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John Middlecock Ring Out Podcast Halloween, Happy Halloween. I'd be lying if I said I live in this condo complex, so I have a I have like an indoor. You know, probably like eight or nine rooms on my floor, and people put you know, candy out there for the kids, and you know, during the Niner Cardinal game, I may or may not have made about eight different runs to my neighbors and just jacked a bunch of recess. I've I'm pretty sugar and chocolate it up right now fired up. We'll dive into the Niners game, of course. And then I had Carson Palmer talked to him on Wednesday for about an hour. He's you know, probably be as cool if a guest is all ever get just in terms of he me an hour of his time just talking a little bit of everything from his career to play in the position, to you know, what a work week entails, what time he gets up up to play in some of those Steeler Ravens, Niners and Seattle defenses, to just you know what he thinks about different players. He was awesome. I mean, it was it was cool of an interview as I've ever done. Uh, it was. It was really really cool. So I'm going to dive into the game. Then I'll go to that. And then I went through all the weekends games. I went through all the weekends games at the end, No Middlecoff mail bag at John Middlecoff is usually slide up into those dms. But just the podcast is so long, it's already you know, gonna be about an hour and a half. So you know, I know, younger millennials, you know, it's hard to keep everyone's attention. But the Palmer interview is about an hour or just in itself, it's it's awesome, he's he's the man, but so the Niners and I've been thinking a lot about it this week is when Coward compared to the Kyle to Belichick like he was the next Belichick earlier this year, I thought it was kind of nuts. And if you've listened to me, you know, like I've supported Kyle even when they were losing, just because it was clear he was a genius coach. But now looking back, like think about the Falcons we all have, Like know that buddy that gets married to the girl that kind of keeps his life just locked and loaded, Like the moment she leaves on vacation the house and shambles if the kids are there, he can't watch a kid like he's just he's a wreck, Like he needs that person. Think about dan Quinn's career. When Kyle Shanahan was with him, they took on the world. I mean they were kicking the Patriots ass in the Super Bowl. Like, if Kyle Shanahan stays with them for three or four years, dan Quinn isn't about to get fired. Kyle leaves them, they have crumbled. I mean, they're just in shambles and Kyle is just kicking ass and taking names. Team's eight and no. Two years ago on the date of recording this, they traded for Jimmy Garoppolo and they were eight two years later or eight no, Like we knew Kyle was coming years ago with dan Quinn, like he was taking a league by storm with his play calling. I was thinking about it the other day talking with a buddy in the league. When I first got in the NFL in like twenty ten and eleven, before Mike Shanahan got the Redskins job. Maybe Mike Shanahan just got the Redskins job the Houston Texans and that thing was rolling. They were unreal. They were so good on offense. They were the number one rushing offense, and obviously Kyle and Kubiak, you know, we're just kicking everyone's ass. Now, they couldn't beat the Patriots, but those offenses were awesome. Like Kyle Shanahan, it's just an incredible offensive coach. I don't know anyway else to say it. If I needed one guy to call me a play, he might. You know he'd be in the mix. Coach read Sean Payton, Josh McDaniels like he's on that level. It's as good as it gets. And I was difficult on Kyle because I thought he was being a little difficult on Jimmy early in training camp when when it was just like god, Jimmy's throwing five picks in practice, He's thrown back to back pick sixes, and just hearing stories that Kyle's really hard on him, which I'm good at. I like coaches to be on guys, right, we all do. That's healthy. But I did think Jimmy was a little fragile coming off an a cl injury and Kyle was just smothering him. But his style works. Even Matt Ryan that first year said, you know, Kyle was driving him not so the offense was hard. The next year, Matt Ryan had the greatest year he'll ever have in his life, won the freaking MVP like Jimmy Garoppolo tonight looks like a top five or six quarterback in the NFL. And who would have thought this five or six weeks ago. Now, obviously, Jimmy's unique. He has a base and fundamentals learned from josh In, Belichick and Brady, and then he gets to go to Kyle. He should thank the football gods every day that in Jimmy Garoppolo's football life in the National Football League, he has gone from the New England Patriots to Kyle Shanahan like that is not normal. I talked to Kyle, when I talked to Carson Palmer, he went from the Bengals to the Raiders before he went to Bruce Areas. So not everyone gets a smooth landing, but the Niners are coming and they ain't going away for a while because they clearly got a really special head coach. And the scary thing, as you saw tonight, is if Jimmy's gonna be that good, and he was I think thirty eight or twenty eight to thirty seven, but really had multiple drops. That number easily could have been thirty or thirty one of thirty seven four touchdowns he looked like a dude, and I listen, they're my team in the backyard. I talk about him, cover them. I think about him a lot. I know this team better than any team in the NFL, and my reservation has just been, like, is Jimmy gonna be good enough in the playoffs? When you play Drew Brees, when you play Aaron Rodgers, when you play Russell Wilson, And we just don't know. I mean, the guy's only made nineteen career starts, so it'd be unfair to even think like we had. We don't have a definitive answer, and we won't know until he does it. But I had forgotten like he's got some of that in the bag. And when you're playing like they're playing with two backup tackles, so they're getting pressure with Chandler Jones one of the best pass rushes in the league, and Jimmy sitting in that pocket, he's you know, slowly moving to the left, moving to the right, sliding up and just delivering darts. Because when Jimmy is on and he's in the rhythm, he's a really, really accurate quarterback. And I talked about this last week about the trade deadline when they gave a third and a fourth for Emmanuel Sanders. Yeah, they overpaid. They needed overpaid though, because they desperately needed this position. And I mean, Emanuel Sanders looks like Jerry Rice on this team just because they were so desperate for a wide receiver. But then Deebo and Kittle and their running backs, like they're just really good. This team, the forty nine ers, you know, I think, I think I can confidently say it now, is a Super Bowl level contender. Like they are going to be tough to beat because they're eight. No, so as long as they go four and four down the stretch, they're gonna be twelve and four, and I mean there'll be a lock to win the division. Now, if somehow they can go six and two in the second half, depending on who they lose to, they may get the number one seed. Now, Levi's isn't some huge home field advantage, But to me, the bigger issue for them would be going on the road to Lamboat or going on the road to New Orleans. That would be very difficult to win. Though, if you can run the ball and you can play defense, you have a chance because those things travel, So they have that going for him. Now I'm giving them somewhat of a pass. Thursday Night, Short week. Kyler's actually not terrible. I'm actually kind of bullish on Kyler. You watch him, you were like, this guy is not only not going to be a bust, I think he's gonna be pretty good. He's gonna be hell. He might be a problem, even though I hate to spread offense, but it works for him. They were missing David Johnson, They're missing the Edmund's kid. They gave the Niners a pretty good game. These Sers and had games are weird. But the Niners man at one point in time the second half, they were all double digits. They had the ball, they just couldn't kind of put it away, and then they hit a big play at the end to make the game a little closer. But the forty nine ers and Kyle Shanahan, can I say I forced to be reckoned with like they're the real deal? You know this is just I don't I'm not saying this is their year, but by no means are they just going away or some flash in a pan. And clearly for the big picture, Jimmy doesn't make that much money. They have a ton of young talent on their team, Like this is a team that's going to be around for a couple of years. They have a star head coach, a stud defensive coordinator, which maybe they lose after the season, maybe they don't. I still be a little shocked of defensive coordinators are getting jobs coaches still, owners still want offensive coaches. But as long as you got Kyle Shanahan, who's the breadwinner in this family right now, and the way he's got Jimmy playing, and Jimmy there's a lot of credit to Jimmy worked at it and created this coming off the ACL But man, they are they're a fun team to watch. Tethin can be a real nightmare for your little ones. So are you looking for the best relief to soothe teething pain? Or Highlands Natural's baby oral pain relief can help us the pain. It's gentle, natural, active ingredients like camemil and arnica. They'll soothe your baby's mouth and gums. 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What does it take to be a WW superstar? What are the tools I will need to give me every possible opportunity I can get? And so I took the tools of acting classes, improv classes, wrestling school, everything I possibly can to knock on the door of WW. The people of the everyone on that Real World show would wear my T shirts would always ask me to submis like they were so supportive, Like you don't give it that very often, really don't. Listen to the Michael Doua podcast network available on the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Millions of Americans are getting back to work. Career Builder calls it the great rehire, and we want to help you get the best jobs before everyone else. Career Builder gives you the competitive edge to get the job you want at the salary you want, with the benefits you want. We even send job alerts so your perfect job lens right in your inbox. Go to CareerBuilder dot com today or get left with whatever jobs are left. Find your next job fast at CareerBuilder dot com. Well, I'd like to welcome my guest here, and he just happened to play in the NFL for a long time. Was the number one overall pick. Who is now living the retired life? Carson Palmer? What is going on? John? How are you? I'm doing good? How's life good? Life is good? Life is good. You know, I'm retired from football, and you know I get that question a lot. What are you doing now? What are you doing now? You know, all the time obviously, and I always have something going on. It's it's actually not as relaxing and leisurely as it sounded, even to myself. As you know, I was back in two thousand and sixteen, I believe is my last year, and I was thinking about just retirement and what to do next and really looking forward to like everything, just kind of settling down and not doing a whole lot. And then all of a sudden, I retire, and I've had opportunities to do a bunch of really cool stuff. And I'm as busy now as I was before. But the key is I'm not traveling as much, which, as everybody knows, traveling really stinks after a while. So I'm happy to not have to travel as much, but still finding different things to keep me extremely busy and challenged. When's the first time retirement across your mind, like seriously across your mind? Obviously, you know, the Cincinnati stuff happened a long long time ago. But as you got older in the Arizona situation, yeah, I think twenty fifteen. I think I was thirty five at the time, and my body really they started telling me, you know, it's not as easy to do this anymore. And it's a lot more painful, and and I could just I noticed certain things. We're starting to slow down. So I started looking at it in twenty fifteen, and my wife and I really were talking about it, and you know, it's just so hard to come to grips and decide when when you're fortunate enough to not be forced into retirement and and cut basically, and you you know, you see it all the time with Brady and Drew Brees and and you know, you looked at Peyton. At Peyton, you could tell that was his last year, right that last year they won the Super Bowl. You knew, you knew his body was telling them, Hey, this is it, this is all you got. But you look at these guys like like, uh, you know, Roethlisberger coming off this injury, and Brady and Breeze, and it's so hard for these guys. It's there's so much unknown because you're so just used to going to work and used to training an offseason and you know the things that come with getting your body ready for a football season and the film study and the preparation and all that, and it's just it's who you are. It's all you've known, and you can still play, and you can still play better than you know, a handful of guys or a majority of the league, depending on who you're talking about. So it's just such a difficult thing for these older guys in their late thirties and early forties to finally decide, you know, this is it. If you get cut, you get traded, and you go to a place where you know you don't have a chance to win. The map makes it easy. But when you still have a contract in front of you and years left on your contract, and the team that wants you, in a fan base that wants you, it's really really difficult to come to grips with that. And it's almost easier. I almost look at roethlisberger situation and it's almost easy for him. It's going to be tough to come back that from that elbow injury. It's it's a long road. He's not had a significant injury where he really had to rehab and really had to work harder than he's ever worked before in his life. Because that's what happens when you get old, you know, at the end of your career and you have a season ending surgery or a knee injury or an elbow injury, you end up having to work so much harder than you ever have before. And I really, I really see it, you know, it being a difficult thing for Roethlisberger to continue to play. It's almost a blessing in disguise, like, look, your elbow gave out. That's all it had, that's all your arm had left. It's time to move on that. That situation for Roethlisberger is almost easier than than Drew's situation or Tom Brady's situation, where you know, hopefully they end the season healthy and after a bunch of wins in a successful year, and then they got it aside to do I really want to do this one more time. Is a team good enough to do this? You know, there's so many things the factor into that, that's into that decision. It's almost easier to have your body makes the decision for you, like Peyton Manning's body did. And it looks like Roethlisberger's body has its kind of crazy that you're a little older than the Roethlisberger Eli Rivers group, but that, like you said, they're coming down the home stretch. Was Drew Brees, your draft class was either year before no he was either one year before I think two years before me. So, like, I mean, all these guys are I mean, these are your peers. I mean, this was the group that you played with and around you talk to any of them about this, I mean they're even Like you said, Drew Brees, I watched that game against Arizona. He looked pretty good coming off the injury. But at the end of the day, he is forty years old, and I think sometimes kind of like what Adrian Peterson did to ACL injuries, and you've gone through this, we just saw a cl injury. No big deal. I think we think the same thing kind of with age now because of what Brady's doing. But it is still pretty nuts, right, I mean some of these guys playing you get to thirty seven, thirty eight, let alone forty. How long can these guys keep going? Yeah, I mean that's that's that's a million dollar question. I mean I don't know if they know. No. I think they keep going, man, and I still feel pretty good. I might as well go one more, you know, And then they get to one more and they go I still feel pretty good. Like I said, it's almost an injury that you need to tell you it's it that it was an amazing run, that's it, go home, figure out what's next, to move on to the next phase of your career. So you know, it's just it's just so difficult to make that decision. And yeah, I mean, I'm I'm absolutely in awe of what Drew Brees has done throughout his career, what Tom Brady has done throughout his career. Brady's I mean, Brady's played for possibly the best offensive line coach that this league has seen. And you know, he's played so many games but hasn't taken all the hits that some guys have. You look at the hits Roethlisberger is taken, and granted, part of that's because of his play. It's just always moving and extending plays. But you watch Brady play now, and you know there's games where he doesn't get knocked on the ground, no, let alone get sacked. There's games where he doesn't he doesn't get hammered and just drilled into the ground. So it's almost like that's you know, those add days and games and months and years onto your career when you can go a handful of weeks regardless of getting sacked without getting just just not getting hit. I mean, those games are so big where you get in the locker room after the game and you take off your shoulder pads and you're like, oh my jersey's clean, and then you take off your football pants you're like, oh my butts still. You know, in his case, Gray, there's no grass names on my butt. Um, you know that those games are worth their weight in gold because those just extend your career. And what's so amazing about Brady's career is how many games he's played extra I mean, he's played a couple of extra seasons in just the playoffs alone, where where those games he's getting hit. You know, there's no playoff games where he walked out of and goes, oh my jersey's clean, and you know, I feel great. So I mean maybe those outweigh all the ray Go season games he's played that he hasn't gotten hit. But there's no doubt. I mean the quickness that that Drew Brees gets rid of the ball, with the fact that that New England, no matter who plays up front, they consistently do a really really good job picking up different stunts and and different blitzes and pressures, and those those games that both of those guys have played where they're not getting hammered and drilled into the ground, you know, six seven, eight, ten times a game that that's extended their careers. Also, you missed the ball at all, you know, I miss I don't miss playing, Um, I don't miss I missed practice. I don't miss m Wednesday practices or Thursday practices. But I missed being out there on the field and and goofing around and having fun and competing against you know, the defensive backs and seven on seven drills and competing against the other quarterbacks and competition drills throughout practice. So I missed some of those things. Obviously, you miss every guy misses game day. You missed the games. I just don't miss all the in between stuff, you know, just the constant, you know, all the different stuff that comes with the media and the silly questions and the consistent press conferences where you know, you just want to get on with your day and move on to the next thing. I don't miss the hits and the soreness and the injuries and the rehabs and you know, all the things that you know, Andrew Luck complained about going into retirement. I don't miss any of that stuff, but but I do miss the weight of an organization and the pressure and the expectations. And I miss you know, you know, as a quarterback, you walk into the facility every single day. You got to be the same guy, whether you have the flu, whether you just had a baby the night before, your life, just had a baby the night before in the hospital, the highs, the lows, the ups, the bounds, the good the bad. I just missed that that pressure of walking in every day and having to be the guy and the guy that guys are looking to for leadership for whatever it is. Just that that pressure of being the face of the franchise. I do miss that. But along with that pressure comes the soreness from from playing on game days and the aches and pains, and I definitely don't miss that part. Well, you mentioned Andrew Luck. I would imagine when you saw that all go down as someone that's battled through two major injuries, like you said, I mean, you're just talking about the pain. Is that something that kind of resonated with you when he just you know, because it was kind of polarizing obviously, when you know, he got booed off the field and the and the way it all played out, but just his decision, and I mean, how did that stay with you? You know, I couldn't stand it. It really frustrated me hearing the people say the things they said about him. It really, really, it really pissed me off because I know him. Do you know him personally? I do know him. He's an amazing he's an amazing man, an amazing teammate, everything you want in your franchise quarterback. And the way, you know what he brought with stability. You know, at a time of complete turmoil, you know, Peyton Manning, but you know, maybe the greatest ever walks out the door and in comes a guy that just completely stabilized your organization for the next handful of years and put everything he had on the field. And unfortunately that that was the organization's fault. I mean, you don't you don't draft that guy and let him take he got he got sacked fifty times. I think in year two and forty eight, he got sacked a couple hundred times in his first couple of years. You just can't, you can't do that. You can't. You have to the organization and the GM at the time did such a horrific job that they literally ruined his career. He wants to play, he loves the game, but you can't have your franchise quarterback get hit like that. It's just it's unacceptable. And I couldn't stand listening to all the people badmouth Andrew Luck and say the things they said when they have no idea what he'd been through, regardless of I mean, everybody points to the the money, Well, you're making twenty million dollars a year, no doubt, and I get that argument, but that guy wasn't playing for the money. That guy was playing for his teammates. He was playing for the organization, his coaches, the fans. I mean, he embodied being an NFL quarterback and the franchise quarterback. And to see him get booted off the field and to hear the things that some people were popping off and saying about him really really pissed me off. And people don't know what it's. I mean, you're constantly in pain, and you're twenty five years old, and you're constantly rehabbing, trying to get healthy and doing everything you can to get healthy, and then you come back and you play, Uh, you know, before you're even healthy, and you make injuries worse and you intensify pain. And again, I mean that falls solely on the organization. The organization did a dreadful job protecting him, in an awful job protecting their future. And and they're you know, they got they kind of lucked into Jacoby Pursett and and and Chris Ballard their new GM. Thank god that that those kind of stars aligned, because they should be in turmoil again after you lose a player like Andrew Luck to retirement. They should be two and five right now, Um, one and six, you know whatever that is. And everything worked out because now they're they're they're you know, being steered in the right direction by Ballard and what they have going organizationally. But um, it was just awful to watch him take the pounding. He took those first handful of years and that's why he's not out, you know, not wearing number twelve right now. You know, one thing I find fascinated. When I was in Philly, Michael Vick was our quarterback and he was a smaller guy and he took a lot of hits, so it was easy to see why he was always injured. But when I see before I mentioned person, I'd seen you alive and been on the field when you come out for warm ups and knew how big you were. I've seen luck. I mean, you guys are massive, but it you know, Philip Rivers is like this, Eli's like this. But it doesn't necessarily matter, does it? The size? If you're just getting pelted every game? You could be Shaquille O'Neil size. Is it fair to say if you're getting hit constantly in NFL games throughout a season. Roethlisberger's another good example. The pain, I guess still feels the same. I've never been in an NFL game playing quarterback, So you tell me it doesn't seem like your size necessarily protect you as much as maybe someone like me might think. Yeah, I mean, everybody breaks at some point, unfortunately, And that's what's so tough about watching Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson right now is the pounding that they're taking. And it's granted it's not so much in the pocket, it's outside the pocket. But you know, back to Mike Vick. I love Vic and one of the biggest Mike Vick fans absolutely loved watching and play. But every time you ripped off a forty yard run. I just wanted him to step out of bounds and not hit the ground, but he always went for that extra couple of yards and got shoved running four two and went head over heels and did three summersaults into a cameraman. You know, you just see that enough times, and Vic is as solid and strong and tough a dude as there is. But those take a toll. And they may not unto Shaun Watson and Lamar Jackson when they're twenty three, but when they're twenty six and twenty seven, that's when you start to really see. You know, he's gonna miss a week or two with an ac sprain in his shoulder, and he's got a deep thigh rush in his right claud and he's gonna miss a week here like that. That's where you start to see those injuries creep up. Because guys that are twenty three are invincible and they're not really thinking about their next contract yet. They are, but they're really not. But when you're twenty five and you're you're a year away from free agency and you're not bouncing back the same way you were two years ago, and you've got another forty or forty five sacks since you were twenty three. That's when you start to see guys they're gonna miss a week here. Maybe it's gonna be two weeks with a hamstring, or it's this with an elbow. You know, like you said, it doesn't matter how big and how strong you are. You can put you know, mister Olympia back there, you know, a weightlifting guy or whatever you want back there. But if you continuously take hits, they're gonna add up. Maybe not twenty two, twenty three, but at twenty five to twenty seven. Those those things, those small injuries and that pain over time really starts to add up on guys. There's a reason Peyton Manning used to just hit the ground when anyone got close. You know, it helps you play twenty plus years, right. The best thing I learned from Peyton was I studied Peyton every week of my career. And when there was a false start and he was in shotgun, he had the ball in his hands, he threw it and they blew the whistle. He threw it directly into the ground. He didn't want to hold it and take a chance that somebody didn't hear a whistle and allowed stadium and a defensive end came off the corner and lit him up. He was not taking any extra hits, and that's something I watched and learned right away. And you can't. You just can't take those hits. You can't. There's the quarterback means so much the organization. The organization only really goes as far as the quarterback goes, and you've got to protect them. You know. That's why I love you know. I love what San Francisco is doing, and a handful of teams were doing. I would do the exact same thing. I would build from the offensive defensive line. If you can put pressure on the quarterback and you can hit the quarterback enough times, it doesn't matter how good or bad you your corners are. If they if a quarterback can drop back and hold on the ball for five to six seven seconds, it doesn't matter. If you have Jalen Ramsey and Dion and Troy Palmalo and Ed Reid in your secondary, nobody can cover for five or six seconds. So I really like the way some teams are A handful of teams are being built, which is from the defensive line, because you gotta put pressure on the quarterback and the offensive line. You got to build that offensive lineup and protect your quarterback. And they gate, you know, these Miles Garrets and Aaron Donald and some of these guys that just eat bad offensive lineman up. I mean, you put Aaron Donald in there against an average offensive line, he goes off. But you put him up against somebody that's pretty good. He's gonna get to the quarterback. He holds it for five seconds, but if the ball's out in three, he's gonna have a tough time getting there against some of these better offensive lines. And you look at kind of like we were just talking about in Indy. I mean, I think Indie learned their lessons. They're watched Andrew Luck walk out the door. Now you watch but offensive line played. Offensive line is really good. They've paid some guys, They've drafted some guys high. They're building that offensive lineup, which is exactly what I would do if I was running the team. You know one thing I wanted to do with you, and I remember years ago, and I told you this last week that I read that thing you did with Peter King about how he kind of went through your week. And I know so many people listening always hit me up and I got to see it firsthand from a coaching standpoint. The hours coach read and now some of his guys like Doug Peterson and Matt Naggey put in during the week, and you know you've seen these coaches. I mean they're crazy, but like you said, the quarterback is kind of like also a coach. It's insane. So could we kind of do a cliff note version of like Monday? You know, you finish a game Sunday afternoon to go home Monday to like Saturday morning, let's say a home game, Carson Palmer starting quarterback, getting ready for the hardball forty nine ers, Monday, what's the week? How does it go well? Sunday night? You know, I'd always try to get get put back together Sunday night after the game and get whether it was acupuncture on a spasm I'm having in my back, or chiropractor or just a massage to flush out the lack of acid and the bumps and bruises from the game, and then I would watch that game from that day. I always thought that was super important to watch yourself because I wanted to know what guys were watching. I wanted to know what my next opponent was watching of me, how are my eyes? I listened to the TV cut up just to hear my cadences and any audibles I used, And then I would watch the coaches cut up to watch the kind of forty thousand foot view of the field to see what I was doing versus certain pressures. Because you get home from a Sunday game and it's you know, it's midnight, and you can't sleep anyways because you're still hype from the game. So that's when I would get a lot of film study from that previous week, because I wanted to know what guys were watching in me, what tendencies I was giving them, what audibles that I could maybe bait a defensive front into and change up in audible, but also really just kind of study what guys were studying of me, because at the end of the game, you know, you play sixty five seventy five snaps, you don't remember every one of them. You know, you remember a majority of them, but there's always something that that you forget. So I think it's really really important to study yourself. But then Monday, I would knock out Monday morning before I would go in and lift and have meetings and all that. I would knock out the next opponents previous four games, go in, we'd have meetings and we kind of get briefed on the upcoming opponent for the next Sunday. And then Tuesday, I would I would start with third down cut ups from from every game that team had played that year, or any outliers from the previous year if it's the same coordinator. So if I was watching third down cut ups and I saw a bunch of Cover one, some Cover two and very little pressure, I would go back previous years that weren't in the last four weeks cutups. I would go back from the year before if it was the same coordinator, and see if there was any cover zero, all out blitzes, or any just outliers that hadn't showed up this year. And then watch watch basically all first and second down passing petups, so any pass plays, just to get a familiarity familiarity with the defense we're seeing before Wednesday's practice. Then you go into Wednesday, you have your normal work day. You try to watch as much film during the day as you can so that you don't have too much to do when you get home at night, and then when I get home at night, I would draw up all the blitzes and where they came from. So, for instance, we're playing the Seattle Seahawks and on third and six, like, if you see a tendency in a certain field zone, so let's say it's on the minus twenty for the last six weeks, they've brought Sam Mike Blitz, so a two linebacker pressure on third and six between the minus fifteen and the minus twenty five. There's a tendency there right like they're trying to they're trying to make you punt, get a sack and make you punt. So they have a short field to work with on third down one year in that field zone, if that makes sense. So there's a tendency there that from a quarterback standpoint, I'm going, Okay, when I get in this game and we received the kickoff that first third down, if it's third and five or six, be ready. They're going to try to get a sack pressure here and pin us down. So we're punting out of our own end zone and they have a short field to work with, So I would be ready whatever calls we had on third and six. If I knew I was in minus territory like the minus twenty yard line, I knew I needed to be ready for sam Mike pressure, So my alerts would go up, here comes Sam Mike. Possibly be ready to redirect this production to pick it up and get asht them on the backside with a backside post or whatever that that route would be. So I'd really try to kind of figure out Wednesday where this coordinator likes to bring certain pressures and what he's thinking. You know, if you're on the plus forty, you just cross the fifty yard line and you run it on first and second down for no yardage, and it's third and ten, and in that blitz cut up, I keep seeing plus forty cover zero blitzes. I know that defensive coordinator doesn't want to let you on third and ten get eight yards and kick a field goal. They're going to try to keep you out of field goal territory, if that makes sense. So really focused on my Wednesdays, where does this coordinator like to bring pressure and what is he probably thinking in the back of the set when you see something that If you see something like that and you're just studying it by yourself. Would you immediately text BA or would you jot a note so you could bring it up when you guys the next meeting, or was there just I mean, if you guys were separated at the time, when you notice when you pick up something or vice versa, he sees something the line of communication there, No, I just he knows that if that if I get in that situation and I checked a screen because I think cover zero's coming, that I make sure I would hit it during the week in practice, or I would ask for it in practice, like, hey, make sure in red zone drills we get a cover zero blitz. I want to check to exit screen because it's out the gate if we get the ball off. And he had enough trust in me, and I had enough trust in him that he knew I would never He trusted if I was getting something out of the ordinary, there's a reason for it, and you got to you gotta earn that trust, you know, I had to. That wasn't something I did in year one of Ba's offense, but in year five there was a trust between the two of us. If I was doing something like that, there was a reason for it, and I had built that trust with him but no, no, I'm not. I'm not watching stuff. Quarterbacks really typically aren't watching stuff during the early part of the week and texting the coach about certain stuff. Most quarterbacks and head coaches get together on Saturday night before the big team meeting in the hotel. And if I had something like that or and it had held true throughout the week as I continue to study on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that would be something that a quarterback will bring up on a Saturday night before the game, like, hey, this guy has a tendency to bring cover zero right here? Are you cool? If I check to this play or this play or this play, it's either yea or nay at that point. If it's a nay, I'll probably do it anyways, And if it's a touchdown, we'll hug it out on the sideline. And if it's a ya, I know, I'm good to go. Because there's so much the older you get and the more experience you have as a quarterback, there's so much feel that comes into a game, and there's so many things that you don't really plan on doing on Wednesday and practice. Then you get in the game and you just have a feel for it and it just kind of comes to you. It just naturally comes out. So there's things like that that just kind of don't don't, you know, get covered or talked about between coach and coordinator or player and coordinator and coach that just kind of seemed to work out on game days, and sometimes they don't. But that's the game. What up. It's dramas. You may know me from the recap on LA TV. Now I've got my own podcast, Life as a Gringo coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday. We'll be talking real and unapologetic about all things of life, Latin culture, and everything in between from someone who's never quite fit in. Listen to Life as a Gringo on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts brought to you by State Farm like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. Hey everyone, It's Dramas from Life as a Gringo podcast iHeartRadio. Sounds of My Culture is brought to you by State Farm. At State Farm, we know how important it is to celebrate Hispanic heritage every day. That's why we support Michael Tuda and invite you to continue enjoying all its great podcast. We also know what it takes to manage money no matter the budget. That's why it's a good idea to consider stay Farm and they're surprisingly great rates, like a good neighbor state farm. Is there all right? I am here with one of the newest members of the Michael Tuda Network family. Welcome my bro Roma from the Loan Lobos podcast. And of course, man, you know, our culture is always going to be a big part of our lives. So for you, what is one thing that you think makes our culture so special? When thinking about this question, the first thing that comes to my mind is the food aspect of it. I mean, whether that's menudo on the weekends or you know, for breakfast, Like I feel like living in Los Angeles, I am blessed and fortunate to be around so many other Latinos, whether that's Mexicanos, you know, Kuanos, you know, people from all different types of walks of life. 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Our members live a single life they love with exciting events every night. Events and Adventures provides an easy, relaxed environment to meet new people and find that someone special. Start enjoying the sounds of your new single life. Get started today at Events and Adventures dot com. We time you get into the facility on like Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday during a workweek. So yeah, so Wednesday I would get in at like I probably got on at six Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and just as the weeks start I kind of got off topic there as as the week progressed. You know, Wednesdays was first and second down and third down, Thursdays was red zone, and then Friday's I kind of went through everything and anything I wasn't feeling really good about, Like, man, these guys are showing quarters coverage and they're bluffing you. Then they're rolling the single high zone or they're rolling a single high man that if I didn't feel comfortable that, I would just watch that over and over again until I felt like, Okay, I can see Earl Thomas right here. He really wants to get to the middle of the field and he's trying to hold it for the last second. I would just really try to clean up Thursday and Friday my feel for disguises and coverages or bluffs and blitzes where they're they're up in the line scrimmage and it looks like they're coming, they're bluffing you, they're getting out to drop eight in coverage. And then Saturday, my favorite things to do. Saturday would really I tried to feel as prepared as you know, I could, like I was ready to play on Saturday. If I wasn't, you know, I did not. I was not comfortable. I did not like that feeling. So I tried to get everything done by Saturday, like it was it was game day, even though I had another day. So I really tried to knock everything out on Saturday. And as I would lay in bed and go to sleep, and whatever hotel we were staying in, I would have my iPad or my iPad and I would just watch all the explosive pass games. So we're getting ready to play Seattle the next morning, and this is Legion a Boom day. This is the height of Legion. This is Browner and Sherman and you know, go on and on down to Cam Cam Chancellor Earl Michael Bennett cliff A. You know, this is that team where you can go. It's easy to go into those games. And I tell young quarterbacks this all the time. It's easy to go in play Legion a Boom in two thou and thirteen and the number one in pass defense, number one in rush defense, number one in sacks, number one in red zone, number one and third down, It's it's easy to go into that game. Laying in bed at night, going, man, how you know, how are we gonna piss a drop in this game. You know, you can easily get overcome with Man, these guys are really good. I gotta be really, really smart. I gotta be really careful in this situation. So what I would do is I would sit there and watch cutups of all touchdown passes, big runs, big plays, forty yard pass you know, cutups. And that always helped me fall asleep easier, like, oh, well, they threw a go ball in Sherman right here, and so and so ran a dig versus cover two and that was just forty yard game. And so and so in the red zone ran four verts and hit it twice versus them in the red zone. And man, look at this checkdown, this checkdown you know on third and twenty went for twenty eight. They were just checking it down and dumping into the back. But they were so soft in coverage. Don't forget that. Remember that on third and long situation. So it was kind of like a confidence booster, a confidence builder. As I'm falling asleep at night watching the defense, I'm getting ready to play get gashed from weeks, you know, the previous weeks helped me sleep better, helped me feel better about our game plan. Whatever that was it did for me. I really enjoyed doing that as I was falling asleep on Saturday nights. That positive reinforcement right to be like Tiger Woods before he hits a drive, thinking about hitting a great shot. I mean ideally want to watch it, but know that that. Yeah, the power of the mind, even if it's not you, really is a powerful thing, is it not? No? I mean tiger envisioning. You see Jason Day do it all the time. He closes his eyes and he envisions the shape of the shot. You know, it's a big dog leg left. He hits a big high draw, it's a twenty foot double breaking put. You know, those guys envision the ball going in before they step up and hit. It's the same thing I was doing. I was envisioning myself throwing that ball to Julio Jones for sixty yard touchdown or dumping it, you know, to the running back for you know, an eight yard gain on third and four. You know, all those things you're watching on film, you're kind of, oh, that looks like the play we're running, you know when we get in the red zone, or that looks similar to so and so play, and that looks like what we have planned on third down. You know that there's all those just confidence boosters that that are so important, whether you're Tom Brady or Josh Allen and Buffalo, you know, whether you've got twenty years experience or year two, it's so good. I always felt it's so good to see somebody else beating them and see somebody else that you're watching another offense on film, going, Man, I'm better than that quarterback, and we're better than them at receiver and tight end. So we can do that, and we can do that. We can do that, and it's just you're right, it's just seeing somebody else do it. You're almost envisioning yourself doing it. Is that something you always did or did you learn how did someone show you that in Arizona? Or is that just something you came up with? No? No, I actually when I got to Oakland, we were really bad. When I was kind of there and we were just bad. We didn't we traded away all of our good players, cut all the guys that were making any money. We're playing you know, we had tons of injuries. We're playing with guys that we signed on Wednesdays, and we're expecting to start on Sundays, and it was just one of those teams that very few guys have opportunity experience that I did, where you just know, getting off the bus, they're better than us there. They had better players at most positions, and in order for us to win this game, we have to play absolutely perfectly and play our best game of the year, and they have to play abysmal and they have to play their worst game of the year. And that was the kind of that, you know, that's just where we were as an organization at the time. Um. And so I started doing it in Oakland because I remember going into games and you know, we were at a point where, you know, our number one receiver was Darius Hayward Bay Um. Well he he actually had a good year. He had a thousand yards that year, so um, but you know, we we were Darren McFadden was our best player and he was out for the year with Liz Frank and you just you know, we were just a young team that just didn't have players. And you know, I was I had just been traded there. I've been there for a couple of weeks and I was just looking for some confidence and guys around me and and some confidence to go into games with and and that's something I did on out of nights. I would watch the big play cut ups. That's what I had our film guy, Hey, give me sixty big play cut ups. I want to see sixty plays from this year, last year, however many years it takes, depending on how good that defense was. I want to see big games, twenty plus thirty plus yard games. And that's something I did in Oakland that helped me fall asleep a little bit, a little bit more sound before we woke up and play on Sunday. So was it safe to say? And I talk about it all the time. Sometimes when you go through failures or just tough times, you learn a lot more about yourself that benefits you when you go through the good times. So that experience in Oakland, those couple of years led to you know what, the best you know, three or four years definitely a team success of your career in Arizona. Did you think that catapulted you just to kind of change your mindset and help you maybe grow mentally more than even physically. Definitely, I mean, I think you know, it was such an odd My year and a half in Oakland was so odd in every way from you know, two different coaches in the year and a half, you know, firing coaches. Al Davis had just died. The organization was in complete turmoil. And then I got to Oakland or I got to Arizona and man, new coach, new GM but just solid, just solid people. You know, everybody was solid. The owners, solid, wants to win, not not worried about the move and the least of the stadium and all these different things that that Mark Davis has been worrying about for five years now, ten years now. Um, you know, just a solid organization. Just this. This is the way they're gonna do it. They're gonna build it this way, they're gonna stay true to it. And we built something special. I mean we we got better every year. We won ten games than eleven games, than thirteen games. You know, we we continued to improve and make strides. And so it was just so comforting coming from Cincinnati, who is a whole nother kind of ass and disaster. Um, so coming from that and then going to Oakland and then all of a sudden I got to Arizona. I was like, man, this is the NFL. This is how it's this is how you're supposed to do it, this is this is right, and it was just so comforting and so much less stress and pressure. Just there's so much pressure on quarterbacks as it is when you have to worry about some idiot making a decision on a roster move, or hiring coaches or some of the some of the stuff you have to worry about. When when in all of sports, when when you're a you know, one of the stars the team, and there's so much pressure on you to make sure that you win that game, whether it's a basketball player, a football player, a quarterback, when you have that added pressure and stress of not trusting the organization and knowing that they don't know what they're doing, that's just an added amount of stress you don't need as a young player. Um and and going through that and seeing that, and then getting to Arizona and going through what I went through in Cincinnati, what I went through in Oakland, and then winning and appreciating the wins and then winning a bunch and winning a bunch of games in a row and winning your division and going to play and you know, all those things that came with winning. It really let me really enjoy each win I mean, my five years in Arizona were so much fun because we were winning, and I knew how to enjoy it because I knew the other side of it. I knew what it was like to be bad and and be on a bad, bad team and know that, like I said, you had to play absolutely perfect in order to win, and they had to play their worst game of the year in order for you to win. To getting to Arizona and getting to a good organization where you don't have to play the game of your life every week, you know you can. You don't have to throw for four hundred and fifty yards in order to win. You can take checkdowns, you can, you know what I mean, you had some room for error. And having that feeling and getting to experience that really helped me relish those good times and those wins. Because I've been through some of the really bad stuff. You had to feel like Andy Dufrain and Shawshank when he gets out of the pipe. You know, when you about mid season that first year with Arians, You're like, oh my god, this is what. This is what Brady and Breeze and all these guys feel like, this is what. Yeah, this is how it's supposed to be. You know, this is this is what the NFL is, this is, this is you know. Unfortunately it took me too long to get to get there. Um but it was. It was refreshing, no doubt. Where do you find the perfect project manager? Well we found him in his perfectly organized home office in Adelaide. But you can find him and thousands like him right now on Upwork. 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Back then, it was definitely more polarizing and I would imagine a little more venomous on the player. Do you remember was there a specific tipping point? Because I was reading some stuff yesterday and I couldn't find it was just an accumulation of things being in Cincinnati, but a moment where you just said, I can't do this anymore, I gotta go. And I read some quotes of this isn't about the money. I got enough money's I can't play football here anymore. I refused to do it. But was there a moment? Was was there a specific incident or was it just, like I said, accumulation of things. Yeah, it was numerous moments. I mean from the jump. You know, I got done with my college football season. I started talking to trying to hire an agent and figure out what was next. And everybody, not every single person, NFL people, agents, you know, X quarterbacks I had talked to that were since retired and moved on. Everybody said, you can't go to Cincinnati. You can't go to Cincinnati's a quarterback graveyard. And then I started interviewing agents, and every agent it's like, you're not gonna go to Cincinnati. We're gonna do this. We're gonna get you to We're gonna get you to to Chicago was where these guys every agent wanted that I was interviewing, was like, you're gonna get to Chicagos. I think they had the fourth pick. Yeah, and I I at the time, was arrogant, young, dumb, twenty year old kid, and I was like, I'm gonna go there and make a difference. I'm gonna go there and change it. I don't care what all these people are saying. All these you know, I'm listening to Hall of famers and great you know coaches and x gms, and you know, I kind of throw everything agents say out the window because they're agents. But um, you know, I just I was naive and I didn't want to believe it and want to hear it. And I thought, you know, well, if they haven't had me, I'll go there and change it. And then I got there, and um, we got we were good. My second year. You refused, I would imagine some people wanted you to go like an Eli Manning type. They refused to sign. Yeah you were not going to do that. Yeah, well that I hadn't been done. And like I said, I thought I was the difference maker. I thought the organization doesn't matter. It was what the players in the field are what matters. Yeah, And I was one hundred percent wrong. All that matters is the organization because great organizations get the right players. So so I was wrong on that, and it was just it was it was an accumulation of so many things. I mean, we were we won our division, We got good one year, we were close to getting good and we needed some key pieces, and I had gone to the organizations like we need to add this and this and that. You know, we need a couple of players here and a couple players there. And then of course the off season comes and nothing happens and nothing changes, and then you know, it was just it was year after year. You know that in order to in order to win in the NFL, and it feels this way to me in all sports, but the only thing I can speak of as the NFL, you've got to be desperate to win a championship. You've got to be all in you. You know, the financials and the money side of it are very important obviously two owners and to everybody that's invested in an organization. But if the most important thing is the financials and the second most important thing is winning, then you don't have a chance. And it's so important that ownership is willing to do what it takes to win. If they're just kind of sitting around and hoping somebody falls to us with the eighteenth pick that we really need, or now this guy's a million dollars too expensive and free agency, we're just going to draft somebody and pay him you know one twentieth of that. If you just kind of sit there and hope that things fall your way, You've got to get really, really lucky to win a championship. But if you're desperate and you're willing to do what it takes, and you'll spend to go get this player, or you'll trade this player because you know he's a locker room cancer and he's really bad, but he's cheap, and you keep him because he's cheap, that's going to affect your team. But if you know he's cheap, he's really really explosive and can do a lot of great things, but he's terrible in the locker room. You gotta get rid of him. You got to move on. You've got to be consistently trying to build a championship team. If you're just kind of sitting there and hoping somebody falls in your lap, it's hard to do it that way. You've got to have the ball bounce your way a number of times in the playoffs, and you gotta get lucky here and get lucky there. And I mean, you look at New England and there's not a lot of luck. A lot of that is built specifically you look at what Pittsburgh's done for the last twenty years. There's not a lot of luck involved in that. That's consistently. You look at what Seattle's done, there's not a lot of luck. I mean, you look at what Seattle's done. It's amazing. I mean, Pete Carroll has turned over that roster four different times since he's been there and continuously goes. But I mean you look at the transition from Sean Alexander and Matthew Hasselbeck into best Mode and Russell Wilson and then the legion of Boom and then nobody's left from a legion to boom and now there. It's amazing. But that's not luck. That's not hoping that somebody falls to you in the draft. That's being manipulative of the draft and moving players and churning up rosters and building the right the right chemistry in the locker room. And there's so much that goes into it. It's just not a lucky thing. In order to be successful in the NFL, the organization is of utmost importance. Quarterbacks super a quarterback and an ownership are about as important as each other are. I mean, everything else down from there, think, you know works out in the way it works out if you're building the team right. But as important as that quarterback is, Patrick Mahomes is so important to that team, and Tom Brady is so important to that team. But man, ownership's gotta be really, really good, know what they're doing. One thing you did in Cincinnati and it's just a it's a dead practice now it really is beside Mahomes and really that was unique because Alex was there and they were winning. But the red shirt, and you know, really, i'd say the handful of guys the last ten plus years if you're drafted definitely where you were drafted, but even late in the first round or even second round picks now like Derek Carr started immediately. You know, a lot of guys now in the second round become starters really fast. Did the red shirt? Did you need that? And do you think it's easier maybe now not to rend or just because the offenses are so much more conducive to what guys are running in college. Well, I think a number of things have shaped the transition of college quarterbacks into starters. In Week one and week whatever Baker was, Week six or seven, whatever, a lot of guys start, yeah, six seven, Lamar, some of those guys mid season, yeah, Jared Gott, I think that right, right. I think that is more of a reflection of the current CBA agreement and the structure of rookie contracts. I mean when I came out, I signed a six year contract and that was the norm. Now it's four with an option year in five. So you know, when I was coming out, you had six years to figure out are we going to pay this guy one hundred million bucks in a second contract? Now with a four year deal, you have, you know, you know, two years less time to figure out is this our guy? And can we shape him in what we want him to be in year four to pay him in year five, where back then it was we could shape him in six, in year five and six and then decide after year six are we going to pay him? So I think that's more of a reflection of just the length of current rookie contracts, especially for a second round pick. And you look at Russell Wilson, you know you don't have much time with a second round pick, and now with a first round pick, you only really have three years to figure out are we going to pay him? In year four or five. So I think it's more a reflection of just the duration of the contracts that players are forced to sign that now, as opposed to when I was coming out and it was really six year deal with a seventh year that you could franchise a quarterback in. So it's really been cut in half almost, it feels. It feels that way because a lot of quarterbacks don't start week one like Sam Darnold did. They come in like Lamar Jackson did, like Jared Goff and a handful of the the other guys, where you only have the second half of the first year to start evaluating, and you really can't evaluate your quarterback after eight games. You really need a full year to see him play sixteen and factor in the previous eight games he played from his rookie year. But right there, if you wait till he's played sixteen games in year two and half of year one, you're halfway through his rookie contract. So you've got to be ready to make a decision of what you're going to do for the future. And nothing matters more structurally to the organization contract wise than the quarterbacks contract, because if you're gonna pay him he's going to take up twenty five percent of your salary cap for eight team percent of your salary cap, so you really have to start figuring that out and do. What it looks like Kansas City's done with Patrick Mahomes is they've really started structuring their roster contractually around the future contract that they're going to pay him, because it's going to be such a substantial pie and a piece of that pie when you talk about the entire team salary cap. So it's just it's just changed. The game has changed in such a short amount of time from when I came out and I signed a six year deal and now these guys are signing four. But my situation, back to the original question, my situation was different. John Kitton, who who's the quarterback coach in Dallas, is doing an awesome job with Dak Prescott, and there's an unbelievable coach and human being. But what he did? You know, when I got there, it was the perfect scenario because John could play. He almost he almost took us the playoffs a couple of games where we ended up going five hundred that year, and I had a chance to absorb all of it him in meetings, him talking to the team, him taking care of his body, him working out, watching and practice, watching him watch film. So I had a phenomenal coach that was doing it on the field in front of me with the ones in practice and then on game day as a starter. So you know, it was a unique situation and like everybody, like every quarterback situations like Patrick Mahomes situation was unique because they had Alex Holmes, we had John Kittna. We went eight and eight, which was huge in Cincinnati. Eight nates like winning the Super Bowl for the organization in Cincinnati. So you know, that was that was an important part of my career because I got a chance to see that is what an NFL quarterback does, That is what an NFL leading, a leader in the locker room does, and that really shaped my career, the opportunity to sit behind such a great guy like John Kittna. Okay, couple more before I get you out here. I wanted I wanted to ask this the thing that I wrote down, the four you know teams that you probably consistently played the most that were great on defense, the Harbor Niners, Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks, Ray Lewis need Reid squads and then a lot of those Steeler defenses, and I just wanted on each one the thing that probably kept you up at night. And we'll start with the AFC North Ray Lewis ed read Baltimore Ravens. What was hard for Carson Pullen against those guys. Yeah, it's funny now that you're saying that. I'm sitting here thinking about when I was in the AFC North for a decade that was like, that was number one and number two in defense. It was number one and number two and total defense every year between Baltimore and Cincinnati. And then when I get, you know, a decade later, I get to the NFC West, and the Hardball defense and the Pete Carroll defense were one and two. So I have, um, I got a chance to play against the absolute best and watch and study the absolute best, you know, over a decade and a half career, totally different defenses. I mean, you compare Pete what Pete Carroll did to what that Steeler defense did in their heyday, which, by the way, only winning Super two Super Bowls was a tragedy. That defense was so good on every level, and and the fact that they didn't win more Super Bowls is a tragedy because that defense was that good man. They had everything they could rush. They had James Harrison, they had Joey Porter and his prime. They had Casey Hampton in the middle who just absolutely plugged up any run game up front. Brett Keisel and Aaron Smith are probably two of the better defensive lineman that nobody really knows about. And it's that's a tragedy in itself. I mean, Aaron Smith was such a good three technique, one of the probably the best three technique other than Justin Smith and in San Francisco. Um, unbelievable. I mean Larry Foot, James Ferrier, you had Troy Paulamalo, you had Ryan Clark, you had Chris Hope, you had a Hillard. Um, I know, I'm gonna forget. I mean that defense was an all star defense. And then you played then twice and then you had to play against Ray Lewis and Bart Scott and Chris McAllister and Ed Reid and you can go on and on. Oh sugs, I mean what a problem he was. Um yeah, I mean eller be I mean you can go on and on. There were so many great players on both of those defenses. Um, and then you know, you go, you go look at that that justin Smith, Alden Smith. I mean that linebacker corps they had with Patrick Willis and um, oh man, what's then they drafted Alden a mod broker. I mean that that defense was so good. But then that Seattle defense, I mean you had Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, Um, you know kJ Wright, Bobby Wagner, Earl Thomas, you had Cam Chancellor who was a problem. You had Richards Shm. I mean those were those four defenses were so different. I mean you compare they were so alike in the fact that they had great players everywhere. They didn't have a really good linebacker corps but couldn't rush the passer or a week secondary. They were great up front, they were great in the middle, and they were great on the back end, but so different where in Pittsburgh all kinds of pressures and zone blitzes and very little man. And then you compare them to Pete Carroll's defense where it's all man and a little bit of single high zone but no cover to very little pressure. They let their athletes cover and their pass rushers get after the past the passer. And that's the that kind of goes back to my point. If you build your defense or your team around the defensive line the offensive line, and you build it around the defensive line like like the San Francisco forty nine ers have right now, you don't have to bring pressure. You can let your athletes cover. You can you can put players in the field and blanket the field with defensive players and long, long arm guys that can get to different zones and get two different holes and rush the passer with four guys and get pressure on the passer with only four guys, not having to bring five and six guys like Pete Carroll has been doing, you know for a long time. Um, that's a problem on offenses. It's a real problem on offenses when they're only bringing four but they have seven back there in coverage. There's not really a hole or avoid in the defense. And you know, it's it's it's so different. Those two style of defenses, the Pittsburgh zone blitz to I'm gonna cover you one on one in Seattle, those two styles of defenses are so different, but yet so alike. Um, they were really really good because they had really really good players, and they didn't have to cover up any weaknesses or have any holes or any issues because they had good players everywhere. What defense were the best ship talkers that the Ravens or this or Seattle uh a little too. Seattle didn't talk much. We we used to go up to Seattle and beat him, so they kind of kept quiet. Um Pittsburgh, I mean, Joey Porter is the Hall of Fame trash talkers, So I mean he did enough well. You had you had Joey Porter on one side, who was a problem in his own right and he never shut up. And then on the other side you had James Harrison who was a real problem in his own right but never said a word. And then you had Larry Foot run in his mouth and James Ferrier that didn't really say much, or Troy Palamala didn't really say anything to anybody, whether it was our team or his team. So you had, you know a lot of different um you know, personalities and egos and all that, but Joey kind of carried the weight for the entire team, I think, and trash talking and he was he was really good. Is it true that Matt Castle and Troy Paula Malla were your college roommates. Yeah, it was Castle and I shared what was a dining room. We put our stipends together. We barely paid rent. We lived in a rat infested house with Troy carry, Colbert, Lenny vander Meade, Norm kat Nick who else played in the league. In there, a handful of other guys Matt Nichols who who never played in the league, Charlie Landergan who played for a little bit. But yeah, we had we had an awesome house, not an awesome house, and esthetically it was a dump. But man, la rent was so expensive and we got the same stipend into you know, colleges in the middle of nowhere where it went was nothing, so we had to We had to bunk up and we lived in When I say rat infest, I mean we set rat traps every night, um and it was absolute dump. But I wouldn't change a thing about it. We had We had a blast them out house. As I get you out of here, I just wrote down about ten names. I'm just gonna go rapid fire. The first thing that just comes to your mind. Brady best ever, Peyton Man, the second best ever, Aaron Rodgers, Velocity Breeze, PenPoint accuracy, Bruce arians Man, there's a lot that I can only use a couple of words. Huhne, You can say whatever you want, man, Bea was just the best, mahomes Man, dangerous, Larry Fitzgerald the best ever. Belichick the best ever and does not get enough recognition, even though he gets a lot of recognition, still does not get enough recognition. So really quick on him. I mean it's he's fair to say he's on a different level. Yeah, you know what's amazing about him When you look at the coaching the coaching world in general, everybody's got somebody from their past. Everybody's got somebody that scratched their back along the way or gave him their first job, or you know, was a coach of the college that gave their kids a scholarship or coached with them somewhere else and has a familiarity with them and their wives are good friends. But when you look at Belichick, I there's so many coaching staffs. But when the coaching thing comes together at the end of a season and so and so gets fired and so and so's coming in, you have to go into an interview with an owner in a GM and say I'm gonna hire this this guy, this guy, this guy. This is my offensive coordinator, this is my special team's coordinator. This is who I'm bringing. And it forces coaches to make poor decisions if it forces coaches to get comfortable and hire somebody they're comfortable with. And one of the blessings that Belichick's has he hasn't been fired, so he hasn't had to go into Bob Craft's office and go, Okay, I know you're I know you're interviewing six guys in the next week and a half. Here's who my coaches are. What Belichick does is when he loses Matt Patricia to let's say, when he loses Matt Patricia to the Detroit he interviewed. He doesn't interview buddies or people he coached with elsewhere. He interviews a ton of people. And I've talked to different guys that have gone in for that interview, and he doesn't care about, well, your wife's get along with my wife, and you know, all the silly things that come up. And he interviews the mind of the coach and can this guy teach? Can this guy teach what we want to teach here? Can he deliver the message. He is he really smart? Does he get it? Does he know what he's doing? Like there's so many He has great coaches on his staff, and he can. If he can fill the shoes of a bliant Brian Flores or promote somebody within, he will. But he's always interviewing and always looking for great coaches, not just somebody that's comfortable or somebody's worked with back in the day, or somebody that scratched his back, but now he's gonna scratch. There's there's so much of that, and there's so much in return. There's so much bad coaching in the NFL. And if it's the best of the best players and the creme de la creme players, it needs to be that way in coaching. And too often coaches are hiring buddies, or coaches are hiring somebody that's comfortable, or coaches are hiring somebody that man, if things go sour, this guy won't be promoted with then to take my job. And so I'm comfortable with him being a coordinator because I know he won't. He won't interview well with the owner if I screw up and I'm not doing well, and you know, what I mean, like there's so much of that going on where Belichick just hires bright minds that know the game and know how to teach, not coach. They know how to teach and deliver messages and get players to do exactly what they're being taught. Organizationally, how to you know, how to fill in the shoes of Stephen Gilmour when it's time to cut him because his contracts too hired and he's his contracts too big and he's thirty two years old. Who's a chief guy that they can mold and build into playing this style of football and teach, not coach, but teach how to play this style of football. And so he's got great coaches and I know he gets a lot of slack for you know, Romeo Cornell's not working out, and man Jeanie's not working out, and some of the guys that haven't worked out, but they haven't worked out because they weren't great head coaches, but they were great coordinators or they were great teachers. And he's done a great job of only hiring who cares outside of football, who cares what they bring to the table. He wants guys that bring a certain amount of knowledge and the ability to teach, and he's hired great coaches and that's why his teams are so good. I mean that defense was really really good because there's a bunch of really good defensive coaches on it, and there's good players, but there's no you know, Perennial All Pro, highest paid in the league guys. They have a bunch of really good players that are coached and taught really really well. And that's you know, one of the secrets, not enough the secret, but that's one of the pieces to his success. Well, I haven't asked this question, end on this because I think you'd be a good guy to ask. I got a couple of people tweet at me if Belichick next year, let's hypothetically say Josh Leaves, could he take over as the offensive coordinator? And would they skip a beat? No? Yeah, I mean, just because you're a great teacher and coach doesn't mean you can do at all. But you think it would be hard for him. I definitely think it would be hard for him. I mean, it's so different offense. You look at a defensive paull sheet on a defensive coordinator's desk, and you've got to be ready for a number of situations. But you probably got six to ten coverages ready to go in that game plan, six to ten stunts and twists up front for your defensive line in games to play within the defensive line, and you know, maybe about the same from a linebacker situation. So you have the three levels of the defense, the back end, the middle, and the front four. So you've only got a handful of commodations. Offense is so diff I mean, it's it's you know you've got. I'll bet Josh McDaniels goes into a game plan with one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty plays the potential to call one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty plays. So not that it's too much for him or he can't, he doesn't know it. But it's like asking a plumber to be your electrician to some standpoint, I mean a plumber. A plumber specializes in plumbing and all that comes with plumbing, and probably knows some electric you know, electrician stuff because he dealt with electricians on a remodel or a build or whatever it is. But that's not and that's the brilliant you know, and And what makes Belichick so good probably is he wouldn't do that to himself for the detriment of the team. He probably could, he could get away with it, but he knows that that team, in that organization is better off served with him as the head coach, helping out on defense, but hiring somebody that's great and brilliant on offense, like at Josh McDaniels, and throwing his two cents in on certain things and helping out on certain things. But to take over offensive play calling completely. That would be something that a lot of head coaches have done in the past just because their egos get out of control. But the one thing Belichick's done is he's kept his ego in control and he's kept the egos of his players in control. So that would be so unorthodox for him to try to do that. I don't think he would even fathom trying it. Okay, one more quick one. You have a favorite offensive coordinator in the league, a guy that you didn't play for, just someone that you watch or that you've known through you know, acquaintances or former players or former coaches. Do you just really like that You're he might even meet a head coach because a lot of them obviously now are head coaches play callers. Yeah, Kyle Shanahan, I mean what I've since from his days with Matt shob And and just the group they had in Houston to what he did when he went to Cleveland for a minute, and then now what he's doing in San Francisco. You know, he just the run game is so good, the play action is so good, the bootlegs are so good. There's so many it's really hard to find when you're watching an NFL game easy completions. And when you watch the San Francisco forty nine ers play, there's a lot of easy completions, and screens are easy completions, but there's also digs that you can throw and over routes that where the ball's traveling twenty five yards in the air that are easy completions because guys are that open and just tune into one. You know, you can watch games all Sunday long and wait for the Monday night game where where San Francisco is playing, and you can watch all day long and see very watch every game and see very few easy completions. A handful of easy completions, but you see three or four every week, every game when the forty nine ers play. So being a quarterback, I know how hard it is to throw difficult, very very accurate passes. It's hard to throw them into tight coverage. It's hard to fit balls in certain spots. When you get those opportunities like oh, that guy's wide ass open, and oh there's nobody around that. When you have those opportunities, it's really nice in the middle of the game. But it also it's almost like a placebo effect, like, man, everybody's open now, Man that guy, that guy had tons of separation, and it almost kind of like affects you as the game goes on. When you get those opportunities, your confidence goes up. Man, this coach is on fire right now. Everything's open. Bruce. Bruce is the same way. We were playing a game in Cleveland, and I told him after the game, it's the first time in my career where we're hanging out and we grabbed a beer in the locker room after the game as we're waiting to get on the bus. We were in Cleveland, so we're waiting to get on the bus to head to the airport to fly back to Arizona, and we're hanging out the locker room talking. I was just like, man, everything you called was the perfect coverage because you have all these plays like this play is good versus these six coverage, but if we get this one coverage, this is a touchdown. And then you know, and as the play is unfold, as you're going through a game plan, you have to know what to do if you get the worst coverage, if you get this coverage versus this play, you have to either throw it out of bounds, don't take a sack, or throw it at somebody's feet because the nobody's gonna be open. But if you get this coverage, it's a touchdown. We're in the locker room after the game, I was just like, man, every time you called the shot, we got the perfect coverage. Every time there was a big quarters beater post and you know in that play call they were playing quarters. And every time we want to take a shot versus Joe Hayden, who is playing with a bad hamstring a corner, they happen to be a press cover one and we do an easy touchdown pass. So there are some guys that are like that. Bruce is definitely like that, and I think Kyle Shanahan's like that where you watched that offense? You go, man, I want to play in that system. What's funny? I'm munning night football against the Browns. Joe Staley told a story after the game because he had a broken leg and he's standing next to Kyle and he calls the play and as they're walking to the line of scrimmage, Kyle, they already kind of show their coverage. Kyle looks at Joe, says touchdown, walks away. Five seconds later, Jimmy throws a layup touchdown to George Kittle, and Joe's like, I'm speechless. I mean, what do you say? You know what I mean? The guy's like Steph Curry calling a shot, putting his arms up before the ball even hits the net. You know, he's just that good. Well, it's just like Michael Jordan talking about being in the zone. I mean that one game. I've never felt like that before, but the play caller, Bruce was in the zone. Yeah, I mean that that game against Cleveland, he was in the zone. Every time he called a shot. We got exactly what we had talked about getting during the week. If they played this coverage, we got them if they played this coverage touchdown every time he called one of those shots, which Bruce likes to call two or three a quarter. So you end up with, you know, a handful of shot and every time you get you get those shots off the play sheet. They happen to be playing the covers they're designed for. I really felt like I told him, Man, I felt like like day, Man, you were in the zone today. But it happens to coaches and it happens to players, There's no doubt. Well, Carson, I can't thank you enough for coming on. As just a fan of football, I think I speak for most people. I've always admired and appreciated your game, and now I wish you had nothing but the best in retirement and dad life and living in Idaho and the cold stay warm, I man, I will, I will. It was one degree when I got out to drive my kids in school today and it's not going to warm up much. But John, I appreciate it. Man's good. Good meeting the other day, and good catching up. And I appreciate you having me on. Imagine the biggest secret of your life. Now, imagine trusting that big secret with the entire world that is exactly what Tony Morrison did when he made the brave decision to share his HIV positive status in an open essay on Good Morning America's website. Hi, I'm Zach Stafford, post of in the Deep Stories at shape Us. In this episode, we sit down with Tony to talk about his identity as a Filipino American, his work as a producer, and the role trust plays in our own journeys, because sometimes the road to healing can feel like a retrograde, forcing us to take a pause and reflect about what comes next. Listen to in the Deep Stories at shape Us, an iHeartRadio original podcast coming to you on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. The next chapter in your story includes knowing your status. Learn more and press play on your future at noma Status dot com sponsored by Gilead. There's a recipe for getting your car running just right, and whatever you're cooking up in the garage, you'll find what you need. At ebaymotors dot com. They have over a one hundred twenty two million car parts and accessories in stock, all at the right prices, and that can help you turn your ride into something really tasty. The parts you need are just to click away at ebaymotors dot com. Let's ride. When was the last time you replaced the air filter in your HVAC? You should replace it every three months. Luckily, filter By is here to help. They have over six hundred sizes to choose from online, and most orders ship free to your home or office within twenty four hours. Plus, all the filters are made in the USA, so you can worry less about pollen and dirt and toxins in the air and breathe freely with filter by Order now at filterby dot com. Well that didn't suck. You know, I could do a thousand more interviews in my career, and that's It's about as cool as you're gonna get. It really hit me last night after I talked to him and I was thinking about it. You know, we've bashed ESPN and the Monday night broadcast many times on this podcast. It's not I don't do personal shots. If I if I'm critical of something, it's because I believe it as I say anyone, and I could text sometimes when people are like you're being mean to me or being mean like now, this isn't personal as you know, it's just it's just business as a business. We chose and I get criticized too, what welcome to life. But that would be a guy at higher like if I was a TV executive, and I don't know if he'd do it. Like he's got a ton of money, he's living a good family life in Idaho. I think he's pretty low key guy, but you can tell he's got some romo to him. Guys guy gets along with everyone, knows his shit and people just like him. I think he would be you know, for all the think of all the old former players on TV, Like whenever I turn on CBS and Dan Fouts, it's like, what are we doing? You know, this might have been cool for my dad ten twenty years ago, but let's let's move on, you know. And I'm not like some agists, but you can't hold on to these former players that were good in the seventies forever. You know. It's like Huby Brown, whever I trying to he's eighty five. I get any coach basketball, but can we get some new blood in here? For the love of God? And again, Carson's made so much money, I don't know, but he would be a guy that I would immediately call if I was a television executive. Let's get to the weekend games. Texans at Jaguars in Europe, Europe, England, UK, wherever. Never been, never been there. I've been to Spain in Italy, but I've never been to England. Texans at Jaguars plus two. Listen, the Texans got a big win on Sunday, but it was a lot of Deshaun Watson carrying their ass. J J. Watts out for the season now, Torn Labram Lonnie Johnson their starting corner. I think he's scheduled to be out this game. The Texans are a two man squad right now, Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and then just whatever else Deshaun Watson can do. The Jacksonville Jaguars who had been struggling a little bit. You know, when you play the Jets, you get your mojo back a little bit. And you got Gardner minsch who played well. Leonard Fournett's one of the leaguing rushers in the league. DJ Chark's been good. Their defense Allen is bawling. I kind of like Jacksonville in this game to go to five and four. Thing about that they're five hundred right now. With a six round quarterback, they can get to five and four after this game, they'd be in pretty good shape. Washington a buffalo the Redskins. I got a text to day from someone in the NFL that was like, wait till, wait till the real story comes out on this Redskins. Williams, It's just a debacle and the Redskins are an embarrassment. Bruce Allen's Dan Snyder. Like the Capitols and the now the Nationals, you couldn't be any more irrelevant. The only thing you're relevant for in Washington, DC is for bad things. I feel bad to all the season ticket holders, to all the diehard fans. It sucks the Bills pretty boring, good team, but their defense. To me, this has like seventeen nothing written all over. It is Dwayne Haskins starting this week. I would imagine he is Like who even has opinions on the Washington Redskins? Even if you were a diehard fan, how could you even read about like, well, this is what they're getting ready to game plan this week. It's like, how could you even care Tennessee at Carolina? You know, Carolina just got lacked. I think they're a much better team than they showed on Sunday against the Niners. It might be more of a reflection how good the Niners are Tennessee. They've been better with Ryan Tannehill. Obviously they're you know, just their front seven's not bad. I've always been a rebel guy, but I think carolinea minus three and a half wins this game. You kind of get their mojo back. Christian McCaffrey goes off. This game's interesting. Philly kind of got there, you know, got a big win last weekend at Buffalo. The Bears had one of the worst losses of the season at home against the Chargers, Bears getting five points on the road. Matt Naggie got a start in Philadelphia. Same with Doug Peterson four coach read. Kind of a little uh, you know, reuniting of the two guys that used to work for the Eagles. Obviously Doug still does. The Bears defense played really good against the Chargers. It was true Bisky who had a second half pick, not a second half, a fourth quarter pick and a fourth quarter fumble that you know, lost him the game. Then obviously they missed the kick. Philly listen. Carson Wentz when he's on is as good as anyone. I don't know if Deshaun Watson or not Deshaun Watson, but Sean Jackson's gonna play in this game or not. Fletcher Coxs look a little bit better last week, but you trust their corners. I kind of like the Bears plus five. Now do I like the Bears to win this game. They're pretty big underdog for being a former playoff team. You know, at a team that's what's the Eagles right now? Four and four? This is whoever loses this game, just say goodbye bye to the playoffs Jets of the Dolphins. At least the Dolphins admit like we're tanking, we're trying to lose. The Jets have actively tried to win games that they are beside probably the Redskins. The biggest joke in the league this year, the trade rumors that they can't keep in house Sam Darnold, the Mono situation, and then he's playing bad again. Their offensive lines atrocious. They're trading every player. Adam Gaze like, listen, Adam, I get Peyton Manning loved you well. I understand that. But Peyton Manning's not playing anymore, and your equity as this offensive mind who I've supported over the years, is diminishing at a rapid rate. You can't hate everyone on your fifty three man roster, like you eventually have to go I kind of like this player. I can attempt to win with this player. Your negative attitude, Like, try using some optimism in your life, because it feels like you hate every single player on your team. And listen, I get you didn't pick the majority of them, held all of them, but it's like, welcome to life. Eventually you gotta like someone. God, Adam, you're killing me. Colts at the Steelers, the Culture one of those teams because they're somewhat of an overachieving group. When they play the Chiefs. When they play you know, the Texans, you're gonna get one hundred percent effort. They are going to be excellent. But when they played like the Raiders, and you see when they play the Broncos, they're not quite as laser focused because for them to be good, they have to go all balls to the wall because they're not quite as talented as some of these teams. But they're well coached and they're tough, and I think you saw it last week and a couple of weeks ago. When they play the Raiders, if they're not super locked in, they can be beat. Well, this is type game. Pittsburgh now has kind of got their mojo back, and they're still the Steelers. I think you're gonna get the Colt's best effort. My question is what Mason Rudolph do I get? Do I get the Mason Rudolph that when I flipped on the Monday night football game he's just throwing pick after pick, Or when I watched him against the forty nine Ers in the first half, you go, is this guy a practice squad player or is he the guy in the second half where you go, oh, that's a third round pick. That's a guy that could be a starter in the NFL. He did the same thing against the Niners through a touchdown past You're like, God, this guy can make some plays. And maybe it's just the nature having a young quarterback. But the one thing you say about the Steelers is they do have some weapons. Juju is a good player. The kid from Tulane that scored that sweet touchdown on Monday Night football can fly last night check. I don't know James Connor status for this game, but you can piece mail running backs to me, it's about Mason throwing the football. I kind of like the Steelers plus one one in five plus one and a half, and if they win this game, they'd be four and four. And to have Roethlisberger being out with Tommy John surgery or whatever the hell surgery he had him his elbow shot and to be four and four would be an incredible accomplishment for the Steelers and I would tip my hat to him. Lions at the Raiders. This game's interesting because clearly the Raiders are good offensive team. They can run the ball, Derek Harsman playing really well, Waller's balling. Their defense stinks that they had a swing and a miss on the fourth overall pick. They passed on Josh Allen, who Schefter tweeted out yesterday. You compare him and Nick Bosa. They've both dominated for Cleveland. Farrell, who is probably the most untradable player in the league. He makes like six seven million dollars a year and has one pressure on the season. He is not good. If they would have drafted Josh Allen, the Raiders might be a playoff team, but instead they don't have Josh Allen and they're not going to be This is a a tough matchup for him because they can't really cover. And Matt Stafford's having, statistically, through I think seven games, the best season of his career. He's got sixteen touchdowns, only four picks. Their passing game is awesome. Now they're running game the kid from Auburn carry on Johnson's on injury reserve. I think rap sheet I saw on Twitter said that they tried to trade for DeVante Freeman and it almost went through, and it fell through last minute. That would have been big. But I don't know if you necessarily need them to need him to beat the Raiders. I think that Stafford has a field day. It kind of looks like Rogers a couple of weeks back in Lambeau. Now the Raiders are playing at home for the first time in like seven months, longest road trip in the history of professional sports. But I just I think it's a tight game. I'm not acting like the Raiders don't belong with the Lions. I just think I like the I like the Lions plus two in this game tampat Seattle. This is setting up for next week Monday, and night football, Seattle is going to be seven and two. I mean, you're gonna trust Jameis Winston, who leads the league in interceptions, who is just a turnover machine, to go into Seattle and even compete. I just don't see it, you know. And Seattle with Chris Carson, with the Ray Russell's playing just that crowd, I think they kicked their ass. I really do. Cleveland at Denver, listen, I get Flacco's hurt his neck and they're playing some random guy at quarterback because the Drew Locke is still hurt and he can't start. I think everyone's just chocking up Cleveland for a win at Denver. And I'm gonna say, pumped the breaks again. This quarterback they're starting. I've never even heard of the guy. But to think that Cleveland, with everything that's going on, Baker flipping out, they're two and five, they're just in absolute shambles, is just going to go to Denver. Now. I'm not saying Denver's good. They've earned their record. They're two and six. They've lost the majority of their games. I think all of their freaking games have come down to a one score game. They are in every game they are. They are a really good, bad team. And listen, Vic Fangio, first time your head coach, say what you want about him. I will take Vic Fangio every day of the week and five hundred times on Sunday over Freddy Kitchens. So I just like Denver plus three and a half. Now, I don't know necessarily if Denver wins out right, but I don't Colin and you just listen, Oh, They're gonna go in Denver and kick the shit out of them. I don't know. Denver's a weird place to play. It always has been, even when their teams haven't been good. And who the hell is Cleveland to get some benefit of the doubt. It's like, Oh, Baker's just gonna figure this out. Baker's having a mental breakdown, you know. As as a good friend of mine, Lorenz O'Neil, maybe a future Hall of Fame fullback, told me pressure just two things. It creates diamonds, and it burst pipes. And right now it feels like it's bursting every single pipe in Barre, Ohio. So I'm telling you, I think this game in Denver is gonna be a lot weirder than people think. Packers at the Chargers. Chargers fired Ken wizzen Hunt like Dean Spanos, What are you doing? Just sell your team, get out of the NFL. You are a you are a just a blackmark right now in the NFL. You're just you're unbecoming of what the NFL stands for. Right now. You're cheap, You're just you're piggybacking off cronky. Just leave leave us all alone. Would just go sell your team, make your billions, do whatever the hell you want. I know you hate the thought of even selling your team because of the tax bill. That just makes you the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. But just get out of here. We've had enough of you. You're gonna host the Packers this weekend at your little concert stadium, and it holds thirty thousand people. I will be shocked if there aren't twenty nine thousand Packer fans it is going to It might be one hundred percent Packer. There might not be a Charger fan beside Chargers employees in this thirty thousand home depot center. I think the Packers just kick the shit out of them. Anthony Linz not a very good head coach. I've been saying it for two years. I had to back off a little bit because they got hot. But let's call it what it is. He doesn't call the defense, which was really good last year. That was Gus Bradley. And offensively, I mean, Philip Rivers carries the team when they were good. So Anthony lens is gonna get fired at the end of this year. I would imagine they go after Josh McDaniels. But are they really gonna pay Josh McDaniels eight or nine million dollars to be their head coach. That is not the way Dean Spanos operates because he loves looking at money in his savings account. But love the Packers this weekend Pats at Baltimore. The more I've thought about this game, I'm pretty interested to watch because when's the last time the Packers. Excuse me, the Patriots faced a real running quarterback that was really good. And you know, I mean, I'm critical Lamar Jackson. Don't love his ability to throw the football. But I was listening to my guy lanzer Line on with Daniel Jeremiah on his podcast the other day. He had a good point. He said, the one thing you got to look at Lamar like is look at him like a home run hitter that hits two forty. Well, I can live with you hitting two forty if you hit forty seven home runs. And the one thing you'll give Lamars he makes big plays. So maybe and listen, I am I am never I'm not skip Bayless. I'm not just gonna hold on to a take forever like I am more than open to be fluid. And it got me thinking, like, Okay, my main issue with Lamar is eventually you're gonna have to complete balls in big games, and they're gonna play in big games because they're gonna be a playoff team. On third and eight in a playoff game, and when you run and you always die forward, you're gonna get hurt. Like, that's not a sustainable way to play. So I'll never change that mindset that that's that's a tried and true formula. In the NFL. Thirdin eight, you can't run. You got to complete a pass in a in a tie game against the New England Patriots in the playoffs. Now in this game, we'll see and I love the chess. The chess match. Bill Belichick greatest defensive coordinator in the history of the league up against Lamar Jackson, who just you know, runs around. I'm fascinated to watch this thing. You know, Belichick's gonna have his defensive lineman, you know, playing very very cautious, like they're not just sprinting up the field and letting him take off through lanes. That ain't that ain't happening. You know, they're hammering that right now as I speak in practice about staying flat footed, about being on your toes, not firing up the feud. You're not playing Philip Rivers here or Eli Manning. You're playing a guy that's basically a running back. And can the Pats offense get going a little bit this week? You know, they traded for Mohamed Sanu. Eventually Nakil Harry's gonna be back. This is a fun Sunday night game. I would lean take the Ravens plus four. You know because historically you always say, well the Ravens are the one team that aren't scared of the Patriots. Well, I'd say, well, Ed Reid's not walking through that door. Ray Lewis isn't walking through that door. Flacco, who always played pretty well against the Patriots in big games, ain't walking through that door. I wouldn't still say that they've there's a lot of new players here, but this is this is a fun game. I'm really excited. I'd probably lean the Ravens plus four, though I don't feel very good about it at all. No Middlecoff mail back this week, just because the podcast was so long. Thanks everyone for listening and share with your friends. Retweet it, share on social media, Have a great weekend, enjoy the football and Happy Halloween. Audios. Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. Highlands Naturals Baby oral pain relief tablets can help ease the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like camemel and arnica suite your baby's mouth, and gums made with ingredients derived from plant minerals and other sources free of harsh chemicals. You can count on Highlands for serious pain relief for your teething baby. Highlands is a kinder way to care for teething. 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