Jeremiyah Love at the combine, Speed is taking over the NFL, AI's impact on the NFL

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Hopefully everyone is doing well, better than me. Feeling a little under the weather. That's, you know, a couple-day bender at the Combine. Having a newborn who's also kind of sick. I think he got sick from my niece came into town. So we just got germs and lack of sleep. And you just got to put on your big boy pants and, you know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and press record and do a podcast. Because we just at the Combine. So I wanted to do some big-picture takeaways from the Combine. From Jeremiah Love to Fernando Mendoza to just the quarterbacks at the Combine. from an NFL perspective, to Florio saying that AI is coming from people's jobs in the league, talking to some GMs, to just some overall takeaways from me walking around at the combine, rubbing elbows with the people. So that will be the plan today. I think we're going to do a big mailbag tomorrow. At John Middlecoff, at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. We have a former player that might turn into a current player here in a couple weeks that I think is going to join us for Wednesday's show. So we got a big week upcoming. So buckle up. Let's just talk some football because you guys know the drill. If you listen on Colin's feed, make sure you subscribe to 3 and Out, separate podcast. I'll probably do a Go Low podcast as well this week. Shane Lowry just all-time implosion today on the golf course. He was up four, hit a couple in the water, and ended up losing by two. But we'll talk about that in a couple days because they're playing Arnold Palmer this week. and we got NFL free agency right around the corner. We got a lot going on. You can find all of our videos up on Netflix. So make sure you check that out and appreciate all you guys watching. Appreciate all you guys interacting. And, but let's just start with, uh, let's start with Jeremiah Love, the Notre Dame running back. And I would say over the course of the last, I don't know, 10, 15 years, it has felt like the running back has been devalued. Remember like five or six years ago, they did like a Zoom call because they were pissed about being underpaid. It's like, guys, these GMs aren't colluding against you. It's just your value. It's supply and demand. We can always find guys in the middle rounds and get us a thousand yards and produce. And then it kind of came a crop of like Hall of Fame level players. If you pulled NFL GMs and head coaches on non-quarterbacks who are the best players in the league, you might not make it past five without the name B. John Robinson being said. I was talking to someone at the combine and I was like, if they're not going to do this, but if they did put B. John Robinson on the trading block, they would get to one, two number one picks for the guy. That would feel like something that would happen from the eighties or the nineties, but he's that good. I mean, three years ago, Christian McCaffrey, the season he had for the 49ers easily could have won the MVP the year Lamar did. Last year, Saquon had like a historic season. So the running back has become what Jameer Gibbs is doing in Detroit has definitely become more and more back in the forefront of importance in the NFL. Now, my takeaway is I have a pretty simple philosophy. It is really hard to get high-end offensive tackles and elite pass rushers. So when you have an opportunity in the top six, seven picks, you always take Abdul Carter, Aiden Hutchinson, whoever over the best running back on the board. But it's also a market value, right? And in 2026, there's a lot of debate on all these players. The only thing we know for certain is Fernando Mendoza is going number one. If you pulled 30 GMs and said after Mendoza rank 1 through 10 the next 10 best players. I think the rankings would be all over the place. But I think one thing that would be pretty consistent that you wouldn't get past a couple on everyone's list without Jeremiah Love coming up. And here's the thing. Let's use Bijan, Saquon, and Christian McCaffrey. I would put when Christian is right, and obviously Bijan, above Saquon slightly because of what they bring in the passing game. Like the one knock on Saquon is, He's probably average in the passing game, has some bad drops, just not an area in which he excels. Adrian Peterson was not good in the passing game, but he was an all-time runner, right? When Saquon's right, as he was a couple years ago with good blocking, he went for 2K, right? Now, the other guys, their arsenal, like Marshall Falk or like a LaDainian Tomlinson, is just an unstoppable force because they are elite wide receivers and then awesome running backs. and all three of those guys fall into the category of super high character like face of the franchise elite character which is something that really matters in the NFL when it comes to star players and historically running backs can be a little hit or mess like sometimes those guys aren't exactly you know choir boys which listen you can't have a team full of choir boys you ain't gonna win a championship or you're not gonna win playoff games if you don't got some wild cards so I'm not mandating that every guy just be Fernando Mendoza here. That ain't the case. And the story that came out that some GM or some scout or coach told Fernando Mendoza to get arrested so he falls to them. It's like, guys, that's clearly a joke. Like, can't we just factor in some things that are like, that's clearly a joke. It ain't that serious. I see people and listen, I've spent less time the last four or five days on social media and I felt extremely refreshed or refreshed it's it's crazy how enjoyable people are in the real world and you just get on social media like does everyone just want to kill themselves like this these are two separate realities and one is actual reality and the other one feels fake a lot of people you know tweeting from their house playing video games how shitty the world is like guys stop being a scam artist here but when I see the Fernando Mendoza reacts like it was a joke, clearly. But back to Jeremiah Love is he went to the combine, widely viewed as one of the best players in this draft. He's six feet tall, 212 pounds. He ran a 4-3-6. His drill work, which is kind of important. We've all seen him play. He was going to excel at that. He did. And then they asked him like, hey, can you do extra? because in your offense, the passing game wasn't a huge part of the repertoire at Notre Dame. He did not need to do that. Honestly, once he ran a 4-3-6, he could say, Guys, I'm not doing anything at the Combine. I'm not doing anything at the Pro Day. And no one worth their salt would have judged him. Do you know what he said instead? Yeah, I'll do it. Let's roll. And when we talk about competitive nature, football character, football, like they talk about this a lot, like how willing are you to compete? How willing are you to do everything humanly possible when it comes to football? And it's easy to go, well, none of this stuff matters anymore. It did to Jeremiah Love. And Jeremiah Love is a lot better player than a lot of the guys at the draft who refused to do it. So it mattered to him. And to me, when I watched his interview after he got done working out, I went, God, I mean, And you could argue 20, 30 years ago, this guy is a lock to go No. 2 in the draft. Back in the day when running backs went 1, obviously Fernando Mendoza would probably go 1 in most drafts, given the importance of quarterback and given that the Raiders just drafted a running back in the top 6 last year. But I think when you look at this class, Jeremiah Love in 1997, in 1988, in 2002, would be the No. 2 overall pick. and that's why my big takeaway was you guys know where I stand I thought drafting Christian McCaffrey at 8 was nuts, I thought drafting B. John Robinson at 8 was nuts I thought drafting Saquon Barkley at 2 was nuts which is somewhat ironic because those three are like some of my favorite guys in the league I love the way they play and I love everything they stand for so it's like, it's easy to I almost feel like a hypocrite because the Falcons don't regret taking B. John Robinson Obviously, McCaffrey was, you know, should have gone higher than eight. And Saquon was just on an awful team, but you put him on a good team, you see how talented the guy is. I think Jeremiah loves floor now. Like, I thought, you know, make it to the Chiefs. I never thought the Chiefs were going to take him. But it's like I could see him getting to the Cowboys at 12. Like, there's no chance. I think the farthest he were to quote-unquote fall would be the Saints at eight. I think if you're the Titans and they just made a trade, they traded the big D tackle from Texas, who I remember a lot of people thought he was a major red flag, to the Jets for Jermaine Johnson, who Sala was a part of drafting the edge rusher. Obviously, I am a believer in taking linemen, people in the trenches, if all things are equal. But are we sure all these guys in the trenches are big time? Now, I'm a big believer in Bain, the kid from Miami, is going to be a high-end NFL player. But teams get reluctant when your measurables are what they are. Because historically, there aren't that many guys who are all-time great players with those measurables. Now, could he be an outlier? 100%. Russell Wilson was an outlier, right? Like small guys, there are certain individuals who can break through. Most times that's not the case, though. When you look at the best pass rushers in the league, they're massive human beings. Miles Garrett, Aiden Hutchinson, the Bosa brothers. You know, Max Crosby's kind of a unique situation because he was a late-round pick, but he's a fucking monster. I saw this clip of him in the octagon with Sean Strickland. I'm not some big UFC guy, but Strickland was just peppering him in the face, and Max was, like, shaking it off and smiling. I'm like, these guys. Now, Bane's competitive football character, and his effort on the field is elite, and his ability to play the position is high end. But I think he's going to go a little later than people realize because of the measurables. So I think Jeremiah Lefkowitz goes high as four with the Titans. I mean, the Giants, I know they took Scadaboo last year, but, I mean, we know the type of football that the Harbaugh brothers like. I think he is definitely going to be a long conversation. Now, if I was a betting man, they probably, you know, if they feel comfortable enough about the offensive lineman or Caleb Downs right there. And then the Saints at eight make a lot of sense. But, like, that's where Jeremiah loves going. He's not sniffing falling out of the top ten. And he earned it on the field, and then he went to the combine, double middle fingers to every guy that's like, Yeah, I'm a little too cool for school. I'm not going to work out. My agent told me to do this. My agent told me to do that. I was with a couple GMs on Tuesday out of the combine and I mentioned this to Coward last week when we recorded a podcast and these guys have been a league a long time and the beers were flowing and they said it crazy how often guys in these meetings be like yeah I not going to do anything or I do the broad jump in the vertical but that it It like well what the point of even like what Are you afraid to just do some drill work You're going to do it anyway. Well, it's not their idea. It's their agents. Which, listen, the agents are incentivized to, you know, try to control as much as they control and earn the couple percent that they're going to make ideally off these guys making a lot of money in the NFL. But that has become a much more in vogue thing. and Jeremiah Love would have been the number one guy to not do anything. And he did everything. You know, Fernando Mendoza didn't throw. He just played 16 games and won the national championship. And speaking of Fernando Mendoza, one thing that really kind of became very obvious to me over the course of the combine, to win the national championship, you have to have good players and you have to be a really good team. And football is the team game. It's the ultimate team game. Right? Even if you have, Dan Marino made a Super Bowl his second year and never went back. Talk to anyone that played Dan Marino in the 80s and the early 90s. They'd be like, he's one of the best players I've ever seen. I played Montana. I played Elway. He's every bit as good. And I've known a lot of those guys. The reverence in which they hold Dan Marino is crazy. He never got back. I don't even think he won that many playoff games in his career. I have to YouTube or Google that one. But when I look at the Indiana team, Fernando Mendoza is going to go No. 1. talking to some different scouts and people in the league, there's a chance that another Indiana player doesn't come off the board until the third round. And that is Cooper, not even Surratt, who's probably going to be a day three pick. The corner, little undersized, good player. Again, round three, round four. You are not looking at some team. Like when you watched all those guys work out of Ohio State, you went, my takeaway with Ohio State, and people think I'm a hater, and I kind of am. There is no disputing. they're the number one college program in the country in terms of over the course of the internet age. They might not win the national championship every year, but now that Saban is gone, you would say Alabama, but that was a Saban led deal. It hasn't mattered who their coach was with Trestle, with Urban, now with Ryan Day, they're an NFL franchise. I mean, every year they got four or five guys going in the first round. And this year, you know, from Sonny Stiles to Reese to Caleb Downs, I didn't even think did that much at the combine. Don't blame him. He's a lock top 10 pick. And Carnell Tate, same thing. He's going to go in the top 20. Their best prospect arguably is still on the team in Jeremiah Smith, surely with a ton of other guys that will go in the first round next year. For Indiana to win that game looking back, that is an incredible accomplishment. Alabama is not the same Alabama under Saban. Obviously, Alabama would be the best program over the internet age. But I also think you have to factor in pre-Saban and post-Saban, it ain't the same. And the Alabama team we watched play this year, it's like, eh, okay, relative to their standard. But Oregon, you look up, the tight end had like a historic day. I think he ran a 4-3-6. I did a little research. I remember because I was in college when Vernon Davis ran like a 4-4-0 or a 4-3-9, complete freak show, got drafted in the top five. Kyle Pitts a couple years ago, ran a 4-4-0, got drafted in the top five. Sadiq, I mean, that's, I don't know if he's going to go top five, but he's going in the top 10. The white safety, I mean, might be the fastest white guy in the history of athletics. Ran like a 4-3-5, the guy that picked off Drew Aller in the overtime up in Happy Valley. And I'm not even factoring in their best prospect is their quarterback that returned to school. So I watched their running back workout. I mean, this is a team loaded with guys. Oregon has been a pretty consistent 4 or 5 program in the country over the course of the last 15-20 years and then Miami who obviously has been down their team this year was full of freaks do you know how many guys on that team over the course of the next couple years are going to get drafted in the first round I mean they got two top 10 picks probably at the combine right now in Bain and the offensive tackle who is a monstrous human being, you could argue the best player on their team this year was an 18-year-old freshman. So what Signetti and the coaching staff and Fernando and the whole team coming together, it has to be one of the most incredible accomplishments we've ever seen. Because typically when these teams win it, like Georgia when they went back-to-back, their entire defense was first and second round picks. And they had Lab McConkie and Brock Bowers on the team with several drafted offensive linemen on the team. You look at all those Alabama teams. The first round used to be like an Alabama Invitational. You go back to some of those Urban Meyer, Ohio State teams or the Urban Meyer, Florida teams or the Pete Carroll teams or that Texas team with Vince Young. To win the national, Joe Burrow in LSU, you have to have a roster full, not of NFL players, of elite NFL players, especially when it comes just to the draft. Guys that are going to get drafted in the top 40 picks. And that was just not Indiana. So part of what Indiana, it wouldn't have been possible pre-NIL because they got a lot of transfers. I still don't think any team that lacks the amount of impact draft players were going to see this happen again. It truly became more impressive, I thought, watching the combine that Indiana won this national championship. So when I see that Kurt Signetti is making $13 million, I go, he's underpaid. he deserves more because if you just put decent coach like Sark or you just pick you know some top 15 coach in the country no chance I zero chance you could argue they wouldn't have beat Ohio State they wouldn't have might not want a playoff game so Signetti's a badass the speed at the combine when the defensive linemen ran when the linebackers ran when the DBs ran when the Running backs ran. All DJ and Rich Eisen kept saying, fastest group in the history of the combine. Fastest group in the history of the combine. Fastest group in the history of the combine. I've been hammering this point for a long time. The reason we have more injuries now than ever is because we have never had more players in the NFL who are this fast. I don't know if it was Charles Davis or DJ made the point. You know, if you were a wide receiver or a safety and you ran like a 4-5-2, like that was a fine time. like most guys were not Deion Sanders or DK Metcalf like if you ran a 4-5-1 or 4-5-2 it's like yeah no big deal now if you ran a 4-5-2 you felt slow like 4-4-8 used to be a good time it feels like if you're not in the low 4-4s you are bringing up the rear so we have never had isolated training obviously nutrition uh really figuring out from a work out standpoint working on speed like guys top to bottom have never been faster from big guys i mean i flipped on the there was a penn state defensive tackle that ran it was like 300 pounds he ran like a 470 like who the fuck are these guys it's insane the big 10 with nil collins been hammering this point but you see it like the amount of skill that is going to the combine a lot of those guys used to be in the sec i mean Caleb Downs is a pretty good example. That guy would have been at Bama. That guy would have been at Georgia. Now the Big Tens open up the checkbook. They're going to get a lot of these guys. Ohio State always has. But now a lot of these other programs are. And I think you see it when you look at the combine. You'll see it when you see the draft. But in football, it's a lot like boxing or the UFC. There's a reason you spar before you get in the ring. You want to build up the calluses. You want to build up the feeling of getting hit. Football is no different, right? You want to feel tackling, physicality before you just play a game. Well, double days got wiped out 15 years ago. They haven't exist. I don't know if they even exist in high school anymore. They definitely do not exist in Division I football and they do not exist in the National Football League. And now there are rules like you can only practice three or four straight days before you get a day off. You go back 20, 30 years ago and listen, whether this is right or wrong, you would have like weeks on end of double days. And if the coach, they didn't give you a day off, maybe they gave you an afternoon practice off, but there was no, I remember my first, when I became a GA at Fresno state and Fresno is like 108, 109, 110 during the, uh, during the summer, especially in August. I felt like we went three straight weeks, double days. It was a fucking war zone. And when my first year in Philadelphia, same thing. Double days, the physicality. It was like, Jesus, this is the NFL? And the next year the CBA changed and you couldn't do that anymore. And it became a walk-through league. And no one is more anti this than the coaches. The problem is the owners didn't care because they gave in that to the players and they kept more money. So it was all negotiations and the owners look at it as a W because it was a financial negotiation, not an on-the-field negotiation. So when you look at the speed of these guys and they don't practice as much, when you see all these injuries on the field, yeah, they might not be as big as they once were, but they've never been faster. So the contact when these guys get hit and these guys get into these weird positions, they've never been working at the consistent speeds in which they work now. So my big takeaway was, yeah, all these guys are hauling ass, but this is why all these guys in the league get injured. There's never been more speed and there's never been less practice. And that's a combination that equals injured reserve. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Band, Florida's sportsbook. March is here. That means college basketball takes center stage. Stakes are rising and the shots are falling. Get it all your action you need on Hard Rock Band. Hoops is on every night. That means you can get same game parlays going every night of the week. 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The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Adish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic, and without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search The Cito Show, and listen now. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live from South by Southwest, March 16th, we'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative, talented creators in the industry. It's truly a who's who of the podcasting world. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is See all the nominees now at iHeart slash podcast awards Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award The other big takeaway is the quarterbacks. And I'm not talking the college quarterbacks. I'm talking the NFL quarterbacks. All signs point to Tua Tungabailoa getting cut. And if they wanted to take the entire hit right now, it'd be close to $100 million. I personally would do that. I would imagine that they split it into two because teams, I thought the Broncos several years ago when they cut Russell Wilson should do the same thing and then they cut it into two. But I don't think it would be inconceivable given that they're trying to kind of reset the franchise. Kyler Murray, he's going to be cut as well. No one is trading for Kyler Murray. And all signs point to Malik Willis. And listen, timing is a huge part of life, right? I mean, knowing these coaches, they move a lot. Like you asked them four years ago, try to sell in your house. If you got a new job in 2021 or 2022, they're like, God, I made $500,000 and I lived in the thing for 18 months. Well, talk to them now trying to sell their house. A little harder. Interest rates a little higher. Not as many people lined up at the front door to buy the thing. So timing matters. And Malik Willis really benefits right now from being 26 years old, played at a high-level organization, proven he has dramatically improved. Last year was thrown into multiple situations. One just as a starter on a given week, excelled. Another thrown into the fire in the middle or early in a game where he was not the starter and excelled against the Bears. So he's got a lot of buzz. and it's not his fault that all the teams that are going to be interested in him suck because you got to cash in. This league can turn on you in a dime and to me, Malik Willis, my guess would be like three years, $75 million, like $50 million guaranteed. And there's a chance that he goes to the Cardinals, to the Jets, to whoever's one of these bad teams and it's just, it's a terrible situation. I would kind of bet on that being the case, but he doesn't have a choice. This is when you change the financial outcome of your life. And those are the teams willing to pay you. So you gotta pounce. And he did enough this year that even if that doesn't go well, Malik was gonna play in the league for a long, long time. And he's gonna be really, really rich because of this contract. But we all kind of agree, I wouldn't sign Tua, you probably wouldn't sign Tua. Who knows if Tua lands anywhere. Kyler's pretty interesting. Because there is some physical talent there. Now he's battled injuries. he's obviously battled some maturity questions but you know one thing he's really got going against him is Ben Johnson talked about this at his press conference I love Tyson Bajit but listen I believe he's one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the league I think someone is going to trade for Tyson he's under a cheap contract even if you've got to give a fourth round pick you would rather have the hope of Tyson let's face it, you could argue hope is one of the most powerful things in our lives. What's it feel like when you have no hope? What does that usually mean? You're depressed, you're feeling down, you feel like crap. What happens even if you don't have much going on in life, but it's like, hey, I got this job interview coming up in a couple of weeks, or hey, I got this girl I'm taking out on Friday night. The power of hope is real. And to me, Tyson Bajit allows at least a team to have some hope. Maybe they found a diamond in the rough over Kyler Ortega. And I also think the comeback of Derek Carr dramatically hurts those two guys because he's proven to play in the league a long time, super high character guy, been in a ton of different offenses now. Kyler's going to get a spot, but my guess would be he's got to be a backup somewhere. And last but not least, I saw Florio put this article out on Pro Football Talk. And the headline, it was so good, it made me click on the article. It said, fear of AI eliminating jobs makes its way to football. And one thing that Florio said was that during multiple meetings away from the cameras and microphones, folks currently employed by franchises questioned whether and to what extent AI will supplant positions currently held by humans. He must have been talking to people that I wasn't talking about because I didn't hear AI come up one time, but I do think he brings up a couple of good points. he said he said we starting with the scouts many of the tasks currently performed by a team's staff of scouts can be performed by ai as one gm explained it the reports generated by ai based on the various data fed into the program were eerily thorough and accurate i'm gonna sound like a homer because these are my people this is that stepping stone led me to this and the life that I have now, which I feel very fortunate to have, is while I won't disagree that there is going to be some sort of program that is going to be able to take measurables and probably even the film and generate some tape, talk to any of these scouts. Their job, beside maybe like six seventh round picks, the least important part of it is the valuation part, especially as the area scouts. Maybe for pro scouts, you'd be in some trouble. You know the number one job of the area scouts is to get all the information that is not available. Find out about his character. Well, guess what? That is not public information. When you have guys in this draft, which like every draft, are major question marks and have issues, whether it's because of the law, whether it be because of maturity issues inside the facility, whatever it may be, you know what happens? the teams don't just give that stuff out. You get that information based on relationships, based on other human beings. I saw a great tweet this weekend. Basically like I'm shorting all this AI and algo stuff because anytime you go somewhere with family, with friends and interact with humans, how good do you feel when you sit and live in the algo? How good do you feel? I even I saw Ray Lewis called Social Media, the new drugs. And I've said this forever. Remember when all the talk about alcohol? Young people don't drink alcohol. Remember the Thunder won the NBA championship and half the team had never tried a beer? One takeaway I have from the combine is I saw a lot of guys, 20, 30 years old, some people that I had taken calls from and given advice to that are now scouts and playoff teams is really cool to see. All having sea tails, all having beers, enjoying themselves. Didn't see any algos, didn't see any AI. Humans interacting with humans that bring and fill your cup. I promise you, if you need a lift in life, go interact with other humans. Because I did, more than I typically do at the Combine, I felt great despite having six hours of sleep. That shit works. get yourself into the sun talk to other people and the thing with ai when it comes to the scouts getting the information on the people because if it was just the player drafting would be easy why do most of these guys in the nfl fail because the person because the wiring because the focus shit you can't measure one of the guys who's one of my best buddies in the league who's a coach assistant coach we went out and i i was just picking his brain because he's so good with players and he was just telling me the different players he was interviewing and he's like out on this guy out on this guy he's like one thing i've learned is like this is a serious ass league and guys that excel in this league are serious ass people so when now i get it you're in the draft class you're still young and immature but like dilly dallying and being like well figure it out. Like I'm a, like that doesn't work in the league. It is a league full of bad motherfuckers who are very, very serious about their craft. And you can, you can luck into a year, but you can't have a high end career without being all your chips in the middle of the table. The media has fought this forever. They love the word balance. You need to be balanced. Balance doesn't fucking exist. There, there is the way I lead my life is different than the way you lead your life. and there is no right or wrong. But for most of us, certain jobs, you have a little less balance with maybe your family. Comes with the territory. Ask NFL coaches. Ask Wall Street bankers. It's part of the gig. And I just think when you look at what people are asking from the scouts, a lot of people can. I could teach anyone listening to this to evaluate some players. Now, some of you might be better than others, but I can't teach you all to go into programs where you need to develop long-standing relationships to find out, well, actually, this guy was involved in a car accident where someone was left paralyzed, but because we live in this small town and control it, it's never gotten out. No one knows about it. Do you think the computer program can do that? Because I'm not sure they can. Now, here's where I think I'd be a little nervous. And listen, coaches make more than scouts. So if you are a quality control coach, that means you're the lowest guy in the totem pole. For example, when I worked for the Eagles my first year, Doug Peterson was our quality control coach. My second year, Matt Nagy was the quality control coach. A couple years before I got there, Sean McDermott had been the quality control coach. If you become a quality control coach for the right person and you are a good coach, you are a lock to have a great career. Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay started being quality control coaches for John Gruden. Like if you get with the right guy, it propels your career. So here's what Florio wrote for coaching staffs. The quality control position is typically held by a lower level employee whose job it is to compile information and clips requested by the head coach or typically the coordinators. Typically, these are labor intensive exercises requiring more elbow grease than brain power. And it would be very easy to develop a tool to pull the same kind of information together without having a quality control assistant in place to perform that work. I think I saw this special on the ramps. And typically when you get the lowest position, the quality control position or the offensive assistant for Sean McVay, your job is to draw all the plays. And on Monday and Tuesday, you're working like 20 hour days drawing the plays. I don't disagree with this because these are positions now that pay 150, 200 grand. and you're basically just drawing stuff into a computer program where you're not coaching a position. You're not coaching a unit. You're on the field, but you're not doing anything. So I agree here. The quality control position would be in major trouble if you can develop a program that you can just say what you need and it draws all the plays, which to me feels pretty inevitable. And I don't even dispute that the programs will be able to figure out how to write up a player. But how are you calling the GM of Oregon football and going like, what happened to your running back when it's not public information? And it actually makes the football program look good because if it was me or you, and I'm not using this as a specific example, the Oregon running back, I just picked a position and a program. I think the Oregon running back, I watched him work out. Good guy. But you have to understand, these programs in the South, in the Big Ten, they control the city. And a lot of guys get off on a lot of shit that no one knows about. There's a player in this draft who's going to go really high who is involved in a situation off the field. The scouts know about, the public does not. And the media then freaks out when stuff comes out. Well, they did against, you know, how did James Pierce work out? red flags exist and people don't want to go on record and say what it is proprietary information that's kept within the leak until it's not but it's going to be interesting to watch how this plays out can i tell you about my new friends zbiotics let's face it after a late night with drinks i want to bounce back and i want to bounce back fast zbiotics is a pre-alcohol probiotic drink that is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It's been invented by PhD to tackle rough mornings after drinking. You have one before you start. 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When you consider what we know about sleep in humans there one rule that comes out We are predictably unpredictable sleepers We talking about why sleep works the way it does why our bodies don follow neat rules and why modern life makes rest so hard to come by The second half of our series takes us to the digestive system with a multi series on what happens after we eat. Okay, I just have to say that all of my favorite words apparently are digestive words. Yeah, sphincter, peristalsis, duodenum. It's fascinating, it's funny, and it matters so much more than you think. Episodes of our new series run from January 20th through February 17th with new episodes every Tuesday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to This Podcast Will Kill You as part of the Exactly Right Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was like, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at mom. On the Senior Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search the Ceno Show and listen now. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live from South by Southwest, March 16th, we'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative, talented creators in the industry. It's truly a who's who of the podcasting world. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. A couple other highlights from my combine. mind. For those of you longtime listeners, remember when Brandon Staley was the head coach of the Chargers. I used to make fun of his coaching a lot and kind of make fun of the person. I thought he was a little bit of a politician. Not my type guy. Not my type guy. But I don't know, from a character standpoint, if he's some bad guy or whatever. I've never tried to be too personal beside like, I'm out on this guy. And the Chargers were too. They were out on him. They fired him. well Wednesday night I went to dinner with Jackson and we were having we had a bunch of beers and cocktails and ate some dinner and then we were both gonna you know that we shut down the the restaurant bar at about 10 o'clock and we were staying at different hotels I changed my hotel last minute so he was walking home I was walking home and as I'm walking home I have to go through the JW Marriott where all the action is happening. So as I'm walking home and I was, I had a plane flight early at 6am the next day, I was honestly planning on just going home to bed, but you know, you've had four or five vodkas, you know, you're feeling pretty good. You're like, Oh, let's just do one round. So I do a round, see some people I know, start talking. I get very excited with some of the guys that young guys that I've known are having a lot of success and just talking to some different young scouts. One guy came up to me. He's with a really good team now. It was really cool. But I see, I text a good buddy. I'm like, Hey, are you going out tonight? He's like, yeah, I'll be at the JW in five minutes. So I waited. So I spent the night with him. And then about an hour in, he's like, Hey, we're going to this other place. So I'm like, this is probably not the best idea, but I go to the front of the hotel. I'm like, Hey, do you guys have a water? They hand me a bottle of water. I'm like, I just maybe have a Coors Light or something at the, at the bar, but I'm just going to go. And so we're there. You can barely move. I don't even think I've ever beside a strip club. I don't think I've ever been to a club in my life. I'm not a club guy. Now this is a steakhouse, but it essentially turns into a club during the combine. You can't move. It's one of those, but it's not big, at least from what I see online of like a club. It's, it's, it's a restaurant. So now they take out all the tables. So it's just shoulder to shoulder. and a lot of these guys are NFL coaches or you know NFL people just bigger people so you can't fucking move an inch so you're just trying to make your way you're seeing oh there's that guy there's that guy all of a sudden I turn around and my guy goes I want to introduce you to my buddy Middlecoff he's a massive podcaster and I lock eyes and at first I didn't recognize him because Brandon Staley is now bald but Brandon looks at me I look at him it was almost like we both knew now you're in these weird situations you just kind of say hey nice to meet you but it was and it's one of those I've said forever you feel a little fraudulent now if you would ask I would have said but it wasn't really but you can't even hear anyone talk but all of a sudden I'm being introduced in the middle of this bar club to Brandon Staley who is now completely bald and one thing I heard he's obviously in New Orleans he's a good defensive coach did a good job for them. They got, if they get Jeremiah Love in the, in the draft, I, they would be a sleeper playoff team next year. The New Orleans Saints, they got a lot going for them, but I met Brandon Staley and yeah, it's just kind of awkward. I'm not going to lie. Other two guys I met, which probably not my finest hour. I'd, I'd had a few too many. One, Anthony Weaver, who is the Ravens defensive coordinator, who was the Dolphins defensive coordinator last year, who was interviewed for head coaching jobs. As I told him, because I watched the Ravens press conference, I'm like, bro, you're a lot. No, he didn't. I mean, he's a massive former NFL defensive lineman. He's huge. He's good looking. He's well spoken. I'm like, you're the total package, bro. You're going to be, you feel like a lock to be a head coach. And just a really impressive guy. And Joe Brady was the other guy who has a, you know, a young millennial feel. You know, he's got the chain. He just kind of looks cool. He just, he doesn't feel like most of the other coaches, I would say. Like when you see John Harbaugh or Mike Vrabel or just most of these guys. I met Mike McDonald, who the guy I was out with Wednesday night worked with him. And he goes, Mike, because I was like, hey, can you introduce me to Mike? So he's like, hey, Mike was walking in the hotel room as we were leaving. and he introduces me to Mike and Mike's, you know, is unassuming and under the radar. I mean, he'd be the last, if you didn't know football and you said, which guys do you think won the Superbowl? It would be all these guys puffing their chest out, walking around the JW Marriott that are like DB coaches on the jets. You know, I'm not like whoever the DB coaches on the jets. I'm not saying that guy specifically. I'm just saying random guys, big egos, like who the fuck are you? Mike McDonald walked in. He's like, oh, uh, me, I forget the guy's name. He's like, meet James. We went to high school together. And they were just like out at dinner. I'm like, you guys, you and John Snyder got to be the most low key Superbowl champs in the history of the league. I mean, easily the history of the league. They just, the way they carry themselves, the way they act, how nice they are to people. Very, very impressive. And the way it was described to me, I'm like, why is he so impressive? We know how good he is as a defensive coach, right? As like a schemer. But the way it was described to me is like, you don't understand when he went with Jim Harbaugh to the Michigan Wolverines. Well, when he got rehired by the Ravens, they named him the defensive coordinator. They had Anthony Weaver on the staff. They had Zach Orr on the staff who was the defensive coordinator last year. They had all these established coaches on the staff that he basically left as an assistant went with John's brother Jim to be a coordinator for one year, and then just jumped above when he got rehired. And he's like, how impressive he was dealing with those guys? He's like, it was a seamless transition. And right when that happened and the respect those guys had for him and the way he handled kind of a delicate situation, because we're all human beings, if you're somewhere and you get passed over for a gig, especially one that pays as much as that and as prestigious as that, the defensive coordinator for the Ravens, there could be a lot of animosity, a lot of hostility. Last time I checked, Zach Orr and Anthony Weaver played in the league. Mike McDonald didn't even play in college. And he's like, didn't even phase any of them. And you look at Anthony Weaver, you're like, fuck. I mean, that guy was taking orders from Mike McDonald. I was like, yeah, he did, no problem. So I left that combine. Like, I'll buy more Mike McDonald stock. Just a high-level, easy-going cat. Obviously, he's good with the players. great with the coaches which is an underrated aspect of being a coach is how you deal with the other coaches because I've said it forever the money these guys make is enormous like if you're a position coach you're making half a million dollars you're on the low end I mean I heard stories of offensive line coaches making two three million dollars getting mad at other coaches on their staff not showing up to meetings it's just like egos with the assistant coaches is as big as the players, which is ironic because they constantly preach to the players like the team, the team, be a good teammate, be all in. It's like, well, you guys aren't, you guys are backstabbing everyone trying to make it. So the NFL is a crazy place. It's like, it's like a millionaire high school with the gossip, you know, and these guys are public famous people. It's like, it's like a Bravo show meets UFC meets like wall street. It's just a weird combination. It's hard to even describe, but when you're there, it's like, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. And when these guys go to the combine, they really just let loose. So one piece of advice, if you ever want to break into football, there is not an easier way to meet people that you would basically have a very difficult time ever getting around than just going to Indianapolis for several days. And whether you drink or not, just going out at night and just being social, just going out at night and being social. I mean, there were times where I had friends I was waiting on, they were interviewing people and I was kind of in between. Like I didn't really have anywhere to go. I'd already eaten dinner. Uh, Jackson was getting up early the next day. So he was already in bed. I'm like, I'm only here for a couple of Jackson's day the whole week. So I was like, uh, I was like, I, I just got it. I started roaming around by myself. Shit. I would never do now ever. It honestly kind of brings you back to like when you were like young and hungry, you know, I'm 40 years old. That's stuff I would have done when I was like 24. I can't even imagine, but it kind of makes you feel good. You feel accomplished when he left. It's like, I haven't started talking to people. I talk to more people in two days than I probably have in six months, beside you people. I have more people listening to me, but I don't actually get to interact with most of you guys. So combine, man, Brandon Staley. He would have been pretty low on my bingo card of people I not only would run into, but then have an interaction with. And I do think he's part of a team that's going to be really good. The Volume. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules. Segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like stepping on another world. Was he a businessman, a criminal, a hero? Charlie was an example of power. they had to crush him. Charlie's Place from Atlas Obscura and visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. 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