Mike Tomlin Did It Without A QB

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Musical production done by May 1st Music. Support him at soundcloud.com slash May 1st Music. 19 years ago, Mike Tomlin was the DC of the Minnesota Vikings and was looking for an opportunity. It was four years after the Rooney roll had been implemented, giving minority coaches a chance to be head coaches to get more interview opportunities in the NFL. Mike Tomlin went down to Miami. Miami was looking for a change of scenery, a new voice, a fresh face to bring into their building. and they had Mike Tomlin walk right in there as a 30-something-year-old defensive coordinator and by all reports had a good interview, but for whatever reason, the Miami Dolphins decided not to pursue hiring Mike Tomlin because they felt he was, quote, too hip-hop.

Mike Tomlin then went on to Pittsburgh and 19 years later, he steps down with a Hall of Fame coaching resume, including a Super Bowl championship and having the distinction of never having a losing season as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And it's more so than just sneaking by with nine and sevens and things of that nature. It's the fact that over that time period, his division has been one of the toughest throughout that whole tenure. Yes, the Browns have been up and down and mostly down, but the Ravens have been a thing. The Bengals, especially with Joe Burrow, have been a thing. And the Pittsburgh Steelers have still found a way to be, if not the class of that division, always competing for a chance to win that division and at least getting into a wildcard spot. One of the most impressive parts of this whole Mike Tomlin thing for me is the fact that he did it by and large without a quarterback.

Yes, he inherited Big Ben, but Big Ben was on the downturn of his career, or at least on the back half of his prime when Mike Tomlin took over back in 2007. But if you look at the post-Big Ben era, it is full of mid, if not basura. We're talking Kenny Pickett, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Mason Rudolph, Mitchell Trubisky. Like that is a five pack, excuse me, a six pack of ass. Let's be real. And the fact that he was able to find a way to get a winning season out of all those QBs. And when you look at the screen here, 14 and 10 with Kenny Pickett.

Who else is doing that? Aaron Rodgers, 10 and six. Russell Wilson at this point in his career. Because, again, that's when the Steelers got him at the tail end of his career. Who's getting a winning record with Russell Wilson as their quarterback? Justin Fields asked the Jets who's getting a winning record with Justin Fields as your starting quarterback. Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky.

Only Mitchell Trubisky has a losing record as a starting quarterback. So that six pack of ass that Mike Tomlin had to endure with and still pump out winning records with, Mitchell Trubisky was so trashed that he was the only one of this six pack of ass that was able to have a losing record. OK, so in this era of where you have to have a quarterback, you have to have a quarterback. The beginning and end always begins with do you have a quarterback? Your relevancy as a contender begins and ends with do you have a quarterback? Every year the Steelers were like, no, we don't have a quarterback. And yet and still at the end of the year, Mike Tomlin was walking away with a winning record.

that speaks to a larger standpoint in regards into his acumen his coachability the way that the players buy into whatever he's selling there's so many boxes that he checks when you talk about a proof of concept is this a person that can walk into your build it and change things and look this this move shook things up there was so many coaching vacancies already there were upwards of eight and there still could be more but there was upwards of eight openings already now nine with mike tomlin a lot of those teams that were thinking they had their candidates lined up for those eight positions now you got to throw mike tomlin in the mix and there's reporting that allegedly he wants to if he is to pursue coaching again he wants to be in a warmer climate don't we all i certainly wouldn't be the warmer climate all year round but you know for but with Mike Tomlin he won't have some of those issues so he'll still have some of those same issues but not all those same issues when it comes to what should Mike Tomlin do next I mean there's plenty of opportunities right he could do the media thing if he wants I'm sure all the networks are lining up when especially when you add in the fact that we got Amazon and Netflix in the mix that would be a big get for them to be able to get a coach with the credibility of a Mike Tomlin on their set to give his analysis that brings instant credibility big time credibility he could do that he could cash out and get it back that way or there's reports you know do you spin the block on south beach if you're mike tomlin do you spin the block to investigate what miami's talking about 19 years ago they played you out 19 years ago they didn't think you were good enough they thought you were essentially too black for the position now 19 years in the super bowl later has Miami changed their ways now again to be fair to Miami that was a different ownership group a different regime that made that alleged statement it turns out he was too hip-hop but still that has been a black cloud following that organization since then especially when you answer the fact what happened with Brian Flores and the whole tanking scandal and everything that went along with that the Miami Dolphins have shown a propensity when it comes to black coaches and it hasn't been the best of coaching records, right? Or at least the best of coaching relationships when it comes to black coaches by and large. Mike McDaniel, not notwithstanding, right? If you know, you know. So what should Mike Tomlin do if he does go to Miami? What does that look like? He doesn't have a quarterback.

I mean, but he's one with Mason Rudolph. He's one with Kenny Pickett. Does it really matter if he has a quarterback to me I think he needs to not just jump right back in like of the teams that have coaching vacancies and I'll go back into the screen here of the teams that have coaching vacancies I think it's very telling when you look at these teams right we're talking Pittsburgh they do not have a quarterback Baltimore clearly has a quarterback Cleveland you don't know if they have a quarterback likely do not as much as y'all love Shador he is not the answer right unless you surround him with top tier top three at every position type talent so cleveland does not have a quarterback they're probably going to draft one miami to a tongue of by loa is not it they do not have a quarterback unless you're trying to roll the on some quinn uvers quinn ears if i am uh mike tomlin i'm not going down to south beach for that uh the giants they think they have a quarterback in jackson dart i'm not rolling with that if i am Tomlin. Arizona, Calum Murray. Can Mike Tomlin get Calum Murray to put down the COD? Can he stop that man from playing Call of Duty 24-7? If ever there was a coach that could walk into that building and have instant credibility to potentially make Calum Murray stop playing Call of Duty, it might be Mike Tomlin.

But if I'm Mike Tomlin, I'm not going to roll the dice on that. Atlanta, they thought they had a QB. Your QB got one good leg. I don't know if I'm trusting that. Now, the talent is there outside of QB. So now if you are Tomlin, you're used to that where I have talent everywhere else. But the QB position I might be lacking is the most closest thing.

And there's a few pieces of defense, not enough, but it's a few pieces on defense. So Atlanta might be the spot where if I'm Tomlin, I'm like, Atlanta is certainly warmer than Pittsburgh. and culturally speaking I mean it goes without saying no matter what Wiz Khalifa try to tell us about Pittsburgh we go about Tennessee Tennessee thinks they have a quarterback and he certainly shows some signs of being a quarterback of being the quarterback but there's a lot of growing pains you don't want to deal with that if you have the pedigree and the resume and the acumen of a Mike Tomlin it didn't have the Vegas Raiders who are an absolute joke then you have to always worry about Tom Brady hoarding over you. I don't I don't see it for Mike Tomlin. So if I am Mike Tomlin, it's Atlanta or I'm chilling at the crib or maybe Baltimore. But, you know, the whole thing of staying within a division and that Baltimore is not necessarily warmer than Pittsburgh. So if we're to believe the reports, I think was Josina Anderson who had to report.

If we're to believe the reports of what Mike Tomlin is looking for, I don't think Baltimore is that. I think it's Atlanta. If I'm Atlanta, I offer the I open up the if I'm Arthur Blank. Take that last name and make it a blank check and just slide out to my Tomlin. What do you want? They turn down Belichick, right? They said no to Belichick in his resume, in his pedigree, in his rings.

Do they do that to what probably the most decorated black coach we've had since Dungey and Art Shell? I mean, that's a lot to walk away from. That's a lot to say no to. If I am the Falcons, you have to. After having the nonsense of Fano and Raheem Morris to kind of bring in Mike Tomlin to kind of reestablish that we are now trying to become a serious organization again, I think there's a lot there. And if you're Mike Tomlin, you're looking at that offense in terms of Drake, London, Bajon, Cal Pitts, whether they bring him back or not remains to be seen. But you have the frameworks of some things there where you don't have to worry about this is a complete gut.

It's not a complete rebuild. You're retooling on the fly with Atlanta. And I think with Tomlin, they might be able to bring in some free agents there that might be able to help boost that thing up. But we shall see. They got to worry about Kirk Cousins in that contract. They got to worry about Michael Penix and his recovery and then his pending contract. There's a lot of things there.

But if I Mike Tomlin, you have to look at Atlanta. I think it's Atlanta a bust. I don't know if there's any other jobs that might be able to pop up that might be able to become available. But if you're the Falcons, you need to strike now. You need Tomlin to visit your facility now or you go to him. Maybe Arthur Blank hops on the PJ and go sees Mike T. Pull up on him.

You want warmer. Welcome to Atlanta. Like I think that that to me is what I'm looking at. If I'm Mike Tomlin, it's either Atlanta or hit the booth. Hit the booth or hit the set on the studio. Go get a check from Amazon and Netflix and then spin the block next year. The team of my youth is trying to make me spin the block, but I am refusing.

The Chicago Bears went out there and got an exciting, thrilling, scintillating, all the adjectives you want to put there, victory, comeback victory over the Green Bay Packers at the crib. But was this more about the Bears coming back and winning the game? Or was it about the Packers choking away a victory? And there's a lot of fallout, potential fallout from this game. You have the continued ascension of Caleb Williams. You have the continued confirming guru status of a Ben Johnson. But then you'll also have the shakiness, the diciness, the maybe in over his headness.

No, that's not a thing, but let's make it one of Matt LaFleur and his pending contract situation. He could be another guy that's thrown into this mix that, you know, we just talked about with Mike Tomlin stepping down at Pittsburgh. Is Matt LaFleur going to be out the mix? Could that make 10 coaching openings? But the main thing I'm going to focus on here, as you see here in the notes for those on the visual side, the Packers left seven points on the board. Two missed field goals in the PAT. Josh Jacobs, the running game.

There's a reoccurring theme over this past weekend with football where the teams that lost were teams that either did not even try to run the ball or had success running the ball and then completely abandoned the run. And as much as quarterbacks have been put into this pedestal and they've been paid as such, and your likelihood and your relevancy as an organization, as a franchise, is based off who is your quarterback because that is the default face of your franchise. Running the ball is still a thing that matters in this league. And the Green Bay Packers, I had to chart this, right? I think Jacobs had 49 yards. I have it in my notes here, but he had 49 yards in the first half. He finished with 55 yards.

And over his last 11 carries, he only had six yards. And the Bears are not a good rushing defense. The Bears were who they were in the first half in terms of giving the yards up. In the second half, they made some slight adjustments. They had more guys on the edges to try to control the running game. But outside of that, the Bears did nothing different. They blitzed a little bit more.

So the second half, the Bears definitely made some defensive adjustments, but it wasn't some landmark adjustments. It wasn't some scheme that they had never done before. It wasn't like they pulled out some personnel packages that were, you know, unknown to the Packers. So LeFleur, with his guru status, should have been able to decipher that and then counter the Bears counter. But for whatever reason, they could not pull that off. the tale of two halves where the Bears scored on every single possession in the second half except for one and that was a pick by Caleb Williams and they looked like they were about to go in and score even on that drive so the Bears made all the things they needed everything to work in their favor to win that game going down the way that they were was a 21-6 or something something to that effect that half as big as down as they were as down big as they were coming out of halftime they needed two things they happened they needed to score every time they touched the ball and they needed to stymie the Packers every time they touched the ball and that's essentially what happened and that was the part that was so striking because that was the contrast from the first half it was completely the opposite where the Bears offense looked inept couldn't move the ball couldn't get a rhythm they weren't running the ball as effectively as they had been over the second half of the season all the things that the Bears were kind of turning themselves into because I've been on record and Ben Johnson has been on record. He ignored or abandoned the run early in the season.

He was not about running the ball. He was not about that action. He was trying to hand the keys to Caleb off rip and he got burnt for it. And then he had to go back into his bag and realize, you know what, I'm going to depend on Swift, Monungay, and that interior offensive line that Ryan Pohl spent a whole bunch of money on in the offseason and draft capital to improve. And that's what he did. And then the shift started to happen to where it was less relying on Caleb to do everything and more so of let's find some kind of balance. Let's get swift in the mix.

And he had career highs up and down the board. And then they discovered Monungi and he became a thing. So like the Bears shifted philosophy early enough in the season that they were able to ride that momentum to where it got them to where they are now in the playoffs and now advancing to the divisional round. So the Bears had to touch the ball and touch it and score it every single time they were able to do that. The Packers had a whole bunch of three and outs. I think three of their first four drives in the second half with a big lead were three and outs. And that's where running the ball comes into play.

Yes, you have Jordan Love, who y'all believe is a franchise QB, and he has a decent amount of weapons. He doesn't have the full complement of his weapons and they're not at their apex. A lot of these guys are healthy, are not healthy and coming back off injuries or battling through injuries. But again, still on paper, the Packers have better skill position players than the Bears. And it looked like it in the first half. But then the second half happened. And for whatever reason, just too many drawback passes.

They were not running the ball effectively like they were in the first half. It just didn't really pop the way it did in the first half. And the adjustments from a Matt LaFleur was not there. Like clock management is a thing. I'm not saying you want to hold on to the ball and bleed out the clock. because you're up and you're getting the ball first out of the second half, but you at least want to at least start to use some time management skills. But when you come out and it's three and out, three and out, three, now it's like, hey, wait a minute, maybe we should run the ball a little bit.

After the second three and out drive in the second half, like you're still up big, they were up 13 with under seven minutes to play in this game. So they had multiple opportunities to run that clock down and get the running game going again, and they just refused to do it. I mean, six yards on the last 11 carries for Josh Jacobs. And the thing is, is that those carries were so sparsed out, it took me a minute to track it down on the play by play. Like it really was a tale of two halves. And this to me is way more about the Packers losing this game than the Bears winning this game because the Bears, Caleb Williams made the throws he had to make. And that's kind of the lane I see him in.

He was expected to be a Pat Mahomes. I don't know if he's going to be that. I don't know if he's going to be that. I think he could be a guy that is good enough to where when you need him to make a throw, he can make the throw. And I think he's good enough to where he can improvise and make a play and pull a play out of his ass. Like on that fourth down play to a dunes. I think he could do that.

I think the problem is people are assuming he's going to be able to do that all the time. I don't know if he's that guy to that extent. I don't even know if it's apexes, he's going to be that guy because we don't have too many guys that are like that all the time. Like my home is the closest thing we have that right now. So I think with the Bears, it was a good game. It was a very exciting game, very scintillated game. I had the pleasure of working that game with the gig that I'm at now, even though it was on Amazon.

It's broadcast by a major broadcasting company. So I worked there. So I was able to be a part of the game that way. So seeing everything come in, Bears-Packers, it's always a rivalry. Bears-Packers, this is a game the Bears always lose. Historically, this is a game the Bears, at least during our lifetime, always lose. When it comes to the Packers, whether it was Favre, whether it was Aaron Rodgers, and even now with some Jordan Love stuff, it's always the Bears are in this spot.

They need to get a dub, and the Packers on the other side, they're losing that game. and this year whether it's the Ben Johnson factor whether it's the Matt LaFleur factor the Bears and they'll be able to turn the tide a little bit and even though I'm not a Bears fan it's still fucked the Packers okay Philly you got what you wanted well outside the fact that y'all lost to the 49ers in hi Philly but yes Philly fans have gotten what they wanted the OC is about the paint, although he might not be completely gone from the team. He might still be retained on the staff within another position. But he has been relieved of his offensive coordinator play calling responsibilities, right? So obviously he's the easiest person to blame. He's the person with the least amount to leverage. So get him up out of there, right?

Here's where it gets dicey for me. Howie Roseman built this team to be a monster. Howie Roseman built this team to be a juggernaut. Howie Roseman built this team to be indestructible. They have depth on depth on depth. They have not one number one wide receiver, but they have two number one wide receivers. You know, they have one of the best offensive lines in the league.

They have a quarterback that, despite what Cam Newton says, most people think is top 10. They have talent on talent on talent. Yet they lost to a bunch of no names in the San Francisco 49ers. And immediately you jump to, well, it must be coaching. Well, what if the talent that we thought was there isn't actually there? The offensive line has not looked the same like last year. Are we now saying Makai Becton was a missing piece?

Is that? Kai Becton was what? What? Is that really what? How he had a hard time replacing Makai Becton is let's try to reassess this. Too much blame is going to the OC. As much as Dan Olarfsky wants to go out there and pinpoint how the play calling wasn't that diverse.

It wasn't scheming up stuff. The Eagles are not built for that. The Eagles are built for we have more dudes than you. We have more talent than you, which is what I go by. That is my credo. Talent over scheme. Give me the team with more talent than the team that is living and dying with a scheme.

And this is one of the few examples where the team that is living and dying with a scheme, with the 49ers, because they can out coach the Eagles every step of the way. And they had enough decent players left that they could still make the scheme work. As opposed to the team that didn't seem to have a scheme or had a very basic scheme in the Eagles, but had all the dudes in the world, at least we thought they did. So if it's really coming down to let's blame the OC, well, then it can't really do that because you're ignoring your history. That's a problem we have is that we ignore our history. Lane Johnson last year. This is with a different OC.

with Kellen Moore with a different OC was saying that other teams knew their place. That's a real thing to happen. Lane Johnston said last year that other teams were starting to know their place. It was against the Ravens. I believe the Ravens game last year, he said in the post game that our plays are too predictable. So if you're blaming the OC this year, because the play calling is unimaginative and is too predictable, then what was the excuse last year when y'all still won the whole damn thing? Even though Lane Johnston said, hey, other teams know what we're doing.

It can be both ways. We're going to blame the OC now because it's his fault. But y'all will say the same thing. The own players in your locker room, one of the linchpins of your team, one of the captains of your team was saying the same exact thing last year with a different OC. but because y'all won nobody cares nobody remembers no one wants to spin the block we just want to ignore the history and work with the result as well we won and we blew everybody out because that's the way the team was built the team was built to just run through everybody but what happens when the players that you have aren't running through everybody then that's where the coaching is supposed to step up there but when you don't have that guy there When you don't have that head coach there, when you don't have that OC there, when you don't have that DC there. Yes, I'm even saying that they don't have that DC there because even though there was injuries across that defensive line. I mean, we've seen things work with less and get better and do more with less.

Now he was given all the talent in the world. If I let y'all tell it front seven crazy, at least a front four, at least. And now the back four was crazy. Linebacker is still a little bit to be desired, in my opinion. Yeah, you got Nolan Smith, but where was Jihad? Jihad got one snap. It's your first round pick, Howie.

He got one snap, one defensive snap. So I think there's going to be a lot, a little bit of a shift towards the attention and towards the onus of responsibility. Now that the OC is gone, cool. You can't blame him no more. Sirianni is going to get the blame. Sure. He's the next easiest guy to go.

But then this was a failure of the execution. This was not the scheme. The offensive line did not block like they have in years past. Certainly not like last year, but not even two, three years ago. Jalen Hurts, for as great as he looked last year. He did not look it at all this year. That's not play calling.

Saquon, after hanging out with the orange man, did not look like the same dude like last year. Last year, he was hungry. He had a chip on his shoulder. He had something to prove. This year did not look the same. Now, that could coincide with the offensive line not being the same. But yet and still, we could look at each part.

Y'all want to talk to me about play calling when you have a Heisman Trophy winner at one wide receiver. You have a top five wide receiver on the other side. You have a top three running back in the backfield. You have a upper tier tight end and you're supposed to have at bare minimum a top 10 offensive line. And y'all are talking to me. That's the play calling fault while they can't get it done on third and shorts. You're talking to me about play calling when they keep going three and out.

When you have that much talent, that talent is supposed to win more times than not. And that's the most frustrating thing. It was because the few times that Jalen Hurts actually did try to go to A.J. Brown, A.J. Brown dropped the ball. And I know A.J. has his things and that will probably be the end of A.J.

Brown's run in Philly. But he did everything he was supposed to. He did everything he was supposed to do. Before he got there, Jalen Hurts was struggling as a quarterback. He was struggling because he had no weapons. And the Eagles were trying to hand him the keys. And then Howie said, we got to get this kid some help.

And he went out there and stole him from the Tennessee Titans. And away they went, just like the Bills went out there and got Stephon Diggs. And away Josh Allen went. It was the same type of trajectory where you could look at the stats prior to A.J. Brown getting there and look at the stats with A.J. Brown. It was a complete 180.

But AJ Brown did what he was supposed to do, and they even got a Super Bowl out of it. Now, how does this look going forward? That to me is where if you're feeling you have to reassess how things are done is if it's going to be all talent or nothing. Then how he has to do a better job. If he wants to have all this control to where he's picking the players, he's picking them at what position he wants them at. and he's pushing that on Sirianni and his staff, then he needs to be held accountable. As much as we want to hold the OC, well, the now former OC, again, these complaints were happening even when they were winning.

So now take that off the table. Now what do you got? Well, it's Sirianni. Well, I mean, Sirianni did win the Super Bowl. Right? Even though he had that, you know, that intro press conference, that was a clusterfuck. He still, despite all of that, was able to be carried to a championship.

This is much like Barry Switzer with the Cowboys, that third chip that the Cowboys had where it was like, all right, you're just alone for the ride. Don't fuck it up. And that's what a Sirianni is. Harvey's like, I'm going to give you all the players. Just don't fuck it up. And for whatever reason, every other year, whether it's Sirianni, I mean, it can't be Sirianni every other year he fucks it up. but what you can say is the players don't execute every other year and some of these players haven't been there the whole time but there is a couple of mainstays and that's that offensive line and jalen hurts and i know y'all love jalen because he what he represents the culture the fact that he's he's empowering black women within his team all of that is amazing shit and yes he outplayed Mahomes twice but none of that goes into the fact that every other year for whatever reason lack of running lack of not being able to take control of the offense or the whole winner angle of Jalen Hurts where was it he's a winner he's a leader he leads by example where was it then like if ever there was a time where hey this offensive play calling is really sus.

You know what? I'm going to go rogue. I'm a check at the line. Oh, he can't do that. This ain't this ain't Greg Roman and Lamar Jackson, where he couldn't call no audibles at the line. This is Jayla hurts. Love hurts, right?

Like this, this, this is what we're talking about. How was his leader of men, this floor general? How is he not able to check at the line and say, you know what? That last, you know, the clip went viral of on that last play. All the Eagles huddle around and the play call comes down. They're all looking around like, why are we running this play? We've seen it in movies, but we've also seen it in real life where, hey, I don't care what they call him.

We doing this. Or you give your guy a look. Jalen Hurts gives AJ Brown a look. Jalen Hurts gives, you know, Smith a look. And they know, all right, I'm gonna do this. If we see a certain look, we're going to come out here. We're going to do this.

That didn't happen. They just ran the play as it was called. So, again, if you're supposed to be a top 10 quarterback, if you're supposed to be a franchise quarterback that we are entrusting, where we put our faith into you. You should know when it's time to take over. You got to have a little bit of an asshole in you at that level, at that spot for situations just like that. And something about Jalen Hurts just shows he just does not have that in him. And despite him being black, despite him empowering black women, y'all also need to be able to say those things and not be called a coon or a Tom or whatever because of it.

Like he can get he can get criticized and it's not unfair. It's unjust and do it to white quarterbacks. Like, I don't know about others, but I know I do that. I do it to any of them. But like at some point in time, if Jalen Hurts is supposed to be one of those to that level, that's a move he's got to make. That place stinks. All right.

We go in the huddle. Yo, we ain't doing that. We're going to check out of that. If we see this look, AJ, you do this. Another play to Goddard. Is a reason why I chose this photo. You see how many people are around Goddard?

If there's three people converging on Goddard, shouldn't somebody else be open? Anyway, Shanahan magic. Shanahan was able to out coach Nick Sirianni. That doesn't take a lot, but it's more so of what Shanahan has been able to do with this bunch. Again, no number one wide receiver. Kittle goes down in this game in the first quarter. Brock Purdy, like him or love him.

I don't think he's all of that. But again, he has the right type of head coach who is the OC who can make him look good. What Howie Roseman is to the Eagles is what Cal Shanahan is to the 49ers. And that goes into what you saw where he can make Brock Purdy the absolute last player in the draft picked who now makes $60 million a year. He can make that man look like a $60 million QB. he's done it with Garoppolo like it's he did it briefly with Sam Darnold and even Mac Jones a little bit like Shanahan has proven enough that give me your mid and I'll make him less mid Shanahan has a chance here to go on a run and they opening the practice window for Fred Werner, Fred Werner if Fred Werner comes back and now that improves that defense even more 49ers are sleepers here the 49ers are not for play play you know they got to go to into seattle and that will certainly be a thing but like that that will be fun that will be fun if they could get fred werner back for the nfc championship game bills jags it really just came down to the bills have a dude and the jaguars do not and when you look at that trevor lawrence is supposed to be a dude trevor lawrence is was drafted to be a dude. Teams were tanking for Trevor Lawrence.

Yet and still is the dude that played ball out of Wichita or was a Wyoming, one of them shits, and wasn't even that good when he was in college. But he looked the part so much and he's such a freak in nature because of his size that they just drafted him in a way. Josh Allen, when he was drafted, was very much similar to Anthony Richardson that the Colts drafted when the sense is you're not really sure how good he is, but the physics jump off the stat sheet like the his bio you draft him because of his bio, not because of what you saw on tape, which saw on tape was a clunky dude, a little disjointed, but big as hell. And the Bills drafted him just because, hey, man, he's big as hell. He's got a strong arm. We need that in Buffalo with the cold and the snow and the wind. Amen.

He looks the part. White Cam Noon. And Trevor Lawrence had more of the traditional futuristic looking QB, the more modern QB. And he had the arm, but he had the long hair. He had to look surfer dude type shit, like had the college pedigree, won a chip. He looked the part from a winner perspective. But it just didn't it just hasn't materialized.

He's been good, but he has not been number one overall good. It hasn't been tank, you know, your season for him good. But Josh Allen, thanks to Stefan Diggs and just the maturation process, has turned himself into being a dude. And they take advantage of it in Buffalo. And he has saved Sean McDermott, McDermott's job multiple seasons in a row. And the bills now will go as far as Josh Allen decides to take them. If the defense doesn't give it up, if the defense is able to stop teams from running the ball, even though it's easy to run on them.

But if you try to entice them to pass the ball, which is where their strength is on defense, as opposed to their run defense. And the Jags, again, another team. We talked about the Packers going away from the run game. And they had a guy that's considered to be a guru, a boy genius. I'm Matt LaFleur. Cohen with the Jags. Etienne was getting it off.

the running game overall was getting it off and he went away from it and it was asinine and it was maddening and again another team that was up not as up as the Packers were against the Bears but another team that was up at various points where they could have slowed the game down and controlled the clock play the clock game and they just refused to do it because you have this franchise QB and everything is supposed to be about the franchise QB and I am Cohen and I got hired because I'm supposed to be an offensive guru and a QB whisperer. So my whole thing, my whole reputation rides on the quarterback's performance. When you could just run the ball and slow the game down and keep the ball out of Josh Allen's hands. Once you realize the other team has a dude and you really don't have an answer for that dude, your sole responsibility is to limit that dude's chances with the ball. But they didn't do that. So for the Jags, yeah, where was the run in the second half? It just was not there.

The Super Bowl window for Josh Allen and Trevor Lawrence. That's something that we need to examine briefly. If the Bills are to ever get through and at least get to the Super Bowl, I don't think they're going to win a Super Bowl unless they. Who can they? They could beat the Bears. I believe that. I don't know if they could beat any of the NFC West teams that are remaining.

I could see a scenario where maybe the Seahawks. But I think if they played a Rams. Or the 49ers, I don't see it, but. They certainly need to get there. If the most imposing thing you have to go through in the AFC is Bo Nix. And going to Denver. That should not be a deterrent.

So if ever there was a year for Josh Allen to make a Super Bowl with no Lamar, with no Mahomes, with no Jabaro, you're telling me Drake May and Bo Nix is going to impede you from getting to a bowl? If you're him. And last year's MVP was a fluke, but I think he actually earned it this year. But it looks like they're going to hand it to Drake May. Will that that remains to be seen. But I think, if anything, this has been the MVP year for Josh Allen as opposed to what we saw last year. But the window, I think, is right now for Josh Allen.

I don't see a scenario where the softness, where the Patriots are being called into play. And we'll talk about that briefly once we get to Patriots charges. But the Patriots are being questioned because of their weak strength of schedule. It's just taking advantage of a weak schedule, much like the Giants a few years ago, where they had the easiest schedule in the entire league and they made the playoffs. And Danny Dimes beat her cousins and the Giants foolishly gave that man 160 million, which was really 80 million guaranteed. The Patriots are looking like that same type of deal, right? But at least we know Drake May is better than Daniel Jones.

But this is the time for Josh Allen. He needs to be able to walk through the AFC and at least come out the AFC once. Trevor Lawrence, that's a trickier type of deal. They invested in getting you help. They made the deal for Jacoby Myers. And while that didn't seem crazy on paper, it didn't seem like a huge move on paper. It certainly worked out gangbusters.

And we can look at the prospect of the next year where we don't know what's going to happen with Brian Thomas Jr. There's talk that they might do something with him where they might move on from him. I think that's that's a little weird. I think he just had a sophomore slump. But I mean, we'll we'll see how that goes. But then at the prospect of Travis Hunter, Travis Hunter coming off his injury. Will they allow him to still be a two way player?

Is the existence of Jacoby Myers and a rehab, they extended him right away in terms of giving him a contract. They gave him a contract extension right away. Either two things happen. Either that eases the transition of moving on from Brian Thomas Jr. Or with Jacoby Myers and Brian Thomas Jr. as your one and two that allows Travis Hunter to be a full time DB. even though I think his best game as a pro so far has been him as a receiver.

But be that as it may, what does this mean for the for the Jags in terms of the offense going forward? Because this all falls back to Trevor Lawrence. The running backs are good. The offensive line is good enough. They probably need a playmaker at tight end. I know they tried with Ingram. They've had a couple of guys over the last couple of years, but like they need a playmaker at tight end to really round that offense out.

If the whole deal is we can't, Trevor can't put the team on his back. Clearly. So, okay. We need to surround him. They're trying to surround him on the fly. You can't tear it down and rebuild it. You're in too deep.

You need to retool it. So I think going out and getting Jacobi Myers is great, but now you got to fill some other holes. I think going to get a tight end, an actual tight end that could be a game breaking tight end could be something that's important, something that should be important. So we'll see how it goes. But I think the window for the Jaguars, I don't want to say there could have, should have, would have, but they're trending heavily in that direction to me. And oh, yeah, the media lost their mind over a black woman trying to console Cohen after the game. I won't go too tough into it, but as someone that's been in media for over 17 years, yeah, over 17 years.

This is just a white conservative media losing their mind that a black woman would do something that is not the status quo. There is a overwhelming negative outlook in the sports media landscape right now where the only way to get a recognition, the only way to get clicks, the only way to get engagement is to be negative. is to have a hot take, is to be a contrarian, all of that stuff, which normally skews negative. And in the press conference, especially after a team has lost, especially a team that loses at home in a spot where I don't know what the final spread was, but some people really felt the Jaguars were going to defeat the Buffalo Bills. But the Jags were in the spot where a lot of people felt they should have won that game. And after the game, a black woman took to the took to the to the microphone and gave words of encouragement for Cohen, who visibly looked emotional after the game in his postgame press conference, who visibly looked emotional. And that's a tough spot to be in where you want to question, why didn't you run the ball?

You want to question what does this team look like next year? You want to get the hard hitting questions, but you also want to realize, hey, man, this man's season just ended. he failed at his job he walked into this year thinking his team was good enough to win the Super Bowl whether we agreed with him or not he had to believe that and his team was just eliminated and eliminating in really rough heartbreaking fashion at the crib when it looked like the team and the franchise and organization as a whole had turned a corner They withstood the Urban Meyer nonsense. They turned a corner. Trevor Lawrence was starting to look like the guy that teams were taken for. You make a deal and go get Jacoby Myers. Your defense, you looked like at times where you had the better Josh Allen.

But at the end of the day, you did not have the better Josh Allen. And you have to come to grips with the fact that you don't have anybody on your team that is as good or is as impactful or potentially dominant as the other teams, Josh Allen. And then you're bombarded with questions in a press game post-conference. And you have to now address not only your team, but now address the media, who is going to ask you all the questions you don't feel like answering in this very moment. And yet someone steps to the podium who's been in that market for 30 years, has interviewed the president. And tries to console you. Like a mother would or just like a person with compassion would.

A lot of people have made the mother analogy in terms of she was mothering him. And I think that's more racial and I think that that's problematic. But I think that just the matter is sometimes you need some levity. It needs some balance. Having a press conference is not supposed to be all softball questions. It's also not supposed to be all getting at your neck questions either. It's supposed to be a balance.

But the only things that gets clicks, aggregates, impressions, engagement is the negative stuff. So the fact that somebody went against the grain, that's exactly what we're looking for. We want people to go against the grain. Everyone's going left. I'm gonna go right. Everyone's going down. I'm gonna go up.

So everyone was going left. And let's be clear, that press conference was only six minutes. And out of the six minutes, there wasn't so many hard hitting questions that did not get asked. This woman stepped and asked her question after there was a lull in the press conference. So dudes ran out of stuff to ask Cohen. And she just kind of wanted to levy it. It was heavy in the room.

If you've never been in a presser before, that's that's how it is. When you walk into the presser, you sit there, you're waiting for the coach to coach or the player comes out and then someone starts it off. And that kind of gives you the energy, what type of time we on, because we all have a bunch of questions. If you're a good journalist, you have multiple ways you could go. Are we going upbeat? OK, I'll have some questions for that. Are we going?

Are we getting at this player? Are we getting at this coach? OK, I got questions for that, too. But today it's all about, no, we're just going to get at him no matter what we at his neck. Pause. So ultimately. What this woman did was have put some fresh air, breathe a breath of fresh air.

Into the press conference room. Hey. You did a really good job here. This community supports this team. And let me get into the whole point of what she was. She openly is a is a I guess. I don't know if she has said she's a Jaguars fan, but she has said that the community roots for the team.

And even if she admits to being a Jaguars fan, a lot of these beat writers are local dudes in their market. Now, when you get to the national level, it's a different story, right? but local beat writers are usually locals to the to the town the city the state that they're in which likely means they're a fan themselves so to chastise this woman for you know she needs to be objective well if all of y'all are just getting at cohen's neck but y'all only have a handful of questions and after those handful of questions are asked and you ask the same questions three or four different ways of getting a relative myriad of the same answer for it five different ways and y'all got nothing else someone's got to switch this up because you don't know what that answer is going to give and you can visibly see the reaction from Cohen that her statement impacted him in a good way but leave it to a largely white largely conservative media base to get out a black woman, to get out a black woman for doing her job, someone that is credited, someone that has a credential. And you have people that do fantasy football shows, which is not the same. You have people who do betting shows, gambling shows, which is not the same, calling out this woman who is actually covering the game and is at the stadium. And that's unfortunately where the sports media landscape is in 2026. Can the Houston Texans do it like the 85 Bears or the 2000 Ravens?

I won't spend too much time on this game because this game was ugly. It was nasty. But the Texans found a way to get it done. They outlasted the Steelers and what was that? What is now Mike Tomlin's last game as a Pittsburgh Steelers head coach? So the biggest thing for me is one, this defense. Can it keep doing, can it keep having takeaways?

Can it keep stymieing teams? Can it keep frustrating offenses? Much like the 85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens, if you want to throw in the LOB from Seattle, cool. But this, to me, with the way they're built front line first, is more in line with the 85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens. Nico Collins' status. He fell and hit his head twice very hard, concussed clearly. what's his status that to me matters because this offense has to give you something you can't depend on the defense to score two touchdowns like they did against Pittsburgh every single week especially as you're advancing deeper and deeper into the playoffs so CJ Stroud needs somebody out there and maybe it's Christian Kirk Christian Kirk has been resurrected it came off the pine and especially with Nico Collins going down and seemingly being concussed even before he was actually concussed, was able to step up and be a guy, be a weapon.

And that's all they need. The running game is good enough with Woody Marks and to a lesser extent, Nick Chubb. The offensive line is much improved, even though we came into the season with a lot of questions about the offensive line and the offensive line is still not great, but they're certainly better than what we thought they were coming into the season. So that to me is the main thing, right? That to me is the main thing. Nico Collins, if he's out, can you expect Christian Kirk to give you more of what he did against the Steelers? And two, can that defense keep playing like this?

Can that front four get home? Can that front seven continue to cause havoc? Can that back four continue to lock up? That remains to be seen. And we already talked about Mike Tomlin, but Aaron threw shade at the Jets in his postgame. If y'all that he gave a long-winded answer about you know his time in Pittsburgh and what it meant to play for organization held in high regard and he said you know he gave this long thing about how the Pittsburgh is a great organization and great fan base great everything it's been a pleasure and he's used to that from Green Bay days and he's like yeah I've been able to do that twice in my career completely alienating the New York Jets which I mean you're not wrong but it just even after losing 30-6, even after looking old and flabby and sick in that 30-6 loss, he still had the wherewithal to throw shade at the Jets in his exit press conference. And again, another example, much like the Jags and the black woman getting chastised for her.

Those questions for Aaron Rodgers were awful in his postgame presser. Like they kept basically trying to ask him, are you going to retire? They asked him, are you going to retire like four or five different ways? And he got frustrated. He got asked a Mike Tomlin question back to back and was like, I just answered that question. So y'all'd rather have press conferences like that where the athlete gets visibly annoyed. Then someone changing the energy, changing the mood in the room and trying to bring some levity to the to the to the room, like how what happened in Jacksonville.

So anyway, that's what happened at Pittsburgh. Now they got a coach. They got to find a coach too. So not only do they need to find a quarterback, they also need to find a coach. And if you're TJ Watt, Kim Hayward, all those guys, how much longer are you trying to do all that? Rams get the victory over the Panthers. Great game.

I think the Panthers are going to be fooled into paying Bryce Young. I think that would be a mistake. Bryce Young had a moment, and that moment will be a very expensive moment for whoever is foolish enough to give him the bag. I think this is very much a Daniel Jones against the Vikings type of move where he looked good in the playoffs, almost won a playoff game. Let's give him a shit ton of money. A little bit more pressure being the one overall pick, but I'm not doing that by the Panthers. Make him prove it.

Put him on that Lamar status. Make him play out the five years. Put him on the restricted franchise tag. Why are you just going to hand over? What have you seen from Bryce Young that makes you think he's worth giving max money to? You're going to give him max money. You're going to give him Brock Purdy money because that's the level now.

And that's why this is a dangerous, slippery slope where the Panthers now have to pay play, have to pay Bryce Young like the other QBs. When Bryce Young has done next to nothing outside of this one performance, like the other QBs are getting paid, at least Brock Purdy's been to a Super Bowl. And has been to a couple of championship games. The Panthers going to give Bryce Young, even if they don't give him max money, come and give that man 50 M's just because he made the playoffs once in a bad division. A compensation is going to have to be had at some point. But anyway, the Rams will go as far as Pukunukua takes them. I think there's a lot to be made there in regards to a lot is made about Stafford because it's the quarterback and the QB gets the glamour position.

But it is so stark, even with Devontae Adams. It is so stark when Pukunukua is not being impactful, how that offense is stagnant. And that's with a relatively good running game. With another receiver that could be, if not a number one, at least a high level number two at this point in his career. And Devontae Adams, like there's enough weapons there. But if the Puka stuff don't work, the offense gets really stagnant. And then you're asking old man Stafford to do a lot at this stage of his career.

So the Rams will go as far as Puka Nakua takes them. And a lot of these teams that are left in this playoffs. The focus is not on the QB. Now, the headlines will always be about the QB when you really start to parse it. A lot of these teams, it's about other players that are not the quarterback, that are the actual keys to the engine. Like with the Texans, it's not about CJ Stroud. It's about can that defense carry them, continue to carry them.

With the Seahawks, it's not about Sam Darnold, unless it's like telling Sam Darnold, don't lose us this game. Because we have a really good defense. And we have an unstoppable weapon like JSN, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Similar to the Puka. The offense will go as far as JSN takes them. Same thing with the Rams. But the headlines, the storylines will always be about the QB first.

So the Rams will go as far as Puka takes them. And NFC West, we've got to put some respect on their name. We have three teams left. You know, a lot was made of potentially the NFC East. A lot was made of the NFC North. but it's the NFC West that has quietly been supreme this year. Now, the 49ers we expected.

The Rams we expected. But the Seahawks, with that defense and McDonald being able, what, in year two, being able to have that thing humming like this? Very impressive. Very, very impressive. And again, they're doing this with Sam Darnold. That should be enough to make you question whether the Seahawks can do it, but that defense is good enough to where it's like, okay, well, they have done this before with a Neal fight and Russell Wilson, where we had the defense and they told Russell, hey, don't fuck this up. And they were able to get a championship out of it.

So can the Seahawks run that same formula back where Sam Darnold isn't, you know, held in high regard, but is he good enough to not fuck this up? And lastly, Patriots Chargers did the Patriots do anything to stop the rumors in the innuendo that they're doing this with smoke and mirrors or they're being a bunch of weak or weakened teams. The Chargers have definitely been weakened throughout the season. They suffered more injuries in this game. They came into this game with a ton of injuries, especially on the offensive line. They suffered more during this game and it was open season on Jay Herbo, Justin Herbert. Drake May is going to get this fluke MVP.

He's going to get a fluke MVP. Like I said earlier, I think this is the year where Josh Allen should actually be MVP. Not last year when I think it should have went to Lamar Jackson. But Drake May is going to get his fluke MVP just because it's unexpected. His play has been unexpected. And when do we get to have the Stefan Diggs QB whisperer conversation? I'm going to do a video long form here on YouTube about that.

but the Chargers had some work to do. You know, Jim Harbaugh, again, another guy that's held in high regard. That last name carries a lot of weight. When do we start to question what's going on there? Because, yes, the offensive line was ravaged. What Slater and Joe Ault both go out, right? Where's the running game?

They tried it with J.K. Dobbins, Blake Corum. They've tried it with a few guys. It's like Harbaugh's supposed to be one of those guys. but again much like his brother what do we really know of in terms of a specialty from jim harbaugh john harbaugh he must be a defensive guy more of a special teams guy but we really didn't see that in baltimore right but with jim harbaugh same thing i mean he's a quarterback so he should be an offensive guy but then he went and hired greg roman Both brothers have entrusted Greg Roman with their offensive with their offenses to varying levels of success. But then after Greg Roman, they've kind of floundered a bit. So it makes me question their overall consensus acumen in that regard.

So I think the Chargers have some work to do. They need more weapons. If they're going to give just if you're not going to protect Justin Herbert, then you better give him weapons to hurry up and get the ball out to get the ball out to when he only has two seconds to get rid of the ball. Quentin Johnson is not that type, like a fast twitch Z flowers type of guy where you could just dump it to Quentin Johnson and let him go. Can't let him can't do that. Quentin Johnson is better with the longer routes, right? The routes that take time to develop same thing with Keenan Allen.

They need a fast twitch guy to kind of open up that offense, a tweener type of guy, a gadget type of guy to kind of open that thing up. Because the thing is, if you give if you're only going to give him two and a half seconds of time to pass the ball, then somebody has to be open in that time. Somebody has to be an outlet in that time. And with Greg Roman's offense, he doesn't really present a lot of opportunities for that to happen. But we'll see how that goes. But for the Patriots, they're not stopping the rumors. The weakest strength of schedule in the whole league, a weak division.

Yeah, I don't think they're going to go much further, to be quite honest. I think their time is coming. I don't have a lot of confidence in them. They're certainly not, in my opinion, they're not coming out the AFC. I think the Bills could go in there and take care of them. I think there's a scenario where Denver, if the Patriots have to travel to Denver, I can see Denver stopping. I can see all three teams remaining stopping the New England Patriots.

So we shall see how that goes. You know what it is. Appreciate y'all for listening. We're here throughout the playoffs all the way through to the Super Bowl. Getting back into a groove, getting back into a rhythm. Hit up the YouTube page. If you're into tech stuff, hit up the other link, other YouTube link in the podcast description.

We drop some tech content over there. Just my overall thoughts on tech, reviewing certain equipment, things of that nature, what I do to put this on, to put this broadcast on. So if you're curious about that, go ahead and subscribe over there. We're going to be dropping some content over there very, very, very soon. Probably by the time most of you hear this, something will be over there. So anyway, for the sports crew, I know what it is. Getting back to the groove, getting back to the rhythm for the Cindy podcast.

I am the Cindy. I'm out.