Charles McDonald on Mike Tomlin & Steelers future, Rich Paul's bizarre podcast, defending Nick Sirriani | 01.14

Please, stop clear of the gap. Another morning, another reminder there's a gap to be careful of, but maybe it's time to bridge the one between your 9-5 and your dream of living life on your own terms. At HSBC, we know ambition looks different to everyone. Whether it's retiring early or leaving more for your family, we can help, because when it comes to unlocking your money's potential, we know wealth. Search HSBC Wealth Today, HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. HSBC UK current account holders only. MUSIC Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Bo Wani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest. Join us, check him out on Yahoo Sports. Charles McDonald, what's going on? Nothing much. It's a week in black history this week as Mike Tomlin, the Steelers split. Got Baltimore, the Ravens owner going to absolutely local. So I was talking to Ryan before we got on. I was usually like this week and a half is a little quiet, like where you kind of focus on the playoff teams. You got your fires in the background, but no, we had like a seismic shift in the NFL that unfortunately has caused this week to be really weak. It's going to have to be a lot more work than I'm used to it being at this time here. But I was like, Charles, setting up the whole show. And then I realized it all came back around to him. That's right. This was not about the television show. This was about him thinking about how he thought he was going to be chilling this week. Yes, I did think I was going to be chill this week. I thought because because this is the best part of the year. I was like a national writer where you cut down on the amount of games, you know? So you go from you go from basically every team playing every week. And now we got four games this weekend is perfect. But unfortunately, the NFL decided now we have to go through like era defining shift in our head coaching talent. I just I just prayed for those guys who take those jobs. Because all right, I have a quasi black history moment that has happened this week. And it is not about football. I don't want to delay it. You know, you're supposed to get to the show at the top of the show, right? But I want to put a pin in this because I want to talk about it right before the break. It is a very simple observation, but somebody don't let me forget about this. Anyway, Mike Tomlin, I did something on YouTube. Those of you who are audio listeners, we do YouTube exclusives. A lot of times or something hot happens. We turn that thing right back around fast on YouTube, trying to get that money. You understand what I'm saying? And so, you know, you might want to jump on the 21st century and head over there every now and then and see what we got going. Plus, I be looking good or a bitch. So, um, Tomlin, to me, this made sense. And it sounds like I said there that I didn't think the Steelers were that upset that he decided to go, but it doesn't sound like the Steelers were very happy that he decided to go, right? It seems truly or maybe they just really love that man enough that we're going to ride this story off real. But they seem really despondent or not. That was not their plan. It was Tomlin's idea. Tomlin walked away from $16 million a year, which I'm going to be honest with you. You got me fucked up. Y'all are going to have to fire me in front of everybody, right? Like $16 million. I will take a little bit of embarrassment. But also it was time, right? Shout out to him. If that was if it was a demonstration of a measure of shame, I give him all the credit in the world because you get fired for what happened on Sunday, right? The only reason that we wouldn't think that he would get fired for that is because he works for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, yeah, I have to imagine that the more I say with it, it doesn't seem like it was kind of on his own accord because he seems like he's already got some TV stuff set up, which, you know, that doesn't happen like from Sunday night to Monday morning or Monday morning, Tuesday morning, whenever, whenever that game was. And we have seen reports about maybe he wants to get into TV kind of rumbling this season and now, boom, Mike Thomas done and he's going to go to seem like he's going to go to CBS for like at least a year and then get back into it. So Salusa Mike, man, like you got to go out on your own terms. Like, unfortunately, it was a brutal way for your your term to end with the Texans just kind of running all in your backyard in the second half of that game. But like 19 years of no losing seasons, I think now that like it's over, that we should be able to kind of step back and say that is insane because they have trotted out some crap out there basically since Ben Robinsberger had to retire. And the fact that you never dipped under 500 for all those years, even though I understand like fans getting tired of like, man, like we're getting to the wild card, nothing's happened. We're clearly not a good team as our record says. But the fact that he got to go out on his own terms is great. Now we get to see without like, you know, sadness of him leaving what the hell this looks like without him there, because that's like maybe the most interesting part of this to me. How much like was he dragging whatever they had assembled to the playoffs? Like how much of that was his coaching acumen? How much of that was was the roster assembled? Because I none of us believe in them when they get to the playoffs, even though they're scraping and fighting their way there. I don't think anyone picked them to be the Texans. You know, no one's picking them to be like the chiefs when they run into them. You know, earlier towards the end of Ben Robford's career. And now we get to see someone else get to try to do this. I wonder if it was a situation where they kind of wanted to rebuild. And I can understand not want to do that. Because, you know, if you went to decide to take that plunge to the bottom, there's no guarantee you're going to be back. So the fact that he got to keep that record, have a respectable season, win the division, I think that's cool. Like salute to him for for pull that off. And now it's time. I like it was definitely time for both parties to move on. But like this and Baltimore, it's like it's like the closest thing you can probably get to like Tuscaloosa in the NFL, just giving like the stakes of what's going on, probably more still in Baltimore because they have a quarterback. But those DeLos fans, like they're not going to tolerate. Like if you start going three and 14, five and 12, that's not going to be cool for that long. So that's going to be interesting because they I'm 45 years old. They've never been terrible in my life. Right. Like just flat out terrible, right? A two and 12. Bill Belichick put up a terrible season on the way out the door in New England, right? This franchise over the span of three coaches, and it's also impressive when you consider, and this is the thing that people don't know, prior to Chuck Knowle, you could make an argument that the Pittsburgh Steelers were the worst franchise in the NFL, right? The original runny running the team was a little bit more concerned with his primary business, which was the rackets to be talking about the football team, right? The 1970s came around and the Steelers were relatively early adopters of two things. HBC, you talent and supplements. They got in early on these things and they never been bad after that. They have not always been as excellent as the rhetoric would have you believe. They had a for a run of four Super Bowls in six years. That kind of gives us, I mean, look, it was what it was like. The 1970s were incredible. The 1980s were not and the 1990s were pretty good. I think it's probably the fairest way that you could characterize this. But they've never been terrible. And so for Tomlin, a who wants to be there? Why we just going to be sorry for a couple of years because they still going to blame like after a while, it's like any other relationship, man. It's got tired of shit after a point. It don't mean he a bad dude necessarily, but they get look, man. I've been hosting this podcast here for eight years. I've been talking into microphones for 25 years. Some of y'all can finish my sentences, right? Some of y'all ain't here no more because you just got a little sick of my shit, man. We don't see things, you know, things are a little bit different. You start criticizing me for everything that I do. It happens because these are the nature of human intimate relationships and the relationship between Pittsburgh Steelers fans and the Pittsburgh Steelers coach is intimate relationship. So if he were to go to three and 14 after they got sick and tired of 10 and seven. Bruh. Yeah. That's not an option. If y'all going to do this, somebody else going to have to be present for for the bottom out, right? I agree. But do you like how exactly does that work for them on the bottom out? Because truly you tell me if I'm wrong here, because you pay attention to this on a much more granular and molecular level. Is are they like how are they there? They're not simply a quarterback away. So quarterback plus what away? Oh, I mean, I think the game, I know they beat balls more, but the game, the two games were DK missed. Yo, they do not have a whole lot of like offensive firepower in general, which which is what kind of made some of the stuff that they did so impressive this year, because there were streaks where, you know, over the fairly over the first like 10 or so games where the points per drive, yards per drive, they were a top 10 offense, even though it did not look like it. It did not feel like it, you know, every little piece is drug like drug to the mud. And you're really fighting for your life to get like, you know, five or six yards. That's not really a sustainable way to live. I mean, we saw like the Chiefs last year where we have like an offense that is like good down to down, but there's no explosives that eventually you kind of get dragged in the mud and you get to the playoffs. You're like, no, no, no, we actually need someone to come in here and actually make some big plays for us to make this a little bit easier. They they don't have that. I see like what I thought was interesting about their offseason was when they traded away at George Pickens, because I thought that, hey, if you're going to do this Aaron Rodgers thing, why not just throw DK and George out there, maximize this, give it the best shot you got? Because if you don't want George, then his contract aspires anyway, and you'll still get the third round comp pick on the back end. So they kind of just made the George Pickens trade a year early, which I thought was a little strange for for having a 41 year old quarterback. I know it's George. I know it's George. They say I will simply say that they knew him better than anybody else. And they were like, yeah, I've had enough. And look, if my Tommy is saying I've had enough of this, then I got to take him for his word because that guy put up with some bullshitt. And yeah, and yeah, this is big three. It's like a B lay beyond big bad. But there's guys past that on that team who were some contekris personalities. And those are just the famous ones. Right. Those are just famous ones. Exactly. Right. So if Mike Thomas said I'm going to George Pickens stuff, I got to take him as worth that because he has he has buckled down through some some real lunatics. But man, it just never felt like they had a real chance. And and it kind of like I think this year was the best iteration of the post Big Ben slot that they put together. Because when I was covering the Jets in 2019, the Steelers came to New York and they played Duck Hodges. Yes. At quarterback for a full game. It was duck. I think it was Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges play quarterback in that game. Remember, like they never went under 500 during the stretch. So. Like I say, this is a good luck to the next person that steps in there. Because I think Steelers fans don't understand like how high the standard that Mike Tomlin actually set. Because I feel like if I put this, like if I were to take this group of players, I stuck them like with like the Falcons supporting cast or coached after last year, but I don't think we're going to win 10 games. You know, if you're some of these other guys that got fired, I don't think we're going to win 10 games. But that's what the expectations say. And I mean, it's like I don't mean this like disrespectfully, but like Steelers fans, like the kind of have like a little cult. Go thing going on where it's like this is the Oracle and it's the best. And it's always been the best, even though, you know, they haven't always been the best. They were best a long time ago. You kind of got to get that right. Like I don't even know where they go from here because it's been so long since they've had to do a coaching search since they've even contemplated one. And now you still have Omar Khan there, who is in charge of putting together this roster that we don't think is very good. Right. So that's right. Who's going to pick next that coach? It seems. Well, my Pittsburgh question, and I've never had a great answer for this because I had a decent answer for it early in the tenure, but I personally didn't know that much as it went, which is exactly how much power does Mike Tomlin have in that building, right? Because the roster, very often, if not in most cases, the coach has the final say on the roster. It's the other guy like Kyle Shanahan has the final say on that roster in San Francisco is John Lynch's job to go get the guys that he wants on the roster. But quite often that's the case. Even examples of guys that you don't let me, Kyle Shanahan obviously is like a luminary at this point, but like Kevin O'Connell, for example, gets to say so on the roster. So whose fault is it exactly that they've had the guys out there that they've had? I've never had a great answer personally for how much of that to attribute to Tomlin or how much of that is above you, because I was thinking about what the coaching job is at Pittsburgh. And on one level, Dominique and I were having dinner last night and it's like, yes, Dominique and I did have dinner for those of you who listen. Um, after like that is the best coaching job in the NFL, right? Like that is we have that conversation about college all the time because there's so many different factors that go into what a particular college job is. But I think history has demonstrated with us. This is the job where they give you a chance to work yourself out of a buy, right? Yeah. But it's also a job where through the years it's been very top down. In what they have wanted. Chuck Snow won four Super Bowls and upstairs is still telling him to fire Tony Dungey as his defensive coordinator, right? Like they give you, you're still going to get that. Mike Tomlin came in as a defensive coordinator from the Tampa Bay School of Defense and ran a three four for two decades in Pittsburgh, even though it evolved later into something more of Tomlin's vision. But they got ideas about how they should play football as a franchise. But they're going to give you time to figure this out. Like if you're young, you take obviously you take this job if they give the opportunity. I am just very curious to know who's going to be the guy that they decide to take. Because with Tomlin, they got the word on the street that he had had a great interview with the Miami Dolphins who unfortunately believe Mike Tomlin was a little too hip hop. Mike Tomlin, too hip hop. Well, think about it this way. I talked about this on the YouTube video. The dolphins were like too hip hop, but the Pittsburgh fucking Steelers. Yeah, well, like, sounds OK to me. Right. Like, we're not talking about like he didn't go to the dolphins and he went and coached Gremlin. No, that's not what we're saying. He went to Pittsburgh and they were like, I have no idea what those guys are talking about. I still don't. When I hear him talk, I'm like, Mike Tomlin, he seems to be like the guy who knows more soul music than he might know rap songs. I don't know. Well, so so I'm telling a similar story on this. When I was doing the show for HBO, you know, one of the cool things about doing that was like I was in very consistent communication with, you know, pretty high level people there. Like it's a it's a it's a different game when you're the host of a show in the world, they're in there or whatever. And so I was talking to him by a showrunner one day and HBO had no idea that there was this corner of the Internet, those not just who observe sports, but specifically who observe sports media and just flat out hate my guts and think that I am like I'm going to I'm about to burn it down with the revolution at every turn that I'm just that I'm the people at HBO were like, did you know that? There were these people who felt they just couldn't believe it. They're just like, are you talking about the same guy that we talked to at work? Like he seems pretty cool for what I could tell. Like, what are these people's problems? And that is how the Steelers felt immediately off of that. That's funny. I was I was part of with a friend, Jason Goff, last week, and he was he was kind of on the same vein, telling people like, hey, you know, you you see Charles gets slanted about all this door stuff on the Internet. But I want to tell you like he actually does like black people. You know, it's kind of it's kind of his game. You know, so I can relate to that. I can relate to that because because I've been fine for my life for these past few months, man. But like at least in that case, Goff understood, even if he disagreed, why it was that they felt that way. The Steelers were top lure probably like, I mean, I guess. Yeah. All right. Like, why? How about the Steelers found that out way later? And they were like, huh? That's something. It's so strange. And the dolphins, I mean, look what they've been involved in since Mike Tomlin was hired. Nothing. Absolutely. Dolphins, what they've been involved with. Maybe this is the lesson for the Steelers. Well, the dolphins have been involved with since they decided that Don Schuller going nine to seven wasn't good enough. And look, they knew who they were going to hire. Like they didn't just do that and be like, oh, we're going to see what it is. They went and hired a dude who won two Super Bowls. And as much as we all think that Jerry Jones is a fool and Jerry Jones doesn't know what he's doing, the case against Jimmy Johnson as a hall of famer is that he went to the dolphins and never got a crack. Right. Jerry's argument is anybody could have done it here. Yeah. I'm I think I was that. Like I've grown on my feelings on Jerry, I guess, like over the past few years, only because they're never bad, you know? And and in the same way with the Steelers, like, I don't think it gets lost when you have these things that are relevant all the time, we're talking about all the time. How hard it is to be relevant all the time. I mean, we talk about the Steelers. They won nine games with the Duck Hodges, you know, Mason Rudolph combo. Kenny Pickett was drafted 20th overall because the old general manager, Kevin Colbert, he said, basically, he said, oh, wow. You know how Ozzie Ozzie Newsom left the Ravens Lamar Jackson. I'd like to leave the Steelers a quarterback, too. Here's Kenny Pickett. They still won, you know, nine games, eight to 10 games. That that is really, really difficult to do. And I think I think we kind of get so used to these characters being around and being subjects of discussion that you start to lose like respect for some of the work that they've done and they put together. I mean, you can look at Jerry Jones. Cowboys probably one of the best drafting teams over the last two decades. I mean, yeah. And we don't want to do what the Cowboys is when they make a pick that we think is silly like that guard they took from Tulsa, who's like a pro bowl level guard. You could play left tackle, too. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like a couple other those where they make these picks that we think are silly. And then it's like, oh, look at that. Yeah. Yeah. And in the man, I'm they got a 10 year starter at a quarterback in the fourth round. Yeah, that they didn't even want really that. That one I'm not giving them as much credit for because they try to get. I'll just say that they've been quarterbacked for the last 20 years. Yeah. With guys that have their shortcomings, don't get me wrong. Yeah. But the last 20 years, they've been quarterbacked by an undrafted free agent at a fourth round pick. And there weren't a lot of teams that would trade their quarterback situation for this. Right. You knew immediately that Dak was good. You knew pretty mealy that Tony Romo was good. And the idea that you can just kind of like just come in and someone else is going to do it to the same degree. It's tough, man. Like I like you said before, you got to take these jobs if you get offered them. But can you imagine a walk in the Baltimore right now as a new head coach? Oh, he is a pressure cooker, pressure cook. Yeah. So let me ask you this about that, because that raises an interesting question. We feel confident because of the last three hires that the Steelers have made that they're going to look for somebody in their early to mid thirties and hope that they're making a two decade higher. Right. I don't think Baltimore can afford to think like that. Like I feel like they are on a much more when now clock with the roster they have. And I think it's worth noting. I don't think that you can assume a 17 year career for Lamar Jackson. Like it's it's it's a different skill set. It's involved taking a lot more hits. They's not Cam Newton, where he has been running QB power for all these years. And Newton had the arc of a running back. It's not that necessarily. But, you know, a couple of things start slowing down physically. And the decline could be a little bit bigger based on that. You got to get this while it's here. Yeah. In a weird way, the the back half of the season, it kind of made me a little more positive about like what Lamar could look like long term because basically the first month of the season when he was healthy, he was on track for like 40 touchdowns again. Like all his numbers were top three in the league. And then since that Chiefs game, like week four or five, he barely practiced the entire season. Wasn't really healthy. Wasn't doing the bare minimum just to get to game days when he could. And you as the season goes along, like obviously he's finished physically diminished. But man, the arm talent was still there. Like the ability to throw down the field was still there. Like we saw in this deal this game saw in a couple of games before that close season where you're like, OK, maybe even when he can't move, like he's he's just developed in such a good thrower that your window there will be a little longer. But it was a little harrowing sometimes to see like when he's like out there hobbling, like, man, like I don't I don't I don't even think there because I don't want those people who back in the day to be right. But they're not right. Yes, they're not right because he's one to MPP. It's right. Like he's so much better than somebody truly thought that he was going to be. And I think he's better than he gets credit for even with the two. Two plus in VP's. How about we start calling it three time first team all pros? Pro, right? Because they did that thing. You remember when they did that thing? He's so good. And look, those postseason moments, hey, they matter. They're a thing. They've been an issue. I do feel like this year would have been interesting because he's gone a long way toward rectifying that, right? Like that was how I felt about it. But hey, hey, you better get it done now. Like as soon as possible. It's possible. Yeah. Well, before we go into this break, I was going to talk about this black history thing. It's kind of sort of black history, but it's not really black history. But I saw something very interesting that I didn't know. And so there's an interesting thing about the NFL, which is the NFL. Now it's kind of like a golden age of black agents. Like it's a lot of black agents. I think that most of us would say the number one agent in the game right now is David Mulgetta. He's, you know, you got him, you got Nicole Lynn, you got other people. I guess it's enough of them to we ain't got to know everybody name, right? And I did remember seeing once Mulgetta was on Twitter, somebody asked something about why all his clients were black. And he said, because the white guys don't hire us. Right. I know Nicole Lynn represents Bailey Zappy, H town, you know what I mean? But they're like, yeah, we can't we can't get no audience with them white dudes. The NBA is a little bit different. And I saw something interesting that I just wanted to find a way to get into the show and this is where I'm doing it. It's not really black history, but you'll still feel me. But I'm following. OK. So do you see this thing where Rich Paul, he, he does this podcast and Max Kellerman that I don't understand for any of the parties who are on camera. Why? I'm talking about all these podcasts. Yeah, but I don't. It's it's it confuses me on many levels that this podcast exists. But the podcast is there and Rich Paul be out here giving these takes, man. And I mean, it's not a big deal, except for the fact that you're you're an agent. And he'd be talking about what's going on with the teams of his clients and his number one client is obviously the Bron James. And now, Greta, we know they really got a whole lot of clout over there. And maybe this is his way, right? Of trying to flex or exert anything. But he did this pod the other day where he was talking about how they should trade Austin Reeves, like it was in the name of how you build around Luka Donchich. But he's just I think he wanted to send him to Memphis. Like, I mean, yeah, you'd be the highest player player on Memphis through some shit. I was like, shut up, shut up. Yeah. Well, I just try to move to Memphis. OK. For what, though? Why? I don't know. Like the details don't matter because you're not going to get me to listen to Rich Paul talking to Max Kellerman about the NBA. I just I just 24 hours in a day. I don't I don't I don't have it, right? Agreed. But I saw something very interesting that Austin Reeves agent was at Staples Center before Tuesday night's game and he pulled up on Rich Paul to have a conversation. And apparently it was a five minute conversation. And the difference between the NFL and the NBA is that Austin Reeves agent is a brother named Reggie. I don't know anything about Reggie. I don't know anything about Reggie. I don't I don't clearly I don't know Reggie's last name, right? No, I have to say, though, I started to look at Austin Reeves a little bit differently when I found out he had an agent named Reggie. But it made me wonder. Was it a case for him where, you know, white people got low self esteem when it comes to basketball, the only a brother named Reggie would be able to see or recognize his talents, that the white folks would be a brick wall to the white folks. They wouldn't be able to get it. I don't know. But the whole the whole thing. I I don't even like knowing who these agents are in the first place. How do you know? It's just like, so why do you have it? Why like, why do you have this podcast where you're talking about your client's team? Why is another agent pulling up on you at a game? Like this has become a little bit too self involved, guys. Like you guys supposed to be in the background, you know, like it. Like this is an extension of the insider trend that drove me crazy, where it says, oh, you know, so and so assigned with so and so per so and so of this agency. I'm like, dude, I don't know all that. I don't need to know any of this stuff. But I was also reached for putting money back in the community. You know, I mean, I mean, I'll still note that Austin Rees wears number 15 because they are now to be fair, Anthony Richardson used to do that too. But at the same time, Austin Reeves. I mean, like, you know, you got you a Reggie or Reggie got you. I'm not sure which will be back. Every Friday from six to seven thirty, it's NBA happy hour on FanDuel, your pregame for the weekend. We're talking limited time specials you won't want to miss boosts, bonuses, surprises, all dropping in the app during happy hour. So before tip off, check the FanDuel app to see the week special. Then make your move before the shot clock expires at seven thirty Eastern. 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Visit gambling help line MA dot org or call eight hundred three two seven five zero five zero for twenty four seven support in Massachusetts or call one eight seven seven eight hope in Y or text hope in Y in New York. We all have goals for 2026, but who could help us achieve them? It's hard to find people who are so good at what they do. It's like if you're hiring, how can you find the best people for all the different roles on your team? Easy. Zipper cruder. And right now you can try it for free at zip recruiters dot com slash Bobani zip recruiters matching technology works fast to find top talent. So you won't waste time or money. You could find out right away how many job seekers in your area are qualified for your role in zip recruiters advanced resume database. You can instantly unlock top candidates contact info. Let zip recruiter help you find the best people for all of your roles. 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And I'm like, for the grace of God, there goes I. The demonstrate being him is I just started laughing about it immediately. But I mean, I've been calling Justin Jefferson, Joy Jefferson for years on this show. I don't feel like I don't have the right to judge a man under those circumstances. But damn, tough break, Holly. Tough, tough break. Yeah, that was one of those moments where I was like, man, when I was younger, I might have tweeted something that would get me in trouble right now. But yeah, yeah. Yeah. Hey, man. He's got he's going through one of those patches, man. I mean, maybe one of those patches out of it. He's going through it. Look, sometimes you're the person that the whole school made jokes about. Right. Like that. It happens so easily that you become the person that everybody doesn't like. You know, the wisest thing I think that Stephen Day did that week. At least it appeared to be it sounds like he's a little too busy with politics to wait into that situation y'all had with that woman at the Jaguars. Press conference. That situation has blown my mind. All right. And so right fast, I want to explain this to people who don't know what's going on. OK, I will not give you an opinion on it. I will just tell you what the situation is. So Liam Cohen was doing his press conference after the Jaguars lost and a woman named Lynn Jones, who works for the Jacksonville Free Press, which is the black newspaper in Jacksonville, gave him a very, very, very heartfelt, encouraging message to keep his head up in spite of defeat. And it looked like he was really emotional in that moment. And it led online to a couple of discussions, one of them being about this general decorum in the press room and, you know, certain rules for behavior will put it that people have there on one hand. And then on the other hand, it was about black people and stuff. Is that is that the broadest way for me to describe it? I think I think that's the broadest way to describe it. And I mean, I don't even really have an opinion on this. Yeah, I would recommend that you don't, brother. No, no, my opinion on this is we are really stretching the bounds of like what needs like intense discourse, you know, like so. Because I watched that video. I was like, OK, that's, you know, that's unusual. I've been a lot of press conferences don't normally see stuff like that. But the fact that this has been explosive for like multiple days now, like, whoa. This is this is something that journalists need to understand or media people more broadly need to understand. We overpopulate the sample on Twitter specifically. Yes, definitely. And the people who are not us follow a lot of us, right? Like this is it's a it's a great place to share media. Historically, it has been all right now. I think it's a terrible place for everything. But everybody is everybody very broadly, but on the internet often has this misunderstanding, especially people who don't have big followings that. Everybody can see what you're talking about. So your message may be intended for your colleagues. But everybody can see it and they don't necessarily know the rules that you and your colleagues have or what it is that you're talking about. But you need to understand everybody can see what it is that you're saying. And that's probably why you shouldn't. Right. Right. Unless you're ready for people from all these corners, bringing everything they have into a conversation that you were trying to have, particularly if you're trying to not just have it, not just directed to a specific set of people, but a conversation that you're trying to have within that set of people. You got to go to the private Facebook group for that. You got to go to the group chat for that. Yeah, that out there. That's not how that's going to go for you. No, I mean, I I don't use Twitter anymore. So I didn't really see much outside of what people sent me. And man, I'm seeing like, soliloquies and long ass like thought out. I'm like, yo, keep it in the group chat. Because first of all, these people don't like us, you know, of course. And to see people complaining about, oh, you know, this lady is fresh comments, it's not going to resonate with your audience, man. It's never going to resonate. They don't care. They don't like us. So keep it off line. Again, I'm amazed by people who at once love the attention, but also forget that other people are looking. Yeah. Because like, once other people are looking, it may not sound the way you think that is going to sound right? It might not land the way you think it's going to land. But anyway, so I thought it's out here as we detour back into the other stuff. I am told that you have a pro Nick Sirianni take and I want to be clear. I don't think it's appropriate me appropriate for me to pretend as though there's something so crazy about having a take in support of a man with a Super Bowl ring and a career record of 59 and 26. However, the hell you talking about right now, bro? OK, OK. I let me start this off by saying I don't know what this man does. OK. Like, I don't know what he does well here, but you just read it off. There's the maybe this is like a little contrarian part of my brain. It probably is a big contrarian part of my brain just considered. No one else is really saying this in defense of Nick Sirianni, but the guy is 59 and 26. Two Super Bowl appearances. He's a hair away from winning the first one gets achieved and then obviously blew him out the water in the second one in the second one. He's got to be doing something right. Like, he's got to be doing something right because we he's got a 70 percent winning percentage over five years in the goddamn NFL. Like, something has to be going right here. And look, try to put this delicately. I've never been the highest on jail and hurt. So to me, like the fact that you're winning all these games is even a little bit more impressive. And I know that they have like the all star talent around and they have one of the best Super Bowl, but one of the best defenses in the history of the league last year that gave Patrick Holmes the worst game of his career, like probably up until this season. He's got to be doing something right. Like the football guy in me, I can't look at all of this resume and say, no, you're just worthless. Like you don't do anything. You're a loser. Also, I don't know what he does either because when he was in Indianapolis as a coordinator, he wasn't the play caller. Obviously, he's not the play caller in Philadelphia. He cycled through OCs, you know, cycled through some DCs, too. But you hit on Vic Fangio and boom, you're a Super Bowl champion. Maybe it's like the ability to just kind of cut through all the nonsense where these guys are bickering with each other, but like he'll be bickering back at them, too. So I don't even know if that's true. Like my Nick Siri, my Nick Siri anon take is he's got to be doing something right, man. Something has to be going well here because you just you don't win this many games. Like how could you be a loser and win like 70% of your games in the NFL? That's the part that I can't fully get myself out there. I say the same things about Barry Switzer. I see an excellent tool for me. I don't know that much. I know I'm just saying Barry with the Cowboys. We said the same exact thing. Switzerland won a Super Bowl NFC championship game. You know what I'm saying? Have really good players. It's a everything you say and you said before we got all that it was a catarian take and I disagree. I think that it's a very logical take. It is a what's the homies name? OCam. I cam. What are his name? You may you may not be cutting the razor. Yeah, there you go. There we go. Hey, that's one of those. You just always read it. You don't hear nobody say it out loud. Right. At all falls in line with what you are saying. It does. Kamma, however, he gives clown. I'm not saying it's hard to say he is a clown, but he gives clown. He gives were counting down the days till we fire this guy. He does. Guess what? Might win a Super Bowl before that happens. Dude, it might get back. Like this is still a really good team. The framework, at least, like I have some some some serious issues to figure out on offense, but I mean, you look at. Well, I mean, you got issues to figure out on offense, a lot of which have to do specifically with the quarterback. Yeah, that's that's the part that we still haven't like quite gotten to because they I'm I'm I'm I think one of the one of the most fascinating things about jail and hurts to me like as a player is I'm not sure like people have caught onto the fact that they've I think Kevin Moore is a perfect example, but they've run through all these different offensive coordinators over the past few years. The offense ends up at the same spot basically every single time. Now, you have you have different years like where where the efficiency of the offense, like the first year they made the Super Bowl and they push the Chiefs to the brink that offense was great. But, you know, only like it's the same core concepts. You're running a lot of four verse, a lot of inside zone, you're a lot of RPOs and no matter who the OC is, no matter who the play caller is, like it always kind of gets whittled down to that. And I think Kevin Moore is like the perfect example to look at this lense through because like that guy, he was the OC for the Cowboys with Dak Prescott, the OC for the Chargers with Justin Herbert. Now he's a head coach for his own team with New Orleans Saints. You've got three different examples that show you that how he called that offense last year for Philadelphia is not how he likes to run things. He's a much more traditional like pro style. If you go back and look at some of the early Dak Prescott stuff when Scott Lenahan was there often, that's where Kevin Moore is kind of cutting his cloth. So to me, it's kind of like it's like the Russell Wilson conundrum, right? You can run through all these OCs, but ultimately, like the offense is going to play out the same way. Like we're going to have to take our deep shots and we're going to have to play like around Russell's limitations. But the problem here is I think like Russell was a much more talented and skilled player than Jalen Hertz is. Like you're always like going to be kind of bogged down to a degree just like from like a throwing skill point. Now, it's not to say like he's a bad quarterback or a bad football player or anything, but it's kind of telling to me that that no matter who's calling your plays to different like level success, like you still end up kind of running like this pretty simplistic offense. And if you have one of the best defenses in NFL history like you did last year or you have St. Juan Barkley rushing for more yards than anyone has like in the total course of the season, regular season and postseason combined, then yeah, like you could win a Super Bowl. But where people lose me, I guess, is like the idea that he is like the driving force for the winning just because he's the quarterback. Because at this point, like I've watched the past two seasons. It's not just this season. It was last season, too, when Kevin Petula was not the O.C. And AJ Brown gave that sassy ass answer. What's wrong with the passing game? The passing. They had eight games last year where it's like, like, you know, average to below average efficiency. This is supposed to be a franchise, $50 million quarterback. Why are we not holding like to that standard sometimes? I know that the Super Bowl helps a lot. But man, I would if I was an Eagles fan, like I would want a little bit more from Hertz, honestly, because your hamstring, your hamstring sometimes. Well, Hertz has the other thing in common, Russell Wilson, which is the whispers of how his teammates feel about him, which is an interesting discussion of the button up, highly professional, do everything you're supposed to do. Black guy does not receive the same level of baseline respect as the white dude. And I want to be clear. It sounds like it be your own people. OK, like I'm not I'm not blaming this on I'm noting the noticing, noting the difference between how the white guys and the black guys are treated. I'm not talking about who it is that's doing the treating, right? For whatever reason, those guys and maybe it's just these two, right? To be fair. But you don't hear when it's a guy like like, you don't hear anybody talk about they don't like her cousins. He seems to be the same type of guy. As I love getting with Kirk, you know, I know I'm getting with Kirk. I don't have to talk too much to him, you know. Yeah, I don't know. But you know, it's it's an interesting part in this. I said last year and people got really mad at me about it, but it's the truth. And it's still boring out Super Bowl, not withstanding. Every team that Jalen hurts his quarterback since he left high school has been held back by his shortcomings as a passer. And this was Alabama. Alabama to bench him at halftime in the national championship game. This was Oklahoma, where he finished second in the voting for the husband trophy. So it's it's it's it's always hard and difficult to explain with him. But they're going to have to figure out at a point where. How much higher do we need the ceiling for our quarterback to be? Or how long can we consistently expect that we're going to have the best roster in the NFL or one of the two or three best rosters in the NFL? Because the system is designed for you to not be able to continue to do that. Right. And I think some of their struggles this year is where you've just seen. I don't see like guys take a step back, but really guys, guys just getting older. You know, like, you know, this NFL, it's forever. It's right. You have small windows. And also, that's like, dude, certainly I've been one for five years. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe maybe he's OK. Maybe maybe figure something out. I don't know. But but these windows are so small that. It's it's the idea that you've even been able to maximize this is such an incredible trial to me. Right. Like I'm we're one of the fascinating disconnects to me like and it's not just in jail and hurts is a lot of quarterbacks. Like we watch these games right where they're on national TV and we see the poor throw. But for the for this example, we see the poor throw that Joe and hurts made to close out that game against the 49ers where he threw it in the triple coverage to a completely covered Dallas Goddard and you watch and make that decision. You know, he's a franchise quarterback and then you mean to go out for two of the O.C. like his fault, his fault. OK, you know, that is going to come back next year because it was there the year before too. Like these are trends that you can follow. So what I get worried about with the Eagles and, you know, how he's been so good at this, maybe this concern doesn't even matter. It's like as you start stripping pieces, you know, as AJ Brown continues to read more books on the sideline and decide that this ain't for him. You know, maybe Devonta Smith, we've seen him get frustrated sometimes, too. You know, the offensive line is getting a little bit older at tackle with Lane Johnson and Jordan Milano. He, you know, he's not he ain't Walter Jones, you know. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there as like the pieces start to get stripped away because I think there's some real fear that if it's not the mom stars around them, if it's not like all these, you know, pro-level players, because this is what it looks like when they're there. And like AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, those guys are still in their prime. They're still in their 20s, man. If this is what it looks like now, what's it going to look like three years from now? And I think that's where I kind of get concerned for the Eagles because he is not a low bearing quarterback. He's good enough for what they have, for what they have. But that's not always going to be the case, like that they have this or they continue to hit at this rate. Yeah, I kind of wish that football was a little bit more like a regular job. Because can you imagine, like in some other job, the equivalents or the analogs to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith and then five o'clock come and they get off work and they pull up to that bar, loosen up that tie, but undo that button. And they ask for a double and then they just sit there and they just start complaining, you know what I'm saying? Just just start unload. Man, it's too today. But it shouldn't be this frustrating, you know, it shouldn't be this frustrating. Like you have a you have a supporting cast that any quarterback would kill for. And this place, like this is all about like right place, right timing. Like this is not a slight against Jalen Hertz that he's here. But. I mean, how many quarterbacks could you put in that offense? Like just one for one swap and you feel like you can blow the roof off of off of anyone, basically, because that's me is one of the most interesting thought experiments that obviously you can never do in the NFL. If we could just swap quarterbacks like one for one, one for one, what what what would this stuff look like? And I feel like I know. Enough about the supporting cast and what I've seen over the past few years, you know, they're not being maximized. Both. Two games this year, they had a full half with zero completions. Zero, zero. Like and and going back to last year, even like they have these haves where like they can't throw the ball at all. And I don't understand like why why you can watch when Mr. Throbe and then you have to say, well, no, he's actually like one of the seven to eight best quarterbacks in the league. No, he's just he's in a good spot. And yeah, it's been fun to watch. And that's that's about it to me. It's difficult to answer, but I'm going to ask you one more question before we get out of here. Who's going to coach the Falcons, bro? Man, I think they want John Harbaugh. That's what it seems like. OK, so who go coach the Falcons? OK. Oh, man. I look, I want my top choices. Kevin Sifansky, because I man, I you just want the Shadour people to never get off your neck. I mean, he's a two time coach of the year. They had the best screen game in the NFL last year. They were doing a lot of cool stuff. I don't think that that guy's forgot how to coach because the two quarterbacks that they picked didn't pan out for them last season. That's my number one. But who will they pick? Probably someone a little bit underwhelming. I mean, this Matt Ryan stuff, I gotta say, I am very thankful for his time as a Falcons, like he's obviously one of the greatest players in franchise history. But like, you know, you're really just going to let him know the whole thing. Like the whole thing. When does he coach like any scouting front office like management stuff? Really? He just gets to be in charge of all of it that fast? I don't know, because it seems to me like his only qualification is knowing the owner, which is being Matt Ryan, being Matt Ryan, right? Like he's he's he's probably the best player, you know, not not the best player to me. Julio Jones, that's that's that's number one. But as far as like Mr. Falcon, you're probably looking at Matt Ryan for that. He's the most important player in the history of the franchise by far, by far. But man, like that's that's a lot of decision making. But luckily, you know, it's the Falcons. So I ain't going to be too many people expect that much from you. Like if you if you mess up, that's just kind of another day. But man, I don't know who's to be coaching. But I know I'm probably not going to be happy with it. Like I could see them doing like I want I want I want to fans. I would say Carbohydrate, because I know he's probably going to build a good staff. The one that's scary to me is like Clint Kubiak, because like nobody's a little concerned that two years in a row, two different spots, your offense just kind of hit the wall midseason and you can't really do anything. Like when you watch Kubiak, Clint Kubiak, it's like it's like a now that's what I call Shanahan's offense out. You know, it's just like the greatest hits, but it's not actually like like strung together in a coherent way. And that's kind of why they end up in these ruts. It's like, oh, we have none of play action past the JSN. And well, let's do that. Let's do that. But, you know, I got more questions there. Like the idea that he's the surefire candidate, I'm not quite buying that one. Bruh, I saw something with Diana had tweeted after Harbaugh left Baltimore that maybe Baltimore would be excited about Cliff Kingsbury and what he could do with Lamar Jackson. Yeah. And I'm just like, wow, we are going to keep doing this, huh? We're going like he is a college offensive coordinator. I think that he could be very good as a college offensive coordinator, but he stay getting fired if people want to give him better jobs. It's amazing. I was a little surprised that Cliff got fired this time because I did not think that he was necessarily probably. What were they going to do this year? I mean, someone should have just manned up and fired the entire coaching staff. But that's a problem for probably next year that we're going to run to. Man, Cliff as your head coach, I mean, we already seen that. We already seen that. And that that that is one of those like, well, you should have just kept John Harbaugh at that point and just run it back. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't come sail to the people. No, you can't. You can't do it. And if you want to run the offense, I might be inclined to listen to that. But I thought of Cliff just because you mentioned your offense hits the wall. Yes. Yeah. And that's what happens. And you know what can't happen with Lamar Jackson right now? Because he might explode like you running out of ideas on offense. Yeah. Like. See, that's another piece of this. Like the bar has been set so high for this job. Todd Monkin, who basically was the savior post Greg Roman and revolutionized that offense. It got them throwing the ball in a more like professional manner. He said at the end of the season, when he when John got let go, I guess I didn't coach some more well enough. Bro, you got him an MVP. You helped him do 41 touchdowns for interceptions last year. If that's not good enough, then. Dude, that job, it's Alabama. It's Alabama. I good. Good. I say they can't afford to just go get a young guy. No, no. Like the youngest person you could probably get that the city and the team would buy into, which I should think is kind of a good idea to be like Brian Flores, depending on what's going on with him. Because that dude has no business being a defensive coordinator still in the NFL. I don't I mean, I know what's going on there, but hey, someone's going to have to bite the bull and make. Do not. I do not recommend hiring that man. But he's already got the quarterback, you know, he was right about two of. He was right about two of. I don't think hiring that man is a great idea. Some people are really, really good defensive coordinators. Okay. There are parts of interacting with other human beings. That make me say I went. None of those Belichick guys. I want that. That's the thing with me. I am out on all the Belichick guys, but Brian Flores. None of them have. He won the closest to working out is Bill O'Brien. And what's his issue? Interacting with human beings. Well, okay. I, I, I, I've forced me. Brian Daybowl. What's his issue? Interacting with human beings. Angry little elf sometimes. Yes. Brian Flores, like the thing that that's kind of fascinating to me is. When he got the job, like they were so bad that I'll never forget this. Dominique was going on TV saying that it was unethical. Like the roster that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We had all this together. Yeah. He did, he did a great job. They won 10 games year two. Yeah. And the nine games year three. And you know what they've done since then? Like they've gotten worse since he left basically. They, or they plateaued. I'm just telling you or asking you. Where's the person from that Miami time with a good thing to say? I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, who are the coaches that worked with him who have a good thing to say? Oh, probably not many, probably on many, but. This is all I'm saying is. I, if you decide to hire him, I don't blame. I understand why you might. I would not hire that man. Look, I would be interested to know what he's learned in the past four years since he left Miami because he's been with Tomlin. Who, you know, pulled him out the ashes and basically resurrected his career and let him call plays for the Steelers made a really good defense that year. Goes to Minnesota with Kevin O'Connell, who I still think is one of the brightest and offensive lines. And, you know, does the same thing there as a defensive coordinator where, like, dude, they won a game with three passing yards against the Lions. Sorry, bring it up to close the season on, on Christmas. I would be interested to just know what he's learned, at least in an interview, because he's been with Tomlin. At least in an interview, because it's so hard to just find someone who you just and like the Ravens, like this is their biggest problem to start with. You're like someone who you just plowed them in and you know, oh, my defense is fine because like, who's the best player in the Vikings defense? Oh, no, but they're good. Like they're really good. I think he's an excellent. He's so good that you might think about saying if we already have Lamar, we need to fix our defense. Maybe we just throw him. Maybe, maybe we hire him as our defensive coordinator and pay him lots of money. That is true. His contract is expired, so he's a free agent. You know, hey, man, there's something to be said for the guy that you can make the head coach of the defense, which is not the same thing as the defensive coordinator. You know what I mean? Like those guys are you just like, OK, that's your that's your side of the room. Not even talking to you about it. You know, yeah, whatever you say we're going to. All right, cool. You ain't even really got to come to these other meetings. Like if you can send me an email, that would be fantastic. Yeah, yeah, that's a I got a ride for flow, though, especially this year, where there's nine head coaching openings. Come on, someone's got to bite. Someone's got to bite. I mean, it's it's the no they don't. You know, damn well, they don't. He's only 44, bro. What what if things have changed? What if they've changed? They don't have to do anything. He apologized in a press conference to Tua when he was the coach of another team. That's that's. OK, that might be enough to say no, because that's that was strange to me. It's like, no one is obligated to do anything. And we ain't even talked about the fact that he's suing them. I know, I know. That's that's not even get there. Yeah, well, because I think if he was assuming that he would have been hired like probably last year or something like that, just with how I'm not as sure of that as you are. This is maybe maybe I'm off on this, but I just feel like the results have been so overwhelmingly good. I think that he has done an excellent job as the defensive coordinator. No interest, no interest in seeing it again. Not for me, not for me. That is Charles McDonald, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, check him out at Yahoo Sports, covering the NFL. My brother, I appreciate you. Going to put a headline up. But Manny Jones doesn't want black man to do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't. I got you, Brian. But somebody. Yeah. Yeah. So that's so that's your plan. Huh. Try to get them off the Chidore hunt. That's right. Start and just this black man from Honduras. That's my guy. That's gonna be my by beacon out of this. I see Charles McDonald. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on The Right Time. We do this four times a week. Ryan Brumley, handling everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.