fifty bucks to get
like a two and see everyone walk back knowing I
got a way bigger seat, knowing I'm about to get
free cocktails, free food, just taken care of. He's like,
this is good living. I told Maria when I got back.
I'm like, I don't know if I could ever sit
back in the in the normal seats again. I don't
know if I could do it. I'm I'm sitting next
(15:27):
to Deebo Samuel, I'm sitting next to Paved Sporadic. I'm like,
I see the way these people are living. This is
good living, but it's expensive. You need money to sit
up there. It ain't cheap relative to the other seats.
And I just wonder if you're Travis Kelce, like it's over.
He's not nearly the same player he is, you know,
for a guy that is scheduled to make eighteen million dollars,
(15:49):
if he was just if the Chiefs had to re
sign him to a one year deal, that number would
probably be closer to like two or three or five. Right.
I just think, and I know he's gonna contemplate. It's
got to be a tough decision because this is not
a quarterback where you've made hundreds of millions of dollars.
You know, he's trying to like he's keeping up with
(16:11):
the Joneses. Now look who he's hanging out with. And
I think if you're the chiefs in a weird way,
they will never say this publicly. And these are the
type conversations that Veach and Andy only have with themselves.
They're hoping he retires. They want this to be over
because it's very difficult to get rid of aging superstars
(16:31):
and aging superstars who have led you and the organization
to the highest of highs. I mean, the last there
is a chance. And that's the great unknown about the
reality television show that is football. Jeeves might never make
it do in the super Bowl again. So the greatest
era of Kansasity football might have just happened. Right, we
(16:54):
could have just witnessed it five super Bowls in six years. Honestly,
it's hard to get any better to that in any era.
Five two Bowls in six years and win three of them.
That's fucking as good as it gets. I mean, that's
that's a legendary run. And it's hard to pivot off
those guys. So when you're their situation, I think they're
(17:16):
praying that whenever he makes his decision, it's and they're
gonna need to know before free agency, before the draft,
hopefully you know, in the next couple of weeks. But
I'm out, you know. And I think the thing is
his downfall as a player right now is he can't
move nearly as quickly as he used to. He used
(17:37):
to be just such a great athlete. And part of
getting older in the sport at running back, at wide receiver,
at tight end, at dB is when your speed goes.
If you were once a four to five guy and
you become a four eight guy, it is claring. And
I'll never forget that big play that he had against
(17:58):
the Texans where he may guy missing space and he
took it like fifty sixty yards. I was like, he's
way slower than he used to be. He's still a
great player because his instincts and ability to catch the
ball and get open, but he used to be an
unstoppable playmaker because he was so much faster than every
tight end. We have seen a small percentage of tight
(18:20):
ends over the course of the last couple decades that
could really run. Listen, I mean, this guy's murderer. But
Aaron Hernandez was faster than everybody else. He played tight end,
but he ran like a wide receiver. One of the
things that makes George Kittle such a dominant player is
he as a physical player, like a Rob Grinkowski like.
(18:41):
He likes hitting and he likes blocking, but he can
run like a wide receiver. So you get him in
the open field, he can fly. And that was Travis
for the majority of his career. And part of getting
thirty four to thirty five, thirty six is it just
goes away and it was always going to be differentficult
for them to transition off of this. I mean, part
(19:02):
of the reason their offense has not been the same
is his limited explosive playability. I mean, look at his
yards per catch over the last couple of years. It
has been a precipitous drop. And I admire the guy
because I've, like most people, watch so much Kansay Chief
Football over the last six seven years, and in the
(19:22):
peak of his powers, he was as dominant of a
past receiver slash tight end as you'll ever see, and
he has legitimately won them games. I mean some of
the biggest games in the history of the franchise he's
played a huge role in, and just random regular season
games over the years where he just took over. Those
days are done. And when you pay a premium for
(19:44):
a guy who's not even close to it anymore in
the economics of the NFL, that's where you can get
in some problems. I saw the Super Bowl. You know
ratings now, it's just it's so inflated. They add the bar.
It's just like, obviously, whether you tell me one hundred
and twenty million people, whether you tell me one hundred
(20:05):
and five million people, whether you tell me one hundred
and fifty million people, every single human I know watches
the Super Bowl. I would imagine most people you know
watch the super Bowl. It clearly is a universal event.
And I was thinking about one big advantage football has had,
and I do think the Super Bowl has always been
a big deal, but it has increased in its relevancy.
(20:27):
I feel pretty dramatically over the last couple decades, it
almost feels like an American holiday. And I know that's
a huge point, Like people argue against like we need
the off day the next day, right, treat it like
it's July fourth or a Thanksgiving or New Year's. It's
not treated like that on the calendar, like you don't
(20:49):
get the day off from work the next day. But
humans treat it that way in terms of gathering the
parties and how they build their their weekend, and they
talk about it four weeks leading up to it, so
the other sports have no chance to compete when it
all leads to the end, which is the Super Bowl,
(21:12):
and you gotta watch everything in between. Now, you don't
need to follow the drap that closely, you don't need
to fall free agency that closely. But once the game start,
like making the playoffs, most people know that if you
just get in, you have a chance, because we all
know we're gonna be watching the Super Bowl. Texting with
my mom in her mid seventies, who's devastated. She's a
big canc Chiefs girl. To just hearing stories from Marie
(21:36):
at work of like all the different parties that people
she works with went to and I think it's it's
just pretty cool. In a day and age where we
agree and disagree and everyone's got different opinions on everything,
the one thing that we all come together for is football.
It is by far the most popular sport, and its
(21:57):
big event is by far the most watched event. It
was my issue with the halftime show. A lot of
people think that I believe that Kendrick Lamar is not popular.
I don't believe that. I believe that Kendrick Lamar is popular.
He's not like some Instagram influencer. I don't believe he
(22:19):
was popular enough to put on the super Bowl, was
my take. I think typically when you put people on
a Super Bowl halftime show was just like I said
a couple of years ago, Doctor dre Eminem Snoop Dogg.
These people had been so famous for so long, their
songs are just kind of universally known. I was thinking
(22:41):
the other day about Usher. I remember singing Usher songs
when I was in junior high. I'm forty years old.
Usher Raymond has been in my life for a long
long time. The super Bowl halftime show is not some
like niche deal, and I'm not saying Kendrick is, but
(23:05):
like a huge part of his show was this Drake
beef where Drake is infinitely more famous than Kendrick. Drake
is much more mainstream. And that's what the super Bowl
halftime show is. It's main stream throw out you too,
I saw. I just went to the list of some
of the people that have played it in the past.
(23:26):
It's like Tom Petty, It's just people that most people
have known for decades, and I do think looking back,
it was just a bizarre choice. And I've had a
couple of people like, listen, I'm younger than you, like
we don't like the music of the nineties. I get
that's the way things work is younger people. But this
(23:47):
is not about young people. This show is about the masses.
Why because it's by far the most amount of people watching. Now,
if you're Kendrick Lamarin, you get asked to do it,
of course you say yes, because you will never ever
be able to perform with that many people watching. Ever,
(24:08):
I don't care if you're Beyonce, I don't care if
you're Taylor Swift. It doesn't get any bigger. This is
by far the biggest event. It's why the NFL does
not have to pay you to participate. You show up
and one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty
million people are going to be watching you perform for
fifteen twenty thirty minutes, however long it is. But like,
to me, it wasn't a lot of I've heard like, oh,
(24:29):
these aren't his best songs. I'm not. It's not like
I'm when I say I'm not a huge fan. I'm
not like I'm indifferent. I don't really listen to them,
but I'm more I'm not really a modern day like
I would say last like I said, ten to fifteen
year hip hop rap guy. You know I listen. I
think mumble rap's awful, But I also don't want to
sound like the old guy with the young guys like
(24:50):
this stuff's good, so it's not bad. I do like Drake.
I just think if you think that, like put them
on because this beaf is so big. I think the
beat something you see a lot on the internet. I
don't think the casual person is like talking about the
Drake Kendrick beef walking around society could be wrong. Maybe
I'm out of touch. I'm not acting like I'm super
(25:13):
in touch with everything going on in the world here
and clearly that was a big story because Drake is
way bigger than him. Like that's just a fact. Someone's like, well,
Kendrick has all these streams on Spotify, and he was
like per month, he's like twenty first, or in twenty
twenty four he was twenty first on Spotify, Drake was third.
(25:35):
Even the weekend who played Who Played the super Bowl
a couple of years ago was like fourth or fifth.
I mean these people, and he's a relatively newer I
would say artist, but like that's pretty big. I just
think popularity, which we can argue over all day long,
is pretty important in the Super Bowl halftime show. Okay,
(26:01):
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(27:07):
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(27:31):
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(28:14):
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(28:34):
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Speaker 1 (30:47):
Okay, let's uh, let's do a little mailbag at John Middlecoff.
At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in those dms.
I need a lot of your questions, So make sure
you fire in those dms to get your questions answered
here on the show. We're gonna need a lot of
them over the next couple of weeks, so make sure
that you flood my Instagram with any questions, football, life,
(31:10):
you name it. We can talk about whatever you want.
Everything's on the table. See offseason, So fire in there
and anything but like breaking down some potential six rounders
feet or something. I'm not doing that. But any other
question you want fire in there. We will start with
Joey Hey, John Love the pod. Here's a question for you.
(31:32):
I know you aren't a big NBA guy, at least
I don't think I would say I'm a modern day
NBA consumer. Don't watch many games follow the league. I
listened to podcasts. I listened to Simmons Windhorse podcast I
like a lot, and I listen to like local Warriors coverage.
But why I know what's going on in the NBA.
I just don't watch the games. But I'm sure you
(31:55):
have some thoughts on the Luca deal. Now, we can
go back and forth over whether the mav should have
traded him, but it's universally agreed that the MAVs definitely
didn't get enough in return. Interestingly, the MAVs sent the
league's biggest international star to the league's most popular franchise,
(32:16):
and I like this question already, and they did it
multiple days before the deadline. So even though the gm
may have been forced to do it by the owner,
it's not like they didn't have time to weigh out
other packages. With the NFL being consistently ridiculed for allegedly
rigging the sport, who's to say that is a result
of Adam Silver and other execs forcing something in their
(32:40):
desperate quest for ratings. And yet the idea has gotten
less buzz than the OPI on aj Brown in the
Super Bowl. Why has the possible example of rigging the
sport not gotten the same level of attention. I don't
know about you, but Adam Silver being exposed for forcing
Luca to the Lakers would be a much bigger deal
(33:00):
than me than Roger Goodell telling a ref to give
a catch to Xavier Worthy in the AFC Champions Game.
What do you think? Also, for the record, I don't
think either is rigged. Yeah, I mean, I some people
get more calls than others. That's just a fact. Some players,
some teams, NBA, NFL, baseball referees are human, you know,
(33:23):
I mean, Draymond's gonna get treated differently than other guy.
It's just part of the sport. You know. The Lakers,
Kobe and Shack got treated different than the Kings. Now
we could argue whether the David Stern back in the
day wanted the Lakers in the finals for ratings. I
don't blame him if he did, I get it, but
it still felt rigged. When Tim don g was on
(33:45):
the take from the mob and calling those games, I
would say this clearly, if the NFL was rigged, they
would want the Chiefs to have a three peat and
everyone would have been up in arms, and they just
got curb stumps. So I think that conversation came to
a screeching halt. It felt like the moment AJ Brown
(34:05):
got called that the fire wasn't just lit, they threw
like sticks of dynamite on it. You're like, oh my god,
here we go. Then it just played out as it
played out. You cannot convince me that something shady did
not go on. You cannot convince me that, like, well,
you think he's fat. We just think he's fat. He
(34:28):
just led your team to the NBA Finals. He literally
just carried you through the West and destroyed everybody. He's fat.
He's twenty five, and this isn't one of those like
zions fat yeah, and doesn't play This guy like plays injured.
We saw him in the playoffs, limping around, still going
(34:48):
for thirty forty points. If you could save one franchise,
if you're Adam Silver, it would be the Lakers. Lebron
James is forty years old. Anthony Davis, who actually has
really resurrected his career. Awesome player, but kind of irrelevant
you put him on any team like he's not. People
aren't tuning in for Anthony Davis. This is guys on
(35:11):
the short list of changes the Lakers, and he's twenty
five years old. So do I believe something shady happened?
I definitely think it's a possibility. And if you told
me one, I think the whole Maverick situation doesn't ever
add up. Mark Cuban, if you think about the last
twenty five years, or just think in my life now
(35:32):
I'm forty years old. When I think of owners that
loved their team slashed the sport more than anyone else,
I think of Al Davis with the Raiders and football.
I think of George Steinbrenner with the Yankees and just
like loving the sport. I'm saying, like addicted to just
being involved, Jerry with football. Can you ever imagine those
(35:55):
guys ever selling their team, not like a piece to
get some cash, but like selling their team and going away.
Not in a million fucking years I would put Mark
Cuban under that umbrella of like this guy loves owning
the Mavericks, loves basketball, loves the players, loves it all,
loves the show of it. He just randomly sells his team.
(36:19):
And I thought it's like, well he thought that, like
the television deal is gonna be bad and the business
is can go the other way. They got like two
x two and a half x the television deal, and
he has a superstar player sells a team like that
never added up for people that were in the gambling
industry that clearly don't care that much about basketball. It's
not like the Addison family are like, you know, basketball junkies, right,
(36:42):
It's not like they're banging out. I bet if you
go over to their house or watching like Kentucky play
Tennessee on a Tuesday night, They're not watching Wizards Hawks
on some random Monday. So they buy the team. Clearly
they have a lot of money. They're in the gambling
(37:03):
space in Texas. Is like no guarantee to pass these
gambling laws. It it never added up to me, this
whole thing. And then his quotes about like work ethic
and he's including like Shaquille O'Neil. It's like this guy
was he like a plant. I don't get it, Like
(37:23):
it doesn't make sense. And there's some similarities here with
with the Broncos, where the dude that runs the Broncos
is like married to one of the Waltons. But like,
clearly they're not they had some superstar player, they wouldn't
randomly trade them. They clearly want to run that business.
(37:44):
And it's not I don't know if it's just love
a football more because they like the business. It's a
cash cow. But what do they do They immediately go
out and give Sean Payton twenty million dollars a year
and say, you do whatever you want, make us a winner.
I don't get it. It's extremely shady. Now you'd be
like middle Cooff, you just hate thel. I do hate
the Lakers, But it does not make sense that they
(38:05):
just get handed one of the most talented young players
we've ever seen overnight. It's like, well, they gave him,
you know, the biggest haul in the history of the sport. No,
they didn't. Actually didn't even give him that much. I
mean that's part of it. It's like wait, this trade
happened the middle of the night. They didn't even trade
him for that much. It'd be like if you're a
(38:25):
Browns fan and you just woke up, it's like, oh,
Miles Garrett's you know in the forty nine ers, they
gave you a debo and a couple seconds, he'd be like,
what the fuck? Or you know, hey, cowboys, you just
you traded Mike into the Bills. It's like, what did
you get back? It's like, ah, they traded you a
guard and a second and a third. You'd be shell shocked.
(38:48):
You wouldn't even be able to speak. That's this times
one hundred, except he goes like, you said, the Lakers,
this whole thing shady. I'm one hundred percent conspiracy theory.
Sometimes conspiracy theory. I feel like that word's been overused.
There are just things that are red flags, and this
is a gigantic red flag. We've had a lot of
(39:08):
red flags over the last four or five years, and
this is a fucking gigantic red flag. Now, does Silver
have the balls to do this? If he did, I'll
say one thing, I do respect it if he did,
like it is the right move. So if he did
orchestrate this in a weird way. I'd say, congrats, it's
(39:28):
your finest moments as a commissioner. But if you're a
Mavericks fan, you'd have to just quit watching sports. Okay,
this guy's from northern California. Uh ask me about the Niners.
Love your takes truly do? I'm from Chico home Aaron Rodgers, Well,
he doesn't live there now is where he grew up. Uh,
(39:51):
can't wait for the draft to see what we do
at eleven where if we trade for Garrett Crosby or Hendrickson,
we have hit on on our number one. Trade eleven
down for more picks, Try inside DJ Jones and get
some more O line D line. Sign a veteran wide
receiver until BA gets back. Let's go massive offseason for
(40:14):
the forty nine ers. There's just no way around it.
They're about to pay their quarterback a huge amount of
money and he's in the world like you needn win
super bowls with Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts is never gonna
be you know, on a year in year out, basis
considered a top two or three player at his position.
But if you do a good job building around him,
you can win big. I've seen a lot of random
(40:35):
like I saw Alex Smith with the forty nine ers
when hardball got there, win games like you can win
a ton of games and win playoff games when you
don't have Joe Montana or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning
or Aaron Rodgers playing quarterback. And just because you have
those guys doesn't guarantee you anything. So building the team
and the way you build the team is like hit
on draft picks. That's why the Buccaneers have been productive.
(41:00):
You good? You sounded exhaust on the podcast. Yeah, I
mean I got this flu or something. I don't know.
You tell me. Do you view the Rams as Super
Bowl contender going into next year? I feel like they
are being disrespected by sportsbook and news outlets Projecting next year,
they are ranked eight to twelve by most. They were
the only team to play Philly close. Assuming Stafford's contract
(41:23):
gets reworked, that's a big question. Alongside this much improved
young defense and Snead and mcveigh's demonstrated ability to bring
in young talent, why would the Rams be a top
three NFL contender? Why wouldn't they be along with the
Lions and Eagles. I do think the Stafford things kind
of lingering. If Stafford is not their quarterback, that's a
(41:47):
pretty big deal. They just those two have a weird relationship.
It's like they've had so much success together, but it
never feels like they're both happy with each other. I
don't know, so I go get that situation Red Black.
They a good quarterback play they're a contender. Now, their
defense was not as good throughout the season as it
(42:07):
was in the playoff game against the Eagles. So defense,
especially promo pass rush standpoint. Now you get Verse takes
another step, like what if versus one of the best
players in the league next year, and branden Fisk is
right there, like their defense could be really good. But offensively,
Cooper's gonna be gone, which not that big an eal.
(42:31):
They probably need to add a tight end, add another
wide receiver. I just think the Stafford thing is is
a pretty big question mark right now. But as long
as you got McVeigh and if Stafford's there, yeah, I
mean they're a double digit win team. And think in football,
you just make it the playoffs, like anything can happen.
Think about this, the Eagles were I don't know what
(42:55):
yard line they were on when Stafford got sacked, But
what was at the yard line? I mean, they've worked
that far away from losing that game. That's the thing
with football, you know, it's so cliche game inches details matter.
It's kind of true. You don't make a play or
not make a play. Some coaches just say that, like
who in this room is gonna make a play? Especially
(43:16):
at halftime? We just need someone to make a play, right,
This is the moment. Most people in most of our jobs, like,
you don't have to perform in like twenty minutes, Like
you can do it over the course of a week,
of a month or whatever. Like in football, it's like,
this is our moment. We get thirty more minutes. And
if you're a defensive player, you're only gonna get what
(43:37):
seven eight more series, So you're gonna get, say twenty
to twenty five more snaps. In one of those twenty
two snaps, can you make a play and can you
make a difference? And Jalen Carter did in that game,
and it was the difference in the game. And then
the rest two games were a joke. They beat the
shit at them. What do the Colts need to do
(43:59):
to actually contend for a playoff spot and possibly win
the division. The division is winnable, and I feel like
our roster is pretty solid. We've got a top five
running back when healthy, the defense will be better with
an Arumo, and the wide receiver corps has improved. Obviously,
Richardson needs to prove that he's a franchise starter. I
(44:21):
do think that at the end of the year when
McAfee put out the tweet and then Shane Stiken said
that it was true essentially like, yeah, guys show up late.
That tells you everything you need to know. I think
it is way easier, and any human with a brain
has said this in life, let alone in football, to
(44:43):
go from asshole to lighten up like it's much easier
to start like Parcels, like Belichick, like Mike Shanahan, and
then as you get older or as guys you know
age under you to loosen up on them. It is
very difficult to go from Lucy Goosey, everyone's friend player
(45:05):
coach to then be hard ass. So you're telling me
this guy, these players who had not been accomplishing Dick
were just kind of showing up whenever they wanted. I
can't imagine someone consistently showing up late to meetings with
high level coaches. You think that's happening for Andy Reid
(45:27):
or Sean McVay, Like, do you think that flies with
Mike Vrabel? Like you think you have flies with the Packers?
And listen, this is the pros, Like you just get
fined and listen. Every human being, I don't care who
you are, you might be the most punctual human alive.
You're gonna have a day where something happens and maybe
you're ten, fifteen, five minutes late. Like I'm not acting
(45:48):
like you should never ever be late. Life happens, But
it was pretty clear that it was happening a lot.
And so we can talk a lot about the football team,
you know, Anthony Richardson, how do they fix that? And
this is what McAfee put out, like, there's a culture
problem in this building. Do you think people with Peyton
Manning in their heyday were just showing up late? No
(46:11):
fucking chance, none. So I don't know how you fix that.
And this is Mike McDaniel and Shane Stikeen thing. Both
those guys both said at the end of the year
tardiness was a problem. So How do those guys go
from like Lucy Goosey everyone's friend, you know, Mike McDaniel
(46:34):
wearing sweet watches and Gucci sunglasses to now be a
hard ass. You can't. I don't think it changes because
that's who you are, you know, and part of being
a tough guys like you're just tough and some guys,
you know, people make fun of Sean McDermott for being
kind of stiff and kind of old school, like, yeah,
(46:57):
he ain't allowing people show up late, Like that's not
tolerated in Buffalo. Not shocking that they kick everyone's ass
in the division. What are your thoughts on the Seahawks
(47:20):
quarterback situation. It looks like Gino will be extended this offseason,
but I love the idea of drafting a quarterback sooner
rather than later. Do you see the Seahawks making a
move at quarterback in the next year or two. I
think it'd be pretty crazy to extend Geno Smith. I
haven't looked. I mean, how much money is he making?
(47:40):
Does he have to be extended because he makes so
much money? They gave him three years, seventy five million dollars,
it's pretty good contract. So this is last year of
his contract. His cap hit is forty four million dollars. Man,
so he's not going to plan forty four million dollars.
You wouldn't think I'd have a hard time extending him.
(48:03):
I really would, and I know he's People like him.
He's a good get. He's thirty five years old. That's
pretty crazy. He's sneaky. Probably been on the Seahawks a
little longer than you think. Huh, career earnings. What year
to get to Seattle? Got there in twenty so this
is gonna be as there'd be a sixth season there.
(48:27):
Do you know what's making some money. I would not
extend him. I would just play it out now. I
know it's hard to build your team when a guy's
cap hit is that big, but I would struggle with that.
Now that football season is wrapped, I was wondering if
you could help explain the scouting process that happens after
the college season has ended. We hear every year that
(48:50):
ex player can improve their draft stock by having a
good Pro Day, Senior Bowl combined. Doesn't their season speak
for itself. I remember DJ talking about Jalen Milrow saying
he could improve his draft stock by having a good
Senior Bowl. He just played an entire season at one
of the best programs in the country. This is just
one of many examples. Do scouts really take Pro Day,
(49:12):
Senior Bowl combine into account. Okay, let's factor in some things.
Jalen Milroe is a bad example because he's played for
Nick Saban and Kaylen Duboor, so it's like, well, those guys, Like,
if you're not accurate for those guys, it's a red flag.
I think what he's meaning is like, if he goes
to the Senior Bowl and he looks accurate, people might
(49:35):
get excited about him, but it's not gonna make or
break anything, because, like you said, he's been playing it's
such a good program. So I would tend to disagree.
He's just a polarizing player because his good's so good
and his bad can look so bad, and then you
see some of the highlights of the Senior Bowl. He
just he's just not an accurate enough passer. I think
(49:57):
when you hear guys it's Senior Bowl, it's like if
you play guard, it's like, I think this guy could
be like a second round guard, but he plays at
a program where they're not playing it you play in
the Big twelve. So I'll just pick a team. We'll
say you play it like Texas Tech, but throughout the
last couple of years you've been a starter there. You
don't go up against NFL defensive lineman. So it's like,
(50:18):
I really like this guy, but how can I take
him on the second round? And I haven't seen him
play anybody. Well, he goes to the Senior Bowl. Every
day in practice, he's going up against first, second, and
third rounders. So if he looks good, you're like, damn,
this guy's a player, or vice versa, you're like, God,
this guy's a little overmatch scares me. So I think
it's a lot of stuff like that. It's like a
(50:39):
guy goes and you see him against good competition. But
like Dylan Gabriel, right, he's been a starter for like
six years UCF Oklahoma. What's he gonna do at the
Senior Bowl. It's gonna help or her to stock throwing
the ball to guys that he's never thrown to it
just it can't. I think it's more for the line
(51:01):
of scrimmage. Depending on the programs you play at wide
receivers and dbs, you get to you know, show your
speed in front of guys. It's just it's a small percentage.
I think of the combine, you know, the forty time.
We can act like it doesn't matter. I'm sorry, it
just does. Right that there are certain things, you know.
(51:21):
The draft is a market it's a marketplace. It's like
an economic exercise. Right, There's reasons certain homes sell for
more than others on the same block. More square footage,
an extra room, bigger kitchen, extra bathroom, two to three
car garage. Well, if you go to the combine and
(51:44):
you run fast, if you're a corner and you run
a four to four to zero, that helps you. I'm sorry,
it just does. Just like if you go to the
combine and you're a corner and you run a four,
five eight, that hurts you. Doesn't mean you're not gonna
be a good player, but it does determine your draft stock.
Draft stock is different than how you're gonna be as
(52:09):
a player. It's just what price do I have to
pay to get you? So if I go to the
Senior Bowl, I didn't watch that much Old Miss this year,
and the one game I watched was the Florida game
and Jackson Dart just I mean fell apart. I mean,
he couldn't have played any worse. He looked like Sam
Darnold against the Lions. It was like, this is he's
(52:30):
thrown awful picks. So my exposure to him was like,
I don't know if this guy's good enough. And then
all I hear is like, well, if you really watch
his body of work, this year's way better. It's like, yeah,
I didn't do that. Then he goes to the Senior
Bowl and he looks good and people go, he's really
helped himself because I think people go in it's like, god,
he's pretty accurate. God he's much bigger than I thought.
(52:50):
The other thing is, you know, what you do in
college might not be what that team wants you to do.
So if I'm the if I'm the Raiders, and if
I'm Chip Kelly, maybe I go what Jackson Dart does
or what you know player X does is something that
(53:11):
I think works for us. So people like, ah, why
do you draft this guy that high? And they'd said
that with Jalen Hurts. So to me, draft stock is
all relative to what you're willing to pay for individual teams,
and everyone's price is different It's why draft boards all
look different. We go to ten different teams, you know,
beside a couple players, the draft boards are gonna be
(53:34):
all over the map. But your interviews, your medical testing,
your physical testing does build what your price is. Do
I gotta draft you fifteenth or can I get you
a seventy fifth? Right? So like when you're big, when
you're fast, I mean that doesn't hurt stocks. Now, that
(53:54):
doesn't mean that you're gonna be a good player because
just because you run fast, if you play slow, that's
gonna be a problem. But we have seen guys, countless
guys run really fast and really help their stock. Look
at what's his name from the packers, Watson when he
was at North Dakota State. The other thing is when
you're not at of Alabama or House State or Georgia,
(54:17):
there are just a lot more variables, like who are
you actually playing, what's the competition like on a weekly basis,
it's just not the same. So when you're playing at Texas,
when you're playing at Michigan, when you're a planing at
Ohio State, it actually has a lot of similarities to
the NFL. But you might be a guy that's a
potential first round pick from Oregon State or North Dakota State.
(54:40):
So judging you at those benchmarks, Okay, he has similar
size to seven guys that are pro bowlers at his
position in the NFL. Like that matters. And it's why
it's very complicated. It's a scientific exercise in terms of
like there's no way we can do the measurables. We
can do the speed, we can do the production, we
(55:00):
can do the psychological testing. You're still dealing with the
human being. So finding out the other thing at the
combine and the Senior Bowl, and like once we get
in the free agency and you start bringing prospects into
the building, is you kind of want to get a
feel for the people. So it's like, do we like
this guy is the type guy we want in our building?
(55:22):
Will he vibe? What does our position coach think? You
just spend half the day with him, What does our
coordinators say they just went to lunch together. So you
got to get a feel for the people. Jim Washburn,
you say this to me all the time. It's so
easy for you guys to say, like, hey man, I
know this guy's a shithead, but he can sure rush
the passer. And then we draft him the second round
(55:42):
and then you don't have to deal with him anymore.
I deal with him every day. I sit in that
meeting room for six months with the guy at practice
every day, and it's the head coaching on my ass
to stay on him. And it's right. So it's like
you got to take care of your position, coaches, there's
a balance, like you got to take some flyers, but
the personality stuff is so huge, and I do believe beside,
(56:05):
like I'm with you on Jalen Milroe, like we've kind
of seen it, Like I would not draft Jalen Milroll.
I'm sorry, I would not. He's not accurate enough passer.
But there are a lot of players who are NFL
caliber and could be NFL starters that just don't play
at Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State and their schedule is
just very hit or miss. It's why sometimes smaller school guys,
(56:27):
like if you played a MAX school in like that
one game you played against Ohio State or Notre Dame,
like it's almost like you got to put eighty percent
of your evaluation in that one game. Well, what if
the guy tweaked his ankle in practice? So it's like, well,
actually I still kind of like him, and he didn't
play that well, but he was injured. Like there's so
many different variables that it's hard to figure out. I'll
(56:49):
never forget my last year in the NFL, ziggiansa from BYU.
He ended up getting drafted number five overall to Detroit.
He had walked on on to the BYU football team,
and it's I think his first year he only played
like special teams, and his his last year in the program,
he played defense a little bit and that was productive.
(57:11):
Went to the Senior Bowl. The game, he was by
far their best player. I remember Brett Diach going. If
you watched tape on Zick Janson, he was the best
player on the field, and he was and he shot
up like a rocket ship and he went fin and
he was legitimately a top you know ten talent. But
like it was hard to figure out, like why wasn't
(57:34):
he playing, what's his background, what's his deal? And then
he ended up I think having injuries in the pros.
But it's just a difficult situation factoring in all these variables, right,
it's pretty easy to go trying to think of a
good player like Travis Hunter, like, yeah, his skill set's
gonna translate Abdual Carter. You know some of these offensive
(57:56):
linemen like yeah, there Now are they gonna be good enough?
Work ethic? Are they tough enough? Like? Only time will tell.
But most players, like there's a lot of there's holes.
You got to figure out a way. You gotta get
them with your coaches, you gotta really evaluate the tape.
I mean, the Chiefs spent spend months watching tape as
(58:17):
a group together. It's a huge thing. They do watch
tape as a group together. Anyone that follows, you know,
the Colts. Over the years they put out videos. They
watch a ton of tape together, and you gotta let
that talk to you. But you also there's more to
it than just you know, you gotta factor it all
in and then make the best educated guests. You know,
(58:40):
you can't appreciate everyone listening, battling through with me and
I will talk to you guys next week. Audios. The
volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Hopefully everyone is having a great day, enjoying whatever you
(00:22):
may be doing. I'm trying to get a little better here.
I just sat in the steam room in the sauna
for about, I don't know, forty five fifty minutes. Hopefully
that starts to clear me out. I just I'm just
I can't believe I'm sick again. It's miserable. But I
think the game plan is here is this will be
the last podcast of the week. We've been grinding pretty hard.
(00:45):
Just just I just need a couple of days to
just clear my head. I've given, I've laid it all
on the table, give my people behind the scenes a
couple of days just just chill. So this will be
the last podcast of the week. I will talk a
little football and we'll do a little mail bag as
well at John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms,
(01:06):
get your questions answer here on the show. I didn't
gonna need a bunch of mail bag. So it's the
off season obviously, football questions, free agency, the draft wide open.
I mean, I'm not gonna be breaking down seventh round picks,
but anything goes you know, life questions, fire fire in
those dms at John middlecoff is the Instagram, make sure
(01:28):
you subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you listen on
Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to that as well.
And yeah, we're gonna take a couple of days, take
the weekend, and come back swinging. We have the combine
right around the corner, Free agencies right around the corner,
so we're gonna hit the ground running here. But I
think this, I'm out of juice, so I need a
(01:51):
little refresher and uh, we'll empty the tank here and
then we'll see We'll see you early next week. I
do want to start with with Jalen Hurts, and I
think big picture when it comes to sports. Most players
I've been following sports like as a passion, as a lifestyle,
(02:11):
the majority of my intellectual capacity going toward it for
thirty plus years, and the overwhelming majority of players in
any sport are polarizing. There is a small few that
hit a point where it's like what do you even
say about them? Right? Like a Tiger Woods, a Roger Federer,
(02:33):
or a Michael Jordan. It's like, clearly the best, no
flaws dominate like, what are you even gonna argue, There's
nothing to argue. They're by far the best player that
if you could pick them on your fantasy team, on
your actual team, if you could bet on them, like,
they're just the no brainer best player favorite. That is
a tiny, tiny percentage of these guys, the majority of
(02:58):
guys the best player. When I was a kid, Shaq
and Kobe Like, they were pretty polarizing. Peyton Manning early
on his career could not win big playoff games. Tom Brady,
people thought after he won championships, was he even any good? Honestly,
that was a conversation when I was in high school
and in college, tom Brady, what is he really doing?
(03:21):
Obviously that changed in two thousand and seven, but his
first three Super Bowls he was not viewed anywhere close
to like the Tom Brady he began. It's part of
the business. It's what makes this fun and the thing
I liked the most about sports, which probably has a
lot of parallels to a lot of industries you guys
work in. It's very black and white, right in this business.
(03:43):
How many people are listening? How much revenue are we generating?
Are we increasing listenership? Are we increasing revenue. You're either
doing it or you're not right in your jobs, Like
you got quotas, you got to hit quarterly numbers, you're
either doing it or not. In sports, like at the
end of the day, ye winnose games. But a huge
part during those games is us judging you within the
(04:05):
context of the game. And I think Jalen Hurts has
been a polarizing player since he was in college. Like,
Jalen Hurts didn't just come on the scene when Howie
drafted him in the second round. He was benched in
the National Championship game in the peak of the Nick
Saban dynasty. And let's face it, that is the last
(04:28):
college football dynasty we are ever going to see. Nil
will never and transfer portal will never allow that to happen.
So in the peak of the Alabama dynasty, he was
benched for another guy who is extremely polarizing into a
Tongua Baila. And I think the one thing anyone that's
watched Jalen talk it is it's very admirable his resiliency,
(04:53):
his focus, how serious of a guy he is. You know,
I joke with my buddies on the Eagles, like the
two biggest curmudgeons on the team are Fangio and Jalen.
They're not smiley, happy, go lucky individuals. Like they're old school.
Now understandably with Vick he's sixty six years old, but
like that's kind of Jalen's the way he conducts himself,
(05:16):
and it's why he's talking talked about it over the years,
why he got along with Saban because they were very
similar and like, part of what makes Jalen fascinating is
he's never gonna throw for thirty five forty forty five touchdowns.
That's not gonna happen, like in his short career. Like
he's not getting to twenty five touchdown passes this year.
(05:37):
There were twenty guys in the NFL who threw more
touchdown passes. But I dove into some numbers today and
I was like, maybe I'm missing the boat on this
guy a little bit. Because if you're gonna throw eighteen
touchdown passes in a season, you can play on a
team that's super loaded like the Eagles, and you know
you can get by, but that's not ideal. I would say,
(05:58):
at a minimum, you would like your quarterback to throw
mid to high twenties. But the one thing Jalen brings
to the table to well two things. What is a passer?
Only three full time starters average more yards per attempt
than Jalen Hurts. So while he's not you know, Josh
(06:19):
Allen or Brett Farvar, Aaron Rodgers slinging that pill around,
when he does let it rip, he is pushing the
ball down the field. And we've given him a lot
of credit on that. He is a guy that is
a great deep ball thrower and it shows when they
play and Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff and Brock Purty actually
(06:41):
are the only three guys in the NFL that average
more yards per attempt and the forty nine ers will
you know, they had an awful season offensively, they were
really really good. They were just bad in the red zone.
Obviously Jared Goff and Lamar dominated. But those offenses push
the ball down the field or attempt to the forty
nine ers are kind of a hybrid. They break a
lot of tackles. But like when Jalen makes plays with
(07:03):
his arm, he is not dinking and dunking. He will
let it rip and he's accurate when he lets it rip.
But the other thing he does that we talk a
lot about they have a play that's unstoppable. It's literally
an unstoppable play. It'd be like every time a batter swung,
(07:25):
he's going to hit a home run. Or it'd be
like anytime Bryson Dcambau hit a drive, it's going to
be right in the middle of the fairway. And it'd
be like Steph Curry if he never missed. It's like
every time he shoots, he gets a three, Like, well,
how do you stop it? Like, well, you don't. You
just lose. And that's what happens with the Touschbush. So
(07:45):
he accounted for fourteen rushing touchdowns fourteen, So really you
have to look at him, like, you know, Lamar, Lamar
is a better thrower of the ball, and he is
a guy that's proven now that he can get thirty
five to forty touchdown passes in the year. But like
Jalen's gonna get you fourteen to sixteen rushing touchdowns on
the ground. Last year was fifteen, the year before was thirteen.
(08:08):
If you just pulled the average guy, you just walked
down the street, even if you went to Philly and
said who had more rushing touchdowns and I'm not talking
about super nerdy guy that's always on you know ESPN
dot com stat sheet, just the average fan. Hell, you
could go to a game and just pull the average
fan who had more rushing touchdowns this year, Saquon Barkley
(08:29):
or Jalen Hurts. I do believe that majority of people
would say Saquon Barkley had more rushing touchdowns. Honestly, before
I looked, I would have said that Jalen had more.
And it was only like Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Jamiir
Gibbs that had more rushing touchdowns than Jalen Hurts. Jaden
Daniels was like, oh, this dynamic. He had six rushing touchdowns.
(08:52):
So part of what Jalen brings to the table is
like his rushing ability and his scoring ability as a
goal line running back. He's just he's an outlier player.
We just haven't seen anything like this, you know, because
part of like Lamar, it's speed. It's like the elegance
(09:13):
in the open field with Jalen's power. We're gonna get
down and listen. I don't love the play like, I'll
be honest, not because I think they're like fucking anybody
by breaking rules. They're not. They're just following the letter
to the law and taking advantage of it. And they
got a lot of power up there, starting with with him.
A lot of teams we saw Josh Allen try to
(09:34):
run it. He can't get low enough, so it's an
advantage they have. My issue with the play is when
they go into the position, it just never fails. And
part of sports is like when Steph Curry shoots, I
don't know if it's going in or not. I think
more often than not it's going to go in, but
he misses. Bryson doesn't always hit the fairway. That's part
(09:54):
of it. Like when he gets understander and they go
to touch bush, it's you know, especially on the goal line,
he's scoring it touchdown. But like I think we need
to come to grips with we're evaluating Jalen, like is
he a top five eight quarterback? Well, in the traditional sense,
if you're comparing him like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady
and Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes and Josh Allen, No, he's
(10:17):
not gonna play like those guys. But when you look
at production, the fucking guy's productive and he's a huge
part of their running game. So he gets fourteen touchdowns
on the ground, you had thirteen more with Saquon. If
you have twenty plus touchdowns from your running backs, you
are in great shape. I mean great shape. If you
(10:38):
get twenty seven from your top two backs. And I'm
including Jalen in this, so between Jalen and Saquon, you
have a dominant running attack. So to me, the Eagles
like I just I just think he's a unique player
and you try to put him in a box. You
can't because he's not a player that can be put
(10:58):
in a box, and he's just his career has been different.
I will say this, you play big in big time
moments in sports, it's worth a lot more. It just
is you see in the NBA all the time, like
a lot of guys can score forty in a random
game in January and Sacramento, no one gives a fuck.
(11:21):
A lot of guys hit four home runs. I don't
want to say a lot, but people hit four home
runs in a game, or three home runs, or you know,
thrown eight scoreless innings. It's cool. It's July. What happens
in September or October when everyone's watching it's harder, and
he now has played really really well into super Bowls,
completely under control. And that's where I think his kind
(11:44):
of mantra of like, he's not a super celebratory guy.
He's not mister jumping for joy all the time. Neither
was Belichick, neither was Saban and like their teams usually
played well in the biggest moments, because that personality sometimes
doesn't always serve you in early October. It's like, why
aren't you showing more fire? Because this is a marathon,
not a sprint. And I just I have a lot
(12:08):
of respect for what Jalen accomplished in the playoffs, specifically
in that Super Bowl, because that was really, really impressive,
speaking of a guy that obviously didn't have an impressive showing.
I saw a clip from his podcast where he was
just you could tell Travis Spreshelle shocked. It's one thing
to lose Super Bowl. It's another thing to just get
curb stomps like they did. Now, I think, as a
(12:30):
fan I said this, I do believe it's easier to
just get your teeth kicked in to just the game
basically being over in the first quarter, like we're just
gonna get killed than it is to lose in like
historic fashion like a Malcolm Butler pick or twenty eight
to three in overtime, Like I think those the level.
(12:53):
I mean, it's like getting kicked in the balls over
and over and it just feels like that pain never
goes away, like there's not that much pain because it's
over so fast. It's like getting hit by Mike Tyson
the first ten seconds of the boxing match. It's another
thing to lose in the fifteen round, just bloodbath. You're like, God,
I couldn't have given it anymore. And I think, here's
the thing with Kelsey. These situations are complicating. And I
(13:16):
saw it last year with the Warriors and Klay Thompson.
Now it was different, Like the Warriors were never gonna
cut Klay Thompson. They were never going to He was
more than likely he was gonna play for someone else eventually.
That's not the case with Dras Travis. Kelsey is going
to retire a Kansay Chief If he wants to retire
(13:37):
right now or if he wants to retire after next year,
it's gonna be his choice. The Kansay Chiefs will not
cut Kelsey this offseason, though they could for two million,
and I think if he was any other player not
named Mahomes or Chris Jones, he would get cut. But
he's an absolute legend. He's one of the most impactful
(13:58):
and important players of his generation, not just in the NFL,
but for Veitch and Andy. He's in a league that
is really not full of anyone on scholarship he kind
of is. I also think he's owed close to eighteen
million dollars next year, and I understand he's made ninety
five million dollars and he's dating, potentially engaged, maybe ends
(14:22):
up getting married to a woman that has an unlimited
amount of money, but eighteen million dollars still eighteen million
dollars and living a high priced lifestyle. I've heard a
lot of people talk to like cover sports media about
Tom Brady, like he's not giving up ten years, three
hundred and seventy million dollars. You know how much money
that is to work one day a week. It's like
(14:42):
he has an expensive lifestyle. Rich people like to keep
up the rich lifestyle, you need the money to keep
coming in. For the first time in my life, I
flew first class to New Orleans because we had some
like extra credit from Maria, so I combined it just guys.
Just going by myself, I was, damn, this is pretty
good living. I've always wondered what it felt like to
(15:04):
sit be the first guy on the plane sometimes in Southwest.
I am, but I gonna pay fifty bucks to get
like a two and see everyone walk back knowing I
got a way bigger seat, knowing I'm about to get
free cocktails, free food, just taken care of. He's like,
this is good living. I told Maria when I got back.
I'm like, I don't know if I could ever sit
back in the in the normal seats again. I don't
know if I could do it. I'm I'm sitting next
(15:27):
to Deebo Samuel, I'm sitting next to Paved Sporadic. I'm like,
I see the way these people are living. This is
good living, but it's expensive. You need money to sit
up there. It ain't cheap relative to the other seats.
And I just wonder if you're Travis Kelce, like it's over.
He's not nearly the same player he is, you know,
for a guy that is scheduled to make eighteen million dollars,
(15:49):
if he was just if the Chiefs had to re
sign him to a one year deal, that number would
probably be closer to like two or three or five. Right.
I just think, and I know he's gonna contemplate. It's
got to be a tough decision because this is not
a quarterback where you've made hundreds of millions of dollars.
You know, he's trying to like he's keeping up with
(16:11):
the Joneses. Now look who he's hanging out with. And
I think if you're the chiefs in a weird way,
they will never say this publicly. And these are the
type conversations that Veach and Andy only have with themselves.
They're hoping he retires. They want this to be over
because it's very difficult to get rid of aging superstars
(16:31):
and aging superstars who have led you and the organization
to the highest of highs. I mean, the last there
is a chance. And that's the great unknown about the
reality television show that is football. Jeeves might never make
it do in the super Bowl again. So the greatest
era of Kansasity football might have just happened. Right, we
(16:54):
could have just witnessed it five super Bowls in six years. Honestly,
it's hard to get any better to that in any era.
Five two Bowls in six years and win three of them.
That's fucking as good as it gets. I mean, that's
that's a legendary run. And it's hard to pivot off
those guys. So when you're their situation, I think they're
(17:16):
praying that whenever he makes his decision, it's and they're
gonna need to know before free agency, before the draft,
hopefully you know, in the next couple of weeks. But
I'm out, you know. And I think the thing is
his downfall as a player right now is he can't
move nearly as quickly as he used to. He used
(17:37):
to be just such a great athlete. And part of
getting older in the sport at running back, at wide receiver,
at tight end, at dB is when your speed goes.
If you were once a four to five guy and
you become a four eight guy, it is claring. And
I'll never forget that big play that he had against
(17:58):
the Texans where he may guy missing space and he
took it like fifty sixty yards. I was like, he's
way slower than he used to be. He's still a
great player because his instincts and ability to catch the
ball and get open, but he used to be an
unstoppable playmaker because he was so much faster than every
tight end. We have seen a small percentage of tight
(18:20):
ends over the course of the last couple decades that
could really run. Listen, I mean, this guy's murderer. But
Aaron Hernandez was faster than everybody else. He played tight end,
but he ran like a wide receiver. One of the
things that makes George Kittle such a dominant player is
he as a physical player, like a Rob Grinkowski like.
(18:41):
He likes hitting and he likes blocking, but he can
run like a wide receiver. So you get him in
the open field, he can fly. And that was Travis
for the majority of his career. And part of getting
thirty four to thirty five, thirty six is it just
goes away and it was always going to be differentficult
for them to transition off of this. I mean, part
(19:02):
of the reason their offense has not been the same
is his limited explosive playability. I mean, look at his
yards per catch over the last couple of years. It
has been a precipitous drop. And I admire the guy
because I've, like most people, watch so much Kansay Chief
Football over the last six seven years, and in the
(19:22):
peak of his powers, he was as dominant of a
past receiver slash tight end as you'll ever see, and
he has legitimately won them games. I mean some of
the biggest games in the history of the franchise he's
played a huge role in, and just random regular season
games over the years where he just took over. Those
days are done. And when you pay a premium for
(19:44):
a guy who's not even close to it anymore in
the economics of the NFL, that's where you can get
in some problems. I saw the Super Bowl. You know
ratings now, it's just it's so inflated. They add the bar.
It's just like, obviously, whether you tell me one hundred
and twenty million people, whether you tell me one hundred
(20:05):
and five million people, whether you tell me one hundred
and fifty million people, every single human I know watches
the Super Bowl. I would imagine most people you know
watch the super Bowl. It clearly is a universal event.
And I was thinking about one big advantage football has had,
and I do think the Super Bowl has always been
a big deal, but it has increased in its relevancy.
(20:27):
I feel pretty dramatically over the last couple decades, it
almost feels like an American holiday. And I know that's
a huge point, Like people argue against like we need
the off day the next day, right, treat it like
it's July fourth or a Thanksgiving or New Year's. It's
not treated like that on the calendar, like you don't
(20:49):
get the day off from work the next day. But
humans treat it that way in terms of gathering the
parties and how they build their their weekend, and they
talk about it four weeks leading up to it, so
the other sports have no chance to compete when it
all leads to the end, which is the Super Bowl,
(21:12):
and you gotta watch everything in between. Now, you don't
need to follow the drap that closely, you don't need
to fall free agency that closely. But once the game start,
like making the playoffs, most people know that if you
just get in, you have a chance, because we all
know we're gonna be watching the Super Bowl. Texting with
my mom in her mid seventies, who's devastated. She's a
big canc Chiefs girl. To just hearing stories from Marie
(21:36):
at work of like all the different parties that people
she works with went to and I think it's it's
just pretty cool. In a day and age where we
agree and disagree and everyone's got different opinions on everything,
the one thing that we all come together for is football.
It is by far the most popular sport, and its
(21:57):
big event is by far the most watched event. It
was my issue with the halftime show. A lot of
people think that I believe that Kendrick Lamar is not popular.
I don't believe that. I believe that Kendrick Lamar is popular.
He's not like some Instagram influencer. I don't believe he
(22:19):
was popular enough to put on the super Bowl, was
my take. I think typically when you put people on
a Super Bowl halftime show was just like I said
a couple of years ago, Doctor dre Eminem Snoop Dogg.
These people had been so famous for so long, their
songs are just kind of universally known. I was thinking
(22:41):
the other day about Usher. I remember singing Usher songs
when I was in junior high. I'm forty years old.
Usher Raymond has been in my life for a long
long time. The super Bowl halftime show is not some
like niche deal, and I'm not saying Kendrick is, but
(23:05):
like a huge part of his show was this Drake
beef where Drake is infinitely more famous than Kendrick. Drake
is much more mainstream. And that's what the super Bowl
halftime show is. It's main stream throw out you too,
I saw. I just went to the list of some
of the people that have played it in the past.
(23:26):
It's like Tom Petty, It's just people that most people
have known for decades, and I do think looking back,
it was just a bizarre choice. And I've had a
couple of people like, listen, I'm younger than you, like
we don't like the music of the nineties. I get
that's the way things work is younger people. But this
(23:47):
is not about young people. This show is about the masses.
Why because it's by far the most amount of people watching. Now,
if you're Kendrick Lamarin, you get asked to do it,
of course you say yes, because you will never ever
be able to perform with that many people watching. Ever,
(24:08):
I don't care if you're Beyonce, I don't care if
you're Taylor Swift. It doesn't get any bigger. This is
by far the biggest event. It's why the NFL does
not have to pay you to participate. You show up
and one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty
million people are going to be watching you perform for
fifteen twenty thirty minutes, however long it is. But like,
to me, it wasn't a lot of I've heard like, oh,
(24:29):
these aren't his best songs. I'm not. It's not like
I'm when I say I'm not a huge fan. I'm
not like I'm indifferent. I don't really listen to them,
but I'm more I'm not really a modern day like
I would say last like I said, ten to fifteen
year hip hop rap guy. You know I listen. I
think mumble rap's awful, But I also don't want to
sound like the old guy with the young guys like
(24:50):
this stuff's good, so it's not bad. I do like Drake.
I just think if you think that, like put them
on because this beaf is so big. I think the
beat something you see a lot on the internet. I
don't think the casual person is like talking about the
Drake Kendrick beef walking around society could be wrong. Maybe
I'm out of touch. I'm not acting like I'm super
(25:13):
in touch with everything going on in the world here
and clearly that was a big story because Drake is
way bigger than him. Like that's just a fact. Someone's like, well,
Kendrick has all these streams on Spotify, and he was
like per month, he's like twenty first, or in twenty
twenty four he was twenty first on Spotify, Drake was third.
(25:35):
Even the weekend who played Who Played the super Bowl
a couple of years ago was like fourth or fifth.
I mean these people, and he's a relatively newer I
would say artist, but like that's pretty big. I just
think popularity, which we can argue over all day long,
is pretty important in the Super Bowl halftime show. Okay,
(26:01):
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(27:31):
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Speaker 1 (30:47):
Okay, let's uh, let's do a little mailbag at John Middlecoff.
At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in those dms.
I need a lot of your questions, So make sure
you fire in those dms to get your questions answered
here on the show. We're gonna need a lot of
them over the next couple of weeks, so make sure
that you flood my Instagram with any questions, football, life,
(31:10):
you name it. We can talk about whatever you want.
Everything's on the table. See offseason, So fire in there
and anything but like breaking down some potential six rounders
feet or something. I'm not doing that. But any other
question you want fire in there. We will start with
Joey Hey, John Love the pod. Here's a question for you.
(31:32):
I know you aren't a big NBA guy, at least
I don't think I would say I'm a modern day
NBA consumer. Don't watch many games follow the league. I
listened to podcasts. I listened to Simmons Windhorse podcast I
like a lot, and I listen to like local Warriors coverage.
But why I know what's going on in the NBA.
I just don't watch the games. But I'm sure you
(31:55):
have some thoughts on the Luca deal. Now, we can
go back and forth over whether the mav should have
traded him, but it's universally agreed that the MAVs definitely
didn't get enough in return. Interestingly, the MAVs sent the
league's biggest international star to the league's most popular franchise,
(32:16):
and I like this question already, and they did it
multiple days before the deadline. So even though the gm
may have been forced to do it by the owner,
it's not like they didn't have time to weigh out
other packages. With the NFL being consistently ridiculed for allegedly
rigging the sport, who's to say that is a result
of Adam Silver and other execs forcing something in their
(32:40):
desperate quest for ratings. And yet the idea has gotten
less buzz than the OPI on aj Brown in the
Super Bowl. Why has the possible example of rigging the
sport not gotten the same level of attention. I don't
know about you, but Adam Silver being exposed for forcing
Luca to the Lakers would be a much bigger deal
(33:00):
than me than Roger Goodell telling a ref to give
a catch to Xavier Worthy in the AFC Champions Game.
What do you think? Also, for the record, I don't
think either is rigged. Yeah, I mean, I some people
get more calls than others. That's just a fact. Some players,
some teams, NBA, NFL, baseball referees are human, you know,
(33:23):
I mean, Draymond's gonna get treated differently than other guy.
It's just part of the sport. You know. The Lakers,
Kobe and Shack got treated different than the Kings. Now
we could argue whether the David Stern back in the
day wanted the Lakers in the finals for ratings. I
don't blame him if he did, I get it, but
it still felt rigged. When Tim don g was on
(33:45):
the take from the mob and calling those games, I
would say this clearly, if the NFL was rigged, they
would want the Chiefs to have a three peat and
everyone would have been up in arms, and they just
got curb stumps. So I think that conversation came to
a screeching halt. It felt like the moment AJ Brown
(34:05):
got called that the fire wasn't just lit, they threw
like sticks of dynamite on it. You're like, oh my god,
here we go. Then it just played out as it
played out. You cannot convince me that something shady did
not go on. You cannot convince me that, like, well,
you think he's fat. We just think he's fat. He
(34:28):
just led your team to the NBA Finals. He literally
just carried you through the West and destroyed everybody. He's fat.
He's twenty five, and this isn't one of those like
zions fat yeah, and doesn't play This guy like plays injured.
We saw him in the playoffs, limping around, still going
(34:48):
for thirty forty points. If you could save one franchise,
if you're Adam Silver, it would be the Lakers. Lebron
James is forty years old. Anthony Davis, who actually has
really resurrected his career. Awesome player, but kind of irrelevant
you put him on any team like he's not. People
aren't tuning in for Anthony Davis. This is guys on
(35:11):
the short list of changes the Lakers, and he's twenty
five years old. So do I believe something shady happened?
I definitely think it's a possibility. And if you told
me one, I think the whole Maverick situation doesn't ever
add up. Mark Cuban, if you think about the last
twenty five years, or just think in my life now
(35:32):
I'm forty years old. When I think of owners that
loved their team slashed the sport more than anyone else,
I think of Al Davis with the Raiders and football.
I think of George Steinbrenner with the Yankees and just
like loving the sport. I'm saying, like addicted to just
being involved, Jerry with football. Can you ever imagine those
(35:55):
guys ever selling their team, not like a piece to
get some cash, but like selling their team and going away.
Not in a million fucking years I would put Mark
Cuban under that umbrella of like this guy loves owning
the Mavericks, loves basketball, loves the players, loves it all,
loves the show of it. He just randomly sells his team.
(36:19):
And I thought it's like, well he thought that, like
the television deal is gonna be bad and the business
is can go the other way. They got like two
x two and a half x the television deal, and
he has a superstar player sells a team like that
never added up for people that were in the gambling
industry that clearly don't care that much about basketball. It's
not like the Addison family are like, you know, basketball junkies, right,
(36:42):
It's not like they're banging out. I bet if you
go over to their house or watching like Kentucky play
Tennessee on a Tuesday night, They're not watching Wizards Hawks
on some random Monday. So they buy the team. Clearly
they have a lot of money. They're in the gambling
(37:03):
space in Texas. Is like no guarantee to pass these
gambling laws. It it never added up to me, this
whole thing. And then his quotes about like work ethic
and he's including like Shaquille O'Neil. It's like this guy
was he like a plant. I don't get it, Like
(37:23):
it doesn't make sense. And there's some similarities here with
with the Broncos, where the dude that runs the Broncos
is like married to one of the Waltons. But like,
clearly they're not they had some superstar player, they wouldn't
randomly trade them. They clearly want to run that business.
(37:44):
And it's not I don't know if it's just love
a football more because they like the business. It's a
cash cow. But what do they do They immediately go
out and give Sean Payton twenty million dollars a year
and say, you do whatever you want, make us a winner.
I don't get it. It's extremely shady. Now you'd be
like middle Cooff, you just hate thel. I do hate
the Lakers, But it does not make sense that they
(38:05):
just get handed one of the most talented young players
we've ever seen overnight. It's like, well, they gave him,
you know, the biggest haul in the history of the sport. No,
they didn't. Actually didn't even give him that much. I
mean that's part of it. It's like wait, this trade
happened the middle of the night. They didn't even trade
him for that much. It'd be like if you're a
(38:25):
Browns fan and you just woke up, it's like, oh,
Miles Garrett's you know in the forty nine ers, they
gave you a debo and a couple seconds, he'd be like,
what the fuck? Or you know, hey, cowboys, you just
you traded Mike into the Bills. It's like, what did
you get back? It's like, ah, they traded you a
guard and a second and a third. You'd be shell shocked.
(38:48):
You wouldn't even be able to speak. That's this times
one hundred, except he goes like, you said, the Lakers,
this whole thing shady. I'm one hundred percent conspiracy theory.
Sometimes conspiracy theory. I feel like that word's been overused.
There are just things that are red flags, and this
is a gigantic red flag. We've had a lot of
(39:08):
red flags over the last four or five years, and
this is a fucking gigantic red flag. Now, does Silver
have the balls to do this? If he did, I'll
say one thing, I do respect it if he did,
like it is the right move. So if he did
orchestrate this in a weird way. I'd say, congrats, it's
(39:28):
your finest moments as a commissioner. But if you're a
Mavericks fan, you'd have to just quit watching sports. Okay,
this guy's from northern California. Uh ask me about the Niners.
Love your takes truly do? I'm from Chico home Aaron Rodgers, Well,
he doesn't live there now is where he grew up. Uh,
(39:51):
can't wait for the draft to see what we do
at eleven where if we trade for Garrett Crosby or Hendrickson,
we have hit on on our number one. Trade eleven
down for more picks, Try inside DJ Jones and get
some more O line D line. Sign a veteran wide
receiver until BA gets back. Let's go massive offseason for
(40:14):
the forty nine ers. There's just no way around it.
They're about to pay their quarterback a huge amount of
money and he's in the world like you needn win
super bowls with Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts is never gonna
be you know, on a year in year out, basis
considered a top two or three player at his position.
But if you do a good job building around him,
you can win big. I've seen a lot of random
(40:35):
like I saw Alex Smith with the forty nine ers
when hardball got there, win games like you can win
a ton of games and win playoff games when you
don't have Joe Montana or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning
or Aaron Rodgers playing quarterback. And just because you have
those guys doesn't guarantee you anything. So building the team
and the way you build the team is like hit
on draft picks. That's why the Buccaneers have been productive.
(41:00):
You good? You sounded exhaust on the podcast. Yeah, I
mean I got this flu or something. I don't know.
You tell me. Do you view the Rams as Super
Bowl contender going into next year? I feel like they
are being disrespected by sportsbook and news outlets Projecting next year,
they are ranked eight to twelve by most. They were
the only team to play Philly close. Assuming Stafford's contract
(41:23):
gets reworked, that's a big question. Alongside this much improved
young defense and Snead and mcveigh's demonstrated ability to bring
in young talent, why would the Rams be a top
three NFL contender? Why wouldn't they be along with the
Lions and Eagles. I do think the Stafford things kind
of lingering. If Stafford is not their quarterback, that's a
(41:47):
pretty big deal. They just those two have a weird relationship.
It's like they've had so much success together, but it
never feels like they're both happy with each other. I
don't know, so I go get that situation Red Black.
They a good quarterback play they're a contender. Now, their
defense was not as good throughout the season as it
(42:07):
was in the playoff game against the Eagles. So defense,
especially promo pass rush standpoint. Now you get Verse takes
another step, like what if versus one of the best
players in the league next year, and branden Fisk is
right there, like their defense could be really good. But offensively,
Cooper's gonna be gone, which not that big an eal.
(42:31):
They probably need to add a tight end, add another
wide receiver. I just think the Stafford thing is is
a pretty big question mark right now. But as long
as you got McVeigh and if Stafford's there, yeah, I
mean they're a double digit win team. And think in football,
you just make it the playoffs, like anything can happen.
Think about this, the Eagles were I don't know what
(42:55):
yard line they were on when Stafford got sacked, But
what was at the yard line? I mean, they've worked
that far away from losing that game. That's the thing
with football, you know, it's so cliche game inches details matter.
It's kind of true. You don't make a play or
not make a play. Some coaches just say that, like
who in this room is gonna make a play? Especially
(43:16):
at halftime? We just need someone to make a play, right,
This is the moment. Most people in most of our jobs, like,
you don't have to perform in like twenty minutes, Like
you can do it over the course of a week,
of a month or whatever. Like in football, it's like,
this is our moment. We get thirty more minutes. And
if you're a defensive player, you're only gonna get what
(43:37):
seven eight more series, So you're gonna get, say twenty
to twenty five more snaps. In one of those twenty
two snaps, can you make a play and can you
make a difference? And Jalen Carter did in that game,
and it was the difference in the game. And then
the rest two games were a joke. They beat the
shit at them. What do the Colts need to do
(43:59):
to actually contend for a playoff spot and possibly win
the division. The division is winnable, and I feel like
our roster is pretty solid. We've got a top five
running back when healthy, the defense will be better with
an Arumo, and the wide receiver corps has improved. Obviously,
Richardson needs to prove that he's a franchise starter. I
(44:21):
do think that at the end of the year when
McAfee put out the tweet and then Shane Stiken said
that it was true essentially like, yeah, guys show up late.
That tells you everything you need to know. I think
it is way easier, and any human with a brain
has said this in life, let alone in football, to
(44:43):
go from asshole to lighten up like it's much easier
to start like Parcels, like Belichick, like Mike Shanahan, and
then as you get older or as guys you know
age under you to loosen up on them. It is
very difficult to go from Lucy Goosey, everyone's friend player
(45:05):
coach to then be hard ass. So you're telling me
this guy, these players who had not been accomplishing Dick
were just kind of showing up whenever they wanted. I
can't imagine someone consistently showing up late to meetings with
high level coaches. You think that's happening for Andy Reid
(45:27):
or Sean McVay, Like, do you think that flies with
Mike Vrabel? Like you think you have flies with the Packers?
And listen, this is the pros, Like you just get
fined and listen. Every human being, I don't care who
you are, you might be the most punctual human alive.
You're gonna have a day where something happens and maybe
you're ten, fifteen, five minutes late. Like I'm not acting
(45:48):
like you should never ever be late. Life happens, But
it was pretty clear that it was happening a lot.
And so we can talk a lot about the football team,
you know, Anthony Richardson, how do they fix that? And
this is what McAfee put out, like, there's a culture
problem in this building. Do you think people with Peyton
Manning in their heyday were just showing up late? No
(46:11):
fucking chance, none. So I don't know how you fix that.
And this is Mike McDaniel and Shane Stikeen thing. Both
those guys both said at the end of the year
tardiness was a problem. So How do those guys go
from like Lucy Goosey everyone's friend, you know, Mike McDaniel
(46:34):
wearing sweet watches and Gucci sunglasses to now be a
hard ass. You can't. I don't think it changes because
that's who you are, you know, and part of being
a tough guys like you're just tough and some guys,
you know, people make fun of Sean McDermott for being
kind of stiff and kind of old school, like, yeah,
(46:57):
he ain't allowing people show up late, Like that's not
tolerated in Buffalo. Not shocking that they kick everyone's ass
in the division. What are your thoughts on the Seahawks
(47:20):
quarterback situation. It looks like Gino will be extended this offseason,
but I love the idea of drafting a quarterback sooner
rather than later. Do you see the Seahawks making a
move at quarterback in the next year or two. I
think it'd be pretty crazy to extend Geno Smith. I
haven't looked. I mean, how much money is he making?
(47:40):
Does he have to be extended because he makes so
much money? They gave him three years, seventy five million dollars,
it's pretty good contract. So this is last year of
his contract. His cap hit is forty four million dollars. Man,
so he's not going to plan forty four million dollars.
You wouldn't think I'd have a hard time extending him.
(48:03):
I really would, and I know he's People like him.
He's a good get. He's thirty five years old. That's
pretty crazy. He's sneaky. Probably been on the Seahawks a
little longer than you think. Huh, career earnings. What year
to get to Seattle? Got there in twenty so this
is gonna be as there'd be a sixth season there.
(48:27):
Do you know what's making some money. I would not
extend him. I would just play it out now. I
know it's hard to build your team when a guy's
cap hit is that big, but I would struggle with that.
Now that football season is wrapped, I was wondering if
you could help explain the scouting process that happens after
the college season has ended. We hear every year that
(48:50):
ex player can improve their draft stock by having a
good Pro Day, Senior Bowl combined. Doesn't their season speak
for itself. I remember DJ talking about Jalen Milrow saying
he could improve his draft stock by having a good
Senior Bowl. He just played an entire season at one
of the best programs in the country. This is just
one of many examples. Do scouts really take Pro Day,
(49:12):
Senior Bowl combine into account. Okay, let's factor in some things.
Jalen Milroe is a bad example because he's played for
Nick Saban and Kaylen Duboor, so it's like, well, those guys, Like,
if you're not accurate for those guys, it's a red flag.
I think what he's meaning is like, if he goes
to the Senior Bowl and he looks accurate, people might
(49:35):
get excited about him, but it's not gonna make or
break anything, because, like you said, he's been playing it's
such a good program. So I would tend to disagree.
He's just a polarizing player because his good's so good
and his bad can look so bad, and then you
see some of the highlights of the Senior Bowl. He
just he's just not an accurate enough passer. I think
(49:57):
when you hear guys it's Senior Bowl, it's like if
you play guard, it's like, I think this guy could
be like a second round guard, but he plays at
a program where they're not playing it you play in
the Big twelve. So I'll just pick a team. We'll
say you play it like Texas Tech, but throughout the
last couple of years you've been a starter there. You
don't go up against NFL defensive lineman. So it's like,
(50:18):
I really like this guy, but how can I take
him on the second round? And I haven't seen him
play anybody. Well, he goes to the Senior Bowl. Every
day in practice, he's going up against first, second, and
third rounders. So if he looks good, you're like, damn,
this guy's a player, or vice versa, you're like, God,
this guy's a little overmatch scares me. So I think
it's a lot of stuff like that. It's like a
(50:39):
guy goes and you see him against good competition. But
like Dylan Gabriel, right, he's been a starter for like
six years UCF Oklahoma. What's he gonna do at the
Senior Bowl. It's gonna help or her to stock throwing
the ball to guys that he's never thrown to it
just it can't. I think it's more for the line
(51:01):
of scrimmage. Depending on the programs you play at wide
receivers and dbs, you get to you know, show your
speed in front of guys. It's just it's a small percentage.
I think of the combine, you know, the forty time.
We can act like it doesn't matter. I'm sorry, it
just does. Right that there are certain things, you know.
(51:21):
The draft is a market it's a marketplace. It's like
an economic exercise. Right, There's reasons certain homes sell for
more than others on the same block. More square footage,
an extra room, bigger kitchen, extra bathroom, two to three
car garage. Well, if you go to the combine and
(51:44):
you run fast, if you're a corner and you run
a four to four to zero, that helps you. I'm sorry,
it just does. Just like if you go to the
combine and you're a corner and you run a four,
five eight, that hurts you. Doesn't mean you're not gonna
be a good player, but it does determine your draft stock.
Draft stock is different than how you're gonna be as
(52:09):
a player. It's just what price do I have to
pay to get you? So if I go to the
Senior Bowl, I didn't watch that much Old Miss this year,
and the one game I watched was the Florida game
and Jackson Dart just I mean fell apart. I mean,
he couldn't have played any worse. He looked like Sam
Darnold against the Lions. It was like, this is he's
(52:30):
thrown awful picks. So my exposure to him was like,
I don't know if this guy's good enough. And then
all I hear is like, well, if you really watch
his body of work, this year's way better. It's like, yeah,
I didn't do that. Then he goes to the Senior
Bowl and he looks good and people go, he's really
helped himself because I think people go in it's like, god,
he's pretty accurate. God he's much bigger than I thought.
(52:50):
The other thing is, you know, what you do in
college might not be what that team wants you to do.
So if I'm the if I'm the Raiders, and if
I'm Chip Kelly, maybe I go what Jackson Dart does
or what you know player X does is something that
(53:11):
I think works for us. So people like, ah, why
do you draft this guy that high? And they'd said
that with Jalen Hurts. So to me, draft stock is
all relative to what you're willing to pay for individual teams,
and everyone's price is different It's why draft boards all
look different. We go to ten different teams, you know,
beside a couple players, the draft boards are gonna be
(53:34):
all over the map. But your interviews, your medical testing,
your physical testing does build what your price is. Do
I gotta draft you fifteenth or can I get you
a seventy fifth? Right? So like when you're big, when
you're fast, I mean that doesn't hurt stocks. Now, that
(53:54):
doesn't mean that you're gonna be a good player because
just because you run fast, if you play slow, that's
gonna be a problem. But we have seen guys, countless
guys run really fast and really help their stock. Look
at what's his name from the packers, Watson when he
was at North Dakota State. The other thing is when
you're not at of Alabama or House State or Georgia,
(54:17):
there are just a lot more variables, like who are
you actually playing, what's the competition like on a weekly basis,
it's just not the same. So when you're playing at Texas,
when you're playing at Michigan, when you're a planing at
Ohio State, it actually has a lot of similarities to
the NFL. But you might be a guy that's a
potential first round pick from Oregon State or North Dakota State.
(54:40):
So judging you at those benchmarks, Okay, he has similar
size to seven guys that are pro bowlers at his
position in the NFL. Like that matters. And it's why
it's very complicated. It's a scientific exercise in terms of
like there's no way we can do the measurables. We
can do the speed, we can do the production, we
(55:00):
can do the psychological testing. You're still dealing with the
human being. So finding out the other thing at the
combine and the Senior Bowl, and like once we get
in the free agency and you start bringing prospects into
the building, is you kind of want to get a
feel for the people. So it's like, do we like
this guy is the type guy we want in our building?
(55:22):
Will he vibe? What does our position coach think? You
just spend half the day with him, What does our
coordinators say they just went to lunch together. So you
got to get a feel for the people. Jim Washburn,
you say this to me all the time. It's so
easy for you guys to say, like, hey man, I
know this guy's a shithead, but he can sure rush
the passer. And then we draft him the second round
(55:42):
and then you don't have to deal with him anymore.
I deal with him every day. I sit in that
meeting room for six months with the guy at practice
every day, and it's the head coaching on my ass
to stay on him. And it's right. So it's like
you got to take care of your position, coaches, there's
a balance, like you got to take some flyers, but
the personality stuff is so huge, and I do believe beside,
(56:05):
like I'm with you on Jalen Milroe, like we've kind
of seen it, Like I would not draft Jalen Milroll.
I'm sorry, I would not. He's not accurate enough passer.
But there are a lot of players who are NFL
caliber and could be NFL starters that just don't play
at Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State and their schedule is
just very hit or miss. It's why sometimes smaller school guys,
(56:27):
like if you played a MAX school in like that
one game you played against Ohio State or Notre Dame,
like it's almost like you got to put eighty percent
of your evaluation in that one game. Well, what if
the guy tweaked his ankle in practice? So it's like, well,
actually I still kind of like him, and he didn't
play that well, but he was injured. Like there's so
many different variables that it's hard to figure out. I'll
(56:49):
never forget my last year in the NFL, ziggiansa from BYU.
He ended up getting drafted number five overall to Detroit.
He had walked on on to the BYU football team,
and it's I think his first year he only played
like special teams, and his his last year in the program,
he played defense a little bit and that was productive.
(57:11):
Went to the Senior Bowl. The game, he was by
far their best player. I remember Brett Diach going. If
you watched tape on Zick Janson, he was the best
player on the field, and he was and he shot
up like a rocket ship and he went fin and
he was legitimately a top you know ten talent. But
like it was hard to figure out, like why wasn't
(57:34):
he playing, what's his background, what's his deal? And then
he ended up I think having injuries in the pros.
But it's just a difficult situation factoring in all these variables, right,
it's pretty easy to go trying to think of a
good player like Travis Hunter, like, yeah, his skill set's
gonna translate Abdual Carter. You know some of these offensive
(57:56):
linemen like yeah, there Now are they gonna be good enough?
Work ethic? Are they tough enough? Like? Only time will tell.
But most players, like there's a lot of there's holes.
You got to figure out a way. You gotta get
them with your coaches, you gotta really evaluate the tape.
I mean, the Chiefs spent spend months watching tape as
(58:17):
a group together. It's a huge thing. They do watch
tape as a group together. Anyone that follows, you know,
the Colts. Over the years they put out videos. They
watch a ton of tape together, and you gotta let
that talk to you. But you also there's more to
it than just you know, you gotta factor it all
in and then make the best educated guests. You know,
(58:40):
you can't appreciate everyone listening, battling through with me and
I will talk to you guys next week. Audios. The
volume
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