The Around the NFL podcast. That pizza was great, Mark. From the Chris Wesling podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansis. Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sesler, heroes both. What pizza are we referring to, Mark?

No, because we were just talking before the show that we now, we regularly read ads for iHeartRadio. Part of the gig. Yeah, we're happy to do it, obviously, on at varying degrees. I don't know how they pick what we're each being tagged to read, but I got a DiGiorno one that is nationally, it's like a-You poured your heart into the read. I really do. I actually have eaten DiGiorno Pizza, and I do believe in it. I don't want to give them... I want them to come back with a second spot and maybe more of a bundle of an offer for me to continue to pitch them. But I will say I believe in the product largely, and I put my heart into the read, and I've had people call me up from other parts of the country and say, Just heard you doing a pizza on my AM radio station.

I feel a little conflicted here. Yeah, conflicted. Yeah, because this Friday, sometimes I mention I do the Picks show with Patrick and Cynthia, the game day view.Of course.This Friday, you guys can see the debut, 8:00 PM Eastern, of the Little Caesar's In-Show ad that we filmed weeks back. It's a bit of a conflict here.

Or multiple pizza. You guys have the whole thing covered. Yeah, multiple pie houses want us to speak for them.

I think there is a certain absurdest humor to Mark doing a read for any food product.

Yes, I got it out of that. But it's like, you have seen me eat pizza multiple times.

Actually, you would be a great sponsor because you'd be like, I don't like much food, but this food satisfies the market.

I think to really get the cross promotion going with DiGiorno, it's now taking that. The first read was a little shock and awe, and now adding some nuance. Be like, Listen, hi, I'm Mark. I don't like food, but what I must eat.

Right. I like the pitch. I need more weight in the creative process here. They just gave me the text last time, but I think now that they see the groundswell here.

If you want to cook the meal, you better let me shop for the groceries.

Hi, I'm Mark. On a typical nine-hour day at the office, I just drink 17 coffees and then a root beer. But I'll eat some DiZorda.

But I believe that. I've seen you eat pizza. It's one of the foods I have seen you eat. This is the Wednesday edition of Around the NFL. This is that buffer zone. We've moved away. We've moved out of the Port of Wild Card Super. Wild Card Weekend. We have our preview episode of the divisional round, the best weekend of football of the year, coming up tomorrow. But for today, I think it'll be a good sifting through, let's be honest, the wreckage. Sifting through the wreckage. Today of Super Wild Card Weekend, and figured out some of these teams that it didn't go their way, what happens next. We got that coming up. But before we do... Oh, wait, once again, it's turning into the Jimmy Kimmel saying, Oh, we ran out of time for Matt Damon situation. I did tease Colleen coming back, but listen, I don't have to get into I won't. I won't. Colleen's not here today. So that is three straight weeks. I've teased Colleen on the show. Next week, maybe. You know what? Let's go for it. Next week, Colleen returns.

Looking forward to it.

It's a good... You're part of your showman duties. It's just the buildup.

Right.

She's been a part of that, too.

I should have double-checked with her, but I just assumed, but you don't assume. In the words of the second bad guy in Underseage 2, Dark Territory, Assumption is the mother of all F-ups.

That's what I did. He came up with that.

He was pretty...

I feel like I've been hearing that since I was a youth, but I don't know.

The movie came out in 1995. Well, you weren't a youth. You were in your 20s at that point, but you might have seen it.

He elevated the phrase, no doubt.

All right, let's get to the news.

Came out of his ex-wife's body. Came out of his ex-wife's body. Came out of his X-ray body.

I'm not even going to give it a context. If you missed that episode, you just know Greg had comments about that, and we're going to get to the Patriots and their coaching staff and who's on it and who's not in a little bit. But let's start with Mike Tomlin. Tomlin was a subject of a lot of speculation. In December, when the team was seven and seven and was having a disappointing year, then they reel off three straight wins, sneak in the playoffs, get dispatched by Buffalo on Monday, leading to a postgame press conference and a tense moment at the end where a reporter for ESPN, Brook Prior, asked, Hey, you got one year left on your contract. Tomlin gave a little look and then walked right out the door without saying a word, which takes us to Tuesday, where Tomlin told Steelers players coaches that he plans to coach a team in 2024, a day after he walked out on that press conference. I think it's interesting even how it's reported here, Greg, that he told the Steelers players and coaches, I'm coming back. So assuming Pittsburgh, there's not a disconnect here. It will be Mike Tomlin once again back for yet another year.

Yeah, we know he's a man of his word, but I am very curious just to watch what happens this offseason because he's going into the final year of his contract. That's new. I just I wonder if him walking off the set there was almost like a warning shot of, Don't ask about that, because there's at least one route that he could take here, which his old boss or his old colleague, Kevin Colbert, took late in his career, where he just kept going into his contract years. He wasn't sure. That was a little different. He was thinking about retiring and whatnot. I do wonder, and this would be something that will hang over the team, if Tomlin is interested in, Maybe I will go into my contract year and not sign an extension here. Maybe the Steelers don't want that to happen, and they'll try to get them signed long term. But it's just something to watch with the Insiders this offseason.

I guess also because when you argued that Belichick would never be true trade debate that he wouldn't go to another team and have that team have to give up a first-round pick or multiple picks for him or whatever. Coaches are unwise to do that. If you're on your one-year deal, you could be Mike Tomlin. If you get to end of next season and your quarterback situation isn't refreshed or vibrant or better than it has been for the past couple of years, you then become one of the most highly touted coaches out there. He's not that old. He's still got plenty left. He could go almost anywhere he'd want to with the best possible roster and not give up assets in return. It's like you can't do that when you still have two years. If you get to one, you're getting closer to freedom if he wanted that.

But he sounds loyal to Pittsburgh to me also. He's also 20 years younger than Belgium. It could be a money thing, too. Steeler's like, does he get the top of the coaching market money? Maybe he doesn't. Maybe it would take him becoming a free agent to do that.

In other news, the New Orleans Saints make moves on their coaching staff, headlined by Pete Carmichael Jr, the longest tenured offensive coordinator in football. He will not return to the Saints in 2024. The head coach, Dennis Allen announced that on Tuesday. They're also parting ways with a few other assistants on the staff. And 18 years, which 18 season with the Saints.

It's literally longer than any head coach in the league.

And obviously, you know.

Yeah, it is. Tomlin is now the longest tenure head coach.

He was a member of Sean Payton's original coaching staff. He arrived as the QB coach in 2006. Of course, when Payton was there, it was Payton's offense, and Payton was running the show, which, I guess, eased Carmichael's transition when Dennis Allen took over. But at this point in time, and we're going to get to Dennis Allen sticking around Mark in a second, some comments made by the general manager, they are making changes, just not at the top.

I mean, the Pete Carmichael thing, I'll never forget being at a Hall of Fame game, literally during Deflategate or something, or during the whole Bounty Gate thing and seeing Pete Carmichael on the sideline late August. This was like a billion years ago. It's like he's been around forever.

He was the interim before the other interim came back. Right.

He's always been like Payton's guy, but I think two things I feel a little bit like, there were whispers when they tried to elevate him to OC that he didn't really, really desire it the way that you'd think. When you listen to Jordan Rodrieg's Play Callers podcast series, all these guys are dying inside and burning just to get a play into the playbook. They want to be part of it. They want to create. You didn't get that vibe from late career Carmichael in this situation. Matt Harmon, our friend, put a comment out saying that on the week-to-week basis of watching film and watching offense, I think the Saints were the one, the film that just would drag them down to the mud on a week-to-week basis. It's like they could use some new ideas, some fresh life.

It's the way of keeping the head coach, but, Hey, we are making a change. That's fine. It It's been the same system. I mean, it's Sean Payton system. They were average on offense the last two years. They weren't much better with Carr. They did finish better offensively. I think that's at least... Their offensive line, I think, played well, considering the relative talent that they have. Now it's like it's car and all these guys starting over in another system which has its own share of risks.

Right. If they don't get better next year, they'll come for the head coach. A lot of people thought Dennis Allen should have been out this year, but Mickey Loomis decided that the Saints wanted to go deeper with Alan, and he had a press conference today which was hyper enjoyable. Just a warning, Mark, to you and the other Misa the phonias out there. Yeah. He's chewing gum. That sound you're about to hear is a man chomping violently on a piece of bubble gum while addressing the media- See how it goes.into a microphone. Good luck. Bill Belichick. Here's his first three seasons, 6 and 10, 7 and 9, 7 and 9.

Tom Landry, 0 and 11, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, 4 and 10, 5 and 8.

Hall of Fame coaches, all of them. Bill Walsh, first year, 2:14, second year, 6:10. I think the easy thing to do is just look at the results and say, Oh, no, we got to have a change. I want to address the misophonia, which I'm coming around on now, but we got to let this guy cook because he's just getting warmed up here. Go.

Whoa.

You got to look beyond that. What are the reasons why we were nine and eight instead of 13 and four?

And look, it's collective.

It's the players, it's the coaches, it's me, it's our personnel staff, our roster. It's variables, sometimes that we don't have any control of. And so my assessment is Dennis Allen is a good coach. Again, with Sean Payton, we went 10 and 6 the first year, but then we were seven, nine, eight, and eight. I heard some of the same noise. But at the time, I knew we had a good football coach. I think sometimes the hard thing to do is to be patient and recognize your other shortcomings and get those fixed. That's what we're doing. I love that Saints fans despise Dennis Allen. Then the GM comes out and he does the cliché '80s bad guy' move of popping in the gum whenever you want. If you were getting into character and you want to be, Okay, we want you to play this as a overconfident buffoon who's also dismissive of what other people think to be an obvious problem. The first thing you do is you talk that way. The second thing you do is you pop in the piece of gum because it adds to this allure that you're not even going to take this seriously, even though everyone around you is deadly serious about the problem around your organization or in your high school.

Yeah. I was doing a thing where I'm watching him on the monitor, and the whole noise part of it bothered me a little bit less. But then if I turned away and just did it like people driving around in a car right now or running or jogging listening to that, it drove me 10 times more insane. But the hubris, the DJF element to all that, and the hubris to suggest to a room of hardened football reporters that I'm going to list off three or four Hall of Fame head coaches from 20, 25 years ago who lived in a totally different NFL and then say, I'm equating that to Dennis Allen. That's hubris. That's absurd.

Maybe Jameis Winston should be the quarterback because there is some connective tissue there. When Winston was trying to to say, This isn't a shot at DA. We just made a team decision without him to score that breakdown, not realizing that he was actually making the coach look worse. In this situation, you are not helping Mickey Loomis, Dennis Allen, by invoking some of the great coaches in NFL history saying that they started slowly and then came out. If anything, it just makes you look sillier and weaker by comparison.

Yeah, because I don't know if he's counting Dennis Allen's Rater days. I love it. I do love it because if you counted Dennis Allen's rater days, you could keep those records rolling and start with 4-12, 4-12, 0-4, adding up to 24-46. I love Mickey Loomis still being around because there aren't many teams like this where he is the best in the NFL, and P. Carmichael was like this, too, at keeping his job. He has been in this job for 24 years. Mickey Loomis, and he's not just the GM. He's the executive vice president. At one point, he was running the the Pelicans. That was a long term bit on this show. I don't believe he's still running. I mean, I know he's not still running the Pelicans anymore, but he has as much power, I believe, as almost any decision maker in the entire league, because he almost feels like ownership. I think he-You don't chew gum like that unless you are completely safe. He's got the media people that are his guys. He's got the ones that are against him, and he's definitely firing back against the ones that are against me. He does some local radio hits where he just goes off and you're just like, wow, this guy is almost untouchable.

I think he liked it.

And his own fan base, Greggy. The way he was, and I'm joking, but serious, but chewing the gun that way, addressing the media in that type of hyper-confident way is being dismissive of what is he would... If we could hear it clearly out in Southern California, in New Orleans, it must be an absolute blizzard of the criticism and negativity around the coaching staff and the team in general. For him to come out publicly, I'd be pulling my hair out if I was a Saints fan because I'm like, This is the guy that's leading us right now. He's on his own planet.

He does that magic with the cap year after year.

There's also not a lot of years like this one where there's some high-profile attractive program building, proven coaches out there, and you're going to not even think about making a change.

I think when everyone hears, Dennis Allen isn't going anywhere, to me, that was like, Okay, Mickey Loomis isn't going anywhere. At some point, Gael Benson, who owns his team, is going to step in if they struggle and have to push the Eject button on the whole thing because it's like Mickey Loomis runs the team, and he likes that he has a coach that is under his thumb to some degree.

Maybe this is just like I'm basing this off of personal experience. Does it not feel like fewer people, and I'll start with adults, I'm not gaging children, but fewer adults are walking around chewing gum than in the past? I used to chew gum all the time. I don't ever think about buying any gum. That's me. I get that that's just me, but you walk around seeing a lot of adults chewing gum?

If you're talking like bubble-licious, no. But people that will chew it to freshen their breath, I think that's still an industry that's thriving.

Thriving? Yeah.

I hear what you're saying. We also live in Los Angeles. I don't know, maybe this is a healthier... Because I do think it seems like people eat less candy, less gum, less soda in general than when we were growing up and we were just like...Less.

Cigarettes.right.there's that. That is... There's a link right there.

I have found an article in the Atlantic, Mark, that says gum sales are down 32% from 2018.

Industry analyst.

It's lost a little juice. Let's bring gum back.

That is a significant decline, by the way.

Yeah, for only five, six years, too.

I want to see your data. I want to see your sources.

The Atlantic is not a false... The Atlantic has an article, How Chewing Gum Lost its Cultural Cachet.Mark.

You're almost-It's by Mark Sesler.

That is crazy.

I will counter that with a September article.

The title of the article is called It's Just Not Cool Anymore.

Ask Mickey Loomis.

That's true. I know, but he does not...

The global chewing gum market is forecasted to make sales amounting to $48.68 billion in 2025.

So it's still huge. I'm just saying. But not as huge. Not as huge.

I don't know.

$50 billion is $50 billion to me.

Well, that's I think Greg's study tells us more.

It's like how people are like, Oh, TV is dying. It's like, okay, but you still have these advertisers paying millions of dollars and millions. It's on the down slope, but big gum, you're not going for.

32% is a notable number.

Based on sales per region, the largest market for chewing gum can be found in Europe, followed by the Asia Pacific region, the North American market ranked third, where the beloved Chewy Candy sales are expected to reach 3.5 billion US dollars by 2024. Listen, I'm still betting big on big gum.

You keep doing that.

No one ever went broke betting on big gum. You know what I mean?

The awful stick gums, which lose its flavor within 30 seconds. Yeah. Those, I think, are gone for the most part. They've been outclassed.

They've been-Fruit Striped gum, things like that.

It's literally gone. That has been just continued. If you have it for 30 seconds, we need a higher quality gum for sure.

You know it's a wild thing still on the market. You know how, or maybe you don't know, but chewing tobacco, which is tremendously destructive, snuff and things like that, everyone knows they were sold in pouches. I think Major League Base and the miners now have banned its usage. It was prevalent in '60s, '70s, '80s, into the '90s. Big League Chew is still out there, and its packaging is literally packaged in tobacco in the same way the chewing tobacco was.

I mean, Big League Chew The kids love it. The jackpot of gum in many ways. I thought juicy fruit as a less sweet type of trinket was good, too.

By the way, somebody gives me a slice of Big Red right now? Yeah. I'm going Loomis on this. Chuels. We're a piece of gum? I'm going full Loomis. Okay. All right. In other news, the Falcons, man, the Falcons are casting a wide net with big fish being dragged in because a couple of days after Bill Belichick had a meeting with the team and had an interview, the Falcons announced Tuesday that they completed an interview with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. You go Belichick, Harbaugh, back to back. Belichick, the most successful NFL coach ever. Harbaugh, who had huge success with the Niners years back and just won a national title with Michigan. I mean, you imagine this isn't going to end with them hiring some offensive line coach. One of these dudes is probably going to be their coach, right?

You would think so. We have a tracker for coaches and interviews. They have requested and started interviews with other candidates, like Mike McDonald, the Ravens coordinator, and Bobby slow with the Texan. They have had some Jiro Everu, the Panthers. They've dipped into that pool, too. And yet it feels like they're the only team that's gone Harba, Belichick. What a world to me that Jim Harba and Bill Belichick are competing for a head coaching job in the year 2024.

Yeah, and Harba has come vaguely close. There was interest with the Vikings two years ago. I think he wanted the chargers job a year ago also, which makes sense.

He wanted the Broncos job last year, too. They shot him down. I thought that when Michigan won that title, I was like, You got to give a thanks to the Vikings and the Broncos for turning them down.

Yeah, I mean, the Falcons, though, I could see Belichick being like, If I want the Falcons job, it's okay that we don't have a quarterback because I can do my Bill Belichick things and we'll find one. But Jim Harba almost, I feel like hit the ground running needs to be attached to a promising young quarterback. I don't like the idea of him going two years with the chaos they've had.

The buzz is he might want to draft one depending on where he goes. That's what it is. Jj McCarthy, his quarterback at Michigan, who's seen as a late first, second round type of guy.

In fairness to Harbaugh, I don't think he's one of those coaches that can't be successful unless you give him a star quarterback. When he came to San Francisco, Alex Smith was a draft bust, turned him into a big-time player, and then Colin Kaepernick took the league over for a while. Obviously, in Michigan, he's found ways to make that organization.

It just doesn't seem like someone that's going to hang around for nine years somewhere. It's like you don't want to wait for time.

No, you're signing up, I think, and that might be the trepidation for a lot of these teams going back to last year is, you know what you're going to get. He's going to be a pain in the ass. He's going to be maybe even maniacal. You're probably going to butt heads with him by the end of year one, but he's been successful everywhere he's gone. That's it. The deal with the devil feels strong, but you know if you're getting into bed with Harba, you make your team better, it's going to be a huge pain in the ass.

You'll be the center of attention.

I'm waiting for one of these dominoes to drop here. Part of it is as we're taping, we don't know about the Eagles and the Cowboys, and maybe that's holding things up. Then you also have the guys that are in the playoffs like McDonald and Ben Johnson feels like the bell of the ball, the Lion's OC who's going to get one of those jobs. That's holding things up a little, too. I like that. You don't need to have this be such a mad dash.

All right. In other news, we talked about on Monday night that the Patriots quickly moved on from Bill Belichick by promoting Drod Mayo to head coach. And on Wednesday, the Patriots held a introductory press conference for Mayo. Here's a little bit from that. What walls need to be knocked down in your opinion?

What relationships to be rebuilt.

Robert, you can take it as well.

Yeah, as we evaluate the players, the scheme, and things like that, I think you have to evaluate the culture and evaluate how the pieces fit. I will say this, my philosophy, I don't want to be in an echo chamber. I just don't. I want people who are going to be honest and open and then hopefully come together and make a sound decision. That was really a theme. I watched Gerard Mayo. Man, it was like whiplash watching that compared to a Bill Belga conference where he's just joking around. He wasn't nervous at all. You can see how he could be a charismatic speaker, but also pretty loose. But he hit that pretty hard that he was less into the schemes and how everything is going to look and more about developing people. Really, he was as respectful as possible to Belichick, but saying, This needs to not just be a one-man operation. I want to listen to everyone in the building. Our insider, Ian, pointed out how, literally, assistant coaches aren't allowed to talk to people walking by them in the hallway, like media people, that stuff. Like your key card only gets you into certain rooms.

I think that was what Mayo was talking about. It was just like, let's take away the skull and Crossbone stuff about being the Patriots, that it's so dark and everything, and let's develop players and be human. That was what he talked about. He was worried more about, I want to develop these guys and be their leader, and everything else will fall into his plate.

This was a totally different in terms of the variants you can get with Robert Kraft, a different version of Robert Kraft in this press conference where he opened up talking about the fact that he has been close to Gerard Mayo since 2008 when they drafted him and got to know him really well. I mean, Gerard Mayo calls Robert Kraft. This blew my mind, and I love it. I was like, Would this ever be the nickname Bill Belichick uses for Robert Kraft? He calls him Thundercap.

I was so confused because he kept talking about Thunder the whole time. That's the relationship. I missed that that It was actually Robert Kraft, and he just kept talking about… I was like, Who is this Thunder guy?

I think the thing is because the Belichick thing just got so stale over the last year and a half. This felt like such a sea change. I think that behind the scenes, Mayo and Kraft Their relationship was there a bit of a, Hey, things could change, and I have some ideas, and a lot of it, I think.

Mayo refers to Kraft as…Thunder Cat.I thought it was the other way around. No, no, no. Thunder, which is short for Young Thunder Cat due to what he calls the 82-year-old's young heart because he's friends with Meek Mill, that's why.There's.

Other reasons.And he wears Nike. There were other reasons, too.

He has a very young wife. I mean, not as young as when he met her.

No, she's older now.

Well, right. She is older than me, so I'm seeing very young. Let's not talk about wives, Greg, because I know where you're going next. I couldn't even remember what body part, what I was even talking about back then. They didn't talk any Steve Belchick, by the way. But it's funny you mentioned wives. That's what you were talking about, by the way. Yes. Robert Kraft.

From when Steve Belichick emerged.

Yes. Maybe he'll stick around, maybe not. There were no specifics, really, about what Mayo is going to do. But Kraft compared Mayo to his new wife, Dana, and to Bill Belichick, and to his first wife, Myra, and said like these-Checking all the boxes. I just go with my gut. That's the only time I've had these feelings about certain people, and I knew it in a day. I knew that about Gerard Mayo in a day, and this was always my plan. It spoke to larger things that it sounds like they're just going to be promoting from within for their GM and front office that they are going to look at outside people. But he was like, It's my motto, my company, other NFL teams are different, that I'd rather develop from within. We have a lot of good people from within, and I'm not going to specify blah, blah, blah.

There was one very succession type moment where there were some penetrating questions like, Well, why is Jonathan Kraft not even here? Some would think he's running the whole thing behind the scenes.

He's not a serious person.

Basically, he did say it. He didn't say that, but he's like, The Kraft family has so many businesses. Jonathan Kraft is dealing with an almost emergency type situation in one of our companies and couldn't be here today. It just was like, okay.

We'll see. I still think, Greg, we'll be talking about it as the months pass that Robert's more involved than he's ever been.He.

Was...with.

Decision making.

Right. They asked him that question, and he said, I guess it's-Sorry, Young Thunder Cat. Right. Young Thunder Cat said, It's going to be the same as it's always been. We don't get involved with that at all. We're going to trust them to do their jobs. We know what we don't know. We look at it like we're fans. The only time we get involved is if there's some character issue thing. Other than that, we're going to trust them. There was one moment, which, illegitimately, the whole thing made me feel better about the Drod Mayo thing. We'll see. He's in a very difficult spot. But he said, I'm not trying to be a Bill Bell. You can see that, and that's good. But there was a moment where they asked whether... Because he had said it was important. It meant a lot to him to be the first Black head coach of the Patriots. And they asked Robert Kraft, Is it important to you that he's the first Black head coach? And Kraft had this answer like, I don't see color. That doesn't matter to me. He just happened to be the best man for the job.

And I thought the way Mayo then took what Kraft just said and answered it, said a lot about him. I do see color because I believe if you don't see color, you can't see racism. And whatever Whatever happens, Black, White, disabled person. Even someone with disabilities, I always, for the most part, people are like, when they're young, they make the spot hot. Younger people know what that means. But what I would say is, no, I want you to be able to go up to those people and really understand those people. So it goes back to whatever it is, black, white, yellow. It really doesn't matter, but it does matter so we can try to fix a problem that we all know we have. For him to say that right next to Kraft after Kraft said that, I thought it was telling, and it was great. I just think it just shows he's not afraid, and he knows being a black coach in Boston is going to be tricky. A lot of people, I already saw it, aren't going to even like those comments. It says a lot about him. I think that he could have the respect of Kraft to go against what Kraft just said right next to him and address a serious topic, but in a totally respectable respectful way and be like, Yeah, I am the first Black coach for the Patriots, and I know that might be a thing.

I don't know.

I think Kraft meant well. I think it's about a bit of an outdated cliché for someone that is open-minded about things and race relations to say that I don't see color. That's now not necessarily the way to go about it, but 20 years ago or whatever, that's what everyone would say if you were trying to express yourself in a certain way. Boston Boston sports has a horrendous history when it comes to the black players and coaches and all the major teams, whether it's the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Patriots. I know Belgium has been there forever, but 2024, it took to get your first black coach. That was obviously overdue. Let's see how Mr. Mayo performed.

I got to defend my Celtics, at least the organization, not the fans. They broke a lot of boundaries. Of course, Bill Russell as a head coach early in the NBA, I think, a first winning championship, stuff like that, and bringing players in. But you're absolutely right. It's a little thorny, and that's why I thought that moment, it was pretty interesting.

That Bill Russell documentary was eye-opening, what he went through. Okay, let's take a break, and then when we get back, we will... And this is an easy work, but we brought the wrecking ball out. We brought all the trucks are rolling in, the back hose, and we are sifting through the wreckage of Wild Card Weekend. Common men, that's what it's about. We'll be right back.

Dari.

Welcome back. All right. I was just saying that we're sifting through the wreckage. Here's what I want everyone to be doing. Mark, I want you to be in one of the trucks, but on a construction site, there's just always one guy, even if it's just rubble, just shooting water somewhere. I just want you to hammer in an area with water, just with a big old hose.Wet it down.Just wet it down. Sure.

That sounds like one of the easier jobs on the site.

I'm going to be actually in a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and some papers and just talking to people. Greg, you are in, you know how there's always a trailer? Yeah. You're in the trailer.

Nobody's actually out working.

No, You're answering phones, and you're setting things up. Phones. Then Eric, you and Randy? Doing that work. We got shovels.

We got shovels and wheelbarrels.

You got your tats are out because you have the T-shirt and you're looking pretty good. Hell, yeah. Randy's grinding as well. I like that. That's how I see it. What do you guys think?

I think what you described is you guys had the white helmets on and we have the yellow helmets. I think that's the hierarchy on most construction I like that you positioned it as common men, but then put us all in mid-level, middle management, office jobs, the people that everyone out is whispering about being jerks.

I don't know. Mark probably is more seen as able to travel. He's code switching because you're just firing that. You're blasting that water in there, but that's to soften up the rocks and the soil for those guys to have to take their shovels.

I'm helping them, if anything, so I care about their plight. I think that the common man is also equipped to just talk about disasters versus cleaning them up.

That's what we-Randy pointed out that Mark might be Ocha.

Ocha? To make sure everything's up to code. He's a code guy. Ocha rolls in, sess dog eating his DiJornos.

I'm still doing those spots.

There's a microwave in the trailer. Then after I got my sleeves rolled up, I pop into the trailer, you go in the trailer, Greg is already in the trailer. We're just feasting on DiJornos.

Well, we've been working hard, so it's not...

Then we're like, Oh, there's a couple of slices left. Should we tell Eric and Randy? Then Greg's like, No, let's save it for later.

No, I would never be that guy.

A couple of slices.For sure.

All right, let's get to it. Yeah, we're at the site. We're at the demo site, and it's time to start figuring out what to make of the situation. We're going to get to... It's not We can talk about any of the teams that are playing this upcoming weekend. That's certainly welcome. But I think a good focus of this segment is going to be around who's not playing and what comes next. Greg, do you want to get us going at the construction site? We got to sift through this wreckage, and what are you taking out of it? How's it, Mark?

The Rams are a site that I think it'sIt's soaking wet.better shape than we expected. It was totally He was really torn down a year ago. That was the thought. And yet, Les Sneed said famously in the offseason, he's got those four weight-bearing walls. Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, Cooper Cupp. I think Sean McVay was a weight-bearing wall. And you know what? They proved to be much more on it in terms of being optimistic about what this team could do in terms of a reset. But I've heard Rams fans, and there's a couple in my house, and thinking about the next few years. Wow, they're really set up, and I don't think you want to get it twisted here. They have over $40 million in cap space. They can open up some stuff. They actually have some draft picks to play with, and I think they're going to want to keep... I don't think they're going to want to get rid of all their draft picks suddenly after having such a good draft class and seeing what that can do for an organization and having a first-round pick this year. I don't think that's what they're going to do, but this isn't a long timeline.

Matthew Stafford, how long can you expect him to stay healthy and be playing at this level? Certainly, Aaron Donald, the greatest player in franchise history and one of the greatest players of all time, certainly Cooper Cup, the way we saw him. They're not getting rid of Cooper Cup because of salary and everything. But this is closer to the end of their timeline. They have a window here for a year or two more. I'm just very curious about how aggressive they are going to be. My instinct is extremely aggressive that they are going to see that this window is now the next two years here. Yes, we have this great rookie class, Kyren Williams made all pro, and Kobe Turner gets defensive rookie of the Year and all that stuff. That's all great. But now is their window, and I think they are going to be as aggressive as any team trying to bring in more firepower on both sides of the ball, especially defense, but maybe some more weapons on the offensive side, too. One of the teams, to me, that's going to define the offseason because we've seen that they're not afraid to be aggressive.

I think it's a great call. They did it a couple of years ago, and we were like, Oh, they bought that title on credit. Now they're going to have to pay the price. Not if you're well run, not if you know what to do. That is great the way he explained that, Sneed, because it's so true. If you have the pillars, whether you want to call them walls or pillars or whatever, construction stuff. If you have that base, you could build around it pretty quickly.

They have literally no dead money. Dead money is not a killer. They did make the play house with that much dead money, but they ate tens and tens of millions of dollars in dead money last year so that they could open it all up now.

It should be said, by the way, he's the defensive... Kobe Turner is the defensive rookie of the year of Greg Rosenthal.

I said votes, I think. He's going to get votes.

I thought you just called him it outright, but I could be wrong.

He's in that world.

He's probably going to come in third if I had to get it.

Mcvay came out, and this is no surprise, completely strongly and said, We're 100% behind Matthew Stafford for next season. I'm with you that there is the health concern with him.

Stafford and Donald also confirmed they're both coming back, which was a question.

It's not an immediate offseason thing, but they put a fourth-round pick into Stetson Bennett, one of the few players that didn't work out last year. It's like, there is a world where if you're Sean McVay, you want to keep firing and bringing in quarterbacks and developing and getting something because-I don't know if that's the time, though.

I think-I think it is, actually. I think now is the time.

I think it's like you put them behind staff. But that costs money and that costs resources. Don't you want to-A draft pick, though?

I'm saying not a high draft They'll be in the mix. Keep bringing in quarterbacks, and then there'll be a time to go maybe chase a veteran. But you've got an MVP-level quarterback for next season.

That's what I mean. Use any premium picks and your money, build around him and go for it.

Most likely, I agree, although this is, by all accounts, a really deep quarterback class. It would not surprise me at all if they look heavily into a first or second round quarterback, because now to me is the time. I really believe in that. I think the packers have shown that that's a great way to do it. I think the Patriots used to back in the day, and it was smart. Maybe it's not your first round pick, but maybe your second.

See, now I don't agree with you anymore because I agreed with your initial conceit, but I would say that if you're going to go all in in this short window where you only got How many elite years left do you have of Stafford and Donald and Cup?

This is the time. That was the whole thing where people killed the packers for taking love. I think they dedicated with free agency, with trade, certainly with their other draft picks, but they got to be feeling pretty good. They just got four more weight-bearing walls. Maybe they're not walls quite yet, but four rookie starters who are going to play for them for four years without having a first-round pick in Avila and Byron Young. I think they'll feel confident that they can keep adding. But the quarterback is a tricky spot.

Go ahead, Mark.

I would point to a team that lost, the Cleveland Browns, and they had a nice season. I mean, it ended on a high note before the playoff game when you went out and got flacko. I think it's like, cool, Kevin Stefansky might be the coach of the year. A lot of this stuff was good, except you look at what's happened since. Today, they fire Stunt Mitchell, the running back coach, who's a very good running backs coach, and went through this entire journey without nick Chubb. They fired their tight ends coach, TC McCartney. In a year when David Najoku turned into a top five tight end, they fired their offensive coordinator. So inside the building, there's a wanting to a reimagined certain things. And I think a lot of that has to do with the quarterback that we were able to forget about, Deshaun Watson. But you can't forget about the other... They're in their offseason mode now, and they basically are looking at one of the nastiest cap situations in the league. Deshaun Deshawn Watson's, and I get it, you can finesse some of this and move it down the road, but you can't move it down the road forever.

Deshaun Watson costs 63.9 million next year. That is a player who's not been worth one-fifth of that right now. Amari Cooper costs 23 million. You're only established wide receiver. Denzel Ward, oft injured, good cornerback, very good cornerback, cost 23 million. Miles Garrett, no problem with this one, cost 20. Jedrick Wills, your up and down left tackle who's coming off a big injury, cost 11 million... It's getting more and more expensive. So it's like you're this top heavy roster. They essentially have the second most dead money in the league. They're $11 million in the red with the second highest cap charge. It's like Andrew Berry did an awesome job last offseason of adding a bunch of players that changed that defense, and yet you remain a team that is somewhat hung out to dry by the trade you made for a quarterback that's done nothing to suggest that he's been worth that deal. I think it just, despite all the feel good, Kevin Stefansky is back in a place where this can change so quickly. Look at nick Seriani. It can all change so fast if you're going to get another year of Deshaun Watson underperforming, not being the guy you wanted, and you can't surround him with the pieces he needs in a really thorny AFC North.

It's like, I trust them because of what they did last offseason, and I think they all proved, like GM, Coach, that they're very capable. But you're right back into a very tough situation. One of the offseason maneuverings in the NFL, especially in the AFC. This is just speculation.

But I wonder if the decision to make the move with some of those coaches is the organization just moving forward and understanding that was a lot of fun with Joe, and we got to the playoffs, and it didn't work out how we wanted it to. But Flacko is probably not coming back, but we are getting nick Chubb back, and the offense with Deshawn Watson, who's still our guy, was not performing the way we were expecting it to before he exited the picture. Maybe they're judging some of that coaching staff based on what was going on with Deshawn, which is now going to be their offense once again. Yeah, I think it all, as frustrating as it is, Greggy, a lot of this can be covered over these challenges if the QB now comes back healthy and performs at a high level. But now there's enough time that's passed since the Houston years and a very serious shoulder injury where you really have very real concerns. It's also like, Man, you gave him a fully guaranteed contract, which makes things infinitely more difficult.

Yeah, they will likely move the money around in his contract and open up a ton. You can create $30 million a cap space like that. It's nothing. I would anticipate. It was a five-year deal. We're going to year three, right? It's only year three. So at this point, they're not going to stop pushing that money. When you look at the big number of this year, they made it that way last year. They already did it on purpose, knowing that they're going to move it again this year. I was pretty surprised. They fired all these longtime coaches. Van Pite was there for a while, and Stefansky is an offensive coach, and I know he's the one calling the plays. But I think you're right, Dan, to say Let's build an offense around Watson because it wasn't really working with Watson, and we need to make some changes.

I want the Browns to shock the world, give Baker a nice contract and be like, You go against Deshawn this summer.

Stop. That would be amazing. There are a lot of Browns fans out there, obviously, rooting hard for Baker Mayfield. I think there's got to be some thought. Let's write that wrong. That would be totally intriguing.

And be like, Baker, we can't give you a big contract, but we're not joking around here. You go against Watson this summer, and we're going to give you... We're going to pick the best quarterback.

That'll be a healthy atmosphere for everyone.

All right, let's sift through some more wreckage. All right, look at that. Got to move. That's a toilet bowl. There's a baby. Got it. Safe. All right, moving on. Okay. Dog collar. Don't see the dog. Okay, here we go. Zaddy, there he is. What's up, Zaddy? Oh, Zaddie. I'm wondering, and by the time this podcast hits, who knows? Maybe Zaddy's out of a job, in which case, apologies, but just still enjoy the conversation. I'm wondering if the reason Mike McCarthy hasn't been fired yet is because Jara is very seriously considering not firing Mike McCarthy. I know that's not what people want to hear because Mike McCarthy is not overly popular or seen as a difference maker. But I also see the other side of this, which is, and one thing we didn't really dig into, we did mention on Sunday that Dak played poorly in the game. But in general, Dak has one more year left on his deal. The reporting out there in early December was, Oh, the Cowboys are very interested, and probably still are, in redoing the deal or extending the deal and making them the highest paid quarterback in the league.

I wonder if Jerry Jones is having a little change of heart Or if he's not, maybe he should. Not in the sense of, Let's get rid of Dack and trade him, which is, I think, insane, but do the Kirk Cousins move and bring back McCarthy, who as much as he's gotten heat, they've won 12 games, three years in a row and be like, I still do believe in this. And what McCarthy said on Sunday, we picked a bad day to have a bad day. And if you believe in the organization, you make some moves to try to get the roster better and make 2024 core. Basically, we're all in with this core one last time. And if it doesn't work, not only is Zadigon, they can have a real conversation about Dak and whether he is the future of the organization. If the goal is truly to win Lombardi- But give him the contract or not?

Don't.

Let him play out the contract just like the Minnesota Vikings did. He's got one year left on his deal. I wonder if that's a conversation at the star right now. Jara, who likes working with Mike McCarthy, and I think he believes in McCarthy, wants to maybe push this one more year. As much as that doesn't please, I think, people outside that building, I wonder if Jara still believes.

The thing I could completely get on board with is not giving Dak a new contract, not making Dak Prescott the highest paid quarterback in the league.

Here's the thing with the highest paid quarterback in the league, though.

That might not be the worst thing.

If you're a top, I would say 13 quarterback, you will be the highest paid quarterback in the league.

Why does it have to happen?

Maybe that's wrong, though.

Why does it have to happen right now, though? I think it's fair to wonder to have a bit of a wandering eye with the whole Dak Prescott experience. I get to sample size big season. He was right in that MVP conversation.

It looks like he'll be the second. I think he was the second team, all pros, slightly over 30. He's 30. Yeah.

He's got a long run. Because I feel just exhaustion with Dak Prescott versus sometimes looking at actually who he is technically.

The hot taker move here is just, and that's almost what the Cowboys exist now just for hot talk radio and these talking head TV shows to have their mid-January to February filled up. I'm not saying they should dump Dak. Dak is actually the problem. Mike McCarthy, who I love, is fine. I'm just saying, if it's truly, if you want to look at this globally, it's a combination of everything. And getting rid of McCarthy to bring someone else, but then keeping Dak, who has struggled mightily in the postseason, with the exception of a few cases, you might get the same results next year.

But the everything is Jerry Jones. That's the everything because, yes, they can run it back. I don't think that's crazy. Some respected reporters in Dallas are with you, Dan, that the longer this drags on, the more they think there's a for McCarthy that he's going to end up staying. But it's like we just went through that all in one more time season. It's just tough with this team in general because it's just a very tough spot. There's no easy answer because if you go through it all again, it's just all preamble to getting back to the playoffs again. Why would we expect anything to be different again when it's been the exact same year after year? And yet I wouldn't blame them. I'm with you. I wouldn't blame in the middle for keeping McCarthy. Maybe Dan Quinn is gone because he's getting so many coaching interviews, and his defense more or less collapsed down the stretch. I mean, it wasn't equals level, but I saw stuff that five of his seven lowest EPA per play games in his entire tenure with the Cowboys were in the second half of this season. They had some pretty bad defensive games.

That will be a bit of a shake up, but it's tricky because if you say, Okay, this is it the last time. They were saying that this year, too. They talked so well, and it all seemed different, and then it wasn't different.

Yeah. This loss, don't get me wrong, was worse than the others. The last couple of years, they were getting beat by truly big-time teams. Not to take anything away from the packers and their rise here, but that's the type of loss. If McCarthy does get fired, he does deserve it because there was just so much pressure on that game and they flop. But I just think it's a little bit... If they go and fire and bring in, I don't know, Bobby Sloik. You still got Dak, and you still got the same core of a team that melted down last year. Don't be surprised if we're having the same conversation next year just with a different head coach.

Here's the thing. Now, actually, I don't think this is how it take you, but I think now would be the time to trade Dak. His value, it wouldn't be after you play it out and you get to the franchise tag, and it's like a mid-level year. If you want to be bold about it, be bold because you'd get a ton. I don't necessarily think it's the best idea, but I do think NFL teams could be a little more like NBA teams and considering this stuff with high-level players. Imagine what you would get for Dak right now. We've talked about this for years. You would maybe get a top five draft pick. Football is completely different than basketball.

We've talked about it for years, Greg. Jera loves his stars, and he's loyal to his stars. I think he sees Dak Prescott at a level of QB, and in fairness, it got a little quiet amongst the football cognizante. Dak, I don't think he's got enough criticism for how poorly played in that game. For all the talk, and it's not just you, Greg, and I was very positive about Dak this year, too. But he flopped epically in that game. A game that the defense, yes, pooped the bed. But there was a world where Dax says, F it, that we're not going out like this. I'm putting up 40 points, too, and let's see what happens. And they just weren't up for it. So it's just like, How much longer we could look at McCarthy because he's the easy target and he's the bigger target.

Mccarthy is the easy target, but it's also a fair target.

I didn't say it's unfair, but I'm saying, don't say this is McCarthy's fault and then not look at the QB.

I'll look at both, and I'll look at the experience of the entire team. First of all, it was a year ago when McCarthy's like, I'm going to make my big move. I'm firing our offensive coordinator because I'm better. Look, their offense was great in a lot of ways, but collapsed at the exact same time they collapsed the year before and the year before.

But I'm just going to say, I think they collapsed in large part because the QB played like dog shit on Sunday. I don't know how much I put on-Yeah, but that happened in big losses. I just don't know how much I can put on the coaching staff for the way that press got played on Sunday.

I guess it's two pieces of the same pie.

But what we're talking about is what you're talking about, I think for the most part, is four drives. And that was it. The season was-The game was over because the defense was so bad. Because I disagree. The defense had an all-time meltdown, and Dak couldn't afford to have four slow drives. That was all it was. It was like a couple of punts, and it was those interceptions. You're right, those four drives.

I mean, the pick six ended the game.

He was a disaster on those four drives. No argument. The game was basically over after those four drives. After that, it's like they-I think if you're Jerry Jones, you're in Texas, and your mind is exploding watching C.

J. Stroud, who cost very little money executing a team in his rookie season in the playoffs, where yours, who is celebrating with 25-minute long press conferences and endless money, melts down January.

That you throw those press conferences and you spend that money. Jara has been telling us Dack is a Hall of Fame great for years now. We just haven't seen it.

He's been telling us the Howboys are great. The thing is, these are just stories. They're story lines. They're narratives. I don't want to read this story again.

Right. But the thing that is so hard is when you say everything, to me, that's Jerry Jones. There's something here that you can't put your finger on in terms of they feel the heat in a big spot because yeah, Dak had the worst four quarters of his life. I mean, the worst four drives, I would say, of his career, considering the spot, and then played well after that. But the game was basically over because of the defense. Michael Parsons had the worst day of his life. Stefan Gilmore had the worst day of his life. Zack Martin, literally the best player since the triplets left, was getting dominated in that game. They all no showed. Mike McCarthy no showed. Dan Quinn no showed. It's like, What the hell? What do we do?Organisational.

Meltdown.you.

Know what I mean? I'm with you on Dak, and he's the quarterback, but it's like everyone sucked.

That's why they're in a tough spot, because I guess the basic move is like, Fire the coach. They're having the same conversation in Philadelphia right now. But if you keep everything else for the most part, can you really expect a change? Because they obviously need to. All right, Greg, you want to do a quickie?

I'll do a quickie on a team that is out of the playoffs. It's the Seattle Seahawks. John Schneider held a press conference on Tuesday.

I just found-We're not an alternate site. This is not the wild card site. This is a site adjacent.

Well, but they're reconstructing. They expected to be back in the playoffs. They had that loss of the Stealers that knocked them out. They were in position. This press conference was fascinating because it made... First of all, Schneider, I don't know if you rubbed me the wrong way, but he was enjoying... He's the man now. It's very clear he has all the personnel say. He had no say over the old coaching staff. He didn't ultimately have the personnel say with Pete Carroll. They made a choice. John Schneider is running this organization, and he said he wanted to modernize and get younger. In their interview in Ben Johnson, they have eight different interviews set up, and we'll see which way they go. But I just thought it was interesting that when it comes down to it, and Pete Carroll was very big about this, John Schneider fired Pete Carroll, in my mind. And it sounded like this was in the works for weeks, and that ownership decided that we want to give John Schneider a chance to go run this organization. That's great. He's been there a long time. They know him. I thought telling in this thing that he has now a ton of power compared to whatever coach is going to come in.

It's an interesting twist on this reconstruction. I think got a little lost in the shuffle, understandably, because we were all celebrating Pete Carroll, as we should, a week ago of how this went down. It was interesting that the owner-I don't feel stunned that he has been elevated in power through all of this.

He won that tussle. If there was a tussle, it felt like a friendly tussle. But he's the right guy to do that, considering who else is there, which is essentially nobody. It will depend what coach they hire in terms of how they work together, even on an interpersonal basis. I'd add to the Seahawks adventure, Gino Smith, because I know P. Carroll in theory is somewhere in the building and has a say, but Gino Smith was P. Carroll's guy, and I think that Gino Smith obviously He deserved a second look and more money and all this stuff after last season. But after this season, he's Gino Smith, and he is what he is. I know on this show, we've got a Gino Smith debate all the time, but you have to convince the next coach to have that same faith in him.

I think it'll be up to that coach, yeah, based on the contract.

It might be, but I think that's where the Schneider thing comes into it, where it's like...

The Schneider feel the way that Carroll feels. He wasn't effusive. When they asked him about it, he said, Well, I thought it was the flip side of Gino's first year, where he started a little slow this year and finished really strong, which was the opposite of his first year, which not great praise, but it depends on who comes in. They've requested interviews with Patrick Graham, Frank Smith, who's McDaniel's OC in Miami. I have a feeling Frank Smith is going to get a job in this cycle. Raheem Morris, Dan Quinn, Ben Johnson. We'll see.

Schneider is signed through his contract, goes through the 2027 draft. So he's locked in there. And this is just... He said this in the interview. Apologies if you already said it great, but our setup earlier was the coaching staff did not fall under my umbrella, and now it will.Yes.

He really is.There you go.He is gathering power.He really emphasized that, that I think he didn't love Carroll's staff choices, especially on the defensive side.

It's not necessarily a Jody Allen decision or choosing this person or that person. It's just a contractual situation. I don't know what that means. You also talked about keeping the positive nature of the Pete Carroll experience intact. That is a must for whoever comes in. Make sure when you're interviewing for the Seahawks shop-I'm so freaking Jack. You got to have that energy.

Mimic that.

By the way, not for nothing. We all love Pete Carroll, right? Maybe the most famous gum Chewer in the history of the NFL. Now he's out of a job.

Right, but I'd say he started chewing gum rough 67 years ago. Just saying- Back to my industry.

I'm giving you a little pop here. Right. Maybe he was forced out because of gum.

How about it's part of it? It doesn't seem like this is happening because of his age here, but when people are like, Oh, let's have... Part of it. It's like Belichick and Harbaugh would be a good short-term coach for a ready-made team, what do they call it? Key-ready team. I mean, Pete Carroll, to me, it's-Turnkey? Turnkey.

Turnkey operation?

Pete Carroll seems a little more like a good head coach for a turnkey operation in a short-term environment than those two guys in a certain Anyway, is Pete Carroll coaching the Cowboys? Would that be that crazy? I don't know.

More so than Belichick, I think.

He's not getting any buzz, so it doesn't seem like this is happening. But to me, that actually makes more sense to me as a guy who's going to come in that's already ready and just try to win for a couple of years.

Anybody that's coaching the Cowboys is doomed. They're just doomed, so it doesn't matter. Maybe that's the only thing we should have said before. This organization is just swarming with ghosts now, and you need Peter Bankman if you really want to find your way out of this. You want Pete going down there? See that positivity gets zapped away in the middle of January. We're not sure what happened. Everything just changed. Now, Pete's got it. He's got the ghost.

Good Ghostbusters.Ref.

Right there. Can you name any other Ghostbusters characters? Bill Murray. Not the actor, but the characters. No.

Salt in the theater, though.

You saw the first one? Yeah.

I was a child. I mean, this young person.

84. I saw the second one, '89. Sneaky, terrifying. The movies in the '80s that were supposed to be kid friendly many times had elements that I just wasn't ready for. The fact that the painting came to life, and he was a horrific man. That was scary. There's also a scene where a witch flies in from the sky into this high-rise condo in New York and steals the baby. Baby.

Takes it right out. Not a good situation for anyone involved other than the witch.

I didn't sleep well. I'm going to tell you that. You have a quickie, Mark?

I will keep this quick. This is a team that hit wreckage two weeks ago, and we almost never talk about this team, the Commanders. But I think collateral damage of what's happened to two teams in the Cowboys and Eagles that we saw as Super Bowl potential teams. Now, look where the Commanders are after decades of looking like Flotsam, Jetsam, and nobody's apple of the eye. They suddenly, they have a new GM and Adam Peters who came from the Niners, and all words are that he was very valuable to that Niners team being built the way that he was.

He felt like the Bell of theGM ball. Absolutely. Like the most competitive high. He's like the Ben Johnson of the GMs this year, and I have a feeling they paid him a lot of money.

And Ben Johnson, people are suggesting that no matter who they go talk to, that Ben Johnson is likely the number one target as your head coach. So that pairing right there is intriguing.

And the number two pick.

Second overall pick. It was on my list, Greg. I will get to it. Six top picks in the top 100. They have the most cap space in the league.

Don't you step on his number two overall take?

Well, I have a simple list I'm trying to get through, but they have a laundry list of draft picks, and I think a capable GM. Because you traded Montez Sweat and Chase Young away, it's like, I would want Sweat still, potentially. I would. But Ron Rivera somehow exited the organization with doing an anti-Levy Smith. He could not have been a better soldier from wire to wire for that organization and left with them in great shape for the next coach in GM.

You need somebody to fail with dignity? Ron Rivera is your man.

He will be your man. I just think if the Eagles are what we think they are right now, and they're going to go through a lot of flux and change, and maybe the quarterback isn't who we thought, and the Cowboys continue to sit and spin on this plan, or they're going to bring everyone back and be the same thing. The Commanders, they got a long way to go, but they are one of these teams that you can see the rebuild if they get the right quarterback happening closer to a Houston Texans type situation than something that takes three or four years. So keep an eye on that, dude.

I'm just not ready to talk about the Commanders right now.

It's much more because of what happened to Dallas and Philadelphia, though.

I block them out mentally. To me, those teams don't exist. They're on that list of teams that do not exist for me right now. I don't even know who you're talking about. They've been flushed. They're gone.

But we will talk about it when they hire a head coach.

It's been a joy being part of this experience.

No, but Greg was way into it.

I know he was.

I should have been more thankful.

Yeah, you snapped it, Greg. But I couldn't even hear... You were the Charlie Brown teacher when you were talking about whatever that...

I don't even remember the name of the team anymore. That is the role that I continually play on this show, according to your ear, so I will keep doing that.

Oh, Mark. Oh, Mark, how I love thee. Quick one on the eagles. I'm annoyed now. On the Eagles. If I'm Jeffrey, Lory, Bradley Cooper. I'm sitting down with Jason Kelsi, and it's not talking about retirement or any of that, although it looks like he's retiring. But I'm going to just find out. I just need the dirt, man. You just got to give me... Tell me the real stuff because I know you get it and you see. Tell me if the coaches need to go. Tell me which guys are cancers in the locker room. Do the organization this one last solid and let us know what the hell happened here, because I think Jason Kelsi is the type of dude that could give you some straight answers, because I think beyond nick Seriani's inability to stop the bleeding, I think there were some maybe bad apples in that locker room and the chemistry of the team went south, too, and that happens in all different sports. Somebody has to tell Bradley Cooper and Jeffrey Lory who stays and who goes. My other point is that Julio Jones, and it was sad to see him exit with a concussion in what might be his last game.

He's like the Simpsons. I was thinking about this. The first 10 years, just the best. Maybe the best ever, one of the best ever. When I just hang around so long, it's starting to dilute how great he was. But I just want Leo Jones to retire now.

That's my thing. I think he could be good. I mean, he's also the American office on some level, too, which crashed and burned hard at the end where it was like, wait a minute, we've solved all these story lines. It's been great, and you're still on for four more years. But you need to make money. We get it.

Everyone had to pay the bills.

We'll be a Hall of Famer someday. If Matt Ryan had just put it on his hands a little more in that wild card game, eagles maybe never win that Super Bowl. People forget the Falcons had a real chance at that. Had a one-on-one matchup, and Ryan sky's it out of the end zone on second down, I believe. I'm with you. I have a feeling this eagles news One way or another is coming today, so no need to say too much more.We.

Have a show tomorrow, soWe do. Yeah, we could say more then.

Clean up the wreckage of the segment on tomorrow's show. How about that? Tomorrow, yes, it is the divisional round preview. We'll break down all the games, and they're all excellent. Sometimes someone sneaks through the wild card round and it's a nice story, and then you start getting toward the next week of football. You're like, Now you're going to get killed.We're.

Cleaning them up next week.

Now, instead of four great games, you're going to have this one game that sucks, and then we have to hope the other... No, I think you can make a for every game here. Greg, give me one game you're certain about the outcome on Saturday.

No, I don't have one.

I do. Texans beat Ravens.

Oh, you want it.

You need it.It's happening.You You need it. It's happening.

You want it, you need it.I have to follow up.

Is he going to do it?

Well, that's a good tease. I have to follow up on what I said on Sunday, which is one of those teams, the Darlings, the Texans and the packers will win. So I got to pick one of them. Will you lock up a team? These are all things that we need to talk about.

Yes.

Winston Zedmore, Raymond Stans, and Dr. Egon Spangler were the rest of the Ghostbusters with Dr. Peter Bankman. Which one was Murray?Doctor.Oh, okay.

Peter Wegman.

I'm surprised. I don't know. You are so plugged in on this film. I haven't tried- Young children.

I've watched the Ghostbusters films many times in the last five years.

Ghostbusters has had a surprising long shelf life. I wouldn't say it had a huge impact on my upbringing, although I do have a lot of the Bobby Brown Vigo rap memorized in my head. But I was surprised at Halloween. How many little kids are still wearing Ghostbusters gear, so it's still happened.

Well, the new movie that came out was very good, I thought, too.

It'll happen. That hooked them back in. I mean, that happened to my kids, too.

Got the Stranger Things kids in it. Always a smart way to get Rud involved.

It's a Dan Hanson shout-out. It's a natural. That's one you do keep recreating because it's like kids and ghosts. It's good to go together.

Thank you, Paul Rudd. All right, that's it. We'll be back on Thursday. Until then, you know what you need to do. Heed the call..