Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: All right. Dieter and Hutch, Super Bowl Monday. Four words for everybody. Jake. I told you so.
Told you so in August, September, all the way.
And, hey, when we.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: When we talked about it, it was like, you picked the Seahawks and I picked the Rams. And I gotta say, there was a lateral that sort of decided that. Yes.
Not to say. Not to say I was right, because the Seahawks were better, clearly. But it was close.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: It was. It was peculiar, to say the least. With.
Do we have a good nickname for the. The Charbonnet.
The Zach woods pass was backwards.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: I mean, that's pretty good.
I don't know. But also, I like how Kenneth Walker is just, like, very clearly the better running back. And I think there's something to the fact that it kept him healthy, and he's been a guy that's been, like, hurt his whole career. I think that's the element. But it's like, all right, well, we're just going to ride Kenneth Walker, and then he's just glorious. It's really funny.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: My favorite thing about Kenneth Walker is that they call a play in the huddle and Kenneth Walker gets to. Gets the ball and goes like, nah, we're doing something else.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: It's a little. It's a little Le'Veon bell, like, in terms of the patience and just the waiting, and then, like, I'll just figure it out.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Here's how good to Rico is. Because the entire time I'm watching that game, and this is like, this is a compliment to announcers. Sometimes I'm thinking about something that's very strange and very nuanced. They can't be as nerdy and dorky as me. They have a national TV audience. But Tirico bringing up that. That Kenneth Walker played two years at Wake Forest, where they run that slow mesh system where the quarterback goes with the guy and they wait until the very last second to get a read to hand it off was perfect. And then Collinsworth immediately comes in with the Leon Bell, and I'm just like, that's why you're the best in the business, baby. The Italian Stallion. And. Oh, man. Oh, this is great.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Flying him and his crew straight to Milan.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Did you see, after the game, they cleared off a space on the field and he did the intros from the field.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Just went straight into the show.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: I mean. I mean, nobody. No one hustles harder. It's incredible.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: No one spends more time talking to kickers is what I actually figured out.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Even a Smith might hustle harder, but no one else.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Yeah, but that might be Fake.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: It's a weirder kind of hustle.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yes. There's ulterior motives at play.
What did you make of the football game, if you can even call it that?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: I particularly enjoyed how dominant Seattle's defense was because I. I think it's a sick unit. And Devin Witherspoon is awesome. And that was like, you know, as much talk as there was about even worry. It's like, oh, yeah, Devin Witherspoon's just.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Doing the better player.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Just a phenomenal dude.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Did you see Witherspoon on. I think it was the penultimate play before the second Patriots touchdown. It was a deep shot over the middle, I think, to pop Douglas. And, you know, everybody's coming up behind the play because they're in kind of a no huddle.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: And Witherspoon just barfs all over the field.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Completely missed it.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I think I'm the only one who saw it. I rewound it, like 12 times. I'm like, I'm not going to play the cop. You know, I know Twitter doesn't have rules anymore, but I'm like, I'm not going to make some video about him puking on the field, but that was a perfect encapsulation of every Niners fan in that game just running down the field puking.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: I think what I come back to is, like, by the way, funny to see Shanahan and Fred Warner doing. Doing the. Doing the pre game. I'm like, good. They were good. Of course they were good.
Interesting.
I wonder if Kyle does that if the Rams are in it. Maybe he still does.
I don't know if he. Emotionally, he'd be able to take it. Seeing Sean out there.
I'm not sure I'm gonna need a.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Much higher appearance fee for that one.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: I do wonder what the appearance fee was. I'm very curious. Yeah, they did a great job, but I like that he was like, yeah, basically, unless you can run the ball against them, which you can't do, it's really hard to do anything against them. Otherwise, they're just going to sit their safeties deep and you have no chance.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: I'll give Josh McDaniels a little bit of credit. I don't think that he runs a very interesting offense. There's no window dressing. There's nothing setting up anything else.
But he at least recognized the things that we've yelled for three games in particular the last two this year, which is, you got to pick an angle. You can either go crazy heavy, where you bring in an extra offensive Lineman and a fullback or, you know, 13 personnel as Sean McVeigh does, or you got to spread that thing the hell out. And he did both in the game. It just didn't matter because the left side, get this, a left side totally of rookies, one of which was having the worst left tackle run that you've ever seen. Got absolutely destroyed when. When hall got that sack. It wasn't. It wasn't that early, but there was still a little bit of. I don't know, I don't know. Like this feels on edge. And then hall got that sack and I literally just wrote down, we're off to the races.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: There was just like a Tim, like a timber type situation. Every time he's just going down. Also, Jared Wilson, a guy I really liked out of Georgia, specifically at center, I was like, not at guard. I think he should be under center. With his size, I think he's better there. And then to put like a stumpy left tackle next to him, it's just like, I don't know. I think there's a little bit of a malpractice situation going on there.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Well, they had no choice. And honestly, Will Campbell was good in the regular season. He was dealing with the knee thing. His issue was always, okay, well, if he's got bad anchor, his thing was he's a great anchor. So he gets into you and then you just sort of stop. And he has good enough feet to where he can stay in front of you even as he kind of keeps getting pushed back because he just sets.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: And he learns what move and the way you try and beat him. And then he usually adapts unless that's pure speed to power, which he can't handle.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: And when you don't have. Exactly. And when you don't have the ability to hold strong, then it's like, oh, you only have like 32 inch arms, so you're not even able to get into attack. Basically the only thing that you can do is take guys into your body, pause for effect, and then just get run backwards. And yeah, same thing was happening with the left guard.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: It was.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: It was a brutal watch and I just could not understand.
It was such wish casting all week that the Patriots be able to move the ball and it's like, clearly nobody and I kind of understand why. Clearly no one had watched the Patriots in the playoffs. Like they had just found that spot every week where you're like, I don't. Do I want to watch them? Like, no, it's. I don't want to watch CJ Stroud, again, no one watches the Chargers. And then that AFC Championship game wasn't football because, again, all games should be played in domes. Uh, and we would have had a much better read on that on those two, you know, operations, one of which was arguably quality, the other which was the team that played in the Super Bowl. And it was. It was just.
It was abysmal. It was abysmal. And I mentioned to you before the game, like, half of the times May had gotten pressured in the playoffs. He had gone down for a sack.
Right.
At some point. It's on the quarterback, too, there.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was tough because I was sort of arguing with people that are like, well, his offensive line's not protecting him. It's like, they weren't. But also, I saw plenty of times where it's like, that internal clock is not fast enough. No, you gotta get rid of the ball. And there were so many times where. And Darnold, to his credit, regardless of being like, 10 for 28 or whatever he was at certain point, y, he was moving up in the pocket, and the ball was coming out a little fluttery in the first half, is kind of iffy. But he was moving up in the pocket, escaping pressure. He took some shots, by the way.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: He did.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: But his internal clock was a lot better, and he just had a better feel for moving around. And May just sort of stood there and you gotta move. Like, he didn't move. He didn't get rid of the ball. He didn't throw it away. It was. He had no answer. And you can't. As a quarterback, you can't be like, well, my offensive line, it's like, find an alternative.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: You're fast. Run away. Now, obviously, that wouldn't work against Seattle.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Two seconds.
Because he knew he didn't have. He couldn't move, and his offensive line wasn't going to hold up. So he's like, all right, I'm just going to get rid of it.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: The funny thing is, they tried that too early, right? Think about how many throws to the flat that they had. And actually Stevenson made somebody miss. I think it was love in the flat. And I'm like, oh, I haven't seen that in, like, eight weeks. So that's interesting. And maybe we got something going here. And then they're just like, now we're good.
We won't talk about that game ever again. I'm taking my victory lap. That's the best defense I've seen in 15 years in the NFL. I thought they showed it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The two ways that you can beat them are to absolutely physically domineer them up front. Good luck with that. If you're anybody other than LA who completely made that their life's mission, or the deep shot, which again, la, that's what they like to do, push it downfield.
Yeah.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: There's something to be said for Sean McVeigh investing in the offensive line like a year too early. Like sort of when McDonald came in and they, they totally changed how they allocated money and started getting big dudes up front. And they gave the Seahawks the best test this year on multiple occasions. And you know, you do wonder how much of that was proactive in preparing for Seattle and, and viewing that as a trend.
And to the Niners point, will they be.
Technically, this is being reactive because they haven't, they haven't added to their line, but will they make the. Make similar moves in terms of, you know, you have to beat them up front. You don't have the guys to do it. You physically don't have the guys to do it.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: We've talked about this a million times, Jake. We're going to repeat it again because it's, it's never been more true than it is right here, right now. Sean McVay is, yes, usually a year ahead. He sees the trends on where they're coming. Like, listen, let's, let's bring it into maybe a realm that more people quite get. Is Bill Simmons like the greatest sports reporter person, personality ever, or is he just consistently ahead of the curve on what the medium of the next day is going to be?
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Like, he's not bad at it. Clearly he's not bad at it. But is he the best of the best? Does he bring the best takes? Is he clearly a class above the ultimate takesman, or is he just know where the audience is going to be? Bill Hicks once said that the audience is a genius and if you can be a step ahead of them and be there for when you know they're going to show up, that is absolutely huge. Which is why we were five years late to get onto YouTube.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: You literally can say the same thing.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: And maybe, maybe in three years we'll be on TikTok in earnest. But yeah, we're just going to be.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Hitting a gritty seven years after it's gone out of style.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: The ALS Ice Bucket challenge is the next episode.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: We're just going to be doing mid 2000 memes on live stream. So just doing a lot of Jim.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: From the office looks right into the God.
So there's that he's always a year ahead. He sees where it's coming. There's no way that Sean McVeigh watches 49ers Ravens Christmas Day 2023 and doesn't think to himself, I might need to get ahead of this.
We. They have found something that's going to hurt us with, you know, Flores and then even, you know, Jesse Minter going, you know, like, there's clearly right. A tide change happening here.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And a lot of it was, like, about protections and. And being able to handle this stuff. And McVeigh said, well, maybe I'm not gonna overhaul my protections, but I will get guys that can handle complex stuff, and I'm gonna go a little bit bigger. So that way I can, like, leave tight ends in and run a lot of the same things from the same look.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: So, you know, two years ago, he builds the offensive lineup to be this just mauling unit. And it looks totally antithetical to sort of the outside zone system. And it was a little clunky, if we're being honest about it. And then this year, what, you know, let's. Here's devonte Adams, and here's three tight ends on the field. He was just ahead of the curve. It didn't work for him, but they came as close as anybody. They're the second best team in the NFL. But as we've joked a million times, McVeigh's a year ahead and Kyle's a year behind of whatever McVeigh does. And it's on Kyle. And I'm not sure that the step. There's been a step change. Everyone now will respond to this. The step change happened two years ago when Mike McDonald became a. Became a head coach or became a bona fide head coaching candidate. And it certainly happened. When you hire that guy into your division, you better be prepared because the.
The Mongols are at the gates here. So I don't know what that is. Clearly, Mike Leflore in Arizona doesn't present a clear and present danger, but Kyle can't be a year behind. He's got to take it one step further. And as much as we're bashing Kyle on it, like, Dash Motion was awesome. Dash Motion was legitimately a great innovation this season, and I'm not sure that that couldn't be an answer for what Seattle does. But they don't have the heft. They don't have the right hooks up front to really stand up. You need another puny, like player, by the way, a healthy, puny, like player at Left guard. I'm okay with going with finesse at center, but you really have to nail left guard this off season. And while you and I went through the exercise and said, what if we bring in four guys and one of them wins it, this might be the year that they have to invest money in that spot.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: And I think, I think they have to. I think, I think you cannot go into the season and say, all right, well, we've sort of been able to finagle like a decent offensive line.
I think you have to look around and say we're getting cooked, we're getting cooked. And they're going to add skill position players. I think they're going to add wide receiver and they need to invest in Titan. I think it's going to be a. I mean, we're both in the same boat. The whole offense sort of needs an overhaul, especially not knowing what you're going to get from Kittle.
We usually don't take comments till the end, but Linderbaum is going to be a name that's going to be.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: We talked about 18 mil a year.
Like I know.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: And they wouldn't go after Drew Dahlman, who is, I think 4 million fewer than that maybe.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Right. But, but Linderbaum is a people mover while also having the moving ability with his feet. The fact that they pick up that fifth year option is bizarre, but there's a lot of bizarre things that happen in Baltimore.
Dalman was just a step upgrade from Brendel who by the way, again, we're crapping on him by trying to replace the job. Brenda was really good down the stretch. He just, he doesn't match up with Seattle.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: And both of them. He doesn't have a bunch. But like, yeah, you have to spend all off season trying to be. You have to go full Michigan, Ohio State. It does not matter who else you play. You're only trying to beat that one other team. And if you can do that, yeah, there might be some teams that show up around the way. Like Carolina gave a really good run to the Rams twice for no particularly good reason. It just didn't make much sense. But there was just something about it. Kind of like the Bucks back in the day when the warriors were in the heyday. Like they just couldn't handle the Bucks for some reason.
I remember the 72 win Bulls when I was 10 years old, maybe less. They lost to the like recently expansion Raptors twice.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Didn't make any sense. They, they just couldn't handle that one team.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: By the way, with that.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. By the way, I think fifth year option, if I'm not mistaken. I think it's all alignment, which maybe is the same for.
For the franchise tag. I have to look into that. There's. There's some weirdness there.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: I'm sorry, can you.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: With Linderbaum. I. I want to say it's based not on, like, interior offensive linemen. I want to say it's all O lineman. I'm. I might be. That's an out of turn there, but that is.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: That would make sense. That's a logical stance. I don't know that to be true. That's an ascertainable fact.
And I know what website we can use. That would be over the Capcom.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: I think it is. I think it is. Oh, well, okay.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Well, in that case, don't be drafting centers and guards in the first round. You end up in a really weird spot.
So it's.
Yeah, that's a reason not to do it. It's a reason not to franchise tag them. It's also a reason to get a contract dealt with before he hits free agency. Because you're going to be paying a premium now, no matter what. Maybe not as much, but no matter what. You're gonna be paying $18 million to a center, whether you're bringing them in from out of town or you're keeping them in house. So it's merely to say that the Niners, as much as everybody is. Oh, they gotta revamp. They gotta revamp. They gotta revamp. I think they have to re.
I'm with you entirely on the offense. They have to fundamentally rethink how they go about it, what their foundations are, what their identity of an offense is. And in a weird, twisted way, they're in a pretty good position to do that. They have a quarterback that can do kind of everything to an above average to moderately great level, except for be tall. They have enough roster spots that are open that you can change the identity of your team with one off season, but not enough to where you're gonna. You're rebuilding it. So.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: You have enough pieces in place where you have a nice floor, but the ceiling is what you do this off season, and it does have to be very tactically minded. And I think again, as you and I have reiterated a million times over, just think about how you're going to beat Seattle, because clearly that's what the Rams are doing and they're the only ones who really gave them a shot.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I True. I truly think, like. And you have to remember I think it's. I think it's new. OSU is the only, like, free agent on that defensive line. It's either him or him. Him or Mafe.
Oh, I think it's Mafa. You're right, it'd be both.
It's one of them.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: But they have so much money, they can bring back anyone they want it.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: That's what I mean. The rest of that line's under contract. They have, I think, the third or fourth most cap space in the NFL.
You got to get clever. You got to get clever because they can just add depth pieces. They can add. They can keep Shaheed if they want.
They can say, hey, Cooper, Cup's old and we want to move on and even get a better third wide receiver.
They have a lot of options and they have a ton of money to spend.
And I just think it's really hard to compete with unless you're thinking a little bit outside the box and thinking about, okay, not only do we have to match them up, but where are they going to go? Where's the rest of the league trying to go?
And I don't necessarily know that answer, but I think you have to prepare for the physicality of Seattle because everything they do is predicated on that physicality up front to let everything else behind it flow pretty easily.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: It's not terribly different than the 2019 Niners we're rushing for. We're playing zone behind it. They're just doing it in a more modern, more versatile way with a very different kind of or defensive line temperament.
And again, it's not to say that everyone needs to cut. There's going to be a lot of teams that go out this offseason and try to copy that defense. Score is going up next year because teams are going to try to copy what Seattle does, and they're not going to have the dudes or the coaches or the ideas to make that work. That is a one of one operation. In the same way everyone tried to copy the Legion of BOOM and within three years, Cover 3 was dead.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: And even in the details of how they blitz, it looks, let me to be clear on this, like, when the Niners run certain blitzes, like a, like a slap list or corner blitz, you see it coming pretty, pretty clearly. And yeah, for the most part, a quarterback's gonna, like, take a second try and get guys to show Witherspoon. And a lot of those guys, they actually come from where they look like they're lined up and they're going to press their man in front of them. It really. They make it. And McDonald is a guy that's like, no, no. You really have to show them that you're serious about covering this guy and not. Not just flash early and be lazy about it. And there's a little bit of a laziness, not just with the Niners, but with a lot of teams. The way they. They run those blitzes where it's like, oh, you see it coming. It's that guy coming. And that little. That little bit, I think is what. And the speed of Witherspoon and just he's built different.
And same with like, even Warrior. Those guys can just fly and bend and get around those guys.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Thomas, too. I know that Drake Thomas doesn't get a lot of love, but he's a fireman.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: But they fully sell it. They fully sell it.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: They have to fully sell it because otherwise the blocking scheme up front won't be broken. So they're coming into what they know will be vacant because there's no way you can adjust the blocking scheme at the line of scrimmage to adapt to some guy who clearly looks like he's coming. You can't change the mic, can't slide to the left if it's. If it's Iman worry coming off the left or if it's Witherspoon coming off the right. And obviously they can flop it field and boundary and stuff. But, like, if you don't know they're coming, you can't protect against it. So all the only thing that you can do is see it coming and get the ball out fast enough or evade them, which, good luck on the evasion part, or you can get the ball out fast enough. And Drake May was sure as hell not doing that in this game or in any games. Drake May -41.7 EPA, -41.7. He was -22 yesterday. So four games for Drake May in the playoffs, -41.7 EPA. His expected points added was -41.7. In that game yesterday, they had 76 total yards going into the fourth quarter.
76.
It ended, by the way, with 666. If you wanted a total yards in the game, if you wanted a good sign of the end times, but it was. It was a masterclass. And then this is the issue when you bet, like, hey, shutouts coming, you know what is really easy to do on defense? Not play defense hard anymore, which is what they did for the fourth quarter of the game because it was well in hand. All they had to do was not turn it over. They had a play in the final three minutes of the game where Sam Darnold literally ran backwards and slid.
Just. We don't even need yards. We're just going to give you the ball.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Kubiak and Darnold going, sam, hey, let's be smart today, Sam.
Let's. You see, you've. You practiced against this defense. Yeah, let's be smart with. Let's be smart today. And just. And Darnold's credit, no turnovers in the postseason. He just went, all right. And there were a couple floaty balls early, but, like, they actually were on target.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: He had some dimes, too.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. And some of them just. He had drops and other things, but, like, he played a smart game of, like, avoiding pressure and not throwing it into tricky windows. And they went. From a coaching perspective, they went, it's third and 12. We're up nine nothing. We're gonna run the ball on third and 12 because we're not gonna let Sam throw an interception here. Yeah, we're not gonna lose that way. And I gotta say, watching that defense, outstanding. And there's some teams where I'm like, oh, that's conservative. You see Shanahan do some stuff like at the end of halves that time, but, like, no one has that defense. That defense is one of. One of one.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: And then Houston can pull that.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: No one's doing this. No one's beating them if we don't beat ourselves. And our special teams is elite.
How about Dixon?
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Dixon was mixed. Dixon was magnificent.
Myers was great.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: It's. That's a foundational thing with the Seahawks, too, because late in the season, their offense was so garbage. There was a stretch right before they came to San. In San Francisco. It wasn't even good. In week 18, they scored 13 points. They just didn't make big mistakes. And the Niners couldn't score a touchdown against them. But their defense was so garbage. I think back to second mention here. Carolina, the game in Carolina, it was like three nothing at halftime. And then the Seattle defense is like, fine, we'll do it. And they score like, two touchdowns coming out. And then the offense is like, oh, okay, we're here, guys.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Getting.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Getting an A on the group project as the, you know, everyone else lifts them up. They had to do that like four or five times this season. And a credit again to Darnold. He's a Super bowl champion quarterback. Didn't turn it over once. He was magnificent in the NFC playoffs. He was magnificent on that Thursday night game against the Rams when they needed him kind of in the same way. Like Brock Purdy 20, 23 playoffs. Like when. When it was like, hey, it's now or never, bubba. Like, we need you. He. He showed up and he made it happen. Do you want that to be the formula, like your Drake May every game? Hell no. But this is where I'm testing out something.
I'm calling it the Mac Jones theory.
So, Jake, let me ask you. There's no right or wrong answer here.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: If Mac Jones was the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, would they have won the super bowl still?
[00:24:41] Speaker B: I think so, yeah.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Okay. If Geno Smith was the quarterback of the Seahawks, would they have won the Super Bowl?
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Smith? No. But probably yes.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Okay. So this is why it's the Mac Jones theory.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Because he's working with Clint Kubiak and he's in the. And he's in the system. I say yes.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: And again, I. Yeah, but this year's, you know, if he plays like how he played with Vegas.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: No, of course not. But it's Vegas. Like, maybe, maybe not. There's.
It's right there on the line. It was originally the Geno to their.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Stock than Geno Smith over the last.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Anyway, so I'm calling it the Mac Jones theory.
Can you win 10 games with your football team if Mac Jones is your quarterback? If you can, congratulations, you're a legitimate super bowl contender.
Those are the only teams that I'm betting on going into this season. So if Mac Jones was the quarterback of the Patriots this year, they're not making the playoffs, they're not making the super bowl, they're not winning 10 games. So credit to Drake May, they got him that far. But I'm not betting on you on anything.
Can Mac Jones be your quarterback and can you win 10 games and make the playoffs? Because again, Geno Smith won 10 games with the Seahawks last year, didn't make the playoffs. Can you. In 49ers, can you win 10 games with Mac Jones as your quarterback? Yeah. Like, right. Like. Yeah, I think you can. So you. You're now a team that I think moving forward. And I'll just be using this rubric. Moving forward. Can.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Does.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: Does. Does this test. Does this pass the Mac Jones test?
And. And we'll talk about a team that I do think will pass the Mac Jones test, perhaps literally later on in the show.
In the meantime.
In the meantime, how did the Niners.
Give me a name. Give me a name for the 49ers this off season. Be it draft, be it free agency.
That after you watch that game, you watch that Seattle dominance. Not that any of it was a surprise to you that you say you got to get them. It has to happen. This is something you need now that we know who the new king of the castle is.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: A draft piece for the Niners draft.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Or, or free agency. Just a human being who can play for the San Francisco 49ers next year. Who you feel would be integral to overtaking Seattle.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think somebody mentioned it earlier in the, in the comments.
It's, it's too early in the draft season.
But if we're talking about like a practical addition that you could maybe get if you're the Niners in round two, Emmanuel Pregnone from Oregon. I don't necessarily know that he's going to be available late round two. And I again, these are, these are like first impressions. We're in first impression season or draft season. But I don't have the ability to just go like, oh, you can just, you know, trade for Justin Jefferson. But again, I think it has to be a left guard to start. I think you, you need a lot of pieces. You need another wide receiver.
Can definitely use like a gap splitting defensive tackle. They need to add in multiple areas. But I'm going to go the most logical way and that's left guard. I'm gonna say Emmanuel Pregnone. I don't think that's how you pronounce his last name.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Pregion.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Prenion, maybe because he's, he's a really, really powerful guy. That Ioane from Penn State is probably the number one guard that people are targeting. I don't like his upside looks phenomenal. I think he's not offering the same like immediate power punch in the running game up front that I think you need to have to combat it. And I think Prenion sort of has that.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: I am now and we've talked about this guy kind of in passing a couple of times. I think I'm all the way in on the Ed Ingram train.
Oh, the left guard for Houston who is just a mean dirty some bitch.
I feel like he fits it and I feel like if you're going to throw money on the offensive line knowing that you get another year of Trent, knowing that you're not signing any guard for like a crazy long term. But you can front load back. I don't know, they're probably front loaded or backload it. Cause that's what they like to do.
But Ed Ingram is just kind of the mean some at left guard that is worth a Flyer to me, I've been big on, like Teller. I think if you're going discount Dylan Parham, obviously there's more names that we don't know yet because we're going to get to cut season and cap casualties. I think David Edwards is too rich and doesn't really line up with. With what I would want at that. But I think Ed Ingram is kind of that middle ground, and he absolutely has the temperament to.
I think he can hold up. I think he can hold up. It's going to be difficult to get him out of Houston, but Houston's always in such a weird state of flux on their offensive line. They might, you know, they just got rid of Jeremy. We don't want reason.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: We want to completely overhaul the entire thing again.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: So.
Okay, you want to talk next year's Super Bowl?
[00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: So the odds come. Yeah, the odds came out.
The. The odds are obviously wild, right? They're just all over the board. Seahawks and Rams are the two favorites again. There's no free agency. There's no draft. We don't know who's on these teams next year.
Seahawks and rams at 750 and 800. And I'm just looking at FanDuel.
By the way, great, Great day to use a promo code. If you were watching the super bowl yesterday, it's fine. It will just be the demise of American society.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Did you like the one where Ring was like, hey, we're spying on you all the time.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Opt in that.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: That was one of the bleakest ones. There's certain. Certain commercials we want to address.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: No, there were. There were. There were. There were some. By the way, that was the first super bowl where I was watching it, and I went like, there's no way this is worth the money to run one of these ads. Just not a chance. This is a fiscally responsible decision, and.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: Some of them are so bad, you're like, you're actually doing irreparable harm to your company. Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: $10 million for one of those spots, and you're like, okay, I don't like.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: People that were working with the government to spy on you.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, don't. Don't. Okay. Moving on.
Baltimore and Buffalo after that. The packers after that.
By the way, just for the.
For the record, the niners are at plus 1800. Patriots are at plus 1700. I do want to say. Yeah, I do. I do want to say, fundamentally, I. I think that Drake May and I, I. Drake May seems like a really lovely guy. He's a hell of a football player. He put on some great tape in the regular season against some middling competition, to say the least.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Had the shoulder thing.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: He had the shoulder thing. He had a left tackle that had his little stumpy arms and couldn't do anything to help him. He had left guard who was just constantly being driven into the dirt.
It's not all his fault. It was a lot his fault, though. And I'm just telling you right now, he fell for the merino trap. Everyone's. I mean, I saw it today. Oh, no, they'll be back. They'll be back.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: That's explicitly. I watched it with a bunch of Patriots fans shout out, danny. Danny Ammerman took it like a champ.
And they. He's like, they'll be back. You're never back.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: No, you're not coming back. You're not coming back. This was. This was the magic carpet ride.
And all you had to do to see the mismatch in this game was take away the quarterbacks and then look at the rosters and if you looked at the roster of the New England Patriots, you'd be like, wow, they made the playoffs.
Like Stefan Diggs, Milton Williams. I like their, I like their young safeties. Like, there's a lot to like with the team.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: They got some good pieces.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: They have some good pieces, but Vrabel is not exactly, you know, step ahead.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: You see his one eye? He couldn't, couldn't open his one eye because he was. Do you read the thing on the C fours that he drinks?
[00:32:47] Speaker A: No, but I have had C4 before and let me tell you, that took five years off my life.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: What he does is he drinks at least one a day, usually multiple. And then he, throughout the day will update people. He goes, I'm C8 right now. I'm C12.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Well, he's a good football man. Let's leave it at that.
That. That sounds like a good way to get your heart to explode. And I don't wish that upon him because he's a good football man.
Yeah, that much caffeine. I can barely do three McDonald's Diet Cokes a day.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: I have two. I have two coffees and I start shaking. I'm like, I need to sit down.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I will. The idea that the Patriots are just going to keep on moving up because, oh, well, they have the calf space and, oh, they can sign free agent this and that. Like, just not how it works. It's just not how it works. And the level of beat down that they took was very indicative of how far they are away from actually winning a title. I kept telling everybody for the last two months I've been saying they're paper Tigers. Oh, they're in the Super Bowl. How can you be paper Tigers? Did you watch those games? They got their asses kicked three times. They somehow won all three. I understand that we are in a Machiavellian environment where the winning is all that matters, but when you watch a team get their ass kicked three times in a row in the playoffs and then you know the Seattle Seahawks defense is on the other end, you're not exactly confident that they're going to be able to pull off something going into it. So again, Dan Marino, second year, shows up at Stanford Stadium, MVP of the league, setting records for passing yards. Dolphins were a kick ass operation back then. I covered the Dolphins back in the day. I had, I still hear about that, that Dolphins team back in the day because there hasn't been much to talk about really since.
And they get their asses kicked by the Niners and they never get back. And frankly they never get close. Joe Burrow, same ballpark. Joe Burrow goes in, plays the Rams, gets his ass kicked. Now that was a closer game to be fair. That was 23. That was 23. 20.
But just gets sacked seven times. Offensive line is abysmal. Never gets over the hump.
You can go, you can go. Colin Kaepernick never got back. You can go, you know, even if you want to go lower. Chris Chandler, Cam Newton never got back.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Lamar Jackson hasn't even gotten there.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Hasn't even gotten there. Josh Allen hasn't gotten there. Like the idea, and this is, let's specifically talk about teams that had a 500 or losing record going into a year, the year prior to then going to the Super Bowl. If you don't win it, if you don't win it, that first go around because you're Kurt Warner or Joe Montana, right?
You don't win it, you don't go back again because you're like commanders last.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Year where it's like you go from zero to hero and it's. But like you just don't actually have the pieces around you and you fall off. It's a little bit different. But your quarterback is like thin and getting injured, which is always a concern with Daniels it's a.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: And it's just again they're, they're going to have to be a multi year process if he gets back. It's not next year, it's not the year after that. It's not. It's going to have to be years of institutional buildup to get that floor to where it needs to be. Meanwhile, you just had the most wide open AFC you've ever seen.
I presume it's going to be similar next year, but that presumption usually looks. Makes me look like a jackass.
And I just. Again, it's the Marino paradox. It's the trap of it all. And you can even apply it to Brock Purdy. But Brock wasn't coming from a losing thing. Right. So this is kind of Brock's first team where they've built it around him as opposed to, let's be honest with the Patriots. They're building it around Drake May. They built it around Cam Newton. They built it around Matt Ryan. Yeah, you can have. They built it around Dan Marino.
When Brock went, He was kind of a caretaker in 23. He was exceptional. But that, you know, the Mac Jones principle probably applied there, too. So with that said, who do you like next year? What. What are the. We're not a betting channel. We don't advocate it, but the odds are informative. What are the numbers that you like? What are the teams that you like? I want one from the afc, one from the nfc.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Afc. Unfortunately, Dieter and I, I think, are going to pick the team. Same team. And it's hard because I don't love it, but it's the Chargers.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: I love the Chargers.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: I love the Chargers.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: Our friend Mike is in charge of their offense now. Why wouldn't we love it?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: That's why I love it. If it was someone other than Mike McDaniel, I'd be a lot more hesitant. But, I mean, Mike McDaniel is one of my favorite people on the planet. I just think he's incredibly sharp. I think he weirdly might be, like, the exact right match for Justin Herbert's kind of personality.
Like, they're both kind of quiet but, like, energetic, but, like, they don't really. They're like, you know, let me do my own thing.
I think he's gonna get Herbert, and I don't know that him and Harbaugh or like a match being heaven, but it doesn't really matter.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: Because Harbaugh loves to win, and that's all he cares about, is winning.
And I just think there's gonna be. I think they're gonna get.
They're gonna add more to that offense. The offensive line is going to get some pieces and.
I don't know. I just can't quit him. I. I think they have again Derwin James is still helming that defense and they've got some pieces on defense.
I think Jim's gonna have that thing humming And I think McDaniel and Herbert, I think we're going to see the best version of Herbert we've seen in a long time. The other component is like they, they started hot this year and then they fell off.
So it's all predicated on whether they can solve some of the offensive line.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: The, the offensive line was dead. You'll get alt back. That's going to matter a hell of a lot of. But I like this new DC that they have o'. Leary. He was their safeties coach for a long time.
Wonder what I'll say about that. He goes and this is a classic Harbaugh thing. Harbaugh is like the best coach of coaches, man. He's so good at it. And I mean, who was the best coach in that game yesterday? Not Mike McDaniel.
Jim son, the special teams coordinator for the Seahawks. Like Harbaughs are very good at this.
I don't want to take that on blanket. You know, I don't want to paint with the broadest brush. But like I'm yet to see an example of a Harbaugh not being good at this. Jack raised them kids right and this o' Leary kid was their safeties coach. Their safeties have been exceptional. Just, I mean, it's nice to have Derwin James, but they have had really good safeties under Minter. So he understands. I mean that's the fulcrum of everything that Minter was doing, everything that comes from that Baltimore defense. But like Minter, he went and he, he, he tried his trade at the college level for a year, proved that he could coordinate, then comes back.
I think that's going to be a really good hire. We love McDaniel. I think that there's enough on offense. They're going to need a receiver or two. Obviously you can always have more insulation.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Really use Trey Harris from Ole Miss. But I think they need a. McDaniel is going to want, you know, a scat sort of speed guy for a lot of his motion stuff.
[00:39:47] Speaker A: We'll see. I'm interested in what Hampton looks like for, for them in the backfield if Kamani Vidal has a role for them next year. There's a lot of stuff and it might be a little clunky to start, but I'm in on the Chargers. I'm always in on the Chargers. My daughter's in on the Chargers. I love my daughter.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: She's way in.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: She's so in. She said, go bolts in the car today. And I'm like, apropos of what she was just, just thinking about the Chargers dead. I'm like, I have raised you so wrong and so right all at the same time.
The other pick, by the way, if I had to go with the second option, it's not Denver at 20 to 1. It's Jacksonville at 20 to 1.
[00:40:23] Speaker B: I hate that I was, I was looking at them.
I don't hate it. I don't hate it.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: They looked really good down the stretch. They barely lost in the playoffs to Buffalo if they kept their coordinators. There's something there. There's something there.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: FC is going to look weird. AFC is going to look weird. I mean the Chiefs, the Chiefs are always an option. Maybe Texans if they feel like there's.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: Some serious attrition with the Chiefs though, right? They still haven't figured out wide receiver. We're like three years in now.
Offensive line is actually probably in a much better spot than it was.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: They kind of have situations a mess too. Like they're, I think they, they're going to need another year. I mean, Kelsey gets a year older. If he does play. There's just a lot and it might not matter because Mahomes, you know, might come back and get healthy. But I don't know.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: I like right now, after the year, right? He's coming back. He'll probably be there for week one or whatever.
I, I just like the next year. I like 27 for the Chiefs and they can use 26 as sort of a in between year as well. To where it's like, hey, you know, we need to trim some of the fat. We need to clean up the books a little bit. He's coming off an acl. We don't want to rush him knowing like, hey, it's, it's now or never. This is kind of our last go. Like, don't make the same mistake the Niners made.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: He's on it. He's on a 15 year contract. It doesn't, it doesn't.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: They'll be fine. You want to make sure he's right and you know, you're in the post Kelsey era. You need to figure out again what you're doing at wide receiver because all these, these funky, funky little speed dudes don't work.
You can have one as like a nice compliment. That's not a nutritious diet for the passing game. And you go, oh, well, we have Kelsey. That's our short passing game. Well, you don't really have him anymore.
He sucked this past year. He. He's washed. Sorry. All time great player, but washed. And I'm not in on the Chiefs. I think I'd be more out on the Chiefs than the Patriots, but the odds say that the Chiefs are a better bet than the Patriots. How do you like.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Who do you like for the nfc, unfortunately? Well, I cross off the NFC East. I just immediately. I cross them off.
Although, I mean, the Eagles. How about just no one wanting to coordinate the Eagles offense?
[00:42:32] Speaker A: Everyone going Northern California, kid.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: I know, I know.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: State.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: I know. I'm just saying there were like, multiple candidates that were like, nope, I'm going elsewhere.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: Like McDaniel.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Not interested. I'm not interested in what's going on there.
Did you see that Steve Young posted a picture of, like, some historic players and then Jalen Hurts was in it and he cut. Jalen Hurts in half where you can still see him, but he's like, cut out the photo.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: I love.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: He shouldn't have been in the photos. It was like old legends.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: By the way, if you wanted a counter argument to the merino trap, Jalen Hurts is a good counter argument.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: Yep. I agree. I agree.
I cut out the entire NFC south, even though the Buccaneers can always get, like, squirrely. I just.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: I don't trust their coaching.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: I don't think there's enough there. I don't trust anything in the NFC East. The NFC north is like, you're like. You can kind of see it for any of them. And also, I don't necessarily believe in any of them.
I mean, Seattle's the easy answer.
But I'm going to say Green Bay. I'm going to say Green Bay.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: That was my super bowl pick this year. I had Green Bay, Kansas City. That worked out great.
Packers are at 13 to 1.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go with more or less the same odds for this year's Super Bowl. I'm going with a long shot. I'm flipping the conferences. I'm going with the long shot.
Give me Minnesota 55 to 1 right now.
[00:44:00] Speaker B: And who's their quarterback?
[00:44:02] Speaker A: JJ McCarthy.
It's 55 to 1.
You have to take it now and hope it works out. But like that defense, right?
[00:44:14] Speaker B: Or is the quarterback Mac Jones?
[00:44:16] Speaker A: It could be Mac Jones. Now, Mac Jones is not going there unless they give up pick 49 in a trade.
As we've said now, ad nauseam, the Niners aren't trading him just to move up a little bit in the Third round.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: I'll be at one year earlier.
Like they're not doing that.
So it would have to be a second round pick. It would have to be probably a top 50 pick. The Vikings are going to pick at 49.
I don't think it's in Minnesota's best interest to bring in Mac Jones at 49. I just, I don't think that that's worth the.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: I don't think that gets them over the hump.
And they need pieces. They've. They've had so few draft picks, they need pieces.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: I would, I would see who you can scrounge off of the, the Sam Darnold pile of quarterbacks that are just floating but have talent. I would pull somebody like that in. I would maybe give Daniel Jones a little bit more money than Indianapolis is going to give them if they don't do the franchise tag thing. Because you remember when the, the Giants cut Daniel Jones, where did he end up? Minnesota practice squad, Just hanging out, learning, doing, doing the whole reputation whitewashing thing.
Not unlike those AI companies yesterday. And I, I just, I would bring in a better backup because if, if JJ fails, you need to make that pivot before Halloween lest you're not going to make the playoffs. But yeah, I think you have to ride it out one more year with McCarthy. You have to give him a shot to win it, at least in camp.
And Mac Jones at 49, where does that take your ceiling? Because I do believe Minnesota, as it stands with the right off season, of course passes the Mac Jones test.
I think they can win 10 and make the playoffs with Mac Jones as their quarterback.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: I'm not sure.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Okay, okay, that's fair enough. And that's why you didn't pick them. But I did at 55 to 1. So no one would have picked the Patriots. They were a hot team, don't get me wrong. But Minnesota is going to get that sweet, delicious last place schedule they're going to get. Or actually Detroit might get it. There might be a tiebreaker there.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Regardless, they're getting an easier schedule.
Right?
They. Yeah, they have a lot of questions at quarterback on. No questions at all. So did the Seattle Seahawks. They have a defense that is at least coordinated well enough to where you can make the argument they're the best in the NFL at the end of the year. Right. If there were two Super Bowls, Kyle said, two super bowl worthy defenses this year in Houston and Seattle, would it have been ridiculous?
[00:46:49] Speaker B: I like the way he phrased that by the way, he's like, what I mean, is as long as the other, the other parts of the game don't screw up, those defenses are good enough to win it for you. And I think he's right. Yeah.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: So a fair argument to be made. I can't remember who made it in the comments here. Apologies.
Yeah, there it is. Alberta.
Houston, if they can fix CJ Stroud.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Houston also, very, also to be clear, I am of the very, very minor viewpoint that C.J. stroud is actually still better than the majority perceive.
He was terrible in that game, but he was also just being slaughtered.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: He's terrible against Pittsburgh too, to be fair.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: I agree. I agree. I'm not saying he's. He's clearly regressed. I still think people overreacted to how badly he got assaulted in that game and it, and it wears on you when that's a multiple year thing of just.
You can't trust anything.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: And I think the way receivers too, for those games.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Agreed, Agreed. I just think like he hasn't had Tank down.
Listen, like, there are plenty of reasons to criticize him and I think there might be some, there's some other stuff, you know, about how he operates and, you know, his affliction for an Ohio State system that might be, you know, more of a problem. But I do think that offensive line was so, so, so heinous. That's a hard thing to overcome.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: The Niners need to go get that left guard, Jake. That's, that's where I'm at.
Offensive line so bad it ruined the $70 million quarterback. I'm like, get that left garden here.
By the way, I'm going to give you one more. Just wild, wild one.
Give me Atlanta at 50 to 1.
Ulbricht, that defense. Obviously things are going great this offseason for Atlanta. It's going fantastic.
No first round pick but Stefanski with that offense, if he can find a quarterback, you're not looking at 50 to 1 anymore. Maybe he can fix panics. I don't know.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: I don't know, man.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: There's enough pieces there. There's enough pieces there and it's in a crappy, crappy division.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: I like the take, though, for 50 to 1.
I hear where you're going with it.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Can I throw you a 40 to 1?
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Don't be sleeping on those Colts now.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Hey, hey, now, hey, now. I was all in. I was all.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: Best team in football for two and a half months.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: A little too much dip on their chip.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Well, wouldn't we know all about it? Yeah. All right. What else do we need to get off our chest.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: Just a few comments here. Let's. Let's rip through a couple of these.
Tyler, do you think, guys, do you think lynch is on the hot seat this year? Will Jed York let Kyle spend some money on free agents? Will Matt get traded in for what? I like that you did the Eric Branch approach of getting a few questions in at once.
I think if they have a really horrific season, there is a route for lynch to go. I'm, I'm gonna.
I don't think they'll ever fire him. I think it will be a situation of, you know, I'm gonna step away. I think it's my time to let some other guys shine and promote from within and I'll. And I'm gonna, you know, step back from the organization.
Something like that.
Like a, like a fake, like a fake firing. Like sort of like, hey, this is.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: This is what? Oh, that's a Giant thing. That's a San Francisco Giants thing. You've been reassigned inside the organization, right? Bobby still just hanging around, some executive.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: VP of vibes, Something like that.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: I don't know. I think, I think he would probably just go take the money in broadcasting or do something else. Take a year off.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah, take a year off.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: Run for office, something to that effect.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: But he can do whatever. I don't, I don't think he's on the hot seat for this year. I think, I think that they just made the playoffs with Mac Jones as their quarterback for half of the season. They have some good. They have incredible goodwill. They were never really skating on skin thin ice to begin with, but they have incredible goodwill from Jed because this was always supposed to be a gap year and they want a playoff game.
[00:51:02] Speaker B: They would have to not address offensive line gets destroyed by Seattle again and miss the playoffs. I think and have the rookies look really bad. That's the path for that to happen. Yeah.
Number two, will Jed York let Kyle spend some money on free agents? Yeah, maybe exactly. Two for the comp pick situations like two real ones and then a couple like low level free agent guys that are like just under 3 million. So you avoid the sort of comp pick calculations. But I do think they will spend money on two, at most three quality free agents.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: There's a lot of yapping and it's just yapping, nothing more about Max Crosby and half of the teams in the league being interested in.
That's $30 million in money you got to spend for this year.
I would buy three players at 10.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: If you're interested in Mac, and this is something that the warriors don't do, the Giants don't do. I hope it's not a San Francisco Bay area sport problem. To where if we can't have the number one name, we're not going to spend that kind of money. We're only spending it on the absolute top tier product as opposed to having a budget and then seeing the bet. You know, if you want one player that's inside your budget, go to town. But like the Giants for years, it's like, oh, well, we'll pay Ohtani $70 million a year. And it's like, oh, you're going to spend 70 million in free agency? We never said that. Or the warriors like, hey, we're going to, we're going to get Giannis, we're going to trade for Giannis. It's like, oh, so all of these players are available? Well, no, no, no. We never said we'd trade Jonathan Kaminga until we. Absolutely.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: Giannis didn't, didn't come into Silicon Valley with all his, all his potential partners out here.
[00:52:44] Speaker A: He was, he was at the super bowl last night.
[00:52:46] Speaker B: I saw.
[00:52:47] Speaker A: Yeah, he was, he was hawking Kalshee.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: He was networking.
[00:52:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I know he's got a lot of time on his hands because the NBA's.
The tanking issue is out of control. Jake.
[00:52:58] Speaker B: It's a problem.
Last one. Will Matt get traded in? For what?
[00:53:03] Speaker A: I don't think anyone comes in with the second round pick, so. No.
I know. You think teams are more desperate. I think teams are more skeptical.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: I think. I know. I think teams are more optimistic about their ability to be like, we, we're going to scout the quarterback, we're going to get it in the draft and we're going to get it right. I think they're more optimistic about that.
I firmly believe teams will offer a third round pick.
I think there's a route where it gets done for like a third and a pick swap.
I think that's a route where you say, hey, we'll give you a third, and the year after, you know, we'll swap a third and a fourth. Something like that.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: I still don't know if that get it. Gets it done. From the Niners perspective, though, I think they go, well, like if Brock goes down, we're still going to win 10 games.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: So I just, I'm gonna think.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: I don't think my gut actually says no.
Yeah, that he gets traded. But I, I want to say yes. I'm going to say 51 49, Matt gets traded for a second round pick.
Even though I don't, don't actually believe that happens. So I'm just gonna say it for fun.
[00:54:14] Speaker A: I, I think that we're gonna get to do the whole Mac Jones experience again next year with.
[00:54:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:54:25] Speaker A: I'm gonna wish. How about this? I'll bet this. I'm gonna wish he was traded mid August.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna wish it as nobody is. You know, 90 of the people out there don't understand what they're looking for a training camp. So they have to come up with some storyline. That's, that's what I'm going to be wishing for. I'm gonna be wishing Jones was traded. But he'll be there and he'll look fine.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: He'll be there, he'll be there. We have a couple more one on Mac. You can win 10 games with Mac. Why should anyone look for more than a veteran bridge qb? It's it. They act. That actually is the recipe.
But I think a few things, teams that draft premium quarterbacks, even if they're like not the guy, always believe that they can fix them or that they should still just keep trying to build around them. And I think once you have a guy that's proven something, it's very hard to get out of that arrangement. There's only ever a few guys that sort of fit the media mold of coming off like a productive season but not being well established enough to be at the right price range.
So that's why it gets like in that finicky range. But like guys like Sam, that's why that Seahawks trade was so brilliant because you go, we're gonna get younger, we're gonna get some draft capital for basically swapping quarterbacks for a guy that is going to be in a system that he's already familiar with and you know, showed basically his best.
Yeah, I think teams are probably going to keep looking for veteran bridge quarterbacks. There's just not that many ones that you can sort of buy in on at the right age, at the right price range.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: You have to have the untapped potential. So you have to have been in an environment where you can look at it and firmly say, oh, they screwed that up. And then, then they also have to be separated enough from that to where it's like they actually know what they're doing.
The, the rule of thumb I think is you only want quarterbacks that teams are really torn on if they should franchise tag or not. Yeah, like that's, that's the one. So like in this year, I think there's one guy who follows that. It's Daniel Jones coming off an Achilles injury, which makes it even more. But it's like should the Colts franchise tag them or not? And no, probably not. And then they should try to resign them. But then, you know, now we're in, now we're in a weird situation here. So that would be, that would be where I would, I would focus because otherwise it's like, oh well, let's go with a bridge quarterback in the future. It's like, congratulations, here's Russell Wilson.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: Right. Like there's a reason. Or here's Geno Smith.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: I agree. Sage sort of asked the follow up, which is this might be a Galaxy brand question, but does Max stock go up because of Darnold's recent success? Yeah, it shouldn't it. No, no, no.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: I know, I know that I have a counterpoint to this. Feel free to stay.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: So I, I think there are people in the league that operate this way of saying, well it worked for Darnold and, and he's been in the Shanahan system. Like I think it could work for us. We can get him from cheaper for cheaper than what Darnold costed. You know, it'll be. He's like cost almost nothing on the cap this year and worst case we keep him around and, and we, we, when we trade for him, we extend him immediately and it's a cheap deal and he knows the system and he gets the ball out quick. I think the counter, which I, I'm going to preempt this is that Darnold has a lot more arm talent and better size.
So it's a different situation. But is that what you were going to go for?
[00:57:50] Speaker A: It's exactly. It's because there was still, and this is not to validate them, though they have, they can take their victory laps. There was still a very large contingent of people who are smart people in football who thought that Sam Darnold had never been really given a shot and that he was still really, really awesome. It's a weird spot. It's a weird spot. There's not a lot of people out here making the same argument for Trey Lance, by the way. Right.
Taking number three overall. Like no one's out here making that argument. So he, he might be a unicorn in this specific realm of.
He absolutely had failed unquestionably. But it was the jets, it was the David Tepper led Panthers.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: And then he was good. That's the other thing he was an MVP caliber player for stretches with the Vikings last year.
So it was an easy bet for Seattle to make because they had real.
[00:58:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: They had nothing to lose. They had nothing to lose. They knew what they had with Geno. They had seen the best that Geno can do for them. They knew the scheme situation that was coming in with Kubiak taking over the reins. They needed somebody other than Geno. There's also locker room dynamics. And as much as, you know, it's.
I saw a couple Niners fans on Twitter today being like, you know what really sucks? I can't even hate Sam Darnold. He's like the nicest, humblest dude. He's like, out here, like, yeah, I didn't win the Super Bowl.
He's just. He's the best. He's just.
[00:59:21] Speaker B: He's just. He's just a dude.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: He's just a normal, sane, thoughtful dude who his entire goal in life is to just, you know, play football and be nice. It's really hard to dislike him. I really liked him when he was with the Niners. He was a great guy.
Maybe that's the Mac Jones parallel, but Mac Jones ain't got that kind of howitzer. I mean, you saw some of the throws. I know that Darnold did not have a good game yesterday, but there were a couple where it was like, ooh, that's a tight little window. That's a good throw. I don't know about that because you're Sam Darnold and you like to turn the ball over. But, like, he still had that upper echelon that he can get to at times that also gets him in trouble.
So you're trying to tamper down. As opposed to a Mac Jones where you. Now, if you get into a playoff game, you're having to build up, having to build up, and that's not what you want. You don't want someone to play out of their gourd come playoff time because it ain't going to happen. You want somebody who. You. Who can get to that level. If push comes to shove, we can break glass in case of emergency.
You can let it rip. If we lose, we lose. We're already losing, but we need to. We need to have that. We need to have those afterburners in there somewhere. You don't have that with Matt Jones. And, yep, I think that he's just. He's probably a unicorn in this regard, but it probably does help the stock because there's a lot of stupid, shitty.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: NFL teams I'm with you very last one and then we gotta go asking again. Is Raheem Morris the type of pragmatist to utilize an Emanwari nonstandard player effectively?
Yes. But it's kind of hard to find one in that mold you need like a blue chip talent. That said, there are a lot of guys that are like, flexible positionally you can use in a lot of different ways.
I wonder if you could almost make the argument for like Marquis Siegel as being a guy on the roster just on pure athletic ability and smarts that you could mold. I think the way he uses a player like that that is just purely athletic with a lot of burst, with a lot of trigger would be telling.
Yeah. Assuming they don't add someone similar.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Again, you're playing too high. What you. What you're effectively doing is you are taking.
You're playing big nickel all the time.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: And you're doing. Or you're playing big dime. Really? You're taking a linebacker and you're turning them into a. A safety who can cover everything.
I'd like to think that he'd be pragmatic enough to do that.
Seattle wasn't doing that last year. They didn't have the dudes they were trying love up there, and then they just said, yeah, that ain't. That ain't for us. So I think it is just the same reason that Baltimore wasn't doing it until Kyle Hamilton shows up. So I think the draft will have to be the telling part. There's no player that you're getting in free agency that you're sliding into that role. They have to be young. They have to be crazy athletic. They might only be here for a good time, not for a long time. But as we saw with Eman Worry, who again injured in the game yesterday with just an unbelievable. There were a couple like, Jesus Christ hits in that game.
I will. We will, of course, be looking for them. We will be looking for unique players that if you wanted to play this game, you can build a defense around their particular skill set. Not a lot of crazy athletes like that. It should be pretty easy to identify.
[01:02:27] Speaker B: I'm with you. Tough to find them. We will be back later in this week and sort of pivoting to draft stuff.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: We're having fun with it. Talk to you guys then. Bye.
