40s and Free Agents: Hot Seat, Cool Throne

What's up, football world?

I am Bucky Brooks, and that is my man, Lance Erlein. And this is 40s and Free Agents.

LZ, what's going on, dog?

I'm ready to get into it. We're going to take a look at the coaches this week. I mean, you know, the hot seat's starting to get a little hot for some of the coaches. For others, it's about what they're doing right. There's some coaches who are really surprising, like Todd Munkin in Cleveland. So we talk about the players.

I figure this week we can get into– who's got to watch it, who could be on the chopping block. And then those coaches who might, we might continue to hear their name for a coach.

So look, I want to tap into your experience because your dad was a long time coach, a long time O-line guru. What would your dad say are some of the things that he would look for when it comes to being a really, really good head coach?

Well, you know, he was really big into consistency of message. Like These sets of players need to get the same sets of message that these sets of players do. It's kind of the anti-Jimmy Johnson. And it's ironic because Jimmy asked him to come work for him when he was at, like, Oklahoma State. My dad turned that down. We always joke, like, that's the worst decision he ever made in his life when he was a young coach because he was going to be the head coach and wait in the University of Houston. But anyway, you know, Jimmy famously had, hey, these guys have different rules than these guys. Um, my dad's like the opposite of that. He's maybe it's the Marine background. I don't know, but he just believes if

you're consistent, you got to treat people the same way across the football team so that they understand that, you know, there's a, a standard. Um, I, I know that he also is a, uh, is a big believer and you don't have to be a big talker. You don't have to say what you don't believe in. Like he doesn't, he doesn't like messaging for messaging sake. He thinks players tune out on that. that it's got to be real, it's got to be authentic. And if you don't really have a lot to say, then don't say a lot.

Like Mike McDonald's a great example of it. Mike McDonald is a confessed introvert. And if he didn't have something to say, he's not going to say it. He's definitely not going to just talk to talk. So my dad didn't like talking to talk. He didn't like having meetings for no reason, like, you know, just eating up time in the day just because you think you need to have a meeting. He was about being efficient and letting the you know, the football stuff be the football stuff.

So I think that's, and then also, you know, I know he's been on some, I know he's been on some staffs that had, you know, it got a little contentious on the staff. He was worried about backstabbing and stuff like that. That needs to be cut short by a head coach. A head coach has to be aware of what's being said in a building by his own coaching staff. And then has to be willing to, to cut it off because that kind of stuff can turn into a poison in a building. So that's kind of behind the scenes what I know he liked in terms of head coaches and what he thought was good.

I think that brings us right to a guy because you saw it right there in your town, the New York Giants and what John Harbaugh did. I thought what was really interesting during that week, John Harbaugh had set the tone the week before with Cam Scadaboo. Cam Scadaboo had been fumbling. So he sat him down, didn't play him, didn't get him a carry. Didn't really come out and directly say that that is why, but you kind of knew what that was. Najee Harris decides to pipe up, talk about the rotation and those things. So he sends Najee Harris packing. They had some issues on defense running to the ball. You heard Denard Wilson come out and say, we find guys who don't run to the ball. They are a traitor of the defense. They got that fixed.

And lo and behold, the New York Giants go on the road. And they beat a team that many of us thought was just about to get hot in the Houston Texans. And I laugh because no matter what we think, old school coaching never goes out of style.

It doesn't.

And it's not, I was reading a, you know, it's funny you say that. I was reading a Baltimore Ravens, like people were talking about Todd Munkin. And so he was a trending topic. And actually, I think I sent something over to Drew, which kind of sparked the idea for this show. And I was reading the comments below.

I wanted to see what Ravens fans. And one guy said, well, you know, I'll admit maybe I was wrong. I thought, you know, I know the building had grown tired of hardball and that maybe there was a disconnect between Todd Monk and coaching them too hard. And I thought it'd be better if they had a collaborative coach, maybe a head coach who was more collaborative. And I was like, Collaborative coaching, this is not your stepdad Jeff who's trying to be cool. We're trying to win games. Let's get a good coach who holds people accountable, who says this is the way we do things. And that idea of a collaborative coach, that's the problem. Look, I understand the tough coaching. Eventually, you get tired of it. And there

is a shelf life for coaches with teams and organizations. I fully understand that. However, maybe it needs to be a new voice, but the messaging doesn't have to change really drastically. And Harbaugh came in, and I don't know if you saw what Mike Tomlin said. He said, that's killing a mosquito with an ax, meaning that's what Harbaugh's doing in the building. He went and hyper-reacted, over-reacted to an extent with Cam Scataboo, which I think some of it was Cam probably wasn't getting done what needed to get done. And then Najee Harris, like you said, he has something to say. Well, he's unemployed now. So he went in with that. I'm going to let him know.

So something that was, you know what I'm saying? He's letting everybody know. And I think that's really important. And that's what you were getting to. And he knows how to do it.

He certainly does.

And I think every organization has a blueprint for winning. If you think about when the New York Giants had won Super Bowls, they won it with hard-nosed, tough coaches. Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin, respectively.

No nonsense.

You knew what the boundaries were. You understood what the line was. And there were consequences to those actions. John Harbaugh is coming there and has followed the blueprint. And look, people talk about this team and they're not that good and this and that.

I just know this.

I know that when I look at them play their button up franchise, I saw them respond to the adversity that they had a week ago with three running backs putting the ball in the paint. I see them take on a J.J. McCarthy who couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie for the Minnesota Vikings, but somehow he looks like he's the next coming of Y.A.

Tittle when it comes to the New York Giants.

I just think that sometimes you need an adult in the room, and he is not trying to be big brother. He lets them know, I'm dad, and I don't mind living the punishment when I need to. I'm going to love you up, but I'm going to make sure that you understand what those lines are. And no matter what we talk about pro athletes, they all respect discipline and structure.

And he's been able to provide that. And it sounds like Todd Munkin is also doing that in Cleveland. When you look at the Browns.

Being five and two, Deshaun Watson having five game winning drives.

And I know we're not ready for the conversation about Deshaun Watson and what happens with him after this year. But what I will say, he's coming off one of the best games that we've seen since his days in Houston, where he had 300 yards, He is leading this team and trying to find ways to win in the fourth quarter.

And the only way he does that is because somehow Tom Munkin had a belief in him that.

Nobody else had.

And he was willing to, look, I mean, step on the grenade to make sure that DW4 was his quarterback.

Yeah. And, you know, you're hitting on some good points. First and foremost, you got to come in and set a tone immediately. If you try to do it, if you try to come in, and I think too many people think, a player's coach means you have to be soft or you have to be high five everybody and do chest bumps and this, that, and the other. A player's coach is somebody who the players think the coach has their back. But that doesn't mean that you can't get coached up hard. That doesn't mean that you can't.

Coaches have opportunities to stand up for a team just like Munkin did whenever he kind of came after Mike Tomlin, which he's like, F that. The Browns aren't the Browns anymore, whatever he said. And everyone in the locker room hears that and they know this guy, no matter how tough he coaches, he's got our back like he's he's all in for us. But it's hard if you come in.

And you try to coach a certain way, like, you know, you want to be you want to be, like you said, big brother and you want to be the likable coach. And then two years later, you decide, all right, well, let me put the hammer down. It's too late. That's inauthentic. They know that's not who you are. You will not get the responses that you're looking for. So good coaches understand coming in right up front. I know Bill Parcells used to do this. They let you know the way it's going to be right up front. I know Nick Saban does that. My guess is Kirk Cignetti is the same type of dude. So with Todd Munkin, I think he got Deshaun to kind of believe in himself. Look, it's still up and down with Deshaun. but the results

are the results. And when they win, he's usually had a pretty good game or even a good quarter. And Todd Monk, you talked about stepping on the grenade. He did something in the preseason where Deshaun Watson got to say, somebody's in my corner. Maybe Deshaun hadn't.

Even earned it yet.

Maybe he hadn't even earned it in terms of his play, but he had it. And so that, that allowed him that, that gas is in the accelerator. So when things start going good, man, maybe that, that, optimism rises and confidence rises for Deshaun. Munkin's done a great job. And, and the idea that maybe he was coach, I'll say this, the Ravens, I got to question this. Ravens have lost three double digit leads this year, all of their losses.

They just lost one. Jesse Mentor is a new head coach. You know, I do wonder sometimes if Harbaugh was too tough on them and they didn't like Todd Munkin being a tough coach and all that, then maybe the locker room is the problem and not the coach. Now, I also think a big part of it is Lamar.

Jackson's not playing.

A little bit, but I've always felt like the Ravens' biggest issue, and it's funny. I felt like they were emotionally immature. I felt like as a championship team.

How long have you felt that?

Three, four years.

I felt like their inability to go to the Super Bowl had more to do with their inability to control their emotions in big moments. That they were so emotional, including the quarterback, that they were up and down. And we have seen that the great teams are steady yeti. They handle the good, the bad. They work through adversity without emotionally being tied to the results. And I felt like that. I also feel like maybe... and talking to people that have been there with Harbaugh, maybe Harbaugh tried to lighten up a little bit at the end of his tenure, tried to maybe be a little more player-friendly.

And after he got fired kind of doing it that way, I think in New York he was like, well, if I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down doing it the way that I know works. And I think there's that fine line in terms of doing it that way. But I do believe every coach has to figure out, okay, how can I be– disciplined and structured and organized, but still be player-friendly when I need to be, but make sure I have that separation that they know I'm not the substitute teacher at the front of the room, that what I say goes, and I'm going to stick with that.

Yeah. I know there's a team, an NFL team, I heard this from a coach, this team had a very critical player, one of their best players, and he didn't like to practice, so he would like The position coach told another coach in a job interview that this guy who was interviewing him said, what was up with this position and this player? It wasn't as good as it should have been. And he said, well, this guy didn't really want to practice. And so I used to have to try to negotiate with them to try to get him to practice. And the head coach told the other coach who, you know, where I got it from. He said, as soon as he told me that he had to negotiate with the player to get into practice, he was not going to be on my staff because that's not

the way you've let it go way too far. If you're having to negotiate with players to get into practice, because they just don't like practicing because what happened was other players on the same team saw that. And they were in the, they were in the, they were in the tub, so to speak. They were in the training room.

They didn't, they wanted to sit out and not practice and take rest days. And it became a real issue for this, for this team until they, you know, ended up eventually moving some of those guys out and, and, and changing and changing the whole structure of the organization. So that's another one where, like I said, if the standard is not the standard for everyone, then people start to get a little, they start to grumble a little bit.

Like how come he's.

Yeah. I had a friend who would always say what you permit you promote. So what you allow, sets the tone for the rest of the team. So if you're going to allow some of these guys to have vet days and rest days and those things, you can't expect the others to not want to get those same kind of favors. And as your dad has kind of talked about, no, no, no, we're not going to have different agendas and different guidelines and rules because when it does, it makes it very, very difficult for the head coach to manage the entire team.

When this guy's given these free ways, but this guy hasn't, it's just really hard. But when there's a clear line, And everyone knows exactly what those lines are. That's when you can get your team up and going.

Who else? We talked about Jesse Mentor a little bit.

Well, what about Kyle Shanahan? I want to mention him because every year, you know, it's been weird with San Francisco because they've had high highs and low lows, depending a lot of times on injuries. And right now they're in the midst of, I would say, a high high, although last week was a disappointing loss. Shanahan is 6-1.

But he's one of those guys to me, Bucky, where– when things aren't going great, fans will just, I'm tired of Shanahan, get rid of him, cut him, fire him, let's get rid of him. He's one of those guys that I always say, are you really going to find somebody who's better than this? Like Kyle Shanahan knows how to coach. Be careful about just wanting to get rid of somebody because you're tired of somebody or you're mad right now, because he's a great example of when people are healthy on his squad, his team is always right there in the mix, always in the mix. And I think Kyle Shanahan, you had the issues with Brandon Ayuk that I think they've handled pretty well. They just said, we're just going to turn the volume down, and that's it.

We're not giving in to demands. We don't care what Instagram videos he makes. You got an older Debo coming back. You had Kittle coming back after the severe injury. Things haven't been perfect for them. It's not like they have a powerhouse roster, Bucky, but Shanahan just does it again very quietly. His guys do their jobs.

Yeah, you know what's really interesting about him, and he talked about this last year, they became a much better team when they just said, like, man, let's just be the best version of the Niners we can be. Whether that gets to the Super Bowl or not, let's just see how we can maximize what we have on this team, and we'll be okay with it. I think what's unfortunate about the Niners is, man, the injury book always bites them.

And at some point, you just wonder, like, man, is there something that they're doing with their conditioning program? Is it something that they're doing with their practice habits or whatever? Why is this team always beat up? And then look, I'm going to be honest, they're older. Their best players are all over 30. Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, Kyle Juchek, George Kittle, Debo Samuel. I mean, they're an older bunch, and so you're going to have some of those things.

But it just seems like they can never get to the finish line with their full complement of guys because those guys, man, they drop like flies.

Early in the year.

How does Fred Warner, Fred Warner's 29 turns 30 November 19th. So he's right around the corner from 30.

Um, and then.

Bosa has had some, some serious injury injury issues. They are, I mean, they are more than anybody. They have really been snake bit with, injuries to key players, and I think he's doing a really great job. I don't know what to say about Kevin O'Connell. I mean, they're 6-0. The offense is not super dangerous. Brian Flores, to me, is– that's your– what's the award for– do they– no, do they do it in pro football, the assistant coach of the year? I know they do it in college football.

I don't know if they do it in pro football, but Brian Flores now, every week, he's setting new records for blitzing. He's over 80. This week he was like 85% blitzing against Daniel Jones and the Colts. And I'm watching, Buck, and I want to get your thoughts on this from an X and O standpoint. You know, the idea is if you blitz too much, teams are just going to find, you know, they're going to be able to get people one-on-one in space and one missed tackle. And that, you know, it's a big home run is going to be hit.

Tell me how this is happening. If every NFL team knows that Brian Flores is going to blitz, over 70% of the time in that game. How has no one really figured out.

How to beat him yet? It's the scheme behind it. And what he does is a.

Great job of mixing in blitzes with eight, three rush, eight drop, zone behind it, read zones. He is giving you a lot. And as your dad would attest to, when they walk eight guys at the line of scrimmage, it automatically.

Cuts your playbook in half. Because.

The possibility of them bringing all of them. So you can't just ignore like, ah, they're not bringing it. If he puts it on tape, they'll bring all eight. It changes like, okay, now we got to cut out. We can't really run at it because they will plug every hole. We can't just throw screens because we're living in a world that we don't want to live in. We're scared to go to our drop back stuff because if they blitz us, we can get hit in the mouth. We don't have enough in protection. So what he has done, he's taken the leverage and the power away from the offense.

and said, we're dictating how you're going to play. You're going to have to play on our terms. And right now, no one has been able to crack the code. And there are a lot of people that are really on Kevin O'Connell for the lack of production from the Vikings offense. But the one thing that Kevin O'Connell has said in the offseason, I got to learn how to call the game to win the game, as opposed to making sure that I hit all my desired numbers on the stat sheet.

And some of this is looking at the team and saying, man, our defense has them under control. I don't really need to put the ball in harm's way because I'm looking. I don't think they can score more than 13. If they can't score, they can't win. I'm going to just keep making sure we just keep playing ping pong and punt.

And eventually we'll get favorable field position and we'll cash in the points when we get opportunity.

Let's talk about those seven and eight man fronts that the Vikings show. When you show that, An offensive line, a quarterback, the tight end, the running back, wide receivers. Everyone is responsible for... the protection. When I say wide receivers, it's reading hots, hitting your hot reads, your hot routes.

But the offensive line, this is why O-line coaches will tell you, we don't want dumb linemen. We've got to have guys who are sharp, who are quick, who understand football, who can learn quickly. Because who have quick eyes and quick recognition and instincts and are fast decision makers. Because when you have eight, you have rules based on who the mic is. You have rules how you're going to protect. But, you know, things, the movie, the pieces are going to move so drastically that you have to make sure that everyone is on the same page, all five. And then if it's a tight end, all six. You have to pray you have a running back who understands the protections.

And then the secret one that people don't talk about enough is that there's a lot of quarterbacks who don't understand how to get themselves protected and then how to get rid of the ball when, you know, who they're responsible for when seven and eight come. Who's my responsibility when it's six or seven, for example? And then where am I going with the football? There's not a pre-snap plan for some of these quarterbacks. And they get, you know, they'll make an offensive line look bad when really, The free runner, that was the quarterback's responsibility. He was responsible for the free runner. I would imagine when it comes time to install on Tuesday, Bucky, for an offense and you're going to play Brian Flores, you can't just install

your regular stuff. You've got to install with the idea of we're going to get a ton of mugged up looks. They're going to bring a ton of blitzes. He automatically has changed the way that you set up your offense and how you're going to call plays. Just by threatening you, just by the consistency.

And one thing, if you put it on tape that you'll send everybody, you absolutely have to account for it. And because they're willing to send everybody, but also willing to drop everybody, man, they put you in such a conundrum because their pre-snap disguise is terrific. And I heard Harrison Smith talk about this briefly on the Richard Sherman podcast.

He was like, whoever said that you only should bring four? when did that become the norm that a four is how you should play the game? We live in a world where we're comfortable bringing four plus, and because we're so comfortable, they're good at it. And Brian Flores has cracked. It's going to be so interesting in the off season to see, does he generate any interest? Because the last few years they've been throttling people. And right now this is an historic defense in terms of like the points allowed and the pacing and all that other stuff.

It's just crazy. It's, Look, 68.4% blitzing. Man, that's bananas.

Bananas. And lately, he's been heavier than that. So it's unheard of. He's changing. I saw a video where, I can't remember who it was, was talking about how he's kind of really changing the way that people are willing to think about blitzing. He used to be D'Amico Ryans and the Texans tried to play, we're just going to rush four and we're going to get after it and we got all these guys in coverage. Well, it wasn't working.

And I thought the Giants did a great job against Will Anderson and Daniil Hunter. D'Amico Ryans had to start bringing six and seven. And that's how they were getting their pressure on J.J. McCarthy. Uh, quickly, Ben Johnson. I'm a huge Ben Johnson fan, not just the creativity. It's the ideas behind how he coaches football. And I had a brief conversation with Ryan Poles, who's a GM over there.

And we were talking about Caleb Williams and he said, Caleb Williams now in the building is talking. His messaging sounds like Ben Johnson. Like there's so much buy-in from Caleb Williams with Ben Johnson that he's become a real pro in terms of his approach for the game. And then when you have that click between play caller, it just happens to be head coach too, head coach, play caller, and the quarterback, that's when magical stuff can happen.

Yeah, it's fun to watch, right?

So like when I described the Bears offense, even though we're going to talk about the entire team, man, the mix of physicality and pizzazz, right?

They found a.

Way to take these old school three yards in a cloud of dust type concepts, but spin them where, look, it's fun to watch them kind of, run the ball down people's throats. And then when you have a magical quarterback in Caleb Williams, who is really doing a good job of taking the underneath throws and the check down, and is playing with far more discipline and patience than I ever thought that he could get to.

Yeah, they're dangerous. And look, they unlocked Luther Burden.

The other night, where he had over 100 yards on just simple Simon tosses and those things. This is just a team that is dangerous. And oh, by the way, Dennis Allen has a defense playing pretty well they're turnover obsessed they get the ball and take it away and that just leads to more opportunities for an offense that appears to be unstoppable at.

Some times let's um let's flip to the other side the guys are struggling a little bit we'll start with dan quinn i think dan's gonna really um i wouldn't be surprised if he's next out.

Either here or aaron glenn Quinn has had– we know there have been some time management things that weren't necessarily his fault, but you kind of have to wear that if you're the head coach. The wins aren't there. Defensively, he's a defensive guy, and they're allowing close to, what, 28.7 points a game. So, you know, that's a ton for being a defensive head coach. Had that awful tie against the Giants, which has kind of been a springboard for the Giants to say, hey, why not us in this division? I just– Dan Quinn has some very good years as a head coach. He has some great years as a coordinator. I just, this feels like one of those situations where it's going to be impossible for him to write the show.

Yeah, it's tough because I look and they spend a lot of money, but I still look at the roster and I don't know if it's a good roster or a good team. So that's troubling when you spend the kind of money they spent on OA and some of the other marquee free agents that they brought on board. And I'll be honest, I don't know what their identity is.

Like they had a lot of success right away when he took over. Jalen Daniels played pretty well. But the more that he gets hit on and beat on, the more his game changes. I just don't know who the commanders are. And so ultimately, when you don't know what their identity is, you have to blame their coach because it's not clear enough for us, either through the messaging or through observation. You just don't know what they are.

So I feel for that. And then you brought up Aaron Glenn. And look, you and I both know AG really well. I was hoping that A.G. was going to be able to really knock it out of the park with the Jets.

But, I mean, they lose to the Miami Dolphins. They've shown signs of being very competitive.

But there have been things that he has done that has kind of created.

Kind of a perception that he's in over his head.

Going into halftime and not knowing whether to get the ball back or not, like talking on camera, like he just allowed himself to be open up for, man, how you the head coach and not know.

Those things, even though I'm sure there are.

Others, like someone on assistant tells you, like, hey, we're going to defer or whatever. But those things and then running through an entire staff last year where he had to fire the entire people and then reset it. You just wonder, man, is it too big for him? And the contract is significant. So I know when they talk about they can move it. Look, that's four years you're eating up on that contract, Lance.

I mean, that's a lot.

So that many years?

I think he signed a six-year deal. Yeah, I think he signed a six-year deal.

Wow, that's a hell of a contract to take that one on. But you did know that this was going to be– this was not going to be fixed quickly. Although I don't think they're as far away. Look, I got to tell you, watching it, they're way more competitive this year. This stat is insane. The Jets have been outscored 107-6 in the last two minutes of the games when Aaron Glenn has been the coach, well, during his tenure.

107-6 over the last two minutes. You think about a couple of those games turn into wins for sure if they had done a better job there. Nine of 20 red zone drives this year have turned into touchdowns. That's the second worst in the league. They are much more competitive. But from a long-term standpoint, this is something that comes back to bite you over the years saying something like this about this organization. I think I'd buy stock in the Jets long-term. I feel like they had a good draft this past year. They are going to have a ton of draft capital over the next two years. I like what Darren Moochie is doing. I like how he sees the talent. I don't think that's a bad job over there. If AG doesn't hang on and it opens up,

I don't think that's a bad job.

I just looked at his contract.

He's on a five-year deal, $ 10 million annually.

That would leave them on the hook for three years. That's a hell of a gig.

I guess he had a lot of franchises and a lot of restaurants down there in H-Town that he used to put up.

I mean, look, there's a lot of stuff you can do with that extra $ 30 million that's coming in. I think depending on the way.

That it looks the rest of the year, we're determined if he gets year three. I think it's really important for him because they do look more competitive. They do look better. He is going to be able to sell the Detroit thing and say, look, remember, Dan Campbell, it wasn't great early, but we flipped the culture. Look at how hard we played. And then look at what happened the third year. He's going to have to make that case.

but that case is going to have to be made in between the lines. They're going to have to continue to play better. And you can't have Garrett Wilson blowing up on Geno Smith on the sideline. You got to find a way to keep Wilson involved in the offense because he's too good to be kept out of the mix.

And, you know, this is a team that has all these picks ready to pick a quarterback, and I'm not sure just watching college football that the savior is amongst us on the college rank. I'm just not sure I see any saviors out there. I mean, Mestermaker's having a great year. I just don't know, Bucky, if he comes out.

Size-wise, how big is Mestermaker? Is he big enough to be? I know it's changed in terms of what we look for in friendships.

210, I think he's, I want to say he's like 210, 6'2, 210, like Derek.

Carr kind of size. Kind of like that.

Yeah, no, it'd be interesting because there's so many teams that are hanging on to the quarterback situation. I looked at Lenore Sellers the last week. Lance, if you've seen the last two games, you would think that Lenore Sellers is the top 10 pick.

I mean, he's been doing it again. But then I got a year and a half of tape that has not been great.

And so it's one of those things. And so all of these guys, I get a chance to see Mensah. He takes on the Tar Heels this weekend.

He's been good.

But then what I say is, man, he got the best. He got the best offense. Money can buy. He got an offensive line. He got Malachi, Tony. I mean, he has everything that you could hope for. He should look good in this. So how do you extrapolate the individual talent from the team performance at that position?

That's hard to do.

Yeah. I think they got good talent with the Jets, though. I mean, Omar Cooper– Garrett Wilson, Kenyon Sadiq, Mason Taylor. When you start to run, you start to run through Brees Hall when he's healthy. It's been forever now. But when you start to run through skill positions, you know, the future of the Jets looks pretty good from a skill standpoint. So I think that's one of the advantages.

To me, Mince is more of a just a he just steers the ship. He's more of a game manager. The more I've watched. He does not have a lot of juice in his arm. So, um, I'm interested to see what you think when you watch him, he doesn't make a lot of mistakes though. And you don't have to have a rocket arm to be a good NFL quarterback.

Just real quick. Shane Steichen two and five. I think it's just a matter of time before Steichen is gone. Ballard's gone. Steichen will probably be next at some point before the end of the season, because I don't see them. Oh, and while we're taping this, um, uh, it will have already happened by the time this airs, but, uh, Quentin Nelson was traded from the Colts to the Seattle Seahawks for a third and I believe a fifth. So that's, man, the Seahawks get, will they get a bully up front?

I love this for the Seahawks. They're going to have to give Quentin a new contract after the year's over. That's why you get a third instead of a second. But they got to start adding some. I'm all in favor of the Colts just moving DeForest Buckner, moving Quentin Nelson. You got to go get some draft picks now because this is unbelievable.

I mean, you just talk about the fire sale.

And if you're Shane Syke, I mean, you're just trying to manage it all and trying to do your best with what you have.

But yeah, the fire sale is coming. It's already started. I feel like it's one of those open box sales when we go to the electronic store. Hey, come get the floor model TV that's open and available for you. Because right now.

I look for that. Trust me.

I'm looking for that. DeForest Buckner.

You got to think they'll try and find anybody that'll take that sauce gardener contract off their hands. It's just going to be a challenge for Shane Steichen to get this team up and going.

And you just talked about the embattled nature of it. I got to ask you this. Nick Sirianni, right? He's such a polarizing coach, right?

How many Super Bowls has he led his team to?

He's led them to two. Won one, lost one.

The team has perennially been one of the best teams in the league, but there is just disdain for him, it seems, in the football world. People are talking about this year and how disjointed this team looks.

You think he stays? You think he gets another one?

I don't know because he's one of those guys like Aaron Glenn that's different, but it's the way he moves and some of the things he says– I think it rubs people the wrong way. There's been questions about like, is he a serious, like he doesn't, he wears his emotions on his sleeve. So he's not like Dan Quinn or even a Robert Sala or D'Amico, really most, but even Ben Johnson. I mean, most of these coaches, the hard balls, you don't see the emotion. Nick Sirianni is like, He moves around like a special teams coach. He's got that kind of energy on the sideline, and he's ready to stick it up your butt. I mean, he's yelling at people in the stands. It just doesn't look like I'm used to seeing from head coaches. But he also,

I don't think he's gotten the credit for his team. He's gone to the Super Bowl twice, won it once, and could have won it both times. And I never felt like he really fully got the credit he deserved there. for that one of those years was without a starting quarterback. I mean, um, well that's no, no, no, that's, I'm sorry. That's, we got to go back before Sirianni.

Yeah.

Wow. I forget. I mean, they, they've been there a few times over the last 10 years, but, um, no, cause his quarterback played great games, Jalen hurts. And that's the one everyone wants to run out of town. So it is, it does feel disjointed and it does feel like a very difficult job moving forward because your offensive line is kind of in shambles. Um, We'll see what happens long-term with Saquon Barkley.

Yeah, I wonder if he's going to begin to see the injuries. And now behind that offensive line that is not as stellar as it used to be under Stoutland, and no one knows what happened there, but I will say this. He was regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in ball. The development piece that you've seen with their players speaks for itself. They don't have that.

And at a time where the offensive line is struggling, If this was a deal where Sirianni and Stoutland couldn't get along, that does not bode well for the head coach.

No, because the fan base is going to– that was their identity. Their offensive line was part of their identity, and they're really losing that now with Stoutland gone, with Lane Johnson retiring, Landon Dickerson. He's just had injuries. He's just not been the same. They moved Ken Juergens in a deal. So, yes, it's not the same. It's not the same Eagles. I don't know if– I don't know.

Who's more likely to make it, the head coach or the quarterback, when next season starts up? I think the quarterback will still be there. I'm not sure.

Here's the thing, man, about the quarterback of all the guys. Like it's so funny that he's catching so much heat like Jalen Hurst. And some of this, I would say, is because they're trying to put an ill-fitting offense around him. I mean, he just don't go to two Super Bowls as a quarterback.

And do that.

Because then what I would say is if Jalen Hurts is catching heat, why are we throwing strays at Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, to a lesser degree, guys who have not even sniffed it? Like you just have to.

Right.

So I think that's a great conversation because people know that it gets clicked. But I can't imagine a world in which they move on from that QB wanting to get it. But speaking of, because the Cowboys were on the other side of the field, Brian Schottheimer, We saw that offense humming and clicking, but the defense is not great.

There are people that wondered, how did he get the head job?

Now that they're, I.

Would say, underachieving based on how Cowboys fans and Cowboys ownership views.

We think this is it for Sean, or do we think he goes forward?

I don't– you know, you have to believe that the Giants have enough– look, if J.J. McCarthy looks like he looked against the Texans for the rest of the year, they can absolutely win that division.

Yeah.

I mean, he was diming it out like Joe Burrow in his second season in the league. Like, some of the throws he made were really great. He didn't– he was climbing the pocket. He looked like he had really good poise. I didn't recognize– I didn't even know that J.J. McCarthy existed. They were bullies, and they bullied the Texans up front on both sides, and that's a hardball– That's what Harbaugh likes to do, and we're going back to that conversation. But he did a great job of implementing that and executing that in that game. I would say, as far as the Cowboys are concerned, the Eagles and Washington– Washington and Eagles situations now, I don't think it's tenable.

You can't win right now with those situations. The Giants are a bit of a wild card. The Cowboys have more talent. So I'm still thinking the Cowboys are going to win that division, and if they do– Schottenheimer I think sticks around. Christian Parker is going to be interesting. The first year he's 34-year-old. At least he was when he was hired. I don't know if he had a birthday.

But 34-year-old defensive coordinator who was kind of the wunderkind who was coming in, who worked with some really good secondaries. And he's really– his defenses have really, really struggled. He's famously struggled with some coaches kind of– Mike Tomlin said something when Martindale said something after that loss to the Ravens.

They bring a consultant in, Mike Pettin, to work with them, which is never a good look for a first-year coordinator. It's rough. I really feel for him. I hope they– it'd be nice if he got one more year because he's still learning on the go. It'd be nice for him to get one more year. That's not necessarily how this business works. But you don't know what you don't know until you know it. And there's the only way that you can make improvements is experiencing the hardships and overcoming them. So it probably needs to happen this year where you see improvements and you see the defense coordinator getting better. You probably need to see signs of it this year for Christian to continue on because one thing

we know about the Cowboys, they're not afraid to make some moves. Although I will argue that Jerry has been unusually patient at times, you know, compared to how he once was, but Schottenheimer may be bailed out by a really bad.

He may be bailed out.

And if I'm Schottenheimer, I just make sure that I get the offense up and I'm in, because it's easy to talk about the defense and we just need a coordinator. You bring Mike Petten in, Mike Petten, who they have a relationship going back to the Jets, Mike Petten, who's been in this league for a long time as a coordinator, who actually gave Christian Parker his first job as a quality control guy.

Like it makes sense. They just have to be okay. They only have to be great.

If they're just okay and they can hold people under 20, they'd be satisfied with that because that offense, you put more of the pressure on the offense, but they have to figure it out.

Anybody else that we missed?

Yeah, Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, 0-6. Look, I think Jim Harbaugh is a good coach. History says that. They have a very, very difficult schedule, but let's be real now. You're the head coach. You brought in the offense coordinator. The offense coordinator, your offense has literally been terrible this year.

And Justin Herbert, five touchdowns and eight interceptions, a 59% completion percentage in this day and age, 68.8 passer rating. That's like backup quarterback stuff. He doesn't even look the same. 15 points per game. It's the worst in the entire league. And you've got tough matchups still ahead of you as well.

it feels impossible for the Chargers to even have a winning record this year. Will Harbaugh get another year? And is it even possible that the Harbaugh McDaniel ticket is still on the board?

No, I think McDaniel's out. I think Harbaugh absolutely has to come back. Like, look, they won double digit wins the first two years he was there. So I don't think he's gotten dumber as a coach. I think it's just an ill fit with the offensive coordinator. And, I hope he learns when it comes to Harbaugh. Hey, man, I think he poured a plug on his offense too soon.

I know people hated Greg Roman. They talked about him holding it back. But now that I look at Justin Herbert in a new offense, was Greg Roman really holding him back?

Or was he doing what he needed to do to protect him?

That's what I wonder because he looked like a different quarterback in this razzle-dazzle offense that they're trying to do RPOs and all this other stuff.

It's not a great fit.

So, I got to think Harbaugh has to go back to basics. They got to get back to running the football and playing that old school way that was really successful at every stop.

Stanford.

But they come from the same dad. I mean, the Harbaughs are both in your face. Get it downhill. Like McDaniel, this was always a weird combination to me. And I gave Harbaugh credit like, wow. his vision of how football is supposed to be played, he's really taking a backseat and saying, I'm going to go with somebody more creative.

But it's been a disaster. It wouldn't shock me if Harbaugh at some point during the year said, we're going to roll it back. We're going to go old school, and we're going to be running what we ran last year. We're not going to do this anymore. Because that's not who he is. That's not his personality.

They get too many pre-snap penalties.

They're doing too many things where it's just– Bad, bad, bad. At some point, you've got to pull the plug. And look, it's cute. They tried it. But, man, you're 0-6, and it's a bad-looking 0-6. At some point, something has to change. But I don't think it's a change at the top. I think it has to be the play call and play design.

Yeah, our producer, Drew, makes a good point. Harbaugh tried this at Michigan with Josh Gaddis, and it was like, nope. And he was quick to go back to the way it was. So, Wilt, You know, we'll see. Those are some of the coaches that are in the hot seat, and those are some of the coaches that deserve a lot of credit who are doing really well this year.

And that Ravens, Mike McCarthy, and it's, you know, you got the Steelers and the Browns this week, and we'll see if Munkin can keep the magic carpet ride going. That's not typically a matchup I'd care to even watch, the Steelers versus the Browns, but I'm invested now. I'm kind of a fan of, I like KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston. I think they had a phenomenal– Andrew Berry had a phenomenal, a phenomenal draft this last year. And I'm kind of cheering for them to go 62.

Yeah, they certainly are getting it done.

And when you look at the pieces coming into place, the coaching, the personnel, the performance on the field when it comes to the player development, and I would say the resurrection in terms of their ability to save Deshaun Watson temporarily to get them into the winner's circle, hats off to the Browns, man.

They're hitting it out of the park.

That's all I got for you this week, Buck. We'll have to run it back next week.

All right, we'll run it back next week. 40s and free agents. I'm Bucky Brooks. That's LZ. Make sure you check us out next week.

40s and Free Agents: Hot Seat, Cool Throne — NFL Head Coaches

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