The volume. The Three and Out Podcast with me John Middlecoff is presented by FanDuel Sports Book. There's no better place to make every moment more than with FanDuel. Great odds and markets for baseball, the NBA, NHL, PGA Tour, and so much more. Awesome new and existing user promotions. America's number one sports book. Very easy to use, safe and secure. You get your winnings fast. I cannot recommend it enough. Love gambling with FanDuel. If you are a new just download the fan Duel sports Book app to get started. Now. Signed up with promo code Colin so they know we sent you. What is going on everybody, John Middlecoff Three and Out Podcast Up and addam again. Well I've been up for a little while. It's it's about two thirty in the afternoon here and nice and warm. Scottsdale, Arizona. Might have a little golf on tap for Minianna. We usually do a weekend mail bag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. You guys know the deal fly up. Just fire into those dms. I don't know if we have enough, so I might move. Might not be anything over the weekend and we'll have podcasts, probably Monday Tuesday, and then maybe I'll do a mail bag, and I'm like Thursday, because you know, next week's labor Day. I think a lot of people are gonna be screwing around, So I might move up the day and just do the mail bag on a Thursday and then we'll just be rocking and rolling the following week. NFL Season Week one. Let's go. Also, share this podcast with your friends, share it with your enemies, share it with anybody. I don't really care, but just share. We're big into grassroots here at the volume. Well, I definitely am. I if your Draymond, you know, just throw up a video on YouTube to like seven million people watch. But you know, the little middle cooffe here needs all the help we can get. So I appreciate everyone that listens and shares, and I couldn't be doing it without you. If you listen through Collins Feed, subscribe to the three and outfeed. I know a lot of you guys that listen through the three and out feed, but you know, Collins Feed is pretty massive, so yeah, that's where you listen. Also subscribe to the three and out feed, and I greatly appreciate it and let's get rocking and rolling. So I'm recording this before a pretty historic night in the National Football League. They're going to for the first time be on strictly a streaming platform, and I'll be sitting on a couch about twenty feet away from me watching the game forty nine ers Texans on Amazon Prime. Now, I'm not going to try to belittle or make fun of, you know, the older I'm gonna consider you, guys, the older archaic. Just always angry at something that screams, oh my god, Amazon Prime. No, I take it off CBS, ORR, NFL Network or ABC. It's like, guys, it's Amazon. It's one of the biggest companies in the world. Everyone I know has Amazon Prime, and I've already checked it already has all the games laid out all season. I think it's gonna be very seamless. Now, al Michaels, who's you know, one of the all time greats. I do think the Kurk herb Street thing little weird, little bit of a stretch, and I'm a Herbie guy. I would have liked an NFL guy. But as we've seen over and over, you can't just take random NFL people and turn them into it, right, Jason Witten failed, Drew Brees never had a chance. I mean, god awful, right, And that's no offense to them as players and their fame obviously Cowboys star tight End Halt future Hall of Fame, and probably Drew Brees, who many people think I'm a hater. I'm really not one of the all time great quarterbacks. They're just terrible media, Like, if you're gonna put a mic in front of your face, you better be able to entertain. And those guys couldn't do it. Again, not shocking for those of us to kind of look at it from that angle, but it's difficult. So I understand Herb Street, who's been doing it for a long time. Pretty seamless transition. You know, they wanted Sean mcvayh he's obviously having a lot of success. They wanted and you know, he got paid a lot of money to stay at the Rams, and he shouldn't have left. He could always go to television. Television's going nowhere, a Ram's roster loaded, ready to win another Super Bowl. You don't you'd be crazy to leave. He made the right decision. John Lynch a little less crazy because gms make way less than coaches. But John Lynch already super rich, like unlike Sean mcvayh he'd worked in television, it would have been a seamless transition, but he turned it down. And don't totally blame him. He feels like they have a super Bowl caliber team and you're much more famous if you become Super Bowl champion. General manager John Lynch, who's also in the Hall of Fame than just Colin. Amazon games for a lot of money. So I completely understand why those two guys did it. And this is going to change the game for sports. As you've seen, Apple TV now has baseball. I think the NBA, which listen, has lost half its audience over the last decade. But one thing that where they might not lose television revenue money is to get the streaming services involved. And whether it's Apple, whether it's Netflix, whether it's obviously Amazon Prime, who's been sniffing around now for years. Pretty sure they had a trial run last year or maybe the last couple of years, and now they've gone all in. Who's to say next year with Direct Tv, it's no longer going to have the NFL package. Next year, the NFL package is gonna be on one of these platforms. And here's the one unique part about these platforms, A little like Live golf. Everyone's like, how is liv gonna survive? It's like, guys, they don't give a shit. They have an unlimited amount of cash. They're not in it to make money right away. And historically, like these big startups, they get funded with all these moneys from the vcs. They're cool with them not making money for a while out right now the economy is a little weird, then they want results. But when times are good, people are cool with pumping a lot of money in to lose it in the short term to make it long term. Now Amazon is not exactly Live Golf and funded by the Saudis, Like big picture, they would like to make money off this, but I think they know we're going to be able to make money off this. I saw Florio wrote that they sold it based on twelve and a half million viewers. Now are they going to get that many viewers? Who knows? But unlike CBS and NBC and Fox, they're not going to be judged by the Nielsen ratings and the irony of the Nielsen ratings, Like clearly the NFL is the most watched television product, but they actually have no clue how many people are watching the games. It's based on meters a couple people in every market that represent millions of people. I always thought when I worked in radio, and it's not shocking to me. Well, radio is dying, not necessarily because of the ratings, even though their ratings are dipping all around the country terrestrial radio. It's because of cars. Now you can't get into someone's car, especially if they're under fifty and their car is less than ten years old, without them connecting to their phone. Historically, radio had the market corner because when you hopped in the car, the only way to be entertained and hear anything clicked on the radio. So they kind of had you by the balls. Now they got this little thing called the iPhone, and I can listen to Spotify, I can listen Apple Music, I can listen to podcasts. I can listen whatever the hell I want. And it's not like I'm in the podcast business. Now I know exactly how many people are listening in radio. Like in San Francisco, for example, there's like eight million people in the market and it's represented by a total of twenty meters that represents the whole market. It's a complete fugazi. It's no one has any fucking clue how many people are actually listening. And television ratings are a little bit similar, though I think there get a closer grasp, Like clearly a lot of people watch the NFL, but they really don't know if it's twelve, fifteen million, ten million. Now Amazon is going to know exactly how many people are streaming, and that number, whether it's five million, eight million, who knows. But they will know every single human being where you are. And honestly, they'll have all your information because you know, if you're an Amazon user, they know exactly what you like, a little Facebook style. It's one of the greatest advantages that these kind of Internet based companies have over the archaic way that media has always done business. It's why they're slowly dying and dying and dying and dying because they can't represent the actual consumer. I tell it all the time, it's like dirty recruiting. I tell this since I've been in the podcast business and I started selling from my other podcasts, I always told potential advertisers, when you spend on radio, you have no clue who's listening. And then at first they're like, well, my dad, he's such a loyal listener. And then as some of this younger generations have taken over, they realize, yeah, you're right, partly because a lot of people are not listening anymore. And when I tell you I have X number of people listening, that's not a guess. That's not an educated guy, that's a fact. We know exactly how many people listen every single month, just like Amazon will know exactly how many people specific demo. I actually think it'll be a more profitable advertising business big picture once they get a couple of years of data, because I'm like, well the Nielsen ratings based on seventy five meters in the market. It's like, give me a fucking break. You guys are pulling this out of the crevices of your butt. And Jeff Bezos, well he doesn't technically run the company anymore, will not. So I think tonight, if you're listening this on Friday, you know hopefully it went pretty well. I can't imagine it being that bad. It's herb Street now. That are pros, but this is the way of the future. Everything will eventually be streamed. It's the reason all these companies are slowly pivoting that way. The cable box dies and dies every single day, every single week, every single year. I mean, we're probably a decade away from those not even existing. Hell maybe even less. You know, and listen the older demographic, like, hell, I still have cable box. But I meet more and more of people my friends, people younger than me that do the YouTube TV that have all the same and it's like, what am I Now? You could argue it's the same price point, and that's ultimately it kind of became. But that is just the way that we're all shifting. So the NFL was, you know, I don't want to say on the forefront because Baseball has already done this, but the NFL has been dabbling now for a couple of years. Now. Here's the thing. A lot of their owners are still old, you know, Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, the Maras, the Rooneys and those that generation of people are very, very loyal. I've said it all the time. My generation just isn't that loyal when it comes to business, like, oh, you can give me a better price, Like my mom used the same people to cut their grass, or to clean their house, or to paint their house. They would never pivot off the people that they use in business, Like I've been going to this guy forever. My generation will be like, yeah, you know, I know my parents love this guy, but I found this other guy for half the price and he just just get to work. I mean, so many people like my parents and their friends stick with people for different services that they all complain. They're like, you know, this guy's not even even that good, but god darn, we love Bill. It's like my generation will be like, yeah, this guy sucks. We're gonna use someone else for either, hell, won't even pay more if the guy's better. And that was the one reason that the NFL was never going to pivot off Fox, CBS and the NBC one. They've been so profitable to them, but to the loyalty. And I think this next probably eight ten years away whenever they renegotiate, and a lot of those people, you know, not going I'm not rooting for their death, but you know, when you're seventy five, you're gonna be eighty. A lot of those people will not be around, and their children will be representing the league in these negotiations. Who knows that there's no guarantee that these people survive. When I say people, I mean Fox NBC depending on how powerful their products are. And let's face it, Apple, Netflix. Now, who knows that the changing landscape, you know, they could all come back to Earth lose a bunch of money. Things change at rapid speed. Now, if they offer more money, the league will pivot this next time around. So this might be the last time these next seven eight years of just watching these games on quote unquote basic channels. Another thing I wanted to get into college football wise, Nick Saban got this new contract. He's making almost twelve million dollars a year. It turns out that whenever Nick Saban is not one of the highest paid coaches in the country, I think it's like top three. His contract has this clause that kicks in he can automatically renegotiate. And I used to say this about Jim Harbaugh because what he did at Stanford then wanted for the forty nine ers, and then his relevancy when he got to the University of Michigan. He was just the ultimate cash cow. You brought Jim Harball in whether you paid him five million dollars a year, eight million dollars a year, and you printed money. Now that slowed down a little bit these last several years, up until this last season when he beat Ohie State. But he was You got in the business with Jim Harbaugh, as an owner, as an athletic director, as a university he printed you cash. I think when it comes to college athletics, Nick Saban might be the greatest cash cow in the history of the sport. When it comes to coaches football or college basket. Well, now, hear me out. About two weeks ago, I U my brother plays at this club in Sacramento area and every Wednesday night they have like a men's skins game. I'm talking to golf and I went to it with him and I go, you know, three four or five times a year, and I played this game on Wednesday night. Get to go home, see my mom. It's a it's an easy one. Play a little golf, you know, try to win a little money. But you know, it's it's hard. You gotta make a birdie on the tough holes. It's it's hard to win a skin. But we're playing with this guy who actually a family friend. He's probably in his mid fifties and has a couple, has three children who were all college ages. They're all going to colleges. And this guy played football at UC Davis in the eighties. Was funny is when we were playing golf, he told this story he was when he was there, Dan Hawkins, Mike Ballotti, Chris Peterson, and Gary Patterson at TCU. So all these coaches that became head coaches at all these Division one schools all across the country were there, and he's telling me about Gary Patterson at time was like a coffee runner. He's like the one guy who was, you know, like twenty two twenty three years old at the time, he was like a player coach basically just finished playing. He went right into coaching. Who we all, every single one of us offense or defense, was like, this guy's going to be a star. This guy's a genius. Was Chris Peterson. He's like, I'm not I'm not saying that now because twenty twenty two and I've seen this resume. I'll promise you all the guys on the team went, this guy's going to be a stud. And if you've ever been around Chris Peterson are obviously people that have listening that have followed his career. You know, the dude was a genius. I mean, he was fan to elite coach, elite coach. But we're talking and I don't know him that well. My brother knows him a lot better. And he starts telling me about his kids and I'm like, Oh, where do your kids go to school? He's like, well, my daughter just graduated from the University of Colorado. But I have two boys. One's a freshman in college and the others of sophomore in college. One goes to the University of Tennessee and the other goes to Ole Miss And I just, you know, just through family, know a lot of people I think that have like college age kids, and I can't tell you how many of them have sent their kids to the SEC. And these are all people from California. And you can't tell me without Alabama's run. And let's face it, Alabama's Run has made the SEC. The SEC before was just a conference that played at one o'clock for US in California on CBS. Well, once Nick Saban got there and they started winning national championship after national championship, and let's face it, a rising tide lifts all boats. LSU one, Georgia one. Their conference made way more money, They became way more relevant. It didn't just drive the applicants for the University Alabama, in my opinion, it did it all over the SEC. And we've seen it in college recruiting all these California kids. Naja Harris was my neighbor. Where'd he go? Alabama? Now, you could argue, once upon a time, like when I was a sophomore in high school, Dj Williams at Dayless Al went to Miami, so the best in the bright Tom Brady once went to Michigan. California guys have been nationally recruited, but at the rate that they're consistently going to the SEC. But I listen, it's not just about football players. These guys are just students. I can't tell you how many stories I consistently hear about parents sending their kids to SEC schools. And listen, it's my theory. I don't necessarily have data to back this up, but you can't tell me that football and the cool quote unquote coolness and relevancy of those schools hasn't added to this. Because before, like when I was in high school, where'd you got Well, you couldn't get into UCLA or CAW. You fucking just ended up at Sack State or your Cow Pauli or San Diego State or Fresno State or wherever you didn't maybe Oregon or Arizona or Arizona State, but you didn't venture to the South. I didn't know one person. I knew a lot of people in Sacramento schools. Obviously my high school was pretty big Woodland. I didn't know anyone they went to the SEC. Not one. Now there's countless kids, and I just to hear in some of these stories all the time. So I think Nick Saban won. He's dramatically underpaid. Whatever the highest paid coaches, he should make double. And I actually had this thought. Every single school in the SEC should probably chip in a million. So if Alabama's gonna pay him twelve million dollars, all the other thirteen schools said chip in another thirteen million a million each and get him to twenty five million dollars. Because of the money he's made them. It is you could argue the greatest hire in the history of sports if you factor in his impact to the conference. Now you know Belichick or Phil Jackson. I mean, there have been great hires, but those guys like Bell Belichick made Robert Craft a lot of money. He didn't the league like, he didn't impact. He just beat the Steelers, right, I mean he didn't do anything for the Raiders or the Chargers or the Cowboys were Nick Saban impacted everybody. And when I see these numbers, my first thought always is, God, he's underpaid. There was a huge breaking news today about Tyron Smith. A lot of people say this, Now, I'd be lying if I know he's a He's a really good player when he was younger. He's been injured a lot. First ballot. I don't know if he's a first ballot. Obviously, he's one of the best tackles in the last you know, several decades when he was right, but he got hurt a lot. He hasn't played a full season since twenty fifteen. And part of the when you draft right part of drafting is they always say, don't draft for need, and that's true, but you don't just draft. There is a balance and part of the reason the Cowboys took an offensive lineman and definitely a guy that projects to be a tackle in the first round was big picture Tyron Smith. One he's just getting older and two he's injured a lot. Plus they had other offensive lineman. Go, you do have to factor in who's on your team, right, because why would they just drafted another pass rusher or another like they I don't want to say they drafted for need, but that impacted their draft. And when this guy got hurt, there was a story yesterday that is hamstring ripped. Then it turns out has actually what happened was is like the knee injury that Beckton had, where the hamstring rips off the back of your knee. It sounds incredibly painful. Like when you read it, you're like, I don't wish that upon anybody. But that's a major blow and the Cowboys because when you win, right, if you have a playoff level season, you're gonna draft in the twenties, So you don't get to pick the best players in the draft. Now that sometimes looking back five six years later, you got t J. Watt or whoever late in the first round. Ironically, I think the Cowboys once passed on t J. Watt for Taco Charlton. But that's a whole nother story. But the reality is I didn't know much about this guy, this offensive lineman from Tulsa and reading some articles from people that cover the Cowboys, like who's gonna fill in for him? Because, let's face it, you lose your left tackle when you have a forty million dollar quarterback. It's never ideal. But they also let their right tackle walk in free agency. They have, you know, kind of a domino effect on your offensive line. Now I've seen it before. In the season, you can patch work something together for five, six, seven games. It's hard right before the season, when you know, seventeen games the guy is not available, the Cowboys would have died. Just have them available for half the season. Give us seven or eight and we'll figure out the other seven or eight games. I saw the forty nine Ers the year they made the Super Bowl in twenty nineteen, Joe Staley broke his leg in McGlinchey tours MCL and they still were the number one seed. Hell, last year they made the NFC Championship and Mike McGlinchey, I think tours hamstring or tourist something and miss the majority of the season, so it can be done in season. I do believe it's a lot more difficult. When you have to go the entirety without your star pass rusher, your star left tackle, obviously a quarterback, you're completely screwed. Now they will have an opportunity to make some claims, but the problem's going to be is the claiming order. Once the big cuts come. When you draft, it's based on draft order that does not change till week four. So if the Cowboys, let's just say, because they're gonna be some offensive linemen to get cut that will get claimed. Now, most guys to get cut I don't think will be viewed as immediate plug in play players and at best their backups. The problem is, let's say the guy is pretty good, that guy is probably not making it past the top ten in the waiver claim order. So the Cowboys, who I think their draft picks like twenty two, twenty three, twenty four wherever it was more than likely the guy that they would want would never get to them. And doing some research about the kid that they drafted, whose name is Tyson Smith, it kind of throws you off because once Tyron Smith, this guy's Tyson Smith is he is a pretty raw product. He came out after his redshirt sophomore year played at Tulsa. Definitely talented, but Texans. Some people in the league like he needs a lot of work. Now, I have no problem with the Cowboys taking quote unquote a project with a ton of talent in the twenties. As someone told me in the NFL, he had ten holding penalties last year like that that was a major issue. Form But this is a team that, let's face it, is not just cool with winning six seven games and they're not even trying to win ten games like they're trying to win in the playoffs or their coach is going to get fired. Now, you could also argue that, well, what do you guys think was gonna happen? This is an aging player who has played a total I think of thirteen games the last two years. In twenty twenty, he only played two. Last year, I think he played eleven. So it's just it's part of the deal when you got older players that are often injured. The problem is, it's one thing if the guy's a linebacker or a slot corner or a wide receiver. It's another one he's you're starting left tackle. It's just a massive, massive blow. NFL kickoff is still a few weeks away, but you can get in on the action now on FanDuel Sports Book with their NFL Super Win bonus right now, anyone who places at least a fifty dollars Super Bowl winner bet we'll get five dollars back for each win your team has during the regular season. You cant the Rams to repeat at eleven to one, you get the Ravens at twenty to one. Sneaky, kind of like the Ravens. I actually think they're almost flying a little bit under the radar. They missed the playoffs last year. Some of the Lamar drama do not forget the Ravens have like seven million players injured. I think they're going to be a powerhouse this year. 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Gambling problem called one one hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org, slash chat, connectut one hundred gamble or visit fandel dot com, slash RG Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop Louisiana or one eight hundred two seven zero seven one one seven for confidential help Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why or text hope and why four six seven three six nine New York, Tennessee red Line one eight hundred eighty eight nine seven eight nine Tennessee one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred Wyoming visit www dot one hundred, dabler dot net, West Virginia and thinking about a massive, massive blow. It feels like just all the reports reading about the joint praxes is the Las Vegas Raiders, who Belichick called their facility the taj Mahal of football. If you haven't seen yet, I think they went to Dana White's office offices for the UFC. Obviously Dana White, Boston guy, Diard Patriot guy, invited their whole team there. Belichick put on one of the championship belts. He had a big smile. It was pretty funny. If you haven't type it into Google, it's it's a funny watch. But by all accounts, the Raiders kicked the you know what out of the Patriots back to back days in their joint practice. And the one guy that everyone kept reporting on that couldn't be stopped was DeVante Adams. And I would say, for me personally, DeVante Adas probably a favorite player in the league. Now I'm biased, He's a Fresno State guy. I mean I followed his career. I couldn't follow it really any closely. But part of the reason is knowing people that know him really closely. I've never actually met him, but I know. I mean his mentor who now is a coach for actually the Ravens, who just tells me that they look pretty good. So I think the Ravens is gonna have a big season. Everything that DeVante stands for is what I would want if I was a general manager and drafted a player, and everyone that's ever been around him would reiterate that he is beloved as one he's just an elite player, but the way he conducts himself, the way is his teammate, just the type guy he is. But when you play with Aaron Rodgers, who is one of the greatest players in NFL history, also kind of a polarizing guy and just a bigger star than you, I wouldn't say you're overshadowed, but you're never the star on the team. It's always Aaron Rodgers team. And he's going to play with a quarterback who now makes I think forty million dollars, and Derek's well established is one of the better top twelve thirteen quarterbacks in the league. I think we all agree he's a good player, but DeVante is now the best player on the team. This is now, to me, DeVante's team. Like when you think the Vegas Raiders, the first guy you think about, in my opinion, is Davante Adams. And I'm not saying he's necessarily the most important because the quarterback always is. If Derek got hurt, they would be in trouble. But as long as Derek is healthy, I do think this is DeVante's Like he's the guy and he you know, he's already a quote unquote star, but I think the way that we look at him now, he's got a chance to even take his legacy game and everything to a completely different level. And by all accounts, that's what he's doing now. You could argue the Patriots, he lose JC Jackson, he don't have anyone to cover him. Bad matchup. I think the Patriots. I get more and more nervous by the day with the New England Patriots because part of the problem is that the Patriots tweeted out this picture of when they went to Dana White's the UFC thing, and it's the entire team and everyone's smiling, having a good time and front and center is Belichick, and then flanked on one side is Patricia and the other side is Joe Judge. Now, those guys had proven to be solid, you know, coaches for Bill Belichick on special teams and on defense. Now one guy's coaching the quarterbacks and the other guys coaching the offensive line and calling the plays. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a hater. Bill Belichick's the greatest coach I've ever seen. That is fucking nuts. That is that's the craziest thing I think I've ever seen in the history of the NFL in terms of coaching. That is. That is wild, and ultimately I think it's going to Now you could argue their team is not as talented, but I just can't view you as anything but a team that's not going to be that good relative to their standard. I mean, they still might get to seven wins, but I can't view them as as a playoff team with Bill, even if he takes over the play calling, he is still depending on Joe Judge to coach Mac Jones and Matt Patricia to coach the offensive line. I'm out, I'm out, but I'm telling you I think DeVante I don't want to quite go Cooper Cup season because I mean, we may not see one of those for a long time, but I think he'll pretty quickly. It's like, this is DeVante's team, and that's a good thing for I think even for the Raiders. Takes a little pressure off Derek in a weird way for a guy that's had to kind of carry, you know, a debacle of a franchise. I mean what Derek has been forced to kind of carry over the years, whether it was from moving, whether it was from coaches getting fired, whether it was from last year, you know, rugs killing the dude in Vegas, to the John Gruden emails. Like most quarterbacks, Brady Manning don't have to put up with that crap. Let's transition really quick to another quarterback. There's a lot of hype on the Vikings. Obviously, Coward is picking them to potentially be like the one seed. He thinks they're gonna be a team that's gonna win twelve thirteen games. I've heard a lot of people just the cover football talk about them being really good. And if you listen, Colin had Kevin O'Connell on on his podcast this week. He's good like Kevin O'Connell's an impressive guy, six five, good looking dude, former quarterback. He's like Kingsbury but feels like he's much more my type offense, right the McVeigh Shanahan like an NFL style offense, not running the spreadbs, but unlike Kingsbury, he's off I think he's married, and he said he's got three or four kids. Actually I think he said he's got his fourth kid on the way. So I'm a Kevin O'Connell fan. But part of their their main issue in my opinion, the last several years, they've had two fatal flaws. The offensive line has not been that good, and last year their dbs were a joke. I want to say dbs, I mean corners. And let's face it, the amount of pass rushers that consistently coming to the NFL has like come in just at rapid rates. Right, more pass rushers every year coming in the league than offensive linemen. So I don't necessarily blame you if your offensive line is average. It's hard to find offensive line and they haven't been shitty enough the draft high but dbs like they missed on a bunch of picks, and I texted with the guy with the Niners, and I said, you know, because they just joined practice with them, And I said, do you think that their offensive line and dbs are going to be a major problem? And he's like, I actually think their offensive line is better than most people think. Because I said that because I saw a bunch of you know, videos going viral of Nick Bosa and kin Law and these guys just destroying them and these like in fairness boasted was just on a mission those two days. Anthony Munios might have struggled with the guy, but he's like, his point was, I actually think their offensive line is gonna be okay, and ultimately their offense has not been their problem. They average twenty five points a game, which you know could be a little better. I think they could be better on offense this year than they were last year. But then he said, their dbs are going to be an issue. Their corner play is going to be a problem. It's a passing league. This is not nineteen ninety eight where every single week you're facing Barry Sanders, Emmett Smith and Ricky Waters. Ricky Waters the only other running back I could think about the tell of my head that the late ninety Marshall falk. You know, so you need to be able to cover on the outside. And if you tell me their dbs stink, I'm gonna have a hard time. I'm not saying that they can't compete to be a wild card, but so many people are picking them to win the division. I just don't see it, not when your major flaw is outside corner play, because that is a position that how many teams that you're gonna play are gonna try to exploit. Why many teams have capable quarterbacks into their star wide receivers all over the place, and even non star wide receivers, you can find random wide receivers and gets seventy to eighty balls. So if you can't cover people on the outside, and let's face it, John Randall ain't walking through that door. Their defensive line is okay, but it's not as good as it was four or five years ago. I think they could have some issues on defense now. Their offense, let's just let's even assume their top six seven offense in the league. Well, if their corner play is bottom five eight in the NFL, that to me, I can't pick you to win the division. Let's fly around a couple of things. There was a video that went viral today of Aaron Donald swings helmet just a massive, massive brawl against the Bengals. I get, like, I don't you don't control who you play in the preseason, and I've said over and over these preseason matchups are so dumb. Why you don't just play the opposite of your division. If you're in the NFC West, you play the AFC West. If you're in the AFC North, you play the NFC North. Keeps logistically, everyone close. None of these games matter. Ninety percent of these teams don't take these games seriously at all. It's just pointless travel. Someone responded on social media like, why do you care about the travel? I mean, I don't personally, I'm not traveling to these games. It just doesn't make any sense for the Rams to go out and play since now these two teams played in the Super Bowl, so ultimately Aaron Donald specifically, you know, was one of the main reasons the Bengals do not have a ring on their hand. So the animosity and some of these practices I get. And even watching Hard Knocks, which was probably the worst episode so far of the season, though there was the funny clip when Duce Staley lost his voice and was trying to coach the guys up and he could barely talk. Is there are fights in all these joint practices? How could there not be? Right? Because it's not a game. So even if the coach goes, if you swing, you kicked out of practice, it ain't the same and getting kick out of a game, it's like whatever, I don't even want to practice anyway. And seeing some of these clips now, ultimately a lot of people are I don't think anything should happen, Aaron Donald, it's practiced, this isn't the game. I don't actually care, but it's gonna be a big deal. It'll be interesting. Maybe they find them or something. Who knows. Again, I doubt anything happens, but you know, I just think some of these matches are insane. Now, whether logistically you're close to the team or not, you would still fight if you had a joint practice with a team in your opposite of your division, whether you're you know, the Nighter's Raiders or it's you know Nighter's Bengals or Rams Bengals, right, but still, I just I don't understand why everyone travels so far for these games, like in the NFL, like, what are we doing? Speaking of the Raiders last year, one of the more head scratching picks. Let's face it, the Raiders had a lot of head scratching picks with Mayok and Gruden. They drafted a lot of guys high in the draft for several years that did not make that much sense. And I would say the two that are the biggest, most baffling was Damon Arnette a couple of years ago, who had an Ohio state, was a major character red flag all over the NFL. He's currently in jail. He's literally behind bars right now now. Ultimately they cut him last year or whatever, I don't know, for having machine guns on Instagram like that. That's just a tight pick where the entire league goes, what the hell are these morons doing? Now? Leatherwood to me is a little different category, and there were some question marks to him at Alabama. He had still been a several year starter at Alabama, So you know, Damon Arnette two, but his character red flags from everything I've heard, were in a completely different category than Leatherwood. The problem with Leatherwood, despite being a starter for Ohio State's awesome too, But Damon Arnett. People didn't question his ability. Well, I actually there's some people that thought he was a little overrated, but the character stuff was really really bad. The leather would think a lot of people kind of question like is he that good? And should he Like A lot of teams had him like second round, maybe even third round just because you played at Alabama Ohio State and your starter doesn't mean you're a lock top twenty pick. And when they took him, I think a lot of people around the league kind of scratched their head. And he immediately was a disaster, Like he couldn't play last year. They had to keep removing him from games. And I saw a headline the day from one of the guys that covers the team that said everything is on the table right now, cutting him, trading him, benching him, moving positions. It is a disaster pick and one of the reasons the Raiders. One thing Mayock and Gruden did a pretty good job of is drafting in the middle rounds. If they just would have hit on one or two of their high picks and missed on some others, they would be loaded. I honestly, they could be the Chargers if instead of taking Cleveland Ferrell, they had taken Devin White, instead of taking Damon Arnett, they had just taken another player who's good. We could be talking about one of the best teams in the league. But those miss picks to me are why. Yeah, I could see them win ten games. I could also see them win eight games. Their offensive line stinks. Sa Kuon Barkley sat on a podcast. The sad part about sa Kuon Barkley in college, he was remarkable. He was He was like Barry Sanders but bigger. I mean, he's one of my favorite college players in the last couple of decades. And he gets to the Giants and you didn't need to be Bill Polian or Bill Wallace to realize, holy shit, this guy's good. Now, you shouldn't take a running back at two. I don't care if he's Walter Payton or Barry Sanders in twenty twenty two, twenty one, two nineteen. Taking a running back that high is a fireball offense. And that's why Dave Gettlman will never, you know, be a general manager of the league again. But he was really talented, and he was like once upon a time when Zeke went in the top five. Early on, it was clear Zeke was one of the best players in the draft. Sa Kwan immediately one of the best players in the draft. But then he gets hurt. He's never been the same to me. Now, part of it is offensive line has stuck, but he really hung his hat on. He was so much faster than everyone else. He was so much faster, and he also had like kind of wiggle. He could make you miss and he could outrun you, which to me, the number one thing that you don't need as a running back, like I can live without, is top end speed. You don't need to be a four four guy to be a great running back. It helps if you are, but if not, like, who cares. This guy had that and actually he was like four to three, but he's never been the same. Now he claims that he's gonna come back better than ever, which I would be rooting for. I hope that's the case, but it doesn't feel like the last several years he has been even remotely close to that guy. And watching just you know, you know, I don't know. I'm rooting for not necessarily expecting it. The Broncos are potentially gonna trade Mike Gasecki, and then when Mike McDaniel was asked about it, he's like, you know, it's stories a little misleading a lot of guys potentially, and he kind of caught himself like, they're clearly might trade the guy. The problem is because he's on the franchise tag, his cap hits pretty high. Maybe they think because they have so many weapons on the outside right now, they're not going to use them. I've always kind of liked Kasecki just as a pass catching tight end, a guy that can run a big target. I don't know why they would move him. Maybe I don't know, Maybe he doesn't fit the offense for McDaniel doesn't think he can block. Maybe he got spoiled being around George Kittle having a tight end think a block. But I like Kasecki, Kennie Pickett a lot of bus every day, the buzz. He's making progress, he's making progress. He might be the starter. I'm gonna say it over and over. I expect him week one to be the starter. Now, I don't have any inside information on this, but it just feels like the Steelers are gonna pull a ropadope because it makes no sense for them to put out that he's going to be the starter. You just prepare for Trubisky, and ultimately Trubisky just becomes the backup. They paid him like a backup, though I do think they hoped he was going to be the starter. But mister Bisky is not good. And I often get dms from Bears fans that one say I'm a hater. I'm not a hater. I wish the Bears were good. They're just not. I wish, you know, I thought their coach was gonna be good. I just don't. I can't tell you I think their coach is gonna be good when I think he's gonna be bad. Now I'm not. You know, no sudamis here. I could be wrong. I can predict the future, but I feel pretty good about making the educated guests that a lot of people like say his name correctly. It's not Uberflus, It's Eberflus. It's like, yeah, I don't really care. You know, this is a guy that was not going to be a head coach anymore where else, So I'm not gonna worry about if I'm missaying his name like Belichick, Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, like those guys deserve to have their names say correctly. Mike Tomlin, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt Lafloor, Michael Floor. I'm sorry this Uberflus Eberflus like, I don't really give a shit. He wins some games. I'll figure out how to say his name, but I expect Katy Pikett to be the starter. Jay Gruden, who has just been out of the league for a couple of years, he's a Sean McVeigh guy because he made Sean mcvagh an offense. The Grudens took pretty good care of McVeigh over the years. John Gruden gave him his first job. When the Shanahans were fired. Jay Gruden not only kept him on, he elevated him. He eventually became the offensive coordinator. I've seen Sean McVeigh. I think he said it in the article that Wickersham wrote about him that I would never have been a head coach if it wasn't for Jay Gruden. And those are the type relationships that, whether it's football or whether it's real life and business, you take care of the people that took care of you. So seeing that Jay Gruden is going to be a consultant for It's gonna work remotely, you know what, I envisioned Jay Gruden's on the staff full time next year. I would imagine part of the reason they're doing that Dan Seider is still paying him money, maybe he's still cashing checks, maybe he's just still easing his way in. But I would expect Jay Gruden to be like Sean mcvayh's offensive coordinator in the next couple of years. And last, but not least, I saw that Tom Brady is going to play in the preseason game on Saturday night. Let's just face it, this Bucks thing feels very, very weird. And I know everyone's saying that, but it's because it does. Tom disappears in the middle of training camp. Now, I've heard stories about people that said, if you just look at it, like he had told everyone when he retired that he was going to go on a family vacation, and then once he unretires, he's like, you know, I gotta stick with that. I'm sorry. When your kids, it's one thing if your kids are forty and they got kids, and once you set dates, it's hard to change. With schools, it's another thing when all your kids are fifteen and under, like they do whatever you tell them to do, so he could have easily rescheduled the vacation. I don't know bye week after the season. He's Tom Brady can do whatever he wants, and his kids are like eight to thirteen years old. Now, I think it's pretty clear that his wife does not wanting to play in the NFL. She wants him to stop playing football. She said that years ago. And this is a situation that anyone that's been in their significant other, their wife, their girlfriend, it does feel like there's some ten there. Now. This is all educated guests, but let's just put two and two together. A guy that is more addicted to football than anyone not named like Bill Belichick Andy Reid just leaves in the middle of training camp for a vacation, I give me a break, and his offensive line are dropping like flies. I just think he's kind of in this weird, weird spot. And if I wanted to put on her hat, I'd go, well, Tom, what are we doing this for? You're not doing it for money, because not like you make You're not even close to the highest paid player in the league. We don't need any cash. We're already super rich. You've literally accomplished everything. You've won seven super Bowls, you got the one up on Bill, you won, you left, you immediately won the MVPs, the personal accolades, the team accolades, Like what are we doing this for? And he'd say, because I love it and I'm still really good. I don't blame him for saying that, but it's pretty clear like this is not like, is he kind of half in half out? I see a lot of people saying that, like, is Tom Brady already somewhat checked out in the moment? You do that, especially in any industry, let alone up football player, it's hard now. I did see some clips and everyone came out his first day back like best practice of the of his time as a buccaneer. I saw someone with the buccaneer said that his first practice back from the vacation was his best practice, which may be true, but it feels like Tom Brady takes practice pretty seriously. I've known people that have joint practice with the Patriots. They're like, every single practice, every time you see him, he's a monster. So I think most tom Brady practice a pretty high level. But it's it's weird. There's just no way around it. Their season. It's not weird when you get injuries, but they just have lost I think four of their five starting offensive linemen, and I see a lot of people it's eventually he's gonna fall off a cliff. The way most guys fall off a cliff when they get older is arm strength. Well, it doesn't. His arm hasn't remotely slowed down. Peyton Manning couldn't throw. Roethlisberger couldn't throw. Tom still can throw. Now he can't move, So you could argue maybe the demise of him. If their offensive line falls off a cliff with a bunch of injury and he's just getting peppered, that could be the downfall, and maybe you get to the point where you don't want to get hit. Now you could argue, how often it's Tom Brady really get hit. It doesn't feel like you get touched that often. But the buck season, man, I don't want Tom to necessarily go away. But if I was a betting man, you know, if you told me Tom Brady retires in the middle of the season, at this point, week seven, he's just like, I'm out. I never in a million years would have believe that like a year ago, two years ago, that's out. But who knows at this rate, especially if you know he's trying to save a marriage. Subscribe to the podcast Firing those dms. I need some more dms for a little middle Coff mail bag next week at John Middlecoff is the Instagram and I hope everyone has a great weekend. Talk to everyone's too. Peace The volume