Prime Cuts- Giants Resurgence, Can Chiefs Bounce Back? Are The Browns… Good? Lincoln Riley’s Time Is Running Out

0:03 It's time for the Emirates NBA Cup on Prime. Every Friday, Prime's bringing you the best matchup of the tournament from group play all the way through the knockout rounds of championship. Each week, we've got you covered with everything you need to know before tip-off. So let's get into this week's Cup Friday preview. It starts with group play. All 30 teams split into six groups of five. Three groups per conference based on last season's standings. So it goes to show that every game matters all the time. Each team plays four group play games, which determines the eight teams that advance to the knockout rounds. The last two teams standing compete for the cup championship. Being played at Butler

0:47 University's historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana's basketball cathedral. First game, good one. Knicks Sixers, 7 p.m.

0:57 Eastern.

0:58 Knicks won the Emirates Cup last season.

1:01 Remember that?

1:02 New York will want revenge against Philly, who beat them on ring night at MSG. Second game, Lakers-Warriors at 10 Eastern. Lakers routed the Warriors during tip-off week, and things got a little chippy between Luka and confident rookie Yaxel Lindenborg. Now the Warriors are on their home court and looking for revenge for that loss. So that's it for this week's Emirates NBA Cup Friday preview on Prime. We'll be back next week with another as the tournament continues. Don't forget, Friday, Knicks-Sixers, Lakers-Warriors, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime. Houston 21 overtime.

1:44 I thought this was a substantial win by the New York Giants and two major stories. They now move to 4-2-1. First of all, Cam Scadaboo got benched by John Harbaugh. This is Harbaugh taking control of the locker room. And then he comes out today. And Scataboo's a monster. 17 carries, 7.2 yards per carry. One, he almost knocked out a Texans defender. Another, he pulled up. It looked like he had a hamstring, a tinge hamstring pull, so he slowed down.

2:17 Let's start with Scataboo. I don't think anybody runs like him. I think he was untackleable in college. Because he's a different player and GM sometimes, the scouting department doesn't have a consensus. I, when Scataboo's in the game and has a head of steam, John, I think he's as hard just one-on-one to stop. Maybe he doesn't have Jameer Gibbs-Town or B. John Robinson. I think he is an absolutely devastating weapon. Your thoughts on him?

2:46 I've been blown away. A couple years ago, during the draft period when he was coming out, I played golf with one of the big boosters at ASU who had played there. And obviously, they love Scataboo at Arizona State. And he's like, what do you think? Do you think he can go to the league and dominate? I'm like, I wouldn't bet on him for the next 10 years, but if he could have a couple years stretch, that physicality, this is not 1996. Part of what made Mike Allstott or Lorenzo Neal they were hitting guys like Greg Lloyd, the dad, you know, they were like 300 pounds playing middle line. You know, it was a different level of size. Well, now look at the guys he's running over. These are smaller linebackers. Most linebackers look much closer to, You've met

3:30 these guys. When you meet Louis Riddick or Todd Bowles or John Lynch, they tower over linebackers now. Those guys were safeties in the 80s and the 90s, and they're all similar size. So Scadaboo, is he going to be able to maintain this level of physicality throughout his career? Probably not. But no one runs like him anymore in the NFL, really. and the guys he's hitting are just not as big as they once were, so it's advantage him. Listen, he's an extremely skilled guy. What a story. Small school in Sacramento, went to Sacramento State. Kenny Dillingham got him when Arizona State was a joke. His first year, I think they won three games. So it's not like, you know, remember when Ohio State came after Quinshawn Junkins at Ole Miss?

4:16 This wasn't that. This is truly like. You're not going to see many of these, you know, even, you know, what's his name at, for the Raiders, Gentee, like all the big schools were after him his last year at Boise State. He turned down a bunch of money. This was a guy no one knew about, no one wanted, because you're like, how's this going to work? But he's very, very, I would say his vision's pretty elite, and he's got really good feet for a power back. He's not Mike Allstott.

4:43 I would imagine Allstott was Wade Moore. But like Allstott, who didn't get enough credit, you were around him, weren't you? Like elite feet, a high-end, quick athlete. And then when you bring that power, these guys aren't used to anymore, these running backs lowering their shoulder on contact.

5:02 Well, the other story is J.J. McCarthy, the next Sam Darnold. his first, you know, first round pick goes to an organization and it just starts poorly, never gets going. Darnold leaves. A lot of players wanted Darnold. McCarthy couldn't stay healthy, gets dinged up, lost his fastball, lost his confidence. And we think, well, Kevin O'Donnell bailed on him. Kevin O'Connell bailed on him. He's no good. Well, Kevin O' Connell also let Darnold go and Kirk Cousins go and both have been fine. So in the last five starts for JJ McCarthy, he is five and oh, with a hundred passer rating. He's not going to blow you away. He's got seven total touchdowns, 66% completion percentage. But I thought last week he made one world-class throw. I thought today, John, um,

5:57 I thought he made two franchise quarterback throws. My question always with J.J. McCarthy was, it was fastball, no off-speed pitch. He didn't have a second or a third pitch. Velocity on everything, very little nuance, very little touch. But I'm watching him today. And between the scataboo run and a couple of his throws, I'm like, I can't bail on him because I didn't bail on Darnold. Now, I like Darnold more than J.J. McCarthy out of college. But J.J.

6:30 never really got to lead at Michigan because they didn't need him to lead. Well, now they need him. Jackson darts out. Jameis isn't trusted. Do we have a Darnold on our hands as the Giants on the road beat a Houston team that was favored by nine?

6:45 Yeah, I took him. Yeah. I would say that's the best game he's ever played. I know statistically, I was looking it up today, he had way more yards in that game. I think it was the Final Four game against TCU, the year they lost. Remember that crazy game with Harbaugh, a bunch of fumbles and kicks? But in terms of... I thought he was going to become Mitch Trubisky, because like you said, all fastballs couldn't layer the throws. Today, a couple of layered throws. The other thing is.

7:16 They're all in on Malik neighbors, right? They, they drafted them really high physically. He has a chance to be the best of that three. Obviously he's better than Marvin Harrison, as you saw today, but even Rome, who's a solid player doesn't, doesn't have that in the bag. Well, if he can awake Malik neighbors and their connection immediately, the half game last week, and then today he's just feeding him the rock and their connection, it jumps off the screen.

7:40 Isn't it powerful confidence? I mean, I, I, I'm a good example. You believed in me a long time ago, And whether you're going through a tough period of time, young people, it's just easy to go in the tank. And sometimes someone kind of... Listen, John Harbaugh, Jim's like this too. I know it's not going well for Jim, but their background is uplifting people, making people believe in themselves.

8:02 Oh, yeah.

8:02 And to get this guy. It's pretty clear the Giants have a pretty high-level skill group. I mean, they got running backs. Malik Nabors was a top-six pick and widely considered the most talented wide receiver of that draft. Likely, as clearly, if the Ravens had a redo, they would have gotten rid of Mark and found a way to keep him.

8:21 Yeah, I didn't get– I like the Ravens' personnel department. I didn't get that move. I said it in the offseason. He will be a high-production player for years for the Giants.

8:31 Yeah, I mean, to me, he's got some Waller in his prime vibes. You know, Malachi Fields jumps off the screen, so you got him to go. And J.J., you'd have to give him like an A-plus today, given the circumstances. Because remember, I guess it was a couple weeks ago now, I heard Danny Connell on a college podcast talk about this.

8:50 He's like, it's so much easier. He was talking about Dylan Rayola coming in that game against USC. No pressure, no game plan. Just go out and play. Well, once you're told you're the starter on Monday, they start building practices around you. You start coming in Monday and Tuesday with the coaches. All the reps are built around you, and you think about it for six straight days. And it's like, that's why I took the Texans, even if their defense has, let's face it, been horrendous relative to what it was last year. And it was like, well, they played Trevor Lawrence, they played Dak, they played Josh Allen.

9:21 It was easy to kind of justify it. Well, maybe their defense just isn't that good. But J.J. McCarthy took advantage of it. And this goes to Sam. We're recording this before the night game. When you can run, and this is the Shanahan family motto, run the ball helps the quarterback. Ideally, you have Patrick Mahomes and you run the ball and you're going to win all the time.

9:40 But most of the time, you're not going to have that. And if you can run for 188 yards, they had more rushing attempts than they did pass attempts. That is going to be a formula that works. But, you know, if JT is going to go 20 of 28, I don't think either of us would have predicted 20 of 28 and over nine yards in attempt. 20 of 28 would have been like, I bet he threw for 140 yards, dinking and dunking. He's pushing the ball downfield, Colin. Nagy has been, Nagy's had a really, really good year for them.

10:07 I mean, they've been dealt a tough hand after that knee got snapped in half. And he ran a short yardage play to Scataboo today. I was like, that's an Andy Reid play. And they busted it out. They had like four running backs. And it was a little turnaround play. I'm like, Mahomes has done that five times. And it worked and it popped. Nagy and Greg Roman, people had too many cooks in the kitchen. I think it's working right now.

10:29 Well, and I also think the way they did the Scataboo move, they benched him. So they say, hey, listen, you're not going to fumble. Okay, they didn't bench him for weeks. They benched him for a week. And then they fed him the ball today. That's just sending a message around, guys, there's a way to do it and there's a way not to do it. And you'll be punished if you fumble the ball and you're loose with it.

10:50 You'll be punished. But we don't hold grudges. The Harbaughs don't hold grudges. We'll play the following week. And I said, you know, it's well documented now. I said the Giants were my surprise team in the NFL. I thought they'd win nine or ten games. And when Jackson Dart got hurt, I said, yeah, they can win maybe eight with Jameis. Winston, but he's kind of silly. He's never been a nice guy, not my cup of tea as a quarterback. But what if they did find J.J. McCarthy as I I'll tell you, uh, and he redeems himself with Jackson darts playing style. I would keep him at least for a year. I'd be like, I'm not letting him leave because Jackson, I don't think Jackson darts as effective if he's not moving. So to me,

11:32 what if the, the giant stumbled on Jackson dart and JJ McCarthy, two guys. So again, I, I I'll be critical when it calls for it, but I, I'm not gonna, I mean, I Baker Mayfield turned it around. Um, And J.J. McCarthy today, I watched and thought, that can work. You can start in the NFL playing like that. Another game that's fascinating, Bengals 35, Ravens 13. Bengals, big lead, lose it, get beat. Tell me if you've heard that before. It's their 17th time they've blown a 10-point lead since 2020.

12:08 But what you saw in this game, first of all, the Bengals were not ready to play. They were out gained in the first half, 258 yards to 50.

12:14 Yeah.

12:17 And time of possession, 22 minutes to seven and a half. And the Ravens averaged 6.6 yards of play. So the Ravens came in with their backup, Snoop Huntley, and a game plan and executed it. And then Cincinnati went touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Burrow in the second half was 16 of 18, a perfect passer rating. So this was one of my favorite plays of the week. I did not think it would look like this. This was the classic example. And Burrow was almost like a seven on seven. He was going deep, intermediate.

12:52 He was scrambling around. He was manipulating the secondary. I look at Baltimore now and you start looking at their record and they have a rookie head coach. and we respect the Ravens. But Cleveland's now in first place. Cincinnati's better. Pittsburgh may have a low ceiling, and it may not work in the postseason, but the Steelers won again today.

13:15 Is this a rookie defensive coach who was hot off the presses? But, I mean, they have now been in multiple games. They come in with a game plan, John, and the Ravens run out of gas. Atlanta run out of gas when it matters.

13:31 I'm going to give the Ravens a little bit of a pass. I mean, they don't have Lamar Jackson. Right. How many games are you going to win? I mean, they're up 13-0 at halftime, kicking the living you-know-what out of the Bengals. I mean, at halftime when it was 13-0. I was like, this is going to be one of the most embarrassing losses of the season when you're facing Snoop Huntley in a divisional game. Like you just, it's one thing to lose, right? If Snoop's going nuts and you lose 28 to 27, but just to get shut out.

13:58 And then Joe Burrow and his two sidekicks, because when number one and number five get cooking, there's no, they feel like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Clay Thompson, 10 years ago. It's like, good luck.

14:07 That's what the second half looked like.

14:09 Because T Higgins is so big. His ball skills are so elite. And Jamar Chase is just an unstoppable force. So I like to me, this is the Lamar Jackson question mark. You know, there's been a lot of chatter about the ankle and is he injured? Is he willing to play through it? I listen, I got no clue. I don't know anyone there. All I know is like when he was playing early this season, you went, God, this team looks for real. And I don't care how, who you get. We saw Ben Johnson. You run out of juice with your backup quarterback. There's only so much you can do and their personnel on offense. Like, I was a little late to turn on this game. It was 7-0 before two minutes into the game. Like, Zay Flowers,

14:46 I don't know what happened the first play, but like the second or third play of the game, Zay Flowers scored a 50-yard touchdown.

14:50 Yeah, 48 yards.

14:51 It's 7-0 before you could even blink. You're like, damn, you know, at home and you start thinking, OK, divisional game, the Ravens are going to show up, but they're not able to generate the offense in the second half. And then this I don't know what we're into. No one kicks field goals anymore. It's 14 to 13 and they go for it on fourth and two instead of kicking a field goal to take the lead. And I think it was Nance was like, hey, you know, the analytics, you could take a lead here, divisional opponent in the fourth quarter. At the time, this wasn't a 40-35 shootout.

15:21 This is a 14-13 game. But no one wants you have a backup quarterback in and then they don't get it. Joe Burrow drives the field. And then it was just on like Donkey Kong from there. So I actually– it's crazy how football changes fast. I came away at the end going, damn, I wouldn't want to play the Bengals because they're sealing on offense. Those guys are healthy. And their defense just– at the end of the day, they gave up 13 total points. It felt bad in the first half, but they never scored again.

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17:22 Terms and conditions apply. Well, speaking of Cleveland, they beat Tennessee 27-24. We won't spend a ton of time on this, but it goes back to something I have said, that Todd Munkin is greatly benefiting from a great GM. Casey Concepcion, eight catches, 130 yards, rookie. Harold Fannin, huge play late, tight end from Bowling Green, 91 yards, six catches. Judkins, the Ohio State running back, couple of touchdowns, almost 100 yards.

17:57 You can say what you want about Cleveland. Deshaun Watson was just okay. But they averaged 7.4 yards play today. Cleveland shipped off Miles Garrett, and people kind of freaked out. But I'll give Andrew Barry credit. They got younger in draft picks. And Miles Garrett is yet to play. So we can say what we want about Cleveland the entire offseason.

18:18 I said, John, they have drafted too well for three straight years. They remind me of a less functional Seattle. They've hit on so many draft picks. it really helps them navigate through the awful Deshaun Watson contract, which we've always said that if you can hit on five or six draft picks over the next two years, even if you have a bad dead cap contract with a quarterback, it mitigates a lot of it. I don't think Cleveland's a great team. I think their talent in this division is almost as good as Baltimore. Do you?

18:51 I mean, it's pretty damn good. I mean, what would Aaron Rodgers do for some of those wide receivers on his team? Some of that speed. I think the other thing is Munkin deserves a lot of credit. I know I was guilty of this. I thought it was going to be a pretty embarrassing year. And then he started taking a step back. He's coordinated some pretty high-level offenses.

19:11 But you never know head coach, older, a little grumpier. I come more and more impressed watching him by the week talk. The feel he has for the offense, how good he is with the players. I mean, they clearly play hard for him. The other thing is Watson is, I mean, today, statistically, he obviously has one of the best games he's ever had as a Brown. The bar's pretty low, throwing for over 300 yards. But he's been pretty solid. I mean, he's had some stretches in games where he's kind of, where he crumbles. One of them, you know, they had the lead, was it the Steeler game?

19:44 He almost gave it away. But like, they're not always winning in spite of him. And Munkin deserves credit for that. You know, I mean, everyone's like, go to Shador, go to Shador. That was not an easy situation for him. And I'd say he handled it pretty well, where I would imagine a lot of people like this is the next Jim Tomsula. This is the next Ben McAdoo. Like now.

20:03 And this is a situation where people go to die at coach. I mean, this ruins your career. You become a laughingstock. It derails your career. And I would say he's earned a lot of credit around the league of like, this guy kind of knows what he's doing. You know, we all want the young, sexy coach. We all want the next Davis Webb. Sometimes a guy who's been coaching for four years, you know, knows a thing or two about football. I know, I bet you know some of the old coaches in the league. I'm even talking head coaches are kind of like, yeah, kind of like seeing an old guy, you know, who everyone laughed at. You should have gone Davis Webb first.

20:37 I think there's a couple of things to talk about, John, in college football. And let's just get to the point. USC gets off a bye, humiliated by Wisconsin, a very average team. So it was a mistake-filled, sort of lifeless, offensive Saturday night in Madison. And to make it worse, Bob Chesney is 7-0 with UCLA as they drub Michigan State.

21:06 Not a lot of fans there. They've always been the basketball program in Los Angeles. But, you know, I was thinking a lot of I want to give you my thought on this. And and because I think Lincoln Riley, there's no coming back. I think Jen Cohen, if she could, would buy him out. She has tolerated him. They're not close.

21:24 Many people I've talked to executives in the NFL. Everybody knows that he can be defensive and a bit prickly defensively. He's not terribly social. And he lives through the play sheet. And so I'm going to throw a theory at you. The top college coaches, Freeman, Signetti, Smart, and Saban, is when they sell physicality and toughness and urgency and discipline, it's authentic. And the players know it's authentic. You can't fool the players. Saban still lives and breathes what he preached to his football team. He preaches in his life.

22:05 He eats the same thing for breakfast. He goes to bed at the same time. He's not a big drinker. Like Saban lives the life. And so players buy into it. And you can't fool the players. Well, what has USC done primarily well? Primarily, not against Wisconsin. Passing game. Because Lincoln, his belief system is that play sheet. And the players believe him and they trust him and they respect him through the play sheet. That's why USC offensively, John, is pretty consistent until Saturday night offensively. But when he preaches toughness and discipline and physicality, Lincoln does that because he knows that's winning football. But the players don't believe it.

22:51 And the reason I know that's true is so many times in games like Saturday, when they needed that second effort or second gear of physicality and toughness, it vanishes. The offense in losses rarely vanishes because the belief system of what Lincoln is preaching is authentic. Lincoln is trying to sell the team things that he knows are valuable for winning football, but the team doesn't buy it. Bob Chesney has walked in to a roster half as talented and they're a much better defensive team. Why? Because what he's preaching. And I talked to the athletic director that hired him. I spent a Thursday night in Chicago with a former UCLA AD, said, all you had to do was interview Bob Chesney. And there is no flash. It's 100% substance.

23:42 So my takeaway is Lincoln knows what winning football is, but it's not really who he is. It is who Kirby Smart, Saban, Signetti, Freeman, Like what they're preaching is really who they are. And it comes off as the players buy into it. And I just don't think I think under Lincoln's leadership, they're going to be a poor tackling team. It's the same team, John, for four and a half, five years. It's this that when they lose, it always looks the exact same.

24:12 Yeah, I mean, I would say end of the day, he's a big 12 guy in a physical conference. It's just not going to work. You know, if you just cut it down to the nuts and bolts. I mean, he grew up on Mike Leach. In Oklahoma, their defenses were horrendous on loaded teams. They couldn't stop anybody, and nothing has changed. I think the downfall financially we'll see because it's not just $ 60, $ 70 million to buy him out.

24:37 You've got to buy a new coach. Who is that coach who you're replacing him with? This marriage, to me, personality matters a lot in these situations, and his personality never fit Southern California. I do think that Bob Chesney... who looks like a Hollywood movie star, who the moment he was hired, he said, anyone who wants to interview me, anyone, local television podcast, I'm going to do it all because that's what this program needs. And that's what my job as the conduit for this program in this day and age needs me to be. And you had him on what, last week or two weeks ago? He's done everything because he knows that's important. And Lincoln is the, I was listening to Petro's talk, who's obviously not a huge fan.

25:19 The alumni, the boosters, they don't like him because they don't know him because he won't talk to any of them. He hates that stuff. Anti-social. Well, to me, if you are going to be introverted, I think we all have I have some versions of that to me. There are certain parts of times in your job where you've got to throw that to the side and suck it up, and he refuses. And you can get away with that if you're going 11-1, going to the playoffs, going to the Final Four every year, but he's doing the opposite.

25:43 And that to me buys you a longer leash. Why did they get rid of Brian Kelly so fast? Why did James Franklin get a longer leash? Clearly some people liked him, right? He had a big personality, was outspoken. Brian Kelly, everyone turned on him immediately. It feels like the same things happen with Lincoln Riley because no one likes him. And he's clearly not a good enough coach to make up for that. And then you have this guy, I guess it would be right up the road from USC, who is the polar opposite. Defensive guy, team's immediately tough.

26:11 And everyone's like, oh, great guy. He's easy to talk to. See him out. He'll talk to me. He'll just introduce himself.

26:16 Yeah.

26:17 So you're like, wait. And that's what USC thinks about their Pete Carroll days. Pete, big personality, defensive guy, physical. It's like, wait, how are they winning? I was like, I'll back up quarterback. Bunch of skill guys you've never heard of. Not quarter of the NIL money. Hell, I never even heard of this guy two years ago. And he's beating Lincoln Riley? And let's face it, I think any time, and you've been a proponent, and I've used this advice before, you make decisions strictly out of money.

26:44 I remember talking to a buddy that worked for Lincoln at Oklahoma. He's like, he's not leaving. He just built this mansion. He's like, who the hell did he sell it to in this area? What did USC do? Lincoln, how much do you want for it? He's like... $ 4 million, which in Oklahoma would be like a $ 20 million house in LA. We'll give you $ 500, 000 over asking. They gave him so much money. They made, they made him basically, he would have been doing his family a disservice to say no. He had to say yes.

27:08 Yeah.

27:09 And it's never really worked. And they, they, they have this, it's basically a college Fugazi where he can just buy these high school kids. Cause he can pay them in high school where these other States can't. So we can get these guys. It's, it's, You know, listen, Wisconsin's not bad. That's the other thing. They played Notre Dame well for half.

27:26 They went toe-to-toe with UCLA. They didn't just lose to Rutgers.

27:29 That's a real team. No, that's a real defense. That's an excellent top 15 college defense. Absolutely.

27:35 Shoved them around, which is not shocking. You're like, well, who's Lincoln going to lose to typically? I heard someone– that's the worst offensive output in his 10 years as a head coach. So that's an outlier situation. But the way his team looked physically getting pushed around parallels what we've seen. Going back to like Baker Mayfield's team, that is always the– but that was Mike Leach's thing. That's kind of what the football he was– Kirby Smart was raised playing at Georgia and then coaching for Saban at LSU and Bama. Think about Cignetti. Cignetti, he comes from a family of coaches, right? When Kellen Moore, what's he think?

28:11 He's like offensive guy. It's you're, you're kind of bred from something for your coaching philosophy. And obviously Lincoln's just score points, score points, score points. Doesn't know any defensive coaches. I've always liked his defensive coordinator at least 15 years ago, but like, that's the best. I think people at USC, that's the best you can do. Don't you have a, don't you have a web of people you can contact?

28:30 No, John, what's happened is it's like anything. the best coordinators are not putting their career in Lincoln's hands. They may have done it his first two years there. But remember, he got on that plane to go to USC. And you know, this is what happened with Saban. When you leave a program and you say, guys, whoever gets on the plane is on the staff. And the defensive coordinator got on the plane to LA. So you're stuck for two years because he moves his family to LA. You can't fire him after seven games. So by that time, They had one chance to get a big-time defensive coordinator.

29:06 They got the kid out of USC, Denton Lynn. And he didn't like it. And he left for Penn State. So now you're stuck because now Lincoln's in trouble and none of the top guys are coming. So if you're an offensive guy and you're going to hire a defensive coordinator, you better do it early in your tenure because you know how it is, John, in our careers.

29:28 You're not going to.

29:28 Tie yourself to somebody. You're not going to move your wife and kids cross country to a coach who's on the hot seat. So you end up with Gary Patterson who's been,– he'd been out of the game. So he's not going to be a recruiter. He doesn't know Los Angeles particularly well. It's just– 20.

29:44 Years ago, wouldn't USC– financially things are so– I mean you're talking $ 70 million buyouts. Wouldn't they just go buy Bob Chesney? I mean wouldn't– But here's the thing.

29:54 I don't think Chesney fits.

29:57 USC.

29:57 I've made this argument. The kind of coach you need, I don't think Chris Peterson, they offered him the job years and years ago. He's not attracted to it. Bob Chesney, UCLA is the underdog in town.

30:11 Yeah.

30:12 Like UCLA, you know, I'm not.

30:14 Saying Bob should leave or take it. I want to say, but my point is who is, let's say Lincoln's fired tomorrow. Someone strokes. Who are they hiring? Like would urban Meyer come out of retirement? Like who's so who's who are your options?

30:29 That's what I'm saying. It's one of the things I've said is, who's going to write the $ 70 million check? They just spent $ 250 million on facilities. They're paying $ 35 million for their roster. This idea that just write the check. Now, if you get a Rick Caruso or one of these tech guys up in the Bay Area, $ 70 million to them is a bonus.

30:48 How about some sort of trade to Texas Tech? Some sort of get him back with his Campbell, the money guy. They just got embarrassed. They're clearly not as good this year. And you get them back home. That Tech, Baylor, that fits him more. He doesn't want to talk to these people. But, hey, Lincoln, at Baylor, at Texas Tech, you can't just hide. The college football now, these people cutting this money, they want access to you. You watch that Saban documentary. He has a lot more to him than I think most people realize.

31:20 And you watch it, and even his players talk about it. You're like, ah, this guy– You watch Kirby just handle a room, handle a golf tournament. Ditka, some of these clips after he passed. Part of being a footballer, and I was lucky. I've been around Andy Reid and Pat Hill. They got some shit to them, but they can also, people like them. They're big personalities. It doesn't mean every single day you have to have a great day and talk to everyone and have your door wide open and go around town. But if you don't have that pitch in the bag, I think you have no chance. You can even go to high-level high school coaching nowadays. I think it's personality. And how do you blame them? They gave him $ 120 million. And I'd be like, I don't

31:58 want to talk to these people. Why do I need to? All this money is guaranteed.

32:01 I'll throw you the name out. If given an out-of-the-box choice, Carson Palmer, who's at Santa Margarita High School. He doesn't need the biggest money, right? Like Carson's done well for himself. He loves the program. Knowing they'd be in a bit of a financial problem, he probably cut them a break in the first couple of years of the deal. Like getting paid big if they made the playoffs, he had a huge bonus. But he has become– I mean, he's built– Santa Margarita was always good. They're unbeatable now. Now, would he want to leave now because his son's the quarterback? Very, very doubtful. I'd call him. I mean, he has been– Pretty remarkable. I mean, again, not all guys who are quarterbacks and stars are good coaches. Carson, not surprisingly, a

32:50 very cerebral kind of intellectual quarterback who really is probably the best quarterback with the worst landing spots in my life. Cincinnati, Raiders, Arizona. Carson's the best USC quarterback they've ever had in terms of just raw talent. I love Darnold. Carson, if you did a movie... About a quarterback, you'd hire Carson Palmer.

33:13 He looked like.

33:15 John Wayne if he wore a helmet and had cleats. Carson, size, he could move, tough. bright, big game player, I'd give him a call.

33:28 I don't think colleges ever turn down the opportunity to hire alumni. You see NC State's all over Phillip Rivers. That's always, remember when Cliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech? I think that goes very, very well and calms everything down. Now, does he want that? Didn't they win the whole thing last year in Southern California? I know they're good again this year. Obviously, he's done wonders there, but Does he want that? I mean, that's a kind of a different lifestyle.

33:55 That's why when Philip River is going to go, it's like, does he really want to do that? And it's a lot of, Lincoln doesn't. I mean, clearly, I mean, Lincoln's doing the job and doesn't want to do it.

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34:59 Terms apply. Two-time Super Bowl champ. Two-time Super Bowl MVP. I talked to Phil Simms today, by the way. I love Phil Simms. You know, he just cracks me up.

35:14 He's great.

35:16 And I'm I watched J.J.

35:18 McCarthy.

35:19 I watched Michigan because I loved hardball. So I watched almost every start, especially the big games. And I watched him in Minnesota. I've never seen him look like that. I mean, I was texting Eli. I was texting friends. I'm like, he was the one guy out of that draft. I'm like, I don't buy it. He didn't initiate offense at college. I want my college quarterback staff to carry it.

35:42 What do you make of that? What am I supposed to believe? Is that the truth?

35:47 I mean, that's the way he's looked the last two games. In the fourth quarter of the game before, gets in there. I mean, at that situation, hey, kind of nothing to lose. Get in there, go slinging. And he was playing confident, I think. And so I think that was so helpful to get him those reps, get him into that game.

36:05 A lot of time for a quarterback, when you're running your two-minute drill, hey, these are probably the plays that– you know, you, you, you've run the most of these plays. They're kind of basic plays. Sometimes the defense is a little bit simpler. They're not blitzing as much. You can get the ball out. You don't have to be so perfect and like go run, run, just throwing on third down.

36:24 Now you're throwing it every day. And you can be, you know, throw a complete completion doesn't matter. So I think it got them into a great.

36:30 Rhythm and all.

36:31 Now all of a sudden he's playing confidence, playing free. He can still run and great plays that way. So I think just, you know, sometimes for that young quarterback, just a change of scenery and, a change of offense. And, you know, maybe I think now he's done a great job of kind of understanding the plays that he likes, what he's comfortable, what he does well. And he seems, you know, it's been impressive. So I think you have a right to be excited. I think, you know, Giants fans are obviously very excited watching him play.

37:01 Yeah.

37:01 Do you remember your first game as a pro that you really, Eli, you felt like, oh, now, You're a humble guy, so I'm sure you didn't think I've got it mastered. But go to your first game as a pro, and it was just a Sunday, and you were spinning it. You felt confident, and it was just everything kind of worked.

37:23 Yeah. Yeah, and I think it was probably like my fourth start. We played the Steelers at home, coming off a bad game against Baltimore. And I remember I kind of had a meeting with our offensive coordinators and quarterback coach that week.

37:39 The week before played terrible.

37:40 Baltimore, I said– I just feel like I've been running plays that, you know, that Kurt Warner really liked.

37:46 You get no reps.

37:48 And so I was like, this is not the offense that the plays I was running in preseason. I said like, here are kind of my eight to 10 favorite plays. These are the plays that I've run the most. I know what the progression are. I know the timing of the plays. I feel like I can get completions and sure enough. They're like, well, let's run those plays. That's what we want to hear. We need that, you know, that information from you. And, and so, um, And that next week also run those plays. I know where to go.

38:14 I know when, Hey, when am I hanging on this? Or when do I get to my check down? When am I going to wait for the second option to get open or, or wait for this receiver? Hey, he's got to win for me. I don't have a check down on this one. I'm going to hang a little longer. So it's just kind of knowing those, those little nuances of the offense. And I, you know, I think that's the, that's kind of what you want to do with a young quarterback is, who's just getting in there hey run the plays that he likes there might be other plays you might think as a coordinator this should work or this has a chance but hey run the plays that your quarterback feels comfortable he's going to know where to go with the ball he can play confident he can

38:48 play fast in at the second guess and say oh i know you're calling this double move and coach really likes this play and you know in practice i threw it to this this guy and i better try to do it to please him you don't want that you want do you want the quarterback to be comfortable.

39:03 You know, there was a moment Mike Tomlin was talking about John Harbaugh. Sometimes you need an ax to kill a mosquito. First of all, Tomlin's so good. Like, he's just the best. It's so good. He, like, speaks a paragraph in eight words, and it always lands. But it's funny. Harbaugh's like, Scataboo not playing. Scataboo playing. And he sent a message. And I remember hearing this one time, that coaching is like parenting. You have to send messages, but never hold a grudge. And, you know, John's like, I'm pissed, but not that long. I need you to play. Was Coughlin that way a little bit? Like sometimes it's like, listen, I'm going to do, and the team maybe is like, you're not playing Scataboo. You're not playing a guy. But

39:45 do you remember it was a Coughlin, a message sender.

39:49 Yeah, no, 100%.

39:50 I mean, he benched guys. He was big on fining people. But he didn't like, hey, you got fined or you got penalized. But, hey, once you pay your fine or once you did what you had to do and kind of served your punishment, now we're kind of on a clean slate. And you go out there, you have a good week of practice, you're doing the things you're supposed to be doing this week, you're fine in my book and understand, hey, we need you and we need you to play well.

40:13 And so that was his kind of deal. He had his rules.

40:16 He had the things that he was very– you know, whether we're concerned about particular about, and if you just kind of did those things, right. Like he was like, how you wore your socks at practice, guys, just wear your socks a certain way.

40:28 It doesn't matter.

40:28 Like it's not worth getting on his bad side over a pair of socks. Okay. Like let's do this. Let's do the things that we know are his pet peeves. Like stay away from those things. There's some things he's cared about some things he doesn't. And once you kind of realize what that was and you like football and you worked hard, you showed that you, you cared about the team, putting the team first and, and then he was good.

40:52 So Kirk Cousins has been starting, and quarterbacks get the blame when they lose. I don't think it's on Kirk. I think the Raiders are real thin, and by week six and seven, you're losing guys, and the thin teams just don't have a second great corner. Be that as it may, I think you started rookie year like week 10 or 11, if I recall.

41:13 Week 10, yeah, yeah.

41:15 Did you learn anything? Can Fernando Mendoza learn anything? And did you learn anything watching, not playing?

41:22 I think you learn. a little bit, but you don't learn the things you need to learn.

41:29 You can kind of learn this. Obviously, I think having Kurt there this year, hey, this is how a professional does this. This is how he prepares. This is the questions he's asking in meetings. These are the things, how he handles receivers, works with protections and changes things up and does all those things. You can learn, but now you got to go play the game. And he's not going to be able to make certain checks or change protections that much. He might be throwing hot more or he can scramble around and create plays. I think you need that live action eventually to just kind of prepare you.

42:03 I mean, I don't think now is the right time. I mean, I think Curtis is playing well, but they get to the point where they lose a few more and you get to kind of make those last kind of five games. And, you know, they're maybe not, if they're not in the playoffs hunt necessarily, yeah, you got to throw Fernando in there. And it's really just to prepare him for next year. And those five games where you have, you know, footage of you running your base plays you have you know you're seeing blitzes you see that feel the speed of the game just having that for him to know what he needs to work on during the offseason during the OTAs next year during training camp so he can go into that next season and

42:43 can win some games and doesn't have to go through kind of those rookie struggles so you know you saw it with Peyton his rookie year went 13 and or three and 13, year two, 13 and three. We went five and 11 my rookie year. Next year, 11 and five win the division. So, you know, you can make those quick change where you need to get your quarterback some playing time.

43:05 You know, it's interesting. I was with my wife in an Irish bar in New York. watching you guys lose to the Patriots. I think it was the final game of the regular season. And then you came back and beat them in the Super Bowl. And I remember that game because people think that New England team was unbeatable because their record was so good. But the Baltimore almost beat them that year. You gave them trouble at the end of the year. Philadelphia gave them trouble. Now, and I say that because the Bears are going to play the Seahawks, and I watched the Seahawks beat Kansas City this week. Seattle is the kind of team at home where it's like, turn the lights off, the game's over.

43:41 Whereas when you played New England, their record was great. But if you really watched them at the end of the year, the physical teams, you and the Ravens could push back. So I say that because I'm going to watch– I watched Kansas City play Seattle and I've never seen Andy Reid's team do nothing. Are there times– and they may have not won a championship, but were there teams that you played, had been in games– that you just knew it was a buzzsaw and it wasn't a winnable game.

44:11 I mean, I felt like two series in, I'm like, Seattle looks ticked off. Kansas City's in big trouble. Are there games in which you just throw it out? You're Andy Reid, guys. We're not going to talk about it. It's just that's not who we are. That's a buzzsaw.

44:27 Yeah. I mean, that's just when you play 17 games in a season, you're going to have weeks where You know, it just you never got into a rhythm. You never caught your brakes. You know, you kind of called the wrong plays at the wrong time. You have a drop here. You just that whatever reason, it just didn't go your way.

44:46 It wasn't sloppy necessarily. Or you just got out physical or just, you know, the brakes didn't go your way. And you just, you know, sometimes you get your butt kicked and it just happens and you got to look at it. And, hey, you'll kind of make some quick adjustments. But, yeah, sometimes you just got to, hey, let's flush that one.

45:05 Let's get back to work. Let's fix some things. But let's just, hey, let's get back to playing our style of football and have a great week of practice and move on and play better and play better this week and everybody be committed to that. And that's just kind of part of it. And, you know, certain teams play.

45:23 They can do that. Seattle is one of those defenses. They're good on defense. They've got a good coordinator. They've got a good scheme. They can embarrass you. They can out-scheme you a little bit and get you in some bad plays, and they did that the other week.

45:35 I went and watched Caleb Williams live, the New England game in Chicago where I live now, and the reason I did it is because I did this with Shohei Otani. I did it with LeBron. There are certain athletes that when you watch television and you're like, okay, they are– a notch better than other pro athletes. I want to see them live. And Caleb live is even more impressive.

45:58 I said, we know Drake Mays good on TV and in person. I saw the same guy. Caleb's different in person. It's just his arms a little bigger, even the misses, the velocity. And you played with so many great players and against them. Was there a player, Eli, in your career, it could have been a teammate or an opponent, that you saw him on film and you did your homework And then you got into a game and you're like, wow, that's a better pass rusher than the film says.

46:31 I think Ed Reed.

46:31 Ed Reed.

46:33 I'm thankful we didn't have to play the AFC that often and play that division because you kind of saw in one film and he was smooth and you're kind of watching and you're like, well, I don't think Ed's doing the right thing here. Like maybe that was a bust we could take advantage of. And then you realize he was just smarter. He just knew like how to read eyes. He knew like, hey, you're definitely not running fast.

46:56 I'm playing cover two on the left side. They're running certain routes. You're not throwing over there. So he would cheat to the middle. He was just such a natural, just attracted to the ball. Seeing the bounce his way and for him to make plays. He was the scariest person. I just didn't want to throw near him. Because I knew if the ball wasn't perfectly thrown and hit a guy, my guy right in the number, somehow he was going to.

47:24 End up with it.

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