Really?

Maybe not those numbers.

And, and part of why I say that, though, is the Tyquan Thornton element.

You know? You, you look at this team and just going to attack defenses, and you have this electric run game, electric right now.

And now they're getting the creativity in, they're running play actions off it.

At one point they look like they're in a wishbone set.

Okay, they leak Travis out of the back field.

[laughs]

Really?

Maybe not those numbers.

And, and part of why I say that, though, is the Tyquan Thornton element.

You know? Y- you look at this team and just going to attack defenses, and you have this electric run game, electric right now.

And now they're getting the creativity in, they're running play actions off it.

At one point, they look like they're in a wishbone set, okay, they leak Travis out of the backfield.

You know, you saw that on the third and one in overtime that kind of set up the game-winning field goal.

They're one and one, but...

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Yeah, I got to, like, applaud you, too.

And, again, it's a bit weird because you're here, but honestly, as a former player and you talk about, like, a lot of the great things on camera, the amount of stuff the NFL combined with the NFLPA have done for retirees, like between medical, you know, the resources, education, sometimes it's like my email gets blown up where I'm like, man, I got, like, 30 emails with, like, that.

opportunity he's like i can't even get through this stuff so i know i speak for a lot of players where it's like when you're done you still feel very connected to the league if you need something

excuse

me.

I know I've been around a couple of different coaches.

They don't necessarily love each other.

... like, is that something when you were lying in bed, you gotta go through all this stuff so you know it like that? Or you never did? Or what, what was the deal with these playbooks?

It depends on the guy, it depends on the offense.

But if you didn't know, like, the f- the minute details, especially late in the year, you were a liability on the field.

Even if you know, like, okay, a running zone to the right, okay, great.

But, like, we look at a run play as fans being like we have a zone concept, where I need to come up, and I'm gonna...

Like, some lingo, like is it an under front? Is it an over front? Is there pressure? 'Cause if there's pressure, I gotta make a pirate call, okay? Who are we calling it to?

That just can't do it

... that simply can't play in this league In college, you can get away with it because it's way more simple.

That seems to always go the other way, like 23-20.

Yeah, a- and even, it's, there's so many storylines.

Another one is, like Joe Brady and Jim Leonard as, both of them in, they've been in the league, but not in these roles, first time on a short week.

You know, and then on the flip side of that, I go to Detroit, where it's like, okay, y- y- you judge this film.

You don't have much of a breakdown of the Bill's defense.

Like generally speaking, there's a four-game breakdown, you kind of go back in the archives, and that's where you get all your data points.

So the data points like we would see as fans would not be the exact breakdown that each team would use, because they try and break down games, one that are recent, and two, that kind of mimic their own offense.

But 8:15 game tonight, what time are the boys wheeling in here? Like 3:00, 4:00, or-

Mm-hmm.

Like, it's not like, hey, uh, you know, we got a bad call and that's what jammed us.

So I, I looked at this Giants team and I said, earlier in the year, "Uh, yeah, you got Harbaugh, not a great X and O guy, more of a, more of a culture guy.

You got Matt Nagy at the OC, who has done some good things, but I would not put him in the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, you know, I wouldn't even put him in the Kubiak kind of echelon." And I'm like, "You got a lot of questions at quarterback.

Cam Scattable coming off the injury.

You know, Malik Nabers coming off the injury." And, and they went out there, shut me up, shut a lot of people up, and just absolutely dominated Dallas.

Now, on the flip side, you could play sort of a game.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Like, it's not like, "Hey, uh, you know, we got a bad call and that's what jammed us." So I, I looked at this Giants team and I said, earlier in the year, "Yeah, you got Harbaugh, not a great X and O guy, more of a, more of a culture guy.

You got Matt Nagy at the OC, who has done some good things, but I would not put him in the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, you know, I wouldn't even put him in the Kubiak kind of echelon.

And I'm like, "You got a lot of questions at quarterback.

Cam Skattebo coming off the injury.

You know, Malik Nabers coming off the injury." A- and they went out there, shut me up, shut a lot of people up, and just absolutely dominated Dallas.

Now, on the flip side, you could play forever game.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

I, I...

Drew Lock came on in his post-game interview, and they're like, "Hey, what was it like, uh, you know, coming in?" Like you said, obviously Sam Darnold got hurt, and he was like, "I just thought to myself, hey, you know, take care of the football.

We have a great defense here.

Take care of the football, and things will be fine." And you saw it all night.

He looked cool, calm, collected.

It was a slog.

And Hayes just mentioned Mike Vrabel needing to explain this, but if you were going into media availability, who would you wanna say to, "What the hell was going on out there," Drake May or Vrabel?

Mm-hmm.

I, I...

Drew Lock came on in his post-game interview, and they're like, "Hey, what was it like, uh, you know, coming in?" Like you said, obviously Sam Darnold got hurt, and he was like, "I just thought to myself, hey, you know, take care of the football.

We have a great defense here.

Take care of the football, and things will be fine." And you saw it all night.

He looked cool, calm, collected.

It was the slog.

Yeah.

Every day?

Every day.

Like, not like a rah-rah.

Sometimes it's just like, "Hey, here's where we're at.

This is what the goals are." Like, you know, so we would have a quote unquote team meeting.

If the week starts Wednesday, w- uh, l- right after special teams in Seattle, Pete would have about a 15 to 20 minute team meeting.

He might go over a little bit on the team.

Mm-hmm.

... like, would anybody dare take a potshot or-

or-Would that be offside? So- Would, would he address the...

Like how, how would this all go down? 'Cause it'd have to be an uncomfortable first encounter with the players.

Uh, this is what's tough, and, like, I'd love to hear how the hockey world operates.

Um, but the football world, you know, we play once a week.

You have the whole off-season, which we have a long off-season.

We have a long- Yeah ... training camp.

Mm-hmm.

Like, there's something brewing there.

Yeah.

It, it certainly did seem that way.

Uh, you know, I think Ben Johnson is obviously a tremendous coach and has done a lot of good things in a short period of time, both with Detroit and last year with Chicago.

But he's a bit of a quirky guy, you know, and that's part of his, his edge, I think.

But he certainly is not there to make any friends, uh, which I respect.

I, I, I do like that.

[laughs]

I got you

... you gotta, you gotta give credit where credit's due, and you could sit there and play this game of like, "Oh, well, he had Brady.

Oh, well, he had this." Well, yeah, well, you could say that with almost every Hall of Famer, you know? You could go down...

You could...

If you wanna play that game, you could say, "Well, Jerry Rice had Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, and then Steve Young." Like, that's not...

The, the facts are the facts here.

Like, nobody has had the success that Bill Belichick has had in one organization, okay? This, I mean, the amount...

Right

Like, as Hayes said, if you've got a guy who is a perennial MVP candidate who obviously sees things out there, don't you want him sort of offering input to a head coach or, or a offensive coordinator in terms of how you are gonna go about attacking this season?

Yeah, I mean, you absolutely want him input, but you gotta think, like, the offe- a great offensive coordinator has a mind like a computer.

So it's like, okay, we're not just calling plays.

We're setting up plays.

You know, y- you're calling stuff that in the third quarter you've got a little wrinkle that you think's gonna work well.

You're calling plays based on perspectives.

A headset the whole game saying, "Okay, here are the adjustments." Not that your quarterback isn't understanding this, but he's on the field.

I got you

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

And then it's, like, to keep going there, you have no business losing the last game you just played to Hamilton.

And Liram, their kicker, has been un- unbelievable for them for a lot of years.

But, like, he's gotta make those kicks.

So, like, their record to me is not indicative of what...

Like, the only game where they really got absolutely smoked was against Calgary.

[laughs]

Mm-hmm.

Okay? And then it's, like, to keep going there, you have no business losing the last game you just played to Hamilton.

And Lirim, their kicker, has been un- unbelievable for them for a lot of years, but, like, he's gotta make those kicks.

So, like, their record to me is not indicative of what...

Like, the only game where they really got absolutely smoked was against Calgary.

Like, I think if you ask the Argos who, they probably want the Bombers loss back.

So, yeah, I, it's a bit weird.

[laughs]

You

know, I look at Bo Nix, and I think he's going to be a tremendous quarterback in this league.

That being said, like, kind of run through the numbers this season of him as a quarterback during the regular season.

And passer rating, he was 26th in the league.

QBR, he was 15th.

You know, he had a ton of crazy four-quarter comebacks, which is obviously a stat that's hard to quantify, kind of that clutch moment.

But you look at his coach, you know, Sean Payton, and even going back to last week, a lot of those were just really brilliant play calls at the right time.

I guess your predictions for these games, how do you think this is going to pan out?