Were you surprised by the outrage defending Belichick?

I was not surprised by the outrage due to the fact of what he's accomplished.

I was surprised that people were supporting Bill Belichick because it's really been, from a PR perspective in the last year, it felt that a lot of people that I thought would normally be coming out in support of Belichick collectively as a head coach, as a head coach who possibly wants to coach in the NFL again, I wasn't hearing from those people.

Everyone has kind of moved on and, and in fact, kind of separated themselves from Belichick in some instances.

So to see Sympathy for a guy that has been difficult to have sympathy for [laughs] um, over the last two decades and more specifically the last year or so, um, I, I thought that just spoke to...

It almost helped the cause of why he needs to be in because it was very hard to find people who didn't believe outside of those voters and maybe a few other people on Twitter.

Um, I actually called Bill Parcells the other day just to get his reaction.

Have you heard any of those stories, anything out of the ordinary this week?

What was your, uh, best scoop this past year?

Oh, um, we had a lot.

Um, I don't know if there was any one specific story that, that we did this year that, that was gangbusters.

Maybe, maybe Brandon Aiyuk, which is, you know, t- timely 'cause we're here.

Um, you know, he wasn't showing up.

No one knew what was going on.

And, and Kyle Shanahan is, is the best at being transparent with the media.

Oh, I, I, I-

Okay. So, um, it's not a good free agent quarterback market. Um, it's not a good quarterback college market. Um, so Sam Darnold, it would seem to me, would have a pretty viable market. Now I said this the other day, Josh Allen was MVP, I watched him go nine for 30 against Houston. I watched him be pretty awful against the Colts. Great quarterbacks have awful games if the production is down, you're on the road. I mean, Darnold at Detroit, it felt like the biggest game in Detroit in a decade. Um, eh, but it, uh, were those last two games, the one against the Rams where he was running for his life, and the game against Detroit where he, he just didn't play well, are those gonna eliminate the first 14 games? 'Cause it doesn't feel like there's a huge Darnold market.

I know. Uh, it's, it's peculiar. And I've had conversations with people that are desperate for quarterbacks right now, and there's something about the way he lost those two games that is really leaving a bad taste in the mouths of these decision-makers. And, uh, I do think it's layered. Okay? I think part of it is there's an attitude of, "See, we told you Darnold isn't that good. That was just lightning in a bottle. Things just lined up right. Uh, he, he, you know, they, they were winning in certain games because of certain situations. This isn't the real Sam Darnold. We're just getting the best version of him in this moment. This isn't the true man." Okay, so you have that. Then you have another layer to this where people believe that h- Kevin O'Connell is the best coach for Sam Darnold. So if you're a coach who, let's say, is on a short lease, leash, and you're selling to your owner and your GM, like, "Let's go get Sam. I can do it." Um, there may be some hesitance there. Um, can you get the same Sam Darnold that Kevin O'Connell was able to get? Um, you know, this idea that no one truly knows who Sam Darnold is, I feel like has been following him his entire career, going back to when he was throwing at SC and I had people on the ground telling me, "Wait, Sam Darnold is gonna be the next big thing." And those same people that I would stay in touch with over the years when Sam was struggling would, would be so frustrated because they would be like, "You don't understand. He's good. This just, these aren't the right programs for him." And so in Minnesota it's the best program for him, which is why I think there's gonna be an effort made from both Darnold's camp and from the Vikings fam- camp to try to make something work here. But Colin, you're right, I talked to you at the Super Bowl. I think one of the things I shared with you was I was really expecting Sam's market to be in the 40s. I do not predict it to be that.

(laughs)

I need to fight with someone and debate. We're in line too, wha- what does that say about my life right now that I'm in line with you on all this stuff? 'Cause I agree, I, I, I just was talking about it on my podcast that, you know, uh, m- my, my co-host Chase said, "How do you think Giants fans should feel about the idea of Aaron Rodgers playing for the Giants?" And I said, "They should feel the way the Jets fans felt two years ago, optimistic." Because I can tell you, I've spoken to enough people around the league who believe that Aaron Rodgers still has something left in the tank and it's decent. And put him in the right environment with the right head coach who can be a little bit more demanding and hold him to the same type of rules and standards and, and the way they want it to run, um, you know, treat him like everyone else, I, I think we can get that, they could squeeze a little bit of the, of, of the juice out of him. Um, it's just gotta be where is he going to flourish best? The Rams' situation was so ideal, Colin, and, and I, I really, I, I thought that, I thought it was gonna happen at one point when I was in Indianapolis at the scouting combine last week. I said th- th- this is, this is really gonna happen. Matthew Stafford's gonna leave and Rodgers is going to go there. Uh, but in the end obviously Stafford decided to stick with Sean McVay for another year and the Raiders are gonna poke around. Here's what I can tell you. When, when we're like lining teams up with veteran quarterbacks, every team that needs a quarterback right now has a line out to every single available veteran quarterback at this moment because right now no one can read the landscape well 'cause we don't know who's going where. Uh, you know, the idea of Daniel Jones going to Indy is on the table. Could he possibly go to Vegas, right? Chip Kelly, you know he's gonna want a mobile quarterback. Uh, could, could, uh, Justin Fields leave Pittsburgh? Perhaps he can l- wind up in Vegas. Maybe the Russell Wilson thing could perhaps turn into him going to Las Vegas. All of this is on the table and, and the teams are being really open about it. No one's being coy like, "Ah, we got our eye on just one guy." Everyone is saying the same thing is which we've gotta reach out to everyone 'cause we have no idea how this is gonna shake.